Japan quake losses could reach $50bn March 11, 2011 Damage caused by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that battered Japan’s north-eastern coast last night could cost $50bn (£31bn), analysts have said. The tremor, the most powerful to hit Japan in 100 years, and the 7.3m wave ripped through coastal areas and towns such as Sendai and Fukushima at about 3pm local time, destroying [...]
The toast of New York brings a riot of spices to Leicester Square March 2, 2011 IN the Friends episode called The One Where Ross Can’t Flirt (Season Five, obviously), Chandler divulges to Ross that he has scored dinner reservations at Jean Georges to celebrate his ten-month anniversary with Monica. Jean Georges is the Manhattan restaurant owned by Jean Georges Vongerichten, an Alsace-born, New York-based celebrity chef. To have penetrated pop [...]
Only a dribbling loon would buy a green laptop February 28, 2011 SONY knew it had to up its game for the new range of Vaio laptops. It’s consumer division is struggling and those pesky people at Apple have just launched another shiny new device carved out of a single block of solid gold, featuring a beacon like the Bat Sign that broadcasts into space the fact [...]
Dinner’s on Heston: Fat Duck chef makes a grand entrance to London February 28, 2011 Dinner by Heston Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, 66 Knightsbridge, SW1X 7LA Tel: 020 7201 3833 FOOD SERVICE ATMOSPHERE Cost per person without wine: XXX LEARNING that Heston’s new restaurant was to be called Dinner, I grimaced and sneered. How pretentious! Plain old Dinner indeed – this from the man behind snail porridge and yam flakes [...]
Where to book if you’re planning the ultimate honeymoon February 27, 2011 Jade Mountain, St Lucia JADE Mountain is about the most spectacularly situated hotel in the Caribbean. Facing out across a bay towards the Pitons, St Lucia’s iconic pair of dramatically steep mountains, it hangs against the side of a jungle-covered mountain like an eagle’s nest. Some nest. The rooms – or “sanctuaries” as they are [...]
POLO COMES TO THE O2 AS PONIES AND PLAYERS LINE UP TO IMPRESS February 24, 2011 FOR the first time ever, polo ponies took to the floor at the O2 arena last night at the inaugural Gaucho International Polo event. Teams from England, South Africa, Argentina and Scotland (flying the flag for City A.M.) met in North Greenwich last night to bring a touch of the country to urban London, in [...]
NEED TO KNOW | AREA INSIGHT February 24, 2011 Commuting: First-rate connectivity. Liverpool Street is just five minutes away on the central line, while the jubilee line can transport you to Canary Wharf in a quarter of an hour. Crime: Crime rates are higher than national averages, but regeneration projects (most notably – the Olympics) should encourage these to fall. Education: Stratford might not [...]
S&P 500 is on a great rolling boil February 20, 2011 BRING up to a rolling boil then leave for…. How long exactly? That is precisely the question that spread betters everywhere are asking about the S&P 500. It’s been climbing for two years now, smashing through glass ceilings like a highly caffeinated new-age woman. But – realistically – how long can the rally last? The [...]
WHISKY, JAZZ, AND BETTING ON THE EURO February 16, 2011 WITH whisky tasting, a jazz band and the chance to win a sports car for the weekend on offer, WorldSpreads winter party (definitely not just a late Christmas do) was the place to be in the City on Tuesday night. Held in a candlelit crypt underneath St Etheldreda’s church near Chancery Lane, the night saw [...]
ALSO OUT THIS WEEKEND February 10, 2011 FILMS JUST GO WITH IT Rom com with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Anniston. For masochists only. YOGI BEAR New animated version of the Sixties cartoon, with Dan Ackroyd on “pick-a-nick basket” duties. SON OF BABYLON Iraqi drama about a boy and his grandmother in the chaos of modern Iraq. DVD EAT PRAY LOVE Julia Roberts [...]