Tips Guides

Gatwick Airport is currently the country’s second largest and busiest even though, unlike nearby Heathrow it only has a single runway. In the past year over thirty five million passengers passed through Gatwick Airport, a figure that the airport’s management are hoping to improve upon with further development and more flying routes. Part of this development of the airport is to improve the accompanying services such as hotels, eateries and even car hire provisions.

While most would think that Heathrow has always possessed the primacy as an Airport, it was in fact Gatwick that had the first ever rail link into the centre of London. Since the fifties Gatwick possessed the link to Victoria, a route that the bus and car hire companies have been battling since its inception. The rail link originally had an underground tunnel that linked the railway station to the terminal although due to the Gatwick site being prone to excessive flooding the tunnel had to be closed, either that or boats had to be installed along its length.

During the post war period the future of this major airport was in doubt as a battle emerged between the Stansted site for government funds. Both were pursuing the government funding but eventually Gatwick was the successful airport. The success of the bid meant that the creation of a large terminal with resources such as car hire desks, restaurants and shops would provide the Crawley area with jobs for generations. The reason the Gatwick was selected was probably due to the fact that the area surrounding Stansted was unsuitable for development in terms of road and rail links while Gatwick was more preferentially placed.

The proximity of Gatwick to both the M25 and M23 meant that car hire companies were extremely interested in developing interests on the site. A factor that continues to be a powerful lure today as the airport can be seen as the perfect starting place for a tour, not only of the south but the entire country.

The fact Gatwick only has one runway is a problem that the management would like to remedy. Although there are in fact two runways, restrictions on the use of space mean that only one of these runways can be used at any one time; seriously limiting the capacity of the airport. The next stage of development will be to increase the number of runways on the site although as there is a protection order on the surrounding countryside meaning any development will prove difficult. It is not until 2019 that this protective legislation will be lifted but as with most airport development, if enough money is thrown at the problem, the legislation can soon be removed.

Rather than challenge this legislature directly, Gatwick is, at least for the moment attempting to court more business passengers by improving facilities such as specialist waiting areas and car hire provisions. Whether a new terminal is built is also a matter of conjecture but as the need for a larger number of flights servicing London becomes apparent, it is doubtless that expansion will have to occur somewhere.

Currently holding the second spot in terms of UK airports is a position of serious competition. While the ascendancy of Heathrow is somewhat assured, Gatwick is precariously placed with both Stansted and Luton clambering behind it with expansion plans in mind. Understandably most residents do not want to see an expanded airport in their backyard but as the ever increasing need for flights continues it is inevitable that someone will have to suffer the consequences.

Industry expert Thomas Pretty looks into how development has made the car hire Gatwick Airport experience a simple and efficient affair.

The numbers of people making the move to New Zealand definitely seems to be increasing. Predominantly it is young, well qualified and educated Britons who are deciding to make the move abroad. The New Zealand government has worked hard to attract these young professionals as a means of bolstering and enlarging the skills base of the economy.

According to the UK Office of National Statistics last year around four hundred thousand young Brits decide to make the move abroad, a ten percent increase on the year before. Seemingly these numbers are only set to increase. The recent annual move to New Zealand expo saw record numbers of attendees, showing that many are interested in making the move and living on the other side of the world.

The reasons behind this move to New Zealand by young professionals are wide and diverse. Some of the most touted reasons are that young professionals want to work and live in a society that has more chances of social mobility, less crime, more affordable housing and a better lifestyle in general. New Zealand has all of these powerful lures and hence is attracting large numbers of migrants.

One trend that has become apparent in the migrations figures is that young professionals are securing jobs before they make the move. Supporting this theory was the large numbers of Brits attending the ‘Opportunities New Zealand Expo’, believed to be around six thousand. These large numbers of attendees is only set to continue with three more expos planned in the next twelve months.

