Stuff for Dads

  Frankie & Benny's children's meal

Price: £3.95 (service not included).

Age restriction: Available for children up to the age of 11.

Contents:

• Main course. Options available include: Margherita pizza, pasta, jacket potato or sausage and mash.
• Small bowl of vegetables or side salad (without dressing or onion).
• Dessert. (Ice-cream, fruit salad or banana & custard.)
• Unlimited soft drinks (including milk!).

A Junior Meal is also available for £6.25 with similar contents but larger portions and a more grown up selection of main courses.

The full menus are available online, complete with pictures.

Comments: I've been to plenty of restaurants where the kid's menu has pretty much been a choice between burger, sausage or chicken nuggets, all with chips and beans, and the waiter has sighed deeply when I've tried requesting three glasses of milk. I've felt tolerated rather than welcomed.

I was thus very pleased when we wandered into Franky & Benny's at the weekend and got the impression that they're actively trying to attract families with young children. The kid's meals have plenty of healthy options and the food is presented in such a way that children will actually eat it. For instance, the fruit salad was simply some large bits of chopped up fruit without sauce or slime. The portions were also remarkably large - the pizzas were thin but the size of an adult plate.

Each of our kids was given a fun pack containing an activity book, a magnetic jigsaw and an eleven-in-one crayon where different colours can be cycled through by pulling out the current tip and shoving it in the other end to propel the next colour into place. The crayons alone kept them busy until the food arrived.

The service was good - I didn't even have to ask for straws. The design of the restaurant itself wasn't great, however. The walls were decorated drably with old photos. The kitchen was open to view, which was all very well, but extremely noisy.

As far as I was concerned, the adult food was tasty. I'm not much of a foodie, though. In my first term at university, everyone else in my hall of residence lost weight because they couldn't stomach the catering. I put on a stone. Still, everyone in our group at Frankie & Benny's enjoyed their meal, while the kids ate well and were kept entertained. This made me happy.

Conclusion: From now on, if I have the kids with me, my vote is going to be for Frankie & Benny's every time.

Pros:

• Exceptional value.
• Excellent selection.
• Relatively healthy.
• Simple presentation.
• Free refills.
• It's like the whole concept was devised by someone with children or something freaky like that.

Cons:

• The high-chairs don't look fantastic.
• Decor is dull.
• Lots of background noise (but if your children have a tendency to scream embarrassingly, this might not be such a bad thing...)

Rating: 5/5.

Labels: service

  9:30 AM - Permanent Link - 0 comments - Post comment - Links to this post

  Rentokil Residential Pest Control (Mice)

Service: Guaranteed eradication of the infestation by a trained technician using techniques tailored to your situation. (Translation: a guy comes round and puts down some poison and then comes back a couple of times to check it's been eaten).

Price: £180. (Yeah, I know...)

Comments: I caught five mice in a week using standard, Tom & Jerry-style traps and there were more still scampering along the worktops and doing acrobatics down the stairs. Believing things to be out of hand, I phoned Rentokil and got them to deal with the problem. I'm not sure what I was expecting but, for £180, I was kind of hoping it would involve a little robot mouse with lipstick, a skirt and a cargo of TNT.

More fool me.

The guy who came out was friendly enough and gave some decent advice but then proceeded to put a dozen child-proof poison traps round the house. He gave the impression that this was what he always did. So much for tailored service. He came back a week later to check them and not one had been touched. He moved them around and came back after another week. They still hadn't been touched. This was apparently because I'd called him in too late and I'd obviously dealt with the problem myself. I pointed out that there were still mice about. He muttered that I'd already had three visits but agreed to come back after a fortnight. By then, the poison had been nibbled a bit and there'd been no sign of mice for a while.

After the fourth visit, he said he'd give me a call in a week or two to see how things were going. He didn't. A couple of months later, the mice came back. I just moved the poison around a little and they went away again.

Worth £180? Debatable.

