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Your feedback and questions are important to us.
Please check through the FAQs below, they might help you before contacting us.
Do you use palm oil? If so, is this sustainable palm oil?
Palm oil is widely used for a variety of reasons, and is one of the most productive crops per hectare compared to alternatives. That said, we regularly review our raw materials to ensure we are using the most appropriate raw materials to deliver the quality required across our range of snacks.
At pladis UK and Ireland we take the sourcing of all our raw materials seriously. We have been a member of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) organisation since 2007 and have been using 100% RSPO-certified palm oil since 2009. We recognise as a responsible business we need to continue to support the industry on its transformation journey; in addition to purchasing RSPO-certified palm oil, in 2018 pladis UK and Ireland became members of The Forest Trust.
Do you use GMO in your products?
UB uses only non-GM ingredients in its products. As a responsible food manufacturer, UB's priority is to assure the safety and quality of the ingredients it uses.
Since 1997 UB has:
- Where necessary, substituted soya and maize ingredients with non-GM alternatives.
- Where substitution was inappropriate, UB has sourced ingredients from traditional, identity preserved crops – i.e. non-GM crops.
The integrity of UB's policy is backed by a rigorous inspection process which covers all aspects of supply – from field to factory.
Despite the audit trail, accidental or inadvertent presence of GM material can still occur in a non-GM crop. This can occur through transference in nature – e.g. via wind borne pollen or it can happen accidentally. To date, UB has opted not to label products as non-GM even though it could make many of the specific non-GM claims made publicly by others.
Why is it that for some products the packaging can be larger than the product?
The packaging of our products is under constant review and great care, attention and research is given to the development of new packaging. Our first concern is to ensure that the product is effectively protected against damage or contamination in transit. We also aim to package our products in ways which reflect how people prefer to use them.
We take our responsibilities for the environment very seriously and try to balance all aspects of protection, presentation, promotion and cost as carefully as we can. We certainly never aim to wrap our products in more packaging than is necessary to give them maximum protection as this would add to the cost for both ourselves and the consumer.
What is UB's policy on sponsorship/donation requests?
UB is approached by many groups and individuals representing causes and the task of choosing between them is almost impossible for us. So we have recently adopted a clear policy which makes those decisions more understandable for those people requesting support.
We have a small budget which supports charitable causes, our policy is to allocate this budget to causes directed at families and children and to look for a strong local link in communities where our sites are located.
Product is out of date what should I do?
The fact that the product was sold beyond the indicated date is the responsibility of the retailer and we would recommend that you return the product to the shop from where it was purchased together with the purchase receipt.
How do I know if a product is suitable for vegetarians?
For any of our products that are suitable for a vegetarian diet the recognised vegetarian logo will be displayed on the pack near to the pack weight and barcode.
What is your position on using cage-free eggs?
At pladis UK & Ireland, we're proud guardians of much-loved household favourites including McVitie's, Jacob's and go ahead! and strive every day to make delicious biscuits, cakes and snacks that people love to eat. We also recognise that consumer satisfaction today goes beyond great taste.
That's why, at pladis UK & Ireland, we will only use eggs laid by cage-free hens in all our products by 2025.
Are any UB products Kosher certified?
For any of our products that are Kosher certified, the recognised Kosher symbol will be displayed on pack.
Do any of your products contain alcohol?
Should alcohol be used as a direct ingredient, for example within the recipe for a Christmas cake line within the cream flavouring, this would be clearly labelled within the list of ingredients.
Occasionally however, it is possible that trace amounts can be used purely as a carrier in a flavour used in our products. The amount within the product is minute; however if you have any concerns for your diet or require any further information then please contact us.
Do you provide product lists for consumers who have a dietary requirement?
Yes, you can find product lists in the Special Diets section of the website for all key groups, for example, products which are suitable for vegetarians. If you have a nutritional or dietary query which is not covered by these, please contact us.
Do you use Mono Sodium Glutamate in your products?
MSG or Monosodium Glutamate (E621) is used to develop and enhance the flavour of many savoury products and is commonly found in soups, sauces, prepared meals and sausages as well as in snacks such as crisps and savoury biscuits.
MSG is permitted in foods in general to a maximum level of 10g/kg according to both UK and EC legislation. There are some foods or types of food which are not allowed to contain additives, or where the use of certain additives is restricted, this includes foods for infants and young children. It is correct that MSG is not permitted in these foods, however our products do not fall into this category. Foods for infants and young children actually refers to formulae and weaning foods or foods that are specially prepared for infants and young children.
We recognise that some people need or prefer to avoid MSG in their diet and where it is included as an ingredient will always be labelled clearly on packaging within the ingredients list.
Are your products suitable for coeliacs?
Unfortunately, many of our products are not suitable as they contain cereal or flour based ingredients. For more information, please go to the Special Diets section.
Where can I buy UB products?
Unfortunately, we can't specify the individual stores in your area that stock our products, as we deliver to the Central Warehouses of large multiples, and because store ranges change from time to time. Smaller stores or outlets purchase from local Wholesale or Cash and Carry outlets.
Can your packaging be recycled?
In the case of cardboard, such as cartons or paper, this can be recycled through normal recycling facilities.
We've also partnered with recycling experts TerraCycle since 2012 so that you can now recycle all our plastic packaging. You can either send your wrappers in via Freepost, or drop them off at one of nearly 500 locations around the country, and TerraCycle will recycle all the wrappers.
In addition, we're members of the UK Plastics Pact, and we've pledged to work with our industry partners to make all our plastic packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
Why do you discontinue lines?
There are a number of reasons why this might happen. Some common reasons are that some products are removed from sale by retail outlets as they do not reach the rate of sale required to maintain viability on shelf. Unfortunately, in many cases we are unable to influence this.
A long standing product may also be discontinued due to a falling off of popularity, resulting in it no longer being a viable product to produce.
Can you explain the coding to me for these packs - I don't understand it?
All consumer units, i.e. what is sold via a retail outlet, are required to carry a Best Before code, to advise the recommended time for consumption of the product.
In the case of multi-packs, due to manufacturing complexities occasionally the date codes are applied to the outer packaging only, as this is the unit being offered for sale and therefore covers the entire contents. The code on the individual packet is not a best before date; it is an internal code which show us the week, line number of production, production team/shift and the time the packet was produced. In these cases, a note of the best before date applied to the outer pack needs to be made.
How should I store your products?
The general rule for all of our products is to store them in a cool, dark place, particularly so for chocolate products. We would strongly recommend storing our products away from strong flavours or materials such as washing powders or other cleaning materials, which may taint the product and result in poor taste or quality.
I have a query on the product I have bought - where can I find out more?
You can contact our Consumer Services team on our Careline, or via email. You can find these on the Contact us page.
If you are for any reason dissatisfied with any of our products, please Contact us to inform us so that we can look into it and where necessary take any actions needed.
Can I submit an idea for a new product / packaging, or for a variant to an existing product / packaging?
We receive lots of feedback and comments on our current brands and packaging, suggesting new ideas for our products and packaging. At UB we have bespoke teams who work in partnership with professionals, and whose responsibility it is to innovate, test and evaluate new product ideas all the time.
Experience has shown us that often people send us their suggestions for things that we may have already considered, are actually in development, have been tested or used previously by ourselves or our competitors or have been ruled out for various reasons. New products are many years in planning and they need to be carefully researched to ensure they have mass appeal, brand fit, are technically feasible and commercially justifiable, at a minimum.
Should you submit an idea, artwork, invention, development, suggestion, concept, etc. to us, you agree that your submission is non-confidential and UB is free to use that information, and any such use is without compensation to the party submitting that information. UB will not acknowledge or enter into any correspondence in relation to unsolicited submissions.
How much sugar do UB products contain?
At UB we offer a wide range of baked snack foods from indulgent treats to healthier snacks. For consumers seeking biscuits with a relatively low sugar content, McVitie's Digestives have just 2.5g sugar per biscuit (half a teaspoon) and McVitie's Rich Tea have even less at just 1.7g sugar per biscuit. We also have many savoury products under the Jacob's brand which are lower in sugar than our sweet biscuits.
We are committed to providing clear and accurate nutrition information for our products and as such clearly label the sugar content per biscuit, or per portion where appropriate, on the front of packs, as well as in the nutrition information table on the back.
There is also further information on the Our Products section of this website.
What are free sugars?
Sugars have been in the limelight recently following a review of the scientific evidence surrounding sugar intakes and health. The media coverage has led to lots of confusion about what types of sugars we should be eating and how much. Here is a short summary:
Sugars can be divided into two main categories:
Free sugars – include all sugars added to foods by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and unsweetened fruit juices.
Intrinsic sugars – include those naturally present in whole fruits or vegetables and in milk.
How much sugar should I eat as part of a healthy diet?
The UK government reference intakes, based on an average adult female, outline that we should eat no more than 90g of total sugars per day. This includes both free sugars and intrinsic sugars found in milk or whole fruits and vegetables.
The recent change to dietary recommendations in the UK applies specifically to free sugars, and it is now recommended that we should have no more than 5% of our daily energy intake coming from free sugars. This equates to no more than 30g/day for people aged from 11 years and adults. Children aged 4-6 years should aim for no more than 19g/day and children aged 7-10 years should have no more than 24g/day.
Treats and snack foods, such as biscuits, can easily be incorporated into a healthy balanced diet which still meets the new recommendations. This is demonstrated by The British Nutrition Foundation who have published some dietary modelling and developed a 7 day menu plan illustrating what a diet that meets the new recommendations for free sugars could look like.
Two chocolate biscuits are included in this menu plan as a snack, demonstrating that all foods can be eaten in moderation as long as the whole diet is balanced.


