Party people: Nelly Shoes at Whisky Mist

The well-heeled fashionistas of London dusted off their party shoes last night, and despite the weather turned out in style to celebrate the launch of Nelly shoes in the UK.

The event was the culmination of a nationwide tour which saw Nelly shoes taking in the cobbled streets of Bristol, the seaside party town of Brighton and the spires of Oxford, among others.

The location was Whisky Mist, one of Mayfair's more indulgent hotspots, where the social elite come to wile away their time and part with their hard earned bucks. On this occasion though, it was less about the booze, all about the shoes.

Many were excited to see this highly coveted Swedish brand finally land in the UK, others were lured there by the promise of free shoes. Walking down the steps and into the venue, the cabinets of shoes on display told us we were in the right place; set up strategically ensuring a fine balance between luring us in far enough to want the shoes, but not handing them over then and there, leaving us wanting more.

 The result was a combination of excited shoe lovers, working themselves into a frenzy over which pair to opt for, and the calmer, more calculated attendees, who treated the choice of shoe so seriously, an onlooker could be forgiven for thinking the life of their first born child lay on the line. These were serious shoe addicts.

Attendees were also given well-received fashion goody bags, and a rather delicious strawberry cocktail, which served to get the social cogs turning and the conversation flowing, resulting in a successful event all round.

Welcome to the UK, Nelly. We're happy to have you.

Images courtesy of Felicity Main (@felicitymain)

My Yankophilia* continues....

If you've had a meander through my blog, you may have noticed that I am a fan of American food imports. This is not something I was aware of myself, save a penchant for Lucky Charms, until I started blogging. I became inspired by other blogs, such as the wonderful Gobble Monkey which has kept me entertanined for hours on end. It started with cereals, which, admittedly, the Americans do well (provided you don't mind sugar rot in your teeth come lunchtime.) Then, I rather impulsively tried the highly coveted Pop Tart resulting in disappointment and curiosity. More recently, I forayed further into the world of American confectionery, in the form of Hershey's Kisses. What a mistake to make.

As far as I can recall, I have never tried Hershey's chocolate before, but I've heard that it's not the nicest chocolate in the world. So when  I saw these in Selfridges in Manchester, I couldn't resist trying them to see whether the rumours are true.

They are.

The first disappointment was opening the pack to find a rather stingy six "kisses" at the bottom. Going on to eat them, things didn't improve- the chocolate was very sweet and sickly, similar to the cheaper brands of chocolate you get here in the UK. Suddenly I was understanding why there were only six sweets in the pack - anymore and you would have been sick. They lacked that moreishness that all true chocoholics can identify in a decently made piece of chocolate. For possibly the first time ever, I was eating chocolate and thinking "No more, no more".

I did, however, enjoy the texture of the cookie pieces embedded within the chocolate. I think I'll stick to Galaxy Cookie Crumble next time though.

Having reached the bottom of the packet, I was left mystified by one thing; why are they called "Kisses". They are not the shape of a kiss, nor the texture, nor the taste. Answers on a postcard please.

The Americans may do a fabulous job at cereals and hamburgers, but they should certainly leave chocolate to their European counterparts.

*Apologies if this term offends any Americans. Blame this.

Olympic fever hits York

In  case you've been living under a shell or similar, the Olympic torch has been doing its tour of the country over the past few weeks, and arrived in York on Tuesday. Although we didn't specifically set out to see it, my housemate and I had spent the day in town doing touristy things, so decided to extend our tourism to full blown patriotism (and, if we're being honest, needed to catch our breath back after climbing the Minster tower).

Although we had seen railings being set up around St. Helen's Square, we headed for Clifford's Tower and watched from there, as we figured it would be easiest to escape from the crowds and head home from here. The crowd was smaller than expected here, but the atmosphere was still great, and the weather certainly helped.

The firemen had put their resources to good use to ensure they got the best view! I wonder if they had to draw straws to decide who got to go to the top?

We could tell roughly where the procession was and when it was coming by the position of the helicopters overhead - we think one was Police and the other was BBC. One had been hovering for most of the afternoon over Museum Gardens.

Of course, the arrival of the actual torch was preceded by a large procession of Police and sponsored vehicles, to get the crowds warmed up. There was a gap of a few minutes between the start of the procession and the torch, in which time a few wayward cyclists on their way home from work managed to find themselves on the route. Some played up to it, giving a wave worthy of the Queen, whereas others looked as if they didn't know where they were or what was going on.

Predictably, a lot of the major sponsorship partners of the Olympics had floats in the procession.

Finally the torch itself came along. Unfortunately, we do not know who the torch bearer was when we saw it.

This was the best shot I got of the torch, due to the crowds. Very shiny!

Following the torch was a bus with all of the torch bearers who were carrying the torch in York, plus all of the "spare" torches. It was great to see the York Sport President Sam Asfahani, preparing to take his moment of pride as the torch headed back towards the race course, but unfortunately we didn't see Jacqui Meddings from Cosmopolitan magazine.

The crowds disperse around Clifford's Tower.