by Ellen Brandt, Ph.D.

Many of those in my now-loyal audience first became acquainted with my work by supporting me in the Community Marketing site’s Great Blog-Off contest a few months ago. A number of people have asked me to write a little case study about my (overwhelming) win in that test, which illustrates some basic principles everyone who writes for the Internet should keep in mind: Hook ‘Em With Headlines. Keep ‘Em There With Links. And Remember You’re Only As Strong As Your Fan Base.

I’ve been a heavy-volume print journalist most of my working life. But after a several-year sabbatical from the field, I returned to find the world of magazines in disarray, Big Media under fire from Little Media, and the Internet emerging as the place where a busy and educated audience of professionals tended to go for both news and features.

I was also dismayed to find that the current dominance of a few major search engines tends to exclude from Internet visibility anything written prior to 18 months ago or so. Magazines are particularly poorly represented. So the more than 3,000 print magazine articles I’d published over a 30-year period were virtually inaccessible, in Internet terms. I was suddenly a journalistic ghost, while Buffy the Siamese Cat, with 14,000 Twitter “publications,” was now a media superstar.

What to do? Well, with the help of my cousin the Internet guru, I first scanned in a selection of about 50 of my magazine articles and placed them in a little virtual portfolio on the Web. Then I wrote a couple of articles for Internet “aggregators,” but soon decided they were pretty much pimps, and I was a lady, not a Lady of the Night.

So I decided to create a Web presence of my own by publishing and administering my own blogsites and developing an audience in the Brave New Blogosphere. While this idea was germinating, I heard about the Great Blog-Off contest at a website called Community Marketing.

Marketing is not my area of expertise, although I’ve done a few stories on it over the years. (I’ve probably done a few stories on everything over the years.) But this contest was not designed for marketing writers only. It welcomed all bloggers who professed to be “thought leaders” on any kind of subject matter. I had been contemplating starting my Baby Boomers-The Angriest Generation series, which most of you now know about. (See the latest Index at http://wp.me/pxD3J-2a )

I signed up for the contest, describing myself as a “thought leader” on the subject of Baby Boomers. The owner of the site asked contestants – there were a couple of dozen originally, although some turned out to be not very active – to come up with punchy little descriptions of themselves, a few words that would make us memorable. I offered the following:

Dr. Ellen Brandt – “Sophisticated Rabble-Rouser”

About my professional background: I’m an Ivy League-educated Ph.D. cultural historian and the author of over 3,000 magazine articles. I’m now a professional in the senior services industry – the fastest-growing sector of this economy for the next 100 years or so – while also resuming my career as a heavy-volume journalist.

When I’m not working: I’m a mezzo soprano trained at Juilliard Prep when it was at 123rd and Claremont. I like lighthouses, carousels, and botanical gardens. And my Dog-Nephew Garcia, named after Jerry Garcia, was – honestly! – the inspiration for the Obamas getting a Portuguese water dog.

My Pre-Blog-Off Blogsite

Said punchy blurb was accompanied by a photo and the notation that I would be the contestant representing Boomers among a field of mostly Gen-Xers and Millennials.

The punchy blurbs were posted about ten days before the contest proper was to begin, at which time I contemplated what kind of strategy might set me apart from the field, help win me a loyal audience, and address the essential differences between a static print environment and this dynamic sphere which calls itself the Internet.

I decided to establish a “pre-Blog-Off blog” at WordPress, where I now house the blogs I publish. The site was called “Preparing for the Blog-Off” with the subhead “Seeing What Works.”

It basically consisted of the same page repeated ten times with different headlines. More about the headlines in a second. The main purpose of the page was to introduce readers to the Blog-Off, with an easy link to the contest embedded in the text.

I also said a little bit about my background and stated that I would be the contestant representing Content and Experience, as befitted a Baby Boomer. On the blogsite’s About page, I offered further links to my Linked In profile, about 50 examples of my print magazine articles, and a wide-ranging interview about my career. (See Why This Blog at http://wp.me/sycK6-about )

This adds up to a whole lot of links! Which illustrates one of those three principles successful website owners should keep in mind: Don’t keep your Readers on one static page, in which case they might as well be sitting at their kitchen table reading a newspaper. Keep your audience moving swiftly from link to link, offering them choices of what to read about next. Make your site a textual Treasure Hunt, with riches galore opening before their eyes.

