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Building Cultural Sensitivity Through Classroom Technology

When I was a young kid, education was had little more appeal to me than the black and white text and the superficial, smiling faces of the cartoon illustrations in my Maths text book smiling back at me. The truth is, everything that I ever studied in a text book, regardless of the context of the subject being taught, never seemed to have any real world application (with the exception of modern history, of course).

As a student, one thing I appealed for was a little dose of reality. Something I could take out of my logic-building subjects and apply within a real world context, and shape a macro-conscious understanding of the world that we are all born into.

It may seem a little strange that I think this way, but I know I’m not the only one out there. Throughout life’s journey, we begin to meet a lot of different people, from different countries, with different backgrounds, ideals and opinions. For example, upon my most recent trip to America, I shared a cab with a middle-aged man from Florida, in the sunny South. When I told him from Australia, after setting aside the quizzical and humorous trivialities, he proceeded to ask me about our culture. One thing that got my attention was, "Hey, don’t you guys still have cannibals to the north or something like that?"

I did nothing but stare back in astonishment at what I had just heard. I sat there thinking,"is this guy for real?" but as it turns out, he was. Anyway, after settling a gross misconception about the cultures residing in Australia, it made me think, what do they really teach people in schools? I mean, I for one, was brought up to believe that people in the deep south of America were all ‘rednecks’. After seeing it myself however, I then realized the folly of my original assumption. In fact, I felt stupid. The people in the deep south of America were lovely, their hospitality amazing, their personalities humble and unassuming. It made me think hard to myself, was I at fault, or was it because my school had never instilled me with a little bit of cultural sensitivity. It must not be misconstrued that I am inferring to race, because I’m not, I’m just illustrating the point that at my school in Australia, we were never really given any true insight into the surrounding cultures of the world because we never had the resources.

I reckon, with a little dose of reality, my subjects could have had a more gravitational impact on me by keeping me engaged via a real-world contextual adaptation of the subject matter.

After trawling the web recently out of part curiosity and the other part boredom, I came across this little gem: the interactive whiteboard.

If you’re not familiar with the technology, a fair summary of its function and purpose is that it is an interactive touch panel, with the ability to run interactive ‘lessons’ in which the student can use their sense of touch to navigate, have fun and most of all, learn. So, how does this type of technology illustrate my above point? Well, I came across this unique yet bizarre application of interactive whiteboard technology.

An interactive whiteboard lesson, mathematics, to be exact, introducing young students to pictures of the real world around them - parts of which, they may never have known even in their wildest dreams! Not only are students building upon powerful, essential mathematical logic, but they are also tacitly learning about the housing situation in Mozambique, the types of brick houses that they have in Uganda, and the types of communities in South Africa. The children engaging with this marvelous technology are subconsciously adopting a sense of cultural sensitivity at a young age via the impactful medium of touch-sensitive information technology.

So what does this mean? Well, aside from the obvious value of children being able to engage with their subject matter, it also brings about the destruction of trans-continental apathy. When they see similar images on the news, the pictures that they see will already tell 1000 words because they’ve established a geographical and cultural understanding of their surrounds.

Man, did I ever wish I could have been introduced to that type of thing as a kid!

What are your thoughts? Do you see the integration of cultural learning into mainstream subjects via technology beneficial for the development of values in schools? Or do you see this type of learning combination as an impediment on traditional educational methods?

Posted by Mark 

Interactive Whiteboards: Do They have a space in the classroom?

If you’re yet to familiarize yourself with this emergent facet of modern day education, interactive whiteboards (IWBs), are fast becoming a pedagogical tool in educational environments such as junior schools and high schools.

The decision to fund the use of the interactive whiteboard in the classroom is an expensive one, after all, it’s not your traditional melamine, easily erasable whiteboard we’re talking about here. The decision to introduce the touch sensitive interactive whiteboard to the classroom comes as a result of the demand for a more engaging and ‘hands-on’ way of learning.

This sounds like another fad, right? Well, not really. As with all emergent technology, there will always be divided parties for and against it. With interactive whiteboards however, the latter party seems to be small in numbers. The truth is, many junior school and high school teachers are becoming more and more supportive of the introduction of IWBs because the benefits grossly outweigh those of the traditional form of education.

Overhead projectors, Chalkboards, Flimsy photocopied print-outs... They’re all becoming archaic in their educational purpose and, and with the interactive whiteboard in the throes of strengthening its grip on K-12 education, fast becoming obsolete.

Interactive whiteboards are a multi-channelled solution to learning in the dull and drab classroom. The question must be asked however, will the permanent inception of these new learning tools into the modern day classroom hinder on a child’s imagination or their ability to pair elements of logic without the guidance of an electronic learning oracle?

And what about the academic merit of the teacher in the classroom? Will the standards drop in teaching, because the head of the classroom no longer has to fall back on their own academic merit, rather, they can consult the great Google bot via the convenience of their interactive whiteboard. Without sounding too sardonic here, there are a couple of interesting points that must be raised when contemplating the application of interactive whiteboards in the classroom.

