Filed under: smarter products | Tags: online retail, retail, scuttle bug, smarter products, sprig toys, toys, triker, trunki, wallace and gromit
With Christmas just around the corner, parents up and down the country will be dashing around the high street, trying to grab the hottest toys for their kids this festive season. High demand and limited stock could mean you missing out on some of the more popular brands. Online retailers such as Smarter Products can eliminate all the hassle and disappointment from Christmas shopping, and ensure you don’t miss out on your kids’ dream toys.
And to make your festive shopping a little bit easier, Smarter Products aim to deliver your order within two to three days, with free delivery on all orders over £100.
Here are just some of the latest items available from Smarter Products this season;
Scuttle Bug – £24.95
The Scuttle Bug foot-to-floor trike is a simple yet genius design that is suitable for indoor and outdoor play. Relying totally on toddler power, the trike has specially designed gel wheels that ensure a quiet and smooth ride for your little one. Scuttle Bug folds away in three easy stages, which makes it both portable and easy to store. The Scuttle Bug is available in a number of designs; Red Ladybird, Blue Dragonfly, Pink Flower Bug and Yellow Bumble Bee.
Trunki – from £28.95
These award-winning ride-on suitcases are perfect for keeping your kids entertained on long journeys. Hand luggage approved for air travel, each Trunki comes with internal seat belts for your child’s favourite teddy bear, as well as a carry handle so you can give them an easy ride through the terminal. The Trunki family includes Terrence, Trixi, Towgo, Tipu the Tiger and Harley the Ladybug. And new for Christmas 2009, Trunki have released the limited edition Gruffalo Trunki, to tie in with a feature film of the popular animated series, due to be screened on TV this Christmas.
Sprig Toys – from £8.65
New to the UK this year, these construction-themed toys from Canada are perfect for kids of the pre-school age. Sprig toys are battery-free, relying on kinetic energy to generate lights and sounds to keep your kids occupied for hours. The Sprig range includes Sidekick Rally Racers, Eco-Trucks and Diggers, with story books and play sets to be launched in the new year.
Wallace and Gromit Cracking Contraptions – from £4.95
This exciting new Wallace and Gromit range comes on the back of the first feature film from the beloved pair for several years. The Cracking Alarm Clock will make sure they’re up and ready for school on time, while the Fidgit Pen Pop will keep them entertained when they get there. The highlight of the range is the Inventors Kit, an ideal gift for all the little Wallaces out there. The kit also comes with the opportunity to enter their best inventions into a competition to be judged by the makers of Wallace and Gromit, Aardman Animations.
Triker – from £204.30
Having won several awards for their design and function, including the prestigious Hamleys Toy of the Year Award, the Triker Toy and Triker Pro Collections are the most fun a kid can have on three wheels. Triker Toy is aimed at the five-to-12 year old market, with four trikes in the range; Rocker, Lady Rocker, Viper and ZigZag. Triker Pro, for seven-to-16 year olds, includes Triker Pro 50 and Triker Pro 100.
For more information on any of these products, or to browse the entire Smarter Products directory, visit the Smarter Products website.
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Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cruise Ships, Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Tourism, travel
Royal Caribbean has been named as the Best Mainstream Cruise Line at the British Travel Awards.
The cruise line collected the award at the British Travel Awards ceremony at Battersea Evolution in Battersea Park, London last Thursday (05/11).
Royal Caribbean edged out rivals P&O Cruises, who collected the silver award. P&O were also awarded the Best Ferry Operator award for both cross-channel and short sea services.
The award comes in the month that the popular cruise line took delivery of the Oasis of the Seas, the world’s largest and most innovative cruise ship. The 6000-plus-passenger liner will sail on its inaugural Eastern Caribbean cruise from Ft. Lauderdale in Florida on 5th December.
Meanwhile at the British Travel Awards, Disney Cruise Line walked away with the Best Niche Cruise Line ahead of Voyages of Discovery, while the Best Luxury Cruise Line award was handed to Princess Cruises.
Viking River Cruises also won the Best River Cruise Line award.
