Colonial Aroma

Habana 1791, a perfume shop in Cuba, is thriving even though it sells just 12 fragrances. Its speciality is colonial fragrances, both perfumes and room fresheners. Rose, jasmine and lilac petals, Rangoon creeper and orange blossoms, tobacco leaves, lime peel, sandalwood resin and lavender oil go into these perfumes.

The ingredients are crushed and soaked in an alcohol solution. This matures for two months before being strained and sold at $7 to $20 per bottle. What's more? Your choice will be mixed and bottled in front of you. » Continue reading

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Sending gifts to South Africa?

Dos and don'ts

It's the season of gifting. However, if you are sending a present to someone in South Africa, make sure you comply with the following requirements:

• The gifts have to be sent from an individual abroad to an individual in South Africa.
  
• Any gifts sent from a company to an individual or an individual to a company will not qualify as a gift.
  
• All gifts are subject to Customs duties and VAT at their respective rates.
  
• All gifts have to be sent on a Demurrage and Duty Paid (Inter Station Billing) basis.
  
• The invoices have to be Commercial only and in English.
  
• Proforma and hand-written invoices are NOT allowed.
  
• Vague invoice descriptions such as "Gifts" are unacceptable.
  
• The individual commodities have to be spelt out with their respective quantity and unit prices.
  
• No PO Box addresses are allowed; only physical addresses and contact details are critical in order to ensure fast and effective clearance through Customs.
  
• No perishables are allowed as this will be stopped for Port Health to verify if it is fit for human consumption, with the risk of destruction.

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The Bedside Gift Guide

Visiting a friend or relative in the hospital? Here is a list of gifts a patient will love you for.

• Face, lip and body moisturizers, and bottled water. many hospitals are too hot and dry.
  
• Scented candles. You probably won't be allowed to light them, but they'll still help overcome that distinctive medicinal odor.
  
• A newspaper or magazine.
  
• Flowers are lovely, but they die quickly in a warm hospital room. A small plant or orchids will last.
  
• A book. Always take into consideration the taste of the recipient, but steer clear of heavy philosophy.
  
• A good small reading lamp. This tames the pallor of the overhead fluorescent lighting, and if reading is the patient's primary diversion, he or she deserves a great bedside light source.
  
• A portable tape or CD player and a tape or CD of your friend's favorite music.
  
• A notebook or journal to jot down telephone numbers, thoughts and messages.
  
• Tweezers. My sister made me promise that if she was ever in an accident and went into a coma, I'd come in and tweeze her eyebrows.

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What's that drum doing under your table?

Don't be surprised when you find a drum like thing on or under your friend's desk. It could very much be Spotswood Custom Computers' custom built PC cabinet specially and individually handcrafted from high quality raw maple veneer plywood shell/cylinder, to replicate a bass drum.

Spotswood's Computer Cabinets are built from the scratch and are not modified versions of pre-made drums. Its available in seven stained colors - Natural, Light Oak, Dark Oak, Candy Apple Red, Golden Yellow, Blue and Purple.

The L-20 and C-20 Models are large enough to house two of the extremely long (10.5") graphics cards that are currently on the market. Equivalent to a conventional, full-tower size rectangular case, it has enough room to house an ATX form factor motherboard, power supply, four to five internal 3.5" drives and either one external slimline/notebook CD/DVD drive or two 5.25" external CD/DVD drives. A 3.5" I/O panel on the front of the case contains four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire port, one headphone and one microphone connection.

L-18 and C-18 on the other hand can accomodate only three internal 3.5" drives and one external slimline/notebook CD/DVD drive. The L-18 has even received a '100% KICKASS' review rating from 3dGameMan.com.

The heat generated within the case is expelled by a rear 120mm exhaust fan, a 120mm blowhole fan, and a side 140mm intake LED fan.

Optional features include choice of the number of external drive bays, side panel colors, fans, hard drive activity and power LED colors, lugs, motherboard trays and wood stain colors.

You might worry the "Drum" like custom PC cabinets may emit sounds as loud as the drum. But Spotswood claims that their PC cases are "actually quieter than a metal case".

A perfect product for a Home Theater PC case, the L-Series and C-Series is, as the Computer Source Magazine puts it, "...a truly unique piece of work and is a fantastic gift for the music lover and computer geek alike."

If you have used this cabinet or gifted it to someone, do hash out your review about the Spotswood Custom Drum PC Case/Cabinet. » Continue reading

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The alarm clock which keeps you healthy and wealthy

Got a habit of switching off or snoozing the alarm and going back to sleep only to be late for work or ever planned to go for the jog but too lazy to get out of bed? The alarm clock (of Ig-Nobel awards fame) that starts running away and hiding from you when the alarm goes off and you try to snooze it. The bright idea -- you wake up and run after it. It's small, can survive a jump of three feet, and comes in three colors.

Clocky is available for $49.99 at nandahome.com » Continue reading

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