This is from a longer video of a day out in London with my teenage son, and thought this was a simple mission: get meatballs at the new IKEA Oxford Street store. But it takes an unexpected turn when an emergency evacuation alarm goes off...
See how long it takes before the search for an emergency exit starts.
THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
We just ordered. Uhoh. We need to find an emergency exit. So, don't [ __ ] around. Let's get out. [Music] Just get out cuz like seriously. So, we came here only a few months ago before it was built and it was just a pop-up shop and it was like a bit of a PR stunt where they just had a few things and now it's opened properly.
What is this theme park? Yes, the cafe is down here underground one floor down. And I don't know what the deal is for ordering. I think we're already in the wrong place. [Music]
All right. And um what do you want? Yeah. Um
just about to order. I'm not buying. And there's a there's a message saying, "Please leave the building immediately." I was just about I was just about We just ordered. Uh-oh. I was just about to go. This is emergency, right? So we're going to go. And now look, just before we pay, we need to find an emergency exit. Seriously. Okay. Yeah. Go. Just get out.
[Music] Technically, we can just We could just run through. [Music] Seriously, don't [ __ ] around. Just get out.
Just get out. Yeah, like
I wanted those meatballs. Oh, thank you. Well done for not tapping the car. I didn't want to pay.
[Music] We did.
So, that was eventful. Okay, so we're now evacuated from the IKEA store. I think they just burnt some meatballs or something, didn't they? All the um the canteen staff didn't look like they like Oh, I think you know I got a feeling that they might have been responsible for that. Maybe someone the alarm or something. Yeah, it could be someone pushing the alarm. You don't know though. You You can't You got to be safe. Do you know what? Yeah, it's true. That's the first time I've been in a store evacuation. Wasn't it interesting? I stood there for 30 seconds before Yeah. I You'd have gone quicker, wouldn't you? I think I would have just gone.
And we were the only ones to use that emergency exit as well. People just Yeah. Yeah. They're like waiting to go up the escalator. I know. That was our lunch again. Right. So, the second time this is actually the second time we tried to get meatballs in Oxford Street. That's good. But you did. But what is good though is they might wipe all those orders off and then we could go back in again when they've declared it safe. When are they going to say that? I don't know. Do you think it's safe being here? Should we like get out of the way? Oh man. Just as I was about to like tap it, it went Did you think that you you tripped up the alarm with the No. 24 meatballs we ordered. Oh man. I don't know if it's safe. Is it safe for us to be in this building? Let's go. Let's Yeah. Okay. But where? Just go John Lewis. Okay. John Lewis. That's great cuz we sit down and come back for the meatballs. Yeah.
We were here like literally 10 minutes before 4:00 on a Sunday. And they said, "No, you we're not doing it. You You got to go." We're like, "Oh, I was this close to the meatballs and now I'm just about to tap the credit card." like IKEA's curs. So, should we should we give it a provisional score? What score would we give the IKEA store Oxford Street? If I got it, that would have been a nine, right? It would have been a nine, but there's minus one. Minus one for making us use the emergency exit. I liked that we had a bit of jeopardy, a bit of excitement, bit of emergency meatballs. I'm going to Yeah, I wanted my meatballs. I'd give it three for the evacuation experience. Yeah, I've never had to do that. Yeah, that was cool. And you filmed them? I hope I did.
I try to review as many Chessington World Of Adventures rides as possible, with our very first VIP Lane Fast Pass Reserve and Ride Virtual Passes.
Is a Fast Pass for a Theme Park worth it? Join me, who hates theme parks as I put Chessington World of Adventures' Virtual Reserve and Ride VIP passes to the test! Discover if spending extra money on queue jump passes genuinely improves the theme park experience, even on a quieter day. We'll explore popular rides like Mandrill Mayhem, Dragon's Fury, Gruffalo River Ride, Tomb Blaster, and Tiger Rock, cost up the infamous unlimited drink refill, and share an honest review of the VIP fast pass queue jump system.
THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
Hello, welcome back to the channel. This is the Dad Delivers vlog, where we try new things to make your family happy. And the new thing I'm trying today is taking a dad who hates theme parks to a theme park with VIP passes. Ah, so I don't know what it is about theme parks, apart from the sensory overload and the enormous cost. I think the biggest problem is that you have to, obviously, you have to queue for everything. That's, you know, they charge for that scarcity, but then that's the whole VIP ride situation, VIP pass. Now, we've never had a VIP pass until today. This is our very first time. We've gone for a VIP pass. We bought them for the kids. So, we have two teenage kids. Oh, ow. So, we've come to Chessington World of Adventures, where they have three tiers of passes, and what we've tried, which is a virtual reserve and ride, and I'll explain that as we go. It's actually quite clever, and I think it's working out for us quite well today. So, it's a Monday, and it's quieter than usual, so that's a good thing already. But I'm going to show you as many of the rides and features of Chessington World of Adventures as possible. Here's the entrance. Got to find our tickets.
Now, this is the Vampire ride. My son has taken the camera on board, and I think he's going to get this a shot right now. There we go. So, I've hit 'Reserve and Ride' for Mandrill Mayhem, and it's a 40-minute wait. So, it's counting down from 40 minutes now while they're in the queue over there for Vampire, which is this ride. It's just all this administration you've got to do. It's just like being at work. I just want to sit down. So, you just got off Mandrill Mayhem. I swear when we went backwards, my eyes were like forced to close. It felt... it felt like I was going to black out. It just went like that, very fast. It forces you to scream because it's so quick. It's just kind of like a shock, and then when you look down at the height, it's terrifying. What... what score would you give it? 10. 10. 10. 10 for Mandrill Mayhem. That's just... just behind us.
