The great escape

As part of Mohammed bin Salman’s effort to turn Saudi Arabia into a tourist hot spot, says The Wall Street Journal, the cash-splashing Crown Prince has commissioned some truly wacky architectural projects. They include an airport fitted with mirrored roofs to look like a desert mirage; “an island shaped like a dolphin, with coral-reef buildings”; and an old oil rig renovated with a Ferris wheel, waterslides, roller coasters and bungee jumping. The power-mad autocrat gets “passionately involved” in the designs, micromanaging details as small as hotel furniture and street lamps.

Eating in

Fancy Italian cooks love looking down on the rest of us, says James McConnachie in The Sunday Times, but many of their finicky food myths “turn out to be a load of testicoli”. Rather than serving pasta al dente, traditional cooking times ranged from 15 minutes to a “mush-inducing hour”. As for the “great solecism” – adding cream to carbonara – Italian chefs used to do it routinely; in the 1980s, according to one food historian, many recommended almost equal parts cream and spaghetti. And while many fussy cooks maintain chicken and pasta should “never, ever be partnered”, the white meat was an integral ingredient to tortellini as late as the 1970s.

Sport

High society has an unlikely but “incurable addiction”, says Helen Kirwan-Taylor in Tatler: fishing. Top-tier anglers are in the Houghton Club, which comprises just 25 mostly aristocratic members, including King Charles. Lesser celebrity fishing fans, such as Emma Watson, David Beckham and Prue Leith, make do with exotic fishing holidays in the likes of Iceland, Cuba and Tahiti. One guru hosts training camps in the Seychelles, with guests splashing out a cool £12,500 to learn to catch trevally, a type of huge, bird-eating fish. Ethically minded celebs are taking to the sport because, unlike shooting, it’s not a “matter of life and death”. Most now practise the “catch-and-release” method: reeling in a huge fish, posing for a quick photograph to show off on Instagram, then returning it to the water unharmed.

Eating out

I know there are more important things going on, says Judith Woods in The Daily Telegraph, but how on earth has Rugby Services just been voted Britain’s best motorway service station? Everyone knows that Tebay, 190 miles further up the M6, is the gold standard: it has an “actual duck pond”, the butcher’s that supplied the Queen’s coronation, and a farm shop “stocked by a former Harrods buyer”. Tebay is a throwback to the 1960s and 1970s, when service stations were “ritzy destinations”. Washington Birtley in County Durham boasted vending machines with microwavable duckling à l’orange; Trowell, in Nottinghamshire, had a Robin Hood-themed restaurant “decked out as a medieval banqueting hall”. Jimi Hendrix heard so much about the “amazing” Blue Boar at Watford Gap that he assumed it was a “crazy London nightclub”

Noted

It’s not just us “plebs” who are supposed to curtsy when we meet royals, says Sophia Money-Coutts in The Daily Telegraph: the royal women are expected to bow and curtsy to each other – even in private. The rules for who curtsies to whom are mostly based on their “position in the pecking order”. So Kate is expected to bend the knee to “blood” princesses, such as Anne, Beatrice and Eugenie. But if William is in the room then his presence “catapults her above” Beatrice and Eugenie, who have to bob to her. As for Meghan, she technically has to curtsy to pretty much everyone, including Kate, because William is more senior than Harry. You can see why she “might have found royal gatherings a bit much”.

THE BOLTHOLE

This newly renovated apartment lies on bustling Chamberlayne Road in Kensal Rise, northwest London. Decorated in sleek, monochromatic tones, it has an open-plan kitchen-diner, two decent-sized bedrooms, and sash windows flooding the living area with light. The street has an excellent selection of cafes and restaurants, an independent cinema and one of London’s finest florists. Overground services run from Kensal Rise station, a three-minute walk away. £525,000.

THE COUNTRY HOUSE

This Grade II listed cottage is tucked away in North Ferriby, a charming village near Hull. It retains several period features: original exposed beams, Georgian panelling, parquet floorboards and a beautiful horseshoe fireplace. The private garden is an ardent oasis, which has been partly re-wilded to attract birds and butterflies. Ferriby station is a three-minute walk away, offering direct services to major cities. £325,000.