Today, The Weasleys have supported Alejandro in Wimbledon.They have remembered some of the greatest players who have played this tournament and they have studied TheComparative Adjectives. TheGrandma has been doing some investments in the City and she has visited the Bank of England.
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based.
Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of the United Kingdom, it is the world's eighth-oldest bank. It was privately owned by stockholders from its foundation in 1694 until it was nationalised in 1946 by the Attlee ministry.
The bank became an independent public organisation in 1998, wholly owned by the Treasury Solicitor on behalf of the government, with a mandate to support the economic policies of the government of the day, but independence in maintaining price stability.
The bank is one of eight banks authorised to issue banknotes in the United Kingdom, has a monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales, and regulates the issue of banknotes by commercial banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The bank's Monetary Policy Committee has devolved responsibility for managing monetary policy. The Treasury has reserve powers to give orders to the committee if they are required in the public interest and by extreme economic circumstances, but Parliament must endorse such orders within 28 days. In addition, the bank's Financial Policy Committee was set up in 2011 as a macroprudential regulator to oversee the UK's financial sector.
The bank's headquarters have been in London's main financial district, the City of London, on Threadneedle Street, since 1734. It is sometimes known as The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, a name taken from a satirical cartoon by James Gillray in 1797. The road junction outside is known as Bank Junction.
As a regulator and central bank, the Bank of England has not offered consumer banking services for many years, but it still does manage some public-facing services, such as exchanging superseded bank notes. Until 2016, the bank provided personal banking services as a privilege for employees.
England's crushing defeat by France, the dominant naval power, in naval engagements culminating in the 1690 Battle of Beachy Head, became the catalyst for England to rebuild itself as a global power. William III's government wanted to build a naval fleet that would rival that of France; however, the ability to construct this fleet was hampered both by a lack of available public funds and the low credit of the English government in London. This lack of credit made it impossible for the English government to borrow the £1,200,000 (at 8% per annum) that it wanted to construct the fleet.
In 1700, the Hollow Sword Blade Company was purchased by a group of businessmen who wished to establish a competing English bank (in an action that would today be considered a back door listing). The Bank of England's initial monopoly on English banking was due to expire in 1710. However, it was instead renewed, and the Sword Blade company failed to achieve its goal.
In 1825–26 the bank was able to avert a liquidity crisis when Nathan Mayer Rothschild succeeded in supplying it with gold.
The last private bank in England to issue its own notes was Thomas Fox's Fox, Fowler and Company bank in Wellington, which rapidly expanded until it merged with Lloyds Bank in 1927. They were legal tender until 1964. There are nine notes left in circulation; one is housed at Tone Dale House, Wellington.
The bank is custodian to the official gold reserves of the United Kingdom and around 30 other countries.As of April 2016, the bank holds around 5,659 tons of gold, worth £141 billion. These estimates suggest that the vault could hold as much as 3% of the 171,300 tonnes of gold mined throughout human history.
Today, The Grandma has continued her Logistic course in Sant Boi. They have been talking about modes of transports and handling equipment. Transport is essential in Logistics. If you want to send something to somewhere you need a good transport and a quick and cheap route.
Since the beginning of the humanity, people have created routes to exchange products, to create commerce, to enjoy tourism or to escape from wars, prosecutions or natural disasters. These last routes are also known as the routes of exile.
These historical routes are the same routes that nowadays are used for commercial reasons and where we used GPS today, ancient cultures used maps -The Game of the Goose- or travelled following the stars.
China is working in a new silk route that, probably, will change the future of transport, commerce and communications.
The Silk Road was a network of trade routes which connected the East and West, and was central to the economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between these regions from the 2nd century BCE to the 18th century. The Silk Road primarily refers to the land routes connecting East Asia and Southeast Asia with South Asia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa and Southern Europe.
