Prezzyblog

With the up and coming Eurovision song contest of 2013, we thought we’d scour through our previous UK contestants of the 21^st century and reminisce on how wonderfully talented they all are… What actually occurred to us is that the majority of our past performances have proved to be a long line of epic fails. From out-of-tune wailing, to questionable outfits, our average position of 18^th place is certainly not hard to beat.

2000 – In 16^th place, our first UK contender of the new millennium Nicki French sang “Don’t play that song again”. Not the worst voice I’ve heard in the list, but possibly the worst outfit. Either way, please don’t play that song again. Please.

2001 – Lindsay comes in at 15^th place with “No dream impossible”. Unfortunately, the chance of winning the contest with this could be described as nothing *but* impossible. Sorry Lindsay.

2002 –Jessica Garlick with “Come back”. What a refreshing change this made. Jessica came into a respectable 3^rd place, being the highest ranking UK Eurovision artist of the past 15 years. Come back, Jessica!

2003 –*Cringe*. To say that this was a performance is a real overstatement. Jemini finished last in 2003 with a well-deserved ZERO, with the hit “Cry baby”. What on earth were they thinking?  Worst UK performance to date. Fact.

2004 – *Cheese alert!* James Fox took on Eurovision 2004 with “Hold on to our love”. His cheesy grin and boyish charm only took him so far though, coming in 16^th place.

2005 – Javine Hylton’s bhangra-esque attempt to win the Eurovision with “Touch my fire”, seriously backfired on her, placing her in 22^nd place.

2006 – Whether this deserved to slowly crawl up the rankings from 2005 I don’t know. With a group of cockney teens to back up some questionable rap, Daz Sampson brings the UK into 19^th place for with “Teenage life”.

2007 – Hang me now! This cringe worthy song and accompanying outfits and dance moves makes Scooch’s “Flying the flag (for you)” one of Eurovision’s low points. Shame on U.K….

2008 – Despite being rather dated, Andy Abraham’s “Even if” certainly got my feet tapping under the desk! Managing to hit the notes and throwing in some groovy dance moves, this is a definite improvement on other UK performances of previous years. Unfortunately, it still came last in 25^th place.

2009 – The second to reach the top 5 within the 21^st century of Eurovision– in 5^th place, Jade Ewen certainly wowed us all with her voice, singing “It’s my time”. It really was. High five, Jade!

2010 – With the UK coming last, (again), Josh Dubovie sings, “That sounds good to me”. Albeit not a winner, it certainly deserved higher than last place. Maybe next time, Josh.

2011 – Blue managed to save our reputation of remaining in the bottom 10, singing “I can”. Popularity or talent? I wouldn’t go with the latter, but we’ll celebrate the boost to 11^th place regardless. Woop!

2012 – Engelbert Humperdink. No, we’ve not heard of him either. Good job really, taking us down 14 places from last year into 25^th place with “Love will set you free”.

With the 2013 song contest close by, we can only hope that good old Bonnie Tyler will do us proud, and hit that top 5.

GO BONNIE, GO!

Celebrities are mums too! But you’re a real celebrity in Prezzybox’s eyes.

Use this fantastic mummy inspired graphic to see which celebrity mum is most like you! Share with your friends and debate who’s the best!

Click on the graphic to see a bigger version.

We also have a wonderful range of Mother's Day gifts here.

Play this while you read...

While we are grateful to the North Star for leading us to the most acclaimed birth EVER.... and don’t get us wrong that was a nice little earner... we feel that gravy train has been ridden for long enough... in danger of becoming a one trick pony a conscious decision was made. To seek employment in a trade we knew well, buying gifts for Prezzybox.
This Christmas... the Three Wise Men have BUT one aim. To create a space so adorned with appendage, so bedecked with beauty, lavished with luminosity that it may outshine the North Star itself. In doing so will lead the multitudes to Prezzybox, the messiah of online gifting.

Ten Commandments of Christmas decoration.

