text:
Author: frith_in_thorns
Recipient: linziday
Prompt: Traumatized Rodney who is either unwilling or unable to admit he's traumatized. At least one member of the team helps him through it.
Word count: 3,500
Notes: Unbeta'd because of my poor organisation.
Written for the Easter fic exchange at sgahcchallenges
There is darkness. Ink-black and grave-silent, thick as smoke and cobwebs. A stone cold dark.
In it he waits, and shivers from the chill and from fear. He waits by what his hands tell him is the door, although he was unconscious when thrown into this cell and so cannot be certain. He is ready for it to be opened, because John would be ready and Ronon and Teyla would be ready too.
He shakes with the tension, holding himself taut like a spring. Waiting.
And it opens. There is blackness beyond, but shaped by the breathing of someone standing there. He throws himself forward. Hands out. Knife clutched. They don't know I kept a knife! He hears it tear through skin and flesh, and warm, warm, blood surges up over his cold hands.
Teyla was half-carrying Rodney when they stumbled through the Gate; Ronon had John slung over his shoulder, arms and neck spattered with his blood. She had called for a medical team in her frantic radio-burst and one was there already, Keller barking out instructions to her staff and not wasting time on questions like who and why as they got John strapped down onto a gurney. Teyla could not help, and stood and watched as they whisked away in a flurry of activity, feeling the release from the sharp grip of urgent, overwhelming fear, as seconds which had become too precious to waste finally began to spool around her once more at their normal speed.
"Rodney?" she asked. "Shall we walk down to the infirmary?" She had seen Keller's worried eyes sweep over him and rightfully recognise that physical injuries took immediate precedence. But now that John had been taken care of, it would be time for him.
Rodney just nodded, which worried her. She would have much preferred to hear him complaining about not getting a ride.
Mr Woolsey was hurrying down the steps towards them, out of breath. He looked shocked at the sight of John's blood soaked into Ronon's shirt, as if it was the first time he had been confronted with evidence of violence. "What happened?"
"We got McKay back," Ronon said, as if McKay's presence didn't make that obvious. "Sheppard got attacked by one of the guards."
"How bad?"
"Not good."
Teyla felt Rodney begin to sag against her and started walking. Ronon could certainly handle explaining the situation without her help. There wasn't really very much to explain, anyway. Of far more concern was the fact that, since rescue, Rodney had not said a single word.
"You are safe now," she murmured, soothingly. "It is not far to go, and then you will be able to rest."
She hoped that he would snap at her in return, tell her not to talk to him as if he were a child.
He was silent.
The infirmary was eerily quiet after the noise made by its staff in the Gateroom. Marie was there, looking unsurprised to see the two of them. "Dr Keller's in surgery," she said. "No update on Colonel Sheppard for a while, but she told me to expect you."
Rodney was expertly manoeuvred onto a bed. He didn't respond to questioning. "He's in shock," Marie told Teyla. "Though I guess you already knew that, and I think it may be something else as well. Can you tell me what happened?"
Teyla shrugged, feeling helpless in her lack of information, as Marie ran a basin of warm water. She clasped one of Rodney's blood-smeared hands in one of hers, trying to give him comfort from the contact of skin. He was trembling slightly; hard to see, but impossible not to feel. "You are safe now, Rodney," she said, as she had before. "Whatever was done to you, it is over now. It is all over."
Rodney shifted slightly as Marie draped a blanket around his shoulders. She had stood the basin on a wheeled table next to the bed, and now dipped a cloth into it. Teyla stopped her. "Let me, please."
"Of course." While Teyla perched on the bed next to Rodney and began to gently clean the drying blood from his hands, Marie pulled up a chair opposite him. "Rodney, I need to examine you now. Best to get it over with before everyone comes back in, but just tell me if you're not ok with it, alright?"
Rodney nodded, and Teyla exhaled in relief. She was still desperately worried about both him and John, of course, but it was alleviated a little now. She concentrated on wiping the blood from between his fingers, exposing the white skin beneath.
Marie shone a penlight in his eyes, hooked him up to a monitor, and drew a blood sample. "I think he's been dosed with something," she said quietly to Teyla. "We can't know for sure until the tests come back, though, which means I can't give him a sedative right now."
"I will stay with him." She would have in any case, but this just made her more determined.
"Thank you, that'll be good for him. I'll check whether there's an update on the Colonel's condition now."
Rodney had apparently been waiting for her to leave. "John?" he asked, his voice almost a whisper.
"He will be fine," Teyla said, hoping that her words would prove true. She felt a flash of guilt for not having thought of him before Marie's reminder. But Rodney had needed her more. She could do nothing to help John.
Rodney stared at his hands, now pale and clean, and then at the reddened water. "That's his blood?"
"Yes, it is." She kept her voice level. "You broke out from your cell, remember? And you found John. You saved him, you know, by putting pressure on the stab wound. You were very brave."
Rodney shuddered. "No."
She would have asked him what he meant if Marie had not emerged at that moment from the surgery door. At the sound of her footsteps Rodney appeared to retreat back inside himself again.
"They've stopped the bleeding," she said. "They're beginning to stitch him back together, and then he should make a full recovery."
The worry which had clenched Teyla's chest began to relax. "And what about Rodney?" she asked.
Marie knew what she meant. "It'll be a while before his blood work comes back. In the meantime, we should see if he can sleep—that will be the best treatment for him right now."
She already had a set of folded scrubs in her hand as she drew the curtains around the bed, and Teyla stepped outside them, nearly running into Ronon as he came into the infirmary at a brisk pace. "Woolsey wanted a full debriefing," he said by way of explanation. "He said I'd just be in the way down here. Knew he was right."
"John will be fine," Teyla said, not needing to hear the question spoken to read his concern.
"McKay say what they did to him yet?"
"Not yet, no. He is in shock and probably also drugged."
Ronon said nothing, but the frown lines on his face deepened. The two of them might not always get along, but they were a team, above all else. No one was allowed to hurt them.
Marie was quick and efficient. The curtains were already being partly opened, to reveal Rodney lying under blankets, his eyes closed and his head turned away. "You can stay with him," she said, before Teyla could ask. "Be quiet, though. He needs to rest."
It was a long night. Teyla thought that Rodney was asleep, but wasn't certain. She kept her hand folded over his, hoping that it would give him reassurance, while Ronon lounged against a nearby piece of wall. When John was at last wheeled in and set into a bed nearby Ronon went to sit beside him, and fell asleep with his feet propped on John's cover.
Teyla didn't sleep. She stayed awake all night, in case she should be needed.
"How is Colonel Sheppard?" Radek asked, with no prelude except his appearance.
Rodney glanced up from his computer screen. "Fine," he said brusquely. "Aren't you supposed to be working?"
"The city will probably not explode while I take coffee break."
Rodney pointedly resumed his typing, but the other man was apparently refusing to take very blatant hints. He came round the desk to peer at the screen. After a moment he pointed. "There is an error, there."
He was right. A child would have spotted it.
"I knew that already," Rodney snapped.
Radek raised his eyebrows, and snorted in a way that could have just about have passed for a cough. Rodney glared back, daring him to actually verbalise his disbelief.
"Maybe you are tired," Radek suggested, with what he probably considered to be tact. "You are supposed to be sleeping much, but in your quarters the light was on while it was very late."
Rodney scowled. "I was asleep."
"With the light on?"
"What about it?"
Radek opened his mouth, and then apparently thought better of it. Rodney waited, refusing to give him an out.
Into the stalemate of silence stepped a woman who was presumably a scientist, going by her uniform, although Rodney couldn't remember having laid eyes on her before. She balked. The air did seem to be getting tangibly thicker.
"What?" Rodney asked, with what he thought was positively commendable politeness and calmness.
Possibly it hadn't worked as well as he'd thought, judging by the fact that the nervousness on her face didn't lessen. "Um, Dr McKay?"
"Yes, that's my name. What do you want?"
"Um, I'm Dr Derry. From the botany department. Um, the lights in one of our labs have stopped working, and we're growing specimens in there. And, um, there aren't any windows so we really do need them fixed soon..."
He wondered if she always said 'um' a lot, or if it was just nervousness. "Radek, go and fix their lights. Or get someone else to do it."
"Why don't you do it?" Radek asked. "I will check over your code while you are gone. A second pair of eyes is always useful."
"No," said Rodney, shortly.
Radek's eyes flicked to the bright lights above them. "Ah," he said, and Rodney hated the sudden understanding in his voice. "You are right. I will go."
Dr Derry looked slightly confused, but Rodney ignored her and turned back to his coding as Radek shepherded her out. He caught two more mistakes, one of which would have rendered the entire program useless, and scowled fiercely. Some footsteps began to make their way in his direction, but they suddenly stopped, and reversed quickly. He didn't bother to look up and see who they belonged to.
A quiet beep from the computer alarm he had set drew him back into the city. It was time for him to go and visit John, according to his schedule for the day. He fully locked his computer before he left, in case Radek decided to take it upon himself to 'help' with the code.
