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Retail chain with 240 stores will close ‘beloved’ premises within a few weeks

Jeffrey Bailey — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 18:50:47 +0000

SHOPPERS are devastated after learning that a 240-branch retail chain is looking to close another store.

Game will close its store in Saint Marks Place, Newark, next month.

Game is also closing its store in the Union Square Shopping Center in Torquay, DevonCredit: Alamy

The store will permanently stop its activities on Sunday, April 7.

Megan Sheldon, the assistant manager of the Newark store, told the Newark Advertiser: “I know a lot of people in Newark who love this store, and we absolutely love it too.

“It’s a huge loss for Newark and hopefully something happens in the future and we can get another game here.

“It’s definitely a huge loss for Newark. It’s such a great community and we have a lot of regular customers who love this store as much as we do.”

The store manager, Samantha Woods, said the store is closing following a higher order, which cannot be made public.

In light of the news, the store has launched a closing sale, with most products in the store now discounted by 20%.

Frasers Group, which owns the Game brand, has been contacted for comment.

Shoppers have reacted with devastation to the news on social media.

Shopping Discounts – How to Save and Find the Best Bargains

One person said on Facebook: “Hello, my son went there yesterday and in a month it will be closed. Shame to see it disappear.”

“What a huge loss,” said another customer.

A third said: “It always went to when they announced they wouldn’t trade up

“Unfortunately, game stores will close because they focus too much on new and not secondhand.”

Game has closed several branches in recent months, including those in Wales and Oxfordshire.

Meanwhile, two closed last year in Plymouth and Cambridge.

Below is a full list of game stores that have closed in recent months:

Nuneaton, Warwickshire – November 10, 2023
Newport, Wales – October 18, 2023
Exeter, Devon, Guildhall shopping center – January (moved to Sports Direct on Rydon Lane)
Witney, Oxfordshire – January 7
Rugby, Warwickshire – January 7
Huntington, Cambridgeshire – January 14
Rhyl, Wales – February 4
Plymouth, Devon – February 6
Newton Abbot, Devon – March 17
Grimsby, Lincolnshire – March 17

Game is also closing its store in the Union Square Shopping Center in Torquay, Devon.

The retailer was bought by billionaire businessman Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group in 2019 as part of a £52 million deal.

But by January 2020 it had announced plans to close 40 of its more than 300 stores in the UK.

There are currently more than 240 Game stores nationwide.

House of Fraser, which is also owned by Frasers Group, has also closed a number of stores.

The once iconic department store was saved from destruction by Mike Ashley in 2018.

But while the deal saved the chain’s 59 stores and the 17,000 employees who were dealing with the fallout from the crisis, many more stores have closed in recent years and only 28 department stores remain.

A series of stores were closed in 2023, including in Birmingham, Cardiff and Guildford.

What does Frasers Group own?

MIKE Ashley’s Frasers Group owns dozens of high street and online brands, here’s the full list.

House of Fraser
Sports Direct
Washcloths
Evans cycles
Everlast gyms
Eternally
Game
Frasers
I saw it first
Gieves and Hawkes
Jack Williams
Slazenger
Studio
Sofa.com
USA Pro
USC

What else is happening to Frasers Group chains?

It’s not just House of Fraser and Game stores that are closing, other Frasers Group chains have also reduced their store numbers.

A Sports Direct branch in Stroud, Gloucestershire, will pull down its shutters for good at the end of March.

Sports Direct also closed its branch in Central Six Retail Park, Coventry, at the end of January.

The Flannels location in the Market Place Shopping Centre, Bolton, has downed its shutters for the final time in the new year.

It also closed its site in Bradford in January, despite only opening in October.

Designer clothing chain Choice has downed the shutters of one of its stores in Bromley.

Frasers Group acquired Base Childrenswear and Kids Cavern as part of a £47.5 million deal in December 2022.

But the retail group brought in administrators for both Base Childrenswear and Kids Cavern just 16 months later.

Earlier this month, the luxury brand Matchesfashion was also placed under administration.

It’s not all bad news, though, as the company has recently opened several sites.

Frasers Group has already started opening ‘new concept’ stores.

The concept stores include various Frasers brands such as Sports Direct, Flannels and beauty halls, as well as products from USC, Jack Wills and GAME.

In September it cut the ribbon on the latest of its new department stores with popular brands such as Sports Direct and Game in Norwich.

There are plans to open two more locations in Blackpool and Sheffield.

The group also announced it will take over the former John Lewis site in the Queensgate Shopping Centre, Peterborough.

A new sportswear store is opening in The Precinct in Coventry.

The company has acquired Compton House on Liverpool’s famous Church Street and is about to open a flagship Sports Direct.

Retailers will close stores in 2024

RETAILERS have been feeling the pressure since the pandemic, as shoppers cut back on spending due to the rising cost of living.

High energy costs and the switch to online shopping are also taking their toll, and many shops on the high streets are struggling to continue.

Here’s a list of all the major brands closing their stores this year:

Argos – The brand announced plans to close 100 standalone stores in the UK last year as it looks to break away from the high street and focus on expanding its supermarket presence.
B&V – The chain has over 300 stores across the UK, so there’s a good chance there’s one near you, but some stores have closed in recent months.
Boots – The health and beauty chain announced last July that it would close 300 stores. The closures are ongoing and will reduce the retailer’s store count from 2,200 to 1,900 stores.
Clintons – Clintons late last year considered plans to close 38 stores in an effort to avoid bankruptcy. We have listed the affected stores.
Costa coffee – The caffeine giant has around 2,000 locations nationwide, so there’s a good chance there’s one near you. The chain recently closed the doors of dozens of locations. We’ve revealed which stores are closing this year.
Iceland – The supermarket has more than 900 stores, but closed almost twenty locations in 2023, and more select stores will close.
Lidl – The supermarket, which has 950 stores, is changing store locations, causing a number of stores to close. But the retailer also wants to open twelve new supermarkets.
MRS – M&S, which has 405 stores across the country, has closed a string of branches across the country in a blow to shoppers. But it’s not all bad news, because the chain also has big plans to open dozens of new stores.
Offence – The company announced in July last year that it would close six branches, but more are in the pipeline.
W.H.Smith – The retail giant, which operates more than 1,100 stores, has closed eight stores since March 2023, but more are on the way.

What else is happening on the shopping street?

Retailers have been feeling the pressure since the pandemic, with shoppers cutting back on spending due to the rising cost of living.

High energy costs and the switch to online shopping after the pandemic are also taking their toll and many stores on the high streets are struggling to continue.

The high street has seen a slew of closures in the past year and more are in the pipeline.

Several major brands have gone bankrupt in 2023, including Wilko and Paperchase.

The Lidl news comes just weeks after The Body Shop fell into administration.

Then last week it announced it would close nearly half of its 198 stores.

Seven branches have closed with immediate effect, including branches in Surrey Quays and Oxford Street, London.

Beginning of February, Hobbycrafts owner, Bridgepoint, is said to be exploring “strategic options” for the company.

These options could include the retailer being auctioned off.

In January, struggling fashion brand Superdry said it was looking at several “cost-cutting options” after reporting it was considering a major restructuring including store closures and job cuts.

Together with advisors from PwC, we worked on a plan that could lead to a CVA or another form of restructuring.

Such a move could result in store closures and potentially force rent reductions from landlords.

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‘Such a shame’ when beloved garden centre, farm shop AND café suddenly close

Jeffrey Bailey — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 17:58:04 +0000

A COMMUNITY leader is devastated as a much-loved farm shop, garden center and cafe close for good.

Gosling Farm Shop, Garden Center and Cafe in Trimley St Martin, East Suffolk, have announced this sudden closure just weeks before the spring rush.

