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Straits Times
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
The EPL season has begun – what does it mean if you don't follow a club?
Arsenal's Gabriel celebrating their 1-0 away Premier League win over Manchester United on Aug 17, 2025. For many people the football season offers familiarity and their club is a refuge. If there is no figurine, poster, sign, scarf, mug or plaque on your office desk or home living room which displays your allegiance to some suburban club in a foreign land whose accent you can't quite mimic, don't worry. It is still legal in Singapore to not follow an English Premier League club. It's August and if you think they're speaking a foreign language at the water cooler, don't panic. Football season has begun and on – a place where you may not necessarily find the literary equivalent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, himself a fan once – someone wrote last week:
Forbes
4 days ago
- Forbes
First Look: Casa Carolina Debuts In The Heart Of Cartagena, Colombia
Casa Carolina's interior courtyard, with one of two swimming pools. Casa Carolina Gabriel García Márquez once said that all of his works have loose threads of connection to Cartagena, the vibrant and vivacious capital that was the muse of his magical realism. Nearly 500 years after its foundation, Cartagena still weaves together a history of pirate raids and baroque beauty with modern-day glittering skyscrapers that seem to rise from the sea. In the midst of a nearly 500-year-old historic center and on the foundations of what was once Cartagena's first city block, Casa Carolina is a new luxury boutique hotel that brings together every thread of the city's soul. Centuries-old elements painstakingly preserved to UNESCO World Heritage standards meet sleek outdoor pools, cutting-edge wellness offerings, and inspirational cuisine and cocktails inspired by the coast. Casa Carolina is just what the visitor to Cartagena seeks: the old and the new, often all at once. Casa Carolina's colorful rooftop with outdoor swimming pool. Casa Carolina Like most structures in the colonial-era Walled City of Cartagena, Casa Carolina has lived many different lives before its debut as the city's newest luxury hotel earlier this year. Located directly across the street from one of Cartagena's central squares, it was first the presbytery of Santa Catalina de Alejandría Cathedral, its coral stone columns, staircases, and walls reaching sky-high and breathing centuries of history. By the 19th century, the space had become the Café de la Nueva Granada, a meeting space for the creative minds of Cartagena, the first of its kind in the city. In 2022, it began its most recent renovation, a multi-year labor of love overseen by owner Caroline Tchekhoff to transform it into the 15-room boutique hotel it is today. "Casa Carolina is more than just a hotel—it's a celebration of Cartagena," says Tchekhoff. It's a celebration that visitors feel as soon as they step through the towering front doors, past columns and through arches dating 16th century, and into the grand courtyard. Where a cistern once hid beneath the floor to collect rainwater, an outdoor pool now glimmers. At the heart of the courtyard, a storied níspero tree, laden with ripe fruit, provides shade on the hottest days. A suite at Casa Carolina. Casa Carolina The Rooms Carved out of the hotel's centuries-old structure, each of the hotel's 15 rooms and suites has a different layout and personalized design. Thoughtfully-selected pieces of art and decor fill spaces designed to feel serene and sleek, with muted furnishings to let historic details shine. Each room has amenities like a Nespresso maker to brew organic Colombian coffee, and locally produced, sustainable bathroom amenities from Loto del Sur. Some rooms, especially those towards the back of the property, lack some of the historic feel of the rest of the space. However, most rooms retain original elements that range from frescos and wood ceilings to original walls. At the front of the property, the stunning suites facing Cartagena's main square are the most stately. Sky-high ceilings, original frescos, and a stunning mix of history-meets-modern design throughout make them the