The infirmary was surprisingly quiet. Rodney walked awkwardly over to John's bed. "Hi."
"Oh, hey." John was playing on his gameboy, but put it down. "How's life?"
"We're all grounded until you get better, so I've had time to actually do some proper work, for once."
"Glad to hear it. Aren't you going to sit down?"
There were bandages visible above the v-neck of John's scrubs. Rodney swallowed, and perched on a chair left helpfully beside the bed. "Are you, you know—" he gestured—"okay?"
"I got stabbed, McKay. If you were the one trapped in the infirmary because of that you'd be bitching everyone's ears off."
There it was. A perfect lead-in to the question he'd been desperate to know the answer to for three days now, ever since he'd woken up in the infirmary himself. "Do you...remember it? Being stabbed?"
John cocked an eyebrow. "What is this, morbid questions day?"
"I was only wondering." He hoped he sounded suitably nonchalant.
In any case, John seemed to be bored enough to grasp at any conversational opportunity. "Nah, don't really remember anything past getting into the compound and going down endless dark corridors trying to find you. Keller says that's a perfectly normal response to severe trauma, though." He tried to push himself up a bit against the pillows behind him, and winced. Rodney felt himself also wince in sympathy. "Teyla and Ronon are just being as uncommunicative as they can possibly be about that. They probably think it's unhealthy to dwell, or something. Didn't even tell me straight if they got the guy who did this to me."
Rodney felt cold. "I think he got away," he said.
"That's probably why they're being cagey," John said. "Figures, I guess."
He wasn't really sure what to say next. Thankfully he could see out of the corner of his eye Keller approaching. He had been beginning to think that he had his times wrong.
John had also spotted her. "You always seem to turn up when I'm busy talking," he protested.
Keller laughed. "Not my fault, Colonel. You're due your next dose of painkillers now. The schedule for them is fixed."
John mock-pouted, but it was clear from the tight lines on his face that he wasn't going to argue about it indeed being time. "Stop turning up when I'm being put to sleep, McKay," he ordered instead.
"That makes you sound like an aging pet," Rodney muttered.
"The depth of your sympathy astounds me."
Keller paid no attention to the bickering as she swapped out the IV bag for a new one. "Try and sleep, John," she said.
"Do I have a choice?" he asked. His eyelids were already beginning to droop as the drugs entered his system.
"Not really, no." She straightened his covers over his mumbled protests that he wasn't a child, and stood next to the bed until it was clear that he was indeed asleep.
Rodney waited until she turned away, and then got up himself.
"John's right, you know," Keller said. Rodney glanced around to find that she had halted a few paces away, clearly to watch him. "Every time you've come to visit he's either been asleep or about to be. It's quite a coincidence."
Rodney shrugged. "Do you really think I have either the time or the inclination to memorise the times at which you pump him full of drugs?"
Keller raised her eyebrows slightly, but her face remained calm. "Rodney, I think you need to talk to someone. I can't force you, and if I tried to it would achieve nothing, but... I think it would be a good idea."
Rodney snorted. "And here I was, thinking you were nearly a scientist."
She didn't rise. "Whether you accept me as a scientist or not makes no difference to the fact that I'm your doctor, and your friend. In both capacities, the fact that you still haven't spoken about what happened to you while you were held captive worries me. Clearly something did."
"I've said it was dark and small, the space I was in. Isn't that enough?"
And she still didn't retreat into frustration. "I think you know that isn't what I mean. That's the only answer you've given anyone."
He reached up to his radio. "I've got a call." He had opened the channel before she could say anything. "Yes, Radek, what is it?"
"This is your new greeting?" Rodney didn't answer, turning and hurrying out of the infirmary without looking back, and waiting for him to say something else. "As a matter of fact, this power problem does not originate in the lab. There is a bug somewhere in the system—I have had several reports from elsewhere in the city."
"Why has no one reported this to me?" Rodney demanded, already heading back towards his lab.
"First, because they happened only a few minutes ago. Second, because you are very angry at the moment and are scaring scientists who are not so used to you."
"They shouldn't be so sensitive."
"I am thinking that maybe you should be more sensitive. When Colonel Sheppard is better he will calm you down." There was a click as the channel closed.
Rodney came to a halt in the empty corridor, unable to fume and walk at the same time. This had been happening for days now. People treating him in subtly different ways, as if there was something wrong with him. And the implications that he was just worried because someone had nearly killed John—
If they knew—
Overhead the lights flickered, and went out.
He was plunged into black.
There is darkness. Darkness filled with the thick stink of blood and the heavy sounds of it dripping onto the flagstones. It pulses between his fingers, which are still around the knife-hilt, against the man's chest, although he's lying on the floor and not moving, and he's crouched over the man and all there is the weakening gushes as the heart slows... slows...
"Rodney!" someone said, and shook his arm, and he found that the unseen floor was cold beneath his hands. "Rodney, it is alright! I am here with you."
His pulse was fluttering in his throat, too fast for him to fit breaths around it.
"Rodney," and there were hands on each of his shoulders now, "we are in Atlantis, and there is nothing to worry about. You need to try to breath slowly."
"Teyla?" he gasped out.
"Yes, I am here."
Her voice was steady and he focused on it, trying to take some of her calm for himself. He breathed.
"That is much better." Her hands guided his back to lean against a wall, and he heard and felt her settle herself next to him. "I am sure we will have light soon."
"Power malfunctions," he said. "Radek's working on it."
"I am glad to hear that."
"Yeah, me too." He was also glad that he wasn't alone, although he wasn't prepared to put that into words. This was the first darkness he had encountered for three days. Even with Teyla next to him he was having to fight down panic. Too dark. Too like the cell.
"You have been avoiding all of us," Teyla said, quietly and matter-of-factly.
Rodney felt himself tense. "Do we have to talk about this now?"
"When else?" While he was still trying to come up with a valid suggestion, she continued. "We would have found you, you know. We had not stopped looking."
He was surprised enough to forget that he had been hoping to be able to change the subject. "What?"
"If you thought we would not come for you, you were mistaken."
"I..." Rodney for the first time strained to remember exactly what had happened, exactly what he had thought. "I think I knew you would. But it could have been too late."
"It could have," Teyla agreed.
"Cheerful thought."
"Rodney." Her voice was firm. "You are not alright, and we need to know why. We are a team, but if we keep too many secrets we cannot work together with trust."
"Says the person who hid that she was having a baby," Rodney muttered. And then, louder, "It doesn't matter."
"Some things will eat you up from inside if you do not speak them. If it is an affair which truly does not matter then you have my word that I will never speak of it, to anyone."
Darkness invited secrets. Some secrets came from it, and belonged to it. Rodney swore inside his head, and then took a breath. "I was the one who stabbed John. Are you happy now? Still trust me?"
Teyla's hand tightened over his. "Tell me how it happened," she said.
Rodney started to say that he had already given her what she had wanted, but then stopped before the first word was fully out of his mouth. And instead, he talked. He told her about the jittery terror which had come from both himself and the drug, and about how they would have wanted him to break out, and about the hidden knife, and about the blood on his hands in the blackness. And then she and Ronon had been pulling him off the man who had become John Sheppard.
"You should have said this before," Teyla softly said when he had talked himself into silence.
"We're a team," Rodney said, bitterly. "You don't half-murder teammates and get away with it."
Her hand tightened again. And her voice sounded oddly choked. "Rodney, you were not the one who hurt John. You said that it was dark both in and out of your cell, as it is here. But when we found you, John's flashlight was still lit."
"I could have—could have turned it on without realising—"
"You would have transferred blood onto it while doing so, but it was clean. You did not hurt him."
The heartbeats slow, and slow, and stop. He stands, balancing himself against the wall, because he still has to get out. Get out, and his team can find him and bring him home.
He walks, fighting for breath, coming down from whatever has washed through his system leaving him wrung-out and unsteady.
Get out.
He falls into a puddle of light, but that's a puzzle to process later because he must have come full circle, come back to the man he killed, but the man's still somehow breathing and he knows him.
And now all that matters is that he must save him...
"I still killed someone," Rodney said. "With a knife. I stabbed him."
"But it wasn't John."
"And that makes it okay?"
"It makes it better. Sometimes that is all you get, so you have to make it enough."
There was a smile in her voice. He smiled back, tentatively, although he knew she couldn't see it. Because, as tended to happen, she was right. "Better. Hmm. I guess I can live with that."
"And now you must talk to John," she chided, not leaving him more time to enjoy his revelation, instead dragging him back down to reality.
"Yeah." Now, of course, he wished that he had before. "When, you know, it isn't dark anymore."
"Of course," she said. "We will wait together."
It didn't seem so dark anymore. Or, at least, he didn't mind it. Not with one of his teammates there too.
And then, there was light.


