Sunday 19 May 2013

Specsavers ( not a sponsored review )

I have rubbish vision, since the age of 14 I have worn glasses daily and at about 17 I began wearing contact lenses.

I wear them everyday and although my sight is 'not that bad' so I'm told EVERYTIME I go to the optician I cannot bear to be without them. I challenge the annoying opinion of the staff who make this comment to try squinting at every sign more than a meter away or experience the wonder of realising trees have individual leaves when I put my glasses on.

Anyway back to my experience of Specsavers.

When I moved back to London I began using my new local store to collect my lenses each month. It has become my most hated task of the month, worse than emptying the food bin or paying the rent.

Without fail the staff are stroppy and uninterested. They seem stressed and under pressure when more than two customers are in store. Luckily I'm usually not too demanding, I get the lenses and get out quickly.

However, I recently decided to get some new frames. Should be easy seeing as I get my lenses from the same store right?

No.

It went a bit like this

'Can I have these?'

'No'

'Oh why not?'

'You need a new sight test'

'Oh ok can I book one for today?'

'No you can have one on Wednesday.'

'I will need a weekend one as I work, could you try and squeeze me in, I do get my lenses from here and that means you have my prescription'

'No that's out of date too, so you can't have them either'

'What? No ones told me. I need them I have run out!'

'Well it ran out 2 months ago so you were lucky to get any last month!'

- by now I was fuming. I felt like I was being told off for something I hadn't done and was stressed at the idea of no lenses or frames for the near future.

Anyway I will summarise as I'm sure you get the idea.

I managed to beg for a weeks worth of lenses and the promise of a call the following weekend IF there was a cancellation.

Amazingly I did get a call on the Saturday and I rushed down for my test. Again the store was heaving, staff were confused and flustered. They as always talked in stressed out tones over the heads of us inconvenient customers and ushered us about.

Of course by now the frames I chose the previous week were out of stock and needed to be ordered from another store so I would need to come back the following weekend to try them again! In the end I just told them to get them made without trying them on and paid for them to seal the deal. I was allowed to collect a months supply of lenses at this point so that was a start!

The following Saturday ( 2 weeks after choosing my frames ) I popped into the store to see if they were ready as I had heard nothing.

'Oh Erm * flustered fumbled rummage rummage* they are upstairs but not ready maybe Tuesday?'

So by the following Saturday ( 3 weeks after choosing my frames) still nothing! I call them and YES they are ready. I guess I was supposed to just know this the same way I was supposed to know my tests were out of date.

So the end of this story sees me finally the owner of a very lovely pair of frames which I love.

However, if I ever have to set foot in that store again I will be considering an epidural from the brain down first.

- I know that this will not be the only review of customer service at Specsavers you will read in the next few months they appear to be doing the rounds of parent bloggers right now. This IS however the only one written that is NOT a paid review and probably the only one written via the fury of an angry, angry woman.




Saturday 11 May 2013

Awkward.

Tabitha has started ballet which of course she loves I mean it involves pink and spinning so win win right?

Not for me.

Currently sat avoiding conversation with other mothers. Some join in (not happening!) god it's painful.

I'm being a good mum I am honestly.

A good person? It's still a little hard, goes against the grain.

Am I just the most awkward mother ever to live? Why is this so hard?

Sunday 21 April 2013

Polarn O. Pyret Review

I was approached by Polarn O. Pyret a few weeks ago and asked if I would like to try out some of their items for Tabitha.

It came at an interesting time as I had just been involved in a little blogging debate with a PR about reviewing clothes that the company had wanted back afterwards. I am personally not willing to review clothes I have to return, firstly why would a company want used clothes back? Bit weird.

I mean this is a 3 year old that has worn them and this as all parents know is equal to throwing them into the pits of hell for a few hours and dragging them out during a hurricane. Secondly and wearing my reviewer hat how does this allow us to comment on the washing, the quality and the longevity of the items?

Anyway, the PR from Polarn O. Pyret was in total agreement and insisted that we keep the items and wear them to death, washing and re washing to properly try them out. So we have!


Tabitha is obsessed with dresses and is mostly found at nursery these days rocking some kind of highly flammable Disney princess dress over her carefully co ordinated outfit laid out by us the night before. She looks like a crazy bag lady. I have pretty much given in to this, a quiet child equals a happy mother and I don't have the fight left inside me.

She however went bonkers for her new dress and you can see why!



The fabric is lovely and thick and washes beautifully with little need for ironing ( a necessity in our house ) Tabitha feels like a princess in it and its the only thing she owns that does not require additional layering with the dreaded sparkly fancy dress.

Thank you Polarn O. Pyret I will be back. Check out the site here for your next purchase.

Friday 19 April 2013

Norm 69

The new house has a new addition and his name is Norm, Norm 69.

If you are looking at him and thinking 'ooh isn't he lovely' I have some advice.

Norm comes in a box, flat packed!

There are pieces marked fig1, fig2, fig3 etc etc etc.... It's endless.

