The Steeple Times

Tag: modest

  • Hero of the Hour 2023 – Oscar Award Winning Actor James Martin

    Hero of the Hour 2023 – Oscar Award Winning Actor James Martin

    As the modest ‘An Irish Goodbye’ actor James Martin wins an Oscar, we join those celebrating his truly deserved success and his becoming the first star with Down’s Syndrome to win at the Academy Awards

    Many readers of The Steeple Times are big fans of the North Yorkshire born television chef James Martin and one of our readers, Gary Hazell, is involved in distributing his eponymous gin. 50-year-old farmer’s son Mr Martin brings joy to many every Saturday on ITV1 and his “silky smooth, flavor rich gin” most definitely goes down a treat; his passion for cars both classic and modern is also clear and he is most certainly just the kind of role model the nation needs.

     

    After winning a BAFTA in February for his role in the short film An Irish Goodbye and last night – on the very day of his 31st birthday – adding to that with an Oscar at the 95th Academy Awards, another James Martin is now also making waves. Here, indeed, is a Northern Irishman most definitely headed to becoming one of the best-loved and most deserved luminaries of 2023.

     

    This particular James Martin is a rising star actor whose career began when he was a guest on his father Ivan Martin’s U105 radio show on Father’s Day and Christmas Day in his youth.

     

    Of this in December 2014, the radio presenter remarked of his son: “I never look at my son James and think: ‘There’s James and he has Down’s Syndrome.’ I just think: ‘There’s James.’ It has always been that way… James is a remarkable young man and I admire him so much. He has never let his disability hold him back. He is an ambassador for Mencap and he has spoken at the European Parliament and to the Assembly at Stormont.”

     

    Responding about his father in the same interview for the Belfast Telegraph, the undoubted star of last night’s ceremony in Los Angeles added: “My dad and I are very close… We have great craic and a lot of banter… Dad is also supportive of my acting… I love to act and want to be a good actor.”

     

    The 23:29-minute film was the second collaboration between co-directors Tom Berkeley and Ross White. It was released on 4th March 2022 and of his son’s success winning an Oscar for it, Ivan Martin today told BBC Radio Ulster: “All I ever wanted was for James was that he’d be happy and, I tell you what, he’s happy now… It’s been a journey. You get to the Oscars and everybody keeps saying the prize is getting there, but, truth to tell, you want to win and I had my doubts about it because one of the opposition films was a Disney film and they had it in the last week… They had really been ramping up the promotion for it, but, calm heads win the end… A film we can all be proud of… It’s just crazy. There were a few tears shed, but what an achievement. Just delighted.”

    Subsequently James Martin appeared in the BBC’s Ups and Downs and starred opposite Anna Friel in ITV’s Marcella and last night he was well and truly celebrated. Speaking ahead of An Irish Goodbye being named the Best Live Action Short, Martin shared:

     

    “The timing of it has been just perfect. You know, you can’t plan somebody’s birthday to be on the Oscars. So, it’s a big day, [but] I just want to enjoy it really, just enjoy the experience.”

     

    “I was just in the airport going down the escalator and [I heard some say:] ‘Well done An Irish Goodbye.’ ‘I’m just thinking to myself: My God this is amazing.’”

     

    “I always say to people, never judge a book by its cover. Not just getting a BAFTA, but going to LA is a big deal… It’s just nice to be included.”

     

    Later, after his win and having had the 3,000 audience sing Happy Birthday to him, the modest-to-his-core actor told BBC News: “We’re just so proud to be representing Northern Ireland. To be on that stage in front of all of our cinematic heroes – it was a special moment.”

     

    An Irish Goodbye – which was written and directed by Tom Berkeley and Ross White and also stars Seamus O’Hara, Paddy Jenkins and Michelle Fairley – has been described as a “black comedy following the reunion of estranged brothers Turlough and Lorcan following the untimely death of their mother.”

     

    Going further in an 18-page press notes release, the 23:29-minute film’s production team added:

     

    “Under the watchful eye of odd-ball parish priest Father O’Shea, the brothers’ pained reunion is worsened by the fact Turlough must now make new care arrangements for Lorcan, who has Down Syndrome.”

     

    “A robust and dedicated farmer, Lorcan’s dream of continuing to work the land he grew up on is thwarted when Turlough decides he’s sending him to live with their aunt on the other side of Ireland.”