Gosling Farm Shop, garden center and café in Trimley St Martin, East SuffolkCredit: YouTube Worco Entertainment

The farm had various animals, including pigs, horses and cowsCredit: YouTube Worco Entertainment

Residents in the area are concerned that the site will be used for housingCredit: YouTube Worco Entertainment

Lee Reeves, who represents Orwell and Villages on East Suffolk Council, said he was disappointed to see the business close its doors for good.

“It is so sad that such a long-running and beloved local business has found it necessary to close,” Lee explained.

He added: “Many will miss the shop, cafe and on-site facilities, which were well used in the summer months.”

The farm shop cafe was popular with locals in the village and also attracted tourists from all over the UK.

The district councilor also raised concerns about how the space will now be used and hopes the site will not be used for new housing development.

Hopefully the site can be used by the community

Lee Reeves

The east Suffolk village has already seen huge amounts of development, with more projects “in the pipeline”.

However, Lee added: “Hopefully the site can be used by the community, perhaps with a continued food production and a small retail element or for recreational use.”

Gosling’s owners announced the closure in a social media post, thanking staff and “loyal customers” for over the years.

One devastated resident expressed his disappointment on Facebook.

He posted a photo of the now closed farm with the caption: “A very sad slope, the gates of Gosling’s Farm Café are chained and the place is permanently closed.”

Dillywood Garden Center in Rochester is closing its doors for a new construction project

Other locals shared their sadness in the comments, with one user writing: “What a shame.”

“It will be greatly missed,” wrote another.

While this resident commented: “Everyone assumes it has been sold to developers (and I suspect they are right).”

It comes as shoppers were left saddened after a supermarket abruptly announced its closure after 50 “great” years.

And Wetherspoons has saved an ‘impressive’ pub from closure, but another campsite has closed its doors for good.

The farm’s owners announced the closure in a social media postCredit: YouTube Worco Entertainment

The farm shop cafe was popular with the village’s locals and also attracted tourists from all over Britain.Credit: YouTube Worco Entertainment

District councilor Lee Reeves raised concerns about the new use of the siteCredit: YouTube Worco Entertainment

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Insooni breaks racial barrier to become a beloved singer in South Korea

Jeffrey Bailey — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 09:41:11 +0000

As she took the stage to perform in Carnegie Hall before 107 Korean War veterans, singer Kim Insoon thought of her father, an American soldier stationed in South Korea in the postwar decades whom she had never met or even seen.

“You are my fathers,” she told the soldiers in the audience before singing, “Father”, one of her Korean hits.

“For me, the United States has always been my father’s country,” Ms. Kim said in a recent interview, recalling that 2010 achievement. “It was also the first place where I wanted to show how successful I had become – without him and in spite of him.”

Born in 1957, Ms. Kim is better known as Insooni in South Korea, where she is a household name. For more than four decades, she has won fans from generation to generation with her passionate and powerful singing style and cross-genre performances. Fathered by a black American soldier, she also broke the racial barrier in a country that was deeply prejudiced against biracial people, especially those born to Korean women and African American soldiers.

Her enduring and groundbreaking presence in the South Korean pop scene has paved the way for future K-pop groups to globalize. multi-ethnic line-ups.

“Insooni overcame racial discrimination and became one of the few singers who are widely recognized as pop divas in South Korea,” says ethnomusicologist Kim Youngdae. “She helped introduce South Koreans to biracial singers and broke the idea that K-pop was only for Koreans and Korean singers.”

Thousands of biracial children have been born as a result of the security alliance between South Korea and the US. Their fathers were American GIs who fought in the Korean War in the 1950s or who protected South Korea from North Korean aggression in the postwar decades.

Most of their mothers worked in bars that catered to soldiers. Although South Korea depended on the dollars the women earned, society treated them and their biracial children with contempt. Many mothers gave up their children for adoption abroad, especially in the United States.

The children left behind often struggled while maintaining their biracial identity a secret if they could, in a society where until a decade ago schools taught children to be proud of South Korea’s racial “purity” and “homogeneity.”

“Every time they said that, I felt like I was being singled out,” Insooni said.

At school, boys pelted her with racist comments based on her skin color, said Kim Nam-sook, a former school friend, “but she was a star at school picnics when she sang and danced.”

Now that she’s a confident sixty-year-old, she’s started one Golden girls K-pop concert tour with three divas in their fifties.

But Insooni’s confidence turned to wariness as she discussed her childhood in Pocheon, a city near the border with North Korea. Topics she still found too sensitive to discuss in detail included her younger half-sister, whose father was also an American soldier. When she was young, she said, she hated it when people stared at her and asked her origins, wishing she were a nun. locked up in a monastery.

She said her mother had not worked in a bar and remembered her as a “strong” woman who took whatever odd work she could find, such as collecting firewood in the hills, to feed her family. Almost all she knew about her father was that he had a name similar to “Van Duren.”

The mother and daughter never spoke about him, she said. Insooni didn’t try to find him either, assuming he had his own family in the United States. Her mother, who died in 2005, never married. Due to the stigma attached to having biracial children, she lost contact with many of her family members. When young Insooni saw her mother crying, she did not ask why.

“We both knew going there that we were going to fall apart,” she said. “I learned it early on as a child: you have to do the best you can with the card you’re dealt, instead of staying down the rabbit hole and endlessly asking why. You can’t restore times gone by.”

Insooni’s formal education ended in high school. She and her mother then lived in Dongducheon, a city north of Seoul with a large American military base. One day, a singer who performed for American soldiers came to her neighborhood to recruit biracial backup dancers.

“I hated that city and this was my way out,” she said.

Insooni debuted in 1978 as the only biracial member of the “Hey sisters”, one of the most popular girl groups at the time. She said TV producers made her cover her head to hide her Afro. In 1983 she released her first solo hit: ‘Every night”, still a karaoke favorite for Koreans.

A breakdown followed. Ignored by television, she performed in nightclubs and amusement parks.

But her time in the entertainment world helped shape her artistic identity, as she honed her live performance skills and versatility, learning to sing and communicate with children, the elderly and anyone else who came to hear her.

“I don’t say to my audience, ‘This is the kind of song I sing, so listen to them,’” she said. “I say, ‘Tell me what kind of song you like and I’ll practice it and sing it to you next time.’”

She was constantly preparing for her comeback on TV. Whenever she watched a TV music show, she would imagine herself there and practice “songs I would sing, dresses I would wear, and gestures I would make.” Her chance came when the national broadcaster KBS gave her weekly ‘Open concert” to a multi-generational audience in 1993. Since then, she has been a sought-after singer.

Although she did not have as many original hits as some other top singers, Insooni often adopted songs from others, such as “Goose’s dream” and made them nationally popular, reviewers said. She continued to reinvent herself, taking on everything from disco and ballads to R&B and soul, collaborating with a young rapper in “My friend.”

“Many singers faded away as they grew older, but Insooni’s popularity only increased in her later years, with her status as a singer rising with songs that appealed to the entire generational spectrum,” said Kim Hak-seon, a music critic.

South Koreans say Insooni’s songs — such as “Goose’s Dream,” which begins “I had a dream” — and her positive onstage demeanor resonate with them in part because of the difficulties she has faced.

“You come to her songs for the first time and feel like you want to hug her,” said Lee Hee-boon, 67, a fan. “But in the end you feel encouraged.”

Insooni, who married a South Korean university professor, gave birth to her only child, a daughter, in the United States in 1995, making her a U.S. citizen, she said. She feared that if her child looked like her, she would face the same discrimination she did.

Today, South Korea is becoming increasingly multi-ethnic. One in ten weddings is bi-ethnic, as men in rural areas marry women from poorer countries in Asia. The farms and small factories cannot run without migrant workers from abroad.

