London

Gastro Poker

Dining room
Gastro Poker
Food and gambling make a potent combination. Throughout the year, Gastro Poker will be teaming up with cordon bleu chefs and catering companies across the UK to provide tailor-made grub and gambling events in the luxury of your own home. The professionally trained dealers are qualified in most variations of poker and can cater for players of all standards. An evening with canapés (roughly ten bites per person) costs approximately £12.50 a head. For a full dinner party, prices vary, but generally work out at around £30 per person. Prices for poker are worked out per table of six, with each table costing between £200 and £250 for a three- to four-hour session.
Gastro Poker (08444 771 614/www.gastropoker.com). Feature continues

Pole dancing
Pole Addicts, a pole dancing school and networking club, is yet another facet of the prolifically diverse scene at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. They also run lessons in risqué twirling in the home (you can see owner Raquel Roberts getting up close and personal with a hatstand on the cover of this week’s issue). One of the school’s elite teachers will turn up in a neatly branded Transit van and set the pole up in your house. Lessons cost £20 per person, with a minimum of £200, capped at £250.
Pole Addicts (www.poleaddicts.com/parties.html).

Ice sculptures
All About Ice specialises in creating ice sculptures and delivering them to your door in a temperature-controlled vehicle. They also supply dry ice and high-spec ice cubes made from specially filtered water. Most fantastically, they can build a bespoke ‘drinks luge’ (booze goes in the top, your mouth catches it at the bottom) – all you have to do is send a sketch of what you want. All About Ice claims they ‘can make almost any item in ice’, which sounds like a challenge to us.
Prices available on request. Delivery and set-up charge £35 (01923 242 242/ www.allaboutice.com).

Chocolate fountains
Nothing will put paid to your foolish New Year’s resolutions quicker than your very own tower of oozing, melted chocolate. The Original Chocolate Fountain company handles corporate events and weddings, but there’s no reason why they can’t install an indulgent contraption in your home.
Prices available on request. (0800 612 9896/ www.theoriginalchocolatefountain.com).

Hookhas
That’s water pipes, rather than ladies of the night we’d like to emphasise. Shishahire.co.uk claims to be the UK’s number one for shisha pipes and accessories, mainly hiring out Saturns – single-hose hookahs for a one man/woman smoking station. The company will supply everything you need, including clay and flavoured tobacco, and even attendants to keep your fires stoked. Five to ten shishas will only burn a small hole in your pocket at £25 per pipe, per night, and labour is charged at £16 per hour (for a minimum of five hours – £80.)
(07050 236 316/www.shishahire.co.uk).

The bar
Rent-a-Keg will deliver as many beer kegs as you want and install a fully functioning draft system, so you can turn your house into a pub. All it needs is a table-top to clamp the taps on to and access to mains electricity – it takes about 15 minutes to set up, and another ten to tell you how it works. Prices depend on what beer you want, but, as an example, a ten-gallon keg of Stella costs £164.08 (each additional keg £96), inclusive of delivery. That’s 80 pints, by the way. Alternatively, you could buy a full draft cooler system for £349.99 and have a home bar permanently installed.
(0800 9775 113/www.rent-a-keg.com).

Flatpack assembly
If you’re already braved the pit of strip-lit hell that is Ikea, and managed to get your purchases home, it doesn’t seem right you’ve also got to go through the ordeal of assembling it. Fortunately, for £45 an hour, 007 Handyman will send someone round to do it while you get on with more important jobs like having a sit-down with a cup of tea and eating some biscuits. And don’t feel insulted by the implication that you can’t follow a simple instruction manual and that you’ll lose all the screws. Because you can’t, and you probably will.
(www.007handyman.co.uk).

Butlers
Having a particularly posh dinner party? Or perhaps madam is just bone idle? Greycoat Placements specialises in recruiting high-calibre staff for discerning households, and can sort you out with anything from a personal trainer to a maternity nurse. A bona fide butler will set you back a minimum of £15 an hour. Greycoat will take a £50 introduction fee – for that it’ll meticulously match potential candidates to your exacting requirements.
(020 7233 9950/ www.greycoatplacements.co.uk).

Interior design
If you want some expert advice on whatever is this year’s woodchip wallpaper, property developers Paul Steele and Brian Cotsen will come round and give your home a full MOT. With their one-day makeover they’ll tell you how to update your house using materials you’ve already got – particularly useful if you’re about to start showing it off to prospective buyers. You’ll get advice on where best to move your furniture, help with ‘de-cluttering’ the place, and expert tips on redecorations and renovations that might bump up the value of your property.
Property Coach (020 7388 0242/www.property-coach.co.uk).

Feng shui
If you’re feeling out of sorts this January, it might not just be the fact that you’re back at work – the energy lines in your home could be out of whack. Those who have faith in such things will be glad to know that the ancient art of feng shui is still active in the capital. Renowned practitioner Alan Stirling has worked with everyone from architects to retail chains, but will come round to yours to sort out your energy lines. A home consultation session works by ‘calibrating the energy from our environment and our own personal energy, to see if the local energy supports or hinders us in our goals and personal development’. Which probably means you’ll have to shift the telly.
For a free quote, ring the Feng Shui hotline on 020 30114938 (www.fengshuithatworks.co.uk).

Home wine tasting
If your knowledge of wine doesn’t stretch much beyond the basics (red/white, large/small) why not ask France in London to organise a tasting session in your home? Prices aren’t cheap – £125 per person – but for that you get dinner cooked by a top chef, and an evening sipping wine with enthusiastic Gallic expert Isabelle Legeron. Legeron grew up on a vineyeard in Cognac, and often appears on TV – but for one night only she could be appearing in your dining room.
(www.franceinlondon.com).

Musicians
Rather than having a dreary dinner party CD in the background, you could impress particularly important guests by hiring a string quartet. You’ll find plenty in the Entsweb Directory (www.entsweb.co.uk) that cover London, and most come ready with a varied repertoire of classical, pop, rock, jazz and traditional music (so it won’t be that tune from ‘Platoon’ for two hours). You can also hire duos and soloists if you don’t need the whole shebang.
From around £350-£400 for two hours (the cost can be a lot more depending on the event).

Cigar delivery
If you’re in need of a post-dinner treat, Cigars Unlimited can delivery a vast array of expensive tobacco treats – from Cohiba mini cigarillos (£6.81 + VAT for ten) up to a box of 25 Montechristo ‘A’ (£594.65 + VAT) if you are really out to impress. If you go special delivery and order before 2pm, you’re guaranteed to get them the next day before 1pm. They can also supply lighters, cutters, cigar-rests, ashtrays, and even humifidiers for keeping the things in mint condition.
(www.cigarsunlimited.co.uk).