Celebrate Reading’s new look Pizza Hut & win 1 of 2 £40 Vouchers

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My first ever Saturday job was at The Oracle’s Pizza Hut. On the day it opened its doors to the public for the very first time, I was waitressing with pigtails in its smoking section. I have fond memories of that job. There was the time I put helium balloons in my hair when waiting upon a children’s party and got my head stuck in a toilet cubicle, and another when I accidentally tipped a pint of Orange Tango over a celebrity customer… But it was a really sociable job and didn’t feel much like work at all.

Nowadays the restaurant looks very different. Now spread over two floors and having had booth-shuffling and re-fits aplenty, it’s virtually unrecognisable from my time there. And it’s latest transformation is its biggest yet!

Pizza Hut Oracle

The restaurant has had a £500,000 re-furb and is now themed like a American comic-book with pop-art posters and leather booths. It has a brand new menu that combines tried & tested favourites alongside cool new additions such as sticky BBQ ribs and buckets of fries. But by far the biggest (and best) change of all… it has a BAR.

Pizza Hut Bar

Yep, it’s now a light and casual place to gossip with the girls after hitting the January sales… it’s an after-work venue that will have you ripping your tie off and drinking away the day’s stresses… it’s no longer simply a place to meet up before a night out; a buzzy atmosphere, cocktail master and down-lighting make this a party location in its own right.

The bar area is sectioned off from the rest of the restaurant by way of clever lighting and partitioning which means your family meal won’t be interrupted. There’s still plenty of room around the salad bar and ice cream factory to kids to work off their pizza too. Okay the bar area is a little tight if you’re having a meal there, but as somewhere to unwind, it works just fine. It reminds me a little of TGIs without the dingy lighting - and is still the family-friendly restaurant it has always been.

Pizza Hut Menu

The cocktail menu is impressive with plenty of fruity and milk-based naughtiness to cater for every taste. Cocktails are served in jars with paper “Where’s Wally” straws. Each are available as non-alcoholic drinks too so drivers won’t feel too disgruntled.

Pizza Hut Cocktails

As one of Pizza Hut’s flagship restaurants, The Oracle is one of the first to get the upgrade, and only a handful of restaurants will boast a bar area, but it’s a great start to what is set to be an expensive roll-out of re-furbs. Have they got it right? Yes. It’s still the most family-friendly restaurant on the riverside complex, but with a cool new addition to keep parents sane amid the chaos of helium balloons, Smarties and ice-cream - be prepared to stay a little longer on your next visit!

To find out more about the re-furbs and check out the menu in your local restaurants, head to Pizza Hut’s website, or reach out to them on Facebook or Twitter.

*** GIVEAWAY ***

To celebrate the re-furb, Pizza Hut are giving two readers the chance to win a £40 voucher (redeemable at any Pizza Hut Restaurant in the UK so you won’t have to trek to Reading). It’s the perfect after-Christmas treat for you and your family. Good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions

      • Only 1 option is mandatory (leave me a comment) – the rest only improve your chances of winning so just complete as many as you feel like
      • UK entrants only – you must be over 18 too (sorry)
      • The winners will be contacted by email and must respond within 1 week of having been emailed (I’ll try all known avenues to contact them) or (a) new winner/s will be drawn
      • When the giveaway is closed, Rafflecopter will select the winners completely at random
      • The winners names will be published on this site
      • There is no cash alternative

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com


A treat for hardworking hands this Christmas from Jurlique #12DaysofGlow

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I’m chuffed to bits to have been picked by one of my favourite brands to take part in their 12 days of Christmas campaign this year! Jurlique’s #12DaysofGlow has showcased some of their most loved products and treated some of their blogger fans to some much needed Christmas pampering. Given I’ve done a great job of impersonating Bambi this month with several dizzy spells and falls landing me in A&E, this simply couldn’t have come at a better time! Thanks so much Jurlique - I owe you my sanity this December!

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Being a busy mummy my hands take a real battering throughout the day. If I’m not slopping Sudocrem on the children’s unmentionables, I’m washing up baby bottles, mashing up purees, whipping bath water into a frenzy for the kiddos or stopping Dexter from rendering his baby sister unconscious - he loves her so much, but he can be a little boisterous!

All this means I don’t have time for manicures and I’ve all but given up on nail varnish. I used to have trademark red nails every single day before becoming a mummy, but like so many things, this has now fallen by the wayside. Nowadays a day where I manage a shower before 9am, my hair sees a hairbrush and my face gets a slathering of BB cream is a good (and all too rare) one.

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So Jurlique have treated me to something truly indulgent for my knackered old paws - a signature hand cream collection that smells just heavenly and delivers intensive moisturisation to keep them looking young and well, glowy!

Jurlique Hand Cream Collection

Who are Jurlique?

Our vision was to formulate and manufacture the purest skin care products available based on the healing properties of nature and to inspire people to health and wellbeing… Jurlique was driven by this vision. We did not follow a trend, we were trendsetters. Ulrike Klein

They develop bio dynamic skin care products bursting with potent ingredients. With a botanist at the helm they grow and harvest many of the ingredients themselves and maximise their potency to produce pure and highly effective skincare.

Beautiful hands

hands

First things first, if my mum taught me one thing (sadly she didn’t teach she many!) it was to keep all my perfums and lotions in their boxes to preserve their freshness. And this isn’t difficult when you consider how pretty Jurlique’s boxes are. With wooden-effect trinket boxes like these they’re the perfect teaser to the treasure that lays beyond. The tubes themselves are more understated and made with softened collapsible aluminum to keep your creams fresh.

