Essential Gibraltar September 2013

COMPLIMENTARY EDITION

Dominican Republic

TROPICAL OASIS

Rihanna

CARIBBEAN QUEEN

ISSUE 04 • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2013

CHRISTIAN HOOK ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

STEVEN LINARES

MINISTER OF FUN

THE OCEAN VILLAGE

Experience

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N º04 -SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013

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Please contribute to some of our most well-read sections!

Issue 04 • September/October 2013

S T A F F

THE PRO

PUBLISHER AND DIRECTOR

Have you organised a corporate or cultural event recently? Launched a new product or opened a new office and you want Gibraltar to know?

Send us information and we will consider it for placement in the Pro section.

GENERAL MANAGER

ANDREA BÖJTI sales@essentialmagazine.com

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MARISA CUTILLAS editorial@essentialmagazine.com

GIBRALTAR EDITORIAL PRODUCTION MANAGER

GOURMET

ACCOUNTS EXECUTIVE OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

For new openings, dining events and new products, our popular Food News page is the place to be seen.

Our restaurant listing section will become a reference when you consider dining out, so if your favourite place is not included, please let us know!

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GIBRALTAR PHOTOGRAPHY

Our What’s On section is designed to keep readers up-to-date on forthcoming events including shows, clubs and meetings, either a specific or a reccuring event. If you are an organiser, let us help you get your message across to the whole of Gibraltar!

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The publishers make every effort to ensure that the magazine’s contents are correct, but cannot accept Marbella Magazine cannot accept responsibility for the effects of errors or omissions. responsibility for the claims, goods or services of advertisers.

Marbella Magazine. © Publicaciones Independientes Costa del Sol S.L. for No part of this magazine, including texts, photographs, illustrations, maps or any other graphics may be reproduced in any form without the prior written consent of Publicaciones Independientes Costa del Sol S.L. Printed on recyclable paper, produced without wood and bleached without chlorine.

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contents g

(

The Style

Patricia Darch 62 Décor News: Chapel Parquet 68 Caribbean Fashion Week 70

The Spa

The New Valmont Spa 76 Caribbean Inspired Beauty 78

The Pro The Trend Cinema 12 Home Viewing 14 Books 16 Music 18 Cars: The new Maserati Quattroporte 20 Gadgets 22

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The Focus 24 Top Caribbean Resorts 32 Caribbean Inspiration 36 Rihanna 38 Sounds of the Caribbean 42 Ocean Village Experience 48 All Abroad Sailing 52 Steven Linares, Gibraltar’s Minister of Culture 54 Multi-Culturalism in Gibraltar 58 Artist, Christian Hook

Enterprise 80

The Leisure

The Dominican Republic 84

The Gourmet Nuno’s 92 Mons Calpe Suite 94 Rum 96

The Guide

97 Listings

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Winner of the Gibraltar’s Leading Hotel Award since 2009 The AA’s highest rated hotel in Gibraltar

...the other side of Gibraltar

SIR HERBERT MILES ROAD, CATALAN BAY, PO BOX 73, GIBRALTAR. TEL: +350 20076501 Gibraltar's leading hotel since 2009

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AA’s highest rated hotel in Gibraltar

Two AA Rosettes for Culinary Excellence

www.caletahotel.com - reservations@caletahotel.gi

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publisher’s letter WORDS BY IAIN BLACKWELL

W

elcome to the fourth edition of Gibraltar magazine which covers September & October with extensive distribution in Gibraltar & Sotogrande each month. This issue has a partial focus on The Caribbean, one of the prettiest places on the planet, with picture-postcard white sandy beaches and translucent waters.

Come with us on a heady visit to the islands, with luxurious stop-overs at some of the region’s top resorts, and see why The Caribbean has been such a rich source of inspiration for the film industry, with its magnificent scenery and colourful characters, from Captain Blood to James Bond and Jack Sparrow. Savour also, our profile on Barbados-born Rihanna, the vibrant designs from Caribbean Fashion Week and our special feature on the Dominican Republic.

On the local front, we talk with revered artist Christian Hook, and Minister of Culture, Steven Linares, about multi-culturalism, sport, EUFA, and preview some of the many cultural events coming to Gibraltar this autumn. We also hop aboard a yacht for a spot of professional training courtesy of All Abroad Sailing and, back on dry land, we experience Ocean Village during the day and at night.

Renowned interior design guru Patricia Darch has just recently inaugurated her plush new showroom at Blue Sotogrande Marina, so what better time to discuss décor trends with her and Gill Welland, who manages the Ocean Village operation?

Finally, don’t miss our reports on two of Gibraltar’s finest dining establishments: Award-winning Nuno’s at the Caleta Hotel and the Mons Calpe Suite which surveys all from its panoramic position atop The Rock.

Caribbean Dream...

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trend READING / MUSIC / FILMS / GADGETS / MOTORING / TRENDS

This month, we take our inspiration from the Caribbean but if a holiday isn’t on the cards, you can still enjoy yourself at home, watching the latest home viewing releases, listening to music and reading up on the cool new Maserati Quattroporte.

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Cinema

14

Home Viewing

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Books

18

Music

20

Cars: The new Maserati Quattroporte

22

Gadgets

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trend CINEMA

WORDS MARISA CUTILL

AS

e BLOCKBUSTER

OF THE MONTH

The Heat

» GENRE Comedy g (Bridesmaids) » DIRECTOR Paul Fei lock, Melissa McCarthy, Michael Rapaport » ACTORS Sandra Bul k)

rn (Sandra Bulloc cial Agent Sarah Ashbu Straight-laced FBI Spe s (Melissa McCarthy) llin Mu n no ston cop Shan called upon to pool and foul-mouthed Bo d couple. When they are od an of re mo be ’t couldn lord, they become the down a ruthless drug their talents and bring l Feig (who directed : friends. Director, Pau ed ect exp e yon an ng last thi aids) explains what t of females in Bridesm n a talented ensemble cas act n ing like men; the film: “I don’t like wome important to lly attracted him to this rea s wa at He The dy. That’s why it’s not serving anybo edy. Even Bridesmaids to do a romantic com nt wa n’t did I se cau me. Be ut this one was nts to it. What I liked abo had the romantic eleme sional women in the fes that. It’s just two pro of y an e hav n’t did it that o are on an adventure”. at at their jobs and wh workforce who are gre

» GENRE Drama/Crime » DIRECTOR Baltasar Kormákur » ACTORS Mark Wahlberg, Denzel Washington, James Marsden

2 Guns

Based on a graphic novel of the same name by Boom! Studios, 2 Guns is an elaborately woven tale featuring two agents investigating one another in the belief that the other is a thief.

When they realise that they are, in fact, being set up by the CIA, they work together to return the cash and stay alive.

» GENRE Drama/Crime » DIRECTOR Derek Cianfrance

(Blue Valentine) » ACTORS Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes

The Place Beyond the Pines

The talented Ryan Gosling plays Luke Glanton, a motorcycle stuntman who dazzles audiences at state fairs. At a fair in New York, Glanton gets a visit from ex-lover, Romina, and learns that he is the father of her son. Despite the fact that Romina does not want him in the child’s life, he insists on finding a job and providing for his son.

He begins to work part-time at an auto repair shop where he earns a minimum wage, but it’s not long before he teams up with his employer to rob several banks in the area. With newfound prosperity, Glanton slowly earns Romina’s trust, but his burning obsession with robbing more banks in order to provide his child with the future he never had brings some unexpected results.

» GENRE Action » DIRECTOR Roland

Emmerich (Independence Day) » ACTORS Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal

White House Down

Channing Tatum plays Capitol Policeman John Cale, a young officer whose application to work with the Secret Service has been denied.

Not wanting to break the bad news to his little daughter, he takes her on a tour of the White House, when suddenly, the Presidential palace is overtaken by a group of terrorists.

As an atmosphere of absolute chaos begins to take over, Cale finds the perfect opportunity to show that he can save his daughter, the President and the country.

» GENRE Comedy/Drama » DIRECTOR Michael Bay

(Transformers) » ACTORS Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub

Pain & Gain

Pain & Gain is the true story of Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) a Miami bodybuilder who is determined to make the American Dream a reality.

He teams up with an eccentric bodybuilder, Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie), and an ex-convict (Dwayne Johnson) to embark on a plan involving extortion and kidnapping, all in the name of making a few easy bucks and not letting a “once-in-alifetime opportunity” go to waste.

» GENRE Animation » DIRECTOR Chris Wedge » VOICES Josh Hutcherson, Beyoncé

Knowles, Amanda Seyfried, Colin Farrell, Christoph Waltz, Jason Sudeikis

Epic

From the creators of Ice Age and Rio, Epic tells the story of the endless battle between the forces of good, who keep Nature and her inhabitants alive, and the forces of evil, whose only instinct is to destroy. When a teenage girl finds herself magically transported into this secret universe, she enlists the help of an elite band of warriors to save their world… and its people.

12 / SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 ESSENTIALMAGAZINE.COM

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A picture paints a thousand words...

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Dining al fresco

Gibun

co Gib raltar Litera Intern ry Fes tival 2 ational 013

lphins d the do e v lo e W

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First stop - Rock Tour

Visit Gibraltar y busin ess

Last s top in Europe

a vibrant destination that combines the spirit of the Mediterranean with British tradition.

To order a brochure or for further information contact the Gibraltar Tourist Board: United Kingdom

Gibraltar

T: +44 (0) 207 836 0777 E: info@gibraltar.gov.uk

T: +350 200 45000 E: information@tourism.gov.gi

You can also find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. facebook.com/visitgibraltar

@visit_gibraltar

trend HOME VIEWING

WORDS MARISA CUTILLAS

» GENRE Drama » DIRECTOR Paul Thomas Anderson

(There Will Be Blood)

» ACTORS Joaquin Phoenix, Philip

Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams » IMDB RATING 7.2/10

The Master

Joaquin Phoenix plays a mentally unstable naval veteran in post World War II America, who returns home with no clear map of the future – until he is seduced by The Cause and its enigmatic leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

The film has received rave reviews from critics the world over, largely due to its expert acting, fast pace and beautiful script. Seymour Hoffman has already shown the world he knows how to completely overtake a character (as he did in Capote, for which he won an Oscar for Best Actor). In The Master, he is benevolent yet controlling and he knows how to beguile each of his followers through a personalised approach. The film has been touted as a thinly disguised account of the origins of Scientology, but rather than focussing on the religion itself, it emphasises one character’s need to hang onto anything for survival, even if it will ultimately spell his destruction.

e

TH EASE OF THE MON EL R D V D ED R U AT FE » GENRE Science Fiction wer, » DIRECTOR Tom Tyki, Lan a

Andy Wachowsk Wachowski

» ACTORS

Jim Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, ng Broadbent, Hugo Weavi 10 7.6/ G TIN RA IMDB

»

el presents six David Mitchell’s 2004 nov This epic adaptation of the 19th century in ce pla es tak rst of which different stories, the fi yptic future. The cal po eils itself in a post-a aboard a ship and the last of which unv urs occ , ing Ew m Journal of Ada ship that first story, The Pacific nd frie ific, detailing the deep The second which is crossing the Pac ve. sla ori Ma a inent notary and 1; it covers forms between an em 193 in m elghem, is set in Belgiu poser and story, Letters from Zed com ng agi an en tionship betwe First The the mentor-student rela s: ive lf-L . Story number three, Ha utiful bea a an upcoming musician ich wh in , iller 1970s-inspired thr r lea Luisa Rey Mystery, is a ister nuc works to uncover a sin journalist (Halle Berry) of Timothy Cavendish, eal Ord ly ast Gh The t, threat. The fourth par live in a depressing lisher who is forced to concerns a British pub ni~451, takes place story, An Orison of Som nursing home. The fifth ered humanoid ine eng ally ere a genetic in the 22nd century, wh story, Sloosha’s tion. The sixth and final is used to spark a revolu 22nd century, the d on bey ce er, takes pla n from the Crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ Aft me wo an (Tom Hanks) and a their lives when a primitive tribesm ich enr will t tha strike a bargain ing, boldly far future (Halle Berry) est arr yet (around 160 minutes) h other in eac greatly. This film is long act imp to s ability of individual aiming to highlight the future. the past, present and

Cloud Atlas

The Odd Life of Timothy Green » GENRE Fantasy » DIRECTOR Peter Hedges

(Dan In Real Life) » ACTORS Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, CJ Adams » IMDB RATING 6.4/10

Cindy (Jennifer Garner) and Jim (Joel Edgerton) are a happily married couple who can’t wait to have children and who often dream of what their child will be like. When young Timothy (CJ Adams) literally sprouts from their garden and knocks on their door one dark, stormy night, they discover that parenthood is more challenging yet infinitely more rewarding than they ever thought possible.

» GENRE Fantasy/Adventure » DIRECTOR Sam Raimi (Drag Me to Hell)

» ACTORS James Franco, Zach

» GENRE Comedy » DIRECTOR

Braff, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz » IMDB RATING 6.5/10

Andy Fickman (She’s The Man » ACTORS Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, Marisa Tomei

Oz The Great and Powerful

» IMDB RATING 5.8/10

Parental Guidance

Billy Crystal and Bette Midler play two cool grandparents who nevertheless are made to feel rather ‘old school’ by their bratty grandchildren. The kids are alright in small doses, but when their suffering gramps have to put up with them for a whole weekend, a battle of wills takes place and, well, we all know how the battle of David and Goliath turned out…

Oz The Great and Powerful makes for perfect family home viewing. It is an action-packed, fantastical foray into a world of witches, talking dolls and luggage-carrying monkeys which will have you yearning to live a similar adventure of your own. The charismatic James Franco is magnificent as Oz, a charlatan who discovers his inner wizard when he is called upon to save Paradise from the clutches of an evil coven of witches.

14 / SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 ESSENTIALMAGAZINE.COM

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Jyske Bank (Gibraltar) Ltd. • Tel. +350 200 59205 • www.jyskebank.gi Jyske Bank (Gibraltar) Ltd. is licensed by the Financial Services Commission, Licence No. FSC 001 00B. Services and products are not available to everybody, for instance not to residents of the US.

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trend BOOKS

THE CARIBBEAN IS CALLING

WORDS MARISA CUTILLAS

Marisa Cutillas brings us top reads on one the most dazzling areas in the world, from an historical, cultural and natural perspective.

THE PEPPERPOT CLUB BY JONATHAN PHANG

Seasoned travellers will tell you that one of the best aspects of a visit to a luxury Caribbean resort, is the food. A spicy Guyanese pepperpot, a refreshing rum punch, a home-cooked plate of Jamaican rice and peas… these are just some of the exotic fare you will learn to cook up in this practical, easy-to-follow cookbook. Jonathan Phang grew up in a buzzing Chinese-Caribbean household in London, filled with the sounds of rhythmic music, tales from the homeland and his mother’s aromatic cooking. She had one simple philosophy which she followed to a tee: ‘If you cook food people love, you will gain all you want from life’. Jonathan shares many tidbits of her philosophy with us, and reveals how easy it is to whip up some of the Caribbean’s most fragrant, mouthwatering meals.

WILD CARIBBEAN: THE HIDDEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS ISLANDS BY MICHAEL BRIGHT

DOES THIS ISLAND GO TO THE BOTTOM?: THE ADVENTURES OF A SCUBA INSTRUCTOR IN THE CARIBBEAN

BY ERIC H. PASLEY

This isn’t a book about scuba diving, says author, Eric H. Pasely.

Rather, it is a fascinating foray into his many adventures as a teacher, for he has spent over seven years teaching people from all walks of life how to understand the vast underwater world. This isn’t a tourist book, nor a gastronomic guide of the islands; rather, it is his own personal journal; “a log book of wild experiences”. You will laugh out loud at some of the stupid questions of his students (“Is there a right and left flipper?”), marvel at how even the most seasoned of divers always experience something new, and enjoy the special teacher-student bond that develops when the subject matter is the vast universe of Nature.

RED HEAT: CONSPIRACY, MURDER AND THE COLD WAR IN THE CARIBBEAN

BY ALEX VON TUNZELMANN

Red Heat invites the reader to discover the inner workings of America’s secret war in the Caribbean from 1957 to 1967, in the troublesome islands of Hispaniola and Cuba. Today, Latin America is, at best, regarded by the United States with harmless neglect, yet there was a time when the Caribbean was the focal point of US policy. The Americans and their unfounded fear of communism, were to blame for a series of events that destroyed any hope of democracy in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, says von Tunzelmann: “The secret war in the Caribbeam toppled democracies.

It supported dictators. It licensed those dictators’ worst excesses. It financed terrorism. It set up death squads. It turned Cuba communist, and kept it communist for half a century. It did massive and permanent damage to the international reputation of the United States. It nearly triggered a nuclear holocaust”. The US approach, says the author, was highly erratic , comprising different strategies for each Caribbean country and varying greatly with the arrival of each new American President.

CARIBBEAN MOON

BY RICK MURCER

Manny is an astute detective who has some very good news for his long-suffering wife, Louise: they’re off to the Caribbean for a romantic escape! Their holiday commences in sunny San Juan, Puerto Rico, where they are attending a wedding of friends, and continues aboard the glamorous Ocean Duchess, a luxury cruise ship. Things set off to a good start… that is, until the appearance of the first dead body. When the death toll rises to three, Manny forgets about romance and dives head-first into the FBI investigation, taking us on a fun, adrenalin-charged adventure which makes for some highly addictive reading.

The Caribbean brings our ideas of what paradise might look like to life, yet it is also home to exploding volcanoes, devastating hurricanes and immense tidal waves, as well as an array of animals as exotic as they fearsome. This book is informative and pictorial, featuring dazzling imagery of fluorescent hummingbirds taking flight, ibis birds peppering the sky with their red passion and imposing crocodiles stealthily waiting for their prey in still Cuban waters. Enjoy the majesty, beauty and fearfulness of Nature in this very unique part of the world.

CARIBBEE BY THOMAS HOOVER

This action-packed, historically factual novel begins in the paradisiacal lands of Barbados and Jamaica. The year is 1648 and the Caribbean is populated by buccaneers, rebels and slaveholders. This is the true story of a group of English colonists who signed a Declaration of Defiance against England, engaging in full-out war against an armed English fleet. This fascinating story affords the reader a bird’s-eye view of events such as the first large-scale English slave auction in the Americas and the first slave rebellion. We discover how plantation slavery was introduced into the English colonies, serving as an example for the brutality that would occur a few decades later in North America. Hoover likewise gives us a realistic perspective of the Puritans, who burned slaves alive and contributed to the failure of England’s attempt to forge an extensive new empire. The book also presents the rise of the buccaneers, originally cattle hunters who joined forces to avenge a bloody attack by the Spaniards on their homes. Soon, they would be the most formidable outlaws in the New World.

16 / SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 ESSENTIALMAGAZINE.COM

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trend MUSIC

¿QUÉ PASA?

WORDS RIK FOXX

JEDWARD RIP? Apparently their management has told them to grow up – no more jumping around and driving everyone mad with their continuous yapping. JOHN and EDWARD, as they will now be known, even have different hairstyles (well one has a parting to the left – the other to the right). Boss LOUIS WALSH wants them to become the Irish EVERLY BROTHERS – good luck with that!

ROD STEWART, who is back in the news after his album Time recently went number one, has had a change of heart and now wants to reform THE FACES. He told his old band mate, ROLLING STONES guitarist RONNIE WOOD, “Mick’s several years older than me, a fine blues singer but, technically, not as good as me” – wonder what Mr JAGGER had to say about that?

The KINGS OF LEON return to centre stage on September 24 with their sixth studio album, Mechanical Bull. This squashes all rumours that the band were going to call it quits after their 2010 LP Come Around Sundown.

The band recently headlined at the Bilbao BBK festival

les chart last month with MILEY CYRUS topped the UK sing madam thinks she is it. She We Can’t Stop and now the little ” her Disney image which lose “to ame wants to drop her surn py with and wants to leak her her father BILLY RAY is not hap line which has also angered on , gerz forthcoming album, Ban her recording label.

Concerts now on the coast are like the summer sun – fading fast – if you wanna take a chance with the car queues, the Gibraltar Music Festival takes place on September 7 with EMILI SANDÉ, OLLY MURS, TEXAS, LEVEL 42, LAWSON, 10CC, GABRIELLE APLIN and the PROPELLERS. The only action on the coast is guitar legend STEVIE VAI at Málaga’s Plaza de Toros on September 13. Tickets for both gigs: www.ticketmaster.es.

The latest band to jump on the bank-wagon are 90s hit makers M PEOPLE. To mark the 20th anniversary of their Mercury Prize winning album Elegant Slumming they will tour this autumn and HEATHER SMALL reckons new material is on the way. The singer, small by name but not by mouth, says, “The music industry is sexist and racist” – makes you think why former main man, MIKE PICKERING, who is now an A&R exec for Sony, says he is too busy to rejoin.

DAFT PUNK will continue their world musical uprising with the second single from the Random Access Memories album: Lose Yourself To Dance, with PHARRELL WILLIAMS once again on vocals, has been given a ‘focus date’ of September 23. And the man instrumental in their revival, NILE RODGERS, who played at the Puente Romano on August 30, has invited the duo to help him complete the ‘lost’ CHIC recordings from the late 1970s which he recently found.

In with the old, out with the new – the latest line-up of the SUGABABES are considering calling it a day just as the original three members are back on track. MUTYA KEISHA SIOBHAN returned to the stage last month. A new single, Flatline, drops on September 15 and a new album is scheduled for early next year.

After many rumours it looks like the mythical MICHAEL JACKSON / FREDDIE MERCURY recordings will finally see the light of day at the end of this month.

Meanwhile PSY, who is planning a collaboration with QUEEN guitarist BRIAN MAY, has revealed that the pressure of fame after Gangnam Style has drove him to drink – that song drove a lot of people to drink!

