Wise Thoughts

At the end of January I was in Venice for a few days as part of a European tour that I and hubby booked. I have always been put off by going to Venice as many people have said it’s far too expensive but as we didn’t have to pay any extra to visit we were more than happy to explore this city.

Of course there is no way you can go to Venice without taking a ride in a Gondola and we were advised prior to going that the price was around €60 per Gondola. When we got there the price had doubled to a ridiculous €120 for a Gondola ride but luckily our tour guide managed to find someone else who was willing to do it for the more reasonable price of €60. It’s still a little pricey but thought we might as well do it otherwise we’ll regret it.

The Gondola experience in Venice
We were advised that it was best to go early so we did; we (our tour group of over 40 people) were the first ones there. We decided to share a Gondola with 4 other people and split the cost so we only paid €10 per person, if we wanted the Gondola for ourselves then it would be the full price of €60. The ride is supposed to be for 45 minutes and it takes you round the canals where you can see the old buildings etc. All the Gondolas are very luxurious with upholstered seating and classic fabrics, I read that Gondoliers wore traditional clothing like the straw hat and clothes but I didn’t see many who wore this attire.

I found the experience to be terrible, we paid for the Gondola and got a 15 minute ride! It was hardly worth it, the Gondolier also didn’t talk to us or smile so needless to say he didn’t get a tip! You can see much of Venice on foot so there is no need for a Gondola, if you don’t mind the money then do it but don’t be surprised if you end up coughing up a ridiculous amount of money for a short ‘boat’ ride.

In a way I’m glad I did it but I do feel sad for the 15 minutes we queued up for a 15 minute ride that cost €60 I have heard other people being charged €80 plus. I am not put off going to Venice again but I will surely never go on a Gondola ride, Gondoliers like to rip off tourists like their made out of money. For some people it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit a country as beautiful as Italy, some tourists will never get the chance to visit again.

As the countdown begins I only have 6 weeks left until my estimated due date, from the very beginning of my pregnancy I was unsure whether or not I should buy a pram, costs vary but I couldn’t decide between Quinny, Bugaboo and Stokke. All three cost in excess of £600 with Stokke coming in at over £900. Seems like an awful lot to pay for a young child to be pushed around in, we also have a small car (Nissan Micra) with only 3 doors and are very reluctant to buy a new one for the sake of a child. We only use the car once a week to do our weekly shopping so to upgrade to a bigger car would seem silly.

When I was 5 months pregnant I decided that it wasn’t really necessary to purchase a pram and decided to start looking into baby carriers instead. Baby carriers can start from as little as £25 and go up to £150 so we would save a lot by opting for this as our baby’s mode of transportation instead. The first problem I encountered when looking for a baby carrier was finding one that wasn’t too feminine as I wanted my husband to also be able to share the load. There are too many ‘close’ baby carriers that use the method that women in India and Africa use to carry their baby, a little like a baby sling. I couldn’t imagine my husband wearing one of these.

I also needed something that was easy to put on by myself without the help of others as there may be a time when I need to go out with baby alone without dragging my husband along. I did look at the Babybjorn carriers but there are too many to choose from and I am unsure how much I will actually use it. Then I came across Morph baby carrier by Mama’s and Papa’s.

Morph baby carrier
I like Mama’s and Papa’s but find that their products are very expensive compared to other baby shops, their stores are even worse. They have too much staff that stand around gossiping rather than helping out customers and their maternity range is the worst on the market. When I came across Morph I was intrigued as their method made much more sense than other carriers on the market. After doing some research I was satisfied that it would be worth the cost of £90, the downside is they don’t have much choice of trendy colours. The colours available are, Lime yellow, Khaki green, Grey and Plum, this is my interpretation of their colours and not what they are actually called.

When I went to order off the website the two yucky ones yellow and khaki were on offer of the week for £30 less at £60 so we decided to save £30 and went for the very unfashionable khaki. I originally wanted to get the grey one as it was better in my opinion but for the sake of saving £30 I went for khaki. To my surprise when my order came a few days later I received the grey one, but as it was still priced as £90 on the website I decided to keep it as I was only charged £60.

There are two different sized harnesses S/M and M/L luckily me and hubby both fall into the M/L measurements so it meant that we didn’t need to spend a further £35 for a different harness. It is a little fiddly to adjust it and the instructions are very useless! After 10 minutes I managed to put it on myself and attach the pod, I practiced with a teddy and it seems doable for one person to do without any help. I then got my husband to try it and he too managed to get it on with minimal help.

