Commze

The economic woes that were hurting the sales that Starbucks had recently have been  turning around.  Part of the reason for the turn is due to the marketing methods McDonald’s have employed.  Since McDonald’s has come out with its own brand of coffee that it has been aggressively marketing through sales training and other resources at its disposal, it has improved the recognition of coffee in food industry for customers .  Starbucks as a result has felt some improvement in sales because of the recognition coffee has been getting overall in this business quarter.  Sales were down by about six percent this quarter but that was better than the eight percent of the previous quarter.  Analysts are hoping the upward trend continues.  

Though the advertising campaign McDonald’s used will of course benfit the company itself more than it will Starbucks, the improvement is still appreciated by Starbucks business executives.   The McCafe advertisement campaign cost about $100 million dollars.  Starbucks in the meantime this year, spent only $28 million in comparison.  Other competitors still in the advertising race include Dunkin Donuts.  However, Starbucks remains the main competitor.

Starbucks knows it’s time for a refurbishment in how they do sales.  In their new advertising campaign they have begun work that promises to aid in sales process improvement.  They will continue their spectacular use of social media in addition to more common media.  Because of company loyalty that Starbucks has grown through making a trusted coffee brand, executives plan to exploit that strong point.  It will more than excuse any large costs the fresh marketing campaign might bring.  Factors that show the loyalty customers have given Starbucks comes in the form of the three and a half million people that have friended the company Facebook, and a growing account on Twitter.

The campaign will most likely look to associating with their customers in a more straightforward way.  Social sites like Facebook look to be a part of the new way Starbucks sets trends in social media.  Many companies have taken their cues from the Starbucks and the way the company interacts with its customers.

I signed up for a weekend course for a training course for the projection technology. I managed to book a room at one of the top Barcelona hotels which wasn’t too far from the training center. My energy teacher told me about this projection technique and said I might find it’s technology more suited towards my understanding and practice of hands on healing modalities.

During the weekend, I learned that this particular technique has made remarkable strides and becoming more well known and acceptable with all hands on healers. Projection technology touches most parts of our lives. The art of projection was developed with diverse applications, like cinema, retail, theater, art installations and exhibitions, advertising and marketing, places of worship, concerts, theme parks, corporate presentations, scientific visualisations and medical, education, training simulations and even political and sports events.

I can use slides, film and digital formats by using fixed positions or being mobile. The projections can be highly complex, indoor or outdoor and on a massive scale. The potential surfaces to be projected upon are diverse, like natural formations such as rock faces, clouds, fountains, buildings, water fountains, hot air balloons, monuments, boat sails, inflatables, power stations, conference venues, stadiums, drive-in movie screens, etc.

I gained more knowledge with the training I received over the weekend about the aesthetic and practical aspects of this projection technology. My trainers were professional and had years of experience. I’m not a lighting or projection design, audio-visual person, but what I learned here gave me wonderful ways to project my healing artwork creatively and professionally. The class really had nothing to do with learning a new modality of healing. The wisdom of my teacher sending me to this technical weekend workshop in Barcelona, was a true insight on her part, because now I have a way to project my healing artwork anywhere I want, on any form I want, like the human body or into a forest needing healing. I can do this anytime I want. I will be able to project my healing artwork up on a cloud for all to see. What an amazing way to created healing on a massive scale. I have a wise teacher.

In Cape Town, South Africa, hotels are plentiful, and it’s sometimes difficult to determine which one might suit one’s needs.  Our hotels are exquisite, carefully chosen for the excellence in style and detail, as well as their personal charm.  A stay here means an experience in comfort and hospitality, with plenty of room left for elegance.  With design that meets both contemporary standards and classical taste, there is a splendid ambience here that will be felt in every room.  Our meals are prepared by world-class chefs, trained in preparing international cuisine for refined palates.  The rooms are marvelously furnished, with amenities that meet the highest standards of the industry, with an array of excellent, charming touches.  Restful nights here will leave one ready to enjoy the city.

Cape Town is one of South Africa’s largest cities, and has an extremely lively social and cultural scene.  With an incredible array of diverse peoples, it is a constant conversation that manifests itself in the arts and letters.  Visually, Cape Town is absolutely stunning, with natural landscapes, architectural styles, and art works that speak of a vibrant population with a long and complicated history.  In letters, it has given birth to some of the finest writings in the world.  One of Cape Town’s favorite sons is J.M. Coetzee, whose novels, teaching, and activism have inspired generations of young people not only in South Africa, but all over the world.

Born in Cape Town in 1940 to English-speaking parents, his mother a teacher and father a sometime lawyer, he spoke both English and Afrikaner while growing up.  He earned a B.A. and M.A. in Cape Town, and his doctorate from UT Austin in the U.S.  He has lectured widely, and held the post as Distinguished Professor of Literature at the University of Cape Town, until he moved to Australia with his partner.  His novels are compelling and often bleak portraits of isolation and deep moral questions, reflecting his own lifelong commitment to great ethical questions that are most relevant to South Africa.  He has won the Booker Prize twice for The Life and Times of Michael K. and Disgrace.  In 2003, Coetzee won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

For fans of Jo-Wilifried Tsonga Petsonga, they will have a chance to see him and many more through the US Open sweepstakes that is still happening right now.  Though watching his moves on TV is good, watching this fantastic and rising star in person would prove to be even better.  
 