So, this is how the virtual reserve and ride works. I think I'm just doing this for the first time. You can reserve your place in a queue ahead of time, but you can obviously only do that once. So, you can only be queuing for one thing at any one time. So, we've got the virtual passes for my two kids, which cost us £25 each. So, for £50, they are going to queue slightly less. We've never done this before, so it is good to try it once in your life, I guess.
Dragon's Fury. How much for Dragon's Fury? Not how much. Can you describe it? What is it? You're in a carriage of four. Yeah. And as soon as you get on the ride, it's this steep track, and then you just drop and go up and down and up and down again, but 'round. It's hard to explain. And what score would you give it? A nine and a half. Nine and a half. 10. Solid 10. It was very quick though. I'm going to have some. So, we've already hit the thing I love most about theme parks, which is the misleading wait times. I just got a call from the... from the line to say it wasn't 35 minutes. It was, and I've looked at the app, it's now 75 minutes. So, the time that you see when you go in isn't accurate.
This is the Blue Barnacle. Oh, that was really fun. This is the pirate ship where it goes back and forth and back and forth. Yeah. When you... when you're not at the front of the queue, you're guaranteed to not get at the back of the pirate ship. But if you can get at the back of the pirate ship, that's the best place to be. Then you have the biggest swing. Oh, that's cool. But I rate it like an eight and a half. Okay. There's no signal. There's no mobile signal. So, you can't set the pass. So, the pass that you paid £50 for, you can't use because there's no phone signal.
It's the Gruffalo River Ride Adventure. We're entering the world of the Gruffalo. Oh, look. Gruffalo. It's like Gruffalo.
Owls like ice cream. This is good. We're... we're learning about literature.
So, score out of 10. What would you give that? 10. What would you give it? A nine and a half. Nine and a half. 9.75. 9.75. I give it... I'll just put a cap over the camera. I'm going to give that a solid 10 because you get to sit down and you get a nice little rinse.
Now it's the scariest ride of all. The one I've been dreading: the unlimited drink. So last time... So, we've never... It looks like we're a couple of high ballers. Last time we got the dreaded unlimited drink just to see if it was worth it. I can't remember how much we paid. I've got it. I've got the actual footage from that here. So, we're trying to guess. We sent our son in to find out. We're trying to guess how much the refresh refill cups are. I reckon it's 15. I reckon it's eight. You reckon it's 8? 12? 12. Okay. 15. 8. 12. Let's see who's right. Okay. We've come in and actually it's £16. So, I was right. I won. And we know that the prices have gone up since last year. So to buy one of those cups today, at the time of filming, is £18. £18 for unlimited drink. But we managed to keep the cup and bring it back. And I think to reactivate it, it doesn't cost £18, but we don't know how much it costs. You went to the till. I... I'll reveal how much it costs. "Present them this. Ask if they can react." Yeah. They say, "Okay, you pay £12." £12? It used to be 10. Oh, brilliant. So, for £12, you get unlimited refills at the filling stations. So, when you buy it once, save it. But when you come here next year, it'll be 20.
So, this is an investment, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, there is a catch. The catch is you have to wait 5 minutes before you can refill it again. 6 minutes. What is this place? They're just obsessed with counting down time. So you need a 5-minute countdown to... you need to factor that into your queue time on your Reserve and Ride virtual queuing pass.
So this is my favourite one of the whole park. It's my only request that we do this twice. It's Tomb Blaster.
Right. Got my gun, and there's a display down here that shows you your score. So, the idea of this is to get your laser gun and to shoot at the... at the flashing targets and obviously try and hit as many of the targets as possible. I think I've got a bit of a weak laser, unfortunately. I'm blaming it down to my poor... my poor laser sight. So, we got some coffee and donuts. We got five of these donuts for £8.50 for the donuts. So, it's £15 for one latte and five of these mini donuts, which is a bit crazy 'cause we got the unlimited cold drink. What's the donut taste like? Is it good? Yeah, it's good. Try it. Oh, fantastic.
We're just right next to a tiger. That's really cool, and it's my favourite bit. I'm giving that a 10. Tiger Crossing gets a solid 10. So, this is the Rattlesnake. It's like a winding roller coaster. It was really jolty. It was so jolty. Each turn I felt like I was getting punched. I hated that. That was like five. A five. It was really quick. It was really quick, and it was really jolty. And it's a... what a roller coaster, and it was just you and then two random people in front of us 'cause there was only two of us. That's a four actually. Four. So, you make it a four out of 10. Yeah. It wasn't... it wasn't great. It was funny. It was funny, but it wasn't maybe like a six. A six. It was less for like the thrill of it. More like it wouldn't be worth the queue. It wouldn't be worth the queue. It's too... But we've been on that like last year. We like... It was a lot fun. It felt a lot more fun last year for some reason. So that's the Rattlesnake. Not a very high mark. That's probably the lowest so far.
This is a bench. Give the benches a 10. The benches are brilliant. They need more of them. I'd have a 'ride and reserve' pass just for the benches. What's this called? Um, Tiger Rock. Tiger drop. Tiger rock. Tiger rock.
Where am I? So, this is Tiger Rock. We were on this last year. I think we were queuing for this about 90 minutes. Today, without any kind of reserve ride, it took what would you say? Half an hour. And that sort of feels worth it. Oh, here we go. First drop. Oh, no.
