A review of The New Inn at Roborough, North Devon
The New Inn at Roborough in North Devon isn’t the easiest place to find. It’s hidden away in a rural backwater, so be sure not to rely on your Sat-Nav to get you to this traditional Devonshire pub. If you do, you’ll be taken on a wild goose chase up hill and down dale but when you eventually arrive you’ll find a warm welcome and a menu that’s a little out of the ordinary.
A self-made mogul and former champion boxer who cannot read or write fluently. He thinks “differently” and built a £400 million fortune by creating and then selling a buy-to-let empire of almost 6,000 rental properties. Panayiotou takes the view that it is “moral[ly]” right to pay taxes in Britain and of those who call Heath Hall, a £65 million property he developed in North London, as “impersonally hideous as a brothel”, he rightly responds: “These guys are just jealous”. This maverick is indeed a businessman worthy of admiration rather than envy.
A modern day Robin Hood who claimed to have been “sent by God to take back some of the wealth that the outrageously rich had taken from the rest of us”. This Belfast born cat burglar was a meticulous planner whose roll call of marks numbered Sophia Loren, Zsa Zsa Gabor, John Aspinall and Maria Callas. He quoted Confucius, Oscar Wilde and Proust and targeted “rich prats” as it gave him a “sexual thrill”. The 1965 film He Who Rides a Tiger starring Tom Bell and Judi Dench was based on Scott and concluded that: “If I rob Ivana Trump, it is just a meeting of two different kinds of degeneracy on a dark rooftop”. Raffles would have been proud.
Boris Berezovsky found dead in his bathtub
It has just been confirmed that 67-year old oligarch Boris Berezovsky was found dead in a bath at his Surrey home at around 11am this morning. His son-in-law, Yegor Shuppe, revealed the news earlier today on Facebook and later a statement came from Alexander Dobrovinsky of Moscow based The Alexander Dobrovinsky & Partners law firm stating:
“Just got a call from London. Boris Berezovsky committed suicide. He was a difficult man. A move of disparity? Impossible to live poor? A strike of blows? I am afraid no one will get to know now”.
Berezovsky, who I encountered several times at The Lanesborough Hotel, lost a £3 billion damages claim against Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich in 2012. It was the largest private court action ever to have been heard in Britain and during the case he was described as “an inherently unreliable witness”.
In a separate case in January 2013, Mr Berezovsky former lover and mother of two of his six children, Elena Gorbunova, won a £200 million freezing order on his assets.
Aside from this, the political exile and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was subjected to a number of assassination attempts. A 1994 car bomb decapitated Berezovsky’s chauffeur and after a hitman had been sent to kill him in 2007, he alleged that security sources had told him:
“Someone you know will come to Britain, he will try to connect to you and when you meet him, he will just kill you and will not try to hide”.
Whether Mr Berezovsky died of natural causes, committed suicide or was killed unlawfully remains to be revealed. Whatever transpires, this turn of events marks a most tragic end for this most colourful of oligarchs.
Michael Benjamin pays a visit to Marylebone tea shop, Amanzi
Try walking into Starbucks and just asking for a cup of coffee. It is now an old joke. The pun is that whereas you used to be able to go to a café and order a cup of coffee, you now have to have to specify whether you want a latte, a cappuccino, a filter coffee, or no doubt a host of other varieties. Moreover, you must specify the size of cup and the type of milk, if any, you desire.
This has not yet happened to tea. Ask for a cup of tea and the response will be: “Do you take milk or sugar?” Tea has not progressed very far. Sure, a café might have green tea or peppermint tea, but there is not much point in asking if they have any green dragon pearls, or white peony because they won’t. Speciality teas are largely the preserve of luxury hotels.
This could change if Amanzi, a new teashop in Marylebone, have their way. They have a bewildering selection of loose-leaf tea. From Assam, genmaicha, lavender chamomile, various types of rooibos, through to a selection of kids’ teas with names such as “Tutti Fruity” and “Coco Loco.” And then there are tea based non-alcoholic cocktails such as “lychee mar-tea-ni,” smoothies, tea based frappes and something they call “bubble tea”. Don’t ask – just go and try one!
A complaint I have with the way tea is served in some establishments is that the cups are thick china more suited to drinking coffee. My ideal choice for tea is a more dainty bone china cup. Amanzi have struck a reasonable balance and gone for a sturdy glass, but one with a handle, which makes a perfectly pleasant drinking experience. Another thing that they seem to get wrong virtually everywhere but luxury hotels is the temperature of the water. I am appalled at how often green tea is served with boiling water. Amanzi do not make that mistake: they serve it correctly at 82 degrees.
The company charge £1.85 for a regular cup and £2.00 for a large cup, but some teas, including my personal favourite of silver needle, have a 50 pence premium. This is not too dissimilar in price to Starbucks, but the tea choice is vastly superior.
If there was one disappointment, I thought their pastry and cake selection somewhat expensive and not the most appetising. However, I am informed that is set to change. I certainly hope so.
Amanzi is an American chain of teashops. The owners of the company have big plans. While they currently have just one shop in the UK, they envisage an initial ten and then even more. They also want a wholesale tea business and to develop a fully functioning UK website. Neil Sanyal, who works with the owner of the business, David Elghanayan as head of operations, mentioned that a different American teashop chain, Teavana, with 300 locations, recently sold out for $620 million. It is clear what he has in mind for Amanzi.
