Posted on 20 Comments

COMPETITION : A bloggy chance to win £100 from Appliances Online closes 6th April

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UPDATE:  The winner was @jaxbees with the caramel shortcake that my youngest chose as the winner.

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Coming home from school today, we decided to stop off past the local shop and buy a few treaty things for the boys.  Instead of buying sweeties, we bought some meringue nests, chocolate and fudge icing in a tub, and some mini chocolate Easter eggs.

To say that the boys enjoyed their messy making of things was an understatement and Appliances Online liked the idea so much, that they have offered a £100 prize for a blogger who enters the linkie on this blog and includes a recipe or a foodie picture of their own.   The rules are simple and are at the end of this post.

Back to the meringue nests:  the pictures tell the whole story on their own, with lots of mess to clean up afterwards.

Competition rules: A simple food picture or a recipe post will do the job.

  • Post a picture of a meal, or a recipe of your own and link it up to this blog below.
  • Pop the words and link in this sentence into your post.  “My entry for the Bosch Dishwasherlink up”
  • The competition will close on the 6th April 2012.
  • Leave a wee comment please to say how to contact, ie your email address in the comment or your Twitter id.

Good luck everyone, and if you struggle with the in-link, please just send me a message or a tweet.


Posted on 7 Comments

Goodbye Vodafone (your customer service was poor)

To understand the background, after a very frustrating 5 hours on the phone to Vodafone to sort out the ending of our contracts, my other half with red face, and scarcely controlled temper had decided that enough was enough and tried for the second time to finish the current contracts that were actually ending.

Apparently, with Vodafone, we have to phone to cancel the contract a month before the contract ends, or they charge you another month of payments.  We called on the 20th February to make sure we had done everything right to end the contracts when they were finished on the 6th March.  We were advised that we had paid up to the end of the contract and could cancel the direct debit, so we did.  We were also told that the unlock codes for our IPhones would be with us in a few days.

We had asked about transferring our contract to a sim only deal, as we were on a high IPhone tariff which included a premium for the handset when we first took the contract, but apparently they can’t move us to a new sim only deal when this one ended as it would be cheaper than the rate we were on, and our only options with Vodafone would be to upgrade or stay on the inflated rate once our contract was actually finished.  I was speechless.  Nobody would listen to the fact that we had paid 2 years of the contract, FINISHED it, and should then be put on a new deal which didn’t include the extra price for the phone.

A few days later, messages began to appear about unpaid charges.

Calling Vodafone – NOBODY – would talk to us about the issues, unless we paid the charges first.  FIVE hours trying to sort it out was mind-blowing and nobody would put us through to supervisor to discuss the charges they now said we were due.

We eventually paid them to get to speak to someone who would talk to us, and suddenly the unlock codes would now come to us after apparently not being ordered in the first telephone call.  Then after we pay those, they now want to sting us for another month, as they said there was no record of the phone call on the 20th to cancel – that is despite several Vodafone reps saying they could see notes on the system, but that it just hadn’t been done.

Apparently this is all in the small print, but what a pity we don’t have an IPhone contract then?  They never sent us one, but we were supposed to know that the terms and conditions from an old contract would apply here too.  The calls were passed from department to department, some told us they system was down and others told us it was fine.  Very generously a UK rep finally agreed to backdate the contract termination to the 20th, so the message from me is to phone well in advance of your contract ending if you plan on moving, AND put it in writing with recorded delivery.

We were hung up on several times when being transferred and each department told us it was another departments problem.  Take note, the staff have a lovely habit of listening to one line of a statement, and then saying something like, oh that’s disconnections, then not waiting and just hitting transfer button, and disconnections would then just say, oh that’s customer service and bang, you’re on hold again.  It’s a nice trick to pass people round and round and round and round.

A ranty message on Twitter and a Vodafone rep asked if they could be of any help, but the only topics they will discuss are the unlock and pac codes and they conveniently ignore the question of the EXTRA MONTH AND A HALF OF CHARGES they have stung us for.  Nobody would talk about the fact we were told there were no more charges on the 20th February and to be honest, no matter where we move now, I will never, ever go back to Vodafone.  They’ve had nearly 20 years of service from us, and this is a poor way to end it all.

So it’s goodbye to Vodafone and I am also moving my son and my mother away too, so they have now lost 4 phones, not that they actually care of course as we are probably just a drop of pee in the chanty pot to them.

AND HELLO TO GIFF GAFF NETWORK

ps – the Giff Gaff link does open to an affiliate page – what can I say, if anyone signs up, we both get a free fiver and I really have to tell you about them later this week.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on 8 Comments

Top tips to Reduce our Environmental Footprint?

