Polo in the Park

Sunday this week was the Mint Polo final. The forecast was for rain...in the morning it looked like it was holding out...fingers crossed.

This is the first time I've attended the Mint at Hurlingham in West London. Previously I have been to The Cartier international, which is a very formal affair and we love to get dressed up (here's last year popping onto the Pimms bus...)

As the British summer was not playing ball, we had to opt for something safer, and Hurlingham is more informal we could get away with appropriate British Summer dress. This included a jacket for a start, and shoes would be a problem. Record: you cannot stomp divots in stiletto heels. Wedges are the best option, so I plumped for a cropped trouser:

Jacket: Balenciaga
T-shirt: Zara
Trousers: H&M
Shoes: Stylistpick

Stocking up in the Crown and Corgi we were ready for some pony action. The bar did not have slimline tonic (shocker) so I opted for a rum and diet coke as my 'treat' as I am still trying to keep to my diet. The match was made up of 4 'chukkas' or quarters if you like. At 'half time' (i.e. after the first two chukkas...are you staying with me?) you get to go on  the field and stomp the divots. Much fun.

Sydney

VS Moscow

Stomping Divots

After this match it was time for time for lunch. Being in the area Harrods set up shop as the caterer for the weekend. Thankfully they had reasonably healthy options. I went for a tuna nicoise salad, which although was smothered in dressing felt like a good choice.

By this time it started to rain, however we managed to stay under our brollies and watch the 'War Horse' stunt display. They make it look so easy...makes you think you could ride a horse with one foot on each while standing up and racing...hmmm.

Polo is such good fun, lovely crowds and a great day out, but mainly when the sun shines. See you at the Cartier International!

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10k to start the day...

Having just finished one of my toughest training runs (attempting my target time over the distance), in the gale force winds, mostly uphill and having only recently finished my scrambled egg (singular) on toast...part of my current 1200 calorie per day diet something occurred to me. Possibly it's not a good idea to be on a 1200 calorie per day diet while attempting to run a 10k. Also that that is an incredibly long sentence.

Post Italy I have been trying to get into fighting fit shape including shifting the additional pasta and pizza lbs. I have set myself a target weight loss, while weeks away from my run. Good points of that...one is certainly doing some favours for the other...The other interesting twist in the tale, I am away on a work trip for the 4 days immediately before my race.

Post the jubilee weekend (so since Tuesday) I have not had a drink. A horrific hangover from Monday, yes. A drink? No. This is going to be impossible while away with work, especially as we are hosting a cocktail party on one evening. Networking and not drinking? I wonder...

In other news, I have been a sloppy blogger since leaving my camera cord at work, and not being in the office for two weeks now = bad. Some of the things you have to look forward to include my new hair, new shoes, new nails and lots more on Italia.

Until then, I really must have a shower...

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Instagram Italia

Following a week in Southern Italy, I have taken a million photos. What I have managed to do however was take some ruddy good ones with my favourite toy...Instagram. Who needs a Canon with a zzzillion megapixels, a million times zoom when you can have your mobile and a dozen filters!

Drinking...

It all starts with a bottle of champers on the plane (obviously...) although I know drink goes to your head faster at altitude (skiing anyone?!) the same rule doesn't apply to me when flying. I seem to be immune to the effects of alcohol, and time...and sleep for that matter.

Upon landing the traditional beverage of choice is the strawberry daiquiri. This particular one was served on the terrace of the hotel. It felt at times like we were the only guests, oh the joys of travelling outside of peak times.

If you ever travel to Sorrento you will be going for a drink at the Fauno bar. It is 'the' place to see and be seen. People watching to the extreme...as you often see the same person two of three times (Sorrento is a small town!) The picture above is the view through my Nastro Azzurro (Peroni to you and I). Everywhere you have a drink you are also presented with peanuts, crisps and other assorted goods.

More importantly...

Eating

The next thing I will be blogging about is the amazing fooooood I both ate and bought, including this cuttlefish black spaghetti above. Lord knows what I'm going to do with it yet but it's long, black and I'm very excited about it...

 Pasta, pasta everywhere...

This particularly charming display was outside one of the more fragrant lemon pasta shops. Sorrento specialises in locally grown oranges and lemons and what do they do with them? Limoncello...(of course), lemon pasta, lemon soap, lemon oil, lemons lemons, lemons...

