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This time last year in the Search Travel Online offices, we were looking at our calendars and predicting a sales lull around the time of June and July 2008. Why? Because of the European Championship in Switzerland and Austria. It was a foregone conclusion that England would take their rightful place amongst the final 16 teams – after all, England had an easy looking group with the likes of Russia, Croatia and Israel. It would take a major slip up for England not to make the finals, and as we currently don’t sell holidays to Switzerland or Austria we expected little business with everyone staying home and helping pub landlords around the country make a tidy profit.

Fast forward 12 months, and the picture has turned on its head. England faltered in their group, failing to make the impression they should have done and being all but out in November, relying on Israel to beat Russia to give them a chance of qualifying. Israel did the impossible and beat Russia, only for England to throw it away by losing to Croatia. This led to Steve McClaren being sacked, and England once again looking for a new manager. Alongside this, Scotland just lost out to giants Italy and France in their group, despite beating the latter twice, Wales failed to battle their way out of their group and Northern Ireland didn’t quite have the quality in the end, despite breaking the record for goals scored by a single player – David Healy with 13.

So, this leaves none of the UK’s football fans with any strong commitments come June next year, so what’s the alternative to bitterly watching the other nations compete in the European Championship? Well, one option we’ve seen selling well in the office is cheap holidays to Tenerife. A Tenerife holiday package has everything you could hope for when looking to escape England – while we were suffering floods this year, Tenerife holiday makers were enjoying the glorious sunshine, and while nobody expects a repeat of the unusual weather that dogged Britain last year, it’s nice to go somewhere where sunshine and good times are guaranteed!

In fact, in many ways a cheap holiday to Tenerife highlights the futility of watching the big summer sporting event – just take a look at the following contrasts:

1) European Championships: Annoying mascots and endless opening ceremony “entertainment”

The over-the-top opening ceremonies at international football tournaments are uniformly dull, and the irritating country mascots don’t help to brighten proceedings, despite their shamelessly attention seeking antics.

Tenerife: Real wildlife and plentiful entertainment

Why bother with men in animal suits, when you can see real exotic animals’ fascinating behaviour instead? Loco Park, Tenerife, has the biggest dolphin habitat in Europe, along with a huge aquarium that houses over 20,000 fish and marine animals which can be seen through an underwater tunnel. Elsewhere, the park has gorillas, tigers and jaguars ensuring an entertaining day out for wildlife lovers.

2) European Championship: Pub snacks

Imagine for a second that England or Scotland had qualified, and you’re at your favourite watering hole and your stomach is rumbling. Do you risk the bar nuts you’re sharing with your less-than-hygienic pub colleagues, or chance a stomach pump with the ‘traditional pub food’ they’re serving?

Tenerife: Delicious delicacies

Food on your Tenerife holiday is very tasty and sure to give you something to smile about in the absence of a trophy for England. Tapas are Spain’s appetizers, delightful local delicacies flavoured with garlic, chillies or paprika, cumin, salt, pepper or saffron. It often comes with seafood such as anchovies, sardines or mackerel in olive oil with tomatoes and sometimes peppers or olives. Better than another bag of pork scratchings, any day of the week.

3) European Championship: Artificially expensive pints

As per usual, come the quarter final (inevitably as far as England get, if recent form is to be believed) the local pub is bound to up the prices of pints to take advantage of the huge influx of customers coming to gawp at their big screen. And that’s just going to make the disappointment of England losing on penalties that bit more expensive to forget.
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Tags: Cheap holidays Tenerife, European Championship, holiday package Tenerife, Tenerife, Tenerife holiday

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I managed to keep a straight face while replying, No, there are a few colors in between. The naiveté amused me. Yet in fairness, this group of 25 newly-minted yellow belts had been promoted in record time—just six weeks. It had been a special summer program for kids just out of juvenile hall, or expelled from district schools. An experiment.

So, I could see how they might think the whole process would be collapsed. On the other hand, I’d worked them two solid hours a day, four days a week, hour-for-hour at least the equivalent of a traditional program’s three one-hour classes a week for 3-6 months. There was no gimme to it. This kid had conveniently forgotten all the hard work they’d done, although some of the kids around him—still sore, stiff, and blistered—burst into laughter at his question.

Yet I sensed a dark side to this mirthful moment as we stood in the afterglow of our hard-won achievement. Sure, on the surface this student’s comment appeared to be merely a neophyte’s inexperience. But 16 years of working with street-savvy kids kept me from dismissing the pall which had fallen. What was it?
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Tags: learning, Martial arts instruction, teaching, teen achievement

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If you are still using a hand held torch for your lighting needs after dark, then you are missing out on a wonderful tool that could help you immensely in any after-dark task. No matter what great quality hand held flashlight you have, it cannot compare to the comfort and convenience of an LED headlamp. Even LED flashlights, while they are comparable in power and quality, are less convenient than the hands-free and hassle-free LED headlamps.

There is no task too big or too small for an LED head lamp to tackle, from working underneath your car or underneath your house to exploring caves, camping, and even performing rescue work at night when you certainly want both hands to be as free as possible. These lights leave your hands free for other important tasks, and the fact that you are not carrying them makes them almost drop-proof.

LED headlamps are superior to most other kinds of headlamp because of the high quality LED bulbs that they utilize. These bulbs burn brighter than traditional incandescent bulbs, putting out a brighter, whiter light. They also use less power, which means that the LED bulb will go through fewer batteries and work better and longer to give you the light that you need for many, many hours at a time.

Another great feature of LED bulbs is that they last much longer than incandescent bulbs, so once you get your headlamp going and fresh batteries installed, you can count on hundreds of hours of use time from your bulb. This is far better than worrying about whether your incandescent bulb might survive the next trip since it is almost impossible to carry a spare when you are going to be out in the wild.

A good LED head lamp will have fully adjustable straps to help you get the comfortable fit that you need to feel confident in your light. Your LED head lamp should fit you well and be able to remain in place no matter what activities you are taking part in, and should be able to utilize the hinged adjuster to put the light in just the right place for you. You will never have to worry about sparing a hand to aim a bulky flashlight again!
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Tags: camping light, led flashlight, LED headlamp, LED headlamps, LED light, LED lights

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