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!

A dry Christmas?

I was going to do a post about last-minute Christmas gifts under £20 today - and I'll do it tomorrow, I promise. But I heard something rather interesting on the radio today: BBC London presenter Wendy Hurrell has been spending the festive season drinking no alcohol whatsoever. (I should add that although I've done the odd chat on BBC London myself I don't know Ms. Hurrell at all - we've never met, I am not promoting a mate's blog here).

This contrasts with my post yesterday about drinks to serve at Christmas. But it's an interesting experiment. She confesses in her blog that she was putting away up to 40 units per week - not getting drunk, just having that extra one or two after a hard working day - and decided to give it up. There will be a followup programme on the BBC in January.

Now, the standard advice for a man is to limit yourself to 21 units, 14 if you're female. Research from the Times in 2007, when the journalist tracked down one of the people who set those limits, was enlightening. If the report and the scientist quoted are to be believed there's no science behind the figures, the authors just thought they ought to say something because binge drinking was getting out of hand. There was in fact no data behind the numbers of units.

Nonetheless, drinking too much is becoming a problem for our society and Hurrell's experiences have been instructive. First people around her react as if she ought to have a drink - and I ask myself, why do we pressure people to have a drink when they may not want one? Second, she's realised that some of the time she was drinking not because she particularly wanted a glass of something but because she'd fallen into the habit. Any of us who routinely crack open a bottle of wine with an evening meal to wind down after what hasn't been a particularly heavy day will know that feeling. There was even research published last week to suggest that some people will claim they're driving when they're not, just to avoid having a drink forced on them. So what, we've reached the stage where we can't actually admit we don't fancy a booze-up?

I really will be driving at Christmas so don't anticipate drinking much, at least until I get home. But our relationship with alcohol is a complex one, and in this country we don't seem to handle it as well as some of our neighbours do. Hurrell's approach is extreme and of course is partly in aid of a TV programme, but re-thinking why so many of us have a drink as the default option rather than because we actually want to is a perfectly sensible idea.

Christmas drinks: what to offer

So it's the 20th, so we can no longer be in denial - Christmas is really very soon. So of course I've got my shopping sorted and now it's time to consider what to offer people when they arrive. This isn't a cookery page; wiser heads than mine will advise you on how to cook turkey, vegetarian alternatives and soforth. I usually get asked to chop some veg, set the table up and soforth. Oh, and sort the drinks.

Here's the plan: first have loads of non-alcoholic drinks available. Many people assume you have to booze all day at Christmas and they're wrong. Someone will be driving, someone just won't fancy it - so juices, teas, coffees. If you want something with a bit of non-alcoholic kick then Sainsbury's is doing a nice apple, pineapple and lemongrass juice at the moment.

Always good to offer people a welcoming drink. On the alcoholic side there's sherry. This is not, repeat not, to be served at room temperature - the Spanish, who make it, keep it in the refrigerator. Gonzales Byass has sent me a bottle of Tio Pepe, the fino variety, which is very dry and needs to be kept chilled; if I'm honest I prefer something a little off dry but this would go well with snacks for people with sterner palates.

People may not fancy anything that strong. Champagne is always good but consider also the less expensive alternatives. Casillero del Diablo is offering a nice sparkling chardonnay, £8.99 from Waitrose. It tastes clean, limey, citrussy. This or one of the many proseccos available will do well abefore lunch - but do be careful, some of them are extremely dry at the moment.

If you have an unduly dry prosecco and are concerned people won't like it as much as you do, there's always the lower-alcohol cocktail option; a restaurant I visited on holiday, the excellent Moonraker's in Alfriston, Sussex, gave us a mix of prosecco and elderflower juice on the way in earlier this year. It's a fine, light start and a good variation on bucks' fizz - but people are less likely to have had it before.

Others may prefer something a little stronger. My own preferred tipple is a single malt whisky, of which there are many on the market. This year I've been trying Highland Park, which is a good all rounder, plus the Macallen, which is a little more peaty. My own favourites remain the clean-tasting, unpeated Penderyn, notable for being the only Welsh single malt so it's a talking point (albeit a short lived one once you've made the point), and Glengoyne, one of the few unpeated Scotch whiskies (it was the only unpeated one last time I looked but I'd need to check to be certain). People who prefer a smokier flavour could look at Talisker, while people who want something lighter and multipurpose would do well with Auchentoshan. Don't be fooled by the lighter taste, this and all the others are 40% proof and need to be drunk with respect to your liver. These are all premium whiskies and not to be drunk with mixers - this isn't a snobby thing, just don't spend £30+ on something you're barely going to taste.

