I used to live on Jess Rd, Whakamarama, and looked at building a log cabin there. I had the idea of using timber from the Tauranga Wharf to build it and ended up buying the whole Wharf! But plans changed and I decided to move out here to the beach.
Over a bottle of scotch with friends, I hatched the idea of designing a new home with sarked ceilings and beams, using the timber from the wharf. The beams are over 100 years old. I love the idea of having a real piece of local history interwoven with new materials.
I talked to Ray Hudson builders to see if it would work putting 10 tonne of timber in the ceiling. Ray is a legend. He likes a challenge and is used to building high end homes he built another waterfront home I had in Papamoa and he really is a perfectionist. You never need to have him back to fix things he only comes back for a beer!
Another local feature is the rimu furniture it's all designed and handmade by a boat builder from Mount Maunganui whose marriage broke up and he had to get rid of the timber! He built the dining room table and chairs, and I was so pleased with the result that I commissioned him for the shelving and bedroom furniture.
I think I funded his divorce and his emigration to Australia, but he did a great job. The fireplace and entry is schist stone I used five tonne of schist throughout the house. I was lucky to get Nick from Island Stone he is an English stonemason who used to restore old buildings in England and does a beautiful job.
For the walls I used Hot Chile Red by Resene. The colour really lifts the blonding of the sarking and the different tones in the stone. The kitchen is designed by Nikki at Mastercraft. She introduced a lot of new products into her design. The end product includes black glass and Caesar stone (Mosaici Carbone) I wanted large granite bench tops and the combination with the black glass is stunning because it reflects the water view. And a bonus it even reflects the TV so I can watch it while I am cooking.
Throughout the house Trent Wilson from Complete Electrical put in LED and feature lighting. I went a bit crazy it's complete electric all right.
Trash in the Mississippi River clung to Memphis shores once flood waters began to recede this May. Volunteers spent long hours picking up litter and debris around Mud Island and in Tom Lee Park.
But south of Downtown at McKellar Lake, where a colossal trash problem was illuminated by outsiders months before the historic flooding this spring, cleanup could take years.
On Saturday, about 40 local volunteers picked up enough plastic in two hours to fill two dump trucks. The plastic and glass bottles, mostly litter from Memp顺便:给你推荐一个超实惠的鞋店http://shop60690329.taobao.com/hians who throw garbage into the street, were taken to be recycled.
Foam plastic and sports equipment, which traveled with the plastics along Nonconnah Creek before landing in the lake, were placed in a smaller, nonrecyclable pile headed for a landfill.
"Recycling is the big thing about today," said Amelia Mayahi, the 25-year-old sustainability coordinator at the University of Memphis. "Moving the trash from the lake to a landfill, like has been done before, doesn't make the most sense."
Having to continuously clean when the problem is largely preventable is also senseless, she said.
"Our hope is not only to come and help clean, but to be able to raise awareness," Mayahi said. "If we don't teach people to stop littering, the cleaning could be endless."
In March, a river cleanup group called Living Lands & Waters descended upon McKellar Lake, which is a slack-water harbor along the Mississippi, and bagged about 10,000 pounds of trash a day for a month.
"It's tough to know Memphians did this. We did this to ourselves," said Colton Cockrum, volunteer recruiter and assistant director of the honors program at the U of M. "It's hard for anyone who takes pride in the city to see."
Saturday was the start of monthly trips to the site, Cockrum told the sweat-laden group of students and environmental activists at the end of the day's work. Cleaners will delve deeper into the woods next trip, grabbing rubbish before water levels rise and reclaim the gunk.
"This is an impressive task," said David Butler, 32. Butler had heard of the trash problem from Cockrum but said it was different to behold in person. At 8 a.m. when the group began working, the debris was so deep that his feet did not touch the soil.
Mounds of manmade material had become an epidermis on the shore.
"It's an overwhelming sea of plastic," said Scout Anglin, 26. "But I'm impressed we got as much done as we did."
Sangweni, who joined Pirates on a three-year deal from Golden Arrows, realises that the competition is going to be tough, and also acknowledges that he needs to work hard to have a chance to be in the starting XI.
