Christmas presents 11: Other stuff

This time of year bloggers get sent a lot of stuff to look at for Christmas and I've tried to give an opinion on most of it. Here 's a glance at stuff which just hasn't fitted into a category I've been covering:

* IrisNotes Executive 2: Pen plus monitor you clip to a piece of paper. Write with the pen and you don't see it on the paper but you can upload to your PC or Mac; you can then turn this into text or just get an image if you use the iPad or iPhone app. This was sent to me and my faulty computer swallowed the installation CD otherwise I'd have covered it a lot more - it is spectacularly useful for note taking. Really, really simple to set up and use and does what it's supposed to - the odd letter may be misread depending on your handwriting.

* Bowers and Wilkins C5 headphones: In-ear headphones which, like most in-ear models, are great for the treble and clarity but I prefer a bit more oomphy bass. I can only get the quality I want from an over-ear headset. These are good for what they are, though, with a bit of wire that holds them in place for extra comfort. Excellent for audiobooks, less so for bassy music, unusually comfortable for long sessions and they come with a carry case. The £149.95 price tag will make some people wince.


* Rohan Superfine Merino 200 Necktube: Bit of a fashion statement this one, keeps your neck warm and looks like a scarf which is a loop rather than a straight bit of material. Very warm, very comfortable and a little 'young' for my tastes - which no doubt means everyone will be wearing them in January or whenever the next cold snap starts. A good stocking filler at £25.

* 3M iPad screen protectors: Another stocking-filler for the iPad fan in your life. Just a self-adhesive cover for the iPad, which comes off without residue if you need it to, and protects it from scratches without diminishing its sensitivity. Recommended (or something like it) for all iPad users.

* Eneloop rechargable batteries: Or similar, of course - what, you've opened a load of presents and they need AA or AAA and you haven't got any? Get charging with these, you'll end up swearing by them and longer term they will save you money.

That really is it for this festive season - I may be back with the pick of the online sales between Christmas and the New Year. Have a great break and whatever you get or are about to give away, enjoy!

Christmas presents 8: Discounted hand made jewellery

I'm delighted to say that we've been offered a discount. Whether you're considering hand made good quality silver jewellery for yourself or a partner. the guys at Corazon Latino will give you 10% off if you enter the code LIFEOVER35 (remember the capitals) when you check out.

I'm an existing customer and can confirm the quality is excellent. I reviewed some cufflinks a while ago and although they were a little large for my tastes I could see they were well made; I've subsequently bought another pair (the Andata on the site, they look superb and I wear them as my first choice most of the time) and a Sylvia necklace for my wife. This is versatile and beautifully made. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this company to anyone - not only are the quality superb and the prices reasonable, but I find when I order something on a Thursday afternoon I've got it by the Friday morning.

Sylvia silver jewellery on somebody else's wife (probably)

They are very good at offering advice if you phone up in a panic and want to buy a present but don't know quite what. The offer closes 21 December and if you order on that day then unless there is snow or a postage issue, you'll still have your gift in time for Christmas.

If you're buying jewellery, do have a look at the website and remember the discount - I certainly haven't been disappointed.

Declaration: I am not on any commission or incentive for this offer - it's just something I'm passing on which I hope will be useful. My thanks once more to Cath at Corazon Latino for making this offer to all readers.

Christmas presents 7: flavoured vodka

I know, I know, I'm the first to grumble about people adding stuff to take the flavour of a drink or food away. Only yesterday I was grumbling - unkind people may even say 'whining' - about people putting salt in chocolate or caramel and ruining it.

However, I find vodka is a bit different, primarily because it tastes of very little except alcohol. Unlike whisky, brandy or rum I find little to distinguish one vodka from another. So longer term readers might remember I became reasonably fond of the Christmas Pudding flavoured tipple from Howard's of Kent,  tasted like Christmas pudding in a glass.

Now, my wife finds vodka-based drinks make her feel ill, so it's no comment on Howard's that the drink in question lasted some time, and by late January I was pretty bored with it. There was no doubting the quality, I'd just suggest going for that one when you have friends around and disposing of it relatively quickly when the season is right. Meanwhile they've kindly sent me some other samples to try.