His history seems to always show a proclivity toward sports.  Didier, his father, moved from the Congolese to France to pursue handball, which perhaps explains his interest in tennis as something evolved from his father. Growing to become a imminent figure in tennis when he crushed four seeded tennis players in the 2008 Australian Open, Jo-Wilifried Tsonga Petsonga has shown great potential to become the top tennis professional in the world ever since.  Not only did he defeat four seeded players, but he also defeated them while he himself was unseeded.  He conquered Rafael Nadal, a player with a world ranking of two when Jo-Wilifried Tsonga Petsonga played him, during the semifinals of the US Australian Open.  He did finally lose to Novak Djokovic.  Though Jo-Wilifried Tsonga Petsonga won the first set of the match, he lost the others.  
 
Other facts that make him a favorite at the US Open are his excellent serves which are full of power but also extreme precision.  Forehands that are on the heavy side also aid in the playing style that has helped him to become 7th in the world in such a short period of time.  His US Open tennis scores are sure to please fans.  He and his friend in fact used to practice the moves and styles of another favorite for the US Open—Andy Roddick. 
 
Employing the serve-and-volley style of play that most players no longer use, he also plays his baseline on the offensive.  Jo-Wilifried Tsonga Petsonga has been credited with having a great, almost intuitive feeling of the tennis net as well.  Another trick he holds up his sleeves is his down the line backhand, which is now widely considered to be one of the greatest among the men’s tennis match ups.  Though clay-court is not his best surface on which to play upon, it is a surface he works on improving his techniques upon.  Perhaps this is one of the few faults of this almost prefect tennis who is a favorite to win.

Foreclosure is widespread throughout the United States due to the current economic situation, the growing unemployment and the inability for many people to keep up with their mortgage payments due to the stress of this current financial crisis.  However this is not only affecting the United States.  The number of foreclosures Vancouver residents are experiencing has been growing as well.  This creates a unique opportunity for some in the real estate business or for those who are looking to buy homes and to get them at a fraction of the original cost.

The bank or the lender takes back the property and later resells it in order to recuperate the cost of the original loan.  The foreclosure process can go one of four ways.  Ideally for the home owner, if they can pay back the amount of the defaulted payments within the period of grace allotted to them, they will remain in possession of their home.  This stage is the pre-foreclosure stage.  The second option of the process is that during the pre-foreclosure grace period, the home owner will sell their house one their own.

While the end result is that they are not longer in their home, the are able to pay off the default and avoid the negative consequences to their credit score and history.  If the borrower does not manage to pay off the default, when the grace period of the pre-foreclosure is over, the home may be purchased at a publicly held auction.  The fourth possible outcome for a foreclosure is that the lender or the bank gains ownership and title to the property.

The bank will then have the intention of reselling the house.  Sometimes the bank is the third party buyer at the public auctions.  In all, banks and lenders to not want to re-possess houses, and many are willing to offer help and guidance, such as that first pre-foreclosure grace period.  Home owners do have many opportunities to save their houses, provided that they are able to afford to do so.

Many of the historical sites of interest and landmarks of Leicester were constructed and established during the 18th Century.  The Royal Infirmary, the New Walk and the canal are just a few of those from that time.  During the 19th Century the Industrial Revolution took place and that was the greatest single movement that affected the town of Leicester.  During that short one hundred years the population grew exponentially, from seventeen thousand to two hundred thousand, and the city began to expand its boundaries.

By the beginning of 1900, 4 railroads were going through the town, the Midland, the Great Central, the Leicester-Swannington and the Great Northern.  Leicester hotels, restaurants, and market shops began their booming businesses as well.  The factories started being built throughout the town, hundreds of them.  Architecture was splendidly exihibited through the civic and the governement buildings such as the Town Hall, with a fountain, and garden decorated front square.  The status of the city was elevated with the construction of opulent and extravagent hotels.

The industries of hosiery and knitted production as well as the shoe craftsmans, and by the 1930’s Leicester became one of the wealthies, and most successfull cities in all of Europe.  Many of the historic mansions located throughout the suburbs of Knighton and Stoneygate are evidence of this previously acquired wealth.  Today, many Asian companies and coroporations have moved into the city, which has add another cultural and economic element to the heritage and to the future of the city of Leicester.

The Oxford Street is the site of the Jain Center, this is in the Asain business district and is the largest center of this type in the Western countries of the world.  The combination of the traditional modes of business transactions and adapability have merged with the Asian mode of business and ethics, and this two aspects combined served to pull the city through the economic trials of the 1980’s.

The quantification of the dollar amount concerning the effects of political corruption is an impossible task.  The quantitative effects can not be determined.  Research experts have used a variety of methods in their attempts to put a dollar amount on the severity of the effects, empirical methods and regression analyses, the truth of the matter is that it is virtually and literal impossible to truly calculate.  No politician keeps a record on the amount of money they budget in each month for paying off bribes.

This is one kind of annual investment that will not appear on the books.  On top of that, there are many forms of bribery, from presents given, to promises made to favors fulfilled.  How can one put a price on such esoteric happenings?  The best that the researchers can do is to find ways in which to correlate the economic development, or the degradation of social systems and the condition of the environment to the corruption levels already known to exist for any given region or country or system.

And while the ramifications on the social structure is the most destructive aspect of political corruption, this remains to the aspect that is the hardest to determine, the least quantifiable of them all.  What does it cost a society when a famous scientist, or a famous ballet dancer, refuses to visit the country and share their talents?  And to try to put that loss into a dollar amount does nothing in comparison to what it does to the human spirit of a society.

In the history of the state of Arizona, the ideas and the actions of politicians such as Evan Mecham,   caused the cancellations of such simple things as rock concerts.  Well known and respected bands refused to play in Phoenix, such as U2,  and it showed in the loss of the spirit of the community, and the loss in their belief in their governing parties.  How does one go about trying to quantify something such as that?

