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Meat is at the heart of the Dominican Republic's cuisine. In the northern part of the country, where chef Blenlly Mena's family is from, the meat of choice is usually goat – it is served at weddings, as well as throughout the nine-day mourning period to honor a loved one's death.
So it is goat that Mena, who grew up in New York City, considers the ultimate celebration meal. Or she did, until she went vegan in late 2015.
She was living in Los Angeles at the time – the promised land of sun-kissed models Instagramming their raw food detoxes. Mena tried a raw food challenge to better her chances as a contestant on a YouTube series called The Fittest Winner.
"As I was looking up recipes, I discovered the word vegan," she says. As she realized she didn't miss meat and felt physically and spiritually healthier, the discovery stuck. But when she left Los Angeles for a stint teaching English in South Korea nine months later, finding tasty vegan food became a concern.
"Korean food was very heavy on seafood and meat," she says. She started to cook at home, using Korean spices and ingredients from her adopted home, as well as Dominican staples, like plantain. She posted her dishes on Instagram and YouTube, gained a following, and soon found herself with an informal second job as a prep cook for fellow foreign teachers.
When she returned to the Bronx in the summer of 2017, where nearly a quarter of the population is Dominican, she launched Next Stop Vegan, a prepared meal delivery service, from her mother's kitchen. She quickly outgrew the space as word spread that her vegan chimis – a take on the Dominican hamburger usually made with seasoned ground beef and covered in its own secret sauce – were absolutely stellar. A year later, a line of more than 250 people attending the Bronx Night Market, a local food fair featuring mostly meat, were willing to wait a half-hour to try Mena's vegan cuisine.
But this warm reception was far from preordained. When Mena first moved back to the States, her family was skeptical of her enthusiasm for her new way of eating, certain it was just a phase. Mena says in general her community can be resistant to changing their diets.
"They think that nothing can be recreated without the meat, because in the Dominican [Republic] we're very into our roots and the naturalness of what it is," she says. In a culture where goat and other meat feel like a cultural imperative, being vegan may seem like voluntarily giving up lifelong traditions.
The connection between food and culture runs so deep that what we eat can affect whether we feel full afterwards, according to Krishnendu Ray, a professor at New York University. "I have now lived in the United States for more than 20 years," says Ray, a native of India, "and I don't feel full until I have eaten rice." The Dominican Republic's equivalent would be la bandera – the flag – and it always includes meat.
"It's centerfold to our dishes," says Arturo Feliz-Camilo, who has written multiple Dominican cookbooks. "If there's no meat, people feel like they're not having a real meal."
It's this association of a certain food with an identity (meat = culture = non-negotiable) that Next Stop Vegan is trying to get rid of and replace with a more inclusive view of veganism – one that has a place in every culture. Mena is one in a growing chorus of responses to the entrenched image that all 9.7 million Americans who identify as vegan are tiny blond women sanctimoniously nibbling on salads.
According to Jenne Claiborne, the truth about veganism's roots in the US is much more diverse than it's perceived to be. Claiborne, the Los Angeles-based author of the vegan lifestyle blog Sweet Potato Soul, says she didn't meet any white vegans until young adulthood when she took a job at a plant-based bakery named Peacefood Cafe in New York City.
"I actually didn't hear of this thing of it being a white thing until quite recently, when the movement has grown," she says.
Her father's family were members of the Hebrew Israelite community, a spiritual sect started by descendants of African slaves, who eschew meat. As University of North Texas historian Jennifer Jensen Wallach wrote, many black nationalists viewed vegetarianism as a way of rejecting the culture that slavery forced upon them. That culture includes the agricultural industrialization that often makes meat the cheapest option for a population systematically shut out of economic stability.
"It's important for people of color to wake up to the fact that this food is hurting us," Claiborne says. "It's keeping us down."
Similar calls to action are afoot in other cultures too. In 2015, Luz Calvo, an ethnic studies professor at California State University, published a cookbook with their wife, Catriona Rueda Esquibel, called Decolonize Your Diet. It features vegan Mexican cuisine and a manifesto in favor of reclaiming ancestral wisdom. "Many of the less healthy aspects of the Mesoamerican cuisine came about as the direct result of colonization," Calvo writes in the book.
In the process of reclaiming healthier ways of eating and embracing veganism, people of color find themselves in a complex process that involves convincing their friends and relatives that the sacred cows – or goats – of their food traditions should be released.
Ray sees this happening in the food studies lectures he teaches at NYU: nearly a decade ago, he said, the vegans speaking up in his classes were primarily young white women evangelizing about the ecological and animal welfare benefits of giving up meat. Now those students are increasingly diverse, with black students specifically emphasizing "what bad industrial habits have done to their communities".
Mena's task is more local. She wants people to understand that vegans are just normal people who don't eat meat, and foregoing it doesn't make them any less Dominican. This is an idea her own sister and business partner, Ana Baez, has taken some time to accept – she's not completely vegan but she's getting there.
"My co-worker recently sent me a text message, and said to 'Come eat – I have goat.' And I felt bad for the goat!" Baez says, incredulous.
Mena explained: "It's a prestigious dish; it's a celebratory dish. If someone passes away, we do a nine-day ceremony after the death, you serve goat. It's a cultural thing. So when you let go of that, and you're like, 'Oh my God, I'm not part of this celebratory moment now.'"
Still, Mena is pleasantly surprised by the impact she has had on the people around her in the past year. "I didn't think my culture would actually want to be part of this," she says. "Now most of my family members are either transitioning or vegan."
In October, Mena, three relatives and a family friend converged at Next Stop Vegan's new commercial kitchen in the Bronx's Parkchester neighborhood. I had a hard time finding the place housed in a former Chinese takeout joint. Its windows were fogged with condensation and its security barrier was partially lowered, forcing me to duck to get in. Inside, it was warm, and the air was heavy with pepper and garlic. It smelled like a perfectly seasoned meatloaf was cooking, but without the underlying gaminess of animal flesh.
The five women, spread among the industrial-sized cooktop and multiple card tables serving as prep stations, peeled and chopped onions, peppers, squash and chayote while simultaneously making 10 different dishes for that week's clients. Those vegetables were incorporated into dishes like chopped cheese (made from quinoa "beef", that perfect meatloaf I smelled), rice and beans, and vegetable platters.
Mena's mother, Ana Moncion, kept appearing with taste tests of the food for everyone in the kitchen like bulgur – a whole grain with a meaty mouthfeel – and a light chickpea soup. I perched at the takeout window eagerly devouring everything she put beside me, eyeing the samples that sat untouched beside the other women too busy cooking the dishes to try them.
They had about 65 deliveries scheduled for that week, their goal was 100. That night in the kitchen the room was filled with talk of storefronts and expansions. They're spending weekends through mid-January hosting a booth at the New York Botanical Garden's nighttime winter event series, a ticketed event she hopes will broaden her clientele.
"You [don't] have to be this Mother Teresa when you're vegan," says Mena. It's a diet choice that doesn't have to include any degree of cultural separation. You eat food that's healthier for both you and the planet, and you won't even notice that the sancocho – a stew – lacks seafood and the chopped cheese is actually grains covered with a mix of root vegetables, nutritional yeast and nut milk. You'll just think, this is delicious.


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A lovely stone house in a quiet olive grove sits in its own plot of land with peace and quiet.
A stone wall surrounds the property which has a gated entrance.
The ground floor consists of an open plan lounge with wood burning stove in the fireplace and an open plan fully fitted kitchen and dining area. There is a toilet on this floor.
A marble staircase leads to two double bedrooms with fitted wardrobes and a shower room with toilet. Both bedrooms have French doors leading onto a large balcony area giving great views.
The house benefits from aluminium shutters, mosquito nets and solar power for your hot water.
The pretty garden has many flowers, herbs and vegetable areas.
Only 700 meters to the beach and close to the pretty fishing village of Agios Nikolaos.

subset: commoncrawl


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Global Cell Harvesting Market is Growing at a CAGR of 8.9% in 2025
Cell Harvesting Market
Global Cell Harvesting Market is expected to reach USD 387.9 Million by 2025, from USD 196.9 Million in 2017 growing at a CAGR of 8.9% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2017, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025.
This market report defines the market trends and forecast the upcoming opportunities and threats of the cell harvesting market in the next 8 years. Cell harvesting is extracting the cells either from bone marrow and peripheral blood cells and culturing the cells in the culture dish containing nutrient media. Cell harvesting is used in the cell therapy as well as in gene therapy. University of California developed a cure for bubble baby disease for new born babies by using the cell harvesting in stem cells and gene therapy. Moreover, Asterias developed the stem cell therapy to regain the upper body motor function.
Get Exclusive Sample Report: @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-cell-harvesting-market
Competitive Analysis: Global Cell Harvesting Market
global cell harvesting market is highly fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of cell harvesting market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.
Major Market competitors/players: Global Cell Harvesting Market
Some of the major players operating in the global cell harvesting market are PerkinElmer Inc, Bertin, Tomtec, Terumo BCT, HynoDent AG, Avita Medical, Argos Technologies, SP Industries, Teleflex Incorporated, Arthrex, Inc, Thomas Scientific, Brand GMBH, Brandel, Cox Scientific, Connectorate, Scinomix, Adstec.
Market Segmentation: Global Cell Harvesting Market
The global cell harvesting market is segmented on basis of type, application, end users and geography.
- Based on type, the global cell harvesting market is segmented into manual cell harvester and automated cell harvesters.
- Based on the application, the global cell harvesting market is segmented into biopharmaceutical application, stem cell research, and other applications.
- On the basis of end users, the global cell harvesting market is segmented into hospitals, research institutes, and community healthcare. Based on distribution channel the market is segmented into retail and direct tenders.
- Based on geography the global cell harvesting market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies namely North America & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and, Middle East & Africa. Some of the major countries covered in this report are U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and, Brazil among others.
Enquiry About Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/inquire-before-buying/?dbmr=global-cell-harvesting-market
Major Market Drivers and Restraints:
- Awareness towards diseases like cancer and genetic disorders like sickle cell disease.
- Increase in the research and development in pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector
- Increased investment in research and development cell therapy and gene therapy
- Increased research and development in animal biotechnology sector for the production of better yield
- Downward pricing pressure owing to its commodity nature
- Ethical issues like it is embryonic stem cell research violates respect for human life
Reasons to Purchase this Report
- Current and future of global needles market outlook in the developed and emerging markets
- The segment that is expected to dominate the market as well as the segment which holds highest CAGR in the forecast period
- Regions/Countries that are expected to witness the fastest growth rates during the forecast period
- The latest developments, market shares, and strategies that are employed by the major market players
Acess Full Report@ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-cell-harvesting-market
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Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market.
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Related Reports:
Global Healthcare Reimbursement Market
Global Electronic Clinical Outcome Assessment (eCOA) Market


