Why would you hire a personal stylist?

Shopping can be a very frustrating business at the best of times (unless like me you are obsessed with buying new cars and love to spend hours going around the garages, sad, I know) and although shopping can be a great social event, going out with mates and having a good old catch up while shopping is great fun, but it can detract from what you are supposed to be doing, and that is focusing on the shopping at hand.

Also, your friends are your friends, will they give you an honest opinion when you are trying clothes on or will they tell you just what you want to hear? Chances are they will be more focused on their own purchases and end up telling you anything just so they can concentrate on their own shopping, or do I just have selfish friends!!

A personal stylist will tell you exactly what you need to hear. When it comes to how you look, the need for honesty is never more important and who better than a professional stylist to tell you what looks good and what doesn’t. They can help you determine:

• What styles and sizes suit your body shape and more importantly, what ones don’t!
• What type and colour of make-up you should be wearing and what suits your skin complexion.

Save money by paying someone to help me shop?

Doesn’t make sense does it? Well try it and see. Think how much money you throw away every year on clothes that either don’t fit you properly and do not flatter your appearance, or rubbish that you just bought on a whim that you don’t really like anyway? Over a lifetime you will waste thousands, trust me on this! One day with a Personal Stylist will give you a huge amount of fashion savvy that you can take with you on future shopping trips, it will also help transform your wardrobe and give you a selection of clothes that you WILL use and not just a few mixed in with a load of rubbish that you will only wear once and then discard, throw away or donate to the charity shop.

Conclusions. Don’t be afraid to call up a personal stylist and give their service a go. If you love your fashion then you will LOVE a trip out with a personal shopper, especially a good one J

I knew that I had the interview a couple of weeks ago so I had plenty of time to prepare myself; in fact I had too much time to think about it to be honest. I was as nervous as a kitten J I wanted to  look my best so I made a conscious effort to get dressed for success, first impressions are so important now and I was more worried about this aspect then I was about the inevitable two hour ‘technical grilling’ the senior staff were preparing for me.

I decided that because this was such an important occasion, I would seek some third party advice. Family was a consideration but I decided against this because at the end of the day I needed someone to be honest and not just tell me what I wanted to hear.  So where do you turn if you want a bit on impartial advice? The answer was in good old Google…

I started by looking for a Personal Shopper in London. To my surprise there a glut of people out there offering the service, especially in the capital. I knew it would be expensive but on this one occasion I thought ‘bugger it’, what harm could it do anyway?

It was a real eye opener for me and the experience completely changed my perspective on not just what I should wear, but how I how I should use body language to my advantage. This particular personal shopper experience was all about wearing the right clothes to make a positive first impression. The garments that we selected not only make me look the part, but they made me feel a lot more confident in myself and I think that this really shone through in the interview. My personal shopper gave me some excellent tips on using positive body language and how it can make all the difference, which I believe it did.

By the way, for anyone that is interest I did end up getting the job I always wanted. I start in October and I am really looking forward to getting stuck in. Maybe I can give my new colleagues some fashion tips as well

After months of shopping around I have finally decided on a new bed for my dog. It has been a long time coming and doesn’t my dog know it!! He has been waiting nearly three months for a new dog bed while his old one has been falling apart, but I am pleased to say that the wait has been worth it.

Finding an online shop as the easy part, its choosing a bed from such a selection that was the hardest bit, but in the end I went for something that I would like to think is a bit ‘classy’ which should keep the missus happy anyway.

Our dog loves his creature comforts and he especially loves to sleep in the living room, but being the fussy little bugger that he is, he refuses to sleep on anything other than his own bed. The problem is that just like him; his bed is getting on a bit and having a tatty old bed in our newly furnished living room wasn’t an option for my girlfriend, so it was off to Google to find something that was a bit more ‘traditional’.

There are some fantastic online shops for pets out there, especially if you are looking for dog beds. A lot of suppliers have really put a hell of a lot of time and effort into creating fantastic websites with an emphasis on end user engagement.

We wanted something that was a bit more ‘furniture-esc’ so our options were limited. In the end we decided on an ‘Oxford’ bed from a brand called Chester and wells. The bed looks stunning and it wouldn’t look out of place inside a grand mansion. 

