Out of respect for these urban transportation cocoons, here are a few tips on how best to utilise their services.

Hailing a Cab

When hailing a cab on the street, stand in an area where there is a clear place for it to stop so that it isn’t forced to block traffic. This will benefit other traffic, the taxi and you. Make it clear well in advance that you want him to stop, by keeping your arm raised until he is within 100 yards and its indicator is on. Make sure you know the address of where you are going and tell the driver in advance if you need to go via another address or a cash machine or something.

Cab Chat

If the taxi driver has the radio on there is a chance that he may not want to chat. There may be some news he is listening to or a football match. This is their office so respect them; keep your feet off the seats and keep the conversation polite. Try not to get into any sort of an argument as you may distract them while driving, putting you, them and other traffic in danger.

Introducing: Taxi Karma

There is a little known belief that if you treat taxis with respect then the next time you are stranded in an unfamiliar part of town, one will be more likely to come to your rescue. This is called Taxi Karma. So for example, if you are driving and a taxi is waiting to pull out, stop and let them go out, and next time you need a taxi, you will have a better chance of one appearing from the fog. Taxi karma can also be gained by: tipping taxi drivers, being patient when waiting for or ordered one, being loyal to a taxi company and following the tips mentioned above.

Try utilizing taxi karma next time you come across a cab. It might just save your life.

David Somberville regularly uses Belfast taxis to get from A to B, and Belfast airport taxis come in pretty handy for his business trips.

The common wasp, or ‘yellowjacket,’ is found in the Northern Hemisphere and has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand. It builds nests in hollow trees and abandoned mammal holes in the ground and houses a Queen wasp who is often the only fertile female among 10,000 worker wasps in a colony. Their colony is made up of the Queen, who is a birth machine, workers who look after the young and protect the Queen and foragers. It is these foragers which cause us the most grief on a hot sunny day. With the following advice you can avoid further terrorization.

Don’t Attack Them

The worst thing you can do is attack a wasp. In general you will not have any problems with wasps if you leave them alone. They are not vampire bats out to suck your blood. They are just looking for food. With this in mind, if you do get annoyed by a wasp buzzing around you, the chances are you have something it wants. Try moving away for a minute so that it loses interest. If it follows you stand near something sweet smelling like some flowers or a sugar bowl, so that you seem less inviting. Or spray yourself with some deodorant. Again, try not to anger it.

Remove It

If you’re stuck inside and really can’t get away from your new friend, wait for it to settle nearby and cover it with a glass or cup. Without lifting the vessel, slip a narrow piece of paper under the lip catching the wasp inside. Now all you need to do is take it outside and it is free. If you really annoy it and it becomes aggressive, you may have to be aggressive back, use a strong piece of disposable paper, (a rolled up magazine is best,) and wait for it to land on a flat surface. Make sure to hit it first time or it will just get angrier.

Prevention

Try closing your windows or conservatory doors securely if you are inside and you fear wasps coming in. If you are outside, wear some insect repellant or limit any food you may have to the minimum. So if you are having a picnic, try keeping everything in a cool box. Finally, if your tiny tormentor is just not going away, you have only one option. Run for it!

David Somberville has had a few close calls with wasps in conservatories but finds that his UPVC windows

Doctor
The noblest of professions some would say. With the selflessness of a charity worker, the scientific respect of an engineer and the prestige of a lawyer. Doctors are certainly at the top of the pile when it comes to desirable medical jobs. You could be earning pots of cash, saving lives and looking good doing it. On the flip side, the hours can be excruciatingly long, night shifts can be a regular necessity, stress is a constant problem and your best friends will bug you with their questions about extra nipples and inexplicable discharge when all you want to do is eat your Christmas dinner.

Nurse
There is a high demand for nurses everywhere. They are an absolutely crucial part of health care services around the country and are often unappreciated. Florence Nightingale is the famous founder of modern nursing and she would be proud of how far nurses have come in terms of clinical skills and professionalism. However, nursing tends to be an often thankless task. Responsibilities range from the dirty and physically demanding to the complex, stressful and emotional.

