The Steeple Times

Tag: Daily Mail

  • Hero of the Hour – Abdul Musa Adam

    Hero of the Hour – Abdul Musa Adam

    As groom-rider Abdul Musa Adam leads out Shadn at Royal Ascot today, he will inspire many on the eve of World Refugee Day and illustrate the positives of welcoming child refugees

    Described as a “remarkable young man” by Racing TV’s Nick Luck in February, Abdulkareem Musa Adam was raised by a tribe of nomads in Darfur. When he was just 7 years old, the Sudanese army killed his entire family and burnt his home to the ground, but now, this afternoon, this groom-rider will lead out Shadn at Royal Ascot for the Commonwealth Cup.

     

    After escaping by donkey with his 3-year old brother Yusuf, the pair survived refugee camps in Chad and then in Libya, he tried to find work aged 12. Parted from his sole surviving relative, he was captured by Colonel Gadaffi’s forces and after refusing to join his ‘child army,’ was imprisoned and tortured.

     

    Next, after a ‘Guardian Angel’ Russian doctor helped him by disguising him as a hospital cleaner and smuggled him out via a bin and in the boot of a car, Musa Adam travelled to France aged 13. He thought he would be safe there, but ended up sleeping in industrial bins to keep warm. With no identification papers, this teenage refugee struggled for 18 months, but after being discovered by a man in a church named Antonio was not only fed tuna sandwiches daily, but also given hope for the future. Antonio ultimately helped Musa Adam in his successful attempt to smuggle himself to Britain in the wheel arch of a lorry.

     

    Believing he was going to “England [a place that] means peaceful, you can study, you can improve your life,” the youngster spent what must have been a terrifying 15 hours in the most perilous of conditions. He totally randomly ended up “dumped at a petrol station” near Swindon in Wiltshire and was picked up by the police.

     

    Here, granted asylum as a refugee and with the help of Social Services and then Greatwood, “a charity which uses horses to help young people facing difficulties and challenges,” Musa Adam was provided with assistance and ultimately a foster home. His “childhood passion for horses” was reignited whilst recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder and a “most remarkable journey in sport” commenced.

     

    Musa Adam spent time with Niki Evans in Abergavenny and attended the Northern Racing College in Doncaster in 2016 subsequently. He progressed to a full-time job as a stable lad with Andrew Balding at his Kingsclere Park House Stables yard and amazingly won the ‘Young Achiever’ at the Mirror’s ‘Pride of Sport Awards’ in 2016.

     

    Referencing the “friend” whom she has “been writing a book together [with] for three years,” in the Mirror this morning, journalist Ros Wynne-Jones declared: “[Abdul Musa Adam] couldn’t be a better example of what safety and kindness can give to a human being who has escaped war, torture and ­trafficking after becoming a refugee at the age of eight. Britain is lucky to have him, and he is grateful to have a safe home.”

     

    Speaking of him also, racing legend Clare Balding added: “His story shows the incredible power of sport to bring people together and help them to heal, even after the most appalling suffering.”

     

    Hardworking Abdul Musa Adam – who is now a British citizen and whose day begins at 6am and finishes at midnight – himself concludes:

     

    “Racing, riding, horses… After more riding, I feel more happy… I am so grateful I have found safety… I feel that this is my home now. I believe I can find [my brother] one day; I hope, I can.”

     

    Now and still only 22 years old, today horse loving Abdul Musa Adam’s spectacular journey will continue when he leads out Shadn at Royal Ascot. We join all celebrating his remarkable progress to the paddocks of Royal Ascot.

     

    ‘The Journey: An Inspiring True Story of Courage and Hope,’ co-authored by Abdul Musa Adam with Ros Wynne-Jones, is available to pre-order on Amazon priced at £8.99.

     

    RUNNERS & RIDERS – Day Four, ‘Royal Ascot At Home’ – ‘The Steeple Times’ analyses the selections for Day Four at ‘Royal Ascot at Home’

    After delighting readers yesterday in calling both Stradivarius first (for the third time) in the Gold Cup and a place for Cross Counter also, today we are looking at:

    3.00pm – Hardwicke Stakes

    WIN – Ryan Moore-A.P. O’Brien combo Anthony Van Dyck at 11/4 (The Sun NAP, Daily Mail ‘Danger’, Sporting Life, Racing Post ’Spotlight Nap’, GG.co.uk).

    Racing Post says: “Very good second in the Coronation Cup at Newmarket 14 days ago; big chance on that form.”

    For them, Ben Hutton ’Spotlight Nap’ adds: “Back on track with very good second in the Coronation Cup at Newmarket 14 days ago and big chance on that form on this relatively quick return.”

    Templegate, The Sun adds: “Ran his best race since winning the Derby when chasing home potential superstar Ghaiyyath in the Coronation Cup last time. That race was moved from its usual Epsom home to Newmarket and the Aidan O’Brien-trained four-year-old was gaining with every stride at the line. He beat some fair yardsticks like Defoe there and it’s hard to see last year’s winner of this race turning that form around. This trip is ideal for AVD and he goes on fast or slow so the weather isn’t a worry either.”

    3.35pm Commonwealth Cup (16 runners)

    EACH WAY – Magnier, Smith and Tabor owned Ryan Moore-A.P. O’Brien combo Lope Y Fernandez at 4/1 (Radio 4, The Telegraph).

    Racing Post says: “Third in the Irish 2,000 Guineas last Friday; effective at 6f last year; not dismissed.”

    Templegate for The Sun adds: “Lope Y Fernandez ran a cracker when third to Siskin in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and warrants respect.”

    It’s a longshot, but with the inspirational Abdul Musa Adam leading him out, we suggest also:

    EACH WAY – Oisin Murphy-Andrew Balding combo Shadn at 20/1.

    Racing Post says: “Needs improvement on the figures but worth noting that she’s 3-4 over 6f.”

    4.10pm – Queen’s Vase (9 runners)

    EACH WAY – William Haggas trained Born With Pride at 5/2 from 3/1 earlier (Radio 4, Daily Mail Gimcrack ‘Danger’, The Telegraph).

