Thursday, October 30, 2008

Freezing temperature after daylight saving

Daylight saving adjustment was on 26th Oct, and day after that the temperature dropped to freezing level. Yesterday morning it was 0.5 degree and light snow in the evening...

Friday, October 17, 2008

Amazon UK free delivery with >£5 order

Good move Amazon! Before 16/10, you need to purchase >£15 to eligible for free super saver delivery, it is now £5, 1/3 reduction of previous amount.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

£5 off on First Great Western Train

Get your £5 off your train farewhen you register at First Great Western. Only for the first 200,000 registeration only.

Train fare comparison from Swindon to London

I was comparing for cheapest train fare from Swindon to London Paddington for next day travel, departing after 9am and return at 5:15pm on the same day. By using raileasy, thetrainline and firstgreatwestern, the cheapest ticket for both thetrainline and firstgreatwestern has to be bought as single way, costing £75.50 in total. However cheapest goes to raileasy, at £67.50.



Monday, October 13, 2008

Alliance Leicester 12% Regular Saving

Another good saving rate I found out today. A massive 12% AER on a Alliance Leicester premiere regular saving account. When invest the maximum of £250 per month, a total of £3,000 will be paid into your account during the 12 month term and no withdrawals were made. At 12.00% interest, you would earn approximately £195 gross.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Halifax 7% Web Saver

Today I noticed Halifax has introduced Fixed Rate Web Saver at 7% for 6 months deposit. This is the best short term deposit deal for the moment.

Reminder for Register of Electors 2009

I received a post from Swindon Borough Council about 1 month ago to submit the name of the elector from my home address. At that point, I didn't pay attention to read the form as election is something related to the citizen. 2 days ago I received a reminder as I didn't response to the Council. And by law, I need response asap before 15 October 2008.

As Malaysian in UK, I'm ebiligle to Vote according to here. I can choose to



I also got some details from About my vote web site.

How troubled Iceland banks affected UK

I'm surprised to learn a lot of county desided to bank in with Iceland bank instead of UK, I can understand partially due to the fact that interest is higher. But it is troubling UK government as Iceland banks have now been nationalize, hence what will happen to the large amount of UK deposit? Individual saver is guarantee to a certain limit, but council deposit is not. In months to come, I'm sure the government will feel the burden, and we might hear another rescue plan...


On 8/10/08 publication report, Bank of England has a ready reserve of £50billion, and I suppose it has deducted the £50b bailout amount on UK Banks. How much more bailout can the government afford in future?


Thursday, October 09, 2008

ING Direct has acquired the savings customers of Kaupthing Edge UK

KaupthingEdge is the largest Iceland bank, with £50k deposit guarantee by UK has got their customer saving deposit acquired by ING Direct. KaupthingEdge offered attactive interest as they don't have any branch in UK. I'd withdrawed my saving from this bank as I rather put my money in a UK bank as a cautious move.


The government's decision to take control of Kaupthing, the country's leading bank, which has assets and debts across the continent, means that the Financial Services Authority now has control of all three of the country's major banks. The other two, Landsbanki and Glitnir, are in receivership. - AP

For futher reading, Iceland suspends stock trading, creates new bank

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Icesave halt deposit and withdrawal

Icesave, was once the recommended top ISA bank by Moneysavingexpert.com is now facing financial problem. I was considering to open an account with Icesave half year ago. Lucky me.

It has been another tough day for banks elsewhere in Europe, with the government of Iceland taking control of the country's second-biggest bank, Landsbanki. Landsbanki owns the internet bank Icesave, which has stopped allowing customers to withdraw money. Icesave is thought to have 350,000 customers in the UK and Netherlands. If Landsbanki were to fail, savers would be entitled to their first £16,000 from Icelandic authorities and then up to another £34,000 from the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme. - BBC

Monday, October 06, 2008

Share market lowest in decades

Yet again today mark another downfall of the share market, especially Russia lost 17% or more in a single day.


Friday, October 03, 2008

BBC iPlayer 1.5 for Mobile

Just as I'm trying to settle with iPlayer 1.0 yesterday, BBC iPlayer 1.5 Beta is out. The only feature I noticed is BBC radio channels. Give it a try here.


BBC iPlayer 1.0 for Mobile

If you stay in UK, you can't missed the phenomenon succcess of BBC iPlayer. Now you can also have it in mobile. I tested it yesterday using wifi connection on my N95 8GB and it works well.


Officially, it is only available on the Nokia N96, Apple iPhone and Apple iPod Touch, but working for these model too:

Nokia 5320 XpressMusic Nokia 6220 ClassicNokia 6210 Navigator Nokia N78Nokia N82 Nokia N96 Nokia N95 8GB v21+Nokia N95 v21+Nokia N95 v21+ E90 Communicator (via Software update)Nokia E66 Nokia E71 Nokia N85 Nokia N79 Nokia E51 Samsung SGH-G810 Samsung SGH-i450 Samsung SGH-i550 Samsung SGH-i560LG-KT610

Free movie preview for Ghost Town

SeeFilmFirst bring Ghost Town to Swindon on 19th Oct. Rarely you can get free movie preview in Swindon, but this movie is the first one I will watch for free. Hopefully it is good.



Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Last Minutes £10 Hotel rooms sale

LastMinute.com has 1000 room up for sale, starting from tomorrow, 2nd Oct.