Up close and personal in travel retail
It almost feels like déjà vu looking at my colleagues’ daily update from Florida with the usual show diet of exhibitor photos, workshop speeches and social gatherings. Almost. Some of the exhibitors are wearing masks, something we would have considered weird at the equivalent show in 2019.
The flourishing of Martin’s Block coincides pretty much entirely with the sustained period of the pandemic. A beautiful reminder of the halcyon days that preceded this descent into a world covered by a deep black cloud.
I can think of no better way to kick off the week in which Irish people around the world celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (17 March) than with a stirring rugby victory over England in Twickenham. Being there in person on a lovely spring afternoon on Saturday made the moment all the more special. Along with
We must not forget the critical point that, whether you agree with the approach or not, the government here is trying to preserve the health and lives of its people
Two legends in their own fields. But not even Novak Djokovic nor Colm McLoughlin could have had any idea of how the next two years would pan out.
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?
“The closing four pages are so cataclysmic and catastrophic as anything I’ve ever done—the harmony bites like nitric acid – the counterpoint grinds like the mills of God.”
Photos of a maskless (and clueless) Boris Johnson in a hospital ward just add to a widespread external perception that the UK is what the New York Times famously dubbed ‘Plague Island’.
As I write, two members of my team are suffering from COVID, caught in the maelstrom of the pandemic as it rages once again through the UK, where some 9.3 million people have suffered from the disease and almost 142,000 people have died.
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.”
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.
Upon learning about a girl who required o Rh negative blood after a car accident in another province, he rushed to contact the relevant hospital, encouraging the young patient with a microblog post declaring ‘Mr. Blue Sky is here to help!’
“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.”