Win £500 Surfdome.com Voucher.

Europe’s fastest growing lifestyle department store, Surfdome.com, celebrates the launch of its 700th brand with a massive voucher giveaway.

Born out of a passion for surf, skate, wake and snowboarding, Surfdome.com was launched six years ago, and has grown into an international online department store stocking 700 of the world’s best Lifestyle, Fashion, Outdoor and Sports brands. Surfdome.com currently has 36 departments and over 20,000 product lines, catering for everyone from trend-hunting teens to tiny tots and active adults.

Setting Surfdome apart from other lifestyle retailers is their level of experience within the industry, their award winning customer service, and the fact that they can offer expert advice on hardware and equipment, ensuring customers are buying the best for their active lifestyle pursuits. With an iPhone shopping app, free shipping and next day delivery available, Surfdome is a one-stop-shop for everything from snowboards to sandals.

To celebrate reaching 700 brands, Surfdome.com are giving away a total of £2,000 worth of vouchers, with one winner being gifted a £500 voucher every week throughout July. To be in with a chance of winning, upload a video of yourself talking about your favourite brand at Surfdome.com. With 700 street, sport and fashion brands, including the likes of Cheap Monday, Gravis, Boxfresh, Hurley, Volcom, Roxy, Animal, Converse, Eastpak, Diesel, and French Connection, you’re spoilt for choice!

Check out Surfdome.com’s full brand list here: http://www.surfdome.com/brandpage, choose your favourite brand, and create a video about it that is no more than 2 minutes long, and upload it here: http://www.surfdome.com/pages/comp_700brands – fashion, surf, skate or snow – Surfdome want to know about the brands you love.

For more information visit: www.surfdome.com, become a fan on Facebook for all the latest product and sales offers: http://www.facebook.com/surfdome or follow on Twitter @Surfdome.

Caggie Dunlop On Spencer, Music and The Kardashians.

Caggie Dunlop and Catherine Balavage

I met Caggie Dunlop at the W Hotel for a VIP screening of the short film she is starring in for Impulse’s new fragrance ‘Loving Words’, which smells amazing and you can read about here. I had a brilliant, fun chat with Caggie. She is the kind of girl who you feel would make a brilliant friend: lovely, smart and talented. After the interview has finished Caggie says that our interview was the best of the evening. Shucks: thanks Caggie.

Catherine Balavage: You must be very proud of the film.

Caggie Dunlop: Yeah, I am really proud of it. I actually only saw it for the first time this evening just before everyone arrived so I was a bit nervous, but I really loved it. I thought it was great. I think it is a lovely story

Quite French

Very French. Well that’s the theme and my styling is very Brigitte Bardot. I think that really lends well to it.

What is your favourite film?

True Romance.

What are you wearing? You look Stunning.

Virgos Lounge. They are an online store which is kind of vintage inspired. They do really pretty little dresses. And this is from my clothing line. [points to necklace].

You are really branching out into different areas: you have a sex column for the Evening Standard, you have the clothing line, and the acting.

And music.

Yes, that is how we first saw you wasn’t it?

Yeah, I have a lot going on, but I am not doing the Evening Standard anymore. It was very fun doing it but I am not doing it anymore.

It was very Carrie Bradshaw

Yeah, and it was great and it was fun playing that role but I really think music is where I want to go.

What would you choose between singing and acting?

Everyone asks me this. It is like saying ‘choose between your mum and your dad’, but in terms of career I don’t know, but if you said to me: ‘you could never sing again’ I would have to choose that over acting because I love singing. It just makes me happy to sing on my own. It came about quite randomly. When I sang on the show that was the first time I had ever sang in public. I have had to decide what I really want to do.

How was the acting experience?

I went to drama school and I studied acting so for me it was kind of what I wanted to do, and then when Made in Chelsea came along I got side-tracked from the acting because that was what was available to me at that point in time. The acting world is quite a tricky one. You really have to work it out. I had a great opportunity on Made in Chelsea. The acting is definitely something I want to go back to.

