The Hape Crane Lift – Fun Toy For Three-Year Olds, Up To The Biggest Kids by Dr K thompson

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The great thing with Hape toys is great quality and this lovely Crane Lift is no exception.  Around 55cm tall (22 inches in old money) and painted bright yellow, it is striking, and I have personal proof from my own young road-tester that children will run across the room to play with it.

It has an accessible operator’s cabin and a crane arm which swings around. Children can load the platform with the (provided) blocks of wood and raise them, lower them or move them along the length of the crane arm, using a pulley and turning knob system.  The road barriers and cones are attractive and allow the child to create an imaginary construction scene.

My grandson absolutely loved it and was soon lifting and lowering all sorts of toys on the wide wooden platform.

If you are wondering what to get your youngster for Christmas, he will adore this toy, However, watch out, he may have to fight off his Dad and uncles too – definitely one for the ‘Big Kids’.

 

Available at Argos for £34.99 or various other stockists.

By Dr K Thompson, author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q

http://faitobooks.co,uk

FROST’S FAVOURITE… KITCHEN GADGETS

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We’re all about making life that little bit easier and have done some digging to find the kitchen gadgets that will help do just that when you’re cooking up a storm…

Magimix Vision toaster – £52.99

Toast is to Brits like, well, a cup of tea is to Brits For centuries have we devastated what makes the perfect shade of tea and the perfect shade of toast. We’ve all experienced the frustration of multiple toast , just to get it right. Thanks to the Magimix vision, you can watch your toast browning away to your perfection. Not only is this gadget a brilliant invention but it’s also got a great retro look too.

Where can I buy? Wayfair

 

AnySharp Pro Knife Sharpener – £19.99

There’s no better feeling than taking to the kitchen with a new set of knives. On the contrary, there’s no worse feeling than when that knife has gone so blunt it struggles to cut through an onion. Introducing the AnySharp Pro. This unique invention can sharpen hardened steel knives, chef’s knives and even serrated blades, making it unlike anything else on the market. After just a few strokes, your tired old knives will as good as new and as sharp as ever.

Where can I buy? Amazon

 

The LazyPan All-in-One Frying Pan – £39.99

What better way to start a winter weekend morning than with a flavoursome fry up? Sadly, with said fry up tends to be a plethora of pots and pans to wash afterwards, making the whole concept a lot less appetising. Enter, Lazypan. This pan is split into five sections meaning there’s less hob hopping and you’re able to keep the kitchen organised and tidy as you prep the most important meal of the day – yummy!

Where can I buy? The Fowndry

 

Zerowater 12 cup water filter – £39.99

This is one of those gadgets that you’ll not be able to live without once you’ve tried it. The Zerowater removes virtually all dissolved solids and containments from tap water with a five stage filtration system and to be honest, there’s a lot more contamination than you’d expect. The Zerowater machine comes with a digital water meter which measures the total dissolvable solids – fancy!

Where can I buy? Zerowater

 

 

 

Personalised Toblerone: The Perfect Stocking Filler

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Toblerone is a Christmas classic and what a great idea to give your loved one a personalised one in their Christmas stocking.  Frost has theirs. 

The perfect pyramid of pure heaven, this choccy legend has your name on it – our all new Personalised Toblerone Bar goes that little bit extra to satisfying your taste buds!

Toblerone’s dreamy milk chocolate and nougat triangles have never looked better, the large chocolate triangles are made even better when personalised to the choco-holic eating it.

Suitably swiss, the outer sleeve features the traditional chocolate design of gold mountains and your name of choice will be written in the same font as the Toblerone logo itself.

This sugary sensation is a perfect stocking filler for a friend or family member with a hankering for cocoa goodness.

Break off and bite into this brilliant bar for just £12.99 now from Prezzybox.com – and remember sharing is caring!

Frost Magazine loves the genius of David Hockney’s work

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The Frost Magazine team loves the genius of David Hockney’s work; the light, the precision, the empathy so we were not  surprised to hear of the record-breaking David Hockney auction.

 

‘Pool with Two Figures – ‘It  proves that “real masterpieces do not need gimmicks,” affirms renowned art dealer, Stephen Howes.

