Assaggetti, the Italian Bar and Bites restaurant on Haymarket, is celebrating this Sunday’s Euro’s Quarter Finals football between England and Italy with a fun and competitive offer – every time the England team scores a goal, Assaggetti will buy all the Italians watching the game on the restaurant’s big screen a glass of Italian wine to commiserate. But every time Italy scores a goal, all the English supporters in the bar will receive a beer on the house to drown their sorrows. Assaggetti is owned by an Italian family, the Fraquellis, who have lived in England all their lives, so be interesting to see who they’re cheering…! www.assaggetti.co.uk
RAFA NADAL JOINS POKERSTARS
Olympic gold medallist and multiple Grand Slam tennis champion Rafael Nadal has joined PokerStars, lending his support to the world’s largest online poker site and inviting sports fans to join him in playing the popular game of poker.
Known globally for his fierce competitive spirit, the 26-year-old Spanish superstar is keen to learn the game of poker. Through mentorship with PokerStars pros and playing online, Rafa will draw on many of the skills heuses to such great effect on the tennis court to improve his game one step at a time.
“It’s no secret that I love to compete and try my very best in everything, whether that’s tennis, golf or video games,” Nadal said. “When I discovered the game of poker, I chose to join PokerStars because they understand what it takes to be the best and associate themselves with the qualities of champions. I’m very happy to be working with them.”
Rafa will play poker in spare moments this summer while he concentrates on his tennis. In the Autumn, he will be able to devote more time to poker and to representing PokerStars in online tournaments, in advertising campaigns and at charity events. Details of these will be announced in the coming months.
“Rafa Nadal represents all that is great about competition – the mix of talent, intellect, dedication and mental strength that you find in champions in every sport,” said MarkScheinberg, PokerStars Chairman of the Board. “We are proud to have Rafa as an ambassador for the brand and excited at the opportunity to help him enjoy and improve his game.”
Rafa joins a stable of elite athletes who have chosen poker as their “other game” and who play with PokerStars, including other Olympic medallists.
He will play a key role in introducing new players to the game of poker, particularly in his native Spain where online poker is surging in popularity following the recent awarding of government licenses to operate online poker. PokerStars is committed to providing regulated, safe and secure environments for poker players of all skill levels and is the choice of more poker players than any other site.
Consumers are invited to join Rafa on his journey to improve his poker game at a dedicate site: http://www.pokerstars.co.uk/poker/promotions/rafa-nadal/. Twitter followers can participate in the conversation about Rafa’s poker playing by using #nadalpoker.
Queen of the City launches season of celebrity bloggers
Vanessa Vallely, recently touted as “Queen of the City” due to her role in encouraging diversity, empowerment and networking opportunities for women in London, has unveiled a season of celebrity bloggers on the website she founded, www.wearethecity.com.
“This summer we will be treated to a very personal insight into the lives of over a dozen celebrity and guest writers who will be blogging for us” Vanessa (39) explained. “They are all truly inspirational – from the businesses they have founded, to their charity, campaigning and diversity work.”
The first blog is being written by Vanessa herself and future bloggers include award winning garden designer Kate Gould, campaigner against arranged marriages Jasvinder Sanghera and founder of buymywardrobe.com Kal di Paola.
Heba Elawadi (25) is the first blogger to be featured. A young designer whose work blends her exotic North African roots with love of London life, she graduated from The American Intercontinental University in London in 2005. Since then she has gone on to found her own label hebz.com and recently launched bungalowh.com which showcase fashion and lifestyle works by upcoming designers of the future with the support of international brands that are well established and known.
“Heba’s inspiring because she combines a passion for fashion with a desire to give something back, donating to international charities from the collaborations and collections she’s involved with” Vanessa enthused. “She has firsthand experience of the Arab Spring and both the challenges and opportunities that presents for women.“
Wearethecity.com was started with Vanessa’s husband Stewart in their spare time. That spare time is in increasingly rare supply for this mum of two, as she juggles a successful 22 year career in the city with her other passions. Aside from the website reaching a record of 60,000 unique visitors last month, no easy feat. Vanessa is booked to speak across the globe at women’s conferences and is frequently seen in her Pearly coat at fundraising events in her role as Pearly Queen of the City of London.
“We’ve put together this blogging season to celebrate the great successes and passions of women with women, something we’re notoriously bad at doing”.
With such a powerful message and ambassador, it seems likely that Vanessa may become Queen of more than just one city in the very near future.
Jimmy Carr Apologies For Tax Avoidance.
