High flying adored

It's been a long time since I blogged, and now I am back. You will be relieved to know that I am not going to lead a hate campaign against a certain Spanish bank that must-not-be-named, nor will I mention a very awful supermarket that rhymes with UNESCO, instead I am flying the flag for saving the pennies and revealing my patriotic side in this glorious Jubilee year.

First off, saving the pennies. What is the one luxury that you cannot possibly live without? When the chips are down and the banks are printing more money just to make the world go round, I would say the one material thing I could not go without is a good holiday. Buyer beware, or caveat emptor as we lawyers might say. A cheap holiday may leave you with a whole lot more than you bargained for.

Take for example a flight with a low-cost carrier. More often than not, these airlines employ a "stealth pricing strategy" involving added charges for hold baggage, seats together, so-called priority boarding (have you ever seen us Chinese queuing???) and don't even get me started on expensive food. The cruellest and most evil thing anyone can do on a plane is to order one of those overpriced ham and cheese toasties, or a bacon sarnie and smile sweetly as the scent wafts gently down the aisle of the aircraft. Enough said.

Anyway, by the time you have paid for all these added extras, you may as well have gone with a regular airline, got your free paper, drunk your bubbles, thank you very much, and not had to wear a jacket that doubles up as a suitcase. Besides, the flight times with these more traditional fleets generally tends to be more civilised so travelling is just less stressful.

On our recent trip to China, Mr Cross insisted we pay for Premium Economy as he is six foot tall and played American Football at university (it's called college football for those in the know, and it's called a lid and not a helmet in case you were wondering!). On the return journey, I was so exhausted and stressed out from the 16-day tour, that I made up my mind that I was going to get us a complimentary upgrade to Club. If you don't know me, as many of you don't, you will soon learn that when I decide to do something, I don't do it by halves. All or nothing as the croupier might shout.

The short version of the story is that it took me 30 minutes of refusing to budge from the check-in desk, my best Sportmax coat, a lot of charm and patience, and a combination of English, fluent Cantonese and conversational Mandarin, and sheer dogged determination, and after that half hour, I emerged floating in a bubble, not quite believing I had done it, but I had. And no, it didn't cost me the 11,000RMB per person I was quoted from the outset. It cost me some time, possibly one grey hair (Mr Cross can pull it out at a later date), and a few glares from some staff and fellow passengers, and all I can say is that for the 13-hour flight back to Terminal 5, it was the best deal I have struck thus far. Well I don't count my marriage contract - there are some that may say that Mr Cross has done a deal with a little red devil.

Call me what you like, but just remember this: DON'T CALL ME JANE!!!

Vintage at Southbank

It was a fun Friday lunchtime today when Lady Cross and her pals found themselves wandering around the wonderful stalls at Vintage at Southbank.

There are some amazing finds, fabulous frocks and wonderful people, all of whom are friendly and willing to sell. Here is a quick preview of some of the best.

My favourite jewellery stall was bobbin & bow, with this hummingbird necklace being a choice pick. The jeweller was inspired by her grandmother, who was also a designer. All the pieces are handmade and extremely wearable as well as being beautiful.

In terms of big-hearted personalities, one big hit with the girls was Galina Sherri. She is a stylist extraordinaire and has record-label musicians on her books. Her amazing emporium of goodies included a pair of open-toe Ferragamos (sadly size 4.5), mother-of-pearl antique cuffs and a gorgeous array of clothes to suit any discerning vintage buff.

And when it's time to stop for tea, when who better to call than Mrs Stokes. Lovely tea sets at affordable prices, including great names such as Royal Albert and Webster. But that's not all. Mrs Stokes offers a china hire service, haberdashery, cake-plates and stands and even tea parties.

After all, a nice cup of English breakfast always tastes better in fine china. Why not make it vintage?

