4/21/2017

Scandic Park Helsinki (Finland)

Scandic Park Helsinki
Mannerheimintie 46, Helsinki 00260, Finland 
Phone: +358 9 47371
Fax: +358 9 47372211
Email: parkhelsinki@scandichotels.com
Photo courtesy of the hotel website

This is one of my favourite hotels of the Scandic chain. Loved loved this hotel!

Location if good, central but in the outskirts of the CBD, so you have both a good location minus the crowds.

The common areas, lounges, eating areas, corridors and rooms are luxurious without being flashy; they are elegant, but modern, trendy and with plenty of very posh design elements.

Our room was like one of those you see in the movies. Wonderfully elegant, spacious, great design armchairs, comfortable beds, marbled bathroom with heated floor and bathtub, good set of toiletries, wonderful palette of colours, everything you need. Very comfortable and very pleasing to the eye.

The hotel has great facilities, pool and what's not, but I didn't use any of those.

The staff were very friendly and helpful.

Breakfast buffet was wonderful, lots of variety and was very good. I found the Asian specialities a bit limited, which is not a problem for me, but if you eat mostly Asian food it might be.

The hotel is great for both travellers and business people. It was very busy when we visited, however, it never felt crowded.

We had free Internet, and worked well and fast.

A bit pricey, but well-spent money. I truly enjoyed my stay.

TIPS
> The Finnair Airport Bus stops 150 metres from the hotel. You ask the driver and he will call you when you are there. Unless you want to waste your money in taxis or transfers, or you are carrying a huge amount of luggage, this is the cheapest way to get there, 6 euro the ticket, bus with Wi-Fi and you walk for four minutes.
> There are a few fast food outlets around the hotel if you just want a quick cheap bite..

Flytoget Airport Express (Oslo, Norway)

Photo courtesy of the Visit Oslo Website

 Flytoget is one of the cheapest, fastest comfortable means to get to the airport. Cheap for Norway, of course. There are other ways to get to the airport, cheaper, but not as convenient.

The train is located on the station's ground area, and you can buy the tickets through their website, through their app, or just at the station by using their ticket vending machines (using cash or credit card). At working hours there are different staff members helping customers with the machines.

Trains run very frequently, so if you miss one, another will be there in about 10-15 minutes. And the train being a specific service to the airport, it is very punctual.

The train is fast, has short stops in different places between the airport and the central station, and is very comfortable. There is a screen with scheduled flights arrivals and departures and some tourist info.

Taking into account the prices of everything in Norway, the ticket is OK. Children under 16 travel for free if accompanied by an adult; half price for kids from 16 and 20, students from 21-31yoa and retires over 67, and full price for adults without a concession.

The only thing I disliked is that the carriages have no ramps to the platforms, so you have to move your suitcase inside by using your muscles, which is not great if your suitcase if very heavy. Also the space devoted to the luggage has not barrier or stopping bar, so the suitcases with wheels tend to move in and out the compartments.

Overall, very good. I will take it again if I return to Oslo.

Microsoft Office 365 Personal 1-year 1 user, PC Key Card

I have several computers at home. I have been using the MS Office Suit for decades and most happy with the programs. The version I'm using in my 'old' laptop is the MS Office 2010, which I bought in CD format, installed in my computer, and works very well. I decided to buy this key subscription for this 2013 version to install it in my brand new laptop two months ago. Since then, I have regretted getting this key subscription, paying for it, and downloading this version of the Suit. 

