The Way You Were (The Kingdom by the Sea - Paul Theroux)

Advantages: well written, individual perspective, very of its own time
Disadvantages: biased & dated

...Paul Theroux undertook his journey round the coast of the United Kingdom over 25 years ago, in 1982. Even more than normally, his book is very slight on information, strong on description and dominated by the author's perceptions, feelings and judgements. Being his usual miserable persona, Theroux doesn't spare the locations he visits and the people he meets just because they happen to be British. Wry, observant and always seeing the empty half of the glass (unless it's filled with sludge), he travels the length of the coast of the UK by train and on foot, avowedly skipping castles and cathedrals and under-sampling cities. He is, of course, frightfully unfair. He's scathing, ironic, judgemental without spelling the judgements out, and very, very choosy about the human creations too. As all who read Theroux know, he's not very fond...

magdadh 03.04.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of The Kingdom by the Sea - Paul Theroux

Justin Whaaaaaaaaa

Advantages: Visually excellent
Disadvantages: Concert not long enough

...On Saturday, 10th January 2004 we had a Maidstone Mini-meet. My fellow Ciao?ers came and consumed vast quantities of alcohol, while I myself stuck with Shandy throughout the day. The reason for this abstinence was because I had a date on Sunday with a man, young enough to be my son. He goes by the name of Justin whaaaaa Timberlake and he is a constant cause of much adoration by the Senorita?s in the Orlando household. Justin Timberlake, or JT for ease of typing, held his last London concert of his Justified world tour on Sunday 11th January before dashing off to Glasgow for the 14th. The later dates on this tour were an extension as he was so popular that thousands of fans were not able to get tickets for the early December 03 dates. We heard about the original London dates being at the beginning of December, but...

orlando 17.01.2004 (25.01.2004) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Justin Timberlake Justified Tour

Justin's Trousersnake

Advantages: See Mr J.T & many more
Disadvantages: Long toilet queues!!!

...I went to see Justin Timberlake in Newcastle's Telewest Arena back in May 2003... my friend, Karyn, and I decided we'd love to see him so we patiently waited on the internet for that moment when the tickets went on sale. We used ticketmaster.co.uk to purchase them for about £25 each and they were well worth the money. Karyn works in the Travel Inn so we booked a room at the Newcastle one for a discounted price which was very useful as we were broke at the time. We had looked around for other places to stay but all were a bit out of the way or really expensive in comparison to our budget. We decided on the Travel Inn mainly because of the discount, but also because we knew what we were getting when we got there. The night before the concert, Karyn and I decided it would be a good idea to go out with friends for a quiet drink, but...

Lil_Miss_Pink 21.01.2004 (25.06.2004) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Justin Timberlake Justified Tour

FREE DVDs

Advantages: Free trial, large choice, post included,new realeases
Disadvantages: see review

...I like movies and I like freebies, so when you get offered both in one swoop you?re bound to accept! I used my two week free trial with this company and remained with them for a couple of monthsbefore moving on to try many other companies free trials (and winning a new DVD player on Tesco DVD rental site on their free trial offer). I then had an email from DVDs 365 asking me to go back, and offering me a free DVD if I did so. I had just left Tesco (with my new DVD player) so I chose to go back with them. ∆◊◊ THE SERVICE THEY OFFER ∆◊◊ Basically it?s like going to a video shop and hiring films on DVD, except you don?t pay for each film you chose ? rather a monthly fee for which you can watch as many movies as you can fit in, for us this is usually around 8 a month (2 a week usually weekends...

dabmim 15.11.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of dvds365.com

Theroux casts a dark shadow .....

Advantages: Wonderful writing, wicked sense of humour
Disadvantages: Author can come across as smug and racist

...In "Dark Star Safari" Paul Theroux takes us through his journey overland from Cairo to Capetown. For him it is a special journey because he retraces some of the trips he made in Africa whilst working there as a teacher in the 1960s, first as a young graduate sent to Malawi through the International Peace Corps and later when working in Uganda in a university. Paul Theroux (father of writer and TV presenter Louis, if you were wondering) is has been writing novels and travel books since the 1960s but travel writing is at the forefront of his work. Even his novels either feature travel heavily or are inpsired by events while he was travelling himself. "Dark Star Safari" differs from a conventional travelogue in that the locations take second place to the people Theroux encounters along the way. Some are strangers, a first...

fizzytom 07.04.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Dark Star Safari - Paul Theroux

Surprising Picture Quality - Panasonic DVD-S54

Advantages: Incredible picture quality when compared to my old non-upscaling player with a scart lead
Disadvantages: Sometimes disc drive can be really noisy when DVD's initially load.

