Earlier in July we decided to attend the much talked about Rainforest World Music Festival now held in Sarawak as an annual event, this its eleventh year. We had wistfully watched and read of past events and wished we had previously made the effort. 2008 became the enlightener. There is something [...]

Cigars have been around for over 500 years and they have never failed to deliver delight and controversy all over the world. They have always been associated with strong personalities from royals to gangsters, generals to thinkers and have marked moments for many people. In the past decade cigars had a [...]

Tucked into a serene, secluded inlet one and half hours drive from Milan, Portofino is so picturesque and pretty it could come straight from an Old Master painting. Among its myriad charms, Portofino is also home to Zegna Regatta which celebrated its 25th anniversary last June. Think Monaco. Shrink it to [...]

This is how we Chileans would like our country to be perceived today by the world. The key concept of this creative slogan is, of course, the ability to surprise, but it spells also a self-imposed challenge and Chile is working hard to live up to its full meaning. First, [...]

The Roman God Janus had 2 faces - one to see behind and one to look forward. In this first piece I’ll begin with the former. It will be a very personal view. For Janus read Paddy. When that young, innocent and completely untraveled lass from Lancashire came out here, it [...]

Barcelona is a non-stop, twenty four hours a day Bar City. There are the classic “bodegas”, dark, smoky hang-outs in the Barrio Gottico like El Portalon, where rough red wine is still stored in ancient wooden barrels, or the packed, hole-in-the-wall Can Paixano, which serves up a dozen different varieties [...]

`See Naples and Die’. I have never fully understood the connotation of this statement, but after five days in Florence, I have come up with my own, `See Florence and Survive’. Survive? I hear you ask yourself. My personal advice is that you should prepare yourself in advance, both physically [...]