Paramedic
Paramedics lead the charge in emergency medicine. Spending every day flying through the streets in their screaming ice cream vans, on their way to save someone mid-heart attack or trapped in a crashed vehicle, it is not a job for the feint hearted. This role is high risk, and if putting your life on the line to save another gets your blood pumping, then this could be the one for you. Danger, of course, has its risks. So bare this is mind when you consider zooming down the high street or hanging under a car wreck giving CPR.

There are hundreds of other roles within the health sector, but as you can tell, all of them have their pros and cons. Think long and hard about which would bring you the right lifestyle. But consider this: your decision could result in you saving a life.

David Somberville has worked in many industries including Medical Locum Jobs with experience in Dietetic Jobs and other sectors.

Sell Yourself
The first thing that should be on your CV is a short sharp paragraph outlining who you are and what your career aspirations are. This should grab the reader’s attention and give them a few nuggets of information about you that really makes them think, Hey this person sounds like who we’re looking for. You will already have made a good impression before they have even started reading your qualifications.
Make sure to know exactly what the job is you are applying for when writing this statement. Highlight your achievements which most demonstrate your suitability for the roll.

Qualifications and Experience
Of course you need all your relevant qualifications and positions held to date. Don’t bother with your 100m swimming certificate no matter how proud you are of it. Don’t be tempted to put your most relevant jobs first, but keep everything in reverse chronological order. This makes it easy for an employer to follow and allows them to get the best impression of your career to date. If you believe you deserve this job, you shouldn’t need to bend the truth.

Registrations and Union Memberships
Include your General Medical Council registration status and whether you are a member of the Medical Defense Union or not. These may seem like obvious things to include but will help to avoid unnecessary rejections as a result of sending an unchecked CV.

Clinical Experience
This should be in a separate section so that they stand out from your employment history. Your clinical competency is key for many jobs, so having this stand out and not lost in your possibly long history, will make a difference.

Teaching experience and publications
If you are lucky enough to have published work then this is what should go next. Include a full reference to the publication and an outline of your article. Keep this brief, as your employer can check your reference once you have been short listed. Also include any teaching experience you have. If you are applying for a medical teaching position this may well be incorporated into your main employment history.

With all these sections along with some final details about your career aspirations, echoing your opening statement, and something about your hobbies for a final touch. Watching TV is not a hobby. With these brief tips you will be well on your way to an attractive medical CV. Good Luck

David Somberville has experience with recruitment in the medical locum jobs sector, with particular knowledge of physiotherapy locums and radiography locums.

The most important invention which instigated the birth of the taxicab was the first taximeter. In ancient Rome they came up with a mechanism where small balls were dropped from the back of the horse and cart, so that when the destination was reach, the driver could count how many balls had dropped and calculate how much was owed by the passenger.

Horse drawn carts and carriages, rickshaws and for a while electricity powered taxis were in common use up until the end of the 19th century. The first petrol powered taxis appeared at the turn of the century and were the norm until recently. The invention of the two-way radio in the 1940s instigated a major acceleration in taxi use, as their use vastly improved the efficiency of taxi services and the speed in which customers could be reached.

Nowadays, Yellow cabs in New York, the Black cabs in London and the auto-rickshaw (or Tuk-Tuk) found mostly in Asia, are all icons, used daily by thousands of commuters and are commonly key figures in stories people bring back from trips around the globe.

The use of diesel engines in taxis is now the norm as this allows for a longer time between fill ups and generally a more efficient and longer lasting engine. A major plus for hard working taxis. Also, now that hybrid technology is becoming more and more viable, hybrid taxi cabs are tipped to be the next step forward. Their systems run on electricity at low speeds and when you put your foot down, the engine kicks in to boost acceleration. As taxis generally slide around town at cruising speed this means that they will save a lot of money on petrol.

Next time you order a taxi, think about how far this institution has come from the times when Julius Caesar ruled the civilized world. Their style, presence and idiosyncrasies are here to stay and we can only imagine where they will be in 100 years time. Hover Taxi anyone?

While he’s no Julius Caesar David Somberville regularly gets around in Belfast taxis for pretty reasonable Belfast taxi fares considering.

Photography

Maybe before the invention of the camera and the printing press, you could justify that a painting was something valuable, as there would be no other way of recording that priceless moment when an orange sat in the same bowl as an apple and a banana. But with a photograph you can take a picture of a painting or the scene itself, capturing its every minute detail. Surely this should take some value from the original rendering.

