Homestyle Gossip

With all the different terms and sizes out there it’s sometime difficult to know your king from your twin. Take a look at our bed and mattress guide:

There are many other things to also consider such as what mattress type to choose and matching your frame to your mattress. Choosing the right bed is important as it affects your health and well being. On average we change our beds every eight years so it’s worth investing well.

With the current economic situation, families are being careful about their spending, tightening their belts and looking for more from credit card rewards. Luxuries like holidays, days out, trips to theme parks and fine wines are all being cut back on. But, when you collect Airmiles you don’t have to forego the finer things in life – you can get them for free through credit card rewards.

You can collect Airmiles almost every time you use your credit card. So, when you are paying for your petrol, groceries or even bills, your credit card rewards you with Airmiles. Airmiles aren’t only for free flights either, although that is what they were originally created for. There are a wide variety of things you can enjoy when you collect Airmiles as credit card rewards, including stays in hotels, travel insurance, spa weekends and even tickets to theme parks, like Alton Towers.

When you collect Airmiles, you’re collecting points that can be used for free travel, days out and experiences. You can even get wine cases with the Airmiles you collect as credit card rewards – and have them delivered direct to your front door.

Of course, if you want to, you can use your Airmiles for free flights to worldwide destinations, all free with your credit card rewards.

Source: Airmiles, Free Digital Photos

Multiple Sclerosis is a disease affecting the central nervous system in sufferers, which includes the spinal cord and the brain. MS causes the material myelin, which surrounds the nerve fibres, to become damaged, which slows down the transfer of messages from the brain to the rest of the body. MS mostly affects women from the ages of twenty to fifty years old.

There are many people offering multiple sclerosis support and care for sufferers, which is a full time occupation. Multiple sclerosis care workers need to be well trained in caring for sufferers and must be aware of what to do in various situations.

When sufferers become exacerbated, multiple sclerosis support workers need to do some of the following things to help their patients.

• Protect the patient’s skin from becoming too moist or too dry and ensure that they’re not suffering from any pressure or friction while in bed.
• Always have a bedpan near the patient’s bed as this could be required at a moment’s notice.
• Make sure the patient flushes their bladder and bowels regularly. This can be done by providing them with increased fluids.
• Be comforting to the patient with a gentle massage.
• One of the most important parts of multiple sclerosis care is to encourage the patient to exercise as often as possible.

Whittard of Chelsea presents: Tea Making 101

TEA KETTLE

A kettle, sometimes called teakettle, tea kettle or the pot, is a small kitchen appliance used for boiling water in preparation for making tea or other beverages requiring hot water. Kettles may be electric or for stovetop use.

The word kettle originates from Latin catillus, which in various contexts is translated as bowl, deep dish, or funnel. a kettle is probably the most ancient kind of metal cooking utensil. Common materials were wrought iron and pressed steel plate.

TEA

The word ‘Tea‘ refers to the agricultural products of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods. “Tea” also refers to the aromatic beverage prepared from the cured leaves by combination with hot or boiling water, and is the colloquial name for the Camellia sinensis plant itself.

After water, tea is the most widely-consumed beverage in the world. The four types of tea most commonly found on the market are black tea, oolong tea, green tea and white tea, all of which can be made from the same bushes, processed differently, and in the case of fine white tea grown differently.

A tea’s type is determined by the processing which it undergoes. Leaves of Camellia sinensis soon begin to wilt and oxidize if not dried quickly after picking. The leaves turn progressively darker as their chlorophyll breaks down and tannins are released. This process, enzymatic oxidation, is called fermentation in the tea industry, although it is not a true fermentation: it is not caused by micro-organisms, and is not an anaerobic process.

Six of Whittard’s favourite instant teas include ‘Dreamtime’, ‘English Fruits’, ‘Cranberry & Raspberry’, ‘Turkish Apple’, ‘Blackcurrant’ & ‘Elderflower’ and ‘Piña Colada’.

INFUSER

A tea infuser is a device in which loose tea leaves are placed for brewing, usually in a cup; it is often called a teaball or tea maker, and sometimes a tea egg. The tea infuser gained popularity in first half the 19th century. By the time of Queen Victoria no respectable British household would be without one.

