Sad news today from my hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand where organisers of this year’s Rugby World Cup have decided to move all games from the earthquake-hit city to alternative locations. Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully (below) made the announcement today, noting that the two quarter-finals will go to Auckland and the five pool
Events
The (King) Power of the human spirit
Sometimes acts of generosity occur in this industry that take your breath away. At Duty-Free News International’s excellent charity ball last Friday one such moment happened. The ball was dedicated to travel retail industry project Hand in Hand for Haiti. Funds raised will be used to build an on-site clinic at the Lycée Jean-Baptiste Point
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Miscellaneous
Tragedy and catastrophe in Japan
How does one even begin to digest, or describe, the tragedy of Friday’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan? Even to a world that has grown all too used to disaster on a grand scale, the magnitude of this still evolving catastrophe defies belief. Whole communities have been virtually wiped out, destruction and death has happened
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Events
Just what the doctor ordered
Right. That’s quite enough of these hospital visits for, shall we say… a decade or two? How do you tell your surgeon and oncologist, wonderful people that they are, that you hope you will never meet them again? I’m back at home base, clasping a fine glass of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc while I write and
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Miscellaneous
Regaining focus
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson I’m back at home after my second unexpected hospital visit in three weeks. I’ve been incapacitated for much of the past week, having been operated on last Friday to fix the post-surgical complication
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Miscellaneous
Calamity in Christchurch
(Photos: www.Stuff.co.nz) One week ago a devastating earthquake hit my hometown of Christchurch – the second major tremor to strike the city in under six months (as well as countless aftershocks). It is impossible to overstate the impact of the disaster on the people of this city. Friends and family in Christchurch talk about the various
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Miscellaneous
Checking in to the Marsden Marriott
From the Bangok Hilton (Bumrumgrad International Hospital), I’ve transferred to the Marsden Marriott in London. Just one day after getting back from my hospital-dominated stay in Bangkok, I fell ill again with a similar complaint (small bowel obstruction) though this time it required surgical intervention. That explains my radio silence over the past week. It’s
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Miscellaneous
Putting things in perspective
I thought of my friends and the troubles they’ve had To keep me from thinking of mine – Warren Zevon, Don’t let us get sick I am about to depart from Bangkok for London, having been cleared medically to fly. But my joy at being able to return home has been tempered by the tragedy
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Miscellaneous
The carnival is over
A week after The Trinity Forum ended, I’m back at the Pullman Bangkok King Power. The delegates have long gone home, the carnival is over. It is a strange, disorientating feeling. I was welcomed back by the wonderful Pullman and King Power teams like a long lost son. I will never forget their kindness. Since
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Miscellaneous
Of ice and Ibuprofen
I write this week’s training update with a packet of frozen peas stuffed down my trousers. No, you haven’t stumbled on the Belle de Jour Blog by mistake. I have sustained an injury and frozen peas are apparently an ideal way to ‘ice’ it. Either that or my physio is really having a laugh at
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Miscellaneous
Marshall marches to victory at VR Club
This year’s Trinity Forum not only gathered together a powerful elite of the world’s leading airports, travel retailers and brand owners in Bangkok – it also played host to the most vibrant and varied set of social events in the conference’s history. The Vimanmek Mansion visit organised by King Power International Group attracted over 70
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Miscellaneous
Bouncing back in Bangkok
Fall seven times, stand up eight. – Japanese Proverb The Bumrungrad International Hospital bureau of The Moodie Report here in Bangkok is now running at full capacity. I’ve got over the blues of being dispatched to hospital early on in The Trinity Forum and looking forward with a little luck to being discharged later this
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Events
Bedded down in Bumrungrad
The facilities are magnificent and the standards of service and care great. But my post-Trinity Forum destination is not turning out to be quite the Thailand leisure break I had hoped for. Instead of spending a few days as planned relaxing in a Phuket beach hotel I am holed up at the five-star Bumrungrad International
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