July 2014 issue 0020
VISION
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IN CAR DASH CAMERAS PROTECTING PETS FROM THE SUN SWEET FEET FOR SUMMER MOVIE OF THE MONTH PUZZLES RECIPES
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CONTENTS 13
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8 9 12 MOVIE of the month
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BUSINESS DIRECTORY GET IN THE PINK
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HOW TO GET THE PERFECT LOOK Admit it. You want them. Those beautiful stripes on your lawn that'll make your grass look like the Wimbledon Centre Court. Clean and professional. Like the fields you see in professional sports stadiums. You're in luck, because it's really not too hard to make stripes in your lawn
The Way Striping Works The effect of stripes you see on a lawn or playing field is simply light reflecting off the grass blades. Blades bent towards you look dark, while those bent the opposite way look lighter. You can see some of the same effect with normal mowing, and creating patterns just takes it a step further.
Pick a Pattern Before you start mowing, decide on the pattern you want to create. It may help - especially when doing this the first time - to make a sketch of how the pattern will fit the layout of your lawn. The possibilities are practically endless, but stripes, checkerboards, and diamonds are the most common patterns.
Watch Where You're Mowing Unless you're purposely creating a wavy pattern, take care to mow in a straight line. Start by mowing parallel to a straight sidewalk or driveway. To keep mowing straight, look at least 10 feet in front of you while you mow, rather than at the ground right in front of the mower. When you come to the end of a row, lift the mower deck as you turn, then mow in the opposite direction next to your previous pass. To create a checkerboard, mow the lawn a second time at 90 degrees to your first mowing. Finish by mowing a strip around the edges of the lawn.
Gordon “Kick Starts” new idea Local businessman Gordon Mulligan, has designed a foot start for petrol driven lawn mowers. Gordon has been in the trade for over 35 years. Using his considerable experience he had seen the need for an easier way to start your usual petrol driven mower. Gordon said “not everyone has the power or the speed in their arms to start a petrol mower this device overcomes that problem”. The footstart is an easily fitted add-on device that fits 99% of common petrol lawnmowers. Gordon has patent pending in UK and in the USA. Retail cost is £99 per footstart but on special offer of £60 if ordered with a new mower, or during a service with your present mower
SPECIAL OFFER 16 INCH PETROL MOWER WITH FOOTSTART £189.00 Contact Gordon on 01555 660 400 or mobile 07747 613 027
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In-car dash cameras
You’re behind the wheel of your family saloon, quietly minding your own business, when a souped up sports car suddenly flies past and cuts you up just as you reach the motorway exit. Seconds later it’s gone, with nothing to show but a trail of smoke.
the camera, but can run into several hours. Installation is by suction or adhesive pads. Cameras are most often wired into the cigarette lighter, but can also be hard-wired directly into the car battery - the only way if you want a model with parking mode. When choosing an in-car camera, first consider the size. Smaller models are more discreet, and black is the best low-profile colour. Next, look for one with a decent video resolution. The current standard is 1080p, which will pick out number plates and other details - essential if required as evidence. Check what the night video quality is like, and decide if you want a model that can save footage you might want to keep. Other useful options include date and time stamps, and dual or multiple channels which record what’s behind as well as what’s in front of you. Finally, don’t forget that dash cams can be fun! They are a great way to capture details of memorable trips, and film the more unusual sights we come across from time to time!
Not so long ago there was no getting back at reckless drivers like this guy (unless you employed the tactics of the driver in the photo!) but in-car cameras now offer the chance to bring them to count. An absolute given in countries like Russia, Japan and the USA, only 3% of British drivers currently own a dash cam, but the trend is on the increase. A recent RAC survey found that 4 out of 10 car owners would consider buying one, and that a fifth of current dash cams are used to guard against ‘cash for crash’ scams. False insurance claims are growing, and one common way of faking it is to set up a collision and claim the crash was the fault of the innocent party. If you’re the victim
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in a case like this, capturing the event on camera could help prove your innocence and bring the bad guys to justice. Good footage from a dashboard camera is admissible evidence in court, so if you are involved in a genuine accident it can offer proof of what really took place. You can also use it to protect your vehicle whilst parked. The camera will come to life when damage is detected. Dashboard cameras, which are usually mounted on the windscreen, record onto memory cards whilst the ignition is on. Recording is constant, which means that once the card is full, old files are overwritten. Recording time depends on the size of memory card and the bit rate of
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Keep Sane When Travelling With Kids Keep family holidays a trouble-free, happy experience by following these tips! Keep Entertained Pack plenty for kids to do during long, tedious journeys. A device loaded with apps is nice and compact, but also consider hand held puzzles, colouring books, plasticine, puppets, stickers, reading books and cards.