 

The comments from the founder of Thomas Crown Art, the world’s leading art-tech agency, come as the British artist’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold Thursday for $90.3m in Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York City.

 

This beats the $58.4 million record previously set by Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog in 2013.

 

Mr Howes observes: “This is truly one of the most iconic paintings of the 20th century and has justifiably smashed the world record for the most expensive work by a living artist sold at auction.

 

“This momentous sale further galvanizes the piece’s rightful place as a true masterpiece and further cements Hockney’s place in the highest echelons of art history.”

 

He goes on to add: “This record-breaking David Hockney auction proves that real masterpieces do not need gimmicks – they stand and deliver on their own merit.

 

“It flies in the face of that hideous recent pantomime when Banksy’s famous Girl With Balloon ‘self-shredded’ as the hammer came down at auction.

 

“Bizarrely, that prank has apparently made that piece’s value soar – which, it can be reasonably assumed, Banksy knew would happen.

 

“That stunt was not about the art at all, it was all about the art of publicity. The whole trick was plainly embarrassing and those involved must be called out for it.”

 

He goes on to add: “Should David Hockney’s masterpiece have been shredded today, it would have rendered it pretty much worthless  – unlike Girl With Balloon which apparently increased in value.  Why? Because one piece is a work of fine art and the other is a stencilled publicity stunt.”

 

Mr Howes concludes: “David Hockney’s artistic genius has been signed, sealed and delivered. It is likely that it will be many more years until another living artist beats this record-breaking auction.”

And so say all of us.

 

Raise your glasses: Michael Rowan finds an ……… Unexpected item in the bagging area

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As someone who recalls those student parties through a prism of cheap boxed wine, ‘When in Rome,’ the UK’s first premium ‘bag in a box’ wine company certainly have their work cut out, trying to convince me to relinquish my cherished bottle of wine and rethink the concept of wine in a box.

Their eco credentials are certainly impressive; recyclable cardboard rather than glass bottles, economic storage in the fridge, and a smaller carbon footprint than their glass competitors.

Each box contains the equivalent of three bottles which seems more like magic than science to me, given the size of the box.

Whilst I can shamefacedly admit to a misspent youth as a student, my wife rarely drinks alcohol. To open a bottle, I have to commit to drinking it over two sittings, or use up what’s left in cooking. (First world problems I know)

 

In the box, the wine remains as fresh as when first opened for up to 6 to 8 weeks. I can now have just one glass with supper and no pressure to drink more, ‘so as not to waste it.’

Being sold on the packaging is all very well, but what about the wine itself?

The wine we are here to taste is Grillo from Sicilly and where better to taste it than in a Sicilian Restaurant in the heart of London’s West End, where Enzo Oliveri, the chef and owner of ‘Tasting Sicily, Enzo’s  Kitchen’, created delicious food to show off the versatility of Grillo.

The Grillo Grape more usually associated with Masala wine but here presented to great effect as fresh, crisp and dry, easily cutting through Olive tapenade, Arancini and roasted and salted vegetables.

On the tongue Kumquat, lemon grass, wild flowers that speak of spring and early summer and yet somehow perfect in winter.

I can see this as a great addition to picnics, trips to the beach or boating on the river and those Christmas parties when you don’t know how many guests to expect.

The Grillo retails at £25.99 (one box is the equivalent of 3 bottles)

Whilst enjoying the Grillo it would have been rude not to taste the red, Nero D’Avola, which is the perfect accompaniment to pasta in tomato sauce, so I for one will be looking out for both.

Available at Waitrose, Harvey Nicholls and some independent wine merchants.

When in Rome can be contacted at www.wheninromewine.co.uk

Enzo’s kitchen can be contacted at Info@tastingscicily.returant

 

 

 

 

 

Soundasleep  -Smart Phones, Smart TVs and now … a Smart Pillow by Dr K Thompson

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As a child I used to dream of having a TV in my bedroom. Just a small black-and-white one would have been the ultimate luxury. (Yes I am that old, I’m afraid – and life was a little tougher in those days).

But how things have moved on?

