Blue Wrench

Hall bingo has taken a back seat to online bingo in some ways with the introduction of the new anti-smoking rules and new legislations the popularity of the game has somewhat diminished. However there are still people who enjoy the game and the social aspect of playing bingo at the halls. There are some unwritten rules that you need to know if you’re planning on playing bingo in the halls. There are some rules that clubs implement as well so check them out before you go to your local club or just ask a friend.

The first unwritten rule of the bingo hall is not to make too much noise when playing. Chatting to your friend next door in a loud voice will not make you popular. You can talk but make sure that it’s at a time that’s appropriate like during the break. A lowered voice is considered appropriate but when the caller starts to call all players must be quiet. The general rule is that your voice should not be louder than the caller so that all the players can hear the numbers. It is considered rude to drown out the caller and will make sure you are very unpopular if you don’t obey this rule.

Another rule is to make sure your children don’t make a lot of noise when you take them to bingo. They should be in the children’s area while the game is being played and not running around the floor. Most people will understand if parents will want to bring their children but they also want them to be quiet during the game. The next rule is when you call “bingo”, calling bingo when the game is on will stop the game. The main rule is to make sure that when you call “bingo” you should make sure you actually have bingo. It will frustrate other players if you call bingo and don’t have bingo

Next is to make sure that you don’t take other peoples lucky seats. This is a harder rule to observe but if you go with a friend they should be able to let you know where the regulars sit. It seems like a strange rule but some people believe that where they sit will create luck. Finally the last rule is about the caller, if you have a problem or issue with the caller it should be resolved politely. It should be dealt with in private and any abusive yelling is considered unfair play. Therefore if you keep all these simple rules in mind when first playing hall bingo, if those rules don’t suit you just play free bingo online!

Selecting the right supplier of catering equipment is a important decision, one not to be taken lightly. You will want to make sure you are dealing with a reputable company, getting a good price and the most suitable equipment for your needs.

Until relatively recently there were only two options available to help you to select a supplier of catering equipment: call them on the phone or go and see them in person. This isn’t always reliable as you cannot view the equipment on the phone and visiting a company on the other side of the country isn’t very practical. Once again the internet has come to the rescue, with on-line shopping, or e-commerce, it is now possible to view product images and descriptions, compare prices and research suppliers all without leaving your desk.

Not all on-line retailers are the same
So now we have established that selecting catering equipment on-line is the way to go and far better than the old methods, we still need to ensure we select the best supplier and the right equipment. There are several things to look out for when visiting a potential supplier’s website.

Does the site look professional and business like? Rather like a physical shop or showroom you can tell a lot about the company you are dealing with by how their website looks. You wouldn’t purchase an expensive piece of equipment from a dodgy looking shop with misspelled signs and dirty shop floor, nor should you from a business with a dodgy looking, messy and badly designed website.

Does the website display prices? Many businesses use their websites as little more than on-line catalogues, displaying products but giving away little information. These companies hope that you will be tempted by the pictures to pick up the phone and place an order. This is an old-fashioned way to run a website. These days people expect the website to work much harder, they expect to see multiple images, full descriptions and lists of benefits. Any supplier of catering equipment not doing this on their website is either lazy, afraid of disclosing prices or simply out of touch with how the modern world does business.

Does the website allow you to actually buy on-line? Setting up an on-line shop takes a bit of time and money so only companies that are serious about selling on-line will go to the trouble. If a supplier has a well thought out on-line store or e-commerce shopping cart, as they are sometimes called, you can take it a sign of professionalism and good business practice. If the on-line store is packed with features like customer reviews, comparison, wish lists and order tracking you will know that this company means business and is likely to be professional. And good on-line store will also make life easier for you the customer and that is always a good thing.

Shop around
Once you have selected a supplier of catering equipment that fits the bill in terms of having a professional website that allows on-line purchasing it is time to compare. If you have a short list of potential suppliers the deciding factor will probably be price. You might think that location should be a factor too but it needn’t be if the price is low enough. For example if you are based in Sydney and looking to buy a cake display for your shop you might be tempted to use a Sydney based supplier, but what if a firm in Brisbane meets all the criteria listed above and offers the cake display at a price that is lower even when shipping is taken into account. I know what I would do.

