text:
We were delighted to host our 7th annual event in Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysian wealth management industry. Over 260 senior individuals attended – including CEOs, senior management, product gatekeepers and business unit heads from the leading Private Banks, Retail Banks, IFAs, Insurance Companies and local Asset Management Firms.
Below for your interest and reference are links to various content we captured from the day. Please click on the orange headlines – and do send any comments or feedback to email@example.com.
Video Highlights
Event summary & poll results
Panel discussions
Presentations & Wealth TALKS
You might also like to view the full Post-Event Report – which is a consolidated summary, including photos of speakers & delegates, the attendee profiles & some delegate feedback, polling results, and more.
Building capacity and capability in Malaysia
Perhaps most pressing in the country is the continued need to overhaul the business model across the wealth management industry, while creating the right type of (longer term) revenue – which will help to increase the penetration of products and retain more assets onshore.
EVENT CONTENT - Panel discussions
We held 5 interactive panel discussions throughout the day – which involved 23 senior industry practitioners who we invited to participate and share their thoughts. We have also incorporated into the summaries below the briefing notes which speakers sent to us in advance of the event. Plus, we have included the results of audience polling as well as questions we received from delegates. Click on each headline to view the web versions of these – from which you can also access the PDFs.
Evolving wealth management in Malaysia
More advisory conversations are taking place in the domestic industry, although higher competency levels will help drive these, especially in areas such as wealth solutions, which present a big opportunity going forward, say senior practitioners at the 7th annual Hubbis event in KL in July.
Panel speakers
Alvin Lee, Head Group Wealth Management, Maybank
Pramod Veturi, Managing Director & Country Head, Wealth Management, Malaysia, Standard Chartered Bank
David Koay, Managing Director, Head of Wealth Management, Singapore & Malaysia Markets, BNP Paribas Wealth Management
Robert Foo, Managing Director, MyFP Services
Chicken-and-egg: Malaysia's asset management dilemma
Boosting fund penetration in a meaningful way in the country relies on several factors: wealth managers delivering real advice, compensation and incentive structures better aligned with clients' needs, a greater take-up of digital platforms for distribution, and investor education.
Panel speakers
Munirah Khairuddin, Chief Executive Officer, CIMB-Principal Asset Management
Ai Mei Chan, Chief Marketing Officer, Affin Hwang Asset Management
Yap Ming Hui, Independent Financial Advisor, Author & Managing Director, Whitman Independent Advisors
Alvin Tan, Chief Executive Officer, StandardFA
Steven Seow, Head of Wealth Management, Asia, Mercer
Anthony J. Harper, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Managed Account Partners
Meeting the needs of wealthy business families
Smooth and effective succession planning, especially relating to businesses, is becoming increasingly important in Malaysia to protect clients and their assets in the inter-generational shift that is gathering steam.
Panel speakers
David Sussman, Managing Director, EFG Wealth Solutions
Mahesh Kumar, Partner, Withers
Philippe Legrand, Chief Executive Officer, London and Capital Asia
Noor Quek, Chief Executive Officer & Founder, NQ International
Irene Lee, Head of Business Development, Equiom Group
Insurance - finding relevant solutions for Malaysian clients
More product innovation, distribution channels and needs-based conversations with customers are all key components of insurance companies being able to capture more of the wealth in the country.
Panel speakers
Ken Yi Lam, Senior Product Manager, Bancassurance, Standard Chartered Bank
KL Wong, Chief Distribution Officer, StandardFA
How to navigate the investment markets in 2H 2017
Despite an uncertain market environment heading into the second half of the year, some investment specialists believe any pullback should be a buying opportunity – especially given continued economic growth, positive earnings and liquidity.
Panel speakers
Mohd Fauzi bin Tahir, Chief Investment Officer, Equities, RHB Asset Management
Ted Low, Partner, GAO Capital
Clement Lee, Director, Business Development, Head of Sales - Singapore & South-east Asia, Legg Mason
Shan Saeed, Chief Economist, IQI GLOBAL
Michael Chang, Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income, RHB Asset Management
Jeremy Ng, Chief Executive Officer, Singapore and Head of Sales, Asia, Leonteq Securities
EVENT CONTENT - Presentations & Wealth TALKS
Below are summaries of the Presentations and Wealth TALKS delivered at the event. These were 10-minute slots hosted either by senior industry practitioners who we invited to speak (Wealth TALKS), or by some of our event partners (Presentations). Also listed with each summary are links to the presentation slides (where these are made available by speakers). Click on each headline to view the web versions of these – from which you can also access the 1-page PDFs.
WEALTH TALK SUMMARY - Enabling digital wealth options
Bhaskar Prabhakara of WeInvest says that an aversion to innovation have the potential to stifle wealth generation.
View slides
WEALTH TALK SUMMARY - Key considerations when selecting a wealth adviser
David Sussman of EFG Wealth Solutions reveals how to separate the 'good, bad and ugly' when choosing a wealth manager.
WEALTH TALK SUMMARY - Finding security in the age of uncertainty
Elise Donovan of BVI House Asia discusses the role of international finance centres (IFCs) in Asian wealth planning, along with their merits to the global economy.
View slides
WEALTH TALK SUMMARY - Why ESG investments matter
Linda-Eling Lee of MSCI says new appetite among investors is prompting a wave of interest in investing based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.
WEALTH TALK SUMMARY - Emergence of Asian multi-family offices
Philippe Legrand of London and Capital Asia looks at this new advisory option for those wealthy clients looking for service beyond brand.
View slides
WEALTH TALK SUMMARY - Using digital to drive the user experience
Pramod Veturi of Standard Chartered Bank says that being able to solve the digital 'disconnect' will ensure better understanding and service for clients.
View slides
WEALTH TALK SUMMARY - The importance of client investment suitability
Steven Seow of Mercer explains how finding the right clients and matching them with the right investments at the right time is a science, not an art.
View slides
WEALTH TALK SUMMARY - Impact investing from an Asian family office perspective
Tuck Meng Yee of JRT Partners believes that impact investing is more than just a judgement call.
View slides
WEALTH TALK SUMMARY - Fee-for-service in Malaysia: dream or reality?
Yap Ming Hui of Whitman Independent Advisors looks at how fee-based advisory can be made to work in the country, finally.
View slides
PRESENTATION SUMMARY - Investor migration and the rise of the global citizen
Dominic Volek of Henley & Partners explains how to assist clients with residency and citizenship.
View slides
PRESENTATION SUMMARY - Investing in a synchronised growth environment
Hanifah Hashim at Franklin Templeton sees bullish times ahead as emerging markets are primed to prosper.
View slides
PRESENTATION SUMMARY - Transparency, reporting rules create opportunities in adversity
Irene Lee of Equiom Group believes there are opportunities for the industry to garner within the current uncertainty around regulation and tax transparency around the world.
View slides
PRESENTATION SUMMARY - Enhancing customer experience - starting with client onboarding
Yvonne Mok of Appway explains how digitally-led client onboarding can help banks to stand out from the crowd.
View slides
"This event is definitely the event to go to for the latest updates on the wealth management industry in Malaysia."
Yap Ming Hui, Independent Financial Advisor, Author & Managing Director, Whitman Independent Advisors


text:
Welcome to @propertytalk™
We're here for anyone who has a passion for property. Whether you're buying, selling, letting, an estate agent, developer or other industry professional we'll bring you the latest property news and analyse how it affects YOU. And if you've got something to say, comment on our stories.
@propertytalk™ – where people talk about property
@propertytalk is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Talk Live Media and is maintained by individuals who want to share their passion with others. We welcome further contributions and interesting articles that may interest our readers and members. If you think you have what it takes to contribute, send your articles to: email@example.com. Be sure to check our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for further important information.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Looking for tips on how to thicken black hair? Thinning or bald edges getting you down?
If you're suffering with this painful problem you need to know the main causes of hair loss in black women and some solutions to re-grow and thicken your hair.
As black and African American women, we pride ourselves in the beauty and health of our hair and losing it is a crushing blow to our self-esteem.
When I was a teen I lost my edges to too tight braids so I know how traumatizing it is.
I grew my hair back completely and I've never had to deal with the embarrassment of bald patches again. You can do the same.
The first step in how to thicken black hair is to understand the root cause.
I read a study years ago that said thinning temples, edges and thin hair in general is a major problem that affects 2 out of every 3 black women at some point in their life.
If you've worn braids or weaves a lot or had your hair over processed you've probably had issues with hair loss and thinning. Our edges in particular are vulnerable because the hairs are very delicate.
What causes thinning hair and hair loss in black women and what are the solutions for how to thicken black hair?
Solution: Catch the problem early and recovery is as simple as not wearing the tight braids or weaves until the thinning areas grow back in.
Solution: Toss the chemicals! It might be hard to imagine going without a relaxer or hair color, but do it for the health of your hair. Experiment with styling that doesn't involve processing. If you give your hair a break it will bounce back over time.
Solution: Be sure to get at least 10-15 minutes of quiet time each day. Stress not only affects your hair but your overall health as well.
If you've been prescribed medication that's causing hair loss and thinning consult your doctor as soon as possible to talk about the problem and what steps you can take to reduce the side effects.
If you have a hard time eating right, think about supplementation with a multi vitamin formulated to support hair growth.
Solution: Resist the temptation to over use the flat iron or brush your edges into submission when you're due for a relaxer. There more gentle and effective ways to flatten your edges.
Solution: If you notice dampness, bleeding, strange smells or pain please see a doctor who can examine the area, provide treatment and save your hair and scalp.
Solution: If pregnancy is causing your hair loss, after you give birth your hormones should balance themselves out and your hair will grow back. If it doesn't, visit your doctor and have it checked out.
If your hair loss is menopause related visit your doctor to investigate options like hormone therapy, topical products like Rogaine or referrals for African American hair transplant specialists.
If you're battling with hair loss or alopecia you can grow and thicken it back up if you act quickly. Here are some steps you can take to thicken black hair.
If you want to thicken black hair naturally, there are two popular products to use; castor oil and biotin.
Castor oil is one of the best kept secrets and home remedies to growth and thicken black hair. The first time I heard about it was through one of my mother's friends. She had recently lost a lot of hair to damage and shedding and she sent off to Jamaica to get a bottle of what she called 'di real ting' which was handcrafted by an artisan.
I remember looking at the dark murky not so great smelling liquid and wondering why on earth she'd go through the hassle of getting it when she lived all the way in New York.
Does castor oil thicken black hair?
The answer is a big fat yes!
When I saw her a year later her once broken off damaged hair had transformed and was thick, lush and healthy. She gave all the credit to using the castor oil on her scalp daily.
I was instantly sold and since then I've kept a bottle of Jamaican Black Castor Oil on hand for when I notice thinning and shedding in my own hair. The natural ingredients encourage hair growth by stimulating the scalp at the cellular level. I just massage it in 3-4 times a week and I always get dramatic results in no time.
Thinking about trying it?
Click here to read more reviews of Jamaican Black Castor Oil for Hair Growth before you decide.
Biotin is an over the counter supplement that lots of black and African American women swear by for hair growth. Deficiencies in this B vitamin cause hair loss and shedding. Women who take biotin in 2500mcg and higher doses report that their hair always grows faster and breaks a lot less.
This supplement is water soluble which means you can't overdo it. Anything that your body can't use or doesn't need will process right out. Biotin taken in combination with other vitamins and minerals in a product like Hairfinity, a supplement that promises to increase hair growth by 200%, produces the best results.
Related Pages:


