Monday 30 September 2013

Win a £100 Halfords voucher

 
This has come in from Planestrainsautomobiles - the winner will be chosen on October 11th so get your thinking cap on. :
 
We’re offering a lucky winner a £100 voucher to spend at Halfords on whatever they want! With winter approaching, driving becomes more treacherous and we need to ensure we have the necessary precautions with us in our cars - whether this is snow shovels, road safe jackets and cones or simply just a bottle of de-icer.

This great prize is courtesy of Comparethemarket.com and PlanesTrainsAutomobiles and all you need to do is answer a simple question relating to electric cars and our environmental attitudes.

To be in with a chance of winning the £100 Halfords voucher, visit the website and log into Facebook so you can comment, and we’ll get in touch with the winner through there. We want to know what you think manufacturers need to do before more of us start moving over to electric cars. The uptake hasn’t been as widespread as many had hoped, so why is this?

 Leave a comment and we’ll choose our favourite answer and share it across Facebook too!

Sunday 29 September 2013

The Grape Vine Winners List - September

Former readers of Grape Vine will know that every month, a list of wins worth £500 or more that readers had told me about appeared in the magazine, usually on the front cover. Many readers said they loved to see the lists of wins, and it inspired them to try harder. In fact several said that when a biggie DID arrive, their first thought was "Front page of Grape Vine"!

But it wasn't just there for inspiration - at the end of every year, each entry on the list went into a draw to win 100 second class stamps and a 6 month subscription to Grape Vine. Now Grape Vine is no longer published, the sub has been replaced with a cheque for £25.

Now that Grape Vine has merged with Compers News, I can't carry on publishing the list on the front cover, but as I've already announced that the closing date for this year's competition is December 31st, I'm publishing the monthly lists here instead. These are the wins I've been told about during September.  Congratulations to all of you!

Freda Emery               £500 of Nectar points – Sainsburys

Sheila Brady               2 night Dorset break – Holland & Barrett healthy mag

Sheila Brady               2 night hotel break – Sunday Times

Kieran Walsh              Holiday to Orlando – The Daily Express

Liz Jones                     Year’s gym membership – Ryman/Duracell
 
Don't forget to keep on letting me know about your wins - Grape Vine may be gone in the format we knew it, but the list lives on! Until December 31st the list is only open to people who were current Grape Vine subscribers as at August 31st 2013, but if enough of you are interested, I may continue this and make it open to EVERYBODY in 2014.
 
What do you think? Would you be proud to see your wins listed here? Would reading about other people's wins spur you on to try hard to join the list yourself?

Saturday 28 September 2013

An exciting new site for compers!

I would like to tell you about  a new and exciting Members only Competition Club, called The Prize Genie, which is due to launch on the 1st October 2013
 

At The Prize Genie, they aim to fulfil all ‘compers’ needs.  That is to find and win competitions.  So when you become an online Member you will benefit from the following services:

 

·         Exclusive Members only Competitions

·         Exclusive Members only Forum – detailing the latest competitions

·         Access to the ‘How To Win’ tips and advice from ‘Expert Compers’ like Jane Willis

·         Quarterly Newsletters – delivered to your preferred email address

 

Moreover all Members will automatically be entered into a Monthly Free Prize Draw.  This is not just any old prize draw either.  At The Prize Genie they appreciate that low number of entrants equals winners.  So the number of entrants into The Prize Genie Monthly Draws will have a

Maximum number of just 299 Member Entrants!

 

Furthermore, for your Total Confidence all The Prize Genie Draws and Competitions will be conducted independently by PromoVeritas, assuring you of our utmost honesty and integrity at all times.

 

Come along to the website www.theprizegenie.com and have a look around – it opens on the 1st October 2013.

  

Don’t miss out - get your Membership fast.  Entrant numbers to the Draws are uniquely low – even more so in the first few months – and you know what that means – better chances of winning!

Win a year's supply of Bar Keepers Friend products.

