Banja Luka - the city I'd like to like

Advantages: Some stunning buildings
Disadvantages: Hard to get to know locals, run down with few signs of regeneration

..."How did you find the people in Banja Luka?" asked a Slovenian friend of mine when we met up recently. We had just been to Bosnia and Herzegovina and had made a point of visiting both parts of the divided country. Under the terms of the Dayton Peace Accord in 1995 Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided into two territorial entities - the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska; the country has one government and people live under the same laws no matter which entity they live in but this symbolic division of the country more or less along ethnic lines is what keeps a fragile peace on the country. I knew Darko's family were Serbian but I didn't know they were Bosnian Serbs. Maybe I wouldn't have been so honest with my answer had I known this. I told him I found the people quite unfriendly though, admittedly, I hadn't had...

fizzytom 11.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Banja Luka (Bosnia-Herzegovina)

Blooming great

Advantages: nice maternity clothes
Disadvantages: a bit pricey

...Being pregnant puts you in a bit of a tight spot wardrobe wise. I don?t want to wear a bin liner whilst I expand to the size of a small house, but going overboard on a wardrobe that is only going to be worn for about five months seems a waste of money. I never realised just how limited the choice of maternity clothes are. Few high street shops stock maternity clothes and those that do don?t necessarily have a maternity collection in all their branches. Blooming Marvellous is a bit of a godsend. Unfortunately there are only ten branches throughout the country. They have an internet site www.bloomingmarvellous.co.uk, where you can order items and see a range of their clothes. Half the stock is maternity wear, whilst the other half is baby wear. So it?s very tempting to pick up some baby clothes whilst I?m looking for things...

ricci 02.04.2004 · Read review
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Review of Blooming Marvellous

Absolutely Blooming Marvellous

Advantages: Great devices for making Life with a baby easier
Disadvantages: can be pricey

...Blooming Marvellous is a great shop for helpful baby items that I have never found elsewhere. I first heard of Blooming Marvellous when a friend told me about it, when my son was only 3 months old (he is now 2). I was out with him and trying to warm up a bottle for him using a bottle warmer I had purchased from boots. It was one of these where you press a little button and set off an exothermic reaction. It wasn't that great at warming the bottle and once it had been used once that was it. My friend suggested I try Blooming Marvellous where they sold special designed flasks for warming bottles. I bought one and it was brilliant it was a flask with a long lid that you could fill with boiling water and stand the bottle in, can be used more than once. That was my first of many purchases from Blooming Marvellous What can you buy in...

drow22 05.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of Blooming Marvellous

Marvellous... Blooming Marvellous

Advantages: Great selection
Disadvantages: A bit pricey

...I was desperate to start showing when I was pregnant and then when I did, I was desperate for decent maternity clothes. A few people recommended that I tried Blooming Marvellous. I?d never heard of them before but then again, why should I have? LOCATIONS: This review is based on my own experiences visiting the Chester store although there are other branches in: * Bath * Bluewater * Cobham * Fulham * Manchester * Marlow * Richmond * St Albans * Winchester CHESTER STORE LAYOUT: Unfortunately, if you?ve ever visited Chester, you will know that some of the shops, being in very old buildings, have to work with the space and do what they can. Because of this, Blooming Marvellous is on two heights with a few steps down half way in the store. It is really inconvenient if you have a pram but if you haven...

RClure 19.08.2004 · Read review
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Review of Blooming Marvellous

Covering my Blooming Bump

Advantages: Good selection, decent value, stock available
Disadvantages: Fashions could be more up-to-date

...When you are pregnant, choosing clothes can be a bit of a nightmare. Even for someone who loves to shop, like me, when you?re carrying around a big bulge and none of your clothes fit you anymore ? desperation can sink in. I am now 3 months pregnant and all but one of my trousers have stopped fitting me. I knew it was bad when the flies on my jeans started spontaneously unzipping themselves! But as a first time pregnant woman, I wasn?t sure where to head in a hurry. So my first stop was the mail-order catalogues: Blooming Marvellous and JoJo Maman Bebe. In this op, I?m going to tell you about my experience of Blooming Marvellous. ** CHOOSING WHAT YOU WANT ** Blooming Marvellous has a 100-page catalogue, full of maternity fashion, baby clothes, furniture and toys for the nursery, and maternity ?essentials? such as...