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Laptops Reach the Holy Grail
- Laptops Reach the Holy Grail
- Major Milestone
Here's an interesting tidbit you might not know about the PC market: In mid-2006, more laptops were shipped than desktop PCs. What's even more interesting is that this trend is only getting stronger. There's a lot of activity in laptop computing today, as the focus shifts toward increased mobility. The reason for this is relatively obvious. Laptops provide computer users with much more flexibility. And now that they're cheaper than ever, the need for a full-fledged desktop computer has diminished.
The largest laptop segment is what's called the "all-in-ones." These weigh from 4 to 7 pounds, on average, and are typified by the Lenovo ThinkPad T and Dell Latitude D series. They represent about 75 percent of all laptops sold today.
All-in-ones may be in the majority, but these days the real stars of the personal computing world are ultraportables, laptops that weigh less than 3 pounds. All of the major vendors have laptops in this range, but they comprise less than 12 percent of all laptops sold.
This is not to say that there isn't a real demand for ultraportables. Personally, I like traveling with a laptop that weighs less than 3 pounds whenever possible. But most of the ultraportables I use, including the Toshiba Portégé R200 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X60, only sport a hard drive and not an optical drive. That brings us to the holy grail of laptop computinga two-spindle system (a laptop that integrates both a hard drive and optical drive) that weighs less than 3 pounds. We haven't seen such a system . . . until now.
Recently, I was pleasantly surprised when Toshiba showed me its new Portégé R500. It's clearly the lightest no-compromise ultraportable available today. I have been lobbying laptop vendors to make something like this for five years, and, finally, we have a laptop that has a powerful processor (a 1.2-GHz Intel Core Duo), weighs well under 3 pounds, and integrates both a hard drive and an optical drive.
The 2.4-pound R500 has a full-size keyboard, a 12.1-inch widescreen display, a 120GB hard drive, and, most surprisingly, a CD/DVD drive. I have been testing an early unit for about a month, and I think it's a marvel of technology. My only concern is that it's so light that I'm not sure how rugged it will be. I'm pretty careful with all my laptops, so this probably won't affect me, but ultraportables are in high demand in mobile sales and field-force projects, as well as in some vertical markets, where ruggedness is often an issue. Also, you really need the optional extended battery to get more than 3 hours of running time (with it, I've gotten close to 5 hours).next: Major Milestone >

subset: commoncrawl


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Anne Johnson
Writer in Gold Coast, Australia
I'm Anne and I live on the Gold Coast, Australia. My spare moments are spent writing kidmin articles or sharing inspiring ideas and everyday moments that matter for families. You'll probably find me at my favourite coffee shop or strolling along one of the Gold Coast's beautiful beaches. Check out some of my recent articles and ideas with a click on the button above.


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Since 1998, Professional Alternatives has had the privilege of representing some of the finest professionals in the country, and we are grateful that you have given us the opportunity to include you in that group.
We certainly recognize that your time is valuable and that you have a choice in what firms you choose to represent you, and it is our goal that you leave our office confident that your time and energy were well spent. We look forward to a lasting partnership that will transcend your current search, enabling us to become a career advisor to help you achieve all of your personal and professional goals.
With our company, you aren't just another candidate. You are a carefully selected professional with goals, aspirations and a unique skill-set that is aligned with the niches that we target.
Our organization is widely recognized as being the dominant player in our respective target markets, and you can expect that all of our employees will treat you with honesty, integrity, professionalism and with the highest levels of customer service.
We will work directly with you to understand your talents, motivations and preferences, and we will work diligently to match you with a client organization that will provide the best fit for you and enable you to achieve your maximum potential.
Thank you again for giving us the opportunity to make an impact in your life. We sincerely appreciate the trust you have placed in us, and we look forward to showing you the Professional Alternatives difference.


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They linked us up with a secret blogger that we sent a box of back to school goodies. Here were the directions.
I had the honor of being paired with Brittany Banister of iheartkindergarten.
Here's what she sent me:
Oh my goodness! Precious
It was fun to get a box fun of my favorite things in the mail! Thank you so much Brittany and Covered in Glitter and Glue! This exchange was a terrific idea and great fun!


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Limited edition of 150
This limited edition silkscreen print features the album artwork from Catherine Wheel's 1995 single, Judy Staring at the Sun. Storm described to Hypergallery the origins of the Judy Staring lyrics and how he interpreted this visually for the cover: "Judy Staring at the Sun is the full title and is an image designed for a single from the band Catherine Wheel in 1995. The song concerned a friend of theirs who was unfortunately a heroin addict and became removed and slowly more distant. In the lyrics it was noted particularly that she didn't blink whilst looking at the sun. I was trying to represent the icy world of detachment. Our Judy is surrounded incongruously by ice, she can therefore witness the outside world but is removed and protected from it. She is naked to represent both her vulnerability and her uncaring attitude. She doesn't mind how she appears to others, shielded as she thinks, by her invisible cloak of heroin (please do not try this exercise at home with a younger sibling, however great your rivalry, thank you)." A weighty Somerset paper has been used for this edition, printed in archival inks by the renowned Coriander Studios in London.
Designed by:
Signed by:
Published by:
Storm Thorgerson, London, UK
Limited edition of:
Printed by:
Coriander, London, UK
Silkscreen in 24 colours
Image size:
19 x 19 inches
Paper size:
28 x 33 inches
Get on our list


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WASHINGTON — The White House is working on early drafts of a comprehensive bill that would offer 11 million illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship along the lines of the principles that the president laid out in Las Vegas several weeks ago, administration officials said.
President Obama revealed last month that his administration had already drafted immigration legislation. But he said he preferred to let a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers work out their own bill that could also tighten border security and provide employers with a way to verify the citizenship status of workers.
White House aides said that Mr. Obama remained pleased with the progress being made on Capitol Hill toward a complete overhaul of the nation's immigration system. But they said he would be prepared to submit legislation if the effort among lawmakers stalls.
"The president has made clear the principles upon which he believes any common-sense immigration reform effort should be based," Clark Stevens, a White House spokesman, said in a statement. "We continue to work in support of a bipartisan effort, and while the president has made clear he will move forward if Congress fails to act, progress continues to be made and the administration has not prepared a final bill to submit."
On Saturday, USA Today reported that it had obtained portions of the president's draft legislation. The newspaper said the bill would allow illegal immigrants to become permanent residents within eight years and in the meantime apply for a "Lawful Prospective Immigrant" visa. Mr. Stevens and other White House officials declined to comment on specific details of the report.
Those details are similar to the statement of principles that the White House provided to reporters after Mr. Obama's Las Vegas speech. A fact sheet said the president wanted to strengthen border security, provide "earned citizenship," streamline legal immigration and crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
"Immigrants living here illegally must be held responsible for their actions by passing national security and criminal background checks, paying taxes and a penalty, going to the back of the line, and learning English before they can earn their citizenship," the fact sheet said. "There will be no uncertainty about their ability to become U.S. citizens if they meet these eligibility criteria."
In a statement late Saturday night, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, criticized Mr. Obama, saying that the details reported in the USA Today article represented legislation that "is half-baked and seriously flawed."
"It would actually make our immigration problems worse," he said. Mr. Rubio, who has been among the leading Republicans pushing for a comprehensive overhaul of immigration, predicted that a bill like the one reported would be "dead on arrival in Congress."
But Demetrios G. Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, an independent nonpartisan research center in Washington, said the eight-year temporary status for illegal immigrants in the document obtained by USA Today was "essentially the same as the probationary status" envisioned in a proposal developed by a bipartisan group of eight senators. During that probationary period, Mr. Papademetriou said, immigrants would have temporary visas with full work authorization.
The bipartisan Senate proposal calls for additional border security and more effective enforcement to curb illegal immigration. And it would require that "enforcement measures be complete before any immigrant on probationary status can earn a green card." It was not immediately clear whether the White House would support such linkage.
Mr. Obama's administration has been working on immigration legislation for years. But the issue shot to the top of the president's second-term agenda after his re-election in November, when Hispanic voters backed him in large numbers. White House officials are betting that Republicans will be eager to embrace immigration changes as a way of repairing their image with an important voting bloc.
But getting legislation passed remains tricky, especially in the Republican-controlled House, and Mr. Obama has made it clear he will take a back seat to lawmakers if it will help. Negotiations are taking place among a bipartisan group of senators, a separate group in the House, and labor leaders and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, praised Mr. Obama's tone on the issue last week, saying the president "actually doesn't want to politicize this, which is conducive to getting something done."
On Wednesday, the White House said Mr. Obama met with Democratic senators at the White House to get a status report on the pace of progress on the legislation. In a statement after the meeting, White House officials said the president reiterated his pledge to become more involved if necessary.
The statement said Mr. Obama told them "he expects the process to continue to move forward and stands ready to introduce his own legislation if Congress fails to act."
It remains unclear how long the president is willing to wait. In interviews with Spanish-language television stations after his speech last month, Mr. Obama suggested that he wanted to see real progress by March, when lawmakers had said they hoped to have reached an agreement.
"If they can get a piece of legislation debated on the floor by March I think that's a good timeline. And I think that can be accomplished," he said on Univision last month. "I'm not going to lay down a particular date because I want to give them a little bit of room to debate. If it slips a week, that's one thing. If it starts slipping three months, that's a problem."