Bar Keepers Friend is a great range of cleaning products for many surfaces such as metals, glass, tile and ceramic, and Kilrock are giving you a chance to win a year's supply. Just visit their competition page and leave your name and email address - that's all you need to do, but you can get extra entries for sharing on Facebook and Twitter. The competition closes on November 8th.

Friday 27 September 2013

Win a Facebook Page Health Check

::: WIN A FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE HEALTH CHECK :::

Want to make sure your business page is in tip top condition? 
Enter this prize draw for a chance to win:http://ow.ly/pbUWQ

 
Entry via Facebook
A valid email address is required to validate entry
Running from 26/9/13 to 2/10/13
Winner chosen at Random
Winner must have a valid business Facebook page to be able to receive the prize!

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Prize Winning Couple Uncover Island Family Links | Scilly Today

Prize Winning Couple Uncover Island Family Links | Scilly Today

A short article about our recent trip to Scilly

Win an iPad with 1st Choice Spares

The latest competition from 1st Choice Spares is one for the crossword fans among you - and the prize is an iPad. You can read about the competition, with all the clues and rules, here - and then when you are ready to complete your entry, follow the link from there to their Facebook page to submit your entry. You have until December 31st to enter.

Now just in case  you don't know a lot about cars and engines, they have very generously given me the clues to share with you - each with a link embedded in it to the page where you will find the answer! Use these clues in conjunction with the grid on the entry page. I've not tried them yet - I thought it was only fair that you should all see them too, so that I didn't get an unfair advantage!

Down   
1              Manual or automatic part of the transmission system [7]
2              Explosive safety device [6]
4              A type of headgear perched above the engine? [6]
5              Car reversed provides breakdown cover [3]
               
Across  
3              Internal Combustion.... [6]
6              I am a wind and a car but not a game [4]
7              Dormant British marque also found in Texas [6]
8              Answer to 3 across Control Unit [3]
9              Italian Automobile Factory of Turin translates into money declared as legal tender  [4]
 
The winner of the last competition was Will Blyth: http://www.1stchoice.co.uk/articles/view/how-many-car-parts-competition

Oktoberfest Competition at Mama Jewels

The latest competition at Mama Jewels celebrates Oktoberfest, with the winner having a choice of necklaces from the stunning Grappa collection.

To enter, visit the competition page and enter through the Rafflecopter widget. The competition closes at noon on October 24th.

Facing the chop.....


And the leg, and the fillet…….

A few years ago, I was delighted to get a winning email telling me I had won a butchery course! The course was a one evening session at the Marylebone butcher, The Ginger Pig. Some weeks earlier I had been to a sausage making evening there, with some friends, so I had some idea what to expect when I headed into London for my Pork Butchery evening.

 Walking into the shop is a pleasure – customers are faced with a tempting display of the very finest meats, expertly prepared to show off the high quality they insist on at the Ginger Pig. There were seven of us on the course – the maximum number they can take is eight, so with two instructors there is plenty personal tuition.  At the back of the room, there was a table with a whole pig on it – the head had been removed and placed on one side and the carcass had been split down the backbone.

The evening started with a talk about the pig breeds and farming techniques used at the Ginger Pig’s farm in Yorkshire, then we moved on to look at the carcass and were shown where various cuts came from. Vegetarians and any squeamish readers should stop reading right now…..

We were encouraged to handle the carcass and the various organs from it, to get a feel for how all the muscles worked together, a great help in understanding which cuts of the meat would eventually be suitable for long slow cooking and which for faster cooking such as grilling or frying.  We learned the difference between soft fat and hard fat,  picked out the brains from the head (yes, really! – and what a tiny brain a pig has) and removed the caul from the spleen. I’ve seen pig’s caul used in recipes many times but never met it in the flesh (groan!) before.

Then the fun started – one at a time, carefully supervised, we took turns to use the huge saws and incredibly sharp knives to actually butcher the entire pig. Roasting joints, chops, steaks, tenderloin – we produced them all, and it is a testimony to the skill of the instructors that almost all of what we prepared was going to be on sale in the shop next day.