For a longer drink Magners has some new ciders on the market flavoured with rhubarb, honey and cinnamon; they're pleasant if you like something sweet to start you off. I'd rather have an ale like Black Sheep, but at Christmas a lot of people want something a bit different so the Magners is a good option.

If you really wanted something a little different then Mount Gay rum is a good alternative to the single malt - few people think of drinking rum without a mixer (that's a really white middle classed statement I suspect) but it's a premium drink like all of the above, hints of raisins and spices and utterly excellent.

For the meal itself I prefer a red wine accompanied with buckets of water. Vina Pomal Reserve 2006 is available from Majestic Wine and at £12.99 or £9.99 for two is as fruity and rich as you could want to accompany the turkey, stuffing and everything else we all try to cram on our plates this time of year. White drinkers might go for a NZ Sauvignon or continue with the sparkling chardonnay above.

If people want something a bit festive with their dessert - good grief, the stamina some people have - then one of my in-laws swears she will only drink Bailey's. I might try her on Merlin, from the same people who make Penderyn; it's a cream liqueur (not my usual thing I admit) but you can taste the whisky flavour considerably more than you can through a Bailey's. Maybe that's what she likes about it and I'll be doing her an enormous disservice. For my own dessert I'll be attacking a vodka liqueur we came across at a school Christmas fete a week ago; from Howard's of Kent, whose website seems to be down (howardsofkent.co.uk when it's back up), Christmas pudding flavour and tastes just like it says on the bottle.

All of that said, I've just remembered whose turn it is to drive at Christmas. So I'm actually more likely to be on the orange juice than anything else. Which is certainly healthier and I'd really, really recommend responsible drinking and not a drop when you're driving.

Maybe I can let my hair down a bit on Boxing Day...

Christmas gifts 9: Gadgets - and a discount for readers

Blokes like gadgets. That's probably sexist and stereotypical too, but look, we just like gadgets. The way to a man's heart is with an iPad 2, and soforth. If you have the budget then a new phone - HTC Sensation XL is one of the cream of the current Android crop - great, he'll love it unless he's an Apple user (if he has an iPhone 4 or 4S then his sim won't fit the new phone anyway). If he has a BlackBerry have a think about a Playbook - it syncs with your BlackBerry and then works like any other tablet computer. I've been playing with one, it's a good machine and the lacklustre sales so far have me stumped.

There are also new land line phones from Magicbox like the Torque, which looks like a phone on a plate which answers itself when you pick it up. Very chic. A new iPad holder from Vogel's called the Ring-O is very useful, turns into a desk stand, wall bracket or attaches to the headrest on a car seat so the kids can have a movie going on the journey to the in-laws. Add a decent pair of headphones - my new ones from BlueAnt are pretty good, a little bulky but who cares in the car - and they'll even be able to hear the film.

Maybe you're a little more eco-conscious than all that, and the good news here - no, really - is that readers of LifeOver35 can have a discount on a JetStorm from Ecocamel. This is a shower head that adds air into the mix so you get just as good a shower as you would with any other head, but you should find your water bill goes down 40% a year. Families of four should, the company says, save up to 56,000 litres of water a year and annual savings average out at £240 per annum. This means you'll save enough to have paid yourself back for the purchase price after three months, according to the blurb.

Or two and a bit months if you help yourself to a 25% discount for readers of LifeOver35 - just go to the website above and order the shower, entering the code EC13 at the checkout and twenty five pee in the pound will vanish from your purchase price.

Other gadgets pitched to LifeOver35 this season include a whole load of coffee machines. These are a bit of a dark art to me; I'm honestly happy with our DeLonghi matching kettle and toaster, and we bought these because they look nice rather than because we think the water is going to be boiled any better by using them.

Note: in case anyone's wondering, I have no affiliation with any of the companies mentioned in this piece; you can order nothing or a million shower heads, I won't get a penny, this is an independent blog. That said, if you *did* by a million of them, please tell me and I'll try and flog the company an ad...