And we will leave you with a classic OZZY OSBOURNE quote – “What it’s like to be a living legend?” – his reply: “ Better than a dead one!”

JAY Z is currently in the studio at the controls making the new RITA ORA album and he fines her if she is late for recordings – it’s a good job he’s not working with RIHANNA. She continues to p*ss punters off with her tardiness – in Monaco she was three-hours late for a gig that was €800 a pop. But she went to the UK and the fans revolted; one hour late in Manchester, she made a comment about gifts being thrown on stage, so they threw crisps at her. Next stop Glasgow – she was warned about the Scots – 15 minutes late and she was “advised to get on stage pronto” – inside biz joke – her next tour should be sponsored by Rolex.

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trend MOTORING

Maserati isn’t a name that springs to mind for people shopping the car market for a large luxury saloon, but in fact the elegant Quattroporte – all-new for 2013 – is a very solid contender.

MASERATI QUATTROPORTE LUXURY SALOON

WORDS TONY WHITNEY PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF MASERATI

C

ertainly, ‘big luxury car’ tends to conjure up images of the S-Class Mercedes-Benz, Audi A8, Jaguar XJ and BMW 7 Series, but the Maserati matches them in just about every way and adds a large touch of classic Italian brio.

The Quattroporte (four doors in Italian) has been around for decades and the first one rolled off the assembly line way back in 1963 as a competitor for high-performance super saloons of the day like the Facel Vega and Lagonda Rapide.

The production model was inspired by a ‘special’ built in the early 1960s for Prince Karim Aga Khan, a devoted Maserati customer. Another special was built a few years later for King Juan Carlos.

The car has never sold in large volumes, which has always endowed it with a worthwhile aura of exclusivity. It must have sold steadily enough over the years though, because the 2013 Quattroporte is the sixth generation model – quite an achievement for a niche-market product.

Maserati was founded in 1914 by five brothers and, today, the company is part of the Fiat empire.

Maserati engines are built at the Ferrari factory in Maranello, which is historically interesting because Enzo Ferrari and the Maserati brothers

were once intense rivals in the motor racing world.

The Quattroporte is a handsome car and because they’re not exactly seen every day, the response of most people who spot one is ‘Hey! What was that?’ This is no bad thing for owners who want something a little different, but don’t want to sacrifice the kinds of features they expect in a big Merc or 7 Series BMW. Although the car is very modernistic, there are some interesting vintage touches to remind us of its heritage – a trio of chrome vents on either side of the engine compartment and a black grille carrying a big

Maserati trident badge. The trident has been appearing on this maker’s cars for no less that 80 years. The badge was first sketched by one of the more artistic Maserati brothers who had always admired the magnificent fountain in the Piazza del Nettuno in Bologna which features King Neptune brandishing, of course, a trident.

The new Maserati flagship is larger than its predecessor, but it’s lighter despite the manufacturer packing in more luxury features than ever. According to Maserati, the car will top 307 km/h, which is fast even by the standards of two seat lightweight sports cars. The Ferraribuilt engine at the top of the range – which carries Maserati logos – is a 3.8-litre V-8 with a pair of turbochargers developing a healthy 523-horsepower. For the thrifty Quattroporte buyer, there’s a 3.0-litre V-6, also with twin turbos, which boasts 404-horsepower – still no shrinking violet. Interestingly, the manufacturer claims that both fuel consumption and emissions have been lowered by 20 per cent over the old Quattroporte – not bad when considering that this is the fastest 4-door Maserati has ever built and quite possibly, the fastest large saloon anyone has ever built.

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In practical terms, the performance of the V-6 is all that could be desired in a large car like this, but if the owner planned to regularly carry a full passenger load, the V-8 might be a better choice. The V-6 was designed by Maserati and is assembled by Ferrari, while the V-8 has deeper Ferrari roots and is an adaptation of a sports car powerplant by the Maranello builder. I’ve only driven a Quattroporte with the V-8, but I’m sure the V-6 would feel just as responsive and refined.

The transmission is an 8-speed automatic/manual by famed German gearbox manufacturer ZF. Strangely, you can order all-wheel drive with the V-6 but not with the V-8. My view has always been that the more power you have, the more desirable all-wheel drive becomes.

This is a nicely balanced car – a reflection of its 50-50 front-rear weight distribution. It’s something of an achievement for Maserati to have accomplished this with its big car. Some manufacturers struggle hard to attain that 50-50 figure even with compact sports cars and coupés.

Driving the car, it feels much smaller than it is thanks to precise handling and predictable response. The massive Brembo brakes are outstanding too and bring the beast to a docile stop regardless of how fast you were going. The car is a joy to drive and although it falls firmly into the ‘exotic’ class it has great road manners around town and is very easy to drive. It also has a great engine note – not obtrusive, but a constant reminder that this is an Italian thoroughbred. Let it

loose on a mountain pass though, and it can be a real tiger – fast, but always controllable. It’s a car that will reward an experienced and enthusiastic driver, but it’s perfectly happy in the hands of even a novice.

As might be expected in a luxury car from Italy, the interior is a delight with an ambiance that pleases me more than does the somewhat clinical air of a Mercedes-Benz or BMW. The car is beautifully trimmed and there’s lots of fine Italian leather to cosset the occupants. As with any current model in this class, the car is a mass of electronic safety, handling and navigation aids and a new owner does need to spend some time with the manual. A touch screen is used for various aspects of creature comfort and it functions exceptionally well. A rear view camera is fitted and the only problem I have with these is that I really miss them when I test a car without this feature!

There’s an optional 15-speaker Bowers & Wilkins audio system available and thanks to the way this car’s insulation shuts out the noise around you, it really does sound like a concert hall on wheels.

With its new Quattroporte, Maserati has finally hammered home the fact that they have a rival for the big sellers in the full size luxury car business. Anyone shopping this segment who’d like something a little more ‘interesting’ than the fairly common Mercs and BMWs should take a long, hard, look at this splendid new Quattroporte. It’s competitively priced too. e

Z ENGINE 3.8-litre twin turbo V-8 (V-6 available).

Z TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual mode.

Z ACCELERATION: Zero to 100 km/h in approx 4.7-seconds (V-8).

Z TOP SPEED: Approx. 307 km/h (V-8).

Z I LIKED: Italian ambiance, uniqueness of Quattroporte, awesome power, handling and brakes, quality of bodywork and interior, roominess, heritage of Maserati.

Z I DIDN’T LIKE: It would be nice to be able to get all-wheel drive with the V-8 model. With that much power, it’s needed more on the eight than the six!

Z MARKET ALTERNATIVES: Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7 Series, Audi A8, Jaguar XJ, Bentley Continental Flying Spur.

Z WHO DRIVES ONE?: Buyers who need a 4-door saloon in the luxury class but feel that the big cars from Mercedes and BMW lack exclusivity.

People who love great car dynamics and Italian flair and want to buy into one of the industry’s most illustrious nameplates Z PRICE AND AVAILABILITY: Available now at approximately €125.000 for the V6 and €170.000 for the V8.

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trend ELECTRONICS

Whether you’re climbing up the Arenal volcano in Costa Rica, lying on the white sands of St. Lucia or waiting patiently for a spa treatment in Nicaragua, you’re probably doing one thing as we speak: listening to music. This month, Marisa Cutillas brings you her list of top headphones and earphones, for a crisp, clear, paradisiacal listening experience.

Best

&

Headphones Earp hone s

SHURE SE535

These tiny sound isolating earphones feature triple high-definition MicroDrivers and dual woofers, to guarantee deep sound.

Listeners can enjoy all the tiny details of the music they love, without sacrificing the rich bass that characterises a great listening experience. i www.es.shure.com

ZIK BLUETOOTH HEADPHONES BY PARROT

These headphones are packed full of goodies: Bluetooth connectivity, active-noise cancellation, and touch controls on the earcups. To turn the volume up or jump to the next song, just swipe your finger along the smooth curvature of the earcups. i www.parrot.com

BEYERDYNAMIC T1 600 OHM HEADPHONES BOSE QUIET COMFORT 15

These super-comfy noise-cancelling headphones feature one the best silencing technologies on the market.

Perfect for hard-working mums and dads with home offices, or that one holidaymaker in the middle of a Caribbean party, who would rather listen to Mozart than reggae. i www.bose.com

This gadget is priced at over €1.000 and it’s easy to see why: capable of achieving values of over one Tesla (a unit measuring magnetic flux density), it offers the listener twice as much volume as traditional headphones. i www.beyerdynamic.com

SENNHEISER RS 180

Sennheiser has a solid reputation for designing some of the best headphones on the market and this wireless baby won’t disappoint. It is incredibly comfortable to wear and boasts 2.4-GHz Kleer carrier frequency wireless technology, which offers rich sound without interruptions. i www.sennheiser.com

SONY MDR 1R

Developed in a unique partnership with Sony Music Entertainment, these noise-cancelling headphones offer an ultra-natural sound, even from compressed MP3 files. Its smart design boosts bass sounds and its batteries last a whopping 22 hours. i www.sony.com

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CULTURE / HISTORY / FEATURES

focus FAMOUS PEOPLE / INTERVIEWS / HUMOUR

What better place to focus our September edition than the paradisiacal Caribbean islands, home to crystalline beaches, reggae music and sweet, seductive rum. We head for the most luxurious Caribbean getaways, discover how the Caribbean has inspired us and listen to the rhythmic sounds of the islands. In Gibraltar, we talk with Minister of Culture, Steven Linares, take a sailing lesson, visit Ocean Village and meet Christian Hook.

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24

Top Caribbean Resorts

32

Caribbean Inspiration

36

Rihanna

38

Sounds of the Caribbean

42

Ocean Village Experience

48

All Abroad Sailing

52

Steven Linares, Gibraltar’s Minister of Culture

54

Multi-Culturalism in Gibraltar

58

Artist, Christian Hook

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THE FOCUS travel

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Grand Cayman’s newest baby is no less than a stately resort comprising 37 three-bedroom, threebath villas overlooking the snow white sands of Seven Mile Beach. Caribbean Club is the only ‘boutique residence hotel’ on Grand Cayman, where you can delight in a fast-paced game of golf or tennis, rest your chin on the edge of the seaside infinity pool or sip on a glass of wine from the award-winning selection of Italian food haven, Ristorante Luca.

The Caribbean Club offers weary urbanites a chance to reconnect with all the creature comforts of home and the mod cons that have become such an important part of life. Feel like whipping up a meal fit for a king in your very own kitchen? The staff will do the shopping for you and, on days when you’re not channelling your inner Jamie Oliver, you can always lie back and have a wide array of freshly prepared dishes sent to your villa.

The resort is many things at once: exotic and cosy, romantic and family-friendly, chilled and buzzing. The décor is warm yet understated, for when the beauty of the white Grand Cayman sands and turquoise sea lie ahead, competition is futile. Sail across the glimmering waters, reminisce about the Beatles during a fun submarine cruise or build your biceps on an energetic kayak tour. There is so much to do at Grand Cayman that it is almost tragic to think that one day, you’ll actually have to leave… i www.caribclub.com

Grand Cayman

CARIBBEAN CLUB

IBEROSTAR GRAND HOTEL TRINIDAD Cuba Cuba’s charm bears the flavour of the salty sea and sands, the sweetness of rum and the unmistakeable aroma of hand-rolled cigars. It is a land with an intricate history and fascinating culture, much of which can be viewed within the hallowed halls of its City Museum, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. One of Trinidad’s greatest jewels is the Iberostar’s Grand Hotel Trinidad, a resort which invites you to relive the splendour of the 16th century through features such as romantic fountains, lush palm trees and elegant antique furniture pieces. The Hotel is stately from the exterior yet intimate inside, with only four Junior Suites and 36 rooms. Outside, the city teems with life, yet within the walls of the Hotel, guests are offered gentle reminders of the past, such as horse-drawn carriages waiting at the door to whiz them to the pinnacle of 16th-century Cuban elegance in the City centre.

This hotel stands out for its famed Cuban hospitality; from the word go, expect to be pampered like royalty, with offerings such as a luggage unpacking and packing services, a sheet menu, massage service, reservations at tourist sites and much more. By day, sightsee ‘til you drop, or enjoy a host of sporting activities at nearby enclaves such as Playa Ancon or the marina. By night, enjoy a drink at the Fumoir or Lobby Bar, give in to your inner gourmet at the Hotel’s restaurant and enjoy splendid live entertainment. i www.thegrandcollection.com

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Rising regally over the lush 600-acre tropical resort of Anse Chastanet, Jade Mountain offers views to one of the most dazzling displays of Nature in the Caribbean: the majestic Piton mountains, a true meeting point between earth and sky, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. The estate comprises two soft sand natural beaches and an underwater kingdom of vast coral reefs populated by an array of colourful fish and sea life.

Jade Mountain is ensconced in the southern part of the island of St. Lucia, conveniently close to the island’s major natural attractions including the Botanical Gardens, an epic Drive-in Volcano Experience and a host of lush green rainforests filled with colourful flora and fauna. Designed by visionary architect, Nick Troubetzkoy, it is known as the ‘Helen of the West Indies’ (a reference to Helen of Troy), owing to utterly original features such as the fact that there are no ‘rooms’ as such, but living spaces the architect could only refer to as ‘Infinity Pool Sanctuaries’, quite unlike anything you have probably experienced. For one, they lack a fourth wall (yes, guests are invited to sleep, perchance to dream, al fresco). This openness visually draws the accommodations into the bay and the awe-inspiring mountain views beyond, yet is so cleverly designed that they are completely private and unable to be viewed by other guests or, God forbid, the snapping shutters of the paparazzi.

All sanctuaries boast 4.6 metre-high ceilings and are furnished with over 20 different species of tropical hardwood. The angular ceilings are simply spectacular! Additionally, each room has its own signature infinity pool, surfaced in glass tiles designed specifically for the resort, featuring a sophisticated iridescent surface on one side and a smooth yet undulating shape on the other. By night, fibre optics illuminate their sparkling waters.

For ultimate pampering, avail of the services of an in-house concierge, who will take you on a guided tour of the most historically significant areas of St. Lucia. Unabashed adventurers can opt for a host of excursions, including deep-sea fishing, scuba diving and a vertiginous hike up the Gros Piton mountain. Those who wish to bring the adrenalin factor down, meanwhile, can opt for a relaxing treatment in their room, or head for one of three different spas, one of which is nestled in the soft sands of the beach. Jade Mountain’s boutique spa, ‘Kai en Ciel’ (Creole for ‘House in Heaven’) takes the stress factor down to zero with treatments like the Chocolate Delight massage (which, as you can imagine, involves dousing your body in lashings of fragrant chocolate!).

The culinary offering at Jade Mountain is equally impressive; its restaurant, Jade Mountain Club, holds a vast kaleidoscopic pool in its embrace and boldly looks ahead to the otherworldly night sea and mountains, whose peaks emerge from beneath billowing clouds of white. Here, James Beard award-winner, Chef Allen Susser, entices you with a brave new world of tropical flavours. i www.jademountain.com

JADE MOUNTAIN St Lucia

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Just 12 degrees north of the equator, caressed by the cooling Trade Winds, Grenada lies peacefully, crowned by a garland of greenery. This island, once a treasure trove of the world’s most coveted spices (cinnamon, mace, clove) offers visitors more than a white-sand getaway. With a rich, fascinating history evident in archaeological treasures such as the boulder carvings of Duquesne Bay, Grenada is also a virtual Paradise for eco-lovers, scuba divers and budding snorkelers alike, with streaming schools of fish joyfully darting in and out of a maze of colourful corals.

Grenada is only 11 km long and, like most Caribbean islands, can be reached by plane, though if you wish to raise the glam factor, there is no better way to make an entrance than via private jet!

Spice Island is owned and run by Sir Royston Hopkin, a local Grenadian whose vision was “to meld poetry and modernity in a resort that would perfectly blend into its environment and still offer all the luxuries you would expect form one of the world’s finest resorts”. A familiar ambience pervades this place; don’t be surprised if you are invited to the Hopkins’ home for a fun-filled cocktail party; their approach is refreshingly personalised and warm.

The accommodations comprise 32 beachfront suites standing on a soft, powdery stretch of sand.

If you’re planning on going all-out, we recommend the Pool Suites, boasting their own private pool and gardens, just a couple of metres from the beach.

Although you’ll probably keep busy with a host of sea activities and historical sight-seeing tours, at least one visit to Janissa’s Spa is key. Here, the staff pay homage to the local flora through an inviting array of treatments in which native herbs are married to salty ocean seaweed, refreshing aloe-vera and zesty citric fruits which restore skin to baby-smooth perfection. And if you fancy yourself as a budding gourmet, don’t miss out on authentic Creole dishes at Oliver’s restaurant, where an upbeat ambience is ensured by live calypso, reggae and steel band performances. i www.spiceislandbeachresort.com

SPICE ISLAND Grenada

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Barbados offering treatments inspired on wellbeing traditions from across the world – including North America, Europe and the Far East.

Dining is big at Sandy Lane, with four restaurants enticing you with flavours from all around the world, as well as a plethora of convivial bars, from beachside to up-and-away, overlooking the cool platinum coast of St. James. Unlike many high-end resorts, Sandy Lane welcomes children of all ages, with a special Treehouse Club keeping them entertained with stories, art and lots of fun activities.

Elsewhere, older siblings and parents can walk on the wild side with fun tennis games, water sports, beach activities and of course, some of the most scenic rounds of golf they are likely to experience in a lifetime. i www.sandylane.com

West End Cliffs, Negril, Jamaica

Founded in 1961, the name of Sandy Lane has always been associated with luxury, romance and… golf. Boasting three golf courses (The Old Nine, and the world-renowned The Country Club and Green Monkey – both designed by Tom Fazio and built on the periphery of an old stone quarry), this resort is both graceful and rugged in its natural offerings, relaxing and sporty in ambience, regal yet inviting in its design.

The accommodation at Sandy Lane encapsulates the spirit of hospitality, the clever interplay of colonial and modern furniture pieces offering lashings of style alongside a pervading sense of home. The ultimate ‘room with a view’ has got to be the Luxury Ocean Rooms, whose inviting terraces overlook pink parasols which stand out like joyful polka dots on an otherwise serene, pure turquoise sea.

There are eight different categories of accommodation, which include glorious penthouses and a roomy villa for family and group travellers.

A rapturous staircase invites you to The Spa, a world of its own,

THE SPA RETREAT BOUTIQUE HOTEL

SANDY LANE

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Turks & Caicos

GRACE BAY CLUB

Voted the Number One Luxury Resort in Trip Advisor’s Traveller’s Choice Awards (2012) and winner of the 5 Star International Hotel Award for Best Small Hotel in the Caribbean, The SPA Retreat Boutique Hotel is the ultimate adults-only holiday escape. Comprising 18 thatch-roofed, hand-crafted stone cottages surrounded by verdant tropical gardens and turquoise pools, it offers a view to the infinite grandness of the Caribbean.

It is hard to imagine that before it existed, there was just Negril… a sleepy fishing village, devoid of a road that would connect it to the rest of the island. The SPA Retreat Boutique Hotel has brought a happy new vibe to the village, while preserving quiet pastimes which invite guests to a true communion with Nature.

When in Negril, do as the locals do and discover the best of this fascinating land, underwater. A fragile coral reef offers spectacular snorkelling experiences, though if you prefer a dry adventure, ask the staff about their original glass bottom boat tours. After a day’s jet-skiing, sunbathing or deep-sea fishing, watching the sunset

from the beach of the imposing Cliffside, is a must. And if the water below beckons you, don’t be afraid to plunge right in; the Cliffs are a safe and popular diving spot for locals and tourists alike.

The SPA Retreat Boutique Hotel is exclusive and invitingly intimate, with delightful touches in the rooms such as luxurious mahogany furniture, bamboo chairs and 500 thread-count linen (a must for a good night’s sleep, any grand luxe traveller will tell you). Couples will find it easy to reconnect or indeed discover each other during a honeymoon in this natural paradise. There are plenty of opportunities to experience the local culture and gastronomy at nooks like the Resort’s Blue Mahoe Restaurant, serving “a farm to table experience” and delighting diners with an array of Jamaican and international delights. Couples also love to try out the Resort’s full-service luxury day spa together, bidding adieu to words like ‘duty’, ‘responsibility’ and ‘work’ with a sedating massage or Caribbean-inspired body wrap. i www.thespajamaica.com

Touted as the resort that first lured jetsetters to Turks & Caicos, Grace Bay Club, anchored on 11 acres of immaculate beachfront property on the island of Providenciales, is sunny almost every day of the year. Featuring an original infinity bar which points seaward, rooms with romantic features like fourposter beach beds, a personalised concierge service and friendly Caribbean staff, Grace Bay Club looks to the Mediterranean for inspiration in architecture and design, yet captures the zeitgeist of the 21st century luxury Caribbean resort scene.

Grace Bay Club boasts 82 ultra-spacious suites, all offering serene oceanfront views. There are four categories to choose from: The Hotel, The Villas, The Penthouses and The Estate – each with its own character and style. The ultimate abode is surely The Estate: a collection of 22 custom-designed accommodations ranging from a 650m2 penthouse to a more intimate 74m2 Junior Residence. Guests are pampered with a gamut of special privileges (including the use of exclusive poolside cabanas, lounges and beach beds), Jerusalem stone floors, outdoor showers and expansive terraces. The Estate is also home to Krave restaurant, offering a ‘gourmet comfort food’ experience by the lively Estate Pool.