SOME OF MY ISSUES WITH THIS SUBSCRIPTION 
> Despite getting this Suit at a discounted priced because I bought it with a new laptop, the price is still a rip off. 
> According to my shop, there is no physical CD of the Office Suit any more, at least in my country. This means, that I had to pay for the downloading myself, and I say pay because I have capped Internet. 
> Since downloading and installing this Suit from the MS website, and activating it, the program constantly demands me to be online, which is not a problem because I'm online most of the day for work anyway. But a bother if I don't feel like it. 
> Even when I am connected, I get constant messages from MS, sort of "Microsoft doesn't recognise your subscription, please check your Internet connection or activate it". Well, really, they recognised my activation online as soon as I introduced the codes, and it appears as activated in my online account, and in the emails they sent me, so it's the stupid program misbehaving. 
> The interface of Word 2013 (the program I use the most), is not as user-friendly as previous ones, not much more customizable than versions launched a decade ago, and it offers little substantial improvement with regard to the 2010 version that I'm using in my old laptop. 
> This suit works really slow, slower than the old suit in my old computer, even though I'm using it in a brand new laptop. It takes ages for Word docos to be saved if they are "large". My old MS Office 2010 does not have a problem to save them in a microsecond. 

I find unethical launching Suits like this, for which I'm charged yearly, not having a physical way of installing or backing up the program, and finding little improvement if any. This Office Suit and this subscription are really annoying, and I am glad that I bought it just for one year and one computer, because, as soon as it expires, I will uninstall it and install my old MS Office 2010 instead. 

MY RECOMMENDATION 
> If you don't really need MS Office for work, use any of the Open-Source Office suits out there, which are fab these days, and are fully compatible at least for Word. 
> If you need this MS Office for work and have a fully-functional older version, keep the latter, you won't find much improvement or a better experience by replacing it with this one. > If you can buy a physical format of the program, do so, instead of downloading the program and activating it with this key. 
> If you need this MS Office for work and have no previous suit, try this version, one person one computer. If it works for you, great; otherwise, the nightmare will last only for a year. 
> If you need a reliable email program without having to pay subscriptions of any type, get one of the excellent open-source email suits out there. I stopped using MS Outlook about 3 years ago, and never regretted it or gone back. This is my experience with this annoying subscription. I hope the 2016 program comes in a fully functional version, that CD versions are for sale, and that real improvements are added. 

9/29/2016

Fraser Suits Apartahotel (East Perth)


Head photo courtesy of Booking.com

Here a wrap up of my experience with this hotel.

GOOD
> The hall is very contemporary and elegant, spacious and breezy in a mix of neutral contemporary elegant colours. I really loved it.
> Spotless clean premises.
> The room's toilet: great shower!, very good quality cotton towels, L'Occitane toiletries (those excited me greatly!), and a lot of storage room behind the mirror. If you are a giant basketballer, no problem, you can see yourself from head to toe, as the mirror reaches the ceiling.
> Nice basic kitchenette with microwave/induction oven, basic cutlery, crockery and glassware, and a mini-bar with a bit of room to put your stuff in.
> Huge mid-hard bed. Very comfortable.
> Humongous flat screen TV.
> Well-located power points and a decent number of them.
> Double wardrobe and plenty of storage for a couple.
> Complimentary robe and slippers. I always love finding those in any hotel.
> Complimentary Internet.
> Complimentary tea and coffee facilities.
> Awesome comfortable desk chair!
> The waitresses at the restaurant.
> The views of the Swan River from some of the rooms.
> Free WI-FI.

SO-SO

> Free Internet worked fine with the smartphone, but was a bit slow in the laptop, and the line dropped at times, requiring to sign in again. Good enough for my stay and for the work I had to do, though. 
> The hotel might please people looking for a quite comfortable spot near the CBD, but it might not please those looking for an vibrant surrounding area full of shops, cafes and restaurants or nice buildings.
> The restaurant Heirloom. See  review here.
> Lighting in the room. Once the daylight vanishes, the lighting in the studio was too dim for work and more conducive to do nothing. Great if you are on holidays and want to sleep.
> The mirror was located in the wrong space... behind the easy chair! Hello Hello! In the professional photos it is located where it should be.
> Overall ambience of the hotel and the room is meh to the square.
> The view from the room.