     

    “But when the brothers discover an unfulfilled bucket list belonging to their late mother, Lorcan senses an opportunity: he’ll only agree to leave the farm once he and Turlough have themselves completed every single wish on their mother’s list… All one-hundred of them.”

     

    Today, we join all those saluting the actor James Martin and urge readers to join us in raising a glass to his latest award with a snifter or two of the chef of the same name’s London Dry Gin. Cheers!

     

    The full film can be watched on BBC iPlayer by clicking here.

     

    Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party.

     

    Oscars 1
    ‘An Irish Goodbye’ is a short film written, produced, and directed in 2022 by Tom Berkeley and Ross White. The film stars James Martin, Seamus O’Hara, Paddy Jenkins and Michelle Fairley and is set on a farm in Northern Ireland.
    James Martin and Ivan Martin
    The award-winning actor with his radio presenter father, Ivan.
    Oscars 2
    On-stage to collect their award; the team behind the film used their acceptance speech to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to the star-of-the-show. Co-director Ross White also stated: “Deary me, thank you so much the Academy for this incredible, incredible honour. Thank you to our fellow nominees, all the nominees for your work, and your work it inspires us so very, very much. Thank you to everybody back home and Northern Ireland who helped us make this film. We wish we had the time to list you all here, but you know who you are.” He then continued: “There’s something very important we’d like to speak about as well. This award is actually the second most important thing about today, because it’s this man’s birthday. He’s out here in Hollywood, wearing a leopard print suit jacket. We’d love to use the rest of our time up here to sing for James.”
    James-Martin-Motors-Into-Gin
    The actor’s English namesake… ‘The Steeple Times’ reviewed ITV1 ‘Saturday Morning’ presenter James Martin’s London Dry Gin in January this year and lauded it as showcasing “tradition with a twist.” To purchase a bottle, click here and do join us in urging the pair to team up for a joint tellybox appearance; it’d make for great viewing.
  • Ken Smith (AKA ‘The Hermit of Treig’)

    Ken Smith (AKA ‘The Hermit of Treig’)

    Whilst the Miss Havisham-esque eccentric Huguette Clark (1906 – 2011) spent 81 years of her life on her lonesome in spite of being worth £294 million ($400 million, €353 million or درهم1.5 billion), Ken Smith is a recluse of much more modest means.

     

    Unlike the doll doting American who lived out her days in palatial splendour with just staff for company and spoilt heiresses like over-Botoxed birdbrains such as Tamara Ecclestone, 72-year-old Derbyshire born Smith is someone who has been content to have spent around 46 years alone with nature in the Scottish Highlands.

     

    Beaten to a pulp and left with a brain haemorrhage and unconscious for 23 days after a vicious assault by a gang of thugs, this former fire station builder decided that he “would never live on anyone’s terms but my own.” He headed to Yukon – the Canadian territory bordering Alaska – and walked a staggering 22,000 miles before returning home.

     

    Sadly, in his absence, his parents had both died and feeling “nothing,” Ken Smith found solace in walking the length of Britain. In a November 2021 BBC Scotland documentary, he remarked: “I cried all the way while walking… I thought where is the most isolated place in Britain? I went around and followed every bay and every Ben where there wasn’t a house built. Hundreds and hundreds of miles of nothingness. I looked across the loch and saw this woodland.” He has remained there ever since.

     

    To this day, Britain’s ultimate hermit has lived in a log cabin he built himself that includes a log fire, but lacks electricity, gas, running water and any form of communications techologies. He lives off foraged berries, vegetables he grows and fish he catches from Loch Treig – known as “the lonely loch” – and also makes his own wine. At the time of the filming, he had over 70 gallons of hooch on the go.

     

    Speaking of his modest lifestyle, this simple but satisfied sort – who has to complete a 54-mile round trip just to post a letter – added:

     

    “I think if you love the land, it sort of loves you back. It loves you back in all the things it produces for you… Do you think I could live in a house? No, I’d spend most of the time in the pub… They wanted me to move into ‘civilisation’… Well I wasn’t going to have any of that.”

     

    “When I die, instead of everyone moaning and being sad, I want everybody to be merry, getting pissed up on all on my wine… Anybody can come that I know and they’ll know me, so they’ll come.