One of South Korea’s most popular rappers – Yoon Mi-rae, or Natasha Shanta Reid – sings about her biracial identity. K-pop groups love NewJeans have biracial or foreign members as their markets globalize.

Insooni welcomed the change, but questioned whether the country was embracing multiculturalism “from the heart” and not out of economic needs.

In 2013 she founded Tuition Fee Free Hae Millschool for multicultural children in Hongcheon, east of Seoul, after learning that a majority of biracial children were still not attending high school, decades after her own school life ended so early.

During the recent interview at school, students on campus rushed to hug her.

“You can tell me things that you can’t even tell your mom and dad, because I’m one of you,” she told children at an entrance ceremony this month.

Insooni sometimes questions her decision not to look for her father. She once told South Korean military officers that if they were sent abroad, they should never do what American soldiers did in Korea decades ago: “spread seeds for which you cannot take responsibility.”

“At Carnegie Hall, I thought there might be a chance, however slim, that some American veterans might have left children like me behind in Korea,” she said. “If they did that, I wanted to tell them to take the burden off their heads. Whether they are successful or not, kids like me have all tried to make the most of our lives in our own way.”

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I’m an Irish Hollywood producer and these are the star-studded places I visited while filming in Ireland, from a property where Tiger Woods ‘caught a fish’ to a hotel beloved by George Clooney and Kim Kardashian

Albert Elence — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:05:18 +0000

Film producer Hal Roach once mischievously quipped that ‘you know it’s summer in Ireland when the rain gets warmer’.

The capricious weather was a constant subject when I was making ‘Quintessentially Irish‘ with Navan-born Pierce Brosnan, a film that is a lush valentine to everything great and Irish.

Here are some of the most spectacular locations encountered while filming it.

THE K CLUB

It is a pleasant 30-minute journey from Dublin Airport to the luxurious hotel The K Club in County Kildare, looking resplendent after an impressive multi-million-pound refurbishment.

Our gorgeous Liffey suite has expansive views overlooking the river where Tiger Woods proudly caught a fish during a stay here.

Hollywood producer Frank Mannion shares some of the most spectacular locations he encountered while filming the documentary Quintessentially Irish in Ireland. The first is The K Club hotel, pictured, in County Kildare

Frank stays at The K Club’s Liffey suite, which he says overlooks ‘the river where Tiger Woods proudly caught a fish during a stay’

The K Club’s spectacular golf course – designed by Arnold Palmer – hosted the Ryder Cup and remains a huge attraction. There’s also a golf simulator, which Matt Damon enjoyed over a few pints of the black stuff (Guinness) while filming the historical epic The Last Duel.

But it’s the spa and elevated dining options that make this the perfect place for a getaway.

The K Club has one of the country’s finest Bordeaux collections, the plush Palmer North restaurant serves a generously portioned venison, the club sandwich in the Henry Bar is top-notch, and breakfast is exquisitely presented in the splendid Barton restaurant.

During his stay at The K Club, Frank takes the ‘scenic’ 16km (9.9-mile) Arthur’s Way heritage trail. Pictured: The Wonderful Barn, a point of interest along the trail

The K Club’s spa and elevated dining options are what make this the perfect place for a getaway, says Frank. Pictured: The Barton restaurant

The K World Golf Club Simulator, enjoyed by Matt Damon

While the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin is Ireland’s most visited attraction, the hotel concierge arranges for us to take the scenic 16km (9.9 mile) Arthur’s Way Heritage Trail, passing the Guinness-owned Leixlip Castle and Ardclough village, birthplace of Guinness founder Arthur Guinness.

BALLYFIN

Then, less than an hour further south is Ballyfin in County Laois.

Quite simply, Ballyfin is Ireland’s most distinguished address and deserves its reputation as the world’s best hotel. It feels like a home and is subtly designed as such.

So many hotels have uncivilised mid-afternoon check-in times. Not Ballyfin.

Its Gourmet Escape package allows guests to arrive from midday and to be welcomed Downton Abbey-style by the friendly staff, including charming general manager Peter White.

Frank describes Ballyfin (pictured) in County Laois as ‘Ireland’s most distinguished address’ and says it ‘deserves its reputation as the world’s best hotel’

Frank stays in the ‘stunning’ Lady Caroline Coote suite, above

Kim Kardashian has stayed twice at Ballyfin, notes Frank, who adds that she ‘surprised guests with her appearance in the State Dining Room’

Ballyfin’s ‘Gourmet Escape package allows guests to arrive from midday’, says Frank. A ‘mouth-watering lunch awaits in the grandeur of the State Dining Room’

Enjoy a complimentary glass of Champagne in the stunning library with its crackling fires, while a mouth-watering lunch awaits amid the grandeur of the State Dining Room, which overlooks a charming Doric Temple cascade.

One of the hotel’s fans is Kim Kardashian. She’s stayed twice and surprised guests with an appearance in the State Dining Room.

George Clooney is also an admirer.

George Clooney stayed at the ‘charming’ Gardener’s Cottage, pictured in the three images above

He booked out the hotel for a Clooney clan gathering and met his Irish cousins, who hail from neighbouring Abbeyleix.

Mr Clooney stayed in the charming two-storey Gardener’s Cottage, overlooking the walled garden and the Slieve Bloom Mountains.

We stay in a stunning suite, the Lady Caroline Coote (formerly her boudoir).

CASHEL PALACE HOTEL

Next stop is the spiritual home of Guinness, the wonderful Cashel Palace Hotel in County Tipperary, formerly an 18th-century mansion owned by the Archbishop of Cashel.

He famously left a £100 legacy to his godson, Arthur Guinness, who used this jackpot to buy a brewery.

The hotel deserves all the accolades it has received under the astute ownership of Susan Magnier (of the horseracing dynasty – the hotel even has an equine concierge).

Frank checks into ‘the wonderful Cashel Palace Hotel’, pictured, which is ‘formerly an 18th-century mansion owned by the Archbishop of Cashel’

Queen Elizabeth II visited the majestic nearby Rock of Cashel

Our stay is made all the more special by its delightfully youthful friendly staff.

It has long been a haven for celebrities, Jackie Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor, for instance.

And Queen Elizabeth II visited the majestic nearby Rock of Cashel, which as Ireland.com notes, ‘is home to over 1,000 years of history’.

The website explains that the site is home to a ‘complex of interlocking structures’, including a 13th-century cathedral and the 15th-century Hall of the Vicars Choral – a medieval choir’s residence.

The Rock can be accessed directly by hotel guests through the hotel garden, which features 300-year-old mulberry trees.

LEFT: Be sure to finish off a delicious dinner at the Michelin-starred Bishop’s Buttery restaurant with a decadent whiskey Baba, says Frank. RIGHT: ‘A rejuvenating peat mud bath treatment in the elegant spa is a must’

If that’s too much trouble, book a lovely garden wing superior room overlooking the Rock.

A rejuvenating peat mud bath treatment in the elegant spa is a must – and be sure to finish off a delicious dinner at the Michelin-starred Bishop’s Buttery restaurant with a decadent whiskey Baba.

THE PARK HOTEL KENMARE

The island home of the reclusive Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi was the remote monastic settlement of Skellig Michael in County Kerry.

A far more hospitable stay in the area is the remarkable Relais et Chateaux property, the Park Hotel Kenmare.

John Travolta and Nicolas Cage have stayed at the Park Hotel Kenmare

This is Ireland’s legendary 41-room Victorian grande dame hotel that had an elegant pandemic makeover.

John Travolta and Nicolas Cage have enjoyed its Kenmare Bay views.

It is hard to leave our sumptuous junior suite, but the luxurious Samas spa, nestled in the woods, is a worthwhile short excursion and gives us an immediate sense of relaxation.

