Emerald Forest

I love great new snacks or nice chewing gums or sweets. There are some lovely snacks out there but it is not often that you find a great sweet or snack that you really love. After all, we are here to enjoy ourselves aren’t we? At least enjoying nice foods should be a part of it, in my honest opinion.

You should definitely check out the wonderful products from Emerald Forest as they are simply something else entirely. Emerald Forest produces the highest quality natural sweeteners and snacks so make sure you check them out.

Did you know that Emerald Forest Gums, Mints, Fruit Sours, and Coffee Shots contain extremely delicious natural sweeteners and flavours, and colours. You simply have to try these for your self. Moreover, you do not have to worry about your teeth as these wonderful Emerald Forest snacks shield against cavities and plaque, so that is no problem whatsoever.

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The art of love

Wouldn’t we all like to know the secret of how to seduce a woman like a genuine full-fledged lothario? How did Casanova do it, really? Some women will say it’s not just about looks but a man needs to have a sense of humour and a modicum of intelligence as well. I am sure that these factors have something to do with it but on a basic level there is also something like pheromone attraction that comes into play in the interaction between the sexes.

After all, research has shown that human beings are highly adept at "sniffing out" compatible sexual partners. It has been proven that natural body scents play a crucial part in deciding whether we find someone attractive. The latest research was published by the Philadelphia's Monell Chemical Senses Center in the journal of Psychological Science. Using brain scans, researchers were in a positon to show that synthetic pheromones stimulated the brains of heterosexual women.

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Loans

Times are hard for home owners, I think we can all agree on that for sure. The credit crunch has seen to it that more and more people are finding it hard to keep up with their mortgage payments and it does not look as though this situation will be easing any time soon. It is not easy to end up in a situation where your biggest asset, namely your very own house, is becoming a burden and a pressure for you in a very real financial sense.

If you need loan modification help then you may want to check out this E-book called The Loan Modification Guidetm, which could really help you out. This great and useful book is a step by step guide that will show you how to modify your own home loan. There is absolutely n need to be taken in by people charging silly amounts of money to help you with your loan modification. You can do it yourself easily with the help of this E-book. Now you too can have the mortgage assistance you are looking for.

Brought to you by Snapbomb

Bush Leage TV

Are you a lover of good fun and great funny videos? Then I have just the right kind of site for your delectation. Have a look at this site which is called Bush League TV, and is just the best site for all of you who like to have a good laugh. The best videos and other great stuff is to right there for you to watch. The Bush League is just the best so do check it out.
Bushleague is sort of like that favourite uncle who bought you your very first beer and told you how to pick up high school girls. Bush League is information central for the average dude. So if that is you then you need to check it out right away. Bush League ranges from smart-ass to dumb-ass and back, no problem whatsoever. Of course they like the ladies, and sports gambling, great video games, the best music and great laughs. Weirdos and goofs are cordially invited to play along.

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Azlio

Rings, rings and more rings. Have a look at the great site of Azlio for a wonderful choice of gold rings in all manner of designs.

JamesPoet

Earn online

I found this great site that is all about earning money online, saving money and also about lots of freebies and good stuff. Check it out if you want to Earn Money Online, just go ahead and have a look.

This is a sponsored post by JamesPoet.

GPTP

Ebay

Have a look at this great Ebay site; a place to busy and sell your products worldwide. Great stuff!

This is a sponsored post by JamesPoet.

GPTP

Bombs in Brizle?

The glorious multicultural approach fares will in Bristol also. The news today is that a person has been arrested under the anti-terrorism act and that a controlled explosion has been carried out in connection with the arrest. Read about it here. I bet it's those extreme Methodists again..

Digging at the Henge

Right now, at this very moment, an archeological dig is underway at the incredibly famous monument of Stonehenge in Wiltshire. I prefer to visit nearby Avebury but of course to see Stonehenge for the very first time is quite an experience. The dig has a website where the professor and his team give daily updates on the findings.

Apparently, this is the first dig for forty years and they are trying to finally establish the great temple's age. That is, if it was a temple because the team claim to be close to cracking the mystery of Stonehenge's purpose as well.

The BBC are filming the proceedings for a Time Team programme to be shown on the televisual box in the Autumn. No doubt we will have to endure seeing the decidedly gnomic Tony Robinson of Baldric fame prancing around the giant stones. So be it.