The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative trade in silk carried out along its length, beginning in the Han dynasty in China (207 BCE–220 CE). The Han dynasty expanded the Central Asian section of the trade routes around 114 BCE through the missions and explorations of the Chinese imperial envoy Zhang Qian, as well as several military conquests. The Chinese took great interest in the security of their trade products, and extended the Great Wall of China to ensure the protection of the trade route.
The Silk Road trade played a significant role in the development of the civilizations of China, Korea, Japan, the Indian subcontinent, Iran, Europe, the Horn of Africa and Arabia, opening long-distance political and economic relations between the civilizations.
Though silk was the major trade item exported from China, many other goods and ideas were exchanged, including religions (especially Buddhism), syncretic philosophies, sciences, and technologies like paper and gunpowder. So in addition to economic trade, the Silk Road was a route for cultural trade among the civilizations along its network. Diseases, most notably plague, also spread along the Silk Road.
In June 2014, UNESCO designated the Chang'an-Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road as a World Heritage Site. The Indian portion is on the tentative site list.
The mode of transportation is an important consideration when planning the shipment process. Besides the costs, the urgency of the shipment, the value of the goods being shipped as well as the size and weight of the goods need to be evaluated when determining the form of transportation. In this article, we want to help you determine, which mode is best to transport your cargo and freight!
OCEAN
Seaborne trade accounts for about 90% of the global trade, and as per UNCTAD, 1687 million tons (2015 estimate) were carried in around 177.6 million containers (2015 estimate) covering 998 billion ton-miles (2016 estimate).
Because of size or volume, there are several types of cargoes that cannot be or is economically unviable to move by other modes of transport than the sea.
Ocean freight
Ocean freight is a less expensive method of shipping goods, but the drawback is a longer transit time. Another benefit for ocean freight is while size and weight may be an issue for air; it is not for ocean freight.
Ocean freight is used quite extensively for the movement of bulk commodities such as agri-products (wheat, maize, soya, etc.), coal, iron ore or for wet bulk products such as crude oil and petroleum. Also, larger, odd-shaped items including engines and propellers may move via this mode as well, depending on how sensitive the delivery time is.
Ocean freight is also a preferred mode of transport for the movement of high volume and heavy cargo such as minerals, metals, ores, steel coils, etc. which would be impossible to move by air freight.
Additionally, businesses are placing more of an emphasis on the environmental impact on shipping. An air freight service emits a higher amount of polluting gases with less space capacity compared to sea freight services which are considered a much greener transportation mode with a higher carrying capacity.
Key benefits of ocean freight include:
-Suitable for wide range of products with long lead times
-Large volumes. A single, ultra-large container ship can carry +/-20,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU)
-Most environmental friendly among all modes of transport
-Economical. Liner shipping is the most efficient mode of transport for goods
Over the next 15 years, as the world GDP grows, there will be a demand for higher value goods. As per Boeing's 2016-2017 world air cargo forecast, there will be a proportionate growth in the value per ton of total traded goods around the world.
To meet the demand for growth, world air cargo traffic is forecasted to grow an average 4.2 percent per year.
Air freight
Air freight
is a critical mode of transport. It serves markets and supply chains
that demand speed.
One of greatest examples goes back to 1997 when Apple
began innovating on the nitty-gritty details of supply-chain
management. Almost immediately upon Steve Jobs’ return. At the time,
most computer manufacturers transported products by sea, a far cheaper
option than air freight. Steve Jobs took advantage of the benefit of air freight and used an innovative strategy. He paid $50 million to buy up all the available holiday air freight space to ensure that the company’s new, translucent blue iMacs would be widely available during Christmas season giving them a massive competitive advantage over their rivals. -It was an Oh s- moment, recalls former HP supply chain chief Mike Fawkes.
Other industries such as the automotive and retail industry also utilize air freight to achieve just-in-time (JIT) inventory replenishment. JIT option allows stores, production lines to place order fulfillment based on demand as, and when required. It provides greater flexibility and reduces inventory and storage costs.
Also, perishable goods such as foods, flowers, and some pharmaceuticals also take advantage of shorter transit time. Another positive for air freight is that there's less handling of cargo overall, so the likelihood of damage or theft is less likely when utilizing air.
