Online today in the ‘Volante’ section, our most well travelled team members, Stanley Moss and Elyse Glickman, go to Firenze and Québec City respectively. Both places have their specialities, with Stanley discovering a hideaway to get away from the bustle of Firenze—which seems extra-hectic these days with work on the metropolitana—while Elyse revisited Québec City for the first time in nearly 20 years.
   Font nuts like the publisher might notice a slight change in typeface—more on this later.

Reports are coming from Agence France Presse and other wire services that Naomi Campbell has been banned from flying British Airways after her arrest last week.
   The services are quoting The Sun and The Daily Mirror.
   Campbell, 37, was arrested last week at Heathrow Airport after a dispute over her luggage at the infamous Terminal 5. She allegedly spat at a police officer.
   She has not been charged and was released on bail.
   British Airways told the Press Association, ‘We do not comment in detail about matters relating to individual passengers.
   ‘All incidents of abusive or disruptive behaviour towards fellow passengers or staff are taken extremely seriously and will not be tolerated.
   ‘We deal with cases on an individual basis and take appropriate action where necessary.’

This photograph was shot for a motoring-and-travel story about the South Island, New Zealand in Lucire no. 26, but it’s one that won’t run in the print magazine as the quality’s not up to scratch. The light is far too strong, but I like the concept: the new Renault Clio meets an old Renault Dauphine. We have no idea which Renault fan in the Otago region put his or her rusting Dauphine on top of a container but it juxtaposed with the new Clio well. I did great mileage in the Clio as part of an extended road test from Christchurch to Dunedin and back, which readers will see in a future issue.

Stanley Moss (left, pictured with designer Tadashi Shoji), travel editor of this title, CEO of the Medinge Group and well known branding expert, is recovering from surgery in California. We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to him being up and about and motoring in his Chrysler Crossfire soon.

I wish that was a joke, but it isn’t.
   I went to preview a New Dowse exhibition on transsexuality, intersexuality and the transgender community with its communications’ officer Mandy Herrick and coincidentally, was told by a friend last night about a situation at a gym in New Zealand.
   They had two intersexual (‘hermaphrodite’) clients. Other patrons petitioned the owner to remove them, otherwise they would not pay their fees.
   Shame on us as New Zealanders.
   We go around saying how open-minded we are, scoff at other nations, point out how we had the world’s first transsexual MP—but no, when we confront intersexual people in our own neighbourhood, we do exactly what pre-US Civil Rights racists did when they hung out ‘Whites Only’ signs.
   For crying out loud, these two clients were born this way—and you’ll be even more shocked to learn that the gym opened itself to a human rights’ violation by cancelling the two people’s memberships.
   Imagine if they were taken to court and how much business they would have lost if word got out.
   Wouldn’t it have been better to have pointed out to the prejudiced clients that if they couldn’t accept the situation, then they could take their business elsewhere?
   Or go so far as to build an extra changing room and encourage more open-minded clients all round?
   I was pretty shocked that this went on. 
   I am not prejudice-free and I will freely admit to thinking, ‘That looks a bit odd’—as I did when I looked at some of the work that the New Dowse will be showing. I don’t know anyone who has told me they are intersex, hence my surprise. Then again, I don’t go around asking. I get over it. I accept that this is part of God’s plan and everyone is created in His own image.
   And there is a clear right and wrong in this case. Hopefully as time goes by more of us will look at this story and equate it to the racism of earlier times.

Karen Loftus’s story on San Diego is online now, for those who want a break away from Los Angeles that’s not too far away from the southern Californian metropolis. It was a case of ‘Who knew?’ as Karen uncovers some of the hidden gems in the San Diego area, just two hours from her home base.

   Meanwhile, Brad Green, formerly of the US Navy, has emailed to say that he has started a T-shirt line called Peace Love Life, with a clever and simple idea. Each T-shirt has the words peace, love and life, plus a city’s name—in the written language of the place that it’s touting.
   Brad writes, ‘We exist to connect people of different cultures and languages by promoting and celebrating peace, love and life around the world through socially-conscious fashion. Our collection began with major cities and capitals of the world, and quickly grew to include areas of conflict like Baghdad, Darfur, Haiti and New Orleans. A donation from each purchase is made to organizations that benefit struggling or conflict regions of the world. We’ve also recently added a special edition San Diego t-shirt. $10 from each special edition shirt is donated to the San Diego American Red Cross to benefit victims of the 2007 firestorm and other local disasters.’
   We didn’t time these two things about San Diego, California to coincide—but it’s always nice to notice when they do. Someone up there is telling us that we’re on the right course.