My children have forced me into learning a little about what all of this is about.  Their school has an ongoing project and have a permanent ECO group which works to raise awareness and get children into the mindset of what it is all about and how we can all contribute to making it work.

Our eco footprints give a reflection on how much energy we use as a nation.   Officially, it is an estimate of the land and sea area needed to give us the energy we need to use in our lives, which includes the water, transport, food and materials we use up.

Don’t confuse your ecological footprint with your carbon footprint.   Your carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases we use.

In the UK, we use far more than is sustainable.  If everyone on earth lived in the same way that we do, then we would need more than 3 or 4 planets as a minimum to keep us going for the future.

The top tips to reducing your environmental footprint (as well as keeping down your bills) are:

  • Recycle, recycle, recycle.    Recycling plants seem to spring up everywhere.  Use them where you can.
  • Turn things off and don’t leave them in standby modes, ie  TV’s, computers, cookers, chargers etc.
  • Turn down central heating and water settings as even one or two degrees will make a difference long-term.
  • Insulate your loft, walls and hot water tank.  We keep hearing this, but how man of us have done it.
  • Use energy-efficient light bulbs where you can.  I have some, but sadly, my mother cannot see in the dim light they produce.  I am led to believe that the normal bulbs we grew up with will not be available soon so the choice may be taken away from us.
  • Travel where you can, by bus or train instead of car.  Car share if it is possible, and try to walk or cycle for short distances.
  • Use trains or ferries where you can, but this is beginning to be difficult as the flight is often much cheaper.
  • Choose energy-efficient appliances where you have to replace your old ones.
  • Buy your meat, fruit and vegetable locally when you can.
  • Fill machines to full before switching on, ie full dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer modes.  I still have to convince my mother that this is a good idea as she seems to have the idea that leaving ANY washing overnight is a bad thing to do.

So, that’s about it in a nutshell.  If you are over 30, you might only have seen the adverts on TV trying to get us to reduce our footprints, but not REALLY know what it is all about.

If I have missed any good ones, feel free to add them in a comment.   Comment anyway, you know we bloggers love them, and commentluv give you a lovely linkie back to you.

Posted on 21 Comments

Internet Safety Day & Online Games for Children

It was Internet safety day yesterday, and while I didn’t get to writing a post about it, I came across something that is aimed at children which worried me.

I am pretty vigilant with my boys lives online, which is probably a bit hypocritical considering how large my own online footprint is these days, but that probably makes me more aware of the possibilities.

My two had joined the growing army of young children who were playing Roblox.   I would ask that all parents whose young children use it to exercise caution.  Please research the reviews well and use the forums before you decide to allow your children to use it.  I would recommend that this site be used for over 16’s and possibly over 18’s.

Obviously it is up to each parent to decide what their children have access to online, but I would stress to do your homework around the online world style games offered to children.

When I first read the access request, I felt reassured that it was similar to the Penguin Club style interaction which keeps it safe for children, but it is very different indeed.

Moving on to the positive, there is a yearly campaign that helps promote safer use of the Internet among children and young adults.

This year they ran with the tagline:

“Connecting generations and educating each other, with the slogan: “Discover the digital world together… safely!”

This videos I have attached to this post are quite powerful.

Our children and young adults can be easily led.  We wouldn’t open our front doors to children and let strangers in, yet we don’t monitor our children enough online to ensure that they don’t open a portal to their safety bubble through the online world.

Be aware – check what your children are accessing, and who they are talking to.   Try it out for yourself when they ask for access to a new Internet game or craze as that is the only way you are going to know if it is age appropriate or not.

 

 

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Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer – How does it shape up?

We were sent the LeapPad Explorer to review a couple of weeks ago, and because it was so close to middlers birthday, I held off giving it to him until the big day as I didn’t want him to have something so major so close to his birthday.

What is the LeapPad Explorer

It is a tablet device for kids.  That’s it in simple terms.   The age ranges goes from 4 – 9, but I suspect there are many children in the 2 – 3 age group who would get more benefit from one of these than using mum or dads Ipad or Iphone.  They have more information and there is a video you can watch of it here.

It uses apps based around learning, reading and creativity.   A built-in camera which takes photos and videos is included and gives it an authentic tablet experience for children with an attached stylus to help little fingers.   It even has a shake to move ability in some of the games for motion.

Out of the box.

The tablet has 4 apps and the LeapPad really needs to be connected to the Internet to get it to work completely.  It took us about 15 minutes to update the tablet and another 10 minutes to download the apps.  I have to say that we did have some leaplet cards we had bought for our Leapster Explorer and they work in the app store for the LeapPad which was a nice bonus.

