Portable North Pole, personalised video message from Santa

We've used this link to provide a personalised video message from Santa for the last two years, it's just adorable and free of charge.  I'm guessing an American site but the Santa still manages to pronounce our kids names properly - enjoy, its very special!
Santa Message Site
Annie x

Lego City Rocket/Space Shuttle review for Cuthbert Toys, St Albans

We were lucky enough to be given the opportunity by Cuthbert Toys St Albans, to build and review the Lego City Rocket/Space Shuttle.   My son Jasper is a huge lego fan, and couldn't wait to get it home and build it.
With other toy shops closing in St Albans, it is great to have such a lovely shop in Christopher Place, which is well stocked, competitively priced, and staffed by young, fun people, who clearly love their job!
Rather than me waffle on,  I thought I'd film Jasper talking about it.  It was done in one take so forgive my making up of new words - dexteritry?????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ai51g3hZxs

In Seach of a 10" Android Tablet, sub £200 with 2.3 OS

24th November 2011
I appear to have bought said machine after consulting many more informed pals around the cyber city, I'll let you know when I've had a play :)
Thanks for listening :)
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OK, fickle me, am now interested in the Samsung Galaxy 10" Tab, refurbed at around £250 looks a whole lot of kit for a good price.  Only problem is the mixed reviews on the Amazon site?  Anyone got one?
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Below is my original post, having investigated further I feel I now *need* the following out of a tablet!
10"
2.3 OS
10.3 flash - required for Moshi Monsters and iplayer
16gb
Capactitive screen
USB port/s
Having spoken to A1CS they have a new tablet being launched this weekend for £184 including shipping.  They are unsure of its name yet.  Whilst it has all the above spec they say it won't play iplayer? BBC website says as long as 10.3 flash and a minimum 2.2 OS it should?  Will need to investigate further, but getting there!!
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Yeah I did really put that in the title, those of you who know me know that my knowledge of these things are limited.  However, a shout out on twitter has helped immensely and have narrowed gap down.  Have learnt a lot of stuff along the way too!  Many thanks to @padja1 @madbouncydogs @itsmewizard and @kingskykemark
My wish list is:
10" screen
2.3 OS (thanks to Patrick I vaguely sound like I know what I'm talking about - 
possibly 2.2 thanks to @madbouncydogs other half who is happy with it)  Review here!
Sub £200
Wifi Mifi USB ports
-  now to add the yes I'm thick bit, make sure I can have Yahoo on it etc.!
Been narrowed down to the following!
A1CS Tablet via Amazon
Flytouch 16 GB 
I discounted a Momo cos it had Resistive screen and capacative is more like an iphone screen which I'm used to?  Not sure on the capacity of the A1CS tho at the moment?
Would love your reaction to this, via twitter if you like @annieqpr
Thanks for reading!
Annie x

Nostalgic Food

I came across this competition at My Dish where you can win £100 of Marks and Spencers vouchers, which would be very handy since I've been tasked with cooking the Christmas Dinner this year!!!!
I've thought long and hard, and at first couldn't get past boiled eggs, mushed up with butter and served in a cup, with soldiers.  Doesn't sound all that but mum used to make it when we weren't well and it was very comforting.
Thinking further I decided it was a full Roast Lamb dinner.  My dad was a creature of habit and would insist on it *every* Sunday.  My brother and I would take turns to either lay the table and make bread and butter (don't ask, possibly an Irish thing, but had to have at every mealtime) and the other would do the washing up.  Dad worked long, silly hours, so it was about the only time the family ate together.
When I eventually left home I couldn't bring myself to cook a roast lamb dinner, in fact lamb in general was very much off the agenda for many years.
However, after dad passed away in 2004, its become something rather special, and though I don't cook it very often, it is always done with dad in mind and I imagine he's smiling from above!
I must admit I have in fact dropped the bread and butter aspect tho, as that's just, plain silly!
Would love to know what your nostalgic foods would be by the way?
Annie x

Rent A Villa In Crete www.rentavillaincrete.com

My latest venture, with the greatest invaluable help from @mediocre_mum is 
http://www.rentavillaincrete.com/
I'm very excited to see if I can direct traffic with my own site rather than paying to be on others - we will see!  We are going out on Sunday so will be taking lots more pics.
Thanks for looking!
Annie x

Tangle Free Locks forever!

After

Before

My daughter has lovely long, fine hair.  However fine hair quite often means tangled hair.  We've had the battles of hair-brushing and the tear-invoking tangles pulling at my heartstrings.  
I therefore jumped at the chance to have a play with the Supersoft Detangling Spray and 2 in 1 Shampoo.
I had to convince Scarlett that it would work (crossing fingers) but the fact that it had the lady Smurf on the front gave it instant approval!

I have to say, it did work, instantly!  No idea how or why, but it does, and it smells gorgeous too!
Mornings are stressful enough getting two children to school, but this has helped enormously!  At Sainsburys they currently retails at £2 per unit.  I have been using for a while yet and haven't run out so figure that it's very good value!

KiCK Magazine - Special Subscription Discount

I was very excited to be offered the opportunity to review KiCK magazine, a football magazine aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 14.  
I received the first copy and really enjoyed flicking through it, it was jam-packed with features and pictures, including those of our own Adel Taarabt and Joey Barton, and I was impressed with the amount of quizzes and competitions.  My Jasper is 7, and although he loves going to the Arsenal with his father, its more of an outing with Daddy.  So I decided I would like to share this experience with 9 year old Harry, the son of a very good friend who is mad about football - sorry Arsenal fan again, but thought it would be good to get his first hand experience of it.

Whilst I await his opinion, I thought I should pass on the chance of a discount on a 6 month subscription! Each magazine retails at £2.60, but you can get 6 months for just £9!  Gotta be worth  the pocket money I'd say!  The code for this magazine discount is K71 KiCK 
Will update as soon as Harry can tear himself away long enough to give me some feedback!
Thanks for reading!
Annie x