Stewart Priest

Review: VoucherHub

// July 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // Services

As regular readers of this blog will know, Jen and I have just bought a house and we’re getting married in 3 weeks. All of this means that we’re both skint and looking to save money in any way we possibly can. There are various was to save money: turning lights off when you leave a room, walking instead of driving, not eating for days on end, etc, etc. However, people who know me will know that these are not popular choices for me. So, what should I do?

Well, this is where VoucherHub steps in. These nice guys and gals keep track of all the latest offers from the big name shops, fast food outlets and other fabulous stores. The site is very easy to use. Just head on over to voucherhub.com and search for the retailer you want a voucher code for, or select one of “Today’s Top Vouchers”, click on the code and it’ll take you directly to the site! Simples! I did it for the Domino’s Pizza voucher, and I got 25% off my total bill! Nice!

So a big thank you has to go to the VoucherHub folk – I can return to my miserly ways and keep the missus happy all in one go! Cheers!

Review: ReboundTag

// June 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Products, Reviews

Have you ever lost your luggage? Has an airline ever lost your luggage? Are you worried that someday your luggage will be lost? If so, then ReboundTag (www.reboundtag.com) is for you!

ReboundTag takes an old idea to a new level, but it does it with such elegance and ease that my inner geek struggled to get to grips with it at first. Let me explain.

Each ReboundTag contains three things: a tag number, a barcode which equates to that tag number, and a microchip which also contains that tag number. So, how does it work? Well, first of all, you need to register your tag on the ReboundTag site. You enter your personal information (email address, telephone number, etc), the description of the item the tag will be attached to, and your itinerary. Then you attach it to your bag. That’s it. You don’t need to do anything. With any luck, your bag won’t get lost.

If you are unlucky enough to lose your bag though, help is at hand. Thanks to the human-readable tag number printed on the tag, the person (or airline/travel company) who finds your bag can visit the ReboundTag website, enter your tag number and state that they have found it. As soon as they submit those details, you get an email/SMS making you aware that someone has found your bag so you can arrange for its safe return. You can even mark your tag as anonymous so that the finder doesn’t see any of your details, just a notification that you’ve been alerted to the fact that they have located your luggage.

Another feature ReboundTag have included in their product is a second RFID chip which is readable and writeable by airport/airline security staff. This allows them to enter your flight details, onward destination, etc., making it very easy to return your luggage to you in the even of a loss. If this was where it stopped, I’d be happy, and this would be the end of the review. However, I have a privacy concern regarding this second RFID chip.

From the ReboundTag front page:

Since our microchips contain several memory banks, if desired it is also possible to have security information added to the chip through a password protected layer. The security information can be changed by the airport/airline whenever the person travels and cannot be viewed or changed without the password.

Wait. WHAT?

It would appear that ReboundTag are giving airlines and airports the ability to store information, presumably about you, to YOUR microchipped tag, and then allowing them to password protect it so others – including you – can’t read, amend or delete it. I have very real privacy concerns with this ‘feature’, and whilst it may be immensely useful and/or popular with the security fraternity, the fact that you aren’t able to choose whether you have this second RFID chip or not, ReboundTag may find that they lose out on the business of those who value their privacy.

I’ll be giving it a go on my upcoming honeymoon. Hopefully the security services don’t leave a note saying ‘Suspected Terrorist’ on the chip.

If you fancy getting your hands on a ReboundTag, you can get one for £19.99, three for £49.95 or ten for £149.99. All are available at www.reboundtag.com.

Review: She’s Out of My League

// May 24th, 2010 // No Comments » // Film, Reviews

From time to time, I get the chance to preview films before the general viewing public. So, when I got the opportunity to go see She’s Out of My League, of course I took it.

Kirk (Jay Baruchel) is a pretty average guy with a pretty average job and pretty average friends. A high school graduate with no other qualifications, he works in an airport as a TSA agent and dreams of one day becoming a pilot, but is content in the knowledge that he’ll never really amount to much. Until Molly (Alice Eve) walks through his metal detector.

Let’s face it. Molly is a hard 10. Kirk is a soft 6. There’s no way she’d look twice at him, right? Well normally, no. However, a girl this hot as gotten the attention of every single guy in the place. Especially Kirk’s sleazy workmates, and more importantly, his extra-sleazy boss. When Kirk pisses off his boss to defend Molly’s honour, she sees him for what he is. A nice guy. A hard 10 in the nice guy stakes.

