Health Upgraders

With the UK recession truly upon the companies of London, will the city’s likeable West End keep the show sales coming in? Over in New York’s theatre district, the musical shows can be found being hit with poor show sales as even more theatre lovers are choosing to stay in instead of go out in town. Many people, especially couples and families are staying in watching the very latest films than heading out to watch a musical. The New York plays have responded eagerly by lowering show prices to increase musical lovers back, so far with great results. Infact, Shrek the Musical is selling a family ticket bundle of 2 grown ups paying entire price with up to three kids under 16 attending the musical for free. With the status of the Shrek movies, the status has of course forwarded to the theatre adaptation. If you enjoy London’s West End, then find London Theatre Shows at cheap prices here.

Over in London’s West End, the show revenue have additionally seen a slump. This economic downturn has caused tons of musical shows to focus on their profit line even more than usual. And with a variety of plays employing pricey stars, like Christian Slater and Rob Lowe, the theatre production companies need to retrieve this outgoing. Thankfully for the capital city and of course the musicals there are half price musical ticket booths that allow musical lovers to acquire tickets for top theatre shows at a small fraction of the show face value. These popular ticket booths have seen a boom in ticket sales since the British economic downturn and this enables the theatre show goers of London and its lovely visitors to be able to afford to buy their favourite theatre shows without spending too much money.

As the British recession continues, we will probably find that various theatre productions may start to offer similar show special offers to that of Broadway with family ticket bundles. Even so, there are particular musical shows that will stand the test of time – musicals and plays like Grease and Les Miserables have been around for various years and show no indicators of poor tickets sales.

If your diet is making you a humbug this season, there’s some good news. Turns out dark chocolate, that decadent confection, may actually be good for you!

Yes, recently conducted studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition have shown that a dose of dark chocolate will heed all sorts of healthy results. And with the holidays just around the corner, this news couldn’t have come at a better time.

So just for fun, I thought I’d conduct a mini-research project of my own and get the “skinny” on our friend dark chocolate. Here’s some of the interesting “factoids” I came up with: Cocoathe precursor to chocolate–has been around a long time. A few thousand years, in fact. It has been thought that cocoa beans were brought to Europe in the 1500’s by Christopher Columbus. Cocoa, later made into chocolate, was given to American Soldiers in WWII. A source of high energy, each solider was given a three chocolate bar per day ration, according to historical data. Researchers started getting more involved when studies began showing that in addition to being a high energy food, chocolate also seems to stimulate elevated moods. Researchers found truth to this, showing that dark chocolate does, in fact, increase levels of the mood-altering chemicals such as serotonin and endorphins. Some researchers have also gone on to conduct major studies to prove the correlation between chocolate and a true physiological craving. (Check out “Why Women Need Chocolate,” written by Debra Waterhouse, Registered Dietician in 1999). And, the best news yet. Upon further study, it has been found that the “flavonoids” in dark chocolate are scientifically proven to act as antioxidants, preventing “bad” cholesterol (LDL) in the blood from oxidizing and clogging arteries.

So, if you are looking for a healthy way to “cheat” this holiday season, dark chocolate may not be all together a bad option. Facts aside, however, and before you run out to fill your shopping cart full, keep these guidelines in mind: Heed the advice of Aristotle: “Everything in moderation.” Refrain from taking the “chocolate factory tour.” Keep your chocolate fix to a minimum. Enjoy it, but please don’t over do. When you are shopping for chocolate, try to find “dark” varieties with at least 70% cocoa. Also, make sure “sugar” or “butter fat” are not the first items listed.

If you’d like to skip the treat and not the fun, send a virtual chocolate postcard from this fun chocolate website (no calories included) : http://www.virtualchocolate.com/index.cfm

To summarize my findings, it appears that dark chocolate is in fact our friend (and we will just leave its aphrodisiac qualities to your own private discussion groups, thanks).

As for the cravings….Well, do we really “need” chocolate?

Survey says: Dunno. But, with the holidays upon us, a Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate once in a whilenow available in the “sugar free” variety, mind you–sounds sweet enough to me.

