Getting messy with Persil

Hi all,

A few weeks back me, midge and modge embarked on a quest of culinary excellence thanks to help launch Persil's Cook With The Kids 2015 campaign, their yearly promotion to get encourage both parents and children to put down the electronic devices and get cooking together, learn independence skills and have great and messy fun, because you can't have fun without making mess!

The event, was hosted at the prestigious Maggie and Rose in Kensington by the Persil team, Prudence Staite to create a food homage in celebration of Alice in Wonderland's 150th anniversary and the lovely Fiona from Toddler Chef, to teach the kids to make some yummy food and inspired to go home, make some creative food and tasty treats no matter the state of the kitchen afterwards.

The children were paired up into two teams ready to do what kids do best - having messy fun! Our little group started with the homage while the younger team learnt how to cook Sweet Potato, Apple & Cinnamon Pancakes and also  Cheese & Salmon Lunch box Scones, with sneaky added greens. 

Armed with breakfast, tea, fruit juice and a room full of happy children we set off paired up ready to do what kids do best, making a mess while having lots of fun, our little group started with the homage, the scene pulled straight from the pages of Alice in Wonderland and created in fruit, veg and chocolate outlines, presented as a blank canvas for the children to create come colourful yet tasty art, full of flavour and tasting was encouraged too!
I know Vee and Lissy were nibbling as was everyone else. I'm not going to complain, fresh fruit and veg are important to a child's development and meant less on the floor too. (OK - who swapped my girls for tidy lumps? - All parents in the universe!!)

Once they'd partially completed the Murial and the other team had made pancakes and scones, the children got to pile together, have lunch with the pancakes and scones, colour in and chat about their experiences I took a look around in wonder at all the amazingly wonderful things on the shelves.
I must say Maggie and Rose, has a beautiful layout and décor that I can only describe as photogenically beautiful and a fantastically family friendly, giving it a homely welcoming feeling backed up by lovely staff and the Persil team.

Once refilled the kids regrouped and our little team took to the kitchen to make scones, pancakes and try come fantastic fruit and veg smoothies. I've never hidden the fact Lissy is fussy when it comes to veg, until this day when she tried some drinks with veg inside them - she loved it and went back for more. A proud moment for any parent of a fussy child (and I'm prouder to report it's kick-started her to try more!)

Fiona and her husband were on such a level with the children the kitchen was awash with mess and smiles, perfect for any growing child, encouraging the older kids to flip pancakes and thanks to Vee I had the chance to flip some too, once I get my camera back I'll upload the videos and photos to Flickr and YouTube from this, but the children loved cooking, making mess and having a huge laugh with lots of other children. 

Persil's Cook With The Kids campaign was created to encourage parents to let children in the kitchen and learn or nurture their independence and culinary skills. And, to help with this they are giving away some awesome rewards with promoted packs, meaning children have the chance to take home chef hats, colourful whisks, silicone cupcake cases as well as vouchers from Haven holidays and a £250 supermarket prize draw to help your children flourish in the kitchen.

We've been in the kitchen ourselves, letting the girls make cupcakes, help with curry and they even want to try bread-making next. On top of this they've began to learn how to respect appliances, and dangerous items like knives and the such. Skills all children need to learn from an early stage to help them flourish later on in life. The team from Persil told me: "We believe that mess equals worry-free fun."
I believe this to be true and mess should be encouraged for both children and adults, after all a mess can be cleaned up but the happy memory of making the mess will live on with you forever. And much, much more fun than staring at a tablet (this coming from a tech parent blogger!!)

For more information and recipes from Persil's Cook With The Kids and to get your hands on some fantastic goodies click here and take part.

Paul!

(Sidenote: Nametags blurred on press photos for privacy) 

Getting your game on with the Arcadie #DadApproved

Hi all, 

With fathers day zooming towards us the lovely people at Moonpig invited me to join the Dads' Institute, testing fathers gifts to give your dad the best gift possible. We love hugs and pancakes too, just saying. 

