Awkward people
sorted.
It's
back! Another collection of glorious randomness awaits, intended to
throw a few gift-buying ideas your way. We all know a few awkward
sods, for whom buying gifts is as tricky as untangling fairy lights,
so hopefully this fresh new selection will help. Christ on a bike,
we're good to you...
Gillette Flexball
Grooming Set
Although ‘flexball’
might sound that a horrible injury that jockeys suffer with, this
gift set from facial hair removal experts Gillette is actually pretty
decent. Contained within, your bearded bestie will discover a tube of
Gillette ProGlide Sensitive Active Shave Gel, and a Fusion ProGlide
Men’s Razor with Flexball technology (as well as two extra blade
packs). The Flexball razor is pretty amazing actually; having the
most amount of flex and pivot of any manual razor we’ve yet tested.
Bundled with the extras, this makes a great gift for hirsute
gentlemen.
£24.99
Available from
www.tesco.com
Fuel 10K Protein
Boosted Breakfast
We’ve been pretty
active this winter, playing with a tonne of toys, reviewing a bunch
of cycling gear, and generally dashing around the house testing the
WiFi strength of various routers. Fortunately we’ve been well
fuelled by a special delivery of Fuel 10K food and drinks. The 10K
refers to the belief that it takes 10,000 hours to perfect anything,
so to get the best possible boost, eat and drink all this stuff.
Included in the range are lots of things with ‘Proti’ in the
names, such as Protiflakes, Protibricks, and Protioats, as well as
various flavours of Liquid Breakfasts.
Despite what you might
have heard about this kind of protein-heavy breakfast foods, they
actually taste rather nice, especially Liquid Breakfast cartons which
remind us of milkshakes and iced coffees. If you know someone who is
going into training in 2016, a selection of this stuff would be a
winner.
Visit
http://fuel10k.com/
Lindy IEM-50X In-Ear
Headphones
We’re big fans of
Lindy’s range of headphones and speakers, so are pleased as punch
to include a teeny tiny pair in this guide – and you actually can
fit these babies in a stocking! This set of in-ear headphones is
unique in that they feature a Dynamic Bass Tuning ability whereby the
user twists the earphone itself to adjust the level of bass. This
allows you to make physical adjustments to how they handle different
genres of music, all without having to open an app or adjust the
settings on your phone.
In use, we found this
to be extremely handy when switching between bass-heavy and spoken
word tracks, making the likes of podcasts and audio books much easier
to handle at higher volumes without that annoying prolonged ‘tickle’
in your ear. They’re also very comfortable, and… INCLUDE A CARRY
POUCH! Yeah!
£49.98
Visit
http://www.lindy.co.uk/
SplashMaps
If you’ve ever had a
total failure of your GPS system, and found yourself stuck in the
middle of nowhere without a clue of where to go, read on. We’ve
mentioned before how important it is to carry a back-up map when out
adventuring in the wild, but in the winter weather a paper map can
quickly get soggy, tear, and end up useful only as toilet paper.
Enter SplashMaps.
SplashMaps are unique
in that are they finely detailed printed maps which come on fabric,
not paper. Completely waterproof and tear proof, a SplashMap can’t
get creased, even when you really ram the thing into your pocket or
bag. We were sent a pretty awesome map of the Yorkshire Dales (which
is basically our back yard, being based in York), and no matter how
much we screwed the thing up, it refused to crease, and was always
completely readable.
A great gift for an
active friend or family member, SplashMaps can be made to order with
a map of anywhere in the world printed upon it.
£22.50
Leef iAccess
If you own, or know
someone who owns, an Apple mobile device like an iPhone or iPad,
you’ll know all about the memory issue. Sure, Apple products tend
to ship with nice and roomy storage, but what happens when you run
out of space? Unlike most Android phones you can’t just stick in a
bigger SD card, so what so you do? Easy, stick in a bigger SD card…
once you purchase the Leef iAccess.
We’ve reviewed Leef
products in the past, and always loved their build quality and
usefulness – and the iAccess is no exception. This tiny gadget
plugs into the Lightning port on your iPhone or iPad, and allows you
to insert a Micro SD card, therefore expanding your device’s
storage, and letting you move some stuff off to make room. The read
and write time to the card via the iAccess is extremely quick, and it
can accommodate SD cards of up to 128GB. Awesome.
£49.99
Visit
http://www.leefco.com/
Philips SHE9105
In-Ear Headphones
Another pair of in-ear
headphones for you here, and one that won’t break your already
under-pressure bank balance. The evocatively entitled SHE9105 in-ear
headphones from Philips feature 8.5mm drivers in a small and tidy
aluminium body, a choice three ear tips sizes, and an in-line mic for
taking calls.
Despite
being sub-£35 headphones, these both feel and perform excellently.
The sturdy casing helps to reduce vibrations which can distort the
clarity of sound, and also means they’ll stay in one piece when
rattling around in your day bag. All genres sound great on these,
with only a slight distortion creeping in at high volumes. A superb
pair of headphones for someone who you know loves music, but hates to
be weighed down by massive cans.
£34.99