The Benefits of Playing Bingo

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Ah, the game of Bingo; we all know someone who plays it regularly, whether it be our mums or our grandmas, and although we all know how to play it ourselves, none of us do. Why? Because, I bet we all believe the stereotype that the game of Bingo is only for the elderly generations, right?

Well, it’s time to quash the stereotype, because playing Bingo isn’t just for the over 65’s. In fact, the game holds many benefits for all, and more and more of the younger generations in Britain are enjoying the game because of them.

Still don’t believe me? Well, here’s a rundown of some of the benefits that playing bingo could bring you:

1. Money, Money, Money!

So, although this benefit may be pretty obvious, it often baffles me that people shun the benefit of being able to win money just because they feel the game’s for the older generation. Whether you choose to play at your local bingo hall, or whether you choose to join an online bingo website, join up fees cost next to nothing, when you consider that you have the chance to win up to thousands of pounds!

However, aside from also helping you to make money, playing bingo can also help you to save money – particularly if you choose to play online. Many bingo sites offer promotional incentives, either in the form of voucher discounts for all your favourite stores, or even the chance to earn points which can be accumulated over time to be spent or exchanged at some of the nation’s biggest stores. 

2. Play From The Comfort of Your Own Home

As I’ve mentioned, bingo can be played online – there are thousands of sites, such as this online bingo voted best site, designed specifically to let you do so. So, if you’re desperate to play and start winning but are a little conscious of popping down to your local hall on your own, then you can play from the comfort of your own home!

The huge benefit of this is that the traditional game of bingo can be played in a much more contemporary way. And, this is one of the main reasons that the game has seen as huge rise in popularity in recent years amongst the younger generations.

Signing up to an online bingo site is quick and easy and you can be on your way to playing bingo against thousands of others up and down the country in a matter of minutes. And, what’s more, the thrill and excitement of getting a full house is just as fun if you were to play it in a bingo hall.

3. Social Aspect

Bingo, whether played virtually or for real, is a great social game. Traditionally, it was the thrill of playing in a packed, buzzing bingo hall that lured in players, but now, with online chat facilities and forums, you can meet and play other bingo fanatics over the web. So, whether you’re looking to grab some new bingo tips from someone who’s been playing a lot longer, or whether you just want to have a good old natter with a regular you play against often, then online bingo is the perfect way to do so

Karaoke Box Smithfield Review

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Having been asked to review the recently re-launched Karaoke Box Smithfield for Frost Magazine, I duly rounded up a posse and proceeded to check it out on Friday night. After a couple of last-minute cancellations, our group consisted of three musical theatre professionals, two old hands at karaoke, and one “virgin” who had no intention of singing.

The first thing that struck me on arrival was the staff who were friendly, welcoming and helpful, particularly bar manager Paolo Espinosa, who set everything up in the room and showed me how it all works, and Lois Roberts on reception. The second was the venue itself: the bar area was airy and very tastefully decorated, as were the booths which also had interesting lighting systems. On a more prosaic note, the toilets were lovely and clean.

All of our troupe enjoyed the privacy of the booth setting, feeling “quite relaxed as opposed to standing up and singing in a bar,” and our non-singer had lost her virginity within 20 minutes (to Suzi Quatro’s “Can the Can”), saying “as a virgin singer I felt very safe to sing (there).” Another guest loved that the booths allowed separate parties to enjoy themselves without risk of intrusion and the ability to talk and be heard.

The playlist also came in for praise: with over 9,000 songs, everybody found something they knew. The background videos caused some hilarity in our party, with the suicidal goat being the highlight of one person’s night!

The only complaints were about the system itself: a few of the songs were quite badly out of sync; and there seemed to be quite a long wait between songs, even when they were queued up. A key change facility would also be nice, as I believe people who take their karaoke seriously often look for this facility. However, the mikes worked very well; it was very easy to adjust the mix between backing and vocals; and the screen was a very good size.

We were in Room 3, which according to the website is a 14 person room, although I think that would be rather crowded and I wouldn’t personally recommend more than 10 people for comfort. This room costs £70 per hour before 9pm and £98 per hour afterwards. While this seems quite expensive, it doesn’t actually work out to much more per head than people pay for children’s birthday parties or a visit to the cinema.

The bar at Karaoke Box is well stocked, and cocktails and pizzas are both on sale (although we didn’t sample either).