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Originally, I was just going to write about a new State Department program that brings foreign cultural acts to the United States. There had been a story in the Boston Globe.
"The US State Department, which has long sent American artists abroad as part of its cultural diplomacy efforts, is for the first time launching a sizable program to bring foreign performers here — an initiative administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts. Comedians, puppeteers, musicians, and dancers from Pakistan, Haiti, and Indonesia will tour to small and midsize cities across America next year as part of the nearly $2 million Center Stage program. 'Since the early '50s, we've basically sent groups overseas to do people-to-people exchange for mutual understanding,' said Ann Stock, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs. 'This is the first time we're bringing 10 groups to Main Street America.' "
It sounded like a nice experience for foreign visitors and audiences alike.
But not all summer visitors who come in under the auspices of the State Department get what they expect. J-1 visas, for example, are given out for young people to work here and enjoy cultural interactions. But according to Monica Lopossay in Thursday's New York Times, things cans go wrong, especially if job placements are contracted out to contractors who also contract them out.
In Palmyra, near Hersey (PA), "Hundreds of foreign students, waving their fists and shouting defiantly in many languages, walked off their jobs on Wednesday at a plant here that packs Hershey's chocolates, saying a summer program that was supposed to be a cultural exchange had instead turned them into underpaid labor.
"The students, from countries including China, Nigeria, Romania and Ukraine, came to the United States through a long-established State Department summer visa program that allows them to work for two months and then travel. The students said they were expecting to practice their English, make money and learn what life is like in the United States.
"In a way, they did. About 400 foreign students were put to work lifting heavy boxes and packing Reese's candies, Kit-Kats and Almond Joys on a fast-moving production line, many of them on a night shift. After paycheck deductions for fees associated with the program and for their rent, students said at a rally in front of the huge packing plant that many of them were not earning nearly enough to recover what they had spent in their home countries to obtain their visas." Read more here.
In Rhode Island, our family often meets up with young adults on J-1 visas. They staff the grocery store and the restaurants in summer. For us, it is a nice cultural exchange to talk to people from Ukraine, Moldova, or Serbia, but it's hard to know if the visitors are having a valuable experience. Often their housing is not great, but the location is beautiful and many make good friends.
If you know more about this, do weigh in.


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Posted on 14th August 2009 by Media Relations
Taronga Western Plains Zoo is celebrating the arrival of four rare African Wild Dog pups, which were born to the Zoo's breeding program in early May. Experienced mother Zuri, who was transported to Taronga Western Plains Zoo from Hamilton Zoo in New Zealand in 2008, has been very protective of her young.
"The pups remained in the den with Zuri for the first few weeks before they started to venture out and explore their yard," said keeper Kelly Taylor. "Zuri and father Notch are both very attentive to their offspring. Browny, the other adult male in the pack, is also being a good uncle and is heavily involved in raising the pups as it is his job to help feed them," The pups are really inquisitive now that they are 15 weeks old, becoming more and more independent and taking their place in the pack," said Kelly. The pups have undergone their second set of vaccinations and will hopefully be on exhibit for the October school holidays for visitors to see these rare creatures. "Zuri is one of the most genetically important females in the region, therefore this litter of pups is even more important as they will ultimately contribute to the regional population in the future," said Kelly.
Taronga Western Plains Zoo has extensive experience working with African Wild Dogs having held the species since 1982. Keepers have become proficient in husbandry, breeding and pack development and movements, and have seen a large number of births to the program. This birth is very significant for the regional breeding program as it ensures genetic diversity within the captive African Wild Dog population. African Wild Dogs will grow to be the size of a large domestic dog however they are slender in body and long in limbs, weighing in at an average weight of 17 – 36kgs. Along with highly specialised hearing they also have unique markings of black, yellow, brown and white.
African Wild Dogs are listed as endangered in the wild with the demise of the species mainly as a result of persecution by humans, susceptibility of diseases and also habitat loss. Taronga Western Plains Zoo is located at Dubbo in Central Western NSW. The Zoo is open everyday from 9am – 4pm.
For more information contact 02 6881 1400 or visit www.taronga.org.au.


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Do you see yourself going gaga over the wrong person and just can't control it? Here, we have some of the tried and tested tips for you. First comes the feeling of liking, which is often termed as infatuation. You don't fall in love with the person in the initial stage. Infatuation is one thing that causes inseparable area of your thinking process over that person. You just won't be able to stop thinking about them. Many of us have a crush on somebody and then end up falling in love with them each passing day.
Sometimes, it's natural to have second thoughts about the person. A co-worker or a friend could be sweet and charming, and before you realize anything, you will be having some deep connection with them. You just won't be able to control if you are falling head over heels in love with them. It is a possibility that every part of your body will be guiding you that you are going down the wrong path. You must have tried to stop yourself too, but it ends up resulting hurting you more.
And, at the end you just accept what you are going through and accept all the misery as well as self pity that the person you love will never be able to love you as you love them. But you know what the reality is? You can still get hold of yourself and turn the time upside down. You can still have a life which is under your control. You can still stop falling in love with that person and get your stand back if you truly want to.
1. Try to convince yourself first!
Wait is the key to get over that person. Infatuation is only alive till the time you feed it with patience. Once you have made your mind that this person is not right for you in the coming future, and then you can easily drop the whole concept of falling in love. You need to convince yourself first before anybody else.
2. Keep the difference in mind!
There's a huge difference between infatuation and falling in love with somebody. Infatuation is just finding somebody interesting and attractive in anything they do. Just because you like the person as he/she is attractive and fun doesn't necessarily mean you love them.
3. Distancing is mandatory!
Initially it might seem painful, if at all you talk to them on a daily basis or if you're working day and night with them, hence, forced to talk to them. No matter how difficult it is, just try to avoid them or keep some distance from them.
4. Avoid having a physical contact!
You may feel like you are up on cloud 9 every time you hold their hand or cuddle them. But you need to realize that each time you walk away from that, you will get hurt. It may seem stupid to some, but can work wonders. Stop being cosy with them and know that it will do you no good in present or in future as well.
5. Don't be too over friendly!
Avoid late night and long conversations with this person. Most important of all, stop exchanging late night calls or text messages where you discuss the most intimate details of your life. You need to remember one thing regarding this, you're not going any friendlier with this person, and rather you are falling deeper in love with him. And, this is definitely not what you want.
6. No stalking!
It feels very satisfying as you stay updated about this person's private life. But, you know what your destination is. Avoid opening their face book page or following them on any other social networking website to see about their future activity or whether they've been up for something. Try limiting the times you stalk them and eventually you will start ignoring them completely.
7. Pay attention to other things now!
Don't let one person control your mind and your life. It may seem next to impossible to forget about that person or ignore him. So, rather, engage yourself in other activities which will help you diverting your mind. And every time, you start thinking about him or make you sad, then think something else that makes you feel happy.
8. Don't please people, Just be yourself!
It's all okay to turn down somebody's request. You don't need to something just because somebody else wants you to do it. You are the owner of your own choices. You don't have to please people by saying â€yes†to anything they say. You need to have your stand as well.
9. Focus on the bad side!
Each one of us has flaws. So, the next time you meet that person, just focus on the bad traits they bear. This is one of the best ways to get over somebody. Each time you think about that person, think about their bad behaviour with you and what bad side they bear.
10. Focus on someone else now!
It is one of the easiest ways to get over somebody in no less time. Just try to divert your attention over somebody else. It can be a flirty conversation for a few days or it may turn into a great friendship after a few days.
11. Avoid giving or taking attention!
Even if you're in a smooth relationship which is going subtle in all boundaries, flirty attention from somebody may make you feel weak. If you're not up for any serious material in your life, then you can try avoiding attention from the one even if it feels good.
12. Your self respect comes first!
Don't ever lose your self respect for anybody who is just not worth the time and patience of yours! There is a strong reason why you don't want this relationship to go further or work. Remember that you are worth something better in life.
13. Have a conversation with this person!
Does this person have any idea that you are infatuated with them, but don't want it to go any further? If you want no complications, then talk to this person and tell them how you feel. Try to avoid each other and follow the no contact rule in future.
These are the sure shot ways of not falling in love with the person you think is not worth it! There is no end of guys and girls in this universe. You will find your â€the one†when it is the right time. Till then, don't experiment with the wrong ones!Follow Love Venture on WordPress.com


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Hattiesburg Info and Attractions
The Areas we serve
We proudly serve the Hattiesburg Mississippi area as well as its surrounding communities and counties: Arnold Line, Baxterville, Beaumont, Brooklyn, Carnes, Forrest County, Fruitland Park, Hintonville, Lamar County, Lumberton, McLaurin, New Augusta, Oak Grove, Oloh, Perry County, Petal, Purvis, Rawls Springs, Richton, Runnelstown, Sumrall, West Hattiesburg, and more.


