Just a small something that whetted our appetites on a Friday morning – not that it takes much, it’s a pretty hungry, food-loving desk at Ooh.com, in fact as I write this the team is ploughing into an enormous mountain of croissants that needs crampons and ropes rather than just a knife and napkin…..

In these cheese classes in New York fromager Max McCalman will set out to prove his point that cheese is a “near-perfect” food. He also says that it can help you to live longer.

The school offers classes in cheeses from all over the world, as well as cheese and wine classes where you’ll learn how to match fantastic cheeses with their best-suited wines.

So if you fancy becoming a curd nerd, book one of these courses. We’re going to.

It’s that time of the week again when we announce this week’s winning $100 listers. We have more and more great listings being put up each week, but this week’s winners are…..

We love the surf lessons being offered by the O’Neill Surf Academy at the well-known and achingly fashionable Watergate Bay in Corwall. The Academy is operated by West Coast Surfari, one of the longest running surf schools in the UK. The resort of Watergate Bay has become so popular that Jamie Oliver saw fit to open his restaurant Fifteen bang next to the Academy – so why not spend the day learning to be king of the waves, and then eat like one afterwards? Surf lessons start from a bargain£15 per person. To book directly click here.

Next up are Italy Segway Tours with their bike tours in Florence. What better way to see this stunning city than spending 3 hours exploring with your knowledgeable guide at a relaxed and enjoyable 2-wheeled pace?  To book directly click here!

So there you have it. Our winners have each been sent $100 for leading the way with their inspiring Ooh.com listings. Next week, it could be you!

When adventurer Alastair Humphreys is not swimming the North Sea to wrestle with the polar bears you’d think he might rest his weary, world travelled soul on the sofa at home with the Eastenders Omnibus and a packet of chocolate digestives. Well you’d be wrong. He’d rather be hatching plans for a simple weekend escapade closer to home, something low key like taking a stroll around the M25 or walking home for Christmas – from Vauxhall to Kent.

So when he agreed to stay still long enough to compile a top ten of his happiest travel memories for Ooh.com, we sat up and took great interest. Be inspired by Alastair’s ‘Top 10 happiest travel memories’.

1.  Winter packrafting in Scotland

Across Scotland in winter, from the West Coast to the East Coast, by foot and packraft. We walked from Morar to the River Spey, inflated our Alpacka packrafts and paddled down to the sea.

2.  Campfire in Mexico

A photo that reminds me of hundreds and hundreds of happy nights under canvas.

3. Skydiving with my brother (he’s solo on the right)

4. Daybreak at sea when rowing to France

Major Phil Packer was injured on the 19th February 2008 in Iraq and suffered spinal cord damage. He is now in a wheelchair.  Phil has decided to raise £1million for Help for Heroes and impressed with his attitude I dropped him an email offering to help in any way I could.
He suggested rowing to France. That wasn’t quite what I was thinking of. “Why not?” I replied.

5. A sure fire way to reboot your soul – jump into a river

Beautiful English countryside; autumn sunset; cool, clean, slow-running water 5ft deep: surely the danger to your life really comes from NOT swimming in rivers at moments such as these? Are we supposed to live, or merely exist through our days in a clinical, sterile tedium?

6. Cold, miserable Siberia

My magnus opus. I’m not sure I’ll ever trump the highs and lows of cycling around the world.

7. In the summer after university three of us hitchhiked round Spain and France, sleeping on swimming platforms out at sea…

All good fun until it began to pour with rain!

8.  …and running with the bulls

Running like I have never run before, heavy with red wine, light and high on life, firing from the hip as I ran…

9. You don’t have to be on the other side of the world to create your fond memories. Here I’m training for the Bob Graham Round in the Lake District.

The Bob Graham Round is a circuit of 42 fells in the English Lake District, including the 3,000-foot (910 m) peaks of Skiddaw, Helvellyn, Scafell and Scafell Pike. It is considered by many as one of the most demanding tests of endurance for an amateur athlete or mountaineer.

10. Dawn on the Kaveri, one of the great holy rivers during my walk through India.

I travelled light, carrying only a small pack, sleeping under the stars and cooking on campfires, or staying in small villages. It was a physical challenge, a cultural education, and an old-fashioned adventure.

And finally… cliff jumping in South Africa. After school I headed to Africa for a year of epiphanies. This is where it all began.

