Secret Concierge

All Veyrons are special, but some are more special than others. As if a $1.5 million supercar weren’t special enough, Bugatti has come out with what has seemed like an endless array of special editions to further differentiate the rare cars one from another. It all started with the Pur Sang edition, a Veyron with its bare aluminum and carbon-fiber body exposed like an heiress on a Mediterranean beach. Only five were made, and were sold within 24 hours of its announcement. It seems like the sheikh who bought this one, however, is in need of some extra cash, and has put his up for sale for an undisclosed price at an Abu Dhabi dealership. Interested parties with an extra couple million to spare should contact the dealership directly.

Ricki Lake claims in a new book Your Birth that childbirth can summon up memories of the trauma of abuse, according to a US report.

Lake, who was herself abused at the age of six, explains the theory that loss of control of one’s body during childbirth can trigger memories of trauma.

“You can feel violated. I mean one in three women are sexually assaulted in some way, so those are a lot of women giving birth,” she said.

She urged caregivers to be very gentle with women during labour, because they are experiencing a loss of privacy and comfort level.

Ricki Lake said she has always been modest about her body and that she felt safer giving birth at home.

Lake had a midwife to assist in the birth of her now seven-year-old son, Owen, which was featured in a 2008 documentary The Business of Giving Birth.

She ventures into some taboo areas, discussing nipple stimulation by a partner to help start labour, as well as orgasms, noting: “I can’t say I had an orgasm when I gave birth. I did not have that.”

Today’s home on Fisher Hill in Brookline, Massachusetts has as its claim to fame the fact that it was once featured in an article in Time Magazine on the “New American Home” (the owners talked about their dual home offices and large space for watching television). The six-bedroom home sits on over and acre and has an indoor pool and an indoor basketball court/gymnasium as well as an outdoor sport court. It is listed at $6.295 million which makes it the most expensive home on the market in Brookline.

Conveniently located in Manhattan’s historic Murray Hill district, the 149-room Kitano New York invites guests to enjoy a truly unique cultural and hospitality experience with its Tatami Suite. As the hotel serves as New York’s first and only Japanese-owned hotel, it is home to the city’s only traditional $1 million Japanese-style guest suite.

With its authentic furnishings, steeped traditions and cultural services guests feel they have stepped into Japan upon entering the Tatami Suite- with the only the spectacular views of Park Avenue and the Kitano New York’s esteemed reputation to remind them they are still in the heart of Manhattan.

As guests enter The Kitano New York’s Tatami Suite, after following the Japanese tradition of removing their shoes so as not to track in contaminants, they will first notice the distinct aroma of the tatami mats. This earthy aromatic is thought to calm and sooth the soul in Japanese culture, allowing guests to enter into a state of tranquility.

The 805 square-feet suite offers a sleeping quarter with two twin beds, which can be replaced with traditional futons if the guests prefer.

The sleeping quarters is connected to an authentic tea pantry. With this unique feature, The Kitano New York can easily convert the sleeping quarters after removing the beds into an authentic tea ceremony room with access to the pantry.

The suite also features a spacious common area that measures eight tatami mats (a standard unit of measurement in Japan) as well as a traditional Japanese bathroom in which a large tub for soaking and a separate shower for bathing.

The most significant aspect of Kitano New York’s suite is the tatami matting that lines the floor, which symbolizes a higher class level in the Japanese culture. The mats are constructed with woven rush plant on the surface and rice straw inside-two common goods that grown abundantly throughout the country.

In addition signifying class level, tatami mats are also used commonly used in Japan to keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer as it also acts as a cooling agent in the hot and damp climate.

Typically, the mats last for approximately four years; however, once become worn, they can easily be replaced without changing the rush underneath.

The mats are also eco-friendly as they can be used as a fertilizer once they are no longer used as flooring.

Each design aspect of the Tatami Suite, which cost nearly $1 million to construct and features artworks, furnishing and cedar accents imported directly from Japan, incorporates the strict tradition of the Japanese culture. The formal entry way, sleeping quarter/tea ceremony room and common area all feature a Tokonoma, a small alcove that often houses decorative scrolls and signifies that the most important guest should be seated with his or her back facing the area. The walls are constructed with the traditional Juraku, a sand-based well cement that removes moisture from the air, while the ceiling features the Sukiya Zukuri architectural design component that hides all nails from sight.

In addition to enjoying the Tatami Suite accommodations, guests can also experience all of The Kitano New York’s on-site offerings such as the Michelin-rated Hakubai Restaurant, which features some of the country’s most authentic Japanese cuisine with its unique Kaiseki delicacies. Guests of the Tatami Suite are invited to enjoy this dining experience in-room as the hotel will arrange for service and presentation to take place in the suite’s common area.

The hotel also offers The Garden Café, which is situated in a historic townhouse adjacent to the hotel. The restaurant is located in a tranquil urban garden setting of exotic plants and vegetation. It features American contemporary cuisine. The Kitano Boutique also is a great spot to select a keepsake memento from a New York escape, as it features a unique collection of handmade items by European and Asian artists.