The next step would have been sticky boards. The mice run on, they get stuck, someone hits them over the head with a trowel. Since the guy was only turning up once a week, I'm guessing that that someone would have been me. Lovely.


A poison trap. The Rentokil man's most impressive gadget was a metal stick with a hook on the end for reaching under cupboards to put these in place.

The best advice I got was to plug up cracks and gaps in the house with wire-wool (available in B&Q). If mice can get their head through a gap, then they can get the rest of themselves through. The ones I caught had heads about the size of an almond which means they could slip under doors and through pretty insignificant cracks. Knowing this, I seem to have been able to keep them off the worktops since. There's other information on the Rentokil website.

Thanks to everyone at HomeDad for tips as well.

Conclusion: Reassuring but expensive. Next time, I'll do it myself.

Pros:

• Guaranteed to make the problem go away.
• Useful advice.
• It's nice to know the problem's being dealt with by a professional, especially if you're squeamish.

Cons:

• How exactly can you be sure the problem's actually gone away?
• Expensive, unless you're at the stage where the mice are brazenly stealing electronics.
• You're better off doing the job yourself or maybe calling the council.
• Doesn't involve explosive robots, deadly lasers or the Kill-a-Tron 3000.
• May involve a trowel.

Rating: 2/5.

Labels: service

  9:30 AM - Permanent Link - 0 comments - Post comment - Links to this post

  LOVEFiLM

What is it?: An online rental service for games and DVDs.

Price: Subscription plans include:

• £7.99 - 2 DVDs at a time, up to 4 rentals a month
• £12.99 - 2 DVDs at a time, unlimited rentals
• £15.99 - 3 DVDs at a time, unlimited rentals
• £14.99 - 2 DVDs/games at a time, unlimited rentals
• £18.99 - 3 DVDs/games at a time, unlimited rentals

Subscriptions are paid monthly. If you sign up for six months in advance, however, there is a discount equivalent to one month free.

How does it work?

1. You pay a monthly subscription based on the number of discs you can have on loan at a time.


2. Via LOVEFiLM's website, you create a list of films/games you'd like to rent. You look through the online catalogue, click on the ones you want and give them a high, medium or low priority according to how desperate you are to receive them. You can choose any game from any console that they stock.


3. LOVEFiLM sends the discs nearest to the top of your list that they have available.


4. You watch/play them and then send them back in individual, pre-paid envelopes when you're done. You can keep discs as long as you like.


5. When LOVEFiLM gets a disc back, they send another from your list.

Items stocked: LOVEFiLM's DVD collection is vast and comprehensive.

Along with films and TV series, LOVEFiLM also stocks PS2, PS3, PSP, GameCube, Wii, Xbox and Xbox 360 games. You can't get DS games. Older games may not be available and certain games which require extra controllers, like Guitar Hero, can't be rented.

Comments: I've covered the basics of online games rental elsewhere. I even did a mini-review of LOVEFiLM. A couple of things have changed since then, however:

1. LOVEFiLM's selection of games has vastly improved. Pretty much all new releases on disc-based consoles are now available. Supply seems to be good, too. I've received popular titles like Crackdown, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and God of War II as soon as I've put them to the top of my list.


2. Multiple lists are now in operation. It's possible to have more than one rental list and specify which list your next rental is to be selected from. You could have lists for action films, comedy, TV series, etc, and closely manage what you get to watch. Personally, just being able to differentiate between games and films is all I need - it means I don't have to have a separate subscription with a games rental company any more.
   
   On my package, I can have three discs out on rental at once. I've got a list for games and a list for films. At the moment, I have two discs from the films list and one from the games list. If I send back a film, I get a film in return. If I send back a game, I get a game in return. A quick click on the website is all that's required, however, to make sure that the next time I return a film, I'll get a game back (or vice versa).