Now For Those Headlines . . .

All I needed now was an interesting topic for the site, broad enough to warrant several blog entries over the two-week period of the contest, and compelling enough to attract a brand-new audience previously unfamiliar with my work.

The Blog-Off winner would be the contestant who attracted both the most comments and the most clicks – or page views – on the Community Marketing site. So I conceived the idea of a series of stories about attracting both page views and comments via the strength of one’s article headlines.

The series would be called “Thank You For Clicking!” and would be based on the experience early in my career within the world of those Headline Hotshots, the tabloid newspapers. (See “In An Economy and World Gone Haywire” http://wp.me/pycK6-v )

No one does headlines better than the tabloids. Their titles may amuse you, intrigue you, infuriate you, or have you scratching your head – but they are superb at drawing you in and getting you to read the accompanying stories.

Looking at this exercise as informative, as well as fun, I decided to use ten Faux Tabloid Headlines representing different kinds of typical tabloid stories, which I categorized as The Big Story, Plausible-But-Off, Purely Ridiculous, and What-the-Heck-Is-That-About? You can read about these tabloid story categories – and I certainly hope you will – in the four-part series of blogs which made up my composite entry in the Blog-Off.

Here are the ten Faux Tabloid Headlines:

Corpse Found in Internet Guru’s Gym Locker

Pet Hamsters May Spread Swine Flu

Each of these headlines was placed on a separate page at the “Preparing For the Blog-Off” site at Word Press, with the exact same text accompanying each one. In other words, the only element that differed page-to-page was the headline itself. A reader’s clicking on any particular page instead of another would demonstrate that the headline on that page attracted that reader in some way. I also encouraged readers to comment on why they clicked on that particular headline.

Please click on this link to see what the “Preparing For the Blog-Off” page looked like: http://wp.me/pycK6-2h I have used “7 Out of 10 Blog in the Nude” as an example.

Finding Your Fan Base

At this point I needed an audience to read my Blog-Off entries. Several of the younger entrants in the contest publically stated they’d be concentrating on their Twitter networks as potential bases of fans. But I wasn’t on Twitter yet, nor was I active on Face Book.

So I decided to focus my efforts on my Linked In network – considerably smaller then than it is now – and my 50 Linked In Groups.

Starting about two weeks before the Blog-Off’s official commencement, I began to post each of the ten Faux Tabloid Headlines in turn, with a link to the appropriate “Preparing” site page, first in the News sections, then in the Discussion sections, of my various Linked In Groups. I made sure each of the ten Faux Headlines appeared in News and Discussion threads an equal number of times, meaning that an approximately equal number of site visitors would have the opportunity to click – or not click – on each distinctive headline.

Readers who did choose to click were encouraged to make comments about why they chose the headline they did. Many got into the spirit of this exercise and made comments which were sophisticated, insightful, and often quite funny.

It was also soon very clear who my own “fan base” tended to be: over-35; equally divided between female and male; well-educated; and with professional, managerial, or creative careers.

I’m quite happy with that audience. And, in fact, many of those who first “found” me and my work via the Blog-Off are now friends and members of my network.

A quick note about my Baby Boomers series: I intended to introduce the first of my Baby Boomers-The Angriest Generation articles towards the end of the Blog-Off contest. But I collected so much material from the Faux Tabloid Headlines exercise – most of which turned out to be genuinely interesting, as well as humorous – I decided to stick with that “mini-series,” consisting of four separate “Thank You For Clicking!” results stories, as my composite Blog-Off entry.

Here are links to the four stories in the series:

Thank You For Clicking! Part One: Corpse Found In Internet Guru’s Gym Locker http://wp.me/pycK6-2i

Thank You For Clicking! Part Four: New Reality Show To Feature Laid-Off Bankers, Lawyers http://wp.me/pycK6-2o

I urge you to read these stories in sequence, after looking at the Introductory page from the “Preparing For the Blog-Off” site, linked above.

