By Andrea McVeigh
Well, I did it, I climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Not by myself, of course, and not without a fully-trained BridgeClimb leader, in the shape of the highly personable Bernie. But I did it. I made it to the top, 134 metres above Sydney harbour, with only a few wobbles along the way (the lower bits are actually the worst, I found. Once you get onto the bridge itself, it’s so secure, so wide and the arch is so gradual, it’s not at all scary). Just to be totally corny about it, I have to say it was the ‘high point’, in more ways than one, of my trip to Australia.
From our fabulous room in the Shangri-La hotel, in Sydney’s historic Rocks district, I could look out and see the bridge every day (our fabulous view also included the Sydney Opera House, for good measure, so I’d thoroughly recommend the hotel if you ever make it to Sydney). It was a few days after we arrived before I got to climb the bridge, so the anticipation made it even more worthwhile.
BridgeClimb, Sydney, has been running for ten years and so far, more than 2 million have done the climb. And it got me thinking - why can’t we do something like that in Northern Ireland? We’ve got the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which is an amazing - and truly terrifying for some - tourist attraction. But how about climbs or official tourist trips up Samson and Goliath, the shipyard cranes in Belfast? Just a thought - but you never know, in 10 or 20 years time it could be the hottest tourist attraction around!
My Australian holiday is almost over, which is a shame, as I’ll miss the easy-going lifestyle, the beaches, the super-friendly people and the weather. We arrived in Sydney to temperatures of 20C a couple of weeks ago, only to be told by some of the locals that they considered this cold! It’s currently their Autumn, but to us, after barely surviving the Belfast winter, it felt like a heatwave!
On the way back we stopped off in Singapore’s island resort of Sentosa (again staying in a Shangri-La hotel and again highly recommended) where I enjoyed the most unusual spa treatment I’ve ever had. It was at the Fish Reflexology spa, next door to the hotel, where hundreds of tiny Turkish fish nibble the dead skin off your feet. Once I stopped shrieking and laughing (it tickled a lot!), it turned out to be the best spa experience I’ve ever had.
Still, my return to Belfast is well timed, as I’ll make it home in time for the launch of the hotly-anticipated Sex And The City movie. My thoughtful hubby bought me the DVD box set of the TV series for Christmas, so I’ve been re-watching the entire show and reacquainting myself with Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte, and their assorted men friends.
The film is set to be the movie highlight of the year - if not the decade - for a generation of women who saw in their Twenties and Thirties in the company of the four New York sassy lassies. From Manolos to Cosmopolitan cocktails, the TV show has shaped popular culture - for women at least. I can’t see too many boyfriends and husbands pouring into the cinema to see it - unless they’re there under duress!
And on the subject of Manolos, Northern Ireland has its own shoe designer to the stars, Anita Flavin. I’ll be going to her Minette shoe party next week, which is being held the night before the SATC preview - talk about perfect timing! - at the FASHIONWEEK offices in Belfast. All the fashionistas will be out in force to celebrate the work of this fabulous designer. Who needs New York when you’ve got events like this in Belfast! Move over Carrie!
Monday 26 May 2008
Tuesday 20 May 2008
Street Smart
Name:
Laura McAleer, Lisburn
Occupation:
BA Hons Graphic Design student at UU
Where did you get the outfit you’re wearing today?
I picked up my dress (£15) from a vintage shop in North Wales, cardigan (£30) in Warehouseand Miu Miu bag on eBay. I bought my shades (£20) in Accessorize and my sandals (£20) are from Topshop.
How much would you spend on clothes each month?
Between £300 and £400.
Who are the best and worst dressed celebrities?
I enjoy looking out for what Victoria Beckham will be wearing next. Worst? Kelly Osbourne is just too grungy.
What are your favourite high street shops and designers?
My favourites are Topshop, H&M and All Saints. Designer-wise, it’s got to be Balenciaga and Fendi for dreamy bags.
How would you describe your style?
I mix and match depending on my mood. I can go from maxi dress to baggy jeans and still keep it girly.
What has been your worst ever fashion mistake?
A long, multi-coloured, vertical stripe jumper worn with brown cords and pink trainers.
What has been your best bargain?
A Fendi Spy bag from eBay.
