How the British summer can put your head in the clouds June 11, 2012 Look out of the window. Chances are, it is raining. Just like it was yesterday. The British summer is in full swing, once again failing to live up to its early promise of sunshine and blue skies. The Met Office warns the weather is likely to remain “unsettled” for at least the next month – anyone [...]
Standard Chartered Great City Race diary June 11, 2012 JAMES FATTAL, 25 MEDIA AND COMMS WORKER FOR ALL the hype around the London Olympics, you’d think everyone who has digested any news in recent times will have been inspired to become a health and fitness fanatic. I wasn’t one of them. That was, until I was offered the opportunity to run in the Standard Chartered [...]
Paralympic athlete Sophia Warner is ready for the test June 11, 2012 FITNESS & DIET EXPERT WITH just over two months to go until the start of the Paralympics, 100m and 200m athlete Sophia Warner, who has cerebral palsy, is excited, anxious – and training very hard. I caught up with her to talk training, nerves and multi-tasking. SO HOW ARE YOU FEELING? Really excited but very [...]
All aboard: the QM2 does the Atlantic in style June 10, 2012 LEAVING the glamorous glitzy Big Apple on a big glitzy ship felt right. Berthed in the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, the sharp-prowed Queen Mary 2 looked both huge and majestic. On our taxi ride to the terminal our driver bypassed the anti-capitalist demonstrators in Wall Street, so named for the barrier the Dutch built in the [...]
Paris’s first literary hotel appeals to visitors with a taste for letters June 10, 2012 THE Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore is terribly smart. It’s not showy like the Champs Elysees or Rue de Rivoli; it’s a quietly luxurious stretch that’s home to the Hermes and Lanvin flagships, Lancome’s headquarters, the Elysee Paris (the President of France’s home) and more of this ilk. Just off this most iconic and opulent of [...]
TRAVEL NOTES June 10, 2012 Extreme dining, Belgian style Join the trend for “extreme dining” with a meal at a table suspended 50 metres above the ground. The Brussels version of Dinner in the Sky is running throughout June, giving 22 diners at a time the chance to enjoy gourmet food and champagne while suspended near sites such as the [...]
Upgrade your next adventure June 10, 2012 FROM the cool and cutting-edge design scene in Copenhagen to the hypnotic charm of Cairo’s bustling markets; if you fancy exploring a new city, country or continent, now is the time to get that great escape on track. A world of adventure awaits, but you could benefit from a host of added extras by taking [...]
Antigone is astute but star disappoints June 8, 2012 THEATRE ANTIGONE The National Theatre | By Steve Dinneen *** Christopher Eccleston is theatre gold – the kind of name guaranteed to sell out a run. He has certainly chosen a cracker in Antigone: an expertly crafted play that’s as politically astute as it is deftly choreographed. Unfortunately – and surprisingly, given his excellent track [...]
The Innkeepers is a bog-standard horror outing but Woody Allen film fascinates June 7, 2012 FILM THE INNKEEPERS Cert 15 | By Natasha Culzac ** AN EMPTY, rustic, provincial hotel is the setting for Ti West’s latest indie horror flick, The Innkeepers. New England’s The Yankee Pedlar Inn, which is said to harbour paranormal forces in real life as well as fiction, is closing down – presumably customers grew tired [...]
Fifty shades of blockbuster success June 7, 2012 BOOKS FIFTY SHADES OF GREY By EL James (Arrow) An urgent message reached me last week as I was heading to the airport for a Jubilee weekend trip to Israel: “Bring four copies of Fifty Shades of Grey pretty please.” It came from a 34 year old friend in Tel Aviv who, along with three [...]