That jet-engine sound you hear every year right about now is the roar of the luxury class heading off to a weight-loss spa. It’s commonly understood that when you’re living a life that involves designer clothes, paparazzi, close scrutiny and lots of long alcohol-fueled meals, at some point you’ll need to disappear for a week or two to get rid of the accumulated weight and prepare for your close-up.
Winter weight hanging around like snow that just refuses to melt? It might be time to kick-start your fitness routine with a trip to a destination spa. But which one? Where do the members of the C-Suite, high-net-worth class go when the beach, the red carpet, or the boardroom are calling and they have to lose a few pounds, pronto?
There are strange doings up on the roof at the Met right now. You’ve been warned.
Isn’t spring your favorite season? Watchin’ the flowers bloomin’ up from the ground, watchin’ the snow melt down, boy, you may dig winter, boy, but spring is my joy. One of our favorite performances by the late great Al Jarreau was the artist singing “Joy Spring.” Whatever your favorite season, that song will make you feel alive to the possibilities of springtime. There are some reasonably kooky and sweet annual festivals around the world to mark the arrival of the season. For example, in Zenica, Bosnia, the Festival of Scrambled Eggs celebrates the egg as a symbol of new life. In Zurich, Sechseläuten is the opportunity to set fire to an enormous snowman (called the Böögg) to banish the winter. South Holland hosts a 12-hour-long parade that travels from Noordwijk to Haarlem; at the Flower Parade of the Bollenstreek every float is constructed of bulb flowers like hyacinths, tulips and daffodils. And in India and Nepal, at the Hindu spring festival of Holi – also known as the “festival of colors” – people of all …
Paris? Venice? Hawaii? Santorini? You’ve heard of them all, and perhaps you’ve even been to them all. They’re undeniably romantic, and it would be extremely hard to declare one as clearly superior to the others – after all, determining “the most romantic place” is highly subjective, and in our experience is wholly dependent on one’s companion (the aisles of a supermarket can be intoxicating if you’re with the right person).
