Latest posts by Martin Moodie (see all)
Welcome to The Moodie Blog’s first roving bureau. I’m writing this from the Fraser Suites in beautiful Edinburgh but I’ll be updating it from Gleneagles, about an hour from here.
No, there’s not a lot of travel retail business going on at Gleneagles – but there’s a lot of travel retail executives there.
That’s because a small golf tournament kicked off there today. You might have heard about it. It’s called the Ryder Cup. I’m here courtesy of Colm McLoughlin of Dubai Duty Free who has kindly invited me and my partner in publishing crime Dermot Davitt (current holder of the Dubai Duty Free Gold World Cup championship and henceforth referred to as Dermot Divot).
I arrived a day later than the rest due to the needs of The Moodie e-Zine but I’m making up for lost time fast.
Last night we had drinks at a private function hosted by Michael McGinley, a prominent Dubai-based supplier to the duty free industry and brother to European team captain Paul McGinley. Michael is no mean golfer himself (he plays off 1) but was pipped to the Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup last year by 1 point by none other than the aforementioned Dermot Divot. So you can imagine the banter last night.
An early night was called for after the function ended. But in the company of Colm and Divot, the call was not heeded. Divot is dangerous. Last night he was flying as all good Divots do. Always beware of the three most dangerous words in the English language when uttered by him – “Fancy a nightcap?”
As it happened I did. Then came the next four most dangerous words in the Divot vocabulary, “One for the road?”
That could have been fine. Alas, let’s just say that one (both drink and road) was not the final number.
