Tag Archives: Review

Property Tycoon: A Simple Seven-Step Guide To Becoming a Property Millionaire Book Review

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Property Tycoon: A Simple Seven-Step Guide To Becoming a Property Millionaire by Ian Samuels Property Tycoon: A Simple Seven-Step Guide To Becoming a Property Millionaire by Ian Samuels couldn’t have come at a more relevant time. Property is booming in the UK today, and particularly in London. So can this book help you to become a property tycoon in seven simple steps? I would say so, it certainly has all of the information you would ever need and is easy to read.

I really enjoyed this book and it made me want to start a property business of my own. Baby step by baby step. This book is a good read and is very well-written. It is enjoyable despite its business like subject. It is a good, complete guide to every aspect of  property management. It is full of ideas and things you never even knew you didn’t know. Highly recommended. I will certainly be keeping it to hand.

 

What they say:

Property Tycoon offers a complete and incredibly revealing guide to EVERY aspect of residential property investment: whether you’re looking to just dip into buy-to-let or want to use property to build up a substantial and life-changing income.

Covering buying, managing, maintaining, financing and selling UK property, this book is written by someone who has made a success of buy-to-let investment for more than 20 years and through two booms and busts. Written in plain English, and filled with real-life case studies, it reveals the secrets of:

– the questions every successful property investor asks themselves before buying a property

– how to secure capital for your investment properties

– where to get tradesmen, agents, mentors and tenants you can rely on

– what it takes to manage and maintain different kinds of property portfolio and how to take your portfolio to the next level when the time is right

– when to buy and sell, and how to make sure you get your way in auctions and off-plan deals.

With housing in ever-increasing demand, and UK values showing an average rise in value of 9% a year for the last 60 years, today represents a great opportunity for anyone interested in entering the buy-to-let world. Property Tycoon is the friendliest and most up-to-date guide available.

Property Tycoon: A simple seven-step guide to becoming a property millionaire is available here.

 

 

Last Minute Tech Gifts for Father’s Day

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It’s almost fathers day but there’s still time to buy a gift. You won’t go far wrong with this exciting list of the latest tech gadgets below.

stylus penWacom Bamboo Duo stylus £29 Available from Wacom.eu

This stylus will work perfectly with any Android or Apple tablet. It has a pen on one end and a nib on the other end. It also comes with a lid. We really loved this. Perfect for arty dads. You can also buy replacement nibs.

 

 

 

 

 

beezBe.ez LE Littoral for iPad Air Available from amazon.co.uk

A thick cotton iPad case for extra protection. Be.ez LE Littoral Folio for iPad Air is incredibly stylish and keeps the iPad Air very secure and safe.

 

 

 

 

 

booqpadBooqpad for iPad Air £49.80 available from booqeurope.com

A stylish case to store your ipad, notepad and stylus. Is incredibly versatile and lets you view your iPad in many ways. An excellent iPad accessory.

 

 

 

 

qdosQDOS Q-BOPZ £29.99 available from www.qdossound.com

A really cool bluetooth speaker that has a suction pad on its back. Availiable in many different colours, this durable speaker has a bluetooth range of ten metres and can be stuck on almost anywhere. We thought it was amazing and very handy.

 

 

 

steelseriesSteelseries Stratus Wireless Game Contoller £67.90 pre-order from steelseries.com

The Stratus Controller from SteelSeries is the first Bluetooth controller for iOS devices; its sleek, lightweight design has a comfortable grip with 10+ hours of battery-life and features that are ideal for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch gaming.

 

 

scarabeeBeeWi ScaraBee £89.99 available from Maplin.co.uk

Amazing remote control buggy with built in camera which can be controlled from a tablet or smart phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

jabraJabra Sport+ £79.99 Available from Amazon.co.uk

Bluetooth earphones with outstanding sound. Easy to wear and designed for sport so they won’t fall off easily. They also come with an FM radio.

