Product Reviews – Page 3

How to train your hubby to do the School Run!

7 Simple Questions

We started back to school last week, thank god as I was on my knees and desperate to have routine back! As I work in teacher training the first couple of days back are usually busy form me, with INSET days, so I left hubby to do the school run. It’s one of the positives of him working from home, so he’s able to help out and often does the morning run.

As always, the night before I set everything out; a new Asda George School Pinafore, pristine white socks, Polo Shirt, brand spanking new Kicker School Shoes from Cloggs (no need to polish), Cardigan, the correct Days of the Week Pants (Wednesday), Book Bag and PE Kit. I thought I was fail safe, it was all strategically placed in the lounge so no need to find anything, all he had to do was get her dressed, brush her teeth and hair and make sure she didn’t have any toothpaste on her chin a baby wipe would have sufficed.

To the untrained eye, it will look like he did a pretty good job, she’s all smiles, dressed and at the correct classroom. However, I asked him to snap a photo of the momentous first day of Year 2, which he text to me during the day. But after closer scrutiny I noticed a few things.

The socks were fairly obvious and made me chuckle, they’re called knee socks for a reason and it isn’t that difficult to say ‘pull your socks up’. The headband is a dead giveaway that he didn’t brush her hair and in fact, I’m confident she must have done it herself. She often does this to avoid the dreaded mats, by simply pulling it into a pony tail and taming her fringe with a hair band, which really isn’t a problem, but makes it doubly hard to brush the following day.

As for brushing her teeth and washing her face, you can’t tell from the photo, but he hasn’t done it in the last two years so right in assuming it wasn’t done that morning. It’s not the end of the world, but with new teeth coming in it’s important she learns to care for them as she won’t be getting a new set.

I also noticed that there is no sign of her new School Bag, it really isn’t hard to miss, that we have for her PE Kit, sadly our required PE kit will not fit into a drawstring bag. Our kids have PE twice a week, one indoor and the other outside so we have quite a kit list and needed a slightly larger bag. And what happened to her book bag, it took me ages to find the damn thing?

To be fair, I wouldn’t have expected him to iron her polo shirts, but they had come straight out of the bag and when she took her pinafore off that evening it still had the ‘just out of the package’ creases on it.

I shouldn’t give him such a hard time. He did manage to get her there on time. Bless! I’m just sad I missed her first day of Year 2! Where is the time going?

Do you eat your Pizza with your hands?

‘Everybody likes pizza! It’s a quick and easy clean-up meal’ – Buddy Valastro

I’ve always eaten pizza with my hands. However, once moving to the UK, I noticed more and more people eating it with a fork and knife, which I find a tad strange. Often when I go out with friends, I always find myself apologizing in advance that I will be eating mine with my hands.

Philistine?

I’ve tried eating it with a fork and knife to look less of a heathen but I find it painstakingly slow, maybe it will slow me down so I eat less but I can’t be bothered. Isn’t the whole point of the crust so that you can eat it in a similar vein to a sandwich?

I was invited down to Prezzo in St Albans, Herts last week to try out the new menu. I took the opportunity to take a long time friend so we could have a proper catch up over some food and a glass of wine. We’ve known each other long enough so I didn’t feel I needed to do the usual, ‘sorry I eat my pizza with my hands’. The waiter also agreed with me.

Normally, I’m a bit predictable and normally have a Fiorentina Pizza, which is basically a Spinach Pizza with an Egg plopped on top. But, as a seafood lover, I spotted a Lobster and Prawn option on the menu and asked the waiter which one I should have. He quickly said, you can’t compare the two and you have to have the Lobster and Prawn one. He couldn’t have been more right it was absolutely gorgeous.

You expect me to eat all of that?

I wish we would have got a picture of my face when it arrived at the table. No word of a lie, it was as wide as the table and enough for at least two people and we’d just shared a Bread Board. Plus, it came with a pizza cutter so I could cut it into slices and dive in with my hands!

I’ve been to a couple of other Pizza chains in St Albans, Herts and have only been to Prezzo once before, but in my opinion Prezzo was far superior. The others I find a bit chainy, very open plan and clanging with noise.

We had a lovely table, it wasn’t heaving but still felt that we could have a decent conversation without competing with all the background noise, the service was excellent, reasonably priced, great selection of wines and both of our meals were gorgeous. My friend opted for a Raviolli pasta dish and it was just as nice as my pizza and they were very accommodating when she asked if she could have mushrooms added to it.

So the big question is, do you eat your Pizza with a fork and knife or with your hands? Please do leave a comment.

Clever Lunchbox for Kids

What a clever design for a kid’s lunch box!

‘We absolutely love M’s new lunchbox!’ – dinner ladies

I was sent this Flatbox-Lunchbox from The Nicest Stuff a few weeks ago and I think it’s absolutely brilliantly clever! As you can see, it opens out flat so you can use it as a mini picnic blanket which is great for school and days out. It easily holds all the contents of her lunch and even her nimble six-year old fingers can cope with the zippers.

Cinch to Clean

But one of the things I like the most is the fact that it’s easy to clean. Anyone who has tried to dig crumbs out of the creases of normal lunch boxes will know what I’m on about. For the most part I can just open it up and give it a shake in the garden.

