Freshly Social

“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” —John Quincy Adams

Books like ‘Coach yourself to success’ and ‘Trump: how to get rich’ are a penny a dozen these days. Everyone, from the car audio dealer to the local dress maker wants to learn the secret to business success, so much so that they’re hiring the DVD of ‘The Secret’ over and over again.

But there are a few classics that will always outclass the new age pulp fiction and ‘The Greatest Salesman in the World’, by Og Mandino is one of these and the first place that the phrase, ‘persistence’ was coined in terms of business success. In fact, Mandino devoted an entire chapter to persistence; he wrote:

People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy… and I keep it in a jar on my desk – Stephen King

Stephen King: One of the greatest writers of all time

How does one not love a writer who says things like that? There are innumerable reasons why I’m one of the biggest Stephen King fans in the world but his ability to spin words and make them work for him is one of the foremost. His characters have depth not often found in any genre, let alone horror; and his good guys have flaws, which is refreshing in a world where most heroes are created perfect. His imagery is flawless and Stephen King books are invariably deeper and more meaningful than even he credits.

It’s a cliché that French is an exquisite language but that doesn’t make it untrue. It’s flowery and exaggerated and, when spoken well, an absolute dream to listen to. But, in my experience, it is also notoriously difficult to learn to speak well which is why French translation services are a rare commodity in the UK.

Most universities, and many institutions, offer some sort of French language course but these vary from indifferent courses to comprehensive courses that have a large French translation component. We look at a few good language schools across our small island, assess which offer the best French translation courses and also offer some tips for studying new languages.

We underestimate the need for a high quality mattress on our contemporary bed. We are supposed to throw out our old mattresses every seven years and buy a new one. But seeing as mattresses are expensive these days, we opt for a less expensive mattress that looks good from the outside and seems to fit nicely on our Chrome contemporary bed base, but does not have the proper support inside, which results in an uncomfortable night’s sleep and unhappiness during the day. Because our budgets are tighter than usual these days, most of us try to cut corners in order to save some extra pounds, but this is not always wise. Buying a cheap mattress of dubious quality will result in a cheap deal, no matter how great our linen contemporary bed base. Cheaper mattresses might appeal in terms of their price tag, but they will disappoint and last only a fraction of time compared to a good quality mattress.

Autistic children need a regulated environment to grow and feel secure. To determine the features of such an environment, Sunfield conducted an evidence-based study on the impact of interior design on autistic children and isolated a number of important design features that can be incorporated into a bedroom for autistic children and that can also be used in and around the home. Some features are easier to incorporate than others, for instance, purchasing a sturdy, comfortable bed, adopting a colour theme based on your child’s favourite colours and using non-fluorescent lighting, while others require more effort and a flexible budget, such as soundproofing and the introduction of curvilinear design.

‘Public Toilet’ is a bit of a misnomer. Public toilets are public facilities, yes, but they are used for intensely private bodily functions. No one uses them without a passing feeling of unease. Who’s been there before you, did they pee on the seat, or leave some e-coli bacteria waiting to attack your unsuspecting derriere? Public toilets are a minefield for the most confident of individuals let alone those who suffer from shy bladder syndrome. So, it’s no wonder Monica Bonvicini’s artistic take on the portable loo caused such a stink in the UK.

'Don't miss a sec' Transparent Public Toilet

In 2004, Londoners were surprised, nay, astonished, fascinated and bewildered by a large mirrored cube that had been placed outside the Tate Britain, one of the most famous art galleries in the world. The cube was, in fact, Bonvicini’s latest creation, a public toilet made of one-way mirrored glass, appropriately called ‘Don’t miss a sec’. Far from being a traditional portable toilet for hire, ‘Don’t miss a sec’ was both hailed as a coup for contemporary public art and slated as a tacky and tasteless attempt at attention grabbing.

Anyone who has anything to do with computers knows what flash drives are, and even if you don’t spend your working day glued to a PC (which is highly unlikely), chances are you’ve used a flash drive even if you weren’t aware of it at the time. MP3 Players are basically USB flash drives that people use specifically for storing music files, but they could, if they wanted to, also use their players to store other data, such as computer documents. Far from being boring, bland devices, flash drives come in a variety of shapes, styles and designs that will tickle your fancy, from advanced USB drives that require biometrics to function to the quirky, elegant and downright bizarre.

Plucked Chicken Flash Drive

Many people think that novelty bed linen is strictly for children, and while Bratz, Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers may appeal more to those under the age of 10 years old, there are many novelty sheets, duvet covers and pillow cases that are perfectly suited to adult tastes.

Granted, Betty Boop probably won’t add to the elegance of your Contemporary bed, but you might be able to get away with Bridgette Bardot in a classic black and white pose (not the Bond bikini scene), alternatively you could try bed linen in a rustic country theme if your bedroom is decorated in the Provincial French style.

Betty Boop Novelty Bed Linen

Basically, a blog farm is a group of blogs that are interlinked and form a network, which is nothing like a real farm with pigs and chickens, but maybe I’m not quite seeing the bigger picture here. Blog farms, like any other source of advertising, can be used in a positive or negative way, which is why many people are hesitant about bothering with them at all. Mass blog farms can be a profitable or a destructive way to drive a large amount of traffic to the site that you want to get noticed. There are ways in which you can produce an array of blogs that are legitimate and produce worthy content that are all related, well written and generally interesting. But there are many more blog farms that are just another excuse for spamming and succeed at shoving a mess of links in your face. This spamming can result in penalties or ultimately your blog being shut down, which means fewer dollar signs in your eyes.

Many of use dream of owning £10 million luxurious house in Chelsea. In the case of British socialite, Victoria Beckham, and her blond footballer husband, David Beckham, this is no dream, but a possibility that could see the entire Beckham clan relocating to the up-market area of West London. Houses in Chelsea do not come cheap, and it seems that the Beckham beauty has had her eye on this opulent property for a while now.

It is speculated that Victoria Beckham recently contacted an estate agent in Chelsea to enquire about the beautiful home. House prices in Chelsea are amongst the highest in London and the area is constantly developing chic new properties that sell quickly. Buying and letting in Chelsea is on the increase. Any estate and letting agent in Chelsea will tell you that they are experiencing an occupation rise in the area, and new properties are being developed to cater for the influx of residents. In the past, the area has been home to a large number of notable and famous people including Eric Clapton, Bob Marley, Judy Garland, Bob Geldof and The Rolling Stones.