Up close and personal in travel retail
As Leicester City’s wonderful story of triumph in the English Premier League was taking shape over the past nine months, another unlikely tale of an underdog made good was unfolding in the world of European rugby. And it reached its climax on Saturday night last. Then, Connacht – the oft-forgotten fourth Irish province behind Leinster,
My throat is dry, my stomach is doing flips and I can’t feel my legs. Worse, I can’t keep a firm grip on the golf club that’s shaking in my hands and the ball sitting on the tee three feet away looks no bigger than a tiny white marble. “Go on, you just need one good
To win a bottle of Prunier 60 year old Cognac AND a bottle whose age matches yours, simply send your offer (in Euros) by e-mail to Martin@TheMoodieReport.com, headed ‘Prunier makes a statement’.
I always wondered why the makers of Vertu luxury mobile phones never called one of their models Patience but I digress.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are…
“I’m sleeping a lot better too. Last night I slept like a log – I woke up this morning and I was in the fireplace.”
No matter how much I flailed or panicked they could not hear me nor set me free from the bubble that encased me. And then, suddenly, I was up above the surface, bursting to life, panicking, relieved, telling my startled children what I had just experienced.
Yesterday’s under-stated report from The Moodie Report team correctly summed up the situation: I have had major heart surgery in recent days. And as anyone who has been through such treatment knows, it is pretty tough on the body. So I will need to lie low (probably literally) for a few weeks.
Schumann never wrote anything better than ‘Safe behind the wire’, about Philip Thompson, a former President of the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia, who took his own life in 1986.
“Make sure,” I concluded, “you buy the person that you love your own equivalent of that green dress – before it’s too late.” It was my own Gordon Schwinn moment.
Martin probably went through more reshuffles than a dealer at the World Poker Championships but generally survived, professionalism, integrity and, not least, dry wit, intact.
Sometimes in publishing there are stories you’d rather not have to write. No matter how neutral your stance and fair your treatment, you know that the subject matter is controversial, perhaps painful to one or more parties.
My final Blog of the year does not come from an interim bureau, nor from 35,000 feet. It comes from home in London but it comes also with affection, for your support and your readership throughout a compelling, often tumultuous year.