     

    “I have had lots of incidents and I seem to have survived them all and I know one thing, for sure, no matter what, I am bound to go ill again sometime. Something will happen to me that will take me away one day as it does for everybody else, but I’m hoping that I’ll get to 102.”

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwUockt4D28
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muYP8S-YO6k
    Cabin
    Modest to his core Ken Smith is content with living a solitary life in the cabin he built with his own hands in spite of having suffered a stroke and been injured by a pile of logs falling on him. In spite of being offered alternative accommodation in Fort William, he prefers to continue as he has done for four decades thus far. Though, he entertains himself by listening to a radio and keeps a small library of books, he does not have and does not want a mobile telephone device.
    Food, fish and foraging
    The resourceful Derbyshire born hermit lives mainly off foraged food and fish he catches, but gets up once a month at 4am to hike for three hours to the nearest railway station. He then makes an hour long journey to Fort William to fill his 70-litre rucksack with provisions and medical supplies that last him for the following weeks. He draws sap to make his ‘hooch’ and has also invented a compostable waste system that he calls “the bottomless pit.”
  • Rolls-Royce isn’t Rolls-Royce but it is Rolls-Royce

    Rolls-Royce isn’t Rolls-Royce but it is Rolls-Royce

    Rolls-Royce issues a press release to try and stop the media mistakenly saying they are Rolls-Royce; they want to highlight the difference between PLC and Cars

    When you think of Rolls-Royce, you may think of handcrafted limousines made with the most exquisite materials. You might think of the royalty, heads of state and stars who’ve owned such vehicles, but one thing’s for sure, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, a “wholly-owned subsidiary of BMW Group (Munich)” now want to make very clear: They have nothing to do with the aircraft, ship and submarine manufacturers Rolls-Royce PLC.

     

    In a press release issued on Thursday, Andrew Ball for Goodwood, West Sussex based Rolls-Royce Motor Cars pointedly remarked:

     

    “Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has issued a statement in response to continuing media confusion and misreporting concerning its assumed or implied connection to Rolls-Royce PLC.”

     

    “Media are kindly asked to note that images of Rolls-Royce motor cars, the black and silver ‘Double R’ logo, the ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ (‘Flying Lady’) mascot, the Rolls-Royce Pantheon Grille and other related content are all signifiers of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and its Brand.”

     

    “The use of these images to illustrate stories relating to Rolls-Royce plc together with copy that unnecessarily confuses or conflates the two companies, is incorrect and leads to public confusion.”

     

    Given “recent announcements” have led to the “media confusing and misreporting” the two, one thing’s for sure: A Rolls-Royce car is a Rolls-Royce car when it’s a Rolls-Royce Motor Car; when it’s not, it’s just not. “Now Jeeves, be a darling, go fetch the Toyota.”

     

    Some quotes about Rolls-Royces

     

    “Greatness takes time: It takes 13 hours to build a Toyota, but it takes 6 months to build a Rolls-Royce.”

    Unknown.

     

    “Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls-Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.”

    ‘Most successful investor in the world’ Warren Buffett.

     

    “At 60 miles per hour, the loudest noise in this Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”

    ‘Father of Advertising’ David Ogilvy CBE.

     

    “When you are a rich man, you are proud to own a Rolls-Royce and when you are a poor man, you are proud to own a Renault.”

    Charismatic footballer Eric Cantona.

     

    “If a working-class Englishman saw a bloke drive past in a Rolls-Royce, he’d say to himself: ‘Come the social revolution and we’ll take that away from you, mate.’ Whereas, if his American counterpart saw a bloke drive past in a Cadillac, he’d say: ‘One day, I’m going to own one of those.’ To my way of thinking, the first attitude is wrong. The latter is right.”

    Media tycoon Kerry Packer.

     

    Pictured top: A selection of models currently available in Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ current line-up.