Check out Alastair’s blog and beautiful photography. We love his frequently asked questions section, for some good honest answers about how it’s really done! And tell us about your favourite travel memories.

It’s Monday, you’ve got a diary full of meetings, an inbox bursting with emails and there are 4 whole days to go until the weekend. It’s time to plan the great escape from the office.

A fundraising trip is the perfect justification to turn your ‘out of office’ assistant on. Join Rebecca Stephens, Britain’s first female Everest summiteer,  for a trek through ’Little Tibet’ in India. Follow ancient trails in the secluded Markha Valley and cross the high passes of the Zanskar Range where the flutter of the prayer flags provide a constant reminder of the deep seated Buddhist heritage of the region.

For a cooler option, head to the Antarctic and retrace Shackleton’s voyage from the northern Weddell Sea, past Elephant Island and across the Scotia Sea to the south-western side of South Georgia. No mobile reception here. Perfect.

Spend a week on horseback riding across the unfenced wilderness at the base of Mt. Kilimajaro and cover 30 to 40km a day. You’ll ride between Mt. Meru to the south, Lake Natron game controlled area to the west, Mt. Kilimanjaro to the East and the Kenya border and Amboseli National Park to the North. Each evening when you arrive at camp there will be a large campfire and your tents will be set up. Forget checking your Blackberry, your most important job will be to tie up your horse and make sure your trusty steed gets a well-deserved bucket of water.

Ditch the suit and tie and just pack some shorts, shades and sun cream as you head to Australia for a week of surfing and yoga at Byron Bay. The retreat you’ll stay in is the ideal place to immerse yourself in yoga, eat some amazingly healthy food and refresh yourself in the ocean each day with a surf. Office, what office?

If you love reading but are sick of reading emails, how about a week long booklovers holiday with special guest speakers from the literary world?  A cross between a literary festival and a luxury poolside holiday, you’ll stay in a Spanish country mansion, immerse yourself in the pleasure of books, attend talks by the guest speakers and enjoy great food.

Not everyone wants to swap laptops for long haul flights, so a three day woodcarving course on an organic small-holding in West Cork, Ireland, might just fit the bill.  Immerse yourself in this peaceful setting as you learn the traditional craft of woodcarving with expert Ben Russell.

You STILL sitting at your desk waiting for the next meeting to get booked in? Book a flight instead and get packing….

This week, we’ve teamed up with Lizzie Fane from thirdyearabroad.com to bring you some ideas for cool foreign language immersion courses you can take whilst travelling in Europe. Lizzie writes:

“Spending time abroad may be a great way to hone language skills, but when you find yourself surrounded by tourists, constantly replying in English, it can really hold you back. Language courses or conversation partners for café chats can help, but you still often find you’re speaking English half the time.

The absolute best, tried and tested contingency plan – whether you’re there for a week, month or year – is to sign up to do a course or activity along with the locals. You get to learn a new skill, whether it’s sushi-making, oil painting or surfing, but you’ll also pick up new words and phrases to describe what you’re doing. Think about it – if you’ve never come across a particular fabric before or don’t know the name of a kitchen utensil, you naturally fill the gap in your vocabulary with the foreign word. Fluency and craftsman-status in one!

I say ‘tried and tested’ because I spent my uni third year out in Florence trying absolutely every new thing I could find! There are a LOT of tourists there, so this was my cunning plan to avoid them and attempt to blend in… I did a weekly Florentine Calligraphy course and I learnt the art of Tuscan cooking at La Pentola delle Meraviglie (’the saucepan of marvels’) which offered an 8-11pm class, covering supper nicely once a week for ten weeks.

I was the only non-Italian student in these classes, so everyone looked after me and made sure I understood what was going on.

If I had any language-related questions on my courses that I didn’t want to bore my classmates with, I jotted them down and went to see the linguistical geniuses at the British Institute (who incidentally offer brilliant classical life- and cast-drawing classes in English at Charles Cecil Studios twice a week). They explained colloquialisms to me and how to understand the Florentine dialect.

Once you’ve signed up, you have something productive and different to do in your evenings, you make some great local friends with similar interests to you and you learn to speak the language fluently – what more could you want from a course?“

Lizzie is the owner and founder of thirdyearabroad.com, a site devoted to giving language students the best information, news and ideas for making the most of their third year studying abroad.

