Saturday 16 May 2015

RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2015: Chris Beardshaw and his mercurial community garden



WITH this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show only days away, this week we are featuring several of the designers, including Chris Beardshaw and his Morgan Stanley Healthy Cities Garden.

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Onions bring tears of joy, says Alan Titchmarsh



ALLIUMS are nature’s punctuation marks.

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Chelsea Flower Show: Give your garden that golden glow



NOT only can you get the Chelsea look, you can get the plants from some of this year’s show gardens at Whitewater Plant Centre in Hampshire.

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Chelsea Fringe is a great alternative to the Flower Show



VISIT the Wildflower Bee Hotel, find out about Shed Chic, see a Floating Garden – these might all sound like perfect RHS Chelsea themes but they are in fact part of the Chelsea Fringe, which is starting its fourth season today.

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Paul Cummins creates Pavillion's tulip tower of strength



THE Great Pavilion has always been at the heart of RHS Chelsea and this year it will be the centre of attention thanks to a 26ft installation by the Tower of London poppies creator Paul Cummins.

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Chelsea Flower Show: Prince Harry's garden is out of this world



ONE of the show gardens likely to get a lot of attention is Sentebale – Hope in Vulnerability, unofficially known as Prince Harry’s garden, created by Matt Keightley.

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Conceptual gardening creations to raise awareness



CONCEPTUAL gardens are not everybody’s cup of tea but this year’s RHS Chelsea Fresh Gardens at least highlight issues that we should all be thinking about.

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A hidden gem within the Chelsea Flower Show



TUCKED away behind the picnic areas among the London plane trees that border the Royal Hospital Chelsea grounds are the Artisan Gardens.

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Chelsea Flower Show: True colours on show



HARD to believe that last week the grounds of Royal Hospital Chelsea looked more like a building site than the venue for the world’s most prestigious garden show.

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Tech News Recap: KitKat renamed YouTube Break, WhatsApp hidden costs and a full PC for £5



ALL THE biggest technology news from the past week – including why Samsung Galaxy S6 owners are complaining the official Clear View is SCRATCHING the flagship device, all the details on Britain's first FREE mobile phone plan, the new app which warns UK holidaymakers over disease-carrying tick hotspots, tweet Domino's to order your next takeaway and MUCH MORE.

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Pink's: THE Los Angeles HOT DOG

I ate a hot dog at 9:30am in Los Angeles. True Story. Don't judge. Give me a moment to explain.

Pink's is a bit of an institution. As far as hot dogs go, hot dog enthusiasts know that this is THE place to chow down on your dirty dog. It doesn't get much more real than this, folks. Pink's is the the top dog, end of, and has been for 75 years! 

So, of course, this was all hearsay in the beginning. I had heard from everyone that this was a culinary experience, that it needed to be tried and that your patience would be tried along the way. This was the best hot dog in Los Angeles, perhaps the best in the world, but the experience doesn't start and finish with the food. You see Pink's isn't a place where you grab a table and wait to be served. Oh, no. Pink's is a place where you queue. And you queue. And you queue. Every time I drove by Pink's in Los Angeles, the line to score a hot dog was ridiculously long. We're talking a good 50-100 people at any given moment and don't even get started at the line for lunch.

Knowing that Pink's was a crazy wait, I let the idea of eating there go. I decided no dog was worth my dishing out loads of time for the privilege, and I went on my merry way. Then, I found myself driving by Pink's at 9:15am on the way back from an early morning project. Three people were gathered in line. No one seemed to be serving hot dogs yet, but there were three women busily readying the counters. I parked my car down the street, ran down to Pink's and took my place in line. At that moment, I had not had breakfast, and it seemed like a hot dog wouldn't be such a bad idea. We all eat carb and protein mixes for brekkie everyday, this one would just be a bit more imaginative, right?

After ten minutes of standing in line, at 9:25, I had three people still waiting in front of me and ten standing behind me. People seem to eat hot dogs at 9:30am in LA. Or perhaps, all these people thought the same thing as me in that moment - if this is the only way I can get a fix and avoid a line, I'll do it regardless of the time. 

By 9:35, I was sitting down on the back patio of Pink's hot dogs with a Polish Dog, onion rings and a Coco Cola. Now a word of warning, people. The big dogs at Pink's are hot, damn hot. You do have to give them a minute to cool after ordering. I was starving and went in for the kill and nearly lost all feeling in my tongue because of it. Start with the side order and leave the best for the middle meal. 

Everything you can imagine being right about a hot dog was discovered in my second less tongue flaming bite of a Pink's hot dog. It burst in my mouth as I broke the casing, and the flavours of the dog, mixed with relish, lettuce and ketchup, woke me up faster than any morning coffee I'd ever had before. Don't worry, Starbucks, I haven't found a replacement. I couldn't even begin to finish the massive meal I had underwritten, which greatly saddened me. I made if half way through the dog and couldn't continue. A fierce case of eyes being bigger than the stomach. 

I did, however, walk away proud to say that I'd experienced the magic of Pink's hot dogs in Los Angeles and will gladly return and queue at a decent hour of the day to have the whole thing play out from start to finish once again! 

709 N La Brea Ave
Los Angeles 90039
Open 9:30am - 3am





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Ford Mustang breaks cover in UK



THEY say you should never meet your heroes.

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Frightened of needles? Just hold your breath...



NEXT time you need an injection, try holding your breath.

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Too much sleep is bad for us: Staying in bed can 'TRIPLE chance of having a stroke'



FAILING to get the right amount of sleep could send us to an early grave, a new study shows.

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Pretty woman: Gorgeous lingerie for summer



SMALL details make a big difference, so treat yourself to some new lingerie and accessories this summer.

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Topshop, Jane Norman and New Look: The best monochrome accessories we want this week



THERE'S something for every budget in this week's must-haves.

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Emmerdale’s Natalie Anderson: 'I find the the whole red carpet thing so daunting'



NATALIE ANDERSON has been nominated in two categories for the British Soap Awards. Ahead of tonight’s star-studded ceremony, she talks to Saturday.

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Marc Warren stars in the spellbinding BBC fantasy, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell



HUSTLE STAR Marc Warren takes the lead in the new fantasy drama Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

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SunTrap star Bradley Walsh:'I was thrilled to bits to do a BBC comedy'



NEW BBC comedy SunTrap has been described as Minder meets Magnum. Its star, Bradley Walsh, tells us why…

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