As a child, when my parents would go out for the evening and I was entrusted to a babysitter, little did they know that I would terrorise my au pairs by eating leaves of notepads, leading them to believe that I was some kind of human paper shredder, thus ensuring their suspicious and immediate unavailability. [...]

In an age of digital gift giving, sending an electronic gift has the ability to feel intangible and impersonal—kinda of like a visit to the proctologist without the aid of at least a water-based lubricant. An email or a gift voucher code just doesn’t have the same cachet or mystique of a gift-wrapped box topped [...]

Want to welcome prosperity, wealth and longevity into your life? Then Chinese Lunar New Year is the time to do it. Eliminate the negative chi you have accumulated and bring on the Year of the Dragon. The dragon is all about drama and throwing caution to the wind, marked by excitement, unpredictability, intensity and exhilaration—kind [...]

While Men’s Fashion Week might have come to a close in Milan and moved onto French soil, the Italian fashion capital will always be in style. And that’s before the Armani Hotel opened. Recently the winner of Best Branding in the 2012 Wallpaper* Design Awards, it’s the mega-brand’s second foray into luxury accommodation, following the success of [...]

There once was a time when portable storage was quite the opposite of what it claimed to be—portable. If you were born pre-1992 (and if you weren’t, welcome) you might recall the first and—at the time—revolutionary Zip disk. It was like a 3¼-inch disk and a 5½-inch floppy had a baby and then bought it a [...]

Anyone familiar with the 1992-1993′s The Late Show would know the loveable unlovable Bargearse; the overdubbed and corpulent cop who knows takeaway food and toilet humour better than any other. They would also know that his beverage of choice is a breakfast beer, followed closely by his evening tipple: the beer daiquiri. I’ve attempted to replicate the beer daiquiri on [...]

Fashion and the hotel industry have long been affiliated, what with recent Maison Martin Margiela-designed La Maison Champs-Elysées, Moschino’s witty Maison Moschino, Paris’ Le Bellechasse, designed by Christian Lacroix, and of course, Palazzo Versace; however, the other end of the spectrum—young designers—are seldom represented. Enter Amsterdam’s Hotel the Exchange where each of the sixty-one rooms is designed by a [...]

If you wondered what books do when everyone else is asleep then consider this your video your enlightenment. If, however, you’re afraid of poltergeists, then I’m afraid this is your nightmare fuel. “The Joy of Books” is a a stop-motion video created by husband-and-wife team, Sean Ohlenkamp and Lisa Ohlenkamp. The couple spent their evenings at the Type bookstore [...]

Dear Agony Uncle, When ordering a bottle of wine at a restaurant and the waiter asks if you wish to try some, I always decline because it seems pointless. If I like the wine, I will accept the bottle, but if I do not, I feel sheepish refusing it and will accept the bottle anyway. [...]

Here’s a proposition: Paddington Bear was a hipster. He had all the hallmarks: a duffel coat, a floppy Blossom hat, a vintage suitcase; and was found roaming Paddington Station with no recollection from where he came from or to where he was going. To me he sounds like most kids in East London after a [...]