Showing posts with label Daddy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daddy. Show all posts

Friday, 26 September 2025

How I clean my computer keyboards!



Keyboard Cleaning: Handheld Vacuum vs. Compressed Air Duster (JML Go Vac & Whatook reviews)
These Blowers Changed How I Clean My Keyboard! 
Are your keyboards absolutely filthy? I'm unboxing and reviewing two popular gadgets that might clean them: the JML Go Vac 3-in-1 handheld vacuum and the Whatook Compressed Air Duster. Putting them to the test on my disgusting PC and MacBook Pro keyboards, comparing which is more effective. The Go Vac sucks up the dirt for a tidy cleanup, while the Whatook blows it away with serious power. I show how much grime is hidden beneath the keys and find out which of these tools is the best solution for a clean work battlestation!

How I clean my computer keyboards!



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
I don't know about you, but my keyboards are absolutely filthy disgusting. This is my PC keyboard. Look at it. Absolutely disgusting. And my MacBook Pro that I've had for 3 years. I... I know. I can tell just from the key action that there must be all kinds of grime and dust and dirt underneath those uh lovely Silicon Valley designed Apple keys there. So, what's the best way to clean them? I did try one of those um aerosol cans with the straw on the end and the problem with that is that it does actually drip out some liquid which is the whole point of the thing that you want to avoid. It just seems pointless. So I bought... impulsively I bought this JML Govac 3-in-1 vac blower and inflator uh in the supermarket. This was straight off the supermarket shelf. And on Amazon, I bought this Whatook? Whatook... Whatook compressed air duster. And I think they're slightly different. They're priced pretty much exactly the same at the moment, but the Go Vac is is what it says it is. So, it's a vacuum, a small uh cordless handheld vacuum. So, it can suck and blow. So, it's a vac blower and inflator. And the... the other one, the Whatook compressed air duster, just blows. It just blows. And I've got my teenage son giggling away behind the camera there at me saying that it blows and sucks as it goes. But which... which one's the best? What am I going to use? Let's dive into my filthy keyboards and we will unbox these blowers and suckers and see which one works. I'm going to unbox the compressed air duster, the blower first. because my son wants it and he wants it right now. So, uh, if you come... come over, you can get a bit of closeup. I don't know if you can see that on... on my camera, too. It comes wrapped up in a bag and it comes with all these attachments. Although, weirdly, so my son got one of these before and it didn't have any attachments in, did it? Uh, it looked like it should have. It came with one. This one comes with the... the main unit itself, obviously, and it Oh, that's protectively taped up. So, this is your main blower. Wow, this looks great. Oh, you hold it for 3 seconds to start. Here we go. See if there's any charge in it. [Music] 
So, it looks like there are three power settings. You just click the trigger button. Got a nice bag to keep all the bits in. That's going to be so crucial with this actually. And then we have different nozzles that clip on. So, that just squeezes on. And does that go on? No. So obviously I'm doing this for the first time itself. Oh, right. So they clip inside the the orange thing here. So if you put... there's like a brush attachment. And then we have this... is for blowing sideways. What's that for? There's a long reach nozzle. I want to use this one on my MacBook, I think. So I'm just going to use this. This nozzle. Is that the Yeah, this is like the most narrow nozzle. Here we go. Go close. Be able to see it. Oh, I don't think you see that. Can you see how much it also has an LED light that shines?
That's good. But the real test is for the keys, the keyboard. Should we have a go? I think I'll use the brush attachment for this. This is the one we bought before, which is smaller. I thought this was the same. What's great about this one, though, is you think it's more powerful. is way more powerful. Should I turn it on? Hold it down and it's got a light there and there's like a trigger there and then it's got three modes. Yeah, like that. Yeah. Or if you just hold it down. Yeah. Okay. Wow. It's blowing the stuff off the... But the downside with it was it doesn't have any attachments. No attachments. Well, it had one. It was just that and it fell off. And look, the plastic is cracking as well. So these and you haven't done an Oops. Sorry. Didn't mean to do that. You owe me a new one. You broke it. Here you go. So I'm going to now brush the keys. Are you able to go? Just hold it down. Right. Go close on the keys. Here we Oh, it blew the thing off. There you go. 