What does your Tattoo mean?

Sanatana Jiva. It means the never-ending and the never beginning spirit, and this [points to tattoo, specifically to the ‘J’ bit] this was for a boy who I’m not seeing anymore! [No!] It’s fine, I’m not bothered. It’s a nice tattoo.

Are you seeing anyone now?

No. I am very very spinster single

Aw, you are too young to be a spinster.

I’m happy being single.

You have so much going on with your career….

Yeah, it’s kind of like I need to focus on that at the moment and I don’t have time to focus on a relationship unless I find someone who has a complete understanding about what I am doing.

What is your clothing line called?
ISWAI. [Spells it out] I.S.W.A.I.

How did you come up with the name?

It’s an acronym for ‘It Started With an Idea’. The idea of it is about starting something new and organic with new talent, so young designers who are at school or university are designing the clothes. They get involved and hen they design an idea that I give them.

It that your motto in life?

I think so, yeah. It’s a very good one. It’s a more business thing. Though maybe not in an ethical situation.

You were the first one to leave Made in Chelsea

Yes I was

You were the biggest star and the main focus. Do you think it was a good idea to leave?

Leaving? A lot of people would argue that ‘why would you leave something when you were the central character and it was at its height of popularity and you just walk away from it with no explanation’. For me I stopped believing in what the show was about. It was a very good opportunity but I always wanted to do different things. I am very grateful for what it gave me and what I gained from it. Now I can go and become my own person.

It really has an effect on your own life and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

A lot of people are leaving now. Hugo’s leaving.

Yeah, Hugo’s leaving. I don’t know how much longer it will last but I wasn’t enjoying it and my heart wasn’t in it anymore and if something doesn’t feel right you have to go with your gut.

Would you do anymore reality TV like Spencer is doing with The Bachelor?

I would never do anything like that show. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with Spencer doing it. We are very different people, but I actually value my privacy. That could be considered a ridiculous thing to say coming from a reality TV show. I would never close any doors but it’s not in my plan. If it was something more documentary, like my music, something like that.

Who is your favourite film director and if you could work with any director who would it be?

Woody Allen or Tarantino. I think that would be a pretty crazy experience.

Did you enjoy making the film?

Yeah, I enjoyed making the film. We had to do it in a day, and it was a full on day. It was raining really badly but morale was up.

Do you have any plans to go the Hollywood Route?

I haven’t been to LA yet. So I can’t really say whether I would end up there. Watch this space. Maybe in a few years time.

Do you think doing Made in Chelsea helped you learn how to be in front of a camera?

Yes, I mean I studied method acting so it was all about being private in public. With Made in Chelsea you are having very private moments with five cameras on you. It is more staggered than people imagine. If you know anything about filming you know that you can’t create those scenes just by us walking into a bar and following us. It is all quite organised. In that sense it was helpful but then reality TV doesn’t really help in acting. It’s probably more acceptable in America.

Do you watch any reality TV like Keeping Up With The Kardashians?

I do, I love the Kardashians. I am so excited. Has the new season started now?

I think so. I saw a poster.

I do love that and I like the American ones. I don’t really like the English ones.

What do you think of Kim dating Kanye West? Are they a good couple?

I think they are. It’s nice that they were friends for ages. They are the ultimate power couple.

They are.

I’m surprised but they seem really into each other.

What’s next for you?

I am realising an EP hopefully in September. So I am developing that at the moment, which is really exciting, because for once I am in the public eye for something that I am putting out. The music is taking centre stage at the moment, but I would love to do some short films on the side and slowly developing that on the side.

Grabbing it with both hands.

Exactly, you only have one life.

What are your musical influences?

Ah, I listen to a lot of Matt Corby, who is this Australian singer who is very singer/songwriter: guitar and vocals, but also there is something quite challenging about his music, it’s really quite beautiful. I also love Jessie Ware. I have been listening to her a lot.