Okay. I didn't think you'd get that wet that quickly.
You did the intro at the top of that. I did. I should. Okay, I'll do the intro. I'll do the intro. "Taking a dad who hates theme parks to a theme park with VIP passes."
That was absolutely brilliant. So, I think that was the second ride that we've done. What would you give that? A two and a half? Seven. We did kind of wait 40 minutes for it, but I... I'd give that a solid 10. I love that. If the wait were longer, the score would be lower, I think. Oh, toilets.
So, here's a review of the Chessington World of Adventure Reserve and Ride virtual queue pass. I don't know if it's because the park is quieter today, but it just feels so much less stressful being able to queue in advance and not having to wait 90 minutes on every ride and then only getting four or five rides in a day. I... I just never thought that spending £50 to queue jump one queue at a time would actually feel this good. It does actually improve the experience, and it massages my downer on theme parks. We did only get them for the kids though, and the kids are now teenagers. I think if you had younger kids, you'd probably want four passes, which would obviously double the cost, which this year, at time of recording, would have made it £100. Yeah, £100. So spending 50 so the kids can run off, the teenage kids can run off, go on the rides that I really don't need or want to go on, it's been absolutely fantastic. So maybe our case scenario is unique, but getting two passes so that you can jump on the really popular big rides has really helped. And it's been enough to get through the day. I don't know if it's going to be different if it were in the middle of the summer season, and this place behind me would be completely rammed. Today, it's been really pleasant, and actually, we've done enough rides, coming up to 4:00 now, and it really feels like we've had almost £180 worth of entertainment, and this has been used quite a few times as well. So, that's worked out about £3 each for unlimited drinks, which that's pretty good actually. So, my downer on theme parks on this one visit has, I think, it's kind of been cured. So, the day at Chessington, I'm calling this a Dad Delivers success!
I'm calling this a dad delivers success. Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button. It really helps me to keep this channel going. So, thank you. I'm soaked. Uh, leave a note in the comments, what's your favourite ride? And right here is what YouTube knows you want to be watching next.
Relaxing Video: Looking for a good day out with the kids in Devon? We took a day pass on the Seaton Tramway and it was glorious. Instead of a video talking about it, here's our tram journey in (almost) real time. You can even ride the trams with your dog, so Casper had a great time out too.
🛍️ We visited the IKEA Pop-Up Store on Oxford Street, London, and found some fun surprises... From personalized IKEA FRAKTA bags to a mystery Press Here button. this shopping experience has unexpected moments. Plus, I picked up an exclusive GREEN FRAKTA bag... If you’re in London, it’s worth checking out before it closes any time now!
THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
Didn't have to pay 2 pound for that.
Welcome to London's Oxford Street! It's, uh, it's around Christmas time, as you can probably tell from the decorations. But we are here at the IKEA popup store in Oxford Street, and we had a couple of surprises here.
So, this is a really badly shot video, but I just wanted to show you some of the things that are being handed out in this IKEA popup shop.
The idea is that you go in, and there's a gift shop, and there's also the chance to buy a classic IKEA blue bag—but monogrammed! So they press on these three-dimensional, um, letters. They're like, uh, fabric letters, and it doesn’t cost that much. It’s the price of a bag, which is 75p.
They also do medium-sized bags, which I've... I've never seen before. But we went for the classic large bag. You just fill in a form and put the letters that you want and the colors of the letters that you want. Some of the colors were unavailable—it’s either blue or yellow—and some of the letters, when we visited, were missing. But that’s okay, 'cause it's all mix and match. It’s all blue and yellow anyway.
So you fill in a form, and, uh, while they're pressing your letters onto the bag, you can walk through the gift shop to pay for your bags. And the—let, let me show you what the gift shop looks like.
It seems to be gifts here that you can’t get in regular IKEAs. It’s kind of color-themed, so there’s a blue section. I swear there are some, uh, items in there that you can't get in regular IKEA stores.
So if you... if you... if you want something interesting, um, or unusual—an unusual gift—this... this might be good for you. Or maybe you'll just stick them on eBay, I don't know.
You get these, uh, cushion covers—oh, I am—I don’t know if you can buy the IKEA—you can get IKEA-branded—so, I think you can get IKEA-branded stuff that you can’t get in the stores.
So that’s the blue cushion, if you can see it up there, and there’s also a green one. So we've got a green section here. In the green section, they’ve got, um, a green IKEA-branded cushion, which I’ve not seen before, but also the FRAKTA bags in green.
So I’ve definitely... I’ve definitely picked up one of those. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. It just feels special, and it’s like 75p, so why not?
And then, an orange section—oh! This green IKEA cushion!
And then, uh, we’ve got an orange section and pink.
While we’re waiting for the monogrammed bags, they’ve got this really strange area that you can visit where you—it’s like a hole in the wall and just a sign that says "Press Here."
So, of course, we pressed here to see what would happen, and we were not expecting this!
You randomly either get a lolly, like this one—I don’t think you call them lollies outside of the UK, do you? Is it a popsicle? What do you call that sweet? Tell me in the comments if you’re not in the UK.
Or, we pressed it again and got this—it’s a blue, uh, candy floss.
What do they call it? They call it cotton candy, don’t they?
"Can we... can we swap?"
"Maybe!"
"I’ll just walk over here now..."
We’re going to pick up our bags.