Ambassador Catering Equipment

is Australia’s leading on-line retailer of high quality catering equipment, commercial cooking equipment, commercial fridges, food displays, coffee machines and much more. Ambassador stocks top brands such as Roband, Fed/Thermatech, Anvil, Birko, Silfer, Boema. Based in Brisbane, Ambassador Catering Equipment can deliver all over Australia.

Fundraising has always been a primary source of income for many organisations such as community groups, sporting clubs, and the Parents and Friends (or Parents and Citizens) Associations of schools. With limited financial help from governments, nearly all of these establishments would not be financially viable without the wonderful and tireless fundraising exploits of their members. For example sporting clubs charge membership fees but with outlays ever increasing, it wouldn’t be potential for them to exist financially without fundraising.

The sorts of fundraising opportunities today are many and varied. There’s a plethora of fundraising entities around trying to entice organisations to use their services. From selling bottled water, wrist bands, homewares, clothing, jewelry and show bags to equestrian riding, shopping tours and engraving bricks and pavers. The alternatives are truly amazing and seemingly endless.

Schools and sporting clubs have traditionally stuck by the occasion honoured methods of fundraising by selling donuts, lollies, chocolates and biscuits. Over old few years, however, due to child obesity issues from poor dietary habits and beneath physical workouts, nearly all of these established fundraising products have started to fall from favour with fundraising entities.

This has allowed the less traditional fundraising ideas to buy a foot in the door so to speak of this multi-million dollar industry.

So where do you become when you wish to get moving with fundraising? Say for example your child is in their second year of school, and you have decided to grow more actively concerned in the comings and goings of their school. You attend the first P and C Association meeting of the year, and you find yourself on the Fundraising Committee for the year. You want to impress your peers; you want to make a difference and do the job successfully.

There are many reasons why the school might have to fundraise. It might need funds for some extra computers in the library, or new playground equipment or perhaps they would like to see a roof over a new walkway. What to do, where to get rolling to raise the required funds? These days most people are turning to the internet.

The internet has in a very short space of time become the hottest and powerful tool for locating details, far more widely used now than the local newspapers or the yellow pages. When looking for ideas or facts, most people now do not think about any options apart from the internet. There are many search engines accessible to the internet user, such as Yahoo!, Bing, Altavista, Ask and Lycos. But by far the most popular search engine on the internet is Google.

ComScore is a marketing research company that provides marketing data and services to nearly all of the internet’s largest businesses. According to estimates released by comScore at the finish of 2008, Google ended the year with 63.5 percent market share of all search queries performed in the U.S that year! That’s a big slice of the pie.

Google provide a Keyword Tool, which allows access to facts regarding the hottest search phrases used by internet users when searching on Google. The most popular search terms used for Google for fundraising are in point of fact fundraising, fundraiser, school fundraising ideas, fundraiser ideas, ideas for fundraising, fundraisers and fundraising ideas.

The consequences from all of these searches show a broad variety of sites that the user can access, the majority of them being fundraising directories that list many hundreds of fundraising entities offering their services.

One of the best websites in these search results appears to be goldstar.net.au which is the web address for the Brisbane based company Gold Star Gifts and Stationery. This company supplies novelty stationery and gift items to schools, clubs and organisations Australia wide for fundraising purposes. They provide free delivery, no upfront costs, and the fundraising entity keeps 50% profit from the sales of their products. So if you’re looking for fundraising, fundraising ideas or fundraisers, check out Goldstar today.

People need places in which to be alive, work, play, learn, worship, meet, govern, shop and eat. It is their responsibility private and public spaces, indoors and out including rooms, buildings, and complexes; neighborhoods and towns and cities, suburbs and cities.

Architects, professionals trained in the art and science of building design and licensed to protect health, safety, and welfare, transform these needs into concepts and then develop the ideas into building images that can be constructed by others.

In designing buildings, architects communicate between and assist people who have needs. These comprise customer, users, the populace as a complete, and people who will make the spaces that satisfy those needs including builders and contractors, plumbers and painters, carpenters, and air conditioning mechanics.

