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Personal finance is such a taboo subject. I mean, folks really hate talking about money for some reason.
A recent study found that 74% of people will not discuss money with a financial professional.
We can point the finger at shame, insecurity, or even fear as some of the top reasons why, but the truth is, not talking about money can be detrimental to your financial health.
So what about the other 26%? What are some of the top reasons they are willing to gain additional insight when it comes to money?
1. I/We "make too much money to be this broke".
This is, by far, the number one reason folks actually work with a financial coach.
A lot of my clients feel as if they make a decent enough income to be comfortable, however, something is missing.
It doesn't even have to be an outstanding level of debt, either. Sometimes it's as simple as not controlling their food spending.
Often times, they have no earthly idea what to do at this point. They just know something has to change and quickly.
When folks get to this point, they almost certainly reach out for help.
2. I/We "need to get our spending under control"
Maybe they don't have an extravagant income, but feel as though they could do better when it comes to spending.
This is usually tied to a goal like saving for a wedding, buying a house, or something along those lines.
When these types of events are in the plans, folks definitely want to know what luxuries they should pass on. This often leads them to reach out to a financial coach for another set of eyes.
3. "Our marriage is struggling because of money fights."
Sadly, the majority of couples claim financial worries as one of the largest strains on their marriage.
There are a few reasons why financial differences can affect a marriage negatively:
- Debt- Most people marry with financial baggage. From student loans alone, the average newlywed has $29,000 in debt. The average wedding is costing roughing $30,000, and a new mortgage could run about $200,000. Those 3 items alone can bring $288,000 into a brand new marriage. The added stress can weigh on a young couple and pit them against one another if one spouse has more debt than the other or makes the majority of financial decisions. This often leads a couple to a financial professional.
- Personality Types- One spouse is a spender and the other is a saver. This creates natural tension, and often leads the couple to seek advice from a financial professional. An objective set of eyes can really help with blind spots from both parties.
- Extended Family- Someone's parent is now elderly and one spouse would like to bring them into their home. The other spouse may or may not be on board, but the question is, can we afford it? Or maybe one spouse has been supporting a family member, while the other spouse wants to focus more on investing. These differences can definitely be solved when a couple decides to work with a financial coach.
These are just a handful of reasons why a married couple would need to work with a financial coach. We can help couples begin creating and implementing a plan while communicating more effectively.
4. "I just went through a divorce or became a widow and need guidance."
This is always a tough one. There are instances where one spouse handled the money and the other is now absolutely clueless on what to do.
Another example is when someone has stayed home, and now has earning responsibilities placed upon them due to a life event.
Losing a chunk of income or suddenly being responsible for your household's budget can invoke fear in a person. Enough for them to seek out and work with a financial coach.
5. "I started a new job/got a raise"
Woo-hoo! You got a raise! Now you want to ensure that you make sound financial decisions with your new income, so what do you do? You hire a great financial coach to help you get moving in the right direction.
Maybe you have a new job and are unsure whether you should participate in the regular 401(k) or the Roth 401(k).
A financial coach can present the options to you in a way that helps you make the best decision for your future.
6. "I/We know what to do; I/we just need accountability."
Personal finance is 20% knowledge, and 80% behavior.
What this means is, often times, we know the principles like living on less than you make, avoiding debt, and saving for a rainy day, but we struggle with implementation or consistency.
In my financial story, you'll see that I was taught to not use credit cards at a young age. I, obviously, didn't listen, and once I figured out I was $61,000 in debt, I didn't know where to begin to get out.
The journey to paying off our debt was definitely made easier by having accountability partners who were financial professionals, in addition to, my wife.
Work with a financial coach
Having a financial coach to help you on your wealth-building journey is awesome! You should always have at least one professional you feel comfortable discussing money with.
This only helps you see your blind spots and/or keep you accountable if you're going the right way.
If you are in need of additional accountability, a financial plan, etc, you can schedule a 60-Minute session with me here.
I'd love to have your support on social media. Check us out on the following sites:
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.


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You started a new company. It exciting. In the beginning you self finance it. A little bit of savings. A great deal more in credit cards debt. But shortly thereafter you start to realize that your credit cards will not carry you far enough. You need help. And others ... if they only support your idea, they can profit from your success. So you decide to swallow your pride, put on your salesman's hat and try to raise money from family and friends. but where do you start?
You start with a Letter of Intent. an LOI is a one to 2 page non-binding agreement that highlights the main substantive elements of any investment. Yes. Most often this is non-binding. Meaning, no one has to sign it and no one has to adhere to it.
Now an LOI doesn't have to be very complicated. It can be, but it doesn't have to be. In early stage investments. Like Pre-Seed rounds or Family and Friends rounds. Its is important to keep things very simple. It will help you a great deal in later rounds if your early rounds are simple.
Your LOI can be a simple bullet point letter stating that you are raising $15,000 in $1,000 increments. That your company is valued at a total of $100,000 which means that you are selling up to 15% of your company. That all shares will be common stock. That you will be closing on May 1st subject to certain conditions like the drafting of all appropriate and necessary legal documents and providing all requested information to investors.
Alternatively, if your raising money using debt. Your LOI can state that you are borrowing $100,000 at $1,000 increments. That you'll pay interest only for 5 years year at an 8% interest and afterwards you'll pay it off in a single balloon payment. Again, this will be conditioned on the drafting of notes and the provision of all requested documentation's. Many people think that an LOI is a waste of time. Why waste time on a non-binding letter, if we're just going to negotiate an agreement later on?
Here are the five reasons why you should always negotiate a non-binding letter of intent before starting to negotiate any investment agreement.
ONE: Having LOI allows you to more easily sell your investment. It gives you something simple and clear to leave with prospective investors. It gives you a simple short document over which to negotiate. Something they can look at long after your meeting ended. Something they can focus on. Contemplate. Something they can show their advisors or attorneys. It allows you to sell your investment even when you're not there to present it.
TWO: It helps you reduce legal fees. Drafting an investment agreement can be a complicated task requiring the expertise of an attorney. AN LOI helps you reduce fees. If you've already negotiated all substantive matters in your LOI, the attorney only has to focus on matching the agreement to your deal. He doesn't have to spend his time and your money in negotiating the substance of the deal.
THREE: Legal documents, whether as equity investment agreements or notes, can get complicated. You'll be surprised how often people have to look back at the LOI to understand the deal the documents actually describe. The simplicity of the LOI allows investors to focus on what is important in the legal documents. The deal is exactly as they planned it.
FOUR: If there are disagreements, those get ironed out ion the LOI. You want to spend as much time as possible in the LOI stage, ironing out the details. This is the easiest stage. Attorneys are often not involved. You're cost of back and forth negotiation is minimal. No one committed to an investment so an argument is not personal. Things get a lot more complicated when it comes to negotiating the investment agreement. But its a lot easier if you've ironed out the very sentence of the investment first.
FIVE: You're less likely to lose a deal if you've negotiated the LOI successfully. There are many issues that require negotiation during the contract stage. Warranties, Indemnifications and Confidentiality provisions can be tricky. Attorneys can spend a great deal of time looking over these provisions. But if the structure of the deal has already been agreed to, there is less likelihood that the deal will fall through. As long as people sign up to the basic structure of the deal, they are less likely to drop out because of a disagreement over a legal provision.
SO these are the top 5 reasons why every equity and debt round sound start with an LOI. Spend the time upfront negotiation the structure of the deal. Go back and forth with the document unit everyone is comfortable with the terms. When disagreements arise, go back to the LOI. The goal is to get both parties to sign the LOI. Yes … it is not binding. But getting an LOI negotiated and singed, is the first step to a successful financial raise.

subset: commoncrawl


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What we do ...
As a not-for-profit organisation Leaderful Women has three points of interest:
Strengthening the leadership of women through a range of in-depth, high quality learning, where the fees & costs for learning do not become prohibitive and where women can support each other through communities of learning. We achieve this through a unique approach to small groups of peer level learning, which we call PODS; through one-to-one coaching with coaches who are trained to coach in-depth; and longer-term programmes for women who want the intensity of theory and leadership-in-practice, along with in-depth self understanding.
Continuous research and inquiry, developing a better understanding of the cultural and unconscious issues that hold women back in their leadership and in their professional endeavours, then to bring this new understanding into women's learning. By doing this we stay on the forefront of women in leadership.
To provide a range of learning resources that are meaningful, accessible and progressive. We turn the deep insights of research into leading edge learning for our clients.
The Leaderful Women project is supported by a team of highly experienced professionals delivering leadership learning and development for women in middle to top levels. We run Women's Leadership development programmes (one-to-one and in-house), Leaderful Women Learning Pods (specialised learning in small groups) and one-to-one coaching, through our own and bespoke creative learning designs.
We provide you with learning opportunities to;
illuminate qualities that have become eclipsed in leadership and bring them to life in your work.
expand your Qualities of Practice™ enriching your own leadership and the leadership culture in which you operate.
explore and develop new and different ways of working through a balanced leadership approach to your work.
recognise the deep assumptions and self limiting beliefs that restrict your success.
make more of your own personal authority, grow self belief, strengthen the influence and impact you have, build relationships and improve your decision making.
think and act systemically in your leadership so that you can engage individual, collaborative and connective leadership practices well.
work as a whole person through thinking, reflecting, embodied knowing, emotional awareness and relational strengths.
become an inspiring role model who is openly valued and respected by others.
create the conditions for your own leadership success.