Slot flap 1 into fig 3 while squeezing your hands between sharp edges of plastic that cut and slice your hands to shreds....some of that is not on the instructions.

Following hours of this, several attempts of throwing Norm out of the window and a heavy splattering of swearing Norm was finally completed.

Of course I love him more for being so annoying much like my choice in men and my off spring, the final product is beautiful and well worth the trouble along the way.

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Moving on..

We have moved!

In true Mumra style it's been quite dramatic. Two weeks ago, just days after turning 37 I rolled over in bed and put my back into spasm.

When we move I am usually really organised. Although having had this discussion on twitter recently it appears some people actually number their boxes and write lists and stuff. I'm not that good/mental.

I do however box, bubble wrap and donate to the charity shop all the stuff I realise I've forgotten I owned.

Anyway none of that happened.

Between trips to the doctors and necking painkillers I had to leave everything to Jamie 'we'll just chuck it all in bin bags' Bodkin.

Really.

The amazing thing is do you know what, it's been ok.

Huge thanks to my Mum, his Mum and her partner we did it!

I'm so happy to be in this new house and ridiculously excited about our future here. I will be blogging the process of getting it how we want it and my garden plans but so far it's looking good!



Sunday 10 February 2013

Bakerdays Cake review.

I am not a huge fan of Valentines Day and my boyfriend even is even less of a fan so when Bakerdays offered for me to send him a letterbox cake in celebration I figured it might be quite funny to send it to his office.

To save myself getting told off I send it with love from Tabitha-Lo and knew he'd have to like it!

The concept of the letterbox cake is great. It comes boxed and inside sits the cake within a pretty tin. The cake was totally undamaged and the image I chose came out beautifully. The website is very easy to use and there are hundreds of selections for you to choose from.

I was also pleasantly surprised at the quality of the cake itself. It was moist and tasty, carrot cake was my choice but there are several others including chocolate.

We have already ordered and sent another one for his grandparents birthdays. This time we went for a large one and it too arrived promptly and in good condition.

In fact if you know us and have any celebrations coming up expect a cake because this is my new thing!

Get yours from Bakerdays. Enjoy.


Saturday 9 February 2013

The iCrayon review.

Tabitha is obsessed with the iPad.



Sometimes I worry that it is not healthy entertainment for a three year old and other times I thank the lord for its presence in my life.

I was asked if I would like to review the iCrayon for the iPad (or any touch screen piece of technology) and figured it was always going to be a winner.


The crayon looks like the good old school crayons, styled to mimic Crayola it is a pretty bit of kit. It feels good in your hand and I had high hopes for it being a favourite for all of us when using the pad.

However I probably had over hyped it in my head. Essentially it is for children and there is no doubt Tabitha loves using it as she scribbles away on her colouring applications.

The iCrayon used as a standard stylus is not what I had hoped. You have to press quite hard to get the connection, the tip is squashy rubber and does not connect without pressure meaning any real length of use would see it being chucked for the use of a finger.

I do think its a nice idea though and brings me pleasure when I see Tabitha chose to use it rather than her finger. Its the same as when she tells me to turn to the next page when she wants me to fast forward the movie.

There is something lovely about your childs' childhood mirroring yours even when there is so much technology at their grasp.

Best thing is the crayon is not expensive so its an excellent gift for birthday party or special treat. You can get them at Prezzy Box.



Sunday 20 January 2013

The Return to Twitter Mountain.


I have been sucked back into Twitter.

It was pretty easy cutting it out of my life I have to say. Deleted from my phone it didn't cross my mind to open up the laptop and log in for a nose about.

However something happened. I needed to find a tweet I'd favourited about a product I was recommending to a friend. I tried to log in, it had not yet been 30 days but my account was gone.

I felt sick.

I emailed Twitter, I asked my geeksquad friends. I was literally in a frenzy.

Every thumbnail face flashed before me, my years of building up my followers and the knock on effect that has on my blog seemed suddenly really really important, I wanted to cry.

Twitter eventually came to the rescue and re set my account. I was so relieved and my panic made it clear I wasn't risking that again.

I set about making twitter what I wanted.

I ran over my 1000 followed accounts and I deleted people who I do not interact with, companies I had followed probably hoping to build relationships with back in the day when I cared more. I got my timeline down to 500 and it felt more friendly, it flows slowly and is mostly filled with humour and friendly chatter from like minded people.

I know some people get really offended by being unfollowed but its just the way it is. I follow lots of accounts who don't follow me, I am probably not their bag but their tweets entertain me and that's why I follow, it is not a gesture of gratitude for a follow back. I hope that's why people follow me and will remain following even if I have cut back on my timeline.

So a little bit of love goes out to some of the people I have missed during my break:

@MinistryOfMum

@cosmicgirlie

@geekisnewchic

@bumpwearclaire 

@tara_cain

@motherventing 

If you don't follow them, you should.

So basically I am back, back for good, back for now.

Silent Sunday