After dismantling “our” pig, we cut several loin joints from another carcass and were given one each, then shown how to trim, bone and season it to produce a boneless joint. The hardest part of the whole evening? Tying the knots in the string the joint was held together with. The flying fingers of the butchers made it look so easy, but we all ended up in a tangle with string all over the floor.

As well as the butchery skills, we had lots of tips on cooking the various cuts, and a lesson on knife skills and knife care. I have sworn to sharpen my lovely (prize) knives every time I use them from now on, having seen what a difference it can make. 

By the time we had finished preparing our meat, a delicious smell was wafting from the other side of the room – dinner was about to be served. The same joint we had prepared had been roast for us, and was served with baby carrots, roast potatoes and an apple, sage and chilli jelly and a glass of wine.
 
After we had eaten it was time to set off home, staggering under the weight of my pork joint (almost 2kg of meat) and a separate bag containing the bones removed from it – nothing goes to waste and we were ordered to make them into spare ribs!

Being quite a well informed foodie, I was surprised at how much there was to learn over the course of the evening. I may never become a master butcher but I now have a much greater understanding of the meat I buy and cook and have picked up a lot of tips that will save me both time and money.

The evening was something I would probably not have done if I hadn’t won it – and what a fascinating experience I would have missed out on!

 

 

Sunday 22 September 2013

Win a magical bed for your little one

Elite Carpentry is a new business specialising in beautiful bespoke children's  furniture. Their designs are stunning, and there is something for every child in the range.

And what's more, they are giving away one of these beautiful Ty Adar bird house beds worth £1070


Enter using the Rafflecopter form on their competition page. You have until February 14th next year to get your entry in.

Saturday 21 September 2013

Win a Braun Silk-Epil with Bump to Baby

Bump to Baby is giving away a Braun Silk-Epil epilator worth a whopping £139.99

To enter, pop over to the competition post and complete as many of the tasks in the Rafflecopter widget as you like - you can get up to 86 entries, but don't panic if you only want to do a few - every single entry has the same chance of winning and people can and do win Rafflecopter competitions with just one entry!

The competition closes on October 5th.

Tuesday 17 September 2013

Win £1,000 in this year's Dead Art competition

Dead Art? Then and Now National Photo Competition
 
The National Photo Competition is back for its fourth year! Hosted by the Memorial Awareness Board and this year’s proud new sponsors Funeral Directors, Lodge Brothers, the competition is calling photographers of all abilities; all you need is a keen eye for stone memorials.
The theme is stone memorials and the title  “Dead Art? Then and Now requires you to submit two photos of memorials that MUST be in stone and represent the then and the now. Photos will ONLY be accepted in the now category if the memorial is from the 21st Century. Photos can be either black and white or colour.  Any use of photo editing is prohibited.
 
 
The winner’s prize is £1000 (generously donated by Lodge Brothers) and, new to this year, they are awarding a digital camera to the runner up. The competition closing date is Monday 14th October. They hope this offers you time to explore UK burial grounds.
A panel from the industry will then meet to shortlist the ten top photos and choose the ultimate winner and runner up from the ten short listed entries on the MAB website! Rememberforever.org.uk
 
MAB’s Campaign Director Mike Dewar says, “Memorials and cemeteries have long been a favourite subject for photographers. There certainly is no shortage of unusual and interesting memorials throughout UK burial grounds and this competition focuses on capturing and showcasing their unsung beauty”.
Christopher Lodge, Director of Masonry at Lodge Brothers (Funerals) Ltd says, “ as a family business established over 200 years, we are really pleased to sponsor this unique photographic competition. Memorials play a part in our social history through both personal and public memorials. They are a lasting tribute to loved ones and those who have lost their lives for our country. We sincerely hope that this competition shows the changes within our industry and society through the theme “Then and Now” and raises the awareness and importance of commemorating in stone.”

