hotels in mystic ct

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Latin America’s biggest economy has weathered the downturn well and is in need of talent. Plus, it’s gearing up for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Amgen executives detailed their alleged Aranesp "overfill" kickback scheme in a set of PowerPoint slides and Excel spreadsheets, according to a lawsuit filed by the New York State Attorney General. The suit also describes an email in which colleagues of Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer asked for information on how Amgen changed the overfill levels on a competing drug, Epogen, that Amgen manufactured for Johnson & Johnson. The email indicates that the information -- which describes how Epogen's overfills were reduced when Aranesp hit the market -- was to be delivered to Sharer.

The author of the popular [Stuff]MyDadSays feed on Twitter — an adult child living at home — shares a few tips for parents on how to get along with their kids who have returned to the roost. Among them: Set clear rules on expected behavior, make them do chores, and, above all, don’t let them move back in without a plan for moving out.

Travel Intelligence

• "Arcadia in Andalusia" by Greg Cook
  

  Dusty bullfights, sultry flamenco dancers, warm orange groves and crisp chilled sherry, grand Moorish palaces and brilliant white villages perched among the mountains…

  Over the centuries, these enduring images of Spain, have transcended cliché to become the bedrock of a nation’s identity, perceived at home and abroad.
      
  Yet within this large European country, occupying most of the Iberian Peninsula and with a total population approaching 44 million, there is one particular region that encapsulates this historic vision of Spain more than any other. A region, which, it could be argued, represents the distilled essence of a nation.
      
  That region is Andalusia. The southernmost of Spain’s seventeen districts seems to have it all - the world’s greatest sherry vineyards, the country’s oldest bullrings and breathtaking ancient towns like Granada, Cordoba and majestic Seville, Spain’s fourth-largest city.
  
  South of Seville, the road to Jerez bisects the great fertile plains of Andalusia, where rotating crops of cotton, wheat and sunflowers paint ever-changing colours across a table-flat landscape – issuing continually from a canvass of rich, burnt-umber soil.
      
  Here, tucked away in a shallow knoll beneath the spirit-level horizon, is a hidden treasure, screened from view until the last moment by a long drive flanked with tall banks of oleander bushes that open suddenly into a forecourt revealing an edifice, with a façade as broadly flat and impressive as the surrounding countryside.

  This is the Hacienda de San Rafael, an immaculately restored cortijo, the Spanish term for a grand country farmhouse that sits within its own estate.
      
  Hacienda de San Raphael is a breathtaking example of such a property. Built in the 18th century, the hacienda was originally used for pressing and storing olive oil from the groves across the 350 acres of accompanying farmland that encircle the property.
  
  Many grand farmhouses like this litter Andalusia in an abject state of dereliction, and such would have been the fate of the Hacienda de San Raphael if not for the single-minded determination of a family from London.
  
  In 1989, Tim and Kuky Reid set out to rescue the hacienda before it fell into a state of terminal decline. The property had been in Kuky’s side of the family for the past 150 years, and she and her husband Tim, who had previously been marketing manager of the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong, realised that, although they had a chance to create a beautiful new family home as well as a potentially great business prospect, their window of opportunity was closing fast.
      
  They set themselves to the task, and three years later the building had been transformed into a magnificent and stylish family home.
      
  Flanked by two arched, covered walkways, a breathtaking central courtyard has been beautifully restored – its metre-thick walls and voluptuous, gleaming white buttresses swarming over with jasmine and plumbago. Re-laid in the traditional patchwork pattern of cobble and brick, with ‘1993’ modesty inlaid by the central well, it serves as an excellent early indication of the level of care, authentic craftsmanship and all-round dedication that has been lavished on this old house over the last 18 years.
  
  The surrounding grounds have had no less attention lavished on them. Old, sickening olive trees have been replaced with a thousand new specimens, and a battle against the parching climate has been fought and won over five acres of land immediately surrounding the hacienda, which have been meticulously landscaped into a series of adjoining gardens, flourishing with flowering herbs and citrus trees and making it feel as if you have stumbled into the kind of oasis more commonly found on the other side of the Mediterranean in North Africa.
  