     

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    Rolls-Royce isn’t Rolls-Royce but it is Rolls-Royce – Rolls-Royce issues a press release to try and stop the media mistakenly saying they are Rolls-Royce; they want to highlight the difference between PLC and Cars.
    Rolls-Royce Motor Cars want to remind the world that they produce motor cars. They most certainly don’t want people thinking they produce flying hairdryers.
    Rolls-Royce isn’t Rolls-Royce but it is Rolls-Royce – Rolls-Royce issues a press release to try and stop the media mistakenly saying they are Rolls-Royce; they want to highlight the difference between PLC and Cars.
    In October 2016, ‘The Steeple Times’ featured this 1926 Rolls-Royce Phantom I by Brougham De Ville. It has an interior inspired by Versailles and the interior was described as “like stepping inside a very fine Georgian manor house.”
    Rolls-Royce isn’t Rolls-Royce but it is Rolls-Royce – Rolls-Royce issues a press release to try and stop the media mistakenly saying they are Rolls-Royce; they want to highlight the difference between PLC and Cars.
    In March 2017, ‘The Steeple Times’ featured this 1958 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I drophead coupé. It was nicknamed ‘The Honeymoon Express’ given it seats just two and has an oversized boot capable of carrying a week’s luggage.
    Rolls-Royce isn’t Rolls-Royce but it is Rolls-Royce – Rolls-Royce issues a press release to try and stop the media mistakenly saying they are Rolls-Royce; they want to highlight the difference between PLC and Cars.
    In August 2015, ‘The Steeple Times’ featured this 1973 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI by Pietro Frua. It was described as “the largest convertible ever built,” measured over 22-foot in length and took two years to build. The giant motor was originally owned by His Excellency Consul Simon van Kempen of Switzerland and Monaco sold for £442,546 including premium as part of The Frederiksen Auction in Denmark.
    Rolls-Royce isn’t Rolls-Royce but it is Rolls-Royce – Rolls-Royce issues a press release to try and stop the media mistakenly saying they are Rolls-Royce; they want to highlight the difference between PLC and Cars.
    In February 2018, ‘The Steeple Times’ featured this special edition 1995 Rolls-Royce Flying Spur converted to an estate car from a Silver Spur III.
    Rolls-Royce isn’t Rolls-Royce but it is Rolls-Royce – Rolls-Royce issues a press release to try and stop the media mistakenly saying they are Rolls-Royce; they want to highlight the difference between PLC and Cars.
    In September 2016, ‘The Steeple Times’ joined those describing the owner of this Rolls-Royce as having “the most vulgar numberplate in Britain.” The owner of ‘SH10W OF’ plainly is a person without an ounce of modesty in their entire being.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pndoAjymnMM
  • Nasty NestSeekers

    Nasty NestSeekers

    Entitled Hamptons brat Jonathan Davis exposed for allegedly squatting during the coronavirus lockdown; it turns out he’s a realtor with NestSeekers

    Jonathan Davis is the founder of the Hamptons Brewing Company and the son of a self-declared “power broker” realtor named Tim Davis. Aside from also being a property agent and claiming to have been “born and raised” in the summer colony that the wealthy of New York flock to, on Friday, he was exposed as something else – Mr Davis has now been outed as a pesky squatter who allegedly doesn’t pay his rent and goes around wrecking other peoples’ homes.

     

    In March, Davis, a graduate of Lynn University “with a passion for business,” featured in an interview with Fox Business in which he bragged about how much business he was doing because of the coronavirus pandemic. In the typically brash style expected of a privileged preppy prat and speaking on behalf of his bosses at the NestSeekers brokerage, he declared:

     

    “Rental season is starting earlier now. Instead of Memorial Day, it’s 1st April… It’s a very proactive time… There is just more room to breathe out here and families feel safer… It’s not a bad environment to be quarantined.”

     

    According to Inside Edition, completely modest to his core “like father, like son, greatness never dies” Davis – whom according to his broker profile has sold properties priced as high as £9.3 million ($11.5 million, €10.3 million or درهم42.2 million) and pompously lauds himself as a “well-regarded agent” selling “a lifestyle, not just a dream home” according to posts on his Twitter handle – has himself taken advantage of the pandemic at the expense of someone who rented him a house.

     

    The “prominent real estate agent” and “alleged squatter,” the syndicated news-magazine reports, rented a 3-bedroom property in Sag Harbor from Paula Rosado and now “refuses to move out.” Davis is alleged to owe £12,100 ($15,000, €13,500 or درهم55,100) and has supposedly allowed his two German Shepherd dogs to “tear apart” the building and urinate all over her rugs and “couches” [sic]. Windows are reported broken also and of the situation, Rosado moaned: “It’s horrific. It really is just horrific… This has been a complete nightmare for us, for our family emotionally and financially.”

