Monthly archives: July 2005

Sweet

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Reelfurniture makes very nice looking rocking chairs, tables and other furniture from reclaimed wood- specifically old cable reels. I don’t know why, but I have a soft spot for the source material and always wondered what could be done with them once discarded. These products manage to be both gorgeous and reflect theoriginal shape.

I can’t afford them, of course, but I can dream.

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Alternative Freshers Fair

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Perhaps I should set up a stall.

We’re looking for people to help set up the first Manchester Alternative Freshers Fair, to be held at the same time as the main freshers fair on the 27th and 28th September.

We need people to send us suggestions of groups to ask and events they could to, to help us finding a venue, to ask anyone they know who might be interested in doing a stall, to design and distribute flyers and to help set up on the day.
…..
“Why an alternative freshers fair?” you may ask.

Well the reasons are many and varied…. But basically we don’t believe the present freshers fair does justice to the many inspiring and diverse things that go on within this city. Students arriving in Manchester for the first time and wanting to throw themselves into local life are not welcomed at the university by community groups, campaign organisations, volunteer groups of exciting arts and music collectives, but by Barclaycard trying to immerse them into debt as soon as they walk through the door, the Telegraph with its prejudiced views and misinformation, and other people offering supposed “services” that are more about exploiting the student market than actually doing anything to make life an exciting and fulfilling thing for these newcomers to our city.

So an alternative needs to be made. People need to know about all the things that they can get involved with here, all the groups that are willing to help and guide them, to meet likeminded people with similar interests and get access to services that will genuinely help them and enhance student life for them.

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Mulled Wines

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Global warming means that wine growers will have to adapt to the changing weather. Which is not something the French want to hear. Particularly not from an Englishman.

Years of trial and error by wine growers throughout the world have resulted in ideal combinations of grapes, soil (“terroir”) and climate. In France, in particular, where the terroir is revered as the key to a wine’s character, wines have evolved over centuries.

Prof Prentice argues that climate change will alter the optimal mix of grape varieties to grow in any one place. For the French system, which in law lays down in detail the boundaries of each appellation – in some cases just a few acres – and the grapes that may be grown there, adapting to climate change will pose a real challenge, he says.

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