Avebury stone circle

Avebury in Wiltshire, is a fascinating place with its mysterious stone circle and other places of interest. The stones themselves are stunning and awe-inspiring and the strange thing is that the little hamlet of Avebury is a working village and is located partly right in the centre of the big stone circle. There is a little museum run by the National Trust and the whole thing is much more low-key and sympathetic than the circle at Stonehenge, which isn't far away either.

Just down the road from Avebury is the equally baffling Silbury Hill, a conical man-made prehistoric structure that dominates the landscape and invites you to conjecture what on earth its purpose may have been.

This whole area of Wiltshire is dotted with amazing ancient objects and places. I find the West of England a magical place with some very interesting 'vibes' if you will.

Archie Leech

No blog that has Bristol as a focus could be complete without reference to Achie Leech, one of the city's most famous sons. You may know him better as the film actor Cary Grant. This image is part of the statue that has been erected, I believe in the area of Horfield where he used to live. There is a fish and chips shop near the Christmas steps which, apart from being one of the oldest chippies in the country, was where the man himself used to go for his cod and chips.

Visiting Bristol

Doing my bit for tourism in Bristol I thought I'd give you the link for a good resource if you are thinking of visiting my home town. Visit Bristol have a good website with some specific information so why not have a look? I have only been living in Bristol for a few years but it feels like home. Before I settled down in this neck of the wood I never had a sense of belonging anywhere.

Bristol is where I feel at ease, and very much at home and that is a fabulous feeling to experience. I don't know what the future may hold but for now this is a very good place to live and work. Bristolians are down-to-earth easy-going people and they have certainly made me feel welcome.

It's 'Alright me luvver!'

Rumbling down below

Last night, apparently, England was hit by an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the old Richter scale. This morning the presentors on the news were all a-buzz with excitement. The epicentre was near Grimsby, up North, but by all accounts tremors were felt in Southampton and as far West as Swansea. Read all about it here . The worst that happened was that a few chimney pots fell off the roofs of houses and no one was injured.

I didn't notice anything. At 1.00 AM, when 'quakey' struck, I was sound asleep and dreaming about things other than tremors and shudders. But a few people in Bristol did ring the police with anxious questions so I presume that parts of the city were subjected to it.

Oh well. We all survived. It's probably the fault of George Bush or global warmening..

Bristol Cathedral

Part of Bristol Cathedral, which stands on College Green opposite the Town Hall at the bottom of Park Street. The really old sections of this fine cathedral date back to the eleventh century, would you believe it. I like visiting sometimes as the doors are always open and there is a genuinely peaceful atmosphere inside. There is also a small cafe with a terrace on the cemetary courtyard at the back of the cathedral. This is a proper little oasis to spend some time, a haven of peace right in the middle of the city centre.

Old timer honoured to switch on lights

Here's a nice news story about a war veteran who has been chosen to switch on the lights on the refurbished Wills Memorial Tower (see an earlier post). This gentleman helped build the tower as a plumber years ago. That's what I call a great story.

Rovers riding high

An old match programme for Bristol Rovers when they were still playing in their grounds in Eastville. Last Saturday they won against Southampton and ended up in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, something that hasn't happened for fifty years. So, Rovers fans are excited and can't wait to get another chance to play at Wembley.

There are two major football clubs in Bristol, Bristol Rovers and Bristol City. Generally, people living south of the river support City and those in East or North Bristol will lean towards Rovers. Both clubs are doing very well at the moment. Onwards and upwards, seems to be the motto these days.

Another Brizle Bridge pic

Picture taken by me a year or two ago of the walkway along the Clifton Suspension Bridge. I thought that the various chains and lengths and vertical lines made for a good perspective.

Clifton Suspension Bridge

I found this faded picture of the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. The bridge is quite something; a engineering masterpiece designed by the Victorian genius Isambard Kingdom Brunel who passed away before its final completion. In the original plans there were supposed to be Egyptian-style ornaments and themes on the bridge heads but that never materialized. It's fantastic to walk across the bridge on a clear day as you get a wonderful view through the gorge, across the city and through the valley towards Long Ashton.