     

    When confronted by Inside Edition’s cameras, Davis refused to comment. His lawyer, meanwhile, angrily stated: “I’ve got no comments except: GET ORF THE GROUNDS!”

     

    The Steeple Times contacted Jonathan Davis and his bosses at NestSeekers – CEO and founder Eddie Shapiro, Bridgehampton salesperson Dylan Eckardt and associate broker Peggy Zabakolas – for comment on Saturday. They all failed to respond by 11am GMT Monday and thus provided illustration of the “ethics, integrity, loyalty, education, ingenuity and courage” by which Shapiro’s firm operates by. Allow NestSeekers into your home at your peril.

     

    Pictured top: Jonathan Davis looking annoyed alongside his ritzy Land Rover Discovery and a police officer.

     

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    Nasty NestSeekers – Realtor turned alleged squatter Jonathan Davis – Entitled Hamptons brat Jonathan Davis exposed for allegedly squatting in a house in Sag Harbor owned by Paula Rosado during the coronavirus lockdown; it turns out he’s a realtor with NestSeekers.
    The home rented to Jonathan Davis by Paula Rosado.
    Nasty NestSeekers – Realtor turned alleged squatter Jonathan Davis – Entitled Hamptons brat Jonathan Davis exposed for allegedly squatting in a house in Sag Harbor owned by Paula Rosado during the coronavirus lockdown; it turns out he’s a realtor with NestSeekers.
    The gardens of the Sag Harbor property now resemble something inhabited by Stig of the Dump. They were supposedly immaculate prior to Jonathan Davis moving in.
    Nasty NestSeekers – Realtor turned alleged squatter Jonathan Davis – Entitled Hamptons brat Jonathan Davis exposed for allegedly squatting in a house in Sag Harbor owned by Paula Rosado during the coronavirus lockdown; it turns out he’s a realtor with NestSeekers.
    Property owner Paula Rosado spoke to ‘Inside Edition’ to share her frustrations.
    Nasty NestSeekers – Realtor turned alleged squatter Jonathan Davis – Entitled Hamptons brat Jonathan Davis exposed for allegedly squatting in a house in Sag Harbor owned by Paula Rosado during the coronavirus lockdown; it turns out he’s a realtor with NestSeekers.
    On the Instagram page for his brewing company, Jonathan Davis declares: “A good time starts here.” As can be seen from this image, a good time is not being had by his caged dogs.
    Nasty NestSeekers – Realtor turned alleged squatter Jonathan Davis – Entitled Hamptons brat Jonathan Davis exposed for allegedly squatting in a house in Sag Harbor owned by Paula Rosado during the coronavirus lockdown; it turns out he’s a realtor with NestSeekers.
    Jonathan Davis’ unnamed legal representative made quite a scene, when asked for a comment.
    Nasty NestSeekers – Realtor turned alleged squatter Jonathan Davis – Entitled Hamptons brat Jonathan Davis exposed for allegedly squatting in a house in Sag Harbor owned by Paula Rosado during the coronavirus lockdown; it turns out he’s a realtor with NestSeekers.
    Mr Davis, however, surprisingly for a mouthy realtor, had little to nothing to say.
    Nasty NestSeekers – Realtor turned alleged squatter Jonathan Davis – Entitled Hamptons brat Jonathan Davis exposed for allegedly squatting in a house in Sag Harbor owned by Paula Rosado during the coronavirus lockdown; it turns out he’s a realtor with NestSeekers.
    Davis does like to brag about his supposed successes on his NestSeekers broker profile though. One Hamptons local we approached commented: “I wouldn’t trust him with a garden hoe.”
  • A Rental Ruin

    A Rental Ruin

    Chelsea estate agent optimistically markets an £850 per week house with unpainted walls and an exposed gas meter by announcing: “It does have a new boiler”

     

    Other than the legendary Roy Brooks, the only honest man in his game, estate agents will be optimistic about just about anything. A bit of damp: “no problem”; a nuclear power station next door: “positively charming” but John D. Wood & Co. truly take the biscuit with the marketing material for a property they are currently trying to let in chi-chi Christchurch Street, Chelsea, London.

