Not all rosy in the Tesco flower garden....

Flowers have kind of became a staple present for Mother’s Day and I guess, in a way, it’s almost a fail safe option to go for. Well, I admit that I fell into purchasing this this year, but in a way, I wriggled out of it by having my mum pick her own flowers.

With it having been coming up to Mother’s Day, store up and down the country will have been flourishing in flowers and my local Tesco Extra was no exception. With prices starting (from what I could see) £3 for a wee bunch of colourful tulips to £20 for a Tesco Finest bouquet, there was, generally speaking, something for everyone’s pocket.

As I said, I wriggled out of the decision over what flowers to get for my mum by cheating; she picked them & I bought them. At least then, she’d get something that she liked although I’m pretty sure that she would have been happy with whatever she had gotten. She settled on a lovely £15 (later £10 thanks to a cheeky wee voucher from Tesco’s Orchard programme) bouquet named Strawberry Shortcake. I have to say that it was a very nice bouquet, nicer than what was in the Finest bouquet that I had spotted at £20. In fact, I did find myself asking myself whether or not what was being asked for in terms of price truly reflected what was being offered. I know that not all bunches of flowers are going to be exactly the same but even looking at the same named bouquets, some felt better presented & had better contents than others, yet, priced the same.

This isn’t the first time that we’ve bought flowers from Tesco of course. Normally, we only splash out on the cheap wee bunches at a couple of pounds each. But these seemed hidden by the number of larger bouquets that were being offered for Mother’s day. Or for a special occasion, head to an independent florist where you don’t mind spending a wee bit more. But like all commercial holidays (and to be honest, it’s what Mother’s Day is becoming along with everything else) prices always go up in places like Tesco for their flowers.

Was buying the flowers from Tesco worth it? Well, past experience has shown that normally we can get about a week out of them before they start dying off, but the bouquet that I purchased for Mothers Day started dying 4 days in.


In normal circumstances, there’s usually something for everyone’s pocket in Tesco’s flower range, and I guess in some instances, you get what you pay for.

Taste Test: Jacob’s Cracker Crisps Thai Sweet Chilli Flavour

Let’s get one thing straight here: I’m not a cracker fan unless they’re prawn crackers (but think they’re a completely different thing) so why would I be trying the latest offering from Jacobs? Well there’s two reasons:

1. Curiosity (it’s not killed me yet!)
2. I was get £1.00 back from the Shopitize app on my phone (I may get around to doing a post on this app at some point….maybe a video…no that might scare people!) so worth the risk

So first job is to work out where they would be kept with a name like cracker crisp. Are they a cracker or a crisp? Well according to one of my local supermarkets, they’re filed under crackers. Which is probably the right decision here as personally they do feel more like crackers than a crisp. I found the taste to be a tad strong meaning that I couldn’t have too many in one setting (normally I’m a fan of sweet chilli flavour but it took me two weeks on my own dipping in and out as no one else in the house fancied them).

They’re probably not something that I would buy all the time. For me they are more a wee nibble that you would have out at a party rather than something you’d buy and eat as you would a pack of crisps.

Glasgow 2014 One year on: A Clyde-Sider reflects

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since the 20th Commonwealth Games came to Glasgow! Today would have seen me trying to tread water again with my second shift as a photo team member at the weightlifting in the Clyde auditorium (or as you may also know it, the Armadillo)

I won’t lie, it was nerve wracking. I felt a little out of my depth a times and I think it was because I didn’t really know what I was getting into. But after the second shift, I think I finally settled into things and realised that for the most part, it was just being me and trying to be as helpful to the photographers as possible. After all, some of these guys had just come back from the world cup in Rio and have probably photographed some other high profile events. Then there’s me who’s never done this sort of thing before. At least one us knew what we were doing…I think anyway. Either that or someone’s been lying to me…

I think the other thing for me was that I had no idea about anything about weightlifting. In fact, I’d say, for the most part, I still don’t! I think what still gets me is that, yes people may have been there for a specific lifter, but how they all seemed to get right behind all of the participants and how it all became a bit pantomime from the crowd. When a lift was approved (“good lift”) the crowd seemed to go wild, but as soon as it was regarded as “no lift” I was sure some times the crowd was looking for the judges blood.