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A Stratford man has been warned against using synthetic cannabis after he pleaded guilty to disorderly behaviour.
On May 11, Luke Pratt, 19, was found unconscious in a car in Whanganui after consuming alcohol and synthetic cannabis.
Police prosecutor Drew Morrison told the Whanganui District Court on Tuesday that Pratt said he thought he was in Stratford when spoken to by police.
He was taken to Whanganui Hospital for detoxification at about 4.30pm. At 6.40pm, he discharged himself and was found walking around in the car park.
Later that evening, Pratt walked out of the Whanganui Police Station on Bell St and smashed the window of a car.
"He knows he's been the author of his own misfortune," Pratt's lawyer, Stephen Ross, said. "It seems to be a good example of why people shouldn't smoke synthetic cannabis."
Judge Chris Sygrove said Pratt's behaviour was well below the standard society required of him. "You should desist from using both those substances."
Pratt was fined $250.


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Soldier martyred, operation against terrorist continue in Kashmir's Kulgam district
Srinagar, Nov 14, A soldier and a militant were killed in an ongoing gun battle on Tuesday in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district, police sources said.
The incident occurred in Nowbug village. Another soldier was injured in the fighting and was shifted to a hospital, the sources said here.
The gun battle erupted after security forces cordoned off the village in Qazigund area following information about the presence of the militants.
Another gunfight broke out also on Tuesday between militants and security forces in Pulwama district, police said.
In Pulwama, militants fired at security forces including the Rashtriya Rifles, the Special Operations Group of the police and the Central Reserve Police Force in Laam village near Tral town.
Latest reports said the militants had managed to slip away.


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The physical means of defending oneself are not the only components in ensuring one's safety. Though it may sound counterintuitive, the ultimate goal of learning self defense is to not have to use it.
The sad and frightening truth is that no one is or can be absolutely guaranteed safe from a potential attack or dangerous situation. There are, however, certain steps that can be taken to help lessen the risks by a great deal. The actions of another may be out of one's hands, so to speak, but it's the actions leading up to the actions that are the most important. The following are five crucial elements of self defense that one should know – and learn to practice and know well – above all else.
#1 – Always Be Present.
A person should be completely aware of their surroundings and what is going on around them at all times – and not just when alone.
Distractions such as cell phones, tablets or laptops, listening to music through headphones at high volumes, and intently concentrated conversations with another person can compromise one's awareness of their environment. An assailant will almost always select an "easy target" based on what their potential victim is doing – not strictly whether that person is alone (two people who are blissfully distracted don't necessarily lessen the odds of an attack just because there are two).
Put away your devices while in public, most especially when walking, riding the train/bus, or waiting at your stop (and especially if you're alone). Tell the person who is calling you that you'll call them back when you get to your destination… that hilarious video your best friend posted on social media can wait… you can find out the game's final score or who was eliminated on The Bachelorlater. Text messages, generally speaking, are a bit less risky – as long as they aren't borderline novella status. If you listen to music through headphones, stay away from the noise-cancelling type and keep the volume lower, especially in quieter environments (walking down a quiet street, waiting at a bus stop alone, etc) – even better yet, listen with only one ear bud in. When possible, travel in groups of three or more.
Another big factor in reducing the chance of being an "easy target" is attitude. When a lion hunts, it goes after the weakest, smallest, most unsuspecting prey. Don't be the prey. Confident individuals tend to carry themselves with strong posture, look ahead and make eye contact with people, and walk with purpose.
Most of all: tune in your senses – being completely aware of what you see, hear, smell, and feel can help steer you clear of becoming a potential target. Know your "escape routes" just in case. Listen to your gut. Ever get that feeling that someone is watching you? Pay attention. Shifts in energy like that don't happen without a reason.
#2 – Avoid the Situation.
With heightened awareness, a person is more likely to see something coming and take action to avoid a potential threat or conflict.
Potential threats should always be taken seriously, no matter how "minor" they might seem. The expression "don't judge a book by its cover" can indeed go both ways, and while some may dismiss it as stereotyping, it is always better to be safe than sorry. First of all, at the risk of sparking a controversial debate, there are stereotypes for a reason. In this particular case, forensic psychologists refer to it as "profiling"; there are certain sets of characteristics that are recognized as commonly and consistently present amongst specific types of criminals. With that being said, I digress. If someone or something seems suspicious in any way – even if it's just a gut instinct – avoid them/it.
For example? On the usual shortcut home, there's a questionable looking person that you've never seen before just hanging around, seemingly for no reason… Yeah, it may turn out to be the new tenant on the block who's as harmless as a stuffed kitten, but is taking the shortcut really worth the risk? Turn around and take the long way home. There are two people having a very heated discussion just a few blocks ahead, and there's a slight possibility words might turn to blows… Don't chance ending up in the middle of it. Cross the street before continuing past. There's a person sitting across from you that seems to have been watching your every move since you both got on the train. This continues as you both get off at your stop, and they proceed to follow in the same exact direction you're headed. Could it just be a coincidence? Have you seen this person on your route before? Make it a point to find a security guard or transit personnel to "ask for directions" whilst you covertly watch and see if the suspicious person continues on or not. Then, ideally, wait near the security station and call someone to come pick you up.
The bottom line: if you are even the slightest bit suspicious of anyone or any situation, make it a point to go out of your way to avoid ending up in danger. Period. It's not paranoia, it's common sense and survival instinct. If the road you normally took home was completely engulfed in flames, would you continue on and keep going that way anyhow? Think about it.
#3 – Defuse and De-escalate.
If avoidance isn't an option and one were to end up in a volatile predicament, the next step is to try and calmly defuse the situation.
The fact of the matter is, some situations just aren't avoidable. Accidents happen. Wrong place, wrong time happens. So what is the best course of action when things go south and the adrenaline starts to rush with the onset of fear or anger?
Maintaining even a modicum of composure can be easier said than done, but it is the most important thing a person can do when trying to de-escalate a potentially dangerous situation. The next thing that has to happen is one letting go of any need to be "right" – chances are, the person who initiated the conflict and/or displayed the aggression feels even more strongly that they are the one who is right, and there is no way they can be convinced otherwise. So whether one is indeed [in the] right or not, it's usually best just to let the aggressor think they've won by conceding and backing down. That sounds painfully hard, I know – it's human nature to want recognition for being right, especially if one absolutely, inarguably is right. But for the sake of safety, one's pride should definitely sit things out in these particular situations. It will heal, trust me. Other people's anger issues and/or ignorance (etc) will not – that's something they have to live with, and there's no point in suffering along with them.
A lot of times conflict can arise over trivial or materialistic things. If you were to take the situation and apply it toward your quality of life as a whole, how much would that conflict actually be worth the risk? Is that parking space really that important to your survival? Is the fact that rude person bumped into you and then blamed you for it really going to change how you live out your life? Does that person's name-calling and opinion of you hold any validity when you and your loved ones know who you really are?
Defending one's honor is another behavior inherent in human beings – in ancient times a person's honor was very publicly regarded and might have determined an entire family's status in society; it used to mean the difference between life or death in some belief systems. (More on the history of honor in the related links at the bottom of the article.) In modern times, a person's honor is more privately regarded and is almost directly related to ego. While sometimes one's ego may feel hurt and damaged beyond repair, it – just like pride, which stems from the ego – will heal.
Bottom line? That parking space or rude/ignorant person shouldn't mean the difference between life or death – and by backing down and walking away, you throw out that coin toss altogether.
#4 – Arm Yourself.
In the event that attempts to calmly resolve conflict is unsuccessful (or inapplicable), a person in fear for their life should have the ability to arm themselves or otherwise be able to think on their feet.
For the sake of avoiding any misunderstandings and/or political debates, I would like to preface this section by stating that I am in no way suggesting a person carry an illegal weapon of any sort (and I highly suggest that one researches the laws governing their area of residence). For this article's intents and purposes, I am strictly referring to everyday items that could be used to aid in defending oneself should a person fear for their life. [Please see the disclaimer.]
Believe it or not, there are many items that people already carry on a daily basis that could be utilized if having to fend for their life – virtually anything a person is carrying or can find nearby can be easily wielded: a purse, a set of keys, a water bottle or thermos, a shoe (this is especially true for ladies wearing heels or stilettos), a rock, etc. There are no real limits – this falls hand in hand with being aware of one's surroundings, by the way. I will add as a reminder, however, that the ultimate goal in defending oneself is to debilitate the assailant in order to get away, and not to seriously maim or kill. Keep that in mind.
Personally, I carry pepper spray on my keyring. Even though I am a highly trained martial artist, I would rather utilize the pepper spray first and foremost if possible. This reduces my risk of injury or the possibility of putting myself in the way of further danger.
#5 – Fight Back.
Knowing how to defend oneself is half the battle. Actually doing it with confidence, swiftness, and effectiveness takes concentrated effort.
Again, I cannot stress this enough – the intent in any self defense situation is to debilitate and/or demobilize your attacker to allow yourself the ability to escape and get far enough away to call for help. Any attempt to seriously maim or kill a person can run the risk of being considered above and beyond self defense, and could carry with it some serious legal repercussions. If you can successfully remove yourself from harm's way without fatality, that is the absolute best course of action.
One major point when fighting back is to be as loud as possible. Scream at the top of your lungs. Words like help might not generally work, as nowadays (unfortunately) people are not as likely to respond – instead or in addition, yell words like stop, get away from me, call the police, and the one I teach my youngest students? Fire. It may sound bizarre, but according to local police departments, people nearby are more likely to respond to someone yelling about there being a fire than anything else. Whatever you yell, make it loud and make it demand attention.
When fighting back, a person has to be extremely confident and careful with their actions to ensure the highest potential of effectiveness. If you have viewed my self defense tutorial videos, the first thing I mention is that the first move in any self defense situation is going to be the most crucial. If a person's very first move is not executed properly or with enough confidence, it can be detrimental and lessen one's chance of overpowering the assailant. The first and most important element when fighting back is the element of surprise. Should that first move fail, the element of surprise is lost, and quite possibly the window of opportunity as well.
So bottom line, whatever that first move is – whether it's fighting back with an object you've armed yourself with, or applying physical techniques – make it strong, follow through, be loud, and most importantly: be confident that you will succeed. Any hesitation or insecurity can seriously cost you when it comes to the effectiveness of your attack. Train yourself to be ready at all times and to know your choices (when/how to escape, how to attack, etc) – be ready and be practiced so that you don't clam up in the moment. Most of all, give it all you've got, and don't stop fighting back until you've broken free and are in the clear to run for help.
⇒ Recap.
My chief master instructor refers to The 5 A's of Self Defense:
- Attitude – carry yourself with confidence; posture and body language should reflect strength and awareness, not insecurity and weakness.
- Awareness – always be aware of your surroundings, situation, and environment at all times.
- Avoidance – avoid any possibly dangerous situations, and when "fight or flight" mode kicks in, choose flight first if possible.
- Armament – doing something is always better than nothing; if you grab something to use as a weapon, plan to use it or else it can be used against you.
- Attack – be loud, be confident, protect your head, and follow through.
My final recommendation: if you are seriously worried about your safety and the ability to defend yourself if needed, find a local martial arts studio that specializes in self defense courses. For women in particular, there are actually quite an abundance of seminars geared specifically toward women that teach specific techniques that are most effective for a woman's build and abilities. Do your research, ask around, check reviews – and sign up. It will be one of the best things you could ever do for yourself.
⇒ See Also: "Self Defense Video Tutorial #1: Lapel Grab Attack"
Related & Useful Links:
- Blog Disclaimer ♠
- The Legalities of Self Defense – FindLaw.com
- Everything Self Defense Related – NoNonsenseSelfDefense.com, Marc MacYoung
- "The Decline of Traditional Honor in the West" – The Art of Manliness
Any questions or feedback? I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to comment below, and/or share.


