Wife in the north

Advantages: Some humour
Disadvantages: Not much happens

...As a wife in Northumberland myself, I was keen to read Judith O?Reilly?s book, wife in Northumberland. I had seen the book for sale in Waterstones but thought I would borrow it from my local library. There was a long waiting list (obviously others wanted to read a book with a local connection) After a wait of 3 weeks I was very keen to start reading! The cover of the book with its cartoon family suggests that this is a humorous book. To confirm this there is a quote from Jenny Colgan saying that she howled with laughter at every page. This sounded like my kind of light read. However this book was not what I had been expecting. There is a lot of humour but it is also a very poignant and moving book. The book is written in diary form and plots Judith?s reluctant move from London to north Northumberland. The opening entry describes...

anwar 02.03.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Wife in the North - Judith O'Reilly

The North Pier, Blackpool

Advantages: Lots of fresh air, fully accessible by disabled visitors
Disadvantages: A small admission charge

...If you think about the main English seaside resorts then the chances are that they will have a pier. There is something very quintessentially English about seaside piers and in Britain they are largely restricted to England, with a handful in Wales and none at all north of the border in Scotland. Blackpool in the north west of England is unusual because it boasts three different piers. The North Pier, Central Pier and South Pier. As its name suggests The North Pier has the most northerly location of the three. It is also the oldest pier in the town and at 503 metres long it is also its longest pier. Eugenius Birch was drafted in to design The North Pier. He had been responsible for the design of Britain's first seaside pier at Margate. This was his second pier project and following its success he would go on to design a further...

micksheff 11.11.2008 (12.11.2008) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of The North Pier, Blackpool

We Love You America!

Advantages: cute
Disadvantages: retired

...As a child who loved all things soft and cuddly, I was a huge fan of the TY beanie babies. My friends and I were obsessed, always buying them with our pocket money. Between us I think we would have had every single one! There are all sorts of animals to collect in the TY range, and quite a selection of Beanie Baby Bears. Needless to say, these are a wide variety of bears of all sorts. Not the grizzly or polar type, but the teddy bear type! One of these bears I had was America the bear. He was the bear that, well, represented America! There were various country bears and this was one of my favourites. Sitting down, he looks quite cute. He is a sky blue colour, with the american flag on the right of his chest. Around his next he has a little bow the colours of the American flag: blue, red, white. His little face is so adorable...

Amy69 27.06.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of TY America the bear

Hit The North

Advantages: A veritable page-turner of a travelogue
Disadvantages: Nothing major

...One does wonder if Stuart Maconie dreams up the titles for his books before he even knows what they'll be about. In his follow up to the my-life-with-music-cum-autobiography "Cider With Roadies" our erstwhile doyen of BBC Radio and music journalism ponders the most important questions of our time; does the North, and Northerners, still exist? And if they do, what the hell actually are they? (Well, they're important questions if, like the author and I, you're a semi-Scouser living in a long cold Southern exile). Having gloriously dismissed the South even as a concept in the first chapter (while ironically professing a considerable degree of ignorance of it; mind you, basic ignorance never stopped the South dismissing the North, did it?), the book settles down to be a wry travelogue of a voyage round the North of England, its sights...

greenierexyboy 28.10.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North - Stuart Maconie

Love Letter to the North of England

Advantages: Great prose, funny and warm hearted - like your archetypal northerner
Disadvantages: A little smug in places

...Stuart Maconie is well known these days as a DJ on Radio 2 and a "talking head" on many TV shows which involve lists, such as the 100 best love songs or whatever idea Channel 4 has to fill the schedule cheaply on a Saturday night. He used to write for the NME and Q magazine and seems to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of music and popular culture. He hails from Wigan, a town he describes as hopelessly "hick" and one which seems to instil a great sense of laughter in southerners. I reviewed the book on Amazon last year and mentioned my late husband's mirth and delight at travelling through Wigan North Western railway station, something I failed to understand. To me Wigan meant the Verve, George Orwell, Uncle Joe's Mint Balls and Wallace and Gromit. Doesn't seem so bad to me. My husband was a Londoner and took a different view. In this...

rosebud2001 22.06.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North - Stuart Maconie

America's Most Smartest Model

Advantages: Entertaining
Disadvantages: On MTV - so if you haven't got Satellite you can't watch it

