COMPLIMENTARY EDITION
N º16 - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015
essential essential magazine® gibraltar ISSUE 16 • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015
ESSENTIAL FOR LUXURIOUS LIVING
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GIBRALTAR
World’s TOP FASHION
DESIGNERS
Boux Avenue SEXY STYLES
GIBRALTAR LITERARY
FESTIVAL
Porsche Cayman
GT4 Sports Coupé
The British
OVERSEAS
TERRITORIES
TANTALISING
TANGIER
N E W S I C U LT U R E I P E O P L E I T R E N D I S T Y L E I S PA I P R O I L E I S U R E I G O U R M E T & M O R E
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Issue 16 • November / December 2015
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contents The Trend Cinema 12 Home Viewing 14 Music News 16 Books 18 The Porsche Cayman GT4 Sports Coupé 20 Technology: Smart Health 22
The Local British Overseas Territories 24 The Gibraltar Literary Festival 32 Kayron Mercieca, Astrophotographer 38
The Spa 58 Health: Magnificent Moringa
The Pro 60 Enterprise
The Leisure 68 Travel: Tangier 74 Literary Tangier
The Gourmet 77 El Gaucho de Sotogrande
The 1st Gibraltar International
79 4 Stagioni
Backgammon Tournament 40
80 Wine: La Encina del Inglés
Frankwin van Kleef of In Vision 42
82 Restaurant Guide
The Style World’s Top Designers 44 Fashion: Boux Avenue 50 Fashion Blogs 56
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Winner of the Gibraltar’s Leading Hotel Award since 2009 The AA’s highest rated hotel in Gibraltar
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AA’s highest rated hotel in Gibraltar
Two AA Rosettes for Culinary Excellence
www.caletahotel.com - reservations@caletahotel.gi
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publisher’s letter WORDS BY IAIN BLACKWELL
D
uring its three years of operation, Gibraltar has become increasingly popular on the Rock and has established a stable base of loyal advertising clients. Every month, more than 5,000 copies are distributed extensively throughout Gibraltar, including placement in the rooms of The Rock, Caleta and Eliott hotels as well as in the suites aboard the Sunborn and the Calpe Lounge at the airport. The magazine is also delivered to select locations in Sotogrande. Welcome to the 16th edition – in this issue you can compare Gibraltar with all the other 13 British Overseas Territories; preview the 3rd edition of
the Gibraltar Literary Festival, which will bring many famous faces to the Rock; and enjoy our interviews with Astrophotographer Kayron Mercieca and Frankwin van Kleef, whose firm, In Vision, has recently completed the design for Grille53 in Plaza Village. Elsewhere in this issue, which has a fashion focus, we take a look at the World’s Top Designers, check out seductive styles from Boux Avenue and bring you hot Fashion Blogs. Finally, don’t miss our travel feature on Tangier and reviews of trendy restaurants, El Gaucho de Sotogrande and 4 Stagioni. Merry Christmas Gibraltar!
FASHION Frenzy
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Issued by SG Hambros Bank (Gibraltar) Limited, which is regulated and authorised by the Financial Services Commission, Gibraltar. © 2014 Societe Generale Group and its affiliates. © Hugo Stenson - FRED & FARID
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There is Something for Everyone...
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trend READING / MUSIC / FILMS / GADGETS / MOTORING / TRENDS
The Autumn season is in full swing and that means one thing: the chance to snuggle up by the fireside at home, catching up on the latest home viewing and musical releases. If cars are you thing, dream of zooming away to paradise in the brand new Porsche Cayman GT4 Sports Coupé.
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12 Cinema 14
Home Viewing
16
Music News
18 Books 20
The Porsche Cayman GT4 Sports Coupé
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Technology: Smart Health
10/26/15 4:55 PM
THE TREND cinema WORDS marisa cutillas
e BLOCKBUSTER OF
THE MONTH
»» Genre Adventure s (American Beauty) »» DirectoR Sam Mende doux ristoph Waltz, Léa Sey Ch »» Actors Daniel Craig,
Spectre
Bond on the past sends James A cryptic message from meets he ere xico and Rome, wh a covert mission to Me ous fam a of ow wid the Bellucci), Lucia Sciarra (Monica and discovers g etin me ret sec a s criminal. Bond attend Spectre. r organisation known as the existence of a siniste the tt), Sco Max Denbigh (Andrew ns Meanwhile, in London, stio que ty, uri Sec nal tre for Natio s). new director of the Cen nne Fie is headed by M (Ralph the utility of MI6, which rris) and neypenny (Naomie Ha Mo ts rui Bond secretly rec ann (Léa Sw e ein del Ma find p him Q (Ben Whishaw) to hel White Mr. y, nem of his old arch-e Seydoux), the daughter the e hav t jus y ma ann . Sw (Jesper Christensen). Ms Spectre. to unlock the secrets of information Bond needs
»» Genre Biopic »» Director F. Gary Gray »» actors O’Shea Jackon Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell
Straight Outta Compton
This film has broken many box office records in the United States, since it documents one of the most important moments in hip-hop history: the birth and rise of NWA, the band which made household names out of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E. The film shows how even in the toughest of times, a group of talented boys were able to achieve great success, by using words instead of violence to overcome their greatest obstacles.
»» Genre Comedy/ Science Fiction »» Director Terry Jones (Life of Brian) »» actors Kate Beckinsale, Robin »» Genre Action/ Crime »» Director Denis Villeneuve (Enemy)
»» ACTORS Emily Blunt, Josh
Brolin, Benicio del Toro
Sicario
On the border between the United States and Mexico, Kate Mercer (Emily Blunt), an idealistic FBI agent, is recruited by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), an elite governmental official, to help in the increasingly violent war against drugs. Alejandro (Benicio del Toro) helps the duo brave their secret battle, and Kate soon begins to question all her beliefs as she struggles to survive.
Williams, Simon Pegg
Absolutely Anything
The Monty Python gang (i.e. Terry Jones, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin) play a devious group of aliens who plan on blowing up Planet Earth, unless human beings pass one final test. They choose an arbitrary man (highschool teacher, Neil, played by Simon Pegg) and grant him absolute power to achieve even his craziest wishes: from giving his dog a voice (Robin Williams’ crazed tones, to be exact), right through to finding his friend a girlfriend. All these miracles have one proviso, however; if Neil proves to be unworthy of this gift, then Planet Earth will be destroyed for good.
»» Genre Children’s Film »» Director Robert Connolly
(The Bank)
»» ACTORS Sam Worthington,
David Wenham, Ed Oxenbould
Paper Planes
Dylan is an 11-year-old boy who lives with his father in Australia. His life changes forever when his dream of taking part in the World Championship of Paper Planes (in Japan) is brought to life. The film delves into the infinite value of creativity and imagination, and of the limitless nature of children’s hopes and dreams.
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THE TREND home viewing
Marisa Cutillas brings us a few of the season’s top DVD releases. »» Genre Comedy »» Director Barry Levinson (What Just Happened)
»» actors Al Pacino, Greta Gerwig, Kyra
Sedgwick
Difret
»» IMDB Rating 5.7/10
»» Genre Drama »» Director Zeresenay Mehari (Coda) »» ACTORS Meron Getnet, Tizita Hagere »» IMDB Rating 6.6/10
The Humbling
Simon Axler (Al Pacino) is a famous theatre actor who grows depressed when he suddenly and inexplicably loses his talent for acting. In an attempt to find his lost mojo, he has an affair with a much younger woman who introduces more confusion into his life, but also consolidates his love for his profession.
D RELEASE OF e FEATURED DV »» Genre Drama »» Director
Russell Crowe (60 Odd Hours in Italy) »» actors Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Jai Courtney
»» IMDB Rating
THE MONTH
is an epic The Water Diviner es place tak ich wh re ntu ve ad d of the en the er aft four years of Gallipoli, e ttl ba g tin sta va de rld War. Russell during the First Wo nnor, a farmer Crowe is Joshua Co bul to find out an Ist to who travels children, his what happened to mbat. co in ing ss declared mi
Some three hours in distance from Addis Ababa, a 14-year-old girl called Hirut is walking home from school when a group of men on horseback approach her with the intention of kidnapping her. In Hirut’s village, kidnapping a woman to marry her is customary and the practice is accepted in the country of Ethiopia as a whole. The film, based on a true story, deals with the deep seated, aggressive patriarchy that governs a country that has a long way to go in terms of establishing equal rights for women.
7.2 /10
r e n i v i D r e t a W The »» Genre Fairytale »» Director Kenneth Branagh (Thor) »» actors Lily James, Richard Madden, Cate Blanchett
»» IMDB Rating 7.1/10
Cinderella
This is the story of a young lady called Ella, whose life is turned upside down when her mother passes away and her father marries the wretched Lady Tremaine. Despite being tortured by her stepmother and stepsisters, Ella continues to believe in the value of kindness. Her sacrifice pays off when she comes across a kind homeless woman who helps her transform into the belle of the ball. There, she will meet Prince Charming and begin reaping the fruits of her gentle ways.
Return to Ithaca »» Genre Drama »» Director Laurent Cantet (The Class) »» ACTORS Jorge Perugorría, Isabel Santos, Fernando Hechavarría
»» IMDB Rating 6.3/10
Five friends reunite on a rooftop terrace in Havana, to celebrate the return of Amadeo, who has spend the last 16 years in exile in Madrid. From dusk to dawn, they talk about their memories of youth, their precious dreams and their disillusionment with a country that has failed them.
14 / NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015 ESSENTIALMAGAZINE.COM
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Residential Property of the Month
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Amazing opportunity to purchase a property steeped in British Naval history
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Features
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Colonial Character with Panoramic Views Gated Private Development 2 Car Parking Spaces Communal Pool Luxury Kitchen
Solidly erected it boasts a host of original features including sash windows, high ceilings and panoramic views over the bay of Gibraltar and Africa.The property sits over 3 floors in a quiet area of the south district within a gated development with communal swimming pool, landscaped garden area and 2 dedicated parking bays.Tastefully decorated the property boasts plenty of storage space ideal for a growing family and comes with all modern amenities throughout.
Entrance hall with wooden flooring leads onto living/dining area, ground floor W.C and luxury fitted family kitchen with direct access to rear enclosed patio area. First floor consists of 4 double bedrooms 2 bathrooms again tastefully decorated fitted wardrobes and carpeted throughout. Second floor provides the master bedroom with large ensuite and dressing room area. There is also a separate private living area. A well designed study room completes the second floor. The top of the house has been converted into a 30m2 loft space with original beams.
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Contact Lynn, Glenn or Michael on +350 560 02020 info@propertyshopgibraltar.com Why buy or sell your property through us? Discount in 6 leading bars & restaurants for a whole year • Reduced legal fees • £15,000 contents insurance
THE TREND music
¿QUÉ PASA? WORDS RIK FOXX
DESTINY’S CHILD
The legendary QUEEN A Night At The Odeon – Hammersmith 1975 DVD also drops on November 20. The concert was originally broadcast as an Old Grey Whistle Test special on Christmas Eve. Reunion tours are the talk and for our more mature female readers here’s a name from your younger years – get those tartan scarves out of the wardrobe for the BAY CITY ROLLERS as they are embarking on a UK tour – with all the original members except for the drummer. Also getting back together are DESTINY’S CHILD and a new album plus a possible tour are in the pipeline.
RITA ORA Well, the clocks have gone back, the curtains of winter are drawing upon us and, as this is page is penned, the only gig around features the Spanish pop brothers ESTOPA at Málaga’s Palacio Deportes on the 20th. Ticket info: www.ticketmaster.es So check the local weekly publications for any last minute arranged gigs. All info on this page was correct at the time of writing. October is no more but just in case you missed it – on the 30th, a very interesting melting pot popped up to mark the 80th birth of ELVIS, and with 21st century technology, the legendary Abbey Road studios has married his original master tapes with a 50-piece ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA for a 14-track album, If I Can Dream. Have seen the list, but not had a chance to listen yet – most tracks interest this scribe (you can’t beat a classic song with strings) – oh, and some bloke named MICHAEL BUBLE features on Fever. OK, a clever question – how old was Priscilla when she married him? Have a go before you Google it! And the 31st was apparently the last official concert by ONE DIRECTION before their ‘hiatus’ – but there are already plans to get the boys back together again for next year’s Brit Awards. The said show takes place next February and the band’s promotional contract runs until the end of the month in question and their top brass think it would be an excellent way to bow out
($$$,........) – and the 50th Superbowl half-time show also falls in early February – but at least one of the boys is against all ideas (the said member is from the same place as yours truly and a friend of a friend informed me, etc.). ADELE has put the music business on doomsday alert by provisionally naming November 20 as the big bang for her long awaited new album and it will be pushed 'to maximum exposure' with a possible BBC TV promo show. Bosses from other companies are now in headless chicken mode about their release dates – do they go before or after with BIEBER, KYLIE (which features a posthumous duet with FRANK SINATRA), THE CORRS (yes, they are back after how many years?), and even ONE DIRECTION releases due. And did you know that THE POPE (yes, he who blesses people and dresses in all white) is scheduled to release a rock/pop album at the same time – honestly, he is – does he really want to go head-to-head with ADELE? Meanwhile, RITA ORA, who you will find somewhere in a UK red top on a daily basis, plans to beat the ADELE apocalypse by releasing her new album before the big date along with LITTLE MIX, SAM SMITH – the only album that will challenge her on judgement day is Now That’s What I call Music! 92. And RIHANNA has put her forthcoming album, Anti, on hold until all the fuss has died down and February or March has been pencilled in for its launch.
KURT COBAIN The BACKSTREET BOYS are back – well maybe, if the proposed MEL B badgered SPICE GIRLS tour does materialise, they are in line to support. And Glastonbury has already sold out for 2016 despite no acts been named yet but it seems many veterans want the Glastonbury ‘Legends’ golden egg (a sure cert for CD sales) - LEO SAYER thinks his Show Must Go On – personally I hear Thunder In My Heart (and if he sings, the sky). And it took what seemed like forever to get ROD STEWART to regroup the FACES – he must have enjoyed the recent reunion as he now wants in on 'that' festival. While the veterans swan on about their swansongs, holograms are as 21
century as you can get – there’s loads of TV programmes about the dead rising; well Hologram USA are putting deceased singers back on stage and next year WHITNEY HOUSTON is set for a Greatest Hits world tour. And in 2016 the above mentioned company plan to resurrect many more – their list alone could fill this page! Speaking of the dead, the much talked about KURT COBAIN ‘solo’ album has been given a provisional green light for November 6 and a director’s cut of the Montage Of Heck DVD will accompany it (that means it must be watched again – then again, no complaints – if you haven’t watched it yet – tut, tut). e
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THE TREND books
Top 5 Fashion Reads The world of fashion is as competitive as it is creative, fickle as it is faithful to the chosen few. Marisa Cutillas brings you her required reads regarding one of the most fascinating industries of all time.
IN VOGUE: THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS FASHION MAGAZINE, ALBERTO OLIVA AND NORBERTO ANGELETTI
Vogue Magazine and Ana Wintour have quintessentially defined the essence of style and this book offers a compelling look at the journey of fashion’s top magazine. Vogue began as a struggling society rag though it soon came to feature the most iconic shoots in the fashion industry. Featuring stunning covers and photography by Annie Leibovitz, Edward Steichen, Irving Penn and more.
THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF STYLE BY NINA GARCIA
CHRISTIAN LACROIX AND THE TALE OF SLEEPING BEAUTY BY CAMILLA MORTON
This visually stunning ‘fashion fairytale memoir’ retells the famous Brother Grimm tale through Camilla Morton’s imaginative words and the colourful illustrations of designer, Christian Lacroix. The old and the new meet in a work of visual splendour which celebrates art, fashion and literature in one magical volume.
This book, now in its eighth edition, aims to encourage readers to express their creative character through the way they dress. Nina Garcia enlightens us on typical fashion faux pas and offers tips on how and when to wear an outfit, how to combine colours and how to find our own signature look. What makes this book so special is its recognition of the delicate relationship between our inward and outward selves, and the assertion that we should all see fashion as a way to discover more about our personality through our chosen sense of style.
THE SARTORIALIST BY SCOTT SCHUMAN
This captivating anthology features Scott Schuman’s favourite photographs of fashionistas he has met on the street during his many years in the business. It includes images of well known celebrities as well as everyday people who have a sense of style that crosses all barriers and is so cutting-edge that it sets new trends which are later picked up by the world’s leading designers for their collections.
IRREVERENT BY CARINE ROITFELD
This gorgeous album of photographs delves into the 30-year career of former French Vogue Editor, Carine Roitfeld. Carine, a model, fashion writer and mother who had a famed sense of rebellion, as can be gleaned from some of her most iconic shoots – including that of Eva Herzigova posing alongside cuts of bloody beef for The Face. Karl Lagerfeld once said that if you could close your eyes and imagine the ideal French woman, it would be Carine Roitfeld; after reading this book, we can certainly understand why.
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Artist impression.
Boston
A magnificent arrangement of 1, 2, 3 & 4 bedroom apartments & spectacular penthouses in a city central setting
Private parking with situational access to apartment
ÂŁ395k
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Floor 4, 5, 6 & 7
FAIRFIELD Floor 10, 11 & 12
Luxury floors, fixtures & fittings
WC 3.10 m2
ÂŁ660k
FROM
Balcony 20.54 m2
Hall 6.30 m
2
Bedroom 21.90 m2
Bedroom 3
En-suite 5.00 m2
Kitchen 8.50 m2
10.60 m2
Rooftop pool deck & private gardens Living & Dining
Bedroom 2
36.20 m2
11.60 m2
Bedroom 1 22.80 m2
Living & Dining 36.80 m2
24 hour concierge
Kitchen 8.90 m2
Hall 12.20 m2
Balcony 16.76 m2
Ethical, sustainable construction for future generations
Bathroom WC
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En-suite 4.60 m2
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CONTACT: MIDTOWN DEVELOPMENT +350 200 43511 | info@midtown.gi
Skillfully designed to provide a contemporary, sustainable hub of residential, corporate, commercial buildings and amenities, Midtown stretches across 4.3 acres in the very heart of Gibraltar and delivers the ultimate standard in city living, working & playing.