best rooms in the house, hands down. Guests who are sensitive sleepers may prefer one of the rooms towards the property's back courtyards; while soundproof windows throughout keep out most noise, drumming and dance performances are a daily occurrence at sunset in the square facing the hotel. However, they're festive rather than annoying, especially considering they just last for an hour or two. Accessibility Guests with mobility issues, especially those who use walkers or wheelchairs, will have trouble accessing the property. Though many areas of the property are accessible via elevator, accessing the elevator isn't possible without first navigating stairs. Unfortunately, given the property's age and historic character, it was impossible in the renovation process to make more substantial changes to allow for more inclusive access. Guests with mobility issues should check in with the property prior to booking with any concerns. Casa Carolina's rooftop bar stands out even with Cartagena's quickly-growing mixology scene. Casa Carolina Food & Drinks Dining at Casa Carolina is an experience to remember. Located off the courtyard is Just B, a wellness-minded cafe offering drinks, smoothies, salads, pastries, and more, all made fresh from locally-sourced ingredients. Make sure to get the matcha and granola bowl and a cold brew mixed with orange juice and thank me later. However, the culinary highlight is the hotel's rooftop bar and al fresco dining space, made magical with the view of the coral-colored cupola of the cathedral at sunset. The bar menu is impressive, designed in partnership with Cartagena's El Barón, featured on the prestigious 50 Best Discovery list. I'd recommend trying the Baile y Fuego , a tribute to García Márquez himself, or the Casa de la Nueva Granada , inspired by the cafe that once filled these historic walls. "We're proud to bring the essence of El Barón to Casa Carolina," said Juan Diaz, owner of El Barón. "Our goal was to create cocktails that don't just taste incredible, but that also share a sense of place, honoring the people, stories, and traditions that make Cartagena so unique. Both eateries are open to the public, making this a great place to escape from the heat of the day while peeking inside the incredible interior of this historic building. Beyond Casa Carolina's courtyard is a yoga studio and spa offering a range of treatments and experiences. Casa Carolina Spa & Wellness For a hotel of this size to have a spa is impressive, but at Casa Carolina, wellness goes far beyond a standard massage menu. With an intimate spa and a yoga shala tucked towards the back of the property, wellness is a pillar at the heart of a stay at the property. Casa Carolina's commitment to wellness is motivated by the owner's personal dedication to mindful living practices like yoga and Ayurvedic healing techniques that she says helped safe her life after an accident nearly left her paralyzed years ago. With these same principles brought to life at Casa Carolina, "it's luxury with purpose," she says, "designed to leave a lasting impression.' Yoga classes, meditation sessions, and sound healings are available throughout the week on a rotating schedule, and can also be arranged by request. While the spa specializes in Ayurvedic treatments and therapies, guests interested in something a little more classic will find plenty of options to choose from as well. The níspera tree at the heart of Casa Carolina's courtyard. Casa Carolina Staying at Casa Carolina To stay at Casa Carolina is also to support the hotel's commitment to sustainability, woven through the fabric of its operations in big ways and small. Notably, Casa Carolina is part of a new local initiative known as Nuestra Cartagena, a collective of sixteen local, independently-owned businesses in the tourism industry brought together by a shared love for the city and a desire to mitigate the downsides of tourism by helping craft rich, authentic, and equitable experience for visitors. Basking in the shine of her debut in Cartagena, Casa Carolina strikes a balance that few places in the city can. With its heartfelt commitment to the modern and the historic, Casa Carolina feels like Cartagena itself, storied and sage, yet very much still vibrant and alive.
