Carluccio’s, Milton Keynes – Review: A Recipe In Getting It *Royally* Wrong

A cold and wet late October’s afternoon in Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre doesn’t perhaps present one with the wealth of independent eateries that I’ve become accustomed to in my midweek London escapades, but there I was, hunting for some warm sustenance to continue braving the crowds. Strolling along I saw the lunchtime set menu offer at Carluccio’s, two-courses for £11.95 and headed on in, never having set foot inside a Carluccio’s before but having high hopes of an Italian lunchtime tasty treat.

First Impressions After a Week With Apple’s iPhone X

September saw Apple announce two new models to add to its successful smartphone armoury, the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X; the latter a radical change of design direction, with the removal of the home button and addition of a new edge-to-edge screen, marking the ten year anniversary of the iPhone family.

With an ageing older iPhone 6, I was straight online on launch night (like a sucker) to pre-order my new X  (pronounced ten), which arrived just about a week ago. Having used the phone fairly extensively for both business and leisure, including a trip to Abu Dhabi, I thought I would share my first impressions of the latest effort from the fruit-based smartphone manufacturer.

The Drinks By The Dram 2017 Advent Calendar and a whole lot of Christmas Love

People, you can ignore the Roman Gregorian calendar, the last 2,000 years of history and any talk to the contrary because you have only got ONE week until Christmas. One week, and one week only until Christmas starts on the 1st of December. That’s when you can open your advent calendar and we all know that Christmas begins when you can eat chocolate before breakfast! Well, maybe grown ups can’t justify chocolate with their daily weetabix but we think that a quick snifter before bed is more than acceptable to keep you in the festive spirit! If you get an advent calendar for the kids then you deserve some Christmas cheer as well, right? Well, Drinks By The Dram think they can help you with that situation, and I think they’re right!

Pioneer Rayz Plus review, lightning connected in-ear headphones, are they really worth the £150 price tag?

When I bought my first Sonos I realised my life had been missing something, then my man SuburbanGent bought himself a EU BOOM 2 to share his love of Peter Andre with the world and I knew that things would never be the same again. Here at TwoMenAboutTown we love our music but you’ll already know that if you follow SuburbanGent’s twitter feed which speaks for us both when it comes to demonstrating just how indiscriminate our musical tastes are. But neither the Sonos nor the Boom provide a particular personal experience, thankfully Pioneer have been making headphones for a long time so they should be pretty good at it by now. We would soon find out because with Apple’s newest attempt at global domination and personal bankruptcy all rolled into one with the iPhone X launch well underway, Pioneer have decided to use their considerable proficiency to launch their first foray into lightning connector powered earphones.

The Uber of the GP World – Push Doctor Review – The Doctor Will See You Now

Getting an appointment in this day-in-age, in some GP surgeries, is a nightmare; taking time off work can be difficult, whilst a non-emergency appointment in my local practice can take up to four weeks – yes, four weeks – before it’s possible to get in front of a doctor.

This, of course, isn’t necessarily the fault of said surgery, it’s hardworking staff or the GPs within, but a reflection of our over-stretched NHS. However, for somebody like myself who finds it difficult to take time off work, let alone get an appointment in the first place, this presents a problem; how do I get in front of a GP and get the treatment or prescription that I need, at a time that is convenient for me, at short-notice?

Enter Push Doctor.

London’s Newest Rooftop Bar – Skylight, Tobacco Dock

If you haven’t already seen, I’m a big fan of London rooftop bars; there’s a great collection of bars and restaurants with sterling views of the capital, but there’s a new kid on the block that offers something a little different.

Dinner at Islington’s Fuel, with Jack Monroe; The Harrowing Poverty Truth This Winter

There is no denying it – I am *incredibly* privileged here at TwoMenAboutTown; from trips to Dubai, to beautiful hotel stays and sampling the finest gastronomic delights up and down the UK, I get to do some very cool stuff. When the invite came through to attend London’s newest pop-up, Fuel by celebrity-chef Jack Monroe, you would correctly assume that I was looking forward to an evening of gluttonous consumption before lazily sneaking off into the night in a food-based coma.

I was therefore not prepared for an evening that would open my eyes and leave me aghast of a crisis of epidemic proportions, with a lasting impression of wanting to do more to help and put my privilege and platform to use. There’s no such thing as a free meal, after all, right?

Salzburg and Vienna; the #2MenEUTour goes to Austria

So far on Trip 4 of the #2MenEUTour, it’s been a rampage across central Europe as we’ve taken in Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg and Stuttgart in a non-stop juggernaut of continental culture dunking. But we knew we couldn’t keep that up, we needed somewhere to slow things down for a few days and what better destination to do that than Austria?  Stunning countryside meets fascinating history in this wonderful land of all things Von Trapp.  Home to old skool Music moguls Mozart and Beethoven, the famous Spanish Riding School and of course some of the friendliest locals you could ever hope to meet, all made Austria one of our favourite destinations of the tour so far.