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IQS Directory is a top industrial directory listing of leading industrial rubber channel manufacturers and suppliers in Quebec. Access our comprehensive index to review and source rubber channel manufacturers with preview ads and detailed product descriptions. These rubber channel companies can design, engineer and manufacture rubber channels to your specifications and application needs. A quick and easy to use request for quote form is provided for you to contact these rubber channel manufacturers and suppliers. Each company has detailed profile information, locations, phone number, website links, product videos and product information defined. Read customer reviews and product specific news articles. We are the right resource for your information requirement whether it's for a manufacturer of rubber rods, rubber trim, or rubber profiles.
Whether you need gaskets, protectors, seals, or vibration control parts, VICONE can meet any and all of your extruded rubber needs. We supply custom rubber parts in a variety of materials including silicone, neoprene, nitrile rubber, EPDM, natural rubber, fluroelastomer, and fluorosilicone. Contact us today and talk to a representative about your extruded rubber requirements. We would love to serve you! Rubber Channels in Quebec.
From this ISO accredited manufacturer of quality rubber extrusions comes an extensive line of industrial rubber products. "If we don`t have it, we`ll customize it utilizing expertise in water jet cutting, splicing, taping and injection molding." Elasto Proxy carries a wide variety of products, and has the machines and techniques to create products to your unique shape and size specifications. Rubber Channels in Quebec.
Pro-Flex, Inc. is a manufacturer of extruded and molded rubber, rubber goods, rubber bumpers and extruded rubber tubing. We provide our customers with cost-effective, quality rubber extrusions. Now new to us is silicone extruded products. Rubber Channels in Quebec.
Custom rubber extrusions — commercial- and military-grade extruded rubber grommets; colored rubber bumpers (black, brown, clear, gray, white); u-channel, o-ring cord, p-stripping and edging can be obtained through us. We also distribute many types of rubber goods from name-brand manufacturers. Rubber Channels in New Hampshire.
Delford is a manufacturer of custom extruded rubber goods. We offer continuous-length extrusion, cutting, fabrication and finishing. Dies are also available for the basic shapes of rubber bumpers, seals, weather stripping and more. We specialize in butyl, EPDM, NBR, PVC, thermoplastic elastomer and more. Rubber Channels in New York.
Outsourcing with PBA, the leading full-service manufacturer and supplier of rubber, plastic, metal, composite components and assembly for OEM industry, can cut your production costs and get your products to market faster, while insuring high quality and reliability. Rubber Channels in New York.
Pawling Engineered Products is a leading manufacturer of high-quality custom extruded rubber, silicone and plastic profiles. Along with our Presray Pneuma-Seal line of inflatable seals, clamps and actuators, we offer Pneuma-Cel plug 'n play inflatable bladders and Pro-Tek marine fenders. Rubber Channels in New York.
At RPM Industrial Rubber Parts, Inc., we are committed to consistently providing our customers with the finest products available such as rubber extrusions, rubber goods, molded rubber products, rubber bumpers, rubber bushings and extruded rubber profiles. We have over 40 years of experience creating rubber products. Rubber Channels in New York.
Ultrafab's extruded rubber components are manufactured to meet or exceed your needs and expectations. Rubber materials include rigid PVC exterior grade, polyolefins, TPE's, and more. We will work directly with your designers, engineers and manufacturing personnel to help you market your new extruded rubber products on time and at an affordable price. Rubber Channels in New York.
UniRubber is a leading manufacturer of high-quality rubber extrusions, molded rubber, extruded rubber profiles, rubber bumpers and extruded rubber tubing. UniRubber offers custom manufactured rubber extrusions, fast-delivery and cost-effective products to all our customers. Rubber Channels in New York.
Since 1970, Budlar Flexible Products has serviced the automotive, transportation, architectural and industrial markets by providing custom or standard rubber extrusion products. No matter your profile specifications, we can customize o-rings and use virtually any compound of material - PVC, latex, Vinyl, Viton®, Neoprene and more. Call us today for more information. Rubber Channels in Ontario.
Polymer Extrusions has been offering customized extruded rubber profiles and polymer products since 1994. We have gaskets, urethane products, lathe-cut washers and more. For 30 years we have been providing quality extruded rubber products to a variety of industries. Call us today for an innovative solution to your extrusion needs. Rubber Channels in Ontario.


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The hotel "Europe" is located in the central part of the town of Brody, 200 meters from the Maidan of Freedom. The first floor of the complex consists of a cafe-bar, a hotel...

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Making the switch to real-time analytics
Going from sporadic batch data processing to streaming, real-time data analytics is much easier said than done. Acquiring and setting up streaming tools is the easy part. What is much more difficult, and where many companies stumble, is in adjusting their business processes to be able to handle all that data as it comes in.
This white paper reviews:
- The barriers companies often face when moving to real-time analytics
- Things you should consider before making the switch to real-time
- What to look for when selecting a real-time analytics provider


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Haywards Heath Town Team, with Haywards Heath Town Council and the support of Mid Sussex District Council, is inviting all the local faith communities to a Tea Party in the Town Hall on Sunday 22nd March.
We're hoping that, by coming together in this way, we will become even better friends and neighbours to help each other and work together to make our Town an even better place to live and work.
If you'd like to join us, do call Ruth on 01444 453399 or email email@example.com as we'd love to see you!


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Focus on Nature - A Wildlife Photographer's Year
This event has already passed.
Cranefly / Prisk
Event details
Wed, 18/03/2020 - 7:30pm - 9:30pm
An illustrated talk by Chris Hatch, Vice-President of the Gwent Wildlife Trust. Chris always has beautiful photographs to share and not only that, he has wonderful stories to tell about all kinds of wildlife.
Venue location
Chepstow Leisure Centre


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Akpors who was a houseboy usually sneaks into his Oga's room, drinks his wine and adds water to top it up.
One day his Oga bought a new wine called pasties, it was a french wine that changes colour if water is added onto it.
Akpors unaware of this, sneaks into his Oga's room, drank the new wine and added water on it.
Immediately it started changing colour.
Akpors: I am in trouble, big trouble.
He ran to the kitchen.
Meanwhile, oga and madam were sitted in the parlour, while Akpors was in the kitchen....
OGA: Akpors!
Akpors: Oga
OGA:Who drank my pasties?
No answer...
OGA:Akpors, who drank my pasties?.
No answer...
Oga walked into the kitchen and saw Akpors there.
OGA:Are you insane or what?Why when I call, you say "Oga" but when I ask you a question you don't answer me?
Akpors: Oga,when you are in the kitchen you don't understand anything, except your name!
OGA: Is that so?Nonsense! Okay go to the parlour, stand beside madam and ask me a question while I stand here.
Akpors went and did what oga said.
Akpors: Ogaaaaaa
Akpors: Who goes into the maid's bedroom when madam is not at home?.
No answer...
Akpors: Ogaaaaaa!!! You dey hear me, I say who dey sneak enter the house girl room when madam no dey house.
No answer...
Oga runs out of the kitchen.
OGA: Wonders shall never end!Akpors, it is true o, when one is in the kitchen, one does not hear anything, except one's name.
MADAM:That's not true. It's a lie!
Akpors: Madam, do you want to be tested?.
MADAM: Yes,please!
Akpors: Oya enter the kitchen
She enters.
Akpors: Madam!
MADAM: Yes,Akpors!
Akpors: Who is Junior's biological Father? Me or Oga?
Madam rushed out of the kitchen
MADAM:This kitchen needs to be fumigated o, I can't understand anything at all!


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Colorado beat Nebraska on Saturday, pulling out a 33-28 win that was a messy, emotional affair that makes college football such a beautiful sport. Except for perhaps one play.
Playing in his first game, true freshman quarterback Adrian Martinez led the Huskers from a 14-0 deficit to a 28-27 lead, completing 15-of-20 passes for 187 yards with a touchdown and an interception while rushing 15 times for a game-high 117 yards and two touchdowns.
With the ball near midfield and under four minutes to play, Nebraska appeared primed to put the game away for good, until Martinez was forced to leave the game after an awkward tackle. Martinez's right leg was grabbed by Buffs linebacker Jacob Callier, and he was pushed to the ground by CU linebacker Nate Landman while still in Callier's grasp, forcing Martinez to crumple to the ground awkwardly.
Without a scholarship backup quarterback, Nebraska was forced to turn to walk-on Andrew Bunch, who, after a Colorado touchdown, led Nebraska's game-saving drive to the CU red zone but no further. Colorado won the game, 33-28.
Fortunately, Martinez's season is not over. Nebraska head coach Scott Frost told reporters Monday that Martinez is day-to-day and has not been ruled out of Nebraska's date with Troy on Saturday.
BREAKING: Adrian Martinez could play on Saturday according to Scott Frost. He is day to day with a knee injury. #Huskers Details: https://t.co/QKCIVTv8Rs pic.twitter.com/IBIY7Snxqu
— Andrew Ward (@AndrewWardKLKN) September 10, 2018
Though the play will not end Martinez's season, Nebraska is not ready to move on. Frost said Monday the Nebraska staff has submitted video to both the Big Ten and Pac-12 offices.
"You never want to think anybody on a football field would intentionally want to hurt anybody else, and nobody except someone that does that knows what the intentions were," Frost said. "I will tell you that we have an angle that doesn't look very good."
Adrian Martinez hurt his leg in @HuskerFBNation's first game.
Updates: He's day-to-day, and the team has turned the play into the Big Ten and Pac-12 offices, for possible foul play.
"We'll see where it goes from there." – @coach_frost pic.twitter.com/LItN2w0tO9
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) September 10, 2018
It's possible this action by Callier is what Nebraska wants both leagues to take a look at.
In this angle, you can clearly see Landman push Martinez back upon himself after he was already tackled.
Frost didn't come out and say Martinez was intentionally injured on a dirty hit, but it's hard to imagine Nebraska going through the trouble of submitting film to two separate conference offices if they didn't believe they had incriminating evidence on their hands.
Whatever the result of those reviews, Colorado is going to keep the win, Martinez (thankfully) will return to the field, and the CU-NU rivalry has some added animosity for the rematch next September in Boulder.


