Fancy a vast loft in a prime spot, at a knockdown rent? One couple got just that by becoming property guardians – but they had to give up a few home comforts When Sam Adams and Valerie Blair moved into a semi-derelict warehouse on the top floor of a former clothing factory, the windows were boarded up, pigeon poo caked the floor and it was bitterly cold. Instead of a number, it said “Stalbow Fashions” on the door. “It was in pretty raw state,” says Adams, 33, an artist. The couple scrubbed and painted the floor and walls, and vacuumed up a
Continue reading …Silvio Berlusconi has signed off on a measure that would allow defendants to sue judges and prosecutors for their mistakes, a move critics are calling an act of revenge on a legal system the prime minister has long tangled with, the Guardian reports. Italy’s national magistrates’ association released a statement…
Continue reading …For years, Japan’s scientists have been expecting a giant earthquake, pinpointing its location along a fault line southwest of Tokyo—but today’s disaster defied their forecasts. The country’s biggest earthquake occurred 231 miles northeast of the capital along a different fault, the Washington Post reports. Scientists had gone so far…
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Easter and the royal wedding bank holiday mean an 11-day holiday is possible with just three days off work. From Cornwall to the Caribbean, we pick great ways to make the most of it Thanks to a late Easter, the extra royal wedding bank holiday on 29 April and May Day all falling in neat succession, many Brits can take an 11-day break – from Good Friday (22 April) to Monday 2 May – by only taking three days off work. So how best to use them? We’ve shopped around for cheap flights and late deals so you can make the most of the bank holiday bonanza. And we’ve thrown in some shorter breaks and trips in the school holidays too. INDEPENDENT TRIPS Food and fun, Marseille Marseille is perhaps the least French of French cities, with its North African culture and cuisine mixing with the traditional. By day you can explore art galleries, the food markets and the old port, then take a boat trip out to the beaches of the Iles du Frioul. Le Souk (98 quai du Port) does tajines well, or to experience modern Marseille’s foodie scene, try Le Moment on place Sadi Carnot (+33 4 9152 4749, lemoment-marseille.com ), and don’t miss the 1950s-style Le Crystal bar on the Vieux Port. The New Hotel of Marseille (+33 4 9131 5315, new-hotel.com ) is a funky design hotel with rooms available over Easter from €135 a night. Fly from Gatwick on Sunday 24 April for £72, returning Saturday 30 April for £68 (£140 total) with Easyjet ( easyjet.com ). Family beach boutique, Algarve Sagres in the Algarve is a lively town with excellent fish restaurants, near several pretty beaches, some of which (Praia do Tonel) are good for surfing. Lovely hotel Memmo Baleeira (+351 282 624212, memmohotels.com ) still has availability. Here minimalism meets pop art, and there are fantastic sea views. There’s a pool too, and a spa. A seven-night stay in its duplex suite from 19-26 April costs £1,120 B&B (£280 per person) based on four sharing through i-escape.com . Fly to Faro with Ryanair ( ryanair.com ) or Easyjet ( easyjet.com ) from Stansted from about £124pp, or from Glasgow, Bournemouth, East Midlands or Gatwick for the same or less. Clubbing and kayaking, Estonia If you’re looking for an unusual adventure that won’t cost the earth, try Estonia. Fly to Tallinn for a day or two exploring the pretty turreted Old Town, interesting nightlife and perhaps stay in Olevi Residence (+372 6 277650, olevi.ee ), in a 14th-century building in the Old Town, which offers three nights for around €165 for two people. Then drive out to Soomaa national park, known as the “Land of Bogs” (it’s a far more magical place than the name would suggest). There you can hire a traditional dugout canoe to explore, or go horse-riding, cycling or hiking. Eight nights’ half-board at Põnka Puhketalu (+372 52 26 909, ponkaland.com ), an Estonian farmhouse close to the park, costs from £204pp. Ryanair ( ryanair.com ) flights to Tallinn from Luton, departing on 22 April and returning on 1 May, currently cost about £160. Beachside bliss, Brazil Now that the carnival is over, Brazil is all about blissed-out relaxation, and nowhere offers it like Bahia, on the north-eastern coast, land of beaches and bars. Hotel Anima is a simple but stylish retreat on the island of Tinharé, right by a palm-fringed beach, with pool and sundeck. A nine-night stay with breakfast from 22 April–2 May costs £426pp, based on two sharing through i-escape.com . Fly with TAP ( flytap.com ) from Heathrow to Salvador, currently around £900 return. Then from Salvador port it’s a two-hour boat trip to Morro de Sao Paulo on Tinharé. Orthodox Easter, Rhodes This year Greek Orthodox Easter coincides with Christian Easter, on 24 April. At this time there will be many ceremonies and events: the locals will eat tsoureki – sweet braided bread, and