It had been another stifling day in the West Australian 'wheat belt' - and we were not yet adjusted to the sun's implacable demands on our energies. An early night seemed the solution, but we soon found sleep impossible. The sun may have set, but its memory lingered - with a vengeance.

Brainstorm number one that night was to wet two thirsty bath towels, wring them out, and lie on top of them. This was delicious. We turned ourselves regularly to be well done (or, in this case, well cooled) on each side. A few hours and some light sleep later, we needed to repeat the procedure, but we didn't mind. Anything was worth this welcome relief - no matter how temporary.

Suddenly, we were both abruptly awake again. A miracle was happening. A soft breath of air came floating through the tall, slim French doors of our bedroom, gently caressing our bodies.

"It's a breeze, I think!" I whispered to my husband.

"Shh-h-h. Don't say it out loud. You might frighten it away!"

And so we waited - quietly, nervously, hopefully. We barely breathed. And it was a breeze - slowly but surely getting stronger and cooler. We couldn't have been more quietly triumphant had we won a lottery. If the wet towels had made Life tolerable - then this was unadulterated bliss.

I remember stretching luxuriously like my beloved Tammy cat, my hands sliding over the now cooling sheets. As my brain lazily noted that the sheet felt strange somehow, my nose registered something else - and I exploded with a monster sneeze that brought us both wide awake.

Our wonderful 'oh, so cool' relief had arrived complete with a full-blown dust storm! I sat up in our bed as it rapidly transformed into a grimy, gritty version of a sandpit. Paralysed by stupendous sneezes, I was powerless to help my husband close first our bedroom doors and side window, and then every window in the whole house.

When he turned on our bedroom light, I wished he hadn't. The famous Australian RED dust hung above us in a threatening cumulus formation, and we could barely see each other across the room. For a while, until it all waffled down to rest, we could only sit and use the wet towels as breathing filters, and eye-moppers. The heat became excruciating, trapped within these thick old stone farmhouse walls. Somehow it all seemed twice as bad now we knew it was cool (though filthy) outside.

And so, brainstorm number two evolved. We obviously couldn't start a clean-up of this magnitude with parched throats and soggy, dripping bodies without some cold liquid (preferable alcoholic - for Dutch courage and sustenance). But of course - my newly brewed Rhubarb Champagne was IT! The very thing! In an instant, it was transformed from a 'treat' into a desperate necessity for the well-being of flagging spirits and will-power.

"I know it's a BIT young yet," I said airily, 'but it'll be cold - and that's really ALL that matters."

My 'significant other' momentarily looked doubtful.

"Three days old! That's a BIT young, alright."

But the thought had been planted, and necessity won the day. He disappeared, and then returned in an instant, with wine glasses and a bottle of my 'brew'. The glasses were put on my bedside cupboard on top of the several centimetres of deep grit that shrouded everything, and he sat on the edge of the bed to prise out the cork. It was tight, and a bit of a struggle ensued, until suddenly, shockingly - the cork simple exploded out of the bottle, together with half of the contents!

Little on my side of the room escaped its lethal aim - the glass-topped dressing table with its huge mirror, the bed, the floor, the window - and of course - US! Nothing, it seemed, was immune to its pale pink stickiness. Fortunately, we saw the humour in this impossible situation, and fell about laughing hysterically until we were even more exhausted. I say fortunately, because when we were finally composed enough (with a little help from my brew) to really study the damage, we could have wept - if we'd had the energy (or any moisture left to spare).

Wherever even the tiniest drops of my 'champers' had landed, the dust had been turned into mud spots. Our bodies, our bed - in fact, almost everything in the room appeared under siege from an attack of red-brown killer measles. But the clean-up had to be faced, before we could even dream of sleep!

I shudder to think of our 'copability' without the remainder of my famous (or was that infamous?) Rhubarb Champagne - on the inside of us, in lieu of 'wearing' it. In truth, memory suggests another bottle or so was required before cleanliness and deep sleep claimed victory. But we won't go there. Suffice it to say, they were opened with respect and gentility - and success!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_Larsen

I just love watching movies and TV shows- I'm the perfect couch potato, and my favorite genre is comedy. There are so many TV shows that I love - from The Simpsons to South Park. But today I'm going to talk about the new show on NBC- Outsourced.

We all get phone calls from companies asking us if we want to buy a certain product or not, but now its time we can step in their shoes and see what they face in their everyday lives.

It's all about outsourcing call services. What are the various setbacks that a team faces while trying to make it a success, what kind of problems come during business operations, how to impress clients etc. are some things that we can get to know about call centers and their functioning.

And the best thing about this show is that it is really believable- not like some high ended unbelievable storyline with out-of-the-world incidents. I can tell you this, since I have seen some call center companies up close. There are some famous call center companies like Global Response and Customer Link One - they face many similar scenarios as those illustrated in the show.