We downloaded a full game that took £20 of money worth in cards, but it is the same price in Amazon so that was ok.   There are some E-Books for £5 and some smaller game apps for £5 or less.  The nice touch that I felt was missing when I reviewed the Leapster Explorer earlier in the year, is that you can now buy the apps online, just like in Itunes and they download onto your LeapPad automatically when you log into the account.

Another aspect that I found appealing was how all the apps and games from the Leapster Explorer are transferrable to the LeapPad Explorer so that if you bought a game for one device, it downloads onto the other as well.  For me this is a MAJOR bonus and VERY like how Itunes works with their Ipods, Ipads and Iphones – it’s a nice touch from a games manufacturer.

Testing

Well, I haven’t had much in the way of testing for this lovely little gadget.  Middler has rarely put it down.  At 10, he has special needs and has yet to learn to read and write his name properly, but he is drawing, playing and taking pictures constantly and he loves that it looks like a Tablet computer.  We have the Leapster Explorer with all the same games now and littlest has even been known to sneak one of them away to potter about on, even though he pretends that he is too old for it.

Owning the LeapPad

For me, it is preferrable that my son uses the LeapPad and leaves my phone alone.   On my phone, he tends to delete things I’d like to keep and with the LeapPad he is learning new things each time he uses it.

It’s a thumbs up from us.

Disclosure – We were given the LeapPad Explorer for this review.

Posted on 58 Comments

Using kids photos without consent – cool, or not ?

On twitter today, I have been called names because I don’t think that its right to post photos of other people’s children online in recognisable photos on the public internet without asking their parents if its ok to do so.

It’s simple for me, but not for all.

I told what I think is a pretty innocent tweeter that I didn’t think it was cool to post. She had taken pictures of two children in a shop that she didn’t know, and who didn’t know they were being photographed, and posted the picture online to talk about how obese they were to raise awareness of a very real problem affecting many children nowadays.

I don’t think that is proper, but I can see how others might not think about it until someone else mentioned it.    I don’t think its enough justification for the two photographers who jumped on the tweets to start calling me names over it.

I’m not going to go into it all, but they were a couple of photographers that seem to think there are no consequences in this world, and don’t care about anyone elses feelings.   As far as they are concerned, they are going to take pictures of anyone, anywhere, and do whatever they want with them, including anybody’s kids that they take pictures of.  As far as they are concerned, people like me who would like to be asked before their kids pics were put on the internet are idiots.

Do all photographers think like that, or is it just the male kind?

In my view, the least anyone can do morally and ethically is to ask permission of parents of children that you are taking pictures of, if it is ok to use them in a public online place.   Many many people have valid reasons for NOT wanting recognisable pictures of their children posted online.  I don’t think it’s an unreasonable expectation to want to be asked  before for such an intrusion.

One told me that just because I “shat” out kids, I didn’t have the right to take the moral high ground.

The other told me that we shouldn’t go out in public if we don’t want to be photographed !!

Debate, right or wrong, what do you think?

UPDATE

For those asking to see the tweets/conversation.

My original tweet in response to seeing the pictures of two children and being talked about due to their size was to reply to the person who took them and say that I would delete them if I were her as posting pics of kids she had no permission to was not cool.

She was trying to show the potential dangers of chidren who are overweight in this world to highlight where adults are damaging their kids by leting them get overweight, but using very recognisable pictures of children she had taken in a supermarket.

I have a couple of tweets in my favourites, and I can’t for the life of me locate my favourites on the new twitter web.  I also have no idea how to lift conversations from twitter to post here, or I would have.

Two photographers who were not the ones who took the pictures decided to take it to a whole new level of discussion as they proceeded to call me all sorts for having an opinion that is not the same as theirs.  They were determined to nastily defend the right to use a picture in any way they see fit.

We can have differences of opinions and ideas, and if we don’t like what someone else has to say, we can challenge it.  Where it becomes not acceptable in my view is when people decide to get personal and call us names.

A nice photographer came on later and debated the issue, and apologised for the abuse I had received.  I did not give the two who were nasty any abuse back, rather I tried to discuss it with them, but they were not prepared to discuss, only to call names.

The original photographer who posted the pictures apologised for causing such offence and said she would remove them.

It seems to be that photography students might be being told the legal side which is that pictures in a public place are fair game, and that it is up to their own code of ethics and morality what they do with them.

I don’t know what the definition of public and private place is.