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PRP signs Strategic Partnership in China Preston Rowe Paterson (PRP) proudly announces it has formed an exclusive strategic partnership with mainland China's largest valuation group-China Appraisal Association (CAA). CAA employs over 1,500 staff and operates from 18 key regions throughout Mainland China including all key centres including Beijing,Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzen, Nanjin and Wuhan. Whilst valuation […]Read Full Story
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15th September 2015 PRP joins International Measurement Standards Coalition Preston Rowe Paterson (PRP) are delighted to announce we have joined a coalition of like-minded property market participants to develop and implement international standards for measuring property. In joining the International Property Measurement Standards Coalition (IPMSC) PRP becomes the first valuation company in either Australia and […]Read Full Story


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Garter Snakes are generally easy maintain. I do not intend to be definitiveon the subject of maintenance:- I merely aim to describe those methods that I havefound helpful.
In general, given adequate conditions, garter snakes will thriveand breed.
My preference is for wooden vivaria with glass doors. This is more foraesthetic than practical reasons. I like to be able to illuminate the cages and observethe snakes. Many other herpetologists prefer to use large plastic containers.
Glassfronted cages have the advantage of allowing better visibility than tubs, are moreeasily stacked, and allow front access which possibly disturbs snakes less. Theyare generally bigger, and if built for the purpose can be made of a suitable sizefor a larger number of garter snakes. They are however more likely to be escapedfrom, and an unexpected birth can result in escaped babies. I have on more than oneoccasion lost small snakes through gaps at the edge of glass doors that I would nothave believed possible. Even with the experience of having had this happen before,I have still made the mistake of thinking "nothing could escape through thattiny gap!" and been proven wrong.
Increasingly I come across evidencethat garter snakes kept in plastic tubs, such as sweater boxes, are less likely tobreed successfully, which may indicate a degree of stress. In general garter snakesare much more active than other commonly kept colubrid snakes, and whilst most ratand king snakes are successfully bred in sweater box containers, garter snakes seemnot to breed so well under these conditions. My own experience has backed this up,and a colleague in California, who is a very successful breeder, tells me that whenhe changed from using sweater boxes to large glass cages, his snakes began to "breedlike rabbits!"
Plastic tubs have the advantages of being easier to maintainand clean, are generally more escape-proof, and are ideal for babies and smallersnakes.
I tend to use a combination of both systems. Larger snakes are keptin wooden cages with glass doors, and juveniles are kept in large plastic tubs.
Thespace required per animal depends on the size of the snake. Most of my cages are48 inches by 24 by 12 (120 cm by 60 by 30). In one such cage I would house perhapssix small snakes (adult males) or three large ones (large females).
click on image to enlarge
Again I feel this is a matter for personal preference. I favour smallgroups of snakes kept together, some experts prefer to house individuals alone, andone colleague from Holland keeps about 100 garter snakes together in a large outdoorsenclosure.
Individual housing has the advantage of being better able to monitorsnakes, and recognise problems at an early stage, and in particular identify a poorlyfeeding snake. It enables matings to be better controlled and timed, thus enablingbetter prediction of when babies are due. It reduces the chance of food fights, andaccidental ingestion of other snakes. It reduces the risk of spread of disease.
Grouphousing has the advantage of being more aesthetically pleasing. Garter snakes tendto be rather social animals (in a biological rather than anthropomorphic sense) andon occasions do interact with each other. I frequently find two or more animals kepttogether will hide under the same hide-spot, even though several are available. Irealise this may be due to environmental reasons (e.g. temperature) but do not observethe same phenomenon in my rat snakes or hognose snakes. I have known collectors inthe USA describe finding two garter snakes together in the wild more often than withother colubrids or snakes. I rarely find food-fights a problem, unless worms areused.
It is generally recommended that gravid snakes, particularly close tobirthing time, should be kept alone, to prevent accidental damage to babies (or evencannibalism, which, although rare, has been recorded), and also to reduce stressto the mother, which could result in babies being retained..
The most important issue with heating is that the snakes have a thermalgradient. According to where the snake comes from, time of year, feeding status,gravidity and even time of day, the preferred temperature of the snake varies significantly.I use thermostats connected to a heat mat under the front part of the cage, beneaththe light. The thermostat is set at around 84 deg F. The cooler end of the cage isusually around 70. In particular the more southern species (marcianus, cyrtopsis,sirtalis from Florida) are usually at the hot end, especially when gravid.
Ifthe plastic tub system is favoured, the simple method of heating is to use a heatstrip under one end of the box. This does not really require a thermostat.
Itis important if using heat mats or strips underneath the floor that it covers lessthan half of the cage space. Even low wattage mats can provide a significant heatin confined spaces, and particularly under a hide box. I have measured a temperatureof 112 deg F (48) under a clay hide box over an Ultratherm heat mat. A snake unableto escape from this would quickly die. It is worth bearing in mind that a snake'snatural response to heat is to burrow. If a heat mat is being used underneath a substratein which the snake can burrow, this can result in accidental suicide!
Anotherimportant aspect of temperature is to allow for a drop in temperature at night. Thisis particularly important during pregnancy, as the drop in temperature at night seemsto play a role in initiating parturition. Females kept at a constant warm temperaturecan retain their babies, with catastrophic consequences for both mother and babies.I switch off all heat and lighting at night using a timer switch. Thermostats arenow available that will allow more sophisticated control, but this is probably notnecessary for garter snakes.
Lighting is a controversial issue. Gartersnakes will certainly survive and breed if kept with access only to room light. Thishas the advantage of allowing them to naturally 'key in' to day-length. However,my own experience of using plastic boxes without lights has been that breeding hasoften not been successful. A Californian friend tells me that when he changed fromusing 'sweater boxes' to larger cages with lighting, he suddenly found that the snakes'bred like rabbits' from next to no breeding at all.
I suspect (and have noscientific evidence on which to base this) that some of the more colourful diurnalspecies may benefit from access to UV light, in much the same manner as many colourfullizards do. I now use artificial fluorescent strips, containing UV light, and supposedlysimulating natural daylight. However, these tubes are only replaced when they 'blow',and are at the top of an 12 inch (30 cm) high cage, so the actual UV light receivedby the snakes is likely to be minimal.
I would add that my own observationsshow that T. marcianus in the wild is largely nocturnal, and it may be that no lightis required by this species. They rarely seem to bask in captivity, and indeed someof my animals will only feed at night. Albino animals may also be more at risk frombright UV lights, as their retinas will be poorly protected, and their skin probablymore at risk of damage.
It is important that the snake has access to a secure hide place. I preferto offer two or three so that the snake has a choice of temperature. I use overturnedclay flower pots with a hole cut in the base, and overturned roofing slates. It isimportant to ensure that the drainage hole is covered as snakes can try to get throughand get stuck, with fatal consequences if not detected.
Fresh drinking waterat all times is essential. Snake frequently defecate in their water. I change waterat least twice weekly even if apparently clean. Water bowls should be sturdy anddeep enough not to evaporate quickly.
It is important to be aware that gartersnakes should be kept dry. Although in the wild many live in marshy areas, in thewild they always have access to dry land, and even in marshes and ponds there arealways dry patches in warm weather. A garter snake kept in moist conditions willdevelop skin or respiratory disease.
Some garter snakes like to climb andsturdy branches can be offered.
A variety of different substrates are available. Many keepers use newspaperor corrugated card, which is easy to maintain, and inexpensive, although less attractive,and I also find that nervous snakes do not like it, as it does not offer a good gripto the ventral scales, and so makes it hard for the snakes to move quickly.
Inow tend to use either a cat litter based on compressed sawdust, or bark chips. Theseallow for easy 'spot cleaning', and are large enough not to be accidentally swallowed.
Newspaperor any other dry commercial bedding substance would suffice. It is probably importantto avoid sand or particulate matter that might stick to the food and be accidentallyingested, although personally I have never known this cause problems.
Cages should be cleaned when soiled. Garter snakes fed on fish will defecatefrequently and profusely. They cannot be neglected to the same extent as mouse feeders.I clean my garter snakes twice weekly and my similar sized rosy boas twice monthly!
Garter snakes as a group tend to be good feeders, and many are ratheromnivorous. Many keepers favour mice, and most garter snakes either readily takemice of suitable size, or can be persuaded to.
Other common prey items areearthworms (if you use these, it is vital to know that they have come from groundin which no pesticides have been used, and to avoid the red-striped "brandlings"from compost heaps, often sold as fishing bait, which are highly acidic and possiblytoxic to snakes), fish, frogs, slugs and even meat.
Keepers should be awarethat there is evidence that some garter snakes are predisposed to thiamine (vitaminB1) deficiency. This is thought to occur if they are fed an exclusive diet of oilyfish, which are rich in an enzyme called thiaminase. This enzyme will destroy thiamine,so even if vitamin supplement is added to the diet or drinking water, it will stillbe destroyed. The manifestations of this deficiency are of loss of co-ordination,head waving, balance disturbance, anorexia, weakness, and finally convulsions anddeath. I have known animals showing the early stages of symptoms to make a full recoverywith a change of diet.
There are herpetologists who do not believe in thephenomenon of dietary-induced thiamine-deficiency in garter snakes. I do believein it, and have had snakes die of these exact symptoms in my early days of snake-keepingin the 1970s, when the easiest (and cheapest!) diet was whitebait, a goldfish-sizedfish sold for the human market. These are eaten whole (by humans and garter snakes!).They are sold frozen in packet of 1 lb (450g). The thiaminase can be destroyed byheating the fish in hot water at 180 deg F (80 deg C) for 5 mins, but this resultsin a very messy product.
Other fish of this thiaminase-containing type includemackerel, spratt and herring.
Another useful food is a product called 'GarterGrub' marketed by Dinosaur Nutrition (a branch of T-Rex). This is sold frozen inpre-packaged containers. It is based on whole vertebrate prey items and is nutritionallycomplete. There are different preparations for adults and juveniles. It is sold inuser-friendly plastic packages from which individual portions can be popped out muchas ice cubes from an ice-tray. Most garter snakes take to it readily. It is availablein Petsmart stores, but in some rural areas or small towns (such as where I live!)it may not be widely available. For a large collection it can work out as an expensivefeeding method:- a 95g container retails at about £4 (US$ 6). Two large female garterscould eat this in one sitting.
Frequency of feeding depends on the food beingoffered, and the size of snake. I generally feed adult snakes once or twice a week,as I use a fish-based diet. I allow the snakes to eat as much as they want. Snakesfed on mice will only require feeding once a week. Babies need more frequent feeds,and for the first two months of life I usually feed them on alternate days. Thisprovides a rapid growth.
Over-eating is rarely a problem in garter snakes,but I have had some animals, usually females, with a tendency to become obese. Theseanimals are restricted to four food items once a week.
One word of warning- hungry snakes will often grab at anything moving when they can smell food. Thiscan sometimes result in accidental bites being sustained, but of more concern isthe risk of snakes accidentally attacking each other. I have seen this many times,and although the snakes usually realise their mistake and let go of the other snake,occasionally the snake will just keep swallowing. This is particularly common inbaby snakes, and especially with worms. If two snakes grab opposite ends of a worm,the faster will sometimes just keep eating, until he has finished the snake attachedto the other end. Invariably this results in the death of both snakes. It is generallya good idea to supervise feeding if snakes are housed collectively.
Several years ago I decided to attempt to mass-produce food for my increasinglylarge collection of garter snakes. I decided that I wanted a diet that was reliablyavailable, and based on whole prey animals, and that could be kept frozen. I livenear several trout farms, and have found one that supplies me trout at a good price.
Thetrout are liquidised and mixed with gelatine and vitamin powder and frozen into blocks,of which a strip can be cut off from frozen.
I have used this method of feedingfor three or four years now, and with the exception of my T. cyrtopsis, which aredifficult feeders, all my garter snake have had this exclusive diet for that time.I have encountered no problems that I would consider related to this diet, the onlyunexplained deaths being of some of my albino strain of Florida blue garter snakes,which I consider to be due a genetic defect (see My Collection).Baby Florida blue and Chequered garter snakes have thrived on this diet, and twoanimals have grown to adult size (and have become gravid) in well under a year.
Pleasenote that I am not advocating that other people use this diet. It has not been triedand tested for long enough to fully exclude long-term problems. I attach the detailsof how to make it, but accept no responsibility for problems that may occur as aresult.
- For the last few years I have increasingly used commercial cat food for most of my adult and sub-adult snakes. This appears to have been successful, and most of the snakes have taken readily to it, and have appeared healthy and have bred successfully. I was given this 'tip' by a garter snake enthusiast in Liverpool who has used the food for years. It is worth experimenthing with different brands of food, and the fishier varieties tend to be better tolerated. My present food is Whiskas 'Oh so fishy' which is available from Tescos. In the past I found Asda's 'Tiger seafood selection' better, and to have a higher fish content, but I have no local source for that. For smaller snakes the cat food can be cut into smaller pieces, but I find that most babies do not take readily to it. I therefore feed smaller snakes on strips of my home made food, and during their second year find that most will readily switch to cat food. The main advantage of the cat food is that it is less expensive both financially, but more importantly in terms of time and effort spent making my home made food.
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Hibernation is helpful, if not essential, to the successful breedingof garter snakes. The duration and temperature of hibernation varies according tospecies, and different breeders have their own ideas. It seems that more northerlyspecies will not breed without a prior hibernation, and mating takes effect immediatelyafter hibernation, often within hours. More southerly species may breed without hibernation,and if they are cooled it may be some weeks before mating occurs. I tend to keepmy garters at about 50 to 60 deg F (10 - 15 deg C) for 8 to 12 weeks from early December.Sometimes the snakes know best, and if they go off their food late in the year thenthey are cooled sooner. Most breeders suggest separating males and females duringhibernation, but I can see little need for this, and frequently hibernate animalsin mixed sex groups.
More northern species may require a colder hibernation,and some breeders will hibernate their snakes in a domestic refrigerator.
Priorto hibernation it is important to ensure that the snakes have been starved for twoweeks. This prevents undigested food from decomposing during hibernation.
Afterhibernation there are different ideas about how quickly to warm up the animals. Ihave always followed the perceived wisdom of a gradual increase in temperature over a week or so, and usually find that the animals quickly aim for any hot spots. Oftenthey will refuse food until after their first shed, although some feed almost immediately.Philippe Blais MD, who very successfully breeds Crimson garter snakes in Quebec,warms up his animals with just a 24 hour transition period to normal temperature("Flame Garters - A Variation on an Old Theme" - the Vivarium Vol 9 No6).
Snakes are sexed by one of three methods:-
A,B & C - Female tail; ventral and lateral views. The tail base enlargement noticeablein some females (see B) appear to be male glands, but note that the tail tapers rapidly
D& E - Male tail; ventral and lateral views. Tail base is thick, and this thicknessextends for some distance beyond the vent.
Illustration and description bykind permission of Mr Robert J. Riches, author of 'Breeding Snakes in Captivity',1976
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If you have got everything else right, then this pretty well happenson its own!
Although such a comment may cause offence to some excellent andreputable herpetologists, it is not far from the truth! Both myself and Mr Bob Richeshave experience of Florida blue and Chequered garters breeding repeatedly withoutprior hibernation. Indeed I have had two female juvenile chequered garters have healthylitters at less than 11 months of age, with no prior cooling period. This was accidental,and they mated with their brother with whom they were being housed.
Againthere are varying opinions as to how best to achieve a successful mating. It is certainlyworth introducing the male to the female immediately after hibernation. If that isnot successful, then frequent reintroductions should be tried, particularly aftereither sex has sloughed. My own approach is rather unscientific:- I just leave themtogether and let them get on with it. Those with more voyeuristic tendencies areadvised to avoid this technique as not uncommonly the female(s) become gravid withoutmating having been observed.
Mating is along the usual colubrid line of courtship.Successful mating results in a visible seminal plug or a gaping of the female's cloaca,although I have known successful matings where this was not identifiable.
Itis usually a month or so after mating before pregnancy becomes obvious. A lumpinesscan be felt in the ventral aspect of the female's mid-body. This is best felt whenher muscles are relaxed by letting her gently run through the hands. As the pregnancyprogresses the swelling becomes more pronounced and moves caudally (tailwards!).She often stops feeding in the second half of her pregnancy, after initially eatingvoraciously.
Birth occurs typically 90 to 100 days after mating. The femaleshould be alone, in an escape-proof (for babies!) cage, and there should be plentyof cover for the babies to prevent accidental injury from the mother. Some breedersadvocate a 'nesting box' with damp sphagnum moss inside - this may stimulate themother into giving birth, and also assists the young with their first slough. Theyoung are immediately independent and many start to feed within a day or two. Sloughingcan be from day 1 to day 10.
The babies are cared for in much the same wayas adults. I usually find tiny strips of my home made food are taken readily, butsome require scenting with worms for the first few feeds. One or two stubborn babiesrefuse it for some weeks or months, and despite being fed worms with the same frequency,their growth is significantly less than their siblings.


