Tag: Claire Rubinstein

Cycling with a Smile

Former Emmerdale bad boy Lyndon Ogbourne updates readers of The Steeple Times on his cycle expedition for Once Upon a Smile

Part One:

I begin this section of my travel journal, sat Bear Gryls style, next to a campfire I’ve successfully made, cooking a fish I’ve caught (with much difficulty) that I plan to serve with some bread from a boulangerie about 110km from where I’ve set up camp.

Lyndon Ogbourne cycling through the French countryside

Ogbourne’s Cadence Performance bicycle is given a well earned rest

I’m exhausted but exhilarated. The journey I set out on 5 days ago has taken me through some of the most beautiful but challenging sections of country I’ve ever experienced. I’m a novice cyclist but with the help of the Cadence Performance Centre I trained for the distances I would cover. Nothing, however, could prepare me for the scorching temperatures I have experienced. They would have been fantastic sat chilling on a beach, but are an added and detrimental element to a 635-mile cycle challenge.

The structure of my cycling expedition has been loose and spontaneous and as long as I cover a minimum of 100km day, I’ll make it to the airport in time for my scheduled flight. The rest is an adventurous ‘play-it-by-ear’ set up.

Part Two: Toulon

My legs are tight and bruised and battered from a fall near Castelnaudary when I was outfoxed by a tree stump on the path. Ahead of me, though, was the greatest challenge of all, the mountainous terrain between Marseilles and Toulon. There I encountered 136km of mountain range, with 8km ascents dappled with 3km climbs just to stick the knife in.

I arrived in Toulon a broken man. The beautiful views of Marseilles were awe inspiring, but the mountains I have just covered were nearly my undoing. I write this second section sprawled like a rag doll on my bed in a rustic but somewhat dingy B&B in Toulon.

I have never challenged myself like this before and my whole being tingles with a feeling beyond pain. My mind, however, is filled with memories that I will treasure forever and, if it ever recovers, my body will grow stronger.

Tomorrow, I venture on, edging ever closer to the final leg of this mammoth challenge. Today, I saw a sign to Nice and the energy and endorphin rush it produced inside me made me feel I should cycle there tonight. Luckily common sense prevailed and I realised rest was required.

My trusty steed, the bike that has accompanied me on this challenge, has become very dear to me. It is an incredible piece of carbon fibre mastery and the only way I am here in Toulon is because of this bike. Cadence have created a piece of kit that is so advanced and beautiful that at every destination I have been stopped by people from every region to ask about it or to comment on its splendour.

Lyndon Ogbourne training with the Cadence Performance team

It’s in part due to the training and equipment that I’ve come this far, but now it’s down to me and my weary body to complete this task. Please donate to the fantastic charity Once Upon a Smile, whom I’m raising money for, via the link below. Equally, may I suggest, if you are thinking of purchasing or training yourself up for a cycle of any distance, you could be in no better hands that those of Cadence Cycle Performance Centre.

For now I must sleep as I still have 100-miles to cover. I feel my legs may walk out on me if I don’t give them the rest the deserve. Bonne nuit and happy cycling.

Once Upon a Smile: http://www.onceuponasmile.org.uk

Cadence Performance: http://www.cadenceperformance.com

To donate, go to: http://www.justgiving.com/Lyndon-Ogbourne

August 20, 2012
An interview with Lyndon Ogbourne

Claire Rubinstein interviews Lyndon Ogbourne for “The Steeple Times”

Last week, Claire Rubinstein made Emmerdale fans envious when she interviewed the soap’s former baddest boy at Sette restaurant in Chelsea.

Over lunch, the pair chatted about Ogbourne’s career, charity, social media and forthcoming projects. Watch video footage of the interview here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tncDQkCxgsY

As you’ll see, there’s a lot more to come from Mr Ogbourne.