I am also glad of the support of the mum bloggers who have the same opinion as I do that random children should not be used for the sake of someone else’s idea of art.

To me, if they have to ignore the potential subjects feelings to portray what the photographer wants to, then there is something wrong with using or taking the picture.

That is my opinion, and I am open to discussing others opinions on the subject which seems to be a huge emotive debate.

Am I defender of those two children that I don’t know, yes, I guess in a way I am.  If someone did that to my children I would be furious, and I would hope that if anyone saw pictures of my children on the internet without consent, that someone would stand up for them.

 

 
 

 

Posted on 6 Comments

School Trips and Gadgets – Opinions Please??

I am all for school trips and I think they are good for children, but there are times when I wonder if schools really have lost the plot.   They seem to think that pupils’ parents have a never ending pot of money to spend out.

I don’t mind the triple whammy of:

  1. cinema outings & shows
  2. museum and event trips
  3. sun cream
  4. uniform
  5. school shoes
  6. gym shoes
  7. gym kit
  8. book fairs (well I do, but that’s another story, more aimed at the people who organise and man the stalls)
  9. toy fairs (I might talk about that this week as well since it is relevant tomorrow)
  10. xmas present shelves
  11. xmas cards (sending a pack home your child has drawn and pretty much holding a gun to your head to buy them) 
  12. dinner lady white tickets you have to pay for, even if you gave your child a packed lunch that day.

 I can forgive almost all of those as ideas that might be appropriate, if they were dealt with slight modifications to how some of them are done at the moment.

My oldest was away with the school for 1 night in April.  It cost £85 and they had to be given £15 spending money.  

A couple of months later, they want another £300 for him to go for a 5 night residential sports outing.   On top of that, there will be spending money and lots of other clothes etc.

I can take my whole family away in the caravan for a fortnight for that price.  I have said no, that he is not going on the trip.    This now makes my son the odd one out, as it seems that out of a year of 70 odd primary children, he is the only one not going.  To top that off, he has also been given £5.00 to take home to start a car wash / baking initiative to help grow that fiver to take a little of the cost down for those who are going.  He has been included in it, even though he is not going.  He is asking the teacher if he is going to be allowed to keep anything above the £5 he earns since he is not going.

I am immensely proud of my boy for how he has taken not going away with his class.  My reasons are not purely monetary, as on the last trip away for the night, they put with two boys who are much more streetwise.   They proceeded to describe 18 horror films in-depth and I guess you can get the picture, along with the not doing anything your parents say as it’s “your life”.    He came home after one night away and it took us all about a month to recover and reset the boundaries.   I am not ready to go through that again. 

Then comes the news that the kids are all going to be issued IPad 2’s next year, which all parents will have to pay for on a monthly subscription.  Now understand, that all the kids have been told they are going to get these things, and nobody has asked the parents if they are willing to pay for it.   I have two children at that school, so that will be about £25 – 30 month they want me to pay (and have told my kids they will get).   My boys are coming home more and more excited at when it is all going to happen, and all I know is that I am going to be expected to find about £360 a year for something we hadn’t planned for.  

I have decided that the ipad2 are more important long-term, given the way the school plans using them than one week of activities.  I am budgeting for affording that, and our trips away which we need as a family with high needs children.

Logically I do know it is the right decision for us as a family, but why, oh why, do I feel so guilty for not letting him go on that trip?

Posted on 1 Comment

Beautiful Blogs Collection

Beautiful Blogs – I have a page on my blog that is compiling a list of goreous blogs for me, and for others to share.  There is the option to share yours, just by filling in the form to add your link.  You can choose to add the code to a post on your blog, and then you will have the same list.

If you want to be added, but are struggling to get it to work, send me your email and blog address to scottishmum@gmail.com, or DM me it on twitter at @scottish_mum.

You have to follow me on google connect for me to keep the link to you in my collection.   Apart from that, I will google connect all those who sign up for the collection.  Take note, any blogs that sign up, and who are not relevant to my blog, or contain inappropriate material, I will be removing from the list.  If you are in doubt, send me an email to ask.

Go to my beautiful blog collection page which will remain permanently on the blog.  click here

Posted on 4 Comments

@scottish_mum / My Top 5 Reasons for Twittering

Yada, yada, yada.  I see the look on the faces of anyone that I mention twitter to.  It is normally met with some kind of snigger, and snort, or some comment of how they have far too much to do to spend time on twitter, or asking why I would want to talk to strangers every day.   After that, I don’t tell them I tweet. 

