Snog

One of my all time favourite treats is frozen yogurt and from since I can remember I have always got it at pinkberry. However a couple of days ago my friend, Lauren, decided it was time to introduce me to snog.

Meet Lauren. She has been my neighbour since I was three and we have grown up together like sisters.

She is also as you can see the complete opposite of me, blonde, energetic and bubbly. And although I am said sometimes to be energetic no where near to the extent that she is, I don't think I will ever find a more enthusiastic person than her.

First impressions were good, I love furniture that isn't very traditional like these little stools.

I ordered a large natural with milk chocolate hearts, white chocolate stars and rasberries.

Whilst Lauren had a classic strawberry with brownie, strawberries and marshmallows. 

I loved the interior decorating.

Although I enjoyed it, I think I'll be sticking to pinkberry. The one thing that was really missing was the sauces you can get at pinkberry, the only sauce available at snog was a nectar syrup.

We spent the rest of the day wandering and catching up with each other. Lauren has just been to India for three weeks to help out at a school so it was interesting to hear all about that.

We spent most of our time on my favourite street, Marylebone High street.

I was wearing an old topshop dress that is sadly no longer available, with my favourite harrods cardigan that unfortunately is also no longer available (Sorry, I was wearing all my old stuff!). I completed this outfit with my pepe jeans shoes.

Crane climbing

One of the most adventurous days I have had in a long time involved climbing this crane. I'm not the type of person who tends to be afraid of heights or scared that I would fall but somehow this was terrifying. We had to climb up a ladder that kept shaking so that wasn't exactly reassuring.

However getting to the top was worth it. I could see for miles around us and quite literally I felt like I was on top of the world.

Although it was scary getting up there and it didn't feel too good going back down, I would most certainly do that again.

A birthday soiree

 

We were invited one evening to a friend's birthday that was held at her beautiful house. So we all decided to dress up a bit and head on over.

My beautiful cousin, she's going to grow up to be a classic beauty.

It was set in her garden and as the sun started to set it became the most beautiful setting. She had hired caterers that certainly did not disappoint.

The food was amazing, I could not get enough.

At family events, it's always fun to watch family members get tipsy and start dancing so there was plenty of champagne to go round.

This was my favourite drink, champagne with red-current flavouring.

I also treated myself to a couple of glasses of my favourite white wine.  

This was one of my favourite deserts, praline lollies. It may sound odd but they were so good!

How big is this dog? I instantly fell in love with him, he was so cute.

You can find the dress I was wearing here.

As it started to get a bit more chilly, people moved in to start dancing whilst some stayed outside to mingle. It was a gorgeous evening, great food, great company and great dancing!

Kubb

A few days in I was introduced to the game 'Kubb'. It's enormously fun and great to play with family or friends in nice weather so I decided to share the rules with you all and tempt you to buy a set.

The Rules of Kubb

The Aim of the Game:

The aim of the game of Kubb is for one team to knock over the King after having knocked over all the Kubbs on the opposing side of the pitch.
Should a team knock over the King before knocking over all the opposing Kubbs, they lose!

Setting up the Game

The game consists of the following pieces:

1 King
10 Kubbs
6 Throwing Sticks 4 Corner Markers
Place the pieces on the pitch as indicated right. The typical pitch dimensions are 8m x 5m (but you can reduce this to 6m x 4m for an easier game). The pitch should be relatively flat but Kubb can be played on grass, sand, gravel or even snow.

How Many People Can Play and Who Starts?

The players are divided into two teams with between 1 and 6 players on each side. You don't have to have the same number of players on each team, but it helps.
To choose which team starts, one player from each team stands behind the same base line and they each throw a Throwing Stick underarm towards the King. The starting team (Team A) is the team whose stick lands closest to the King without actually touching it.

Basic Game Play

Team A starts by standing behind their own base line and throwing the six Throwing Sticks at the Kubbs lined up on Team B’s base line. The aim is to try to knock over as many of these as possible. The Kubbs lined up on a team's base line are known as Base Kubbs.

The Throwing Sticks must be held at either end (not in the middle) and thrown underarm and end over end. “Helicopter Throws”, where the Throwing Stick is spun horizontally, are NOT allowed.

Once Team A has thrown all its Throwing Sticks, Team B takes its turn.
Standing behind its base line, Team B throws the Kubbs, knocked over by
Team A (if there are any), into Team A’s half of the pitch, i.e. the area
between the King and Team A’s base line and between the Corner
Markers (see right). Team B has two attempts to throw each toppled Kubb
into the opposing half of the pitch. Should any Kubb land outside this area
more than once, Team A may place any such Kubb(s) anywhere on their
own half of the pitch, but not closer than the length of one Throwing Stick
from the King or a Corner Marker. Once all the toppled Kubbs have been successfully thrown onto the opposing side of the pitch, Team A stands
these up, wherever they have come to rest. These are now known as Field Kubbs.

Team B then takes its turn to throw the Throwing Sticks. They must, however, knock over any Field Kubbs on Team A’s side of the pitch before attacking the Base Kubbs on Team A’s base line (see right). Should any Base Kubbs be knocked over before the last Field Kubb has fallen, these Base Kubbs should be placed upright again without penalty. Should Team A not have knocked over any Kubbs with its first throws, Team B may attack Team A’s Base Kubbs straight away.

Once Team B has thrown all its Throwing Sticks, Team A takes its turn, as described above, to throw back any toppled Field/Base Kubbs onto Team B’s side of the pitch and then tries to knock them over with the Throwing Sticks.
Note: Should Team B have failed to knock over all of the Field Kubbs on Team A’s side of the pitch, Team A may stand in line with the Field Kubb closest to the King when throwing the Throwing Sticks. This does not apply when throwing the Kubbs as these must always be thrown underarm from behind the team's baseline.

The game continues in this way with the two teams taking turns until one team knocks over all the Field and Base Kubbs on the opposing side of the pitch. They may then attack the King with any remaining Throwing Sticks.
Note: When attacking the King, the thrower must always stand behind the base line.

If the team then succeeds in knocking over the King, that team wins the set. Remember - should a team knock over the King before knocking over all the opposing Kubbs, they lose! 

A lot of fun! I throughly recommend it especially when it's good weather, get the family together and it's very enjoyable. You can buy a set here.