Why Bristol?
The UK's Sunday Times newspaper recently voted Bristol the country's best city to live in, citing its "great shopping, great scenery and great social scene". They were right on all three counts, and that's only scratching the surface.
Add to that stately Georgian architecture that rivals its busier West Country neighbour Bath, a historic city centre, a fascinating if sometimes controversial history and an atmosphere that neatly mixes the laid-back with the lively.
Bristol’s dockside, which flourished during the years of the slave trade, has been transformed into a series of restaurants, galleries, museums, shops and wide squares. Boat trips go downstream along the River Avon through its gorge towards the engineering marvel that is the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Come August, the skies fill with witty and colourful balloons during the International Balloon Fiesta.
A comfortable bed
An 18th-century collection of warehouses in the city centre has been handsomely converted to the Hotel du Vin (www.hotelduvin.com; 0044 844 736 4252). Plush leather sofas and exceptionally comfortable king-size beds add a cocooning feel to the contemporary interiors. Bathrooms come with roll-top baths and showers practically big enough to house a family of four. Doubles start at £129 (Dh797), room only. Its bistro is just as friendly and relaxed, with generous portions of French-influenced mains starting at £14 (Dh86).
Number Thirty Eight Clifton (www.number38clifton.com; 0044 117 946 6905) calls itself "luxury town house accommodation" – in reality, somewhere between an upmarket B&B and a boutique hotel. Whatever you want to call it, this Georgian merchant's house is elegant and beautifully done up with pale-wood-panelled walls, giant bathrooms and rooms with views of Clifton Down and/or the city's rooftops. Doubles from £110 (Dh680), including breakfast.
A much-needed refurbishment has breathed new life into Clifton Village's Avon Gorge Hotel (www.theavongorge.com; 0044 117 973 8955), which is in an enviable position overlooking the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Unstuffy rooms in shades of pale green or mauve have views of the village or the Avon Gorge; doubles start at £89 (Dh550), room only. Breakfast is an extra £10 (Dh62) per room, not per person.
Find your feet
Bristol's sights are spread all over the city, but start in the old town where 17th-century pubs mingle with the Georgian elegance of Queen Square. Don't forget to look up to see works by the Bristolian graffiti artist Banksy on walls. Waterside paths surround three sides of the old town, one of which leads to the revamped Harbourside area and the Tourist Information Centre (www.visitbristol.co.uk; 0044 333 321 0101). Head up Park Street, past the university buildings, and you soon reach the attractive Georgian suburb of Clifton. A vast bus network covers the city; tickets cost from £1 (Dh6) each or £4 (Dh25) for a day ticket.
Meet the locals
One of the city's most popular meeting points is Bocabar (www.bocabar.co.uk; 0044 117 972 8838) in the Paintworks creative quarter, about a mile south-east of Bristol's main Temple Meads railway station. Sink back in squashy sofas while checking out the tapas menu and listening to the Friday-night DJs. In Gloucester Road, north of the city centre, head to the Gallimaufry (www.thegallimaufry.co.uk; 0044 117 942 7319), where there's an agreeably laid-back mix of live music and British food.
Book a table
In Clifton Village, the unassuming little Wallfish Bistro (www.wallfishbistro.co.uk; 0044 117 973 5435) has taken over the premises where the late maverick TV chef Keith Floyd opened his first bistro back in 1969. Its plain interior belies its imaginative cuisine, with sublime starters such as scallops and razor clams with chorizo (£9 [Dh56]) and mains including whole Dorset crab (£14 [Dh86]).
Tucked away down Cotham Hill, off Whiteladies Road, is Flinty Red (www.flintyred.co.uk; 0044 117 923 8755), which, like Wallfish, is a deceptively simple bistro with wonderful goings-on in the kitchen. The menu changes, but could include smoked ox cheeks with white beans (£4.50 [Dh28]) or braised octopus with chickpeas and harissa (£15 [Dh93]). Many of the dishes come in both starter and main portions.
The Olive Shed (www.theoliveshed.com; 0044 0117 929 1960) in the Harbourside area is the place for informal meals or just tapas. Try the venison wrapped in pancetta with horseradish croquettes (£17 [Dh105]).
Shopper’s paradise
Clifton Village’s narrow streets are filled with boutiques – most of them independent – as well as antiques shops. Walk down hilly Park Street for some of Bristol’s trendiest shops, many of which are incredibly affordable. You’re spoilt for choice in the city centre – between Cabot Circus, Quakers Friars, the Galleries and Broadmead, you have about 500 shops to browse, including Harvey Nichols. Check out the stalls in St Nicholas Market in the old town for quirky finds.
What to avoid
If you’re after a quiet dinner on a Friday or Saturday night, avoid the big restaurants in the Harbourside area. They’ll be thronging with stag and hen parties.
Don’t miss
Head to Clifton Down and explore the area around the Suspension Bridge, the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s inspired creation that was finally completed five years after he died. Some of Bristol’s best views are seen from the top of the park’s observatory, and the camera obscura is one of only two in England that is open to the public.
Go there
A return flight with Emirates (www.emirates.com) from Dubai to London costs from Dh4,675, including taxes, and takes about seven hours. Regular trains connect London with Bristol, which take about one hour and 40 minutes and cost from £57 (Dh350 return).
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How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
