St Brides the Wedding Cake Church

Advantages: free, interesting crypt, peaceful
Disadvantages: not so many memorials to look at

...Have you ever wondered how the tiered wedding cake came about? Look no further than the distinctive spire of St Brides just off Fleet Street. An 18th century baker William rich used the three tired spire as inspiration in a range of wedding cakes and it has became the standard ever since. However there is so much more to this delightful little church which I often visit to get away from it all. Saint Bride's has a long and interesting history. Named after Saint Bridget, a 5th century Irish saint who turned well water into beer (a nice party trick me thinks and always a welcome guest) there has been at least been seven church buildings on the site since Saxon times. Being on Fleet Street it is known as the Journalist's church and it is associated with a number of literary figures such as Boswell, Dryden, Lovelace, the diarist Evelyn...

duskmaiden 15.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of St Bride's Church

Temple Church: A Curious Congregation of Knights and Lawyers

Advantages: Excellent original features. Beautiful interior restoration.
Disadvantages: Variable opening hours

...?, and all of a sudden, a whole cottage industry sprang up tracing the fictional Robert Langdon?s breathless dash across London on so-called Da Vinci Tours. One of the most popular stops on that tour is Temple Church, and for a short time after the release of the film, it was a virtual no-go area for regular visitors, having been swamped by oversized Americans in daft clothing and breathless snap-happy Japanese. If it sounds like I am lazily reverting to national stereotype it?s because I speak from personal experience. I?ve lost count of the times that my quiet contemplation was interrupted by squeals of delight from ?Marty? and ?Mabel? as they discovered something they?d seen in ?that movie?. Sigh. If I am taking a little while to come to the business end of this review, it?s because I am not a ?Grail tourist? and felt it imperative to...

Hishyeness 11.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Temple Church, London

Thomas the Trike Rider

Advantages: Sturdy, well made, bright and attractive trike
Disadvantages: Needs a lot of pressure to steer using parent handle, plaque bangs against child's nose

...Thomas the Tank Engine has been a firm favourite with little boys (and girls!) for generations and my youngest son is another firm fan, singing along to the TV theme tune and possessing a range of books, toys and other merchandise emblazoned with images of Thomas and his friends. It seemed a natural choice to treat him to a Thomas trike for his second birthday, combining his love of all things Thomas related with his desire to be on wheels and keep up with his big brother! This particular trike is manufactured by MV Sports and seems to be of very good quality and not too badly priced. Prices vary from around the £40-£50 but I found the cheapest method was to purchase it from Littlewoods online and take advantage of a rather generous new customer discount code which knocked £25 off the price. The trike comes boxed and in pieces...

jo-1976 08.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Thomas & Friends Trike

The Sacred Heart Church, Tibidabo, Barcelona

Advantages: Beautiful church, great views of Barcelona below.
Disadvantages: None

...On a recent trip to Barcelona, I went on a city tour to take in some of the sights that we had missed on our last visit. A place I was really looking forward to visiting was Tibidabo Mountain, which is the highest peak in Barcelona at over 500m above sea level. Anyone who visits Barcelona will not fail to notice Tibidabo, and this is due to the imposing church of Sagrat Cor (Sacred Heart) which stands at the top of the mountain, and the impressive statue of Jesus Christ on the highest spire of the church. On travelling in and out of Barcelona, seeing this church and statue on top of the mountain is a fantastic sight. The church is the work of architect Enrique Sagnier, and building commenced in 1902 and took 60 years to build, so it is actually not that old! The church is unusual in that it is built as a church on top of a church...

JEFFJEN 20.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Sacred Heart Church, Barcelona

Thomas - courtesy of Deagostini

Advantages: great fun toys to collect
Disadvantages: can be expensive

...who was created by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry over 60 years ago as he recovered from illness and it is 60 years ago this year that his first book was published. Many books were written and from there the short stories were televised with Ringo Starr narrating and whose voice fitted the role perfectly. Thomas toys are plentiful now as well as dvds and videos and its easy to forget that these original stories were mainly written for the pleasure of Awdry's son who ended up writing some of the later stories himself when he grew up. We saw the Thomas set advertised on tv and because our son loved the program on ITV we decided to start a subscription for it to give him as a present at a later date - he was only 2 when we started it. We looked into prices for separate pieces of track and engines and found that this was quite reasonable as...

belfin 19.09.2005 · Read review
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Review of Tomy Thomas the Tank Engine

Learning with Thomas!

