Accomplishment As Artwork

SHOPPING IN TENERIFE

Shopping in Tenerife is not exclusively a tourist activity and
when expat families first take the plunge to move to the island,
they are faced with a bewildering choice of supermarkets and
stores. In the initial stages of taking up residency in
Tenerife, some people like to be able to buy brands that they
are familiar with from home. Iceland and UK Abroad
are two chains that specialise in UK goods - though you will
find the prices reflect that the goods are imported.

The Spanish supermarkets are well stocked and there is no doubt
that choosing Spanish products over imported ones makes for a
cheaper monthly shopping bill. While supermarkets like
Mercadona and Hyperdino offer a wide range of
consumer goods, cost-conscuious shoppers or those buying for
bars or restaurants can slash monthly bills by bulk-buying in
the ‘warehouse’ stores like Symel or Jesuman.

There are more than seven regional commercial areas with major
department stores. For the latest in fashions and newest stores,
check out Carrefour one of the largest shopping centres
which offers an adjoining 5.000 sq m supermarket with a large
fresh vegetable and herb section. Situated in Santa Maria del
Mar it is only a 40 minute drive from Los Cristianos on the
motorway going towards Santa Cruz the capital.

To tackle the number of great shopping areas in Tenerife, it
will require a good pair of walking shoes, time and transport.
Whether you are hunting the best prices from an outlet store, or
looking for that perfect antique, refurbishing your home the
area offers a variety of shopping excursions that are sure to
please your senses.

In Tenerife, shopping is taken very seriously. With more and
more stores opening in all parts of island, savy shoppers find
name brand merchandise at factory direct prices. Some of the
best area outlets are found at Las Chafiras, situated just
outside Golf Del Sur with a host of hardware, furniture and a
full size Iceland supermarket for those missing their
favourite British brand products.

The up and coming area of Adeje boasts of mega size outlets
specialising in bathroom fittings, kitchens, electrical
appliances and the new state of the art IKEA store.

Historic and antique shopping districts also offer one-of-a-kind
gifts, as well as timeless collectibles from another time and
place. The capital Santa Cruz have been well known for years for
their unique and high-quality antiques and art shops.

With all these options to choose from, Tenerife is truly a
shopper’s paradise with enough variety to satisfy any
interest.

A stutter normally starts for people in childhood and is often referred to as a childhood stutter. This is often very worrying for parents and the child and it is difficult to know where to seek help for the person who has the stutter.

There are many types of stutter. Family and friends may not even be aware that a person they know has a stutter. That is because the person is able to hide the stutter, by using word avoidance or word substitution.

Other people are unable to do this and have what they would consider an openely more severe stutter.

A stutter would normally occur more when a person is:

under pressure when tired meeting new people speaking in an uncomfortable situation asking questions, for example asking for directions introducing people

Stuttering can also be known in some areas as stammering.

Stutter therapy:

People who have a stutter have different options when seeking therapy. They can go to a speech therapist or speech pathologist. Alternatively they can attend a speech course. These courses can be on a group basis or on a one to one basis.

I personally prefer and advise one to one stutter courses as I believe every person who has a stutter is an individual and has their own individual type stutter.

These days, you can almost live off free gifts. You can find free grocery cards, free heating, free diapers. In some cases, you can even get your gas bills paid for a year, or even your heating bills paid on your behalf.

In some cases, it could be to promote their products. The company wants to increase the sales its product. They are so sure you would love their product if only you would try it. Free samples are given out, hoping you would love the product so much, you would buy it the next time around. That is how Estee Lauder promoted her business decades ago. She would give free samples of her products. A practice unheard of then. The women who tried her creams found they really work and then became her regular customers.

In the same way, free 1 year gym memberships might be given out, hoping that you like the facilities so much, you sign up as a paid member when your free year is out. Free magazines might be given hoping you like the magazine so much, you subscribe to it. My son came home with a free magazine he won in a contest. We are considering subscribing to that magazine as it is rather educational.

Not all free gifts are so good. Some come with a hidden cost. Especially some of the free software or screen savers you might download into your PC.