They're all good. The chilli version is positively searing and does what it says on the tin; the limoncello is very refreshing after a heavy meal...

Actually they're all good but if you wanted something terrific and unexpected this year, just go for the rhubarb. It sounded utterly repulsive, I admit - rhubarb, which coats your teeth at the best of times, and a fairly insipid spirit, what's to like? The combination, though, is delicious. Warming, sweet but with that extra edge of sourness from the fruit (if indeed rhubarb is technically a fruit, I'll leave that to wiser heads than mine).

They don't sell off their website and are primarily fairs-based; they'll be at Croydon High School this weekend (a full list of their appearances is here) - if you arrive and find all the rhubarb stuff has gone, it means I've got their first and stocked up!

Christmas presents 6: Chocolate

OK, time to consider the edible variety of Christmas present now (we'll look at some drinkables tomorrow, don't worry, I haven't forgotten). I've been alerted to the presence of a new (to me) ethical chocolate maker on the block; Organic Seed and Bean offers a whole load of flavours with prices starting at 99p. Here's the full list:

• Pumpkin Seeds & Hemp Oil Extra Dark Chocolate
• Coconut & Raspberry Extra Dark Chocolate
• Extra Dark Chocolate
• Cornish Sea Salt Extra Dark Chocolate
• Lemon & Cardamom Fine Dark Chocolate
• Lavender Extra Dark Chocolate
• Chilli & Lime Extra Dark Chocolate
• Mandarin & Ginger Extra Dark Chocolate
• Mint Extra Dark Chocolate
• Coffee Espresso Fine Dark Chocolate
• Tangerine Rich Milk Chocolate
• Rich Milk Chocolate (Breast Cancer Campaign)
• Sicilian Hazelnut & Almond Milk Chocolate
• Sicilian Hazelnut Dark Chocolate
• Lemon & Poppy Seeds Creamy White Chocolat

They sent me two to taste, the Cornish Sea Salt and the Tangerine Rich Milk. 

OK, a declaration first: I just don't get this idea of putting loads of salt into chocolate. The stuff's going to be bad enough for your blood pressure already, let alone pumping it full of salt too - my wife likes salted caramel, I regard it as a good way of spoiling some nice caramel. And the sea salt crystals in the salted version here were pretty chunky - so definitely not for me, well made though it no doubt was.

I'm also not a chocolate orange fan, so was quite pleasantly surprised by the refreshing tangerine flavoured version. This seemed a good deal less artificial than certain well known brands of orangey chocolate, not overly sweet and fine for a stocking filler.

I'm severely tempted by the lemon and cardamom or mint extra. Overall this new brand seems to offer good value and anything ethically sourced has to be a good idea.

Christmas presents 5: The dressing gown

So I've been sent this dressing gown to review. I've never reviewed one before and it's difficult to know what to say. Except of course that it's a little on the small side - it comes in one size, I'm an XL and if you're not M-L this is going to do up but, well, a quick gust of wind while you're answering the door and there's going to be nothing left to the postman's imagination.

You'll have noticed the design is slightly peculiar - metallic stripes on the top half, black circles on the lower half. This is because - wait for it - it's based on a Dalek. Go on, you can see it now, the roundels around the base, the metal slats - no? It's clear as day to me although my wife said if I hadn't explained it she wouldn't have known. Philistine. (I can also assure you it doesn't work particularly well as an aphrodisiac but I'll spare you any details - let's just say shouting "Exterminate, Exterminate" before going to bed isn't going to do much for anybody's love life). It comes from Findmeagift, costs £49.99 and is reasonably good quality.

It's a bit of fun and sized for the adolescent or medium-sized walking mid-life-crisis in your life. You can also get a Tardis one with a hood, one based on Tom Baker's Doctor Who costume and another based on Matt Smith's - oh, and there are Star Wars models, too, based on Stormtroopers, Boba Fett, Darth Maul and R2D2.

So you can even collect the set if you want. Just remember that after Christmas, when the joke has still worn off, you'll still have the dressing gown staring at you, alongside the Christmas jumpers.