Christmas gifts 8: Casual clothes

'Twas the last-but-one Saturday before Christmas...and the Times has unbelievably cut the men's style page in the magazine. One page. No wonder we're a scruffy lot. No matter, I've covered cufflinks, designed ties - so here are some thoughts on casual clothes which make good gifts for the big day next weekend.

Tops are always useful and although white tees look good on most men they can get a bit dull. Hot Tuna from Australia has some nice designs around which liven it up a bit; the logo will be a bit much for some but it's single-colour and not garish on this tee (£27.99 so it's a treat rather than an impulse buy) and the detailing on the top buttons tones in well. Also available in black. Pricey but a great gift. Click the pictures on this page for a better view.

It would go well with a pair of Wizard Jeans. Pictured are the Brad Black version which looked pretty good on me; reassuringly unlike many of the designer brands around they go up to a 44in waist (mine aren't that big, in case anyone needs to know). So often if you don't have a supermodel build the designers don't want to know. A 34in leg is standard, you'll need to get them altered to fit - I have mine done locally for a tenner. They're well cut enough to wear with a shirt and jacket in smart casual settings.

To top the look I'd be wearing a Field Jacket from Fat Face. I'm getting one for Christmas - I know, my wife made me try it on just in case - and it looks great. Plus brown Chelsea Boots from the same store, he hinted in case Mum's reading.

But really, Times Magazine - ignoring menswear 8 days from Christmas..?

Bad Christmas records: the winner!

Flickr: istolethetv

First, many thanks to all who entered the competition to decide the worst Christmas record ever. It was a bit of fun and we had some unexpected nominees - Jonah Lewie and Mike Oldfield are OK in my book. So they didn't get through.

I also decided stuff that was deliberately cheesy or a gimmick was disqualified. So whereas Dennis Waterman and George Cole did a pretty rough job on their Christmas effort, it was never supposed to be a "good" record so for our purposes here it doesn't count. Sorry Ben, but thanks for nominating.

Likewise the Frog Song - I'm a McCartney fan (mostly when he was writing and performing in That Group He Was In) and he can write better but this was supposed to be a kids' song in a Rupert The Bear film. It probably works OK on that level. I'm not a great Cliff Richard fan but tend not to bother fast forwarding when it comes up on a Christmas compilation. Speaking of older generation musicians I was surprised nobody nominated Bob Dylan's "Must be Santa" from last year or whenever it was - sounding just like a grumbly old drunk in a pub you should never have gone into.

For me the first nomination was always a front runner. "Have a Cheeky Christmas" by the Cheeky Girls is, on all of the criteria I can think of, a pretty damned awful song. First it's badly written and rushed out for a Christmas release. Second, the singing is truly insipid. But third and most important, the Cheeky Girls were at one stage trying to be real pop singers - an actual girl band. I'm guessing this was intended as a proper attempt at a real Christmas record, to milk royalties from compilations down the years - and it's just teeth-itchingly awful.

So, Brittz Box, who nominated the song, is the winner and will receive a copy of "Thoroughly Decent Manners for Men" by Debrett's and Wadworth immediately he emails me an address at Guy@Clapperton.co.uk. In other news I'm pleased to say the people at Pitrok were generous enough with their prizes so I can send everyone who nominated a deodorant worth nearly six quid. Send an address to the same email address and I'll see to it.

Thanks again - it's been fun!

P. S. The bloke in the picture was on a charity run and I feel a bit mean using his photo to illustrate a piece on bad Christmas stuff - but Santa in Speedos with a drawn-on six pack is just so wrong..!

Congrats on Movember

Just an extra quick entry today - I've just had a press release saying Movember, the now-annual event in which blokes grow their whiskers for awareness of male specific cancers, has had its best year ever. Worldwide it raised £70m and the UK contributed £17m. Huge, huge congratulations to everyone.

My barber at the Valet, meanwhile, was bewildered by the amount of people who were growing moustaches for Movember. She understood the concept but a whole load of them told her they weren't actually collecting for charity, just growing the moustache for the month "to take part". She didn't understand that.

Actually nor do I. If you did it and contributed anything at all to that £70m you're brilliant, is what you are. If you just grew a moustache then, er, you just grew a moustache. Next year try getting sponsored - a few extra quid each and who knows, £75m worldwide..?