Category: Product reviews

Recently my bicycle was stolen. It was 13-years old, only big enough for someone 160cm tall and its paintwork was scratched. And yet, it was my comfy bike and had been cared for mechanically over the years. For my comfort I had bought a Brooks saddle, changed the stem and added bull bars. It had a rack for a panier when I was shopping and a bell and mudguards. It was MY bike!

I left it outside Sainsbury’s in Lancaster one evening while I was minute taking for a local charity. There is CCTV and the police watched the thieves take my bike about two minutes before I returned [if only I had walked more quickly!]

I reported the theft to the police and Lancashire Constabulary excelled themselves, calling me four times with updates and getting hold of the above CCTV.

I also made a claim to our home insurance company, where our bikes are listed and specifically insured. At first they were sympathetic and everything seemed to be going through as expected. The next day I was informed that I had to answer some questions, that I should do this in a quiet room and sitting down. I was told the questions would be repeated and I should only answer yes or no.

The questions were asked by a machine and were irritating, ‘Did I know how to use a telephone?’ ‘Did I own a computer?’ Among these trivial questions was one along the lines of, ‘Are any of the items you are claiming for still in your possession?’ I tried to answer these questions clearly but by the second time it was hard not to sound irritated by questions that I considered beyond stupid. I wanted to say, ‘duh!’ to every one of them.

Later that day I had another telephone call from our insurance company. If the first sympathetic member of staff had been good cop, this was bad cop. It seemed the ‘system’ had flagged up one of my answers, suggesting my claim was fraudulent. I was informed that ‘the system’ was highly accurate and rarely wrong! I felt I had wandered in to a farcical performance of 1984; I knew I was telling the truth, but a machine I was told was accurate most of the time heard a lie.

I was on the phone for some time, pointing out to someone with no sense of humour that one of my weaknesses was my inability to tolerate stupid questions. I explained that what the machine had heard was not a lie but my frustration. I tried laughing the whole thing off but this just made things worse. The call became darker and by the end I was being threatened and bullied. I was asked if I wanted to proceed with the claim because if I was found to be acting fraudulently I would be placed on a black list and unable to get insurance in the future.

Describing the call to my partner afterwards made me realise how unacceptable their attitude had been. The telephone call was almost more distressing than having my bike stolen. I knew I wasn’t lying but unbelievably I was being accused of doing so by a machine that is considered to be clever, even though it can’t tell the difference between a sneer and a lie.

It seems most insurance companies now use lie detector software to seek out fraudulent claims. Our house insurance this year is through Admiral but they are not alone in this dubious practice. Insurance companies think this policy has been succesful and saved them money. It isn’t clear how much this is thanks to the clever [?] software identifying fraudulent claims or to their bullying tactics following an alert from the lie detector that makes innocent claimants drop a legitimate claim. I accept that some people will make a claim on their insurance that isn’t real but all they really had to do was talk to the police to know that my claim wasn’t one of them.

I am not prepared to bow down to bullies and I stuck to what I knew was a legitimate claim. I no longer had a bicycle and needed a replacement for getting around. The claim eventually went through, although with the £250 excess, it was still an expensive theft for us.

We quickly realised we had under-insured the bike, only pricing the cost of a replacement bike and forgetting things like locks, lights, rack, mudguard and saddles that we have added over the years. These accessories amount to around £250. Fortunately, it was January and I managed to secure a reasonable replacement bike from Trek in the sales that used up all of the amount paid out. But off-the-shelf bikes have no bell, lights or mudguards and we purchased these, along with a rack from our own savings.

As for the saddle … The manufacturer-supplied saddle on my new bike was so uncomfortable, I could hardly walk after cycling it home from Lancaster! For non-cyclists consider the difference between sitting on a knobbly rock to a sofa and you are almost there. We had an old, slightly better, saddle in the garage so I muddled along with that but cycling was no fun anymore. After a month, in desperation, I found there are lots of second-hand Brooks saddles on Ebay and I bought a womens B17 for under half price so I can once again enjoy being a cyclist.

I hope no one steals your bike, but just in case, check your bike is fully insured and maybe practice answering stupid questions with a straight face!