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Aircraft Parts List
Find new and used aircraft parts
Sell your aircraft parts here. List for free!
This is a Cessna 421B Cont GTSIO-520-H Hartzell Turbocharger Assy P/N 408610-1 that is for sale. Guaranteed to work and pass your inspection or your money back.
Some details on the part:
Need additional pics or have any questions please let me know and I will get back to you ASAP. I will be more than happy to combine shipping if you purchase multiple items. Please feel free to email me for a shipping quote.
Attn International buyers - I am more than happy to export any of my products out of the U.S. However, please note that all import duties, taxes, and any other charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. We do not ship to forwarding shipping stations it needs to be either a business or residential address. These charges are to buyers responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to help determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding. We also do not mark merchandise value below or mark items as "gifts". U.S. and international government regulations prohibit such behavior.
Click here to bid, purchase or contact the seller on eBay


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MUMBAI: Anil Ambani-led Reliance Entertainment has partnered with digital media content and distribution company FunOnGo to launch a multi-lingual entertainment application 'Chillx'.
FunOnGo Media and Entertainment LLP has been founded by entrepreneur Vijay Singh and Ujjwal Narayan, a telecom industry specialist. 'Chillx' is its first Android-based offering in the entertainment space, Reliance Entertainment said in a statement here.
Chillx is a complete entertainment-based platform which will give consumers choice in languages, entertainment formats, genres as well as payment mechanisms.
"While apps downloaded are mostly in line with global popularity, interest in content consumption in regional language is high.
"We see smartphone screen as a fantastic gateway to the consumer and our cross functional team will leverage its understanding of content and industry relationships to amplify value offering to the consumer," said Sweta Agnihotri, CEO Content Syndication, Reliance Entertainment.
The app is a digital entertainment departmental store that curates a mix of games, music, viral videos and clips, entertainment news, short films and full length movies.
Content on Chillx is available across major Indian regional languages like Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Marathi and Gujarati, among others.Shibasish Sarkar, Chief Operating Officer, Reliance Entertainment, said the launch of Chillx is in line with the company's business vision of encouraging diverse consumption patterns.


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I haven't updated my blog in so very very long and I know that I have family and friends still check it. Last summer I don't think we had a day off to just sit and relax but this summer was a nice break for us here. Brandon started his flight school and going to college for a few months now. Jumping back into school was a little tough for him figuring out what program to use and how to format his presentations but he has some amazingly smart family and his sisters were there to guide him. This summer Brandon was asked to play a huge huge huge sponsored baseball tournament in Anaconda, MT so the hubby and I had a little mini vacation while the kids got spoiled rotten by their Nana and Papa. Brandon is an amazing baseball player and his team won the championship.
Brandon stopped by the Craters of the Moon to show me
Brandon and I stayed in a hotel the first night we got there because of my back then we camped out with the team. We got the tent sent up and quickly realized just how big this tournament was. There were thousands of people camped out to watch the games.
Here they are after they won
We headed to Banks beach a place we look forward to going every summer.
We hung out at Nana's
We took the kids to Lowes to build cars.
We went to the fair and rode a train...P and Ryan drove.
We played at Roaring Springs with the cousins
The kids rode a Camel.
We played at the park.
Matt swam
The men washed the cars.
I made a blob for the boys to jump on.
I still have to do a birthday post for Cadon so check back for that.


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Coffee Spotlight: Naturamin GoGreen Coffee
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Need a little more get up and go in your fitness and weight loss routine? Our premium GoGreen coffee's just what the doctor ordered.
We've put a little something extra in our Herbal Blend Arabica green coffee to help you lose weight and detox faster. Jam-packed full of naturally occurring caffeine – including Green Tea Leaf and Ginseng – GoGreen is designed to really get your motor revving.
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What's In It For Me?
Here's a few ways combining GoGreen with a healthy diet and exercise regime can really make your day – and slim your waistline. Just one mug can:
• Turbo-charge your metabolism
• Boost your energy levels
• Crush hunger cravings
• Improve memory and focus
• Increase productivity
• Get rid of those nasty toxins
• Improve your skin's health and appearance
• Boost your overall health
• Aid more efficient food digestion
• Help you achieve your weight loss goals!
• Get a natural energy boost – drink before your workout
Of course, GoGreen tastes and feels so good you might find it hard to stop at just one cup. For best results, we recommend you drink green twice daily – in the morning 15 minutes before your breakfast and during that dreaded afternoon slump. You'll be raring to go again in no time.
What's In The Bag?
• Natural ingredients including:
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• Calcium
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• Herbal Bend:
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• Panax Ginseng
About Naturamin:
Naturamin is proudly Australian made and entirely Australian owned. We are dedicated to supporting our customers to become the best they can be. It's important that our processes and products are certified by the Therapeutic Goods Administrations and the Department of Health, but our own expectations of quality are even higher. Read More
Company: Naturamin
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Category: Coffee
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Variants: View Range Here
Price: $29.99 (2 week packs)
Where to Buy: Buy Online
Website: naturamin.com
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Running On The Cracks – The PlayAuthor: Julia Donaldson and Andy Arnold
Format: pb
"Run. Keep running. You're doing the right thing. Lie low. Head down. Don't look back. Just keep running. And whatever you do, don't tread on the cracks…"
Leo's world has been turned upside down. Her parents are gone and her bird-loving uncle is getting too close for comfort. She is only sure of one thing…she must get out.
In a desperate bid to find the grandparents she never knew, Leo jumps on a train to Glasgow, penniless and stealing food to survive. A nationwide hunt for her begins. Will she track down her grandparents, or will her uncle get to her first?
This is the play version of Julia's novel for teenagers, which was adapted by Andy Arnold and has been performed in various theatres around the UK.
'Young people's theatre can be a difficult thing to pull off; it's all too easy to patronise your audience. But Andy Arnold's new adaptation of Julia Donaldson's novel does not fall into this trap. It's neither overly worthy nor heavy-handed, eschewing sentimentality for a more even-handed portrait of a young runaway.' Exeunt Magazine
Most of our copies of Julia's books are signed, but if you want to be 100 % sure that the title you are ordering is signed, do get in touch by email or phone (01903 812062) to check, before placing your secure online order. On occasions where a book is unsigned, we will include a free signed bookplate, which can be attached to the book later.


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Events at Jim Bass Ford
We were so proud to be the Platinum Sponsor at the Travis Tritt Concert this year. The McNease Convention Center was the perfect location for this Acoustic Event. We got to meet a lot of amazing people at the Bass Bunch Booth as we gave away a custom Yeti Cooler! Travis Tritt played a fantastic show and proved to us all that he is a Country Music Legend!
Our 2016 Christmas Party was a success! We are proud to have such dedicated employees who truly go above and beyond. 2016 was a record breaking year as we surpassed many of our goals. 2016 will hold a very special place in our hearts for a long time as we established a perpetual Scholarship fund in honor of the Bass family. This Scholarship will reward a deserving student every year with $1,000 and is through the San Angelo Area Foundation. We take pride in maintaining a strong relationship with the San Angelo community, so we are glad that we are now able to offer this scholarship! Here is to an even better 2017!!
Over 100 Ford Model T's were on display at Jim Bass Ford on Wednesday October 1, 2014
Over 100 Antique Model T's from all over Texas, Arizona, South Dakota, Wyoming, Missouri, Arkansas and Florida celebrated their rich history at Jim Bass Ford.