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Don Dressler
Attorney/Risk Management Consultant
National leader in labor law, risk management and human resources solutions, Don Dressler, has been designing customized HR packages that significantly reduce workers compensation costs, protect employers from non-compliance, while providing effective worker training solutions to southern California companies for more than twenty years.
From 1987 to 2003, Mr. Dressler was the President of Insurance Services for Western Growers Association, a regional trade association representing fresh fruit and vegetable growers in California and Arizona. Mr. Dressler headed their health and workers' compensation programs. He was President of Western Growers Insurance Company, a California and Arizona workers' compensation insurer and Quail Street Casualty Ltd., a Bermuda based captive insurance company.
Up to that time, he served as the Executive Vice President of Western Growers Association, the chief operating officer of the trade association, overseeing all internal operations, and Vice President and General Counsel of Western Growers Association, establishing a group legal practice to provide labor and employment law. Mr. Dressler also served on the Legislative Counsel for the California Farm Bureau Federation, and established their group legal practice, Farm Employers Labor Service.
Dressler is a practicing attorney specializing in employment law and human resources issues. He consults on insurance and risk management issues for private companies and trade associations and has served such firms as Western Growers Association, a regional trade association representing fresh fruit and vegetable growers in California and Arizona, and the Western Growers Insurance Company, a workers' compensation insurer.
Dressler simplifies and clarifies employee relations and compliance concerns by removing the confusion and complications of regulations on:
- Illness and injury plans
- Discrimination
- HR & Safety Issues - including but not limited to:
Mr. Dressler served as a director and on the Executive Committee of California Coalition on Workers' Compensation. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Association Executives, and as Director of the Association of California Insurance Companies; Vice President of the California Association of Small Employer Health Plans; President and Legislative Committee Chair of The Association Health Care Coalition. He served as Chairman of the Finance Commission for the City of Irvine from 1993 to 2011.
Active in community affairs, Mr. Dressler Chairs the Annual Irvine Police Department Awards Banquet, is Treasurer of the Exchange Club of Irvine and serves on the Board of Directors for Western Family Services (a health care organization providing mental health services to children and youth in Orange County) and ProVisors, a network of over 2,000 top business professionals.
Dressler is a frequent speaker on Workers' Compensation, Health Insurance and Organizational Development issues. He also is a Trustee of the Kansas State University Foundation.
Our Team:
Going Above & Beyond
Pat Haley
Human Resources, Employee Conflict, Training
Pat Haley is an HR professional with a "PHR" human resource certification, a CPCU insurance designation, and over 20 years of HR experience. Her effective communication style and problem solving abilities enables Pat to partner with a wide variety of businesses with an emphasis on employment relations matters, management/employee training and general HR management functions.
Victoria Hill
Attorney at Law - Consultant
Victoria Hill is an experienced HR professional and licensed attorney. Graduating from the University of San Diego with a BA in Business and Juris Doctorate. During the next 10 years Victoria was a litigator before co-founding a regional staffing company where for nine years she successfully led a thriving Human Capital, Legal, Finance and Operations Group, while navigating the company to annual revenues of $10M, and later strategically brokering the sale of the organization. Today Victoria combines all the experience gained both as a litigator and successful business owner to provide best-in-practices HR consulting solutions to small and medium sized companies.
Marilena GuadagniniAttorney at Law - Consultant
Marilena Guadagnini provides compliance counseling on a variety of employment issues, including adherence to federal and state leave laws, wage and hour compliance, and employee discipline. Ms. Guadagnini regularly drafts business and employment agreements, employee handbooks, and other personnel policies. She has presented and trained HR consultants and employers on various aspects of labor and employment law. While attending University of San Francisco, Ms. Guadagnini earned her JD and MBA degrees with a Certificate in Business Law.
Cindy A. Williams
Highly efficient and results oriented, Cindy Williams has more than 15 years experience in the HR and Safety industries and she helps increase employee productivity, and reduce the overall cost of your workforce. Through building strong employee relationships, fine-tuning company culture, streamlining procedures, and creative training programs, she helps keep employees healthy and safe, and your company legally compliant.
Contact Us Today!
The team at Cal Work Safety has the background & experience to make your life much easier.


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Photo-A-Day #4685
Hasbro sent me the new Transformers: Generations Power of the Primes Leader Evolution Optimus Prime for free to unbox and review.
When I was at Hascon I attended the Transformers session and got to see all the new figures that are being released. When I saw this Optimus Prime figure I was incredibly excited. The concept is that the figure is Orion Pax and he evolves into the Optimus Prime we know and love. Orion Pax was the name of the robot who became Optimus back in the Generation 1 days. I have never seen a good Orion Pax figure before and this one is certainly a well done one. Below I have more images and a review of what I think of the figure plus a video unboxing.
The Orion Pax figure fits right into the chest cavity of Optimus prime. The figure has the Optimus Head, cab and a spot for the Matrix of Leadership. Optimus Prime's ion blaster breaks into two parts to become the weapons for Orion Pax.
While the vehicle mode of this figure is nice it is nothing compared to the fully transformed Optimus Prime. I am very impressed with the trailer portion of the vehicle but not as impressed witht he cab. I just don't like the back part of it, it does not seem as clean as it should be. I do fully recognize that the engineering that goes into making these is incredible.
The matrix fits right inside the chest of Optimus Prime. This is also where you can put other Power of the Primes mini figures. Each one has a different power. But I doubt I would change out anything in Optimus because he's got the Matrix and that should be most powerful.
The makes me think of Transformers the movie. The double chest thing is interesting and was tricky in the transformation and release of Orion Pax from the chest of Optimus Prime. Here is my full video review and unboxing.
If you'd like to get your own Transformers: Generations Power of the Primes Leader Evolution Optimus Prime then please consider using my amazin link below.
Copyright (c) 2020 BenSpark Family Adventures


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Ever been interested in being a Farm Sitter? Across Rural Australia, farmers rarely get a break. If you'd like to be a farm sitter, much like a house sitter but with a few extra Read On >
Australia's professional beekeepers are our forgotten farmers. These important primary producers are often overlooked when it comes to the effects of drought, bushfire and other natural disasters.
Yet professional beekeepers are the cornerstone of our agricultural industry. They play a vital role in helping to pollinate important food crops for both humans and livestock, in addition to producing delicious Aussie honey from our rugged bushland. Crops like almonds, avocados, blueberries, cucumbers, mangoes, apples and pumpkin rely heavily on pollination by bees.
We need to support our "littlest livestock", honey bees, and the beekeepers who care for them. Please help safeguard one of the most important industries in Australian agriculture – Australian apiculture.
Our farmers are facing unprecedented bushfires and drought. Some towns have been burnt to the ground and others could run out of water. The good news is that you can help by donating your empty drink containers at any TOMRA Recycling Location (Return and Earn in NSW and Containers for Change in QLD). Every eligible container donated raises 10c to support our farmers and rural communities in need.
To donate your Bottles for the Bush, just download the barcode to use at your local Return and Earn or TOMRA machine.
So far, we have raised over $500,000 for our farmers through Bottles for the Bush. By continuing to donate your bottles and cans you have the opportunity to help us make an even bigger impact in the lives of our disaster affected farmers.
NSW overview – November 2019
- Widespread drought conditions continued to affect New South Wales (NSW) during November 2019.
- Prolonged drought conditions and an unfavourable three month rainfall outlook continue to provide challenging hydrological and agronomic forward scenarios.
- The current circumstances indicate that the management of the current drought event will likely be required into 2020.
- The NSW DPI Combined Drought Indicator (CDI) shows that 97.2% of the state remains in one of the three drought categories at the end of September, with the accumulated drought duration now exceeding 18-24 months for large areas of the state since mid-2017.
Further information on the NSW seasonal update is here
QLD overview – December 2019
- As at 1 December 2019,there are a total of 33 councils and four part council areas drought declared
- . These declarations represent 66.1% of the land area of Queensland.
- There are also 23 Individual Droughted Properties (IDPs) in a further 8 Local Government Areas.
Further information on the QLD seasonal update is here


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so, I spent my "day off" (I didn't go to work, but I emailed people like there was no tomorrow) designing a shirt for threadless.com. Sort of. The process went more like this:
- decide on text for shirt.
- try to decide what font to use.
- become frustrated with font selection, go hunting on the internet for fonts.
- read typography blogs.
- stumble across Gill Sans, which is just right for my needs.
- hunt down and install Gill Sans.
- feel guilty for ripping off a typographer; it's fairly difficult work.
- see that it'd cost me a whole damn lot to buy, feel less guilty.
- notice that Threadless prefers vector images over bitmaps (it's a way of thinking about images; ask me later if you want to know more), attempt to find bitmap-to-vector converter.
- find out that Flash MX does a fine job of this.
- figure that I may as well upgrade Fireworks so that all my Macromedia products are up to date.
- find, install, and crack aforementioned programs, and get down to actual work.
- get nowhere due to (lack of) speed of desktop.
- convince sister to let me use her laptop.
- install/crack programs again, and move my source images over to her computer.
- graphics program + trackpads = disaster.
- get some stuff done anyway, for a solid 45 minutes.
- move stuff done over to desktop.
- return laptop to previous state and then to sister.
- grumble.
for now, though, I'm going to bed.