Disclaimer This layout is for marketing purposes only and does not constitute an offer or contract of any kind but is for general guidance and information purposes only and should therefore not be relied on as containing statements or representations of fact. Accordingly all statements and particulars evidenced herein are made without responsibility or warranty on the part of the vendor, lessor and/or their agents and it is incumbent on any prospective purchaser/lessee to satisfy themselves as to their accuracy. The vendors reserve the right to amend and/or withdraw the same at any time without notice.
THE TREND motoring
PORSCHE CAYMAN GT4 SPORTS COUPÉ Porsche’s new 2016 Cayman GT4 is the latest GT class car to be introduced by the legendary Zuffenhausen sports car manufacturer and is faster and more agile than any Cayman that went before. WORDS Tony Whitney Photography Courtesy of Porsche
O
riginally developed from the Boxster roadster in 2006, the Cayman is also a rear mid-engined, rear wheel drive sportster, but is clothed in very attractive coupé bodywork which in the opinion of many might make it the best-looking tintop Porsche of all. It might have Boxster origins, but the Cayman has developed a character of its own and has enough innovative design detailing to set it apart. The car looks especially good from a rear three-quarter view, which shows off the roof shape very well. It’s a very elegant vehicle and has what I’ve heard design people call ‘grace of line’. In GT4 guise, it has some very distinctive and aggressive-looking aerodynamic aids which are a key part of the story when it comes to the
Cayman’s impressive performance. At one time, the cars were produced in Finland, but in recent times, they’ve been rolling off production lines in Osnabrück, Germany, at a factory that once build the old Volkswagen Karmann Ghias. As far as the moniker goes, the Cayman is named (although spelled differently) after the caiman, a crocodile-like tropical reptile, and not after the Cayman Islands. Wherever its name came from, the Cayman is a highly individualistic sports car and since it’s not a top seller of the brand, there are not too many around. It’s not the Porsche you probably see every day. Like all Porsche sports models, the Cayman uses a mid rear mounted ‘boxer’ 6-cylinder
engine, meaning that the cylinders oppose one another. The only car maker that comes to mind as opting for this layout is, interestingly enough, Subaru. This kind of engine layout is very spaceefficient and also helps to lower the car’s centre of gravity and enhance handling. The motor in the Cayman is a 3.8-litre unit developing 385-horsepower which is also used in the 911S model. It uses a 6-speed manual or 7-speed automatic transmission to get the power to the road via grippy Pirelli P Zero tyres. This is a rearwheel drive car following Porsche’s traditional approach. Neither the Cayman or the Boxster have an all-wheel drive platform available, which is a pity, though the car is stable enough for most enthusiasts and certainly very safe.
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Z ENGINE: 3.8-litre horizontally-opposed 6-cylinder, 385-horsepower. Z TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual or 7-speed automatic. Z ACCELERATION: Zero to 100 km/h in 4.4-secs. Z TOP SPEED: 295 km/h Z I LIKED: Best looking Porsche of them all with very elegant styling and a wonderful competition-inspired interior. More than adequate acceleration and top speed and excellent handling. Beautifully finished inside and out and not nearly as spartan as the early Boxsters. Z I DIDN’T LIKE: All-wheel drive would be nice, but we can’t have everything. Porsche does offer all-wheel drive in its 911 range. Engine is hard to work on (and even find!) but that’s really the dealer’s problem. Z MARKET ALTERNATIVES: Audi TT, BMW Z4, Jaguar F-Type R, Maserati Granturismo, Lotus Evora, Mercedes-Benz SLK, Alfa Romeo 4C. Z WHO DRIVES ONE? Styleconscious Porsche fans, buyers looking for a less expensive sports car than the 911 GT3, Devotees of German engineering who wouldn’t buy a sports car built anywhere else. Z PRICE AND AVAILABILITY: Available now at €99.094.
The GT4 has 45 more horses than its GTS stablemate (top Cayman until the GT4 appeared) and with its impressive power to weight ratio, it’ll whisk you to 100 km/h in just 4.4-seconds. Handling is aided by Porsche’s active damping system and dynamic transmission mounts. Stability control and Porsche Torque Vectoring (PTV) provide added technology to make this an exceptionally nimble car on winding roads. It’s lower than other Caymans with the ride height down by 30mm. It’s also 34mm longer and looks a little sleeker than the basic Cayman. Lurking behind the 20-inch wheels are very large and beefy disc brakes that will haul you down from very high speeds with poise and lack of drama. Ceramic brakes can be ordered as an option and many owners who occasionally race their cars often go for these. The car’s stability at high speeds is aided by a front spoiler with an additional air exhaust vent in front of the bonnet. At the rear, a large adjustable wing gets the job done with great efficiency. You’ll have to drive quite fast to experience the full
benefits of these spoilers, but more than likely, they perform some kind of useful function at posted speed limits. The interior is beautifully done and is very performance-oriented. As far as I can tell, you can only get the interior in black, but that’s what most serious drivers would be ordering anyway. The seats have very effective side bolstering, which really comes into play when the car is track driven. There are seat options that are more race-configured (one is even made from carbon fibre) and the Club Sport package includes a rollover bar, fire extinguisher and a six-point competition harness. While the GT4 is a fast, nimble and almost raceready sports car, it’s docile enough around the city and shouldn’t alarm a driver who’s not that used to performance machinery. If weekend racing is on your list, the GT4 is easily adaptable with a few options and can still be driven safely on the road. It’s one of the most elegant of all Porsches and is priced lower than the 911 range, though the GT4 can get expensive if the options list is fully exploited. e
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THE TREND technology
WORDS ALI PARANDEH
The Age of Robots and Artificial Intelligence in the medical sector
DR WATSON is ready to see you now! E
arly this summer, after a lunch meeting, I suddenly needed someone to rush me to the local clinic. I’d had fresh tuna for lunch and I knew that I was suffering from food poisoning – it turned out to be scombroid poisoning to be exact, which is quite a typical one from spoilt fish. I already knew what this was from my very first microbiology class in university. The symptoms generally develop within 30 minutes to 1 hour after eating bad fish and include facial flushes/sweating, dizziness, nausea, headache, tachycardia, cold-like symptoms and bronchospasms for those with respiratory problems (which I have, making the whole experience even worse!). While I had most of the symptoms, the doctor in charge did not bother checking all the facts nor refreshing his memory and, because of this, he submitted me to several rounds of serum injections and, in a final panic, sent me to the hospital because at that stage I had broken out in a rash. Had he bothered to look up some basic facts like many other doctors, he could have saved several hundred euros worth of treatment, 20 hours of my time, as well as much needed medical services and man hours. While many doctors are already using web services and software to help with their diagnostics, there are even more intelligent systems on the
way. In fact, artificial intelligence (AI) is already being used in some places by nurses and doctors. One example is Watson, who is superfast at looking up records, cross-checking them against a huge bank of databases and is now even able to search for anything related in social media sites. So who, or what, is Watson? Watson, developed by IBM, is an artificially intelligent computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, which famously beat human beings on the US TV game show Jeopardy in 2011! For the past few years IBM has been betting on changing its path from hardware to software and this has led to the development of Watson. IBM recently purchased and has integrated several technologies such as Merge Healthcare as well as Explorys and Phytel. Merge Healthcare is a leading provider of medical image handling and processing and will give Watson an additional ‘visual’ power. Watson’s advanced image analytics and cognitive capabilities with data and images obtained from Merge will enable it to help physicians make better patient-care decisions. Explorys has compiled one of the largest healthcare databases in the world, derived from numerous and diverse financial, operational, and medical record source systems; while Phytel works with healthcare
providers’ current electronic medicalrecord technologies to reduce patient hospital readmissions. Together, these two now form part of the Watson Health Cloud that will connect clinical, research and social data from a huge range of health sources. Powered by the most advanced cognitive and analytic technologies, this creates, arguably, the most powerful artificially intelligent doctor that you could possibly consult. Typically though, IBM is not the only IT company venturing into this field. Just two years ago, in October 2013, you may remember the first ever operation for abdominal surgery that was performed using the Google Glass to simultaneously stream to the Congress Games for Health Europe and YouTube. More recently, in March this year, Google announced that it will be collaborating with Ethicon, a medical device company owned by Johnson & Johnson, on advancing surgical robotics to benefit surgeons, patients and health care systems. Together, the companies intend to create an innovative robotic-assisted surgical platform that can improve health care in the operating rooms and beyond. Indeed, while I truly hope that you will not have the need to be submitted to any operation, your next operation may indeed be assisted by Google! The robotic-assisted surgery
system will be minimally invasive using technology to give surgeons greater control, access and accuracy during the surgical procedure. This technique, like laparoscopy, will improve post-surgical healing times by minimising trauma and scarring. It is not surprising that the development of AI systems has been one of the most ambitious and equally controversial themes in medicine. In the long run, these new ventures and companies seek to develop new robotic tools and capabilities for physicians, doctors, surgeons and operating room professionals that integrate the bestin-class medical-device technology with leading-edge robotic systems, imaging and data analytic. Many sceptics are afraid of losing their jobs or control of decision taking, but I think they are missing the point that these advances and innovations are to help them make better decisions, supporting them in the normal course of their duties and making them into better professional healthcare givers. g Ali Parandeh, is the Founder of PC Doctor & Urbytus. He has written five books in the fields of Internet and Biotechnology. He is currently an independent mentor at the Founder Institute and helps entrepreneurs with getting their ideas and work off the ground. parandeh@urbytus.com
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local
CULTURE / HISTORY / FEATURES / FAMOUS PEOPLE / INTERVIEWS / HUMOUR
Erudites will love this month’s edition, which includes features on British Overseas Territories and the upcoming Gibraltar Literary Festival. The dreamers among you, meanwhile, will find greater inspiration in our interviews with astrophotographer, Kayron Mercieca, and with talented architect, Frankwin van Kleef, of In Vision Design & Construction. Those who are gaming buffs, meanwhile, should head for the firstever Gibraltar International Backgammon Tournament.
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British Overseas Territories
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The Gibraltar Literary Festival
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Kayron Mercieca, Astrophotographer
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The 1st Gibraltar International Backgammon Tournament
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Frankwin van Kleef of In Vision
10/28/15 11:06 AM
THE LOCAL overseas territories
As British as Gibraltar! Channel Five sealed Gibraltar’s fame as ‘Britain in the Med’ but there’s also a Britain in the Indian Ocean, another in the Antarctic and five in the Caribbean. The Rock is just one of 14 British Overseas Territories in the world where Britannia still rules the waves – remnants of empire stretching from the North Atlantic to the South Pole which fly the Union Jack and have the Queen as Head of State. Belinda Beckett reports on this exclusive worldwide club.
F
ew people will remember what possessed Helena Bonham Carter to pose naked, hugging a dead tuna, earlier this year, spawning red top newspaper headlines like ‘Oh my Cod!’ In fact, the photographs were part of a celebrity campaign to protect marine life in Britain’s Overseas Territories. Between them, the 14 BOTs make up the world’s fifth largest area of ocean, cover 660,000 square miles of land and boast a biodiversity found nowhere else on earth – 1,500 animal and plant species unique to their surroundings: a flightless moth found only on Tristan da Cunha; a spiky yellow woodlouse indigenous to St Helena; a predatory shrimp native to Ascension Island; Bermuda’s cahow seabird, thought to be extinct for 300 years until it was rediscovered in 1951. Most are island nations. Some are tropical paradises with dynamic economies; others are remote and desolate; three are strategic military bases with no permanent civilian population; many are notable for their British way of life, with driving on the left, red telephone boxes, cricket clubs and traditional pubs. The sunny Caribbean BOTS are a mosaic of distinct cultural traditions dating from African slave trade days, with an AfroAmerican flavour and currencies pegged to the US dollar. Collectively, they are home to some 350,000 British subjects who are fiercely proud of their heritage and, mostly, speak English and their own quirky patois. The Tristan da Cunha dialect has been described
as a mix of ‘Home Counties lockjaw, Afrikaans slang and Italian’. Historically, these lands are what’s left of the British Empire, before the sun set on most of it. Bermuda was first settled by Brits in 1609. The British Indian Ocean Territory was acquired as recently as 1965. Hong Kong was the largest city in the group until its handover to China in 1997. Today George Town in the Cayman Islands holds that honour. Known as British Crown Colonies until 2002 since when, with some exceptions, residents have had automatic right to British citizenship (and EU citizenship by default), they are mostly self-governing, parliamentary democracies with the Queen as their Head of State and a Governor to represent her in situ. Not to be confused with the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, or the 16 Commonwealth Realms which also have British sovereignty, each has its own constitution, government and laws and a unique relationship with the British ‘mother ship’. The larger their population, the more autonomous they tend to be. The British government guarantees the defence of all BOTs and handles foreign policy. Many have grown wealthy from tourism and finance. The Caribbean BOTs have had a bad press as ‘tax havens’ but these lowor-no-tax jurisdictions have had their wings clipped by the worldwide clampdown on money laundering. Others struggle to survive and depend on British government subsidies. Curiously, the British Post Office plays a key role in many BOT economies through the sale
of their rare postage stamps to collectors. The BOTs do not make a direct contribution to the British Exchequer, although some contribute towards the cost of their governor and staff. Most face challenges of marginalisation common to small island nations. Some are vulnerable to drug-trafficking and associated crime, others lack a developed civil society, strong legislature and/or a critical press. Britain can and does intervene to keep its BOTS in order, also defending them from attack. Gibraltar is not alone in its problems with Spain. The UK sovereignty of four other BOTs is disputed by rival nations. Britain has also had to defend itself against brickbats hurled over its management of the BOTS, ranging from their use as centres for hiding assets and laundering money to the lack of funds being directed towards their conservation. The UK has more threatened wildlife in the BOTS than the whole of Europe. Problems include voracious cats eating rare iguanas in the Caymans and Turks and Caicos Islands; giant house mice which have evolved to unprecedented size and are endangering the Tristan de Cunha albatross; and loss of habitat for 20 unique insect species on Saint Helena, due to a new tourism push. Environmentalists are concerned that while the government invests £500 million a year protecting biodiversity in Britain, it spends only £1 million on its overseas territories, which total three times the size. Now sit back and enjoy your virtual tour of the British Overseas Territories.
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TH RI EA BB N
destination, styling itself ‘culinary capital of the Caribbean’. Pigeon peas and callaloo (a bush-leaf stew) are specialities. Anguilla is also a big financial services centre with just three per cent income tax, introduced for the first time in 2011. The English settled in 1650 and 90 per cent of the locals are descended from African slaves brought in to mine the salt pans. Language switches between English and ‘Anguilla Talk’ and music – reggae, hip-hop, soca – is king. Sounds of Anguilla, released this summer and featuring Bankie Banx, ‘the Anguillan Bob Dylan’, is the first album cut by artists from one Caribbean island.
CA
Area: 91km2 • Population: 13,500 Named for its eel shape, this jet set coral island is a luxury tourism, wedding and honeymoon
E
Anguilla
The British Virgin Islands Area: 153km2 Population: 27,000 A former pirates’ hangout that
was the setting for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, half of these 60 islands off Puerto Rico are ‘virginally’ uninhabited and Richard Branson owns two of them. The English have been in charge since the late 17th century, introducing sugar cane. Tortola, the largest island, is home to most of the 83 per cent Afro-Caribbean population; 50 per cent of the workforce are expats and there are many nods to British culture, although basketball is bigger than cricket, an influence from its more-developed US Virgin Islands neighbour. Finance and upmarket tourism are twin pillars of the economy. Yacht charter and flotilla sailing lures thousands to this boatnik’s paradise, which also has one of the world’s highest mortality rates for drowning.
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N BB EA RI CA E TH
Montserrat
Area: 101km2 • Population: 4,655 Things have looked black for the ‘Emerald Isle of the Caribbean’ (named for its early Irish settlers) since 1995’s volcanic eruption. The capital, Plymouth, was buried in ash and lava, and further eruptions until 2010 saw two thirds of the 13,000 population moving to Britain. Tourism is in recovery thanks to the new airport opened by the Princess Royal in the north, which escaped much of the damage. A British colony since 1632, trading in sugar and cotton, during the 1970s Sir George Martin opened the ultimate get-away-from-it-all
recording studios here, used by Dire Straits, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Elton John et al. Montserrat is home to the ‘mountain chicken’ frog, the national dish until it was eaten onto the critically-endangered list.
Turks & Caicos Islands
Area: 430km2 • Population: 32,000 Britain imposed direct rule from 2009-12 due to widespread government
corruption but this ‘Windies’ destination is back on track, with finance, fishing and upmarket tourism flourishing in the eight inhabited islands and 300 cays. ‘Provo’ (Providenciales Island) draws most of the 87,000 annual visitors to its coral reefs, chichi resorts and 200 miles of beaches. Not officially settled until 1799, when the UK annexed the islands as part of The Bahamas, they became self-governing in 1976. With no lakes or rivers, like Gibraltar they depend on rainfall and desalination. The population is young and black – only four per cent are over 65. English and creole are spoken, cricket is the national sport and the T&C are home to the world’s only conch farm, exporting the tasty molluscs globally.
The Caymans
Area: 264km2 • Population: 54,878/52,800 The world’s hedge fund capital, south of Cuba, has more registered businesses than residents, who are a melting pot of 100+ nationalities. And with no direct taxation, Caymanians enjoy a high standard of living. Luxury tourism and real estate are other nice little earners for Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. One of Columbus’s discoveries that fell into British hands, the explorer named the islands Las Tortugas after their green sea turtles. Today they are farmed for conservation, tourism and food – the only place in the world where you can legally eat them. The Caymans were renamed after the Carib Indian word for crocodiles, although there are no caimans left.
AT NO LA RT N H TI C
Bermuda
Area: 54km2 • Population: 64,000
Famed for its natty shorts and mysterious Triangle, capital St. George’s, settled in 1612, is the oldest continuously-inhabited English town in the New World. Known as ‘the Gibraltar of the West’ before it was demilitarised, this 181-island archipelago was an important Royal Naval base and ship-building centre. The speedy Bermuda sloop HMS Pickle carried the news of Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar from Gibraltar to England. Bermuda’s economy, based on finance, insurance and tourism, roughly equals all the other BOTs combined. Culturally British (cricket, afternoon tea, red phone boxes) with more than a dash of American (dollar currency, US TV), Bermuda’s parliament is the fifth oldest in the world and the only one where shorts can be worn – but only with a jacket and tie!