text:
Access here.
Developed at the Kokugakuin University, the "online Encyclopedia of Shinto is the English translation of the Shinto jiten edited by the Institute for Japanese Culture and Classics and published by Kobundo in 1994 (the text as translated here reflects certain emendations to the original Japanese version). Links to video images, illustrations, photographs and sound files have been added anew." – Inoue Nobutaka (Project Leader)
What do you think of this resource?
Filed under: databases, Japanese | Tagged: religion, Shinto |


text:
Retirement is always on American workers minds, deducting huge portions of their paycheck to fund that magical time where they will no longer have to work. But according to WalletHub, there are cities to where retirees should flock, as well as cities to avoid.
The research was based off of 25 key metrics, including job prospects for workers aged 65 and older, a city's quality of life, and health care conditions. No surprise that five of the top 10 best places are in Florida, a state known for its large senior citizen population. Suburban communities of major cities, like Kansas City's neighbor Overland Park, or Plano, Texas, part of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metropolitan area, were amongst the top 10 as well.
Amongst the worst places to retire are large metropolitan areas like Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York, with their high cost of living being associated with lower retiree satisfaction. Californian cities like Fresno and Stockton placed at the bottom of the list, noting the metropolitan areas' lack of activities and weaker health care options for senior citizens.
Check out the gallery above to see the best and worst places to retire. Click here to read the full report from WalletHub.
The best and worst places to retire in America
Best places to retire: 10. Peoria, AZ (Wikimedia Creative Commons)
More Videos
Show More
More TOP STORIES News


text:
Learn more about Darrell's vision for Sacramento and the key policies he will champion as Mayor.
Darrell outlines his priorities for business and our local economy to create economic prosperity for Sacramento.
Learn more
As Mayor, Darrell will support our youth, investing in programs to help make our children successful.
Darrell discusses the importance of public safety, putting more officers on the street, use of new technologies and enhancing community engagement.
Darrell talks about his plan to leverage state funding to build permanent supportive housing, helping people end the cycle of homelessness for good.
Darrell believes strong neighborhoods are essential to Sacramento's quality of life & vibrancy. As Mayor he will work to restore programs & services.
Darrell talks about his plan for affordable housing, making Sacramento more bike & pedestrian friendly and improving public transportation.
Darrell believes that supporting arts and culture is important for our economic vitality and quality of life in Sacramento.
Darrell's list of endorsements and supporters cointinues to grow - across all sections of our community - see the full list here
See Endorsements
Find out how you can support the campaign - from displaying a lawn sign, to walking precincts - we need your help!
Support Darrell


text:
Searching for a fresh poetics, many of Chinas new writers of the Seventies experimented with "free verse" in a hermetic, semi-private language 2 characterized by oblique, oneiric imagery and elliptical syntax. That linguistic style, in which subject, tense, and number are elusive and transitions are unclear 3, came to be called "menglong shi," or "misty poetry."
By 1974, Bei Dao had finished the first draft of his novella Waves and begun a sequence of poems. Those poems were to become a guiding beacon for the youth of the April Fifth Democracy Movement of 1976, in which thousands peacefully demonstrated in Beijings Tiananmen Square. Bei Daos poetry won instant recognition and a faithful following, especially among young readers.
Debasement is the password of the base,
Nobility the epitaph of the noble.
See how the gilded sky is covered
With the drifting twisted shadows of the dead 4
In December 1978, Bei Dao and Mang Ke published the first issue of Chinas first unofficial literary journal, Jintian [Today], which survived until Beijing officials shut it down in 1980. (The quotation above comes from "Hui Da" [Answers], which first appeared in that number.)
Widely treasured by those who participated in Chinas democracy movement, Bei Daos poetry is marked by the effort to reveal the nature of the self, to identify both public and private wounds, to trust in instinctive perceptions, and to reach out to other afflicted souls. It depicts the intimacy of passion, love, and friendship in a society where trust can literally be a matter of life and death.
He was forced into exile following the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. He, along with other exiled writers and artists, has found a voice in a renewed version of Jintian, which was re-launched in Stockholm in 1990. "Ironically, it is
position of an exile that has given Bei Dao new insights
His experience has translated into three volumes of poetry, each of which has earned more critical acclaim than the one before."5
Bei Dao was recently inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters as an "honorary member." And his name is constantly reported by the media as being on the short list of Nobel candidates in the last few years. So much so, that the poet is rumored to not answer the phone when the time comes to announce the Nobel prizes.
1 Gleichman, Gabi. "An Interview with Bei Dao." Modern Chinese Literature 9:2 (Fall 1996), p.388
2 Bei Dao (Pei-Tao). The August Sleepwalker. London: Anvil Press Poetry, p.11.
3 World Authors, 1985-1990. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1995, p.51.
4 Bei Dao, op cit., p.13
5Wai, Isabella. "Bei Daos Theme Song." Explicator, 57:3 (Spring 1999), p.187
By Ramon H. Myers, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and Curator of the East Asian Collection firstname.lastname@example.com
(c)1999, Stanford University
Editor's note: a warm thanks to Mr. Timothy McGuire for assistance in drafting the account about Bei Dao.
Top of Page || Home Page || Stanford University Libraries || Stanford University


text:
2019 Forms & Documents
Forms required for registration. Forms due June 21st (time and drop off location to be determined). Any member that does not pass in all forms during the deadline will lose their spot on the roster.
FORM CHECKLIST: Click here.
1. Register your player/cheerleader on the NHYFSC website: http://nhyfsc.org/Registration/Default.asp?org=m.m.ww.nhyfsc.org
2. NHYFSC Medical Clearance Form
3. NHYFSC Concussion Form (MUST be signed by player/cheerleader AND parent)
4. Medical Treatment Consent and Information Form
5. Anti-Bullying Contract (MUST be signed by player/cheerleader AND parent)
6. TWO Copies of Player's/Cheerleader's FINAL report card
7. Copy of player's/cheerleader's Birth Certificate - NEW PARTICIPANTS ONLY
8. Please print and sign last page of 2019 Parent Handbook
9. Social Media Contract (MUST be signed by player/cheerleader AND parent)
Any Questions or concerns. please contact Tricia Waldron at
New Privacy Policy


text:
Senior Manager, Alliances
Brought 6-digit GM to Avangate from partner-delivered services with a double-digit growth YoY. Saved time and eliminated hassles by creating a solid cross-team working framework for the growth services unit, including Sales, Marketing, Financial and Legal teams. Also set the path to future alliances according to company goals and helped Sales evangelize the growth services to potential digital customers at industry events.
As a Senior Manager of Alliances, my main goals are identifying and recruiting new Avangate services & technology partners; negotiating and onboarding new partners; building joint pipelines and joint go-to market plans; support and enable Sales and customers to drive company revenues.
Along with that, I'm the subject matter expert on managed affiliate services and managed marketing services-both inbound and outbound marketing, SEM, branding, working directly with our OPM and agency partners.


text:
Woolleys Bay Canvas Print by Alison Gilmour
Print Code: 8616
Fine Art Canvas PrintImage size in millimetres: 545 x 800
This print is simply magnificent. It is printed on an acid free canvas that was developed especially for fine art reproduction. All of our canvas prints are finished with an invisible protective spray to protect the surface and ink. This large canvas print is available stretched (ready to hang on your wall out of the box). The stretched print is $309.95 and we charge just $NZ20 delivery anywhere in NZ. To order Gilmour s Woolleys Bay canvas print stretched please call us on 0800 800 278.
Like this Alison Gilmour canvas print? You will find more prints like this one in these collections at New Zealand's largest art print store:
Alison Gilmour Prints
Canvas Prints
New Zealand Beach Scenes
New Prints in Stock


text:
Please enter your email address below to get started.
I'M STARTING TO WORRY that the Swedish pop star Tove Lo might be my spirit animal. She might be yours, too, actually, especially if you're prone to almighty benders and picking up men in play parks.
On the upside, the 29-year-old singer/songwriter from Stockholm is also talented, charming, clever and cute as a button when she arrives for our interview in the weird function room of an East London hotel wearing a woolly hat. But do not let adorable knitwear fool you. Tove Lo may be the brightest new female star in the pop firmament, but this is not a woman who simpers or trades in plastic sexuality to score chart positions and online followers. I suspect she'd much rather just have the sex — and then write a smart, perfectly constructed song about it.
Obviously, it's no surprise that she's Swedish. From Abba to Max Martin (who she used to work for), her birth nation is famous for its earworm chart toppers. Hers is the country of communal showering and Ace of Base, so naturally her amazing new album is called Lady Wood and features kick-ass lyrics such as 'Dirty on the inside, damaged goods with nothing but pride'.


text:
Letter from Te Waaka Tahuahi to McLean, 12 Feb 1862
Reference Number: MS-Papers-0032-0686C-11. Object #1031251
Letter regarding land sales and includes financial workings
3 pages, related to Te Waaka Tahuahi, Wairarapa and Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa.
Download alow-resolution PDF or high-resolution PDF
Part of:
Inward letters in Maori, Reference Number MS-Papers-0032-0686C (15 digitised items)
Series 2 Inward letters (Maori), Reference Number Series 2 Inward letters (Maori) (3148 digitised items)
McLean Papers, Reference Number MS-Group-1551 (30238 digitised items)
Usage: You can search, browse, print and download items from this website for research and personal study. You are welcome to reproduce the above image(s) on your blog or another website, but please maintain the integrity of the image (i.e. don't crop, recolour or overprint it), reproduce the image's caption information and link back to here (http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=1031251). If you would like to use the above image(s) in a different way (e.g. in a print publication), or use the transcription or translation, permission must be obtained. More information about copyright and usage can be found on the Copyright and Usage page of the NLNZ web site.
External Links:
View Full Descriptive Record in TAPUHI


text: I was given a jacaranda bonsai kit a few Christmases ago now. Sadly, I haven't done anything with it. The kit contains seeds and some growing media, but I found the instructions hard to follow. In essence, it's gone into the too hard basket and it's been there for a few years now. Has anyone raised bonsai from seed using one of these kits? Does anyone have any wisdom to pass down?