It is a good idea but I find that it can be improved, the harness straps stick out too much and there is no way of tucking it in and the pod looks badly designed. I may be wrong so I’ll have to wait at least 6 more weeks to find out. Overall I am happy with the Morph carrier and the baby can be put in the pod and then in the car seat so you don’t need to worry about that when going out.

Hopefully the Morph carrier will be as expected and I won’t need a pram, but if I do need to buy a pram I have got the maxi cosi car seat so have many different options to convert into a pram should I need to.

As a resident of Welhat I was a little surprised when at the beginning of the year a leaflet through my door advised of some new changes to the refuse and recycling collections. I had never heard of the council’s decision to change the collection service and cannot remember if I was even consulted prior to the change going through. Instead of coming on a weekly basis it will be alternate weeks instead, so one week household waste and the next brown bins and recycling.

How will welhat’s refuse and recycling affect you?
At the beginning of March a new black bin for refuse and a black bin with a blue lid for recycling were delivered to all the houses on my street. Later that day a leaflet was posted explaining the change in waste collection and that household waste would be collected every other week or twice a month! I initially thought it was a mistake but found out that all the residents will be forced to recycle everything that will be thrown out. Before we were able to put cardboard and food waste in the brown bin but now we can recycle junk mail, glass, plastic and everything else in the new blue lidded bins.

Even with the new bins I will struggle to recycle all waste, we currently have two bags of rubbish a week and with a new baby on the way, dirty nappies will add at least one more! So even if I manage to bring my household waste to two bags a week I will still have to make an extra trip a month to dump my rubbish in a recycling centre. The new bins are slimmer than the brown and blue lidded bins; they only hold 3 black bins! So in a month I can only chuck out 6 bags whereas the minimum I can bring it down to is 8!

One of the worries I have about this silly change is that those who rely heavily on take away meals and an easy life will not do their share of recycling so will end up fly tipping all over the county. I don’t see many people who cannot recycle all their waste going to the recycling centre to get rid of it as after a while it will become a nuisance.

I understand we need to do more to recycle but I haven’t received a sticker to put on my bin like I did with the brown bin advising me of what I can and can’t put in it. I hope this new change doesn’t become much of a hindrance but I suspect that when its winter many people will start to fall behind in recycling as they well be too cold to even open up the door to sort out their rubbish.

As I approach my due date I have saved all my large and expensive purchases towards the end. Items that may need returning such as travel cot, baby swing, crib and car seat. I am quite a savvy shopper and have ordered pretty much everything you can think of over the internet, diamonds, clothes electrical goods and even furniture from Germany. But I always shop with trusted retailers or do some research before ordering from a website that is new to me.

So having a baby is expensive, we all know that but all pregnant women love to shop for their little one, if it’s possible and affordable then most will buy everything new whilst some may struggle and have to opt for borrowed or second-hand goods. Those who are expecting their first child usually go and buy everything new, like me, but after some experience and then expecting a second child most people realise what they actually need and what isn’t considered and essential item. So with so many online websites offering good deals how do you know which ones to trust?

I recently found a Graco travel cot priced at £100 at well known high street retailers but priced just £69.50 on one website named babytimelondon.com. I was intrigued by the possibility that I could potentially be saving over £30 as delivery was also included. I saved the website in my bookmarks and continued looking, I then found the next cheapest to be on eBay at £81.95 including delivery. I decided to go with babytime as I would save the most money but as I decided to add it to my basket I found that there was no such option.

I then did a little research to find that babytimelondon.com had gone to administration in 2008 but we are now in 2011! The website still hasn’t been taken down but in March 2011 it stopped taking online orders after so many complaints and trading standards getting involved. It would seem that over the last few years babytimelondon have continued to accept orders with no intention of honouring them. Customers who placed orders were not able to contact the company after no emails were replied to and the phone number listed just continued to ring. If you were wise enough to pay by credit card then you can take it up with the credit card company and get your money back but if you paid by debit card then it would be much harder to recover the money.

I wouldn’t have been able to place an order if I wanted to but I’m glad that I did a little research because if it was a few weeks ago I would have been left out of pocket. In general I only use a credit card for payment for orders over £100 just like much of the nation but after I ran into problems with Kiddicare last month for an order worth nearly £250 I have learnt my lesson.

If you come across babytimelondon.com and wonder why it’s so cheap it’s because it went into administration years ago. Although you can no longer order items online they still have a shop and you can get a refund if you have been one their online victims. Beware of dodgy websites that look too good to be true and do some research first if you really want to purchase something from them.

Before I stated trying to have a baby my husband and I already knew how we would bring up our future children and already talked about things such as co-sleeping. My mother had me in a cot next to her bed until I was two years old, but then she was pregnant with my younger sister and had to get me used to my own room. The transition wasn’t as bad as I was older and understood but as soon as my sister came along and slept in ‘my cot’ I wanted to be in it again.