I have no idea whether they will be successful. What I do know is that I am now back at home drinking some of the company’s lychee pomegranate green tea and that it tastes rather good.
Amanzi, 24 New Cavendish Street, London, W1. Website: http://www.amanzitea.co.uk
Follow Amazi Tea on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/amanzitealondon
ASmallWorld gets even more small minded
When it started in the same month in 2004 as Facebook, the social network ASmallWorld was ahead of the game. Founded by Erik Wachtmeister with the help of such people as Rob Hersov, it fast found favour with the so-called “elite” of London, New York and Paris. It was a place where people made fun of one another but also a place where people trusted the advice they were given.
Such esteemed (and not so esteemed) people as Michael Ezra, Uri Schneider, Emma Gibbs (now Farah), Emma Louise Hill (now West), D’Arcy Wyvill, Anthony Mamo, Timmy Grech, William Aitken, Emma Rogers, David Reuben Jr, Jakob Eltz, Payam Ghamsari, Gabriele von Lutzau, the Ceveli sisters and Antonine Sorice quickly became the flavor of the site’s forums and others such as a woman who wore sunglasses and furs in all seasons [who since has demanded her name be removed otherwise she’ll report us to the police] talked about camels, chocolate and basements. A man named Eddy Chabli even went so far as to recount an encounter with “The Donald” (Trump) and much to the mirth of the membership was met with only: “Just have another glass… [of Chablis]”.
The likes of Robert Bell hosted parties in honour of the website and at some oddballs turned up. I remember an “up the skirt” photographer harassing my friend Kerri Moss (now Beaumont) at one but we laughed like drains the day after.
ASmallWorld, in fact, to the majority of the membership back then, was just another link in our already interlinked worlds. Then, with new ownership, as one could only expect, it went south. In came people who talked about what to do about the prostitutes who frequented the corridors of the buildings where they lived (I do not make this up) and a man named, if I recall correctly, Bruno, who worried about which private aviation firm would be able to let his dog aboard. Bruno later asked if anyone wanted to share his “ride” with him. I suspect this freak deservedly flew solo.
Friends renamed ASmallWorld “the small minded world” and we all turned off. I was, therefore, as someone who’d quit several years ago, surprised to receive the following yesterday:
Dear Valued Member
Trust is important to us. How important? Well, as part of our ongoing efforts to protect the integrity of our membership, we have decided to terminate the accounts of anyone who undermines the unique spirit of openness that serves as the cornerstone of ASW—and sets our community apart. Obviously you are not one of those people! You’re receiving this email because we value your contributions to the community, and we hope you always feel comfortable here at ASW, online and off. The reality is simply that our growth has inadvertently allowed certain members to degrade this trust, and those are the people we’re exiling, effective immediately. It is our hope that this will help you feel even more at ease in sharing your life with the rest of the ASW community.
Warm Regards and Happy Travels,
The ASW Team
P.S. Should you wish to review the conduct expected of an ASW member, feel free to read our rules. In the event that you feel a member is in clear violation of our Rules, please email [email protected].
The team at ASW have not only lost the battle to Facebook, they’ve lost the plot. Not only is their grammar appalling and not only is their use of capital letters awful, they have yet again illustrated all that is wrong about their “world”.
It’s simply time for another world. Next!
This witty Northern comedian began his career as deputy headmaster at Caton Primary School in Lancashire. Best known as the host of Bullseye between 1981 and 1985, Bowen’s back in the limelight as many suggest he’s a lookalike of the new Pope. His BBC Radio Lancashire show was axed in 1999 after he referred to a guest as a “nig-nog” and in 2003 he launched a stand-up comedy DVD named You Can’t Tell These Anymore. Nothing, however, will ever “Beat a Bit of Bully!”
Her Evening Standard editor father was known as “Chilly Charlie” and she’s become “Nuclear Wintour”. This New York based Brit states that she’s “lost count” of the number of times she’s been attacked by activists and once retaliated by sending anti-fur campaigners a plate of roast beef when they picketed her Condé Nast offices. In her youth, Wintour went to parties with the Daily Mail’s Nigel Dempster, dated older men and set her stall out clearly in the remark: “You either know fashion, or you don’t”. Now, this divorced trendsetter has morphed into a grande dame and hidden behind her sunglasses and a pageboy bob, this powerhouse of fashion truly does deserve the title: “Unofficial Mayoress of New York”. The Devil Wears Prada may have indeed been based on her, but the reality is far more salacious.
In 2013, this Danish-British former Liberal Democrat author and presenter stated: “The Duchess of Cambridge lacks a single [relevant] opinion”. The nation were far from impressed. “Toxic Toksvig”, as some refer to her, is a Cambridge educated lesbian and mother of three whose works number Hitler’s Canary and Heroines & Harridans. She started her career on the appropriately named Motormouth and once stated: “When I see comedian – and ‘comedienne’, of course I hate it – I think ‘Oh, really?’ because I think of myself as a writer and broadcaster”. Miaow!
Social yet serious, this talented Cambridge graduate is now the UK youth advisor for the World Council of Peoples for the United Nations in the UK. (more…)