Knightly Gaming was opened in Lanark in October 2013, by mother and son team Leah and Brett Knight. It is the premiere gaming shop in the lanarkshire area. Knightly Gaming are a dedicated company that takes tabletop gaming as not “just a hobby” but their passion. They strive to provide the best products and services, as well as providing a gaming space where their customers can enjoy taking part in the games and socialise. All tastes are catered for, they provide a bit of everything from wargames, boardgames and card games to anime and manga. Kids under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Feel free to drop by or give us a call to find out more!
Keep Safe Use a child locator if you are visiting busy airports or crowded tourist attractions. Your child wears a small unit strapped to a belt or shoe and you keep the transmitter. If you lose your child, set off the alarm and follow the sound to find them. For older kids, write your mobile phone number on their arm. Keep Healthy Young children often get ill on holiday. Keep bugs at bay by having a supply of antibacterial wipes to clean restaurant tables, cutlery and toilet seats and hand sanitiser for when there are no washing facilities nearby. A basic first aid kit is also a must! Pack pain killers or an easy to swallow medicine like Calpol, along with antiseptic wipes, plasters, anti-histamines and a thermometer. Keep Memories Give smaller children a robust, child-friendly camera to record what’s important and interesting to them, and encourage older kids to keep a travel journal on postcards by writing messages to themselves - they make great memories for adulthood! Happy Holidays!
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How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm Mei-Ling Hopgood
A Good Read
Parenting is a funny business. Everyone has an opinion on how to do things, from potty training to bedtimes - and that is only friends and family. Imagine how many different views on these everyday aspects of a child’s life exist across the world... Mei-Ling Hopgood’s fascinating book explores a range of ideas from across the globe, looking at how ‘normal’ practice in one culture may seem unusual, if not downright odd, in another. Hopgood writes from the parent’s perspective, and the book is part social history and part memoir as she tries to apply different strategies with her own daughter. Whilst some of the issues here are familiar to many, from newspaper headlines and popular studies, others are genuinely new and absorbing to the reader. We all know that the French have a reputation for appreciating good food, and Hopgood’s exploration of mealtimes at a French nursery school serve to explain how children come to see food as more than just fuel. However, the ways in which Japanese children are encouraged to work conflicts out
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The Jolley-Rogers and the Ghostly Galleon - Jonny Duddle
for themselves, even if that means coming to blows, and the reality of how and why Kenyan parents manage without pushchairs, are small revelations which lead us to wonder about how we perceive growing up. Hopgood’s style is a mixture of anecdote, example and research, meaning that the book is always readable and is educational in the best of ways - you find out an awful lot, and you don’t always realise how much you are learning. Not a bad way of thinking about teaching children, either...
Jonny Duddle’s picture books have quickly become modern children’s classics, and this chapter book follows on from ‘The Pirates Next Door’, using familiar characters but offering a longer and more detailed read for that awkward age when picture books are dismissed as ‘babyish’ but longer books are still a little too challenging.
offered by hapless security guard Arthur Poppycock is garbled, it makes one thing clear: there are pirates involved! Matilda thinks it must be time to contact her best friend Jim-Lad, and he and his family soon set sail for Dull-On-Sea to try to discover exactly what is going on...
Short enough for a rainy afternoon read, or long enough to keep younger readers guessing through a week of bedtimes, this is a Duddle’s illustrations are fabulous little book. carefully spaced, so that there are no daunting pages of solid text: there is always at least one line drawing to pull us in. However, the text also does this brilliantly. Picking up the story from where it was left at the end of ‘The Pirates Next Door’, it begins with strange happenings in Dull-OnSea. Firstly there are some very odd night-time visitors. Then the museum is robbed - and whilst the account of events
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Maximus flora phobia - true or just a
TALL story?
