BA teams up with Australian radio stars

British Airways has teamed up with Australian radio station Nova 969 to launch a special promotion.

The airline announced that it would be carrying the popular radio presenting trio Merrick & Rosso & Kate Richie to the UK for a week in September.

Every day during the week, listeners will have the chance to win a pair of World Traveller tickets to London.

The competition is part of an initiative being launched by BA to promote its offer of a trip from Sydney to the UK with a free European break thrown in.

BA previously worked with the radio presenters to launch a competition giving listeners the chance to win holidays in Bangkok.

Sam Heine, the airline’s commercial manager in the south-west Pacific region, said: ‘After our best ever result, off the back of the 2008 consumer promotion Mile Thai Club, it meant that we once again turned to Nova to produce an integrated solution that would spread awareness of the exciting fare deal British Airways has to offer and also to let Australians experience everything that’s fantastic about the UK.’

BA operates flights to Sydney via Singapore and Bangkok, as well as connections to Melbourne, Perth and other Australian cities as part of a codeshare deal with Qantas.

Source  :  http://news.opodo.co.uk/NewsDetails/2009-08-26/BA_teams_up_with_Australian_radio_stars

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Twitter to help beat supermarket monopoly

TWITTER is the new tool being used to fight against high supermarket prices across Australia.

Following the failure of the Federal Government’s Grocery Choice website – set up to help shoppers find the lowest grocery prices in supermarkets around the country – a group of IT experts are using Twitter and Google Groups to develop Price Check, a website they hope will save shoppers money.

Using crowd-sourcing technology, shoppers will eventually be able to log onto the web or via a mobile phone application to find the best-priced supermarket items in their area.

The website will allow shoppers to enter their entire shopping list on the website to find the best prices.                                                                                                     

Users will also be asked to update price items.

“I think I am heavily in favour of an open system and I believe there should be access to the public,’’ idea developer Rob Mason told news.com.au.

“(Users) will be able to enter their postcode … and source products on the site linked to the data base and compare prices and find which supermarket is best-priced.”

Mr Mason said the more the public demand access to cheaper prices, the more likely supermarket giants such as Coles and Woolworths will comply.

He said the response from Twitter users has been “fantastic”.

“If we get people involved and active, we can get all the prices in all the supermarkets,” he said.

“The feedback has been really good; we have gathered as much followers as the big supermarkets.”

Mr Mason said the major supermarkets have a responsibility to be open about their prices.

He admitted if successful, the Price Check idea would be unpopular with the supermarket chains.

“There is absolutely no commercial gain for them to be had by being open and transparent,” he said.

“At the moment it is more of a social thing, supporting an open system rather than saving heaps of money … but there is a potential.”

Follow @price_check for notification of the website launch.

Source www.news.com.au

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Perth on a shoestring

Relocating from the UK and now living in Perth I sometimes forget how lucky I am to be here with two young children, the great outdoor life with the room to roam the parks and gardens of  WA, most with no entry fee. 

Living the outdoor life in Perth City we are lucky enough to have the recreational facilities on our doorstep. 

Kings Park is definately for me the daddy of all parks with the fantastic location and views which managed to bring a tear to my eye the first time I ever went.

There are other free entry parks to enjoy such as Whiteman Park where families can enjoy a day out with cycle paths, walking trails, bbq’s, paddling pool and childrens play areas.  There is a wildlife park there which does charge for entry, you can walk through the Kangaroos and see the Koalas.

Wanneroo has a great park called Rotary Park which has just been refurbished to a very high standard with a fantastic play area for the children, great park for birthday celebrations with bbq’s available.

Also in Wanneroo are the Botanical Gardens with older style gardens, leafy hideaways, waterlily filled ponds and waterfalls.  This has a charge of $4 entry for adults which includes a tea or coffee, free entry for the children.  Mini golf is there which is an extra cost.  It is also great place to listen to free live music on a Friday and Saturday nights.

With all the parks, gardens and beaches in  Perth WA  if you pack a picnic or make use of the barbecue facilities, you can have a great day out without a great deal of cost.

Now I’m off to pick the kids up from school,  grab a pizza from Eable Boys for $10,  go to our local park eat our pizza and the kids can play on a winters day !! 

How Lucky am I.

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WA flu man cleared as cases top 400

WA’s only confirmed case of swine flu has been cleared after a week in quarantine, Ten News has reported, while the nation’s swine flu tally has passed 400.

The  man, who tested positive last week after going to hospital with mild flu symptoms, was in home quarantine with his wife and their eight children.

Australia’s Eastern States has been particularly hard-hit by the flu and Victoria has recorded a massive surge in cases, most of them children.
 
By this afternoon the number of confirmed cases in the State had risen to 306, a rise of 94 in 24 hours.

Most of the new cases in Victoria also involved young people aged five to 18, prompting a twelfth Victorian school to be closed today.
 
According to Federal Health Department figures, there were 64 confirmed cases in NSW, 18 in Queensland, six in South Australia, four in the ACT, and one each in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
 
However, Queensland Health officials say the State now has 22 confirmed cases, the latest being teenage girls.
 
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the Government was assessing whether to elevate the nation’s response to the disease from the contain to the sustain phase.
 
Victoria is already preparing to move into the sustain phase, under which quarantining is limited to those who share a home with a confirmed swine flu patient.
In the contain phase, anyone who has had contact with a swine flu patient is quarantined voluntarily and given antiviral drugs for a week.
 
The nation’s chief medical officer, Professor Jim Bishop, said the advice to people with flu-like symptoms may change as swine flu evolved.
 
At present, people who come down with flu-like symptoms, especially if they have recently travelled to an affected country, are being advised to seek medical advice.
 
Professor Bishop said in the future, fit and healthy people may be told to stay at home and only those in at-risk groups, including those with seek medical advice and asthma, will be advised to visit their GP.
 
“A lot of people that have these sorts of symptoms of course will, as this thing progresses, stay at home and not necessarily seek medical advice if in their own case it is a at-risk groups— and that we expect to see more of,” he said.
 
“As we move along in this marathon race, what we will need to do is obviously identify those people that we’re concerned about.
 
“If there is large numbers involved, we want to make sure the system is looking after people we most want to look after.”
 
The swine flu-affected ship Pacific Dawn docked in Sydney this morning after NSW Health authorities gave it the all-clear.
 

The P&O ship was forced to cut short its trip to the Barrier Reef last week when three crew tested positive for the virus.
 
A senior NSW Health doctor and 25 nurses boarded the ship in Brisbane on Saturday, testing all 2500 people on board during the two-day voyage to Sydney.
 
While disappointed the cruise didn’t go to plan, passengers said they still enjoyed the journey.
 
David Geers, from Brisbane, joked it was the perfect place to be quarantined for seven days.

 “If you had to be quarantined somewhere I couldn’t have thought of a better place … because we got fed, the drinks tasted the same and the staff were fantastic,” he told reporters at Darling Harbour.
 
More than 15,000 people in 53 countries have tested positive to swine flu, with deaths totalling 99.

Source www.thewest.com.au

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