European Hotel Londres

11-15 Argyle Square, London, Reino Unido

A TripAdvisor MemberLondonCônjuge/companheiro(a)Junho 2013Viajante do Easytobook.com

"European hotel stay"

Simple, clean accommodation complete with a good breakfast and friendly staff. Very good value for money, will probably stay there again. Quiet position, but very close to Kings Cross station, so travelling around London was very easy.

4

A TripAdvisor MemberSwitzerlandMaio 2013Viajante do Easytobook.com

"Good value for money"

small but clean room, perfect location for a short trip to London, in walking distance ( 3 mins) to public transport (Underground, Kings Cross station), english breakfast was good, rooms can be noisy at some times. In a nutshell.. good value for money.

3

Samira ELondonMaio 2013Viajante do Easytobook.com

"séjour à Londres"

The hotel was very clean(appropriate), the modest breakfast however no double glazing in the room, no curtain, no heating, and it's a pity because very small bathroom and nothing to put our personal belongings, very old showers.

For staying a couple of nights, European Hotel served what we expected. The room was small, but included all the necessary. WiFi was available, as well as a TV with plenty of channels. Service is good.

5

Maja BLondonAbril 2013Viajante do Easytobook.com

"x"

bad thing were thin walls of the roomgood location, good breakfast, excellent price/value ratefriendly staffthe rooms are small so I would not recommend large people to book - I mean it literallythe downside however their policy not to accept pets

Very pleasant stay. Clean and tidy. Several breakfast options. Nice staff. Just in front of King's Cross & St. Pancras Station+ many buses around and several tube lines to go everywhere in London.p.s. Wi-fi in my room ... sooo useful :) !!I enjoyed my stay.

3

Maaike SLondonAgosto 2012Viajante do Easytobook.com

"breakfast"

Very poor choice for breakfast. Very fat eggs, very fat meat. Why not a boiled egg? Why not cheese, honey of normal jam (there was only orange marmolade), why not yoghurt?We at only bread with suger. The bottles with sauce on the table looked very dirty. And ik think jam has the be served in one-person-packing, thats more hygienic.In bathroom there were very dirty "glue edges"

I stayed at the European hotel for 5 days while in London. They front desk was very helpful to me as my luggage was delayed for a couple of days. They allowed me to use their phone to call the airport to find out what was happening and what time I could expect the luggage to be delivered. The breakfast was fine for me. They had eggs, bacon toast, jams, milk, coffee, and juice. I was satisfied with the food each morning.It is a little noisy from others as when the windows open and you are in an inner room the noise travel upward but I did not have any trouble sleeping. It is also ver convenient for transportation as it is just 1 1/2 blocks from Kings Cross/St Pancras stations.

1

Axel HBerlinTurista individualAbril 2012Viajante do Easytobook.com

"Avoid this TOURIST TRAP, terrible"

I did not expect luxury for what I thought was a fair price for this location, but this is too expensive for such a terrible place. This "hotel" is a nightmare. After arriving and paying, I was told where my room was: in the basement!The room had very worn out furniture, partly broken, diry. The toilet was dirty, too cheap and smell bad.There was a window but behind it was a sort of 2 m2 patio where neighbours also had windows and it was also used as corridor by personel who I had every minute in front of my bed. People smoke outside my window, practically inside my room.I thought that was all and that I would just stay, work and leave. No. At 1am in the night a bunch of guys met at the neighbour room. They had a party and although the concierge told them to be quite, it took at least until 2am and another complaint form me for them to stop the party.Breakfast is totally bad.There is no mat on the bathroom, no shampoo, no place to leave your toopaste, etc while you brush your teeth.While you may want to be in central london and therefore choose this Hotel, I did not kind King´s Cross area a charming place.There are much better hotels for the same or less, in better areas of london. Avoid this place by all means, you will thank me. Again, AVOID THIS TOURIST TRAP

Pros: It provided just what i needed, a room and shower en suite. the breakfast was nice, and the staff was very attentive. the room was cleaned each day while i was out. the location was very convenient to kings cross/st. pancras station yet situated across from a park, so very quiet and peaceful.

Cons: Only 1 towel therefore nothing to put on floor when getting out of shower. 1 pillow only, could have done with 2. could only get 1 channel on tv despite having mentioned to reception on my 1st morning.


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The hotel consist of four floors, and total width of it is something about ten meters (sic!). Hotels' rooms are very tiny, so be prepared for a kind of survival staying there. When booking this hotel, try to book room with its windows on the main street, otherwise when you will got room at the back street be prepared that...
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the location and low-cost made this hotel a perfect choice for us. It's definitely a no-frills kind of place so be prepared for that. features and amenities are very minimal, don't recall there being AC, and there was often not someone working in the lobby so a key/code was needed to re-enter. I wouldn't recommend this place for anyone who...
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Eventhough we got lost on our way to the hotel but the staff was very helpful when I called asking for direction and when we got there the owner/staff showed us how to lock/unlock our door properly (the door was a bit old-fashioned) etc. There are no elevators (they mentioned about that in their website) so for those of you...
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The location is incredible. A few minute walk from the Louvres, the Jardin des Tuileries and the metro. We actually went almost everywhere by foot (Panthéon, Jardin du Luxembourg, Notre-Dame-de-Paris, etc.) but I admit we like to walk.
The receptionist (Armelle?) was very nice and helpful. So was the man who did a minor repair.
We did find the bathroom...
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We were double booked at our other hotel due to 123france.co.uk and sent to the rouen which did RUIN our 'romantic' holiday. The sheets had black hairs on and in them and we slept in our clothes on top of the beds which we had to cover with our own towels as I was just so disgusted. The breakfast was...
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I stayed at the Hotel de Rouen most for its location, which is really really good. the view is charming and the streets are calm. There are few bars/cafes around, and it´s perfectly fine because you can enjoy sitting in a cafe in Paris but far from the crowd.
The staff was helpful - we have arrived late at night...
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Ok so here are my complaints and after then I will explain what the manager said when I emailed him with them. 1. When I booked I paid for breakfast but was told at the front desk that I didn't, then on the last day I was informed that I did indeed pay for breakfast. 2. I booked it because...
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I have no one to blame but myself. I researched, and researched, and researched, and ultimately decided that this was going to be a good, basic hotel for my family (2 adults, 2 boys under 10) to stay for our 4 nights in Paris after a week in London. BTW, for a bit of perspective, we're middle-class Americans and we...
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Riddled with bed bugs, Bites everywhere, very dirty, grubby, better hotels for just a few more euros. this is a dump.

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lavalou, Propriétaire at Hotel de Rouen, responded to this review

Hello!
First of all, sorry for my english!
And sorry because you have not liked my hotel!
It is an "not expansive" hotel right in the center of Paris and it is basic and I hope that people understand when they arrive on the website of Booking.com.
For the "insects", I was waiting to see by myself the bed in...
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The Hotel is incredibly dirty, and the staff is incredibly unhelpful. Don't you ever stay in this hotel... it is much better if you search some other hotel in the same location.
We were stolen in this hotel. A lady in glasses went into our room and took 300 euros. I know it is my fault, but that was done...
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Staying in Louvre / Palais-Royal

Neighborhood Profile

Louvre / Palais-Royal

From the majestic Louvre to the regal Palais-Royal, this neighborhood oozes luxury. The grand arches along Rue de Rivoli are shadowed by mosaics in front of decorated vitrines and hotels. Place Vendôme is lined with the world’s best jewelers and their glittering window displays. Every other establishment has someone to open the door for you or park your car. You can spend hours gazing at its haute couture shops or lingering over a meal at any of its chic eateries. After all that indulgence, the Tuileries gardens provide stately respite, while theaters compete for your applause. It's a neighborhood that draws admirers from around the world, all attracted to the luxe life in Paris.

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28 Feb REVIEW: EVA AIR 777-300 BUSINESS CLASS

Overall

There’s no doubt that Eva Air offers a convenient way of getting from Bangkok to London; it’s a very functional flight. Will I remember it for years to come? Probably not. While it was a pleasant flight, it just wasn’t memorable. The best thing I have from it is the awesome Rimowa kit! I would happily do it again but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. Still, at just 55.000 Aegean miles + €80 for a flat seat for 13 hours you can’t really go wrong!

Background/booking

Last October I spent a few days in Bangkok after a phenomenal week at the St.Regis Maldives! Bangkok is one my favourite cities given its amazing food scene and the insanely cheap 5-star hotel properties that are on offer! For my flight back to London I wanted to try a new airline and decided to redeem for Eva Air which I’d had my eyes on for a very long time! The Taiwanese carrier flies direct from Bangkok to LHR and since it’s a Star Alliance carrier I was able to book business class through Aegean’s Miles+Bonus program for just 55.000 miles and about €80 one way, which is a steal!

The seat

Eva Air operates a 777-300ER out of Bangkok which has a reverse herringbone seat in a 1-2-1 configuration. While not super exciting, it is definitely one of the most ‘solid’ seats out there that provides very good privacy and comfort. It’s on par with what you’d find on Qatar airways 787 or Cathay Pacific 777-300 so overall it was a pretty good experience, without though a WOW factor. I think the seat feels a bit old now and definitely shows its age. However, it was pretty comfortable both in regular and in bed mode. I particularly liked how Eva Air provides a (thin) mattress that hooks on the top of the seat so you can easily switch between seat modes without removing it.