There’s the remains of the stick. It was delicious, wasn’t it? And it was blue raspberry flavor, which was, uh, nice and on brand.
It didn’t take long at all for the bags to appear, and, uh, I’ve gone for them.
I... do you know what? I’m going to have to tell the family to not watch this video, 'cause this is supposed to be a Christmas surprise!
How am I going to... how am I going to do that? I... but I do want to release this video. So I guess you and I are now spoiling the surprise for the family.
We got the... the bags.
The bags look, uh... uh... as IKEA bags do. But the lettering is really nice! It’s really premium, really nice thick, thick felt. And I sort of wish I’d gone for the blue and yellow on the others now.
I thought the... the yellow would contrast, because the, uh, the "B" was missing in yellow. We’ve gone for a blue and yellow, which I think kind of looks better.
That was fun! I enjoyed that.
Oh, look! It’s got bags... going through the bags...
That was good, wasn’t it?
I’ve really enjoyed that.
Um, I don’t know how long it’s going to be open, but, uh, if you—is it 'til spring? That’s—it’s got ages yet, until they open up the massive—oh, brilliant!
Now I’m going to hold this up and hope that it doesn’t get snatched.
So, I don’t know how long it’s going to be, but it’s going to be about spring.
So if you get a chance to visit the IKEA store in Oxford Street, we highly recommend it, don’t we?
That blue raspberry—this is nice candy floss! Looks really good.
The whole thing—four bags and the green bag monogrammed—came to £16, plus we got a free lolly and, uh, cotton candy... candy floss.
We’re here on a Saturday. I think we’re here slightly earlier in the day, around 12:00. There aren’t any crowds here. Um, I don’t think people have caught on to this.
We are calling this Dad Delivers Success!
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We are calling this Dad Delivers Success!
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My teenage son has officially overtaken me. It started with a simple physics fact, but now he's correcting me on everything—including things I was certain I knew! He's proving me wrong at every turn. But the real turning point? When he had to explain Hawk Tuah to me... and now I wish he hadn't.
Has a kid ever taught you something you wish you didn’t know? Let me know in the comments!
THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
I know I've been talking a lot about my teenage son on the channel lately, but he's just turned 16, so I figure it's okay for me to talk about him on the YouTube channel now.
Something's happened in my relationship with him that I know—things have changed. And last night, I think, was probably the turning point. He was revising physics, he was writing out these physics index cards, and he read out to me that the... the voltage in this country is 230 volts. And I... you know, like a dad, said, "Oh no, actually, that's wrong. You know, it's 240 volts." And he stood his ground. He said, "No, no, it's 230V."
I was... I was like, "Well, I know it fluctuates, but that might be an average. But it's... it's 240 volts." And we were, like, ping-ponging this to each other. And I said, "The reason you think it's 230 volts is 'cause you've got a sticker on your computer right in front of you that says 230 volts, but that's wrong because the voltage system in this country, AC, is 240 volts."
And it got to the point where we had to look it up. And sure enough, the voltage in the United Kingdom is 230 volts. It changed. It changed in the 1990s. I had no idea that it had changed.
He said, "That's okay, Dad. You know, we all... we all... get it wrong." But I was like, "My... oh my god. I... I've just been corrected yet again by my brilliant son, who's 16. Is this it? Is this how things are now, where I'm just super out of date and out of knowledge? If I'm wrong about that, what else am I wrong about?"
He taught me recently that it's totally okay to touch a car battery.
Again, I... I didn't know this. I'm... I'm going, "Don't touch it! Don't touch it with your hands!" He's like, "Dad, you can touch both terminals with your hands, and nothing will happen."
I was convinced that if you touch it, you'll get electrocuted and your head will explode. Turns out, thanks to my son, that's not true at all. Apparently, the voltage is... is too low.
It's fantastic that I'm learning things from my teenage son, but it's also... I'm starting to realize that it's, um... this is where the tables turn, and we're getting a complete reversal in... in... in... I was going to say in fortune, but it's in... in perhaps in status.
And... and it just feels... it feels wrong, even now, to say, "The voltage in this country is 230 volts," and, "You can touch a car battery, even with wet hands."
And then I think about all the amazing stuff that I'm teaching him, like real... real sort of nuggets of wisdom, like, uh, "Go in the front carriage on the Northern Line so you can get out at Tottenham Court Road and get out the station, like, 12 seconds earlier."
Or there was one... one the other day. I... I managed to teach him that the song *Digging Your Scene* by The Blow Monkeys is actually a song about AIDS. You know, it's just, like, completely useless stuff.
When is he ever going to learn that?
Plus, it's... it's also ruined a really nice song for both of us. Only found it out last month. It's... it's really obvious.
I've let him down so many times in the past. You know, I try to expose him to the very best in popular culture. So I would show him things like my favourite sketches—Kenny Everett, you know, like the, um... the Rod Stewart one where his butt explodes while singing *Do You Think I'm Sexy*, and he ends up floating up into the air.
And we're having a really good time. And... and then this has always happened. He always says, "Oh, could you show me a picture of Kenny Everett now?"
And I'm like, "Ah... sorry, Joe."
"Oh... is he dead?"
It's like, "Yeah... sorry."
And it's like... but that always happens!
I said, "Well, no, no, you know..." And then he really got into George Michael. And eventually, it was like, "Oh, see what... what's George Michael doing now?"
"Well, Joe... here's the thing..."
Again.
And then he really got into Queen.
"Daddy, Daddy, what's Freddie Mercury doing now?"