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Very good malware blocking overall. SiteAdvisor toolbar's malicious web site blocking very effective in testing. Includes firewall, remote management, secure deletion. QuickClean module helps performance by deleting unnecessary files; also deletes browsing traces.
Installation on one infested system required hours of phone support. Malware cleanup left behind significant traces. Endless remove-and-reboot cycle failed to remove one active threat. SiteAdvisor failed in antiphishing test. Firewall program control is simplistic.
Bottom Line
McAfee AntiVirus Plus is really good at defending a clean system, less good at cleaning up when the malware has already invaded. Those looking for a minimal suite may find this product with its antivirus, firewall, and tune-up components fills the bill.
McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2011
|Type: Business, Personal, Professional
|OS Compatibility: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
|Tech Support: FAQ; community forum; 30 day free phone support and unlimited email and live chat assistance


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Toronto's main airport, Pearson International, is Canada's busiest, and it lies on the western border of town, close to the suburb of Missisaugua, about 13 miles from the city center. With 24-hour transportation, you can arrive at any time — even though traveling to and from the center between 1 a.m. and 5.30 a.m. might take longer. Toronto is Canada's main hub for European flights, and prices can be as low as $450 return if booked 4-5 months or more in advance. Flights booked a month before departure can raise up to $800. Flights from the U.S. are very convenient, starting from $250 return from New York and $500 from the West Coast. Prices are higher during spring break and school holidays, as well as during public holidays in Canada and in the country of departure.
There are several options to travel to and from downtown Toronto to the airport. The cheapest is public transport — for $3 you can catch the 192 Airport Rocket bus from the lowest level of each terminal to Kipling subway station, from where you can travel to the city center. Another option is bus 52 to Lawrence West and Lawrence Station crossing the northwestern part of town, but it's about 20 minutes slower than the Rocket bus. There are also night buses operating from 1 a.m. to 5.30 a.m. (8.30 a.m. on Sundays), 300A and 307 running once every 20-30 minutes. With either route, you might transfer at Yonge Street to the 320 Yonge night bus to get downtown.
There are several hotels in the airport surrounds, within a 10-mile radius. To be on the airport's doorstep, your best bet would be booking a room at ALT Hotel Pearson, a stylish hotel located on airport property and only a quick ride away on the LINK train. Other options are the Comfort Inn Toronto Airport and Quality Suites Toronto Airport, less than a mile away. For a step up in style, you can opt for the Best Western and Residence Inn by Marriott, both about a mile from the terminals. Free parking is on offer while you're away at all hotels for a maximum of eight to 15 days, depending on the property. You can conveniently book on arrival at the airport hotel desk.
Given the vicinity of the Falls from Toronto, many travelers choose to fly into Toronto and head straight there. If you don't have your own car, your best bet would be to get in touch with a shuttle service company like Niagara Airbus, offering shuttle buses and charter taxi services from Toronto Airport to hotels and towns in the Niagara Falls area. Prices vary depending on location, pick-up time, and amount of luggage, but start from $130 return for two people for a shared car to $400 return to charter your own vehicle.
As one of North America's largest airports, Toronto Airport offers a variety of shops, restaurants, and services to make your stay as comfortable as possible. There's free Wi-Fi in all terminals and a wide choice of bars and shops, both before and after security. So, whether you want to grab a quick snack at 7-Eleven or shop at Gucci or Salvatore Ferragamo, you'll be able to get what you're after. There are also permanent art exhibits throughout the airport, changing exhibition spaces, and a dinosaur exhibition in Terminal 1. Given the variety of services on offer, Toronto Airport is a destination in its own right, and a great gateway to the Canadian city and its surrounding area.
© 2019 Hipmunk® and Concur® Hipmunk® are trademarks of Hipmunk, Inc. and Concur Technologies, Inc.


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Friday, March 14, 2008
Mom and Dad... and more sketches!
Well, there they are when the were much younger. Dad was still in the navy and mom was just... wow, she was pretty gorgeous. These were the two greatest people in my life. I draw cartoons because of my father, and I cook because of my mother.
I'm so happy I can look at these photos without falling apart. There was that period of my life where I couldn't look at photos of my parents without breaking down. It still happens now and then, but for the most part, I so love seeing these again.
This was a sketch I did shortly after some salsa lessons Lily and I took. I remember she went shopping in Old San Juan and I was sitting in a coffee shop with my sketchbook, trying to capture it for later use. Coffee shops are like daycare for us. lol. I can sit in a coffee shop for hours on end, so long as I have my sketchbook.
I had fun with this. I love drawing dancers, chefs, musicians and performers in general. Anyone who can't stop doing what they're doing long enough to be self-conscious about being drawn... that's my favorite model. I love to draw movement.
See that panel on the far lower right? That became one of my favorite poses for Lily. Shoulder up, eyes, closed, smiling. That really captures her personality. I use that pose in nearly every issue.
There are moments during a series, when you really nail what's in your head. That panel of us dancing is one of those panels. I smile every time I look at it. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to transfer that look to the final page, since I tend to tighten-up a bit when I go to the bigger boards. But it came out nice in the book.
I remember seeing an X-Men splash page by Paul Smith, featuring Scott Summers slow dancing in a cabin with Madelyne Pryor and I fell in love with that page. I'd love to someday own it. It was a big influence on who I did this page. So nice.
Which makes up for my fat Stevie Wonder. Oy.
Posted by Tom Beland at 11:33 AM
1 comment:
- carbunkel said...
How's Lili? It's pretty hot out in your parts from what I hear. That must be rough.
- March 20, 2008 at 5:01 PM
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Feminine Rejuvenation Market Growth Surges Via Energy-Based Devices
Feminine rejuvenation comprises a number of differing issues and symptoms, which can vary according to a patient's stage of life and circumstance, and can present singularly or as a combination of indications. Non-surgical feminine rejuvenation using energy-based technologies is one of the fastest growing in-office procedures. While this market is still in its relative infancy, due to excellent clinical outcomes, along with minimal discomfort and downtime for the patient, these new modalities are replacing surgical feminine rejuvenation procedures at a rapid pace.
This complex indication is described by a variety of names. Treatments encompass remodeling of the external genitalia for medical or cosmetic reasons such as labial reduction/augmentation or labial color restoration due to dyschromia; vaginal atrophy, which typically occurs in the hypoestrogenic state of menopause, but can also occur with hysterectomy, lactation or with the use of anti-estrogen medications such as those used during breast cancer treatments; laxity caused by vaginal child birth or associated with menopause; reducing dyspareunia (pain during intercourse) for improved sexual health; and stress urinary incontinence (SUI), a common issue after childbirth or with menopause.
Atrophic vaginitis or vaginal atrophy is one of the most characteristic consequences of menopause. The estrogen decline initiated by the ending of the menstrual cycle leads to thinning of the vagina walls and changes in the vulvovaginal mucosa that manifest as a number of clinical symptoms such as itching, dryness, burning, dysuria and dyspareunia.
As reported by the American Association of Family Physicians, vaginal atrophy is a chronic and progressive medical condition estimated to affect an estimated 10% to 40% of postmenopausal women and this rate is expected to increase with the rise in life expectancy. Notably, despite this significant prevalence of symptoms, it is believed that only 20% to 25% of symptomatic women seek medical attention.
Vaginal atrophy may also occur in pre-menopausal or perimenopausal women who have taken anti-estrogenic medications or who have medical or surgical conditions that result in decreased levels of estrogen such as hysterectomies, radiation or tamoxifen treatment for breast cancer.
While there are a number of symptoms associated with vaginal atrophy, one of the earliest is decreased vaginal lubrication. This is followed by other symptoms such as SUI or urinary tract infections. A reduction in estrogen results in a number of cytological changes in the vaginal tissue including decreased elasticity associated with the loss of collagen and elastin, and proliferation of connective tissue. This leads to a shortening and narrowing of the vagina. Thinning vaginal surfaces become fragile, which can cause vaginal bleeding, and a lack of lubrication can lead to dyspareunia, itching, burning and discharge.
Vaginal laxity can occur for many reasons, such as aging, genetic factors, lifestyle and/or trauma and is not limited to women that have given birth vaginally. Up to 76% of women may experience decreased vaginal sensation due to laxity during their lifetimes. During vaginal childbirth tissues of the introitus are loosened to accommodate the fetal head and this can be worsened by subsequent births. Additionally, with aging can come a loss of vaginal tissue due to changes in cellular renewal. Diminished collagen and elastin can lead to decreased elasticity of the vagina and introitus.
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text: Blessings to you and your family on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. May God be always with you and keep you safe. May Jesus be with you and help you in all your troubles and struggles. May Holy Spirit guide you and give you all you need in this life journey. Be always happy in the Lord. And may Mary Immaculate Conception pray for you.


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Job search has a built-in feedback loop. It is easy to know where you are going wrong, and what you need to work on. The difficult part is figuring out how to fix it.
If you are sending out resumes, getting job offers and have a calendar full of prospects, you probably don't need a coach to help with your resume.
If you are sending out resumes and not getting calls, there is probably something off about your resume. That's easy to figure out. Pinpointing EXACTLY what is wrong with the resume takes a resume coach. You might be making the mistake of applying for jobs through an ATS system using your own words instead of keywords or being too job descriptive.
Common errors
- Resumes that are too job descriptive, they read like they are copied and pasted from your job description. It makes you look boring and lazy
- Resumes that are are not targeted, they read like they could be sent to anyone and don't have impact
- Resumes that tell your entire career history. The resume is a door-opener, not a complete job biography
- Resumes that well-written but are sent to the wrong places with the wrong message.
I'm a little romantic about resumes. I believe they can be enjoyable to create and they should be sent out with pride. If you have any shame about your resume do yourself a favor and get a coach to look it over. Not your neighbour, not your previous boss, not unless they are trained in Resume Writing.
If you are getting interviews from your resume, but you aren't getting offers, the most common reasons are that your resume does not correctly represent you, or you need to work on your interview skills. Or maybe a bit of both.
If you have been sending out resumes and not getting calls, hire a coach. Even one session with a coach can give you insights about the impression you give off now and some strategies for your particular search. All of the clients I have worked with leave feeling confident and excited about their next move.
Do you need to work with a coach to land in this market? No. But, the journey is less lonely, confusing and often shorter with one.
Biggest danger – making a bad impression with a key contact
The biggest danger about searching for a job without some assistance is making the wrong impression to the wrong person. If you are using a resume that doesn't represent you well you could be leaving a negative impression that is hard to undo. I don't like to see awesome, qualified people struggle through the job search game.
Hire a coach who is specifically trained in Resume Writing or Career Strategy and whom you think you can be yourself with. Make sure that they listen to your stories and words, and are committed to making you look great, not making you look like someone else. Authenticness counts for a lot in this work.
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"It will be the reference for the next generation" says Ariel Pablos-Mendez, Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation at BIO 2007 in Boston on May 6 at the official launch of the 2000 page Intellectual Property Handbook. This collection of 153 chapters on the art and science of intellectual property management teaches us "to think of using IP in the public interest."
Lita Nelsen, head of technology transfer for MIT and one of the editors of the two volume reference book, describes it as "the How-To manual for using the tool of IP." It is geared, she says, toward two distinct audiences. One is "research institutions and technology transfer operations in developing countries that are building the capabilities of understanding and of actually practicing technology transfer." The other is "first world institutions, to make sure that they consider the needs of developing countries when they license important IP in medicines, vaccines, and foods, and do it right."
Suresh Jadhav, president of the Developing Country Vaccine Manufacturers Network says "I am quite sure that this book, when it goes to developing country manufacturers, or to the research organizations and the universities in developing countries, will certainly teach them the thought process about how to handle their own technologies and how to handle the technologies which are available from developed countries."
The IP Handbook fulfills the spirit of the old Chinese proverb "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
PIPRA and MIHR introduce IP Handbook
Posted by Greg Graff at 11:29 PM


