03/06/201803/06/2018 by jo

I’m Loving my Moto G6 – My First Impressions

My last phone was a Samsung Galaxy S5. It served me well, but was slowly dying, falling apart. With vouchers I had for my birthday as well as other ones I found, I was able to buy myself a new phone and opted for the recently released Motorola Moto G6.

The Moto G6 is a bit bigger than my previous phone and it’s way more powerful. With twice the capacity at 64GB I’m having a much better experience. I have a sim-only deal with Three and didn’t want to enter into a contract as my deal is a good one.

Moto G6 HDR Hampton Court crown

My main concern was the camera. I loved my S5 camera, but making the switch to a different brand was going to mean re-learning things a bit. Actually, I now prefer the camera – you can focus and move the exposure within the shot. I know the iPhone has this function, but my Samsung never did. It makes a huge difference having the option.

My photos have definitely improved too – I need to get to a gig to see if that will be trickier as I’ve read review saying the Moto G6 has a slow camera. I haven’t felt this is an issue for me.

Moto G6 Portrait

I’m really enjoying the filters too – I love the portrait filter so much.

Moto G6 Weasley Red using spot colour

There’s also a spot colour option – I tried to get it to pick up my red hair, but it also got a lot of my red face!

Moto G6 spot colour in green

My most favourite camera feature is the text scanner. Oh my goodness – it works really well too. This will be a huge timesaver when I need to copy up notes.

The Moto G6 runs on Android 8.0.0 (Oreo) which is the latest version.

The other place we use our phones a lot is the car. We always use our in-car connectivity via Smart Link – and the difference is astounding. More often than not the S5 would be slow, couldn’t connect and would frustrate us especially when we were lost. Not so with the Moto G6 – it connects straight away and loads immediately. The extra space on the phone has made a huge difference.

We haven’t actually had it not connect yet…

Then there’s charging. The Moto G6 can fully charge in an hour and a half from empty, thanks to something they call turbopower. I am very impressed with this turbopower – my battery lasts for a couple of days as it is. Nothing seems to be draining the battery at all. It uses a USB-C cable.

Moto G6 Votes for Women

Security-wise, the Moto G6 uses my fingerprint to unlock it. This frustrates Shaun and H a lot as they want to play on my phone, but at last I can deny them this delight. There is also a pattern you can draw on dots as an alternative but they haven’t seen that yet….

One feature I like is the phone arriving with a protective case included. I like when companies think about the little things you’re likely to forget.

The Moto G6 takes a nano sim. That’s the tiniest one. I had to go into a Three store, who were able to issue me with one straight away.

Moto G6 wine glass reflection

This is the other good thing; I’m with Three on a sim-only deal. I pay £15 a month for unlimited texts, 200 minutes of phone calls and 30GB data. I don’t want to change it, so I needed to find a good reasonably priced phone which has everything I need.

The main difference between the two phones is that this one isn’t waterproof. I never tested the S5 to see if it was, but now have to be ultra careful where I wasn’t before as I had that added security. However, the G6 is water repellant. Handy when your daughter is kicking water at you… but not handy if you drop it in water (which I have never done with any phone).

There is a slightly more expensive dual sim phone option, but my deal on Three means I should never need it – I can use my phone around the world without any bother.

So far, I’m loving my Motorola Moto G6. After vouchers I paid £30. It currently retails on Amazon at £214.97 (affiliate link). I’m looking forward to more days out to take more photos – and I’m loving that everything is backed up to my Google account and seems to be unlimited too. Hopefully this means my phone will last me for a good 4-5 years.

Moto G6 Hampton Court roses

Here’s Motorola’s page with full specs.

Shaun is so jealous of my phone he’s going to buy one for himself as well. It’s a lovely phone, an amazing price and I’m not feeling limited when comparing it to what I used to have.

27/06/201628/06/2016 by jo

Enjoy More Water with Robinsons

Robinsons Squash’d have just launched two new flavours: Orange & Peach and Lemon & Pink Grapefruit which are also available as limited edition Wimbledon themed bottles! We were sent those and one of each of the other flavours to encourage H to drink more water – something I’m forever nagging her to do!

Robinsons Squashd Swingball

Robinsons have just launched two new flavours of their juice – also available as a Squash’d bottle. I don’t know about you, but every single day H comes home from school with a water bottle which is almost always STILL full. It’s quite frustrating. We’ve had incidents recently where her daily water consumption needs to be upped, yet she gets too distracted at school to actually drink it – I should be grateful she’s playing and doing stuff, but I do wish that something would give her an incentive to drink water.

Then along came Robinsons. Their Squash’d range of drinks arrived thanks to BritMums, and it has helped a lot. Every afternoon from school I can fill a pint glass with some water and a squirt of whichever flavour I choose, and you can guarantee within half an hour she has drunk the lot (and tried to guess which it is). Each Squash’d capsule makes 20 drinks – and it’s small enough to take around with you when you’re out and about.

