Leaving the blinding sand for the cool shade of the trees I walked carefully through the undergrowth to where Dave using two twigs as chopsticks was picking up a freshly severed human finger! Johns trip to India starts badly when he finds himself looking at the sharp end of a knife in a train station cubicle. His life is saved by the enigmatic Rick who persuades John to abandon his mundane plans for the future for much much more. Fast forward to the Thai island of Koh Pha-Ngan where they pose as millionaire aristocrats in a hedonistic Eden of beautiful girls free drugs & wild beach parties. Soon pursued by Thai Mafia they escape to Indonesia Australia & Hong Kong facing danger at every turn. ...

* ' Indispensable.' Wanderlust Magazine *' Essential pre-departure reading.' Jennifer Cox Author of Around the World in 80 Dates * Newly revised & updated in 2010 The Backpacker's Bible the result of extensive research & first-hand experience is crammed full of advice for the first time traveler
- from planning the journey to packing your bags from organising money to keeping in touch with home. There are helpful tips on finding work abroad obtaining travel insurance being a responsible eco-traveller & much more. Crucially you'll find information on personal safety & potential health risks with newly revised & updated chapters to cover the increased international safety measures & the growth of internet-related travel assistance & social online networking. To help you find out more about destinations the best guidebooks are recommended together with a comprehensive selection of insightful travel reads. There's even an alphabetical guide to diplomatic contacts for each country complete with details of typical regional climates. This book truly is the bible for the modern backpacker.
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The world is a fraught place for the contemporary female. Working mothers are still expected to make their children's costumes for the school play despite the fact that home economics was abolished in the Seventies; we're told it's not looks but brains that count & yet if we dare to leave the house looking vaguely our age we're made to feel like failures; women's magazines run earnest articles about the evils of size 0 culture only to feature models with hips like 10-year-old boys a few pages later; we pay the same level of taxation as men & yet on average we earn 25% less. So this book
- a book for women who never got around to perfecting the art of domestic divinity but would quite like to be able to cook supper for six without having a nervous breakdown; who never quite mastered Cosmo's 101 ways to please your man but don't want the embarrassment not to say inconvenience of him running off with a 19-year-old Russian supermodel. It's your mother your best friend your guru & your shrink wrapped up in book form with jokes. It's the antidote to every stupid boring reductive magazine article you've ever read or every silly hair-twirling chick lit confection about girls called Arabella who marry bankers & live in Gstaad. It's for women who love their children but don't want them to run their lives; & for women who love their lives & won't have them run by children. It's about revising expectations exploding myths & generally dealing with all that life love & other people have to throw at you.
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The modern classic completely updated." The newest edition of The Backyard Astronomers Guide

Includes::

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This best-selling DIY handbook now features new & expanded projects enabling ordinary folks to construct 16 awesome ballistic devices in their garage or basement workshops using inexpensive household or hardware store materials & this step-by-step guide. Clear instructions diagrams & photographs show how to build projects ranging from the simple match-powered rocket to the more complex tabletop catapult & the offbeat Cincinnati fire kite. The classic potato cannon has a new evil twin -- the piezo-electric spud gun & the electromagnetic pipe gun has joined the company of such favourites as the tennis ball mortar. With a strong emphasis on safety the book also gives tips on troubleshooting explains the physics behind the projects & profiles scientists & extraordinary experimenters such as Alfred Nobel Robert Goddard & Isaac Newton. This book will be indispensable for the legions of backyard toy-rocket launchers & fireworks fanatics who wish every day was the fourth of July. ...

For every man who has ever conjured up a picture of himself felling trees in a roar of chainsaw noise & power The Backyard Lumberjack" is an account of dreams fulfilled. Father & son lumberjacks Stephen & Frank Philbrick have enjoyed the thrilling destruction of felling bucking & splitting timber for hundreds of cords of firewood. Together they bring practical instruction & first-hand advice to every man with a chainsaw. Before there can be any felling of trees or satisfying shouting of Timberl every potential lumberjack must choose the proper saw. The Philbricks offer buying advice based on the quantity of wood to be cut & the amount of time to be spent on the job. They provide diagrams of chain-saw parts functions & maintenance requirements; tables & charts of saw specifications & firewood volume; & personal cautionary tales of on-the-job injuries arm potential lumberjacks with the necessary tools to make informed choices. Chainsaw in hand father & son move on to detailed instructions on managing a woodlot felling & bucking splitting & stacking & even include fun facts on burning. For every lumberjack chore they offer advice on equipment (chaps helmets felling wedges hatchets mauls peeves) careful procedural instruction safety & efficiency strategies & always their humorous anecdotes & tales of tree adventure. For the rural lumberjack with acres of wood- land the suburban guy with a cord of wood to split & stack for the fireplace or the urban guy who just likes to think about chainsaws " The Backyard Lumberjack" is as much an engaging read on the legends & experiences of lumberjacking as a practical reference guide." ...

The Backyardigans stories feature five high-spirited friends who use their imagination to embark on epic adventures. In every episode their backyard transforms into a fantastic photo-real landscape that serves as the backdrop to their musical adventure. The annual is great for all Backyardigans fans who will enjoy the stories & puzzles & will be inspired to use their imaginations to do amazing things just like Uniqua Pablo Tyrone Tasha & Austin. ...

Step into Limehouse Wharf the new uber-luxury apartment building in Canary Wharf where celebrities who have had work done can hole up until they have healed & which is about to see its most glamorous & scandalous Christmas yet. Staying there over the festive period is Melody Down an actress whose career is in tatters after too much plastic surgery & who has fled LA to get her body & her boyfriend back. But is a well-meaning friend about to sabotage all of Melodys Christmas wishes? Meanwhile Aniela Fatyga the nurse in residence finds herself falling for the unlikely Jon Jordan an assassin for hire who is also convalescing there. Will her feelings be reciprocated or will their sizzling relationship remain purely physical? & who is he on the run from? & then theres oligarch Grigor Khalofsky the owner of Kensington football team whose legendary Christmas party is about to get a whole lot more exciting when murder blackmail & scandalous revelations decide to pay a visit along with Santa. ...

Louise Hart has endured a great deal of pain from her callous husband Paul but one cold December night in 1959 she can take no more. She & her son Davey escape their Coventry high-rise flat & flee to Tanglewood the dilapidated ivy-clad mansion where her mother Dolly runs an animal sanctuary. Miserable & frightened Louise longs to turn her back on the past & create a happy new life for Davey. But Paul is in trouble with men more dangerous than himself. Unable to pay his debts he blackmails Louise & those who love her keeping a shadowy presence in their lives. Even the arrival of Charlie Fox a stranger who becomes a true friend cannot guarantee that the future will be safe... ...

Bad Becky is cheeky opinionated & always in some kind of trouble. But you can't help loving her! I mean wouldn't you rather hear a story about a princess who gets gobbled up by the dragon rather than another soppy one where the prince saves the Princess? & if a magician at a party was rubbish wouldn't you point it out? & who wants their horrible Great Aunt Mildred visiting? So really Becky is just doing everyone a favor... The first book in a wickedly funny new series for readers gaining confidence. Bad Becky's got attitude! ...