text:
With a moody air, from morn till noon,
King Ferdinand paces the royal saloon;
From morn till eve
He does nothing but grieve;
Sighings and sobbings his midriff heave,
And he wipes his eyes with his ermined sleeve,
And he presses his feverish hand to his brow,
And he frowns and he looks I can't tell you how;
And the Spanish Grandees,
In their degrees,
Are whispering about in twos and in threes,
And there is not a man of them seems at his ease,
But they gaze on the monarch, as watching what he does,
With their very long whiskers, and longer Toledos.
Don Gaspar, Don Gusman, Don Juan, Don Diego,
Don Gomez, Don Pedro, Don Blas, Don Rodrigo,
Don Jerome, Don Giacomo join Don Alphonso
In making inquiries
Of grave Don Ramirez,
The Chamberlain, what it is makes him take on so;
A Monarch so great that the soundest opinions
Maintain the sun can't set throughout his dominions.
But grave Don Ramirez
In guessing no nigher is
Than the other grave Dons who propound these inquiries;
When, pausing at length, as beginning to tire, his
Majesty beckons, with stately civility,
To Señor Don Lewis
Condé d'Aranjuez,
Who in birth, wealth, and consequence second to few is,
And Señor Don Manuel, Count de Pacheco,
A lineal descendant from King Pharaoh Neco,
Both Knights of the Golden Fleece, highborn Hidalgos,
With whom e'en the King himself quite as a 'pal' goes.
'Don Lewis,' says he,
'Just listen to me;
And you, Count Pacheco, — I think that we three
On matters of state, for the most part agree, —
Now you both of you know
That some six years ago,
Being then, for a King, no indifferent Beau,
At the altar I took, like my forbears of old,
The Peninsula's paragon,
Fair Blanche of Aragon,
For better, for worse, and to have and to hold —
And you're fully aware,
When the matter took air,
How they shouted, and fired the great guns in the Square,
Cried 'Viva!' — and rung all the bells in the steeple,
And all that sort of thing
The mob do when a King
Brings a Queen–Consort home for the good of his people.
'Well! — six years and a day
Have flitted away
Since that blessed event, yet I'm sorry to say —
In fact it's the principal cause of my pain —
I don't see any signs of an Infant of Spain! —
Now I want to ask you,
Cavaliers true,
And Counsellors sage — what the deuce shall I do? —
The State — don't you see? — hey? — an heir to the throne —
Every monarch, you know, should have one of his own —
Disputed succession — hey? — terrible Go! —
Hum — hey? — Old fellows — you see! — don't you know?
Now Reader, dear,
If you've ever been near
Enough to a Court to encounter a Peer
When his principal tenant's gone off in arrear,
And his brewer has sent in a long bill for beer,
And his butcher and baker, with faces austere,
Ask him to clear
Off, for furnish'd good cheer,
Bills, they say, 'have been standing for more than a year,'
And the tailor and shoemaker also appear
With their 'little account'
Of 'trifling amount,'
For Wellingtons, waistcoats, pea-jackets, and — gear
Which to name in society's thought rather queer, —
While Drummond's chief clerk, with his pen in his ear,
And a kind of a sneer, says,'We've no effects here!'
— Or if ever you've seen An Alderman keen
After turtle, peep into a silver tureen,
In search of the fat call'd par excellence 'green.'
When there's none of the meat left — not even the lean! —
— Or if ever you've witness'd the face of a sailor
Return'd from a voyage, and escaped from a gale, or
Poeticè 'Boreas,' that 'blustering railer,'
To find that his wife, when he hastens to 'hail' her,
Has just run away with his cash — and a tailor —
If one of these cases you've ever survey'd,
You'll, without my aid,
To yourself have portray'd
The beautiful mystification display'd,
And the puzzled expression of manner and air
Exhibited now by the dignified pair,
When thus unexpectedly ask'd to declare
Their opinions as Councillors, several and joint,
On so delicate, grave, and important a point.
Señor Don Lewis
Condé d'Aranjuez
At length forced a smile 'twixt the prim and the grim,
And look'd at Pacheco — Pacheco at him —
Then, making a rev'rence, and dropping his eyes,
Cough'd, hemm'd, and deliver'd himself in this wise:
'My Liege! — unaccustom'd as I am to speaking
In public — an art I'm remarkably weak in —
I feel I should be — quite unworthy the name
Of a man and a Spaniard — and highly to blame,
Were there not in my breast
What — can't be exprest, —
And can therefore, — your Majesty, — only be guess'd —
— What I mean to say is — since your Majesty deigns
To ask my advice on your welfare — and Spain's, —
And on that of your Majesty's Bride — that is, Wife —
It's the — as I may say — proudest day of my life!
But as to the point — on a subject so nice
It's a delicate matter to give one's advice,
Especially, too,
When one don't clearly view
The best mode of proceeding, — or know what to do:
My decided opinion, however, is this,
And I fearlessly say that you can't do amiss,
If, with all that fine tact
Both to think and to act,
In which all know your Majesty so much excels —
You are graciously pleased to — ask somebody else!'
Here the noble Grandee
Made that sort of congée,
Which, as Hill used to say, 'I once happen'd to see'
The great Indian conjuror, Ramo Samee,
Make, while swallowing what all thought a regular choker,
Viz. a small sword as long and as stiff as a poker.
Then the Count de Pacheco, Whose turn 'twas to speak o —
mitting all preface, exclaim'd with devotion,
'Sire, I beg leave to second Don Lewis's motion!'
Now a monarch of Spain
Of course could not deign
To expostulate, argue, or, much less, complain
Of an answer thus giv'n, or to ask them again;
So he merely observ'd, with an air of disdain,
'Well, Gentlemen, — since you both shrink from the task
Of advising your Sovereign — pray whom shall I ask?'
Each felt the rub,
And in Spain, not a Sub,
Much less an Hidalgo, can stomach a snub,
So the noses of these Castilian Grandees
Rise at once in an angle of several degrees,
Till the under-lip's almost becoming the upper,
Each perceptibly grows, too, more stiff in the crupper;
Their right hands rest
On the left side the breast
While the hilts of their swords, by their left hands deprest
Make the ends of their scabbards to cock up behind,
Till they're quite horizontal instead of inclined,
And Don Lewis, with scarce an attempt to disguise
The disgust he experiences, gravely replies,
'Sire, ask the Archbishop — his Grace of Toledo! —
He understands these things much better than we do!'
— Pauca Verba! — enough,
Each turns off in a huff
This twirling his moustache, that fingering his ruff,
Like a blue-bottle fly on a rather large scale,
With a rather large corking-pin stuck through his tail
. . .
King Ferdinand paces the Royal saloon,
With a moody brow, and he looks like a 'Spoon,'
And all the Court Nobles, who form the ring,
Have a spoony appearance, of course, like the King,
All of them eyeing King Ferdinand
As he goes up and down, with his watch in his hand,
Which he claps to his ear as he walks to and fro, —
'What is it can make the Archbishop so slow?'
Hark! — at last there's a sound in the courtyard below,
Where the Beefeaters all are drawn up in a row, —
I would say the 'Guards' for in Spain they're in chief eaters
Of omelettes and garlick, and can't be call'd Beefeaters,
In fact, of the few
Individuals I knew
Who ever had happened to travel in Spain,
There has scarce been a person who did not complain
Of their cookery and dishes as all bad in grain,
And no one I'm sure will deny it who's tried a
Vile compound they have that's called Olla podrida.
(This, by-the-bye 's a mere rhyme to the eye,
For in Spanish the i is pronounced like an e,
And they've not quite our mode of pronouncing the d.
In Castille, for instance, it's given through the teeth,
And what we call Madrid they sound more like Madreeth),
Of course you will see in a moment they've no men
That all correspond with our Beefeating Yeomen;
So call them 'Walloons,' or whatever you please,
By their rattles and slaps they're not 'standing at ease,'
But, beyond all disputing,
Engaged in saluting,
Some very great person among the Grandees; —
Here a Gentleman Usher walks in and declares,
'His Grace the Archbishop's a-coming up stairs!'
The most Reverend Don Garcilasso Quevedo
Was just at this time, as he
Now held the Primacy,
(Always attached to the see of Toledo,)
A man of great worship officii virtute
Versed in all that pertains to a Counsellor's duty,
Well skill'd to combine
Civil law with divine;
As a statesman, inferior to none in that line;
As an orator, too,
He was equall'd by few;
Uniting, in short, in tongue, head-piece, and pen,
The very great power of three very great men,
Talleyrand, — who will never drive down Piccadily more
To the Travellers' Club–House! — Charles Phillips — and
Not only at home
But even at Rome
There was not a Prelate among them could cope
With the Primate of Spain in the eyes of the Pope.
(The Conclave was full, and they'd not a spare hat, or he
'd long since been Cardinal, Legate à latere,
A dignity fairly his due, without flattery,
So much he excited among all beholders
Their marvel to see
At his age — thirty-three
Such a very old head on such very young shoulders.)
No wonder the King, then, in this his distress,
Should send for so sage an adviser express,
Who, you'll readily guess,
Could not do less
Than start off at once, without stopping to dress,
In his haste to get Majesty out of a mess.
His Grace the Archbishop comes up the back way —
Set apart for such Nobles as have the entrée,
Viz. Grandees of the first class, both cleric and lay —
Walks up to the monarch, and makes him a bow,
As a dignified clergyman always knows how,
Then replaces the mitre at once on his brow;
For in Spain, recollect,
As a mark of respect
To the Crown, if a grandee uncovers, it's quite
As a matter of option, and not one of right;
A thing not conceded by our Royal Masters,
Who always make noblemen take off their 'castors,'
Except the heirs male
Of John Lord Kinsale,
A stalwart old Baron, who, acting as Henchman
To one of our early Kings, kill'd a big Frenchman;
A feat which his Majesty deigning to smile on,
Allow'd him thenceforward to stand with his 'tile' on;
And all his successors have kept the same privilege
Down from those barbarous times to our civil age.
Returning his bow with a slight demi-bob,
And replacing the watch in his hand in his fob,
'My Lord,' said the King, 'here's a rather tough job,
Which it seems, of a sort is,
To puzzle our Cortes,
And since it has quite flabbergasted that Diet, I
Look to your Grace with no little anxiety
Concerning a point Which has quite out of joint
Put us all with respect to the good of society:—
Your Grace is aware
That we've not got an Heir;
Now, it seems, one and all, they don't stick to declare
That of all our advisers there is not in Spain one
Can tell, like your Grace, the best way to obtain one;
So put your considering cap on — we're curious
To learn your receipt for a Prince of Asturias.'
One without the nice tact
Of his Grace would have backt
Out at once, as the Noblemen did, — and, in fact
He was, at the first, rather pozed how to act —
One moment — no more! — Bowing then as before,
He said, 'Sire, 'twere superfluous for me to acquaint
The 'Most Catholic King' in the world that a Saint
Is the usual resource In these cases, — of course
Of your influence your Majesty well knows the force;
If I may be, therefore, allowed to suggest
The plan which occurs to my mind as the best,
Your Majesty may go
At once to St Jago,
Whom, as Spain's patron Saint, I pick out from the rest:
If your Majesty looks
Into Guthrie, or Brooks,
In all the approved Geographical books
You will find Compostella laid down in the maps
Some two hundred and sev'nty miles off; and, perhaps,
In a case so important you may not decline
A pedestrian excursion to visit his shrine;
And, Sire, should you choose
To put peas in your shoes,
The Saint, as a Gentleman, can't well refuse
So distinguish'd a Pilgrim, especially when he
Considers the boon will not cost him one penny!'
His speech ended, his Grace bow'd, and put on his mitre
As tight as before, and perhaps a thought tighter,
'Pooh! pooh!' says the King, 'I shall do no such thing!
It's nonsense, — Old fellow — you see — no use talking —
The peas set apart, I abominate walking —
Such a deuced way off too — hey? — walk there — what me?
Pooh! — It's no Go, Old fellow! — you know — don't you see?'
'Well, Sire,' with much sweetness the Prelate replied,
'If your Majesty don't like to walk — you can ride!
And then, if you please,
In lieu of the peas,
A small portion of horse-hair, cut fine, we'll insert,
As a substitute under your Majesty's shirt;
Then a rope round your collar instead of a laced band, —
A few nettles tuck'd into your Majesty's waistband, —
Assafoetida mixed with your bouquet and civet,
I'll warrant you'll find yourself right as a trivet!'
'Pooh! pooh! I tell you,'
Quoth the King, 'It won't do!' —
A cold perspiration began to bedew
His Majesty's cheek, and he grew in a stew,
When Jozé de Humez, the King's privy-purse-keeper,
(Many folks thought it could scarce have a worse keeper,)
Came to the rescue, and said with a smile,
'Sire, your Majesty can't go — 'twould take a long while,
And you won't post it under TWO SHILLINGS A MILE!!
Twenty-seven pounds ten
To get there — and then
Twenty-seven pounds ten more to get back agen!!!
Sire, the tottle's enormous — you ought to be King
Of Golconda as well as the Indies, to fling
Such a vast sum away upon any such thing!'
At this second rebuff
The Archbishop look'd gruff,
And his eye glanc'd on Humez as if he'd say 'Stuff!'
But seeing the King seem'd himself in a huff,
He chang'd his demeanour, and grew smooth enough;
Then taking his chin 'twixt his finger and thumb,
As a help to reflection, gave vent to a 'Hum!'
'Twas the pause of an instant — his eye assumed fast
That expression which says, 'Come, I've got it at last!'
'There's one plan,' he resumed, 'which with all due respect to
Your Majesty, no one, I think, can object to —
— Since your Majesty don't like the peas in the shoe — or to
Travel — what say you to burning a Jew or two?
Of all cookeries, most
The Saints love a roast!
And a Jew's of all others the best dish to toast;
And then for a Cook
We have not far to look —
Father Dominic's self, Sire, your own Grand Inquisitor,
Luckily now at your Court is a visitor;
Of his Rev'rence's functions there is not one weightier
Than Heretic-burning — in fact, 'tis his métier.
Besides Alguazils
Who still follow his heels,
He has always familiars enough at his beck at home,
To pick you up Hebrews enough for a hecatomb!
And depend on it, Sire, such a glorious specific
Would make every Queen throughout Europe prolific!'
Says the King, 'That'll do!
Pooh! pooh! — burn a Jew?
Burn half a score Jews — burn a dozen — burn two —
Your Grace, it's a match! Burn all you can catch,
Men, women, and children — Pooh! pooh! — great and small —
Old clothes — slippers — sealing-wax — Pooh! — burn them all!
For once we'll be gay,
A Grand Auto-da-fé
Is much better fun than a ball or a play!'
So the warrant was made out without more delay,
Drawn, seal'd, and delivered, and
There is not a nation in Europe but labours
To toady itself and to humbug its neighbours —
'Earth has no such folks — no folks such a city,
So great or so grand, or so fine, or so pretty,'
Said Louis Quatorze, 'As this Paris of ours!'
— Mr. Daniell O'Connell exclaims, 'By the Pow'rs,
Ould Ireland's on all hands admitted to be
The first flow'r of the earth, and first Gim of the sea!' —
— Mr. Bull will inform you that Neptune, — a lad he,
With more of affection than rev'rence, styles, 'Daddy,' —
Did not scruple to 'say To Freedom, one day,'
That if ever he chang'd his aquatics for dry land,
His home should be Mr. B.'s 'Tight little Island.' —
He adds, too, that he,
The said Mr. B.,
Of all possible Frenchmen can fight any three;
That, with no greater odds, he knows well how to treat them
To meet them, defeat them, and beat them, and eat them. —
— In Italy, too, 'tis the same to the letter;
There each Lazzarone
Will cry to his crony,
'See Naples, then die!1 and the sooner the better!'
The Portuguese say, as a well understood thing,
'Who has not seen Lisbon2 has not seen a good thing!' —
While an old Spanish proverb runs glibly as under,
'He who ne'er has viewed Seville has ne'er view'd a Wonder!'
And from all I can learn this is no such great blunder.
In fact, from the river,
The famed Guadalquiver,
Where many a knight's had cold steel through his liver,3
The prospect is grand. The Iglesia Mayor
Has a splendid effect on the opposite shore,
With its lofty Giralda, while two or three score
Of magnificent structures around, perhaps more,
As our Irish friends have it, are there 'to the fore:'
Then the old Alcazar,
More ancient by far,
As some say, while some call it one of the palaces
Built in twelve hundred and odd by Abdalasis,
