December 2008
Festival of San Isidro – Madrid
Every May the Spanish capital comes alive for the Festival of San Isidro, in honour of the city’s patron saint. The festival has been officially running since 1947 and over 50 years of tradition make this a particularly special time of year for Madrilens. Traditionally the festival runs for nine days around May 8th – 15th but the festival has a habit of starting a little earlier and finishing a little later than the official dates as locals try to extract as much fun as they possibly can from the event.
So what’s it all about? San Isidro himself was an impoverished peasant worker who gained notoriety for giving his food to the poor. He is also attributed with other miraculous acts throughout his life and has taken his place as the people’s champion of Madrid. The festival in his honour has turned into a two week long fest of music, fairs, dancing and, of course, bullfighting. San Isidro is the biggest bullfighting event in the world and anyone who is anyone in the world of bullfighting will be making an appearance at the most famous bullring of them all, “Las Ventas”, at some point during the festival. There are numerous “Corridas” (bullfights) throughout the week and if you want to go then getting hold of tickets is extremely hard, and very pricey for what is seen as the premier event on the bullfighting calendar.
Another key event in paying homage to the city’s patron saint is the “Romeria” – a sort of pilgrimage to the Ermita de San Isidro (an 18th century chapel) where the holy waters are supposed to have healing properties.
For the whole period the streets are buzzing with Madrilens in good festival cheer as street vendors jostle for your trade. Traditional fayre is on offer such as “barquillos”, “pan de angel” and “churos” which are usually dipped in chocolate.
For those not so keen on the bullfighting then there are plenty of other distractions all around the city to keep your interest. Music forms a major part of the San Isidro celebrations and concerts and gigs are performed nightly around the city such as Las Vistillas and the Plaza Mayor. Bigger rock concerts can also be seen at the “Casa de Campo”, a large park in the western reaches of the city.
Many locals adopt traditional folk costumes for the festival – the most famous being the “Chulos” and “Chulapas”, for men and women respectively. The men dress in white neckerchiefs, black and white check jackets, waistcoats and caps, whilst the woman dress in ornate, frilly dresses with headscarves. They traditionally perform a dance called the “choti”, a slow dance where the woman dance around the men in courtly fashion whilst the man shuffles around on the spot to remain facing his partner in theatrical fashion.
For those with a taste for the local cuisine, the festival usually ends with a huge cook-off of Madrid’s most famous dish: the “Cocido Madrileo” (a hearty bean and meat stew) as locals vie with each other to see who can make the best interpretation of the famous dish.
For visitors to Madrid San Isidro provides them with the opportunity to see this wonderful city in full swing – it’s the highlight of the year for locals and as such offers people a great chance to see the very best of Madrid and its warm, friendly people.
Mike McDougall has five years experience working as a travel writer and marketeer. He is currenlty working to provide additional content for Babylon-idiomas, a Spanish language school with an excellent presence in Spain and Latin America.
This work is covered by a creative commons licence.
Offshore Sports Gaming Keeps Betters at Their PC’s
Many bettors will have stumbled upon the expression “offshore sports betting”, though some might not be wholly positive what that stands for exactly. A foreign betting site basically runs outside the scope of a distinct nation but alternatively it could also be an on-line sports betting web site which situates their servers in a state in which machine-accessible playing of games of fortune is not disallowed. Succinctly therefore, it is a gaming site operating extraneous to the nation of the player. Networked gaming websites are by and large governed via three institutions. They are OSGA (the Offshore Gaming Association), the IGC (Interactive Gaming Council) and the Fidelity Trust Gaming Association FTGA.
The Offshore Gaming Association is in fact a self governing bureau which currently regulates the thriving overseas gaming business, they intend to grant sports gamblers access to choose reputable internet businesses to play games of fortune on, without unease. It aims to champion consumer’s rights, also they don’t charge any yearly dues. The agency is an expert not to mention unbiased third party association who express non-biased judgments, indicated by customer feedback, nonpartisan investigation, calls, industry insider tips and supplies inside news.
