Charity at Mortons Private Club

Nadya and Marlon Abela, the owners of Morton’s Private Member’s Club, invited the members to join a lovely charity dinner supporting Kids Co (www.kidsco.org.uk).

The evening was fantastic and Select Collection donated together with Banyan Tree an exotic holiday to Banyan Tree's Angsana Balaclava in Mauritius. The bid went for £9000, which will buy lots of bed and bedding for severely impoverished children.

Alex Pakenham, the Marketing Director of Mortons is a lovely person and made great efforts for a succesful night.




I had girl power at my table!




But also a gentleman and a dear friend Kim Nyberg
- Posted using from my iPhone

Sense & sensation

Thinking about our wonderful spa at Select Collection, a place of soothing sensation and relaxation. Our fantastic Daniela Steiner dream bed at Select Collection Spa is just one of our assets.

So easy to fall asleep while you have
your treatment on this blissful bed 

 

 

Malin is one of our beauty specialists

 

Sunday (we are open 7 days a week) is for me a perfect day to go for treatment. We are using Voya products. VOYA uses the wisdom of generations, based on hand-harvested seaweed and traditions of health giving seaweed baths and seaweed treatments. Products are all certified organic.

This picture was taken at Gili Lankanfushi
where they use Voya in their spa

 

 

Intimate cooking and dining

A sizzling culinary event in Stockholm on Wednesday. Swedens’s Chef of the year Klas Lindberg prepared raw fried lobster on a trolley in the dining room in front of his guests, including us...

...myself, my son Jonatan and his girlfriend Louise,
appreciative diners

Making his appearance as "Sturehof Guest
Trolley" - Klas Lindberg

Restaurant Sturehof in Stockholm's lovely Östermalm area has started staging guest appearances of top chefs once a month. They are given free hands to choose the menu, roll their trolleys into the dining room and begin their exhibitions of culinary perfection. Choice of Klas Lindberg was natural, since he won the chef of the year competition earlier in 2012.

The delicious results of this month's
guest appearance at Sturehof

The delight we experienced on Wednesday evening this week included:



Raw-fried lobster

Braised chantarelle mushrooms

Beets

Warm brioche

Lobster mayonaisse


Klas Lindberg competed in the Swedish chef championships seven times. This year he won with
​​ginger fried lobster with cauliflower, hazelnut and soy sauce and a salad of confit lobster.

Ravishing Reethi Rah...

Since May 2005 when One&Only Reethi Rah opened, it has grown more beautiful year by year. Money is lovingly lavished on this property. Constant upkeep holds back the wear and tear of the tropics, while the gardens have flourished, including the organic garden...

Organic gardening is one of the many little secrets behind the stunning fusion food at Reethi Rah, especially vital in this restaurant: 

Chef's Garden organic restaurant

Breakfast starts the day perfectly, before our wonderful activities.

Breakfast at Reethi Rah

A fantastic buffet breakfast

Continuing with an excursion...

... to the reef
and nearby sandbank

We saw eight turtles

 

Picnic after snorkelling -  the white
area above is sand!

More water. Afternoon surprise by
the butler Linsley

Petals floating in the bath

Reethi Rah activity is not all about water. For those like me who love tennis…there is another reason to call this paradise:

 

Wonderful tennis courts! Super quality and
lovely colour

   Getting out and about is also quite heavenly...

Reethi Rah has a big fleet of beautiful boats, here are  a few

And now after all that activity time for some sensual pampering in one of the world’s top hotel spas. One&Only Spa by ESPA not only has wonderful therapists, it also has sophisticated equipment: swirling vitality pools, crystal steam rooms, saunas and ice fountains. In case the sun is getting you down, the Lifestyle showers offer a refreshing burst of tropical rain. Then we could hang on a while here to enjoy exotic spa cuisine, tropical juices and relaxation in a beautiful pavilion.

With Spa manager Sabrina

I had a great spa treatment, and am now looking into the possibility of introducing one of their treatments to the Select spa. You will certainly hear more if this happens.

Some vital statistics of this marvellous climate

One&Only Reethi Rah offers 13 wonderful beaches, partly due to land reclamation. So the spacious beach and water villas all enjoy an unusual amount of privacy. See my last blog about One&Only Reethi Rah.

Perfection in Paradise...