As mentioned earlier, the benefits of interactive whiteboards grossly outweigh the negatives. In fact, one of the most widely documented benefits of interactive whiteboard use amongst pupils is their motivation and affect on pupils. Lessons become more enjoyable and interesting to students within the classroom, lessons move forward with haste, and there are even recorded improvements within the well-being of students who never before had the confidence to stand in front of their peers and give a presentation. Interactive whiteboards have also proven themselves useful to students with attention deficit disorders with their ability to engage via the educational content and build retention rates, rather than presenting the content in a slab of text on a piece of paper.

When you consider the above points, it seems that in due course, interactive whiteboards will certainly earn a permanent space within the modern day classroom. As technology continues to advance, society’s expectations will advance with it. An interactive education solution to the classroom is well overdue, as was the need to replace the old educational relics like the overhead projector and the flimsy paper print-out. What are your thoughts on the subject?

Posted by Mark 

LED TVs: 5 myth-busting facts you need to know

As always, whenever the market releases a new wave of digital television technology, the preceding batch of televisions, once appraised by all as ‘the next big thing’, seem to fade seamlessly into an abysmal class of redundancy. 

You get the point - but what does this prove? Well, just because a new wave of TV technology has been released doesn’t necessarily mean that its technological predecessors are obsolete in their function and use... And this is the exact reason as to why we should be so careful to unearth the facts from the jargon while advertising tells us that the LED TVs will belittle any other digital TV through its build and function.

Let’s get stuck into some simple truths about LED TVs, shall we? 

1. LED TVs, contrary to popular belief, are not brand-spankin’ new technology. If you’ve ever convinced yourself to believe this, you’re a thoughtless consumer that has fallen subconsciously to a sophisticated marketing ploy. If anyone has ever told you that an LED TV is different to an LCD TV, have you ever considered quizzing them on the subject as to what it is that makes them different? The truth of the matter is, not much at all. An LED TV is technically an LCD TV that’s backlit with light-emitting diodes (LEDs, for any acronym impaired) in lieu of the ‘old-school’ cold-cathode fluorescent lights (CCFLs).

   In fact, manufacturer’s have been using LED technology in electronic devices such as mobile phones and laptops for years. The only difference is that TV manufacturers often sell LED TVs with a huge markup on the price given the sparsity of LED manufacturers. Don’t worry though, it’s only an inevitability that more manufacturer’s will appear, competition will increase, and the price of LED technology will fall quicker than the value of the US economy in 2010. 

2. Do LED TVs offer better picture quality than LCD screens? - The short answer is yes. This is because the light emitting diodes are much smaller in size, and are able to be dimmed independently. LCD TVs on the other hand, are not. The result of this difference is that LED TVs are able to make pictures appear darker and more realistic. LCD TVs, while still offering great picture quality, still manage to leak light when an instant contrast is demanding in the picture. 
3. LEDs aren’t as good for off-angle viewing - I bet that this is something you may have forgotten to consider when looking into the finer points of television viewing.  Well, I can confirm for you, just like their LCD predecessors, LED TVs are poor for off-angle viewing. This is because they are using backlit technology, so vectors of light are not as visible to the human eye when viewed from an oblique angle. Unlike plasma TVs, if you place an LED TV in the middle of a lounge room without considering the placement of your couches, the clarity of your TV viewing may suffer. 
4. Do LED TVs have a longer lifespan than LCD TVs? - Yes, and this boils down to the efficiency of the light emitting diodes vs. the cold-cathode fluorescent lights. LEDs do not consumer as much power, and can run for a longer duration of time. Conversely, LCD technology is being made much more efficient as time progresses, so this nice little chokehold that LED TVs have over LCDs might not even last that long. 
5. Are LED TVs worth paying the price for? - I hinted on this question earlier in the article, where I mentioned that there is a ridiculous markup on LED technology given the availability of manufacturers. LED TVs are great, but be wary of paying superfluous prices for something ‘branded’. You’ll find that when you do your research, a lot of the generically branded LED TVs actually share the same LED manufacturer as their goliath, well-renowned ‘brand’ cousins.   

So what’s the verdict? 

It’s proof of the same old argument: just because there’s a new alternative, doesn’t necessarily mean that the original is redundant. LED TVs are shaping up to be tremendously popular alternatives to plasma TVs, but in contrast to their LCD relatives - in essence it’s just the same thing, different spin. 

The verdict is, don’t fall victim to something just because it is fashionable to have at the time! Do your research and have patience before you commit to a purchase, especially if you're going to buy LED TVs online. Behind every price, there is an explanation. 

Happy TV hunting!

Posted by Mark 

Getting Acquainted With Interactive Whiteboards

An Introduction to Interactive Whiteboards

If you’ve been wondering about the latest phenomenon circulating around the education industry, then you may have come across the term ‘interactive whiteboard’ once or twice. Needless to say, by definition, it’s not too hard to ascertain exactly what it does. But for those who are still unsure, by technical definition an interactive whiteboard is a touch-sensitive screen that works synchronously with a computer and projector.