The IGC is a non-profit-making organisation. The administration was established to supply a forum for worried parties to discuss subjects and to progress shared interests in the world-wide web-based gambling business, in an effort to establish open and also level-headed industry standard procedures and methods that heighten customer faith in internet gambling products and functions, also to help as the sports betting trade’s generic procedure guardian and the IGC also operates as an info hub.
The Interactive Gaming Council have built up a name for honesty, integrity and believability through the exacting ethics it exhibits, also its allure to credible business enterprises. The IGC regularises overseas sports gambling by means of promoting an original 10-point set of instructions and in addition bills sports gaming business enterprises a fee to exhibit the council’s logo. Disillusioned gamers can also report any of their misunderstandings to the IGC.
The Fidelity Trust Gaming Association has been established in order to compose a benchmark to reform the policies of world wide web based sports betting trading operations. The agency hope that through affiliating with good companies, they can form a federation of the fairest and professional cyberspace gambling companies all over the world. So, in brief there are councils that watch the behavior of web based sports gambling and which should function to alleviate a lot of the uneasiness held by detractors. Internet based betting web sites are now completely trustworthy, in that private details are not required and also the payouts and the odds should be equivalent to a standard Vegas-style sports bet. They cut travel, but nevertheless maintain of a traditional gambling casino, only today you are in a position to gamble at your own desk.
This Thanksgiving: Let Them Eat Pizza!
Those schools, bands, sports teams, churches, groups who hold our Plus Pizza Card Fundraising program over a holiday period are very successful in their fundraising efforts. The reason is simple: during a holiday period your group members will see many of your relatives and friends that they would not ordinarily see. This presents a perfect opportunity to ask them to make a small purchase of a pizza card (or whatever else you might be offering to fundraise for your group fundraiser).
Contrary to popular wisdom, the season between Thanksgiving and Christmas is an ideal time to fundraise. People are busy shopping for holiday gifts but they are also looking for unique gifts, stocking stuffers, party gifts, etc. Your school, band, team, group fundraiser is the perfect answer for these unique gift shoppers.
If your fundraising product is one that is easy to handle such as the Plus Pizza Card, group members can encourage purchasers to purchase additional pizza cards to give as gifts.
As a matter of fact, one PizzaPlusCard.com fundraising group participant encouraged a local real estate business to include a business card sized Plus Pizza Card in their holiday cards. This resulted in 78 cards being sold to this realtor who used the pizza cards as a public relations gesture to help the group fundraise and to also remind her clients that she cared enough about them to provide them with free pizzas over the entire year.
A pizza card will usually be able to be used for an entire year to get 20 free pizzas on a “buy one, get one” basis. And, best of all, each pizza card is purchased for only $10 dollars (with your group making $7-$9 in profits per card sold based upon group sales).
So, this Thanksgiving (through the holidays), run a successful fundraiser. Ask relatives, friends and neighbors, want some pizza (pizza cards, that is) with that turkey?
Mikumi National Park: Tanzania
Mikumi National Park is the gateway to the game parks on the southern part of Tanzanian safari circuit. The Selous game reserve joins onto this park in the south and a short drive to the south west is the Udzungwa National Park – which was created primarily for the protection of flora rather than fauna. The lovely remote Ruaha National Park is a four hour drive south-west from Mikumi.
The main road from Dar es Salaam to Iringa bisects the northern area of this park; an area known as the Mkata Flood Plain. Animals tend to use the highway as game trail and this often makes for unusual photo opportunities. The flood plain is known for the very fine black cotton soil, which means when the rains come the soil is transformed into a sticky, clogging mud and the area becomes inaccessible to vehicles. The rains transform the plains into a lush green meadow. This area of the park has herds of Elephant and lions, giraffes, wildebeest, zebra, warthog, eland, buffalo and impala. There is a tented lodge in this section of the park along with a youth hostel and a number of campsites.