I would recommend Karaoke Box to anyone who seriously enjoys karaoke, as it is much more pleasant that waiting for hours in a crowded bar just to get to sing once or twice. It’s also ideal for birthdays, hen parties, office parties or for anyone who enjoys an activity-based night out. Rooms vary in capacity from 2 to 30 people, and in price from £20 to £210 (for the VIP room) per hour. For more information, visit http://karaokebox.co.uk/smithfield/ or telephone their friendly staff on 020 7329 9991.

All of Your Digital Life in One Secure Place: LifeKeep Review

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This post brought to you by BuzzParadise. All opinions are 100% mine.

LifeKeepAs our life's are becoming more and more virtual it seems like there will be no aspect of ourselves that technology does not touch. While we may not have flying cars or hoover boards, technology has evolved so much and added so much to our lives.

As our digital lives become more important to us, so does the technology to keep it all in check, but users do not yet trust the cloud. Their digital lives are scattered all over the internet and they are worries about security, people stealing their data and advertisers tracking them. There seems to be no such thing as privacy anymore. And that is where Lifekeep comes in. As Lifekeep says, "LifeKeep is a digital vault, a personal and secure Cloud account, a comprehensive and respectful solution that capitalizes on 4G and the latest encryption technologies to bring you what you always longed for"

So Frost Magazine decided to try out a free LifeKeep account. LifeKeep

First of all we signed up for a free Lifekeep account and also downloaded the free LifeKeep app.

So what exactly does Lifekeep do? It stores, manages and retrieves multi-media files. From Lifekeep you can post pictures to Facebook and share things with your friends. It also backs up your entire digital life. It also does file conversions to new format in the future. LifeKeep

One of my favourite things about Lifekeep is being able to access all of my data and files without any of the information having to be on my iPad or iPhone. This way, if anything gets stolen my personal data is secure. I can manage and retrieve everything through Lifekeep onto my iPad, from documents to pictures.

LifeKeep

As well as retrieving things yourself you can also securely share files. Lifekeep has a secure network through which you can even chat and blog with friends. It is better than dropbox and safer than Facebook.

Lifekeep also lets you handle your digital life after you have passed away. It allows you to safely pass on the keys to your digital life.

The security of Lifekeep is impressive. Lifekeep has, "The AES-256 encryption technology, which the U.S. Committee on National Security Systems called worthy of securing “top secret” classified documents, is widely considered to be the Highest mathematical security encryption standard today. It has been adopted by the U.S. government and is now used worldwide. Someone trying to hack into your account would have to use as many computations as there are hydrogen atoms in the observable universe."

All in all we are very impressed with Lifekeep. We give it full marks and will definitely be using it in the future.

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Secret Service Files – Protecting The President.

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This documentary about the Secret Service is riveting  and informative. Broken down into four different events in which a President was in danger. It has access to the Presidents themselves and good archive footage.

Agent Robert Rodriguez and President Clinton talk us through King Hassan’s funeral. Dozens of world leaders were in Morocco for the funeral. Which the secret service agents refer to as a ‘sea of humanity’. There was a two mile walk during the funeral that left the President open to attack. The Secret Service advised him not to do the walk but he Insisted on it. Their were two leaders who were not popular in that part of the world, Presidents Clinton and Bush.

The Secret Service were on high alert as the death of a leader and religious figure is a recipe for disaster.

Agent Staropoli, who was in the counter assault team, otherwise known as CAT, was there to back up their Secret Service colleagues if anything went wrong as they have enhanced weapons that the rest of the team don’t have.

Bill Clinton says of the Secret Service when he was President,  “they were good at trying to be flexible because they knew I liked to be with people.”

The feeling you really get from this documentary is of bravery and courage. Of men risking their lives for their country and the man who runs it. As Agent Rodriguez says, “I would rather be dead than labelled a coward… I have never heard of an agent who had doubts about taking a bullet for the president.”

In another scenario with President George Bush Snr The president had to be evacuated. The agents say that, ‘the welfare of the president is always more important that pomp and circumstance.’

Joseph Funk said this event was the first time the CAT team had a full employment. There were tear gas, gunshots and unruly crowd. The Secret Service work by ‘cover and evacuate’.  They do 360 degree coverage of the President. Above, below and around and they also create a stable shooting platform.

When President Clinton went into Pakistan in March 2000 for a television address the Secret Service were against it. Clinton himself says that he, “knew I was in greater danger after going after Bin Laden”.

The agent says that AK47 are popular and easy to get in that region and that they went in against their better judgement.

They had a decoy airplane and made use of the element of surprise. Intelligence revealed that Pakistani secret police had been infiltrated and had people with Taliban sympathies.

