Wii Free

The National Lottery have funded a scheme run by the Droitwich and Worcester City School Sport Partnership which is providing a Nintendo Wii console to schools that are part of the scheme in an attempt to encourage pupils to participate in PE lessons. Also provided are heart rate monitors to keep track of the amount of work effort from the pupil.

The Wii console is a computer game system that uses cutting edge technology controllers that allow the user to perform movements to control the game. For example, a tennis game, the user would hold the controller as you would a tennis racket and swing the controller to hit the ball in time with the visual output shown on the TV.

In my opinion, and experience in using the Wii console, there is a certain amount of effort required to play the games, agreed, but not anywhere near the amount to play the games for real. It is certainly going to improve interest in PE lessons which is the main goal but what is the point if the lessons are not "physical" as such.

I think that a attendance system would be better so pupils who attend a certain amount of PE lessons get a "Wii Pass" that allows them off one PE lesson to play on the Wii. The pupil then decides if and when he uses the pass. This will hopefully encourage pupils to go to PE lessons without a major loss of performing actual sports.

Google or Bust?

We all know that to have a successful online business, you need to be seen on the search engines. We've all heard of Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask but to be hitting it with the big boys then Google is the place to be. In December 2007, Google accounted for nearly two thirds of all searches in the US at 65.98% with Yahoo the closest competitor with 20.88%. Other brand names such as MSN and Ask covered less than 10% between them with the remaining 3.67% spread between all other search engines.

It is therefore essential to appear on Google for your keywords to get maximum exposure. If you're not on Google then you have to appear on every other search engine there is (which lets face it, is not likely) to reach just a third of all searches. Only thing is, Google's algorithms (the code that is behind the scenes which decides were websites rank on a Google search) are complex beyond belief so much so that Google probably couldn't explain how it works (albeit top secret anyway) and on top of this, they are forever changing.

This makes it a business's nightmare to try and conquer the search engine and get top ranked for their trade. All search engines work in a similar way but the challenge of getting on Google always seems to be the most trickiest. This is probably why they are the biggest and most respected of all the search engines.

Institute of Kitchen Bedroom & Bathroom Installers

Ashburnham Insurance are please to announce an exciting new partnership with The Institute of Kitchen, Bedroom & Bathroom Installers (or iKBBI as they are better known).

If you install kitchens, bedrooms or bathrooms not only will you be able to obtain a competitive public liability insurance quote from Ashburnham Insurance but our new partner, the iKBBI, may be of interest you.

The iKBBI is the first and only Secretary of State sanctioned, and industry supported institute for professional kitchen, bedroom and bathroom installers, and could help you fulfil your business aspirations and win more business. If you want to find out more please visit their website by clicking here.

We look forward to a long and successful relationship and wish them and their members every success for the future.

The FA Cup 3rd Round

Well another year of Third Round football in the FA Cup was not without its fair share of drama. Of the 20 premiership sides, 6 are already out, 8 only managed a draw and 6 are through. Of the 8 that drew, 4 were playing Premiership opposition meaning another 2 will definitely go out. The other 4 are against lower opposition where anything could happen including the likes of 13 times finalists, Liverpool against League 1 Luton Town.

This surely gives hope to lower league sides with only 8 (min) to 12 (max) Premiership sides left in the 4th round. However this does including the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United who both cruised past their opponents in the 3rd round.

Chasetown FC put up a valiant performance as the lowest ranked team to ever reach the 3rd round but couldn't manage to get past a resilient Cardiff City. Non-league Havant & Waterlooville managed a well earned draw against League 1 high flying Swansea to set up a tasty replay and Southend United had the highest aggregate score of the 3rd Round with a 5-2 victory over local team Dagenham and will now be looking forward to the next round.

If Premiership sides keep getting drawn against each other, it is very likely that a non-Premiership will make the final this year. Bring on May 17th!!!

January Sales

With the close of Christmas and the end of a peak period for shopping, the traditional January sales begin causing chaos across the country as people try to grab a bargain. Where different shoppers are trying to get their hands on the same bargain, some have been willing to get rough so that they are the person that goes home with it! Whatever happened to the season of goodwill?

Who's to blame? Well you could go all the way back to the first ever January sale which was in 1894 at Harrods. Thing is, this was not like the sales of today. If you watched any TV on Christmas day, you would have seen advert after advert advertising a sale here, a sale there. Newspapers, radio, magazines, e-mails, websites, TV, basically companies have it covered from all angles now. The only way you can not know about a sale is if you lock yourself away in a cold, dark, sound proof room for 4 months!

Everyone knows, and hey, none of us can resist a bargain! This is why at the stroke of midnight at new year most of us can't remember the words to Auld Lang Syne because all we can think of is that the sales have started!