I guess that it had to happen one day. Simon Cowell had always said that he would like to find a dog good enough to win Britain’s Got Talent and he got what he wanted at last.

17 year old Ashleigh and Pudsey the dog emerged the winners of £500,000 on Saturday night and they get to perform on the Royal Variety show in front of the queen. Take a look at the video see what you think.

My 6 year old granddaughter is already trying to train her puppy Marlow to dance, could we end up with a nation of dancing dogs due to Pudsey’s lightfootedness?

The Funniest

Very good I’m sure. I found the performances entertaining but nowhere near as entertaining as comedian Michael Walliams has been throughout the whole series. The new judge has certainly fit Simon Cowell up many times and kept everybody laughing and that includes Simon who was often left looking bemused at the things the camp comedian came out with.

One of the highlights was David getting up on stage and performing with contestants The Showbears. I loved watching that again.

The Most Talented

Probably the most talented contestants this year came second, opera singers Charlotte and Jonathon. In the auditions Simon Cowell said that 17 year old Jonathon should split from 16 year old Charlotte but he said no and from the following video you can see that Jonathon’s decision was right.

My Favourites

I had 2 favourites this year. The Lovable Rogues who have their own unique style and perform their own material. I found myself glued to the screen while watching them and think that they have a great future.

I also liked the Mend and was disappointed when they failed to get through to the final, but they were given a wild card and placed in the finals anyway.

Most Embarrassing Performance

For me that was dalek impersonator Martyn Croft, a man in a silver suit wearing a pan on his head. Really embarrassing because he lives just 9 miles from me at Skipton. His ambition was to open Skipton’s gala, which I believe he will be doing this year.

I’m not going to include that video because I don’t want to encourage anybody to put pans on their heads and walk around shouting exterminate!

Wool Collection

The history of the Pashmina is associated with the Tibetan people, who used to trade with Europe. The Himalayan Mountain’s goats called Capra Hirus are famous for providing this soft luxurious wool. Goats in the Himalayas are also known as shawl or Cashmere goats. This specific goat is found only in the areas of the Kashmir region, and famous as ‘cashmere’ in the West. The features of Pashmina wool are very unique and said to be six times finer than human hair. Because the wool is very delicate it has to be taken from the densely outer coat of the cashmere hair and mainly woven by hands.

Stylish

Pashmina shawls have a wide range of styles, colours and patterns to choose from. All of those options make them very elegant when seen amongst other wool products. Men and women across the world wear Pashmina as a fashion statement and many consider the shawls or scarves to be one of their most liked and preferred accessories in their wardrobes.

Flexible Fashion

The best thing about Pashmina scarves is that they can be worn as an accessory to all type of clothes.

Business: One can be worn to soften a plain business suit or dress it up for evening wear.

Social: For formal or informal social events a luxurious shawl can look stunning, elegant and add that little something extra. Going to a Christmas or birthday party straight from work? Just add a pashmina to dress up your work outfit.

Casual: Even with a simple jeans and casual shirt outfit they look trendy and chic.

Stage: They are even popular wear amongst male pop stars, on and off the stage.

Weddings: For summer weddings they are perfect to make your outfit look more special. For winter weddings they add grace to your outfit and keep out the chill.

Wearing One

There are several ways that you can wear a shawl; you can drape one round your shoulders, round your neck or round your lower arms, even round your waist instead of a belt.

Pashmina shawls really are an exceptional fashion accessory for all outfits and for all occasions. They are also a great gift idea for Christmas and birthdays, certainly on my gift list this year for my family and friends are they on yours?

Pashmina Scarves – Do Men Wear Them

As a teenager, Celine Dion’s manager Rene Angelil had his house mortgaged in order to produce the money to create her debut record. With the release of her English album Unison in 1990, she became an extremely viable pop artist in North America. Celine Dion has also won an abundance of awards, her first being the winner of the 1988 Eurovision Song and 1982 Yamaha World Contest. In the early 80’s she had created a large amount of French centric albums and was signed with CBS Records. In 1990 Epic Records signed her after the creation of her first English album and that is when her career began to take off.

With the abundance of talent and expertise backing her, Celine Dion had become one of the top leading pop artists in the world within the music industry. Rather than being a generic pop artist who revolves around one specific genre of music, Celine Dion’s music is inspired by a variety of genres that include R&B, rock, classical, and gospel. As the best selling Canadian musician of all time and the second best-selling female singer in the United States, it is no wonder that she has revolutionized the music industry with her strong vocals.

