Keeping one’s sanity during the strict restrictions of the ‘new normal’ does not really come to play... 

From the onset of the realisation soon most of us we were all to be exiled to our homes, quite a few the questions we all faced: What will become of us? The mysterious disappearance of toilet paper replaced more celebrated ones, like Agatha Christie, planes and ships in the Bermuda Triangle and the Monna Lisa... 

Well into the second week of life at home, all of us settled in our new lives, learnt to not follow too much the inane news, and discovered new skills and made them our own to various degrees of success.

As two men sharing this moment together, we soon realised we would have needed to include in our otherwise rather unstructured routine, the joys of homemaking and housekeeping... practice makes one perfect! And necessity makes one crafty! 

Here a few hints for other fellow guys needing to tend to their own.....           

Hoovering a favourite of mine, and our hoover - despite being from a Brexit supporter who promptly relocated his company to Singapore...- works perfectly, and practising to incorporate some level of physical exercise as the machine silently roars back and forth - do not forget to close the door of every room you are hoovering... amazing the amount of lint and dust hiding there... 

The glass shower cabin now sparkles again brilliantly as realised that at the end of every few showers, we shower the shower... a candid flannel, some delicate detergent and in a few athletic convolutions the whole of the cabin is soaped up: the handheld shower comes to full action and hey presto, a sense of pride beaming as bright on our faces as the whole bathroom itself... 

The Kitchen is possibly the most laborious area.... blessed by a dishwasher, perfecting the art of mindfully stacking the tray, conjuring little lights all of a sudden sparkling and selecting the appropriate cycle - thank God for google.... laundrybasket management another quest of great importance: separate whites and coloured items the mantra to focus on here... detergents: read directions as your bible, for all programs, ask Alexa if you have, or google, and what about Siri... 

If you have any more brilliant ideas of how to bring other elements to smoothen our daily up-keeping let us know and we’ll update (with credit of course). 

Keep feather dusting and safe. 

Paris is amongst some of the most visited capitals of the world... 

The true magic of the Ville Lumière really comes alive at night....  a romantic stroll along The Seine comes to full circle once the Tour Eiffel sparkle all the way up to the sky; the majestic contraposition of classic and modern of the Louvre Carre or the colourful Moulin Rouge, are just some of the many sights that fire up in the collective imaginary.

But Paris is for sure one of the capitals of style! The Arts in all it’s forms triumph here: architecture, fashion, cuisine, beauty and much more! 

A stroll around the arcades of the Palais Royale is possibly one of our favourite and most inspiring walks you can experience. Be prepared to leave behind the chaos before you walk across the gates of this temple of style. A precursor of today’s shopping mall, the range of what is on offer here cover the full spectrum of retail: art dealers, several ‘one-off ateliers’ and the odd restaurant that dot the arcade, never fails to take one’s breath away... 

And as we are talking about style - and style with the capital S - the simplicity of lines and beautiful muted choice of colours, often end up to speak for themselves, amongst the endless options displayed along with the sheltered line up of petit magasins... 

This time it was a portrait that truly caught our attention: hanging all alone on the wall of a restaurant already closed, chairs folded over the tables, and yet ... look how precise and effortlessly she gazes right ahead of her... is she waiting for a lover...