Alone for the Holidays?
Being alone is a challenge for many people. This challenge may loom especially large during the holidays if you are single or newly divorced and without family around you. Holidays are a time to share love, and many people end up feeling depressed when they do not have people around with whom to share love. If you are in this situation, what can you do to make the holidays joyous rather than depressing?
The key phrase here is SHARE LOVE. Too often people think in terms of getting love rather than giving and sharing their love. They don’t realize that it is the act of giving their love that is so very fulfilling.
Gail had grown up very lonely in an emotionally distant family, with parents who did not freely give their love and relatives who were also cold and distant. She had married an emotionally distant man, and after 7 years of more loneliness, had decided to leave him. This was her first holiday season alone.
Gail decided that she was not going to be alone and lonely again this holiday season. She did some research on service agencies that needed volunteers and discovered a women’s shelter in her area for women and their children who were hiding from physically abusive husbands. The shelter was badly in need of funds for food, which Gail didn’t have. What she did have was the time to help gather food. Each day, after her job as a secretary, Gail went around to the markets in her area until she found some willing to donate Thanksgiving dinners for the mothers and their children. Then, on Thanksgiving Day, she spent her time at the shelter cooking, decorating, serving, and having Thanksgiving dinner with these brave women who had left their abusive husbands to save themselves and their children. It was the best Thanksgiving she ever had! By choosing to share her love with people who needed her, she felt filled with love.
Gail had such a fulfilling experience that she found a small part-time job in addition to her regular job so that she could afford to buy presents for the children at the shelter for Christmas. She had such fun buying presents for the children and watching their joyous little faces as they opened them on Christmas day! Gail felt anything but alone and lonely.
Gary was in a similar situation to Gail. He was single, had been an only child to parents who were no longer alive, and had no close relatives. His janitorial business did not give him much opportunity to make friends. Gary had spent many lonely holidays feeling isolated and depressed, and decided a few years ago to do something about it.
Gary loved animals. As a child, his dog had been his main connection with love. After some research, Gary discovered that there was a wonderful animal shelter within a half-hour of his home – a shelter that loved and cared for animals and didn’t euthanize them. Gary started to volunteer one day a week on the weekends – cleaning, feeding, playing with puppies and kittens, helping to interview people who wanted to adopt a pet, and getting to know the other volunteers. He found that he really connected with the people who volunteered there. Many of them were loving people who were deeply devoted to caring for animals. As his friendships developed, he found he had a new sense of family centered around the shelter. Thanksgiving and Christmas were now sometimes spent with the other volunteers who did not have families, and sometimes with the families of some of the volunteers. Gary’s life had become full and fulfilling. The last I heard, he was dating a woman who also volunteered at the animal shelter.
No matter what your life situation is, you can always share your love with others. Instead of feeling alone and lonely this holiday season, open your heart to giving. There are many people and animals out there who would welcome your love.
About The Author
Margaret Paul, Ph.D. is the best-selling author and co-author of eight books, including “Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You?” She is the co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding healing process. Learn Inner Bonding now! Visit her web site for a FREE Inner Bonding course: www.innerbonding.com or mailto:margaret@innerbonding.com. Phone sessions available.
margaret@innerbonding.com
Touring through Barcelona; Part I – Chinatown, Churches, and Stores
Barcelona is a lovely city with hills on its sides and the Mediterranean Sea just in front of it. The old city is surrounded by a fortress and is darker and older inside. The modern Barcelona with a happy, peaceful feeling is romantic like a fairytale basking in sunshine. Yet, according to friends who lived there, there had been a lot of bloodshed in the last century even up to today, due to terrorism.
The daily life in Barcelona is prosperous, dynamic, enchanting, full of contrasts and delightful surprises. One of the surprises was the Chinatown.
Yes, did you know there is a Chinatown in Barcelona? Friends said it used to be a place with dirty, urine-smelling roads, call girls on benches waiting for customers in front of run-down buildings, and even a black woman or an African lady hanging from a window, inviting the passers-by.
The Chinatown in the Gothic quarter that I visited felt different to me. One relic from the past in that same neighborhood was a church with nicely refurbished interior but a dilapidated exterior; yet, still very beautiful, surrounded by carefully restored gray stone buildings. In fact, gray seemed to be dominant on all these cobblestone roads. Such a contrast to the rest of the city!
The gray color here had a shine to it even on the pale faces of the residents. On the narrow, crooked lanes, gray was even better accented by the bridge-like overpasses from building to building. Those ancient cobblestone lanes appeared to be subterranean, as if carved out of one long tunnel, with sunlight coming from above the overpasses. This melancholic panorama of dark against light, shadow against sunshine, eerie yet with poetry appeared as if it came from an artist’s charcoal rendering.
