As promised, Diary has seen the blockbuster Skyscraper – so you don’t have to! We had hoped in advance that the Dwayne Johnson-starring disaster film would be the real estate movie of the year.
Well, it delivers on the real estate front: it opens with a time-lapse sequence showing the construction of the “world’s new tallest building”, the Pearl, as well as a range of design schematics showing off its array of features (including a 30-storey park in the middle of its 240 floors). The building certainly looks the part, no doubt down to the contributions of consultant architect Adrian Smith, designer of the Burj Khalifa. Definitely one EG would want to feature in a walk-through video.
Sadly, it’s the movie part that lets Skyscraper down. The Rock (who rivals the Pearl for sheer hard-to-believe scale) is as engaging as ever, but he’s saddled with a predictable and in some places truly ludicrous retread of an action classic. The review in short? Just rewatch Die Hard.
Main image: Universal/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock
Summer season’s greetings!
Christmas comes but once a year – though every year, it arrives a little earlier. Winning the prize for first festive missive of 2018 is a stunning press-release revelation that impressive Christmas decorations make bars, restaurants, hotels and other venues more money.
Online retailer Christmas Tree World, which has no vested interest as far as Diary can see, reports that yuletide displays, seasonal food and drink, and Christmas music are worth an extra £21 per consumer. Meanwhile, 15% of survey participants claimed they would not visit a venue unless it was appropriately filled with the Christmas spirit. Presumably they were only talking about December – but just in case, better get decking those halls.
Harry up, HS2
Now that the distractions of the World Cup (sob!) and Wimbledon are over, it’s a good time to check in on a few of those real world issues Diary has been ignoring for the past month. What’s the latest with HS2, for instance? Oh, it’s not out yet. Eagerly awaited by some, the very idea of it is despised by many. And when it finally arrives, it’s sure to cause aggravation for those nearby.
Wait, did you think Diary was talking about the railway? No, that would go north and south, and what we are on about specialises in one direction. We’ll let the dedicated @StopHS2 Twitter account explain: “Dear @Harry_Styles, could you please hurry up and come up with a name for your second album, because it’s getting increasingly annoying to have all your fans on Twitter talking about ‘HS2’.” Is @StopHarryStyles already taken?
Holiday reading
Here’s a sobering thought: What will you do with your online profile when you die? Not one to shy away from uncomfortable issues, Diary eagerly awaits its copy of the debut novel by auction investor and property writer Samantha Collett, which promises to tackle this very question.
Collett is a regular on EG’s pages, tackling topics such as permitted development rights and energy efficiency standards. But her latest work is Eternal Forever, in which the brilliantly named Mack Majors runs the UK’s first digital legacy management agency, offering social media clean-up and curation services for users when they die. Collett says she wanted to write a “story of our time”, told in a fun way – sounds perfect for the beach this year, even if it will make you think about what holiday snaps you post online.
Why Woolworths failed?
A rare heart-warming story from the Daily Mail: a guilt-ridden thief has sent a fiver to a Liverpool shopping centre, along with a hand-written note apologising for stealing two bars of chocolate from Woolworths 40 years ago. The store itself is, of course, no more. But this does make us wonder. Could the entire collapse of the chain all be put down to generations of kids half-inching the pick’n’mix?
Hard-up millennials
Strutt & Parker attracted a spot of ridicule late last year with its research findings showing how millennials could save enough for a £64,000 house deposit in five years by giving up “luxuries” including takeaways, shop-bought lunches and a yearly phone upgrade.
But vindication arrived this week, courtesy of the i newspaper, and the latest article in its money series. It seems that a young professional really can rack up the savings – well, as long as they earn just shy of £70,000. A well-disciplined project manager details how she gave up her £150-a-month gym, cut down on travelling expenses, and trimmed her social life budget in order to save an impressive £1,500 a month towards a deposit. “How I live on a £69,500 salary while saving to buy a two-bedroom flat”, reads the not wholly sympathy-inducing headline. How indeed.
I spy
Diary was casting a nonchalant gaze at the London skyline during a recent drinks reception at the Millbank Tower, when its eye was caught by something new and mysterious. What looked like land reclamation was under way just to the north of Vauxhall Bridge, sending our mind racing… until a prosaically-minded colleague pointed out it was just the site for the Thames Tideway Tunnel – London’s new sewage system. Or is it? MI6 is just next door. Secret submarine base, anyone?
