Maybe this should be titled “How Jetstar keeps costing me money” because really despite having travelled with a few Low-Cost-Carriers there’s one that has never ceased to let me down.
The premise of a Low-Cost-Carrier (LCC) is pretty simple, as passengers we pay a low price to get ourselves from Point-A to Point-B. We may elect (at our expense) to add options to make that experience more comfortable, or bring bags or even eat. We still expect the plane to arrive and depart as scheduled, and we still expect to be treated as a customer.
So why am I so down on Jetstar?
In short way back in 2007 Jetstar left us sitting at Proserpine Airport for about 5 hours waiting for a plane to arrive. No-one on the ground could tell us where the plane was, nor could their call centre. In fact when it arrive the surly cabin crew were, err, surly, then plane was suffering mechanical problems and ultimately limped to Brisbane some 6 hours late.
Little wonder that it took 8 years before I was willing to risk Jetstar again.
So for our upcoming Japan trip we grabbed a “Pay one-way only” deal with Jetstar, that meant for the princely sum of $1055 Kitty & I were booked from Sydney to Narita return. On the face of it a great deal, sure there’s already nearly $200 of payment fees and seat selection in there but we’re on the (flying) bus!
While we quibble over meal choices (at about $24 each) and baggage (about $80 per 20kg each way) there’s something else afoot.
See we don’t live in Sydney. So getting from Canberra to Sydney for us means a choice between flying, driving, bus or train. I ended up finding some cheap Virgin Australia flights to suit, there’s another $366 on the running tally.
Now on the other end we decided we wanted to start in Osaka and then travel up to Tokyo over our ~11 days. Bam now we’re on a Peach Aviation “Happy Peach Plus” deal for $164 (one-way).
That all sounds great doesn’t it?
Then I get the first e-mail from Jetstar advising a schedule change. Sure’s it’s only a 5 minute wiggle on one leg. No problems!
When a few weeks later another reschedule turned up, going for a few inconsequential minutes I figured “hey that’s what I get for booking 9 months out”.
But it got worse.
Bam!
In mid-February I got the worse one yet. This time the flight from Sydney was going to be delayed by (ultimately after all the minor shifts) almost an hour. Yeah. Suddenly there wasn’t time to change terminals for the Peach flight with any margin for error or delays.
To fix this Jetstar (thankfully) offered the option of an earlier flight which now routed via Melbourne leaving Sydney about 12 hours earlier – this negated the booked accomodation in Sydney but didn’t interfere with our Virgin flights.
It’s not over yet though. Last week I got a notice at 11am with a schedule change, again only a 5 minute shuffle. No problems. Pity it was followed by another shuffle around 5 hours later! Yep, two changes in one day!
It occurs to me that probably the biggest reason behind a lack of fresh posts hasn’t been for a lack of possible content, nor a lack of time, in fact leaving aside the fairly standard self-consciousness problems that affect most people it turns out that I am intrinsically lazy.
I’d say this really kicked in when I returned from my super awesome trip for the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2015. I had so many pictures, and so many things to write about that I just didn’t. Then I thought “wow it’ll be so stale” when I do write about it.
I wrote a bit about our HelloFresh experience, and probably should slip in an update for the past few months of meals, at least the ones that made good photos! In lieu of text there’s some photos below!
Chicken & CousCous
Pork Schnitzel
Lamb Burger
Coconut Chicken
Hoisin Pork
Beef Stir-fry
what dude can’t resist a Genuine Hand-Made Poop Hat?
Probably the most awesome thing going on has been piecing together parts of our upcoming trip to Japan. The research phase has introduced us to using YouTube a bit more to try and learn more and ultimately resulted in me backing my first Kickstarter. Yeah what dude can’t resist a Genuine Hand-Made Poop Hat?
So with nearly two months of 2016 under our belt already maybe it’s time to try and kick myself into gear!
It wasn’t so long ago I was writing about our initial experiences with HelloFresh, the meal kit delivery people.
So perhaps it’s time for an update.
This week marks week 14, we skipped a week by accident, which isn’t hard thanks to the slightly confusing App view where you can pause deliveries.