New York Times
01-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Meet Jhon Arias – a novel football hero
'I'm a dreamer,' said Jhon Arias, the softly spoken Colombian winger who has emerged as one of the stand-out performers at this Club World Cup. In Charlotte on Monday evening, some of his team-mates — 44-year-old goalkeeper Fabio, 40-year-old captain Thiago Silva — fell to their knees in jubilation as the final whistle confirmed Fluminense's place in the quarter-final. Arias was more reserved, quietly accepting his colleagues' congratulations but still finding the time to thank the match officials. Advertisement When he calls himself a dreamer, he means it. On the pitch, he plays with a sense of fantasy. Off it, when his team-mates are playing video games, he prefers to lose himself in a book. As a Colombian, he is drawn to the magical realism of the late Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who sought to blend the fantastical with mundane or joyless situations. This summer's Club World Cup could be seen as one such backdrop, a largely unloved tournament expanded beyond all reason and squeezed into a barely perceptible gap in the sport's calendar, matches played in sweltering heat in vast but often sparsely populated stadiums across the U.S. As entertaining as some of the match-ups have been — Monday's knockout games in particular — it has not been easy to overcome a sense of disconnect. But Arias and his team-mates have brought a liberal sprinkling of fantasy. In an era when the financial might of European football sees the South American clubs find themselves cast as underdogs — which would once have been unthinkable — Fluminense have now reached the quarter-final, defeating Champions League finalists Internazionale 2-0. For the third time in four appearances at this tournament, Arias, an unusual bundle of skill, speed, power and creativity, won FIFA's award for the game's outstanding player. It would be wrong to call him an unknown quantity when he has been one of the outstanding players in Brazilian football over recent seasons and was an integral part of the Colombia team that reached last year's Copa America final, but his career path, underlined by his impact on this Club World Cup at the age of 27, is something of a throwback. The economic imbalance of 21st-century football means that most of the biggest talents in South America are snapped up by European clubs in their late teens or early 20s. Others are snapped up a little later, heading to a smaller European club in the hope of making it to one of the biggest leagues. These days many end up in Saudi Arabia, earning sums that would have been beyond their dreams in South America. Advertisement By contrast, Arias was still playing in Colombia, having moved from Patriotas to America de Cali to Santa Fe, as his 24th birthday approached. He had won the Colombian league title with America de Cali and played in the Copa Libertadores, but he had not represented his country at any level. In terms of global reputation, it calls to mind a line Jack Lang wrote in this wonderful article about another Colombian late developer, Liverpool winger Luis Diaz, who 'looked like being one of football's 'if only' men — a winning lottery ticket lost down the back of sofa'. From a vantage point in Europe, where clubs are so fixated on signing the next big thing from South America, it can be easy to imagine that those winning lottery tickets do not exist in 2025. Football is not like it was in 1987, when the great Colombian midfielder Carlos Valderrama, hitherto unknown to European audiences, lit up the Copa America and earned a transfer to French club Montpellier at the age of 27. But Diaz was a winning lottery ticket for FC Porto, who sold him on to Liverpool for a huge profit. And Arias has proved a wonderful acquisition for Fluminense, an integral part of the team that won the club's first Copa Libertadores title in 2023 and one of the most influential players in Brazil over the recent seasons. He is now firmly established in the Colombia team, helping them reach last year's Copa America final. He has excelled at the Club World Cup. After his superb performance against Inter, Fluminense's social media channels lauded him as 'one of the best players in the history of this club'. He told reporters how much the victory over Inter meant — not just to Fluminense but to all of Brazil, all of South America, not least the Colombian town of Quibdo where he grew up. 'It's not easy to reach the top when you come from an area with very few opportunities,' Arias told reporters after the victory over Inter. 'I'm aware of this every time I step on the pitch, the opportunities to build a better life. It's a dream I have had since I was a child. Advertisement 'We are living in a wonderful and amazing moment in Fluminense. My family don't really understand what's going on, but these are memories that my daughter is going to be very happy and very proud of in the future. I know I have a lot of responsibility because a lot of children come from difficult lives, difficult contexts, and they look at me and see me as a role model, as a reference.' Again he talked about dreaming, about 'the desire to make history' with Fluminense but also about remaining 'humble' and respecting every opponent they play. 'We did everything right,' he said of the victory over Inter. 'One of our strengths is that we play in a heartfelt manner. We were playing one of the finalists of the Champions League, but we knew how to face the challenge, how to run when it was necessary, how to keep the ball when it was necessary and how to seize the opportunities when they came.' Arias didn't score, but he was prominently involved in Fluminense's third-minute opener, headed home by German Cano after some poor Inter defending, and he was at the heart of everything they did. In the first half he brought the crowd to its feet with an outrageous piece of skill on the touchline, bamboozling Alessandro Bastoni, one of the most coveted central defenders in Europe, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. He also forced Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer to full stretch with a couple of dangerous efforts from outside the penalty area. The scenes at the end, after substitute Hercules clinched the victory with a goal in stoppage time, were among the most uplifting at the tournament: Fluminense's players cavorting joyously with each other and with their raucous supporters — many of them Brazilian expats in the U.S. but plenty of others having travelled from Rio de Janeiro. 'The fans love the club,' Arias said, 'and it's reciprocal.' He called it a 'magical moment' for the club, for Brazil, for South America, something wonderful. You could see the emotion on the faces of Thiago Silva and Fabio, the two elder statesmen of the team, and among their fans, young and old. Arias looked more reflective, smiling, soaking it in, living the dream and, in front of a sparse crowd in Charlotte, happy to keep making the magic and weaving the storylines that this tournament needs.