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Do you know that you can actually get a Virtual Private Server account at the cost of shared hosting? But to avail this you have to wait for festive seasons like Black Friday Hosting sales, here I listed cheap web hosting sites and Halloween sales dates listed here and get a better deal from trusted web hosting partners.
Because most reputed and established hosting companies give a huge discount on the annual package during the festive season. This includes big brands like HostGator, iPage, InMotion, BlueHost, DreamHost, WPX Hosting, FastComet and the list continues. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find a good hosting provider based on Performance, Uptime, Features, Support, and pricing for sure. Below we have sorted out the list of upcoming Web Hosting Coupons and deals this year with trusted and cheap web hosting providers.
How do we test and recommend?
Our team is test listed best cheap web hosting companies on regular basis and if we found any serious complaint against these best cheap Web Hosting companies, we usually replace them with some other trusted brands to offer you the cheapest web hosting per year.
These discounts and Web Hosting Coupons will be started around the 10th of November to 31 January, and companies may stop promotion eventually as there are more than 3 big festivals lined up. And companies have limited stock of services at this price, so you will have to hurry to grab the offer(of Web Hosting Coupons) for your next web hosting account and host your websites on reliable servers.
Last year we published Reseller Hosting offers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday which will be available for this year as well.
Youstable SEO Web Hosting Review
You might have a different option for the cheapest web hosting sales, but we ensure you that YouStable(without any doubt ) provides the best SEO hosting. They are new and serving their clients with better security and service at an affordable price. Although being new, they do not make any sacrifice or take any chances with the quality and services. They deal with Shared Hosting, cheap web hosting and domains, and SEO.
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Youstable Web Hosting
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Interserver Web hosting Review
We have managed this information directly from the company guys that in 2018th Black Friday and Cyber Monday you will get a 50% to 75% discount on VPS and Shared hosting plans with a price locking guarantee.
It is a standard and cheap web hosting for a small business service provider that provides unlimited cloud-based hosting with unlimited storage. They deal with cheap web hosting WordPress, VPS, Dedicated hosting at an affordable cost. Apart from that, they provide great customer support. Cheap and best this is one word we can say about InterServer hosting with comes with 24X7 Customer Support by agents from the United States and India. Currently, we have some dedicated servers with them and almost no downtime in the last 2 years.
Interserver Shared Hosting
Interserver Cloud VPS Hosting
Dedicated Server Hosting
FastComet Web Hosting Review
With over 50K customers around the globe, and headquartered in San Francisco, FastComet is one of the top web hosting companies out there. Powered by 11 enterprise-class datacenters and 200 Global CDN Anycast Network access points, FastComet provides inexpensive yet reliable services, although I have unearthed some unsatisfactory customers too. They claim to offer free 24x7 priority customer support, free Cloudflare CDN, free daily backups, free migration, and a free domain for life. But when it comes to speed, to say they are disappointing is an understatement. I did my research and found that in 24 months, FastComet provided the sluggish speed of just 855 ms.
FastComet Shared Cloud SSD Hosting
FastComet CLOUD VPS Hosting
FastComet Dedicated CPU Server Hosting
DreamHost Review
DreamHost is an award-winning hosting service provider. They deal with the best cheap web hosting for WordPress with fully cloud-based support with unlimited cloud storage at affordable prices and website builders. They are proud of more than 1.5 million happy customers worldwide. However, if you are cPanel addicted like me then DH wouldn't be a good choice as your students DreamHost is cheap web hosting for students but there are few options are available for sure.
DreamHost Web Hosting
DreamHost VPS Hosting
DreamHost Managed Dedicated Server
DreamHost Shared WordPress Hosting
DreamHost Cloud Hosting
ResellerClub Web Hosting Review
ResellerClub is a hosting provider with more than 200000 clients across the globe. They provide a fully reliable and supportive service. They provide fully cloud-based hosting which provides more security to their customers. They are known as the biggest domain reselling platform just like OpenSRS and Enom for hosting providers.
They deal with the website builder, cheap web hosting for WordPress with fully cloud-based support with unlimited cloud storage at an affordable price. They are proud of more than 1.5 million happy customers worldwide. However, if you are cPanel addicted like me then DH wouldn't be a good choice as your web host but there are few options are available for sure.
ResellerClub Web Hosting
ResellerClub VPS Hosting
ResellerClub Dedicated Server Hosting
ResellerClub Cloud Hosting Plans
Resellers Hosting Plans
Web Hosting + {Free SEO worth $100} 🔥
SEO optimized web hosting that helps you to rank your website in giant search engines like Google and Bing with complimentary on-page SEO Optimisation.
InterServer $1 for 3 months {COVID19 SPECIAL}
Save up to 90% on Unlimited Shared Web Hosting for Unlimited Sites on this Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals and huge discounts on VPS or Dedicated Servers.
FastComet 90% OFF Starting at $1/mo
FastComet is the Hosting you can rely on, they have Cloud Shared Hosting which is more reliable than any other standard shared hosting providers out there. You can also find other solutions like VPS Hosting, Managed Servers at affordable price.
WPX Hosting {Available Coupons} or 25% OFF 🆕
WPX Hosting is Pioneer in WordPress Managed Hosting there is no other competition in the market at this price. You can save up to 50% on this Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
ResellerClub 60% Discount on VPS
Get 40% Discount on Shared and Reseller Hosting, 25% Discount on Cloud Hosting, Huge saving on KVM VPS Hosting of 60% for new customers. ResellerClub is best for place of small and medium IT companies for white level solutions.
Claim your .SITE domain at just $0.01
One of the major reasons why domains like .com or .net are so popular on the web is the versatility they offer. Just like those domains, .site domains carry on with this universal tradition and can be used by anyone in any Industry. New users and existing users will have to pay only $0.01/year and $1.10/year respectively. Renewal and transfer will cost $7/year.
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Completely customizable, the .xyz domain is for anyone to everyone. This domain provides the liberty to anyone from across any industry to develop a remarkable and meaningful online presence. New users and existing users will have to pay only $0.18/year and $0.99/year respectively. Renewal and transfer will cost $9.99/year.
|Upcoming Offers
|Check Deals
|Save Flat 75% 💰
|Expires on: 30 April, 2020
|April Fool
|1 April, 2020
|12 April, 2020
|Summer Sale
|Available in May-July 2020
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|Coming Soon
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|Black Friday Hosting sales 🔥
|27 November 2020
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Web Hosting Sales Tips
Here are the few links, I would like to mention in order to guide you on a better hosting plan and cheap web hosting monthly billing according to your needs.
- The Ultimate Guide to Shop for Web Hosting
- SSD Vs HDD Drive Hosting better Shared, VPS or Dedicated?
- 5 worst things with GoDaddy to avoid them
- iPage Review | Worst Paid hosting services for bloggers
- Which is the best free hosting provider on the internet?
List of Web Hosting Sales companies you should Avoid:
- GoDaddy (Low-Quality Hosting)
- BigRock (Lack of Support and Quality)
- Manas Hosting (Worst Hosting)
- Hosting (Over Loaded Servers)
- Hosting24 (Hosting Project)
- TurnkeyInternet (Strict Rules)
Note: We tested these companies to provide you with better hosting options this season.


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Candypants White Party
Saturday 01 december 2018 - The Penthouse at FIVE Palm Jumeirah
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Candypants White Party
Saturday 01 december 2018
It's all-white baby! Join us for award-winning Candypants White Party, Saturday 1 December, 12 PM – 8 PM. Expect all the best of Candypants' fashion, cocktails and international DJs. Dress to impress in all white.
The Penthouse At Five Palm Jumeirah
FIVE Palm Jumeirah Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates , 00001 Dubai
Disclaimer: the content published in Candypants White Party page is not provided or edited by DubaiNight.com. The events information and promotional materials are directly submitted by the clubs, organizers, or individuals in charge of these events. DubaiNight.com can not be held responsible for the events posted on its website. For more information, please contact our hotline.
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text: Howdy. Just a reminder: we'll be chatting in #zope-web on irc.openprojects.net in 25 minutes. This will be a "Bug Day" oriented chat. The goal is to go through the process of reviewing the site, reporting bugs, getting them assigned to people, doing the work, and closing the bug report. --Paul