The service

This is probably by biggest complaint on this flight. For an Asian carrier, the service was subpar. It’s not that it was bad, it just didn’t feel special at all. The crew were not particularly friendly and didn’t make too much of an effort to engage. Maybe that was because of the language barrier butthe service just lacked any sort of personality and attention to detail. Havingsaid that, Asian carriers set the bar very high so Eva Air does pretty wellwhen you compare them to other carriers, especially in the US…

The entertainmentsystem/amenities/internet

The seat comes with a pretty big tv although the overall quality of the screen and the selection of movies are nothing to write home about. Good but nothing memorable… Business class comes with noise-cancelling headphones which I didn’t try as nothing really beats my pair of Bose headphones.

Amenities-wise, Eva Air really shines! Business class passengers are offered a very cool and exclusive Rimowa hard-case kit which has all the basics (with Clarins cosmetics). You also get a pair of very nice pj’s and slippers that come in a handy case. Overall, top marks here!

The internet was a bit disappointing although at least itwas cheap! While technically available, it was very hard to get a connection onand when you did the speed was abysmal. It’s ok if you want to send a messageor do some simple browsing but don’t expect to be downloading big files ordoing anything substantial with it.

The food

Once again, I think the food left quite a bit to be desired. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either, especially coupled with the pretty indifferent service. Everything I had was good but not memorable. The good thing with Eva Air is they let you pre-order from a more extensive menu prior to the flight so I had chosen a pretty nice seabass dish which wasn’t otherwise available on board. Overall, I’d say the highlight was the Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame 2006 which is a fantastic champagne and very expensive on the ground! Again, maybe I’m being too harsh here but I was expecting “stronger” flavours and just better variety and service.


Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Four Seasons Hotels Limited, trading as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, is a Canadian international luxury hospitality company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Four Seasons operates more than 100 hotels worldwide. Since 2006, Bill Gates (through Cascade Investment) and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal have been majority owners of the company.

History

Canadian businessman Isadore Sharp founded Four Seasons in 1960.  While a young architect working for his father, Sharp designed a motel for a family friend; its success motivated him to try creating his own hotel.  He bought a large parcel of land in a run-down area of Toronto and planned a stopover for business travellers; the Four Seasons Motor Hotel opened in 1961.

Four Seasons built more hotels, including the 1963 Inn on the Park, a $4 million two-story resort hotel in suburban Toronto that housed Canada's first discothèque.

Upscale luxury became part of the brand when the company expanded to London.  When a developer approached Four Seasons about building a hotel in London, Sharp planned it to compete with the city's old-world, elite hotels, such as Claridge's and The Connaught.  The hotel opened in 1970.

The lead consultant was the architecture firm Aedas.]]

In 1974, cost overruns at the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver nearly led the company into bankruptcy.  As a result, the company began shifting to its current, management-only business model, eliminating costs associated with buying land and buildings.  The company went public in 1986. In the 1990s, Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton began direct competition, with Ritz-Carlton emphasizing a uniform look while Four Seasons emphasized local architecture and styles with uniform service; in the end Four Seasons gained market share.

Built in 1986, Four Seasons Hotel Austin is a nine-story hotel on 2.3 acres of land on the Lady Bird Lake's north shore. In 1997, Four Seasons Hotel Austin became the first hotel to have "a high-speed wireless Internet network" after Wayport, Inc. set it up there for testing wireless Internet networks. The hotel hosted Queen Elizabeth II in 1991 when she visited Texas. It was acquired by Anbang Insurance Group from the Blackstone Group for $359.7 million in 2016.

Economic downturns in the early and mid-2000s affected the company. When the September 11 attacks caused the collapse of the travel industry, Four Seasons refused to cut room prices in order to preserve the perceived value of the brand, which caused tension with property owners who were losing money.  The company recovered, and in 2007 it agreed to a buyout by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia for $3.8 billion. The pair own 95 percent of the company, in equal shares, and Sharp owns the rest.

Challenges returned again during the financial crisis of 2007–2010.  The company made the first corporate layoffs in its history, cutting 10% of its Toronto workforce. In April 2010, after a year-long dispute with Broadreach Capital Partners and Maritz, Wolff & Co., owners of the Aviara resort near San Diego, an arbitration panel ruled that, while both parties contributed to the demise of the business relationship, Four Seasons had not violated its management agreement.  The arbitrators ordered Broadreach to pay Four Seasons to terminate the contract." The resort is no longer a Four Seasons.

Four Seasons has continued to add more hotels and resorts to its portfolio, notably in China. It opened a new hotel in Hangzhou in 2010 and Guangzhou, Beijing, and a second property in Shanghai in 2012. In India, it has one hotel in Mumbai. In 2013, it opened its first hotel in Russia in the Lobanov-Rostovsky Palace in St. Petersburg, and later opened a second hotel in Moscow. In Indonesia, it has one hotel in Jakarta and another two in Bali.

In October 2012, Four Seasons opened a new 259 room Toronto hotel in Yorkville, designed by internationally known design firm Yabu Pushelberg. The hotel includes an upscale restaurant led by celebrity chef Daniel Boulud. It was hailed by The Globe and Mail as "the renewal of an iconic Canadian brand in its hometown". The penthouse was bought by entrepreneur Robert Österlund (founder of Xacti, LLC and Inbox.com) for a Canadian record price of over $28 million.

In 2009, founder Sharp wrote a memoir titled Four Seasons: The Story of  Business Philosophy. It contained a historical chronicle of the hotels since its inception.

Business model

Four Seasons does not own any of its properties; it operates them on behalf of real estate owners and developers.  For example, its New York Downtown hotel/residence is owned by Silverstein Properties, and its Las Vegas hotel is part of the Mandalay Bay complex.  The contracts between Four Seasons and property owners typically permit the company to participate in the design of the property and run it with nearly total control over every aspect of the operation.

Four Seasons generally earns three percent of the gross income and about five percent of profits from the properties it operates, and the property owners are required to additionally contribute money for chain-wide sales, marketing and reservations systems.  Four Seasons hotels have larger staffs than competing chains, and the company maintains separate reserve accounts for each hotel to cover upkeep costs. Profit margins are relatively low, but the brand attracts developers through the hotels' reputation as solid assets for loan collateral or resale. Four Seasons also produces a complimentary magazine for guests that is supported by advertising revenue. Four Seasons has a fractional ownership division, Four Seasons Residence Clubs.

Residential rentals

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts began offering vacation rentals in June 2014. Titled Residential Rentals, the properties are available in: North America (Costa Rica, Houston, Jackson Hole, Nevis, Punta Mita, San Diego, Whistler, Vail). Africa (Marrakech, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sharm El Sheikh), Europe (Cap-Ferrat) and Asia (Jimbaran Bay, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui).

Residential Rentals provide the same services as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in a residential setting. Customers are mainly multi-generational vacationers and small group travellers.

The first stand alone Four Seasons Private Residences opened in London at 20 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair in July 2019. It will be the third Four Seasons venue in London.

European locations
Four Seasons has a total of 20 hotels in Europe.

Critical reception

Travel + Leisure magazine and Zagat Survey rank the hotel chain's properties among the top luxury hotels worldwide. Readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine have voted Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle in Chiang Rai, Thailand as among the top ten hotels in the world for three consecutive years. The company has been named one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" by Fortune every year since the survey's inception in 1998, ranking #47 in 2015, and is lauded for having one of the lowest employee turnover rates in the hospitality industry.

In recent years, restaurants at Four Seasons hotels and resorts have been recognized by Zagat and Michelin.  The latter has awarded at total of 29 stars to 20 of the company's restaurants, including Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong (three restaurants), Paris (three restaurants), Beijing (two restaurants) and Florence.

The company has been recognized by Forbes Travel Guide with many of its properties earning a Forbes Fives Star rating. In 2017, 30 properties received the five-star rating, making it the most five-star ratings earned than any other hotel brand since its inception.

TripAdvisor named the Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora #1 Hotel for Romance in the World.

Philanthropy
The company and its hotels and resorts have been involved in a number of philanthropic programs, with a focus on supporting sustainability, building communities,  and advancing cancer research.  Four Seasons was one of the founders of the Terry Fox Run in 1981, which has since grown into the world's largest single day cancer fundraiser, with events around the world every September.  To date, the Terry Fox Run has raised more than CAD 750 million.

In 2001, Four Seasons Resort Maldives started collaborating with the local environmental organization Seamarc/Marine savers, which has set up a program of reimplantation of coral in damaged areas. Thousands of guest-sponsored "coral frames" have been transplanted in Kuda Hurra and Landaa Giraavaru resorts' reefs, and are under survey by marine scientists; they constitute a refuge for thousands of tropical species, and help to preserve and recover fragile ecosystems.

On June 19, 2002, the Canadian Opera Company announced Four Seasons Hotels as the naming donor for the COC's new Opera House, also home to the National Ballet of Canada, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, located in Toronto, Ontario.