New service: Man Buys Present

I've been looking at this new website, manbuyspresent.com. It seems like a good idea. You have a reason to buy a female loved one a gift - birthday, Valentine, anniversary it has a lot of categories including, reassuringly, "just because" (you do not, repeat not, need an excuse to get your partner something nice).

It's blissfully easy to do. You enter the information - relationship to the giftee, their age, the occasion, your budget - and it comes up with some suggestions. Enter your card details and it's all delivered nicely wrapped (this could be a problem; if it doesn't look as though a retarded chimpanzee has attacked some expensive wrapping paper with sellotape whilst wearing boxing gloves they'll know I didn't wrap it myself).

So far, so faultless. There seems to be the odd glitch - I tried finding something for my daughter and on the shortlist of three presents there was a friendship bracelet, which isn't quite dad-ish. But the other stuff was OK.

I have two minor problems with the idea, though. The first is with the concept itself. I've a horrible feeling it's entirely correct to say that a lot of us blokes are hopeless at buying stuff, or we forget. But my wife and daughter aren't stereotypes, they're real people. I prefer to take the time to get something for them specifically rather than something to suit some random female.

Embedded in there is my other issue. Guys, I have male relatives as well. And they are difficult to buy for, BUT THEY DON'T WANT SCENTED COAT HANGERS I CAN ASSURE YOU.

Maybe this should have been called Manbuyspresentforwomen. That's certainly its market. And it does a reasonable job, if you're genuinely too busy or too bone idle to do it for yourself. Perhaps male presents could be a followp-up service..?

Christmas gifts 10: presents for under £20

OK, last post of the year - no, really - and I've been looking at cheaper Christmas gifts. It's all very well smug gits like me pointing to jeans for £120 please, and oh yes I'll have one of those £85 Fat Face jackets - but what if you were looking for a stocking filler for a bloke and had a fiver to spare?

If that were the case I'd suggest the Radox for Men gift set. Lime and ginger shower scrub, lemon and tea tree gel/shampoo. Of course it's not the finest scent on the market or designed to match a particular fragrance - it's a fiver for goodness' sake - but it's pleasant enough, does the job, includes a face cloth and if mum buys it on behalf of sprog who wants to get daddy something nice everybody should be happy.

Moving a little upmarket, fancy a reminder that it's sometimes our turn in the kitchen? Sorry, slipped back to the seventies for a moment there - but many blokes love cooking. Have a look at some of the accessories at The Pampered Chef including this rather nice barbecue mitt - other mitts are of course available. There's also a rather nice lemon zester/peeler, and you'd get change from £15 for both of them.

Cooks are also spoiled for choice when it comes to cookery books. To continue the 1970s cliche-fest a little longer, blokes love curries (well this one does) and you're almost always better off making your own as you know what's in it and can use sensible amounts of ghee and salt. "Food of the Grand Trunk Road" is a book based on the TV series with Hardeep Singh Kohli, written in conjunction with restranteur Anirudh Arora and is less predictable than the latest Jamie Oliver (that said, I always get good results from Mr. Oliver's books - but this time of year they can look a lot as though you've just grabbed the nearest best seller). If you're into your spices, try the Harissa sauce from Olives et al - another nice filler and it's a princely four quid. If you're not then the pickled onions from Garner's come in a nicely decorative jar this year

There's other fun stuff around. Scented phone cases from Jelly Belly for £17.99 from Carphone Warehouse, for example. I can't think of a reason I'd want my phone to smell like chewing gum but I bet someone will get these from their kids. If I do, I'll be somewhat bemused. Equally there are some fun gimmicks in Boots but do have a think; if I get given the Wallace and Gromit cufflinks they're selling for £8 I will of course have a silly grin on my face for hours. I'll put them on once and then they'll stay in the box with the Dalek cufflinks I was given three years ago (the rule with novelty cufflinks is that you wear them once to appease the giver, realise they're really not going to go down well in meetings and abandon them immediately afterwards).

