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Fruit. Man’s most vicious enemy. Its variety and deadliness are matched only by its beauty. It is the silent killer, one of the most ruthless creatures in the natural world and nemesis of all things good and pure in the world. Today, after I struggled massively with the simple task of eating a pear in the office, Gadget HQ takes an in-depth look at:

Which Fruit Is Most Impractical For Office Use?

The stakes were high, the options many, but we whittled down a list of all the fruit in the world to four main contenders.

The Pineapple

Large, threatening and yellow, the pineapple is a definite favourite in this competition. Without utensils, eating a pineapple is nigh-on impossible. You’d have to literally beat it on the floor for hours before breaking into it, at which point your colleagues have already had you up in front of the manager more than once for “bizarre and disruptive behaviour”.

The Coconut

While the pineapple may be spinier, the coconut is much stronger. Again without the use of a hammer, you’ll be forced to throw it at hard objects and out of windows in an attempt to get to the nutty goodness inside. Even when it’s open, what do we do with the milk? WHAT THE HELL DO WE DO WITH THE MILK?!

The Kiwi

Admittedly a bit of a wild card, but remember this is a test without tools. Ever tried to eat a kiwi without tools? Two words: Fuzzy. Mouth. Yuck.

The Watermelon

The watermelon is huge, difficult to break into and filled to the brim with teeny tiny seeds. The sort of seeds that will inevitably end up all over your face, hands and co-workers and apparently, that also constitutes bizarre and disruptive behaviour. I don’t understand all these fancy health-and-safety rules but what can you do?

THE WINNER:

Pineapple. Although the others are all impractical, nothing quite embodies snack difficulty like the solid outer shell and evil spines of a pineapple. Also, it would’ve been coconut but then we found out that isn’t a fruit. So we end today with a valuable piece of Gadget HQ Advice:

Don’t take a pineapple (or coconut) into the office. Just. Don’t. Do. It.

Pinch, punch, first of the month. I do apologise, I hope I didn’t hurt you. Welcome to February, come in, come in, can I take your coat?

So here we are then. February. Unlike it’s little brother January, February doesn’t get it’s #1 holiday out of the way on the 1^st of the month, instead it waits ’til the 14^th so we’ve got plenty of time to prepare. I am of course referring to St Valentine’s Day, that most loving and romantic of holidays. But as with all things, there is a downside to this wonderful holiday: presents. If you get it right it’s love-o-clock, but if you get it wrong it’s a sheepish phone call to the parents asking if you can sleep on the sofa tonight.

There’s a simple solution: you won’t get it wrong, because Gadgets.co.uk has some fantastic ideas for you! We’ve launched two new sections of our site: Valentine’s Gifts For Him and, unsurprisingly, Valentine’s Gifts For Her! Whether they’re big gifts for big gestures or small tokens of appreciation, we’ve got the lot:

If he’s a gadget freak, he’ll love the iPhone AppCopter. If he’s a father, he’ll get a real kick out of embarrassing the children with the Sandal Socks. If he’s got a sweet tooth then he’s certain to fall for the Personalised Sweetie Jar. There’s bound to be something in here no matter what kind of man he is.

Because you’re a man, you’re definitely causing your partner stress, so get her the Bed Of Nails to undo all the problems you’re causing! If you’re stuck for romance, the sterling silver You Are Priceless gift tag is an excellent choice, or if you’re feeling a bit simpler then nothing says I love you like the tasteful Silver Love Heart.

Through the magic of the internet, both of those banners will take you to their respective pages so give ‘em a click and have a look around!

Today’s blog has a slightly different flavour… in fact it has three slightly different flavours. The lovely people at Walkers have asked if we’d like to be one of the first to try out their new flavours, and because we’re such kind and generous people we graciously accepted their offer of free food! These crisps are so new that they don’t even have real names yet, so we thought we’d guess what the flavours actually are.

Crisps.

DAIRY FLAVOUR

First up, we have the mysteriously-named “dairy flavour”. Smooth and tangy with a hint of cheesiness, the general consensus is that it has some form of onion in it as well. This naturally led us to declaring it “Cheese and Onion”, until Sam wisely pointed out that that’s already a fairly popular flavour. After confirming his story, we decided on “Soft Cheese and Spring Onion” and awarded the dairy flavour a solid 6/10.

Crisps unleashed.

SPICY FLAVOUR

Next up, we have the “spicy flavour” which we could tell was some type of curry without even tasting it thanks to its smell. Realising that smelling them probably didn’t constitute a thorough review, we found the flavour to be strong and very authentic, almost certainly a masala of some kind. After much debate over which meat, we declare this to be “Lamb Tikka Masala” and give it a strong 7/10.

Sam unleashed.

MEATY FLAVOUR

Finally, we come to the unanimous favourite simply called “meaty flavour”. Easily the best of a very good bunch, the porky taste made us all instantly think of sausages. After much umming and erring over whether it was a Cumberland, Mandy noticed a definite hint of tomato, leading us to name this flavour “Hot Dog” and award it a staggering 9/10.

Are we right or wrong? Only time will tell. But when they come out, be sure to sample all three because they’re chuffing lovely!

You may have noticed that Christmas is just around the corner. Not least because you’ll have begun to be bombarded with Christmas music from all angles. You’ll hear it in every shop and cafe, not to mention all over the TV and radio. We love a bit of Christmas music, the only problem is that there’s no accounting for taste and there are usually a few clangers amongst the Christmas classics. I mean does Steeleye Span’s Gaudete really capture the spirit of the festive season?

That’s why we three bloggers come bearing gifts of our ‘Best Christmas Songs Ever!’. 5 Songs each compiled into the ultimate classic Christmas playlist (well in our opinion anyway.) If you’re a Spotify user you can just click here to listen to the playlist. For everyone else, here’s the list:

Everyone likes a bit of Bing at Christmas

1. Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee
2. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love
3. It’s the Most wonderful Time of the Year – Andy Williams
4. It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas – Perry Como
5. I saw Mommy Kidding Santa Claus – The Ronettes
6. Feliz Navidad – Jose Feliciano
7. Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms
8. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Frank Sinatra
9. Thankful Heart – Michael Caine and The Muppets
10. The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole
11. Silver Bells – Doris Day
12. Do They Know It’s Christmas – Band Aid
13. Let it Snow, let is snow, let it snow – Dean Martin
14. White Christmas – Bing Crosby
15. Fairytale of New York – The Pogues

We’ve been playing our playlist today through one of our mini Music Monster speakers which we’re giving away in our Like it! competition. We hope you enjoy it and we encourage you to put it on loudly wherever you are. Merry Christmas!