While the island of Mauritius is small, with a population of just about one million, the variety of the cultures is vast.  The different neighborhoods, festivals, religions, and ethnic backgrounds of the people who now make up the Mauritian population make this one of the most interesting and exciting destinations for those on summer, or winter for that matter, holiday in Mauritius.  Luxury hotel and resort accommodations are plentiful, as well as the restaurants, the museums, the water sports and the wildlife adventures in the mountains, for every aspect of this island is the very definition of diversity and rich cultural and natural history.

Walking down any of the city streets one may find an Indian restaurant which sits next to a Muslim mosque which sits next to a French cafe.  Each of these cultures retain their own rituals and ceremonies making this one of the most fascinating places during festival times.  And in keeping with tolerance and the appreciation for those of different backgrounds, the Mauritians will always welcome travelers wishing to join in on the fun and the celebrations.

Should one be on the island in the beginning of the calendar year, during January and February they will have the opportunity to partake in the Chinese Spring Festival.   Red, which is the color that symbolizes happiness, fills the streets, and there are feasts, and firecrackers and dancing.  In February the Hindu population celebrates as well, with the Maha Shivaratree festival.  During this time, the Hindus on the island will wear all white clothing and walk throughout the island during the three days of the ceremonies.

The Muslim population celebrates the end of Ramadan with the Id El Fitr Festival.   This is a time of feasts and the giving of gifts.   There are many more festivals that take place throughout the year.  Many find that the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter are memorable when celebrated on the island, as with these holidays as well as all of the festivals, each and every cultures takes part in the celebration of the others.

Feng Shui is a most acceptable practice across East Asia, where it has been traditionally used by ethnic Chinese. Feng Shui relies on movements of the cosmos as well as something simple as placement of furniture and arranging space to generate a flow of wealth. Believers claim it can and has improved wealth, personal relationships and health.

Hong Kong and in Singapore, it is taken very seriously that corporations such as private banks Singapore is known for, consult Feng Shui experts about everything from business strategy to interior design. Donald Trump has used Feng Shui experts for all his buildings and even Disneyland in Hong Kong changed the angle of their main entrance after a Feng Shui consultation.

So great is the interest in Feng Shui, a regional Singapore brokerage house, issued a Feng Shui client note which predicted the stock market would rise from May to August and the US dollar would remain weak. The note warned everyone to be mindful of speculations, especially in the third quarter. A dealer at a Singapore brokerage house had his fortune read annually at the start of the Chinese New Year and he always adorned his office with a bull figurine to help sway a bull market. He’s a believer in Ba Zi, it’s referred to as the ‘Four Pillars of Destiny’. A Chinese fortune telling that uses the date and time of birth to determine ones life path.

Another Singapore chief executive of a metal recycling firm, get Feng Shui masters to vet his firms blueprints before construction begins on a new office site, or a new factory. But, to be fair, this chief executive also says it’s not only Feng Shui that has helped make him very successful, it’s also his hard work which has helped alongside the Feng Shui.

Many are sure to be sceptical about Feng Shui or other fortune telling can bring in riches, and even the faithful in the financial community realises its limitations.

Singapore is an incredibly vibrant metropolitan center. It has an incredible arts scene, which features cutting edge new theatre as well as hosting some of the world’s great touring productions. It has professional companies that perform in various languages and also is a city of great cuisine and dining options. Tourists staying in one of the boutique hotels in Singapore will have no difficulty in finding great food and fabulous entertainment on a night out.

The Singapore Esplanade and its Theatres By the Bay is an amazing contemporary complex of various venues offering state of the art design and technology. The center is beautifully located in downtown along the Singapore River just north of the river mouth. Work on this new center was started in 1989, and the project was chaired by Ong Teng Cheong, who was then the Deputy Prime Minister. It was officially names Esplanade in 1994, and the Theatres by the Bay reference is appropriate to its being found just north of the mouth of the river. The official construction of this complex began in 1996.

There are various venues and other facilities in the Esplanade that are suited to various types of entertainment and performance. There are also plenty of great options for good food and drinks. The Concert Hall is the Esplanade’s most elaborately decorated and prestigious venue. It features amazing acoustics and houses a 1,600 seat audience. The Theatre, is an approximate 2,000 seat adaptable stage. There is also a smaller Recital Studio, which features chamber music and small ensembles or solo instruments as well as the Theatre Studio. These are just a few of the main performance venues in this multipurpose complex. Click or more Singapore hotel information

Once just a small, simple fishing village dating as far back as the 2nd century AD, Singapore’s location eventually made it an integral center of trade. In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles established a British trading post here, thus putting it under Britain’s rule. However, the Japanese occupied Singapore during World War II, causing the proclamation by Winston Churchill that this was possibly Britain’s biggest defeat. After much struggling and severe diligence and determination, on August 9, 1965, Singapore became an Independent Republic. It is the smallest nation in Southeast Asia and consists of 63 islands. Over the centuries, this small fishing village grew to become a very solid, economically sound, business friendly, import/export driven modern city.

Here in Singapore you will find the term “melting pot” so appropriate. The Chinese, Malay, Indian and Arabic communities make up the majority of the population. So follows, there is a wide mixture of cultures, languages, religions and not to be forgotten, the foods. Ahhh, the delectable foods, with most featuring fresh seafood, vegetables and aromatic spices. Certainly savory enough for the most particular of palettes. Find out about India hotels here

Tourism, not unexpectedly, is one of Singapore’s largest industries, with over 10 million visitors arriving in 2007. A modern, cosmopolitan city is what Singapore is striving for and it seems to be on its mark. It has become well known the world over as a cultural art center to be reckoned with. Stand up comedy has become increasingly popular here. You might want to attend a team sport, such as football, cricket or basketball. Or enjoy one of the many water sports, such as boating or swimming, or the ever-popular scuba diving. Singapore spa resorts are also extremely popular. Visitors can find the calming, Asian tranquility most soothing for overworked bodies and minds. Allow yourself to be pampered and spoiled, refreshed and renewed. You know your body and your inner spirit will thank you.