Street Smart
Ulster Tatler hits Belfast city centre to check out what’s hot in the style stakes.
Name:
Cheryl McHenry, Belfast
Occupation:
Administration, Flagship Media
Where did you get the outfit you’re wearing today?
I bought my dress (£35) from Mango in London, my shoes (£15) from New Look and my bag (£10) from Primark. I picked up my shades (£20) in River Island and my Guess watch was a birthday gift.
How much would you spend on Clothes each month?
About £200 - even though I know I shouldn’t!
Who are the best and worst dressed Celebrities?
I love Nicole Richie’s versatile look. Worst? Britney Spears is just horrendous.
What are your favourite high street shops and designers?
On the high street, Topshop and River Island. On the catwalk, I love Vivienne Westwood’s take on girlie chic.
How would you describe your style?
My style’s quite simple. For nights out I would team dresses with high heels for a bit of glitz.
What has been your worst ever fashion mistake?
A pair of shimmery tights I wore to a club a few weeks ago. They started to glow under the UV lighting!
What has been your best bargain?
A white silk shirt I picked up in Paranoid, which was reduced from £75 to £10.
Land of the Pharoahs
Andrea McVeigh explores the amazing wonders
of cairo, egypt.
Nothing quite prepares you for seeing the pyramids at Giza, on the outskirts of sprawling Cairo. Ever since I can remember, I’ve known about them, read about them, seen pictures of them and heard about the myths and legends that surround them. Built as tombs for the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, the pyramids, and the Sphinx which guards them, have captured the imagination of people around the world for more than three thousand years.
It’s hard to take in the scope of Cairo’s history. It witnessed the origins of civilisation, the rise of the Greek and Roman empires and the establishment of Christianity. And here I was, standing under the blazing Egyptian sun, so close I could touch the Great Pyramid - the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence. It was an amazing moment. I went to bed that night feeling privileged to have seen them, but also unable to quite take in all in.
Even as I gazed at the River Nile from the balcony of my room in the Sheraton Cairo Hotel Towers and Casino, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.
Cairo is now easier to visit since the launch, last November, of bmi’s new route to the city, proving invaluable for both business and leisure passengers.
If you can, go business class, with its lounge access, priority boarding, menu choice, dedicated cabin crew, complementary bar and, most importantly on a four-and-a-half-hour flight, 50 inch seat pitch (although economy is spacious too!).
Depending on when you go, Cairo can be hot (temperatures passed the 40˚C mark in April), humid, chaotic, noisy, intense, smoggy, friendly and hectic. Venture out in a taxi and you’ll feel like you’re in a giant dodgem car adventure, while pedestrians trying to cross the road take their life in their hands. Yet you’ll also see many lush, green parks and beautiful plantlife - this is a city just bursting with life, in all its forms (the population is around 19 million, and that doesn’t include tourists!)
For this reason, it’s a good idea to hire a guide to escort you around the main tourist attractions. Our female guide, Asmaa, was a joy to be with, as she escorted us around the city and told us about the fascinating history of each new place we visited. Her joy at being able to share her culture with us was infectious.
As well as visiting Giza, I saw the ancient burial ground at Sakkara, 30km south of Cairo, which features the world’s oldest standing step pyramid, as well as the ruins at Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt (the best way to visit these sights is on an organised tour).
Cairo isn’t nicknamed the ‘city of a thousand minarets’ for nothing, and a visit to the mosque of Mohamed Ali in the citadel of Saladin is another must (women must cover their shoulders, and everyone must take off their shoes, in respect of the Muslim religion). With its largely alabaster exterior, it’s truly beautiful and offers amazing views over the city.
The Egyptian Museum, with its huge collection of sculptures and antiquities, including those from the tomb of Tutankhamun, is another attraction that should be on your itinerary while a tour of old Cairo, with its churches and historic synagogue will both amaze and delight you.
Culture of an altogether different sort can be enjoyed on a dinner cruise. We went on the Nile Maxim and were treated to a show featuring singers and a belly dancer, a buffet meal and views of the skyline at night, while upmarket cuisine is served at the luxurious Mena House Oberoi Hotel, the home-from-home for visiting VIPs, such as Tony Blair.
Another ‘must see’ is the Khan El Khalili bazaar, the place to go for tourist trinkets, where vendors shout at you from every direction trying to tempt you with their wares and where haggling is the norm.
