Air-conditioning units used by drug smugglers

A GANG has been sentenced to jail for a total of nearly 17 years for smuggling thousands of pounds of illegal drugs into the United Kingdom by sneaking them in air-conditioning units.

Gang member, Matthew Feavyour, was found guilty in September 2009 for his part in the importation of cannabis resin with a predictable street value of £270,000 hidden in air conditioning units.

Moore had prepared the air conditioning units with hollow panels, where the cannabis could be concealed while transporting it from Holland.

UK Hiltons to get £20m makeover

The big chain of Hilton Hotels are to be given big refurbishments as part of a £20m investment programme.

All 16 Hilton properties, owned by Igal Ahouvi and partners, will profit from the programme, which will see all areas restructured.

The refurb will also commence The Space, an innovative lounge that can be used for events.

The work is due to be complete by 2011, with the first launch will be at Hilton Newbury North next month.

“We are delighted that our Hilton hotels will be able to benefit from this major investment programme. We hope that as a result of the investment, and under the expert management of Hilton, the hotels will be well placed to benefit from the economic recovery as it develops and gains pace,” said CEO for Igal Ahouvi’s hotel businesses Hugh Taylor.

Network Rail multimillion pound refurbishment of Swansea’s railway station

Network Rail has released a £2.5m sketch to improve Swansea’s railway station and say it will create a bright, easy to get to, clean and protected station perfect for the public.

The refurbishment will also help increase Swansea’s public transport system as the system sits beside ongoing works to refurbish the city’s Quadrant bus station, and also improving the user experience for the station’s 1.6 million yearly passengers.

Flinders needs an update?

Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, Australia turns 100 tomorrow and supporters are saying that it needs a desperate refurbishment.

Martin Pakula, (Victoria’s new public transport minister) said “the Government was considering a proposal from the Centre for Adult Education ‘for an arts and cultural hub with exhibition, classroom and studio space’ for the building”.

The station that brings over 100,00 tourists a day is a major part of Melbourne’s cultural scene because of its famous clocks and façade, but they have been allowed to become useless and the enormous space is being ‘wasted’ according to the national trust.

Air Con sky high in Brisbane

Today in Brisbane the Air-Conditioning was at an all time high! Tipping the thermometer at 35 degrees in January? The electricity demand was incredible and air con was sky high.

An amazing 4609 megawatts of electric surged through the grid just after mid day, which is an astounding 18 megawatts more that the last record in February 2009 held at 4500 megawatts.

“That is the equivalent of basically an entire Brisbane suburb dropping onto the grid overnight,” Energex spokesman Danny Donald told brisbanetimes.com.au.

“It is the most power South-East Queensland has demanded in the history of the state - we have never seen it climb so high before…and it is only going to increase.

“I would not be surprised if we see that record broken once or twice more before this summer is over.”

Debenhams refit makes christmas trading high.

One of the biggest department stores is Debenhams and they have said that they had a very good Christmas as trading was up as well as the profits for the 2^nd year in a row.

Chief executive Rob Templeman said: “Our continued focus on cash margin means that for the second year in succession we have delivered an increase in profit before tax over the Christmas trading period.”

Debenhams also added that it would step up its store refit programme of a successful refurbishment project at its Cardiff store

The company said its designer brands, which include ranges from Jeff Banks and John Rocha, remained popular despite the recession hitting.

Refurbished pool offers free lessons.

A swimming pool that will be re-opening in April after itsrefurbishment is offering FREE swimming lessons.

The swimming pool in question is based in Wolsingham, and is run by the local school and community college. They are offering free swimming initiative to young teens ages 18 and under as well as to adults aged 60 and over.

If you want to register and are eligible for the free lessons then you must register in advance between January and March, if you are under 11 you must take a carer with you to help you register.

The swimming pool is under refurbishment but in April will re open to the public, after a £250,000 has been spent during 12 weeks to improve to pool facilities.

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Arren Williams: Interior Design Show insider

Normally you’d find me scouring the Interior Design Show for the latest in local and international talent, but this year, there’s been a change made, since I’ll actually be participating. I’ll still be scouring around, mind, but I’ve also created one of four designer spaces for the IDS Ultimate feature (yes, I’m one of those handsome dudes you’re seeing in all the IDS ads). My space (above) takes its inspiration from a fragrance, Calvin Klein Euphoria, so I created an edgy, dark and rather sexy 700-square-foot his and hers bathroom.

And that’s not all; trade types will also find me emceeing the Pecha Kucha on Friday (when the IDS is open to the trade only). Pecha Kucha is Japanese for “chit chat” and is a bit of a high-wire act for the presenters (including theNational Post’s own Shinan Govani and lifestyle guru Cobi Ladner since as soon as they start their presentation, their slides change up every 20 seconds, no matter whether they fumble or have an early senior moment.

