Jubilee weekend highlight: the ultimate Royal pageant May 29, 2012 Without doubt, the focus of the weekend is the Jubilee Pageant flotilla on Sunday 3 June, running from Putney past Tower Bridge. The procession will be led by the Gloriana, a £1m barge built for the occasion, with 18 oarsman including Olympic athletes Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent. The flotilla is so grand [...]
Kia’s new Cee’d cuts quite a dash May 29, 2012 The first thing you’ll notice with this car is its styling. It’s a product from Kia, a car brand that used only to attract the most rational of buyers: one that excelled at value, rather than glamour. Their cars only appealed to drivers who were focused on budget, rather than image. But its latest Cee’d [...]
CAR TALK May 29, 2012 Is the new Ford Focus ST a tangerine dream? The Ford Focus ST will cost from £21,995 when it goes on sale in June. Powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged EcoBoost engine, the new Focus ST develops 247bhp, yet can return 39.2mpg with CO2 emissions of 169g/km. The car has a unique suspension and upgraded steering [...]
How love triumphed in the Gulag May 28, 2012 A celebrated historian of Russia, Figes’s new book is a collection of letters between Lev and Svetlana, two Moscow scientists who met in 1935 but were kept apart for 13 years by war and internment. Their letters tell the incredible story of how they kept communicating through Lev’s internment at the Pechora Gulag where he [...]
EPISODE 58 – the quarterly financials May 28, 2012 CALDICOTT runs through the quarterly financials for the Board. I bet he wishes he could run through them at the speed of Usain Bolt. The numbers mostly stink. The seats on either side of Caldicott are vacant. He’s toxic. Strikes me, though, that it’s a case of “Don’t shoot the messenger.” The real crooks are [...]
Harsh but efficient: the lemon detox May 28, 2012 FITNESS & DIET EXPERT This week I continue my search for the city’s best beach shape-up regimes. Here I try and test the Lemon Detox (www.lemondetox.com). This is one of those diets that if you’re any kind of self respecting weight watcher, you’ll want to try once in your lifetime. Beyonce used it to drop [...]
Vive la revolution May 28, 2012 Anyone can be a wine expert these days. For a few quid you can book yourself on a tasting course where you’ll learn to tell your claret from your beaujolais. Fine beer, though, tends to be associated with the Campaign for Real Ale brigade, which conjures images of a tweed jacketted James May – the [...]
THREE CRAFT BEERS YOU REALLY NEED TO TRY May 28, 2012 Brooklyn Sorachi Ace One of the best beers on the market, this dry, unfiltered Belgian-style Saison beer is made using a rare Japanese-developed hop that is grown on just one farm in Oregon in the US. It will set you back £7.50 a pint. Dark Star Six Hop Ale This potent ale – at 6.5 [...]
Tokyo is vast, fast and very interesting May 27, 2012 IT was about 7AM and the sun from my windows was beginning to wake me up. With my room on the 35th floor of a tower in the business district of Tokyo, the view of the endless city was so intense that drawing my curtains – even while I slept – seemed a waste. I [...]
JUBILEE WEEKEND ESCAPES May 27, 2012 Go far from the madding crowd for the Jubilee Celebrate her Maj’s Diamond Jubilee far from the madding crowd at the Chewton Glen hotel in Hampshire. The country house hotel is offering a package including accommodation, afternoon tea, cycle hire to explore the local area, a full body scrub, a pre-dinner drink on the terrace [...]