     

    Sent to us by an eagle eyed reader, the £850 per week ($1,108, €955 or درهم4,070 per week), 867 square foot three floor aforementioned house has conventional features such as a reception room, kitchen, three bedrooms and a bathroom. It also, rather unconventionally, has walls that haven’t even been painted and are just bare plaster. Pictures show also scruffily made-up beds propped up on wooden blocks, wiring and ageing televisions discarded on the floors and a garden littered with leaves.

     

    Of this strange offering, our reader remarked: “I saw this listing and thought it was a half-finished project and up for sale, but no, it’s a rental. Buy-to-let plainly says can’t afford to finish it, says sod it and tries to rent it out in a half-finished state and describe it as a ‘unique house packed with character and charm.’ I particularly like the exposed gas meter!”

     

    When he telephoned, a member of staff at John D. Wood told our reader: “The landlord would prefer to rent the property ‘as is’ and not do further work. It would be at least £1,000 per week if it were finished. He is happy for any tenant to paint and make further improvements.”

     

    In typical estate agent fashion, she optimistically added: “It does have a new boiler.”

     

    Roy Brooks – “A painfully honest estate agent”

    “Beyond any doubt the best copywriter for property advertising in the history of the British press,” Roy Brooks (died 1971) took a “puckish delight in telling the truth” about the houses he was asked to sell.

     
    A Rental Ruin – Chelsea estate agent optimistically markets an £850 per week house with unpainted walls and an exposed gas meter by announcing: “It does have a new boiler” – 62 Christchurch Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 4AR, United Kingdom – To rent through John D. Wood & Co. for £850 per week ($1,108, €955 or درهم4,070 per week).

    An example of this Kings Road based eccentric’s advertisements read:

     

    “Do not be misled by the trim exterior of this modest period res with its dirty broken windows; all is not well with the inside. The décor of the nine rooms, some of which hangs inelegantly from the walls, is revolting. Not entirely devoid of plumbing, there is a pathetic kitchen and one cold tap. No bathroom, of course, but Chelsea has excellent public baths. Rain sadly drips through the ceiling on to the oilcloth. The pock-marked basement floor indicates a thriving community of woodworm, otherwise there is not much wrong with the property… Sacrifice £6,750.”

     

    Another announced:

     

    “Wanted: Someone with taste, means and a stomach strong enough to buy this erstwhile house of ill-repute in Pimlico. It is untouched by the 20th century as far as conveniences for even the basic human decencies are concerned. Although it reeks of damp or worse, the plaster is coming off the walls and daylight peeps through a hole in the roof, it is still habitable judging by the bed of rags, fag ends and empty bottles in one corner. Plenty of scope for the socially aspiring to express their decorative taste and get their abode in The Glossy, and nothing to stop them putting Westminster on their notepaper. Comprises 10 rather unpleasant rooms with slimy back yard, £4,650 Freehold. Tarted up, these houses make £15,000.”

     

    Justifying his reasoning for driving his Rolls-Royce from London to Russia loaded up with 1,000 pairs of shoes, Brooks – author of Brothel in Pimlico and Mud, Straw and Insults: Confessions of an Honest Estate Agent – glibly explained: “I take these for old times’ sake – Stalingrad and the defeat of the German hordes. Perhaps I could bring back in return some of their women engineers whose factories I saw prefabricating good homes by the thousands.”

     

