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Remember the early days when you first met your wife or husband? Those wonderful romantic sexy days when you adored being in each other’s company and could speak for hours. You would do those special things for each other just to see the look of delight on his/her face. They were the days when your relationship was rich and vibrant and you felt fully alive because of it.

Now the “Limerance” stage is long gone, as it always does. But have you replaced it with an even better version of a deeper fuller love? Or have you been taking your loved one for granted and busying yourself with other “more immediate things, like jobs and kids and work around the house, and finances and friends?

One of the most common themes I find in my private practice as a Psychologist specialising in relationships is a “natural neglect” in secure relationships.

Even though everything in your shared life is based on a foundation of your love for each other, and your shared life, it’s all too easy to take for granted that your relationship will always be there, without realising that it, too, needs maintenance and nurturing.

Perhaps you could check in with your partner and ask him/her how happy he or she is in your relationship, on a scale of 1 to 10. Then follow it with the more important question of “What would have to happen to make it a 10 for you?”

Keeping your relationship fresh and vibrant needs ongoing attention, but not only does it make for a more enjoyable life, but is one of the most enduring aspects of a life well lived.

In the twilight years of one’s life, thoughts more often than not turn to how well did I love and be loved, rather than how much money will I die with.

If you’ve let your relationship lose its luster, a relationship counsellor can show you, in a few sessions, how to reignite the fun, chemistry and love again.

At the Hart Centre Sydney, we have trained and experienced marriage and relationship counselling Psychologists in 15 locations across Sydney, so there is almost certainly one near you. In the city centre we have two Sydney CBD locations and also Bond, Crow’s Nest, Mosman and many more in outer suburbs. Please call our friendly receptionists on 1300 830 552.

For relationship counselling Sydney, contact the Hart Centre. Many marriages have been saved through relationship counselling. Sydney has many qualified relationship counsellors.

Checking for your trailer tyres

Planning for a holiday? There are many important things that you need to manage before going to a vacation as it’s a general tendency of many people to ignore some small things which however need their heed. Yes, that’s right and these small concerns involve the condition of your trailer tyres. Your touring caravan can have more fun and less of worries if all these small issues are looked before leaving. There are some tips which can help you a lot while driving to your holiday destination safe and sound.

The first and foremost things that make you pay a hefty amount while travelling to a distant place is the cost on diesel. Although the basic need that is required by your vehicle cannot be adjusted in anyway but you can try your best to consume it genuinely. Make sure the trailer tyres of your vehicle are at a required amount of pressure. Checking tyres to be at correct temperature and pressure readings makes them consume less on diesel and thus adds to your savings. You can get all this checked at any petrol station.

Treaded trailer tyres make the life and durability of tyres increase to a large extent. If your vehicle has tyres with less treads it can be risky to drive with it. The treads make a vehicle get a better grip on the road and even add to its stability. You can look for this requirement of your vehicle yourself with the help of a 20p piece which is easily available in the market. Insert this piece into a tyre of your vehicle and check if the coin is visible on the outer ring of your tyre. The visibility shows that the trailer tyres have less treads and you should go for replacing the tyres.
Check for the servicing date of your vehicle that is the last time you got it serviced.

Make sure that before leaving for a long journey the vehicle has all its amendments done well on time. Brakes and clutch gels need to be checked and should be refilled if needed. They should have the required friction so that vehicle doesn’t make any disturbing noises and you don’t face any problem during your journey. Check the battery of the vehicle along with the gas bottles too and be contended that they are in a good condition.

Once you are done with this entire work make sure to check the load ratings of your vehicle and the truck tyres. It is important that the amount of load you are carrying with you is within limit and doesn’t goes above it. Carrying too much of load and stuff that exceeds the range of a vehicle can be dangerous for your journey.

All these are a few tips that can help you a lot before leaving for your wonderful holiday. Having a good backup always makes you feel relaxed and comfortable. So, check for everything on time to guarantee yourself a safe and enjoyable journey.

Soundproofing is becoming much more than a scientific necessity now. This has become an important and sophisticated means than just muffing up the ceiling of your house with some material. The insulated ceiling panels are now easily available in the markets which can be used to protect the rooms and buildings from unwanted sounds fire and temperature effects. They are an ideal way to decorate your home ceilings too. The ceiling panels are much more like the tiles that we use for our floors but the difference is just that they are used on ceilings. So if you are also looking for some help to make your homes or offices sound proof then ceiling panels are the best option.