This sequence of four Thank You For Clicking! results articles made up my Blog-Off entry. They were posted on the Community Marketing site at about three-day intervals over the two-week course of the contest. Other active competitors also posted about four stories on average, with three to five blogs being the typical range per contestant.

When the results were tallied, my articles garnered about twice as many page views on the Community Marketing site as my nearest competitor. But the number of page views on the “Preparing for the Blog-Off” site itself was over double that amount, meaning my total views overall, counting both sites, was between six and seven times as great as the next-nearest contestant.

Tell Me What You Think

The series of Thank You For Clicking! stories also did extremely well in terms of reader commentary, which I believe is one of the essential components of successful Internet-based publishing.

Internet gurus tell us that a comment-to-click ratio of 1-2 percent is the average among publishers across the Web. Adding together the approximately 200 comments the Thank You! series received at the Community Marketing site, my Linked In Groups, and the “Preparing For the Blog-Off” site, these articles had a comment-to-click ratio of almost 4 percent, considered an excellent showing.

The comment-to-page view ratio on the “Preparing” site alone, where I – and not other managers – had complete control of the blog and its content was similar, with close to 100 comments from readers, out of 2700 page views in a three-week period.

I am including a selection of original Reader comments from the Community Marketing site and the “Preparing” blogsite as an appendix to this case study. To see them, please click here: http://wp.me/pycK6-2q and http://wp.me/pycK6-2r

The superb reader response demonstrates how enthusiastic – and witty – an audience I was fortunate enough to make an acquaintance with during the course of the Blog-Off contest.

There were a few detractors. If you’ve read my serious humor piece about Malice on the Web, you’ll remember a small cadre of loonies at a couple of Linked In media groups – including a PR man! – who thought anything whatsoever to do with tabloids was just too undignified for Internet discourse. (See “Vultures and Stiletto Heels” http://wp.me/pycK6-5 )

But most readers loved the premise of the Faux Tabloid Headline experiment and understood that it was not only entertaining, but also told us some interesting things about which kinds of headlines readers respond to viscerally and why.

Even coming from a heavy-volume print background, it was essential for me – as it is for every writer and publisher – to discover just who my Internet “fan base” might be and how I could best appeal to them in future Web publications.

My gratifying win in the Blog-Off contest allowed me to do that.

Soon afterwards, I launched my Baby Boomers-The Angriest Generation series. (See http://wp.me/pxD3J-2V ) And “Tell Me What You Think,” a catch phrase I used throughout the Blog-Off, became the subtitle of my EllenInteractive site, a cornucopia of diverse stories designed to elicit above-average reader response. (For instance, see “The World is Divided,” a key question story which received well over 100 comments: http://wp.me/pycK6-n )

I’m now moving on to additional Internet publishing projects:

Media Revolution, a subseries of EllenInteractive, talks about how the entire media sector is undergoing a sea change of enormous proportions and how we must prepare for it. (See “Is Big Brother Here-And Is He An Algorithm?” http://wp.me/pycK6-1Y )

Romance After Fifty is a series on dating and relationships I’m developing with a Baby Boomer matchmaker. (See “A Chance for Romance” http://wp.me/pxD3J-R )

A Little Knowledge will look at Internet security and cloud computing from the perspective of an audience which is well-educated and has used computers for years, but which lacks information on some of the serious recent developments that are changing the Web as we speak.

And The Rest of US - pun intended – is a new blogsite I’m launching about and for political Centrists.

So there have been many interesting developments built upon the foundation of my Blog-Off win.

I invite my brilliant, sophisticated, and in-every-way-perfect audience to join with me in these new projects and others to come.

Any success I have is due to you!

Cada vez que se escucha la palabra “verano”, todas las mujeres del mundo se miran al espejo y se dan cuentas que quieren bajar unos kilos para usar ese bikini que tan sexy hace verlas.

Todas empiezan a dejar las comidas muy condimentadas y grasientas, para cambiar a un estilo de vida más liviano, por lo demás se hacen unas fieles seguidoras de  todo lo que dice Light.

Para toda mujer que quiere bajar ese rollito que tanto molesta que más se hace notar cuando se utiliza poca ropa, por lo que el agua se hace su mejor amiga, aunque no es bueno irse a los extremos, ya que es bueno tomar cosas sanas, pero nos excesos nunca son buenos y también no hay que rellenar muchas veces la botella, dado que le salen unos hongos que puede que no se vean, pero que sí se están tomando.