The park lies has low mountains and hills on three sides. The southern section of the park differs markedly from the northern flood plains. The animals also differ they are unused to people and vehicles and tend to run and hide before approaching safari enthusiasts have a chance to spot them. This park suffered in the 1980’s from heavy poaching and the animals have learnt to distrust humans; although slowly the animals are becoming habituated once again.
There is a natural road stretching from the Vuma hills it passes through ravine and forested country and crosses over the boundary into the northern section of the Selous. These ridges have been used for centuries by Elephants that have decided to avoid the rivers and keep their feet dry.
This park is becoming increasing popular, especially as a weekend break from the nearby Dar es Salaam. This park makes for a perfect start to you safari in the southern parks of Tanzania. It also has amazing light in this park which makes for spectacular photographs.
For further information Bethel Adventure on Tanzania, Kilimanjaro and the islands of Zanzibar. http://www.betheladventure.co.uk uses tourism to fund community initiatives focused on the education of the young and the medical care for the whole family.
Enjoy Your Next Vacation in Switzerland
Switzerland is a small, landlocked country in the heart of Europe. It has a strategic
location at the crossroads of Central Europe with many easily traversable passes for
outdoor enthusiasts. Switzerland is divided into three major geographical areas
known as the Alps, the middle land and the Jura regions, attracting a wide range of
tourists each year.
Switzerland may be a neutral country but it is certainly not flavorless. The diversity
of German, French, Romanish, and Italian languages has formed a robust national
culture, with vast alpine landscapes presenting enough zing to reinvigorate the
most jaded traveler.
Switzerland certainly has its fair share of cliches with irresistible chocolates,
yodeling countrymen, humorless bankers, international bureaucracies, and a
national persona of a cold and close-minded culture. Looking beyond those well
known stereotypes, the Germans invented the cuckoo clock; secondly, the Swiss
have won more Nobel prizes and registered more patents per capita than any other
nation on earth.
Happily, you can be sure that your Swiss trains and postal letters will be on time,
unlike many of their European counterparts. Among tidy, just so-precision of Swiss
towns and villages, you are surrounded by the vast splendor of the picturesque
which seem to be never ending.
If you enjoy the scenery or want to take an active vacation, there are several scenic
routes which meander through Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland and Lucerne’s Lake
regions. There are also hiking, white water rafting, kayaking, paragliding, and biking
routes and tours for adrenaline junkies.
February is known for Fasnacht or Carnival in Switzerland. The fascination exists
because of the incredible participation and party atmosphere, the vivid colors of the
carnival costumes, the stirring tunes of the drummers and the piccolo players, and
the weird and wonderful <> Music played by the brass bands. Basel really funks up
Fasnacht with its well known elaborate parades beginning at a bleary 4am
throughout the week.
Spring is welcomed with incredible flower garden spectacles in most villages and
quay side waterfronts. Open markets come into full swing in spring, with a spectacle
of freshly grown fruits, flowers and vegetables displayed weekly for sale.
Enjoy the world renowned Montreux Jazz Festival which takes place in July along the
picturesque waterfront of Lac Leman. National day, marked on August 1, is
celebrated with fireworks throughout the country, and Swiss wrestling in the
Emmental area east of Bern.
City life provides a diverse following wonderful outdoor seated pubs in summer,
small boutiques and the jewelry shops located in historic buildings throughout
Swiss cities. On the fourth monday in November, Bern hosts its famous Onion
Market (Zibelmarit), where traders take over the entire town center and many a tear
are shed.
Of course you cannot forget the wonderful winter Christmas Fairs in Montreux,
Zurich and Basel. The Christmas Market boasts hot wine and warm food, while you
browse the unique, original and high quality Christmas gift ideas from over 120
richly-decorated wooden chalet-style stalls.
Whatever your pleasure, you’ll find something to love in Switzerland. Come visit the
hidden gem of the landlocked country many have come to adore.
Jennifer Schilling has lived abroad in Switzerland and traveled Europe extensively.
