We joked that it was the biggest travel retail gathering of the year and remembered that this was like it used to be in travel retail before a certain nasty virus came along and blighted our industry and our lives.
Blog
Quirky
Testing times, a Praying Mantis and a countdown to freedom in the Interim Quarantine Bureau
“We’re here for the test,” said a woman in full PPE, who at first sight looked like a giant praying mantis. “So am I,” I replied lamely. “The All Blacks are ahead 16 to 8.”
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Lifestyle
In training for the (very modern) Quarantine Pentathlon
The triple jump – What we used to call the hop, step and jump at school is a natural for a finely tuned quarantine athlete such as me. Hop? Why that’s so easy, I could do it on one leg.
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Miscellaneous
Time to abandon the rear view mirror
It takes me 12 strides to walk the approximate 10-metre length of my room. That means 150 ‘laps’ or 1,800 strides to do my equivalent of the 1,500 metres. Today I plan to set a new personal best in a probably futile attempt to delay the onset of madness.
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Travel
Passing the time in ‘Kowloon Kuarantine’ with a travel retail exclusive SQAP and A Room with a View
It might not feel like it when you’re sat down bleary-eyed and cold inside a giant repurposed air terminal hoping like heck you haven’t caught COVID but the whole system is hugely impressive.
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Travel
Saying Jihwaja in Seoul and bidding farewell to the Land of the Morning Calm
With a two-week hotel quarantine starting on arrival, I’m going to need a little quality liquid sustenance to help sustain the website that never sleeps. Jihwaja!
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Airports
Hamad International, hotspot of travel retail
In the world of international airports, you could make a very good case that this is the leading hotspot in our business.
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Travel
Breaking into a gentle Trot on a road trip in Busan
Trot is a popular, highly sentimental form of Korean music, sometimes described as the unofficial soundtrack of road trips because the upbeat tempo and repetitive rhythm can get stuck inside your head. It certainly has in mine.
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Miscellaneous
Rain and shine, a room indoors and edging towards a revival
Our gathering evoked the value of the relationships that so many of us in the industry have forged over many years, and the trust and friendship that underpins them.
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Wellness
How Simone Biles faced – and defeated – the kaiju once more
This was a gold medal-wining display of courage from a brilliant athlete, a role model to millions of young women, a global superstar who made a choice about her destiny, and who confronted – and defeated – the kaiju of mental illness.
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Lifestyle
Kicking Hexapentakis Truncated Icosahedron where it deserves to be kicked
While the team the Kiwis have curiously dubbed the OlyWhites has made the front pages of the New Zealand media today, they’ll disappear just as soon as news breaks of what an All Black star had for breakfast.
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Lifestyle
Cheered up by Writers’ Tears and a visit to the D’oC
We may have become the first people in the world to drink Writers’ Tears accompanied by peanut butter on snack biscuits. But no feast prepared for a King could match the magic, nor the moment, of this combination.
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Lifestyle
Out in the jungle while a mad Zookeeper runs amok
“We did our makeup to hang out and did not want to ruin it. Sweat and makeup is not a good combination, and it can be dangerous to sit in a hot mask on a long journey like we had.” Dangerous… yeah, right.