Pinteresting Prizes: the latest comping trend

Pinterest - be warned, it's addictive! You might venture over there to enter competitions but before long you'll be creating boards of comedy vegetables, favourite wallpaper and amazing tattoos! Pinterest is a collection of virtual pinboards, you can create your own and browse other people's. Their mission is to "connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting" - it's one of the fastest growing social media websites, and its popularity means that brands are starting to run lots of Pinterest promotions. The good news is that because it's all about photographs or videos, these comps are usually fun and creative! You can find me on Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/dicoke - there's not much on my boards yet but that's because I'm afraid of getting too addicted to it! I do add all the Pinterest comps I find to a Competitions board though.

To sign up to Pinterest, first you need to 'Request an Invite' at www.pinterest.com - you will receive an email with details of how to sign up (check in your junk folder for this!) - you'll need to choose a username and you can upload a profile photo and short biography.

Here's a quick guide to Pinterest - you can find out lots more on their neatly organised 'Help' pages!

'Pins' are images (or videos) which you can add from other sites or upload from your computer - clicking on a pin takes you to the original website. To add an image, choose 'Add' from the top right of your Pinterest page, then paste in the URL of the website your image is on. An easier option is to download a 'Pin It' button for your browser toolbar here which will make it easy for you to add images to your boards. When you're on a website and click the 'Pin It' button a window will pop up and you can click through all the images on that site - just click the one you want to pin. You can add text, links and hashtags to an image, as well as 'mentioning' fellow Pinterest users. When you Pin from a website, a link to that site will appear with that pinned image - be warned, some websites don't allow you to 'Pin' images from there!

'Boards' are a group of pins, usually with the same theme - for example, they could be recipes, hairstyles, typography - or competitions of course! To create a board, choose 'Add' from the top right of your page and 'Create a Board'. Here's my board of my favourite competition entries:

You can 'Follow' on Pinterest as you would on Twitter. Click 'Follow All' to follow a user, or choose a specific board and click 'Follow' to only follow that board. Pins from the boards you follow will appear on your homepage.

'Repins' are where you spot an image you like whilst browsing Pinterest, and you can choose to Repin from that board onto one of your own boards. The Pin will retain the link to the original website - you can edit the accompanying text if you like.

'Likes' are similar to Facebook Likes - some promoters (unfortunately!) use them as a voting tool in their competitions. Your Liked images won't appear on your boards but in your profile's 'Likes' section.

As on Facebook, you can 'Comment' on images.

'Mentions' are similar to Twitter mentions or Facebook tags, and can be used in an image caption or a comment. If you're Following a user, type @ and then their username - they will receive an email notification that they have been mentioned.

As with Twitter and Facebook, you can have Notifications emailed to you. Go to the Settings page (from the drop down menu top right of your home page) and you can choose which notifications you receive, and whether you receive individual emails or a daily round up.

Types of Pinterest competition

There are a few different styles of comps on Pinterest, although no doubt promoters will come up with more creative ways of doing it as more people get on board! As with Facebook creative/effort competitions, winners may be judged, chosen at random or by the number of Likes/Repins. For some comps you don't even need to be signed up to Pinterest, as the promoter might ask you to email or Tweet a photo which they will then add to their own board.

Contribute to a promoter's board
When you Follow a Board, the promoter adds you as a contributor. You can then upload a Pin as an entry to a competition. See the Amnesia and Confused.com links below for examples.

Create your own board
Promoters ask you to create a board with a certain theme - usually asking you to pin a minimum amount of items from their own Boards or website. Entries can be tracked by the Board Name, or a competition hashtag (eg. #ACHICAMustHaves) used in its description. Promoters may ask you to leave a link to your board as a comment on their competition post, or email through a link!

