I have found this brilliant for cleaning the moss and algae off the decking and patio; wonderful for cleaning the patio furniture; terrific for the car, brickwork, windows - in other words, once you have it together it does work well.

The downside is that the washer is very unstable. Any slight slope will cause it to tip in use (and my drive is not flat, even my patio tipped it as the individual stones are not totally even). I have also found the variolance does not work, it either produces a trickle (for about 99% of the dial) or full power, not what I was hoping for. Having said that, I have not needed the vario, moving the power lance a little further away reduces the power.

This also comes with the pieces needed to run the washer from a water butt - the other sprayers in the range say that they can do that, but you have to buy the pieces first.

The downside is the number of very fragile pieces this comes in - I was expecting some assembly, for instance the lance, but this comes as a kit of more than 20 pieces. This is not a cheap item, I was not expecting to assemble it myself. As I unpacked it I found two broken off pieces of plastic - but I cannot find any broken edges on the pieces I have, these broken pieces do not fit on my washer. That does not give much confidence, it means that some pieces are breaking in the factory, before even being sent out - cheap, fragile plastic! You will also need a crosshead screwdriver for this item!

The instructions for assembly are poor. The pictures make it hard to work out what side of the washer things are meant to be fitted to, and the only word provided is the word "click". I found it took me an hour to put the item together, most of that times was spent trying to work out what the instructions were telling me to do. I don't normally find "flatpack" type things an issue, but this was.

It is a shame really, when it is assembled it is a good little washer, and the facility to run it from a water butt is brilliant - but the sheer hassle of putting it together, and how fragile the pieces are that need to be "clicked" on, makes me hesitate to recommend it.

This was bought as a school bag, and has therefore been filled with lead blocks and bricks - at least I assume so, it feels like it when I pick it up from the floor, where it lands at about 3:30pm most days.

Considering the weight it is holding, and the treatment that a school bag gets from a teenager, I am impressed, so far there is no sign of strain to be found anywhere, the zips are holding, the stitching is solid, and the material seems rip-proof. Given that cheaper bags have sometimes lasted less than a day, this looks impressive.

The item is also shower proof, and the straps seem reasonably strong - not that a backpack used for school ends up on the back of the child, but if you wanted to use it for the advertised purpose it would be reasonably comfortable for a short walk, nothing too long or taxing..

All in all, a nice solid little bag, great for school, but I would say it is not really what you would want for a camping/hiking holiday.

This is a puzzle game that gives you 4 different types of puzzle every "day", and when you have solved those you can do the next day.

The games are things like; remember the shape and colour of these shapes and click on the one that has changed; word search; remember a route on a grid; count the cubes in a 3d shape, left or right (where a clown holds an item while facing various ways, you have to state whether the item is in the left or right hand);fill the missing number in a sum - there must be about 20 different games. Some of these games would be good practice for school activities, or even (very early) practice in the sort of questions the 11 plus throws at the children, the game encourages speed and accuracy as you lose points for a wrong answer.

The games themselves are quick, and not too difficult, at least at the beginning. I get the feeling that the game simplifies if you make too many mistakes, which makes sense for this sort of game, the idea is to get better at the games. As the games are so short it is a brilliant game for filling time - waiting at the doctors, outside school, in a restaurant - the games are short, and the game saves frequently.

It is also quite fun for the parents, the puzzles sound easy, and they are, but when the idea is to get as many as possible it becomes much more challenging - a great fun time killer, as there is no plot, no having to remember what you were about to do, just pick it up and play.

This is a nice,thick book, and it contains some photographs. In at least one case, the text refers to a photograph that is not there, and we have two copies of the same photo.

The writing is, in my opinion, not as good as some of her earlier books, it lacks the vivid description, the vibrancy of the victim, and there is sometimes not enough evidence for me to feel that the author has come to the only possible conclusion.

It is still a good read, a nice way to fill a couple of hours when you just want to relax, but if you are new to Ann Rule I would suggest one of her earlier books to start off with.

This is a nice large storage box, somewhat flimsy - the size of the box it comes in warns that the sides are thin, and brittle.

Putting the box together is not easy, the pieces are large, the plastic is thin and seems brittle, and it takes a reasonable amount of force to push the pieces into place. The instructions are clear, but impossible - the usual flat pack instructions that require your 3rd arm from the left to hold piece A while all four right arms fit the box walls.

Having put it together, it becomes obvious that this item is not suitable for outdoor storage, it is absolutely not weather proof, the first rain shower found all the cracks and made itself at home inside.

It would be OK for storage inside a shed, or a garage, to store something light, but I would not recommend this for use outside.

This would have been wonderful if it had come out in, say, 1978 - but this is 35 years too late.

Nowadays, it seems rather poor to have a solitaire console that has all the cards in black. The console appears to have colour, but it doesn't, the pretty colour on the picture is just background. Given that solitaire is about red cards on black cards that is just plain frustrating.

Lots of buttons, and yet there is no simple, intuitive way to play, everything takes a lot of effort - I thought this would be an "easier" option than a full games console, but I was wrong.

It is also very difficult to change the batteries.

I don't think this is worth having, a second hand games console, even one that is 10 years old, is a much better bet.

This Cathy Glass is about fostering a pregnant teenager.

Inevitably, and predictably, what is meant to be a short placement stretches out into a much longer one.

I enjoyed this book much more than some of her other, Ms Glass comes over as much more human, making mistakes, unsure of herself, always warm and caring, but getting things wrong and wishing she had done things differently.

In some ways, of course, the very fact a teenager is involved means that this book is different, but it goes deeper than that, as Cathy Glass admits her doubts about how to proceed, shows how her emotional involvement changes her view of the correct course of action - and shows how social services really do give young single mothers chance after chance to prove themselves. Of course it will also raise the inevitable questions about our society, and even the benefits system.

I really enjoyed this book for the warm, caring, but very fallible foster carer that it reveals. It lacks the cute factor almost totally, but it is very honest, and I like Cathy Glass so much more for her very human and warm account of a foster child that she did not always foster perfectly.

The black widowers are a group of men who meet on a regular basis, each meeting is on the subject of a specific mystery one of them raises. Sometimes they bring in another person with the problem.

The rules are that the person raising the mystery is supposed to know the answer, but that is not always the case.

The mysteries all have surprising endings, these are up there with the "tales of the unexpected". They are always solved by the waiter after everyone else has got it wrong, and it is a very enjoyable read.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries, loves Asimov, or just wants a book of short stories.

This is a nice range of colours, recommended if your child has run out of one colour when doing a painting by numbers - any colour could be matched using this set.

The paint seems to be good quality, and it achieves reasonable coverage. It mixes well, and will wash out of the paintbrush, though not off clothes. (Or the cat. Light blue paw prints do wash off laminate though)

A nice starter set to give the range of colours.

This is a great way for a child/young teenager to learn the plot of the Shakespeare plays.

It is written in a readable, enjoyable way, making it easy to learn the story and what is actually going on. That makes it easier for the pupil to understand the language that the Bard is using.

It was aimed at children when it was written, however, I can see it being helpful even for the GCSE student, to give the overview when starting with a new play - or even the A level student who wants to compare different plays.