You could... you could see it in his eyes. We knew. He knew what the answer was going to be.
"Oh... Casper... are you okay there?"
And it went on and on, you know, with other things, like the guy from *Daddy Cool*... Prince... it just didn't stop.
And it... I just feel like I've... I've let him down.
But now he's overtaken me. He's completely overtaken me.
And it... it... it happened very specifically on the Hawk Tuah meme.
I don't know if you're aware of this. You don't need to be aware of it. But I saw on YouTube a lot of people talking about Hawk Tuah.
Joe's really up on his internet memes, so I thought, "Well, I'd ask... I'd ask an expert."
"Joe, what's this Hawk Tuah thing?"
He goes, "Dad, firstly, it's not pronounced 'Hawk Tuah'—it's pronounced *HAWK TUAH!*"
And he said, "Just do your own research."
So he's... he's teaching me properly now.
He's teaching me to do my own research.
So, of course, I look up *Hawk Tuah*. And it's not safe for work... I wouldn't... I wouldn't recommend it.
*Hawk Tuah! Spit-on-it!*
I looked it up and then realized... he's now teaching me about S-E-... I can't say the third letter because I don't want to be demonetized.
It's... it's just a complete turnaround.
How can my little baby, that up until only, like, last week, it feels, I was still carrying on my shoulders when I was way too old... I was still holding his hands while we were crossing the road for the very last moment possible.
I tried to... to hold on to that moment. I did all of that.
And now he's teaching me about Hawk Tuah.
So that's me being replaced.
I hope your Google history isn't now ruined by some of the issues raised in this video.
Uh, what about you? Is there something that you've learned from a kid that you wish you hadn't?
Say hello down in the comments. Let me know.
I'd love to... to hear your stories.
And thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button.
It really helps me to keep this channel going.
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This tree is a marked man. I feel that it is going to get whacked sometime soon.
I can’t believe I’m making a video about a tree, but here we are. There’s a new development going up near my usual dog walk, and this huge, ancient tree stands right in the path of the access road. I don’t know if it has a preservation protection order or if anyone's fighting for it, but something tells me its days are numbered. So, I thought I'd capture it while it's still here. Ever lost a place like this? Let me know in the comments.
THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
It says "Reptile Receptor Site. Take extra care while walking." What the hell is that?
I want to tell you a story about a tree and a development. The development is happening behind me. I don't know if you can see this road. It's been half built, and the road ends here. And then after the road, there's this tree over here. That's the tree that this story is about because I have a feeling that this tree might not be with us for much longer.
I'd love to tell you where this is, but I won't—partly to protect my privacy, but also because it's probably a story that could happen anywhere. We're in the middle of the story. It hasn't finished yet. Like the road—the road hasn't finished yet. It's an access road. It just runs from down there. It's not fully built yet. There's even a footpath or cycle path just to the side of it. I don't know if you can see that.
And it's a straight line. And the straight line, if you keep it going, goes through there. And I don't know if you can see a problem with that. I'm not a construction expert or a civil engineer, but even I can see that the straight line of that road is very likely not going to have enough room to get around this quite large tree.
I'm not an environmentalist. I'm not even a "nimby." This tree probably affects—I don't know—it’s probably only known to about 50 dog walkers. Maybe the number of local people that are aware of it runs into the hundreds—not that much. And I'm not that sentimental about it. It's a pretty nondescript tree in a nondescript field. This is going to be turned into an industrial estate. And this field here, just on the other side, is going to be turned into 85 houses.
And there's a footpath. This is a public footpath. I've just come off it. But the footpath did run through the field, and there was planning permission to divert the footpath. That's why the footpath kind of curves around this way. This road over here—it's going to plow straight through here, and I've got a feeling that this tree is a marked tree. I think this tree is going to die in the next 12 months.
I heard from someone, another walker, and she was really upset because the building work was in full swing. She said that this tree has a preservation order on it, but it's right in the path of this access road. So I don't know if that's true. I don't know if it does have a preservation order. Whether it does or doesn't, it's in the way of a road that needs to run through here—a little side access road.
I'll take you a bit closer to it. I've not actually got this close to the tree before. I've always walked past it, and I've wanted to make this video for a while, just to document this tree in case something bad happens to it. At least someone, somewhere, has recorded this. So you can come along on this little piece of history that I'm trying to capture.
It's massive. I don't know if it comes across on camera, but it's about a meter and a half—maybe more, maybe nearly two meters thick at the base in the trunk. I'm not a tree expert. I don't even know what kind of tree this is, but it's huge. Should I stand up against it? I'm standing right up against it, and it dwarfs me. I'm not the slimmest guy in town, but even so, this tree is bigger than even me.
I don't know. This has happened before, you know? I remember my parents-in-law had some trees, and there was some construction work and—oops—a digger accidentally crashed through it. And so, you know, that's it. It's a shame, isn't it? A tree went.
And look, this road is on a complete collision course. Let me drive it through with this. Are they going to knock it down? Should we even care if it does go? I don't think all trees should be saved. I think it's funny, isn't it, that we think it's heresy to remove trees? There's something particularly... I don't know. There's just something a bit off about this one. It just doesn't seem right that, for the sake of maybe a meter or two that way, that thing that's been there probably for a hundred years has to go.
I'll look it up. I'll look up what a 1.8-meter diameter tree—how long that is—and I'll put that on screen now. That's probably how long this tree has been here. If you're better at aging trees than I am, please leave a comment.