We enjoy a Bushmills whiskey in the stylish cocktail bar, followed by a delicious dinner in the elegant dining room, with its magnificent paintings.

This hotel is a timeless gem with a five-star ethos that effortlessly combines town and country.

Frank enjoys a Bushmills whiskey in the ‘stylish’ cocktail bar, above

The Park Hotel Kenmare is perfectly situated for a drive around the Ring of Kerry (above), a 179km (111-mile) driving route filled with ‘rolling green hills, sparkling lakes and jaw-dropping cliffs’

Kenmare, meanwhile, is a beautiful heritage town on the hotel’s doorstep. It had a cameo in the quirky The Lobster with Colin Farrell.

Pop into Kenmare Cashmere and have a pint of Guinness at Crowleys, both on Henry St.

The Park Hotel Kenmare is also perfectly situated for exploring the underrated Beara Peninsula or for a drive around the Ring of Kerry, a 179km (111-mile) driving route filled with ‘rolling green hills, sparkling lakes and jaw-dropping cliffs’, notes Ireland.com.

SHEEN FALLS LODGE

Our final stop is another stunning Relais et Chateaux property, Sheen Falls Lodge, formerly a 17th-century fishing lodge.

Frank’s final stop is Sheen Falls Lodge (above), a former 17th-century fishing lodge

Pictured: Kenmare Town, located around 1.7 miles (2.7km) from Sheen Falls Lodge

Above is the terrace at the Sheen Bar, overlooking a stream that runs past the hotel

The terrace of the glorious Oscar suite has a ravishing view overlooking a waterfall and a picture-perfect stone-arched bridge.

Afternoon tea in the Sheen Lounge is a delight – and the superb Falls restaurant serves a faultless dinner.

I retire to the cosy library with its log fires and read Ted Murphy’s Kingdom of Wine, which documents Ireland’s little-known contribution to wine. It is so hard to leave this all behind.

The journey to Kerry Airport is spectacular, passing through Killarney National Park, which boasts breathtaking lakes.

‘Afternoon tea in the Sheen Lounge is a delight’ and the ‘superb’ Falls restaurant serves a faultless dinner’. Pictured: The front of the accommodation

Pictured: The Easanna Spa at Sheen Falls Lodge

The terrace of the glorious Oscar suite (pictured) has a ‘ravishing view overlooking the waterfall’

The Oscar suite has a view of this ‘picture-perfect stone-arched bridge’

We stop at the stupendous Ladies View scenic viewpoint, so named after the ladies-in-waiting who accompanied Queen Victoria on her visit to the must-see Muckross House in 1861.

Ireland has always been known as the land of a hundred thousand welcomes, but now it has several world-class hotels and restaurants that ensure that every visitor will be longing to return.

Did I mention that the sun actually shines most of the time? No wonder my Irish eyes are still smiling…

Frank Mannion is an Irish film director and his new film, Quintessentially Irish, with Pierce Brosnan and Jeremy Irons is out now.

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Have you always wanted to have contact with a deceased loved one? Nineteen years after losing her beloved father, JULIE COOK asks a famous psychic to teach her how to reach him

Sabir Ansary — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 00:50:25 +0000

On average it happens a few times a month. I dream about someone and something happens to him or her, and a few days or weeks later I discover that the scenario in my dream has happened in real life. It’s always been that way.

One night, when I was 19, I dreamed that my grandmother was reborn as a baby, but with her aged head. I woke up when my college landline rang, went there, and heard my father tell me that my grandmother had died that night.

Then there was the time I dreamed of a tower with bodies falling out of them in graphic detail. A few days later the World Trade Center tragedy occurred.

I dreamed of my father lying quietly in a contraption in a wall. That year he began radiotherapy for the cancer that took his life.

And on the morning of his death, in 2005, I had the strange feeling that everything ‘stopped’ and that I was not allowed to get the train to work. He died that morning.

So I’ve always felt a bit clairvoyant. But often I ignore my dreams or feelings, or I forget them. Like the time I dreamed that I didn’t have to walk a path. The next morning I went for a walk and saw this trail I had dreamed of. I ignored my intuition and walked over, only to be stared at by a man in the bushes.

So what good is a little nugget of psychic abilities if I don’t listen to it or interpret it correctly? And can someone like me be ‘trained’ to become better at it?

I contacted the famous clairvoyant Inbaal Honigman. Inbaal has been psychic all her life and has been doing tarot readings since she was twenty. She appeared on Big Brother as the reality TV show’s psychic to see who would be voted out. Now she teaches courses to help psychics improve their skills.

I’ve always felt a bit psychic, writes Julie Cook

Our first session starts with a Zoom call. Inbaal is bubbly, friendly, personable and tells me that everyone has the ability to be psychic, but they should cherish it.

“Even people without that little ounce of talent can train to become a certain kind of psychic,” she says.

She tells me it would be good to start keeping a dream journal and buy a deck of tarot cards to “introduce yourself leisurely to the world of symbolism.” She also recommends crystals “to achieve greater clarity”: a clear quartz and one of obsidian. Clear quartz is “great for healing and great for sleep,” she adds.

‘Black crystals such as obsidian absorb negativity and keep your thoughts clear. They help defend you against people who come to suck you dry.’

Inbaal recommends that I choose a Tarot card of the day and place it next to my bed, to see if that can form a ‘bridge’ between my dreams and my understanding.

I choose the Six of Cups, with a boy giving flowers to a girl, on a beautiful square with a barracks behind it.

I sleep, but wake up with no memory of dreams.

“If you look closely,” says Inbaal, “there is an adult walking away in the background of the card. This can mean a happy childhood because adults let the children be children, but conversely it can also mean that there are no adults around.’

I don’t think much about my childhood. Money problems, recessions, job losses, unhappily married parents and then my father’s cancer devastated my younger years and so it is uncanny that my subconscious chooses not to respond to this card.

Julie was on holiday with her father in the south of Britain when she was three. He died in 2005

Another night I put down the Two of Swords.

I dream of walking down a slippery slope, terrified of falling, close to the edge of the sea. I am introduced to a man downstairs. We walk back upstairs and I know I have to get away from him, then I wake up.

Inbaal explains the card: ‘The Two of Swords shows a figure holding two heavy swords, which symbolize that you have to make a choice. It’s about indecision or having to choose a path.’

As I walked downstairs to feed the cats, I walked into the kitchen and saw a perfect, white crescent moon and gasped as three ducks literally flew over it in sillouette.

It felt so creepy that I couldn’t wait to tell Inbaal.

‘This is interesting because the number of the card is two and the ducks are three, so that numerically represents progress. Then there is the moon. If you look closely at the card, there is a moon in the background of the figure representing intuition. And a moon with the ducks moving across it is like the universe saying, ‘Go ahead, make a decision.’

I’ve been struggling lately with decisions about everything from midlife crises to investments and retirement, to even where I ultimately want to live.

But something else is also happening. Since choosing the cards and writing down my dreams, I feel more attuned and empathetic. I sense that my daughter is having a difficult day at school and lo and behold, she comes home in tears.

So maybe having this introspection will help me become clearer? Inbaal says that dreams are a bridge not only to our subconscious mind, but also to any dormant psychic ability we have. If you can learn to open your mind deeply to your subconscious thoughts, it can bring about psychic abilities you didn’t even know you had.

At our next meeting, Inbaal tells me how to open and close my chakras. These, she says, are the key energy points in the body that allow you to be more attuned to signals from the universe and spirituality.

During our Zoom we close our eyes and Inbaal gently talks me through the chakras.

‘Put your feet firmly on the floor and do not cross your arms and legs. We start with a few breaths and send our roots further into the ground, making us safe, bounded and secure.’

We then feel the earth energy traveling through the roots to the feet and down our legs until it reaches our base chakra, a red circle at the very top between the legs.