Reducing plastic is important to me but so is finding things that do what they say on the tin. The Clay Cure natural deodorant balm covers both these bases, it comes in a tin and does what the label says!

My search for a deodorant that is effective and easy to use is one that has lasted decades. I have tried rock-like crystal deoderants that had little impact; I have experimented with deodorant bars from Lush [one of my favourite companies] but found them messy and ineffective [but they do work for others] and I have tried doing without. The latter means I end up washing my clothes more often which uses more washing powder [in a cardboard box] and wears out my clothes more quickly, so isn’t a perfect solution.

So when I purchased a tin of The Clay Cure’s deodorant balm a couple of years ago, I wasn’t very hopeful that this would be the wonder product it is. Now I wouldn’t go anywhere without it.

For women and men, the deodorant balm comes in a small metal tin, not quite 7cm in diameter and around 2.5cm tall. It has a screw-on lid. Inside is a solid but soft deodorant, about the consistency of fridge-hardened butter [but it is vegan] [it is often softer in summer when the weather is warm]. The tin comes with a flat wooden spoon, familiar from tubs of ice-cream. You use this to scoop up a pea-size ball of the balm. Rolling this between your fingers warms and softens the balm and it is then easy to rub it in under your armpits. It disappears immediately, there is no waiting for it to dry, it isn’t greasy and it doesn’t stain your clothes.

I now buy in bulk from The Clay Cure website and, if you sign up for their newsletter, you will be notified when they have offers. There are currently eight different perfumes and a neutral deodorant. I like all of them, particularly the lavender and the lime and sage but you will have your favourite. You can find them on sale in other retailers such as wholefood shops and large farm shops.

If you buy two from their website, they are currently £8 each. I haven’t tracked how long they last but it spreads into months. There is no waste due to being packaged in a tin. This means you can get at every single bit of the balm. You are also left with a tin which is useful for storing all sorts of stuff from pins to peanuts or screws to sweets. Adding up all the plus points, this deodorant balm doesn’t feel like an extravagance.

Other easy wins in my aim to reduce our plastic footprint and stay reasonably clean and fresh smelling include solid shampoo, rather than bottles. We also always use bars of soap, rather than shower gel or liquid soap.

As usual, I have not been paid or even given any free products [I wish] to write this review. I share information about products I have found and enjoy using.

Post updated January 2025

My search for good quality, comfortable and quick drying underwear for hiking and cycling when we are away in our campervan should have ended long ago. Fifteen years ago when we set off on our twelve month tour of Europe in our ‘van I purchased six pairs of Lowe Alpine Dry Flo pants that did the job perfectly. They were comfortable to wear even in temperatures over 30C, they dried overnight when I hand washed them and they out-lasted the year we spent away and are still going strong in 2025! When we returned home these were the only underwear I wanted to wear and I got online to buy more for everyday use. Imagine how devastated I was to find that Lowe Alpine had stopped making them. They reappeared a few years ago in the same perfect shape but different [and less sturdy] fabric and I stocked up on four more pairs but they have now once again disappeared from the shops. I should have stashed away a lifetime’s supply in 2009!

As readers are still finding this blog post, I have updated it for 2025.

A couple of years ago, with my old Lowe Alpine underwear still wearable but starting to show signs of age I once again began a search for good underwear. After hours online and at some expense, I purchased four different brands of underwear to try. I have tested these smalls while walking in the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District fells. I have hand washed them and dried them in our campervan overnight. Below are my reviews of these four pairs of knickers that I chose from the many available. Please note, I have not received any of this underwear as a gift from a retailer [I wish] and my reviews are honest but do relate to my shape [I am a women’s size 12] and the activities I enjoy when I wear them.

In our campervan we usually wash our underwear out each evening and maybe socks, unless we are only away for a couple of nights. On longer trips we will hand wash t-shirts too, only using a washing machine when we need to wash towels and sheets. If it is sunny this washing can hang outside but unfortunately we don’t always get fine weather and we end up with knickers dripping over the sink. This isn’t something you ever see on those Instagram images of campervan life but it is our real vanlife! Having quick drying undies is as important as comfort for me.