Whether the project is a room or a city, a new building or the renovation of an old one, architects provide the professional services — ideas and insights, design and technical knowledge, drawings and specifications, administration, coordination, and informed decision making — whereby an exceptional range of functional, aesthetic, technological economic, human, environmental, and safety factors is melded into a coherent and appropriate resolution for the problems at hand.

This is what architects are, conceivers of buildings. What they do is to design, that is, supply concrete images for a new structure so that it can be put up. The primary task of the architect, then as now, is to communicate what proposed buildings should be and took like. The architect’s role is that of mediator between the client or patron, that is, the person who decides to construct, and the effort force with its overseers, which we might collectively refer to as the builder.

Why Architecture?
Why do you desire to turn into an architect? Have you been building with Legos since you were two? Did a counselor recommend it to you as a consequence of a strong interest and skill in mathematics and art? Or are there other reasons? Aspiring architects cite zest for drawing, creating, and designing, want to do something positive for the environment in the community; aptitude for mathematics and science, or an association to a family member in the profession. Whatever your reason, are you worthy of become an architect?

Is Architecture for You?
How are you aware if the quest for architecture is proper for you? Those within the profession advise that if you’re creative or artistic and good in mathematics and science, you could have what it takes to be a successful architect. Still, Dana Cuff, author of Architecture: The Story of Practice, suggests it takes more:

There are two qualities that neither employers nor educators can instill and without which, it is assumed, one cannot become a “good” architect: dedication and talent.

Owing to the breadth of skills and talents necessary to be an architect, you may be in a position to find your area of interest within the profession regardless. It takes three attributes to be a successful architecture student – intelligence, creative imagination and dedication, and you must any two of the three.

Also, your education will develop your knowledge base and design talents. Regrettably, there is no magic test to decide if becoming an architect is for you. Maybe, the most effective way to determine if you should think about turning into an architect is to experience the profession firsthand. Ask numerous calls into question and recognize that many related career fields might also work for you.

For the architect must, on the one hand, be a person who’s fascinated by how things work and how he can create them work, not in the sense of inventing or repairing machinery, but rather in the organization of time-space elements to produce the preferred effect.

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Brisbane Based Health and Fitness Business, Executive Results, has come up with a unique weight loss and fitness program that will be available for schools on North Brisbane to participate in. The program is a weekly Kids Boot Camp of just 30 minutes that will teach kids team building and leadership skills, while doing so they also get a good old school workout that will help them lose weight quickly and also have fun.

Respect and discipline is a fundamental part of the Boot Camp Program. The definition of discipline is the willingness and compliance to requests, respect for parents or teachers and other authority figures, self reliance and teamwork; it does not refer to physical discipline, there will never be any cursing or physical contact between the instructor and kids!

This program is intended for everyday Brisbane kids, kids who need to get more active and/or get in better condition, the program is not intended for unruly kids in any way. The program is run by Personal Trainers in Brisbane from Executive Results who all have a blue card and kids themselves! The Personal Trainer will show up in their Army Camouflage pants, Army coloured shirt and cap which will impress every kid, so far all kids have been very positive and always think they are dealing with the Boot Camp Commando (TV Character) or Jillian Michaels when Anna Junghans takes the camp.

Location
The Kids Boot Camp Program will be conducted on school grounds if permitted by the school, or close to the school and is early in the morning before school or right after school. The program is for grade 3 till grade 6.

What to Expect
Kids will need to stand in line with their hands behind their back, they will need to remain quiet when spoken to, and although there is a time for fun and games, talking and chatting during the fitness session is not allowed.

Healthy Eating
The program also promotes healthy eating habits by donating a percentage back in the form of fruit and healthy snacks that are handed out for free during the lunch break.

Anyone wanting to get their kids to participate in this Boot Camp Program should contact their school principal and ask about the Executive Results Kids Boot Camp Program, or contact www.executiveresults.com.au for more information. For the parents who want to get in shape or lose weight, we also have Personal Training Services and Adult Boot Camps available throughout Brisbane.

The assessment of a dredging projects soil conditions are the most important factor to determine dredgeability, the choice of suitable equipment, production rates and ultimately the associated costs for the works.

