Everybody loves Raymond

Do you remember a few months ago the Metro newspaper launched a fun competition to coincide with the launch of the new Brasserie Blanc in Covent Garden? To enter, you had to tweet a photo of you doing the can can! Here was my entry, which to my embarrassment/delight was printed in the paper...

So ten lucky Twitter winners and their guests got the opportunity to watch Raymond Blanc do a cookery demonstration at Brasserie Blanc Southbank yesterday - I was chuffed to meet fellow comping tweeters @greatbigrobot and @chrismse1 there. After a quick tour of the Brasserie Blanc kitchen, we were taken out to sit on the terrace for a two hour cookery demonstration.

Raymond was absolutely charming - an earlier visit to the dentist meant he was a little slurred, and he was like a comedy act with his two chefs Adam and Kush.

Raymond is passionate about cooking and eating with family - there were a number of children at the event today and he explained how important it is to take kids to restaurants and to enjoy meals together at home. This is something I very much believe in, and we've been lucky enough to take our son on holiday to Italy and Spain where you can dine at night with a toddler without getting the dirty looks you would at so many places in the UK. The first time I went to a Michelin starred restaurant was in San Sebastian six years ago. I was flabbergasted that people were dining in Arzak and Mugaritz (two of the world's top ten restaurants!) at 10pm with children who could only have been about 8 years old. But in Spain dining as a family is the norm… and the kids looked like they were enjoying the food too (although it must have cost a lot more than the Zizzi kids menu!).

But anyway, back to the cooking… Raymond prepared and cooked four dishes in a specially set-up kitchen, much to the delight of passers-by.

• Mackerel with shaved fennel salad
• Lamb's liver with persillade
• Summer berry pavlova
• Chocolate mousse 'Maman Blanc'

I have pages of detailed information about making the perfect pavlova and chocolate mousse which will definitely be going into my cookery binder. Raymond was entertaining and knowledgeable - a real character!

Here are a few of Raymond's top tips:

• never cook with extra virgin olive oil as the sediment will burn - use refined olive oil instead
• soak fennel in iced water to crisp it up and give texture (drain well before using)
• soak dried fennel seeds in water then toast in a dry pan; they will be crunchy and fragrant
• it's very important when cooking lamb's liver that it's no more than 10mm thick. If you buy a whole liver soak overnight in semi skimmed milk and salt to extract some of the blood and give it a more subtle taste
• after cooking the liver in butter, add water to the pan. This dissolves the caramelised juices in the pan to create a delicious simple jus
• blanching potatoes neutralises the starch, so when you sauté them they won't brown too quickly
• macerating berries in lemon and sugar gives them lots more flavour, releasing their juices and creating a simple coulis

After the cookery demonstration we enjoyed a complimentary set menu and wine in Brasserie Blanc which was lovely (although I had to make a swift exit before dessert to catch my train!).

It was a shame the PR company forgot to tell us about the meal, or I would have booked a later train to enjoy an extra glass of wine with my friend Jan.

Still, I managed to give Raymond a quick kiss on the way out of the restaurant - très bien!

…now, has anyone seen a competition to win a stay at Le Manoir?

Tea and Marmalade

Considering the amount of grumbling I've been doing lately about Pinterest and voting competitions, I'd forgive you for thinking my sense of humour was on a short holiday. But never fear, it's back with a vengeance and for two consecutive weekends the tripod and camcorder have been out and about, the cross-dissolve filter in iMovie has been massively over-used and the neighbours have been most concerned about my comping antics.

First up was a last minute entry to the Europcar 'caraoke' competition, with Lisa's mum Betty taking a starring role as we warbled through 'Lady Marmalade'. This delightful video won Lisa a spa day in the weekly prize draw!

And this Bank Holiday weekend, Rob and I did much rummaging in the fancy dress box to create this homage to 'Homeland' for the Yorkshire Gold tea competition. Let's just hope the judges know what the hell's going on.
You still have until Thursday 31st August 2012 to enter this one, which has three prizes of an overnight stay in Harrogate and a tea-tasting session - enter here.