1. Thou shall not ponder increased electricity bills
2. Thou shall not colour co-ordinate
3. Thou shall not worry about health and safety – glory outweighs consequence
4. Thou shall ensure a substantial supply of candy canes are available at all times
5. Thou shall vandalise Santa with your bosses face
6. Thou shall not have work space or sight due to the excessive wondrous tinsel
7. Thou shall take inspiration from big fat gypsy wedding and other such high brow programming
8. Thou shall keep courage in convictions in the face of unseasonal adversity
9. Thou shall be jealous of what another man has, and better it
10. Thou shall know there is always room for more - go big or go home

The 5th Commandment...

The 6th Commandment...

Should you be drawn by our ethereal light to this holy place you will need these presents worthy of Jesus babes...

Gold – My Last Silver Rolo
Frankincense – Design Your Own Perfume Set
Mur – Luxury Hamper Spirit of Christmas

You all know of the song Sweet Home Alabama which was once sung by Lynyrd Skynyrd, but what else do you know about Alabama?

Well it's bang in the centre of Americas Deep South, filled to the seams with culture and bursting with amazing culinary flavours. It sounds like a place I’d like to visit and I’m sure you would too! Well that’s exactly what one lucky Prezzybox competition winner got the chance to do.

Sarah was the lucky  competition winner and went to Alabama for an action packed 7 days travelling around the glorious state. this once in a lifetime holiday was thanks to Alabama tourist board who organised trips up to the Appalachian mountains, the sun drenched beach, Magic city and the U.S Space and Rocket Centre.

What Do You Think Of Prezzybox? Last week we asked you to describe Prezzybox in three words and many of you replied. Here at PrezzyHQ it wasn’t just an exercise to massage our egos. Quite the opposite, we always want to improve. We want to continue to provide you with a great service.

Self-reflection is something we take seriously, from looking at our website to see if it’s user friendly, providing the very best products to just being friendly, helpful and proactive in customer services. It’s not rocket science but it’s easy to be helpful. Many companies get stuck in the day to day running and constantly look at the bottom line. They forget how they became successful, how they increased sales and how they gained brand recognition. One things for sure they took their eyes off the most basic and easiest thing in the world, being warm, welcoming and treating the customer like a close friend.

In a day an age when you rarely hear positive feedback, we gained a favourable response. The Wordle below shows the responses you gave. The bigger the word the more times you mentioned it.

It’s important for us at Prezzybox to recognise how you see us, we're delighted with all the nice things you said. All our staff are fun, vibrant, fantastic and fit in perfectly with how prezzybox operates. It's brilliant to see that you think of prezzybox in the same way as we do!

Now you'll remember last week that chief Zak was growing a moustache for Movember! Well he's loving it and he's been Mo'isterising his chops daily! You can help by visiting our Movember Category and we will donate 50p from every tashe item you buy to Zak's fund.

To raise additional funds the Lovely Debbie made some delicious cakes to sell to us all at Prezzybox.

(The Yummy Cakes)

Well the cakes were a sure fire hit. In fact they were all gone by the end of the day. Some had more than others and some got none at all! A number of Prezzybox staff left crumbs on their lips, clothes and desks. Thankfully Polly (Head of security) did some 007 shenanigans and sniffed out how many cakes people had. Polly will now name the culprits!

(Head Of Security - Polly)

As you can see poor Debbie only got one, despite slaving for hours baking them.
Thankfully Debbie will be sharing some of her tasty recipes for you all in the next couple of weeks. Then you'll be able to create your very own Christmas treats for the family!

Well that's all for another week! I'm off to draw up my Christmas list! Which won't include socks, hanky's and a word-search book. Funny how I get them every year.

Movember is the new November, that’s official! So what's this fantashtic craze that’s encouaraging people all over the world to grow a cool tashe? Last year Movember raised £79.3 million pounds and 854,000 people took part. This year a host of celebrities and even Big Ben or as it was renamed ‘The Queen Elizabeth Tower’ have adopted a tashe.