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Agenda and minutes
Venue: Desborough Suite - Town Hall
Contact: Karen Shepherd 01628 796529
Video Stream: To listen, click here or to download and listen later, right click and save as an mp3
Apologies for Absence
To receive any apologies for absence
Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Bicknell, Brimacombe, Bullock, Coppinger, Da Costa, Diment, Hill, Hilton, Jones, Luxton, Majeed, Pryer, S Rayner, Saunders, Stretton, Targowska, Walters, Werner and Yong.
Declarations of Interest PDF 219 KB
To receive any declarations of interest
There were no declarations of interest received.
Election of Mayor for 2018/19 PDF 144 KB
For details of the Order of Proceedings please see page 7
The Mayor, Councillor Lenton, welcomed everyone to the Annual Meeting and gave a brief résumé of his year in office. Councillor Lenton commented that last year's Annual Meeting had been held in shadow of the Manchester arena terror attack and shortly after the terrible Grenfell fire. However, he explained by contrast this year's Mayor making was taking place immediately after the spectacular wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in Windsor, one of the largest and happiest events to take place in the Borough. Councillor Lenton congratulated all those people and organisations that had worked so hard to make that event such a success, in particular the Council's employees and volunteers.
Councillor Lenton paid tribute to the Mayoress who had accompanied and supported him on almost all his Mayoral engagements and in many cases had contributed to them, especially where school and cultural activities had been involved. He explained that they had made countless visits to organisations and charities who served local residents, were always made welcome wherever they went and was delighted that members from a number of those organisation were present at the meeting.
He also paid tribute to the many volunteers who gave up their time to support the many organisations working within the borough and was pleased to see so many young people taking part in community activities, particularly at a time when young people were so often criticised.
He advised that throughout the year they had been able to support the Council's twinning links by visiting Goslar and Bad Godesburg and had received visitors from St Cloud. Unfortunately, the visit to Goslar in December had been slightly spoilt by the closure of Heathrow airport after they had started their return journey.
He thanked the officers that had supported both himself and the Mayoress in their roles throughout the year, thanked the Leader of the Council and his fellow Councillors for their support and thanked all the employees of the Royal Borough who made Windsor and Maidenhead such a pleasant and happy place in which to work and live.
In conclusion, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force, Councillor Lenton presented trophies to Cadet Flight Sergeant Jade Preece from 155 ATC (Maidenhead), for the work she had done over the last 12 months running the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme for the unit and carrying out training for the cadets, and Cadet Sergeant Joseph Patmore from 459 (Windsor) Squadron, who had been chosen as the leading cadet from his unit for the year.
In proposing Councillor Paul Lion for the role of Mayor, Councillor Quick commented that the Mayor, as First Citizen of the Borough, was the public face of the Council and was an ambassador both inside and outside of the Borough. She explained that nothing could really prepare a person for the role of Mayor as every year was different and every ... view the full minutes text for item 3.
Election of Deputy Mayor for 2018/19
For details of the Order of Proceedings please see page 7
In nominating Councillor Rayner for the office of Deputy Mayor, Councillor David Evans explained that you could tell a lot about a person from their pet. He commented upon the particular characteristics of Councillor C Rayner's pet dog, Stubbings, a West Highland Terrier. He explained that Councillor Rayner shared many of those characteristics, as he was intelligent, quick to learn, independent, assured and self-confident, although he jovially advised that they also had a tendency to be stubborn, leading to issues with training. However, he contended that by marrying his wife, Councillor Samantha Rayner, and together producing triplet daughters, Councillor Rayner had adequately dealt with the issue of training.
He explained that Councillor C Rayner was also territorial and could proudly trace his ancestry back to the 14th Century. He commented that the family have had a substantial farming business in the area for many years and explained that it was claimed that you could walk from one end of the Borough to the other without leaving Rayner land.
He advised that the Rayner family had built up a successful entrepreneurial family business and that Councillor C Rayner was recognised in both local and national farming organisations. For those early risers, Councillor C Rayner was also a regular contributor on the early morning BBC Radio 4 Farming Today programme.
He advised that Councillor Rayner was a man dedicated to public service and had served the residents of Horton and Wraysbury since 2005. He had served as a member of the Cabinet, had been Mayor in 2012/2013, having been Deputy Mayor the preceding year and had also served on Horton Parish Council since 2003.
In conclusion, Councillor D Evans commented upon Councillor C Rayner's strength of character, which he stated shone through in his leadership during the great floods in 2014. Along with others, Councillor C Rayner coordinated a team to assist stranded residents and played a leading role in bringing the plight of the local residents devastated by the floods to national attention.
In seconding the motion, Councillor Dr L Evans advised that Councillor C Rayner had been a great support to her when she was elected to serve on the Council. She explained that as Deputy Mayoress, his wife Samantha Rayner, who was not only a Councillor but Lead Member for Culture and Communities, was ideally suited to support him in the role of Deputy Mayor.
Councillor Dr L Evans commented upon the various community projects and organisations with which Councillor S Rayner was involved, in particular a number of the charities that she supported as a Trustee. Councillor Dr L Evans also commented upon Councillor Rayner's three daughters, who were all studying at university, and outlined their various achievements.
In conclusion, Councillor Dr L Evans advised that Councillor C Rayner would be ably supported by all the women in his family and therefore it was her pleasure to second the motion that he be elected Deputy Mayor for the coming year.
It was moved by Councillor ... view the full minutes text for item 4.
Appointment of Panels, Chairmen/Vice Chairmen of Panels 2018/19 PDF 171 KB
To consider the structure and appointment of Committees and Panels etc as the Council considers appropriate to deal with matters which are neither reserved to the Council nor part executive functions. Council is required also to appoint the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen to each body appointed under this item with the exception of the Appeals Panel, which shall select a Chairman from the Panel membership at the start of each Panel meeting for the duration of that meeting, and the Overview and Scrutiny Panels which shall elect Chairmen from their membership.
Members considered the proposed committee/panel/forum membership for 2018/19.
RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That:
a) The membership of the Committees, Panels, Forums for the ensuing Municipal Year be approved as detailed in Appendix A.
b) The Chairman and Vice-Chairman as indicated in Appendix A be appointed for the ensuing Municipal Year.
c) Authority to amend/make further appointments on the nomination of the relevant Group Leader be delegated to the Service Lead - Democratic Services.
d) Authority to amend the Constitution as appropriate in light of any amendments to the structure of Panels, Committees and Forums as detailed in Appendix A be delegated to the Monitoring Officer.
2018/19 Programme of Meetings PDF 119 KB
To consider the above report
Members considered the programme of meetings for 2018/19.
RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Council approves the programme of meetings for the 2018/19 Municipal Year.
In closing the meeting, the Mayor invited Henrique Santos and Harry Joys to present bouquets to the Mayoress, immediate past Mayoress and immediate Past Deputy Mayor.
The meeting, which started at 7.30pm, ended at 8.29pm


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QUT alumna, Dr Megan Rossi, has established herself as an influential gut health specialist around the world, having been recognised in recent years by Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and by the Australian Royal High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Her journey into dietetics began with a passion for both science and food, which was nurtured by her science teacher mum. Dr Rossi conducted at-home science experiments with her mum from a very young age, beginning with bicarb soda volcanos. Years later, taking her love for scientific enquiry forward into QUT's Bachelor of Health Science, Nutrition and Dietetics was a natural fit.
Dr Rossi's specific interest in gut health germinated during her undergraduate years when she sadly lost her grandmother to bowel cancer.
"I remember watching on helplessly as she bravely battled through chemo and surgery – I hated the gut for doing this to her," Dr Rossi recalls.
After graduating with First Class Honours in 2009, Dr Rossi's concerns about gut health resurfaced while she was working at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital as a dietitian.
"I was struck by the sheer number of patients with kidney disease who were complaining of gut issues. I really struggled to get my head around how, while my grandma had her disease in her actual gut, all these patients also suffered with such prominent gut issues."
After searching for more information about possible connections between gut health and other medical issues, but finding no real explanations, Dr Rossi resolved to discover answers through PhD research.
"Fast-forward three years, and it became very clear to me that the gut was not an isolated organ as I had been taught, but in fact central to our overall health and happiness," she says.
Dr Rossi subsequently moved to London to continue her career trajectory of discovery as a research fellow at King's College London, where she leads research to investigate nutrition-based therapies in gastrointestinal health.
"It's only been in the past decade that we've discovered the significance of the trillions of bacteria that live within everyone's gastrointestinal tract," she notes.
In 2017, Dr Rossi established The Gut Health Doctor, a digital channel for sharing scientific research on gut health. Since then, Dr Rossi has become a go-to source for media on the topic of gut health, and in September 2019 she published her first book, Eat Yourself Healthy: An easy-to-digest guide to health and happiness from the inside out, which has achieved best-seller status in the UK and Australia.
In early 2019 she also founded The Gut Health Clinic, bringing together a team of gut-specialist dietitians to develop an evidence-based approach to improving gut health that is accessible to all.
In January 2020, Dr Rossi was awarded the Young Australian Achiever of the Year at the Australia Day Foundation gala in the United Kingdom.
Browse our Health courses to learn more about degrees, such as the Bachelor of Nutrition Science, Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics (Honours) or double bachelor's degree in Communication (Professional Communication) and Nutrition Science.


text: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5241268.v1 Jaafari N. Aouizerate B. Tignol J. El-Hage W. Wassouf I. Guehl D. Bioulac B. Daniel M.-L. Lacoste J. Gil R. Erratum: The Relationship between Insight and Uncertainty in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder 2017 Karger Publishers Checking behavior Delayed matching-to-sample task Insight Obsessive-compulsive disorder Uncertainty 2017-07-25 13:37:36 article https://karger.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Erratum_The_Relationship_between_Insight_and_Uncertainty_in_Obsessive-Compulsive_Disorder/5241268 Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the levels of insight and checking-related uncertainty in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Sampling and Methods: Twenty OCD patients with checking compulsions and without current comorbidity were recruited. We used an experimental paradigm that gave subjects the opportunity to check during a decision-making task, thereby allowing for the calculation of a response time index (RTI) as the 'uncertainty cost' during decision-making. The level of insight was assessed with the Brown Assessment of Beliefs Scale (BABS). Results: Regression analyses indicated a significant positive correlation between RTI and BABS scores (r = 0.49). Conclusions: The level of insight is related to cognitive characteristics underlying OCD symptoms, in particular, checking-related uncertainty in checking OCD patients. Study Limitations: The absence of a comparison group and the low number of included patients are the main limitations of the present study.


