5 out of 5
Well we have all had “THE STOMACH BUG”…three of us went down with it last night. It is really horrid, you are sick every 30 minutes and from way down deep……the good news if any of you do get it is that it only lasts 24 hours. 12 hours of being sick and another 12 of feeling like you have flu and then …..the energy begins to return.
Drink lots and lots of water……you won’t hold it down for long but it stops you from sinking lower and getting very dizzy.
Hoping you all avoid……
3 out of 5
That’s how many of us have had a stomach bug in the last 10 days. Conrad didn’t even make it home from school before his stomach turned to water and well you can imagine the rest.
I can only suggest that we all carry a bottle of water, baby wipes, toilet roll and a stiff upper lip at all times……
I’d do anything right now for a long sleep…….ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz.
Sunshades CHECK, Sandals CHECK, Sunblock CHECK
Because the weather this week is going to be FAB. Temps from 24-27 degrees.
Over the knee boots OUT, strappy sandals in.
You have 12 hours to sort out your cracked heels, rhino toe nails and find a nail polish in your make up sack, that hasn’t turned into rock.
Mother’s Day gifts to choose from
Adrian has suggested an amazon widget on the side so here goes!
It is Mother’s Day in the UK on April 3rd so plan ahead and buy your mum something special. Free delivery in the UK and in Spain free delivery if you spend more than £25.00.
I’ve had fun shopping for your mums!!
Spanish airport strikes are called off
The Spanish airport strikes planned for April-August, a total of 22 days in all has been called off. 70% of Spanish workers recently voted not to go through with the planned airport strikes. Relief!
The joys of an Enema
A certain individual has had to take an enema this morning. I thought it would be a tablet but the Spanish do like to give you things that basically go…….up, up and away. So we thought, maybe a small tablet that would need to be inserted with extreme caution.
Didn’t expect this…….and the diagrams on how to insert made me wonder if I was looking at a Total Tantra manual. Not that I read that sort of stuff. Cough…..
UK alternatives to google adsense
I have been experimenting with a few companies that offer alternatives to google adsense. However in both cases they haven’t succeeded. I didn’t try it on this blog but a high traffic property portal. ( See note at bottom of this post for an update a year later….things have changed a little..)
I tried infolinks to start with. The result was the website being blitzed with words double underlined in green. They did stand out and some were clicked and clicks make revenue. However they were not content relevant so the result just looked spammy. You can choose how many text words you have underlined but infolinks took over the entire website and as there were a few thousand pages that I didn’t want any links on it was impossible to manage. Infolinks though would work for a high traffic blog but don’t expect megga bucks because the content is not relevant and so the click through rate isn’t good.
Next I tried Adbrite. Really liked the look of Adbrite and like infolinks easy to get started with. You can choose google adsense like adverts, sizes, text links, audio banners……but 24 hours later when I decided I wanted to manually review any potential advertisers the list I had which was 23 pages long was absolutely NOT relevant to Europe. Each and every advertiser was aiming themselves at a USA audience, often in specific states. The result was that none of the adverts showed up on my website as we have a pretty low number of people looking in Wyoming.
So if you are in the UK or have a website aimed mostly at UK or other European countries then I as yet have found an alternative to Google Adsense. Let me know if you have had any success.
UPDATE OCTOBER 2012
Well after being binned by Google adsense for supposedly clicking on my own ads, as if I’d do that. I think they were suspicious as suddenly one day I earned three times as much. Since my average amount was a mere £1.00 a day over the last few months with Google adsense suddenly getting a day earning £3.00 did seem a little surprising but with such low amounts it was hardly suspicious. We aren’t talking suddenly jumping revenue from £100 to £300 are we?
Anyway the appeal to Google fell on deaf ears so I’ve had to look for another alternative to Google adsense or close the websites I had down. So I have over the last few days tried Infolinks again. Very easy to set up and each day the amount earned has gone up. On one website, insurance based the most I have earned in a day was just under 50 cents. I have now added it to this blog too. I don’t know whether this amount will go up over time too early to tell but I’ll report back by the end of this year and let you know if Infolinks is working for me. So far with my insurance site I have been impressed with the relevant advertisrs, eg Go Compare etc and their website shows other high profile companies are using infolinks.
So progress since a year ago and certainly worth a try if you have no alternative to Google …..I’ve blacklisted them too. Now using Bing!
UK passport renewal in Spain
If you need a UK passport renewal whilst living in Spain then the link below will take you to the website where you can download and print off all the necessary forms for a passport renewal, a first time passport and a passport for children. Remember a child’s passport only lasts for 5 years, not 10 as adults, and it can catch you out if you don’t check.
The child’s class teacher can sign the photographs and near the police station in Marbella there is a passport booth.
http://ukinspain.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/passports/
Fantastic Pinatas
Mr Bumble Bee
Came across some fantastic party pinatas for sale in Deseos the florist in Nueva Andalucia opposite La Sala restaurant. Mr Bumble Bee was best friends with Denis the Dinosaur and they lived together in the princess castle pinata on the same shelf. They liked to play football pinata together.
Well Virginia does like bumble bees, she likes them a lot. Last year her friends clubbed together to buy her a bumble bee outfit and slippers. So I couldn’t resist and thought we could have a bumble bee pinata for her party this week-end.
Happily for Mr Bumble Bee Virginia fell in love with him and refused to let her friends bash him to bits in order to retrieve manky sweets. Daddy is now about to hang Mr Bumble Bee pinata from her bedroom light so he can hover over her at night and protect her from night demons.
Not exactly what I had planned but well, this fella will live past the party….. 
We on the other hand may not……
I don’t recommend
doing this when your child has had her ears pierced.
Do not place her head and ear in the sink and pour alcohol onto the back of the ear lobe. The alcohol will run down her face, into her mouth and up her nose.
The result isn’t pleasant……and a difficult one to explain to a paramedic…….