Twitter-style 'Follow and Repin' Comps
Similar to the RT and Follow comps that are so dull yet so popular on Twitter, on Pinterest a promoter may simply require you to Follow a particular Board (or all their boards) and then Repin a specific competition image, or your choice of prize image. Winners are chosen at random. As with Twitter, if you spot a Repinned competition photo on your comping friend's board, make sure you Repin from the ORIGINAL board (look for 'Repinned from....' above the pin, then click the link) - if you repin a comper's entry that won't count!

Voting Competitions
Yes, they exist on Pinterest too, unfortunately! With these popularity comps, the winner is the person who creates the board or pins the image that gets the most Repins or Likes. Before long the Facebook and Twitter cheats will be setting up multiple accounts just to 'Like' and 'Repin' their own entries I'm sure.

Where do I find Pinterest competition details and Terms and Conditions?
This is one of the main problems with Pinterest, as the competition details are usually posted as an image and then easily lost amongst the entries on the promoter's board. It's possible to select one of your pins as your board 'cover', and some promoters remember to do this so it's obvious on their profile page! Some promoters link to the full terms and conditions on an external website. Check carefully as many Pinterest giveaways are actually only open to US residents. I find most Pinterest comps by doing a Twitter search on 'Pinterest win competition', or searching on Google.

How do I know if I've won a Pinterest competition?
For competitions where you need to create a moodboard, the promoter may also ask you to email them a link to your entry - in this case they will email the winner. There isn't a messaging function on Pinterest, so if you've entered a Repin competition then the promoter is likely to Follow one of your boards and leave a comment on your Repin, or they may comment with an '@ mention' of your name on the original competition pin and ask you to email them (as with a Twitter DM, they will need to Follow at least one of your boards before they can '@ mention' you). If you've been added as a contributor to a board they are likely to comment on your entry to let you know you've won.
NOTE: Since posting this, I have won two Pinterest competitions. In both cases, the promoter sent a message to me on Facebook, which arrived in my 'Other' inbox. One promoter told me that they couldn't comment on their ten winning entries because Pinterest thought they were spamming!

A few current Pinterest competitions

Confused.com are giving away ten pairs of Butterfly Flats shoes. First, follow their competition board 'Driving in Heels'. When you Follow, they will add you as a contributor, then you need to upload a photo of you in your highest heels, with the caption 'I want to win a pair of Butterfly Twists with Confused.com'. The ten most extravagant pairs will win a pair of Butterfly Twists Eve shoes. Read the Terms here and enter before 30 April 2012.

Win a voucher for Afternoon Tea at the AfternoonTea.co.uk Pinterest competition - you don't actually need to be on Pinterest to enter this one, just email a photo of you enjoying Afternoon Tea to pinterest@afternoontea.co.uk and they will add it to their board. Unfortunately the photo with the most Likes wins (they've changed the rules on this one which is quite frustrating) but every voter also gets a chance to win a voucher too. Ends 30 April 2012.

Achica want you to create a board of your Spring Home Ideas. You need to tag the board in your description with #ACHICAMustHaves and make sure you use at least five products from Achica! Read more on the Facebook page - and you can search boards with the hashtag to see what other entries are like. Sadly, the winner of the £100 voucher and Orla Kiely bag is the board with the most followers, rather than the board judged to be the best. Enter before 30 April 2012.

Conflict of Pinterest is a creative and cleverly designed (if a little confusing!) competition from First Choice. Essentially, you choose your favourite country on their infographic and then you can either Tweet your reason for choosing it, OR create a Pinterest board of images and link to it. The Twitter winner - picked at random - gets an iPhone 4S, and the Pinterest winner - judged - gets a Nikon 3100 camera. Read the Terms and Conditions here and enter before 1 May 2012.

RedBullIntern is giving away a copy of the excellent Senna on Blu-Ray. This is an easy prize draw - you need to Follow F1 Fan on Pinterest, then Repin this photo of Senna. Read the details here and enter before 4 May 2012.

