Table talk
View's great, but the aura's a bit dodgy…
Seems like the owners of the Harbour Plaza in Hong Kong forgot the old mantra of location, location, location when they built their gleaming 33-storey, glass-walled hotel.
The property stands next to the Hong Kong Funeral Home and its futuristic design meant that some guests had a view directly into the funeral parlour. The hotel owners have now erected a large advertising hoarding between themselves and the parlour, but deny it has anything to do with blocking out the unpleasant view. One local feng shui expert, however, has backed the move. "It's common sense," he told the South China Morning Post. "Collective grief emitting from mourners can form a strong electromagnetic field that undesirably affects the brain waves of individuals in the area."
Keating's eating e-thing
Ronan Keating, lead singer of Irish pop band Boyzone, is planning to set up an on-line guide to restaurants and bars, according to London's Evening Standard. The teen idol has been keeping a dossier of his views on various eateries and watering holes that he has visited during a punishing international schedule and plans to pull them together on a new Web site. Let's hope Egon Ronay doesn't decide to launch a singing career.
And you can park it anywhere
Curry-house boss Bobby Sodhi is turning heads in Nottingham because he drives home from his restaurant, the Jewel of India, in a tank. He bought his new 20-tonne Abbot from the Ministry of Defence for £60,000 after he became bored with his Mercedes, but he is not, as you might infer, a military enthusiast. His reasons for buying the vehicle are far more prosaic: "it was attractive because of the low mileage," he said mildly.
Other than that, we had a great time
Connoisseurs of guest complaints might spare a thought for the hotel manager facing the allegation that the "corridor leading to the conference suite smelled of vomit". Another in the list of gripes of the season compiled by booking agency Banks Sadler was that "the beds were made with already used sheets". Delightful.
They're cattle markets, those places
Hotels seem to paying increasing attention to dogs nowadays, not least the Le Montrose Suite in (where else) Hollywood, USA, which offers not just dog massage and aromatherapy, but also a "quadruped community centre" where single dogs will be able to interact. Sounds like a canine knocking-shop to me.
Leeds in the Springtime? The Merchant of Leeds?
No doubt Leeds has much to recommend it, but a recent press release about a new development in the city leaves little room for understatement. Even by the standards of the most enthusiastic publicity, the information on the new Brewery Wharf development is a bold effort. "Think Paris. Think Venice. Think Leeds," it urges us grandly. Sorry chaps, think not.
Quizzers of Oz
E-mail - don't ya just love it? Especially how it fills up your in-box with junk rather than work. The latest doing the rounds is a set of apparently genuine questions sent to the Sydney Olympics information Web site. Unfortunately some of the most embarrassing come from the UK. "Can I bring cutlery into Australia?" is pretty good, but my personal favourite is: "Is milk available all year round?"
