Daphne and her Paper Factory

Advantages: Educational visit
Disadvantages: It's not exactly Disney Land

...very charming and authentic but ultimately not very useful. If you've ever tried to write on handmade papers, then you'll know what I mean. It's not an easy experience and they are probably wise to use most of the paper for those lampshades. We emerged without spending anything but we were somewhat wiser. The man in the shop knew the translation of daphne and showed us photos of the tree from which the paper is made. Daphne, it turned out, it the botanical name for Mulberry, something that we don't have in England so we felt less guilty for not knowing about it. Clearly it's got more uses than just feeding silk-worms. As a totally irrelevant aside, I learned when trying to sell raspberry flavours to a major Chinese confectionery firm, that China doesn't have raspberries and mulberries are as close as they get - there you go, my...

koshkha 15.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Jungshi Handmade Paper Factory, Thimphu

Bobby Digital in my Stereo! Excellent!

Advantages: good album
Disadvantages: nothing

...including track list and other up and coming albums. The Track list is as follows: 1 Intro 2 B.O.B.B.Y 3 Unspoken Word 4 Slow grind African 5 Airwaves 6 Love Jones 7 N.Y.C everything 8 Mantis 9 Slow grind French 10 Holocaust (silkworm) 12 Bobby Did it (Spanish Fly) 13 Handwriting on the wall 14 Kiss of a black widow 15 Slow Grind Italian 16 My lovin' is Digi 17 Domestic violence 18 Project Talk 19 Lab Drunk 20 Fuck what you think 21 Daily Routine Rza's music is pure and simple hard Hip Hop. This is made up of some unbelievable lyrics put over some even better music. Everyone one likes to bounce along to music and this is one of the best head bopping albums around. Hip Hop fans should all have heard of this as it contains vial tracks from Wu-Tang and Hip Hop history. There is a lot of gangster talk in their songs...

elephants69food_0 30.09.2005 · Read review
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Review of Bobby Digital In Stereo - RZA

The Beckoning Cats of Tokyo

Advantages: Culture. Interesting
Disadvantages: Difficult for foreigners to understand the cultural significance

..., the Maneki-Neko will draw customers and bring prosperity to the establishment; if the right paw is raised, money and good fortune will come the way of the shop. Beckoning cats are also trusted to ward off evil: they are used by cocoon breeders to protect the silkworm against rats and they are sometimes tied around a child’s waist to protect them against pained sickness. There are a lot of legends concerning the Japanese Beckoning cats but there is general agreement that there origins go back at least three or four centuries to the Tokugawa and possibly the Oda Nobunaga dynasties. Several stories relate to temples and there was reputed to be a temple so poor the -Goroki-Ji Temple- it only had a single priest and a solitary cat. Times were hard and ultimately, in absolute desparation the priest requested the cat to assist in raising money...

ashford 03.07.2001 (27.09.2001) · Read review
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Review of Tokyo

PEE POST PEED ME OFF

Advantages: NONE
Disadvantages: Doesn't work

...The Pee Post brought to you by Simple Solutions costs around £5.99 and can be purchased from most major Pet Shops. It claims that by putting this 8" post into a spot in your garden, you dog will be instantly drawn to the Pheromone (which I will go into in a moment) chemical on it and will be trained to go just to this spot in your garden, what a brilliant genius idea, or is it? About Pheromone, if like me at first you never had a clue what it is? Pheromones, in additional to the sense of smell, the body also has the ability to sense certain chemical signals. Pheromones were first identified in 1956, it was found originaly in a Silkworm Moth. It took scientists 20 years to isolate the chemical which proved to be at first a powerful sexual attractant. They named this pheromone 'bombykal' meaning "come to me". They found that...

allyoxley 07.08.2006 · Read review
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Review of Simple Solution Pee Post

They Be To Rap What Key Be To Lock

Advantages: Lots of bangers
Disadvantages: Nothing specific

...The New York-based Jazz Rap act Digable Planets were seen to make their breakthrough in 1993 as they came at a time when the freshness of Jazz Rap had lost this quality and Gangsta Rap had taken over the airwaves, and so with ?Reachin?? the alternative group (who consisted of artists who go by the names of Ladybug Mecca, Doodlebug, Butterfly and backing from Silkworm) came with the sort of things which was popularised by De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and Gang Starr with artists who had been brought together despite being raised all over the country with a Washington State, D.C., Philly being the homelands of the individuals. 1. ?It?s Good To Be Here? Getting the album underway in a manner which seems fitting, as they come out with something jazzy to liven up listeners as the MCs get down to things and come with their unique...