For people who are much more involved into music and such activities generally require these kinds of insulations for their rooms to make them sound proof so that there are no echoes in the room and even sound reverberation is avoided. These ceiling panels also allow you to keep the sounds limited to the room only and no other sounds can enter the room as well. And with so much of advancement they are becoming a hot trend for decoration as well.

They are available in different materials and colors that they can be very easily incorporated into your house and will add to its beauty. The process of using these panels is also very simpler. You just need to fix the base of the ceiling panels of your room and then the panels can be fixed later on them. The trend of popcorn ceiling panels and 3d panels are also coming back to fashion and you can easily find them in most of the shops. There are different designs and patterns for your offices, for your rooms and even totally different ones for your bathrooms. They protect your bathrooms from unwanted bacterial attacks also.

These designs and patterns resemble to the ones that were first created in the Victorian times and from that time are being used. Many amendments have been made since those times and today they are perfect to be used for any building construction that may be an office, apartments, mansions etc. these days many of the interior designers also deal into these ceiling panels. They have their own designs and architects who help fixing these panels to your home. They are even a creative way to cover the wiring inside your ceilings. They can easily be pulled out if anytime you want to make a change and once you are done, you can fix them back. They also make you free from the tedious work of breaking the ceilings and then adding wires inside it.

You can complement the walls and floors of your house with these insulated ceiling panels and make you house look more appealing and beautiful. They are amongst the best aids that help you get away from those unwanted sounds, fire protections and all this in an alluring look.

Looking for some interior decorations for your home? People generally look for various designs and decorative items to decorate the walls and floors of their houses but what about ceilings? Generally ceilings are left without any concern. But how dull does it looks to paint your walls with some striking and beautiful colors, superb tiles for the floors and then those blank ceilings?

Here is a solution of this problem and which can even make your homes look amazing and attractive. It is the ceiling panels; that gives an alluring look to the ceilings of your rooms and even make them complementing to your walls and floors. They are a creative way to customize your homes and even give them protection against fire and unwanted sounds.

Firstly ceiling panels were introduced to give a protection against fire and other harmful conditions. They were used to maintain the room temperature according to weather conditions and to even damp the effect of unwanted sounds and noises. But soon they turned into a great decorative piece which apart from all these services also adds to the beauty of your room.

Ceiling panels are available in various materials like aluminum, tin, wood, perlite, etc. and they can be integrated into your office and rooms according to their look and uses.

If you want to use these ceiling panels for your office then you should go for some aluminum or wooden ceiling tiles which give a sophisticated look to your office. Commercial buildings are always integrated with these ceiling tiles to give them extra protection against any unwanted happenings.

Conference rooms and meeting halls always have so many people that it makes mandatory to employ something that can help in avoiding the noise and sounds to reach out. These are an ideal option to serve all these purpose and also to add beauty to the buildings.

If you are looking for ceiling panels for your own house and rooms then you have varieties of colors and patterns which you can choose according to your wall patterns and colors.

Ceiling panels made up of tin and aluminum are always high in demand because of the shiny and silvery look they give. And apart from the look, the metals are quite durable so you can go for them. They can be availed in different colors also like in chromes, shiny steel, plain steel color ad fiery copper color. The holes that are made into these ceiling panels can also be done in some designer ways so that they also serve the purpose of sound dampening along with giving a finish look.

Customizing ceiling panels is not a tough thing. They can be easily integrated with any pattern or any other tiles which you can also use for the walls and floors of your homes. It depends all on your creativity how you do this. But being an important decoration article they cannot be missed out from your collection.

Environmentally-Friendly Homes

Eight Reasons why Vinyl Cladding is a Green Choice for Your Home

Vinyl was first developed back in the 1920’s, and quickly became a common element in many products, including wall siding. Vinyl has since become the world’s second most used plastic, however, unlike its counterparts, vinyl has several environmentally-friendly features.

Here are eight reasons why vinyl cladding is a good choice for your home and the environment:

1. Environmentally Sustainable
The main building block composing vinyl is Chlorine, which is made from salt. This makes up almost 60% of vinyl’s chemical structure, meaning it is a sustainable and cost-effective product.

2. Less Energy During Manufacturing
Vinyl cladding manufacturing uses less than half of the energy required to produce bricks and mortar. Vinyl siding also uses less fuel during transportation since it’s lighter than bricks and mortar.

3. Solid Foam Insulated
Prestige Exteriors’ Duratuff Select Vinyl Cladding also comes with pre-installed solid foam insulation backing. This CFC-free superior insulation will help cut your heating and cooling energy costs, saving money and having less impact on the environment.

4. Long-Lasting
Adding to the environmental credentials, vinyl cladding is extremely durable, meaning it spends more time on your house and less in a landfill. Confidence is so strong regarding Duratuff Select vinyl wall cladding that a lifetime guarantee is offered.