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Congratulations to Thomas Joos and Boulevart for winning in the develop category of the European Adobe MAX awards. There was some serious competition but they pulled it off with their "Rock Werchter Mobile Guide" Flash Lite mobile application, ported to the iPhone.
In case you weren't there, here's a recording of the develop section of the award show.
The full MAX awards recording will soon be available on www.actionscripthero.org.


text: Do you enjoy summertime? We do! Our feline friends also like the warm weather. However, summer can be quite dangerous for kitties! Below, an Ellicott City, MD vet lists some summertime hazards for cats. Heat Your furball can get very sick if she overheats! Cats don't have many options for cooling themselves down if they get too hot. They only sweat through their paw pads, and panting isn't very effective for them. When it gets … Read More


text:
Adiga, BS and Shankar, P (1986) Fast Public Key Cryptosystem Based On Matrix Rings. In: Electronics Letters, 22 (22). pp. 1182-1183.
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A public key cryptosystem is proposed, which is based on the assumption that finding the square root of an element in a large finite ring is computationally infeasible in the absence of a knowledge of the ring structure. The encryption and decryption operations are very fast, and the data expansion is 1:2.
|Item Type:
|Journal Article
|Additional Information:
|Copyright of this article belongs to The Institution of Electrical Engineers.
|Codes;Information theory.
|Division of Electrical Sciences > Computer Science & Automation
|Depositing User:
|K.S. Satyashree
|Date Deposited:
|20 Jul 2009 11:48
|Last Modified:
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By signing up for the ShopPad service ("Service") or any of the services of ShopPad Inc. ("ShopPad") you are agreeing to be bound by the following terms and conditions ("Terms of Service"). Any new features or tools which are added to the current Service shall be also subject to the Terms of Service. You can review the most current version of the Terms of Service at any time at here. ShopPad reserves the right to update and change the Terms of Service by posting updates and changes to the ShopPad website. You are advised to check the Terms of Service from time to time for any updates or changes that may impact you.
You must read, agree with and accept all of the terms and conditions contained in this User Agreement and the Privacy Policy before you may become a member of ShopPad.
You agree that ShopPad may (a) publicize Your name, the fact of the Site and Your use of the Service.
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless ShopPad and its affiliates and their respective officers, directors, agents, consultants and employees from any claims, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (as incurred, including attorney's fees) arising from (a) Your use of the Service or the Site; (b) the use by any third party of the Site; and (c) Your failure to comply with these Terms.
Except to the extent prohibited by applicable law, in no event shall ShopPad or Third-Party Vendor, or their affiliates, subsidiaries, or third party licensors, be liable for any damages whatsoever (including without limitation, consequential, indirect, special, punitive, or incidental damages, or damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss or corruption of data, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use or inability to use the Service, even if ShopPad has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Except to the extent prohibited by applicable law, in no event shall the liability of ShopPad, its affiliates, subsidiaries, and its third party licensors, if any, for damages under these Terms or arising from use of the Service exceed the amount paid by You to ShopPad for the Service in the six (6) months immediately preceding the claim.
These Terms represent the complete agreement concerning the Service between You and ShopPad and supersede all prior agreements and representations related to the subject matter hereof. These Terms shall be deemed agreed in and governed by the laws of the State of California, excluding choice of law principles. All proceedings shall be conducted in English. You agree that venue for all proceedings shall be Alameda County, California, provided that venue shall also be proper in any court of competent jurisdiction where ShopPad seeks (a) injunctive relief against You to enforce the Terms; and/or (b) to join You in a suit brought by a third party related to the Service or the Site. The United Nations Convention for the International Sale of Goods shall not apply. Section headings are provided for convenience only and have no substantive effect on construction. Except for Your obligation to pay ShopPad, neither party shall be liable for any failure to perform due to causes beyond its reasonable control. Notice shall be deemed effective when received by the designated fax, email, or postal address. If any provision is held to be unenforceable, the Terms shall be construed without such provision. The failure by a party to exercise any right hereunder shall not operate as a waiver of such party's right to exercise such right or any other right in the future.


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Take a tour and enjoy a complimentary meal on us!Book today
Our culinary team prepares all meals daily in our on-site kitchen using high-quality ingredients. The diverse menu ensures delicious and healthy food is served, and we're also happy to take special requests to suit your taste and dietary requirements.
Share a meal in our inviting full-service dining room or for a more intimate setting we also have a private area. You're invited to cook up your own creations in our craft hobby kitchen.
Dining at Leaside
{% ReveraMacros.GetFirstComDiningPath() |(user)Inorbitaladmin|(hash)40843dcc976ae8c6dacfe9272bbcec24e829f6653219eeba1e872769c24f554e%}
At Leaside you have a choice of spacious and bright studio, one- and two-bedroom suites with deluxe features and options designed for both independent and assisted living residents. Memory Care residents can select from studio and one-bedroom suites on dedicated and secure floors complete with 24-hour assistance. We also offer short-term and respite stays.
We love our pets and we can't wait to meet yours too.
Pricing includes suite, utilities, available amenities and in most cases meals and activities. Residents have access to an array of care and lifestyle services. Call today for more information or to book a tour and complimentary meal.
Life is all about balance and how you spend your time has a big impact on your happiness. At our residence, it's about doing what you love and enjoying the benefits of being part of a vibrant, welcoming community.
Contribute your unique gifts and skills in meaningful ways to positively impact a common cause.
Build strong relationships with the people around you and thrive as a valued member of the community you create.
Focus your emotions to deal with life's challenges and nurture positive feelings about one's self.
Find greater appreciation for the world around you and support with your peers on your journey of personal growth while searching for meaning and purpose in life.
Lead the independent and active lifestyle you want by engaging in various pursuits that positively impact overall health and well-being.
Stimulate your mind with new ideas in pursuit of lifelong learning and exploration.
Located in the Leaside neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, just south of Don Mills and Eglinton, the residence is within walking distance to great stores, banking and grocery shopping. Leaside is located near public transit, and is also close to medical centres, and to Sunnybrook and North York General hospitals.
Enjoy a tour and complimentary meal on us!
Find answers in our Tips and Tools section.


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Homa Qamar presented chic abayas with generous cuts from her collection.
Mehwish Afzal of Maisha Creations featured some stunning jewel-toned jalabiyas in luxurious fabrics.
Mohammed Al Marri of Dan Couture showcased mainly abayas, but I loved the Asian-inspired kaftan and trouser ensemble.
Wafa Al Kathiri of Malikat Allail showed some glamorous and sumptuous designs, taking inspiration from traditional Arab and Asian clothing.