How do you create worldly perfection in paradise? One&Only Reethi Rah has done just that. This is a truly amazing place…

Sailing to Reethi Rah sets the mood: carefree, chic and warmly welcoming.  I sat on the deck of the elegant boat the whole journey in a lovely breeze, comfortable on a bean bag.

Lovely sailing in perfect comfort

A warm welcome from Scott le Roi, Sales & Marketing
Director, and Swedish Fredrik Persson, Bar manager 

 

 

And then we were shown more perfection:

The island is large enough to offer the activities and dining choices that you expect from a master of hospitality like One&Only. Evening is a time for island chic, for cool flowing elegance, and the service is warm and refined. The whole property is perfectly manicured. Yet all around you nature flourishes, beautiful and enchanting. The villas, built on the beach or over the turquoise lagoon, have the space, comfort and charm of unsurpassed luxury.

 

We stayed in villa 171 on Sunset Beach.
Our own pool and beach in paradise.

 

The cuisine at Reethi Rah is another part of the perfection. Beef shipped in from Japan, fresh vegetables from the resort’s own garden, today’s fish from the pure seas of the Maldives, and its own unforgettable Reethi Rah fusion cuisine, blending magically together the best of the Middle East, Asia and Mediterranean. Here are some  of my iPhone snapshots from dining havens.

Starting with late lunch at the stunning main
restaurant Reethi in front of the famous pool

 

At Earth Restaurant you can enjoy
Signature dish Wagyu Beef served on a
hot Himalayan salt brick

 

Great! Tapasake Japanese restaurant

 

Tapasake restaurant

Victor - Restaurant Fanditha Chef de Cuisine
Fanditha is exotic and casual with carpets
in the sand

 

No-one is forgotten – not the kids, and certainly not the teenagers. I was really amazed by the Teens Beach Club. 

Many great activities at the teens club
including billards and chill out

 

Teens!!!

A few days here and we are blissed out by paradise. I realize once again why our customers return and return, booking their next holiday as soon as they get back home – if not before. Soon leaving, but cannot wait to get back…

 

Thank you Reethi Rah!

 

Loving Laamu…

 

In this paradise at Laamu we get the best of both worlds. On the sunrise side of the pier, we get glorious sunny mornings to lure me out of bed to do yoga on the terrace. But we also see the sunset from the roof of our ocean water villa, which lies at the end of a long pier over the lagoon.



Sunny side up, an early breakfst, lured up by the sun

The long jetties threading over turquoise water invite walks of dazzling beauty. We love cycling on the jetties and round the small island, especially in the evening after a glass of wine. This island is only 750 metres long  and 200 wide, with some nice paths.

Biking is lots of fun especially
after a glass of wine



Being active is part of the sensational experience of Six Senses Laamu. Snorkling, diving, water skiing, kite surfing and even surfing the big wave off a distant reef. Jonathan, the Life Manager keeps everyone busy with sporty things to do as well as excursions and romantic sand bank dinners.

Jonathan knows how to keep
us active and happy

 

Perfect place to take a PADI license...at Laamu
you can get your certificate in only 3-5 days
depending on your skills

 

And in the afterglow of exercise, the laid back feel of this island is all the more alluring.

 



Posing by the most intensely turquoise sea...

 

My favorite spot under the stars
for an evening meal



Exquisite gazpacho

 

Jarey the head waiter, always at your service,
full of fun and smiles

 

Beauty is found in unexpected places – because it is everywhere at Six Senses Laamu...




The Ladies room at Laamu is a pleasure to visit

 

Laamu lifestyle

As you dream it. That soft white sand and that brilliant turquoise water. A 50 minute flight south of Male, in a pristine atoll of the Maldives: your own rustic villa, harmony with nature, and a lifestyle to love...

From music and cocktails to great wines and lovely fresh food, Six Senses Laamu is pure enjoyment...

DJ with great music

The sweetest sommelier in the
excellent (overwater) wine cellar

The General Manager's weekly
cocktail party

Some natural rhythm adding to the ambience

Here I am with lovely people at the cocktail party,
GM Marteyne van Well & Fredrik Gyllenhammar
 



... with the magic of sunset making it perfect

Another day dawns, reminding that health, harmony and beauty are part of luxury:

My breakfast salad, organically grown

What a place to eat breakfast

 

 

...perched above a turquoise lagoon

Pure is beautiful...