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|Success Stories If you have successfully repaired or restored a piece of equipment, why not write up what you did and post details here. Particularly if it was interesting, unusual or challenging. PLEASE DO NOT POST REQUESTS FOR HELP HERE!
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|14th Jun 2018, 1:22 pm
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Oxfordshire/Bucks borders, UK.
Posts: 1,091
Avo DA212 clean up
Well it's not much of a resoration, but I'm happy with the results.
Avo DA212, the usual leaked battery incident.
So, I mixed bicarbonate of soda in water to make a paste (thanks for the tip Jeremy) and applied it to the contacts.
Some of the contacts I later took out and coated them on a plate.
One the terminals were cleaned very well with the soda, I cleaned them up with a carbon steel wire wheel on a Dremel to polish them up which works a treat.
The negative wire to the PCB needed to be replaced as some of the corrosion had wicked its way up the wire and by the time I could find clean copper, the wire was too short.
So after that, a good general clean of the empty casings....then back to the bench for a post clean test.
Avometer, vintage Fluke and Marconi collector.
|14th Jun 2018, 1:24 pm
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Oxfordshire/Bucks borders, UK.
Posts: 1,091
Re: Avo DA212 clean up
Post clean test shows the results of this DA212 agree very closely with my in calibration Fluke 87V.
Tested fine to it's full scale at the 200V ranges and again at 1000V DC and 750V AC ranges. Other ranges are fine too.
Avometer, vintage Fluke and Marconi collector.
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SaludosNiños! serves impoverished Mayan families in the rural Guatemalan community of Panyebar by providing children with early learning as well as health and nutrition programs. Most children are three and four years old, although there are some younger and a few older who come for after-school tutoring and receive a nutritious midday meal.
Please explore and get to know us!
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XML file in 360 Mode
Thank you Patric for the update.
My first PINE run in field was last week and I guess I have something to share.
Run Scenario [360 Photography]
1. Camera [model doesn't matter]
2. Lens: Tamron 24-70mm. Shooting at 24mm, with PINE calculation: 5 rows + 9 Columns [Portrait orientation]
3. Nic-O-Tilt motors
4. Post processing applications: [Autopano GigaPro, PTGui pro-Trial]
Because I was testing the device at home for several days I change PAN motor connection to Reverse:ON !!!
I was noticing that pan motor was moving counter clockwise while tilt motor was moving clockwise.
After importing images and aligned them with XML, I get similar result of attached image.
Thankfully, the correction [if you were in same situation] is so simple:
1. Open the XML in any text editor
2. Change all yaw values to negative
this solutions works with me perfectly
Issue accrues when pan motor in revers only,
Tilt motor does not matter if it's in normal movement or in reverse.
Hope this will help someone, Have great shooting,
The XML file generation assumes that the pan rotation starts in a clockwise direction. If the user doesn't know that, we have your situation. I think it would be good when we make a hint for that somewhere in the app. This is a difficult situation to implement the rotation direction directly into the XML file, as some users are not using a Nic-O-Tilt and rotation direction might vary for other systems by default. We will keep this in mind.
Thanks Zakariya!


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Cycling in Sydney Australia
Initially I thought this was a bad idea
Pyrmont Bridge garden plan could separate cyclists and pedestrians
but if it is going to separate the cyclists & pedestrians then maybe it's a good idea, like the SHB.
Although it will be cramped for the pedestrians.
Note: image does not show the cyclists on the northern side.
Views: 5778
The image also fails to show the "pedestrian crossings" on the bike side and the pedestrians standing on the bike side taking photos. Or the rangers waving their magic wands at everyone and shouting at them to behave.
On a more serious note, I'd be interested in seeing it happen. Firstly for the concept itself, secondly to "trial" segregation on the bridge.
The cynic in me says, if I wanted to make conditions worse for humans transiting the bridge, both by foot and wheel, I might install a large structure right in the middle that:
a) reduces available floorspace
b) makes human users have to divert to the parts of the bridge where there are other obstactles such as lamp- and flagpoles
c) block vision
Even if segregated, you know that unaware users are going to walk across the bike lane - I'm thinking of you, tourists, wanting to get a photo of the view from both sides.
This bridge has enough problems of its own, none of which the garden concept solve. And in fact, make it worse. I hope it is designed to be easily and quickly removed, as will be required before the pilot is completed.
I know it's only an artist's impression, but that image above shows the bridge early in the morning during summer. I can't imagine it being this empty in real life at such a time.
And note that all pedestrians illustrated are actually walking contrary to keep-left convention. Sigh.
That's because there are no magic-wand-waving-wardens telling them to do so!
Where do you normally walk on a footpath, Bob?
In London, all of the tube/railway station escalators have "Keep Right" signs on them and, contrary to their roads, everyone stays on the right.
We push people if they stand in the way.
Bloody crazy idea. One of the busiest shared paths in Sydney and they want to take up nearly 50%* of it.
"I've made it two metres smaller than what the temporary fences were when the monorail was getting pulled down and no one really complained at that time,''- that's because it was temporary and only for short distances not bloody 180m long.
Darling Drive is also stuffed up ATM with no cycling signs having been put up and going through DH ATM is a pain as well with the boat show on ATM. The whole area is farked and this stupid idea is the icing on the cake.
* the bridge is about 15.5m wide minus 2 seats @ ~1m each plus poles etc so effectively ~12m and this is 6m wide. The bridge is ~360m long so this @ 180m will take up 50% of the length as well.
Which should leave about 3 metres for the bike lane (?)
The SHB bike lane is only 2.6 metres wide
They are going to allow ped access to both sides of the bridge so take a meter of that.