Drinking Robinsons Squashd after Rainbows

We were provided with a sticker chart to track how much she has been drinking. Being a six and three quarter year old, H now thinks she’s too old for such a thing (I thought this too, but then realised being a motivated 40-something Trip Advisor contributor who gets virtual badges when I submit a certain number of reviews is pretty much the same) but stick the water and juice in a fancy cup and that’s it, she drinks the lot.

Annoyingly, school won’t allow the children to take in juice with their water as I know she’d drink a lot more if that was the case.

Robinsons Squash’d contains real fruit in every drop, and is definitely working in getting H to drink more water. It contains no added sugar, is free from artificial colours and preservatives too.

What I like the most about the Robinsons Squash’d we received was getting H to work out which flavour her drink is. I’m growing to love the “ooh, I taste a hint of apple in this one” and “I bet this is the Summer Fruits flavour”. It’s really good for After School Snacks too!

Robinsons Squashd After School Snacks

H’s friends came over for a playdate after school and tried out a few of the flavours. One of the mums always keeps a bottle of Squash’d in the cupboard – it doesn’t take up a lot of space and is great for making a quick cup after school – especially when you get caught out and don’t have much in! Our biggest problem is making sure that Shaun doesn’t drink it all….

Of course, fruity water is fun but it isn’t the only way to guarantee your child drinks enough every day. We have our handy Lego moulds which I’ve been playing around with a bit as well as colouring in the ice tray in the freezer in pretty pinks, yellows and oranges as I spill them everywhere! So what I’ve done, I fill the bottom of the mould in one flavour. Once that has set it looks something like this, which is utterly pointless when it comes to having your lolly as the stick is barely joined to the main body.

Robinsons Squashd Ice Lollies Stage 1

So you add another Robinsons Squash’d flavour! Voila. Stripy lolly. If I had the patience I’d make one with all six flavours we received – so keep an eye on my Instagram feed, you never know.

Robinsons Squashd Lego Ice Lolly

Two of the three lollies weren’t right so I’ve added a third layer in a different flavour, so that’ll be interesting to see after school tomorrow. See, that’s another thing – our school seems to permanently have an ice cream van outside at home time and I always make sure not to take any money with me. Now we’ve got better ones at home!

In conclusion, the Robinsons Squash’d bottles are already doing the trick – H will demand a drink when she gets home from school every night. She’s drinking loads more water, and I reckon that’s a RESULT!

This post is an entry for BritMums #EnjoyMoreWater Challenge, sponsored by Robinsons – you can find them over here.

We were sent six flavours to try out as part of this challenge.

13/05/2015 by jo

Plasticine

I’m a child of the seventies, and for a large part of that time my creative play revolved around plasticine. Seventies plasticine was the kind which didn’t mix into nice colours, and just went brown. Thankfully, things have changed. We have been sent a selection of Plasticine goodies to see what we think.

Plasticine brings back so many memories for me – I remember getting pots full of various colours back when I was young and making loads of things until you couldn’t use the stuff any more. These days things have improved.

The first, most important thing is that Plasticine does not dry out! I wish we’d had some when some friends stayed over earlier this year. Our friend made an elephant head with that similar other stuff that begins with P, but after a week it was crusty and dry – and eventually it had to be thrown away which was sad.

The second thing which is also very important, you can blend Plasticine together really easily to mix colours. We put this to the test when H made a Squidgems Donatello Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle model (rrp £1.49) – which came with really easy to follow instructions. Mixing the brown and green for the shell brings out a great shade – see the pictures above.

Next we put the Plasticine to the test with an Animal Creations kit (rrp approx £4) – you add various colours to parts of the plastic legs, tail and head, then blend what is left to make the body. We got a dog and H really wanted to copy the picture on the box – it could have done to be a little bit bigger (my poor eyesight there), but H still got on with it and was pleased with the results.

The thing which appeals the most to me about the Plasticine range we were sent is how affordable it is. H enjoys doing crafty things and liked trying out the range we were sent. We still have some packs to work through, but I know she will have lots of fun – the Fluro (rrp £1.99) looks bright and good for working with, and the Basix range (rrp £0.99) is a perfect pocket money price and a good starter point.

Something we weren’t sent but that caught my eye was this fabulous Morph plasticine kit – after all, who wouldn’t want to make their own Morph? That’s the beauty of Plasticine – there’s such a big range you can make whatever you want!

We were also sent the Funtubulous (rrp £6.99) – a tub full of Plasticine and some cutters – we haven’t played with this properly yet, but I know it’s something H will enjoy playing with a lot – probably to make me all kinds of ‘delicious’ food… I like that the kits come with tools which help with modelling. H is rediscovering her love of making things!