The fruit is so much better than you get in this country, they are ridiculous. The sizes alone are spectacular. The colours, the smells and they are e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. 

Sightseeing (ish)

OK so most of the sightseeing photos are on my camera, these are just some of the things I found a little interesting.

Daschund...I'm sold. Harmont & Blaine is an extremely popular men, women and children's designer. The clothes are very nautical and casual, my favourite thing about it however is the sign. Sucker.

 The main square of Sorrento...take your life in your hands with the traffic it comes from all directions. Walk with conviction and look like you know what you're doing was my tactic and I'm still here to tell the tale...

 This church, otherwise known as the bane of my holiday. Every 15 minutes for 24 hours of the day it bongs. Here is the drill...like a normal church at the hour it goes off with a number of 'bongs' that correspond to the time. In Italy however this isn't enough...no, no. Every 15 minutes after this you get the corresponding hour bongs followed by a 'bing' to signify the 15 minute past...example, at 2.15 AM (she stresses...) bong bong...bing (one bing for the first 'quarter' past). At 2.30 am...bong bong, bing bing. At 11.45pm bong x11 bing x3, enough to drive one insane.

Harbour, cruise ship (called Regent, not sure which company) with Mount Vesuvius in the background, your standard view...

Finally...

Your standard holiday shot.

Shame the plane seems to have gobbled up my tan...now if only the sun would come out for some Jubilee Fun!

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Ciao Vacanze

Ciao da Italia!

I shall be quiet this week as I am in Italia, the country of pizza, pasta, ice cream, wine and sunshine!

Arrivederci
XX

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Barbecoa

Post Pitt cue we are on a mission to find the best meat/pulled pork in London. Last night our quest took us to Barbecoa, the Jamie Oliver / Alan Perry Lang love child that specialises in meat...pure and simple.

Pre cocktails were had at Madison on the roof of One New Change it was a gorgeous sunny evening and the crowd was a sophisticated post work affair with a buzz of the first proper summer night of the year.

Come reservation time we headed to Barbecoa literally mouths watering from the amazing smells of Madison tapas lingering in the air. We didn't have far to go as the restaurant takes up a hefty space on the ground/1st floor of the Shopping complex.

We opted for arrival cocktails on recommendation of the waitress...who unfortunately then immediately came over to ask if we were ready to order. After perusing the menu pretending we were going to order anything other than pulled pork and melt in the mouth beef we opted for the pit pulled pork and pit beef, served with coleslaw and beans respectively.

I had heard the pork scratchings were amazing so we ordered these as a cocktail aperitif, they were extremely satisfyingly crunchy and a bit mushy in the right places. The portion was also enormous and we couldn't stop eating them. Unfortunately we would later come to regret this.

Longest bit of crackling I've ever seen

The food arrived really fast (arrival cocktails weren't even finished and we aren't slow drinkers...), good news is it all looked great. We split the two meals between us and I tucked into beef. It looked like a steak consistency but as soon as you touched it it fell apart deliciously. My actual phrasing was "this beef is ridiculous", and it was. I'm not a huge fan of kidney beans but these complimented the beef and were delish.

Pulled pork, waffles and coleslaw

Pit beef, smoked kidney beans

After this I was really looking forward to the pork with high expectations. I went for a huge mouthful (ladylike) and although it was good I was a bit disappointed. My expectations were too high. It was very sticky sweet honey BBQ delicious as it should be, but just not as roll your eyes back into your head and let out a little groan as Pitt Cue was. The coleslaw wasn't even on the same plane. The pork was also accompanied by a waffle, strange combo that kind of worked but I would have preferred a more delicious coleslaw that stood on it's own right needing no requirement for waffles.

We were stuffed pretty quickly as the portions were huge so we opted for a breather and another cocktail. The waitress came over one too many times to ask if we were finished even though our cutlery wasn't in the 'finished' position. She got the hint eventually. There were hundreds of staff milling about and although the restaurant is big there were potentially too many for this time in the evening (8-9ish)

Overall not as good as Pitt Cue in terms of food, atmosphere or value for money, but still a bloody good bit of meat.

Atmosphere: 2.5/5
Food: 3.5/5
Drink: 3.5/5
Overall: 3/5

If it was better value for money the overall would go up, the view alone deserves an extra half of a point.