I’m not quite sure whether or not this is an officially registered phobia, but it seems to be one I see people suffering from frequently, so I thought I’d invent a Latin name for it. Maximus (large) flora (plants) phobia, creeps up on people slowly and its more common than you may think. Maybe it’s not as serious as Botanophobia, the official phobia for people who have a genuine phobia of plants, but this pseudophobia is specifically related to selected members of the plant kingdom which grow taller than humans. I first discovered this was an issue when I planted a Rowan tree in my back garden at the age of 18. “How big will that grow?” my mum would ask me every spring, and each year I would reply with my standard answer “oh, not much bigger than that!” I’m not sure if it’s the fact that humans are generally control freaks and like to be able to reach the top of the plants (for maintenance I can only presume), if they feel over whelmed by the sheer size of a large tree, or perhaps are overly concerned about it growing too near to the house. There are ways to manage the growth of large trees and plants, such as pollarding (cutting off the branches to leave a trunk with a stumpy top), or ‘balling up’ as it’s known in the industry (the act of trimming shrubs into spheres). In my opinion both are hard work, and generally leave ghastly looking results, with the exception of topiary of course! A much better idea is to select the correct tree or shrub in the first place. If you have a border just 2 feet wide, plant a small shrub such as a Hebe that only wants to grow to 2 feet wide. A little research should throw up some good varieties. Trees such as Amelanchier ‘Robin Hill’ and Acer griseum, or Sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’ are ideal. Try Prunus ‘Amanogawa’ for a flowering cherry, or Crataegus persimilis ‘Prunifolia’ which will grow in any location and any reasonable soil. If you’re a plant-nut like me, then it will probably frustrate you when people over trim plants to within an inch of their lives, or hack bits off trees, making them look like alien forms. If you live with a ‘sufferer’ and as a last resort, you could try introducing a pause in your words, as a good friend of mine did when asked how large the Eucalyptus in the front garden would grow …. “Oh, only four-t-five feet dear’. She actually got away with that one … until the following summer that is anyway!
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Even in a ‘British Summer,’ the sun’s rays can be harmful to our pets as well as to ourselves.
Protecting Pets From The Sun
We’ve all become wiser about applying sunscreen and thinking about the effects of UV rays, but now we need to apply this to our pets too. Pets just like humans, can get sunburn if out in the sun for too long. In the longer term, exposure can trigger squamous cell carcinoma - a form of cancer. Most at risk are hairless varieties and white animals There are many products now available to help you protect your pet. These include sunscreens, special wipes, sunblock and soothing after-sun lotion. Always use products specifically designed for pets as human ones often contain salicylates, which may prove toxic. There is also a range of clothing products from hats and sun visors, through to sun suits like those made for children.
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If your pet will be in a vehicle, it is advisable to fit sun screens. When you are out and about, protect your pet by using umbrellas and sun shades or the shade of a tree. Products can be found in pet stores, online and at your vets. Try to avoid your pet being out in the mid-day sun, and always ensure your pet is well hydrated in hot weather.
“Most at risk are hairless varieties and white animals”
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Sweet Feet For Summer
We’ve kept them hidden in shoes and boots all Winter, but when Summer comes it’s good to put on a pair of sandals or flip flops, or perhaps even walk around with bare feet.
Regular include:
maintenance
tasks
your cuticles with a cuticle stick to keep should your toes healthy.
