#Silent Sunday

Thrill to Bits With Bingo!

December is here with the frosty weather under its sleeves and our woollen mufflers are out to welcome this season. It’s time to shop soon as Christmas is not far. Grab those gloves and hit for shopping, unless you have got good online deals. Almost all bingo sites have bitten the festive bug, rest assured we are in for a treat.

Bingo is played by over thousands everyday around the world. This time, most of these sites are giving away massive offers until New Year. This is the time to cash on,  everywhere you will see cashback offers, huge re-deposit offers and even better, prizes on every deposit you make!

GameVillage Bingo is one of my favourite sites where you get to see pretty good December promotions. Peeps tell me that if you closely watch their offers, you could stand a chance to win over £24,000 prizes. Check out these amazing promotions when you play bingo here. Catch these special promotions before they end, few closes a wee early so better hurry. You could snap up free tickets when you make deposits, plus these are free tickets to Super Years worth over £4,000! They are even offering cashback on every deposit you make during that particular time, Happy Hour indeed! Watch out for the special games where prize pots are fixed worth £2,000 and more. They have got an amazing set of bingo games, 75 ball bingo, 80 ball bingo and 90 ball bingo. I am thrilled to bits with the 80 ball bingo rooms as I get a free ticket on purchase of one, that’s an amazing buy one and get one free offer!    

GameVillage Bingo is one of the few site that even boasts of a forum, a bustling activity place with every player having a healthy gossip. If you want to pull your favourite chat host legs. You know where to head to with the juicy news bits. 

That’s quite a catchy prize for playing bingo, snap up these prizes when you play bingo during the last month of the year.  

Heroes Of The City App Review And Giveaway

Well it has been a great start to the year as we have been lucky enough to have been road testing the Heroes of the City App, as well as Goodies from the same show. My children love cartoons, but I prefer when the cartoon is educational yet fun. Fortunately Heroes of the City fits the bill!

The cartoon is about rescue vehicles in a small town that help people and have lots of adventures. Being kind and helping your friends is central to the cartoons theme, and my kids could definitely learn a few lessons from this. Characters include Fiona Fire engine and Pauli Police car and is aimed at 3-7 year olds.

As part of the bundle we were given to review, we were given a DVD to watch with five full episodes of the cartoon series. My kids loved the stories with 'The ghost car' being a particular favorite. Check out the video below for a taste.

The best thing that we got to review was the Heroes of the City App. The app is available to download  on both Android devices and apple iPhones.

AppStore: here

GooglePlay: here

The app is aimed at 2-6 year olds, and has 6 hours of movies and 9 exciting games. I think this is brilliant as it can entertain your kids for hours. My four year old daughter and 2 year old son have both been having great fun playing the app, and I am sure it will be a firm favourite. There is a free version of the app, but you can purchase the full version with 24 movies and 9 games for £9.69 which I think it is great value for what you get. My daughter loves the train track game, and the game putting out the fires. Daddy James also had a go, and he really enjoyed. The games start off easy but get progressively harder. They are really user friendly and simple to use. Every time you complete a level you get fireworks which the kids loved.

We also had a Heroes of the city book and toys, which the kids also loved. The book is hard backed, with a story about Paulie the police car and Fiona the fire engine, and is called 'The Hot Air Balloon'. The story has wonderful pictures and the children found it thoroughly entertaining.  

The children were quickly fighting over the two die cast figures that we were sent. We were sent Fiona the fire engine and Tilly the Train. The detail on them is surprisingly good , and they have a definite feel of good quality. 

As you can see from the photo's they are thoroughly engrossed!


Well now its time for one of my lucky readers to win a bundle of Heroes of the City goodies for themselves. The winner will win a book, DVD and Die Cast figures. Just complete the rafflecopter entries below to enter. Please remember to correctly complete all entries as I will check!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Grandad

I was shattered to learn in the middle of last year that my granddad had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Unfortunately by the time it was diagnosed, it had already spread to his bones so there wasn't anything that could be done for him. The decline was rapid and shortly before Christmas my beloved grandad passed away.