Delhi is full of interesting cultural landmarks and unique aspects of Indian heritage, as well as great opportunities for contemporary world class stage performances. Locals appreciate the diverse nature of their city and tourists are exited about the many opportunities it offers for experiencing various aspects of Indian culture. And while most of the guests in a Delhi luxury hotel will certain take in a traditional performance while they are in town, they will also visit some of the major historical landmarks in and near the city.
The Red Fort is located in the walled city of Delhi and dates back to the middle of the sixteen hundreds. Mughal Emperor Shahjahan originated the construction of this massive complex in 1638 and it was not finished until 1648. In its original manifestation, the fort was known as Qila-i-Mubarak, which means the blessed fort, because it was the official residence and home of the royal family. The design and aesthetic aspects of the fort represent the height of Mughal architecture and construction creativity.

Within the confines of this fortress are various buildings that server different functions and purposes. The Diwan-i-Aam is inside the large gate and originally served as a large pavilion for public audiences. It includes an ornate throne balcony situated behind a silver and gold railing to maintain its separation from the public. The Zenana are the two most southern pavilions and were officially considered to be the woman’s quarters. One of these is the Mumtaz Mahal, which is now a museum, and the other is the more lavish Rang Mahal, which featured a marble pool and elaborately decorated ceiling. The fort is one of Old Delhi’s most popular attractions for tourists and draws in thousands of visitors every year. As is standard in any country when viewing one of its cultural landmarks, please be observant of appropriate behaviors and remain respectful of the culture and site. Click here for more hotels

We were looking forward to comparing our experience with the luxury hotels Asia has sprinkled around the continent like pearls on a necklace with those of Japan. We were on our way the Obon Festival by train when we found out it is about the busiest travel days of the year in Japan. My guide and now wife Niki could only shrug her shoulders (she might have if she had had space to move in the throngs waiting to get on to the train to Tokyo) at the sea of humanity trying to get any where but here. Apparently the festival is where people return to their hometowns and believe it is the time when the spirits of ancestors return and are reunited with their families. We looked forward to seeing a traditional Bon Odori dance. It is performed to light and happy music to invite the souls of the dead (one would think they would be happy just to show up, and the music is quite nice).

A couple from Nagata whom we were sitting with on the train explained that the best part of the celebration was the teriyaki buffet that is often set out, as well as the sakes one could sample and the great Japanese beer, all to the rhythm of the taiko drums. There may well be bonsai displays and even contests, as this art of gardening is taken very seriously in Japan. It sounds like a county fair for honoring the dead. I do not know if thinking about one’s ancestors is what folks back in Austin do when they go to a fair, but it might not be a bad idea. Happily, our new friends has some rice rolls with them that they had planned to eat on the train. We produced some of our own teriyaki beef and we decided it would be great fun to combine our lunches like a pot luck. I wonder what they call pot luck in Japanese? We had a wonderful lunch and regrettably, never saw them again.

We decided to get out of Dubai for the day and head to Hatta. Then on to the Hatta Rock Pools, with its blue pools and waterfalls. We squeezed through narrow rock crevices, and we felt like we were in a real desert oasis. We felt a world away from any luxury hotel Dubai offers, and that was OK from the point of view of the respite from the sophisticated city of Dubai. Hatta Village is built around an old settlement and meant to evoke a kind of life style traditionally practiced at a desert oasis. There always seems to be a fort built in these sort of medieval  villages. Two towers stretch above the settlement called the Northern Tower and the other the Southern Tower and were built in the late nineteenth century. Back in the day the original village settle at the creek where pottery and weaving were created, and visiting here is a step back in time.

We bought some vegetable dyed cloth and a few pearls that are dived for by locals from the nearby seabed. W also had some interesting food, as we were able to get pizza with lamb sausage sand feta cheese and sun dried tomatoes. the crust was thin, very thin, like a flat bread, well it was much like a flat bread since that is what they make here, so pizza seems like a good use of that traditional skill. The pizza was delicious after our foray around the town as we sat in a tiny restaurant. Despite its traditional charm, even modern advances could be found here. If you looked carefully, satellite dishes can be seen, and the blue light of the television screen makes its presence known. Still, we were grateful to allowed to go back in time and visit a bygone era.

So you’re a savvy traveler looking for the perfect five-star hotel.  New York City is where you want to be.  It has everything, literally, in terms of the good things in life.  And for accommodations, there’s no place more equipped to take care of all your needs.  New York City is the greatest city in the world, and our hotels put you in the lap of luxury, to ensure that you’re going to like it here.  There are a host of luxurious amenities to add spice and pizazz to your stay, and there are also all the usual features that meet or exceed the highest standards in the industry.  You’ll find yourself enjoying the perfect meal, or having the perfect work-out, after a splendid night of rest, to help you get ready for exploring the city.

New York has a thousand histories on every sidewalk at any given time.  Some of the world’s best minds and talents have spent days or months hitting the pavement here, and it’s a heady proposition to be walking in these footsteps.  The ghost with the most gorgeous voice here just might be that of Billie Holiday.  As we move past the 50th anniversary of her death, her time spent in New York City hasn’t been forgotten, nor has her contribution to world music.  Billie Holiday’s voice is one of the most distinctive ones on vinyl, and she’s been inspirational to singers all over the world, combining technique and passion to make the world listen.