By luck, I stumbled upon an oasis from the intensity of the market, in the form of Lehnert & Landrock, a bookshop and gallery in an indoor mini-mall on El Moez Ledeen Ellah Street, the first main street of the souq. Established in 1904 by two European men, it’s filled with prints of old photographs of the region, taken from the early 20th century, which make beautiful, classy (and inexpensive) souvenirs. Ask for the manager, Mohamed, tell him Andrea sent you and enjoy a cup of mint tea!
To round off my trip, I went back to Giza for one of the music and light shows that are held, in English, every evening. As lasers and lights lit up the pyramids and a booming voice narrated the history of the ancient world, I had to pinch myself again, it was all so magical.
Fact File
bmi offers a daily direct service from London Heathrow to Cairo with connecting flights from Belfast City Airport. Fares start from £352. Visit www.flybmi.com for schedules.
Mena House Oberoi Hotel,
El Rubbaeyat Restaurant,
tel: 0020 33773222.
Cairo Sheraton Hotel Towers
and Casino, tel: 0020 33369700.
Nile Maxim floating restaurant, tel: 0020 27374833.
These boots are made for walking
Ulster tatler’s Laura Slade investigates the latest craze in footwear - mbt shoes - and discovers real comfort and style while doing so.If you watched the 2008 London Marathon you could not help but notice the six Masai warriors who took part and their fantastic posture. I always felt my own posture was ‘normal’ but after watching the Masai warriors I realised my posture was poor in comparison. So when I was offered the chance to try out a pair of MBT’s (Masai Barefoot Technology) which are renowned to improve posture, I jumped at the chance.
The MBT shoe dates back to a discovery by Karl Müller who during his stay in Korea suffered from backaches and would often walk barefoot over rice fields whenever he was in pain. He found this eased his pain amazingly quickly and in an attempt to understand this extraordinary finding, he came across the secret of Masai.
The Masai are members of a group of people in eastern Africa who constantly move from place to place and are renowned for their excellent posture. They rarely experience joint pain and by going barefoot on natural ground which can be uneven, they are forced to keep their balance.
On many reviews it states that the MBT shoes have been known to improve posture, relieve pressure on joints and the back and are very good for exercising muscles, therefore I was keen to get hold of a pair.
I must admit after reading reviews about this shoe I was a little nervous about whether I would be able to get used to this ‘phenomenal’ creation. Would I find it hard to get my balance? Would my posture improve? These were some of the many questions racing through my mind.
Upon my arrival at Blackstone Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinic in Moira I was warmly greeted by Kay McLorn, the Practice Principal of the clinic. Kay’s warm and professional manner instantly put me at ease and I felt in safe hands. Firstly Kay measured my feet to see what size I would need as MBT shoes have been found to be quite different in size compared to regular shoes. I decided on the Mwalk Silver MBT, a casual design as I exercise on a regular basis and felt these would fit in well with my daily routine.
Upon my first step in my new MBT shoes I found the sensation was very strange but in a good way. I could not believe my feet were in shoes! They were so comfy and springy, it felt as if I had cushions under my feet. I instantly began to relax and was excited at the thought of going out and about to really put my MBTs into action. The synthetic leather and single-layer mesh allows durable wear which can keep your feet warm in winter and cool in summer. The tongue of the shoe is padded and the collar prevents rubbing so you do not experience discomfort sometimes associated with new shoes.
However, at first I noticed my balance was not as good as it usually is. The soles of these shoes encouraged me to test my balance and there is a rocking sensation I experienced for the first few days until I found my balance. However, this was expected as the MBT makes a point of forcing its wearer to balance and straighten up whilst walking to improve posture and acts like a shock absorber to relieve pain.
The first few days in my new shoes went well. I only wore the shoes for 2 hours a day the first week as I had been advised by Kay to break myself in to this new style of shoe. I decided to be brave a week later and attempt a long distance run, something I do on a regular basis. I was gradually getting used to walking in my shoes but running was a whole new experience. I was pleasantly surprised as you can really feel your legs working, a similar sensation to running on sand but without the pain. The next day I could feel the muscles in my legs feeling tauter and more toned and knew these shoes really were working.