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Russia: the Indispensable 'Mirror' of the Baltic Countries
The nerve centre of the ever-tense Baltic-Russian relationship is the 1939-1991 epoch, the period that lasted from the signing of the notorious German-Soviet-Russian Non-Aggression Treaty (the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), which, according to the three small republics, ushered the beginning of the end of their independence, to the inglorious implosion of the absurdi impeerium, as an Estonian historian once characterized the Soviet Union.
Foto: Den estiske præsident Toomas Ilves besøger hans russiske modpart Dmitri Medvedev i 2008. (Foto: Eesti Presidenti Kantselei)
Did a voluntary accession of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the U.S.S.R. take place in Summer 1940, as Russia has stubbornly asserted until the present day, or was it a relentless, unscrupulous occupation, followed by an illegitimate annexation? Did Stalin and his Red Army liberate the Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians from Nazism in 1944, or does this achievement pale into insignificance beside the repression and deportation that the three nations had to endure? Are Communism and Nazism/Fascism interchangeable evils, both to blame for the outbreak of World War II, as many Baltic politicians, journalists and scholars have been claiming, or not?
Delicate modern history-related questions of this kind have cast a long, dark shadow over Baltic-Russian relations since 1991 and have influenced nearly all of their facets.[1] This could be discerned, for instance, during the endless, often emotional debates surrounding the negotations on and concluding of the Border Treaties with Russia and the issue of the position of the Russian-speaking minorites on Estonian and Latvian soil. Stressing the unlawfulness of the annexation of 1940 and the uninterrupted validity of the Peace Treaties of 1920 (by means of signing these, Soviet Russia unconditionally recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) implied, strictly speaking, rejecting the territorial 'corrections' of the second half of the 1940s (Estonia lost territories east of the Narva river and in Petserimaa, in the southeast, to the Russian Socialist Repubic, Latvia the northeastern region of Abrene) and labelling the arrival of Soviet immigrants an illegal act.[2] The wish to undo these Soviet 'left-overs' has never fully disappeared, yet political reality dictated tact and cautiousness; the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe and the CSCE/OSCE would never have accepted an invasion of the lost territories or an expulsion of minority groups.
Drawing Baltic Borders
Meanwhile, a modus vivendi on these two issues has been reached. Latvia finally signed a border treaty with Russia in March 2007, Estonia will follow on 18 February of this year, after an earlier attempt had failed in 2005.[3] Back then, the Russian Government refused to send the treaty (sealed by Foreign Minister Paet and his Russian counterpart Lavrov on 18 May) to the Duma for ratification, since it was infuriated by the decision of the Riigikogu, Estonian Parliament, to add a kind of preamble, which contained three indirect references the Tartu Peace Treaty of February 1920 i.e. to the legal continuity of the Republic of Estonia. Estonian legal experts have confirmed, however, that it is possible to make a distinction between the de facto border and the issue of state continuity, including the de jure border.[4] The result will most probably be an 'agree to disagree', focused on practical cross-border cooperation, leaving 'legal theory' aside. Russia's criticism of the 'discrimination' of the Russian-speaking minorities (a criticism which has never been endorsed by the EU and NATO) has become a predictable ritual, mainly meant for propaganda purposes and hardly evoking serious frictions anymore (like it did in the 1990s). Still, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have not relinquished the idea of the continuing validity of the Treaties of 1920 and will adhere to their tough naturalization procedures and linguistic stipulations vis-à-vis the 'Soviet immigrants' (Lithuania, that faced a smaller immigration wave during the Soviet Era and thus managed to safeguard the dominance of the titular nation, introduced a more flexible Citizenship Law).
The modus vivendi/equanimity regarding the border and minorities issues has not resulted in a more structural improvement of Baltic-Russian relations. President Putin's gradual return to Derszjavnost, Russia's traditional self-confident, missionary great power politics, and his professional, Brezhnevite instrumentalization of the Soviet past, especially of the Great Patriotic War against the Third Reich, has only nourished Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian distrust of Russia.
Russia's changing view of NATO
The still tougher approach of Russia is quite a contrast with the cautiously optimistic mood of 2000-2002, the early days of Vladimir Putin's Presidency. The then new Head of State even alluded to an acceptance of NATO enlargement with the three ex-Soviet republics, which even 'pro-Western' Boris Yetsin had tried to thwart. Putin, not wrongfully, assumed that closer Russian-American cooperation in the War on Terror would alleviate the impact of the second post-Cold War enlargement round and would provide Moscow with influence on the NATO decision-making process. NATO's involvement in remote places like Afghanistan and its growing role as a political forum might also affect the alliance's classic defence tasks and military role and thus indirectly weaken the position of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 'Will Estonia really be able to meet the threats of terrorism and proliferation [of weapons of mass destruction] better, if it will be a member of NATO? I don't think so, but if you think that is the case, you have the right to join NATO', Putin said to an Estonian newspaper. He was also aware that for the time being, Russia's fragile economy, that was recovering of the disastruous crisis of the late 1990s, would be dependent on investments form the West. A Lithuanian researcher felt tempted to claim that Russia had finally managed to control its surges of self-aggrandisement and anti-americanism.[5]
That turned out to be a premature conclusion. The notion of NATO/the United States as the Hereditary Enemy, still widely spread in political and military circles in Russia, would not evaporate. They found it intolerable that Bush, Cheney and the ideologically activist Neocons were not willing to pay the logical price for Russia's generosity: no further Western advances on the territory of the former U.S.S.R. On the contrary, Washington welcomed the revolutions in Georgia (2003) and Ukraine (2004) and seemed eager to absorb these strategically important countries into its (rivalling) sphere of influence. Moscow was not granted the priviliged status based on equality that it was longing for. It felt passed by and betrayed – also because most new NATO (and EU) member states in Central and Eastern Europe, its former satellites, were enthusiastically encouraging Washington (and Brussels) to liberate Georgia and Ukraine from the claws of the Russian Bear for good. From the Kremlin's point of view a dangerous zero-sum game had manifested itself, a tendency to which President Putin also hinted in his legendary speech the annual Sicherheitskonferenz in Munich in 2007.[6] The balance between moderate liberal internationalism and occassional eruptions of nationalism that the Yeltsin years and the early Putin years had been disturbed for good.
The Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation of 2010 confirms the tendency towards zero-sum thinking. It is explicitly mentioning 'The desire […] to move the military infrastructure of NATO member countries closer to the borders of the Russian Federation, including by expanding the bloc' (Article 8a) and 'A show of military force with provocative objectives in the course of exercises on the territories of states contiguous with the Russian Federation or its allies' (Article 10d) as motivating Russian military dispositions,
The Baltic response to Russian pressure
It goes without saying that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have witnessed this mixture of assertive Derszjavnost and growing political self-awareness, further boosted by the successful exploitation of Russia's gas and oil bonanza, with grave concern. The invasion of Georgia in August 2008 caused near-panic in the three republics and indicated that Russia was even prepared to go one step further: employing aggressive means against small neighbouring states that dare to flirt with NATO, in order to forestall what Russia views as a possible hostile encirclement. The suspension of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe by Russia, the possible deployment of Iskander M (SS-26) missiles in the Kaliningrad exclave and the Pskov region, ever closer military cooperation with Belarus, which might provide Russia with a forward defence, and the Ladoga and Západ war games near the Baltic borders are symptomatic of the shifting political mood in the East as well.
But would a Russia flexing its muscles and returning to the style of Prince Gorshakov and Andrei Gromyko really shock Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? The answer is no. It may sound odd, but to a certain extent Russia's alienation from the West has come as a relief to many Balts, as a corroboration of common knowlegde. The combination of two centuries of domination by Czarist Russia (1710-1918)[7] and the imprisonment in the Soviet Union – a traumatic experience that since the late 1980s has been amplified by the introduction of commemorative rituals and the publication i.e. appearance of an endless stream of books, documentaries, films, etc. cultivating 'Siberian Martyrdom' – had already debouched into an extremely negative, sarcastic perception of political developments in Russia in general. From an almost apocalyptic perspective, any development in Russia has constantly been associated with the inevitable collapse of (remaining) democracy in Russia and with an authoritarian étatisme that has hardly changed over the past centuries. The unstable, surrealistic situation under the Yeltsin Presidency with the ultranationalists and communists gaining ground meant the definitive breakthrough of this negative approach of Russian politics. 'Europe cannot afford to forget the experiences with Nazi-Germany of the 1930s. We should not repeat the mistakes of the past', Mart Laar, Prime Minister of Estonia, declared in December 1993, after he heard of the landslide victory of Vladimir Zhirinovski's 'Liberal Democratic' Party at the Duma elections.[8] President Lennart Meri spoke of 'Fascism being on the rise' and recommended the West to listen to the Baltic countries more carefully, if they would comment again on developments in Russia. Meri, probably the most outspoken advocate of Estonia's 'return to Europe', advised Western leaders to modify expectations regarding the flourishing of democracy in Russia; how would they react, if a major political party in Germany would propagate the restoration of the borders of the Third Reich? Prior to the first parliamentary elections in post-Soviet Russia, Meri had already warned for 'the withdrawal of democratic forces in Russia, much to the benefit of an aggressive perception of foreign policy, evidently aimed at neo-colonialism.'[9]
Many years later, Estonia and its Baltic Brethren have not seen any need to mitigate their tone – quite the contrary. Boris Yeltsin was given the benefit of the doubt, since he bravely supported the Baltic strive for restoration of independence (although this was also a marriage of convenience: Yeltsin needed allies in his power struggle with Gorbachev), but former KGB agent Vladimir Putin has been considered as a typical representative of Russia's harmful autocratic tradion from the outset. His centralistic 'managed democracy' seamlessly fits in with the pessimistic observations of the political climate and the state ofcivil society in the East. An Estonian cultural magazine once compared Putin to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev: if he could stay in power for eighteen years, Putin, who was already ruling like a patriach and employing the 'right' propaganda, should be able to do the same. President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, a political-intellectual protégé of Lennart Meri, wrote in one of his numerous articles: 'If we think about it, the only real change that has occurred since the turn of the century is the collapse of the Fukuyaman or perhaps more properly the neo-Hegelian dream of an inexorable march toward liberal democracy. […] Russia today no longer aspires to be part of a liberal West; instead it sees its own path as a "managed democracy" based on its own traditions of rule. It sees this path as a model for others and sees liberal democratic rule in former communist lands, especially on its borders, as a threat.'[10]
The Medvedev Presidency of 2008-2012 did not spark any hopes of change. After Medvedev had been elected, with Putin's blessing, Mart Laar commented on his weblog that 'the transfer of power from Putin to Putin went smoothly.' According to Laar and many others, the invasion of Georgia made clear who was really in charge in the Kremlin. Medvedev's announcement (September 2011) that Putin would be running for the Presidency in 2012, evoked predictable reactions in the Baltic media – 'For Russia's direct neighbours, Putin's decision didn't come as a surprise. […] President Medvedev has repeatedly referred to the necessity of political and economic reform, yet it was just talking; concrete steps have never been set.' It came as a surprise to most analysts that Putin's re-election of March 2012 triggered large demonstrations in Moscow and St. Petersburg ('Putins's golden age seems to be over'; yet most of them reiterated that the new/old President would soon resume his political practices – which he has done with devotion.[11]
Baltic Huntingtonians
Many of Russia's devout criticasters in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have been yearning for more sophistical, intellectual explanations. They have been susceptible to the Clash of Civilizations theory, named after Samuel Huntington's famous article in Foreign Affairs (1993) and book (1996) with the same title. The American political scientist explicitly mentions the Baltic countries as being located on the fault line between the West and Eastern Orthodoxe world: 'This line dates back to the division of the Roman Empire in the fourth century and to the creation of the Roman Holy Empire in the tenth century. […] Beginning in the north, it runs along what are now the borders between Finland and Russia and the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and Russia. […] It is the cultural border of Europe, and in the post-Cold War world it is also the political and economic border of Europe and the West.'[12]
Huntington's thesis may be controversial in academia in Western Europe and the United States, not to mention the non-Western world, but has become quite popular in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.Marko Mihkelson, Member of Estonian Parliament on behalf of the conservative party IRL didn't conceal his inspiration by Huntingtonian thinking: 'Experience confirms that along the eastern border of Estonia and Latvia runs a line between two cultures substantially different from one another. [...] The way of thinking inherent to the West, including the Baltics, comes from Rome; the Russian from Constantinople, Byzantium.'[13] Russian mentality is, according to the cultural determinists totally in line with Byzantine, Eastern Orthodox thinking, infused with a sense of subordination and has never been open to modernization and rationalization. Given the continuous obstruction by powerful 'undercurrents', all attempts to take Russia into the modern age are deemed to failure, as even Peter the Great and Boris Yeltsin experienced: 'Even though the chain of revolutionary events in 1917 ended with the overthrow of the monarchy, the absolutist power structure as such would soon be restored again, although the new ideological context was considerably more violent than the one of czarism. The Russian Orthodox Church has, in this view, provided a major contribution to the development of the Russian authoritarian stateby combatting dissident ideas relentlessly.[14]
