Qype - Live and tell

This week we have a chat with Tim Dickinson (or, the Timinator) about ‘warm fuzzies’, winning lots of wine and being a rocket scientist…

Tell us more about you.
I’m 39, married, and live in Ealing, London. I’m Canadian, from Nova Scotia originally, but moved to London for work in 2001. I naturalised as British a couple of years ago and so am now a dual citizen (being able to choose the shorter queue at airport immigration is a good thing). I’ve been working for an IT/networking company for just over 10 years now, but had some unusual jobs before that: I have been a rocket scientist, a nuclear physicist and a military scientist. None of those jobs were as cool as they sound.

What do you enjoy most about Qyping?
I’m the sort of person that researches places before I go. I know some other people do the same so I’m always recommending places to anyone who’ll listen (one man’s mouthy opinions are another man’s value-added info). I often write about establishments I visit on my personal blog, but Qype means people that need the info I might have to share are more likely to find it. That gives me warm fuzzies.

What makes you happy about the places you review?
I’m a big music fan and go to a lot of gigs. I don’t have a favourite venue because different places are appropriate for different acts. But I love almost all the places that bands can play for their own particular characteristics. Reviewing them means recalling experiences I shared with hundreds - or thousands - of people.

What annoys you the most?
If you mean what annoys me most about places that I might review, then cynical, purposefully middle-of-the-road lowest-common-denominator places bug me. It’s one thing if your establishment just turns out to be ordinary because you’re not that imaginative. It’s quite another if you intentionally try to make it as bland, uninteresting, and uniform as you can in some attempt to maximise customer appeal. Thinking about this, though, I’ve just realised that I haven’t Qyped the rubbish places I’ve been to as much as I have the great places. I suppose I should.

If you mean what annoys me most about Qyping in general, then that would be wildly unhelpful reviews that consist of fewer than a dozen words, like, “This place is great!”

What was the place you wanted to keep a secret?
If people suddenly start flocking to my local Italian - Osteria del Portico - and make it hard for me to get a table then I will become very angry. And you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry. Even if I am Canadian. (Siany is guessing that link to his review hasn’t helped. Er… sorry.)

How can people write better reviews?
Obviously, helpful information is key. Don’t agonise over whether you should give the place a 3 or a 4. Tell me what happened to you there, what the decor and vibe is like, make sure the map pointer is correct, and so on.

I’m also a stickler for spelling and proper punctuation. If a reveiw is writen lik this….LOL……then i just can’t take it serouisly, no matter how glowwing it iz!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anything else you wanna say?
I found out about Qype when they sponsored a Meetup of London Bloggers, of which I’m a member. Qype enticed us to contribute by offering a case of wine to the person who submitted the most entertaining review of the pub where that meetup was held, the Camel & Artichoke. That was my first Qype review, and I won the wine. Any service that gives my gob another forum and gives me booze is tops in my book.

You might have noticed that there’s been a bit of a twitchy buzz on Qype today. That’s because there’s a few Qypers who are so hyped up on sugar and sweeties that they felt very light-headed last night. Those lovely people at Melt invited us go to a chocolate tasting and we were just too darn polite to refuse.

You can check out the reviews on the site, but we thought it was a good idea to shout some more about how fab the experience was. The picture is of Rob of Qype HQ rolling truffles. Doesn’t he look happy (there’s more snaps over at the Qype Flickr page)? We learned lots of great things and the staff are really fab. They can tell the difference between 31 and 32 degrees without even tasting anything. Pretty amazing. Though how they stay so restrained is beyond us. Siany was stealing the samples when no one was looking…

So Melt is our new favourite place. We got to take away tasty treats and we were all feeling a bit high when we left the shop. Of course we still found time to buy some goodies before we left. But there would have been some very angry wives if the Qype boys had gone home empty-handed.

So go to Melt! It’s lovely in there. You’ll probably see us lurking next to the peanut caramel and chilli chocs. Have a chat to the guys who work there - especially Keith the master chocolatier. Try not to eat so much chocolate that you feel sick. Siany did. She’s regretting it now. But she still wants more…

Fancy winning a trip to the Big Apple? Yep, us too. That’s why we really don’t want to tell you about the fantastic prize draw this month. We want to win tickets to New York City ourselves.

All you have to do is click any of the bright red links, and answer the easy peasy question. If you want an extra ticket (to take Siany with you maybe?) then just review a new venue in town or invite some more mates to join in the Qype fun.

So just keep doing what you’re doing already and then our friends at Virgin Atlantic could be whisking you off to the other side of the world.

We’ll sit patiently waiting for our invite.