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So, 2020 - what will you have in store for me? More failed New Year resolutions? A new diet plan which wont even last into February? A blog schedule that I believe will turn me into a shit hot author making my first million?
2020 will be a year of general growth. I will continue to learn and better myself. Focus on my family, career and making memories - you know, just living.
Normally at this time of year I create a bucket list, I hone in on my goals and have really unrealistic expectations of how, over night, I will become the person I think I want to be. But this year, I feel quite content as to where I'm at in my life. Perhaps it's because I'm in my thirties, perhaps its because I have finally shook that feeling of not being enough.
Instead I have grown to appreciate just what I have achieved over the past decade. Appreciating the life I have created. I think this has been the most liberating feeling of all and just highlights how powerful gratitude can be.
I want to share with you a few things that have helped me along the way, it certainly hasn't been easy but 2020 will be the year of content, growth and happiness and all I need to do is live it.
Happy New Year all
K Elizabeth xoxox
Diaries Magazine
Hello 2020 & Goodbye Unrealistic ExpectationsPosted on the 03 January 2020 by Mummyb @mummyb_kw
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FINALLY Badass, Alpha Hotness Viktor and Classy Marissa I truly enjoyed this action packed thrilling love story I am sure I am not the only reader who wishes this series could be made into a movie, that would be epic I loved seeing the other couples from previous books SUPER FANTASTIC Keep them coming Miss Paige. I ve been slow in reviewing Smoke and Shadows That was a disservice to readers, because this book was great Unlike many other readers reviewers, this was my first book to read by Ms Paige For that reason, my review is different People who get to the third book in a series know the characters, have expectations, understand the voices in other characters mouths They make assumptions I could not I started with book three and was not spoon fed books one and two as a quick recap to catch me up with the action I was thrown into the deep end And I loved it The shocker at the end of chapter one may have meant less to me than someone immeshed in previous books characters, but it was still a surprise, still piqued my curiosity, and led me create questions around characters, relationships, and loyalties This is one example of why Ms Paige is not a one hit wonder but a very talented author Having the ability to continue a story line that is fresh to a current reader, but doesn t preclude a new reader is skill that should not be overlooked I now need to go back and read the previous books as well as her other writings I wantof these characters and this authors writing style I may change my rating up once I see the fabric of the three books and how they are woven For now, grab this series I have no wordsthat s how awesome this book is Viktor Baran is now the ultimate alpha man and makes these other dudes look like little boys playing alpha man Bravo Victoria this was the best of the series so far I can t wait for the next book. Wow This book is intense, action packed, fast paced, suspenseful, HOT And boy, was it filled with domineering ALPHAS who are made of steel but lose it when it comes to their women.Viktor Baran, the ultimate alpha, was jaw dropping awesome He would seem callous, cold, calculating unfeeling mainly because his job calls for it, his training, the decisions he has to make his history But he fell hard when Marissa came back into his life It was funny seeing him come to terms with his feelings At first, he seemed confused, stunned and then very persistent dominant in his claiming To say their chemistry was hot is an understatement It was sizzling I don t think I ve made myself clear enough So I m spelling it out for you He ignored her squinting eyes and continued What we have is not a temporary hook up You re my woman I take care of what s mine The roof over your head What you eat Hell, I ll buy you all your fancy clothes and soap I don t want you to have too many options, like a row house you can retreat to when you ve got something up your ass She sputtered at this, but he continued speaking over her When you re horny and need some fucking my tongue and my dick are your one and only option I want to be your one and final option for everything you need WOWZA Marissa was perfection for Viktor Any other woman would probably bore him to death She s feisty, stubborn very headstrong She s her own person can sure take care of herself Enough to keep Viktor in line It was fun watching them butt heads Woohoo to strong women The intensity of Viktor s love for Marissa was tried tested a few times And he certainly delivered I would damn the whole world for you And he really would I want permanence These past months with you, you gave me back my humanity I don t want to become a soulless bastard again, and I have a feeling without you in my life, I m going to revert back to it You re my weakness and my strength You believed in me, when I d lost faith in myself I need you to believe in me now enough that I could make you happy forever and make this permanent between us sigh Such a tough guy yet vulnerable Very endearing.Needless to say, I loved this book The story line s gripping my heart stopped a few beats a couple of times So thrilling I enjoyed seeing the other characters in the previous books whom I ve grown to love, too Hope Jack Maia will seehappier times after their loss hint hint A MUST read Enjoy This is not the type of book I generally read Government and covert operations are not something with which I am familiar I ll admit it, chaos and danger in a book make me exceedingly tense Romance, however is right up my alley This book reminded me of the action movie that is pleasing as a date night movie Lots of action that keeps you on the edge of your seat and romance so you can swoon along the way The constant twists and turns kept me reading to see what was to become of the characters The romance factor made me smile and satisfied my need for a love story amidst the chaos My knowledge of government activities is limited so there were areas where I was confused That was directly related to my own inexperience in this arena My only issue was Marissa s choices toward the end of the book Other than that, good read that kept me on the edge of my seat. I was privileged to beta read this book prior to publication in exchange for a fair and honest review Wow Just Wow I love this book It is a mind blowing romantic mystery filled with hot hot hot badass special ops guys and gals The intrigue is off the scale in suspense my heart was racing and my mind spinning trying to guess what was going to happen next The passion, oh my, the passion how these men love their women The women are not your normal, girl next door types they are seriously tough, feisty government secret agents or private sector secret agents who can kick booty as well as their male counterparts The villains in this book are vengeful sociopaths who will stop at nothing to achieve their evil goals Ms Paige has weaved a spellbinding story of intrigue, betrayal, and love that knows no bounds I highly recommend this book to all adults 18 years due to the mature theme containing sexual scenes and violence I have rated this book 5 stars and wish I could give itI will most definitely be readingbooks by this author. ARC was kindly provided by the author for an honest review I loved this book I was hooked from start to finish WOW I love it Viktor and Marissa history was amazing I wantI cannot get enough from this series, I want to knowabout those hot badass Guardians.I am looking forward forbooks from this series If you love a story that has a strong heroine and a super hot possessive alpha male, this book is definitely for you I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK, WELL NOT ONLY THIS BOOK THE WHOLE SERIES ARE AMAZING.I consider myself a huge fan of Ms Paige, I am looking forward to readbooks from Ms Paige. I RECEIVED THIS ARC FOR HONEST REVIEW This is going to be a spoiler free review.Victoria is my auto buy author I love her books She write heroines that are not damsels in distress, they can take care of themselves I loved Marissa she was everything that I wanted her to be She is perfect for Victor She doesn t take an crap from but also know when listening to him can help her Victor and Marissa had a lot chemistry Sex is off the charts in this book Laugh out loud when he told Marissa that he loves her so matter of factlyLoved meeting couples from last books the are still crazy and in love.CAN T WAIT FOR MORE GUADIANSEVERYBODY DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK I love the Guardian Series I ve had SS on my kindle for a year I have no excuse reason I was intrigued with Viktor s smoldering self in the other Guardian books I got distracted with other books, now I ve remedied that This book starts off with Viktor as a major asshole He doesn t even attempt to deny it I love having Jack and Maia in this book They have a major supporting role contradiction in terms No I love those two Marissa is right to admire Maia s skills as a Guardian They really show up the CIA, and cross the line to do it There are a lot of twist and turns Eventually, there s a show down with the BIG bad guy and exacting revenge I liked Jack s part in this too Viktor does improve his disposition thanks to his relationship with Marissa and his colleagues and friends are very happy about that Then it s Marissa s turn to be the jerk in the last section of the story see my friend Ambrosia s review ditto from me.I really like Ms Paige s writing It s rare to read a contemporary suspense novel with such beautiful language minus the F words, ha ha thanks to Viktor.There were some confusing villains and how they were related It s explained but I did get a little lost from time to time.I liked the ending especially after Marissa got over her wtf reaction to having her life saved 4.25 stars I hope that there sGuardians Please Vee When Someone Close To Viktor Baran Becomes A Target Of An Assassin, He Vows A Hellfire Of A Payback But The Enemy Is Cunning And Avoids The Trappings Of The Digital Web, Preferring To Strike Out From The Shadows Drawing On Old Fashioned Cloak And Dagger Methods To Investigate The Enemy S Hatred For The Guardians, He Uncovers A Link To A Past He Is Reluctant To RevisitEight Years Ago, Marissa Cole Walked Away From The Man She Loved New To CIA Black Ops Then, She Was Overwhelmed By The Intensity Of The Man Who Would Stop At Nothing, No Matter How Ruthless, To Get The Job Done Don T Get Involved With The Person You Work With Has Become Her Motto Ever Since Until A Series Of Events Throws Her Back Into Viktor Baran S WorldDanger And Mayhem Are The Perfect Formula To Reignite Their Passion, And Viktor Has Decided He S Done Fighting His Attraction To Marissa He Is Determined To Make Her His However, Their Road To A Happily Ever After Is A Bumpy One Years On The Job Have Stripped Viktor Of His Humanity, And Unless He Can Break Down His Walls Enough To Let Marissa Into His Heart, He Could Lose Her AgainFriendships Will Be Broken Beliefs Will Be Shaken, And Their Relationship Will Be Tested For The Stakes Are Too High, And There Is A Growing Threat, Not Only To AGS, But Also To Every Government Agency Critical To The Country S Safety Is Targeting The Guardians Merely A Distraction Or Is It The First Step To A Terrorist Attack On The Nation S Capital Strong Sexual Content And Language Some Disturbing Situations RecommendedYears Old And Above
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- Smoke and Shadows (Guardians, #3)
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- 11 March 2018 Victoria Paige


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HKMB Hong Kong Means Business
A number of Members of the Scottish, UK and European Parliament had lodged a petition for judicial review to a UK court (in Scotland) to determine whether the notification under Article 50 (to leave the EU) could be unilaterally revoked. More
The UK government has recently published a series of Technical Notices setting out information relevant to weathering a "no deal" Brexit, while stressing that such a scenario remains unlikely and that it continues to believe that "an orderly, negotiated exit is the best outcome for all parties." Hong Kong companies and investors, however, should take heed of the notices and take all necessary precautions to avoid any unwelcome outcome. More
On 12 July 2018, the UK government published a White Paper setting out its plans for a future relationship with the EU. Two areas will be of special interest to Hong Kong businesses: the UK's proposal for a new free trade area, including a common rulebook for goods and a Facilitated Customs Arrangement ("FCA"), and the UK's commitment to "open and fair competition", meaning "high regulatory" standards in the areas of competition, state aid, environmental, and labour policies. More
Uncertainty abounds over the implications of Brexit on trade and investment, leading different businesses to react differently in their preparation for the UK's scheduled March 2019 departure. Pending concrete results from the ongoing UK-EU negotiations, Hong Kong companies are advised to thoroughly review the extent to which Brexit is going to impact on their overall business interests across the EU and take appropriate precautionary measures. More
On 21 September 2017, during the course of the Think Asia, Think Hong Kong event in London, HKTDC Research conducted interviews with representatives of 77 British companies with regard to their Brexit readiness and their plans to explore new markets and fresh business opportunities. The results show that, while the majority have yet to feel the full impact of Brexit, they are already planning to focus more on non-EU markets in the future. More
With the wider implications of the United Kingdom's decision to quit the European Union still reverberating around the region, concern is growing in Poland that it will be among the countries hardest hit by the move. More
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Sebastian Brajkovic is an artist who takes everyday objects such as tables and chairs and transforms them into elegant, yet surreal, melting artworks. His debut solo show at David Gill Gallery, from September 13-October 17, takes the classical references of the Regency and reworks them into fantastical, engaging and functional sculptures.
Since graduating from the Design Academy Eindhoven 13 years ago, the Dutch-Indonesian/Croatian-Italian creator has made a name for himself as one of the most innovative contemporary artists working with design, with pieces purchased for the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of Art & Design in New York. David Gill is an ideal home for his work – a gallery with over 30 years' experience, it has exhibited pieces by numerous artists working at the intersection of art and design, such as Donald Judd's shelves, Zaha Hadid's Liquid Glacial collection and Grayson Perry's ceramic vases.
Brajkovic's first solo show with Gill, entitled The Occidental Artisan, focuses on benches and chairs (priced from £48,000) that take the slim legs and luxurious fabrics of the late 18th century as a starting point. They feel ageless yet contemporary – like looking at a Gainsborough painting through a kaleidoscopic lens. The artist envisages the pieces and the people who use them – for these fluid Dalí-esque objects can be sat on – as a single coexisting thing. There are also strong conceptual references, from mathematics to time. Calligraphy is of notable influence in the current work, and the artist studied with a Chinese master to expand his take on swirls and curves. This is the whirl of a brushstroke made in three-dimensional solidity.
The artist is best known for his Lathe series of furniture pieces, which appear extended or stretched. These new works are far more classical, with a strong presence of the artist's hand. He fits the upholstery himself and then has the works embroidered by couture artisans and stuffed with classical horsehair. Brajkovic will also be exhibiting works on paper showing his working process, and three long glass chandeliers, created in Murano, echoing his fascination with a sense of history.