The 464m2 Anani Spa offers eight treatment rooms and two rooms boasting al fresco showers, as well as a manicure/pedicure room and an area dedicated to the important task of relaxation. Trained therapists use the combined powers of their healing touch and natural aromatic essences to take the pace down to Zen. It doesn’t all have to be about detoxing and de-stressing, of course. Hone your golf skills at the nearby, 18-hole, par-72 championship Provo golf course, or, better yet, take part in the many local initiatives of the Grace Bay Resorts Community Foundation. From supporting local schools to enhancing a local park, you can do your best to leave a piece of your heart on this paradisiacal island. i www.gracebayresorts.com e

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THE FOCUS inspiration

Caribbean inspiration WORDS Michel cruz

The Caribbean, a world of water sprinkled with land, is a place of magic and mystery. Stumbled upon by European explorers seeking a passage to India and its wealthy trade routes, this paradise of green islands in a shiny blue sea must have confounded the voyagers who labelled the indigenous Americans with a misnomer that sticks to this day. Indeed, thinking they had arrived in Asia, the seamen called the strange fellows with feathers they encountered Indians.

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I

t wasn’t long before they realised their mistake – between Asia and Europe lay another continent, a big one – but somehow the misnomer didn’t go away, and now we are at pains to differentiate between Indians of the subcontinent and Amerindians, as they have latterly become known.

Whatever you call them, the Carib tribes that had decimated the original Arawaks in this middle sea between North and South America were doomed from the moment the westerners’ sails appeared on the horizon.

Felled by Eurasian diseases they had no immunity to, conquered and enslaved by cruel men driven by the lust for gold and riches, their culture collapsed and numbers dwindled until they became a nation of ghosts. Oh, there is still plenty of ‘Indian’ blood in the Caribbean, but intermingled with that of the European colonisers and the African slaves they soon brought in to replace the original population. Thus began an era of plantations, piracy, rebellions and wars for supremacy between the European nations – making the Caribbean a region of untold natural beauty and human cruelty that speaks to the imagination and has inspired the movie industry like few others have.

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Pirates and buccaneers While Europe’s navies and armies vied for control of the Caribbean islands and seaways, a new breed of pirate was to evolve here that would overshadow any other before or since.

Banded together in savage groups, the pirates of the Caribbean were often a multinational gathering of escaped sailors, soldiers, slaves and other fugitives from the law. Adding to their ranks were adventurers and fortune hunters, creating a romantic myth in spite of the many acts of cruelty committed by these lawless rovers of the seas.

For fiction it was to prove a source of inspiration too good to resist – the swashbuckling cad hiding the heart of a hero within, who turns good at the end and helps the righteous against the evil of man, as personified by the scum of the earth that called itself a pirate. And thus arose imagery

that has been revisited throughout cinematic history – that of the murderous, rapacious brigand, flying the Jolly Roger and attacking unsuspecting ships and communities from their thieves’ lairs across the Caribbean.

Gradually, the navies of the major powers cleared the waters of this infestation, but by then the names of Blackbeard, Calico Jack Rackham, Jean Lafitte, Henry Morgan and others would live on forever in the imagination of those who pictured their adventures and dreamt of their hidden treasure. Not surprisingly, the theme of the swashbuckling pirate is one that was popular right from the early days of cinema. Among the classics is Captain Blood, a classic 1935 adventure film featuring none other than the charismatic cad himself, Errol Flynn.

If ever an actor was cast for such a role

Flynn, Errol (Captain Blood)

Henry Morgan

it was Flynn, whose own mix of fiend and glamour boy fitted perfectly. The experience, filming in Jamaica, would have a long-lasting effect on Flynn, who maintained a property on the island for many years. Burt Lancaster tried to outdo him in the 1952 film The Crimson Pirate, another classic pirate adventure, but by the time Swashbuckling was released in 1976 the genre had run its course. Until Pirates of the Caribbean, that is.

This box-office smash hit based on a Disney theme park ride gave the pirate movie a whole new lease of life when it was first released in 2001, making even bigger stars of Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom. Now ranked among the most successful series of films ever, it has rejuvenated this most classic of Caribbeaninspired movie genres.

Flynn, Errol (Captain Blood)

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A licence to be seriously glamorous

CLASSIC CARIBBEAN But it isn’t only blood and gore that has fascinated us about the Caribbean.

Against this backdrop of human depravity stands the natural beauty of the region, with its endless beaches, coves and tropical forests. From early on, long before most could travel for themselves, filmmakers took audiences on an escape to tropical paradise where the scent of romance was always thick in the air.

Affair in Trinidad, starring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford was a typical movie of the kind, seducing moviegoers with its smooth, suave setting and languid tropical subtext. A few years later Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra took the girls to Havana in Guys & Dolls. A showpiece of sultry Cuban charm – who could have known that the Cuban revolution was just around the corner?

That topic is dealt with against the background of the Cold War in Our Man in Havana. Starring the inimitable Alec Guinness, this 1959 British production came just a year after the revolution itself, proving to be almost as prescient as the plot itself. The actual revolution, though described many times, has seldom made for box office hits, though films such as Cuba, a 1979 production starring Sean Connery, and 2008’s Che, a Spanish language movie featuring Benicio del Torro, stand out among the more successful.

The Godfather, Part II, and Jaws, The Return, are some of the other mainstay films shot in these waters, though a movie that truly embodied the romantic appeal of tropical paradise was Cocktail. Filmed in Jamaica in 1988, it helped to further cement Tom Cruise’s reputation as a rising talent, as well as giving The Beach Boys their first new hit single in over a decade. Aruba, Jamaica and Key Largo were just some of the places we were made to daydream about, though in Holiday in the Sun, twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen found their island bliss in the Bahamas instead. Or more precisely, at the Atlantis Resort, where Megan Fox began her acting career in a light-hearted summer flick that has become typical of the FloridaCaribbean holiday type.

If today Americans associate the Caribbean – in film and fact – primarily with sunny holidays, then for us Europeans it still remains somewhat elusive and exclusive. The domain of Richard Branson, Kate Moss and Mick Jagger, but not really the kind of place you head off to with the kids. For us the Caribbean retains a certain mystique, further enhanced by such glamorous icons as James Bond, whose spiritual home it seems to be.

Yes, besides London no other venue crops up as much in Bond movies as the Caribbean. Could it be the fact that Ian Fleming conjured up all the Bond stories in Jamaica? I should think so, for while this former Eton boy was old school English through and through, it seems his later home had a profound effect on him – and subsequently his creation, James Bond. Writing from his beachside villa, Goldeneye, he positioned much of the action around and about him in Caribbean waters, thus setting the tone for many of the films to follow.

The very first Bond film, Dr. No, contains perhaps the most classic Caribbean Bond scene of all: Ursula Andres wading ashore in a white bikini that offset her suntanned skin. After that, you can’t blame Bond/Sean Connery for wanting to come back, and return he did, first in Thunderball (1965) and then 18 years later in Never Say Never Again. Roger Moore was also not to be denied the Caribbean experience, and in fact Live and Let Die was largely set within the region.

Then, it was to be some years before 007 revisited the scene of his beginnings, but with Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry’s 1995 offering Goldeneye, it all came full circle. Not to be outdone, Daniel Craig shot scenes in Cuba (Die Another Day) and the Bahamas (Casino Royale), thus continuing a cinematic love affair with the Caribbean that has included pirates, romance, glamour and action in its heady mix of ingredients. To the human imagination, the Caribbean has proved to be one of the most productive regions in the world, and even in today’s globalised environment, it continues to excite the senses and inspire new generations of cinematographers and movie audiences. e

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THE FOCUS profile

With her amazing vocal talent and her star shining like ‘diamonds in the sky’, Rihanna is the undisputed Caribbean Queen of the music scene, at 25.

But her overt sexuality on stage and wild, weed-smoking ways make her a questionable role model for youth culture today.

Has the good girl gone bad or is it all part of the act?

M

others of teenage girls must dread what she’s going to come out with next – the fetishist videos, the raunchy lyrics, the come-on clothes, the tattoos – everywhere: a dragon claw on her hand, a handgun on her ribcage, a Sanskrit prayer on her hip, the words ‘Thug Life’ inscribed across her knuckles… Even her own mother despairs.

“She called me up and reeled me in about two naked pictures on Instagram,” said her headstrong daughter in an interview earlier this year. “I felt like I got my ass whupped in front of my class in school. I’m not afraid of any person other than my mother, but I’m terrified of her.”

Rihanna, the enfant terrible of the pop world, is the most influential ‘commodity’ in the music industry right now. She’s the most streamed artist worldwide with 3.2 billion You Tube hits and the fourth most followed on Twitter with over 65 million Facebook ‘friends’. Her range of Mac RiRi Woo lipsticks sold out online in three hours. Whatever she wears is copied and immediately rushed to the high street where it’s ripped off the rails by eager Ri wannabes.

In under a decade the Barbados-born beauty has redefined pop music for a new generation, racking up seven albums, six Grammies, five tours, 2 Brit Awards and selling over 100 million records worldwide – also finding time to work on the perfect pout, the louche long-legged strut and the trend-setting hairdos crucial to her image.

(Someone counted over 150 restyles since 2005 when her career took off.)

© Meeno

WORDS BELINDA BECKETT

Girls emulate her, guys emulate the dudes she’d be likely to date (and many of her fans are not yet in their teens). Which must make her crotchgrabbing, booty-shaking antics on stage a concern for parents of impressionable youngsters. To say nothing of her pop videos exploiting everything from rape to domestic violence to bondage (S&M was banned in 11 countries) which have provoked outrage from parents organisations, rape crisis centres and religious groups.

It doesn’t wash, either, with the good, Godfearing parishioners of Saint Michael, Ri’s home town in Barbados, especially as she’s the country’s official Ambassador for Culture and Youth! She describes the folks back home as, “very proper and conservative. Some older people there, who tend to be very judgmental, are not pleased with my new image. But I’m not bad in a godless way.”

So what happened to the little girl with the cute dimples who once said: “My mother raised me with certain standards, to be as grown-up as possible and become an independent young lady.”

Multi-million dollar, kick-ass fame – almost overnight – is what happened to the girl hailed as ‘the Bajan Beyoncé’, with whom she’s often compared. And it’s largely down to Beyonce’s

husband, Jay-Z, who took her there.

Rihanna’s life changed forever at 16 when she met a vacationing music producer who whisked her off to New York with her mother to record demo tapes. At her first meeting with Jay-Z, the President of Def Jam Records signed her on the spot. In a matter of months the hot disco beat of her first single, Pon de Replay, was being spun on radio and in nightclubs from New York to Nagasaki. The lead single from her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad which did for umbrellas what Gypsy Rose Lee did for feathers, topped the charts in 13 countries.

And the hits kept on coming. By her fourth album, Rated R, the serious music critics were beginning to sit up and take note, by her fifth she was on her second world tour and collaborating with musicians like Eminem, after her sixth she collapsed with exhaustion (Tweeting a picture of herself on a hospital drip) but in 2013 she bounced back with a seventh album, Unapologetic, and embarked on her sell-out Diamonds World Tour.

Whatever else she may have – and she’s flaunted most of it to the world – this girl’s got stamina.

Before all that, she was a simple girl called Robyn Fenty (Rihanna, now shortened to Ri or

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© Shelly Wall / Shutterstock.com

RI

e k i L l r i G A

RiRi, is her middle name) growing up on a paradise island… the stuff of fairytales, maybe. Ri makes it sound so when she talks about her father: “He taught me how to swim, fish and ride; he’s the one who made me tough and prepared me for the world.” – although his addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol ultimately split the family. But from the age of seven when she began teaching herself to sing in earnest, encouraged by her grandmother, she seems to have been planning her escape. ““The neighbours used to complain a lot about how loud I was singing, but I didn’t care,” she says.” I had big dreams.”

Perhaps she was dreaming of following in Bob Marley’s footsteps. The Jamaican singersongwriter was one of her early influences, to the extent that she has built a shrine to him at her palatial Los Angeles home where she has an army of staff to wait upon her every whim. “He’s one of my favourite artists of all time – he really paved the way for every other artist out of the Caribbean.”

Madonna is also on her list of greatest inspirations, and Ri’s as much a mistress of reinvention as Madge. If her early music was inspired by reggae and Caribbean sounds, her later albums have run the gamut of genres, from

dance-pop and hip hop to rock and house, and she changes her style, look and hair colour like a chameleon. She admires Madonna for the way she took creative control and claims to have done likewise, telling the press at the launch of Good Girl Gone Bad, “I’ve called it that because I was determined to do it my way. I was sick of listening to what everyone else wanted.”

And with companies falling over themselves for Rihanna endorsements it seems to be working.

Like most of today’s stars she’s got her own business empire. She’s into make-up, fragrances, fashion, movies (picking up a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress along the way) and she’s published a coffee table book. Forbes magazine ranks her 7th in their 2013 list of TopEarning Celebrities Under 30. She grossed $43 million last year.

It’s hard to see Rihanna as the dictatorial diva painted by New York Times music critic Jon Caramanica who wrote: “Over the years, as her game face froze in place, her voice cured into a weapon of emotional chill and strategic indifference. It’s decidedly unfriendly, made to give orders”. Perhaps Stella McCartney comes closer when she says: “She’s one of the most impressive

artists at work today but she does it in her own stride. She works hard, very hard.”

But like anyone who rockets from zero to hero, there are dangers. And people forget, Rihanna is still a naive young woman in many respects – her ‘openness’ on the social network channels and her choice of boyfriends (getting back together, however briefly, with singer Chris Brown after he beat her up wasn’t the smartest of moves).

Talking recently about her pot-smoking Instagrams and her desire to be more ‘honest’ with her fans she said, “It’s so hard to live a lie. You can’t paint a fake picture for too long before the truth comes out and then it’s hard that it doesn’t match up. That’s why I’m posting pictures of myself smoking pot, to tell the truth about myself. It’s all about honesty. This is not failure, it’s lessons. It’s not the end. If you learn from mistakes it’s not failure.”

Rihanna’s still learning and some of the lessons will be painful. With all her immense talent and global fame, some things have been lost that can’t be bought with an Amex Gold Card. But perhaps she’s already starting to see that. “When I’m not working I love just lying on my patio listening to the breeze, it reminds me of the Caribbean” she says wistfully. “There’s nowhere like home.” e

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THE FOCUS music

THE RHYTHM OF THE ISLANDS WORDS MICHEL CRUZ

Thoughts of the Caribbean are immediately accompanied by a soundtrack. Yes, you picture palm trees and white sands lapped by turquoise water, but in the background local people are gyrating to music in their lively, sensual way.

The sounds you associate with the Caribbean can vary; for some it’s inevitably reggae or steel drums, for others salsa, merengue or rumba.

You see, there is no single Caribbean sound, as this intrinsically musical part of the

world has spawned so many different styles and genres.

What the islands do have in common, though, is an innate sense of rhythm, musicality and energetic movement that finds its way into every musical expression to come out of the region. Here, music is a part of life. It isn’t meant for listening to or politely tapping your toe to – in the Caribbean music is an expression of life that has to be felt, shared and lived on the dance floor.

It is an approach that goes back

to the very origins of music, as a way in which humans convey social messages, express jubilation or use it as an elixir against misery. In that sense the music of the Caribbean speaks as much about the make-up of the region as do its buildings and the faces of its people. This middle sea between large landmasses is a coming together of European, African, Indian and also indigenous Amerindian cultures, and it is through music that its story is most eloquently told.

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A HARMONY OF INFLUENCES The early Spanish and Portuguese explorers, followed by British, French and Dutch buccaneers, encountered Carib Indians when they reached the area where they later introduced African and also Indian populations. Unfortunately, and in spite of its natural beauty, much of the region’s history is a long tale of suffering involving the decimation of the indigenous cultures, piracy, slave plantations, wars of independence, civil strife, dictators, poverty and crime.

Music has always been – and continues to be – an escape from such worldly problems, and in turn human suffering provides fertile ground for musical creativity and intensity. One of the finest qualities of Caribbean music has always been its honesty, especially when compared with the commercial material that comes out of America and Europe, but it too has not been able to escape the influences of the outside world and the lure of commercialisation.

As a result, the music born of the plaintive song of slaves, the trance-like drum rhythms of Africa and the Spanish guitar has long since captured the world.

Regardless of whether you associate Reggae, Calypso or Salsa with the Caribbean, its sounds have reached us all and left few of us unmoved.

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THE SPANISH CARIBBEAN The greatest European contributor to the unique creative mix of the Caribbean is undoubtedly Spain. Though it lost most of the smaller islands to the British and French, Spain remained the dominant force in the Greater Antilles – Cuba, Puerto Rica and the Dominican Republic – the very countries that have given the world so much in musical terms.

Here traditional contradanzas introduced from Europe along with guitars and orchestral accompaniment met African drumbeats and rhythms. The tempo increased significantly and the music introduced by the Spanish was imbued with the sensuality of the tropics and the intensity of the poor. Happiness and sadness were both expressed with a sweet softness like musical honey and the formality of European dance was replaced with sweaty sexuality. In essence, the bedrock of Caribbean music was born.

There are many musical genres in this region, too many to mention, but by the time Merengue had begun to be mentioned as a style in the Dominican Republic of the mid-19th century the process of amalgamation described above had already achieved its transculturation, as it is locally called. This assimilation of influences produced a wonderfully smooth harmony that melted Spanish song and guitar in the quick-step beats of the common people.

The Merengue of the nineteenth century may have little in common with that of recent decades, but through the constant musical interaction between the various islands it helped to spawn the traditional salsa music of Cuba that was popularised

by Puerto Rican immigrants to the US in the 1970s and has regenerated itself since. In this way salsa, still a massive musical genre today, is related to those that came before.

Perhaps the most ‘Spanish’ of all the Caribbean musical types is the bolero.

Though said to be unrelated to the Spanish style of the same name, this sweet combination of guitar and vocals bears a clear Spanish tone left to ripen in the tropical sunshine. Flowering in the late 1800s it shares certain similarities with tango and led the way to another great Cuban invention – rumba.

Already more ‘African’ in feel, rumba became so closely associated that even ministers have declared that “Rumba without Cuba is not rumba, and Cuba without rumba is not Cuba.”

The statement also refers to the fact that rumba became such a popular export product that it was almost Americanised during the big band era of the 1930s and 40s. While rumba, like virtually all Caribbean music, owes a great deal to American styles such as jazz, gospel and soul, American orchestras would almost

always soften the edges, where Cubans preferred the original item to be more earthy and gritty.

The suave tropical sound of rumba – a Cuban slang word that meant party – was also evident in another rage to hit the world, and in particular the USA. When Mambo became mainstream in the 1930s, popularised by band leaders such as Perez Prado, it hit a cord with an America that was coming out of itself and discovering the tropical paradise on its doorstep. The sassy orchestral sound soon became somewhat sanitised to suit American tastes, and especially the later Cha Cha Cha that evolved out of it was to become the mainstay of ballroom dancing well into the 1970s.

But the Spanish Caribbean, and Cuba especially, is a rich source of creative inspiration, and in recent years the music of this region has continued to evolve, producing new musical styles such as Cuban rock, jazz, hip-hop and rap which, while not quite as evocative of tropical paradise as some of their predecessors, still bear an unmistakable HispanoCaribbean stamp.

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THE WEST INDIES In the islands of the Lesser Antilles the African influence is more obvious and only sporadically infused with strong British or French musical influence. However, the biggest distinction between this AfroCaribbean region and that of the HispanoCaribbean islands is that English is the main language used. This immediately gives the music of the area a distinct feel, effectively splitting the Caribbean into two cultural zones.

That said, calypso, the earliest musical form to be exported from this part of the world, is believed to owe its origins to a mix of slave gospel music and the troubadour tradition of France. Introduced

by French plantation owners, the latter was amalgamated into the music of slave communities that later emigrated to Trinidad & Tobago, for it is here that calypso first took root. Immortalised by Harry Belafonte, the style has since lost a lot of its popularity, and though some regard it as the Caribbean equivalent of the American crooners it was, in its day, full of subversive messages and double-entendres.

One need only look at the names early calypso performers gave themselves to know that something was afoot. I mean, The Elephant Man, Lord Invader, Lord Kitchener and Atilla the Hun don’t really rhyme with the squeaky clean image of Mr. Belafonte…

Interestingly the island state that gave the world Calypso also produced soca, a musical style in which the Indian population brought to the region as indentured labourers by the British in the 19th century is also represented. Though few people know it, these Asian communities make up around half of the population of countries such as Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana, and many an Indian instrument is put to good use in the Caribbean-exotic mix that is soca.

Reggae nights

But of course most people – particularly in the English-speaking world – will immediately link this part of the world to reggae, the pot-smokin’, Rastafarian lifestyle cum musical genre that originated in Jamaica in the 1960s and was made world famous by Bob Marley. Along with Jimmy Cliff and later Eddy Grant he was to spread Jamaican culture across the globe through a simple, laid-back style of music born out of ska and rock steady.

The flower-power generations of America and Europe inhaled its message along with other forbidden substances and created a rock legend around the colourful Marley, paving the way for a Jamaican pop scene that remains vibrant to this day. While reggae had a revival in the 1990s, it has since largely been supplanted by styles more strongly influenced by the black-American sounds that have dominated the airwaves ever since.

It is a testament to the globalisation power of the commercial American music industry that its export products of r&b, hip-hop and rap have now ruled supreme for almost two decades, finding their way into even the remotest corner of the globe and eroding local musical traditions into submission.

The Cubans, who long considered rap to be an imperialist weapon of capitalist America, have now also surrendered to it, and one hopes that a region now dominated by Jamaican hip-hop, Haitian rap and Hispanic reggaeton will one day find its own tone again – leaving the anger of urban America behind and celebrating the sweetness of life in a tropical world where people are more accustomed to laughing than growling. e

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THE FOCUS experience

The Marina takes on new life by night

the

Ocean Village PHOTOGRAPHY JON SEGUI

EXPERIENCE

Belinda Beckett checks out the sleek super-yacht haven that has brought waterfront wow to Gibraltar.

