Before we know it, it’s going to be time to deck those halls.

Imagine if this year you could have yourself a merry little stress-free Christmas. No rushing around busy over-crowded shops, waiting in endless queues. No last minute dashes out on Christmas Eve and certainly no frustrating fight to find the end of the roll of Sellotape for the umpteenth time. Let Yopa remove your Christmas stresses this year with our personal concierge service.

The Yopa elves know just how busy and stressful life can be, especially at Christmas and are here to take some of the pain of Christmas shopping away, leaving you more time to relax and enjoy the festive season.

How can YOPA help?

We can help by sourcing luxury gifts for your friends and loved ones. You might already have an idea of what you’d like to buy or you may need a little more inspiration. Just tell us who you are shopping for, your budget and any interests and hobbies - we’ll take care of the rest, offering three suggestions for you to choose from. With our bespoke gift-wrapping service we will tackle every present, regardless of how oddly shaped they are - large or small we can wrap them all! We will make sure your gifts are perfectly wrapped, so all that is left for you to do is pop them under the Christmas tree.

Whether you are looking for just one incredible gift for that special someone, a unique gift for a colleague or business contact, or maybe you’d like all of your Christmas shopping taken care of. Whatever your needs, why not let Yopa be your very own Christmas helper this year!

Call us now on 01926 355777 to ensure you are organised well in advance and you can put up your feet and make the most of the festive season knowing that everything is being taken care of – cheers!

After using our services, what will you do with all your new-found free time?

Royal Leamington Spa is a lovely town - it’s definitely a great place to work, but, if you’re like us and don’t find shopping on a Saturday (with everyone else) hugely appealing, it’s good to find somewhere different to go at weekends.

There are two castles within a 15 minute drive of the centre of Leamington Spa - Warwick castle is spectacular. If you have never been, WHY NOT? Plan a trip immediately - go for broke and invite friends or family along. £24 for an adult might sound a bit expensive, but book on-line and that comes down to £18, and we promise you won’t be disappointed. And with their ‘rainy day guarantee’, you get to come back for free if your trip gets washed out.

The other castle is based at Kenilworth. Owned by English Heritage, it is one of the largest historic attractions in the West Midlands, and is best known as the home of Robert Dudley, the great love of Queen Elizabeth I. Kenilworth Castle was enhanced over time to impress his Queen in 1575 and in a bid to gain her hand in marriage.

The most recent additions are the recreated Elizabethan Garden which had been lost to the world for over 400 years and new for 2014 are the Kenilworth Castle Platforms. The new staircases take visitors up 18m (60ft) to the queen’s former bedroom and views over the castle grounds and lands once held by Dudley and the previous owners of the castle.

To say that the office is buzzing this week would be something of an understatement. 

What’s got us all excited? Well we are thrilled to confirm that we have been short-listed as finalists in the Small Business category at the first ever Leamington Business Awards!

When the concept of a ‘Leamington Business Award’ was first mentioned to Melanie (MD), she knew immediately that she wanted to support the venture, and so Yopa Services became one of the first sponsors:

‘Yopa are proud to sponsor Leamington Business Awards with call answering, PA support and bookkeeping. It is important for us to be part of our local community, not only supporting local businesses but to help out with local events, especially local charities. We think Leamington Business Awards has been a truly inspirational and innovative creation, celebrating the success of our prestigious town.’

These awards have been created by the amazing and dedicated committee ‘For the town, by the town, about the town’. They are not-for-profit, every penny raised will go to support the nominated charity The Air Ambulance Service. Now the judging panel has been confirmed, and we know you’ll agree that it’s a brilliant blend of high-calibre professionals, who not only have a wealth of experience, but are all local to Leamington! (You can read about them here:The Judges for the Leamington Business Awards).

The awards are being held at the iconic Royal Pump Rooms in the heart of Leamington Spa on Friday 17th October 2014. You can get tickets here. 

After using our services, what will you do with all your new-found free time?

Going for a walk with family and friends on a sunny day is a lovely thing to do. Combine it with a good pub lunch, and it’s practically perfect. But do you know what is even better? Adding a treasure hunt.

I don’t know about you, but one of our Yopalets LOVE treasure hunts. She’s 34, and her mum still does an easter egg hunt for her and her sister. She enjoys the hunt more than the chocolate at the end, and she really likes chocolate!

Have you heard of Geocaching? Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. It’s an activity you can do with all the family.

Our Yopalet discovered geocaching several years ago and uses the printable maps from the geocaching website. Nowadays there are apps available for GPS-enabled smart phones and there are literally hundreds of thousands of caches hidden all over the world.

Some of her favourite geocaches are along the canals in Leamington Spa and Warwick - a perfect place to combine a walk, a treasure hunt, a bit of gongoozling (watching of canal boats) and a nice place to stop for lunch.

A 5-mile walk from Radford Road near Leamington, along the canal, will take you past no less than 14 geocaches! If you’re not a regular walker, or you have children with you, that might be a bit ambitious, as you probably have to walk back (unless you’re travelling on a canal boat!).

If you don’t want to do that much walking, why not park at the bottom of Hatton Locks and walk up? There is loads to see. It’s a lovely walk of about 2 miles (in each direction) with 7 ‘caches’ along the way. There are a few places to stop for a bite to eat and plenty of places you can stop to watch the world go by.

Our top tip though would be to walk from central Leamington up to the top of Hatton Locks (about 5 miles) collecting up to 16 caches on the way - stop for lunch at the very friendly canal cafe up there, where you will have a ringside view of the boats chugging up and down through the locks, then stroll back down the hill and jump on a train from Warwick Parkway back to Leamington Spa. In fact, we can’t think of a nicer way to spend a day off - exercise, treasure hunting and a good lunch. Fantastic!

What will you do with the spare time you get from outsourcing your time-consuming office tasks to us?