Come check out here traveling tips at http://www.expatraveler.com/.
Cry out Loud
There is no bond stronger than that of sisterhood We are all connected ,we need to CRY OUT LOUD We need to reach out to the sisterhood hot line The one where we can call on another woman For trust ( cause sometimes we extend to much of it ) To vent ( cause we just need another woman to listen ) To let go of ( the burdens that we were born to carry ) To calculate ( how to make ten dollars spend like $50.00 ) To teach ( how to love you first ) To absorb ( to learn from the previous mistake ) To educate ( this is what I have learned let me share this with you ) How to ( make sense out of confusion ) Stamina ( to finish the race not just enter into it ) In sickness ( in the body the mind or spirit it wont last always ) Opportunity ( not to hold yesterday embrace the now ) Acknowledgment You cannot change someone , you cannot be there for everyone Your pain is real, your sorrows can be healed , you don’t have to Lay with every man looking for love, you don’t have to take that Beating your worth is more , regrets are a luxury ,when a sister is Doing good ( praise her ) when she falls ( extend your hand ) When in doubt admit you don’t know, don’t cry alone Cry out loud let it be known ……….sister I need your voice On the other end of this phone Hello, this is Syndel At the Sisterhood hot line Come on sister Cry out Loud , I am listening
www.originalpoetry.com
Get Cricket Supplies Online Today
When you are just about to start to play cricket it is not always easy to decide what you must acquire. If you go into a sportswear equipment store and ask them what you need, you will probably finish up getting a large amount of equipment. With this in mind, it’s worthwhile to figure out what you will need ahead of you going shopping. That way you are a great deal more likely to buy what you want, as opposed to what the shop manager believes you require.
Below, is essentially a detailed cricket equipment inventory, you do not have to get all the items on this list, as a substantial number of clubs will provide you kit particularly at youth level: Find a wide selection of cricket items today at Sportswear-Equipment.com.
Cricket whites, cricket bats, balls, helmets, gloves, batting (wicket keeping) inner gloves, wicket keeping gloves, batting pads, wicket keeping pads, box, chest pad, arm guard, inner thigh pad, cricket boots (bowling boots; batting boots), box (groin guard), stumps and bails.
For most sports competitions you play a part in you will need your own set of whites. Cricket whites consist of white cricket trousers and cricket shirt. Make sure that you buy a high-quality pair of cricket trousers and also a good white cricket shirt and jumper as it can rapidly turn cold if you are standing out on the field for a considerably long time especially if you are going to play in England (the start and end of the cricket season are the coldest).
If you can not rent gear from your club the other most crucial items of equipment are a cricket bat & box. A good cricket bat is vital if you intend to score heaps of runs and is a very personal piece of equipment, therefore spend some time picking your bat, if at all possible you would be advised to go to a store and pick one up before you buy in order for you to know how it feels to hit with. (Once you know what you want you can often buy bats on the Internet much cheaper). You need a good box to shield your groin from the ball, as getting hit down below’ is awfully painful, so investing in a good box before you start is a defiant must – you can’t bat without one.
Related topics of interest include: F1 Merchandise & Toys.
How to Overcome the Overwhelm of the Holiday Season (And Reduce Holiday Stress)
The Holiday Season can be a wonderful time of year, filled with lovely decorations, gift exchanges, visits with friends and family and delicious meals. But for many of us, the Holiday Season can also be quite overwhelming with all the added activities such as decorating our homes, selecting, buying, wrapping and exchanging gifts and hosting friends and family while we prepare multi-course elaborate meals! The question is, “What can we do to Overcome Overwhelm during the Holidays?”
1. Simplify Your Life
Holidays that are full of complexity are neither fun nor comfortable. Complexity can easily contribute to feeling overwhelmed. We can be invited to numerous events and want to host others ourselves. These activities can be very wonderful experiences, but there can also be too many to prepare for and attend in a short time. You may also have to consider selecting, wrapping and delivering gifts, decorating the house, and, potentially, traveling to visit friends and family across the country. Keeping the holidays simple with a manageable number of events to attend and/or host, can greatly contribute to Overcoming Overwhelm during the Holidays.