References

External links

Category:Hotel and leisure companies of Canada
Category:Multinational companies headquartered in Canada
Category:Companies based in Toronto
Category:Hotels established in 1960
Category:Canadian brands
Category:1960 establishments in Ontario
Category:Luxury brands
Category:Privately held companies of Canada


Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has returned an honorary degree awarded by Britain's Oxford University after a global backlash, fronted by celebrities like Elton John and George Clooney, for proposing the death penalty for gay sex and adultery.

Key points: Nearly 120,000 people signed a petition calling on Oxford to rescind the law degree

Nearly 120,000 people signed a petition calling on Oxford to rescind the law degree On April 3, Brunei installed the death penalty for sodomy, adultery and rape

On April 3, Brunei installed the death penalty for sodomy, adultery and rape The sultan earlier this month said the death penalty would not be imposed, although the law remains

Nearly 120,000 people had signed a petition by April calling on Oxford to rescind the honorary law degree awarded in 1993 to the Sultan, the world's second-longest reigning monarch and Prime Minister of the oil-rich country.

The petition was circulated after the small South-East Asian country rolled out its interpretation of Islamic laws on April 3, punishing sodomy, adultery and rape with death, including by stoning.

Seeking to temper the backlash, the Sultan earlier this month said the death penalty would not be imposed in the implementation of the penal code changes.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 5 minutes 32 seconds 5 m Brunei bows to backlash over gay sex laws ( Beverley O'Connor )

In response, Oxford University said it conducted a review and wrote to the Sultan on April 26, "asking for his views" by June 7.

A statement said the Sultan replied with his decision to return the degree on May 6.

Meanwhile, Oxford said it was reviewing its decision to award it in the first place.

Brunei's proposed law, which the United Nations condemned, had prompted celebrities and rights groups to seek a boycott on hotels owned by the Sultan, including the Dorchester in London and the Beverley Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.

Several multinational companies have since put a ban on staff using the Sultan's hotels, while some travel companies have stopped promoting Brunei as a tourist destination.

Socially conservative attitudes persist across much of Asia, where Myanmar, Malaysia and Singapore ban sexual relationships between men, and Indonesia has seen an increase in raids targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people recently.

Brunei, a former British protectorate of about 400,000 people, nestled between two Malaysian states on Borneo island, was the first country in the region to adopt the criminal component of Sharia law at a national level in 2014.

Reuters


BOOK LONDON HOTELS

History on 17th August

Animal Farm Published

Although the term is more connected with George Orwell’s later novel 1984, thus anachronistic if applied to Animal Farm, there is something very Orwellian about the publishing history of that latter novel. George Orwell , though educated at Wellington and Eton (albeit as a scholarship boy), became a committed democratic socialist. He saw active duty in the Spanish Civil War, where he witnessed the obsession of Stalin’s USSR with destroying alternative socialist organisations even if that succoured fascism.
During WWII Eric Blair – his real name – conceived the idea for a satire about the corrupted reality of Soviet communism, which he wrote in a basement flat in Kilburn while also contributing to the BBC , Tribune, The Observer and other publications, and serving with the Home Guard . The completed Animal Farm was ready by April 1944, but his usual publishers and various others turned the book down for fear of offending Britain’s by then vital ally Stalin. One publisher which had agreed to issue the book was allegedly dissuaded by a civil servant later revealed as a Russian agent. The tale eventually saw the light of day on August 17 1945, published by Secker and Warburg in London.
We laugh at the absurdities of Napoleon and his fellow pigs, and at the blind loyalty of Boxer the horse; but we see through their lives the thinly disguised Russian Revolution and communist regime which descended into terror and moral bankruptcy. It is thought provoking still today as we witness politicians of every party redefine themselves according to circumstance and ambition rather than belief. During the 2008-2009 MPs’ expenses scandal the best-known phrase from Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” appeared frequently in journalism.


If you just want to know how to fix this travesty, then scroll to the stopgap solution section where I’m sharing a script from Brainlabs (my employer) which will automatically add so-called “close variants” as negative keywords. Yippee! If you also want to hear me rant about Google’s astonishingly stoopid behavior, then read on…

Now they’re messing with exact match again, but this time they’ve gone too far.

In the new exact match universe, an “exact match” can include close variants of the keywords and can also include the same words, but in an entirely different order. Google is denying the importance of syntax, at the expense of the industry and, ultimately, itself.

To clarify, not all syntactic variations of the same set of words will match. Google’s machine learning algorithm will, to some extent, avoid matches where the word order changes the meaning. An obvious example is for flights: [LHR to JFK] is obviously very different from [JFK to LHR], so there’ll be no match there.

When A B C does not equal B C A

But what about the more subtle examples? Where will Google draw the line in terms of when a match will be made and when it won’t? Wherever this line is drawn, our experience shows that it will cause considerable damage to the performance of a campaign: Reduced relevancy means reduced ROI, as Google is fully aware.

There are countless examples from our clients’ accounts where ROI differs substantially based on word order. (I’ll write a follow-up article with more examples and analysis.) To us, it’s pretty obvious that even something subtle like [london hotels] is just not the same as [hotels london], even if they look the same and seem “similar.” The data tells us that they perform differently. Therefore, we’d like to bid differently for those keywords. Is that really so much to ask? In fact, isn’t that level of control exactly what has made Google such a successful platform in the first place?

To me, it’s easy to intuit why Google has decided to do this. They’ve run a test and determined they’ll make more money with this setup. Which they definitely will in the short term. But long-term, removing this control will only mean that sophisticated advertisers see lower ROI from the platform and therefore move budget to other channels.

Why mess with a formula that’s winning for everyone?

Don’t get me wrong. I love Google. Its products are amazing, and I’ve built a business on the back of the company’s ecosystem. I also (as a former Googler) built my career there. Until this bizarre change, it had been a brilliant year for AdWords: amazing new features, insane improvements to the API, a quadrupled functionality of its scripts, more audience targeting options, and they even finally disposed of RHS ads (which was good for advertisers, users and Google).

You were doing so well. Why would you ruin all that great work? Why, Google?!

I have a couple of suggestions that would work out better for all of us:

Introduce your new “similar matching” as the default option, but allow sophisticated advertisers to opt out in advanced settings. That’s easy and won’t cost you anything. Plus, you’ll get the revenue uplift from all the n00bs.

Hire some product managers who have actually run AdWords campaigns themselves. That way, they might understand that this is not a smart move.

I thought about keeping quiet on the matter, as we have a superb working relationship with Google, and they are generally fabulous. However, my concern is that this is the first move toward pushing advertisers and agencies into handing over the keys to their websites, billing details and conversion data and letting Google take the driver’s seat.

If I thought that would help performance, then I honestly wouldn’t mind. But it won’t. Dynamic Search Ads is a great example of why handing control to Google isn’t always the right thing to do. While some of Google’s reps think we should “switch everything to DSA,” any self-respecting, sophisticated campaign manager knows that’s garbage.

I’m not a Luddite either. I love automation and AI. I lead a company entirely dedicated to automating AdWords campaigns and management. But this is a mistake — a huge one that has far-reaching implications.

Rant over — I’m going back to smiling again :)))

A stopgap solution

Assuming Google isn’t going to implement the changes I’ve suggested right away, let me share an approach for the interim.

Back in 2014, we made a script to reverse the changes to exact match. So, to combat the new changes, we’ve made a new and improved version. It looks at the “close variant” search queries in active campaigns from the last 30 days. If a query doesn’t precisely match the exact keyword, that query is added as an ad group negative. You can get an email with a list of the new negatives as well.

Unlike with the older version, you can have more than one keyword per ad group. If particular keywords aren’t set to exact match, the script won’t add those negatives. And if there are multiple exact keywords, the script makes sure the query is different from all of them before excluding it.

There’s also the option to schedule the script to analyze the campaigns without automatically making changes. Then you can just manually review the list of suggested negatives and create them when you’re happy with them.

There are a number of caveats:

It will only work on smallish accounts (I’d estimate up to 10,000 keywords). If your account is bigger or you have lots of accounts, then you need to do this via the API. If you can’t do that yourself, you might look to a partner.

It only adds negative keywords in retrospect, i.e., the similar variation has to appear and be identified before it can be excluded. So you’ll rack up some spend while this process occurs.

You may run into negative keyword limits in a large account.

If you want to be proactive about cross-contamination, there are technological ways to accomplish this. (For example, we have a module in the Brainlabs Tech Stack for this purpose, but it relies on a clean structure that separates exact and broad keywords, either at the campaign or AdGroup level).

Now that we’ve covered the caveats, let’s get to the script. To take back control of your exact keywords, make a new Script in AdWords and copy in the code below. Then, modify the settings below as appropriate for your situation.

campaignNameContains is used to filter the campaigns the script looks at. If you only want the script to look at campaigns that have certain words or phrases in the names, put those words or phrases in the square brackets, in double quotes and separated with commas. For example, if campaignNameContains is [“Brand”, “Generic”] then only campaigns with names containing “brand” or “generic” are included.

campaignNameDoesNotContain is the same, but for words or phrases in the names of campaigns you want the script to ignore. For example if campaignNameDoesNotContain is [“Misspellings”, “Competitor”] then any campaigns with names containing “misspellings” or “competitor” are ignored.

campaignNameContains and campaignNameDoesNotContain are not case-sensitive.