Oh, wow. I don't know if you can hear me over the noise, but um we're in bright sunlight, so you probably can't see the amount of dust that's coming out. Oh, can you see the debris coming out? Oh, yeah. This has never been cleaned like this. Oh, your escape key works better now, does it? Yeah. Look, it doesn't it doesn't stick down anymore. Oh my god, that's fine. That one actually works now. That used to just get stuck. Oh, it does a little bit. Oh, so okay. So, we've already improved the keyboard. So, this is great, but uh you can't see what power setting you have. Uh you just have to sort of guess from the sound, and there's a dog hair under my space key here that I just can't get to, but it seems really powerful. So, all in all, I'm impressed with I've blown the box away. All in all, I'm impressed with this blaster. You can actually charge it from USB-C, which is really helpful. I I wish there'd be a display and the nozzle seems to fall off really easily, but just for a handheld blower, it's going to be really helpful around the house. We're going to use this a lot, I think. Let's move to the next uh the next product. This is a JML product, which is quite famous here in the UK. In the box, we get this looks so similar. So, we have an on/off switch here, and it's a definite push button on off USB-C charging. We also get a filter and a dust bin that sits inside the dust collector. And it looks like this filter is washable as well, which is really handy. I guess that just clips onto here. And finally, the nozzle attachments. I hope a crevice nozzle. There's a brush attachment that goes on. I don't know what these are. Oh, right. So, these are for the other end. So, this is a wide inflator nozzle. So, you can use it as a blower. Oh, yeah. Right. Okay. So, while it sucks at this end, it actually blows out that end. And you can actually put that on and use it to inflate an inflatable bed or something that needs blowing up. This is a narrow blower inflator nozzle. So, let's dive in. And it's a little bit unfair of me to be testing both of these straight out of the box because they're not fully charged. I should probably fully charge them. But I just uh just too excited. I just wanted to get in here and clean this absolutely disgusting keyboard. There is all sorts of debris underneath. And what's great with both of these is that it'll be... it'll be really helpful for pushing out anything loose like grains of rice or any big bits of dirt that would actually affect the key action. What's really working well with this particular vacuum, rather than blowing it all out, I'm able to actually dislodge all of the filth on the side of the keys with the brush attachment. And that's actually uh lifting off even more dirt than the... the free and loose dirt that's underneath the keys. So easy to run it in between the letters and numbers. And just look at the chunks of fills coming out from underneath the space bar. I didn't realize there was quite that much. Quite a lot of dog hair. It has to be said. It's good that it's sort of dislodging all of that caked on dust that's on the sides of the keys. Just makes the thing look nicer as well as run more efficiently. Looking at the box on... on this, it's good for cereal upholstery, coffee. This would work really well in a car, I think, as well. Just getting into all of those nooks and cran crannies. This is the real test, though. Let's see how much filth is in the dust bin. So, I'll take off the nozzle and I think I can pull the filter out with my finger. Wow, look at all that. That's just from a few minutes with no charge as well, just with the charge that the vacuum came in the box. That has brought out so much stuff from underneath the keys. And that might be really good to run on my... on my laptop as well. I might run this over. So, obviously there are two different ways of doing this now. You either blow it out and it goes everywhere. Or you could do the tidier version of using a vacuum to suck it out and then you can actually see how much stuff comes... comes off. Is this helping? Are these things that you need in your life? Let me know down in the comments below. And I'll leave links to something that's close to these two. Either a handheld vacuum or just a compressed air blower. Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button. and it really helps me to keep this channel going. And right here is what YouTube knows you want to be watching next.

