Black Tomato Blog

sharing and caring

It’s just like your mummy always told you – share and share alike. What are we on about? Well we don’t mean arranging 3000 of your safari photos into a slideshow and torturing your friends with it after a dinner party that’s for sure – especially if they only made it as far as Cornwall this summer. But we do reckon that swapping travelling stories over a nice bottle of red is a pretty great way to while away a late-summer evening, as is having a gander at the very best (and envy-inducing) photos of your best mate’s trip to Papua New Guineau (or anywhere really – this is just the first place we thought of. Like you do). A bit of friendly inspiration goes a long way we find.

But ‘wherefore art this inspiration right now?’ we hear you ask.  The holidays are over and it’s time to dream up somewhere new for your next adventure. Unsurprisingly, we’ve got a couple of ideas. You could log onto our new fave travel forum at Travellerspoint and go trekking through the jungle of lovely travel blogs they look after. Alternatively you could have good play about on our ‘Amazing Face Race page’ for some visual inspiration. Our entrants have built a veritable map of fantastic faces from all over the globe, so instead of blindfolding yourself and putting a pin in a map, why not give our wheel a spin and see where your mouse lands. Just beware – it’s addictive.

LT

 

all for one and one for all

‘Climateers’ - love them or loathe them (or have no idea who or what they are), they’ve certainly set travel tongues a-wagging. Who are these mysterious people you ask? Well, they are nothing like Mousketeers that’s for sure. Whilst you’re sunbathing or on safari, your local climateer is likely to be watching enormous chunks fall off rapidly eroding glaciers or peering at an almost extinct species of turtle.

Demand for climate change tourism, i.e. taking the opportunity to witness the effects of climate change or to view species/eco-systems/landforms that may not exist in 50 years, is on the rise. But the question is – friend or folly? At Black Tomato we can see the appeal. There’s a gazillion things to see and do on this lovely planet and who wouldn’t want to squeeze in the parts that are under threat whilst they have the chance (not to mention raising a bit of goodwill for the cause)?

But the flipside (you knew it was coming didn’t you) is that your friendly local climateer may be doing more harm than good. Remember when that tanker overturned off Antarctica last December? Well luckily all the climateers survived, but we couldn’t say as much for the sea life plunged into a puddle of petrol. And what about the air miles that all our friendly eco-tourists are clocking up to arrive at these remote and delicate places? Good for their next flight…not so good for the environment wethinks. Ah it’s a tricky one for sure. Let us know your thoughts.

LT

the style of travel

Fashion and Travel – a match made in heaven. From north African kaftans to vibrant Indian silk saris and the effortless chic of the Milanese, the style of different destinations inspires designers the world over. And it works both ways – buy a beautiful batik piece and soon you’ll be dreaming of the Indonesian beaches where it’s considered a national art. Or find a lovely item while you’re away and it will always remind you of a happier, holiday time.

But let’s be honest, negotiating the links between fashion and travel can sometimes be a bit of a hassle; we’ve all spent hours mulling over what to pack for a trip – and it’s pretty much inevitable that you’ll bring the wrong thing or forget an essential accessory. But that’s the beauty of the fashion-travel marriage – the two are always enhancing and informing each other. In this case travel opens new doors for fashion; with a bit of improvisation and perhaps an impulse-buy at a local boutique or market, you can come out with a quick fix that will herald a whole new look (or at least an exotic twist on your usual style).

The moral of the story? Fashion + Travel = good things. So in this vein, travel experts Black Tomato have teamed up with style gurus my-wardrobe.com to merge cutting-edge travel know-how with a wealth of fashion expertise. We predict great things…

SE

bring on the babymooners

“Fads”, “crazes”, “must-haves” – these apply to holidays as well as handbags you know. You didn’t? Well let’s fill you in.
Inspired by the world of celebrity (yes, they live in their own world you know), we’ve seen all sorts of novel occasions for holidays pop up. There’s the post-divorce holiday, the ‘been working too hard’ holiday, the Caribbean winter, the Ibiza/yacht/George Clooney’s Villa summer, the obligatory snowy film festival snuck in for good measure and then we couldn’t possibly miss David Beckham’s away matches. That’s certainly a lot of holiday to contend with, but move over Arizona rehab – there’s now another holiday on the block.