A prudent tenderer when analysing the site data needs to be assured that the data has been collected and prepared by a competent soil investigation company in accordance with relevant international standards such as BS, ASTM or others.

Rather than rely on the basic adverse physical conditions clause in the case of significant capital works involving excavation of varying subsoil, weathered or solid rock it is suggested to apply reference conditions in the Contract based on the actual information from the soil survey transposed into production rates which can be easily measured and reviewed, beyond which the Contractor is entitled to claim for additional compensation.

Of the contracts available for use on dredging contracts only the FIDIC 1999 Red Book and the UK’s NEC 3 Engineering and Construction Contract deal with the broad concept of reference conditions.

The concept of how adverse physical conditions are dealt with verges on the holy grail of marine infrastructure projects. On the one side they are part of a Marine Contractors ‘must have’ clauses whilst it is often viewed by Clients as the equivalent of a ‘get out of jail free’ card. The balance of risk has been hotly debated and fought over the years with the results little published or revealed due to disputes being resolved in arbitration or adjudication.

Added to this mix are the notion of unforeseeability and what an experienced contractor can expect its no wonder that the vast majority of marine infrastructure claims revolve around the issue of sub-surface conditions.

Even a full-scale and technically perfect soil investigation can only test a fraction of the volume that is to be dredged by the Contractor. Combined with the fact that natural conditions like rock strength, grain size, permeability, plasticity, presence of rock outcrops or boulders (to name a few) vary enormously, it is no wonder disputes on dredging contracts often focus on soil conditions that are claimed to be different from what “an experienced Contractor could reasonably have foreseen” .

The basic principle of adverse physical conditions this that a contract clause will give the Contractor the “right to claim for additional time and money in case unforeseeable physical conditions which may occur, which were not reasonably foreseeable by an experienced contractor”. This simple principle is present in one way or the other in virtually every dredging contract.

A dual purpose lies hidden behind this contract principle, namely to :

* Compensate the Contractor for encountering conditions more severe than could be derived from investigations available at the time of preparing his offer. Employers must not and should not expect the Contractor to gamble: Taking a risk provision covering for every imaginable situation would make an offer non-competitive, whereas the absence of a risk provision is a denial of the fact that dredging has significant uncertainties by its very nature. Employers tend to be overly biased towards achieving the lowest contract price for their work by passing all conceivable risk to the Contractor whether he is in a position to dealt with it or not.

* Protect the Employer from Contractors who may try to claim additional compensation for interpretation or calculation errors mistakes made by the Contractor and resulting in a loss on the project. A loss in itself is no justification for additional compensation, and furthermore the Employer has very limited possibilities to assess the factual cause of the loss.

In between the relative simplicity of the two extremes lies a gray area, and it is here that disputes are generally fought out. The author supports the view that a sufficiently high threshold for additional compensation should be present, balancing the interest of the Employer (by not having to battle over every minor issue) and of the Contractor (by having capped his risk and defined additional compensation above threshold). It is further suggested that a risk matrix framework could be established to assess the magnitude of the additional compensation before award of the contract.

For more information on dredging contracts, and maritime contracts, please visit Kinlan Consulting, an expert FIDIC Contract Consultant.

A mountain of Christmas gifts and goods make their way from and into homes each Christmas season. It is a sad fact that, not long after the festivities subside, many of those well-intentioned gifts move quickly on to mounds of landfill.

Slowing the migration is as easy as setting your family the Green Christmas Challenge to send as little as possible to landfill this Christmas. Inspired by the target of a close to empty wheelie bin, you will all make decisions that generate less waste.

Many actions contribute to celebrating a green Christmas, like locally-grown foods to reduce food miles, switching to LED eco Christmas lights and donating gifts to charities. The massive amount of food, plastic and non-recyclable waste is the primary environmental problem, but it is an easy one for eco friendly households to take on.

Sit the team down before Christmas and discuss methods of reuse, reduce and recycle. Here are some ideas to get you started…

Eco friendly plastic-free picnics

Disposable plastic plates and cups are made from petrochemicals, so pollution is made in their manufacture and when thrown-away they sit in landfill forever. Choose reusable plates that you wash up or use palm leaf plates, a stylish plant alternative. They add a chic eco friendly style to your festive table and can be put onto your garden as mulch, rather than in the bin.

