In a slight change of direction for the HPL (and thank you to the gorgeous Lady B and assorted friends for the idea) I am starting a new monthly competition where you, lovely readers – and may I say you look simply STUNNING today – get to contribute on what makes you happy in London; win free stuff as a result; AND the opportunity to write a little guest post for the HPL at the end.
- So, in January I’ll be asking what makes you happy post-Christmas break when you feel fat and cold and I’ll be asking suitable venues to cough up free tickets/treats to the person who comes up with the best suggestions.
- In February, around Valentine’s Day, I’ll be asking what is the best date-night in London and the most interesting (preferably saucy) responses will win a great prize.
- And I’ll be sharing all your suggestions and mine on the blog and will only ask the prize winner to let me know if they enjoyed their prize and their thoughts on it, for a guest blog post (sending me a quick email is fine too, don’t worry).
- So HPL readers who have nice prizes that they can offer, get in touch (I’m looking at YOU).
For December, the HPL is thinking about cold, rainy, dark weekends and catching up with friends before we all set off for Christmas and drinking / eating far too much. I’m thinking warm pubs and sharing plates and pints.
So this month, the HPL has two pairs of tickets to the launch event for Mason & Taylor, a new bar/drinking den opening this December in the East End (Bethnal Green Road), on Thursday 9 December 2010. Here’s some blurb about the pub: It has been set up by the founders of the award-winning The Duke of Wellington in Dalston. And I’m excited because the founders include Ed Mason who opened various venues in Leeds including The Faversham (The Faversham! My second home at Uni, venue for drunken attempts at The Worm on breakdancing nights, and having to climb out of my flatmate’s boot in a very short dress because his car doors didn’t work). It will sell craft beers, spirits, authentic cider and English wine (interesting) and serve classic British sharing dishes like rabbit & crayfish terrine with pea puree & shoots, York ham, poached duck egg and parsley sauce, ginger beer battered squid and pickled ox tongue. Yum.
If you fancy winning tickets to the launch night then the question is this: What makes the perfect winter Sunday lunch? Send me your responses by Friday 26 November either on the HPL facebook page or on twitter (@happyprojectLDN) or as a comment to this post. I’ll pick my favourite two and you’ll receive a pair of tickets each. I’ll also be there to say hi (will be the blonde invariably propping up the bar – purely for research purposes). And feel free to look at the HPL section on best places for Sunday lunch for inspiration.
I’ll start. My perfect winter Sunday lunch would be somewhere like the Drapers Arms or 32 Great Queen Street or the Canton Arms. It would involve a big group of friends, old friends and good ones, who I don’t need to spend time catching up with or finding out how they are. We just settle into jokes and taking the piss straight away. People arrive late and laughing and hungover from a Christmas party the night before. There is a lot of gossip and funny stories, including inappropriate snogging and dance-offs at work parties and similar. We start with pints of cider, mumbling about irresponsible Sunday drinking, then order a sharing plate of beef with all the trimmings. We go on to red wine. Everyone is happy and red-cheeked and we might even swap presents. We stay too long, drink too much. We get overly affectionate and hug and go home, smiling, even through the Monday morning sore head.
Now you…
UPDATE: Sorry I got the date wrong, launch is on Wednesday 8 December – hope thats still ok! Will announce winners tomorrow…
UPDATE: And the winners of the first ever HPL competition are…. drumroll… oh how exciting…CHIARA and LITTLE MISS RANDOM for referring to morning drinking and bloody marys respectively. Enjoy it ladies and let me know how it goes 🙂 xxx
The Happiness Project London 
My perfect winter Sunday lunch would be a late lunch at my favorite local pub. Having a sausage and mash with a glass of Pinot Grigio and a few friends to share a lovely afternoon, around the fire place at the White Horse on Parsons Green.
Great idea Sasha, I love to win things 🙂 I have never dared to do a blog competition on my blog out of fear that no one leaves a comment…
My perfect winter Sunday lunch would involve a a couple of bottles of champagne or good red wine, a 3 course menu at Launceston Place or Ledbury involving venison and chocolatey desserts and some charming company. AND Monday off!
Winter Sunday Lunch
FREEZING cold and snowing. But beautiful, clean snow, settling on branches and buses. Hats and gloves and scarves and bright red cheeks and noses. A dog. A fire. People steaming and thawing, drinking rioja by the bucketful. Rare aged beef with yellow fat, crunchy goose fat potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. Cartmel Sticky toffee pudding. Sauternes. Fag. Rioja. Sofa. Papers. Rioja.
An ideal winter sunday lunch would be roast chicken with yorkshire pudding, bloody mary’s, pints, lying back on comfy leather sofas, a big fire, loads of newspapers, games, no pretention, just very chilled: The Swan in Chiswick or The Dove in Hammersmith too.
The Perfect Winter Sunday Lunch would be getting together with the family and having mum’s goulash with two kinds of dumplings washed down with well chilled Pilsen beer. Later some honey cake and mulled wine. Oh yes!!!
I’m not free on December 9th, but thought I’d share my suggestions anyway. 🙂
My Perfect Winter Lunch would be sharing the Hawksmoor Breakfast for two at Hawksmoor on Commercial Street with my best girlfriends – the ones I’ve known for more than half my life now and whom I still speak to almost everyday – and indulging in the restaurant’s bottomless Bloody Marys. Tomato juice is just about my favourite surefire cure for a hangover. Toss in some hair of the dog that bit you, and voila. All that’s needed to make it perfect would be some nice white fluffy snow outside, and a nice toasty fire inside.
Hi Sasha,
Stumbled across your blog via your reviews on qype and love the idea, happiness is a transient, fleeting quality but all the more valuable for that! My perfect sunday lunch would actually be brunch (stretching the rules slightly!) at mine. Everyone can make it (which is rare these days as my friends are starting to have kids) and has brought some food. Just a lovely relaxed afternoon with too much food and lolling around on the sofa after, having a good old gossip! Plus brunch=legitimate morning drinking:-)
Could I put myself back in the running then? I’m free on the 8th, just not on the 9th. 😉
Course you can love – you’re on!
Winners announced tomorrow xx
Well I have reveiwed your comments with an independent source and we have decided that the winners are:
CHIARA and
LITTLE MISS RANDOM
Congratulations!!! Will email you both with further details – enjoy it ladies 🙂 xxx