Mr Brilliance, the sushi artist (a bonsai tree behind) at Sora, Mandarin Oriental Tokyo
Every one likes, and needs, recognition – and the gal is no exception. Novelist Peter Tonkin has just published his latest Richard Mariner adventure, Dead Sea.
The acknowledgements include the words: (details from Google Earth) “only rivalled by Mary Gostelow’s Girlahead website which took me into the most exclusive recesses of the Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo, and, through ‘The Gal’s’ experiences, allowed me to learn how to get a PhD in sushi… her adventures became Richard’s” (the hero’s).
It is, in turn, important to thank Christian Hassing, who took me to the luxury hotel’s Sora sushi bar on February 10th this year. Little did we know that our sushi experience would be immortalised on page 112 of Dead Sea.
Sea-urchin sushi – the gal’s cut into two, by Mr Brilliance, for more-delicate female eating
Writing is Peter Tonkin’s hobby. He has just retired from being Head of Law at the Wildernesse School in Sevenoaks, England, where he obviously had time, at weekends and in school holidays, to write a whole shelf of Richard Mariner adventures.
Another guy I have come across this week is Al Gosling, who is into extreme sports. Six years ago he opened a hotel in Cape Town that even had a climbing wall up the outside of the five-floor building.
Now he runs Extreme Sports TV and extreme.com and he is taking extreme to extremes. Extreme clothing, anyone? Actually, looking at the latest fashions they are extreme, as in extremely unattractive.
Blue jeans, ubiquitous for all
I have just been reading an article on business dressing. Put your sleek (is Bodyism already working?) body in a well-cut suit by such a name as Armani, Brioni or Zegna and you even stand better, give off a better air.
Squeeze your flabby kilos into no-name jeans and a sweatshirt and you will never be CEO. The worst of the lot is probably the newest craze for adult baby-gros. The mind boggles.
It is as if Sacha Baron Cohen’s creation, Borat, has come off the movie set and into the high street. But let us think about jeans for a while.
Sociologists – who else – have been studying the wardrobes of three streets in the east part of London. Everyone has at least one pair of blue jeans. None, interestingly, could remember where they had bought them.
Only middle aged men could name the brand, and then only if they are Levi’s. Many of the women surveyed said that when they were going for an evening out they would put on something else, and then retreat to their jeans. Jeans are comfortable, innocuous and yet, at the same time, personalised.
Actually there is one exception. In New York’s SoHo, Scott Morrison personally makes a pair of Bespoke jeans a day. You can go and see him at work in his store, confusingly called ‘3×1’. Admittedly each Bespoke pair costs at least $1,200, depending on the required finish.
The actual style is, however, yours, uniquely (if you want copies, they will cost you under $775 each). Among the many Bespoke fans, I am told, is Jack Dorsey, the Twitter, and now Square, genius.
The trusted Porsche Design Rimowa fits the patterned carpet in room 201, the Beethoven Suite (at the back right is the manuscript-covered stool for the black grand piano)
Jeans are in the list of ten items everyone has, these days. That list also includes, today, a smart phone. Add to that, for women, essential face make-up (Bobbi Brown, thank you again for your Nude eye palette and cheek sculpting).
Some would opt for a professional hair-dryer and several pairs of Blahnik or Louboutin shoes. Add to that, for travelling women, the ultimate wheelie (Rimowa).
And, for all travellers, a list of favourite luxury hotels, which of course is helped by what you read here on GirlAhead – just as Peter Tonkin, the novelist, says, it takes you into the most exclusive recesses…
