Tag: watch

Gift Ideas

Gift Ideas for the Man Who Has Everything

Jayne1 Comment
Gift Ideas for the Man Who Has Everything (All Budgets)

Photo by Monstera from Pexels

I don’t know about you, but I generally find the men in my life the trickiest to buy for. Whether it’s my 13 year old nephew, my Dad or my Grandad, they always bamboozle me when it comes to gift buying. This year, I’ve started doing my research well ahead of the holidays and I thought I’d share some of the gift ideas I found. There are options from the super high-end (and out of my budget!) to the cheaper but more meaningful, so cost won’t be an issue.

Super High End – Golf Holidays in Spain

If you’ve got a man in your life who loves to golf and money is no object then there are some fabulous options for Golf Holidays in Spain which will be the best gift they’ve ever received! There are packages which include accomodation, meals and green fees to the best golf courses included, meaning that they just need to remember to pack their clubs and some undies and they’re pretty much set! Gift ideas don’t come much swankier than this!

High End – Vintage Watches

Husband is an absolute sucker for a good watch, and while I would never be able to afford some of the ones that he lusts after (we’re talking TENS of thousands of pounds in some cases 😱) there are some beautiful restored vintage watches out there which come in at a much more reasonable price. If it’s a special occasion like a birthday or anniversary, you could even try to find a watch from their year of birth or the year you got married to make it even more poignant and special.

Middle of the Road – Aftershave

In the past, aftershave used to be a reasonably priced gift to give for a special occasion. These days, many of the most popular fragrances for men, such as Creed Aventus, carry prices tags which are closer to the £150-£200 mark, making them a far less affordable option. However, if you CAN afford it, they make a fantastci gift and the price tag does mean that the grangrances are super strong and will last for a really long time.

Affordable – Magazine Subscription

Magazine subscriptions are something that Husband has really enjoyed as a gift in the past. He’s a lifelong cyclist, so last year my Mum got him a subscription to MBUK for his birthday, and getting his copy through the door once a month was a real highlight. The beauty of a subscription is that it lasts for 6 months or a year, so it’s the gift that keeps on giving, and the costs isn’t usually unaffordable. There are mags out there that appeal to a huge variety of interests, so you can really personalise your choice.

Free – Get Crafty!

There have been a few birthdays over the years when I’ve been a bit skint and to be honest, Husband doesn’t like people spending loads on flashy gifts for him anyway. What he HAS enjoyed in the past is when I’ve made him something special, such as a collage of photos from our 16 years together, cooked him is favourite meal, or even done crafts with the kids that he can treasure as a keepsake. It really is the thought that counts and if you use your imagination to find some cheap or free gift ideas, the homemade gifts are often the very best.

Parenting

Learning to Tell the Time

Jayne2 Comments

When I was little, I was pretty capable when it came to most things. I had great verbal reasoning and could catch on to most concepts with minimal effort (if only it were so easy as an adult!) but the one thing that I remember struggling with was telling the time. I lived with my Grandparents when I was 5 and they had this little clock on top of their telly, a proper 1970’s marvel with an oblong-shaped face and no numbers, plus the classic orange second hand that all clocks seemed to have when I was a kid, and I remember spending what seemed like ages staring at that clock with my Grandad trying to explain 20-past and 10-to, to me.

My Nan used to do this thing, I don’t know if it’s just a Southern idiom, or a London thing specifically, but she didn’t say ‘twenty-five past’, she said ‘five and twenty past’ – I used to find it really funny as it reminded me of the nursery rhyme where they say “four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie”.

Anyway, the time has come where Sausage needs to learn to tell the time and the best way for her to do this is to wear a watch, so we’ve been shopping around, trying to find one which would be good for her. So far, our favourite comes from The Watch Hut:

The Watch Shop

This ICE watch looks like it’d be really sturdy, but it’s still very pretty and the numbers are bright and easy to read. Sausage will absolutely love it and it’s something that she won’t outgrow in a hurry. We love being able to teach Sausage new things, and watch her absorbing and using her new life-skills. Telling the time is one of those things that seems so simple and second-nature to an adult, but is actually really important to know, so we’re intent on providing her with the right tools to do it.

What do you think of our choice? What would you choose, if you were us?

If you need any help with teaching your kids to tell the time, there are some great resources below which are full of great tips and advice:

The Guardian

Kids Activities Blog

Here’s an Android App which is very useful

And one for iOS