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What’s 85 minutes long and the least irritating thing Cbeebies Justin Fletcher has ever done? That’s right, it’s Shaun the Sheep Movie.

Aardman’s latest follows the titular hero who first appeared on our screens in Wallace and Gromit’s A Close Shave way back in the 90’s and more recently has had his own CBBC show that’s distributed in more than 170 countries.

Yesterday we attended a special preview screening at the BFI to see what all the fuss is about. Are we sheepish? Not a bit.

Shaun the Sheep is that rarity in modern cinema- it’s a TV show that’s successfully crossed to a feature length production without losing the soul of what made it so special in the first place. Paddington was a good movie but a lot of it was distinctly un-Paddington-like, especially the (mild) peril and overt action sequences. Contrast this with Shaun the Sheep, which has slapstick baked into it’s core from it’s TV days, and it’s easy to see why Shaun is such a success.

The plot is typical Shaun the Sheep- Shaun gets bored by the monotony of farm life and longs for a break from the routine, so he cooks up a plan to put the farmer to sleep and deposit him in a caravan so the farmyard animals can have a day off. Unfortunately, whilst he managed to bribe the duck to keep Bitzer the dog busy while his nefarious plan was enacted, the caravan breaks free from it’s blocks and ends up on a helter-skelter downhill run to the city where the farmer gets a bump on his head and forgets who he is. Shaun feels responsible and has to go and rescue him. Hijinks ensue as the flock follow and have to keep out of the clutches of the evil animal containment officer.

Telling, in a Q&A after the screening, co-director Mark Burton made a big point of the writers focusing on making the film funny rather than getting a quota of jokes that would work for kids and others that would work for adults. This is something the movie makers have achieved, and is in no small part down to the universal appeal of people getting hit with various things in amusing ways. The best sequence is probably the pantomime horse chase, which must rank as one of the best chase sequences in recent cinema. It’s easily as impressive as the car chase sequence in Ronin.

There are so many little touches that had me laughing out loud all the way through- from the staring bug eyed dog in the animal containment facility, to the bungled rescue attempt, and right back to the pigs living it up while the farmer is away.

We took our three kids 8,6 and 3, along and they all loved it. Given it’s relatively short running time of 85 minutes, even the three year old had enough happening over the course of the film to keep his attention focussed. Unlike a lot of kids favourites, there is nothing really unnecessarily dark to scare the little ones- the closest it gets is Bitzer accidentally almost performing surgery in a hospital but even that is handled with typical Aardman sensitivity. This is truly a family movie that the whole family can enjoy. It’s also impressive how expressive the animators have managed to make the stars. While not exactly being a silent movie in as much as it has sound effects and a soundtrack, there is no spoken dialogue in Shaun the Sheep, which on the one hand makes it much  easier for the export market but on the other must have provided a few headaches in plot advancement for the writers. Nevertheless the film runs logically from beginning to end, which is a testament to how clever those involved in writing and directing it must be.

Shaun the Sheep Movie is on general release from 6 February, just in time for half term. Do yourself a favour and take the kids along, they’ll love it and you should to.

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Enter Playmobil set 5479, the Great Asian Castle, which is part of the Dragons range. Much like a wedding cake, it’s multiple tiers see it go up rather than out, and the top of the first tier is secured by a sturdy base that gives the whole castle much greater rigidity and stability when it comes to play. You can lift it up in one piece and move it from place to play, which makes it very versatile.

As mentioned, there are several tiers, 3 in fact, the first of which is a rocky base with a set of huge doors and a portcullis set into them. The middle tier has smaller doors and some ramparts, while the top tier comprises a wood effect platform and a couple of oriental style turrets.

This is a big set, the RRP is £99.99, but for your money you get a lot of stuff. Aside from the castle, you get a dragon, a ninja, three Chinese warriors and a really flashy big crossbow. Out of all the figures, the dragon itself is perhaps the only disappointing one. It lacks any front arms/legs and looks a little odd as a result. As you can see it doesn’t particularly look like a Chinese dragon either but this is a small criticism. Overall the castle is an impressive addition to the Playmobil Dragons range and worth buying if you already have a castle. Previously we had “Castle versus Pirate galley” battles but now we have two castles, we can get into proper land battles, with standing armies each stationed at their own castle.

This video review is under 3 minutes and gives you a really good idea of how the Castle works:

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When my little boy was tiny I was really pleased to discover that Playmobil did a range of toys especially for under three year olds. Playmobil is just such lovely stuff, really tactile and nicely made. It’s great for role playing so it’s wonderful to find some that doesn’t have all the tiny parts (choking hazards) which the stuff suitable for older kids has. For Playmobil 123 think really solid chunky people and animals with lots of rounded corners. It has all the essence and design class of standard Playmobil and is perfectly compatible with it as well.

As part of our role as Playmobil Playologists Fifi was really kindly gifted this Noahs Ark to test out. As with everything that Fifi does, she tested it to the max. From her hardcore playing I can assure you that Playmobil 123 is the most robust stuff you’ll find. We really enjoyed discussing all the different animals and decided that the zebra’s were the cutest ones in Playmobil style, although it was a hard choice because the elephants were also pretty cool.

