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I spent most of my life zooming in and out of airports all over the place and I have arrived at the conclusion that there are no expert travelers, only experienced ones. Some of us made aircraft transit lounges our homes in the fifties, sixties and seventies, when transit passengers were still a force to be reckoned with. I will have you know that my name is carved with pride into the viewing gallery railings at Colombo Airport (back in the good ol days when it was Ceylon, my dears.)

Do any of you modern young things want to know what life was like back then when air travel was a privilege only available to a select and carefully chosen few? Probably not but I am going to tell you anyway and risk boring you with interesting details of life in the slow lane.

I am one of those dinosaurs of the modern world; that is, someone who remembers traveling on BOAC. For those of you who have never heard of it, the initials stand for British Overseas Airways Corporation and they also stood for a standard of excellence when it came to passenger service in the olden days, somewhere between the ice age and Concorde.

I was about ten when I first staggered up a roll-away staircase into a VC10. I was traveling to Singapore, the journey took more than 18 hours and it was the mission of every cabin attendant aboard to entertain me and my two horrible brothers all the way to our destination whether they liked it or not.

In those days children were treated with kid gloves aboard planes, the thinking being that if the kids were happy the parents would pay a fortune to travel BOAC forever, or something along those lines. We were made generous gifts of flight bags, nice canvas ones with the legend BOAC emblazoned across the corners. An adjustable shoulder strap and large front pockets stuffed full of books and games ensured that each Junior Jet Club Member was able to assault fellow passengers with equanimity for the duration of the journey and be a complete pain in the rear to everyone sitting within a ten foot radius.

Inside the canvas bag was a booklet in a shiny wallet, proclaiming the owner to be in possession of however many miles worth of service, a bit like the Executive air miles system introduced years later and guarded with the same aggressive propriety. One had to fill out however many miles one had completed and then ask the Stewardess permission to visit the Captain and ask for his endorsement on the logged entry. Try that nowadays and you will get locked up for trying to hijack the cockpit.

Once you had logged so many miles you were entitled to a Junior Jet Club pin, a set of enamel wings, which you could attach to the lapel of your school blazer along with the Robertsons Golly and Prefect Badge. Other goodies in the bag included coloring pencils, a small coloring book with pictures of the other aircraft in the BOAC Fleet, a detailed resume of the crew (the anti-Terrorist authorities would have a cow) a sleeping mask (a gag would have been more welcome to other passengers), a dainty facial wipe which was completely inadequate for purpose and believe me saw plenty of service and a pair of strange looking socks which were designed to fit Bigfoot.

In those days no aircraft could make the entire journey without several refuels and anyway nobody cared to, when you could make at least five stops and explore the culture and liquid refreshments of each country as you went along. It was all very jolly and highly civilized. The stops would be in Paris, or Rome, or perhaps Frankfurt, Colombo, Bahrain, Baghdad, Delhi, Bombay. In my time at boarding school I visited them all, explored the souvenir stalls in the airport with my precious Transit card clutched to my bosom, trying to hide my yellow triangle which advertised that I was that Pest of All Pests, a BOAC Young Traveler Traveling Alone. I hated it. One might as well wear a sign on ones head saying Imbecile Please Patronize Me.

Should ones parents be particularly dedicated to ones safety, they could hire a person known as a Universal Aunt. My father hired one for me once, and it was a disaster. My Universal Aunt was well into her sixties and might have been nearer seventy. She arrived dressed in a black cape with a red edging, and a matching hat, resembling some sort of demented bat. She fell over my suitcase in the arrivals lounge at Heathrow and things went from bad to worse after that. I had to sit with her in a caf at Victoria station while she downed the contents of a large brandy glass to calm herself because she got us well and truly lost on the tube, and in the end I put her in a taxi and sent her home, promising not to report the incident to her employers or my parents.

One of the greatest treats of Young Passengers Traveling Alone was that you could look sadly into the eyes of the Purser, and tell him how homesick you were and how it would take your mind off your troubles if you could visit the cockpit. This was what it was all about as far as I was concerned. I just loved everything about the front end of an aircraft; the smell, the switches and dials, the incredible feeling of being in at the business end of it all.