On those stone buildings with their rough surfaces sticking out of the facades of the edifices, some of the stones were as big as boulders. The winding narrow lane, which the church was situated on, opened to a larger street with a bar-lounge where, I imagine, many Spanish and French poets and thinkers of the past sat to drink their absinthe, beer, or sangria.
A few steps later, things changed completely, for the other roads of the Barrio Chino (China Town) were comparable to the ones in New York City. Here, the streets were wider with many buildings stacked against each other, hosting many businesses and shops with colorful signs in Chinese, some also in Spanish and Catalan.
One day, I had the honor of visiting such a shop.
“The ice on the moon is much more abundant than they thought, did you know that? Si Senoras, inside the craters to the north of it,” he said, folding the daily El Pais.
I was surprised that Pepe, the tall, dark, handsome owner of the interiors store–to where I had accompanied our hostess Delia to buy fabric–would suddenly come up with a remark like that, but then they were acquainted with each other. Delia worked on the same street where Pepe’s shop was.
“At the moment, I’m interested in Barcelona but moon may be my next stop,” I tried to say with my rusty Spanish, hoping the words didn’t come out crooked to mean something else. Sensing my hesitation, Delia nodded in approval.
“In that case, I’ll tell you about Barcelona,” Pepe said, pulling a bundle of folded fabrics down a shelf to reach to the green and blue damask cloth Delia had requested.
Pepe said that Barcelona was built about 200 years before Christ, believe it or not, by Hamilcar Barca, a general from Carthage who invaded the Roman lands by passing through the impassible mountains but failing at the end. I commented about remembering from my school days that the Romans had invaded Carthage and had razed down the city with salt.
Pepe laughed. “Women always like the gossip part of history.” After he cut the fabric, he handed it over to Delia. “I held it with my fingertips, so I wouldn’t contaminate it for you,” he said in a serious tone.
“Cut it out, Pepe,” Delia replied, her face changing suddenly.
I didn’t say anything because what happened between them appeared to be private at the moment.
Pepe had to be interested in churches, since all he talked about were the churches in Barcelona, especially the Gothic Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, the one built as a monument to Columbus. He said another cathedral that was the most enormous but still under construction since the nineteenth century was the Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia but he called it la Sagrada in short.
From the tour bus a day before, I remembered seeing the curvy, ornate, and titanic La Sagrada. To me it looked scary and horrendous like a giant towering over its surroundings with its tall spires; it did not seem to be the fantastic building everyone raved about. Not that there is anything wrong with La Sagrada, but I just prefer small churches. The smaller they are, the cozier they seem.
Listening to Pepe, I had an uneasy feeling. He was not even speaking in Catalan but luckily in Castillian to us; yet, he was talking of something else other than the church’s architecture. Probably, he wanted to mention the importance of churches to the city. I haven’t read the Bible in Spanish but I believe his speech was interspersed by quotations from it.
“Pepe knows so much about churches,” I commented to Delia, once we were outside. “He seems to be so religious.”
“Almost fanatical, but he wasn’t always like this. Pepe has become a dedicated church goer; he never falters. The truth is, rather than a shop attendant, he is an artist. He works with gouache and is quite famous,” Delia said. Then, she added hesitantly, “He started up with the churches after the illness.”
“He didn’t look sick to me,” I said.
“He has Kaposi’s Sarcoma, Sida (Aids) you know.”
“Awful!”
“Pepe’s gay,” Delia said. “He, unfortunately, thinks the end of the world came for him. So, now, he is addicted to religion.”
To continue…
Joy Cagil is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/
which is a site for Creative Writing. Her education is in foreign languages and linguistics. She has trained in psychology, humanities, mental health, women’s issues, and visual arts. She has also traveled to various places in and out of the country. Her portfolio can be found at http://www.Writing.Com/authors/joycag
Make Money with Search Engine Optimisation
You probably have come across several sites telling you things like making a million in online sales. Actually, not all of these are frauds. You basically have a lot of options to be able to achieve that. Some of these include finding keywords for your site that most people would search for or find a product that makes big sales online. Setting up a clickbank can help you achieve that. But if you search Google, a lot of other options are available.
What happens here is that every time you make a sale, you will get a commission. That’s when you can get money from your site. A million dollars may seem non-realistic but the basic concept is actually crystal clear that’s why a lot of people have opted for making money online. The main idea in search optimisation is to choose the appropriate keyword. Why spend time doing search engine optimisation Melbourne when the keywords won’t generate any traffic at all? In general, you not only need to generate traffic, you need the commercial kind of traffic. This is when buyers would click through. Start optimising your page by spending your time looking for the best keyword there is online to start generating money.