I just had to get it on video and just wanted to share it with you because, more and more, I'm videoing my walks with Casper, who's enjoying the field over there. I'm sharing them more and more, and I've got a feeling one day this might disappear. And it just—I don't know—it'd just be a shame not to record it.
I don't think it's a good idea, building here, as well. I mean, obviously, I've got skin in the game. I like walking on these fields. Let me show you footage. I think I took footage—I'll put it on now—of what this was like before the construction work. I knew it was going to happen. I knew there was planning permission. I knew that the footpath was going to be diverted. So I captured this idyllic image of me and Casper just walking into this heavenly, sunset-lit field. I knew time was up.
So it was a reminder to me. It's a good thing. It's a reminder to enjoy what you've got. And I should enjoy this field now while we've got it.
You can really see the profile here. There's the road. It goes there, and it's going to go over the footpath. There were markers that people have kicked down. That marker isn't in the right place, the one you could see earlier, but the road’s kind of got to go up and sort of through that tree.
I'll take you into the other field and show you what's going on there. And it's a tale as old as time, isn't it? It's progress. You know, it's paving paradise for a parking lot. We're paving a nice dog-walk route that has no economic value. It's not even our land, so I shouldn't even complain about it. And I'm not complaining about it because this doesn't belong to us. And yet, in a way, it does.
I'll show you why up there—why it does kind of sort of belong to us.
This is something that the builders have done. It's part of the building work. Let me show you this sign. I've never seen anything like this. It says, "Reptile Receptor Site. Please do not move the fence. Take extra care while walking." What the hell is that?
These fences—they go all the way around this field that's next door to the field that's going to have the building work. And I think it kind of goes under a little bit of the ground. I don't know what "reptile receptor site" means. Does that mean they're going to move the reptiles into here and drop them in here if they find them? Or is it just a place for them to escape into and be measured?
I don't think this is dumping. I don't think it's fly-tipping. But all around the field, the last couple of years, they've had these bits of roofing felt put down. I've got a feeling they're for measuring bugs underneath. Either that or someone has evenly dumped a load of roofing felt around this particular field. But I do think it's for some kind of scientific measurement.
Look, the fence is pretty well built, and it's to, I guess, keep things in the field rather than letting things come into the field. I don't know. Let me know in the comments if you know what a reptile receptor site is.
When the signs went up, I have been careful where I'm walking. And I'm a bit worried about Casper over there doing his digging. I don't know if you can see him, but I've not noticed any reptiles or any snakes or anything. I guess that's what they're for—grass snakes, maybe? I don't know.
So, this is the other field. We're now on the other side. We were over there. The tree that it's going to go through is just there. The road is going to carry on into here.
And the other day, there was some building work. Some builders were in here. I thought this was like the first day of digging the road into this section, but it seemed not. Maybe it was just exploratory work. I've got some footage here. Let's drop that in.
I suppose, on the upside, we'll have a nice road that'll bring us up to here. There is a problem for the builders, which I'm sure they'll overcome—it won't be a problem at all. But this is a bit of a floodplain. This field gets so waterlogged. But this is where the 85 houses are going to be built.
This feels like a bit of a shame because there are deer in here, gallivanting around, galloping, frolicking. It could not be more peaceful. We've had so much fun in this field. I'm so grateful for it. This is where Casper does his weird gamboling—his weird gazelle-like jumping—when the grass gets long.
But I'm very aware that it's someone's field, and they want to make money from it. I completely understand that. It's just a bit of green being taken away, though, isn't it? Although we don't own it, we can at least see it, and we've got public footpaths through it. It's just going to go.
So, who knows? Maybe in future videos, you'll see me walking among construction vehicles. This will all be a massive construction site. I probably won't be allowed in, so maybe I'll be walking here in a few years' time with the houses and the roads already built.
I'm really glad I get to capture this on video. No one's going to watch this video except me, but at least I've got a little piece of it on the internet, on YouTube.
That road is dead straight. It's dead ahead there. You can see the end of the construction site there. I cannot see how the road will not just bulldoze through that massive tree. It's a marked tree. Honestly, its days are numbered, whether it's got a protection order on it or not.
But I'll just show you this—just how much. See there? Lots of molehills. I think this was a former mole house. What do you call a mole home? All the big Labradors love diving into this. Oh no, is Casper going to go in? Please don't go in, Casper. It will stink.
Yeah, it's this. And it looks like a puddle, but that is about the depth of a very large Labrador. It's almost like the thing that Dawn French fell into on The Vicar of Dibley. I should jump into it, shouldn't I? That would get me some views—more than me whining about losing a bit of greenery.
Casper’s very wisely walking around the edge of it. That is so deep under there. And it's not still—actually, water's running out of it down to the stream down there. So the drainage from the whole field—that’s what the water table is like underneath.
I really appreciate you coming along with me on this journey, allowing me to document the final days, months, maybe year of the tree in the background. I'll have to remember to make an update video, but I think I'm going to shoot videos in here anyway, so you'll see this background changing over the next 10, 20, 100 videos.
I still don't know if I should be making videos like this. They're fun for me, and it's really nice to just share these random observations with you. I'm going to call this video a Dad Delivers Success, but obviously, I think I'm going to call a road being plowed through a super ancient tree a Dad Delivers Fail.
What do you think? Have you got a place that you've lost recently that you kind of miss? Feel free to drop it into the comments. It’d be lovely to hear from you.
Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button. I really appreciate you just coming along with these little stories. I shoot one every day, but I don't release all of them.