I have just had the pleasure of road-testing the Soundasleep. It looks, and feels, like a simple, rather attractive, white pillow, but, hidden beneath the soft quilting is a mini-heaven for anyone who dreams of duvet days on a regular basis.

A micro USB charging port with power switch are hidden in a secret zip pocket. Once charged and switched on, the pillow mutates into an entertainment system AND phone, and more. The pillow will remain charged for around 5 to 7 day – depending on how long you can bear to turn off the Soundasleep features and grab some sleep.

Having paired the blue-tooth with either your phone or other audio device, you can press the ‘On’ button, hidden in the top corner of your pillow and listen to music through the inbuilt speaker, either directly from your device, or Spotify for example. You can set the music so it is loud enough for you to hear, but won’t disturb your partner – unless of course you want to ramp up the volume so you can both share. Insomnia will never be a burden again, as you hum along to dance music (not too loud, remember), learn a language, or listen to that ‘How to stop smoking’ hypnosis track someone once bought you for Christmas.

But you can do so much more than listen to music or audio tracks.

Imagine just waking up in your bed when your phone goes. Oh damn, you remember it is Monday morning and you should be in an important meeting. That call will be your boss. No need to panic, jump out of bed or search for your phone – just press the ‘on’ button in your pillow, roll over and talk to your boss from your bed – thank you Soundasleep.

If this isn’t enough, there’s a free Soundasleep App available from Google Play or Apple Store.  It has numerous useful features including a sleep tracker, smart alarm and snore management function, plus a range of sounds and music to fall asleep to. You can also use it to monitor the impact of alcohol, caffeine, exercise and stress on your sleeping patterns. The pillow is also compatible with other apps, such as Calm and Headspace.

AND, as if all this were not enough, it supports Amazon Alexa – you really won’t need to ever leave your bed again.

 

Available from https://soundasleeppillow.co.uk/ at just £50 – the perfect Christmas present for the person who has everything.

 

 

By Dr K Thompson, author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q

http://faitobooks.co,uk

FROST’S FOODIE FAVOURITE – BIG EASY

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A taste of the Deep South and a damn good night!

Big Easy is a favourite across the London foodie scene. Good, honest grub and a relaxed atmosphere to match, these Bar B.Q houses and Crabshacks don’t disappoint and with three spots throughout London, you’re never too far away from a Big Easy style, belly busting feast.

Last month, we were invited to try out the renovated Kings Road hut – the home of the original Big Easy restaurant – and it didn’t disappoint.

Authentic, southern décor and melt in the mouth meats, there’s nothing not to love. We opted for the Bar B.Q Blowout for Two which basically means we got to try a bit of everything! All of the meats are cooked the traditional way – low and slow –  over wood. Included on this plate of perfection was Baby Back Ribs, Bar.B.Q Chicken, Chips, Pulled Pork, Cornbread Muffin, Coleslaw & Bar.B.Q Beans and Texas Hot Links Sausage. All for just £22.50 per person!

If you fancy having a food focus as opposed to a little bit of everything, ribs are an absolute highlight at Big Easy and the team take their rib rubs and sauces seriously. “Wet“ ribs are dry rubbed and sauced throughout their entire cook and the “dry ribs” are rubbed and cooked and are just sans sauce. On these, the rub and smoke work their magic to create a “bark” ensuring a crispy exterior with a succulent interior.

Happy hours and live bands make an appearance on the daily, as do fantastic foodie specials from bottomless fajitas (£20pp every Wednesday) to the Monday classic of the ‘Big Pig Gig’, offering diners unlimited Bar B.Q and a 2 pint stein of Big Easy Brew (£20pp).

To book a table at Big Easy Kings Road, visit the Big Easy website.

Christmas Ideas For Book Lovers

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Perfect Books For Christmas. 

A brilliant book of poetry from the end of a relationship, all the way to the start. Like reading an open wound, but fun. 

Running Upon The Wires is Kate Tempest’s first book of free-standing poetry since the acclaimed Hold Your Own. In a beautifully varied series of formal poems, spoken songs, fragments, vignettes and ballads, Tempest charts the heartbreak at the end of one relationship and the joy at the beginning of a new love; but also tells us what happens in between, when the heart is pulled both ways at once.

