The New Quinny Yezz

After waiting for what seems like forever, I have finally been given a brand new Quinny Yezz to test out as part of the QuinnyCasters 2012 group. It was supposed to arrive yesterday, but we had to go out and do some last minute Christmas shopping as you do.  Typically when we got home there was a card through the door from the courier company.  Aaaagh missed it!  Anyway, I vowed not to go out today until it had finally arrived which it did at around 2.30pm.  Baby bear found the box very interesting and where there was a hole in the box, he tried to pull the contents out of the box through this little hole.  

Baby bear and I had fun putting the buggy together, although it only took 5 minutes.  When it came out of the box, there were only two pieces to work with, the frame and the seat canopy.  

It was simply a case of unfolding the frame:

And then just clipping the canopy onto the frame.  So easy.

Baby bear couldn't wait to try it out so in he got and I literally danced around the kitchen with him.  This amazing buggy turns on a dime and is so manoeuvrable.  It's as light as a feather too.  

Dimensions

• weight of the frame and seat is 5kg;
• weight of the frame on its own is 4.3k;.
• height of the Yezz is 105.5cm, from front to back is 75cm and the width of the Yezz is 56cm; and
• when folded the measurements are 23.5cm/ 68.5cm & 27cm.

When you're finished with the Yezz for the day, it folds up very easily and is so compact that it will store easily under the stairs or in the boot of even the smallest car.  It also stands alone when folded.

There's also a strap which when folded can be carried on your shoulder easily.

Take a look at this link to see the new Quinny Yezz in action:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVIHwy-frzU

Our buggy is Green Curve but there are various beautifully vibrant colours to choose from such as Pink Hybrid, Purple Rush, Red Signal, Grey Road, Yellow Move and Blue Track

The Yezz RRP is: £175. It is suitable from 6 months and has a sturdy polyester seat that is rip and abrasion-proof, colour-fast, water and stain resistant. The frame uses IXEF, a high performance glass fibre compound which makes the frame ultra-light & extremely strong. The Yezz comes complete with a hood (sun canopy) a full 5 point integral safety harness that is adjustable & has 3 different height levels.There is a pocket at the back of the seat unit that can take a max weight of 4.4lb.

Unfortunately, the Yezz does not come with a raincover and this needs to be purchased separately as an accessory, RRP £25 and will be available to purchase from March 2012.

Quinny says:-

"The Quinny Yezz is the first buggy made entirely of IXEF®, a high performance plastic. This means it not only has an extremely lightweight frame, but also a strong one. The fabric used for the seat is similar to parachute fabric. Light, strong and comfortable. The wheels on the Quinny Yezz are skating wheels, making the buggy extremely easy to manoeuvre and smooth to push.  The Quinny Yezz gives you the freedom to be in complete control of every situation, and when not in use, the comfortable shoulder strap leaves both of your hands free. Experience the city, your way"

I Say: that me and baby bear are looking forward to using our wonderful new Quinny Yezz and really putting it through its paces.

Quinny Yezz Arrives in the Bear's Den

Well it's finally here and baby bear can't wait to get it out of the box!

 Mummy's little helper

It came in only two parts

Very easy to assemble

Love the colour, Green Curve

And it folds up really small too

I love it mummy, let's go!

Not testing the Senzz anymore, but after withdrawing the product, Quinny did send me a very nice little trike by way of an apology.  It's super trendy and baby bear loves it.

They are going to let us test another NEW buggy of which we are all in the process of answering various questions about and can't say anymore about which buggy it will be until January.  I was so hoping we would get it before Christmas but never mind.  I shall just have to keep chewing my nails in anticipation.

Where has the time gone.  It seems like only last week that I wrote about getting the first week of term out of the way and now look, it's NOVEMBER!!!!  It'll be Christmas next week at this rate.  Anyway, life is busy as we all know.  What I don't know is how we mums do it all.  I never seem to stop, chores are never ending, there is always more homework to get done, or reading to do or nappies to change as well as dinner to make. Phew, how do we fit it all in?  Simple answer, we just do, somehow.

Although, I did take some time out this morning and had a lovely breakfast with my girlfriends just in a local cafe, but it was nice to get together and have a chinwag without all of our collective children around.  I think we should make a regular thing of it, although if we have a fry up every time, we might have to start calling ourselves "The Round Mums Breakfast Club" hee hee.