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"Tell the chef, the beer is on me."
Forget the wall-to-wall white tiles. The best bathrooms mix paint, patterns, textures and vintage accessories, says Hannah Booth
How do you make a narrow house feel bigger? Charlotte Abrahams gets the inside track from the owners and architects of this tall Victorian home
It was a derelict Georgian house – and love at first sight for one couple in Wigan. Trish Lorenz reports on its revival
This summer's hottest trends are surprisingly complementary – so mix graphic Scandi prints, neutral lace and bold primary colours for a super-stylish home. By Hannah Booth
As part of the 2012 Design Basel/Miami Fair, Moscow's Heritage Gallery is exhibiting key furniture pieces representing the best of 20th-century Soviet interior design
Need to get more organised? Here are some neat ideas on how to get your house in order
ArtHaus is a new exhibition set in a London apartment, featuring the work of up-and-coming artists to show how art can enhance your home
The Brixton house where the artist lived as a young man is all the better for being in need of modernisation
"I'm getting on well here", Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo in January 1874. "I've got a lovely home ..."
On Tuesday that very home – in Brixton, London SW9 – will go under the hammer, having been put on the market for the first time in 65 years. The Guardian went to view the property at 87 Hackford Road on a crisply sunny spring day that would have delighted Van Gogh himself.
In the letter, he advised Theo: "Do go on doing a lot of walking and keep up your love of nature, for that is the right way to understand art better and better. Painters understand nature and love her ..."
Amazing that Van Gogh probably wrote those words in this suburban house where dry unkempt plants – like something from one of his tangled paintings of the asylum garden that would later become his only patch of nature – contrast with the flaking white paint of the house front, and the ceramic blue of its proud plaque declaring that Vincent van Gogh, painter, lived here 1873–1874.
Inside the Grade II listed building, yellowing sheets from ancient editions of the Salvation Army's newspaper, the War Cry, float on battered floorboards. Cobweb-covered plastic fruits hang in the kitchen. Ceilings on the upper floors hang down, ruptured, revealing slipped roof timbers. But everywhere you look amid the decay, traces of Vincent van Gogh impose themselves
The house, as Savills auctioneers put it in their catalogue, is "in need of modernisation". Yet the fact it has never been converted into a plush modern home means that raw Victorian archaeology survives just beneath the rotting linoleum and decrepit wallpaper.
The shape of the interior from the Victorian days when Van Gogh lived here is clear in its layout of front and back bedrooms, each with its own cast-iron fireplace. Van Gogh must have warmed himself before these fires after his winter walks.
Presumably he also made his way to the outside toilet, which survives in all its glory. There are some (modern) gardening tools propped up next to the vintage porcelain receptacle, ready to make some inroads on the overgrown, matted garden of nettles, shrubs and a few little blue flowers.
Again, the colours of a Van Gogh painting come to mind – and in fact, in one of his letters home from Hackford Road, he describes planting flowers and shrubs in this very garden. Could a couple of these plants be descended from his seedlings?
Van Gogh came to work in London for the art dealer Goupil & Cie in 1873. He was 20, with his mature life as an artist years in the future. The dealers' premises were in Covent Garden, and he walked home from work every evening, for he was a lifelong lover of romantic pedestrianism.
But the idyllic life he seems to have enjoyed for a time in this house was not to last. Its black iron fireplaces and large sash windows witnessed his first great heartbreaking experience of love.
The intense and romantic Dutch lodger was deeply attracted to Eugénie Loyer, the 19-year-old daughter of his landlady. His love spills over into his letters as he transcribes Keats's poem of love and desire, The Eve of St Agnes, and an even more heated Romantic work by Michelet on the Mystery That Is Woman.
But his interest was totally unrequited and became deeply embarrassing. Van Gogh's sister Anna moved in with him, but soon both Van Goghs were forced to leave for new lodgings in Kennington.
It's a shame a film company can't rent the house before it is sold to make a drama here, for the exact layout of the Victorian house in which the 21-year-old Van Gogh suffered the agonies of unrequited love is preserved.
Entering a front bedroom with its austere fireplace and timeworn sunlit floorboards, you can easily picture the redheaded lodger standing in the doorway, asking Miss Eugénie if she has read Keats's poetry, and if she would care for a walk in the afternoon sun. On the stairs, a view through the window of newly budding March trees against a pale blue cloud-ruffled sky is just like a painting – one Van Gogh must have seen every day when he lived here.
Van Gogh always dreamed of a happy home. When he moved into the Yellow House in Arles years later, he would fill it with simple furniture – a wooden chair, a wooden bed – and decorate it with paintings of sunflowers. His lodgings in London, just like the Yellow House where he was to rage at his guest Gauguin, brought him both joy and suffering.
Imagine restoring this house and giving it the yellow walls and wooden furniture that he makes so magical in his paintings in Arles. You could have your very own Vincent's Room. It's expected to fetch more than £400,000 at auction on Tuesday evening. It would be amazing to bid. Instead, on the way out, I pluck a flower in his memory.
It's nearly Christmas – so time to think about sales shopping, of course... With our guide, you can hit the shops well armed
From kitsch fashion in Tokyo to furniture in Copenhagen, our experts reveal their top cities for specialist shopping
Shopping in Marrakech is practically an Olympic sport – so you should get in training before you venture out. Serious shoppers need information and determination. I love the bejewelled and embroidered babouches (slippers) and bags, the tasselled accessories, Berber jewellery, chiselled tiles, decorated pottery, ground cinnamon … However, when I'm in Marrakech I crave rugs. My favourites are the Berber rag rugs called boucherouite. I've found vintage versions in the Bab El Khemis flea market (the north-east corner of the medina, open daily 9.30am–6pm). During a recent visit I bought a pretty multicoloured checkerboard rug that folded nicely into my luggage. There are some stunning examples of boucherouite in fading solid colours at Art Ouarzazate (15 Rue Rahba Kdima, which is actually Rue Rahb el Biadyne). The shop's specialities include knotted and printed leather rugs and goatskin patchwork rugs. Tuareg rugs from the Sahara, made with tightly woven palm leaves and camel leather that make them impervious to the desert sand, can be found at Mustapha Blaoui (144 Rue Bab Doukkala – there's no sign, so knock on the brass-studded double doors). Shaggy white or cream rugs with black tribal patterns are called beni ouarain, and are ubiquitous. Bargain when you find one you like – it's expected. In the Guéliz section of the new city you'll find Ben Rahal (28 Rue de la Liberté), a shop dedicated to rugs. The small space is filled with carpets, each selected for its exceptional quality. You'll pay a bit more, but it's worth every penny.
Susan Simon is the author of Shopping in Marrakech (Little Bookroom, £9.74, guardianbookshop.co.uk) is out now
Mid-century design is a massive trend, driven by things like Mad Men, and Danish design was at its best then. Such furniture is also timeless and built to last. Copenhagen is very small, but the best furniture shops are scattered around. Østerbro is home to Normann Copenhagen (Østerbrogade 70, normann- copenhagen.com, see page 8), a cool shop for quirky items, plus some modern homeware stores. Bredgade is a street full of high-end vintage shops. Klassik Moderne Møbelkunst (en.klassik.dk) at No 3 is one of the best. The best piece I found in Copenhagen was a beautiful Aero walnut oval sideboard – but sadly it costs £4,700 ...
It's hard to find a bargain anywhere in Scandinavia, but Ilva (Gammel Lundtoftevej 5, ilva.dk) is still a very big deal, and Bo Concept (Gammel Kongevej 29A, boconcept.co.uk) has affordable, nicely designed pieces. Hay (Østergade 61, hay.dk) represents the current design resurgence in Denmark – its beautiful shop is full of designed and found objects.
Finally, Copenhagen has fantastic (if sometimes expensive) restaurants and hotels – Hotel Fox (Jarmers Plads 3, hotelfox.dk, doubles from £80 room-only); and the original design hotel (Hammerichsgade 1, radissonblu.com/royalhotel-copenhagen, doubles from £150 room-only); Nimb (Bernstorffsgade 5, doubles from £280 B&B) – and it's a very friendly place.
Dan Cooper, buyer, home collections and gifts, John Lewis
It's a struggle not to pluck the phrase "remarkable survival" from the catechism of cliche when describing Cecil Court, a Victorian thoroughfare in London that is still as full of bookshops as it was in the 1950s. They're all good, but my favourite is Tindley & Chapman at No 4. Tilling the rich brown earth of 20th century literature, their stock is well chosen and fast changing.
Ed Maggs, rare book dealer, Maggs Bros Ltd (maggs.com)
Nobody hassles you in Udaipur in south-western Rajasthan. I fell in love with its market and spent a glorious day exploring the alleyways bedecked with stalls on the hill leading to the castle. The multicoloured rugs are superb, as is the marquetry (inlaid patterned) furniture but, being a "fashion girl", I was most excited about finding some really special leather bags. I like simple styles, which India does not always do, so I was very surprised to find wonderful tan satchels. Unlined and made of fairly robust leather, they really hold their shape, but also wear wonderfully well. The cross-body mini is the ideal hands-free travel companion, just big enough to hold all your vital documents, wallet and phone. The "Andreya" is my favourite for everyday, and the mini weekend bag makes you look like a traveller, not a tourist.
Sarah Walter, managing director and founder, style-passport.com
Tokyo is like a super-modern alien planet magically entwined in tradition – every facet of the city references the country's ancient and complex culture. Tokyo's excessiveness – from huge video screens pumping J-pop, hordes of mini-skirted schoolgirls and crazy elevator music (even emanating from rubbish trucks), to insane rush-hour crowds and out-of-control fashion – can be overwhelming, but it is a shopaholic's dream. For the girl who loves to get dressed up, Tokyo is the place to hunt and gather. Whether you're into vintage wonders, avant garde statement-makers or ridiculous cuteness, you will find the dress of your dreams in one of Tokyo's eclectic shopping precincts. In Shibuya, Candy (candy-nippon.com) is dedicated to the most fashion-forward Japanese and international brands, and 109 (shibuya109.jp), a six-level extravaganza, is a shopping mecca for all gyaru girls (tanned, blonde Japanese girls). In Harajuku/Aoyama, Faline (bambifaline.com) is all about Harajuku Kawaii style, which roughly translates as shockingly cute and crazy. Cosmic Wonder (cosmicwonder.com) is a fashion/art project, the shop doubling as an exhibition and performance space. In Daikanyama/Nakameguro, Hollywood Ranch Market (hrm.co.jp) focuses on amazing American-style vintage denim and casuals, while Mercibeaucoup (mercibeaucoup.jp) has a kitschy-cool 1950s-inspired interior to match its unrelentingly pop wares.
Indigo Clarke, fashion writer
Buying art is a way to get a shopping buzz while making a smart investment, and Amsterdam is one of the finest cities to start your collection. It is home to the magnificent Rijksmuseum (Jan Luijkenstraat 1, rijksmuseum.nl), which sits in the Spiegelkwartier district of art galleries, antique merchants and retro boutiques. The most prominent art fair is Art Amsterdam (20-23 September 2012, artamsterdam.nl), a huge offering of contemporary and modern art. For a more leisurely experience, take a stroll to the Spui Square on a Sunday, where you'll find a collection of established and emerging artists selling their work.
For something a little more highbrow, check out PAN Amsterdam (18-25 November, RAI-Parkhal, Europaplein 22, pan.nl), the leading contemporary fair for art and design. Last but by no means least is the Affordable Art Fair (25-28 October, Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek, Klönne Plein 1, affordableartfair.nl), which generates a whole array of small satellite exhibitions and open studios, with work for all tastes and budgets.