With its horse-shoe shaped arches of Arabesque tracery,
Which the architect seems to have studied to place awry,
Saracenic and rich;
And more buildings 'the which,'
As old Lily, in whom I've been looking a bit o' late,
Says, 'You'd be bored should I now recapitulate;'4
In brief, then, the view
Is so fine and so new,
It would make you exclaim, 'twould so forcibly strike ye,
If a Frenchman, 'Superbe!' — if an Englishman, 'Crikey!'
Yes! thou art 'WONDERFUL!' — but oh,
'Tis sad to think, 'mid scenes so bright
As thine, fair Seville, sounds of woe,
And shrieks of pain and wild affright,
And soul-wrung groans of deep despair,
And blood, and death should mingle there!
Yes! thou art 'WONDERFUL!' — the flames
That on thy towers reflected shine,
While earth's proud Lords and high-born Dames,
Descendants of a mighty line,
With cold unalter'd looks are by
To gaze, with an unpitying eye,
On wretches in their agony.
All speak thee 'Wonderful' — the phrase
Befits thee well — the fearful blaze
Of you piled faggots' lurid light,
Where writhing victims mock the sight, —
The scorch'd limb shrivelling in its chains, —
The hot blood parch'd in living veins, —
The crackling nerve — the fearful knell
Wrung out by that remorseless bell, —
Those shouts from human fiends that swell, —
That withering scream, — that frantic yell, —
All, Seville, — all too truly tell
Thou art a 'Marvel' — and a Hell!
God! — that the worm whom thou hast made
Should thus his brother worm invade!
Count deeds like these good service done,
And deem THINE eye looks smiling on!!
Yet there at his ease, with his whole Court around him,
King Ferdinand sits 'in his Glory' — confound him! —
Leaning back in his chair,
With a satisfied air
And enjoying the bother, the smoke and the smother,
With one knee cocked carelessly over the other;
His pouncet-box goes
To and fro at his nose,
As somewhat misliking the smell of old clothes,
And seeming to hint, by this action emphatic,
That Jews, e'en when roasted, are not aromatic;
There, too, fair Ladies
From Xeres, and Cadiz,
Catalinas, and Julias, and fair Iñesillas,
In splendid lace veils, and becoming mantillas;
Elviras, Antonias, and Claras and Floras,
And dark-eyed Jacinthas and soft Isidoras,
Are crowding the 'boxes,' and looking on coolly as
Though 'twas but one of their common tertulias,
Partaking, as usual, of wafers and ices,
Snow-water, and melons cut out into slices,
And chocolate, — furnished at coffee-house prices;
While many a suitor,
And gay coadjutor
In the eating-and-drinking line scorns to be neuter;
One, being perhaps just return'd with his tutor
From travel in England, is tempting his 'future'
With a luxury neat as imported, 'The Pewter,'
And charming the dear Violantes and Iñeses
With a three-corner'd Sandwich, and soupcon of 'Guinness's;'
While another, from Paris but newly come back,
Hints 'the least taste in life' of the best cogniac.
Such ogling and eyeing,
In short, and such sighing
And such complimenting (one must not say l — g),
Of smart Cavaliers with each other still vying,
Mix'd up with the crying,
And groans of the dying
All hissing, and spitting, and broiling, and frying,
Form a scene which, although there can be no denying
To a bon Catholique it may prove edifying,
I doubt if a Protestant smart Beau, or merry Belle,
Might not shrink from it as somewhat too terrible.
It's a question with me if you ever survey'd a
More stern-looking mortal than old Torquemada,
Renown'd Father Dominic, famous for twisting dom —
estic and foreign necks all over Christendom;
Morescoes or Jews,
Not a penny to choose,
If a dog of a heretic dare to refuse
A glass of old port, or a slice from a griskin,
The good Padre soon would so set him a frisking,
That I would not, for — more than I'll say — be in his skin.
'Twas just the same thing with his own race and nation,
And Christian Dissenters of every persuasion,
Muggletonian or Quaker,
Or Jumper or Shaker,
No matter with whom in opinion partaker,
George Whitfield, John Bunyan, or Thomas Gat-acre,
They'd no better chance than a Bonze or a Fakir;
If a woman, it skill'd not — if she did not deem as he
Bade her to deem touching Papal supremacy,
By the Pope, but he'd make her! From error awake her,
Or else — pop her into an oven and bake her!
No one, in short, ever came half so near, as he
Did, to the full extirpation of heresy;
And if, in the times of which now I am treating,
There had been such a thing as a 'Manchester Meeting,'
'Pretty pork' he'd have made 'Moderator' and 'Minister,'
Had he but caught them on his side Cape Finisterre; —
Pye Smith, and the rest of them once in his bonfire, hence —
forth you'd have heard little more of the 'CONFERENCE.'
And — there on the opposite side of the ring,
He, too, sits 'in his Glory,' confronting the King,
With his cast-iron countenance frowning austerely
That matched with his en bon point body but queerly,
For, though grim his visage, his person was pursy,
Belying the rumour
Of fat folks' good humour;
Above waves his banner of 'Justice and Mercy,'
Below and around stand a terrible band adding
much to the scene — viz. The 'Holy Hermandad,'
That's 'Brotherhood,' — each looking grave as a Grand-dad.
Within the arena
Before them is seen a
Strange, odd-looking group, each one dress'd in a garment
Not 'dandified' clearly, as certainly 'varment,'
Being all over vipers and snakes, and stuck thick
With multiplied silhouette profiles of Nick;
And a cap of the same,
All devils and flame,
Extinguisher-shaped, much like Salisbury Spire,
Except that the latter's of course somewhat higher;
A long yellow pin-a-fore
Hangs down each chin afore,
On which, ere the wearer had donn'd it, a man drew
The Scotch badge, a Saltire, or Cross of St. Andrew;
Though I fairly confess I am quite at a loss
To guess why they should choose that particular cross,
Or to make clear to you
What the Scotch had to do
At all with the business in hand, — though it's true
That the vestment aforesaid, perhaps from its hue,
Viz. yellow, in juxta-position with blue,
(A tinge of which latter tint could but accrue
On the faces of wretches, of course, in a stew
As to what their tormentors were going to do,)
Might make people fancy, who no better knew,
They were somehow connected with Jeffrey's Review;
Especially too
As it's certain that few
Things would make Father Dominic blither or happier
Than to catch hold of it, or its Chef, Macvey Napier. —
No matter for that — my description to crown,
All the flames and the devils were turn'd upside down
On this habit, facetiously term'd San Benito,
Much like the dress suit
Of some nondescript brute
From the show-van of Wombwell, (not George,) or Polito.
And thrice happy they,5
Dress'd out in this way
To appear with éclat at the Auto-da-fé, —
Thrice happy indeed whom the good luck might fall to
Of devils tail upward, and 'Fuego revolto,'
For, only see there,
In the midst of the Square,
Where, perch'd up on poles six feet high in the air
Sit, chained to the stake, some two, three, or four pair
Of wretches, whose eyes, nose, complexion, and hair
Their Jewish descent but too plainly declare,
Each clothed in a garment more frightful by far, a
Smock-frock sort of gaberdine, call'd a Samarra,
With three times the number of devils upon it, —
A proportion observed on the sugar-loaf'd bonnet,
With this farther distinction — of mischief a proof —
That every fiend Jack stands upright on his hoof!
While the pictured flames, spread
Over body and head,
Are three times as crooked, and three times as red!
All, too, pointing upwards, as much as to say,
'Here's the real bonne bouche of the Auto-da-fé.'
Torquemada, meanwhile,
With his cold, cruel smile,
Sits looking on calmly, and watching the pile,
As his hooded 'Familiars' (their names, as some tell, come
From their being so much more 'familiar' than 'welcome,')
Have, by this time, begun
To be 'poking their fun,'
And their firebrands, as if they were so many posies
Of lilies and roses,
Up to the noses
Of Lazarus Levi and Money Ben Moses;
While similar treatment is forcing out hollow moans
From Aby Ben Lasco and Ikey Ben Solomons,
Whose beards — this a black, that inclining to grizzle —
Are smoking, and curling, and all in a fizzle;
The King, at the same time, his Dons and his visitors,
Sit, sporting smiles, like the Holy Inquisitors, —
Enough! — no more! — Thank Heaven, 'tis o'er
The tragedy's done! and we now draw a veil
O'er a scene which makes outraged humanity quail;
The last fire's exhausted, and spent like a rocket,
The last wretched Hebrew's burnt down in his socket!
The Barriers are open, and all, saints and sinners,
King, Court, Lords, and Commons, gone home to their dinners,
With a pleasing emotion Produced by the notion
Of having exhibited so much devotion,
All chuckling to think how the Saints are delighted
At having seen so many 'Smouches' ignited:—
All, save Privy-purse Humez,
Who sconced in his room is,
And, Cocker in hand, in his leather-backed chair,
Is puzzling to find out how much the 'affair'
(By deep calculations, the which I can't follow,) cost, —
The tottle, in short, of the whole of the Holocaust.
Perhaps you may think it a rather odd thing,
That, while talking so much of the Court and the King,
In describing the scene
Through which we've just been
I've not said one syllable as to the Queen;
Especially, too, as her Majesty's 'Whereabouts,'
All things considered, might well be thought thereabouts;
The fact was, however, although little known,
Sa Magestad had hit on a plan of her own,
And suspecting, perhaps, that an Auto alone
Might fail in securing this 'Heir to the throne,'
Had made up her mind,
Although well inclined
Towards galas and shows of no matter what kind,
For once to retire,
And bribe the Saints higher
Than merely by sitting and seeing a fire, —
A sight, after all, she did not much admire;
So she locked herself up,
Without platter or cup,
In her Oriel, resolved not take bite or sup,
Not so much as her matin-draught (our 'early purl')
Nor put on her jewels, nor e'en let the girl,
Who helped her to dress, take her hair out of curl,
But to pass the whole morning in telling her beads,
And in reading the lives of the Saints, and their deeds
And in vowing to visit, without shoes or sandals,
Their shrines, with unlimited orders for candles,
Holy water, and Masses of Mozart's and Handel's.6
And many a Pater, and Ave, and Credo
Did She, and her Father Confessor, Quevedo,
(The clever Archbishop, you know, of Toledo,)
Who came, as before, at a very short warning,
Get through, without doubt, in the course of that morning;
Shut up, as they were,
With nobody there
To at all interfere with so pious a pair;
And the Saints must have been stony-hearted indeed,
If they had not allow'd all these pains to succeed.
Nay, it's not quite clear to me but their very ability
Might, Spain throughout,
Have been brought into doubt,
Had the Royal bed still remain'd cursed with sterility;
St. Jago, however, who always is jealous
In Spanish affairs as their best authors tell us,
And who, if he saw
Anything like a flaw
In Spain's welfare, would soon sing, 'Old Rose, burn the bellows!'
Set matters to rights like a King of good fellows:
By his interference,
Three-fourths of a year hence,
There was nothing but capering, dancing, and singing,
Cachucas, Boleros, and bells set a ringing,
In both the Castilles,
Triple-bob-major peals,
Rope-dancing, and tumbling, and somerset-flinging,
Seguidillas, Fandangos,
While ev'ry gun bang goes;
And all the way through, from Gibraltar to Biscay,
Figueras and Sherry make all the Dons frisky,
(Save Moore's 'Blake's and O'Donnell's,' who stick to the whisky;)
All the day long
The dance and the song
Continue the general joy to prolong;
And even long after the close of the day
You can hear little else but 'Hip! hip! hurray!'
The Escurial, however, is not quite so gay,
For, whether the Saint had not perfectly heard
The petition the Queen and Archbishop preferred, —
Or whether his head, from his not being used
To an Auto-da-fé, was a little confused, —
Or whether the King, in the smoke and the smother,
Got bother'd, and so made some blunder or other,
I am sure I can't say;
All I know is, that day
There must have been some mistake? — that, I'm afraid, is
Only too clear,
Inasmuch as the dear
Royal Twins, — though fine babies, — proved both little Ladies!
Reader! — Not knowing what your 'persuasion' may be,
Mahometan, Jewish, or even Parsee,
Take a little advice which may serve for all three!
First — 'When you're at Rome, do as Rome does!' and note all her
Ways — drink what She drinks! and don't turn Tee-totaller!
In Spain, raison de plus,
You must do as they do,
Inasmuch as they're all there 'at sixes and sevens,'
Just as, you know, They were some years ago,
In the days of Don Carlos and Brigadier Evans;
Don't be nice, then — but take what they've got in their shops,
Whether griskins or sausages, ham or pork-chops!
Next — Avoid Fancy-trousers! — their colours and shapes
Sometimes as you see, may lead folks into scrapes!
For myself, I confess
I've but small taste for dress,
My opinion is, therefore, worth nothing — or less —
But some friends I've consulted, — much given to watch one's
Apparel — do say
It's by far the best way,
And the safest, to do as Lord Brougham does — buy Scotch ones!
I might now volunteer some advice to a King, —
Let Whigs say what they will, I shall do no such thing,
But copy my betters, and never begin
Until, like Sir Robert, 'I'm duly CALLED IN!'
1 'Vedi Napoli e poi mori!'
2 'Quem não tem visto Lisboa Não tem visto cousa boa.'
3 'Rio verde, Rio verde, &c.'
'Glassy water, glassy water,
Down whose current clear and strong,
Chiefs, confused in mutual slaughter,
Moor and Christian, roll along.' —
Old Spanish Romance.
4 Cum multis aliis quæ nunc perscribere longum est. — Propria quæ maribus.
5 O fortunati nimium sua si bona norint!
6 That is, She would have ordered them — but none are known,
I fear, as his,
For Handel never wrote a Mass, and so She'd David Perez's —
Bow! wow! wow!
Fol, lol. &c. &c.'
(Posthumous Note by the Ghost of James Smith, Esq.)
In the windows of the great Hall, so well as in those of the long Gallery, and the Library at Tappington, are, and have been many of them from a very early period, various 'storied panes 'of stained glass, which, as Blue Dick's exploits 1 did not extend beyond the neighbouring city, have remained unfractured down to the present time. Among the numerous escutcheons there displayed, charged with armorial bearings of the family and its connexions, is one in which a chevron between three eagles suisses, sable, is blazoned quarterly with the engrailed saltire of the Ingoldsbys. Mr. Simpkinson from Bath, — whose merits as an antiquary are so well known and appreciated as to make eulogy superfluous, not to say impertinent, — has been for some time bringing his heraldic lore to bear on these monumenta vetusta. He pronounces the coat in question to be that of a certain Sir Ingoldsby Bray, who flourished temp. Ric. I. and founded the Abbey of Ingoldsby, in the county of Kent and diocese of Rochester, early in the reign of that monarch's successor. The history of the origin of that pious establishment has been rescued from the dirt and mildew in which its chartularies have been slumbering for centuries, and is here given. The link of connection between the two families is shown by the accompanying extract from our genealogical tree.
In this document it will be perceived that the death of Lady Alice Ingoldsby is attributed to strangulation superinduced by suspension, whereas in the veritable legend annexed no allusion is made to the intervention of a halter. Unluckily Sir Ingoldsby left no issue, or we might now be 'calling Cousins' with (ci devant) Mrs. Otway Cave, in whose favour the abeyance of the old Barony of Bray has recently been determined by the Crown.
To this same Barony we ourselves were not without our pretensions, and, teste Simpkinson, had 'as good a right to it as any body else.' The 'Collective wisdom of the Country' has, however, decided the point, and placed us among that very numerous class of claimants who are 'wrongfully kept out of their property and dignities — by the right owners.'
I seize with pleasure this opportunity of contradicting a malicious report that Mr. Simpkinson has, in a late publication, confounded King Henry the Fifth with the Duke of Monmouth, and positively deny that he has ever represented Walter Lord Clifford, (father to Fair Rosamond,) as the leader of the O. P. row.
1 Richard Culmer, parson of Chartham, commonly so called, distinguished himself, while Laud was in the Tower, by breaking the beautiful windows in Canterbury Cathedral, 'standing on the top of the city ladder, near sixty steps high, with a whole pike in his hand, when others would not venture so high.' This feat of Vandalism the cærulean worthy called 'rattling down proud Becket's glassie bones.'
Last updated Sunday, March 27, 2016 at 11:56