Before I sign off, let me tell you quickly about this AMAZING new video competition which got me far too over-excited this week. The prize is £5200 of Ocado shopping and to enter, all you need to do is film a video recreating your worst supermarket experience. Read all about it on the Ocado website and get your entries in by 1st October 2012. Oh, and check you live in a delivery area before entering too... good luck!

I think my own worst supermarket experience was when I couldn't find the vanilla pods on 'Supermarket Sweep', but I'm not convinced there's enough mileage in that one...

Ten reasons why voting competitions are a BAD idea

Are you running - or planning - an online voting competition? Shame on you!
Most people HATE voting competitions, and here are ten reasons why.

1. YOUR FANS WON'T VOTE
The public won't give a damn about your voting competition. Seriously, why would they waste valuable time scrolling through 600 photos to choose the best one? Oh, everyone who votes might win a prize? Great, that might encourage compers to vote, but they'll only vote for their mates - they certainly won't bother reviewing all the entries.
Sorry, but the only people who vote are:
- friends and family of the entrant (usually begrudgingly)
- compers (but only when they've been asked)
- people who are paid to vote
- vote-exchangers who need a return vote

2. LOTS OF VOTERS AREN'T EVEN REAL PEOPLE
Your votes will come from Malaysia, India, the Philippines… pretty much anywhere except the UK! Look closely at their Facebook profiles and you'll see plenty of smiling glamour models, cats and cartoons. It's claimed more than 80 million Facebook accounts are fake, and a large number of those are set up for the sole purpose of voting in contests. You might get 1000 new likes to your Facebook page, but don't expect these Asian fake profiles to bring you their business when your competition is over!
Further reading: BBC News - Facebook has more than 83 million illegitimate accounts

3. PEOPLE CAN BUY VOTES
If your contest offers a big prize, then paying a few quid for votes is nothing. Your entrants can buy votes from fake profiles, but they might pay a bit extra for votes from real humans. But buying votes isn't really in the spirit of a fun competition is it?
Buy votes easily at: freelancer.com, fiverr.com, blackhatworld.com

4. ENTRANTS WILL TRY TO GET OTHERS DISQUALIFIED
It's super easy to buy or exchange votes from fake Facebook accounts. If you've been diligent enough to include a rule in your T&Cs to say that dodgy votes will result in disqualification, you might notice that the frontrunners suddenly get a rush of votes from obvious fake accounts. Or you might receive a link or screenshot of their request on a vote swapping Facebook group or site like www.getonlinevotes.com. This is likely to be attempted sabotage from an entrant lower down in the rankings trying to get the most popular entrants kicked out. Sound a bit far fetched? Well recently it's happened to Turtle Wax, Direct Holidays, Yazoo Milkshake and more.

5. THE BEST ENTRY RARELY WINS
The entrant who has time to spend on creating a brilliant entry rarely has the time or motivation to campaign for votes. Compers who know they can rack up 300 votes in 24 hours don't even need to do a decent entry, as fellow compers will vote regardless of the quality. It's a real shame to see some fabulous entries to voting comps go unrewarded. And an even bigger shame when a poorly thought out entry wins the top prize - like the Asda Stationery voting competition where the winning entry featured the word 'STATIONARY' made of paper clips. That giant spelling error is hardly suitable for a press release is it? So to get round this, you might put a judged shortlist to the vote. Even from a shortlist the most deserving entry rarely wins. If an entrant makes the shortlist they're a step closer to your prize - and much more likely to be tempted to use underhand tactics to win!
See the ASA adjudication on this Mercedes Benz shortlisted voting comp, where the finalists bought and exchanged votes to try and win a van.