Canadian Immigration Form
If you are applying for the Federal Skilled Worker visa, one of the forms you must complete is called Schedule 3: Economic Classes Federal Skilled Workers.
Please note that there are two additional forms called Schedule 4 and Schedule 5; however these forms must to be completed by provincial nominees and Quebec skilled workers only.
If you will apply for the Federal visa, I recommend completing Schedule 3.
This form has to be completed by the main applicant. If you are the main applicant, read this information carefully; this form is very important!
Remember, if you don’t complete the form the right way, your visa application might be delayed!
So, if you are serious about moving to Canada ASAP, I strongly recommend completing the forms EXACTLY as the Canadian Government requires!
Let me give you some recommendations to help you complete this form:
Your name should be spelled exactly as it is in your passport (don’t try to abbreviate!)
If you have a work permit at the moment (for question 4), don’t forget to attach a notarized copy!
Your language proficiency must be proved with your language test results. For this reason, I recommend answering the question related to your language proficiency based on your test grades. For example, if your test result for the Listening part in the IELTS test is 4, don’t answer HIGH PROFICIENCY on the form! Answer this question BASED on your results.
For the question about your relatives in Canada , I recommend that you DO NOT include any second degree aunts or uncles or any other relative that is not included in the form (you would not get additional points!) Also, remember that your relative has to be a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident (otherwise you would not be eligible for additional points).
Remember that you have to attach a proof of your funds, so you should enter an amount that you can” prove on paper”!
Remember that your job description should be very similar to the NOC job description; otherwise you would not be eligible for points. For this reason, it is very important that you find on the NOC list the occupation that best describes your job.
I hope you found these recommendations useful!
Alex Berezovsky is a specialist in Canadian immigration and author of “Step-by-Step Immigration to Canada”. http://www.StepByStepImmigrationCanada.com
Room for One More – Riding the Philippine’s Jeepneys
The Philippines is renowned for its multi-coloured, highly decorated jeepneys. But after about 10 minutes in the country, you realize that these are the exception. Officially referred to as PUJs, the majority are drab utilitarian vehicles with route details as their major decoration and more often than not belching black smoke.
That being said, they are the back bone of the public transport system as they career down major thoroughfares and side streets playing tag with each other. The first jeep gets the passengers.
Holding on average up to 20 passengers, 2 up front next to the driver and 18 in the back seated on benches running down the sides. It is not uncommon to see an extra body on the outside hanging onto the back waiting for someone to alight so they can move inside, although these passengers do tend to be young and male.
Jeeps stop and start at their passenger’s whim, apart from their start points, where they will sit until they have a full load. There are no designated stops, to get off you shout “para” or knock on the roof or both. To hail a jeep, you need to attract the driver’s attention.
This is easier than one might expect considering the traffic, which in Manila, like all big cities, is chaotic. Jeepney drivers drive with one eye on the traffic and the other searching for customers. Make eye contact and nod or stretch out your arm, palm down and close your fingers and your ride will stop. With luck it will have pulled over to the side of the road, if not thread your way through the traffic and climb aboard.
Watch your head! You will be shuffling along inside the jeep bent at right angles to a vacant bit of bench and it’s a good idea to hang onto the hand rail on the roof. If there is a gap in the traffic before you’ve found your bit of bench, the driver will be heading for it. Also be aware of your fellow passenger’s toes, if you inadvertently do step on someone’s toes a smile and saying “ay sorry” should avert any serious recriminations.
The standard bayad (fare) for a jeepney is 7.5 pesos (AU$0.20) although if you are going for a long ride, more than 4.5 kms, expect to pay an extra 50 centavos (AU$0.01) per kilometer. Pass your money down the jeep saying “bayad” along with a recognizable land mark near your destination. Your fellow passengers will pass the money to the driver whose hand will appear above his shoulder to accept it. Like wise your change will be passed back the same way.
Now, not only is your driver negotiating Manila traffic, scanning for customers, he is also making change. The majority of jeepney drivers are very competent if somewhat erratic. I have often marveled at their ability to take their vehicles into spaces I was pretty sure they wouldn’t fit and to do so at speed.
If your Tagalog isn’t up to counting, hand signals will suffice for the number of fares you want. Index finger for one; V symbol for two; middle, ring and little fingers for three; four fingers for four and add a thumb for five.