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Sunday, 21 September 2025

Is a new DEHUMIDIFIER FILTER worth it? (How to fit Meaco Arete filters...)



It's been 2.5 years since I bought my MeacoDry Arete One dehumidifier, and I've never changed the filter. Meaco recommends changing it every 3 months. In this video, I'm doing the overdue and pricey task of changing the HEPA filter. I'll show you what a filter looks like after two and a half years of use, and I'll walk you through the simple, step-by-step process of putting in a new one with this honest review. I'll also share my own money-saving calculations ("Dadanomics"), and tell you why it's so important to protect the fan and mechanism inside these expensive machines.

Is a new DEHUMIDIFIER FILTER worth it? (How to fit Meaco Arete filters...)



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

I am just a little bit too excited about this. I am going to change the HEPA filter in our Meaco dehumidifier so you can follow along and see what that's like. Because we bought this MeacoDry Arete One dehumidifier 2 1/2 years ago. Uh we got it here from Costco. It's the 18L one, which is the same size as the 20L and 25L dehumidifiers by Meaco Dry. Here's the challenge. Meaco recommend that you change the filters every 3 months, which means that I've missed out on this about 10 times at the moment. I'll show you what it looks like if you don't follow the recommendation and don't change your air filter. I'll show you how the air filter looks. Should we have a look around the back? So, this is the Arete One. The Arete Two is very similar to this. I'm dwarfed by this. I'm trying to get it all in one shot. So, I've got it on the on the kitchen table, but this is how the the filter comes off. There's like this plastic section on the back. This is the Arete One. The Arete Two is really similar to this. So, we just slide this off. And then inside, if I hold it up to the camera, that is how the filter looks after 2 and 1/2 years if you don't change the filter. I only hoovered this a couple of weeks ago just to get the big chunks of dust off the edges from where the filter sits. I actually made this video about vacuuming the filter area on my dehumidifier. It has a... a fine grill next to the changeable air filter and that really clogs up with dust. I got a lot of stick in that last video for vacuuming the filter. There was they were saying things like you shouldn't hoover it. You should change it. I get that. I get it. But the hardest part for having a dehumidifier for most people is these these are pretty significant purchases. The these things ain't cheap. And that's before you even factor in the running costs as well. So to spend, wait for it, £40 on a pack of air filters like this seems insane. I... I completely understand. I feel the same way, too. I bought these air filters with my own money. Uh I got them from the Meaco site. I was going to get the off-brand ones from Amazon because that's how I roll, and they looked okay, but it was really difficult to get the right size. you know, the exact correct dimensions for the exact dehumidifier. They are on there, but sometimes the listings are mis-listed. The dimensions, they just don't seem right for what they claim to be. Should we open them up? This feels like a real treat. So, I spent £40 on this. I mean, that's I was going to say it's a night out. Uh, they come sealed in a bag, and on the site, they say they can't accept returns if this bag is open. So, should we do it? Should we Should we do it? Should we open it up? This blows 40 quid. So you get three in the pack. So if it's £40 for three, you can see there's the official Meaco logo on the top there. £40 for a pack of three. I make that about 13 quid per filter. So for 3 months equates to about a pound a week uh if you change these filters every 3 months. Those maths are Dadanomics and I do them all the time to try and feel better about spending money on this. makes it more palatable somehow to put the the filter in. It's so clean and white. I haven't seen it looking like this for well over 2 years. So, I tend to I think you can put them either way round. They have ribbons on the side for helping to to pull them out, but I tend to just so I can remember which way round it is. I tend to put it in with the Meaco logo facing outwards and the ribbons can help you pull it out. Push it in. It's a really snug fit. So, you can see there's uh there's like a foam, a black foam around the edge, and that kind of compresses to to hold it in place. And then if you're doing this, I'd probably recommend running a... a vacuum around the edges because it should be gunked up with dust by the time you pull it out. I've already done that, pre-cleaned it. And I just run the Hoover over the the grill here. Also, before you do it, I do make sure that this honeycomb is vacuumed out cuz that really gets lots of dust clogged up. I think I've got some footage here from the last time that I hoovered this. I'll just push the filter into the tray. I mean, I think there's a particular way up it has to go. I think the notch goes on the outside and this just slides in like that until it goes clunk. The thinking also goes, if you're going to run one of these, why not purify the air at the same time? And I think this filter actually protects the mechanism. It actually protects the really super expensive dehumidifier. It stops it from getting clogged up, getting dust into the fan inside and the mechanism inside. We can't open this up. You probably could, but I wouldn't I wouldn't try it. I think it invalidates all kinds of warranties. I wouldn't know what to do in there anyway. they they don't open up easily, so we can't get inside to to clean it. To change the filter on a Meaco Arete Two, it's exactly the same process, but the filters are completely different sizes, and they're also different sizes for the smaller Arete One's as well, the 10L and 12L sized dehumidifiers. So, be careful that you get the right one. And congratulations, we have now changed the filter on a Meaco dehumidifier. I'm calling this a dad delivers a success. Thanks for getting this. I feel dwarfed by this thing again. I think it's the camera angle, but thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button if you've reached this point of the video. I really appreciate it. It really helps me to keep this channel going. So, thank you. And right here is what YouTube knows you want to be watching next.

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Wednesday, 23 July 2025

EVACUATED! Our IKEA Trip Went Horribly Wrong



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.
Perfect family outing!

EVACUATED! Our IKEA Trip Went Horribly Wrong



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

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.

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Is a theme park FAST PASS worth it?


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Friday, 18 July 2025

Is a theme park FAST PASS worth it?



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. 

Is a FAST PASS worth it? (Chessington Theme Park Reserve & Ride Virtual pass!)



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

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.

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Riding the Seaton Tramway! A Scenic Family Trip with Our Dog


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Wednesday, 26 March 2025

Riding the Seaton Tramway! A Scenic Family Trip with Our Dog



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.