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I The Marina takes on new life by night

I’m in the Gala Casino bingo hall, counting the wheelchairs and zimmers. It’s not where I expected to find myself on a Friday night in Ocean Village but this place gives new meaning to ‘Full House’. There are more people gathered in this garish orange- and blue-painted hall than in the rest of the casino with its blackjack tables, roulette wheels and battalions of jackpot slots. The caller works from a vast circular lectern that could double as the helm of the Starship Enterprise and everywhere you look there are ‘silver surfers’, eyes down, playing e-bingo. (Who said the older generation was technophobic?)

t’s not the James Bond-and-Martini-set image I envisaged when I first viewed the casino’s futuristic blue glass façade taking shape from the penthouse balcony of the man who built Ocean Village, Bristolborn entrepreneur Greg Butcher. But Sean Connery is of bingo-playing age himself now and although the marina may not have delivered all of its high-flying promises – the annual boat show that was to blow everyone else’s out of the water, for example – it has found its own level and it works.

There are more live-aboard yachties than visiting mega-yacht millionaires and some of the original restaurants have changed hands or become offices.

But it’s still the swankiest place to shoot the breeze over a cocktail in Gibraltar, and a pleasant alternative to sitting over a pint of ale in a grubby pub (I’m sorry but some of them are) in Main Street. The 2,000-or-so internet gaming company employees who beaver away behind tinted glass in the surrounding office blocks by day seem to think so too. When they get their wages on Friday afternoons they spend them here. The ‘TGI Friday’ after-work drinking scene is legendary, Wild Wednesdays too in summer! The much-vaunted ‘high net worth individuals’ who were going to buy into this £350M marina are also here, in spirit at least, and coining in a nice little earner from renting out their investments (you can’t lease a 2-bed, 2-bath pad here for much less than two grand a month).

Ocean Village rose up on partly-reclaimed land like a ‘Lost City of Atlantis’ in reverse. Its waterfront boardwalks and Manhattan-style skyscrapers with American-sounding names are a striking contrast to the old town whose fortress walls and narrow streets can feel crowded and claustrophobic. Although local restaurateurs say it can be a little too quiet for their liking on weekdays in winter, that may change now that Ocean Village is a TV star. The marina was at the centrepiece of the action in the BBC’s latest series of New Tricks. The first-two hour episode which brought Amanda Redman, Dennis Waterman & Co jetting over to Gibraltar on a drug-smuggling investigation was watched by 8.3 million viewers.

Prior to that, 1.1 million viewers tuned into Channel Five to watch a Laurel & Hardy double-act called The Jolly Boys make another fine mess of it in the fly-on-thewall documentary, Gibraltar: (Little) Britain in the Sun. Aside from their day jobs at Dive Charter and Dolphin Adventure, they spend an inordinate amount of time on their Heath Robinson inventions – torpedocam, an underwater camera attached to a piece of gutter piping with fins to film dolphins underwater, and kitecam to film them from the air. As they are also in charge of underwater maintenance on the moorings here, I hope the harbourmaster wasn’t watching the programme!

Ocean Village parties until dawn at weekends but it’s an early weekday riser. Fitness diehards clock in to the OV Health Club at Royal Ocean Plaza when the doors open at 6.30am to work out on the treadmills, cross trainers and cardio machines. In Gibraltar, as in Britain, the working day starts an hour earlier than Spain and a lot of people are at their desks long before 9am.

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Cruisers on the Marina

I’m at my desk too (sort of). I’m sitting at a table outside Café Fresco, observing the passing scene (nice work if you can get) and a coffee will stimulate my grey cells. The Gibraltarians don’t usually do coffee like the Spanish but it’s very comparable here (Alexis the owner is Greek), and you can get decent cakes and pastries which are often disappointing in Spain, along with wraps, bagels and toasties.

It’s a great place to people watch. There are men walking past wearing business suits and trainers (not a good look) and women wearing business suits and flip flops. Gibraltar work wear tends to be more formal than on the Spanish side of the frontier although these people are cross-border workers. It’s a 20-minute trek from Spain across the airport runway and it’s best done in comfortable footwear (and certainly not high heels). Some of them have wet hair – the residents who’ve just showered or have been doing freeform laps in the network of seven lagoon-shaped pools up on the next level, a Club Tropicana-style world only property owners have access to, via biometric fingerprint entry.

Dolphin Adventure

I pay my bill and stroll along a network of finger pontoons and up a rickety staircase to the Harbour Master’s office. Anyone planning to drop anchor in the marina has to check in here. Microsoft’s co-founder Paul Allen, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich may not have gone to the office in person but their mega-yachts have all refuelled in Gibraltar, taking advantage of its zero VAT status. The bill to fill Abramovich’s 162.5-metre Eclipse came to a cool half million quid but it would have cost a lot more elsewhere.

It’s also very reasonable to berth at one of the 323 moorings. “The nightly fee for a super-yacht works out at £300-400 compared to £2,000plus in Ibiza or on the French Riviera,” the girl behind the desk tells me. Gibraltar is a popular port of call for ordinary mortals, too, being the gateway to the Mediterranean within easy reach of marinas in Morocco, Portugal and Spain.

If you’re thinking of taking up sailing, the Rock’s sheltered bay makes it one of the best places in the world to acquire your sea legs.

On the strip of water beside the airport runway, where an Easyjet plane is taxiing for take-off, future yacht owners are learning the ropes aboard the All Abroad Academy’s flotilla of sleek sailboats (you can read all about this successful family business in this issue). They look like bath toys beside the big white ocean liner in port today – just one of 185 luxury cruise ships that will call into Gibraltar this year, bringing nearly 300,000 passengers to spend their holiday money.

Some of them are doing that right now, queuing to board Dolphin Adventure’s yellow catamaran for a morning of whale and dolphin watching. Here’s the boss, Angie Watkins.

(I recognise her from the Channel 5 TV

programme – she’s the long-suffering partner of ‘Jolly Boy’ Tony.) Angie tells me about another of the company’s star attractions, Billy the bottlenosed dolphin who loves to ride the boat’s bow waves. Billy was unusually adopted by a mixed pod of striped and common dolphins, suggesting that Gibraltar is as cosmopolitan underwater as above it!

I pass a number of people carrying soap bags and towels and one woman in hair curlers – the ‘live-aboards’. More than a few of them popped into Gibraltar purely to stock up on fuel and supplies and are still here two years later! I stop one gentleman to ask what the facilities are like. “I’ve seen better,” he grunts back tersely.

Perhaps he got out of the wrong side of the bunk this morning.

Beside the casino, one giant 142-metre berth is being prepared for the new Sunborn yacht hotel. It’s the talk of the port. I ask the Spanish workmen when the mooring will be ready.

“Dentro de un mes,” one of them shouts back.

But maybe not the ‘boatel’. She was being fitted out in dry dock when I last saw her and looking decidedly un-ship-shape. Most business owners are excited about the impending arrival of Gibraltar’s first five-star hotel which should bring many new high end visitors to Ocean Village who hitherto slept over the border in Spain. But she hasn’t been welcomed by all; Micko SheppardCapurro for one (who sold Sheppard’s Marina to Ocean Village in 2004) has expressed concern over the loss of more berths to make room for Sunborn, and the presence of so many longterm berth holders. “Gibraltar residents with a boat parked in the marina will not be going to the restaurants as visiting yacht owners would be more inclined to,” he has said.

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Doubtless, the Express Supermarket does a roaring trade in Pot Noodle and Cuppasoup sales – ideal fare for ‘live-aboards’ with tiny galley kitchens. It always seems to be busy, as does the ‘speaking’ cash point machine directly outside (I wonder if the loud repetitive voice drives the checkout staff potty; it would me!). But over at Pizza Express, Nobil (one of the original restaurateurs) regularly beats his record of 290 customers on opening night. And with every kind of ethnic cuisine – from Ipanema’s Brazilian rodizio barbecued meats and O’Reilly’s famous steak and Guinness pies to Indian, Cuban, English, Spanish and Italian – the Village caters for pretty much every taste at reasonable prices. The Gala Casino’s Chargrill Restaurant touts a raft of special offers including two main courses for the price of one; and you haven’t lived until you’ve tried The Island’s shareable Fishbowl – a litre of whatever liquor you fancy for £19(!) – or the impressive Margarita & Cocktail menu at the Bridge Bar & Grill.

Ocean Village isn’t only about eating and drinking. At Aphrodite’s Beauty Clinic you can get a fake bake tan, shellac nails, a pregnancy massage or a Jane Iredale mineral bridal make-up. You can even get married here aboard the schooner HMS Pickle, a replica of the tall ship that carried news of Lord Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar to London. Don’t miss the daily tours – Captain Robin James spins a blood-curdling yarn – but alas I was too early; it was as deserted as the Marie Celeste on deck, except for a motionless body in a hammock, so I decided to let sleeping sea dogs lie!

Also along this drag is Chesterton (realty), Sovereign Group (wealth management), Patricia Darch (high end home décor) Porcelanosa (luxurious tiling/kitchens/bathrooms) showrooms and Spanish shipping agent Transcoma is moving in to recently-vacated space. Nothing stays empty here for long as Sandra Lamplough confirms when I meet Ocean Village’s Marketing Manager for lunch.

Recession? Here, there’s a stampede every time a new resale sign goes up. She gives me some interesting statistics: • 315 apartments, penthouses and duplexes – all sold bar one penthouse • 37,000 sq ft of waterfront commercial office space – fully let (mainly to oil companies, lottery companies, lawyers and accountants) • 35,000 sq ft of waterfront leisure space – 1 small restaurant/bar remaining • 6,500 sq ft of retail space – fully let “Work and living space is in such demand that we’ll be going ahead with another 500m2 of offices and probably one more residential tower,” she tells me over a lunch of spicy miniature hamburgers, salad and ice cool beers in Kiki Lounge. Didn’t this used to be Celebrity, one of the original ‘fine dining’ restaurants which opened with high hopes of serving lobster and chateaubriand on a daily basis?

Apparently it descended into a rowdy late-night drinking den. Kim (who was in the gaming industry

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The Port at Ocean Village

herself, back in the UK, so will know how to keep that crowd in order) is building the restaurant trade back up. “We have a fish of the day and everything’s fresh, we don’t own a freezer,” she says.

Sandra tells me that The Next Big Thing here will be the Gibraltar World Trade Centre, providing some of the most high-status office space in the world. Like all WTCs, the building will be special, clad in solar glass and high-finish marble and served by multiple high-speed lifts as befitting the kudos of the organisation. There are World Trade Centres in over 300 cities and 90 countries, providing an exclusive one-stop shop for over 1 million international trading companies which find it convenient to operate under one roof .

It’s easy to see why tourists gravitate to Ocean Village which lacks for nothing (except, perhaps, a few more litter bins and public loos. I used O’Reilly’s bathroom after I figured out whether I was a Fir or a Mna. Fir sounded more apt but Mna was written in pink.) But have the locals finally taken it to their hearts?

In the early days, traders in Main Street complained of unwanted competition, boat owners were unhappy about losing their old moorings and residents of older adjacent apartment blocks rejected offers of a free facelift, preferring to hang onto their dignity along with their shabby façades. “There may be a few who still resent the outside investment but most locals enjoy the extra dimension it has added to Gibraltar,” says Sandra.

“Our own events have made it very much part of the local scene – the annual cardboard boat race, the July 4 celebrations, the classic and vintage car rally, regular regattas and the Sunday market, which now runs all day from 11am to 5pm.”

Rain or shine, traditionalist expats flock over from Spain for their British Sunday Roasts and at weekends there’s usually live music of some sort.

After dark, those who like to drink their wine by the bottle gather at Zest where the tables have a well in the centre to accommodate an ice bucket for your Dom Pérignon (£198 a bottle). Or choose from over 50 of the best brands of bubbly at Dusk, from a magnum of Armand de Brignac to a nine-litre salmanazar of Mumm. Manager Nicola Copeland opens her nightclub from four in the afternoon on Fridays, allowing guests to catch some rays on the chic waterside terrace with its decadent daybeds and Indian tepees that light up at night. Nicola, who’s my age (and we’re not telling), likes to encourage an older over-30s crowd. “Gibraltar has plenty of loud and late nightspots for youngsters but people closer to our age have struggled to find somewhere that understands our idea of fun,” she says.

A gal after my own heart (I love to boogie), I will be back! But for now, forget the daybeds, it’s way past midnight. It might not be bedtime for the septuagenarian stalwarts over at Gala Bingo but it’s way past mine.

Goodnight and good luck! e

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THE FOCUS sailing

All Aboard with

Allabroad!

Photography Jon Segui

If you’ve ever given a yacht in Ocean Village a second glance it’s probably one of Allabroad Sailing Academy’s fabulous fleet. Their shore-based school in Gibraltar is a class act too and, if you dream of casting off for distant shores, their globally-recognised RYA and MCA courses are your passport to the world, as Belinda Beckett reports (from her yacht)!

“

Seriously Vic, I’d better not. It took me four goes to pass my driving test and I failed on steering twice.”

“Nonsense,” says Vic, skilfully steering a quarter of a million pounds-worth of motor yacht from its berth at Ocean Village and heading out to sea. “Now take the helm and push the throttle forward – gently, or everyone will fall off the back!”

We’ve only just had our safety briefing and I’ve never sailed anything bigger than a wind surfer. Yet here I am, on the fly bridge of a Jeanneau Prestige 46 motor cruiser, attempting to steer a safe course between a dozen monster-sized tankers and container ships out in Gibraltar Bay. Their hulls resemble the north face of the Eiger! I’m panicking just to look at all the dials whizzing round on the walnut dashboard and gripping the wheel so tightly my knuckles have gone white. We’re within spitting distance of two of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, a nautical M1, and you have to know your place in the pecking order – but against a 180-metre container ship who’s arguing?

Although Allabroad is better-known as a pukkah RYA-approved sailing academy (just ask Gibraltar’s maritime customs and police officers, many of whom trained at the Academy), they’ll let you charter their luxurious motor yacht for sunset cruises, corporate jollies and family holidays. The luxurious white leather daybeds up top scream the

Champagne lifestyle. Below deck the sofas in the luxurious saloon are also super-comfy but no one has to kip on one as there are three roomy double cabins (one en suite). But if you’ve ever dreamed of sailing round the globe in one of these, think again. “Wind power is free but it costs £1,000 a time just to fill this girl up with fuel and it won’t get you much further than Málaga and back,” advises Captain Vic, speaking from experience.

Vic Punch came over on something similarly snazzy 14 years ago when he and his partner Lynne (both expert sailors) cast off from Manchester to cruise around the world. The nightmare began when their brand new 46-foot Moody ran into mechanical problems and they had to hole up in Gibraltar. Nine months later, they were still wrangling with the insurance company and running out of money. But the story had a happy ending. “We saw there was a gap in the market for a top quality sailing school with a smart fleet – most of the training boats were damp and mouldy but in those days you weren’t allowed to teach on a boat of our size. We had to get special permission.

That’s how it all started.”

They did so well they’ve retired – handing over the business to Vic’s son David and his partner Clare Kuszyk – and they’re off on an African safari tomorrow (if I can get us back to port). But under Vic’s calm tutelage it’s easy to relax and now I’m

wanting everyone to see me at the helm of a boat that Roman Abramovich wouldn’t sneer at. Next stop Puerto Banús!

The instructors at Allabroad Sailing Academy have that much confidence in their ability to turn clueless landlubbers into competent skippers, they throw you in at the deep end from day one, before you know which side of the ocean you’re supposed to drive on. But you won’t be saying anything that crass after your first day at sea. You’ll be ‘keeping to starboard’ and passing other craft ‘on the port side’. I always had trouble remembering which was which until Allabroad taught me this handy little phrase: ‘There’s no port LEFT in the bottle’ (very apt in my case, I love the stuff).

Of course, there’s no getting three sheets to the wind while you’re learning at Allabroad, although that’s not the first golden rule. The number one stipulation is to have fun! And it’s impossible not to, aboard this family company’s stunning fleet of seven sleek sailing yachts, most of them over 40 ft. Their 50ft flagship Mar Mayor, a racingperformance Beneteau 473, is equipped with every imaginable nautical convenience, from radar and electric winches to satellite telephone and enough sails to keep an Americas Cup crew busy.

It’s not the kind of boat you want to prang yet one pupil was actually parking (sorry, berthing) this yacht in her first week!

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It’s not only its high spec fleet but also the sheer range of RYA- and MCA-accredited courses that makes Allabroad Sailing Academy a cut above the rest; whether you want to make yourself useful on your rich friend’s yacht or sail your own single-handed round the world, there’s one tailor-made for you. Or if you have your sights set on more lucrative horizons as a super-yacht skipper (or the captain of the Queen Elizabeth, come to that) you can start acquiring your skills and sea miles here. Allabroad is Gibraltar’s only Maritime Coastguard Agency-approved STCW 95 provider – a passport to work commercially anywhere on the compass, comprising courses in First Aid, Sea Survival, Safety and Fire Fighting (conducted inside a gas-controlled facility at the airfield where Gibraltar’s fire brigade trains). From making running repairs at sea or navigating in fog to abandoning ship safely, Allabroad will prepare you for the worst as well as the best, underscored by copper-bottomed documentary proof of your competence, whether that’s to run flotilla sailing holidays in the Greek Islands or deliver a yacht transatlantic to a new owner.

Better still, you can do it all in one hit in Ocean Village. Allabroad is the only school in Gibraltar and for nautical miles around with shore-based classrooms. On their Fast Track courses you can graduate from novice to Yachtmaster in 14 weeks, instead of flying back and forth to take different modules. Pity the students at other schools who don’t have

that option. They have to rendezvous with their instructors at a pre-arranged meeting points and take their theory and exams elsewhere (or on the boat, which isn’t permitted by the RYA).

Allabroad students sit theirs in air-conditioned comfort with all the latest technology at their fingertips (radar simulators, radios) to help them live up to the school’s excellent pass rate. Extra home comforts include a drying room for wet clothes, sofas, Sky TV and internet access with Skype telephone so you can keep friends and family appraised of your progress. But it’s not all about homework. The shorter courses are marked by continuous assessment and you can qualify to sail a boat of up to 10 metres in just two days on Allabroad’s 6-metre RHIB (Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat), the sort the Guardia Civil uses to chase drug smugglers – and it packs some speed!

Gibraltar is one of the best places in the world to find your sea legs, with winds you can count on all year round, a warm climate (sun, sea, sangria too, after class), a sheltered bay for learning the ropes and a cruising ground spanning four countries, with 45 different marinas and safe anchorages to explore in Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

It’s not all plain sailing – but that’s half the challenge. With maritime police from Gibraltar and Spain constantly patrolling their territorial waters, and whales and dolphins riding your bows, there’s always plenty of action. Containers that have fallen overboard from ships are another hazard that must be given a wide berth – they’re nine-tenths submerged like ice bergs and nearly as lethal.

The fast-moving currents are another shot across the novice sailor’s bows. If you don’t know how to plot a course and read tide tables you could be half way round the coast of Africa when you’re aiming for Marbella! But Academy Principal David Punch vets all his instructors and has a string of qualifications himself. As Allabroad’s website says: ‘If they weren’t all sea-based qualifications we’d be a bit concerned that he might get a job at NASA.’ “Every day’s an adventure,” says Clare Kuszyk although, as Course Manager, she has to stay on shore, keeping the business ship-shape. With up to 40 students flying in every week from all over the world (60 per cent from the UK, others from Europe, America and the Antipodes) that’s a lot of paperwork. New arrivals are welcomed aboard with a dinner in Ocean Village on Sunday night before settling into their yacht which will be their sleeping quarters, social club and practical training ground for the duration of their course, aside from shore excursions and classroom time. Every student gets their own berth, pillows and duvet and no one has to share with strangers. Also provided are wet weather clothing, lifejackets and six kilos of books on the Fast Track courses! “Many of the students make lasting friendships and return year after year to update their skills or enjoy a relaxing break,” says Clare.

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Talking of which, it’s time for my trip on Wipe Out (I hope the name isn’t prophetic). “Don’t worry,” says instructor Tony Bevan, seeing my concerned look as he announces the plans for this afternoon – a spot of tacking and jibing in the bay. “In 11 years I’ve only ever lost one student,” he quips, exhibiting his dry wit from the get-go. Not lost overboard, I’m relieved to hear. This was a lady who arrived for a 14-week course with the complete nautical wardrobe – designer oilskins, the lot. She was on the plane home four hours later because she didn’t like the yacht heeling over. “I have quite a few qualifications but stopping the wind isn’t one of them,” jokes Tony.

At 36 feet and the ‘baby’ of the fleet, Wipe Out is still a handful for novices but Venetia from Devon isn’t one of those. She’s on the final leg of her 14-week Yachtmaster’s Course and already an old hand. She has a Masters in Biochemistry and starts work as an accountant in September. Go figure! “Sailing’s my longterm career goal – it’s been a passion since I was 12 and I had the summer free so I thought I’d up my qualifications,” she says. She loved the night sailing. “The stars are so bright with no light pollution and the dolphins look like torpedoes, rocketing through the sea with their phosphorescent wakes.”

“Ready about,” she calls, taking charge.

“Helm to lee,” crewmate Isobel responds on cue (no one says ‘aye aye Cap’n’, I notice). Isobel starts letting out rope while her partner Mark reels it in (a great workout for bingo wings) until the headsail slips round to take the wind on the other side, sending us off in a different direction.

There’s a gentle westerly rippling the sea but we still heel over quite steeply (I know where the ‘designer oil skin lady’ was coming from) and I tighten my grip on the side of the boat. I’ve been warned not to stand up when we’re jibing or else “boom!” – the boom could swing across and half kill you before it knocks you overboard.