5. Reduced Impact Maintenance
Unlike other products used, vinyl cladding never requires painting, which not only saves you time and money on labour costs, but circumvents the environmental damage from continuous painting. Further, only mild soap and water is required for periodic cleaning which ensures that you are not responsible for releasing harmful chemicals into the environment.

6. Recyclable
Recyclability is a fantastic factor in vinyl’s sustainability. In America, more than 1 billion pounds of vinyl was recycled in the last year. In addition, much of the waste from manufacturing can be recycled right back into the manufacturing process.

7. Less Waste during Installation
In comparison to other types of exterior cladding and exterior materials, the installation of vinyl siding generates very little waste.

8. Releases fewer toxic chemicals than other exterior cladding through life-cycle
Vinyl cladding emits significantly lower levels of toxic chemicals, including mercury and silver, into the environment, compared to other exterior cladding.

Protecting the future of our planet and your home.

Because guarding the environment for a sustainable future continues to become a focus in society, vinyl cladding delivers many recognised benefits which make it a sustainable choice for your home.

Prestige Exteriors is a leading supplier of vinyl cladding in Queensland. We choose to only install Duratuff Select vinyl wall cladding, which comes with a fifty year transferable manufacturer’s warranty! We clad directly over wood or fibro and leave a beautiful, colourfast and lasting impression. Available in 13 colours.

Find out more about Prestige Exteriors vinyl cladding now, or contact us today.

Looking for a great alternative to painting for your home? For Brisbane Wall Cladding & Brisbane Vinyl House Cladding, call Prestige Exteriors today or visit http://www.prestigeexteriors.com.au/

Are you considering relationship counselling?

If you feel there are problems in your relationship or marriage, the following is a quick questionnaire which will help you to focus on the major areas of the relationship that need to be healthy to ensure happiness for you as a couple.

Checking these areas will show you if you need marriage or relationship help.

THE HART RELATIONSHIP QUALITY QUESTIONNAIRE:

CARING
What degree of caring and affection do you show to your partner?

How much caring and affection does your partner give to you?

How often do you give to and nurture each other:

With you giving?

With you receiving?

COMMUNICATION
How naturally do either of you:

Discuss and make practical arrangements?

Share how you really feel?

Feel comfortable in bringing up issues in your relationship, and resolve them?

Talk about your dreams and future?

Let you partner know how much you appreciate him/her?

What do you think your partner does or says or doesn’t do which stops you naturally communicating?

Are you able to talk about what it is that you do/say or don’t do that stops natural communication?

Are you aware that you may jump to conclusions or interpretations about things your partner says?

FUN AND ROMANCE
How much do you do enjoyable and playful things together?

What do each one of you do to keep romance afire?

SEX
Is there passion in your relationship?

How fulfilled are you with your sex life?

INDIVIDUAL NEEDS
How much do you enjoy your own space and individuality?

To what degree do you accept your partner’s need to do things apart from you?

To what degree can you take care of your own needs and wants?

EQUALITY AND RESPECT
Do you, as a couple have a roughly equal share of responsibilities?

Are you about equal on the “liked” and “not liked” roles and responsibilities?

POLARISATION
Are there any characteristics your partner has that annoys you?

DIFFERENTIATION
Are there issues in your relationship where you simply give in without really wanting to, or that you feel your partner is too controlling in?

Are there areas in which you may dominate your partner?

If you have found that more than a couple of the above questions have raised issues regarding your relationship, then relationship counselling will most certainly help to explore these and get your relationship or marriage back on track.

For marriage and relationship counselling specialists in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne, call the Hart Centre. We are a committed team of Psychologists specializing in relationship and marriage counselling with 15 locations in Sydney, 12 locations in Melbourne and 2 in Adelaide.

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The Traditional Queenslander Home

To some eyes, Queensland’s distinctive timber and tin homes gave Brisbane, and other Queensland cities and towns, a rather temporary, insubstantial air. Known as ’Queenslanders’, they seemed a little less solid and permanent than homes built using brick or stone. Many Queensland houses were placed high in the air on tall stumps, as the supporting piers have been known as, and seemed likely to simply fly away.

The Queensland house was relatively inexpensive when wood was plentiful, easy to move from place to place, and, in a relatively benign climate, single skin, unlined walls were all that were considered needed to protect dwellers~people~the dwellers within} from cold. Sturdy corrugated iron roofs stood up to torrential tropical rain and could be re-used if moved by cyclonic winds.