spit-roasted lamb, and there will be parties and boiled egg-fight games. There are lots of characterful hotels in Rhodes Town, or head slightly out of town to the K Boutique Hotel (+30 22 410 96980, kboutiquehotel.com ), which has a candlelit pool, outdoor pool and spa, and still has availability, with doubles from €810 for eight nights. Fly on Ryanair’s ( ryanair.com ) new route from London to Rhodes, currently £77pp one way departing Thursday 21 or Saturday 23 April, returning for £67pp on Thursday 28 or Saturday 30 April, (£144 total). Flights from Liverpool (on Mondays and Thursdays only) cost about £112 return. Culture and adventure, Bulgaria There’s a lot more to Bulgaria than low prices. The capital city, Sofia, has a fascinating history as an arts and crafts centre. Invading Ottomans filled it with stunning mosques, fountains and hammams, and there is plenty to entertain a city-breaker on a budget. After seeing the churches and museums, take a day trip to the Iskar Gorge for a picnic before clambering over rocks and into caves; another day hike Vitosha mountain, then look around Bankya, a small city below Lyulin mountain, famous for its natural spa. The luxurious Kempinski Hotel Zografski ( kempinski.com ) has four restaurants and a spa, and rooms from €55 a night during the Easter period. Fly from London with Easyjet ( easyjet.com ) on Saturday 23 April for £87 one way (or Sunday 24 for £64) and return on 1 May for £148 (or £116 on Thursday 28 April) so £235pp return. Or from Manchester on Saturday 23 April for £61, returning on Saturday 30 April for £146, so £207 return. Costa del Sol, Spain The south of Spain may be a popular choice, but there are still flights available for Easter. From Malaga you can play it by ear and set off by bus or car to explore the coastal towns such as playboy central Puerto Banus and windsurfers’ favourite Tarifa, then perhaps get the ferry over to Tangier, Morocco, from there. Easyjet ( easyjet.com ) flies from Glasgow to Malaga, departing Friday 22 April for £104pp and returning on Sunday 1 May for £100 (total £204pp return). Or fly from Luton on Friday 22 April for £98 and return on Monday 2 May for £121 (total £218pp return). PACKAGES Simple life, Zakynthos, Greece Limni Keri on the Ionian island of Zakynthos is a small seaside village surrounded by olive groves and vineyards (fact: not all Greek wine is rough!), near a beach and a harbour, where you can arrange boat trips to sea caves and other islands. Here Sunvil Holidays (020-8568 4499, sunvil.co.uk ) has a special deal to the Markella Apartments, set in gardens with a swimming pool, so a 10-night stay departing 21 April costs from £733pp (based on four sharing), including self-catering accommodation, return flights (from Gatwick with Easyjet) and transfers. Bargain beaches, Mallorca A 10-night self-catering trip to Alcudia in Mallorca, with Jet2 Holidays (0800 408 5599, jet2holidays.com ), costs £367pp departing from Leeds Bradford on 22 April, and staying in an apartment at the three-star BelleVue Club, with eight pools to choose from. The BelleVue Club is 10 minutes from the historic town centre, with its ruins and markets. The long sandy beach is 800m away. Boat trips can be arranged to Formentor for snorkelling and great
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Hold on, don’t chuck out your chip pan just yet. Every so often, it’s the only thing that will hit the spot Fried food has had a bad rap. To hear some, you’d think the frying pan was the source of all earthly evils – or at least dietary problems. And if you can get past that, there are those who fear they can’t rustle up a plate of chips without setting fire to the house. Today, I’m flying in the face of fears and fashion – and giving you my favourite deep-fried treats. I don’t advocate you eat them every day, but once in a while the lure of a crisp, golden coating is too strong to resist. You don’t need a deep-fat fryer, just a large, deep saucepan and a frying basket or a “spider” spatula (the type that has a wide, flattish basket at the end). A cooking thermometer would be handy, too, but if you don’t have one, there’s a simple temperature test – a cube of white bread browns in 60 seconds at 160C, 40 seconds at 180C and 20 seconds at 190C. And just in case, check the batteries in your smoke detector. When it comes to selecting oils, a high smoke point is what you want. No extra-virgin – it’s too delicate, and burns. Most of the time I use sunflower or groundnut, though rapeseed works well for croquetas. Before starting, make sure the oil doesn’t come more than a third of the way up the sides of the pan – adding moist food to hot oil makes it bubble fiercely, so give it room. And fry in small batches – throwing in too much at once makes the temperature drop dramatically so the food absorbs too much oil and becomes soggy. And we’re not interested in soggy. Crisp is what we’re after. Here, have a chip… Churros Dusting the churros with a little cinnamon as well as sugar isn’t strictly traditional, but it does taste good. Serve your churros with cups of hot chocolate thickened with a little cornflour. Serves four. 120g butter A pinch of salt 130g plain flour, sifted ½ tsp baking powder 3 eggs, lightly beaten Vegetable oil, for frying 4 tbsp caster sugar ¼ tsp ground cinnamon (optional) To make the dough, put 250ml water, the butter and salt into a