For example, the major part of the show is about how the company's employees adapt to the customer's requirements and respond to their requests. I have seen the employees of the GR and CL 1, and they behave pretty much in the same way.

The show revolves around Todd Dempsey who handles his call center employees and teaches them how to handle their customers. Each employee has a different personality, and this is what brings humor to the show. This show premiered on 23 September 2010, and is based on the movie of the same name.

If you are tired of the same old sitcom scenarios- I know I am- then you can switch to Outsourced. It's a new show and it is hilariously funny. If you have ever worked in a call center company, or have looked at one from close, then you can easily relate to this show, and you'll find it even funnier.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stacy_C_Craig

Cozy entity of variable sizes shielding our evolved paws; gloves do come handy in asepsis and fun.

My first encounter with this simple yet complicated adage was in undergrad when I had to assist in an open cholecystectomy. After the ceremonial wash, I was asked to get decked up to be an assistant. Gown yanked over me by the OT nurse, I set out to wear this flimsy material the right way! Copying each detail to perfection after 4 failed attempts at the right technique, my short lived elation at conquering the non latex world was interrupted by the head surgeon who handed me the liver retractor. What the surgeons managed to fiddle with, at the depths of a black hole beneath the liver, still beats me. Ok,I knew it was the gall bladder and I knew it had a pebble in it and I knew it had to be taken out... yes... but the metal hands worked in a hole while all I could see was a retractor over a liver making my job a tad boring.

Over the next agonizingly long hour riddled with frequent orders to retract the liver well, I couldn't help but move into my own realm of my new friendship... sterile gloves. Me judging its stretch ability was interrupted by the surgeon's irritated look into my eyes as if to say, "will you please focus!".The surgery ended with fixing the patient's abdomen sans the dud of a bladder.

Internship provided so many gloved moments in catheterization to blood work to wound dressings etc. The second skin we wore on, was actually fun!

Cut back to anesthesia as a fresher... elective OT. Challenges in terms of oral secretions, lignocaine jelly, plaster, dynaplast proved tough to get past. Airway device secured, I was asked to fix it over the mouth with medical grade adhesive tape. Yanking at my gloves and on the plaster, the tough ordeal was somehow completed amidst smiles and comments from my seniors. "Next time", the head told me, "take your gloves off during fixation."

Another life changing moment happened after an awareness week about hospital waste management. We were asked to minimize the pairs of gloves used each day. A consultant coming up with this brilliant idea of tucking the still in use pair of gloves onto the waist belt led to unbelievable scenes. Moments of pure horror filled our daily monitoring duties... Pair of gloves tucked under waist belts of well-endowed roly-poly horizontally unchallenged waists undulating in synchrony with the blips and beeps! Add to this, the dexterity required in wearing used gloves, obtaining hand exercises in our daily schedule and we had our hands full for sure.

A mundane thing such as a glove can't be so interesting to talk about! You say... Ask an anesthetist and thy shall be amazed. Seniors get a kick out of quizzing juniors now, don't they? "Should u wear 2 pairs of gloves on to finish with painting and draping before spinals?" they ask. Wearing one pair ceases to be aseptic and wearing 2 holds potential for talc induced meningitis! Think about the glove decked gyrating hips or the praying mantis pose of sterile gloved hands or perennial questions we endure and you will agree with me.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Prash_Subbu

This list includes both British born artists and those who were born elsewhere but did most of their most important work in the U.K. The selection is listed in chronological order by date of birth.

William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

He was born in London and apprenticed to an engraver where he learned his trade. He became a painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist and has been accredited with pioneering sequential art or the cartoon strip.

His output ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral topics". His most renowned works are no doubt " The Harlot's Progress and "The Rake's Progress".

Isaac Cruickshank ( 1756 - 1811)

Cruickshank was a Scottish painter and caricaturist who was born in Edinburgh. Cruikshank's first known publications were etchings of Edinburgh "types", from 1784.

His water colours were exhibited, but in order to make a living it was found that it was more lucrative to produce prints and caricatures. He was responsible in part for creating the figure of John Bull, the nationalistic representation of a solid British yeoman.

Isaac Cruikshank was a contemporary of James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson, and he was part of what has been known as "the Golden Age of British Caricature.

Thomas Rowlandson ( 1756 - 1827)

Thomas Rowlandson was an English painter and caricaturist. He was born in London and after he finished school he was educated at the Royal Academy. He was considered a promising student and if he had sustained his early application he would have made his mark as an artist.

But he inherited 7,000 from a French aunt and dived into the distractions of the town (he was known to sit at the gaming-table for 36 hours at a stretch).

He quickly squandered his inheritance but the friendship and examples of James Gillray and Henry William Bunbury seem to have suggested caricature as a means of filling his stomach and purse.

He also created a collection of erotic prints and woodcuts, lots of which would nowadays be considered pornographic.

James Gillray (1757 - 1815)

James Gillray was a British caricaturist and printmaker who gained great fame for his etched political and social satires, mainly published between 1792 and 1810.

Some of his most well known caricatures were directed at the Royal Family and George III in particular. He is also responsible for almost certainly the most famous political cartoon of all time.

It was entitled "The Plum Pudding in Danger'. It was printed in 1805 and depicts Pitt and Napoleon carving up the plum pudding of Europe.

By 1811, madness, no doubt exacerbated by his excessive life-style, was overtaking him and he died in 1815.

George Cruickshank ( 1792 - 1878)

George Cruickshank was born in London, the son of the famous caricaturist Isaac Cruickshank and began his working career as apprentice to his father.

He later started out as a caricaturist in his own right and was even paid?100 in return for a promise not to caricature George IV

In later life he switched to book illustrating and illustrated "Sketches by Boz" and "Oliver Twist" for Charles Dickens.

After creating palsy he died in 1878. Punch in his obituary said "There never was a purer, simpler, more straightforward or altogether more blameless man. His nature had something childlike in its transparency."

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Owen_Jones

This list includes both British born artists and those who were born elsewhere but did the majority of their most important creations in the U.K. The selection is listed in chronological order by date of birth.

Max Beerbohm ( 1872 - 1956 )

Sir Henry Maximilian "Max" Beerbohm was born in London, son of a wealthy Lithuanian-born grain merchant. His family gave him he nick-name of Max and that is what he signed himself in his work and was known as for the rest of his life.

Beerbohm was educated at Charterhouse School and Merton College, Oxford but finished without taking a degree as he was already well established as a caricaturist and humourist.

He had an incapacity to draw hands and feet but excelled at heads and his dandified figures with inflated heads quickly became his trade-mark. The Times newspaper in 1913 described him as "the greatest of English comic artists and he was variously hailed as "the English Goya" and "the greatest portrayer of personalities in the history of art"

Henry Bateman (1887 - 1970)

Bateman was born in New South Wales, Australia of English parents who returned to England soon after he was born. He learned art at Westminster School of Art and the Goldsmith Institute.

His style matured early in life and by the age of 17 it was already mature. He gained a contract with Tatler magazine but is best remembered for his "The Man Who......." series of cartoons. These depicted hapless people who had committed mostly upper class social faux pas. "The Man Who lit his Cigar before the Loyal Toast" is a prime instance.

Sir David Low (1891 - 1963)

Sir David Alexander Cecil Low was born in New Zealand and educated in Dunedin and Christchurch. He started his professional life in New Zealand and in fact his first effort was published when he was merely 11 years of age.

He later moved to Australia and next to England and by 1927 was working for The Evening Standard. He is best remembered for his caricatures depicting Hitler and Mussolini both before and during World War II. In fact, generations of New Zealand school children studied about the origins of the Second World War using textbooks illustrated by Low.

He was especially hated by Hitler and after the war it was uncovered that his name was in the "Black Book" which listed those who the Nazis wished to arrest after they had occupied Britain.

Low was knighted in 1962, a year before his death. His obituary described him as "the dominant cartoonist of the western world"

Ronald Searle (b. 1920)

Ronald William Fordham Searle was born in Cambridge and began drawing at the prodigiously early age of five and was working professionally by the age of 15. The War interrupted his art studies and he joined up with the Royal Engineers.

He was serving in Singapore when he was captured by the Japanese. He was a prisoner of war for the rest of the war ultimately working on the infamous Siam-Burma "Death Railway". He produced, in secret, many drawings depicting conditions in the camps which survived discovery by being concealed under the mattresses of dying prisoners.

He came back to England at the end of the war and produced a prodigious volume of work in the 1950's and 60's. However he is best known as the originator of "St Trinians School".

Gerald Scarfe (b. 1936)

Gerald Anthony Scarfe was born in London and as a child was badly asthmatic. During his early bed-ridden years he busied himself by drawing. He began his working life in advertising but by the early 60's his caricatures were appearing in "Private Eye" and that led to a job with the "Daily Mail".

But it was his effort with the British rock group Pink Floyd for which he is most known especially the illustration for the cover of their 1979 album "The Wall".

Searle also provided the caricatures for the opening and closing sequences of the well-liked BBC comedy "Yes Minister" and in 1998 he drew caricatures of Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecombe, Joyce Grenfell, Les Dawson and Peter Cook which featured on a set of five British postage stamps celebrating British comedians.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Owen_Jones