Some years ago when visiting a distant relative in Mississippi, I noticed a Coat of Arms hanging on their living room wall displaying a rather distinguished tartan crest of our family tree, dating back to the 17th century.
It made me think about tartan and its origins and the significant role in symbolising clans and heritage, and the part it is still playing even within our own Royal Family. Kate, Duchess of Cambridge recently wore a Black Watch tartan outfit when visiting St Andrews school in Berkshire, and Prince Charles is famous for donning his tartan kilt at a variety of events in Scotland.
It is not surprising that tartan keeps making a comeback in our fashion industry, and the Burberry plaid is actually recognised by the Tartan Organisation in Scotland.
This Winter you will see the return of tartan in both high end labels and on the High Street, which is good as it always seems to hold its charm and resonate with most generations.
Versace have a stunning outfit embellished within its layers, as only they can portray, and if your budget stretches to those heights, you can only indulge in the splendour of this stunning and actually ageless outfit.
Warehouse are doing a smart but stylish reversible tartan trench, a snitch at £99 which can adapt nicely with jeans or as a smarter work coat.
Next Lipsy have an adorable tartan mini-kilt at only £40 and , and you have to check out the morgan tartan asymmetric skirt from Preen By Thornton Bregazzi at £745, and more can be found on www.shopstyle.co.uk and www.farfetch.com.
If you just want a hint of tartan, dress any outfit with a classic tartan scarf for Winter.
Within its history, tartan has also symbolised the Rebel and the Royal, and this is reflected in all aspects of its evolvement in fashion, either being worn regally with its classic bent, or with a more daring punk influence.
It just gives us food for thought, and also gives us the confident to explore and include this heritage emblem within our own ‘brand’ of fashion to bring it home and make it our own.
When the travel company Novasol asked me to write a travelogue on one of their villa destinations in Croatia, I agreed immediately.
Firstly, because I had worked with Novasol before, and as they are celebrating their 50 year anniversary this year, knew that anywhere they sent me would be first class.
I had never been to Croatia and so did a little pre-adventure research and discovered it had the potential to be a very special experience. I knew that a great deal of movies and TV have been filmed there over the years as I had known an actor who had appeared in Game of Thrones, so decided to check out the most interesting locations.
Novasol provide holiday homes all over Europe, and their homes are constantly monitored to make sure they maintain the standard of their brochures. So I knew I would be very well catered for, but was overwhelmed with the care and attention I actually received.
At my initial request, I had a series of email communications from the owner of the Villa, Ivo Dimnic, in the stunning seaside village of Orasac, just 15 kilometres from Dubrovnik. Ivo assured me that on arrival it would take just half an hour or so to reach him, and this was absolutely the case.
The short drive from the airport to the Villa was amazing, as the winding coastal roads sported breath taking views of beaches and ancient architecture, which give you an immediate flavour of the beautiful country of Croatia.
Ivo and his wife Ela were there to greet us, as I was travelling with an old friend, theatre Director Frank Nealon, who also wanted to experience Croatia and I suspect, check it out for any future projects.
Ivo and Ela showed us around the Villa which is stunning and also had a bottle of wine and some ‘welcome’ home baked cookies for us on arrival. We also discovered that Ivo Dimnic is a well-known local artist, and his stylish paintings are displayed throughout the walls of the Villa to enhance the already high spec tasteful interior decor. It is actually spacious enough for two families, and even has a kids room which is set up for their X-boxes and computer games.
Ivo was charming and offered to drive us into town and show us some beauty spots, but we had hired a car and so didn’t want to put him to any inconvenience, but it seemed that nothing was too much trouble, and so we planned to meet up with him later in the week in Dubrovnik.
The Villa is set high on the hill of Orasac, and so the views over the bay are outstanding, with the little boats and the bigger trawlers making a magical picture as we sipped our wine and relished our first evening in Croatia.
We decided to stay close to home on the first day, and so walked down the steps to the bakery below to check out where to buy fresh bread for breakfast the next day, and then ventured down to the Hotel below the Sun Gardens, where we had a fantastic meal in one of their restaurants open to non-residents, overlooking the beach.
We discovered too that the white wine from Orasac is famous in Croatia, and the seafood delicious. So we were really set up for a fabulous Croatian vacation.
Watch out for more adventures in Croatia on Glotime.tv shortly when we report on more food, beauty spots and culture.
To celebrate International Thunderbirds Day, a whopping 34-hour marathon of every episode of the original Thunderbirds series, created by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson will be shown on-line to a worldwide audience.