“As the energy reaches the base chakra, a red circle begins to spin and glow,” she says.

My ultimate wish is to contact my father, Julie writes. This was taken on holiday as a little girl

It travels to the sacral chakra, an orange circle below the navel and to the Solar Plexus, the chakra of the sun, and this circle turns yellow. From there the energy flows to the heart chakra, which is green, and then to the throat chakra, a blue spinning circle.

After a few moments, the energy reaches the third eye – a purple circle on the forehead – and moves to the top of the head, where ‘a bright white shimmering shutter opens and a silver cord extends upward, connecting us to the sky, so that we are nourished, nourished and protected.”

It’s a strange experience.

When I open my eyes, the colors seem brighter, her voice seems clearer, and I feel incredibly sharp and awake, like I’ve had four cups of coffee.

Inbaal tells me this is how I need to be so I can be open to spirits, but it is safest to close the chakras so I don’t absorb unwanted spiritual activity or negative energy.

So could opening chakras make me more available to the spirits of those who have passed away?

“Yes,” she answers.

Over the next few days I will try to open and close the chakras. It becomes easier and easier to do and increasingly relaxing. I can really feel the energy flowing through me and sharpening and awakening once the chakras are open.

My ultimate wish is to contact my father. He died of cancer in 2005 at the age of 59 and I regularly had very lucid dreams in which he visited me. Not so much anymore.

In the coming days I will continue with my Tarot card of the night, my dream journal and the opening and closing of my chakra.

Inbaal Honigman has been psychic all her life and has been doing tarot readings since she was twenty

The fifth night I dream of my father. He sits in a large church with no fixed denomination or religion, is younger again and wears a neat suit. He walks away and I keep trying to find him. There are several rooms in the church where people gather and I know I have to find him in one of them.

I wake up and write down my dream, feeling hopeful and wishing I could have had a conversation with him.

I try again the next night and the next. I’ve been trying all week, but he never shows up again.

Inbaal suggests opening the chakra just before bedtime and laying out a tarot card that relates to masculinity. The obvious choice is the Emperor – a strong card of a man sitting on a throne.

I put it down, sleep… and dream of other things.

Inbaal asks what was my father’s zodiac sign. I tell her Cancer and she recommends the Knight of Cups, a water sign but also because the figure carries a crab-like shell.

I put this down one night, open the chakras as she said and fall asleep.

That night in my dream my father comes to me. He is happy and we are in a strange house. He brought a large wrapped gift. It’s a pool table for my son, Alex.

In my dream, Alex is crying because he finally meets my father. It’s a happy dream and when I wake up I’m sad that it’s over. I ask Inbaal about its meaning.

She says, “A house represents your mind, and rooms in the house represent parts of your personality. The house was not a house you recognized, so you now interact in a ‘new’ way, your dynamic as father and daughter has changed. Maybe he has had a lot of time to think about his life and he looks at you in a different way, maybe you have also changed the way you remember him.

‘A wrapped gift is him sharing a message that is not obvious, but symbolic. The fact that it is huge is also meaningful, he really wants to make an impact. I love the symbolism of a pool table. Several possible goals have been set, each of which can be achieved.’

Inbaal asks if a pool table means something specific to me. That is not the case.

“The flatness of a pool table is very meaningful,” she adds. ‘Everyone has a chance. If your son wants to study more but is afraid that everyone will be richer or more intelligent than him, your dad’s pool table could say that once you step on the green, everyone is equal.”

I feel so strengthened now. The Tarot, the crystals, the journal and now the chakra opening have made me realize that I have an empathetic gift.

I hope that as I progress and learn more, it will lead me to an even greater understanding. There are many things I would like to say and ask my father. He died so young and I wish I had gotten more of his advice. I like to think that these dreams can be a bridge to what happens in the future.

inbaal.com

The post Have you always wanted to have contact with a deceased loved one? Nineteen years after losing her beloved father, JULIE COOK asks a famous psychic to teach her how to reach him appeared first on USMAIL24.COM.

Anna Jenkins: Judge’s final insult to heartbroken family seeking answers about beloved grandmother’s abduction and murder – after thugs dumped her body at a Malaysian building site: ‘You should be grateful’

Albert Elence — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 15:20:20 +0000

EXCLUSIVE

A heartbroken family has been told they ‘should be grateful’ to property developers in Malaysia who covered up the discovery of an Adelaide woman’s buried remains.

Greg Jenkins, 44, has spent the last six years on a quest for justice after his mother Anna Jenkins, 65, went missing while on a trip to the island of Penang in 2017.

Mr Jenkins said the comment – made this month by a Malaysian High Court judge as she threw out a negligence case against local police he alleges failed to properly investigate – ‘highlights the disrespect’ his family have consistently encountered.

Mr Jenkins said the judge told his family they should be grateful that construction workers involved the police when his mother was found but he alleges they only did so after he put pressure on them.

After his mother disappeared, Mr Jenkins, a member of Australia’s Defence Force, got leave from his post in Hawaii. He flew back to his home in Adelaide before making 34 trips to Malaysia at a cost of more than $300,000 in an effort to track her.

His persistence paid off when a construction worker in 2020 replied to a missing persons flyer he posted saying his mother’s body had been found during works on a building site and it had been quietly moved nearby to not disrupt the development.

The last call Ms Jenkins made from Penang’s main city of Georgetown indicated she was being followed by men after her passport and her family believe she was robbed, murdered and left at the building site – which at that point was still jungle.

Greg Jenkins and his sister Jen Bowen (pictured) searched relentlessly for their mother

Australian grandmother Anna Jenkins, 65, (pictured) is believed to have been snatched off the streets while on a trip to Penang in 2017 and was never seen again

Georgetown city in Penang, Malaysia sprawls out against its jungle surroundings

Mr Jenkins has received the backing of SA-Best MLC Frank Pangello who also accompanied him to Malaysia for the recent ruling.

Mr Pangello said the Jenkins family, who just want someone to answer for what happened to Anna, have been repeatedly brushed aside by Malaysian authorities.

Ms Jenkins had dual citizenship because she had lived in Australia since the early 1970s, raising a family in Adelaide after she married RAAF serviceman Frank Jenkins as a young woman.

‘It’s high time the Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, made strong representations to the Malaysian Government about the treatment of the Jenkins family,’ Mr Pangello said.

Her son Greg said none has been held to account after a project manager and landscape contractor who were working on the housing development moved his mother’s remains in a deliberate effort to cover up the body.

‘We have proof they found and reburied mum’s remains,’ Mr Jenkins told Daily Mail Australia.

‘How is tampering with evidence and contaminating a crime scene not a criminal offence in any Commonwealth country?’ he said.

‘Instead the judge absolved them and said we should be thanking them that they brought the police in – which they only did because of the amount of pressure I put on the construction worker.’

‘They at first didn’t do anything and the police refused to go there until we forced their hand because it was getting some local media coverage and I said I would go to the foreign minister.’

Devoted son Greg Jenkins found the skeletal remains of his missing Australian mother at a Malaysian building site as he rummaged through rubble after years of investigating

A 2023 coronial inquiry into Ms Jenkin’s death was declared an ‘open verdict’ due to a ‘lack of evidence’.

Anna’s daughter and Greg’s sister, Jen Bowen, said she felt authorities ‘did not care’ for her mother and didn’t want to help.

The housing development was aimed at wealthy Chinese buyers – and traditionally they can’t buy a home anywhere that’s had human remains on it.

‘This development cost over $100million to build but the selling price of the luxury villas made it worth more than a billion – so everyone just hushed it all up,’ Mr Jenkins said.

‘They didn’t want word leaking out that dead bodies had been found there as it’s taboo and could have killed off the market for Chinese buyers.