    Racing Post says: “Listed winner on debut last season and not seen to best effect on her comeback; respected.”

    Daily Mail adds: “Born With Pride, a winner on heavy ground on her Newmarket debut last autumn, was a non-runner earlier this week and connections appear to have done the right thing with the ground sure to suit.”

    4.40pm – Duke of Edinburgh Stakes (18 runners)

    EACH WAY – William Buick-Mark Johnston combo West End Charmer at 6/1 (The Sun, At The Races – Kevin Blake).

    Racing Post says: “Stamina still to prove at this trip but lightly raced colt is 5lb well-in under a penalty.”

    Templegate for The Sun says: “West End Charmer was impressive when running away with a hot handicap at Newmarket 12 days ago. He was coming back from a year off so, provided that hasn’t taken too much out of him, he should improve again for this step up in distance. He is well handicapped under a 4lb penalty.”

    Happy racing.

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes

    Hero of the Hour – Groom-rider child refugee Abdul Musa Adam – As groom-rider Abdul Musa Adam leads out Shadn today, he will inspire many on the eve of World Refugee Day and illustrate the positives of welcoming child refugees.
    Abdul Musa Adam celebrating becoming a British citizen and out enjoying his passion for riding.
    Hero of the Hour – Groom-rider child refugee Abdul Musa Adam – As groom-rider Abdul Musa Adam leads out Shadn today, he will inspire many on the eve of World Refugee Day and illustrate the positives of welcoming child refugees.
    Abdul Musa Adam will lead Shadn out today at Royal Ascot for the Commonwealth Cup at 3.35pm. The horse is owned by Katsumi Yoshida, trained by Andrew Balding and will be ridden by Oisin Murphy.

  • Moron of the Moment – Lady Victoria Hervey

    Moron of the Moment – Lady Victoria Hervey

    Just as ultimate dumbo Lady Victoria Hervey shows herself up in stating “Fuck Black Lives Matter,” fellow aristo Dr. Bendor Grosvenor calls for the return of objects “looted during the British Empire”

    Dimwitted dope Lady Victoria Hervey just cannot help but shove her stilettos straight into the proverbial. Whether be it her short-lived relationship with “he who doesn’t sweat in Pizza Express (Woking branch’)” ‘Randy’ Prince Andrew, or flogging knickers in her long since gone-bust shop in Knightsbridge displaying the words “Yes Please” across the crotch, here is a woman with utterly no shame and an utter incapacity to accept any kind of blame for her own failings.

     

    Formerly nicknamed ‘Toff Totty Vicky,’ Lady Victoria predictably showed herself up by banging on about her associations with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell last year. This weekend, the bubbly blonde went further in posting a picture of the defaced statute of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia on her Instagram page. She not-so charmingly captioned the snap: “Don’t ever tell me this is acceptable behavior [sic]. Fuck BLM [Black Lives Matter].”

     

    Described by even a fellow socialite, the late Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, as “unpleasant” and “a right snob” previously, “luxury is in my blood” Lady Victoria was contradicted by the Reverend Robert W. Lee IV, the general’s great-great-grandson. He “gave his blessing for the monument to be removed” on Thursday according to the BBC and asked: “If today is not the right time, when will it be the right time [to remove the statue]?”

     

    Going further of this situation on Twitter on Sunday, though talking in the context of the related British protests, fellow aristocrat Dr. Bendor Grosvenor – a distant relative of the present Duke of Westminster and a man best known for his stint on the BBC’s Fake or Fortune? art documentary series – tweeted:

     

    “Let the Colston statue’s removal be a prompt for councils and museums across Britain to take action to remove similar artworks from display, *as well as* returning the thousands of cultural objects looted during the British Empire. Start now. We’ve waited too long.”

     

    Sadly, yet not unsurprisingly, Lady Victoria – whose ancestor Frederick Hervey, 1st Marquess of Bristol ironically is best remembered as a “social reformer” and “an MP [who] voted for the abolition of slavery in 1807” – has previous form. In 2003, this ‘aristoprat’ stated: “It’s so bad being homeless in winter. They should go somewhere warm like the Caribbean where they can eat fresh fish all day.”

     

    Shame on this irrelevant ignoramus; it’s not Black Lives that don’t matter, it’s instead Victoria Hervey that doesn’t matter.

     

    Moron of the Moment – Lady Victoria Hervey on Black Lives Matters – Just as ultimate dumbo Lady Victoria Hervey shows herself up in stating “Fuck Black Lives Matter,” fellow aristocrat Dr. Bendor Grosvenor calls for the return of objects “looted during the British Empire”
    Lady Victoria Hervey with the Duke of York at a social gathering; supporter of the abolition of slavery and “social reformer” Frederick William Hervey, 5th Earl and 1st Marquess of Bristol (1769 – 1859).
    Moron of the Moment – Lady Victoria Hervey on Black Lives Matters – Just as ultimate dumbo Lady Victoria Hervey shows herself up in stating “Fuck Black Lives Matter,” fellow aristocrat Dr. Bendor Grosvenor calls for the return of objects “looted during the British Empire”
    Lady Victoria Hervey’s offensive Instagram post was unsurprisingly met with disdain by many. One responded: “Wait, hold up Lady are you saying Fuck Black Lives ???” Another added: “But think you got to be careful saying fuck BLM… That’s not acceptable TBH. It’s offensive.”
    Moron of the Moment – Lady Victoria Hervey on Black Lives Matters – Just as ultimate dumbo Lady Victoria Hervey shows herself up in stating “Fuck Black Lives Matter,” fellow aristocrat Dr. Bendor Grosvenor calls for the return of objects “looted during the British Empire”
    Dr. Bendor Grosvenor’s, by contrast, sensible tweet.

    Classic clangers from former ‘It Girl’ Lady Victoria Hervey:

     

    “I am Lady Victoria Hervey – it doesn’t get more British than that.”

     

    “Unless it’s champagne, I can’t handle it.”

