Return of the HPL competition – WIN the Time Out London Eating & Drinking Guide

Time Out is offering 5 lucky HPL winners the chance to win a copy of their London Eating & Drinking Guide.  I’m planning a Christmas lunch with the girls and it’s been great for ideas of places we can try (walk on the Heath followed by roast at the Bull & Last, yes please) – restaurants, pubs and bars are set out by area and by cuisine. It also has the winners of their Eating and Drinking Awards and “best of” lists, like places to take kids, with river views, food to share, pre-theatre meals.

Having been through a stage of wanting to go to the next “new place” and trying out somewhere different each week, I’m enjoying going back to old favourites (Leongs Legends, the Polpo restos, Great Queen Street), with the excitement of trying out somewhere new every now and then, on special occasions. I’m going to The Ivy! This weekend! Hurrah! And I also want to go to Hawksmoor Seven Dials, Vinoteca in Marylebone, and Bocca Di Lupo; and I’m dying to eat at the Gingerline supperclub early next year.

A guide like this is really useful if you’re planning a date or stuck in a rut and bored, and want to see what London has to offer. If you want to win a copy of the guide, please leave a comment below and inspire me with which restaurant you really want to try soon, and I’ll pick 5 of you completely randomly. Good luck!

Here’s what Time Out have to say about the guide:

In its 29^th Edition the Time Out London Eating and Drinking Guide remains the most definitive guide to dining in the capital. The prestigious guide provides reviews of hundreds of London’s best restaurants, cafés, bars, gastropubs, sushi bars and more. All the reviewed entries have been anonymously revisited and we pay our own way so we get treated just like the average customer. No venues pay to be entered in to the guide, we make our selection independently with many new venues having been added this year.

We also give our ‘Hot 50’ list which we believe offer the most interesting eating experiences as well as the rundown of our Eating and Drinking Awards 2011 with categories such as ‘Best New Cheap Eat’ and ‘Best New Local Restaurant.’ Our reviews span the full kaleidoscope of London dining from African & Caribbean cuisine to Malaysian, Indonesian & Singaporean.

The normal retail price is £11.99 but they are £8.99 from the Time Out shop, which can be found here.

Return of the HPL competition: WIN a pair of tickets to Gallo Summer Red’s fabulous High Street Fashion Party

 To celebrate High Street Fashion Week, Gallo Summer Red is hosting a fashion fabulous one-off party on Wednesday 7^th September from 6pm – 9pm. This exclusive High Street Fashion Week private party is being held at the Soho cocktail lounge Red on Kingly Street. Oh and I’m coming along too *gets glad rags on*  

At this guest list only event, fun fashion-savvy females can look forward to Gallo Summer Red drinks, a DJ set from The Voguettes, nail art from WAH nails, sketches by Topshop caricatures Margot Bowman and canapés from Food Secret.

 

Here is the blurb about the vino: Red is the colour on everyone’s lips this Autumn/Winter 2011, and Gallo Family Vineyards is on trend with its newest addition, Gallo Summer Red – a refreshing, fruity, new red wine designed to be served chilled.

Gallo Summer Red has an RRP of £6.99 and is available from UK retailers. For more information please visit www.gallosummerred.co.uk 

If you would like to win one of five pairs of tickets to this exclusive party, please answer the following question by 5pm tomorrow, 6 September 2011*

How should a glass of Gallo Summer Red wine be served?
1. Warm
2. Chilled
3. Hot

* I have nothing to do with this question, however I would like my lovely readers to get a nice night oot if you fancy it. Please answer the question and I’ll select 5 winners randomly for guest list for you and a friend. Bon chance!

UPDATE: The first 5 comments have won tickets – congratulations!!! Will email you now x

Another HPL competition – win tickets to the Affordable Art Fair

 

I’ve been meaning to go to the Affordable Art Fair for years - I love nothing more than poncing around looking at art, particularly if I have a glass of fizz in my hand, and the thought that I might actually afford to buy something makes it even more tempting.

So by happy coincidence, the HPL and the nice people at Vive le Cheese are offering 4 lucky people the chance to win a double private view pass to the Affordable Art Fair. The double view passes are for the exclusive Charity Private View on the evening of Wednesday 9 March. The HPL will be there too looking suitably poncy.

And as France is not only home to some of the most delicious cheeses on offer but also some of the finest art, Vive le Cheese is embracing its love of art at the AAF. At the Vive le Cheese stand there will be hourly chewtorials (sorry) from The Roving Fromagière (aka Phoebe Weller), a wide variety of French cheese samples, and a sculptural French cheese installation.