text:
Why one kiss didn't turn into two kisses, a night of passion or a relationship :(
Kisses have the power to intrigue and inspire. One kiss can easily turn into two. It can heat things up and turn things on. A kiss can be the start of an amazing night in bed or a passionate relationship. But it can also lead to a polite "Good night," followed by a "Thanks but no thanks," message the next day. Part of what makes the difference is physical. Moving your tongue fast, slow, deep or shallow, creates different moods and sensations. Your enjoyment creates more spark than if you're indifferent. These seem pretty obvious. But there is a tricky piece many men overlook that I'd love to bring to your attention. I'll use my most recent date to illustrate: … Continue reading →


text:
Posts Tagged 'turmeric'
Dinner Tonight: Turmeric Chicken, Succotash & Baked Potatoes
I've had this "classic" cookbook for ages, though I have hardly cooked any dishes from it. I usually only look at the baking recipes, and maybe desserts. So I decided to take a closer look and found loads of recipes worth trying!
Last night I decided to give these 3 recipes a try:
– turmeric chicken with sour cream
– baked potatoes with cheese and spinach
– succotash
And I am so glad I did! It was a delicious meal! I never follow recipes to a tee. But here's what I did:
The chicken was easy enough: marinade for 30 minutes in the fridge in 1 tsp each of turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom and coriander (all ground), juice from 1 lemon and 1 tbsp of grated fresh ginger. Fry it in some olive oil, and when cooked, remove from pan with a slotted spoon. Add about 200 ml sour cream and cook until it thickens a bit, then add salt and pepper to taste. Return chicken to pan and cook 2 minutes. Ready to serve!
The chicken came out tender, juicy and the sauce was thick. Not sure it would suit rice, but maybe it could work with elbow macaroni or orzo.
For the potatoes, I baked 2 potatoes for one and a half hours. Then I sliced them in the middle, removed the meat and mixed it with about 4 cups of fresh spinach, which I had sauteed with half an onion in olive oil, about 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper. I returned the mix to the potato skin shells, sprinkled with some cheese and baked 15 minutes. Delicious and pretty!
The succotash recipe will follow shortly!