     

    “I do have a day job.”

     

    “My career always goes much better when I haven’t got a man.”

     

    “A baby is easy – you hand them over to a nanny!”

     

    “I’m not stupid. I’m not a dumb model.”                    

     

    “[I aim to become] the next Kate Winslet – but with class.”

     

    “I have had four past lives, three of them as a man. I was a composer in 17th-century Paris, I made materials in India and in Ancient Greece I was a famous politician. In Ancient Egypt I was keeper of the oils for the Pharaoh’s wife, and I love oils so it all kind of fits.”

     

    “What annoys me is when these families have got like 12 children and we’re paying for these kids… They work out that they make more money being on the dole than having a job, they just laze around.”

     

    “The real irony of this is that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.”

     

    “Travelling is in my blood, and so is liking luxurious things and spending.”

     

    “I haven’t given up on men, there are a few of them around, but I keep leaving every city I meet them in.”

     

    “Everyone from Europe wants to buy houses in LA.”

     

    “I was too old for Jeffrey Epstein… [He seemed] very charming… He was a very well-liked guy.”

     

    “I’m not one of those kind of girls, I don’t like going to dinners with ten models invited… I was very young and impressionable, Jeffrey was a very charismatic man.”

     

    “I haven’t seen [Ghislaine Maxwell] since September [2018] at a friend’s baby shower… I don’t think anyone is going to find her. She’s gone far away. She’s a bit like a James Bond character. She’s quite a unique person and I don’t believe anyone is going to find her… I don’t think we will ever see her again, it’s going to be like Robert Maxwell continued; she will continue that family mystery.”

     

    “I had no idea what was going on [with Jeffrey Epstein]… It’s extraordinary it’s the case, it’s a wild story.”

     

    “I suddenly thought, I’m just Victoria Hervey… Horrible.”

     

    “I don’t want to make enemies.”

     

    Pictured top: Lady Victoria Hervey with Ghislaine Maxwell, the alleged madam and procurer of girls for paedophile Jeffey Epstein.

     

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes

     

  • Runners & Riders – Powering Up Pinatubo

    Runners & Riders – Powering Up Pinatubo

    ‘The Steeple Times’ joins in sharing the delight about the return of racing and looks forward to Saturday’s 2,000 Guineas; Pinatubo is the ‘obvious option’ but we also rather like Mums Tipple

    Lauded as the “wonder horse who can bring some joy back to a nation starved of sport” by the Daily Mail’s Marcus Townend, “pugnacious colt” Pinatubo is the Godolphin horse that will likely delight at the “first major sporting event in Britain” in months, the 2,000 Guineas on Saturday at Newmarket. Ridden by William Buick and the 10/11 favourite, here is a horse that is “hard to oppose” on the Rowley Mile.

     

    Sadly but sensibly being held “behind closed doors,” the race – which ITV’s anchor Ed Chamberlain suggests “will have a larger audience than any recent 2,000 Guineas with people desperate for sport” – the “second best in the field” according to the Mirror is the Oisin Murphy – Andrew Balding combo Kameko at 7/1. Of this Qatar Racing owned beauty, Sporting Life’s Simon Holt remarks: “A formidable rival… Should see this out strongly with the promise that he may stay a mile and a quarter.”

     

    Taking a bit more of a punt, we at The Steeple Times, however, would also suggest (excuse the pun) raising a glass to an each way on the Sean Levey and Richard Hannon’s Mums Tipple at 33/1. A “runaway winner” at York’s Ebor meeting where he “literally took everybody’s breath away,” the Mirror go as far as suggesting this outsider as having “plenty of pace.”

     

    Happy racing.

     

    Trainer Charlie Appleby on his much fancied horse, Pinatubo:

     

    Speaking to the Daily Mail:

     

    “Pinatubo’s main asset is that he is the ultimate professional. Any sportsman at the top, you generally do not see them fretting going into a champion competition whatever it is, boxing or golf.”

     

    “Those cool, calm customers are the ones that often turn up with their ‘A’ game and channel their positivity into the swing of the club or the punch of the glove.”

     

    “Pinatubo has a great mind. He turns up and knows that, once those starting gates open, it is game on. He is not a horse who lights you up in the mornings.”

     

    “We went to Wolverhampton [for his debut last year] for that reason. If we thought he was going to be the horse he has turned out to be, we would probably have turned up in a Newmarket maiden.”

     

    “He is a well-balanced colt. He showed his true attributes last season, taking in some of the most challenging tracks in Britain at Epsom, Goodwood and Newmarket – and he has strengthened over the winter. He has met every challenge we have set him so far.”

     

    Speaking to the Guardian:

     

    “I’m delighted with what Pinatubo has done through the winter. He does what he needs to at home, but most importantly he looks great and physically he has done well and I can’t be any happier with him going into the weekend.”

     

    “We are all trying our best to have hopefully a superstar like he was last year going into his three-year-old career. The sport needs him at this time, and what a time for a potential superstar to turn up.”

     

    Speaking to the Evening Standard:

     

    “One of his key attributes is he’s very laid back, nothing fazes him… I don’t want to sound too confident, but he’s pleasing us. He looks great.”

     

    3.35pm – Newmarket, Qipco 2000 Guineas Stakes (Group 1)

    Runners – 15; Prize Money – £250,000

     

    Pictured top: Pinatubo, the horse that has attracted most of the pre-race focus.

