HAPPIER BUNNY....AND THE WHISPERING MR BENN

I am a happier bunny this morning. I had two hours sleep last night because of work but met a wonderful bunch of people in Clapham. Snotty man gave me a parking ticket but I don't care because he didn't look carefully and see I had paid in time and I took photos of the car and everything. It is a hassle (again) to write and say YOU ARE WRONG!!!!!!   but the roads were so clear this morning, and it was cold (it is warmer outside than it is in my home at the moment) and the sky was so beautiful. Wonderful wonderful morning and as I said, lovely people.

And Mr Benn has died. Not the cartoon Mr Benn, who found a wonderful way to deal with his midlife crisis (never saw the wife, probably divorced, hates her, doesn' like to talk about it and rarely sees the kids) by dressing up in funny clothes and every day goes into his own little world.   Loads of Mr Benns about these days, but they are called Mr Grey and go to Soho.

No Tony Benn.  He who talked in whispers so everyone would listen. Clever skill that. Want to be heard in a room of loud mouths, whisper and they will shut up - well they did for him. And it became quite sinister. I remember him once on Question Time doing the whispering to great effect. The room just shut up, became a vacuum, even with the size of egos of his colleagues.  Meryl Streep used the same skill when she played the editor in Devil Wears Prada - she was allegedly told to keep her voice to a whisper by Clint Eastwood when she asked him how she could play 'quietly menacing'.  

But what a lot of 'big characters' are falling now.  Or so it seems.   Big voices but they have all left their mark one way or another.  Even more so when they whisper.

NOT A HAPPY BUNNY

Wow, am I having an interesting time at the moment.   As they say, put your trust in people and they let you down.    First of all I am renting out my gite in France. I decided not to rent out the main house because the people who stayed there broke things, a lot of things, so I don't want anyone in that home again.  

The letting company - and I have put it on with two - one of them has just told me about the payment terms, which are ridiculous, so I am not going to let with them any more.    Read the small print carefully.   It seems people can stay in your home for a whole two days and pay nothing.  Not good.

Next my boiler. I have no hot water and heating (still) thanks to the plonkers who installed it installing it wrong, which has damaged the boiler. I made need a new one which costs £2500 odd but the plumber says other things might help. That's a might.  Life must be simpler than this.   This stuff is the basics, it's petty, it's not important but it becomes important when it's niggles like waking up in the cold, not having a hot shower, bath, and knowing that people will be in my lovely home in France and not paying for it.

Not a happy bunny and it's coming up to Easter.

SWI, WC2, NYM, CLASSY CORINTHIA...

I did it in the right order. I visited in the New Year the Corinthia Palace Hotel in Malta - the original Corinthia hotel where it all started.  The service there is wonderful (see previous blogs) and spa superb, and the weather glorious and it was there I met Professor Edward de Bono.  

Today I visited the newest Corinthia in Whitehall Place. The service has that Maltese warmth, the decor is beautiful and dramatic. 

First impression - first thing you notice is it is in central London. As in it really is central to everything – close to Waterloo station – a bridge walk away, so close to the City (city waterloo line when it works) and Embankment station, Charing Cross.   WC2 is just round the corner but it’s officially in SW1.   So many places claim they are in central London and they are not. Corinthia is.   Location is key.

Secondly, the lobby is striking, huge glass chandeliers loom overhead, soft furnishings you would want in your own home if it were big enough.   The interior designer has used colour. So many hotels don't use colour well. This one does. 

And the art.  The art is phenomenal. I know appreciation of art is subjective.  I realise some people would prefer to look at a shark in formaldehyde or thin line drawing architectural prints when they walk through the door but the paintings they have in the lobby area (and on the concierge desk (look at the desk when you check in), are incredibly beautiful.    I want the golden one (featured below) on my wall in France – not Richmond as the house here is too small.   There’s even gold leaf on the lift doors – not real gold leaf (as in Dubai tacky) but beautiful gold leaf (see photo to get my meaning).

There’s a writer’s penthouse (it was booked so could see it) which was a pity, and a musician’s penthouse, which allegedly Johnny Depp likes, which says a lot as there’s also an actor’s penthouse but he doesn’t stay in that one. There's a Royal penthouse which was booked - I think with a Princess, not sure which one.   Room below is a suite.   Photo doesn't do it justice.  

The list of celebrities who stay here is endless, but many are off the record – but anyone who plays at the O2 stays here.  