...At first I wasn't convinced by up-scaling DVD player technology but was persuaded after reading an article in "What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision" magazine. Unable to afford a Blu-Ray player my sister and I bought the Panasonic DVD-S54 to match our parents brand new Panasonic TX-32LZD80 LCD television as their Christmas 2008 present. Admittedly it was a slightly selfish purchase as we both live at home and wanted to watch DVDs on the big new TV ourselves! We bought the player from the electrical retailer Comet for about £100 just before Christmas so there were no discounts applied. On Christmas day when opened we found a relatively small box tightly packed with the player in polystyrene packaging. All the components such as cables, remote and manuals were well presented in their own protective plastic bags, to keep them protected. The player...

bobbacon985 12.02.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Panasonic DVD-S54

Theroux Trouble in Little China

Advantages: Great cultural and historical perspectives
Disadvantages: Incessant grumbling of author becomes tiresome

...In recent years, China has, for me, lost some of its mysterious aura which has intrigued travelers for years. With the Beijing Olympics not far away, China is starting to open up to the outside world and is now at the heart of all kinds of statistics, used to illustrate just how much China is changing - that it is the world's biggest consumer of steel or that it has the fastest growing number of mobile phone users, for example. Paul Theroux's "Riding the Iron Rooster" was published in 1988; he had spent one year traveling China by train, covering the whole country in a series of trips (the "Iron Rooster" is the name of just one of the trains he travels on) during which he gave his impressions not only of the country and its customs but also the Chinese people. The trip takes him from the frozen forests of Manchuria, through the wilds...

fizzytom 17.05.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Riding the Iron Rooster (By Train Through China) - Paul Theroux

Henmania For Justine

Advantages: Very athletic, brillaint strategist
Disadvantages: Cannot match the power of the 6ft plus players

...In another age surely Justine Henin would have been Wimbledon Champion. Sadly for her and for tennis generally we are in the age of power in tennis. Mens tennis has become little more than a serving match. On occasions it is like watching a bowler in cricket aim at a set of stumps without the batsman there. If a player manages to return a serve it is usually so limply that the server volleys it away. Too many sets have been settled using the a tie-breaker. Is Ladies tennis going to go the same way? Watching the Williams sisters and Lindsay Davenport and to a slightly lesser extent even Jennifer Capriati it is beginning to seem so. These players are much taller and powerful than was the case before Martina Navritilova came along and dominated womens tennis. Perhaps though the emergence of Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters from Belgium...

polydeuces 18.07.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Justine Henin (BEL)

Justin case you dont like the cover,cd's good

Advantages: A cd full of instant hits and classics
Disadvantages: The bonus track is not included in the track listing

...Justified was an album that I actually had trouble buying because for a start I wasnt sure whether it would be worth purchasing (although i'd been told it was good) but also because i was too embarrased!However, i now have a message to all males: it is ok to buy this album because it is actually very good. From start to finish Justin Timberlake has produced an album of top quality stuff which will be listened to for years to come. So lets go through the tracks: Senorita - 4:54 What a start! The synths at the beginning set the almost infectious beat which creates a perfect party tune. This track is one to dance too and one which has a strong latin feel. An instant favourite. Like I love you - 4:43 Great guitar in this one. This is a lot of peoples favourite song of the album and i cant think of any reason why it wouldnt be...

tom_very1st 27.03.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Justified - Justin Timberlake

Im bringing Sexy Back - Really are you Justin!?

Advantages: Great album with songs to suit every mood
Disadvantages: Some album fillers and some songs can get annoying

...Let me introduce you to Justin Timberlake international superstar. From Mickey Mouse Club star to NSync, to solo artist. He joined the Mickey Mouse Club in 1994 where he co-stared with Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling, Keri Russel and Britney Spiers who he later in 2000 had a high profile relationship with. He joined NSync in 1995 which was a huge success and they had several hits. In 2002 Justin became a solo artist. His first album is called 'Justified' and was a hit. His current album Futuresex/Lovesound has been very successful and debuted at Number 1 in the charts (UK and US) when released in 2006. Having recently seen Justin Timberlake in the Futuresex/Lovesound tour in Brisbane (Australia), I thought I would review this album. The concert was amazing, one of the best I have been to so far. It had brilliant lighting and was...

DeniseKelly40 24.12.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of FutureSex/LoveSounds - Justin Timberlake