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With the 75th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally just days away, Indian Motorcycle announces its lineup of 2016 cruisers, baggers and touring bikes that will make their debut at the factory display on Lazelle Street beginning July 31st. Highlighting the lineup of motorcycles that have helped Indian achieve record Q2 sales results is a new Scout ABS cruiser and the Chief Dark Horse, released early in 2015 as a 2016 model (see Exclusive 2016 Chief Dark Horse First Ride here).
2016 Scout ABS and Scout
With an unmatched heritage dating back more than 80 years and unprecedented demand for its predecessor, Indian Motorcycle is proud to introduce 2016 Indian Scout ABS. This middle-weight cruiser weighs in at 558 pounds (claimed dry weight) and extends its decades-long legacy of superb balance, precise handling and potent performance that dominated the Wall of Death and conquered the Bonneville Salt Flats. With its compact design and low 25.3-inch seat height, the Indian Scout is the perfect multipurpose bike for virtually any rider. Featuring a liquid-cooled 69 cubic inch V-twin engine, 100 hp of (claimed) performance and starting at $10,999 for Gloss Black, and $11,299 for Thunder Black Smoke, Silver Smoke and the striking new Wildfire Red (pictured above). The new Indian Scout is the proud future of one of motorcycling's most storied bikes, and is now available with anti-lock brakes (ABS) including the Indian Motorcycle Red paint (itself a $300 premium) for $11,999. All 2016 Indian Scout models come with a genuine leather solo seat, and feature a cast aluminum chassis for superior handling and overall balance. (See new accessorized versions of the 2016 Scout below.)
2016 Chief Dark Horse
The 2016 Indian Chief Dark Horse is the most striking cruiser on the road. Featuring a matte black finish from end to end and only a flash of chrome, this bike makes a statement even before you fire it up. Featuring a low seat height and the lowest price for any Thunder Stroke 111 powered Indian, the Dark Horse starts at just $16,999. The 2016 Indian Chief Dark Horse delivers the styling, reliability and power expected from an Indian Motorcycle, but with a heathy dose of attitude. Propelled by 119 lb-ft of torque (claimed) and the same chassis and suspension of the award-winning Indian Chief Classic, the Dark Horse rolls with standard ABS, a remote key fob for keyless ignition, electronic cruise control, and features a two-year unlimited mileage factory warranty.
2016 Chief Classic, Chief Vintage and Chieftain
For 2016, Indian Motorcycle returns with its award-winning lineup of Indian Chief models delivering the power, handling, unmatched engineering and stunning beauty of the industry's hottest heavyweight cruisers. Powered by the proven Thunder Stroke 111 engine and covered in premium chrome, the Indian Chief family delivers the impeccable styling and sophisticated performance of the Chief Classic; the classic looks, beautiful fringed leather saddle bags and paint schemes of the Chief Vintage, and the cruising comfort and exceptional handling of the Indian Chieftain hard bagger. Continuing its tradition of stunning colors and head-turning two-tone paint palettes, the 2016 Indian Chief lineup, starting at $17,699, offers gorgeous new color options that include Pearl White for the Chief Classic; Star Silver/Thunder Black on the Chief Vintage; and Silver Smoke, Indian Red/Ivory Cream or Star Silver/Thunder Black for the Chieftain.
2016 Roadmaster
The industry's most luxurious and anticipated touring motorcycle, Indian Motorcycle is proud to offer the Indian Roadmaster as the epitome of comfort in long distance cruising. With the peace-of-mind and reliability of the Thunder Stroke 111 engine and nearly 38 gallons of premium storage, the industry's leading touring bike delivers luxury features like a power-adjustable windscreen, heated grips, dual heated seats, ABS, tire pressure monitoring system, keyless ignition with remote locking storage, electronic cruise control, advanced infotainment system and Bluetooth capability for the ultimate in connectivity. New color options include Blue Diamond plus two-tone Storm Gray/Thunder Black and Springfield Blue and Cream. Starting MSRP: $27,999.
Indian Motorcycle at the Sturgis Rally
In 1938 Indian Motorcycle dealer Clarence "Pappy" Hoel and the Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club started the Black Hills Motorcycle Rally never knowing that it would grow into the World's biggest motorcycle rally. For the diamond anniversary, starting Friday July 31st, Sturgis attendees are invited to experience these the new line-up at the Indian Motorcycle factory display on Lazelle St. through the rally, or to experience them firsthand with a factory demo ride at 2100 Whitewood Service Road (I-90 at Exit 30) from Saturday, August 1 - Saturday, August 8, starting at 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily. In addition to stock motorcycles, accessorized units will be on hand to experience comfort and performance items.


