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It was around 11pm, just before I went to bed, when I heard a ping from my phone. I assumed it was a text from BA canceling my flight the next day, but it was an answering machine message with the caller ID as “Unknown”.
When I listened, I heard a deep voice, with a northern accent, saying slowly and deliberately: ‘You haven’t answered me. Four weeks have passed. I saw you in that store that time. Come back to me NOW!’ It was extremely unpleasant. Of course I didn’t want to talk to this man and, in any case, with his number hidden from him, it was impossible to call back.
I scanned my memory for any encounter I might have had in a store or if I had bothered someone but found nothing. No doubt they had called me by mistake, but I couldn’t be completely sure since the man would have heard my voice on my voicemail. This disturbing experience kept me awake for hours.
My experience brought home the reality of how terrifying it must be for millions of people in abusive relationships, writes Alexandra Shulman.
Although I came to the conclusion that the call was intended for someone else (I’m assuming a woman), it made me realize how scary it must be for the millions of people who are in abusive relationships. No place is safe. The abuser could be in any store, call at any time, and doesn’t even need to use threatening words. Just that familiar voice will provoke dread. I haven’t heard from this man again, and I really hope the poor woman for whom the call was intended hasn’t either.
The golden old men are the ones who make money
I spent most of last week in Dublin, and found it to be a city full of music. There are buskers on every street, almost all of them performing Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. It made me wonder why buskers always play old faithfuls: the Eagles, Leonard Cohen, the Beatles. Then I realized that only old people carry change.
Trinny’s secret? She suffers like all of us.
Trinny Woodall was in Dublin at the same time to launch her makeup brand Trinny London.
When I visited the city’s Brown Thomas department store, the cosmetics department was preparing for its appearance, with everyone in attendance decked out in their trademark sparkling sequins.
Trinny is the new queen of cosmetics, following in the high heels of Charlotte Tilbury, the makeup artist turned billionaire.
Trinny is a great communicator. Although she has no experience in cosmetics, she makes the thousands who follow her daily Instagram videos feel that she understands them.
But both women reflect the examples of previous empresses of the face cream industry: Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder and Helena Rubinstein.
These latest innovative businesswomen managed to establish a personal connection with their customers, showing up in person to apply makeup and offer skin care advice to women in department stores across the United States. Trinny is also a great communicator. Although she has no experience in cosmetics, she makes the thousands who follow her daily videos on Instagram feel like she understands them. Charlotte Tilbury sells her brand to stardom; Trinny sells empathy. She knows what it’s like to wake up with dark circles under your eyes or have any bad skin day. She sounds honest and attractive, and you believe in her, so you believe her makeup recipes will work. I’m awaiting delivery of the Miracle Blur from her as I type.
Emma destroys it in style and substance.
Emma Raducanu fought her way to the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Open on Friday, eventually losing to world number one Iga Swiatek. When she won the 2021 US Open aged just 18, Emma immediately became the poster girl for tennis, and her Zendaya-esque looks helped rake in the £9.6million she earned last year, mostly from commercial endorsements .
Inevitably there are those who think that Emma is all style and no substance. But as it stands she is proving that she is both and a huge inspiration to young women who want to look glamorous and be taken seriously.
Inevitably there are those who think that Emma, pictured playing in Stuttgart, is all style and no substance…
…but as it stands, it’s proving to be both.
Set-jetting is now so satisfying for selfies
Set-jetting (visiting locations used as film or television movie locations) is a new trend. Taormina in Sicily, always a tourist trap, is worse than ever after White Lotus, the series about the exploits of the guests and staff of a luxury resort, while the charming beach restaurant Ca’s Patro March in Mallorca has been packed of bookings since his appearance in BBC thriller The Night Manager. Paris has never been the same since Emily started hanging around the place.
Of course, filming locations have always attracted visitors. Would the Côte d’Azur have had the same appeal without those glamorous convertible vehicles of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief? But today the audience is much larger and successful show locations guarantee a high number of Instagram posts with visitors from all over the world drawn to post selfies from the hotspots.
The Maison Highbury, the rather anonymous cafe in London’s Islington that featured in the TV series One Day, draws crowds, as does the film Notting Hill’s Travel Book Shop, which all these years later has more tourists than ever.
…But not for Italy in the creepy Ripley
Having binged Netflix’s Ripley, set in a series of Italian towns, I doubt this excellent, completely creepy reworking of Patricia Highsmith’s thriller will have the same stagecraft effect. It is shot in black and white and the killer Ripley spends his time in rain-soaked alleys under thunderous clouds.
The dense darkness is deliberate and suits the story well, but not even Andrew Scott in the title role can diminish the sinister mood it projects across Naples, Palermo and Rome.
That’s what you call room service!
On the door handle of my room at the Dylan Hotel in Dublin was a very elegant green velvet card which, instead of suggesting the usual cleaning of the room, asked the staff to “please style my room”. I’m definitely going to try this at home when I want someone else to make the bed.