Amnesia Ibiza are giving away up to fifteen prizes of 100 Euros to the best photos of the club's early days uploaded to their 'Amnesia Memories' board before 17 May 2012 (although you'll need to be following their board before 1st May to be granted access to upload). Check out all the details on their website.

Fancy flights to Florida?

Ah, a trip to Florida - on the wish list of many a comper I'm sure! Not me yet though - I'm saving our Florida holiday until Ryland is old enough to appreciate all it has to offer. For now, ThomasLand in Tamworth does the job just fine!

But I digress... I'm here to tell you about a bloggers competition hosted by Ocean Florida, where one lucky blogger will bag a pair of return flights to Florida. Be warned though - the flights are on specific dates: either 7th June from Manchester or 11th May/15th June from Gatwick - and the stay must be for 14 nights. If those dates suit you and you have a blog then this could be a low entry competition worth a go - you CAN also transfer the prize to relatives or friends!

To enter, you need to blog about Florida in between 300-750 words before this Thursday 19th April - and leave a link to your post on the competition blog here. The judges will reward their favourite post with the prize.

If you don't have a blog, don't panic! There's a nice easy prize draw over at the Lands' End website to win a week's holiday for 4 in Florida too - enter here before 30 April 2012.

If you live in Ireland, you can also win a Florida holiday at www.iloveirishchicken.com before 29th June, or scan the Moy Park logo on your iPhone using the Blippar App!

Good luck!

Creative Comp Round-up April 2012

This is a looong overdue (sorry!) round up of all the most inspiring and creative comps around at the moment. It's a real mixed bag, so hopefully there's something to take your fancy! You'll notice I'm no longer including those that are pure voting competitions (so no judged or random element) - they're a waste of time and leave the genuinely talented entrants disappointed and frustrated. There are plenty of imaginative and creative challenges here that you can get involved in, without having to spam your friends asking for votes!

In the last couple of weeks I've been lucky with my video entries - I've won £200 High Street vouchers with Maybelline and a 3D TV with Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists on Facebook - although neither of my entries were my best work I'm afraid, so I won't be sharing them with you this time!

If you win a prize in any of the comps I post, let me know over at the SuperLucky Facebook page. And don't forget I also blog at The PrizeFinder, where we give a £50 shopping voucher away every month for your prize stories and photos.

Win a prize every Friday in April with the ESpares Fix it Yourself Fridays competition - prizes include an iPad3, Nespresso machines and hand-held vacuums. Tell them a 'Fix it Yourself' story to enter - the Week 1 winning entries are very well written! You can enter by email to fiy@espares.co.uk or post to their Facebook wall.

The People are offering makeovers for your local community green space by Veolia - there will be one winner for each of 4 regions: North, South, Midlands and London, and the makeover will be done in time for you to have a Jubilee Party in your community space! Enter by 15 April 2012.

If you're between 9-16 (or have a daughter who is!) you can enter to win an iPad in the Sugarscape George at Asda fashion competition - upload a sketch of an outfit inspired by Sports Luxe catwalk trends. Five runners up get a selection of 'Love2Laugh' clothes from George. Enter before 16 April 2012.

Wines of South Africa are giving away two prizes of a bottle of SA wine - to enter, email a photo of you drinking South African wine to info@winesofsa.com - read more at www.winesofsa.co.uk and enter by 20 April 2012.

Win a week in Stockholm in this fabulous LiveSwedish photo competition. To enter, take a photo that captures the spirit of Stockholm style and upload to Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #livestockholm - this will need some creative thinking! All photos will be rated and those with 5 stars judged to decide the winner. Read the full terms here and enter before 23 April 2012.

Another one for youngsters! 10-16 year olds can write a 247 word story with the theme 'The Disovery' to win £75 Bloomsbury Books vouchers and ten runners up prizes of a signed book. There's a new competition theme every month, and this month's comp closes on 24 April 2012.

Easyjet are running another competition just for bloggers - the prize is an all-inclusive week's holiday for two in Sharm El Sheikh, and to enter you need to write a post inspired by Egypt. Read more on the EasyJet site and publish your blog post before 27 April 2012.

