I would have gone with as the headline, but I was thinking that this is even too weird for Beckett.

Hurricane Irene, which was expected to start harassing Florida as early as Wednesday night, now won’t even make landfall until Friday night. And it’s likely to be somewhere near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. At least that’s the guess of the moment of the weather wonks. Expect several more revisions before this thing hits. It’s already moving much more slowly—and much further to the east—than originally predicted last weekend.

So I’ve settled on “slowly I turn” since this storm sure is taking its sweet time making its way up the coast. I s

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Paris is full of sumptuous mansions and secret gardens, hidden from outsiders by sober stone facades and closed coach doors. But on the weekend of Sept. 17 and 18, as part of Les Journées Européennes du Patrimoine, or European Heritage Days, doors will swing open to reveal some of the citys hidden jewels.

Among 30 city sites that will be specially opened to the public, one of the more interesting is the Hotel de Lauzun, a 17th-century mansion on the Île St.-Louis built by the French architect Louis le Vau, with rooms decorated by the painters Sebastien Bourdon and Charles Lebrun. In

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Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Confirms oneworld Alliance and has announced, that it had been unanimously elected by the chief executives of the alliances member airlines at the 2011 IATA conference in Singapore. MAS is currently a member-elect for the oneworld alliance, sponsored by Qantas Airways. Today, MAS remains focused in joining the oneworld alliance, following the formal invitation to join oneworld on 6 June 2011. The airline is currently working diligently to meet the alliance requirements, to ensure that it becomes a full member soonest possible, subject to the relevant regulatory approvals being obtained. Find more…

Enhanced knowledge platform and increased networking opportunities at the trade show for the Asian travel market

Messe Berlin (Singapore), organiser of ITB Asia, ‘The Trade Show for the Asian Travel Market’, has announced the largest conference programme line-up ever for this year’s show with the addition of two new conference partners – TTG Asia and the Singapore Tourism Board.

Currently in its fourth year, ITB Asia is known for having successfully established a credible and international knowledge-sharing platform alongside the trade show, through the series of conferences, seminars and workshops it organises. Held

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International date lines are a funny thing. I left Seoul, Korea at 4pm on August 2nd and arrived in Austin, TX at 11:45pm the same day after 25 hours of travel. That in itself was confusing, but coupled with an ugly dose of jet lag and a heavy dollop of reverse culture shock, I was a bit of a zombie for days.

A twelve-hour time difference is a tough thing to shake and there are really only two choices: force yourself to stay awake and adapt to the local time (2-3 days of misery) or give in and take naps to survive (a week of waking up at 3am, unable to sleep).

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