Tragedy struck in 1999 when she was at the peak of her career when her husband and manager Rene Angelil was diagnosed with cancer. She immediately refrained from making any more music and went on a hiatus from the music industry so she could provide the love and comfort that her husband needed at the time. In 2002 after her husband had recovered she signed with Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to have a 5 year contract to limited to night shows only. Many people from all over the world travel to the Colosseum at Caesars Palace to see her perform her 5 star theatrical show.

With all of the personal trauma in her past and an in depth history, Celine Dion has worked exponentially hard in order to rise to fame and success. With her natural voice and intense and moving vocal capabilities, she has undoubtably become one of the world’s most influential singers. After all of the hard work and dedication, Celine Dion has gone on to sell over 200 million records world wide which is an extraordinarily large accomplishment for any artist to achieve. Although many artists lose their flame after a variety of years, Celine Dion still performs to this day within the realm of Las Vegas, providing her fans with all of the entertainment that they could ever ask for.

You can get great deals on Celine Dion tickets when you click on the link

If you want concert, Broadway, Las Vegas, West End or Sports tickets order online at http://liveticketsonline.com

Music video by Céline Dion performing It’s All Coming Back To Me Now. (C) 1998 Sony Music Entertainment (Canada) Inc.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Madonna originally started her career by singing within music groups such as Breakfast Club and Emmy but then decided to branch out on her own and create her own brand. With the release of her debut album, people all over the world started to catch onto the revolutionary music and style that Madonna brought forth. She has had an abundance of different number one hits that have topped record charts all over the world including ‘Like a Prayer’, ‘Papa Don’t Preach’, ‘Vogue’, ’4 Minutes’, and ‘Like a Virgin’.

Her music career isn’t the only aspect of her life that has forced her into the limelight. Madonna is also a practicing actress who has had an abundance of film appearances since 1985. She has won a variety of different awards including a Golden Globe Award for her role in Evita during the year of 1996. Although Evita was a long time hit, many critics found that Madonna had fallen short of her acting career as her other film roles were titled as failures.

Although the majority of Madonna’s fame was found within the 80’s ad 90’s, she has continued to produce catchy and lyrical music in order to continue her role as an influential person within the music industry. The most important part of Madonna was her fashion sense and her risque approach to society. Within the 80’s and 90’s it was very rare that people would see provocative imagery during music videos as it was classified as “inappropriate” or “controversial” but Madonna rarely cared about critical thinking like that. Creating her music videos was seen as an art project as she thrusted herself into the minds of people all over the world with fashion decision and her portrayal of sexual imagery in her music and music videos.

With the Super Bowl XLVI, Madonna inevitably showed the world that she still has the ability to create new and pop centric music enjoyable by all generations. During her performance she shared the stage with new artists such as LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, and M.I.A meanwhile performing with revolutionary artists such as Cee Lo Green. With over 114 million viewers, Madonna’s half time performance was catalogued as the most watched halftime show in the history of the Super Bowl. The 53 year old looked absolutely amazing while she proved once more in the 12 minute session that she is the world’s greatest performer.

With the release of her new album MDNA on March 26th, 2012, Madonna intends on touring the entire world during 2012 and many dates have already sold out. With an abundance of different tour dates, both old and young Madonna fans will be presented with the ability to sing and dance to her new and old songs.

You can get great deals on Madonna tickets at http://liveticketsonline.com

Written by Patricia Jones

Source: http://megamusicsite.com

Las Vegas is worth visiting once even if like myself you aren’t a gambler. It’s an amazing place and there are other forms of entertainment besides the huge casinos. One afternoon that wasn’t spent around the hotel pool, we spent watching flair bartending at an outside bar. We couldn’t believe how the barmen managed to serve drinks up while juggling the bottles and glasses and without breaking or spilling anything. I tried it myself at the bar I was working in at home and nearly got sacked!

We enjoyed visiting Madame Tussauds and taking snapshots of each other with our favourite stars. I was really disappointed not to see Arnold Schwarzenegger’s double, but then we caught up with him later on at Caesar’s Palace and I got my photo taken with him.

We stayed in the Excaliber hotel. A Disney like version of a fairy tale English castle. The rooms were great except for the lack of a kettle, tea, coffee and milk in them. Coca Cola does not taste as good as coffee when you first wake up. Apart from that they were clean, comfortable, well decorated and a good size. Breakfasts were buffet style and everything that you could possibly want to eat was waiting there for us to help ourselves.