text:
Editor's note: This corrects the headline. The Harbor Commission isn't looking at the overall size of the boats in the harbor, so much as preventing how far boats stick out in certain areas.
Some boats in Newport Harbor are so large that they protrude into the bay's channels and impede navigation, according harbor commissioners, and the City Council this week asked them to create a plan to deal with the problem.
Some commissioners have said in the past they want to keep the largest boats, some of which are longer than 125 feet, out of Newport Harbor and regulating their "overhang" could be one way to prevent them from berthing there. But council members said Tuesday that they should focus on the navigation issue and be careful not to make sweeping rules that force many dock owners to move their yachts.
"We need to make sure we aren't impinging someone's individual property rights," Councilman Keith Curry said.
Mike Reicher


text:
5% VAT Allowance as per VAT Law
The reduced rate of 5% applies for residences which are used or intended to be used as the primary and permanent place of residence.
Granted for:
The purchase of a brand new building or part of it, the sale of which bears VAT. (The application for the planning permit was deposited after 1st May 2004.) The normal VAT rate as from 13/01/2014 is 19%.
Constitutes the main and permanent residence and the applicant does not have another residence in Cyprus, i.e. the residence in question is his main and permanent residency. An official declaration is deposited by the applicant to the VAT Authority.
Documents required:
- Application with official declaration;
- Photocopy of passport;
- Photocopy of marriage certificate;
- Copy of the stamped Sale Agreement and set of architectural plans;
- Any other evidence available proving/supporting the fact that the applicant uses the property as his main and permanent residence;
- True copy of the application submitted to the relevant authority for the issuance of the planning permit duly stamped by that authority;
- True copy of the planning permit or the building permit.
Who is Entitled:
The applicant should be:
- Over 18 years of age on the date the application was submitted;
- Citizen of the Republic of Cyprus or of any other member state of the European Union and non-EU citizen.
This policy has been extended and will remain in force until 31st December 2014.
Important Notes:
- The allowance is granted for the first 200 sq. m. of buildings not exceeding 275 sq. m. as per the architectural plans.
- The equivalent amount is refundable to the VAT Authority for any part of the ten-year period if the use of the property for permanent residence is interrupted, except in case the property is transferred to the applicant's children over 18 years of age.


text:
- About Us
- Exhibitions
- 2010s
- 2017-2018
- 2016-2017
- 2015-2016
- 2014-2015
- 2013-2014
- 2012-2013
- 2011-2012
- 2010-2011
- 2000s
- 2009-2010
- 2008-2009
- 2007-2008
- 2006-2007
- 2005-2006
- 2004-2005
- 2003-2004
- 2002-2003
- 2001-2002
- 2000-2001
- 1990s
- 1999-2000
- 1998-1999
- 1997-1998
- 1996-1997
- 1995-1996
- 1993-1995
- 2010s
- Opportunities
- Members
- Location
Meg Spielman-Peldo
Sports Bra
Flat as a Pancake
Hot Ta-Tas!
Nest Enhancement
"no lumps, thank you; a bra anthologie"
Meg Spielman Peldo is a fine art & portrait photographer and ceramic artist whose work in both media has been featured on HGTV's "That's Clever" artists series and can be found in private and corporate collections around the world. Her North Dakota images have been presented to dignitaries across Asia on multiple trade missions. Spielman has won numerous awards and licensed images with major publishers of greeting cards, calendars and prints.
The daughter of a lingerie designer for Hollywood Vassarette in the 1950s, she is happy to now be creating art bras. A graduate of UND, She lives in Fargo, North Dakota.
What do fishing reel, oranges & antlers have in common? How about tea cups, maracas & pears? Find out in this delightful collection of found object photographs.
"no lumps, thank you; a bra anthologie" is an uplifting and entertaining photographic collection of playful brassieres created from a wide and wild variety of common objects. From "nest enhancement" (two bird nests adorned with delicate flowers and string) to "Hot Ta-tas" (colorful Mexican bowls filled with peppers sporting braided green onion straps), artists Meg Spielman Peldo creates remarkably clever images that appeal to both sexes and virtually all age groups. Whether you favor training wheels, snowballs, melons or antlers, this is an exhibition that everyone will enjoy.
These completely original fine art images with their humorous titles will be released in a coffee table book this summer by Schiffer Books and as a bonus, also raise funds for breast cancer charities.
There is a universal vibe of humor surrounding those garments called bras that "lift and separate" our breasts. It crosses gender, age and culture. no matter what your relationship is with breasts and bras, this exhibition will bring a smile to your spirit and a chuckle to your heart, with it's quirky interpretations of the silly terms that become associated with bras & breasts. Bra-vo to that funny invention designed to hold our melons... knockers... or rack!


text:
If you are looking for a search engine marketing company with a difference, look no further than Media Run Search. We are leaders in the field of search engine marketing and offer everything you could need to ensure your website is amongst the top few located within the search engines. Our search engine marketing services are broad and include article writing, extensive keyword research, analysis and plenty more besides. We also offer excellent PPC management that enables you to receive the best value for money possible for your pay per click advertising.
As a professional search engine marketing company, we pride ourselves on the broad number of search engine marketing serves we offer and the high success rate that we provide to our clients. If you would like to know more about the search engine marketing that we offer, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our experienced team will talk you through the methods to be implemented once a thorough analysis of your site has been carried out and we can guarantee that your site will start to climb the all important search engine rankings once work begins. If you are looking for the best search engine marketing company then you have definitely come to the right place!
About Mediarun search
Mediarun is a full service SEO Company specialising in performance based Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) solutions, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Optimisation (SMO) and pay per click management (PPC). We have also pioneered Universal Search and achieved excellent results for our clients on Google Products, Maps and Images.