Lady Cross seals the deal

Hi all

I thought I would share with you a quick hint about how to save money when making purchases, by sharing a recent shopping experience with you. I am not sure whether it is because of my non-practising lawyer status, or because of my Chinese heritage, but when purchasing items, I always remember the number one rule of negotiation - never accept a first offer.

Take for example the approach I took to buying a piece of jewellery for a close relative's special birthday. The piece that I picked out was not in the sale, and was priced at over £200. I sent a polite e-mail to customer services asking if they could offer me a discount code as I was buying a present for a 60th birthday. I pointed out that the item I wished to buy was not reduced, was retailing at a couple of hundred, and I would really appreciate any help they could offer me in relation to a special deal. A couple of days later, a very friendly and happy e-mail from a customer services adviser from H Samuel offered me an online code with a 15% discount. I also benefitted from cashback from my favourite cashback site Quidco (have you seen their latest advert on TV?).

I spoke to a friend at work about my success and she said she felt she could not bring herself to ask such a thing of a salesperson. I do have sympathy with that. If you feel uncomfortable about asking, then just don't. And to be honest, if you have that kind of vibe as you nervously ask Mr-Shiny-Shoes-in-a-Suit for a deal (while avoiding eye contact), the chances are that you will probably not strike gold. My friend agreed however that the worst response she could receive was a no. Which is true. And it is their prerogative to say no after all, so be prepared for that.

The key thing is to be polite, firm and non-abusive (non-abusive is important). After all, the staff are there to serve you and they probably make commission from your sale, so if they can help you commit to the sale with an incentive, then it is win-win situation - the best outcome in a negotiation scenario.

I know at times, customer service can be frustrating (you know my history with Santander), but at the end of the day, these people we encounter are not personally responsible for the bad experiences you have had. To be fair, sometimes they add to your irritation by being rude when you complain, which only exacerbates the situation, but generally I like to think that people are not horrible and do not have anything better to do then make your life a misery. Or has my foray from the steely legal sphere into the world of legal publishing left me soft and less cynical?

I'll let you be the judge of that.

Wedding touch

Hello!

In the spirit of Royal Wedding madness, I am going to introduce you to Wedding Touch, a business venture of our friend Carren, who helped us on our special day. Check out her portfolio at http://www.theweddingtouch.blogspot.com/ which includes some pictures from our wedding.

Place cards, menus, table plans - all tailored to your specific wishes. My sister got our guests to sign their table menu which is a lovely wedding keepsake from the day. The table plan is beautifully framed and has pride of place in the study. I am particularly pleased about the table plan as each table was named after a Shakespeare play (well - our wedding was in Stratford upon Avon!) and Carren found old-fashioned pictures from each play and used them as watermark backgrounds for each table, with the guests names printed on top. The big "Jane-May and Graham" in the centre was handpainted.

Carren's magical touch in attention to detail, and quality and beauty of design was the icing on the cake (!) and providing the perfect finishing touch to our wedding day.

Have fun this Royal Wedding bank holiday weekend guys and gals - enjoy the sunshine! And maybe even enjoy planning your own wedding with Wedding Touch!

Black Friday makes Mrs C see red

Ok so Mrs Cross has had a little blogging holiday and is now back. That is, a holiday from blogging, as opposed to a holiday spent blogging, or a holiday with bloggers.

I did say in a earlier post that I was not going to rant negatively about things, so I am doing a slight twist on that, which is reporting on some bad customer service so that you can avoid the same mistakes that I made. And in try Polyanna spirit, "be glad" that you were not me this evening.

So in case you haven't heard, Black Friday lightning deals on Amazon are "amazing, not to be missed deals" that are listed for a limited period (usually only an hour) and it's fastest finger first, literally. The offers include massively discounted kitchenware, books, games and even Wiis which are likely to be highly sought after in the pre-Christmas rush.

I found a lightning deal that I liked that involved a collection of three Nigella Lawson cookery books at a cracking price of £15. This included Nigella's latest Kitchen book which Amazon usually retails for £12.99. So all in all, a good deal. If you can get it that is.