Trim a living tree

When Santa arrives in his carbon-neutral sleigh, surprise him with a live Australian Wollemi pine tree. This recently discovered prehistoric tree is now obtainable in nurseries. A potted Wollemi can grow with your family to be trimmed year after year. Or, why not a tradition to find a lovely Eucalyptus branch that can be composted when the Christmas festivities are over.

Wrap it again

A good way to stretch the budget and save piles of waste is to wrap presents in newspaper, magazines and even junk mail. For kids use the comics, for car lovers use the motoring pages. Instead of wrapping, place gifts inside reusable shopping bags, or sew cloth bags from festive Christmas material that your family can re-tie with ribbon each year. For an additional special Green Christmas touch, Earth Greetings make stunning post consumer waste wrapping paper with Australian Christmas designs printed with vegetable inks.

Detour past the bin
Is this Christmas gift prone to finish up in the bin within some weeks? If yes, opt for something else. The old saying quality not quantity is a great friend of the planet. Even the cheapest items use the planet’s limited resources, energy and water to manufacture. Rather than buy a risky gift, consider a gift voucher or make a donation to a charity on behalf of the person. Should you receive an unsuitable gift, pass it straight on to a charity like the Salvos.

A green Christmas gift for your garden

Food scraps make up a huge portion of rubbish and once in landfill they generate methane, a concentrated greenhouse gas. Compost at home instead and turn leftovers into fertiliser for your garden. The Bokashi composting bin is a popular system that sits conveniently in your kitchen.

Packaging-free paradise

Picture a paradise where Christmas morning is clear of mounds of discarded plastic packaging. It only takes a little extra thought and effort. Locally made and hand-made Christmas gifts are to be over-packaged. A trip to the local Farmer’s Markets help you stock up on fresh festive food with minimal packaging.

As opposed to talking rubbish; this Christmas, your family will soon be asking is this for landfill, recycling or composting? And the joy of reaching your challenge will bring good tidings to all.

Biome Eco Stores is a chic retail outlet with a conscience. Firmly committed to eco friendly principles, Biome offers a unique and meaningful green Christmas collection for gifts and decoration.

After the declaration of war in September 1939 house construction went through a period of decreasing activity. But it did not drop to its minimal level until February 1942 when National Security Regulations posed severe restrictions.

Private building ceased in many areas and was limited in others. However, under the War Housing Program, state and commonwealth authorities did continue with essential housing, such as that needed for munitions workers and their families.

Clear indication of the degree of change is seen in the official statistics. More than 40000 new homes were built throughout Australia in the financial year 1938-39, but in 1942-1943 there were fewer than 4000.’

In the editorial of the Australian Home Beautiful for January 1942, we read of conditions up to that time. Building restrictions, at the moment of writing, limit expenditure on new domestic buildings to £3000 and on renovations to £250; but conditions grow harder week by week. In spite of this, a great deal of new and interesting building is being carried on over a widespread area and this will continue as long as materials are available.

War in Europe and North Africa was distant enough for Australia to seem relatively secure. With the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and their inexorable advance in our direction, any remaining complacency evaporated.

A. V. Jennings, the well-known construction company founded in 1932, continued building houses on its construction within 25 miles (40 km) of the Melbourne GPO as well as restrictions on the transfer of land brought development of the estate to a halt.

As early as May 1941 wartime conditions had begun to cause shortages of building materials and dwindling sales. In that month A.V. Jennings advertised seventeen villa sites and seven business sites, all lots to include, electricity, gas, sewerage, roads, paths and crossings.’

Of the 121 residential blocks, fifty-nine houses had been completed by the beginning of 1942. They were typical of the well-built, double-brick houses constructed by Jennings over the previous decade. Beauview Estate was in a very attractive elevated area with panoramic views and a mere six-and-a-half miles (10.50 km) from the city.

In 1942, with home building now at a standstill, A.V. Jennings averted complete disaster with the sale of all unsold blocks on the estate to the large Melbourne estate agency T.M. Burke. As a company Jennings actually gathered strength through the challenges offered by wartime government construction contracts, so that when it returned to housing on a large scale in the mid-1950s it was able to regain and extend its early reputation in the domestic field.

