He is hoping to retrace his steps to make a film.YOUR PAPERS PLEASEName DR SAM HUTTPlace of Birth WELWYNDate of Birth 15 NOVEMBER 1940Place of Issue GLASGOW. The name “Chinatown” is synonymous with the sights, smells and tastes of Chinese cuisine. But if you’re not hungry there are plenty of other reasons to spend time in one that have nothing to do with chopsticks or the sight of wind-dried duck. Apart from Europe’s oldest Chinatown in Liverpool (settled for nearly 200 years), the two largest and most active Chinatowns in Britain are in Manchester and London.
“When the first Chinese restaurants came to this area 30 years ago they were all scattered,” says Raymond Chow, chairman of Manchester’s Chinatown Business Association. “Then a small Chinese supermarket opened up and, increasingly, more and more Chinese restaurants and enterprises started to come. There are now around 56 businesses here, including travel agencies, supermarkets, acupuncturists, doctors and financial advisers.”
It’s a similar story in the capital, where new-style businesses are replacing the old catering outlets. The most noticeable trend has been to cash in on the popularity of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Providing alternative treatments for health complaints ranging from skin problems to ME, many clinics offer both herbal remedies and acupuncture. Although there is no regulatory body, there is a register of Chinese herbal medicine which provides a list of the more reputable, established practitioners.One of these, The Chinese Herbal Centre, in the heart of Manchester’s Chinatown, has provided herbal remedies and acupuncture for 12 years. As one of the biggest clinics in Manchester, its four practitioners, all trained in China, see up to 80 patients – many of them non-Chinese – every week. In London, the Hong Ning Co Ltd clinic had much to do with kicking off the interest in Chinese herbal medicine.
In the mid-Eighties, people would queue outside the clinic waiting to see Dr Ding Hui Luo, whose herbal treatments for skin disorders were renowned.Another ancient practice which has recently become popular is Feng Shui. Charging upwards of pounds 150 per consultation, experts such as Sifu Yap Leong in London and Mr Kwok Man Ho in Manchester will use their skills to tell you the best position for your furniture to achieve total harmony within your surroundings. Sifu Yap Leong also owns the Shaolin Way martial arts shop, where budding Bruce Lees can buy books, videos and magazines, clothes and equipment. In Manchester, the best place to kit up for a Double Eagle Split Kick is Van Dang Martial Arts. But if you prefer just to watch chop-socky moves the Eastern Heroes shop in London is well stocked with all manner of Hong Kong films and memorabilia.Many of the Chinese in Britain lead a dual existence; they live and work here but are culturally rooted in Hong Kong.
If you fancy glitzy nick-nacks from Britain’s soon-to-be-ex-colony or the latest CD from a idol of Cantopop (HK’s own pop music) the best places to visit are the “cultural” outlets. The emphasis of stock is on the cute, with a cornucopia of golden plastic charms, statues of gods and fairies and incredibly popular karaoke videos. Many also stock elaborately embroidered figure-hugging Chinese dresses. Among these treasure troves of tat are Manchester’s T La Arts & Crafts shop and the Modern Chinese Cultural Services Shop, and London’s Singalong & Co and Cannon & Co Chinese Cultural Centre.The Guanghwa Bookstore in London has a wonderful range of more “highbrow” Chinese arts and crafts, including hand-carved seals, materials for Chinese painting and calligraphy and books on Chinese language, culture and literature.In Chinatown, even food stores have sidelines: the Lucky House Mini-Market has a huge range of Buddhas and slimming products, and both London’s Loon Fung Supermarket and the Wing Fat Supermarket in Manchester sell woks, china and catering equipment.Although neither Chinatown has a proper venue for cultural, artistic and social activities, community centres provide some facilities, albeit with limited space and resources. Still, it’s the supermarkets, grocery stores and restaurants which dominate, offering a food-orientated social scene. So, whether you’d like to get a CD, poster or haircut (there’s been an outbreak of hair salons in Chinatown in recent years), be cleansed by a herbalist or get your kicks at a martial arts shop, the most authentic way to explore Chinatown is on a full stomach.