We’re really pleased to see so many people listing their craft classes, courses and workshops on the site. There’s no end to the creativity around the UK, and no excuse for the rest of us not to book up and have a go! 

Time to highlight some of our favourite craft things going on in March:

1. Skep making

Bees are big news, and this skep making day at Westmill Farm in Oxfordshire will teach you how to make a traditional skep for bees, or use the same skills to make a basket. Spend the day with craftsman Chris Park as you practise the ancient craft of lipworth using grasses, briars and withies, and we think the day is a woodland snip at £33. 

2. Sewing

Itching to have a go at making clothes but (like me) don’t know one end of a sewing machine from another? Help is at hand in the form of expert seamstress Ann Haughton and her individual sewing classes in Suffolk.

3. Furniture restoration

There must be great satisfaction in restoring an old piece of furniture to its former glory, and that’s exactly what this five day furniture restoration course in Norfolk will teach you to do. Bring along a piece of furniture such as a small chair, a jewellery box or a caddy, and let expert furniture restorer and cabinet maker, Philip Hodge, teach you the traditional methods you can use to fully restore your pieces.

4. Furniture painting

Let expert Annie Sloan teach you how to give furniture a new lease of life with French, Italian or Swedish paint finishes. This one day course takes place in Perthshire, Scotland.  

5. Upholstery

We think this 2 and a half day upholstery course with Stuart Bottomley is a bargain.  Working in the workshop at Kendal Upholstery in the Lake District, you’ll spend the long weekend learning the skills to upholster a piece of furniture such as a dining chair, footstool or piano stool. At £180 per person for your tuition (plus materials) this is great value and a skill for life that you can develop and enjoy over time.

7. Digital photography

Also taking place in the Lake District in March is this digital photography course for beginners. As part of a small group of just 5 people, you’ll get lots of one-to-one advice from professional photographer Mark Elliott. Save time wading through your camera’s operating manual, and instead get out into the stunning scenery of the Lakes and learn how to take fantastic photos.

8. Gift wrapping and card making

A present is so much more than a present when it’s wrapped beautifully, and it’s even better when accompanied bya beautiful handmade card. Jane Means has people travelling from as far as New Zealand to join her workshops, and this one day course in Lincolnshire will leave you feeling inspired to start wrapping with style! 

9. Rag rugging

Rag rugging is immensely satisfying as you can make progress quickly. Join tutor Kath Evans of the Waterways Craft Guild for this one day course at Audlem Mill in Shropshire. During the day Kath will guide you through the basic methods of rag rug making, including the different materials and tools used for the various techniques.

10. Jewellery making

Spend two days with professional jewellery designer, Yvonne Chadderton, working in her studio overlooking the stunning Blackstone Edge moors in Lancashire. As well as learning basic jewellery making skills such as piercing, filing, soldering, melting, rolling, textures, polishing and wire making, you can also bring your own gold and silver to melt down, turning an unworn heirloom into a new contemporary treasure.

This list could be so much longer, and there are many, many more things going on around the UK next month. If you’d like to receive a monthly email update from Ooh about all the CRAFT AND CREATIVE things going on in the UK, email me at emma@ooh.com.  

Here’s a photo from our happy winner of the Ooh.com Pick n Mix competition. We’ll be announcing a new competition soon. If there’s something you’d like to win for your office, leave a comment.

With the UK being awarded 140 Michelin stars this year – the highest ever in the guide’s history – it’s no wonder we’re a country with a thriving food culture and professional and enthusiast ‘culinistas’ are partying in pantries up and down the UK.

Food, cooking and all things culinary are thriving on Ooh.com, and so we bring you our ‘top ten mouth-watering things to do’ in March.

1. Learn to bake your own bread
The smell of baking bread is unrivalled. But it’s even better when it’s coming from your own oven. Join master baker Paul Merry for this one day introductory bread making course at a working watermill in rural Dorset. 

2. Wild food in Cornwall
We can’t get enough of food foraging, and even the celebs will start donning their Cath Kidston wellies and food gathering baskets as they head off in search of free food. Join forager and professional ecologist Caroline Davey for this one day food foraging trip as you explore the beautiful rugged habitats of West Cornwall and see the abundance of wild herbs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, fungi, flowers and seaweeds on offer. There’ll be a morning of foraging in West Penwith followed by a communal ‘cook up’ of the wild foraged produce in the kitchen.