The Affordable Art Fair makes contemporary art accessible to everyone, and proves that you don’t need to be an expert or a millionaire to enjoy and buy art. It is the leading showcase in the UK for contemporary art under £4,000. This year AAF has been selected as one of the UK’s coolest brands by an independent council and more than 2,500 members of the British public.

The double private view passes (valued at £50) are for the exclusive Charity Private View on the evening of Wednesday 9 March 3:30pm – 9:30pm. The Affordable Art Fair is located at Battersea Evolution, Battersea Park, London SW11 4NJ.

For your chance to win this great prize, just add a comment to this blog post telling me - if you got tickets to the AAF, what would you like to buy? I find it impossible to choose a winner based on merit, so instead I’ll pick 4 of you at random.org. Answers by Tuesday 1 March please!

For more information about living life on the wedge please visit www.vivelecheese.co.uk or Vive le cheese Facebook page

UPDATE 2 March 2011: I have now selected the winners using random.org so congratulations to Amelia, Emma Drew, Larissa and Celeste Ward – hope you enjoy the fair!

Another HPL competition – win 2 free cocktails at Ping Pong

In the run up to Chinese New Year starting on the 3rd February (for which you should check out all the events going on in Chinatown including a huge celebration on Sunday 6 February) , the HPL has teamed up with Ping Pong to offer you the chance to win a voucher to get two of their famous and exotic cocktails free!  And I’ll be noshing on their special new year dim sum menu soon which I’ll report back on.

I have 25 vouchers to give away (that’s 50 free cocktails) and all I need you to do is to leave a comment and tell me what your favourite cocktail is. I’ll pick 25 of you at random and you’ll get sent your voucher by email. For extra points, it’s the year of the rabbit so anyone who can manage a RABBIT JOKE is pretty much guaranteed a free elderflower sakitini (check out their awesome cocktail menu…).

Please leave your comments by Thursday 3 February and GOOD LUCK!

UPDATE 3.02.11 - OK everyone we have our 25 winners for the 2 x free cocktail vouchers so no more entries please! Hope everyone below enjoys their cocktails (I now have craving for a dirty martini with green olive) and have a read of the comments below if you want to hear some TRULY TERRIBLE rabbit jokes… Happy Chinese New Year!

The return of the HPL competition – opportunity for 2 people to win £200 Hilton Worldwide UK gift vouchers

To tie in with the last week of the Any Weekend, Anywhere Sale (see below), the lovely people at Hilton Worldwide Hotels are giving 2 of my gorgeous readers the chance to win £200 worth of Hilton Worldwide UK gift vouchers each to spend at any Hilton Worldwide UK hotel*.

I hope you give it a shot as you deserve it (and please feel free to take me as your +1!) but if you don’t manage to win and you’re thinking about a weekend away, then you might want to take advantage of their offer. You can save up to 50% at loads of hotels within the Hilton Worldwide Hotels portfolio for any weekend stay in 2011 if you book before 31 January 2011. You could go to Florence, Barcelona, Dubai or Edinburgh, or just stay in London (sounds strange if you live in London but I’ve done it before – there is something wonderfully hedonistic about going for pre-theatre dinner, watching a wonderful play and then spending the night at a lovely central  hotel – and no tube home).  They’ve told me that rates include breakfast and late checkout until 6pm (subject to availability) plus special offers for kids (under 18s stay for free and under 10s eat for free at many hotels). Book now on www.hilton.co.uk/wintersale.

Anyway, to win the vouchers, I want you to tell me about your perfect City break. Where would you go? Who with? What would you do? It could be anything – relaxing break with your mum, romantic weekend with the partner, taking the kids or the best friend. I’ll start - I think I’d like to go back to Brighton, sea front hotel – it’s been ages. I’d get there on Friday, excited, check in, and then wander along the front for some wine and nibbles, followed by dinner at a cute little restaurant. Saturday, we’d get up early, go for a long walk along the beach, play on the pier, have a pint in the Lanes. A snooze, cocktails and early dinner in the hotel, early night… Sunday we’d get up late, get the paper, enjoy a long breakfast – full English, orange juice, coffee. Now you - go!

Please send me your responses – by leaving a comment to this post or on the HPL facebook page by Monday 31 January 2011. I’ll pick my favourite 2 and send you the vouchers! Good luck… :)  

* For voucher Terms and Conditions please visit http://www.hilton.co.uk/giftvouchers.

UPDATE 31 January 2011: Please note this competition is now over and MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS to Ashleigh Young and Annmucc who won £200 of Hilton Worldwide UK gift vouchers. In the end it was far too hard to decide who had the best comment so I used random.org to get the winner. Sorry to everyone else who took part but the sale is still on now if you’ve got the bug. And I look forward to hearing how Ashleigh and Ann enjoy their hols…

The arrival of the HPL monthly competition and win tickets to the launch of Mason & Taylor pub

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