 

 

 

 

misfit shineMisFit Shine £99.99 Available from John Lewis

A stylish fitness monitor. Waterproof and with a 4 month battery life. Information is fed back to an app on your smart device. It is amazing. We tried it and loved it.

 

 

 

 

divoomDivoom Voombox Travel £49.99 

An excellent bluetooth speaker designed for the outdoors. It includes a built in microphone to allow users to make calls. Has excellent sound quality and is very handy.

 

 

 

Quest Hepburn £149 Available from Apple and Selfridges

quest hepburnThis extravagant radio produces excellent sound.  It includes Bluetooth, a remote control app (iOS and Android), a USB port for charging devices, dual alarm and kitchen timer. It is also easy to carry around because of the handle.

 

 

 

 

 

tyltTylt Y Charge 2.1 £39.99

The Y-charge 2.1 takes the bullet style charger to a whole new level with its compact and sleek design

 

 

 

 

 

 

parrotflowerParrot Flower Power £49.99 Available from Selfridges £49.99

A real time sensor that measures the health of your plants and provides information back to your iOS smart device via Bluetooth. It also has a database with over 600 plants

Steaming To Victory: How Britain’s Railway Won The War Michael Williams Book Review

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steamingtovictorybookreview My grandfather was a railway man for years. It left him with a lifelong love of the railway. He was also in the RAF during World War II, which veers off topic from this book, although the obvious love and respect Michael Williams has for the railwaymen and women who won the war for Britain is obvious on every page.

This books is riveting and well researched. It is a compelling book that is easy to read, full of information and yet also manages to give a brilliant overall of the war and it’s lasting effect on the people who lived through it. Another thing I learned from this book is that in 1936 a train raced from London to Glasgow in less than six hours, seventy-eight years later, it takes just under five and costs an extortionate amount of money. This book harked back to an amazing period for trains and the railway, it is sadly a long-forgotten period for the British railway industry, let’s hope it can become great again.

In the seven decades since the darkest moments of the Second World War it seems every tenebrous corner of the conflict has been laid bare, prodded and examined from every perspective of military and social history.

But there is a story that has hitherto been largely overlooked. It is a tale of quiet heroism, a story of ordinary people who fought, with enormous self-sacrifice, not with tanks and guns, but with elbow grease and determination. It is the story of the British railways and, above all, the extraordinary men and women who kept them running from 1939 to 1945.

Churchill himself certainly did not underestimate their importance to the wartime story when, in 1943, he praised ‘the unwavering courage and constant resourcefulness of railwaymen of all ranks in contributing so largely towards the final victory.’

And what a story it is.

The railway system during the Second World War was the lifeline of the nation, replacing vulnerable road transport and merchant shipping. The railways mobilised troops, transported munitions, evacuated children from cities and kept vital food supplies moving where other forms of transport failed. Railwaymen and women performed outstanding acts of heroism. Nearly 400 workers were killed at their posts and another 2,400 injured in the line of duty. Another 3,500 railwaymen and women died in action. The trains themselves played just as vital a role. The famous Flying Scotsman train delivered its passengers to safety after being pounded by German bombers and strafed with gunfire from the air. There were astonishing feats of engineering restoring tracks within hours and bridges and viaducts within days. Trains transported millions to and from work each day and sheltered them on underground platforms at night, a refuge from the bombs above. Without the railways, there would have been no Dunkirk evacuation and no D-Day.

Michael Williams, author of the celebrated book On the Slow Train, has written an important and timely book using original research and over a hundred new personal interviews.

This is their story.

Steaming to Victory: How Britain’s Railways Won the War is available here.