(Big Ben's Tashe)

The aim is spread awareness of prostate cancer and raise valuable funds for Prostate Cancer UK, all by growing a crazy tashe.
Our very own chief Zak Edwards has decided he’s going to take part, this week prezzybox asked for you to vote on Facebook the style of tashe he should grow! Zak also decided that Prostate Cancer and Movember are such good causes that he will offer something extra to help the charities.

(Clean shaven and ready to go! Prezzybox founder Zak Edwards)

Throughout November Prezzybox has created the Movember category within this category are a range of moustache inspired gifts. For every gift bought in this category, Prezzybox will donate 50p to Movember.

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(Prezzybox's fundraising pledge)

Zak will be posting regular updates and images of his new tashe throughout Movember. If you’d like to donate to his fund you can do so Here!

If you’ve got any pictures of you using a Prezzybox moustache gift, tweet them to @prezzybox and we’ll share the funniest ones!

Bye for now and let’s all support Movember!

Prezzybox has won numerous awards for its excellent customer service over the years. But it seems we’ve got it all wrong. With the growing trend of bad customer service being offered by the majority of call centre across the UK, we’ve finally decided to follow the most annoying trend.

Despite delivering 12 years of amazing, friendly and helpful customer service since we were launched in 2001, we've created our very first “C**p Customer Service Hotline.” Starting at around 9am or maybe 930am-ish on Monday 29^th October 2012, the C**p Customer Service Hotline Number is 01827 830980

C**P Customer Service Banner Hotline

Callers can expect the same poor customer service that’s regularly offered around the country. Staff will be disinterested, slow, unhelpful and rude.

The founder of Prezzybox decided to launch the hotline after experiencing poor customer service whilst sorting out his household bills. Zak says “I wouldn’t say the new hotline is innovative, in fact for once Prezzybox has missed the boat on this one. That’s why we’re making a line to offer really C**p customer service.” Check out Prezzybox's C**P customer services video here:

For the millions of people who visit Prezzybox each year to buy amazing gifts, you can still expect the same high standards of customer service you’ve been used to. Prezzybox will still continue to offer their high standards through their normal customer service hotline. Zak said “Since I first started Prezzybox I wanted to offer really amazing customer service, 100% of the time. We do that and we’ve won awards to prove that we really do offer outstanding customer service.” Sharon Hall – Customer Services Manager recently was voted the ‘Customer Experience Excellence Winner 2012’ prestigious awards sponsored by Lithium.

Hey, My name is Chloë and I’m about to go into my last year of high school.

I started my week  of work experience at prezzybox.com on Tuesday 28th September. The staff  were all very friendly and made me feel at home. I am really interested in  photography so I helped out with taking pictures of the products.

From only  being here a week I have learnt loads of new skills, due to the help from the  staff. I was involved in the whole process of taking the pictures editing them and uploading them. At the start of the week I was given a task to go on  prezzybox.com and see which pictures looked good of the products to see what I  was aiming to get my photos looking like. I then went in the Studio to take pictures. I was given some basic products to photograph and was also shown how  to edit them to make them more eye catching and pop out the screen. I was shown  to a desk next to Laura, Debbie and Charlotte who helped me when I was stuck.

The next days consisted of me taking Pictures, editing them and putting them on  the site. Seven of my photos are on the prezzybox website visible to all customers. Such as Pocket Microscope, Ice  Cream Lip Goss and more. On my last day of working at prezzybox we did some  baking, we tested out one of the products (The gingerded men). We made  gingerbread men using the cutter and stencil to make a skeleton gingerbread man.  Which were really tasty!

Thank you to all the staff at prezzybox for making it  a great work experience.

Here is some of the imagery that I shot during my time here:

Hopefully I'll be back soon...

Chloë Gardiner

So, your Dad drove a Ford Cortina did he? Obviously that means that you now parade across the highways and byways of Great Britain in a Mazda 2.

Correct? Oh yeah.... We're good. Very good indeed.

Whether you're an overall wearing petrol head, an avid fan of Top Gear or just a Sunday morning stroller, chances are you've got a motor that you love and cherish more than your other half. Where would you be without it?