Then, on Saturday at 4 p.m. I’ll be on-stage again, in conversation with redoubtable design icon Barbara Hulanicki, who still rocks it out in her trademark all-black outfits, sunglasses and a severe bleached blond bob at the age of 73.

Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted-homes/archive/2010/01/21/arren-williams-front-row-at-the-interior-design-show.aspx#ixzz0ddVtH9Q3

Interior design and designers

When buying a house you want to make it the perfect ‘home’. You want to be settled in but notice that the couch you originally bought doesn’t really bond with the fancy modern condo that you have decorated. You may have lived in your home for a very long time, and as the years have past so have the decades.

Many people when having dilemmas within decorating their homes call in theinterior designers and/or decorators. But having the recession on our shoulders people don’t want to fork out on expensive decorators, and advice from them is great.

“It’s not about how much you spend. It’s how you present it,” said Mario De Armas, who opened a design firm, Lamby Productions, near Logan Circle in the District.

Decade of design

The last 10 years of interior design and home styling have really been anything but dull, which puts the cool but cold minimalism in the past.

“The biggest change from the 90s to the noughties was the move from minimalism to the use of much richer, deeper and interesting colours,” says Jan Janecek, a designer at interior design company Bentheim. “The trend for this decade has been for comfort - people want to come home to good, comfortable design which is still cutting edge.”

The whitewashed brick and wooden floors style may never tire us, interior designers have made style more individual and less perceptive.

The ‘Noughties’ has brought something different from the indistinct colour scheme of beige, white and more beige, the palette choice for buy to letters dressing warehouse bachelor pads.

Mood boards, Serve a purpose?

Interior designers love playing around with mood boards, it looks creative and imaginative, but what purpose do they actually serve?

Lots of designers use mood boards in some form or other to keep a collection of their favorite pieces and to create a certain style.

Interior Stylist Jeska Hearne has scrap books that she made into mood books, made up of images, colour swabs and fabric samples. This gives her ideas and she can look here for inspiration.

“If you’re planning to redecorate, you might have seen lots of pictures that you like in magazines, but you can’t really get an idea of how that style or scheme might work in your own house without trying it out on some scale,” she says.

“A moodboard helps you focus and helps you keep your ideas together, so that you don’t start going over the top - it’s a reminder of what you need and don’t need and what colours you want to work with. It’s easy to get distracted and start buying all sorts when you’re redecorating, only to find it doesn’t work when it’s all put together. A moodboard helps you sort this process out.”

Leather sofas making a come back

Leather sofas are very big right now and more and more people are wanting them, they are the ‘hottest’ thing in interior design.

Newspaper, The Times, has said that leather is becoming as common place on the high street as it is in high end bachelor pads.

The paper has claimed that the material of choice for both the Candy brothers is Leather and the majority of high street shoppers.

Speaking to the newpaper, Dan Cooper, upholstery buyer for John Lewis, said: “This is a real trend, because these are established sofas; it’s not just because we’ve launched something new”.

“This is a very big increase. Last week leather sofas accounted for 52 per cent of all upholstery sales.”

Interior Designers advice, ignored.

Interior design - some people don’t like waiting around and jump right in where as other like to take it slow and carry out certain measure before they change their home, some have even asked for advice from a professional.

The annoying thing that gets to Interior designers is when after asking for their advice people ignore it and carry on in the way they wish; The Victoria Times Colonist has said that a good interior designer knows how to turn a client’s idea into a reality.

Speaking to the paper, Victoria Times, Wendy Salamon, a designer at Nygaard Interior Design, said “It’s almost as if they want you just to give approval to their own ideas.”

“If you are going to hire a designer, let them do their job,” she also said.

Lily Allen hits interior world

Pop sensation Lily Allen has decided a change from music to establish her own fashion empire and now it seems that she wants to set herself intoInterior design by joining up with her boyfriend Sam Cooper.

Lily (daughter or Keith Allen) has recently bought a townhouse in North London (not in the Cotswold as rumored) with boyfriend Sam.

She is eager to get her house under construction to refurbish it, a source has let slip “Lily will be taking an extended break from singing in March but she’ll be far from idle. She wants to totally transform her new pad and keep filling her coffers with some big new business ventures.”

Happy New Year!

We are now open again at B.D.S.L, and we are hoping you had a lovely christmas.

We hope to see during this year, if you are a new customer or an existing one.

So all the best and HAPPY NEW YEAR

from all at everyone at B.D.S.L Interiors