The underwear tested:

• Runderwear Women’s Running Hot Pants
• Ortovox Women’s Hot Pants
• Athlecia Women’s Mucht Seamless Hot Pants
• Microfibre Boxers Ladies High Waist Shorts

Lowe Alpine Dry Flo – the original and the best. These are still keeping me comfortable after fifteen years! I am gutted that Lowe Alpine have stopped making them.

Runderwear Women’s Running Hot Pants, around £20. These are designed for runners and have a boxer-style fit. I find the seamless design is comfortable to wear and chafe free on long hikes. In many ways these are closest to my much-loved Lowe Alpine underwear. I haven’t tried them in extremely hot weather yet but my guess is they will perform well. The waistband is elasticated and feels substantial and I thought this might affect their quick drying properties but after handwashing they dried overnight in our ‘van. Two years in these feel good as new.

Ortovox Women’s Hot Pants with Merino wool, an extravagant £40+ worth of knicker. These are a generously-sized pair of pants, they feel soft and are like wearing what I imagine gossamer to feel like. I like to wear and buy natural fibres and the breathability of merino wool is refreshing to wear. They claim to be durable for years of use but only time will tell how robust they will be, they feel so delicate. I have had merino wool t-shirts that have lasted decades and others that haven’t done so well. They are a tad loose around the legs but they are still great under lycra cycling shorts. They wash well and dry overnight too. After four years they are still fantastic to wear, are my choice for a long hike and I splashed out on another pair in black.

Athlecia Women’s Mucht Seamless Hot Pants. At £25 for a pack of two, these are good value. The lightweight synthetic fibre fabric feels cool to wear and they are seam-free but the cut isn’t generous. These would suit you if you want more discrete underwear that isn’t high waisted and might be better on someone with a flatter stomach. I find I am constantly having to readjust this underwear around the crotch, not an attractive look! They wash easily and dry quickly but are not comfortable enough for hiking. After giving these a good trial I decided they weren’t comfortable enough to wear. They are still at the back of my knicker drawer!

Microfibre Boxers Ladies High Waist Shorts. For everyday use at home, when quick drying isn’t important, I wear microfibre undies for walking and cycling. The big downside is that they don’t dry quickly enough for hand washing and drying in our campervan. They would suit anyone who uses the laundry facilities when you are away or takes all the washing home. Unfortunately, the small company I orginally purchased mine from is no more, so I began the search for something similar. After many internet rabbit holes I found Outfigured. Their ComfyStretch Boxer Shorts are soft and easy-wear and wash well. At the moment they are only available from size 14 upwards. I would normally be a 12/14 but being so stretchy, their 14/16 works for me.

What are your experiences of good hiking underwear and quick drying smalls? Maybe there is a pair of amazing pants out there that I have missed . If so, do let me know in the comments below.

After 40 years I am beginning to realise I can’t save the planet on my own.  I have been really pleased to see ditching plastic and meat becoming more mainstream in the UK and I am glad that people are starting to talk more seriously about reducing flights and car use.  But as we reach the climate change crisis and I continue on my personal struggle to be better at caring for the environment it is hard to feel content with how the world is progressing.  Much of the current discussion has been about plastic pollution and the immediate negative impact this has on our wildlife and environment.  Plastic also has a massive impact on climate change from the moment the fossil fuels are extracted, through production and recycling or disposal.   With our current dependence on fossil fuels and plastic there seems little chance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A lot needs to change but ditching single-use plastic would be a start.  And yet movement in reducing supermarket packaging is painfully slow and although there are small changes most continue to use plastic to prevent food being damaged in transit and to keep it fresh.  Zero-plastic shopping and avoiding throwing away colossal amounts of packaging after a shopping trip is now possible in specialist shops but this is not mainstream.  This reminds me of the days when vegetarians had to shop in local health food shops for essentials.  It wasn’t until supermarkets spotted this market that shopping got easier for vegetarians.

As a couple we are trying to be frugal as well as kind to the environment and we are in a losing battle.  Short of going back to work, the frugality isn’t an option; we are living on our savings and can’t fritter them away.  Much as I would like to support small zero-waste shops these are generally more expensive than supermarkets and not local and make staying on budget difficult.  Just at the moment it feels impossible to be both frugal and environmentally friendly and I am trying to accept that we have made changes where we can and it will never be perfect.