‘So they moved my mother’s bones off to the side to an area which was going to be a water feature in parkland, and wouldn’t be residential land.

‘We found 34 bones from my mother but the police and deputy public prosecutor called the search off. They said the excavation equipment could destroy any more remains which is ridiculous.

‘When I first went to the site the Chief of Police told me we were not allowed to tell the press we were going or post it on social media.

‘The developer has put a lot of money into Penang and they don’t want anything putting that at stake.

‘They are setting the profits of this developer above a kidnapping and murder investigation.’

Mr Jenkins said during his investigations he found out that an Australian passport is worth $100,000USD on the black market in Malaysia as they are used by transnational criminal groups.

‘Someone holding an Australian passport can access 129 countries without a visa, which is very valuable to these people.’

There is no suggestion the construction workers had anything to do with Ms Jenkins’ disappearance, only that her remains where later found at the building site.

Despite the fact Ms Jenkins was an Australian citizen her case has largely gone under the radar at home.

‘If this had been a younger blonde Australian woman there would be outrage.

‘That just crushes my heart, my mother was the most beautiful person.

‘She was a Christian woman who dedicated her life to helping others. She helped the homeless and refugees in Adelaide through her charity work and an Aboriginal group through the church.

‘It’s just indicative of the person she was.’

Malaysian-born Anna Jenkins married husband RAAF serviceman Frank Jenkins and moved to Australia in 1970, raising son Greg and daughter Jen in Adelaide, South Australia

Mr Jenkins said the Malaysian High Court judge won’t accept an appeal until he pays the legal costs of the defendants – the government, the police, the land developers, the project manager and a landscape worker.

‘They just want me to drop the case but I haven’t let this go for six years and I’m not going to let an unjust system deter us.’

The quest to find Anna and the legal case has cost the family about $600,000 and the Australian government has provided little in the way of help.

‘Anthony Albanese goes out of his way to send a text about David Warner’s missing baggy green, yet there’s been an Australian citizen go missing overseas and we’ve had no assistance at all.’

TIMELINE OF THE HUNT FOR ANNA

December 5, 2017 – Retired RAAF serviceman Frank Jenkins and his Malaysian-born wife of 47 years, Anna, make their regular trip from Adelaide to see Anna’s 101 year-old mother on the island of Penang.

December 13, 2017 – Anna has a 3pm dentist’s appointment and the receptionist calls her an Uber afterwards to go on to visit her mother. She is last seen at 4.45pm. Around 5.30pm, Frank says he gets a call from his wife saying she is being followed by ‘two Ukrainians who are after her passport’.

The family raises the alarm and hotel staff help search for her. Anna never arrived at her mother’s nursing home.

December 14, 2017 – Police are alerted at 9.28am and a missing person’s report is filed.

December 15, 2017 – Greg Jenkins arrives in Penang to join the search for his mother, alerts police to six CCTV cameras near where she was last seen.

Earlier CCTV footage had captured Anna Jenkins with her husband Frank talking to a local outside their hotel before she vanished

December 16, 2017 – Family claim police lost interest in the search from this point on, ignoring offers to search her hotel room or phone records.

December 21, 2017 – Distressed husband Frank, who suffers from dementia, flies home to be with his daughter Jen. Greg remains.

December 24, 2017 – Police tell the family they will not be following up on the Uber driver after he gave a statement which they ‘consider to be true fact’ without any corroborating evidence.

January 2018 – Police fail to attend several meetings with Greg, despite a string of possible sightings. Requested CCTV footage is no longer available as it expires after three to six weeks. A series of possible sightings of Anna throughout the year are apparently ignored by police.

October 16, 2018 – Anna’s elderly mother dies without knowing what happened to her daughter.

2019 – Greg continues to travel to Malaysia to hunt for his mother

June 25, 2020 – Greg receives a WhatsApp message from a construction worker saying he’d seen his mother’s dentist’s appointment card among possessions and bones dumped at a building site. He supplies pictures showing items from her bag, including her cross and asthma inhaler, and a coccyx bone. Greg begins five week process to get permission to travel to Malaysia during Covid lockdown.

The WhatsApp message that changed everything in the hunt for Anna Jenkins

WhatsApp messages (pictured) from a Malaysian construction worker proved to be the breakthrough. The worker found some of Anna’s belongings and went back to try to find more for the family

June 26, 2020 – The worker hands in the possessions to police.

July 3, 2020 – The family is told the lead police investigator has gone on leave for two weeks.

July 29, 2020 – Greg Jenkins finally gets to the construction site and immediately finds one of his mother’s shoes, weeks after police were alerted to the location and were said to have searched it.

August 7, 2020 – Greg finds his mother’s vertebrae and other possessions in the rubble next to the area where police had been searching. Further digging finds more bones and bone fragments

April 12, 2022 – Police give Greg all his mother’s remains to bring home to Australia in a cardboard box filled with bags of bones.

January 23, 2023 – Malaysian coronial inquest sits for a week but is branded a farce by the family after it visits the wrong location and mistakes a bag of gravel and sand for ground up bone fragments. Vital clues for a murder investigation, including a skull fragment showing trauma damage, are destroyed. The findings are due later this month.

February 2023 – SA-BEST MP Frank Pangallo calls for a South Australian coronial inquiry into Anna’s disappearance.

February 2024 – A Malaysian High Court judge throws out Mr Jenkins’ negligence case against the government, the police, the developers, a project manager and a landscape worker.

The post Anna Jenkins: Judge’s final insult to heartbroken family seeking answers about beloved grandmother’s abduction and murder – after thugs dumped her body at a Malaysian building site: ‘You should be grateful’ appeared first on USMAIL24.COM.

Beloved TV app on iPhone and Amazon Fire Sticks ‘to offer cheaper plan’

Jeffrey Bailey — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 00:01:26 +0000

APPLE TV+ has plans to roll out a cheaper version of its streaming service.

Launched in 2019, Apple TV+ is a subscription streaming service offered by Apple.

Apple TV+ has plans to roll out a cheaper version of its streaming serviceCredit: Getty

Currently, the service sets subscribers back $9.99 per month or $99 for the year.

But now the company is working on an ad-supported version that could cost users less.

A report from Business insider notes that Apple has hired former NBCUniversal executive Joseph Cady to lead the initiative.

If Apple successfully implements the new version, it will join a long list of streaming services that offer ads.

Most recently, Amazon Prime introduced ads on Prime Video at the end of January.

The move was met with resistance from many Prime subscribers, who shared that they had canceled their memberships as a result.

And to bypass the ads, Prime asked users to pay $2.99 per month on top of their subscriptions.

However, because Apple is lowering its fees in exchange for advertising, it could see some success, experts say.

It’s not clear what the new pricing system would look like when the new version rolls out, or when it would be available.

OTHER WAYS TO SCORE APPLE TV+

If you don’t want to pay anything for Apple TV+ but still want access to the service, you can get it for free as a new or existing T-Mobile or Sprint customer.

iPhone’s mysterious ‘running icon’ appears on cell as fans say ‘I’ve never seen that before’ – its real purpose is so useful

T-Mobile users can get the benefit at no extra cost, as long as they have a Go5G Next or Go 5G Plus subscription.

Or they can get the Apple service for free for six months with the Go5G plan.

Meanwhile, Sprint customers are eligible for the service through the Sprint MAX and Sprint ONE plans.

APPLETV+

Apple TV+ includes original content as well as critically acclaimed movies and TV shows.

Some popular movie titles include Oscar-nominated films such as Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Meanwhile, some popular TV shows on the platform are Avatar, Yellowstone and Walker.