Advantages: Plenty of games!
Disadvantages: Had to wait for the telly!

...My son?s main present of the ?in-laws? for Christmas is the product I will now try and review. The reason I am only just getting to grips with it is the poor little sod had to wait until his birthday for a television, this was so he could actually play with it! The product I will now review is - ?Thomas the tank, v-tech, v-smile? I am sure that many of you have seen these units advertised on the television, especially before Christmas, this is how and when my son first spotted it. First the set up - This was the part I wasn?t looking forwards to. My husband normally sorts out any of the toys or even household electrical?s as he seems to be able to set things up without the aid of instructions, or at least that?s what he says! Unfortunately two nights ago he discovered the delight that is Facebook, I have yet to get any...

sarahbarrow 09.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of VTech Thomas the Tank Engine Laptop

Church of the Poisoned Mind?

Advantages: A few fairly decent pop songs
Disadvantages: A few not so decent pop songs

...I'm quite possibly the kind of person that Charlotte Church was aiming at when she decided to take a change of direction into pop music. I would never even have considered buying her "Voice of an Angel" style CDs, purely because classical and operatic style music isn't my thing. I do, however, have a liking for well crafted pop music, so I'd always be likely to give her pop debut a chance, if it seemed worth it. Church certainly seemed to have all the attributes to have a decent career in pop music. After all, she had the sports star boyfriend like Posh Spice and Cheryl from Girls Aloud. She had been pictured falling out of nightclubs like the Gallagher brothers of Oasis. And she has an ex-boyfriend selling all her secrets to the tabloids like?well, just about everybody, really. Of course, living the life of a pop star doesn...

Soho_Black 04.10.2005 · Read review
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Review of Tissues And Issues - Charlotte Church

Another church called St Mary's

Advantages: Lots of history, free to visit
Disadvantages: None for me

...and her son, Thomas both of whom had died on crusades in the Holy Land. With the money given by Maud a small chapel dedicated to St Katherine of Alexandria was built later that same year. This chapel was used as a chantry where mourners could attend masses for the souls of her loved ones. During the Middle Ages Handsworth (or Hannesworth) would have been within the Diocese of York and a record that is held there dating from 1492 states that " Hannesworth Church is ruinous, it is now, however being rebuilt". This coincides with the findings of historians who have confirmed that much of the present church dates from around this period. In 1698 the church was struck by lightening and the upper part of the tower was destroyed. A new steeple was constructed, which was small and fat and this came to be known locally as "The Handsworth Stump" but...

micksheff 01.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of St Mary's Church, Handsworth, Sheffield

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
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Review of dvds365.com

I rather Haden this kettle

Advantages: cordless kettle on short corded base, automatic cutout when empty, will not switch on if not properly seated on base
Disadvantages: still have to descale though VERY infrequently

...We have had our Haden kettle now for about 19 months. That is easy to recall as its only about a month older than our baby LOL Haden make a range of budget kitchen gadget type appliances and seem to be able to keep in business, so obviously they are not too dodgy even though not the most expensive on the market! That was our reasoning anyway :)And sorry for the truly dreadful pun in the title!!!!! (Blush!) Our particular kettle is white with a greenish water indicator window. There is a red light on the on button near the base of the jug, which lights up to let you know it has been switched on. The cordless kettle sits nicely on its short corded base plate. There is a nonstick sort of looking plate on the inside which supposedly helps reduce limescale. I would say it does a pretty good job as I have only had to descale once so far. I...

Shroud 13.02.2003 · Read review
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Review of Haden BHJCF Cordless Jug Kettle