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Test plans, cases, charters, etc.
I honestly kind of thought all these were kind of different things in some way? It was surprising to find out that they are all basically the same thing.
I generally do a mix of planning tests out when writing AC and using how I'd test the feature to make sure I'd hit most of the edge cases. As I've said before, I also use this time to strive to figure out how the client would use this feature, so we can deliver a good product to the client.
So this is where I make any notes for that specific feature, if I need to get anything from the devs on deployment, if I need any test data from the client, things like that go in at the start.
When the feature comes to me, I will have more context – depending on where it is in the build I may have more context about the project, and the client, I may have more features that will interact with each other to consider, I've got information from testing other parts of the system, so all this information comes into play when sitting down to test.
I follow the AC as I test, to make sure the basics are covered, but then I test for the best solution we can offer – this can be testing for accessibility, usability, how it looks, if the flow makes sense.
Then there's making sure it fits with the client, and with the rest of the product.
This also works as a vague form of prioritisation:
- Does it work as we have planned it to?
- If I can't use it at all, can I tell if it's fit for purpose?
- Does it fit the need we've made it for?
- Regardless of if it passes AC, does it actually work as needed? Is rework needed?
- Can it be used by users with different devices and software?
- Can it be used easily by all users?
- Does it look right?
- Per designs/wireframes
- Subjectively (tricky, but there can be consensus if something's obviously off, or it's a good opportunity to get UX/Design/client feedback
And I think being able to prioritise, even vaguely helps. The issue with testing, when you test and not check, is that there's very rarely a single right answer. This means you have to figure out what the best option is, taking into account all sorts of things like budget (time/money), how complex the issue is, what the client wants vs what I think is the best option vs what the devs think. Then you have to formulate the best option or solution from there. Sometimes you can push it back to the client – if there is no obvious better answer, and there's no real effort needed to change it, we may just talk to the client and give them options and see what they come back with.
So you have to engage with the product to test it, and I think this on the fly method of planning and testing bringing all the experience and context you've got over the course of the project works really well. I think having AC gives me a framework to work around, and I can test outwards from that core functionality.
I think it helps that I test manually. I think or assume that if I did more automated testing I'd probably do a bit more planning out in the 'how I'm going to build/code/modify tests' in order to hit all the cases. Maybe. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong.
I've started going through the Black Box Software Testing course1, which is supplemental to the Rapid Software Testing course that James Back puts on2, which is something I definitely want to go on (I can't go to the one in the UK in October, unfortunately. Next time he hits somewhere close, maybe!).
As an aside, reading those slides makes me glad for my biochem degree, I've got some decent experimental and scientific thinking background to apply to testing.
As an aside to that aside, I did a lab based dissertation, and despite writing out all my lab protocols and following them to the letter, my experiment didn't work. We tried various different things and made changes to the protocol; still wouldn't work. Eventually my supervisor shrugged and said it was too close to the deadline to try again, and he had no clue why the bacteria weren't playing nice, they just weren't. So I had to write a dissertation on why my project failed.
I am used to planning things out and it going wrong for no discernible reason.
I can see how rapid software testing would be a bit worrying though. If you don't write it down, or plan it out, how do you know you've not missed anything? Which is why I like having AC, and I make notes about what works (and what doesn't), so there's a paper trail of what I've done. I just think that being able to have that flexibility can be useful.


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As we get older, we understand the importance of being active. Seniors are far more likely to have physical and mental problems later in life if they do nothing but sit around and become older. When we look at all the different activities for seniors, cycling is one of the best options that you can partake in.
Even though running is a great exercise, it offers a tremendous impact on the body. Swimming is not always readily available for seniors, but cycling is something that seniors of all ages can pick up and start with rather quickly.
Do – Go At Your Own Pace
When you start cycling the first time, you want to make sure that you do everything at a pace that you are comfortable with. Even if it means that everyone is passing you by, you need to make sure that you are moving at a relaxed pace.
Don't – Push Yourself Too Much
While a challenge can be great, you do not want something that is going to cause damage. Seniors who are otherwise not particularly active are going to have problems with their bodies if they strain themselves. When you start cycling, it is essential to push yourself to do better – but it is even more important to listen to your body.
Do – Make Sure That You Stay Safe
Even though all cyclists have to be safe, seniors who cycle have to take even more precautions. You always want to make sure that you stay on the far right side of the lane riding with traffic and always wear a helmet. Make sure that you wear the brightest clothing possible to be sure that drivers see you.
Don't – Go Too Far
If you are getting used to cycling, you want to make sure that you come back home at your strength. If you are unable to do so, the chances are that you are stuck and have to ask for assistance. This means that especially as you get started, you cycling near your home or assisted living option. That is going to help you stay safe and always says you can go home.
In the end, cycling for seniors is an excellent exercise. You can enjoy a variety of different benefits, while not having to worry about the body taking too much impact. By following our brief overview, the chances are that you will start enjoying yourself as you cycle.


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Payment gateway security
Published on 5/10/2016
As part of our continued Counsel Connect development, I started implementing the online payment service "Pay Now" provided by Sage Pay. Unfortunately, things went bad a few days into the initial prototype.
After the extensive sign-up process I was presented with the technical documentation for implementing the online payment gateway and their secure SOAP endpoint calls and functions for debit order processing and other things. At this point in time I'm only interested in online card transactions, and so I immediately started looking through the SOAP endpoint for the relevant functions. It wasn't there.
I read back and found that the only way to process card payments is through their proprietary web-form flow which you have to initiate with a POST call to a web endpoint. Their example looks as follows:
<form name="form" id="form" method="POST" action="http://paynow.sagepay.co.za/site/paynow.aspx">
<input type="hidden" name="m1" value="xxxxxxx-4ad4-7c2a-yyyy-eee9f23651097"> // Pay Now Service Key
<input type="hidden" name="m2" value="24ade73c-98cf-47b3-99be-cc7b867b3080"> // Software Vendor Key
<input type="hidden" name="p2" value="ID:123"> // Unique ID for this transaction
<input type="hidden" name="p3" value="Test / Demo goods"> // Description of goods being purchased
<input type="hidden" name="p4" value="5.00"> // Amount to be settled to the credit card
<input type="hidden" name="Budget" value="Y"> // Budget facility being offered?
<input type="hidden" name="m4" value="Extra 1"> // This is an extra field
<input type="hidden" name="m5" value="Extra 2"> // This is an extra field
<input type="hidden" name="m6" value="Extra 3"> // This is an extra field
<input type="hidden" name="m9" value="[email protected]"> // Card holders email address
<input type="hidden" name="m10" value="Demo attempt for testing"> // M10 data
<input name="submit" type="submit" value="PROCESS R5,00 TEST PAYMENT"> // Submit button
If it's not immediately obvious, the first hidden input (m1) is supposed to hold my service key. This is the ONLY piece of data in this entire thing that identifies me, as Counsel Connect, to Sage Pay. And it's right there in the open for anyone to see if they care to press F12 to view the source. Hell, you don't even need to know the shortcut key; "view source" has been on the right-click menu for Windows users since Netscape Navigator.
What's the next very obvious vulnerability? Yes, you can edit the amount (the p4 input) to your liking, and it is completely out of my control that you can do that, or to what you can set it. All this basically means that you, as a user of Counsel Connect, can pretty much initiate the payment transaction in any state that you fancy.
I raised this with my technical contact at Sage*:
His response was simply:
This raised a cacophony of alarm bells to me, since it was obvious that this person had no understanding of the issue raised, or any appreciation that they have vulnerabilities. Also, so far this only covers the initiation of the process. The hand-off at the end is also a concern. On their configuration pages I can set up URLs that serve as callbacks which presumably they will call with all the relevant information in the open (i.e. as url parameters). This is another failure, since it's entirely feasible that a user can fake (or manipulate) a successful request (given access to the initiating POST) which will force my system into a processed-payment flow if I don't do any additional checking against the SOAP endpoint (which is, thankfully, possible).
I was called by their technical director, and while conceding that I indeed raised valid vulnerabilities, I was instead offered an explanation about the limited use of my service key, and the mitigating function calls available in the SOAP interface to verify the transaction status. That's not good enough. An analogy here is my bank telling my I don't have to worry about keeping my card pin number secret, as long as I keep my daily limit low and I call them when I suspect fraud. It doesn't fly. It leaves me, the customer, open to be unknowingly complicit to fraud which can only be mitigated by retrospective checks. This completely breaks the nature of 100% automated straight-through processing towards which I'm working. Any human intervention is too much, and every check that needs to be done is another possible point of failure. Additionally, having access to the actual values that constitutes the contents of an HTTPS call gives the competent attacker a massive advantage towards identifying correct decrypted bytes while guessing keys, and from there it's a simple leap to decrypting the entire process and launching man-in-the-middle. This is not a hard problem to crack any more, and OpenSLL has been the subject of much controversy and bugs in the last year or so, with the last two really big vulnerabilities only recently patched. Furthermore, this coming from a representative of one of the biggest payment providers in South Africa, and a player even in international markets, speaks volumes about the proliferation of internet crime and calls into questions this provider's attitude towards combating and preventing it.
So, what is a better architecture for this? There are two major options here. Firstly, they can extend their SOAP endpoint so that all the communication is initiated and handled on my server side, away from the user, and I simply capture the required details (card number, cvc etc) from a form that I build, and pass it on to the SOAP endpoint for processing. Problems with this method is that I then need to become PCI-compliant since I'm handling card numbers. The second problem is that my own web-request handlers are subject to waiting for web-requests to complete; also something to be advised against.
The second option is to only initiate the payment flow via the SOAP endpoint. I would basically pass all the relevant details (service-key, amount, transaction reference) from my server-side, away from my users, to a SOAP function. This will leave the initial request handler dependant on another web-request, but you have to start somewhere. Their SOAP endpoint then returns a single-use, timed transaction-key with which I can then seed a simple web form with a single hidden input field (the value of which means nothing to any user or criminal). When that form is then POSTed, that transaction-key identifies me and my associated transaction details on their side, and the process carries on as it currently does.
The second option is clearly superior. It leaves Sage to handle all the sensitive stuff inside their form-flow, but the transaction initiation is secure and out of reach of fiddly hands. I'm not sure who came up with their current architecture's initiation flow, but it certainly does not stand-up to even a small amount of scrutiny, and is actually laughable**.
As for the hand-off; a similar strategy should apply. A hand-off token should be the only thing sent back in the callback (and there shouldn't be separate callbacks for success and failure), my system should then retrieve the transaction state using said token and my service key. This token is never exposed to any users, and so they cannot manipulate the hand-over. Basically, you never push sensitive data. This is a basic security concept.
At this point you might note that I can still do the POST call server side as suggested in my initial email, and accept the Sage HTML page in their response manually and then return that as my controller result directly instead of injecting it via JS. Yes, that would allow me control of the initiation, but it doesn't address the poor service architecture design, and it doesn't address the additional processing and web-requesting required at hand-off at the end. It also doesn't address the vulnerabilities that's so obvious in their actual documentation example which would be followed by junior programmers without questioning it.
After inquiries I found that PayU implements the above suggested solution almost verbatim. PayGate still hasn't responded to my request for documentation at the time of publishing, but PayFast seems to have the same implementation problem as Sage. So before I take the plunge and sign up with another provider, I need to seriously evaluate the technical implementations of the providers considered. If you need to implement an online payment solution I suggest you do the same. This is really important since South Africa has recently been crowned the cyber-crime capital of Africa (not surprising since we're also the biggest economy on the continent), but we've been in the top ten in the world since at least 2012, and third since 2013. Security is no joke.
*you'll note that I mention a JS-based work-around. This could be implemented for the p4 input too, but it's not a sustainable solution anyway.
**as proved when reciting this story to my friends.