But air freight also has its own disadvantages such as being one of the most expensive due to the requirement of speed and the fuel that is used.
It also has its size and weight limitations. Regulatory bodies limit what can and cannot be transported by air, and as such, oddly shaped or very large items may be more suitable for other modes of transport.
Another mode of transport which is also considered a green option is rail. Trains burn less fuel per ton-mile than road vehicles and a train, which can have as many than 100 wagons, only needs one driver. There are, however, some additional costs which are incurred in a rail journey: at each end of the rail transit, a road delivery will be needed, and there will be a lift cost to transfer the container between the train and the road vehicle.
On average, longer journeys tend to be less expensive by rail, and shorter journeys are less costly by road. Where the point of cost neutrality comes is governed by many factors which are route and commodity specific, but in general, the point of cost neutrality can be expected to lie in the range of 130 to 150 miles.
Rail freight
In 2015, the first freight train carrying ISO freight containers from China arrived in the Port of Rotterdam in 18 days as against the normal 44 odd days by the sea.
This movement of containerized cargo by rail from China to logistics hubs in Europe such as in the Netherlands, UK is seen as a significant step in the development of trade between the two continents. It has encouraged multinationals such as Hewlett-Packard and Ricoh to use the route from Europe to China for their cargoes.
The Manager of European Transport at Ricoh notes that if one can set up an effective planning, rail is a relatively quick mode of transport taking only 20 days to China. In addition, the move by rail also has some advantages such as all containers being transported to the location in one go, while being environmentally friendly as a train releases far less CO2 than a plane.
Key benefits of rail freight include:
-Reliable transit times and schedules
-Railroads are the most efficient form of land transportation. One train can haul the equivalent of over 400 trucks
-Fast and cost-effective deliveries over long distances. Typically over 500 miles
-Traditionally, rail has a strong safety record
-Helps in alleviating road congestion, thus lowering emissions
Road freight is one of the most common of all modes of transportation. It is widely used in continents such as Europe, Africa, and North America. The single customs document process provides a seamless movement of goods even across various states and countries.
Road freight provides several advantages over other modes of transportation such as:
-Cost-effectiveness
-Quick and scheduled delivery
-Local, over border, long or short haul deliveries even in rural areas
-Flexible service
-Saving in Packing Cost compared to other modes
-Track and trace of cargo and truck
-Complete door-to-door service and it is one of the more economical means of transport.
However, truck transport is limited somewhat as to what it can carry by the size of the vehicles used and by size and weight restrictions. Another limitation is that it is affected by weather, road conditions and traffic.
Another option to keep in mind is multimodal solutions -the utilization of more than one mode of transport.
Multimodal is a combination of different modes of transportation such as rail, road, and sea which allows the customer to cost-effectively manage shipments from start-to-end, ensuring optimum care and efficiency every step of the way.
Multimodal
One such example is the cross region rail network combined with truck.
Providers including DHL, Geodis, UPS and DB Schenker are offering such a solution along China’s Silk Road network.
According to UPS, the service can offer savings of up to 65% versus air freight costs while providing transit times up to 40% faster than standard ocean movements.
Sea-Air is another example of multimodal transport. The service is considered less expensive than air and quicker than ocean service.
An alternate solution to pure air or ocean, Sea-Air provides the global transportation industry time and cost savings along with eco-friendliness.
Sometimes using this mode of transport helps to avoid demurrage fees.
Key benefits of multimodal transport include:
-Cargo can be moved to any part of the world using multiple modes of transport
-Reduces the distance for the goods between the manufacturer and consumer
-Customers can deal with one entity to handle all modes of transport under one document
Conclusion. What mode of transportation should you use?
There are numerous options for transporting goods, and there may not be one solution for your transportation needs. Each mode of transport has its advantages and disadvantages. Prioritizing your needs, understanding your shipment and comparing costs is important when planning your shipment and choosing the best mode of transport.