Nothing is truly free. Think of it. How would the makers of this software cover its cost? Such free software is often bundled up with adware. The ads pay for the software. Download the software and you see ads popping up on your PC, in some cases, slowing the PC to a halt. These are the ones I am wary of. Basically, before downloading anything into your software read that entire terms and conditions carefully to see if they are going to put anything else into your PC.

The other type of free software would be the free trials of software you would have to pay for if you want to use beyond the trial period. These are usually good programs that after using beyond the trial period, chances are, you would want to continue using them so you pay for the cost of that software.

Then there are the unscrupulous companies where the representatives lure you into their office with the intention of pressurizing you into buying something really expensive which you don’t really want in the first place. It happened to me before with a time share company that kept me in there for hours, with the representative trying hard sell tactics to pressure us to buy from them. I have since read complaints about similar companies in the newspapers. In such cases, forget about the gift and walk away.

Then there are the promotional free gifts used to bring publicity to the sponsoring company. The goodwill the free gifts bring is, to the company, worth the cost of the gifts themselves. These could be small items as door gifts at a party or they could be huge prizes like a mustang car given to winners of a lucky draw.

Have you ever answered a few survey questions in a mall and been given a pen or other gift as a token of appreciation? I love that sort of free gift. Sometimes, the gifts can be really generous.

Market research is important to a company. For a company to succeed, it needs to know what the consumers really want. For that reason, some companies are willing to give generous gifts in exchange for your filling in some survey forms. These free gifts are often given in exchange for your survey answers or your feedback. A sweet deal to the consumer if you ask me. The catch here is that in many cases the companies may need only a certain number of respondents. Once the quota is met, the party is over. The early bird catches the worm, or gets the gift in this case.

By answering surveys, you can get free gas, free groceries, free perfume, free dinners, free designer handbags, gift cards to buy whatever you want. Who knows how long this would last, but while companies are willing to shower consumers with all these goodies for free, you might as well enjoy it while it lasts. Even then, freebies should not replace your regular job or source of income. It is just the icing of the cake, but boy, is it sweet.

In this decade, in this country, people are becoming more and more concerned with personal safety, and rightly so. I am a serious advocate for personal & home security, and I think anyone who lives indoors (which probably means you!) should be as well. To clarify, this article isn’t about national security, it isn’t about financial security….it isn’t about social security (but I could rant about that for awhile, let me tell you). This article is specifically dealing with your home, and the people who live inside it. Also, the “bad guys” who we are securing the house from are thieves, rapists, murders of the ordinary sort. If the Taliban storms your house searching for infidels or something…..you’re on your own.

Here a scenario:

A man wants to steal things from a house to sell for money. He needs to find a fitting house to break into. Every house on the street is a potential candidate. Why will the man choose someone else’s house instead of yours? I will get to that.

Right off the bat let me say that I could write page upon page of what I personally would do if I woke up to somebody inside my house, or came home and a criminal was in my house. But then I would ramble far into my 2nd Amendment rights speech, and tell you how I would disable the trespasser, and so on. Well not everyone can or will own a firearm, and not everyone can or will take down an intruder manually (hand-to-hand). So I can’t be of much help in that area unless you have the same feelings and willingness to act about scumbag criminals as I do. So we will focus on prevention in this article.

Back to the scenario. The biggest factors that a thief looks for when choosing a house to loot are visibility, opportunity, and payoff. A house with few or no outside lights, a house with no cars in the driveway, or a house which is visibly full of expensive merchandise….this house is going to get robbed. An electronic security system is very helpful and I would suggest everyone should get one, but you’re still going to deal with a broken window or worse until the crook hears the alarm go off.

The idea here is to make your house unappealing to a thief from the very beginning.

The number one way to do this? Lights, lights, and more lights. Lights can be decorative and make your house more attractive, but not to a crook. If they are seen, they are busted. Make sure every door and window (that they can get in to….small bathroom windows and second floor windows aren’t very easy to crawl in to) has lots of light coverage all around it. The front of your house should have light coverage from your house all the way to your driveway and front sidewalk. People like those motion-detect lights, but I do not. I want my house to be completely illuminated at all times, so the crook doesn’t even bother getting close to the house in the first place to see if they’re motion lights.