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Slowing down is the easiest way to cut your petrol bill, and coupled with some simple techniques you could save hundreds There’s a very simple way to save money on petrol: slow down. A car speeding at 80mph uses 10% more fuel than one cruising at 70mph, according to the Department for Transport. This week, Spain introduced a 110km per hour (68mph) limit on its motorways as part of a series of measures designed to cut petrol consumption in the country by more than 5%. Yet Britain seems to be heading in the opposite direction, with transport secretary Philip Hammond suggesting recently that our speed limit could be raised to 80mph to put the economy in the fast lane. But while Clarkson-ite petrolheads might cheer a rise in speed limits, in practice British drivers are already taking their foot off the pedal to save cash. Of 15,000 drivers who took part in a recent AA survey, 59% said they would think about slowing down if it saved them money. During the last petrol price spike in 2008, average speeds on British motorways fell to 69mph from 70mph the year before, while the number exceeding the limit by more than 10mph fell even more. But once petrol prices eased back again, average speeds rose. But you can drive at the same speed and still save on petrol by sticking to a few simple techniques, according to automotive engineer Anthony Sale of Powertrain. • Avoid over-revving Drivers typically let the revs run to 3,000 per minute on a petrol car and 2,500 on a diesel before moving up a gear, but Sale says we should be changing up when we hit 2,500 revs on a petrol and 2,000 on a diesel, and move into fifth (and sixth on new models) at the appropriate point. Your engine may not sound as if it is labouring, but in reality speeds above 75mph-80mph are when your engine starts glugging gas. “At very high speeds engines will rev higher, the engine will have to work much harder and it will start to drink far more petrol,” Sale says. In general, the economical band for petrol vehicles is between 1,500 and 2,500 rpm (for diesels it is between 1,300 rpm and 2,000 rpm), and these bands are the same for the vast majority of vehicles, Sale says. “The exception to the rules are vehicles which have either a very high or a very low power to weight ratio. If the engine has a lot of power but very little weight (for example, the 1.6l Mini diesel) then the revs can be kept closer to 1,600 or 1,700 rpm rather than going right to 2,000 rpm. Equally, if a low-powered engine is fitted to a heavy vehicle then it is likely that the engine will have to work much harder to move the mass of vehicle along, hence the need to rev the engine higher than the 2,500rpm top end of the band. “It is important to remember that at whatever point you change gear you don’t want the engine to labour as you tread back in.” • Acceleration and deceleration “Stamping on the brakes and then accelerating hard is efficient driving’s worst enemy. An efficient driver is a smooth driver,” Sale says. If you have cruise control, try to use it whenever appropriate.” There are times when you can cut your fuel usage to zero: by cruising in gear as you slow down to a junction or roundabout. Many drivers occasionally put the car into neutral and let it coast as it slows, which is a no-no. “Lifting off the throttle, rather than putting it in neutral, means you will use no fuel at all,” Sale says. It’s safer, too. • Speed bumps Braking hard, accelerating, then braking hard for the next speed bump means you drink petrol, Sale warns. Drive along speed-humped roads at a steady 15mph-20mph instead. • Tyres Over time, tyres will naturally leak a bit of air. The RAC says you can improve fuel consumption by up to 2% if you regularly check and maintain pressures. It’s safer, too: dozens of people a year die due to poorly-inflated tyres. • Roof racks A report by car manual maker Haynes says get rid of the rack – fully loaded it can add 30% to fuel consumption. But AutoExpress says that’s a myth. Its test found that those with aerodynamic designs added little to the fuel bill. But reducing weight – for instance by clearing unnecessary items from the boot – will definitely make a difference, albeit small, to fuel consumption. • Air con v open windows At low speeds, such as driving around town, air conditioning can add 5%-7% to fuel costs, Sale says, so just wind the window down. At higher speeds the effects are less noticeable. • Radio/CD player In a survey by BP, 10% of drivers thought that turning off the radio improved fuel consumption. It doesn’t. • Engine size Don’t assume smaller engines use less petrol. A big car with a 2l engine may use less than the same car with a 1.6l engine as it