Like so much else, age 50 isn't what it used to be, and bully for that.
Here in Sanya the Volvo Ocean Race starts barrelling toward its ultimate gruel. Here it has stopped in the southernmost city of the People's Republic of China. Here it will leave on Sunday for its 5,220-nautical-mile push on Leg 4 toward New Zealand, and from there it will find its ultimate duress when it traipses into - cue doom music - the Southern Ocean, on Leg 5 from Auckland to Itajai, Brazil.
All of this would seem suited for the young, and so it is. It's just that sometimes 50 seems to have elbowed into the realm of young.
When they told Ken Read last year that some older sailors from last time would not participate and so he would become the oldest of the 66 men aboard the six boats, he briefly felt - what's the word? - miffed, which is not exactly the word.
The race's lone American skipper certainly does not feel at 50 the way he thought at 25 he would feel at 50, but then, the vitality of 50 nowadays often trounces the vitality of 50 prior to nowadays.
Way back in Alicante, Spain, before the legs through Cape Town and Abu Dhabi to here, the Azzam skipper Ian Walker needled the gathered press that it had failed to ask about a crucial issue, that being a 50-year-old geezer in the race. (Note: He did not use that particular word, but pretty much meant it.) Read, from down the panel, replied that at least his head featured the splendour of hair while Walker's did not. (Note: He did not use the word "splendour", but pretty much meant it.)
That exemplified the rarefied friendliness between Abu Dhabi and Puma, but the thing is, Walker might have been right in an unintended direction. Maybe we should have asked. Surely it does tell us something - maybe a hundred things - that a 50-year-old man handles this voluntary ordeal.
And just look at Read: he's not the first 50 year old doing this, but he's surely one of the liveliest. His energy changes rooms. In an interview in Abu Dhabi, he said he feels no increase in fatigue from half a life ago. Aches don't really visit all that much. With an older young man's vantage point, in his second go at this (second place, Puma, 2008/09), he can talk for paragraphs about what he deems his biggest responsibility: the constant safeguarding against having to call a crew member's wife or parent with the worst news.
The Team Sanya Chinese sailor "Tiger" Teng Jiang, just getting going at this at 37, told the race website he foresees a long future partly because he looks at Read.
As well, Read is the guy who made - or approved - the most daring decision of the ocean segment of Leg 3. While the other boats hugged the Vietnam coast late in the leg, Puma ventured out to sea, and ultimately, Read said, "It didn't work, and I put my hand up for that".
Can't ask for more than that.
How many people, in the same lifetime, made All-American sailor at Boston University in the prehistoric era of 1981-83 and also weathered a marooning in the world's remotest inhabited island in late 2011?
Answer: one. There was Read, after Puma broke its mast and alighted in Tristan da Cunha in the Atlantic, frank as usual: "To say we're disappointed would be the understatement of the century."
There was Read, when the umpires penalised Puma after an encounter with Telefonica in the Abu Dhabi in-port race, barking that Telefonica "turned back up aggressively" and "clearly tried to fake out the umpires" and, finally, "Sure enough, they got the call."
Like Walker, he remains conscious of translating a deeply technical game toward the public as much as possible. From this quotation early on, a novice really could get one worthy glimpse of the Volvo Ocean Race: "Even when the rules try to scale them back some," the boats "just simply get faster. This constant pushing of the envelope is something that we all enjoy. What we do, we push the envelope with all these parts and shapes and crazy things in the boat. It's what makes this thing fun. I think the customisation is what makes this event so special."
That would be the insight of the seasoned, with seasoned never any further from decrepit.
cculpepper@thenational.ae
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Globalization and its Discontents Revisited
Joseph E. Stiglitz
W. W. Norton & Company
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Is it worth it? We put cheesecake frap to the test.
The verdict from the nutritionists is damning. But does a cheesecake frappuccino taste good enough to merit the indulgence?
My advice is to only go there if you have unusually sweet tooth. I like my puddings, but this was a bit much even for me. The first hit is a winner, but it's downhill, slowly, from there. Each sip is a little less satisfying than the last, and maybe it was just all that sugar, but it isn't long before the rush is replaced by a creeping remorse. And half of the thing is still left.
The caramel version is far superior to the blueberry, too. If someone put a full caramel cheesecake through a liquidiser and scooped out the contents, it would probably taste something like this. Blueberry, on the other hand, has more of an artificial taste. It's like someone has tried to invent this drink in a lab, and while early results were promising, they're still in the testing phase. It isn't terrible, but something isn't quite right either.
So if you want an experience, go for a small, and opt for the caramel. But if you want a cheesecake, it's probably more satisfying, and not quite as unhealthy, to just order the real thing.
Asia Cup 2018 final
Who: India v Bangladesh
When: Friday, 3.30pm, Dubai International Stadium
Watch: Live on OSN Cricket HD
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
11 cabbie-recommended restaurants and dishes to try in Abu Dhabi
Iqbal Restaurant behind Wendy’s on Hamdan Street for the chicken karahi (Dh14)
Pathemari in Navy Gate for prawn biryani (from Dh12 to Dh35)
Abu Al Nasar near Abu Dhabi Mall, for biryani (from Dh12 to Dh20)
Bonna Annee at Navy Gate for Ethiopian food (the Bonna Annee special costs Dh42 and comes with a mix of six house stews – key wet, minchet abesh, kekel, meser be sega, tibs fir fir and shiro).
Al Habasha in Tanker Mai for Ethiopian food (tibs, a hearty stew with meat, is a popular dish; here it costs Dh36.75 for lamb and beef versions)
Himalayan Restaurant in Mussaffa for Nepalese (the momos and chowmein noodles are best-selling items, and go for between Dh14 and Dh20)
Makalu in Mussaffa for Nepalese (get the chicken curry or chicken fry for Dh11)
Al Shaheen Cafeteria near Guardian Towers for a quick morning bite, especially the egg sandwich in paratha (Dh3.50)
Pinky Food Restaurant in Tanker Mai for tilapia
Tasty Zone for Nepalese-style noodles (Dh15)
Ibrahimi for Pakistani food (a quarter chicken tikka with roti costs Dh16)
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The Little Things
Directed by: John Lee Hancock
Starring: Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Jared Leto
Four stars
Who are the Soroptimists?
The first Soroptimists club was founded in Oakland, California in 1921. The name comes from the Latin word soror which means sister, combined with optima, meaning the best.
The organisation said its name is best interpreted as ‘the best for women’.
Since then the group has grown exponentially around the world and is officially affiliated with the United Nations. The organisation also counts Queen Mathilde of Belgium among its ranks.