Leave them blank, [], to cover all campaigns.

If you need to put a double quote into the text of the campaign name for either variable, put a backslash before it.

If makeChanges is true, then the script will create the negatives for you. If you’d rather just check through the negatives before making changes, you can set it to false.

emailAddresses is where you put your email address, if you want to be sent a CSV of the new negatives (or the negatives that would be made, if makeChanges is false).

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Welcome to Gardiners NMC

Welcome to Gardiners NMC

We are a family owned and operated company and we have recently taken over Epsom Coach Holidays and Day Excursions programme.
Our aim is to deliver the same great holidays and excursions provided by Epsom Coach Holidays for many years to ensure we achieve this a number of the Epsom team have joined us. This includes the management team Melanie Cox and Alistair Scott both of whom had been with Epsom for many years!

Your Tour Manager will be onboard and will escort you throughout your holiday to ensure you maximise your experience and enjoyment.

Also the famous Home Collection Service remains included in your holiday price. If you live within 15 miles of Epsom we will collect you by taxi and deliver you to the meeting point where can enjoy a cup of tea and a chat with fellow travellers before leaving for your holiday. We'll even drop you home afterwards. Our customers love this service and if you haven't travelled with us before so will you!

Please give us a call on the same number 01372 610000 and we will be delighted to help.

We look forward to welcoming you onboard in the near future.

Please click on the below links for our Holidays and Day Trips that depart from the South.

Enjoy a Quality Coach Holiday with Gardiners NMC

At Gardiners NMC we offer a range of Day Excursions and Coach Holidays from the North East and Surrey & South London.
With our Coach Holidays we only use good standard hotels with 3 or 4 star rating, all of our advertised excursions and entrances are included in the price plus we operate our own fleet of luxury coaches.
We also operate a range of Continental Coach Holidays with our long haul tours all benefiting from overnight hotels.
For more information call us on 01670 519952 or 01372 610000 or visit www.gardinersnmc.co.uk

Look what's included with our tours...

Friendly and informative staff
Modern coaches with air-conditioning, toilet and reclining seats
Local pick-up points or optional door-to-door collection in the North East
Inclusive Home Collection in the South
Reserved seating on tour coach
Experienced, uniformed coach drivers and Tour Managers
Regular comfort breaks en-route
Interesting excursions with included entrance fee's
Excellent selection of quality 3 & 4 star Hotels
Minimum single supplements on tours
Bonded coach holidays for financial peace of mind
Group bookings welcome with special offers for organisers


Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black marry at Devon hotel Published duration 7 May 2017

image copyright Getty Images image caption Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black were married in Devon

British Olympic diver Tom Daley has married his partner, US film director, Dustin Lance Black.

The couple got married in a service at a luxury hotel on Dartmoor National Park in Devon, a source confirmed to the BBC.

The Bovey Castle Hotel venue is about 30 miles from Daley's home city of Plymouth.

A guest at the wedding said media reports the diver re-enacted a scene from Romeo and Juliet were untrue.

"I'm not sure which wedding they were at, but it wasn't the one I attended," he said.

image copyright Rigby Group PLC image caption The pair held a service at the Bovey Castle Hotel on Dartmoor

Daley, 22, won bronze medals at the Olympic Games in London and Rio de Janeiro.

He revealed in a YouTube video in 2013 he had a boyfriend, saying his "whole world changed" when he fell in love with a man.

"Come spring this year my life changed massively when I met someone and they make me feel so happy, so safe, and everything just feels great and, well, that someone is a guy," he said.

The high-profile couple announced they were engaged in 2015.

Black, 42, is a US film director, writer and producer.

He won the best original screenplay Oscar for the 2008 film Milk, which was based on the life of gay rights activist and politician, Harvey Milk.


Claims of historical child sex abuse by VIPs and politicians at the Dolphin Square apartment complex in Westminster and at other locations are as wide-ranging as they are shocking.

The most serious allegations, involving a multiple child murder, emerged last year from an abuse victim now in his 40s, who uses the pseudonym “Nick”. He told of a decade of abuse at the hands of people including senior politicians and members of Britain’s establishment.

Scotland Yard detectives said in December they believe his allegations that politicians and establishment figures abused and terrorised children as young as seven more than 30 years ago and went on to kill three young boys. The claims also included allegations a child had been run over.

“Nick” came forward, first to Exaro News, an independent investigative news website, and then told detectives the names of “VIPs” allegedly involved in the abuse.

Following three days of police interviews, he said last November: “They were very powerful people and they controlled my life for the next nine years. They created fear that penetrated every part of me, day in, day out. You didn’t question what they wanted, you did as they asked without question and the punishments were very severe.”

He told the BBC the alleged abusers were very organised and arranged chauffeur-driven cars to collect boys from locations such as schools, and drive them to the places they would be attacked, such as hotels or flats in London and other cities. “Some of them were quite open about who they were,” he said. “They had no fear at all of being caught.”

But important evidence remains lacking for the detectives of Operation Midland who are investigating the case. They, as yet, have no bodies. Neither do they have full names of those abused or killed, or exact locations where the alleged killings took place.

Officers from the inquiry team have been hunting hard. Earlier this month they searched the Grantham home of former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor. He denied ever having “attended sex parties at Dolphin Square or anywhere else” and has not been arrested.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I have not been part of any rent boy ring with cabinet ministers, other members of parliament or generals or the military.” He described being bought into the inquiries as Kafkaesque.

Also this month, officers from the same team searched the Surrey home of the former chief of defence staff, Lord Bramall, which he said left him mystified. He has not been arrested and said any suggestion he was involved in child abuse was “absolutely a load of rubbish”.

But the alleged murders and abuse at Dolphin Square are just one part of the jigsaw of proliferating child sex abuse inquiries. A wider investigation into a VIP child abuse ring is being conducted under the umbrella of Operation Fairbank, launched after the Labour MP Tom Watson made claims in parliament in 2012 about a child sex abuse gang with establishment connections.

Meanwhile, Operation Fernbridge is examining claims of a network of abusers, including prominent politicians, using the former Elm guesthouse in Barnes, south-west London in the late 1970s and 1980s. Among the alleged visitors was the former Liberal MP Cyril Smith who is also alleged to have abused boys at Knowl View school, in his Rochdale constituency. And Operation Cayacos is looking at claims of a paedophile ring linked to Peter Righton, a founder of the Paedophile Information Exchange, a campaign group that lobbied for sex between adults and children to be legalised in the 1970s and 1980s.

Last year, Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale who investigated claims against Smith, pressed Leon Brittan, who died in February this year, to reveal what he knew about paedophilia allegations, passed to him when he was home secretary in the 1980s. It was claimed a dossier was given to the Tory cabinet minister by the late Conservative MP, Geoffrey Dickens. The current home secretary, Theresa May, said in November there was no evidence documents were deliberately destroyed and said claims of a cover up were “not proven”.

Separately, Peter McKelvie, a former child protection manager, has claimed that at least 20 prominent figures – including former MPs and government ministers – abused children “for decades”. He said he discovered possible links between paedophiles and the government while assisting police in investigating convicted Righton. Among evidence seized from Righton’s home in 1992 were documents that pointed to a “very well organised paedophile network”, going back to the 1950s and 1960s.

The question of why police and prosecutors failed to tackle the claims, many of which surfaced years ago, is now being asked. Last July, Clive Driscoll, a former senior Metropolitan police officer said he was moved from his post when he revealed plans in 1998 to investigate politicians over claims of child abuse, that allegedly took place in children’s homes in the 80s. When he revealed – in an internal meeting – the names of suspects he wanted to investigate, which included politicians, he was taken off the case. He told the BBC his inquiry was “all too uncomfortable to a lot of people”.

Now the Independent Police Complaints Commission has launched an inquiry into 14 different claims of police and establishment coverups. One is about criminal allegations against a politician being dropped during a child abuse investigation in south London, another is the claim that an investigation into the suspected Dolphin Square ring was dropped “because officers were too near prominent people”.

Another is that no action was taken after a document that originated from the Houses of Parliament was found at an address of a known paedophile – it listed a number of MPs and senior police officers as being involved in a child sex abuse ring. Further investigations have been launched into the removal of a senior politician’s name from an account of abuse given by a victim, claims a politician had asked a top police officer to not take any action on a Westminster paedophile ring in the 1970s, and allegations that surveillance of a child sex abuse ring was shut down due to high-profile people being involved.


Two of the world’s busiest airports, in London and Denver, were socked with bad weather on Thursday, spreading delays and cancellations to airports around the world and stranding tens of thousands of travelers during the pre-Christmas travel crunch.

As flight after flight was canceled, the situation grew into a logistical horror for fliers, whose vacations were disrupted if not spoiled, and for airlines, who may lose much-needed revenue.

Industry officials said it could take two days to untangle the knot, which is tightest in Denver, where more than two feet of snow kept the airport closed for a second day. Home to one of United Airlines biggest hub operations, it’s not expected to reopen until midday Friday. In London, the weekend forecast is for more fog — and more travel delays.