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Forbidden 403, You don't have permission to access / on this server.
This issue can be caused by several things, such as wrong permissions or missing configurations on your httpd file.
Open your terminal and copy and paste the following (enter your computer password when promoted):
Then open the following file with your text editor:
/Applications/PilotKit/Sites/config/OSX/httpd.conf, and make sure the following rules exists:
Then simply restart apache > sudo apachectl restart


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Copyright © 2018 Zayka. All Rights Reserved. Designed by Aftin Coutinho
Welcome to Zayka
Fine Indian & Nepalese restaurant, newly refurbished with a fresh name for quality
food, excellent service and a pleasant atmosphere.
At Zayka we have been serving our valuable customer for over 22 years. We promise
to give all of our customers the best of our services to ensure a truly memorable
culinary experience!
The Herbs & Spices for all of our dishes are carefully selected by our professional
Chef to create an authentic taste by maintaining the quality and freshness. All of
our dishes are prepared with low salt and cholesterol free oil!


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Taking an interest in ongoing experience for its own sake; finding subjects and topics interesting; exploring and discovering.
Curiosity is:
- Open Minded
- Interested
- Novelty-Seeking
- Engaged in Conversations
- Exploring
- Inquisitiveness
We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
– Walt Disney


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Welcome to Ottersbrook
At Ottersbrook we have a variety of skills to enable your business to develop and continue to operate, without adding medium to long term HR costs. Whether you are looking for a simple facilitated brainstorming workshop, a solution to a technical problem, or a detailed vision, mission or strategy development programme, we can offer the support you need to move the business forward with confidence. Why not call or email us to see how we can value engineer your ideas or strategies. We will of course utilise your own core competence (your biggest asset) but will maximise our network opportunities to ensure your objectives are both met and optimised. We would love to assist you in fast tracking your ideas and visions to the market. We use many tools to get to the bottom of your organisational needs and aspirations stretching your corporate intelligence by tasking employees and management to release their ideas and of course inertia or bottleneck concerns. This part is incredibly important as it both inspires and motivates employees for the very important implementation plans that drive the business forward. At this point, Ottersbrook will be in a much stronger position to reveal greater insight and strategies for innovation opportunities.We offer a day rate for our services or can also provide a fixed contract fee so you can sequence to your internal budget needs.


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The TL Directory, the most widely recognized and used campground rating system in the country, recently adjusted its campground ratings system to address the changing needs of RVers.
The RV industry is experiencing a trend toward the purchase of larger rigs, more motorhomes, more Internet usage and other 21st century amenities at campgrounds. To reflect these changes and needs of the consumers it serves, the TL Directory rating system is adding criteria to its current three-part rating system. The current TL Directory system is a unique three-part method of rating campgrounds. The campgrounds are rated on a 1-to-10 scale for three attributes: facilities, restroom construction and cleanliness, and visual appeal.
"This is an exciting time for the RV industry as we are seeing substantial increases in both RV ownership and rentals," says Joe Daquino, Affinity Group, Inc.'s (AGI) Multimedia Division president and TL Directory publisher. "In response to consumer demand, we performed market research with the help of campground owners and active RV customers to help us determine how the system could be adapted. The result is an improved system that gives credit for things like phone line availability for modem hookups and the ability to accommodate bigger rigs.
"Refinements were also made in visual appeal to make it more objective and easier to understand," Daquino added.
The upgraded system will not be in place until 2004 for the 2005 Directory to give the campgrounds time to review the changes. This year, the TL Directory, published by AGI's TL Enterprises Inc., will use both systems in the field so campground directors can see the impact of the upgraded system. It also gives the TL Directory publisher an opportunity to check for consistency between both systems.
The TL Directory has a searchable database of more than 1 million RV Park Sites, modem-friendly locations, local tourist attractions as well as a pre-inspected and rated campground index for the US and parts of Canada and Mexico. It is circulated to 300,000 paid customers annually. Additionally, the TL Directory is available on CD-ROM and online.
RV Business and RVBUSINESS.COM also are published by AGI's TL Enterprises subsidiary.
The TL Directory, the most widely recognized and used campground rating system in the country, recently adjusted its campground ratings system to address the changing needs of RVers.


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First there was the start of the fiscal year, then the beginning of school (I still haven't broken myself of the habit of marking time in semesters), then Rosh Hashanah, and now, sneaking in just before Advent, is start of the Year of Faith (beginning on Oct 11, the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council).
I've signed up for two interesting readings meant to supplement the year, so I wanted to pass on the information to the Catholic (or just very curious) readers of the blog.
The first, found via Aggie Catholics, is Flocknote's Read the Catechism in a Year project.
For this Year of Faith, Pope Benedict has encouraged you to study and reflect on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Well, here's an easy way to do it. Simply enter your email address and – starting October 11, 2012 – you'll start getting a little bit of the Catechism emailed to you every morning. Read that little bit every day and you'll read the whole catechism in a year. Cool, right?
The second resource, found via the Anchoress, is the Magnificat Year of Faith Companion. If you order it now, you'll have to hurry to catch up with the daily readings. They're up to a third printing, so if you tarried like me, you won't get a copy til the end of October. Every day, there's a reading in one of these categories:
- Profiles of the holy men and women of the Bible
- Reflections on Sacred Scripture
- Short explanations on the Catechism
- Devotions for deepening faith
- Essays on key aspects of the Faith
- Meditations from saints and spiritual masters
- Prayers both ancient and modern
- Poems capturing the beauty of faith
I like that both of these tie-ins are a way to encounter a lot of different entry points into Catholicism in an orderly way. And I imagine both will give me plenty of blog fodder to mull over with all of you. Perhaps you'll see some of those meditations pop up on Patheos's about to launch page for the Year of Faith.
I love giant bookclubs; the universality of Harry Potter made it a delight to know I could always strike up a conversation with almost anyone my age on what the remaining Horcruxes were, which side Snape was on, whether Hermione was getting a little too ruthless and if this might be how Snape fell, and whether Hermione/Ron was the worst pairing in the world (there is a right answer).
So I'm delighted to know that the Anchoress and other Catholics will all be in this book club with me, along with as many of you that care to join in.


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Santa Clara (CA) – AMD announced an initiative today designed to help developers accelerate their software: There will be a new classification of hardware extensions dubbed XSP (or Extensions for Software Parallelism), which provides internal hardware monitors that contain runtime observed information about executing processes. This new data is expected to help software re-design itself at run-time to remove conditions that are known to be significant bottlenecks to high performance.
The first product being discussed by AMD is a new initiative called Light-Weight Profiling (LWP). LWP consists of "hardware hooks" which allow software to query or capture data the hardware has observed through its own internal runtime analysis: The hardware might determine that two objects are sharing the same cache line, for example. While this would decrease performance in a multi-tasking/multi-core environment, today's software would have no easy way of knowing that potential slowdown condition existed (without expensive, complex software algorithms coupled to high developer skills). As a result, software today runs slower than it needs to.
With LWP, a program can monitor that hardware-observed condition, take a cue from its data and move one of the objects to a different location in memory, thereby resolving the conflict. Other similar abilities exist within LWP and will be discussed in the coming months, we were told by AMD. Large software vendors like Microsoft, Sun, Oracle are typically involved in open initiatives like this as AMD is looking for wide community feedback.
AMD told us that managed applications (like Java and .NET) are ideal candidates for this type of extension. They can be designed to read the hardware provided data and make runtime changes easily and without any new Java or .NET code. Including these abilities in the runtime manager will result in user code which may actually run faster, and all without any changes by the Java or .NET author.
This also means that all existing applications that have not been changed could run faster as well. XSP provides access to any level software code, including non-managed languages. It can be used by the OS, libraries or user-level code. A minimal amount of software overhead penalty is incurred by using LWP, according to AMD. However, the company indicated that the amount of overhead observed today to implement this new ability will likely be completely overshadowed by the increases in performance. Additionally, since the new data is provided by hardware, there are no complex libraries or analysis engines to design and test.
This move also serves as part of a larger initiative being seen industry-wide, to provide more desirable tools for software developers, rather than just faster processors. While these features do help the consumers in the end, they are also the inevitable addition to processors when technology limitations are encountered. For example, we are seeing more cores today, but we aren't seeing higher clock speeds evolve over time like we have in the past. That "free lunch" in performance is over, and the parallel model has begun.
Today, it is more difficult to gain better performance in this model with non-parallel code. More finesse is needed to make it happen. As a result, technologies like XSP (and those which add that finesse) will undoubtedly be the tools of the trade arriving in the years to come.