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Vancouver TheatreSports League:
Christmas Queen 4: Secret Santa
What: Vancouver's favourite improv troupe stages the fourth annual installment of its riotous Christmas Queen holiday show, a gut-busting ding-dong of uncontrollable giggles guaranteed to make the sternest Scrooge wet his pants with laughter (not recommended). In this year's show, the ever-nasty Queen tries to thwart Christmas once again when she swaps bodies with Santa in a "Freaky Friday-style magical sleight-of-hand." What happens to the North Pole's Toy Factory with the Santa-swapping Queen in charge? Will there be presents? How will the experience of inhabiting the Queen's body affect the Jolly Old Elf himself? Will Christmas be restored or will it be changed (for good or ill) forever? The only way to find out it is to book your ticket straight away.
When: Wednesday to Saturday from November 22 to December 23; plus Sunday December 10 & Sunday December 17
Where: The Improv Centre, 1502 Duranleau Street, Granville Island, Vancouver; 604-738-7013 ext 21
Cost: Tickets from $15.75 (adult)


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"Domates, patates, karekles…"
The man's voice, thick with dust and heat and cigarettes, plagued me every morning. "Tomatoes, potatoes, chairs…" A bizarre collection of things to sell, but wherever you go in Greece there will be a broken-down old van, slowly doing the rounds on the tight Greek streets with this foul voice coming through a cheap tannoy wanting to sell you "Domates, patates, karekles…"
Greece is a country of sounds. All of them loud. Crossing Filellion Street in Athens the men driving beaten-up cars that look like boxers' face – the fronts like busted noses – thump at their horns. The car's horns are dead though, through overuse, now just emitting a wheezing squeak like an old dog whose voice has become a croak. The real dogs, still with their voices very much intact, won't let you take a walk anywhere in Greece of course. Just come up with the idea of taking a stroll and they'll bark their livid complaints, sprinting out from alleyways with slavering jaws. comically rebounding at the end of their chains and barking even louder at the injustice. Howling dogs up on balconies, bad tempered men down on the streets below shouting out from periptero kiosks. People gathered and talking loudly to each other, just to reassure themselves, just to be sure that there's someone there. Greeks often seemed to me like children afraid of the dark: they always needed company. Old men with nothing left to say must sit side-by-side with their friend in the cafe every day. Giristroula left me once for the weekend and I was enjoying the idea of a little time on my own. My mother-in-law called absolutely everyone she knew in Athens to come round to see me, fearful I would be lonely. Visitor after visitor, people I had never met before in my life, sitting on and on. The idea of being on your own in Greece is a madness, a sin.
My mother-in-law had been released from Evangelismos hospital. For a long time it had been touch and go as she had lain there on the top floor, overlooking Athens at night with the national gardens plunged in darkness, the Parthenon lit but alone. The family kept vigil day after day, smoking furiously, faces haggard and grim. She was out now though, and we were to take her to recuperate on the island of Lesvos.
The boat from Piraeus approached Lesvos in the early dawn light. The island on the horizon emerging and then changing shape as we got nearer, stretching and shifting like a cat waking itself up. We were heading to Lesvos as my parents-in-law's koubaroi from their wedding, long ago, lived on the island in a red tower set all on its own on the Aegean seashore. The house was a few miles down the road from the town of Plomari. Before we even got off the boat, we could hear the trees full of tzitzikia – the insects filling the air with their clicking songs, sounding like a thousand guiro instruments rubbed with a thousand sticks. They say that if the tzitzikia ever go quiet, Greece will fall. But then they also say that if you take Greece apart and in the end all you are left with is just an olive tree, a vineyard and a boat, you can rebuild it again.
My mother-in-law spent her days slowly repairing herself on the veranda looking out to where the sea and sky met, looking out towards the edge of Turkey's mainland and the Greek island of Chios. Meropi, the koubara, talked to me as she stirred her huge pans of food on the outside fire about how she was related to the great Greek poet Elytis from this island. Lesvos was once prosperous, but when the Turkish were routed in Greece the trading markets and the money was cut off. Just like her island, Meropi's family also lost their prestige and money along the way, and she now lived in this one timbered-room Ottoman tower. Her husband, Mihalis, set off swimming into the sea every morning with his long hand-held trident to hunt for octopus. I watched him as he returned, flinging the octopus against the rocks in the shallows again and again and again to soften it for our lunch. We would sit on the terrace and drink ouzo – famous from this island, the very best you can find – glass after glass. "To proto!" Mihalis would toast with each new glassful – "The first!" – as you are really not meant to count how many you sink here.
Giristroula and I left her mother sat in her chair looking out at the water in the hot afternoon as the wind got up and created a racing sea with hundreds of white waves breaking out beyond – provatakia the Greeks call these waves: little sheep. We went to explore the island. Lesbos seems totally unbuilt on. From Olympus, its highest mountain, you can only see green hills. We walked through the smattering of villages. Past a bus stop where no bus looked as if it had ever arrived – a goat stood tied to the bus stop pole chewing at overgrowing weeds. A man with a taxi appeared and we flagged hims down. The man drove us manically down the roads past the hills carpeted in olive trees, throwing the car through the bends. I reached for the sea belt, but his hand came out to stop me.
"You don't have to do that," he chuckled. "Here is Greece! We do what we want… Do whatever you like!"
"Well, I would really like to to wear a seat belt…" I said.
"No," he snapped, putting his hand hard across my chest.
We got to the village of Eressos – Sappho's home. Sappho the great poetess of ancient times, and supposed heroine of homosexual desire. Sapphic, Lesbian, words that come directly from this island. Women still gravitate to Eressos to be free in their sexuality. Open displays of lesbianism and the freedom to celebrate individuality are quite rare in Greece, but here the women – cross-armed, legs astride the chairs – sit next to the old men in the cafes. The men with their big yellowing moustaches playing backgammon, hoping to get away from their wives for the afternoon, happily sitting side-by-side with the handsome lesbians smoking their cigars.
Giristroula and I swam out from the long stretch of orange-coloured sandy beach as the sun set, and we were still swimming as the stars rose in the sky. Then later, as the moon started to shine brightly and the stars got shy, we hitched a lift in the back of an old pick-up van and made our slow way back home, round the huge bay of Kaloni that has eaten deep into the island, giving Lesvos its odd shape – the island looking like an artist's palette.
There was a piled up collection of life jackets on the beach in front of the red tower. Meropi told me how she would see the boats from Turkey, carrying refugees from the Syrian civil war, out on the sea at night sailing to Lesvos. They would land here, on her beach. Up on the road there would often be men shining lights shouting for the boats to come their way. They would then take the boats, take the motors off, take them back to Turkey. The refugees, staggered to be on land would rip off their life jackets, making their way up the pebbled shore, throwing them to the ground in relief to have made it. There hadn't been a landing for months now on Meropi's beach, but the jackets lay here as reminders. Hundreds of red and yellow markers.
Giristroula and I travelled further down to the south of the island. Skala Sykamias is a pretty little fishing village, known first of all for its oddly named church Panagia Gorgona – the Virgin Mary As A Mermaid; then it was known for the tree that the famous author Myrivilis wrote under. Later the village gained notoriety for Demetra, an old gruff fisherman who found her real self later in life as she promenaded up and down the small fishing boat harbour in stockings and suspenders and full make-up. Again, this was rare to see in Greece, newspaper men were even sent to report. More dramatically though, Skala Sykamias had recently become known throughout the world as one of the main landing places for refugees fleeing Iraq and Syria and north Africa. 2,000 refugees landing every day. The lucky ones.
I went for a swim just outside the village. As I dried myself on the beach one resident walking along turned to talk to me. "You know you've been swimming stin thalassa me tis nekres psihes." – It took me a moment to translate this in my head…The sea of dead souls.
There was a chill feeling hanging over this village.
The Greeks, being Greek, have many theories as to why the refugees kept coming. Turkey, Germany, they're sure someone is behind it.
"Tsipras came here," one man told me. "In the days before he came there were hundreds of boats. When he was here, not a single boat came across. Then, after he left, I counted 48 boats coming over. How did they know? You tell me that…"
The island was suffering. The camp at the small village of Moria outside Mytilini was at bursting point. We had driven past the camp the night before and seen the refugees spilling outside, walking in bunches down the unlit roads, sat listlessly on the grass. Boredom, frustration. Tents pitched beyond the camp walls as there was no more room inside. Men praying towards Mecca in the olive trees. The refugees were penned in these camps in Greece as Europe waited to decide what to do: who to let through, who to send back, which borders should be shut, which, if any, countries will help and take some of these migrants. The residents of Lesvos couldn't work out what was happening. Couldn't understand what had happened to their island. But of course this confusion and the sense of grievance that their lives here had been altered by uncaring outside world didn't stop them from helping – the hearts of the Greeks often as open as the sea itself. The people of Lesvos were even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts rescuing the collapsed boats, pulling people out of the Aegean to safety, helping the weary female refugees and their children make their way up onto the shores and into Europe. But when three old ladies of Lesvos were told of their nomination, they had little time for it.
"What special am I doing? Wouldn't you do the same?" said the 86-year-old Maritsa Mavrapidou.
Fisherman Stratis Valiamos seemed stunned to be approached by reporters. "I'm out fishing, I can see people shouting for help. What should I do? Pretend I can't see? Pretend I can't hear?"
The whole of Greece had been affected by the migrants that had come to the country. There were many stories.
The baker of Kos who woke up early every morning to make 200 extra pounds of bread to give away to the migrants. The men of less good intentions, circling round Victoria Square in Athens with specious offers to smuggle the desperate away over the borders for cash. Cash that is of course never seen again. A few years ago I stayed with Giristroula's cousin in Thessaloniki. Maria went every day to the Lagadikia camp outside the city. She played games and entertained the children there. She said it wasn't too bad, the containers where the refugees were housed were heated, the spirits of the people hadn't sunk too low. Now the camp had three times the amount of people as it should. The containers had been overtaken by hundred and hundreds of rain-soaked tents. Maria had gone every day to the camp full of purpose and hope – I sat with her on a bus one day as she went to work at the camp. We sat amongst the Thessalonikian commuters – Maria dressed as a clown with full make-up and curly red wig. The last time I had spoken to her she had lost her positivism, and her hope.
"I've seen hundreds and hundreds of people arrive. They have nowhere to go, we are their very last resource. Where does the money go for them? Ta troi i marmaga? – it falls in the black hole? Between the EU and Greece? Or between Greece and the camp? I don't know. These people have fled war. They just can't believe that this is how Europe is receiving them…"
Arion of Lesbos, the greatest lyra player of classical times, once threw himself from a ship into this sea I looked at from Skala Sykamias. He threw himself into the waters to avoid capture by pirates. Arion is seen as a hero, a great example of the contempt for danger the Greeks have. His courage was rewarded by the gods as he was rescued by a school of dolphins. Arion and the dolphins have now been put in the sky as stars. There are no dolphins for the refugees though.
The people of Skala Sykamias are good, but they are tired. I talked to a woman as I walked on the dusty road just outside the village on the way to Molyvos.
"How would you like it?" she said to me. "How would you like it if a Muslim man gets off the boat and straight away tells your daughter to cover up, to not wear her bikini? Because he has never seen a girl's skin before. How would you like it if your son was swimming in the sea and a corpse washed up on the beach? How would you like to live here?"
I thought of the small village I had seen. The church and the tree and Demetra the ex-fisherman sashaying by; the men mending their nets on the harbour wall; the tranquil beauty. I couldn't answer her.
Theophilos' house is in the port capital of Lesbos, Mytilni. Theophilos Hatzimihail was a primitive painter, from around the turn of the last century. He travelled around Greece painting themes from ancient Greece or from the war of independence or from everyday Greek life. Completely unrecognised and unheralded in his lifetime, he lived an itinerant life in poverty painting his scenes on the walls of coffee shops and tavernas for a few scraps of food. I think he was a genius. Giristroula and I walked around his house in solemn silence. His brilliant naïve art paintings and the black and white photographs of Theophilos himself up on the walls. Theophilos in his ancient tsolias soldiers garb of skirt and fez and sword, surrounded by local children half laughing, half in love with this incredible child-like man. A living sculpture. A great symbol of Greece.
Giristroula and I sailed away from Lesbos. Into the sea where Orpheus' head had washed up after his death at the hands of the Thrace women who had torn him to pieces and thrown him into the River Evros. They say his head was still singing when it landed on the shore. The water is calm as our boat leaves, just a few dark waves hissing at the keel. There is no sign of Thessalonike, the sister of Alexander the Great. Legend has it that Thessalonike haunts the waters all round Greece as a fearsome mermaid. She is grief stricken at her brother's death – especially so as she once carried a cup of water from the Fountain of Immortality but spilt it before she could give Alexander a sip. She appears to shriek at sailors passing by on the sea. "Zei o vasilias Alexandros?" – Is King Alexander alive? The answer you must reply is "Zei kai vasilevei!" – He is alive and he reigns! To appease the guilt-racked Thessalonike, otherwise she will rise the winds and the waters and your boat will be lost.
We sail the Aegean. Through the islands, scattered like gems across the sea.
Lemnos to the north. An island of fierce femininity in classical times. The women here massacred all their menfolk and did everything for themselves. This massacre was due to their loyalty to the god Hephaestus. Hephaestus must be my favourite of the gods: lame, clumsy and ugly, mocked by the other gods, frequently picked up by the foot and contemptuously tossed out of Olympus by Zeus – usually landing down on the island of Lemnos. Here is a god at last you can identify with. But he was also the god of fire and the forger of metals, making golden palaces and beautiful jewellery. Better than being the god of war, I'd say. He was, quite implausibly for one so hopeless and crippled, married to Aphrodite, the goddess of erotic love and beauty. "I pray Aphrodite…" begins one of Sappho's poems "…Don't break my spirit with heartache."
