Hey hey folks, I know I’ve not been a terribly prolific poster of late… but if it makes you all feel better, I feel bad about it I guess when you’re settling yourself into a new country you get a bit out of your normal routine.

So Duncan and I have now been officially “settled down” for two weeks. We’ve rushed around and bought exciting products such as more than one duvet cover, and have gotten used to being able to stand up in our house without bashing ourselves sensless on the roof. I’ve even gone mad and bought Duncan a beautiful second hand Gas BBQ so that he may cook beautiful food for me ($50 from e-bay for a gas barbie… what bargainous purchasing!!).

Now, just to be crystal clear here… exactly 16 days ago I was praying to god that time would speed up and making rash statments like “To F**K with travel. I’m fed up with all this, it’s pish so it is. I want an indoor bathroom. I want private space!! That’s it. No More, not ever. Na-ah, No Way”

Fast forward 10 days…
So What Have I Been Doing?

Yeah. That’s right. Looking for flights to some of the Pacific Islands. I’ve been thinking back all misty eyed on all my travels. Without the prospect of travel to somewhere warm and beachy, life lacks a certain little something. What’s that?

Uhhh…. yeah. Stuff like that. It’s official. My name is Kirsty McCubbin and it transpires that I am a travel-o-holic. At an age where a very significant proportion of my friends are out onto their second baby… I still need them exotic trips!

The Solution?

http://www.VirginBlue.com.au. Yup. That’s right, good old Ricky is going to sort me out. I’m now on the lookout to a cheap flight to sunnier climes. Somewhere. Anywhere. But I’m gonna have to book – a trip!! It’ll have to be a short one…

Ho Hum. Anyone got any ideas?!

Well then, the time of our departure from the UK on the next big stage of our seemingly-permanent jolly around the world is imminent. We’re furiously dashing around trying to tie up those loose ends with the wedding that my mother would be sure to raise merry hell over if she got lumped with them. Bridezilla is now receeding into the background. I feel I wasn’t too bad, but you’d really have to ask Duncan just what it’s like being my intended. As some will have worked out, I can be frighteningly single minded once I get a project going!

And so we’ve now moved on to the difficult decision of where we are going on honeymoon. Can you guess where it is? Vegas? Barbados perhaps? No… it’s somewhere a little closer to home. Duncan and I have talked it through and we’re both absolutely desperate to go to this place. Can’t guess? Here’s a wee clue…….

Um.. yes, that’s right. We’re going to A4U Expo 2008!! Our wedding is on 20th of September and this years event is on the 14th & 15th of October, so rather than take right off for a luxury honeymoon we have decided to postpone our honeymoon in order to attend the affiliate shindig of the year.

We had such a good time at last year’s gig and genuinely got huge amounts of great info, that we just can’t stand to miss this years do for the sake of a couple of weeks (we needed to stay on a wee bit to pack up our furniture anyhow).

Are we mad? Most definately not! However, I already had a chat with Matt Wood at the Buy.at Christmas Cracker back in November and I did drop some rather heavy hints regarding the possibilities of me getting a wee free ticket. He was quite well on (we all were by that stage!), but I’ll be holding him to the reply he gave me

So… this years pre-event party will be doubling up as Duncan and I’s Affiliate Wedding Reception. What I’m wondering is, should I wear my wedding dress to it? Any excuse to get two days wear out of my darling satin number… ha ha!!

Can’t wait to see everyone there, and we will most definately be booking into the Honeymoon Suite on the boat this year.

You can pre-register your interest in seeing the happy couple, oops I mean attending the Expo Here

For any of you who I haven’t personally gotten hold of and bored to tears with my latest big business project, I feel it’s important to warn you that from this point on my blogging may well take on a somewhat self-obsessed bridal theme.

See, the whole reason that Duncan and I have come back to the UK for 4 months, is so that we (read, me) can get down to the important task of organising our nuptuals. Before I came back I was absolutely certain that “I wouldn’t be going mad like all my friends have done”. Furthermore, “I certainly won’t start obsessing with trivialities. It’ll be a good Ayrshire affair. All common sense and no bells and knockers.”

Ummm… WRONG!

Last Saturday I went and tried on wedding dresses for the first time. And I think it was at the very moment that first bit of white fabric touched my shoulders, that Bridezilla emerged from the chrysalis.

Before I knew what was happening, I had my first ever bridal strop. And it was a biggie. The reason? Well. See, as a child I was obsessed with all those hugely glam movie stars from the 30′s to 50′s. Ginger Rogers, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, and my all time favourite… Audrey Hepburn. And it was old Audrey that did it in the end. I found someone selling a replica of this tiara that she wore in Roman Holiday…..

“OOOOOHHHH, fabulous!” I thought. “I’ll look just like Princess Audrey!”

And it was around that point I got really, really, carried away and decided to look for a suitably grand necklace to go with it.

I found this cracker at Zulu Moon, an online jewellery store, and immediately set my heart upon it…

I was very excited about looking just like one of my silver screen icons. The issue? The necklace was out of stock. How frustrating. I wanted it immediately!! Imagine what happened in our living room when I was told it was never coming back into stock? I duly spent 6 straight hours on the internet trying to find something similar.

Nada. Zip. Cue 3 hour huff.