A bit of information about the history of this elegant bridge with thanks to Wikipedia:

The idea of building a bridge across the Avon Gorge originated in 1753, with a bequest in the will of Bristolian merchant William Vick, who left £1,000 invested with instructions that when the interest had accumulated to £10,000, it should be used for the purpose of building a stone bridge between Clifton Down (which was in Gloucestershire, outside the City of Bristol, until the 1830s) and Leigh Woods (then in Somerset).

By 1829, Vick's bequest had reached £8,000, but it was estimated that a stone bridge would cost over ten times that amount. An Act of Parliament was passed to allow a wrought-iron suspension bridge to be built instead, and tolls levied to recoup the cost. A competition was held to find a design for the bridge; the judge, Thomas Telford, rejected all designs, and tried to insist on a design of his own, a suspension bridge supported on tall Gothic towers. Telford claimed that no suspension bridge could exceed the 600 feet (183 m) span of his own Menai Suspension Bridge. A second competition, held with new judges, was won by Brunel's design on 16 March 1831, for a suspension bridge with fashionably Egyptian-influenced towers.

An attempt to build Brunel's design in 1831 was stopped by the Bristol Riots, which severely dented commercial confidence in Bristol. Work was not started again until 1836, and thereafter the capital from Vick's bequest and subsequent investment proved woefully inadequate. By 1843, the towers had been built in unfinished stone, but funds were exhausted. In 1851, the ironwork was sold and used to build the Brunel-designed Royal Albert Bridge on the railway between Plymouth and Saltash.

Brunel died in 1859, without seeing the completion of the bridge. Brunel's colleagues in the Institution of Civil Engineers felt that completion of the Bridge would be a fitting memorial, and started to raise new funds. In 1860, Brunel's Hungerford suspension bridge, over the Thames in London, was demolished to make way for a new railway bridge to Charing Cross railway station, and its chains were purchased for use at Clifton. A slightly revised design was made by William Henry Barlow and Sir John Hawkshaw; it has a wider, higher and sturdier deck than Brunel intended, triple chains instead of double, and the towers were left as rough stone rather than being finished in Egyptian style. Work on the bridge was restarted in 1862, and was complete by 1864.

The bridge is now managed by a trust set up by Act of Parliament in 1952. Tolls are levied on vehicles but no longer on cyclists or pedestrians

In 2003 the weight of crowds travelling to and from the Ashton Court festival and Bristol International Balloon Fiesta put such great strain on the bridge that it was decided to close the bridge to all traffic, including pedestrians, during the whole of the Ashton Court Festival and part of the Balloon Fiesta in 2004. This arrangement has continued since.

On 26 November 2003, the last ever Concorde flight (Concorde 216) flew over the bridge before landing at Filton Airfield. It was a symbolic moment which commemorated Bristol's feats in engineering.

In April 2006 the bridge was the centrepiece of the Brunel 200 weekend, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. At the climax of the celebration a large firework display was launched from the bridge. The celebrations also saw the switch on of an LED-based array to illuminate the bridge.

The towers from which the bridge is suspended are not completely identical in construction, although they are generally similar in size, Clifton has cut outs in the sides and the Leigh tower has more pointed arches. Brunel proposed that sphinxes be built on the top of the two towers, which were then fashionable, but they were never built.

The tower on the Leigh Woods side of the gorge is 85 ft (26 m) high but stands on a red sandstone clad abutment 110 ft (33 m) high. In 2002 it was discovered that this was not a solid structure but contained 12 vaulted chambers, up to 35 ft (11 m) high, linked by shafts and tunnels.

Roller mounted "saddles" are used at the top of each tower to absorb the force created by the movement of the chains when loads pass over the bridge. The total movement is about 1mm but if this mechanism were not in place the forces would damage the structure of the towers.

The bridge has a set of three independent wrought iron chains on each side, which are made of eyebars, in numerous parallel rows, connected by bolts, from which the hangers reach down to the bridge.[8] The chains are anchored in tunnels in the rocks 60 ft (17 m) below ground level at the side of the gorge.

The deck or floor of the roadway is suspended from the chains by 162 wrought iron rods (81 on each side) which range from 65 ft (20 m) in length at the ends to 3 ft (0.9 m) in the centre. The deck was originally laid with wooden planking which was later covered with asphalt.

The weight of the Bridge, including chains, rods, girders and timber deck is approximately 1,500 tons.

