GIVEAWAY: Win Tickets to the Royal Berkshire County Show

Happy Monday! Let's kick the week off with my first ever giveaway shall we?

Last year I was lucky enough to receive complimentary tickets to the Royal Berkshire County Show. It was such a great day out and I can only recommend that you make the time to go this year if you can.

There are so many animals to meet (including baby chicks that are due to hatch live) and the food tent is spectacular, if you like your craft and food fairs then this is definitely one for you as it's the biggest in Berkshire and is definitely the biggest I've ever been to.

Unfortunately, I'll be heading over to the Isle of Wight during the same weekend this year but the organisers of the show have been kind enough to donate a pair of tickets for a give-away right here!
So, if you happen to live in Berkshire, are in the area that weekend or just fancy a break to the beating metropolis of Newbury then all entries are welcome and I really look forward to snooping at your pictures once you're there.

Throughout the day there are equestrian displays, classic car showcases, a motorbike stunt show and even a cattle championship. There are lots of places to eat and shop and you're sure to have a fun and action packed day

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway Details ::

• The prize for this giveaway is one pair of tickets to the Royal Berkshire County Show valid for either 20th or 21st September 2014. Car parking at the event is free and the nearest train station is Newbury approximately 10 minutes from the event with regular bus services.
• To enter :: Pop your details in the Rafflecopter above and I will announce the winner on 15th September, the Monday before the event.
• The winner's name and email address will be passed on to Muddy Boots PR who will arrange the tickets to be issued by the show office

Good luck and fingers crossed!

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

At the beginning of the month I was lucky enough to be the winner of the Great British Butcher's competition to win some of their fancy seasonings and rubs - I'm not doing too badly with winning foodie things, after winning tickets to Taste of London back in June and now this, if I only I was this lucky with the lottery (or Belvoir Fruit Farm's Photography Competition, p.s. you can still vote(!)).


I was pretty excited but wasn't really fully aware of what I'd won until it arrived in a huge parcel (which Doll loved), once I got them though, I was even more excited to try them all, TGB were certainly generous.

I won one of each of their rubs and a cotton apron, as well as some beautifully designed recipe cards. They come in Roast Garlic & Onion, Bloody Mary, Lemon & Mustard, BBQ, Apple, Sage & Onion and Curry Crumb and each of them match different meats to enhance the flavours and really help create a great centrepiece for your meal.




They're made with all-natural ingredients, which is pretty impressive considering the variety. I was also really impressed with the size of the tins I won, although I have it on authority that there a plans for smaller tins, great for testing the different flavours rather than committing. I definitely have enough choice to last me a lifetime but I'm sure my family will be pleased for me to share with them every now and then.






We gave the curry crumb a try and it was absolutely delicious, we did it a little differently from the card, adding salad and cooking in the oven rather than deep-frying but the flavours were definitely there. The mango salsa and spice from the chicken worked really well, especially with the tasty mango naan bread I bought to accompany them. Not sure how the others will fair as I feel like I've already found my favourite but we'll see..
Thank you so much Great British Butcher, I'll definitely be working towards trying each tin out and if the Curry Crumb chicken is anything to go by, I sure am in for a treat.

Be sure to check out Great British Butcher's beautiful website and 'follow' them on Twitter and 'like' them on Facebook for their latest updates, they definitely seem like one to watch!

Vice/Creators Fail.

It is a fail on my part too though; after having to send my address to them and them knowing that I am to receive 5 tickets for the Creators Project before they even had the first draw for the London exhibition last month, they have now sent me an email saying my name is on the door for Saturday. Oh, well that's great but someone else can have them then, I can't go, don't want to go (lie) and you are quite poorly organised. I guess guestlist might mean something important but I hope it doesn't.

I guess it doesn't bother me too much anyway because I don't look like this;

© Richard Kern via www.RichardKern.com

...so I'm not entirely sure I would fit in and as I would have most likely been on my own, that is kind of a big deal.

I also have no comfortable shoes with me at the moment, my feet are so sad. This will not help me tomorrow either.

I don't think I've mentioned that Moon won some tickets to Guilfest, so I do get to go after all, not that I think I ever said I was dying about going anyway, but it's always good fun and if it does turn out that Moon was scammed by some 65DOS faker, we can walk round Guildford instead - this is no comparison btw. I am worried I will be disappointed by it because at Glasto I was walking around comparing - with Guilfest being the only other festival I'd been to before - and it's hardly surprising who came out on top. Guilfest is more expensive in nearly every single away apart from admission price, in any case I will probably still have a fun time and if I don't - because it's obviously going to rain - then at least I can come home to a nice hot shower and a nice warm bed.

Here are a few of my favs from previous Guilfests; I will now have been four years in a row, even if we're only going for the day tomorrow.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Video Room, Digital Age.

This is a pretty interesting commentary on the recycled and distorted nature of the digital age. The post cards of the Mona Lisa would all end up like this if everything had been digital from then on in. He turns in to some kind of weird alien by the end of it, so much effort though, it must have taken him a very long time.

A Thousand YouTube Iterations via The Creators Project Blog

On a related note, I won myself tickets to The Creators Project in London, 5 of them to be exact, the only bummer is that it falls on the same day as the Grad Ball, which I have already bought my ticket for and want to go to anyway. However, if some of The Creators Project event is taking place during the day, I may go by myself (as most people I would want to take would be in Portsmouth) and fob off tickets on people that desperately wanted to go, not that I don't, but I'm not entirely sure I won the competition fairly.

The idea was that you would comment on The Creators Project Facebook fan page and the selected comments with the most 'likes' would win the tickets, I got two likes and one of them was me, some got hundreds, maybe I just got pity tickets, I don't care, a win is a win and if I don't win tickets to any of the iTunes Festival shows I will count this as Fate's consolation prize, even if I really wanted to go to both. But then again, winning iTunes tickets two years running would be one serious fluke, especially seeing as I already got who I wanted and had an amazing time last year.

Today has been a pretty hectic day for e-mails, I feel like I've been doing them non-stop all afternoon. I stayed up a bit later than I wanted to last night sending out emails asking for work experience and I've managed to grab a position covering 'Malden Fortnight' for a free local magazine called, 'Village Voice', they won't be paying me but I will obviously get full credit and it might be fun to take in some local New Malden entertainment, I've written down the dates I want to cover in my diary already. Despite lack of payment, I'm quite excited about doing it because it goes out to all the houses round here and everyone will get to see them.
I also got an email back from the editor for The Kingston/Epsom Guardian wanting dates that I would be available, I hope to hear back from him later or tomorrow. I knew it would be a good idea to try and start small, I sent out another email to Company as well but I think I'll be left with no response like the last time. My cousin Mark also emailed me a pretty good paragraph about the mild identity crisis' that mixed race people have to go through which I guess is how I initially felt but I've changed my perspective on it a bit since thinking more in depth about the project overall.