In order to stress Russia's obsession with itself and its 'unavoidable' derailment, Baltic Huntingtonians have brought in Russian and internationally-conducted opinion polls pointing out that that the greater part of the Russians consider their culture as unique and deviating from European culture and norms, and approve of a strong leader who will restore national power and glory in the global arena. Reflections by sinister reactionary political-philosophers like Aleksandr Dugin and ditto political scientist and antiglobalist Aleksandr Panarin on an authoritarian regime being the only remedy for safeguarding national modernization (Dugin) and the necessity to transform Russia into 'the New Rome' and to create 'concentric circles' around it (Panarin) haven't gone unnoticed either. In other words: in addition toRussia's offensive, neo-imperialist Weltanschauung, as reflected in its foreign and defence policy, its Untertanentum mentality as such poses a threat to Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian security. 'Our bad character is Konstantin Päts [a prominent Estonian politician, who establishment semi-dictatorian rule in 1934, in order to thwart 'a coup d'etat' by VAPS, a fascist-orientated organization of war veterans, J.B.], but they have not created anything tangibly positive since the days of Ivan the Terrible', an Estonian publicist sneered.[15]
Estonia, Latvia, and especially Lithuania, a proud and mighty grandduchy in medieval times, would also hail their 'historic role' of watch-towers of Western civilization against the hordes from the East.[16] President Meri posthumously 'promoted' the Baltic German knights and barons, and Danish and Swedish rulers to the role as guards of the 'cultural border' with Russia – at least their cultural heritage was a positive one. Meri praised the Baltic German community as 'a cultural bridge [from Europe] to Estonia' and 'the spiritual support it offered.' By playing down the contradistinctions between Baltic Germans and native Estonians, Meri hoped he could portray his country as a legitimate scion of centuries-old Western traditions. Literary scientist and Nietzsche translator Jaan Undusk, in the late President's slipstream, described the baltisakslased as ardent campaigners for regional autonomy within Czarist Russia and proponents of the Estonian Case.[17] The truth is, though, that until their departure in 1939, the arrogant Baltic German landlords (who were expropriated after the proclamation of independence in 1918) were loathed and hated by the Estonians and Latvians, so therefore Konstantin Päts, Kārlis Ulmanis and other politicians of the First Republics would probably never have conceived such creative thoughts. However, worshipping certain aspects of a period preceding a negatively earmarked period (the Soviet occuptation) is not uncommon. Toomas Hendrik Ilves has taken a more reticent stand and never openly displayed sympathy for Huntington's contemplations, yet still he called the arrival of German culture in the thirteenth century and the break-through of Lutheranism in the sixteenth century crucial for the coming into being of modern Estonia ('We are prisoners of our civilization. […] That is why we are behaving the way we are behaving').[18]
Russia and the shaping of Baltic identities
The kidnapping of (Western) Central Europe by (Eastern) Russia, to paraphrase Milan Kundera's famous metaphor, is a thing of the past now. The fault line has shifted to the East, back to its 'natural' location. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania solidly anchored themselves in NATO and the EU, the most important symbols of their cultural-philosophical habitat: the West. Yet, the fascination for the fault line has not diminished; Vladimir Putin's 'managed democracy' and intrusive foreign policy triggered a new quest for deeper elucidations. The inference that under Putin, the illiberal Vene idee ('Russian Idea') hasexceeded the intellectual domain and has become an integral component of Russian state ideology and will stimulate and justify 'imperialistic traditions' could be the only outcome of this (resumed) soul-searching.[19] The embrace of huntingtonianism-reverberating concepts seems to serve a second purpose, however: glancing into the mirror of self-affirmation. Russia's role here is to 'assist' Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with their confrontational identity building. Russia is the Pre-Eminent Other, as an Estonian scholar epitomized it, implicitly refering to the Freund-Feind ('Friend-Foe') theory of German political-philosopher and jurist Carl Schmitt (according to Schmitt, explicitly distinguishing oneself from the Foe is essential for the foundation of national souvereignty).[20] Emphasizing Russia's Otherness should thus fortify
the image of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as flourishing democraties and dynamic, innovative high-tech economies. This confrontational identity building, the cultivating of Soviet victimhood and the perception of an existential threat from the East forms a kind of 'sacred' trinity.
It may be asked, whether this huntingtonian paradigm does not blur the complexity of the cultural-historical process. One cannot deny that over the past ten centuries, there have been cultural, religious and intellectuals interractions between the Baltic lands and Russia indeed, including fruitful ones. The Russian principalities exerted religious influence on eastern Estonia and Livonia in the Middle Ages; Russian Old Believers settled down at Lake Peipus in the seventeenth and eighteenth century after the schism with the Russian Orthodox Church; Estonians and Livonians converted to Orthodoxy (sometimes for pragmatic reasons); Tartu/Dorpat University attracted members of the Russian intelligentsia after the Czars had curtailed freedom of expression in the Russian heartland; the Estonian and Livonian elite kept a close eye on political and intellectual developments in St. Petersburg/Petrograd and Moscow in the ninenteenth and early twentieth century; more Estonian emigrants have moved to Russia than to the United States, and the renowned Russian linguist Yuri Lotman came to Tartu in 1950 and brought colleagues and students there into contact with critical minds in the Russian part of the USSR. Soviet and nationalist Russian historians, of course, have deliberately exaggerated the 'eternal' cultural-historical links with the Pribaltika – which have only been part of the Czarist Empire for two centuries (Lithuania: 125 years) – but cultural and religious influences they do not stop at borders. More in general, national identity, culture, etc. are not absolute and static phenomena, as Estonian writer Jaan Kaplinski has remarked ('They are giving and taking'). Kaplinski even notes, provokingly, that 'West-European civilization has destroyed and enslaved more peoples than any other civilization, including the Russian one.'[21] Only in Lithuania, the impact has been less; there, the Polish past is still posing a major challenge to national identity.
Europe and Russia
No matter how understandable Baltic suspicion towards Russia is from a historical perspective, one could wonder, as to whether dark-fatalistic, self-affirming abstractions will really be conducive to improving the security situation in the Baltic Sea Region. Russia is not a real democracy, and sometimes it appears that President Putin is following in the footsteps of his dictatorial Belarusian counterpart Lukachenko; yet most 'old' EU and NATO member states strive to maintain constructive relations with Russia. Therefore, it will make more sense to address Russia-related (security) issues in Brussels, and to try to convince the 'postmodern' partners that Russia's growing adoration of Derszjavnost will ultimately affect them as well. Russia's paranoid approach to the EU's Eastern Partnerships (aimed at deeping ties between the EU and six former Soviet republics), its pressure on Ukraine to join the Eurasian Union, and its disproportionate reactions to the justified criticism by the EU and NATO of Viktor Yanukovitch' violent 'crisis management' in Ukraine[22] might even make the Baltic arguments more persuasive. Recent developments in Ukraine also indicate that moral and practical European support will be more beneficial to the courageous human rights activists in Russia than huntingtonianly-inspired mud throwing.
Lennart Meri was right: The West should listen to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania more carefully. But Baltic Clash of Civilizations-like presentations of Russia's blunt behaviour, no matter how 'useful' they may be for internal nation building (and political purposes), are neither valuable nor useful.
Jeroen Bult is a Dutch historian specialized in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He has published numerous articles on their relationship with Russia, their mutual relations, and their policy vis-à-vis the European Union.
[1] See: Jeroen Bult, 'Everyday Tensions Surrounded by Ghosts from the Past: Baltic-Russian Relations since 1991', in: Heli Tiirmaa-Klaar & Tiago Marques (Eds.), Global and Regional Security Challenges: A Baltic Outlook, Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2006, pp. 127-165.
[2] The arrival of Soviet immigrants is said to contradict Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 ('The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies').
[3] Lithuania and Russia signed a border treaty in October 1997, and have not had territorial issues since Kaliningrad transit was settled in 2002. However, it took the Duma nearly six years to ratify the 1997 treaty, probably because it hoped such a delay would thwart Lithuania's NATO accession.
[4] Lauri Mälksoo, 'Nõustume vastastikuse eriarvamusega', in: Postimees, 13 March 2013, p. 12; Eesti Vabariigi Õiguskantsler (Õiguskantsleri Kantselei), 'Õiguskantsler: piirilepingu sõlmimine on kooskõlas põhiseadusega', 21 May 2013 (www.oiguskantsler.ee).
[5] 'Putin's Unscrambled Eggs. Russia, NATO and even the Baltic States May End up Friends', in: The Economist, Nr. 8263 (Vol. 362), 9-15 March 2002, pp. 54-55; 'Putin Plays a Weak Hand Well', in: Financial Times, 18 March 2002, p. 13; 'Putin vastas Postimehele' (Fookuses: Venemaa on NATO Balti-laienemisega leppinud), in: Postimees, 26 June 2002, p. 2; 'Maskva nebelaiko Lietuvos "posovietine erdve"', in: Veidas, Nr. 42 (448), 18-24 October 2001, p. 12.
[6] Janina Šleivytė, Russia's European Agenda and the Baltic States, Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series, 19, London/New York: Routledge, 2010, pp. 40-42; Karsten J. Møller, 'Russisk udenrigs- og sikkerhedspolitik: En stormagt vender tilbage', in: Militært Tidsskrift, Nr. 3 (Vol. 137), October 2008, pp. 300-301 & 312; 'Wladimir W. Putin, Rede auf der 43. Münchner Konferenz für Sicherheitspolitik', 10 February 2007 (www.securityconference.de).
[7] Lithuania only became a part of the Czarist Empire in the late eighteenth centry after the accomplishment of the partitions of Poland (with which it formed a dual state).
[8] Mart Nutt, 'See müstiline Venemaa...', in: Looming, Nr. 1, January 1990, pp. 129-130; 'Eesti peaminister palub NATO-lt julgeolekugarantiisid', in: Postimees, 14 December 1993, p. 1.
[9] 'Meri Raps CSCE over Faillure to "Spot Fascism"', in: The Baltic Independent, Nr. 193 (Vol. 4), 24 December 1993-6 January 1994, pp. 1-2; Lennart Meri, 'Die Zeit zum Handeln ist gekommen. Rußland und die baltischen Staaten', in:Internationale Politik, Nr.11 (Vol. 50), November 1995, p. 9; 'Balti presidendid näevad NATO-t peamise julgeolekugarantiina', in: Päevaleht, 16 December 1993, p. 1; 'President Lennart Meri avakõne Balti Strateegiliste ja Rahvusvaheliste Uuringute Instituudi esimesel istungil', in: Postimees, 18 December 1993, p. 2.
[10] 'Rasputin, Dvaputin, Triputin!', in: KesKus, Nr.10 (149), October 2007, p. 10; Toomas Hendrik Ilves, 'Külma sõja järgse ajastu lõpp', in: Diplomaatia, Nr. 9/10 (49/50), October 2007, p. 2.
[11] 'Uusvana president. Putini taaskandideerimine presidendiks on ootuspärane', in: Postimees, 26 September 2011, p. 2; 'Putin tuleb tagasi! Mis nüüd saab', in: Eesti Päevaleht, 26 September 2011, p. 2; Välismääraja, Raadio KUKU, 4 maart 2012; 'Venemaa alfad ja beetad', in: Eesti Päevaleht, 6 March 2012, p. 2.
[12] Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order, Touchstone Edition, Simon & Schuster, New York 1997, p. 158.
[13] Marko Mihkelson, 'Baltic-Russian Relations in the Light of Expanding NATO and EU. Post-Imperial Clash of Different Mentalities', in: Demokratizatsiya (The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization), Nr. 2, Spring 2003 (Vol. 11), p. 270.
[14] Ibidem; Marko Mihkelson, 'Venemaa imperialistlik identiteet ja Lääne võimalused', in: Diplomaatia, Nr. 20, May 2005, p. 18; Marko Mihkelson, 'Eesti ja Venemaa – mittemõistmise paratamatus', in: Jüri Ant & Velly Roots (Eds.), Kaks algust. Eesti Vabariik – 1920. ja 1990. aastad (Eesti Vabariik – 80), Ad Fontes 3, Tallinn: Umara/Eesti Riigiarhiiv, 1998, p. 183; Rein Ruutsoo, '(Introduction:) Estonia on the Border of Two Civilizations', in: Nationalities Papers (Special Topic Issue: Vision and Policies: Estonia's Path to Independence and Beyond, 1987-1993), Nr. 1 (Vol. 23), March 1995, p. 14.
[15] Mihhail Lotman, 'Võimusemiootika eesti ja vene kultuuris', in: Postimees, Arvamus kultuur section, 19 May 2007, pp. 2-3; Raivo J. Raave, 'Putin ja pustotaa', in: KesKus, Nr. 4 (117), March 2005, p. 14; Raivo J. Raave, 'Nooruse juubeldus ja vanad valikud', in: KesKus, Nr. 3 (143), March 2007, p. 8.
[16] Česlovas Laurinavičius, Raimundas Lopata & Vladas Sirutavičius, 'Kritinis požiūris į Lietuvos užsienio politiką: kas pasikeitė nuo Augustino Voldemaro laikų?', in: Politologija, Nr. 2 (54), 2009, p. 99.
[17] David J. Smith, '"The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea": European Integration, National Identity and Foreign Policy in Post-Communist Estonia', in: The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Nr. 3 (Vol. 19), September 2003, p. 160; Lennart Meri, 'Eurooplase mõtted Saksamaast' (Peokõne Saksamaa taasühinemise 5. aastapäeval, 3. oktoobril 1995), in: Lennart Meri (Toomas Kiho (Ed.)), Presidendikõned, Eesti mõttelugu 9, Tartu: Ilmamaa, 1996/2005, pp. 504-505; Karsten Brüggemann, '"Wir brauchen viele Gesichten." Estland und seine Geschichte auf dem Weg nach Europa?', in: Helmut Alrrichter (Ed.), GegenErinnerung. Geschichte als politisches Argument im Transformationsprozeß Ost, Ostmittel- und Südosteuropas, Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, Kolloquien 61, Munich: Oldenbourg, 2006, pp. 35-37.
[18] Toomas Hendrik Ilves, 'Murrangujoonel: Samuel Huntingtoni tsivilisatsioonide kokkupõrgetest', in: Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Eesti jõudmine. Kõned ja kirjutised aastaist 1986-2006, Tallinn: Varrak, 2006, p. 93.
[19] Andres Herkel, 'Vene idee', in: Diplomaatia, Nr. 11 (38), October 2006, pp. 5-6.
[20] Jevgenia Viktorova, Transformation or Escalation? The Estonian-Russian Border Conflict and European Integration, Working Paper Series in EU Border Conflicts Studies Nr. 21, Birmingham: University of Birmingham, 2006, pp. 4 & 15.
[21] Jaan Kaplinski, 'Euroopa piirid ja piirivalvurid', in: Eesti Ekspress (Areen Section), Nr. 41 (722), 9 October, p. B4.
[22] 'Sommet sous tension entre l'Union européenne et la Russie à Bruxelles', in: Le Monde, 28 January 2014, p. 3.
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Standard Painting
We can paint your canoe or kayak almost any colour you want. Red and green are very traditional colours. Orange and blue make a different statement. Be bold! Pick the colour you like.
Normally we apply 3 coats of paint – sufficient to ensure that colours have their full richness. We can apply extra coats of paint if you wish. At our shop, we fully paint the hull, including the part that is hidden under the gunwales.
Our standard palette has 49 colours – plenty to chose from.
We also have a specialty palette that includes metallic paint. Call the shop for details.
Custom Painting
For those who see their canoe as art in itself, we offer custom colour painting. This includes up to 3 colours with each colour to be applied to a large area with linear edges or specific structures.
More than 3 colours and patterns with curved or multi-faceted edges are considered artwork. Please see the custom artwork section.
Normally we apply 3 coats of paint – sufficient to ensure that colours have their full richness. We can apply extra coats of paint if you wish.
Custom artwork
It's your boat. Decorate it the way you want to.
We can paint, varnish or decorate your canoe, kayak or paddleboard in almost any way you want. We can work with your design or you can have our artist create a unique design for you. Our decorative services include hand and airbrush painting, metal engraving (e.g. brass plaques), stenciling, vinyl and real gold leaf lettering. Wood engraving, laser burning and inlay of wood and stone are also beautiful alternatives.
Some historical manufacturers logos are available as decals for purchase. If you wish, we can paint the original manufacturers logo instead of using a decal. This would be charged as custom artwork.


