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And here I mean one with no nicks, cuts or sore spots guys…..And let me tell you you get what you pay for so if you buy a cheap razor whether blade or electric or as we will see, both; you wil get a cheap shave.

5 years ago at a time when review sites were just getting going I went to buy a new electric razor. I bought a panasonic based on the review and it has been a revelation. The Linear drive, speed, sharpness of blades has lasted me five years and is still going strong. However I have looked at the new ones with the floating head and will get one for the sake of it.

So first I shave with this, you could get one here:

“Panasonic ES7109S511 Men’s Shaver with Clean & Charge System – Silver” (Panasonic)

Then along with a gillete fusion I wet shave using a special ingredient, its simple it’s better than shaving foam and i just can’t understand why more men dont use its secret….conditioner, ordinary hair conditioner. It softens the hair and makes a wet razor glide like nothing you have ever experienced. Ladies can use it too its great on the legs and bikini line. After your wet shave when you rinse of the residue your skin is left feeling soft and smooth. Please try it and tell me what you think. These two razors together will handle the toughest beard.

As an extra I want to recommend “Super-Max Triple Blade Disposable Razors Ultimate 3 for men 3 pack” (Super max), these used to be sold in tescos the i think they got squeezed out and then I found them again at amazon, they are an excellent throw away razor, and i use them on holiday and when I want to tidy things up, try them, they are very well priced as well.

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Norman Baker started it and perhaps he’ll finish it as it is revealeded he charged the tax payer £20,000 for  an office in his own home.

The lack of integrity is incredible amongst UK MPs, they all cry the letter of the law and ignore the spirit of the law, as someone who is interested in politics, I am disheartened.

So the blame game continues, and new puritanism gains some firmer ground in the economic downturn.  It had to get to this as our own purse strings get tighter and we struggle for the pennies we feel soneone ought to be to blame and it isn’t us.

Its always individuals or small groups who are to blame, no one ever takes the blame collectively, the fault is always at least at arms length and preferably right over there. First its the greedy bankers, now the greedy MPs and the new Puritans at the BBc and elsewhere want to persuade the gernal public its also the greedy ‘us’.

In the past my mother who is 82, says MPs expenses were always laughed at  as everyone knew they were used in a corrupt way but there was a tacit agreement between MPs and the press and subsequently the public that nothing would be said.  The Basic MPs wage is high but not really that high compared to what Doctors get, or many Barristers  or high court judges.  Yet we expect them to do the most difficult job in the country…run it.

The downturn has shocked everyone, it has brought pain to many and will bring, if it hasn’t already, poverty to many more.  So it has to be someones fault.   I beleive there is a collective fault, its really the Capitalist system, which Marx said will deteriorate and fall like all empires and it truly is a global empire.  Our problem is that as far as isms go we are stumped, stopped in our tracks, political philosophy is moribund.  The socilaist experiment in Europe and the Russian empire has not done a good job, its revival in South America may possibly just be a last gasp, and what fills its place ….a sort of cut down the may poles, recycle everything, woe is me, we are all doomed to hell unless you do as we say kind of eco puritanism.

This new puritanism is leaking into every aspect of life and the spotlight ( an eco bulb of course) is turned on different individuals and groups from time to time.  They tried to turn it on the bankers, but these guys have been around the block a bit and just retreat to their private gated estates and mansions, they have turned it on the tellystocracy and the new media celebs, footballers and WAGS and now its the turn of the politicians.

All of the above groups mentioned except perhaps politicians are high earners, who gain obscene amounts of money for something that does not amount to much, MPs expense claims at their worst, amount to about a weeks wages for some top footballers and many top celebs.  For many bankers in the past the MPs claims are what they got for lunch allowance.

But the MPs are easy targets, and the bankers, footballers and celebrities that we pay for in our  bank charges, our credit card charges, our bank deposits , mortgages, TV licence and sky sub, our football ticket, shirt purchase, they get away with brning Rome while the MPs are to coin a phrase fiddling while Rome Burns.

Oh yes and back to collective responsibility, I know many of you out there are as honest and people of integrity, but would ask, when did you last break the speed limit, take something from the staitonary cupboard, surf the net at work when you should have been working…you know the kind of list, things you can get away with but are wrong, the MPs actually stuck to the letter of the law even though they probably knew in their hearts it lacked integrity, when you take something from work it sboth wrong and lacks integrity….know ask yourself compared to this what the bankers are and have been up to, is it wrong, outside the law, does it lack integrity and the wages of footballers, or the wages of drunk, shagging celebs who are famous for being famous….you know i could go on.  Oh yes and the journalists spilling the beans on all this….how much do you trust a journalist?

