July 17th, 2010
Want the college spring break trip of a lifetime? Take a long distance thrill ride all the way to Europe. There are so many places to visit and you won’t know a soul there besides your friends so you can be as stupid or outrageous as you want. Pick one country to crash in for the entire week and create an agenda or just buy a Europass and commute all over the continent as you please taking in exotic sites and more as you cruise on a high speed train. Europe is full of surprises and a week there will open the doors to much more if you allow it.
Spring Break isn’t just sandy beaches, wet t-shirt contests, and beer pong anymore. Spring Break Europe offers a perfect blend of social culture and entertainment. Take a trip to London to catch up on culture and bring those history books to life. The sightseeing alone is amazing; Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London are must sees. If you’re a shopper then you simply have to check out Harrod’s and the Portobello Marketplace where you can find practically anything under the sun. Or spend a few hours (or days) wandering through the National Gallery, Tate Modern and British Museum. For fans of the theater there are numerous venues to catch a show, namely the West End. And of course there is alcohol, lots of alcohol in the numerous bars, pubs and clubs throughout the town.
If you’re a bargain shopper and want to get some deals the only place you should consider in Spain is the El Rastro Flea Market where the cart owners will wheel and deal to your heart’s desire. Then stomp your feet and watch a flamenco show or put on those running shoes and start jogging in case those bulls get loose at a bullfight at Fiestas de San Isidro. Madrid has fantastic clubs and restaurants where the food is authentic Spanish food like you’ve never before tasted.
Ireland is a top choice with over 10,000 pubs, outstanding nightlife, mesmerizing sights, and great culture. With nearly one half of the country’s population below the age of 26, Spring Break Ireland welcomes college students from all over the world to join the party.
Guys really enjoy the Red Light District of Amsterdam but there is more than promiscuous women there to attract both men and women alike. Amsterdam is known for its incredible weather, abundance of museums, classic sidewalk cafes and unique transportation. Take a boat ride on the canal or even a gondola after that long bike ride on the outskirts of town. Amsterdam may be fairly large in size but it has the feel of a small community that takes care of one another and more importantly, loves to party.
Spring Break Europe is the perfect escape for a week away where you can dine and drink at eighteen and a place where you can be sure no one there ever has to know your name. Go ahead and have a good time.
Tags: Beer Pong, Cart Owners, High Speed Train
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July 17th, 2010
A whole lot of advice can be said about fishing for bass in a river, but I speed through all of the best tips and tricks here in this article.
Before taking into consideration anything else, keep in mind that bass do not do very well at all in very rapid waters and need to have a way to hide in a break from the full blunt of the current. Very fast rivers are usually not great spots, but anywhere has potential. Just keep an eye out with the following advice in mind:
A river offers many possibilities for food for the bass, as well as many possibilities for danger. Shallower water can spell disaster in extreme temperatures for the bass, and there are many predators that feed on bass who also camp out prime river spots.
The bass metabolism is a key factor in finding great fishing on the river, because that determines how hard the bass is willing to work to stay fed and to stay out of trouble.
Usually, the best bet is to do some good, old-fashioned reconnaissance work of the area beforehand while the water is clear and low. This will help the savvy fisher spot attractive locations that are normally hidden or the object’s image obscured.
What we are looking for are deeper spots that are out of the way, particularly rocky areas that cut the flow of the river, weeds, stumps, tree trunks, and generally anything that looks like smaller fish and prey will seek the area out or be forced into it during higher waters.
Now, the next thing to look for is the type of prey that the bass will be going after. In the case of the largemouth, that is going to be virtually anything smaller than it is! The largemouth will go after smaller fish, crawdads, rodents, lizards, insects, and just about anything that it can reach. The largemouth can easily be fished topwater in slower areas of a river, particularly portions that are sealed off from the current well and have a lot of weeded cover, or anywhere along the bank where the edge overextends above the water.
The best places are going to be muddy covered areas where smaller prey can easily get in to but really have to struggle to get back out of. In these areas where the current fights itself, the best largemouth technique is to allow a nice colorful topwater lure to ride along the top towards the area, then to jerk and pull fast but in very small and short spurts as if the lure is trying to fight the current to get away from the slower area. The largemouth cannot resist such a sight.