(Research Ref: Eat To Beat Cancer, Hatherill. 1998 St. Martins Press, New York)

About the Author

Laura Turner, Certified Personal Trainer has developed a series of health, fitness, and nutrition tips available at http://www.1brand-new-body.com In 21 days you can create healthy new you,let her show you how! Get her free report: 7 Steps to a High Performance Body by sending a blank email to: mailto:hiperformbody@getresponse.com
VioletProsePubs@aol.com

The Euro lottery was originally founded by the national lotteries of Spain, the UK and France and was unveiled in February 2004. The opening lottery draw was on February 13th-04 in Paris. The United Kingdom, France and Spain were the only nations partaking in the beginning but lotteries from Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, the Republic of Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal likewise became engaged in Oct 2004.

The Euro millions lottery or the Euro Lottery, as it’s commonly better-known, pools the lottery ticket revenues of the 9 partaking Euro countries showing a massive Euromillions jack-pot. With the sum of countries joining the EU on the increase, that will without question will lead to new states partaking in the European lottery. An increase in the amount of individuals partaking in the European Lotto will result in a prolonged growth of the already tremendous Euro Lotto jackpots.

Q. How Would You Play The euro millions Lottery

Each and every player must select five primary numbers from 1 to 50 and 2 Lucky Star numbers from one to nine. During the draw, 5 primary plus two “lucky star” numbers are then selected at random from 2 draw machines containing numbered lottery balls.

European Lottery Prizes

The chances of scooping up the Euro Millions “jackpot” is a remote 1 in 76 million but the likelihood of winning a money prize is a fairly decent 1 in twenty-four. When the “jackpot” is not won on a given lottery draw, it is carried forward to the following week that will result in an ever increasing jackpot prize. New rules added on the 09/02/2007 define the number of consecutive “roll-overs” to 11, with the jackpot rolling out to smaller value levels in the 11th draw when the prize is not collected.

The new rules likewise initiated Euro Lotto Super Draw which come about twice annually and offer jack-pots in the region of £100 million. The difference with Super-Draws is that the jack-pot has to be collected during the calendar week of the lotto draw; as a result, when there is no lotto ticket matching, all the drawn numbers then the top prize will then be distributed to the lotto ticket bearer(s) on the succeeding winning prize level.

Most people enjoy listening to some kind of music. Music can take us to a different place and a different time as soon as we hear the first couple of notes or words. Another way that I have created memories through music is by attending music concerts. I was lucky to experience many concerts in my high school and college days. The excitement of knowing that a favorite group, band, or performer was coming to a close venue was so exciting! Then, it was time to find out that could go and if we had enough money for tickets. Believe me, actually having the tickets in your hands felt so well. I can still remember the day my friend Kim and I received our Tina Turner tickets, we felt like we were going to see The Queen! Well, in a way I guess we were. Now, I think about how easy it is to get tickets on-line through various sites like www.viagogo.co.uk. If the show you want to see is sold out and you are willing to search, you can even find a ticket on Ebay, Craigslist or other auction sites. Kim and I had to either call on the phone or go stand in a long line. The next wonderful step was going to the show. For us it usually meant about a 2 hour drive and we would play the music of whomever we were going to see. So much fun, singing at the top of our lungs and not caring that we couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket! Ah, the parking lot, at this point the excitement was really high. You were about to listen to some of your favorite songs, sung by your favorite performer, LIVE! I mean, did the attendants not know this; could we not have parked a little closer? The actual show seemed to go by so fast. The Tina Turner show was at an outside venue and I can remember Kim and I were standing on the edge of the grass dancing. I don’t think we ever sat down! And then it was over. Then it was time to drive home. Most people were usually just slowly walking to their cars; no one wanted to leave the atmosphere created by the live music. I am sure that most folks, like us, once they got in the car discussed which song they enjoyed most and then played those songs again on the car stereo. Finally, that night, everyone’s dreams are probably set to music. Wow, I think I am going to go to one of the sites I mentioned above and see what artists are coming to town!