     

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes

     

    Runners & Riders – Horse racing tips for Saturday 6th June 2020 – The Steeple Times’ horse racing tips with an analysis of the top tipsters and their selections for the 2020 Quipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. Go for Pinatubo or Mums Tipple.
    As horse racing returns “with a bang,” Pinatubo is expected to win the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on Saturday 6th June 2020 in “eerie silence.” The ‘Racing Post’ note: “Pinatubo could be a superstar, but is opposable at the prices.”
    Runners & Riders – Horse racing tips for Saturday 6th June 2020 – The Steeple Times’ horse racing tips with an analysis of the top tipsters and their selections for the 2020 Quipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. Go for Pinatubo or Mums Tipple.
    “Sensational” Mums Tipple might throw a spanner in the works, but is trying a mile for the first time. He “could find it too far with all his early speed” some suggest.
  • Beautiful Bolehyde

    Beautiful Bolehyde

    Wiltshire manor house once owned by the Duchess of Cornwall and considered as a home by the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents again for sale

    Described as a “royal love nest for the Middletons” by The Telegraph when last marketed for sale in March 2011, Bolehyde Manor (pronounced according to the paper: “Bow lea Hyde”) in Wilshire was home to the Duchess of Cornwall, as plain old Camilla Parker Bowles, from 1973 until 1986.

     

    Considered, but subsequently discounted by Carole and Michael Middleton as a home prior to their purchase of the £4.7 million The Manor at Bucklebury (featured in The Steeple Times in June 2012), Grade II* listed Bolehyde Manor at Allington, near Chippenham was at that time offered for £4.76 million according to the Daily Mail’s Richard Kay.

     

    Kay lauded the “14th-century pile near Chippenham” as having “everything an aspiring lord (and lady and the manor could wish for” and reported it as having been “not just where Prince Charles retreated when his marriage crumbled, intriguingly it was also where he courted Lady Diana.”

     

    According to the royal biographer Christopher Wilson – quoted in an article in the Daily Express in May this year – “in 1979, there was very little pretense about the intensity of the relationship between Prince Charles and Camilla. Most of the week he would be staying at Bolehyde Manor, sometimes Andrew Parker Bowles would come home for the weekend and Prince Charles would stay. But there was a very curious ménage à trois between these three.”

     

    Whether the house sold in 2011 is unknown, but this week it has again been placed for sale through agents Savills. They are marketing the manor at a sum £1 million lower for £3.75 million and with it comes 80.13 acres.

     

    Aside from the main 4 reception room, 8-bedroom main house, there is a 3-bedroom annexe and in addition the property has three additional cottages, stabling and outbuildings. There is a tennis court and swimming pool with the grounds and the majority of the land is devoted to organic farming.

     

    One thing is, for sure, the former Meghan Markle won’t be putting in a bid in spite of Bolehyde Manor having glorious gardens that have opened under the National Garden Scheme.

     

    The Names & Numbers – Bolehyde Manor, Allington, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 6LW, United Kingdom

     

    June 2020 – For sale for £3.75 million ($4.71 million, €4.21 million or درهم17.31 million) through Savills.

     

    March 2011 – Offered for sale for £4.76 million ($5.98 million, €5.35 million or درهم21.96 million) by the Earl and Countess Cairns.

     

    1986 – Sold for £600,000 ($754,000, €674,000 or درهم2.8 million) by Andrew and Camilla Parker Bowles to Simon and Amanda Cairns.

     

    1973 – Andrew Parker Bowles moves in along with his then wife Camilla.

     

    1927 – Sold to a Mrs Mallet du Cros “in very indifferent repair” by the Gale family according to Country Life. She “restored and modernised it.”

     

    1635 – Sold to a yeoman named John Gale.

     

    Mid 17th century – Built on the site of an earlier house occupied by one Thomas de Bolehyde, a tenant of the Abbot of Glaston-bury.

     

    Pictured top: Carole Middleton, Bolehyde Manor and the Duchess of Cornwall.

     

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes

     

    Beautiful Bolehyde – £3.75 million for Bolehyde Manor, Allington, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 6LW, United Kingdom – Wiltshire manor house once owned by the Duchess of Cornwall as Camilla Parker-Bowles and considered as a home by the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton again for sale. Bolehyde Manor is offered for £3.75 million through agents Savills.
    The interior features traditional English country house style decoration.
    Beautiful Bolehyde – £3.75 million for Bolehyde Manor, Allington, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 6LW, United Kingdom – Wiltshire manor house once owned by the Duchess of Cornwall as Camilla Parker-Bowles and considered as a home by the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton again for sale. Bolehyde Manor is offered for £3.75 million through agents Savills.
    This study is currently lined with plenty of reading material.
    Beautiful Bolehyde – £3.75 million for Bolehyde Manor, Allington, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 6LW, United Kingdom – Wiltshire manor house once owned by the Duchess of Cornwall as Camilla Parker-Bowles and considered as a home by the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton again for sale. Bolehyde Manor is offered for £3.75 million through agents Savills.
    Original features including panelling abound throughout Bolehyde Manor.
    Beautiful Bolehyde – £3.75 million for Bolehyde Manor, Allington, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 6LW, United Kingdom – Wiltshire manor house once owned by the Duchess of Cornwall as Camilla Parker-Bowles and considered as a home by the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton again for sale. Bolehyde Manor is offered for £3.75 million through agents Savills.
    A pleasant courtyard garden is to be found to the rear of the house.
    Beautiful Bolehyde – £3.75 million for Bolehyde Manor, Allington, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 6LW, United Kingdom – Wiltshire manor house once owned by the Duchess of Cornwall as Camilla Parker-Bowles and considered as a home by the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton again for sale. Bolehyde Manor is offered for £3.75 million through agents Savills.
    To the front is a formal lawned area.
    Beautiful Bolehyde – £3.75 million for Bolehyde Manor, Allington, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 6LW, United Kingdom – Wiltshire manor house once owned by the Duchess of Cornwall as Camilla Parker-Bowles and considered as a home by the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton again for sale. Bolehyde Manor is offered for £3.75 million through agents Savills.
    Three cottages come with the house as well as an annexe also.
    Beautiful Bolehyde – £3.75 million for Bolehyde Manor, Allington, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 6LW, United Kingdom – Wiltshire manor house once owned by the Duchess of Cornwall as Camilla Parker-Bowles and considered as a home by the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton again for sale. Bolehyde Manor is offered for £3.75 million through agents Savills.
    The gardens have previously been opened to the public under the National Garden Scheme.
    Beautiful Bolehyde – £3.75 million for Bolehyde Manor, Allington, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 6LW, United Kingdom – Wiltshire manor house once owned by the Duchess of Cornwall as Camilla Parker-Bowles and considered as a home by the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton again for sale. Bolehyde Manor is offered for £3.75 million through agents Savills.
    They are quite delightful.
    Beautiful Bolehyde – £3.75 million for Bolehyde Manor, Allington, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 6LW, United Kingdom – Wiltshire manor house once owned by the Duchess of Cornwall as Camilla Parker-Bowles and considered as a home by the Duchess of Cambridge’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton again for sale. Bolehyde Manor is offered for £3.75 million through agents Savills.
    A plan of the 80 acres currently offered with Bolehyde Manor.
  • Mixed Up McGee