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Funeral Home Obituaries...Service
Funeral Home Obituaries...
Madeline BairVisitation:Date: Tuesday, August 6 Time: 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm Visitation Location:Pitman Funeral Home, 5542 Walnut Street, Augusta, MOService: Date: Wednesday, August 7 Time: 10:00 am Service Location:Immaculate Conception ChurchInterment:Immaculate Conception Cemetery
Memorials/DonationsMemorials can be made to Immaculate Conception PSR Fund, Mercy Hospice or to Masses, in care of Pitman Funeral Home, 1545 Wentzville Parkway, Wentzville, MO 63385.
ObituaryMrs. Bair is survived by her son, James "Mike" (Lisa) Bair of Washington, MO, daughter, Jayne L. (Ralph) Struckhoff of Augusta, MO, daughter, Kathy M. (Wilbert) Aholt of Augusta, MO, daughter, Sharon R. (Douglas) Holtmeyer of Washington, MO, daughter, Ruth L. (Darrell) Nadler of Augusta, MO, 18 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren.
She is preceded in death by her father, Raymond Alferman, mother, Olga Alferman, spouse, James Bair, daughter, Judy A. Struckhoff, brother, Leonard Alferman.
Back to Obituaries List
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Doctors are the saviours. Thank them for being with you in your health needs by sending them gift hampers for doctors' day using our services. We suggest you loads of gifting opportunities, which you can easily present your doctor. If the doctor is one of your dear ones, we can add some personal touch with the hamper.