Riding the Seaton Tramway! A Scenic Family Trip with Our Dog



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
Hello, welcome back to the channel, I'm Neil...
This is the Dad Delivers vlog where we try new things to make your family happy...
And today I... I'm here in Seaton At the Seaton Tramway.
And I'm just going to share with you some of the sights and sounds of a day out at the Seaton Tramway!

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How We Found a Secret IKEA Pop-Up Store on Oxford Street!


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Tuesday, 25 March 2025

How We Found a Secret IKEA Pop-Up Store on Oxford Street!



🛍️ 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!

How We Found a Secret IKEA Pop-Up Store on Oxford Street!



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

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!
Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button—it really helps us to keep this channel going.
Right here is what YouTube knows you want to be watching next.
We are calling this Dad Delivers Success!
Can you please help my daddy get 10,000 subscribers? Just click on his face.
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Why my 16 year old is overtaking me.


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Monday, 24 March 2025

Why my 16 year old is overtaking me.



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!

Why my 16 year old is overtaking me.



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

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.
And right here is what YouTube knows you want to love watching next.
And it's not *that* video.
It isn't *that* video.


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Why This 150 Year Old Tree Will Get Whacked?


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Sunday, 23 March 2025

Why This 150 Year Old Tree Will Get Whacked?



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.

Why This 150 Year Old Tree Will Get Whacked?



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

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.


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🥩 Air Fryer PORK CHOPS in minutes! Cooking time & temperature with Ninja Foodi Max


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Saturday, 22 March 2025

🥩 Air Fryer PORK CHOPS in minutes! Cooking time & temperature with Ninja Foodi Max



How do you cook pork chops in an Air Fryer?
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.

🥩 Air Fryer PORK CHOPS in minutes! Cooking time & temperature with Ninja Foodi Max



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

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!


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How our new fence is INDESTRUCTIBLE!


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Tuesday, 4 March 2025

How to have cheap London Day Out! Epic E-BIKE rental trip!



How to have Epic E-bike Rental Trip to London! This is a great thing to do with older kids on a day out to London: rent a bike from the Santander Cycle Hire. This is my first day back on a Boris E-Bike, after a major collision that put me in A&E with no memory. 13 years later, I'm back on the rental bikes and this time the new E-bikes released for hire in London. We rent the electric bikes from a docking station in Tower Hill, using the Santander Cycles app, then cycle down Victoria Embankment to Big Ben and the Houses Of Parliament, down past St. James Park to Buckingham Palace. This is a real time electric bike ride, with all the sights and sounds from our bike ride POV...


How to have cheap London Day Out! Epic E-BIKE rental trip!






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When these three 3-wheel bikes get together in Camden Lock...


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Monday, 3 March 2025

When these three 3-wheel bikes get together in Camden Lock...



This is a quick preview from an upcoming video where we take out the Santander Cycle Hire E-bikes for another a cheap day out in London.  We hit Camden Lock where I grew up, looking for the ultimate toilet... and get distracted by these trike motorbikes. 3 of the 3-wheel motorcycles. And a snake.
Enjoy!

When these three 3-wheel bikes get together in Camden Lock...




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Walking into a load of influencers in a shop on a video shoot in Rome...


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Walking into a load of influencers in a shop on a video shoot in Rome...



Clip from an upcoming video... We were shooting in Rome, and I wanted to show you inside an anime clothing store called Friking. Except a group of influencers came in and knocked it out of the park instead. I went over and said Hi like a complete Dad. Negative Aura, according to my kids.

Walking into a load of influencers in a shop on a video shoot in Rome...





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How to Trevi Fountain with a family in Rome... and where to eat!


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Sunday, 2 March 2025

How to Trevi Fountain with a family in Rome... and where to eat!



We went out to see the Trevi Fountain in our evening in Rome. This is what it's like, plus a suggestion for where to eat out afterwards: We really enjoyed the Comodo Restaurant which is really close to the Trevi Fountain. 

How to Trevi Fountain with a family in Rome... and where to eat!



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
hello welcome back to the channel where we try new things to make your family happy and tonight we're sharing this with you it's a night out at the Trevi fountain in Rome Italy uh we just thought we'd share some sights and sounds and maybe some food as well afterwards but this is how the evening goes down [Music]
[Music]
I feel like I should explain I'm dressed like this because we did plan to have a a day out at the beach and it went wrong we missed the bus so we took the bus in the opposite direction came sorry we came we came to the here uh the Trevi fountain we we walked past the president's Palace that was very Grand and it's beautiful sunset so this just out I was just about to shoot a piece to camera but you're right his thighs are quite impressive so this is the um presidential Palace with for the president of Italy but I just what's going on with those um statues above the entrance there it looks like they got some kind of satellite dish on their heads I don't think it's a Halo is it oh well uh we're going to get to the Trevi Fountain now Trevor which I think is this way the Trevor Fountain we you think is this way oh man what a great View