Irish Times
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert Spanish: A ‘good' paper with lots of choice, despite some tricky moments
Today's Leaving Cert Spanish exam gave students lots of chances to get their marks although more nuanced elements of language provided some challenging moments. Maria Fenton, Spanish teacher at The Institute of Education, said that overall students will have found lots of topics and themes that they recognise. Section A contained a choice between two texts: a prescribed novel by Gabriel Garcia Márquez or a journalistic text. Ms Fenton said students tend to favour the latter and so most will have started their exam by jumping to page eight. READ MORE 'This year's piece was a lovely text on the distinct culture of Spain and how it causes a bit of culture shock on first arrival,' she said. 'Little details like kissing on both cheeks, later mealtimes and the late-night clubs were a nice reflection of the Spanish lifestyle and will be familiar to those who have had the chance to visit Spain.' The most challenging part of this section, she said, was the synonym tasks which 'really required students to grasp the whole phrase in order to understand some of the necessary nuances'. For example, she said, when looking for a match for 'aún se escucha' ('can still be heard') students might have parsed out the phrase and looked for words relating to hearing or listening. Yet the correct answer was 'still exists', focusing on the enduring rather than aural quality of the phrase. The same is true for 'asombro' (astonish) being matched with the word for 'surprise'. 'While stronger students will not find this an issue, those who are uncertain and thus try to dismantle the grammatical logic of the phrase will definitely feel challenged here,' she said. Section B While section A looked at more traditional takes on Spanish culture, Ms Fenton said section B was very modern. 'The long text was on an AI generated influencer which overlaps two areas that teachers will have likely prepared in class: AI and social media,' she says. 'Again, the synonyms were challenging here but this was balanced with nicer questions in English where students would have been able to comfortably gather marks.' Question five's composition questions were all 'nice and on topics with which students will be familiar', Ms Fenton said. 'Previous Spanish papers have occasionally drawn on topics that might not have been particularly current or directly present in the lives of students (zoos, the value of silence etc.), but these prompts were based on things that they would naturally have an opinion on,' she said. She said tasks on whether 'social media is better than real life' or the 'value of traditional jobs' connect with this digitally-savvy generation, so they will have had plenty to say. Section C Ms Fenton said section C has lots of choice, all of which were really viable this year. 'Initially students would need to choose between doing some translations of a dialogue or writing a formal letter,' she said. 'Traditionally students prefer translations as they are shorter and more direct, but this year's letter was a great option. It asked on the very topical issue of tourism in Spain.' While this issue contained lots of important ideas, the prompts for the question allowed students to talk about really familiar themes like food, weather, festivals or learning the language, she said. 'More capable students could choose to push into the critical issue of housing supply, but this is something they would have encountered previously,' Ms Fenton said. 'The range of choice in the letter question allowed for the housing topic to be avoided completely. The exam closes with students either writing a diary or a note, both of which were a nice conclusion to this paper.' The trend of mixing cultural background with contemporary topics continued into the aural, which students should have found 'very manageable', Ms Fenton said. 'Overall, this was a good paper with lots of chances for everyone to get their marks. However, some of the more nuanced elements of the language will really test the students' alertness of cultural nuances.'
