Good Intro to the Traditional Sounds of South-Eastern Europe

Advantages: great selection, good variety
Disadvantages: somehow mistitled, mostly traditional stuff

...Rough Guide, best known for their budget travel guides, has been steadily expanding in other areas, and has been responsible for quite a few musical "guides" over the years. This 1998 album, marketed as "Rough Guide to the Music of Eastern Europe", does pretty much exactly what is says on the package: provides quite a wide ranging overview of folk and (occasionally) folk-inspired music of Eastern Europe. This is an album that pretty much started my liking for "world music" coming from my part of the world, and despite its age it remains a good compilation which really does showcase the variety of what's on offer quite well. One thing that this "Rough Guide" album needs is perhaps a better definition of what is considered Eastern Europe: this is a surprisingly woolly category (I always remember somebody commenting than Poland...

magdadh 13.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of Rough Guide To The Music Of Eastern Europe, The - Various Artists

connex southeastern

Advantages: Fast
Disadvantages: very expensive, not comfortable, not reliable

...tables provided encase you want to pass the time on your journey with a nice crossword, however these tend to either be broken, have chewing cum on them or 'mysterious' stains. So as you can see the features on offer aren't to good so feel free to look out of the window at the nice countryside, provided that is that you manage to get a window that isn't scratched and/or covered in graffiti. Coverage over the southeast The coverage over the south east is good but again isn't that good near by to me there are several towns that are not linked to the rail network, but like wise there are some other small towns that are connected. However every town and city in the region is covered by at least one station so it's a fair distribution of stations. People with disability Every Connex train as standard has a carriage...

Deal_lion 13.04.2007 · Read review
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Review of Connex South Eastern

DIRTY, DANGEROUS AND DECREPIT

Advantages: See review
Disadvantages: See review

...On a recent visit to Tunbridge Wells in Kent I had the misfortune to experience the “service” offered the regional railway operator Connex South Eastern. I’m not sure where they dreamed that name up – I think it’s supposed to signify rapid connections or something – I think the use of the word “con” is probably far more appropriate. In the course of a normal working week, I will probably spend between six and ten hours travelling by train. Due to the nature of my work, this involves travel right across the UK, so I have now experienced most of the major rail operators quite extensively. I have to hand it to Connex though – they are without a single shadow of a doubt the worst rail operator I have yet to experience. It would appear that most of Connex’s rolling stock is...

LostWitness 24.08.2001 · Read review
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Review of Connex South Eastern

First Great Eastern or Worst Great Eastern

Advantages: Good announcements
Disadvantages: Generally packed trains

...All of my life I have lived a train ride away from London. Working from the age of 16, I have spent the best part of 9 years travelling to and from the City to get to work. Fortunately for me I learnt to drive when I was 17, and for some time was able to avoid the Connex-controlled route from my old town of Welling to London Bridge. However, moving to Chelmsford saw me take a job in the centre of town ? literally a 10 minute drive from home. Talk about bliss! No more hour-long traffic jams, or waiting in all weather for the train to pull in late again. What could possibly go wrong? I shouldn?t have asked, because within six months a company takeover saw me transferred to a London based office, and with some trepidation I started to catch the train to work again. After several years of being subjected to Connex South Eastern...

SeasonTicketless 19.05.2003 · Read review
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Review of First Great Eastern

The History of South Tyneside

Advantages: Free entry, interesting, easy access
Disadvantages: None

...I first went to this museum with my sister when I was about 8 or 9 years old. When looking for something to do on Monday, I asked my friend, Emma, if she wanted to go here with me since I haven?t been for ages. My older sister, Joanne, lives in South Shields so we met her and my niece (23 months) at the museum on Monday morning. I got slightly lost getting to South Shields as I took the wrong turn at a roundabout, but as it was my furthest venture in my car on my own (about 25 miles) I was still quite pleased I found it without too much hassle! On arriving at South Shields I met my sister and followed her into the town centre, as I don?t know my way around South Shields. (The museum is signposted though) The entry into the museum is free and although we just spent about an hour and a half there (my sister was going to Uni. ? and I...

bluejules 20.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of South Shields Museum

Connex make BR look good

Advantages: Vibration of old trains sends you to sleep. Delays mean extra sleep
Disadvantages: Boss yells at you for being late. Dog eats your dinner due to being late.

