The design of the handset is also very useful for younger hands: it cannot easily be broken or damages (issues which concern many parents in offering their child a regular handset to stay in touch!). Also it includes educational games and a fully featured kiddie scheduler so the children will always be organized.

You can purchase the Omego phone with either a 12 month contract (for £15 per month, the handset is free), or as a Pay as you Talk handset from Amazon.co.uk which currently costs £89.99 (plus delivery).

For more information or to purchase an Omego phone, visit the Omeg0 website at www.omegomobile.com

(more…)

Over the past five years that Hubby Dearest and I have been together, we have visited Tunisia over a dozen times and even have our own house on the outskirts of Monastir: one of Tunisia’s most prominent touristic towns. At this time of year, the weather is pleasant, a little like British springtime, and the streets are not so crowded with tourists which offers a far more enjoyable experience than the heated hustle and bustle of the peak summer months!

With our four children in tow, we enjoyed afternoons by the picturesque marina in Monastir, found some wonderful bargains in the Ribat (a market-style town surrounded by castle walls) and spend a wonderful day in Hammamet, about 90 minutes drive from the airport. Tunisia is very family orientated; our children were regularly fussed over whether shopping in the market or dining out in town. In fact, there are very few nightclubs and late bars, so you can be sure not to be distracted by large groups of twenty-something singles on a drinking binge!

I love the hotels in Tunisia: even three star hotels are beautifully decorated with marble floors and a hugely welcoming clientele of waiters, porters and staff. My favorite of all is the Amir Palace which resides on the main road across from Monastir airport; as soon as you set foot into thegrounds of this beautiful residence, you just know it was built with an eye for the prince of it’s namesake!

Most hotels will provide a buffet service of food for all meals, which will undoubtedly include Tunisian cuisine as well as traditional English and French dishes too so you can be sure there is something enjoyable for even the fussiest of family diners! Most holiday residences will feature both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, plus plenty of entertainment all year round, so even in poor weather (which I have to say seems fairly uncommon even in winter months!) you can always find something to amuse the children.

Shopping bargains

Besides the traditional array of Tunisian pottery, wall hangings and spices, there are a few things you should look out for as bargain souviners:

• Jeans: Tunisia has literally hundreds of jeans factories for brand labels such as Diesel, Levis and even Pepe. On market days, barter with the stall owners to buy your designer jeans at a fraction of the price you’d pay in the UK, and expect to see a much wider variety of styles than you would on the high street!
• Handbags and leather goods: Many of the touristic stores in the Ribat and around hotels will offer a variety of leather handbags purses and even coats which are of great quality leather. You will undoubtedly see many designer names, though very very few are the genuine article, so beware if shop owners try to persuade you otherwise! And unless you are shopping in a fixed price outlet, barter until your voice-box is sore! Most shop keepers will settle for between 60 and 80% of the originally stated price of you barter for long enough.
• Sunglasses: One of the first things you’ll notice is that most Tunisians wear sunglasses. And what a variety there is on offer, everything from Dior to Police and anything in between. Most shops will sell sunglasses (whatever the label or style) for around 5-10 dinars (approx £2-6), though you may be able to strike a bargain if you buy two or more pairs from the same place. Almost every time I visit Tunisia, I come back home with new sunglasses, as I really love the variety available.

If you’re planning a family holiday to Tunisia, I’d love to hear from you. For me and the kids, Tunisia is like a home from home for us now, and Hubby Dearest would even consider making it our permanant home if only I would agree! So please feel free to leave your comments or even contact me directly for advice on where to stay or visit during your stay in this beautiful country. And of course I know you will have a truly wonderful time

Loreal are currently offering free samples of Derma Genesis: a new age defying treatment which claims to puff out tired skin and create a more youthful appearance. By registering with the Loreal site, you could also blag yourself a free sample to try in your own time.

It’s free to register with Loreal in order to receive updates and future free samples as they become available. And I have to say that Loreal is one of the high street brands I have come to love and trust. Fair enough, their products are more expensive than Collection 2000 or Superdrug’s own branded cosmetics, but Loreal is always good quality, and the packaging can often be rather glam…

So what are you waiting for? Sign up to get your own free sample and let me know what you think about it here!

I do keep tabs on most of the freebies and offers available in the UK beauty market, so be sure to subscribe for updates if you want to hear of future freebies and offers as they are posted.

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Honourable Lady Amanda the Convincing of Mellow under Trollness
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

So what’s your peculiar aristocratic title?

“Our aim is to help shoppers get the best possible price for their supermarket trolley while enjoying an easier and more consumer-friendly shopping experience”

You can say that again! I tried MySupermarket out yesterday and was more than pleased with this service. (more…)

Yummy Mummy’s Ultimate Family Survival Guide

Unlike many other “yummy mums” who’ve jumped on the hugely successful bandwagon of writing in this field, Liz Frazer offers us the truth about motherhood and freely admits this is based on her own perspective. So rather than be faced with prescriptive methods of parenting, we are offered advice on a “this is what works for me” basis. Which for me was a pleasant surprise!

The organization of the book is rather surreal: chapters are labelelled as rooms of the house, such as the kitchen and master bedroom chapters. Then each chapter offers advice about the family associations of the room (relationship advice for the master bedroom, culinary tips for the kitchen, and so on). It’s quite fun to read the book in this way, and just in case you need to flick to a particular section for on-the-spot-advice, you can locate this easily enough in the contents section.

There are some true gems of humor in here, which are enough to brighten any gloomy mums day! Even such tricky subjects as infidelity and in-laws are handled with a jovial touch. One thing which I really appreciate about Liz’s writing is that she understands the concept of “budgeting”: unlike other celebrity mums and their name-dropping advice guides, Liz’s advice is real and practical. She explains how to “make do and mend”, prepare tasty meals even when the budget is running low, and even how to prepare for a children’s party without breaking the bank.

This isn’t the best presented advice guide I’ve ever read, and at over 400 pages it will probably take you a while to wade through it all. Though after reading through this a few times now, I can honestly say that most (if not all) aspects of motherhood and family life are covered here. This will certainly remain on the bookshelf above my desk, which houses the books I refer to often, and I would indeed recommend this to any mother first-time, third time or grandparent!

As always, these ranges offer great value for money: the white T-shirt (top left) is priced at only £4, as is this gorgeous boob tube. There’s even more available in store, including long-sleeved tops which are perfect for the cooler months ahead.

More eco-friendly products are set to be in store in the new year, including selected styled for kids and babies. I’m really pleased that my favorite clothing store has opted to be more ethical about the sourcing of their clothes. And since these items are so reasonably priced, we can look good, make a difference, and not have to worry about breaking the bank to do so!

But help is at hand: The Little Bag Company have a gorgeous range of designer-inspired handbags at a price we can all afford, such as this Fendi-inspired little number which is priced at only £24.99!

There are loads of designs and colors to choose from, and postage is very reasonable at around £3.00 per bag for first class delivery to the UK mainland.

For the man in your life you can also find a range of leather wallets, credit card holders and funky key-holders which are very reasonably priced.

The Little Bag Company offers real value for money, even competing with high street prices for style and quality. This is a great shopping site to visit for Christmas gifts for family and friends (and also as a hint to your other half…).

This Great British Blog
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What is your
British Blog worth?

A while ago now, I discovered Tristen’s “Blog Worth” calculator which uses Technorati’s API to convert your blog’s worth into dollars. Well, here is a wonderfully British alternative, which not only features the Queen’s face on your worth widget, it converts the value into British pounds too!

To get a widget like this for your own British blog, head on over to Boakes.org to calculate your blog’s value and get the code for your own widget, which you can copy and paste into a post or your blog sidebar. You may be pleasantly surprised by how much your blog is actually worth! I know I am