The best airports (and Istanbul is high on that list) are magnificent amphitheatres that house not only people but emotions (sadness, excitement, anticipation, joy) and are therefore ripe for great experiences.
Travel
Only three more sleeps until Christmas
Who would have possibly believed back then that most of the photos of people working in the travel retail community less than two years later would show them in masks?
Read More
Events
Omicron anxieties pale in the wake of Kentucky tragedy
The darkness that dominates world headlines over the pandemic is nothing compared to the despair of catastrophe and loss in the deep south of America. We must strive to retain perspective, insist on it in fact.
Read More
Events
Political insanity, media inanity, and wailing into the wind
“CNN and other Western media have misunderstood China. They only see China’s ‘calm’ but they seem to forget how China has firmly adhered to the path of ‘dynamic zero-case’ policy.”
Read More
Events
Why Penny’s Bay remains key to the big prize
I get the Hong Kong government’s position. We’re just going to have to take it on (and in) the nose. While that means further frustration for Hong Kong residents and the tourism industry, it’s all about the size of the prize. And no-one can doubt which is bigger.
Read More
Events
They may both be Greek but Omicron is not Armageddon
Omicron is a variant of concern to the WHO, to governments, to all of us. But it is not Armageddon. Nor was Delta nor Mu nor will be any of the variants that inevitably emerge while much of the world remains shamefully unvaccinated.
Read More
Events
From here to Quinternity
There have been numerous calls for Trinity to be renamed Quaternity, with the fourth player being the airline. So would Fraser’s Quaternity become a Quinternity? I’m afraid not. No matter how many google pages I scoured Quinternity did not make a single entrance.
Read More
Events
Stepping onto a bridge to normal in Cannes
One can imagine those first encounters in Morrison’s as delegates struggle to make themselves heard. “Sorry Barry, I can’t hear you. You’re on mute!” “Are you ok Dermot, you seem to be shaking?” – “Yes, no worries, I’m just buffering.”
Read More
Events
Time to climb off the torture rack
I feel like I have been through the mental equivalent of being laid out and then stretched on a medieval torture rack for a week.
Read More
Events
Almost time to set sail for Moodie Island
Moodie Island has an area of just 90 square miles and, best of all, it is uninhabited. Well, I’m about to change all that. And with no-one else living there, I won’t even have to quarantine.
Read More
Events
How China Duty Free Group is leading the virtual-physical charge
I like that George Soros quote “When you’re a catalyst for change, you make enemies – and I’m proud of the ones I’ve got.”
Read More
Events
Tales of Shelleys, Sabrage and Sunilage from Hong Kong
Sabrage is a highly skilled technique for opening a Champagne bottle with a sabre. Sunilage, on the other hand is a highly dangerous technique best avoided as this photo, almost the last one of Antares Cheng taken alive, and which resulted in Dom and Perignon becoming separate brands, reveals.
Read More
Events
The sky was falling and streaked with blood
I heard you calling me, then you disappeared into the dust/ Up the stairs, into the fire/ Up the stairs, into the fire/ I need your kiss, but love and duty called you someplace higher