One of the lovely things about the Playmobil Noahs Ark is the little carry handle which  means that the ark is really portable. Fifi enjoyed wandering about the house following me around with the ark in hand, as it meant she had a toy to hand whenever I stopped to do some chores.

I reckon this would make a fabulous Christmas or Christening gift for a girl or a boy. They will get absolutely tons of play out of it and it will last for years and years. I don’t need to say anymore do I? If you have a little tot, this is brilliant and they can even take it into the bath as it floats!

The Playmobil Noahs Ark is widely available at the usual toy retailers for between £20 and £30.

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All this is changing on 26 February though because Lovefilm Instant is being renamed Amazon Prime Instant and wrapped up into the Prime membership. Amazon Prime membership will also include the facility to borrow Kindle ebooks from a selection of around 500,000. The price will be going up to £79 a year on renewal.

This means if you’re not a current Prime customer, you can join before 26 February for £49 and enjoy all the benefits:

• FREE One-Day Delivery on over 7 million items;
• Over 500,000 Kindle titles to borrow for free;
• Prime Instant Video: Unlimited streaming of more than 15,000 Movies & TV episodes.

On renewal this will go up to £79, at which point you need to consider whether it is still cost effect to renew. Given that Amazon recently abolished free delivery on all orders under £10 (removing the exemption that existed for books and certain other items), on the face of it, the £49 offer seems too good to pass on if you’re a regular user of Amazon.

If you’re interested, you can find out more about Amazon Prime here

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In our ever expanding quest to watch less television, we do a lot of craft.We have a fair few kids craft books in this house, some from when I was child minding and needed inspiration quickly, and some to allow the kids to do something a bit more involving that simple cutting and sticking.

The book is bright, cheery, inspirational and an absolutely fantastic resource. In fact, I’ve got quite a few of the projects on my list to do with our Beaver group. 

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Last year a bunch of clever bods set about trying to change this in terms of a combination of hardware and software that could be bought cheaply and could be used by anybody. The hardware was called the Raspberry Pi, a small bare board computer than could run a version of the free Linux operating system and was initially aimed at techies and schools. The techies won the day and started porting media centre software to the Pi and a lot of other users found it a bit daunting. Some of the early operating systems didn’t even boot to a GUI (graphical user interface, or basically a desktop) but instead booted to a command line that no doubt baffled ITC teachers country wide.

Now however the software has matured and companies are offering bundles that include the Pi, an SD card preloaded with easy to set up operating systems that include software for starting on the road to becoming a programmer. At last, my thwarted childhood dreams could become realised!

One of the most important programmes pre-installed on the OS is called Scratch. This is a game creation suite developed by MIT for 8-16 year olds to learn how to design games. I’ve only begun, with help from the kids, to get to grips with this but I can already see that for kids within the right age bracket this could be exceptional. At it’s most basic level it lets the kids concentrate on making things look cool without getting bogged down with code but as they develop, so does the complexity of the software.

The package costs £99 for everything you see in the picture, which includes a HDMI cable, making it a cheap and ideal way to get a computer for your child. If you have a flat screen telly, the chances are it already has a HDMI connector spare, so it shouldn’t be a problem connecting it up. The keyboard and mouse are of good quality and the case looks properly dinky:

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JBL have attempted to try something a bit different with the JBL Voyager. It’s circular, mains powered, has Bluetooth and a 3.5mm input but also has a rather clever pop out portable disk that functions independently of the main unit and can go anywhere with you. Clever eh?

The clever continues with the overall design. I really like the way it looks- the mixture of metallic, white and clear gives it a very clean look, especially when it’s combined with the circular look. It’s a 2.1 device- stereo speakers and a built in sub-woofer, which is a bit counter-intuitive given that it’s circular.

Pairing my phone (Nexus 5 on Kitkat) with the JBL Voyager was painless. Browsing my network shares via ES Explorer and picking what to listen to was equally good. I have to admit to a near brown trouser moment when I hit play on The Who’s Baba O’Reilly though, as I hadn’t quite anticipated how loud the JBL Voyager actually went. Once I’d checked I’d not woken the whole house up, I tried again with a slightly lower volume level. The manual says it outputs 7 watts per channel. What that means in total output I don’t know but it goes plenty loud enough without distorting, that’s for sure.

I set the JBL Voyager up in our library, which doubles as a computer room cum study. I like to sit in the easy chair and listen to music while reading a book (or a comic), so that was quite a good experiment in listening.

Now for the clever bit, the detachable portable speaker. Basically the base unit is the sub-woofer, and the disc contains the speakers. It’s held in with magnets and comes out fairly easily. I would have liked to have seen a carry pouch in the box for taking it out and about, because given how smart the unit and base unit looks, it would be a shame to scuff it in my manbag.

In terms of using the disc, it has a pretty good sound for a portable BT speaker. The battery life isn’t bad either but the clever trick is you can pop it back into the dock when you’ve finished pottering around the house (ie you’ve taken it to the bog with you) and it doesn’t stop but carries on playing with the sub-woofer kicking in. Nice.