strains to pull a larger weight. On test, a people carrier with a small engine recorded worse fuel efficiency than one with a bigger engine. • Petrol v diesel In general diesels will use less fuel, but as they typically cost more to buy the savings aren’t always obvious. The Environmental Transport Association has a calculator on its website which gives you an indication of the costs of running on diesel, petrol, biodiesel, electric battery or fuel cells. Sale says: “I’ve driven diesels with dreadful fuel efficiency, and petrol cars that have excellent fuel efficiency.” • Learning to drive more smartly The AA Driving School offers a Drive Smart deal for already qualified drivers wanting to cut petrol consumption. It consists of a minimum of two hours of in-car lessons, and the AA says “pupils have typically been able to cut 10% from their fuel consumption (equating to savings of £160 a year based on today’s petrol price).” Motoring Petrol prices Saving money Family finances Consumer affairs Patrick Collinson guardian.co.uk
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From the domesticated drawings of the 18th century to Disney animation, the story of illustrated versions of the Arabian Nights is one of the slow triumph of the imagination A lady on a divan telling stories to a turbaned sultan; men with scimitars running down a dark and narrow street; a jinni issuing like a vast dark cloud from a flask; a prince in a pavilion guarded by lions; a veiled lady at the entrance to a shop; a young man on a flying carpet circling over a domed palace; a man clinging to driftwood in a stormy sea . . . These days, thanks to illustrated children’s books, comics, films and video games, people are much more likely to have a sense of what the world of The Arabian Nights should look like than to have actual knowledge of the stories themselves. It was not always so. The first edition of The Arabian Nights had no pictures, and even when, in the late 18th century, fully illustrated editions began to be published, their illustrations gave little sense of the exotic medieval Arab environment in which the stories were set. Only from the 19th century onwards did some illustrators try to get Arab buildings and costumes right. In 1701 the orientalist and antiquarian Antoine Galland published a translation from Arabic into French of “The Voyages of Sindbad”. The translation was well received and since Galland had been told that “The Voyages of Sindbad” were part of a much larger collection of stories known as Alf Layla wa Layla , or “The Thousand and One Nights”, he located a three or four-volume manuscript of this work and set about translating it. His translation, published in 12 volumes in the years 1704-17 was a raging success. His Les mille et une nuit was not received as a collection of children’s stories (nor should it be). On the contrary, it was read and enthused over by courtiers and intellectuals in Versailles and Paris, and Versailles and Paris set the fashions for the rest of Europe. So translations of Galland into English, Italian, Russian and other languages soon followed. Montesquieu, Voltaire, Addison, Johnson and Goethe were among the 18th-century writers whose work was heavily influenced by the Nights . The Nights had a crucial role in shaping the origins and evolution not just of fantasy literature, but also of the realistic novel. Copyright was not policed in the 18th century and books that were successful were almost invariably reissued in pirate editions. Between 1714 and 1730 a series of pirate editions of Galland’s translation were printed in the Hague. Each of the 12 volumes had a frontispiece by David Coster, a Dutch artist. Since Coster had no notion of the medieval Islamic world as something alien and strange, his engravings depicted the characters in the stories in European dress. King Shahriyar looks very comfortable in his western-style four-poster bed as he sits up listening to stories told by Sheherazade. The only concession to the exotic is that he has a loosely tied turban as an item of nightwear. The relatives of Gulanar the Mermaid are welcomed into what looks like a French palace and the genie summoned up by Aladdin is merely a very large man in a tattered robe. Artists who came after Coster in the 18th century shared his vagueness about the exotic. The preferred strategy was to dress the men in vaguely classical togas and plonk turbans on their heads, while the women were given dresses that would not have been out of place in Versailles. In Charles-Joseph de Mayer’s collection of fairy tales, the engraver Pierre-Clément Marillier portrayed King Shahriyar and his brother Shahzaman in bosky French countryside, while his version of the encounter of the third dervish with the 40 young women looks like nothing so much as a scene from Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress . Robert Smirke’s histrionic scenes from the Nights have the appearance of being based on pantomime performances. Things changed with the publication in 1839-41 of Edward William Lane’s The