Venetia is “hardening up onto a close reach” now. Whatever it means it’s enjoyable! We’re zigzagging along at a rate of knots, fast tacking parallel to the runway, a nose ahead of a British Airways plane taxiing for take-off alongside.

Surreal!

Even more surreal, Isobel reveals that she’s a shepherdess and suffers from sea sickness.

You couldn’t make it up! She and Mark will both be Competent Crew and Day Skipper qualified by the end of two weeks. “It’s for fun really but you never know when it could come in handy,” says Isobel. Up on a farm in Scotland with 400 breeding ewes? I’m not so sure…

“Apart from the queasiness I’ve loved every minute of it, especially sailing to Morocco,” she enthuses. “I never felt out of my depth – Tony

is super-patient - and you get such a feeling of achievement when it all clicks.”

Tony is one of three Yachtmaster instructors (there are a dozen freelancers the company also calls upon). He taught diving with the British Sub Aqua Club in England before coming to Gibraltar to make his fortune in the ophthalmic industry. It didn’t happen but he’s not sorry. “When you untie this rope you can go anyplace in the world, wherever the wind takes you,” he says with a faraway look in his eye.

“It’s a wonderful feeling!”

I’m inclined to believe him. Hours later, I was still glowing but not with sunburn (I wore Factor 50). It was more of a feeling of exhilaration and vitality (a sensation I’m not used to, sitting at a computer screen all day).

I opened Allabroad’s flyer and read an inspirational quotation by Mark Twain. It sums up the seduction of sailing, it explains the ethos of Allabroad and I’m pretty sure it’s also the secret to the success of this happy crew, and the relaxed but professional way they go about their work. It’s the perfect ending to my story about a perfect day at sea!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour.

Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.

Dream. Discover.” i For information on all courses contact

www.sailing gi or www.allabroad.co.uk

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THE FOCUS people

Steven Linares

Minister of Fun PHOTOGRAPHY JON SEGUI

He’s a Minister with so many portfolios they don’t all fit onto his business card: Sports, Culture, Heritage, Youth, Utilities, Postal Services, Fire Brigade and Civil Contingencies (Refuse Collection must have fallen off the end.) But after meeting the man behind Gibraltar’s new rock and jazz festivals, Belinda Beckett suggests a more appropriate (and shorter) title: Minister of Fun.

T

hree cheers if you enjoyed Gibraltar’s Music Festival. That’s a hip, hip hooray in triplicate for The Hon. Steven Linares, whose government department made it all happen.

He might be a cabinet minister entitled to a prefix; he might often wear a suit; but beneath the protocols of government office he’s a fun guy (as anyone who was taught by him at Bishop Fitzgerald Middle School must know). How can someone who digs Level 42, 10cc, Emeli Sandé, Olly Murs, Texas and La Oreja de Van Gogh NOT be cool?

He brought them all to Victoria Stadium on September 7 for a 12-hour mega concert, one of the high points of National Week. Last year’s evening event – a first for Gibraltar – was also memorable, headlining Jessie J and Ali Campbell’s UB40. You can tell Steven Linares is a family man. He has two teenage daughters and a son to keep his musical tastes up to date!

Family is what the Music Festival is all about.

With tickets for the one-day gig pegged as low as £50 this year, and free entry for under-12s, that’s a cut-price feast of subsidised family entertainment that would ordinarily cost three times as much.

The Minister hopes the festival will do for Gibraltar what Glastonbury did for a small Somerset village – but without the mud and loose morals. “There’s something for everyone – my generation, my kids’ generation, the Spanish…

La Oreja de Van Gogh is very popular in Spain and our local bands have their own following.

Next year we’d like to make it a two-day festival.”

And for his next trick, bring on October’s International Jazz Festival: a three-day musical extravaganza headlining Jools Holland and Spice Girl Melanie C, which looks set to exceed the success of last year’s inaugural bash.

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National Day: red and white passion

The festivals are part of an event-lead tourism drive by the government to bring more visitors to Gibraltar for longer. “One-off concerts have been tried but neither visitor stays nor ticket sales justified the expense,” he says – a veiled reference to Elton John, perhaps, whose penchant for fresh-cut flowers added a flabbergasting £40,000 to his six-figure fee.

The Minister’s department also hit the bulls eye with June’s inaugural Gibraltar Darts Trophy which saw World Champion Phil ‘the Power’ Taylor take the £20,000 prize, watched by thousands of prime time viewers on Sky Sports TV – priceless publicity for Rock tourism. Linares liaised with the king of sports promoters, Barry Hearn, to make the event a success and pave the way for future sporting events. As one British punter in Blackpool told him, “Sun, cheap beer and darts – it’s got to be a winner.’”

CLIMBING KILIMANJARO A former PE teacher and champion Gibraltar sprinter, Linares makes an ideal Minister for Sport. You may have seen him striding up The Mediterranean Steps, or tackling some other challenging incline. “It’s so important – it keeps kids off the streets, inspires self-worth, keeps you fit… I like to go hiking three times a week when work allows,” he says. Even on holiday he’s no beach bum. He’s already conquered Machu Picchu in Peru and Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro.

As a Minister, he has other mountains to climb that make Kilimanjaro look like a hillock. Now that UEFA euphoria has died down, there are the logistics of hosting thousands of British football fans to tackle… the new power station to get up and running for 2015, which will keep The Rock in electricity for the next 30 years… the eco revamp that will convert the GASA swimming pool complex to solar power… and unexpected ‘civil contingencies’ like this summer’s record sevenhour border queue when he rushed to the front line to dispense free bottles of water to thousands

of gridlocked motorists. None of which even scratches the surface of his wide brief Yet his door is always open. When we met he had just landed from the NatWest Island Games in Bermuda. Gibraltar won 14 medals in shooting, swimming, triathlon, athletics, tennis and squash. The Minister’s 13-year-old daughter Christina took part, coming close to beating Gibraltar’s record in her age group. “I put on weight,” he says, patting himself ruefully around the girth at the memory of the fast food he was forced to consume on the run during the tight schedule.

To think that in 2000, when he was first elected to parliament and became Shadow Minister for Education, he had more unstructured time than he knew what to do with.

“The change was quite a culture shock.

After 12 years in teaching where your time management is very controlled 24/7, it was like suddenly becoming self-employed,” he says frankly. “I didn’t know how to begin or even what an MP should wear! I helped around the house and took the kids to school but there was a vacuum and it was quite a readjustment learning how best to fill it.”

Deciding to study law seems a drastic solution but there was method to this apparent madness as he now has a lawyer’s clear understanding of the bills he is called to vote on in parliament.

“They were always couched in legal jargon and to pass laws without understanding the full consequences for individuals seemed very wrong,” he says.

He graduated with Honours from the four-year distance-learning course in two and “enjoyed every minute of it, especially working as a secretary in Albert Isola’s Chambers and helping out with his summer pupilage – I’ll always be a teacher at heart. But I didn’t enjoy flying to London every third weekend to study for the Bar exams and attend all the obligatory formal dinners.”

Great gig: The inaugural Gibraltar Music Festival

Having got the wig and gown and practised for two years with the Gibraltar law firm Charles Gomez, he is certain of one thing: “I don’t want to be a lawyer. I don’t have any problem talking but I lack the ruthlessness sometimes needed to defend a client over and above your own principles.”

MAKING A DIFFERENCE As a school boy, he gave his own teachers a taste of those principles when he organised a students’ strike one winter to get the heating turned on! It’s no surprise that he took up left-wing politics and became President of the Gibraltar Teachers’ Association. (Although he mellowed into Liberalism he was among the architects of the Liberal/Socialist Alliance that brought them to power in 2011.) Through teaching – still a passion – he met the other love of his life, his wife Jackie, Deputy Head of St Anne’s Middle School.

But his career choice, trade unionism and love

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of politics all stem from a life-long desire to make a difference, whether that’s providing opportunities for the younger generation, campaigning against social injustice, keeping Gibraltar British or converting the financial benefits from Gibraltar’s UEFA membership into human investment through all forms of sport.

“After being in opposition for 11 years, I’m now a Minister with the opportunity to fulfil many of the goals that I’ve had in my lifetime and if I only get four years to do it, and it’s good for Gibraltar, so be it,” he says. “Of course I want us to win the next elections but a politician who is motivated only to stay in power is a politician who doesn’t achieve anything.”

His government’s hard line on sovereignty has been stirring up the territorial waters between Gibraltar and Spain which doesn’t please the moderates but Linares makes no apologies. As a founder member of the SDGG (Self Determination for Gibraltar Group), he always enjoys the week of flag waving leading up to National Day on September 10th – a public holiday filled with nationalistic fervour and thousands of red and white balloons.

Held since 1992 to mark the 25th anniversary of the first sovereignty referendum when Gibraltarians voted to remain British, Linares is delighted that the event has regained its political significance.

“Under the previous right-wing government, National Day was toned-down but we’ve reinstated the political rallies, invited back sympathetic British MPs and we’re working on the Spanish politicians from regions like Galicia and Catalonia, who have their own independence issues and give us huge support in Madrid. We have to take an aggressive stance while there’s still a threat to our sovereignty.”

Vote seeker he’s not but there’s a passing physical resemblance to Boris Johnson (you may have seen the Minister belting around Gibraltar on his motorbike), although these days he wears his floppy blonde hair much shorter than the headline-grabbing London Tory’s.

With his fair complexion and blue eyes he’s often mistaken for a Swede but the Minister is a fifth generation Gibraltarian, descended from Spanish great grandparents. “You only have to look through the Gibraltar phone directory to see what a mixed bunch we are: Cosquieris and Azopardis from Malta, Bossanos and Sanguinettis from Genoa, Bensusans, Bentatas and Lahouris from north Africa… We’re all British Gibraltarian,

just as the Welsh are British but not English, yet a lot of people still don’t get it and Channel 5’s Britain in the Sun series didn’t help, by ignoring the multicultural aspect completely. The programme was mainly about British expats.”

He has been mistaken for a Welshman, too, by people unfamiliar with the lilting Gibraltarian accent. He might as well be speaking Welsh when he and his PA, George Victory, start jabbering away in pure LLanito, the Gibraltarian patois that’s a mixture of English, Andaluz Spanish and a Liquorice Allsorts of other languages spoken in this multicultural melting pot. “Lici ba is liquorice bar in LLanito, regaliz in Spanish,” he shares, ever the teacher. “Yo era un tiche – my pupils used to think el tiche was Spanish for teacher, it can be so confusing to youngsters learning English or Spanish,” he sympathises.

And confusing for some of the grownups too… “There are Moroccan women who’ve been living here for decades who haven’t been able to get Gibraltarian nationality because they are illiterate in their own language,” he says. “Any educated European would have no problem in learning English, which is a requirement, but those coming from parts of Morocco that are still desperately poor, with no schooling, have very little chance.”

Multiculturalism in Action Recent news that 512 people from 32 countries as diverse as Kazakhstan, Thailand, France, Israel, Canada and South Africa (including 412 Moroccans) have received British citizenship in Gibraltar during the last 15 months is a perfect example of multiculturalism in action. It’s amazing how Moslems, Jews, Hindus, Catholics, atheists and various C of E denominations all rub along together on only 2.5 square miles of rock in the Mediterranean.

“It’s because Gibraltar is so small that we quickly assimilate different cultures and that leads to understanding and integration,” says the Minister, whose own childhood memories show how attitudes have changed. “As kids we used to take a short-cut to the beach through MOD land and one day we were stopped. I was allowed through because I was fair and looked British. My pals who had darker complexions and looked foreign were not. This was after the border closure in 1969, a time of huge cultural upheaval when some 2,500 Moroccans were drafted in overnight to replace the Spanish work force. I remember my own reaction, the first time I saw a man wearing a jelaba praying on his knees in public view, and smelled the aroma of foreign spices wafting from the apartment next door, after midnight, because it was Ramadan. In contrast, my own children grew up next to a mosque and the chants at bedtime sent them straight off to sleep!”

Like many Gibraltarians who experienced 16 years of being effectively locked out of Spain, the Minister has many tales to tell, both poignant (losing the family home in La Linea which was in ruins when they returned) and amusing. “At weekends, if it wasn’t beach weather, there was nothing much to do except go for a drive. And everyone did, round and round the Rock like cars on a Scalectrix track!” he laughs.

Coming up, he won’t lack for entertainment. He’ll be going with the family to his own concert (taking place on Saturday 7th September). “The last time I saw Level 42 was as a student in the refectory at Leeds University.

They were the sound of my generation,” he enthuses.

And Emeli Sandé (whom I admit I don’t know)? “You don’t know her”, exclaims the Minister, shocked at this gap in my education. “Then you should – she sang at the London Olympics you know,” he scolds, sounding like a teacher admonishing a pupil who hasn’t done her homework.

“Yes Minister,” I meekly reply.

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© DM Parody (www.dotcom.gi/photos)

Victoria Stadium is awaiting an upgrade

A SPORTING CHANCE FOR GIBRALTAR

© Jayden Fa (www.jaydenfa .carbonmade.com)

Gibraltar’s UEFA victory will give everyone on The Rock a sporting chance to excel, Sports Minister Steven Linares has promised.

Acceptance into the UEFA fold as the 54th member, after 18 years in waiting, does more than take Gibraltar football into the big money league.

It represents a multi-million euro windfall for the territory as a whole. And although entry into the 2016 European Championship qualifiers is the prospect exciting Gibraltar’s soccer fans right now – with the possibility of England flying over to play here – every sport will reap the benefits.

“Football moves millions of pounds so it’s of extreme importance in taking the entire sporting fraternity of Gibraltar a notch higher in terms of

Miss Gibraltar, Maroua Kharbouch Miss Gibraltar 2013 is the latest multicultural ambassador spreading the word on The Rock’s attractions to the world. In a video presentation made for her forthcoming appearance in Miss World, to be held in Indonesia on 28th September, 22-yearold Maroua Kharbouch is filmed in favourite tourist hot spots like Main Street and the Monkey Den. Maroua, who speaks English, Spanish and Arabic, explains how her parents met in Gibraltar, having arrived from Morocco over 30 years ago in search of a better life. She says: “In a world that seems to be more and more divided every day, Gibraltar stands out as a beacon of multiculturalism, diversity and acceptance. No matter the heritage, skin colour or language everybody here is proud to call themselves Gibraltarian.” Catch the video on Maroua’s Miss World Facebook page which, at the time of going to press, had more Likes than any other contestant. i www.facebook.com/MissWorldGibraltar

All set to soccer it to ’em: Gibraltar Football Association

standards of playing, teaching, organisation and development,” says Linares.

One benefit will be funding from UEFA to build a new 8,000-seater Category 2 stadium with media studios at Europa Point, hopefully in time for the Euros. The design will ensure it can double as a multi-purpose sporting arena and event venue.

But before the likes of Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and visiting Premier League clubs like Arsenal kick off on The Rock, there’s much work to be done. That includes the interim measure of upgrading the Victoria Stadium to Category 3, without which Gibraltar would not even be eligible to host under-21 internationals.

“If we can’t get that rating, matches would have to be played away until the new stadium is built,

probably in Portugal, as Spain doesn’t want us,” said Linares. “That’s a great shame for La Linea which has a stadium just over the border, and could do with the income.” As it is, while political hostilities exist between Gibraltar and Spain, the two sides will never have to meet in a qualifier – although if they both reached the final, that could be a needle match!

Gibraltar has two amateur divisions comprising 17 clubs with names that include the unusual (FC Hound Dogs and Britannia) and the all-too familiar (Manchester United and Chelsea), the latter presenting an entertaining scenario for commentator confusion should they ever meet their namesakes on the pitch). Currently, there’s only one professional Gibraltarian in the game – midfielder Liam Walker who plays for Portsmouth FC. But watch this space!

For Gareth Latin, President of the Gibraltar Football Association – founded in 1895 and one of the oldest in the world – UEFA membership opens an exciting new chapter in Rock soccer: “At last we’ll be able to show the whole of Europe that we can match the best.”

CULTURAL CONNECTIONS For an often humorous insight into life in the Jewish community of Gibraltar, the new biography of one of The Rock’s greatest patriots, ‘Momy’ Levy, is a must-read. Man on the Rock – Mayor Solomon Levy and the Jews of Gibraltar, by journalist Michael Freedland, is the story of one of Gibraltar’s most colourful characters: a former Mayor of Gibraltar who once said, “After God comes the Queen” and controversially flouted planning regulations last year when he placed a huge Silver Jubilee poster above his estate agency and refused to take it down.

Every National Day, Momy can be seen about town sporting patriotic red trousers and a natty redand-white striped bow tie. Every year, he addresses some 400 Jewish tourists about life in Gibraltar, always adding his own colourful stories and often being told he should publish them. Now he has! The book is available locally as well as on Amazon.

This month sees the start of a massive threeand-a-half-year project to record an oral history of Gibraltar through interviews with 400 locals.

Bordering on Britishness: An Oral History of Gibraltar in the 20th Century aims to discover the true essence of the Gibraltarian people, with particular focus on experiences of the border with Spain.

Interviewees of all ages, religions and cultural backgrounds will represent a complete cross-

section of Gibraltar society, including those born in London during the evacuation and others from La Linea with Gibraltar connections. Each four-hour interview will be conducted at the Garrison Library by one of 12 trained bilingual interviewers. The project has attracted substantial UK Government funding which will pay for an open-access website, two books and data archiving. It is being lead by Culture Minister, Steven Linares, Gibraltar’s Chief Librarian, Dr Jennifer Ballantine Perera and Dr Andrew Canessa, a leading anthropologist from the University of Essex. Commented Dr Ballantine: “As well as being a valuable resource for Gibraltarians and other researchers for years to come, this is a major opportunity to record the language of Gibraltarians as it is actually spoken.”

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ALL THAT JAZZ Jools Holland, the ‘bad boy of boogie woogie’ is quite a catch for Gibraltar and will be the big draw in the Jazz Festival line-up, whether you’re into his current genre of piano-based blues or you’re a fan from his days with 1980s New Wave band Squeeze.

The multi-talented Mr Holland is a pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, Radio 2 DJ and one-time co-presenter (with the late Paula Yates) of The Tube music show. He has worked with the likes of Sting, Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler and performed outside Buckingham Palace at the Queen’s 2012 Diamond Jubilee Concert. As he’ll be appearing with his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, Cool for Cats and Up the Junction are unlikely to be part of the programme. But as his guest star is

reinvented Spice Girl Melanie C (as the former Sporty Spice now prefers to be known) anything can happen.

Renowned American jazz saxophonist Dan Moretti will be helping Jools & Co to make the festival go with a ‘sultry and saxy’ swing. A professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston who won an award for his popular campus course, Groove Writing, Dan will be sharing tips on his techniques at three jazz workshops prior to the festival, through October 14-16.

With New York jazz guitarist Elie Massias, Spain’s Juan Galiardo Quartet, Manchester soul/folk/blues band Kirsty Almeida and The Troubadours and supporting local acts, a jazztastic festival is guaranteed. i www.gibraltarjazz.gi/

DATES F OR Y O The Str UR DIARY o

L e ag u ng m a n Ch a 2nd Inte e (September mpions 28-29) rnation (Octobe al Jazz Festiva r l 17 -1 9) 1st Inte Literaryrnational (Octobe Festival r 25-27).

SPORT FOR THOUGHT Ahead of these two highly cultural happenings, the second edition of the Strongman Champions League promises more down-to-earth entertainment of the blood, sweat and tears variety as the world’s most muscle-bound men battle it out at Casemates and Bayside Sports Complex in the Gibraltar leg of this tough-guy sport. Beefy contestants compete in various trials of strength that include lifting massive concrete stones, pulling a bus and – the local element in the contest – toting two of Gibraltar’s heavy iron cannons. This is such a popular sport that the entire series is televised on Eurosport 1 & 2, last year reaching 800 million viewers in 85 countries. i www.sclgibraltar.com Further information on these events from the tourist office or www.visitgibraltar.gi

n m u t u A l u f T N E V E n a r All Set fo

THE WRITE STUFF

Hom Holland, celebrity chef Ken ong ols Jo ian sic mu rs, we Po ie am Spice Girl Mel C, actress StefanKatona have more in common than you think. They’re at three and Serbian strongman Ervin flying into Gibraltar this season to entertain audiencesorts. a galaxy of unexpected starsfast-growing festival calendar, as Belinda Beckett rep very different events on the

On a very different note, the Gibunco Literary Festival is a must for bookworms and wannabe J.K. Rowlings who’ll be able to get writers’ tips from the best in the business and signed copies galore that could become collectors’ items in time.

Despite its unliterary-sounding name, due to being sponsored by the Gibunco oil and shipping company, it will attract the cream of the book world. Some 80 world-class authors from Europe and America will join local writers in hosting talks and debates on everything from children’s books to crime writing, history and cuisine. All to be held in atmospheric settings around Gibraltar (The

Convent, City Hall and King’s Bastion) with the Garrison Library as the festival HQ and Green Room.

One of the most fascinating speakers promises to be British historian and Hispanist Professor Paul Preston, biographer of General Franco. Professor Preston lectures at the London School of Economics and is an expert on the Spanish Civil War. He has published books in Spanish as well as English – among them The Spanish Holocaust and a biography of King Juan Carlos Chocolat author Joanne Harris will be another popular speaker. The British novelist won worldwide recognition from the movie

of her book, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. TV journalists Kate Adie and Peter Snow (champion of the General Election broadcast ‘swingometer’) will have interesting stories to share about their lives reporting from the frontline of world news; Chinese chef Ken Hom and Indian cooking expert Madhur Jaffrey will have mouthwatering appeal and Stefanie Powers of the hit US TV series Hart to Hart will add a touch of Hollywood glamour to the proceedings.