NO-NOS

I encountered a few issues that I consider unacceptable for a hotel that charges you 200 bucks the night and presents itself as a 4-star hotel:
> Noisy air-con and with no instructions on how to regulate it.
> The safety box didn't work. Not, it wasn't me being clumsy, it did not work.  
> My robe had all the downs stained; it looked like make-up foundation, but it must be burnt marks from ironing or any other occurrence that I don't want to envision.
> Table with the edges peeled/damaged. My eyes hurt.
> The tapware was also peeled, and the upper coat gone in some areas. That is because this is crap tapware. Four stars, who said that?
> One of the lights in the bathroom didn't work, so it was quite dark.
> The phone had a sort of three red flash lights saying new message received and also to recharge it. I consulted with the reception upon arrival. They said not to worry, to leave it like that as there was no message received. Well, being jet-lagged my eyes opened in the night and I felt my room was the new Amsterdam. Tried to order room service in the morning and realised that the phone did not work at all. Back again to reception, it will fixed today, don't worry, have a nice day. Liar liar. Nobody came...
> No booklet with info about the hotel about anything anywhere. One could easily ask by phone, for sure, if the phone worked.
> This is mostly a business hotel. So a deluxe studio should be ready for the client to work. There is no workstation as such in this study. The "desk" is really large but there are two main obstacles, a humongous flat screen TV occupying most of it, and the tray with nibbles and drinks. I had to remove the latter, quite heavy, to put my work material there. Business minded, really?
> The room had the usual old-fashioned beige+maroon mix that feels outdated and dirty. Something important about paintings, please, if you don't have nice ones don't hang those you have, which look like taken from Crazy Clarke's :O. The room, without the filters of the professional photo and the bunch of flowers looked way less appealing.  
> Awesome looking stylish armchair, but very uncomfortable to seat on.
> No sound-proof windows. One of the days was quite windy. The sound was like when I skydived in New Zealand minus the wow effect. Seriously! The wind was battering the window panes hard and very noisily. No, it wasn't a hurricane, the windows are not thick enough or sound-proof.
> No TV channel in another language. Multicultural, where?
> I was told in the restaurant that my first breakfast was included in the price, and they didn't make me sign the usual bill you sign after you finish your meal. Well, it was NOT included and I had to pay for it.
> When checking out, I mentioned this, the guy acted as I was making things up. He would go and check things with the lady at the restaurant, but he didn't, and charged me the price without even asking. I presented my debit card to pay. The signature has faded completely; this is the fault of the card makers. He asked me for an identification. Really, they had my passport on record since day one. Perhaps they didnt think I look like luxury customer. He was nice enough to bring my suitcases to the taxi rack outside and apologised quite a bit, but Reception had lost my respect by then, unfortunately.
> They charge you 1% if you pay with a credit card. Ridiculous for a supposedly luxury hotel. Perhaps luxury for Perth.

GOOD TO KNOW

> Check-in is at 3pm but, if they have room available they will usher in at no extra cost. > You have a convenience store (a really nice guy there) and a Balinese beauty salon next door. The Grand Hyatt is at 5 minutes walking distance, and you might want to visit one of their restaurants or go to the café and another convenience store very close to it as well.
> As East Perth is part of the free ride area in Perth you don't need to pay for anything if you just go to the CBD or within the free ride area in general. The bus stops across the road.

IN SHORT

The hotel is not up to standards in luxury, attention to customer, design, style, service, quality of the service, and courtesy of the staff. To me, this is a nice 3.5 stars at the price of a luxury hotel. The only thing I considered luxurious were the toiletries. Mostly they fail at running the place properly, things don't work and aren't fixed because they don't bother, there is a constant lack of communication between the staff, they treat customers as they were a nuisance, lie at their faces (in this case mine) and the people at Reception are truly unhelpful and act as we had to please them not the other way around. That is typical of Perth hospitality, and unnerves me every time. My advice is to spend your bucks elsewhere if you want to get what you pay for. Otherwise, pay for the most expensive room. I guess you will find luxury there... or not. 