6. THEY'RE A CHEAT MAGNET
If it's a photo or recipe competition decided solely on votes, cheats will Google for entries to submit. Why should they bother taking their own photo, if the competition isn't judged? Good cheats can easily get a thousand votes, so they don't need to waste time creating an original entry… They will also enter under lots of different names, and are probably vote-exchanging with other fakes. If you're judging from the most popular entries, look closely - several of them will probably be from the same person!
Further reading: Ikea and Yazoo sweep the cheating under the carpet, and the Yazoo Facebook page.

7. THE SAME NAMES WIN EVERY TIME
Even if you manage to keep the cheats out, the same compers will be sitting in the top spots for most voting competitions, because they've spent years gaining likeminded Facebook friends from all over the world who will vote for them in return for a vote in their own contest. It's great for them of course - but painfully dull for everyone else to see the usual suspects cleaning up in every vote comp.

8. THERE WON'T BE MANY ENTRIES
Most of us have seen it all before and know we don't have a chance in hell of winning a voting competition. We also know that they are enormously stressful for the entrants - I know people who have been reduced to tears in the last hour of voting! So we don't even bother entering. Pick a winner at random instead and you'll get lots more entries - pick your winner using judges and you'll see great quality entries too. Even better is to give out random AND judged prizes.

9. THEY'RE A HUGE #PRFAIL
People REALLY moan about voting competitions, and usually it's in public: on Facebook, Twitter or your blog. So you announce a voting competition on Facebook and expect to get gushing replies about how much your fans are looking forward to begging for votes? Hardly. They'll moan about the cheating, the plagiarism, the compers, that it's a 'popularity contest'. You'll get entrants spamming your timeline asking for votes, and others posting screenshots of vote-swapping. Block or ignore these people at your peril! The comping family is massive and when they start complaining on Facebook and Twitter, it's bad PR - particularly if they then report you to the ASA!
Further reading: CenterParcs and Ikea Facebook pages.

10. CHECKING VOTES WILL TAKE YOU AGES!
You've done the right thing and included a clause in your terms so you can disqualify votes/entrants with suspicious voting activity. But does that mean just vote-buying and multiple vote-exchanging? Is a one-for-one vote swap with a real person acceptable? What if the entrant you've DQ'ed was a victim of sabotage? What about people who log in from third party accounts to vote? What about an entrant who's asked their whole office to vote from the same IP address? What about people voting multiple times because of glitches in your system? Is it really worth the hassle - especially when the ASA might be in touch when it all goes wrong?
Further reading: ASA adjudication on the Co-op Design a Sandwich comp and the 118 118 Tache Off - and also this blog about a US Chrysler voting contest.

And after all that you're STILL insistent on running a voting competition? Then please take a read of my blog post on making voting competitions fairer for some tips….

Take 5: Competitions for Bloggers

Today's post is the first of a new 'Take 5' theme I'll be running, so in between my longer creative comp round ups, I'll do a quickie post with five blogging comps, five Pinterest comps, five video comps, five craft comps, etc. Then some of the gems that I post on the SuperLucky Facebook page will be featured here too. Enjoy!

1. FOR BLOGGERS WHO WANT TO TRAVEL

Do you have 19 days free to go to Japan in November? If you want to win a free trip then check out this amazing competition from Virgin Atlantic and Inside Japan Tours. To enter, you need to blog 12 reasons why you should go to Japan. The best three blogs will (unfortunately) go to a public vote and the winner will jet off to the Land of the Rising Sun, blogging their adventures every day. Japan is my favourite place in the world - if I was entering (and I'm not allowed to, as I've already been four times!) I would blog about Tsukiji fish market, the shiny buildings in Ginza, Akira, plastic food, onsen, San-X stationery, Love Hotels, Shinkansen, Cibo Matto, Very Important Moss, noodle slurping, late night drinking in miniature bars, eda mame, tiny glasses of lager with a MASSIVE head - I could go on....

Anyway, to enter check out the details at www.insidejapantours.com/blog-to-japan and post your blog before 31st August 2012.