    Mixed Up McGee

    Dippy Debbie McGee yet again confirms her status as the ultimate airhead in boasting about her connections to ‘Randy Andy’ and is met with a denial from a royal source

    Right now, most people would keep quiet any connection to Prince Andrew. Aside from his antics in Pizza Express (Woking branch), the disgraced royal is “in financial hot water following the Epstein scandal” according to Tatler’s amusingly named Hope Coke and he’s been “royally dumped” by everyone from Barclays to the University of Huddersfield.

     

    With his dimwit on-off live-in ex-wife forced to take up hawking crappy books yet again to fend off other creditors, Prince Andrew’s woes continue to mount and now ‘The Lovely Debbie McGee’ has gone and stuck her oar into the thick of it. Of course, as always with “a sandwich short of a picnic” Debbie, it wasn’t meant nastily, but, as ever with her, the intervention was anything but relevant.

     

    In this morning’s Daily Mail, a decidedly short-of-real-stories reporter called David Wilkes shared vitally important news that the late Paul Daniels’ wife now has a podcast titled Spill The Tea with Debbie McGee. He also revealed that on it, she’d bragged that Prince Andrew had flown the magician in “one of Her Majesty’s helicopters” from Stoke-on-Trent to Windsor Castle.

     

    “Muggins, Me, McGee” – who also fascinatingly told of how she’d “knocked over a glass of wine last week” and “burnt the edges of her salad leaves the other day” on the podcast too – reported that she did not get to go along for the ride and was instead forced to drive the couple’s car to London. She, thus, luckily avoided an encounter with the Duke of York’s non-sweating hands, but was “sad” that she didn’t get a lift in the Queen’s car – which her husband got to hitch a lift in from Windsor to The Savoy Hotel also.

     

    In response, a “royal source” flatly denied ‘Dim Debbie’s’ claims and remarked: “If this story is true it did not involve one of Her Majesty’s helicopters.” The poor dear plainly conjured up this story from the bottom of her tea leaves, but at least it wasn’t as sordid as when she revealed she put a “disturb mask across her private parts” whilst naked and waiting for her husband to come to bed. Now there’s a sexual story that definitely should not be repeated.

     

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes

     

  • Could Mark Alexander be Innocent?

    Could Mark Alexander be Innocent?

    With humanitarian Terry Waite questioning the safety of the conviction of the law student Mark Alexander for murdering his conman father Samuel in Buckinghamshire in 2009, is it time that this curious case was reviewed?

    “Locking people up should be our last resort when all else has failed, not a knee-jerk reaction” concludes prisoner Mark Alexander in his two-and-a-half page contribution to The Monument Fellowship’s Crime and Consequence: What should happen to people who commit criminal offences? in September 2019.

     

    In another paper, published by the University of Ottawa in December 2018 and titled A Phenomenology of Freedom: finding transcendence in captivity, the University of London law graduate added: “Prisons, like Jurassic Park, are anachronistic institutions. When ‘the owl of Minerva takes flight,’ our descendants will look upon the use of imprisonment with the same horror and shame with which we view slavery, torture, and the death penalty today.” One would expect such virtue signalling from someone who believes they’ve been wrongly imprisoned, but now, with new evidence available, we join those asking: “Could Mark Alexander have actually been wrongly convicted of the murder of his father Samuel Alexander?”

     

    Mark Alexander was found guilty of the murder of his “controlling” father on a date unknown between September 2009 and February 2010 “by a majority verdict and on the basis of circumstantial evidence only.” He was imprisoned for life at the age of 22 in September 2010 and after refusing to take a manslaughter plea at trial, thus lost the chance for release for at least sixteen years.

     

    In spite of no forensic evidence being found that linked him to his 70-year-old father’s killing and burial underneath a 29-centimetre thick slab of concrete in the garden of their Drayton Parslow, Buckinghamshire home, Mark Alexander was convicted on the basis of the evidence of “suspicious neighbours” and his strange behaviour after his father “disappeared.”

     

    Without doubt, amongst other actions, sending Christmas cards with his father’s name on when he did not know his actual whereabouts made investigating officers suspicious of Mark Alexander, but now, ten years after his jailing, new evidence has come to light that raises issues about the safety of his conviction.

     

    On the homepage of the ‘Justice for Mark Alexander’ campaign website, the issues with the verdict are surmised as follows: “Mark has always maintained his innocence… Mark was found guilty on the basis of doubt created about his version of events rather than any evidence of his involvement in a murder. No such evidence exists. There is no known cause, or date, of death – and there were no traces of DNA, blood, or even fingerprints linking Mark to the crime.”

     

    This month, however, the Mirror’s Tom Pettifor and Robin Eveleigh highlighted other issues that have been discovered since sentencing, amongst them that “secretive” Samuel Alexander was in fact a conman operating with “at least eleven aliases.” Aside from a caution for shoplifting in 1995, however, the Egypt born pensioner was not convicted of crimes that numbered mortgage fraud involving a number of properties. The “confidence trickster” and “fraudster” undoubtedly had enemies and as his son told the paper: “Dad always seemed to be running or hiding from something.”