Jodie and Andy Hartfield of Colorado Springs, Colo., spent a sleepless night at the Denver airport with their three young children. Luckily they scrounged a cot and some blankets from a family that left the airport to stay in a hotel. The Hartfields decided to stick around until Christmas Eve in hopes of catching a flight to Seattle.

“We can’t go home, the highway’s closed,” Jodie Hartfield said. “We can’t get to the car, it’s 10 miles away. And the hotels are not cheap.”

Denver pharmacist Robert Helmer fumed about the delays after spending the night at the Denver airport — on the floor. He boarded a United flight for St. Louis Wednesday morning, only to sit on the runway for four hours, first because of a late-arriving flight attendant and then stuck in the snow.

“This isn’t an act of God,” Helmer said. “It was mismanagement by United.”

On Thursday, he waited angrily for a bus convoy organized by airport officials to take passengers to downtown Denver.

“A lot of people are going to lose their holidays,” said Joe Brancatelli, who runs a Web site for travelers called joesentme.com. “The smart ones may decide to just stay home.”

Inclement weather can make air travel a nightmare under the best of circumstances, and the impact is only magnified around holidays.

But what makes Thursday’s snags so daunting, travel experts said, is that airlines have tightened their belts in recent years to regain financial stability. That means there are fewer employees to help stranded passengers than in years past, and fewer empty seats to offer stranded fliers determined to reach their destinations.

With teams using more than 100 unique apparatuses to launch globular projectiles a half-mile or more, the 27th annual World Championship Punkin Chunkin event is our pick as November’s Weird Festival of the Month.

Gummed-up service in London — where more than 700 flights have been canceled since Tuesday — reverberated across Europe, slowing travel to and from Helsinki, Vienna, Brussels, Paris and Amsterdam. The majority of the cancellations at Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, affected British Airways travelers.

Video: Bad weather blues
Large passenger planes can land using electronics, but reduced visibility means that pilots have difficulty spotting other airplanes, thereby increasing the risk of collision. The need for extra spacing between airplanes means fewer planes can go in and out of the airport.

“It’s bedlam,” said Nicholas Velez, 23, from Washington, D.C. “The whole terminal is so packed you can barely walk.”

With Heathrow hotels so full that even service rooms were occupied, Velez was one of the 500 people who slept in the chilly terminals overnight while waiting to rebook a flight home. Heated tents, sleeping mats and catering stalls were being set up for anxious travelers.

Zubair Qamar, 33, also heading to Washington, was luckier. He was given a hotel voucher after waiting for six hours Wednesday. “I spent some of my vacation in a five-star hotel, which was not so bad,” he said. “But I would have preferred to be back.”

London-based British Airways said it was focused on getting long-distance fliers on their way first, since short-haul customers had other options available to them, from renting a car to taking a train.

UAL Corp.’s United, by far the largest carrier in Denver, said that by Thursday afternoon it had canceled more than 2,000 flights systemwide, primarily because Colorado got smacked by the most powerful snowstorm it has seen in several years.

Even as airline officials and air traffic controllers focused their attention on Denver and London, other parts of the country were dealing with or getting ready for their own dose of untimely bad weather.

In Chicago, fog prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to reduce the number of flights coming in for all airlines at O’Hare International Airport. Kovick said he anticipated delays of more than an hour for United flights at O’Hare. Denver’s problems added to the misery at O’Hare and by Thursday afternoon, more than 100 flights had been canceled.

At San Francisco’s airport, 35 flights to and from Denver were canceled in the past two days, and in Minneapolis weather forecasters were predicting that rain could turn to ice, setting up potential travel delays on Friday.

Most cold-weather airports have runway sensors that detect when the surface temperature is near freezing, so crews can put a de-icing chemical down, said Patrick Hogan, spokesman for Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

“It’s an annual process for us, so we’re ready,” Hogan said. But about 700 old Army cots and newer sleeping pads are on hand in case travelers get stranded overnight, he said.

Hotels and resorts aren’t likely to refund any money to no shows, but airlines are a bit more flexible toward customers whose flights were canceled.

Southwest Airlines Co. said customers stranded because of a flight cancellation can opt for a full refund, or use their ticket to travel within two weeks of their original departure date. United said passengers have until midnight of the day their flight was canceled to make a new reservation at the same price.

Passenger demand is typically light on Christmas Day, but it isn’t likely to be this year, said travel expert Terry Trippler.

If past experience is any guide, Trippler said, “this won’t really be totally untangled until well past Christmas.”

The grand tradition of the gap year: that glorious time between school and work when young people take an extended break to see the world, explore their options and, perhaps, get a better sense of how they want to live the rest of their lives. These days, more people facing middle age are wondering why young people should have all the fun.


"When I was on holiday in France a few weeks ago, I bought this beautiful fish from the supermarket," says Marcus Wareing, as he tugs the tiny heart, liver and intestines from a quail. "I got it back to the house and thought, 'What the fuck am I going to do with this?'" Far from his gleaming kitchen at the Berkeley Hotel, in Knightsbridge, London, with its constant, efficient clatter, colour-coded chopping boards and double Michelin-starred menu, he got a taste of what cooking is like for the rest of us. "I was totally out of my comfort zone," he admits.

This morning, however, he is in his element – all puffed up because for the second year running his eponymous restaurant has been named London's best by Harden's Guide. Wareing's star has been steadily rising; for 19 years he was Gordon Ramsay's protege, opening Petrus for him at the Berkeley in 1999. But their relationship ended spectacularly badly last year and, after some legal wrangling, Wareing is now running the restaurant under his own name (confusingly Ramsay retained the Petrus brand and this winter will open a new version around the corner).

Although Wareing says he regrets not a bit of it, he is keen to avoid regurgitating his attack on Ramsay. But, for those who missed it at the time, his outbursts included: "If you were in the cavalry ... [Ramsay would] be that general on the hill yelling: 'Charge you idiots!' You'd all get killed, but he'd slide off to the side." And, "My advice to him is: Put a gun to my head, shoot me, put me in a box and bury me because if you don't, I'll come back and come back. I'll never give up until I get where I want to go."

That's all behind Wareing now and his restaurant looks beautiful – the brandy trolley alone is a sight to behold. I often wonder whether there isn't a hint of theatrical exaggeration in these chef spats. Do they all have a laugh about it over a drink later? "No, it's more serious than that," he says gravely. "If it wasn't for the people involved it would all be done behind closed doors. You see these pathetic spats, and I've had mine now."

Wareing may give as good as he gets in the chef wars, but he comes across as more sincere and likeable than his macho former mentor – there's nothing Neanderthal about Wareing's easy charm and earthy Lancashire twang.

Yet his second cookbook, Nutmeg & Custard, is, at first glance, a little intimidating. It's full of complicated-sounding dishes such as herbed garlic bread with bacon and pine nut crumble. Is it aimed at experienced foodies? "No, kids could cook from this," he says, leafing through the book. "Kids could make this crumpet. And there's popcorn." He admits he got carried away with the popcorn, writing 13 recipes, from a canape-style parmesan and black pepper popcorn with pancetta, to milk chocolate and peanut popcorn clusters – which his three children love to cook with their grandmother.

"The chapters are all related to home and things you find in your cupboard. The idea of this was about flavours of my childhood. So I've included the custard tart that my grandma used to make and that I have cooked for the Queen."

While the nostalgic elements of the book will teach you how to recreate Jaffa Cakes and a Strawberry Mivi ice-cream, it also includes meals that Wareing says are worthy of a one-Michelin-starred brasserie – such as the roasted quail with butternut squash and black olives he demonstrated the prep for earlier. And there are easy brunches such as beef and black bean hash with fried eggs and chips.

He has, in short, tried to please everyone because, as he points out, "I don't know anyone who cooks from a cookbook from front to back. People pick out two or three recipes ... The rest is just all fluff."


In the world of hospitality, that is a very good thing. There is no substitute for professional standards when it comes to housekeeping, training staff and preparing food.

I make a point of saying this because a lot of country inn-keeping is done by well-meaning people with no formal background. The results are varied. In the 1980s TV sitcom Newhart, amateur owners led to cute hijinks, adorable mishaps and a wholesome, hilarious good time. But in the harsher high-resolution LCD light of 2013, stumblers might end up on Gordon Ramsay’s Hotel Hell. Not so at Manoir Bécancourt.

“Clean rooms and good service, that’s all that counts,” Hébert said.

Well, not quite all. Add interesting decor and fine food, courtesy of executive chef Mario, and that pretty well describes the Manoir. The 100-year-old stone house is in the town of Bécancour, but the inn uses an old-Quebec spelling, adding a “t”.

Hébert’s parents owned the inn and she grew up there, so she knows every corner of the 1912 building and the business. She eventually studied hotel management, took a sommelier course and got big-city hotel experience in Vancouver and London, where she met Mario, who was a hotel food and beverage manager originally from Rome. There was symbiotic strength in the twosome and the couple eventually came to Quebec and bought the Manoir, adding energy and a modern flair.

Under their direction, Manoir Bécancourt evolved from a quaint Quebec auberge into a European-style inn with a busy dining room that’s clearly the place to be in these parts. The office of Tourisme Centre-du-Québec invited me to visit and I pounced.