“I'm waiting for my chance. The competition will be tough, but when I get my chance I must make sure that I grab it with both hands,” he tells KickOff.com.
Pirates will start their Vodacom Challenge against Spurs at Mbombela Stadium on Tuesday and Sangweni hopes to be part of the team that will face the English Premiership outfit.
“If I play in that game I will not exchange my first Orlando Pirates jersey. I will keep it at home. This will be a memory that will stay with me forever.”
The KwaZulu-Natal born defender, who scored the winning goal for Bafana Bafana against Tanzania, is very happy to be a Buccaneer.
“Ngijabule kakhulu (I'm very happy) that I've joined Orlando Pirates as its one of the biggest teams in South Africa. And I will do my best and help the team achieve more.”
“It was that time, but now I'm okay! I'm a Bhakajuju for life!”
Great Expectations
There is a part of me that shies away a little from the madness and furore of the close season, where expectations are raised and hopes flown like kites - only to be dashed, for most of the footballing community by Christmas. Or October if you are a Liverpool fan. I find this part of the whole pantomime a bit pointless. A bit shallow. And most of all a bit unsettling. I cannot help but think that the aforementioned Red Mickeys are to a large extent responsible for their own (not very) sad demise every season, by heaping expectation and pressure on a lot of average players, creating a mental problem for the team, because the fans demand that Liverpool go out, win every game and climb the long road back to being England's best team. We all know United took that mantle back when The Smiths and Joy Division were in the charts, however depressing that fact may be, but for the scousers it is a festering sore that cannot be left alone. That United are also the most successful in terms of trophies now, domestic at least, is just the icing on the cake. The natives are restless and cannot stand being sixth or seventh best team in the league and for their history to mean very little because using their very myopic definition of what history is, someone else has more of it. So they demand that Liverpool win things - it creates problems and I think they do themselves a lot of harm by inflicting this on their team and their city. We are at risk of being the same, and although our fans are much more realistic (and employable) and it is perhaps the media and the owner who provide the pressure, though our own fans, spoilt on recent successes are by no means blameless.
In the close season it makes me wonder why expectations are set so high. I used to long for a successful fight against relegation and if we got a decent cup run, then that was just blinding. Football seemed more fun back then I think.
So what does this mean for today?
Maybe we could all do with a break. I'm not suggesting taking up watching the egg-chasing, taking up gardening, amateur guinea pig show breeding or even microbrewing in our kitchens (although....) - I'm talking about giving ourselves a break from ourselves.
Let me explain. Imagine, if you will the following scenario.
We spend our summer weeding out the old guard - the Drogbas, Ferrieras, Hilarios, Anelkas, (maybe Cole as well?) of the squad and selling them on, plus the ones that are not old, just not very good or unhappy, so the likes of Zhirkov, Bosingwa, Kalou, Mikel, Turnbull and such.
We buy ONE attacking midfielder - Modric.
We bring in some quality but raw youngsters - the likes of De Bruyne, Lukaku, Courtois, etc. We welcome back Sturridge, Van Aanholt, Kakuta and Raijkovic.
We do NOT send Bertrand, Kalac, the new Barca kid, Piazon, Delac, Lalkovic, Mellis, McEachran, Kakuta, Sturridge, Chalobah and the others out on loan, but bring them into the first team squad.
We make it clear to the likes of Terry, Lampard, Drogba and Cech that their role is to lead and to teach, not just to do it all on their own.
We start the season lining up as:
Cech, Courtois, Bertrand, Ivanovic, Alex, Luiz, Raikovic, Chalobah, Van Aanholt, Terry, Sturridge, De Bruyne, Ramires, Mellis, Modric, Lampard, McEachran, Benayoun, Piazon, Kakuta, Malouda, Torres, Lukaku, Lalkovic.
We then begin the season with the sole aim of establishing the kids and moving the squad through into its next phase. We say from the outset that we are not pinning the season on winning silverware, but that we're going to fight for everything as a group. Fourth is good enough - as long as we get into the CL next season, that's fine.