B&Q are running a comp to design a gift card - but you need to be under 25 (darn!) You can download a template at www.diy.com/designagiftcard and email your design to designagiftcard@b-and-q.co.uk before 27 April 2012 - the prize is a £500 B&Q gift card!

And yet another for the under 18s! Design a new black card for the BBFC and you could get it shown before movies and win a BBFC training day for your class at school, as well as film goodies. Runners up will get DVDs. Enter at www.cbbfc.co.uk before 30 April 2012.

Win the opportunity to dive with sharks over at the King British Facebook page! To enter, upload a photo or video of your fish enjoying King British Fish Treats to their wall. Closes 30 April 2012.

Confused.com have made a little promo video to publicise the dangers of driving in high heels. Never mind the problems with the pedals, the biggest danger is scuffing the leather from the heels of your finest KG shoes - I've had to glue bits onto my patent pink heels many a time! Anyway, to enter you'll need to be on Pinterest and be following the Confused.com competition board 'Driving in Heels'. When you FOLLOW you will be added as a contributor, then you need to upload a photo of you in your most extravagant heels, with the caption 'I want to win a pair of Butterfly Twists with Confused.com'. The ten most extravagant pairs will win a pair of Butterfly Twists Eve shoes - I would hope they choose entries where you can see the entrant in the shot rather than just stock shots though! Read the Terms here and enter before 30 April 2012.

Win one of a hundred Jubilee Street Party packs, with party goodies for 50 people plus £100 Co-op vouchers. You need to complete a tiebreaker (max 100 words) about your local community group and party at www.co-operative.coop/food/jubilee/. Closes 30 April 2012.

Alpro are giving away Festival tickets again (I had a wonderful time at the Summer Sundae Festival courtesy of a win in their Facebook comp last year!). To enter, tell them why you can't wait for the festival season on the Facebook App, and choose from Wychwood, Cornbury, Latitude, WOMAD or REWIND festivals. Winners will be picked at random! Closes 30 April 2012.

Revlon are giving away 500 Photoready Primers, and 500 Photoready Eye Primers on Facebook. To enter, share your beauty tip or a tip on striking the perfect pose for a photo on their Facebook App. Upload a photo, and you're done. Twenty entries will also be shortlisted to win the 'ultimate PhotoReady prize', but as that involves voting I won't bore you with the details! Closes 30 April 2012.

Win a trip to Rome in the 55DSL Instagram competition, plus runners up prizes of vouchers to spend at their online store! Upload a photo showing what Italy means to you, using the hashtag #55DSLROMAFILM before 2 May 2012 (this one is open worldwide).

If you cycle round London, Barclays are giving you the chance to win a luxury hotel stay and dinner at 'Dinner'! To enter, upload a photo that captures the essence of cycling around London to their Facebook App. Winners will be judged - closes 4 May 2012 (although if you enter your photo before 23 April 2012 you could win a prize in the weekly draw too!).

Win some gorgeous Raybans over at the Select Specs blog - send them your funniest sunglasses snaps to competitions@selectspecs.com before 23 April 2012.

There are several recipe comps inspired by the Diamond Jubilee and here's the first - whip up a Jubilee Mushrooms recipe fit for a Queen and win £500. Enter on the MoreToMushrooms Facebook page before 29 April 2012.

Great British Chicken also want your Diamond Jubilee recipe, this time with chicken! The most imaginative recipe will win a London overnight stay on Saturday 2 June plus £200 in cash! Enter here by 4 May 2012.

Johnson's want to see your happy baby videos and will reward their ten favourites with a camcorder! Videos must be under 5 minutes long - upload at www.johnsonsbaby.co.uk before 11 May 2012.