No es bueno hacer esas dietas extremas o esporádicas, o sea las de la luna, la manzana, el arroz o la que sea, dado que puede que se obtenga bajar unos kilos, pero en dos semanas esos vuelven a tu cuerpo y acompañado de otros más, así si quieres hacer dieta, tienen que comer menos, en horas y evitar las grasas, y es fundamental no juntar la carne con fideos o arroz.

 Hacer ejercicio nunca esta demás, pero tampoco hay que esperar de que si se comienza a esta fecha a hacer deporte, para un mes más estarás en tu mejor momento, sino que es algo gradual no todo se hace en un minuto, pero si es posible, disminuir uno o dos kilos, pero si se desea llegar a números mayores se debió empezar antes la dieta.

Un miseláneo de fotografías del tema

I doubt it.

I am tired of the heat.  And the short sleeves.  And the sweating.

But the warm weather does have it’s benefits.  It helped with entertaining Wildman and his buddy who slept over last night.   The pool water is pretty darn chilly so I turned on the hot tub so the boys could run back and forth between the two.  They had a blast!

Until the cloud-to-cloud lightning began in the distance…  I wasn’t taking my chances and made the boys get out of the water.

After a quick shower the boys indulged in the cupcakes that my mom brought over.

This morning I had to enforce breakfast eating before they could hit the pool again.  You would have thought I was torturing them when I made them wait for me to get dressed before I opened the child safety gate.  The boys were undeterred by the brief rain showers this morning.  Luckily, there was no lightning accompanying the rain.

J came home briefly after dropping my SUV off to get the tires balanced so he jumped in the hot tub with kids.  I’m sure the neighbors appreciated all the ruckus coming from our backyard at 8 AM…

I’m glad Wildman’s friend got to come stay with us last night.  It was a lot of fun.  I feel like we’ve done so much already today and it’s not even noon yet!

Grandma and Grandpa generously flew us out to Arizona for the weekend.

It was a short, but sweet, getaway to the breathtaking Superstition Mountains.  We spent the weekend in the pool with the kids, soaking up as much sun as we could…hoping to pack some in our suitcases and bring home to Minnesota.  That sunshine stowaway plan didn’t work.  I couldn’t believe the thick fog we arrived home to.

While swimming in the pool with my children, and listening to my daughter’s enthusiasm over flying above the clouds and mountains, I pondered on what is really important in life to me. Stripped away of all my daily distractions and desires, I could clearly see it isn’t money or fame.  What I value more than ever are the small and simple moments of wonder and amusement with the people I love the most.

The little things in life matter to me now more than ever.  I know, cliche, but so very true.

Planning to spend a wonderful holiday in the beaches of Mexico. If it is so, then you are doing the right thing, because Mexico has some of the top rated and world class beaches. But before going to Mexico, you should do a little of home work and find where these beaches are. When most people think of top rated beach resorts of Mexico, what comes to mind is usually basic information that’s not particularly interesting or beneficial. But there’s a lot more to top rated beach resorts of Mexico than just the basics.

Are you interested in planning your next vacation in Mexico?  If you are, you are not alone.  Each year, a large number of tourists make the decision to travel to Mexico.  Most are interested in vacationing at some of the most well-known beaches in the world.

While Mexico is home to a number of well-known beaches, there are many individuals who are unsure which beach they should visit.  If you are interesting in scheduling a beach vacation, the best way to choose a destination isn’t by beaches, but by beach resorts. Beach resorts typically offer overnight hotel accommodations and private beaches. Below is an overview of five of the most popular beach resorts found in Mexico.

(1)  Le Meridien Cancun Resort and Spa is one of the most popular beach resorts in all of Mexico.  Le Meridien Cancun Resort and Spa is located in Cancun.  The resort differs from other resorts in that it does not have a Mexican theme.  Instead, the theme is French.

If you are interested in vacationing at the Le Meridien Cancun Resort and Spa, you will find a wide range of on and offshore activities. Popular resort activities include swimming, golfing, and beaching.  The onsite spa is ideal for travelers who just want to pamper themselves.