This is why I decided that when I have children I would have them sleep in their own crib or cot next to me for the minimum of 6 months until I would move them to their own room. I don’t believe in co-sleeping as it makes it harder for the child to move onto their own bed when they are older, I know many mothers who have made the mistake of letting their young children sleep with them. 5 years on and they still refuse to sleep in their own bed!

I came across the swinging crib and found it to be the most beautiful bed for a baby, not only are they modern and small you can rock your little one to sleep without having to hold them. You can get them in nearly any colour, pink, blue, all wood finishes and with extras such as a canopy that makes it even more stylish. In my bedrooms I have co-coordinating pine furniture so it made sense to stick with pine rather than go for cheap white.

The prices range from £50 – £250 for a swinging crib, for the average of £75 you can get one that includes the mattress too. I paid £75 for my swinging crib; I got the mattress and bedding free including a canopy. Most people will think that its madness to buy a crib that a baby will only use for 4-6 months of their life but buying a cot it hideous and extremely large. After my baby out grows his crib he will go straight into his own bed, I will put up bed guards but I think it is unnecessary to have to go and buy new furniture and a baby bed when an adult one is perfectly fine.

What I like about my swinging crib is it is much smaller than a standard cot and with the little canopy looks so cute, I can also use it again for any other children I may have. After that I can pass it on to my sister, brother or any other family member who would like it. The only thing that would need to be purchased each time is a new mattress but they are as cheap as £15, so I find a swinging crib is well worth the money compared to a cot.

In January I had a European tour booked where I would be travelling from place to place for two weeks. As I was unsure how much money to change beforehand I thought it would be best if I made sure that my account had sufficient funds and I would withdraw money as I needed it. I noticed when I was using internet banking with HSBC that I could enter my itinerary online so that they would know where I was and my card wouldn’t be ‘frozen’ should I need to take money out abroad.

Notifying HSBC of my travel plans
I thought I would do it myself through internet banking but it was too long, I had to put day to day where I would be and as I was going to be away for two weeks it would’ve taken me a long time. I didn’t stay in one place for more than two days so I decided to call HSBC and talk to a customer service advisor. I informed them of my plans to travel and told them where I would be going, I also asked them what the likelihood of my card be ‘frozen’ would be and they said that unless I was spending by the thousands then I would be fine. Also because I notified them of my plans to travel they were aware that my card would be used abroad and the chances of my card be blocked were non-existent.

Luckily for me my husband thought it would be best to change some money before travelling so I didn’t really need to withdraw any Euros. A week into my holiday I needed to top up my mobile phone so I could wish my mother a Happy Birthday as I was not there to do it in person. My card is linked to my mobile so I called up on my mobile and topped up my mobile phone with £15 using my debit card.

The next day I got a call from HSBC fraud protection from a lady I couldn’t understand, it sounded like and Indian call centre staff member, she said I had to call them back urgently in regards to my debit card. Because I had only spent £15 I didn’t bother to call back as the call charges are really high for international calls. I left it at that and said I would chance it.

When I got back 14 days later I didn’t get a letter it email from HSBC so assumed it was drama for nothing. I went online to make a few purchases totalling £400 in one day, it was now a month since I had been on holiday, I got a phone call from a lady in India telling me she was calling from the fraud protection services and my card has been flagged and would now be cancelled. I was a little shocked but couldn’t really understand her so couldn’t ask what the problem was.

I found it a little strange that my card would get cancelled like that after spending a mere £15 abroad but spending hundreds in the UK meant that my card had to be cancelled. Luckily I got a new one 2 days later but I’m still baffled as to why it had to be cancelled. I told them I was going away, spent a meagre £15 topping up my mobile abroad and still my debit card was cancelled. I have since found that this has happened to many people using their HSBC cards abroad, I’m glad that HSBC are so vigilant but I think they have taken things to the extreme. Also why can’t they employ staff we can actually understand and ask questions to, Indian call centre staff talk to quickly and have a very heavy accent that makes a lot of people put off to calling in the first place?

As a recent customer with Kiddicare I wanted to share my experience of waiting for Interlink to deliver my order. Kiddicare has been using Interlink as their courier for deliveries for some years now with next day delivery for orders placed before 5pm and delivered within a time slot as standard. So gone are the days where you have to wait in all day for a delivery, interlink sends you a text message on the morning of delivery and tells you your one hour time slot so you can make sure someone is home at that time for the delivery and you are still free to carry on your normal daily tasks.

