Sensation for the year...

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Thought for today...

“Hidden talent counts for nothing” NERO

Arabian Nights

We thought the lure of far off places may put you in the mood to book the next holiday?  Add to that, the appeal of the Middle East as a neck of the woods sorely needing a trip down memory lane, and we have our desert-and-dates theme for this month. Mongols, Persians, Ottomans or Turks - cavorting beneath spangled canopies, waited on hand and foot by nubile, young, almond-oiled serfs and hissing out sinister plots for brethren beheadings and alchemic warfare against those poor long-suffering Greeks.  Apart from all that, nice folk, really, if you can cop a prostrate pose at speed.  But nothing beats a jewel-encrusted sword or some nice pointy slippers, so gather your gold, samaritans...

•              For the most sensational gilded garret this side of Samarkand, fabrics to be had are Whatnot’s metallic sheers, Hertex’ Neon and St Leger’s Kashan and Warwick Burlesque.  Drape with gay abandon over curtain rods or four poster beds, twined with bronzed tassels and incense smoke.  

•              Ortigia, darling, if you don’t want to smell like Genghis Khan when he was cross, you have never yet sampled such delicious soaps and fragrances made from pomegranate, almond, passiflora, lime and patchouli.  Their product is silver edged and reminiscent of Salomé’s scented veils, we have no doubt.  www.ortigian-srl.com

•              Petal the floors with sensational rose-patterned kilims (available from Gonsenhausers) - fuschia flowers on a black background with a couple of pouffes thrown about...very Hanging Gardens and hand maidens.

•              That erstwhile Alex the Great was fond of a festive meal of an eve.  Set his table with gold cutlery; silver ice buckets overflowing with green and red bunches of grapes; rose hip in the champers; lackeys to wash your hands in petalled finger bowls; gold leaf in the soup and maybe even a leopard or two on a diamond leash for your guests to take home?

•              Waft about in hand-tooled leather slippers and a sparkly kaftan from the Oriental Plaza while listening to Falcon mating calls and Deepak-Chopra reciting The Alchemist.  Sure to get you in the mood for the Dance of the 7 Veils?

Myrrh?  Who brings Myrrh as a gift?  Perhaps that Balthassar was not so silly a wise man since Myrrh is a resin used today in the production of Fernet-Branca, a perfectly disgusting Milanese digestivo for frightening off menstrual ailments and embalming housewives.  Myrrh on the rocks, for you sweetheart?

Salaams all round till next time...

SARAH, SUSIE & ANT