2. Practice Extreme Self-Care
In our fast paced world, often our physical bodies become the last priority. We drag our bodies around nonstop and we can be indifferent to signs of exhaustion. When we practice extreme self-care, our mind, body and spirit are much more likely to assist us in our other efforts by providing strong support including energy, enthusiasm and presence. With extreme self-care our energy is up, our confidence is high and we feel much more positive. Some examples of self-care activities include sufficient sleep, quiet time, exercise, healthy food, and joyful recreation. Often during the holidays, some of our self-care activities are put on hold with all the hustle and bustle of the season. Taking proper care of ourselves during the Holiday Season can contribute greatly to Overcoming Overwhelm during the Holidays.
3. Celebrate the Unique You
Sometimes there are “should” or “must” dos on our to-do list that we really don’t enjoy doing or don’t leverage our best skills. We can end up delaying or not completing these activities. Or if we take these items on, they can contribute to frustration or overwhelm. Instead, we can consider whether there is someone else who can take care of the item for us or determine if the activity really needs to be done now.
There are many events and activities that we can participate in during the holidays on top of regular life activities. If we don’t know what we really want during the Holiday Season, then it will be much harder to say no to invitations that do not align with our desires. A great place to start is to clearly define our preferences in writing. By sharing our vision of the ideal Holiday Season with our life partner, asking him or her what their desired Holiday Season looks like and integrating these two collaboratively, you have a plan the two of you can action and support together for the Holiday Season. Celebrating the Unique You, by respecting and celebrating your desired Holiday Season, can greatly contribute to Overcoming Overwhelm and experiencing more power, serenity and joy during the Holiday Season.
About The Author
Donna P. Lendzyk is a professional coach and businesswoman who guides women to Overcome Overwhelm and Achieve their Desired Results. She is the author of new multi-media “Overcome Overwhelm eProgram.” Do you need any FREE strategies on Overcoming Overwhelm & Achieving Your Desired Results? Sign-up and receive “Overcome Overwhelm Secrets”. This free, informative, multi-media enewsletter is available from: http://www.Overcome-Overwhelm.com.
Adventures in Bolivia
As a graduate student, I finally had the opportunity to work on a project in southern Bolivia. Although I had spent previous summers camping alone while conducting fieldwork in remote areas, this was to be my first journey overseas, to a country known variously for coca growing, revolution, and the final resting place of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
La Paz is nestled in a series of steep valleys that are eroded in a jagged, blasted moonscape of sun-baked volcanic rock. One of the city parks is called “Valle de la Lunas” or Valley of the Moon. The city has sprawled up the valley slopes onto the Altiplano, or high desert. As my taxi drove from the airport over the lip of the high desert, the city was spread out below, partially obscured through a haze of heavy smog. After finding the company office, a driver took me to a hotel in the old part of the city, popular with young, dominantly British and Spanish backpackers. Left to my own devices for several days, I taught myself the phrases and words to order breakfast and dinner, and wandered through the open-air market to practice my nascent Spanish skills on vendors of flashlights, jeans, and trilobite fossils. I found Bolivians to be the friendliest of people, who seemed to delight in talking to a Norteamericano. At first, I felt no ill effects from climbing the steep streets in what has been described as the World’s highest-altitude capitol city. After several days, altitude sickness left me with a feeling of exhaustion and constant headache in spite of six weeks of hiking in the Colorado Rockies.