In the name of retro fun we were sent the Arcadie Arcade cabinet from Zeon Tech. While not a full size cab with a Jamma board slapped inside, it makes use of the Apple iPhone and iPod touch to become your portable arcade machine with the ability to play your tunes or make calls in between game time. 

On first appearance it looks true to arcade cabinet from the 80's thankfully without the CRT burn in and cigarette burns on the side. Using this is as simple as loading the game you wish to choose and inserting your device into the docking connector nestled inside when prompted. Once calibrated it's ready to go with this taking very little time in total before playtime.

The Games are all in the Apple A

The controls feel solid, with a satisfying click many of us will remember from the arcades or from posh joysticks with microswitches.

pp store with a mix of free and paid apps from a host of developers and the vast majority are real good fun to play with easy controls.

There is the odd issue with some games, and this with the third party ones - some seem to struggle with the controls. This varied with the iPhone 4s and iPod 4th Gen with the iPod liking more games, I assume this is from the screen protector as some games use carefully positioned touch pads inside the unit to control games.

Even with this in mind, it's an enjoyable addition to your iDevices bringing with it lots of fun and a growing catalogue of  games that ask for nothing more than your imagination and attention. We've been having score contests here. With the loser having to do the housework (me again - pfft!) I can happily say it's Approved by me and the kids! If your dad loves 8bit, arcade and has an iDevice - he'll love this. Click here to buy one from your dad. To learn more about Moonpig's Dad Approved gifts for fathers day click here 

Paul

Not quite countrykids Dad's solo ride

Evening all. 

During the Easter break the kids were away with the grandparents for a few days so I took advantage of the fine weather and took ShortyBike out for a smallish ride out of town, check on mum's grave prior to tidy up and see some of the places I used to hang as a child and see how they've changed over the last few years.

Starting with NCN Route 574 Dunstable Downs, a route I proudly sponsor with Sustrans, bringing with me finally having a bike capable of riding up one of the more technical hills that usually stifle me on certain parts. And with it, bringing perfect views over Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire on a somewhat smoggy day. Over the years they've added a multi use path on top of the downs to help make it accessible for more people, but beforehand it was packed full of little mud paths with fast paced fun for two wheels, when we were kids there were three paths. Easy, hard and stupid - with stupid being a sheer drop with only a few of us trying it without harm. Sadly our hangout there was demolished (the pyramid/toblerone building) to make way for the new gateway centre, from here we head off to Kensworth, also known as Canesworde in 1086. It's one of three villages I'll fleet through on this journey and the main stopping point, on cycling in the road access is pothole central so bear this in mind and you run the risk of fast cars and tractors on the country lanes. (I'll record a ride through the lane soon) Once your past the narrow section you find yourself immersed in quaint village life, calm and soothing, with clear views over the valley and visibility far exceeding the control tower of Luton Airport on good days. 

Eventually I get to my main destination, arrive at the Methodist Church, somewhere I spent a lot of my time when younger but recently spending less time there over the last few years.

While here I note what I need to do and bookmark bits and bobs in readiness for a tidyup, then offski for more riding, choosing a route I used as a child which lead to a fantastic surprise, discovering T.C. Feeds still has a sign my mother painted proudly displayed in their entrance, this and the fact the sun was finally poking out of the smog made the day even better. Following this road takes us to more places we played when younger, while some are no longer safe I had to pop in and have a look, even with bits hanging off them precariously, reminding me we were silly to play here then and I'm just as silly now! After this we pootle down Buckwood road, a fast lane sandwiched between Kensworth, Studham and the somewhat posh hamlet of Holywell and one of the most amazing hangouts of my youth, Studham Dell. (Not the one with the little blue man story) I'll be back here later for more pictures.

Zooming onto Whipsnade, a small village with a somewhat famous Zoo, tree Cathedral and a gorgeous pub, perfect for those riding rest stops, walks around the Cathedral visiting Dell Farm with the kids or lay on the village green and watch the clouds while listening to music or visiting, just a few of the things you can do here. But for now we scooch past Dell Farm onto Whipsnade Downs, part of the NT managed sites whisk us homeward bound. But not without the beautiful views across Aylesbury Vale on Bison Hill, from here on a good day you can see far across Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, also looking into the sky you can see the gliders soaring over, seeming to say hi.