9/13/2016

Heirloom (East Perth)

Heirloom is the in-house restaurant in the Fraser's Suits Hotel. I was dying to try this restaurant, even though I don't particularly like Pete Evans. One has to grant him that he has put together a menu that is both healthy and yummy. The food reminds me a lot of the food that was served at the new-closed Solomon's Cafe in Mount Lawley. 

 Their buffet breakfast is not worth the price unless you eat like a bear in the morning. I didn't see anything exciting or out of the ordinary, and way below other buffet breakfasts I have experienced in hotels overseas. I think most people would be better off ordering a la carte.
  
The chia pudding was absolutely yummy. Very fresh and creamy, crunchy flavoursome nuts, sago pudding sort of texture, and the berry compote at the bottom was delicious, and not too sweet. I ordered a soft boiled egg as side. Two were served to me, and when I said I had asked just for one, the explanation was that they serve the eggs in pairs. Nevertheless, the eggs were perfectly cooked. 

The muesli breakfast should be called something else because there wasn't any muesli in my muesli. It was carrot "muesli". To be honest, the breakfast was yummy and it didn't taste of carrot, it has great colour, textures and flavours, so I loved it, but I was expecting a proper muesli. Carrot is not a muesli, pardon me.  I ordered a soft boiled egg on the side. There were only three tables with people, but it took the kitchen an eternity for my breakfast to be served, and the two things came apart despite being ordered at the same time. This time they got the number of eggs right but it wasn't a soft boiled egg, it was a slow-cooked egg that had gotten cold by the time I ate it. 

Thee zucchini lasagne tasted great thanks to a olive-and-tomato pesto that enhanced the flavours of the raw zucchini. However, despite this being a late lunch and the restaurant having three tables with people, and only one to serve (mine), the food took a while to come, and when it came the lasagne was mostly cold, a bit tepid on some parts. I get that the raw zucchini is going to be cold if it is raw but, if the rest of the ingredients were hot, one would not get the whole dish cold. This was a bit of put of, really, because it was not summer when I visited and one expects any lasagne to be hot.


The Moroccan carrots were wonderful in their simplicity with a very soft dressing, mint, crunchy almonds, some sultanas and quandons.

The pork belly was really lovely, regarding textures, quality of the meat, and flavours, however, the puree there was less than a spoonful of pure on my dish, the sauce was like a few drops and the pork belly was quite solid, not juicy or grassy, so once the sauce and puree ended, that is, in a second, the dish turned into a very dry thing to eat.

The kale side was really good. Kale is a fussy vegetable to cook, not easy to get right regarding coction and texture. This was perfect and the sauce added really complemented the Kale.

Heirloom is a hotel restaurant. Although pleasant and comfortable, it lacks character and doesn't feel like a proper restaurant. At night the ambience improves considerably, yet, nothing that would bring me there unless I wasn't staying in the hotel. They use paper napkins in the morning but fabric ones at lunch and dinner, something I really appreciate.  

The waitresses are lovely, but the service at the kitchen is slow, something I found inexcusable because they charge you top buck and there were very few people on any of my visits. Moreover, in one of my visits, a lady who arrived way after I did was served before I did and given the royal treatment, something I always consider unprofessional. The service was mostly slow, the food seemed to take quite forever to come out despite the very few people in the restaurant, they were getting the orders wrong and there was a clear lack of communication between the kitchen and the rest of the staff or vice versa. The same lack of communication existed between the reception desk and the restaurant reception as they didn't communicate much either; I was told that the first breakfast was included in my booking and I didn't sign any receipt, but then I was told at reception that no way and was treated as I was trying to cheat a meal. 

The food is overpriced in most cases because, except for the meat and fish mains courses, the ingredients used are very cheap and the portions quite small. 

OVERALL
Worth a visit! Good healthy food, great if you love Paleo, but also expensive. Lovely stuff but chaotic service. That is always the manager's fault. 

9/10/2016

The Cafe at Hyatt Regency (East Perth)

The Café is located in the central hall of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in East Perth, facing the central fountain and the piano player. I had a High Tea session at The Café recently and a very enjoyable visit but, overall, I felt this was not proper High Tea and more a buffet experience.