In the UK the average person apparently accounts for 6.3 tonnes of CO2 per year all of which contribute to climate change.  Despite my best efforts at small things, having a diesel-fuelled campervan means that my own environmental balance sheet is far from balanced.

Climate Change Wins

1. Housing – We live in a small flat that is efficient to heat, we switch off lights, keep the temperature fairly low and put on jumpers when it is cold.  We wash everything at 30C and dry most things naturally [although we use the shared on-site tumble drier for towels to stop the flat getting damp].  We take short showers that last about two minutes, switching the shower off while we lather up to save water and energy.  [I used this carbon calculator to find out that our home has a carbon footprint of about 0.9 tonnes of CO2].  With energy and water use it is easy to match up our twin aims of frugality and saving the planet.
2. Shopping – We buy soap and solid shampoo and use shaving cream and body lotion from Lush, not plastic free but they take the tubs back when you have five to return for recycling.  We don’t buy any make up.  Cotton handkerchiefs deal with our daily nose blowing rather than tissues.  Our washing powder comes in a cardboard box, we buy loose tea for home, rather than teabags, but this is still packaged in plastic inside the cardboard and our favourite Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages are packaged in cardboard.  We make our own hummus and bread and cook most things from scratch.  A few of these purchases are more expensive options but they fit with our budget.
3. Eating out – We eat out but never buy lunch-to-go sort of items or plastic bottles of water or pop and don’t buy coffee-to-go.  These certainly save us money.
4. Diet – We don’t eat meat but do eat dairy [a vegetarian diet emits around 1.7 tonnes of CO2 per year, much less than a meat-based diet] and we try and buy in season and local food as much as we can and a veggie diet is cheaper.
5. Cleaning – We use scraps of old clothes and towels for mopping up in the kitchen and bathroom instead of paper towels and we buy toilet rolls from Cut The Crap which are wonderful and plastic-free.  We use a bar of Sunlight soap for cleaning.  On balance we probably save money here.
6. Stuff – Being frugal we don’t buy lots of stuff, whether made from plastic or not.  We mostly buy second-hand furniture and clothes, with the exception of technical gear and shoes.  We don’t worry about being fashionable and make do and mend as much as we can.
7. Getting around – Walking or cycling around Salford and Manchester is our default, whether going to the supermarket, the doctors or friends and this is free or cheap.  If we have to go further across Manchester we take the tram or bus.  We don’t fly long-haul and rarely fly anywhere at all [the last time we flew was to Milan in early 2017].
8. Pets – Although we love cats, we don’t have a pet and instead I just watch them on social media and try and stroke any cat I meet, much cheaper options.
9. Family – We had a child but only one [saving around 58.6 tonnes of CO2 a year].

Climate Change Fails

1. Fruit and veg  – Our fruit and vegetables come mostly from Aldi and we come home with lots of plastic but our finances stay on track!  Our meals do focus heavily on things they don’t wrap in plastic but there are always items I want / need that come wrapped up.
2. Milk  – Although not vegan we prefer soya milk.  This comes in tetra paks which are a mixture of plastic and paper and the small amount of cows milk we buy comes in plastic bottles [no milk deliveries to our flat].  The BBC told us that oat milk has the lowest impact on the environment and I did try making my own once!
3. Food – Plenty of other food items we eat come in plastic; margarine, cheese, tofu, crisps, washing up liquid, nuts, pasta and rice and more and I have a weakness for Warburtons crumpets that come wrapped in plastic.  We aim to spend less than £300 / month on food and drink in supermarkets, cycling across Greater Manchester to buy zero-plastic rice and couscous could be done but something else would have to give.
4. Toothpaste – I have looked at toothpaste tablets and haven’t found one that contains potassium nitrate to ease my elderly sensitive teeth.  There are ones with fluoride and the price is reasonable [£2.40 for 60 tablets] so I alternate tablets with tubes.
5. Clothing – We remain fans of technical quick-drying and hard-wearing clothing and wouldn’t really want to go back to wool or cotton for our hill walking and outdoor lifestyle.  We buy quality items that will last, only wash them when we must, mend them and wear them as long as we can but I am sure some of them probably contain micro-beads.
6. Scouring – For stubborn cooked-on food we have a wooden pot brush but also buy cheap plastic scourers as we don’t have a dishwasher and need to get things clean by hand.
7. Clingfilm – I admit that we have a roll of clingfilm!  We have owned this particular roll for around 15 years.  Occasionally this is useful but we might not buy anymore when it eventually runs out.
8. Campervan – We drive a diesel campervan about 10,000 miles a year; after our flat this is the most expensive thing we own.  We only drive it for long distances and it can sit around for a couple of weeks not moving in the winter.  According to the carbon calculator this van accounts for around a massive 4 tonnes of CO2 a year.