(2)  La Jolla de Mismaloya is located in Puerto Vallarta.  Similar to the above mentioned Cancun resort, La Jolla Mismaloya has a French theme.  La Jolla de Mismaloya is most well-known for being a resort that caters to children of all ages.

The resort is popular for its beachfront activities. These activities may include relaxing by the spa, swimming, or boating.  As with most other beach resorts, La Jolla de Mismaloya has an unlimited number of activities that are geared towards adventure lovers. These activities often included guided tours that require horseback riding, kayaking, hiking, or biking.

(3)  The Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach is located in Cancun.  It is known as one of the most top rated beach resorts in the Cancun area.  The resort’s topnotch service is often hard to find at other area resorts.

Aside from traditional beach activities, the Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach is most well-known for its amazing, unique, and exciting adventures.  These adventures often include snorkeling, scuba diving, boat tours, sailing, and jet skiing.

(4)  The Fairmont Acapulco Princess is located in Acapulco. The Acapulco area is most well-known for its wide range of landscape sceneries. Beaches, jungles, and deserts are all located within a sort distance of each other in the Acapulco area.

The Fairmont Acapulco Princess is most known for its unique, but intriguing structural designs. The hotel is stocked with modern accommodations, but the structural designs of the hotel takes you back into time.  Onsite resort facilities include multiple pools, multiple tennis courts, a day spa, fitness center, and shopping center.

(5)  The Westin Regina Beach Resort is located in Puerto Vallarta.  While the resort is most known for its golf accommodations, the beach area is just as spectacular.

Aside from a golf course, onsite facilities include swimming pools, tennis courts, and amazing restaurants.  If you are looking for an adventure on or under the water, the Westin Regina Beach Resort may have just what you are looking for.  Popular water activities include swimming, boating, fishing, snorkeling, and scuba diving.

The above mentioned beach resorts are just a few of the many that can be found in Mexico.  With so many beach resorts to choose from, you may find it difficult or impossible to choose.  You may want to consider obtaining feedback from friends, family members, or coworkers who recently vacationed at a Mexico beach resort.  In addition to asking those that you know, you can easily read online reviews posted by travelers.

While examining and researching multiple resorts may seem like a time consuming process, you may find that it will payoff in the end.  Taking the time to select the perfect beach resort in Mexico is the best way to ensure that you will enjoy your Mexico vacation.

If you find yourself confused by what you’ve read to this point, don’t despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish. Is there really any information about top rated beach resorts of Mexico that is nonessential? We all see things from different angles, so something relatively insignificant to one may be crucial to another.

Read more

Peter getting out of Nick’s pool, acrylic on canvas, by David Hockney, 1966

(via Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool)

In 1966 Hockney travelled to Los Angeles for the second time. Greatly attracted by the sunny climate and relaxed atmosphere of West Coast America, he began to record the lifestyle there in his work. He went on to produce a series of paintings based on the theme of the swimming pool.

Here, Hockney’s friend Peter Schlesinger is depicted climbing out of the swimming pool of Nick Wilder, a Los Angeles gallery owner. The painting is a composite view. Schlesinger did not actually model in the pool; the pose derives from a snapshot of him leaning against his MG sports car. The white border and square format of the painting are reminiscent of the Polaroid prints Hockney used as studies for the composition. Source.

Those of you who have stayed in the apartment or who have made enquiries with us will be familiar with our Welcome Notes.  There is a copy in the apartment and we have a copy available here on this site which can be downloaded from our Resources page.

The Welcome Notes contain information about the apartment (including directions) and also some other useful information about things such as supermarkets and tap water.  The information about the apartment will help you feel comfortable quickly and also provides you with contact numbers for housekeeping or medical emergencies. 

If you are staying at the apartment please take the time to read it.  It may save you some trouble and time when things are not going as you believe they should.  It may also save you some money as our housekeeper will make a charge for any call outs.

I have recently updated the document to reflect some recent issues.

Happy holidays

Jane

If you are considering installing a swimming pool but don’t want the added cost and hassle, or maybe don’t really have the room for one, then consider getting a swim spa. Much smaller and less expensive to own, it is also easier to install.

