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Showing posts from August, 2016

#Commuterbaby test walk

Nothing like an 8mile mooch around town to test a fancy new toddler carrier. Lillebaby 3-1 Carry On quick Review - Very comfortable and easy to wear (if a little bit moist around the waist band on a warm day) - but despite some excellent efforts on behalf of Brit trying to wriggle out of it he felt safe and secure and my back didn't hurt at all which was nice. So onwards to Monday!!

A short history of #commuterbaby so far

It's Wednesday of the first week of doing a commute by train since I moved to Stafford from Liverpool. It's felt a bit like starting a new school or a new job it's so exciting (and nicely familiar at the same time). What makes this more exciting is that I'm doing this commute with Brit ever morning, since he's now at the Stoke nursery. (Settled in like a champ, like he's always been there etc) Initially I've used the tried and trusted Littlelife backpack - which is fab, but not for trains. Brit hates being strapped into anything - and the boy can wriggle - like wriggle out of the bottom (or half wriggle out, not entirely sure he can escape - but he can also wriggle out of the straps - despite the addition of a Stop Strap - which works great for keeping him from wriggling from his car seat and his pushchairs (also a problem) - but in this case did nothing much to keep him in place. Yesterday morning I had to carry Brit because I didn't quite have t

Dundee food lowdown

As I mentioned I've been in Dundee for the week - and I don't actually think  I've had a bad meal here (unless you count my rather uninspiring breakfast buffet - which I'd rather not) Here's a low down of places (I'm also trying to better at reviewing places I've been so here are some of the facebook reviews too) : The Bach - https://www.facebook.com/thebachdundee/ - Fab Place, up a million flights of stairs in a carpark - had fantastic meatball pasta for lunch an my companion had an amazing vegan curry. Had a New Zealand lemonade I'd never heard of. 100% would recommend. Tinsmiths - https://www.facebook.com/tinsmithdundee/ - Popped in for a coffee and a breakfast roll - amazing haggis in a brioch bun and fantastic coffee for a very reasonable price. avery & co - https://www.facebook.com/averyandco - Here for breakfast - Lovely smoked salmon and some of the best scrambled eggs I've had in a long time - excellent coffee too. The Braes - https:/

What! Really! Why??

So, walking through Dundee's shopping centre to grab a photo of it's vegetable vending machine (in case I'd imagined it - I hadn't ) I also spotted this. Now, back in the day - I loved my (massive) Troll collection - I do't know why - but I did. I have a weird feeling my mum sent them over with all of my Sylvanian Family stuff so now I might even be retro cool. Anyway, I dind't just collect trolls - which were pointless things to collect - I categorised my trolls, using Protext - I designed more then one version of my troll database - categorised by hair colour (pink, green, yellow, multi etc), size (tiny, small, medium) and features (looks like Elvis, BK kids Klub trolls and so on) But Trolls  the pc game was one game I can remember being brought for me - and I got good at it too. It was my game I let my brother play. It was hard too if I recall - I might see if it's available to play or download anywhere but I bet I'm rubbish at it now...

Dundee's Vegetable vending machine

This sounds like some weird thing you'd get in japan - but not, here it is in the Dundee shopping centre. It got restocked in between me finding it existing and going back to take a photo in case I'd imagined it - so it must get used. Thinking back to when we lived in Liverpool actually finding vegetables, not pre packaged vegetables ready prepared was really hard - because all you had were metro versions of supermarkets, not big things. Since we didn't have a car for a lot of it getting out to big supermarkets - or bringing home big bags of veg was a nightmare - it's why we eventually opted for the beetroot heavy local veg delivery scheme. So this really is genius, I've just never seen it before, ever.

Midrange Budget Hotel Room Survival Kit

I've been away form home for the last week - up in Dundee for a conference - which is an awesome little city full of wonderful pubs, bars and cafes. I haven't actually eaten any bad food and I've learn't from previous conferences to never have the same meal twice and keep an eye on the bread intake as it makes you sleepy in warm conference rooms. Visiting a city for work is always strange, you might do some partying, and you might do some sightseeing but it's never the same without your family so I've also found myself in my hotel room catching up on work. This room at least had the basics which in this case was a kettle and some Nescafe. This is not like the time I had to stay for a long time in a Ibis Budget hotel pod and went to buy my own kettle and had enough dehydrated food to last me through an apocalypse. Alas it didn't have a fridge. Since this isn't my first conference rodeo I did some shopping on my first day and got the following: Screw top r