Chesterton Estate Agents of Gibraltar is sponsoring a talk on their famous ancestor, the late great G.K. Chesterton of Father Brown fame. e

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THE FOCUS people

C

hristian has forged a highly successful career through his art yet the path towards freedom began early, when he was five or six and it was evident through his most tentative illustrations, that the boy had talent. He made his first formal foray into the artistic scene by enrolling at Middlesex University in London, graduating with a degree in Illustration. At the tender age of 23, he was already employed as a lecturer at the Royal College of Art. “All my students were older than me,” he laughs, classifying the experience as rather enlightening.

He also worked for many years as an Illustrator for the biggest names in publishing in the world: Marshall Editions, Penguin, Disney, Reader’s Digest… giving life to “important historical events… anything and everything that wasn’t able to be photographed.” Important battles, lost species and significant political events were just a few subjects Christian brought to reality through his work, after consulting with a team of archaeologists, historians and specialists in an array of subjects. “I travelled a lot, I was constantly on the go,” he says, so much so that after too many years of the hectic life, he decided to head home to Gibraltar. Here, he would be able to give free reign to what had always been his passion: fine art. Christian works busily at two studios, one of which is located in Ocean Village and the other, at the Europa Business Centre.

For Christian, the measure of good art is identical, regardless of form: “Whether the genre is music, painting or dance, the crucial elements are identical: good composition, an element of surprise and the creation of the artist’s own language.” His passion and nerve are evident in his manner of speech and spot-on clarity regarding the purpose of his work. “We all have our own language,” he says, “and instead of allowing the world to steer us away from our calling, we should pay heed to it.

We all want to be something else when we should

be working on leaving our own fingerprint” – a task easier said than done, of course, since talent and technical skill are key elements to the expression of the self in such a lasting and seductive manner, as is the artist’s.

Christian’s description of the creative process is fascinating. “When I begin painting, the subject matter initially wields prime importance, but it begins to lose relevance as time goes by and a dialogue begins between myself and the painting.

There comes a point in at which I let go of the subject matter and the work becomes all about me; I have no choice but to carry on trying to find myself; it becomes about creating something that is completely me…”

In this frame of mind, there is a pervading sense of evolution. “I don’t like poses. They are the end of something. In life, everything is transient. I always try to paint something that hasn’t stopped so there is no identifiable beginning, no end.”

Indeed, his work seems like one thing from afar, but as the viewer steps closer to the canvas, it is possible to appreciate travel through time; constant movement; life unfolding before your eyes. Christian will often pick classical subjects like horses or nudes, yet transform them completely, ushering them into the modern world through his very particular interpretation of movement. In this way, he shares an obsession with one of his favourite artists: Francis Bacon, though he clarifies that “Bacon explored movement in another way and did so for a different reason”.

Christian paints layers like a master chef crafts a lasagne: layer by layer. “This allows me to play with the foreground and background… it enables me to choose which parts of the composition should stand out or appear more distantly”. Each work is almost like a video, housing a series of actions; the final product is “a culmination” of all these actions.

WORDS Marisa Cutillas Photography Jon Segui

In life, as in art, it is often difficult to pinpoint where something begins and where it ends. Gibraltar-born artist, Christian Hook, epitomises the fluid nature of existence in his art and his professional and personal journeys.

When creating a new work, he begins in one place and ends in another, in a quest to discover something inside himself which he knows he has found through little more than “a feeling”.

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The artist doesn’t like to be weighed down by materials, either: “I’ve been using alternative tools to the brush… I try to let the paint do what it wants and use the tools that will make it happen. It’s best to allow for surprises”.

In addition to painting abstracts, figurative work and portraits, Christian also creates abstract relief works. “I use natural materials which are rich in history… for instance, a piece of driftwood… it may have been floating in the sea for 10 years. It has its own history; it doesn’t need additional narrative – it is already deeply poetic”.

Christian is currently contracted by the Clarendon Gallery in Mayfair to produce work; his most recent shipping “sold out in one day”. His clients are of the level one would expect; keen collectors from the entertainment and political sector, for Christian is indeed one of the names to watch out for on the modern art scene. Having won a plethora of awards at the Royal College of London, in addition to a Rare Excellence Award, he is on an exclusive list of must-have artists and, just this summer, he exhibited his works alongside hotly solicited artist, Rolf Harris.

Christian is also currently working alongside Gibraltar Productions, the company which transforms Gibraltar into a true nucleus of multiculturalism every year at the Gibraltar World Music Festival. Company Manager, Fatosh Samuray, joins Christian on the day of our interview and tells me more about the new project: “Christian will be leading a team of artists, each of whom will find their unique way of expressing Sephardic culture”.

Fatosh very much epitomises the beauty of multiculturalism in her exotic features, a blend, she says, of her Greek, Cypriot, Turkish and Kurdish ancestries. “And I won’t even get into my English ancestors, or I’ll be talking all day!” she laughs.

Over a steaming cappuccino, Fatosh enlightens me on the beauty of the Sephardic tradition, telling me that her partner, Yan Delgado (Co-Founder of Gibraltar Productions), often recalls the Sephardic music his grandparents used to play to him when he was a child: “You don’t appreciate these things when you are young but as an adult you begin to miss it… when we organise events like this one or the Gibraltar Music Festival, our aim is very much to celebrate a meeting of cultures and to bring back to life the cultures that were once so rich in poetry, art and music, like that of the Sephardic Jews, which are no longer dominant. If we can simply rediscover, promote and innovate these cultures, then I feel I have achieved everything I hoped for”.

Christian will be running the project, working with a host of artists in an effort to pay tribute to the rich Sephardic culture. “We hope to finalise the project by early 2014,” says Fatosh.

As Christian busily shoots off to his studios and Fatosh gives me a warm goodbye at her offices, it is easy to feel swept away in the beauty of art and expression. “A thing of beauty lasts forever,” says Keats, but it can also do much more than that, expressing change and tradition all at once, and bringing back the mystery and beauty of cultures whose song, dance and art have a timeless rhythm that resonates in the human spirit. e

Fatosh Samuray

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style

INTERIORS / ARCHITECTURE / ART / FASHION

Read up on interior design style guru, Patricia Darch, discover the latest Décor News from Chapel Parquet, deck out in the coolest fashions at Caribbean Fashion Week, and learn about the new Valmont Spa in Gibraltar.

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Patricia Darch

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Décor News: Chapel Parquet

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Caribbean Fashion Week

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The New Valmont Spa

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Caribbean Inspired Beauty

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THE STYLE décor

Patricia Darch goes Prêt-à-Porter in Puerto Sotogrande

From Sotogrande and Gibraltar to Mayfair and Miami, style queen Patricia Darch has been creating beautiful interiors for more than three decades, adding her stamp of timeless chic to high-end homes worldwide. Now the coast’s doyenne of interior design has moved to elegant new surroundings with the launch of her show-stopping décor store at Sotogrande Port where you can shop for that perfect prêt-a-porter gift or order up a haute couture home.

WORDS belinda beckett Photography © khphotography.co.uk

“Wow! This is interior heaven!”

The heart-felt exclamation brings our conversation to a halt and we turn around to check out the owner of the voice.

A glamorous young Mum and her daughter are standing in front of a milk-white, circular Maxalto sofa, their eyes darting around like eager children in a sweet shop, taking it all in: the sumptuous fabrics and statement furnishings, the fine crystal and sparkly bling.

“Well isn’t that just the best recommendation,” Patricia Darch whispers, delighted at such perfect timing.

It’s no set-up. Patricia’s stunning décor collections have that stop-you-in-your-tracks effect. Stepping into her showrooms is like being invited into an unbelievably beautiful

home – not an art gallery, although everything is artfully chosen. Her tasteful arrangements exude warmth and soul as well as wow and style.

Patricia creates fairytale spaces where anyone could live happily ever after.

In Gibraltar, as in Sotogrande, Patricia Darch’s double-fronted showrooms are a magnet for window shoppers. Customers cluster in front of the sparkling glass, polished to such transparency you feel you could walk through it.

Parents sometimes hang back, reluctant to take their children into her stylish emporiums but it’s a mistake not to. You’ll get heaps of inspiration but never a hard sell and, whether you’re looking for a signature piece or an inexpensive small gift, you’ll meet nothing but courtesy and charm.

Patricia has been offering unrivalled customer service since she opened her Torreguadiaro

design studios on the old coast road in 1992.

This great tradition of “bubble-wrapping the customer” – as Gibraltar manageress Gill Welland expressively puts it – continues at the Ocean Village shop which opened in 2011 and you can expect no less at the plush new Spanish headquarters in Puerto Sotogrande. Here, you can wander through a space four times the size of the Gibraltar showrooms – 324m2 spread over two dove grey wood floors illuminated with killer lighting. The 1,000 m2 storerooms can house an Aladdin’s Cave of stock. It’s also better located than Torreguadiaro, by-passed by the N340 and a bridge too far for some residents east of Marbella. This will be much more convenient for all Patricia’s clients in the Málaga province who can combine a visit with a day out at this bijou little port.

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That Riviera Touch “Two showroom openings in 18 months – that’s not bad going in a crisis!” she says brightly.

“Sotogrande has been a massive move but the team has transformed an empty locale into a magical space,” she adds, relieved that all the hard work has paid off: the behind-the-scenes wiring and carpentry; the meticulous styling and placing of iconic signature pieces (B&B Italia’s iconic Up 2000 armchair is just one of the eye-catching ‘exhibits’); the hanging of a 14.5 metre-sheet of Cavalli wallpaper, resplendent with panther logo, that had to be positioned ‘just so’; the designing of the bespoke 7.5-metre-tall black lacquered unit to showcase wallpaper and fabric collections… all to be safely in situ for the August 20 launch party, and tidied up for the first day of trading the following morning!

Meeting deadlines and working from a blank canvas is second nature to Patricia and her inhouse team of CAD-qualified designers, artists, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, upholsterers and seamstresses, which comprises several family members and a curtain-maker who has been with the firm for 30 years. During the storms that hit New York last year, they successfully delivered a dining table and eight chairs to a customer across the Atlantic on time, while local suppliers were seriously delayed. “We felt very rewarded when the client said he regretted not giving us the entire job,” says Patricia.

The arrival of Patricia Darch will be a shot in the arm for Blue Sotogrande Commercial Centre.

Since its fanfare opening in 2009 it has languished like a jilted bride, many of its bricked-up locales unbreached until recently. For Patricia it’s like coming home – she decorated many of the penthouses at neighbouring Ribera del Marlin and lived there herself, for a while.

With its Little Venice charm, Sotogrande Port is the perfect place to hang out her sign. The store fronts an elegant waterside walkway lined with bijou boutiques, art shops and Italian trattoriastyle cafes where the Sotogrande set sip skinny lattes under white umbrellas. On the millpondcalm canal, sleek motor yachts bob peacefully at anchor – adding an essence of Côte d’Azur to the surroundings. If the boho chic hippy market which sets up under candy-striped awnings on Sundays was once the event of the week, now there will be a reason to visit on Saturdays in summer too when, from 10am until 4pm, Patricia’s step-daughter Jessica Darch will be at work in her studio and available for a free consultation. A renowned artist who paints on a variety of mediums, including Perspex and board, her bold murals and trompe l’oeils grace many high end homes and she’s worked on a number of public projects too, such as the Giorgio Armani exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Arts.

The Devil’s In The Retail More important than a new location, the move represents a change in business direction for Patricia that was pioneered in Gibraltar with great success: retail. “We’re looking for greater footfall,” she explains. “We want to welcome many more people to come in, look around our gift selection and get ideas for later when they’re ready to decorate.”

To tempt them, there will be exquisite decorative items on sale (in limited numbers to preserve exclusivity), many priced well under €50: Lampe Berger fragrance lamps from Paris; pewter candle holders hand-crafted by Benahavís artist David Marshall; cushions in an infinite variety of textures and colours designed in-house; and gift vouchers in four denominations, from €50 to €500, presented in Patricia Darch boxes tied with ribbon. “Ideal for wedding gifts, better than giving money which no one wants to send in the post, saving guests the will-she-won’t-shelike-it agonising,” enthuses Patricia. “Recipients can put them together to buy something they really want.”

No future bride could fail to have her head turned by this haute couture heaven for homes.

Wall fabrics by Hermès and Roberto Cavalli, textiles by Missoni Home and Jean Paul Gaultier and furniture lines by Fendi Casa strut their stuff with as much sass as you’ll see on any fashion runway. Patricia’s perfectionist styling ensures that even a décor collection can have sex appeal: twinkly Baccarat candelabra lamps flirt with statement Glas mirrors; head-turning Malerba tables get it on with gleaming Villeroy & Boch tableware; soft alpaca throws hurl themselves at B&B Italia armchairs; curvaceous sofas upholstered in tactile suedes give shaggy silk rugs the come-on. A temptation of textures – glossy lacquer, satin-smooth Perspex, soft leather, gritty Swarovski crystal – cry out to be touched.

Patricia consults the ‘oracle’ – the Milan Furniture Fair – annually, to hand-pick special pieces. Among her exclusive lines you’ll find contemporary furniture by Cattelan Italia, Busnelli and Alivar, lighting by Foscarini and Moooi, Casamance textiles, Bluemarine bedding, Manutti

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“

Patricia’s perfectionist styling ensures that even a décor collection can have sex appeal”

garden furniture, decorative items by Point A La Ligne and talking-point pieces by VG New Trend.

Gill Welland, over in Ocean Village, was also in Milan, noting trends. This year, she tells us, suede wins over leather, shapes are organic rather than angular, old gold, silver and light-to-mid tones dictate: taupe, petrol blue, sea green, charcoal (citrus and wengue are passé), but animal prints and bling are still bang on trend. “There’s a return to 60s and 70s retro designs and raw materials are being mixed with luxury textures to create a chic urban look with an edge of global awareness,” says this interior fashion guru.

Gill reports that Gibraltarians have been “wideeyed to see collections that had never crossed the border before, all under one roof on a little rock in the Mediterranean – something you wouldn’t usually find outside Harrods of Knightsbridge!”

Although the Gibraltar client base goes back 20 years, the swanky penthouses at Ocean Village and Queensway Quay were perfect candidates for the Patricia Darch brand of eclectic-but-timeless contemporary chic. More than one local agent has clinched an upmarket rental over the telephone, sight unseen, once the client knows it has been styled by Patricia. She is a preferred interior designer at the luxurious new Buenavista Park Villas where the Casamance python print wallpaper she chose for the marketing suite has already set tongues wagging. Among other Gibraltar projects, she’s busy transforming an early 19th century Grade II-listed government building into a stylish des res.

For many of leafy Sotogrande’s international summer residents, too, only Patricia Darch will do. As she is regularly commissioned to weave her magic in their principal homes and winter retreats too, her client portfolio stretches from Mayfair to Miami. She has just completed work on a residence in The Bahamas, her third project for this particular client who was clearly delighted. “I received an envelope containing a set of keys to the property and a thank-you note saying ‘Have 15 days holiday on us’!”

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Champagne & Roses Another Sotogrande owner who has been a client for 10 years invited her to scope out his mansion in York, England, for a redesign. “It was a very exciting project but a super-tight schedule,” recalls Patricia. “I had a two-and-a-half-hour window to measure up and get the feel of 24 rooms and an orangery, with builders and landscape artists all trying to talk to the owner too. It made 60 Minute Makeover look like child’s play!”

Other perks of the job have included an invitation to a Chinese banquet held in her honour “aboard one of the largest yachts in Puerto Banús” and a sailing holiday off the coast of New England. But the glow of satisfaction she gets from happy clients and a job well done gives Patricia her greatest reward.

“It’s second nature to work closely with clients in order to interpret their brief,” says Patricia. “In turn they take us into their confidence and place huge trust in us.

Many become great friends.”

Patricia is no prima donna: she rolls up her sleeves and gets stuck in to help her team on site. Customers’ every wish is listened to and heeded – a much-loved old chair can be re-upholstered, a décor scheme can be planned around a favourite artwork. Immense care is taken during every renovation – shoes off at the door, plastic sheeting everywhere, caps under drills to catch dust, no cola (it stains marble) and a good vacuum at the end of every day. Fresh-cut flowers and chilled Champagne welcome every owner to their sparkling new interior– extra touches that make the difference.

In décor, as in life, not everything runs to plan and there was one occasion when Patricia and her team wondered if the Champagne-and-flowers moment would ever come. “We were working on a villa here in Sotogrande Port, and were due to hand over the keys that day but massive road works put us behind schedule and the outdoor furniture arrived in the wrong colour so we had to hand-paint it,” recalls Patricia. “We were down to the wire but everyone pulled together and we finished minutes before the owner arrived. He never guessed, until I told him, how close a call it had been. That’s the kind of teamwork we have here!”

Patricia Darch Interiors Blue Sotogrande, Sotogrande Port, Tel: 956 615 350. i Spain: patriciadarch.com Gibraltar: partriciadarchinteriors.gi

“Twinkly Baccarat candelabra lamps flirt with statement Glas mirrors”

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THE STYLE décor news

Flawless Wood Flooring for a Mediterranean Climate

Frankwin van Kleef lives in a humid Mediterranean country, owns a beagle dog, hosts regular house parties and needs a low-maintenance lifestyle. With that set of criteria – and being ‘in the trade’ himself as an interior architect – you’d think he’d know better than to choose natural wood flooring for his family home in Gibraltar, even though he loves its warm, stylish look.

Report Belinda Beckett

L

ike Frankwin, most people don’t need convincing that wood brings a home to life. It adds character and opulence, goes with any décor concept and is much cosier than marble under bare feet on a winter’s morning! Flick through any high end décor magazine, wood is what the best-dressed floors are wearing right now.

But it’s not a no-brainer. Wood is conceived to be high maintenance – all that sanding and polishing; unsuited to this part of the world – wood + high humidity = warping; and not cheap – low-cost hardwood doesn’t grow on trees (metaphorically-speaking).

Determined to find an affordable and stylish solution, Frankwin sourced a supplier in his native Holland who impressed him: Timberline International. Although all their products go through rigorous quality control checks, Frank wanted to test their Origineel Chapel Parket flooring in a Mediterranean climate and his own home – under constant assault from humidity, temperature extremes, stiletto heels and beagle claws – made the ideal laboratory. The floor came through unscathed. “After eight years, we still don’t need to sand it,” reports the MD of In Vision Design & Construction.

As an example of his confidence in the product, one of his first installations was for King’s Bastion bowling alley, an area of high traffic and maximum visibility. This tough-but-beautiful flooring is also on show throughout the Body Shop chain in Holland and at the Efteling, the busiest theme park in The Netherlands.

Frankwin recommends an engineered floor which is much more economically priced than

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solid wood. Engineered boards are made from thin sheets of lower-cost wood sandwiched together to create a sturdy base, with a veneer of the costlier showcase wood on top. Did you think wood veneer couldn’t be sanded? “It can’t if the top layer is too thin,” Frank explains. “Origineel Chapel Parket veneers come in 4mm and 6mm thicknesses so they can be sanded at least twice as added insurance, although because of the finish you’ll probably never need to. Otherwise, they only need treating with the recommended maintenance oil two to four times a year, depending on intensity of use. Another bonus is that they can be laid over underfloor heating.”

Frankwin chose a beautiful light oak flooring for his stunning new home in Gardiner’s Road ’s May/June Gibraltar issue), (featured in and is gaining many converts. He is the sole agent in southern Europe for Origineel Chapel Parket flooring and preferred supplier for the luxurious new Buena Vista Park Villas development, where buyers paying up to £2.5 million on a home expect the best.

Before it leaves the factory, the wood undergoes

something akin to a second life cycle to keep it looking as naturally beautiful as the day it was harvested from sustainable oak forests: drying, planing, brushing, a patented distressing technique to create a naturally-aged look, hand scraping to ensure that the boards fit together seamlessly (they can be glued on top of any surface or laid as floating, tongue-and-groove flooring). After polishing to produce a deep and lasting sheen, a hard wax oil is applied to protect against surface damage.

Made to order, you can create your own bespoke look with different woods, patinas, patterns and colours – from palest ash to jet, shot through with a hint of tint, weathered, bleached, smoked, in herringbone, mosaic or boards in 10 different widths (65-385mm). “A wood infill with a stone surround looks stunning too,” says Frank, giving me a laptop tour of the endless permutations.

You’ll be spoiled for choice but Frankwin will cut through the confusion. His team at In Vision offers a full design and construction service, its MO: “to create million dollar effects that are affordable for anyone with a job in Gibraltar.” Credit Suisse, Isolas and Hassans are satisfied clients.

Gibraltar may be a small world but Frankwin thinks big, with awesome ideas for creating light and space from nothing – key on The Rock, where square metres are at a premium and many buildings are listed, so knocking out big picture windows isn’t an option. “But you can raise a ceiling or doorway to open up a room, and make use of halls and passageways instead of sacrificing a bedroom,” says Frankwin. “We don’t see costly problems, only simple, affordable solutions.”

g Facebook: In Vision Design & Construction Ltd. Office: G1, 92 Irish Town, Gibraltar, Tel: +350 200 63308 8/29/13 10:27 AM

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THE STYLE fashion

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COMPILED BY MARISA CUTILLA

CARIBBEAN FASHION WEEK S PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF

arencies sp an tr l ea er h et d an cs ri et om Bold blue prints, electric ge ion Week recently, as the best took over Caribbean Fash on the season’s hottest looks. of the best presented their take ESSENTIALMAGAZINE.COM SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 / 71

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Annisha Pit

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THE STYLE beauty

Valmont Spa,

World Leaders in Cellular Skincare, Launch in Gibraltar

“To dream by night is to escape your life. To dream by day is to make it happen”… these words by author Stephen Richards, spring to mind a few minutes into my meeting with Susan Rhoda, Co-Founder of the brand new Valmont WORDS Marisa CUTILLAS Photography Jon Segui Spa in Gibraltar.