Thousand and One Nights in three volumes. Unlike earlier English translators, Lane, who had spent years in Egypt, translated not from Galland’s French, but directly from the Arabic. Lane intended his translation to have an improving, didactic purpose and he seems to have thought of it as a kind of supplement to his pioneering work of ethnography, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1836). He thought that the stories of the Nights could serve as an introduction to everyday life in the Middle East. (Never mind about the flying horse, the jinn, the Roc, the magic lamp and the Old Man of the Sea.) His copious endnotes furthered his didactic aim and so did the illustrations. William Harvey, a pupil of Thomas Bewick and one of Britain’s leading engravers, did the boxwood engravings, but Lane stood at his shoulder, checking the look of things and providing previously published engravings of Egyptian and Moorish architecture for him to copy. In general, the purpose of the pictures was not to stimulate the imagination or supplement the storyline, but to introduce the British reader to the authentic look of the Arab world. Just occasionally Harvey was licensed to use his imagination, as with his marvellous depiction of the giant jinni in “The Story of the City of Brass”, or the battle of magical transformations in “The Story of the Second Dervish”. Dalziel’s Illustrated Arabian Nights Entertainments , published in 1865, was
Continue reading …Wisconsin’s month-long drama came to a quiet end this morning as Gov. Scott Walker signed into law the bill curbing the power of unions. The bigger fight isn’t over though: Next come expected court challenges and maybe recall elections for the Republicans who pushed the measure through, reports the Milwaukee…
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Once he was the face of the ladmag generation, now he’s coming over all perceptive and vulnerable. Decca Aitkenhead on an unlikely reinvention Frank Skinner gave a talk at an arts festival 18
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Father of soldier who died at barracks calls for public inquiry after new report seen by BBC Police investigating the unresolved deaths of four soldiers at Deepcut barracks failed to follow up potential suspects who could have been responsible for their murder, according to a new report into the deaths. The soldiers died in mysterious circumstances at the Surrey army base between 1995 and 2002 amid reports of systematic bullying from senior officers. Devon and Cornwall police reviewed Surrey police’s investigation and found that the force failed to follow up specific individuals who could have killed the soldiers, according to the report seen by the BBC. The 140-page document said it was impossible to say whether or not the individuals should have been considered suspects or eliminated from inquiries. But the review said that Surrey police failed to investigate a potential suspect known as the “unknown white male” who could have been connected to the death of Private Cheryl James, an 18-year-old who was found dead with a single bullet wound to the head at Deepcut in 1995. “The unknown male should have been subject to a Trace and Interview action,” said the report. “Operation Stanza [the review] believes insufficient investigative work took place to identify this unknown male who could have potentially been a suspect.” The BBC also quotes the Devon and Cornwall review as finding evidence of a “possible mindset” held by individuals leading the original inquiries who thought that the re-investigations were in some way “different”. James’s father, Des James, has now called for a public inquiry, criticising Surrey police for investigating a suicide rather than considering all alternatives. “[The report] simply confirms what we have always believed – that this was a hurried investigation, put together quickly, more to placate public opinion and media attention than to realistically and honestly find out what happened to these young people,” said James. Surrey police denied failures to follow up potential leads. In a statement, representatives told the BBC that the force had had “an open-minded approach” and “considered all hypotheses with equal weight”. Surrey police also pointed out that Devon and Cornwall produced no evidence to say that they missed anything by not following up the suggested leads. The other soldiers who died from gunshot wounds at Deepcut were Private Sean Benton, 20, from Hastings, East Sussex, Private Geoff Gray, 17, of Hackney, east London, and Private James Collinson, 17, of Perth, Scotland. A coroner recorded a verdict of suicide for Benton but the inquests into the other three returned open verdicts. A report by Nicholas Blake QC in 2006 found that bullying and “foul abuse” were a routine part of life at the army’s training barracks at Deepcut, although no evidence of deaths being anything other than self-inflicted was found. Deepcut Police Military Rowenna Davis guardian.co.uk
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