Vera Ora, Rita Ora’s mother, reflects on her battle with breast cancer
Even now, talking about cancer feels hard. No matter how strong you are, the fact that you had cancer will always be on your mind. When I was diagnosed in 2005, Rita was only 15 and her sister, Elena, was 17. Elena would come with me for my treatment, but Rita couldn’t — she’s much more sensitive. She was at Sylvia Young Theatre School at the time and rebelled a little, bunking off school for a couple of weeks — it was her mental escape.
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:54 UTC
Lorraine Candy on the joy of getting dressed for the office
When I changed jobs two years ago, moving from a monthly fashion magazine to a Sunday newspaper, I had to rethink what I wore to work. Often, when I went into the weekly news conference, people would ask me if I had something special on that night. I was just dressing as I dressed ordinarily, except it was slightly out of the ordinary for this new office. One day I wore a Palmer//Harding blouse with small rope ties on each sleeve and it garnered about 10 comments on the walk from Style to the news desk. A pair of Louboutin white patent loafers (backless with fringing) also caused a stir.
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:54 UTC
#BeautyBOSS: how to find the best foundations and concealers for your skin
Growing up, there was one task: find the right shade of foundation or concealer. Now there are so many more boxes to tick before we proceed to checkout. Of course shade is crucial, and by now we should all know not to shade-match on the back of our hands. Take a look — are your hands the same colour as your face? “You need to test it on different parts of your face, including your forehead and your jawline,” says Sir John, the L’Oréal Paris make-up ambassador and the man responsible for Beyoncé’s most memorable make-up looks — and yes, Sir John is his real…
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:54 UTC
Me and My Motor: Nelson Piquet Jr has motor racing genes
A cut above: Nelson Piquet Jr once raced about on lawnmowers. He now drives for Panasonic Jaguar in Formula E ANDREW FERRARO, LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC FOR PANASONIC JAGUAR RACINGNelson Piquet Jr once raced wheel-to-wheel with Lewis Hamilton and later won the first all-electric Formula E series. Surprisingly, given that he is the son of Brazilian three-time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet, he credits his mother for his motor racing genes. I think I got my racing blood from her.”Piquet, 33, was born in Germany at the height of his father’s career. His parents separated soon after and he lived with his Dutch mother in Monaco until the age of eight, when he moved…
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:54 UTC
The Richard Porter Review: Volkswagen Touareg
Jeremy Clarkson was supposed to review this car a few weeks ago but he “literally couldn’t be bothered”, so here’s the supply teacher to have a crack. Please don’t stick a rude sign on my back while I’m writing on the blackboard. Jeremy’s real reason for not covering the Volkswagen Touareg SUV was that he couldn’t think of much to say about it, and you can see his problem, because it’s so inoffensive. This is a nice car, and as the Liverpudlian comedian Alexei Sayle once pointed out, nothing should be described as “nice” apart from biscuits. I was going to tell you all the things that are good about the top-of-the-range Touareg I drove, but it would be quicker to start with what’s wrong.
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:54 UTC
Wine review: the best new wines from Australia
There were aroma pods in the cellars of Victoria House at this year’s Australia Day tasting in London: small, tulip-shaped decanters attached to the wall, with a little puffer inviting you to squeeze and smell. I stopped at the one labelled “blackcurrant” and enjoyed the sensory whiff of dark fruit, unmistakeably the smell of cabernet sauvignon. For a fleeting moment, I forgot the rain and gunmetal skies and was transported to the southern hemisphere. Or more likely to my home, accompanied by a dish I’ve cooked — that’s how I like to enjoy my Australian wine. The value of exports to the UK was up by 12% last year to more than £210m, the highest figure since 2013.
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:54 UTC
Tech: has Instagram pulled us all into the Matrix?
A sobering Instagram account called @insta_repeat shows us that, even if we believe we are being original, most of the time someone has already been there, done that before us. It creates collages using 12 cameraphone shots of the same subject, taken by different people. Think you’re the first to appear in a photo trying to push the leaning tower of Pisa back into place? It’s as if we are living the same life, working our way along the same route, following the same lines of code. Or perhaps we’re all actually living in the Matrix.
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:54 UTC
Tough Love: “Should I leave my lovely wife for my wonderful mistress?”
Q I’ve been married for 12 years to the loveliest of women and we have a sweet, caring but sexless relationship. We had a hearty sex life initially, but it fell victim to early menopause. I met a wonderful much younger woman four years ago. She lives on the other side of the country so we meet only every few months, but we’ve been having a passionate and joyous affair. She has been married for seven years to a man she loves, but who has never provided sexual satisfaction.