Fightshop is in Bolton, they import premium Thai Boxing and Boxing equipment made in Thailand, Sandee, Twins, Windy and Fairtex, all Grade A Stuff, also loads of MMA apparel, fightshorts, TapouT tees and the like from the USA, and otehr places.
Its not striclty open to the public as its a web retail and gym/wholesale operation, however they dont mind people turning up and looking at all the stuff and buying and they can take cash or card payments. The warehouse is massive 9000 quare foot, of equipment, everything from Heavy bags, gloves body sheilds the lot, and they have about 50 types of MMA shorts at anyone time.
The address is
4th Floor
Swan Centre
4 Higher Swan Lane
Bolton
Lancashire
BL3 3AQ
The number is 0845 6439252
March 23rd, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Wow, I absolutely love the ideas in this article. There are so many ways to capture one of the most exciting events in our lives. I will definitely be referring back to this article the next time I make a birthday themed photobook. And congrats to Shutterfly. Happy Birthday!
March 24th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Jessica, GREAT ideas to put some pizazz in those birthday albums! I’m one of those folks in the “pre-digital” era for a lot of my son’s life. I’m going to try the 1-5 year combination using the few photos I have. So glad to have this article to get my creative juices flowing! And Happy Birthday to Shutterfly!
March 24th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Great article – loved a lot of the ideas. Thanks for Sharing.
Love shutterfly too – did up a really nice book for my parents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary last year.
March 24th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
Personally I enjoy a year by year approach. Usually adding a page or two from prior years to just to recap and compare, but dedicating a whole book to one birthday is my approach. Thanks Jessica- LOVE your classes! Happy Birthday Shutterfly- LOVE your products!
Catherine
March 25th, 2010 at 3:51 am
Jessica, one of your classes inspired me to do a scrapbook page that included a picture cropped to show just the hands of the one-year-old as she checked out her cake and grabbed those first hunks of frosting. It’s adorable. We have TONS of pictures of our 3 girls blowing out the candles on their cakes, sometimes that is the only photo of a birthday we have (that must have been the most fun part!). I’d like to group them into a book called “Make a Wish” or “Just Blow”.
March 25th, 2010 at 4:03 am
I can’t wait to use these ideas for our Great Grandma’s (G.G) 95th birthday! Thanks for the chance to win.
March 25th, 2010 at 4:58 am
great article jessica!! LOVE LOVE your classes!!!!
i’m working on a 40th birthday photobook for my brother and have some great ideas to use the pictures.
one thing we did for my grandmother’s 90th was add blank “guestbook” pages to the back of her photobook. that way the book was her gift, and she had the guest messages.
thanks again!!!
March 25th, 2010 at 6:29 am
Love the ideas you set forth in this article, will have to note and use them now. Thanks for the chance to win…
I personally love the idea of a blank guestbook.
March 25th, 2010 at 6:32 am
Love the article Jess. Maybe now I will tackle a birthday book for me!
I like to take photos of my daughter’s birthday outfit. She loves to get dressed up for her parties and I make sure I take a photo of it.
March 25th, 2010 at 6:34 am
Love the article…An album compiling a chronological history of birthday celebrations for the same person sounds fun and the blank guestbook idea…and the birthday interview…oh my, so much to choose from. Thanks for the ideas.
March 25th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Thank you Jessica for these great birthday album ideas! I recently made one for a daughter of a friend and we left guest pages and one really cool idea her mom had was to have guests write down favorite verses/blessings for the birthday girl. She loved it.
March 25th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Love the ideas and your classes Jessica!
My idea for bithday photos is to take a picture of the birthday child (holding the gift) with the gift giver and then make Thank You cards which include the photo! Also, if you are making a book, leave some blank pages so you can make pockets to include memorabilia like invites, cards, and themed napkins.