Before I know it I'm back on the main road homeward bound, cruising at good speed over the main road before entering town. While kid free it was a jolly good blat and chill.

Check out more of my other journeys on Instagram later.

Paul :)

 

  

Fun: Do you wanna build a guided snowman?

Yes we do!

This morning we ran later than normal, possibly down to me on a goslow and the snow! (blame me here t'was my fault i think) So we're left with no choice but pop to the nearby guided busway to pick up a through bus for the school snow walk.

On getting there the area was covered with mostly untouched snow, so naturally we played while waiting 19 mins for a bus, a welcome late bus for the girls.

They decided to make a snowman, and i think they built a pretty good one in such a short time.

While making our busway snowman he was offered a lift by a pretty lady in a BMW ;)






But in the end both smalls bought a smile to many faces as a result, even if we were late for school .
After all, fun is just as important as learning!

The Samsung Galaxy S5 and Gear Fit Review Pt 2

This is part 2 of a two part review. Click here for part 1.

Hi all,

Over the last two weeks I've been using the Vodafone Powered Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and Gear Fit fitness band/smartwatch while doing the #SchoolPedal with the kids and tracking our progress.
I must warn you this is a long one, with no TL:DR spoilers at the bottom!

While the review is primarily about the devices we will be talking a lot about the fitness benefits of the device duo so without further ado, let's crack on with the devices themselves,

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is the SM-G900M Vodafone specific build of the device, be happy in the fact Vodafone have listened to it's customers and left out the bloat, while there is a few Vodafone Specific applications they've not caused me any issue. So rest assured you're getting a good experience from the get go, also Android Lollipop is on the way too!
The handset is a very well crafted desirable phone, with a premium feel, with it's gold leatherette style battery panel to the feint gold colouring etched into the touch panel bezel it oozes class in my mind. It's a good looking phone with some very desirable internal goodness to live it's days out as a perfect companion to you.

Thanks to the amazing people at GSMARENA we've got the handsets full specifications and data from the tests they've done at their labs. We love you guys!

2G Network
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - all versions

3G Network
HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 - SM-G900F
HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 - SM-G900A
HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 - SM-G900M
HSDPA 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 - SM-G900T

4G Network
LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 - SM-G900F
LTE 700 / 850 / 1700 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 - SM-G900A
LTE 700 / 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 - SM-G900M
LTE 700/850/900/1700/1800/1900/2100/2600 - SM-G900T

Sim Type - Micro-SIM

Announced - 2014, February
Status - Available. Released 2014, April
BODY
Dimensions 142 x 72.5 x 8.1 mm (5.59 x 2.85 x 0.32 in)
Weight 145 g (5.11 oz)
 - Fingerprint sensor (PayPal certified)
- IP67 certified - dust and water resistant
- Water resistant up to 1 meter and 30 minutes

DISPLAY:
Type Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors 1080 x 1920 pixels,
5.1 inches (~432 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch Yes
Glass Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3

SOUND
Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes

MEMORY:
Card slot microSD, up to 128 GB
Internal 16/32 GB, 2 GB RAM

Connectivity:
DATA GPRS Yes
EDGE Yes
Speed HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat4 150/50 Mbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth v4.0, A2DP, EDR, LE, apt-X
NFC Yes
Infrared port Yes
USB microUSB v3.0 (MHL 2.1 TV-out), USB Host

CAMERA:
Primary 16 MP, 5312 x 2988 pixels, phase detection autofocus, LED flash, check quality
Features 1/2.6'' sensor size, 1.12 µm pixel size, Dual Shot, Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, HDR
Video 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@120fps, HDR, dual-video rec., check quality
Secondary 2 MP, 1080p@30fps, dual video call

