Grandad's Favourite, Glenfiddich, Father's Day Shop #cbias #shop

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This Father's Day shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.

For the first time in quite a while we had a free weekend this week, as it is the athletics and cricket season for the boys this is quite a rarity, so we decided to fit as much as possible into it.  One of things we made sure we did was to buy Grandad's Father's Day gift with the boys.

This is a special year for Grandad, not only is he 80 this year, he has also just recently undergone two knee replacements and I'm glad to say he is really doing well now and deserves a little extra treat.  His big love is whiskey, well Glenfiddich to be exact, not my type of drink I'm more of a wine drinker but he loves it.

So bless them, the boys counted their money to pay towards the gift and we headed off to Tesco.

We tend to do a lot of our shopping at Tesco now, I like the wide aisles and I'm used to the store layout so when I do my weekly shop it's a lot quicker.  Of course all the special offers on display is another bonus albeit tempting.

The boys picked Grandad a Only Fools and Horses Father's Day card and while Dad wasn't looking they also chose quite a cheeky one for him.  I can see why they chose it, it does resemble him in a grumpy mood, couldn't resist showing you!

Inside Grumpy Dad card it reads - I TOLD THEM YOU WEREN'T OLD! HAPPY FATHERS DAY

Next we headed over to the Spirits aisle to find Grandad's Glenfiddich, there is so much choice I don't know how whiskey drinkers can decide which one to choose, maybe they have a different one each month!


From the Glenfiddich website-

Glenfiddich 12 Year Old
FRESH PEAR, SUBTLE OAK

Carefully matured in the finest American bourbon and Spanish sherry oak casks for at least 12 years. Married and mellowed in oak marrying tuns for complete harmony of aroma and flavour.

A single malt Scotch whisky with distinctive fresh pear, creamy with subtle oak flavours and a long smooth and mellow finish.

The signature expression from the World’s Most Awarded Single Malt Scotch whisky.

We selected the 20cl bottle of the 12 Year Old Glenfiddich which cost £11.00 and just the right price for a little extra treat from the boys.  I'm sure Grandad will really appreciate it, he usually gets two large bars of his favourite chocolate from them so this will be quite a nice surprise.  We only have one grandparent left now and with Grandad already the ripe old age of 80, Fathers Day seems so much more important.  I think as you get older you learn to appreciate your parents so much more and try to make each moment count. I can only remember ever buying my Dad socks or handkerchiefs and the like when I was younger, with a little bit of help from Mum of course. 

As we were nearly finished we spotted one of many special offers that we just could not resist and had to treat ourselves to some Doritos and Sensations that were buy one get one free.  Doritos for the boys and Dad and Sensations Sweet Chilli for me, which will do us really nicely for Britain's Got Talent later on in the evening.  We love watching this all together for what we describe as 'family night'.

We are going to be heading back to Tesco, when Dad isn't with us, to buy his gifts.  My youngest loves making breakfast in bed on special occasions and has already planned his Dad's breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast, fruit juice and a mug of coffee.  We normally sit around the bed while he opens his cards and presents, although once he opens his Father's Day card I'm not sure how impressed he will be.  As we normally have such hectic weekends full of sport we're planning a day of total relaxation time, plenty of time for Dad to read the newspaper, do his crosswords, watch some sport and even have a little snooze if he wants to, followed by a lovely Sunday Roast Dinner.

Hubbie with the two boys on my 40th Birthday

You can check out what we also spotted for Dad while he wasn't looking for Father's Day and more of the special offers over at our Google+ album.

Sharon x

http://www.beckvalleybooks.co.uk 
http://www.beckvalleybooks.blogspot.com

Our Family Movie Night - working on my new year resolutions #boots #cbias

Keeping to my new year resolutions (posted previously) have been easier than I thought until last week when I returned to working evenings again.   I have really been taking time out to spend more time with the boys as planned, the 'me' time needs to be improved on, although I didn't expect it all to change overnight.  Working evenings is hard when you have children but we are determined not to let it get in the way of family time, so we decided that on my night off last week we were going to have a family movie night.  There is nothing better than all of us together being huddled around the television with our blankets and snacks.

The boy's priority was, of course, the snack menu, quickly followed by the movie choice!  So they grabbed a pen and piece of paper and wrote the shopping list for 'mum' to buy.  When I read the list it made me giggle to see Coca-Cola with 'GLASS BOTTLES' written beside it.  Growing up you could always buy the glass bottles of Coca-Cola but now they seem harder to find in the UK, so when we do see them we make them our special little treat and this has obviously been passed on to the boys way of thinking.  The movie choice was easy Scooby Doo - Abracadabra-Doo and, believe it or not, their favourite Zulu Dawn which they must have watched at least ten times now.

   

So on my way to work, in our UK snowy weather, I grabbed my shopping list and popped into our Boots store to stock up as I was already heading there to stock up on toiletries and could easily combine the two to save time.  Again Boots have been around since I was little, it's a store that I feel that I can trust and depend on, whenever I need shopping for medicines/toiletries etc I always head there, knowing that if I do need any help or advice there is always staff who will gladly help. With so many shops closing down it's great to have these well known traditional shops still around and I try to support them as often as I can.

I headed nervously over to the beverages section not knowing if they would have the boys treasured glass bottles of Coca-Cola or not .....they only had the plastic bottles but the same shape so hopefully that will be ok with them, fingers crossed.  Nice to see that it was also on special offer, well timed shopping trip.  When we do our normal weekly food shopping we tend to buy cheaper brands of food and pop, which is why I think we really appreciate the real taste of Coca-Cola on these special occasions, there's nothing like it.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well stocked the snacks and beverages were, although I couldn't find the children's sugar free sweets today, usually they are always to hand.  It would have been great to have seen a few family sized packet of crisps for sale as it's a good way to save money.

Another pleasant surprise at the end of the shopping trip, two discount vouchers, one for No7 make-up or skincare and the other for £10 off an eye-check.  Not bad for a small shopping trip, obviously I had to check out the No7 section to see what my next purchase was going to be and found out that it was also on a 3 for 2 special offer.  I saved quite a lot of money at the store over Christmas as well, when all their gift sets were on the 3 for 2 offer plus there was a huge selection to choose from.

All stocked up and now time for our family movie night, it is great to spend quality time together and I know the boys really enjoy our movie nights.  Our youngest made sure he was first at hand to carry in the goodies, followed by his older brother, while mum and dad were left to carry in the fleecy blankets, as always.  Goodies sorted and drinks poured as we sit back and enjoy the movies and our time together as a family.  As you can see, the boys seem to have forgiven us for the plastic bottles!

 

You can see my full Boots shopping experience in my Google+ album
 

"I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ #CBias #SocialFabric although all the above opinions are still my very own honest opinions.”

Sharon x

   

http://www.beckvalleybooks.co.uk 
http://www.beckvalleybooks.blogspot.com