11:49 PM

November 29, 2008 - Wine Photography

Another Great Wine Photography Article

Short of Money for Chrismas Gifts, Great Food & Fine Wine this Year

It?s this time of the year that the shops start to put their decorations up, and you start getting thousands of mail-outs in the post (or thousands of emails from online shops).

It?s a great time of the year ? isn?t it? Or is it? Well - for some people it?s not so great. It?s the time of the year when you have to fork out a lot of money (for gift shopping, for food shopping or for decoration shopping) ? and if you don?t have the money ? you can really get yourself in trouble. Especially ? if you need to be paying the bills at the same time (and the bills always seem to come right when you don?t need them!).

You want to be able to give your kids, your friends, & your family the best Christmas possible. You want to be able to shop for awesome gifts that will make their mouths fall open. You want to be able to lay out the best service possible ? turkey, ham, roast meats, roast vegetables, trifle, pavlova, the works? And most importantly ? you want to give them a Christmas to remember.

But ? the power bill & the phone bill are also due this week - so? what do you do? Well of course you have to pay the power bill, so the decorations, food & gifts will just have to wait?

There are some ways to get around the problems though:

They always say you could get the kids involved ? get them to make their own crackers, & decorations. But - I'm not going to pretty this "saying" up - generally this method will cost you more. You will pay around $2 for a six pack of crackers down the road. If you do this separately - , you have to buy the snaps (the centre bits that go BANG) , the paper for making them, the trinkets to put inside them, the paper to fill the crackers out etc?? Sure - you can get the kids involved - just do it wisely - they can make cards out of paper (with felt-tip pens etc) - but fancy things are generally more expensive than at the shops - remember that.

You could get cheaper meats (chicken instead of turkey etc..), sides (potatoes instead of kumara), and deserts (bread & butter pudding instead of trifle) ? but is this something you want to do? If you normally have a ?traditional Christmas?, it is sure to be a let-down if you have lesser foods.

And? you could get smaller pressies ? there is nothing wrong with this ? you could buy a whole sack of $2 pressies (or even $10 pressies), and the kids would enjoy them (maybe not your teenagers ? but the young ones will never know the difference).

So ? what do you do? You just have to spend the money unfortunately. There are two ways to do this:

a) Get your friends & family to contribute some money and have a co-joint christmas experience (we personally do this & it works out great ? we have a ?family? Christmas where everyone contributes something).

b) Get a loan, or a cash advance. There are several companies that will do this - so you can do plenty of online shopping for gifts, food & decorations. Just do a google search for "apply for loan online" or "apply for cash advance", and you will see lots of companies willing to help you out. Of course, you should try to avoid this measure. It's just going to end up getting you in more debt. If you are just looking for something to tide you over (until you get the next pay cheque), by all means - go for the cash advance. But the loaning of money is dangerous, so be very careful!

So in closing, yes ? there are options for xmas! Just make sure you make it a good one, and most of all - enjoy it!

Shirlene owns www.grizzlynut.co.nz - an online shopping network in New Zealand, where you will find thousands of NZ online shops & global online shops for a complete online shopping experience.

Short Review on Wine Photography

Short of Money for Chrismas Gifts, Great Food & Fine Wine this Year

It?s this time of the year that the shops start to put their decorations up, and you start getting thousands of mail-outs in the post (or thousands of...

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Labels: Wine Expert | Wine Facts

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9:21 PM

November 2008 - Napa Valley

Today's Napa Valley Article

Red Wine Might Help Fight Obesity

A last study on resveratrol done by the National Institute on Aging at Harvard Medical School reveals that its findings could, in the future, help obese humans.

To investigate the effects of the molecule on mammals, Dr Rafael de Cabo who conducted the looked at middle-aged mice fed on a high-calorie diet, with 60 per cent of the calories coming from fat. These mice shared many of the problems of humans on an equivalent diet, including obesity, insulin resistance and heart disease. The interesting finding was that the mice that consumed resveratrol alongside their food did not lose weight but they did show decreased glucose levels, healthier hearts and liver tissue, and better motor function compared with the mice on the same diet but without the supplement. They also discovered the chemical was improving the mice's life-span. The scientists estimated resveratrol reduced the risk of death in the mice by about 31%, a point similar to the lifespan for the standard diet mice. The exact mechanism of the chemical is not yet known, but the researchers believe it may be activating a gene called SIRT1, which is linked to a family of proteins thought to be involved with longevity.

David Sinclair, associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, who also participated at the study said: "The 'healthspan' benefits we saw in the obese mice treated with resveratrol are positive clinical indicators and may mean we can stave of in humans age-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer, but only time and more research will tell."

The reactions of the scientific world to this study are positive. Professor Peter Rabinovitch, from the University of Washington, suggested that "the next step for the researchers should be to investigate the effects of the chemical in humans." Professor Steve Bloom, head of an obesity research group at Imperial College, London, UK, said: "If we start with the idea that there is an evolutionary advantage for the life expectation of each species, and this is tied into scarcity or abundance of food. This paper is extremely interesting - it could be the breakthrough of the year, with massive possibilities for treating human beings."

Visit Vintage Roots at http://www.vintageroots.co.uk, for organic wines

About the Author

One of the most interesting findings of the researchers regarding the qualities of red wine is the benefits of resveratrol, a compound found largely in the skins of red grapes. It came to scientific attention only four years ago, however, as a possible explanation for the "French Paradox" -- the low incidence of heart disease among the French people, who eat a relatively high-fat diet.

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