I landed at a small regional airport and was then whisked across a beautiful, well-manicured rural landscape dotted with small communities.   We skirted a low mountain passing small farms on the well-kept roads; the skies were clear as there is no heavy industry.  There was obviously a healthy, expanding economy here together with a surprising number of substantial houses, whilst a renewal programme of older local authority houses was widespread despite looking really quite serviceable.  Eventually we arrived at a spruce long, low building where arguably the best and most innovative watchma

Scuba Diving is one of the most fascinating, thrilling, adventurous and exploratory sports that anyone can do. You get to kit up like an aquanaut with high tech gear, generally in gorgeous and sunny locations and explore a brave and wondrous three dimensional new world that is so many times larger than our two dimensional home. Ian Fleming fell in love with free diving and Scuba Diving in Jamaica and some of the greatest scenes he wrote took place in the sea, under the sea or even simply walking out of the sea.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget what’s sitting on your doorstep. OK, so maybe we all remember the nearest good wine shop, that fabulous local bar, and the location of great local restaurants. But that's not quite the point. 

Art Therapy, Jacuzzis & Watercraft At Art Rotana Hotel Bahrain
Another day, another airport terminal at some ungodly hour of the morning. However it seems petty to moan as I was off to Bahrain to stay at the new Art Rotana Hotel and take in the sights and sounds of this island jewel set in the Persian Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

A contributor to International eXcellence and freelance journalist has been honoured at the 2015 State Street Institutional Press Awards, which recognise “outstanding performance” in institutional financial services reporting.
Roger Aitken, a former FT journalist who has written for International eXcellence on topics including luxury brands, classic cars in Turin’s Parco Valentino and Czech medical tourism, scooped the journalist of the year award in the ‘Regulatory Issues’ category at this year’s awards held at Momo’s restaurant in London on 11 November.

True perfection is an extremely rare quality particularly in an object.  I have come across it only once; a Ming Dynasty vase, one of a pair; they were made for the Imperial Palace, the owner bizarrely allowing me to handle it; magic.  I checked out the British Museum’s world class collection and nothing matched the purity and appeal of those Ming vases.   Near perfection which I assume takes into account an element of taste is also very rare; as a pure design as opposed to just a car is the Koenigsegg, the integrity of the design and the craftsmanship is sublime as is its performance.   Ro

We could have been forgiven for thinking that we had stumbled upon a film set as we emerged from the wooded lane and crossed the old stone bridge under which a tinkling brook – yes it did tinkle – flowed.  A lady dressed in an overall added to the scene as she waved and smiled as we passed.  The over-used word ‘quintessential’ is certainly justified here as it has picture perfect historic buildings of an English village with its cricket pitch set along the tranquil River Windrush complete with neatly mown verges and roses in full bloom.

Brown Fleming dominated the market for imitation wax prints on the West African Coast and although several attempts had been made to get an insight into Previnaire’s production process it was only around 1910 that several other companies in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and in the Netherlands managed to produce a quality of wax print that compared to the quality of Previnaire. These companies were extremely keen to do so, because the production of Previnaire’s two sided printed cloth was very time consuming, hence the production volume was very low while the demand was quickly growing.

Made In Holland, Adored In Africa

Having been an avid winter sports enthusiast since I was old enough to stand upright without assistance, Austria has long been on my radar during the colder months. And there’s no better destination in the country than Kitzbuhel, the Alpine enclave renowned for hosting the Hahnenkamm.