2. FOR FASHIONABLE BLOGGERS

House of Fraser are giving away £200 vouchers to the best blog post with a key look for the Autumn/Winter season. To enter this Style Challenge, pull together a key look from items on the HOF website, saying what you love about the pieces you’ve picked and where you would wear them.

Read more and leave a link to your blog post on the House of Fraser blog before 10th September 2012., when Editor Lauren will choose the winner.


3. FOR FASHIONABLE BLOGGERS - WHO ALSO LOVE TO TRAVEL!

Now one for those of you who love travel AND fashion. Easyjet have launched a new blogging competition with a different location every week. Choose your destination and blog about what you might pack in your holiday wardrobe!

Paris vs. Barcelona Friday 17th August to Friday 24th August
Milan vs. Palma, Majorca: Friday 24th August to Friday 31st August
Berlin vs. Egypt Friday 31st August to Friday 3rd September

Entries will be judged on creativity, originality and enthusiasm for their chosen destination. Three winners will get tickets to a London Fashion Week event on 17th September 2012 at Somerset House, and three runners-up will get a goody bag crammed full of London Fashion Week treats. You're allowed to enter every week... read all the details at http://holidays.easyjet.com/fashionable-holidays.htm


4. FOR BLOGGERS WHO LOVE 20TH CENTURY DESIGN

Little Greene have launched a bloggers competition with the top prize of a gorgeous Eames DSW chair, plus three Moleskine sketchbooks for runners up. To enter, blog about your favourite piece of 20th Century design, including a photo and a link to the Little Green competition page at www.littlegreene.com/retro, then tweet your entry with the #retropaints hashtag. The winner will be judged by the Little Greene design team and win a chair in a colour of their choice! Closes 30 September 2012.


5. FOR BLOGGERS WHO WANT TO BE HEALTHIER

Finally, Jenny Craig are running an easy peasy bloggers competition. Simply blog with a question about diet or nutrition that you would like an expert to answer by 13 September 2012. You can comment on the blog with your blog URL, or Tweet about your entry to @JennyCraigUK with the hashtag #AskJennyCraig. The prizes on offer are £400 to spend on a bike, and weight loss packages for the 4 runners up - winners will be picked at random. Read more on the Jenny Craig blog.

Top tip - if you read yesterday's post about about Pinterest competitions, the same applies to judged blogging competitions. If you leave it to the last day to enter, then nobody can pinch your ideas, and you can also check out all the previous entries - worth keeping in mind so you can create something really original!

The Problem with Pinterest Promotions...

Last week I won two competitions on Pinterest. I've bagged a £250 voucher to spend at i-escape.com, and a tin of tasty Biscuiteers seaside biscuits. And how did I win these? Simple - by being popular. I didn't need to ask for votes or beg my Facebook friends for a 'Like'. No, these prizes were given away to the Pinterest board with the most followers.

I've been on Pinterest for a while and have over 500 followers – most of these follow all my boards, which means every time I create a new board, it automatically has around 450 followers. So by default, when I enter a 'Most Followers wins' competition, I'm likely to win it. Even if my entry is absolute crud. Which, naturally, it never is - after all, I have 500 people watching and have a reputation to keep don't I? *grin*

A 'Most Followers Wins' promotion is NOT fair - it's akin to launching a creative Facebook comp and saying you'll award the prize to the person with the most Facebook friends. Most people will see an entrant with 1,600 friends and not bother to enter. Also let's distinguish here between this type of competition and the equally hideous 'Most Likes wins' or 'Most Repins wins' type, where people have to work for their votes (by 'work' of course I mean they have to spam friends, compers, strangers - or even buy votes if that's too much effort!). In comparison, 'Most followers wins' comps require no effort at all - if you have lots of followers you'd pretty much clean up on every comp you entered without even asking anyone for a 'Like'. When I complained about their 'Red's Great British Seaside' competition, Red did say they'll take my comments on board for future promotions - I'm sure they will do, particularly after I went on to win the prize!