 
To enter the competition and for full terms and conditions please visit: www.rememberforever.org.uk  
You can also become a fan on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MemorialAwarenessBoard 
For more information please email contact@rememberforever.org.uk

Win £500 to spend on catering equipment

WIN a £500 voucher from Nisbets Catering Equipment and get £5 OFF your next order, just for entering!
  
 
 
Simply ‘like’ the Nisbets Facebook page and take the quick culinary quiz to enter. All entrants will receive a voucher code for £5 off your next order when you spend £50 or more. The voucher code will display on the thanks for entering page after you enter your details.
 
Competition is free to enter and open to residents of the UK aged 18 and over.
Ends 12pm 14th October, 2013.
  
 

Win an iPad with Hastings Direct

Hastings Direct are giving away an iPad. To enter the competition, visit their Facebook page and Like it,  then answer the question (a history question so simple that even I knew the answer - and history is usually a closed book to me). The competition closes on October 7th.

Sunday 15 September 2013

Two competitions for gorgeous jewellery

The Diary of a Jewellery Lover  has two great competitions running at the moment.

The first is to win a beautiful cuff bracelet in a Russian Bird design. Enter here by 21 Sep.

The second is to win a Ti Sento bracelet  and you can enter here. it closes on 22 Sep.

You probably already know how much I love bracelets, so I'm off to enter now!

Saturday 14 September 2013

A prize trip to the Scillies

A few months ago I won a four night break in the Scillies from Woman's Weekly. It was one of the competitions you can enter online, with daily entries and extras  for sharing, or by post. I entered just once, by post, using a pretty hand made postcard.

We decided to take the holiday in early September, when the summer crowds would have gone but the holiday season wouldn't be over. The trip was booked long before my health problems of the summer and the subsequent end of Grape Vine, yet turned out to be perfectly timed to help me recover from both!

The flight was from Exeter airport, in a tiny plane that would have held 17 people fully laden - there were just 12 of us on board, so everyone had a brilliant view as we flew low over Devon and Cornwall before crossing the sea  to the islands.


We stayed at Tregarthen's Hotel, right on the quayside with spectacular views over the bay.



Our room was the Portlight Suite, a separate "garden" building from the hotel, with a very comfortable living room and bedroom - it was rather like having a kitchenless bungalow. With half board meals included too, it was a very generous prize. The hotel's lounge and restaurant looked out over the sea, so we had an excellent view of the pilot gig races on two evenings, and a companion for breakfast every morning.


The weather was remarkably kind to us, raining overnight and staying fine all day, so we crammed a lot into our stay, taking a stroll around the historic fortifications:
 
 

Exploring the nearby harbour, bays and beaches:






Admiring the plants and gardens:

 


 

Taking a boat trip out to a seal colony:



Touring St. Mary's on a vintage bus:


And taking a trip to the Co-op. A trip to the Co-op? I expect you're thinking I was there looking for competitions. Well *ahem* nothing could  have been further from my mind! If you'd like to know just WHY we visited the Co-op, visit Mark's blog for the full story!


Win Chocolate Greeting Cards from Chocolate Log Blog

Greetings cards made out of chocolate - personalised too - what a wonderful idea! Chocolate Log Blog has three prizes of two of these super cards to give away.



To enter, pop over to the competition page and fill in the simple Rafflecopter form. The competition closes on October 6th.

Friday 13 September 2013

Ranty Friday - Comping Cheats

Wherever people are in competition with each other, somebody will inevitably cheat in order to gain advantage over the rest of the field. In business, in politics, in sport and, of course, in competitions. It's happening all the time, and anyone running a competition should be aware of it and try to make sure cheats don't win. Vote rigging, multiple and fake identities, hacking games for high scores - it's happening all the time. I'm not going to go into details of all the ways people cheat here, or the rights (if there are any) and wrongs of it, just let off steam about somebody who tried to cheat in the furniture voucher competition that I ran recently.