After a week I was beginning to get used to the balance and running in them. Even walking up stairs is a workout in itself as you can really feel it on your calf muscles and thigh muscles, these shoes are fantastic.
After wearing my MBTs for a month I am a firm believer in them. They are renowned as the world’s smallest gym and I feel this is very true. I feel my posture has improved immensely and my legs are becoming more toned. MBTs are a must for anyone that suffers body pains or aches or anyone who wishes to tone up. I really would rate these shoes 10/10 for comfort and effectiveness.
Do I think the hype surrounding these ‘phenomenal’ shoes is well deserved? Definitely! If anything there is not enough hype surrounding this genius invention.
For more information visit www.swissmasai.ie, www.blackstonephysio.co.uk or email blackstonephysio@tiscali.co.uk
The Allure of the Big Screen
Paul Harron discovers a recent book on Hollywood’s Irish connections published by Appletree Press.
LALA-Land’, ‘Tinseltown’, ‘Dream Factory of the World’ – just some of the names ranging from the derogatory to the infatuated coined for that famous stretch of land in the hills above Los Angeles synonymous with celebrity, hedonism and, of course, film-making. The big white cut-out letters which spell out Hollywood have become iconic, but in fact they originally spelt out the longer ‘Hollywoodland’ and were put there as a marketing ploy by an Irish American, John Roche, only later to be shortened to ‘Hollywood’, advertising not just a place but an industry and even a lifestyle.
Holywood’s associations with Irish men and women stretch back further and go deeper than that. In fact, the development of the place – and much of LA and its waterways – owes much to a pioneering Irish immigrant, William Mulholland, an engineer who is immortalised in the famous Mulholland Drive.
THE MOVIE MAKERS
As the authors of Emeralds in Tinseltown say, Mulholland prepared the way in the West for a new type of American adventurer who would follow railroads from the East: the movie makers. Many of these film folk were Irish and among them was a young man from County Meath called Owen Moore, Ireland’s first movie star and director. He starred alongside Mae West in She Done Him Wrong, for example, and went on to marry the actress Mary Pickford from whom he was later divorced – she went on to marry Douglas Fairbanks thereby becoming one half of ‘the king and queen of Hollywood’ partnership in the 1920s.
The Irish stars of Hollywood are described in fascinating detail by the authors, Steve Brennan – international editor of the entertainment daily The Hollywood Reporter – and Bernadette O’Neill – an Irish stage and screen actress, film historian and founder member of the IFTA. They take a roughly chronological approach, breaking the book up in chapters which are either thematically- or personality-based. Rex Ingram – originally Reginald Ingram Montgomery, the Dublin-born son of a clergyman – was one of the first to head across the Atlantic in the early twentieth century and take up directing, his first big box office hit for Universal being Black Orchids set in pre-Revolutionary France. He later went on to team up with Waterford-born Pat Powers, one of the founders of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company (later Universal Studios) and directed the renowned The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse starring Rudolph Valentino.
Other early Irish names were Cedric Gibbons, the Oscar-winning art director behind the MGM classic The Wizard of Oz, and other films such as Little Women, An American in Paris and Somebody Up There Likes Me. People ‘down here’ liked him too – as well as the Oscars he was awarded the award for distinguished achievement for art direction in 1950 by the Society of Motion Picture Art Directors.
Swashbucklers and stars of particular interest to Northern Irish film buffs, perhaps, is one of Hollywood’s most colourful Irishmen, Errol Flynn. Although actually born in Tasmania he like to be referred to as Irish when he was at the peak as the movies’ most infamous swashbuckler. His father Theodore Thompson Flynn was a popular professor of Zoology at Queen’s University, Belfast. Flynn, whose autobiography was entitled My Wicked, Wicked Ways (which just about says it all) shot to fame in Captian Blood in 1935 and went on to play action-hero roles in The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Dawn Patrol, Gentleman Jim and Against All Flags, which co-starred Maureen O’Hara and Anthony Quinn. Flynn finds himself in two chapters – one covering the Irish cowboys, another honing in on ‘Holywood’s glorified missus’, Greer Garson. Born in County Down, Garson was a reluctant émigré but was eventually attracted by the thought of the Californian sunshine adding ten years to her life (as Louis B. Meyer promised it would) and went on to become one of Holywood’s most enduring and respected stars (think, for example, Goodbye Mister Chips). She felt she was typecast as prim and proper and is pictured in the book battling the prim role in the embrace of Errol Flynn in the film That Forsythe Woman.