It ticked all of the right boxes. It was wooden framed, made with the finest leather and lined in suede material. It had wooden legs and a cushion that any dog could soon loose themselves in, it really was perfect.

I am not a salesman, nor do I any affinity with the brand, but if you are looking for something a little more high-end in quality then this is the bed to go for. Ours has been in the living room for a couple of weeks now and everyone that comes into the house comments on it.

Resources

I found one online pet shop that stocks the bed, although no doubt there are many more out there. I found these guys to be very efficient indeed.

I love everything about it, the way it looks, the way it feels in my hand, the weight and above all the functionality. The mouse uses a touch screen technology that is in effect the same as the iphone. there is no scroll wheel but instead the entire surface of the mouse is touch sensitive.

But it’s the sensitivity that does it for me,  if you scroll your finger slowly then the screen moves slow, if you give it a “flick” then the page flies down the screen!!  Users of the iphone will know what I am talking about here and it really starts to become addictive after a while. You can scroll in any direction you want to and there is never an issue with the mouse picking up your movements.

I have to say that the release of this mouse from Apple really went under the radar as  like everything Apple seem to release at the moment, it really is an amazing piece of kit.  it is expensive yes, but the build quality alone is worth the price tag and the extra technology is an added bonus.

The only downside is that its not compatible with windows. I fully understand why they did this  as it would almost be like handing the crown jewels over to the thief , but I would love to use this mouse with Windows 7!!!

If you own a n Apple and you need a new mouse then buy one. Many thanks to my colleagues at our IT Support London office for sorting me one out!!!

The very first email was sent in 1971. The email was sent between 2 machines located on a network that was the predecessor to the internet we all know and love today. This network was called the Advanced research Project Agency Network (or ARPANET to the rest of us), and it was developed by the united states department of defence during the cold war.

The email was sent from a machine called “BBN-TENEXB” and the first machine to receive an email was called the BBNA (I know, it doesn’t exactly drip off the tongue). It is amazing how things have advanced since then, image a world without email now, even my Nan uses email and she can just about work the cooker!! Now we are spoilt for choice with POP3, Exchange, Hosted Exchange and webmail platform to communicate with each other, we even send emails via our mobile phones, another invention that we all take for granted.

Who sent the first email?

 According to various sources I found on the internet, the first person to implement an email system is a guy called Ray Tomlinson, an American programmer who first used the email system on the Arpanet. He sent the first computer to computer email by separating the name of the user and machine with an @ symbol, the symbol we have all been using ever since.

So let’s hear it for Ray Tomlinson. Thank you for making all our lives a little better because we would all miss email if we didn’t have it.

This shampoo really is as good as it looks and believe me, the packaging is really smart. I counted about 9 different types of shampoos and conditioners but in the end I went for the “Quickie” as we tend to bath our dog at least once a week.

The smell is amazing, the particular one I chose smells of Blueberry muffin and at first I wasn’t sure how the hell that would smell but trust me, it really is quite pleasant!!!

While I was in the store I had a good old smell of the other brands they had in there, and they all smell great. I think my favourite scent was the “fears for tears” which is a tearless shampoo. It smells of Apple Kiwi and trust me , when I opened the bottle the whole room was filled with the scent.

I first found out about the brand through this dog beds website, fill ya boots with the range here!! I like this shampo so much that I am tempted to try it myself!!

I was so taken with the place that I have requested to be sent back there again in the future. I didn’t know much about Ongar before I visited there so I decided to do a bit of Googling about the area to find out more about this quaint part of Essex, here is what I found;

First of all, I found out that there are 2 parts to Ongar which are called “High Ongar” and Chipping Ongar”. its geographical position lies 8 miles from Chelmsford and 6 miles from Brentwood. The village was founded in the 17th century and was originally classed as a Hamlet. Ongar has a beautiful church called the parish church of St Mary the virgin and it is believed that the church dates back to the 12th Century.

The Population of Ongar is estimated to be 1,171. Ongar used to have a train station that formed part of the central line, but this was closed in 1994 as it was a loss maker and this is a shame because I could see Ongar as being a very attractive place for commuters to live.