Angela Murray, art and object buyer, Achica (achica.com)
Zabar's (zabars.com) is a legendary Upper West Side food retailer known for its imported cheeses, fish, bakery, and coffee and tea counters. But also check out the nearly block-long mezzanine for a world-class selection of homewares, especially the assortment of non-stick and copper cookware. It's one of America's best home emporiums. Macy's (macys.com) is the largest department store in the world and is synonymous with NYC and fashion. The headquarters at Herald Square stocks an impressive range of culinary and tabletop goods in all styles and prices. There are frequent sales and celebrity chefs make routine appearances.
Broadway Panhandler (broadwaypanhandler.com) is a SoHo outpost for top quality, well-designed kitchenware at discounted prices. The family business's staff are well qualified to dish out advice to kitchen pros and novices – many are trained chefs. Gracious Home (gracioushome.com) is also a must-visit for anyone looking to revamp their home. Branches in Chelsea, the Upper East and West Side sell gadgets, furniture, hardware, linen and lighting for the entire house. Fishs Eddy (fishseddy.com) is a Flatiron neighbourhood destination for discounted tableware, including some vintage pieces. Fun, colourful and unique goods, such as an NYC skyline motif glass ($5) and other novelty pieces, make super gifts.
Gerry Frank is the author of Where to Find It, Buy It, Eat It in New York (newyorkcityguidebook.net, $19.95)
Rival company Bulthaup presents a platonic ideal of a kitchen, full of monolithic brushed-steel blocks and no signs of toil or waste. Designers in Eindhoven have other ideas
No room in the home is subject to quite the fetishistic desires and extravagant spending as the kitchen. Here, in the nerve-centre of the domestic environment, our obsessions with food and gadgetry meet head on. Kitchen design is a fiendish business, for the simple reason that it is expected to solve a paradox: somehow, the tangle of wires and water pipes, the arsenal of appliances and mountains of cookware and cornflakes have to be stowed away to create the illusion of wide-open space. Along with this top-hat trickery, we also demand two other qualities. Firstly, the kitchen must be hygienic, preferably as aseptic as an operating theatre. Secondly, it must be rammed with devices that make any kind of manual labour unnecessary. For these three kitchen commandments we have the modernists to thank.
In the modernist conception of the house as "a machine for living", the kitchen was the most machine-like. The Frankfurt kitchen, designed in 1926 by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, was ergonomically tested to avoid unnecessary movements. Mass-produced for social housing, it brought factory-style efficiency into the home; by the middle of the century, the Americans had made labour-saving gadgets such as washing machines, blenders and mixers the stuff of the average household. This, Nixon notoriously argued during the 1959 "kitchen debate" with Khrushchev, proved the superiority of the American way of life to the Soviet.
If Orwell had still been alive in 1959, this might have been the only thing he was ever likely to agree with Nixon about. In 1945 he wrote: "Every time I wash up a batch of crockery I marvel at the unimaginativeness of human beings who can travel under the sea and fly through the clouds, and yet have not known how to eliminate this sordid time-wasting drudgery from their daily lives." The modern kitchen, with its dishwashers and gizmos, was a social revolution, especially for women. The architecture critic Reyner Banham used to wax lyrical about domestic appliances, proclaiming, in an echo of Orwell, that they symbolised "the abolition of household drudgery". In a 1970 issue of New Society magazine he wrote: "When I remember how my rural relations and acquaintances had to cook (in wall ovens that made the kitchen an inferno) or do the laundry (over a steaming copper that rotted the linings of nose and throat) even in the 1940s, I would defend the delivery of a workable gas-cooker or electric washing-machine to Ivy Cottage or Hockley House against the claims of any three masterpieces of modern architecture you like to name."
The modernists, who were obsessed with hygiene, banished bacteria from the kitchen while modern technology did away with the daily grind. Today, as only commodity fetishists can, we have raised those pursuits into a religion. In the Clerkenwell showroom of luxury kitchen brand Bulthaup, I am standing before an altar of brushed stainless steel. Or is it an operating table? This monoblock island is cut with surgical precision and is as seamless as a ball bearing – part machine, part sculpture. The hob is integrated but, since it's an induction cooker and there are no knobs or grills, it sits perfectly flush. It's one continuous, easy-wipe surface.
Minimalism is not merely an aesthetic – it is the visual representation of effortlessness. The drawers have no handles – symbols of manual effort – and they close themselves anyway. The storage units and central islands are designed with shadow gaps around their bases to appear as though they're floating, because even the furniture must be freed from the burden of resisting gravity. Appliances, once proudly displayed, are hidden away like the vulgar hives of activity they are. Risk is also outmoded, with induction cookers you can touch without burning yourself. Effort has not merely been overcome, it has been erased.
Of course, what Bulthaup sells is an abstraction – the platonic ideal of a kitchen. Here, health and efficiency are equated with a kind of spiritual purity. Even in 1970, Banham predicted that this was going to get out of hand. Apple wasn't even a glint in Steve Jobs's eye, but already Banham was wary of Ulm-school minimalism, which presented electronic gadgets as the household idols of a secular society. "The cost of bringing the absolute into the kitchen," he wrote, "is to soil it."
But if Bulthaup is modernism taken to its logical extreme, what if everything modernism taught us about the kitchen is wrong? What if bacteria and manual labour are the future of the kitchen? Philips recently unveiled a concept kitchen as part of its Microbial Home system, in which the central component is a bio-digester kitchen island. The idea is simple: bacteria digests food and toilet waste and turns it into methane gas for cooking and lighting. It's a self-sustaining domestic ecosystem, and it presents an alternative vision to the clinical kitchen, inviting the microbes and the rotting vegetable peel back in.
With its cast-iron structure and copper panelling, the bio-digester looks like a piece of Victoriana; this is essentially a steampunk kitchen. For years now, Dutch design has been pursuing a nostalgic, rural vision, spearheaded by the Design Academy Eindhoven – Eindhoven, by the way, is also where Philips is based. The predominant Eindhoven aesthetic consists of a rural-minimalist palette of copper, wood and porcelain. With handles. Philips's microbial kitchen includes a hand-cranked machine called a "paternoster". It looks like a tombola, but is used for grinding down plastic packaging and mixing it with a mycelium fungus that decomposes it – and even yields edible mushrooms.
There has been a spate of these hand-powered devices lately, as young designers attempt to come to terms with a legacy of wasteful gadgets and an impending energy crisis. Christoph Thetard, a recent product design graduate from the Bauhaus University (the very cradle of modernism), created a contraption that powers a food mixer, a blender and a coffee grinder using a foot pedal. It's the potter's wheel approach to gizmos – Banham must be turning in his grave. Bringing drudgery back into the kitchen? But then Banham didn't live to see the environmental crisis escalate as far as it has, or consumer culture – which he saw as socially liberating – become disposable culture. Designers these days are understandably preoccupied by such things.
If modernism banished nature from the kitchen to replace it with the machine, it did so because it associated nature with disease-causing bacteria and the machine with progress. There's no doubt that in the future we are going to have to get more comfortable with bacteria and with putrefaction's role in our ecosystem. But these alternative visions are oddly nostalgic. Is this progress? Does self-sufficiency really mean reverting to pre-machine-age methods? If so, we're in for a hand-cranked, methane-stench future, and I can't wait to see how Bulthaup sells it to us.
Quirky designer Marcel Wanders has created a range of homewares for Marks & Spencer, from teapots to candlesticks
Hot on the heels of an ill-advised pairing with actor Ryan Reynolds (in its new ads), Marks & Spencer has teamed up with another star - maverick Dutch designer Marcel Wanders.
It's an interesting move. In the past, Wanders has worked with cutting edge design companies such as Moooi, Cappellini, Droog and Mandarina Duck. His products include knotted chairs and crocheted sofas. M&S is clearly hoping Wanders - along with Terence Conran, another new collaborator – can sprinkle a bit of design stardust over its sometimes uninspiring homewares.
What can we expect from this collaboration? Well, a set of interchangeable cufflinks depicting Henry VIII and his six wives, for a start. Not to mention a red leather glove with a single Jacko-style gold tipped finger.
Less 'out there' are a scrumptious gold and black cake stand (£95), a modern tartan cushion (£35), and a gold candlestick resembling a bit of loo plumbing (£39.50) that might have M&S's core customers raising an eyebrow or two.
Products will be available in store and online from 12 October. Are you tempted?
In a world far removed from cuts or recession, the super rich are spending like never before – investing their millions in mansions and art
'I don't think there is a higher end," says John Lees of his work as architect to the super rich. A distinction must be made, he says, between the merely vulgarly rich (ie, footballers of the Cheshire belt or the mere-millionaires of The Bishops Avenue) and the world of obscene wealth that Lees inhabits. He creates homes for the Russian oligarchs and Chinese business moguls who run the global economy and who continue to inhabit a land untouched by cuts and recession. In fact, their extreme wealth is buoying the fine-art market: Andy Warhol's Coke Bottle sold for a record $35m in New York in November, the same month a Chinese vase sold in London for an unprecedented £48m to a Chinese businessman. Sources in the art and property markets say these billionaires are currently spending "without restraint".
In response, developers in London are creating a new crop of luxury homes, dripping with original Picassos and swimming pools, to cater for this profligate class, including a vast development in Cornwall Terrace being sold for £29m upwards.
Likewise for Lees, business is booming. "Our big-scale jobs are £40m-£125m," he says. "I work for private individuals and I'll be doing their country house, their London house, one in Hong Kong and another in, say, the south of France. We recently did a dacha outside Moscow for £174m, for someone who entertains Putin."
Which makes it all the stranger that Lees is sitting in the scruffy offices of Lees Associates, near Borough Market in south London. The stairs are rough concrete, the shelves dusty, but the computer screens rotate with virtual tours of excessive luxury. "On our current job, the accessories budget is £2m," he says. "That's teaspoons, glasses, plates. Towels and linen is a separate budget. Each bed costs £20,000. We are a very specialised market at the very highest end."
So what does an oligarch require in his home? Not the classic markers, such as banks of TVs ("We put some televisions in, but we hide them"), gold-plated taps or swimming pools shaped like a shell. Wealth at the hard-to-imagine end of the spectrum is "subtle". Creating a truly, deeply wealthy home becomes more about rarity and materials: imported stone, works of art, grand pianos and libraries.
At Cornwall Terrace, Lansdowne's development of eight mansions, two show homes have just reached the market, luring the super rich with original Francis Bacons, Murano glassware and furniture from Portofino. Everything is bespoke: the paints specially mixed; the hardback books handpicked.
Lees is similarly aware of the hunger for provenance. "At that level, your bathrooms will be made of heated, solid stone carved in Brac, an island off the coast of Split in Croatia, which produces a particularly white limestone."
