Month: August 2008

Project Syndicate

Project Syndicate

is a not-for-profit association of newspapers dedicated to fostering global debate on issues shaping the world today. Our organization has rapidly risen to the forefront of the international print media market as the premier provider of the highest quality opinion and commentary content. In the last years, the number of member newspapers has risen enormously to include 391 leading newspapers. Project Syndicate commentaries are now translated into 63 languages and read by over 5 million readers in 146 countries.

Recently there is some rumor that printed media don’t have enough content. Here is one of their sources I stumbled on.

Rose of The Day (1)

P1000342 MMe Isaac Pereire
MMe Isaac Pereire

Another subject: Roses. I have been a rose aficionado for quite some time. Here I am experimenting a bit with Flickr. A recent photo that I uploaded and embedded in the blog….et voilá….quite simple: one of the nicest Bourbon roses on a rainy day.

Leeds: The Ellington Scheduled to Open in September, 2008

The Ellington Logo

Recently my friend and fellow travel blogger Guillaume Thevenot of Hotel Blogs ranted in Hotel Blog Rants about PR about all the stupid press releases you get in your mailbox as a Travel Blogger. I get my fair part of nonsense as well.

However, Sue Heady, Director of Communications of the new Pantin Hotels Group did it the right way: She alerted me with a simple press release about the opening of The Ellington in Leeds and the fact they have attracted one of the youngest chefs to operate their restaurant.

The Ellington Lounge

From the website Pantin Hotels and from some artist renderings she very promptly sent me on request, I got interested to post about this new hotel on the block. Not in the last place, because this is a hotel in the very backyard of another good cyber friend and fellow Travel Blogger, Darren Cronian of the Travel Rants Blog. Hint for Sue: Invite Darren for the opening party and maybe you’ll get some coverage in a first class Travel Blog at reasonable low cost!

The Ellington - Staircase

Some key persons of the Pantin team come from the Rocco Forte collection.
The Pantin group’s first hotel will be The Ellington in Leeds.
The Ellington has 35 air conditioned rooms, including three Junior Suites, a one bedroom suite and a two bedroom suite.

The Ellington Bedroom

Pantin’s second project is The Crispin

Crispin House, a distinctive Grade II listed building, is to become a significant new luxury hotel and spa. The property, set to open in 2010, comprises of 84 bedrooms of which 26 are suites and 22 dedicated rooms for spa guests. Bedrooms will be amongst the largest in the industry averaging over 50 square metres.

New Face for Historic Hotels of the Benelux

Annemarieke van der Velden

Hospitality veteran Johan Neppelenbroek had set up Historic Hotels of The Benelux as a split off from Erfgoedlogies in order to enable this group of hotels to join the international network of Historic Hotels.

As of August 1, 2008 Annemarieke van der Velden (see photo) has taken over Johan’s position. Johan’s investment in the label has been taken over by the Eden Hotel group. Currently the Eden Group manages 17 hotels and 9 restaurants in The Netherlands. With this acquisition Eden is preluding on its expansion plans outside The Netherlands in due course.

According to insiders the fact that a single hotel group takes over the management of the association will not lead to a loss of member hotels.

Historic Hotels of the Benelux has 33 member hotels in The Netherlands en 17 member hotels in Belgium.

Historic Hotels of the Benelux is a member of Historic Hotels of Europe

Historic Hotels of Europe is a partner of Historic Hotels of America

I wish Annemarieke a lot of success with this new venture.

Chubby Hubby

El Bulli Starter

Clearing up and posting old drafts:
I came across Chubby Hubby a long time ago, wanted to feature it and then it landed on my back burner. The photo is one of his while he reviews El Bulli. Wow do I envy him:-)

This blog started as an experiment. Then it became an addiction.

In early 2005, I found myself on the steering committee for a Writers Festival. We wanted to both engage bloggers to help publicize our festival and feature some of the more popular ones on various panels. Because many of us were unfamiliar with the world of blogs, one of our fellow committee-members suggested that we start our own blogs, in order to get a better sense of what they were all about.

It wasn’t until much later did I realize that I was the only one who took the suggestion seriously and actually started one.

I’ve always loved food. I believe it comes from growing up in a family of foodies, who not only placed importance in what we were eating but in the act of eating together. As I grew up and moved out, the friends I made were also food-lovers. As was the woman I eventually married. My darling wife S is, in many ways, a much bigger foodie than I am. Not only does she love food, she knows a helluva lot about it. She also happens to work professionally as a food writer, editor, and consultant.

It was only natural then that the subject of my first (and only) blog was food. Through this blog, I try to share the joy of eating well and eating with people you love. I never imagined that Chubby Hubby would be as well-received or as well-read as it is. I am eternally grateful to readers for their comments and for returning day after day or week after week to read about what S and I have been up to in the kitchen, where we’ve been dining, or other inanities that I or my darlin’ wife S might feel like posting.

This was on my back burner almost a year. Now trying to go ahead with the food part of this Blog as well……