FEATURES:
Android OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat), upgradable to v5.0 (Lollipop)
Chipset - Qualcomm MSM8974AC Snapdragon 801
CPU - Quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400 GPU Adreno 330
Sensors - Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, gesture, heart rate
Messaging - SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
Browser - HTML5
Radio - No
GPS - Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou
Java - Yes, via Java MIDP emulator

Colors:
Charcoal Black, Copper Gold, Electric Blue, Shimmery White

Additonal:
Wireless charging (Qi-enabled) - market dependent
- ANT+ support
- S-Voice natural language commands and dictation
- Smart stay, Smart pause, Smart scroll
- Air gestures
- Dropbox (50 GB cloud storage)
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264 player
- MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+/FLAC player
- Photo/video editor
- Document viewer
BATTERY:
Li-Ion 2800 mAh battery
Stand-by Up to 390 h
Talk time Up to 21 h
Music play Up to 67 h

MISC:
SAR US 1.20 W/kg (head)     1.58 W/kg (body)  
SAR EU 0.56 W/kg (head)     0.41 W/kg (body)  

TESTS:
Performance Basemark OS II: 1082 / Basemark X: 11744
Display Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal), 3.549 (sunlight)
Loudspeaker Voice 66dB / Noise 66dB / Ring 75dB
Audio quality Noise -96.3dB / Crosstalk -95.2dB
Battery life Endurance rating 72h


Now onto the Gear Fit wearable fitness band, before you get excited it's not running android, while many applications are compatible with the band it's more of a fitness companion over smartwatch so please bear that in mind when choosing this.

The Galaxy Gear Fit will only work with 17 Samsung handsets officially so this does put it at a disadvantage compared to Android wear, and similar products on the market, this I feel should change this as it could be a unique seller for Samsung on a wider level.

However where it wins brownie points is the beautiful curved touch-screen, boasting an incredibly beautiful 432 x 128 pixel resolution Super AMOLED display, bringing great brightness, amazingly bright colours and considerably less battery draw compared to traditional LCD Displays. Being curved the device feels natural on the hand compared to some early smartwatches, on top of this it's minimal weight makes it feel more like a watch than a smart companion.

Key Features:
Bluetooth 4.0 low power draw
Curved 432x128 pixel display with touch
Heartrate monitor
App connect for third party application paring
Sleep monitoring mode
Pedometer
Media controller
Phone notifications and reader,
Incoming call controls
Excercise mode with running, walking, cycling, hiking and exercise log/history (these tie into the S Health application)

For the rest of this post we'll talk about the devices and how well they work together, while this may mean a part three it's well worth it I promise you now.

The SGS5 is a well crafted smartphone with all the power one could need to go through the day and that is down to the generous 2800mAH battery, add the beautiful HD display, ip65 waterproofing, fingerprint sensor for secure payments, UltraHD 4K video capabilities with editor tools and NFC functionality make for a highly desirable powerhouse with everything you could possibly need and want. But we'll get to that in higher detail later in the post. 

Before we get into the review I'll explain how it's been used. 

I've been using both S Health and Endomondo for fitness tracking comparison, both are free applications with one built into firmware and the other available on the Play store, with Samsung generously offering a years premium service to get you on the way, even for newbies to the pleasure of releasing the endorphins will appreciate such a generous offer. (For privacy of my children and their classmates at school I'll not mention or show tracking data from the daily School Pedal, while some are on-line the tracker was disabled away from the school. Any that pinpoint the school will remain hidden or deleted)

S Health is a one stop well being shop with many, many features not found in premium applications, especially when pared with a Galaxy Gear device or similar fitness band/watch it becomes an ultimate tool kit to aid in achieving or fitness and health goals in life. Now I can't lie I was hesitant to  use S Health due to the need of a Samsung account but once I bit the bullet I actually regret not doing so sooner.
As the screenshots show, the S Health tool show's you're progress through a day with quite achievable goals, 10,000 steps for walking is easy and I beat this target often through the review. Similarly to the goals set for cycling, S Health sets the goal's for you and let's you smash them, and once you do, both devices let you know, by means of a little buzz on the hand or an audio message played through headphones, with the audio messages being notifications of half way points, encouragement when you slow down or seem to be feigning, I promise you now when you're feeling deflated, the bike's brakes thickly coated in a mix of mud and leaves, making every inch moving torture. Just hearing "you're doing great, keep it up" helped so so much the smile came back and I was trying my best to hoon (speed up) it despite the mud causing me the pleasure of slipping and crunching one's chestnuts on the crossbar! Always a pleasant experience.