The Kitano features traditional East and West services and amenities that are unmatched anywhere in the world. Asian hospitality merges seamlessly with New York style for an ambience that is pure Kitano. Awarded the AAA Four-Diamond rating,

The Kitano New York is distinguished by a contemporary interior that is both elegant and supremely comfortable. The newly-refurbished guestrooms feature custom-made mahogany and cherry furniture, down comforters, exquisite artwork and Roman pleated shades with windows that open to views of the historic Murray Hill, Grand Central Terminal, the Empire State Building and other New York landmarks. The renovation was designed to bring the same sense of serenity combined with the maximum level of comfort and service for which the hotel is known to the guestrooms.

For hotel reservations, visit www.kitano.com  or call 212-885-7000.

For more information and reservations, please contact The Kitano New York Hotel at 1-800-548-2666 or log onto www.kitano.com

• Get it in writing. Before you pay a retainer or non-refundable deposit to any vendor for wedding services, it is imperative that you have all arrangements in writing in the form of a service contract, signed by both you and the respective vendor. Never ever pay a retainer to a vendor without a contract. If they do not have a contract for you to sign, I would say think twice about hiring them. If you truly want to hire them, then draw up your own written service agreement.

• Do not sign a contract until you have read every line. You absolutely must read every contract you sign to make sure you understand the vendor's terms and conditions for services. If there is something you do not understand, ask questions. If it's something that you do not agree to, then by all means let the vendor know to see if you can come to mutually agreed upon term. This is not to say that a vendor should rewrite his or her entire contract because this is not likely to happen due to the fact that contracts are designed to cover the parties involved.

• Review all vendor contracts. Every vendor contract should at least include the following: your event date, the location(s) of the event, the start and end times, including setup time, a cancellation policy, and a service description including any custom details or special requests that you discussed. In addition, the contract should have both a fee and payment schedule. The fee schedule should clearly outline what's included in the base or quoted price, the price of any additional services if you requested any, and the cost of overtime should your event go over the amount of hours included in the service. The payment schedule should include your retainer, which is due at the time of signing the contract and it should also clearly outline the due dates of remaining payments.

• Pay with a credit card. If possible pay for vendor services with a credit card. In this way, if there is a problem and you think in full conscious that you deserve a refund for services and the vendor denies you a refund, you will have a much better chance of obtaining that refund than if you had paid with cash or check. Another perk to using a credit is that you can earn points, for example for air mileage and in come cases cash-back and this may help you pay for your honeymoon. Please note that when I say pay with a credit card, I am not saying use your credit cards to finance your wedding as in get in debt. Don't charge what you can't afford to pay in cash!

• Go with your gut instincts! If it's something that does not sit well with you about a vendor and or his contract, then by all means trust your instincts and locate someone else to provide that service for you.

With air travel getting more expensive and becoming a bigger hassle all the time, the train has emerged as the preferred mode of transportation throughout Europe. Service between London, Brussels and Paris is carried out by the Eurostar, a high-speed train that carries passengers and vehicles underneath the English channel through the tunnel and out the other side in lightning-fast luxury. The train cars have been in service unchanged since their introduction fifteen years ago, but that’s about to change as Italian design house and coachbuilder Pininfarina has been awarded the undoubtedly lucrative contract to refinish them. The company has a well-earned reputation in the automotive industry, having designed the majority of new Ferraris for the past several decades, to say nothing of countless others. The refurbishment process is set to kick off shortly, but the first of the new train cars won’t be in service before 2012.

Energetic Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte will Canada’s first space tourist. Laliberte will head into space in September aboard a Soyuz rocket headed for the International Space Station. Laliberte was #269 on the Forbes billionaire list this year and has a net worth of approximately $2.5 billion. He has traveled the world with his roving troupes and has permanent shows in Las Vegas at several of the top casino resorts, Walt Disney World in Florida, and next year in Dubai.

He will spend around $35 million from his personal fortune and has been training and undergoing medical exams in Russia for the past few weeks. He plans to use his 13-day trip to space to send a message about the importance of providing access to clean water for all. He created the One Drop Foundation back in 2007. He plans to bring up a poem that he is writing with a friend and the consummate showman is planning on what he calls “an artistic production project, an original one, I hope, that will surprise, will entertain and will achieve the goal of communicating in a massive way this poem, which will be a poem to planet Earth and its inhabitants, with regard to the situation of water in the world.”

Subtlety isn’t a term you’d ordinarily associate with sport-utility vehicle. Certainly not one as large as the Audi Q7. But that may be the only word to describe the update which the German automaker has given to its largest SUV. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the 2009 model and the new 2010 version, so we’ll tell you what they’ve done. Although the headlights are the same shape, they now incorporate a strip of LEDs; the front bumper has been subtly restyled, as has the rear end; the interior now has more wood veneer; there’s a new satellite navigation system; and the 4.2-liter V8 turbo-diesel available overseas (but not in North America) gets a bump in power while consuming less oil. Again, subtle, as you can see from the images in the gallery below.

« Older Entries

Newer Entries »