A spokesman for Knight Frank, an agent operating at the top end of the market, says the super rich "have moved their money away from bank deposits and stock markets into alternative investments such as luxury property and art. It is increasingly normal for Christie's to deliver a painting to a potential buyer's house so the owner can see it on the walls."
These gliding swans of houses, occupying only the best London addresses, have layer upon layer of service floors from the basement down. The traditional family kitchen might be above ground, for coffee or a snack, but below ground there are catering kitchens with a dozen chefs ready to entertain a party of 100. Lees says these subterranean floors "contain all sorts of service departments, catering kitchens, gymnasiums, collections of cars. We've made swimming pools where the floors come up to become ballrooms. There's no noise in the pools and no smell of chlorine. We have projected dolphins on to gymnasium walls – hologram images behind glass. We put a bowling alley in one house." Bathrooms have become the most expensive rooms, he says, with their requisite body jet showers, warmed toilet seats and timed bathwater heaters that maintain supply at a specific temperature.
But wealth and power create problems of their own. A house full of staff means no privacy. Owning homes all over the world means a fragmented family life. Lees is asked to, if not solve these problems, then at least mitigate them. "The family kitchen is incredibly important, because they all live dissociated lives. You want to find a home, don't you? The fundamental thing is the family."
Children have suites, dressing rooms and all the latest toys. And Lees adds "secrets" for the children to discover: a doll's house full of make-up or stepping stones in the garden that set off a fountain. "There is a sense of loneliness these children have, and that's a great shame."
Does he ever feel contaminated by these monuments to consumption? Or envious? Isn't it odd to return to life as a working London architect?
"Happiness isn't driven by anything you've got. It's inward. I'm not sure I want all those things myself. It's the sheer hard work in having them. They need these tools in order to play the public persona. I find it's bad enough having just one house."
• Direct access from road to underground parking complex, with lift directly into the residence.
• James Bond-level security including CCTV, infrared scanners, panic room, bomb-proof garage doors, bomb-resistant lift and bulletproof windows.
• A home office complete with a communications system that would please a Royal Navy destroyer.
• A master suite the size of a one-bed flat with his-and-hers ensuites, walk-in dressing rooms, day rooms, exercise area and TV lounge.
• A subterranean basement containing bar, nightclub, hairdressing salon, gymnasium, sauna, spa, swimming pool and private 3D cinema (with seats that move with the movie).
• Staff quarters, separate from the main residence.
• A show kitchen above ground and a basement industrial kitchen that can cater for up to 300.
The postwar years saw unprecedented creativity in French design, driven first by the aftermath of bomb damage and then by the consumer boom of the 50s and 60s
In the France of 1945 – a country of ruined cities, bombed-out morale and an economy smashed to smithereens – it was all about the basics: tables to eat off, chairs to sit on and kitchens in which mothers could feed their children. In the crescendo of rebellion before May 1968, experimentation was key, and plastics took the place of wood. And by the early 1970s, permissiveness prevailed: beds were on the floor, sofas became "sprawlers" and chaise longues were orange and made of foam. Louis XVI, one imagines, would not have known where to look.
If it is possible to tell the story of a country through its furniture, then an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris does just that. By charting the different designs that kitted out homes across France throughout this period of sudden and profound change, the exhibition shows how the finest table legs and most exquisite lamps are shaped not only by their craftsmen, but also by the cultural and economic influences of the time. And if the change is so radical that it seems to be a tale of two countries, that is perhaps not surprising. Try to picture Charles de Gaulle reclining in a bubble chair – it's no easy task.
Beginning with the immediate postwar reality, the Mobi Boom exhibition transports the visitor from the centre of Paris to the northern city of Le Havre, a place so bombarded during the war that 5,000 inhabitant were killed and 12,000 homes destroyed. When, after liberation, towns and cities across France found themselves in need of a new housing plan, the old sea port became a prototype for reconstruction. Auguste Perret, the architect and devotee of reinforced concrete, designed modernist blocks of flats that were at that time the model for collective modern living: they made up for a lack of space with light, fitted kitchens and bathrooms, not to mention unembellished oak cupboards, simple storage space and elegant, high-backed chairs. When in 1947 the government announced its aim to create 20,000 such apartments a month, mass-produced furniture seemed the way forward.
"I think the state realised it had to give an impetus," says Dominique Forest, curator of the exhibition. From that moment on, the chairs and tables that designers René Gabriel and Marcel Gascoin were creating in Le Havre would become the staple for 1950s French households, which were embracing the rationalist dream. "They saw it as a golden age," Forest says. "It all came together: it was not only furniture, but also electrical appliances."
As part of the exhibition, Forest installed an original 1947 fitted kitchen from Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse in Marseille, by celebrated designer Charlotte Perriand. With its sliding doors and handy drawers, the kitchen reflects Perriand's assertion that, in an age of limited space, "storage is of the utmost importance". It also tries to maximise a woman's ability to be close to her guests through cut-away panels in the side. "The mistress [of the house] is not separated from her guests," Forest says. "She is not relegated to her kitchen only."
As France got back on its feet during the 1950s, boosted by the Marshall Plan and a gradual recovery of economic strength, changes outside the home had a direct impact on what went on inside it. A new generation of designers started to experiment with new materials and shapes, and industrial production brought furniture to the masses like never before. In 1959, a Formica contest was held in the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs; it yielded a sleek, low-lying, cream entertainment unit that spoke volumes about the new preoccupation of the time: leisure. Designed by Antoine Philippon and Jacqueline Lecoq, it boasts a television on one unit, a bar in a second and a turntable in a third. For those feeling peckish, there's also a dish for peanuts.
Before long, this new mood of discovery would vanquish the functionality of the immediate postwar period. What had been a question of urgency was now one of creativity and hedonism. Compared with other European countries, France was riding high on a boom in babies, living standards and, yes, furniture. The consumerist society had arrived and, with the rumblings of cultural rebellion that would reach a peak in May 1968, the combination was explosive. "There was definitely a spirit of breaking the [social] codes," Forest says, pointing out brightly coloured, make-them-yourself sofa units marketed as "vautroirs" (from the verb "vautrer", meaning to sprawl).
During this period, several furniture advertisements caused "scandals", she adds, because critics deemed them to have subversive undertones (they were probably right). A double-page spread in the groundbreaking Prisunic magazine featured Marc Held's plastic ground-level beds with the word "LOVE" emblazoned behind them. "Another advert for [chair specialists] Airborne showed only bottoms," Forest says. "It caused a scandal at the time, but it was good for showing that what was important was people's bodies, their comfort."
Five years after the protests of 1968, the mobi boom – and, more generally, the sustained prosperity of the trente glorieuses – came to an abrupt halt with the oil shock of 1973. Perhaps the gods of interior design looked down on the fluorescent yellow chairs and rotating orange footstools, and decided that enough was enough. In the mid-70s, battered by economic crisis and sudden consumer belt-tightening, some of the biggest names in French design – including Airborne, Steph Simon and Prisunic – closed their doors for ever. Their legacy, however – mass-production, nationwide distribution, cutting-edge creative thinking – has stood firm to this day (plastic beds excepted).
• Mobi Boom, The Explosion Of Design In France (1945-1975) is showing at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris until 2 January 2011.
Should colourful art and migraine-inducing wallpaper really be in the same room? Yes, says the owner of this home – with a bit of creative planning and by thinking big
There are turquoise tiles on the kitchen floor, geometric wallpapers and a lemon-yellow stairwell. As a backdrop to her collection of contemporary art, Ann Frith's seaside home beats a whitewashed art gallery hands down. "I'm really affected by colours, and spend a long time making them work together," says Frith, an artist. "Cold blues upset me."
In Frith's living room, a mask from Oaxaca, Mexico, a giant bronze fish by artist Mike Chaikin and a tiger-print rug from Nepal sit alongside an oversized Iroko armchair from House Plan in Brighton, which is covered in retro fabric found in a remnant shop. All are set off by a patterned wallpaper (Tiki, by Elle Decoration, £44.95). "It's reminiscent of 50s prints, and the vertical lines push the ceiling up," Frith says. Her 50s two-storey home in Rottingdean needs a helping hand in this direction, she says. "The trouble with 50s houses is the rooms can be boxy and the ceilings rather low."
Upstairs, a red Orla Kiely wallpaper lines the study (left, top). One of the bedrooms features a hummingbird-print wallpaper by Matthew Williamson for Habitat (far right, top), now discontinued: try eBay, or Cole & Son's Hummingbirds for similar.
Frith's husband, Simon Arnold, a furniture maker, built the kitchen cabinets and painted them matt off-white to complement those flamboyant tiles, which came from Spain. "We found a shop in Seville called Mosaic Del Sur, where you choose your colour and pattern, they make them up and send them to you." The kitchen features a mask from Sri Lanka (far left, bottom) as well as one of Frith's own creations, a vivid yellow papier-mâché, cone-shaped drinks cabinet.
Is it hard to make disparate pieces of art work together coherently? "You can create a sense of harmony by picking out colours in your accessories," Frith says. "The beautiful pink-red in the Chinese painting in the living room is mirrored in the armchair, for example." It helps to think big, too, she says, so the artwork feels more intentional. "Large pieces – masks, big paintings, sculptures – work well in homes."
She finds many pieces on her travels – India, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Japan, China and South America have provided no end of treasures – while others come from closer to home, in the secondhand shops of Lewes and Brighton. She tries to buy one artwork a year, and visits degree shows to find new artists. "We've been doing that for years – we buy only pieces we love." Others are the result of swaps with friends, such as that bronze fish. "It's a good way to acquire things you otherwise couldn't afford."
Frith opens her house each year in May for the Brighton Festival, Artists Open Houses." It's really nice to see work in a domestic setting – less cold and, for many people, less intimidating than a gallery."
Brighton Artists Open Housesruns until 23 May.
The architects who turned a derelict one-time crack den into an award-winning family home
Back in 2005, when the market was booming, architect Patrick Michell and his partner, Claire McKeown, bought a three-bed house in Hackney, east London. The area boasts handsome terraces, but this house, a boarded-up former crack den, was in a sorry state. Fires had ripped through two rooms and there was a shabbily psychedelic paint scheme. Bailiffs had removed any character features that were left.
But to an architect wanting to make a property his own, it was perfect. "If there had been period features, we'd have worked more sensitively with them, but because it had all gone, we were free to give it a modernist slant," says Michell, 32.
