So, as it turns out my new shop isn’t half as bad as I thought it was going to be, and the staff seem alright too. Obviously I’m still settling into my new job but it’s been a good week, if not a hell of a lot busier than I’m used to and I miss the boys so much! It’s weird not seeing them everyday. Really weird.

(Un)luckily for me it has been decided that the main area that is going to be concentrated on within this shop for the next couple of months is the newspapers and magazines and that I’m going to be the one doing so. I don’t mind dealing with them and the new procedures are exactly what’s needed so I can’t wait to get right into it and prove that I can turn the sales and waste around. They’re a big problem in most of the stores, so I’m led to believe, so it’s great being involved in something that obviously can bring in more money to my store - and hopefully others that are having the same problems. Plus it means I can do things my way, to a degree, and have something to concentrate on in the store.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s lots wrong with the store and the problems are being ironed out one by one and it’s taking time. My new manager is an excellent one, and has been with the company for a long while so I’m really looking forward to learning everything that I can from him. But, I do miss my boys, I can’t see me being the same with my new work mates.

The hard work that I’ve put in already is having a fantastic effect on my health - I’m down to smoking between 5 and 10 cigarettes a day because I only smoke about 2 cigarettes when I’m at work due to not having cigarette breaks and, weirdly enough, being in an environment where food is being cooked (the shop has a hot food to go takeaway) is the best appetite suppressant in the world. After smelling the bacon and sausages being cooked in the morning is actually putting me off of eating until I get home and have a big, healthy dinner. And promptly fall asleep at 8pm, waking up at 5am the next day!

I’ve also sort of picked up another job on top of my ‘real’ job - making money online. Regular visitors of this blog will be aware that I’m trying to net myself an extra £10 a day throughout October by any means possible online and I’m doing not too bad so far. I’ve raked in $32.49 through Amazon’s MTurk, £47.50 through Quidco (although I won’t count this until the money’s actually in my account) and so far I’m at £30 from paid blogging and I’ve still to list items on eBay - and I have loads for stuff to list! I’ve also come across some great websites listing freebies that I can get my hands on too - hey, anything you can get for free is ok in my book.

One such website, absurdly cool freebie finder, gathers freebies from other websites and lists them each day and offers users the chance to rate and comment about the freebies on offer - and it’s awesome. Today I’ve bagged myself 2 cosmetic samples and some ice cube trays (right ok, I don’t need ice cube trays but they’re always handy to have in the kitchen for impromptu parties). The design of the site isn’t perhaps the best in the world, nor is it the worst, but I get my updates through my RSS reader so the design doesn’t bother me - plus all the offers are separated into the countries that they apply to.

They also have this nifty feature that weeds out the scams so there’s very little chance of you not getting your freebie through the post. It’s such a fantastic little website to follow because you never know what you might get for free one day and there’s a better chance of you finding out about it through this site than if you’re only a member of one freebie website.

I’ve had enough domain names in my life to know how hard it really is to find a good, reliable web host. I’ve been with all the big players, past and present, and on countless reseller accounts for both myself personally and for client’s websites.

When I first started out blogging (although, it wasn’t really blogging back then - more personal websites with a tonne of stolen graphic content - sorry!) I generally went with the first host that I came across with a good offer. In fact my first domain, sparkling-stars.co.uk (yuck) cost me something like 99p and had a banner and popup even though it was a fully paid hosting package. Yes, I was naive. I’ve learned my lessons now though, although that cannot be said for everyone. Including my mother.

You see she’s heard me talking about my blog countless times. In fact I’m sure she visits here sometimes (hi mum!) even though I don’t know if I’m too happy with that. Anyway, she decided that she wanted to be a blogger. Not quite sure why, but there you go. Instead of asking me for help with setting it up, registering a domain name or purchasing hosting she went right ahead and paid well over the odds for a crap .co.uk domain and hosting from the big white moon company. Silly woman.

If she’d actually asked me for my help, since I do know what I’m talking about, I’d have jumped straight to my usual port of call when buying domain names or web hosting - Web Hosting Geeks.com. That website has saved me a lot of money since I first came across it, especially their great Free Google Adword Credits which has come in handy for websites for clients who aren’t willing to start spending money before their website starts making them money.

They also have a great section dedicated to hosting packages especially for bloggers, with some great companies listed who are, in my experience, excellent hosts to go with.

So before you spend money that you don’t need to on webhosting check out WebHostingGeeks.com - they really do know what they’re talking about.