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Romance Novel Editor, Michelle Morgan
Do you have a story to tell? I delight in bringing to market the most polished, unputdownable version of your story. Editing is my passion!
Hi, I'm Michelle Morgan. I founded mjbookeditor.com in 2013 after 8 years of freelance writing, critiquing, and editing fiction. Since then, I have collaborated with dozens of authors to edit and critique more than 100 romantic novels. Whether your hero is sweet, sexy, or mystifying, together we'll make your readers blush and swoon—and come back for more. I'd love to be the advocate who helps launch your first romantic novel, or, if you already have an established brand but lack a true editing partner, I'm your gal.
Completing a manuscript is an accomplishment you should feel proud of, whether it's your first book or your twentieth. You worked hard and you love your story. Let's make sure your readers love it, too. Not writing a romance novel? Each year I select a handful of projects in other genres, especially women's fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, and memoir.
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He was my first everything. And fourteen years later, I still can't get him out of my head. He broke all my rules. He also broke my heart.
I watched him climb to stardom, cheering him on from afar. But I was never a fan; just a girl in love. I thought I knew everything about him. But I could not have been more wrong.
He promised me every tomorrow. And here I am, waiting. And hoping. Again.
Need a romance novel editor?
When readers purchase your book, they're hoping for a good story. They expect you'll take them on a journey they can lose themselves in, with well-drawn, dynamic characters they'll fall in love with. Whether your romance is steamy or sweet, fantastical or comedic, your readers want an adventure. They want to feel. They might even hope to learn something. Your job is to not disappoint—or better, to blow them away. It is that brand of satisfaction that earns the five-star reviews, the five-figure (and greater) incomes, and loyal fans eagerly waiting for what comes next.
The quality of your latest book is the best marketing for your next book. So how do you know if you've written a quality book? A professional book editor is plugged in to the industry daily. She knows what readers are buying now—and errors don't sell. Her eagle eye catches mistakes, large and small, that could ruin the moment and pull the reader out of the story. Typos are jarring and unprofessional. Story-level inconsistencies sound alarms in readers' minds. An amateur love story won't elicit the yearning in readers that compels them to turn pages. Paired with forgettable writing, it won't sell.
I like to approach a writer's endeavor for what it is: your business, as well as your art. An investment in quality romance novel editing is for you, the writer who's gotten this far and isn't about to stop already. It's for your characters, the ones who keep you up at night, urging you to pen their stories. Most importantly, it's for your readers—those persnickety creatures who buy your books, sustaining you, trusting you'll deliver a powerful story.
Professional Book Editing Services
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We lose ourselves in books. We find ourselves there too.
Michelle Morgan offers a publishing-house quality service with a personal touch, so you'll #LoveYourManuscript.


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Anglican Resurgence under W. F. Hook in Early Victorian Leeds:
by Dr H W Dalton.
Church Life in a Nonconformist Town: 1836-1851
Dr Dalton's book depicts reviving activity among Anglican clergy and parishioners in Leeds from 1836.
At that time Dissenters had, since 1800, far surpassed Anglicans in spiritual provision for the town's
rapidly rising population. The advent of W.F. Hook as High Church Vicar from 1837 increased the momentum.
Leeds speedily became recognised as probably the most effective English parish. This work examines the
varied activities of clergy and parishioners at a time when the parish was alive with initiatives; and
offers a reassessment of Hook who in his years at Leeds developed into possibly the most effective
Anglican parish priest of his time. Topics also covered include church building, parish division,
and relationships with Evangelicals, Tractarians and Dissenters. The account represents a significant
addition to the limited number of studies of early Victorian Anglicanism in the provinces.
Dr Harry Dalton holds a BA (1st Class Hons) from the Open University, and an MA and PhD from the University of Leeds. His previous work, Walter Farquhar Hook; Vicar of Leeds: his work for the Church and the Town, 1837-1848 was published by The Thoresby Society in 1990.
|Appreciations on retirement: Mrs R. Stephens and Mrs J. W. Kirby, Hon. Editors.
|The Leeds North Eastern Railway extension, 1863-1869, by Keith R. Wark.
|Episodes in the history of Golden Acre, by Tony Shelton.
|'An Institution of Great Utility': Leeds Public Dispensary, the early years, 1824-1867, by Audrey L. Kent.
|Leeds and the public patronage of fine art, 1809-1888, by Janet Douglas.
Click for how to obtain this book


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Editor's Note: ESPN Insider has teamed with Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook to provide a comprehensive look at the Division I-A teams. To order the complete 2008 edition of Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook, visit www.blueribbonyearbook.com or call 1-866-805-BALL (2255).
(All information as of June 20, 2008)
It isn't smart to be the best academic school in the best division in college football.
Every time Vanderbilt makes a bowl bid seem academic, dumb luck seems to rear its ugly head. The Commodores appeared to have made all of the proper investments for a bowl payout last season, and that's not merely a reference to the guarantees given to Richmond, Miami (Ohio) and Eastern Michigan to come see Music City.
Quarterback Chris Nickson had a season of experience behind him, had a veteran offensive line led by tackle Chris Williams to protect him, and had the tireless, sure-handed Earl Bennett running routes with precision. But then Nickson hurt his shoulder against Alabama in the second game of the season, and suddenly coach Bobby Johnson was faced with playing a black and blue quarterback or his second green one in as many years.