A sense of geography is handy but not a pre-requisite as jeepneys traverse a pretty much pre-determined route and as long as you know where you have come from you can catch one going back the way you came. There are literally dozens of them passing any given point most hours of the day. Ok, between 1 am and 5 am they do become a bit thin on the ground. That is when taxis come into their own, assuming of course that the driver wants to go where you do.
Jeepneys are a great way to explore the Philippines and get a sense of the place from the local’s perspective. They are the preferred means of local transport for the majority of the population and there is always room for one more, if not in this one, then in the one behind it.
Henry Bateman is an Australian expat living in the Philippines, his musings about life there can be seen on his blog The Expat.
How To Get Low Airfare
Finding Low Airfare is NOT That Complicated…as some may want you to believe. With more than 20 years in the Travel/Tour Industry, and senior editor for Luxury Romantic Vacations& FACTS! Read the FULL Report below.
You can of course, spend hours searching web pages, spend countless dollars on travel memberships, review newspapers and ask friends for their great knowledge about securing the cheapest fares and it’s very likely you’ll receive several options pertaining to getting the low airfare.
Let’s Begin…Airline tickets are a product, a commodity that are for sale and is based on the supply and demand principle. As the demand is high, so too are the airline ticket prices.
Your typical travel agency will have a contract with a wholesaler at established rates. You, the consumer, will pay the going retail rate for the ticket. It’s that simple, very much like other products on the marketplace. Is it possible to purchase a ticket directly from the wholesaler? It’s very unlikely. Wholesalers deal in bulk; therefore, the sale of 1-ticket is not time nor cost effective for the wholesaler.
There are travel agencies who purchase a number of seats on particular flights and sell them at reduced retail rates. The agencies buy the tickets at a discounted wholesale price because of the bulk buying. Agencies that typically purchase bulk seats are specialized in a particular area. For example, an agency might specialize in Spain; therefore, they’d purchase several
seats in advance on airlines and market them as their specialty. They in-turn can offer fabulous rates.
To find these specialized agencies, check you Sunday Travel Section, Yellow Pages and/or library. Your library may have a means of searching their data base for SIC Codes. In the case of Travel Agencies, the SIC Code is 4724-02. You do need to make sure the agencies are specialized for the area in which you want to travel to get the best possible rate.
Internet Airfares…Some internet sites offer a low airfare are really bucking the system. In reality, they are hooked up with another travel agency, therefore, another mark-up and what you think is a good rate, may not really be. There are some GOOD Internet Sites that offer great savings and we’ll explore some of those.
Travelocity is one of the established leaders in securing low airfare off the internet. With little overhead, compared to the typical storefront travel agencies, Travelocity, provides one of the lowest airfares for nearly all destinations.
It’s site is easily navigate around and you know what you’re getting. Because of Travelocity’s purchasing power, they are able to negotiate good contract rates and pass the savings on to you.
Orbitz is another great contender when looking for the low airfare. Five airlines started Orbitz; American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United. They have the capability of offering their seats at discounted rates. They have over 450 airlines to search from in their database, one of the
largest.
Bestfares.com is a travel member site. You don’t have to be a member to view the various promotions; however, if you
want to take advantage of any promotion, membership is required.
With Bestfares member-based site there are some Hidden Costs, so BEWARE. This is what we are not happy about with
Bestfares.
Bestfares will reveal some great travel opportunities; however, they are typically very limited on travel dates, seats and other restrictions. Also, they have higher than average booking fees. We’ve found that what looks like a good deal upfront doesn’t look so good once everything is out on the board…it may not be the low airfare as you think.
Craig Dahl – Senior Editor
Craig Dahl, the professional travel/tour operator reveal the insights so you can get low airfare.
Check out our Travel Network to secure a low airfare at Luxury Romantic
Vacations.
Short Format Professional Videos Can Be Superb when Marketing Your Businesses Services
Today, as a noticeable number of organisations & moguls are looking at internet video sites as a fabulous place to publish content to grab the notice of their potential customers, it’s essential to differentiate the main benefits of utilising web video advertising sites.
Here are a number of basic bits & pieces you should be acquainted with prior to you starting to upload professional videos on internet video portals.
At all times strive to use videos that presents value added info to your potential viewers – Various business people mistakenly believe you can merely add any advertisement on a video site, but nothing could be any further from reality. Every video must give some value added content to the desired market, or start topic of debate.
Undertake some type of market research on the video portals previous to you adding your very 1st video – It’s a tremendous plan to assign some considerable time typing your market’s essential keywords into Google, in order to learn what related videos are currently about. Next note down the profile names of the most key businesses in your niche. Perhaps somewhere down the line you can partake in a joint venture or even have some kind of relationship with these companies.