Even variables such as Dolce & Gabbana come on e-commerce is no longer over. On Wednesday, the Milanese company launched with the support of Yoox GroupThat even the eStores cared for luxury brands such as Valentino, Emilio Oucci, Roberto Cavalli, Emporio Armani or Zegna, a private Online Store. Yoox will take over the management of the store.
The offer includes the lines Dolce & Gabbana and D & G for men and women. "We are intrigued by the idea of ??opening a boutique, which is accessible from all over the world. From the beginning we have believed in the power. And now get those who do not live in the city, the chance that the world of Dolce & Gabbana experience, "said the designer duo. Back in 2005, used the designer the possibility of live Internet streaming, 2009, there was a partnership with D & G Yoox for the eStore, 2010 Stefano Gabbana started to tweet, and the first time bloggers were invited into the front rows of fashion shows.
The virtual store that carried themes like "Get the look" reminiscent of a fashion magazine editorial, is first in seven languages, including also German, go online. A version in Mandarin for the China important future market is on 8 August 2011 will be launched.
Another bonus for bargain hunters: Dolce & Gabbana announced that deliveries of the first three months are free.
The graphic, NSFW pictures, which depict her posing nude in high heels and touching herself, apparently in the privacy of her home, were leaked to MediaTakeout.com, a celebrity gossip site.
Many have been quick to judge and shame Rose in the aftermath of their release, suggesting that the pictures prove something new or unsightly about her or her career. At the same time, they fail to acknowledge that there’s little difference between posing provocatively in a magazine, for which she has achieved praise and compensation, and posing fully nude in the manner that Rose has done in the leaked pics. Their contradictory opinion shows that her current predicament is symptomatic of a culture in which we reward women for being as sexy as possible, but look down on them or judge them for actually having sex.
When the explicit pictures first emerged, MediaTakeout published them along with a story that accused the 27-year-old Rose of sending them to hip-hop heavyweight Nicki Minaj’s assistant and rumored boyfriend, Safaree Samuels.
But on June 28, the website, already notorious for its vicious gossip and often unsubstantiated claims, retracted the original report. “Amber claims that she did NOT send these pics to Nicki’s boyfriend. Even though our source was reliable, we’re gonna give Amber the benefit of the doubt on this,” they wrote.
Rose has vehemently denied releasing the photos to the public at all, tweeting “I have so many young girls that look up to me. I would never put those pics out of myself.”
Even so, the pictures remain on the MediaTakeout site, with small areas blurred or blacked out, placing Rose within a small but growing cadre of celebrity women who have nude photos, sex tapes, or both released in the public, often against their will, and always as they continue to pursue a career in other areas.
Like many of the women who traversed this path before her, Rose’s life, career, and relationships have been thrust into the spotlight and subject to even more public scrutiny than usual since the pics were released (notably, without her permission or compensation).
The attention has taken its toll. Rose has described herself as “really hurt and embarrassed” by the scandal on Twitter, and admitted to crying for days as a result. She claims that the photos were stolen from her computer by someone she trusted, and she is dealing with the situation by relying on the love and support of her friends, family, fans, and high-profile boyfriend Wiz Khalifa. “No matter what I go thru or how embarrassed I am I have a man that Loves me & has my back thru everything.” she tweeted last week when the scandal broke.
Compounding the situation, haters and detractors have come out of the woodwork to comment on the explicit images, and make predictions about their effect on Rose and her career. Most have had negative things to say.
SOHH declared that her career was “finished”. Bossip issued an entire list of celebrities whose careers didn’t take off even after they released nude pics to the world- or someone else did. Times LIVE recommended Rose “hide her face”. And these were some of the more banal comments and reactions. Various publications, celebrity gossip sites, and Internet commenters (not generally known for their benevolence, but still) have gone to town on the 27-year old in even more harsh and critical ways, attacking her character and questioning her respectability.
It’s not just faceless individuals that are rushing to judgment about Amber Rose’s nude photo scandal — companies that had backed Rose in the past also reacted to the release of the photos.
While there had initially been rumors that Amber Rose’s talent agency, CAA, has dropped her in the aftermath, she recently clarified on Twitter that the company that dropped her is not her agency, CAA, but another company she works with.