What we need right now is integrity, I beleive gordon brown for all his faults has that, I am not sure about ALL his cabinet. I remember Cameron in his Boden shorts on the english beach for a photo shoot who immediately after went for his real holiday on a millionaires yacht. I have my doubts about him, he’s too slick  and in the mould of Tony Blair, a politics thats been and gone, a yesterdays politician.

We need a new political philosophy that moves away from a puritan ethic, we need politicians that are transparent and open to scrutiny but above all can be seen to be ethical and have integrity.  Its time to move forward to collective responsibility and have modern social programmes that help eradicate poverty, whether thats poverty of  finance, culture, aspirations, equitable access, housing or any other kind of poverty…there is quite obviously enough for all and plenty more besides for those that play football or manage banks, it doesn’t just need sharing out, it needs to come with civic understanding, education and a health warning

We need to pay MPs properly ( on a par with a top barrister or doctor) and they need to be means tested with regard to expenses, if they are already incredibly wealthy they should get nothing.

Its not enough just to want to know under The Freedom of Information act, we need to know what we want to do with the information once we have it, not just be shocked of Tunbridge Wells.  We need to Agitate, Educate and Organise as they used to say.Similar Posts:

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The idea of this article is to explain the credit crunch  run a few things by you as everyone wants to look round and blame someone, even if sometimes its a little looking in the mirror….and taking responsibility.  So lets look at the front runners:

1. Gordon Brown, or any other present government leader or finance minister

2. Greedy  Bankers

3. Mortgage Brokers and subprime mortages

4. Credit Card Lenders

5. Credit rating agencies

6. The chinese

7. You and me

8. All of the above and more

Ok lets start at the top, and run with a simple explanation of the credit crunch that brings in some of the above…

Really the credit crunch is just an unexpected shortage in availability of funds for lending…so there are not enough loans, whether private or bank driven.  That means I cant get a loan from the bank and lets say as a builder with a building supply company, the supply company will not let me buy products on account, or recues the amount I am allowed to buy on account.

Straight to number 3 then, a sharp rise in defaults on so called subprime or self certified mortgages appeared to trigger a drying up of credit availability. These mortgages were mainly used in the USA. The lenders sold  mortgages to customers with low income and poor credit. They gambled that the boom in the housing market and house prices would allow these inappropriate mortgages to remain affordable. In addition these mortages had been packaged together in groups and then the risk on them sold as a kind of stock market product.  Much as a bookie will “lay off” bets by passing all or part of a gamble to another bookie. This had to be done because the risk of the loan was not backed up by savings. (actually much of the money backing these deals came from China’s financing of the American economy with savings from their own burgeoning economy, some say when they refused to give the US any more finance, we are on number 5 here, that this is when the bubble burst)

Fiscal oversite was poor with brokers getting a fee or a percentage of mortgages sold, it was in their interest to sell anything even if they were too costly to really pay back.

Further Fiscal oversight that should have come from teh rating agencies was poor as somehow they managed to give subprime mortagegs lent on the basis of a gamble rather than savings, a low risk rate and the financial establishment could pretend when presenting their balance sheets that the money they were owed through the mortgages was low risk.

Coupled to this many of this US sub rime mortgages had intro periods of 2 years where interest rates were artificially low and just at the time many of them were coming out of the intro period in 2007, the Administration put up interest rates to combat inflation.

High interest high payments and high inflation (high fuel -remember 100 dollars a barrel- and food prices)meant low disposable income and many began to default on their mortgages, when I say many, I mean thousands. House prices plummeted and the US housing boom was over…people defaulting with 100% mortgages had negative equity and banks no longer had security on their loan because if the repossessed the houses and sold them they wouldn’t get back the money they had leant….oops!

Then the mortgage companies began to go under, as they couldn’t recoup and the mortgage companies had been leant to by the banks and they began to go under and so they refused any more loans and would give no more credit….CRUNCH, it became too difficult to borrow money and credit just dried up as this.

In many ways credit/borrowing drives the econmoy even if it is only as I explained above in having an account with a supplier which is paid at the end of the month, so when credit is hard to comeby its harder to get things done.  On a alarger scale certain types of high risj business cannot find investors (previously banks or bank related organisations) because banks will not take on the risk.