So how can a promoter run a fair Pinterest comp? The most boring way is to do a simple Repin competition - but it's not very easy to contact the winner (more on that later).

How about creating a board which will be judged? These are my favourite Pinterest comps, BUT the problem is that latecomers may search on a competition hashtag (or track back to your board from repins) and repin/copy ideas for their own entries. If entering a judged comp, you could do what I do and bookmark all the images you want to include and then create your board on the last day of the competition. I did this for the Start-Rite competition I won, and am doing the same for the current GPlan furniture comp (see link at the end of this post). For further reading on this topic check out this post about public competition entries over at the Spark and Fuse blog. Unfortunately there's no way of keeping Pinterest boards private, so unless promoters decide to choose a winner at random there will always be the issue of 'create a board' judged Pinterest comps being unfair.

It can be hard to contact Pinterest winners too. Commenting on pins or sending Facebook messages is unreliable - it's easy for Pinterest to block you for spamming, the winner might not be set up to receive Pinterest notifiations, and might not even know about the Facebook 'Other' inbox where the winning message will end up. With the recent Compers News Pinterest promotion, I had trouble contacting one of the 5 winners. I commented on his Pinterest board, messaged him on Facebook, tagged him on Facebook, and finally sent a Facebook friend request. He accepted my friend request 3 weeks after the closing date, by which time I'd chosen a replacement winner! It's better and more reliable to ask entrants to register first either using an online form, by emailing their details, or by tweeting a link to their entry. You can then inform winners easily by email.

To summarise:

• Don't reward popularity with a 'Most followers wins' prize
• Don't encourage cheating with a 'Most Likes wins' prize
• Where a board is created, ask the entrants to register the link by email/web form/Twitter for ease of contact.
• Be aware that if the best board is chosen by judges, some later entrants may be taking their ideas and inspiration from early entries – make sure the winner is truly original!
• Consider picking a winner at random: to create a board takes time and effort, and most entries will be worthy winners

Here's an example of a poorly thought out Pinterest competition from Karndean - win £2500 of flooring (closing date is 29th August) - check out full details here.

Karndean want you to register your details via email (Brownie points awarded for that), then they add you as a contributor to their community board. You pin one photo of Karndean flooring, then 4 of your own choosing. But a community board means that contributors can post anything they like, and it becomes ridiculously full of pins - I've seen companies hit by loads of spam using this method. And in this case, the floor with the most LIKEs wins - and we all know what will happen there. It's easy to set up fake Pinterest accounts and even to pay for LIKEs - a quick Google throws up http://pinterestingservices.com/buy-pinterest-likes/ where you can buy 300 Likes (that would almost certainly be enough to win you the prize!) for just $39.99 via PayPal.

Karndean have included in the T&Cs "Any entrants deemed to have compromised any section of the administration, security, fairness or proper entry into the competition will be disqualified." - so if it was suspected that someone had gained votes unfairly, they should be able to disqualify. But it's still a poor way to run a promotion. Perhaps what Karndean should have done is what most promoters do - ask entrants to create their own board, pin from Karndean's website, then add their other 4 pins. Karndean could either judge or choose at random from all entrants - they would have a LOT more entries then!

Don't forget - if you're not happy about the way a competition is being run, then let the promoter know why - they'll probably get it right next time round!

To finish, here are a few current judged Pinterest comps to get your teeth into - good luck!

• Win a Back to School kit from AlexandAlexa.com
  http://www.theirlittleworld.com/2012/07/12/school-pinterest-competition/ - ends 24.8
• Win £3000 of GPlan Vintage furniture
  http://www.gplanvintage.co.uk/Inspiration/Competition/ - ends 31.8
• Win Kleenex goodies with your 'Wipe Away Your Day' story
  http://pinterest.com/pin/149111437633383566/ - 2 prizes weekly until 20.9

Capture the Colour: Travel Supermarket competition

I blogged about the lovely competition that Travel Supermarket have launched - Capture the Colour - in last month's Photo comp round up, and after much rifling through photo albums, have finally got my own entry together. They want us to blog with photos representing blue, yellow, red, green and white from our travels. The winning photo for each colour gets an iPad, plus the overall best blog post will get £2000 in travel vouchers - now, that prize would DEFINITELY be taking me to Sri Lanka next year!