Jimmy Carr paid £8.5 million in cash for his home. He has pulled out of the ‘tax avoidance scheme’ and has apologised. The comedian admitted he had ‘made a terrible error of judgment’
He also said his accountant told him the scheme was legal. Carr was one of thousands to use an off-shore scheme to pay as little as 1 per cent income tax. His credibility has been severely affected.
Prime Minister David Cameron branded his partaking in the scheme as ‘morally wrong’.
In a statement, the comedian insisted that he was told the scheme was ‘totally legal’. After intense public pressure he admitted he has withdrawn from the scheme.
A Downing Street spokesman said:
‘I think it is obviously welcome,’ a No 10 spokeswoman said.
‘HMRC are working hard to investigate the sort of scheme that Jimmy Carr had been reported to be involved in to ensure that they are not aggressively avoiding tax, and, if they are, they are closed down.’
The spokeswoman defended Mr Cameron’s to speak out against Mr Carr.
‘The Prime Minister was expressing what probably lots of people felt after reading the coverage,’ she said.
The revelations are worse as Carr has publicly mocked tax avoidance schemes.
Apparently Carr puts away £3.3million a year via the K2 tax scheme, which is used by more than 1,000 tax avoiders.
Win a DVD Boxset of CIA Thriller Covert Affairs.
From the producer of The Bourne Trilogy…
Piper Perabo stars in COVERT AFFAIRS. SERIES 1
Out on DVD from 18 June
Also available for legal download and via video-on-demand on 18 June
Frost Magazine have one boxset of CIA thriller Covert Affairs to giveaway. For how to win, see below. The sexiest, action packed spy series to hit the UK, COVERT AFFAIRS: SERIES 1, comes to DVD on 18 June from Universal Playback. TV channel Really’s most watched drama ever stars Golden Globe (R) nominee, Piper Perabo (Cheaper By The Dozen, Coyote Ugly), Christopher Gorham (Ugly Betty, Love Bites) Peter Gallagher (The O.C., Burlesque) and is from the producer of The Bourne Trilogy, Doug Liman.
Series 2 is currently showing on Really, with Series 3 expected to air later in 2012 as the show continues to grow in popularity.
Being a federal agent isn’t easy as Annie Walker (Perabo) experiences at her first interview at the CIA. Wired up to a polygraph machine Annie has to answer probing questions from a future co-worker who clearly doesn’t think she’s up for the challenge. Using her wit and intelligence Annie manages to avoid all stages of embarrassment and impresses her new colleague with some tactful answers, all the while beaming with confidence.
Annie is thrust into the inner sanctum of the agency when she is unexpectedly promoted to field operative and is propelled into a shadowy world full of cons, killers and international crime rings when she begins working on a case lead by Arthur Campbell (Gallagher), who heads up the agencies most secretive department.
While it appears that she has been plucked from obscurity for her exceptional linguistic skills, there may be something, or someone, from her past that her CIA bosses are really after.
Covert Affairs: Series 1 is available on DVD from 18 June, courtesy of Universal Playback.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
DVD DETAILS
Title: Covert Affairs – Series 1
Certificate: 12
Run Time: xx
Genre: TV Drama
RRP (DVD): xx
Special Features:
Deleted scenes
Gag reel
Cast and crew commentaries
Behind the scenes featurettes including:
o Welcome to the farm
o Blind insight
o Set tour
Union Jack Rose Flag | Cool Things.
When I saw this Union Jack flag made of roses I thought it was pretty cool and unusual. With the Olympics just around the corner, OnlyRoses the UK’s finest rose specialist are flying the flag for Great Britain with their spectacular Infinite Rose Union Jack arrangement. Made from Royal Blue, White and Scarlet Infinite Roses (648 in total) the flag took over seven hours to assemble and will last for a year or more without the need for watering.
Infinite Roses are premium Ecuadorian roses which have been preserved in natural oils to retain the delicate shape and texture of each flower. Available in a wide variety of colours (including the more unusual shades of black and dark green), so every flag from around the world can be recreated using these beautiful, long lasting Roses.
22,680 rose petals have been preserved to create this Union Jack Flag, which weighs 38lbs, measures 180cm x 90 and retails at £6,000
Available for any country, sizes from 120cm x 60cm (£2,775)
TRACK CYCLIST JESS VARNISH IS DRIVEN TO SUCCEED
Top UK cyclist and Team GB hopeful Jess Varnish has designs on more than medals this summer, creating a fleet of patriotic delivery vans for online grocer Ocado.
The young star who claimed gold and broke a world record at the cycling World Championships in February has created three stand-out artworks for Ocado’s iconic delivery vans. Each one showcases her favourite foods for winning races as well as the chocolate and champagne goodies she hopes to celebrate with, while capturing the spirit of the Great British summer of 2012.
