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If you can’t get or can’t afford a mortgage, watch this short video clip and then find out how there may be a solution for you… just around the corner. Win a house and find out how to be mortgage-free The winner of the Devon property comptetition has now been announced - it’s Christoph Jaeger from Hamburg. According to Brian and Wendy Wilshaw, when they called Christoph to tell him the wonderful news he was completely stunned. Not at all surprising - he’s now the lucky owner of a five bedroomed house set in 11 acres in Devon. And all this for an entry fee of £25 - a fantastic return! Entrants had a one in 46,000 chance of winning. Entry to our “win a house competition” costs just £25 and the competition will close when we’ve sold just 20,000 tickets - so get the answers right and you’re chances of being the winner are much better than Oldborough Retreat and many other competitions! So if you haven’t bought your ticket yet, make it the next thing you do. As the saying goes…if you’re not in it, you can’t win it. Bev Though for The Day Wonderful news for one very lucky winner and great news for all those of us who have been following the progress of Oldborough Retreat. The draw took place at the office of the Wilshaws’ solicitors yesterday morning (19th May) and I understand the winner has now been notified. The rest of us will have to wait a few more days before we find out who won. After several months delay, the Wilshaws must be delighted that their competition was finally completed and they are now able to move on. It’s great news too for all other house competitions as this now lifts any doubt that some would-be entrants may have felt. It now seems clear that house competitions which conform to the Gambling Commission’s guidelines shouldn’t experience any problems going forward. So if you haven’t already done so, now’s the time to enter our competition to win a fabulous house in the sun. With only 20,000 tickets being sold, you’re in with a better chance than most other competitions. Bev Quote of the Day: Some good news for the entrants and the organisers of the “Win a Devon Property” house competition. The competition will conclude within the the next couple of weeks and you can expect the date of the draw to be announced any day… We’ll let you know as soon as we know. One lucky winner will receive Oldborough Retreat in Devon which is set in 11 acres and has been run as a holiday/fishing retreat. If you haven’t entered the Oldborough Retreat competition, don’t worry - you can still enter our win a home competition and end up with a beautiful house on a golf course, with some excellent amenities and sunshine for more than 10 months of the year. Bev Quote of the Day: If you’ve been following other house competitions you’ll know of the problems encountered by the “win a devon property” competition. Unfortunately the Gambling Comission intervened as they felt the competition didn’t meet their guidelines for a true competition and fell into the category of a lottery, although the competition organisers had acted in good faith and were sure they were conforming to the GC’s guidelines. Well, to cut a long story short…there has been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between the GC and the competition organisers and it looks as though, finally things are back on course to bring the competition to its conclusion. This is extremely good news for the competition organisers who have worked hard to ensure the competitions success and also for one lucky winner who will very shortly be announced. It’s also good news for all other competition organisers and competition entrants as the period of doubt is now at an end. Although we have always known our competition complied fully with the GC guidleines, their intervention in another competition was bound to make the public a little nervous. So if you haven’t already entered our house competition, don’t delay any longer. You never know, you may soon be sitting in sunny Andalucia on the terrace of your new home in the sun! Bev Quote of the day
Well, now that Easter (Semana Santa in Spanish) has come and gone, most Andalucian’s thoughts are turning to the next important event. The Seville Feria (Fair) which runs two weeks after Easter and kicks off the Feria season in Spain. It’s wall-to-wall fun with music, dancing and singing as well as the non-stop parades of carriages and Feria horses with traditionally dressed riders. The parades are a very important part of the festivities and happen each day between mid-day and 8pm. At night there’s entertainment in the pavilions with singers and dancers right through to the early hours of the morning, as well as the massive amusement park for the younger (or the young-at-heart) hedonists. The pavilions (or casetas as the Spanish call them) are open throughout the day as well as the night and are normally full of Andalucians, Sevillanos and foreign visitors drinking, eating, singing and dancing… In fact you could be mistaken for thinking that the whole of Andalucia has turned up for the fun. The Feria-goers throw themselves wholeheartedly into the festivities, with many men and almost all of the women wearing traditional costumes. The men in their horse-riders (caballero) suit of fitted trousers and short cut jackets and the ladies (and little girls) in flamenco dresses. You’ll catch them every day from mid-day onwards, parading through the Feria ground in carriages or on horseback. The Spanish take their fun very seriously and you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone without a big smile on their face, a big flower in their hair and a big glass in their hand throughout the entire event. Our local towns have their events in May and July, so not long to wait for us… The Malaga Feria runs in August so if you’re the lucky winner of our win a house competition, you could be in time to join in the fun there. Bev Quote of The Day
Easter is just around the corner and you can almost feel the anticipation in the villages. Easter is a big event in Spain – bigger than Christmas…
It starts on the Thursday and ends on Easter Sunday. The villages organise various events over the four days and the streets are normally packed with locals celebrating. There are parades through the streets with accompanying bands and in the evenings, town squares hold enactments of the Easter story – all good stirring stuff.