There are inevitably detailed and lively chapters on characters such as Gene Kelly, Maureen O’Sullivan and – ‘Holywood Screen Royalty’ – Maureen O’Hara and Grace Kelly. O’Hara – born Maureen FitzSimmons in Ranelagh, Dublin, in 1920 – went on to become particularly identified with the cult classic The Quiet Man, while Grace Kelly, the epitome of beauty on screen and star of film classics such as High Society and Hitchcock’s Rear Window, To Catch a Thief and Dial M for Murder, was the daughter of an Irish-American millionaire and of course went on to become real royalty through marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco. Her elegant features grace the cover of the book.
NEW GENERATIONS
Richard Harris’ life is covered well, from his early career and films such as This Sporting Life through to the acclaimed Jim Sherridan film The Field in which he played Bull McCabe. Harris had a reputation as a rebel, but thought that his epigraph should really read ‘he was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad’. His life story heralds the final chapters of the book marking the new generation of Irish-linked Holywood stars. These hot commodities include Colin Farrell, Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne and Roma Downey and directors Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan.
Emeralds in Tinseltown is an enjoyable book – one which can be easily dipped in and out of. There’s plenty of eye candy in the wealth of good archival photographs and film stills, and it’s attractively designed with nice little touches like the distinctive running images for each chapter. Anyone with an interest in films and Holywood and its Irish connections in particular will enjoy it. It’s not a definitive reference book (and it’s a slight shame that there’s no index) but it is packed with facts and interesting tit-bits that will please the film buff and those attracted to the glamour and allure of the big screen and its big stars down the years.
Emeralds in Tinseltown – the Irish in Holywood by Stephen Brennan and Bernadette O’Neill is published in hardback by Appletree Press (ISBN 978-1-84758-048-1) and widely available from local bookshops. For further information visit www.appletree.ie
LALA-Land’, ‘Tinseltown’, ‘Dream Factory of the World’ – just some of the names ranging from the derogatory to the infatuated coined for that famous stretch of land in the hills above Los Angeles synonymous with celebrity, hedonism and, of course, film-making. The big white cut-out letters which spell out Hollywood have become iconic, but in fact they originally spelt out the longer ‘Hollywoodland’ and were put there as a marketing ploy by an Irish American, John Roche, only later to be shortened to ‘Hollywood’, advertising not just a place but an industry and even a lifestyle.
Holywood’s associations with Irish men and women stretch back further and go deeper than that. In fact, the development of the place – and much of LA and its waterways – owes much to a pioneering Irish immigrant, William Mulholland, an engineer who is immortalised in the famous Mulholland Drive.
THE MOVIE MAKERS
As the authors of Emeralds in Tinseltown say, Mulholland prepared the way in the West for a new type of American adventurer who would follow railroads from the East: the movie makers. Many of these film folk were Irish and among them was a young man from County Meath called Owen Moore, Ireland’s first movie star and director. He starred alongside Mae West in She Done Him Wrong, for example, and went on to marry the actress Mary Pickford from whom he was later divorced – she went on to marry Douglas Fairbanks thereby becoming one half of ‘the king and queen of Hollywood’ partnership in the 1920s.
The Irish stars of Hollywood are described in fascinating detail by the authors, Steve Brennan – international editor of the entertainment daily The Hollywood Reporter – and Bernadette O’Neill – an Irish stage and screen actress, film historian and founder member of the IFTA. They take a roughly chronological approach, breaking the book up in chapters which are either thematically- or personality-based. Rex Ingram – originally Reginald Ingram Montgomery, the Dublin-born son of a clergyman – was one of the first to head across the Atlantic in the early twentieth century and take up directing, his first big box office hit for Universal being Black Orchids set in pre-Revolutionary France. He later went on to team up with Waterford-born Pat Powers, one of the founders of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company (later Universal Studios) and directed the renowned The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse starring Rudolph Valentino.
