Children love water, in the heat of the summer, it is difficult to keep them away from it. Whether it be a paddling pool in the garden, or trips to public pools, it is an activity that nearly all children delight in.
There is a subliminal message in their behaviour, which adults should pick up on, and that is, their attraction to water will not diminish as they get a little older, and you cannot be around at every moment to look after them.
One of the best insurance policies you can take out for your child, is making sure they are taught to swim.
Swimming is not just for fun, although kids would probably only see it as that, it is terrific exercise for all the body’s muscles, heart and lungs especially, as well as every individual limb. It is a skill that will never be forgotten as long as they live, and just might save their lives.
The attraction of water in the warm summer months is obvious to us all, but it is especially strong in children. Unfortunately, spells of hot weather often bring out tales of tragedies involving youngsters drowning….. don’t take a chance with your childrens safety.
Messing about around water, with friends seems innocent enough, but for the non, or weak swimmer, disaster could fall within almost the wink of an eye.
Children will find themselves attracted to rivers and canals, reservoirs and flooded quarries, lakes and of course, the sea. All of these can seem serene, cool and welcoming places, and all of which carry their own potential dangers.
Perhaps the most hazardous waters are those of the flooded quarry. Often recognised as such by the extraction companies when their works are finished, quarries are often fenced off to keep the public away from the possible dangers, but children will be children, and not much stands in the way of inquiring youngsters.
Quarries are often have sides like cliffs, and the sheer walls often continue straight down underwater to unseen depths. Entering these waters without forethought can be lethal, as trying to get back out again could prove extremely difficult.
Another hazard likely to be encountered here, given the likelihood of deep water, is that an upper, surface layer of water may be warmed by the sun, but below, water can remain very cold indeed. So cold, in fact, that it can shock the system, causing blood to flow to the vital organs, and leaving the muscles tired and limp, dangerous stuff.
Make a sound swimmer of your child, before the heat is on!
Window shutters are a very popular at the moment and becoming ever more so.
The reasons are simple, shutters offer not just a stylish alternative to curtains or blinks, but also a great degree of flexibility, allowing you privacy when you want it, security when you are away, and darkness when you want to block out daylight.
Shutters are available in a large variety of styles to suit every type of window and location, so you will always find the most suitable window shutter for your particular needs.
One of the more popular brands of top end shutters is S-Craft, who make a large range of stylish, and affordable shutters.
Before you commit to buying shutters it is important to have a home visit so a professional can accurately measure and assess your specific windows.
Building are never built completely true, so accurate measurements so your shutters can be made to fit perfectly is very important.
If you need advice or assistance from a reputable S-Craft installer, ask in Bedfordshire for a free appraisal and quotation and find out how you could transform your home with stunning window shutters.
Yes, whether you are in the remain or leave camp, the outcome was clear…. Brexit has happened.
The long term pro’s and con’s will no doubt be discussed for many weeks, months and years to come, and while for many this feels like a leap into the unknown, with the exception of some short term profiteering on stocks, shares and currencies, the outlook for Britain looks every bit as positive as it did within the union.
Confidence and fear of the unknown has driven the Pound down against the Dollar and Euro, but this looks at this stage to be an over reaction to the vote and within a few months, the Pound is expected to recover its losses in much the same way as the FTSE did in the first seven days post Brexit.
What Next?
In the coming weeks and months little is really going to happen. Politicians will attempt to manoeuvre themselves into the driving seats of their respective parties, business will report on their future plans and the world will continue to spin.
Article 50
One of the first acts that the new Prime Minister will be required to do is to trigger Article 50 which begins the formal process of conscious uncoupling (as Chris Martin would say). From that point the UK then has 2 years to negotiate the terms of life outside of the EU.
While it’s not expected to be a straightforward process, it’s in everyones interests to get a deal done quickly and painlessly.
What the EU wants V What the UK Wants
One of the cornerstones of EU membership is free movement of people (labour). Initially this worked as a principle, but in hard times, as we have seen, people from poorer countries head on masse to richer countries…… which causes logistical problems for all.
To have access to the free market, a country is required to provide free movement for people, goods and services.
The UK left because of 2 key issues;
1/ Sovereignty
2/ Immigration
The British people it seems are not willing to relinquish their right to democratically vote to elect their Government every 5 years. With more powers being given away to Brussels (an unelected body) it was feared that we were losing our democratic rights.