Palmers are celebrating originality with their new Facebook App. Upload a photo of yourself or a friend explaining why they're original - the most original entry wins the trip to Rome, and nine runners up receive a Palmers Pamper Pack worth £30. Just a tip - you might want to hold off entering until nearer the closing date of 13 May 2012, then you can check through the entries to ensure that yours is REALLY original!

TopFruit are running yet another fun creative comp - this time you can win one of two prizes to support your team (Ireland or England) at Euro 2012. To enter, tell them the funniest reason why your friend should win the prize (I'm guessing here that you should agree with your friend that they take you along if they win!) You can read the Terms and Conditions here and it closes on 14 May 2012.

Grant Property want to know what your dream job is and where you see yourself in ten years time - this competition is ONLY FOR STUDENTS and you must have an 'ac.uk' email address to claim the £50 iTunes voucher if you're chosen as the winner. Post an entry on their Facebook wall before 30 May 2012.

myjobsplace are running another comp on their Facebook page - tell them about yourself with a story, picture or poem and there winners will get a £50 retailers' voucher of their choice. 'The more creative the better' they say - read more here! Closes 31 May 2012.

Veetee want your recipes using Veetee Dine In rice - you could win £500. Enter on their website and read the Terms on Facebook. Closes 1 June 2012.

Brabantia have launched a 'Design a Bin' competition with a grand prize of €1500 of Brabantia products - and a bin featuring your bin design! This winner is decided by judges. Unfortunately they've also decided to runs voting compeitiion alongside this, with the winner getting €1000 of products. Six category winners (judged) will also get a bin. Enter at http://brabantia.com/designyourbin/ by 10 June 2012.

Win £1000 of Thomas and Friends goodies and tickets to the Blue Mountain Movie Premiere by designing a new mystery engine called Luke! Find out more at www.thomasandfriends.com. I've read the T&Cs and there are no age restrictions at all - and the winning entry is chosen at random, so I might do a joint effort with Ryland! Enter by post or by email to Thomasandfriends@hitentertainment.com before 15 June 2012.

Spaseekers are giving away a spa break to the most comical photo of you or your mates looking tired! Complete your details on their Facebook App, then post a photo to their wall and tag it. Enter before 29 June 2012.

Design a Beehive in the Neal's Yard Remedies comp and you can see your design brought to life, or win Bee Lovely Hand Creams and kids gardening sets. There's two age groups: Under 5s and 6-12 year olds. Download the PDF here with all the details on. Closes 19 June 2012.

Good luck - and don't forget to check out the skill-based and creative comps over at The PrizeFinder too!

Signed, sealed, hand delivered...

In the last week I have taken delivery of some of the most unusual competition prizes I've ever won, and wanted to share these autographed delights with you! These fabulous framed photos are courtesy of the HTC 'Music Legend' competition, where I won my choice of music/sport/film memorabilia. I had them hand delivered as the company www.musicpicturedisc.com are based in Nottingham...

This one is fabulous - Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd on the set of Ghostbusters!

One of my favourite LPs...

Now, I love Raiders of the Lost Ark - but why have they framed the DVD alongside a still from the new rubbish movie?!

This is my favourite - I've always been a massive Kylie fan and recreated her debut album sleeve to enter the HTC competition (see my blog header!)

And here's a photo of Dennis Bergkamp to join our framed Forest shirt and letters from Arsene Wenger and Karren Brady in our football-themed downstairs loo...

And as if that wasn't enough excitement, look what arrived in the post today from a little surprise giveaway on the Olly the Little White Van Facebook page - a signed JUSTIN FLETCHER photo!

It's times like this you realise what a marvellous hobby comping is!

More voting trouble: IKEA and Yazoo sweep the cheating under the carpet...

Voting competitions. I don't like them, and following my latest investigations into cheating I no longer enter them, and will only vote if I believe the entry is a worthy winner. I'm trying hard to educate promoters, marketing and PR agencies that voting competitions are NEVER a good idea, but there's still some way to go...