Secondly, window coverings. If a thief can’t see what is in your house, he can’t decide if you’re worth robbing as easily. If you have a living room full of beautiful leather couches and big screen TV’s, the thief probably won’t steal those, because they’re large and heavy, but he’s going to think about the probability that there’s a big box of jewelry and a big nightstand drawer of cash and Rolex’s in your master bedroom! I know you have that big beautiful picture window in the front of your house that your wife just loves and is the reason she wanted this house in the first place…. but for god’s sake cover it up with some drapes. Make sure the windows are completely covered at night, because when it’s dark outside and light inside, your house is a fish tank and Mr. Criminal sees right in there.

Now, I mentioned security systems before. Personally I don’t want to spend the money on one. But I surely do have Brinks stickers and signs on every window and door. If you can afford a system, get one, and make sure there is a control panel with panic button in the room you sleep in. If you can’t get a system or don’t want to, you can still get your hands on the stickers and signs. Even make up a fake security system company and have your own stickers printed up. “Fatal Mistake Alarm Co.” or something. Just something to make thieves beware (although I would recommend getting signs and stickers of a widely known alarm company if you can manage to do so. They are tricky to get without buying an actual system, but it can be done).

The last thing I will mention on this scenario is opportunity. If there are never any cars in the driveway, and your newspaper sits on the porch, every single day from 8:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., your home-intruder knows exactly when to rob you. It’s not rocket science…….if it was, he’d go be a rocket scientist instead of robbing you. But he’s not, so he will. If my home gets invaded, I sure hope it happens while I’m in it. Because, asleep or not, I am prepared to defend myself and my house. But chances are, if I ever get robbed, it will be when I’m not there. Your average crook does not like confrontation. He does not like trouble, he does not like attention, and he does not want to be a murderer. Because of that, he wants to rob you when nobody is anywhere near being home. This means that you need to have someone watching your house when you are not there. Unless you buy another car and just move it around your driveway, or you rig up a mannequin on pulleys and strings and an electric train set like on Home Alone, your thief will know when nobody is home. They could just knock on the door while dressed like a door-to-door salesman (which look like everybody else….just as thiefs do!!). My advice is to get some security cameras. Even if they aren’t hooked up to anything (although I would recommend it), they are a deterrent. If I walked up to someone’s front door, and there were two security cameras up high, looking down at me from two angles, I’m not going to break in. First of all, I assume I’m being recorded or watched by somebody. Secondly, I assume that if they went to all that trouble to have TWO security cameras, then of course they’re going to have a wicked alarm system inside. Cameras are great, because even if they’re not turned on, they cause such a level of paranoia and caution in anyone who is visible to them.

So there you have it. Just a few simple things that could very well make sure that those neighbors you hate get robbed instead of you.

He Just Doesn’t Want You Anymore! By: Monica M. Burns

Ladies….if a man has told you that the relationship is over….the relationship is over! Had you noticed and not ignored all of the warning signs prior to the ending of the relationship, you would have been prepared for the break-up along with your heartbreak.

Most men do not communicate their feelings with emotions, instead they are more about showing actions. Women have to learn to watch their men’s actions in order to determine how he’s feeling at any given time. Some men act on what feels good at the time and if that’s another woman, then so be it.

If he has stated to the woman that the relationship is over, he had already made that decision long ago, the woman just chose to ignore the warning signals. If he started spending minimal time with the woman, talked to the woman less and less on the phone, or just ignored her out in public while talking to other women he stated were “Only His Friends” those were some of the warning signs that the woman just chose to ignore.

Women can’t resort to stalking men, calling his friends at all hours, having sex with him after the break-up or trying to buy him back because he is done with the relationship. He has moved on and the woman needs to do the same. The Ex-Girlfriend should not ever confront the “new woman.” It is not her fault that the woman’s Ex-Boyfriend is interested in her and they are in a new relationship. The new woman should not be involved with this at all. It is not the new woman’s fault that she has what the Ex-Girlfriend had and still wants.