so the advice from all the YouTubers is go go in the evening go when it's quieter go you see the fountains in the evening and and uh well thank you YouTube I think everyone's taken your advice but this is the Trevi fountain [Music] [Applause]
[Music] we got a prime pitch um but unfortunately it's one of those fountains that we've not seen anywhere finally we found one and it's up up up mommy's skirt looks like
it's why is it okay the shoes have come off and this is a this is a pretty original experience isn't it paddling near the Trevi Fountain not meant to you're not meant to stay
you that is the one of the most beautiful things in the world and here's one of the other most peaceful things in the world
[Music]
[Music]
yeah oh just here
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
so we're in kodo which is like really close to the Trevi Fountain and uh they have a pasta station Sushi Station you see the bar behind me and obviously Pizza the the the greatest thing of all though is that just over my shoulder are Mario and Luigi so this must be a good place they say you know if a restaurant is full of Italians it must be a good Italian restaurant for this this this Mario and Luigi he gave you a thumbs [Music] up oh recognize these you want to see the dishes okay here are the dishes we've got uh chicken ramen from the Sushi Station we have another chicken ramen and then what did you go for Salad and Coke okay salmon salmon salad yeah in salate cucumber avocado salmon teriyaki marinade aami Mar I'm not sure Pi cabbage oh really and I went for the um suaki salmon which looks absolutely delicious ious nice bit of rice there oh can't wait and some ginger oh should I break into it here we go oh yeah look at that oh yes oh my
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] let's tuck in here we go salmon B of rice okay better I'm calling this a dad delivers success a bit of an impromptu video thank you for hitting the thumbs up I'm giving a Chef's kiss 
I should be thank you for giving me a chef's kiss all hitting this the subscribe button it really helps me to keep this channel going and right here is what YouTube knows you want to be watching next where's Mario

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How first flight on budget airline works with our family... Our WIZZ AIR first impressions review!


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How first flight on budget airline works with our family... Our WIZZ AIR first impressions review!



We have never travelled as a family on a budget airline flight... so come join us fly with Wizz Air from London Gatwick to Rome Fiumicino Airport, Italy. I'm nervous that we'll get stopped for our tickets, or passports, or boarding passes, or baggage allowance, or carry-on hand luggage... or get charged more at the checkin desk or departure gate. We review our experiences on this Italian journey with the kids!

How first flight on budget airline works with our family... Our WIZZ AIR first impressions review!