So… that’s it. Bridezilla is in town. You have been warned. I’ll do my best to keep it to a minimum, but no promises. Tell you what, If you all put up with it, I’ll send you a bit of cake!

Click here for cheap & reliable Ayr PC Repair

This is really a wee congratulations to an old school friend of mine, Alistair. After many years repairing people’s PC’s in his spare time he’s finally gotten himself Microsoft Accredited and set up a PC Repair Business in Ayr, Scotland. For your reference, we sat together in higher art class for a year when I was just a wee Girvan lass, aged 16! He was more interested in paints and crayons than computers, and I’d never even used a colour monitor or anything other than the school Apple Macs (which were black and white in those days!).

So although my Ayr readership may well be limited I think that all of his hard work in getting himself set up deserves what little publicity and link love my little blog can provide him.

He is now officially accredited by the Mighty Bill Gates himself to fix every computer malaise known to mankind. So if you do happen to need his computer related services… here’s a bit of a run down of all his services: –

Troubleshooting Windows problems
Operating system install
Pc Health Check
Data backup
Data Recovery
Virus removal
Hardware replacements
Wireless network setup

Reflective of the upstanding chap I know him to be, he has a “No-Fix No Fee” policy for his services. A breath of fresh air in my experience of the old PC repair crew. (I was once charged £80 because the vent at the back of my computer was clogged with dust). His repair rates are Here.

Sorry about this shameless plug, but its nice to be nice. Good luck Alistair!

PC & Computer Repair Ayr

Well hello! It occurs to me I haven’t done much blogging recently. So what’s happened? Well, a few things.

1 ) We have arrived in Perth, and the weather is rubbish and I am freezing all of a sudden. This has resulted in me achieving affiliate hibernation mode. This little known condition prevents you from doing much in the way of work, and lots in the way of procrastination.

2 ) We arrived here for a family party. It’s my other half’s stepfather’s sister’s 50th birthday at the moment and so we have been drunk for 5 days. I tried really, really, hard to sober up after the third day but unfortunately our kind host here in Perth (another of the Stepfather’s siblings) has a wine cellar I could quite happily move into. He used to own a vinyard and he’s one of them blokes who seems to deliver drinks to your glass using guerilla skills the SAS could learn a lot from. It’s been great spending time getting to know my future step in-laws. Yes, this family is very complex as I am discovering. Don’t even get me started on all the half brother and sister in-laws I am about to obtain from other areas of my new family! Particularly don’t ask me about my new nephews and nieces to be. The youngest is 16, and the eldest is a BMW driving 24 year old. This is making me feel horribly elderly, despite only just having turned 30 recently.

3 ) I’ve done a lot of explaining to people I’ve been meeting for the first time about what affiliate marketing is. As usual lots of people nod, look a bit vague and then say “Gosh, I have to learn to do that!” and ask lots more questions. As a result, I’ve been feeling a little bit “affiliate marketing-ed out!”

4 ) It’s the other half’s birthday soon, so we are spending quality time together and I am taking him on lots of shopping trips to see if I can spot him admiring a potential present. This has not yet worked, and as it’s 3 days till his birthday, I am getting a mite concerned. Ideas on a postcard.

I think the next article I am going to write is about how to shake off affiliate procrastination syndrome which strikes us all at some time or another. Unfortunately, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet….

Sooo excited!

I’ve just started arranging my wedding in Scotland. Thanks to the power of the internet I have already managed to book my venue, locate a caterer, band, and entertainer for the big day from over here in Australia.

OK, this is not entirely on topic in terms of it being directly related to affiliate marketing. BUT! I am going to have a wedding I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d be able to afford. Paid for by affiliate marketing, therefore we are back on topic and you have to sit and listen. Hurahh. It’s every bride’s dream!!

I’m getting married in Ayrshire, Scotland which is where I grew up. I’ve booked out a glorious Edwardian hunting lodge for an entire week. We’re going to party on down with our nearest and dearest for an entire 5 days before the hordes of Jericho, AKA my HUUUUUGGEEE family, descend on our posh pad for the affiliate wedding of the century. The week before the gig will include entertainment for our overseas guests (I’m marrying into a Kiwi family) such as a full on burns supper complete with piper, highland dancers, entertainment from a pipe band, entertainment from a brass band, and guided tours of the local area. Phew!!

The wedding day plan so far: –

Venue: http://www.blackclauchrie.com

If anyone is considering a Scottish wedding, this venue is highly recommended. The owner, Caroline Alcanter, has just gone above and beyond in helping me with the actual arrangements beyond the venue booking. She’s been absolutely wonderful and indespensible in my long-distance efforts.

There will be 80 day guests and things will hot up in the evening as we jam the rest of my cousins into the ballroom and crack the guest list up to a cool 150.

We have a close up magician, comedian, and caricature artist in the frame to keep the guests entertained whilst all those awful boring wedding pictures are being taken.

The food will be a traditional Kiwi BBQ followed by copious amounts of booze served at the bar. The party will kick off with a bang at around the time my family work out I am picking up the bar tab for the entire evening. My hubby to be’s family will no doubt be somewhat aghast, but my family’s brand of party chaos is contagious fun and they’ll soon have a night they just won’t be able to remember, .

Bridezilla is alive and well in affiliateland, you have been warned!!