When you have chosen your best transport, it is time to talk about which type of goods you want to send and which containertype you are going to use. An intermodal container is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport -from ship to rail to truck- without unloading and reloading their cargo. Intermodal containers are primarily used to store and transport materials and products efficiently and securely in the global containerized intermodal freight transport system, but smaller numbers are in regional use as well.
These containers are known under a number of names, such as simply container, cargo or freight container, ISO container, shipping, sea or ocean container, sea van or (Conex) box, sea can or c can. Intermodal containers exist in many types and a number of standardized sizes, but ninety percent of the global container fleet are so-called dry freight or general purpose containers, durable closed steel boxes, mostly of either 6.1 or 12.2 m standard length. The common heights are 2.6 m and 2.9 m -the latter are known as High Cube or Hi-Cube containers.
Just like cardboard boxes and pallets, these containers are a means to bundle cargo and goods into larger, unitized loads, that can be easily handled, moved, and stacked, and that will pack tightly in a ship or yard.
Intermodal containers share a number of key construction features to withstand the stresses of intermodal shipping, to facilitate their handling and to allow stacking, as well as being identifiable through their individual, unique ISO 6346 reporting mark. In 2012, there were about 20.5 million intermodal containers in the world of varying types to suit different cargoes. Containers have largely supplanted the traditional break bulk cargo -in 2010 containers accounted for 60% of the world's seaborne trade. The predominant alternative methods of transport carry bulk cargo -whether gaseous, liquid or solid- e.g. by bulk carrier or tank ship, tank car or truck. For air freight, the lighter weight IATA-defined unit load device is used.
Finally, The Grandma has explained how to make comparisons and how to avaluate which is the best transport or container using comparative and superlative adjectives.
Today, The Jones have revised some English Grammar like Future Simple, Present Simple vs. Continuous, Relative Pronouns, the Comparative and the Superlative. The family has talked about some women who were the best in their professions: Édith Piaf, the best French singer; AudreyHepburn, the best Belgian actress and Mercè Rodoreda, the best Catalan writer.
Merche Jones has talked about Ponferrada and its wonderful Templar castle and The Grandma has taken profit to talk about the Templar Order and its influence in all the Mediterranean, from Malta to Aragon, from Rhodes to Jerusalem, from Catalonia to Syria, from Campania to Sicily firstly and other lands in the Atlantic like France, England or Scotland later.
Templar Knights helped all the pilgrims who need protection to escape or to exile until Friday, October 13, 1307 when French Templars were simultaneously arrested by agents of King Philip, following the order of the Pope Clement,later to be tortured into admitting heresy and other sacrilegious offenses in the Order and killed. It has been a terrific story that has explained the origins of the legend of Friday, 13 as a day plenty of misfortune.
This afternoon, The Jones are going shopping in the best and the most luxurious Parisian shops in Avenue Montaigne before travelling to Euro Disney to spend this next weekend.
In tough times, we all hope for knights in shining armor,
or the cavalry, to show up and effect change.
Dean Devlin
Édith Piaf (1915-1963), nee Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer, songwriter, cabaret performer and film actress noted as France's national chanteuse and one of the country's widely known international stars.
Piaf's music was often autobiographical and she specialized in chanson and torch ballads about love, loss and sorrow. Her most widely known songs include La Vie en rose, Non, je ne regrette rien, Hymne à l'amour, Milord, La Foule,L'Accordéoniste and Padam, padam.
Édith Piaf
Much of Piaf's life is unknown. She was born Édith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, Paris. Legend has it that she was born on the pavement of Rue de Belleville 72, but her birth certificate cites that she was born on 19 December 1915 at the Hôpital Tenon, a hospital located at the 20th arrondissement.
She was named Édith after the World War I British nurse Edith Cavell, who was executed for helping French soldiers escape from German captivity. Piaf –slang for sparrow– was a nickname she received 20 years later.
In 1935, Piaf was discovered in the Pigalle area of Paris by nightclub owner Louis Leplée, whose club Le Gerny's off the Champs-Élysées was frequented by the upper and lower classes alike.