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Hello dear reader
Having had a bit of a stinking headache these past few days, my creativity took a downturn. Although willing, the body was having none of it. Today though, despite it being late (for me), I had the urge and beaten down the pounding head to get mucky!
I've had the Brusho out today, delightful crystals (don't sneeze, they will go everywhere). The tip is to make holes in the tops, think of a salt/pepper shaker.
I spritzed an acrylic block and then simply shook some crystals on and let them merge. Then placed some cardstock on top and let it 'do its thing'. Once it was dry, which didn't take too long, I used the magical day stamps to finish off my card. I stamp some stars and embossed them with white embossing powder (which involved spending a few minutes figuring out where I had put my heat gun!).


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On Projection
Tatlin's Constructivist tower was to be built from industrial materials: iron, glass and steel. In materials, shape, and function, it was envisioned as a towering symbol of modernity. It would have dwarfed the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The tower's main form was a twin helix which spiraled up to 400 m in height, which visitors would be transported around with the aid of various mechanical devices. The main framework would contain three enormous rotating geometric structures. At the base of the structure was a cube which was designed as a venue for lectures, conferences and congress meetings, and would complete a rotation in the span of one year. In the centre of the structure was a cone, housing executive activities and completing a rotation once a month. The topmost one, a cylinder, was to house an information centre, issuing news bulletins and manifestos via telegraph, radio and loudspeaker, and would complete a rotation once a day. There were also plans to install a gigantic open-air screen on the cylinder, and a further projector which would be able to cast messages across the clouds on any overcast day. (Gray 1986)
What does overdetermination mean, as far as neurotic symptoms are concerned? It means that interference will occur between the effects that correspond in a subject to a particular demand and the effects of a postion in relation to the other (here, his counterpart) that he sustains as subject. "That he sustains as subject" means that language allows him to regard himself as the scene-shifter, or even the director of the entire imaginary capture of which he would otherwise be nothing more than the living marionette.
-Lacan, "Direction of treatment and principles of its power"
Richard Wagner Raum, Syberberg's Parsifal
Parsifal photos and stills from www.Syberberg.de; Java shadow puppets and projected Tatlin tower from wikipedia.org


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The MAIB has produced its report into the fatal accident onboard Svitzer Moira, which occurred in Royal Portbury Dock, Bristol, 29 December 2015. There were no witnesses, but the report concluded that the vessel's engineer, who was assisting with mooring alongside another tug, had moved outside the Moira's bulwark, but had then tripped and fallen forward between the two hull as they came together. The report stated that the company's safe systems of work for mooring and barge handling (alongside) were adequate and had the appropriate control measures contained in them. However, the casualty had not been wearing the necessary PPE at the time of the accident and overall there had been a divergence between company instructions and practices onboard.
Svitzer has issued a safety alert to draw attention to these and is reviewing safe systems of work, risk assessments and training provided for mooring. They also implementing behavioural safety training to reemphasise to crews the consequences of not following safety procedures.


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Local Funds
Uptown Lexington Facade Grant and Historic Window Rehabilitation Grant
Uptown Lexington manages a local facade grant program for properties with the Municipal Service District. All work must meet the Secretary of Interior Standards and must be approved before work begins.
Funding includes 50% of facade project cots up to $4,200 for qualifying buildings (based on street facing facades and linear street footage)
If restoring historic windows, funds are available for 50% of the cost of restoring historic windows, up to $400 per window.
For more information about our facade grant program and application click here.
Uptown Lexington CDBG Loan
Uptown Lexington received a Community Development Block Grant in the early 2000s to create a loan pool of $48,000. These funds are to be used for code corrections which encompasses any interior or exterior work that prevents a building being utilized to its full potential. Proposals are accepted through Uptown Lexington.
For more information on Uptown Loan
North Carolina Loans and Grants
As a North Carolina Main Street and National Main Street Accredited Program, Uptown Lexington is eligible for grants through the North Carolina Department of Commerce as well as state and federal tax credits. More information can be found below on incentives for historic redevelopment of properties. All renovations utilizing grants, loans, or tax credits must meet the Secretary of Interior Standards.
Please note for reference that Davidson County is a Tier 2 county.
Main Street Solutions Fund
MSSF is a tool that has benefited many Main Street communities throughout the year. Requirements include 1 full time job created for every $25,000 awarded in grant funds.
"The purpose of the fund is to provide maximum support to small businesses in designated micropolitans located in Tier 2 and Tier 3 counties and/or in designated North Carolina Main Street communities. The grants will be used to assist planning agencies and small businesses with efforts to revitalize downtowns by creating jobs, funding infrastructure improvements and rehabilitating buildings.
Thirty-two communities have been awarded Main Street Solutions Funds, totaling $4,043,693. For every $1 invested by the state, an additional $6.42 will be invested by the local community. Fifty-nine businesses will directly benefit from the Main Street Solutions grant program. Those businesses will create or retain a minimum of 673 permanent full-time and part-time jobs. The total projected investment is $25,227,857." (NC Dept of Commerce)
Project Award – Min $25,000 and a max of $200,000
This requires a 50% match from non state or federal funds.
Federal and State Tax Credits
The Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program encourages private sector investment in the rehabilitation and re-use of historic buildings. It creates jobs and is one of the nation's most successful and cost-effective community revitalization programs. It has leveraged over $78 billion in private investment to preserve 41,250 historic properties since 1976. The National Park Service and the Internal Revenue Service administer the program in partnership with State Historic Preservation Offices.
A 20% income tax credit is available for the rehabilitation of historic, income-producing buildings that are determined by the Secretary of the Interior, through the National Park Service, to be "certified historic structures."
For more information on Federal Tax Credits
North Carolina instituted a historic tax credit program in 1998 which expired in 2014. New historic tax credits became effective in January of 2016.
A 15% income tax credit is available for the rehabilitation of historic, income-producing buildings that are determined by the Secretary of the Interior, through the National Park Service, to be "certified historic structures." An additional 5% income tax credit is available for tier 1 and tier 2 counties.
For more information on State Tax Credits
Please note structures within the boundaries below are have already been added to the Uptown Lexington Historic District on the National Register.
For a complete listing with decriptions, including contributing buildings and non contributing, click here.


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Release Life Eternal in HD FormatNow you can watch full Life Eternal in HD quality with duration 123 Min and was published in 2015-03-05 and MPAA rating is 12.
- Original Title : Das ewige Leben
- Movie title in your country : Life Eternal
- Year of movie : 2015
- Genres of movie : Thriller, Comedy, Crime,
- Status of movie : Released
- Release date of movie : 2015-03-05
- Companies of movie : Dor Film Produktionsgesellschaft GmbH, Dor Film-West Produktionsgesellschaft,
- Countries of movie : Austria,
- Language of movie : Deutsch, Română, Türkçe,
- Durationof movie : 123 Min
- Average vote of movie : 7.3
- Youtube ID of movie : FnUyX6zyV8o
- Translation of movie : EN,DE,NL,RU,
- Cast of movie :Josef Hader (Brenner), Tobias Moretti (Aschenbrenner), Nora von Waldstätten (Dr. Irrsiegler), Christopher Schärf (Heinz), Roland Düringer (Köck), Margarete Tiesel (Maritschi), Johannes Silberschneider (Neighbour), Hary Prinz (Pichler), Sasa Barbul (Pinto), Wolf Haas (Passerby), Hermes (Narrator)
Movie synopsis of Life Eternal :
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Director : Wolfgang Murnberger, Screenplay : Josef Hader, Screenplay : Wolfgang Murnberger, Screenplay : Wolf Haas, Executive Producer : Alfred Deutsch, Music : Sofa Surfers
Yes, now you can watch movie regarding Life Eternal fully length and have the link to this movie Life Eternal in HD video.
Tags: birthday party, dialect, murder investigation,


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Hello again,
Often our customers have this question – "Using Notezilla, how do I stick notes to folders in Windows Explorer?".
Actually, the process of sticking notes to a folder is same as sticking notes to any other website or document using Notezilla. However, to make it work perfectly, there is a setting in Windows Explorer that needs to be enabled.
Notezilla sticks sticky notes to different web pages, documents, folders & emails based on the title of the window. In case of Windows Explorer, by default the title of the window is the folder name. So here comes the problem. If you have multiple folders with the same name, then the sticky note would show up on all those folders because of the same window title. This is not what we want.
In order to solve this, we just have to enable a setting in Windows Explorer – "Display the full path in title bar". On Windows 10/7, you would also see a note "Classic theme only" against this setting. It only means that the full path will be shown only in Classic Windows theme. Other themes will use the full path internally (which is what Notezilla requires).
Thanks :)


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7 time Iron Dog Champion Scott Davis discusses the importance of the starting order and strategies as a racer to stay competitive on the trail.
The planning, preparations before the race drawing, important steps to get involved.
Expanding the race to Fairbanks to draw on racers from the interior as well as the coastline, Alaska. Then watching the start, the mountain passes, river crossing, the stormy coastline and back down the trail. RACE.


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The question that's being asked is how Donald Trump has been able to secure such a large portion of the evangelical vote. The real question is whether or not Trump's supporters who claim to be evangelicals are actually just lukewarm Christians. True evangelicals would have to supersede their own faith with secular desires in order to promote a self-proclaimed unrepentant man as their leader.
Here are some points that true evangelicals should consider about Donald Trump:
- His hotels lease space for strip clubs, promote casino gambling, and thrive on debauchery and fornication. The more that his patrons sin, the better off he is.
- Lust is present in everyone, but Trump has made a show of not only embracing his lusts but of encouraging his followers to do the same. He has bragged in his books and on interviews about having sex with married women and is thrice divorced himself.
- He never mentions Jesus Christ. Even President Obama invoked our Lord and Savior's name, as did every President in the modern era. Trump is the only GOP candidate who refuses to even utter the words, let alone declare His Glory or praise His Sacrifice.
- He stated in an interview that he believes he has never asked for forgiveness, that when he does something wrong he just "tries to do better." This has been underplayed but represents an extremely dangerous doctrine for someone who is supposed to be leading this country back from the brink.
There are plenty of other indicators that he is the exact opposite of what an evangelical should support in its leaders, but those four are the most prominent. How can true evangelicals that believe in the centrality of the born again experience for receiving salvation idolize a man who clearly does not hold to the same doctrine? There are three primary arguments that are made by Trump's "evangelical" supporters:
- "His faith is separate from his leadership abilities." This goes against everything that Bible teaches. While kings are not priests (with the exception of Melchizedek and Jesus Christ), the righteous leaders who can bring their country towards prosperity have been invariably beholden to their faith as they make decisions for their nation. Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan were arguably the most faith-based American Presidents of the last century and are conspicuously the two best (though Coolidge is obviously underrated).
- "He claims to be a Christian and who are we to judge?" We are to know them by their fruits. Trump's fruits have been to wholeheartedly embrace sin and deny repentance for his whole life. He only started mentioning God and the Bible during stump speeches in order to give evangelicals an excuse to support him. We do not judge him as a man but we can and certainly should judge his fruits when deciding whether or not to vote for him.
- "Separation of church and state is the law of the land." There's no need to go into the history of the doctrine that was originally established to maintain the sanctity of the church as a separate entity from government even if it has been shifted in recent years to keep Christianity out of as many aspects of American life as possible. You either understand that or you don't. What we can discuss about this is that no GOP candidate is promoting an unconstitutional shift towards a theocracy. Just like Reagan and Coolidge (and most other Presidents), the faith that allows for guidance from the Holy Spirit is what has made this country great. We have enjoyed prosperity as a gift from God, but the protective hand that has been over our Presidents has started lifting in recent years. Trump is as secular if not more so in his ideologies than President Obama. Nobody knows God's plan, but we do know His doctrines and judgments. Trump may represent the true end to our protection as a nation.
Everyone is a sinner. Not everyone makes money on promoting sin. Donald Trump's success has been based upon catering to the sinful nature. The more people sin at his hotels' strip clubs, casinos, and nefarious business ventures, the more money he makes. How any "evangelical" can support his liberal agenda and pro-sin narrative is a question that they will all have to answer at the end.


