7 Tips For Planning The Perfect Family Vacation

Family vacation getaways can be one of the greatest experiences in a family. Some of the best memories (and snapshots) are created during family visits to the beach, theme parks, or historical parks or museums just hanging out having fun.Family vacations are known for bonding times but they're perhaps as equally well known for being stressful times. So, how do you make sure that those memories are all good? Here are some surprisingly simple tips for keeping your family smiling on your next family vacation.1. First and foremost, think through your Family vacation getaway carefully.Sara* and her husband have always taken their children to the Bahamas for a week. Two weeks before they leave, she finds out she has been laid off. They still go to the Bahamas, but with the layoff looming over their...

Read more »

Tips For Holiday Packing

You have packed your bags and prepared your house for your absence. It should be the perfect holiday. But once you arrive at your holiday destination you find you have forgotten to pack something important. That "one thing" you must have.Nothing can be more frustrating than arriving at your holiday destination to find you have forgotten to pack necessary items. It can put a damper on your whole holiday. Fortunately, with some simple pre-planning, you can avoid this unpleasant situation.The minute you have made your travel plans is the also the time to begin planning to pack. This does not mean you have to drag out the suitcases and start piling things in.Once you have a trip booked you should take the time to make a packing checklist. Include everything you need to pack for the trip such as...

Read more »

How to Be a Green Traveler

With the summer upon us many people are finalizing their holiday plans if they haven't already done so. In these difficult financial times many are opting to stay within the UK rather than venture abroad, providing a great opportunity to get to know our own country and also reducing the need to travel by plane. For those still traveling to other shores, there are also many different ways to travel, which can in fact be an adventure in themselves.Traveling by plane produces vast quantities of greenhouse gases, and reducing or cutting air travel out altogether can make a big difference to your carbon footprint. Especially when traveling abroad, it is easy to instantly think about flying to your destination, but there are often alternatives which will almost certainly be greener, could be cheaper...

Read more »

Marble City Company

Marble city company is a big company about granite coutertops. The aim marble city is make environtment of elegance.Marble City is a one-stop center for granite counter tops. We import granite slabs from all over the World and we only work with the best quality granite and marble materials. We are proud to be one of the highest quality granite countertops fabrication and installation company in the Bay Area, CA. We are experts in fabricating countertops from such stones as: marble, granite, limestone, etc. Our strongest attributes are customer satisfaction and quality countertops. The modern combination of European countertops fabrication and...

Read more »

How to save a few dollars on a flight

It is not a secret that prices for the flights are quite big at the beginning. If you book in advance it might give you a possibility to get a good seat but it surely won't be any less expensive if you book the flight one month before the date of the departure. Everybody knows how the system works. All airlines have to sell tickets to cover cost of the flight. As the flight dates comes nearer, the airline lowers the price of tickets to attract more passengers to fill up the seats. They know that they cannot get full price so they keep on lowering it a bit every day until takeoff. The closer you are near the flight date the cheaper will be the sum you are due to pay. We strictly advice you to check various internet sites to see the flights and prices available for them. If you do not trust...

Read more »

Deal with the best deal

The best deals on the airplane trips are quite accessible today. Let's admit it, if we were offered a ticket that would allow us to save a whooping 50& of the original price we would not turn it down. Though we would think something is wrong with the deal. Gas prices have risen substantially, and all transportation costs are now following, so unless you're rolling in money, getting a great deal on your airfare is very important.After the tragic events of 9/11 there were very few cheap airfares available. People were scared of being next victims, so the word "discount" frightened them more than crazy high prices for the plane tickets. It was important to stay safe, nobody wanted to fly. People preferred to stay home and grant themselves the security of being the target of the terrorists....

Read more »

Last minute travel

Let's say you're the adventurous type with some spare money and the time to spend, what are your options? Well, the news is that airlines love and hate you. Airlines have these expensive planes and they like to see their seats sold as far in advance as possible. That way, they have the cash before they pay for the fuel to fly you where you want to go. Hopefully, they know they have covered their costs and made a profit on each flight. More importantly, they can calculate the amount of fuel to load before collecting the passengers. But not everyone does buy well in advance so airlines have this temptation to sell off seats more cheaply at the last minute. Empty seats earn no money. Even a little money is an improvement on no money. So they discount seats through special offers and approved...

Read more »

Last minute travel

Let's say you're the adventurous type with some spare money and the time to spend, what are your options? Well, the news is that airlines love and hate you. Airlines have these expensive planes and they like to see their seats sold as far in advance as possible. That way, they have the cash before they pay for the fuel to fly you where you want to go. Hopefully, they know they have covered their costs and made a profit on each flight. More importantly, they can calculate the amount of fuel to load before collecting the passengers. But not everyone does buy well in advance so airlines have this temptation to sell off seats more cheaply at the last minute. Empty seats earn no money. Even a little money is an improvement on no money. So they discount seats through special offers and approved...

Read more »

The magical power of the discounted flight

Well, well, well... What do we have here? Yes it is not news, but it is definitely new. A new offer on a discount flight and you get it "delivered" as a pop-up screen to your email page. It is right in your face. Try to not notice it. You will definitely fail. And why is that? Because the prices you see over there for a flight to a country you want to visit for a long time is almost ridiculous.A lot of websites try to attract us with their prices. The world needs a healthy competition; the market is full of adverts and agencies that are willing to fight for their clients. And you know well how traveling agencies and websites win people over ... Of course, they give good discounts.Sometimes you can even feel the pressure. This is one of the reasons we advice you to use internet. At times, we...