The competition was run using a Rafflecopter widget. That means that, as with any Rafflecopter competition, I was able to download a spreadsheet of all the entries to check that they were valid before making the draw. With the spreadsheet, the person running the competition can see at a glance  whether entrants really HAVE liked, shared, tweeted, commented or whatever else was asked of them, and  delete invalid entries prior to making the draw.

THEY CAN ALSO SEE WHAT IP ADDRESS ENTRIES CAME FROM.  Now many people enter on behalf of their family, we all know that, and in some happy households there are actually two or more compers. so it isn't unusual to find several entries from one IP address. But 39? THIRTY NINE????? Not unless it's one blooming enormous family!

Yes, I had 39 entries  from one IP address. There were three tasks, so that meant I had entries from 13 "different" people, all of whom claimed to have entered the competition all three ways. Rather oddly, for "different" people living in the same house, none of them had a surname. And their first names were a mixture of male and female, Western and  Asian.

And yet they all had THE SAME TWITTER ID. The "follow me on Twitter" and "tweet the competition" boxes had been filled with the same information for each. So the cheat was trying to get round the "one entry per person" rule by using 13 email addresses, yet claiming 13 entries for following me ONCE and 13 entries for tweeting ONCE.

What happened to those entries? Before I made the draw all 39 entries were deleted. So if the cheat is reading this, you wasted over a quarter of an hour of your time (Rafflecopter shows the time of your entry too) because you weren't in the draw at all. You probably spend a lot of time comping and wonder why you never win anything, because you don't understand just how much information is sent every time you hit that "submit" button.

It's ages since I've joined in, but this week I'm linking up to Ranty Friday on Mummy Barrow. If you have something to get off your chest, why don't you join in too?

Win a casserole dish with Belleau Kitchen

There's a super new giveaway at Belleau Kitchen today -  as well as  a tempting recipe for a garlic mushroom and toasted walnut couscous salad. The casserole on offer is a beautiful back cast iron one - shallow, too, to make it easier to sauté ingredients if you need to.


To enter, just fill in the simple Rafflecopter form on the competition page.  The competition closes at midnight on September 19th.

Win Steenberg's Flavoured Salts with Kavey Eats

Salt is just salt, isn't it? The same stuff you found in jars marked "Sodium Chloride" in your school chemistry lab? Well, these days it isn't - all kinds of things are being added to make salt more interesting, and Kavey Eats is giving you the chance to win an amazing collection of  seven different salts  ranging from a smoked salt to a Happy Hippy salt packed with flowers (caution - do not attempt to wear this in your hair).



You can read all about the salts on the competition page, where you can enter by commenting, tweeting and/or liking on Facebook. The competition closes on October 4th.

Win a culinary history book with You and Your Rights

I'm sure most of you know how passionate I am about food - and I have an extensive collection of recipe books and books about food (see the photos!), so this one sounds really intriguing to me.

YouAndYourRights.com are giving away a copy of The Savory Kitchen - A Family History of Cajun Food by Sarah Savory. To enter simply go to http://www.youandyourrights.com/,  and click on the competition section. One entry per person. Closing 20th Oct





Thursday 12 September 2013

COMPETITION Win £50 to spend on furniture

Have you seen Better Buy Shop Furniture yet? They have a great range of furniture for every room in the house,  ranging from accessories such as shelves and mirrors to major pieces like sofas, beds and dining tables. 
 
They are giving one reader of this blog a £50 voucher to spend on the site. There are LOTS of pieces at under £50, but if you prefer you could use the prize towards a larger piece - it's entirely up to you.
 

To enter, I'd like you to pop over to the site and have a look at what you might buy if you win, and then come back and tell me in the answer space in the Rafflecopter form below. Once you've done that, it will unlock ways for you to get extra entries.



Oh, and while you are visiting the site, check out their own competition, which is also for a £50 voucher.  It's a spot the difference - I'm notoriously bad at those, so I'm sure you'll do better than me!