To all women who are out there chasing men who are no longer interested in them, I would advise that you move on, as hard as that may be, with your lives. You are giving your Ex-Boyfriend too much power over you by continuing to chase him, cry over him, and whatever else you are doing to get his attention. It is over! When you accept that, your decision making will lead you into happier and more stable territories.

This excerpt is from my new eBooklet “He Just Doesn’t Want You Anymore.” For purchasing information visit my websites.

Monica M. Burns

copyright2006 Monica M. Burns. All Rights Reserved.

About The Author

Monica M. Burns is a Writer, Expert Author, and Editor/Owner of Monica M. Burns, Inc. Publications, small web based businesses providing Professional Writing Services, and Informational self-help products for women. She is also the Editor/Owner of Monica M. Burns, Inc. Online Magazine and Sweet Stimulations Online websites. She has authored several eBooklets and other reading information materials and is a featured Expert Author on many websites and in many Online Magazines. She has also contributed and won awards to several Poetic Anthologies. If you would like to publish any of this author’s articles electronically or in print to your websites, ebooks, newsletters, or ezines you MUST include this resource box.

Visit her websites for more information at: http://monicaburns.tripod.com http://monicaburns.tripod.com/monicamburnsinc http://monicaburnsdesigns.vstore.ca www.monicamburns.vstore.ca

Upon discovery of infidelity there is often a strong need to know the details. What happened? When? Where? Why? etc. The reasons for these questions are examined in my first article on this subject: “Infidelity: Why the Need to Know is so Strong.”

You have the need to know, but his/her lips are sealed or walks away, ignores or bypasses your questions, puts it back on you, denies or does other numbers on you to keep you away from knowing what really happened. There are predictable reasons why this happens. Here’s some of them:

1. Your partner/spouse is involved in an “I don’t want to say no” affair. Your partner probably is a person wrapped up in his own ego, personal needs, and life style. He can rationalize the behavior and actually come to the conclusion that he is entitled to get his needs met this way. After all, he is such a magnanimous person! Bottom line: your needs and concerns really don’t matter! He doesn’t want to talk about them and sees absolutely no reason to get “bogged down” in what is important to you.

2. Your spouse/partner is involved in an “I can’t say no” affair. Your partner finds it painfully difficult to respond to your need to know out of shame and guilt. She sees, at one level, her actions becoming more and more destructive and degrading and believes, again at an unspoken level usually, that she has less and less control over her actions. Guilt and shame follow the infidelity with self-promises to break off the behavior. However, these promises are usually broken. She is ashamed for you to know this struggle.

3. Your partner/spouse is involved in a “revenge” affair. He wants you to squirm. This may not be front and center in his consciousness, but just below the surface is some resentment and anger, for whatever reason, aimed in your direction. He thinks: “Hmmmm this is payback time. Good. Now she knows what it’s like to be on the receiving end. I’ll continue this for a while…and secretly enjoy her torment. I won’t give her the satisfaction of responding in a caring way to her needs.”

4. Your partner/spouse is involved in an affair with the intent upon proving her desirability. In some cases where there is a history of sexual abuse as a child, or rape as an adult, your partner may compartmentalize the “affair” to the degree that she might not consciously remember the details or events of her infidelity. The infidelity may serve in a pre-conscious fashion as an attempt to amend for the painful sexual history. She may NOT indeed remember what you ask for.

5. Your partner/spouse is involved in affairs such as: ” I fell out of love” or “My Marriage Made Me Do It” or “I Want to be Close to Someone…but can’t stand intimacy.” Often, the infidelity in these cases represents the need to deal with dependency issues. By that I mean, your partner may define himself in terms of how others respond to him rather than his inner values, standards, purpose, etc. This person’s life is wrapped around others. And his life is still wrapped around you. You want to know. He doesn’t tell you… for fear of “hurting you” or becoming embroiled in pain or conflict from which he cannot seemingly extricate. What you (or others) think, feel and how you respond are TOO important to him.

As you see, the reasons for not getting the information you need for your own sense of validation and acknowledgement are varied and fairly complex. Allow yourself to stand back and examine the themes and patterns you encounter. With the power of this knowledge you gain the freedom to use different strategies and tactics to work toward resolution.