While her vans set off to deliver shopping to Ocado customers across the UK, the 21-year-old Team GB hopeful said that she hopes to be “the fastest in the world” this summer.
At the launch of her vans Jess commented: “I am incredibly proud to be British, so getting to design three celebratory vans for Ocado was a fantastic opportunity for me to get creative! I love each of my designs so much that I can’t decide which one is my favourite and I can’t wait to see them on the road.”
With the Team GB cycling team announcement to be made this week, Jess continues to train hard whilst balancing her social life. She said: “It’s natural to have a one track mind when training for big events but it isn’t always simple to balance everything. I try to make life a little easier for myself by taking a mental mind break when possible – whether it be a Skype call with my sisters, saving a trip to the supermarket by doing my grocery buy online with Ocado, or cooking a tray of brownies!”
In comments which contrast with the recent weight scrutiny of another famous athlete named Jess, she said: “Being an athlete, you have to be in peak condition and, obviously, food is an incredibly important part of that. You can’t compete or train to the best of your ability without having good fuel. It isn’t such a big deal to everyone’s routine but it is to me.
“I’ve had to gain weight and I was told ‘if you don’t put on weight, you’re not going to get anywhere.’ So I have put on ten kilos of muscle. For any girl to be told they’ve got to put on weight, it’s not very nice.”
Chocolate Winner Announced.
I don’t want to delve into cliche, but I am quite partial to chocolate. I could never choose a winner from all of the chocolate I have tasted so thankfully there are experts to do that. 
The organisers of the International Chocolate Awards have managed and have announced the winners of the European Semi Final round, which received over 260 entries. These prestigious awards give out just one Gold in each category and a number of silvers to the winning products, which have been through three rigorous rounds of judging, first in Sussex and then at The Marriott Hotel, County Hall in London.
The Gold in the Dark Bar category went to Michel Cluizel, Los Ancones. Made in France using beans from the Dominican Republic, a 67% cocoa solids bar and one of their origins range and impressed the judges as a bar that was complex and sophisticated whilst also being a chocolate that has mass appeal. In the Milk category Michel Cluizel also triumphed with Gold for their Maralumi milk. France continued to pick up awards with Pralus the only Gold winner in the Milk filled chocolates category for their Bar Infernale Lait and Bonnat picking up a Silver in the dark bar category.
Micro batch producers did well at the awards with Akesson, Original Beans and Friis Holm all winning silvers for their bars.
The British entrants excelled in the filled chocolates categories with Golds to Paul a Young and Damian Allsop and silvers awarded to Boutique Aromatique, Matcha and Rococo. Hotel Chocolat also did well in the awards with a silver for their St Lucian 70% milk, salted caramel éclat in the flavoured milk bar category, a category where Damian Allsop picked up another Gold.
The organic Gold awards were won by Michel Cluizel, once again for their Los Ancones bar, by Akesson for their Madagascan 75% & Voatsiperifery Pepper a flavoured dark bar and by Francois Pralus for their milk Melissa bar.
To celebrate the International nature of the awards, Country Golds were also given for those categories where more than 10 products from one country were entered and went to Domori (Italy) for their Guasare bar and to relative newcomer Idilio (Switzerland) for their no 2 seleccion Amiari Meridenha.
This is the first year of the International Chocolate Awards, set up to recognise the best fine quality chocolate from around the world. The awards are designed to reflect international tastes and offer a level playing field for international entries. An Italian round was held earlier this year with a US round planned for September in New York and the World Finals back in London in October. The European Semi Final received over 260 entries from more than 50 different brands. Entries came from all over Europe – from countries more traditionally associated with chocolate such as France and Switzerland, to up and coming countries including Israel and the Czech Republic.
The judging panel is made up of experts, food journalists and pastry chefs from the host country, overseen by a Grand Jury who travel to each competition. The Grand Jury members who attended the European awards are: Martin Christy (Seventy% founder, UK), Maricel Presilla (Cuban American chef and author of The New Taste of Chocolate), Monica Meschini (Italian expert and taster), George Bernadini (German author and ex-chocolate maker), Nancy Gilchrist (Master of Wine, UK) and Alex Rast (Seventy% contributor and reviewer, UK).
The categories, which range from flavoured bars to filled chocolates to spreads, are designed to reflect the current chocolate industry. Prizes are separated according to category, with Gold and Silver awards available. Winners go through to the International Grand Final, in October 2012 in London. World finalists have also been indicated – these are products which have achieved a highly commended and will be invited to enter the judging of the World Finalists.
For the full list of winners visit http://www.internationalchocolateawards.com/2012/06/european-semi-final-2012-winners/