Any celeb mummy and daddy worth their bread and butter is taking a before-the-big-day Babymoon. And Black Tomato is on board. Why? Well, being of the breed that takes any excuse to jet off somewhere, we think it makes sense to take advantage of that ‘safe travel’ stage of pregnancy (before you get to the stage where you can’t open the front door for all the Fisher Price and nappies in the way). Where to go? Well you could follow the Jolie-Pitt’s to Namibia, the Lopez’s to Curacao or Jessica Alba to Mexico – or opt for gorgeous Oman, Indonesia or the beaches of Brazil. Be sure to make it warm and peaceful – but don’t be surprised if you don’t see yourself in OK! When you get home.

LT

the alternative olympics

Feeling the Olympic fever? Three days in and we can’t seem to get enough. Athletics and swimming definitely get the heart pumping, but equally we’ve been mesmerized by archery and darts (who would have thought). Beijing has certainly set the bar high (did you see the fireworks extravaganza? – literally out of this world). But let’s be honest, once you’ve seen one run haven’t you seen them all? We think it’s about time that the Olympic Committee started to think outside of the box. If we have anything to say about it, chess-boxing and wife-carrying will officially become Olympic sports by 2012. Bring them on!

Yes that’s right, put your dumbbells aside and try this one on for size. Every October, the men of Maine, USA compete in this Finnish inspired sport for their wife’s weight in beer. Wives are hoisted up and carried across 278m of hurdles and water hazards. Slightly un-PC? Perhaps. But nonetheless very entertaining. On the other side of the pond, the World Chess Boxing Organisation in Germany regularly hosts chess boxing events. 12 minutes of chess followed by 3 minutes of boxing for 11 thrilling rounds. And who said it’s either brawn or brains. 

TM

bring on the newbies

What is a newbie we hear you ask? Well it’s something like a furby (the gremlins/trolls of the noughties) but only with less fluff…

Just kidding. This week’s blog is dedicated to our new tomatoes (aka the newbies) – and what a lovely bunch they are. So, in no particular order Ladies and Gentlemen, may we introduce – imagine a drumroll here if you will: Byron (cool of name and with a marvelous skiing-related brain), Martin (Sideburns extraordinaire and dedicated to all things Europe), Veena (knows a thing or twelve about where you should go for your next meeting) and Steve (with a bottomless teacup and a passion for finding us new people to send to exciting places).

And how could we forget Hannah? She’s going to keep Black Tomato HQ as Black Tomato-ish as possible so watch this space for news of funky new artwork on the walls and exciting new drinks in the fridge. We’d also like take this opportunity to extend a warm (only slightly premature) welcome to Shaun. Already christened ‘big Shaun’ (although he may be small, you never know), he’ll be inducted as a Tomato tomorrow.

Phew. That’s all folks. Lots of nice people and not a fluffy critter in sight.

LT

to the extreme

All day today we’ve been “pumping up” for Extreme Sports at Broadgate – kicking off from 12-3pm this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at Broadgate Circle near Liverpool Street station. It’s a superb opportunity for stressed out, desk-bound city folk to work up an appetite for adventure during their lunch break, and Black Tomato will be there in the thick of the festivities.

You’ll spot us by our hot pink parasols (…we’re nothing if not flashy) and we’d love you to come and pick our weird and wonderful brains – whether you quite fancy leaping out of a plane next to Everest, or plunging into the waters off South Africa to cage dive with Jaws – we’re on hand to guide you to extremes.

Best of all, you’ll get the chance to win our fabulous ‘007 style’ competition which will see you jetting off on a bungee jump weekend at the breathtaking Verzasca Dam in Switzerland (http://www.blacktomato.co.uk/experiences/action+time/the+goldeneye+jump). Twenty-five runners-up will also win a pair of cutting-edge Sennheiser headphones (check them out here: www.sennheiser.co.uk).

See you there!

SSL
 

mosaic of faces

Ok so we’ve tried to remain diplomatic, keeping the naming of our favourites to our Facebook page. But when Nicole Périat recently uploaded her ‘Mosaic of faces’ we couldn’t resist giving it a special shout out. The stunning photo of a young child is made from a selection of 100s of portraits she took while travelling around the world in 2007. We think it’s probably one of the most innovative things we’ve seen in a while. And with all the out-of-this-world Face Race entries, you can appreciate that’s a pretty bold statement to make.

Now we’re no clairvoyant so only time will tell who actually takes the top prize. But Nicole has definitely set the bar high. Don’t worry you’ve still got 6 weeks to upload your faces. So let the competitive juices flow, get snapping and get uploading. 1,066 faces and 5,330 travel miles - it’s anyone’s game.

TM