Maia 05.11.2003 · Read review
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Review of Blooming Marvellous

Blooms Delicatessen

Advantages: food, service, price, atmosphere
Disadvantages: none

...PORTIONS! The portions at BLOOM'S are XL. There is no doubt one gets their money's worth. I ordered a salad. When the waitress brought it to my table, my mouth fell open. It was a whole meal. I ended up taking half of it back to my hotel room's fridge. It was too good to leave behind. FRESH! Everything at BLOOM'S is fresh. The sandwich meats...the vegetables...the bread. HOMEMADE! I found myself feeling a little bit under the weather one day. A bowl of BLOOM'S HOMEMADE chicken soup was a real comfort. Its chock-full of ingredients with a delicious broth. Better than Mom's. Ssshh! SERVICE - The waitress was one of the nicest people I ever met. She was friendly, helpful and made me feel right at home. PRICE - Very reasonable. Definitely worth the $. MENU - I honestly cannot remember the large variety of offerings on BLOOM...

NcNyc 30.07.2001 (13.08.2001) · Read review
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Review of Blooms Delicatessen, New York

Yellow Moth Orchid from Bloom

Advantages: will NEVER die on you
Disadvantages: needs the occasional dusting

...are a lovely shade of yellow with brown spots/markings on them. I have seven opened flowers on mine and also two buds which only adds to the realistic look of this item. Mine measures about 12 inches in height bent over so would be a little higher than this if it was upright. I'd say this was the ideal room decoration for the non-green-fingered like me. It looks good but doesn't need any care or attention. It doesn't mind if you go away on holiday for a week or two or ten and will still look fab when you return. The only down point is you may get bored ot it because it'll always look fab! It will never look worn or tired so you'll have to think of some other excuse to justify buying a replacement to your husband! Bloom sells gits and is based in Nottinghamshire: www.bloom.uk.com. You can shop online or request...

mum2natalie 22.06.2006 (26.06.2006) · Read review
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Review of Bloom - Yellow Moth Orchid

Blooming marvellous.

Advantages: Location, breakfast and price
Disadvantages: Noisy

......

pmarsh1986 03.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of Blooms Hotel, Dublin

ok product range, very poor customer service

Advantages: Product range includes some useful and some nice items for preparing for baby.
Disadvantages: Poor customer services who consistently make mistakes. In my view unreliable.

...Ordered several times. Products are acceptable but I received very poor service. I have had four bad experiences. First time several items were listed as in stock on the website, then became out of stock before delivery. I called customer services twice to say that I wanted the out of stock items cancelled instead of having them delivered when available. The items I had cancelled were still delivered, many weeks later and I had to pay to return them. Second order: the delivery address I entered on the website was correct, but the delivery address used by Blooming Marvellous somehow got modified afterwards - for some time the parcel was sitting at the courrier distribution centre because Blooming Marvellous had used an address that did not exist. I only found out when I tried to trace what had happened to my parcel and it was...

ec_fr 12.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Blooming Marvellous

Merry Blooming Christmas!

Advantages: An interesting take on St. Nick, fairly funny and wonderfully animated
Disadvantages: Not as enjoyable as 'The Snowman', could be seen as a bit too strange

.... Like 'The Snowman', the film wasn't what you'd call epic in any stretch of the imagination; lasting roughly 25 minutes, the film does manage to fit quite a lot of material in during that time, including the repetition of the word 'blooming'! Well, even by this films standard, Santa is a man who wouldn't swear, of course... BASIC PLOT 'Father Christmas' is based upon two books by Briggs, one of the same name and one in which Santa ventures off around the world, fed up of being stuck in the North Pole with nothing to do, other then feed the reindeer and garden. The whole thing is centred on Father Christmas' grumpy attitude to a time of year the majority of people love. The irony of Father Xmas not loving his job here is never all that thoroughly explored other than the fact that people take him for granted. Fair argument, I suppose; there...

MizzMolko 17.12.2008 · Read review
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Review of Father Christmas (DVD)