Running Upon The Wires is, in a sense, a departure from her previous work, and unashamedly personal and intimate in its address – but will also confirm Tempest’s role as one of our most important poetic truth–tellers: it will be no surprise to readers to discover that she’s no less a direct and unflinching observer of matters of the heart than she is of social and political change. Running Upon The Wires is a heartbreaking, moving and joyous book about love, in its endings and in its beginnings.

Available here.

A fast-paced thriller that never lets you go.

Give me Your hand By Megan Abbott.

You told each other everything. Then she told you too much.

Kit has risen to the top of her profession and is on the brink of achieving everything she wanted. She hasn’t let anything stop her.

But now someone else is standing in her way – Diane. Best friends at seventeen, their shared ambition made them inseparable. Until the day Diane told Kit her secret – the worst thing she’d ever done, the worst thing Kit could imagine – and it blew their friendship apart.

Kit is still the only person who knows what Diane did. And now Diane knows something about Kit that could destroy everything she’s worked so hard for.

How far would Kit go, to make the hard work, the sacrifice, worth it in the end? What wouldn’t she give up? Diane thinks Kit is just like her. Maybe she’s right. Ambition: it’s in the blood . . .

Available here.

I really loved this book. Sarah Manguso has a way of articulating life’s great truths. I particularly loved the bits on motherhood. 

Sarah Manguso kept a meticulous diary for twenty-five years. ‘I wanted to end each day with a record of everything that had ever happened,’ she explains. But this simple statement conceals a terror that she might miss out something important. Maintaining that diary became a daily attempt to remember every detail, to stop the passage of time.

Then Manguso became pregnant and had a child, and these two events slowly and irrevocably changed her relationship to her life and also to her diary.

In this moving memoir Sarah Manguso confesses her life long struggle to let go. Ongoingness is a beautiful, daring and honest and shifting work that grapples with writing and motherhood.

Available here.

A fascinating and well-written book on the law. Impossible to put down. 

“I’m a barrister, a job which requires the skills of a social worker, relationship counsellor, arm-twister, hostage negotiator, named driver, bus fare-provider, accountant, suicide watchman, coffee-supplier, surrogate parent and, on one memorable occasion, whatever the official term is for someone tasked with breaking the news to a prisoner that his girlfriend has been diagnosed with gonorrhoea.”

Welcome to the world of the Secret Barrister. These are the stories of life inside the courtroom. They are sometimes funny, often moving and ultimately life-changing.

How can you defend a child-abuser you suspect to be guilty? What do you say to someone sentenced to ten years who you believe to be innocent? What is the law and why do we need it?

And why do they wear those stupid wigs?

From the criminals to the lawyers, the victims, witnesses and officers of the law, here is the best and worst of humanity, all struggling within a broken system which would never be off the front pages if the public knew what it was really like.

Both a searing first-hand account of the human cost of the criminal justice system, and a guide to how we got into this mess, The Secret Barrister wants to show you what it’s really like and why it really matters.

Available here.

Searingly honest. This book is certainly one of the bravest and most personal ever written. Adam Kay has a huge talent for writing and comedy. It is not for the faint hearted, nor for anyone pregnant or thinking of having children! I almost threw up or fainted a few times reading it. Mostly as it reminded me of my C section. This book is a best seller and it is easy to see why.

Welcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks, life and death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids, and the hospital parking meter earns more than you.

Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know – and more than a few things you didn’t – about life on and off the hospital ward.

As seen on ITV’s Zoe Ball Book Club.

This edition includes extra diary entries and a new afterword by the author.

Available here.

Timely, well-written and full of great lines. I recommend sitting down and reading in one sitting as I did. Endlessly engaging and very witty. 

Kathy is a writer. Kathy is getting married. It’s the summer of 2017 and the whole world is falling apart.

From a Tuscan hotel for the super-rich to a Brexit-paralysed UK, Kathy spends the first summer of her 40s trying to adjust to making a lifelong commitment just as Trump is tweeting the world into nuclear war. But it’s not only Kathy who’s changing. Political, social and natural landscapes are all in peril. Fascism is on the rise, truth is dead, the planet is hotting up. Is it really worth learning to love when the end of the world is nigh? And how do you make art, let alone a life, when one rogue tweet could end it all.