The meals themselves have worked out well in the most part, if you imagine getting 30+ fixed meals there’s always going to be the one that doesn’t quite match your desires.
However some consistent themes have emerged.
Recipes:
This is tough to judge, they remain easy to follow but, if I’m honest, I’m getting a little tired of the end-result photos being impossible to achieve via the recipe. All the pictures on this page are of meals I made, and thanks to the magic of the camera look great, but somehow the pictures the HelloFresh team put up just don’t reflect the instructions. Small thing but it does lower your self esteem a bit when you can’t get a result close to the #FoodPorn they promote.
Generally though they’ve been good, there’s been a few “too hot to handle” and a few “so bland it’s a shoe” but I could probably do some more work to mitigate this myself!
Meats:
The meat quality is generally good, the chicken while often short dated has never failed to be excellent. The pork has also been great, with well cut portions and not much fat.
The beef on the other hand tends to always resemble those cuts that the butcher offers as part of the cut price BBQ pack, and tends to be grisly and tough. Sometimes I’d thought it had had a romantic moment with Edward Scissorhands – if you get Rump steak in your first box it’s likely to not impress much.
Vegetables:
I’ve not had to substitute or swap out any bad produce although as I’ve said before aesthetically I’ve been a bit challenged from time to time. There was that week that seemed to short us around 200g of potatoes but in the execution there wasn’t an issue – besides who needs those empty carbs 😉
Overall:
We have both been happy with the quality and variety of meals, that said possibly the past few weeks have had a greater degree of “it’s ok” items but here in Australia we are also in the difficult transition from Winter to Summer which really skews the appetite and cooking desires.
I think the fact that we continue to depend on the service and haven’t run off to Marley Spoon or other competitors says it all. Although I’m tempted just to try!
In a previous post I talked about my initial impressions of the HelloFresh delivery that arrived this week. It’s our first time using such a service so the quality of the produce and the quality of the menu/recipes are equally important in determining if we’ll continue.
The recipe was straight forward as previous experience has led us to expect. The pre-prepared mince joined an array of ingredients that did need some preparation.
The provided Ingredients
Chopped and prepped
Meatballs rolled as directed
Putting it together
When it comes down to it preparing this dish is quite simple, there’s a few steps but with only two saucepans at play it’s hardly a challenge.
The instructions are very clear and provide incremental timings which deliver a good result. I probably could have halved the size of the meatballs (I divided the mince as directed) and added a bit more Golden, Brown, Delicious to them but for the initial few boxes from HelloFresh we’ve trying o be sticklers for the recipes!
Starting the sauce
Simmering to completion
Hitting the Plates & How it Tastes
I found it a little hard plating, pasta just doesn’t seem to want to cooperate or be photogenic so there’s only the single photo.
In summary it was an interesting diversion from a regular bolognese and reasonable value at the $11.50 cost. It wouldn’t be hard to reproduce this recipe for about half that price, but you’d be having to make about 6 portions to do it!
In a previous post I talked about my initial impressions of the HelloFresh delivery that arrived this week. It’s our first time using such a service so the quality of the produce and the quality of the menu/recipes are equally important in determining if we’ll continue.
The HelloFresh Pepper Crusted Steak with Warm Potato Salad
Included in “the box” are recipe cards for the ingredients, they’re also available online at their website in PDF format. This is our second meal from “the box” after the North African Lamb Tagine posted previously.
The recipe is simple enough and in some ways hardly imaginative but was also the first meal where we needed to supply some of our own “pantry items”.
Ingredients laid out
Potatoes ready to roast
Crush your own peppercorns
laying out the green
Putting it together
Pepper Crusted Steak with Warm Potato Salad brings a few more parallel cooking functioning into play. While the oven roasts the quartered chat potatoes a pot simmers away ready to blanch the sugar snap peas just before serving. Meanwhile the steaks (a rather thin piece of rump) gets a single side coating of crushed peppercorns before hitting the pan.
The instructions are very clear and provide incremental timings which deliver a good result. To my taste the steak could have been a bit less “done” although this is more a function of thinner cuts then perhaps first anticipated by the HelloFresh crew.