Lucire, the international fashion magazine headquartered in New Zealand, has announced that it has collaborated with the Twinpalms Phuket resort and Asia Design Consultants Ltd. to see an extra print edition in Thailand.
   Twinpalms Lucire launches February 20 with 5,000 copies distributed through the Surin Beach, Phuket resort and its sister properties.
   The magazine has features on fashion, lifestyle and travel, with a lesser emphasis on beauty when compared to Lucire’s other print editions.
   Miguel Kirjon of Asia Design Consultants oversaw the production and editorial mix, in collaboration with Lucire founder and publisher Jack Yan, deputy editor Sylvia Giles and assistants Dominique Whittaker and Ashleigh Berry.
   Many of the Lucire articles had been commissioned by Laura Ming-Wong, the magazine’s editor in New Zealand.
   Mr Yan says, ‘This is another small step in growing the Lucire brand, targeting it at an aspirational audience that says, “I want to be a step ahead.” We’re confident that the Twinpalms audience will love our mixture and socially responsible approach to fashion and lifestyle reporting.
   ‘I’m also delighted that Miguel has created a unique look founded in the Swiss school of design. It’s very different from the home edition and it’s a classy production.’
   In addition to its design direction, Mr Kirjon has commissioned many additional, original articles for the Twinpalms’ side of the magazine.
   Twinpalms Phuket is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, one of the most exclusive collectives of hotel properties internationally. The resort is privately owned, with a private beach club and an enviable location next to Millionaires’ Cove.
   Lucire started as an online fashion magazine in 1997 and is notable for having diversified into print, rather than adopt the print-to-web approach of its competitors. Its Webby-nominated website remains a popular destination for fashion leaders, while the print magazine is regarded as a luxurious and socially responsible publication.

In Lucire issue 24, one of my criticisms about the Quadrant Hotel in Auckland was directed at the table. This table is full of holes as an arty feature. Not a good idea: keys, cards and Strepsils kept falling through the holes.
   Quadrant sales and marketing director Penny Evans wrote me today to note that the Quadrant’s new one-bedroom executive apartments have glass-topped tables. They have separate work desks and the internet signal is superior, she tells me.
   They certainly look nicer, as the photo shows—though the regular rooms’ interior design was not actually bad. It’s just that that darned table won few prizes for practicality. I might test-drive the rooms in 2008.

There are a lot of connections between myself, Stanley Moss, Pierre d’Huy, Lucire and the Medinge Group. Rather than explain things too much, I’d like to share some photos that won’t be in a future Lucire from Stanley, who serves as travel editor: after all, this blog is about the behind-the-scenes happenings at this magazine and our team.
   These photos were from a road trip in Arizona, passing the red rocks at Sedona, back in the late summer and early autumn.

Stan and Pierre at Sedona

Rules of the west detailed: a brand is important

Pierre with Hopi chief Allen Pooyouma

   The last shot is Pierre with Hopi chief Allen Pooyouma. Pierre is not freakishly tall: the Mustang is a good indicator of scale.
   There will be road trip articles in Lucire next year: watch this space.

I spotted the Australian Travel & Leisure when in Sydney and I’ve noticed now the word Australia has become the words Australia & New Zealand very quietly. And being an American Express card member here (wank factor time: Platinum) I am going to be getting these babies free for the next year.
   The funny thing is, being a big (American) T&L fan, I can’t bring myself to like the localized edition as much. Maybe my travel habits are more American—I have been checking out some places long before they were fashionable among my peers here. The other issue is that the best articles are re-runs from the original. I like the mixture in the American Travel & Leisure, the tips, the awards, the top 500—stuff like that.
   I feel like a tosser writing this because what is localized and brought to you by John Fairfax in Aussie T&L is actually really good, and I am on good terms with many folks at Fairfax on both sides of the Tasman. However, I’ll still be supplementing my freebie Aussie editions with the American ones.
   The big winner is American Express Publishing in the States and all the advertisers as I have been suckered into twice as many ads.