text:
Follow along with the travels of David Galson and Diane Kile in their 2006 Airstream Westfalia camper. We include brief trip notes and thoughts, and lots of photos.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
08Jan12 – Donner Summit
We arrived at Donner summit on Friday, the night after a horrific freezing rain storm. This storm had come on the heels of two other storm systems that had deposited over 7 feet of fresh snow at this elevation. The mountains were covered with a bullet proof glaze of ice on top of a rapidly consolidating blanket of "Sierra cement". Ahhh – just the right conditions for a delightful ski tour.
We spent Friday exploring an atypically quiet corner of Donner pass – a left over piece of back country sandwiched by Boreal Ski resort and Donner Ski ranch. We parked at the Norden snow park permit area – at the very end of the road and followed map and compass along the lake dotted rim of terrain that buffers the development near Donner summit from the plummet down to Donner lake. It was quiet, and beautiful, and very very slippery.
We stayed at the rustic Rainbow Lodge – near Rainbow road off of Rt. 80. This lodge was built in the 20's with hand hewn lumber and granite blocks. Much of the charm and character remains in this steep roofed sturdy building by the banks of the frozen Yuba river. The rooms are small, with shared baths down the hall – but if you close your eyes to the electric lights, you can imagine the visitors here long ago carried by horse and early automobiles. The lobby and restaurant have posted a very interesting collection of vintage photographs of the early recreational days in this region. The prices are reasonable and include a great hearty breakfast with the room prices.
Saturday we opted for a trail pass at Royal Gorge Nordic center, parked at the far end near the Ice Lakes Lodge, and ventured out to Point Moria where we got a marvelous view of Snow peak and the rapidly retreating storm system. We saw two funnel clouds form, the dissipate. As is our usual style, we ventured off trail and followed some of the older, but abandoned trails at this end of the trail system, following the old Sterling Canyon trail, and traveling back country to the summit of Mt Rowtin (Lola's look-out) thus avoiding the overly packed and somewhat icy trail. From there, we got great views of the east face of Mt. Lincoln (SugarBowl) and I hope to use this photo for planning a spring time decent along the south west ridge.
Sunday, we ventured backcountry right behind the Rainbow lodge and climbed south and east, over the Union Pacific train tracks in search of the abandoned "Rainbow Lodge Interconnect trail". What a treat this area presented with absolutely no other people, and wonderful ski touring terrain. The heavy snowfall had covered most of the stream crossings, and two days of temperatures above freezing had softened the surface to a consistent corn. Our hope was to climb to a view of Devil's Peak, but after a few hours, we settled for a sunny meadow above tree line with vast vistas to the south and west. We stumbled onto a long ago abandoned piece of marked trail that led us to Lake Loch Levin where a sign proudly pronounced – this is the end of the marked trail. Duh! From there we took our compass heading and followed the rolling terrain 2 ½ hours back down into and through the forest back to the lodge.
Posted by David Galson No comments: Links to this post
Labels: ski touring, skiing, Snow
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
07Dec28 Death Valley National Park
Here is a small selection of photos. You can double-click on each one to get a larger view - or
Click on this link to jump to our Picasa site to view more photos as a slide show
(The Picassa site lets you associate some of the pictures with map locations. Try the slide show feature!)
Click on the browser Back button to return here after you have viewed the photos.
Let me know if you prefer the Picassa format of viewing photos, or if I should continue to post them in-line here with the text.
We leave the Mojave Desert and cross the Pinto Mountains, Sheep Hole Mountains, Clipper Mountains, traverse along the Avawatz Mountains and the Kingston range, cross more than one dry lake bed, and finally drop into Death Valley. We've traveled up the eastern side of southern California and successfully avoided all interstates and stayed out of the reach of the LA Basin and its far reaching crowds.
We hike the Golden Canyon to Gower Gulch trail – excellent introduction to the park – just south of Furnace Creek on the Bad Water road. We stretched this 4 mile loop hike into an all day enterprise – with lots of explorations into side canyons and a leisurely lunch siesta on the pass just below Zabrinskie Point. The Golden Canyon trail leads you up out of the badlands into a mud canyon, then up the slopes of Zabrinskie Point, then down again following another drainage with a totally different look and feel.
We explored two abandoned (and fairly shallow ) mines along the banks of Gower Gulch. The floor was sand, but the ceilings glistened from the reflection of our flashlight beams on the quartz and other crystalline rocks in the thick veins. What ever the miners were looking for is gone, but the aura and mystery of the enterprise remains. The mud caked canyon bottoms and walls are a testament to the depth and furry of the rainstorm run-off that annually carves each of these canyons just a little bit deeper.
The best campgrounds are at Furnace creek – in the oasis or across the highway – up high at the Texas Spring tents only site. A simple camper fits in easily here as long as you don't use your generator. The campsite at Stovepipe Wells is to be avoided. Emigrant and Wildrose are more remote and are preferable as long as you plan your itinerary to take advantage of the terrain near those more outlying campsites.
Nights are in the low 20's but our plumbing systems keep working if we keep the camper at 50 degrees during the night.
Great hike into Fall Canyon. Drive to Titus Canyon trail head – 2 miles up gravel road off the Scotty's Castle Road 15 miles north of Stovepipe wells. Park at the mouth of the Titus Canyon, but follow the nondescript trail, marked simply by a hiker icon besides the outhouse – not into Titus Canyon, but across the alluvial fan adjacent to the road and up into the next canyon to the north – Fall Canyon.
As we entered Fall Canyon, the walls twist and rise to thousands of feet above our heads. At places the bottom narrows to 10 feet wide. Where the canyon is narrowest, the rock is the hardest – with sedimentary and other sand and mud stones giving way to granite. As the canyon narrow, the cobbles underfoot change size as well. The faster spring currents scouring the bottom cleaner the fast it goes. This season, the canyon is dry- but the geology and sediments tell a vivid tale.
I get the strong impression I am a fish headed up river. Although there is no water now, I am seeing the river's bottom and banks as surely as the fish must. As I move easily though the air – and am only vaguely aware of it as a fluid I am passing through, so must the fish when passing through water. As the air is transparent to me, so must the water be to the fish. We skirt the faster outer bends of the river cutting corners to save distance from our hike – as the fish moving upstream must seek out slower current to ease their challenge. The walls are often deeply undercut at the bottom of the canyon walls. Even the mid-day sun rarely reaches this far into the slot. We wonder why it is so tiring to trudge along in the gravel, and soon realize we are also walking steadily up hill, a perception lost in the tumble and unworldly angles at which everything comes together here. After about 1.5 hours of distracted hiking we come to the first dry falls – an insurmountable 16' smooth granite overfall with rounded walls too far apart for traditional jamb and crack climbing – even for my 6 foot frame. We backtrack down canyon and find an out of place pile of dissimilar colored rocks which upon more careful scrutiny are strategically piled again the wall to form a stepping stool to reach the first of 4 or five bucket holds which allow us to climb out of the river bottom through a crack in the rocks and up unto the steep bank above. A climber's trail leads along the steep canyon wall above the gorge and bypasses the fall – and after climbing down a gravel littered sloping ledge we are back in the upper canyon now. The river bottom is even narrower here – with fish bowl smooth fine gravel sand as the only material underfoot. Every 10 feet the canyon swirls first left, then right, and ever upward reaching eventually to another dry falls we are told 4 miles further in. It is 1:30pm and I must turn around – but I make a commitment to start earlier next visit, and push my exploration even further into this mysterious and wonderful place.
We stay a night at Emigrant campsite – a small tents only, lightly developed patch off the highway on the way west out of Death Valley on the way to Panamint Springs, and then take an abbreviated hike on Wildrose peak just above the abandoned charcoal kilns. This area deserves a long full day hike as well. We dawdle about the kilns – all are in pretty good shape. The acoustics inside are too hard to resist and I take out the clarinet and play for a bit – for the birds, and the wind, and the magic of the place. Diane sits uphill and above the kilns and listens to the impromptu concert – with the eerie music sounding like it is rising from the bottom of a well. Here there is snow on the ground, and ice frozen beneath the larger pinions.
Click here for more details about Death Valley
Posted by David Galson 1 comment: Links to this post
07Dec25 – Mojave Desert and Joshua Tree National Park
(You can double click on any photo to see a larger version)
We leave Christmas Day for the long drive to southern California. There are recent storms in the Sierras so we head down route 5 rather than over the mountains to 395. The San Joaquin Valley is fairly quiet as we cruise through mile after mile of irrigated farmland. South of Bakersfield, the valley's true nature is expressed as irrigation ends and the farms peter out. The parched valley land creeps in at first from the edges, then takes over the vast landscape within 30 minutes of leaving Bakersfield. Now we are in the San Joaquin Valley the way the first settlers saw it…before the Sierra water was dammed and diverted into irrigation channels…before it became the major fruit basket for the United States. Ten hours driving from Oakland, including passing over Tehachapi pass and a major wind farm, we arrive in Joshua Tree National Park.
The desert is punctuated with the larger Joshua Tree plants and outcroppings of Monzo Granite – weathered to a rounded – river bottom look by hundreds of thousands of years of sand blasting by the seasonal winds.
We make several day hikes and explore the desert flora. Stayed at Jumbo Rocks campsite – well named for the geologic formations around which the campsites are threaded. We follow a nature trail and learn to identify Yucca, Joshua tree, creosote bush, pencil Kola, California Juniper, desert Oak. We see and identify a Silky Flycatcher (Phainopepla) and a California Thrasher. Two jack rabbits hop through our campsite early one morning.
The Joshua Tree roads would make good bike riding spring or fall – but there is no shoulder and a 6" curb. The wind picks up and the temperature drops. We take a sunset hikes to nearby ridges to get better vistas of the surrounding desert.
The entire park angled on a long slope – starting up at a high elevation, and dropping steadily thousands of feet. The higher areas are located in the Mojave Desert, and then below 4,000 feet the vegetation dramatically changes moving into the adjoining Colorado Desert.
Check out the nature hike near Skull Rock.
We hike one day to a desert oasis called 49 palms. The 40 minute hike through rocky foothills brought us t the canyon concealing the small oasis. In this cleft in the mountainside is a small stream with a totally different ecosystem. There are 5 or 6 small pools surrounding by marsh grasses, cat tails, scotch broom and looming overhead are large palm trees.
Joshua Tree National Park - National Park Service
Posted by David Galson No comments: Links to this post
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


text:
We found the following images based on the keyword(s) you entered.
Click the image name link, or the image icon to see a larger view
of the
rue_060916_3837.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3838.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3840.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3841.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3842.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3843.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3844.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3845.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3847.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3848.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3849.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3850.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3851.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3854.jpgAdd to Lightbox
rue_060916_3855.jpgAdd to Lightbox
Browse categories : animals
Home | Search | Browse by Category | My Lightbox | Published Work | Copyright | E-mail Us
Copyright © 2007 Leonard Rue Enterprises, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Use of any images found on this site without purchase or written authorization is prohibited by copyright law. Please read our copyright statement for more information.


text:
This frame may look exactly like a cyclocross frame but it isn't. It is what the customer calls a 'Dirt-phalt' frame made for a mix of riding. It is similar to the big-tire road bikes I have been building a lot of lately but it leans more toward 'cross as it has cantilever brakes instead of calipers. It is also made for a cyclocross fork which is about 18 mm taller than a big-tire road fork.
This version is mostly scandium with some 7005 stays. It will be paired with 700x28 c tires but will fit just about anything from 30 c on down.
The seatstays are pretty tight as there is no need for big mud clearance. Like I said, it is not a cyclocross frame.
Too bad my camera is dying...the focus is starting to go on the close up shots. It's a pity because the welds on this frame are about as nice as I have ever done in this material.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Almost a 'cross bike
Posted by swiggco world at 6:36 PM
No comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Brian Taylor is a Poet and philosopher
who lives in Cornwall, England
and the Far East.
|I was born
just like you.
I came from
I had the good times
Till I determined
|This I achieved
(just like you?)
making as I wanted.
But then I saw
So I chose to let go of
|And I found
that where from
is here now
where I have always been.
And where to
is here too.
(And you?)


