I’m sure most people love surprises and prizes. I certainly do. I sometimes enter competitions and giveaways on websites or blogs and over the last few years, I’ve been quite lucky. A lot of people look at competitions and giveaways with a bit of scepticism thinking that nobody really wins. But people do win. I am proof of that.
A Surprise With a Prize
In 2017, I entered a competition on a website to win a night’s stay in the five star Old Course Hotel in St. Andrews. All I had to do was enter my email address. I did that and then forgot about it until several months later when I received an email to tell me I’d won the prize. That year was our silver wedding anniversary, so I was able to book a room in the hotel to celebrate. Had I not won, we’d have spent the night watching television and eating a lovely dinner. Nice, but maybe not quite as luxurious.
Then Came Wrist Warmers Last Winter
In December 2019, I entered a giveaway on Ceefer Crafts Twitter Account and won a lovely pair of wrist warmers. The perfect prize for that time of year and they’ve been well used ever since.
More Recent Surprises and Prizes
I recently had two lovely surprises with prizes just within weeks of each other. They brightened otherwise dull and dreary winter days.
Perhaps I should buy an extra lottery ticket but I don’t really think my luck will go that far.
CBD Oil
At the end of last year, Sheryl from A Chronic Voice ran a Christmas giveaway on her blog. Sheryl, who lives with a few major health problems is so helpful and highly respected in the chronic illness blogging world. (I’m sure that’s the case in every aspect of her life!) She had asked companies to donate to her Christmas giveaway with products that might benefit people with chronic health problems.
One of the prizes was CBD oil. I’ve had no previous experience with CBD so my finger quickly hit the ‘enter giveaway’ button. And I won!!
My prize, courtesy of Reakiro, was a 10ml bottle of 500g CBD oil and a spray bottle of hand sanitiser. They arrived a few weeks ago and I have been using the oil since and have had fairly good results, especially with sleeping.
Gluten Free Goodies
On to my next surprising prize…
Glutafin, a gluten-free company, ran a competition asking people to share their coeliac disease stories a few weeks ago. I entered the competition and was one of the lucky winners. It was such a lovely surprise. My story will be shared along with other winners’ stories on their website and social media pages.
Click here to read my story on the Glutafin website.
I won a fabulous box of gluten-free goodies which included flour, bread, rolls, pretzels, chocolate finger biscuits and sweets. I’d never tried the sweets before but now I will be hunting them out in the supermarket. Melto bars have a hazelnut filling and the delicious delishios are almost like a gluten-free version of Maltesers. (Maltesers were one of my favourite sweets before my coeliac diagnosis, so it’s nice to find an alternative.)
Just in Time to Bake a Cake – a Birthday Cake
Gluten free food is so expensive, so that prize was definitely a welcome surprise. And it came just in time to bake myself a gluten-free birthday cake. At least, that’s what I intended to do. However, as everyone who lives with chronic pain or a chronic illness knows, plans don’t always work out. I’ve been going through a bad spell with my back and ribs, therefore the cake baking will have to wait. I do, however, have some lovely home-baked cakes in my freezer, so I won’t need to miss out. You can’t have a birthday without cake, can you?
All the Fives…
On the 15th of March, I became another year older. I’d rather have stuck with the age I was, but I didn’t really have a choice with that.
I reached the ripe old age of 55 which I consider to be a weird age because I can’t play with the numbers.
You see, when I was 53, I could accidentally write 35 and hope nobody noticed it was back to front. When I was 54, I could write 45 and pretend to myself that nobody noticed the silver streaks in my hair and all the laughter lines. But this year, there can be no pretending. All the fives mean 55 no matter how you write it. It also means that I can’t play my little numbers game for a long time. I mean, I definitely won’t be juggling the numbers next year!
So there will be no number juggling, but there will definitely be cake eating. I won’t add candles though. I’d hate to set the house ablaze!
I’ve got to admit, I used to be pretty sceptical about giveaways and competitions as I’d enter lots and never win. But those were mostly pretty big competitions, where there would be hundreds of thousands entering and I knew I’d stand very little chance. A bit like the National Lottery! I’ve been very, very lucky to win a few competitions on the sites of fellow bloggers, and I’ll always be grateful for those.
It’s wonderful to hear about your wins, Liz. The night at the Old Course Hotel sounds wonderful and such great timing with your anniversary! I’m glad you got to try Reakiro, too, as I think they’re a great brand with some interesting products. That gluten-free hamper looks pretty impressive, too, but also very useful when you’re in need of such products. I’m sorry you can’t do Maltesers any more; they’re one of my favourites too so I’m glad there’s a gluten-free alternative that’s a bit similar.
I hope you’ve got plenty of cakes in the freezer to last you a little while longer until you can try baking, if of course you feel like doing it. I personally find baking can either be fun or disastrous, turning me into a furious monster (until I can be calmed by eating whatever parts of the baking wreckage are edible). I’ll never be a sweet treats baker! I really hope your back and ribs ease up a little soon, Liz, and I hope you win another comp soon 🤞
Caz xx