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Gibraltar’s next great landmark The World Trade Center construction site is now a hive of activity with the iconic superstructure beginning to emerge from the ground. Ready for occupation in mid 2016, the building will set new standards for quality and become the hub of Gibraltar’s business community. With only 12 units left however, you need to move fast if you want to secure your space. Another good reason to contact us now t: +350 200 74724 • e: enquiries@worldtradecenter.gi • w: www.worldtradecenter.gi
TI C N A AT L TH SO U
The Falklands
Area: 12,173km2 • Population: 2,955 Before the 1982 Falklands War, few had heard
of this inhospitable territory where sheep outnumber humans 250 to one. Today, cruise tourism is nearly as big as farming. Although variously settled by the French, Spanish and Argentineans, the current islanders are of 19th-century British descent. Argentina still hotly disputes Britain’s claim to the ‘Malvinas’, two main islands in a grouping of 776. Culturally, they are British to the core, with Sunday roasts, cricket and football among the fiercely upheld traditions, although Port Stanley is the only town. Like the Rock, further education is state subsidised, the islanders voted overwhelmingly to remain British by referendum, and English, Spanish and Falklandish (the islanders’ version of Yanito) are spoken. ‘Poocha! It’s blowin’ a hoolie’ (it’s very windy) is an oft-repeated phrase in this treeless, subarctic climate enjoyed by five species of penguin.
Saint Helena, Ascension & Tristan da Cunha
Area: 420km2 • Population: 5,530 Straddling the Tropic of Capricorn, 2,000 miles of ocean separates the most southerly archipelago, Tristan da Cunha, from civilisation (Cape
Town, South Africa or northerly Ascension are the nearest populations). Edinburgh, the capital, is the most remote settlement in the world, with 80 families sharing eight surnames, which must make life confusing – many descended from William Glass whose 19th-century system of communal ownership still thrives. Saint Helena, Napoleon’s place of exile and British since 1659, is home to a staggering 502 unique animals and plants. Residents are known as ‘Saints’, although only in name, judging from last year’s press headlines highlighting an ingrained culture of child sex abuse. With no sustainable economy, the UK hopes to stop the brain drain and promote tourism with the BOT’s first civilian airport, opening next year. One of the world’s five GPS satellite ground stations is located on Ascension (population 259), where Britain and America maintain RAF, space and signals intelligence bases.
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U SO TH L AT A N C TI
South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands Area: 4,006km2 Population: 30, none permanent Part of the Falklands until 1985 and once an important
whaling station, fur seals and birds outnumber humans on this research base which has no native population and so, no elected government. The current inhabitants are a British Government Officer, Deputy Postmaster and British Antarctic Survey scientists and staff. Although remote and inhospitable, cruise tourism has taken off since the Falklands War, when South Georgia was briefly occupied by Argentinean troops. The most legendary signal of the conflict read: ‘Be pleased to inform Her Majesty that the White Ensign flies alongside the Union Jack in South Georgia. God save the Queen.’
U SO TH F CI PA IC
The Pitcairn Islands
Area: 45km2 • Population: 48 The residents of the world’s least populous democracy are descendents of the nine mutineers and
assorted Polynesian girlfriends and crew on board the HMS Bounty. They dropped anchor here in 1790, sinking the ship to cover their tracks, vestiges of which were discovered in 1957. Only Pitcairn, in this remote four-island group southeast of Tahiti, is inhabited. A British colony since 1838, home-stay tourism is the principal economy. The locals speak Pikern, a creole language taught alongside English at the only school. Neighbouring Henderson Island is a UNESCO World Heritage site for its biodiversity but a serpent lurks in this garden of Eden. In 2004, six Pitcairners (one third of the male population) were jailed for running a paedophile ring. Today, under-16s need a special permit to visit and UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office staff may not bring their families.
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BA SE S RY IT A IL M
The British Indian Ocean Territory (THE INDIAN OCEAN)
Area: 46km2 • Population: 3,000 The youngest BOT, dating from 1965, its 1,000+ tropical islands and atolls are distant neighbours to The Maldives, and just
as beautiful. They have been off-limits to tourists since Britain annexed them from Mauritius and set up a joint air and naval base with America on Diego Garcia, the most southerly island. Occupied only by military and research staff, the base was used extensively during the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Mauritius and the 2,000 native inhabitants who were evicted want their home back but Britain thwarted their efforts in 2010 by declaring the territory a protected marine reserve.
The British Antarctic Territory (THE ANTARCTIC)
Area: 1,709,400km2 • Population: 50 (winter) to 400 (summer) The largest BOT by far is also the most inhospitable, a triangular wedge of Antarctica with the
South Pole at its apex, covered by a permanent ice sheet up to three miles thick. Inhabited by seven species of penguin, six types of seal and a transient population of research scientists, the territory is inaccessible from March to October but special interest tourism brings some 40,000 visitors each summer. It has its own British Post Office and is largely self-financing through the sale of stamps to collectors. Other nations have claims to the territory overlapping Britain’s. Argentina strongly objected to the renaming of the southern part Queen Elizabeth Land as part of the 2012 Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
Akrotiri & Dhekelia, Cyprus (EUROPE)
Area: 255km2 • Population: 14,000 These two sovereign military bases were retained in 1960 when
Cyprus gained independence, allowing Britain to keep a strategic foothold in the eastern Mediterranean. Akrotiri, near Limassol, and Dhekelia, near Larnaca, support an RAF station and British garrisons, and the population is divided 50:50 between British military personnel and their families and native Cypriots who work on the bases or farm in the area. The only BOT with a euro currency, there is no automatic right to British citizenship. The bases have their own legal system aligned to Cypriot law and, with no elected government, the Commander of British Forces Cyprus acts as the territory’s Administrator. e
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THE LOCAL literature
Gibraltar
The festival represents bookloads of opportunity for authors
LITERALLY
Lord Byron thought it ‘detestable’, Coleridge found it suffocating, Anthony Burgess labelled it ‘an emblem of waste and loneliness’… Writers who saw the Rock in its grey garrison days didn’t have many good words to say about it. If only they could return to earth for next month’s Gibunco Gibraltar Literary Festival to see it now! It would be a treat for the festival’s expected 50+ authors and hundreds of book fans to meet these literary legends and hear them eat their words! WORDS BELINDA BECKETT PHOTOGRAPHY DAVID CUSSEN AND COURTESY OF THE GIBRALTAR GOVERNMENT
I
t’s that time of year again when there’s autograph potential on every street corner in Gibraltar. From November 12-15, over 50 renowned and best-selling authors will descend on the Rock to sign copies of their new books and give gripping talks in iconic buildings. This year you might spot Dame Esther Rantzen of That’s Life fame shopping in Main Street, or a party of university professors touring Gibraltar’s own groves of academe – the new university at Europe
Point. Authors love to mingle, listen and observe – it might make a plot for their next novel. For one long weekend, top writers will almost become part of the fabric of the city, whether that’s enjoying a waterfront drink at Ocean Village, strolling in splendid Commonwealth Park or sampling Gibraltarian cuisine, written about in three new books since the Gibraltar Literary Festival first started, and counting… Many authors visiting Gibraltar
have been similarly inspired over the centuries although, in Daniel Defoe’s case, not by the food. The Robinson Crusoe author didn’t think much of the grub although, as he was writing a pamphlet on the 13th Siege (1727), when commodities were scarce, it’s no surprise he found the ‘mutton from the Barbary Coast poor thin stuff without any fat’ and the wine, though ‘cheap at five pence a pint,
so miserably bad that in England we should have thought it dear at two pence a quart...’ John Drinkwater, the British officer who founded the Garrison Library and wrote about the 14th and last Siege (1779-1783) had other phobias: ‘The scorpions, centipedes and other venomous reptiles which abound among the rocks and the old buildings’.
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Literary lineup: Novelists Kate Mosse, Joanne Harris and Lucy Atkins with critic Erica Wagner in the chair
Monkey Business
CM Fabian Picardo at Blenheim with HRH the Duke of Gloucester (left) and Prof Andrew Lambert who will give this year’s Gibraltar Lecture
Gibraltar’s Barbary macaques were a more appealing form of wildlife, motivating ‘Father of Science Fiction’ Jules Verne to pen Gil Braltar, an irreverent lampoon on the British garrison, thought very disrespectful at the time. ‘Gibraltar captured by the apes. A short story to write’, Verne noted in his diary as he rounded the east face of the Rock, marvelling that there was ‘no finer sight in the world!’ His satirical tale concerns a minor and demented Spanish nobleman with ape-like features called Gil Braltar who reckoned his name gave him a claim to the territory. He dresses up in a monkey skin and leads the macaques in a rebellion against the garrison and its ‘General MacKackmale’. In spite of this wicked story, which was only complimentary to the monkeys, the author of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Around the World in Eighty Days found much to admire in Gibraltar. He visited it twice, in 1878 and 1884, aboard his own luxuriouslyappointed steam yacht. According to one of his biographers, he got rather drunk on the latter visit after consuming too many cocktails in the Officer’s Mess! Then, as now, the monkeys were a curiosity to all-comers and Mark Twain came up with his own theory for why they never leave Gibraltar: loyalty! He bases it on the fact that there are
no monkeys left high and dry in Spain today, as there must once have been when the Mediterranean dried out and then re-flooded (one of the reasons given for the presence of macaques in Gibraltar). ‘The hills in Africa, across the channel, are full of apes, and there are now, and always have been, apes on the rock of Gibraltar – but not elsewhere in Spain!,’ he writes in his travel book, The Innocents Abroad. ‘The subject is an interesting one. Of course those apes could travel around in Spain if they wanted to, and no doubt they do want to; and so, how sweet it is of them, and how self-denying, to stick to that dull rock, through thick and thin, just to back up a scientific theory. Commend me to a Gibraltar ape for pure unmitigated unselfishness and fidelity to Christian principle.’ Twain based his best-selling travel book on a sea tour of Europe and the Holy Land with a group of American travellers in 1867. Stopping off in Gibraltar where they ‘rode on asses and mules up the steep, narrow streets’, Twain rhapsodised over ‘soft-eyed Spanish girls from San Roque’ and ‘veiled Moorish beauties from Tarifa’ but was less impressed by the view of the Rock from the isthmus: ‘suggestive of a gob of mud on the end of a shingle.’
Young book fan introduces Chocolat author Joanne Harris to a Gibraltar monkey
Outgoing Governor Jim Dutton and his wife Elizabeth will miss this year’s festival
Steve Hogarth of British rock band Marillion set his autobiography to music last year
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Kings Chapel is one of the iconic venues
La Lipman is back for a second year
Author John Hopkins back in his element last year
Swarthy Moors & Spanish Guitars
Clockwork Soldier
No doubt Lord Byron would have sympathised. The poet and aesthete dismissed Gibraltar as ‘the dirtiest and most detestable spot in existence’ when he visited during a Grand Tour of Europe from 1809 to 1811. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, stopping off for five days in 1804, complained that the levanter cloud made him ill with ‘a sense of suffocation’ that caused his tongue ‘to go furry white and his pulse quick and low’. The Rock reminded him of ‘a rude statue of a lion couchant… the lion’s head towards the Spanish, his stiffened tail to the African coast.’ He was also fascinated by the locals. ‘I could fill a fresh sheet with the description of the singular faces, dresses, manners, etc., etc., of the Spaniards, Moors, Jews (who have here a peculiar dress resembling a college dress).’ Novelist William Makepeace Thackeray was equally beguiled by the ‘swarthy Moors, in white or crimson robes; dark Spanish smugglers in tufted hats, with gay silk handkerchiefs round their heads; fuddled seamen from men-of-war, and at every few minutes’ interval, little squads of soldiers tramping to relieve guard at some one of the innumerable posts in the town. ‘ He also observed: ‘From the Jolly Sailor or the Brave Horse Marine, where the people of our own nation are drinking British beer and gin, you hear choruses of Garry Owen or The Lass I left behind me; while through the flaring lattices of the Spanish ventas come the clatter of castanets and the jingle and moan of Spanish guitars and ditties.’
One century later, conditions on Anthony Burgess’s ‘emblem of waste and loneliness’ hadn’t sufficiently improved to impress the author of A Clockwork Orange, who also noted the town’s ‘carious yellow stucco, wooden lattices shutting in bugs, stink, babies…’ Burgess was stationed in Gibraltar for three years during WW2 as a teacher in the Army Educational Corps, translating his experiences into a humorous novel. A Vision of Battlements chronicles the misadventures of the profligate and married Sergeant Richard Ennis (‘sinner’, spelt backwards) who indulges in drinking, womanising and general insubordination. The book is a colourful insight into garrison life as well as the character of Burgess himself, who admitted it was ‘as autobiographical as a book can get’. Burgess also wrote music, including an overture called Gibraltar. When he first arrived on the Rock, he was ‘empty of music but itching to create. So I wrote this novel... to see if I could clear my head of the dead weight of Gibraltar.’ Authors seeing the Rock today, demobbed and transformed from military uniform to civvies, will have little reason to disparage it or dip their pens in poison. As Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told book fans in Britain when he introduced the Gibraltar Lecture at Blenheim Literary Festival in September, “Our history is as a garrison and fortress but our future is not to be confused with our impenetrable city walls. We are the opposite, in fact. We are an open and modern European city.” From the very first literary festival two years ago, organisers were delighted by the eagerness of top authors to spend a long expenses-paid weekend in Gibraltar. Cookery queen Madhur Jaffrey came twice, fulfilling a childhood ambition to visit Gibraltar since the liner bringing her family from India to London
called in but didn’t allow passengers off. Actress/ comedienne Maureen Lipman will be coming back for second helpings this year. Broadcaster Peter Snow came for the first festival to revisit “a precious part of my life”. He lived in Gibraltar for three years during the 1950s, when his father was Deputy Fortress Commander, and recalls happy days of “sailing, climbing, walking, exploring every corner of the Rock, and of course enjoying the night life which I remember as second to none.” John Hopkins, author of The Tangier Diaries who made his debut last year, thought the festival “a terrific success. In Gibraltar I felt I was back in my element, speaking Spanish and soaking up those balmy, Mediterranean temperatures.” This year, there will be many new faces at the festivals as well as revisiting authors and other names went to press. still to be announced as But whoever else is on the literati list, one thing’s certain – if you don’t recognise at least one well-known writer in Gibraltar this month, book that appointment at Specsavers!
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Direct access It’s is important to us that our clients have direct access to their relationship managers. Therefore we have no call centers. Instead, each of our clients has their own personal relationship manager who they can contact anytime - to quickly make good decisions. There are no obstacles or barriers between us. Welcome to a bank out of the ordinary.
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There is nothing like a Dame…
Festival headliner Dame Esther Rantzen
Royal expert Ingrid Seward
…especially when her name’s Dame Esther Rantzen. The charity champion and host of TV’s That’s Life for 21 years will add cachet to a glittering literary line-up booked for the third chapter of the Gibunco Gibraltar Literary Festival (November 12-15). preview belinda beckett Photography HM Government of Gibraltar
I
t’s being billed as the biggest and best literary festival yet, and it will also be the longest, extended to four days from three due to its sell-out success last year. Distinguished novelists, historians, biographers, food writers and public figures from Britain, America, North Africa and Asia will come together to give bookworms the inside story on culture, art, politics, gastronomy, history and the people who made it, from South African icon Nelson Mandela to Soviet spy Guy Burgess and the artist Turner. If you want to know what really goes on behind Buckingham Palace’s porticos, bag your tickets for Ingrid Seward. TV’s royal expert and editor of Majesty magazine is intimate with regal matters in Britain, Europe and the world, and has published 20 books on her specialist subject, including The Queen & Di – The Untold Story and William & Harry – The People’s Princes. Talking of secrets, who better to share insights into Ethiopia’s last Emperor, Haile Selassie, than a member of his family? Political analyst Prince AsfaWossen Asserate, the African leader’s great-nephew, is the author of Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation, the book that inspired the 2009 Clint Eastwood film Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman. The Prince will also have some interesting titbits about the Emperor’s stay in Gibraltar’s Rock Hotel in 1936 en route to exile in Britain. Fans of the irrepressible Maureen Lipman will be delighted to welcome back the versatile actress known to millions
as Beattie in the BT TV commercials. Maureen, who has authored several books herself, wowed the crowds at last year’s festival with her witty monologues and returns with more of her sharp observations on life. An undoubted highlight will be the chance to meet Dame Esther Rantzen, making her festival debut at 75 to share experiences from her lifelong involvement with charity. From 1973 until 1994 she was a wellloved fixture on BBC TV as anchor of the popular public watchdog programme That’s Life. While the show had its satirical moments, its investigative journalism rocked political boats and changed policies. One programme featuring a toddler who starved to death in a locked bedroom prompted Dame Esther to set up Childline in 1986, the free 24-hour phone counselling service for youngsters which promises that no child’s call goes unanswered. She founded The Silver Line helpline for the elderly in 2012. She must also devote a fair bit of time to dusting off her medals and awards: an OBE for services to broadcasting (1991), a CBE (2006) for her work with children, honorary doctorates from six universities, a Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Film and Television and BAFTA’s Dimbleby Award for factual presentation. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her charity work this year. Author Rachel Billington (daughter of Lord Longford and sister of historical novelist Lady Antonia Fraser) and crime novelist Felix Francis (son of the prolific
Dick Francis) will also be taking the podium. A panel discussion on ‘Brexit’ – Britain’s possible exit from the EU – and its potential implications for Gibraltar, chaired by King Juan Carlos I of Spain’s biographer Dr Charles Powell, will add a dash of topical cut-and-thrust. The festival will again be based at historic venues around Gibraltar, with the Garrison Library as HQ and base for the festival bookshop, open from November 11-16. The companion Schools’ Festival (November 12-13) will include events for primary children for the first time when Tom Moorhouse, author of The River Singers and its sequel The Rising, will be among the stars enchanting youngsters with his colourful array of rodent characters. Last year saw 20 top authors going into secondary schools to talk to over 1,000 children. This year’s festival is now on course to smash last year’s record of over 4,000 ticket sales – 79 per cent up on the first Festival in 2013. “The literary festival is going from strength to strength with each successive edition,” said Minister for Tourism, Samantha Sacramento. “It forms part of the Gibraltar Government’s event-led tourism policy, which we have worked hard to promote, and which has proved such a success in opening up the Rock as a major cultural venue to the rest of Europe.” i For tickets and news of writers and events (some still to be announced) see www.gibraltarliteraryfestival.com
OTHER FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS John Goodall, Editor of Country Life, will talk about the rural lifestyle magazine celebrating its 118th anniversary this year, and its history of architectural coverage. British military hero Thomas Edward Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, will feature in the talk by Anthony Sattin, an expert on the Middle East and author of several travel books. A feast is in store for those interested in the ‘inside’ take on some of the world’s iconic figures. Andrew Lownie will present his biography of Soviet spy Guy Burgess, Stalin’s Englishman; acclaimed JMW Turner biographer, James Hamilton, will talk on Turner in Gibraltar; Frank Close, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and author of The Divided Life of Bruno Pontecorvo, Physicist or Spy, will shed light on the enigmatic genius caught up in the tensions of the Cold War, and his pioneering work on atomic energy. Peace activist Scilla Elworthy will give an insight into her work in diplomatic hot-spots, which has won her three Nobel Peace Prize nominations. She worked on establishing ‘The Elders’ with Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter. Italian Renaissance painting will come under the exacting lens of Dr Caroline Campbell, curator at the National Gallery and an expert on Gentile Bellini and Renaissance Florence. e
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THE LOCAL people The Horsehead (right) and Flame (left) are two prominent nebulae present in the winter night sky, 1,350 light years away. The brightest star is Alnitak, the left-most star in Orion’s Belt.