Of the companies present at the expo who were exhibiting and actively seeking recruits the industry sectors they represented were diverse. Some companies were representing the mining industry, others were from IT and telecommunications while a large number were from the medical sphere. The expo gave the chance for companies to recruit and speak to potential migrants directly, assessing their wants and needs whilst being able to improve their own services through the feedback gained. As a result of the expo, many attendees have secured jobs and will be making the move to New Zealand in the near future.

A recent survey of those who are making the move to Australia and New Zealand revealed that a third of migrants were making the move because of the lifestyle benefits of living in that part of the world. Apart from the obvious climate benefits many see living in this part of the world as beneficial due to the quality education systems, the abundance of jobs in certain industry sectors and the affordability of housing.

Many are leaving due to disillusionment with the UK; the government tax hikes, the worries surrounding the mortgage and property market as well as the deterioration in society are only some of the reasons behind this disillusionment. Many see New Zealand as the perfect move to make when wishing to avoid these circumstances.

If thinking of emigrating however it is vital that you must conduct a great deal of research before making the move. As the recent trends show, most migrants are not leaving the UK on a wing and a prayer and are instead securing work abroad before uprooting. In addition to finding a job it is essential to secure a working visa that will eventually lead to residency. While this is not always the easiest of tasks, it is a vital inclusion in the emigration process. So if the UK seems like a sinking ship to you, it may be worth investigating your opportunities abroad; before you know it you could be in a new country enjoying the lifestyle benefits and better weather.

Cultural expert Thomas Pretty looks into why increasing numbers of young professionals are making the move to New Zealand.

If your searching for a brand new watch, a replica is the way to go. Replica stores around the world and on the Internet, offer high quality brand name watches for a fraction of the cost of an original. More than a fraction to be honest. These replica stores, sell all the really popular brand name watches you would want to find in a regular store. Some of these watch brands include, but are not limited to Rolex, Audemars Pigeut, Breitling, Bvlgari, Cartier, Chopard, Frank Muller, Eberhard&CO, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton. With in these sites you will see half the sites offer really good prices in the $90-800 range, and the other half of the sites offer a little more expensive route, around $300-$1000.

But still these prices are much lower than that of an original Rolex or Gucci. Rolex’s sell for anywhere around $12k on up and Gucci’s sell for $800 on up. So if you look at an original $800 Gucci, and then look at a $150-$300 replica of a Gucci watch, that’s a really big difference. Many different types of people buy replica watches for many different reasons, but the two main reasons is for safety and security and for price wise. The three main types of these replicas are street quality, mid quality, and high quality.

These low prices, do not mean low quality. Many of the watches on these replica sites offer very high quality products, materials and parts. There are millions of these sites on the Internet. Have a look, there’s Swiss, Italian, German, Japanese etc. These are all made with quality in mind. And you have your pick from any watch you want. These are all popular names, popular colors, popular watch faces. These are trendy replica watches. People take precious time and care into making them so they have the look, feel and quality of an original. Here’s a quote taken from one of the sites I found online, that weigh the differences between replica and original:

- Replica watches are encased with more accessible precious stones, for example zirconium instead of diamond
- Noble metals which are used in original Swiss watches are replaced by more efficient metals in the replicas

Of course the zirconium instead of the diamond should have been expected! If you have real diamonds on a real Gucci watch, its going to cost $800 or more. But simply put that is the very small list of the differences between replica and real. So no, they are not of less quality, they are of more affordable quality. There’s a big difference between the two!

By the way these watches are not just for men, they also sell very elegant and feminine watches for women as well. And if all this wasn’t enough, between the quality, the price, the availability they also have a lot of the options an original has, such as:

Engravings
Gold Filled
Quartz
Automatic
Chronograph
Stainless Steel
Gold Plated

And lots more. These watches are meant to look like the originals. I doubt you will be unhappy if you take a look at what kind of quality these replica sites offer! Try searching on Google for “Replica Watches” or something like “Swiss Replica Watches.”