I was extremely honored to be asked by my Nana to write a eulogy in conjunction with the other four grandchildren, and I wanted to share it with you.

Gerald was not only a wonderful Husband to Enid and Father to Janice and Philip, he was also an extra special grandad and great grandad. He had five grandchildren in total… Esther, Jude and Toby who are the children of Janice, and the twins Rhys and Ceryl who are the children of Phillip.  All five grandchildren feel blessed to have had him as part of their lives, and will miss him terribly. 

Unfortunately both Rhys and Jude cannot be here, but they wanted their voices heard in this service. Rhys is currently in New Zealand after a year spent cycling around the world on a push bike, and Jude is currently posted with the armed forces in Canada. Jude did manage to fly over from Canada to see grandad a week before he passed away, which just goes to show how much Grandad meant to his Grandchildren.  Grandad was very proud of all his grand children’s achievements, and he certainly set them a good example on how to succeed in life, with hard work and determination.

There are many fond memories of grandad that they will all treasure. Summer was a particular joy as it meant that the grandchildren could enjoy the garden that he worked so hard on, and also help him gather all the produce that he had grown. Grandad was a great vegetable gardener and enjoyed sharing his garden with the grandchildren.

He always made you feel welcome and loved and was loved back by all his family around him. Things such as going over the club for a pint or two on a Friday night strolling down there him his hat on head and pipe in hand and smile on face then talking about everything and anything that came to mind  or going for a stroll down to redwick along the reens soaking up the views and nature such simple things in themselves but looking back were so very special because he was there to share and enjoy it with. These and so many other seemingly simple things will  have a very special place in his families harts forever.

Granddad always went the extra mile for his grandchildren, and this was literal in some cases. When Jude and Esther were young, they followed in their granddads footsteps and joined their local Church Choir. As they excelled in this, they travelled around many parts of the UK singing in various cathedrals. Grandad was always happy to transport them around and made full use of his free rail tickets! Grandad also regularly transported Esther back and for from University in Bristol, and once spent four hours in a traffic jam, when the road towards the second seven crossing was closed due to ice.

There has been many up’s but some downs in our families recent years. Sadly in 1998, Janice (the mother of Esther, Jude and Toby) passed away at the age of 44 due to a rare form of leukaemia. This hit the family hard, and was devastating to both nana and granddad.  The family took strength from each other and this only served to give everyone an incredibly strong bond that remains to this day. Nana is very much the head of the family, and unites us all together. Grandad was always very supportive of her, and the rest of the family. Grandad’s love and unbending dedication to his grandchildren helped us all through this difficult period. In recent years Toby has developed Epilepsy, and needs regular support with his health issues. Grandad was always there for him when he needed him, and Toby will be forever grateful for this.

Granddad had also been blessed with four great grandchildren- Seb, Nicky, Iola and Bryn. Some people may have slowed down once they became and octogenarian but not Grandad. He would frequently be running around with the children, and taking them up the garden in all weathers to see the chickens next door. He always made our visits to Magor fun, and loved to see his family grow.

We enjoyed his company, and the odd glass of brandy with him once we had all grown up. Grandad loved to hear all that was happening with his family and the family boxing day family gathering at Nana and Grandads is something his grandchildren wouldn’t miss for the world. Grandad also developed close bonds with Esther’s husband Matthew, and Jude’s wife Tess and they too will really miss him.

In 2012, Esther nominated Grandad for a national award due to all the volunteering that he has done throughout his lifetime. We were thrilled to bits when Grandad made it to the grand finals and was given a certificate in honour of this achievement. Grandad really was someone special, and the word that we keep hearing over and over again when his name is mentioned, is ‘gentleman’. Grandad really was one of life’s gentlemen and I know that all his grandchildren will aspire to be as kind, generous and loving as he was. 