NOTE- ENTRIES MADE AS BLOG COMMENTS DON'T COUNT - RAFFLECOPTER CAN'T READ THEM!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and conditions
1. One entry per person for each of the Rafflecopter options.
2. No bulk, third party or automated entries.
3. Entrants must be UK residents aged 18 years or older.
4. The winners will be chosen by a random draw.
5. The competition closes at midnight on September 11th
6. Winner will be contacted by email and will have until September 30th to reply. If there is no response by then, a new winner will be drawn and the original one will forfeit their prize.



 

Win a €150 Rezidor Gift Card with Radisson Blu

Radisson Blu is giving away a €150 gift card. All you need to do is vote for whichever attraction you think is best in a particular location.

There are multiple hotels running the comp, so you can enter in all of them to up your chances.

Enter here: 
http://www.radissonblu.com/shortbreaks/top-attraction-contest before the closing date of 23 Sep.
 
Good Luck!

Win £200 of Pyrex at Fab Food 4 All

I love Pyrex. It's handy, versatile and lasts and lasts - two of the set of three casserole dishes that we were given as an engagement present in 1976 are in daily use and still going strong, despite having travelled all over the world with us when my  husband was in the army. So I was delighted to see that Fab Food 4 All's latest competition is for £200 worth of Pyrex, although if I win I won't be parting with my trusty casserole dishes! Nowadays Pyrex is much, much more than just measuring jugs and casserole dishes - their baking tins are brilliant, too, and they also sell cast iron casserole dishes and non stick pans which I have yet to try.

For a chance to win this lovely prize, head over to the competition page and fill in the simple Rafflecopter form. The competition closes on November 20th.


One of my oldest Pyrex dishes seeing a bit of vegetable hash action

Thursday 5 September 2013

Win one of two £1,500 summer holiday funds with Fortune Frenzy

This month's draw at Fortune Frenzy has two prizes of a £1,500 summer holiday fund

All players have to do is sign up to Fortune Frenzy and deposit £10 with the promotional code SUMMER, you’ll also find all the information you need here.

You'll get one entry into the draw for every £10 you deposit during September.

Pimp your Print to win with Brabantia

Brabantia are looking for new designs for their global canister range, and the winning designer will  win a trip to the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan. Runners up will get their designs printed on a set of bespoke, one-off canisters.

The competition is open to professional designers as well as the general public, but only non-designers can be considered for the "People's Choice Awards" where a  short list of entries will go forward to a Facebook vote and the five most popular designs will win their designers an set of canisters with their design on it.

Read all about the competition and submit your entry, by October 22nd, here.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

September's Right Venues competition

The September prize at Right Venues is a one night dinner, bed and breakfast stay at The Old Swan and Minster Mill in the Cotswolds.

I've stayed and eaten at this beautiful hotel and can thoroughly recommend it - in fact I'm not sure why I'm sharing this with you, I'd love to win the prize myself. It has a perfect balance of old fashioned charm and bang up to date comfort, the service is outstanding and the food is excellent.

Enter on the competition page, writing "none" in the Company Name and Job Title fields if necessary. They are very happy to accept your entry even if you don't represent a company.

Closing September 30th.

Tuesday 3 September 2013

A VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT


As many of you know, over recent months I have had a series  of health problems, which, among other factors, have led me to decide I can no longer continue to produce  Grape Vine.  

However I didn't want to leave  all my subscribers in the lurch with no comping magazine, so I have arranged that Grape Vine will merge  with the excellent Compers  News.  It will already be familiar to many of you, and you may already know that, along with Pam Crampton, I write a monthly column in it, so you'll still be seeing me every month!

Editor Steve Middleton is, like me, an experienced and successful comper who cares about the compers who subscribe to Compers News. Like me, he likes to look  out for potential low entry comps and  point out the occasional pitfalls,  so I'm sure Compers  News will help you to keep up your comping success rate. And as well as comp listings, you will find regular articles and features as well as in-house competitions to enter, and  get access to the  popular forum Chatterbox. 

