I clicked on something!

Who the hell wins competitions?

I for one don’t. No raffles, no prize-draws, not a hook-a-duck, niente.

And apart from buying the occasional lottery ticket whenever the Euromillion Jackpot reaches some figure beyond comprehension, I generally don’t even bother entering competitions.

So I was rather surprised when I had several messages on my voicemail from a lady telling me that I had won a competition from The Times and Harden's Restaurant Guide.

I dimly remember getting a Facebook message and clicking on something … Eat like a King, the Times’ list of the UK top restaurants… win a meal or something…

Hence when I finally managed to speak to the lady I was rather nonchalant about the whole thing. “Oh, I won. That’s nice. Thanks.”

It was only later that evening, when I thought, hold on, what was that? The lady left several messages and sent me two emails. I must have won something worth all that effort.

So I checked again online and it was indeed worth something: £300 to spend, not just at one, but at each of the UK’s top ten restaurants. How cool is that?!

Not being a native English speaker, I didn’t quite trust my reading comprehension skills and sent another email to the lady that had contacted me, asking if it meant that I had won £300 to spend at any of the top ten restaurants or indeed £300 to spend at each, meaning a grand total of £3000.

She reassured me that it was my lucky day and I would be dining like a king at each of the UK’s top ten restaurants. Yes, at each. Yes, that’s all of them. Yes, the top ten. Yes, each of the top ten. Yes, £300 at each.

As you can tell, at this point I was getting rather excited and Clarisse, that’s the lady from the competition, was probably getting a bit annoyed.

I spent the next 4 hours googling the 10 restaurants, reading menus and drooling all over my keyboard.

Gidleigh Park

Le Gavroche

The Fat Duck

Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons

The Ledbury

Waterside Inn

Markus Wareing at the Berkley

Kitchin

L’Enclume

One-o-One

In case you wondered, no, I’m not vegan or vegetarian. I don’t have any allergies and there really isn’t much I don’t eat.

I like food. Actually, I love food. I love looking at it, buying it, cooking it, eating it.

A good cooking show is my version of soft-porn. And that doesn’t mean it has to be one of Nigella’s.

I love eating out too. But haven’t been to any of the places on the list as they’d usually be a bit outside of my budget. Hence I was loving this prize.

Over the next few days Clarisse became my new best friend as I tried booking the first restaurants through her. Almost like having my own PA!

“Clarisse, could you book me a table for 2 at Le Gavroche please?” Love it!

Unfortunately Clarisse doesn’t get any priority bookings and all the places are pretty much booked out well in advance. So it required a bit of advance planning and I’ll have to wait a while for the first gastronomic extravaganza.

First booking: Le Gavroche 16^th May.

As the date of the first booking comes closer and I’ve managed to secure a few more, I ask Clarisse how it works with the payment. Will they know how much I can spend? Do I get a voucher?

She just asked me for my bank details and a few days later I had an extra £3,000 on my account. Hmmmm.

Excellent, one could think. Now I can just pocket the cash. Or spend it how and where I want to.

But in some ways it ruined it a bit for me. I really loved the idea of the prize. It’s a treat that I would never give myself. Yes, maybe one of the restaurants on that list, sometime for a special birthday. But I would probably go and be really frugal, look at the prices, never spend £300.

No. I do want to stick to the original idea. I'm going to eat and lick the plate clean.
So I've started looking for competitions to win a personal trainer.