Once past airport security and onto her flight, she realises she has lost her iPhone. Her phone is her life; she’s a party planner and losing it would be the end of the world to her, so she borrows her friend’s phone to call it, and who answers? Kirk. When he agrees to return the phone in person the next night, he seals his fate. A hard 10 is into a soft 6. In other words, Molly likes Kirk.

No-one believes it. Not Molly’s friends, not Kirk’s friends, not Kirk. Why does Molly like Kirk? What does Kirk do to impress Molly? I’m not going to tell you. You’ll have to find out for yourself.

I thought it was hilarious. The non-gay pube-shaving by another-straight-man scene is particularly funny. If only for childish reasons.

She’s Out of My League is out on June 4.

Off-Roading at Knockhill

// May 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // birthday, Reviews, Services

I visited the picturesque kingdom of Fife yesterday. More specifically, Knockhill Racing Circuit. You may have noticed in this post that I turned 28 last weekend. Well, my trip to Knockhill was for LAST year’s birthday. I was working on the theory that good things come to those who wait. Boy, was I right! I had a whale of a time!

I was booked on the 4×4 Off-Road driving course. Its taken me a while from booking the course to actually being able to attend – it was cancelled due to the bad snow the last time I was supposed to go, but when I found out how bad it really was, I didn’t relish the thought of trying to get there.

So yesterday rolled around and it was time to go. I had to be there at 9:15 for a 9:30 start. This meant being out the door at 8:00, and out of my bed at 7:00. On a Sunday. Hmph! Thankfully I didn’t have to do the driving. Jen got that pleasure. An hour and 7 minutes later (according to TomTom), and we arrived. It was cold. We were something like 800-85o feet above sea level though.

I was greeted by instructors Bill and Eric, and a long with the other people on the course, we got our safety briefing and instructions on how to operate the cars – Jeep Cherokees to be specific:

I was with Eric. Eric seemed to be a bit more easy-going than Bill, but still mindful of our safety. I was right. We got talking about all sorts of things: cars, how girlfriends and wives spend all your money, the bad snow, to name but a few. Not only were we getting a top 4×4 training course, we were getting to shoot the breeze with the instructor too! This course could have easily been a very dry one, with nothing other than “foot off the gas”, “careful on this turn”, but thanks to Eric the whole experience was great.

We all got 2 goes around the course. The first time around, you do the ‘easy’ part which gets you used to the car and how to control it. The second time around, you get to do the ‘hard’ bits. When I say hard, I mean hard. Going down steep hills where you can’t see the bottom from the top, going up steep hills with loose rocks which create wheel spin and driving through a river. Not across the river, through it.

The whole experience takes around 2 hours, and when you’re done, you get a certificate to say you’re a great 4×4 driver. I thought I was going to be terrified the entire way around the course, but with Eric next to me giving me all the tips I needed, I was fine. I highly recommend this particular driving experience as a fun day out. Head on over to the Knockhill site and book it!

Lunch @ The Lansdowne

// April 4th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // Food, Reviews, Twitter

Ahh… Good Friday was indeed, good. I had the day off and so did Jen. We spent the morning lazing around watching TV and we decided to head out for lunch. I wanted to let Twitter decide where I went, so I posted a message to that effect and @lansdownespy got in touch. Full disclosure here: I’ve already been to The Lansdowne – for Glasgow Twestival – but I’ve never had the food before Friday.

The lovely Emma and Barry were both serving, and you couldn’t ask for better service – very attentive, keen to make sure you’re having a good time, got enough to drink, etc, so Jen and I were both happy. If we thought the service was good, we were in for a real treat with the food! We decided to go for a main course and a dessert. I had the Chicken Supreme, which is chicken breast stuffed with black pudding, wrapped in bacon with sauteed potatoes and a whisky sauce. Jen had the Haddock Supper, pretty self explanatory – battered fish and home-made chips. Great stuff.

After we dispensed with the mains, we moved on to the important business of dessert. We both opted for the Chocolate & Orange Cheesecake. Oh. My. God. Sara Lee can suck it. The Lansdowne’s cheesecake is amazing! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. The person who tweets for them is also a fan of this particular dish. Oh, and did I mention? They serve it on an actual slate:

The food at The Lansdowne is out of this world. Follow them on Twitter at @lansdownespy, visit the website and visit them in person. You’ll not regret it!