THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE I 39 The Review THE ALTERNATIVE NEWS ➔ Tea for two? That'll be £550
Beluga Caviar, Morris dancing, tarantulas and haggis – welcome to TBTM's Alternative News page!
FLYBE'S CROSS COUNTRY SNACK EXCHANGE
CLIVEDEN House, one of the Von Essen group's signature hotels, is applying to the Guinness Book of Records to claim the title of world’s most expensive afternoon tea, billed at £550 per couple. The Berkshire venue’s culinary creation is the work of executive head chef Carlos Martinez and
MORRIS MANIA JUST when you’d tired of 'blue
sky thinking' and falling back into your colleagues sweaty arm pits, Alton Towers has introduced Morris Dancing- themed team-building
activities. Available throughout May, delegates have the chance to bond with their colleagues over a Morris
Dancing masterclass, complete with hankies, bells and sticks. That should put a spring in your step… or have you calling mayday to get out of there.
earns its high price tag by using ingredients such as white truffles (£2,500 per kg), Beluga Caviar (£4,000 per kg) and rare Da Hong Pao Tea, which is harvested from 1,000-year-old plants (£2,000 per kg). The platter also features cake made from the world's costliest chocolate and is decorated with
TALL ORDERS AT PARK PLAZA
PARK Plaza Hotels has revealed a few strange comments its guests have used over the years, from the stingy to the over-sexed. One unusual request came from a hen group who, on completing a sushi masterclass, asked if the hotel could obtain a naked man to act as their platter, proving that Sex and the City has a lot to answer for. The reward for dumb and dumber goes to the couple who asked if their open-top bus tour was air conditioned, plus the guest who asked which side of the river Tower Bridge was found on. An overprotective father must
have been watching James Bond when he arranged an airport pick- up for his adult daughter and asked the driver to use a password for security’s sake. And finally, a cautionary tale for romantics comes from one guest who asked for a bedroom to be filled with 100 red roses, before revising the order to 100 petals upon hearing the cost.
gold leaf, and can all be 'washed down' with a glass of Dom Perignon Rose or a cup of coffe made from rare Kopi Luwak beans. If £550 seems like a splurge, consider instead the Platinum Club sandwich, featuring Ibérico ham, white truffles and quail eggs. Good luck getting that signed off on your expenses.
YOU'VE got to hand it to Flybe for originality – they recently checked-in a giant walking haggis and an 18-inch Cornish pasty onto two of its flights between Newquay and Edinburgh as part of an unusual PR stunt. In March, 'Hamish Haggis' strolled through Newquay Airport clutching a ‘Chieftain’ haggis to present to Cornish Councillor John Fitter, while the very next day Cornish baker Malcolm Barnecutt reciprocated the gesture by flying to Edinburgh to hand over a giant Cornish Pasty to a local homeless charity. The snack swap was all in aid of promoting Flybe's new summer route between Cornwall and Edinburgh. Rumours that the airline will now be serving 18-inch pasties onboard are unfounded.
IS THAT A SPIDER IN YOUR POCKET...?
A RECENT Virgin Atlantic survey revealed a disturbing collection of off-beat check-in items. From giant cheese wheels to car engines, everyone views their essential travel item a little differently. The poor staff at New York JFK have dealt with a veritable menagerie of wildlife, including a dead cow wrapped
in plastic and a pet tarantula hidden in a lady’s coat. Spare a thought for the couple who tried to check in a bag full of sand and sea water to remind them of the island they fell in love on, and the cheeky traveller who tried to check in a bag of cutlery stolen from a previous Virgin flight.
46 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 58
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