However, yesterday it had some yogurt on it from a rogue spoon. I tried to give it a little wipe, which works most of the time, but this time it didn’t. So, as it is neoprene, I just chucked it in the washing machine on a short cycle, hung it on the back of a chair and it was dry by morning which makes it much more hygienic than other lunch boxes.

Being neoprene it is also heat resistant and the dual layer keeps things cold for longer. It also comes in a selection of colours.

Currently on sale for £19.25 down from £27.50!

Disappearing Act

My only complaints would be that there isn’t a place to put her name on it. We have lost several lunchboxes in the past but luckily they resurfaced. One was in the child-minders toy box.

Other than that, I highly recommend it!

My First Ballet: Coppélia #review

Things to do in London with Kids during Easter

Apparently it doesn’t matter if you’re 6 or 65 years old, men in bulging tights are hilarious!

I took my mother who is visiting from Canada and daughter to see Coppélia by the English National Ballet on Monday night at the Peacock Theatre in London and the two of them spent the first act giggling. I have to admit I was slightly distracted as well. Once we got passed being juvenile we thoroughly enjoyed it.

‘My First Ballet series brings young audiences their first taste of ballet through the magic of fairy tales, captivating music and beautiful dance’

For the last 3 years the 2nd Year Students from the English National Ballet have been putting on performances based on traditional fairy tales to foster a love of the ballet from an early age. We’ve been to see Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.

Coppélia was not one that I was familiar with and when I first started researching the story and it mentioned an eccentric toymaker who wanted nothing more to bring his doll to life, I initially thought it was going to be Pinocchio but that is where any similarities end.

A Case of Mistaken Identity

Franz and Swanilda are set to be married, but Swanilda catches Franz flirting with Coppélia, Dr Coppélius life-size doll and in a rage calls off the wedding.

The bride to be and her friends sneak into the Toymakers house to discover that she is simply a mechanical doll and cruelly fool the doctor into thinking his doll has finally come to life…..

The My First Ballet series is an excellent way to introduce both young and old to the ballet. It will be playing at the Peacock Theatre from the 8th – 19th of April.

How to Save Time and Money as a Household

Large Capacity Washing Machines by Beko UK

‘I can’t remember the last time I saw the bottom of my laundry baskets’

For the last few weeks I’ve been reviewing Beko’s Large Capacity EcoSmart Washing Machine that can do a 9kg load in less 39 minutes! I was able to do all of my laundry in the fraction of time and I can confirm that both of my laundry baskets are now empty and I’m managing to keep more on top of it.

Washing more in one go means that you have more time to do the stuff you love

If I’m honest I’m not a hundred percent sure how much 9kg is, but just imagine the weight of 9 bags of sugar. Apparently it will wash 45 shirts, but we don’t own that many between us so I couldn’t test that out!

Save Money on your Energy Bills

As a family we are dreadful for wearing things once and then chucking them in the laundry basket. This is especially true for my daughters pyjamas and school uniforms. The clothes aren’t normally ‘dirty’ and just need to be freshened up hence why I like the ‘Quick Daily’ wash cycle.

It was incredibly easy to install and unlike our old washing machine it only requires a cold water feed. We have now capped off the hot water feed. Even though the drum is probably twice the size of our old one it slotted perfectly into the same dedicated space in the kitchen.

Beko Large Capacity Washing Machine — Larger drum but still fits into standard opening

Wash an Entire 9kg load in 39 minutes

When it first arrived I was a little intimidated by all of the buttons. But it’s simple really. All of the options are presets (e.g temperature, spin speed, time, etc).

Beko Washing Machine Settings — It’s simple really!

So, if you choose the Daily Quick wash it will run for 28 minutes at 30 degrees and spin at 1200 rpm. However, you can also increase and decrease the spin using the + and – buttons if you like.

EcoSmart Washing Machine by Beko — A load in less than 30 minutes!

My Toweling Robe, which is very bulky, needed more than just ‘Quick Wash’. In the past it would barely fit in the drum and I had to use force to get it in, but this time I found that it easily fit and I could chuck a few more things in with it as well. I washed it on ‘A Class 40’ but increased the RPM to 1400 to get a bit more of the water out.

Spend less time doing laundry — For those slightly tougher jobs!

Automatic Half Load Programme

I was a bit stumped when I wanted to do a half load, I spent a few minutes looking for a smaller load button, but worked out that the washing machine automatically adjusts the amount of water by the weight of the loaded laundry. Genius!

Silence is Golden

The Beko is also noticeably quieter than our old one. In the past when our old one was running, especially when it hit the spin cycle, it sounded like it was going to take off, we had to close the kitchen door if we were trying to watch TV in the lounge and wouldn’t dream of putting it on before going to bed at night.

Here is the washing machine in action. I could have put a lot more in but still need to retrain my brain that I can!

Overall, we really like the washing machine and it’s made a huge difference to keeping up on chores. The only thing I would like to see is a way to control it via an app on my phone so I can turn it on when I’m out!

Disclosure: The washing machine, installation costs and delivery fees (£350) were compliments of Beko for purposes of this review.