I placed my order in a Thursday afternoon and my order was approved, later that evening I received an email and a text message to inform me that my delivery would take place the following day (Friday) and that I would get a text message in the morning to let me know my time slot. At 7.30 am the next morning I did get a text advising me that my delivery would take place 12.39-13.39 but if I wanted to reschedule then to call up and change it hassle free. I decided to leave it and waited; my time slot came and went. 10 minutes later I got a text message to say ‘sorry we missed you’ I was fuming! How could they miss me if they never came! I didn’t get a standard card through the letter box advising me that I missed my delivery but a lazy text from the courier who couldn’t be bothered or was running behind in his deliveries. I paid nearly £250 for my order so why wasn’t it a priority!

I called them up but interlink operate an automated service only, so I was forced to contact Kiddicare who my order was with, they managed to contact them and said the courier would call me within the hour and will try to come back with my order. They never came and they never called back!

I understand that deliveries may not always run to time so why did they give me a time slot? I would have been perfectly happy to sit in and wait had they told me that they couldn’t guarantee a time. That is what makes it even more frustrating, making promises that can’t be kept. I have also found that Interlink is a very bad provider when it comes to deliveries, forums are buzzing with irate customers who have waited all day for the delivery to not take place.

If you are ordering anything from an online retailer check to see who the courier is and if it is Interlink, don’t buy from them! If you are a company that relies on customers coming back then do not get a contract with Interlink as you will lose thousands in cancelled orders and negative reviews.

I recently visited Iceland for a short break and wanted to experience as much as possible in those few short days. Iceland is a very expensive place in the first place but with so many different things to do and experience it’s well worth saving up a little first and do everything the first time round instead of having to go back again. I found a really good package that included a few tours, flights and accommodation so decided to go for it. One of the included tours is the Golden Circle.

The Golden Circle tour starts around 9am in the morning with pick up 30 minutes prior to this, I chose to do it as a Super Jeep tour rather than a coach or bus tour, the Super Jeep can seat up to 6 people but on mine there was me and my partner and another couple so plenty of room. The Jeep is huge and very high so depending on your size you may have trouble getting in and out, I was 5 months pregnant and struggled a little.

The Golden Circle tour takes you to Thingvellir which is a national park and where you can see the tectonic plates shift. Then you go to Geysir and Gullfoss where lunch is also taken after the tour. You stop at Stokkur geyser to see the most popular tourist attraction, a spout of boiling water 25-30m high, it erupts every 10 minutes or so. There are other smaller hot springs in the Geysir area. After that you go to Gullfoss the most famous waterfall in Iceland then lunch. On the way back the driver may also stop at a volcano or crater depending on the weather and driving conditions.

Thingvellir – is very cold so wrap up warm, you can see the tectonic plates but it’s not very exciting, looks like a crack in the ground not much to see. Then a short walk down a path where you will see green pastures and frozen river (in winter) the jeep waits for you on the other end. This was a waste of time, Thingvellir is supposed to be a national park but there is nothing to see also there is no sun at that time of day so it’s very dull.

Stokkur geyser – this was fascinating to experience a natural hot spring and the photo opportunity is fantastic if you have a good camera as it spouts water very quick! Other than that the other smaller springs are not that interesting.

Gullfoss waterfall – is the worst of the three on the tour, it was extremely cold and bitter, you couldn’t enjoy the waterfall, and yes it’s big but not beautiful in any way! You can walk down to where the waterfall starts but like I said not much to see here.

After the waterfall there is a restaurant at the top of the viewing platform where most tours stop for lunch, the food was terrible and there isn’t much choice. It’s also very expensive so if you can bring your own packed lunch to save money and to keep hunger at bay!

If you were to book this as an independent package it would cost around £177 each so £354! You also drive to the top of a glacier on a mountain where you can have a one hours snowmobile ride. Although it looked fun I was 5 months pregnant and I was far too cold so my partner and I stayed in whilst the other couple went. The driver drove us around and we got some nice pictures. The snowmobile ride costs around £105 each for one hour! It was ridiculous, you spend half an hour learning how to use and control the snowmobile then drive round in a circle for the remainder of the time!

Altogether the Golden Circle costs £564 if you include the snowmobile ride which is just not worth it; you also need a little more money for food and souvenirs on the day. As I booked it as part of a package it didn’t really cost us that much so if you really want to go get it as part of a package don’t book independently. The Golden Circle tour is a waste of money as there isn’t much to see, it would be better value for money if you rented a car and did it yourself as the roads are very quiet and easily accessible.