Like a swimming pool, you have plenty of room to swim or engage in your water workout. But unlike a swimming pool, a swim spa enables you to enjoy a relaxing water massage to sooth your aching muscles and bring healing to your body.

A Swim Spa is smaller and costs less than a swimming pool but just as much fun... if not more!

You can’t go wrong with a swim spa as long as the reasons are right and it blends in perfectly with your home.

• Are you keen on doing aquatic exercises?
• Do you want a pool that is not very large and easy to manage?
• Do you want a recreational facility that is cost-efficient?
• Do you still want a pool even if you don’t have much space?

If you answer “yes” to all the questions, then a swim spa may be a perfect choice for you!

For those who prefer not to use a swim spa for exercise, they can socialize and laze around and carry a conversation while in the water. It’s a great meeting place for friends and families.

Swim Spa = Ideally Sized, Easy to Manage, Cost-Effective

Because of its smaller size, owning a swim spa is generally more cost-effective than owning a swimming pool.

A swim spa is very easy to install. You do have to excavate the area on your property where you want to install it, but there is no heavy shell to contend with that is hard to handle. In areas where you cannot excavate the land to sink the spa into the ground, there are models available for installation above ground.

Swim spas allow you to conserve your resources – water, chemicals and electricity. They are also easier to maintain because you don’t have to scrub and vacuum for hours on end. They require minimum effort, so care and maintenance expenses do not significantly erode your budget.

If you have any comments I’d love to hear ‘em. Leave a comment below. If you have a question, leave a comment or give me a call!

John Trzcinka (760) 598-8922 or toll free (888) 598-8922

Dealing with the dog days of summer doesn’t have to be an incredibly large hassle.  For those of you that are considering having an inground pool installed, you have probably already found out that the costs for construction on these types of pools is often astronomical.  Unfortunately for most people, they often don’t have the large sums of money lying around to go out and pay cash to have a pool installed.  With companies available now to provide swimming pool loans, more and more homes are able to enjoy having the comforts of owning a pool.  To find the best deals and interest rates though, you are going to want to make sure that the swimming pool finance company you use specializes in lending money for pools.

RACV Royal Pines Resort is a five-star resort situated on a 500 acre property of wonderfully designed gardens and a 27 hole golf course. It is located in the heart of Gold Coast and is just minutes away from the beautiful beaches of Surfers Paradise. A one-of-a-kind resort that is closer to nature and near to the sub-tropical forests located in the Gold Coast Hinterland region.

RACV Royal Pines Resort is considered as one of the biggest resorts in Queensland. It is home to 331 luxurious rooms, 4 fancy restaurants, a convention centre, a bar, a championship golf course, top class Day Spa, 7 tennis courts and a Health Club.

Everything you need is all right here at Royal Pines Resort. The favorite things that I love about this resort are their 27 hole golf course and the Day Spa. Oh la, la! Talk about living like royalty!

The resort’s outside pool is just breath-taking. I feel like I am a millionaire swimming in the pool and lazing around at the poolside bar. There are times when I like to chill out, relax and simply enjoy the day; I head to the Royal Pines Resort lounge area or the bar. The driving range is also a fun way to work on my golf swing. When the children want to play around and have a little bit of fun, I send them down into the games room.

RACV Royal Pines Resort lives up to its reputation – a five-star resort offering luxurious accommodation with world class dining, golfing and conference facilities.

Health and Safety legislation has a lot to answer for.  Some amongst you might be grateful that medicines are tested, seatbelts widely used and that primary schools no longer spontaneously burst into flame, but let’s not be too one-sided here.

For some reason I don’t fully understand, there are days that I manage to work myself up into such a bristling fury about Health and Safety legislation that I probably resemble a Daily Mail reader fuming about gollywog toys, minstrel shows and the demise of bear baiting at the hands of the lesbian communists that run the BBC.  One of my perverse pet grievances with modern safety law stems from a feeling that the wayward youth of today might feel differently about their lives if only they were not denied what I remember as the unfettered pleasure of the poorly-supervised public swimming pool.  Pools, these days, are just a little bit too safe to be as much fun.