Because of the reactions, very few people know that I tweet.  My husband and kids know, and they snigger and snort at it.  I have two people in RL apart form that who know, and they are fine with it.  So much so, that they even know about this blog.   If you are reading this, yes, you know who you are.  That’s it though.   To other people, my twitter doesn’t really exist.

My enjoyment of using twitter is totally founded on the fact that I have met new friends very quickly.  These are friends, whom we rarely meet, or hardly know, yet we talk to each other nearly every day.

Pre twitter, it was hard for me to imagine that I would enjoy it so much, or that I would end up setting up a blog, and writing away into the cyberspaceworld.  I would like to go public as some of you do, and reveal my face to the world, but I am not comfortable doing that at the moment, so I am doubly grateful for the lovely people who have come into my twitter stream. 

My top 5 reasons for tweeting

1 – I have someone to talk to at any time of day.  There is always someone on the other end of the keyboard in my timeline now.    And that is not just anyone.  They are going to be people like me, with kids, with problems, and not pretending that everything in their lives is rosy.

2 – I don’t have the time with special needs in the family to do the coffee mornings, lunch groups, or mummy socialising locally, and twitter offers me the opportunity to mix with both special needs and mainstream mums.  I get the best of both worlds, which doesn’t happen in real life.

3 – I am doing something that I would never have done before.  Thanks to twitter, I am travelling 500 miles to a place I haven’t been to before, to meet a few hundred other women who have met through blogging at Cybermummy in London.

4 – I found blogging.  Through reading some other peoples blogs, and deciding that I needed an outlet to keep me sane, I started blogging last year.  I messed up when I transferred across to my own domain and lost it all, so it was start all over again.   This blog started in November / December and will take time to build up, and at the moment, I am enjoying having somewhere to splurge.  Do I want to take it further, not yet, as it’s fun.

5 – I thrive on the sometimes multiple, fast conversations going on.  All those  people who join in, all the people helping each other when someone asks for help, and the fact that it keeps me sane. 

That’s it from me.  I think I have been lucky in that I have not managed to get myself into any twitter arguments.   This is the secret though isn’t it.  It’s like a little secret society of fast moving conversation followers.  The speed it moves in comparison to facebook is astounding.

Thats it from me, and if you haven’t tried twitter, it takes a little time to find your circle, and expand to follow the people that you like.   I tried three times before I really got into it.   I’ll have withdrawal symptoms on holidays this year !!!!!!

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Cybermummy 2011 Here I Come

My first post of the New Year and hold onto your hats, because I am going to the conference.  Oh yes I am.  I’ve booked my early bird ticket and I am going to be on my way.    I am looking forward to going, and my biggest worry at the moment is knowing which hotel to book into.  

Online mummy bloggers are emerging into a large force in the market place, and many brands are beginning to recognise how wide our wings spread and work with the mummy bloggers.

I am funding the event personally as a writer.  I would also be happy for a sponsor who would like to be represented on the day to get in touch with me.  An Aberdeen based local sponsor would be ideal, but not limited to, and it would be a chance to get your brand out to the mummy bloggers.  If you want to talk about sponsorship, send me an email on scottishmum@gmail.com.

I am really excited at the prospect of going, and being part of the fabulous group of bloggers that I am fast becoming attached to.  I look forward to meeting them all.

xx

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Spam Comments – Spammers Go Away

Spam Comments HereImage: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This is just a general post, and I am writing it more to ease my irritation at having to daily delete more and more comments that are not really comments.   All of you who have blogs will know what I mean.  I signed into admin today with lots of comments to trawl though, and it seems the spammers have found me in force. 

There are a few different kinds that seem to find their way into my comments approval box.  They usually fall under the following headings, and these are all things I do NOT want to see in my approval box.

  1. Weight Loss websites.
  2. Foreign Shopping Sites.
  3. Websites for over 18’s.
  4. Pharmaceutical / Drugs websites.
  5. Online Dating websites.
  6. Online Gambling websites.

Would all of the above please just go away, because I am NOT going to approve your comment

Posted on 4 Comments

Finding New Blogs

I am looking for some great new blogs to read. I love reading, and blogs always give me a reason to connect to other people and escape in the same way that a good novel takes me out of my life and into pleasant escapism.

I’m not an avid, daily blogger, but at times I may actually blog more than others. I don’t covet huge statistics from readers either, but it would be nice to have some readers for my rantings. Strangely enough, some people seem to find my blog on google using words that I would never connect to anything I have written.

I sometimes find it difficult to find blogs that I might be interested in. It is easy if someone has already visited my blog for me to return the favour.

Let me know on scottishmum@gmail.com if you would like me to read your blog, or leave a comment for me so that I know where to find you.