APPLE LOVERS GUIDE

If you’re a self-proclaimed Apple enthusiast, here are some fun hacks for you…

My iPhone typing trick is a complete game changer – you’ll use it every day
I’m a gadget pro – every iPhone owner should be out and about in a creepy way
Genius iPhone sleep hack is just what you need for a good night’s sleep
I’m an iPhone expert: instantly free up your storage space with just one click
I’m an iPhone Expert: The Surprising Settings That Reduce Your Battery Life Every Day
Anyone with an enemy needs to know the genius iPhone camera trick
I’m an iPhone Expert: Four Apple Hacks That Will Make Your Life So Much Easier
You can unlock hidden iPhone features using codes you type on your keyboard
Apple has a secret phone setting that makes phone calls so much better: how to unlock it
My iPhone typing trick is a complete game changer that you will use every day
A simple iPhone hack will prevent you from making the biggest charging mistake.
Apple warning: Your iPhone could catch fire due to simple mistakes.
Thanks to the hidden iPhone genius trick, you can use your favorite apps even by touching them.
I was a first responder – a simple iPhone can save your life
Your iPhone has a hidden photo menu that unlocks the genius feature
I’m a Tech Genius – iPhone trick brings back a beloved feature thrown away by Apple
I’m an Apple Whiz – the iPhone’s ‘reach wiggle’ trick is a game changer for little hands

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Death of horse racing legend caused by looting of C4, not cigars, says beloved wife

Jeffrey Bailey — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 23:35:52 +0000

JENNY McCRIRICK remains as loyal and formidable as ever.

You had to be both – and much, much more – to keep your distance in what was a 48-year marriage to Big Mac.

John McCririck was often spotted on the road with a cigarCredit: Getty Images – Getty

Jenny McCririck lost her husband in 2019Credit: PA:Press Association

She told me, ‘People said John’s smoking caused his cancer.

‘But I am convinced it was his dismissal from Channel 4 and then the resulting tribunal that cost him his life. It hurt him so much.

“I knew him better than anyone and nothing anyone says will convince me otherwise.

“We used to be a big family with Channel 4. But when he was forced off the air, it was devastating for him.”

Most read in Horse Racing

“His on-air character was just a show – and he was very good at it.”

John completely relied on Jenny. Just before midnight on Friday evening she drove to King’s Cross Station to buy the first editions of all the newspapers for his TV review the next day.

Rich Ricci tells us about his favorite Cheltenham Festival moment ever

He was fully prepared, while John Francome and Alistair Down were able to appear on the program for a few minutes and talk their way through the programme.

She added: ‘After his death I found the Cheltenham Festival quite disturbing. Too many memories.”

Big Mac was into more than just the whining. Jenny said: “He loved all our dogs and cats.

“When John died, I sold a lot of his hats and caps. All the money went to animal charities. He would have wanted that.

“One day I opened the car door at our hotel in Cheltenham and a little kitten jumped in. She lived a rough life.

“Of course John and I ended up taking her home – and to this day I still have Gertrude.”

McCririck went to London’s Central Employment Tribunal after being dismissed from Channel 4Credit: PA:Press Association

Big Mac loved his visits to CheltenhamCredit: PA

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Two Sunday roasts, two VERY different restaurants: The Mail turns mystery shopper, pitting a £13.99 Toby Carvery Sunday roast against a Michelin-star version to find out if it’s worth paying the extra for a fine-dining take on the beloved dish…

Albert Elence — Sat, 09 Mar 2024 12:20:09 +0000

Toby Carvery bills itself as the ‘home of the roast’ – where Sunday roasts are done ‘properly’.

But just how ‘properly’ is that? And how does the chain’s low-cost offering compare to a fine-dining version of the classic Brit favourite?

I endeavoured to find out, heading to a Toby Carvery in Worthing, West Sussex, for a three-meat roast costing the princely sum of £13.99, then trying the Sunday roast at London’s only Michelin-starred pub, Fulham’s renowned Harwood Arms, where a set three courses sets you back £70 plus tip.

What happens when the humble Sunday roast gets the Michelin-star treatment? Can it possibly be worth paying high-end prices for when you can get essentially the same dish with change back from £20? Read on to find out…

TOBY CARVERY – THE ‘HOME OF THE ROAST’ – WORTHING

Katrina Conaglen tried out the Sunday Roast at Worthing’s Toby Carvery, which charges £13.99 for a three-meat carvery. Wondering how elevated a roast could possible get, she then spent five times as much to try the feted Sunday roast at Fulham’s Harwood Arms, the only Michelin-starred pub in London

Inside Toby Carvery. Katrina noted the ambience was lacking – ‘it’s dining without flair’

The carvery ‘deck’, where guests are invited to choose three meats, as well as all the trimmings – although the roast potatoes ‘had the damp kiss of the microwave,’ Katrina lamented

Katrina says: ‘I associate canteen-style buffets with the slop they served in the Mess Tent on M*A*S*H, so I fretted a little’

It was a filthy February day when I headed to the Home of the Roast in Worthing. The very bones of me were cold – ideal circumstances for a bolstering feast.

It was my first-ever Toby Carvery visit, but many friends I respect were, if not evangelical, certainly warmly affectionate about Toby’s Sunday roasts.

It was time to put this British institution through its paces.

In the interest of journalistic rigour, I had intended to order a ‘starter’ of pigs in blankets. But as soon as I mentioned I planned on the carvery, my waiter informed me that the ‘carvery deck’ was around the corner and to queue there for my serving. As a carvery naïf, I did as I was told.

My dining companion ordered mac ‘n’ cheese, which was delivered and demolished by the time I returned with my laden plate. (They had schlepped out in a tempest to the restaurant with me, so I didn’t admonish them. Also, they were 10 years old.)

When I made it through the winding queue to the ‘deck’ I was told to choose three meats. Wanting to make it to pudding, I limited myself to slow-cooked beef and pork loin. I associate canteen-style buffets with the slop they served in the mess tent on M*A*S*H, so I fretted a little.

Katrina opted for slow-cooked beef and pork loin for her choice of meats. She was impressed with the beef, wondering ‘how they’d managed to keep a soft, yielding texture for meat now sunbathing under a heat lamp’

According to Katrina, the Yorkies ‘were the size of a sombrero’ and an admirable effort

I needn’t have: The beef was tender. I slathered it in English mustard and wondered how they’d managed to keep a soft, yielding texture for meat sunbathing under a heat lamp. A form of wizardry.

The pork loin, alas, erred towards what the Scots evocatively call ‘chugh’ – leathery meat. I had forgotten the apple sauce in the tumult of the ‘carvery deck’ – a fatal error. An undignified end for the poor pig.

The roasties had the damp kiss of the microwave, but their interior had the critical ‘smoosh’ factor one needs from a Sabbath spud. Yorkies were the size of a sombrero. Though greasier than ideal, I was impressed – crispy exterior, pancake-y interior, substantive but not stodgy. Admirable.

For her pudding, Katrina opted for apple and blackberry crumble, served with soft serve ice cream. She wanted ‘to warm [her] insides as ballast against the squall outdoors’

The state of the glassware left much to be desired, Katrina found: ‘I’m not Lady Muck, but I do prefer a clean tumbler’

Katrina, with dessert – warm stewed fruit crowned with hot golden rubble

Dessert was apple and blackberry crumble. I wanted warm stewed fruit crowned with hot golden rubble, to warm my insides as ballast against the squall outside. And so it proved – a school dinner favourite, done perfectly well.

Now, a moan. There’s a Monty Python sketch in which a waiter, distraught his customer has been given a dirty fork, goes into increasing paroxysms of horror at letting the diner down. Reader, that waiter would spontaneously combust if he saw the glassware at Toby Carvery. I’m not Lady Muck, but I do prefer a clean tumbler.