Tea infusers enable one to easily brew fannings and broken leaf teas. A tea infuser performs the same function as a tea bag. Most tea infusers have sperical bags of tea in them when purchased. The infuser is generally a small mesh or perforated metal container or covered spoon that holds tea leaves, in varying sizes to brew single or multiple servings at once. Common shapes for infusers include spherical, conical and cylindrical. One style of infuser is a split sphere with tong-like handles to open its mesh container.

The infuser is placed in a cup or pot of hot or boiling water, allowing the tea to brew without loose tea leaves spilling into the pot or cup. A rod or chain is commonly attached to the container of the infuser to make retrieval from the pot or cup easier. Infusers with large holes may not catch all the leaves, requiring the use of a tea strainer to remove the remaining pieces.

TEA STRAINER

A tea strainer is a type of strainer that is placed over or in a teacup to catch tea leaves.

When tea is brewed in the traditional manner in a teapot, the tea leaves are not contained in teabags, but rather are freely suspended in the water. As the leaves themselves may be distasteful, it is usual to filter them out with a tea strainer. Strainers usually fit into the top of the cup to catch the leaves as the tea is poured.

Some deeper tea strainers can also be used to brew single cups of tea, much as teabags or brewing baskets are used – the strainer full of leaves is set in a cup to brew the tea, and then removed, along with the spent tea leaves, when the tea is ready to drink. By using a tea strainer in this way, the same leaves can be used to brew multiple cups.

Tea strainer use declined in the 20th century with mass production of the tea bag, but is still preferred among connoisseurs who claim that keeping the leaves packed in a bag, rather than freely circulating, inhibits diffusion. Many assert that inferior ingredients, namely dust quality tea, are often used in tea bags.

Tea strainers are usually either sterling silver, stainless steel, or china. Strainers often come in a set, with the strainer part and a small saucer for it to sit in between cups. Tea strainers in themselves have often been turned into artistic masterpieces of the silver- and goldsmith’s craft, as well as rarer specimens of fine porcelain.

TEA POT

A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or an herbal mix in near-boiling water. Tea may be either in a tea bag or loose, in which case a tea strainer will be needed, either to hold the leaves as they steep or to catch the leaves inside the teapot when the tea is poured. Teapots usually have an opening with a lid at their top, where the tea and water are added, a handle for holding by hand and a spout through which the tea is served. Some teapots have a strainer built-in on the inner edge of spout.

The teapot probably derived from the ceramic kettles and wine pots which were made in bronze and other metals and were a feature of Chinese cultural life for thousands of years. The earliest example of a teapot that has survived to this day seems to be the one in the Flagstaff House Museum of Teaware; it has been dated to 1513 and attributed to Gongchun.

Tea drinking in Europe was initially the preserve of the upper classes since it was very expensive. Porcelain teapots were particularly desirable because porcelain could not be made in Europe at that time. It wasn’t until 1765 that William Cookworthy devised a way of making porcelain and founded a works at Plymouth UK for the production of a porcelain similar to the Chinese. When European potteries began to make their own tea wares they were naturally inspired by the Chinese designs, and these classic teapot designs are as popular today as they ever have been.

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See Whittard’s online Tea superstore for a full selection of teas and tea supplies. Whittard now offers over 30 House Teas, over 80 Speciality Teas, over 40 Fruit, Herbal and Caffeine Free Teas, from favourites such as English Breakfast to the unique aged Pu-Erh from China.

Source: Whittard of Chelsea

Think you know what a care home is? Well think again because Barchester Healthcare is set to revolutionise the way we view care homes. Barchester have recently introduced a brand new initiative to create an “Information Gathering Seminar” across a number of their care homes in the UK from July.

The first care home selected to host the seminar was Sherwood Court care home in Preston. The aim of the seminars are to educate communities on aspects such as state and self funding of care, protecting capital, assets and succession, and the lasting powers of attorney, which all effect those who’s loved ones need caring facilities.

Find out more on this new initiative with Barchester.

Most of us look for usability, safety and stability in staircases and leave the design last. This is a top ten of some of the most amazing staircases in the world.  These stairs go far beyond the simple designs we usually encounter and constitute real works of art.

Stairs of undulating steel

DNA stairs

Alternating stairs

Slide stairs

The miraculous staircase

Staircase drawers

Bookshelf stairs

Hanging spirals

Stairs as storage space

Floating on a Wall

Source: The Wooden Hill Company.