Piaf's career and fame gained momentum during the German occupation of France. She performed in various nightclubs and brothels, which flourished during the 1940–1945 Années Erotiques. She lived above the L'Étoile de Kléber, a famous nightclub and bordello close to the Paris Gestapo headquarters.
Piaf was deemed to have been a traitor and collaboratrice. She had to testify before a purge panel, as there were plans to ban her from appearing on radio transmissions. However, her secretary Andrée Bigard, a member of the Résistance, spoke in her favour after the Liberation. Piaf was quickly back in the singing business and then, in December 1944, she went on stage for the Allied forces together with Montand in Marseille.
Edith Piaf's Homebirth
Although she was denied a funeral Mass by Cardinal Maurice Feltin because of her lifestyle, her funeral procession drew tens of thousands of mourners onto the streets of Paris and the ceremony at the cemetery was attended by more than 100,000 fans.
Charles Aznavour recalled that Piaf's funeral procession was the only time since the end of World War II that he saw Parisian traffic come to a complete stop.
In 1973 the Association of the Friends of Édith Piaf was formed followed by the inauguration of the Place Édith Piaf in Belleville in 1981. Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina named a small planet, 3772 Piaf, in her honor.
In Paris, a two-room museum is dedicated to her, the Musée Édith Piaf. On 10 October 2013, fifty years after her death, the Roman Catholic Church gave her a memorial Mass in the St. Jean-Baptiste Church in Belleville the parish into which she was born.
Mercè Rodoreda i Gurguí (1908-1983) was a Catalan novelist, who wrote in Catalan. She is considered by many to be the most important Catalan novelist of the postwar period. Her novel La plaça del diamant, translated as The Time of the Doves (1962) has become the most acclaimed Catalan novel of all time and has been translated into over 30 languages.
She was born at 340 carrer de Balmes, Barcelona, in 1908. In 1928, just 20 years old, she married her uncle Joan Gurguí, 14 years her senior, and in 1929 she had her only child, Jordi.
Grandma's memories with Mercè Rodoreda
She began her writing career with short stories in magazines, as an escape from her unhappy marriage.
She then wrote psychological novels, including Aloma which won the Crexells Prize, but even with the success this novel enjoyed, Rodoreda decided to remake and republish it some years later since she was not fully satisfied with this period of her life and her works at that time.
At the start of the Spanish Civil War, she worked for the Generalitat de Catalunya, the autonomous Government of Catalonia. She was exiled in Franceand later Switzerland, where in 1957 she broke her silence with the publication of her book Twenty-Two short stories, which earned her the Víctor Català Prize.
With El Carrer de les Camèlies (1966) she won several prizes. In the 1970s, she returned to Romanyà de la Selva in Catalonia and finished the novel Mirall trencat in 1974.
Amongst other works came Viatges i flors and Quanta, quanta guerra in 1980, which was also the year in which she won the Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes. During the last period of her lifetime, her works developed from her usual psychologic style to become more akin to symbolism in its more cryptic form.
In 1998 a literature prize was instituted in her name: the Mercè Rodoreda prize for short stories and narratives. She was made a Member of Honour of the Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana, the Association of Writers in Catalan Language.
She died in Girona and interred in the cemetery of Romanyà de la Selva.
Today, The Bonds are visiting Washington DC. They're interested in the historical buildings and they're comparing them with Comparative. They are also learning how to use the modal verb May and practising some Social English.
After that, the family is practising some vocabulary about Hotels and Tourism and they're meeting with Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who are helping The Bonds to know more things about voodoo.
The Grandma is remembering some of her favourite singers and Irene Bond is explaining some experiences with one of them. Suddenly, they have received an unexpected visit, M, the partner of MJ, has appeared with some presents for the family. Thanks a lot MJ! We admire you and you know it!
In addition, The Bonds are discovering Ordesa, a beautiful natural reserve in the north of Aragon and they're connecting different stories.