He’s a galactic paparazzo whose hobby shooting real stars has gone supernova in just four years. Today Kayron Mercieca is one of the planet’s top astrophotography gurus, consulted online worldwide for his tips and techniques. As Gibraltar Astrological Society gets set for its 30th anniversary in 2016, Belinda Beckett meets the cosmic cameraman whose pictures of deep space are literally out of this world.
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ayron Mercieca is showing me his prize-winning Rosette Nebula, a swirling red Remembrance Day poppy-shaped gas cloud set against the starlit background of the Milky Way. It’s the shot that got him to the finals of the 2013 Royal Greenwich Observatory’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest – one of 20 images shortlisted from 12,000 global entries – a stellar result for a novice in his first year of astrophotography. The image is ‘cosmic’ just to look at. What I can’t get my head around is that the Rosette Nebula is 5,000 light years from earth, meaning it took 5,000 years for the light to travel here. In other words, this deep space image dates from the Bronze Age! Having never got much beyond the science of fulcrums at school, I was nervous about meeting my first astrophysicist. Kayron has three Science Masters degrees and a list of
KAYRON MERCIECA
Shooting Star PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF KAYRON MERCIECA
letters longer than a comet’s tail after his name. But he’s not your stereotypical science boffin. He doesn’t spout unintelligible jargon, he doesn’t wear coke-bottle specs – “Just coke bottle contact lenses,” he jokes – and he only turned 29 in August. He also has the patience of a saint – a star quality in an astrophotographer. It can take 15 hours – from setting up the shoot outdoors to post-production – to capture one great image of deep space. But what really sets this shooting star apart from others in the astrophotography firmament is his gift for explaining stuff that goes over most people’s heads in a down-toearth way. It’s a calling that lured him out of the research laboratory and into the classroom, four years ago, after eight years of university life in Nottingham and London. Midway through his PhD in Plasma Physics (don’t ask) he returned with his wife Isabel and their cat to his native Gibraltar to take up a post at Bayside School, teaching Physics and Maths to A Level students. He’s also one of only three Further Maths teachers on the Rock
and proud of his student’s record of As, Bs and an A Star last summer. But Kayron’s classroom extends way beyond the Rock’s territorial waters. He’s among the planet’s top online astrophotography gurus and his written and video tutorials on how, when and with what to shoot stars, are consulted by hobbyists worldwide. His website, Light Vortex Astronomy, receives 700 hits a day and recently welcomed its 300,000th visitor. That’s meteoric success at faster than the speed of light, considering this self-taught astrophotographer only took up the hobby three years ago. “The biggest challenge for me was going from knowing next to nothing about photography to being able to explain to the layman everything you need to take into account in deep space photography,” says Kayron, who answers up to 20 email queries a week via the GAS (Gibraltar Astrological Society) website and his own. I’m gratified to know that the funniest question – ‘Can I shoot in daylight?’ – is one even I know the answer to! But there’s way more to it than setting your camera to autofocus and pressing a button. Kayron, who
finds terrestrial photography boring, likes to do it the hard way, shooting in black and white through colour filters for a Nasa-quality result. “I love highly-technical subjects and astrophotography is hard core, a really steep learning curve. That and the astronomical cost of equipment puts a lot of people off,” explains Kayron who has lavished a cool £20,000 on his gear. It includes a heavy duty tripod, three astrophotography telescopes, two cameras (one with a cooler on the sensor to cut out camera noise), mount with motors (to counteract the earth’s rotation, otherwise you get star trails rather than pinpointclear images), computer software to control it all remotely from his laptop, and a programme called PixInsight (Photoshop on steroids) to finesse the final image. As every picture is generally made up of 40 to 60 exposures, and every exposure may take five-to-15 minutes to shoot, it requires a very long day to produce one image – and that’s providing Gibraltar’s pesky Levanter cloud doesn’t bubble up and spoil everything. But on a clear night, you’ll find Kayron loading his equipment into his car and driving
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to GAS HQ at O’Hara’s Battery, 420 metres above the smog belt well away from light pollution, to set up for a session. The time factor, and Kayron’s perfectionist streak, explains why he only has half a dozen photographs he’s really satisfied with. He must be a Virgo! Except – of course – he doesn’t believe in astrology, he’s a scientist! Although he definitely believes we are not alone. “There are billions of galaxies, each with their own planets, moons and up to 400 billion stars,” he says. “There can be no statistical doubt that there are other life forms out there but we can be absolutely certain life can’t be explained
Tools of the trade
through 12 star signs.” Kayron has been fascinated by deep space since he saw the moon change from full to crescentshaped and thought it must be broken! At six he knew all about the lunar phases and was reaching for the stars, using his older brothers’ telescope. Today the infinite nature of the universe still fills him with wonder and has taught him never to sweat the small stuff. “It’s very humbling to think we’re just one small rock spinning in one of billions of galaxies, although I would still like to do my bit to safeguard our own planet while I’m on it,” he adds. Kayron prefers photographing nebulae to planets, which come out as “dull smudges”. These interstellar clouds of space dust particles and gases… hydrogen, oxygen, helium, sulphur… emit light in all colours of the spectrum, depending on their chemical composition. Kayron might photograph them in their true colours or play with false colours to bring out details not normally seen. Astrophotography is an art as much as a science. The nebulae are named after the amazing shapes they form as they twist and
The iconic Orion Nebula in the ‘sword’ of the Orion constellation is 1,344 light years away and one of the brightest nebulae in the winter night sky
billow slowly through space: the Cat’s Eye, the Elephant’s Trunk, the Pelican. Because they’re so vast – some of them hundreds of light years in diameter – they are invisible to the naked eye, but even through a telescope, we will never notice them change shape in our lifetime, a pretty awesome thought. Kayron could set coordinates on his computer to take two photographs of the same ‘patch’ of night sky, decades apart, and they would look identical. Thanks to this phenomenon of physics, he can photograph different sections of the heavens and stitch them together in a ‘mosaic’ to showcase the ‘big picture’ – every astrophotographer’s Holy Grail. Next month he plans to create a six-image mosaic of the Orion Nebula, the closest massive star formation to earth which can be seen in this part of the world in December. He’s also got the Gemini meteor shower to look forward to at the end of the month – two Christmas presents in one. So, this festive season, while you’re admiring your tinsel star on top of the tree, Kayron will be at the top of the windswept Rock, photographing real ones. Let’s just hope Santa does him a favour and keeps the Levanter cloud away! i Further information lightvortexastronomy.blogspot.com
The Rosette Nebula, 5,200 light years away, has a mass 10,000 times greater than our home star, the sun
30
Astronomical Years Stargazers can look forward to some exciting events down on earth in Gibraltar next year. It’s nearly three decades since Halley’s Comet lit up the night sky, a momentous event that was the catalyst for the formation of Gibraltar Astronomical Society in 1986. Since then, stellar scientists like Sir Patrick Moore, Heather Cooper and Nigel Henbest have given talks on the Rock so watch out for some big names headed this way as the Society celebrates its 30th birthday. To kick-start the anniversary events programme, next month (December), committee member Kayron Mercieca is planning a photographic exhibition showcasing his own work and that of the Society’s five other astrophotographers. The Society also begins the New Year with a new clubhouse at O’Hara’s Battery, gifted by the MoD and Gibraltar’s Ministry of Culture along with a grant to equip it. “It’s a fantastic vantage point for astrophotographers and with mains electricity, a TV and a kettle it means we can pursue our hobby in a lot more comfort,” says Kayron. A registered charity, GAS has some 50 active members and is aimed at anyone interested in all things celestial whether as observers, scientists or photographers. i For further information see
www.gibastrosoc.org
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THE LOCAL people
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indsay Lohan, and Leonardo DiCaprio play it; Antarctic scientists challenge opponents on the other side of the world to online games of it to avoid going round the Pole with boredom; in business America, it’s even overtaking golf as the new required social skill. That’s the parlour game of backgammon which has been popular, on and off, since Ancient Persian times. Now, with nearly as many amateur club players as football and chess, it could also be a game-changer for Gibraltar. Over four days next February, some 120 of Europe’s top players are expected to join Gibraltarian aficionados in mind games across an oddly-patterned board for a share of a £50,000 prize pot. The 1st Gibraltar International Backgammon Tournament, hosted by the Caleta Hotel next February 1114, will be the first leg of a European Tour taking place in Copenhagen in March and Cyprus in November, with
a bigger cash prize for the overall winner. And it will all be repeated again in 2017 and 2018. “Our aim is to establish the tournament as one of the prestigious events in the backgammon calendar by year two, which should allow us to bid for the European Backgammon Championship in 2018,” says Franco Ostuni, MD of the Caleta Hotel. “We are extremely grateful to the Gibraltar Government and the Ministry of Sport and Culture for committing to three years.” Backgammon is part of Gibraltar’s bigger game plan of attracting tourists and filling hotel beds year-round with a glittering calendar of festivals that have already made Gibraltar the goto place for chess in January, darts in March, live music in September and literature in November. If becoming the 24th member of the European Backgammon Federation was a strong opening gambit in the strategy, securing a trio of tournaments and Federation
Chairman Steen Grønbech to direct the first was a masterful follow-up move. “The tournament will be run to a very high standard,” promises Franco. “Steen has directed five backgammon world championships, as well as the Nordic Open in Copenhagen which attracts in excess of 400 participants over Easter weekend. Ours will also be the first tournament to waive registration fees for participants so we expect it to generate a lot of interest.” The odds of backgammon taking off on the Rock are almost a foregone conclusion, thanks to the success of the Tradewise Chess Festival, also hosted by the Caleta Hotel and now in its 13th year. Twice named World’s Best Open by the Association of Chess Professionals, this year’s event (January 25-February 4) will bring more than 300 players from 59 chess federations to Gibraltar to show off their maverick manoeuvres and edgy end games.
“There has been a rebirth of backgammon in recent years, thanks to several prestigious world tournaments,” says Franco. “Today, registered backgammon players to federations are the 3rd largest in number after footballers and chess players.” Not only do most chess players also play backgammon; chess boards often have backgammon on the back, also one of several explanations for the name of a game that has nothing to do with cured pork! It’s more sociable than chess, where every move is played in ponderous silence. During the Tradewise Chess Tournament, mobile phones must be switched off and even clocks aren’t allowed to tick! Backgammon is fastermoving and noisier, with checkers being slammed down, players ‘kibitzing’ (commenting on games – backgammon has its own language) and the rattlesnake trill of dice being shaken in cups.
Backgammon Backgammon is enjoying a new wave of world popularity and Gibraltar is ‘on board’ to ride the tide. WORDS BELINDA BECKETT PHOTOGRAPHY JAYDEN FA
Mania
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Each player gets 15 circular counters, aka ‘draughts’, ‘checkers’ and ‘men’, and shake two dice to race them along the board’s triangular ‘points’. The object is to be first to move all your checkers home and off the board (‘bear them off’, in backgammonspeak) to win the game. Although dice add an element of chance, match play involves a series of games where strategy and tactics sort the amateurs from the pros. Mentioned in ancient Persian writings dating from 6AD, backgammon has been around longer than chess, which originated 1,500 years ago in India. Themed on the cosmos – the 12 points on each side of the board represent the months of the year and hours in the day, the 30 chequers days of the month, their colours day and night – the modern game is, arguably, as British as Gibraltar! The first rule book setting out the etiquette and protocol which the world follows today was written in 1743 by Edmond Hoyle, an Englishman! Backgammon has fallen in and out of fashion, making its last comeback during the 1970s thanks to flamboyant Russian Prince Alexis Obolensky and his book, Backgammon: The Action Game, which linked it to royalty, wealth and exclusivity with the slogan ‘king of games and game of kings’. The 1983 movie Octopussy kept up the momentum when millions watched Roger Moore’s James Bond defeat Louis Jourdan’s arch criminal,
Kamal Khan, in a backgammon needle match. Leonardo DiCaprio, Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller are among current celebrities who find backgammon addictive. Indeed, according to Hollywood gossip columnists, so many stars are demanding backgammon boards in their trailers on set that directors are blaming the obsession for costly filming delays. In America it’s even taking over from golf as the game for mixing business with pleasure. There are many famous ‘characters’ in the game, too, and Franco Ostuni is looking forward to meeting them. “Personally I was very taken with Akiko Yazawa from Japan, only the third female in history to become World Champion last year. Winning the title was particularly meaningful because it came after Akiko won her battle against cancer. We expect her to be in Gibraltar next February.” “We have also established a prize for female players,” adds Franco. “A balance of male and female players is important for the social success of the tournament.” Matches will be live-streamed over the internet to an audience of millions while, outside the competition, there will be master classes, blitz tournaments, a lunch in St. Michael’s Cave and complementary Rock tours. With chess and darts, too, competitive board game players can look forward to interesting times in Gibraltar in 2016, dice or no dice.
i To register for the tournament see www.gibraltarbackgammon.com
Backgammon Bites Z Backgammon may be as British as Gibraltar! Experts can’t decide whether the name comes from the Welsh bac cammaun (little battle), or the Anglo Saxon baec gamen (back game). But there’s no argument that an Englishman drew up the modern rule book. Z Cary Grant, Joan Crawford and Fred
Astaire were among the Hollywood stars addicted to backgammon during the 1930s, one of its many heydays. Z The world’s biggest backgammon board was created in a field under Gatwick Airport flight path to promote the first million-dollar backgammon tournament (The Bahamas, 2007). It measured 100,000 square feet and
took six people four days and 4,000 litres of paint to produce. Z Real-time online play began with the First Internet Backgammon Server (FIBS) in 1992. Z Artists in the Middle Ages associated backgammon with vice. Sinners are portrayed playing it in two apocalyptic works: Bosch’s The Garden
of Earthly Delights (1490) and Bruegel’s The Triumph of Death (1562). Z Naturalist Charles Darwin prescribed himself two games of backgammon nightly to combat insomnia. It is also said to increase cognitive skills and counter stress. Z 20 March 2016 is the next World Backgammon Day. e
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THE STYLE décor
MAN WITH A VISION
From left to right: Shanti Feuerlein, Project Manager; Frankwin Van Kleef, Owner and Director; Sara Tolnai, Project Manager; Dave Ridley, Office Manager and Alan McCoy, operational support
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here’s a swanky new restaurant in town where warm wood meets soft lighting and edgy brickwork. Grill 53 at Ocean Village has been turning heads ever since it opened in June, and not only for its mouth-watering menu. The décor is just as enticing, thanks to the vision of interior architect Frankwin van Kleef, MD of In Vision Design & Construction. Frankwin’s challenge was to give this former sports bar in Marina Bay a new ‘personality’ as a welcoming grill restaurant specialising in choice meat and fish dishes. In eight weeks he achieved a total transformation – not purely a cosmetic job but the whole DNA! He optimised the layout to increase tables and seating, introduced intimate dining alcoves with feature lighting and tactile velvet wall coverings, and replaced the cold marble floor with tiling that emulates
wood (cosy yet hygienic). The inviting fireplace, one of the inspired finishing touches, appears to be crackling with real flames, although it’s an illusion. Frankwin is the sole Gibraltar agent for Gazco wall-mounted electric fires which look like the real thing, without the smoke! Diners love the ambience, the staff can be effortlessly efficient in their functional new workspace and Frankwin’s clients are proud to own one of the most-admired new restaurants in town. The design works on all levels and everybody’s happy – a result Frankwin aspires to in all his projects, whether that’s reinventing the character of a restaurant or building a home from scratch. With 35 years experience in architectural design, this selftaught style guru has been putting his inimitable stamp on projects in
A design board for a kitchen demonstrates Frankwin’s vision
Belinda Beckett meets Gibraltar’s avant-garde interior architect Frankwin van Kleef. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF IN VISION DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION
g IN VISION,
25 City Mill Lane, Gibraltar. Tel: +350 200 63308. +350 5402 4415. Facebook: In Vision Design & Construction Ltd.
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Grill 53 at Ocean Village has been turning heads since its revamp by the In Vision team
Gibraltar since he arrived from his native Holland in 2009. He favours the natural and the organic and is the sole agent in southern Europe for Origineel Chapel Parket, the bees knees in real wood flooring. But materials needn’t cost the earth. Driftwood, common house bricks and naked light bulbs might just as easily find their way into his designs, which have a quirky-butclassy look although every concept is an ‘original’. “No two people are the same so I never copy something I’ve done before,” he tells me when I meet him at his office in Main Street – first left under the arch in City Mill Lane signposted ‘Medical Centre’ from days gone by. Well, he is a ‘doctor’ of design… and a busy one, with 25 projects currently on the go. Thankfully it’s not just me now, I have a team of 20 to help me,” he adds with evident relief. His office is also a showroom/ studio, or, more aptly, an Aladdin’s
Cave of decorative pieces that have caught Frankwin’s eye on his travels to Europe, America and the Far East – one of his passions: there are cushions upholstered in charming ethnic fabrics, quirky candlesticks, oriental wooden chests, a fabulous French farmhouse table, an Indian silver tureen with horned handles he picked up in New Delhi – every piece has a story to tell. Many are one-offs you’d never find two of (unless Frankwin bought the pair). Most will find a home in one of his design schemes. Visiting the shop to get inspiration for your own is an absolute must! Frankwin may not follow trends but he certainly sets them. Every item has the ‘wow I want one of those’ factor. “I get a lot of my inspiration walking through Amsterdam. The Dutch understand design and are not afraid to take risks to create something new,” he says. There is certainly something of
the avant-garde artist in Frankwin who admits that some of his offbeat ideas surprise clients at first – until they see how everything comes seamlessly together on the design boards. He compares his work to “assembling a jigsaw puzzle. Clients come to me brimming with ideas. I spread them all out, look at each one in turn, then fit them all together to create the finished picture.” He could even make you the jigsaw! He was an A-student in woodwork at school and learned other crafts of his trade along the way, together with the architect’s knowledge of how space should flow and what holds the roof up! “My first proper job was doing up a country house in France with a few friends,” he recalls. “It took us three years but we learned a lot and the property became a cultural centre,” he says proudly. Since arriving in Gibraltar he has revamped King’s Bastion bowling
alley, completed projects for the law firms Isolas and Hassans, decorated a septet of mansions in Sotogrande and built homes in Europe and America. Satisfied customers have commented on his “unrivalled attention to detail” and “the relationships Frankwin builds with clients, getting to know their specific needs and tastes in order to maximise efficiency, style and layout.” Among his current projects, he is working on two home refurbishment projects in the exclusive South District and one in Town Range, as well as fitting out a gymnasium next to his shop. When time allows, he favours the Spanish way of doing business – talking out ideas over a simple lunch around that inviting French farmhouse table. “With a nice glass of wine,” adds Frankwin – although he will be duty-bound to work off the calories later. That next-door gym is run by his wife! e
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THE STYLE fashion
THE MAKERS OF
Fashion
come in all shapes and The greatest fashion designers entric or outrageous – ecc e, forms – stylish, creativ a major role in the but collectively they have played t and present. WORDS MICHEL CRUZ appearance of generations pas
d • Ma nolo Bla hnik • Jean Paul
Gaultier
© andersphoto / Shutterstock.com
er • Viv ien ne Westwoo Giorgio Ar mani • Tommy Hi lfig
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T
he world of fashion is dominated by artistic skill and creative flair, yes, but also by big personalities and a flamboyance that would be hard to maintain elsewhere. Some fashion designers have created empires of elegance and legendary brands of luxury, while others have focused on social street revolution or avant-garde eccentricity, but all have had a great deal of influence on how the look of successive generations has evolved into the present day – and ultimately how we ourselves approach subjects such as style and self-image in the way we dress and present ourselves to the world. Enveloped in a world of fabrics, silks, lace and leather, the fashion designer measures time not by the year but by the season, burdened with the pressure to create a collection that is not only stylish, seductive and fresh, but one that will blend critical acclaim and commercial success to further solidify his or her reputation. In an industry where reputation, and the associations of luxury and artistry it conjures up, is critical, the creation of an aura around the persona of the designer is the road to international success. To build an enduring fashion brand out of this initial spark is the stuff of legends.
The Creation of Legends The earliest fashion designers worked almost exclusively by commission for wealthy clients. They were essentially an extension of the tailor’s profession, for even luxury branded clothes collections did not appear until well into the 20th century, so the original famous fashion names we know today would have started out designing
one-off creations for ladies, gentlemen and their offspring. This is true of Jeanne Lanvin, one of the first fashion designers to make an international name for herself. Lanvin began as a designer of children’s clothing for the wealthy of Paris before the onset of the First World War, but before long she had opened a boutique on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. From here she attended to the world’s wealthy and stylish, and by the 1920s the famed Lanvin brand had been born. It continues to exude a sense of luxury and exclusivity to this day, and in this Jeanne Lanvin was among the first in a list of legendary names founded by fashion designers such as Thomas Burberry, Louis Vuitton, René Lacoste, Guccio Gucci, Pietro Loro Piana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ermenegildo Zegna, Maria ‘Nina’ Ricci and of course the inimitable Coco Chanel. Born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, ‘Coco’, as she famously came to be known, was to make an even more profound and lasting association with glamour and opulence. Her life was not only colourful, it ranged from bright to dark, her personality preceded her and she was one of the first fashion designers to capture the essence of style with her creations, founding a fashion brand that continues to rank among the very greatest legends of luxury. In the process, she also had a hand in delivering women from the constricting corset and infusing a greater sense of freedom and coquettishness.
© Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com
Natalie Portman, in a Lanvin dress
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Dior – still a calling card for haute couture
The Era of the Couturier
© FashionStock.com / Shutterstock.com
A model walks the runway at an Oscar De La Renta fashion show
© Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com
The road from the solitary skill of a fashion designer to the birth of a new fashion empire is an arduous one, reserved for only the most talented, ambitious and charismatic creative geniuses. The second generation of fashion designers to achieve this started their careers as young apprentices in the years before the Second World War, emerging in the post-war period as creators of beauty in a world still riddled with scars. Among them were Pierre Balmain, Hubert de Givenchy and Christian Dior, who would all create new legends within their lifetime. Where Balmain and Givenchy continued the old world tradition of exclusivity in the truest sense – catering to a discerning elite – Christian Dior would build upon the foundations of Chanel to create a fashion house that somehow symbolises elegance and opulence on a global scale. His collections came to embody the post-war ideal of style, as depicted by famous Hollywood stars such as Audrey Hepburn. For all their success as the angels of a new generation of beauty, these three couturiers all denied the title, claiming that they and all others were merely fashion designers, and the only true couturier, Cristóbal Balenciaga. Hailing from a fishing village in the Basque region, the great Balenciaga’s career was focused on Spain until the Civil War led him to set up shop on the Avenue George V in Paris. The fashion house that still bears his name continues to operate from the French capital, carefully retaining the link to a fashion legend who ranks among the few to be able to cut and sew his designs into works of high fashion. Among his other disciples, which also included Oscar de la Renta, Paco Rabanne would become the ‘enfant terrible’ of the fashion industry in the 1960s, ushering in a new phase in the evolution of the genre. Marion Cotillard, in silver sequin Christian Dior Couture gown
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Billboard featuring Victoria and David Beckham in an ad for Emporio Armani underwear. Located in the city’s trendy Meatpacking District © cdrin / Shutterstock.com
Fashion as Social Expression That evolution came in the form of the social revolution of the 1960s, as expressed in phenomena such as Pop Culture and Youth Culture. The world had been shocked by visions of Brigitte Bardot in a bikini some years before, but as the sixties gathered pace they would be shocked some more – partly thanks to upcoming young British designer Mary Quant, one of the people credited with the invention of new fashion items such as the miniskirt and hot pants. Until now fashion had been a rather serene and elegant affair, but with the social changes of the sixties came a whole new role for clothes – as an expression of a new generation and all it stood for. Street Fashion was born, and at designer level it was embodied by people like Quant, who gave the Mod and youth fashion movements a voice through a look that filtered into mainstream fashion and still affects it to this day. Indeed, the movement begun in the 1960s remains essentially the driving force of fashion in our own times, and has seen its continuation through eccentric designers such as Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier and Karl Lagerfeld, who all sought to shock with their avant-garde designs and outlandish personalities. This did not stop them from joining the mainstream fashion industry, however, where they worked side by side with more genteel designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, Gianni Versace and Giorgio Armani, who would go on to dominate and revive haute couture throughout much of the seventies and eighties. © Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com
Anne Hathaway, wearing an Armani Prive gown
A model walks on a Pierre Cardin catwalk © catwalker / Shutterstock.com
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© FashionStock.com / Shutterstock.com
Art or Industry?
Avant-garde footwear on an Alexander McQueen runway
The more recent era in fashion design has seen the continuation of the tradition of grand, eccentric personalities keen to shake up sensibilities with their outrageous designs, yet the industry, in keeping with most others, has also become increasingly corporate and businesslike. Many of the grand names built in the past continue to cast a spell of mystique and magic but are now owned by large corporations such as LVMH, Kering and Richemont. Designers such as Christian Lacroix, Thierry Mugler and Roberto Cavalli add an edge to their designs yet are as commercially engaged as designers such as Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Tom Ford, Donna Karan and Carolina Herrera, who have followed a more American model and turned their fashion brands into major corporations. Spain’s own Adolfo Domínguez and Manolo Blahnik are no strangers within this select group, as indeed are Japanese icons of design Kenzo Takada and Issey Miyake. To varying degrees, they have taken the world by storm, with Blahnik seducing a generation by making his exquisitely crafted shoes the stuff of dreams for women across the world. Though these are all fascinating creative geniuses in their own right, the eccentric tradition is carried on by people such as John Galliano – whose typically bohemian persona did not prevent him from becoming head designer at respected fashion houses such as Givenchy and Dior – and Alexander McQueen. McQueen’s eccentricity lay not in a particularly whacky personal presentation but in works that persistently pushed the boundaries and forced the public to re-evaluate its definition of visual beauty. Given his tragic death, it is tempting to conclude that his was a tortured genius with signals clear to see in some of his more stark and macabre designs, but, whatever your opinion of his work, the world lost one of its most talented contemporary designers with his passing.
Hotly desired – Manolo Blahnik shoes
Sarah Jessica Parker, in an Alexander McQueen Resort dress and Manolo Blahnik shoes
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A model walks the runway at Michael Kors during MercedesBenz Fashion Week Spring 2015 © FashionStock.com / Shutterstock.com
Democratising Couture If the modern fashion industry is a multi-billion commercial machine expressed through creativity, then it is also a major part of the design-led revolution that has seen top-end design descend upon the masses. Once the reserve of the rich and refined, design – and in this case couture – has become accessible to all. The exclusivity and quality of materials may vary tremendously, as does undoubtedly the standard of design, but the majority of people are no longer satisfied with clothes that merely serve a functional purpose. From fashion designer brands such as Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors to ‘antiestablishment’ street fashion, people, and in particular young people, have a heightened sense of style and demand to be impressed – so that they can impress. Today, designers such as Stella McCartney, Jade Jagger and Gok Wan have brought a sense of youthful possibility to the world of fashion design, ushering in another wave of young talents that will further break down the walls of exclusivity and mystique. Will this spell the end of the grand houses established on these principles decades ago? No, most likely their very exclusivity will continue to be cherished by many, but it won’t be long before you too could be able to create your own styles and, if they catch on, become an instant fashion designer in your own right. Modern technology and communication will revolutionise this industry without changing all of it, yet in doing so the influence and allure of the design geniuses that have fascinated and dressed people over the past hundred years will diminish, and perhaps they will again recede into the shadows of bespoke tailoring. For the present, we have some fantastic characters and creative talents to look back upon as we contemplate the waves of fashion that have shaped our present sense of form and style. e
Ralph Lauren’s first store in Paris, opened 1986 © cdrin / Shutterstock.com
Jennifer Aniston, wearing a Stella McCartney dress © Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com
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THE STYLE fashion
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THE STYLE blogs
Social media seems to have made an impact in every industry these days, from beauty and fashion right through to food, children’s products and games. When top brands like Dior or Armani start offering lucrative contracts to ‘ordinary bloggers’ with a following of millions, you realise that trends are being created in a whole new way: on the street, travelling across the wires and fibre optics that send eye-catching images straight to our computers and smartphones. Celebrities have taken a cue from the ordinary folk, setting up their own blogs, shopping sites and social media pages, in an effort to make the most of their fame. Marisa Cutillas discovers who’s who in the lifestyle game…
Gwyneth Paltrow
Celebrities AND THE CURATED LIFESTYLE
Ellen DeGeneres
G
oop by Gwyneth Paltrow: Love it or hate it (and many people across the globe do consider Paltrow’s blog to be elitist and out of touch), Goop is the grandma of lifestyle/fashion brands, with tips on hot crazes like ‘vaginal steaming’ and suggestions for the purchase of ridiculously priced antique items you probably neither want nor need (think a €650 book set or a €4.500 gold-plated juicer). It’s all about surrounding yourself with as many items and mantras as Gwyneth feels would make your life essentially ‘yours’. Paltrow doesn’t keep her musings to material matters; she also seeks to provide the path to greater spirituality, improved relationships and parenthood. We cringed a little when, in a long blog post, she referred to her divorce from Coldplay’s Chris Martin as “conscious uncoupling,” turning back to the Paleolithic age, to explain why breakups are no less than logical in this day and age. The post notes: “Modern society adheres to the concept that marriage should be lifelong; but when we’re living three lifetimes compared to early humans, perhaps we need to redefine the construct.
Social research suggests that… most people will have two or three significant long-term relationships in their lifetime.” Rather than a sign of failure, her site states that divorce is a ripe opportunity for “helping us evolve a psycho-spiritual spine, a divine endoskeleton made from conscious self-awareness.” Taking the baton from Paltrow is the younger, hipper Blake Lively, whose site, Preserve, aims to bring “the stories and creations of artisans” to everyday folk. “Meet the James bag,” her homepage screams out, for doesn’t everyone need an €800 euro baby bag to carry bottles and nappies for their precious little one? The item, made in “premium Horween leather” boasts an “imported RiRi zipper from Switzerland”. Many other celebrities have seemingly woken up to the fact that they are, as Lively says, “not just actors but also brands,” including Oscar winner, Reese Witherspoon, whose site, Draper James, features cute, girly wear clearly inspired by her southern upbringing. Witherspoon is doing her best to bring back stripes, gingham and plaid, though just in case you thought anybody could turn heads in Nashville, think again;
her gift ideas include four cocktail napkins for €76 and a flower-shaped bowl for €360. Celebrity blogs stem from an actor’s deep-seated personal interests, yet for normal people, it is very much a case of having Champagne taste and a beer budget. Interestingly, when asked once about other celebrity lifestyle blogs, Gwyneth Paltrow took offence. She told Time: “I wonder if George Clooney would be asked about Puff Daddy’s ancillary liquor line… You just keep going in hopes the story becomes not people pitting women against each other, which is not founded in truth. There’s no competition.” In fact, Daddy’s liquor business has been brought up in interviews with Clooney and in reality the interest has little to do with gender and more to do with a fascination in the impressive ways celebrities are taking over lifestyle and fashion. Savvy male entrepreneurs are also beginning to wake up to the power of personal branding; Snoop Dogg has just launched Merry Jane (a marijuana-themed media hub), while Stephen Colbert has created an hilarious parody brand called Covetton House, for The
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Reese Witherspoon Late Show. Says his YouTube entry: “Stephen isn’t just a celebrity, he’s a brand. Which means it’s high time he launched his own line of expensive, random things.” His aim is for “everyone to enjoy the same, one-of-a-kind, curated lifestyle.” Some of the hilarious items sold on his fictitious site include suede coasters for €160 (“for each set of one”) and a handcrafted hat stand (made from dozens of recycled hat stands) for €880. While he addresses his audience, Colbert playfully inhales the aroma of a “parmesan and absinthe scented candle.” The comedian clearly seems to be taking a dig at Paltrow, who retorted with a blog entry entitled 6 FailProof Tips for Launching a Men’s Lifestyle Site. Keen to capitalise on the humorous criticism levelled at her exotic beauty treatments, she suggests that Snoop and Colbert “get ahead of the curve and write about a growing craze among men, anal bleaching… gentle fruit acids will be applied to your balloon tie to lighten you up! You just might cause a sensation in the media (great for growing your subscriber base) and you certainly will cause one in your pants.” Another celebrity lifestyle guru with plenty of
Snoop Dogg
wit is Ellen de Generes, who recently launched ED (pronounced ‘Ed’ – the nickname Ellen’s wife, Portia de Rossi, has lovingly given her). Ellen may specialise in all things hilarious on her eponymous, 36-Emmy award winning TV show, but there is no doubt that she possesses a wicked sense of style, as her many homes, displayed on top home and lifestyle magazines, reveal. Recently, Ellen made a $15 million profit when she sold a refurbished mansion to social media billionaire, Sean Parker. The Napster founder was said to have been so impressed by Ellen’s sense of style, that he pressured her into selling the abode, though she supposedly wasn’t ready to part with it. “When I someday decide to stop doing the show,” she’s told the press, “my entire focus is going to be on design.” Ellen’s site is seemingly less condescending than those of her predecessors, and it could be related to the fact that she has absolutely no interest in preaching values. Although she now furnishes her home with fine trappings by the world’s most prestigious designers, she grew up in a string of rented homes, and told Vogue that she always dreamed of having her very
Blake Lively
own room one day: “I still understand that everyone should be able to have great design in their home, so let me do it in a more accessible way.” The presenter gets straight to the point, with a series of (sometimes affordable, sometimes more luxurious) items for online purchase: apparel, accessories, homeware, and more. One section we love is Ellen in NYC, featuring photographs of many of the people she hangs out with while out and about in New York (we spotted Pharrell, Justin Timberlake and Kanye West in her first series of photos). Stay tuned for Snoop Dogg’s Merry Jane, announced on September 21 and soon to hit your screens. Merry Jane will feature celebrity interviews, news about the cannabis industry and tips on how to pick the variety that best suits your taste. The site will also be rich in video content, featuring everything from first-time experiences to food pairing with cannabis, at just a click of the button. Snoop promises to provide a breath of fresh (cannabis-scented air) to those who agree that there’s no better person to curate your own lifestyle, than yourself! e
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THE SPA health
Magnificent
Moringa UPDATE
M
oringa Oleifera, commonly known as moringa, is referred to in many health journals as one of the most nutritious trees on the Planet. Boasting over 90 nutrients and more than 46 antioxidants, it plays an important role in Ayurvedic tradition and is widely used in warm and cold dishes alike, in India. Moringa is gaining ground as a supplement in many parts of the world and its magic isn’t limited to its leaves. Its seeds are used to produce hydrating moringa oil, while its fruits, known as ‘drumsticks’, are as deliciously sweet as they are healthy. Some of moringa’s plentiful benefits include:
ZZ Iron: Dried moringa leaves contain almost 10 times the amount of iron contained in spinach and other green, leafy vegetables. ZZ Fibre: Moringa leaves contain a considerably higher amount of fibre than foods such as oats. ZZ Calcium: In the Philippines, lactating mothers often take moringa to increase the amount of breast milk. Moringa contains over four times the amount of Calcium in milk, making it an ideal way to preserve bone health. Agriculture Business Week notes that the moringa leaf
has been promoted as an inexpensive health booster for third world countries. ZZ Potassium: Moringa leaves boast over twice the amount of potassium in bananas. ZZ Vitamins: Moringa contains high amounts of Vitamins A and C; in fact, it has seven times the amount of Vitamin C contained in oranges and four times the Vitamin A sourced from carrots. These powerful antioxidant vitamins help the body fight free radicals and stave off ageing and inflammation. Since inflammation is linked to heart disease, inexpensive, natural methods to keep the condition at bay are being welcomed by the international medical community. Moringa is particularly of interest because it promotes an increase in HDL (good cholesterol) levels, which ensure optimal heart health. Moringa also contains high amounts of Vitamins B2, B3 and B6, and Vitamins D, E and K. ZZ Protein: Moringa contains twice the amount of protein in yoghurt, making it an excellent vegan source of this musclebuilding component. ZZ Heart-healthy compounds: Researchers have discovered at least 19 specific nutritional
compounds in moringa which promote heart health. These include Alpha-carotene, Betacarotene, Beta-sitosterol, Carotenoids, Chlorophyll, Cystine, EFAs, Flavonoids, Glutathione, Methionine, Niacin, Niaziminins A & B, Quercetin, Selenium, and Vitamins A, B2, B3, B6, C, and E. ZZ Anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties: Moringa is often taken to fight off infections such as herpes. ZZ Anti-cancer properties: Moringa has chemo-preventive properties owing to its high quotient of phenolic compounds, quercetin and kaempferol. One study has shown that one of its bioactive compounds, niaziminin, can halt the development of cancer cells, while moringa extracts have chemomodulatory effects on various types of cancer, including ovarian cancer.