The casino took up most of the ground floor and you couldn’t escape the constant noise of the slots. I actually spent $5 on them on our last day, that’s a lot for me! Our party was moved on by the doormen on a couple of occasions when we paused while walking across the casino floor to get to the lifts. That was because my 20 year old American nephew was with us. Ironic when you think that he had just returned from fighting and risking his life for his country in the Gulf war, yet he couldn’t be in a casino until his next birthday.

One evening we watched a show in our hotel called ‘The Tournament of Kings’ a strange story of King Arthur and Camelot, but we enjoyed it. My sister in Law and I discussed going to see another show that was on in the hotel called ‘Thunder From Down Under’ but that was vetoed in favour of the tournament. A pity, ‘Thunder’ was voted the best male strip show in Vegas last year.

Apart from breakfasts and the finger banquet that came with the medieval show we didn’t eat other meals at the Excaliber. That was because we wanted to dine at famous places like the Hard Rock Cafe, the Rainforest cafe and Caesars Palace Restaurant. Got to admit the most memorable meals were those Excaliber breakfasts.

One evening we were walking down the strip and saw that a show was due to start up outside the Treasure Island hotel and casino. The show, called ‘The Sirens of Ti” was basically about sirens luring sailors to their island and then battling with each other. Entertaining enough and even impressive when you see the scale of it and know that it is free to watch.

Our final evening was the most memorable. We went to watch Sir Elton John at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace where his Red Piano tour originated. I’ve never been crazy about Elton and his music but I was absolutely enthralled to watch him live. My favourite song that night was his performance of the Who’s Pinball Wizard.

Some really good memories there, and as we are going back again this year I expected to see a lot of changes when I was researching for our next trip online. I was wrong, everything that I have mentioned in this article is still happening in Vegas and that includes shows from Sir Elton John and Thunder From Down Under. – this time!

However, if we go a little later in the year we can see Celine Dion at the Colosseum instead of Sir Elton John and that’s a tough choice between 2 massive superstars who I know will blow us away.

© Patricia Jones 2012

It’s an even tougher choice when you see which other superstars are performing in Las Vegas Concerts this year. Just click on tickets online for the best seats for Las Vegas shows, Broadway, Sporting Events, Theatre, Concerts and London’s West End.

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Although I’m not new to self publishing my own products it feels like it’s the first time because my other products were created for the offline information publishing market in the late 90s and early 2000s. One of them at least I may dig out and repurpose for the Internet, that’s if I ever find the time.

I actually have 2 more products well on the way, but they didn’t seem right for the purpose of my first product and that is to help build my list. I wanted to write something that would help newcomers to online marketing think about and see that there are plenty of options and help them to avoid losing their money to scams or pipedreams.

The title ’7 Virtual Ways To Make Money Online’ came about because that was the best way to describe the report. I also did a search and found that nobody else was using that title so at least that makes it more individual.

I wrote the report using the free open office writer. I don’t know why but I installed that on my laptop even though I have Microsoft Word on my main computer. It’s really easy to convert to a PDF format using open office, just a few seconds and it’s sorted.

I made the ebook cover online at http://www.myecovermaker.com I tried the free version first but wasn’t happy with the result so I paid $3.95 for one download to access to more covers to make the cover in this post. Unfortunately resizing it for this post cut the top off so it doesn’t look so good if I add it to the post.

I built the squeeze page using xSitePro because I wanted to try something simple and because it’s easy to block the search engines from the download page. I’m not totally happy with the wording or design, but as with the report I will probably do some tweaking later. Sometimes if you go back with a fresh eye you see all sorts that you missed earlier. All I have to do now is get traffic to the page and see how well it converts.

The hardest part was the writing, ideas flowed but I have a rather painful medical condition caused by using my laptop on my lap and the laptop stand that I bought, although the lowest is still too high for me to sit comfortably and write for prolonged times. I should go back to using my desktop but I like the laptop better.

Anyway if you would like a free copy of 7 Virtual Ways To Make Money Online you need to click on the link. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve never watched a full series of UK TV programme The Apprentice before the 2011 series that has just ended, perhaps because previously the winner got a job but this year the prize was a £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar into a business partnership. That made it more appealing to me because in my own small way I’m an entrepreneur and am interested in anything to do with entrepreneurship. I think that the change was a good move because we need entrepreneurs coming along with new products and business ideas to help get us out of recession.