Finally, the family are listening to The Grandma who is explaining some stories about blood and monarchies talking about Jack the Ripper, Vlad Tepes and Enriqueta Martí meanwhile Jaume Bond is adding a new name to this serial killers list: Elizabeth Báthory.
Tomorrow, the family has a meeting in The White Housewith the new president of the USA, a Juanjo Bond's old friend, and with the Queen Elizabeth II. They're going to talk about Middle Age and literature.
Be polite and dress elegantly!
My grandfather was a voodoo priest. A lot of my life dealt with spirituality. I can close my eyes and remember where I come from.
Today, The Poppins have been predicting the
future but do you think it is possible? Of course, if you have enough
information, you can create your future.
After this,
the family has revised Comparative
Adjectives with an inferiority meaning and they’ve talked about Lullabies in the Middle Age, Occitan Poetry and the influence of Gipsy culture in the Tarot.
Finally,
they’ve thought about how to help people to be comfortable into a new community
respecting each other and having the same opportunities to improve their lives.
Tomorrow,
they’re creating a Poppins Profile.
It will be useful to work in future days and improve their CV’s.
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us;
What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.
It’s
difficult when you have to return after staying all day in Copacabana Beach enjoying life but this family is much more
responsible than the normal ones.
They’ve
talked about how difficult is to know
your origins and how cruel can be sometimes destiny, especially when you aren’t
the owner of your own life; the owner of that land which you’re working or the
owner of your future wishes and how impossible is to understand news without having all the information.
Tomorrow,
they’re talking about future and destiny again but this time, perhaps, these
predictions can become real ones.
I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've
lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning
shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that
is why I succeed.
Yesterday, it was a difficult day for The
Collins Family. Something strange happened in Downton Abbey, in the library with a candelabrum
while the family was enjoying the party.
The Police's report is still
opened and they think that there’s a relation between the strange case and the
popular family. Although all of them could demonstrate their innocence with
solid alibis, this hasn’t convinced the Police who continue the investigation. For other hand, all members of the family
continued their English lessons. Once they finished the official summary, they’re
dedicating these days to review all knowledge in a higher level.
Montse Paris talked us about synaesthesia and later, the best news arrived from M. Carmen who has passed
her B1 exam in the EOI. All the family is plenty of joyful because of this.
Today, the family has continued its
consolidation classes reviewing Past Perfect, Comparative, Superlative and
Social English and talking about Antoni Gaudí’s works.
Tomorrow, the family is moving to DowntonAbbey to
choose its furniture and in the evening they’re going to get a plane to travel
to French Guiana where they will board in a shuttle space direction. It seems
that Eva is very sad after Alf leaving and they want to meet him again. Finally, we’ve talked about Mozilla Firefox and
its components: AdBlock and Video Download Helper.
Yesterday, we reviewed the Past
Simple with the regular and irregular verbs, Superlative & Comparative, the article “The” and we reported some
news of the day before. We prepared a marketing planning for our candidate to
be a TV Star and we learnt how to lie playing Piou Piou.
Tomorrow, we’re talking about
some work expressions thanks to Laura
who has offered us some information about this theme.
The family is still in Rhodes. Adriana suffered a terrible headache and we decided to stay one
more day in this precious island. Tomorrow, we’ll sail in The Love Boat, if the weather is good and Adriana is fine.
Today, we've reviewed the comparatives
and written about our last day in Nicosia. We've played Simon, domino and password. Finally, we've described things. Eva has returned and all the family is plenty of joy, again. We've
arrived to Rhodes for spending some days in Adriana's house but we've had some little problems because Adriana
has returned to her University classes so quickly that she has forgotten to
give us her key and we have been waiting patiently in the street accompanied by
some Scottish herbs for fighting against cold.
Tomorrow, we're buying some
food and drinks to celebrate Eva's return and Belén's birthday. It will be a
great Greek banquet with music and dance.
Come on and rescue
me
Come on baby and rescue me
Come on baby and rescue me
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