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The Ghost of Al Capone's Mistress
In a 1924 stucco-and-wood, Port Orange house located next to a canal that connects to the Indian River, rumors are that Capone used the house to keep his mistress and stash illegal booze.
Supposedly, he would ride a boat up the canal and then use a tunnel from the canal to the house's full basement to access the house unseen.
Marlene at Miami Ghost Chronicles is a freelance writer and paranormal researcher.
Interesting stories about what is happening in the mysterious world of the paranormal. True stories, folklore, urban myths and interesting news stories that are a delight to the weird folk that enjoys the supernatural world.
We want you to feel at home when you post a comment on Stranger Than Fiction Stories. That's why we reserve the right to delete comments and ban users as needed to keep the comment threads here civil and substantive. So read the guidelines below to make sure you are coloring inside the lines.
Do you have a story to tell?
November 2019


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One of the most effective ways to encourage wildlife into your garden is by introducing a pond. This guide will show you how to build a pond which your local wildlife will thank you for!
Going Solar- How to Take the First Steps
Interested in installing panels but not sure where to start? Guest writer, Reuben Dickinson has some advice on how to take the first steps towards going solar, and having greener power in your home


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Tie The Knot at Rustic Country Function Venue in Sandton
If you are looking for a tranquil relaxed wedding venue away from the city and yet not a million miles away from Gauteng's hub then Rustic Country Function Venue is the place you should look at. We are situated in Linbro Park, Sandton on the edge of the Modderfontein Nature Reserve. On lucky days you can hear the call of the fish eagle and if your event extends into the evening you will most certainly hear the call of the jackal.
We are very conveniently situated; only 25 minutes from OR Tambo International Airport, 30 minutes from Lanseria, 16 minutes from Sandton and on the doorstep of all the surrounding business parks.
Your Wedding
As we are not a licensed establishment, you are welcome to bring your own alcohol which (you will agree) saves hundreds of Rands.
We are able to offer delectable catering from our sister company and we also have a co-ordinator and décor specialist. Our DJ Maanda would also be only too happy to be of service at your function. He offers music to suit all tastes.
Contact Rustic Country Function Venue
To book this rustic venue visit Rustic Country Function Venue.
Wedding Links
- Sandton Hotels Click here
- Gauteng Hotels Click here
- Gauteng Weddings Click here
Happy Wedding Planning!
Oh, and please "Like" us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or follow us on Google Plus – we'll ♥ you so much if you do x


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SAOR Monthly Meetings- Stephenville, Texas
Join us the third Tuesday of every month for lunch and organization updates at 11:30. Locations vary. Please check your email for each month's location. Don't forget to bring your business card and $1 for the Business Card drawing. We also draw for FREE MLS for a month!


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Sweetscape packages
Need ideas?
Enhance your event with a candy buffet, savoury or dessert table.
At DDC Creations, we specialize in event planning solutions to make your event one to remember.
We take your event preparations off your shoulders but never out of your hands.
For the DIY host looking to add an elegant touch to your event or for a hand in executing your plans - we're here to help!
Let us bring your dreams and designs to life.
Event planning
Special occasion?
We can help design a one-of-a-kind event just for you.
Copyright 2018 © DDC Creations. All rights reserved.
Supplies & Rentals
DIY fanatic?
View our online catalogue for a list of products and services.


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We've given it the big buildup, and now it's time to actually watch it ... the Guardian Screening Room is proud to present Giuseppe Tornatore's 1988 classic Cinema Paradiso for your viewing pleasure.
Despite a slightly rocky reception when it was first released in its home country, Cinema Paradiso went on to become a global arthouse blockbuster, and remains perennially popular to this day. It's been restored for its 25th anniversary, so it's a perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in its wonderfully romantic and nostalgic vision of smalltown Italy allied to an unquenchable love of the movies themselves.
As if you needed any more encouragement, the legendary Stuart Heritage will be hosting a live watchalong tonight starting at 7.30pm. And for a bit more context and background, here's some of our recent editorial on the film: Laura Barnett's interview with the film's child star Salvatore Cascio; Phil Hoad's essay on Cinema Paradiso's role in the rise of "postcard arthouse"; and John Patterson's look at its path from small Italian film to worldwide hit. Plus, check out the winners of our reader review competition.
• Salvatore Cascio: 'Cinema Paradiso is about the power of dreams'
• Cinema Paradiso: the little movie that could
• More on Cinema Paradiso at 25


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BRASILIA (Reuters) - General Motors Co (GM.N) will invest 6.5 billion reais ($2.8 billion) in Brazil over the next five years, Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra said on Thursday, reaffirming the automaker's long-term plans despite a sharp downturn in the local market.
Speaking to reporters in Brasilia after meeting President Dilma Rousseff, Barra said capital spending will be focused on new products and technologies, as well as plant maintenance.
"We recognize that there are challenges right now, (but) over the midterm and long term we see great prospects in the Brazilian market," Barra said.
Brazil's auto industry, which makes up one-fifth of the country's manufacturing output, has slashed production by 16 percent in the first seven months of the year and laid off thousands of workers as the economy stagnates.
Detroit-based GM and a metalworkers union outside of Sao Paulo are at loggerheads over plans to place some employees at a local factory on paid leave. The union has said the plans could threaten the jobs of 1,000 workers.
The union said later Thursday it will hold GM to the promise of increasing investment at Sao Jose dos Campos plant. At a press conference, Barra did not mention labor issues.
Barra said she thanked Rousseff for tax incentives for automakers and improved credit conditions in Brazil.
Despite tax breaks, automakers are reducing payrolls in one of the world's largest car markets as demand for new vehicles tumbles. Germany's Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) put 900 workers in Brazil on paid leave in May and France's PSA Peugeot Citroen SA (PEUP.PA) started a voluntary leave program for workers in Rio de Janeiro state that same month.
($1 = 2.2696 Brazilian reais)
Reporting by Carolina Marcello; Writing by Alonso Soto; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe


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NAVI MUMBAI: Auto drivers exposed to pollution and glaze of lights of motor vehicles on roads during their daily run have short and long distance eye problems; mostly long distance viewing (hypermetropia). There are those who also have myopia and face difficulty in reading.
A medical camp organised by a city auto union Friday has exposed the health hazard faced by them. Blood pressure and diabetes is not a problem, but eye and overweight in comparison to their height is an issue,'' said Madhukar Patil, secretary of shree Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj chalak malak sangh.
The camp was organised in Koperkhairne and 60-70 auto drivers participated of which a significant number of 40-50 reported vision problem while there were those who were advised to exercise, said Patil.
The union leader reasoned, long hours of driving hardly provided for time for daily exercise and operators also get tired, but after the camp and doctors advise, they have resolved to take care and also put on glasses.''
Doctors advised proper health care as driving could be hazardous with commuters on board as headaches, head swirling and back problems were potential reasons for causing road accidents, Patil said.


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Seahawks Insider Blog
Seahawks' Bobby Wagner stirs the pot ... a little ... by saying Broncos were scared
As if the Seahawks-Broncos games this year needed any more build up, there was this from Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner on ESPN's "First Take":
The Broncos were intimidated from the start by the Seahawks' defense in the Super Bowl.
Bulletin board material? Hardly.
Obvious by the game's score? Undoubtedly.
Anyway, Wagner visited with co-host Stephen A. Smith, who asked him if he thought the Broncos' offense was intimidated.
Wagner's response: "You're not wrong," Wagner said on ESPN. "They looked scared out there. Nobody wanted to catch the ball. Nobody wanted to come up the middle."
Wagner said he thought Kam Chancellor's hit on receiver Demarvius Thomason in the first quarter was a factor.
"If you look at the previous games, [the Broncos] got a lot of balls across the middle," Wagner said. "That first hit [by Chancellor] came across the middle and smacked him.
"You didn't really see too many balls caught across the middle [after that play]. They were very timid. That says a lot about our defense."
This is the kind of stuff that qualifies as "interesting" at this point in the season, when most teams are enjoying the last few days off before training camp. The Seahawks, given their status as defending Super Bowl champions, can get used to making "news" ... and I put that in quotes ... just about anytime a player says anything.
Such is life when you blow out the NFL's best offense 43-8 in a game that wasn't as close as the score would indicate.
And really, does it matter? It's not like the Broncos aren't looking forward to the two games vs. Seattle this year (Denver and Seattle meet in the exhibition season on Aug. 7 and then again, when it counts, in Seattle, on Sept. 21.)