A salt of the earth therapy for congested Londoners January 26, 2010 ENTERING the treatment room at South London’s Salt Cave clinic is a bit like stepping into Narnia. You may be going via an anteroom in a converted Earlsfield community centre rather than through the back of a wardrobe, but what greets you is an all-white environment, with powder spread in little ripples and dunes across [...]
LIFE COACH January 26, 2010 I’m a nervous public speaker and I suffer from confidence problems. What can I do to feel, appear and act less nervous and also deliver a good speech? John, 41, lawyer Confident public speaking begins in the head. “The first thing to work on is the inner game,” says Amanda Vickers, managing director of Speak [...]
OUT OF OFFICE January 26, 2010 ROPE AT THE ALMEIDA Based on a real murder case, and later turned into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock, Patrick Hamilton’s darkly effective 1929 play is about undergraduates who murdered a colleague before inviting his friends and family round to tea. Roger Michelle (the film Notting Hill is among his previous successes) directs this [...]
Warm up this winter with a chic hip flask January 26, 2010 MAYBE it’s because of the rough year and a half we’ve just been through, or maybe it’s because fashion designers have a sixth sense and predicted this would be a particularly icy winter. Whatever it is, hip flasks have become such a must-have fashion accessory that Dunhill’s models sported them on the catwalk at last [...]
A rose by any other name… can be better January 26, 2010 WHEN you hand your lady flowers on Valentine’s Day this year, she’ll be swooningly happy. But if you have been insufficiently creative, a little part of her will roll her eyes – roses are nice, but perhaps just a little bit too clichéd. Frankly, you can do better. Therefore we got florist to the stars, [...]
French go back to the future January 26, 2010 REMEMBER the Citroen DS, the futuristic sensation born in 1955 and used endlessly in films of car chases in Paris in the 70s? It was all long and pointy, with a Pope mobile–like cabin, such was the rake of the windscreen and cabin glass. It’s back. Well, the name is, anyway. Citroen has relaunched the [...]
The right brew can help you beat the winter blues January 25, 2010 GREEN tea has been trendy in the West for a while now, along with black-skinned fruits and yoga. But in this case, trendiness does not indicate mere faddishness. There is ever-mounting evidence that green tea (along with yoga and black-skinned fruits) is seriously good for you. A new study published in the Journal of Clinical [...]
Can I discuss my personal issues at work? January 25, 2010 DEAR VEXED: I’m going through a divorce and I can’t help crying at my desk sometimes. I don’t want to be inappropriate, but keeping it all from my colleagues and boss feels bizarre. Should I confide? And if so, to what degree? Lucy, 34, IT support THIS is a tricky one. On one hand, drinks [...]
OUT OF OFFICE January 25, 2010 CHRIS OFILI OPENS AT TATE BRITAIN Famous for his works decorated with elephant dung, Turner Prize winning Chris Ofili shows here that he’s an artist of great sophistication for his relatively few years. This retrospective spans 20 years of his work, from his time in Zimbabwe (the dung) to pieces inspired by living in Trinidad. [...]
The raw and the cooked rock at Roka January 25, 2010 Roka 1st Floor, 4 Park Pavilion, 40 Canada Square, E14 5FW FOOD ***** SERVICE **** ATMOSPHERE **** Cost per person without wine: £55 HAVE you ever been to Roka before?” asked our waiter, poised to take us through the Roka concept, as though this was the posh, pan-Asian equivalent of a Harvester. I regretted to [...]