XICripZ 28.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Reachin' (A New Refutation Of Time And Space) - Digable Planets

A thing of beauty

Advantages: Beautiful building, beautiful setting
Disadvantages: None

...interesting consequences. During the first world war they were converted into hospital wards for injured soldiers - the story goes that the soldiers would fish from the gallery windows. In 1940 after the German invasion the north bank of the Cher, and the main part of Chenonceau, were in occupied France, while the other bank was in free Vichy France so the gallery was a route out. Back outside, if it's lunchtime you can picnic in one of the many designated areas in the woods or eat in the former stables and silk-worm farm now converted to a self-service restaurant. There is also a waxworks, a 16th century farm, and a maze if you fancy playing at Harry Potter. I can't comment on any of these as I haven't tried them. So I have an excuse, as if I needed one, for another visit. I'll leave the final words to Thomas Bohier, the original builder...

Chouchinciao 10.10.2006 · Read review
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Review of Chateau de Chenonceau

Sulk

Advantages: Good period detail.
Disadvantages: Has all the passion of a dead fish.

...Tragedy befalls the European silk trade in late nineteenth century Europe when a disease ravages the silkworm population. The only choice is for someone to travel to the east and bring back fresh eggs free from the infection. That person is Hervé Joncour, a young military officer sent on the perilous journey to Japan by the enterprising and roguish French trader Baldabiou. But the journey will separate Hervé from his beautiful and devoted schoolteacher wife Hélène. In Japan, he meets the powerful local warlord Hara Jubei and becomes entranced by his lovely young concubine. Though they do not speak each other's language, they share a doomed, obsessive love. If the synopsis leads you to believe that the film that accompanies it will be a moving and epic tale of boundless love, prepare to be disappointed. French director François Girard...

afy9mab 18.12.2007 · Read review
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Review of Silk (DVD)

Still more torr

Advantages: I'm sometimes bold
Disadvantages: I'm often in italics too

...counties. Currently Kent, but I'm only just beginning to feel Kentish. Most of my life, I've thought of myself as a Londoner, if anything. 15. Current Relationship Status? ~ Still with my first wife, much to some people's surprise (at her patience even more than at my constancy, I expect). "Oh, I do hope it lasts," said my mother at our twenty-fifth anniversary. 16. Do you agree with open relationships? ~ I doubt that they require my agreement. 17. Have you ever had an open relationship? ~ Pass. Do passes count? 18. Favourite food? ~ I'll eat almost anything, except for silkworms, bulls' testicles and sheep's eyeballs. "I haven't tried it because I don't like it," as my elder son used to explain as an infant when offered new eating experiences he didn't quite fancy, on being asked the inevitable parental...

torr 14.03.2003 (22.09.2008) · Read review
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Review of All About Me

Gemax2's travel challenge

Advantages: It's all about travelling
Disadvantages: ~

...and went home the next day. Hobby holiday - No, but I would probably go on a painting holiday. Cruise - No, 'The Poseidon Adventure' put me off that one. Caravanning - No! Burn 'em all! Camping - Yes, ex-scout spent many a night under canvas or trying to get into the Guide's tent. If that failed we would 'Silkworm' a tent. This involves taking off the outer cover and turn to round so the door flaps were at the wrong end. The result was the occupant woke up in the morning and couldn't get out as they met the back end of the outer cover. Hence the name as the occupant struggled against the outer mesh of the tent to get out. A very good trick if we could pull it off. Have you ever been to a holiday village like butlins, pontins, and centre parks? Not as a willing participant. 'WorryWorm'(Mrs Cad Snr.) thought it would be great to get...

buzzard_cad 09.09.2005 · Read review
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Review of Everything that starts with G ...

Waving at Astronaughts

Advantages: Waving
Disadvantages: Driving

...?? What? No? OK. Sheep Penis? Still no? How about Stinking Dou Fu? I understand the name might put you off that one, not the best choice of description, and it appears to be some sort of fried mouldy fruit too. I guess stinking beats mouldy as a description, but no thanks all the same. SilkWorm? Dog? Lamb? Are you sure it?s Lamb though? Are you actually confident, looking at the list above it, that when it says Lamb, it means Lamb? I wasn?t confident enough, so moved on to the next stall - all of the above were on one menu at one stall on a street that had about 100 stalls ? I had my work cut out to find something that sounded palatable. Ignoring the Cockroaches-on-a-stick, the Seahorses-on-a-stick, the Starfish-on-a-stick, Scorpion-on-a-stick, and the rest of the cast of Disney?s The Little Mermaid-on-a-stick, I finally relented...

Muffin_the_Mule 29.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of China - beijing