Other early Irish names were Cedric Gibbons, the Oscar-winning art director behind the MGM classic The Wizard of Oz, and other films such as Little Women, An American in Paris and Somebody Up There Likes Me. People ‘down here’ liked him too – as well as the Oscars he was awarded the award for distinguished achievement for art direction in 1950 by the Society of Motion Picture Art Directors.
Swashbucklers and stars of particular interest to Northern Irish film buffs, perhaps, is one of Hollywood’s most colourful Irishmen, Errol Flynn. Although actually born in Tasmania he like to be referred to as Irish when he was at the peak as the movies’ most infamous swashbuckler. His father Theodore Thompson Flynn was a popular professor of Zoology at Queen’s University, Belfast. Flynn, whose autobiography was entitled My Wicked, Wicked Ways (which just about says it all) shot to fame in Captian Blood in 1935 and went on to play action-hero roles in The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Dawn Patrol, Gentleman Jim and Against All Flags, which co-starred Maureen O’Hara and Anthony Quinn. Flynn finds himself in two chapters – one covering the Irish cowboys, another honing in on ‘Holywood’s glorified missus’, Greer Garson. Born in County Down, Garson was a reluctant émigré but was eventually attracted by the thought of the Californian sunshine adding ten years to her life (as Louis B. Meyer promised it would) and went on to become one of Holywood’s most enduring and respected stars (think, for example, Goodbye Mister Chips). She felt she was typecast as prim and proper and is pictured in the book battling the prim role in the embrace of Errol Flynn in the film That Forsythe Woman.
There are inevitably detailed and lively chapters on characters such as Gene Kelly, Maureen O’Sullivan and – ‘Holywood Screen Royalty’ – Maureen O’Hara and Grace Kelly. O’Hara – born Maureen FitzSimmons in Ranelagh, Dublin, in 1920 – went on to become particularly identified with the cult classic The Quiet Man, while Grace Kelly, the epitome of beauty on screen and star of film classics such as High Society and Hitchcock’s Rear Window, To Catch a Thief and Dial M for Murder, was the daughter of an Irish-American millionaire and of course went on to become real royalty through marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco. Her elegant features grace the cover of the book.
NEW GENERATIONS
Richard Harris’ life is covered well, from his early career and films such as This Sporting Life through to the acclaimed Jim Sherridan film The Field in which he played Bull McCabe. Harris had a reputation as a rebel, but thought that his epigraph should really read ‘he was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad’. His life story heralds the final chapters of the book marking the new generation of Irish-linked Holywood stars. These hot commodities include Colin Farrell, Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne and Roma Downey and directors Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan.
Emeralds in Tinseltown is an enjoyable book – one which can be easily dipped in and out of. There’s plenty of eye candy in the wealth of good archival photographs and film stills, and it’s attractively designed with nice little touches like the distinctive running images for each chapter. Anyone with an interest in films and Holywood and its Irish connections in particular will enjoy it. It’s not a definitive reference book (and it’s a slight shame that there’s no index) but it is packed with facts and interesting tit-bits that will please the film buff and those attracted to the glamour and allure of the big screen and its big stars down the years.
Emeralds in Tinseltown – the Irish in Holywood by Stephen Brennan and Bernadette O’Neill is published in hardback by Appletree Press (ISBN 978-1-84758-048-1) and widely available from local bookshops. For further information visit www.appletree.ie
Friday 16 May 2008
Andrea Mc Veigh
I have, on my fireplace, two beautiful 'thank you' cards. One of them was sent to me by the sister of a friend, both of whom I'd invited to a party (more about the party later). It was the first time I'd met Fionnula and it was a lovely gesture for her to send me a card. So much so, in fact, that I was tempted to send a thank-you-for-the-thank-you card! It's a trend I've noticed, in this era of texts and emails - the return of the greetings card. It's a delight to get them through the letterbox, when you’re more used to bills, junk mail and flyers. Last month I received even more, including some unexpected 'thinking of you' cards from friends. I send them myself, my favourite being a 'George Clooney' card for my GC-obsessed friend Jacquie with the scribbled note, "I saw this and thought of you". And a few years back I was thrilled when my friend Sonja sent out 'thank you' cards for her birthday presents. The post-birthday thank you note is something I hadn’t thought about since childhood, but it's a tradition I now aim to keep up.
