Author: Chris Mads

  • Buckle and Seam bring back the briefcase

    Are we allowed to make briefcases a thing again? I don’t mean briefcases in the 1980’s Wall Street style, but a dignified case in which the respectable gent might carry his personal belongings for the day. The renaissance has already begun. Sort of. Pulp Fiction kept the briefcase in the public eye and now they…

  • Tim Minchin’s 9 life lessons

    You have probably heard of Tim Minchin – the dreadlocked Australian comedian, actor, writer, musician and director is well-known for his musical comedy and composing of successful shows Matilda The Musical and Groundhog Day. He is also a little bit chatty and opinionated. In 2013 he gave a speech to graduating students at his alma…

  • #MeToo and the blame culture

    If the #MeToo phenomenon has passed you by then you may need to give your cultural awareness sensors a tweak. Since its launch earlier this week the the six-character tag has been flooding social media networks. In the wake of the sexual abuse accusations scandal which is sweeping Hollywood and producer Harvey Weinstein at the…

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    The day we did Bake Off

    The Great British Bake Off has the nation gripped once more. It turns out that even if you change the channel and some of the presenters the formula still works. If you think about it, that is a bit ironic for a cooking show since often if you change a few ingredients the end result…

  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Trailer

    The trailer has landed. Don’t start with me about Star Wars, I loved the films as a kid and I love them now too. The prequels were hit and miss in places but I didn’t hate them. Now the new ones are coming out and knocking it out of the park. The trailer for The…

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    Working the Riviera

    Welcome to the Riviera. This week I have been mostly mooching around the Cannes waterfront. Unfortunately this was not a pleasure cruise and the amount of the waterfront I’ve seen is very limited. Every year the duty free industry descends on Cannes for it’s biggest show. This was my first trip to the exhibition. I…

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    Coming to the stage…just!

    I am, as I think I’ve mentioned, quite comfortable on stage. I’ve blogged in the past about doing amateur theatre in my spare time and “shrinking violet” is not an epithet which has ever been attached to me. But this was a bit different. Every year the great and the good of the travel retail…

  • Going on a Quest with The Macallan

    Today I went on a quest, courtesy of those lovely folks at Edrington GTR. The new The Macallan Quest range was unveiled with a special event here in Cannes. In-keeping with the adventurous spirit of the new releases the event took us on a journey of our own – of sorts. We arrived at a…

  • Hugh Hefner: A tribute to the Playboy

    Hugh Marston Hefner has died at his home in Los Angeles, aged 91. The American publisher and founder of Playboy, known as “The Hef”, was an advocate of secual liberation and a political activist, supporting gay marriage and founding the Hugh M Hefner First Amendment Award. Of course his magazine, which became synonymous with sexuality,…

  • How to survive the Uber catastrophe

    We all knew it was going to happen, but in 2017 the world has officially ended. In a turn of events which caught everyone by surprise, this apocalypse has come from a rather unexpected source. It is not the nuclear tackle-measuring contest between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un or the impending political implosion of…