Of course Aphrodite was at it like a randy old goat with whoever she could get hold of. She would often take the war-god Ares as her lover. When Hephaestus caught wind of these goings on, he fashioned a gold-spun net above their marriage bed. One day, while Hephaestus pretended to be away on business on his favourite island of Lemnos, Aphrodite took Ares to her to bed. During their passions the net descended catching them at it together. Hephaestus called all the other gods to witness the humiliation of the naked, helpless, pair. The gods gathered round the bed pointing and laughing – though Hermes whispered to Apollo how that he'd happily suffer a far greater penalty for just one night of rolling around with Aphrodite. The women of Lemnos cheered for Hephaestus and so, in retaliation, Aphrodite afflicted them all with a terrible pungent odour. A repugnant smell that meant their husbands wouldn't go near them, only having sex with slave girls brought over from Thrace. So, in return, the Lemnos women slaughtered every man and boy on the island. Leaving the land empty aside from the smelly women. Our landlady back in Athens was from Lemnos. The offensive smells seemed to have cleared up at least.
Giristroula and I, on our boat, passed Tinos – with its white-washed villages reflecting back the blinding light of the sun. The holiest of Greece's holy icons is housed on this island. Visitors climb the long stone hill up from the port to the Church of Panagia Evangelistrias on their knees in veneration. The icon has great healing powers and wives crawl on their grazed hands and raw knees to reach the icon to pray for a sick husband or a suffering child. You see the prone women climbing inch by painful inch up the road – impatient husbands standing tall next to them, pacing by their side, like a farmer taking his slow donkey out for a walk. Tinos was the island longest in the Venetians possession so has the largest Catholic population in Greece. The people dividing themselves up to this day: this village Orthodox, this village Catholics. The clash between the logic of the ancient Greeks and the faith of Greece's Orthodoxy always confuses me. The ancients believed you should question everything – but doesn't the church say you should only follow? You can see it in the buildings in Greece – the light and rationality of the ancient temples… the churches dark and smokey and full of muttering crones. The churches, of course, which have been built on the same spot as where first the temples stood once upon a time. Greeks seem to feel that, as a race, they are made up of both these conflicting foundations. That they have the blood and spirit of both the ancients and the Orthodoxy inside them. I can really never see how they square the circle. Tinos was the home of the god of wind, Aeolus and his father Poseidon. Our ship captain looked very closely at the waters as we passed by, nervous to detect the slightest rippling on the waters. Giristroula and I didn't have the money for a cabin. We slept each night out on the deck, the sea running just below us, breeding and breaking in threshing foam. We were woken in the morning by a flare of sun running over our faces. Patmos passed, looking as though it has practically no green on it. God spoke to St John through a hole in a cave on Patmos, with John writing down all the proclamations in his Book of Revelations – the predicted barbarian invasions, the downpours of rocks, the blocks of ice, balls of fire, earthquakes, explosion of the moon, floods and tidal waves.
Back in the early 19th Century it was Greek travellers out on these waters that saw how the outer world loved ancient Greece. It was only after Greek merchants visited France, Britain, Germany that they became aware, with a shock, of the hold which the language and civilisation of ancient Greece had over the minds of their European contemporaries. How they were the heirs to a heritage that was revered throughout the civilised world. This national consciousness grew quickly, as did the Greek rising resentment of continued Ottoman rule.
We put in at Rhodes. Being in the famous Old Town was depressing. A magnificent ensemble of medieval architecture, but spoilt. Spoilt by Mussolini, who thought the fascist Italians were the inheritors to the Knights of Jerusalem, who had reigned this island in the Middle Ages, and so he had reconstructed a film-set Palace of the Grand Masters that is now touted as the great tourist spot of Rhodes. The Old Town is spoilt by the businesses hawking for tourist loose change: the tacky tavernas, the nauseating gift shops wedged under the Streets of the Knights. The Greeks might have been surprised and suddenly proud of their ancient roots when they were told how much they meant to the outer-world; they might maintain today they have a mistrust of Western ways, but they took Western materialism closely to their hearts. Becoming intoxicated with the tacky trappings of success, it resulted in the terrible buildings from the 1960s onwards; the rich and the middle classes' lack of taste; the bars and the restaurants built since the monied 80s and 90s, all gaudy and grotesque. Greece's recent struggles meant that some of the vulgar displays had been arrested – you don't see so much the men who used to pay a fortune for endless flowers to throw in great piles at warbling torch singers up on the tables every night, the terrible plates smashing, the braggadocio of showing how little money mattered. But bad taste was still rife in Greece.
Rhodes Old Town heaved, so we crossed over the broad moat surrounding the old city walls and hitched a lift around the island. The centre of Rhodes is full of green trees, but it just doesn't look right somehow, it seemed unnatural. Two thumbed lifts got us to Lindos. We slept the night under the acropolis perched on the rock cliff, and in the morning as the sun left the waters of the east, we swam in St Paul's bay with the overhanging ruins high above us. White stone columns, standing like bleached bones of an ancient empire, blue sea and sky. The day building up. A growing hammer of heat. We cadged another lift from a young woman with a dark, powerful face. Her name was Sevin, her family were from Turkey.
"Ah If you can call them family. They all live over there…" she waved a hand out towards the sea. "In Marmaris. They only come to see me when they want a holiday."
As Rhodes was under control of the Italians when the population exchange occurred between Greece and Turkey, the ethnic Turks in Rhodes were not affected. So now there are nearly 4000 people with Turkish roots on the island. Although, who in Greece can say they don't have a heavy Turkish influence on them anyway? After 500 years of Turkish rule, the DNA, the cuisine, the types of entertainments, the look and the dress… Although, of course I learnt quickly not to say this to the people who shout about "pure Greekness." When I travelled in northern Greece I met a man who didn't believe there was any Turkish or Slavic influence in Greece at all. Like a dog on a chain, he was also spoiling for a fight between the countries.
"We're ready for Turkey this time. Not like what happened in Cyprus… We'll get them this time. Oh-ho, you better believe we're ready…" he clumped his bunched fist into his hand in happy anticipation.
It was that sort of grind of a conversation. The know-all, speaking for Greece as a whole. The prickly sensitivity to any perceived insults, waiting on a hair-trigger just waiting for me to suggest I didn't agree. This man also showed that strong regional loyalty I'd noticed many Greeks have to a ridiculous degree. I talked to him about the Peloponnese.
"Bastards," he said before I'd even finished.
"I'm sorry?"
"Peloponnese bastards" he repeated.
I told him my wife was from the Peloponnese.
"All the Peloponnese were raped by Egyptians." He said it simply, as if it was an unequivocal fact.
The only other place, other than northern Greece, he seemed to like was Italy.
"Ah the Italians," he said. "They are just like us. 'Una fatsa, una ratsa!' – that's what we say: one face, one race!"
I told him I'd only ever heard Greeks say this phrase, never actually the Italians. The man thought about this for a while.
"Yes," he said. "Bastards. Italians love only themselves. Only themselves." He sniffed deeply in the air. "Bastards."
Sevin, back in Rhodes, drove us through the centre of the island over towards the east coast. The car chewing its way along the road over the hills of as we crossed Rhodes' belly.
"I didn't like the stupid Greek culture when I was young," she said. "I didn't like all the dancing on the tables. I'm shy. I believe in respect." She told us she wanted to marry a Cretan or someone from Thessaloniki.
"Why's that?" I asked.
"I want to be told what to do," Sevin said. "I want a dictator. I want a Hodja…"
Sevin dropped us at the bottom of a hill.
"The Filerimos Cross is up there," she said, nodding up the thick tree-lined climb. "You should go… You go up two, you come down three…" she said, cryptically. Giristroula and I didn't know what this meant, but we clambered up to the top anyway, and the huge cross and a tiny broken church.
An old woman was lighting a candle. "Ah you've come to the cross eh? You are looking for the Panayia to help you with a child eh? Light a candle, she'll help you…"
We rushed down again. Back down towards Rhodes port.
We should have sailed out between the legs of the Colossus. But the great sun-god had a very short life, standing over the sea here for just fifty years. When it crashed to the ground the Rhodites didn't dare touch it so as not to displease the gods. It was a Turk who finally collected all the gold and metal nearly a thousand years later and sold it all off. The grim-humour story is that Rhodes got back its Colossus during the attacks by the Ottoman fleets in the form of cannonballs.
We sailed even further east. Lumbering underneath the southern coast of Turkey, with its bare tall mountains, past the deserted rocky island of Ro where Despina Achladioti had lived. Despina Achladioti – the Lady of Ro – and her husband moved to this inhospitable rock, just 800 meters off the Turkish coast around the time of World War 1. No one could understand why. Despina's husband died in 1940 and for the next 42 years, the Lady of Ro lived on her own on the island and every day, in every sort of weather, she would raise and lower the Greek flag. While Greece and the neighbouring islands were evacuated and occupied by the Germans, the Lady of Ro continued with her loan ritual of flying the Greek flag on her completely deserted little islet. Greek pride and resistance. When she died in 1982, Despina was buried with full military honours. The island is left deserted again now.
Giristroula and I landed on the very final flung island of Greece. Kastelorizo. A military gunship sat in the harbour. It rumbled and growled all day and night, like a small wary dog, ready for any sudden movements by Turkey across the water. We walked along the quayside. I'd heard people talk about Kaselorizo and how sorry they were for the people who have to live there. "Akritiko" people say of this island – far away and forgotten. But actually Kastelorizo was doing very well for itself. The cafes are prosperous and full. The taverna owners busy and rich. Once upon a time there were 10,000 people living on Kastelorizo, now there are about 400 residents. Many people from Kastelorizo emigrated to Australia. "Kazzies" they call themselves over there. Australian accents are now outside the tavernas as people come back to visit the island they had descended from. The harbour has big sea turtles that float languidly by, but the tourists have fed them with tidbits from their plates and now the turtles have got a taste for meat. A swim across the bay is fraught with danger as you run the risk of a snapper going for you. Giristroula and I swam nervously around the island, the sea crystal clear, our shadows stalking us below as we swam. Sea caves and grottos bluer and more beautiful than Capri. Kastelorizo was, bizarrely, chosen by prime minister Giorgos Papandreou back in April 2010 to declare that Greece was bankrupt. He stood by the achingly pretty harbour, next to the sparkling waters and told the nation down the television camera that they had all eaten the money together.
"Giorgos Malaka we call him," said one of the taverna owners to us as we sat and drank a souma – a tsipouro with a taste of mastiha, popular in the islands in this part of Greece.
"When a prime minister comes to your island, you think he's going to improve the island, not say we've all gone bankrupt… Then the malaka went for a swim!"
Giristroula and I climbed the rock strewn hills of Kasalorizo. From the high peaks you can see the chain of islets in the sea running from here to Turkey, like a rope barrier saying 'this is the end of the line – no more Greece beyond.' Coming back down the side of the hill above the island's stone police station, I saw a man pissing against the wall. This was Mohammed. I stopped and chatted awhile. Mohammed and his friend Ahmed had come from Syria. They have been waiting here for two weeks to be allowed to take a boat to the mainland. The island's one policeman had allowed them to sleep in the cell each night. Ahmed told me he had previously walked all the way from the border with Turkey at Erdine to Thessaloniki. But he had been sent back to Turkey. He didn't know what to do. He knew Lesvos was a bad place to end up, the camps at bursting point. He looked on Google maps and saw how close Kastelorizo was to Greece.
"No one knows this place." Ahmed said to me. "But it looked so much closer."
"How did you get over?" I asked him.
"Swam" he said. "It took all night. I had to keep going under the water. Waiting for the police boats to go. I had one bag round my neck."
"You're a good swimmer then?" I said.
"No. I hadn't really swum before. I waited in Turkey. I stayed in the town of Demre and every day I went to the sea and I practised swimming. I swam and the next day I swam a bit further. Then the next day I practised swimming a bit further. I swam for one hour, then the next day two hours, then the next day three hours. When I could do two kilometres. I knew I could swim over the sea to here."
Ahmed and Mohammed wanted to go to Sweden. Mohammed had a brother there. Over the next few days as Giristroula and I sat around Katelorizo doing nothing, bathing like fat seals in the sun on the harbour front, I saw Ahmed had managed to get himself some work while he waited and waited to be told if he could leave this tiny island. An amazingly bad tempered café owner barked orders at Ahmed as he limped with a bad leg, lugging crates of empty bottles. Ahmed would wrestle with the umbrellas on the beachfront every night.
In the evenings I would stand on the rocky hills, at the end of Greece, at the end of the continent, and watch the sun dying into the sea and would lose myself in thought. My country was leaving Europe. I wondered if I would be allowed to stay. Nothing was ever said by governments and ministers. Politcians had decided it was best just to leave people dangling. Would I need citizenship? But then a nagging thought hit me. A thought that had been there but which I tried to ignore… Was I even really so sure I wanted to stay in Greece anyway? It came as a shock to even think it, but I had to ask myself. Where was I going in this world? I had fallen into the classic Greek mess of living in a house on top of my wife's parents – trapped in that oppressive, loud, emotional theatre of home life as all Greek parents seem to want for their children. Daily I had to deal with the Greeks with their pride and their reluctance to ever apologise or admit ignorance and laughing like schoolboys when caught cheating. The absurd conventions and rituals that meant the Greeks would run you over as you cross the road if you haven't met before, but would do anything for you if you were a friend of a friend of a friend. The huge capacity for generosity and kindness. The huge feeling of suspicion and anger.
As I watched a sunset like coloured glass shattering into the sea, I knew I needed the beauty of Greece. The air and the light that always seemed as if it had just been washed clean. But did the Greek people secretly know they didn't really deserve all this? The old men and women walking around wearing faces of bad luck and unhappiness like the masks from some ancient tragedy. Could I ever really be accepted here? But then, this strangeness of Greece actually underwrote my existence. I was free in Greece. Why would I want to be back in Britain? I knew as soon as I left, I would be desperate to return.
Giristroula walked up the hill and joined me in the last of the day's orange light. I wanted to tell her how I knew that I should stay. Giristroula looked at me.
"You have to stay," she said, with a bite of her lip. "The Panayia of Filerimos seems to have worked her magic. Yiname tris tora…"
I worked this around my head, looked out across the sea while I translated. Then looked back at her. There's three of us?
Giristroula took my hand. "Ehis rizosi tora pia stin Ellada." – Your roots are deep in Greece now.
We turned to look at the sea together. The sky and the water had turned dark, but all I could see was colour. I realised, inside, I was singing.


