Morts Musings

By guest writer: Elena Price

Sideboards and dressers were extremely popular in the 1970s, but lost their appeal in later years. However, they have recently been making a come-back and are now seen as stylish, must-have pieces of furniture for the dining room.

A dresser is a tall piece of furniture, which usually has a base which has cupboards or drawers, whilst the top section has shelves where you can display your crockery. A sideboard is a piece of furniture which has drawers, cupboards or compartments in which you can store your tableware, and has a flat surface like a table. However, you can also often buy a matching top unit to place on top of the sideboard, making it look like a dresser.

Sideboards and dressers are incredibly practical pieces of furniture, allowing you to store plates, glasses, cutlery and other tableware in your dining room, leaving your kitchen cupboards free for other things.

We’ve put together some hints and tips to help you to choose the perfect sideboard or dresser for your dining room.

Measure up before shopping

Before you start searching for your new furniture, decide where you would like to put it and measure up to see how much space you have available. Remember to make sure that you will have enough room to open the cupboards or drawers. If you are buying a wooden dresser or sideboard, make sure that you don’t place it in direct sunlight, as this can cause fading, or next to a direct heat source, such as a fire or a radiator.

Choose high-quality furniture

Your sideboard or dresser is likely to be used fairly regularly, so it’s important to choose one which is well made so that it will last for years. If you are thinking about buying a wooden sideboard or dresser, look for one which is crafted either entirely or predominantly from solid wood, as it will last longer than one built from cheaper materials such as MDF. Some retailers offer wooden sideboards and dressers with protective lacquer finishes. This type of finish will help to keep your furniture looking its best for longer.

Make sure it’s practical

Make sure that your new sideboard or dresser is practical as well as beautiful. Think about what you want to be able to store in it and make sure that choose one with enough space for your tableware. Do you want to be able to display your crockery or glassware, or would you rather hide it away inside of the unit? Would storing your tableware be easier if the sideboard or dresser had adjustable shelves?

Choose the right style

There are many different styles of sideboard and dresser on the market, and it’s important to make sure that you choose one that suits your dining room, particularly as a sideboard or dresser is likely to be a real focal point in the room. Firstly, you will need to decide whether you would like a traditional or a more contemporary style piece and ensure that whichever style you choose will suit the look of your room and fit in with the rest of your dining room furniture.

Sideboards and dressers can sometimes be fairly bulky, so it’s important to choose one which doesn’t make your dining room look smaller or darker. Although some people avoid buying wooden furniture for this reason, you can buy sideboards and dressers in many different types of wood, and you may find that furniture made from a light coloured wood looks perfect. Alternatively, if you want to make your dining room look warm and cosy, try choosing a sideboard or dresser made from a darker wood.

Look for great deals online

Some online furniture retailers offer great deals on sideboards, dressers and other pieces of furniture, and will deliver your item straight to your door.

Saw this interesting piece on the BBC site today. It discusses research which indicates that you’re more likely to get a positive response, when asking for something, if you speak into the someone’s right ear. It also highlights that, given the choice, the majority of people will use their right ear for listening to the phone, or when holding a conversation in a noisey environment, like a night club.

In some senses this news shouldn’t come as a surprise; the left side of the brain processes input from the right ear, and is the side of the brain which tends to be focused more on interpreting speech and language, and, apparently, also tends to be more ammenable to requests.

The studies mentioned in the article don’t seem to use the kinds of sample sets one might hope for, in order to produce truly significant results, but the indications do seem to be that if you’re trying to blag a fag in a night club, you’re more likely to get one if you ask people in their right ear.

A couple of my friends are getting married soon, and while having a couple of jars, with the groom to be, the other night the subject turned to wedding flowers, and their meanings. Flowers have had meanings and symbolism attached to them since time immemorial, and the reasons why some flowers are used for specific events, or occasions, today often goes back to these, mostly forgotten, symbolic meanings.
It’s a subject that my friend (the groom to be) & I soon got round to, (although it’s not normally the kind of topic I’d rush to the encyclopaedia to investigate, it was of more interest to me than hearing the minutia of their wedding plans,) and actually ended up talking about for a little while; I guess it was some common ground, he’s hearing all about this sort of thing from his betrothed, and I’m generally interested in historic traditions, & symbology.

Anyway, I learned a few things I didn’t know, and was even inspired to do a bit of looking around for myself, to find out more, &, good natured, sharing, soul that I am, I thought I’d write a bit about the symbolic meanings of some of the more common wedding flowers.

Carnations

A common wedding flower, partly because of tradition, but also because they’re often a cheaper option than some of the other traditional wedding flowers. Carnations in fact have a wide variety of meanings, depending on their colour. Overall they symbolise love, distinction & fascination, although these general meanings are altered by the carnation’s colour. Pink ones symbolise a woman’s love, red ones admiration, and white ones are often used as a Groom’s buttonhole because they symbolise fidelity & ardent love. Yellow ones, however, should be avoided as they symbolise refusal or disappointment. Carnations should also be avoided if your beloved is French, as in the french speaking world they symbolise misfortune.

Roses

Everyone knows that the red rose is a symbol of romantic love, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, many of the other colours also have meanings attached to them. White roses symbolise purity, but can also indicate honour and reverence, while yellow roses are used to display happiness or friendship, & pink roses are often given as a sign of admiration .

Orchids

Often an expensive choice, but also a distinctive one. Orchids, in general, symbolise beauty, but also have other associations, such as love & wealth, and in ancient Greek society also alluded to virility.


