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3 weeks ago | 
luxebeatmag.com | Kevin Pilley
The Piazza Duomo is the place to dunk. Surrounded by Baroque showpiece masterpieces, Tina showed me how to dip my brioche in my granita. The Syracusean way. Tina Santacroce studied “Behavioural Sciences” at Melbourne’s Lafogue University before emigrating with her Sicilian husband Tino, thirty-something years ago. She now runs the “Caffe Minerva” in the heart of Ortygia island on the east coast of Sicily. Granita is a carbo-loaded lemon, strawberry, almond and coffee foamy slush.
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3 weeks ago | 
luxebeatmag.com | Kevin Pilley
In 2024, six Scotch whisky distilleries celebrated their bicentennials: The Glenlivet, The Macallan, Fettercairn, Miltonduff, Cardhu, and Balmenach. The Big Six are the only whisky makers remaining out of 167 that originally registered in 1824, the year after licensed distilling began. But only now is Fettercairn available in the US. It’s been a long wait.
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3 weeks ago | 
luxebeatmag.com | Kevin Pilley
Every home must have at least one Nelson. And every kitchen should have a skeleton in it. Just as every hallway should have a splay-footed, £14000 grandfather with a flame mahogany veneer or a quieter , moon-faced Greenwich Timekeeper on duty. Just as every modern living room should have a George Nelson Vitra Eye or a Wedgewood mantel clock. Just as at least one guest bedroom should have the latest Lexon Sunrise and sunset simulation alarm clock. And at least one other spare bedroom, a Fornasetti.
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3 weeks ago | 
luxebeatmag.com | Kevin Pilley
Les Grands Crus of Bordeaux are best appreciated sitting down with a glass in your hand. Saint Emilion, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Giscours and Chateau Lafitte wines are best appreciated in the back of a London taxi. Hail a cab and go to claret country. Instruct your driver “More Merlot!” and “To the grape country of Pessac-Leognan and step on it!”A Frenchman has started a company offering London taxi tours of Bordeaux’s classic vineyards.
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3 weeks ago | 
upscalelivingmag.com | Kevin Pilley
It’s that time of the year again. The time when the kids ring up and ask what their father wants for Father’s Day. And I say, “Surprise him.” And they say that they have run out of surprises. Because, “He’s ancient.” And I say he isn’t. And they say: “He is!” And I tell them he isn’t.
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3 weeks ago | 
luxebeatmag.com | Kevin Pilley
“Enchante mademoiselle,” I say, placing a kiss below her knuckle, tres jolie. “C’est un plaisir most substantial to meet the Miss Marple extraordinaire.”For the day, I am thinking I am the great Hercule Poirot and I am finding myself surrounded by other dapper little Belgian billiard balls who walk like they have a fissure. I mingle among many Miss Marples and not a few Miss Lemons. For les femmes anglaise un petit Belgique private dick est tres irresistible.
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1 month ago | 
luxebeatmag.com | Kevin Pilley
The founder of The Royal & Awesome golf clothing brand is set to play 25 full rounds of “outrageous” golf in five days to raise money for the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation. The challenge will see Graeme Smeaton hit more than 2,000 shots and walk the equivalent of nearly a marathon a day, while surviving on less than 25 hours of sleep. Smeaton will sport Royal & Awesome’s limited-edition Doddie tartan range throughout the challenge, 15% of each sale of which will go directly to support MND research.
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1 month ago | 
luxebeatmag.com | Kevin Pilley
Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative Player…Where would you buy a Hawaiian shirt? Honolulu or from David Burrge at Honeycrock Farm, near London’s Gatwick airport? The tiny land-locked village of Salfords is the place to buy your stand-out resortwear or something outrageous for the summer. Be it barbecue, party or beach. Karmakula (“The gift of good luck”) is the British hub of Hawaiian shirt industry. Says Burrge: “It’s a long story.
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1 month ago | 
luxebeatmag.com | Kevin Pilley
Scotland’s “Glorious Playground” estate has launched a special safari into the Perthshire countryside , allowing guests to get up-close and personal with some of Scotland’s largest natives and heaviest rustics. Some of the country’s hairiest residents will welcome you into their fold.
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1 month ago | 
upscalelivingmag.com | Kevin Pilley
May sees the launch of a great whistle. Every Tamdhu whisky is a great whisky. The Speyside Distillery, renowned for its Oloroso Sherry cask maturation, is about to release its anticipated 21-year-old expression. Whisky aficionados are salivating at the prospect and imagining the spicy syrupiness and the waves of sherried oak with chocolate, sultanas, velvety toffee, and warm cinnamon porridge oats rounded out with a hint of mocha and marzipan, and getting a taste of Christmas cake in high summer.