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The Federal Reserve late last month announced it had lowered its benchmark rate by a quarter-point, the first such reduction since the depths of the Great Recession in 2008.
But will cutting borrowing costs do anything to make housing more affordable to middle-class and low-income workers?
National and local experts suggest the housing affordability crisis may continue.
More than just lowering interest rates will be needed, according to Mark Stapp, director of the Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business.
"I don't think the current interest rate reduction by the Fed will have any discernible impact on housing affordability," Mr. Stapp stated. "Mortgage interest rates are already very low and they are not as closely tied to 10-year treasury rates as they used to be. There are many other factors impacting affordability and none will be impacted by this rate cut."
Roland Murphy, director of research for the ABI Multifamily Apartment Brokerage & Advisory Firm in Phoenix, concurred with Mr. Stapp's assessment.
He suggested while the rate reduction will continue to fuel the pace of commercial real estate development, affordable workforce housing will remain a challenge in the local market.
"The Fed's decision to cut rates after the stock market volatility at the end of 2018, which resembled nothing so much as an orchestrated hissy fit, will continue to raise the value of commercial real estate assets," Mr. Murphy said. "Treasury yields are going to stay low, even inverted for now, and investors need some place to park their money that will generate returns. Commercial assets, particularly in multifamily, will continue to be among the best outlets for that."
Nation-leading record population growth in the Valley has put pressure on both housing demand and employment - driving up the cost of the former, while holding the latter steady and well-short of income levels needed for many full-time workers to afford an apartment, let alone enter the home buyer's market.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, of the county's estimated 4.4 million residents, half are earning a gross income under the $30,186 annually - or about $2,500 monthly, roughly equivalent to full-time employment at $14.50 an hour.
With a median mortgage payment of nearly $1,500 and apartments going for a median gross monthly of $1,033, affordable housing remains just beyond reach for many full-time workers.
And while lowering the Fed rate may excite some investors, it may only further hamper those trying to get a home loan, since lower rates can discourage lenders from extending credit to all but the most-qualified buyers, Mr. Stapp explained.
"Low rates means no risk mitigation," Mr. Stapp stated. "I don't think this helps those with marginal credit. It's interesting how loans get priced and the underwriting process takes credit into consideration and adjusts rate. Most marginal credit folks get FHA loans; that guarantee is more important than the Fed rate."
He said location of the home, down payment and source of income are also key factors lenders use to determine credit worthiness.
Mr. Stapp suggested some policies, which might improve housing affordability for Valley workers, including:
Build higher density housing developments; though many communities object to this.
Builders could buy larger numbers of lots; though many don't want to carry large inventories.
Utilize special district bond financing for infrastructure - offset some increased infrastructure costs long term (25 to 30-year term), low cost of funding ultimately assumed by home buyers.
Reduce required infrastructure to lower costs, such as a sidewalk on only one side of the street and soft surface trail on the other.
Build smaller homes. Reduce development processing time and municipal impact fees.
Mr. Murphy suggested commercial development will continue apace; but workforce housing won't be a priority for developers seeking to maximize profits.
"In terms of affordable development, it's going to be more of the same. Capital will flow to the highest-re-turning projects, and that will continue to be Class A," Mr. Murphy said. "The demand is still there since we're still under-building across all classes, and you get more bang for your inexpensive-to-borrow buck building luxury than workforce-affordable."
His firm's analysis points to record market growth, but with continued focus on luxury developments, with 6,000 to 9,000 new units predicted for delivery by the end of year based on ABI's first-quarter data.
But most of those projects are high-rent, luxury communities.
"80 to 88% of new construction is Class A. The workforce affordable housing with a rental point around $950, that's not getting built pretty much at all," Mr. Murphy told Daily Independent earlier this year.