Verdict: Crucially, Toby’s Carvery is not attempting a swizz – £13.99 for a mountain of well-prepared meat, endless veg, and as many roasties as you can pile on your plate. The ambience may be lacking – it’s dining without flair – but if you’re after a good feed, you’re quids in.

PROS: Flavoursome meat, comforting food, mountainous puddings, value for money.

CONS: All the atmosphere of an airport lounge, queueing for food, dirty glassware.

Rating out of five: ***

Cost: £13.99 for three-meat carvery, with all the trimmings, £6.49 for a kid’s meal / £9.98 for two desserts / £5 gratuity.

Total cost for food: £35.46.

Visit: www.tobycarvery.co.uk.

THE HARWOOD ARMS, FULHAM

The Harwood Arms in Fulham is the only Michelin-starred pub in London. Its famed Sunday Roasts come in at £70 a head for three courses – and you have to share the roast between two

Of the pub’s relaxed feel, Katrina says ‘if you’ve swerved Michelin-star establishments in your time for fear of tedious poncery, The Harwood Arms will not frighten you’

Katrina describes The Harwood Arms as a gastropub with ‘thoughtful touches [that] suggest a studied casualness’. She says: ‘There is a hint of a hunting lodge theme that stops short of going full, fusty Balmoral’

Red deer tongue with beetroot and quince. Katrina said: ‘Smokey, whisper-soft meat was cut through with the sweetness of the quince and beetroot’

If you’ve swerved Michelin-star establishments in your time for fear of tedious poncery, The Harwood Arms will not frighten you.

Definitely ‘gastropub’ in feel, thoughtful touches suggest a studied casualness – scuffed, leather-bound chairs, antique pine tables. There is a hint of a hunting lodge theme that stops short of going full, fusty Balmoral.

That’s reflected in the menu, which is heavily game-orientated, and offers gently remixed versions of time-honoured British standbys. We’re not talking arty ‘deconstructions’ or weird-for-the-sake-of-weird innovation, just slightly more creative takes on dishes that – well, you can order at Toby Carvery.

Ok, not my first course, in fairness. A starter of grilled red deer tongue, strafed with drops of quince paste and beetroot doesn’t scream ‘British comfort food.’

But oh, let me tell you what a time I had eating it. Meat perfectly seared on the outside, with a superlatively yielding texture inside. Smokey, whisper-soft meat was cut through with the sweetness of the quince and beetroot. At the risk of sounding salacious, of all the tongue I’ve had in my time, I didn’t expect a deer’s to enter the top ten.

Then, to the main event – Iberian Pork with Jowl, with apple sauce, Yorkie, roasties, broccoli and carrot. Toby Carvery doesn’t tell you what farm its meat comes from, but The Harwood Arms does – and I have every reason to suspect my pig had a gorgeous life back at Whitley Manor, judging by how succulent yet lean it tasted. Ribbons of whisper-pink pork dissolved in my mouth.

The Harwood Arms main: Iberian Pork with Jowl, with apple sauce, Yorkie, roasties, broccoli and carrot. The pork is sourced from Whitley Manor farm. Katrina said: ‘I have every reason to suspect my pig had a gorgeous life back on Whitley Manor, judging by how succulent yet lean it tasted’

As to the Yorkie? It was pretty good. Nothing rapturous. Yorkies are never the most flavoursome part of the roast, but it was just what you needed from a side dish that is essentially a carrier for other flavours, designed to complement one another.

This is where the dish triumphed. Every component existed in symphonic accord with the other – the apple sauce made the pork sing, and the roasties acted as a carbohydrate conductor that brought the whole mouthful together.

This was the platonic ideal of roasts. Can a roast dinner be elevated? You betcha.

I did not particularly need nor want dessert, but, one-woman Woodward and Bernstein that I am, I ate it to bring you the culinary scoop. Apple parfait with hazelnut and shortbread.

Cherub-fat orbs of fresh apple cream, cut through with delicate hazelnut ice cream and biscuit that snapped so crisply it could moonlight as a twig. ‘This is what angels eat for breakfast,’ I moaned. I had found a pudding so delectable it would be worth suffering the fate the kids in Willy Wonka endure for stealing sweets.

Dessert was apple parfait with hazelnut and shortbread, which Katrina declared was ‘what angels eat for breakfast’

‘Pudding so delectable it would be worth suffering the fate the kids in Willy Wonka endure for stealing sweets,’ Katrina enthused

Reader – the meal was plentiful. I am truthful when I say I had to let my belt out two notches.

Which is my only major complaint about Harwood. You have to have three courses on a Sunday, and you have to share the roast between two. Both caveats seem unreasonable – a roast is a hefty meal, and I loathe being overfull. Also, why should you have to have a companion with you to enjoy a handsome meal just because it’s the Lord’s Day?

It’s a silly prejudice, in my eyes. I’m sure there’s a justification related to covers and overheads, but it sits poorly with me.

Verdict: When you pay over the odds for a meal, the hope is, as much as anything, you’re paying for an experience. Toby Carvery is food as background noise – an old sitcom episode you put on for comfort but also to talk over.

At The Harwood Arms, food is the main event. The pub satiates hunger, yes, but more than that, they create gorgeous memories. I couldn’t afford to eat like this with any regularity, but if your pound stretches to it, it’s worth the splurge.

PROS: Spectacularly delicious food, laidback atmosphere, pudding of celestial quality

CONS: Seems churlish to insist on three courses, and having to dine with a guest, at these prices

Rating out of five: ****

Cost: £140 for three-course set menu for two / £20 gratuity.

Total cost for food: £160.

Visit: harwoodarms.com.

The post Two Sunday roasts, two VERY different restaurants: The Mail turns mystery shopper, pitting a £13.99 Toby Carvery Sunday roast against a Michelin-star version to find out if it’s worth paying the extra for a fine-dining take on the beloved dish… appeared first on USMAIL24.COM.

Corrie legend Deirdre Barlow’s beloved perm hairstyle is back in fashion

Jeffrey Bailey — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 22:10:49 +0000

CORRIE icon Deirdre Barlow lives on as her perm is back in fashion.

Hair salons say customers are demanding curls again – with model Emily Ratajkowski wearing a shaggy Barlow barnet this week.

Corriee icon Deirdre Barlow, played by Anne Kirkbride, lives on – as her perm is back in fashionCredit: Granada Television

Model Emily Ratajkowski wears the rugged Barlow barnet this weekCredit: Bauer-Griffin 2024

The perm was huge in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and loved by stars like Dolly Parton, Kevin Keegan and Kylie Minogue.

But then it became an object of ridicule, with even hardcore enthusiast Deirdre, played by the late Anne Kirkbride, going straight for it.

Fashion magazine Style says recent TV shows about ’90s supermodels have unleashed new waves of interest.

It stated: “The messy perm – last seen in the late 1990s – is the look for this season.

“Think of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, Cindy Crawford in Pepsi ads and Jon Bon Jovi, well, he did everything between 1984 and 1999.”

But tight curls are still a no-no, says Leeds hairdresser Kelly Ash.

She added: “People are looking for Deirdre’s shaggy, relaxed perm as she had quite a few.

“The great new look is that Deirdre’s perm looks more like Kylie and not Leo Sayer.”

Deirdre was murdered after actress Anne died in 2015 at the age of 60.

The perm was huge in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and loved by stars like Dolly PartonCredit: Getty

England great Kevin Keegan proudly wore a permCredit: Rex Features

Australian pop princess Kylie Minogue was a fan of the hairstyleCredit: Rex

Colombian captain Carlos Valderrama rocked a perm during the 1994 World Cup finalCredit: Getty

I bleached my hair and then went for a perm – it was a complete fail and melted my hair away so I gave myself a buzzcut

The post Corrie legend Deirdre Barlow’s beloved perm hairstyle is back in fashion appeared first on USMAIL24.COM.