iReview

If you own a house, do you have home insurance? At CIS Cooperative Insurance they offer one home insurance policy which covers 4 options - buildings, contents and personal possession, caravan and travel.

What it means is that in case of anything risky were to happen to your home - vandalism, theft, storm, flood, fire and many more, you will get cover up to £500,000 as standard for the cost of rebuilding your home and any outbuildings.

And with HomeRescue Plus, if your boiler, central heating system or main heating source fail, you will get up to £250 worth of emergency home repairs. Plus if the situation worsen and you have to stay overnight somewhere else until the work is done, you will get additional £100 towards the cost of overnight accommodation. What a relief, huh!

For the Personal Possessions Insurance benefits, you can get your precious digital camera which costs you a bomb to be covered as well, while you take it to use outside of your home. Now with this Home Insurance policy, you can sleep well at night because you know you have some back up plan in case something bad were to happen to your precious investment and family.

I finally got the chance to watch Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties after almost a year planning to get the movie to watch at home.

I was downstairs doing nothing when the movie was shown on my cable channel. Good thing there was something to watch to unwind on Friday’s night. Of course there’s nothing so serious or really special about the movie.

When Garfield’s owner Jon decided to go to London to propose to the vet, Liz, they decided it’s time that they intervened. Of course many silly and funny things happened since Garfield was being mistaken as the royal Carlyle cat, Prince the XII.

Overall, if you feel like relaxing a bit and nothing much to worry and have 78 minutes to spend in front of the TV, this is the movie for you.

Do you know that New Zealand is considered as the youngest country on earth because fact has it that New Zealand was the last land mass on earth to be discovered.

For those who have watched all the 3 movies of The Lord of The Rings, you should know that the entire three films have been filmed in various locations around New Zealand. Even the director, Peter Jackson was born and live there. His hi-tech digital studios Weta Digital and his film company Three Foot Six are based in the capital city, Wellington.

So if you happen to have the chance to visit New Zealand on holiday, make sure you take the chance to go on tour to the Lord of the Rings film locations - the remote and beautiful Mt Sunday which has been transformed to Edoras, the capital city of the Rohan people, or to see the Misty Mountains and the area that formed the backdrop to Helms Deep.

New Zealand has a population of only 4 million - making it one of the world’s least crowded countries. The 3 main cities on the North and South Island are Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. It is a haven for those seeking peace, rejuvenation and relaxation as well as a playground for thrill seekers and adventurers. The summer time in New Zealand will be from December to March, a perfect venue for you to spend warm Christmas and finish your year end annual leave..hehe!

For those looking for hotels in Wellington, if you are on budget, you can stay at Nomads Capital Hostel Wellington. It offers the last minute accommodation rates from NZD 85.

Or if you are on the search for hotels in Auckland, you can try Aspen House, as it is the only bed and breakfast hotel situated in the heart of Auckland City.

For hotels in Christchurch, try Livingspace The Mill. It is located in a building once the site of a woollen mill, with the last minute accommodation in the City area at rates from NZD 79.

Now I wonder if I can find one cute elf there at the Middle Earth to bring back home..haha!

How would you like to have concert tickets to Take That UK and European tour this year? Well, there is one place that you can get such tickets - Viagogo.co.uk. From October to December this year, Take That will be performing in Birmingham, Manchester, London, Glasgow and not to forget Zurich on 27th October 2007.

For those die hard fans of Take That, you shouldn’t miss the opportunity as I can remember how many girls in my high school almost die of broken heart when the group broke up in 1996..hehe!

Or if you are somewhere in Germany this October, perhaps you could still grab the chance to join the crowd for The Police performance at SAP Arena, Mannheim on the 10th of October. However, you already missed the chance to bid for the VIP tickets on auction for their Amsterdam Arena concert on 13th and 14th September. Those who won the 13th September charity concert ticket got to meet and greet with the band. And all the proceeds will be donated to the international charity organisation, WaterAid.org.

FYI, Viagogo is your online ticket exchange for concerts tickets, sports tickets, arts and theatre tickets and other exclusive event tickets. All the ticket and transaction done on Viagogo is 100% guaranteed to be safe and secure. They ensure the safe and prompt delivery with online tracking, plus great customer service 7 days a week.

For those with the romantic heart, go and watch musicals like the Phantom of the Opera which will be on show at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s West End. How I wish I will be able to watch that famous Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s most classical piece at least once in my lifetime.

Oh, for those with the hearts and soul for sports, there is France 2007 Rugby World Cup going on and those sports tickets are selling fast. The final will be held in France and their cheapest ticket is on sell with price starting from £509.44.

So check out all the tickets, and have fun at all those events..wink!

People say that America is the land of opportunities and dreams. I’ve heard and read many stories about people who try their very best to migrate to US and bring their family along. The easiest way for a foreigner to get a visa is through marriage. For those who don’t know there is Fiance visa that has the approval time from 3 months to 6 months or longer. Of course the US citizen has to file petition for such visa.