Mint
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
How Suniti Namjoshi wields the spear and the shield of satire and fables
Gift this article One of the more enjoyable oddities of postmodern literature is the breathless, single-sentence composition. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story, The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship was written as one sentence, as were Bohumil Hrabal's novels Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age and Vita Nuova. In Matriarchs, Cows and Epic Villains, an anthology of Suniti Namjoshi's writing, the fable Broadcast Live spans just one sentence of 60-odd words, but ends up unleashing an entire chapter's worth of commentary. One of the more enjoyable oddities of postmodern literature is the breathless, single-sentence composition. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story, The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship was written as one sentence, as were Bohumil Hrabal's novels Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age and Vita Nuova. In Matriarchs, Cows and Epic Villains, an anthology of Suniti Namjoshi's writing, the fable Broadcast Live spans just one sentence of 60-odd words, but ends up unleashing an entire chapter's worth of commentary. 'The Incredible Woman raged through the skies, lassoed a planet, set it in orbit, rescued a starship, flattened a mountain, straightened a building, smiled at a child, caught a few thieves, all in one morning, and then, took a little time off to visit her psychiatrist, since she is at heart a really womanly woman and all she wants is a normal life." With that devastating final clause, Namjoshi indicts decades of popular culture that ran cover for a patriarchal vision of society—where the 'good" woman is 'rewarded" with heteronormative nirvana (societally approved marriage, babies), whereas the 'evil" woman is banished to spinsterhood. The preceding clauses are a broadside pastiche of 'hero narratives", another recurring theme with Namjoshi. Broadcast Live is a typical example of the author's satirical style, one which has served her well for over four decades now. The fables, poems and stories compiled here have been picked from her collections, Feminist Fables (1981), The Blue Donkey Fables (1988) and Saint Suniti and the Dragon (1993). These super-short entries (seldom over a page or so) make up almost 60-odd pages, while the bulk of the book is abridged versions of two previously published novellas, The Conversations of Cow (1985) and The Mothers of Maya Diip (1989). The latter, a modern classic, is frequently taught at Indian universities. Also read: Satyajit Ray's 'blackface' moment at Cannes 2025 In the introductory essay, writer Gillian Hanscombe (who is also Namjoshi's partner) compares Namjoshi's mind to a combination of Jonathan Swift's and Lewis Carroll's. As comparisons go, it's exceedingly apt, since satire and fabulism are Namjoshi's spear and shield—the 'spear" punctures hypocrisy while the 'shield" offers the protection (and plausible deniability) of timelessness. Case History is a brief but horrific upending of the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, while A Moral Tale is a plaintive remix of Beauty and the Beast featuring a lesbian Beast ('That's why its love for Beauty was so monstrous", Namjoshi deadpans). In From the Panchatantra, the brahmin central character (the Panchatantra is believed to have been composed by brahmin scholar Vishnu Sharma) prays until Lord Vishnu appears before him and grants him a boon. What follows is classic Namjoshi, sociological missives wrapped up in screwball comedy. The highlight of the collection remains The Mothers of Maya Diip (the lightly abridged version here is 120-odd pages long), Namjoshi's allegorical, uproarious novella set in what appears to be a matriarchal utopia at first glance. Maya Diip, however, is a place that takes convictions to their logical endpoints—male babies are ruthlessly abandoned here and only female babies are nurtured and cared for. All women are divided into grades A, B and C mothers. The island's leader Maya's daughter Asha helms a rebel faction of women and men who oppose the island's discriminatory practices. The Mothers of Maya Diip is a pointed parody of the novel Herland (1915) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, initially serialised in feminist magazines and only published in novel form in 1979. Herland imagined a feminist utopia where society is free from men and asexual reproduction (via parthenogenesis) is the norm. In her parody, Namjoshi plays dialectic ping-pong, commenting on both the cruelty of patriarchal systems and the limitations of second-wave feminism (especially its laser focus on reproductive freedom). A particularly funny scene involves Valerie, an immigrant from the West (hinted to be American) who has been living in Maya Diip for years. In the following passage, Valerie is trying to describe a patriarchal society from scratch, to somebody who has no conception of what it looks like. 'Ashans in my country have enslaved the Mayans in order to force them to have their babies; Ashan and Mayan babies then belong to a particular Ashan. Think of it this way… Every Ashan thought of himself as a kind of farmer and every Mayan as a bit of land or a field which could be his property. The babies are branded by his specific genes. An Ashan is always the grade A mother, and a Mayan is always the grade B mother... but the Ashan delegates his duties to the Mayan." Like the short fiction of her exact contemporaries Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood, Namjoshi's fables are premodern literature deconstructed and refashioned as postmodern commentary. This anthology worthy of her 'fabulous" career and a delightful body of work. Topics You May Be Interested In