Golden brown delicious chat potato
Mixing the warm potato salad
It’s not rocket science and once the ingredients are brought together it starts looking like the sample picture on the menu!
Hitting the Plates & How it Tastes
Up close with the HelloFresh Pepper Crusted Steak & warm potato salad
Laying out on the plate the meal looks good with the vibrant colours of the salad contrasting the peppery char of the steak.
The warm potato salad is really the highlight of this meal, the steak itself was fine, but we all know what a piece of peppered steak is like don’t we? The salad had crunch from the sugar snap peas, a little bite from the shallots and the aromatic dill carrying though the buttery smoothness of the roasted potato.
Some other reviews claimed there’s too much pepper on the steak but that’s something under the control of the chef so I don’t know why they ended up with more than they liked when they put it on in the first place!
In summary it was a good, filling meal that met with the expectation raised from the AUD11.50 per plate cost. A minor downside was that the cuts of rump steak were not the best I’ve seen.
In a previous post I talked about my initial impressions of the HelloFresh delivery that arrived this week. It’s our first time using such a service so the quality of the produce and the quality of the menu/recipes are equally important in determining if we’ll continue.
The HelloFresh North African Lamb Tagine
Included in “the box” are recipe cards for the ingredients, they’re also available online at their website in PDF format. Our first meal was “the lamb”, chosen for no other reason than the expiry date of the lamb itself was closest.
The recipe looked simple enough and the ingredients far from exotic, but still there’s a comprehensive level of inclusion, things that we’d probably not buy if shopping for this meal ourselves. The small amount of mint to garnish for example, or the slivered almonds, these are things that cannot be bought in such small quantities normally and end up lurking in the panty until cleared out long beyond their sell-by date.
Laying out the ingredients
Toast this! Slivered Almonds
Chop that!
Putting it together
The North African Lamb Tagine is listed by HelloFresh as being one of their more difficult recipes for the week. I suspect this is partially because there’s a few separate cooking activities going on, and because there’s a few more ingredients to bring together with reasonable timings.
It’s still a 1-pan meal though which is a good thing (I’m not counting the use of a bowl for prepping the Couscous)
The instructions are very clear and provide incremental timings for most steps allowing even the most naive kitchen user can get a good result.
The second phase is cooking down the vegetables
It’s not rocket science and once the ingredients are brought together it starts looking like the sample picture on the menu!
The last step makes it look like the meal on the recipe card
Hitting the Plates & How it Tastes
Nestled on the bed of couscous, sprinkled with the garnishes of toasted almonds and chopped mint I’m very impressed with how similar to the sample photos this looks.
While I don’t always go-to-town on presentation when cooking I’m very aware that we eat with our eyes first and putting in some effort does make a massive difference.
At first bit the combination of textures is good, theres still some firmness to the carrot while the lamb is tender. The crunch of the almonds breaks up what could have been a very stew-like meal. Mixing through with the couscous changes the texture again.
The seasoning could have more kick, but reading other reviews online indicate that the Hellofresh team have to be everything to all people and in this case have chosen a good middle ground.
In summary it was a great tasting, filling meal that met with the expectation raised from the AUD11.50 per plate cost.
Several weeks ago a little card arrived in our mailbox offering a 50% discount on the HelloFresh food delivery service. While the website promised “everything but the chef” we were still skeptical, would, or could, a home delivery produce service really live up to expectations?
I’m the kind of person that will agonise over the choice of every individual piece of produce I buy, secondly we both know what we like and dislike (or have a physical reaction with) so obviously we were needing to concede some control to the HelloFresh team.
“The Box” Arrives
We were really looking forward to the arrival of “the box” on Tuesday and during the afternoon it mysteriously arrived at our doorstep. This was the easiest and least stressful grocery shopping I’ve ever done!
We quickly opened it and explored the contents. As you can see from the pictures below pretty much everything is labelled, packed and portioned for HelloFresh customers to match the included recipe cards.
“The Box” is on the doorstep
Fresh produce looks quite good
Meats, still chilled thats to an icepack
Drygoods & Seasonings
Overall I’d say we’re happy with the quality of the produce, nothings been rotten, cosmetically challenged or not fitting with the claims of freshness. Looking through he HelloFresh social media presence indicates that from time-time quality can drop the ball. I’d expect this is largely due to inattention of the packing team and not a deliberate outcome.