There is also a family based petition which means that the foreign spouse who get married to the US citizen can apply for the other family members to come to US. If you are not sure how all this immigration rules and petition work, make sure you consult a reliable immigration attorney to help.

For example, this Root Law Group (1-888-Root-Law) is a full service Spanish & Russian speaking immigration law firm located in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Bernardino, Ventura County, and the San Fernando Valley that offers free consultations.

Apart from family-based petition, they also handle employment-based petition for employers who would like to get foreign professional workers to come to US for work. They have enjoyed great reputation so far with tremendous success in their visa applications, employment-based and family-based petitions.

Good luck and may you get to chase the dream in the land of opportunities soon!

One thing I love the most when going on vacation at 4 or 5 star hotel is their superb bathroom. I always imagine that one day when I have a big house, I will make sure that my bathroom will be very spacious so that I could invent my own spa in the home..heh!

But for now maybe what I can do is accessorize my existing bathroom by buying different style of tap, shower head or heated towel rail. Check out this online bathroom shop. I love the idea of having heated towel rail in the bathroom. I hate to be wrapped in damp and wet towel.

I would also love to have a separate shower enclosure so that the bathroom could be kept dry most of the time. Hopefully one day I will be rich enough to afford this Hydro therapy quadrant shower enclosure in my bathroom.

I’m sure I will enjoy my bath moment so much..wink!

I’ve got myself another craft related book. This time it is a book on brush lettering by Ken Brown. I have done decoupage on few items like plate and ceramic mugs and I thought it would be great if I can write something, a poem, or special name and verse on the completed projects and give them as gifts to the people I love.

I bought this book through eBay from a seller in the US. The problem is now I do not have the proper brushes to try on the lettering techniques. The paint I already have at home..heh!

Well, I hope I would be able to look for Plaid brush as mentioned in the book soon. Now, what phrase should I include in my self-made poem?..haha!

*This post is written for thriftyscot.co.uk*

There is new shopping mall opening in town. This time most of the outlets are branded clothing and designers materials which I’m sure will tempt many people to actually buy and swipe their credit cards to pay for the merchandise. And this in return spells debt, more accumulating credit card debts.

It’s not enough that the living cost is hiking up tremendously over the years, the retail industries are wrecking it further with their heavy advertisement and pressure for the public to go out and spend. If you are one of the unlucky few who could not resist the temptation to shop till all your cash drop, it’s time that you get debt help.

Do you know that if you have been in the situation whereby you can’t even pay all the minimum repayment amount of your debts to all the creditors, you can go for IVA. The IVA - Individual Voluntary Arrangement is the common legal route for people in the UK who have more than £15,000 of an unsecured debt that they cannot afford to pay. What it can do is that you will be given 5 years to clear up all the debt with the amount you can afford to meet every month, provided all the creditors vote to give you the IVA path to debt-free life. During that 60 months time, no interest will be charged so in the end it will benefit you as the person in debt. In a way it could reduce your debt up to 70% of the actual debt amount.

Another common way to save on interest imposed on the accumulating balance will be by taking consolidation loan. Instead of paying several small amount of debts repayment to different creditors, you take one big loan to pay off all and you just pay one amount to the consolidation loan creditor. However be warned that before you get a consolidation loan, check out the repayment terms offered and any hidden fees that may be involved.

Guess I will putting off my plan to visit the new mall. I have to practice what I preach, right..huhu!

I was watching TV yesterday while doing my work when an interim advert about health for children came on. It was said that with the hectic schedule kids these day have - school, tuition, extra activities at school and additional lesson like art and music sent by the parents, they tend to have limited time to really go out and play. Playing and exercising is crucial for their mental and physical growth so we have to think of some sort of activities to let them have that luxury.

The ads suggest that kids go for yoga lesson. So I took some times to read more about yoga for kids and these are what I found:

1. The chanting and breathing will help calm down kids at school and at bedtime.
2. Children will learn self-regulation through the development of awareness.
3. Yoga sessions can provide a very special time to share energy and pleasure with family and friends.

There are actually many benefits that come through yoga practice and I am sure that a proper introduction to it will make your children like the yoga session. Plus it will be like a bonding time between you and your child, doing the pose together.

If you are graduates, college students or parents with PLUS loans, this is you chance to lessen the burden of the repayment every month. Consider Student Loan Consolidation program.

With this Student Loan Consolidation program, you can lower your repayment amount every month and help to gain extra cash into your pocket. Plus with the fixed interest rate, you can get more extension time to pay back your student loan, giving you some space to breathe and catch up with your life’s financial situation. By consolidating the multiple loans, you could lower monthly payments by as much as 60 percent which means more flexibility to move forward in life - getting a car, buy a house, start a family.

In the meantime if you feel like furthering your studies but short on cash to pay for the tuition fees and living cost as student, try to obtain Private Students Loans to help finance your ambition. Since sometimes federal aid could not cover the total cost of your education, getting a private loan is the way to go. Plus their borrowing limits are more generous and you can defer the principal and interest payment while you are still in school.

There is a way out of every problem, it’s just getting to know which side to view is a crucial process.