The only problem I found (and this may be me doing something wrong) was the Gear fit wouldn't monitor my heart rate while riding, meaning my most recent ride/mudfest missed out some information I would have liked to have for comparison, I think this was due to me using the phone to commence the ride rather than using the Gear fit, but I can't confirm this as it went back the same day I was completing the post. I must say though I'm happy Samsung made the S5 and the Gear Fit IP65 water resistant here as they got a little moist in my pocket and muddy on my wrist.

The handset itself runs well, and while I wish some of the Google tools were the defaults here I get what Samsung are trying to achieve here by utilising their own applications. This is done for device uniformity throughout their Android, Tizen and Feature phones so I can fully understand and appreciate the reasoning for this. Many manufacturers could learn from this methodology.

On testing the 16 mega-pixel camera I was impressed, even in the cold it held up well, producing some fantastic shots, with similar quality to the Nokia N8, I've left the images on Flickr as it seems to leave the images as I intended them to look without any editing. Images come out good, despite the autofocus likes the odd slowdown at times but it's caught up as your taking the shot with the shot improving through sheer fluke. On top of that the camera modes are top notch too.
While I didn't play with all modes on trying HDR images came out as you would expect,

Video comes out beautifully with 4K ultra HD capabilities, but I would recommend using the phones microphone over the wired headset's as you'll hear in this video. Additionally the lighting in this shot is not the best thanks to a mix of florescent lights, LED's and natural light coming through the roof lights.



On top of high quality video recording playback is no problem, including 4K UHD clips, playing UHD was easy for the phone while I suspect most users will be watching youtube and facebook videos so for majority the GPU will tick along quite nicely, on this note higher performance games ran with no lag or issues.

Audio and music performance is very good on this handset, in fact it's miles better than the iPhone I have here to pit it against. And I'm not just talking volume here, audio and voice quality is sublime, no doubt down to software and hardware enhancements to improve things on an aural level for all users.
When showing the phone off the first thing friends did was launch the music player and they were very impressed with the quality Even if my choices of music from The Beards, Steel Panther to Lindesfarne could not have been any more diverse.
The bundled headphones sound fantastic, with great all around sound, the Microphone was a bit boxy as shown in the above video, but it's a fair compromise here as we can't have it all

Data access was kindly provided by Vodafone's Red 4G services. Our town is awaiting a 4G boos in the near future so for now we have 2G, 3G and HSPA based services available, with decent speed tests of approximately 2-4MB on 3G whereas H+ on average pulled around 4-6MB. This is about normal for the local area.

GPS Signal took next to no time to latch, even on 2g, this with Google's built in wifi and cell location service disabled for most of the fortnight so again impressive.

Image credit: DailyTech LLC

Battery impressed me a lot, Many phones won't last two days on moderate - heavy use this did. Impressive when I'm used to charging daily, my only niggle here was the connection, a USB 3.0 plug, I've only used one other device with this jack and didn't like it much at all, more down to the fact I had to concentrate on what I was doing more than normal when connecting the phone to a charger or pc, the USB 3.0 Micro USB port is a slightly different design to Micro USB 2.0, despite being compatible if not used to it it can be fiddly.

Now the phone also includes a fingerprint sensor, certified for PayPal payments which I've not tested due to time constraints, but it's a good innovation.

A welcome addition to the phone comes in the shape of Kids Mode,
A fall-back to the success of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Kids edition it's a child safe android launcher, with individual user accounts for all your children. housing a child safe app store with pre-installed child friendly music player, camera, doodle pad and gallery. to exit kids mode you need to enter a pin code, if by chance the little angels lock the device out a quick login to your Google account will fix it.