March 25th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
I do a photo book every year for each of my boys. I do a two page spread per month. I always take their picture on the actual day of the month they were born and make that one picture a single page. On the other page, I place a variety of photos from that month. I use Shutterfly to do it and have mastered it to take me about 30 minutes to do an entire book. I love them and use them as gifts for grandparents.
March 25th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
I had a cute little rocking chair as a little girl (which my mother also had as a child and my grandparents had it recovered for me). I recovered it for my kids, and we take a picture of them in that chair every month in their first year of life, and then after that, just on their birthdays. I’d like to do a book of those photos someday, much like you mentioned with the ice cream cake photos! It is miraculous to see them grow and change from year to year, and reminds me of how very much I have to be thankful for!
Thanks for the great ideas, and chance to win – I adore your classes!
March 25th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
After thinking about it, it would be fun to do a photobook of a Year of Birthdays. On one of the family, throughout the year, we always get together for family birthdays. I think would be enough for a book in covering one year. If not, could always make it more than one year. This idea sounds flexible and thank you for the class giveaway.
March 25th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
I love all of these ideas. They are great. Next party for my oldest daughter who will be 10… I am going with the photo both ideas. That seems the perfect age for the girls to be silly and take pictures. For a grown-up party you could have the camera on a tripod and go the “do it yourself” mode. That would be so much fun. Photo booths ! Yeah!
March 25th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
I love to make “Faces” books. My 4 year old daughter loves to make all kinds of faces, from scary to sweet. My 2 year old has also picked up on this. I use one picture per page. For instance, I put a picture of my daughter on the left with a crazy spaghetti stained face and the same of my son on the right. Everyone gets a good laugh from my Faces books.
March 25th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
After I complete a Christmas book of all my Christmases, I’m going to do a book about my birthdays. Each birthday is going to get a one page layout. There are a few birthdays that are only going to a photo or two, but there are some that are going to have a ton. I want to keep track of all those wonderful memories…like my aunts coming to my slumber party in their robes and hair in curlers to entertain us at my 5th grade b-day slumber party. However, I do have a special birthday that I’m going to make a smaller book for. When I was turning 25 I was also graduating from college. My family threw me a surprise party that was in the musical theme…most people dressed in costumes like the 50s, Madonna, the village people, etc. It was so awesome that it deserves it’s own book.
I gave my cousins a softbook of pictures I had taken of their son for his first birthday. It included photos from the day he was born up to about 10 months. They loved it!
My niece is turning 1 in August. I plan on making a small book with all the pictures and details of the day. And then the album I’ve been making for her first year (which will probably have a volume 1 & 2) will end with a 2-page spread of pictures highlighting the birthday party.
March 26th, 2010 at 7:59 am
I loved this article! I love you Jessica Sprague! I think YOU are AWESOME too!
So actually, just about all of the scrapbooking that I have done is about my little boys’ birthdays. I always have a theme for the party and I have a picture taken of every guest and I have them fill out a page during the party. To break up the redundant happy birthday message over and over since not everyone is especially creative, I pose a question that correlates with the theme of the party. When I did the Incredibles party, I asked the parents to tell me which super hero their child is and why. I got some really cute answers like, Tornado-Boy because every time he leaves the room it looks like a tornado hit it and Mr. Invisible, because when he closes his eyes he is invisible. Right now I am working on my other son’s birthday scrapbook. For his party we had a Toy Story theme and the question is what is the child’s favorite toy, and bonus question, what was mom/dad/grandma/grandpa’s favorite toy when they were a child. It is a work in progress right now, but I think it is going to be totally awesome when it is finished because I hope to also include pics of grandma with her Barbie doll from the 60s. If we can just find that photo…
I love the photo booth idea and I think I will have to include it in our parties!
I would really really love to win the free class. I love the few classes that I have taken so far, but would love to take all of them.
March 26th, 2010 at 10:21 am
Jessica has such great ideas! I will definitely re read this article when my son’s 2nd birthday gets closer!!