They had six armed cars with the presidential seal so any assassins had a one in six chance of getting the president. Clinton’s speech was only 15 minutes. The Secret Service can never relax or put their guard down. That is what normal people do. “We don’t think it is a job well done until we arrive back at the White House.” they say. They do an impressive job.

When President Bush went into Georgia a loner with violent tendencies, Vladimir Arutyunian,  threw a grenade at him which bounced of a little girl’s head and miraculously did not go off. One brave Georgian policeman took the live grenade and ran away from the crowds with it, knowing it could go off at any moment. The Georgian people love the United States and they wanted to show appreciation to President Bush because of the destruction of the Soviet Union. They even named the highway leading to the main airport after him

Bryan Paarmann, Special agent FBI. said they had metal detectors, which were very important but because of overcrowding the Georgian security team switched off the metal defectors. So they had an unscreened crowd of up to 100,000 people.

The Secret Service say that their greatest fear is an isolated loner prone to violence and that they have to be on their game 100% of the time. There is no room for error.

Secret Service Files – Protecting The President shows on the National Geographic Channel.

Why Your Business Needs Car Bumper Stickers

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When you run your own business getting your message across is an important factor. If you are offering the best service or goods then you’ll want to shout from the rooftops about it. Most people have exhausted all of the usual marketing tools at their disposal, but if you don’t use car bumper stickers then you are definitely missing a trick.

 

Car bumper stickers are a great way to advertise your business or get your point across without the hard sell aspect of some other marketing options. Compared with other outdoor marketing tools, bumper stickers are relatively cost effective considering their reach. You can fork out huge amounts of cash for perfectly placed billboards advertising your company and offers but a bumper sticker can often be seen by many more potential customers as they are a form of mobile advertising.

 

If you decide that car bumper sticker advertising is for you then ensure your feature all the necessary information – whether you are advertising a business or an offer you must give people a way of contacting you or taking up the offer. The easiest way to do this is with a phone number or email address. Your sticker should also feature your company logo. Bumper stickers are well received if they are humorous in nature, have you ever laughed at a political bumper sticker and made a mental note to get one for your car?

 

Your bumper stickers aren’t just for people who work for you, give them out to satisfied customers to extend your advertising reach even further. You can even offer a discount to customers who have one of your bumper stickers on their car.

 

Bumper stickers are also a great way to keep an eye on your employees. Many commercial vehicles now feature stickers that ask fellow road users ‘How’s my driving?’ offering you valuable feedback.

 

Grab the very best car bumper stickers for your business from harris screen print, they offer a full range of screen-printed stickers that they print in-house.

Matt’s Big Match: Warm Steak and Roquefort Salad

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Get a sneak peak to see self-confessed foodie, Matt Dawson match his very own Warm Steak and Roquefort Salad recipe with the perfect pick from Bordeaux

Since winning Celebrity MasterChef back in 2006, Matt Dawson has now become a firm fixture in the culinary world. Good Food Would Choose Bordeaux, and so does Matt.

This winter the foodie becomes a Bordeaux wine lover: Matt shows Brits how to match great food with great Bordeaux wines without breaking the bank. Discover culinary passion with a series of cooking demos that will introduce you to the versatility of Bordeaux wines and endless pairing possibilities for any occasion.

Matt has fond memories of Bordeaux that date back to his teenage days when he spent Easters playing rugby against the local side, Bordeaux Bègles, and enjoying the hospitality of host families.

Food and wine are central to Bordeaux-style life, but back then Matt had no idea food was going to become his central focus after hanging up his boots. This self-confessed foodie now has time to devote to his great passion. Being able to match his own recipes to a selection of Bordeaux wines is a labour of love that takes Matt back to those memorable Easters in Bordeaux.

Watch our video where Matt cooks up a delicious Warm Steak and Roquefort Salad, and with help from Wine Expert Ewan Lacey matches his creation to the perfect style of wine from Bordeaux.

Watch the full recipes: http://www.bordeaux.com/uk/artofliving/aficionados

Rosie Fortescue, Kimberley Garner, attend the VeryFirstTo Awards at No5 Cavendish Sq

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Last night, a host of celebrities and VIPs including Rosie Fortescue, Vanessa Feltz, Kimberley Garner, John McCririck, Lizzie Cundy, Zara Martin, Matt Evers, Ben Ofoedu, Gurinder Chadha OBE, Leanne Benjamin OBE, Trevor Bayliss, Phil Clifton and Jay Camilleri and attended the inaugural VeryFirstTo Awards at No 5 Cavendish Sq to discover the most eagerly anticipated luxury launches for Spring 2013.