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Exceptional, Fortified Gascon Chateau Set in 5 Acres with Panoramic Views - House of
€1,000,000Save And a further reduced price; commission payable by buyer
Advert Reference: VLS325
For Sale By AgentAgency Name: Gascony Prestige View Agent's Microsite Find more properties from this Agent
|€1,000,000 is approximately:
|British Pounds:
|US Dollars:
|Canadian Dollars:
|Australian Dollars:
Key Info
- Type: Residential (Château, Country House, Maison de Maître), Business (Gîte, Gite Complex)
- Bedrooms: 5
- Habitable Size: 400 m²
- Land Size: 2.42 ha
- Character / Period Features
- Detached
- Equestrian Potential
- Garage
- Garden
- Gite Potential
- Multiple Residences
- Outbuildings
- Parking
- Revenue Generating
- Swimming Pool
- Terrace
- Fortified Gascon Chateau
- Set in 6 acres with guest cottage
- Swimming pool and 360° panoramic views to the countryside
- Between Agen and Condom
- Toulouse airport is 1h30 away from Condom
Property Description
Why is this house special : Unique! There is only one of these Gascon tower
châteaux for sale in the Gers, and it is a beauty. Fully renovated, 400m2 character accom. Plus.. a newly renovated 2 bedroom guest cottage. And panoramic VIEWS to the Gascon countryside. 5 acres park gardens. All this and the price has been reduced from 1.49 to 1.25m€.
An exceptional andrarely available fortified Gascon Chateau, dating
from the 13th century and set in 6 acres with guest cottage, swimming
pool and 360° panoramic views to the countryside nr Condom, Gers.
Renovated in recent years (new guest cottage, new roofs, pointing etc)
this imposing property offers some 400m2 accommodation on three
floors, plus an extra floor to renovate if required. Long drive through park gardens to generous parking and garaging in the barn. Entrance hall, leading to country kitchen with French doors out to dining terrace overlooking the gardens. Spacious dining room with exposed stone walls. Double bedroom on this floor with en-suite bathroom.On the first
floor are the Salon (some 60m2) with high ceiling à la Française and monumental fireplace, and a second living room with ceiling à la
Française. The second floor has 4 double bedrooms, two with en-suite
bathrooms, and a separate shower room. Huge attic on 4th/5th floor
suitable conversion. Panoramic views from the ramparts! The top floor
of the stone barn has been fully converted recently to offer a smart guest
wing of some 120m2 with 2 bedrooms. 8x8m fenced swimming pool
and pool house. Stunning views. Between Agen and Condom.
Price excluding commission - 952 000€
Commission - 5%
€1,000,000And a further reduced price; commission payable by buyer
|€1,000,000 is approximately:
|British Pounds:
|US Dollars:
|Canadian Dollars:
|Australian Dollars:
Location Information
For Sale By AgentAgency Name: Gascony Prestige View Agency Find more properties from this Agent
Property added to Saved Properties


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9 Mistakes First-Time Home Buyers Make
9 Mistakes First-Time Home Buyers Make
Buying a home is a complicated process, as it should be. After all, the biggest purchase of your life should probably require necessary measures, time, and "getting all your ducks in a row." While it may be understandable that the process of buying a home is intensive, this certainly doesn't help homebuyers navigate the housing or lending markets. There are many mistakes that can potentially be made by home buyers, and some, in particular, tend to be made by first-time homebuyers. Between the stress, misinformation or lack of information, and excitement of buying a first home, there are a lot of errors that can be made along the way. Assembled here are a number of such examples, in hopes that they may get first-time homebuyers to think about these issues and how they may avoid them.
Not Attempting to Gain a Better Understanding of the Process
No one expects a first-time homebuyer to know the ins and outs of the housing and lending markets and processes. The first thing a first-time homebuyer should realize is that it is okay that they not know everything; in fact, it's okay to know nothing at all. There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking questions. Many first-time homebuyers make the mistake of not asking enough questions during the process of buying home, for a number of reasons. Being sure about the processes involved in buying a home help to ensure that a Buyer is truly happy with their purchase in the long run. Actually, one of the best ways for first-time homebuyers to begin the process of buying a home is assembling a list of questions they have for both the real estate agent and the lender.
Thinking You Can Do It Alone
When in doubt of how to complete a certain task, the best thing to do is consult a professional. The same is true when someone is looking to Buy a home. Meet with a few real estate agents and see how they suit you. If one doesn't quite click with you, there is nothing wrong with moving on to a different agent. You should feel comfortable and confident in your real estate agent, because they will be helping you through the process. It will be a lot more enjoyable if you are paired up with someone with whom you feel comfortable. Your real estate agent can recommend a few lenders for you to contact, so that you can begin determining which of those individuals you will choose to work with. It is important that you feel confident in your lender and his or her professionalism, trustworthiness, and abilities. After all, he or she will be helping you finance your biggest investment.
Not Making Your Goals Clear
When speaking with both your real estate agent and your lender, it is important that you make your goals clear. While your real estate agent can help you decide which characteristics of a home are most important to you, you need to be honest and open during these conversations. Your agent will know the right questions to ask you to help you decide what you are looking for, but only if you make it clear that you need help and don't know where to start. Your lender needs to know what your financial goals are to help you decide what kind of loan you should be getting, as well as what price range of home you should be looking for. It's not just about what you can afford with your income; it's about what you can afford with your income and other financial goals, such as saving.
Failing to Take Saving into Account when Budgeting
What you can afford doesn't simply boil down to what you are comfortable paying each month when considering other expenses. You should also be considering planning for your future and saving money when determining what you can afford. Too often, this aspect of a budget is overlooked by first-time homebuyers.
Not Knowing (or Ignoring) What You Can Afford
The excitement of owning a home often overtakes first-time buyers, leading them to neglect assessing what they can afford, as well as what their budget means to what kind of home they will find. While it'd be nice if our first homes were all our final homes, and we could afford our dream house right off the bat, that's just not realistic. Too often first-time buyers get mixed up in their ideas of their "perfect home" and their "perfect for right now" home.
This concept is also important for first-time buyers to consider for a different reason. Often, buyers who have never owned a home before realize that their budgets are limited and decide that they will purchase a home that needs a lot of work, a "fixer-upper" and make it their own on the cheap. Assuming that a fixer-upper is cheaper than buying a move-in ready home is naïve and, often, inaccurate. Even professionals who know what they're doing can end up sinking a lot of money into a home that needs work. If you are considering purchasing a fixer-upper as your first home, make a list of all the projects that will need to be done for you to update the home, do a little research, and start weighing the actual costs. Don't forget, also, that most of the time, any single project ends up costing more than expected, because projects usually hit snags along the way.
Failing to Acknowledge that Needs/Wants will Change over Time
While it is important that buyers consider that their first home will probably not be their forever home, it is also important to realistically analyze how long they think they will be in their house. A third-floor condo may be great for right now, but if a Buyer is planning on getting a dog in the near future (while they are still planning on being at that residence), they should be considering the two flights of stairs for every trip outside with their dog.
Becoming Distracted by Over-the-Top Features
It may be extremely cool that a house you looked at has a wine cellar or pool in the backyard. However, if you don't have the money to ever have the ability to stock that wine cellar, or if you don't have the money or means to maintain that pool, neither of those features will retain their "cool" factor. First-time homebuyers often make the mistake of becoming enamored with special features of a home, even if they are impractical or out of the range of what can be afforded.
Not Hiring an Inspector
Even if an inspection is not required by your mortgage lender, get one. Even if the home is being sold as is, get one. Even if the cost will come our of your pocket, get one. Regardless of the circumstances, you should make an effort to know what exact home you are purchasing.
Changing Finances During the Home Search
Your pre-approval or pre-qualification is considered from the current financial situation you were in when you sought it out from your lender. The numbers will change if your financial situation changes. Change jobs, and your qualifications change. Get a car loan, and your qualifications change. Take out a line of credit to furnish your new house, and your qualifications change. Make a late payment, and your qualifications change. It is so very important, during your Home Search and especially during the period of time between signing a contract and closing on a house, that none of your financial situations change.
Overall, there are so many things that can be done wrong when buying a house. Without experience in the process, it's very difficult to know what to do and what not to do. That's why it's so important to learn all you can and be honest with the professionals you are dealing with.
Did we forget something? Let us know in the comments!