There is one lifter who sticks in my mind. That was Daniel from Niue in the 105+ kg category final. It was his last lift in the clean and jerk and the audience had fallen silent, as they did every time as a lifter stepped up to the bar. Before his lift he cried out, in what seemed a distant voice in the large space “Glasgow I need your help”. And when he started that lift, did the crowd back him? Of course they did. Sadly he never made the lift but it always sticks in my mind.

Looking back, it does seem, to a certain extent, a little surreal. It’s the first time that I’ve been involved in something this big. It may not have been the same for everyone but remember coming home on the train, and yes, they might have been crowded, but it seemed that the party atmosphere carried on. It was getting to Dalmarnock station and seeing the athletes/coaches jumping on board and expecting that to be the norm after the Games.

I didn’t think that I would enjoy volunteering again after a bad experience in my past. But I think that the Games were probably one of the best things to happen to me. I’ve caught the volunteer bug again, and whilst I’m limited in my involvement due to work (most opportunities happening at the weekend) I have recently got involved with a local charity and looking forward to getting started with that. I met loads of wonderful people across my time there and some have become friends. I hope that in the future that I get to take part in something as spectacular as this again. It’s certainly some thing that will live with me for the rest of my life.

Lego® exhibition a brick short…

So back at the start of June I while volunteering at the Pearl Izumi round in Motherwell, I noticed a poster advertising a Lego® exhibition called Let’s Go (also known as Brick Built...apparently). Great, I thought. I’d been to the Brick City exhibition last year in Low Parks Museum in Hamilton and loved it (and missed the follow up one, Brick Wonders, at the start of the year in Paisley Museum). So seeing another exhibition in the local area, I knew I wanted to visit. After all, Lego® isn’t just for children!

So I finally got to visit it on Friday…and have to say I was a little disappointed. The main ‘exhibition’ was housed in a small room with it being made up with more of smaller models (not that these aren't as impressive as the larger models that I've seen). Though the highlight is right in the centre with the section of the Forth Road Bridge (that rarely gets a viewing given to the size & weight).

Getting in to see the models is free. It is the other activities that they provide where the money: photo booth, wall art & an animation workshop. This is probably where they are making the money in order to host this event (along with the donations box in with the models)

Overall, it feels that there seemed to be a 'build up' before the event but that like a single high tower of Lego® bricks, it's fell flat. It feels that maybe it could have been more. Maybe this event was more aimed to children rather than AFOL (that's Adult Fan Of Lego® by the way) given that it's happening over the summer holidays.

If you want to pop along and be inspired to what you can do with the little Danish bricks, Let's Go is on at the North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre until the August 15th (Monday to Saturday 9.30am to 4.30pm, Sunday 10am – 4pm)

^{Images (top to bottom, left to right):
Forth Road Bridge
Guttenberg Press
Arc de Triomphe}

BBC Three moving homes….

So last week it was announced that BBC Three is set to become an online channel. I'm not going to lie, the announcement doesn't really surprise me. Over the last few years I'd say the quality that has been delivered on the channel has been variable.

When I look back across the years, you realise BBC Three has been home to some decent stuff. It was the original home of Gavin & Stacey, Little Britain & not forgetting of course a wee programme called Torchwood. There was documentaries that got you thinking (anyone remember Blood, Sweat & T-shirts that started Stacey Dooley's career?). Being Human (I remember seeing the pilot episode when it was part of a showcase on Three of new writers). In The Flesh. Russell Howard's Good News. And that's just what I can pull from the top of my head.

And then you can look at some of the other....questionable content. Snog. Marry. Avoid? Sun, Sex & Suspicious Parents (how many series does this need...and why do the participants not realise what's going on....after all the time?) And then there's the repeats. Repeats of Family Guy & American Dad (although they have lost the rights of these to rival ITV though the current series of Family Guy the BBC has moved to BBC 2 and something tells me they might be trying to get through it as quickly as possible), Top Gear (maybe no longer) & Eastenders (isn't that what the weekend omnibus was for?)