Brick houses of the type built by A.V Jennings between 1932 and 1942 were basically conservative in their design when compared with the few examples of International Modern built at the same time. Some of the forms or details suggested the continuing popularity of `Spanish Mission’ or `Old English’, but generally, there was a tendency toward a common sense functionalism with easily maintained surfaces, modern kitchens, hot-water services reticulated to five or six points, internal toilets and many other features taken for granted by generations.

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Stick a pin in a globe through the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and it emerges almost exactly through the Cocos in Costa Rica.

Discovered in 1609, these islands were settled and owned by a single family from 1827 until the Australian Government forcibly acquired them in 1978 for a payment of over $6 million.

Lying 2,770 km (1,732 ml) northwest of Perth, the 27 coral islands are formed into two large, heavily vegetated atolls. Not only are they the only atolls that Darwin ever visited, but the coral ecosystem remains intact and you can still see in their pristine condition exactly why they played such an important part in his theory of evolution.

North Keeling, set apart from the other islands, isn’t even inhabited; but you can see extreme rarities like the Cocos buff-banded rail, robber land crabs, and both green and hawksbill turtles among other wonders, under its protection as Pulu Keeling National Park, covering both North Keeling and its surrounding waters.

The 600 or so Cocos (Keeling) islanders live on Home and West Islands, both given over to copra and coconut plantations that only add to their tropical glamour. There is no tourist industry at all. Instead, there are facilities for visitors, sponsored by islanders who take an almost personal interest in everyone who comes.

If you happen to be there, you’re genuinely welcome to participate in the school fete, sports day, or concert night; and you’d be unwise not to join in quiz night at the Cocos Club, or not to watch the annual Ardmona Cup Aussie Rules football match. The tradition of hospitality is both Australian and Malay, representing the origins of the tight-knit community.

The islanders, as much as the islands themselves, have retained a form of unpolluted innocence, and share a mutual respect that visitors immediately respond to. These islands are a dreamscape worthy of Gauguin.

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In the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa lies a small archipelago of four islands and islets. Although closer to Africa, the islands are part of the Republic of Yemen. The archipelago consists of the main island of Socotra and three smaller islands known collectively as The Brothers Abd al Kuri, Samhah and Darsa.

The islands were separated from the mainland so long ago that much of their flora and fauna has evolved here, making the islands of great ecological importance. Due to their geographical isolation, the islanders have also had little outside influence, and arriving on Socotra is like stepping back in time.

The culture on Socotra is very different from the ways of the modern world. Until the airport was built in 1999, the only way to get here was by boat, and during the monsoon season the strong winds and high seas made the island inaccessible.

Most Socotris still live without electricity, running water or a paved road. Until 1990 the island still had a barter economy, and even today most people in the mountainous areas still live in caves. The main island is a little over 130 km (80 mi) long and around 35 km (21 mi) wide.

Socotra is a place of contrasting landscapes, with the turquoise lagoon at Qalansiya and the white sand dunes at Ras Moroi, the flower-filled alpine meadows of the Haghier Mountains and the desolate cave-riddled plateau of the interior. Rising to over 1,500 m (4,921 ft), the Haghier Mountains loom over Hadibo, the island’s capital, and dominate the skyline.

The red granite peaks are peppered with silver lichens which grow thickly on the bare rocks above the tree line. Streams bubble down from the misty heights, teeming with lively fish and freshwater crabs. Limestone plateau spread east and west, providing alkaline soils for the iconic Dragon’s Blood Tree for which the islands are famous. The locals collect the blood-red resin, known as cinnabar, from the tree by making incisions in the bark.

In the ancient world, it was used to enhance the colour of precious stones and glass, and as a pigment in paints, and had various medicinal qualities. The long isolation of the Socotra archipelago and its fierce heat and drought have combined to create a unique endemic flora and fauna.

There are no fewer than 300 plant species, 113 insect species, 24 reptile species and six bird species that can be found nowhere else in the world. Botanists rank the flora of Socotra among the ten most endangered island flora in the world, and steps are being taken by the government to protect this unique and spectacular habitat.

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