Compers News will be in touch with subscribers shortly to confirm the  details of  your transferred subscription - rest assured that no-one will  lose out  and anyone who  really does not want to give the new merged magazine a try will be able to have the balance of  their subscription  refunded.  

The closing date  for our  annual winners list competition will still be December 31st, although the 6 month sub  part of the prize will be  replaced  by a £25.00 cheque, and all those who  were current subscribers on August 31st  will be in the draw, but from now on the  monthly lists will be  posted here on the blog. The blog will carry on as it always has done, so those of you who are NOT Grape Vine subscribers will notice no difference, apart from the removal of the monthly competition which had a Grape Vine sub as a prize. I hope to be able to bring you other competitions with exciting prizes over the next few months though!
 
The PO Box address will still be active until January 31st,  but  please do  NOT send any subs or  renewals to that address, or make  any cheques  or PayPal payments out to me, as I will have to return  them to you. 

I would like  to  thank you all  for your  support over the years  I have been producing Grape  Vine, especially my  team  of "elves"  Pam Crampton,  Karen  Bond, Sharon  Buchalter  and Kevin Francis, without whom  you would probably have gone  GV-less several times over the last  year.  Also Jenni Bower-Tebbs who has  provided regular packs of entry forms, Marina Chappell who has advertised Grape Vine on her website and to the many readers who have helped me to find elusive  entry forms and answers  and have helped to make  sure each issue was  packed with  as many  comps as  possible.  

Now I’d like to hand over to Steve, who will introduce himself to those of you who don’t already know him.

Steve says:

As Jane says, my name will already be familiar to many of you reading this so I’ll keep it short.  But over the years that both Jane and I have been comping, our ‘careers’ have been very similar.  We both started comping in earnest at around the same time, and it’s interesting to note the number of times that we both had letters printed in the same issue of the old Competitors’ Journal back in the 70s and 80s. We even started producing our respective comping magazines at a similar point in the mid-noughties.  I also know that our approach to putting our magazines together each month is exactly the same, and that involves personally making the effort to get out to shops and supermarkets most days to see what’s out there.  So, for those of you who don’t already know about Compers News, you’ll hopefully find the same standard of accurate, first-hand comping info that you’ve come to expect from Jane and Grape Vine.

Of course, some things will be different and might take some getting used to, but I’m always genuinely happy to receive your comments and suggestions so do please get in touch.  As Jane has mentioned, you’ll continue to see her name in CN each month – and I’m sure that she’ll keep me on my toes! – so this merger really is an exciting opportunity.

I’m honoured that Jane thought of me and Compers News when she made what I know was a difficult decision to stop producing Grape Vine, and I’ll try my best to live up to her high standards.  Hopefully now, she’ll be able to spend more time on her own comping again… which will doubtless mean fewer prizes for the rest of us, but I’m sure you’ll all agree that it’s the very least she deserves.  Thank you Jane!

 

Win 7 days' European Car Hire

Economy Car Hire are giving away a week's economy car hire in Europe in a fun competition.  To enter, you need to visit their blog and read the story formed by the comments, then add what you think the next sentence should be.

Don't worry if you aren't a great literary mastermind, the winner will be drawn, but you can have some fun deciding where you want the story to go! The closing date is September 30th.

Win a stylish electric fire

Gr8 fires have another lovely fire to give away - this time it's an electric one, but with the appearance of living flames. How things have changed since those 1960s style "Living flame" electric fires with the plastic coals and a light bulb underneath, with a disc that turned round to make flickering patterns on the back of the fireplace. I wonder if anyone was ever convinced by those? Now the effect is totally realistic, but without the mess!

The promotion fits in well with Facebook's new rules - all you have to do is Like this post and you're entered. The closing date is September 20th.

Monday 2 September 2013

Can I Eat It? Win the app!

The "Can I Eat It?" app is an award winning app for iPhone and iPad which lets you check many thousands of food products available in supermarkets, to see if they are suitable for your special diet or  contain any ingredients you want or need to avoid. It costs £1.99 to download, but they are giving away 20 copies in a Twitter competition.

