IKEA IVAR shelving and storage units

Advantages: Beautiful AND practical!
Disadvantages: Changes in range since first introduced

...no external door handles, just clever finger recesses carved into the doors and drawer fronts. Choices, choices: We started with four 50cm x 240cm uprights, four posts to 'step down' from the 50cm to the 30cm depth (for the smaller cupboards), a few shelves, a desk, a 50cm x 80cm 2-door cabinet, a 50cm x 80cm drawer unit, three 30cm x 80cm glass-door cabinets, and 2 cross-braces (necessary to give the structure some rigidity or it could conceivably simply fall over sideways!!). Preparation: We decided to take the time and effort to varnish every component - it took forever, but I would really recommend doing it as it has meant that the furniture has survived many years, many room and arrangement changes, and a complete house move while still looking pretty good. (If you don't protect the wood in some way it will very soon get...

sgjenning 24.10.2006 · Read review
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Review of Ikea Ivar Shelving System

Breaking Glass, the sound of a shattered career

Advantages: Good music and insight into Britain in the early 80's
Disadvantages: Certain scenes are very difficult to watch now

...1980, Punk was dying and 2 Tone was only just getting established in the Midlands. Music was either the New Wave alternative, Glam Rock , Prog Rock or Disco. And what was Coventry songstress Hazel O'Connor doing with herself. Making this movie, Breaking Glass. It's about a young woman called Kate (apparently named after Kate Bush) trying to break into music from the bottom in the London music scene. Along with a fairly young Phil Daniels fresh from Quadrophenia who plays her manager Danny are Jonathan Pryce playing their deaf saxaphone player Ken, Ken Campbell playing the pub landlord who hosts the bands early gigs (and consistantly refuses to pay them for any), Mark Wing Davey (better known as Zaphod Beeblebrox) playing the record exec that Phil is helping to artifically create sales for. As far as other musical talent there is...

atytyut2434 09.01.2009 · Read review
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Review of Breaking Glass (DVD)

Heart of Glass

Advantages: A superb story
Disadvantages: No real dislikes for me

...NOTE: There are some spoilers here due to the nature of the film. Shattered Glass won some pretty good reviews from the critics as did Hayden Christensen for his portrayal of Stephen Glass the man who inspired this movie. This was my first opportunity to see the man who would be Vader since Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, so how was it? = What's it all about? = Those fearful words raise their head again “based on a true story”, Shattered Glass is based on a journalistic scandal involving reporter turned novelist Stephen Glass. It is a tale of truths and lies, Stephen Glass is a reporter for The New Republic magazine, big deal? Well it also happens to be the magazine of choice...

Matt.Blundell 21.06.2005 · Read review
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Review of Shattered Glass (DVD)

The Beauty of Glass

Advantages: Simply beautifully moving
Disadvantages: None whatsoever

...I find it very difficult to begin to try and explain Philip Glass? Solo Piano because despite my preponderance of music ops I have absolutely no understanding of the theory behind music; terminology and technique means nothing to me: this is not a virtue and especially in attempting to explain the subtle delight in Glass? music I find myself flummoxed, but I shall try nevertheless, if only because no one else has and it is music that I love. I am very much a new convert to Glass? music and am now firmly entrenched in the belief that his work is magnificence of the highest order. From my little knowledge of outward cultural reaction to Glass it always appears to me that he has a following of near cult status, unusually successful and yet somehow shunned by critics and the establishment in favour of other composers. I am perhaps wrong...

No_name 15.08.2004 · Read review
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Review of Solo Piano - Philip Glass

Through a glass darkly

Advantages: Good Conclusion
Disadvantages: Slow pace

...discover all the charges against Marco have been dropped. Upon his release the three men bump into Marco's father in law De Cal, an owner of the local glass making plant. He is furious with Marco and threatens to hurt him. After some informal enquiries Brunetti is satisfied that 'the old man' is just shouting his mouth off and means him no actual harm. Then Giorgio Tassini, the Night Watchman at the Glass Plant is found dead. Upon investigation he has also been talking bitterly about the Plant to everyone. Brunetti discovers he has a dossier about the Plant, claiming the owner to be responsible for his two year old daughter's bad health. The Commissario must find out if it is Tassini's own guilt that makes him believe this or if there really is a case to answer by De Cal and the other next door plant owner Fasano. My thoughts...

CPTDANIELS 31.05.2008 · Read review
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Review of Through a Glass, Darkly - Donna Leon

Drinking glasses....not to be confused with beer goggles!

