Am very proud!

My friend Rahul's drink -Prometheus is getting lots of attention! Check out their posting on NotCot.org one of my new favourite sites. It is a great spread and even links to a video. I will need to get to NYC soon to taste some! I love their product shots, very creative but I would expect nothing less from Mr. P who is an art director extraordinaire!

Congrats!

visit their site

Deja Vu pour le New Yorker
We had a very SITC night out the other night - the lovely French Madame M was in town from NYC. We had champagne to celebrate seeing each other after a long period and to celebrate all of our recent pieces of good news.

So our actress extraordinnaire decided to arrange the night - it was a walk from M's hotel in Mayfair to Randall and Aubin's in Soho. We got to the entrance and she screeched, you took me here last time! (2 years ago) But we decided we all really liked it there so why not go again.

Then after dinner the actress said she had another great suggestion - Soho House - we get to the main entrance and again our New Yorker said - this looks familiar - you took me here two years ago too!

It was quite funny - as we all seem to have our usual haunts we take guests too - I am a fan of a quick bite at Busaba and then onwards to a gig or a show and the actress's is Randall & Aubin and Soho House. When I go to NYC am going to get the usual Madame M tour too which is sure to include her partner's bar Bua. We had a great night, feasted on lobster and champagne and caught up on all the Toronto, New York and London gossip - aren't girlfriends great?! Love the disco ball and dancing waiters at Randall - they are all gorgeously gay. Pics are from Randall & Aubin's - not the best but perhaps the champagne hindered the photograph quality :)

One, two, tree
Many Sicilian men and the Irish have one thing in common; with their accents - they pronounce the number three the same way - 'tree'.

The pic is of three Irish fellas who own a bar in NYC called Bua, located in St.Mark's square in the East Village. David, who is in the middle is the lovely boyfriend of my fabulous friend Nat.
Bua celebrated their 3rd anniversary this past week which is a great accomplishment for a bar or business for that matter - as there is some awful statistic that one out of three businesses fail in their first year - ouch!

So to make fun of their Irish accents they got these t-shirts made for their anniversary party. Congrats Bua! I can't wait to come visit and have some great Irish hospitality.

Bua in Irish Gaelic means 'victory' which is appropriate for their success!

Oh Turning Leaf....
A long while ago, I had a tip off from a friend who worked at Sainsbury's that if you buy a case of Ernest & Julio Gallo wine you would be eligible for a free return flight to the USA. Cities included in the promo were: New York, Boston, Miami etc.

Apparently these cases were sold out as soon as they got to stores but after a late night out Rana and I stumbled upon some at an all night Sainsbury's in Soho. We hauled these two cases in the black cab and went home excited about the free flights.

I read all the fine print and sent off my application form (registered mail too) I was positive that surely I would fly to NYC after spending something like ninety quid on these two cases of terrible tasting wine?!

I didn't hear back from the marketing company that was facilitating the promotion and after a few weeks I Googled the company. The Google search returned many hate websites and consumer forum posts entitled 'Turning Leaf flight scam' and more. I then decided that this wine (that tasted awful) would not be drunk in vain. Finally after weeks and weeks of pushing the marketing company and Sainsbury's legal dept I got a reply saying I could book my flight to NY and only pay taxes. Yay!

I was lucky as many people did not get their flights and were stuck with the crappy wine.

I had a great time in NY and then came back to these never ending bottles of Turning Leaf wine. I tried to have a sangria party, give them away as gifts but they would not go away.

It is a long standing joke now that there is one bottle of Turning Leaf left that is passed back and forth from my friend Anne Marie and I at any special occasion. I am sure I will see that Turning Leaf again soon....maybe we will have to actually crack it open when he first child is born.

Read the Advertising Standards Authority Website's report on this promotion, am sure Sainsbury's will never team up with that marketing company again.

Lesson for today: buyer beware of food promos.

Pineapple Lumps
A NZ treat! It smells like pineapple, has pineapple flavour but I don't think there is any pineapple in this candy bar (from what I recall when reading the ingredients' list).

My sis and I have a new favourite show -Flight of the Conchords - about two Kiwis who move to NYC to get their folk band into the limelight. It is hilarious and is getting quite the cult following. My friends in NY love it and my friends in TO are also keenly watching each week as Jermaine and Brett go through some interesting experiences in NY. It doesn't seem to be showing in NZ which is a shame as it is truly a gem of a show.

They make a lot of funny NZ references and perhaps one day they will be eating Pineapple Lumps sent to them from their family back home. One thing they do not do on the show is call each other by a nickname as every Kiwi I know is not called their real name e.g. Bug, Bun, Bobs, Coops, Hunty, Heinzy, Madz etc... Seriously, these are some of the Kiwi people whom I have met and for months did not know their real names. Some of them I still cannot recall their real names?!

On the site Homesick-Kiwi.com Pineapple Lumps are, 'the single best-seller among homesick Kiwis. Chewy and satisfying.'