Marisa Cutillas discovers what makes the ancient moringa tree, which grows abundantly in southeast Asia and Africa, such a powerful ally for staving off disease…
ZZ Liver health: Research has shown that moringa leaves can aid in staving off liver damage caused by anti-tubercular drugs and they can also accelerate the recovery process. Powerful phytochemicals such as catechin and epicatechin have a protective effect on the liver. ZZ Healthy skin: Moringa helps skin cells detoxify, thus neutralising the effect of harmful pollutants and chemicals found in everyday skincare products. The vibrantly hued leaves are rich in protein, which helps stave off the damage caused by heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium. ZZ Diabetes treatment: Studies have shown that moringa helps reduce the amount of blood
glucose and urine sugar in test subjects, improving hemoglobin levels and total protein counts of diabetics. The benefits of the moringa tree extend way beyond the health sector. Studies have shown that extracts from its seeds can be used for water purification and in February this year, a groundbreaking study showed that they can be used to separate different materials. This is of particular interest to the mining industry, where separation processes are key. The discovery of moringa’s ability to bind to specific particles in water reduces the need for expensive synthetic chemicals, once again proving that moringa is a ‘plant for all seasons’. e
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the good life e r u g fi Get the t n a w u yo with
SE AN INTEN TURAL IX OF NA
M
NTS
INGREDIE
GIBRALTAR
160 Main Street. Tel. +350 200 49504
Follow us: Holland and Barrett Gibraltar
local
WAR & WINE
Vintage military tunnels inside the Rock used for wireless communications during WW2 are to be converted into a state-of-the-art cellar for posh vino. The Gibraltar Wine Vaults will exploit Gibraltar’s natural limestone to create connoisseurs’ wine cave conditions for an anticipated £60 million-worth of investment-grade wines in the first phase of the ambitious £6million project. “These are exciting times in the global wine storage sector,” said Tracy Lee, CEO and founder of the new enterprise. “Gibraltar is destined to become the hub of western wine.” Located at the old WT Station in the former MOD tunnel network, opposite Beach View Terraces, the high-tech vault will be guarded by military-level security, and is also expected to attract significant interest from the burgeoning wine tourism industry. i www.gibraltarwinevaults.com
ARTS ACADEMY
Gibraltar’s powerhouse of artistic talent now has its own hub of excellence in the newly-created Gibraltar Academy of Music and Performing Arts. The Academy will provide much-needed cohesive tuition in a structured environment for students of all ages. The former MOD building, Flat Bastion Magazine, will be the Academy’s home, as well as a base for the Gibraltar Youth Orchestra and Youth Choir. Principal, Christian Santos of Santos Productions, and Vice Principal, Cathy Batchelor, of Allegro Music Productions, have developed the programme of courses to suit individual needs. An allinclusive study format with qualified, locally-based tutors will offer group classes and one-to-one tuition in the performing arts and music, with specialist classes in a variety of instruments, theory, harmony, composition and improvisation. i www.facebook.com/gibacademy
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Treetop Living
When is an apartment block like a tree? Answer: When it’s Ocean Spa Plaza. The latest landscape-changing apartment tower going up at Ocean Village was inspired by Singapore’s Tree House, the world’s largest vertical garden. Pioneering this new green technology on the Rock, the building will support a living wall of oxygen-emitting, carbon dioxide-absorbing foliage to provide a natural habitat for birds and other wildlife, topped off with swift nesting boxes on the roof. A vertical wall of photo voltaic cells will harness the abundant Mediterranean sunlight to contribute power to the building’s grid. Other attractions for owners include a top-floor Sky Spa and a family recreational deck with a heated lap pool at garden apartment level. If you’re after a pied-àterre in this luxury block of 125 apartments, and penthouses, they’ll only be for rent now. They all sold out within 36 hours of their release.The finished project is due for completion in 30 months. i www.oceanspaplaza.com
Rocking the Rock
Gibraltar’s National Dance Team were crowned European Champions on home soil at October’s IDO European Show Dance Championships. Competing against 600 dancers from 16 nations, the home team of 155 dancers from six schools scooped three gold, two silver and three bronze medals, and numerous finalist places. In the Children Group, Gibraltar won its 2nd gold medal at a European competition in its 34-year history with Telephone, choreographed by Lilian and Lauren Montero. The four-day ‘danceathon’ at the Tercentenary Sports Hall brought over 1,200 visitors to Gibraltar, registered 932,000 hits on the website and was watched on free live stream by a global audience of 90,000. “We congratulate the National Team for having so impressively placed Gibraltar on the world map,” said proud GNDO President Seamus Byrne. “We are delighted to have organised one of the prime tourist and cultural events for Gibraltar in 2015.” i For full results see www.gndo.org ESSENTIALMAGAZINE.COM NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015 / 61
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Class Act
Rippon on the Rock
Alzheimer’s Ambassador Angela Rippon paid a flying visit to Gibraltar to tour the Old Royal Naval Hospital, now back in service as a dedicated Health Campus for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. It comprises a Day Centre for patients able to return home to families and care givers in the evenings, and a Residential Unit for 54 live-in patients with eight respite places for care givers. The Health Campus will be staffed by carers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists. “I have learnt a lot from Gibraltar Alzheimer’s and Dementia Society, and from Angela Rippon, about what else we can do for sufferers and carers,” commented Chief Minister Fabian Picardo. “I look forward to the full implementation of a Dementia Strategy and to the further challenges we need to face in respect of these diseases.”
A new co-ed independent Catholic senior school will add to Gibraltar’s private education offer. Headmaster-in-waiting, Peter Watts, held a roll call for parents to outline his vision for Prior Park Gibraltar, taking shape at the former Sacred Heart School. It will offer places for 240 students with fees in the region of £3,000 per term. “Interest in the new school is high. It will provide excellent opportunities for boys and girls to gain a first-rate academic and pastoral education,” said Watts, previously Deputy Headmaster at Sherborne School in Dorset, one of Britain’s top boarding schools for boys. With three schools in the UK, the original Prior Park College in Bath, set in a Palladian mansion in National Trust parkland, was founded in 1830. Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster, is a former pupil. Prior Park Gibraltar opens for Years 8 to 10 in 2016, followed by Years 11 and 12 in 2017, and full senior school provision from 2018. i www.priorparkgibraltar.com
Awards Extravaganza Is there one special place in Gib that makes you feel and look like a million dollars? Whether it’s a hair stylist who’s a cut above or a fashion retailer who found you that knock ‘em dead outfit, now you can vote online for the local people who make your day at the 1st annual BeautyCiti Hair, Beauty & Fashion Gibraltar Awards. Winners in 14 award categories, ranging from Nail Technician of the Year to Designer of the Year, will be announced at a glitz-andglam-themed cava and canapé reception at La Sala Gibraltar on November 14. Tickets, priced £30, include a His ‘n’ Hers fashion show, entertainment and entry to the After Party; £5.00 from every ticket will go to the Saffron Rose 4 Rett charity, which helps sufferers of the rare neurological disorder Rett Syndrom. g To vote, see www.beautyciti.com
For tickets and information Tel: + 350 629 65081/ tracyann@beautyciti.com
P&B Training Ltd have acquired the Pitman Training Franchise Pitman Training are renowned for providing high quality, professional training courses and diplomas. They are unique in that students study at a pace that suits them. They don't set rigid course timetables with fixed terms which means training can fit around students' work and home lives. Participants can also choose where to study as the majority of courses can be assessed online, using their Distance Learning system. Opened in October 2015, Pitman Training Gibraltar will be able to match those enrolled with their perfect course or diploma. Offering exceptional training experience, Brenda Cuby, Fiorina Fortunato, Peter Bosbury and Derek Williams will oversee the programmes. With courses and diplomas covering all aspects of PA and Secretarial, General Office Skills, Accounting, IT and Web Design to name just a few, their mission statement is to “provide training excellence to the Gibraltar market”. i http://gibraltar.pitman-training.com
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Sea TV
Watching sea grass grow could become a new pastime in Gibraltar. Members of the public can now view the marine ecosystem restoration project beneath the Rock’s territorial waters in real time, via underwater cameras. Neptune Grass recently transplanted from a donor site in Portugal is now sprouting, a species which had diminished to extinction over the years due to pollution and raking of the seabed. Sea grass is an important source of food, oxygen and habitat for fish and also acts as a carbon sink. “This is a major initiative which, if successful in the long term, will very-significantly improve the quality and diversity of marine life in our waters,” said Dr John Cortes, Gibraltar’s Minister for the Environment and Climate Change. i Take a look for yourself at www.thinkinggreen.gov.gi/underwater-camera
Sports Sorted
Community football, rugby and cricket are returning to the Rock with news that the future GFA/UEFA football stadium may now be located at Lathbury Barracks. It means that the old MOD cricket pitch at Europa Point will now remain an open space for local use, with two new football training pitches and a rugby pitch that will double for cricket in summer. A sports pavilion will now be the only building, a U-turn welcomed by the Save Europa Point group which has hotly contested plans to site a professional competition stadium at the environmental beauty spot. “All this will be achieved without any impact on the landscape while the development of the rugby pitch, pavilion and other facilities will be paid for by the sponsors of the Rugby Union and not the taxpayer,” said Chief Minister Fabian Picardo. “It’s a classic win-win situation for Gibraltar.”
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FORTIFIED FORAYS
History buffs can enjoy a new attraction resurrected in Gibraltar. The new weekly Northern Defences tour will provide insight into Gibraltar's military past through structures dating as far back as 1,000 years that were previously buried under one metre of rubble. They have been unearthed by the Royal Engineers whose predecessors constructed many of them during the 18th century. The two-hour tour visits the site of the original entrance to the Villa Vieja, the Prince's Lines, Retrenchment Steps and Lower Union Communication. “These magnificent fortifications are world class and well worth a visit,” commented Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia. “Gibraltar could have fallen to an attack from Spain all those years ago were it not for these defences.” g Run by the Gibraltar Heritage Trust
POST HASTE
The Rock is revving up its ‘snail mail’ service. Customers can now buy stamps and post letters via speedy new automated post-and-go kiosks sited at the Main Post Office and Parcel Office. The popular kiosks have even fuelled a new philately craze as the stamps they dispense carry unique numbers, making them highly collectible, as well as “allowing tourists and our community to spend more of their valuable time doing other things without waiting in a queue at the counter for a stamp,” said Business and Employment Minister Neil Costa. Meanwhile, a new airmail service from Monarch airlines will help shift the backlog of letters and parcels on a Monday, the busiest day for Rock post. This is in addition to the British Airways service already in place. “The RGPO will resource the Monarch flight to endeavour that all mail is dispatched on Mondays,” said Costa.
every Saturday, to book call Tel: + 350 200 42844 between 9.30am and 2.30pm.
NO MORE ‘UNI-ADVERSITY’
Homesick freshers leaving the shelter of the Rock for British universities have a new resource for reducing the culture shock: Youniversity, a pioneering survival guide written by fellow students and graduates who’ve been through it all before them. Masterminded by Cardiff University graduate Philip Vasquez, it’s packed with advice for students and their families on everything from what to pack (tomato frito, unavailable in Britain, is a Gibbie must) to settling in and dealing with common issues. Some 900 local students a year take advantage of Gibraltar’s scholarships to British universities, introduced in 1988, but many find it tricky adapting to the new lifestyle. “We thought that it was odd that little has been done to tackle these common problems before,” said Vasquez, who finished the last chapter while taking a Bar course at London’s City Law School. Buy the book on Amazon, price £10. i For extra free tips
IN-HOUSE CHEMO
Cancer patients in Gibraltar will soon be able to get lifesaving treatment on their own doorstep instead of having to face the trauma of travelling to hospitals in Spain or Britain. Work is starting on a suite of four chemo treatment points at St. Bernard's Hospital. Xanit Hospital will provide the clinical input in collaboration with Gibraltar Health Authority professionals, meaning that oncologists and specialised nurses will be on site at St Bernard's. As well as a considerable cost saving for the GHA, the new suite will offer peace of mind for patients and their families. “Having this service at home in Gibraltar at last will make sufferers' lives easier at the time they most need it,” said Chief Minister Fabian Picardo.
see youniversity.co.uk
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Festive Fiestas
It’s set to be another cracker of a festive season in Gibraltar. The countdown begins in mid-November with the big Christmas Lights Switch-On. The revelry carries on until December 31 when Gibraltarians traditionally gather in Casemates Square to see the new year in with a pyrotechnic bang. Check out the
highlights here or for the full programme (unless otherwise stated) contact info@culture.gi
20 November: Festival of Lights Christmas Lights Switch-on with live shows, arts and crafts, Santa and his elves, John Mackintosh Square, 5.30-8pm. Tel: +350 200 75669. November 25-28: Gibraltar International Jazz Week Artists and venues t.b.a. November 28-January 10: Christmas Fair Daily, John Mackintosh Square. December 3: Christmas Flower Show, John Mackintosh Hall, entry free. See Gibraltar Horticultural Society’s Facebook page. December 5: Christmas Variety Show, Ince’s Hall Theatre, 8.30pm. Tickets and info, Tel: +350 540 26013/ idealproduction@live.com Classic Vehicle Display Casemates Square, 10am-3pm. December 9-12: Gibraltar Snooker
Open (9th) & European Snooker Tour 5 (10th-12th), Tercentenary Sports Hall. Info from the Ministry of Sports, Tel: +350 200 47592. December 9- 24: Christmas Art Exhibition Fine Arts Gallery, Casemates Square, 10am-6pm, entry free.Tel: +350 200 52126. December 10: Carols by Candlelight With the Gibraltar National Choir, Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, 8pm. Tickets, £12, on sale at the door, or to reserve call Tel: +350 548 31000/ liliolivero@msn.com December 16: GBC Open Day Charity radio and telethon, John Mackintosh Square. Love radio show, 9am-6pm, further info from James Neish, Tel: +350 200 79760; Live TV show, 9pm, further info from Paula Latin, Tel: +350 200 79760. December 19: Winter Party in
Town, Casemates Square, John Mackintosh Square, Main Street & Chatham Counterguard from 12 noon. Further info, Tel: +350 200 47592/mschy. info@gibraltar.gov.gi December 26: Boxing Day Run Organised by Gibraltar Amateur Athletics Association, Casemates Square, 11am. Polar Bear Swims Organised by GASA in aid of Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, Eastern Beach, 12 noon. Further information, gibswimming@hotmail.com Also at Catalan Bay, organised by local residents, with certificates, mince pies and hot toddies provided by the Caleta Hotel. December 31: New Year’s Eve Celebrations. Free family event with live music, dancing and fireworks, Casemates Square, 10.30-3am.
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eGaming On
If you work in the gaming industry, make a date in your diary for the first eGaming Meetup on November 12. Aimed at providing professionals with a forum to review trends and exchange ideas, there will be both social and business aspects to the event, held upstairs at Sacarello’s in Irish Town from 5.30-7pm. “Our focus is on performance marketing and best management practices for casino, poker, betting, Forex tournaments, fantasy sports and BitCoin,” explained organiser Frank Ravanelli. “We hope people in the industry will join our group for a chance to meet and share with other Gibraltar-based professionals.” In the future, the group will offer everything from networking events, presentations and workshops to marketing and management training. i To register free see www.ravanelli.com
Titan Talks
Prehistoric Pollution
Modern man is not solely to blame for the precarious health of the planet. Researchers from the Gibraltar Museum and the University of Gibraltar’s Life and Earth Science Institute have found evidence of pollution by prehistoric humans. Analysis of sediment at Gorham’s and Vanguard caves in Gibraltar shows that the Neanderthals’ use of fire produced contamination levels comparable to present-day heavy-metal soil pollution. At Atapuerca in northern Spain, pollution associated with guano deposits dating back 450,000 years has also been discovered. The findings are an important early marker of the Anthropocene era, the period when human activities started to have a significant global impact on the earth’s ecosystems.
Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn took time out to talk tactics with Gibraltar’s own former GSLP leader, Joe Bossano, at this autumn’s Labour Party Conference in Brighton. As both men are seen as being on the Left of politics, it was a friendly encounter to talk about ‘matters of mutual interest’. Gibraltar newspaper Panorama suggested that ‘Gibraltar must have featured highly in the meeting, because Corbyn had been causing some concern about his views on the Falklands, to which people appended Gibraltar’. The newspaper added that Bossano ‘extracted strong support from Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman Hilary Benn’, who commented: “We absolutely uphold the right of the people of Gibraltar to self-determination.” Bossano, now serving as Gibraltar’s Minister for Economic Development, has been involved in left-wing politics for over half a century. He was Gibraltar’s Chief Minister from 1988 to 1996.