This author is the proud owner of http://replicaseries.com/index.php. Feel free to distribute this article in any way or form as long as you include this resource box.

We’re all well aware of the benefits of recycling but who, in all seriousness, has the time or inclination to do so? Most households now have their solitary green recycling bin duly supplied by their local council but if plans to cut down to once a month rubbish bin collections goes ahead, how will this little recycling bin be enough?

The whole issue surrounding recycling is very confusing but rules have been clamped down on even before anyone understands fully what can and can’t be achieved. To many, it seems that making us dispose of our waste in a particular fashion means the council have that much less work to do yet our council tax is not reduced accordingly.

There is much controversy regarding our rubbish at the moment with so-called ‘bin police’ to contend with. They are dishing out fines of up to 5,000 pounds for offenders who throw rubbish away as opposed to putting it in the correct recycling bins and will soon be allowed access to private properties to investigate rubbish offences - and there was me thinking the police already did that!

There is further concern about the vermin that will be attracted towards residential areas if rubbish is not collected frequently enough and an increase has already been seen in areas where collections have been moved to once a fortnight. There is a real danger of this creating a health hazard.

Leaving the bin lids open or putting rubbish out too early has already caused fines of up to 1,000 pounds to be dished out and people are beginning to feel like they are being ripped off. When we pay a proportion of our extortionate council tax to rubbish collection, reducing bin collections and implementing fines for ridiculous reasons is causing the natives to revolt, unsurprisingly.

It is the councils hope that if rubbish collections are drastically reduced then people will be forced to recycle all in the name of becoming environmentally friendlier. I think that maybe people would be more keen to do so if there was a visible reduction in the council tax payments. Recycling bins are strategically placed in each town but not everyone (particularly the elderly) can get to them so it seems unfair that these people are penalised for putting out their rubbish as they have done so all their lives.

When you take a good look at packaging, it is not always clear what can be recycled and what can’t. I made the assumption that if I had a plastic bottle to dispose of then I could simply put it in a recycling bin but it depends on the plastic. Personally, I don’t know one type of plastic from another so back to my point that people simply don’t have the time or inclination to study every bit of refuse to see which bin it’s meant to go in. Surely, the council would be better off employing these ‘bin police’ to go through the recycling and sort out what’s good and what’s not? That way, more people would be inclined to stick plastics in a different recycling bin to their normal household rubbish.

At the end of the day, our refuse is such a tiny problem in the grand scheme of things that we have to question exactly why the council are being so pernickety about it.

Refuse expert Catherine Harvey looks at the way councils are trying to force us to make better use of recycling bins without any let up in our council tax.

And once again we have health and safety madness at its true British best!

Illegal raves that cause disruption to nearby residents, where illegal drugs are sold and consumed by many and where the countryside is trashed by people who couldn’t give a damn, will NOT be broken up by police because they have not had the necessary health and safety training in the dark. We all know what a health and safety risk the dark is! Police have also raised concern that if they break up the raves, party goers may disperse and drive whilst still under the influence of drink or drugs. Is it just me or can anyone else see the madness in this? Stop the illegal raves, prosecute everyone who drives while under the influence, get all those mindless morons off the road and kill two birds with one stone.

Of course, bird killing with stones or any other implement would probably be banned under health and safety regulations too!

And it’s not just the police that have their duties restricted by the lack of health and safety training - or the lack of common sense - however you want to view it. Postmen are also coming under scrutiny and in some areas are having their bikes taken away and replaced with post trolleys. This is to prevent shoulder strain from carrying their bags but bikes have carriers on them so the reasoning makes no sense at all. Instead we are going to see hoards of postmen with leg and back strain from walking miles and miles and pushing trolleys! More madness!