Nor can the smallmouth, but the smallmouth likes to be much nearer to stronger current and solid objects, so the best bet for them is to look for any large object that really cuts the flow and gets the oxygen back into the water. This tendency also has a little to do with the smallmouth’s preference of deeper and colder water, because cool water generally absorbs more oxygen than warmer water and the smallmouth has a high metabolism, which means it needs to have a higher level of oxygen in the water. Another important tendency to keep in mind of the smallmouth is that it ideally feeds on very small bottom prey, like small crawdads and small mollusks.
Tags: Prey, Tips And Tricks, Tree Trunks
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July 17th, 2010
The interior lighting of our homes is a basic requirement to a comfortable life; but we can take yet another step and choose a style of lighting that adds to, not only our physical comfort, but our psychological comfort as well. Blanc de Chine, with its simple lines and elegant understated style, produces, not only a sense of calm, but the perfect antique lamp,
One of the outstanding qualities of the beautiful white porcelain known to the West as “Blanc de Chine” is its unique ability to adapt to the evolution of changing styles. It always remains “modern” and completely at home in the traditional / classic, or, most contemporary interior.
Pictured is an 18th century, Chinese, Blanc de Chine lamp of perfectly understated style. The lamp of simple “sleeve vase” shape tapering to a base of reduced diameter. The lamp with an even, creamy white glaze, typical of this beautiful 18th century, Fujian porcelain. The lamp on an antique hand carved, Chinese hardwood stand of elegant style. Very finely carved with foliated openwork and standing on four ju’i shaped feet. The lamp on-stand, seated in a gold plated bronze ring. The lamp cap of gold plated bronze.
Ch’ien Lung Reign – circa 1780 Overall height (including shade) 26″ / 66cm
The term “Blanc de Chine” is always used to describe this highly translucent porcelain produced at the famous kilns at Te Hua in China’s Fukien province. The area along the Fujian coast was traditionally one of the main ceramic exporting centres. Over 180 kiln sites have been identified extending in an historical time line from the Song period, 960-1279, to the present day.
Blanc de Chine does not sound very Chinese, being French for “White of China” porcelain. But it was, of course, the French of the early 19th century who gave us the names of the beautiful Chinese coloured ceramic glazes. Blanc de Chine is a creamy white to pure white porcelain, first produced during the latter part of the long Ming dynasty, 1368 – 1644. On a technical note, the white color of Blanc de Chine is due to the lack of iron, (less than 0.5 percent ferric oxide), in the clay mined at Te Hua. Rich in quartz and kaolin, seri cite and feldspar and low levels of iron, led to the production of this high quality white porcelain.
The first Blanc de Chine shapes were devotional objects such as incense burners, candlesticks, flower vases and figures of saints. These shapes conformed to the official stipulations of the early Ming period, not only in their whiteness but also in imitating the shape of archaic ritual objects. Blanc de Chine is especially found in the very fine devotional figures of the Buddha and of Kuan-Yin, the goddess of mercy, who was particularly revered in Fujian.
White porcelain has always been very popular among the Chinese, who love simple, practical and traditional home decoration. It must also be mentioned that white is the color of filial piety which has always been important to traditional Chinese culture. These early Ming period porcelain shapes were manufactured to achieve a perfect fusion of glaze and body, traditionally referred to as ivory white and milk white.
Blanc de Chine is seen as an aesthetic style of porcelain, possibly appreciated more by the aesthetically minded collector / decorator, being completely undecorated and relying entirely upon its form, which is usually simple in style.
When Europeans discovered Chinese porcelain in the early 17th century, large quantities arrived in Europe as Chinese export porcelain and were successfully copied at Meissen and in the mid 18th century in England, at Chelsea and Bow. Many 18th and 19th century European factories continued to reproduce porcelain in Blanc de Chine style.
When it comes to dating a piece of Blanc de Chine, it can be difficult, as contemporary reign marks were not used and dated pieces are rare. The unchanging output over long periods and the independence of provincial kilns from court fashion does not offer many clues by way of comparison with other porcelains produced in the 17th/18th century. Most information on this beautiful Te Hua white porcelain comes to us from trading records, shipwrecks, chemical analysis and well documented European collections. This combined information allows Blanc de Chine to be dated with reasonable accuracy.
The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co specialise in antique lamps with a range of over 100 unique, antique and vintage table lamps on view. Lamps are shipped ready wired for the US the UK and Australia.
For more information you are invited to visit their web site at -:
www.antiquelampshop.com
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Tags: Antique Lamps, Chinese Hardwood, Openwork
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