I’m not really into celebrating Valentine’s Day but as it will be the last one as a couple before baby arrives I thought it would be nice not to cook and have a takeaway instead. I chose Khyber Balti House in Hatfield because it was close and the reviews were good. I haven’t had Indian food in over 6 months so was looking forward to having this special treat and nigh off from cooking.

I ordered my meal online from Khyber Balti House with the expected delivery time of around 45 minutes to an hour which is standard to all the takeaways in the area. I ordered:
1 mango lassi
1 Shazani chicken
1 king prawn bhuna
1 aloo gobi
3 naans

Being pregnant and suffering from heartburn I didn’t want spicy food which was great because I didn’t order any, my favourite Indian dish is a king prawn bhuna but the one I ordered was terrible, it had no taste and the prawns were not very good quality. I was disappointed with that dish, the mango lassi is also a favourite drink of mine when I have an Indian curry but it was too sweet and was delivered in a white takeout container, not a takeaway drink cup like at fast food places.

For some reason the chicken made me feel sick and didn’t taste of anything, it was supposed to be tangy because of the lime but it did not taste of anything at all! The aloo gobi (potatoe and cauliflower) would have been ok but the cauliflower was too hard so I couldn’t break it into smaller pieces let alone eat it.  The naan bread was nice and was still soft the next day.

We also received 2 complimentary poppadoms with mint sauce and some strange sliced onions and tomatoes but we didn’t really want them then so saved them for the following day. The mint sauce already started to curd and went off so we had to throw it away. All together the meal came to £24.25 but it wasn’t really worth it, I could’ve gone to Tesco, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s or Marks and Spencer’s and gotten a 3 course meal for two for £10!

Save your money and don’t bother eating anything from Khyber Balti House in Hatfield as none of the dishes were tasty, it’s supposed to be an Indian restaurant I could have done a better job with the pre-bought sauce at the supermarket!

Since last year I have been researching and bookmarking my favourite products that I would like to purchase when I start my family. One year later and I am now 31 weeks pregnant, I always knew that this would be the perfect time for me to do all my baby shopping as I found it unnecessary to start any earlier. Before I was pregnant I came across Kiddicare and found the prices to be competitive and products to be unique and well sought after. Now that I was ready I decided to order many of my items from them in one transaction rather than buying one or two items here and there.

What I ordered from Kiddicare
I purchased a Closer to Nature starter kit £99.99
Closer to Nature breast pump £18.95
Changing station £99.99
Sleeping bag £12.99
Cuddle robes £9.95
Socks £2.95
Total: £244.82

Everything that I bought I needed for the baby and with free delivery for orders over £70 it was an added bonus, but even if I had to pay the £4.95 for delivery it would’ve been fine because I saved £10 on the breast pump so it would’ve evened out.

I got an email to say that the order had gone through and delivery would be the following day, 7.30am the day after I placed my order I received a text message to say that my delivery slot was 12.39 – 13.39. As Friday is the day I do my weekly grocery shopping I waited for the delivery before going out. The time came and went and there was no delivery, a few minutes after my allocated time slot I got a text message to say that they were sorry they missed me and to call and re-arrange delivery.

I was fuming both me and my husband were home and waiting and never did a van pull up on my street! It was bullsh*t! I called up to speak to someone from the courier company (interlink) but it was all automated, I didn’t want to re-arrange delivery as they never came in the first place I wanted to speak to the manager to let them know that no-one ever came.

After being unsuccessful I called Kiddicare customer services and explained what happened, they asked if a card was left and I said no, no-one has been. The customer service representative kept me on hold while she tried to contact Interlink, when she got back to me she said that they were trying to get hold of the driver and they would call me within the hour. I knew that they wouldn’t call or come back with my order to so I went out anyway. I never did get a card through the door and the courier never did call me back! I wasted a day waiting for my parcels after spending £244.82!

I was very angry with the courier so decided it wasn’t good enough for the amount of money that I paid so I called up the next day, explained what had happened and cancelled the order. Never once did they try to convince me to keep the order and they were happy to see the £244.82 refunded! I have since done a search online and found many customers complaining of the same thing that has happened to me, Kiddicare has been aware of this problem for some time and have still refused to resolve it.

My conclusion is they either never had my delivery to begin with or they didn’t have enough time to get to me so they lied and made it look like they came and went. I will never use Kiddicare again as they don’t really care about any money they are losing. I understand that my case is probably just one in the thousands that experienced problems but I find that for nearly £250 that I paid in goods I wasn’t treated better. I didn’t spend the minimum for free delivery I bought all that I needed regardless, I’m glad I didn’t buy anymore as I would’ve been even more disappointed. If you want to save money I suggest eBay and Amazon not Kiddicare!