Do you still spend a lot of time in Chelsea?

Yeah. I was in Sloane Square today. I do spend a lot of time there, but because of what I am doing I am kind of all over. If I am gigging [ I could be in] Manchester or Shoreditch. I do love Chelsea.

Who is your favourite actor and actress?

Michael Fassbender in terms of actual ability. I think he is amazing. In terms of who I fancy: Ryan Gosling, but he is also a very good actor. He is a bit more mainstream. An actress…who was the girl who was in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Noomi Rapace

Yeah, her. I watched that for the first time the other day and I was blown away by it.
She’s brilliant.

She is fantastic. She was in Prometheus too.

No! She’s not! I was watching an interview with her and she was talking about how Ridley Scott picked her, and she said something about the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I was thinking ‘why has he picked this random women? ‘

She’s brilliant.

Yeah, She’s fantastic.

Are you going to do anymore writing?

Not in that nature. I would like to write a poetry book which is half poetry, half what is was like growing up. I’ve written poetry since I could write so I have volumes of poetry. Poetry is such an under-rated thing.

How do you keep fit?

I am quite bad. I go through phases of being hard-core. There is a place on the Fulham Road that I have joined called Lomax. I go there and they kick your ass, but in a good way.

What beauty products do you like.
Loving Word by Impulse, Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream.

Something Happening For Kids | Theatre

When: 21 July 2012. 10.00am – 5.00pm

Where; The Place

Robin Howard Dance Theatre

The Place presents Something Happening For Kids, a full day of dance performances and activities specially curated for children (aged 11 and under).

Choreographer Darren Ellis is restaging extracts of his latest work Long Walk Home, which portrays a series of four women, each at a different stage of their lives, as they analyse their hopes and their dreams, accompanied by atmospheric live music by the folk band Askew Sisters. Alongside them, The Place’s First Moves, the youngest dancers (aged 5-8) from the Children and Youth Dance programme, will show two new pieces in the round and up-close.

Darren Ellis is also performing in After Effects, a powerful solo piece in which the human body is at the core of an interactive sound and light performance with a modified acoustic drum kit.

Circus dance artist Ilona Jantti will premier the fantastically imaginative HUHU, commissioned by The Place, in which a web of ropes and architectural devices will create the backdrop for an urban chase, combining circus, contemporary dance, animation and the idea of the city’s space.

Author Michael Rosen will recite his much-loved We’re Going on a Bear Hunt in a series of participatory readings, in which the magical story will be brought to life by dance artist Joanne Moven.

Shuffle, The Place’s new junior dance company, will complete the programme with Lookout, a dreamy and suggestive site-specific piece, originally created for a window overlooking the river Thames.

A series of workshops, ranging from percussion and dance, and movement and play will also be available, allowing the young participants to explore rhythms and create movement to live musical accompaniment.

Ilona Jäntti, HUHU

12pm – 12.30pm / 3.15pm – 3.45pm

Robin Howard Dance Theatre
Suitable for all ages

Darren Ellis Dance, LONG WALK HOME + First Moves 1+2

10.45am – 11am / 11.30am – 11.55am

Studios 1 and 2
Suitable for all ages;

Darren Ellis Dance, AFTER EFFECTS
11.30am – 11.50am / 1pm – 1.20pm / 2.30pm – 2.50pm / 3.45pm – 4.05pm.

Founder’s Studio

Michael Rosen, THE BEAR HUNT , with Joanne Moven
1pm-1.15pm / 1.45pm – 2pm / 2.45pm – 3pm / 4.15pm – 4.30pm
Studios 1 and 2

Suitable for all ages; A selection of Michael Rosen’s books will also be available to purchase on the day.