And right here are some of those other stories that YouTube knows you want to watch next.
I cook some delicious Pork loin steaks (thin pork chops!) in our NINJA FOODI MAX DUAL ZONE 9.5L 10 quart Air Fryer. Sharing the cooking time and temperature for Pork Chops in an airfryer.
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How do you make pork chops in a Ninja air fryer? Or any air fryer? You don't have to do any of this. I just thought it might give them a bit more flavour. Pretend this is olive oil by the way. Next I'm going to season the loin steaks. If I had garlic powder I'd use it but I don't. I'm going to put some paprika.
Some parts of the world call it paprika powder. Anyway, it's time for us to now bung it in the air fryer! I'm going to dial up 375°F or 190°C. And then for the time, 10 minutes, five minutes left to go. Let's pause it there by pulling the, the tray out and I'll show you how they're looking and we'll just turn them over and I think I might give them six minutes, but let's, let's put them in.
Yeah, let's dial up 6 minutes. All right, let's see how the pork chops look. Oh, sizzling, sizzle, sizzle. Look at that. Oh my goodness. That is almost. Thumbnail worthy. And if we cut into one of the steaks, we're going to cut into all of them, but oh, look at it opening up there. I hate doing this on camera, partly because it's me eating on camera.
Yeah, they're absolutely perfect. I am calling this a dad delivers success!
If you've ever had your garden fence destroyed by strong winds, this video is for you! After years of dealing with wobbly panels and costly repairs, we finally built a storm-proof fence with the help of my brilliant brother-in-law. I’ll show you the techniques he used to make this fence rock solid, from stronger posts to clever reinforcement that distributes wind pressure. If you’re planning a fence upgrade, this might give you some ideas!
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How do you make a fence that doesn't get blown apart by a couple of light storms? That is, uh, something that was quite on our minds.
As you've seen in the last video, our fence was just made up of fence panels and wooden posts, and the way they were put together over time meant that they fell apart. Some of these fence panels have been up for probably 15 years, so they were here when we moved in...
Casper! Out!
God, Casper! See, Casper's taking full advantage of the fence situation.
Out! Out! Good boy!
But some of the other panels we had put up, like literally four years ago, are completely blown out.
We spent a lot of money on having those installed.
It is a tricky situation because the wind where we live—it's kind of angled so that the wind goes straight across the garden. It takes the full force on those fence panels. They turn into big sailing ship sails, just catch the air, and then the posts pivot and swing backwards and forwards. Over time, in some cases, 10 to 15 years, in others, four years.
And as you'd imagine, we're pretty sick of having to pay for these panels to be put up every time. It can't take one more storm.
As I mentioned in the last video, the only three panels that have stood the test of time were the ones that were re-put-up—refitted—by my brother-in-law. You can see them in the background there. They were falling down, and now they are absolutely rock solid because of the way that he set them into the ground in concrete.
So when it came to dealing with the fence situation, there was only one person we could, uh, reach out to.
My brilliant brother-in-law Steve has now built this. This is going to stand the test of time, and I've just wanted to share some of the techniques he uses to make sure this fence doesn't fall down after a few storms.
I absolutely love how he's doing this.
So basically, instead of having a 3-inch post like before, we've got a 4-inch square post.
I—I don't use inches. The only time I use inches is when... is when my brilliant brother-in-law comes and fixes our house.
And then we've got 10 feet between each post, and underneath, there's a gravel board to raise the feather-edge fence panels from the ground.
And then behind that, we have three of these, uh, struts.
He said it's a bit like—it is a bit like stud work, um, but this is absolutely rock solid, especially the way he's screwed it into both these homemade... I don't know what you'd call them. It's like a rest. So that's really solid. And he put the beams into the rest and into the post as well.
So instead of the storm hitting the fence panel and just blowing the panel in, the wind will have to kind of take this, and this will take the full force of the wind that comes across the garden.
And it spreads the force onto the posts instead of before—having a panel that just kind of flips in and out, in and out, and then it kind of cantilevers or pivots the post backwards and forwards and just works them out of the ground, even though they're in concrete.
This—this is absolutely rock solid. You can climb on it. They're like monkey bars.
Another ingenious feature is this down here in between the gravel boards.
I've got another example here. We've got an extra strut not only to take the weight of the lower beam and to stop that flexing but also to stop the gravel boards from warping over time.
So I guess this board at the bottom also takes some load or some of the force so that the fence doesn't flex backwards and forwards with 50 mph winds headed this way.
The posts are about 9 feet apart, so we've got 10 feet that are being cut down to size.
And also, the other thing he had to contend with was years and years and years of other posts put into the ground.
Obviously, you can't put a post into the ground if there's a pile of concrete there, and instead of having to dig them out, they've been spaced so that they avoid the concrete that's in the ground already.
And then the finishing touch, which I absolutely love, are these feather-edged boards.
Each one of these has been nailed individually—whoa!
Each one of these boards has been nailed individually, and he's even made, like, a—a jig. I don't know what you'd call it, but like a spacer to nail the boards, to space them exactly so that over time, they won't warp and, you know, just have big gaps in the fence.
These, hopefully, are going to stay.
The garden, obviously, isn't level, so it tapers down.
I don't know if you can see it on camera, but they curve down to follow the—the drop in the garden all the way down to the bottom of the patio here.
My son has been helping out, which has been absolutely fantastic.
And they've been on such a roll because of my brilliant brother-in-law's system for getting these fences up.