Read more »

How to save money

Let's start of with a few basics. All the airlines publish their fares. So, if you go to them directly, you know exactly how much you are going to be asked to pay. That said, there are "high" and "low" seasons where the volume of traffic rises and falls. Airlines do offer "sale" prices to maintain passenger volumes during the low seasons. Some increase their prices at the peak periods. Then you have the budget carriers. These offer basic carriage at a basic price. All this information is usually freely available and gives you the base price to work from. Then we come to the "special offers". These are prices advertised in the local press or through the internet, promoting particular airlines or online ticket agents. They often invite you to use a code or keyword from the advert to "prove"...

Read more »

In praise of California

In November, 1988, the electorate in California approved Proposition 103 to prevent the massive increases in premiums that were affecting all consumers looking for insurance. After major litigation to decide whether the Proposition was constitutional, it was finally implemented in May 1989 and rapidly revolutionized the rates of insurance across the state which fell by an average of 45% between 1989 and 2001. It is estimated that up to 2006, Californian drivers alone saved $62 billion on their auto insurance rates. Then the Consumer Watchdog combined with other socially active groups to force the insurance companies to abandon the practice of basing rates on the zip code and not your record as a driver. Now comes Assembly Bill 2800 which emerged from the Senate Appropriations Committee in...

Read more »

Footloose and fancy-free

In days long ago, when we were footloose and fancy-free, we would all travel at the drop of a hat. Come the weekend or a holiday break, we would get in the car and drive somewhere different. When the cost of air travel dropped, flying somewhere warmer for a weekend break was normal. Airline routes crossed the world. Nowhere was too far away. One of the first mass market discounts was the so-called stand-by ticket. Because airlines can be left with seats unsold on the day of flight, they would sell the tickets at a reduced price to anyone who happened to be there.Some money collected on an empty seat was better than no money. When word of this system spread, the young with a few dollars in their pockets would go and queue at airports, taking whatever flights were on offer just for the fun....

Read more »

Booking cheap plane tickets when you travel with children

Before you book anything, make sure you have all the "bits of paper". That means the passport if you're flying internationally. The rules about passports for children are in a state of flux as the new biometric or e-passports come into use. The original system used to add children to their parent's passports but, increasingly, countries are requiring children to carry their own passports with data in machine readable form.There are also different rules about how often to update the photographs to keep pace with changes in appearance as your children age. Because the airlines are fined if they bring people to a country without the right documentation, you can expect to be turned away at the airport if your documents are not in order. So check the destination countries to see what is required...

Read more »

Some useful tips on cheap airfares

Buy tickets at the last momentIn contrast to the first tip, there are also situations when it's cost-wise to wait until the last minute. Airlines can offer a very low price for tickets on the flights which are not fully booked, and they will evidently do it in a few minutes before departure. So if you can deal with stress or aren't in a very strict schedule you might consider this option, because the deals are often great and you can manage to travel quite cheap to popular destinations.Flexibility is key to successIn case you are in an area with more than one airport near you might consider checking airfares at all of them. Sometimes the price will be lower in one airport than another. Also try shifting your departure dates: adjusting it even by a few days can result in a significant price...

Read more »

What to look for in a package deal

If you want to avoid most of the more extreme conditions, it is better to find a consolidator. These businesses buy air tickets in bulk and so get substantial discounts. They act as wholesalers and prefer dealing with the trade rather than customers direct. However, some will sell scheduled tickets direct at big discounts on more liberal terms. As always, do not deal blindly with firms you find over the internet. These are big ticket purchases so you should get some independent verification that the business has been around for a reasonable period of time and appears to be solvent before dealing with it. The theory says that the more business to give in one deal, the greater the overall savings you get. But you need to test the market before you do the deal. Get guideline prices for rentals...

Read more »

The Meaning of Love

With the previous about feelings, satisfactions, and ethics as prologue, I will try to show that it is plausible to mean by "A loves B" that: (1) A has strong feelings of attraction in general, or to some reasonable extent, for B, (2) A, in general or to some reasonable extent, enjoys B (that is, A in general or to some reasonable extent is satisfied by B and by the things B does), particularly in areas of psychological importance (or meaningfulness) to A, and without particular disappointment or dissatisfaction in other such psychologically important (meaningful) areas, and (3) B is good for (or to) A; that is, the things B does are good for A. [This last condition will be stated more correctly after the section on ethics, but for now, this is a sufficient statement of the...

Read more »

ART OF LOVE

About Love And Romantic Love By: Michael Grayson Conner, Psy.DLove is mostly tender and quiet.Love is a light that allows people to see things that are not seen by others.Romantic love is a deep emotional, sexual and spiritual recognition and regard for the value of another person and relationship.Romantic love can generate many powerful feelings. It can provide a profound ecstasy, and a deep suffering when frustrated. To some people, romantic love is irrational. Romantic love can seem like an emotional storm. This paper is really a collection of experiences, thoughts, readings, and the result of my discussions with people falling in and out of love. I began writing on this topic in 1989. I was first inspired to write "About Romantic Love" when I first read a book by Nathanial Brandon on the...

Read more »