Next on the list today is to sort out the mums night out for my daughters class which I happen to be the class rep for.  Talk about giving myself more work to do eh.  Not to worry I will fit it in "somehow".

First things first though, I can hear darling baby bear stirring from his nap so I'd better get him up and get some lunch sorted out for him as well as trying to find my girly bear's ballet outfit etc.  Oh well onwards, and upwards. Tally ho!!!

Well that's the first week of school over and done with.  I am just starting to get back into the swing of it all.  The school runs, the arguing children, the "mum I can't find my jumper!" just as we are about to leave the house.  And then there's the afterschool clubs starting up again along with the expense that goes with them.  I mean, £65 for 13 sessions of gymnastics! Forget it, ballet is cheaper I tell my 6 year old.  I think Thursdays are the only day we're not clubbing it.  If we had an endless supply of money, they could go to all the clubs they wanted, but life being what it is we have to choose carefully what suits our family and our budget. Although I love my four little bears, it doesn't make life cheap.  Having said that, the more clubs, the more chauffeuring I have to do, just one more job to add to the list.  And then there's the hanging around with the other 3 children whilst one finishes their club.  Have been trying to co-ordinate clubs so that they run concurrently on same days but do you think "chicken club" runs on the same day as ballet or creative club? NO!   Although now that they are back at school I am getting a kind of a break as the summer holiday was definitely no holiday for me.  It's true what they say, you can't pick your family.  Less said the better.  Anyway apart from that it was hot and sunny and only rained once in the month we were away.  Bliss you might say, well yes it would be under the right circumstances.  Anyway, this has evolved into a rant so time to call a halt for today.  Hope everyone else had a cracking summer holiday, lol!

Recipes

Apple & Pecan Croissant Pudding

Ingredients

4 large or 6 medium croissants (about 280-350g total weight)  

1 large red-skinned eating apple (about 175g whole/unprepared weight), such as Royal Gala or Braeburn

2 tsp lemon juice

6 Eggs

125g caster sugar divided

250ml milk

250ml single cream

1 orange

40g pecan nuts

175ml luxury thick toffee or butterscotch sauce  

½ teaspoon vanilla extract 

55g sultanas 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/Gas 4. Slice croissants from top to bottom into 1 cm slices. Set aside 16 of the largest slices. Cube remaining slices and place in bottom of a suitable deep dish baker. Arrange reserved croissant slices over cubes in an overlapping circular pattern around edge of dish. Halve, core and thinly slice apple, leaving peel on. Toss apple slices in lemon juice to lightly coat all over (to prevent discolouration); tuck apple slices in between croissant slices. 
2. In a bowl whisk together eggs and 85g of the sugar.  Heat the milk and cream in a pan until hot. While continually whisking, slowly add milk mixture to egg mixture until well blended. Carefully pour egg mixture evenly over croissants and apple slices. If necessary, lightly press croissants down to coat.
3. Finely zest an orange to measure 2 teaspoons of zest. Using a citrus press or juicer, juice the orange to measure 60ml; set juice aside. Chop pecans. Combine remaining sugar, orange zest and pecans, sprinkle evenly over croissants. Bake 30-35 minutes or until top is golden brown and egg mixture is set in centre. Remove from oven to a cooling rack; let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
4. Meanwhile, combine toffee sauce, vanilla extract, sultanas and reserved orange juice and heat in a small pan until hot, stirring after every 30-second interval; pour into serving jug or bowl. Serve sauce over pudding.

I love this recipe which I got from Pampered Chef when I used to work for them.  It's very easy and super delicious, give it a try, you'll love it too.

The New Quinny Senzz

Here it is folks, the new Quinny Senzz.

Back in June I noticed a link on my facebook page for Quinny Casters so clicked over to see what the latest news was.  I had previously applied to review the Quinny Zapp but was unlucky that time.  I thought I would give it another go so I put myself forward to review the Quinny Senzz as it seemed to be everything I am looking for in a buggy.  Lightweight, manoeuvrable, compact when folded and stylish.

Anyway, I didn't think any more of it until lo and behold I checked my email this morning and saw that I had an email from QuinnyCasters to say congratulations!  I read the attachment which said our first test was to not tell anyone that we had been picked until they announced it formally at midday.  I have to say the email was sent yesterday but I didn't open my email until about 11am this morning, so waiting an hour wasn't so hard.  Although I was biting my lip because I wanted to tell my hubby.

