The Big Game May 17, 2009 IT’S not often you get to stand in an over-sized shower in a deluxe hotel room watching elephants grazing in the distance through the morning mist, let alone find yourself, just hours later, sipping a glass of champagne watching those very same majestic creatures at much closer range, ambling around a polo pitch. Elephant polo, [...]
THE RESORT May 17, 2009 The Anantara Golden Triangle Resort has just 77 rooms and suites, surrounded by lotus ponds and boasting magnificent, high-vaulted ceilings. My hilltop bedroom – a room with three views – was enchanting. While you may be content to relax in the surrounds of the Anatara and the expansive infinity pool, it’s worth taking a day to [...]
The future of home entertainment May 14, 2009 WHAT started with gramophones and wax records is going through its next great change. Media servers are the units with whopping hard drives onto which you can condense your music and film collections. They’ve been around for a bit, but only now are improved user interfaces and more streamlined designs making them a serious option [...]
Church of Nonsense May 14, 2009 ANGELS & DEMONSCert: 12ATHIS tediously dull follow up to the tediously dull Da Vinci Code was the highest-profile victim of the Hollywood writers’ strike last year, becoming substantially delayed as a result. However, it gives the impression of not having been written by professionals at all. Instead, the dialogue consists almost entirely of lumbering exposition. [...]
NOW SHOWING FIVE OF THE BEST May 14, 2009 FILM: Let the Right One In: Swedish film-maker Tomas Alfredson weaves friendship, rejection and loyalty into a disturbing vampire movie that’s one of the stand-out movies of 2009. OPERA: Peter Grimes at the ENO: Premiered in 1945, Britten’s masterpiece concerns an anti-hero outsider in a fishing village. An eagerly awaited new production by David Alden. [...]
OUT THIS WEEKEND PREVIEWS May 14, 2009 FILMFIGHTING Tough as old boots movie about bare-knuckle boxing in New York. VIVA Peculiarly kitsch drama about suburban sexual-awakening in 50s America. FRENCH FILM Incompetent Brit rom-com, with a bizarre cameo from Eric Cantona. DVDFROST/NIXON Michael Sheen and Frank Langella star in the adaptation of Peter Morgan’s play. DEFIANCE World War II drama with Daniel Craig [...]
Froth and love in a wonderful, light romance May 14, 2009 OperaL’ELISIR D’AMORERoyal Opera HouseA PERFECT springtime opera, L’Elisir D’Amore is pure Italian frivolity. Played out to the tune of Donizetti’s jaunty but sporadically beautiful score, the opera – revived here at Covent Garden for the first time, with Laurent Pelly’s spritely production setting the action set in contemporary rural Italy – revolves around a dopey village boy [...]
Froth and love in a wonderful, light romance May 14, 2009 TheatreDUET FOR ONEVaudeville TheatreDUET for One provides us with what must be one of the West End’s most poignant performances in recent times, in the shape of Juliet Stevenson’s musician whose career has been curtailed by multiple sclerosis. It is a masterclass in control, nuance and subtle physicality, without ever seeming anything other than entirely [...]
Savvy homeowners considering whether to lock themselves into a fixed-rate loan May 14, 2009 WE all know that interest rates are at record lows levels, and that those with tracker mortgages are rubbing their hands in glee. Indeed, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said this week that mortgage costs are at their lowest since 2004. But it won’t last for ever. With some suggesting that the economy could start [...]
WHAT’S AVAILABLE? BEST RATES May 14, 2009 First Direct offers a two-year fix of 2.99 per cent with a subsequent rate of 3.69 per cent (all rates are based on a 75 per cent, £150,000 mortgage). The fee is £898. Royal Bank of Scotland has a three-year fix of 3.99 per cent, rising to 4 per cent afterwards, with a £499 fee. [...]