•Cutting your toe nails short. The use of clippers is generally recommended. Nails should be no more than a couple of millimetres over the edge of your toe.
file your nails using an emery board. So, how can we make sure our feet are in •Next, them so they are smooth, neat and tip-top condition and feel confident about File square. showing them off to all around us? good to soak your feet in a bowl of If you have a lot of rough and hard skin, foot •It’s water and use a foot scrub or lotion conditions such as athletes foot, fungal nail warm to get infection, an ingrowing toe nail, calluses, silky. them clean and feeling smooth and corns or verrucas, a session or a number of appointments with a chiropodist or •Various tools and devices are podiatrist is recommended. The terms are available to help you file hard and interchangeable, but strictly in the UK, crusty skin to make it smooth. At ‘Podiatrist’ is a reserved title meaning that home and at a beautician’s this it can only be used by those registered with is likely to be a pumice based the Health Professions Council. Inside the product. A chiropodist is more profession, chiropody is used to suggest likely to use a blade. the routine processes of foot care, whilst podiatry is indicative of the higher skills and •Apply moisturising cream daily academic levels. and massage it in well, including the toes. Let it dry Once any medical issues have been between before putting socks or tights, eliminated, you may wish to keep up the as persisting ondampness look and condition of your feet through cause fungus or athletes foot.can pampering at home, or a trip to the beautician for a pedicure. •Once a week, gently push back
If you want to beautify too, you can apply polish to your toe nails. Some polishes have nourishing qualities. Make sure you remove traces of any previous polish with an appropriate remover. Toe separators can make the job of applying polish easier. Ongoing measures for foot health include putting your feet up after shopping sprees or long walks, and making sure shoes fit properly to prevent blisters or crushing of toes.
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PUZZLE
A G E
Puzzles to keep the brain fit and active
Across 1. Football 4. Hebrew patriarch 8. Information 9. Wedding 10. Animate 12. Computer memory units 13. Member 14. Bender 17. Stories 20. Remove 22. Tree branch 23. Undermine 24. Travelling case for clothes 25. Paul the Apostle 26. Rings 27. Apprehensive
Down 1. Misery 2. Goblet 3. The Desert Fox 5. Like a shrub 6. One that adapts 7. Fast aircraft 11. Notches 15. Method of procedure 16. Moral 18. Counsellor 19. Fixed 21. Shout of discovery 22. Engaged
MOVIE OF THE MONTH DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Release Date 17th July A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species.
Sweet Chilli Coconut Skewers Ingredients 165ml can coconut milk Serves 4 1 tablespoon brown sugar Preparation time: 1 hour 1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce Cooking time: 20 minutes 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 teaspoon fish sauce 800g / 1.5lbs beef rump steak, trimmed, cut into 2cm cubes Coconut chilli sauce 1 tablespoon roughly chopped roasted unsalted peanuts 1 tablespoon shredded coconut, toasted 1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander leaves 1 bird's eye chilli, deseeded, finely chopped (optional) 2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce Method Combine coconut milk, sugar, sweet chilli sauce, cinnamon, cardamom, garlic and fish sauce in a non-metallic bowl. Add beef. Toss to make sure the beef is coated with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, longer if time permits. To make the coconut chilli sauce combine the peanuts, coconut, coriander, chilli, sweet chilli sauce and 3 teaspoons cold water in a bowl. Heat a greased barbecue plate or griddle on medium-high heat. Thread beef onto skewers. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes each side or until browned and cooked through. Drizzle with coconut chilli sauce. Serve with steamed rice, salad and lime wedges.
No Cook Orange Cheesecake Serves 8-10 Preparation time: 25 minutes plus chilling time
Ingredients
15 digestive biscuits 6 tbsp butter, melted 400g curd or cream cheese grated zest 3 oranges, save the segments for the decoration 200g mascarpone cheese 100g caster sugar 3 tbsp milk 184ml pot double cream
Method
Place the biscuits inside a plastic food bag and crush them with a wooden spoon or rolling pin. Melt the butter. Put the biscuits into a bowl and mix in the melted butter. Put the mixture into a 23cm cheesecake tin and use the back of a spoon to spread it evenly, press it down firmly to form the base. Put the tin into the fridge to set. This takes about 30 mins. Put the curd or cream cheese, orange zest, mascarpone, sugar and milk into a bowl and mix it well with the wooden spoon. Put the cream in a clean bowl and whisk until it is the consistency of thick custard. Add to the orange mixture and mix thoroughly. Remove the cheesecake tin from the fridge. Pour the filling over the biscuit base and spread evenly. Decorate with fruit (raspberries are delicious but any soft summer fruit will do) then return to the fridge until ready to serve (at least 4 hours or overnight).
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Solution corner
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