Web site reviews

Website reviews returns to the radio in a week. If you have a good website then please email details to bill@abbeyfm.co.uk and it may feature on the show free of charge

Sleight of Hand

Thursdays website review on Abbey FM

Amazed by card tricks? Fascinated by the sleight of hand? Well click on www.caveofmagic.com to be truly amazed and fascinated by online card tricks, mind games and more. Plus it explains how magicians like David Blaine perform their illusions. Paul Daniels, eat your heart out!!

Volunteering.

Wednesdays website review

If you’re feeling the spirit of goodwill, why not get involved with volunteer work. The aim is to raise awareness of the important work that volunteers do, and to encourage everyone to do their part in helping their community. Take a look at www.do-it.org.uk as it’s a great way of finding volunteer jobs in your area.

Acceptable in the 80’s

Tuesdays website review

If you’re one of those people who like to look back on how things used to be then www.letsgoretro.com is an online directory and shop of all things retro. From Space Invader arcade games and Rubik Cubes, to cult T-Shirts and Space Hoppers, you’ll find it all here. And best of all it’s a British site so you’ll get your retro gear delivered the very next day.

Hungry Suitcase.

Mondays website review

If you would like to know what your perfect holiday would be, pay a visit to www.hungrysuitcase.com Simply feed the case with items from the virtual house and it will reveal what type of trip would suit your personality perfectly.

The life and times of a Barrow Cabbie.

I`ve covered this site before and there is an interview with the webmaster available for download HERE. Its such a good blog I thought I would just mention it again as its updated almost daily by the webmaster and is well worth a daily read. The website address is www.taxistorys.blogspot.com

Trading Standards

Know your rights and don’t give dodgy dealers a chance to rip you off. Verything you need to know can be found at www.tradingstandards.gov.uk . This government site lets you know where you stand legally when you walk into a shop and buy a product.
Apart from the advice, the website also keeps up to date with any product recalls and tells you how you can block your telephone and computer to unsolicited callers and emails.

Fancy a Pint?

Wednesday nights website review of the day

Bored of the same old local every week? Want to sample the pleasures of a beer a little further afield? Log onto www.beerintheevening.com and find yourself a new hangout. Comments about people who have visited the pubs are very useful and an added bonus is transport information. In addition, a real gem of an extra is a “Crawl Generator”, which sorts out a pub crawl itinery for you.

Know where you’re going.

If you want to know anything about any town in Britain straight from the horses mouth then check out www.knowhere.co.uk . This directory and search engine features notice boards for almost every town right down to teeny villages, where locals can post up info on where to go, what to do and what to avoid. Good features include information about local celebrities and hang outs

Builder Blues

Whether you’re putting up some lights, building a fireplace or being really adventurous and building your own house, its always wise to learn from others.

Whatever your building needs you can find the help you need at www.askthebuilder.com . The site features an A-Z of design and construction issues of which you will find answers to reader questions. You can also read the weekly column and tips or submit your own queries.

Arcade Fire

If you spent your youth playing Arcade games then take a look at www.mame.net as it allows you to take a nostalgic trip down memory lane and play them again. At this site you can enjoy some long lost arcade games as well as some new ones.

Calm Down

Wednesdays website review is A website that’s is aimed at helping you manage stress and the importance of taking care of your own mental health. If you find that life’s getting on top of you then visit www.stressbusting.co.uk and you will find that it is one of the many websites designed to help.

I Used to Believe….

When you were a child, you probably believed in a lot of things like the Tooth Fairy, The Bogey Man and the Easter Bunny. But what about the less common beliefs such as those that are unique to one person? Click on over to www.iusedtobelieve.com and you will find it is an entertaining collection of things that people used to believe when they were young.

Real Magic

The first website review of 2008 is all about magic and tricks.

www.realmagic.net is a must visit site for anyone who fancies themselves as a budding Harry Potter. You can play all kinds of online magic games, play card tricks with Esmerelda or let her predict your future in her crystal ball. There’s also a section where you can find out the secrets behind some of the memorable magic tricks.

If you have a website or know of any interesting ones to feature on the show then please get in touch with me and it may appear on the show very soon. Its all free of charge and can promote your website. The only proviso is that you are not a business and there is no profitable gain made from the site.

Catflaps and Sport

A website suggested to me by a listener to the late show here on Abbey FM is a site called Catflap Magazine - "It's not about cats, its about football!" and it is actually the world's first football eZine, which is totally free and delivered to your inbox each Friday. The magazine ( and sister website) takes a humorous and irreverent look at the world of football and can be found at http://www.catflapmag.com.

Catflap Mag has already been garnering some great recommendations - most notably in The Telegraph (a hot pick), The Sunday Times and The Guardian. Why is it named Catflap - well it means stuffing the ball in the corner of the net where the goalie can't get to it - as in "Rooney's put it right through the Catflap."

Regular features include the Catflap Chinwag - this week we talk to star of The Royle Family, Ricky Tomlinson, about his love of the sport, and next week we interview star of Gavin and Stacey Mathew Horne, who talks about his love of Spurs and Kylie. Other features include:

* Ground Control to Major Tom, - a unique big budget blockbuster competition involving a cat falling from space onto a variety of British football Stadia.

* 2 Become 1 - a morphing item wherein we use our technology to fuse two seemingly disparate things - such as Alex Ferguson and a Highland terrier.

* Catflap Doghouse - People in trouble in the news each week.

On a sports tip, the company that create Catflap (Made Up Media) also produce a rugby site, and a golf site http://www.ScrumOfTheEarth.com and http://www.InGolfWeTrust.com

Green Christmas

Christmas is the one time of year when you can eat, drink and spend without having to feel guilty but according to environmentalists, Christmas 2007 will result in three million tonnes of waste but help is on hand at www.wasteonline.org.uk . The website is full of useful tips on how to cut down on the amount your household wastes as well as how to save you money without being a scrooge!

Difficult Times at Christmas

The lead up to Christmas can be a difficult time if you are single as you imagine happy couples exchanging gifts and kissing under the mistletoe and this can start your mind wondering as you think of some of the people you havnt seen for a long time and if you want to track down anyone then check out www.myoldflames.com as it might be a good place to look as the website has nearly two million users so one of them just might be someone you have lost touch with.

Cheesy Chat-Ups

If you want to make sure you have somebody to kiss this Christmas then there’s one website you could visit. Take a look at www.chatuplines.net which apparently has the best chat up lines for both men and women, so no matter who you are, you will always have the right thing to say. But as men and women seem to think having a good sense of humour is the most attractive thing, the website also has a list of jokes.

Precious Moments

As the days get shorter, its even more important that you make the most of your time. One website says their quick tips can save you hours in wasted time. www.waitless.org shows you how to shave seconds off tasks like tying your shoe laces and taking your shirt off. The websites also worked out that their tips can save you a month over the course of your lifetime so its gotta be worth a look, if only for a laugh.

Video Lan

If you are looking for an all singing all dancing media player which will play just about any file format and you want it to be open source, then look no further than VLC: a free download available from www.videolan.org .

Long known to the web wise, VLC is the ultimate multimedia application. So, what is so special about this player?

Well it can chew up and spit out just about any sort of media file: MPEG, DivX, OGG, DVD - in fact it would be quicker to list the file formats it does not support.

The technology is open source and is constantly being updated by developers in 20 different countries.

There are also different versions of VLC for pretty much every operating system around. All your multimedia problems solved with a quick download and it is free