...In a recent and somewhat uncharacteristic fit of optimism, I decided to escape London for the fresh air of east Kent. Things looked good, I managed to stretch my wage to get a mortgage and my partner found a job she enjoys. Perhaps a little naively I thought that Connex South Eastern would be capable of ferrying me to work in London every day. At the very least I hoped that they would be able to reliably achieve a modicum of time keeping in this simple task, even if I plan to jump companies the minute the high-speed rail link from Ashford to London is completed. Alas, Connex have failed dismally. I have recently suffered regular extensive delays during the ‘rush hour’, a period of the day where Connex staff appear to be doing as little as possible. I have had the joy of trains 45 minutes late boarding in London...

gorrit 01.11.2001 · Read review
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Review of Connex South Eastern

Eastern Promises-A brilliant crime thriller

Advantages: Brilliantly written.Good performances
Disadvantages: Genre has its limitated appeal

...Eastern Promises is a crime thriller directed by Daviid Cronenberg and stars Naomi Watts,Viggo Mortensen,Vincent Cassel and Armin Mueller-Stahl in principal roles. The film starts with a pregnant young girl asking for help in a pharmacy who soon dies after giving birth to a daughter.Anna(played by Naomi Watts),a midwife at the hospital keeps the diary she found with the patient where she finds a card of a restaurant and decides to go visit that place to know more about the young girl who died. As it turns out, the restaurant is run by a family of underworld don(which she is completely unaware of),who actually molested/raped the young girl who died earlier.Since Anna can't read the language of the diary,Semyon(the don himself who only appears to be a very respectable family man) offers his help to translate the diary for her. By...

aadnan613 12.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Eastern Promises (Blu-ray)

Mediocre Eastern

Advantages: frequent services
Disadvantages: dirty and no seats at peak times

...I always thought that when you buy a train ticket that you were purchasing a seat on a train. First Great Eastern obviously think differently. First Great Eastern run train services between London, Southend, Ipswich, Harwich and Clacton plus a couple of smaller branch lines. First Great Eastern itself was formed with privatisation in the late 1990’s as part is the First Bus group of companies. This review mainly concentrates on services between Chelmsford and Liverpool Street as this is the route that I have daily experience of. However having used other services on an infrequent basis and discussed their services with friends who use First Great Eastern services from other destinations I think this review does give a fairly accurate pictures of their services as a whole. In general terms the facilities at Chelmsford...

PaulBed 16.05.2003 · Read review
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Review of First Great Eastern

The Blue South - A Beautiful and Colourful Effort

Advantages: A lyrical and melodical masterpiece with hidden depth
Disadvantages: Dark and seedy themes may not suit all tastes

...INTRODUCTION It is beyond doubt ? in my mind at least ? that a good song is formed of that rare combination of melody and lyrics. In my view, a song that sounds good but has no lyrical depth has little staying power - melody appeals to the heart, but lyrics are what engage the brain. To belabour the point just one stage further, the melody attracts you, but the lyrics are what ultimately keep you interested. Indeed, it was the catchy melodies and compelling hooks that drew me to the music of the Beautiful South in the first place, but even after listening to their songs and albums countless times over the years, each listen is still rewarded with new discoveries, new nuances and new revelations. My favourite Beautiful South album (despite the regrettable name ? I am an Arsenal fan after all) is ?Blue Is The Colour?, released in...

Hishyeness 19.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Blue Is The Colour - Beautiful South (The)

South Devon Railway

Advantages: Nostalgic look back in time.Wonderful scenery, friendly Staff, Clean Trains.
Disadvantages: Short journey.

...We visited South Devon Railway for a day trip to Totnes on the steam train. Admission Prices: Return trip (single fares also available) Buckfastleigh - Totnes Littlehempston Adult £9.90 Senior Citizen £9.20 Child £5.90 (5 years - 14 years; under 5s FREE) Family £28.90 (two adults and two children) There is also FREE parking at Buckfastleigh for cars and coaches. We travelled from Totnes to Buckfastleigh to Totnes and it was just like going back in time. It was a thorougly enjoyable ride on a proper steam train. Taking in the wonderful scenery from Buckfastleigh to Totnes. We went in the summer and it was a fantastic journey beside the river Dart t. The trains are clean and comfortable, in my opinion much better than the trains of today. The children enjoyed the ride and the ability to get up and move...

livelylad 31.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of South Devon Railway Trust