ED’S LETTERS
Dear readers
Spring is in the air and I am going to talk about love. I’m not sure if it’s possible to truly love many people in this life and, personally, I’ve only loved once. I had to travel thousands of miles across the globe to find him, and when I did, it turned out that he was a surfer.
I, as it also turned out, was not. Which is why I seized the chance to head to Lanzarote for some winter sun and to check out the breaks that make it “The Hawaii of Europe” (see page 46). And no, Lanzarote is not grotty – it just rhymes really well. This beautiful island is actually a sci-fi lunar landscape, with volcanoes and wild beaches, where the monstrous waves charge in off the Atlantic like gladiators.
No, I didn’t catch any big wave barrels. Yes, I did swallow a lot of sea water. And maybe, my surfer might find me again this year. Fingers crossed!
Lucille x (E-mail me at lucille.howe@ink-publishing.com)
CONTRIBUTORS
Damon Syson writes about celebrities, lifestyle and relationships for Marie Claire, Red, and The Mail on Sunday. He…
Was “resident bloke” on a women’s magazine, where he was raffled off at 50p a ticket.
Did astronaut training with Richard Branson.
Was 18th man on the BMW Oracle yacht during an America’s Cup race.
Cormac Bakewell is JetAway’s subeditor. He is also writes regularly for the magazine and works as a freelance sub on various publications.
He…
Appeared on University Challenge and punk’d Jeremy Paxman in the green room (No Jezza, they haven’t put up a blue plaque outside your old flat in Belfast).
Was strip searched on his way into Guernsey.
Would like to point out that “genius” is not an adjective.
Javi Muñoz helped photograph our Lanzarote feature for this issue. He has spent seven years photographing surf stories for international publications, including Surfing, Transworld and Surf Europe.
He…
Screams like a child if he sees a wasp, but can jump from a 50m crane attached to a rubber rope.
Has been collecting surf magazines for more than 20 years.
Lives in Spain’s Basque Country and it takes less time for him to swim across the border into France than drive.
7 in the Spotlight
Last minute news for chatterboxes who like to know the goss
1. Surf ’n’ Snooze
This boutique bolthole in Lanzarote is definitely a step up from your typical surfer’s crash pad. Finca Malvasia offers an “Aspiring Surfer” seven-day break, with five days’ tuition, lasting from 10.30am until 4pm. The accommodation includes a swimming pool that overlooks a volcano, hammocks, a yoga outhouse, and the option of a home-made tagine waiting for you after a hard day spent on the waves. Rad pad!
+34 9281 73460 | www.FINCAMALVASIA.COM
2. Dita Goes Crazy
From 1 until 15 February, Burlesque Star, Dita Von Teese, flies over her corsets and stockings to the Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris for a fortnight run. She’ll be performing four numbers – including the saucy Le Bain bathtub routine – in costumes by designers that include Dior and Christian Louboutin.
“Some people say what I do isn’t very liberating,” coos the raven-haired pin-up. “I say it’s pretty liberating to get $20,000 for 10 minutes’ work.” Quite right Dita.
Exclusive! In a chat with JetAway from her home in LA she told us:
“I think it’s crazy that a risque cabaret that has been open since 1951 has been visited by SO many prominent figures,…Marilyn Monroe, Salvador Dali, Gypsy Rose Lee, John F. Kennedy…
“If you came to Paris and were in the know, you came to see the ‘art of the nude’ at The Crazy Horse. It’s the most elegant and refined show of it’s kind, and is the source of much inspiration in modern entertainment. These girls are not just extremely talented professional dancers, but they are also breathtakingly beautiful, and have the same kind of mystique and allure that first brought so much attention to The Crazy Horse.
“It’s fabulous to be living out my dream of being a showgirl in Paris, and coming out the theatre after rehearsals and onto the fabulous Georges V!”
