“You can do good. Or you can do well. Sooner or later they make you choose…” Here it is, the brand new trailer for Spooks: The Greater Good, starring Kit Harington and Peter Firth – in cinemas 8th May 2015.
Author Archives: Frostie
Unicorn Horn For Cats: The Ultimate in Funky Feline Headwear
Okay, it might make your cat disown you and go live with your neighbour, but the few moments of hilarity, and any pictures you manage to grab, will surely make it worth it. This unicorn hat for cats is one of the greatest things EVER.
This funky feline headwear is all you need to make your cat into a Unicorn. Up the cuteness and cracking character that your cat has with this Inflatable Unicorn Horn For Cats.Your feline friend will look awesome, be it grumpy or gorgeous – your moggy will easily pull off this amazing accessory for between their fluffy little ears.Ideally shaped for all cats’ noggins, the elastic strap system helps it sit straight on your kitty’s head without getting on their nerves.
This inflatable dress up feature for your cat is 14cm long, made of vinyl and slips straight over their ears. Available for only £6.95 from www.prezzybox.com now.
Rise of The ‘Returners’ Women Over 30 Starting Their Own Businesses Increases
Naomi West is at the front of a trend: Women over 30 taking the plunge and starting their own businesses.
Naomi West, 32, worked in digital marketing for a Financial Services company before her first son, Jacob, now almost 3, was born. She no longer wanted to be on conference calls at 6am with her colleagues in Australia and Skype meetings at 9pm with her American team. She freelanced for a while but still found it difficult to juggle family life with deadlines and client commitments. The peaks and troughs of work made planning childcare difficult and when her second son, Benjamin, was born with a heart defect, Naomi knew she needed to find a new way of working that would enable her to be there for her family.
Having enrolled both her children in Baby Sensory classes, Naomi waited for an epiphany about her future career. It came when her Baby Sensory class leader told her she was recruiting for a new class leader and Naomi got the job, gaining valuable experience. When the opportunity to take on her own franchise came up in her area of Bromsgrove, Worcester, she jumped at the chance, borrowing £15,000 in two loans from Startup Direct and launching her first classes in January this year. She now runs 11 classes per week, with up to 20 babies in each class.
“When the opportunity to start my own franchise came up, I felt instantly it was something I could make a success of”, said Naomi. ”I had experience with the business as a client and class leader, and had the skills from my career in digital marketing to set up and market the business in my own area. I now have regular class hours doing something sociable and creative, which fits brilliantly around family life. What’s not to love?”
Data released by Startup Direct shows that the number of women over the age of 30 seeking start up finance and mentoring increased by a third in 2014.
In 2013 women over the age of 30 made up just 25% of enquiries to the Government start up loan provider, but this grew to 57% in 2014, an increase of one third (32%). This trend is being driven largely by ‘Returners’; women who have taken a break from the workplace to have a family and are motivated to start their own business by the challenges of finding flexible and stable employment which is well paid enough to cover the cost of childcare.
They are starting predominantly internet-based micro businesses, employing fewer than 5 employees, which they can run part-time from their homes and are undeterred by the challenge of juggling home and family commitments with the demands of a new business.
James Pattison, CEO of Startup Direct, said: “A growing number of women are disillusioned by the difficulties of combining family life with a traditional 9 to 5 job, not least the inflexible hours, lack of well paid part time work and the cost of childcare, which continues to spiral. The internet has made it easier than ever to start up a business from home and women are drawn to the prospect of being their own boss, choosing their hours and cutting childcare bills by working flexibly around family life.”
Startup Direct is encouraging more women to follow their dream of launching their own business by running a series of workshops aimed specifically at women, offering advice on all aspects of entrepreneurship as well as practical advice on childcare and time management. In particular it is targeting ‘Returners’, those are want to start businesses following a period of maternity leave or a career break after having children.
To apply for a start up loan, visit www.startupdirect.org
Ohio Rock Band Dedicates New Song to Veterans Suffering With PTSD
Dayton, Ohio rock band, Able Danger, released a special video of their new song “Let Go,” featuring a solo vocal and key performance by lead vocalist Nikki Luttrell.
“Let Go is an emotionally charged song, and people can relate to it for a number of reasons. Nikki personally dedicated her performance in the video to American Veterans who are suffering from PTSD.
37⁰ Thermoband Maguari Review | New Children’s Safety Product
The 37°Thermoband is a new handy gadget that takes the guessing out of milk temperature. Whether you bottle feed or express your breast milk. This is a clever flexible silicon band which will let you know when your baby’s bottle is the perfect temperature for feeding. It changes colour when the safe temperature is reached. very handy indeed.
It fits most glass and plastic bottles and the band can be personalised using a ball point pen. You could put your child’s name and any health or allergy information. Information can be removed during cleaning, or made permanent by simply placing the band in boiling water for five minutes. Smart technology indeed. We were impressed. A time-saving gadget that makes a parents life a little bit easier.
Dishwasher, microwave and steriliser safe, 37° Thermobands are BPA free, FDA approved and EN tested.
RRP of £13.00 from maguari.com or jojomamanbebe.co.uk
Elstow | Music Profile
In July 2012 Jared Shaw and Chel Browne sent a couple of low-fi demos to Peats Ridge Festival on a whim. Having played only one live show together, their obsession with music was very much a private affair up until then, and neither expected the illustrious Sydney music festival to respond at all. But respond they did, and just a few months later the duo stood together on stage in the eastern-psychedelic-themed ‘Chai Tent’ and warmed an unsuspecting audience with hazy sixties-inspired songs about love, loss and death, blending delicate vocal harmonies with somber misty tones.