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
Hello, I'm Neil and... does traveling with your family on a budget airline fill you with dread? 
Me too!
Uh, you suddenly become responsible for... even more responsible for everyone's lives and thousands of pounds worth of tickets and hotel accommodation.
And I'm an ADHD dad, so having to get my head around exact things for the tickets, weights of baggage, dates on your passport, boarding passes, being in the right place at the right time is...
It's not fun! 
The new thing we are trying to make your family happy is traveling with my family on a budget airline without getting kicked off, turned back, or charged extra money. 
We're going to Rome for 5 days.
It was booked literally last minute on lastminute.com and overcame so many hurdles.
We had the wrong names on the tickets. 
We had a passport that was expired and had to do a last-minute dash to the passport office in London. 
But we got through all of that, and now we're at the airport, and oh, my heart is just sinking because I think I've followed all the baggage rules. 
We’re all carrying rucksacks which are well over the size that is stated quite clearly on the Wizz Air website, but I knew in my heart that they would cram under the seats, and I didn't know if that counted.
At the last minute—I think on the night before—I paid for priority baggage, which means that you could carry a big bag, and I just had that as an insurance policy just in case one of our bags was over, or we couldn't do the hand luggage thing. 
I'm glad I did it, but I don't think we needed to do it. 
Everyone has a pretty much a rucksack on their back, and the night before we stood on the scales holding our cases to try and work out how much the cases weighed. 
They were just under the magic 10 kg; I think one of them was 9.9. But at every stage of this journey, something could go wrong—at the check-in desk, or the gate, or the security to the gate—so come with us in real time and we'll take you along on our little journey for the first time traveling as a family on a budget airline.
Wizz Air! 
I... I don't know why I'm nervous because we've done everything that we thought we should do. Got the passport. I still feel like they can say, “No, you've done a thing wrong, and that's it—you can't go!”
So we... so we checked in our baggage, and we literally have no idea what we're supposed to do now. 
I think we’ve just got to find signs for departures. 
Uh, managed to get this on priority because I paid for priority for one person, and my... and my bag is small enough, um... I get to hand-carry it and also got my CPAP machine. 
I can just hand-carry that. It’s... it's really low fuss. 
Uh, I think we’re up here, guys!
I’ll tell you what we have got to do: we’ve got to empty our water bottles.
I don't know if we can do that here. 
Okay, this bottle is emptied.
Time to go through. 
There’s a water bottle.
“Oh no, it’s back again.” 
Can you put that inside of my bag, Stella?
So now we’ve got to bag everything up. 
Okay, so I got busted, uh, because I took the case... I thought the case was going to go in the hold of the plane, and uh, it wasn't, so it's hand-carry. Completely forgot I've got a can of deodorant in there.
Got busted... taken aside, and the deodorant's destroyed. So, uh, these guys have got to smell me for the next 5 days now. 
But that was good; we got off lightly.
I think, uh, we managed... we managed to get airside!
Didn't think it would happen. 
Hey, this Duty-Free aisle goes on forever.
It doesn’t stop. 
I couldn't afford and didn't bother buying tickets for a first-class lounge, so this is our first-class lounge.
“They’re carrying all your stuff for you.” 
Okay, this is the upstairs, and uh, there's lots of expensive food places. Ooh, JD Sports. 
I just want somewhere we can sit down.
“There.” 
Where?
Okay, so it's 0920. 
We’ve got about 40 minutes, so we've decided to, uh, have breakfast in the Wetherspoons. 
This is a small vegetarian breakfast. Oh, sorry, that's a large breakfast. 
And that's the small... that's the small veggie breakfast... that's the large veggie breakfast. 
I'm not a vegetarian, but I just thought—Ooh, there’s more! 
We’ve got, uh, muffins and hash browns as well.
Wow, that looks amazing. 
That looks really good.
“Wait, I’ll get some ketchup.” 
We just wanted somewhere to sit for 40 minutes... and the other great thing about here is they've got a water tap, so there's a hydration station to fill the water bottles back up again if you've, uh, complied with the security instructions.
But here's a little tip—near the coffee station, there's a water tap over there, and you can fill your water bottles up. 
The hydration station, which is next to the toilets—um, there's a queue for it to fill water bottles, so it's quite handy to fill it here.
[Music] 
So it's still recording when it goes black?
Yeah, yeah. 
Okay, I've got to learn some Duolingo.
I've got an hour. 
So our gate number has come up on the screen, so it’s gate number two, so let's try and find gate number two!
We didn't realize how crucial the boarding passes would be, and luckily, just by chance, I’ve WhatsApp’ed them to everyone. 
“It’s estimated to be on stand in the next 10 to 15 minutes. We are going to continue pre-boarding into the area behind us, so once the cabin crew have arrived on the aircraft, the doors will be released for boarding. Thank you.”
Okay, here's a tip: wish we had done. 
Had to download—add the boarding passes on WhatsApp—but to open it, you’ve got to... you need a signal.
So screen grab your boarding pass. 
It seems really obvious now, but we didn't know that, so you screenshot it, then it's in your camera roll, and you don't have to download it every time it's checked. 
I had a bit of an almost near miss at the gate.
They said I had too much baggage. 
It’s because they were looking at the wrong boarding pass. 
This is the toilet on Wizz Air.
So I'm going to take a Wizz in a Wizz Air toilet. 
360° view.
I don’t think I can get it all in on the camera, but you get the idea.
I think apart from this... just the general stress of traveling on a budget airline:
We really liked traveling with Wizz Air. 
The... the plane was new... uh, the seats were clean. 
The check-in was light touch—you know, you hear these horror stories about people being turned away from gates and... and getting interrogated...
We didn't have any of that, so it was a really pleasant experience traveling with Wizz Air.
The plane was super delayed, but I think that was more to do with the weather over Europe rather than much to do with Wizz Air, and look, we're... we're on holiday, so we don't really care that much about running to a timetable. 
Just getting past security and being on a plane felt like a golden opportunity to feel blessed. 
We did it! We're here!
So now we got to wait for the bus. 
We’re a bit late.
I think there was a storm over Europe, so we're about an hour late, but I don't care because that was brilliant. 
Airbus. It was an Airbus A321 Neo.
Okay, so, um, we're kind of standing here for a bit.
Hey, this looks good. 
This looks like it might be an airport bus.
[Music] 
[Music]
Joe! It’s like Speed! 
Speed?
That is the most Italian thing I’ve seen. A Fiat waiting for an Italian airline. 
Okay, so we're in baggage reclaim, and uh, I think we might be here for a while. 
Oh yeah, so we join the official taxi queue and it’s... it goes all the way over there. 
So this is the start of the queue—or the end of the queue—and it looks like there are dudes here who regulate it, which is comforting. 
[Music]
[Music] 
I am calling this a Dad Delivers success!
Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button. It really helps us to keep this channel going, so thank you. 
Grazie Mille! And YouTube knows you want to be watching this next. Can you please help my daddy get 10,000 subscribers? Just click on his face. Thanks, bye!