 

Gossip from the evening includes:

  • Vanessa Feltz had to dash off early as she has a 4am alarm call for her BBC London breakfast show
  • Kimberley Garner arrived with her best friend, but she was overheard flirtatiously giggling down the phone… could this have to current squeeze, X-Factor winner, James Arthur?!
  • Rosie Fortescue attended with her new model boyfriend
  • Lizzie Cundy was sporting a healthy tan following her recent holiday in Barbados
  • Gurinder Chadha OBE came straight to the No 5 Cavendish Sq from production meetings for the new Bend it Like Beckham Musical
  • John McCririck was in fine spirits, attending with his wife Jenny ‘The Booby’ McCririck, and proclaiming that he adores Lizzy Cundy!
  • Trevor Bayliss presented an award, joking as he did that he didn’t invent the envelope, as he struggled to get it open!

A host of celebrities and VIPs including Rosie Fortescue, Vanessa Feltz, Kimberley Garner, John McCririck, Lizzie Cundy, Zara Martin, Matt Evers, Ben Ofoedu, Gurinder Chadha OBE, Leanne Benjamin OBE, Trevor Bayliss, Phil Clifton and Jay Camilleri and attended the inaugural VeryFirstTo Awards at No 5 Cavendish Sq to discover the most eagerly anticipated luxury launches for Spring 2013.

Arriving in style for the exclusive awards ceremony, guests eagerly awaited the announcement of the VeryFirstTo Awards where forty launches for 2013 were selected and shortlisted by a panel of Connoisseurs of admired personalities including Giles Deacon, Bip Ling, Poppy Delevingne, Wayne Hemingway, and Luke Johnson.

 

Inside No 5 Cavendish Sq’s newly re-launched Mansion Hall, guests were able to exclusively experience their own preview of showcased must-have items for 2013. Throughout the evening, the award winners were announced to the select crowd, including overall winner Z.Boat by Zaha Hadid, Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Marni and View from The Shard who were amongst the exclusive brands awarded for their cutting-edge luxury launches this Spring. Guests rubbed shoulders with, VeryFirstTo’s Luxforecast Connoisseurs including Zara Martin, Leanne Benjamin OBE, and Guirinder Chadha OBE, who sit on the panel for this luxury awards ceremony.

 

VeryFirstTo Connoisseur Wayne Hemmingway said; “There are numerous awards which retrospectively honour items after they come to market. To acknowledge items, which have yet to launch is a refreshing new idea. We’re letting consumers know what we feel are the ones to watch.”

Guests at the exclusive Awards sampled the shortlisted Chivas 18 Whiskey and newly launched energy drink ZEO, newly arrived to the UK Imperial Collection vodka, as well as wines from Bibendum. A selection of canapés were served including Beetroot and Goat’s cheese mousse en croute, Arancini Balls and house restaurant Flavour’s Spiced Chicken Skewers.

 

Bring Back Fawlty Towers!

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Iconic British sitcom crowned most wanted comeback TV show

 

Comedy is still top of the box for Brits with legendary sitcom Fawlty Towers topping nationwide polls as the show Brits would most like to see back on TV screens.

 

Commissioned by Freeview, the brand new research polled over 2,000 TV fanatics nationwide to celebrate the year of comeback television, which has seen the re-launch of the hugely popular ‘Surprise, Surprise’ on ITV and a brand new series of super soap Dallas debut on Channel 5.

 

With 29% of the votes, Fawlty Towers emerged as the clear comeback favourite, followed closely by TV comedy gold One Foot in the Grave (22%), Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show (18%), timeless treasure The Good Life (17%) and retro action series The A-Team (9%).  Starring John Cleese and Prunella Scales as Basil and Sybil Fawlty and Andrew Sachs as the bumbling Manuel, Fawlty Towers ran for twelve unforgettable episodes and was broadcast on BBC2 from September 1975 to October 1979. With Freeview offering access to over 50 standard definition TV channels and four HD channels, there’s never been a better time to take a fresh look at the nation’s most treasured TV gems.

 

Top 10 most wanted TV comebacks:

1.       Fawlty Towers

2.       One Foot in the Grave

3.       The Muppet Show

4.       The Good Life

5.       The A-Team

6.       Birds of a Feather

7.       Dad’s Army

8.       The Bill

9.       The Office

10.   The Generation Game

 

 

Sara Jones, Head of Communications at Freeview said; “The results of this research highlight the nation’s love of timeless British comedy classics. As the cold nights draw in, Freeview customers can continue to enjoy their favourite TV shows, both old and new, subscription-free.”