I've been tagged by Squeaky Baby and here's my entry for the competition:

RED

Last year we were lucky enough to win a fabulous trip with Toblerone to the Swiss Alps. We took the chairlift up the first mountain we saw, and this was the sight that greeted us - three Coke deckchairs for the three Cokes! I like how our shadow is looming over them...

YELLOW

Japan is my favourite place in the world. They put a face on practically every inanimate object, and you can't help but smile!

WHITE

My original choice for white was a photo of Valencia, but this photo of the Olympic Basketball Arena brings back so many happy memories. We watched the Handball final there with my son and niece last Saturday and it was an amazing experience.

GREEN

Most people travel to Japan for the pink blossom of Spring or the glorious colours of Autumn. As for me, I love it all year round! This photo is of the Japanese maples in Miyajima, which shaded us from the hot sun as we climbed Mount Misen.

BLUE

The architecture in Barcelona is striking. Last year I visited the sparkling new Museu Blau and was amazed by its scale and beauty. We're back there next month on a prize trip and will actually be going inside this time round... I can't wait!

The final part of the competition is to tag five friends, who may or may not want to blog their own entries...

Last night I drank cocktails with some charming Nottingham bloggers, and I'm going to tag some of them... So @gidders1, @aresidence, @amummytoo, @lovechicliving and @mummy_loves - consider yourself tagged!

Check out all the competition details at www.travelsupermarket.com/c/holidays/capture-the-colour/, enter before 29th August 2012, and keep your fingers crossed!

London 2012: my once-in-a-lifetime experience!

As a comper, 'Win a once-in-a-lifetime experience!' is one of the most common phrases I see on promotions. I've been lucky enough to win several of these – my own butler at Glastonbury Festival, a sherry-tasting trip to Jerez staying at the Harveys bodega, and a special 'Lord of the Rings' tour of New Zealand are just a few experiences I'm certain I'll never have again!

On my winning email, Cadbury branded their VIP trip to the London 2012 Olympics as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it really was. I don't honestly think we'll appreciate how important these Olympics were for many years to come – and I feel honoured to have seen six different events in a week.

The timing of the Cadbury trip was perfect as we already had (bought!) family tickets to the handball that day, so were at the Olympic Park with Nana and Ry...

We had a wonderful time as a family, enjoying the gorgeous green spaces and the fabulous atmosphere. But that night, after Daddy had dropped Nana & Ry back home in Kent, our VIP experience began. 

We checked in to the luxurious Hyatt Regency Churchill, received our tickets from the charming Thomas Cook reps, and were whisked away to the Bluebird Restaurant in Chelsea for a three course meal. Much to my delight, free wine was on the agenda. Hic!

We chatted to some of the other Cadbury winners (there were 23 winners on this particular trip). There were a few keen compers, who like me had won in the text competitions promoted at various supermarkets. There was a lady who had done a 'good deed' and stopped to help a cyclist (actually a Cadbury employee in disguise, who presented her with the prize!). One bubbly blogger Zoe had won a fun mini-Olympics at a Cadbury House PR event, whilst a couple had won on the Spots vs Stripes site last year. Mainly the winners had been lucky enough to find an 'Unwrap Gold' ticket in their chocolate bars though – a real Willy Wonka experience. I was impressed with the work that Cadbury had put into their promotions, and also grateful we didn't have to sport the delightful purple branded outfits that many compers had to wear the previous weekend!