The British Travel Awards is the largest awards ceremony of its kind in Britain. All awards are voted for by travel consumers, with over 90,000 votes cast in the 2008 awards. Voting took place over the summer, with ballots closing in mid-September.
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Filed under: Health & fitness, retail | Tags: engineered oak flooring, oak flooring, oak floors, solid oak floors, wooden floors
Picture the scene: you’re standing on your carpet and suddenly you shrink to the size of a pinhead. What do you think you’ll see? A dense jungle of synthetic twisted fibre, and sticking out of each tree is a mound of dust and dirt.
As you start to travel through this synthetic wilderness, you notice that it’s alive with insects, parasites and mildew spores, which are all feasting on the dirt. Sounds like a nightmare scenario, but this is taking place in your home every single day. Those giant insects and parasites are in fact dust mites, and they’re living in your carpets.
Dust mites are close relatives of spiders, scorpions and ticks (arachnids). There are several species of dust mite, but the most common European species are Dermatophagoides Pteronyssinus and the smaller Euroglyphus Maynei.
Studies have shown that the dust mites present in our homes are a major trigger for asthma attacks, with over 85 per cent of asthmatics sensitive to the house dust mite. Therefore, having houses completely furnished with carpet is only going to make the situation for sufferers worse by increasing their exposure to them.
Some say the best way to keep all these intruders from living in your carpets is to regularly use a vacuum cleaner on them, preferably three times per week. However, there are others who say that a vacuum cleaner is useless against these mites and ticks as they are so small and live deep down in the carpet.
Even if you do manage to get rid of the mites, have you got rid of what they leave behind? The faeces of dust mites can remain embedded deep into the carpet, and can easily become airborne. We inevitably inhale these particles, and people who are sensitive to dust mites will suffer an allergic reaction.
Therefore, the only sure-fire way to remove dust mites from your home is to get rid of your carpets altogether, and replace them with quality hardwood flooring. Installing a hardwood floor is an excellent solution as it can be cleaned more easily, and has less potential for trapping dust and its associated mites.
Also, wooden flooring lasts a lot longer than carpet, and will never go out of fashion!
The Oak Floors Online Company specialises in top quality oak flooring and prides itself on over-delivering when it comes to customer service and quality of product. Why not browse through our online directory today to find your perfect hardwood flooring, and rid your home of the dreaded dust mites for good.
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Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Murderland, Robbie Coltrane, Television
Acorn Media have announced that the provisional release date for the DVD of the ITV series Murderland has been set for 1st February 2010.
Murderland marks a return to ITV drama for Robbie Coltrane, who had previously established himself in the role of Fitz, the criminal psychologist antihero of Cracker, which ran on ITV from 1993 to 1996.
Cracker was a huge hit with both audiences and critics, and the producers of Murderland look to have repeated that success with over six million people tuning in to the first episode.
Murderland is a knife-edged three part emotional dark thriller spanning 15 years. The story is told from the perspectives of the three central characters.
Bel Powley plays Carrie, the daughter of a woman murdered in 1994, whose life was changed forever by the brutal crime, and whose memories may hold the key to the discovering the killer’s identity. The story switches to the modern day and Amanda Hale plays Carrie as an adult, a woman determined to find out what happened to her mother.
Robbie Coltrane stars as DI Douglas Hain, the detective in charge of the original investigation, who was involved with the case more than he can reveal to anyone. Hain has been haunted by the killing ever since, and when the adult daughter turns up he is forced to help, no matter what the consequences are for himself.
Lucy Cohu plays Sally, the murder victim, whose life and death are pieced together through flashbacks and memories of different characters, which will unravel the truth about her Murder.
Murderland will be released as a two-disc set containing all three episodes and more details will be announced as we get them from the UK publisher Acorn Media.
For further updates go to http://www.acornmediauk.com/
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cruise Ships, Cruises, P&O Cruises, Tourism, travel
P&O Cruises has announced that its newest cruise ship, the Pacific Jewel, will have a dedicated chocolate cafe on board.
The Pacific Jewel will be first Australian-based ship to feature a retail outlet dedicated entirely to chocolate.