View Lyndon Ogbourne’s show reel at: http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/lyndon-ogbourne

Support Lyndon Ogbourne’s cycle fundraiser for Once Upon A Smile at: http://www.justgiving.com/lyndon-ogbourne

Sette, 4 Sydney Street, London, SW3 6PP. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7352 3435. Website: http://sette-restaurant.com

July 4, 2012
The rise of the rucksack

The accessory of choice for fashion agnostics or a healthy two fingers to style? By Claire Rubinstein

London is in the midst of an epidemic. So widespread is the affliction that it seems no area has escaped its advances. From St James’s to the Square Mile, from Notting Hill to Belgravia, the normally stylish urban gent is gripped by rucksack ruin. Precise tailoring – check, bespoke shoes – check, luxury timepiece – check, get a little closer and inhale the Creed Aventus. So far, so stylish until the aesthetic is shattered – Ninja Turtle style it’s a hero in a half shell, namely on his back is a Millets rucksack.

The archetypal rucksack look

Once the domain of terrorists, one glimpse was enough to induce fear on such a scale that instant vacation of a tube carriage or any public place was guaranteed. Now rucksacks are commonplace. Want proof? Look no further than the cluttered window space at Cecconi’s or under the tables at The Wolseley. Rucksacks are everywhere.

Once upon a time the only bulge a man was politely allowed to have in his suit was his wallet, and so the classic briefcase or attaché case reigned supreme. But now a man is required to carry more than just his wallet and a few documents, likewise the resistance to carrying bags has become a thing of the past. Attitudes are changing and so are the bags. There is a huge variety of personal styles and even influential designers are embracing the trend with satchels, messenger bags, organiser bags and of course the controversial rucksack all in a range of materials from classic leather, fabric, canvas and even vegan-friendly hemp for the fashion conscious with a moral conscience.

Matching jackets deserve matching bags and even a matching dog

A casually discarded satchel

But our obsession with bags is nothing new. Men once carried coin purses, with the oldest known purse dating back more than 5000 years, it was worn by a man known as Ötzi the Iceman. It can only be a matter of time before ‘The Ötzi’ becomes a coveted waiting-list only piece of male arm candy.

So what lies behind this devil-may-care attitude to accessorising? Chatting to the culprits, I found that it is nothing more than simple practicality. One Mayfair “hedgie” told me he eschewed his very stylish new Mulberry briefcase in favour of the rucksack as the offending item was much more practical when riding a scooter. A health-conscious West End property tycoon used a similar excuse reasoning that a briefcase made cycling impossible and was also not spacious enough for the extra grooming essentials needed for his daily sessions at The Royal Automobile Club’s pool.

But out of everyone I asked, there was one over-riding factor – the weather. So it seems that just as the iconic British Mackintosh has evolved for our rainy climate so too has the rucksack. And perhaps there is something rather charming about this stealth wealth with the cherished rucksack off-setting the traditional trappings of elegance.

As all that glitters is not gold, indeed the only man I knew who ticked every style box possible and never to be seen with a rucksack would proudly dress up in 3-piece suit and briefcase for ‘meetings’. This big-talking small-fry’s important appointments turned out to be meetings for one with the nearest bottle of house red and his briefcase contained nothing more than an Oyster Card and a clutch of court summonses for non-payment of bills.

I rest my case.

The author, Claire Rubinstein, with a gentleman who prefers a Harrods bag in jute

A manbag in miniature

June 18, 2012
Long live the spies

Vadim J. Birstein wins the first Intelligence Book of the Year Award

Yesterday a reception was held in a fascinating hotel named the St. Ermin’s to announce the winner of the first Intelligence Book of the Year Awards.

The grand exterior of the recently refurbished St. Ermin's Hotel, Caxton Street, London, SW1H 0QW

The setting, just next to Scotland Yard, was most appropriate as the hotel has many connections to diplomacy, spying and covert operations. The building’s close proximity to the headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Services (SIS, AKA MI6) was a reason it became a convenient venue where agents could meet in the 1930s and 1940s but it was when SIS took over an entire floor in 1936 to accommodate a new division that it became most important.