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Recently, I was reminded of the videos that have been created in relation to the international linguistics olympiad. I thought I'd do a post with a couple of them.
This year's, 2015, local organisers in Bulgaria made several videos. You can find their channel and all of them here. The longer nice compilation one is here, with plenty of drone material :)!
Last years organisers, 2014, in China also made a very nice compilation video!
I also recommend watching this video by NativLang, who is not officially part of the IOL but who works with linguistics outreach and did a nice video explaining the IOL:
Hope you enjoyed them!


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The HHS Syndication Storefront allows you to syndicate (import) content from many HHS websites directly into your own website or application. These services are provided by HHS free of charge.
Choosing a Treatment for Kidney Failure
Overview of kidney failure treatment options: how to choose and pay for treatment, planning ahead, preparing advance directives, dialysis, and transplant.
Want to place content from HHS websites onto your own site? Syndication allows you to offer high-quality HHS content in the look and feel of your site, without the need to manually update it.
Learn more >>
With the HHS Syndication API, you can retrieve HHS's vast repository of public health content.
An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a way for two computer applications to talk to each other in a common language that they both understand. HHS's API provides a structured way to get HHS content in a predictable, flexible and powerful format.
API Documentation >>


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Mr. Yan yingkaiLeave a message
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Transparent PVC Customized Printing Kids Apron
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Our company are professional in producing all kinds of Plastic Apron for childrens/kids and adult. The apron including PE Disposable Apron, PVC apron, EVA apron and polyester apron. All the Plastic Aprons are eco-friendly, waterproof, oilproof, sanitary and loghtweight easy for use.
The size, color, thickness, weight, package and printing can be customized.
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By George Capsis
It was two o'clock in the morning when Maggie discovered, that with blood thinners to avoid a blockage in a newly-implanted heart stent, her nose would not stop bleeding—it flowed but it really gushed, and for the first time in our 55 years of marriage, I saw fear in her eyes. We got dressed and walked to the St. Vincent's Emergency Room, and a very calm, very mature nurse stopped and asked us to stay a while, "just to be sure."
So there we were, sitting with a dozen or more recovering emergency room patients, and I tried to guess what they were in for. The serious ones were silent with closed eyes and some with bandages, but there was a very young girl, who at a party took drugs for the first time. And then there was the guy too drunk to drive home to Brooklyn, just sleeping it off.
Even before St. Vincent's closed its doors, Beth Israel on 16th Street and 1st Avenue knew its emergency room was too small, so they doubled the size. And now Dr. Davis, who heads the parent hospital Mt. Sinai, announces that to end the projected $400+ million loss, they will close the 126-year-old hospital overlooking historic Stuyvesant Park and sell the very valuable real estate to a luxury condo developer. But have no fear, with the $500 million, they will get their will to build urgent care centers all around the community they now serve.
For maybe ten years now, the concept of urgent care centers has been (as they say) gaining ground, and you get different reasons as to why depending on whom you ask. But no question, an urgent care center is much cheaper to build and operate.
Now, when in 2010 we had lost St. Vincent's, the CFO of North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital (now Northwell), Michael J. Dowling, got up on the stage of P.S. 41 to a bristling, angry, and packed auditorium, to explain in his Limerick accent that the 161-year-old hospital would be replaced with an urgent care center, "that could take care of 85% of all medical emergencies." All I could think of was, "What happens to the 15%?"
I have no doubt that hospitals today are crazy expensive to operate. And I wonder how the four or five remaining large economically viable ones in New York do it, when drugs like the life-saving but patented EpiPen can rise from $100 to $600 in just months (when do sharp business practices become greed?).
A lot of studies have been done recently on who goes to the emergency room. But it starts with people who have little or no insurance and know by word of mouth that the law says they have to be treated; they just take it as a matter of course, and they don't have to make an appointment and certainly do not have a primary care physician. If you have a serious pain, you go to the hospital emergency room. If, right now, you go to the Beth Israel Emergency Room off 1st Avenue on 16th Street, you will find a lot of people sitting and waiting and waiting, sometimes for hours.
But when Caroline and I went to what is now called Lenox Health Greenwich Village, there was nobody waiting. Indeed, the entry desk clerk asked me how I was before I could ask for Alex Hellinger, the Director. I recalled that last year I had come as a patient, and they offered me a drink while I waited just minutes for the nurse, then for the doctor—oh wow, sheer luxury.
At St. Vincent's, as Associate Director Dr. Kaufman offered, the "emergency room had 22 operating rooms and treated heart attacks, strokes, infections, overdoses, psychotic episodes, and suicide attempts." And as I write this, I can see Director Hellinger's smiling offer that they "treat" all of these as well; but if they have to operate, they "stabilize you," and send you by standby ambulance to Lenox Hill or a hospital of your or your doctor's choice.
So what is new with this gleaming white 13th Street and 7th Avenue facility? It has installed a complete set of gleaming state-of-the art-imaging equipment. They seem to have all of it—MRI, ultrasound, digital x-ray and, I would guess, the full selection of medical imaging equipment currently being used. An MRI operator proudly offered that their new software app made it one of the most advanced machines in the city.
And pride and competence emanated from the staff—they have one of, if not the most advanced medical imaging facilities in the city. I recalled an x-ray I had taken for my knee operation a year ago in a medical office on 14th Street, where the operator asked me to pull up my feet so he could get around the operating table that almost touched the wall.
But they do not have an operating room, nor does the management plan to ever have one.
They will have outpatient surgery, which is sort of new. Let me give you an example: 40 years ago, when we bought 69 Charles, I was moving heavy slates in the garden when my intestines popped through my flabby stomach muscles (a hernia), and I spent two days in Mt. Sinai. Then a few years ago, I had another and went to the Phillips Ambulatory Center, and after my non-invasive operation I was invited to go home.
Next year, Lenox Health will invite West Village physicians to rent offices on one of its six floors all-glistening with recent refurbishing. And they even plan a community conference room—wow, we could use that.
OK, if we measure the quality of this imaging center, it is one of the best. But when I spoke to the head physician, Dr. Scott Cruzen, as to where they take a heart attack victim, he offered quickly "Beth Israel," which has a 24-7 operating room. But that hospital is slated to close, which means that a heart attack patient now may experience massive muscle loss, permanent heart failure or death traveling to NYU or Bellevue. No, we still need a for-real operating room in the West Village. But I can still hear Michael Dowling saying in his Irish brogue, "a new hospital will cost you a billion dollars."
Ah, but we have Dr. Davis of Mt. Sinai offering a hospital with 24-7 emergency rooms to be built on a small plot they own next to the shabby Eye Ear hospital on 2nd Avenue and 14th Street, and a superb start of a hospital in the Cancer Center built by St. Vincent's before they went under, on 15th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues. Dr. Kaufman has suggested leasing floors above it from the new landlord, Google, and making it into a full hospital (it already has two operating rooms), and Lenox Health could be the diagnostic center for that hospital.
This city has lost 20 hospitals in 16 years but with this loss is the loss of real emergency rooms with 24-7 operating rooms. So, the distance a heart attack victim has to travel is growing and as Dr. Kaufman complains, " they calculate the loss in operating dollars but nobody is counting the loss in lives."


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Single Family Detached
- 5 beds
- 3 baths
- $339,000 price
- B1154746 mls id
- Square Feet: 1,300 sqft
- Year Built: 1975
Over a bridge to paradise! This chalet has the perfect setting on the hill at HoliMont, Ellicottville's private ski resort. All of the work has been done and you can just move right in. Great ski room entry. 5 bedrooms, 2 full and one half bath. Kitchen overlooks large family room with custom stone fireplace. Hardyboard siding, new windows, AC, carpeting, all 3 baths remodeled. 3 decks give you plenty of space for outdoor entertaining. Brand new bridge crossing creek. Park once for the weekend - you can walk to village of Ellicottville or grab the HoliMont shuttle to the slopes. Great location for 4-season activities in Cattaraugus County.
- Site Link
- Style Other Style
Courtesy of: ERA Team VP Real Estate
Office Phone: +15859682113
Listing Agent: Melanie Pritchard
Updated: 16th December, 2019 12:41 AM.
10 Holimont Avenue Ellicottville, NY


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KARACHI- Special Investigation unit of Karachi police today claimed to have arrested the deputy chief of Punjabi Taliban.
Police official SSP Farooq Awan told journalists that the accused Saeed ul Islam was arrested from Orangi town.
He claimed that the accused was the naib amir of Punjabi Taliban who had got training in North Waziristan Agency.
He alleged that the accused was involved in bank robberies, extortion and kidnapping for ransom.
The police have registered an FIR.