This is actually the view from Madison

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Glossybox - 1st Anniversary Edition

I had high expectations with this months Glossybox having been pleasantly delighted with April's edition. My anticipation reached peak level when my box arrived on the same day it was dispatched (amazing) and was HEAVY, this thrilled me - a-lot.

It was my first one that had the trademark pink box...and the wrapping inside was delicious (by this time peopole have crowded around my desk, anticipation is at unbearable levels - especially because usually I don't read the card but look at the products first so it's a surprise!)

On opening the box it looked stuffed full, which I was happy with. So here's what happened next...

The Noble Isle shower gel smells amazing, I prefer it to the recent Molton Brown one. So far so good. These don't last long however but are great for travelling. It's also the first product of it's kind I've seen to incorporate a QR code - how exciting for nerds.

Next up were the falsh lashes, not something I would usually wear due to being a serial glasses wearer, the length of them doesn't really convey due to my bins getting in the way. These are super cute/over the top with the diamanté on them so I may trim them down and wear them for a laugh at some extravagant night out. I hadn't heard of the brand before and the cost of these wasn't significant (last month I was spoiled with lots of full/large size high quality goods). The value of these is £3.90, for eye lashes this is at the lower end.

The two Lolita Lempicka perfume samples got my attention next, mainly for the wrong reasons. The Narcisso perfume in my first box was gorgeous but they are so small they only really last a couple of sprays so the value doesn't feel as much. I have so many perfumes that I like I tend to not to be in the market for others. I may change my preferences to see if I can avoid getting perfume samples.

Not even last is the Aptiva masks 'express beauty with cucumber'. These are apparently £3.50 per sachet which feels a lot, so hopefully these will be lavishly decadent. I will take them on holiday to repair my sunned skin.

I thought I had been swizzed as I couldn't see the hair treatment one of my friends was excited about after reading the card, the little sneaky pot had camouflaged itself in the black packing paper. The retail price is £19.99 for this aragon oil hair treatment. The size of the sample is only 10ml, so £2 worth. This smells so good I almost wanted to eat it. Ideas mused around the desk were it smells of Haribo or it smells of Red Bull..common denominator? Sugar. My hair is in for a sweet treat. I cannot wait to use probably the whole thing in one sitting. Again, this will be a holiday treat one evening to repair my sun bleached hair.

Overall this month's box isn't as much value as the previous ones and the products aren't necessarily things I'd buy. I will try them however - and it may be fun to be cucumber face masked up with diamanté eye lashes on...

The ''birthday treats' were a welcome surprise, compact mirrors are always useful but the balloon caused some confusion around the office, it was a nice touch!

Happy Birthday Glossybox - see you next month x

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Stylistpick

Although coming onto my radar a while back (no thanks to Cheryl Cole) I wasn't sold into Stylistpick. If I was in the market for shoes (their main forte) I would shop for shoes, simple.

It just so happened I have been looking for some new summer wedges. I had perused the shops and online outlets to no avail, then a work friend alerted me to a 2 for £40 offer Stylistpick were doing...it would be rude not to really.

I had to complete my profile even though I would have preferred to browse all and choose what I actually liked rather than what a computer thinks I'm going to like based on 20 fashion related questions. I came out as Classic, sure I'll take that.

I had already seen a pair of wedges I liked in my friends showroom that didn't appear on mine. You can however browse and shop the full collection, which is what I did.

I ordered on Tuesday they arrived the following Monday, not the fastest service and at a cost of £3.50. Free shipping is available but only of you sign up to be a VIP. They don't make the costs associated with this very easy to find. I opted to not do it, as I said I prefer to shop on a requirement basis not just monthly because new styles have been released.

The packaging is excessive But nice and feels like you are buying into quality. To get an idea of size here is my two pairs of packaged shoes compared to the shoes I had on beforehand...

Initially I put one of each on to gauge comfort/which pair would rub. I almost convinced myself I was going to pick a pair and send the others back...who was I kidding for £20 a pair?!

When I had to actually leave the office, I opted to wear these for the day. For c.6 inches they were pretty comfy although I am used to wearing heels most of the time. When I took them off at the end of the day the soles were pretty worn, which is fast as I only popped out at lunchtime and aside from that was in a carpeted office, so they will only likely do a season.

 Here are my second pair...a bit more sophisticated for summer evenings.

So what do you think? Tempted to sign up? If you do I would advise not buying when the showroom comes out but wait for deals like this later on in the month.

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