Sell the campervan you say!  Do I really need a campervan?  Could I do without the fun of travelling to beautiful places and eating and sleeping in my own home?  It is clear that owning a campervan has a massive impact on both our budget and the environment.  It negates all the small wins, they are just tinkering around the edges.  Until we get rid of our campervan we’ll always be part of the problem and buying loose courgettes or giving up Warburtons crumpets will not shift the balance in favour of the planet.  And so for the moment I accept I am a failure.

For as long as I can remember I have been visiting opticians.  I have worn specs since I was a small child and these days I am at the opticians every couple of years to have my eyes checked out.  I was born with a right eye that was called a ‘lazy eye’ [amblyopia] something around 1:50 children develop.  This right eye never opened fully and despite treatment as a child [a plaster over the ‘good’ eye and drops to encourage the left eye to do a decent day’s work] all I can see through that eye is a blur.  Because I really only have one working eye I make sure I take good care of it and I blame it for my inability to play tennis!

These days I love buying new specs.  As they are something I wear all the time it is a treat to get new ones and I choose different styles every time in the hope that someone will notice.  Over the years I must have worn every style of glasses,  rainbow-coloured plastic frames with large lenses in the 1980s,  turquoise narrow metal specs and chic black designer frames.

As I was choosing my last new specs [two pairs one for sunglasses and one for cloudy days] I got chatting to the helpful member of staff.  I had chosen a pair of metal frames that had round lenses and I asked the assistant, ‘Do they make me look like John Lennon or are you too young to remember John Lennon?’  He laughed and politely said they looked good, adding, ‘John Lennon is one of the most popular spectacle wearers customers mention, along with Harry Potter.’  Slightly put out that I hadn’t been more original, I tried on another pair with large lenses that reminded me of another famous spec wearer, Deirdre Barlow.  We are in Salford so despite the assistant’s tender years this was another familiar name; Deirdre was well known for the big glasses she wore in the popular soap, Coronation Street.

As Mr BOTRA and I walked home we mulled over other iconic spectacle wearers, perhaps I could have come up with fresher examples.  We considered how Woody Allen would seem undressed without his black Moscot specs.  Mahatma Ghandi is familiar in his round metal-rimmed glasses, similar to those of John Lennon and perhaps a more creative suggestion next time I am at the optician.  Other famous spec wearers came to mind.  It is reported that Elton John owns thousands of pairs of specs in a rainbow of colours; Dame Edna Everage sported stunning ornate frames or ‘face furniture;’ Bono is a man many of you will think of wearing shades; and [even though she changes her glasses frequently] I always picture Billie Jean King in a pair of thick plastic specs.

In the 1970s wearing glasses wasn’t at all cool, although they always made you look more intelligent!  As a child I hated being the only one among my friends that had to wear specs and for a short time as a teenager I stopped wearing them at all.  I pretty much had little idea what was going on around me during that period as the world went by in a blur but it was a time when I didn’t really care to engage with the world.  Contact lenses aren’t really a good idea when you only have the one functioning eye and specs were my only option.

Fortunately, my first job was working in an optician’s shop and the only perk was free specs; at last I could buy something more up-to-date that I was prepared to be seen wearing!  My enthusiasm for the variety of spectacle frame design began here.  Today I am happy wearing my specs and I am grateful to all these iconic spec wearers for making it fun and even trendy.