He's seen so many fences over time just blow out and fall apart, and every part of this design designs out some of the problems that he's seen from the fences that he's had to repair and replace over time.
They've managed to do this over two days.
We're in the final half-day now, just to finish up to here.
Again, I mean, we decided to go up to the—the—the fence posts are absolutely, uh, staying the test of time.
It just felt wrong to take out.
They're the only three fence panels that have stood up.
I think we're going to go all the way later this year.
So for now, we've decided to just bring the fence up to—up to here.
And then the new design will just join onto this for now, temporarily.
And then in the spring, we'll probably just get the final two—two sets of 10 feet up to the back of the garden.
We've not wanted to go for concrete posts.
I mentioned that on the—on the last video.
I'll show you the problem with the concrete posts.
Firstly, they look like a municipal detention center.
I absolutely love—I mean, look at it! It just—it just—it's just fantastic.
I love the fact that it's just wood against nature, even though that hasn't served us well over the last 10... 10 years.
It... it just looks great.
It looks so much better than these things.
And the thing with the—the concrete posts is that they do rot over time.
They do...
I've got an example here.
The concrete posts aren't infallible either, because the—I mean, these do crumble, and they start to fall apart anyway.
So there's all that expense, and they're more expensive as well.
And the fence panels still blow in, so you've still got to replace the panels over time.
Look... look at that one.
And it's really difficult to get to those ones because they're behind this tree.
I think this tree is, uh, probably not going to make it through 2025.
But this absolutely fills our garden, and it's just so big and inappropriate to have on the edge of the garden.
It goes all over the neighbour's garden when it's in leaf.
It just blocks everything out.
I think we're going to be really pleased to see this taken back, and, uh, I think we'll probably have to do that in the spring.
My brilliant brother-in-law Steve and my son have been out.
You can see how cold it is from the frost.
It's a hard frost...
It's the coldest day of the last year, even though we're into the new year.
He had to dig out each one of these posts in rock solid frozen conditions—minus five!
It's minus five overnight!
So you can imagine how much of a job it is to put in every single one of these posts.
I am calling this a Dad Delivers Success!
Uh, I hope something here might help or inspire you for your garden fencing.
And thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button.
It really helps me to keep this channel going, so thank you!
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Unlock the secrets to accessing your Locked Folder in Google Photos with this simple, step-by-step guide! Whether you're on an Android, iPhone, or iPad, we’ll show you exactly how to find, open, and manage your hidden photos and videos. Learn how to move or permanently delete items from your locked folder with ease, ensuring your private moments stay organized and secure. This quick tutorial will save you time and frustration, so you can take full advantage of this powerful feature in Google Photos. Don’t forget to stick around for bonus tips and tricks to make the most of your photo library!
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Hello! How do you open the locked folder in the Google Photos app on your Android phone, iPhone, or iPad?
On the Google Photos homepage, make sure you're logged into the correct Google account by clicking on this avatar picture on the top right-hand side. Then, we'll need to click on the Library tab, which is this button on the bottom right-hand corner.
There's a button along the top called Utilities—click on that and scroll all the way down to Locked Folder at the bottom of the list here. We now need to use our device security to gain access to the locked folder, and congratulations! Here are all our hidden photos and videos.
If you want to move photos and videos out of the locked folder, just select them by long pressing the picture. We have the option on the bottom here to either Move or Permanently Delete. Congratulations! We did it!
If this video is helping, thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button. It really helps me to run this channel, so thank you! And right here are even more Google Photos tips and tricks.
Can you please help my dad get to 1 million subscribers? Just click on his face. Thanks! Bye!
Want to change the thumbnail for your YouTube Shorts? This step-by-step guide shows you how to do it easily using just your phone! Maybe you're used to TikTok and want to move over to YouTube Shorts. Learn where the hidden options are in the main YouTube app and how to select the perfect frame and add text or filters to make your Shorts stand out.
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How do you change the thumbnail for your YouTube Shorts videos?
It's really easy but the options are really hidden so I can walk you through this step-by-step and you only need your phone to do this.
As you know YouTube Shorts looks so much better when they have a thumbnail that shows what's actually in the video.
First we'll go into the main YouTube app, NOT YouTube Studio, and then we can press on the "You" icon, that's your face or avatar, in the bottom right hand corner.
That brings up this page.
Scroll down to "Your Videos", And click on that and then we can scroll down to the YouTube Short where you want to change the thumbnail.
Find the three dots to the right hand side of the video listing here. This brings up a menu.
One of the options is "Edit".
If we click on edit this brings up a menu. "Edit Video".
On the thumbnail at the top here there's a pencil icon and if we click on the pencil icon it opens the video.
There's a frame at the bottom of the screen and we can scroll through our video to find a frame that can work well for a thumbnail for this YouTube Short.
This video is about delicious croissants so I don't need a thumbnail showing "me". I want a Thumbnail that shows the delicious croissants. We've got to be patient with this because it is really difficult to get the exact frame to land on the exact moment that's best for the thumbnail, but when we have found one we can also add a filter or some text by pressing on the letters icon and then typing in a banner And press "Done".
We can stretch and move the text to wherever we want it. Just click on the tick in the top right hand corner when you're done. You now have a new thumbnail for your YouTube Shorts video. Congratulations! If this is working for you, let me know in the comments down below and thank you for clicking the thumbs up or the subscribe button.
It really helps me to keep this channel going. And right here are even more awesome YouTube tips and tricks for your channel. Can you please help my dad get to 1 million subscribers? Just click on his face.