ALGARVE CHAMPIONSHIP FOR O’REILLY’S The Union of Irish Golfers once again returns to Portugal to stage their annual championship from the 1st November and O’Reilly’s Irish Pub at Ocean Village sent a team to represent the Gibraltar membership. This prestigious competition is held at Castro Marim and Quinta do Vale over six days and consists of teams of four playing in various formats with over 25 teams representing various Irish Golfing Societies in Great Britain. Andy Hunter, Financial & Marketing Director of O’Reilly’s said, "This is the fifth year we have been asked to participate and we are very happy once again to send a team to represent the Gibraltar membership and with our connection to Med Golf we have teamed up with Jyske Bank (Gibraltar) to provide sponsorship. We all wish Viv O’Reilly, Dave Stimson, Paul Thomas and Dave Hunt every success and hope they can bring some silverware back with them”. i www.medgolf.gi
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THE VIBE
Natuzzi Splashdown
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo was guest of honour at a shipboard cocktail party to celebrate the launch of Patricia Darch’s Essence of Natuzzi Gallery in Gibraltar. Some 110 guests – former and new clients, lawyers, estate agents and friends, as well as politicians – enjoyed pink cava and canapés on the sundeck of La Sala Gibraltar, aboard Sunborn’s glamorous superyacht hotel. “The Chief Minister was delighted that PDI have launched Natuzzi in Gib, saying he is a great fan of the company's products and would be paying a visit to the showroom. He is very encouraging of people who choose to invest in Gibraltar,” said Patricia. At her Ocean Village emporium you can shop for international brands never before seen on the Rock, with no cost for delivery to your door. Along with the new Natuzzi collection offering luxurious Italian style for less, keep your eyes out for winter season offers i www.patriciadarch.com
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THE LEISURE travel
Private dining Tangier style
Organic fruit & veg from the Rif on sale at the Berber market
O
ur hearts are pumping as we puff up Rue Belgique in the medina’s puzzle of sly twisting streets … and not only because of the lung-testing gradient. We’re invited to lunch in the home of a Moroccan family, an exciting ‘first’ although slightly daunting to we westerners. Is my skirt too short? My blouse too low? Will there be sheep’s eyes? Should we shake hands? It’s only 15km from Spain on a 35-minute belt-up-and-you’ve-landed Royal Air Maroc flight but Morocco still feels like a foreign country. Ahmed Chaara, our guide on Blands Travel’s Hidden Tangier tour, understands. He’s Berber but his wife is Swedish so he sees the European viewpoint. “Relax, everything’s going to be cool,” he reassures us. And so it was, thanks to Imad Soussi of Travel Link, Blands Travel’s Mr Fix-It in Morocco who organises all their north African adventures. Every tour is an ‘experience’ cushioned by stays
in five-star hotels, romantic riads and luxury tents in the Sahara Desert, with transport in air-conditioned people-wagons carpeted with beautiful Moroccan rugs. Most expats do Tangier in a whistle-stop day trip by fast ferry from Tarifa for the buzz of haggling for camel leather handbags in the spice-scented souks. But you should linger a little longer to discover the true character of a city that was the quintessential good time had by all. For three decades during the last century, Tangier was shared by nine countries – Britain, America, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. Known as the International Zone and populated by expats known as Tangerines, Moroccans needed a passport to get in! Each culture left its mark – in the architecture, the street names, the cuisine (don’t leave town without trying the fabuleux French patisseries).
From 1923 to 1957, the law book was relegated to the bottom shelf and spies, smugglers, gangsters and social dilettantes found in Tangier a ‘garden of earthly delights’. Errol Flynn came for the girls, Gore Vidal for the boys, Cecil Beaton didn’t mind. Matisse and Degas came to paint, Yves Saint Laurent to design, Malcolm Forbes to launch an Arab edition of his magazine for millionaires and the Rolling Stones for the Class A drugs. Tennessee Williams, Jack Kerouac, Paul Bowles and William Burroughs came to write. Everyone came for the kif. With our guide ‘Ahmedpaedia’, as we called him, you experience it all – with passion! The culture and colour, the fascinating history, the dingy cafes that inspired great literature. But lunch in the home of a Tanjaoui family is a ‘first’ and we are the inaugural guests!
Belinda Beckett lifts the yashmak on the mystical north African city across the Strait on Blands Travel’s Hidden Tangier tour. PHOTOGRAPHY DAVID CUSSEN AND COURTESY OF LE ROYAL HOTELS AND RESORTS
View of modern Tangier from Room 35, Grand Hotel Villa de France – somewhat changed since Matisse painted it
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Magic Carpet So, on a Thursday in late August, we’re in the Calpe Lounge overlooking Gibraltar Airport runway, mixing bloody Marys and helping ourselves to free sandwiches and English newspapers. At £20 for a pass from the Gibair desk, you’re worth it. With check-in two hours beforehand, there’s time to stock up with duty free (all but the hotels and a few restaurants in Tangier are ‘dry’). With the time difference, you arrive 20 minutes before you took off – a real magic carpet ride! And with only 70 seats, RAM’s twin-engined turboprop feels like a private plane. From Ibn Battouta Airport, named after Morocco’s ‘Marco Polo’ who travelled three times the distance, the 30-minute drive downtown shows that progress is afoot. Dusty planes grazed by Berber mules sprout urbanisations advertising pisos from €20,000. Morocco’s second largest industrial city after Casablanca boasts a stylish new train station, a towering Hilton and a Renault factory turning out
Dacias by the dozen-a-minute. The beach, a wasteland spookily devoid of human life when I saw it 15 years ago, is lined with nightclubs named Oxygen Lounge and Disco Snob, and chic chiringuitos crammed with southern-city Moroccans who’ve jettisoned djellabas for surf shorts and burkas for bikinis. There’s even a Tangerine McDonalds, Allah forbid! You can’t, yet, drink a gin and tonic al fresco in Tangier the way you can in Ocean Village. But the first phase of the new leisure port opens in 2016 and, as Tangier is King Mohammed VI’s second home (and he owns a yacht or two), it promises to be spectacular! New roundabouts flutter with crimson and goldstarred flags in honour of the king, who celebrated his 52nd birthday here in August. Two of his guests, the King of Saudi and the President of Yemen, are still in town. Moroccan frigates in the bay keep watch on Sheikh Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s two giga-yachts
and his summer palace on top of ‘the Old Mountain’. From this pinnacle of exclusivity you can see how the other half live, and into the Sheik’s back garden if you stay at the neighbouring Le Mirage Hotel! Armed guards stand to attention outside the perimeter walls enclosing King Mohammed’s compound while an army of state gardeners rake stray leaves from the grass verges at taxpayers’ expense. The palace’s daily operating budget is $960,000, according to Forbes Magazine. The king commands much respect for bringing Morocco into the 21st century. The 23rd monarch of a dynasty that has ruled Morocco, on and off, for 400 years has broken with traditions like the four wife rule (now down to one), introduced his own wife to the public, which no king has done before, and a new system of divorce. Husbands can no longer turn wives out onto the streets with a thrice-repeated “I divorce you”. These days, the missus gets the house.
Tangier UNVEILED
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Private Belly Dance The Minzah Hotel is a throwback to the Edwardian era, complete with doorman sporting baggy pantaloons and a fez. Unveiled by the Marquess of Bute two years before he opened Gibraltar’s Rock Hotel, she’s 85 and no spring chicken but her Moorish courtyards and fountains retain the romance. And this is still the place in town to enjoy an authentic Moroccan evening of wine, music and incredible food. Although we have the belly dancer all to ourselves! Tourism to Morocco nose-dived by 50 per cent after Charlie Hebdo, and a further 30 per cent after the Tunisia beach bombings, Ahmed tells us next morning as we head out to Tangier’s newest tourist attraction. It’s not widely known that the Minzah started life as the private home of wealthy Greek-American playboy, Ion Perdicaris. In 1904 he and his stepson were victims of an infamous kidnapping which saw
The stylish new train station
President Roosevelt stationing warships off the Moroccan coast and the local Sultan paying the $70,000 ransom. Their captor was a dashing Tetuan tribesman called Raisuli, played by Sean Connery in The Wind and the Lion (1970). The mansion where it happened is being restored as a museum. The lush green pineforested estate, piercing the clouds and rolling down to the ocean, opened to the public this year as Perdicaris Park. Wild pigs snuffling by the roadside neither flee nor attack when we approach, obligingly posing for pictures (although they didn’t come out). We visit dramatic Cap Spartel on Africa’s most north-westerly tip, one of the four Pillars of Hercules… not two… Gibraltar, Mount Jebel Musa and Cádiz make up the quartet; we pat the noses of baby camels on the cliffs above a deserted golden beach, spoiling Ahmed’s fun by declining a ride; and, as the locals have done since 1921, we drink the first of many mint teas from the
top tier of iconic Café Hafa, an amphitheatre overlooking the drama in the Strait.
Spices, Spells & Herbal Viagra Old Tangier begins with bustling Grand Socco – aka Place du 9 Avril 1947 since Moroccan independence – and all crooked streets lead to the cafes of Petit Socco, where the local literati liked to tipple and toke; although the medina itself is a psychedelic trip, winding through souks ankle-deep in live chickens and cats, and gaudy bazaars where shopkeepers tout exotic wares seated cross-legged on the floor of cubicles smaller than your downstairs loo. We duck into one of these boxes to meet a Gnawa tribesman who gives us an impromptu concert on one of the three-stringed hajouj lutes he makes by hand – one of the local crafts dying out as commerce takes hold. Mick Jagger, Jimmy Hendrix and Led Zepplin were all influenced by this ‘healing’ Islamic music.
Haggling in the medina
You can have many of Tangier’s beaches all to yourself
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For another kind of healing, we visit an apothecary offering everything from a massage to herbal Viagra to bespoke ‘magic’ potions! Herbalist Zac comes from the Rif mountains where he swears, “No one goes to hospital, there’s a plant to treat everything.” The medina’s vertiginous streets are bestexplored from the top down: keep right for the Jewish quarter’s gold and silver shops, left for Arabic leathers, ceramics, carpets and jewelcoloured fruit and veg, grown organically by Berbers and sold at half the price of Morrisons. “Agriculture has always been a key part of our economy and with 46 dams there’s no shortage of food or water,” Ahmedpaedia informs us as we struggle back uphill for lunch. It’s Friday, the holy day of the Arabic week, which means couscous day – for everyone. “The better-off make extra for poorer families so no one goes without,” explains Ahmed, leading us through an archway and up two flights of stairs.
The Minzah Hotel is central for everything
“Social responsibility is one of the five pillars of the Muslim faith.”
Sheiking it Up We knock on a door opened by a pretty, smiling lady in a print headscarf and black djellaba. She ushers us into a private dining room that could set a new trend in Moroccan décor: glossy tangerine-coloured tadelakt walls, a sassy magenta velvet sofa, chandeliers! She places a vegetable salad on the table that matches the colour scheme. She sees our appreciation and smiles and we feel instantly at home. I pass up the lben, a goat’s milk curd similar to Indian lassi, for an Arabic Coca Cola. Suddenly, muezzins in 38 mosques strike up their call to prayer in unison. On cue, the lady vanishes and the whole family departs down the street. We dig forks into a communal couscous mountain topped with tender beef (not sheep’s
eyes)! Lamb is an expensive delicacy although I’ve counted scores of sheep since we arrived. “It’s Eid Al-Adha in September,” explains Ahmed, “one of the most important festivals in our calendar. Every family in the country goes out and buys a sheep. In the medina, soon, it will be packed with them… baa, baa, baa… you can’t hear yourself for bleating sheep! That’s when we eat lamb. It’s a holy meat.” We round off lunch on the rooftop with coffee and marzipan sweets. The family returns from prayers, the lady of the house proudly shows us her new kitchen and we heap praise upon her cooking. But it turns out our vegetable starter was prepared by her husband, a former head chef at the Minzah. As we speak, he’s cooking lunch for the King of Saudi Arabia!
i For further information contact www.blandstravel.com
Psychedelic souk
Camel rides are the highlight of a trip to Tangier
Dramatic Cap Spartel on Africa’s most north-westerly tip
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The Café Baba has become a place of pilgrimage Rolling Stone Keith Richards during a visit to Café Baba
Librairie des Colonnes, Tangier’s favourite antiquarian bookshop
Author John Hopkins astride his BMW motorbike when he first arrived in Tangier with pal Joe McPhillips
Booked Out
Blands Travel’s Literary Tangier tour is a best seller, writes Belinda Beckett
W
ith its grimy tables and tobacco smoke fog, Café Baba doesn’t look like anyplace you’d catch Kofi Anan or the King of Sweden drinking mint tea. But the photographs on the sky blue paintpeeling walls do not lie. A poster lists 50 other celebrities with Tangier connections: Lord Nelson, Kaiser Wilhelm, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Truman Capote. Although clearly they didn’t all drink in Café Baba, opened in 1943, proprietor Aoufi Abdelghani has met a fair few of them. He must have some tales to tell? “Too many,” is all he says. Perhaps he was too stoned to remember! Café Baba was a notorious hash-smoking haunt in the ‘50s and 60s and a herbal whiff still hovers in the air. It’s a doorway you’d think twice before darkening alone so we’re glad of Ahmed Chaara’s company. A Morocco guide for 30 years, he leads the annual authors’ tour of Tangier that kick-starts Gibraltar Literary Festival. He used to set his watch by Paul Bowles. The author of The Sheltering Sky (made into a movie by Bernardo Bertolucci, starring John Malkovich) occupied a seat outside Café Tingis in the medina at 11am almost daily, “usually in the company of Moroccan writer
Mohammed Mrabet who followed him around, cutting up his kif,” says Ahmed. J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter in a café and, here too, cafes are key to any literary tour of Tangier, although they no longer serve alcohol. Be prepared to drink a lot of mint tea! The Café de Paris in the New Town and the Café Central in Petit Socco are two among dozens of author haunts. The city has been associated with great writers since 17th century London diarist Samuel Pepys described it as a place for ‘swearing, cursing, drinking and whoring’. Pepys was in Tangier in an official capacity to close down the British garrison. The city was part of Catherine of Braganza’s dowry to Charles II but proved more trouble than it was worth. Pepys stayed in what might be the only house in the world numbered ‘0’ – Dar Zero at the top of the Kasbah. ‘Beat(nik) Generation’ icon William Burroughs owned the house behind. I’ve wanted to take the tour since meeting John Hopkins, author of the evocative The Tangier Diaries, at last year’s festival. Now in his 70s, John was a 23-year-old blonde Adonis when he roared into 1930s Tangier astride a white BMW motorbike. He became
close friends with Paul Bowles. “I sat at his feet for nearly 20 years and, unlike many successful authors, he was exceptionally generous with his time,” John told me. “He read and edited everything I wrote.” Bowles translated books into English for several top Moroccan writers, including Mohamed Choukri’s For Bread Alone, the harrowing story of his hungry youth. The Paul Bowles room at the American Legation Museum showcases the author’s spectacles, luggage and musical scores from the days when he studied with Aaron Copland. It also houses some of Malcolm Forbes’ collection of 350,000 toy soldiers. The billionaire recreated famous battle scenes as a hobby. Café Baba was both men’s ‘local’ and it has other claims to fame. The terrace overlooks Woolworths heiress Barbara Hutton’s villa, where the seventimes married ex-Mrs Cary Grant hosted lavish parties once a week, squandering her $900 million inheritance, leaving just $3,000 when she died. Drivers of wide-chassis vehicles today have the ‘Poor Little Rich Girl’ to thank that they can get their cars through the medina gates. Hutton had them all widened to accommodate her green Rolls Royce.
Many literary watering holes have long-since called ‘time’, like the legendary Deans Bar, opened in 1937. Ava Gardner, Helena Rubenstein, John Gielgud and T.S. Eliot were among the classy crowd who propped up the bar, according to Evelyn Waugh’s nephew Robin in his North African Notebook (1948). Iain Fleming often popped in for a triple-vodka break from writing Diamonds are Forever at the Minzah. Parties were a delicious diversion from cafes. People still talk about Malcolm Forbes’ 70th birthday bash in 1989 which he co-hosted with Elizabeth Taylor at Dar el Mendoub, his villa in the medina. The publishing tycoon spent $2.5m chartering a jumbo jet, a DC-8 and Concorde to fly them in, financing the reopening of the beachfront Solazur Hotel to accommodate them. Discovering all Tangier’s literary haunts is a magnum opus in itself. For a shortcut, head for the Librairie des Colonnes. You can lose yourself for hours among the cedar-scented shelves of this antiquarian bookshop, specialising in rare publications on Morocco in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. I bagged the last copy of Josh Shoemake’s Tangier: A Literary Guide for Travellers, a tour you can enjoy from your La-Z-boy.
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Leaf cut motifs by Matisse inspired the décor at the Hotel Grand Villa de France Original brass door number to the room where Matisse painted his Window at Tangiers
Room with a View An ‘arty’ welcome is guaranteed at the luscious fivestar Grand Hotel Villa de France, which reopened its doors in 2014. Room 35, where Henri Matisse painted his famous Window at Tangiers, is a mini-museum complete with original furniture, art deco telephone and heavy brass door key. But when the hotel gets busy you could well end up staying in it! Although the original painting resides in a Moscow museum and the view from Room 35 has changed somewhat, the hotel is a living tribute to the artist who came for two prolonged stays over 1912/13 with
a lady who may or may not have been his wife. His prints hang throughout the hotel and his famous leaf-cut motifs are beautifully recreated on wallpaper, curtains, rugs and bed canopies throughout the 58 individually-designed rooms and suites. Today the hotel is a place of pilgrimage for admirers of Matisse, the artist Delacroix who also stayed here, and the children and grandchildren of former guests. Haunt of Europe’s travelling elite when it first opened in 1880, the hotel was abandoned for two decades and threatened with demolition. Thanks to
Iraqi-born British businessman Sir Nadhmi Auchi, whose Le Royal Hotels and Resorts stable includes the Minzah, she has gracefully retaken her place in Tangier high society. The hotel of choice for VIP business travellers and guests of King Mohammed is also the perfect base for exploring Tangier’s old and new quarters, five minutes walk downhill. With its steep cobbled streets, traffic, heat, dust and noise, Tangier is tough on tourists. The hotel’s elegant rooms, fountains, terraces, gardens and stunning mosaic-tiled swimming pool are the perfect antidote. i www.leroyal.com e
The stunning Hotel Grand Villa de France
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RESTAURANTS / REVIEWS / NEWS / WINE / CHEFS / GUIDE
Discover the unbeatable flavour of quality grilled meat at El Gaucho de Sotogrande, enjoy the best of Italian cuisine at 4 Stagioni and sample a wine with a wonderful pedigree: La Encina del Inglés.