It's a shame too. BBC Three had all the potential there to be something for what is basically an unheard generation. But somewhere along the line, it's got lost. Occassionally it hits the right notes. But maybe it should take notes from Amigo loans and go back to the good old days. Time will only tell what's likely to happen when it moves online.

The day the charts moved days….

5^th July 2015 – The day the charts changed. Not that they had been changing since the introduction of the digital download (heck recently in the UK's official chart streams were also included in the official charts)

Yes, the 5^th of July is the last ever Sunday chart show. Why? Because we're moving to a global release day on a Friday. Why a Friday? Well, according to the IFPI, that's when there's most footfall in stores and the most digital traffic online. And apparently it's an attempt at trying to stop piracy. See, until now, most places have had their own release days: Monday was UK, Tuesday was US, Wednesday is Japan, don't know any for Thursday but Friday was the likes of Germany & Australia. And here in lay the problem. With releases from Germany , Ireland & Australia, they would usually see their release date on the Monday or the Tuesday, so over the weekend it would be 'released' by means not necessarily legal.

Sundays from 4pm were chart time. I never really enjoyed listening to the official chart to be honest. I was more of a Pepsi Chart person (which was a tad annoying when you discovered that the top 10 you'd heard on the Pepsi Chart wasn't the same as Official Chart) but it got me through hours of homework back in the day. And who didn't back in the day wait for that moment when their track came on and record it to cassette? Now we probably just use audio capture on a computer.

I don't know how I feel about the whole global release date (being marketed as New Music Fridays). I can see why they want to do it. But at the same time, I don't know what difference it's going to make. After all, we still see audio only videos up on Youtube/Vevo long before any single is due to be released, so if folks pull the audio only from the video, what incentive do they have to purchase the release when it comes out? Sure the fans may wait but in the long run? It's going to be odd hearing the charts on Friday (and that's what so odd that we'll have new releases on a Friday along with a chart?) and not the Sunday (although you may, in the UK still have The Big Top 40 which focuses on iTunes downloads alone)

I know that this global release day isn't set in stone. Officially, folks can release a track whenever they want. It's going to be an interesting few months. Will we see the big artists hanging around longer? What will happen to the independents who don't have the budgets/resources to compete with the big guns? There might be separate charts for different genres, but everyone knows that it the big official chart position that really counts.

Photos: © Vhari Lannigan
Lionel Richie @ S.E.C.C Glasgow 8th April 2009
Alex Cornish @ Edinburgh Corn Exchange 18th August 2010
Sandi Thom @ Howden Park Centre, Livingston 17th April 2014

Taste Testing: Blue Dragon Sweet Chilli Chicken Flavour Noodles

I’ll try anything once. Look under the food tag for that one. And this is one of those moments. While shopping in one of the local supermarkets (don’t want to show favouritism after all :p) at the weekend, this just happened to be shouting at me (it of course had nothing to do with the fact that it was on offer at only £1)

 

I’m not going to lie. I may be a little very partial to the sweet chilli sauce produced by Blue Dragon so of course I wasn’t going to have any issue with trying this. After all, in my mind it was just a Pot Noodle produced by someone else, right?

Well, on opening you’re presented with 3 little packages:

From left to right we have dried vegetables, the flavouring and of course the noodles. Now it all very simple to make. Open the dried veg and flavourings and pour into the pot you’ve just taken them out of then add the noodles. Fill to the line shown on the packaging (apparently it’s about 200ml), pop lid back on for approx. 2.5 mins, stir separating the noodles, pop the lid back on and wait another 2.5 mins and then,  voila! Ready to eat.

Taste wise they were alright. It was just a nice balance that I think anyone would appreciate. And the portion size was just right too despite what you might think on initially opening the package. My only concern was that they did seem a little watery so probably the next time I’d fill it just below the line. Think getting the water level right, for me, is going to be like adding water to the tomato soup paste by heinz…but that’s another story. Might see what other flavours are available and give them a go.