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    A Rental Ruin – Chelsea estate agent optimistically markets an £850 per week house with unpainted walls and an exposed gas meter by announcing: “It does have a new boiler” – 62 Christchurch Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 4AR, United Kingdom – To rent through John D. Wood & Co. for £850 per week ($1,108, €955 or درهم4,070 per week). A Rental Ruin – Chelsea estate agent optimistically markets an £850 per week house with unpainted walls and an exposed gas meter by announcing: “It does have a new boiler” – 62 Christchurch Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 4AR, United Kingdom – To rent through John D. Wood & Co. for £850 per week ($1,108, €955 or درهم4,070 per week).A Rental Ruin – Chelsea estate agent optimistically markets an £850 per week house with unpainted walls and an exposed gas meter by announcing: “It does have a new boiler” – 62 Christchurch Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 4AR, United Kingdom – To rent through John D. Wood & Co. for £850 per week ($1,108, €955 or درهم4,070 per week). A Rental Ruin – Chelsea estate agent optimistically markets an £850 per week house with unpainted walls and an exposed gas meter by announcing: “It does have a new boiler” – 62 Christchurch Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 4AR, United Kingdom – To rent through John D. Wood & Co. for £850 per week ($1,108, €955 or درهم4,070 per week). A Rental Ruin – Chelsea estate agent optimistically markets an £850 per week house with unpainted walls and an exposed gas meter by announcing: “It does have a new boiler” – 62 Christchurch Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 4AR, United Kingdom – To rent through John D. Wood & Co. for £850 per week ($1,108, €955 or درهم4,070 per week). A Rental Ruin – Chelsea estate agent optimistically markets an £850 per week house with unpainted walls and an exposed gas meter by announcing: “It does have a new boiler” – 62 Christchurch Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 4AR, United Kingdom – To rent through John D. Wood & Co. for £850 per week ($1,108, €955 or درهم4,070 per week). A Rental Ruin – Chelsea estate agent optimistically markets an £850 per week house with unpainted walls and an exposed gas meter by announcing: “It does have a new boiler” – 62 Christchurch Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 4AR, United Kingdom – To rent through John D. Wood & Co. for £850 per week ($1,108, €955 or درهم4,070 per week). A Rental Ruin – Chelsea estate agent optimistically markets an £850 per week house with unpainted walls and an exposed gas meter by announcing: “It does have a new boiler” – 62 Christchurch Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 4AR, United Kingdom – To rent through John D. Wood & Co. for £850 per week ($1,108, €955 or درهم4,070 per week).

  • Denise Coates

    Denise Coates

    The richest self-made woman in the UK paid herself £217 million in 2016 and is said to have a personal fortune of circa £3.17 billion. A former betting shop cashier, Denise Coates purchased the domain Bet365.com in 2000 and has since grown the operation into one of the world’s largest online gambling companies. A Sheffield University graduate and the daughter of the chairman of Stoke City F.C., this incredibly successful business titan is nicknamed ‘The Patron of the Potteries’ for employing a large number of people in Stoke-on-Trent. She lives surprisingly modestly with her husband and five children in a farmhouse in Cheshire.

  • Trevor Hemmings CVO

    Trevor Hemmings CVO

    Reclusive yet charming “leisure entrepreneur” Trevor Hemmings owns over 100 racehorses, lives primarily on the Isle of Man and generously funded the SAFE centre to help victims of sexual violence in Preston, Lancashire.

     

    This “publicity averse” self-made father of four’s Grand National winning horses have included Ballabriggs, Hedgehunter and Many Clouds and other assets in his collection have variously numbered Blackpool Tower and Preston North End Football Club. He also harbours a love for vintage Rolls-Royces and was considered a “surrogate son” by the equally shrewd late businessman and holiday camp owner Sir Fred Pontin (1906 – 2000).

     

    Of his success, in a rare interview in 2015, this cloth capped “earthy” gent modestly remarked:

     

    “In my business life I’ve had to climb the business and financial ladder by doing better next year than I did last year and that’s what life’s about. You have to work longer hours than everybody and you have to be on site seven days a week. Today I’m available seven days a week, people contact me seven days a week, let’s put it like that”.

     

    Reclusive “leisure entrepreneur” and racing obsessive Trevor HemmingsPictured above: Trevor Hemmings with Grand National winners Hedgehunter and Ballabriggs at Ballaseyr, Andreas.

     

  • A Reminder of What Is To Come

    A Reminder of What Is To Come

    Donald Trump on ‘Saturday Night Live’ back in 2015 needs to be viewed again; it might be comedy but now it looks like an especially scary indicator of what is yet to come

     

    Back in 2015, Donald Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, appeared in a sketch on Saturday Night Live.

     

    At the time, ‘The Donald’ was still just a brash businessman, self-promoting ‘celebrity’ and possible Republican candidate but what he said during a 3:56 minute sketch back then now actually provides indication of how he truly views what being President of the United States of America is really about. For him, it appeared, the whole thing is nothing but an utter joke and an opportunity to make more money for the Trump Organization.

     

    In the video clip we share here, the then highly unlikely future winning opponent to ‘Crooked Hillary’ – as he later cruelly christened Mrs Clinton – behaved more like a comedy actor than the leader of the free world. He appeared – in a pretend setting of a fake “White House in 2018” – and stated: “I don’t have to get specific, with me it just works, it’s always been that way my whole life” whilst an actress playing his wife (plainly the real one was too incomprehensible to join in) remarked that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is “the smallest place Donald and I have ever lived but we made it work”.