Although I enjoyed watching the series I was disappointed with the shortage of real entrepreneurs amongst the competitors and felt that most of them would have been more suited to the old format where a job was on offer. Out of the 4 that got through to the final only 2 had run their own businesses Susan Ma and winner Tom Pellereau.

The business plans of all of the 4 finalists were disappointing to some extent, but at least third placed Susan stuck to what she knew and I’m sure will do really well in the future with her beauty business. Fourth place went to Irishman Jim Eastwood. He didn’t just kiss the blarney stone, he swallowed it! Non stop patter and cliches, maybe a great salesman but I doubt he’d sell to me. Second placed Helen Milligan was the favourite to win having led all the way through, but her Concierge idea was just an idea with no real substance behind it and trying to change to her second business plan of a bakery chain at the last minute wasn’t a good idea.

The winner Tom is an inventor, a nice guy who looks and acts like the stereotype mad professor. His idea was for a chair that helped with back problems. I’ll bet the appeal to Lord Sugar had a lot to do with the curved nailfile that Tom had invented and brought to market. Curved nailfile – I don’t get it. Anyway, like many who watched I wanted Tom to win and would love to see a fly on the wall programme of the partnership. At one point I half expected Lord Sugar to make Tom and Helen joint winners, Tom inventing and Helen doing what she’s best at organising.

Now that it’s all over I’m wondering what idea I would come up with if I had to produce a business plan to help win  £250,000 prize, that should keep the brain cells working for a while.

Bradford National Media Museum

I love this place, 7 floors of interesting displays and activities and it’s free to go in. My family and I went there recently and the youngest was 5 and oldest mid fifties yet we were all entertained and could have stayed longer than the 3 hours we had allocated to the place.

Next door to the media museum is the ice skating rink and close by you will find the Alhambra theatre where we have enjoyed plays and pantomimes.

Leeds/Castleford Xscape Entertainment Centre

We have happily spent all day in Xscape when the weather hasn’t been too good and still we could go away leaving something to do that we haven’t had time for. Apart from shops, bars, cafes and many different types of restaurants the activities include a soft play gym, cinema, indoor snow slope for skiing and snowboarding, fake rock climbing slope, adventure golf, ice skating, bowling, laser games and much more.

Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Line

This heritage railway line for steam trains is 5 miles long and runs from Keighley to Oxenhope. Stops on the way include Ingrow, where you will find the Museum of Rail Travel and also at certain times in the year Thomas the Tank Engine. At Haworth you will find the Bronte Parsonage museum and items owned by the famous Bronte literary family. Haworth is very popular with tourists and in the summer we love to take a walk on the moors and picnic at Bronte Waterfall.

York City Walls

It’s good exercise for all of the family walking around York city walls and interesting what you can see and do within those walls. York Minster is magnificent but you have to be fit to climb all of those steps to the top of the tower. The other extreme is the York dungeons though the exhibits are a bit scary for youngsters. The York Castle Museum is an interesting place to visit and right next door you will find the York model railway. You can walk through the Shambles and check out those quaint looking shops, or take a ghost cruise down the river Ouse. Go to the races or visit the Jorvik Viking centre.

Hairy Bob’s Cave Scarborough

On the north Yorkshire coast Scarborough is a picturesque seaside town offering plenty to do for many days out. Hairy Bob’s cave is actually a metre deep man made hole in a rock at the foot of Scarborough castle, the only real thing of interest is guessing why it was made because nobody knows. When the weather is good there are lovely beaches to sunbathe and build sandcastles on, or you can go out on boat trips for fishing or leisure. There is a miniature railway and a sealife centre. The nighlife is great, we’ve had a lot of good times there and spent more than one day at a time in Scarborough.

There are a lot more interesting and fun to visit places in Yorkshire. For those who are taking a Yorkshire holiday, wherever you stay you will find easy to drive to days out in almost any direction. Or you might enjoy using our excellent rail and bus services.

You can find out a whole lot more about Yorkshire attractions and every other area in the UK by clicking on the UK Travel Guide

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Pop Goes The Weasel, one of the earlier Alex Cross novels starts out with the murder of a young black prostitute whose body is dumped naked in Washington. Alex ties the murder in with others that have occurred where the victims clothing and identification have been removed. His boss doesn’t agree and orders Alex to investigate another higher profile case of the murder of a businessman, but Alex and his lifelong friend police officer John Sampson continue to investigate the series of killings in their own time.