Born Eleanora Fagen in Philadelphia in 1915, she had an extremely rough childhood and left with her mother for New York when she was in her teens, and began to perform in clubs when she was only 15.  She sang with Benny Goodman when she was nineteen, and was discovered by John Hammond.  The world would never be the same.  She worked with nearly every jazz great of her time, when the music was undergoing some of its most vital transformations.  There is a good argument that Billie Holiday herself helped to spawn these transformations, or at least played a major part.  Her peculiar vocal techniques were able to harness a raw emotional power that few artists before or after could tap into.  The heart and desperation of the world itself seemed to come from her vocal chords, and her songs haunt the city, and the world at large.

I got up early and had chapati and green tea for breakfast and then I asked at one of the Jaipur hotels where I could hang out with elephants. The fellow at the desk, impeccably dressed, took me out to the street and called out to a fellow wearing a Nehru cap. They spoke a moment and it was clear I was going off with this capped fellow in his auto rickshaw, that infamous conveyance with shocks or doors. The thing bleated up the narrow street as other vehicles and people and animals all seemed to have a sense of when to step out of the way, which was good because it felt like mayhem and hurt were around every corner. He dropped me off at the Ambur Fort. Well I did not get to actually ride and elephant but it was nice to see them as they ambled past the Pink Palace. They started building this Fort in 1592 all of marble and reddish sandstone. The court yard are huge and the entry way I went into was guarded by the godGanesha’s image. The high walls of the Fort look impregnable with its enormous watch towers. They were really making a statement with this fort!

Not far is the Palace of Winds which, beneath the pinkish sandstone facade. It seems it was built for royal ladies who could stand on the balconies and see the city without being seen.  It is not much more than a facade, and now I know why it’s called the Pink City of India. Just about everything here is pink, or pinkish. The Palace is also known as Hawa Mahal. I then found a little restaurant with a black smoking wok and had some samosas and lentils. Very spicy.

Energy is all around us it is what makes up everything we experience. It is even believed that our emotional experiences are energetic patterns. The energetic vibration of molecules are what make one substance different from another. Everything we experience is made up of basically the same basic materials. The vibration pattern is what gives it different form, wood, metal, liquid or solid. This is an interesting thought to ponder because it has deep and significant implications.  If vibrational patterns are matched by two seeming solid forms could they possibly pass through each other? Could they occupy the same space at the same time? These have been experiments in the quantum field showing a single photon particle is in two places at the same time. Yes the same particle can be in two places at once. How can this be, is our perception of what we call reality all wrong? This is such a radical thought it is hard to get your mind around it. If it is so then do we simply experience one thing in one place at one time because this is the conditioning we have been taught from the beginning? If this is the case then out thoughts shape our reality and certainly shape out perception of reality. We continue to think in limited terms we continue to achieve the same limiting results. If we expand out thinking then the possibility of results expands. Great achievement like Albert Einstein and Nicola Tesla were not achieved by limited thinking and limited perceptions of reality. Question what is and how we experience what is, is vital to achieving new levels of perception. Where ever we are we can ask ourselves what is it I am really experiencing? Is my experience different from others experience of the same thing? Why and how is it different? Is the difference due to the previous life experiences by the person experiencing the event? I suppose all this and more goes into why we have different experiences of what seem to be the same events. Weather our experiences are living in New York city, on the plains of the Savanna in Africa or staying in best hotels Ibiza we are a conglomeration of the total life experiences we have had. We cannot perceive anything without these life experiences being part of the current moment.

We were down on the Lower East side to see the Chuck Close exhibit, a magnificent display of huge portraits done in a kind of digital pixel effect, at least that’s how it looks, where each square making up the art work is itself a square of art work. That’s the kind of thing you get to see when inquiring at the hotels New York USA and they respond to your request for something cool to see. We spent the cool morning trying to figure out how he did all these little dots, each one by itself added together to produce a huge almost photographic image that’s very very large of portraits, some eight or nine feet high!

After a lunch of delicious New York style pizza, eggplant and sun dried tomatoes, we remarked how much good food we’d had that day. We started in China town and had dim sum. We were seated at a big round table with a bunch of people we didn’t know and it was raucous and busy in the Chinese restaurant. I struggle to eat with chopstick and a kind older lady held hers up when she saw me and showed me how to position my hands and everything worked a lot better. The cart of dim sum delicacies rolled by and we pointed to the plates we wanted including vegetable, dumplings, chicken feet which was a first time for me and they were good, shrimp rolls, spring rolls, all kinds of rolls and the food was remarkable. Later they come by and count the number of plates you have and that’s how they charge you, by the plate. We had big pots of steaming green tea and more spare ribs and orange chicken and things I don’t even know what they are called! For dessert, even though we were stuffed, we tried a sweet rice roll and some more tea.

When traveling to Costa Brava, hotel accommodations hold the potential to make the trip a memorable one.  Our hotels are distinctive in their style and graciousness, offering an excellent array of amenities to refresh the mind and spirit, and to rejuvenate the body.  It is no secret that Costa Brava has sumptuous choices for fresh seafood, and our in-house chefs are renowned for their skill in creating delicious local fare with international twists.  The decor in our hotels is also quite exceptional, providing a soothing and energizing ambience that is felt in all corners of our facilities.  Hospitality is in generous supply here, to insure that your time spent here is remarkable and relaxing.  This is a perfect place to escape from it all, and to take in the amazing vistas that lie outside the hotel walls.