Section D, referring to “D” for destruction, was headed by Colonel Lawrence Grand and he was tasked with preparing plans for the sabotage of strategic sites in Europe that might fall into Nazi hands in the event of war. The division remained at the hotel until 1940 when Section D was absorbed into the Special Operations Executive but even after continued to use the St. Ermin’s as a meeting place.

Kim Philby in Russia in 1968, five years after defecting

The most famous spy linked to the hotel was Kim Philby. In his memoirs, My Silent War, Philby, whose cryptonym was “Stanley,” tells of being interviewed to join the SIS there and also of meeting Guy Burgess at his office in the building. He was also said to have used the hotel’s Caxton Bar with fellow Cambridge Five traitor Donald Duart Maclean, AKA “Homer.”

Invited by one of the judges, British intelligence analyst Glenmore Trenear-Harvey, I found it intriguing to attend an event which mixed such luminaries as the espionage journalist and author Harry Chapman Pincher, the Evening Standard’s Mira Bar-Hillel, former CBS reporter Jesse Schulman and Claire Rubinstein, formerly of the BBC. A smattering of journalists, a racehorse owner and various representatives of the hotel equally were a delight to converse with as the champagne flowed.

The judging panel for the award, which featured a list of some 34 books, included an intelligence bibliophile and historian named Daniel J. Mulvenna, formerly of the Security Service of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; Andrew Lownie, an author of a forthcoming book on the life of Guy Burgess; Michael Smith, an author of many books on espionage; and Nigel West, a former Conservative MP, intelligence historian and author who is also known as Rupert Allason.

Dr Vadim J. Birstein, scientist and historian, award-winning author, pictured at the St. Ermin’s Hotel with Glenmore S. Trenear-Harvey, Editor-in-Chief of the World Intelligence Review and an Intelligence Book of the Year Award judge

The famous “Don’t Chatter” poster created by Nina Vatolina, an aunt of the "SMERSH" author Dr Vadim Birstein, during the first days of the Great Patriotic War

West spoke on behalf of the panel when he awarded Dr Vadim J. Birstein, a Russian-American historian and molecular geneticist, a £3,000 prize for his groundbreaking history of an acronym of a Russian phrase, SMERSH. In his account SMERSH: Stalin’s Secret Weapon Soviet Counter Intelligence in WWII, Birstein enlightens readers with his account of a phrase that means: “Death to spies.” Though the term is best known because of SMERSH being James Bond’s sinister opponent in Ian Fleming’s novels, the real life version was said to be far worse.

In his concluding remarks Nigel West commented that the spy genre is “thriving in literary terms” and indeed instead of SMERSH, may I add: “Long live the spies.”

For further information on the Intelligence Book of the Year Awards contact Tim Fordham-Moss on +44 (0) 771 049 1788 or email: [email protected]

Further details are also listed on the St. Ermin’s Hotel’s blog: http://www.sterminshotelblog.co.uk/?p=278

June 13, 2012
Grabbing grabbers

“Grab”: a word that should know its place

After attending a cocktail reception for the Intelligence Book of the Year Award today and meeting a fascinating array of intelligent people from the world of security, I lunched in the bar of the St. Ermin’s Hotel with my good friend Claire Rubinstein.

A man in a cheap suit joined a party at the next table and immediately announced: “Can we grab a bite?” I cringed. Ms Rubinstein cringed. The entire room cringed. What is it with the British these days? Why do we lower ourselves to the misuse of the English language in such a way?

Grabbing grabbers

When you meet someone for lunch, you would suppose you would wish to enjoy their company in a leisurely and civilised fashion. You don’t, surely, wish to just “grab” and go. Like other “grabbers” I have encountered, most especially that pair who so love television sofas, this is a word that truly should know its place.

June 12, 2012