Backchat - 17 May 2005

Gwen Stefani — Assorted

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Gwen Stefani. Her songs are almost uniformly interesting and her music is so professionally produced she could be singing the words to a Victa lawnmower manual while playing Rolf Harris’s wobble board and you’d still be rushing to the nearest dancefloor. All that’s a complete ‘given’.

Global - 5 May 2005

Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi

» Emirates Palace: www.emiratespalace.com Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, the most expensive hotel ever built, recently raised its portcullis. Costing an estimated $2 billion to build, the Emirates Palace is wall-to-wall gold leaf and touch-screen everything, with not a camel in sight.