Daily Grind Of Still Water

His music – a heady broth of hip-hop beats and vibrant, accessible reggae-pop – is infused with unabashed lyrical celebrations of his faith and the Jewish condition (“3,000 years with no place to be/And they want me to give up my milk and honey/Don’t you see, it’s not about the land or the sea/Not the country but the dwelling of his majesty” he sings on “Jerusalem”), and has been variously dismissed as a novelty curio by some, and hailed as the advent of a truly original voice by others. As the world’s only known platinum-selling Hasidic Jewish dancehall-reggae sensation, metaphysical MC and human beatbox, Matthew “Matisyahu’ Miller cuts a distinctly awkward figure amongst the gallery of image-obsessed, MTV-endorsed, chart phenomena he’s recently found himself rubbing shoulders and sharing airspace with. If we were to assess the old MX-5’s gender by use of a scale depicting, let’s say, the sexuality of old school Hollywood film stars, placing Charles Bronson at one end and Audrey Hepburn at the other, it would have come in around about the Doris Day mark (feminine, but with underlying notes of butch – think Calamity Jane). The new MX-5, however, edges the brand more towards Rock Hudson. Its bulbous wheel arches give it a more masculine stance and they’ve done away with the ickle 1.6-litre version (there’s even a 200bhp monster due for launch in a couple of years), but it is still going to have strong opinions on your soft furnishings.

It seems that, with old rivals like the MGF and the Fiat Barchetta dead, the MX-5 is, once again, the only proper sports car in the village.It’s a classic: Mazda MX-5Very few cars truly deserve to be called instant classics – and they are usually phenomenally expensive Ferraris and the like – but the Mazda MX-5 was one.This was partly because it so obviously harked back to a classic era of lightweight, open-top, front-engined, rear-wheel drive two-seaters, epitomised by the Lotus Elan (the main inspiration for the car’s Californian-based designers).The MX-5 evolved from a design sketch by Tom Matano in 1983 and was, famously, developed as a “garden shed” operation in the design team’s spare time. Their self-imposed remit was to design a car with responsive handling, lively performance, timeless design, a pleasant place for two and a simple roof at a price affordable to anyone who loves to drive.The price did creep up a bit by the time of its launch in 1989, but the MX-5 turned out to be wildly more successful than Mazda ever imagined, becoming the bestselling sports car of all time (overhauling the Ford Mustang and Datsun Z series), with almost half a million MkIs and almost 300,000 MkIIs being sold.. It has more safety equipment – more airbags, traction control, ESP – but, best of all, it weighs just 10kg more than the original. Trust me, at a time when VW Golfs have been known to cause eclipses, this is little short of miraculous.One thing that has changed, albeit slightly, is the new car’s sexuality. It grips, but not so much that you can’t “have a bit of fun in the wet”, as Spitfire drivers term it, although it does grip enough so that you won’t end up in a hedge, as most Spitfire drivers do from time to time.

This is a car that doesn’t so much worm its way into your affections as wrap itself around your heart like a boa constrictor and squeeze until you give in.The new car is better equipped, has a classier interior and seems heftier than before. No, the best thing about this car is how much fun you can have at legal speeds (which is why I’d go for the cheapest £15,600, 1.8-litre version, which also does without a limited slip differential). This is a car you drive with your fingertips and toes; like all the best sports cars its power and poise (it’s still rear-wheel drive, of course, with near 50/50 weight distribution) flatter you into thinking you are a better driver than you are without risk of a long-term hospital stay. It has the same precise and immediate steering; knobby little snick-snick, six-speed gearstick; unpretentious, manual cloth roof (none of your bourgeois, mumsy, folding hardtop flimflammery here); and, most important of all, from the moment you wiggle your bum into the hugging seats and grip the chubby leather wheel, you feel like an electrical plug slipping into its socket.What I’m trying to say is that the MX-5 is electrifying, albeit not in a hair-raising, whizz-bang Lamborghini kind of way (the MX-5 was never about spearing across the salt flats in a quest for land speed records). Let’s just say that for about a decade prior to that, most people’s idea of a budget sports car came with a hatchback and a GTi badge.
The new car is every bit as good as the old one: compact, light, agile and perky. The Godfather: Part III, Basic Instinct 2 and Roseanne’s thin period are a more salutary guide. So where does that leave the new Mazda MX-5?I know that, technically, the new MX-5 is the MkIII, but the last one was really just a re-jig of that first, epochal MX-5, launched in 1989 It’s easy to forget how revolutionary the original MX-5 was.

Would suit: Anyone who simply loves to drive Price: £18,900 (as tested 2.0-litre Sport) Maximum speed: 131mph, 0-60mph in 7.6 seconds Combined fuel: economy 34mpg Further information: 08457 484 848

Sequels rarely improve on the original. The Godfather: Part II, Blackadder II and Elvis’s fat period are the exceptions that prove the rule. Prices are the same as those in the clinic – Botox injections starting at £200 – plus an £80 “delivery charge”.Botox is now the most popular non-surgical medical cosmetic treatment in the UK.But Dr Patrick Bowler, chairman of the British Association of Cosmetic Doctors, said despite the apparent popularity of Botonics’s house-call service, potential customers should proceed with caution.”I can see the pros,” Dr Bowler said, “but you wouldn’t go and have your teeth checked in someone’s front room, would you? Most people know what good medical practice is and, clearly, on the back of a bike is not it.”. “The whole thing took about 10 minutes and it was great, really relaxing,” she said. “The idea of being able to recline on my sofa and have my husband here during the treatment is far more appealing than going into a clinic.”Dr Blum, who checks that each person is suitable for treatment and that their home meets sanitary requirements, said he had seen a broad range of clients during his first few weeks of housecalls.”A lot of businessmen like to have this done, because it’s very discreet, comfortable and very quick,” he said.According to Dr Blum, the most popular treatments are around the eyes, mouth and forehead.

He talked her through the procedures she had booked – Botox around the eyes, and dermal fillers to smooth out lines around her mouth.Moving his client to the brightest place in the house – the sofa in the lounge – Dr Blum administered the treatment, checked all was well and then rode off into the night.Mrs Thrift, 27, declared herself extremely happy with the results. For the past few weeks, he has been riding across London to different addresses, his panniers full of syringes and an icebox of refrigerated Botox on the back of his bike.The west London-based Botonics group of clinics says it has been inundated with inquiries since it launched the service last month: would-be clients include working mothers, professional models, businessmen and celebrities.Shortly after 6.30pm on Friday, Dr Blum arrived at Mrs Thrift’s address in north London, clad in black motorcycling leathers. Services include skin peels, Botox and injectable wrinkle fillers – administered Dr Cyrille Blum.
Dr Blum, 55, a Parisian with 15 years’ experience in the field, is Botonics’s main house doctor. This weekend she became one of the first people to make use of the UK’s first home-delivery medical cosmetic service. Dubbed “Botox-on-a-bike”, a range of therapies is being offered by a London-based chain of clinics to be administered in homes by a doctor who comes to call on his motorcycle. Greg had been told he was diabetic, and would need to inject himself with insulin four times a day For ever

“I was quite distraught,” he said. “There was no way I could stick a needle in myself four times a day I kept refusing to do it.”.