Wedding And Anniversary Gift Ideas

Have you ever had to buy a wedding gift for someone and been stumped for ideas? It isn’t always necessary to pick something off the wedding gift list, particularly if everything left is too expensive for you to afford.

In this case you might want to go for something like a gift hamper or basket, so your gift stands out as being something different. Just be sure not to buy anything that is immediately perishable, because the happy couple will end up missing out if they are heading off on honeymoon the next day.

Anniversaries are also important days to remember for most couples – especially if the anniversary in question is your own! You might find it useful to go from the items that are listed for each anniversary, as these can prompt some good ideas for gifts. For instance the first anniversary is paper, although the modern version of this is to give a clock of some kind.

INFLUENZA or FLU

A contagious respiratory infection that frequently occurs in epidemics. The term “flu” is also applied to various forms of viral gastroenteritis, com¬monly known as stomach or intestinal flu, which are unrelated to true respiratory influenza. This article will deal only with the respiratory disease.

History. The so-called “English Sweat” of the 16th century was the first definitely identifiable influenza epidemic. Seemingly, pandemics, or worldwide epidemics, of influenza occur in 20-year to 50-year cycles with minor local epidemics in between. Major pandemics occurred in 1627, 1729, 1788, 1830, 1847, 1872, 1890, 1918, 1957, and 1968. The 1918 pandemic, after World War I, was the worst on record. It killed 10,000,000 more people than the war; in the United States, 500,000 people died. Since World War II vaccines have helped contain flu epidemics and thereby reduce mortality. Mortality was very low in the 1957 pan¬demic, known as the Asian flu because it came from Hong Kong, and was relatively low in the 1968 pandemic. In 1976 there was a flu outbreak in Fort Dix, N.J., that in some cases was caused by the swine flu virus, believed by many experts to have caused the 1918 pandemic. Fearing another disaster, the United States and Canada set up a crash mass vaccina¬tion program. But when some people who had been vacci¬nated developed Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare type of temporary paralysis, the U.S. program was canceled. A pandemic never developed.

Internet Addiction

Internet addiction, sometimes called as cyberspace addiction or online addiction, can show itself in many ways in today’s teens.

If your daughter just spent an entire beautiful weekend tweaking her MySpace page, foregoing a trip with the family to an amusement park, she may be showing signs of addiction. If you checked your Internet browser’s history only to find out your innocent, naïve teenage son has spent the last five afternoons accessing pornographic Web sites where the titles alone are enough to make you blush, he may be addicted.

Obesity Spoils Sexual Health

The study reports that the rate of unplanned pregnancies is four times higher among single obese women than normal weight women, despite them being less likely to have been sexually active in the past year. Obese women are less likely to seek contraceptive advice or to use oral contraceptives. Obese men have fewer sexual partners in a 12 month period, but are more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction and develop sexually transmitted infections than normal weight men.

Ways To Save Energy

With climbing fuel costs, massive unemployment, and pollution problems faced by many large cities, most Americans have more than one reason to save electricity. Contrary to most beliefs, homeowners don’t need to invest in expensive solar energy systems or residential wind turbines to save significantly on electricity costs. Most people can reduce their electricity bill dramatically by implementing these simple energy conservation techniques.

* Heating and cooling are by far the highest users of electricity in the average household. This should be your first line of defense when tackling high energy bills. Installing a programmable thermostat to control the temperature of your home can be a great low cost method to reduce your energy consumption dramatically.A programmable thermostat will allow you to automatically raise your home’s temperature in the summer by a few extra degrees while everyone is scheduled to be away. By the same token, you can use a programmable thermostat to lower the temperature a few extra degrees while everyone is away in the winter. The great thing about a programmable thermostat is you can set it to bring your home back to the normal temperature just before everyone is scheduled to be back home.

Ruhuna Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

The Ruhuna Yala Group of National Reserves

Ruhuna Yala Group of National Reserves covering over 100,000ha is divided into 5 blocks of which only block 1 is open to the public. The five blocks together with Strict Natural Reserve, Yala East National Park, Kudumbigala sancutaury Buddhist monastery & LHT (Living Heritage Trust) Okanda Heritage Conservation Zone are surrounded by a long strip of buffer zone with the coast to the south. That's a pretty long range.