‘The Cafe’ will offer passengers a haven of luxurious chocolate treats including chocolate ravioli, warm chocolate fondant, freshly baked Belgium waffles and a range of cookies and chocolate cakes, baked fresh in the cafe every day.
And while they’re sipping on their gourmet hot chocolate in ‘The Cafe’, passengers will be able to talk to their family and friends back home using the cafe’s state of the art internet facilities.
Sture Myrmell, vice president of hotel operations for P&O Cruises, said the new café reflected the growing trend towards specialist chocolate outlets around Australia.
Mr. Myrmell said: “Australians are one of the highest consumers of chocolate in the world with every Australian consuming an average six kilograms of chocolate a year, so we think our new café will go down a treat.
As well as The Cafe, the Pacific Jewel will offer a range of dining venues from the fine dining restaurant Salt Grill by Luke Mangan, to the more casual restaurant La Luna.
The Pacific Jewel will sail on its inaugural South Pacific cruise from Sydney next month.
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Filed under: beauty, cosmetic surgery | Tags: beauty, cosmetic surgery, facelifts, health, linia, women's health
Christmas is just around the corner, and we all like to look our best for the festive season. Why not treat yourself to an early Christmas present with a Facial Rejuvenation treatment at Linia? Most of Linia’s minimal access facelift techniques take just up to two weeks to heal, so there’s still plenty of time if you’re planning to look your best for Christmas.
An effective facial rejuvenation package uses a selection of “short-scar” techniques and non-surgical procedures to provide a balanced, natural result. Linia’s minimal access procedures involve making small incisions in the skin, which enables a more efficient and successful procedure for the surgeon, and there is minimal scarring for the patient.
A number of minimal access lifts are available at Linia such as:
• S-LIFT: Lifts lower half of face, upper and lower part of neck.
• N-LIFT: Treats whole neck as well as the jowls.
• MACS LIFT: Lifts mid-face and upper jowls, scars hidden in upper part of ear and hairline.
• C-LIFT: Lifts cheeks through small incisions on outer sides of eyes or temple.
• I-LIFT: Uses threads with tiny hooks to lift and tighten underlying muscles.
• LATERAL BROWPEXY: Lifts sagging brows and outside eye areas through small incisions in hairline.
With these treatments, the results are more natural-looking than the traditional full-face lift, and usually last for a similar amount of time (around ten years). But the main benefit of these minimal access procedures is that they require such a short recovery time – you can book your own procedure for as late as mid-December, and wake up on Christmas morning looking youthful and naturally refreshed!
Consultations at Linia are free and are always held with their specialist cosmetic surgeons.
For more information on facial rejuvenation, or any of the procedures Linia offer, visit the Linia Cosmetic Surgery website.
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Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cruise Ships, Cruises, Holland America, Tourism, travel
Holland America Cruise Line is to host a number of launch parties on board its ships for Microsoft’s newest computer operating system.
The US-based cruise line will hold a month-long series of High Seas Parties to celebrate the launch of the eagerly anticipated Windows 7.
The launch parties will be led by Microsoft-trained “techsperts”, who are also officially approved Windows 7 launch hosts. Each ship will have a number of party packs from Microsoft, as well as a host of Windows 7 merchandise to give away, including posters and luggage tags. Special offers and discounts for both Microsoft and Holland America will also be available to passengers.
Richard D. Meadows, executive vice president of marketing for Holland America Line, said: “Holland America Line is excited to be a part of this far-reaching global launch with on board parties in Europe, Asia, South America, Central America, North America and while crossing the Atlantic.
“Our guests are already experiencing the benefits of Win7 which powers the Digital Workshops offered as part of our enrichment program.”
Holland America Line’s Digital Workshops operate on each of the line’s 14 ships, and are all powered by the new Windows 7 operating system. Each ship has its own dedicated workshop area with a number of computers, printers, and a variety of other equipment. All “techsperts” will be on hand to answer questions and deal with queries from participating passengers.
Workshops are free to all Holland America passengers, with a limit of 15 participants per session.
