The Steeple Times

Tag: daughter

  • Dale Thomson: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    Dale Thomson: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    The Steeple Times asks The Palm’s barman Dale Thomson: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

     

    The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?

    “A positive attitude”.

     

    “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

    “Live and let others live”.

     

    Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2013?

    The way we continue to treat one another.

     

    Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?

    Home.

     

    What might you swap all your wealth for?

    Health is my wealth. I wouldn’t want to swap it.

     

    Donald Trump was once a case of: “If you owe the bank a thousand, they close you down; but if you owe the bank a billion, you own the bank”. What’s your view on the banking crisis?

    I would prefer it if the banks made it easier for young people to get on their paths as entrepreneurs as well as to buy their first home.

     

    What phrase or word do you most loathe?

    “I can’t”.

     

    In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home”. What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?

    I find charity does a very good job and I think those who help people who need a hot plate of food are to be admired. I support what I can, when I can.

     

    The judge in Law Abiding Citizen states: “I can pretty much do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?

    Mobile phones should be used at your own risk. Don’t use them around other people. They’re just like smoking. It’s about choice.

     

    Dale Thomson
    Dale Thomson

    If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?

    My daughter, my mum, Angelina Jolie, Robert Kiyosaki, 50 Cent, NAS, my brother Larry and my cousin Kerry. I’d like Bob Marley too and my boi, Colly.

     

    If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?

    I’d like some traditional Caribbean food. It wouldn’t be peas and rice but it would coo-coo callallo and wild meat.

     

    What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?

    Anytime in the afternoon unless you’ve been up all night.

     

    A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

    The original classic champagne cocktail.

     

    Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

    Backyard parties with a grill and music and conversation. “Lime” is what we call it.

     

    Who is the most positive person you know?

    Bob Marley as he’s always preaching about love.

     

    What’s your most guilty pleasure?

    A caramel bar.

     

    If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?

    I already have one. It’s of a lion’s head. I’m courageous. The next one I want is of Leah, my daughter, on my chest.

     

    If you were a car, what marque would you be?

    A Jeep.

     

    Cilla Black presented Surprise, Surprise. Tell us the most surprising thing about you.

    I like bad girls.

     

    What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

    I don’t have one.

     

    Dale Thomson is the barman at The Palm, 1 – 3 Pont Street, London, SW1X 9EJ. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7201 0710. Website: http://www.thepalm.com/London

     

    Follow The Palm London on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/PalmLondon

     

  • Debbi Clark: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    Debbi Clark: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    The Steeple Times asks photographer Debbi Clark: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

     

    The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?

    My son Luke with his eccentric ways and my daughter Sophia who keeps me grounded.

     

    “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

    Whatever you decide to do, enjoy it. Otherwise change direction.

      (more…)

  • Barbara Walters

    Barbara Walters

    Barbara WaltersThis dynamic American television personality and author was one of the first women to work in “hard news” and is best known for having hosted the Today show, the ABC Evening News, The View and 20/20. She grew up “in awe” of the famous people her father, a Broadway producer and nightclub owner, introduced her to, has been married four times to three different men and got chicken pox after ‘kissing’ actor Frank Langella at a New Year’s Eve party in Miami in 2012. Walters has interviewed everyone from Fidel Castro to Michael Jackson, but her March 1999 feature on Monica Lewinsky, watched by a record 74 million viewers, is indeed one for the history books. When she asked her subject: “What will you tell your children when you have them?”, Lewinsky replied: “Mommy made a big mistake”. At that point, Walters ended the show by stating: “And that is the understatement of the year”.

  • Russell Norman: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    Russell Norman: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    The Steeple Times asks restaurateur Russell Norman: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

     

    The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?

    I am guided by the usual human forces, but my permanent motivation is work.

     

    “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

    “Live as if you were to die tomorrow, but learn as if you were to live forever”. Also: “Don’t fuck it up”.

    (more…)

  • Winging it

    Winging it

    Sarah Tucker gives an update on goings on at the resort where Madeleine McCann vanished

     

    Four hundred and thirty euros, one bedroom apartment, one week at the height of season at a luxury family resort in Portugal. And oh yes, it’s the Ocean Club at Praia da Luz. There’s availability with two and three bedroom apartments as well. I asked about apartment 5a where Madeleine disappeared but the PR is coming back to me on that one. That was four days ago.

     

    The Ocean Club entrance and Apartment 5A at the top of the street

    I checked this out because having looked at the comments on The Steeple Times McCann roll call entry, I wanted to know what became of the resort where she disappeared.  Last year the lady who owned the property itself couldn’t sell it because women buyers were put off by it’s history.  I don’t blame them. I would never recommend buying from a divorcing couple, no matter how good the deal, so buying somewhere where a child has been allegedly kidnapped is a no no. Estate agents will say nonsense, but that’s a woman’s superstition for you. Or a mother’s superstition.

     

    I remember writing at the time about Mark Warner, a company synonymous with a reputation for keeping parents who treated parenting as a subject to be studied to A*, not as something to leave to instinct, God forbid.  Perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but having recently vox popped over 500 parents* asking if they would leave their children in their hotel room unsupervised while they ate in a restaurant on site, none of them, not one, said they would do so. I never mentioned the McCann case. The question about childcare was mixed in with other family travel related stuff, but some even mentioned the McCann’s case when they responded.  And all claimed they would take advantage of a babysitting service if it was offered or eat earlier and with the kids if it wasn’t.