IKEA have invested a lot into promoting their new 'Snap a Napper' competition - google it and it's all over PR and marketing websites. The promotional videos and photos look good, and the concept is fun too. Snap a photo of a friend or family member (NOT a stranger!) snoozing, and you could BOTH win a brand new bed from Ikea. The winner is chosen at random from the five entries with the most votes.

It's still eight days until the voting ends, but take a look a the current top four. Two of the photos feature a child, when the terms and conditions state 'Entrants must not upload photographs of anyone aged under 18'. The other two entries are from a Cumbrian couple, Paul and Julie, who were recently disqualified from the Littlewoods Mum of the Year voting competition.

Poundland and Bupa recently ran similar competitions where their winners were judged from the ten most popular videos/photos. In the final 48 hours of BOTH these competitions, multiple (poor quality and mainly irrelevant) entries were submitted and gained 200+ votes in 24 hours to finish in the top ten. Luckily both Poundland and Bupa were on the ball and disqualified these entries at the judging stage - but there was still a lot of disappointment and anger amongst their Facebook fans, who couldn't understand why the entries were approved in the first place.

IKEA have included in their terms 'Fraudulent or deceptive voting practices are not permitted and any entrant that engages in such practices will be disqualified.' Most promoters now feel that including a term like this is enough to stop the cheats, and their technical team can check and disqualify votes from fake Facebook profiles, vote exchange or vote buying sites. What most companies don't realise is that many cheats can easily sabotage others' entries by voting for them with fake profiles, or by posting an anonymous vote request on a forum like freelancer.com, microworkers.com or one of the many Facebook voting exchange groups. They then email a link to the fake request to the promoter, or use another fake profile to post a screen grab onto the promoter's Facebook wall. THIS IS NOT FAR FETCHED. It happens, and if you want evidence and screenshots then feel free to email me.

I messaged IKEA via their Facebook page last week with a link to my recent blog post about cheating, suggesting they should check IP addresses and voter profiles for the top entries. They didn't respond. Yesterday I logged into Facebook to find this message in my Inbox - several other friends had also received it.

I took a look at IKEA's page to see if they had answered anyone's queries about the competition yet. I posted a response on this thread along the lines of 'Considering the investment you've put into the PR for this promotion, it would be good if you could actually start to respond to your messages and comments. It's not great customer service to ignore us!'. Not long afterwards, my comment was deleted and I was blocked from posting on their page. I returned to the thread to see that the same had happened to others - yet still no response from IKEA.

I'm aware that it's likely to be a PR company who control the IKEA social media channels, and on a Bank Holiday weekend they won't be paying as much attention as usual. But it's VERY important to respond to concerns and questions - yes, a complaint on a Facebook wall is bad PR, but a swift and polite response can also be very good PR. Removing comments entirely - and blocking your fans - should NEVER happen.

It's not just IKEA who are sweeping things under the rug. Yazoo Milkshake are also heavily promoting their 'Shake Squad' Facebook App, which offers a whopping ten grand to the best photo. They're judging the overall winner, but alongside this they're giving away £250 cash every week to the entry with the most votes. The competition has been running for 3 weeks, and for the last two weeks Yazoo have awarded the cash prize to the third placed contestant. They've not explained their reasons why, and aren't even publicly admitting this is the case. Indeed, their wall post announcing the latest winner says 'This week's winner of a cool £250 is Mark. His picture received the most votes this week'. Erm, that's not exactly true is it? They should say 'the most VALID votes' or 'the most ELIGIBLE' votes' - but that would be admitting there's a problem with cheating, so of course they wouldn't want to draw attention to that would they?

Yazoo rules simply state 'The weekly prizes will be awarded to the Entrant whose submission earns the highest number of votes within the competition gallery during the promotional period, as specified in point 3, providing they are eligible' - but there's no details of what constitutes an 'eligible' vote. If your husband and son vote for you from the same computer/IP address, are those votes ineligible?