Marked as a potentially viable vacation spot in the 1950s, Costa Brava has been visited by tourists in large numbers, turning it from a lazy fishing village to a beach town.  Even before the 1950s, however, it was seen as a kind of paradise on earth.  There are many famous people who have found inspiration in the beach life and landscape here, not the least of which was Pablo Picasso.  Born in nearby Malaga in 1881, Picasso’s themes and subjects are considered by many art historians to be universal, yet they are also simultaneously remarkably and distinctively Spanish.  His father, also a painter, entered him in a fine arts school when he was ten years old, and soon began to display the remarkable talent that would come to characterize his name.  His father, recognizing his son’s genius, is said to have laid down his brush and never painted again.

Picasso went on to paint some of the most recognizable and valuable works of contemporary art.  His early work demonstrates a range of styles and influences, but when his friend, Casagemas, committed suicide in 1901, he began to work in his Blue period, which is considered to be pivotal in his development as an artist.  One of Picasso’s most recognizable periods, as far as historians are concerned, is his Cubist period.  This is characterized by Picasso’s signature reinterpretations of facial and body structures, and is said to have been influenced by Einstein’s theory of relativity.  Picasso was always working with fashionable ideas, but his inspiration from the sea is timeless.

Whitstable England is a beautiful seaside town in the region of Kent. Its charming streets are lined with beautiful, and often historical, buildings and homes and the town exudes a pleasant atmosphere filled with its unique charm. Tourists who visit the town and stay in one of the Whitstable hotels often leaves wishing they could return on a permanent basis and make the town with great coastal views their home. This was the case for actor Peter Cushing who moved to the town after his retirement. Writer W. Sumerset Maugham also lived there as a child. No doubt the beauty of the town and the area contributed to the inspiration behind his writing.

Maugham was an extremely popular playwright, short story writer and novelist who was probably the most well liked English writer of his time. He was born in Paris, France in 1874 to a father who was lawyer working with the French Embassy. A the time of the young Maughham’s birth, it was officially recognized that any baby born in France could be considered obligated to military service. His father wished to avoid this so he arranged for his son to be born in the embassy, which was technically British soil in order to avoid this. Maugham’s mother was consumptive and died when he was eight years old. This left him tremendously scarred and was a loss he seemed to never move beyond. Two years later, his father died of cancer.

Maugham was sent to live with his uncle in England. His uncle was Henry MacDonald Maugham who was the vicar of Whitstable. This was an unfortunate transition for young Sumeset as the uncle was emotionally cold and by some accounts was even cruel. These early traumas may have played a role in Maugham’s tuning to literature to express himself. Some of his major and most well known works include Of Human Bondage, The Razor’s Edge and The Magician. The Magician is believed to be based on the famous British occultist, Aleister Crowely .

We may not all be lucky enough to live in a LEED certified building, but there are things we can do within our own homes to reduce or energy costs and the impact our family is having on the environment.  Here are some ways you can give back to mother earth in your life and in your home.

Walk, bike, and take the bus: Doing this one day a weak instead of driving your car can do wonders for the environment and not to mention your health. If you decide to walk or bike to some of your every day errands you are making two positive choices.

Buy a car with good gas mileage: Yeah, perhaps that brand new Hummer looks really cool but costs an arm and a leg to fill up at the pump. Well when you are looking to trade it in think about getting a more economical care that gets better gas mileage.

Install low flow showerheads and toilets: Low flow showerheads and toilets can save tons of gallons of water with every shower or flush. They are relatively inexpensive, about 10 or 20 bucks each and can save about 300 pounds of Carbon Dioxide a year if electrically heated and 80 pounds of Carbon Dioxide a year for gas-heated water.

Install blinds: Window treatments can do wonders for your energy bills. Try out Next Day Blinds, they have tons of varieties.  Next Day Blinds is sure to satisfy both your design and green living needs.

Replace old, less energy efficient appliances with new ones: If you are in the market for a new refrigerator or dishwasher, pick more energy efficient models. Front loading washing machines are much better than traditional ones. And just replacing that old fridge could make a significant difference in your overall energy consumption yearly.

We didn’t get to see the inside of many hotels in Bangkok Thailand, and that was OK, as we had much to see in this busy, beautiful city. I wanted a massage, Lydia wanted to shop, and we both wanted to sample as much Thai food as we could handle! Fortunately, our issue with the airport took only minutes to resolve as we had heard horror stories about people stuck at the official’s tables, that all turned out to be nonsense, as we were just about whisked through.

We went out the Weekend Market early and watched many of them setting up and them felt the pulse of the city awaken! This place is crazy, so many mopeds, pedestrians, cabs for hire, bleating, honking and roaring by in occasional plumes of black smoke. We got a shrimp kabob for breakfast. We went over and watched some silk weaving and Lydia bought a bolt of red silk to take back. She promised to make something grand with it! I could have bought a new suit but I stopped wearing suits and opted instead for a gold vaguely religious figure to hang from my pick up rear view mirror at home. We were told not to eat from the carts that pass by but we did (like I said we eat a lot!) and had some really hot and yummy pad thai that tied us over (no pun intended) for a while! I was a beautiful dish, full of little bitty shrimps  and tasting of fish sauce and garlic and lime. then we stumbled on a Buddha stature that soared into the morning sun, golden and shiny as his expression. We thought about taking a motor cycle taxi but we had no helmets and opted to walk about instead.

Considered the dining capital of Australia, Melbourne boasts every kind of cuisine imagineable. When we left Hotel Melbourne Australia we decided it was no time to diet. Oddly, we immediately went for fast food at Hungry Jack’s, the McDonald’s (or should we say Burger King) of Australia. They have the old regulars, the hamburgers, the french fries. Happily, the one we went to had vegetarian burgers, and bottled water so we could skip the soft drinks. The burger was quite good, try getting that back in the states. Fast food fix satisfied, we just needed some familiar chow, plus it was cheap and fast.