Our prize included three nights' accommodation at the Hyatt, with a meal each day and tickets to four events in total, with coach travel provided. On Sunday morning we enjoyed the badminton bronze medal matches at Wembley, followed by a delicious lunch at Kensington Place restaurant with a bottomless glass of wine. In the afternoon we had a few hours to ourselves at Olympic Park, so spent time taking some photos and drinking expensive lager!

I loved the basketball arena – it was such a striking shape against the blue sky. Just after we posed with the Olympic rings, we watched Andy Murray win Gold on the Park Live giant TVs (the only time you'll ever catch me watching tennis!) which was a wonderful experience as the crowd erupted.

The weather for our trip was incredible, sunglasses were definitely required and this dandy pair certainly looked the part!

A nice touch in the beautiful landscaped areas was the art installations of red phone boxes... and I couldn't resist the opportunity for a silly photo with a banana.

In the evening we had £420 Category A tickets for the athletics so were just a few rows from the front. As it was the day after Super Saturday, we saw the medal presentations for Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah, and we also saw Christine Ohuruogu bag a speedy silver in the hurdles. The highlight of the evening - obviously - had to be Bolt winning the 100m. The silence as they got onto the starting blocks was incredible... 80,000 folk holding their breath!

At night the Park was magical – the Orbit looks a lot more impressive, and the changing colours of the basketball arena were just gorgeous.

We got back to the hotel at around 1am – and had to get back on the bus for 7.30am. How I would have liked to sleep in that 5 star bed for more than six hours a night! Still, we cheered Hungary on to win a great game of handball in the morning, then decided to do a slight detour on the Emirates cable car to the O2, where we were watching the gymnastics. Just before security I laughed as I saw a pair of cops handcuffing two young kids with their dad cheering them on (I don't think the police had too much work to do at these events, judging by the amount of Mobots and Bolt poses I saw them striking...). At the gymnastics Beth Tweddle put in a stellar performance to win a bronze on the uneven bars. Had she landed well, I've no doubt it would have been a gold. The rings and vault men's finals were amazing - what muscles!

The Cadbury trip was truly wonderful. I feel privileged to have seen all those events - and I must add a thankyou to Compers News Editor Steve, who told me all about the competition. Steve himself won a VIP trip with Powerade which sounded amazing too!

As well as the Cadbury trip I also bagged a prize with the Visa Instant Win online (using my usual trick of entering at 6am). I wanted to pass this on to my sister-in-law and niece but Visa said it wasn't transferable, so decided to go along with them. We checked into the Novotel Waterloo on the penultimate day of the Games and collected tickets for yet more handball (I know a lot about handball now after watching three sessions!) plus a £200 prepaid card for our meals and expenses. Visa also provided a Time Out guide and goodybag stuffed with chocolate, games, ponchos and other essentials! Our tickets were to the women's handball final in the basketball arena - we had really, really high seats and it was a brilliant atmosphere. My niece was paticularly delighted at the chance to be in a Mexican wave! Norway beat Montenegro in a closely fought match...

It took an age to get back to the hotel, but Ry had nodded off in the pushchair so it wasn't too bad – apart from the drunken Irishman who squeezed onto the tube after the boxing finals and kept falling on top of him! 

The next day after a fabulous breakfast (featuring an amazing highchair on wheels, which allowed me to push Ry alongside the breakfast buffet!) we walked along the Southbank, doing a couple of pitstops at 'Rainbow Park'...

And, erm, a giant grassy armchair...

A bit further along, Target Stores had set up croquet and games, handing out free trilby hats and offered the chance to act out sports in front of a green screen. This was loads of fun, and we got photos to keep afterwards...

My time spent in London and at the Olympic events was amazing – people were genuinely excited to be there, and the enthusiasm and emotion was irresistible. 

So, who's going to join me in Rio for my next once-in-a-lifetime experience then?!

