Come with me on a journey, high into the hills above Larnaka in Cyprus. I’ll tell you a story of an age-old craft that is, against all the odds, winning its battle to survive in the modern world. I’ll show you a group of women, one as old as 82, who weave sublime magic with
Events
Sandro steps in as Lars is remembered
For many years at the Singapore show, a unique lunch would take place at the Conrad Hotel’s Golden Peony restaurant. The lunch would celebrate not only business between partners but also the spirit that underpinned it. The host extraordinaire was Lars Johansson, the founder of Imagination Unlimited International, and a man synonymous with the extraordinary
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Airlines
Blue skies, nothing but blue skies, do I see…
I was blue, just as blue as I could be Ev’ry day was a cloudy day for me Then good luck came a-knocking at my door Skies were gray but they’re not gray anymore Blue skies Smiling at me Nothing but blue skies Do I see – Irving Berlin “JFK please!” They were the words
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Events
‘Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds away’
“Veal meat again…” It sounded like I was about to burst into a Vera Lynn wartime song but I was simply ordering the best chop in New York. The Moodie Report’s Americas bureau has doubled in size with the arrival of Deputy Publisher Dermot Davitt after a 15-hour flight from Hong Kong, step one on
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Miscellaneous
Ash Thursday strands The Moodie Report
The Moodie Report’s Big Apple bureau at the Courtyard Marriott hotel near New York JFK Airport may turn out to be a little less temporary than planned… My supposedly whistle-stop visit to JFK – to report on a new collaboration between Diageo Global Travel & Middle East and DFS – is now threatened by ash.
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Airports
Getting the star treatment in-store
This just may rank as the look of the year. No I’m not talking about the male shop assistant; I’m talking about the expression emanating from the Rita Hayworth lookalike at Athens International Airport earlier this month. ‘Smouldering’ they used to call such looks in the golden age of Hollywood. And indeed the movie industry
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Events
Making a difference on the front line
Sometimes stories can slip quietly under the radar when they actually deserve real prominence. One such example was an initiative this week by French travel retailer Aelia, which organised a day themed ‘Journée Des Sens’ in France. The concept brings together many of travel retail’s most successful fragrance and cosmetics brands with Aelia’s front-line sales
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People
Son of a Preacher Man leaves travel retail
The only one who could ever reach me, Was the son of a preacher man, The only boy who could ever teach me, Was the son of a preacher man, Yes he was, he was, oh yes he was. I don’t often start my Blogs with Dusty Springfield songs but then the travel retail industry
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Airlines
Michelle and Michaela double act underlines the value of British Airways cabin crew
Today I flew with British Airways from London Heathrow to Malaga return. I was frankly uncertain what the experience would be like – or even if there would be an experience. That’s because the airline cabin crew concluded the first-stage of what looks like protracted strike action yesterday, and many flights were cancelled today due
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – discovering inspiration on the Central Plateau
And so our final road trip begins – a return excursion from Port-au-Prince to the town of Thomonde in Haiti’s vast and chronically poor Central Plateau. To get there we need to take the long, two-and-a-half hour drive north east from the capital through spectacular mountain scenery and scores of tiny villages. We’re going to
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – a Green field hospital of hope
Our journey around Haiti is nearing its end. After our epic drive to and from Les Abricots, Saturday night is spent back at the Auberge Inn in Jérémie where our host Juliette Nicolas Tardieu produces a splendid meal. Again there’s rice, chicken, goat and plantain with plenty of the excellent Barbancourt rum (tonight we drink
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Miscellaneous
Hand in Hand for Haiti – the rich fruit of Les Abricots
You know a place is isolated when it doesn’t even rank a mention in Lonely Planet. And our journey to the tiny, rural outpost of Les Abricots is about to show us why. A municipality in the Jérémie Arrondissement, in Haiti’s Grand’Anse Department, Les Abricots is home to one of the world’s great educational initiatives –
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – a touch of divine intervention
God moves in mysterious ways… After we return to Jacmel Airport for our onward journey to Les Cayes, we encounter a group of nuns from the famous Missionaries of Charity, founded by the legendary Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa died in 1997 but the Roman Catholic group has stayed true to her remarkable mission to help