March 26th, 2010 at 11:58 am
I have lots of birthdays coming in the next couple of months and a new camera. Sounds like an album to me!
March 26th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
I love all the ideas, I so need to sit down and do some scrapbooking. I have years of photos and three kids, with a fourth on the way. I love the signature idea. Letting my child choose the cake has been a hit lately, my 4 four year old asked for a cake just like she got when she turned 3. A Blue’s paw print cake (thankfully so easy!). Jessica, I’d love to win your class I so need to figure out a good work flow for me to hopefully feel like I have a chance of getting “caught up” once the new baby is born in 6 months. Thanks for everything.
March 27th, 2010 at 11:55 am
I take the year-by-year approach for my kid’s albums ending with the birthday. For the first year, I love to include a picture of Mommy and Daddy at their first birthday. As the kid’s get older it’s harder to find pictures of Mommy and Daddy at their ## birthday party but it would be neat if you could. Another alternative is to add siblings at the same age – either to a year-by-year album or maybe this would be a variation on all birthdays – the two-page spread could have all the first birthday, second birthdays, etc.
One other thing not to be missed at any of our birthday parties is a picture of all the cousins. It’s a unique opportunity for everyone to be together and it’s great to see how the kids grown and which ones have been added
March 28th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
I like cool trick 4 the best! loved the article!!!
March 29th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
I don’t have children yet but i have puppies. So I have started taking pictures of them in the same place every 6 months or so. My oldest dog turns 1 year old in a couple weeks. I have a picture of her by the stairs with her head through the stair spindles when she was only 2 months old. I recently took another picture of her at the same place. It’s amazing to see how much she has grown. We are having a 1 year party for her and inviting our friends dogs. I’m going to make an invitation, a doggie cake and take lots of pictures. I’m hoping to keep this up and create a photobook of her birthdays. So I probably sound crazy because this is my dog but oh well! Thanks for all the awesome photobook tips.
March 29th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
Loved your “Photo Booth” idea… great way to get everyone a little out of their traditional element. I like to also add, inspirations, quotes, and stories from the other guests, especially the “older” genenerations. Reading how grandma celebrated her 6th birthday is a priceless memory for my children and myself.
Thanks you for all your great tips, I will definately be incorporating some of these into our next “Birthday Party” which is only about a month away!
March 30th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Love the ideas! I started taking a photo of each of my kids on their birthdays at the time of their birth. I was lucky – they were born at 2:19pm and 5:53pm. I probably won’t be able to keep it up for very many years, but so far so good.
April 4th, 2010 at 6:31 am
Great ideas. Can’t wait to try a few.
April 5th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Wow it sure would be a great gift album for a Birthday, thanks for sharing the ideas to get us motivated Jessica.
April 24th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Wonderful ideas! Now to get busy with them.. thanks for the inspriation
April 27th, 2010 at 9:41 am
Superb ideas there Jessica! As a digital printing company, we might try out this for some of our clients!
April 30th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
JESSICA AS USUAL YOU HAVE SOME GREAT IDEAS. I LOVE BIRTHDAYS AND ALL THE FUN PICTURES YOU CAN CAPTURE. THANKS FOR ALL THE IDEAS. BJ
May 5th, 2010 at 6:50 am
Very inspiring! I have done a book for every one of my son’s birthdays… he’s only 2.5. A lot of these ideas spark some goals for future plans!
May 5th, 2010 at 6:50 am
Very inspiring! I have done a book for every one of my son’s birthdays… he’s only 2.5. A lot of these ideas spark some goals for future plans!
June 9th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Hey Jessica,
This was a really great post with so many great tips and ideas! My friends and I do something very similar, of course we celebrate all of our birthday, but at the end of the year i make a photobook through Shutterfly of all our events, birthday parties, hang outs, projects, etc… and I include blurbs from each one of them about their year, favorite event, hang out, projects, saying, movie, etc… and we print them out and sign them! Just like a school year book but with more pictures of us! Thanks for the great tips!
Natalie B