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lifestyle

Family Activities Worth Trying This Summer

Monday, May 22, 2017

gluten free

Carrot & Coriander Soup - Busy Bees Sensational Soups

Sunday, May 14, 2017

lifestyle

How dog-friendly is Britain?

Sunday, May 14, 2017

As man’s best friend, most of people want to be able to enjoy a day with their dog and family. But are there enough places in Britain that welcome your beloved pet with open arms? Just how dog friendly is Britain? Dog food retailer and grain free dog food specialists, Feedem, explore the stats behind how dog-friendly Britain really is.

The great outdoors

Most of our beloved canines love having the freedom to run in green space — but which UK city best caters to our canine companions? Research carried out by Esri UK has found that Scottish cities are the go-to destinations for doggy day trips, as they have a greater proportion of green space.

With masses of green space available across the whole of the UK, it’s the Scottish cities that lead the way. Edinburgh has a huge 49.2% of green space, while Glasgow has 32%. In terms of English cities, Bristol (29%) and Birmingham (24.6%) have the most. It’s bad news if you’re planning a visit to Liverpool with your pooch though, as just 16.4% of the city is green space.

Whether it is a beautiful coastline, city centre or green space, it’s clear that Britain’s dogs are well catered for.

Doggy shops

If you are shopping with your doggy best friend, you could be limited to pet shops and independent stores. Dogs are largely excluded from the British high street.

However, what you may find surprising is the number of premium retailers who welcome pooches to their stores. For example, the Bond Street branch of Fenwick’s department store will welcome any breed of dog no matter their size, as long as they are kept on a leash. Likewise, iconic London store Harrods welcomes dogs but only on the fourth floor (Pet Kingdom), providing you can present up-to-date vaccination cards. However, you won’t be able to browse the rest of the store with your dog, but you can leave them in the pet crèche!

Doggy pubs

After all that running around, you won’t be the only one wanting a little pit stop. The British love a pub — and, as the figures show, so do our pooches! According to data from Google Trends, search interest in ‘dog friendly pubs’ has grown steadily since 2012. Now, an average of 9,900 people search for ‘dog friendly pubs’ each month — compared to just 1,900 who search for ‘romantic restaurants’.

Thankfully, here are 5,000 dog-friendly pubs listed on Doggie Pubs, so you can enjoy a chilled beverage in the company of your canine friend – although this number is likely to be much higher in reality as the list is curated. An increasing number of businesses are becoming dog friendly to cater to a wider audience.

A 2016 Kennel Club survey found that after introducing a dog-friendly policy, 71% of businesses gained new customers. 50% of guests visited for longer too, as their dog wasn’t at home or tied up outside. Not only does the move help to introduce more customers to your business, it has also been found to increase customer and staff interactions by up to two thirds.

Doggy colleagues

Do you hate leaving your doggy behind when you leave for work every day? Some employers even allow their employees to bring their dogs to work. Could you imagine having your canine best friend as your work colleague? June 24^th is national Bring Your Dog to Work Day, with many businesses across the country getting involved. However, Britain’s workplaces aren’t just dog-friendly on this day — 8% of UK employees are allowed to take their dogs to work all year round.

When it comes to Britain, whether it’s work, rest or play, clearly we are a very dog-friendly nation. As our love of four-legged friends continues to grow, so will the number of facilities where our dogs are welcome.

recipe

Latin Honey Shop - Natural Skincare Recipes

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Review

Amazon Fire Review

Monday, May 08, 2017

The boys spend a lot of time on my tablet to the point I’m running out of room because I have games for them all over it. I also have to spend about half an hour hunting my apps out as they are intermingled among numerous Minecraft or lego apps!

Roll on Amazon asking me to review their Fire tablet. I’ve been curious about these since they dropped in price and became an under £50 tablet.

The Fire tablet 7” I was sent it is currently RRPing on Amazon at £34.99. What you get for this is a 7” screen touchscreen. It comes with 8GB which can be upgraded by popping in an SD card or up to 128gb so storage isn’t really an issue. It had front and rear cameras and comes in a variety of colours.

I was mostly worried about the range of app’s. The Fire doesn’t use google play but amazons own appstore. I was happily surprised to find 99% of the ones I wanted and free! Perfect.

It was incredibly easy to set up the parental controls and keep the boys app’s on their side. It made finding mine incredibly easy. The boys watched a couple of videos from the amazon media range and we all liked how sharp the screen was and the range we found was pretty decent. I also knew once they were on their side they couldn’t access the internet or watch videos I didn’t want them watching.

The sound was good and comparing it to other budget tablets it felt an awful lot more sturdy and higher quality then these. It also has a front which allowed us to skype family and friends abroad. Something I am aware with many of the other tablets in the same price cannot do.

I struggled with the fact that there isn’t a home button key like the fruity handset I use. However, compared to the earlier Fire tablet we had 5 years ago this Fire is unrecognisable. We didn’t try too hard to break it but it does feel relatively stable. Of course, being an Amazon tablet there is a huge range of protective cases on offer cheaper to give you extra security. With two kids, I highly recommend this. We used a glass protection screen and a gel protective case and it’s been taken all over the place and is still going strong. You can buy protection warranty though for extra peace of mind.

Compared to the older versions and other price compatible tablets the screen is obviously better and clearer. The colours are also pretty good and so far, has seemed fairly responsive to touch. I love the extra microSD slot which I’m fairly certain is new and increases the storage hugely. Some apps have to be stored on the main 8GB but movies, videos, photos and music can all be put on the card to free up internal space.

Pros:

Cost! There isn’t anything to match it in the under £70 bracket

Kids section – superb. No access to the internet unless granted!

Screen

Front & Rear Camera

Cons:

No google apps – if you want youtube you need to go through browser.

Occasionally sluggish.

Battery life. Suppose to be 7hours – we found about 5/6hours

Overall verdict

This is an amazing tablet for its price and is leagues ahead of all the tablets in its range. It makes an excellent tablet for kids to play their games on and we will be getting another for my eldest. It doesn’t quite work quicker for me to use as a full time tablet but its great to have on me for playing and reading or quickly browsing on line. All in All a perfect tablet for preteens and young teenagers or an occasion tablet.