Helen Hickey

(Published by The Malay Mail on 19 June) Has World Cup fever hit your household? If so, read on, and let’s compare notes. So Tuesday morning, the very first thing my boys did was race downstairs and turn on channel L’Équipe 21: “Portugal lost! Poor Ronaldo”… “Yes! (an upwards hand punch) I can wear my ‘USA Team’ top today”. That was the exchange between my 7 and 9 year-old as they watched reports of Germany’s 4:0 annihilation of Portugal, and America’s 2:1 win over Ghana. Wor

(Published in The Malay Mail on 6 June 2014) Today, foreign leaders from around the world will gather in Normandy to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Europe’s D-Day landings — 6 June 1944 — a day that marked a turning point in World War II and its defeat of intense racial hatred that gripped Europe at this time. Surviving war veterans will stand together on the sandy beaches of Juno, Gold, Utah and Omaha where the world’s largest seaborne invasion took place, knowing all too

(Published in The Malay Mail on 2 June 2014) Paris is the hottest holiday destination on the planet, welcoming more than 30 million visitors a year who come to bask in everything the City of Light has to offer. I’ve crossed off some of the 59 monuments listed in my Paris Museum Pass booklet over the past year, but I’ve still a long way to go. And what knowledge I’ve acquired has just been put to the test: an American client of my husband has asked for advice on “off the beate