He opened up the two front receptions, and transformed and expanded the narrow kitchen space at the back with a glass roof across the side return. The glass is one huge single piece, appearing to balance unaided on a wall of stone. The back wall is largely glass, too, with a ceiling-high, pivoting glass door to the garden and a glass box punched into the wall to create an appealing window seat. In summer, sunlight streams in, while at night trees tower in silhouette above your head. With a concrete floor inside extending out to the patio, the design aims to merge the two spaces. "I've made it fairly obvious what's new and what's original," Michell says, "and it's given the house a new character." Sightlines from the front door and bay are designed to run through to the garden, and the stairs have been opened up with a glass wall. Doesn't all the glass compromise their privacy? "You can't get away from it in London," McKeown says. "You have to accept that you'll have neighbours and sometimes they'll see what you're doing."
The extension was allowed under "permitted development" planning law, and the building work took nine months, during which time they moved into McKeown's rented flat. "I'd muscled in by this stage," says McKeown, 31, who trained as an architect. Between them, they took the tough decisions essential to any project – where to spend money and where to cut back. Michell's initial £125,000 budget finally came in at £190,000 – all part of the learning process, he says. (The house cost £378,000 at auction.) And though they cut back on the kitchen and joinery budgets, they spent money where it counted, on striking elements such as the glass.
They moved in before the work was finished, and tackled the tiling and painting themselves. "We had hot water, but nothing to cook on," Michell says. "It wasn't really the right thing to do." But for McKeown the excitement was worth it. Her tip for surviving? Build a wardrobe. "If I can get up in the morning and get dressed, I can cope with anything."
Almost finished, the house won an award earlier this year for the best London extension of the last five years. There are still jobs to do – shelves to put up, a front garden to complete – but they are happy to find every weekend is no longer dominated by DIY. They spend most of their time in the kitchen, and take particular pride in the window seat. Their only worry is that, having created a bespoke home, there can be no going back. As McKeown says, "We couldn't imagine living somewhere someone else has designed."
If a Superman comic can fetch $1.5m - as one did recently at an auction in the US - then how much could the toys, records and furniture in your house be worth? Emine Saner puts a price on some unlikely collectors' items
During the war, the only American comics that made it to the UK were brought by US sailors docking at Southampton, who would swap them for sweets and cigarettes. Sadly, that means the chances of finding a comic in your attic to rival the 1938 issue of Action Comics No 1 (the first Superman cartoon), which sold recently for a record-breaking $1.5m, is remote. Nonetheless, says comic expert and auctioneer Malcolm Phillips: "Any British comics from the war years are very collectable. There would be a lot of propaganda in them aimed at children, which was very interesting. You'd get a picture of Hitler hanging by a rope, dead."
Phillips is well placed to judge. In 2004, he sold a copy of the first Dandy from 1937 for £20,350. "What was rare about it was it came with its original free gift – a whistle," says Phillips.
A Beano from the early 40s could go for up to £40, and special issues can be double or treble that. In a pile of 50s comics, Malcolm always looks for issue 452 – the comic in which Dennis the Menace makes his first appearance.
It isn't just comics either. Phillips recently auctioned an almost complete year of Melody Makers from 1963, which includes its first Beatles cover."We are inundated with people wanting to sell stuff, but we turn a lot of it away," he says. Most comics from the 70s onwards, in good condition, are still only worth a few pounds.
"There is a massive market for 20th-century toys," says antiques expert and TV presenter Jonty Hearnden. Indeed, last month a collection of toy cars fetched £100,000 at auction. Anyone who has ever watched an antiques show will know that collectors prize mint condition, but even if you weren't one of those odd children who never took their robots or Batman models out of their original boxes, there is a chance your old toys could still be worth something.
"I was at a car boot sale last year and there were all these old Sindy dolls," says collectables expert Tracey Martin. "They were in terrible condition – their hair had been chopped off, some were missing feet – but I bought them for £1 each because I liked their outfits." Then she put them on eBay and they all went for £70-80 each. "It turned out they were rare, which goes to show that even something in awful condition can be worth a fair bit if it's rare enough."
This otherworldly, or sickly, depending on your taste, face of a young Chinese woman gazed down from the walls of sitting rooms across the world in the 60s and 70s, but it was particularly popular in Britain. "You could buy prints of this picture very cheaply in Boots," says Martin, "and they're still in people's homes today." This print, by painter Vladimir Tretchikoff, one of the most famous ever made, still makes snobbish art critics recoil, but thanks to the ongoing trend for kitsch, says Martin, it now sells for around £100.
Whenever anyone finds out what Ian Shirley does – he's the editor of the Rare Record Price Guide – they always want to know how much their own collections are worth. "Obviously, it depends on what they have. They could have 200 records worth £10,000, or 2,000 records worth much less." The best way to find out is to get a copy of the price guide, or do a search on an internet auction site to see how much records have sold for. There are two things that determine value: scarcity, and mint condition (this usually means never played, even better if it has never been taken out of its sleeve). Lots of people will have Beatles or Rolling Stones records, but there aren't that many mint copies, says Shirley. Records that didn't sell well when they came out are worth much more. Vinyl from the 50s and 60s is usually collectable, and at the moment certain genres are doing better than others: 70s prog and folk rock, psychedelic, reggae. Even more recent records have become collectable – a collector will pay around £40 for a copy of Blur's Parklife, for instance.
In the 50s and 60s, many couples received stainless-steel tableware such as teapots and toast racks as wedding gifts. "Look out for anything from the 50s onwards from Old Hall," says Mark Hill, co-author of Miller's Collectables Price Guide and presenter of BBC's forthcoming Cracking Antiques. "Lots of people were given teapots and other kitchenware in the 60s as wedding presents and they've been forgotten about in cupboards." A collector will pay up to £150 for a teapot from the company's Alveston range.
A popular 70s wedding present was Sheringham candlesticks, produced by Kings Lynn and Wedgwood Glass and designed by Ronald Stennett-Willson. "Again, they fell out of fashion, but now they are starting to emerge from lofts and sideboards," says Hill. They are made from coloured discs of glass, and the more discs the candlestick has, the more valuable it is – one with eight discs can be worth more than £1,000.
There are marble collectors who will pay up to several hundred pounds for a shiny sphere and a pretty pattern. What you are looking for here is late 19th- and early 20th-century marbles. "They were handmade in Germany and you can tell what they are by looking for two rough patches at the top and bottom," says Hill. What happens with all collectables is that once the very rare, early examples of an item are bought up, collectors move down the food chain to the not-so-old-and-rare versions. "So later marbles made in America by companies such as Akro Agate and Christensen are collectable too, and rising in value. I went through my collection from childhood and I found I had a few good ones." As ever, the better the condition, the better the value, so look for ones that aren't chipped and scuffed – and common cats' eye marbles aren't particularly collectable.
Items from valuable designer names such as Ozzie Clark, Biba and Mary Quant are already well-known, but there are others, says Martin, packed away in trunks or hidden at the back of wardrobes that any vintage collector would snap up. "Look for anything by Bill Gibb, the 70s fashion designer, which can be worth up to £600, or Jean Varon – this label was designed by John Bates, and a good maxidress can be worth anything up to around £400." Even modern clothes can fetch high prices on internet auction sites, particularly designer high-street collaborations, says Martin. "Matthew Williamson's 'peacock dress' for H&M can fetch as much as £250."
Chances are, you probably won't have an undiscovered Tufft table in the spare room, but more recent furniture can be valuable too. Hill's top tip is for mid-century Ercol furniture, which is particularly sought after at the moment. "Look out for the nest of three 'pebble' tables, particularly in blond wood," says Hill. They are worth around £150, with some shops charging several hundred. "You'd imagine that sort of furniture sitting unloved in a corner somewhere."
Step into the forgotten fifth floor of Lewis's department store, a shopping mecca of the 50s whose glamour has been perfectly preserved
As spring approaches, cast off the beige and take on technicolour – like the owner of this 19th-century Paris apartment
Elegant Parisian apartments aren't known for their bold use of colour. So when Mathilde Baralhé – a lifelong fan of bright shades – moved into her new home, she filled it with primary-coloured furniture. But she kept the walls, floors, mouldings and panelling neutral. "I was tempted to paint the apartment in bright colours," she says, "but I was worried the combination would be too much. It is now the perfect backdrop to the furniture." The reds, yellows and blues are repeated throughout to give her home a sense of cohesion.
Baralhé has stuck to her three-way primary colour scheme – from armchairs to coffee cups. The mock snakeskin rug is linoleum that she cut in the shape of a traditional bearskin (try Armstrong Flooring). "Most of the furniture is pretty arty, but I didn't want the flat to look like a gallery. So I chose natural colours for the walls, such as greys and linens," she says. "I wanted to make a feature of the mouldings, so I picked those out in a darker shade. I also made sure some furniture was more discreet, such as a white sofa." The coffee table and lounge chair are by Italian designer Pucci de Rossi (made75.com).
The hallway is dominated by an extraordinary zebra "rug" etched into the wood floor. "The floors in the hall were in such poor condition they couldn't be refurbished, so I asked the artist Marc-Antoine Moroy, who specialises in trompe l'oeil, to paint this for me. He used oil paint directly on to the polished floorboards, then varnished it so that it wouldn't deteriorate too quickly." Try Stephen Farnworth for similar finishes in the UK. The red, blue and yellow palette continues with a dozen framed prints, with walls and panelling in neutral shades.
A set of Louis XVI-style chairs have been given a twist with PVC seats and backs, while a wall-mounted bookcase picks out primary shades, tying together the apartment's colour scheme. The red and black zebra-print rug is by Tassin.
A red PVC bed takes centre stage in the master bedroom. Deborah Bowness's Books wallpaper covers wardrobe doors and continues the trompe d'oeil theme.
"Tell the chef, the beer is on me."
"Basically the price of a night on the town!"
"I'd love to help kickstart continued development! And 0 EUR/month really does make fiscal sense too... maybe I'll even get a shirt?" (there will be limited edition shirts for two and other goodies for each supporter as soon as we sold the 200)


text:
Price: $1,295,000
Amazing building lot that both backs onto and sides onto the Burlington Golf and Country Club with very long views due West and due South to the lake. The approx. 90' x 125' has R2.1 zoning. which will allow a home to be built of up to 5,056 sq ft (above grade). Quiet, tree-lined street located within a desirable school district.
Ideal location just a short walk to the lake and nearby amenities. 5-minute drive to the Burlington GO station, QEW access, and charming downtown Burlington! This is a one and only type lot, you simply won't find another lot with golf club and long vistas like this one.
Please be sure to view the zoning analysis in our downloads section prepared by renowned architect, Bill Hicks for information pertaining to setbacks etc.


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