Then there's the problem of whether people actually ARE cheating. The Yazoo entrants who were disqualified were informed that votes gained on their entry appeared fraudulent. One entrant claimed her votes increased significantly overnight and that her entry had been inflated by fake votes simply to get her disqualified.

And that's the problem: an entry has votes from fake Facebook profiles, the same IP address, or bulk votes received via a vote-buying forum. How can a promoter tell if these ineligible votes are being submitted by the entrant themselves, by a contact of the entrant, or by a fellow contestant trying to get the entrant disqualified? The truth is, they can't. So ANY voting competition can easily descend into a farce.

In an ideal world every photo, video and tiebreaker competition should be judged, but I understand that promoters want to get the viral results that a voting competition achieves. So why not try a different approach? Perhaps tiered prizes - any entrant with 10+ votes goes into a random draw for a small prize, any entrant with 30+ votes goes into a draw for a larger prize. Or every entry with a certain number of votes goes to the judging stage?

Promoters and PR agencies need to accept the fact that people WILL try and cheat - and even if they get disqualified from one competition, they will try and cheat again in another one. It's no good trying to sweep the fact under the carpet. And as long as we keep complaining about it and trying to warn promoters and agencies about these problems, then we CAN make a difference!

ENJOY PART 2: THE NAME AND SHAME HERE.... (sadly, a Cease & desist order meant the follow-up post has been removed by Google!)

Blog Comp Linky: May 2012

Welcome to my blog comp linky for competitions that are closing in MAY 2012. If you're hosting a giveaway please add it to the list, including the prize and the closing date - and your blog name if you can fit it in! You can access this post and the JUNE linky via the links on the right hand side bar.

Please note, competitions MUST be hosted on a blog and they should be open to UK entries. For advice on running blog comps check out my Cybher presentation summary.
If you want to enter these competitions but aren't sure how, check out my post on How to Enter a Blog Competition for advice!

Don't forget to add your blog giveaway to www.theprizefinder.com too!

Tasty tapas: scallops in ham with white bean purée

Please send me on holiday to Barcelona! 

This is my last minute entry for the Easyjet tapas competition, which closes today... British scallops were half price at Sainsbury's so I managed to get eight huge ones for less than £4! I served them with white beans and sweet smoked paprika - two of my favourite Spanish flavours. Ah, I just love Spain!

Scallops in ham with white bean purée (serves 2 - 4)

4 tbsp olive oil
410g tin cannellini beans, drained
1 garlic clove, chopped
150ml boiling water
squeeze lemon juice
sweet smoked paprika
8 large scallops
4 strips serrano ham - halved lengthways

• Make the puree by combining the beans, garlic, lemon juice, boiling water and 3tbsp olive oil in a saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes

• Season with salt and pepper, then mix with a hand blender until smooth. Keep warm.
• Wrap the scallops in the ham and secure with a cocktail stick

• Pre-heat a heavy skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil
• Pan fry the scallops for a couple of minutes each side
• Spoon the puree into a dish and sprinkle with a little sweet smoked paprika
• Remove the cocktail sticks from the scallops and perch on top of the puree

...enjoy!

London Loves

I love London. Every time I visit it feels like a little holiday - we drive down to Mum-in-Law's place in Kent every couple of months and pass the Olympic site on the way, it's amazing to watch it all taking shape... and driving there at night with Canary Wharf and all the skyscrapers glowing is magical!

We spent last weekend in London for Mum-in-Law's 75th birthday, so I started the weekend by booking a free haircut at Toni & Guy in Westfield Stratford City - I won a year's free hairdressing there in their recent photo competition! The staff at Toni & Guy are charming and always want to hear my comping tips. One of the girls mentioned her best friend's mum Pauline is a comper... it turns out I've met her several times at Comping days! Westfield itself has amazing shops, a good range of smart restaurants and is neatly designed... they don't seem to run many competitions though, although next weekend there's a big 'Future Fashion' event: if it's anything like the Derby one it will be worth checking out!