The verandahs sheltered people from burning sun and caught any breeze that may have been passing during the steamy summers. Shades over window openings meant that windows did not have to be quickly shut when humidity brought rain. Clever little revolving tin cylinders on the roofs removed hot air that filled ceiling spaces through decorative fretwork openings.

Although timber is not a particularly effective insulator for either heat or cold, air was able to flow through the long central hallways in a typical Queensland house and also across the house from an open window on one side through open doors to the open window on the opposite side. Some exteriors were painted, others were just oiled. Some verandahs were completed with elaborate and expensive iron lace; others made do with simple timber frames and carved timber decoration in pediments over front entrance.

Despite the air of apparent impermanence, the Queensland house has survived since it first appeared in the mid-nineteenth century. However, it has evolved. The simple two-room or four-room cottage has given way to much larger, sprawling dwellings. The pattern of the Queenslander house can be translated into the early forms of kit-set homes.

Many were manufactured by companies in Brisbane and transported long distances almost as flat-packs on trains. Collections of verandahs, tongue and groove boards for walls and sheets of corrugated iron for roofs were available at the destination for assembly. The public housing movement that produced workers homes adapted the ingredients to various shapes and sizes suitable for lower-cost housing.

After the war, the Queenslander seemed out of date in a world of modem architecture. Brick houses, American ranch style residences and other imported styles began to populate new suburbs. However, Brisbane is a hilly city and even modem designs often adapted the idea of stumps so that houses could be close to the ground near the top of a rising allotment and high where the ground sloped away. In the late twentieth century, the old materials, tin and timber, were given new currency by innovative architects to create distinctly modem, light and airy Queensland homes.

In the 1970s and 1980s, when a drift back towards the inner suburbs attracted the attention of a new generation, old Queenslanders were discovered by younger owners. They painted them lovingly and added various renovations to bring an old favourite into the modem era.

However they originated, whether from sugar planters houses in the West Indies, bungalows in India or high houses in Malaysia, the Queenslander still distinguishes Brisbane from other Australian capital cities.

Looking for a great alternative to paint for your Queenslander? For Wall Cladding Brisbane & Vinyl House Cladding Brisbane, contact Prestige Exteriors today: http://www.prestigeexteriors.com.au/

RGB verses CMYK Colours

To colour print your digital files, you need to supply the graphics and images in the correct colour mode. Most of the software programs let you to work with RGB colour mode or CMYK colour mode. RGB colours or Red-Green-Blue colours are familiarly known as the primary colours of the light. This colour combination can be seen on your tv or computer monitors. Digital cameras and scanners also make images using Red-Green-Blue colour combinations. Red-Green-Blue colour mode should be in use when taking photos that are to be viewed on the monitor, or by emails or CD.

All colours of the light spectrum are created from primary colours, but monitors can display only a limited colour range from the visible spectrum. Light is sent from the monitors, and the printing ink recognises only a particular wavelength of colours. All three primary colours are combined to create white. If the three primary colours are missing, then the light will appear as black. By combining a variety of intensities of RGB colours, each mixture results in differing colours. A monitor of a tv or a computer is made of small units called pixels. Every pixel contains three units of light, and each unit represents red, green and blue.

You can not actually see individual pixels with the naked eye because they are too small. But each pixel is made by applying correct values of RGB, as without the proper values of the colour units, you cannot see any image on the screen. The values of RGB colours are calculated mainly by three methods. The first method is to set them using different numeric values. The numeric values used for this purpose are the values from 0 to 255, and this is the easiest method of the three.

The second method is by using hexadecimal notations. This method is mainly used for HTML and other languages of the computer. These notations follow a logical pattern. The hexadecimal notation consists of six characters, with these characters being divided into three. The first pair represents the red, the second pair green and the third pair as blue. Each pair is represented by a hexadecimal number (0-9) and the letters (A-F). The third method is the percentage in which a certain percentage represents each colour. The programme translates these percentages into suitable values ranges from 0-255.

CMYK colours or Cyan-Magenta-Yellow colours are subtractive colours, whereas RGB colours are additive colours. Additive colours are referring to light, whereas subtractive colours refer to inks, paint or pigment. CMYK mode is used for printing as all kind of printers are using subtractive colours to produce different colours. When three additive colours are combined, the combination will produce white colour. But when three subtractive colours are combined, the combination produces black colour. This difference develops a great diversity between the print and the onscreen display. Additive colour throws the light from the monitor, and if more light is projected from a specific pixel, it will be closer to the pure light. In the case of printer inks, they will absorb light and reflects only the wavelengths of light that is associated with the colour of the ink.