The Crown & Anchor Restaurant Review

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Chiswick High Street is quite a bustling, yet tranquil part of West London. It is green and full of environmentally conscious people and yummy mummies. We headed to the newly refurbished Crown & Anchor to review it.

anchorandhopewine unnamedprosecco anchorandhopesalad anchorandhopeterrain anchorandhopeThe Decor looks great and there is a good atmosphere. It is a sunny day and the flowers on the table all add to a lovely vibe. We start with the Pork, Apple and Leek Terrine With Piccalilli and Baby Toffee Apple & Toast and Watercress, Tarragon, Mint & Purple Carrot Salad With Roasted Pistachios, Sunflower Seeds & Orange Blossom Dressing. The terrine is delicious, very well done and all of the ingredients work well together. The salad is interesting and too tasty for something so green, but could of done with a little something else, more colour perhaps, or more dressing. It was a popular dish, the manager, Gordon, told me, and it was delicious. I just thought it could do with a little kick of something.

We also had a good bottle of prosecco. Perfect for summer.

anchorandhope1 anchorandhopefishandchips anchorandhopehalfchicken

There is a lot to say about our mains, mostly because they were so huge and generous that we really didn’t need a starter or a dessert. In fact, it took us ages to finish them and we still didn’t actually manage to polish the plate off.

We had the Cider & Tarragon Battered Cod With Mushy Peas & Tartare Sauce With Double-Cooked Chips and the Half Roast Chicken With Bread Sauce. The cod is well-battered with a good twist thanks to the tarragon and cider, the mushy peas are great and have some mint in them, the chips are double-cooked and there is also a good tartare sauce. The chicken is huge, an actual half chicken. No stinginess here. The bread sauce is very good, as is the gravy. It comes with a huge Yorkshire pudding, carrots, broccoli, parsnips and roast potatoes. This is a meal and a half, and you certainly get a lot for your money. It tastes good too.

All the way through our meal the service was amazing but seemed to completely drop off when we were ready to order dessert. It took a while to catch a waiters eye and order something. To be fair, they probably got sick of waiting for us to finish. My colleague and I hate wasted food but gave up towards the end.

anchorandhopedessert anchorandhopetartFor dessert (yes, our legs are hollow) we had an Earl Grey Infused Tart With Creme Fraiche and a Chocolate and Pear Tart With Creme Fraiche. Both were great and came with a biscuit and another sauce that really complimented the other ingredients. Very good desserts. I loved my chocolate and pear one. The combination of flavours really worked.

We enjoyed our meal at The Crown & Anchor. They also have a newly refurbished upstairs bar and more seating. It is a gorgeous, friendly pub with good food.

 

The Crown & Anchor

374 Chiswick High Road

London

W4 5TA

020 8995 2607

www.crownandanchorchiswick.co.uk

enquiry@crownandanchorchiswick.co.uk

www.facebook.com/CrownAndAnchor.Chiswick

@crownanchorw4

 

 

The Saatchi & Saatchi Guide To Mobile Marketing By Tom Eslinger Review

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The Saatchi & Saatchi Guide To Mobile Marketing By Tom Eslinger is worth it’s weight in gold. It’s actual weight in gold, because it is basically free marketing advice from Saatchi & Saatchi. Mobile is the way forward: 50 per cent of all unique e-mail opens now occur on mobile devices, one half of all local searches are done on mobile devices and mobile commerce accounted for an estimated 15 per cent of total e-commerce sales in 2013. It is fair to say that if you are not utilising the mobile version of your site you are missing out, losing visitors and sales.

mobilemarketing

This book is useful and practical. It is not text-heavy and full of jargon, it is easy to read and navigate. Above all, this book leaves you educated instead of adrift. The mobile market is no longer a strange place, this book demystifies everything and leaves you with the knowledge to make the most out of your business. Essential reading.