It's good to know that in these busy times, people still take the time to seek out pretty cards, write a note, find a stamp and post it. It takes such a small amount of effort yet means so much. You should do it yourself. Next time you see a nice card that makes you smile, buy it and send it to someone you love - it'll make their day.
But back to that party. It was an Uber Pamper Party, and I'd not heard of them either until my friend Marcus Hunter Neill told me he'd bought the Uber rights for Belfast and Co. Down. You may remember Marcus form his star-turn on Deal or No Deal when he totally stole the show from Noel Edmonds! He's since turned up on UTV and, as well as his media career, he also works in property development and management - he's a busy man! Pamper Parties are like Tupperware parties but with skincare, beauty, hair and tanning products instead of sandwich boxes. You get a group of female friends round and an Uber rep will come and give you all mini-facials and you can buy the products you like at the end of the night. It was great fun and it's certainly a craze that's sweeping the province (you can call Marcus on 07717 229880 to organise your own party).
I could do with some more pampering after my trip to Cairo on behalf of Ulster Tatler (you can read my travel feature on the city in an upcoming issue of everyone's favourite glossy magazine). Not that the trip was in anyway bad - far from it. Cairo is an amazing city, vibrant, busy and fascinating and I had a fantastic time. I don’t know why I didn’t visit years ago. But boy, was it hot. It was difficult to get a proper temperature reading during my all-too-brief stay, but there were rumours it reached around 45C degrees on some of the days I was there. That's hot!
It was amazing though, seeing the pyramids and the Sphinx, up close and personal. I even went inside one of the pyramids to see one of the burial chambers. Getting inside involved bending over from the waist and almost-crawling along a narrow passageway. Even though I was only one of many people making their way through the tunnel, I felt like an adventurous explorer entering the temple of doom, when I eventually made it into the chamber. Just call me Indiana McVeigh!
The next time I write I'll be in Sydney, on a long-awaited holiday to Australia, so I'll be able to share my news about this fascinating place. I also aim to take part in one of the organised climbs up the Sydney Harbour Bridge - even though I'm afraid of heights! Maybe that Indiana McVeigh nickname isn’t so inappropriate after all!
It's good to know that in these busy times, people still take the time to seek out pretty cards, write a note, find a stamp and post it. It takes such a small amount of effort yet means so much. You should do it yourself. Next time you see a nice card that makes you smile, buy it and send it to someone you love - it'll make their day.
But back to that party. It was an Uber Pamper Party, and I'd not heard of them either until my friend Marcus Hunter Neill told me he'd bought the Uber rights for Belfast and Co. Down. You may remember Marcus form his star-turn on Deal or No Deal when he totally stole the show from Noel Edmonds! He's since turned up on UTV and, as well as his media career, he also works in property development and management - he's a busy man! Pamper Parties are like Tupperware parties but with skincare, beauty, hair and tanning products instead of sandwich boxes. You get a group of female friends round and an Uber rep will come and give you all mini-facials and you can buy the products you like at the end of the night. It was great fun and it's certainly a craze that's sweeping the province (you can call Marcus on 07717 229880 to organise your own party).
I could do with some more pampering after my trip to Cairo on behalf of Ulster Tatler (you can read my travel feature on the city in an upcoming issue of everyone's favourite glossy magazine). Not that the trip was in anyway bad - far from it. Cairo is an amazing city, vibrant, busy and fascinating and I had a fantastic time. I don’t know why I didn’t visit years ago. But boy, was it hot. It was difficult to get a proper temperature reading during my all-too-brief stay, but there were rumours it reached around 45C degrees on some of the days I was there. That's hot!
It was amazing though, seeing the pyramids and the Sphinx, up close and personal. I even went inside one of the pyramids to see one of the burial chambers. Getting inside involved bending over from the waist and almost-crawling along a narrow passageway. Even though I was only one of many people making their way through the tunnel, I felt like an adventurous explorer entering the temple of doom, when I eventually made it into the chamber. Just call me Indiana McVeigh!
The next time I write I'll be in Sydney, on a long-awaited holiday to Australia, so I'll be able to share my news about this fascinating place. I also aim to take part in one of the organised climbs up the Sydney Harbour Bridge - even though I'm afraid of heights! Maybe that Indiana McVeigh nickname isn’t so inappropriate after all!
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