Sylvia also provided the voice for the iconic Lady Penelope.
The event which includes some bonus features, is going to be streamed live around the world.
Starting on 30th September at 2:30pm BST / 6:30am PDT (full schedule below), the live stream will be available exclusively on Shout! Factory TV’s official Twitch channel. You can watch for free online wherever you are, just be aware that you must be at least 13 to visit Twitch, and if you are 13-18 you must use Twitch under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian. Find the full terms of service here.
International Thunderbirds Day celebrates the anniversary of the first TV broadcast of Gerry & Sylvia Anderson’s Thunderbirds in the UK, 53 years ago on 30th September, 1965. We hope you enjoy discovering, or re-discovering, the origins of the Tracy family and International Rescue. You can find the full schedule of episodes and bonus content below.
F.A.B!
THUNDERBIRDS DAY MARATHON SCHEDULE (ALL TIMES BST) SUNDAY 30TH SEPTEMBER
2:30pm – Introducing Thunderbirds [Bonus Episode]
3:00pm – Season 1, Episode 1: Trapped In The Sky
4:00pm – Season 1, Episode 2: Pit Of Peril
5:00pm – Season 1, Episode 3: The Perils Of Penelope
6:00pm – Season 1, Episode 4: Terror In New York City
7:00pm – Season 1, Episode 5: Edge Of Impact
8:00pm – Season 1, Episode 6: Day Of Disaster
9:00pm – Season 1, Episode 7: 30 Minutes After Noon
10:00pm – Season 1, Episode 8: Desperate Intruder
11:00pm – Season 1, Episode 9: End Of The Road
12:00am – Season 1, Episode 10: The Uninvited
MONDAY 1ST OCTOBER
1:00am – Season 1, Episode 11: Sun Probe
2:00am – Season 1, Episode 12: Operation Crash-Dive
3:00am – Season 1, Episode 13: Vault Of Death
4:00am – Season 1, Episode 14: The Mighty Atom
5:00am – Season 1, Episode 15: City Of Fire
6:00am – Season 1, Episode 16: The Imposters
7:00am – Season 1, Episode 17: The Man From MI5
8:00am – Season 1, Episode 18: Cry Wolf
9:00am – Season 1, Episode 19: Danger At Ocean Deep
10:00am – Season 1, Episode 20: Move And You’re Dead
11:00am – Season 1, Episode 21: The Duchess Assignment
12:00pm – Season 1, Episode 22: Brink Of Disaster
1:00pm – Season 1, Episode 23: Attack Of The Alligators
2:00pm – Season 1, Episode 24: Martian Invasion
3:00pm – Season 1, Episode 25: The Cham-Cham
4:00pm – Season 1, Episode 26: Security Hazard
5:00pm – The Abonimable Snowman [Bonus Episode]
5:30pm – Season 2, Episode 1: Atlantic Inferno
6:30pm – Season 2, Episode 2: Path Of Destruction
7:30pm – Season 2, Episode 3: Alias Mr. Hackenbacker
8:30pm – Season 2, Episode 4: Lord Parker’s ‘Oliday
9:30pm – Season 2, Episode 5: Ricochet
10:30pm – Season 2, Episode 32: Give Or Take A Million
11:30pm – The Stately Homes Robberies [Bonus Episode]
12:00am – Century 21 Slough Documentary
Not only that Saturday is the 30th aniversary of Joe 90, the 9 year old boy who receives brain patterns and becomes a fighter pilot, safe cracker, brain surgeon etc.
ITV Studios Global Entertainment have re-released this complete series on DVD in a special collector’s edition box set with extra features.
Professor Ian “Mac” McClaine, a brilliant computer expert, has invented an incredible device called (BIG RAT). It enables the knowledge and experience of one person to be transferred to another he demonstrates the machine to his friend Sam Loover, by transferring his own brain patterns to his adopted son Joe. Joe with the aid of this technology and some special glasses become The World Intelligence Network (W.I.N.) Most Special Agent, fighting for Justice and saving human life.
DVD Details
RRP £24.99
Discs 5
BBFC U
Running Time 748mins
Extra features
Both Thunderbirds and Joe 90 are avaiable on DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from leading dvd outlets and online retailers.
October 16, 2026 1854 Oscar Wilde 1890 Michael Collins 1922 Robert Urquart 1936 Peter Bowles 1940 Simon Ward 1947 Terry Griffiths 1958 Tim Robbins 1960 Gary Kemp 1967 Davina McCall
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