There was a nasty rumour going around that VAT had decreased earlier this year, from its usual 17.5% to 15%. Of course, if you don’t know already, it will go back to 17.5% milliseconds before the hammer inside Big Ben strikes the bell on New Year’s Day.
(I call it a rumour because retailers have been manipulating their prices accordingly – we all know that they make a habit of doing this, but the differences were painfully obvious. Since when did a six-pack of Supermalt cost £4.99?!)
I will bet you however, pounds to doughnuts, that the most painful experience anyone can have when dealing with businesses, is when they find themselves tied into a contract – paying for something they’ve never received, or no longer use, and realising that they “can’t get out”.
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There are quite a few web sites that have sprung up, offering you money back from purchases you make online through them. I’ve been a member of quite a few, but by far the best one I’ve used is TopCashback. There are no hidden charges, and you don’t even have to buy anything to earn some spare change.
Here’s where I do some whoring:
http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/legendarydrew
If you join TopCashback through the above link – before or on the 28th November – both you and me will earn £1.
Unlike other people who promote their referral links, I’m not lying or bending the truth. This is a special offer for me, because I earned a lot of cashback through the site in previous months. If you use my referral link after the 28th, only I will get £1.
http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/legendarydrew
Of course, feel free to join TopCashback without using me as a referrer, in which case the link is: http://www.topcashback.co.uk.
On average you will earn about 4-5% cashback on purchases you make online, and all you have to do is enter the relevant web site through the TopCashback site. If there are any problems with tracking the cashback through any of the sites, they have a handy system where you can report problems and they will chase it up for you.
Once again, because apparently that’s how people make sales online…
http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/legendarydrew
(Don’t you just hate it when people repeat the same link over and over?)
Something that came up a while ago, actually, is the difference between gloating and bragging. I had to explain it to someone once and I think I got the definitions right.
Bragging is where someone emphasises and draws attention to how good they are at something, how great their life is, or how good they have things. It’s basically the same as being over-confident (or wanting everybody to believe that they’re better than other people).
Examples of bragging would be, “I ran my first business when I was 13!” or “I’ve scored 369 points this season – more than anyone else, ever!” Or perhaps more subtly, “yeah I know” in response to a genuine compliment.
Gloating is very similar to bragging, except it has malicious intent: it’s either done to encourage someone to feel bad about themselves, or in taking satisfaction at someone else’s misery. It’s a staple of a truly negative person.
Examples of gloating include: bragging about a healthy sex life in front of someone whom they’ve rejected, dumped or conveniently ignored; bragging about having a holiday to someone who has no time or money to have one; blowing a small event out of proportion to put someone down or aggrandise themselves.
Which do you do more often?
If you’re reading this post then you’ll have noticed a couple of things:
THERE’S A NEW DESIGN! I’ve been working on the weblog design for the last four days, even though I’ve been in depression for most of the time. It’s probably the first single-minded task I’ve undertaken in a long time (i.e. I concentrated only on the redesign).
I’ve also deleted most of my older posts, and a few of the newer ones. It’s been almost two years since DREWspective began, and I couldn’t believe how much nonsense I’d written and made public.
In the next few days I will be rearranging the categories and the older posts – also I hope to get rid of some of these tags. There are 1044 of them in the database at present, most of which have been used only once.
Get ready for a brand new experience!