So this brings us down to the price. £229. This is about the same as you could expect to spend on a SONOS Play:3 which is a fair bit cleverer in terms of using wifi and being a proper home music system. But, and it’s a big but, the SONOS does have it’s limitations in terms of portability, requiring it’s own special app and obviously lacking bluetooth for simple phone pairing and music play. The Play:3 also doesn’t have an AUX in, you have to pay a lot more for the Play:5 to get that functionality. Crucially though, the JBL Voyager sounds every bit as good as the Play:3. And that’s something I didn’t expect to be saying. The fact that you could easily pay £70-£150 for a portable wireless speaker of the quality of the disc to my mind probably tips the balance in favour of the JBL Voyager when it comes to value for money. I like my SONOS (we’ve got 2 Play:3’s and a Play:1, and I’m lusting after a Play:5) but I have to say I was genuinely surprised at how well the sound compared on the Voyager, especially given I was expecting a compromise in sound given the detachable speaker disc.

So far I’ve built up 20 or so hours of use on the JBL Voyager, enough time to warm the thing up properly and get an honest feel for how it sounds.

This is a review unit I’ve been lent, it’s going back in a few days. The opinions here are mine and I’ve not been reimbursed to share them. I’m good like that.

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Looking back over the last 30 years there is one brand that is clearly head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to quality consumer electronics. They invented the Walkman, they were pioneers of home video players, CD’s, DVD’s and Blu Ray players, not to mention stereo systems, TV’s and videogame consoles, not to mention ultra stylish laptops. Sony, because that’s obviously who it is, are also at the forefront of Android tablet development, bringing their expert blend of knowledge of hardware and software together into the latest Xperia Tablet.

Android tablets are ten a penny at the moment and are increasingly popular with the public because they’re more flexible in terms of the ecosytem than Apple’s very restrictive world view enforces on users. Sony’s Xperia Tablet benefits from this environment but also from Sony’s expertise in the hardware arena. The  Xperia Tablet is as stylish as you would expect a Sony product to be, can you remember the last time Sony released something that wasn’t?  The Xperia Tablet is crafted in premium materials for effortless good looks and comfortable handling around the home or on the move. The Xperia Tablet has a speedy NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 quad-core processor and Android 4.0.3 operating system, which gives it all the power you need to enjoy your favourite media, apps and game. It will stream high definition content effortlessly and play all the latest whizzy Android games without breaking a sweat.

Better still though are the key features that Sony use to make the Xperia Tablet really different to the competition. Not content with a slim new aluminium body and splash-proof design, the Xperia Tablet also has a built-in universal remote with time-saving macro programming functions, as well as a nifty way to change the volume on your telly whilst browsing the channels. This is one TV remote you’re not going to lose down the back of the sofa!

Sponsored Post

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When times are tough you need to save those pennies, and let’s face it who doesn’t these days? It’s sometimes hard to find inspiration to create cheap, nutritious, delicious and appealing meals that the whole family will eat and on top of that trying not to waste anything and throw away food unnecessarily. As a mother of two under-fives who has recently become a full time SAHM I find myself in this predicament.
This is where the lovely people at Changeworks come in, they are an Edinburgh based environmental charity and the brains behind the helpful Kitchen Canny kit. Did you know that “wasting food costs the average UK family with children £550 a year, or £45 a month*” (*Waste & Resources Action Programme 2009) . Now that is a serious amount of money to spend on something useful!

Bearing this in mind I had a kit delivered to me and decided to take up the challenge. This handy kit contains: some step-by-step cards to guide you through the process, a shopping and meal planner to stick on your fridge, some canny bags to compare your waste before and after the challenge, a canny sticker so you can celebrate your achievement in reducing waste, and a kit registration number so you can stay in touch with Kitchen Canny and fellow members on Facebook and Twitter.

I did think that I was fairly canny in the kitchen already, but after a few days of putting unused food into one of the special strong canny bags it proved I was indeed still wasting food. I know my weakness lies in preparing too much food so that we have leftovers and often can’t face eating the same thing again and again. So Kitchen Canny is great for actually making you think twice about what you do and how to make a change for the better and as the mantra goes all you need to do is:

• Buy what you need
• Cook what you need
• Buy and cook seasonal foods
• Use leftovers

Simple really!

So to turn over a new leaf, I will use the shopping and meal planner to help me buy and cook fewer portions, make a point of writing a shopping list and sticking to it! The step-by-step cards are full of common sense hints and tips that make you wonder why you haven’t done things before, like:

Reviving limp salad leaves by soaking them in cold water, biscuits/crackers that have gone soft can be crisped up by putting them in a warm oven for a few minutes- clever eh?!

Shouldn’t we all try to be more savvy shoppers and then canny in the kitchen, just think of the money you’ll save and how much kinder to the environment it would be?
For more information and to buy a kit for £10 plus £2.59 P&P go to http//:www.kitchencanny.co.uk

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