In Conclusion the Vodafone Samsung Galaxy S5 and Gear Fit are a great duo for both every day use and improving health and well-being for everyone thanks to the wide array of applications designed for both to work together in unison. Add in the High build quality and high end components it's a daily driver even iPhone users can and have turned to.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is available is available for £34.50 on Vodafone Red 4G price plans 

Thanks to Vodafone for the loan of the S5 and Gear fit for the duration of this review, 

Keep on riding with Sustrans Sponsor a mile

I don't hide the fact I'm a Sustrans volunteer from anyone, I'm quite proud of this fact, especially when I can see the benefits we've helped bring to the local community, especially the school projects I've participated on, projects that help families get out and have fun, be it in the sun, rain, wind or even the rain, it's all about families doing things together, without little screens or computers getting in the way.

When Sustrans realised I blogged they asked me if I would sponsor a mile of NCN route and what my favourite National Cycle Network route would be. I was happy to oblige them, especially as the local NCN routes around here are kept to high standards and easy to ride, walk or take the horses for a ride and accessible to all in the local community.
For me It has to be the smaller, somewhat hidden (but in plain view) gem taking you from Sewell to Dunstable Downs via an Iron Age hillfort and burial ground. That route is 574

Locals will understand!

The reason I like my mile of route 574 is down to it's beauty and immense history. While the route gives easy access to Dunstable Downs, Whipsnade Zoo (via shallowsprings,) the Five Knolls Barrow Cemetery, Maidenbower Iron Age HillFort and onto Route 6 in Sewell, While I'm still learning the history of the area it doesn't take a lot to see the beauty and through the years I've seen it from living in a neighbouring village, Kensworth. A strange village with next to no travel options bar cars or a bike, and with the limited options the downs becomes an essential gateway well before Sustrans upgraded the route.
The upgrade made commuting to work, school, the pub, or shopping even easier to villagers and similarly for townsfolk, who can visit the local areas easier and more accessible for wheelchairs and pushchairs.
On top of this there's the ride I used to ride a lot when younger and called it the "Ring of fire" Where you start from Gateway Centre, and go down the hill to the lower portion of the downs, to the base of the downs and back up to the gateway centre, I'll eventually embed an endomondo route for this ride as soon as I can, but I can say, at 12 years old in the rain it was hard, but seems more like fun these days, I know when we used to ride it with the kids they liked it too.

If you've got a favourite mile you ride, please visit the Sponsor a mile page and get sponsoring, as sponsoring a mile means we can help keep the mile to good standards, tidy and increase the routes in the future. On top of this Sustrans schemes such as Travel Choices and Travel Luton bring support to your children in helping them ride, checking the safety of their bikes, and building their confidence up to enable them to be safe, on top of this we host support for adults in walking, cycling and all things transport. They help support you, so let's support them!

Disclosure, I was given a mile by Sustrans to help spread the word.

Bike Week. School run fun!

Morning all.

As part of bike week and bike to school week  I've teamed up with Sustrans to talk about their campaign for safer streets and why I think it's important for safer streets as a cyclist and also explain how I do the school runs using the bike and trailer.

Where I live we're fortunate to have Travel Choices, a joint project with Central Beds Council and Sustrans and together they actively work within the community to get more people out and about and trying to educate the wider community to make the streets safer, while some of the changes have been a tad annoying to the town it's not going to be an overnight conversion it's a darned good start.

Our school runs are usually a mix of bus, Bike/trailer or and scooters depending on the girls moods and the state of my knees and back. The bus being reserved for the more extremes of weather or pain levels.

We spend the majority of the school year cycling and scooting to school, the benefits of this being less hassle for the girls and I lose a bit of belly in-between!

On bike the girls jump into the trailer and gabble, argue while i make the mile journey to school.

It'a an awesome little trip which can be (for the girls) epic depending on the route we take, being the Luton and Dunstable busway or the main road.