Above all, the mind blowing view of the clouds and sky. My personal best was when I managed to persuade the crew to let me stay in the cockpit on landing, at night in Singapore. Believe it or not this was common then; kids would sit on the little jump seat near the rear of the cockpit and watch the city lights getting closer. Nowadays such behavior would start a riot, but back then the Captain and First Officer would wink conspiratorially and say Dont you dare tell anyone will you?

I had a logbook with the signatures of many, many Captains and First Officers, a record of my childhood as precious as a scrapbook or photo album, the air miles racked up in thousands and starred with comments from traveling companions. I cannot find it nowadays; it has become a casualty of many house moves. I do have a relic of BOAC, a Vaccination Record, rather like the one the vet gave me recently for the dog, with my immunizations recorded against Typhoid, Yellow Fever, and Cholera. Charming.

Aircraft seats then were masterpieces, and distanced a long way from the passenger in front of you, so that you could stand in the area in front of your seat, walk around in it even, converse with the passengers around you. My most recent journey, or should I say ordeal, involved supporting the sleeping head of the passenger in front of me, as he had reclined his seat into my lap on take off and insisted on keeping it there until landing. I took satanic pleasure in his airsickness two hours into the first leg.

Aircraft food was great, hot and tasty and served with decent silverware, not a plastic spoon in sight. My childhood passion for chocolate once resulted in my consuming six Swiss chocolate mousses donated by the first class passengers to the children traveling to school in economy. Do you think that would happen nowadays? Then, the cabin crew would pass by with hot coffee at least four times and nothing was too much trouble. One trip to Bulgaria I had a couple of years or so ago, I had the distinct impression the crew resented having to stop to let me disembark, when it would have been so much easier to parachute me out over a convenient snow drift.

I hate air travel now. The whole plastic, sticky, crammed and mass produced rubbishy, crappy, awful mess is something I avoid like the plague whenever I can. I remember those wonderful days though and consider myself superior to all of you lot who travel Economair and think you are in the jet set. Trust me, you are travelers without portfolio.

Do you ever wonder why so many elementary schools do what they can to include some sort of musical education into their programs? At first glance music education may not seem all that important compared to learning how to read and write, and is thus often one of the first programs to be cut. Fortunately more and more people start to realize how important making music is and that our kids can greatly benefit from it.

You dont have to wait until first grade though to let your child start making music. Music can be used as a developmental tool from the time your child is just a few months old. For babies and toddlers, making music is a great way to learn about cause and effect. Think of the baby rattle, when your baby shakes it, it makes a sound. Toddlers will spend hours banging on pots and pans, or hammering on a piano. This kind of playing not only reinforces the cause and effect principal, but also builds your childs confidence. Hes feeling all grown up and loves having the people he loves watch him make music.

As your child grows older, music and different musical instruments are a great way to explore different cultures and customs. Use music from a different country to start a conversation with your child about the culture and people of this region and how their music is affected by their surroundings.

Music also stimulates your childs brain and helps in the development of areas of the brain that are also used for solving math problems. Children, who are exposed to playing music early on, tend to do better in math and science. Take a little time each week to make music with your child. When you travel, look for simple native instruments to bring back as souvenirs. They are a great interactive way for your child to remember the trip. Dig out some of your own old instruments, buy an inexpensive recorder or guitar and play around on it.

Of course you can also make simple instruments with your child. This can be as easy as dragging out a few pots and pans to create a drum set, or make your own guitar using these instructions http://www.kinderinfo.com/crafts/make-your-own-guitar.htm

This tambourine craft for children is another fun project for the two of you.

Much of the business force in the United States is self-employed. Despite this fact, lenders have a bear of a time coming up with ways to handle such people.

Home loan lenders like things in a nice, orderly box. They dont like variations. They want certain numbers to appear on their applications. They then want to take these numbers and run them through their nice computer program, which then kicks out a yes or no answer on whether the loan should be made. Self-employed borrowers do not fit within this nice, neat box scenario.