  For the couple’s three children, Vanessa, Anthony and Patrick, free time and holidays spent out here were an integral part of childhood, and as they grew up, they not only became fluent in Spanish but also, when Hacienda de San Raphael opened its doors in 1993 as one of Spain’s very first small-scale boutique hotels, became vital contributors to the ongoing maintenance and refurbishment of this grand property.
      
  Since then, Anthony, now 31, and Patrick, 25, previously working in related industries in South Africa and London respectively, both took the bold step of moving out here permanently to undertake the full-time management of this now flourishing and much-loved family concern.
  
   Living here since 2004, the brother’s easygoing charm, coupled with scrupulous attention to detail and an infectious enthusiasm for all things Andalusian, has beguiled regular guests and instantly wins over newcomers – leaving the hacienda’s longstanding status of regional ‘best kept secret’ teetering on the brink.
  
  “There are still plenty of Spaniards native to this area, who have lived here all their lives, driving past everyday a few hundred yards away on the main road with no idea we exist – even though we’re the last hacienda in the province of Seville,” explains Patrick. “Occasionally we get a local who hears about us and drops in here for the first, and their reaction is always one of quite emotional amazement – not just that a place like this is still standing here in such good condition, but also that it’s actually a successful concern. It does feel as though the people here are still just beginning to realise the potential of their heritage and surroundings – even though they live in this beautiful, so obviously historic area.”
  
  The property’s immaculate character is down in equal parts to the continued efforts of Patrick and Anthony, the impeccable taste of their mother, Kuky (single-handedly responsible for the interior-design and furnishings throughout the building), and the financial astuteness of their father Tim.
  
  However, Anthony is quick to cite another key element in the hacienda’s turn of fortune.
  
  “Thirty-five years ago, just before our grandfather died, this was still a working farmhouse with a mill, pressing and producing oil from the surrounding olive groves.” He explains. “At that time, it had been rented out for the preceding decades to tenant farmers who lived here, and during all that time nothing was really done to maintain the place. Shortly before his death, our grandfather had the whole place completely re-roofed with new pantiles - if it hadn’t been for that and the fact that it kept the entire building water-tight through the years before we came here, then this would probably be just another crumbled ruin dotting the plain.”
  
  Thankfully, at present, nothing could be further from the truth, the hacienda is thriving and has even expanded over recent years with the addition of three newly built casitas, separate self-contained guest houses with rustic thatched roofs laid out around a beautiful pool in their own private garden.
  
  Back in the main house, the courtyard forms the natural focal point, and meals are taken alfresco here as often as the warm Andalusian weather permits. Guest rooms are ranged along either side, with luxuriously converted sleeping areas on mezzanine platforms above marble-tiled en-suite bathrooms. These were originally where the farm’s olives were stored, prior to pressing, in huge earthenware vats sunk into the floor.
  
  At the front of the house, the long drawing room with its high, beamed ceiling is elegantly furnished with an assortment of antique furniture and treasured family heirlooms from England, India and Spain; including the wonderful collection of old iron stirrups once belonging to Anthony and Patrick’s grandfather, which are displayed above the fireplace.
  
  Interestingly though there are no spurs on display –this family is obviously quite driven enough. Not content with rescuing their gorgeous country property, Patrick and Anthony are currently spearheading the renovation and restoration of the Reid family’s next project: a four-storey townhouse dating from the 16th century in the heart of historic Seville.
  
  “Its been another uphill struggle, but its going to look fantastic when it’s completed, and it’s going to be the perfect complement to the Hacienda – sister properties in the town and country,” says Patrick.
  
  “It will definitely be the start of a very exiting new phase in our lives out here,” agrees Anthony, “but I’m sure the hacienda will always have the most special place in our family’s hearts. It’s the chance we were given – and the reason we’re here.”

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

• "All the Right Ingredients" by Greg Cook
  

  Mystic, Connecticut isn’t just home to the pizza parlour from the 80s film; it’s a small town that’s got the works.
  
  It’s a diamond-clear day in mid-October, the leaves on the sugar maples are bronzing in the afternoon sun and there’s a tang of salt in the air, blowing coarse and fresh through the harbour from Long Island Sound. I’m standing on the sidewalk outside Mystic Pizza,