I am looking forward to going and enjoying a nice pint in the Red Lion pub! Hopefully the IT Support Ongar based company I was contracted to will need my services again in the future.

I got my new Mac book Pro today, 5 years after buying my old faithful G4 laptop. I will miss the old girl, but times have changed and technology has moved on with my little G4 struggling to keep up with the latest software applications.

Not that I am complaining, I’ve had more them my monies worth from the machine and even old Macs seem to hold their price pretty well so she is going on eBay at the weekend (sigh). So what one am I getting I hear you cry? Well I am going for the 17″ stupidly expensive version, in my defence I am using my laptop a lot now so I have decided to go with something that has a bigger screen, I will keep it for years anyway, have I justified it to myself enough yet? To be honest with you,  I work for an IT Support company so I should own a decent bit of kit really…

The screen is GORGOUS, it runs at 1920 x 1200 and the latest HD stuff looks jaw dropping on this screen, Apple always provide great quality monitors and this screen is no exception. Simply stunning I tell you. Performance is FAST, with load up and shut down times incredibly quick.

I am using Photoshop CS4 on this machine and it handles it with ease, with hi res images shooting all over the place in no time at all. Snow leopard is a joy to use with some nice cosmetic touches as well as some welcome changes to apps such as QuickTime and iTunes, the exchange compatibility is a big help aswell.

On the whole I know it’s expensive but it’s a great bit of kit. If you want a quality laptop thats built to last then I seriously suggest you take a look at one of these.

Email is my lifeline and the life line of my business. I run a company that translates magazine adverts for companies that wish to advertise abroad and because of the nature of business, we literally send thousands of emails every day (in different languages, I might add).

I read a review about Hosted exchange the other day and it sounded a very interesting prospect, it certainly is a different take on having an in-house email server or using pop3 and I was mighty tempted to give it a go, especially when I looked at the costs involved.

So at the moment I am using Hosted exchange on a trial period and I have to say so far it is mightily impressive.The ebst thing from my point of view is that I get constant access to my email from my phone or via webmail and that is so important for my job you have no idea.

functionality wise its identical to our Exchange server, using Exchange through outlook is the same also as I have been testing it on my laptop.

But the main concern I have is reliability because of the dependance on email. If anyone out there is using or has used Hosted email in a full time capacity then I would love to hear about your experiences and if you think it really is a genuine replacement to in-house hardware.

At the moment I am very close to changing over, but any advice would be appreciated.

All the people that know me also know about my extensive video game collection and my unhealthy obsession with collecting videogames. But as a massive dreamcast fan, this was always the piece I wanted but had a major problem getting. So here she is in all her glory;

The Dreamcast is getting on a bit now, so Finding one of these bad boys is tougher then ever. In the end I managed to get one from good old eBay (who I dispise as a seller but love as a buyer) from a very nice gentleman based in Kent. It was a bit of a treck but she was well worth it.

I did underestimate the size however and we had to hang the base out the back of our Transit Connect. The Dreamcast Banner at the top disconnects so that saved us a foot but it was still tight and the back doors had to be tied together with rope

After a very steady drive down the M25 we finally manged to make it home. Let me tell you that these pods are a lot heavier then you may think, the whole thing is made of solid metal and it took 2 of us to lift it in and out of the van.

Condition for her age is good. There are a few marks here and there but you have to appreciate this was built to be a demonstration unit so you are never going to find one in A1 condition.

The monitor is a standard CRT TV that sits on a metal stand that slants at a forward angle. Next month the CRT will be replaced by a LCD monitor.

The Dreamcast sits on a metal plate with folks that slide into the feet of the Dreamcaast holding it in place.Controllers are held in place by metal clutches, you can remove the controllers but they are held in place by some weird screws that I have never seen before. If anyone has any ideas where I could find a screwdriver for these then I would appreciate it (I will post a picture later).

The Dreamcast sign is lit up by a florescent tube which can be change quite easily. You can also turn this on and off by disconnecting a switch at the back.

The display pod now sits pride of place in my games room thank you for looking at my blog entry.

Hosted Desktop services from the cloud with Our IT Department Hosted. The company that kindly lent me a van to pick it up