So, did any of my fellow European’s win anything on last night’s EuroMillion’s draw? I won a grand total of nothing. Nada. I had four lines on and got nothing back, which is so typical of me. £100,000,000 up for grabs and I can’t even get the cost of my ticket back.

I would have had much better luck if I’d signed up to eLottery’s EuroMillion’s syndicate.

It’s a cool system where you’re added into a team of 38 other members and that allows you to play 36 lines in each and every EuroMillions draw, obviously improving your chances of winning and saving you having to pay out £54 each and every Friday for the same odds.

A unique set of five numbers from 1-50 is allocated to each e-Lottery syndicate. The two lucky star numbers are guaranteed in every single lotto draw due to the fact that e-Lottery has cleverly catered for all permutations of the nine lucky star numbers in a strict Mathematical Pattern.

As a result you only need to match 5 numbers to win the massive Euro Lotto jackpot as apposed to 7 numbers when playing the conventional way as a lone ticket holder. You also only need to match 1 of your 5 allocated syndicate numbers to win a cash prize.

From the e-lottery-syndicates.com website

I actually know a few people who are members of this syndicate and I’m really interested in signing up with them, afterall it only costs £5 per week. And you’re pretty much guarenteed to get a return on that.

The only relavance between the title of this post and the actual post is that the song the lyrics’ from is called ‘Starfuckers, Inc’ and this post is about Starbucks Coffee. Yeah, go figure.

You see, I’m rather excited. I’ve just come across a website selling Starbucks coffee a lot cheaper than it is to buy in their stores. I could drink Starbucks each and every day of my life (and end up loosing the plot like Britney probably since my favourite drink is also her poison - and a quick look on the Starbucks website informs me that a Venti Java Chip Frappe with Whip Cream has 520 calories in it!) and never, ever get sick of it.

I make my own versions of Starbucks Frappes at home, but it never quite tastes the same when it’s made with good ol’ Nescafe so I can’t wait to order some Starbucks coffee to make the real deal, hopefully with less calories than the real-deal.

I’ve just found a PR website for people writing articles and stories that feature up-and-coming clothing in shops such as Primark, asos.com, Monsoon etc. It’s called PRshots.com, and hopefully it means that I can find what I want to buy before it hits the shops and I’ll never have to browse eBay again to find tops and bags that sell out way too fast in my local Primark.

And yes, I’m a Primark slut. I don’t care if it’s cheap and nasty - that’s exactly why I like it.

Everybody's at it...

So here I am, jumping on the bandwagon and manga-ing my face at faceyourmanga.com. Anything to take my mind off of last week’s drama is good.

Some of you may remember that a while back I was having issues with my employer trying to move me to a different shop, which I fought against and stayed in the shop I want to work in. Well last Wednesday I got offered a move again. To yet another shop I wasn’t comforable working in. Or hours I’d be able to work (but that’s a different blog post altogether). Anyway, they accepted my decision to stay put but not without stressing me out, again. A thousand and one niggly questions at the back of my head - do I actually want to further my career? I keep putting barriers up for myself. Do I actually have what it takes? What am I so afraid of?

Thankfully I’m on holiday for a week or else I’d really be stressed. One whole week to concentrate on me, the boyfriend and my hobbies that have fallen way-side to work over the past month or two. Day one and I’m bored!

If you’re a fan of furniture, and lets face it most people are to some extent, and fancy your chances of winning an amazing prize of $10,000 worth of dream furniture you really need to check out the discount furniture retailer, Boyles.com.

Random Draw Sweepstakes: No purchase necessary to enter or win. Dream Room Give Away Sponsored by Hendricks Furniture Group, LLC.
To enter, please complete the registration form from June 1st, 2008 at 12:00 AM (ET) through August 31st, 2008 at 12:00 PM (ET). If you have already registered, click on the icon to login and enter the sweepstakes again to increase your chances of winning. Registered users may enter drawing once per day. Valid opt-in email address and mailing address required. Odds of winning will depend upon the total number of eligible entries received.

Must be a legal resident of the 50 United States.Void where prohibited by law.

I’ve checked out Bolyes.com and there is some amazing furniture on that site that I so desperately want, I just wish I lived in the United States so I could enter the sweepstakes. I’m browsing the site just now, thinking how easily I could fit some of the gorgeous wood furniture into my bedroom. Some of the beds on there are stunning, and would guarantee a comfy night’s sleep.

If you’re in the United States I’d definitely enter this sweepstake, you’ve got nothing to loose and nothing but stunning, dream furniture to win.