The Recipes!
We signed up for the 3 meal, 2 people deal. So while we may have thought on unpacking the box that “there’s not a huge amount of food here” a lot of the questions would be answered by cooking up the included recipes and seeing how they delivered.
So over the coming posts I’ll go into each recipe from this box…
When listed they don’t sound like culinary adventures, but I’ll throw it back to a bigger question, how often do you cook something different through the week? In many ways I’m hoping the box provides inspiration to bring more variety into my kitchen and breaks some of the “it’s easy to throw this together” habits of old. We shall see!
I’m less into shopping than this post makes me look, however the “Megamall” can be a fascinating adventure for travellers.
On my upcoming Malaysia trip I’ll be trying to hit some of the largest in the world!
Malaysian Megamalls
Berjaya Times Square
Sunway Pyramid
Berjaya Times Square
Malaysia is well represented in the Wikipedia List of Megamalls playing host to 8 in the list while Australia has a single entry. I’ve already visited a couple on past trips and this time I’m hoping to chalk up a few more!
1Utama – The largest in Malaysia and the =5th largest in the world
Mid-Valley Megamall – 8th Largest in the world and visited in 2014. At the time I just thought it was big, now I understand just how big!
Sunway Pyramid – 11th largest and maybe a little out of my way for this trip – but you never know!
Berjaya Times Square – Visited in 2012, 2014 and as it’s almost “over the road” from my accommodation will be visited again in 2015. In 18th position it’s a sizeable effort to cover! This is also the 8th largest building in the world! Berjaya Times Square
Queensbay Mall – Located in Penang this may be a stretch to fit into my short stay in the area. However to hit the equal 39th in the worlds largest malls it may be worth the effort!
IOI City Mall – Taking 49th position this mall is in an area that I’ll be trying to visit at least once this trip. It may be an even adventure after the F1 practice!
AEON Bukit Tingii Shopping Centre – I don’t like my chances of making it to the 55th largest mall, but as my KLIA Ekpres will pass it a few times I may jump off!
Aman Central is oping this year, unfortunately I won’t make it there.
When travelling there’s one thing we all do a lot of, and my preferred method of dealing with it is “old school”. But first lets take a look at some of the Supporting Acts before the Travel Gadget that I have in every trips packing list.
Supporting Roles #5: Travel Charger
Kogan 6.8A USB Travel Charger
It sounds simple, but bringing along a specific travel charger can make your life much easier. I’ve recently bought a high-output model through Kogan (pictured), with 4 ports and 4 different power plugs it will work in most countries and charge my gadgets simultaneously. A travel gadget is worthless if it’s not charged and ready!
The plug heads fit to a more conventional style socket meaning that you can also use cables with figure-8 plugs which are easy to find in most supermarkets or electrical retailers world wide.
While there are some nifty devices out there that incorporate Wifi routers, hide-away plugs or other great features you’re also plugging them into unknown power sources and sometimes sparks do happen. The Kogan unit was “cheap”, meets the need to charge my TZ40, WT8, Smartphone and USB power bank all at once. It it fails during travel I can replace it easily.
Supporting Roles #4: USB Power Bank
Patriot Fuel+
I may be starting to seem obsessive about power, and perhaps I am, but I also know how inconvenient it is to not be able to take that last round of photos, quickly find a route to the hotel or double-check an airline confirmation.
Power banks can be cheap, however with hundreds of models available in every country it will pay to seek out some reviews if you’re wanting to pick up a known device. You need to consider how you’ll carry this device, it’s a travel gadget to charge other travel gadgets so portability (weight and size) is critical.
I carry a Patriot Fuel+ 5200mAh unit that has some nice usage features and has served well on a few trips now. It’s definitely not the best device on the market but I would buy again given the choice between an unknown brand and the Patriot. The size is good, and I can generally eek out a full recharge of the iPhone and both camera batteries before it becomes a dead-weight. You should consider the mAh rating of the devices you’re carrying, and how much life you get from their batteries. A spare battery is always a good idea for cameras anyway, but you don’t need to have a fully charged camera upon returning to your hotel.