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:54 UTC
Tom Kerridge’s slow cooked leg of lamb with seaweed and anchovy butter recipe
Two of the country’s most famous exports are its insanely good mountain lamb and its briny laver, which is dark and rich. With a sharp knife, pierce 10 small holes around the lamb leg and press a few leaves of rosemary into each. Halve the onions, lay face down in a roasting dish, put the lamb on top and pour over the stock. Lightly season the meat and put in the oven for 1½ hours. 02 Put the butter in a bowl, beat in the seaweed, parsley, anchovies and garlic, and season.
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:54 UTC
UK timber firm James Latham chips in for Abbey Woods
Timber merchant Abbey Woods had a turnover of €7.5m in 2017/18 ALAMYTimber merchant Abbey Woods has been acquired by the AIM-listed distributor James Latham. The Hertfordshire-based James Latham announced on Friday that it would pay up to €2.6m for the Irish company. Founded in 1983, Abbey Woods operates from Dublin and Cork. Corporate documents show that the directors of the company are Peter Wilson, Philip Roche, David Roche, Michael Murphy and Shane McPartlan. The UK-listed timber company, which has been in operation since 1757, is paying an initial €1.8m, with a further payment of €300,000 to €400,000 at completion.
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:16 UTC
These guys are fiddling while my oven burns
My husband bought a CDA gas oven from the retailer Appliances Direct last February. The oven did not work properly from the day it arrived, but in my naivety I thought I was doing something wrong. Either CDA and Appliances Direct — I can’t remember which — agreed that the thermostat does not work and I have been attempting to get it fixed since October. I tried Trading Standards, which suggested I go to Appliances Direct. The retailer asked if I wanted a new oven and said to give it 36 hours.
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:16 UTC
The Kit List: smartphone lenses
BEST FOR FILM MAKERSOlloclip Filmers Kit, £154Clip-on lenses turn your smartphone into something much more powerful than a selfie snapper. The Olloclip fits most phones, and the kit includes a mobile video grip and five lenses: a fisheye, an astonishing 15x macro, a 2x zoom and two wide-angles. The metal, glass and plastic build feels solid; it comes in a neat case; and, even though the zoom is prone to darken images at the edge, the video quality was crisp on Kit List’s 50in television screen. olloclip.comBEST FOR PROSMoment Tele 58mm, £93Created in Seattle, this is an awesome piece of glass that is as close as you’ll get to a DSLR lens for your phone. The catch is, you need to buy a…
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:16 UTC
Pigsback boss Michael Dwyer is tickled pink by €25m buyout
Dwyer says his sites will now be able to offer international holiday dealsOn the evening of Monday, February 4, Michael Dwyer signed the paperwork to sell his company Empathy Marketing, operator of discount site Pigsback.com, for about €25m in cash. The sale to UK group Secret Escapes came 19 years to the day since he had incorporated Empathy as an online retailer. “That’s a lot of years in dotcom,” says Dwyer. The Nasdaq peaked in March 2000 and then cratered, taking a huge swathe of dotcom companies with it. Dwyer, a director of Green Isle Foods before striking out on his own, reinvented Pigsback as a rewards site —…
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:16 UTC
Is a UK holiday bolthole the best investment you can make this year?
A three-bedroom flat in the blue house on the beach in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, is for sale for £515,000 (coasty.uk)While estate agents just about everywhere in the UK are sweating over Brexit uncertainty and a looming downturn, a rare few on the Pembrokeshire coast think it’s boom time. “It’s as if a plague of locusts has descended since autumn, buying up every good coastal property,” says Carol Peett, a buying agent at West Wales Property Finders. “We saw more inquiries from people wanting to buy holiday homes, mostly with a budget of £400,000-£500,000, in the first three weeks of January than we’d normally expect in a year.” Properties in popular areas such as Manorbier and Bosherston have regularly gone to bidding wars. It’s a similar story in Devon, where Sarah-Jane Bingham-Chick, head of residential for Savills estate agency in Exeter, reports her office’s best-ever…
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:16 UTC
Lincoln: Great British Breaks
WhyIts astonishing cathedral was once the tallest building on earth, but Lincoln has lots to offer besides: artworks by Turner and Lowry, an Elizabethan manor with Georgian interiors, and one of the loveliest shopping streets in Britain. And the castle is home to one of only four remaining copies of Magna Carta. What you doSitting on a 250ft hill in the middle of low-lying valleys, Lincoln Cathedral looks solitary until the medieval city clinging to the slopes below comes into view. For two centuries, its record-breaking central spire made it the tallest building in the world, until a storm in 1548 knocked it down. The church is still vast — the third largest in England, with a facade of romanesque and English gothic architecture.
Source:The Times
February 17, 2019 00:16 UTC