The Manoir is an appealing mélange of antique styles. Hébert has designed and commissioned whimsical furniture that looks like baroque, empire and French provincial. Guests enter into an art deco lounge with Victorian settees, all updated with black lacquer. Vintage photographs cover one wall, adding to the period atmosphere. Soft jazz plays. Drinks are served. And it’s onto dinner.

Manoir Bécancourt’s best-known commodity is its dining room, a series of inter-connected, intimate spaces with a formal look created by green and gold walls, white tables and tasselled curtains. Professionalism shines through here, too. Vianni’s cuisine is excellent, robust and lively. His calls it Mediterranean with a Sicilian accent and uses Quebec ingredients. Some of his specialties are grilled shrimp with goat cheese and salsa, seared foie gras with whisky marmalade, beef carpaccio, venison stuffed with pheasant mousse, rack of lamb and risotto with wild mushrooms and white truffle oil. One of his favourite dishes is something he brought from Rome: cacio e pepe, pasta simply dressed with pepper and pecorino cheese.

The Manoir has two very different sections of lodging: four charming rooms on the second floor of its original building, all with queen beds and private bathrooms, and four newer, more elaborate suites in a recent extension. The Black and White room in the older wing is my pick, because of its pretty French look and the view of the Bécancour River.

Hébert and Vianni leave nothing to chance. All of the rooms are equipped with the works — individual climate control, bathrobes, flat-screen televisions, pod coffee machines, hair dryers, radios with iPod docks and Play Station consoles for movies and gaming. Particularly for business travellers, each room also has a computer printer and free telephone calls throughout North America. And a nice bonus is the line of toiletries by Judith Jackson, all-natural shampoos and lotions distilled, free of parabens and made in Canada. Even more local is the lavender soap from La Savonnerie Carpe Diem, made just down the road in Bécancour especially for the Manoir.

Vianni has yielded to an irrepressible urge to express another side of inn-keeping — inexpensive and informal. If Manoir Bécancourt has a European accent and a feminine style, the handsome new Pub au Cochon Fumé is a very Quebec sports bar with a masculine feel and an affordable, copious menu of steak, fish ’n’ chips and smoked chicken. Vianni doesn’t stint on the heavy stuff. The barbecue burger is topped with bacon and Provolone and the Miss Piggy is a heart-stopping platter of wings, nachos, smoked meat and ribs. Balancing the tavern fare are healthier salmon burgers, salads and a kids’ menu.

The Pub au Cochon Fumé has TVs for the big games, polished wood and leather decor and vintage movie posters. It also has 20 kinds of beer and a huge and rather sophisticated drinks menu that includes single-malt Macallan Scotch, premium Hornitos tequila from the agave plant, muddled cocktails like the Hemingway Daiquiri and the playful Apple Pie with vodka and juice.

The town of Bécancour seems too quiet for all this merrymaking, but it is home to one of Quebec’s largest industrial parks with companies like Alcoa and Olin from the United States, and Cepsa, an oil and chemical company from Spain, so there is a built-in, well-travelled clientele. Also nearby is the Réserve de la biosphère du Lac St-Pierre, the migration stop of the greater snow goose in May and October.

If you go

Bécancour is a two-hour drive from Montreal. Take Highway 20 east toward Quebec City and Routes 55 north and 30 east; or take Highway 40 east and Route 55 south to 30 east.

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London 1899 chess tournament

The London 1899 chess tournament was one of the strongest tournaments ever held on British soil. Almost every great master of the day was present including the past and reigning world champions. It proved to be the swan song of the old champion Wilhelm Steinitz but for Emanuel Lasker it was a glittering success which propelled him way beyond the other grandmasters of the time.

All the top players of the age were invited, with many being the champion of their country. Refusals came from Siegbert Tarrasch and Rudolf Charousek (illness), and Amos Burn had to withdraw on the opening day. Fifteen participants played double rounds from 30 May to 10 July 1899, except for Richard Teichmann. He withdrew after round 4 due to an eye infection. His remaining games in the first cycle were declared as lost. Rounds were played in St. Stephen's Hall with a time limit of fifteen moves in one hour. Participants were entertained by the City of London chess club at Crystal Palace and the Star and Garter Hotel in Richmond. A banquet took place in the International Hall of the Café Monico on 29 June.

Lasker finished 4½ points ahead of the group finished tied for second (Janowski, Maroczy, Pillsbury), and this remains one of the most dominant performances in a chess tournament, and London 1899 goes down in history as one of the great Lasker victories along with St. Petersburg 1896, Paris 1900, St. Petersburg 1914 and New York 1924.

The Premier tournament
The results and standings:

{|class="wikitable"
! # !! Player !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! 7 !! 8 !! 9 !! 10 !! 11 !! 12 !! 13 !! 14 !! 15 !! Total
|-
|1 ||  ||xx 	||½ 1	||½ 1	||1 ½	||½ 1	||0 1	||1 1	||1 1	||1 ½	||½ 1	||1 ½	||1 1	||1 1	||1 1	||+ +	||23½
|-
|2–4 || ||½ 0	||xx	||½ ½	||1 0	||½ ½	||½ 1	||0 1	||½ 1	||1 0	||½ 1	||1 1	||½ 1	||1 ½	||1 1	||+ +	||19
|-
|2–4 ||  ||½ 0	||½ ½	||xx	||0 1	||½ 1	||0 0	||1 0	||½ ½	||1 1	||1 1	||1 1	||1 1	||1 ½	||1 1	||½ +	||19
|-
|2–4 ||  ||0 ½	||0 1	||1 0	||xx	||1 1	||1 ½	||1 1	||½ 1	||0 0	||1 0	||1 1	||1 1	||0 1	||1 ½	||+ +	||19
|-
|5 ||  ||½ 0	||½ ½	||½ 0	||0 0	||xx 	||1 ½	||1 0	||½ 1	||½ 1	||1 1	||0 ½	||1 1	||1 1	||1 1	||+ +	||18
|-
|6 ||  ||1 0	||½ 0	||1 1	||0 ½	||0 ½	||xx 	||½ 0	||0 1	||1 ½	||1 0	||0 1	||1 ½	||1 1	||1 1	||½ +	||16½
|-
|7 ||  ||0 0	||1 0	||0 1	||0 0	||0 1	||½ 1	||xx 	||1 ½	||1 ½	||½ 1	||0 1	||1 0	||1 1	||1 0	||1 +	||16
|-
|8 ||  ||0 0	||½ 0	||½ ½	||½ 0	||½ 0	||1 0	||0 ½	||xx 	||0 ½	||1 ½	||0 ½	||1 1	||1 1	||0 1	||+ +	||13½
|-
|9 ||  ||	0 ½ ||0 1 ||0 0	 ||1 1	||½ 0	||0 ½	||0 ½	||1 ½	||xx 	||0 1	||0 0	||0 0	||1 1	||½ 1	||+ +	||13
|-
|10–11 ||  ||½ 0	||½ 0	||0 0	||0 1	||0 0	||0 1	||½ 0	||0 ½	||1 0	||xx 	||1 ½	||½ 0	||½ 1	||1 1	||+ +	||12½
|-
|10–11 ||  ||	0 ½	||0 0	||0 0	||0 0	||1 ½	||1 0	||1 0	||1 ½	||1 1	||0 ½	||xx 	||1 ½	||1 0	||0 0	||+ +	||12½
|-
|12 || 	 ||0 0	||½ 0	||0 0	||0 0	||0 0	||0 ½	||0 1	||0 0	||1 1	||½ 1	||0 ½	||xx 	||½ 1	||½ ½	||+ +	||10½
|-
|13 || 	 ||0 0	||0 ½	||0 ½	||1 0	||0 0	||0 0	||0 0	||0 0	||0 0	||½ 0	||0 1	||½ 0	||xx 	||1 1	||+ +	||8
|-
|14 || 	 ||0 0	||0 0	||0 0	||0 ½	||0 0	||0 0	||0 1	||1 0	||½ 0	||0 0	||1 1	||½ ½	||0 0	||xx 	||0 +	||7
|-
|15 || 	 ||- - ||- -	||½ -	||- -	||- -	||½ -	||0 -	||- -	||- -	||- -	||- -	||- -	||- -	||1 -	||xx 	||2
|}

An amount of £1020 for prizes and consolation money was distributed on 11 July 1899. Lasker got £250 and a gold medal. Steinitz won no prize for the first time in his career and died in poverty the following year.