     

    Using human rights laws, Mark Alexander was, in March this year, able to finally obtain files documenting his father’s multiple identities from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs. He became supposedly the first person in Britain to achieve such access and now also, according to the Daily Mail’s Alice Cachia and Robin Eveleigh: “[The Justice for Mark Alexander’ campaign] are also developing new mobile phone cell site evidence which they hope will provide proof of Alexander’s movements around the time of his father’s death.” They hint that this will show he could not possibly have been present at the time of the murder and burial.

     

    Further highlighting the plainly deviant lifestyle of Samuel Alexander – a man described by Judge Reddihough at sentencing as someone who operated by “control” and “fear” – it has been revealed the pensioner spent “long hours on the computer surfing teenage chat rooms and sex websites, sometimes posing as a man in his late teens or early 20.” Could it be that he upset someone in the process and could they be his true killer?

     

    Samuel Alexander lied also to his son about what had happened to his mother also and told him she had died of cancer. The pair were only reunited after Mark Alexander’s arrest and it can now be revealed he cheated her as part of a property scam also and of the case, the greatly respected humanitarian Terry Waite CBE has examined it also. He turned specifically to the way in which Samuel Alexander had been buried and remarked:

     

    “I am disturbed by the conviction of Mark as I find it difficult to believe that a complete forensic examination was conducted before the jury found him guilty by a majority verdict. It was pointed out by the judge in his summing-up that the evidence was circumstantial, but even so he was convicted and sentenced.”

     

    “A forensic investigation of the site was conducted by a chartered engineer and chartered geologist in 2017. This examination ought to have been conducted before the trial, but for reasons unknown to me it was not. Given that the site had been excavated by the police when searching for the body and afterwards refilled it was not possible for the expert to be totally certain about the dates when the different levels of concrete were laid. However, his conclusions, which are fully recorded in his report, suggest that the top level of concrete could not have been laid by Mark Alexander as he was not in that location at that time and can prove this. The report raises in my mind a reasonable doubt as to the safety of this conviction.”

     

    Pictured top: Mark Alexander at his graduation ceremony with Terry Waite CBE.

     

    Images: © freeMarkAlexander.org (CC BY-ND 4.0).

     

    Further information about this case can be found at the ‘Justice for Mark Alexander’ Facebook group and in threads on the UK Justice Forum pages about the matter.

     

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes

     

    Could Mark Alexander be innocent of the murder of his father? With humanitarian Terry Waite questioning the safety of the conviction of the law student Mark Alexander for murdering his conman father Samuel at 2 Prospect Close, Drayton Parslow, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK17 0JB in 2009, is it time that this curious case was reviewed?
    Mark Alexander and his late father Samuel Alexander.
    Could Mark Alexander be innocent of the murder of his father? With humanitarian Terry Waite questioning the safety of the conviction of the law student Mark Alexander for murdering his conman father Samuel at 2 Prospect Close, Drayton Parslow, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK17 0JB in 2009, is it time that this curious case was reviewed?
    The scene of the burial (but not necessarily the killing) of Samuel Alexander – 2 Prospect Close, Drayton Parslow, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK17 0JB.
    Could Mark Alexander be innocent of the murder of his father? With humanitarian Terry Waite questioning the safety of the conviction of the law student Mark Alexander for murdering his conman father Samuel at 2 Prospect Close, Drayton Parslow, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK17 0JB in 2009, is it time that this curious case was reviewed?
    An aerial shot of the property.
    Could Mark Alexander be innocent of the murder of his father? With humanitarian Terry Waite questioning the safety of the conviction of the law student Mark Alexander for murdering his conman father Samuel at 2 Prospect Close, Drayton Parslow, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK17 0JB in 2009, is it time that this curious case was reviewed?
    Documentary evidence of Samuel Alexander using aliases that show him to have been a man capable of perpetrating fraud and deception.
    Could Mark Alexander be innocent of the murder of his father? With humanitarian Terry Waite questioning the safety of the conviction of the law student Mark Alexander for murdering his conman father Samuel at 2 Prospect Close, Drayton Parslow, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK17 0JB in 2009, is it time that this curious case was reviewed?
    On Friday 28th September 2018, Mark Alexander played at a charity concert for The Howard League of Penal Reform at HM Prison Coldingley in Bisley, Surrey. Terry Waite CBE read from ‘Out of the Silence,’ his book about his 1,763 days in captivity from 1987 to 1991 in Lebanon.
  • Moron of the Moment – Olivia Utley

    Moron of the Moment – Olivia Utley

    Rent-a-gob stand-in for Rod Liddle at ‘The Sun’ Olivia Utley shows herself to be nothing but a big-mouthed berk in brainlessly banging on about Brexit; she should eff off!

    “Chuffed to be filling in for Rod Liddle today,” 27-year-old Olivia Utley is exactly the kind of person you’d expect to big herself up and this week was no exception for this motormouthed maniac.

     

    Utley, a somewhat tepid try-hard attempt at being Katie Hopkins yet a fan of David Cameron strangely also, on Friday, was given space to spout her views in The Sun. In a column that’d make even Karren Brady look rational titled: “It’ll do our spoiled young Remainers good to remain in Britain for the summer holidays,” this “gleefully” childlike upstart not only attacked the lovely Fiona Bruce but also suggested “it would have been easier to have come out as a paedophile than a Brexiteer.” She’d plainly been drinking vinegar as she penned this particularly puerile drivel.

     

    Here, in ramblings rooted in ridiculousness, Tom Utley of the Daily Mail’s “rent-a-reactionary” niece mocked other millenials and stupidly suggested they believed “the Lake District was a fictional place.” She attempted to justify proclaiming there being a “darker side” to young people “knowing nothing about Britain” and that now their “ignorance could finally be shattered.”

     

    Concluding on the subject of how she believes young people will forget Europe in favour of their country of birth, Utley patronisingly argued: “Reconnected to their roots at last, they might just begin to feel the first stirrings of patriotism running through their British veins.” We’d suggest otherwise: They’re more likely to just tell this moron to eff off!