The place is very pleasant, but it lack finesse and elegance, and I thought that looked like a hotel café, but not a Hyatt hotel café. Perhaps good enough for Perth, but I don't think it matches the wonderful High Tea experience I had in Rochelle Adonis a few years ago or that in other Hyatts. 

The food on the three-tier tray was  mediocre, and the sandwiches were dry and tasteless. The wrap rolls were very nice, though, especially the green one.

The savoury options were just six and mostly junk food, and nothing that makes any favour to the Hyatt. The dumpling was definitely the best item there, the rest totally average and forgettable.  

The sweet section was way more interesting, varied and I regretted not limiting myself to the sweets. I loved the mini-dessert glasses, and I tried them all! Overall quite nice, but the ones that really stood up for me were the tiramisu, the mango and lychee, and the black forest. Among the others, the strawberry lamington was lovely, as well. There were many different sort of mini-slices snf big slices from a big cake, waffles, fresh fruit and much more. If you have a sweet tooth and a big stomach, you will really enjoy it. I loved the fact that their sweets aren't overly sweet and I would have had liked having a bigger stomach to try then all!

The price is 52 and includes flowing champagne, coffee/and tea before 5pm and they are generous! I barely drink these days, but I think it will make happy most people and they stop by often to ask if one wants a refill.

The staff were here really welcoming, very attentive and friendly, and they made the visit especially pleasant for me.  The sort of people who I really enjoy in hospitality: hospitable, smiley, and genuine.
 
This is not a High Tea, but a good-priced pleasant buffet experience. You won't find anything really remarkable or gourmet, and won't need to dress up for this visit. Of course, sometimes you just want that, fill your belly, eat many things and be merry. So this place is great for that. Having the piano player in front of the café makes the experience especially pleasant if you happen to seat in the tables facing the lounge. If you want a High Tea with finesse, glamour and class, go to Rochelle Adonis in Highgate.

NOTE
There was a table with the 3-tier tray with food on an empty table. Nobody came, the food stood  there for two hours... that is unacceptable for any place, let alone for the Hyatt.

7/31/2016

BlueMail App by BlueMail Inc.

I have had this app in my phone for a few months months now. I got it until my phone's own program crashed, and needed of an alternative until they fixed the problem. I know that Google and Outlook mail apps can handle several accounts at the same time, but I'm a bit annoyed at the over-presence of these two companies in my life .

I have downloaded and tried several mail apps with good ratings in GooglePlay, but they lasted maximum two days in my phone; basically, they didn't give me the reliability, freedom or versatility I needed.

I stumbled upon this, and this is my main Android mail handler at present. The things I like about BlueMail are:
> Handling of several accounts. In my case 5 different accounts at the same time.
> Notifications, synchronisation times, and colours assigned to each account are easy to set and customise in the settings area.
> You can decide whether you have inbox viewed unified, with any email from any account arriving there, or just select one of the accounts as main view.
> Setting each account is easy, as the app automatically does so when you introduce your accounts usernames and passwords.
> The inbox is really really simple but pleasant, and you have a clear view and a high contrast one, which is the one I use, which is great for poor-sighted people.
> In the inbox, you can slide one email to the right and get rid of it, or slide it to the left and you will be shown three options: delete, mark as read and archive.
> There is batch editing of the emails.
> You can give feedback from the app to the developers.
> You can set your signature or brief message in every single of the accounts you have in this email, easy-peasy to do.
> You can personalise the profile picture/name of each of your accounts from the app.
> You can go to settings and decide to lock the app without the need of installing any lock app.
> Many more features than I need.
> The app runs smoothly.
> No failure or mishap so far.
> Reliable and serious app.
> Free
> No adds.
> NO pop ups asking you to rate them every single day.

I would love it if this app had a desktop version. I would pay for it!
I would also love a few more customisation options, even if I had to pay for them.

I am surprised at the low number of reviews for this app! It works great for me.