Shuffle Dance Company, LOOKOUT
STUDIOS 9 & 10;

10.30am – 10.40am / 11am – 11.10am /11.30am – 11.40am

WORKSHOPS

Percussion/Dance Workshops with Helen Clarke & Mark Ball
Using dance, musical instruments and body percussion, young dancers will have lots of fun exploring rhythms and creating movement to live musical accompaniment. Please wear loose comfortable clothing.
10am – 10.30am (3-5 yrs)
11am – 11.30am (5-7 yrs)
12.45pm – 1.15pm (8+ yrs)
2pm – 2.30pm (5-7 yrs)

Movement Play & Free Play with Louise Klarnett

These classes are for babies from 3 months with a parent or carer. Classes provide babies with a movement, sensory and rhythmic experience in a playful environment supported by their parent or carer.
Please wear loose comfortable clothing.
10am – 10.45am (parents and babies/toddlers: 3 months-3 yrs)
11am – 11.45am (3-5 yrs)
1.30pm – 4pm Movement free play

Dance Workshop with Laura Aldridge
Fun dance workshops with a circus theme. Please wear loose comfortable clothing.
10am – 10.30am (5-7 yrs)
11am – 11.30am (3-5 yrs)
1.30pm – 2pm (8+ yrs)
2.15pm – 2.45pm (5-7 yrs)

PLUS…

Social Dance silent disco; Arts Activities; An all day Weirdy Beardies hair salon; Soft play
Outdoor picnic area; Free buggy park; Baby changing facilities; Special children’s menu.

Tickets and information: 020 7121 1100

The Place, Robin Howard Dance Theatre, 17 Duke’s road, London WC1H 9PY

Price: £6 single ticket and a group of four £16

A child’s ticket includes access to one workshop. Please book online or call the ticket office. These are subject to availability

www.theplace.org.uk

Milk: The Carbon Footprint Culprit

Milk poured down kitchen sinks every year creates a carbon footprint equivalent to thousands of car exhaust emissions, according to a new study.

Scientists say 360,000 tonnes of milk are wasted in the UK each year, creating greenhouse gas emissions amounting to 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The University of Edinburgh study said this is the same number emitted by about 20,000 cars annually.

Researchers looking into the environmental impact of food production said eating less meat and cutting down on food waste would save significant greenhouse gas emissions. They also suggest the food industry could reduce emissions by seeking more efficient ways to use fertilisers.

Dr David Reay, of the university’s School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said: “Eating less meat and wasting less food can play a big part in helping to keep a lid on greenhouse gas emissions as the world’s population increases.”

Researchers also said halving the amount of chicken consumed in the UK and other developed countries to levels eaten in Japan could cut greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 10 million cars off the road.

The research team said figures show if average chicken consumption in developed countries fell from the current level of 26kg each every year to the Japanese average of about 12kg each by 2020, global emissions from poultry would fall below current levels, despite increased output from the developing world.

This would cut the predicted global output of nitrous oxide, a key greenhouse gas, from this source by almost 20%, based on current growth rates, they said.

The study, carried out in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen and partners in Europe and America, was published in Nature Climate Change.

The team arrived at their findings by examining data for global agricultural production of greenhouse gases together with consumption of food in various regions of the world.

 

How Does That Song Go?

Frost Magazine have come across a useful music resource.

Zlyrics have come up with a comprehensive online lyrics resource featuring over 700,000 lyrics from over 30,000 artists. It took them months to gather all the lyrics data along with the music video of every track. The lyrics submitted by users at Zlyrics are then double checked by our team to ensure the accuracy.

If you love music then check it out.

CAGGIE DUNLOP CASTS HER SPELL IN ‘THE WALK’

Star of Made In Chelsea captivates passers-by in new silent movie

Made In Chelsea’s Caggie Dunlop has returned to the streets of Chelsea to star in a new short silent movie, entitled ‘The Walk’. Frost Magazine went to the W Hotel to see the film and we also interviewed Caggie. Caggie was brilliant in the film and was absolutely lovely. Caggie even said that her interview with Frost was the ‘best of the evening’, and you can read it here.