Let's Keep Christmas Special

Is it me, or does 'Christmas' seem to start earlier each year? I am a strong believer that the Christmas period starts on the first of December. This is mainly because Christmas starts to feel diluted if you start eeking it out for a longer period. It seems to me that the early start of Christmas is rooted two things, basically we can't get enough of a good thing, and a cynical attempt by retailers to maximise their profits.

It all starts when the first supermarkets start stocking Christmas items as soon as the temperature drops by 5 degrees.

Now I know that shops want and need to make a profit, but do they really need to start selling christmas items so early.  I think a month is ample time to get everything you need but maybe I'm missing something.

As I'm driving home we have been spotting houses with their Christmas Lights blazing all through November. My daughter keeps excitedly asking if it's Christmas, and then looks so disappointed when I tell her its weeks away. Instead of bringing magic to little children, these people who light/trim up early are actually bringing disappointment. That's food for thought surely...

Now I know Christmas is a lovely and special time, and that is why people want to experience it for longer, but I just think the specialness starts to wain if it occurs for months of the year. I love hearing the first Christmas Tunes, but I think 3 weeks of these is enough. If we start celebrating Christmas for months on end, the time will surely come when we get sick of it and it's not special anymore.

Santa is arriving in our town on Saturday to turn on the Christmas Lights, which is the last day of November. I guess I can live with that but I would love for Christmas to be celebrated in December. Not sure what your thoughts are?

My week on the Exante Diet- The results are in!

Well yesterday was the last day of my week on the Exante Diet. It has been a challenge but I am proud to say that I have totally stuck to it and not cheated once. So this is how my week has gone...

The first three days were tough, as your body has to adjust to the reduction in calories (600 per day). I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of the shakes and the soups but the quantities aren't that much compared to what this greedy girl is used to! Every soup, and shake is about the size of a mug of water. I had a shake in the morning (Vanilla, chocolate or Strawberry- all very nice) and a soup for Lunch and Dinner. The soups I got to try were Thai Chicken, Mushroom, Vegetable, and Tomato and Basil. Thai Chicken was my favourite but I wasn't as fussed on the Tomato and Basil. You have to give the soups a really good stir as they can be quite lumpy otherwise. Exante recommend using a blender but as I was in work this wasn't possible.

 To get me through the first few days I became a domestic goddess in the evenings as I found cleaning the house took my mind off the hunger. My husband was very pleased, although he did have to cook for himself as I didn't want to be around temptation. I also ended up going to bed early as I found that easier than sitting around craving food.

After three days it got remarkedly easier. I found I wasn't so hungry all the time, and I was able to stay up later without feeling ravenous. I also started to see some changes in my waistine and was delighted when my old size 12 work trousers fitted me again.  Exante recommend you drink at least 2 litres of water a day and I found this no problem as I did feel quite thirsty. I am usually rubbish at drinking water, so drunk sparkling water which I love. I also find sparkling water fills you up for longer. My skin definately became radiant due to all the additional water.

By the end of the week, I got to give one of the Exante diet bars a try. It was Chocolate and Orange flavour, and I had it for my breakfast on the last day. It was actually quite filling and tasted yummy so I would highly recommend these.

With Trepidation, I stepped on the scales this morning and was over the moon to see that I had lost half a stone... in a week. I just think that's amazing and I hope you do. This is such a fast diet and I would definately do it again. The great news continues as my BMI is now within the healthy range and comes in at 23.6. If my weight were to stay the same or decrease even further (which I am really hoping!) I would not be able to continue with the Total Solution as my BMI is less than 25 but I can continue with the simple solution. This means that you have 3 Exante Diet products per day plus 600 calories. You can either choose to have a 600 calorie meal or snacks equivalent to 600 calories. I really like the sound of this, and hope to do this very soon.

