For the last few weeks I have been eagerly anticipating the August bank holiday and not just for that extra day off. This Sunday and Monday just gone food enthusiasts flocked to Claremont Farm near Bebington for the Wirral Food and Drink Festival to celebrate local produce, listen to live music, get expert advice from the North West's best chefs and to try their hand at cooking themselves and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

On entering the festival I was met with a serious dilemma - what to eat? With over 100 producers and stalls selling delicious treats it was hard to pick just one so I nibbled my way around the field of food. Pumpkin seed bread from the German Bakery, Derimon Smokery's oak-smoked cheese and Greek olives from aptly named Greek Olives to name but a few - washed down with a pint of Brimstage Brewery's Scarecrow Bitter whilst watching Mersey Morris Men dance in the afternoon sun. Perfect.

Moving swiftly on, I caught an educational mini sheep-shearing show, meandered around the Can Cook Domes and finally observed a cookery demonstration from the experts at Malmaison.

With my belly and bags full of food and drink and the festivities coming to a close, it was reluctantly time to leave - after a Cheshire Farm Ice Cream of course, I couldn't leave without having one!

If you managed to miss this food festival, do not fret as there are three spectacular food festivals this September in the North West and Wales - The Welsh Food Festival on September 4 and 5 at Glansevern, The Liverpool Food and Drink Festival running from September 12 to 18 in Sefton Park and finally The Nantwich Food and Drink Festival starts 23 September and finishes 26. Enjoy!

There's a bit in the film Hook (1991), where Peter Pan (Robin Williams), now grown up and utterly bereft of any memories of his own identity, is dragged back to Neverland to rescue his children. He is set on by the Lost Boys, who are all convinced this bespectacled, beer-bellied specimen can't possibly be the cock-crowing, flying, fighting young boy; all except one child, who carefully presses, moulds and shapes Peter's face until the old Peter Pan shines through. "There you are, Peter!"

Usually I am pretty sceptical about face creams. A bit of cleanser, exfoliant and moisturiser suits my lackadaisical attitude to beauty rituals down to the ground. But when a chance comes along to try a new beauty product from a top facialist and skincare specialist who happens to be in Space NK Chester for the day, who am I to say no?

The specialist in question was no less than Emma Hardie; beauty professional, Grazia columnist and holistic consultant on Channel 4's 10 Years Younger. Her Amazing Face Natural Lift and Sculpt Skincare products have taken 12 years to research and develop and are based on the scientific study of energy and bioelectrics (the study of cell rejuvenating fields produced by plants and animals). Her mission is to empower individuals to look after their own skin - and the first thing you notice on meeting Emma is her own skin ("I never wear foundation", she says. "I hate the stuff.") - clear, refreshingly transparent and oh-so youthful!

The main products in the Emma Hardie range are a cleansing balm, exfoliating seeds (that can be mixed with the balm to create a customised exfoliating mixture) and a magic cloth. It's this magic cloth that made me think of Hook; it has a gently abrasive muslin side for controlled exfoliation and a smoother micro fibre side for polishing, perfecting and sculpting the face.

After spreading the balm into the skin, gently exfoliating using the muslin side, Emma switched to the micro-fibre side, gently pushing the skin, stretching the skin and massaging the muscles, along the shape of the cheeks, contours and lines. Then I looked in the mirror.

What a difference! The side that had been sculpted definitely looked firmer, more defined and lifted. After reassurance that I couldn't mess it up, I did the other side, and lo and behold! The whole shape of my features had changed, and just like Peter Pan, it was a more youthful, invigorated face that looked back at me.

The Emma Hardie products are about individuals having the tools to reclaim a natural youthfulness that is often hidden behind layers of makeup. They are easy to use, smell discretely divine and are definitely products that will go on my Christmas List!

Nicky from the INOUT Office puts all (well, most...) preconceptions aside and gives it a go...

Having been brought up in North Wales I must confess to always having had a bit of an aversion to caravans - you get stuck behind them on country lanes, they jack-knife on dual carriageways and cause major tailbacks on Friday afternoons, they are big, white, ugly boxes on wheels that, lets face it, are blots on the beautiful landscapes of the British Isles. Imagine, then, my thoughts when I was invited to spend two nights in one in the heart of the Lake District!

But, hey, wait a sec, that's not an oversized chest freezer with a towbar sitting in the middle of the rather luxurious Park Cliffe Camping & Caravan Estate, that's a beautiful, sleek, elegant, Hollywood-starring glamour wagon! It's the iconic Airstream 'silver bullet' and it's mine for the next 48 hours!

I'm starting to feel a bit giddy: the graceful, aerodynamic exterior, the sun glinting on the curves of the windows, I'm a film star, I'm in love with this darling of the rich and famous and I haven't even set foot on the electric step to take my first peek inside...

I worry, surely it's still just a basic caravan interior. I tentatively open the door and as I'm doing so I'm part of the 1930's jet set about to fly off to a distant shore: that's the effect just the door handle has on me!

Once inside I'm back in the 21st Century with two 20" Sony LCD TVs with DVD, one in the living area and one at the foot of my full-size double bed, do they work, can I watch the World Cup? This is an Airstream, of course they work and of course I can watch the football.

Outside is inside as the aluminium continues to gleam on the walls. The furniture is warm black maple and white veneer, the sofas are squishy black and grey leather, the kitchen fittings and appliances (oven, hob, microwave, enormous fridge with the compulsory bottle of fizz and freezer) are stainless steel and, if you're beginning to think this all sounds a bit too monochrome, there are sunset shots of vibrant orange behind the glass panel locker doors.

From the beautiful, oval, ceramic basin and separate shower in the bathroom to the instantly hot and brilliant water pressure throughout, from the drawer containing extra kitchen prep area to the aircon and user-friendly awning for al fresco dining, I almost have to eat my earlier words - I want to stay in here for longer, I want to hook up this beauty to the back of my car and I want to follow the road wherever it takes me and not look back - I am a caravan convert... Well, only if it's an Airstream trailer!

We stayed in the Airstream 684 Double
www.airstreameurope.co.uk
www.parkcliffe.co.uk