Olivia Laing radically rewires the novel in a brilliant, funny and emphatically raw account of love in the apocalypse. A Goodbye to Berlin for the 21st century, Crudo charts in real time what it was like to live and love in the horrifying summer of 2017, from the perspective of a commitment-phobic peripatetic artist who may or may not be Kathy Acker . . .

Available here.

Another book from the brilliant Sarah Manguso. This one has been defaced by one of my children with crayon. Apologies for that. Manguso says “Think of this as a short book composed entirely of what I hoped would be a long book’s quotable passages.” It is precisely that. Smart and gorgeous. A must read. 
300 Arguments by Sarah Manguso is at first glance a group of unrelated aphorisms, but the pieces reveal themselves as a masterful arrangement that steadily gathers power. Manguso’s arguments about writing, desire, ambition, relationships, and failure are pithy, unsentimental, and defiant, and they add up to an unexpected and renegade wisdom literature. Lines you will underline, write in notebooks and read to the person sitting next to you, that will drift back into your mind as you try to get to sleep.

Available here.

This is an original and intelligent book. I found it hard to put down. Marianne Power really draws you in. Honest and brilliantly written. A great book even for those not interested in self help.

Marianne Power was stuck in a rut. Then one day she wondered: could self-help books help her find the elusive perfect life?

She decided to test one book a month for a year, following their advice to the letter. What would happen if she followed the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? Really felt The Power of Now? Could she unearth The Secret to making her dreams come true?

What begins as a clever experiment becomes an achingly poignant story. Because self-help can change your life – but not necessarily for the better . . .

Help Me! is an irresistibly funny and incredibly moving book about a wild and ultimately redemptive journey that will resonate with anyone who’s ever dreamed of finding happiness.

Perfect for readers who enjoyed Everything I know About Love by Dolly Alderton, Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon and Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig.

Available here.

I loved the sisters in this book. It would make the perfect Christmas movie. A wonderful and entertaining Christmas novel to get into the spirit. 

It’s not what’s under the Christmas tree, but who’s around it that matters most.

All Suzanne McBride wants for Christmas is her three daughters happy and at home. But when sisters Posy, Hannah and Beth return to their family home in the Scottish Highlands, old tensions and buried secrets start bubbling to the surface.

Suzanne is determined to create the perfect family Christmas, but the McBrides must all face the past and address some home truths before they can celebrate together . . .

This Christmas indulge in some me-time and enjoy this uplifting and heart-warming story from international bestseller Sarah Morgan. Full of romance, laughter and sisterly drama, The Christmas Sisters is the perfect book to curl up with this festive season.

Available here.

the crossway book, pilgrimage

The Crossway is a brave book with a great story. Guy Stagg was having mental health issues and decided to go on a pilgrimage. He walked more than 5,500 kilometres from Canterbury to Jerusalem. His journey is written brilliantly in these pages and is a riveting read. Perfect for Christmas. A great book.

In 2013 Guy Stagg made a pilgrimage from Canterbury to Jerusalem. Though a non-believer, he began the journey after suffering several years of mental illness, hoping the ritual would heal him. For ten months he hiked alone on ancient paths, crossing ten countries and more than 5,500 kilometres. The Crossway is an account of this extraordinary adventure.

Having left home on New Year’s Day, Stagg climbed over the Alps in midwinter, spent Easter in Rome with a new pope, joined mass protests in Istanbul and survived a terrorist attack in Lebanon. Travelling without support, he had to rely each night on the generosity of strangers, staying with monks and nuns, priests and families. As a result, he gained a unique insight into the lives of contemporary believers and learnt the fascinating stories of the soldiers and saints, missionaries and martyrs who had followed these paths before him.

The Crossway is a book full of wonders, mixing travel and memoir, history and current affairs. At once intimate and epic, it charts the author’s struggle to walk towards recovery, and asks whether religion can still have meaning for those without faith.

Available here.