Cost of Credit

This was advertised on TV today, first I have seen it, apparently it's been running for some time.

Look at the APR!! WOW!!

Christmas Present

A nice little surprise for Christmas!! My wife bought us tickets for Vinopolis in London for my birthday weekend, really looking forward to this. Below is an extract from their website. We have booked the Celebration Tour.

http://www.vinopolis.co.uk/winetours/celebrationtour.php


The Vinopolis Celebration self guided tour is our premium wine tour, designed for those with a thirst for fizz and a taste for the luxurious.
After taking part in a tutored 'How to Taste Wine' to brush up on your tasting technique you can sample 6 regular wines and a variety of premium wines from around the world, 2 whiskies in our whisky room, and finally 3 Nicolas Feuillatte Champagnes in our Champagne bar before indulging in a Bombay Sapphire cocktail. All the Vinopolis self guided wine tours are laid out around the wine producing regions of world including France, Italy, Australia, California, South Africa and some lesser known regions such as Georgia.

For the visitor who enjoys the finer things, this package includes:


•Admission to the Vinopolis Wine Tour
•A 'How to Taste Wine' session
•6 regular wine tastings
•3 premium wine tastings
•3 Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne tastings
•2 whisky tastings
•2 beer tastings
•A Bombay Sapphire cocktail
•A Vinopolis tasting notebook
Approximate duration: 3 hours

A Very Merry Christmas To You All

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and healthy New Year.

Conwy Town Councils Christmas Parade 24/12/2010

I have just taken a message from Conwy Town Council asking if I could pass on this sad news that they have had to cancel this event due to the Weather conditions.

Can you all pass on this info via your Blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

Mike

Update Refuse/Recycling Collections

Today due to the weather conditions NO collections of Refuse or Recycling were made, refuse collectors will try and catch up over the next couple of days and the advice is please leave your Bin/Box out.

Any problems please phone 01492 575337

Refuse/Recycling Collections

There is disruption to Refuse & Recycling collections across the County due to this severe weather. The advice is to leave your bin/box's out and they will try and empty them as soon as possible. If you have any concerns please phone 01492 575337

I will update you in the next couple of days as I receive more information.

Postage Rates

From April 2011 the Royal Mail will raising the price of stamps:

1st Class will rise 5p
2nd Class will rise 4p

I must say that I still like receiving hand written letters but these are now very far and few between.

Has anyone noticed that credit card and loan letters have increased recently and before the recession our household must have received at least half a dozen a week.

An old boss of mine could tell the state of the economy by looking at the amount of franked mail in the Mail Centre, he said that one house sale used to generate up to 30 letters, not sure if that is the case these days with couriers and email.

Driving Home For Christmas

Posted earlier about a Christmas party in the Community Club on Victoria Drive in Llandudno Junction, little did I know that it would take over an hour to get home.

The picture is from my stationary car outside The Killer (Station Hotel) opposite the Railway Station. I could not get up "The Hill". The last time I witnessed this type of Snow cover on Conwy Road was when I was a Kid and tried to charge motorists for assisting them to get up the hill by pushing them up. (Never made much money!!)

Senior Residents Christmas Party

I helped out today at this event and have to say it was well attended and appreciated by all our senior residents. My thanks to Cor Meibion Maelgwn for entertaining us and special thanks to all at the community club that made the day happen.

This is the 3rd Christmas party and the feedback from residents is, "Long may it Continue". The choir sang and the Snow fell, it was great.

I couldn't help thinking about my late Mum, suppose it's the time of year.

Merry Christmas to you all
Nadolig Llawen
Mike

Marl Ward Election 20/01/2011

Today nominations closed for the second seat on the Marl Ward. I can confirm that the following people are standing for this seat:

Susan Gail Shotter - Liberal Democrat
Mike Pritchard - Labour
Julie Fallon - Conservative
Jason Robert Landy - probably Independent but not known

http://www.conwy.gov.uk/upload/public/attachments/439/Statement_of_Persons_Nominated_MARL_20_01_11.pdf

I will be working alongside Susan Shotter during the election which is to be held on 20th January and I fully endorse her. I have known Sue for a number of years and believe that we together can represent the whole of the Marl Ward as a team, something I haven't had for the last couple of years. Sue is a very approachable, polite and enthusiastic person who will represent the ward effectively.

Busy Day

Today I have Cabinet meetings all day, then off to The Walton Centre in Liverpool for an early evening meeting. I am keeping a close eye on the review of Trauma care in England and how it may effect North Wales, especially head trauma.

A Varied Day

Enjoyed the variety of today's activities.

10am we opened up some new allotments in Rhos on Sea. (See previous post)

11.30am it was off to the Welsh Mountain Zoo to feed a couple of camels some of Conwy's Willow. This is difficult to shred in order to compost as when it goes through our shredding machine it tends to wrap around the blades and can cause serious jams. Any willow cut in our parks and gardens is set aside and bulked up and delivered to the Zoo and fed to the Camels, they love it and this saves us money and time from clearing our shredder.

1pm I helped out at Tescos in Junction bag packing in aid of Clic Sargent, Cancer and Leukaemia in Children, this charity assisted my wife and I when our daughter was poorly a few years ago, so we try to support them as often as possible.

Every day 10 families are told their child has cancer. As the UK's leading children's cancer charity, ClIC Sargent is the only organisation to offer them all round care and support.

New Allotments

On Saturday 11th December there will be a ceremony to officially open some new allotments in Rhos on Sea (off Tan y Bryn Road).

There are 72 plots in total including 12 that are DDA compliant, I have been informed that most plots have been taken up and that we have 7 DDA Raised plots left. The event starts at 10am and finishes at 2pm. I am in attendance but will be whisked off to feed some "Camels" at the Welsh Mountain Zoo, this is to do with some of our green waste. I will update on this after the event if I survive! (You never know I might be placed in the LION enclosure by mistake!)

RTC Marl Ward

Saturday morning I received a call at around 08.45 informing me that a bus carrying passengers had skidded off the road and into a garden on Victoria Drive. I understand that there is to be an investigation into this matter, early information is that passengers have praised the efforts of the driver and that if it were not for a garden wall and conifers the bus may have hit the property. It is also reported that there was some black ice in this area. The driver was shaken by this incident and also I believe that an elderly passenger was taken to hospital. I have asked for a welfare check on this passenger and as of yet have not been informed.

This is serious enough but really could have been so much worse. My thoughts are with the injured passenger and driver at this time.