The villagers come out in their hundreds and line the streets - many with a chair or stool so that they can watch in comfort!
Easter in Malaga is massive and attracts thousands of visitors from around the world, just like other cities in Spain. But if you want something a little less full-on, then the events in the local towns and villages are fine.
The weather is typically very warm at Easter and the evenings very mild, so it’s a pleasure to be out. Easter is what marks the start of the “outdoor living season”.
Bars and restaurants expand outside with plenty of pavement dining and snacking. The streets are buzzing with night life “Andalucian-style” – warm evenings, children playing, lots of chatter, laughter and the scent of jasmine, citrus blossom or dama de noche. This could be your typical spring evening if you enter the competition and win our house…
Bev
Quote Of The Day It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens. Woody Allen Readers of today’s (25th March 2009) Daily Express newspaper may have spotted an article written by Ben Dahlstrom and Alex Evans giving details of our win a home competition. It’s a full page article on page 62. If you missed it, you can visit our press room to download a PDF file version of it. (You’ll see the link under the 25th March 2009 entry in the table of items.) Ben first contacted us back in February to see if we would be prepared to provide him with information regarding competitions such as ours. Of course we were more than happy to. We spent some time discussing legalities and a whole host of related topics. One thing worth pointing out about Ben’s article, is that he’s confused our programme witha raffle… it’s not. It’s a prize competition. That’s an important point because raffles are, shall we say, “problematic” from a legal point of view. I won’t bore you to death with the technicalities, just suffice it to say that our competition and the terms and conditions surrounding it have been very closely scrutinized by a highly experienced legal team who, amongst others are the legal advisors for Ladbrokes PLC - the betting, gaming and gambling empire. They know what they are talking about. And they are more than happy to confirm that what we are doing is perfectly legal and properly structured. We’ve added some links to key parts of the legal team’s website so you can check them out. In particular, this link, talks about the legality of competitions to win a house. Anyhow, enough of this - if you fancy a luxury, four bedroom, front-line golf home in the sun… for a tiny investment of £25 - go and take a look Andy Tapas originated in Andalucia, although it’s very much a national habit now. Here’s the story of its beginnings… Andalucia is a big producer of wine and sherry and is also a big consumer of both. Years ago in the bars of Andalucia a little saucer or lid (in Spanish a “tapa”) would be placed over your drink in order to keep out the little fruit flies – a perennial problem in winemaking regions. So as to attract customers, or keep existing ones coming back, a little treat or titbit would be put on the saucer. Maybe initially a few olives or a slice of Serrano ham, or maybe a small empanada (little pie with meat or fish filling). Over time the offering became more interesting and elaborate with the various bars and bodegas trying to outdo each other. In many towns and cities this tradition still holds and the bars offer free tapas with your copa or caña. More usual now though is a tapas counter offering a good choice of hot and cold tapas for you to choose (and pay for). Here’s a recipe for a popular tapas in the Malaga region (which you could come and try if you win our house competition). Marinated Fried Fish Ingredients 12 oz/350 g firm fleshed fish, such as huss or monkfish, bone-free Method Bev Quote of the Day: Most people have heard of tapas but not so many now exactly what tapas is. Tapas is a big part of Spanish life and certainly here in Andalucia, the birthplace of tapas, if you’re near to a bar, then you’re near to tapas. Tapas are small servings of hot or cold food served on small plates or dishes. They’re served in bars, bodegas, ventas, and tascas (more on ventas and tascas another day) and normally accompany a glass of wine (copa) or dry sherry (fino) or a small glass of beer (caña). That’s not to say you can’t have tapas with any drink you fancy – the choice is yours. To “tapear” is a popular pastime in Andalucia and no bar is complete without a few locals standing at the bar snacking, sipping and putting the world to rights. If you’re the winner of our win a dream home competition, the bars of Malaga are excellent places to develop your tapas habit. There’s a huge choice of bars and you can work your way through the old town stopping for a copa and tapa at the various bars along the way. Each village will have its own specialities but here are a few tapas that you’ll be able to find all over Andalucia: Prawns pil pil (juicy prawns in sizzling olive oil and garlic) And of course some of the finest olives you’ll taste anywhere in the world. Bev Thought for the Day  Skiing in the beautiful Sierra Nevada near Granada Following on from my ramblings earlier in the week, here’s the briefest of overviews of the ski resort. The skiing village has had a face-lift in recent years and has many lovely Alpine style buildings giving it a truly Alpine feel. Facilities in the various hotels include saunas, indoor swimming pools, Jacuzzis and workout areas. There’s a good selection of shops, supermarkets, banks, hairdressers, night clubs, bars, restaurants, discos etc. There’s even a child day-care centre as well as a medical centre and a pharmacy. You can take the lift to the peak from the main square, with bars and restaurants at the various lift stops on the way to the peak. The village has an underground parking complex with capacity for 2,880 vehicles. There’s a tourist train which takes you around the village and resort. Some vital statistics: Night skiing was introduced way back in 1994 with lighting along the 3 km El Rio slope (545 vertical drop) and they tell me it’s exhilarating - I’ll take their word for it… Quote of the Day: Bev The recent heavy snowfalls in the Sierra Nevada Mountains have made the ski resort at Granada quite a hotspot this season. We’ve certainly seen some of the best snowfalls for a few years and skiers are certainly making the most of it. So if you’ve ever considered skiing in Spain, take a look at the Sierra Nevada. The resort is just an hour and a half drive from Lauro Golf and a thirty minute drive from the beautiful city of Granada. So it’s an easy weekend trip for skiers and the resort is positively buzzing throughout the season. The resort village is a very pretty place to pass time whether you ski or not and it’s packed with facilities. Tomorrow, I’ll give you the lowdown on the ski facilities and what the village offers to make your stay as much fun as possible. Thought for the Day… Bev If you saw our Valentine’s Day gift idea post, maybe some other possibilities didn’t occur to you. (see the video.) Are you thinking about how to say happy birthday… or congratulations… well done… happy anniversary… or simply… thinking of you? Well, why not buy an entry into the competition as a truly unique present for your partner, friend, work mate, client, etc? What if they won? You’d be set for free holidays for life! And they’d be better off to the tune of an asset worth hundreds of thousands of pounds/dollars/euros. If you have an idea for using an entry into the competition to help you get your special message over, why not drop us a line and tell us about it? You can find out more on the competition web site. Andy Thought for the day: …It’s not even a five minute walk to the first tee from (your new) home. Here’s a quick video overview - 1 min 22 seconds. Did you see our press release for golfers? Even though the roads are rarely busy here, don’t waste time driving around when you’d rather be playing golf. Win our competition and after you’ve decided it’s time to leave home to go and play, you could be teeing off - just five minutes later! (And when you decide it’s time to play another course, there are another 40+ in this region. They don’t nickname it the “Costa del Golf” for nothing.) Slight problem though… you’ve not entered the competiton yet… and you can’t win without entering! Check it out over on the main web site. Andy Thought Slight for the day: What’s your favourite golfing story/slight/joke? Let us know and we’ll publish those we like best. |
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