LOVEFiLM has always been a solid choice for DVD rental. Discs are sent out six days a week and turn-around time is speedy. Customer service responds quickly to emails and deals with common problems effectively. (Geeky suggestions and queries may confuse them, though... (Don't ask)). Prices are competitive, particularly if you sign up for six months at a time.

Combining this experience and competence with the two new improvements means that LOVEFiLM is now also a serious consideration when looking for a games rental service. The choice of games is there and it's at last possible to guarantee the ratio of games to DVDs that is received, rather than just shoving games to the top of the queue and hoping.

Conclusion: Finally, a combined online DVD and game rental service which is both easy to use and at a reasonable price.

Pros:

• Very efficient.
• Good customer service.
• Decent price.
• Excellent DVD selection.
• Wide choice of games.
• Combined game/DVD packages offer great flexibility.

Cons:

• No DS or GBA games.
• The usual online rental quibbles - you don't have exact control over what you're going to get and you're at the mercy of the Royal Mail.

Rating: 5/5.

(Also, check out my tips on how to get the most from online rental).

Conflict of interest warning!: Click through from this site and take up a free trial with LOVEFiLM and I'll earn some money, which doesn't make this an entirely disinterested review. On the flip side, however, LOVEFiLM is the rental service I currently pay to use myself, the trial is free, so is this site, LOVEFiLM is actually good and I have overheads, you know. So don't complain too much. (You can always type the domain name into your browser just to spite me, if you really want).

Labels: computer games, rental, service

  8:00 AM - Permanent Link - 3 comments - Post comment - Links to this post

  Iceland Home Delivery

The problem

My household goes through fourteen litres of milk a week. That's approximately twenty-five pints. Which is four enormous plastic bottles. Which is a lot of milk - an entire buggyful of the stuff. Milk is heavy. We don't have a car. I don't want to have to go to the shops every day.

The solution

Iceland home delivery! If you spend over £25 in one go, they'll pack your shopping for you and cart the whole lot round to your house for free.

I've tried internet shopping but it did my head in trying to hunt down bargains while the kids rampaged around me. I was clicking all over the place. This way I can take them on an expedition, tire them out pushing the trolley and avoid RSI at the same time. Since Iceland is just round the corner, it's actually quicker than going online as well.

Sure, the choice of fresh food isn't vast but it's not like I have time to cook anyway. Iceland is better than almost anywhere for stocking the freezer and there's a decent selection of things like bread, tins, cereal, alcohol and biscuits. With all that dealt with, it's easy enough to nip somewhere else for the unusual things and little extras.

How it works

1. Go round the shop filling your trolley.
2. Take it to the checkout.
3. Assistants pack your shopping into plastic bags according to category (frozen, refrigerated or general groceries).
4. You pay for it and arrange a two hour delivery slot (nearly always the same day provided you shop before lunch, the van isn't broken and it's not December).
5. You go home.
6. The bags get labelled and then stored at the correct temperature.
7. Your shopping is brought to your door even if you live at the top of a tenement. (Although the driver will look happier if you don't).

The shopping gets manhandled a fair amount so I usually take easily crushed stuff home with me myself - eggs, fresh fruit, salad and yogurts. Everything else is fine.

Reliability

I have had well over two hundred deliveries and I can only think of about four occasions when the delivery slot was missed. Two of those occasions were only by a few minutes and the other two involved the delivery being cancelled and re-scheduled for the following day. I've had a bag of shopping go temporarily missing once and received a bag of someone else's shopping once. One time a bag full of jars split halfway up the tenement stairs. (The driver really didn't look happy). That's a pretty stonking success rate overall.

Pros

You get to choose your own shopping...
...but it gets delivered to the house...
...like magic!
Cheap.
Great choice of frozen food.

Cons

Limited (but adequate) choice of everything else.
Uses lots of plastic bags.
The bags have '...because Mums are heroes!' printed on them. (Grrr...)

Conclusion: Would struggle to live without it.

Rating: 5/5

Labels: service

  2:15 PM - Permanent Link - 0 comments - Post comment - Links to this post