+33 (0)1 4723 3232 | www.LECRAZYHORSEPARIS.COM
3. Swap Shop
Okay, here’s a sobering stat: women in the UK spend £6 billion every year on clothes that they end up never wearing. Leeds-based company bigwardrobe.com works on the principle that one woman’s trash is another’s treasure, and lets you swap your unwanted impulse buys (metallic leggings anyone?) for stuff you do like. With 10,000 members that’s 10,000 wardrobes to raid – and it’s free to join. Take that, credit crunch!
4. Love Letters
If all you can think of to give your best girl on Valentine’s Day is a box of Ferrero Rocher and a bunch of garage carnations, then, for your own sake, please STEP AWAY from the Texaco forecourt.
Jonny’s Sister is a Dorset-based company that specialises in letter-shaped cushions. For £65 a pop they will make bespoke initials for your double bed in luxury Irish linen or Scottish Merino lambswool. It’s so much more romantic than putting a “Kev and Shaz” sticker along the top of your Cortina windscreen.
01935 873186 | www.JONNYSSISTER.CO.UK
5. “I (Still) Do”
Despite hard times affecting the old cash flow (if we hear the phrase “economic downturn” one more time!) British stags and hens are still donning their Superman underpants and angel wings to see their mates off to marital bliss in style. Josey Walker, managing director of Stag Republic, says: “People may be making cutbacks, but they are saving for their weekends away.”
Walker admits that the size of the average group has fallen from 13 to 12, and that they’re more likely to stay in basic hotels, but he says they’re also booking heaps more activities, like pistol shooting and quad-biking.
One more reason to get hitched, we say.
0800 027 4836 | www.STAGREPUBLIC.CO.UK
6. Material Girls
From 21 February until 22 March you can check out a quarter century’s worth of old clobber from Madge’s own walk-in wardrobe. The Simply Madonna exhibition at the Truman Brewery in east London includes 300 of her personal treasures, from the pink Material Girl dress, to the black and gold bustier from Open Your Heart. Put on your leggings and fingerless lace gloves and get down there to relive the glory days, when you used to copy her dance routines with your best mate.
0800 027 4836 | www.STAGREPUBLIC.CO.UK
7. House of Fun
Hawke and Hunter is the new kid on Edinburgh’s social block. This Georgian townhouse is a late-night bar, restaurant and boutique hotel rolled into one. There’s a Disklavier (self-playing piano), when a bit too much whisky has rendered you incapable of tickling the ivories yourself, and a secret garden if you want to find a discreet corner for getting up to some mischief. Gothic but contemporary, this is the place to go for a long night of merriment. Hunt it down… before the rest of Scotland beats you to it.
0131 557 0952 | www.HAWKEANDHUNTER.COM
Northern Exposure
The best shows near you. What a performance!
TEXT CORMAC BAKEWELL
LIVING DOLLS
5 FEBRUARY
Don’t Cha wish you indulged in your guilty pleasures a bit more often? Grab a teenage sister/cousin (if you don’t have a female relative in that age bracket, you can always adopt one for the night), backcomb your hair, put on some glitter make-up, and get down with your inner adolescent at the Pussycat Dolls’ spectacular live show in the Sheffield Arena. As befits a group that started life as a burlesque dance troupe, you can expect some pretty nifty footwork, raunchy routines, and lightning costume changes (not that they wear much anyway). Oh, and they sing a bit as well – or at least a couple of them do, and the other three are very good at holding their microphones in a convincing manner. Nicole and her pals (bet you can’t name another one!) will also be playing dates in Liverpool and Belfast as part of their Doll Domination tour.
