Tequila’s birthplace gives the drink a whole new spin… July 4, 2010 I’M drinking Tequila for the first time in years, as fingers of blazing Mexican sun poke down between the swaying branches of a shady tree. I can’t quite believe that I’m sipping firewater on the lawn outside a picture postcard 150 year-old hacienda – a Mexican manor house – as I eat a splendid lunch [...]
When work becomes a religious experience June 30, 2010 THE WAY WE’RE WORKING ISN’T WORKING BY TONY SCHWARTZ, JEAN GOMES AND CATHERINE MCCARTHY, £12.99 THE title might sounds a bit like the election poster from 1979 that proclaimed “Britain isn’t working”, but this book is American through and through. It reached number two on the New York Times Best Sellers List, which suggests that [...]
Get your top off June 29, 2010 Weather like we’ve been having lately in the Big Smoke might make you yearn for a cruise out of town with the wind ruffling up your hair. But then this weather is a bit of an anomaly because, frankly, our summers aren’t usually this good, and the sun only occasionally puts in an appearance in [...]
Where safari meets heavenly white beaches June 27, 2010 TANZANIA combines the thrill of safari through the vast plains of the Serengeti with relaxation on the tropical beaches of the exotic Spice island of Zanzibar. Serengeti We draw the curtains of our room in Kempinski’s Bilila Lodge to find a welcome committee of seven elephants, obligingly gathered at a watering hole just steps away [...]
The Cayenne goes green June 22, 2010 ONCE deemed a horrendous diversion by Porsche purists, the Cayenne has gone on to become the single biggest-selling model in the Porsche range with more than 280,000 of them sold worldwide since the car’s launch back in 2002. The new Cayenne is a lighter, cleaner, more economical and prettier version of its predecessor and somehow [...]
Flawless food from a French master June 21, 2010 FLASH back five years. I’m in the new Covent Garden Market with Alexis Gauthier, then the chef patron of Gallic jewel Roussillon, researching a feature. It’s 4AM and Gauthier is getting very excited indeed. Never mind the fact that it’s pitch black and freezing, even under the market’s neon lights – no, he has just [...]
NOMURA READY FOR ROOF WITH A VIEW June 20, 2010 Only weeks to go now before the biggest decampment the City has seen in a while; Japanese bank Nomura’s move back to the City from the Canary Wharf offices it inherited from Lehman Brothers a few years back. The bank, which will move its staff floor by floor to minimise disruption, starting on 12 July, [...]
The elegant side of the Balearics June 20, 2010 THERE is so much more to Mallorca than sun, sea and the late-night drunken menace of us Brits in Magaluf. The largest of Spain’s Balearic Islands, the 3,275 sq km atoll has mountains, lush vegetation and close to 100 sandy beaches, many of which are secluded because they are up to half an hour’s walk [...]
Latitudinal thinking in Aldwych June 14, 2010 28-50 140 Fetter Lane, EC4A 1BT 020 7242 8877 www.2850.co.uk Cost per person without wine: £30 THE first thing to chew on at 28-50 is its name. It gets stuck in the teeth, frankly, involving two non-symmetrical numbers that bear no obvious relation to each other. For the innumerate among us, it’s a bit intimidating, [...]
TASTING NOTES June 14, 2010 FINDING an excuse to enjoy chocolate is always welcome. And – as with all the naughtiest things in life – if it is of the highest quality then it is probably a bit less bad for you. Well, still another way to mitigate the dangers of greedy chocolate consumption is to learn more about how [...]