After that, some caffeine was in order, and a stroll down Degraves Street led us to, well, Degraves Espresso. We were too fast-fooded out to try the panninis, the free range eggs and chorizo, the foccacias, the place smelling strongly of ground coffee, everyone nice and friendly. We “settled” for velvety cappuccinos (even though it was mid-day) and were content to watch business men zip by, the tourists ambling about as we sat under our umbrella at this funky fun place.

We stumbled into Flagstaff Gardens and watched some lawn bowling at this leafy oasis and headed over to the Shanghai Noodle House on Tattersalls Lane. We waited for a table in this bustling enjoyable place, menus in Chinese but a few English menus circulate. As we waited briefly for a table a fellow waiting with us suggested we try the dumplings. They were really good. Who doesn’t love a good dumpling? Served in soup with shreds of pork and vegetables, seasoned with cilantro and a little seaweed, the dumplings were heaven in a bowl. It was cheap, and we were OK getting our own table ware, tea and water.

Great Yarmouth, England is better known by locals simply as Yarmouth. It is a coastal town located in the region known as Norfolk. It lies approximately twenty miles east of Norwich. It has a beautiful beach and two promenades, which are popular with locals and tourists alike. It is one of the area’s main tourists centers and there is a great variety of styles of Yarmouth hotels so that the perfect accommodations for all tastes can be satisfied. There are many interesting landmarks and historic icons as well as great contemporary social elements that continue to draw throngs of tourists to its streets every year. One of the intriguing stops most tourists make while visiting Yarmouth is a visit to the Tollhouse. This 13th century building retains its historic feel and includes dungeons, which captivates the imagination of the young and old alike.

In addition, though along different lines, are the two piers that city has. The Britannia Pier and the Wellington Pier each have their own charming and dynamic elements. The Britannia Pier is home to the Britannia Theatre, which is one of the last remaining end of the pier theatres in all of England. During the summer months the theatre hosts popular a series of popular shows that are enjoyed by the thousands of tourists that are visiting the city. Some of the more popular performers include Chubby Brown, The Searchers and Cannon and Ball. There was also a theatre on Wellington Pier though it was torn down in 2005 and is currently being rebuilt. That won’t stop tourists from enjoying the rest of the attractions found along Wellington, nor will it impede their interest in the sandy shores of Pleasure Beach. The seafront is reached by walking the beautiful promenade known as The Golden Mile. The beach and Golden Mile stretch include plenty of arcades and indoor amusement centers, as well as fabulous restaurants and other entertainment and adventure options.

If you are deciding whether or not to take the kids to the 2009 US Open tournament, you should really think about doing so. The Open has many fun events for kids to participate in and will offer you and your kids a unique bonding experience that you simply cannot get anywhere else. The Arthur Ashe kid’s day takes place on Saturday August 29th, 2009. The day’s events offer the best in tennis and entertainment. First off, you can see some of our favorite players such as Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova competing in matches so that kids can get an up close look at some of their favorite tennis athletes.

That is the tennis side of the event, there is also going to be some heavy hitters from the entertainment world at the Arthur Ashe kid’s day as well. You can expect appearances from comedian Will Ferrell and former American Idol winner Jordin Sparks. She is set to perform her new single “Battlefield” at the kid’s day.

The even will also allow for autograph sessions with some of the people participating and appearing. So this could be a great chance for you child to meet their favorite tennis player or musician. There is also going to be circus activities at the event including face painting, plate spinning and juggling.

This is a great way to create a unique experience for younger children, since they will not really be focused too much on the US Open tennis scores and more on the experience as a whole. It’s so great that they have opportunities to give children of all ages a unique experience when it comes to tennis. Perhaps it could spark a new hobby for these children and they will pick up a sport that could last them a life time.

Volunteering at the Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal, we noticed they have a new way to prepare meals without using firewood or kerosene; they are implementing the use of the solar cooker. We asked how it works and we were told that the solar cooker works by reflection and absorbent of sun rays. A special type of mirror reflects the light of the sun, which causes a pan that’s placed in the middle of the cooker to heat up. We drove back to one of the Nepal hotels to meet up with an associate of ours and tell them about this very inexpensive way to save the local forest.

When we arrived and met up with our associate we could hardly contain ourselves with the excitement we had about this solar cooker. We told our associate that like a meal of lentils, rice and meats could be cooked in a hour given the conditions are right. It would take longer on a cloudy day. The solar cooker looks like a satellite dish, or some kind of put together spare parts disassembled junked out spacecraft.  It also helps with purifying the water, but you don’t need water to cook eggs or potatoes.

The ecological impact is the best part of the solar cooker, all the near by forest of Nepal have forage for fuels. Every day the refugee camp residence would set out to cut down trees for wood to make fires to cook their meals. Illegally, of course, and this was rapidly causing the deforestation rates in Nepal staggering. So, the introduction of the solar cooker, costing the refugees about a dollar, has drastically reduce the devastation of the forest.

When our associate listened to us explain all the benefits this simple cooker provided to the camp and how it made life a little bit more bearable as life goes for refugees, we all decided to invest our funds out to provide as many solar cookers to all refugee camps around the world.

The British county of Herefordshire sets quaint town markets, Herefordshire Hotels,  and a variety of quaint villages and a variety of topographical landscapes all in the the relatively unspoiled country.  There is a cultural richness along this countryside, as well as a conservation and protected beauty, a leisurely and laid back lifestyle mixed with an interesting history, making this one of the top United Kingdom destinations for travel, relaxation and exploring.  Hereford itself is a very old city, with the towers and spires of the Saint Ethelbert and the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary rising above the Wye River and the medieval era bridge.