Best Beaches of the World: Beruwala Bay Beach, Sri Lanka

Beruwala, located 60 km South of Colombo on the main west coast road (Galle road), together with Bentota Bay Beach Resort further south is the gateway to some pretty, secluded beaches extending all the way to Hikkaduwa Bay Beach. The twin resorts have been developed into Sri Lanka's chief package-tour resort zone. It has a long string of mid range & top-end hotels along its fine beach, where locals address foreigners initially in German. Moragalla beach located slightly north of Beruwale has been practically merged with Beruwala in terms of holidaying.

Best Beaches of the World: Bentota Bay Beach Resort, Sri Lanka

Bentota, Sri Lanka, 64 km down from Colombo, is the second tourist resort following Beruwala Bay Beach, 55 km down from Colombo by the same highway, (so we passed it few minutes ago) is the gateway to 140 km (86mile) stretch of tropical beaches from Beruwala in western coast to Tangalla Bay Beach in the southern coast. The outstandingly beautiful stretch of road is one of the most scenic routes in the island.

We just passed the raucous fish market of busy vendors with helpless crabs & lobsters, among a huge variety of fish at Aluthgama. We passed Toddy bars too. Toddy is a creamy white bubbling thick & smooth drink of liquor made of coconut sap (tapped from the frond of coconut) fermented in large clay pots-low percentage alcoholic beverage faintly reminiscent of cider. No hurry, we can have gallons of Toddy later today, at our leisure. Toddy galore in these towns. Cheap too. This is the border between the Western & Southern Provinces.

Horton Plains National Park, Central highlands, Sri Lanka

The importance of conservation of the park

Horton Plains National Park, a World Heritage Site perched on the southern edge of the Central highlands, midway between Nuwara Eliya & Haputale consists of montane forests, where the land rises to 2,500 meters above sea-level. Horton Plains is home to an extraordinary range of flora and fauna, including several endangered species such as the western-purple-faced langur, the Horton Plains slender loris and the Sri Lankan leopard. The region is considered a super biodiversity hotspot. The Park (10,000 ha), named after British governor Sir Robert Horton is a world apart from rest of the tropical island. This is the island's highest & most isolated plain, a result of millions of years of erosion. The importance of conservation of the park lies in, among others, in its role as the catchment area of the major rivers of the island.

Nuwara Eliya (The Little England), the prime hill resort of Sri Lanka

Nuwara Eliya quick info
Altitude: 1800 m (5960 ft) above sea level
Temperature: January to April 31/17, May to August 29/21, September to December 28/18 Centigrade
Distance from Colombo: 180 km

Kandy-Nuwara Eliya Road takes you to Nuwara Eliya.
Such an inspiring journey as Kandy - Nuwara Eliya Road of Sri Lanka Holidays builds up your expectations of Nuwara Eliya, the city with the highest altitude in the beautiful tropical island. And true to the expectations, we find breathtaking views of valleys, meadows, mountains and greenery in salubrious climate. It's hard to imagine that Nuwara Eliya is only 180 km from hot and humid Colombo. And you will fall in love with Nuwara Eliya as did the British settlers. The consummate combination of salubrious climate & the breathtaking landscape is a soothing balm, as Sir Edward Barnes discovered when he was governing the island in 1828 & used it as his up-country retreat.

Kandy the Royal City (1469-1815 AD) : Gateway to Central Highlands of Sri Lanka (A World Heritage Site)

Kandy in a sweet nutshell geared to fast food mode

Kandy, then called Senkadagalapura, had been the Medieval Royal City of Sri Lanka during the period of 1469-1815 AD. In the year 1988, the sacred city of Kandy was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO organization. Today, the lovely city, also called Maha Nuwara (Great City) is officially designated as the "Cultural Capital of Sri Lanka" in spite of the undying glories of the ancient cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa.