Replicas

Criminals being criminals, they have delved into the art world with reckless abandon and brought with them, art students, jealous wannabe masters and copycats alike. Their skills can be used to copy, stroke for stroke, old and new paintings so that their version has every single quality that an original has. Surely if you had no way of telling that this was in fact not the original, then what happens to its value? It should go down right?

Volume

Art is big business. There are millions and millions of paintings out there. A hundred thousand million bowls of fruit, a trillion half naked women, a great many old men on horses and a rather large amount of blue squares next to red triangles. With new artists streaming out of art colleges daily all with their own thing to add to the art melting pot, why do some paintings demand million pound price tags, while they budding artists who can barely afford drawing inks can’t paste their pictures on a bus stop without the council power washing it off. Sheer volume of art should surely drag the price of art down. It’s basic economics. Why, why, why?

Sheer exclusivity is the answer. Owning the original version of a painting by a grand old master like ‘Renoir’ or ‘Monet’ is like having the only copy of a section of his soul. The fact that a painting is so well known and copied endlessly just adds to the individuality of having the original. This is why, when an artist dies, their work is suddenly worth so much more: because they can’t make anymore originals. Art will always be expensive because it is such a personal, emotional thing, and especially if it is by someone famous.

David Somberville recons Van Gogh’s field easel was no better than his, but it takes more than the best drawing inks to make a name for yourself.

Freebies aren’t always available to newcomers upon sign up. Often you are required to spend a certain amount before you can trigger the free gift. Here are some of the freebies available:

Free Flights
One credit card offers on their ‘Airmiles Credit Card,’ an accelerated offer of air miles for every pound that you spend. This means that the more you spend on the card the further you can fly. While this could lead to accruing debt in order to go on holiday, if managed correctly you can spend money on stuff you would anyway and get to go for a trip for free.

High Street Vouchers
A common freebie is vouchers to spend in various high street stores as reward for spending money on your credit card. This can include high street stores such as M and S, House of Fraser, Boots, HMV, Waterstones, Homebase and Comet, to name but a few. It can work similarly to the air miles system or it can be that you need to pass a spending threshold to unlock a certain value of vouchers.

Online Vouchers
Again vouchers can be earned through spending but instead go towards vouchers for use with online companies. With goods often cheaper online, this could be a way to make your earnings go further. Online stores such as iTunes, Play.com and Amazon all allow you to buy things from them with vouchers acquired through credit card rewards.

Cars
One card offers money off a new car when you sign up for their credit card. This is only 100 pounds though.

While credit card freebies are a great way to get some excellent goods and services for nothing. But often these rewards can lure people into spending more than they can afford to repay. Is the lure of a free gift enough to cloud people’s judgement? Often this can be true, so when thinking of getting a credit card, do so with repayments in mind. Not free gifts.

David works for a large payment gateways company that deal will all your payment service provider needs and is a keen blogger.

Entertainment is anything that can be defined as something that a person watches or partakes of for fun or just for leisure. Entertainment comprises of shows, concerts, television programs, gambling and stand-up comedy performances, plays etc.

Television is responsible for the vast majority of people’s entertainment today. The problem is that television is not quite what it used to be anymore. Many shows are now reality programmes. There are movies that can be watched, and popular series like the soaps or other drama programmes. There are also live sports events that can be watched no matter what time of the day or night they take place. Musical concerts, historical events, and many more events can be watched on TV which saves people lots of money as they do not have to be at the event in person.

Concerts are another category of entertainment. Most concerts will be musical or could also be singing or a combination of both. Depending on the kind of music or singing will also determine what those who go to listen will wear. People would generally dress up for the opera or a classical performance, but for a musical concert like Westlife; they would usually dress much more casually. Another very popular kind of act at the moment are the impersonators or tribute bands who are generally quite entertaining. The standards are usually quite high, although impersonators have been known to mock the celebrity more than impersonate them!

Stand-up comedy can also be put into this category as it is also a form of show. There are some very good new acts taking to the stage all the time so even if you don’t find the first show you attend that funny, then there is bound to be another comedian whose humour is more to your taste.

Sporting events generally have live Marching bands and musical items which render some form of entertainment seen in a show.