We were sent a fine selection of Plasticine products for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own.

16/02/201427/03/2018 by jo

Barny Bear Returns – The Celebrity Biscuit Bear

We tried out Barny Bear snacks back in September, and have now received two new flavours. A lot has changed since last time…

Barny Bear are yummy bear shaped sponge snacks, previously available in milk and chocolate flavours and now also available in strawberry and apple. We were sent a box of the latter two flavours to try. Oh, and Barny has his own adverts over here now – which H insists we all watch. Barny is pretty easy to find these days – many a time I’ve spotted him racked out in the supermarket, never mind those television appearances (during the ad breaks). Let’s just call him a Celebrity Bear…. H certainly thinks he is.

The only trouble is, when you want to head out for a bit of peace and quiet and you take some Barny Bear in your backpack, people seem to want to photograph you.

On Saturday we headed to Westfield Stratford changing trains near St. Paul’s. Someone must have been tipped off, as photographs exist of the backpack where Barny Bear resided. Must’ve been the paparazzi, right? They’ll do anything to find the bear… Good job H can demand no more photos, right?

Barny Bear returns

Today there was a party and as I’m conscious of too much sugar, a Barny Bear is a good pre-going-crazy-at-soft-play kind of snack when you know party food is coming an hour or so later, so I packed one in my bag in case of emergencies… fortunately the only photographer was the family hosting the party, I think our celebrity bear was safe. I’m not so sure about that zebra though, getting a little too close to our Barny Bear for comfort.

The day finished with a quick race in the back yard. There was only one prize to be had for the winner – a Barny Bear snack of course. Shaun and H were poised; ready, steady, go! and they were off.

H won of course! So she claimed her prize. The verdict? “I thought it was nice. I like the apple taste and it isn’t too sugary” says H. I can go for that. There is no further word whether the paparazzi are still seeking Barny Bear, since his mysterious disappearance…. ahem.

This post is an entry for BritMums ‘Winter Little Adventures Challenge’ sponsored by Barny, individually wrapped bear-shaped sponges with a hidden filling. Find out more about Barny here. We were sent a pack of each Barny flavour to participate.

22/09/201316/02/2014 by jo

We’re Going on a Bramble Hunt With Barny Bear

Barny Bear are a new snack, and one we were sent a box of each flavour to try. Our challenge was to go on an adventure, so we decided to do a spot of foraging locally. We’d come across the snacks at Lollibop though hadn’t tried both flavours, so we knew what to expect.

Barny Bear come in chocolate and milk flavours, and we’re going on a bramble hunt. BUT. Beforehand, something very peculiar happened. I got to the box of chocolate Barny Bear flavour to get some snacks ready, and found much to my surprise that there was only ONE BARNY LEFT. A big mystery.

We headed out to Wilderness Island which is a short walk from our house, and started out with a spot of pooh sticks, as H had never played it before. This also covers another of the National Trust 50 Things challenges, so it is duly ticked off in the book. I should do an update as we’re doing pretty well with these too. Wilderness Island has the perfect bridge for Pooh Sticks anyway – the one as you enter. There are also a lot of bramble bushes there.

We got loads, enough for a bramble crumble anyway which was our plan. However, picking brambles is tiring work and you need a snack. Out came the Barny Bear snacks at the right time to help our hunger pangs. I mentioned the empty chocolate box, to which Shaun duly confessed he’d had at LEAST two. Cheeky. Still, it goes to show adults like them too.

H insisted on the chocolate Barny Bear on the reasoning her father had eaten most of them – who am I to argue, so she got her own way, going for poor Barny’s head first. We had a quick stop and snack before heading back towards the entrance where there seemed to be a plethora of bramble bushes and the Pooh Sticks Bridge.

So, what’s to tell about Barny Bear? They’re a bear-shaped sponge snack with two different fillings, launched originally in France over fourteen years ago. The snacks contain no artificial colours or preservatives, and each are individually wrapped in a pack of five. H really liked them and wanted more. I’m standing firm – although they may need to be eaten before Shaun gets his hands on them… ahem!

The ending to our tale, the brambles were plentiful in supply (when we left Wilderness Park and headed towards the old overgrown garages nearby), and tonight for tea we’re having apple and bramble crumble with custard. I fully intend to make green custard to live the school dinner dream from the 1970’s and 80’s that my daughter will never witness. It’s only fair. I love that H will grow up with a good sense of the outdoors around her like I did when I was young, and learn to embrace the kind of school meals that made me into the woman I am.

This post is an entry for BritMums ‘Little Adventures Challenge’ in partnership with Barny, the bear-shaped snack providing a little discovery in every bite. Find out more about Barny here.

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