The inks of the printer take away the non-essential wavelengths from the light that falls on the ink. The remaining light will return to our eyes, giving the impression of a variety of colours. If you are combining even more colours, then more light will be absorbed by the ink and a lesser amount of light will get reflected to the eye, which results in darker colour. Black ink produced by the CMYK colours isn’t the deep black. So you will have to add some black ink to get the best results for printing true black. To produce a stronger variety of a colour, you must add black in CMYK mode.

And how about the lighter shade of colours? As white ink cannot be created using CMYK colours, you have to work under the hypothesis that you are printing the colours onto white paper. As tiny dots of inks are used to print images you have to use the inks in a lower percentage to produce lighter shades so that more white colour is seen among the dots. The values of CMYK colours are calculated with the help of four different percentages. The values of each percentage should be between 0 and 100 so that the total percentage of the ink values can be up to 400%. However, when the total percentage reaches 400%, the ink will take more time to dry. And so, the total percentage of ink shouldn’t be more than 300% in CMYK mode.

Both the colour modes have limitations. The images created using RGB mode can’t be converted smoothly into CMYK mode due to the brightness of the RGB colours. Similarly, CMYK colours cannot be converted into RGB mode because the sharp look of RGB colours is missing in CMYK mode online. This is the reason why RGB colours are used in monitors and CMYK colours are used in printers.

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Moodle Learning Management System (LMS)

Moodle is a learning management system (LMS), a piece of software designed using sound learning principles, to help people create effective web-based learning experiences. Moodle has a large and diverse user community with over 1,000,000 registered users on the Moodle Community site, speaking over 75 languages from 200 countries.

This group includes developers, educators, system administrators and corporate users. Validated registration statistics indicate there are more than 35 million end-users of Moodle software, across the world.

Moodle is provided freely as Open Source software. This means Moodle is copyrighted, but the software can be changed and customised to suit your organisational needs. Due to this, Moodle has an active web community of developers who contribute additional functionality to the system as requested by educators, administrators and business. The benefits of Moodle include:

1. Promotion of social constructionist pedagogy through learning activities such as blog, chat, comments, forums, messaging, rss, tags and wiki;
2. Enables web-based user activity monitoring, assessment, feedback and grade book functionality;
3. Suitable for 100% online education as well as endorsing a blended learning approach by supplementing face-to-face classes;
4. Simple, lightweight, efficient, flexible, scalable and highly compatible;
5. The software is open source. This means no licensing costs or vendor lock-in. Thus reducing the total cost of ownership and enabling your organisation to invest resources to ensure a successful deployment.

Learn more about learning management systems with Consultancy, Hosting, Training and Support for Moodle software. Learn more about expert LMS services to the corporate, government and education sectors in Australia. BS19AUGMLMS

Across Australia, it is estimated between 22 and 40% of married men and between 11 and 25% of married women who are involved in an affair at least once. On the Gold Coast, with its transient population and facade of a glamourous lifestyle on offer, the estimated figures are considerably higher.

Secrecy and minimisation abound while an affair is taking place, so if it is discovered, the betrayal of trust in the relationship is the most difficult issue for a partner to cope with.

Can a relationship or marriage survive an affair? A marriage or relationship can certainly be repaired after an affair, but it will take much work by both partners, particularly the partner who has cheated. Marriage Counselling over at least the medium term is essential to help rebuild trust and the relationship.

Marriage counselling needs to follow the following 5 points in order to fully recover from an affair:

1. The affair must stop. The partner having the extra relationship must commit to having no more contact, in any form, if the marriage is to survive and rebuild.

2. The partner who has been deceived needs to be given the chance to express their feelings while it’s important for the affair partner to listen, accept and validate those feelings, and also to reassure their partner that he or she does want and value this relationship.

3. The partner who was involved in the affair must take on the responsibility to rebuild the trust by being transparent and accountable. This means comings and goings are knowable at all times and they be willing to have phone and emails checked at any time. This will need to continue for as long as it takes for the partner to feel that the trust has been rebuilt, usually up to approx. 6 months.

4. Discover the fundamental meaning. Both partners do need to explore why the affair has happened so that it doesn’t occur again in the future.

5. Forgiveness. For this to happen, the partner who has had the affair needs to feel absolutely sorry for what he or she has done, as well as feel true empathy for what the partner has experienced.

Also, there needs to be a commitment and hope for a more shared future together. Only then is it possible for the other partner to be able to forgive completely.

Looking for marriage counselling in your city? For marriage counselling Gold Coast or marriage counselling Melbourne, contact Hart Relationship Counselling today. HRC16AUG2011