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.”
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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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
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Events
Running across the world with the Delta (variant) blues
New Zealand did so well for so long by keeping its borders shut. But the Delta variant sneaked through a defence that had hitherto been tighter than that of the country’s mighty All Blacks rugby team.
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Events
Hopefully not a once in a blue moon Hong Kong encounter
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.
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Events
A heavenly view in Ystradgynlais and a 365 view of TFWA
This is just about as quiet an interim bureau as I have ever inhabited during the past 19 years, especially as it is one of those rare places in the UK that has no wi-fi signal, perhaps a sign from someone on high telling me I need to slow down.
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Events
Leading from the front at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open
As the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open takes place, even with limited numbers and with all of the necessary safety measures, it also offers an important sense of normality returning to Irish life.
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Events
How Khun Top, Susan Whelan and the flying Foxes honoured a legacy
This was a triumph not only for those players, the club and Khun Top, then. It was a triumph of legacy as that giant visage of Khun Vichai and the accompanying words implied.
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Events
The mouse that roared and the SK-II campaign that soared
The sceptics’ voices have fallen silent. As day three of the four-day event begins, it is clear that the organisers have a triumph on their hands. Dead MICE? This is the mouse that roared.
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Events
My Neil Armstrong moment is complete
I know that I am a lot safer as of today and that so is the world, thanks to the outstanding efforts of the teams here in Hong Kong and all around the globe.