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Restaurant Guide
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restaurant THE GOURMET
EL GAUCHO DE SOTOGRANDE In the true spirit of Sotogrande WORDS MICHEL CRUZ PHOTOGRAPHY KEVIN HORN
Some places embody the essence of their setting. Having grown up along with it, El Gaucho isn’t just an integral part of Sotogrande, it perfectly reflects the easygoing charm and sophistication of this elegant resort. Gaucho de Sotogrande is right at the heart of this.
The Original Sotogrande Restaurant
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otogrande is a place of tradition, where new generations return with their young families to the spots that hold sweet memories of childhood and adolescent holidays in the sun. It is also known for its laidback atmosphere and understated glamour; the kind of resort where you may well be sitting next to someone famous at a restaurant but would never make a fuss about it. The cream of Spanish and International society that frequent Sotogrande like it this way, for it is within this languidly stylish summer atmosphere that they come to relax, unwind and be with friends and family. The latter is particularly important, and as a result summers spent at the resort become the stuff that memories are made of across the generations. El
Set within Paniagua, Sotogrande’s first commercial and social hub, El Gaucho was also the first restaurant to open in the resort. “When we started 30 years ago, Sotogrande was still a very private place,” says owner Albert Crouquet, who opened the pioneering restaurant together with Peter Hans Blagatinshegg Kaiserfeld the founder of El Gaucho in Puerto Banús. From those early beginnings – the very first restaurant located within a charming, newly opened commercial centre in the Andalusian style – El Gaucho grew into a classic Sotogrande institution. “It is indeed the place where many memories were made, and as such El Gaucho is an integral part of the fabric of Sotogrande,” says an owner whose enthusiasm and charm remain undiminished. Unlike Marbella, where people are always on the lookout for the next great ‘place to be seen’, visitors to Sotogrande are more understated and have ‘less to prove’. They patronise the places they love and, for many, including celebrities, business moguls and even royalty, El Gaucho is a must during any stay in Sotogrande. The list of famous faces that has passed through the doors of this charming restaurant is almost endless, ranging from Princes Andrew and Edward to actors, industrialists, sportsmen and
King Baudouin of Belgium. The latter’s visit was a particularly proud moment for Albert, who never thought he would be face-to-face with his monarch, much less serving him his renowned Argentinian steaks. But so it goes at El Gaucho, one of the pillars on which Sotogrande’s unique reputation has been forged. On the night we visited there were prominent guests from across Europe, including the very first polo champion of Sotogrande.
A Restaurant for All Seasons Highly popular in summer, when the atmospheric terrace fills to capacity and the air conditioned dining room has its dedicated fans too, El Gaucho de Sotogrande is one of those restaurants that is also very cosy and ambient in the winter, when its large fireplace and open grill add to the experience. It has been a year-round mainstay in Sotogrande for many years, providing a great dining experience and social gathering point six days a week. We took our places in the atmospheric al fresco dining area, choosing from the classic menu a Criolla salad and a Criollo beef sausage rich in herbs and spices. Meat usually wants red wine to accompany it, but on such a hot summer’s night we capitulated and went the opposite way – a refreshing Pazo San Mauro Albariño from the Rias Baixas in Galicia. It did the job very well, proving to be a worthy companion to the fillet steak
g C.C. Paniagua, Local 4, Avda. Paniagua, Sotogrande. Tel: 956 795 528. www.alinecrouquet.wix.com/elgauchodesotogrande
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and baby rib eye, both of which came with delicious homemade fries and fresh spinach. When you tuck into your perfect steak sprinkled with coarse rock salt you know why people love this restaurant so much. In fact, both the Zobels and Jaime Patiño (he of Valderrama fame) had regular tables here, and during the Volvo Masters, the Ryder Cup and the American Express Championships Patiño entertained his guests at El Gaucho. In 1999, when Tiger Woods walked into a packed restaurant after having won the American Express Championship at Valderrama, he got a spontaneous standing ovation. “That’s Sotogrande for you,” laughs Albert, whose restaurant is a perfect reflection of the Sotogrande spirit. Having enjoyed our classic grilled Argentinian steaks, we settled down and absorbed the lively yet easy-going atmosphere. A great place to linger after an Argentinian crêpe or refreshing sorbet, the restaurant also offers an excellent wine list of fine French and Spanish vintages, not to mention stronger drinks that aid digestion and give you that rosy feeling. El Gaucho de Puerto Banús may have gone, but the classic spirit lives on in El Gaucho de Sotogrande, the very embodiment of Sotogrande charm. The restaurant will be closed for holidays from the 25th of November, reopening on the 26th of December at 7 pm.
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4 Stagioni A Dining Secret for all Seasons Off the beaten tourist track, beyond the cable car station on the road out of town, you’ll find the Gibraltarians’ favourite little Italian place. WORDS belinda beckett
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Stagioni is the lucky find you hope to stumble upon on a holiday adventure – somewhere the locals eat, and that includes Gibraltar’s Chief Minister and his family, on occasions. Funky and unpretentious, in days gone by the building was a gunpowder store. Inside, beamed ceilings, sash curtains and a woodburning stove rekindle the feel of a homely Italian farmhouse kitchen. With seating for 40, it’s not much bigger than the kitchen back home in Sardinia where chef-owner Paolo Olmetto learned the art of pastamaking from his Italian mamma. The terrace, perched above the original sea defence walls at Saluting Battery, has another 60 covers that provide ringside seats on Gibraltar’s popular jogging prom, a fashion parade of lycra tracksuits all colours, styles and curvaceous shapes. Everyone seems to know each other. Joggers stop to pass the time of day with diners, diners chat across tables, even strangers are invited to join in. Before long we’re enjoying a history lesson from the couple beside us. Jumper’s Bastion, next door, was named after the first British officer to land
on the Rock during the Capture of Gibraltar in 1704. Bathed in late evening sunshine, sipping glasses of chilled Prosecco, it’s a moment to savour. Surreal, too, to think that tall-masted sail ships once passed below where we’re sitting, to offload their cargo at Ragged Staff wharf. These days, Paolo can get most of his provisions from local suppliers and markets: Provoletta cheese; ultra-fine 00 flour for his pizzas and pastas; the black aubergines that star in his melanzane alla Parmiggiana, a veggie dish that gets rave reviews on Trip Advisor. Traditionalists and adventure seekers, carnivores and vegetarians, the menu caters for all-comers with tuna and clams, veal and venison, angus steak and lamb, pizza, pasta, risotto, barbecue dishes and weekly specials. We take so long digesting it all that the last portion of homemade hummus has been bagged before we get around to ordering! Everything is prepared the same day, in small quantities, so you know it’s fresh. Que sera sera… but Paolo disappears, returning with crispy
ham and chicken croquettes – not on the menu. Besides cooking, he’s also passionate about pulling out all the stops to please his customers. The carpaccio di mare is another surprise – a tricolour flag of wafer thin salmon, tuna and cod that looks like an artwork and tastes fresh as the sea. He also prepares us his speciality tagliata di manzo – beef marinated until mouth-meltingly tender, seared to retain the juices and served with rocket and parmesan. This heavenly dish is popular in all the fashionable Italian restaurants in London, where Paolo honed his skills: among them, San Lorenzo in Knightsbridge, Princess Diana’s favourite restaurant; and swanky Crockfords Hotel and Casino in Mayfair where, as well as cooking, he checked in, waited on and even fixed the TV for the likes of Placido Domingo, Rod Stewart, Mohammed Ali and Joan Collins. After catering college in Sardinia, Paolo learned all there is to know about running a hotel in London – from the bottom up. “I was everything from the receptionist to the chef to the man who took care of the electrics,” he laughs.
Photography Jayden Fa
But like most Italian chefs, Paolo’s passion for cooking was born around his own super-sized family kitchen table, shared with eight brothers and sisters. “My mother’s 84, but she’ll be cooking for us all when I go home for Christmas,” he says. You can try one of Mamma Olmetto’s signature dishes at 4 Stagioni – ravioli Anastasia, named in her honour; the secret’s in the lamb ragu sauce. In true Italian style, the courses keep on coming: scalloppa alla Milanese, pumpkin ravioli, gamberi alla Piemontese with truffle sauce and fried leeks, Pavlova topped with forest fruits and a tipsy tiramisu. Summer or winter, local or foreigner, you’ll be welcomed like famiglia at 4 Stagioni. Gibraltarians and those in the know have been enjoying Paolo’s inspired homecooking since 2006. It’s not fair they should keep him all to themselves. Well, now I’ve blown the secret. g 15 Rosia Rd, Gibraltar, (parking at the nearby cable car station car park). Tel: +350 200 79153. Open from 7.30pm daily in winter (also lunchtimes in summer). Closed December 24-26.
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THE GOURMET wine
LA ENCINA DEL INGLÉS THE ENGLISH OAK
On a recent gastronomic trip to Jubrique, I discovered this amazing wine. Having driven along the winding road to this little town situated 38 km from Ronda, we decided to have lunch at Mesón La Pozuela which is run by a charming Dutch couple – a nice surprise in itself as I was brought up in Amsterdam so I was able to chat away in Dutch! The menu looked so appetising and when it came to choosing the wine, I decided to go for something local. The owner recommended that I try La Encina del Inglés white with the starter of foie on toast and the La Encina del Inglés Red with a Magret de Canard. I so enjoyed these special wines from Ronda that my immediate reaction was that we must bring these wines to Gibraltar! Not only did I love the wines and the original labels, but also the story behind them. WORDS ROCIO CORRALES, SALES & MARKETING MANAGER, ANGLO HISPANO PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF BODEGA LA MELONERA
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oon after, we visited the winery, La Melonera, en petit comité and were welcomed by the CEO, Jorge Viladomiu and the winemaker, Ana de Castro. We spent a lovely day wine tasting under the shade of the cork oaks surrounded by the vineyards and with the overwhelming views of Ronda in the distance. Before the onset of the phylloxera plague in the mid-19th century, the region’s native grape varieties were exported throughout the world due to their quality and because of the proximity to the ports from where the voyages of discovery to the New World started. Some of these native grape varieties have been recovered and have been replanted on the Estate. As the phylloxera did not reach the higher altitudes, some vines unique to this region were preserved and the team at La Melonera have been working to propagate these vines, one of which is named Melonera as the grape resembles the stripes of a melon. Later during the Romantic 19th century, travellers such as the ´Hispanist´ Richard Ford and British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, journeyed through the area on their way to Granada on what came to be known as the ‘Great South Tour’. Literary figures such as James Joyce, García Lorca and Ernest Hemingway all sang the praise of this land of endless skies, sun and good wine. Imagine those men travelling on horseback all the way from Gibraltar and taking a pit stop at ‘La Melonera’
under the beautifully formed cork oaks which are the highlight the landscape. La Encina del Inglés wines pay tribute to those men. Nestled in the heart of the province of Málaga, where the rocky landscapes of the south of Spain descend to the shores of the Mediterranean, the Serrania de Ronda has been famous for its wine from the time it was first occupied by the Phoenicians, back in 700 B.C. From Pliny’s Letters, we know that this reputation continued throughout Roman times and was reflected by a symbol of a bunch of grapes appearing on coins minted in Acinipo, an ancient Roman city located two kilometres from La Melonera. At the time of the conquistadors, the region was the New World’s reference in terms of viticulture. One afternoon in April 2003, winemaker, Javier Suqué, from one of the most important wine families in Spain, and his cousin, Jorge Viladomiu Peitx, dreamt of something different, something which would leave a mark for future generations, and at the same time pay tribute to a lifetime devoted to the cultivation of the vine. With a group of investors equally excited by the challenge, they set out to find the best location for the creation of some unique wines. After much research within the collection of books at the library at Castillo de Perelada, owned by the Suqué Mateu family since 1923, they found the answer in a book written in 1807 by Simón de Rojas Clemente. In it, he
described the unique features of the Serranía de Ronda and its ancient winemaking tradition, interrupted in the late 19th century by the phylloxera plague. The Melonera estate is southsoutheast facing and covers 200 hectares at altitudes ranging between 650 and 940 metres, which means that the daily temperature can oscillate by up to 20 degrees in both winter and summer. This, along with over 800 litres of annual rainfall and humid, unpolluted winds coming off the Atlantic, makes it a perfect enclave for the cultivation of the vine. They say that variety is the spice of life and at La Melonera variety is the rule. Vines grow on pastureland, planes and terraces, with textures which include clay soils, loamy sand as well as some predominantly limestone plots. They use different types of double training, creating root competition between the vines, as well as rings which contain the vines and give them greater leaf surface area. Then there are differences in the altitudes of the terrain which accentuates the area’s already wide humidity and temperature variations. The wealth of nuances and options available when it comes to making the wine ensures that originality and excellence are reflected in the final bottle.
La Encina del Inglés red
Z TASTING NOTE: Bright, intense violet hue. Powerful aromas of red and black fruit with discreet spicy notes of oak. The wine is fresh, meaty, enveloping, long and pleasant on the palate, with ripe tannins. Z D. ORIGIN Sierras de Málaga, sub-zone of Serranía de Ronda. Z GRAPE VARIETIES Garnacha: 60%, Syrah: 40% Z HARVESTING Selected and hand-picked grapes from vineyards growing at altitudes between 600 and 900m. Z WINEMAKING Red wine making with long maceration and temperature controlled at 25ºC. Z AGEING 60% of the coupage ageing during six months in 60 Hl wooden vats of French Allier oak.
g Available at VINOPOLIS,
5/7 Main Street, Gibraltar. Tel: +350 200 77210, www.vinopolis.gi facebook: vinopolisgib; twitter: @vinopolisgib; www.lamelonera.com
g La Encina del Inglés red £7.85,
La Encina del Inglés white £5.30 and Payoya Negra £14.95 are all available at Vinopolis.
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restaurants All’s Well Bar & Restaurant
Gatsby’s
Mons calpe suite
Taps Bar
Unit 4, Casemates Square, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 72987
1 /3 Watergardens 1, Waterport Ave, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 76291
Top of The Rock, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 79478
5 Ocean Village Promenade, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 67575
Mumbai curry house
gauchos
Ground floor, Block 1 Eurotowers, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 73711
Theatre Royal Bar & Restaurant
bay view bistro The Caleta Hotel, Catalan Bay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 76501
BEAN & gone cafe 20 Engineers Lane, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 65334
Bianca’s 6/7 Admiral’s Walk, Marina Bay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 73379
Bridge Bar & Grill Leisure Island, Ocean Village, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 66446
Bruno’s Unit 3, Trade Winds, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 68444
Cafe Rojo 54 Irish Town, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 51738
Cafe Solo Grand Casemates Square 3, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 44449
Cannon Bar 27 Cannon Lane, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 77288
Casa Brachetto 9 Chatham Counterguard, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 48200
Fishmarket Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 59700
Gibraltar Arms 184 Main Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 72133
Grille53 The Tower, Marina Bay, Ocean Village, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 61999
Jumpers Wheel Restaurant 20 Rosia Road, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 40052
Jury’s Cafe & Wine Bar 275 Main Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 67898
Khan’s 7/8 Watergardens, Waterport, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 50015
Kowloon Restaurant 20 Watergardens III, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 42771
La Mamela Sir Herbert Miles Road, Catalan Bay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 72373
Latino’s Diner
Nunos Italiano
60 Governor’s Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 51614
The Caleta Hotel, Catalan Bay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 76501
The Chargrill Restaurant at Gala Casino
O’Reilly’s
Gala Casino, Ocean Village, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 76666
Leisure Island, Ocean Village, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 67888
paparazzi café Restaurant 44 Cornwall’s Lane, Tel: +350 200 69966
Piccadilly Garden Bar 3B Rosia Rd, Gibraltar Tel. +350 200 75758
Pizza Express Unit 17, Ocean Village, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 50050
The Landings Restaurant
Unit RO1, Ragged Staff Wharf, Queensway Quay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 46993
15 Ragged Staff Wharf, Queensway Quay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 66100
Rooftop Bistro, O’Callaghan Eliott Hotel
17 Ragged Staff Wharf, Queensway Quay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 61118
Governor’s Parade, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 70500
the ocean
9 Casemates Square, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 47755
2/2 Watergate House, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 76662
La Parrilla
Sacarello’s Cafe-Restaurant
17/18 Watergardens, Block 6, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 66555
57 Irish Town, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 70625
Laziz
saffron
Sail 2.2, Ocean Village Marina, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 40971
15a Parliament Lane, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 63009
Lek Bangkok
Seawave Bar
Unit 50 1/3, Block 5, Eurotowers, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 48881
60 Catalan Bay Village, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 78739
sky restaurant & Bar
El Pulpero
Little Rock Restaurant & Bar
Unit 12A Watergardens, Waterport, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 44786
Casemates Square, Gibraltar Tel +350 200 51977
4 Stagioni
Maharaja Indian Restaurant
16/18 Saluting Battery, Rosia Road, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 79153
5 Tuckey’s Lane, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 50733
Gallo Nero
Mamma Mia
56/58 Irish Town, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 77832
Unit C, Boyd Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 64444
El faro Marina Bay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 79241
27 Leisure Island, Ocean Village, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 66666
raJ’s curry house
Champion’s Planet Bar & Grill
79 Irish Town, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 75566
the island
13a Ocean Village, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 68222
Latinos Music Bar and Restaurant
Corks Wine Bar
21B The Promenade, Ocean Village, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 67889
1008 Eurotowers, Europort Avenue, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 63868
Unit 18, Queensway Quay Marina, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 46967
4/5 Britannia House, Marina Bay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 69993
The Cuban
the ivy sports bar & grill
Casa Pepe
Charlie’s Steakhouse & Grill
78 Irish Town, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 79791
Pizzaghetti
194/196 Main Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 46660
Unit 2B, The Tower, Marina Bay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 46668
The Clipper
Roy’s Cod Place
Sunborn Gibraltar, Ocean Village. Tel: +350 200 16000
Solo Bar & Grill Unit 15, 4 Eurotowers, Europort Avenue, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 62828
solo express Casemates Square, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 62828
the lounge gastro bar
6 West Place of Arms, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 40651
The Rock Hotel Restaurant Europa Road, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 73000 The Royal Calpe, 176 Main Street. Tel: +350 200 75890
The Trafalgar Bar 1a Rosia Road, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 45370
The Waterfront 4/5 Ragged Staff Wharf, Queensway Quay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 45666
Tunnel Bar Restaurant Casemates Square, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 44878
Verdi Verdi Unit G10, International Commercial Centre, Main Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 60733
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