 

Mobile phones and tablets aren’t like computers or TV or any other media channel or hardware technology that came before them. They’re personal—your mobile device is yours alone, the place where you go from work to play to socializing with the swipe of a finger. They’re portable—your mobile device goes wherever you go, and can connect you to almost anything, anywhere. Put together, these features come together to make mobile powerful—the most potent communication and marketing channel available to marketers today. How do you get onto your audience’s mobile, deeply engage them and have the privilege of staying there? Mobile Magic, by mobile marketing expert and Saatchi & Saatchi’s Worldwide Director of Digital & Social Tom Eslinger, takes you from the practical points of development and through to production, content strategy, content management and how to market your digital and social campaigns. You’ll learn how to understand your audience and how to maintain your mobile initiatives. This book will guide you in executing winning mobile strategies for your business. Written especially with marketers new to mobile in mind, Mobile Magic is your key to the wide world of apps, mobile websites, integrated campaigns, social media and cross-platform thinking and strategies that every marketer needs to know.

 

Mobile Magic: The Saatchi and Saatchi Guide to Mobile Marketing and Design is available here.

 

 

Clearspring Organic Japanese Sencha Blend Matcha Green Tea

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matchagreenteaGreen tea has always been hailed as the healthiest hot drink out there, but new research has found it can also be good for your mind.

 

Scientists claim green tea enhances several cognitive functions, in particular our working memory. The new research, from the University of Basel, found that green tea increases the brain’s effective connectivity. Scientists at the university saw significant improvements in working memory tasks after people had consumed green tea.

 

So we reviewed some Clearspring Organic Matcha Green Tea. It is a delicious blend and is created especially for Clearsrping by expert tea producers in Japan. It combines the exceptionally light, smooth and refreshing flavour of Japanese Sencha with distinctly rich and exquisite ceremonial grade Matcha Powder. Skilfully blended and packed on their tea producers’ estate immediately after production to ensure the freshest quality. Available from March in Waitrose and here, RRP £3.99

 

It tastes great and left us feeling very healthy. We’ll keep you updated on any improvements to memory, if we remember.

 

First World War For Dummies Book Review

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firstworldwarfordummiesbookreview The First World War has been an endless source of fascination for decades now. The inhumanity, the loss of life. To a lot of people war seems unfathomable, it is not really something that has happened to my generation.

 

This book is brilliant. Well-researched and full of anything you would want to know about World War 1. Dr Seán Lang certainly knows his stuff, and we will have an interview with him soon.

 

The books gives an amazing overall education on the complex causes that led to war, the key battles, the Generals and how the war changed the world, along with the lasting effect. This book has everything you could ever want to know about World War 1. I learned a substantial amount and the book also pieces everything together beautifully, leaving you with an overview of the whole war and the key players. Even though this book has a ton of information and some harrowing history, it is always easy-to-read and the format makes retaining the information easy. Good for learning.

 

I also loved the Part of Tens section, with its list of wartime writers and poets, along with a list of films about World War 1. Over 380 pages of well researched and enjoyable to read, if sometimes sad, history. A must for history buffs.

 

First World War For Dummies is available here.

 

 

Frost Summer Beauty Special

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Summer is a different beast when it comes to beauty. Hot, humid or just plain cold and freezing. The British summer throws everything at you. It is the time of year when Brits have to leave the house with sunglasses and an umbrella in their bag. You just never know. Winter beauty products don’t really work for summer, they are too thick, heavy and creamy usually. Makeup has to be revised so it doesn’t end up slipping off the face when the temperature goes up. So we have done a lot of reviewing to bring you some excellent summer beauty picks. Read on and let us know what you think, and add your own recommendations below.

goshforevereyeshadowstickreview

These Gosh Forever Metallic Eyeshadow Sticks are getting a review all of their own, but until then I will just have to recommend them here. They are waterproof, look amazing on and come in a variety of amazing colours. I love them beyond words. Available from Superdrug.

 

cargoswimmableeyeshadoweyeliner

cargoswimmablesshadowstick

These Swimmable products from Cargo are amazing. The above is a waterproof eye pencil and a waterproof eye shadow stick. Both work and both give great colour. Highly recommended.

 

yvesrocher

Yves Rocher Ultra Long-Lasting Cream Eyeshadow in Cuivre

This is amazing stuff, especially for a cream eyeshadow. It looks like a lip gloss but is actually a budge proof, crease-proof, waterproof eyeshadow that lasts and looks great on. Creamy and comfortable, it goes on in a uniform layer and blends easily. Flawless and long-lasting make-up.