Pool sock

I’m well aware that this isn’t an especially logical viewpoint.  If anything, children are probably better off growing to maturity without the opportunity to be knocked unconscious slipping from the top of a giant inflatable octopus or suffering second-degree burns from badly-maintained waterslides. If I had kids of my own, I might not actually want their extremities stunted via repeated exposure to that revolting pool footbath of old, a toxic sheepdip that allegedly countered athlete’s foot outbreaks by immersing young swimmers ankle-deep in a puce cocktail of TCP and water-soluble radioactive isotopes.

The public swimming pool used to ebb and flow with a temperature-controlled concentration of muggy peril.  Never mind the diving board; I well remember the gruesome pile-ups that could occur when just one chunky nipper flaunted the ten swim commandments and sped across those treacherous cream-coloured pool tiles, often skidding uncontrollably into the kids queuing for the waterslide like they were so many chlorine-soaked human skittles.  God forbid anybody was stood with their back turned and hands full with an inflatable seahorse – the pool guards would be fishing milk teeth out of the filters for weeks.

A golden age of industrial chemical exposure

As with most of my youth, I persist in mis-remembering this kind of situation as somehow character forming.  Spending your Saturday morning swanning around in a humid asbestos hangar, dodging duckings, bombings and the odd paddling paedophile seems generally preferable to whatever it is children actually do with their weekends any more.  It might be too much to expect shank-wielding eight-year-old hoodies to want to join the Cub Scouts, but maybe they’d blossom into fine young men if they could only gather in some tacky formica pool café, play a little Donkey Kong and look back on a job well done in surviving the eardrum-shredding journey to the deep-end floor to retrieve a handful of tossed locker keys.

On the other hand, I also recall a young life sent awry before my very eyes, when once I saw a boy emerge gasping from the smurf-blue waters like a young Arthur, proudly holding aloft an Excalibur that turned out not to be the expected bundle of keys but rather an improbably still-solid brick of human faeces. With some plasters stuck to it.

Somebody really took a metaphorical dive into the shallow end there, and with none of the cachet that came from injuring yourself on the perfidiously unpredictable diving platforms that were still available then; great thunking white springboards that could fling kids into enraged lane-swimmers like some aquatic trebuchet, at least before the fun police stepped in some time in the mid nineties.  I truly hope that boy grew up and worked through the trauma of publicly brandishing a handful of pressure-moulded bum pebbles, but it’s far more likely that the memory has scarred him for life.  Those revolving vending machines outside municipal pools sold many useful items, but I don’t think there was a 12 pack of horse tranquilisers nestled amongst the bars of soap, plastic combs and garish rubber swim caps.

Cloudy memories

As it turns out, the ultimate crime of the health and safety killjoys against pool culture is in fact a sin of omission.  I try and avoid children and their conversations, but I’d be willing to wager any number of Hannah Montana stickers that the changing room rumour mill still revolves in fear of that dreaded red/purple cloud of dye that signifies the contamination of the public pool with an accidental piss leak.  That spreading phantom of urinary humiliation haunted my childhood like a chlorinated version of The Fog, so in the course of researching this article I was tremendously disappointed to discover that the fabled chemical is nothing more than a cruel (if highly effective) urban myth.  On top of everything else, I now feel personally let down by modern science – Richard Dawkins must be too busy swearing at creationists to have reminded his friends in the white coats to get round to the essential task of inventing a pool soluble chemical warning to protect children from each other, terrorists and R Kelly.

Health and safety stepped in too late, because the dye was a lie. Pools may have been more fun but my cousin really wasn’t making anything up when he told me why that small pool was so lovely and warm the whole time.  Thanks a lot, pool warning poster.

John Dragonetti e Blake Hazard se conheceram através de um amigo em comum e se apaixonaram. Os dois tocavam juntos vez ou outra em seus respectivos trabalhos solo. Mas depois de quatro anos o namoro acabou.

Heavy is the mind that can’t be told
When its time to let it go
Heavy is the heart filled so full with sorrow

Nesse meio tempo os dois se mudaram pra Los Angeles e volta e meia a Blake ia parar no estúdio do John pra gravar umas músicas que ela tinha composto. Foi ai que perceberam que os dois só faziam escrever sobre o fim do namoro deles. Eles acabaram trabalhando em algumas músicas juntos, o que deu margem pro namoro voltar também. Depois de um tempo, aquelas primeiras músicas que fizeram juntos foram transformadas no primeiro álbum deles, Declare a New State! e ai nasceu essa coisa fofa chamada The Submarines.