The Holy Temple of the Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa) (WHS), Kandy, Sri Lanka

The Holy Temple of the Tooth (Sri Dalada Maligawa), Kandy is the most sacred shrine of Buddhism in the same vein that the Basilica of Saint Peter of Vatican is to the Roman Catholic Church. The temple of the Tooth is the prime monument, the supreme edifice not only of the Sinhalese Buddhist populace of Sri Lanka but also of the Buddhists all over the world. It is within this magnificent temple that sacred Tooth relic of Buddha (Danta Dhatu), the palladium of the Sinhalese nation & Buddhist faith is enshrined.

Golden Dambulla Rock Temple (Rangiri Dambulu Temple) (A world Heritage site)

From the rainwater reservoir to the temple

And why shouldn't we begin with the most ancient temple? The ascent to the caves, which are on a terrace of a gigantic granite outcrop resembling a back of a giant whale is pleasant but then the Leviathan herein, as the scorch through your shoe-soles testifies, is not cold-blooded. The gneiss hills, one of the consistent features of dry zone landscapes of Sri Lanka, during most of the day are hot.

Like Mihintale, the climb herein too, is by means of steps though shorter: about 200 steps in 18 terraces. We climb for 10 minutes about 100 meters of slightly convex surface in the shades of frangipane trees. At the highest terrace is the Golden Dambulla Rock Temple of five caves built into the rock. Oh! From the terrace we have a wonderful panoramic view of the surroundings dense forest, rainwater reservoirs & flat lands, oh! yes, the view includes The Lion Rock Citadel (Sigiriya) too about 20km away. If we dare to climb further 50m up the hill to the very summit, we will have still superior panoramic view.

Sigiriya (The Lion Rock Citadel), Sri Lanka

Sigiriya Lion Rock citadel, also called Simha-giri (Sinhala: Lion Mountain) built by King Kasyapa (Kassapa) (479-497 A.D), grand nephew of Buddhist scholar monk illustrious Thera Mahanama, the first of the authors of Mahawamsa the great historical chronicle of Sri Lanka, is a fortified-walled and moated-royal city with living manifestations of glorious Sinhalese civilization: it's a unique combination of 5th century urban planning, architecture, engineering, hydraulic engineering, garden landscape designing, sculpture, art, painting and poetry. Sigiriya,a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is of immense archeological significance: it is one of the best preserved and most elaborate surviving urban sites in the South Asia from the first millennium A.D.

Adam's Peak, the mountain of Sacred Footprint of Sri Lanka: The History

Season

It looms into view, looking for all the world like the Paramount Pictures logo. That is at the new town of Maskeliya, Sri Lanka (the old town was flooded to make way for the tank). A perfect shape of a pyramid, but then again without the hallow of the white stars of Paramount logo. But then, in the absence of stars, mountain does even better with one of a kind phenomenon. That is at the summit: a light & shadow play few moments following the crack of dawn during the period January to April when the incredible sunrise produces the famous spectacle known as the "Shadow of the Peak", which leaves all ventured on to the summit spellbound.

Lion King (Sinharaja) Tropical Rain Forest, Sri Lanka

To keep up with the Joneses.

This time around, it would be Indiana Jones with temperature at 20-34 degrees centigrade, humidity at about 87% & annual rainfall of 5000 mm in the 15 million year old Sinharaja Tropical Rain Forest also known as Lion King Tropical Rain Forest of Sri Lanka, a living world heritage site. Sinharaja meaning Lion king in Sinhala is believed to have been the last redoubt of the Sri Lanka's lion. Lion King Sinharaja Tropical Rain Forest has something for every one with diverse activities & interests: to the nature lover, to the photographer, to the artist, to the ecologist & to the scientist.

IUCN International Union for the Conservation of nature & Naural Resources- Technical evaluation of Sinharaja Reserve states that "Sinharaja is the last extensive primary lowland tropical rain forest in Sri Lanka. It holds a large number of endemic species of plants & animals, & a variety of plants of known benefit to man".