     

     

    Aside from announcing that China is in debt to America and that the national anthem has been rewritten and retitled It’s yuuuge, one of Trump’s The Apprentice candidates, Omarosa Manigault, told Trump: “After your face-to-face meeting, Putin has withdrawn from Ukraine. Believe me, he does not want to be called a loser again. He cried for hours”.

     

    “You’ve really made America great again”, another of Trump’s fake cabinet added whilst his fake wife gibed: “See I told you. More than just words on a silly hat”.

     

    Complete with a fake Mexican President telling Trump: “Nothing brings two countries together like a wall” (before handing him a cheque that ‘The Donald’ promptly pocketed), the clip ends with his fake assistant remarking:

     

    “The American people are just sick of winning, they’re winning so much, it’s just too great sir”.

     

    Trump, always one for having the last word, responded:

     

    “Look, I know how they feel. It’s exhausting. Winning is that tough. It’s not that easy. If you think that’s how it’s going to be when I’m President, you’re wrong. It’s going to be even better”.

     

    “I said to the writer’s of this sketch: Keep it modest, OK. It’s better to start with low expectations. That way, you have no way to go but up”.

     

    At the time, this sketch was no doubt amusing to many. Now, frankly, it’s nothing but a scary indicator of what’s to come.

     

    #GodHelpAmerica #DumpTheTrump

     

     

  • The No. 1 Showoff

    The No. 1 Showoff

    The most vulgar numberplate in Britain arrives in SW3

     

    Yesterday, in Walton Street, a Rolls-Royce parked opposite Scalini restaurant. There was nothing unusual about that but it’s point of difference was its numberplate.

     

    The owner of the car had chosen ‘SH10W OF’ and in doing so simply illustrated his or herself for what they truly believe themselves to be.

     

    Modesty is a fine quality and plainly this nitwit is entirely lacking in it.

     

    Showoffs – Rolls Royce Showoff SH10 OF – Scalini, Walton Street, Chelsea, SW3
    A true showoff

    Showoffs – Rolls Royce Showoff SH10 OF – Scalini, Walton Street, Chelsea, SW3
    This equally ludicrous showoff parked further down Walton Street

    Showoffs – Rolls Royce Showoff SH10 OF – Scalini, Walton Street, Chelsea, SW3
    And a little later this modest machine was spotted outside Harrods

     

     

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  • The Duke of Westminster

    The Duke of Westminster

    A tribute to Gerald Cavendish, the 6th Duke of Westminster (1951 – 2016)

     

    Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the 6th Duke of Westminster was a man of duty dedicated to his country, its military and to the countryside he so loved.

     

    Described in a poignant tribute on the Grosvenor Estate’s website as “distinctly down-to-earth” and “rarely seen without a Diet Coke and a cigarette (later electric)”, the Duke – one of the country’s finest shots – was not one to mince his words and not one to shirk from a row. He took Westminster Council to court when they proposed selling off a housing estate in Pimlico intended by his ancestors specifically for the use of the working classes and won and then subsequently quit the Conservative Party in 1993 after a row with John Major over his leasehold reform legislation. At the time, he stated: “I had to leave because of my own conscience. I took a moral stand”.

     

    Not without his flaws – including a little bit of a scandal in 2008 involving a New York escort service – and someone prone to sleepless nights and depression, the Duke may have been a billionaire but he also had the common touch. Though he made the founding gift of £50 million to the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre in 2011 and supported farmers hit by the 2001 foot and mouth crisis with a £500,000 donation, he was just as likely to be found offering words of encouragement and sharing laughter in the communities he so especially treasured in Cheshire and at Abbeystead in Lancashire.

     

    In 1995, appearing on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs, the Duke remarked:

     

    “In the context of eternity, if I am lucky I might live 70 years, but this estate has been with us for 3, 4, 5, 600 years. I am only a mere flicker in the process of time. It is what I do with it, rather than what I am worth, that I believe is more important”.

     

    Modest to his core and a man with a loathing for such tags as “environmentalist” and “philanthropist”, the Duke left the Grosvenor Estate in a far better state than he found it in 1979. He may have been born with a silver spoon, but he understood that with rights came responsibilities.

     

     

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