It’s been a long time between visits… This month it was back to my old, familiar haunt, The Royal Marsden Hospital – a place of fear and wonder. Fear because any patient or visitor to this venerable institution is there because they or someone close to them is suffering or has suffered from cancer. Wonder
Miscellaneous
Abu Dhabi sets the pace
Abu Dhabi played host to an extraordinary day – and an extraordinary night, as the Formula 1 show concluded on Sunday. The Moodie Report was there as a guest of Abu Dhabi Airports Company, and saw Lewis Hamilton of McLaren capture the top prize, after rival Sebastien Vettel of Red Bull spun out of the
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Miscellaneous
Ready to race in Abu Dhabi
The Moodie Report is in Abu Dhabi this weekend for the third Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Grand Prix, at the stunning Yas Marina track. The atmosphere here is terrific, with Formula 1 and the social scene that surrounds it the only game in town from Friday through to Sunday. As soon as you step
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Miscellaneous
A beautiful breakfast with Bobbi
Earlier today, The Estée Lauder Companies helped celebrate Bobbi Brown’s 20th anniversary in the cosmetics industry, with a media breakfast at the Hélène Darroze Restaurant, at the Connaught Hotel. La Brown herself was present at the event, looking far too youthful to be celebrating 20 years of anything. Dressed in jeans, a black sequinned top
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Airports
Travel retail gets set for another Busch fire
‘Busch is back!’ screamed the welcome headline on a press release that tumbled into my in-box on the weekend. The Busch was of the Henrik variety – namely the long-time Copenhagen Airports President Commercial Affairs, who ranks, in my view, as one of the most far-sighted airport retail executives of recent times. Henrik’s departure from
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Airports
Providing the water of life
In a world so often gone wrong, it’s nice to report on something gone right. Very right, in fact, if you’ll excuse my liberties with the English language. This week World Duty Free Group announced it had raised over £1,000,000 (US$1.6 million) for the One Foundation from sales of bottled ‘One Water’ and branded jute
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Events
Saluting Sean Staunton
Remember travel retail’s ‘Marathon Man’? We’re talking about Dubai Duty Free Vice President of Operations Sean Staunton who recently completed the remarkable feat of running four marathons in as many months – a daunting 168km in total – in a drive to raise funds (US$11,256) for travel retail industry charity Hand in Hand for Haiti.
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Miscellaneous
Iconic Abu Dhabi T1 undergoes a magical makeover
The word ‘iconic’ is one that suffers from heavy over-use in descriptions of many of the airports, stores and brands that populate our industry. But one location that deserves the title is the unmistakable Terminal 1 at Abu Dhabi International Airport, with its colourful domed roof and circular design. Once one of the industry’s state-of-the-art
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Miscellaneous
Feline fine: Coty unleashes its first Cavalli fragrance
Wild. In all the right ways. That’s the only possible way to describe the launch party for the first Roberto Cavalli fragrance from Coty Prestige. Yes, I know the event took place about 10 days ago, but to be frank, it’s taken me this long to recover from it. I’m a middle-aged mother of two:
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Miscellaneous
Celebrating 40 years of commerce and conviviality
The Moodie Report was delighted to attend a lunch last Friday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Travel Retail Consortium, the association of suppliers and distributors to the UK travel retail market. It’s an association that has seen different members come and go, and that has witnessed huge changes to the UK corporate landscape,
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Events
Sweet merci
Don’t ask me how. The only answer is somehow. But, ultimately, the score tells the result and the headline (below) tells the story. Sweet merci indeed. The French turned up to play. And how they played. Boldly, bravely, brilliantly. The All Blacks hung on, clung on. They dug as deep as any team possibly can. And
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Events
Destiny or disaster?
The time for talking (and there’s been plenty of it) is over. Today is Rugby World Cup final day in Auckland and in a few hours the All Blacks will face their traditional nemesis France in what promises to be an epic encounter. Last night at the Sidmart restaurant in Ponsonby, OIivier Bottrie, President, Travel
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Miscellaneous
For game and country…
Do you think winning the Rugby World Cup might mean a lot to the Kiwis? Do you think we tend to take game a little seriously in these parts? If one was in any doubt then all you have to do is pick up a copy of today’s New Zealand Herald. The entire front page