I can think of no better way to kick off the week in which Irish people around the world celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (17 March) than with a stirring rugby victory over England in Twickenham. Being there in person on a lovely spring afternoon on Saturday made the moment all the more special. Along with
Airlines
Why the call for maskless travel is mistimed
I cannot imagine many Chinese or other Asian travellers feeling remotely comfortable wandering through an airport or boarding a plane in Europe where most people are unmasked.
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Miscellaneous
From pea soup fog to the bleakest darkness
We must not forget the critical point that, whether you agree with the approach or not, the government here is trying to preserve the health and lives of its people
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Events
Ready for the next diversion as I head down Route 66
Age is just a number runs the old adage – albeit one mostly quoted by the old aged. The depressing thing is that my number just happens to be rather a large one.
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Events
Behind the masks of darkness
Just six weeks ago Nemiroff vodka was celebrating the release of a space-themed expression to honour the launch of the Ukrainian ‘Sich-2-30’ satellite. Today the distillery has closed and several employees have left to join the defence of their country.
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Events
Travel retail speeds around the Parabolica but Hong Kong stalls in the pits
Colder than Galway. Is that possible? Having holidayed in Galway many years ago with my two oldest kids one ‘summer’, however, my solace is that it will continue to rain there for approximately 362 days in the year (the other three it snows) while here it will get warm – very warm –soon.
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Events
Why I am sticking with Hong Kong
Fortunately both tests came back negative for as it stands every positive case is sent to a government-run isolation facility – not the kind of Interim Moodie Davitt Bureau I crave.
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Events
When a Mallard ducked out to find his Barry Manilow collection
New Zealand, a gentle country of some 5.1 million people, is not known for torment nor maltreatment of its people. But this was surely as bad (perhaps worse) than any form of punishment since the torture rack of medieval times.
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People
How Foreo founder Filip Sedic discovered the amoeba factor
I can tell you, Foreo does not look like any other company. The whole office space is like something out of a fantasy Carlsberg ad, with brilliantly coloured chairs and sofas; table football, pool table and dart board; well-stocked wine and beer fridges; and a fantastic sense of freedom. It’s the sort of environment that almost breeds creativity.
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Travel
The Year of the Caged Tiger
Two legends in their own fields. But not even Novak Djokovic nor Colm McLoughlin could have had any idea of how the next two years would pan out.
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Events
Entering an age-old spirits world with a contemporary twist
Martell is an example of a craft spirit born long before the term became bastardised with an almost implicit naivety at best or arrogance at worst that nothing that had come before was ‘craft’.
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Travel
Ham-fisted UK politicians, high-risk Hong Kong hamsters and (almost) a flying Kiwi
Like a couple of Hong Kong hamsters desperately clutching onto their exercise wheel as the men in hamstermat, sorry hazmat, suits come to take them away, Boris is hanging on like grim death.
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Airports
Travel retail as an auction house of the future
The best airports (and Istanbul is high on that list) are magnificent amphitheatres that house not only people but emotions (sadness, excitement, anticipation, joy) and are therefore ripe for great experiences.