QVC tends to be thought of as a TV sales channel but the website is full of stuff you might just get in time for Christmas if you order quickly. The gumball travel speaker looks quite fun and there's a nice key chain with an LCD photo display on it, both around the £15 mark. More interesting to me and still with a  vaguely tecchy angle is a range of crime e-Books from Blasted Heath; small publisher, encourages new authors (always a welcome sign) and sells a USB stick with five novels on it for £12.99.

Yesterday I wrote about the prospects of s dry Christmas, alcohol free. This is still an interesting idea and worth it from health reasons and all sorts of other stuff (although healthy drinking shouldn't be just for Christmas) but for me a good festive ale is going to be welcome after all that driving on Christmas Day. Innis & Gunn is from Edinburgh like my late father so gets an automatic vote of confidence; the fact that its limited edition Highland Cask (7.1%, handle with care) tastes fruity and oaky and comes in a nice box makes it an excellent top-up pressie for anyone with £2.50 to spare.

Your bloke not a beer drinker? A nice bottle of wine might go down well. I tend to enjoy sharing wine more than being given a bottle but there's some good stuff on offer; Wine Rack will sell you a very nice Septima Malbec from Argentina which is on the softer side of fruity with slight woody overtones - don't have it with the Christmas meal, it'll be overpowered by all that heaviness, but if like me you'll have resorted to snacking on leftovers by Tuesday it's an ideal accompaniment. Majestic is doing a good Vina Pomal which is a bit more in your face - I liked this one very much, with more strident flavouring. If you're into turkey curries it would stand up well. Actually just with a cheese board it would stand up pretty damned well. If you're into rum punches for New Year's celebrations you could do worse than to look at a 35cl bottle of Captain Morgan's spiced rum (pictured); I wouldn't think of spiced anything at any other time of year (my idea of spoiling a good wine is by mulling the blasted stuff) but on this occasion it works well in a number of cocktails, with the rum taking on vanilla and cassis flavours. Try it in a hot rum punch. It's good that the smaller bottles are available and I'd like to see more spirits around in this form - personally I like to try different whiskies but buying 70cl bottles means it takes me months, sometimes a year, to get through a single bottle (and I have no intention of accelerating that).

That's a few thoughts to be getting on with anyway and the end of any Christmas guides you're going to get from LifeOver35. Have a great break, this blog will be back in 2012!

Christmas list 3: Blokey packages

I have an inbuilt mistrust of stuff that's put together artificially for Christmas - the sort of package you'd never find at any other time of the year. I'm half Scottish and in December I constantly go around the shops thinking: when did shortbread become a Christmas-only treat? And how come it's always covered in Tartan this time of the year and served (apparently) with whisky when everybody knows you're better off with a cup of tea with a sweet biscuit?

I'm reminded slightly of an old work colleague who was looking for a present for her mother in law. She went to a book shop and told them she was looking for a present and this large High Street chain started reeling off choices based on my workmate's appearance, her likely age, and therefore her in-laws' likely age. It's OK, she told me at the office, mother-in-law is a stereotype but the book they offered didn't have a picture of the Queen Mother on it so it wasn't suitable. Packaged stuff all blokes will like is a bit like that.

This is why I was a bit concerned at the prospect of Unique Boutique's "The Chap" (pictured). It's £75 and you get a whole load of stuff I've been unable to try but it does appear to be a decent crop of stuff. Bath soak smelling of fig and nutmeg - you will only want to smell of nutmeg around Christmas so you might as well, with matching hair and body wash plus shaving soap in a wooden bowl. Presumably the bowl is re-usable; Body Shop and others sell standard-sized shaving soap refills (don't use ordinary soap whatever you do, it dries the skin something rotten).

And a bottle of Sheep Dip whisky. I've never tasted this and the marketers were unable to send a sample, so ask around and make your own mind up about this - usually north of £30 a bottle and it's a blend rather than a single malt or grain, for people who worry about such things.

Overall a pretty good package but - like all big kids - I'm mostly interested in the box. I could see myself storing my shaving bits or shoe cleaning kit in a box like that.

Has anyone else had good or bad experiences of the prepackaged "you're a bloke/female so you'll like this selection" gift set?