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The Men & Mice IP Address Module pt. 2:
3 Points on Connectivity
The Men & Mice Suite brings several ways to customize operations, to connect to existing software or to import/export data, e.g. from spread sheets or existing databases:
- Script hooks: Scripts (scripting language doesn't matter) can be attached to basic objects in the M&M Suite, e.g. to the type "IP Address Rage" or "IP Address". The scripts are called by the system when an object is being changed. A script, which is attached to a script hook can return a success flag. When a success flag false is returned, it can be accompanied by an error message, which will be presented to the user and the change in the system will be denied. The success flag set to true will make the change.
- Web Service: The M&M Suite's Web Interface automatically provides a Web Service defined by the well-known SOAP standard.
- All languages, which are able to support SOAP calls, like Python, Powershell, C# or Java can be used to call the SOAP methods of the Men & Mice Central. This allows for instance the automation of processes, export of subnet or device data, or integration of the Men & Mice Suite in existing environments.
- CLI: A third method to import/export data is provided by the Men & Mice command line interface (mmcmd), which is available for all major platforms (Linux, Solaris (X86/Sparc), Windows, Mac OS X).
More to come!


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How much do you know about building fireproof insulation?
As we all know, it has materials that prevent or retard the spread of flame. For fire protection. There are two types of non-combustible materials and non-flammable materials. Incombustible materials will not burn. Although the flame-retardant material can be burned, it is flame-retardant, that is, it is difficult to catch fire and hard to carbonize. It can be stopped after the fire source is removed, so it is also called flame-retardant material. Among the flame-retardant materials, except that a few have their own flame-retardant function, in most cases, flame-retardants, fire-proof impregnants or fire-retardant paints are used for flame-retardant treatment of flammable materials. Starting from fire safety, fire thermal insulation materials should be used in civil construction to replace flammable materials to reduce the fire load and propagation speed.
So how do we assess the fireproof heat insulation effect of building materials? The burning properties of building materials refer to all physical and chemical changes that occur during their combustion or in the event of fire. This property is caused by the ignitability and flame spread of the material surface, heat, smoke, carbonization, weight loss, and toxic products. Measured by other characteristics. China's national standard GB8624-97 divides the combustion performance of building materials into the following categories.
Class A: Non-combustible building materials: Materials that burn hardly occur.
Class B1: Non-flammable building materials: Flame-retardant materials have good flame retardant properties. In the event of an open flame in the air or under high temperature, it is not easy to spread quickly and the combustion stops immediately after the fire source is removed.
Class B2: flammable building materials: flammable materials have a certain degree of flame retardant effect. In the event of an open fire in the air or under the effect of high temperatures, it will immediately start burning and burning, which can easily lead to the spread of fire, such as wooden pillars, wooden trusses, wooden beams, and wooden stairs.
Class B3: Flammable building materials: No flame-retardant effect, extremely flammable, and high risk of fire.
In the building materials market, the quality of bubble foil fire-retardant insulation varies greatly. Consumers must not be greedy for cheap when buying paint. They must choose products of well-known brands so as to ensure the safety of themselves and their families.
Like the Landy® brand, the company was founded in 2000 and has been 18 years old experience. The products are exported to home and abroad. The old brands are more reliable, especially for their double bubble fireproof foil insulation materials, which are classified as B1 according to the assessment standards. The use of flammable building materials and the effect of experimentation by oneself is also better than imagined. If you are interested, you can learn more about it.
Good building insulation not only can give you a more comfortable living environment, but also adding fireproof materials will bring better security and protection to your life.
Tel: +86-20-34791069
Fax: 86-20-34791086
E-mail: email@example.com


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The Disney live-action Beauty and the Beast opens this week. It stars Emma Watson from the Harry Potter movies. You are almost certainly familiar with both the movie and its star, and you probably know whether or not you want to see them (though there is a capsule review if you're curious).
So I thought it might be nice to spend a little time with some actors you may not know, who are starring in the upcoming Power Rangers movie, which you may be less certain about attending: Dacre Montgomery, Ludi Lin, and Naomi Scott. The film doesn't open until the 24th, but that just gives you time to get curious and/or excited about a feature film adaptation of a long-running children's television show featuring a group of young people from various backgrounds who find they are much stronger together than they are on their own.
Power Rangers
Matthew Lickona: Why do you think you got the part?
Naomi Scott: The scenes that I did for the audition were from The Breakfast Club, where the girl is crying...
Ludi Lin: When [Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald] have the girl moment, the two girls finally talk to each other after they have that row...
NS: Yes, exactly.
LL: Mine was where Judd Nelson is making fun of the girl. But I really think it was something intellectual, where our mental processes clicked with the characters. And I don't mean to speak for Dean Israelite, the director, but after seeing how he works behind the screens and monitors and stuff, I think he really feels these scenes. And I hope we got the part because he felt something that connected us to the character.
NS (to LL): I'd say you brought a sensitivity to Zack, showed there was something more to him. I tested with lots of other Zacks and Jasons, and none of them...
Dacre Montgomery [who plays Jason]: She was cast first as the pink ranger.
ML: So you got the part based on how well you worked with her?
DM: No, I was cast as her love interest before I even met her. We didn't do a chemistry read or anything. I didn't even know I was cast until it was on social media.
NS: I found out when it was put on Instagram.
LL: I found out over Skype.
ML: Speaking of the director, was there a particular piece of direction that you found helpful?
LL: One piece I think we all remember is, "Do it again guys, and don't forget to act this time."
DM: He really did give us space, considering it was a massive studio film. I'd be like, "Hey man, what do you think about me doing x or y or z?" And he'd say, "Look, here's what we can get away with, here's what's acceptable." He always listened to me as much as I listened to him.
LL: He was open to other people's choices. We had very long shoot days, 14 to 17 hours, and in many instances, we would make a choice, and he would also have us do a take with his choice, and we'd end up going with our original. The creativity just flowed. I had been working in China for a long time, and there, scripts change all the time. I always heard how American screenplays are intellectual property, and you can't change a single line. But working on Power Rangers, there was lots of ad-libbing, and a lot of the humor in the film comes out of the spontaneity we had.
NS: The line in the trailer where Lin sees his color and says, "I'm black!" and RJ Cyler [who is African-American] answers, "No, you're not" — that was one that stayed in.
ML: The film is an adaptation of a highly episodic TV series, and the press notes are full of talk about deepening the characters so that they go on personal journeys along with the film's larger adventure storyline — things that make the characters resonate with people. Was there a piece of art when you were the age of these characters that resonated with you?
NS: I loved this movie called Bend It Like Beckham, which is about a girl named Jessminder who plays football. I'm English and I'm half-Indian, and I used to love playing football, and I was like, "That's so cool that she plays football. Jessminder, that's me. My husband still sometimes calls me Jessminder. Plus, it was set where I was brought up."
LL: There was actually a piece that helped me with this character. Zack has a very rich Asian cultural background, especially in his ties to his family, his mom. My grandmother has passed away, but I found a piece of rope that she used as a keychain and always carried with her. It brought the feeling back of how when I was a kid, I was on my own a lot, and my grandmother was the person who raised me, and she wasn't well. That's kind of like Zack's relationship with his mom. The rope brought back the feeling of how intimate those scenes are supposed to be, as opposed to the way the character is outside of the family setting.
DM: I have a lame artsy answer: Jackson Pollock's painting The Blue Poles. There's just so much color and so much intricacy — like all the color you see [in the movie poster of the multi-colored Power Rangers]. You have somebody so lost — which is how my character is at the beginning of the film, and how I believe Jackson Pollock was — and all of this crazy work, with footprints you can see and all this layering and everything. And my character is trying to find his way from that crazy chaotic world and trying to piece it all together with the color so that somebody can say, "Okay, now we see what he wants, now we see how he gets it."
LL: I can see that.
NS: Bend It Like Beckham is not as arty.
DM: Sorry, it's kind of a wanky answer.
More from SDReader
- More stories by Matthew Lickona
- Local boy Dylan Moran makes good, and also makes a movie, Get Big — Aug. 30, 2017
- Kelly Reichardt on the minds of Mary Tyler Moore and Kristen Stewart — Oct. 19, 2016
- Here comes Hell or High Water — Aug. 10, 2016
- Interview with Dom Hemingway writer-director Richard Shepherd — April 24, 2014
- Wages of Art — Sept. 23, 2009


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More walking! Despite being dropped by eagles at the end of the first film, who could have quite easily taken them directly to the mountain! This is like three films in one, as the dwarves, who are still running from the orcs, end up going through a dark forrest chased by spiders and captured by elves. Meanwhile Gandalf goes off to investigate if the 9 Kings of Men have been resurrected, which they have, and that leads to the discovery of Sauron being back in action (link to Lord of the Rings). Meanwhile again the dwarves have escaped in barrels down a river, again being pursued by orcs, getting ever closer to the mountain and Smaug the Dragon! The third part of the film is based entirely in the mountain facing off against the dragon, but it ends on a cliff hanger! Even more action that the first, but there is some very dodgy CGI in parts, it almost feels slightly too long at 2hr 45mins, but just manages to keep you engrossed for the whole time. We didn't bother with 3D or HFR versions this time, as last time it disappointed on both fronts.
Ben 8 out of 10
Barry 8 out of 10