Volcanic ash aside, the current state of the British nation makes for the perfect excuse to head for the high hills of Chamonix… or sail away to the Balearic islands.

Dynamic Lives, specialists in luxury chalets and exclusive villa holidays, are offering a useful little discount on all summer bookings made in June 2010 – . They are also offering a yummy Balearic Picnic Hamper packed full of fine local Ibiza produce thrown in with any bookings of their luxury villas in Ibiza.

While the mountain hiking trails are soon to be awash with wild flowers and native wild life, the climbing walls are warming up for balmy summer climbing weekends and the Chamonix Valley becomes more and more accessible for road biking and mountain biking alike… it’s too tempting to return to the Alps… then Dynamic Lives’ Ferme de Varaita is open for bookings all summer, complete with heated outdoor swimming pool and hot tub with views of Mont Blanc. http://www.dynamiclives.com/properties/luxury-Self-catered-Chalet-in-Chamonix/5

But with amazing luxury sailing charters available around Ibiza, and some fantastic islands, beaches and coves to explore, not to mention the vibrant party scene and gourmet dining, it’s pretty tempting to consider a trip to Ibiza – Chamonix’s cousin when it comes to getting high, and a luxury destination favoured by Dynamic Lives through the summer season! Check out team Dynamic’s summer updates about what’s hot in Ibiza.

What do you do when it starts raining in Chamonix and the idea of skiing the slush of Grands Montets no longer feels like luxury. Well most of us land lubber Chamonix-residents end up digging out our old trail-running shoes and cleaning up our bikes for the summer, or checking the mice haven’t nibbled the toes out our climbing shoes. But life at high altitude isn’t the only high life to be had.
Ibiza seems to be Chamonix’s cousin when it comes to hot spots of the adrenalin addicts and it-people of Europe. Sailing, sunshine, all-night partying with the beautiful people… or snorkelling on the beautiful beaches of the White Isle, with amazing Spanish seafood cuisine, fascinating histories and deluxe villas with deep swimming pools and sublime vistas.
Whether you are working it or playing it, Ibiza has some magical connotations of decadence and luxury, not to mention the pure blissfulness of “sun and sea”.

Dynamic Lives are a Chamonix-based chalet company specialising in luxury travel experiences for those seeking a sublime getaway with every last detail arranged for you, concierge-style. Dynamic Lives run such chalet lovelies as Le Marti http://lemarti.com and Ferme du Varaita http://www.dynamiclives.com/properties/luxury-Self-catered-Chalet-in-Chamonix/5 in Argentiere, Chamonix (also available in summertime) where corporate trips or family holidays turn into repeat bookings. When the only thing you have to think about is where you’d like to ski and when you want your massage, then a holiday becomes a holiday.
George Burdon, director of Dynamic Lives, felt that summertime was an untapped market for his sort of clients who love for everything to be arranged perfectly as they want it, whether it’s having the kids entertained while you take time out on the sea or in the gourmet restaurants or finding a perfect breakfast waiting on your al fresco table by the pool.
The Dynamic team now operate over 70 private properties across Ibiza, all specked out as iconic residences of Balearic luxury. They chose their luxury properties to be based all the best locations, from tranquility and azure blue seascape horizons to the thriving atmosphere of the Ibiza party scene.
So why not try a spot of summer high time on the sea… check out Dynamic Lives’ latest news and views of Ibiza luxury http://www.dynamiclives.com/dynamic-lives-ibiza-chamonix-news-events.htm, to tempt you away from the current rainy weather in the Alps!

The Daily Telegraph
Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 09:41 AM

A MUSLIM Frenchman accused of polygamy defended himself yesterday by saying that keeping mistresses was the French way of life. Brice Hortefeux, the French interior minister, said the citizenship of Lies Hebbadj should be revoked if allegations that he had four wives proved to be true. But the Algerian-born butcher hit back, saying: “If we are stripped of nationality for having mistresses, there would be a lot of French people stripped of nationality. “As far as I know, mistresses are not forbidden, neither in France, nor in Islam.” Mr Hebbadj did not specify whether he lived under the same roof with the various women in his life, although French media reports have quoted neighbours who claimed he moved between several houses.

Mr Hebbadj is suspected of profiting from state subsidies for single women provided to each of the four women. His case came to light after a 31-year-old woman, who is alleged to be one of his wives, was fined for driving with a face-covering veil that obscured her vision. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has moved to ban such veils and push immigrants to integrate better into French society. Many Muslims have criticised the law, which would target the tiny minority of women who cover their faces, saying it would stigmatise France’s estimated five million Muslims. Those who want a full ban on the face-covering veil contend the garment is a signifier of a radical interpretation of Islam that encourages practices such as polygamy. Belgium was also planning a full ban on Islamic garments that cover the face, but the legislation was delayed after the government collapsed last week.

While the deluge of snow brings most of Britain to a standstill it has meant for another busy week here in the valley.

Some of us have even managed to get up the hill to play in it and remind ourselves why we live here.

2010 has started well. There?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s something wonderful about the clean slate a new year can bring. A solitary, slightly loose skinned, satsuma left in the fruit bowl reminds us we better start eating healthily again, and maybe think about putting into play some of those optimistic resolutions!

‘Work Bollocks Your Nut In”
Happy New Year yeah

New for 2010. As well as the excellent weather service provided by meteo chamonix, we are going to be using the ‘front path snow index’ as a guide to snow conditions.

