ALEXANDRA SHULMAN’S NOTEBOOK: A creepy call that brought home dread of the abused

It was about 11pm, just before I went to bed, when I heard a ping from my phone. I assumed it was a text from BA canceling my flight the next day, but it was an answering machine message with caller ID ‘Unknown’.

As I listened, I heard a deep voice with a northern accent say slowly and deliberately, “You haven’t gotten an answer yet. It’s been four weeks. I saw you that one time in that store. Contact me NOW!’ It was extremely unpleasant. Of course I didn’t want to talk to this guy and in any case it was impossible to call back because his number was hidden.

I scanned my memory for any encounters I’d had in a store and if I’d upset anyone, but couldn’t come up with anything. No doubt I got an accidental call, but I wasn’t entirely sure as the man would have heard my voice on my voicemail. This disturbing experience kept me awake for hours.

Although I came to the conclusion that the call was intended for someone else (I assume a woman), it brought home to me how terrifying it must be for the millions of people in an abusive relationship. No place is safe. The abuser can be in any store, can call at any time, and doesn’t even have to use threatening words. That familiar voice alone will instill fear. I haven’t heard from this man again, and I really hope the poor woman the call was intended for hasn’t either.

Golden oldies are the money spinners

I’ve spent most of the past week in Dublin, where I’ve learned that it is a city full of music. There are street musicians on every street – almost all of them playing Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. I wondered why buskers always play old Faithfuls – the Eagles, Leonard Cohen, The Beatles. Then I realized that only the old ones still carry change with them.

Trinny’s secret? She suffers just like all of us

Trinny Woodall was in Dublin at the same time to launch her make-up brand Trinny London.

When I visited the city’s Brown Thomas department store, the cosmetic department was preparing for her appearance, with all the counter staff decked out in her signature glittering sequins.

Trinny is the latest cosmetics queen, following in the footsteps of Charlotte Tilbury, the makeup artist turned billionaire.

Trinny is a great communicator. Although she has no background in cosmetics, she makes the thousands who follow her daily videos on Instagram feel like she understands them

But both women echo the examples of previous empresses of the face cream industry: Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder and Helena Rubinstein.

These latest trailblazing businesswomen managed to build a personal connection with their customers, personally dropping by to apply makeup and provide skin care advice to women in department stores across America. Trinny is also a great communicator. Although she has no background in cosmetics, she makes the thousands who follow her daily videos on Instagram feel like she understands them. Charlotte Tilbury markets her brand on stardom; Trinny sells on empathy. She knows what it’s like to wake up with dark circles under your eyes, or to have a random bad skin day. She sounds honest and engaging, and you believe in her, so you believe her makeup recipes will work. As I write, I’m waiting for her Miracle Blur to arrive.

Emma crushes it on style and substance

Emma Raducanu fought her way to the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Open, eventually losing to world number 1 Iga Swiatek. When she won the 2021 US Open at the age of 18, Emma immediately became the poster child for tennis, with her Zendaya-style looks helping to rake in the £9.6 million she earned last year, mainly from commercial statements of support.

Inevitably there are people who think Emma is all style and no substance. But as it stands, she shows that she is both – and a great inspiration for young women who want to look glamorous and be taken seriously.

There are inevitably those who think Emma, ​​pictured playing in Stuttgart, is all style and no substance…

…but as it stands, she shows that she is both

Set-jetting is so satisfying for selfies now

Set-jetting (visiting places used as film or TV filming locations) is a new trend. Taormina in Sicily, always a tourist trap, is worse than ever after White Lotus – the series about the exploits of guests and staff at a luxury resort – while the lovely beachside restaurant Ca’s Patro March in Mallorca has been solidly booked since its appearance in BBC thriller The Night Manager. Paris has never been the same since Emily started haunting the place.

Of course, film locations have always attracted visitors. Would the Cote d’Azur have had the same appeal without those glamorous open drives of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in To Catch A Thief? But these days the crowds are much bigger, and successful show venues guarantee a ton of Instagram posts, enticing visitors from all over the world to post selfies from the hotspots.

La Maison Highbury, the rather anonymous café in London’s Islington that featured in the TV series One Day, attracts a crowd, as does the film Notting Hill’s Travel Book Shop, which, all these years later, attracts more tourists than ever.

…But not for Italy in haunted Ripley

Having watched Netflix’s Ripley, set in a series of Italian cities, I doubt this excellent, thoroughly creepy adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith thriller will have the same set-jetting effect. Shot in black and white, the murderous Ripley spends his time in rain-soaked alleys under thundering clouds.

The dense gloom is intentional and suits the story well, but even Andrew Scott in the lead role can’t diminish the sinister atmosphere it projects on Naples, Palermo and Rome.

That’s what you call room service!

On the door handle of my room at the Dylan Hotel in Dublin was a very chic green velvet card which, rather than suggesting the usual cleaning of the room, asked the staff to ‘Please style my room’. This is definitely one I’ll try at home when I want someone else to make the bed.