I seem to now be somewhat of a wine connoisseur or borderline alcoholic as some professionals like to make me feel so I decided to invest for the sake of my love of wine in a Liebherr Wine Cooler, a fantastic highly useful cabinet to correctly store my wine in. It’s crucial and detrimental to the taste of wine that it is stored correctly and at the right temperature, you don’t want to be serving warm white wine and chilled red wine when hosting a party as your guests won’t be pleased with your lack of care.

The Liebherr Wine Cooler I choose fits my specific needs it can store a maximum of 68 bottles, has ideal climate conditions thanks to forced air cooling and fresh air supply via activated charcoal filter, mechanical control and analogue temperature display which can be read from the outside. The cooler cabinet is also H 890 x W 600 x D 605mm so it ideally sits under my work tops in a space I had in my kitchen and the doors of the cooler have UV protection to stop harmful rays of light getting in and damaging the quality of your wine plus it also means I can see when I am running out.

My wife has been looking for a red toaster for a while now to match the rest of our kitchen accessories, and we finally found a decent one that hopefully will last longer than the old one. We had a red one before that we got in a bundle with our red kettle but it broke after three months and we’ve been using a cheap Argos one ever since.

The toaster is made by Dualit and although it was quite expensive, the customer reviews are only positive so we decided to spend a bit more and purchase it. The Dualit 2 slice toaster features a patented ProHeat technology, which increases the life and efficiency of the elements and provides a consistent heat to the bread.

I used it for the first time this morning and have to say that it is quicker than the last toaster we had, but the only thing that’s bothering me is the chrome insert in the middle, which picks up finger and grease marks like no one’s business.

All in all, the Dualit 2 slice toaster is a decent bit of kit and although it is more expensive than other toasters it is well built and should last for many more breakfasts.

I read an interesting article on the BBC website today about a prototype cycle aid called the Copenhagen Wheel. This new project developed by MIT, with help from Ducati Energia and the Italian Ministry for the Environment promises to change the way we cycle, whether to and from work or just for fun.

The Copenhagen Wheel can be fitted to almost any bicycle and features an oversized central hub, housing various electronic gadgets designed to make it easier to ditch your car and take your bike instead. The wheels hub can store energy every time the rider pulls the brakes, which can be used to give the rider a boost when riding uphill or negotiating traffic; this is similar to the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) used by Formula One cars.

As well as giving riders a handy boost, the Copenhagen Wheel also has a series of sensors and Bluetooth connectivity, which can connect to a users iPhone giving information about the speed of the bike, direction and the distance travelled as well as collecting data on air pollution and even where the riders friends are.

The Copenhagen Wheel is expected to go into production next year; there is no information on how much it will cost at the moment.

Will this new product get people out of their cars and on to their bikes? It might sway a few people who are thinking about it, but I can see a bigger benefit to the people who already ride their bikes to work and the fact that you can fit it to almost any bicycle makes it even more of a beneficial project.