The Minor tournament
There was a second section in the tournament, which was won by Frank James Marshall with 8½ out of 11. Georg Marco and Jacques Mieses were the most experienced opponents.
The  results and standings:

{|class="wikitable"
! # !! Player !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! 7 !! 8 !! 9 !! 10 !! 11 !! 12 !! Total
|-
|1 ||  ||x ||½ ||0 ||1 ||½ ||1 ||1 ||½ ||1 ||1 ||1 ||1 || 8½
|-
|2–3 ||  || ½ ||x ||½ ||½ ||½ ||1 ||1 ||1 ||1 ||½ ||½ ||1  ||8
|-
|2–3 ||  ||1 ||½ ||x ||½ ||½ ||½ ||½ ||½ ||1 ||1 ||1 ||1 || 8
|-
|4–5 ||  ||0 ||½ ||½ ||x ||1 ||0 ||1 ||1 ||1 ||1 ||½ ||1 || 7½
|-
|4–5 ||  ||½ ||½ ||½ ||0 ||x ||0 ||1 ||1 ||1 ||1 ||1 ||1 || 7½
|-
|6–7 ||  ||0 ||0 ||½ ||1 ||1 ||x ||0 ||0 ||1 ||1 ||0 ||1 || 5½
|-
|6–7 ||  ||0 ||0 ||½ ||0 ||0 ||1 ||x ||0 ||1 ||1 ||1 ||1 || 5½
|-
|8 ||  /   ? ||½ ||0 ||½ ||0 ||0 ||1 ||1 ||x ||0 ||1 ||0 ||1  ||5
|-
|9–10 ||  ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||1 ||x ||½ ||1 ||1 || 3½
|-
|9–10 ||  ||0 ||½ ||0 ||½ ||0 ||1 ||0 ||1 ||½ ||x ||0 ||0 || 3½
|-
|11 ||  ||0 ||½ ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||½ ||1 ||x ||1 || 3
|-
|12 ||  ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||0 ||x || 0
|}

References

Category:Chess competitions
Category:1899 in chess
Chess
Category:Chess in London
Category:May 1899 sports events
Category:June 1899 sports events
Category:July 1899 sports events


Snowshoeing in Austria

In winter, the hills around Salzburg are alive with the sound of snowshoes shushing across frozen slopes. Learn the technique on a small-group guided adventure in Salzkammergut, south-east of the city. Based in the village of Faistenau, the group will be given expert tuition before setting off to explore the snowy trails of Mount Zwölferhorn and the shores of Lake Fuschlsee. On the last day, soak tired muscles in the heated pools, saunas and hot tubs of the St Wolfgangsee Wellness spa.

• Five nights’ half-board costs from £829pp with Walks Worldwide. Excludes flights/rail travel to Salzburg. Departs 9 February

Chasing the northern lights in Russian Lapland

Light show: go aurora borealis-hunting in Murmansk. Photograph: Anton Petrus/Getty Images

A visit to the world’s first nuclear-powered ice-breaker is among the highlights of a new group tour to the icy wilderness of northern Russia. Based in the city of Murmansk, the largest city north of the Arctic Circle, the trip also includes an aurora borealis-hunting expedition, dog sledding, a visit to Snow Village, where you can see hand-carved ice sculptures, and the chance to meet Sami reindeer herders.

• The five-day Winter Adventures in Murmansk Group Tour costs from £1,595pp with Regent Holidays. Includes four nights’ all-inclusive accommodation, transfers and return flights from London to Murmansk via Moscow. No single supplement. Departs 13 March

Trekking in Transylvania

Dracula country: visit Bran Castle. Photograph: Getty Images

Transylvania’s landscape of forest-covered mountains and hilltop castles is transformed into a winter wonderland when the snow falls. Explore the region’s traditional villages, quiet valleys and mountain pastures on a week’s hiking and snowshoeing adventure with Exodus. No visit to Transylvania is complete without a visit to Bran Castle (the jury’s out on whether Vlad the Impaler, on whom Bram Stoker loosely based Dracula, ever visited the castle, but it looks suitably gothic). Other highlights include the chance to search for wolf and bear tracks in the snow, and a walk through the impressive Prăpăstiile Zărneştilor canyon.

• An eight-day guided group trip, including seven nights’ accommodation at the Villa Hermani guesthouse, most meals, transfers and flights, costs from £1,049pp with Exodus

Wellness in the Dolomites

Bathe in beauty: soak up the crisp mountain air from a hot tub. Photograph: Jona Salcher

Yes, of course you can hurtle downhill from the ski resorts of Renon/Ritten in the South Tyrol, but why would you want to when you could be soaking in the hot tub of the new Adler Lodge Ritten, gazing at the beauty of the surrounding Dolomites, or enjoying a herbal sauna in a frost-laced forest? High above the town of Bolzano and reached by a short ride on a cable car, this spa hotel is offering guests the perfect antidote to festive indulgence – crisp mountain air, gently bracing activities and luxury treatments. Yoga, meditation and guided hiking are offered by the hotel. Guests can also try their hand at sledding, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and ice skating on outdoor rinks and frozen ponds (weather permitting).

• A three-night Winter Magic all-inclusive stay at the Adler Ritten Lodge costs from €678pp. Includes use of the spa (not treatments), spa voucher, ski tours, hikes, yoga and access to forest sauna. The nearest airports are Verona and Innsbruck, or travel by train to Bozen

Winter walking in the Spanish Pyrenees

Take a hike: enjoy starkly beautiful mountain landscapes. Photograph: Alamy

The Ordesa National Park has some of the best hiking in the Pyrenees. Its landscape of towering mountains, tumbling waterfalls and deep limestone canyons is even more starkly beautiful in winter, when the lakes freeze over and Monte Perdido (Lost Mountain), the highest peak in the park, is capped with snow. Combining snowshoeing with hiking, a seven-day guided winter walking tour from Purely Pyrenees will take you deep into the park, returning each night to a traditional hotel in the mountain village of Linas de Broto.

• A seven-night trip costs from €925pp with Purely Pyrenees, excluding flights or rail travel to Lourdes. Departures from 1 January to 28 March

Cross-country skiing in Norway

Blaze a trail: traverse frozen lakes in central Norway. Photograph: Asgeir Helgestad

The village of Beitostølen in central Norway is known as the home of cross-country skiing, so where better to try out the national sport? Some 320km of cross-country trails radiate from the village and out into the Jotunheimen National Park with its frozen lakes and some of Norway’s highest peaks. The family-run Bergo Hotel in the heart of the village makes a cosy and welcoming base, with an open fire, hearty evening meals and mountain views. Snowmobile safaris, ice fishing and husky tours are available in the resort.

• A seven-night trip with Inntravel costs from £995pp based on two sharing, including full-board accommodation, return flights from Heathrow and transfers. Departures available until 19 April 2020

Family fun in Slovakia

Dogs trust: explore the Tatras by husky sled. Photograph: Slovakia Explorer

Slovakia’s Tatras mountains are beautiful in winter and you won’t have to share them with hordes of tourists. Join Family Worldwide’s week-long activity holiday and you can explore the national parks, pine forests and mountain villages by snowshoe, husky sled or horse-drawn carriage. Other highlights include bathing in natural hot pools, a scenic rail trip to the highest village in the Tatras, a visit to an ice sculpture park and a winter barbecue in the forest.

• A seven-night trip with Families Worldwide costs from £1,099 per adult and £1,059 per child, including B&B accommodation in a three-star hotel, two lunches and guided activities, excluding flights or rail travel. Departs 15 February

Bavarian winter wonderland

Branch out: enjoy a magical break and spectacular views. Photograph: Toni Hoffmann/Getty Images

With its baroque, onion-domed church and wooden-gabled farmhouses, the quintessentially Bavarian village of Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden makes a magical base for a winter break. Take a horse-drawn sleigh ride, a boat trip across Lake Königssee, or a chair-lift into the hills for spectacular views across the lakes, rivers and forests of the Berchtesgaden national park.

• A three-night half-board stay at the Berghotel Rehlegg, a cosy family-run hotel with great food and spa, costs from £695pp, including flights and transfers with Inntravel

Cabin hideaway in Finland

Lapland adventure: go on a reindeer safari across the frozen plains. Photograph: Iso Syote

With abundant snowfall and top aurora spotting potential, the Syöte National Park in Finnish Lapland is a great choice for a winter activity holiday. Some of Finland’s best ski slopes are close by, but non-skiers will find plenty to keep them busy, from ice fishing and husky-sledding to cross-country skiing and nocturnal snowmobile safaris across frozen plains in search of the northern lights. At night, return to a cosy log cabin with open fire and private sauna.

• A three-night stay in a Kelo cottage at the Iso-Syöte Hotel costs from £747pp half-board with Discover the World. Includes flights from Gatwick to Rovaniemi

Off-piste adventure in La Plagne, France

Bobsleigh fun: there’s plenty of off-piste action in this ski resort. Photograph: Elina Sirparanta

La Plagne is one of the world’s largest and most famous ski resorts, so it might seem an odd choice for non-skiers. But there’s enough off-piste action in this lively resort to keep the most ardent ski refusenik occupied for a week. Test your nerve on the Olympic bobsleigh track (from €48pp); try the new winter sports craze, Snooc – a ski/sled hybrid that is a fun alternative to a toboggan (from €7pp) – or explore the Vanoise National Park by pony-sled (from €15pp). Finish your day with the new Far North Experience, which includes a snowshoe walk up to a tipi camp for a fireside vin chaud and cheese fondue, then a descent back to the resort by dog sled (from €54pp).

• Double rooms at the four-star Hotel Le Cocoon in Plagne 1800 cost from £130 per night B&B, two sharing. Travel from London St Pancras on the Eurostar ski train via Paris to Aime la Plagne, a 30-minute taxi or bus ride from La Plagne (return fares from £160pp). For more information, see la-plagne.com

Looking for a holiday with a difference? Browse Guardian Holidays to see a range of fantastic trips


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Published on 30-10-2009 by Skyscrapernews.com Now nearing completion is new office project located in the heart of London's West End.