This isn’t a whodunit; we learn right at the beginning that the serial killer Geoffrey Shafer works for the British Embassy in Washington and has diplomatic immunity. He has a wife and young family who believe that he is Mr wonderful because that is the way that he behaves towards them. In private Geoffrey carries out an online fantasy game called the Four Horsemen with 3 other ex British secret service officers. In the game Shafer’s name is Death and the aim amongst the 4 players is to create a ‘better’ fantasy than the other 3 players but none of the players are sure if the other players stories are just fantasy or true.

Alex Cross is a widower with 2 children and a girlfriend called Christine. Early on in the novel Christine accepts a proposal from Alex and they go on holiday with his family to Bermuda. During the holiday Christine disappears and it is months before Alex discovers whether she has been kidnapped or murdered, or whether or not Christine’s disappearance is tied to the murder investigation.

My Review

Although I have enjoyed reading all of the other novels in this series I didn’t find Pop Goes The Weasel  as gripping as the rest. Perhaps because the character of Geoffrey Shafer wasn’t as believable as James Patterson usually makes his characters. The plot was a little too intricate to be believable and at times I lost the plot with it.

What I like about the Alex Cross series is the interaction between Alex and his family – especially Nana. Alex’s elderly grandmother Nana lives with and looks after him and his 2 young children. A wise lady, who at over 80 has more energy than most of us at half of her age. You often find humour in their conversations and the love between them is apparent.

James Patterson has invented a strong well thought out character in Alex who is dedicated to his family and job. At times the job seems more important but then there are heart-warming scenes with his family to temper the more gruesome accounts of murder.

The story also shows how police forces may differentiate wrongfully between crimes and the classes of victims. Prostitutes are human beings and have just as much right as businessmen not to be offended against and investigations should have equal importance.

Although I got a bit lost during the last few chapters the ending was satisfactory with a few surprises. Pop Goes The Weasel is certainly worth reading if you like this genre, but I would advise that you read the series from the beginning through rather than in a mixed order as I have.

Patricia has been writing reviews and articles for several years. You can find more of her work and free writers tools worth over $3000 at the Creative Writing site.

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We went to several bars and then a night club. We had a few laughs but without the rest of the crowd the night out seemed like an anti climax. I was more than ready to go home when it came time to catch the late bus at two o’clock in the morning.

When I got home I felt hungry and also as normal wanted to eat something to soak the booze up to lessen the chances of a hangover the next day. As I hadn’t wanted to go out I hadn’t bought in anything to make a cold sandwich as usual so decided to put a beefburger under the grill. While I was waiting for my burger to cook I went into my sitting room and sat down on the sofa to take my shoes off.

The next thing that I was aware of was feeling groggy and rather disorientated. I was still sitting on the sofa, my shoes on the floor and I felt really tired. I stood up to go to bed and suddenly thought that I was hungry. It then crossed my mind that I had put a burger under the grill but hadn’t eaten it. It was at that point that I realised that I could barely see through the thick fog of smoke that was swirling around me.

‘Burning burger’ I thought as I rushed towards my kitchen. What I saw as I entered the kitchen would probably have alarmed me more if I hadn’t been half out of it. Flames were starting to take hold on the pine wood at the side of my cooker. The flames had spread from the blackened remains of a teatowel that had been on the top of the oven and hanging partially over the front of the grill. The flames didn’t take long to put out and it was easy enough to make the kitchen safe. I went to bed still hungry – the burger was cinders.

It took me a while to remember what had happened when I eventually woke up in the late morning. At first I thought that I had been dreaming until I looked in the bathroom mirror. My face was covered in black soot and there was even soot up my nostrils. There wasn’t much damage, just needed to replace a work surface and some of the wood in my kitchen and I was finding soot around the house for months afterwards.

I was lucky to escape unharmed, but what was really lucky was that I had forgotten to switch my alarm clock off for the weekend as I normally did on Friday mornings. You see it was my alarm clock ringing at 6.45 am that woke me up and saved my life. The burger had gone under the grill at 3.00 am so I had been asleep for almost 4 hours before the alarm went off.

I was then and I am today, 100% certain that I would not have woken up without that alarm, I was too far out of it. As my kitchen furnishings are pine I was lucky to catch the fire before it really took hold. How much longer would I have survived inhaling the smoke? I don’t know.

Not long afterwards I bought some smoke detectors  and installed them. I check my smoke alarms regualarly to see if the batteries are working. I don’t intend to put myself at risk again knowing that my alarm going off and waking me up as it did was highly unusual – really a fluke saved my life!

Click now to find the best smoke detectors with reviews and fire safety equipment for your home at http://bestsmokedetectors.co.uk