At last I was to depart for the exploration camp in southern Bolivia, as the pickup laden with fuel drums and survey stakes arrived to collect me. My driver, Nicco, guided the pickup through the bustling, chaotic streets of La Paz and we rolled south on a two-lane, newly paved highway toward Oruro, a hot, dusty, windblown town that represents the end of pavement. There, the sun-baked main street was covered in a one-inch layer of dust that was excited into whirling vortexes as lines of Volvo flatbed trucks trundled through. Gray, windblown silt covered the cobblestone street, sidewalks, building facades, and withered decorative trees to produce a desolate dreamscape devoid of color. We rolled through a featureless landscape beneath an endless expanse of blue sky and mercilessly bright sun. As the daylight began to wane, the highway degenerated into a pair of deep ruts across the featureless desert, passing desolate adobe towns. We forded streams of frigid meltwater from the Cordillera Oriental, often breaking a thin film of ice. Night fell and still we rolled south, now across the Salar de Uyuni salt flat. Despite the heater in the Mazda 4×4, the cold crept in, and in the ghostly play of the headlights, the shimmering white deposits of salt might have been snow drifts. Time dragged, with only the constant rumble of the tires on hardpan marking a cadence in the darkness that surrounded the small, heated compartment of the pickup. At last we reached a town, a sign of human habitation in what seemed increasingly like a harsh wilderness. Not a single light bulb was evident as we thumped slowly over the cobbled streets. Dark shapes shuffled along the sidewalks, and the shadows of adobe buildings rose and fell, capering in the glare of the headlights. Stars, bright and brilliant as diamonds, but equally as cold, seemed to provide the only other light. Amidst this scene of harsh desolation, the corpses of dogs littered the streets, frozen stiff where they had ultimately succumbed to the uncaring elements.
After another three hours of crawling through the frigid darkness, the road seemed nothing more than a gully, with sagebrush whipping the sides of the truck. Almost imperceptibly, we left the desert and a sheer rock wall suddenly loomed out of the darkness. The truck climbed the rapidly rising road, which clung to the side of the cliff, and the engine whined in protest at the exertion caused by the steep grade and thin air. In the days to come, my own heart and lungs would register a similar wheezing protest. We passed through a looming cleft in the rock wall, beneath towering ramparts massed in the impenetrable gloom. Suddenly, the truck stopped and we had arrived. Arrived where? In the dim light, I could barely discern an adobe wall. There were no lights, no sound of people or animals, and no hum of machines that we have come to expect virtually everywhere in North America. In the dead quiet, pitch black surroundings, I might have been standing in a cavern instead of in front of the quadrille where I would live for the next four months. I had arrived in Bolivia.
About The Author
I am a geologist, and have visited several countries in Latin America and Europe, and have worked on various civil engineering and mining related issues throughout the U.S. and other places. I have written journal articles from a scientific viewpoint, but thought it would be fun to write about some of my travel experiences on a more informal level. I have other photos and geology related items at http://sedward.home.netcom.com/petrography.html
sedward@ix.netcom.com
Find Women’s Cut out Swimsuits Online
Nowadays heaps of people prefer buying their swimwear on the Internet; shopping online is a very simple & fitting way to shop in the warmth of your own bedroom.
It is fundamental to ensure whilst buying swimwear on the World Wide Web that it fits you correctly. When you acquire swimwear on the Internet always be sure that the shop offers a good quality sizing chart that highlights all of the sizes you may require. With the aid of a sizing chart one can guarantee to obtain a swimsuit or bikini that fits correctly, thus reducing the demand to change for a different size. The Majority of the swimwear retail shops don’t permit an exchange of goods therefore it’s more often and not always better to opt for a retail store where exchanges are permitted. Some online shops will allow the returns of swimwear if the tags and the original wrapping are also returned along with it.
Swimwear is a usual element of the summertime; nevertheless a large majority of full-figured females feel intimidated at the thought of shopping for swimsuits & bikinis that fit properly. These women even consider wearing caftans by the swimming pool or at the beach instead of looking unpleasant. Designers & shopkeepers are familiar with the fashion problems of the larger woman, and are beginning to feature a wide assortment of stylish bathing suit designs in XL sizes, and the best place to stumble upon such swimwear is to acquire swimwear online. Find eye-catching and sexy avant premiere half cup plunge bras, delices push Up bras and adelaide thongs from Simone Perele.