Named the Charlotte Building, it is sited at 17 Gresse street, a location that is tucked away behind Rathbone place in a maze of early eighteenth century winding streets and courtyards.

Developed by Derwent London, the design for the building comes from the drawing boards of architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands and when complete will stand at 7 storeys.

The plan was to create a signature office building capable of attracting a high profile occupant and with flexible floor plates making it suitable for financial, media and corporate companies it should appeal to a wide range of perspective tenants.

Almost kite shaped the facades act as a focal point and are constructed from bespoke glazing and combines aluminium framing with clear glass panels, highly reflective black glass opening windows, and a textured glazed box spandrel system.

With the curving corners, horizontally banded cladding, light finish, and stepped back roof there's definitely a feeling from some angles that the Charlotte Building perhaps harks back to the art-deco architecture of Brighton such as Embassy Court, albeit with a 21st century finish.

The texturing of the glazing will create a constantly shifting pattern on the facades as the sun moves throughout the day. The top storey of the tower is slightly set back to allow for a landscaped terrace which will offer panoramic views of the city and in particular the London Eye.

Below a granite courtyard will be created which will be accessed through specially commissioned gates created by artist Tom Dixon, and are intended to be not only functional but to also be a public art piece.

The location of the building offers workers access to local amenities including shops, restaurants, hotels along with galleries, museums and London�s famous Oxford Street close by. It is also conveniently placed for the underground and buses so getting to work should be a breeze.


LONDON (Reuters) - Qatar pledged 5 billion pounds ($6.3 billion) of investment in Britain on Monday in a show of support for the world’s fifth-largest economy just two days before Prime Minister Theresa May triggers formal Brexit talks.

The wealthy Gulf state has 40 billion pounds of investments in the United Kingdom, including high-profile London landmarks like the Shard skyscraper, Harrods department store, The Savoy hotel and a stake in the Canary Wharf financial district.

While the June 23 referendum vote to leave the European Union took many investors and chief executives by surprise, Qatar’s top financial players used an investment conference in London to pledge support for Brexit Britain.

The head of the $335 billion Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) sovereign wealth fund said he saw opportunities in Britain, adding that the fund was focused on infrastructure, healthcare and technology.

“I am still looking, even after Brexit there will be opportunities QIA can really hunt for,” QIA Chief Executive Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud al-Thani told the conference. “Whenever the (British) government would like the QIA to step in we are ready.”

Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, said in a statement that Qatar expected to invest 5 billion pounds ($6.3 billion) in Britain over the next five years.

June’s shock Brexit vote triggered the deepest political crisis in Britain since World War Two and the biggest ever one-day fall in sterling against the dollar, though the economy has continued to grow.

But Britain’s exit from the EU -- probably in 2019 -- has raised a number of questions about future economic growth and whether London can retain its position as the only financial centre to challenge New York.

PM May is due on Wednesday to formally notify the EU of Britain’s intention to leave the club it joined in 1973.

CEO of the Qatar Investment Authority Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani speaks at the Qatar UK Business and Investment Forum in London, Britain March 27, 2017 REUTERS/Neil Hall

ENERGY PROVIDER

Qatar, which delivers 90 percent of Britain’s imports of liquefied natural gas and is the world’s biggest producer of the fuel, could play an important role in steeling the UK economy’s against economic fallout during and after Brexit.

“The UK will have a new era post-Brexit ... The negotiations will start among Europeans and nobody is extremely clear about where the negotiations will lead to, however we can sense the possibility of the UK’s manufacturing power going higher and with that the need for energy,” Qatar’s Energy Minister Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

“The UK’s manufacturing and industrial sector thriving and going up is possible, and for that Qatar will always be there to supply the energy required. Certainly we can contribute to the UK’s need,” said Sada.

Sada said Qatar supported a free-trade agreement which the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, including Qatar and the two biggest Arab economies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are hoping to secure ahead of Brexit to ensure preferential arrangements with Britain.

“Qatar is supporting that. That would be excellent. Qatar will do its best to further this agreement,” he said.

Sovereign and private investors from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have been prolific buyers of British assets in the past decade, snapping up billions of dollars worth of property, mostly in London.

Qatar has also sought to diversify its UK investments beyond real estate, including buying stakes in retailer J Sainsbury Plc SBRY.L and London Heathrow airport.

But Gulf states including Qatar are facing pressures of their own as they try to diversify their economies and boost non-oil trade after more than two years of low global oil prices that have hurt their finances.

Qatar, the wealthiest country in the world per capita, issued $9 billion of bonds last year and officials say they want to end the country’s dependence on oil and gas by diversifying the economy as Doha prepares to host the 2022 soccer World Cup.


Even in the crazy world of football, to pay someone £170,000 a-week, at the age of 37, is pushing the realms of incredulity to breaking point. But DavidBeckham is not just a footballer – he is a brand, a carefully created brand, a cash cow.

Beckham in his prime, it must be remembered, was a good footballer, but not a great one. Therefore it is testament to Beckham and his well-oiled marketing team that he can still demand the kind of wages that a top footballer gets now.

Beckham’s playing days, in the truest sense of the word, were at Manchester United and Real Madrid. So when he knew that his skills were on the wane, he joined LA Galaxy in the MLS retirement home to sell some shirts.

Incredibly that was not the end, as PSG offered him an amazing deal to play for them. And when Beckham pronounced that he would donate his wages, to a children’s charity, in France, the world swooned at this altruistic gesture.

However, by giving all his wages away, he will avoid the super-tax that France has levied on its super-rich. He has also only signed a five-month contract, which means that he is not classed as a resident, thus avoiding tax on his worldwide income.

His saintly attitude has gone down well everywhere but France. French MP Gerald Darmanin said: “I’d rather get 50% of a lot than 75% of nothing. He will be paid less than my parliamentary assistant!”

It gets worse: Le Figaro has started to refer to Beckham as a second-hand Rolls Royce. But Beckham fans do not worry. As a result of giving up his wages, PSG is going to put Dave up in the £15,000 a night Hotel Le Bristol, in the Imperial suite, while his family live in London to avoid the non-resident tax.

The German Bundesliga should be chalked full of stories all year. The relegation battle is always interesting and the competition at the top is getting tougher for defending champion Bayern Munich. Read More

Chelsea returned the EPL title last season after it spent four years in Manchester. With the rise of Arsenal and the consistent strength of Chelsea, we look at why the cup will be staying in London Read More


The Smoke (film)

The Smoke, also known as Two Days in the Smoke (worldwide title outside UK/Ireland: London Payback), is a British crime thriller starring Matt Di Angelo, Lili Bordán, Stephen Marcus, Lindsay Armaou, Anna Passey and Alan Ford.

Lawyer Brad Walker (Matt Di Angelo) is having a bad day. His girlfriend Sasha (Anna Passey) has left him for a mate of his. And he's lost his job. While drowning his sorrows, Brad overhears a conversation between two drug dealers. In a moment of madness, Brad decides to steal thousands of pounds from their boss Jack (Alan Ford), an intimidating gangster who will stop at nothing to get his money back and exact retribution on the one who took it.

Cast
Matt Di Angelo ... Brad
Lili Bordán ... Jodie
Alan Ford ... Jack
Lindsay Armaou ... Georgina
Stephen Marcus ... Ben
Darren Ripley ... Phil
Velibor Topic ... Dmitri
Christian Brassington ... Tom
Anna Passey ... Sasha
Jeff Leach ... Dean
Funda Önal ... Sister Josephine
George Weightman ... Kingo
Martin Richardson ... Greg
Duncan Casey ... Raef
Ricky Groves ... Sweeney
Frazer Hines ... Mr. Hemmings
Ayden Callaghan ... Liam
Jamila Jennings-Grant ... Lucy
Clark Vasey ... Warren

Production

In April 2012, Screen Daily announced Matt Di Angelo, Alan Ford and Stephen Marcus had all signed on to appear in the film under its shooting title Two Days in the Smoke.

Sections of the film were filmed at Tower Bridge, Covent Garden, St. Pancras Railway Station, RAF Uxbridge, the Apex London Wall Hotel and Apex City of London Hotel, and the Pont Alexandre III bridge over the River Seine in Paris, France.

The budget for the film was over £500,000 and the film was the first to be funded using the UK Government's Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, launched while the film was mid-production.

The soundtrack features songs from Grammy-nominated En Vogue, Some Velvet Morning and an end title song by Lindsay Armaou (of Irish girlband B*Witched, who also stars in the film).

The film was picked up at Cannes in 2014 by UK distributor Signature Entertainment and renamed The Smoke. Their linear studio cut of the film was released in the UK on 20 October 2014.  The film was released in the US and other countries as London Payback.

The non-linear Director's cut, featuring 12 additional minutes of unseen footage including an opening monologue and the last known screen appearance of the late British actor Malcolm Tierney (best known for his roles in Star Wars and Braveheart, who died before the film was completed), is as yet unreleased.

References

External links

Two Days in the Smoke at Slate 4 Films

Category:2014 films
Category:British crime thriller films
Category:British films
Category:Films shot in England
Category:Films shot in London