Now whilst his can be seen as being driven by US markets the same thing has happened in the UK but to a lesser extent, Northene Rock and Bradford and Bingley suffered because of the types of laons and mortages tehy offered and people defaulting or getting into negative equity.  Other UK banks are really the UK marques of a global finance brand and had already involved themselves heavily in US markets.  Other european countries have suffered because of the drying up of credit markets though rates of mortgage and home ownership are lower so they have not been effected in the same way.

Some say the leaders of our governemnts should have seen this coming, or at leaast given regulators more teeth, but we must remember before this time the people running these financial institutions had enormous leverage, its why parties of the left like Labour in the UK wooed them before coming to power.  For leftist parties like Labour they were glad of the boom as this increased tax revenues and allowed them to pursue social programmes without raising taxes (for which they were previously criticised), hospitals, schools, and other policy was funded by skimming off the boom.

So is Gordon Brown to blame, well my feeling is any government is only as good as its opposition, and here the main opposition Party (the Conservative Party) is seen as representative of big business and finance and did little to ask the government to increase oversight.  They are presently against any fiscal stimulation.  If we need to point the finger at politicians it must be all of them or no one.

There is another catholic guilt trip crossed with protestant work ethic  going on too.  That says we all enjoyed ourselves and took mortgages and credit cards we couldn’t afford, how dare we assume that money is our right (its only for the wealthy and failed bankers) we created the credit crunch because we weren’t responsible, abstemious and we didn’t live simply. How the Greens amongst us are crowing, it was you and you have polluted the Planet as well.  Its a new Puritanism, pojnting to the maypole of credit and demanding all the jollity must stop.Similar Posts:

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Help…..no really…. help! I need this marks and spencer soft bunny rabbit for my daughter, we only have one and twice now have nearly lost it, and then she doesn’t sleep properly. I found one on ebay but someone was willing to pay a hell of a lot to outbid me, probably for the same reason.

My daughter was given a number of beautiful and high quality, expensive soft toys by friends and relatives, yet it was an M & S soft bunny with long legs, long soft ears and a white tee shirt that she chose has her constant companion and sleep aid (transitional object)

please contact me if you have or find such a bunny on your travelsSimilar Posts:

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I remember seeing
a programme years ago on BBC about some battle that the ancient
egyptians were involved in that was a turning point in the career of one
of the Rameses. All the hieroglyphs shout a resounding victory for the
Egyptians, except recent eveidence and other reports later found of this
battle suggest the egyptians lost, but Rameses came back and told
everyone he won.

Much like the Keep Calm poster much beloved by us all
today, when in fact half the east end of London had pissed off to Kent
and was living in Caves

"KEEP CALM POSTER"

So I was with
my son when he was doing his homework about the Spanish Armada, and he
began to tell me how the Armada wasn’t that many ships, at least it
wasn’t as many ships as the english had. I couldn’t beleive my ears,
surely the plucky english with a few ships against the mighty armada,
was what it was all about…

The Spanish
Armada brought with it 22 galleons and 108 armed merchant
vessels.

They fought an English force of 34 warships and 163 armed
merchant vessels.

Propaganda is an amazing thing.

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Here is a list of some of the best Christmas recipes on this site, they have been well received and are all family recipes that are tried and tested through the generations.  If you use and enjoy them please tell Jonathan how you got on.

TUNIS CAKE RECIPE

CHRISTMAS PUDDING RECIPE

MINCE PIES (MiNCEMEAT RECIPE)

MARZIPAN RECIPE

PEPPERMINT CREAMS RECIPE

CANDIED PEEL RECIPE

CHRISTMAS CAKE RECIPE

TURKEY STUFFING RECIPESimilar Posts:

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I have two wood burning fires, one is an open fire and the other a wood burning stove. The cost of wood fuel that hasn’t risen in years suddenly rose by an extra £10 per cubic metre. This is because demand has increased as fossil fuels and electricity have rocketed in price.

I would like the small open fire in my sitting room to be a wood burning stove, but the cost is prohibitive as I must get the chimney lined and for a small wood burner and the lining I would pay around £1300. I think I might also get a small grant for this, but am not sure.

I dont really understand how anything can be ‘carbon neutral’ so is burning wood ok or just the lesser of a number of evils, or not even that.

