Wow! Again. The power of email. In the past 5 weeks or so, I have won the Swedish lottery, the Euro lottery, and various other lotteries. Now this one! Geez, I'm going to have to retire. All I gotta do is give them my name/ address/ age/ bank account details/ tax file number and they will steal my identity verify my details and forward my winnings!

I'm a bit concerned about giving my "Marita Status", though.

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This is by far one of the strangest things I have seen for sale on Ebay:

Purchase 1 square foot of Lochaber in Scotland with "fishing rights" to the river.

Benefits: You can frame a certificate on your wall and call yourself "Lord", "Laird" or "Lady" of Lochaber. Even if you've never been to Scotland.















1. This is a bit sad - do people really need to impress others this much? Why am I asking this, of course they do!! It's still sad though. People really say "I am Lord of Lochaber, this is my official certificate (that you can buy on Ebay for $49.95 plus 9 bucks postage & handling?)

2. How do you get to your square foot of land? By helicopter?

3. Can other Lairds and Ladies shoot you for stepping on their square foot of land?

4. The official name for your square foot of land is a "Sporting Estate". What is the sport? Hopping?

5. As a new member of the Scottish aristocracy, the activities you can enjoy on your estate are:
fishing, bird watching, fungi spotting and picnicing. Just be sure you bring a small blanket!

6. Not only do you have a new title, but you will now have airport staff, hotel staff and country club staff falling all over you and giving you free gifts. Indeed. Unless of course, you happen to be travelling with another 200 or so Lords and Ladies with identical titles.

7. You are not allowed to build on the land. I think this is ridiculous. I have the perfect country estate that I borrowed from my Monopoly board.











I should have thought of this years ago. I could sell sqare centimetres of land with exclusive title to ladybugs, blades of grass, and moth and dirt rights. At $29.95 it would be a steal. I'd be a millionaire by now. And if I bought one for myself, I'd be a member of the Scottish aristocracy with land and title and the right to oppress all that enter my domain. Bugs, feathers and lost golf balls, be warned! You are about to meet your new ruler.

Sincerely, Lady of Lochaber.

(If you don't believe me, I'll fork out the $59 bucks and show you my authentic certificate)

Technorati Tags: Laird Lord Lady Lochaber Scotland Title Rights Aristocracy Fishing

Wow. I don't usually do this but sometimes there is that one special Ebay seller that catches my eye. I'm not going to name anybody, not interested in doing that - I'd just like to point out how important it is to read the seller's feedback before making any bids.

Seller stats:

17 sales - member since early '07








Not a good start! By the way, one of these marked as positive had left a negative feedback comment.

Some of the comments were along these lines (I am paraphrasing of course) :

"...Packaging was not adequate. Broken on arrival..."
"...Item was dirty and old, described as new..."
"...This item is not authentic OR rare as stated..."

You get the idea.

The phenomenal overall positive score for this person was 75% - this is the lowest score I have seen so far. Perhaps someone can correct me on this.

I was thinking of buying an item from this character until I decided to check out the feedback. I'm glad I did. The retail price of this item is cheaper than the Ebay listing by $30.

The point is, these people exist out there, so beware.

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I'm always looking for a way to save money. And I suppose the best way to save money is to get something for free. You can find a whole range of Free Stuff on a site called "That Freebie Site". The part that interested me was the webmaster section. Yes, a lot of information and tools on various sites are free anyway, but this site has a collection of useful tools for bloggers like myself. I particularly liked the page rank checker. Page rank is becoming increasingly important to bloggers and indeed anyone who owns a website. I also found the reciprocal link checker to be useful.




















The range of freebies extends a lot further than webmaster tools. You can search through categories ranging from health products to pet supplies to long distance calling card credits.

My only criticism would be that some of the offers have expired (eg. Skype credit expired on the 13th of May). That said, I can understand the difficulty in monitoring every individual offer in each individual category.

To obtain the offers, some can be as simple as clicking a button and filling out your address details. Some may ask you to fill out a survey or make a purchase. The advantage of the main site itself lies in the fact that you do not need to sign up, join up 5 friends, and do all those annoying things that take the fun out of "free" sites.

Overall, the site contains a diverse range of freebies with something to interest most people. If you are interested in getting something for nothing, then this site may be of interest to you.



Important Note: This has been a paid review. This does not mean I am paid to have an opinion that pleases others. My review contains my own observations about the subject matter - both positive and negative. The review may contain criticism, suggestions and comments of my own choosing. See disclosure policy for more details.

If you are staying in Hobart for a short or extended time, I would recommend the Hobart Midcity Hotel. The location is perfect, right in the centre of town. Prices per night are reasonable - you can find good rates on Flight Centre Hotels, the site on which we booked our holiday, or you can try Wotif for good last minute deals.

The Hobart Midcity is a 3.5 star hotel - not too fancy but better than some hotels I have seen! Full rate is approximately around $160 per night at the moment. We found a special deal online - 4 nights booked and 1 night free so it would have been approximately $85 per night.

This is a picture of the standard room. We had asked for a smoking room and were presented with a non-smoking standard room. When I made a point of the fact that we booked a smoking room and showed him the email I received confirming this, he upgraded us to an Executive / Deluxe room. I didn't realise the difference between the rooms until I compared these pictures.

Standard Room - official shot:
















Our Actual Room:




































































































Hehehe! Bonus!! Anyway, I can definitely recommend this particular room, I can't comment on the other rooms. This room was huge, comfy, secure and just what we were looking for. Room service had a good menu, prices were reasonable (eg. $4 for a toasted sandwich) and the menu included standard pub fare such as wedges, hot chips etc. I can't comment on these meals as we never ordered room service during our stay. I have mentioned the mini bar in an earlier post - the prices are not prohibitive, but they are just enough to make you pause before you open the bar fridge. I have also mentioned Austar (Foxtel) TV, 24 hour golf and movies was a nice touch. When the temperature dropped, there was a column heater, a wall heater and an electric blanket. The spacious cupboards contained an ironing board, fan, heater and various other useful items. Oh, and did I mention they give you a lot of towels?
My rating for this particular room - 8.5 out of 10. I only took marks off for the majestic view of the carpark. And the bed could have been a tad comfier. But overall, it was a nice place to plonk a suitcase.

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