Myself and 19 other lucky people were chosen from the hordes of hopeful Casters to be the latest "Quinny Casters" to test drive this beauty and write regular reviews about how we use the buggy and what we discover about it.  We are all very excited about it and can't wait for it to arrive on the doorstep.

Quinny are being mysteriously quiet about when they are going to come though.  And at the risk of sounding like a 2 year old throwing a tantrum, "I want my Quinny!!!!"  I hope it's soon.  Baby Bear and I are really looking forward to our first test drive together.

July

Phew, thank goodness July is over and done with!  No more school runs for a while.  Baby bear had his first birthday and Princess Bear and Girly Bear had their 5th and 6th birthdays.  Expensive month, but worth it to see the looks on my girls faces when I brought out their homemade fairy castle cake.  Started making the cake at 3.15pm and finished icing the blooming thing at 10.45pm.  I was exhausted, but for my first attempt at that kind of cake I have to say it looked pretty darn good and the girls loved it.  Looking forward to August when we go to Tunisia, but poor old Daddy Bear has to stay home and work.  I feel really sorry for him as he is fasting for Ramadan and with the heat we've had lately it's not easy.  However, it would be a heck of a lot harder in Tunisia with the heat over there lol!

Family Life

Spurs Buddy

My beautiful Baby Bear is 1 year old!  I can't believe it, it seems like only yesterday I brought him home from the hospital and now he suddenly got big and started walking.  I won't be able to call him Baby Bear much longer, I shall have to call him Little Bear instead.  A part of me is quite sad in a way because I love that baby stage when they are totally dependent on you.  On the positive side though, there are all those exciting games of hide and seek to play now that he can toddle about and then of course there will be the first game of football with Daddy Bear (if I can get him off the couch that is) lol!

Childminding

Yay!!! I got a call from Family Services today to invite me to the first Briefing Session to become a childminder.   I was told that the session was full but they would put me on the waiting list, that was 2 weeks ago and I hadn't thought anymore about it until today.  Not bad really I didn't think I would hear from them again until January!  I have to say though I'm really looking foward to it.  I got my Paediatric First Aid certificate through the post last week, albeit a bit rumpled!  You'd think after spending nearly £100 for the course they could send the certificate in a "DO NOT BEND" photo envelope instead of an ordinary envelope!  I had to iron it and then laminate it to keep it "nice".  Oh well  that's the first step down the line anyway, can't wait for whatever comes next. Bring it on!

Childminding

After much soul searching I have decided to become a childminder.  I cannot afford to go back to work in the city as 90% of my earnings would be swallowed up by childcare costs.  Plus I would really like to be at home with Baby Bear the same as I was with Big Bear, Girly Bear and Princess Bear.  However, I do still need to bring some income into the family purse as like everyone else at the moment things are getting a bit tight.  The only way I could see of achieving both is to become a childminder.  Today I attended day one of the paediatric first aid course which was very familiar to me as there is a lot of crossover from the first aid at work course which I had to do at work.  The second part will be held next Saturday and I'm really looking forward to it.  I filled out the initial registration form this evening and will send it off tomorrow for Monday's post.  Then I just need to wait to find out when I can do the first Briefing Session.  In the meantime I have plenty of reading material to plough through as I want to make a start prior to attending the briefing session.

QuinnyCasters Recant

Totally gutted.  Quinny have withdrawn the Quinny Senzz for review and there are now 20 very disappointed people out there, myself included.  The reason given was time constraints and we have been offered the chance of reviewing a brand new product come October/November instead.  I have to say though that surely Quinny should have known ahead of time whether they would be able to do this review or not instead of getting everyone's hopes up, especially those who were actually picked.

Oh well que serra serra, whatever will be will be, the future's not ours to see...  Everybody join in!

I just want to start this post by saying "well done kids, you have all done brilliantly at school this year".  We got the end of year reports back today and all did very well especially our eldest who is performing above the national average for his age.  Congratulations Big Bear!

WINNER!!!

I am so excited for two reasons.

1.  This is my first ever blog; and
2.  I have just found out that I am one of the lucky 20 people picked by QuinnyCasters to review the new Quinny Senzz Buggy.

I can't wait to get it and start  using it.  I'm not sure when it's going to arrive or what colour it's going to be, I might even be able to choose the colour myself.  Looking forward to getting it out of the box and taking Baby Bear for his first Quinny Senzz ride.