2 shades, £14 at www.yves-rocher.co.uk

 

anovialovethetanlegspray

Anovia’s ‘Love the Tan’ Leg Spray. Amazing, perfecting, natural leg spray. Covers imperfections and is water resistant. Just washes off. It looks great on and covers well. Perfect for when you bring out the summer dresses. These are a brand new product to Anovia’s ‘Love the Tan’ range and launched at the end of last month. Get your hands on some.

 

therapibeautyreview

I love a facial spray in summer and this Rose Otto Hydrating Facial Toner from Therapi Honey Skincare smells amazing and is nourishing. It is made with 83% organic ingredients and 5% of profits go to support bee conservation. This tones and revitalises skin whilst leaving it feeling moisturised. It uses honey which they say is nature’s miracle moisturiser. Very good stuff and we loved the Orange Blossom Honey Gel Cleanser and Orange Blossom Honey Moisturiser too. Both were excellent and left skin looking amazing. I am also obsessed with orange blossom at the moment, which obviously helps!

 

organicsurgereview

Organic Surge is perfect for summer. There products are fresh, smell amazing and are usually fruity and light. We reviewed three of their products starting with:

Organic Surge Moisturising Tropical Bergamot Shower Gel

I could sniff this all day long. It smells great and summery. It really cleanses skin and leaves it feeling soft. It is sweet orange and bergamot essential oils. Very refreshing and like all Organic Surge products is free from SLS, parabens, synthetic fragrances and colourants.

Organic Surge Gardeners Hand Cream With Lime, Basil & Rosemary

This (again) smells amazing. Just divine. It drys fast and is not sticky. Protects hands, soothes red skin and nut butter and seed oils work to resist ingrained dirt. Can use with or without gloves. Perfect for the green fingered.

Organic Surge Super-Intensive Daily Moisturiser

This great moisturiser leaves skin looking radiant and really hydrates. It also works on sensitive skin. Has cocoa butter, shea butter and glycerine with green tea and camomile. Love it.

 

From www.idealworld.tv

 

lilyloloblusherpinkreview lilyloloblusherreview lilyloloreviewI absolutely love this Lily Lolo Burst Your Bubble Pressed Blush. It is a gorgeous dark pink colour. It is velvety soft, kind to your skin and highly pigmented. It gives a sheer natural flush or a brighter pop of colour to your cheeks if you layer it on. Their blusher brush is amazingly soft and perfectly angled. I can’t live without it now. It is perfect for contouring.

It contains anti-ageing Sea Holly extract and Argan Oil, as well as moisturising Jojoba Oil, it also has a natural anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial protection. Fragrance and talc free. Packaged in a lovely mirrored compact perfect for on the go and travel. Available from the 27th June 2014. Blusher £9.99. Blusher Brush £7.99.

Available in 6 beautiful shades.

Shade names –

Coming Up Roses

Just Peachy

Tickled Pink

Tawnylicious

Burst Your Bubble

In The Pink

Available from www.lilylolo.co.uk

 

Last but not least…

faceb4beautyreview

FaceB4 Anti-Bacterial Face Wash and FaceB4 Anti-Bacterial Serum

FaceB4 joined Superdrug as a stockist for Superdrug’s 50th birthday, they even repackaged in celebration. Now that is a love-in. FaceB4 Anti-Bacterial Face Wash is the UK’s most effective face wash. FaceB4 is clinically proven to clear skin, reduce redness and prevent future blemishes. It says the antibacterial face wash clears skin in just four days and it isn’t lying. This stuff really works and used along with the vitamin enriched serum really calms skin. The serum gives a matte look and the face wash is a combined cleanser and toner. We’re impressed and will continue to use. Good stuff.

From Superdrug (obviously)

 

What are your summer picks?