Shot in a style reminiscent of classic black and white silent films, the movie follows Caggie as she takes a walk around her regular South West London haunts. As she strolls through the streets of London channeling Brigitte Bardot’s 1960s glamour with her voluminous hair and smouldering makeup, Caggie leaves a trail of men transfixed in her wake.

After captivating everyone from an ice-cream seller to a painter, the secret to Caggie’s mesmerising allure is revealed in the final scene of the film as ‘Loving Words’, the fresh new scent from Impulse.

The fruity fragrance, designed by the world’s best perfumers under Ann Gottlieb, creates an air of romance making Caggie so irresistible to the men she encounters, she doesn’t need to utter a single word to have them falling at her feet.

Laura Grant, Assistant Brand Manager, Impulse said, “Impulse ‘Loving Words’ is such an irresistible fragrance, it does the flirting for you so there’s no need for words. We wanted to demonstrate its power by removing words entirely from the film. We felt there was no better way to showcase the ‘wordless’ love story than by taking inspiration from timeless silent movies.

“Caggie’s short on-screen stroll left her with a series of smitten admirers, the possibilities for spontaneous romance are endless!”

Watch the film, ‘The Walk’

What’s Your Social Highlight This Summer?

One of the social highlights of my summer so far was the May Fair Hotel’s annual Penthouse Party. It was hosted by Anthony Lee, General Manager of The May Fair who I had a lovely chat with. I popped along with Dominic Graham de Montrose, and then we headed to the Panasonic Olympics party afterwards. Magician Dynamo was working his magic there. He has to be seen to be believed.

Other social highlights: London Fashion Week, Lovebox, Impulse releasing their new fragrance at the W Hotel with Caggie Dunlop (who’s lovely), the Leo Bancroft launch at The Ivy and being Centre Court at Wimbledon.

2012 is an exciting year for those of us living in London with the Olympics on our doorsteps. We would love to here from people in London and outside about their summer.

What is your summer highlight so far? Let us know.

Men’s Fitness magazine Gets a Redesign.

This article is not an excuse for a picture of a half-naked male model for my readers…oh, okay, maybe a little.

Men’s Fitness magazine, the UK’s leading fitness lifestyle title has had a comprehensive redesign for the August 2012 issue.

The magazine will still contain the same excellent fitness and nutrition advice but it will be delivered in a fresh and modern way.

The redesign reflects the positive development of the Men’s Fitness brand and will make the most of the authoritative, expert content.

New readers will find the magazine more accessible while loyal readers will get the same great fitness and nutrition advice that they have come to expect from Men’s Fitness magazine.

The redesign is just one of many developments for the Men’s Fitness brand, which recently increased its monthly brand reach by 16% to 1.2million. Congratulations guys, what an achievement.

Editor, Jon Lipsey

‘We’ve introduced new lifestyle content into the front section, created a completely new colour system and given the magazine a bold new identity. We also realise that our readers have busy lives and are under time pressure so we’ve made sure that they can get information quickly and easily. When they get the chance to spend longer with the magazine they’ll get practical advice that will enhance their lives.’

‘The redesign comes at a time when there is more demand than ever for Men’s Fitness content. That’s partly because of the high-quality material that we produce but also because fitness and health are of increasing importance to the modern man.’

‘There has been a shift towards men taking more interest in their health and fitness. They’re realising that by being active and eating well, they can feel better and lead fuller, more rewarding lives. There’s a lot of health and fitness advice out there but it lacks credibility. Readers know that we’ll give them information they can trust because we use the world’s best experts and we’re an authority on the subject.’

Publisher, Russell Blackman

‘The redesign is just part of the many brand developments that we’re currently working on and we believe that the result will enhance our expert content further, delivering it in a more accessible and stylish way. Our brand reach is up, newsstand sales have been strong and we are working on some exciting digital products which will further enhance the magazine and brand. Our Newsstand apps have had over 1.4 million downloads, showing the huge appetite for our quality content. 2012 will be a very exciting year for the brand’.