Gambling even though known as one of the seven sins is an entertainment activity for most people. It is generally the thrill of the win that makes them go back time and time again. It can be addictive though, and one must be careful not to waste too much money on this “sport”.

So now we have determined what entertainment is perhaps you are looking to find some? Well I’d recommend the best place to start for live entertainment is an entertainment agency. They will have contacts in many of these areas and will be able to save you the hassle of trying to trace the kind of thing you are looking for by trawling through the phone book!

Entertainment comes in many forms from karaoke hire to a corporate disco and David Somberville has been to his fair share.

The Vikings

If you are doing the Vikings as part of a project why not try a long boat. This trademark of the Vikings is the perfect large art project that all ages can contribute to. Starting with the boat section, the shape can be extended as long and as wide as you need to fill a space. The oars can be made by students from anything from pipe cleaners and milk bottle tops, to real twigs. The ship can be filled with portraits of student with Viking helmets on and the sails can be made from scraps of material decorated by children.

Jungle

An excellent project is to grow a jungle on your wall. With a green background, the kids can draw or paint and cut out their own pictures of real or imaginary animals which they can find in the jungle. This can be accompanied with environmental lessons about deforestation and how paper is a resource which should be recycled.

Christmas

Every year this holiday comes around and classrooms are festooned with tinsel and Christmas trees and images of Santa Clause and umpteen reindeer. Why not try instead a snowy scene. Start with a white background and build in 3D with cotton wool, papier-mache and polystyrene blocks. Windows in the room can be decorated with spray snow and handmade paper chains make fun Christmas decorations which the children can help make. It can be important to remind the kids that Christmas is not just about getting presents, it is about sharing and being generous too.

The World Cup

Now that the FIFA World Cup is almost upon us there will be no escape. Instead of stopping your students from wearing football shirts and talking about games, join them in their interest and make it a project. Create a wall planner of the games and use each day to teach them about the different countries. Learning about the cultures associated with the teams can be in contrast to the commercialism and passion of the event.

Always remember when undertaking a new project to include activities of interest to both boys and girls, and try not to let on which team you support if you go for a World Cup project.

There is an abundance of preschool equipment which can brighten up a classroom alongside other educational supplies.

Of course the most common thing left in the back of cabs these days is mobile phones. Most frustrating as you can lose contact with people you are meeting that day, lose contacts which you may well never get back, lose an often very expensive piece of hardware and even the personal information and diaries contained within the device. But what are the Top 5 things found in the back of a Belfast Taxi?

5. Laptops – Now these days, laptops can be pretty small and flat but to forget to pick one up when leaving a taxi, especially if you are on your way to work is horrendous. Laptops and PDA’s account for a large proportion of things found orphaned on the back seats. Perhaps an alarm system is needed, or some sort of handcuff for repeat offenders.

4. A Dog – Man’s best friend he may be, but once you have left your pooch in the back of a taxi you will need a lot of marrowbone jelly to make it up to him. Perhaps try a lead, or train your dog to follow you. It could save its life if he is unclaimed and sent to the local animal rescue centre.

3. A Harp – Everyone’s been there: on the way to the opera house, got your smart dinner suit on, been working on your recital to play in front of the King of Spain for months, practicing your handshake for afterwards, step out of the cab, get to the stage, left your harp. Yes someone left a harp behind. As instruments go, it is one of the larger ones. Often incredibly expensive or even antique and a beloved possession for its owner, so for it to be left behind is shocking. Maybe try playing it to the cabby.

2. A Baby – Three words: Scarred for life.

1. 100, 000 pounds worth of diamonds – Who carries this amount of diamonds in a taxi? Someone who missed the last security van to the bank vault? Perhaps someone closing down their jewellery business and carting their wares back to their own safe? Or someone a bit sinister, who got them in a sinister way and planned to use them in a super sinister way? Maybe use a team of ninjas to protect them next time.

Whatever someone’s reasons for leaving things behind in a Belfast Taxi, hopefully this list with either make them feel better for not being quite as careless as some, or make them think about ways in which they can be more careful in future.

David Somberville knows that while a taxi in Belfast is a bad place to leave your wallet at least you won’t be skinned too badly by Belfast taxi fares.