ON THURSDAY we met up with an old friend who we hadn't seen in over ten years. He was in London for only two days and thought we might meet for a pint and catch up. We choose that little pub in Belgravia that I told you about before. It was so good to see him again and we had such a nice time over mid-afternoon drinks...
There’s a three-story, three-bedroom town house at 514 Broome Street in Manhattan with an expansive ivy-laden terrace. Entry is through a dining room swathed in exposed brick. A dramatic wooden staircase services the second floor. Venture to the basement and you’ll find a wine cellar big enough for 2,500 bottles.
I believe in fully immersing myself in places when I live there. When we lived in Edinburgh, I embraced warm pubs on rainy days and long walks in the New Town.
I recall having breakfast at a hotel in Brussels in 2017 and sitting across from Douglas Coupland, the author of Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, the 1991 book that gave my generation a sort of name that was really only a placeholder for a name. I wanted to tell him how much I resented him for this, but I couldn’t muster the courage to be disagreeable.
Mayfair, an exquisite neighbourhood nestled in the heart of London, is a true embodiment of elegance and refinement. With its timeless charm, Mayfair stands out in its sophistication, effortlessly combining history with modern luxury. Picture yourself strolling down tree-lined streets adorned with Georgian townhouses...
After the nadir of Covid travel restrictions, summer travel season is in full swing. Air travel is projected to exceed pre-pandemic levels, according to the Transportation Security Administration. People are dusting off their passports, or waiting weeks to get them renewed, and applying for the visas they need for their destinations. International vacations take planning, even more so now. While the world has mostly opened back up since lockdowns, most nations have strict limits on how long noncitizens can visit.
BEFORE P’S brother came to visit last July, he asked for London tips, and one of the places we recommended was Gordon’s Wine Bar on Villiers Street. We hadn’t even been yet, but we heard good things.
Meteorologically speaking, we're in the final month of spring, but time has got away from us and we never had the chance to fully appreciate this season that comes before our favourite. For it's at this time of year, that the earth awakens from its deep sleep, shedding the icy weight of winter's discontent.
Well, that was fast. In November, the public was introduced to ChatGPT, and we began to imagine a world of abundance in which we all have a brilliant personal assistant, able to write everything from computer code to condolence cards for us. Then, in February, we learned that AI might soon want to kill us all.
Last September, Catherine Heymans, one of the world’s leading cosmologists, was supposed to board a ferry for the northernmost island in the Orkney archipelago. The island, North Ronaldsay, is among the darkest inhabited places on earth. On a clear winter’s night, it is easy to be awed by the thousands upon thousands of stars visible to the naked eye, which spill their unpolluted light upon the Earth. Heymans, who is the first woman appointed astronomer royal for Scotland, was planning to explain to the island’s 60 or so residents that those stars, and the rest of the perceptible universe, represent a mere fraction of the stuff that makes up our cosmos. What she studies is everything we cannot see: the darkness.