So the deal began promptly and I clicked on "Put in basket" with lightning speed and happily found that I was "in the queue" to receive this top deal. Little did I know that I would be "in the queue" over an hour later. When one hour passed, the deal expired and the Nigella books had never made it into my basket.

When I rang Amazon to discuss this, I spoke to a customer services representative who was very rude and unwilling to help me. To be honest, I think she was reading off a pre-typed sheet of answers, because most of her responses to my questions didn't even make sense. After ten minutes of waffle and getting nowhere, I asked to speak to her supervisor and was put on hold. A couple of minutes later, I was promptly cut off.

Now that I am typing this blog, I find the whole situation quite ridiculous and also very funny. Mostly because I was a complete fool to think I could beat the system and get the Nigella books at a bargain price. I thought if there was one person who could possibly do it, it was me. But I was wrong. And others will follow suit.

Still, for about an hour, I was happily grinning at the thought of snaring this deal, so to return to Polyanna for one final flourish, I am glad that although Amazon wasted a whole hour of my time, I was happy, but under false pretences.

So a couple of hours later, I have pizza in my tummy that Mr C ordered me and have been subjected to Stargate Universe. Which I secretly like. Now that's true happiness.

I AM BORING

Ok, I'll get the nasty bit out of the way. Please vote for me in the Author Blog Awards. I am currently one of the front runners, and if I win, all those that voted for me win prizes too.

So enough of the begging and back to the business of blogging.

I was lucky enough (although this phrase may later seem ironic) to win tickets to a preview showing of lo sono l'amore (I am love) with Tilda Swinton cast as Emma Recchi, a Russian who married into a powerful Milanese family.

This film tries too hard to be something that it is not, and the results are not entirely pleasing. It is awkward instead of quirky, and embarrassing instead of emotional. The two hours I sat uncomfortably in my seat felt long and draining. I wanted to love this film, but wanting to love something is not the same as truly loving it.

Even the music, which in isolation might have been something was spoilt by the discordant matching of notes to scenes. And I speak as a Royal College of Music Junior Department veteran, as opposed to a "critic" that happens to tune into Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on the occasional Sunday morning on Classic FM.

I generally try to be positive about the things that I review because it isn't nice to say mean things. But I have a duty to be honest as well. So I will settle for an attempt at diplomacy. The most beautiful thing I can say about l'amore is that I had a nice long sit-down next to my husband who held my hand for a couple of hours after a busy day at work while I forced this horrendous experience on him. And the only punishment I got was his comment that I could use his line "I am boring" for the title of this blog entry.

If I were a film judge, this film would get 10/10 for effort but only 1/10 for attainment.

Just in a final attempt to be positive, I am very grateful to the esteemed publication that is the Guardian for letting me win free tickets, so I didn't have to pay. Thanking you kindly.

Does Kick-Ass kick ass or does it need its ass kicked...?

The lovely people at seefilmfirst sent me to watch Kick-Ass on the condition that I did my homework which is this write-up.

Actually the headline isn't so controversial and it's completely borrowed from the film.

Kick-Ass is a funny, laugh-out-loud feel-good movie which obviously has you laughing out loud (it does what is says on the tin), but there are also moments where you can feel yourself welling up. Or maybe that's just me, the sentimentalist. And I did feel a bit guilty laughing at the guy being heated up in an industrial microwave, and that's not even the funniest killing of a bad guy. Though that's enough of the plot spoilers.

I would say that this film made me want to join some kind of gun club at the weekend. It makes you want to be as cool as Hit Girl, though not obviously as sad as Kick-Ass himself, but every geek as his redeeming features and Kick-Ass gets his girl in the end as we all know he will.

This is a film that you could happily watch at the cinema, buy on DVD on pre-release and then watch with your friends when you have a popcorn movie night. It's fun and it knows how to laugh at itself too.

Catch it when it comes to a screen near you...