     

    I was asked at the time if I would ever leave my son alone. I never have. Too risky and having lost him for ten minutes in the salubrious area that is East Sheen high street at five in the afternoon five years ago, because I refused to wait for him to tie up his shoe lace for the nth time, and getting no less than eighteen other men and women, all who had been either waiting for buses, serving or being served in shops, or in several cases drinking in the local pub, to run up and down, shouting his name, I understand the McCann’s need to go to the end of the earth, the prime minister, the Pope, to find their daughter. I completely understand this. What I never understood was their emotional reaction or rather lack of it.    In the meantime babysitting services are still offered at the Ocean Club.

     

    * Using social media (parents of three to six year olds).

     

  • Gerry & Kate McCann

    Gerry & Kate McCann

    Their daughter Madeleine disappeared on the evening 3rd May 2007 from a holiday apartment whilst they sat enjoying tapas with a bunch of friends. Some believe the poor child was kidnapped. Others have alternative theories. A public fund to find “Maddie” raised hundreds of thousands of pounds but Mrs McCann’s book, Madeleine, contains so many references to trips on private jets and meeting famous people that it makes one question whether the search for the child or fame has become the focus.

  • Gina Rinehart

    Gina Rinehart

    Whatever she does, “The House of Hancock comes first.” This little known Australian daughter of a bush pilot and prospector is now the world’s richest woman with a worth of some £18 billion. Known as the “Iron Lady,” twice-married Rinehart’s fortune is expanding at a rate of £21,000 a second and if this continues this larger than life lady will be the richest person on the planet. When Prince Philip met her he asked if she’d been invited simply because she had “the largest hat in Western Australia.” Her father called her his “right-hand man” and “young fella” and she’s even taken on three of her own children in court. The Hancock Mountain Range is named after her and commemorates her family’s contribution to mining in the Pilbara region.

  • Blessed Clarence

    Blessed Clarence

    The sale of the £22,500,000 Clarence House in Richmond

     

    Built in 1696 for a haberdasher merchant named Nathaniel Rawlins, Clarence House in Richmond was subsequently extended by his daughter, Elizabeth, before it became a Catholic school in 1792.

     

    The exterior of the Grade II listed Clarence House, 2 The Vineyard, Richmond Hill, Surrey, TW10 6AQ

     

    One student at the various schools that were subsequently run from the house was Bernardo O’Higgins, the liberator and founding father of Chile. Famous for his orders, which included such statements as: “Lads! Live with honour, or die with glory! He who is brave, follow me!” during the battle of El Roble, O’Higgins held office from 1817 to 1823. He was deposed by his former “closest ally” Ramón Freire in a conservative coup in January of that year, exiled to Peru and died due to cardiac problems in Lima in 1842.

     

    Bernardo O’Higgins (1778 – 1842), 2nd Supreme Director of Chile

     

    Between 1941 and 1947, Clarence House became a storage house for Fortnum & Mason. Their plans in 1943 to demolish the building and to replace it with a bakery, chocolate manufactory, store, tailoring shop and rooms for packing tea and coffee were not executed and in 1967 the house was purchased by the actor Brian Blessed.

     

    Actor Brian Blessed (1936 – )

     

    Blessed, known for his “sonorous voice and hearty, king-sized portrayals,” is a prolific performer who has appeared in Z-Cars, The Avengers, Lovejoy and Flash Gordon. After a successful campaign on the social network Facebook, Blessed became a voice option for TomTom’s satellite navigation devices in 2010 and he also holds the record being the oldest man to trek on foot to the magnetic North Pole. Married to Hildegarde Neil, an actress who appeared alongside Roger Moore in the The Man Who Haunted Himself, Blessed subsequently moved to Windlesham, also in Surrey.

     

    A reception room designed by Taylor Howes Design
    Clarence House’s dining room
    The house’s ultra modern kitchen

     

    Considered “one of the finest houses in South West London,” Clarence House has been restored by Taylor Howes Design, who also designed the Hotel Meyrick in Galway, Ireland. It now includes 6 reception rooms, a master suite of bedroom, sitting room, dressing room and bathroom and 5 further bedroom suites. An indoor swimming pool with an infinity style design, gymnasium, 2,000-bottle wine cellar, artist’s studio and 1 bedroom guest cottage complete the offering whilst landscaped gardens by Ross Allan boast magnolia trees, a terrace and water features.

     

    Clarence House’s swimming pool

     

    Priced at £22,500,000, whoever buys this fine residence will indeed be blessed with more than 10,000 square foot of accommodation. The price, however, is a far cry from the £25,000 Blessed paid for it back in 1967.

     

    Clarence House is for sale through the Richmond office of Savills. Contact Patrick Glynn-Jones for more information on +44 (0) 20 8614 9100 or email him at [email protected]. Further details can be viewed at: http://residentialsearch.savills.co.uk/property-detail/245686

     

    Follow Savills on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/savillsuk