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People around the world make New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately, because February is here, it means many of those resolutions are probably kaput. The feeling of a New Year can inspire ambition—which is fantastic. But if the luster of a blank calendar is the only thing making someone proactive, then her/his resolutions will go flat faster than the champagne. One doesn’t need to make big gestures to improve. Follow these suggestions for the New Year’s resolutions that get over looked, but need to be made for the sake of humanity or, ya know, just so we don’t turn into jerks.

Phone Etiquette

Text messaging has completely revolutionized they way we communicate. It’s a wonderful way to send information without interrupting someone or ask a question that isn’t pressing. Texting is perfect for exchanges like “I got home safe,” “I’ll be there around six,” or “What’s the name of that magazine?” The point is that it doesn’t interrupt people’s day. Unfortunately, texting has done the opposite. When you are eating lunch with someone, do not text. When you are at a party, if you need to text, go into a different room. When you reach for your phone, you trigger other people’s desire for texting as well, so now you’ve got a party full of texters. And when you text repeatedly you are telling those around you that you’d rather be somewhere else. If you want to have a conversation with someone call them or better yet, send them a text … and meet in person.

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Christmas is a great time of year, and one that most people really love. It’s a time of festivity, merryment, present giving, seeing the family and generally giving thanks for everything you have. But whilst nearly everyone gathers at a relatives’ house too see the family, there is actually a huge market in Christmas holidays. It may seem like a slightly odd time of the year to take a holiday, but why stress about family issues, cooking etc. when you can have it all done for you? With the global age we live in today there is easy access to holidays all over the world, so it’s quite simple to move your Christmas to a different location, or even abroad!

With more and more people looking into international breaks, skiing holidays and other non-traditional Christmas breaks, where are the most popular places to go? This great infographic from HotelshopUK counts down the top 10 of this year, and there’s still time to go on one yourself! Christmas on Safari in Africa anyone?

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If you’ve ever ordered a large new electronic item (or any particularly bulky item for that matter), you may well have been offered ‘white glove delivery’ or ‘2 man delivery‘ during checkout. For many of us, this term is a bit of a mystery, as we’re not entirely sure it refers to – what’s the difference between normal delivery and white glove delivery?

Well now you can avoid all the confusion with this handy infographic from the Panther Group (http://www.panthergroup.co.uk); What Is White Glove Delivery?

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FourSquare is one of those sites that people to love or hate and even though some may think it’s a complete waste of time, think again!

I first started using FourSquare when I saw some fellow friends on twitter mentioning where they were, so I stopped by, signed up and didn’t do much about it after that.

Some time later when I got my BlackBerry Curve I started delving in to FourSquare a bit more often and even though the Curve 8520 doesn’t have GPS, FourSquare still tries to find locations via cell towers.

Grabbing A Special Via FourSquare

One thing that I did start noticing after a while were there seemed to be a lot more “specials” appearing at some of the places that I was visiting, some for being the mayor and others for the amount of times you have visited.

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It is well known that some couples are choosing to delay marriage until they are well into their 30s. As society changes, so do its citizens and customs. Waiting to get married is not the worrisome act it was in the 1950s. Slowing down the journey to the altar can certainly offer advantages, such as having the time to focus on a career or being able to establish oneself financially. It is both possible and acceptable for a bevy of brides and grooms to slip on engagement rings after the age of 40. Here’s a look at some benefits of postponing the big day.

Older couples have a better chance at entering relationships and marriage with a level of self-awareness that younger marrieds might not yet possess. Knowing oneself better – needs, wants, goals – helps when it comes to looking at sharing one’s future with a partner. Taking the time to really know oneself will positively affect compatibility and likely lead to a happier union.

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Friends is the most popular long-running sitcom series the world has ever seen. The 6 friends were watched and loved from the minute they came onto our screen in September 1994, until the very last episode 10 years later. The ratings were consistent throughout all 10 series, but there were a number of episodes that stood out in terms of the viewership. Here are the top 10 most viewed episodes in history:

The One with Ross’s Wedding: 31.6M
This episode was filmed on location in London and had cameos from Richard Branson and Jennifer Saunders. Ross marries Emily after a short relationship and says the wrong name at the alter leading to a whole wave of problems for the newlyweds, and Rachel who is still in love with Ross.

The One with Ross’s New Girlfriend: 32.1M
This was the first episode in series 2 and featured Julie, who was Ross’s new girlfriend he met in China. The episode shows the mixed feelings Rachel has for Ross and introduces the 2nd series of the franchise in great style.

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Home-owners have been constantly told that if they can’t afford to move then making improvements around the home, renovating the kitchen, redesigning the garden and knocking down the wall separating the lounge from the dining room, as examples, are the way to add value and make the home a better place to live in. But is that true?

Thanks to the static housing market then the truism that “if you can’t move, improve” seems to make perfect sense but rushing into home improvements could actually see you wasting your money, not only that, do a bad enough job and you could end up devaluing your property even more than if you had done nothing.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) took a poll of estate agents throughout the UK and found that about half felt that homeowners were considering remodelling rather than moving thanks to the sluggish housing market. Clearly the notion of remodelling rather than relocating was held most firmly in areas where the market was at its worst: 75% of agents in Northern Ireland and 71% of agents in the West Midlands reported that householders were staying put.

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