As with most things in life, our decisions that we make today are very much guided by our subconscious that was developed in our formative years. Our extensive research proves, almost certainly inconclusively, that the car your Dad drove in the 70's or 80's has a direct correlation with the car that you drive today.

Don't believe us? Check out the creatively entitled "How Your Dad's Car Indicates What You Drive Today" and prepare to be amazed at the complete inaccuracy of our findings!

Please note. This Father/Child related infographic has in no way been produced as a veiled promotional tool for the upcoming Fathers Day where you'll no doubt be looking to lavish your 'Pappy' with awesome  Father's Day gifts. Aside from that the facts are all completely fictional. Please don't sue us for inventing this rather splendid infographic.

In our continuing bid to get as much yummy goodness out of our self introduced 'Food Month' we've collated a veritable raft of facts about one of our favourites here at Prezzybox.com... PIZZA!

History

There is no doubting that as a nation we love pizza with it ranking 5th as our favourite food and round the world it’s estimated that 5 billion pizzas are consumed every year, that’s enough pizzas to reach to the sun and back 4 times! In fact pizzas popularity around the world is now such that it even has its own National Day, so if ever you needed an excuse to enjoy a slice then National Pizza Day on the 18th May is it!

But, where did it all begin? Italy? No, while what we now consider to be the traditional pizza did originate in Italy, the first incarnation of a pizza; bread covered with oil, herbs and cheese, was the brainchild of the Ancient Greeks. This initial idea was then developed by the Romans, who came up with a sheet of dough covered with cheese, honey and bay leaves. The Italians then adapted their Neapolitan pie, dough topped with tomatoes, to include cheese in 1889, and the modern day pizza was born. Then in the same year, on a visit to Naples, the Queen of Italy, Margherita was served this “New” Neapolitan pie with the addition of basil leaves to represent the red, white and green of the Italian flag and the pie was named the Margherita. Splendid!

Pizza Types

Italian immigration in the 20th century meant the global spread of this now classic Italian dish, Pizza, with different countries adding their own twists. The most famous adaptation being the Chicago-style pizza, which with its deep-pan base and heavy toppings is pretty far from the original crispy thin based Italian pizza. In Australia along with the traditional tomato and mozzarella they like to add bacon and egg to their pizzas, while the Brazilians like to sweeten their pizzas by adding banana, chocolate and pineapple and in Sweden their favourite pizza topping is doner kebab!

In the UK the favourite pizza topping is Pepperoni, followed by farmhouse (ham and mushroom) and then Hawaiian. It’s not only the UK that favours Pepperoni, with it also being the favourite pizza in the states, in fact it’s estimated that 114 million Kg of pepperoni is consumed on pizzas annually, that’s the same weight as 600 Blue Whales!

Recent years have seen the emergence of a totally different type of pizza, the Chocolate Pizza, as its name suggests it’s a pizza made out of chocolate. With a solid milk chocolate base and an assortment of toppings from fudge, to honeycomb to popping candy it’s the perfect marriage between two of our most popular foods, pizza and chocolate!

Record Breaking Pizzas

The largest ever pizza recorded was 37.4 meters in diameter and covered in 800kg of cheese, that’s the same width as 4 tennis courts and the equivalent to the average cows weight in cheese!

The most expensive pizza ever sold in a restaurant was £2,150 and was topped with smoked salmon, venison, cognac marinated lobster, champagne-soaked caviar and edible gold, for the same money you could buy 4 x iPads (32GB) and have enough left over for a Pizza Hut meal for about 20 people!

So there you have it folks... If that hasn't got you salivating we don't know what will

Sources: www.oxfam.org, www.yourguidetopizza.com, www.guinessworldrecords.com, www.pizzahut.com

If our yummy Pizza facts have your mouth watering, you may be interested in our fantastic competition to WIN a food-lover's dream holiday to Alabama worth £4000 to celebrate the Year of Food with Prezzybox! Simply click here for details of the competition and how to enter.