Immigration can’t be controlled when you allow free movement of people. Additionally, with the flood of migrants and refugees arriving through Europe’s porous borders on a daily basis, it was becoming impossible to continue with the status quo.
By regaining our democratic rights and restoring power back to Westminster, we can now elect a Government to control migration into the UK in numbers that our infrastructure can deal with and additionally we can only admit the skill sets that our economy is lacking.
The Snowball Effect
While it’s only natural for other eurosceptic countries to watch our progress before jumping ship, it is expected that other countries may now also demand a referendum, with an equally high chance of voting to leave the union.
Whether other european countries, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Italy do hold a referendum is a matter for conjecture and one would imagine that everything possible will be done to prevent a vote from taking place.
The Financial Cost
Potentially, if the EU deny Britain access to the single market, it will cost the UK up to 3 million jobs, but in the process, life being a tit for tat game after all, if the UK were to deny the EU access to the UK market, up to 5.5 million jobs are at risk.
It seems that the UK has a strong hand to play (being the largest customer that the EU has).
If negotiations are successful, there is no reason why the Uk can’t have access to the EU market without giving free movement of people in return. That is not an option that would sit with the British people.
On this basis, it looks like an impasse which might be difficult to get around, but just because no deal has been done like this to date, doesn’t mean that one can’t be done in the future.
The Eu has more at stake than the UK does in many regards and they will need to balance their UK deal with simultaneously trying to dissuade any other countries from leaving as well.
Future Trading Partners & Markets
While it’s true that there are 500 million within the EU, it’s also worth pointing out that at least half of them are not exactly well off and so are not likely to become significant UK customers for anything in the near to medium term.
By contrast, the world market (which as an EU member we are restricted in trading with) has 2.4 billion people in rapidly growing economies & we can reach out to those countries to forge new deals, new relationships and new markets.
While domestic contractors and suppliers will continue to benefit, such as Impressions Plumbing & Heating and other associated trades.
On balance the future is looking brighter outside as we have the freedom to create on a truly global scale.
Leaving the safety of Nanny EU’s apron strings might seem daunting but in the longer term, Britain will be able to re-append the prefix that for so long stood in the world as Great Britain.
The last fifty years have seen an unprecedented change in the way we regulate and manage solid waste.
Significant changes have been brought about by environmental awareness, legislation and scientific understanding of landfill environmental impact.
Modern landfill sites are simply nothing akin to a site of the past. Modern landfill management is more akin to competitive industrial business than a simple unskilled low tech industry.
Modern landfill strategy has three basic foundations. Achieving high waste compaction densities, pivotal management in the overall running of a modern landfill, and obtaining the best and most appropriate equipment to accomplish the task.
High compaction density is fundamental to the whole concept of what is achievable and desirable both economically and environmentally.
Good compaction provides a stable and safe continuous working platform and with sound management, overall is relatively achievable at all levels of infill.
Waste becomes compacted by the weight and motion of the passing of the compacting vehicle. It presses out air pockets and shreds materials binding them together with other waste. Good quality waste handling machines are available to buy or hire.
Thin layers of waste at any one time achieve a better level of compaction, with two passes over it, the second in exactly the same tracks to ensure good shredding and binding.
One wheel width to one side and repeat the process, should mean the new layer is covered in four machine passes. Keeping the layers thin also causes les wear and tear on the vehicle.
Large areas of working face may look difficult to track where compaction starts and finishes, but such is the importance of good compaction, grid patterns are adhered to cover all section equally.
Modern machinery can be fitted with GPS technology which can ensure both area and depth of compaction can be perfectly achieved.
The necessity of pushing all air pockets out is to ensure that there is maximum stability in the build-up, preventing internal falls which could affect the finished profile.
The plant equipment requirements for day to day landfill working are considerable, but the vehicles normally included are landfill compactors, tracked and wheeled tractors and tracked and wheeled loaders.
The landfill presents a long term, hard and demanding working environment for these vehicles and some suppliers can produce suitably modified machines, indeed many now have specialised waste handling specifications.
Track-type loaders are the versatile vehicle most commonly found on landfill sites, their strength, versatility, allow them a variety of possible roles in virtually all sizes of operations.