...When I saw this in Product of the Week, I didn't think many people would have even heard about it or watched it, I love this show so thought it would be great to write and tell you all about my opinion on it, especially as I am a young blonde model, who is always subjected to the dumb blonde model jokes, this was the perfect programme for me! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What is America's Most Smartest Model ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ America's Most Smartest Model is an American reality television show broadcasted by VH1 in America, and has recently been aired in the UK on MTV since 20th January 2008. These days the prettier someone is, the less intelligent they are expected to be, it is assumed that you can't have both and no one has it worse than models. True or not, we all assume that models are stupid. In fact, we...

lilyellowfish 01.04.2008 (31.03.2008) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of America's Most Smartest Model

North By Northwest

Advantages: Great story, direction, screenplay, very entertaining
Disadvantages: Not as original or thought-provoking as some of Hitchcock's others

...North By Northwest is, at number 23 on the IMDB's greatest films list, one of Alfred Hitchcock's most enduringly popular movies. Made in 1959, it stars Cary Grant as a suave advertising exec fleeing from the police after being caught in the middle of a CIA undercover operation, even though Grant was about 55 years old when it was made! He plays Roger Thornhill, an average kind of guy, albeit with a very well paid job and his own personal secretary. He's going to the theatre with his mother in the evening, but first meeting up with some guys in a hotel for drinks. Suddenly, with no explanation, he is kidnapped and taken to the home of Lester Townsend. Much to everyone's bafflement, they begin calling him by the name George Caplin and asking him how much he knows about their plans. What plans? Who are these people? Who is...

l-m-n-o-p 12.09.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of North By Northwest (DVD)

Holidaying in North Wales

Advantages: Beautiful location, fantastic cottages with all amenities
Disadvantages: Just that you need some form of transport

...My mum and her partner have spent a couple of holidays now at a location near Bala in North Wales - the location in question, Pen Cefn, boasts four properties for rent, each of differing proportions. This year, mum decided to treat me (because I reached the big 40) and my sister and her family to a week long holiday in one of the properties. Having had a superb time, I thought it was time to pass the news on to others. Address and location "Pen Cefn" Sarnau Bala Gwynedd LL23 7LG Tel: 01678 530481 or 530413 E-mail: bevianna@btinternet.com Website: www.pencefn.com Proprietors' names: Ian and Bev Moss, Anna Hayward The nearest town, about five miles away, is Bala (which is just inside the Snowdonia National Park), which is on the A494 road. Pen Cefn, which is a smallhold, plus the cottages, is just above a small hamlet...

sunmeilan 02.10.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Pen Cefn Cottage Holidays, North Wales

It's not grim up north

Advantages: Wide range of issues covered
Disadvantages:

...Our Friends In The North follows tha lives of four friends from Newcastle over a 30 year period. From the teenage years right through until their kids were teenagers. The story is compelling and takes you through the full emotional cycle, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll live the highs and lows of each one of them. A superb cast includes many well known actors and actresses, the main characters being played by: Christopher Eccleston, Gina McKee, Mark Strong and Alun Armstrong. Some of the issues among the many covered are the Miners strike, four day week, Alzheimers disease, electricity cuts, porn industry in Soho, the Thatcher years and housing issues including the construction of high rise 'streets in the sky'. As far as British Drama goes this is definately one of the very best. If you get a chance to watch it I am sure you will feel...

Lad 20.07.2000 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of BBC America - Our Friends in the North

  My Camp America experience

Advantages: Great Experience, Camps in great settings
Disadvantages: Money, Can have bad experiences....

.... ?????????.My experience???????? So, I was all set, I was flying out on the 12th June, I had just finished my first year at University, I had said an emotional goodbye to my girlfriend, and I was off to America for the Summer of my life..! It started off very well, I met loads of people on the plane over to New York, we flew Virgin, and around half the plane must have been Camp America/CCUSA/BUNAC people. So it was really good to just talk to people and swap stories etc all the way over. There was a really nice group of about 10 of us who all went through immigration together in NY and had rooms together at the Camp America hotel that night. We stayed up until about midnight talking, despite the jetlag and 5am start! (yes 5AM!) On the bus up to my camp, it was about 7 hours North of NY on 2 buses, I met someone from my camp, he was...

coleman123 09.07.2006 (10.07.2006) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Camp America