UPDATE

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he has the ideal personality for dealing with people, with warmth and gentleness emanating from every pore. It doesn’t surprise me when she tells me that she spent a great deal of her professional life as a palliative care nurse, helping make the last few years of those suffering from cancer more bearable. Yet eventually, she felt that change was in order, and decided to train in a field which seemed worlds apart from but was actually very related to her former role. Susan decided to become an aesthetic nurse, a discipline she practices at the Specialist Medical Clinic, which is home to the new Valmont Spa. In addition to treating clients at the Spa, she offers lymphoedema care and forms part of the Clinic’s Venous Surgical Team and Urology Clinic.

Initiative is a quality which abounds in Susan, so when she was contacted by prestigious Swiss skincare firm, Valmont, with a view to opening a Valmont Spa in Gibraltar, she didn’t hesitate to take up the challenge alongside “a partner with a business mind”, Co-Founder, Carole Sharrock. “Carole’s family is firmly entrenched in the construction sector in Gibraltar, and she knows a lot about running a business,” says Susan, yet as soon as I meet Carole, who bubbles with life, I can sense she is every inch a people’s person. “Carole is great at managing a business… we have known each other for years and work really intuitively,” says Susan. Indeed, Susan and Carole share a passion for people; Carole spent many years as a voluntary therapist for the Red Cross (where she gave cancer patients massages and facials), and is well aware of the value of the human touch.

Together, Susan and Carole worked day and night to open a Spa which would meet Valmont’s exclusive standards, but would also reveal their own personality. A sense of style is evident in details like

the rectangular green LED lighting, located on the ceiling above the main massage bed and imbuing the room with a fresh, relaxing ambience; or the verdant blown glass work by Gibraltar Crystal, very much in line with the Valmont brand’s commitment to supporting upcoming artists. The new Valmont Spa is professional and graceful, with subtle butterfly and orchid motifs paying homage to classic Valmont iconography, and top-notch equipment (such as high-tech Nylo Beverly massage beds) offering the ultimate in comfort and style.

The Valmont name has always been associated with the elite; the firm was originally launched as a clinic, by the sparkling waters of Lake Geneva, in 1905, where it offered clients the like of Coco Chanel much-needed rehabilitation, orthopaedic care, special diets and hydrotherapy. In time, skin care became the company’s main focus and, today, Valmont is a leader in cellular skincare, using high levels of active molecules – including native collagen, Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), DNA and RNA – to encourage skin regeneration. The company is currently run by Didier Guillon (whose ancestors founded Valmont) and his wife, Sophie Vann-Guillon. “Didier is into art and aesthetics,” says Susan, “while Sophie is really into cutting edge laboratory work.”

The new Valmont Spa stocks the Valmont range of skincare, as well as fragrances by Il Profvmo, a prestigious Italian perfumery purchased recently

by Valmont. The scents, which are not yet available on the High Street or indeed anywhere in London, are long-lasting and made with a myraid of natural ingredients, including chocolate, macadamia and mandarin. g At the Specialist Medical Clinic. International

Commercial Centre, Grand Casemates Square, Gibraltar.

Tel: +350 200 49999. reception@smg.gi.

Susan and Carole received comprehensive training from Valmont and are ready to turn back the hands of time on your skin through Valmont’s three signature anti-ageing rituals: ZZSource of Bisses (a refreshing, plumping treatment).

ZZEnergy: Vitality of the Glaciers (which regenerates skin, encouraging collagen formation in the cells).

ZZ Anti-Wrinkles and Firmness: Peaks of Firmness (which gives skin a denser, uplifted appearance).

ZZBody treatments will be available soon, featuring massages, scrubs and wraps, as well as slimming and energising treatments.

Susan also works with NeoStrata and Medik8, two prestigious brands created by dermatologists which also contain active ingredients like retinol, Vitamin C and Vitamin B5. She is likewise an expert at the VIPeel, a powerful peeling treatment which is an ideal way to kick-start a skin programme and rid your complexion of stubborn age spots.

Whether you are an unabashed spa lover, your skin is suffering from acne or you are simply seeking to look younger and fresher, the new Valmont Spa is set to help you achieve your goals.

Far from offering empty promises and expensive creams that don’t reach beyond the epidermis, Valmont’s medically active range reaches the deep layers of the dermis, guaranteeing optimal results at a reasonable price. i For further information, www.evalmont.com

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Valmont Spa - New in Gibraltar…

The newly opened Valmont Spa in the Specialist Medical Clinic in Gibraltar offers four rejuvenating facial and décolleté treatments for men and women, from the luxurious Swiss skin care range of spa products and facial treatments from Valmont. Natural Swiss ingredients and the latest in cellular cosmetic research are used to formulate anti-aging skin care products that produce lasting results.

The brand’s treatments are found at the world’s top beauty and wellness clinics and now, exclusively in Gibraltar, at Valmont Spa. Also available, an exclusive range of Il Profvmo His and Her fragrances from Italy which are not available for purchase on the high street.

Valmont Spa Specialist Medical Clinic 1st Floor, ICC Building, Casemates Square, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 49999 info@smg.gi

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THE STYLE beauty

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Refreshing lime, healing coconut, fragrant cedarwood, cooling clay… these are only some ingredients which can be found in abundance in the Caribbean. This month, indulge your sense of smell and touch with exotic skincare concoctions, made with natural ingredients sourced from, or inspired on, the Caribbean.

PRODUCTS

1 – COCONUT WATER CHILL SHOWER GEL Enriched with shea and bearing the moisturising goodness of coconut, this refreshing gel also contains skin-quenching fragrances sourced from exotic fruits and flowers like jasmine, iced acai berry and frozen melon. i www.bathandbodyworks.com 2 – COCONUT EAU DE TOILETTE BY THE BODY SHOP If you can’t make it to the Caribbean this year, let your spirit take flight with this 3beautiful coconut cologne, made with fair trade ingredients. i www.thebodyshop.es 3 – COCONUT LIME BREEZE BY BATH & BODY WORKS If you’re after a moisturiser that lastsall day, this is it. Made with conditioning shea butter, light jojoba oil and protective Vitamin E, this lotion leaves skin feeling incredibly soft and nourished, and carries the very essence of the Caribbean: coconut and lime. i www.bathandbodyworks.com 4 – TROPIC TAN EXOTIC TANNING OIL BY CARIBBEAN BLUE This deliciously scented oil (comprising coconut, sesame seed, and macadamia nut oil, as well as mango seed butter and natural Vitamin E) is revered by serious tanners after a deep tan. Make sure to use sunscreen alongside it, especially on your face and other fragile areas. i www.gocaribbeanblue.com 5 – SUNSCREEN BY CARIBBEAN SOLUTIONS This eco-safe, reef-friendly sunscreen features a blend of botanical and mineral ingredients,

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and offers UVB and UVA protection. It contains no parabens or other harmful chemicals. i www.caribbean-sol.com 6 – CREAMY COCONUT MOISTURISING BODY BUTTER BY NATURE’S EXTRACTS Ideal for very dry areas like the elbows and knees, this body butter smells so good you may be tempted to actually taste it! i www.marksandspencer.com 7 – CREAMY COCONUT EXFOLIATING BODY SCRUB BY THE BODY SHOP: Slough off dead skin cells and run your hands over your baby smooth skin. i www.thebodyshop.es 8 – EXTENDED VACATION BODY CREAM HYDRATE

BY CARIBBEAN SMOOTHIE Containing a blend of sweet almond oil, Caribbean citrus fruits and anti-oxidants, this daily body cream not only keeps skin moist; it also prolongs the results of self-tanning lotions, spray booth, UV and airbrush tans. i www.skin-spa.com 9 – COCONUT HAND CLEANSE GEL BY THE BODY SHOP Coconut has potent anti-bacterial properties, which makes it a great addition to purifying hand products like this one. i www.thebodyshop.es 10 – CARIBBEAN COCONUT MILK SHAMPOO BY ALIKAY NATURALS This is an amazing shampoo for dry, damaged hair. It contains a wealth of natural fatty acids (coconut, avocado, jojoba, tea tree, almond and nettle oil) to deeply moisturise hair, yet feels wonderfully greasefree. i www.naturallycurly.com

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Caribbean Queen WORDS MARISA CUTILLAS

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thepro NEWS /ENTERPRISE / LOCAL BUSINESS /

PROFILES / FINANCE / LAW

CASTLES IN THE AIR

©Jon Segui

Chess is BIG in Gibraltar but make that literally so this summer when a giant mobile chessboard with large-sized pieces became the centre of attraction on the Rock.

Designed and made locally, residents and visitors of all ages queued up to climb on the 64-square board and make their move, including newly-crowned 2013 Commonwealth Women’s Chess Champion Jovanka Houska.

It was all part of the run-up to August’s 3rd Gibraltar Junior International Chess Festival, set to become as popular as January’s annual Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival, ranked the most prestigious open tournament in the world. Giant chess is popular in Amsterdam and Salzburg and Gibraltar hopes it will draw new ‘checkmates’ into the game of kings.

Making the opening gambit in Casemates Square before the board moved on to other locations, Culture Minister Steven Linares said: “We hope this latest community chess initiative will continue to develop the game locally and take the game to all corners of Gibraltar.”

Make Your Art Work!

PUTTING GIBRALTAR IN THE PICTURE A sought-after icon it may be but if you’ve ever tried to source good-quality photographs of The Rock of Gibraltar you’ve probably been out of luck – until now. Thanks to the creative team at Peppermint Design and Marketing Agency, you can choose from a brand new Gibraltar-themed image collection to jazz up your promotions, recently showcased at the Fine Arts Gallery in Casemates Square.

Following a three-day shoot of Gibraltar’s landmarks by professional local photographer Steve Sparrow, Peppermint’s designers spent three months adding creative finishes and producing complementary illustrations and graphics to bring a contemporary twist to their Majestic Collection. The stunning work of Jerez art photographer Carlos Duarte also features.

The result is an amazingly diverse portfolio of visual art which can be purchased for any use in online and print media – or even as large prints to decorate your boardroom, office or home, offered with a selection of paper qualities and frames.

“Gibraltar companies and its residents are very patriotic and like to use the Rock to promote brand values such as stability, strength and heritage but images available via stock libraries tend to be dull, uninspiring and dated,” said Peppermint’s CEO and Director, Jade Thompson. “Use of poor imagery can undermine these values and leave customers with a less than satisfactory impression of your brand.” g www.peppermintcreate.com/art-gallery

A small fortune in cash prizes is once again up for grabs in the 40th Gibraltar International Art Competition. The annual contest organised by the Ministry of Culture gives talented artists the chance to shine for fair recompense while providing Gibraltar with a gallery of artworks to beautify its public spaces, as winning entries become the property of the Ministry.

The competition is open to anyone aged 16 and over as of November 1, 2013. A maximum of two paintings and one sculpture may be submitted, all original and never previously entered competitively. Entries will be exhibited at the John Mackintosh Hall from November 1-12 and the lucky winners will take home one of the following glittering prizes: Winner: The Gustavo Bacarisa Prize - £4,000 2nd place: The Jacobo Azagury Prize - £2,000 3rd place: The Leni Mifsud Prize - £1,500 Gibraltar Theme: The Bonita Trust Award - £3,000 Young Artist (16-24 yrs): The Rudecindo Mannia Prize £1,000 Entries must be submitted between 1pm and 6pm at the John Mackintosh Hall, from October 21- 25 (the closing date).

g Entry forms are available from The Fine Arts Gallery, Casemates; The Arts Centre, Prince Edward’s Road; John Mackintosh Hall, 308 Main Street; Ministry of Culture, 310 Main Street; or email culture.info@culture.gov.gi

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THESE BOOTZ WERE MADE FOR PUDDLES Could these be what we’ll all be wearing when the first rains of autumn fall? They’re called Bootz and they helped a team of young ‘dragons’ from Gibraltar walk away with second place at the Young Enterprise UK national finals in London.

The brainchild of eight Bayside Comprehensive School students called Team Elementz, their portable rainproof ‘overshoes’ that slip over regular footwear in wet weather attracted much admiration during the contest. (They haven’t taken their product to market yet but watch this space!) They also scooped the Financial Management Business Award while their young MD, Stefan Valarino, won the Founders Leadership Award.

“The team worked hard to produce an excellent product which certainly caught the eye of judges,” said Carlos Garcia, Chairman of the Young Enterprise Scheme in Gibraltar, an initiative supported locally by the Gaggero Foundation and various businesses and educational establishments.

Young Enterprise is the UK’s largest business and enterprise education charity, helping some 225,000 youngsters to acquire business skills in the classroom under the guidance of 5,000 volunteers from 3,500 companies.

STAMP OF A FUTURE KING Gibraltar has made history once again with its new royal baby stamp. It Is the first official, Buckingham Palace-approved stamp worldwide to feature HRH Prince George of Cambridge – a must for collectors. The £2 stamp issued by the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau depicts a photograph of the future King in the arms of HRH Princess Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, as she leaves St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, with Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. The stamps and related philatelic collectibles can be purchased from the Philatelic Shop at the Main Post Office and online from g www.gibraltar-stamps.com

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Sacarello’s in watercolour by James Foot from Cornwall

CAFÉ SOCIETY AT SACARELLO’S Sacarello’s dates back to 1888 when Italian provisions merchant Bartholomew Sacarello opened his warehouse in Irish Town, becoming the Rock’s chief coffee importer. Today the charming café-restaurant housed in the old warehouse retains its association with freshly-roasted coffee while becoming the centre of ‘café society’ in its truest sense, doing double-duty as a cultural centre with frequent art exhibitions and a permanent collection of paintings. It’s also renowned for its colourful salad bar, home cooked menu, five daily specials and a lip-smacking selection of cakes and speciality teas. With the autumn events calendar hot off the presses, why not make a date to enjoy a bite with friends and satisfy your soul at the same time!

September 9 – October 7: Exhibition of digital art by Yvonne Smiddy, showcasing hi-tech techniques with photography inspired by everyday life in Gibraltar and the artist’s travels abroad.

September 27: Barbadillo Wines Dinner with Andalusian dishes.

Alternate Thursdays in autumn: Live Flamenco Concert with ‘raciones’ and wine, 8.30pm.

October, November, dates tba: Art exhibitions by Miriam Porro and father and son, John and Andrew Culatto.

g Further information from Sacarellos Facebook page or www.sacarellosgibraltar.com

HEALTH GOES HIGH TECH Gibraltar Health Authority recently unveiled its new website, enabling visitors as well as locals to gen up on services and cancel appointments online – although not, as yet, make appointments electronically. Designed and developed in-house, the site provides information on all aspects of healthcare including leaflets, forms, health-related news and a direct link to the NHS Choices website which features a symptom checker and guides to common illnesses. The site is designed to work on multiple platforms and web browsers and will be enhanced with new features and functionalities over time. “It is our aim to to develop new technologies to allow for more services to be carried out via the web and mobile devices,” said Health Minister Dr John Cortes, who welcomes feedback on the website and comments via its Facebook and Twitter accounts.

g facebook.com/ghaweb / twitter.com/GHAWeb / www.gha.gi

CARDBOARD CAPERS AFLOAT – AS SEEN ON TV! A highlight of Gibraltar’s August social calendar since 2009, the Charity Cardboard Boat Race is known to millions since it featured in the recent Channel 5 documentary, Gibraltar: Britain in the Sun. It’s all good, clean family fun, held over a 1,000-metre course at Ocean Village against a backdrop of eminently more sea-worthy vessels. With prizes for best boat and costume design as well as winners and losers displaying incredible creations, there are some spectacular abandonings of ship too (Best Titanic Sinking is the most coveted award)! And the more the merrier is the vindictive judges’ motto, hence 2013’s rules were even tougher with a new minimum of two people per cardboard boat. This year’s event was organised by the William Tilley Lodge and proceeds from registration fees went to local sports associations and to support GBC Open Day. Commented Sandra Lamplough from race hosts Ocean Village Marina: “It’s a simple, comical event but it has captured Gibraltar’s imagination and competitive spirit.”

Wazoo, Gibraltar's online job board went live during August 2013. Wazoo is Gibraltar's online job board for Gibraltar based vacancies. Employers can post their vacancies and view resumés online and job seekers can search for job listings, post their resumés and apply online. Job seekers can also opt for the Wazoo AlertMe and Wazoo SeeMe services. The company's objective is to enhance the social power of the web to connect those seeking work with employers. Wazoo's technology platform and their little robot will maintain this connectivity. No matter how large or small the company, Wazoo aims to be the place for posting situations vacant. g www.trywazoo.com / hello@trywazoo.com

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THE LEISURE travel

Classic white sand beaches

Many dream of a trip to a Caribbean island paradise full of idyllic white sandy beaches, dramatic sunsets and laid-back vibes. The Dominican Republic brings those dreams within reach.

W

WORDS MICHEL CRUZ PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MINISTRY OF TOURISM & FM CONSULTING

hen Christopher Columbus famously set foot on the island he was to name Hispaniola in 1492, he must have thought he had arrived in paradise, for all around was tropical bounty offset by white sand, azure waters and deep green vegetation. The Spanish were to claim and settle the eastern part of the island it shares with French-speaking Haiti, producing the nation we now know as the Dominican Republic.

Like Cuba and Puerto Rico, the Republica Dominicana is both Caribbean and Hispanic, and in classic Latin American style has had its fair share of independence wars, revolutions and dictators, yet since the 1970s it has been known as a stable nation popular with tourists from the USA and Europe.

Prominent among the latter are Spanish visitors, who find it easy to get around in the Spanish-speaking country.

This close to the US, however, English is also universally spoken, especially in the resort areas along the east coast, ensuring the Dominican Republic’s status as the number one tourist destination in the Caribbean. In terms of sheer numbers of visits the country has no equal in the region, even among such classic Caribbean destinations as the Bahamas, Aruba, Antigua or Barbados.

The reason for this is not only the fact that at roughly the size of Switzerland the Dominican Republic is the second-largest country within the Caribbean region, but also because its resorts, while certainly luxurious, are more affordable than the smaller-scale tourism found in the Lesser Antilles. Thanks to this, La Republica Dominicana makes the Caribbean more accessible to visitors from around the world.

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Crystal clear waters of the Dominican coast

Diving in Caribbean waters

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© FM Consulting

Punta Palmera resort at Cap Cana

The Spanish fortress guarding the entrance to Santo Domingo

Paradise Island

For those who wish to experience the tropical waters and beaches of the Caribbean, this is the alternative to the private domains of St Barths or Mustique. The hub of the Dominican Republic’s buoyant tourist trade lies along the east coast – in fact, the eastern tip of the island, probably very close to where Columbus first touched ground.

Here you will find expansive holiday resorts surrounded by subtropical vegetation, golf courses and, of course, classic white sand beaches complete with tall palm trees and those aquamarine waters. Although there are a number of major resort areas, such as Bávaro and Uvero Alto, the most famous by far are Punta Cana and the newer Cap Cana.

When visiting either don’t expect a large resort town like Marbella. While the little town of Punta Cana does provide a ‘home base’ for the resort area named after it, it is just one of several little towns situated close to a coastline that has become one of the leading tourist destinations in the Americas.

The resort area known as Punta Cana therefore consists of a succession of large, luxurious resorts that straddle a series of magnificent beaches and bays. Think big, think American, with state-of-the-art hotels that cater to every need, be it food, drink, pampering in the spa, massages within view of the tropical beaches, a round of golf, entertainment or water sports. The latter

covers the whole spectrum, from snorkelling and scuba diving to fishing, parasailing, surfing and sailing. It’s all laid on by the resorts themselves, which are largely selfsufficient and designed very much with holidaying families in mind. As a result, most visitors arrive at the nearby Punta Cana International Airport and go straight to their resort, where the majority will remain throughout their holiday.

Those that do so will get mild doses of local culture and colour from visiting performing groups, but if you want to see and experience the real Dominican Republic you will have to venture well beyond local attractions such as the Marinarium water park, the Seaquarium reef walking experience, Dolphin Island – where you can swim with dolphins – and romantic horseback rides along the beach.

Though newer, and even more ambitious in its design and facilities, Cap Cana offers much the same as Punta Cana, though in addition to all-you-want resorts, such as the outstanding Punta Palmera, a project being managed by Marbella-based FM Consulting and beautiful beaches, there are also golf courses and an impressive marina. A little more expensive perhaps, Cap Cana is aimed at international visitors, yet for those who wish nothing more than to immerse themselves in the sunny tropical splendour of the Caribbean it is nothing short of heaven.

BRINGING TROPICAL PARADISE CLOSER

A Punta Cana resort hotel

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Cap Cana marina

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Punta Espada Golf Course, Cap Cana

Beyond the resorts type of shrew) and a rodent called the Hispaniolan Hutia. For the rest, the country’s most spectacular fauna can be found in the sea, in the form of turtles, dolphins, sharks, whales and also manatees and dugongs. The main source of inspiration for many a boat trip or aquatic tour, they are also sometimes spotted from aboard the party boats that ply the coastal waters.

A little further west of the national park is Altos de Chavon, a pretty artist’s retreat complete with galleries and restaurants. Created in the style of a classic European village, you would be forgiven for thinking that you’ve stepped into little Italy on the edge of the jungle, but in reality this pretty village and popular tourist attraction is simply the product of the creative spirits that inhabit it. If Altos de Chavon is quaint but a little ‘unreal’, then the nearby city of La Romana will bring you a little closer to the authentic Dominican Republic.

Though also home to an extensive resort area, including the luxurious Casa de Campo, La Romana is a fair-sized city with all the hustle and bustle of a small Latin American metropolis.

For the real thing you should not hold back but head further westwards to the nation’s capital, Santo Domingo. This lively city of around a million inhabitants is where the heart and soul of the Dominican Republic can be found, and within it are the varied elements that make up this Hispanic/Caribbean country.

