Photo by Glen Bowman
St Hilda's Abbey, Whitby
Even as you bask in the sun on Whitby's sandy beaches, you cannot fail to be aware of the imposing and slightly sinister presence of the ruined Abbey, high on the East Cliff.
Even as you bask in the sun on Whitby's sandy beaches, you cannot fail to be aware of the imposing and slightly sinister presence of the ruined Abbey, high on the East Cliff.
Email has become the most popular way for people to communicate with each other; some say it’s even more popular than using the telephone, which might seem hard to believe until you take a look at some of the reasons why people prefer email to phone calls.
LIKE a cat that got the cream . . .
That neatly sums up the expression of a 64 year old granddad approaching his 40th wedding anniversary who has suddenly found himself a cult figure on British TV.
I studied linguistics at university. The emphasis was on how language changed over the years from Beowulf to hip-hop.
We are decorating at the moment so old books have been moved and I have in front of me ‘Historical Slang’ - some 50,000 terms, many of them quite crude, that are no longer used by English speakers. Elsewhere I have ‘Hobson, Jobson’ a book of words used in British India – some of which are still in use both by Indians and Brits, but most of which are obscure to say the least.
Britain has always excelled at luxury - Rolls Royce cars, Connolly leather, Harris tweed, Wilton carpets, Paisley shawls – most of it aimed at a small elite of aristocracy and arrivistes, it must be said. These days, though, the whole world wants luxury, so Britannia has shaken her skirts, booked in for a facelift and upped her game. There has been an unprecedented rise in luxury hotels, bars, shops and spas, many of them in gorgeous historic buildings, others in exciting new builds. Plans are afoot to bring luxury shopping to the heart of the City (London’s financial centre), companies such as Dhillon Hotels and Crazy Bear are renovating historic coaching inns, and the Italian designers Missoni will open their first UK hotel in Edinburgh later in 2008. But that’s all to come. Here’s a thumbnail guide, for the man – or woman – on a mission to luxuriate now:
THERE is a mood swing taking place amongst the British public which over the last couple of weeks has been given a massive nudge by the Olympic Games.
Could it be that we are beginning to see through the King’s clothes?
Could it be that we are beginning to realise that hype should not take precedence over substance, that fame comes through hard work and dedication and not by just turning up at the right party.