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- Labour Party and Business: A Difficult Relationship?
- Chameleon Conservative Cameron Shows True Colours
- An Election Reflection for a Majority Minority
- Mhairi Black: Giving Politics a Makeover
- Galloway Threatens Legal Action Over Election Result
- Voter Turnout: What The Numbers Tell Us About The 2015 General Election
- Looking At The Reaction to the Election Explains its Result
- The Polls Were Wrong Because People Lied, it's That Simple!
- Russell Brand "Resigns" from Politics following General Election Result
- It's Not The Cold War Anymore, We Don't Need a Nuclear Deterrent
- The Future of Labour: Who Will Be The Next Leader?
- The Future of the Liberal Democrats: Who Will Be the Next Leader?
- The Future of UKIP: Who Will Be the Next Leader?
- A Tale of Three Ends
- The Tory Legacy
- If the Party Leaders were characters from Friends…who would you vote for?
- The Ten (Well, Six) Commitments: Is Stone Legally Binding?
- Tuition Fees: A Hollow Attempt to Pander to the Student Vote?
- 6,417 Ed Milligrams – What Do You Actually Vote For?
- Boris Johnson to become Gangster Rapper
- Political Engagement: The Calm After the Storm
- Parliamentary Candidate Interview: Green Party's John Spottiswoode.
- Parliamentary Candidate Interviews: TUSC's Sue Atkins
- Parliamentary Candidate Interview, Independent Candidate Chris Daviss
- "I don't think the Liberal Democrats should be in government just for the sake of it" – An Interview With Nick Clegg
- Parliamentary Candidate Interview, TUSC's Nick Chaffey
- Parliamentary Candidate Interview: Conservative's Jeremy Moulton.
- Should Young People Be Made To Vote?
- The Nationalist Parties
- No Votes for Women?
- None of the Political Candidates Ticking Your Box? There is Another Option.
- The Other Parties
- Liberal Democrats Party Profile
- The Green Party
- Labour Party Profile
- In Defence of the Coalition
- Why Labour Should Win the Election But Won't
- The Protest Vote: The Weapon of the Disenfranchised.
- Why Young People Must Use Their Vote
- An Interview With Natalie Bennett
- What Will a Multi-Party System Mean for Britain?
- Tuition Fees: Must Try Harder Ed
- Science and Policy
- This Election is Far Bigger Than Party Politics
- Parliamentary Candidate Interviews: Ian Callaghan, Green Party
- Parliamentary Candidate Interviews: Lib Dem's Adrian Ford
- Paliamentary Candidate Interview – Labour's Darren Paffey
- Parliamentary Candidates Interviews: Lib Dem's Eleanor Bell
- TV Debates: The Crucifixion of David Cameron
- Parliamentary Candidate Interview – Labour's Rowenna Davis
- Parliamentary Candidate Interview, the Green Party's Angela Mawle
- Can We Trust Politicians Who Act Like Schoolchildren?
- Parliamentary Candidate Interview – UKIP's Sandra James
- Manifesto Focus: Labour
- Why Nuclear Weapons Are Imperative For The UK's Security
- Southampton's Role in the General Election Should Not Be Overshadowed by a Sausage Roll
- Just When You Thought UKIP Couldn't Do Anything Right…
- What the Hell Do You Want?
- Which Political Leader Are You?
- The EU: To Be or Not To Be
- Your 2015 General Election Candidates
- What a Silly Sausage: Southampton UKIP Candidate Accused of Bribery
- UKIP Party Profile
- Conservative Party Profile
- The Leaders Debate: The Insurgents, The Pretender & The Incumbent
- SUPA's Short and Sweet Guide to Voting on 7th May
- TV Debate: Clash of the Titans
- Leaders Debate Brings Hope For Progressive Politics
- TV Debates: David Cameron and Ed Miliband Versus Britain
- 14,000 Voters Missing From Electoral Role in Southampton – Register to Vote Now!
- Men's Rights Party Set To Contest in General Elections
- A Royal Coup? – Queen Guitarist Brian May Considering Standing for Election
- Debating Over Debates
- Galloway Demands Inclusion in TV Debates
- The General Election 2015 – A Disunited Kingdom?
- 99 Days To Go: The Most Unpredictable Election Yet!
- Poll Indicates Demand for Green Party to be Included in Election Debates
- Have You Registered To Vote?
- Is Sol Campbell running for Parliament?
- Salmond to Stand as MP
- Students May Hold the Key!
- The Green Party Should Not Be Included in the 2015 General Election Debates
- Parliamentary Candidate Interview: Alan Whitehead MP
- What's at Stake for Students in the General Election?
- It's Time For Politicians To Get Down With The Kids
- The Debates Debate
- Who Will Run The Country in 2015?
- New Year, New Government? New Politics?
- Newly Elected Itchen MP Accused of Helping UKIP Secure Labour Votes
Green Party Leader, Natalie Bennett speaks to Wessex Scene, about the environment, tuition fees, socialism, feminism, scumbag landlords, votes at 16, the 'sad sick joke' of the coalition, legalising weed, and where the Green Party will stand after May 7th.
Last year, Natalie Bennett was a small time politician; today she is a household name leading the third biggest nation-wide party, according to membership at least. Early on the first Monday morning of the Easter holidays, I sat in my bedroom, pyjama-clad and waited for a call from Bennett, after 5 minutes I started to get nervous that the arranged interview was all an elaborate prank and she won't be calling at all. Yet at 9.36am, Bennett puts me out of my misery, my phone rings and I'm greeted by Natalie's cheery, Australian tone. We make small talk and discuss the weather (it's a beautiful sunny day in London). Concerned that she'll make time to do something more important than be interviewed by a student paper, I quickly crack on with the interview.
Natalie Bennett is not your typical politician, she's openly anti-monarchy, female and wasn't born or educated in the UK. Of the leaders of the 5 biggest nationwide parties, she's the only woman, the only one that wasn't educated at a British public school and/or Oxbridge, but as the Green's initial exclusion from the TV debates has shown, she isn't afraid of 'the boys' in politics.
As Trustee of the Fawcett Society, I wasn't surprised when the Green Party leader told me she 'very much' was a feminist. But what does she think of people who openly aren't feminists? "I think labels are what people make of them." Bennett tells me, "I think it's really important that we keep feminists issues at the forefront. Look at things like the continuing pay gap, that only 22% of MPs are female, the lack of women running big companies and the lack of women running government departments, and the level of violence against women and girls in society – these are things that need to change."
The nature of the name Green leads a lot to think the Greens are a one-party policy, what can they offer beyond the environment? Economic policy for a start, "Our economy is built on debt, we need to build a society built around strong local economies, that's why we want to introduce a minimum wage that's above the living wage, that's £7.85 around the country and £10 an hour by 2020. So people can have a sense of security if they're working full-time they have enough money to survive, or pro-rata part time."
So that's the economy covered, which is the most important issue for most people. What are the Green's thoughts on the NHS? "We're also particularly focusing on public services, bringing railways back in public hands so they're run for passengers not share holders. We're very focused on protecting the NHS; we're against any profit motif in the NHS. At the moment, Caroline Lucas with other MPs has a private member's bill in parliament calling for the removal of the market mechanism in the NHS, which in 2010 was costing us £10 billion a year."
So are there environmental issues to focus on? "Environmental issues are obviously a strong part of our manifesto," Bennett continues, "this is clearly the year of the current talks, this clearly is the year of the Paris talks, given what we've just seen as only a climate illiterate budget and a government that spends 300 times of fossil fuels that it does on renewables, and it's not spending a penny on affordable energy to heat homes for people who desperately need that – we clearly need more change. At that's what the Green Party stands for, a real change in politics, a new era in politics." As a minority party would it be better to lobbying the major parties into taking on better environmental policies? "We're fighting for better environmental policies all the time. You may recall this government came into power calling itself the Greenest ever, which I think is a very sad, sick, joke. The way to get focused on better environmental policy is to focus on issues conserving nature is to vote for Green MPs."
It's not unusual to see right-wing rhetoric attempting to scare voters away from the Greens by describing them as socialist. How would the leader of the Party compare her party's policies to socialism? "My political philosophy is Green, a lot of those things are traditionally socialist." Bennett reminds me "The understanding of the Green politics is the trying together of economic and environmental justice, and those things are indivisible. We need the sources for the future that gives everyone the quality of life, but we need to do that within the limits of one planet, as it's all we've got."
Scrolling through the Green's website, a lot of these policies sounds great for a student voter – if not a little idealist. Most of us think it would be great to have a £10 minimum wage, and abolition of tuition fees, but are they realistic? Is it easy for a minority party to post idealist policies knowing they will not be in power? "I would say that we are the realistic party, if you look at the situation for tuition fees, to take one example, under the current system, 75% will never pay them back, so their going through 30 years of their life with that weight of debt, paying off a significant amount of their income. 45p in the pounds of those debts will never be repaid; it's not a realistic system. It's simply not workable, we need something different, we're living in a very low wage economy with zero hour contracts and people can't live their lives. How can you live your life with a zero hours contact when you don't know whether this week you're going to earn £0 or £200, where we are now we can't continue."
So what is Bennett's response to critics who think a £10 minimum wage will lead to lower employment? "There's a very good study out on making the minimum wage a living wage immediately would create 30,000 jobs." Bennett begins to explain the multiplier effect to me, "Think about your local café on the corner, if the people outside are a living wage, they can afford to have a drink. Think about the home care workers who are disgracefully paid less than minimum wage, if they're properly paid they could afford to pop in and have a cup of tea and a slice of cake. So you're looking at a boosting of in particular local economies, and small businesses".
One of these policies that sound great is the abolition of tuition fees, but how are the Green party planning on funding this? Pretty simply, taxation, taxation, taxation: "We very much want to focus multinational companies and rich individuals pay their own way – on the HMRCs own figures tax evasion and avoidance cost £34billion a year. We also want to bring in a wealth tax, which by the end of parliament could bringing in £25billion a year, and a Robin Hood Tax, or financial transactions tax, which could bring in £20billion a year. We want to balance society so people who can afford to pay, pay."
For students, one of the biggest issues is housing, three quarters of students have problems with their rented student homes, and are getting into debt to pay for it. Natalie offers me her sincerest sympathies over my housing situation, and adds "It's not just students that this happens to – there's a real problem with relationship between landlords and tenants, and the way in which that housing is seen as a financial assets first and a secondarily as a home." Bennett continues "we want to introduce rent caps, so you have security of tenure for up to five years, if you wanted it also wouldn't see your rent rising above the rate of inflation. We also want to build 500,000 homes for social rent [council houses, or similar], over the term of the next parliament, to help to restore the balance. That should bring more balance into the housing market, we need to get rents and an affordable level and we need to build affordable housing to deal with that."
An issue where the Green Party sticks out from other politicians significantly is the decriminalisation of cannabis to the 'Dutch level'. Should the Green party be worried about drug tourism? "What we're trying to do is harm minimisation, it's very clear that the war on drugs has failed and the issue with drugs is a huge problem related to criminality. We're focused on trying to reduce the damage that is done by drugs. There's a lot of expert advice and evidence from around the world that says decriminalising cannabis is the way forward, in this area and so many others we want to move towards an evidence based policy."
A lot of the Green Party's points are on so-called 'evidence based policy', so if the Green Party were to go into a coalition – which policy points would they insist on keeping? "Just to put on the record, we would never prop up a Tory government, in any way at all." Bennett insists, "We also wouldn't be looking towards a coalition; we'd rather support a Labour-lead minority government on a vote-by-vote basis. If you go into coalition you take ministerial cards but you're then forced to vote against your principles, if we were in opposition we won't lose our principles." So what if Bennett herself doesn't get elected as an MP? At the moment, pollsters are predicting her to come third in her consistency of Holborn and St. Pancras, will she step down as leader Farage-style? "I think I have a very large mountain to climb in Holborn and St Pancras, and if we're going to see real change, that's the way things will be. I'm working very hard on that and looking forward to a hustings. I was elected by the Green Party members as leader, and I've been given a job to do, and I'll be doing that as long as I'm still elected."
According to voteforpolicies.org, the Green Party is the second favorite party of the UK electorate, shortly behind Labour. I asked Natalie why she thought this wasn't the case in reality "The British Electorate have been trained over decades to vote tactically. I've met a lot of people who have told me they voted Lib Dem in 2010 to keep the Tories out; but there's been an increasing disillusion with that, as people are realising politics isn't changing as a result of that, as a result of 2010. The two largest parties in particular tend to slant their policies towards swing voters in the swing seats, assuming their core vote will stay with them no matter what. If we're going to get a different kind of politics in Britain, it really is in voters hands – as you pointed out with votes for policies, we need every British person to vote towards their own belief, looked at the candidates in their constituency, it's in voters hands to actually deliver a 'peaceful political revolution' on May 7th.'
But it's not tactical voting that's the problem for most students, it's voting at all. Voter apathy is at an all time high, especially in 18-24 year olds. How would the Green Party encourage the youth to vote? "What we have to say is this is our world; this is the future world, in Westminster, lots of important decisions are made. I know there's lots of rhetoric out there, Russell Brand being among them that say "don't vote, it only encourages them" but if you don't vote, I'm happy enough with how things are that I haven't bothered, which I don't think is a true reflection of how things are at all. What I'd say is make sure you register to vote, go along to the polling station and have your say. I'd obviously say vote Green, but above all else, vote for what you believe in – look up your local candidates, go along to local events where their speaking if you can and see who you agree with. If you really don't want to vote for any of them, write something on the ballot box that would indicate that." Another of the Green Party's policies is to lower the voting age to 16, which, according to Natalie is a "This is a long term Green Policy, support for which has grown as a result of the Scottish Referendum, which saw a very high level of engagement for 16 and 17 year olds." The leader of the Green Party tells me "It's the future; it's your world for many decades to come. 16 and 17 year olds are as well informed as any other group about politics. If you have General Elections every 5 years, and your birthday is the day after the General Election, votes at 18 could actually be votes at 23. You're leaving people along way down the track before they can have a say about society."
Feature image by Jordan Stewart.