Santo Domingo’s historic quarter at night

The artist’s retreat of Altos de Chavon

Plaza España, colonial Santo Domingo

Cap Cana beachside at Punta Palmera

© FM Consulting

Because of the humid heat of the summer months, when temperatures can easily run into the thirties amid humidity rates of 70 per cent or more, the most popular tourist season in the region is – not unlike the rest of the Caribbean – the period from December to April. It therefore coincides with our winter season, yet if you insist on coming here during the summer you might want to escape into the hills, where cooler climes and the occasional cover of clouds help moderate the heat.

Visitors wishing to experience some of the Dominican Republic’s culture and sights without planning to head too far inland could take a helicopter tour or safari tour down wild stretches of beach or inland. Here you will come across little villages which are representative of the real Dominican Republic. In true Caribbean spirit, friendly faces come with the territory, and as the locals are seldom shy or bashful expect them to be as inquisitive about you as you are of them.

Cultural voyeurism aside, the region offers unforgettable natural sights such as waterfalls, coral reefs and the tropical beauty of the Parque Nacional Del Este. Among the greatest attractions of the latter is Isla Saona, the kind of paradise Robinson Crusoe would have liked to have been stranded upon. Here you will be able to spot large tropical insects, brightly coloured amphibians of the region, and if you’re very lucky, rare endemic species such as the Hispaniolan Solenodon (a

The best scuba diving site in the Dominican Republic

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Jarabacoa highland country

Casa de Campo marina

Water sports off Punta Cana

There are the old churches, lofty monuments and historic buildings that hark back to an era of Spanish colonisation, continued historically in the grand neoclassical façades of government buildings and the cool glass towers of the financial district. If they represent the European – and American – side of the Dominican Republic’s heritage then the sprawling, tight-packed barrios are where the indigenous, African and Mestizo elements that form the main ingredients of the Dominican Republic’s population come to life.

Punctuated by a colonial city that has some of the oldest European-built structures in the Americas, it is within the concrete blocks that you will encounter the rhythm of merengue and bachata, washed down in the evenings with Presidente beer or local rum. Here the Latino and Afro-Caribbean worlds come together in a way not dissimilar to Cuba, yet Dominicanos and Cubanos alike have their own distinct national character.

Poverty and crime are a fact of life in Santo Domingo, as in large parts of the world, but the people also have that amazing capacity to laugh and enjoy themselves with the help of little more than music and good spirits – and not necessarily the alcoholic variety either.

From typical Caribbean idyll along the tropical coastline to a Latin American vibe

in the cities, there is yet another side to this small but surprisingly diverse country.

Though the Afro-Latino culture is just as predominant in the sleepy rural countryside of the Dominican Republic, this is also where remnants of the colonial past and its precursor – the culture of the Taino and Arawak Indians – are still discernable.

Deep into the mountainous interior lies a popular attraction that embodies all of these elements. First settled in a distant past by indigenous Taino Indians, the town of Jarabacoa still draws its name from a people who have long since disappeared – eradicated by the arrival of Europeans and their diseases, against which the Indians had no immunity, and absorbed into the flood of European and African blood.

Though its location in the central highlands makes Jarabacoa a thriving agricultural centre, it is popular with visitors because of the many spectacular waterfalls that create natural swimming pools within a climate that makes the town famous in the Dominican Republic as ‘The City of Everlasting Spring’. Whether you decide to explore deep into the cities and countryside of this compact nation or prefer to remain within the comfort and languor of its beachside resorts, the Dominican Republic is a country where the exuberant and spicy Latin and Caribbean worlds meet within an accessible tropical setting. e

Golf on the edge of the ocean

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gour

RESTAURANTS / REVIEWS / NEWS / WINE / CHEFS / GUIDE

Discover the authentic taste of Italy at the Caleta Hotel’s Nuno’s Restaurant, visit the panoramic Mons Calpe Suite and learn about the fascinating history of sweet, soothing Rum.

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THE GOURMET restaurant

Push the Boat Out at Nunos!

Refined dining at The Rock’s peerless Italian restaurant

there’s John Dory, beef tenderloin served on words Belinda Beckett Photography Jon Segui and Courtesy of the Caleta Hotel a sizzler and scallops wrapped in pancetta It didn’t seem fair on the grouper but we weren’t feeling that guilty. This morning it with sweet potato had been happily swimming in the Gibraltar Strait, directly below our table. Now here and a Pedro Ximenz it was on a plate, pan fried in butter and garnished with parsley. reduction – the latter a done deal for my dinner companion, who went on to discover just how fresh and tasty that grouper was. My choice was also no contest: it wasn’t soup weather but Nunos’ minestrone is light and summery – tiny al dente vegetables in a tasty broth topped with fresh Parmesan; and a mouth-meltingly tender mint-crusted rack of lamb, served with crisp mange tout, baby asparagus and a mountain of utterly buttery mash.

Dishes arrived under silver cloches which were The Catch of the Day at a welcoming committee perched on the wall lifted with a flourish, denoting the confidence the Nuno’s is that fresh! opposite Little Genoa, the neighbouring crescent two head chefs have in their cuisine. And rightly Every morning a local fisherman brings the Caleta of multi-coloured houses named after the area’s so as every morsel lived up to its fanfare. Wali the Hotel’s stylish Italian restaurant a selection of his early settlers; although the scenery is more super-attentive Maître d’ guided us through the daily haul – sea bass, sea bream, lobster, blue fin evocative of the Naples coastline (you could be exotic list of Italian and Spanish wines, selecting a tuna, too, in season. Tonight the grouper lucked- in Sorrento or Amalfi), a geographical similarity silky Azpilicueta Rioja reserva for the lamb course, out. At 11 kilos it was quite a catch (fished, of noted in Nunos’ interior décor, where cloths and an almond-flavoured Gavi di Gavi Fratelli Levis cushions are picked out in Neapolitan ice cream from Piedmont for the fish and a tangy orange course, in Gibraltar’s territorial waters).

We sat outside beneath a vast white shade sail, colours. The ornaments and glass candle lamps wine from Huleva to go with a mini degustación seagulls wheeling above us, waves crashing onto are a nod to north Africa and the Caleta’s sister of the dessert menu – lemon tart, chocolate the rocks below. The tiered terrace juts out over hotel in Morocco. Curtained alcoves for private brownie, a cloud-light yogurt foam topped with Catalan Bay like the deck of a mega yacht. In front dining confirm what we’ve heard – that Nunos fresh strawberries and refreshing melon soup.

We were surprised to discover that neither of the of us, a convoy of container ships waited their turn is a popular business lunch venue for Gibraltar’s chefs are Italian – although clearly that’s irrelevant. in the bunkering queue. Behind them, we could government ministers.

But on a night like this, with moonlight Jan Wondres is from the Czech Republic but make out the misty contour of Africa. Gibraltar’s much-anticipated five-star Sunborn ship hotel shimmering on the water, it has to be al fresco – trained in Naples; Spaniard Daniel Marquez used may be grabbing all the headlines of late but preferably with a glass of chilled fino. (Be careful to work over the border at La Linea’s renowned anyone who knows Nunos must wonder what all with long-stemmed glasses which easily keel over La Marina restaurant. They import most of their the fuss is about. The setting is as nautical as you on the weather-beaten surface of the ceramic- meat and veg from Morocco, not Spain, where the can get without actually being afloat and Nunos tiled tables. There are no cloths outside, my only quality and choice is superior, Jan told us.

For top nosh and top notch service in a has been charting a successful course in the fine criticism.)

An artfully-presented appetiser of sea bream dramatic seascape setting, you should expect to dining firmament for more than 15 years; making waves, at that, with a Michelin recommendation roe with chive oil and a shot glass of chilled pay a little more. In fact, to drain every last drop salmorejo gave us a taste of what was to come, of pleasure out of this delicious refined dining and two AA Rosettes.

Sheltered below the sheer limestone cliff and there’s focaccio to nibble on too. Alongside experience (and your wine glass) I recommend on the dramatic eastern side of The Rock, it’s classics like buffalo mozzarella, carpaccio, osso the further investment of an overnight stay at the fresh and cool here even in sticky July. Perhaps buco and the most complete list of home-made Caleta. For a night at Nunos it’s worth pushing the the Barbary macaques know that. There’s often pastas and sauces this side of the Tower of Pisa, boat out and you will not be disappointed.

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g Open daily from 1-3pm and 7-11pm. reservations@caletahotel.gi Tel: +350 200 76501 8/28/13 3:36 PM

Celebrate your

Christmas Event

Heart of the Marina in the

convenient parking is available nearby

Stylish-Unique-Elegant

Located in the heart of Queensway Quay Marina serving the finest local and international cuisine

..................................................................................................................................

4/5 Ragged Staff Wharf, Queensway Quay, Gibraltar Tel: (+350) 200 45666 - Fax: (+350) 200 45665 waterfrontrestaurant@gmail.com | www.gibwaterfront.com Open daily from 9 am till late Waterfront Restaurant Gibraltar

@waterfrontgib

THE GOURMET restaurant

Located 412 metres above Gibraltar at the very top of the Rock, the elevated position of the Mons Calpe Suite is an appropriate reflection of the high standards, high-end service and high ranking the suite has as one of the most exclusive venues for events and entertaining in Gibraltar. To date too, its guests include some pretty high profile names – Gibraltar’s own Chief Minister, Sir Alex Ferguson and, most recently, Julian Lennon, are among those who have been hosted there.

T

hat’s not to say that the suite is exclusively the preserve of politicians, knights of the realm, or rock and roll royalty however, for it also plays host to a plethora of other events including weddings, landmark birthdays, corporate occasions and even upmarket afternoon teas. Gino Paul Bossino (who has the enviable commute of a cable car ride to work) is the Mons Calpe Suite Manager, and he explains that actually, almost anything can be catered for.

In fact, says Savoy-trained Gino, he relishes the challenge.

Refurbished in 2009, the suite is simply spectacular. The modern décor is stylish and comfortable, and the spacious suite comprises different function areas, including terraces, which can be blended together for one large event, or used individually for a more intimate occasion. Mons Calpe can cater for up to 300 guests at a cocktail party for example, or 60 diners for a sit-down meal (increasing to 75 if the mezzanine level is also included), so whether it’s a banquet, a BBQ or just the bar you’re after, the space can be arranged accordingly.

But by far what strikes you immediately on entering the circular suite, are the views it affords. Right in front of you as you enter stands the Rock, and to the west you overlook the Bay of Gibraltar and the city areas. To the east, on a clear day, the view stretches to Sotogrande, and sometimes further still, all the way to Marbella. The Swiss Ambassador, mentions Gino, remarked on the occasion that he visited the suite that while he has been to venues on a par with Mons Calpe in terms of excellence, the

views it offered were simply unsurpassable.

Of course, the weather being what it is, there are days you can see nothing beyond the thick cloud which surrounds the suite in its position so high up The Rock, but dining in the clouds, I’m told, is quite an experience in itself. There have also been times, Gino says, when the storms have been so heavy that even the band has had to capitulate to the weather conditions as all the guests are so absorbed by the thunder and lightning show going on around them that their attention is on nothing else. It must make for quite the evening entertainment.

Most frequently used for weddings, the Mons Calpe Suite perfectly complements the ease with which you can get married in Gibraltar.

Gino and his team provide the Intimate Wedding Package, and can organise everything from the ceremony itself (the suite being one of the few locations in Gibraltar with a licence to perform civil ceremonies outside the Registry Office), to the reception and gourmet catering, the provision of witnesses (many’s the marriage certificate, says Gino, which has his signature bearing witness at the bottom), and even a live link-up (most commonly via skype) to friends and family who couldn’t be present on the big day. The operating hours of the cable cars can also be extended beyond their normal 8pm finish to ensure there are carriages awaiting even the latest of revellers at the end of the night.

Currently only available for private hire, Gino does have plans afoot to attract a post-work, professional crowd on a more regular basis by starting to open the suite up early evening as a precursor to a night in the more usual Gibraltar hotspots. See it as the more sophisticated warmup to a night out, if you will.

For now however, Gino sums the Mons Calpe Suite up as somewhere you come “to show off”.

Whatever event you are planning, the unique location at the top of the Rock provides the extraordinary setting, while Gino and his team provide the first-class service to match. It is an unbeatable combination.

Suite Dreams

MONS CALPE WORDS AMY WILLIAMS PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF MONS CALPE SUITE

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THE GOURMET wine

‘RUM

Goings On WORDS AJ LINN

“ I

n the hierarchy of distilled drinks, brandy is undeniably king. It has always been the preferred tipple of aristocrats and captains of industry, not to mention writers and artists. Whisky surely comes next in the ranking for its noble connections and sheer universality, while gin is a social climber that started as the cheapest tipple in town and was blamed for almost everything bad that happened to the working classes in industrialrevolution England. But it is probably due to its marriage with tonic water that made it the favourite ‘medication’ of Her Majesty’s forces overseas, that gin has attained the very heights of respectability to the point where it is currently the drink-of-choice in many countries. Vodka is of course the preferred drink-to-get-drunk on throughout the ex-Soviet block and they are weaned on it.

So where does rum fit into the pecking order? Rather like gin, its humble beginnings gave it a bad start in life, and although Marco Polo claims to have been offered a rum-like drink in what is now Iran, the first distillation of rum from molasses almost certainly took place in the Caribbean in the 17th century. For its capacity to ‘mount up unto the head’, this early rum was called ‘kill-devil’ on Barbados, where English colonists had settled.

Its history is inextricably linked to some of the most picaresque episodes in history, as the names of some brands demonstrate: ‘Nelson’s Blood’, ‘Kill Devil’, ‘Rumbullion’. And while the pirate vessels that crisscrossed the Caribbean were allegedly fuelled by it, that rum was very light and probably diluted to reduce the alcohol content. The demand for rum from the Caribbean was directly responsible for the expansion of the slave trade as a means of supplying the labour required for the sugar cane plantations, and at one time or another practically every Caribbean island made rum, whether under British, French or Spanish rule. Mexico, Central America, Venezuela and even West Africa have their versions. Unlike other spirits and wines, there are

no universal standards, and rums can be light in colour and strength, or over proof (75 to 80 per cent), so you never know what you are getting until you drink it.

All rum is colourless initially. Whites are mainly used as mixers. Golden and Amber rums have been aged in oak casks and are smooth and mellow, while Dark Rums, together with Añejo and age-dated rums, can be 10 years old or more. These heavier and pricier rums will have come from the less efficient pot stills rather than the more commercial continuous stills.

There is speculation about how rum got its name.

The most amusing theory is based on the fact that early distillations were bitter and the first time most people drank it they made a face and cried ‘Rrrrhum!’

If the Royal Navy had not captured Jamaica in 1655 it is possible her sailors would never have had rum served as the daily tot. Wine and beer tended to go off during a voyage but rum came through in all weathers, although it was not until too many drunken matelots started falling out of the rigging that it was customarily watered down.

Even though the senior service’s daily rum ration was abolished years ago, it is still issued on special occasions and splice the main brace indicates a double ration.

Rum has an abundance of stories, legends, and lies related to it. For example, Nelson’s body was not stored in a barrel of rum for the voyage back to England after his death at Trafalgar. It was brandy, and nor did the cask arrive at Portsmouth empty because the sailors had drilled a hole in the bottom of the barrel through which to drink the liquid. But it is rumoured that there was a smile on the face of the corpse when it was uncasked.

There seem to be many rum fanatics in Spain, and they are very choosy about what they drink. I have been kindly rebuked for offering regular brands when I should have had available 15-year old Añejo or one of the other popular options that contains honey. Well, I didn’t know anything about rum – then… e

Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest-...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Drink and the devil had done for the rest-...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Louis Stevenson

”

Z Barbados produces light, sweetish rums and is probably the oldest maker in the world.

Z Cuba produces light-bodied, crisp, clean rums that cannot be sold in the United States.

Z The Dominican Republic is notable for its full-bodied, aged rums.

Z Haiti makes heavier, fullflavoured, smooth-tasting, rums that are double-distilled in pot stills. There is also an underground moonshine industry that supplies voodoo religious rituals.

Z Jamaica is unique in having official classifications of rum, ranging from light to very fullflavoured.

Z Martinique usually ages its rum in used French brandy casks for a minimum of three years. Rhum vieux is frequently compared to high-quality French brandy.

Z Brazil produces vast quantities of mostly light rums of which Cachaça is the best-known example.

Z Venezuela makes a number of well-respected barrel-aged golden and dark rums.

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theguide restaurant LISTING

RESTAURANTS/bars All’s Well Bar & Restaurant

Bruno’s

Casa Brachette

Corks Wine Bar

Unit 4, Casemates Square, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 72987

Unit 3, Trade Winds, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 68444

9 Chatham Counterguard, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 48200

79 Irish Town, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 75566

Bianca’s

Cafe Rojo

Casa Pepe

El Patio

6/7 Admiral’s Walk, Marina Bay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 73379

54 Irish Town, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 51738

Unit 18, Queensway Quay Marina, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 46967

Unit 11, Casemates Square, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 40713

Bistro Madeleine

Cafe Solo

Champion’s Planet Bar & Grill

El Pulpero

256 Main Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 65696

Grand Casemates Square 3, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 44449

Unit 2B, The Tower, Marina Bay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 46668

Unit 12A Watergardens, Waterport, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 44786

Bridge Bar & Grill

Cannon Bar

Charlie’s Steakhouse & Grill

4 Stagioni

Leisure Island, Ocean Village, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 66446

27 Cannon Lane, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 77288

4/5 Britannia House, Marina Bay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 69993

16/18 Saluting Battery, Rosia Road, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 79153

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Gallo Nero

Latino’s Diner

Mamma Mia

56/58 Irish Town, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 77832

194/196 Main Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 46660

Unit C, Boyd Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 64444

Gatsby’s

Latinos Music Bar and Restaurant

Mons calpe suite

1 /3 Watergardens 1, Waterport Ave, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 76291

9 Casemates Square, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 47755

Gibraltar Arms

La Parrilla

184 Main Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 72133

17/18 Watergardens, Block 6, Gibraltar. Tel: +350 200 66555

Ipanema

Laziz

Unit 11, Ocean Village Promenade, Gibraltar. Tel: +350 216 48888

Sail 2.2, Ocean Village Marina, Gibraltar. Tel: +350 200 40971

Jumpers Wheel Restaurant

Le Bateau

20 Rosia Road, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 40052

14 Ragged Staff Wharf, Queensway Quay, Gibraltar.

Tel: +350 200 66420

Jury’s Cafe & Wine Bar

Lek Bangkok

275 Main Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 67898

Unit 50 1/3, Block 5, Eurotowers, Gibraltar. Tel: +350 200 48881

Khan’s

Little Rock Restaurant & Bar

7/8 Watergardens, Waterport, Gibraltar. Tel: +350 200 50015

Kowloon Restaurant

Casemates Square, Gibraltar Tel +350 200 51977

20 Watergardens III, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 42771

Maharaja Indian Restaurant

La Mamela

5 Tuckey’s Lane, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 50733

Sir Herbert Miles Road, Catalan Bay, Gibraltar. Tel: +350 200 72373

Top of The Rock, Gibraltar.

Tel: +350 200 79478

O’Reilly’s Leisure Island, Ocean Village, Gibraltar. Tel: +350 200 67888

Piccadilly Garden Bar

The Chargrill Restaurant at Gala Casino Gala Casino, Ocean Village, Gibraltar. Tel: +350 200 76666

The Clipper 78 Irish Town, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 79791

The Cuban

3B Rosia Rd, Gibraltar Tel. +350 200 75758

21B The Promenade, Ocean Village, Gibraltar.

Tel: +350 200 67889

Pizza Express

the island

Unit 17, Ocean Village, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 50050

27 Leisure Island, Ocean Village, Gibraltar. Tel: +350 200 66666

Pizzaghetti

the ivy sports bar & grill

1008 Eurotowers, Europort Avenue, Gibraltar.

Tel: +350 200 63868

13a Ocean Village, Gibraltar.

Tel: +350 200 68222

Restaurante Nunos Italiano

The Landings Restaurant

Caleta Hotel, Sir Herbert Miles Road, Catalan Bay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 76501

15 Ragged Staff Wharf, Queensway Quay, Gibraltar.

Tel: +350 200 66100

Rooftop Bistro, O’Callaghan Eliott Hotel

The Rock Hotel Restaurant

Governor’s Parade, Gibraltar +350 200 70500

Roy’s Cod Place 2/2 Watergate House, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 76662

Europa Road, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 73000x The Royal Calpe, 176 Main Street.

Tel: +350 200 75890

The Trafalgar Bar

Sacarello’s CafeRestaurant

1a Rosia Road, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 45370

57 Irish Town, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 70625

The Waterfront

Seawave Bar 60 Catalan Bay Village, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 78739

Solo Bar & Grill Unit 15, 4 Eurotowers, Europort Avenue, Gibraltar.

Tel: +350 200 62828

4/5 Ragged Staff Wharf, Queensway Quay, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 45666

Tunnel Bar Restaurant Casemates Square, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 44878

Verdi Verdi

Casemates Square, Gibraltar.

Tel: +350 200 62828

Unit G10, International Commercial Centre, Main Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 60733

Taps Bar

Yellow House

5 Ocean Village Promenade, Gibraltar. Tel: +350 200 67575

Parliament Lane, Gibraltar +350 200 48148/48248

solo express

Theatre Royal Bar & Restaurant 60 Governor’s Street, Gibraltar Tel: +350 200 51614

98 / SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 ESSENTIALMAGAZINE.COM

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OCEAN VILLAGE GIBRALTAR

BLUE MARINA SOTOGRANDE

is pleased to announce the opening of our new showroom in Blue Sotogrande Marina tiene el placer de anunciarles la apertura de su nueva tienda en Blue Sotogrande Marina

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