The busway path is a crushed lime which needs to be replaced with tarmac or a hardcore and sand mix as it can be unstable and with the trailer on the back I've wheelspun and bashed the trailer and nearly the kids with loose stones spinning off the tyres, It's not the preferred choice mainly due to it's exit on an active and very busy industrial estate, if the pathways were upgraded It would improve things there. So we go the main roads mostly.

The main road takes us down two busy roads, but set out well with comfortable and wide dual use pathways so there's less risk of getting in the way of anyone here and lots of good light too. The girls use this to sing lots of Frozen songs, Hug Roo and Tigger (Not Boo, Roo and Tigger Too! D'oh!) when they're having a grumpy day and gabble like awesome little monsters do!

What I love about riding and scooting with the girls is how happy they are when out riding and scooting with me to school it's an instant grump fix, no matter the cause of the grinch!

You should try it as it's fun. Yeah it's a learning curve but awesome experience.

If there's anything you want to know. let me know.

Paul, the kids, Naughtybike and grouchotrailer

iPad makes kids shoe shopping fun

Heya all.

Me and the girls took a trip last Wednesday to one of Clarks flagship shoe store in Westfield, White City to see how they've made shoe shopping fun for children with the development of the all new and interactive iPad Foot Gauge.


The Clarks iPad Food Gauge is an amazing new development in fitting shoes combining over 170 years of shoe fitting heritage with state of the art design innovation. The new device uses a footplate to measure foot length and a special digi-tape to measure foot width. This size information is then relayed to the iPad app, presenting an instant shoe size guide that Clarks trained fitters use to find perfectly fitting shoes for each child. The device also features animated Clarks characters, Jack Nano and Daisy, who entertain children whilst guiding them through each simple step. The iPad Foot Guage and bespoke app has been designed specifically for Clarks who worked with award winning design agency Design Works Windsor Ltd.

Simon Jones, Head of Sales in the UK and ROI at Clarks comments; “We’re always striving to innovate and improve our in-store experience at Clarks. Great fitting shoes are at the heart of our business and we have developed the iPad Foot Gauge because we want to continue to enhance our consumer experience, ensuring that children have stylish shoes that fit their feet perfectly.”

The girls found the experience fun and hassle free compared to some of the more traditional measuring techniques. On top of this with children who are shy like my youngest the iPad makes a great ice breaker where they get to choose certain aspects of how the application works. This shows when I asked the girls to be fitted again while I filmed it to upload straight away. And with help from the lovely Sarah we had their shoe size and food width within no time.


I don't like bringing a lot of money with me when I travel to London. So when I discovered we were given a gift voucher to try out the shoes I waited until the following weekend, buying them in the Dunstable store (give those ladies a pay rise, they are so friendly and happy in there) thanks to the fitting advice Sarah provided previously in the video and within minutes we found the perfect shoes for both girls without our help.

I think Clarks have the shoe styles perfect with a blend of traditional and modern styles that compliment both the "tomboy" and the "geek girl" in my life and they're extremely happy they found shoes to fit their personalities and the best thing about the shoes they chose is how they've already lasted the school destruction test. The girls have a knack of destroying their school shoes within days of buying them and the Clarks shoes they chose are some of the first pairs of shoes that have stood up to the abuse a 5 and 6 year old give them.

We'll be giving the shoes we purchased a full review with video over the half term too, even if it means bringing the editing computer out of storage!

On top of this we discovered Clarks Shoes have recently launched their 2014 Spring and Summer Collection. Through hiring a team of international designers they mixed materials and colours that contrast and combine with trims and finishing touches, creating beautifully crafted styles that are designed to stand out as the season unfolds, they are perfect shoes for life’s great adventures throughout the seasons.

If you're a shoe diva, or not as the case may be. Tell me what would be your perfect shoes for the summer?

Paul! 

Disclosure: For attending the event we received a goodie bag that included a gift voucher to try Clarks Shoes out with. Thank you for that the girls appreciate it. 

Silent Sunday.

#HarmanDads Fathers day goodness

Hi all.

Last Wednesday I was invited to the Harman Dads event to play with some epic audio gear from Harman Kardon, AKG and JBL.

On arriving I met with A warm welcome from many fantastic Dads who blog, the staff from Bite and locally based Harman Kardon who supplied pizza and beer. Oh, and they let us run riot with the abundance of audio gear they bought for us to play with. I would like to offer no apologies for playing some god awful happy hardcore as I'm sure Black Lace's Agadoo is much worse. But for now, let's not go there!

If you look at the video Here you can see what took my attention on the night.

We were first shown the range of portable Bluetooth speakers.

JBL Micro Wireless.
This colourful speaker is amazing for it's small profile, audio quality and bang for buck. Trust me the bang for buck is good in my eyes. £50 for an amazingly loud setup with huge compatibility from Bluetooth and non Bluetooth devices, with the inclusion of a hidden 3.5mm headphone jack and charging via micro USB port.
I extensively tested the Mini Wireless speaker in some awful sound settings and not once did we get any distortion, even changing audio settings manually in Djay for ipod/phone caused no considerable difference.






JBL Flip.
This is another Bluetooth speaker with inclusion of a microphone, which makes it a perfect choice for both music and calling services, from the traditional phone call to the online voice services like Skype and others. With a 5 and a half hour battery life and crisp clear audio, as well as the same standard features of micro USB and 3.5mm jack options it's a good choice for those who work hard and play hard.

JBL Charge
The JBL Charge is another wireless speaker with the same options as the two above bar one very interesting feature, the ability to charge standard devices (phones, mp3 players) at the same time as playing. Again the audio is really good, equaling the Flip and Micro Wireless.











I know what you're thinking. Why do they all sound fabulous?

Well. All of these devices have fantastic sound quality thanks to Harman's Proprietary Truestream system which improves the sound of your music no matter the quality of the music being played. On being tested with 64Kbps Windows Media files they sounded similar to apple iTunes AAC files. The Truesound system ensures that all your music will sound great. No matter the audio quality.

Now onto the home audio side of things.

JBL Soundfly BT
I'm very thankful to own one of these bad boys. The Soundfly BT comes as a Bluetooth speaker or an Apple Airplay compatible speaker setup. (airplay costing £10 more)  It's designed for home use to be directly plugged into the mains socket. Meaning no external adapter or messing about with cables. When fired up it tells you it's awake, in paring mode and it's connection status.
I won't tell you much here as I promised to review it. But It's already a hit in our madhouse!

JBL Go+Play
The Go+Play is a Bluetooth speaker which has progressed from an Apple Only product to a Bluetooth device so everyone can use it. The design being in it's fifth year now. Apparently it's hugely popular with dance studios and schools. I can understand why with it's beautiful sound and how it boomed over us while being demonstrated which would be perfect for some schools and dance academies. The Go+Play is also battery powered, with 8 C cells giving off 15 hours battery life. As fantastic 15 hours battery life is I only hope they implement removable lithium ion batteries in the future.


And just for the apple users we have the JBL Onbeat Mini, specifically designed for the new Lightning connector Apple devices. But will work happily with legacy 30 pin converters. The audio quality was on par with most of the devices shown. rivaling the Soundfly BT












Now for the personal audio lovers! We have a treat for you.

Harman CL Bluetooth Headphones

The CL headphones are a beautifully designed set of headphones with all controls on one side, Acitive noise cancellation and the ability to be used wired, as with many bluetooth devices mentioned above. What's more they are designed to fit everyone. they come with interchangeable headbands being small - medium and medium - large and lavished with memory foam cushions. They are a dream to wear and listen to.




The AKG K551 Headphones
Audiophiles. Before you get all post orgasmic on me. Many of you know already these are high end but I'm not an audiophile. I'm a geek into chiptunes and synth and many headphones sound awfully rough with synth. including some "high end" brands which are popular with the youth, Compared to any I've tried the K551's are amazing and well worth the high cost. Fear not. There is a domestic variant coming soon too. I'll hopefully be comparing those soon too.



I want to thank all the team at Bite Global, Harmon Kardon and all the fantastic bloggers I met. I can;t wait to meet many of you again at Britmums Live!

Paul