All you need to do is follow them and retweet this tweet (you can follow from here too)

The competition closes at midnight on September 11th, and you can read more about the competition and the app here.

Sunday 1 September 2013

Win a £700 luxury break in London!



I was very intrigued when I saw this tweet on Twitter


A "Schedule Tweet to Win"   competition - what a great idea! It means you don't need to be hovering over your computer or phone waiting for a great competition to appear, you can be at work, out shopping, or as I will be in this case, sunning yourself on holiday, while Twitter does the job for you. And it creates an even playing field - those who only get on to Twitter every now and then have the same chance as those who are around all day.

The snag is, you might not know how to schedule a tweet - and if you use the ordinary web version of Twitter, there's no option to schedule one. But there are lots of apps and websites that will help you to do it - I blogged about some of them last July. If you are just wanting to schedule a single Tweet, I recommend Future Tweets - it is very, very easy to use and all you need to do is authorise it to use your Twitter account. Nothing to download or install! But if you decide to  start scheduling tweets regularly, Tweet Deck and Hoot Suite are fantastic tools.

Now  I've reminded you how to schedule a tweet, let's move on to the competition - and what a fantastic prize. Clear your diary for October 5th and 6th, because that's when you could be enjoying it.



Win a luxury break in London – worth over £700 – just by sending a tweet!

 Enter this unique twitter competition for your chance to win an all expenses paid meal at French restaurant Dans Le Noir? followed by a luxury nights stay at the St Pancras Renaissance hotel in London.

 To celebrate the launch of Manchester songstress Kristyna Myles’ new single, The Paris Match, on Monday 9th September, she has launched an amazing twitter competition.

Kristyna has teamed up with restaurant Dans Le Noir? and the St Pancras Renaissance hotel to offer one lucky winner and a guest the chance to experience a night of pure luxury in London.

Imagine you are the winner, you’ll get to arrive and unwind at The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, where you will be welcomed with afternoon canapés, before heading over to one of London’s most unique dining experiences; Dans Le Noir?, where you will experience their famous surprise menu and a selection of fine wines all served in the dark!

 

After opening your mind to an intriguing new world of mystery and sensation at Dans Le Noir?, you will get to stay in one of the Chambers Club Room, one of the larger rooms in the original, Victorian part of London’s most iconic hotel.

Then, after a sumptuous breakfast, you can treat yourself to a morning of spa therapy. Making the most of the pool, steam room and sauna before heading on your way after what will surely be one of the most luxurious weekends of your life!

This incredible experience could be yours by simply sending a tweet.  So don’t miss out and enter the competition now!

For your chance to win...simply spread the word about Kristyna’s single release by sending the following tweet between 10.00am and 10.05am on Monday 9th September*:

The absolutely stunning cover of The Paris Match by @kristynamyles is out today! Download http://kmyl.es/PAR1S #TAKENOTE

Entrants must also follow the lovely people making this competition worth entering; @kristynamyles @StPancrasRen and @DansLeNoirLDN.

So, for less than 5 minutes of your time you could win a memory that will last forever.

 For more information on how to enter and the full T&C  visit http://www.kristynamyles.com/the-paris-match 
  

Cheat Sheet

1. Follow
All entrants must follow @kristynamyles, @StPancrasRen and @DansLeNoirLDN, simply click the links below to quickly follow us all:







2. Tweet

Entrants must schedule or tweet the following tweet between 10am & 10.05am BST on Monday 9th September.

The absolutely stunning cover of The Paris Match by @kristynamyles is out today! Download http://kmyl.es/PAR1S #TAKENOTE
 
If you have a twitter app that can schedule tweets; simply copy the tweet above and paste it into your twitter app and schedule for 10am (BST) on Monday 9th September.
If you can’t schedule tweets, either download a FREE app that can and follow the steps above, or copy and save the tweet above as a draft and make sure you set an alarm so you can tweet it at 10am (BST) on Monday 9th September.