Happy New Year! The Weekly hopes you enjoyed a restful and rejuvenating Christmas break after the roller-coaster of 2019. From Brexit and general elections, to retail woes and the climate emergency, the last year of the decade was certainly eventful. And, with climate-induced wildfires ravaging Australia and tensions rising in the Middle East, The Weekly suspects that events in 2020 will be just as significant. Bull & Bear will of course be on hand to give their predictions and guidance on all things property, but sadly even they aren't able to answer the one burning question that most readers (and the record 17.1 million viewers of the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special) are desperate to know...just what did happen on "that" fishing trip?!
For many of you, the office Christmas party is already likely to be a hazy memory. This December, however, The Weekly found itself on a more unconventional team day out which started with everyone being handcuffed to their seats in a decommissioned aircraft, with the doors locked from the outside. But before anyone gets any strange ideas (!), The Weekly was taking part in the world's first aeroplane escape room, part of a burgeoning trend of Escape Room experiences. Indeed according to CBRE's December 2019 UK Leisure report, experiential leisure is at an all-time high. Young people's appetite for new types of social experiences is leading to the creation of new bar and game concepts, such as crazy golf, shuffleboard and social darts, all of which are fast re-shaping the Leisure sector. As part of this experiential trend, consumers are also seeking new ways to drink and dine, with pop-up street stalls and rooftop venues proving increasingly popular. And when it comes to leisure time, it seems the gym is no longer a place to visit a couple of times in early January as part of a short-lived, guilt-induced New Year's resolution to get fit! On the contrary, young people today seem to care just as much about their health as they do socialising with friends in a bar or pub, with many viewing the gym as a kind of ‘third place’ to hang out. You may be relieved to hear that on finally escaping the aircraft, The Weekly had had quite enough of experiential leisure for one day....and headed straight for the traditional comforts of the local pub!
The death of Iranian, Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike on Thursday night has been described as ‘one of the biggest developments in the Middle East for decades’. The strike triggered warnings of a potential all-out conflict between the US and Iran. The assassination has also brought a sharp focus on the ongoing geo-political tensions around the world, including the perceived threat of Russia on Europe and tensions between China and the US in the South China Sea. With overseas tensions rising, the UK Foreign Office will likely be working overtime as it bids to "de-escalate" tensions and avoid conflict. Spare a thought then for the hard-at-work Foreign Office staff who also have to deal with evermore bizarre and senseless queries from confused members of the public. One person, for example, phoned up to request rapper 50 Cent’s phone number! And among the list of other strange queries was a woman in Sweden who asked what she should wear to Windsor Castle. There was even a complaint from a tourist about the quality of the food on his flight (!), whilst someone had the gall to ask embassy staff to recover their headphones from a French hotel room!