]]> http://bluehavenpoolslv.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/anderson/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:05:36 +0000 commercialcase http://bluehavenpoolslv.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/anderson/

Any travel break is welcome especially when the whole year one spends at home, mostly on bed, dragging rather than walking, struggling to keep up with a 3 yr olds incessant demands, wailing away almost every night and many more such combats with a son in the tummy who is hell bent to prove he will be a sure-shot footballer someday. Though we had PhantasiaLand break some couple of months back but it already seems ages now. Although a long holiday is soon nearing (yay! Goa calling) during Christmas and New Year, we still like to savor on short trips too. So we book Hotel Zugbrücke, a four star known for wellness and sports, 180 kms away from our place near Koblenz.

Every year our staff gets surprise gifts from us for Christmas, last year we took all of them along with their families to Hotel Mercator which is just in our town, for one whole day stay, food, drinks, wellness all inclusive. It was great fun and we all enjoyed to the core. So this time over, we planned it differently with different gifts for all like cameras, iphones etc. But Christoph and family gets to spend with us on this surprise weekend trip.

We met at 9.00am at Janses Mattes restaurant situated at a main crossing, thats mostly a meeting point for any road journey for people around here. They were supposed to follow us (not blindfolded) along through the beautiful scenic landscapes which is spread all over germany with the onset of autumn. For them the journey seemed unending as Raj had told them that we were to drive just about 80 kms so the surprise already had begun as they drove for 100 km extra. And we finally reach our destination by 11.00am.

Hotel Zugbrück is one of its kind specially for table tennis lovers, has a bowling alley, a disco, wellness with sauna, swimming pool, whirlpool, babysitting facility, a large kids playroom too. It is such a wonder that this small hilly area produces world class table-tennis players like Lucjan Blaszczyk, Tomas Pavelka, Patrick Baum and Matiss Burgis. So our surprise destination was duly acknowledged by all, kids were already jumping, dying to do so, more into the swimming pool.

Hotel Zugbrücke with Christoph and family in the foreground

We first wanted to have lunch so we proceeded to the restaurant which was connected to the hotel by a channel or sort of bridge. And the buffet had just begun. We opted for the window corner from where we could see a stream passing, the bridge that we crossed was just above that. This explains the name of the hotel Zugbrücke (zug is a train and brücke means bridge).

View from the restaurant where the stream is flowing

After lunch we took a short rest and then spent good three hours in the swimming pool area. Kids were having a ball of a time screaming and splashing away. Cappucino was welcome at this point. Now the idea of having the whirlpool out in the open only added to the charm of the wholesome experience with cold mist almost enveloping and the tall trees overlooking you while a glass of champagne just complimented the hot water massages. We just ran out of time for tennis as bowling was booked for 6.30 pm which was absolute fun after 12 yrs approximately. Wondering how much we lose out on smaller joys when we think nothing but work, work and work all our life. With kids we are now reliving those forgotten golden days.

It was time for dinner now. I loved all in the elaborate menu which consisted of onion soup, variety of salads, pork and deer was main course food, knödel, grilled champignons, zucchini, aubergine, rosemarine potatoes, paprika and fettucini, thunfish with teriyaki sauce and many many more. I am not even getting to the dessert area, besides I am still dieting. As the kids were tired and sleepy they had to be put to bed, so I say goodnight to all. I also slept as early as 10.30pm and Raj came back to room at 1.00am.

Got up at 7 in the morning, it was drizzling outside and no one wanted to wake up. We definitely wanted to stay for the Sunday as well, but cannot. At 9am we had to meet for breakfast and then by 11am we aimed at checking out, as a short and sweet, well spent holiday came to an end, kids were seemingly upset. So next time it will be a at least good three days for us, promise .

PS: Christoph and family however wanted to spend sometime more around the hill top, trekking upto the castle.

Photographed by sandcastlematt

Since Vieques is still pretty undeveloped, you can get a nice view of the stars almost every night.

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