Diary: Just like being there

Obviously, 2020 has not quite panned out how any of us planned, and it seems safe to say that the festive period this year will involve a few compromises being made – Diary can’t get a delivery slot for love nor money, so Domino’s for Christmas dinner this year? Ahead of the game, Carnaby Street has unveiled its technological solution to the challenges posed by the pandemic – a 360° virtual tour of its Christmas installation, offering you the “full experience from the comfort of your own home”. It includes a live function where users can join up with someone anywhere in the world to enjoy the “giant pink neon glow” together. The theme this year is Choose Love In Carnaby (in partnership with charity Choose Love) and light boxes are suspended the length of Carnaby Street beaming poignant words of hope – including believe, heal, brave, dream, faith, together and family – all paying tribute to the strength and courage of Londoners and the whole of the UK. That’s something that even the Scrooges among us can surely get behind this Christmas. Take the tour here Liverpool (dr)One Not to be outdone by Carnaby Street, Liverpool One too is undaunted in its mission to “take Christmas to the community”, and just because crowds couldn’t gather to see its “iconic Christmas lights”, that doesn’t mean the illuminations can’t still bring joy. A drone was used to record the big switch-on – including a 30-metre tall Christmas tree that turns blue at regular intervals as a mark of respect to the NHS – and the resulting film is being distributed across care homes and schools, as well as shared online, “ensuring no one in the community misses out on this year’s light spectacular”. Because in the dystopia of 2020, nothing spreads festive cheer better than drone footage. Enjoy for yourself here Nice cubes Are you pining for the city during lockdown 2.0? Well, why not bring it to you – whether the city in question is London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, New York, Los Angeles or many more. Spotted at least once a day on Diary’s Facebook – almost as if our phone is tracking us and everything we do – these “compact, tiny and absolutely adorable” CityCubes offer neat, miniature recreations of iconic skylines, suitable for display in your home or (if you can get there) office. London has two options available – the City itself, and Tower Bridge – and there are plenty more locations around the world to choose from. The ideal Christmas gift for real estate lovers and (former) global travellers who are starting to forget what the actual places look like? Location, location, vaccination? “Could Covid testing sites become the new must-have property feature?” asks the press release. Hopefully not, after recent positive news on the vaccine front. But, according to estate agent Barrows and Forster, the figures show that, across the 163 postcodes currently home to a testing site, the average house price sits at £243,588 – £4,392 more than the UK average. And, when comparing prices in these postcodes to the wider local authorities they are located within, the difference is even more pronounced: a 7% jump of £15,484. MD James Forrester, fearing several more months of Covid precautions, believes that living close to a testing site “could well become a soughtafter feature for homebuyers in the short to mid-term”. We’re not so sure. It could be that the location of testing sites in already higher value property areas says more about the kind of socio-economic factors that may have influenced the UK’s pandemic response… but that kind of thinking is above Diary’s paygrade. A game of two halves Bravo to Richard Harwood QC, leading planning barrister and recent EG profile interview victim. He told Diary that he spends much of his free time watching his children playing football, and now he is using some of his considerable skills as an advocate to press the case for leading girls to enjoy the same opportunities to carry on during lockdown as boys. There has been outcry over the disparity and, writing on the 39 Essex Chambers website, Harwood blames the government’s age limit for “elite” sportspeople that currently stands at 15 – and which, due to complexities we won’t go into, impacts girls more than boys. It’s easy to solve, he says: “The substance of the amendment is no more complicated than leave out ‘15’ and insert ‘8’. Such an amendment would enable elite girls’ football to resume. It would remedy an unfortunate problem of discrimination.” Fingers crossed the government will listen – and that Harwood can go on spending his wet weekends cheering from the touchline.