Some fabulously successful self-employed people have major problems getting home loans. How can this be? Well, the problem is they do not look so successful on their tax returns. This is due to the fact there is an inherent conflict involved between ones tax return and ones mortgage application.

As we all know, the goal with taxes is to reduce our taxable income. For the self-employed person, this involves deducting everything including the kitchen sink. Obviously, the deductions need to be and should be legal. The goal, however, is to show as little taxable income at the end of the painful process of filling out ones tax return. This sounds great, but leads to a problem when applying for a loan.

One of the biggest factors in borrowing money for real estate is your income. Specifically, how much do you make in relation to what you want to borrow? Well, most lenders will check your tax return to make the determination. Now you see the problem. The income you minimized for tax purposes kills your prospects for getting a loan! It is the veritable catch-22.

So, do you have any options for getting around this? There are a couple of approaches. The first is to get the lender to eliminate paper deductions when calculating your income. You can deduct certain things that dont really come out of your pocket, such as depreciation. If the lender will set aside these deductions, your income will look better.

The second approach is to put more down on the purchase. If you can get to a point where you are putting 25 to 30 percent down, a lender will often disregard your income issues. Why? Well, you must have income or you wouldnt be able to come up with the hefty down payment!

Being self-employed is great until it comes time to apply for a loan. Then, it can be a real bear. Try to work creatively with your lender to find a solution that works for both of you.

Read more real estate articles for free at FSBOAmerica.org

Choosing bathroom furniture seems to get more difficult all the time as the number of choices put before us gets ever wider and more complicated. However, as with all things, the choices can be made easier if we begin with the basics and work out from there. There are essentially two main choices to make, and that is between antique furniture and contemporary, and between freestanding and fitted furniture. This article will take a look at the basic types and gives a few pointers as to what needs to be considered before a final choice is made.

Antique furniture has become increasingly popular over the past few years, and the bathroom furniture manufacturers have responded by bringing out new furniture ranges in the vintage style to cater for the demand. The antique style tends to consist of furniture which is ornate, with embellishments to things such as the frames of mirrors and the edges of the washbasin. The washbasins themselves are often cast with motifs of flowers or animals, while the materials tend to be natural, such as wood, and often the color scheme tends on the dark side. This is fine if a darkish interior suits your style, and many people find it relaxing.

The contemporary style, on the other hand, is characterized by an almost if not complete lack of ornamentation. Contemporary bathroom furniture tends to consist of straight lines, with sharp angles to give a geometric appearance to the room. Of course, some contemporary styles do have curves, as evidenced by some sinks with oval pedestals, though the lack of ornamentation is still obvious. Contemporary furniture tends to make more use of non-natural materials such as ceramic, stainless steel and cast iron for the bathtubs and sinks, though natural materials such as stone and marble are also used. The whole effect of the contemporary style tends to be light and airy.

Once the decision has been made as to whether to go for the antique or contemporary look, the next thing to decide is whether the furniture should be fitted or freestanding. It must be said that fitted furniture is more in line with the contemporary style, which tends toward cabinets and vanities being fitted to the contours of the room in order to give the simple clean lines that the contemporary style demands. The plus point about fitted furniture is that it tends to make use of all the available space in the bathroom, by fitting cupboards and cabinets on the walls and using small spaces such as corners to provide maximum storage space. The use of contemporary and fitted furniture is covered in more detail at http://www.totalbathroomremodel.com

However, some people think that a totally fitted bathroom looks too compact and maybe even a little claustrophobic, and so prefer the freestanding style. When the furniture has a lot of space around it, it tends to make for a much more airy look to the bathroom. Freestanding furniture also has the advantage that it can be moved around, and so enables you to change the look of the bathroom without having a complete redesign.

As you can see, once the choice is taken down to the basics, choosing your bathroom furniture becomes much easier. Decide on whether you want an antique or contemporary style first, and then decide on fixed or freestanding. Once this is done you can begin to look at individual styles and start to turn your bathroom redesign ideas into reality.

Carl Formby writes for http://www.totalbathroomremodel.com a website packed with information on bathroom remodeling and choosing the right bathroom vanity