3. Learn to make jam with Clippy
Making jam is the new going out, and homemade chutney just got cool. Join Clippy, a woman obsessed by the great British apple and founder of Clippy’s Jam, for this one day course as she teaches you the secrets behind a silky jam, crystal clear jelly and heavenly chutney.

4. Ani and Lulu’s Bake Society
An afternoon dedicated to teatime treats. What could be better? Ani and Lulu invite all baking enthusiasts to an afternoon of tips and tastings. A mere crumb at just £5 for the afternoon.

5. Borough Market tour and brunch
Take a tour of Borough Market, a famous London foodie haunt, and gather the goodies you’ll take to the riverside cooking studio where you’l learn to prepare some new and interesting brunch dishes to share.

6. Make your own cheese in Suffolk
Spend the day with dairy farmers and artisan cheesemakers, Katherine & Jason Salisbury of Suffolk Farmhouse Cheese. You’ll visit the farm and meet their pedigree Guernsey cattle, take a behind-the-scenes tour of the cheese dairy and learn about the principles of cheese making, different types of cheese and how to store them. Over lunch there’ll be a chance to sample a range of cheese styles before preparing your own soft cheese to take home.

7. Cook alongside Michelin starred chef Tom Kerridge
A unique culinary opportunity to join Tom Kerridge, chef patron of the Hand & Flowers in Marlow, and be a ‘chef for the day’ as you enjoy a real insight into the workings of a Michelin starred kitchen.

8. Learn home smoking on the West Coast of Scotland
Join Bill and Sukie at their working croft on the stunning West Coast of Scotland and spend two days learning to build a smoker and how to brine and cure fish, meat and cheese.  Definitely one of our favourite things to do on Ooh.com.

9. Curry in a hurry
No, curry in a hurry doesn’t involve reaching for the phone and a takeaway leaflet. This half-day course with Renuka Patel will teach you how and when to use spices, and how you can recreate some favourite Indian recipes at home.

10. Mastering meat with a master butcher
Join master butcher Andrew Sharp for this half-day course in Cumbria, focusing on beef and veal and the tricks to getting your cuts just right.

Happy cooking and eating in March!

It’s that time of the week again when we announce this week’s winning $100 listers. We’ve had heaps of great listings being put up this week and choosing the best ones gets harder.  But this week’s winners are…..

We really love the wine tasting and vineyard tour being offered by Wine & Voyages in Burgundy, France. The two and a half hour trip will take you to the impressive Cote de Nuits wine district and includes a wine tasting and winery & cellar visit. They’ve got a great Youtube clip, you can pay them with PayPal and there are plenty of dates on offer  – a pretty perfect Ooh.com listing! Book directly with them by clicking here.

Next up is Christian Vila with his fat-busting kettlebell classes. Kettlebells are creating a major stir in the US and now they’re taking the U.K by storm. Chris’s listing has a great Youtube video clip (I feel tired just watching one of his classes in action), lots of photos of very smiley, healthy-looking people, and plenty of dates to book. And if that wasn’t enough, lessons cost a very lean £10 a go, so there’s no excuse not to book directly with Chris by clicking here!

So there you have it. Our winners have each been sent $100 for leading the way with their inspiring Ooh.com listings. Next week, it could be you!

As the BBC reveals the winners of the £56m EuroMillions on Saturday night, we reveal the equally eagerly-awaited results of our Ooh.com Pick ’n’ Mix competition.

The witty writings of  ‘StalkerB’ caught our attention. In the name of public service he reminded us that all cinema scales are calibrated on the moon and therefore Pick ‘n’ Mix costs 6 times as much as it should, and he also advised not eating foam bananas off the floor. So thankyou Stalker B, and well done, you have won 1.5kg of Pick ‘n’ Mix finest!

We are also awarding a runner’s up prize to ‘Mara’ who believes that Fruit Salads make up part of her 5-a-day. You’re speaking our language, and we’re going to send you a packet of fruit salads to keep scurvy at bay.

Competition was fierce for the coveted sweets, and we had entrants from up and down the UK (Glasgow to Dorset if you’ve got your Ordnance Survey map out). Thank you to everyone who entered, and to make sure you’re the first to hear about our forthcoming competitions sign up to our Facebook page.

In the meantime there’s still time to win two places – and lunch - on a ‘Seafood in a Day’ course, courtesy of Food Safaris and Ooh.com. To enter, click here.

Go eat sweets.