Searching for Treasure
Last Friday a brand new two week Treasure Hunt launched on the GoldRun App (available only for the iPhone and iPad I'm afraid). Menswear site MrPorter are choosing locations in major cities round the globe - visit these locations in a specific two week window and you can collect a virtual shopping bag containing a prize. Most of them are free shipping codes but some lucky winners will bag designer goodies like Lanvin shoes or Paul Smith cufflinks! In London you can pick up your virtual bag by visiting one of four locations:

EMMA WILLIS: 66 Jermyn Street SW1
THE BOUNDARY: 2-4 Boundary Street E2
BARRAFINA: 54 Frith Street W1
LA FAMIGLIA: 7 Langton Street SW10

You can enter once every 24 hours! We popped into Barrafina to collect ours; you just launch the GoldRun App and it automatically knows you're in the right place and pops up a bag. You can then take a photo of the bag and Share to Facebook/Twitter if you like.

Click to move on and you'll find out what you've won; Rob and I got free shipping codes. More importantly, we got to enjoy beer and snacks at an amazing tapas bar that we'd always fancied visiting... it's funny where comping takes you! I saw on Facebook yesterday that one of my best comping friends Marie bagged a pair of APC jeans in her virtual bag at the weekend, so if you're in London it's worth having a go!

Lunch ...at Dinner!
We had a late lunch booked at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. Not a prize this time; believe it or not I do occasionally pay for things! Having had a few cash wins lately we decided to treat ourselves to an exciting lunch date. Rob won a day at the Fat Duck with Heston a few years ago and has always been a fan of his quirky dishes so we knew we'd enjoy Dinner.

If we eat out at a fancy restaurant we usually opt for a 'tasting menu' but as this wasn't an option we each chose a starter, main and dessert from the main menu. Rob had the classic 'meat fruit' (as seen on TV!). Liver parfait enclosed in a wafer thin mandarin skin. Visually striking but perhaps a little bit too much of something so rich!

My starter was an incredible Savoury Porridge of cod palette, parsley, beetroot and herbs. The fish tasted amazing, part of it was almost raw and tender like a scallop. Yum!

The selection of mains was actually a tiny bit predictable; though we enjoyed our powdered duck with fennel and pigeon with artichokes, it did seem a bit steep to pay £32 each for them.

The side order of triple cooked chips was delicious though... with dinner we drank a lovely Chardonnay from Central Otago (I'm not much good at handling red wine at lunch!)

The dessert selection was great, I had Tipsy cake with slow roasted pineapple...

...and Rob had Brown Bread ice cream on a biscuit which looked and tasted super.

This was followed by a shotglass of chocolate & Earl Grey and then we paid £8 to have a fancy icecream made at our table. They have a specially made trolley with built in mixer, and dry ice is added to créme anglaise and mixed to make the icecream; a little bit of Heston magic! They roll your cone in tasty toppings: I had apple popping candy and sweet fennel seeds.

The meal was really great and the restaurant and staff were casual and friendly. I would definitely recommend it - but make sure you prepare yourself for the bill!

A prize with the Metro
On our way home to Nana's house we paused at London Bridge station to capture and Tweet the Metro Tablet advert on the big screen: every day last week they gave away a new iPad to someone who tweeted a photo from a mainline London station, and with such low entry numbers each day it had to be worth a go!

On our journey home yesterday I checked to see if they'd announced a winner, and squealed with delight to see my hubby @robcoke had won - they only had 13 entries on Friday!

I openly admit that I'm competition-obsessed, and if there's a creative or unusual competition about then I WILL go out of my way to enter it. It's easy to sit at home just sharing competitions on Facebook or ReTweeting on Twitter, but if you get out and about, taking photos or looking for new on-pack promos in the shops it's SO MUCH more fun! If you get the chance to have a comping away day then I highly recommend it - try and drag a friend along too (...you could even ask me!)