Well the little baby Jesus would be about four days old at this point and already the mince pies are stale, the giftwrap is being dumped into land-fills, the hangover is beginning to subside and everyone’s only really thinking about one thing:

NEW YEARS’ EVE!!

But what about the last twelve months?

2011 may be fast becoming yesteryear, but there’s been plenty to remember…

The year of the Percolator!

2011 saw the massive rise in popularity of percolator bongs. Every producer of glass smoking equiptment has pretty much jumped on this band-wagon and I, for one, couldn’t be happier!

Black Leaf, Frost, Basil Bush and others have all been cranking out more and more intricate pieces of glass to help you to enjoy a cooler, smoother and all ’round better smoke.

This technology (explained here) has become incredibly sought after this year and now - as 2011 begins to disolve into 2012 - you can find percolator adaptors to turn your regular bong into a perc! This is evoloution in action baby! Check ‘em out!

Here comes The Fuzz!

This year’s Cannabis Cup made history as it became the first of the gatherings to see a uniformed police presence confiscating atendees’ marijuana.

In what was finally revealed to be a dispute over the licensing of the venue, near to two-hundred uniformed dutch law-enforcers closed the doors to the event and proceeded to stop and serch Cup goers. Such police interference has been unheard of in the 24 years of the Cup.

We were there as it happened and were the first to report the news via Twitter (follow us! @AliBongoNorwich), Facebook (friend us!) and our blog. You can still read the first-hand, real-time account of the raid here.

Volcano release their first new product in years!

For anyone interested enough in alternative smoking products to be reading a headshop blog, I’m guessing Volcano needs no introduction – but just in case: Volcano Vaporizers are vaporizing products of super-high quality whose names are synonymous with pristine manufacturing and efficient use. They’re the tits, basically.

And now those crazy Germans have gone and done it again! 2011 marks the first time in years that these fantastic producers of vaporizing technology have released something new… and it’s called The Plenty:

To mark the release of The Plenty, we are offering Free Delivery AND, for a limited time, offering an Introductory Price. Click here for details!

The Bongo Bedsit is here!

Each year sees change – this is the nature of time. We grow, we adapt and blah blah blah. This year is no different and 2011 has seen the departure of our good friends Killatunes Records from our second floor. Many a year has been spent with Ash and Dan mixing beats, selling tunes and forming syphers upstairs. Alas, each has flown the nest with an view to doing something new, and this has paved the way for a fantastic new development in our two-floor store.

Behold: The Bongo Bedsit!

 

The space on our second floor is now filled with all the things you could ever need to make your home a little grotto of comfort…

Whether you’re after something soft and squishy, or some beautifully carved wood, something to put your feet up on or something to hang on your wall - you can find it all in the newly opened ‘Bongo Bedsit’!

You can find all of these homely bits and piece on our site too - just here!

So …

Japan is (struggling to) recovering from flood and earthquake devesatation; London was burnt down by an under-educated and angry generation; we saw the 10 year anniversary of the destruction of the Twin Towers; thousands of people worldwide have taken to the streets to protest about the seemingly arbitrary distribution of wealth; Millions have died in Somalia in the worst famine in over two decades; the public sector striked en masse in a desperate attempt to fight for fairer pensions and conditions; and Rebecca Black bombarded the YouTube community with ‘Friday‘.

For many, it has not been a good year.

But Ali Bongo has kept its head, which has helped many more to keep theirs. In a financial environment where retailers are forced to raise their price, Ali Bongo is having a HUGE SALE… whilst other high streets across the U.K are seeing shops close up, Ali Bongo is expanding!

Essentially, this is possible because of you – the customer, the blog-reader, the facebook friend, the word-spreader, bong-buyer and loyal shop-visiter.

We’d like to say a massive and genuine THANK YOU to all of you. We hope you will stick with us for the next twelve months, and if we’re not carried away by aliens, or washed away in a mad tsunami, we’ll see you for more of the same next year!!

x PEACE TO ALL x MUCH LOVE x HAPPY NEW YEAR x

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What were YOUR moments of 2011?

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