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Behind the scenes: our Rome Colosseum video intro FAILS...


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Saturday, 1 March 2025

Behind the scenes: our Rome Colosseum video intro FAILS...



Behind the scenes from an upcoming video... I'm trying to create an epic intro shot for the channel, using my family as location crew in the Rome Colosseum (is there any other?) It doesn't quite go to plan until... 

Behind the scenes: our Rome Colosseum video intro FAILS...



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
Okay a little behind the scenes shot
I'm just getting into position for the craziest opening shot I've ever done on the channel, here we go. 
Uh, I'm going to go over here and then I'm on the phone to my daughter who's cueing my son, who's going to film this so let's...
how about this? 
how... how does this look Joe?
Or do you want me to be a bit more Central? 
How's that?
so... so my son he's... he's got the camera there and I'm on the phone to them and we're just going to do this mad intro 
Joe do you think I should take uh sunglasses off?
I'm going to put the phone down a bit. 
tell me... tell me when to go yeah yeah? you tell now yeah okay here we go 
you recording?
okay okay here we go, ready? 
I'm recording on this one so I'll get the sound here. 
Sorry I just got some loud people going past 
okay ready you go about 10 seconds
okay ready? here we go 
where are you? Wave! there you go
go! 
hello I'm Neil welcome back to the channel where we try new things to make your family happy. 
And today we are here!
In the Colosseum - in Rome Italy! 
You got someone... okay you got someone in shot?
should I move over? I'll move over. hang on ready? 
How about here?
yeah don't need to move? okay here we go 
here we go.
Hello I'm Neil - oh Jesus - here we go 
ready?
Hello I'm Neil welcome back to the channel where we try new things to make your family happy and today we are here in the Colosseum in Rome! 
Italy!
You got it? 
This is like when I worked in Telly - with talkback 
you good?
Or should I do a safety one? 
yeah yeah
we good? 
yeah - well done thank you see you later

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Why I'm laying LEGO train tracks in my Garden Office...


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Why I'm laying LEGO train tracks in my Garden Office...



This is a weird little video: I've snapped. And starting to build LEGO CITY train tracks all round my Happy Hut Garden Office. I lay down and assemble the first railroad tracks for the first run of our Lego City Cargo Train. Casper the Cockerspaniel isn't too impressed but will I manage to get the Powered Up hub to pair and controller to work...

BUY A LEGO TRAIN HERE! (I earn commissions from qualifying purchases)
(Amazon Rest of World!) https://amzn.to/3XI5nYE

Why I'm laying LEGO train tracks in my Garden Office...



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
Hello, welcome back to the Happy Hut, and uh... I... I don't know if I should even be sharing this. I don't think I'm even going to upload this video, so we'll see how this goes.

But, uh, coming to the hut, and I'll show you—I'll show you the mess that I've made on the floor. Let me just turn the extra light on so you can see it properly. I've got so much work on at the moment, and instead, I've decided to devote my attention to this.

Um, I don't know what's happened, but I've... I've... I've gone a bit Lego trains around the floor of the hut. And I could pretend that I'm doing this for the kids, even doing it with the kids. I think my son's going to help me with this, but this... this... this is all me to start with.

So we've got so much Lego, and we've got a bit of Lego City train track. I don't know, I think I was just sitting at the desk, and I just thought, "I'll just give it a go." I think I've been thinking about it for years.

So I've got it running by the front door, which I thought would have been a problem, but the great thing, obviously, with Lego track is you can stand on it, and it might break, but it's a bit more rugged than any other railway system.

And, uh, it's just a demonstration that it—that it works. And, um, I thought, "What if... what if I just run it around the floor? Just have a little loop?" I don't have enough track for that yet.

If I show you underneath—I don't know if it might be too dark—this, by the way, I was going to film it, but it was too... too embarrassing. I just pulled out all the junk that I've been hoarding under this bench for about five years.

All my childhood stuff. Not—not the Lego, just everything else. So that's all gone into the garage, and this could be the start of a little top-secret layout that I can cover up when it's not being used and when I should be doing more work.

So I've only got this far, up to there, and now I'm going to have to clear all of this junk. And I did a big, big clear-out of the corner there—you can probably see it in the background of some of my videos. We've got Casper's dog bed in the foreground, but I've got some microphone stands and stationery and stuff there.

