Thursday, January 24, 2013

Ready for bed...

Since we came back from France, The Boy, all six foot four of him, has been squashed into a single bed, his lovely antique French bed having met an untimely end during our move back to the UK. So he was delighted when I was contacted on behalf of Furniture Choice, an online furniture retailer, to ask if I was interested in reviewing a bed with a double mattress for them.  They gave me a budget of £400 for a bed of my choice. 'Me, Me', he shouted,  followed rapidly by 'Kingsize please' and as the only member of the family really in need of a new bed it seemed a no-brainer.

It has been a while since I bought a new bed so I wasn't sure what I could buy for £400, and the answer was quite a lot. The range of beds on Furniture Choice's website was surprisingly good, even for a kingsize one and for the money we could even get a memory foam mattress. We eventually settled on the Supreme Vasco King Size Memory Foam Divan which came in a shade over £50 under budget.

Ordering was painless and the manufacturer phoned me direct to arrange delivery. I was given a day that suited me and a morning delivery slot, with the promise that the delivery driver would call when he was half an hour away to confirm a more exact time. Well within the time slot, the phone call arrived and the delivery time was firmed up.

Delivery, thankfully, was not kerbside, as so many companies do these days, and when the drivers arrived, they went through the house, tracing the route to the boy's bedroom and took down any paintings or mirrors that were hanging on the walls to avoid any damage then carried the bed and base upstairs and put it where we wanted it.

The Boy was spurred into action in a way that is rare these days and started to unpack it before the pictures were back up and the back door shut.  The construction of the bed was pretty solid and the mattress looked really comfortable. The base came in two parts which were easy to fit together and we had the bed set up with the castors in within  ten minutes.

The Boy has now been sleeping in his new bed for a few weeks. It is incredibly comfortable and he loves it. As far as value for money goes, it is excellent.  The only tiny complaint I would make is that the base that came was not the one I was expecting. I had ordered one with drawers but the base that was delivered didn't have any. The company did offer to change it though but by that time, The Boy had managed to cut his foot and bleed on it so it wasn't really returnable. On the plus side though, the blood stain sponged out well.

The health benefits of a good night's sleep are well documented and the most recent research, from the University of Berkeley, claims that couples who sleep well are less selfish and more appreciative of their partner. Now that can't be bad thing! Furniture Choice has a huge range of beds in all sizes, from single to super kingsize and from budget to luxury. They even offer free delivery. They stock the big brands there as well as some lesser known ones, and a great range of mattresses from coil spring to memory foam. If you need a new bed try checking out their website first. If you aren't ready to buy yet, sign up to their newsletter and you'll be the first to hear about any new offers. You never know, you might suddenly decide you do need a new bed after all.


Tuesday, January 15, 2013

2012 - The Big Picture

Oh my goodness, I've been away for a long time. Who thought that writing a book would take up so much time?  I'm not going to go on to much about it here as you can read all the updates on my author blog www.anaccidentalauthor.blogspot.com. Instead I'm just going to do a brief resumé of 2012 in pictures.

At the beginning of the 2012, I got the first hints that I might have actually written something worth reading when La Vie en Rosé briefly hit the top spot on Authonomy.

(see, I can't help myself!) It was certainly much more readable than the poem I wrote when I was 8 about a potato being made into a chip. I probably deserved some sort of low level psychiatric treatment for that one.

Spring in Stockton was beautiful....


And on the May Bank Holiday we had the amazing Vintage Nostagia Show


We walked home in the dark under a starry night (we have no street lights here) feeling the heat coming off the lane. If only we had realised that that was our summer!

But we often joke that the sun always shines in Stockton and it certainly did when we had our Jubilee weekend village rounders match...

...and our fantabulous street party...


Olympics...


And Fun Dog Show


We bought some piglets...





...which grew big and fat...




...so (vegetarians look away now) we ate them...



Summer was spent on various riverbanks, watching The Boy rowing. This particular one was on Lord Margadale's estate in Fonthill Bishop. And the sun shone again.


The Boy had his Prom and was voted Prom King.


We had our very own village music festival, Stockfest...


and rounded the summer off with a weekend of live music at our village pub ...

...with the obligatory air guitar and imaginary saxophone!

It was a year for meeting up with old friends

And learning to play the ukulele




We expanded the menagerie with a puppy who is one part dog and three parts kangaroo...


And grew to be the size of a small carthorse with some very unpleasant habits..


... and is definitely not a 'handbag' dog, unless you have a very big handbag.


In the autumn I got a book deal...

And Stockton was just as beautiful...


We kickstarted the holiday season with our fantastic Supper and Auction, Stockfestive (do you see a pattern here?)


Christmas was spent with friends, old...


... and new

And we saw in the New Year in 1970s style...


So that was 2012. I'll be back soon with lots of exciting product reviews, book reviews and anything else that takes my fancy. Happy New Year to you all xx