In order to keep on good terms with the postman, keeping a path through the front garden is mandatory. This process also gives us a good idea of how much snow has fallen, and how cold and cohesive that snow is.

After a week or more of precipitation, we can see from this very scientific process that there is a verifiable shitload of snow around, and we can also add that until the temperature goes up again, it’s also very powdery and lovely.

So we’re off skiing.

Is the internet connection being rubbish all over the valley or is it only up North in Argentiere where it’s a problem?

59p stethoscope on iPhone proves a hit

Clipped from The Independent on Monday, December 14, 2009, 07:20 PM
By Jeremy Laurance | 392 words

The stethoscope, the 200-year-old accessory without which no doctor is complete, could soon be replaced by the humdrum mobile phone. A computer scientist who wrote a program that turns an Apple iPhone into a stethoscope has made a major advance in medical technology and created a sensation among heart specialists.

The application, developed as a “bit of fun”, has become a runaway success and been downloaded millions of times by users across the world. Cardiologists say the software has saved lives and brought specialist expertise within reach of patients in remote parts of the world. Heart sounds can be recorded and emailed to doctors anywhere for an expert opinion.

Peter Bentley, a researcher who developed the application in the computer science department at University College, London, said he was amazed by the response. “The idea began as an experiment,” he added. “I had a new, popular science book out last year and I wanted to see if I could tell people about the book using a free iPhone application that did something useful. “It was intended as a fun toy but to my astonishment it was downloaded by several million people all over the world in the first six months.

Then I started receiving emails, phone calls and visits from cardiologists all over the world. They said it worked better than commercially available digital stethoscopes. They were tremendously excited. One flew over from the US just to discuss it with me.” The cause of the doctors’ excitement was that the audio quality from the iPhone was far superior to that from digital stethoscopes.

Mobile phones are a huge market compared with digital stethoscopes, and economies of scale mean they are made with better hardware. Responding to requests from specialists, Mr Bentley extended the application to allow heart sounds to be recorded, emailed and analysed. The application costs 59p to download, but cardiologists say it does a better job than equipment costing thousands of times as much.

Glenn Nordehn, a US cardiologist researcher and specialist in digital stechoscopes at the University of Minnesota, said: “This is the best thing to come around in terms of medical equipment for a very long time. [His] closest competitor charges about 3,000 times as much” Mr Bentley is now working on further iPhone applications, such as an electrocardiogram reader. “This is the way everyone wants to go,” he said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/59p-stethoscope-on-iphone-proves-a-hit-1839885.html

For real. Annecy Plongee is a dive shop and school operating on the Annecy lake in the Haute Savoie. They also have a sale on for some nice dive gear, in case the person you’re buying a present for is into scuba diving.

ANNECY PLONGEE SARL

6 rue des Marquisats
74000 ANNECY

T?É?í?Ǭ©l : 04 50 45 40 97
e-mail : contact@annecyplongee.com

LE LAC D’ANNECY

Lac d’origine tectonique et glaciaire, son origine remonte a la fonte naturelle d’un glacier il y a plus de 20 000 ans.

* Le lac d’Annecy a b?É?í?Ǭ©n?É?í?Ǭ©fici?É?í?Ǭ© il y a plus de 25 ans d’un syst?É?í?Ǭ®me de collecte d’eaux us?É?í?Ǭ©es.Puis par la suite la construction d’une station d’?É?í?Ǭ©puration la plus performante d’Europe qui permet de traiter plus de 30 000 m3 d’eau par jour est venu v?É?í?Ǭ©ritablement le prot?É?í?Ǭ©ger. Aucune pollution ne vient donc se d?É?í?Ǭ©verser dans le lac ce qui en fait “le lac” le plus pur d’Europe.

* Peuplement piscicole: omble chevalier, cor?É?í?Ǭ©gone, truite, perche, brochet et lotte, gardon, chevesne, ablette, tanche, br?É?í?Ǭ®me, carpe, blennie fluviatile, br?É?í?Ǭ®me bordeli?É?í?Ǭ®re, goujon, ?É?í?Ǭ©crevisse am?É?í?Ǭ©ricaine.

* Activit?É?í?Ǭ©s aquatiques : Baignade et engins de plage, plong?É?í?Ǭ©e subaquatique, navigation (plaisance et tourisme), motonautisme, voile, aviron, ski nautique, planche ?É?í?Ǭ† voile, cano?É?í?Ǭ´, kayak, etc.

Surface moyenne du plan d’eau 2 650 ha
Longueur maximale 14 600m
Largeur maximale 3 100m
Altitude du plan d’eau 446,9m
Profondeur maximale

Grand Lac (= bassin Nord) : 64,7m

Petit Lac (= bassin Sud) : 55,2m
Profondeur moyenne 41,5m
Volume 1 123 000 m?É‚Äö?Ǭ?

* Particularit?É?í?Ǭ©s :
Prise en glace extr?É?í?Ǭ™mement rare, temp?É?í?Ǭ©rature descendant rarement en dessous de -4?É‚Äö?Ǭ?C.

As a follow up to the earlier news article entitled “Ski Sunday is back on BBC 2 13th Dec 2009″ there is also a way to get BBC iPlayer working here in France without having to pay for a UK Proxy. The only requirement is that you use ‘Firefox’ as your internet browser, and if you are not already using this then you should be regardless of whether you want iPlayer or not!

Get Firefox here:

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

Next, follow the steps at this helpful website and then bobs your uncle you can watch BBC iPlayer here in Chamonix:

http://hurwi.net/blog/?p=28

Enjoy ski Sunday!