November 18 If snow-ploughing at a package holiday resorts with the masses from Fulham leaves you cold this winter fear not. Doug Coombs runs big mountain back-country ski camps in Verbier, Switzerland. Skiing high above the ordinary runs, the village below looks more like tiny chocolates rather than chocolate boxes. But beware-you need to be a good skier. Doug doesn’t ski intermediate runs and he doesn’t ski groomed trails. So if you’re looking for an adventure and an excuse to buy the latest Salomon Mach 2 ski helmet, then this is for you. Be prepared for a week of early nights, as the only après ski you’re likely to be up to is carb loading on spatzle. And because the St Bernards and their trusty whiskey kegs are literally miles away from where you will be skiing, we recommend International SOS’s Global Emergency Assistance, just in case that aerial goes horribly wrong. www.dougcoombs.com Romans Do It Better Latin has been labelled a dead language and there’s no doubt its study and awareness is in decline but we’d like to make a case for bringing back the mother of all languages. Spoken its pure erotica, written it is logical and evocative and studying it unlocks one of the greatest libraries of history, philosophy and literature the world has ever seen. Loads of resources still exist and the excellent Cambridge University Press Latin Course has recently gone online bringing the language to a whole new audience. www.cambridgescp.com
In Search Of The Good Life Poster-boy for the new pack is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his River Cottage. Yes maybe the cottage industry has now become something of a corporation with gift vouchers and diaries, but at its heart, Hugh’s program taps deep into an increasing need among the British to go back to their roots and rediscover what it means to be alive. Now in its fourth season, and with a new book just out, any budding self-sustainer need look no further for advice on everything from shooting pigeons to slaughtering a pig. Be warned-Delia it ain’t! www.rivercottage.net
With Alpe d’Huez and Cervinia now open it’s time to think about this year’s ski season. Snowfalls of 120cm have already recorded in Mammoth in California and Turoa in New Zealand still has excellent skiing for what is the equivalent of late April in the southern hemisphere. The two must have new products this season are the Porsche Supersport GTS Piston Control skis and the Soft Pro range of ski boots from Rossignol. Designed by Porsche and made by Volkl the Supersport GTS are an all mountain ski that will equally suit on-piste carvers and those looking to head for the back country for more extreme runs. Best of all these skis look fantastic propped up against the side of an auberge and on the pack rack of your 911. Resembling modern inline skates with extra padding and significantly less plastic over the front of the ankle the Rossignol Soft Pro range of boots herald a new era in comfort. Hopefully this marks the end of “Hurty Ankles” syndrome that usually arises on the first day walking from your chalet to the lifts. So hit the orbital stepper and Creatine supplements now to ensure you have the legs for what looks like being another great ski season. Check out the BBC’s essential guide to the US elections including a terrific map of the US with information about the state of play for the entire Electoral College at: New series of Little Britain started on BBC3 last night earning them their highest ever ratings. Compulsory viewing at the UpInTheBubble offices! Lots of updates to By Appointment today. As always, keep sending us your suggestions and feedback. New feature-our guide to our 5 favourite bars. Its always hard doing a top five anything, let alone bars when there are so many to choose from. As always, email us your comments and nominations at vault@upinthebubble.com It's election season and don’t we love it. Australia goes to the polls this weekend, the US in less than a month and the run-up to the UK elections next year feels like its in full swing already. We can’t help thinking back to that brilliant cover the Economist ran after the Spanish election showing four playing cards, each with an image of a world leader and the headline 1 down, 3 to go. The Spanish PM had just lost his post, and the photos of John Howard, Tony Blair and George W sat ominously on the black background. Polls have both Howard and Bush slightly ahead at the moment, but anything could happen when elections are this close. Whoever wins, we think the real fun of an election is sitting in front of the tv watching the results pour in. We’re especially fans of the US election coverage when the networks present over the top commentaries, full-on graphics and cavalier calls (remember 2000 when they actually called Florida for the Democrats and crowned Al Gore president?) Work has slowed to a trickle here since we discovered The Crimson Room, an online flash game that’s devilishly tricky. Its free to play (but you can donate if you feel it was worthwhile) and there’s three online now with more to come in the future.
Well done Gordon Brown. At a time when most politicians run a mile from doing the right thing, Gordon’s stance on international debt is refreshing. Standing up to the US and declaring that debt forgiveness should be funded not by the World Bank but by individual nations themselves is just the sort of moral stance the Labour Party used to be about. We wonder how much Tony knew about this before it was announced! It's not often we get caught up in computer bits here at Up In The Bubble but we’re dead keen on the new Canon Pixma printer range. The new 4000R looks stunning, prints super fast and even prints wirelessly when you link it in with an Apple airport network. Check them out at canon.com
Walter Gate, our political correspondent has wired in his views on the upcoming elections in the US. We’re disappointed to note that neither candidate is advocating the subsidisation of milk from happy, free-range cows, the outlawing of zips on footwear or the construction of a high speed, underground link from Tribeca to the Cayman Islands. Until the emergence of a credible Third Way, we await, as ever, your policy suggestions at vault@upinthebubble.com
At Upinthebubble all roads seem to lead eventually to food. Rarely is a travel anecdote, or a weekend’s description conveyed without mention of what was consumed or discovered. Hence you’ll find our food section, Down The Hatch, bulging with all manner of foods, drinks and places to eat from around the world. Our aim is not to create a comprehensive guide to the world’s food outlets (we’ll leave that to the good folk at Guides Michelin) but rather to point you in the direction of the things that we can’t live without. In an age where maximising efficiency is more important than taste, and shelf life more valued than nutrition, we hope to highlight a few tastes that buck this trend. As always, email your nominations and opinions to vault@upinthebubble.com We’ve targeted packaging in a new feature. We think it’s a great medium poorly done by the majority of companies. Stop snoozing in the aisles and email us with your nominations for great packaging to vault@upinthebubble.com and we’ll add them to the feature periodically. We all sat around the table today and came up with our definitive list of sports we recommend, plus a load of links to get you started. Get rough and buffed with all the new additions in By Appointment.
Our travel correspondent has taken time out of his demanding cruise liner schedule to post us his thoughts on the state of travel at the moment. Check them out in our features section. Our ‘By Appointment’ sections are growing nicely as our worldwide correspondents telex through their submissions. Thoroughly vetted and investigated by our duty officers, they are posted only when we’re convinced they meet our exacting standards. Take a browse through and keep visiting us to catch up on all the latest postings.
Welcome to our bit on the side. We dreamt up the idea for this site lounging poolside in Sicily last Summer. How ironic we thought, that as the number of media available to us grows exponentially, the quality of the content seems to drop in correlation. There are so many great places to go, so many different things to see and own and think about. And yet every month we open up our glossy air-freight mags or switch on our satellite television to be treated to the same old same old. ‘Put your money where your mouth is’ our travel correspondent declared. ‘Lets go electronic’ added our technology guy as he descended the ladder into the Mediterranean on his hourly quest to find a European Royal swimming in the bay. ‘And beautiful’ purred our basting style editor. Things moved swiftly. Advances were wired from Swiss banks. Rows of quietly humming servers were installed in our underground bunker. And vast quantities of shellfish and Belgian chocolates were air-freighted in to feed the toiling masses. And so here we humbly present ourselves for your consuming pleasure. We think the future will be a lot brighter if we can make things more special, more individual and a little nicer to look at. We hope what you find over the coming months meets your expectations. The site is, in keeping with all that’s current in the media environment, a dialogue. So it’s about your contribution as much as ours. Write, shoot, draw or record your contributions and deposit them at vault@upinthebubble.com
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