Share your summer moment

I was delighted to see on my Facebook newsfeed that Sainsbury's launched a new photo competition today! Every week for five weeks they're choosing the best three 'summer' themed photos that have been uploaded to their Facebook App, and giving the entrants a £100 Sainsbury's voucher. So, fifteen winners in total PLUS the best overall photo will win a £1000 package of a Landemann gas BBQ, Sony Cyber-shot camera, Thames Lunch cruise, Harry Potter boxset, Family ticket to London Zoo and a His'n'Hers bike set (you can even have the equivalent in vouchers if that doesn't suit!). Lots of prizes, judging and photos... that's my kind of creative comp!

Note that they've featured sandwiches on their promotional photo (above) - this comp will get plenty of entries but I imagine they will prefer photos that have obviously been taken THIS summer or specifically for the competition. You could try a bit of cheeky product placement - how about a Sainsbury's picnic, or someone snoozing on a deckchair with a Sainsbury's mag carefully placed next to them? The terms and conditions state winners 'will be selected based on the photograph which best depicts a 'Summer' moment' - so go for sunshine if you can (your photos will look a lot better on a sunny day too!)

Enter your snaps on the Sainsbury's Facebook page - each weekly competition closes on Tuesday at midnight and the final date for entries is 11th September 2012.

One last very important thing to note is that 'by entering you agree that the entry photograph is your original work and copyright is transferred to Sainsbury's and could be used in future marketing without payment or acknowledgement' - most compers don't read T&Cs so it's worth pointing out. Sainsbury's could use ANY entry in this competition (not just the winning ones!) for advertising or marketing, and you wouldn't be able to use that photo for any other purpose. So think carefully before submitting an entry!

Here are a few more competitions where the brief is to upload a summer photo:

- Win 5000 Avios (ends 12 August 2012)
- Win a Puddleducks waterproof set - (ends 27 August 2012 - Ireland only?)
- Win a £50 day course at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Snowdonia (ends 29 August 2012)
- Win £500 to spend at Talbot Green (South Wales) (ends 2 September 2012)
- Win £500 cash (judges choice) or a Round the World trip (most votes) (ends 29 August 2012)
- Win a Photoshop course in Brighton (ends 27 October 2012)

Good luck!

Our Start-rite Pinterest Prize

After spending weeks staring at his filthy pair of Adidas trainers, today I decided it was about time Ryland got a new pair of shoes, so we popped to Russell & Bromley at Westfield London. And look who we found measuring up the little feet – the one and only Myleene Klass!

But hang on, you know me too well - of course this wasn't a happy coincidence! No, it was a competition prize offered up by Start-rite shoes, to promote their smart new range designed by Myleene. A few weeks ago whilst researching for my Kids competitions round up, I stumbled across a tweet from Start-rite advertising the last couple of days of their Pinterest competition. The brief was to start a board called 'My Start-Rite inspiration', pinning images that inspire you as a parent, and to follow Start-rite on Pinterest. I checked through all Start-Rite's followers and there were only a handful of entries. And that's when I did something I never do - I kept the competition to myself (gasp!). Because the prize was five pairs of children's shoes and a meet and greet in London with Myleene - AND I REALLY WANTED TO WIN IT! So I carefully created my board at the very last minute:

...and I won! Start-rite paid for our train travel down to London, gave Ryland a special fitting session (and cuddle) with Myleene and vouchers for five free pairs of shoes.

Ryland tried on the cutest pair of these Billy Budd boots for the photo shoot and didn't want to take them off, so there I was on a hot day in London wandering round with a boy in shorts and winter boots. But still, he was happy... and the boots are gorgeous.

The staff at Russell & Bromley, the Start-Rite reps and Myleene were all super charming and Ry really enjoyed himself kicking the balloons about. I did ask the PR lady to give me a nod when they launch the next competition though, so I can spread the word and get them a few more entries. For now though, you should give Start-rite a LIKE on Facebook so you'll know if there's an imminent comp!

...and I promise I won't keep a secret from you lot again – I feel too darned guilty about it!

Blog Comp Linky: September 2012

Welcome to my blog comp linky for competitions that are closing in SEPTEMBER 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 AUGUST 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!