The Cathedral was built in 1079 A.D. and is the oldest cathedral in the country of Great Britain.  All of these monuments stand as testaments to the past and the distinguished heritage of this incredible region of England.  The town of Hereford is located close to the border of Wales, in the rural region of the landscape.  This is an area dedicated mainly to farming and agriculture, along with the cultivation of fruit crops and apple tree orchards.  The most productive cider industry is located in Hereford, and the the famous breed of Hereford cattle, well comes from Hereford.  There are many gardens and museums that offer up travelers the opportunities to explore the unique history of the past.

And today the modern amenities of life are intermingled with the rich heritage and architecture of the past.  Situated so closely to the borders of the North Western region of England and South Wales, this is still an important link between the two, with train rails and roads leading back and forth.  This is a center of the region that is of historical importance.  One of the most cultivated and extensive Libraries is located in Hereford, as well as the Mappa Mundi, which houses the famous map of the world.  Many of the museums, as well as the historical cathedrals, also house distinctive cafes and fine dining restaurants as well.  This is one of the many regions to walk, to explore and to discover a bit of history that is significant to so many cultures that are thriving today.

Protecting your identity online is more than just worrying about what you put on your credit cards.  There is now an entire field of marketing dedicated to protecting something more precious than your bank account, your online reputation. Online reputation management is now an entire sector of marketing. It helps companies and individuals take back control of their online identity.

Because there is no internet police, literally anyone can write anything about you. The problem with most internet information is that it can have completely no basis in fact and still be designed to look like it is true.  Most of the information online does not have anything solid or particularly scholarly to back it up. While that is what makes the internet great, it is what also can make it a very frustrating way to receive information.

For example, the company Next Day Blinds has run into this. Despite having won numerous awards from customer service, it is still easy to hurt their reputation. If someone, or even their competition writes something online that is untrue about them is can cause Next Day Blinds review to come up in a search engine.  That might cause someone searching for the company to click on Next Day Blinds review.  Even if Next Day Blinds review are very few and far between.

This is just an example of how the internet can be unreliable and why managing your online reputation is so important. This is especially so if you are one of the many job seekers right now in America. Because you can bet that most employers are probably doing an internet search on you. It’s important to go ahead and Google yourself to see what kind of results come up. That way if you don’t like them you can try and change them.

When I attended a special opera event at the Buxton Opera House, I was approached by a volunteer asking if I’ve ever attended the Buxton Puppet Festival which the opera house presents every year. Of course, I have not. I don’t live here, I only come here on special requests from the Opera House for a particular fund raiser. The volunteer was so excited to find out that I’ve never been the the Puppet Festival and asked me if I had time for her to tell me all about it. Her enthusiasm was overwhelming, so I couldn’t deny her the chance.

This up coming August will be the Puppet Festivals sixth annual event. It’s in conjunction with Funny Wonders. In addition to the puppet performances, there will be workshops for all age held at the Opera House, at the Paupers Pit and all around town. At the Opera House, there will be two favorite puppet performing, Presto Puppet Theatre will be returning with the retelling of Aladin and the Lempen Puppet Theatre present a touching Fable, Journey of Turtles.

Funny Wonders Young People’s Company will present ‘The Silk Road’. A culmination of an on going project that started over a year ago.  Apparently, the company travelled to Japan and collaborated with another puppet theater and what they experience will be brought back here and has inspired the performance of ‘The Silk Road’.  Later, after that performance the Japanese puppet master Nori Sawa will hold a workshop for children and adults. As for the Paupers Pit and the Old Hall Hotel, there will be daily programs of puppet shows. Then there will be two unique events outdoors in the Pavilion Gardens.

The volunteers energy never waned when she told me all about the Puppet Festival. As I returned to one of the Buxton Hotels, I couldn’t help remember how much I loved a good puppet show. I’ve never really attended a professional show, only the ones my siblings put on to entertain the family during summer breaks. I think I’ll have to come back next month and revisit fond memories.

The national parks in the United Kingdom are often times located in the wilderness of the country, the wild, spectacular and dramatic areas of the countryside that will bring tears to the eyes of the first time traveler staying in a Lakes hotel,  or simply looking out the window of a train bound for Edinburgh.   Each and every park is under their own jurisdiction, they manage the enhancement of the beauty that is found, and take part in the conservation and protection of that beauty.  The qualities of the heritage, the culture and the wildlife combine to make any trek into the wilderness of the United Kingdom an experience that one will never forget.  Sitting here today, I remember the open fields on the train from the Gatwick Airport to the University of London.  I remember the train ride that took place fifteen years ago, from London to Edinburgh.  The awful smell of cigarette smoke in the bar car combined with the flavor of the freshly drawn Guinness, with the castles and the heather growing along the tracks.

The national parks of the Lakes district are just one in a family of fourteen.  Others include Dartmoor, Loch Lomond, Northumberland, the Dales of Yorkshire, and Brecon Beacons to name just a few.  Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, these areas were remote and wild…seen as dangerous and un-civilized.  However, leave it to the poets who during this time found the region full of inspiration complete with the not tamed world, the un-discovered territory with all her attractions.  Wordsworth said of this region, that everyone has a right, everyone with an eye for and a sensibility for that which brings the heart and the senses to full enjoyment of the natural world.  By the beginning of the twentieth century, people became aware of the fact that to retain a bit of sanity, of well-being…time must be spent outside of the city life.  The freedom and the renewal of physical and spiritual energy depended upon that, and the parks became important to the lifestyle.  Much as Central Park in New York City is crucial to the mind set of New Yorkers, the parks located throughout the Lakes District in the United Kingdom have offered this peace and a bit of respite from the daily grind.