The spa is wonderful, ethereal, womb-like.   They have these sleep pods in this black room which is just like being in the womb, but probably suffers a lot less noise. 

The restaurants serve wonderful food (order the halibut) and the bars I am told are the place to be if you want to meet a ‘NYM’ (nice young man).   So I’m going to trek down there one evening dragging  a friend in tow to admire the art, the lift doors, the spa....

I HAVE A BEAUTIFUL HYPOTHALMUS

Busy week ahead. My website goes live this week. I am so excited.   And the book is being edited.  And the sun is shining which is always a good thing, especially as I still don't have hot water.

On Saturday I visited Purley. Not a good place to visit at the best of times, but there's been flooding so the diversions meant it took about ten minutes more than it should.   I met a lady called Cherry Kingsman (lovely lady) who organises a Voll test which tests for everything, using a system detecting the amount of metal in the body. You hold a piece of metal in your hand, left and right in turn and she tests for weaknesses throughout the body.   Men like it because it involves computers and graphs, rather than chakras and crystals, but Cherry has a whole library of instruments and tools she uses.

I have a beautiful hypothalmus. She told me that and smiled.  This is good. It means my hormones are ok at the moment, yeah!    Circulation is a bit weak, and left lung a bit weak or is it the right, and my gall bladder is buggered. Not literally, but may be because of something I caught while traveling (we all do according to Cherry) - parasites, especially if you go to Africa - or emotion which is stored there (she told me anger).  That's it, I said. I don't have any heating. And the horrid journey to Purley.  I'm really annoyed about that, and other things, but that's the main thing.   She tested.  Nope, it's the parasite, so I'm taking something and she recommends all travelers do the same so I'm writing it up in more detail in other titles. And some has got into the kidney.  But a part from that I'm fine. Or the computer says I'm fine. That's as close as I'm going to get the computer to say 'yes' I suppose.

I also visited Dr Vincent Wong who does this dermaroller testing (92 small needles into the skin 'destressing' it) and turned me into a tomato again.    He is a wonderful kind lovely man but it really hurts.  I think my skin has improved, and what with getting rid of the parasites and the amount of cherry juice I've been drinking I should have glowing plumped up skin and be looking more like a plum than a prune at the moment.   I'm going to do a full summary of wrinkly of richmond in a month's time but I am still due to try a few more techniques including boxing yoga which sounds a contradiction in terms and principle but is allegedly brilliant for circulation.   Now all I need to get is the left lung fixed.

THE PLUMBER, THE POLITICIAN AND BAGPUSS!

I met Zac Goldsmith today.   I interviewed him about his views on travel and the initiative the Energy Smart Campaign whereby the local council not only sends someone round to show how you can save energy but also gives you the contacts for the plumbers who are not cowboys and has organised a loan system that won't screw you into the ground for the next ten years to get your boiler fixed.

This is particularly pertinent to me at the moment as I am boiling water in saucepans as a plumber my neighbour recommended has charged me over £100 to get my downstairs loo fixed (I could have bought a new one for less) and looked at my boiler and now I have no ruddy hot water at all. Hence the  saucepans.   So I will be using the campaign, seeing if it's simple stupid and I can get a new boiler, a plumber that does good and not Richmond prices, and for once believe what a politician tells me is going to be delivered - happens.  

But I liked Zac Goldsmith.    I interviewed him about his travels which will appear in writing and online, but also on my new website too in the next month.    But here's a photo of the very handsome Mr Goldsmith and me grinning like the proverbial cloth cat

CUT PRICE HOLIDAYS - mind the gap and surf the net.

Ive been asked to comment on the increase in holiday prices during the summer and school holidays.   It is extortionate now, yup.   The prices more than double but it's only because we've had it cheap for so long and compared to other countries we have been blessed with cheap package holidays.    For example in Canada, very few Canadians have travelled around their own country - it's relatively cheaper to leave it than travel round it.   We have it good.

Of course, if you have the money - which a proportion of us do, we can go anytime, any place anywhere like the Martini advert says, so price is irrelevant. For the rest of us it's a bit of a scramble.  I suggest you get your teenager to surf the net, search the engines and get off their butt and facebook and instagram and anything else that appeases them at the moment and do something useful with their computer time.    The prices are not up over the holidays because the tour operators are greedy but because tour operators usually run on a very fine profit margin.    That's why when things get tough, they don't have margin to mind the gap, they fall through it.  

BIG BRAIN, LITTLE BRAIN....