Apartment Choice

I arrived in Madrid in December 2012, in time to celebrate the bleakest Christmas the city had seen in a generation. Capital and country were reeling from a series of shocks that had brought Spain to the brink of ruin. Six months earlier, a slow- burning banking crisis had blazed out of control, forcing the government to request billions in rescue aid from its European partners. Spain was in recession and suffering an unemployment crisis that would see the jobless rate peak at 27 per cent a few months after my arrival. Reminders of the nation’s desperation were everywhere. On days when I took my son to kindergarten we would pass a long line of people — not all of them poorly dressed — waiting outside a church- run soup kitchen . Walking to my office in the morning, I would find more and more shops boarded up. Inexplicably, the tiny store that sold and repaired mechanical typewriters held out, defying both the economic downturn and technical obsolescence. Then, one day, I found that ...

With lovely gardens, a heated outdoor pool , bright and airy ocean-view rooms, and plush interiors, the property has a private beach access that comes with a playground for the kids and two private sun loungers (for each room). The well- equipped wellness center boasts a modern gym, a sauna, a hot tub, Ayurveda massage rooms , and a Turkish bath. And there’s plenty of options for the kids as well - indoor and outdoor playrooms, a free mini club , their own pool area, and even special menus at the restaurant. The well thought-out rooms also have a mini kitchenette to heat up meals for the infants. Breakfast spreads are excellent and include everything from continental to gluten-free and vegan items. One of Bellaria-Igea Marina’s jewels, Blue Suite Hotel is meant for all kinds of travelers - solo backpackers, romantic couples, big families, and business travelers. Blu Suite Hotel Address : Via Pinzon 290, 47814 Bellaria-Igea Marina, Italy (see map) Price : from 128 USD Check Price S...

Utility worker jumps onto subway tracks, saves man just before train’s arrival Last week there was a news account of a woman crashing her car in New England as she swerved off of the road into a tree with an approximate three foot girth and with such force that it broke its top off twenty feet above her car from the impact of her collision. The car, then, caught fire. Driving by at the time was a man in his eighties with EMT ( Emergency Medical Technicians ) training. He stopped his car and ran down the hill to her vehicle while knowing fully well that at any moment the gas tank could blow up and kill him. He went forward anyway. The smoke was so thick that he nearly passed out from lack of oxygen and he couldn’t see the car’s occupant. So he felt around for her with his hands through the smoke and dragged her out of the car by the shoulders. My father undertook a similar action. He was near Albany, NY, USA. He saw a farmer’s truck carrying hay burst into flames on a bridge with the d...

Good morning and welcome to the Saturday Morning Quilt Break ! Today I’d like to tell you a story, one that I’ve wanted to tell almost since the day I started working here seven years ago except I didn’t have an ending until a few months ago. If I were the hero of a quilting comic book series , I believe this would be considered my origin story. So settle in with your beverage of choice because I’m going to take you back a ways. A long time ago, during my senior year of high school, my parents offered to allow me to take a gap year between high school and college as long as I spent my time doing something worthwhile. As they put it, “You can live at home and volunteer at a homeless shelter if you want, but you can’t just spend a year working at Robinson’s-May,” which is where I was working at the time. For almost my entire childhood, my parents, younger brother and I lived in a 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom condo in Van Nuys, which is smack-dab in the middle of the sprawling San Ferna...