CIRQUE DU SO FAB
26 FEB–1 MARCH
In these hard-bitten, cynical times, it’s good to re awaken your child-like sense of wonder. Cirque du Soleil are masters of the kind of dazzling spectacle that leaves adults wide-eyed and shouting for more – like five-year-olds at an all-you-can-eat dessert bar. Following the circus folk of old, they are taking their show on the road, stopping off at the Echo Arena in Liverpool for four days with Quidam, a production which follows the figure of a young girl through a fantasy world that is both thrilling and unsettling. Many of the acts are based around familiar props, like trapeze, diabolos and even skipping ropes, but rarely have these been used with such originality and grace. High points include a contortionist couple who twist around each other to form seemingly impossible shapes, and the acrobatic finale, when half the cast seems to be airborne simultaneously. For those not on Merseyside, the website has details of dates in other venues.
LET’S ROCK!
FROM 20 MARCH
It’s been running in London’s West End for seven years, and has opened productions in places as far flung as Tokyo, Sydney and Cape Town, but We Will Rock You – the jukebox musical featuring 32 of Queen’s rocking-outest hits – has never been seen in the North. Until now, that is. Ben Elton’s tongue-in-cheek storyline certainly manages to pack the songs in, but any resemblance to Mamma Mia! ends there. It’s set in a future where the Globalsoft Corporation (run by a Killer Queen) controls everything from fashion to movies, everyone looks the same, and all the kids listen to Radio Ga Ga. But our hero, Galileo, sassy rock chick Scara mouche, and an assorted band of Bohemians, have other ideas. You’re probably beginning to get the picture. Shakespeare it ain’t but, as the six million tickets sold worldwide suggest, it’s a sure-fire crowd-pleaser. The 12-week run at the Palace Theatre in Manchester ends on 6 June.
Let’s get physical
Time to put your relationship through its paces
LEARN YOGA
STRETCH OUT IN EGYPT
When you’re doing Sun Salutations it’s nice to have some actual sun to salute, so if you’re interested in learning yoga at this time of the year you need to choose your destination carefully. Fortunately, perpetual summer is within easy reach now that Jet2.com is offering regular flights to Sharm el Sheikh. Yogatravel organ-ises eight-day holidays based in nearby Dahab, which cater for all levels of ability – even stiff-limbed types who don’t know their Cat position from their Downward Facing Dog. The programme takes full advantage of its location, with yoga sessions being held in the eerie stillness of the desert and on the majestic Mount Sinai. Other activities include horse-riding, dinner with the Bedouin, a visit to a Turkish bath, and scuba diving in the teeming waters of the Red Sea. You’ll come home in harmony with the universe – and each other.
LEARN TO CLIMB
A BALL AND CHAIN CAN BE A HANDY COUNTERWEIGHT
Does your partner really trust you? One way to find out is to invite them to clamber up a sheer cliff while you stay on the ground, holding a rope which is the only thing between them and eternity if they slip and fall off. If they don’t sound too keen then you can tell them it’s actually a technique called belaying and it’s a key part of modern rock-climbing practice. You can both learn this, and all the other rope work, knots, movements and terminology you’ll need to tackle rock faces safely, in the rugged Andalucian hills to the north of Malaga. The Fast Track into Rock Climbing course is taught by Silvia Fitzpatrick – a qualified instructor with over 22 years of high-level climbing experience – and because the maximum class size is two you won’t have to wait around watching while other people take their turn. But the real question is, how happy will you be on the other end of the rope?
LEARN TO RIDE
CYCLE OFF TOGETHER INTO THE SUNSET
When it comes to getting down and dirty in the great outdoors, there’s (almost!) nothing better than mucking about on a mountain bike. If you’re not convinced – or you’ve barely been on two wheels since daddy took your stabilisers off – Saddle Skedaddle organises a range of cycling holidays around the world. The jungles of Borneo and the Atlas Mountains of Morocco might sound a bit challenging to start off with, so you can build up your confidence a bit closer to home on one of their beginners’ weekends in the Peak and Lake Districts. This really is mountain biking made easy – they’ll pick you up from the train, rent you a bike, provide you with energy-boosting snacks, and, if your legs get a bit tired, they’ll even let you ride along in the support vehicle. But more importantly you’ll get plenty of fresh air and see some of the loveliest sights the north of England has to offer.
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