     

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes

     

    Moron of the Moment – Bigmouthed berk Olivia Utley on Brexit – Rent-a-gob stand-in for Rod Liddle at ‘The Sun’ Olivia Utley shows herself to be nothing but a big-mouthed berk in banging on about Brexit; she should eff off!
    On Thursday, Olivia Utley was given a “guest column” in ‘The Sun’ in place of Rod Liddle. She was delighted to brag about it on Twitter.
    Moron of the Moment – Bigmouthed berk Olivia Utley on Brexit – Rent-a-gob stand-in for Rod Liddle at ‘The Sun’ Olivia Utley shows herself to be nothing but a big-mouthed berk in banging on about Brexit; she should eff off!
    What a hypocrite – In 2019, so-called journalist Olivia Utley bragged about going on holiday to France; in 2020, she mocked others for wanting a holiday abroad. Shame on her.
  • An Agusta Ape

    An Agusta Ape

    1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino in 2001 – to be auctioned

    On 8th January 2001, “shop assistant turned model turned multi-millionairess many times over turned fugitive” (via a stretch in what American’s so pleasantly term ‘pokey’) Countess Francesca Vacca Agusta “disappeared” from the terrace of her Ligurian seaside home. The series of events that preceded and followed could have featured in an Agatha Christie novel or a Sherlock Holmes story.

     

    Situated dominant above the “requisite stop for billionaires” that is Portofino – a colourfully painted former fishing village now peppered with Salvatore Ferragamo and Louis Vuitton stores – Villa Altachiara became the residence of the “embodiment of La Dolce Vita” Francesca Graffagni after she met the “helicopter entrepreneur” Count Corradino Agusta in the 1960s.

     

    Graffagni saw off the business tycoon’s first wife, Pupetta Maresca, after a torrid affair and following their marriage in 1974, amongst other things, became chatelaine of a 40-room property complete with a helipad. It had been built in 1870 by George Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon – whose death was attributed by amongst others Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the “curse of King Tut” – as his holiday home and during the 1970s and 1980s guests to “jet-set parties” given at the house by the socialite Countess were ferried back and forth from their dock in Portofino harbour in a custom built 1978 Piaggio Ape coachbuilt ‘limousine.’ This vehicle, described as a “perfect yacht tender” with its opulently patterned interior and passenger-driver intercom, is now for sale.

     

    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    Countess Francesca Agusta (née Francesca Vacca Graffagni, 29th October 1942 – 8th January 2001). It is most surprising that the late Dominick Dunne did not make a television programme about her life and demise.
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    Villa Altachiara (alternatively known as ‘Villa Alta Chiara’ or ‘Villa Carnarvon’) was one of Countess Agusta’s homes from the 1960s until her death in 2001; it was originally built as a holiday home for Lord Carnarvon (26th June 1866 – 5th April 1923) – the financier of Howard Carter’s explorations of Egypt’s Valley of the Kings that led to the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb. The Carnarvon family hosted many guests during their ownership, amongst them Brooke Astor and Evelyn Waugh.

    Count Agusta died in 1989 without divorcing his second wife in spite of separating from her in 1985. At that time, in addition to Villa Altachiara, he had given her four apartments in Milan, an estate in Cuernavaca, Mexico, family jewellery and an undisclosed cash sum. With his demise, she came into yet further fortune.

     

    This by-then “very wealthy woman” hit the headlines again in 1994 when she and her new lover, a “former Portofino playboy politician [named] Maurizio Raggio,” were discovered to have been part of a corruption scandal involving Bettino Craxi, the Prime Minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. Before police could apprehend them to charge them with amongst other things money laundering, the pair fled to Mexico and lived on her estate until 1997 as fugitives. During this period, the Countess reportedly attempted suicide at least once.

     

    Upon her return to Italy, the Countess plea-bargained and spent just three months in Milan’s Opera prison for her crimes in spite of receiving a two-year jail sentence. After “some further time under house arrest” in the Villa Altachiara, the “retired” gadabout then took up with a Mexican, Tirso ‘Tito’ Chazaro (also known as ‘Tirso Di Ricardo’ and ‘Rafael Tirso Roncado Gonzales’), and lived in the style of Miss Havisham. She was rarely seen in public and having become dependent on drink and drugs, was known for her erratic behaviour and temper.

     

    “Considerably the worse for wear and muttering she would not be coming back” on the night of 8th January 2001, the Countess supposedly told her lover and two others present that she was going for a swim, but either slipped on wet leaves or was pushed off a veranda into the sea. A search followed, but after the only traces found were the Countess’s dressing gown on the seabed close to the Villa Altachiara and her slippers on nearby rocks, press reports suggested she had either committed suicide or, given her past form, staged an “elaborate disappearing act.”

     

    Countess Agusta’s badly decomposed body washed up three weeks later on a beach at Toulon on the French Riviera. Her feet had been gnawed off by fish, her skull was smashed and her face was disfigured. She could only be identified by two rings she was wearing and her exact cause of death could thus not be determined.

     

    As an autopsy found no trace of water in her lungs, she plainly did not die by drowning, but in in 2004 the Countess’s brother, Domenico Vacca Graffagni, was quoted in the Independent as stating: “The [original] inquiry was closed in a hasty fashion because of absence of proof, relying too readily on ‘reasonable doubt’ … It was manslaughter. He [Chazaro] was always beating her. He didn’t mean to kill her. But that evening things didn’t go the way the Carabinieri said, my sister was not drunk and she did not slip on wet leaves on the veranda.”

     

    Adding further to speculation, much earlier, the Countess’s step-son, racing driver and team owner Rocky Agusta (1950 – 2018), told Corriere della Sera in 2001: “Francesca was a beautiful woman, simpatica, very rich… People have written that she inherited 500bn lire, but if it had been only 50 or 25, who commits suicide with 25bn lire set aside? … The people who were around her certainly did not help her…  It’s not up to me to formulate accusations, but Francesca was not alone that night. She was very upset. She should have been put to bed. Instead, they let her go out into a dark, wet, cold night, not even dressed.”