Wills Memorial Building, Bristol

A proud calling card of Bristol University, the tower of the Wills Memorial Building dominates this part of the city. Wills was the name of powerful local merchant to provided the fledgling College with the funds to apply for full University status back in the day. He made his fortune in tobacco and did a lot for the city. The tower has a big bell that goes by the name of Great George and is struck with gusto every hour. When I was just starting out as an employee of the University I was lucky enough to go on a tour of the Wills building and tower. The chaps in charge of the tour had timed the whole excursion and climbing of the tower itself to coincide with the twelve o'clock striking of the bells, just as we were standing right next to it. We sort of noticed it, I can assure you.

'Awrite, me luvver?', the Bristolian lingo

Bristol being the principal city in the South-West, I thought I'd tell you a bit about its colourful dialect. If you have no preconception of what Bristolian sounds like then you could try to imagine a pirate speaking with round vowels and lots of 'aaahrr' sounds. Of course, that would be an exaggeration but the fact is that Bristol used to be the haven of a great many infamous pirates, the most notorious of these being Blackbeard himself.

But if you've seen the Harry Potter films then Hagrid speaks in a Bristolian accent. There are also a lot of words that are typical to Bristol and here you'll find a few samples. When we first moved house and ended up in Bristol a friendly neighbour welcomed us in a strange exotic language that we couldn't quite fathom. It turned out to be just a local East-Bristolian and now, a few years later, we can mostly decipher what he says. Mostly.

Glastonbury Tor

Image of the famous and sacred Glastonbury Tor, dominating this part of Somerset. The Tor is an amazing feature in the landscape around Glastonbury/Avalon and has been a centre of worship for tens of thousands of years. The Christian abbey was one of the most important and oldest in the country, with Arthurian links and stunning legends involving Joseph of Arimathea. The place was significant to the pagan Celts as well and going back even further into time it was a magical centre for the peoples inhabiting this region.

Here is some more information about this puzzling hill.

When you walk around Glastonbury you do pick up on something quite odd. There does seem to be something otherworldly in the air that pervades everything. And as you climb the imposing Tor you feel you are ascending a ceremonial pathway that has been trodden for aeons. It's quite simply a magical sort of place and it's not wonder it attracts like-minded people from all over the world.

Map of the West Country

The West Country in all its glory. From Wiltshire to the tip of Cornwall and everything in-between. The county name of Avon is no longer in use. Every now and then they like to mess around with the system of English counties and for a while the county of Bristol was renamed Avon. Of course, the river Avon famously runs through the gorge in Bristol and ends up in the Bristol Channel but the locals preferred it the way it was: the city and county of Bristol. So now, it's Bristol again in the county of Bristol. Doesn't make it easy to fill out forms and the postal services don't always understand the fact that the county of Avon no longer exists. Ah well.

I live in Bristol which is the largest urban area in the South-West. It is a big city with nearly half a million inhabitants but somehow it feels more like a market-town, its famous and infamous history not-withstanding. I like the fact that for a city life here is a bit more easy-going, certainly compared with the South-East. People here like to have a chat and a laugh and don't take themselves too seriously. Which is a good thing in my opinion. The world is full of pompous gits and who needs that?

We like to get out and about when we can and when time allows. I love nothing better than to drive along Somerset's long and winding roads and taking in the scenery. My wife and I intend to do a lot more hiking or rather walking as well and with spring just around the corner I can't wait to get into the open air again.

Avalon, jewel of the West Country and: a new blog

This is my new blog, Avalon Tales, in which I intend to write regularly about the West Country in England. This is where I live and over the past seven years I have grown to love this neck of the wood. Avalon or Glastonbury as it's now called, is just down the road and I wanted to use that evocative name in the blog title.

There is definitely magic in the air in the West Country. From the stone circles, crop circles, Wiltshire's white chalk horses, the legends of Cornwall and its standing stones, the tors and moors, lonely and desolate but stunning Dartmoor; it's all fascinating and breath-takingly beautiful.

But, rest assured that I am no soap-dodging tree-hugging Greenoid who is going to bore you to tears with nonsensical airy-fairy Wiccan-type tripe. I will merely write articles and entries about some of the places in this lovely part of the world, using my own guile to hopefully entertain the reader. I may also publish more general entries that fall outside this remit.

Happy reading!