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Students who bring bikes to school without a helmet will be able to
take them home once they return to school with a helmet or, parents /
carers will be free to collect them after school if they prefer
Their rule is the kids can't ride the bike away without a helmet, that doesn't change just because its the end of the day. They're not holding the bikes hostage, you can go and collect your kids bike if you refuse to send them to school with a helmet on out of stubbornness
What are you on about? Nobodys eroding anything. You don't have freedom of choice on everything in life. You just have to get over it.
I expect that if you were to send your child to junior track sessions you'd write to the velodrome to explain your dismay at them forcing children to wear helmets when its not the law?


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Barcelona vice-president Jordi Cardoner says Lionel Messi can leave the club whenever he decides the time is right.
Messi's future has come under the spotlight after it was confirmed he has a clause in his current contract which would allow him to leave the club for free at the end of this season.
Cardoner confirmed the clause and the fact Messi will be able to control his own destiny amid a remarkable claim he was approached by David Beckham to join his new Inter Miami MLS franchise.
But he claimed they remain "calm" about keeping hold of their superstar with reports in Spain suggesting they are looking to offer him a lifetime contract at the Nou Camp.
"He can enter and leave the club when he sees fit," Cardoner said (via Marca).
"We are calm and there is a lot of positivity, especially in the dressing room.
"Leo will do what he thinks is fit, but Leo's contract is very special because he is who he is.
"It's a concession made to him and other players who deserve it.
"I'd love for him to stay for as long as he wants to play for our team."
Cardoner also opened up on Neymar's summer transfer saga as he unsuccessfully looked to secure a move back to the Catalan club.
"He was happy here," he noted. "Most, if not all, the players are happy here.
"That chapter is in the past and we will wait for things to happen [in the future], but we are competing, LaLiga has already started, and it's a chapter that we are not dealing with right now."
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Beginner-friendly rating Rosshütte – Seefeld
Evaluated by Skiresort.info, the world's largest test portal for ski resorts.
The evaluation is done as follows
Beginners Rosshütte – Seefeld
The large beginner area (Sportis children's area) at the base station of the Seefeld/Rosshütte ski resort is ideal for the first steps in the snow. This practice area is open to everyone and features people movers and a pommel lift. The majority of the ski resort (lower and middle sections) can be mastered by beginners. The slopes here are wide and flat. However, from the Seefelder Joch and from the Härmelekopf, there are no easy slopes.
Slope offering for beginners/beginner slopes
Blue slopes
|11.4 km (63 %)
Information for beginners
- Easy and manageable slope offering, which is easy to achieve
- Wide slopes
- Beginner's area
- Easy valley run
- Practice lifts near the base
Ski schools on-site
Feedback for the Skiresort.info Team? Please use this form »
Top ski resort in Austria (Österreich)
5-star ski resort in Austria (Österreich)
All test reports


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The Church of the Birth of Virgin Mary and St. Michael Archangel is a three-nave, late renaissance church whose first founder was Piotr Kurowski. Inside the church, the original Baroque altar can be seen, seven side altars, and the tomb of Stanisław Zbąski from 1587, constructed by Santi Gucci, a renowned mason from Florence.
Tanning, fur clothing, and especially sheepskin coat industry have been the characteristic and dominant industries in Kurów for hundreds of years. The place has long been famous for the above mentioned branches not only in Poland, but also abroad. It was the venue of the renowned Lublin Fur Production Centre, which won numerous fashion shows.
"Kozi Bór" is the forestry and a Protected Landscape Area including the ecological arable land "Zabagniony Łęg" and the peat bog "Torfowisko Wysokie".


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Flatfish is a 20′ 2″ / 6.2 m sailboat designed by Joel White and Nathaniel G. Herreshoff and built by Fairey Marine Ltd starting in 1960.
A CB version of the Herreshoff FISH CLASS. A number have built of wood and plans are available.
A FG version was built by Fairey Marine (UK) in the early 1960's and imported to US by George O'Day.
Made with ♥ by the founders of Refit Guide
©2020 Sea Time Tech, LLC


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Josh (@starbuxman) is the Spring Developer Advocate at Pivotal. Josh is a Java Champion, author of 6 books (including O'Reilly's Cloud Native Java: Designing Resilient Systems with Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, and Cloud Foundry and the upcoming Reactive Spring) and numerous best-selling video trainings (including Building Microservices with Spring Boot Livelessons with Spring Boot co-founder Phil Webb), and an open-source contributor (Spring Boot, Spring Integration, Spring Cloud, Activiti and Vaadin), a podcaster and a screencaster
Microservices and big-data increasingly confront us with the limitations of traditional input/output. In traditional IO, work that is IO-bound dominates threads. This wouldn't be such a big deal if we could add more threads cheaply, but threads are expensive on the JVM, and most other platforms. Even if threads were cheap and infinitely scalable, we'd still be confronted with the faulty nature of networks. Things break, and they often do so in subtle, but non-exceptional ways. Traditional approaches to integration bury the faulty nature of networks behind overly simplifying abstractions. We need something better. Spring Framework 5 is here ! It introduces the Spring developer to a growing world of support for reactive programming across the Spring portfolio, starting with a new Netty-based web runtime, component model and module called Spring WebFlux, and then continuing to Spring Data Kay, Spring Security 5.0, Spring Boot 2.0 and Spring Cloud Finchley. Sure, it sounds like a lot, but don't worry! Join me, your guide, Spring developer advocate Josh Long, and we'll explore the wacky, wonderful world of Reactive Spring together.
Scheduled on Saturday from 17:40 to 18:30 in Room 1
How would you feel if you knew that any pat of the code was at most a few minutes away from being shippable and delivered into production? How would you feel if you knew that any part of the code is a few ctrl+z's away from being shippable and delivered into production? Emboldened and confident? Test driven development (TDD) gives you that. TDD allows you to proceed with confidence that you're building the right thing. It provides you with imminent-horizons that you can meet and measure. TDD gives developers the confidence to go faster, secure in the knowledge that what they break they will fix and be able to improve. In this talk, join Spring Developer Advocate Josh Long (@starbuxman) as he looks at how to test Spring applications and services. We'll look at how to test basic components, mocks, how to take advantage of test slices, and how to test web applications. We'll also look at how to ensure that API producers and API consumers work well together using consumer driven contract testing (CDCT) without sacrificing the testing pyramid for end-to-end integration tests.
Scheduled on Saturday from 16:20 to 17:10 in Room 1


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Speedrun! Deploying to Fly!
You have an application you want to deploy on Fly? You already know your stuff? Specifically Docker? Good!
If not, head to our hands-on for Docker images or guides for Go and Node applications.
Start your speed run now
- Install Flyctl - you'll need it.
- Sign up/Log in to Fly - run
flyctl auth signupto create an account or
flyctl auth loginto log in.
- Run
flyctl init- let Fly generate you a name (recommended) or enter one of your own. When asked for a builder, select Dockerfile and flyctl will create a simple Dockerfile for you.
- Run
flyctl deploy- Fly will deploy your application.
- Run
flyctl info- Fly will show you the hostname where your app is deployed.
- Run
flyctl open- Fly will open your browser direct it to your app.
Point your browser or other app at that hostname. That's your app running globally.