Having dual USB ports is critical as being able to top-up two devices (camera/GoPro AND Smartphone typically) at once while on-the-go makes a big difference. I tend to “boost” charge my camera and smartphone when sitting around having lunch.
The 2011 Released FT3 wight he 2013 Released TZ-40
I used to carry a D-SLR, or rather, I used to lug a D-SLR, lens, batteries and accessories and eventually I got sick of it. In 2012 we purchased the compact waterproof Panasonic Lumix and were amazed by the quality of photos from such a small and robust package.
In 2014 I upped the game by switching to the Panasonic Lumix TZ40 and came away more impressed.
If you’re a keen photographer you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the range of models and capabilities available on the market today. DPReview has shortlisted the hits for 2015 and there’s a few other reviews and comparisons worth reading;
Remember when travelling you want to enjoy the experience and not anguish over photography, get your camera before you leave, learn the modes and read a few more photography tips blogs to hone your skills. Having less gear to carry is always good and these more basic (in appearance at least) cameras will let you work on composition while still delivering stunning pictures.
Supporting Acts #2: Smartphone or Tablet or Both
SmartphonesToshiba Encore Tablet
The holy war on what Smartphone or Tablet to buy and use when travelling is one I’ll skirt around by saying that every technology item you take on your travels should be one that you’re familiar with.
On a shorter trip all you’re going to need is a Smartphone, a few map apps, perhaps the TripAdvisor App with downloaded content and Apps where you can access your email, booking information and some basic messaging.
My Travel Essential Apps include:
Airline Apps for all airlines I’m using or likely to use on the trip. Flight+ to track all my flights and their on-time status.
Maps – Google Maps, Apple Maps, pretty much any you can find with coverage of the desitination
Dropbox/Onedrive/GoogleDrive offer cloud based storage for documents and files. This can be a c=good way to keep your travel documentation handy (those pesky T&C for your Travel Insurance) and also can provide a backup facility for your photos while on the road.
WhatsApp/iMessage Being able to chat in real time back home without the expense of text messaging (you’ll still need data) is a huge bonus. The “I’ve landed, checked in” sequence can take the worry away from parents and loved ones.
But what of the tablet? I started carrying a tablet (iPad) in 2012 and haven’t really looked back. The extra real estate on-screen helps with eye strain and the range of Apps is awesome. Since then I’ve tried numerous (Android, iOS and Windows) other solutions including going back to travelling with a laptop.
Today my favourite is a 8″ Toshiba Encore WT8. It runs Windows 8.1 and lacks some sophistication but most importantly reconnects me with USB card readers, and fast simple image management software. For 2015’s trips I’m aiming to upload resized photos each day into my Onedrive storage while on the road. The larger on-screen keyboard should make posting much easier too. I’ll keep you all posted on how it turns out.
My #1 Favourite Travel Gadget
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Kindle
I’ve had a Kindle for just over 3 years and in that time it’s given me countless hours of reading enjoyment. It’s my number one travel gadget because it’s filled the hundreds of hours in airports, on planes and dingy hotel rooms with excitement and action. It’s saved me from buying paperbacks to lug around, and with language books, destination guides loaded has become a partner in travel.
The first response most people have is “but my tablet has an e-reader” and yes that’s true, but here’s why a Kindle (or it’s peers is much better)
e-Ink. This simple display technology is closer to paper, it’s not “refreshed” like an LCD screen which impacts how it stimulates brain activity. Tablets (and other LCD screens) can cause you to “wake up” when using them – hardly ideal for relaxing at the end of the day.
Extreme battery life. My Kindle is good for around 2 weeks of intensive use with Wifi active. That’s after 3 years! In short the low power consumption of e-Ink displays mean that no matter how long your flights are you’ll be reading from start to finish.
No distractions. A Kindle is a passive device, there’s no messaging pop-ups, you can’t “just check my email” or otherwise engage with the world.
Project Gutenburg has an array of interesting titles
Before every trip I stock up the Kindle with “new” titles gathered from the archives, these older stories can give you an interesting perspective of travel, adventure and life.
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