2012 - how was it for you?

Many of you will know that 2012 has been rather an up and down year for me. My mother has been in and out of hospital, which has meant being away from home looking after her several times, and with no computer or internet in her house (and of course no access to my Grape Vine PO Box) much of the time in between has been devoted to working on GV rather than to my own comping.

So it has come as rather a surprise to look back over the year and see just how much I have won.

Right at the beginning of the year, I won a really wonderful prize of a pop-up restaurant  in my own home, thanks to Peroni. That was a really amazing experience, one of the best prizes I have ever won.

 

 

In February, I won a three-month supply of weekly veg boxes from Abel and Cole -  a prize we enjoyed so much that we now have a veg box and a fruit box delivered every week. If the point of the promotion was to gain new customers, theirs was a tremendous success!

 

In April, despite  spending most of the week away from home, I had a real winning streak with an Oriental Banquet  from Blue Drsagon, which we took in October,  a Danube cruise from Waterstone's, which we are taking this coming summer, a pair of business class flights to Vienna which we used for a birthday trip for me back in August and a spa break at Lifehouse Spa - much needed after the stress of Mum's illness!

 

For a while things quietened down after that, although I won lots of  smaller prizes such as books, toiletries and wine glasses. Somewhere over the course of the year, I have managed to win THREE hampers, a HD camcorder and lots of gift vouchers too. But the real highlight of my comping year was when, thanks to Cadbury's, I won tickets to the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. I took Claire, who blogs at Ninja Killer Cat  and we had a wonderful time - fantastic seats, a superb spectacle and a great time together (even if we DID try to get into the wrong hotel in the early hours of the morning..... but that's another story).

In October I won a "Grape Night In"  - a food and wine matching evening for ten people. We held the event in the flat of a London based friend, and the Grape Night In girls   came along and produced a delicious meal with wines to match every course.

November brought joy then disappointment. A winning email for a superb trip to Barcelona turned out to be a mistake - 9,000 other people had received the same email,  and in the end all we got was £10 worth of Boots Advantage Card points instead.

December ....... well.  what can I say? I've had an absolute deluge of prizes. None of them massive, but each and every one welcome, and as I've spent most of the month battling a  chest infection  they have really cheered me up and brightened up Christmas. With a few hours of the year left, so it may not be complete yet, here is my list of wins for the month:

a tripod from the My memory advent comp
a box of metallic pencils from Derwent Pencils monthly comp
a hand made vase worth £28 from a Facebook comp
2 x £50 See Tickets voucher and 4 x £5 gift voucher from the Republic crackers  game on Facebook
a silver and pearl necklace, a Christmas mug and a £5 voucher from M&S pass the parcel on Facebook
a year's supply of pens (120 pens) from Citrus Office on Twitter
a Lumie Bodyclock from Lumie's Facebook page
a £250 Co-op travel voucher from their Facebook page
a 32Gb Wi-fi drive for the iPad from Kingston Technology on Twitter
a satnav from TomTom on Twitter
a Christmas decoration from one of the crafters on Twitter
a bucket of lollies from a PR company on Twitter
an Indian tiffin tin from The Curry Guy's blog
an apron from Fish is the Dish on Twitter
a pack of biscuits from Fudge's bakery on Twitter
a concealer pen from Aldi on Twitter
an advent calendar from Party Pieces on Twitter
a box of Charbonnel et Walker chocolates from Appleton's Rum on Facebook
a Mickey Mouse jigsaw from a blog
a Hotel Chocolat goody bag from a blog
3 different books all of which have turned up out of the blue with nothing
to say where they are from
£10 Amazon voucher from  Lantmennan Unibake  on Twitter
bottle of whisky (Facebook)
Vine adoption (Amber wines, Twitter)
James Bond books and postcards (Curzon cinemas via Pinterest and Twitter)
lanyard, bag,  2 x t-shirt, flag and badge (Brothers cider)
Variety pack (Kelloggs)
bar of chocolate x 4 (Tesco/Twitter)
£12 gift token x 3 (quiz)
Waffle maker (Huffington post)
Set of 3 Nail Rocks sets from 44 Fashion Street  on Facebook
can speaker from Pringles facebook page
Two craft books from the National Trust advent calendar
travel shaving kit from the Wilkinsons advent calendar
Method cleaning kit from Method facebook page
bottle of Copella (Copella Facebook comp)
Calendar (Happy Egg company)
Disney Blu-Ray and  2 x game download from Wreck it Ralph on Facebook
Japanese Recipe book signed by the author, from the author’s own Twitter comp
Samsung Galaxy – Phones 4 U cracker game on FB
£25 iTunes  voucher – What I Got For Christmas

(apologies if the font appears to have changed in the middle of the list - Blogger, in its infinite wisdom, insists that it hasn't done!)