Whatever flowers you want, and whatever occasion they’re intended for, there are a host of places that they can be ordered online these days, for example the Marks & Spencers Flowers section, this allows one to shop around and find exactly the flowers to suite, not only the event, but also your pocket! Isn’t the internet a wonderful place?

So, time for another of my short pieces highlighting some foreign sites which are worth visiting, if you’re lucky enough to be going abroad this summer.
For this one I thought I’d look at Ireland, “The Emerald Isle”; Apart from having some beautiful countryside and a reputation as a hospitable, party loving nation, Ireland also has a wealth of history, and historic sites, to explore if you’re interested in such things. Here are a few of my favourites:

The Hill of Tara

The legendary seat of the ancient Kings of Ireland; The hill at Tara’s history actually dates back to pre-Celtic times, and archaeological remains at the site have been dated as far back as 5000 years ago. Indeed, in Celtic Myth the hill was the capital of the Tuatha de Danann, the magical race who inhabited Ireland before the Celts arrived. During the Celtic period it remained an important sacred site, & rituals, relating to the Island’s High Kingship, were carried out there. It retained this role until the 12th century, when the Normans invaded Ireland, although it’s spiritual significance started to wain, much earlier, with the introduction of Christianity into Ireland. Despite this it has remained an important national & historical icon in the minds of many Irish, and more than once was a focal point for protests against British rule.

Newgrange

Newgrange is an ancient burial mound, reckoned, from carbon dating carried out on the site, to be over 5,000 years old; Some 500 years older than the Pyramid of Giza, and 1,000 years older than Stonehenge. Newgrange certainly seems to have been a tomb of some kind, but much speculation, & debate, continues as to it’s other possible roles in the spiritual traditions of Ireland’s Neolithic inhabitants. One thing which is indisputable is the skill of this enigmatic monument’s builders; For a start it’s scale is impressive, it measures some 250 feet across and rises 40 feet above the surrounding terrain, & has survived the passage of time remarkably well. Perhaps most notable though is the fact that it was constructed with such skill, and precision, that once a year, on the day of the winter solstice, the sun shines through a special aperture, constructed above the tomb’s entrance, and lights up the chamber at the end of the tomb’s entrance corridor. In Irish legend the site was connected with the Tuatha De Danann, the mythical race who inhabited Ireland before the arrival of the Celts, and it certainly pre-dates the Celtic migration; Although the Celts also left their mark on the site, and it featured in many of their myths.

Trim Castle

Trim Castle is Ireland’s largest castle, and is the largest Norman castle in Europe. It was originally constructed in the 12th century, although, like many medieval castles, it was expanded & improved throughout it’s lifespan, and, indeed, had to be re-constructed on at least one occasion. The castle stood on the edge of “The Pale”, the small, Norman controlled region on Ireland’s east coast, and it very much guarded the border between the Norman world and the untamed wilds of Gaelic Ireland. Standing on high ground, overlooking the River Boyne it acted as an administrative and ecclesiatical centre, as well as fulfilling it’s military role, for several centuries.


Despite the Irish reputation for hospitality, many people are looking at camping holidays this year to save a few pennies & beat the credit crunch, and if you’re one of the people who are planning on camping in Ireland this summer it’s worth remembering that it pays to be prepared! With the right camping equipment an holiday under canvass doesn’t have to feel like roughing it, &, if you shop around and buy the essentials before you travel, it can feel like a home away from home, without costing the Earth!
Another important consideration when planning a holiday is getting about. Although it’s an expense which some may be tempted to try and avoid I’d say that going for car hire in Ireland is probably the best way forward; There are too many remote and out of the way beautiful places, which might be difficult, or impossible, to reach when you want to, if you’re relient on public transport; Personally, where possible, I always prefer to be able to set my own itinery! There are many different car rental firms in Ireland, and as with most other things it’s worth shopping around to find the deal, and the price, which suits you best; One good tactic can be checking out the big name brokers, such as easyCar, as these often use multiple suppliers themselves, and so could take some of the hassle out of your search for the cheapest possible car hire deal.

Whatever you decide though, have a great holiday!

According to this BBC article the Chancellor has come out and announced that the UK’s banking regulation system isn’t to blame for the massive failures by the banking industry which lead to the credit crunch.
OK, I get his point that the extraordinary mix of greed and incompetence which the bosses of Britain’s banks exhibited is certainly the primary cause of our current economic woes, but to claim that there was no regulatory failure, when the regulator’s job is to stop the banks getting too greedy and/or incompetent is, to my mind, utterly asinine!
It’s not like we need any more proof that this Govt is a complete waste of space, there’s quite a catelogue of evidence been built up over the last 12 years, but this move frankly takes the biscuit!
What happened to the concept of taking responsibility for one’s actions? The Govt are all too keen to tell us, the people, that we have to be a more responsible society; Well, how about they set an example for the country, fricking hypocrits! Yes, I’m quite cross!

Really, how Darling can be so brazen as to say that there’s been no regulatory failure is totally beyond me, the concept just defies common sense! Either Darling is an utter moron, lacking even the most rudimentary reasoning skills, or, he’s confident that the electorate will forget this epic show of spinelessness by the time it comes round to the elections!

I’ve said it before but the Govt should have dealt far more strongly with the banks at the point when the banks came crawling for a bail out. Sadly though, they seemed to be quite happy to bend over (on the tax payers behalf) and take it from the banks, and now, with this latest announcement, have pretty much given a green flag for the banks to do this all over again, at some point in the future.

Afterall, why shouldn’t they? It’s not like they’ve come out of this farce too badly off, and now that they’re not even going to be watched more closely in future, what’s to stop them?