And not to be left out, the Mayor of Maidstone has been banned from using the official mayoral flag on her car, just in case it falls off and damages another car or road user. That will be the 8 inch by 5 inch flag, the one that contravenes health and safety regulations. Never mind the 14′ x 6′ lump of metal with the engine inside that could so easily mow down and kill someone - just watch out for the little flag on the top. After all, no-one is known to have had health and safety training in attaching it properly and the last thing the council needs is a law suit for the damage caused by a flag on the loose.

And it’s not just the grown-ups that suffer. Amid fears of law suits and litigation, schools are phasing out field trips because of a lack of health and safety training in teachers when children are out of the classroom. That will be because, as we all know, perfectly adequate teachers who display common sense and intelligence in the classroom, become gibbering idiots outside and are unable to take responsibility of their charges! I am being sarcastic here!

And then we have the health and safety risk posed by that horrendous assailant - nature. But all is not lost. The British Standards Institution currently has over 27,000 standards covering a multitude of things, including trees. They are suggesting that people be employed to inspect trees every three years to ensure they pose no risk to passers-by. This is because, in the compensation culture of today, people are scared of having a claim made against them.

So, of the six people a year that killed by trees this year, the claims could potentially be so high that perfectly good trees will be felled, just in case. So goes the very air that we breathe and the habitat for so many animals. Of course, if we are going to take such action against the evil tree should we not be wary of other things also? Every year in the UK, 640 people die from falling down stairs. I propose we do away with stairs, all live in bungalows wrapped in bubble wrap, supported by an iron lung, and never venturing out, just in case.

Current affairs expert Catherine Harvey looks at the way health and safety training does not cover everything.

Dichroic Glass has come a long way since the 1950s and 1960s when NASA first started using it for their satellite mirrors, and an even longer time since the Egyptians and Mesopotamians were using regular glass for jewelry and other items such as decorative tiles and bowls in 4500 BC and 3000 BC. The process of Dichroic Glass jewelry can be incredibly confusing and very scientific, but to actually see these pieces in hand makes it all worth while. This kind of glass contains multiple layers of different oxides; silver, titanium, chromium, aluminum, zirconium, magnesium, and silicon. This is done through a vacuum process. When its fired the heat changes the coloring of the glass.

The word Dichroic actually comes from two Greek root words, Di meaning two and Chroma meaning color. So Dichroic literally means “two colored” of course now a days this translation isn’t exactly true since these handcrafted pieces are all unique in color, ranging from one or two colors on up to dozens and dozens of colors. Its really amazing when you take a look at some of these pieces of infused glass, some of the colors are just incredible. And some of the designs on the glass actually looks like it was drawn or painted on. Its not however, that’s just the type of designs that come to pass when heating up the glass.

These pieces of glass can be made into almost anything including rings, necklaces, pendants, earrings and a lot more, and that’s just the jewelry side of things. I just recently learned that this glass can also be fused into other things besides jewelry, you can also buy wall decor, photo frame holders and wall hangings.

This is a really interesting thing to check up on the next time your looking for a really unique gift to get someone, for any occasion. This sort of work takes a certain sort of person. Obviously not just anyone can do this and actually turn out some beautiful pieces of work as the ones Ive seen unless they have some experience with it. This is why I think these pieces would be a nice gift for anyone in your life, because not only is it a nice gift, but also because of the passion and love it takes to make something as beautiful and unique as this.

This would probably be a pretty cool process to watch, if someone actually got the chance to see how this stuff is made in person or even got to try it out on their own. It seems like its sort of the same type of process as glass blowing, which is another one of those “arts” that is just absolutely fantastic. If you really are interested in seeing how this is made, I did find a few videos on YouTube, Myspace and some other places. Its not the same as seeing it up close and personal, but if your really curious you’ll go and have a look! I have yet to find any places that sell this jewelry in my home town, but I did happen to find a store a few months back in a town a few hours from mine, that sold only this sort of art. So who knows maybe you have someone in your location that knows how to do this kind of stuff!

This author is the proud owner of http://www.dichroicglass.co.uk. Feel free to distribute this article in any way or form as long as you include this resource box.