     

    In due course, the last of many wills left by Countess Agusta revealed Tirso Chazaro to be her sole beneficiary, but after this was challenged in court by her former lover, Maurizio Raggio, the pair split the legacy – reported to be worth as much as £165 million ($201 million, €186 million or درهم738 million) according to the Guardian in 2001 – sixty-forty between them.

     

    In 2009, the Villa Altachiara was offered for sale initially for £44 million ($54 million, €50 million or درهم198 million) and then for £30 million ($37 million, €34 million or درهم135 million) in 2014. It supposedly eventually sold for less than half that sum to a Russian billionaire a number of years later in spite of an estate agent remarking: “Some say the spirit of Countess Francesca Vacca Agusta still walks the estate looking for her husband and you can hear her shouting for him on the wind.”

     

    An estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000) for the Countess’s Piaggio Ape. Described as “sweet” and “[anything but] an Italian tuk-tuk” by RideApart, the one-off private taxi will be auctioned as part of the forthcoming RM Sotheby’s ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 online sale. One can only hope it finds a happier home than it encountered at that of its former mistress.

     

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes

     

    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaGavF50j98
  • A Miniature Kingdom

    A Miniature Kingdom

    Private island just 75 miles from New York for sale for just £650,000; it could make an ideal downsize from Necker for Sir Richard Branson

    Created from pink granite bedrock that once formed hilltops prior to the last ice age, the 365 islands that form The Thimbles in Connecticut are mostly uninhabited rest stops for migrating seals.

     

    With 81 houses across the 23 inhabited islands, 14 of those isles have only a single residence on them and now someone with £652,000 to spare can join past residents who’ve counted President William H. Taft and purchase one named Jepson Island.

    An aerial shot of Jepson Island.

    Only accessible by boat from the nearby village of Stony Creek, Branford the tiny 0.77-acre island is dominated by a 962 square foot “contemporary vacation” bungalow with two bedrooms and a bathroom. It has power from a generator and passive solar power, mains ‘city’ water and is offered for sale fully furnished.

     

    Situated just 75 miles from New York City, Jepson Island is described by agents William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty as “the ultimate easy, nearby escape.”

    The Names & Numbers – Jepson Island, Branford, Connecticut, CT 06405, United States of America

    May 2020 – Jepson Island is offered for sale for £652,000 ($800,000, €737,000 or درهم1.2 million) through William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty. Two other islands available include 0.77-acre Wheelers Island at £2.4 million ($3 million, €2.8 million or درهم11 million) and the 1.04-acre Belden Island at £1.2 million ($1.5 million, €1.4 million or درهم5.5 million).

    2016 – Offered for sale as part of an “eight island deal” for £63.5 million ($78 million, €71.9 million or درهم286.5 million) by owners Edmund and Christine Stoecklein.

    Late 1990s to early 2000s – Christine Stoecklein, widow of John Svenningsen (president of the party goods manufacturer Amscan Holdings Inc), bought a number of the Thimble Islands for a total of £24.4 million ($30 million, €27.7 million or درهم110.2 million).

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes

  • Grubby Story Time With Fergie & Friends

    Grubby Story Time With Fergie & Friends

    ‘Randy Andy’s’ ex-wife Sarah Ferguson excels (again) in sharing videos of coronavirus bailout money grabber Sir Richard Branson’s son on her not so popular YouTube channel

    You’d have thought Sarah Ferguson – ex-wife and live-in comedy sidekick of he who doesn’t sweat (unless he’s in the Woking branch of Pizza Express or allegedly grubbing around  doing a bit of  groping in the mansion of a now dead paedophile) Prince Andrew – would have kept her gob shut for once, but no, as ever, this weird whackjob just could not help herself.

     

    On Saturday, in spite of stories circulating about the pugnacious pair being sued for £6.7 million after not stumping up what they owe on a £20 million Swiss ski chalet (as only these spendthrifts could be expected to do) and yet more tawdry revelations about Prince Andrew inappropriately paying £355,927 to his former private secretary via his PACT charity (strange that that shares a name with that of their “charity tin rattling” mate Baroness Meyer’s now-deservedly-also-closed-down “venture”), Sarah Ferguson decided to take to YouTube.

     

    Here, on her not especially popular channel (she has just 2,500 followers), she shared a video of the son of one of the most loathed individuals of the coronavirus lockdown, Sir Richard Branson, strumming on a guitar and reading a story (it must have been hard for him to sit on a very expensive private island doing that whilst daddy was out begging for yet more millions of public wonga).

     

    Grubby Story Time With Fergie & Friends – ‘Randy Andy’s’ ex-wife Sarah Ferguson excels (again) in sharing videos of coronavirus bailout money grabber Sir Richard Branson’s son on her not so popular YouTube channel.
    Sarah Ferguson seems to think reading stories to children on YouTube will help redeem her reputation; the investors and creditors owed millions quite rightly think otherwise.

    As part of her crassly titled “Fergie & Friends” (does she actually have any left?) stories series, Sam Branson read from a book titled: I Am Human: A Book of Empathy. Somewhat laughably, the tale about “finding my way and choosing my path” (something Fergie most definitely isn’t terribly good at) had only received 12 likes on YouTube by Monday morning and given any chance of forgiveness for the ‘Duchess of Dork’ – whom also is facing legal actions from Chinese investors whom she took over £500,000 from – is all but over, she’d perhaps have done better to have parked this particular episode.

     

    Also last week, self-declared “spokesperson, best-selling children’s author, businesswoman, wellness advocate, producer and global humanitarian” (is there anything she can’t turn her money snatching hands to?) Ferguson joined LinkedIn. God only knows why she took such a course of action as frankly no one in their right mind would employ this train wreck. Frankly, instead, the well-known toe sucking wastrel would have done better to have simply done something else: She should have given up on the idea of ‘work’ (not that she knows what such even is) and taken ‘Randy Andy’ and retired together Sotogrande. If she did that, perhaps poor old ‘Brenda’ might get out of supposedly once again having to pay off yet more of the on-off couple’s bills and the non-sweater could save a dime and enjoy yet another freebie on the golf course.

     

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzFslpUsGyc