Categories
Cufflinks Gifts

Brilliant personalised wedding cufflinks from Ayedo.co.uk

Continuing my cufflinks series, I thought I’d take a look at some relatively inexpensive ones that are utterly perfect for any chaps you know who’re about to get married. I particularly like these ones as they’re personalised with the date/time/venue of the main event. These silver plated cufflinks look to be terrifically good value — £19.95 for a pair and that includes the personalisation!

You do need to allow 3-5 days for delivery and there’s a box to specify the exact location and timings on the Ayedo.co.uk product page.

Like! These ones definitely go into my ‘gifts’ category here on The Pursuit of Quality.

Categories
Cooking

SteakStones: The ultimate way to enjoy steak!

I’ve been in a few restaurants that have used SteakStones — or something similar. Not only is it a super experience (as the steak usually arrives sizzling away — for quite a long time), but your enjoyment of the meal tends to be enhanced by the fact your beef stays warmer, longer.

If you’ve been looking to duplicate the experience at home (perhaps for a special occasion), then I reckon you might want to check out a SteakStones steak plate.

Here’s what the manufacturer has to say about the product:

The SteakStones Steak Plate, provides the ultimate way to enjoy a steak, cooked live at the table. The sizzling stone sears in all the natural flavours and allows you to enjoy cooking every mouthful exactly as you like and ensures the last bite is as hot and delicious as the first.

Yeah. I like the last bit in particular. Normally when I’m eating steak, the last bit is …well, rather cold. Even if the waitress warns you that “the plate is hot”, that’s only usually the case for, what, 5 minutes or so? I wonder how long these SteakStones last on average? 10-20 minutes perhaps? Longer than a standard plate, anyway. All you need to do is stick the plate in the oven and heat it up to the required temperature and serve along with your steak.

If you’ve got a meaty-foodie friend, this looks to be a good option.

There’s a wide variety of product options and recipe ideas on the SteakStones website (where you can buy too).

Categories
Observations

The BBC’s coverage of the Jubilee Pageant

I wasn’t in London on Sunday for the Thames Pageant to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Instead I was at home with the family. We were having a challenging day — both children (we’ve got 2 under 2) were a bit under the weather. Not exactly ill, but not in full spirits.

And that’s a difficult situation. You can’t easily take them out to entertain them, you can’t do the normal things you might do.

Which meant I got the opportunity to glance, now and again, at the Jubilee Pageant coverage on both the BBC and Sky News — when our eldest wasn’t insisting on watching the extensive archive of Postman Pat episodes we’ve ‘Skyplussed’. To be fair, when there were soldiers on screen marching about, Archie was pretty impressed. But he didn’t have much time for boats.

If I have to watch live TV, I tend to focus around Sky News or BBC World. I always tend to enjoy Sky News often because they do editorialise a little which I often find mildly entertaining.

I did switch over to the BBC during the day on Sunday to see what they were making of the Thames Pageant. But goodness me, they were having a wretched time. The weather can’t have helped and in fairness, the rain was pouring down in buckets for most of the afternoon. However whenever I arrived at BBC1, I couldn’t help but wonder whose “Hi8” Sony video camera from 1996 they were using to film the whole thing.

The picture quality was abysmal.

I didn’t watch long enough to be wound up by the rest the BBC’s coverage. According to The Telegraph, quite a few folk were not impressed by the actual programming of the coverage. I didn’t watch long enough to give it much consideration.

Sky News on the other hand did a super job. They have a fantastic fellow they use for commentating on Royal occasions — I’m afraid I can’t remember his name — however he was on hand for most of their live coverage to offer up continual Royal and military-related nuggets of information. That comes in very useful when everyone is waiting for something to happen. The rest of the Sky News team were all present, getting soaked along with the crowds.

Poor show BBC. I’m sure they’ll sort it out for the Olympics. Nice work Sky News!

Categories
Observations Technology

Sky hasn’t quite reached the connected age yet

Screen Shot 2012 06 03 at 23 23 11

I’ve been a Sky customer for ages. Now and again when I’ve been living in an apartment that didn’t have a dish attached, I’ve had to put up with Virgin but I’ve always come back to Sky when possible. I like their set-top box approach.

I’m pretty content with the service.

Granted, the set-top box interface is, I feel, looking a little bit dated in today’s connected world. It’s also getting quite a bit of competition from all the integrated features of the new Sony TV I bought a little while ago.

I realised this afternoon that I never bother using the Sky Movies package that I added on a while ago.

I used to sit back and flick to 301 (the start of the movie channels) when I wanted a bit of downtime for a few minutes. It was always useful to be able to jump straight into a reasonably popular movie. Sometimes I might watch 10 minutes. Sometimes I might watch the whole thing. I valued the service.

I can’t remember how much it costs except that it was a bit of a hefty add-on to the existing subscription.

I resolved to spend the cash on iTunes movies and TV episodes rather than on Sky Movies. I have far more use for iTunes — I can watch that content anywhere. I don’t want to be chained to the TV nowadays.

So this evening I visited sky.com and logged in.

Clicking about it looked like it would be impossible to change my account package online. I clicked some more and found that it was only possible to add to my package. Arses. Failure point #1. But a little obvious. Of COURSE they will make it difficult. They live for the subscription revenue.

A little pop-up window then appeared asking if I’d like to chat.

Yes I would, I thought. I clicked.

The chap who greeted me asked for my name. That was annoying. Failure point #2. If I’ve logged into your secure account system, I expect you to know who I am. And yes, Sky, I mean building a little bit of code to pass my details to your LivePerson instance.

I got straight into it with the chap:

Screen Shot 2012 06 03 at 22 47 47

I found it fascinating that the chap characterised my motivation as ‘thinking of downgrading’.

I didn’t think of it that way.

I certainly recognise that this is how it will seem from Sky’s point of view. I think this was a canned response.

It tells you something though.

I thought I was making a change on my account. The chap tells me I’m downgrading. Twice, actually. Failure point #3 — there’s no need to go negative. You’re reinforcing the action in my mind. I’m being told that I’m downgrading. I’m being asked to call ‘to downgrade’. You’re helping me continue my course of action.

I was actually a customer ready to buy. I know that’s not what I wrote at the start of the post but if you think about it, there could have been an opportunity for a bit of negotiation. An engaged sales person could have run rings around me.

“So you want to remove the movies? Ok. Well sir I’ve just noticed that for an extra £2 you could actually have movies, sports and blah-blah-blah on our special deal.”

Before you know it, I’ve actually paid more (and perhaps got a bit of a discount or a deal).

However I was moved into the ‘downgrade’ mindset this way.

I was already cooking though. I was already annoyed.

That’s because despite reaching ‘someone at Sky’ didn’t help. I doubt the chap worked in the Sky UK call centre) — the experience felt like a someone was operating canned responses from a call centre somewhere in the world, I could be wrong.

As far as I’m concerned, Sky, I talked to you this evening at 11pm. It was great to get some interaction, but it was almost pointless.

I talked to you today by ‘chat’ and you told me to phone you.

Ridiculous. That’s Failure Point #4 — making me PHONE you.

Failure Point #5 is answering my second question (“So I’ve got to phone someone to downgrade?”) with another stupid canned response that didn’t even have a “Yes” or “I’m afraid you’ll have to call our team..”

Failure Point #6 was asking me to type in my home phone number when I called customer services. As IF I remember that. Yes, I know all Sky customers are meant to have a home phone number but goodness me, how arcane. I wouldn’t have minded typing in my stupidly long customer number.

I pressed hash and star a load of times and eventually managed to skip that bit. All I wanted to know was whether a human was available at 11pm to handle my ‘downgrade’.

I waited 3 minutes paying stupid amounts via my Three phone and then hung up. The 0844 number that Sky uses costs me £0.20 per minute. I wonder how many people phone Sky from a mobile? When most people either have unlimited landline calls from their home phone (and similar on their mobile) why bother using 0844 numbers?

Anyway.

I hung up and then thought I’d check the right address was on my account. It turns out it’s the old address. I thought my wife had changed it. Apparently not.

I clicked the link to change the address. Gahh. Failure point #7: I have to PHONE them to change my address.

Come on!

If I can *ADD* packages online (you can, I added the movies online about a year ago) then you obviously accept legal instructions via the web. Upgrading my package is a legal instruction. Changing my address is the same flipping thing.

But then it’s probably something that the team want to ‘control’ (read: Make a bit more complicated) because there’s a lot of work involved in moving house and ensuring you have a Sky dish at the other end. Blah blah blah.

I think my key point here is that I have limited amounts of time to deal with this kind of life admin. Or, to be clear, I wish to ensure I have limited amounts of time wasted, in my view. (I am happy to spend a few minutes writing a blog post — but that’s different!)

I just want it done, Sky. I want to click a few buttons and be done.

Why not show me a few special offers when I click ‘downgrade’? I was totally susceptible at that point. But putting me through the ringer and forcing me to have to fit to your business models was rather frustrating. It’s also ensured I’ll be a lot cooler on the phone tomorrow.

Update on 8th June: I managed to get through to Sky. The chap I spoke to in “disconnections” was not happy at the prospect of my downgrade. He eventually offered me a 10% discount on my whole package for 6 months, unprompted. I thanked him but declined. Is that it, Sky? Goodness me.

“So you’re wanting to save money?” the chap said.

“No, I’m just choosing not to spend it with you,” I clarified, “I’m spending far more with iTunes.”

Cheeky!

Eventually after the chap realised I wasn’t to be swayed with a 10% short-term discount (A whopping £22 across 6 months) he processed the downgrade. Job done.

Categories
Cufflinks Gifts

Need a box for all those cufflinks? Try Simon Orrell Designs.

I don’t know what I’ve done with most of my cufflinks. I’ve put them somewhere — across multiple small cufflink boxes — and they’ve disappeared into the ether. They’re somewhere around.

I should have bought a dedicated cufflink box for them. Instead I squeezed them all into an array of Mont Blanc boxes designed to hold just one pair. Needs must when you’re moving house.

So when I got a note in a little while ago suggesting I take a look at a cufflink box, I made a mental note to do a post on it.

This, then, is a luxury cufflink box in black shagreen and bone. Shagreen, by the way, is a type of rawhide — and it really adds to the look of this box. Materials like this are a speciality of designer Simon Orrell. The box itself measures 9cm x 9cm — big enough that I won’t lose it, small enough so it’ll travel nicely and fit into drawers as necessary.

You can pick it up for £99 including VAT.

There’s more information (and a lot more beautiful products) over at Simon Orrell Designs.

Categories
Home

Spider Catcher: You definitely need one of these!

If you live in the countryside — or anywhere that’s not hermetically sealed (like an ultra-new block of flats), the chances are you get visited by spiders, large and small.

When we used to live in Marlow, our cottage was beset with spiders — especially when it had been raining. They used to come in for the shelter.

I am not scared of spiders, per se.

It’s the fright that gets me.

You know when you’re sitting down, relaxing, watching television or having a conversation or doing something relatively sedate and then — boom — out walks a massive 50p-coin-sized critter? It’s not doing anyone any harm. It’s just a shock.

And then I’m compelled to do something about it, especially if it’s huge and it keeps on running toward me.

My preference is to remove it from my presence humanely. I’d rather avoid killing them.

One day my wife was — as the Americans call it — freaking out about a huge spider and there was no sensible, easy way to catch it. I was ordered to kill it. That was a bit of a challenging affair given my shoe didn’t quite ‘fit’ the uneven weird corners of the bathroom in our old place.

So I resolved to sort this out. I decided I needed a better way of handling the issue. So I went online to Amazon and searched for: Spider Catcher.

Here’s what popped up:

It’s a plastic wand-type thing that has extendable bristles on the end. Stick them over the spider and let them retract to pick up the spider. Then dump it outside or out the window as necessary.

That’s the concept.

In practice it works perfectly. Absolutely perfectly.

There’re £9.13 each. I bought two!

Money well spent in my opinion.

You do have to be reasonably quick if you’re trying to catch a running spider — and it’s not that effective on tiny ones. But I’ve never, ever had a missed result (sometimes after a few attempts on my part).

Even if you normally just stamp on them — the Spider Catcher removes the issue of having to go and find some kitchen towel to wipe/pick up the remains.

Thoroughly recommended.

Categories
Furniture

I do like the look of IKEA’s UPPLEVA TV solution

Have you come across UPPLEVA from IKEA yet? It’s a rather stimulating new piece of furniture with an integrated flat screen television — with all the trimmings, including Blue-ray DVD player, ‘internet’, WiFi and zero clutter.

It’s the zero clutter thing that’s likely to get a lot of folk interested. Indeed, if you’re bothering to walk around IKEA and you’re evaluating different TV cabinets, I think you might find it really easy to up-sell yourself to one of these, particularly as a secondary television.

From the blurb on the Youtube video, it doesn’t look as though it’ll be hitting the UK until well into 2013. However IKEA stores in Stockholm, Milan, Paris, Gdansk and Berlin will all be getting it in June.

The introductory Youtube video is definitely worth a few minutes of your time. I like their explanation and background — and the delivery of the presenter!

Categories
Travel

So, talk to me about CenterParcs… What’s your view?

My impressions of CenterParcs are not entirely positive. They’re formed over a lifetime of experience — and before I go any further, I should point out, I’ve never been. What follows is an entirely ignorant perspective based on what other folk have told me.

For a while my parents muted the idea of going.

I think we, the children, were privately horrified at the idea.

All the stories I’d heard from friends of mine at school who’d gone, especially from the European locations, were shocking.

It sounded like camping — but worse. Or ‘Camping Lite’. You get a chalet. There’s some big swimming pool dome thing. There’s a rubbish shop on-site that sells over priced Cornflakes. There’s often hot water. You can hire rubbish bikes. What else? Oh yeah, and everyone wears sandals.

That last bit was the nail in the coffin for myself and my brothers. Sandals? Euuuugh.

For the longest time, CenterParcs has been completely off my radar.

When it comes to holidays or vacation, I want quality.

The last decent break away was business class and first class all the way. Think: Maldives, island hotel, ridiculously brilliant service.

I am not at home, traditionally, to a damp weekend in Wiltshire.

Apologies to the brand manager at CenterParcs. Stay with me, there’s a pivot point coming shortly.

This viewpoint changed dramatically when a colleague — a senior, senior executive at one of the companies I’m working with — explained that he and his wife regularly take the children off to CenterParcs.

I began to evaluate the brand somewhat differently as a result.

Our children are aged 2 (almost) and 2 months. At a Christening this weekend my wife bumped into one of her friends who’s going to CenterParcs with their 2 year old. They’re regulars as well.

I think that clinched it for us.

We looked up the website when we got home.

We began thinking about the whole experience in more positive terms.

I have just returned from a transatlantic visit to Orlando (visiting BlackBerry World) and I can tell you that from direct experience, taking children on planes and doing the hotel thing doesn’t really look that fun at all. My experience stems from sitting witnessing screaming, tired, upset toddlers not really handling timezones, 30,000ft flights or confined spaces very well.

Put bluntly, taking children abroad for a traditional hotel experience at ages 2 and 2 months seems a bit … limited.

There’s two off them. They can’t really interact much. The 2-year old can just about get a few words out. He’s into mummy and daddy and a bit of lego. He can’t exactly run off and play on the beach for hours on end. The 2-month-old is obviously joined at the hip to either me or my wife. So. Limited value, I feel, in heading to some luxury island in the middle of nowhere.

CenterParcs all of a sudden sounds sensible.

You get your own chalet/apartment. Your own space. So the children can scream and run about as necessary. You can cook whenever you want. Or you can access restaurants immediately. There’s shops. Or, er, a shop. That’s apparently pretty good.

At this point I don’t give a hoot about cash. Not when I was previously evaluating whether or not little Archie should have his own business class seat. Yeah. I know.

If the Corn Flakes are an extra 50p in the CenterParcs shop, I really don’t care. It’s all about utility.

My wife is relishing the opportunity of being able to take little Archie on a bike ride. In fact we can take both of them on a bike ride through ‘the forest’. Presumably. That sounds promising.

Then there’s the water dome thing. Theoretically Archie should want to spend hours there. The little one — Freddie — should quite enjoy the water too.

I think that’s about it so far. Maybe Archie might like the animal things you can do — apparently there’s the ability to get up close to an Owl. This, coincidentally, is one of his new words.

So the whole CenterParcs thing is growing on me.

The ability to ‘chuck everything in the car’ (as my wife’s friend described her approach) and avoid the mundane annoyance of airport security etc., is highly appealing.

I’m not sure if my wife and I will be up for I term as a proper holiday (6-star luxury, somewhere shockingly nice) for a long time.

It is all about the children, you see.

I don’t want them staring at the wall whilst my wife and I enjoy the opulent surroundings and service of [insert venue name here]. I want to make sure they’re having fun.

If anything, the ability to plug Archie (and Freddie) into a series of activities that, come 7pm, result in both of them being absolutely shattered and sleeping through until 8am… yeah, that’s definitely the way ahead.

My wife and I were on the website earlier.

I did my usual quality barometer approach — and insisted she look for the most expensive option.

Sold out over the bank holiday weekend. But you know, that’s not a killer. We could go another time.

The best accommodation appears to be a ‘treehouse‘. Looking through the promotional photos, I thought to myself, “Err, yes, time to update my image of CenterParcs”. The treehouses do look rather amazing. They’re described as delivering the ‘ultimate CenerParcs experience’ and feature:

  • 4 Bedrooms with en-suite bath/shower rooms
  • Fully equipped kitchen with dishwasher
  • Open plan lounge
  • Games den with pool table, bar and games console.
  • Sauna
  • Outside hot tub
  • Daily maid service
  • Free WI-FI

Now then, now then. Sauna? Hot tub? Come ON!

Here’s a photo (more of the treehouse below):


I had a look on the site and couldn’t find some example pricing for a treehouse. The ‘New Style Exclusive Lodges‘ look nice too. They seem to be about £1,000 for the week (based on 2 people). So that kind of pricing region.

I have to say that after spending a little while perusing the CenterParcs site, I’m rather impressed at the features and possibilities. I think I need to seriously update my ‘brand image’ for them.

So. CenterParcs. We’ve never done it. We’re total newbies. Any suggestions? Any alternatives we should be considering.

Categories
Travel

A 20-second wait at Gatwick Immigration

I’ve been watching the storm-in-the-tea-cup panic across the national press about immigration delays with interest.

I travel frequently and ever since I can remember getting back into the UK has been nothing but a hassle. Heathrow is my local airport so I’ve more experience there, however I’ve also regularly arrived into Stansted. At both airports I’m never surprised to find hundreds of people in front of me and I always aim for at least an hour’s worth of standing around queuing.

Stansted has routinely been a shocker for me. Tens of desks with only 3 officers working on them. That sort of thing. I’m only pleased that since I’ve a British passport I can avoid the extensive ‘alien’ queue that the poor Americans have to join. It’s immensely frustrating coming off a 300-passenger plane and finding — as I say — 2-3 immigration officers manning the desks when five or six planes, each with a few hundred passengers have clearly just arrived.

I’m always moved to wonder what idiot planned the resources. It’s not as if arriving planes are a surprise and that the waiting team is therefore taken by surprise. I’m always left to conclude that it’s deliberate. Or unintentionally unhelpful. Or, deliberately unhelpful.

Give them more money and more resource. It’s a simple calculation. The country looks rubbish.

That said, America’s immigration queues are legendary. I always expect at least 90 minutes being spoon-fed the ‘welcome to America’ promo video in the various immigration stations at America’s airports. Just this week I landed at Orlando and was seriously unimpressed to be repeatedly reminded that I had ‘entered a federally secured area’ and that I wasn’t allowed to use my mobile phone. For 60 flipping minutes.

Luckily I came prepared. I took a copy of The Week magazine with me especially for this purpose. I’m pleased to say that almost exactly 60 minutes after being warned to put away my mobile, I’d finished The Week and been summonsed to give my fingerprints and mugshot at the desk. Quicker than many UK experiences I’ve had though.

I haven’t got one of those Iris scan things. I am always envious of those folk who can breeze through. Although I have seen it fail as many times as I’ve seen it work.

I also need to give some thought to getting my passport renewed so it comes with the chip or whatever — as that queue at UK immigration always seems to be much shorter.

In the end though I suppose this issue is all about timing. Arrive into the UK at 6pm on Friday and I reckon you should probably expect delays.

Me? Well I was lucky (?) enough to arrive at Gatwick yesterday at 645am and as a result I waited about 20 seconds to get through immigration.

If you have any tips please do let me know. I’m considering signing up for that American ‘world travel’ thing that gives you speedy immigration. Is there anything else I should doing?

Categories
Hotels Observations

I’ve added The Royal Berkshire Hotel to my ‘proper hotels’ list

I popped into The Royal Berkshire Hotel on the outskirts of Ascot recently. I was only there for a meeting, so I didn’t get a chance to check out the rooms, however from what I saw, the place looked immaculate and utterly luxurious. There was no standard reception desk. I reckon that’s the mark of a true, quality boutique hotel. There’s no need for a ‘shopping counter’. Instead there’s just a helpful lady at a nice big oak desk.

What really ticked the boxes for me was the restrooms. I have a barometer that, so far, has never failed in determining the quality of a hotel. It’s all about hand towels in the loos. Proper hotels — the best — have real cloth towels, you see.

Many big supposedly 5-star luxury hotels in London don’t even offer this, preferring instead to range whizzy and really noisy hand drier machines. Or paper towels. Or worse, those revolving towel things that require you to pull down a fresh bit. They’re rubbish.

It’s wonderful to use a proper hand towel. Your hands get dry immediately. No messing around.

The gents at the Royal Berkshire (by the meeting rooms) had an array of little pigeon holes below the taps, each filled with a cloth towel ready for you to use.

Pure luxury.

There’s an environmental question, of course. I trust that The Royal Berkshire has taken adequate steps to ensure basic reduction of carbon footprints in order to offset and offer this facility.

I did try and take a photo but there were lots of people around and I didn’t want to scare anybody.

The Royal Berkshire is now the second hotel in recent memory (after the Chancery Court, Holborn) that I’ve come across offering proper towels in the bathrooms.

If you know of any others, please let me know!