It is important to take into account that each video portal has a community built into it – With this in mind you must respect the other members and it’s recommended that you add positive notes to your competitors’ videos. Essentially you must be a member of the community, contributing feedback, ideas etc. And only then must you deem yourself as being a video marketer and start to advertise your very own videos & items
Commit yourself to producing quite a lot of corporate videos – You ought to have a clear strategy for developing & circulating several professional videos. Otherwise, your video businesses page on the video sites will give the sense of being blank if it merely has one solitary video on it. As a result, allocate extra time setting up the creation of a succession of short professional videos, instead of one extended video.
Web video marketing is one of the most valuable & fastest manners of marketing your firm these days. Vidify’s online video distribution partnerships guarantee that your professional videos create the awareness and impact you are looking for.
Poker and the Economy
Even the mighty gaming and poker industry and your favorite casino is not immune to the realities of the worldwide economic downturn. According to the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, Nevada casinos are reporting gambling winnings were down a little under 19 percent in December, compared with the same month a year earlier. That means taxable revenues based on the December monthly casino win are also down — almost 23 percent, compared with a year ago. That’s the largest annual decline on record. The newspaper reported.
On the world famous Las Vegas Strip, proceeds of $474.2 million brought casinos there a 12th straight month of declines. These are sobering numbers indeed for any casino operators worldwide. As people lose jobs or have a tighter budget because of economic worries, it makes sense that luxury expenses like gaming would be cut down.
However, this grim reality makes the legality of online poker everywhere even more important. Part of the reason many folks may be going to casinos less is not because they don’t want to gamble, but because of the costs associated with travel and lodging when going there. if people everywhere could legally gamble from the comfort of their own home on a computer, it would bring much needed financial revenue and stability to economies across the world.
Costa Rica Bird Watching Vacation
Costa Rica has long been famous among serious bird watchers, but many people who would never consider the activity at home quickly have become interested in the country’s spectacular avian diversity.
With almost 850 species of birds -more than total of what North America has- packed into an area half the size of Kentucky, it’s hard not to become enthused about the variety of feathered creatures one encounters in Costa Rica. And we can provide us experienced nature guides who make any costa rica bird watching vacation an educational experience.
One of the reasons for Costa Rica’s extraordinary bird life is the country’s great variety of habitats: rain forests, mangrove swamps, beaches, cloud forest, rivers, etc. And any two of those ecosystems, with their resident bird species, are often only a short distance apart.
Birders from North America who enjoy their Costa Rica bird watching vacation during the northern winter invariably recognize familiar faces in the forest, since many species of warblers, flycatchers, vireos, orioles, etc. migrate to Costa Rica every winter.
The country’s exemplary System of National Parks and Protected Areas provide more than ample stomping grounds for birders, but just about anywhere you look in Costa Rica, you spot interesting avian species. Even some of the hotels in the San Jose area have such colorful critters as blue-grey tanagers, great kiskadees and crimson-fronted parakeets in their gardens.
However, those interested in bird watching will want to see the resplendent quetzal, which lives in the cloud forests of Monteverde, Los Santos region and the Central Volcanic Mountain Range, and the equally spectacular scarlet macaw, which can be seen on the Osa Peninsula or the area around the Carara Biological Reserve.
Cano negro wild life refuge is other destination for your Costa Rica bird watching vacation. Cano Negro is a sweet water lagoon, not to deep, with an extension of 800 hectares. The lagoon and the nearby areas, are some of most important and vital biological areas that support environment quality in the north side of the country. The Cano Negro refuge is an important source of food to migratory birds from the north. There are also several species of plants and animals not found anywhere else in the country, birds and fishes for the human consume.
About The Author
Find amazing Costa Rica birdwatching packages in http://www.mytraveltocostarica.com
whart@hotmail.com
Graduation Diplomas For All
Diploma Covers
Accolades such as diplomas are important documents that ought to be preserved hence the need for diploma covers. The covers help in ensuring that the elements of weather do not affect the diplomas. In addition, the persons that handle the document will be presented with a neat and attractive document. Diploma covers should be such that very many people, without the aging effect showing on the document, can handle the diploma. In addition, one can customize the diploma cover to bear their names, the time when the diploma was awarded, the institution from where it was awarded as well as the points one attained.
Diploma covers can be made from leather or any other material that is durable. One can also get the covers in different sizes as suits their specific requirements as well as colors. For instance, women can get covers that suit their tastes like pink, as one may desire. In addition, one can purchase these covers from local stores or order for specific covers online. Once a person orders for diploma covers online, the service providers delivers them to their respective institutions. In this case, one should ensure that the cover delivered to them fits the specific order they placed with the providers.