Borrowing the name of the building they lived in, and guided by a deep appreciation for the folk and psychedelic pop of the sixties and seventies, the duo quickly expanded to five members as they explored their wider musical tastes. Drawing on the psychedelic sounds of bands like Jefferson Airplane, Jimmie Spheeris, and early Pink Floyd, coupled with an infatuation with nineties alt-psych idols Brian Jonestown Massacre and Mazzy Star, Elstow started work on their debut EP in 2013. Released the following year, AS THE SUN FALLS was five tracks of dreamy psychedelic landscapes fused with a moody folk sensibility. Both personal and surreal, bloggers described it as “music to lose yourself to,” and “a psychedelic romance.”
Harnessing an atmospheric and increasingly dynamic live set, the band spent 2014 playing all over their hometown of Sydney, winning over unsuspecting hearts one mind-bending show at a time. Their sound, which has been described as ‘neo-psychedelic-dream-folk,’ has been evolving slowly and surely, refusing to remain static.
In the late months of 2014, Elstow went back into the studio to record their new single, ‘Evil Dreams.’ Despite the sinister sounding name, and promises of a “very weird” video to accompany it, the new song is described by Shaw as “a little more upbeat than the EP,” and combines Elstow’s dreamlike psychedelic overtones with a breezy sunshine-laden chorus. ‘Evil Dreams’ swings between verses of doubtful self-reflection and a chorus of daydream surrender. Carefully woven vocal harmonies float amidst an abundance of tremolo guitars, delay, and crisp tambourines; ‘Evil Dreams’ is as ambitious as it is timeless.
Salma Hayek Stars In Everly | Film Trailer
The amazing Salma Hayek stars in highly anticipated action movie Everly, directed by Joe Lynch. The film is an action/thriller centred on a woman who faces down assassins sent by her ex, a mob boss, while holed up in her apartment.
Everly is set to be released on the 10th of April in the UK.
One-Armed Man Builds Prosthetic Arm so He Can Pilot a Plane | Inspirational Stories
By Barry Smyth
A one-armed man whose missing limb was severed from the shoulder in a freak biking accident has invented a prosthetic replacement which will allow him to fly a plane.
Steven Robinson’s right arm was torn off by another rider’s footpeg during a collision over 30 years ago, and attempts to rebuild his limb proved unsuccessful.
Since his crash, Steven, 51, has never worn a prosthetic arm but he realised he would need one if he wanted accomplish his lifelong dream of getting his private flying licence.
Despite trying out several types from the NHS, the motivational speaker soon discovered they weren’t going to do the job, so he set out to make his own – designing and building it all from scratch.
Now, after almost a year hard at work, Steven, who fixes vintage jukeboxes in his spare time, has a working prototype which was signed off by an aviation medical examiner two weeks ago – and he reckons it makes him look like RoboCop.
This means he will be able finally get his solo flying hours and, all being well, his licence.
At the age of 18 in 1982, a mid-air crash on his bike left Steven critically ill with damaged lungs, spleen and liver, a broken leg and most crucially, a severed arm.
His torn-off limb was found 100 metres away, too damaged to reattached, and his missing body part changed his life forever.
Steven, from Leeds, West Yorks., said: “The day of the accident was the day my life changed for ever, but surprisingly it was a positive thing.
“As I lay in hospital I’d been told I’d lost my arm but I didn’t believe it as I could still ‘feel’ it.
“It wasn’t until a nurse took me into the bathroom for the first time that I realised the truth. But, as I looked in the mirror a wave of euphoria washed over me.
“I walked out of that bathroom a new person. I had gone in as a spotty, ugly, shy, boy with no confidence and walked out as a strong young man who had already survived against all the odds.”
Despite being so afraid of flying as a young man he had to have a course of hypnotherapy to even board a plane, on a whim Steven applied to the Flying Scholarships for Disabled People (FSDP) – and in 2012, was accepted.
But when he started flying in 2012, the prosthetic limb he had fell off each time he tried to operate the joystick, making flying as a one-armed pilot impossible.
Undaunted, he scrapped the false arm, and decided he would solve the problem himself.
He suspended his lessons until he could make himself a new arm that was up to the job.
He tried out two arms the NHS had given him but found he couldn’t use them to fly. He had flown co-pilot for several months without a prosthetic, but he needed the new arm to fly solo.
Steven believes that a number of ‘unique features’ make his #200 arm stand out from anything else at present.
He said: “I basically bought a milling machine and a lathe and started making components out of aluminium and putting them together.
“It has all been made by me, nothing is shop bought. I actually had to design some parts because they didn’t exist before.
“It has a very special shoulder socket that I have a patent on now, I also had to design a special jacket so that arm can fit over it.
“It looks pretty impressive. I look a bit like RoboCop.”
Steven explained that his arm has a quick-release shoulder socket, which means if he gets in trouble he can get out of his arm quickly.
“People don’t think about getting out of them quickly but you don’t want to be stuck if you are in trouble in a plane.
“It also has positive locking on the shoulder and it can fully rotate as well.”
Steven said the unique arm took him around 12 months to put together – but he took his time as he was hoping the arms on offer by the NHS might have fit the bill.
He added: “I’ve spoken to lots of different groups about how everyone is capable of overcoming obstacles and building their own future.
“I say to them, if I can achieve all of these things with one arm, what are you capable of achieving with two?”
“I’ve met people who had obstacles in their way which didn’t exist, just like my right arm. It’s just a question of overcoming them.
“With passion, determination and the right attitude you can achieve anything you put your mind to.”
Steven now need to fly ten hours solo and carry out various navigation tests before he is a fully-qualified pilot.