Advantages: A novelty item, ideal to entertain my son, and any other male in the house!
Disadvantages: Only a cheap and cheerful item, not really made to last.

...My sisters boyfriend decided this christmas to buy the entire of my family a gift each, this being due to the fact he has reached and surpassed the two year mark of "courting" my younger sister, this in my families book makes him officilaly part of the family! Now with the older generation, (myself included), we are reasonably easy to buy for, chocolate and booze being at the top of our wish lists. There are two certain people who are not so easy to buy for, not that they have discernable tastes, but more the fact they receive so much stuff on Christmas morning that getting a present that hasn?t already been bagged by another relation is very bloody difficult. Of whom do I speak?. Well my two children of course! The gift that he finally decided on for my son is - ?Drinking glasses, by Tobar? These in themselves are pretty...

sarahbarrow 04.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Tobar Drinking Glasses

Glass Lake

Advantages: good read
Disadvantages: none

...I found The Glass Lake a very enjoyable read and it was very hard to put down. It is set in Ireland in a rural village. The story focuses on the main character Kit McMahon and her relationship with her mother Helen McMahon. Plot Summary Helen McMahon who was very beautiful and glamourous was deserted by her lover. She then marries Martin Mcmahon and moves to a small village called Lough Glass. They had two children Kit and Emmet. She was not very happy even though she appeared to have everything. She was still restless and was hankering after the man called Louis who had broken her heart before she has married Martin McMahon.. Then one day she vanishes leaving a note address to Martin. Kit her daughter finds the note before Martin does and thinks that her Mother had committed suicide. But she had runaway to England with her...

ruth1957 17.06.2007 · Read review
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Review of The Glass Lake - Maeve Binchy

IVAR good shelving unit from IKEA

Advantages: Cheap, Unfinished softwood, Highly compatible with every room, Strong, Easy to construct, Easy to change layout, Easy to addon extra parts at a later date
Disadvantages: Can look a little plain (lke scaffolding) if not painted or waxed.

...Having worked at IKA for two years, I have learnt which of the products are good in which areas, and which are the best value. I needed some shelving in my bedroom and the IVAR range seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Not only was IVAR fairly cheap, it was also beyond easy to build, the number of combination possibilities was endless, the unfinshed softwood the units were made out of meant that I could paint, wax, oil, etc to any colour to match my room. If you put a shelf in place, and then feel it doesn't fit in well, it's not a case of having to undo the whole unit - you simply lift the shelf up, move the four supporting metal pins to a different level, and place the pin down again. The IVAR range is compatble with just about every room in a house - incorporating such pieces as a drop-leaf table, plain and glass...

philltowns 10.11.2000 · Read review
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Review of Ikea Ivar Shelving System

Damaged - Cathy Glass

Advantages: Insight into what some foster carers have to endure
Disadvantages: Sad story made even more moving because it is true

...This book had me gripped from the start. It is a true story about a foster carer called Cathy Glass and her experience with a very troubled 8 year old girl named Jodie. Cathy has been a foster carer for over 20 years and looked after more than 50 children. What struck me about this book was the sheer frankness of Cathy. It is a heartwrenching story that goes into quite a lot of detail. Jodie had been through numerous carers before she was taken in by Cathy. Cathy knew this and was made aware in a crisis meeting that Jodie would be taken into a residential care home which would of meant she didn't get the one-on-one care that she so badly needed. The antics Jodie gets up to are disturbing to say the least, from wiping her own excrement on herself to cutting her own wrists, extreme aggression and sexual behaviour. Multiple...

victorialush 29.05.2007 · Read review
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Review of Damaged - Cathy Glass

Hidden by Cathy Glass

Advantages: a fantastic insight into a small childs life
Disadvantages: none that i can think of

...From the author of Number One bestseller 'Damaged' comes the poignant and shocking memoir of Cathy's recent relationship with Tayo, a young boy she fosters whose good behaviour and polite manners hide a terrible past. From start to finish this book had me gripped and I really couldn't put it down. It is really hard to believe that even now in the 21st century children are still being subjected to horrific abuse and neglect when they should be enjoying their childhood. However thanks to people like Cathy Glass these children can be provided with a little bit of stabiity and an idea of what a childhood should be like. It is just a shame that there are not more people like her in this world because if there were this world would be a better place. I highly recommend this book for it is not only a story if a child who suffers...

kellys_eye 21.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of Hidden - Cathy Glass