text:
On July 1, 2003, the Romania and Bulgaria
program merged into one administrative and programmatic unit. Like other CEP sub-regional
programs, we hope that this move will lead to increased cooperation, new academic
networks, work in discipline clusters and professional development activities between the
two countries. The first joint event will be the
Romania/Bulgaria orientation, which will take place from September 17 to September 22.
Liliana Popescu is the program director for the Romania/Bulgaria program and works in
collaboration with Tsvetelina Popova, program coordinator for Bulgaria and Lucian
Sarbeanu, program coordinator for Romania.
The new joint program has forty-three Fellows for academic year
200304, including twenty-one Local Faculty Fellows, seventeen Teaching Development
Program Fellows and five Visiting Faculty Fellows. One of the Visiting Faculty Fellows
will serve as a Resource Fellow, a senior academic who mentors local scholars from his or
her home country and travels to Bulgaria periodically to conduct trainings. Depending on
its success, this pilot scheme may be replicated in other programs. Academic exchanges and
cooperation will continue, especially with Moldova, which in the future may join the
Romania/ Bulgaria program.


text:
Every Child Is An Artist Cake
Every Child Is An Artist Cake I am part of the #WiltonTreatTeam, and as such I receive both product and compensation in return for these posts. As always, all experiences and opinions expressed are my own. We used the neon colors FoodWriter set and the White Sugar Sheet, both from […]Read more ›


text:
Save $90 Discount Nuance OmniPage 18 Coupon Codes
Click to open site
success 100%
Coupon Details
Price: $59.99 – You Save: $90.00!
Nuance Promo Codes: Get 60% Off Nuance OmniPage 18 Coupon Codes.
Limited time Special Offer & Cheap Deals Price. FREE Trial Download and Upgrade.
OmniPage 18 converts paper, picture, and PDF files into editable documents to save you considerable time and money by eliminating retyping. Your documents look just like the original – complete with text, tables, and graphics. OmniPage uses superior character accuracy to precisely format your documents so you can easily make changes.


text:
House of Commons -- Public Gallery review
Apparently the best things in life are free. That's what they say, anyway (the people with money). But in this case it happens to be true: because you can come to the Houses of Parliament and sit in the House of Commons for nothing. You don't even need a ticket or any ID. And yes, I know that sounds totally ridiculous, but trust me when I say it's true. You might have to wait an hour to get inside, but once you've bagged yourself a seat you can basically stay for as long as you like. [Note: You do require a ticket if you want to visit between 12 noon and 1 PM on a Wednesday, because that's Prime Minister's Questions. Check out my separate review for details.]
Whenever I visit the Houses of Parliament I always like to begin my day with a little sit-down in Parliament Square, to watch the flock of pigeons defecate on the statues' heads. This is a great reminder not to think too highly of our politicians -- these people are not role models. Just because we pay them sixty grand a year doesn't mean they deserve it. When you're sitting up in the public gallery you won't see people cheering and clapping and blowing kisses at them. People don't swoon at their heroes like kids do at a pop concert. The seats will be full of people peering down at the performing MPs, trying to spot a few famous faces off the telly.
When you're ready find the visitor entrance, which is roughly halfway along the front side of Parliament, and ask the nice lady at the barrier if you can "go inside the House of Commons". She will then give you a piece of green card (nicely laminated -- very hi-tech) which you can wave at the gun cop on the gate. He will then deliver a totally redundant speech about all the things you're not allowed to take inside: scissors, swords, knives, guns, bombs, ballistic missiles, tactical nuclear weapons, etc. Then you get a little visitor's pass to hang around your neck and pass through some airport style security. After you've negotiated all of that you can finally head into Westminster Hall.
Westminster Hall is a thousand years old. And I mean that literally -- it is genuinely a thousand years old! It is probably the most historic room in England. I've already written about it ten thousand times, though, in my previous reviews of the Houses of Parliament tours, so I won't bore you with the same stuff again. Just head straight to the end and turn left up the stairs. This will take you into St. Stephens Hall. There should be a bloke at the end who will swap your green card for a piece of paper, and show you where to head next (through the door and turn left, and then up the stairs to the Strangers Gallery). If you're unlucky then you might have to join a lengthy queue in St. Stephen's Hall, which might add on anything from five minutes to an hour. They don't have very many seats in the public gallery, you see, and people can basically stay for as long as they like, so if it's already full then you just have to wait patiently for a space to open up -- which could take ages. But I've been here five or six times and I've never had to wait longer than thirty minutes.
Don't be too worried about the queuing, because from the moment you step into Westminster Hall you will be immensely impressed by the decor. You can trust me on this. I know I'm rather biased because I love London, but if the decoration inside Parliament doesn't knock your socks off then you may as well just go home now. Even if you only get as far as St. Stephen's Hall and bail out because of the queue, I would still recommend it a visit -- that is how good it is.
The first time that you enter the House of Commons is one of those highlights you'll remember forever. It will probably mean much more to a Brit, because they're used to seeing this room on the news every night, but it's still going to be a memorable moment for a tourist. Put it this way: I've been here loads of times now, and I still get a little thrill whenever I step through the door.
The public gallery is at the back of the Commons, looking down upon the MPs heads. You can see the Speaker's chair directly ahead, the bewigged clerks below him, the front benches where the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition sit, and the central table where all the books are stacked up, but you can't see anything further south than that.
Unfortunately this is where it starts to get a bit boring -- because you have to sit here listening to the politicians. There are only nineteen MPs present in the chamber today, none of whom I recognise, and all I've heard so far is John Bercow droning on about Parliamentary privilege. It's quite warm in here and the MPs are just lounging around waiting for the teacher to stop talking. One guy is happily flapping his tie back and forth over his shoulder. Another lady is lazily arranging the folds of her skirt across the top of her knee. Another Labour guy has spent the last two minutes staring up at the forest of microphones hanging from the ceiling as he waits for Bercow to finish (he's never going to finish). I've never noticed those before actually: there must be a hundred of the things just dangling from the top like streamers. Hmm... interesting.
Is Bercow still talking? That guy certainly loves to talk. That must be why they call him the Speaker: because that's all he ever does.
This is our government. These are the people who run the country. Sitting here fighting off their pins and needles by making little circular shapes with their ankles. The green seats around them are strewn with plastic folders and typed-up letters.
When you finally get tired of trying not to fall asleep then you should definitely seek out the little gift shop and cafe. You can find them through a little door at the end of Westminster Hall. They sell some nice Parliamentary souvenirs in there.
Note: the last time I came here they confiscated your camera and mobile phone before you entered the chamber, but they seem to have relaxed the rules now. They still confiscate your camera but they let you keep hold of your phone (even though it has a camera on it). They even let you type on it whilst you're sitting in the gallery -- but they'll kick you out if you start taking phone calls and snapping photos. Photography is still a definite no-no.
I've been here before…
Events at Houses of Parliament…
|Political events in May
|Political events in June
|Political events in July


text:
I'm very pleased to have this post from Reallygood Thinking guest professor Marianne Cantwell, a Free Range Human and career change coach. You can find Marianne here at Free Range Humans and here on Twitter.
We caught this free range human called Marianne.
If you dont love what I have to say, heres what I want from you.
I want you to hate me.
I want you to say that girl is not funny. Shes annoying.
Say Who would hire a career coach whose brand revolves around a badly drawn chicken?
Say Her fees are too high. What, she doesnt even offer regular, structured coaching programmes?? Who does she think she is?
I want you to say She flaps her hands too much when she speaks. Cant STAND her.
Then, I want you to tell your friends how much you cant stand me.
Tell them that Free Range Humans is a crazy concept, giving false hope to people, pushing an unrealistic dream.
When you run out of ammunition, tell them I have really bad hair.*
Hate is similar to love.
The person or brand you HATE gets under your skin.
They hit a sensitive spot that is beyond apathy. You feel something inside you start bubbling away.
If someone hates me, no hard feelings, Im just wrong for them (maybe just for now, maybe forever. Whatever).
BUT the FACT that someone can be incited to hate me means that my message is clear and radical enough that it will get under the skin of someone else. Someone who will love my message, and feel I am speaking directly to them.
If thats you, my message will hit a spot that is beyond apathy. You will feel something inside you start bubbling away
And thats a life changing experience.
Vent your spleen at email@example.com and let me know how much you hated this article.
*Actually, dont. My stylist follows me on Twitter and might start crying.**
** You can also tell your friends I overuse the asterisk to footnote unfunny comments. That must be annoying. ***
*** REALLY annoying
Thanks very much to Marianne for taking the time to write this post.
And thanks very much to you for taking the time to read it. We love to hear your ideas and to have your comments. So, are you a free range human? Are you mostly loved, or mostly hated? Or, are you vanilla? See you in the comments. Much love, Ian.
Your comments:
21/03/2012 17:37:56
what's love?
16/06/2010 15:25:56
As someone who has had episodes in early life of struggling to 'fit in' I do have a tendency to look for approval and wanting to please everybody. I'm getting better at acting and appreciating when somebody likes it rather than everybody - and most importantly that I love it - whatever 'it' happens to be! Which reminds me of this saying: "I can't please everybody all of the time so apologies in advance if today's not your day!"
22/05/2010 23:27:24
Thanks Melissa! Totally agree - I often see people paralysed in indecision about what to do because they can think of someone who will disapprove of every option... Gosh, in a society where we have a choice of 40 shampoos in a supermarket, why do we expect everyone to have the same tastes about what we do as individuals? Right, off to wave my hands about a bit more. Thanks for your comment!
22/05/2010 04:32:42
That's a good point. Some people feel like everyone has to like their ideas to gain validation. Completely ridiculous -- there's always going to be someone who has a dissenting perspective. And that's OK. Life is not a popularity contest. From one hand flapper to another, you totally rock, Marianne!
WHO'S LOOKING FOR WHAT?Career Twitter Suck Aspin's Juicy Brain Work Believe Happiness Passion Design Giveacrapanomics Success Brain Real Happy Energy Meaning Business Connectedness Kindness Community Purpose Sustainability Books Running Fun Friends Giving @ianaspin Clarity Video Helping Arts What matters Shift Happens Guest professor Goals Grateful Thinking Love Learning Lifestyle Creativity Art World-changing Caring Simplicity TV Friendship Gratitude Digital Friends Creative Ideas
- Location: Lancaster Lake District, UK
- Bio: I'm passionate about my work:TV journalist, producer, presenter, business ideas person. I care about: family, friends, helping people, finding meaning, running