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Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cruise Ships, Cruises, Disney, Tourism, travel
Disney Cruise Line has released details of its first new cruise ship in over a decade, the Disney Dream
The Disney Dream was unveiled by the cruise line during a ceremony in New York City yesterday (29/10).
The 128,000-ton ship, which is currently under construction at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany, has an official capacity of 2500 passengers, but will be capable of carrying over 1200 more.
Amongst the brand new liner’s many facilities is The District. The 18-and-over neighbourhood is described as an “adults’ playground”, and features several bars and clubs including the Skyline bar, with faux windows displaying changing city skylines, from Tokyo to Paris.
Other new features of the Disney Dream include the first ever “watercoaster” on a cruise ship. The AquaDuck is a see-through water tube, the length of 2-and-a-half football pitches, that winds through the ship’s top deck and around her funnels. As for the accommodation, inside cabins will now include “virtual portholes”; hi-def cameras positioned on the ship’s exterior will feed live images of the seascape to the flat-screen “portholes”.
Disney Cruise Line President Karl Holz said: “We’ve learned from the past 10 years, and have created an experience that sets a blueprint for family cruising; creativity, innovation and storytelling – it’s what we are known for.”
Disney Dream will join the Disney Cruise Line fleet in early 2011, and will sail from Port Canaveral in Orlando, Florida. Her sister ship, Disney Fantasy, will join the fleet in 2012.
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Holland America Line’s flagship cruise ship will sail to Alaska for the first time in 2010.
The MS Rotterdam will sail 18 voyages to the American state from its home port in Seattle next year.
The seven-night Alaskan Explorer trips will visit a number of sites around Alaska, including the majestic Hubbard Glacier in Yakutat Bay, the largest tidewater glacier in North America. First mapped in 1895, Hubbard Glacier’s huge open face is more than five miles wide and actively calves icebergs as large as 10-story buildings.
The MS Rotterdam will also call at the ports of Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan, and Victoria in British Columbia, as well as sailing the scenic cruising of the Inside Passage and Vancouver Island.
Richard D. Meadows, CTC, executive vice president of marketing at Holland America Line, said: “Next May the Rotterdam will have Holland America’s latest Signature of Excellence enhancements, including a new category of lanai staterooms.
“These and the ship’s verandah suites increase guests’ opportunities for viewing Hubbard Glacier and Inside Passage as they cruise.”
The MS Rotterdam will sail her first Alaskan Explorer voyage from Seattle on 15th May 2010, right through to September.
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Filed under: alfa travel | Tags: alfa travel, coach holidays, europe, holidays, travel, uk, uk holidays
Alfa Travel has been shortlisted for a prize at the 2010 Globe Travel Awards.
The Chorley-based coach company is nominated for the Best Coach Operator award at the prestigious ceremony, to be held in January next year.
Alfa Travel is one of the UK’s fastest-growing coach holiday companies, providing trips to a host of popular destinations in Britain and Western Europe. It is the first time the company has received a nomination for a Globe Travel award.
Michaela Boardman, marketing manager at Alfa Travel, said: “We at Alfa Travel are especially proud to be nominated for the Globes given that the nominations are made by our valued travel trade partners. This has been a tough trading year for the industry, but together with support from hardworking agents out there on the front line, we’ve managed to buck the overall trend and see significant increases this year.”
The Globe Travel Awards, run in conjunction with Travel Weekly magazine, recognises the very best of the travel industry. It is one of few awards ceremonies where the winners are voted for solely by travel agents.
There are over 40 categories in the Globe Travel Awards, from Best Cruise Company to Best Travel Website.
Martin Couzins, managing editor of Travel Weekly, said: “Winning a Globe award is a crucial badge of trust and confidence for the winning companies. Both travel agents and their customers have spoken, meaning winners of our Globe Travel Awards really can claim to be the best in their fields.”
A voting supplement will be included in the November issue of Travel Weekly, and agents will have until 11thDecember to vote for their favourite shortlisted companies.
The winners will be announced at the Globe Travel Awards, held at Grosvenor House in London, on 19th January 2010.
For more information on Alfa Travel, or to request a 2010 brochure, visit the Alfa Travel website.
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