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Adium 1.3 is released, it is a major version upgrade which took seven months to develop. Among the changes are improvement to performance and memory usage, Facebook chat support, improved MSN chat support with personal messages, and a revamped Contact Inspector user interface (previously Get Info Window) with live contact search. Check out the list of new features and changes.
Download from Adium website or through Adium's build-in updater if you have old version installed.
For those not in the know, Adium is a popular free multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Mac. You can use it to chat with anyone from AOL, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, MSN etc. It is based on the libpurple framework which is also used by the other popular IM program Pidgin for Linux/Windows.


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Why choose City & Guilds?
A City & Guilds qualification is proof that you have the right skills to do your job well - which is why so many employers look for people who have one. You can be confident your qualification is well respected within your industry.
City & Guilds qualifications are engaging and rewarding, and can lead to a whole range of fulfilling careers -
including many of the UK's happiest professions.
Award / Certificate / Diploma in Beauty Therapy
Qualification number: 3007
Qualification type: NVQ
Develop your salon skills with make-up, hair, nails and face and body treatments with an Award, Certificate or Diploma in Beauty Therapy.
Beauty Therapy Diploma Level 2 Part Timeevel: LEVEL 2
This course consists of the following:
Facial Treatments
Skin Analysis
Face, Neck and Shoulder Massage
Eyelash & Brow Treatments
Eyelash Perming
Manicure & Pedicure
Wax Depilation
Reception Skills
Health & Safety
Homecare, Aftercare and Retail Sales are an integral part of the course
Work experience in a range of beauty therapy salons, leisure centres, are an integral part of the programme.
Assessment Method:
Practical assessments, written exams, assignments and oral questions
Other Details:
Students will need to be prepared to practice on models as directed by the Students will be required to study at home. e.g. Assignments and revision. Kit details will be given at interview
Continuing in Education:
Beauty Therapy NVQ Level 3
Make-Up Specialist
Nail Specialist
Wide range of Beauty Therapy courses
An NVQ is a work-related, hands-on qualification that focuses on employment skills for you.
They've been developed by the industry for the industry.
It is a collection of units which, when completed, gives you the full compliment of skills required to work in the beauty industry.
The achievement of all units makes you competent or 'work ready' for your new beauty career.
Where other subjects have value within the sector, but do not wholly contribute to the core of what the industry actually needs, e.g. Reflexology, then the VRQ is offered to ensure a certain level of knowledge is attained and meet insurance requirements.
VRQ's are like 'pockets of skill' within a subject area related to an occupationramme


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The past year has been burgeoning with growth and expansion opportunities for most countries across the globe, especially in the Asia Pacific region. Increased emphasis on cross border transactions, foreign direct investment and digital inclusion have been some of the contributing factors for the rapid economic and sustainable growth of this region. While countries in the Asia Pacific swiftly move up the ladder of development, organizations continue to grapple with issues related to fraud and corporate misconduct. Thus, detection and deterrence has become crucial than ever before to remove bottlenecks and conduct businesses in a streamlined manner.
The drive to increase corporate value through increased compliance is sensed in most Indian organizations today, but there have been sporadic discussions when it comes to executing compliance programs that will address potential risks and help in dealing with emerging issues such as cybercrime, NPAs, money laundering, tax investigations, terrorist financing etc. All these elements prompted our Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services (FIDS) team to conduct an exclusive breakfast session on 'Compliance in India Inc.' in Gurugram. EY's APAC Fraud Survey 2017 was also unveiled at the session that encapsulated bribery and corruption challenges in the Asia-Pacific region.
The session had well-known experts from the Government and private sector, Praveen Sinha, Additional Secretary, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), Shahana Basu, Director – Legal & Regulatory Affairs, Max India, Nandita Khurana, Zone Head-Legal, Africa India Middle- East, Michelin Tyres and Surath Mukherjee, Head Internal Audit, Dalmia Bharat Group. The experts shared their experiences on fraud risks, importance of transparency and accountability to infuse sound governance and the need to build robust compliance programs to combat economic crimes.
Praveen Sinha, Additional Secretary, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), also the chief guest at this session, discussed current measures undertaken by the CVC and its operations. He also stressed that trainings, both in the public and private sector organizations should include bribery and compliance mechanisms to combat fraud. He also added that it is important to have a proper diagnosis to combat corruption.
Arpinder Singh, National Leader with Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services, EY India sub area, shared key highlights of the APAC Fraud Survey. He pointed out that a majority of the respondents in the APAC region consider compliance culture to be an important factor while choosing their future workplace. The survey further highlighted that the anti-bribery and anti-corruption programs need to be simplified and communicated to employees at regular intervals by the senior management for ethical conduct. Arpinder also threw light on the steps like the use of techniques such as Forensic Data Analytics, setting up of whistleblowing hotlines etc. that can be taken by organizations in India to mitigate potential threats.
The event concluded with a captivating panel discussion on 'Bridging the compliance gap through leading global practices' along with the esteemed set of panelists. The conversation revolved around critical elements comprising internal compliance plans, such as implementation of existing policies and procedures, evaluating changing behaviour of employees, strengthening internal controls, regular training and awareness for employees, prompt response to problems detected and the adoption of technology to increase the overall compliance efforts. The panel also discussed about the practical challenges in implementation and initiatives that can bring-in greater buy-in for compliance.
Shahana Basu of Max India shared her views that proactive risk assessment and continuous monitoring of activities conducted by oversight committees for robust ethical foundation will be key in battling risks. While Nandita Khurana of Michelin Tyres highlighted the changing role of General Counsels in the current landscape, they will be expected to don multiple hats and support businesses in various decisions. Surath Mukherjee from Dalmia Bharat Group spoke about breaking complex structure in organizations and encouraging transparency among employees to sustain business.
Thus, organizations in India could look at tackling challenges to mitigate fraud, bribery and corruption by fortifying their internal compliance framework or structure. With the impact of fraud increasing on all fronts and ultimately affecting the bottom line of an organization, it is only imperative to re-energizing corporate India's compliance quotient that will eventually transform the present business sphere.
Follow @EY_India and track #EYForensic for regular updates


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It's a big year for 18 Wood Street at Adamstown. The residence celebrates its centenary birthday, a milestone for a home rich in beauty and history. And to add to its history, the property will also be going under the hammer – A new adventure for one lucky bidder to take this property into its next century.
At this unique property, a sunbeam has broken through the conventional conformity of renovation. This three bedroom 1916 cottage has been recently crafted into a uniquely warm and eclectic abode.
Borders of flickering colour tell the story of decades of design that has been evolving with its inhabitants, lovingly sanded back to artistically reveal a one of a kind border to this one of a kind house.
Every inch of the home is imbibed with character, from the heritage wallpaper, to the reclaimed fireplace and beautiful timber flooring.
3 bedrooms all smile with charm and color.
The main bedroom featuring a romantic bay window, opened in the summer to let the scent from the large frangapani tree breeze inside.
The formal living room an inviting heart to the home.
The funky galley kitchen pops color, and flows to the open plan dining room, which features extra storage and a perfectly matched patchwork of time.
A home that is both a treasure and a pleasure.
But this funky residence in prime position is not the only benefit of the property; a second modern residence sits at the rear boasting two bedrooms and open plan living. A handy income generator, or luxury granny flat, with 2 bedrooms, internal laundry, and open plan kitchen and living areas.
This truly is classic village living on one perfectly positioned block of land.
The Auction: Sun 16-Oct-16 11:00AM
Location: 18 Wood Street, Adamstown
Contact: Ally @ Villager


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WHO WE ARE: Mike and Erin, TALL + small, respectively.
WHERE WE ARE: Bloomington, Indiana + Harrisonburg, Virginia. But always ready to travel!
WHAT WE DO: We take photos that are timeless and artistic with a dash of zaniness.
OUR GOAL: To help make you slightly cooler than you already are.


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Dates: Saturday 28th April 2018
Tutor: Clare Blackmore-Davies
Secure your place now
Cost: £85 per person to include pattern, equipment, fabric and lunch
Venue: Courses are being held at Hartley Antiques, Miss Maker's sewing room is located on the top floor of this wonderful emporium located in the picturesque village of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire.
Session: Saturday 10.15am - 4.15pm,
Refreshments: Lunch at the Courtyard Cafe within the centre is included in the cost of the course
Getting that perfect fit has always been tricky. Most commercial patterns are based on a B/C cup and unrealistic proportions betwen bust, waist and hips so if you are outside this range this course will really help. This is an element of dress making that I am always being asked about so I have developed a one day course to take you step by step through the process of adjusting a standard pattern to really fit your shape. We will look at how to alter both darted and princess seam bodice patterns and you will produce your own fitted muslin and pattern piece that can be taken home and used for future projects.
On booking I will ask for some key measurements from you simply to ensure I can provide the pattern appropriate to your size.
Sessions are kept to a maximum of 4 people to ensure everyone can learn at their own pace. Groups and parties welcome see the Special Sessions page.


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T-Bucket and Street Rod Kits Body Basics from Speedway Motors
Speedway Motors has the superior quality fiberglass bodies and street rod kits (http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Street-Rod-Parts.html) that street rodders demand! Our '23 T-Bucket bodies are available in several styles, street rod kits and configurations offering some extra options when assembling any T roadster street rod project. Plus Speedway Motors offers the parts necessary to get your rod on the road. Visit http://www.speedwaymotors.com/ for interior kits, suspension, engine parts, accessories and more.