In honour of The Gaucho International Polo try some Flash Hobbying. Turn up and get a stick, ball and hobby horse and start playing polo.

If you want to go to the main event at the O2 on March 21st tickets are priced between £22.50 and £72 per person (inc booking fees).

The video series features James Charm, a seduction expert as he gives viewers some practical tips that may actually work from how to hit on girls in supermarkets to how to eliminate a rival.

Joop fragrances belong to the Coty group founded in Paris in 1904 by François Coty.

Sponsored by Joop.

1. In the Hindi language “Bas” means aroma and Mati means “full of”

2. Basmati is only grown in the Northern Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and parts of western Uttar Pradesh, Jammar and Kashmir

3. Only one crop of Basmati rice can be grown per year

4. 2.2 million tonnes of Basmati is exported to 100 countries every year

5. Basmati is unique in it’s characteristics of being exceptionally long and slender

6. The average volume expansion of Basmati rice is 3.5mm

7. The minimum cooked rice length is 12mm

8. Basmati rice is gluten free

9. Basmati rice is sodium, cholesterol and fat free

10. As well as boiled and steamed Basmati can also be ground for use in cooking. Take a look at a simple recipe for Chawal-E-Zohara here.

Chawal-E-Zohara

Preparation – 15 minutes
Cooking – 5 minutes
Serves 1 (5 pieces)

Ingredients
100g Basmati Rice
200g Mashed Potato
5g Fresh Green Chilli
10g Chopped Ginger
2g Turmeric Powder
2g Chilli Powder
5g Caraway Seeds
15g Cream Cheese and 10g Sour Cream mixed together
2 tbs Butter
Oil for shallow frying

Method
1. Powder Basmati rice using a mortar and pestle
2. Heat butter in pan and add caraway seeds and allow them to crackle
3. Add chopped green chilli and ginger and sauté
4. Add mashed potato, turmeric and chilli powder and mix well for 5 minutes
5. Remove pan and let mixture cool to room temperature
6. Add Basmati rice powder and mix well
7. Divide mixture into equal portions.
8. Take each portion, make a whole in the centre to stuff with the sour cream and cream cheese mix and seal together
9. Reshape into circular ‘tikki’ and shallow fry until crisp
10. Serve with mint chutney and Lacha onion salad

Shilpi Gupta is the Executive Chef at The Grand, New Delhi

Great music video by Gotye for his song ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’, featuring Kimbra and taken from his album Making Mirrors. The mp3 is available now on iTunes.

It’s raining outside, cold inside and there might be more snow. What could be better than closing your eyes and thinking of summer. Summer in Formentera in fact.

The island where everyone is so laid back most don’t bother with clothes and you feel a million miles away from platform 3 at Liverpool Street Station.

Es Ram is nestled in a pine grove and is a wash of white and cream punctuated by brightly coloured gardens and the piercing blue sea. The resort is made up of ‘living spaces’; an 8 bedroom main house, a 2 bedroom and shared bathroom villa, and three double occupancy independent villas.

Potter around, borrow a Fiat Panda for some tootling, take a déshabillé dip from the private beach, relax on double loungers scattered among the boulders and saunter over to the main house for some al fresco Italian seafood under the stars.

Daydream here, rates from around £800 p/p per week including breakfast.

Simple Instructions for putting meat in belly.

1. Go to Harrods
2. Stand at Butcher’s block and demand meat
3. Decide on cut
4. Decide on price or size
5. Decide on cooking
6. Sit at counter
7. Watch steak cook
8. Slice, sauce, swallow
9. Meat is in belly

Sides and wine are optional, we recommend the triple-cooked fries, creamed spinach and a bottle of the Barbera del Piemonte 2010.

neon verdict: Go! Go! Go!
No frills, no waiters, no perusing menus, no amuse bouche, no starters, not even any bread. This is all about the meat. A butchers block waiting for your cut that hangs behind the head of the butcher/Chef. The only distraction from the 21-day dry-aged Aberdeen Angus beef are the shoppers peering over your shoulder at your plate. Get a table around the side or keep your Laguiole knife brandished high.

Dear Valentine,

xxx

For £19.99 the recipient will find 600g of chocolate on their doorstep, literally, thanks to their letterbox friendly packaging.

In each box there are 3 different flavoured bars plus 3 individual sets of truffles that are often new creations that recipients will be the first to taste.

Expect truffle flavours like Eton Mess, apple crumble and milk chocolate and dark chocolate lemon meringue and bars in interesting combos of milk chocolate with salted peanuts and butterscotch, treacle tart milk chocolate and dark chocolate with orange and whole hazelnuts.

You can sign yourself or someone else up for one delivery or as many as you like for a one-off payment, alternatively you can choose the ‘rolling’ option where the chocolates just keep on coming… and it might just keep slipping your mind to cancel it…..

New Year’s celebrations were the big booze blow-out for cutting down in January and maybe beyond. We are now in February and like us you may not have managed sobriety.

Ex-alcoholic Peter Spanton who knows a thing or two about drinking saw the gap in the market for non-alcoholic drinks ‘that don’t make you feel like an underage teenager’. His new range of beverages are interesting, surprising and powerful on the tastebuds when you are used to the kick of booze.

Give these drinks a try and going soft might not be so …. difficult.

Taste No3
Delicate flavours of cardamom and extracts of cucumber.
Taste No4
An exotic blend of fresh garden mint and aromatic bitter chocolate
Taste No5
A bright taste of lemongrass with a hint of ginger
Taste No7
55% Acai and no added sugar

Buy from Selfridges or online here.