To be Carbon Neutral is supposedly to balance the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by a particular activity, like flying, driving or operating a data center, with an equal amount of carbon sequestration or carbon offsets from a third party. To be considered carbon neutral, an individual or organization must reduce its carbon footprint to zero. (CarbonNeutral.com) However it may also seem that carbon neutral is a marketing term used to entice consumers with guilty consciences. Carbon neutral claims are a form of subsidizing efficiency programs that are usually good projects, but do not capture and neutralize the carbon emitted by the original polluting activity supposedly being mitigated. Burning fossil fuels do not become “climate neutral” because the person who burned the fuel pays to subsidize installation of photovoltaic panels or other equipment in another location. Carbon neutral would be true if usage of carbon-based fuels was offset by capturing of an equivalent amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Most carbon neutral policies displace increases in combustion of carbon fuels but that merely slows the increase of atmospheric carbon -which is not “neutral”-. (permatopia.com)

I remember once having one of those gadgets that compress wet paper and make paper bricks you can burn, much like the one below. But is it worth it, how well do they really burn and how much toxic crap is in the waste paper in inks and glues and glosses that is released into the atmosphere as it burns. Is it really so ecological. I am, beginning to see how eco is just a marketing ploy. Yet I think I will get one.

“eko-mania Heavy Duty Paper Log Maker – Green” (eko-mania)

I enjoy building up the fire and getting it going and not having to heat the whole house with the central heating just coz i am cold in one room. I have also an ‘eco’ boiler as the old one broke, well worth the outlay as it has halved the gas bill.

The question I am really asking is any of this ecological or just a ruse to make us buy more stuff

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One of the great english metaphysical poets, writing at the height of the elizabethan era.  His poetry can be divided into two periods, those as a younger man that appear to revolve around his life and loves , then those of his later life that reolve around love and death.

Song by John Donne.

Go and catch a falling star,

Get with child a mandrake root,

Tell me where all past years are,

Or who cleft the Devil’s foot,

Teach me to hear mermaids singing,

Or to keep off envy’s stinging,

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.If thou be’st born to strange sights,

Things invisible to see,

Ride ten thousand days and nights,

Till age snow white hairs on thee;

Thou, when thou return’st, wilt tell me

All strange wonders that befell thee,

And swear

No where

Lives a woman true, and fair.If thou find’st one, let me know,

Such a pilgrimage were sweet;

Yet do not, I would not go,

Though at next door we might meet:

Though she were true, when you met her,

And last, till you write your letter,

Yet she

Will be

False, ere I come, to two or three.Similar Posts:

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So the baby now 20 months was a great sleep, we had her in a great routine and she went down easily slept through the night and woke up in good temper. Then suddenly this stopped, she began not wanting to go to bed, waking in the night calling for mummy. Towards the middle of the first week we bought Gina Fords complete sleep guid and tried to put it in practise. By the end of the week we felt guilty as hell and were deciding GF was a bit of too regimental and unfeeling for us.

“The Complete Sleep Guide For Contented Babies and Toddlers” (Gina Ford)

By the end of the week she was really quite ill, with a raging temperature up around 39.5. Then she developed diarrhoea and her stomach has not been the same since, now she complains that her tummy hurts alot of the time and is not just aware of passing urine and stool but is frightened of it, despite now having gotten over the illness. We gave up with GF and just went on consoling and lowering the fear factor in our sick child.

The illness and its after effects have dragged on depite seeing 2 doctors a health visitor and now a homeopath (who is at last someone who can help). She sleeps through the nigh rarely and now wakes at 5. She doesn’t want a bath never mind bed, if she wakes in the night she 1 out of 10 times can put herself back to sleep and now she has developed a cough.

So if your child suddenly develops an allergy to going to bed or sleeping problems after being fine with bed time, don’t automatically reach for a baby sleep manual, it could just be that she is ill, about to be ill or genuinely needs help as she reaches a life stage whee she becomes more aware of her individuality and seperartion. When we sat down and thought about it in our tired and emotional state recently, we remembered she had been ill last year in the same way (with a weeks lead in time and disturbed sleep).

We may go back to Gina Ford, as she has some good points but following one persons view religiously without trusting your own experience and gut feelings is, in my opinion, a mistake.

“The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night: Foreword by William Sears, M.D.: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep … Foreword by William Sears, M.D. (Pantley)” (Elizabeth Pantley)

One last thing, we did put her back in her grobag sleeping bag, we had taken her out of it thinking she had out grown it, where in fact it does seem to make her more cozy (its only a light weight 1 tog) If you dont know what a grobag is see this wiki link… Sleeping bag (infant)

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