Month: July 2013

I know! But I’ve never been great with puns. Anyway, here’s the latest prize win that just arrived in the post. I don’t EVEN remember entering the comp. It’ll come to good use though, taming various “lady forests” lol.

First she yawns as I take the first shot…

Then just just looks nonplussed. “It’s too hot, mum!”

Poor baby 🙁

A few pics travelling to/from the island.

 

 

My RL friend Kelly visiting my town and us posing at the cutout standee there.

 

 

Pics from Mira’s birthday.

 

 

Various goings on in town over the past 24 hours.

I ended up in hysterics after seeing this one. I thought “cute kitty. WTF?!!! ROTFLMAO!” when I realised EXACTLY what the imagery of the picture was!

Definitely one of the more interesting prizes (and Artfinder prints) I have ever come across.

I was crying with laughter for ages after. The first part of the competition spiel had me in particular hysterics – me thinking “Am I the ONLY one who can see this?!”

Click on the link HERE to see what I’m on about. Can you spot it?

 

I was notified of this win a couple of weeks back and have been imaptiently waiting its arrival. But here they are now, arrived in the post this morning. I’m most looking forward to watching Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. I’ve heard that What To Expect When You’re Expecting is meant to be funny, but not sure if it’ll be my cup of tea. I can only watch and see anyway. Friends with Kids will probably be more my cup of tea – and I like Chris O’Dowd. I watched a trailer for Magic Mike – that just looks like a re-do of The Full Monty to me…but I’ll give it a go.

 

My good friend Kelly was given an early birthday present from her S.O. of a new Nintendo 3DS XL console and the latest version of Animal Crossing – New Leaf.

I had an original DS console and had the original Animal Crossing game but after playing it on and off for 18 months or so, got a little bored with it. I have never really been a big gamer and not many games hold my interest for long. I prefer the traditional style board games (which NOBODY EVER PLAYS WITH ME WITH – except when I lived back in Australia – my mum and I would play a lot together – except for my FAVOURITE board game Scrabble. She was no good with words and spelling.). So, to make a bit of dosh during the tight times (and to fund a purchase of something else I wanted), I sold my DS and the games I had accumulated.

Then when Kelly got her new 3DS XL, initially I was thinking “Oh, that’s lovely for her. She’s crazy for AC. She’ll be loving it!” and then thought of the days we missed playing AC together, visiting each others towns, and how relaxing I used to find the gameplay. How much I loved fishing, and catching bugs, etc. Then pangs started and after a couple of weeks, I caved in and got my own 3DS XL with the new Animal Crossing pre-loaded onto the console.

The new AC is ssoo much fun! I am loving it. The console itself is so much more inproved and the 3D REALLY works on a hand-held console. It’s bananas! You can adjust the screen to set the intensity of the 3D effect. I always have mine on the lowest setting (you can even turn the 3D completely off) otherwise I find it does things to my eyes after a while. I get a bit of retina burn!

Here are some of my favourite moments so far from the game.

 

As you can see, it’s a lot of fun and Kelly and I have had some great fun “hanging out” in each others’ towns. I didn’t realise how much I had missed playing until I started up again. I might get the updated Nintendogs (Cats and Dogs, or whatever it’s called these days) next. But not right now. ACNL is too much fun!

Pro comping has its ups and downs. The ups are obviously the prizes you can win. And I have loved the things I have won so far. They’ve all been very useful, tasty, or have some other way given me pleasure.

One of the biggest prizes I have ever won is still yet to make an appearance. Back in early May I was informed in an email that I had won a competition run by a company called Hardware Heaven on Facebook of a PC graphics card. A serious bit of kit that I was looking forward to upgrading our Linux PC with (it’s in serious need of an upgrade and with money tight, this hardware would have helped).

I was asked in the email to provide my address details and allow 28 days for delivery. I thought “UK company, I’m sure they’re just allowing a nice big buffer in case of some unforseen delay or some sort. Be patient!” And I was. I sat back for 28 days. I must admit though that the non-appearance after 28 days had me slightly worried. I’d never had to wait that long for a prize being awarded to me before. Some have even been BLINDINGLY quick (the notification of my Aubrey bag win was on a Monday, and I had the bag arrive Wednesday – talk about fast!)

Long story short, I contacted Hardware Heaven after the 28 days saying the prize had been a no show. I received an apologetic reply with the an assurance that the mix up would be sorted. Again, I put my patience cap on and waited another 10 days before contacting them again. Yes, another 10 days went by and still nothing. It has now been a total of 50 days and I haven’t received anything.

I just keep getting scratched record replies of “I’m sorry. I’ll get it sorted for you.” etc. I keep chasing up info every few days with requests of “has it been sorted yet? When can I expect it see it? Do I need to wait another 28 days now?” I’m seriously doubting I’ll see anything for my win.

I don’t know who is at fault here. I can only assume from the undercurrent of the reply emails that I’m waiting for my prize to be sent via a third party. It’s a shame if that is the case as the third party is sullying Hardware Heaven’s reputation as far as I am concerned.

The competition site I use suggests to contact the IPM (The Institute of Promotional Marketing) if 40 days lapses and no prize has been forthcoming. I really wanted to get it resolved on a personal level though.

I’m sure it’s all genuine. I mean, why would you announce a winner and contact them if you had NO intention of awarding a prize? I just wish I could have it resolved.

UPDATE:

I received a message on my mobile this morning from DHL with a tracking number. A shipment from Taipei. Not something I have ordered myself as the text came to the mobile I use for competition entries. I can only assume that it is a parcel from the manufacturer of the graphics card. Hooray!! I think it may be coming at last :-)))

2ND UPDATE:

It’s here! At long last! Now to get it in my PC…