And now I've got to work out a way for it to somehow go behind, under, or around the Ikea armchair. I've got a nice clear run there.

And then, the bit I'm most concerned about—because this is when I should be doing work—but I don't know, it's just really nice to have some... something that takes your mind off the world.

Right, this is basically a midlife meltdown. A complete... you get it. But I thought I'd capture it on camera. If I didn't get the clear-out, at least I'd get driving the first stake.

So this is a bit like the, um, the railroad—the railroad barons of the 1800s—driving their first stake.

Um, I'm going to—I'm going to pin the track down, because the great thing with the Lego track is that it has these holes at frequent intervals. I don't need to nail the whole thing down, and I will be moving things around as well, but at least I can help stop it wobbling when it gets kicked by myself or Casper.

I think I'm going to have this switch here—we call them points in the UK. Well... see, that's the problem. As soon as you touch it, it just goes out of alignment.

Um, but you can—I can flip the switch there, and it was—it was underneath there, but I think I really want to maximize the space underneath there. So I've got the points a little bit early here.

Um, but let's—let's nail this in.

This—oh my goodness—am I going to upload this video? I've got so much that I should be doing right now. I don't know why my... my brain is kind of flipping out, but it is.

I just... there's something really pleasing about this, and I'll give you—at the end of the video, as a treat—I’ll give you a bit of a run, because I've managed to rig it up to my phone, and I'll... I'll show you how good this could be for—for the kids.

I'm going to do it for the family, obviously.

I've got a very, very small panel pin. I thought it'd be too small, but it looks like it's just the right size, and it's just—it's just to lightly hold it in place.

Anyway, there we go. Let the record show.

Now, it does wobble around a bit, that's okay. It's just to roughly hold it in place so it doesn't go flying across the room on the main door here for the—for the Happy Hut. And I could cover it up with tiles, could even cover it up with wood when it's not being used.

So I've got some wood here. I'm wondering... what if I made a bridge? And this is—this is where—this is where it all starts to fall apart—my life.

What if I put a bridge? And it—it could be really removable. Really removable? It's either removable or not removable. This will be removable, and I can just plonk it in place when I want to run a train on the top deck, and then I'll have two tiers of loops.

I've only got one train. The other train's in the garage, in bits. I'll show you that in the next video—if I make another video. We've got the world's largest tub of Lego. There's so much in there.

Uh, but that's for another time.

Let's put down the next pin, and I'm sharing this just so you can... can live vicariously through this. You'd have turned off by now if you weren't into Lego trains, so you're among friends.

Thank you! Say hi in the comments—be great to hear from you.

Right, so I'll put this one here. I'm going to use a bigger one, I think, for this one, just to experiment. But I didn’t want to make huge holes in the floor of the hut. Shall I pin it? I'll—I’ll use the pin. Don't want to hit the track, because it's really expensive.

Yeah, what I'm trying to do, I suppose, is like the equivalent of HS2 in the UK. I've got to somehow find a way through, and bizarrely, I think it will be easier to do the raised section first. I think that might be quicker than trying to clear the floor and find a path through.

It's time for the inaugural run!

I've got my remote control here—powered up remote control. I'm going to run the train around this. Let me just show you the geography, though.

There—that—that's the bench that I think I'm going to have the big station in, where all the trains will go. And then they're completely out of sight until I need to use them.

Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button. It really helps me to keep this channel going.

And, uh... there's the—there's the train. We're going to try and pair it up with the—with the remote.

So, I'll hold down the button there, wait for it to go purple... There we go. Is that paired? That doesn't look like it's paired.

Look, it's going to be more sensible if I do this out in the open instead of crawling under the bench. So, um... and I need to put the camera down because I think for it to work, I need to press both the green button on top of the train and the green button on the controller hub.

No, that's the controller, isn't it? The hub's in the train.

Um, I hold them down at the same time.

So here goes. They've both gone purple.

So if I let go—yay! It's gone green! Fantastic!

So I'll do a little run-up. So I'll take the train backwards... oh my goodness, here it goes!

So, other than the test—oh, there's Casper. Come have a look!

He's not a big fan of the Lego train, because I did a test run the other day, you know, just a very short one—you didn't miss anything.

So this will be the very first proper run on camera. Here we go.

I'll just press the plus button...

Oh, I think it's hitting the plug back there. So I've got to—I've got to clear everything. Keep it away from skirting board level.

Let's go back. I'll just give you one more.

Something for the thumbnail!

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How FAKE Lego track for my SECRET train layout helps in my Garden Office...


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