In summary the things I like about this diet:

• There is no thinking or planning involved. Your meals are pre-prepared for the day/week and you only need to worry about adding water
• The calories are all measured for you and the products give you all the nutrients you need to sustain yourself
• Its an extremely fast diet
• It is relatively cheap compared to other products on the market
• The majority of the products are tasty and there are a lot of products to choose from.

Things I was wasn't so fussed on:

• You are incredibly hungry and tired in the first few days so you have to be committed
• Having no solid food for nearly a week did play havoc with my teeth so make sure you brush them often
• I wasn't too fussed on the Tomato and Basil Soup but that was the only one
• The soups can be a bit powdery and lumpy if not stirred enough.

Overall I am really pleased with how this week has gone and just want to say thanks to Exante for letting me trial their products in return for an honest review. Onwards and Upwards from here!

Xmas Gaming Gift Ideas For The Out Of Touch Parent.

My daughter is just four years old, yet she knows how to play computer games, upload photos and watch you tube without any help from me. It's mindboggling really, how quickly todays children grasp technology and I am in no doubt in years to come, my children will know far more about computers than me. As my daughter loves online gaming, and has actually learnt a lot from them, we have actually invested in a games Tablet for her this christmas.

There were a number of considerations we looked at when choosing the right console

• Price (well everyone knows I'm on a budget!)
• Educational Value-Will it have games that will help my daughter learn
• Safety- Will it only allow my daughter to access safe and age appropriate content
• Durability- Is it quite hard wearing as my daughter is nearly as clumsy as me
• Reviews- Did the console have favourable reviews

These were our main considerations, and this is a good place to start when you are looking at games consoles.  We were very lucky in that we found a games tablet that was age appropriate, had plenty of educational games on it and it was on sale. It also came with an indestructable  bright pink case so I know my little pink obsessed lady will be very pleased. 

If you have children a little older than mine, then they will probably be hoping that santa will be bringing them a games console. There are a number of  games consoles on the market with next generation models being released in time for Christmas. I would strongly suggest chatting to your kids about what their favourite consoles are, and what they like about them. They will know what they are looking for, so listen to what they have to say. There are plenty of online review sites such as this where users give honest reviews of consoles, so these are useful if you want a second opinion.

It is also really important to go Bargain Hunting. You can often find much cheaper deals online, rather than on the high street. Some people are worried about shopping online, but I have done all my christmas shopping online for the last few years. I have never had any problems and it's cheaper aswell as less stressful.

You also have to bear in mind the price of games. These can add up so it may be a good idea to buy a console with games thrown in. These deals can often work out much better value than buying the console and the games seperately. You can also buy games second hand relatively cheap so it's worth bearing this in mind.

Another thing you should bear in mind is that it is essential that your child has a good gaming TV . There are a variety of TV's on the market that enhance the gaming experience.  A TV such as this is a good budget option. It has a high quality19 inch screen which is essential for a great gaming experience, and a scart connection so you can plug your console in.

 If you have more money to spend, this would be an even better option. It has a fantastic ultra high definition 32 inch screen. It has 2 HDMI ports perfect for gaming. Finally it has an A grade energy efficiency rating which is obviously a bonus. There is no point in owning a super duper games console if you don't have the appropriate TV to play it on.

There are a wide range of accessories that you can buy for games consoles, but one of the accessories to really gain popularity in recent years are gaming headsets. This can really enhance the experience and bring console games to life with life-like sounds through state of the art speakers contained in headphones . They also offer a big bonus for parents as they minimise noise. Unfortunately the market in Gaming Headsets for the new generation of consoles is quite limited at the moment, but there is some good news in that Gioteck are due to release some new PS4 gaming headsets for the next generation PS4 in the next few weeks. These headsets will be just in demand as the consoles so my advice would be to get in there quick, if you really want to make your little monsters happy.

I hope this post has helped you out in your search for a games console and accessories for christmas. It's not easy being a parent, and don't believe anyone who tells you it is.

*This is a sponsored post.