Jurlique Hand Creams

By far the most amazing thing about all of Jurlique’s products are the long-lasting fragrances that simply don’t quit delivering throughout the day. These hand creams are no exception with powerful blends of the finest essential oils to really invigorate your senses. The citrus lotion pops with zesty lemon and mandarin, whilst the calming scent of lavender lingers on your clothes, your bedspread and anything else you’ll touch throughout the day.

Lavender

All of these creams are intensively nourishing and non-greasy. Hands are left feeling soft with no visible sheen. They also massage into cuticles perfectly which is key in achieving healthy, strong and long nails with zero bending or cracking.

Jasmine Hand Cream

Bursting with natural ingredients, each of the baseline fragrances have additional homeopathic qualities. Lavender will calm and relax irritated skin, has a natural sedative effect to relieve nervous tension, and antiseptic and antifungal properties which can speed up healing. Jasmine will nourish skin and improve its elasticity, protect it from damage and premature aging and has an uplifting scent historically used to fight depression. Citrus is unsurprisingly renowned for its revitalizing properties yet also has toning, antiseptic and deodorising effects. Finally, rose has long been regarded for its ability to fight inflammation, restore skin texture and treat minor irritations.

Rose Hand cream

In truth, these hand creams have been just as much of a hit with my Craig. As a courier he spends the majority of his day in an air conditioned van. He has real working mans hands which I simply adore; rugged and worn. He always has a tube of something in his van to take the edge off when the chapping gets too much, and although I won’t let my prized creams into his Vauxhall Combo, he will head straight for them after a day’s work.

Citrus Hand cream

At £41 for my set, this is a significant saving given prices for each hand cream start from £17, and a unique opportunity to own the complete collection of Jurlique’s award-winning hand care range in such a beautiful giftbox. To find out more head to Jurlique.co.uk or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest for inspiration, promotions and further testimonials.

Finally - to win £371 worth of Jurlique products in a stunning multi-tiered presentation box get on over to Twitter today, and enter via the pinned tweet.

Jurlique Comp


Why Mega Bloks should be on every toddlers Christmas list

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I’m a massive fan of construction toys. There are thousands of studies that expound their educational and developmental value; from improving dexterity and fine motor skills, to following instructions, to problem-solving. Let’s face it, they’re also a ton of fun and preschoolers are quick to discover there’s nothing better than building a huge tower with mummy and daddy and squealing when it finally succumbs to gravity.

Mega Blox Tower

Mega Bloks are impossible to fault as a toy for the under 4′s. If your child is too young for Lego and finds tower-building enough of a challenge without introducing wheels, figurines and themed sets, then Mega Bloks are for you.

Construction sets are timeless toys that are fun for both girls and boys… 25 years of construction play expertise, ensure our preschool sets are easy to handle for little hands. Each eye-catching piece, with its special texture and other intriguing details, helps children confidently build worlds as big as their imaginations.

Not only are their First Builder sets readily available from supermarkets, online retailers and toy shops nationwide, they’re also well-priced and come in huge bags (which is great when the height of one’s tower is of the utmost importance). Their sets have also expanded to include trucks, farms, trains, recognisable characters, games, and much more to encourage imaginative play.

The bright primary colours will entice over any child, and the blocks connect solidly and easily allowing children to play independently. Unlike their major competitor (who shall remain nameless) the blocks also come apart incredibly easily, are easy to grip and well-sized for clumsy hands.

Mega Blox First Builders

So when we were recently contacted about reviewing a couple of bags, I grabbed the opportunity. Dexter was very kindly sent a Mega Bloks First Builders 60 Piece Original Building Bag and Mega Bloks First Builder Make a Monster Bag and they’ve been played with every single day since their arrival. Mega Bloks were on Dexter’s Christmas present list anyway, so the only slight issue was that we had to give them to him early to complete this review. In fairness though, there was no way we could ever hide these from him as he sniffs out new toys from miles away!

The age on the bag suggests they’re fab for children aged 1-5 which I’d support. Dex is great at building towers and shapes but isn’t yet at the stage of following building designs yet. I’m not sure he even realised the relevance of the characters on the bag, but he did enjoy all the wacky shapes of the ‘special’ blocks.

We did have a go at making the designs on the bag, but the beauty of this particular set is that the eyes, mouth and hands can be used to build hundreds of variations of monster especially when you buy additional blocks alongside your themed set.

mega blox monsters

The Mega Bloks First Builders Make a Monster Bag came with stickers to add mouths, eyes, toenails, hair etc to the blocks, and I must admit that it was tricky to match the stickers to the correct block (they’re are some 70 pieces). This is the one bit you won’t want your toddler’s help with, so is best done when they’re in bed. Trust me it’s not easy keeping an over-excitable toddler away from Mega Bloks! If you’re buying this, or any other special Mega Bloks set for your child this Christmas, I’d considering doing this before you wrap it up.

Lastly, Mega Bloks come in portable PVC-free zip-up bags which are simply brilliant for storage. They’re really hardy and can withstand a real battering from impatient tots as they extricate their blocks. This will also (hopefully) encourage your child to tidy away their blocks after play-time, and keep them separate from their other toys.

Mega Blox Bags

To learn more about the ranges available from Mega Bloks, tips on helping your child get the most out of their sets, and get building inspiration, check them out on @MegaBloksTTB (Twitter) and Facebook, or to buy the Mega Bloks First Builders Make a Monster Bag yourself, head to Argos where the set is currently £13.29, saving your 1/3 off RRP.

There you go! That’s why Mega Bloks should be on every toddlers Christmas list!

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