Up close and personal in travel retail
Thabet is in especially upbeat mood at present thanks to his beloved Liverpool recently being crowned Premiership champions in the UK, their first title in 30 years. I swear I could still see the smile on his face through the face mask he donned during our meeting.
This is where we go so wrong so often in the west. A mask is there for a reason. You don’t wear half an oven mitt to protect yourself from burns.
Boris Johnson said that the government had “underestimated” the extent of asymptomatic transmission and didn’t fully understand the coronavirus in the “first few weeks and months”. But now, 45,762 deaths later, they do understand. So that’s alright then.
I’m confused. Do I turn left (France) or right (Switzerland)? Well, as I always like to do the right thing, I’ll enter Switzerland.
The volumes involved were well in excess of any allowance other than that perhaps of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport arrivals duty free.
My final trip of the year, and indeed of the decade, is over. And what a great way to close out the 2010s it turned out to be.
How long before an innovative luggage company invents a special SKUcase instead of suitcase for daigou traders?
The pressure now really kicks in and I must admit to even greater nerves than on the eve of the All Blacks match – and I was a shivering wreck then.
Chaps, like thousands of fellow Englishmen in Tokyo and back at home in the UK, was near delirious with happiness. And who can blame him?
The risk in describing Daxing is that you might run out of superlatives. It is an extraordinary testament to architectural genius; and a statement that airports can be beautiful as well as functional, soul-enriching as well as commercial and efficient.
When you look at the inflight screen flight path and you see the Antarctic looming up as next stop beyond your destination you know you’re a long way south.
Which airline could keep me connected for longest and with the best line speed? Cathay won hands down. I suspect I am not the only travel retail executive deciding that connectivity is key to choice of carrier.
As I step onto my hotel balcony, the view is as intoxicating as the Moutai aroma that fills the air. “The bouquet pervades across China and Moutai is still the best,” runs an old adage.