In the education sector, the interactive whiteboard was recognized for its vital importance as a learning tool for budding young students. The culmination of mental and physical learning stimulation meant that banal learning would be a thing of the past. Through interactive learning, teachers realized that they could alleviate relative attention deficit behavior by engaging the students through this revolutionary technology.

Interactive whiteboards are here to stay. Unveiled in the early 90s, and since evolving to unparalleled technological standards, they’re soon to become an integral part of the modern day classroom.

But just how exactly do they benefit students in class?

It’s a fair question to ask, because as with all new technology, there’s generally a tough period of adjustment before the technology itself becomes a staple part of daily function.

In the classroom, interactive whiteboards are the perfect way to culminate student interaction, digital content and multimedia in a multi-person learning environment. Interactive whiteboards are multi-faceted with regards to their function and purpose.

Interactive whiteboards are subconsciously cognitive; when a student engages themselves in the subject matter on screen, they are also developing their skills subconsciously at the same time. While using interactive whiteboards, students can learn to manipulate text and images, take notes in digital ink, further develop their skills with continued interaction with a graphical interface and operating system, develop web skills and much more.

The fact is, interactive whiteboards affect learning in several different ways. Not only do they raise the bar for student engagement in the classroom, they also encourage enthusiasm in the classroom, team-work and in some cases may even lower the classroom absentee rate - and all because students no longer have to feign their interest over a boring book, they’re instead presented with subject matter that they can see, touch and most of all interact with.

What the future holds for interactive whiteboards   

Given their popularity and proven benefits in the classroom, interactive whiteboards are set to become a cornerstone of learning through their application and development. In 2010 alone, there has been an enormous growth across Western civilizations such as America, Australia and the United Kingdom.

It needs to be acknowledged however, that interactive whiteboard technology is still in somewhat of a ‘beta’ phase. Only until this technology is perfected, and mass produced, will we see it worldwide. In the meantime,

Posted by Mark 

Mudgee Australia: A Colonial Wonder

Familiar for its rural Australian charm, and fertile wine valleys, Mudgee is a historic township located in the central west of the Australian state of NSW.

The origins of this historic township date back to the mid 19th century when European settlers arrived in Australia and asserted their presence in the area. Traditionally, the name ‘Mudgee’ in its native Aboriginal tongue is pronounded ‘Moothi’, meaning ‘nest in the hills’ as coined by the original ancestral owners; being the tribe of ‘Wiradjuri’.

The land within the Mudgee township and surroundings was favoured by early European settlers because of its presence alongside the Cudgegong River, renowned for its fertile soils and wetlands which would prove to be favourable for the development of agriculture, and as history would have it, an influx of wine valleys.

Wine Valleys and Economic Climate

On the topic of wine valleys, the fertile wine harvest of Mudgee has ensured a thriving and booming rural economy which has earned the geographical region of Mudgee major prominence as a rural New South Wales (NSW) tourist destination.

With a well-pronounced wine-making industry, the local economic climate within the township of Mudgee is bolstered heavily around the mass production and export of locally grown wines both Australia-wide and internationally.

It is estimated that the domestic production of wines in the Mudgee region totals approximately $550 million in local economic revenue each year. Not bad, when the population of the township is only estimated to be barely over 8000 people!

Tourism and Attractions

With great wine, comes great tourism, and Mudgee is a simple testament to these words. For a small township, the region of Mudgee actually pulls an estimated tourist population of 20,000+ people on average, annually.

Mudgee is appreciated by both domestic and international tourists for its simple, country charm and colonial decadence. With wine as a staple part of tourism, the region fixates its profits primarily around food and wine with a bountiful supply of local pubs, taverns and restaurants in historic buildings.

The Cudgegong River also acts as a great attraction to families and avid fishermen for those who wish to get out and explore the natural surrounds. If you’re looking to explore some of the town’s colonial charm, then you may want to check out the historic Presbyterian Church - a grandiose site, and certainly an unmissable one when lit up at night! - or even the local train station, erected in 1884 and boasting a marvelous design by architect John Whitton.

There are various other architectural marvels within Mudgee worth noting, such as the Post Office, designed by Colonial architect Alerxander Dawson in 1860, and the local police station and stables.

Mudgee Accommodation

Mudgee’s accommodation options are centered around the lifestyles of the townspeople. The most common accommodation option in Mugdee is the colonial style self-contained apartments and villas, with hotels and motels also available to supplement the demand of tourism in such a small region.

The accommodation industry in Mudgee is highly competitive, therefore prices are usually deemed quite fair and reasonable when looking for mudgee accommodation.

So, what do you know of Mudgee? Feel free to share your experiences of this beautiful township!

Posted by Mark 

The Intriguing Development of Interactive Whiteboards

An interactive whiteboard (IWB) is to be defined as a large display panel that can be hooked up to a computer and a projector. Once hooked up, the projector can transmit the desktop display of the computer onto the whiteboard panel. What’s unique, however, is that the projection of the desktop can actually be controlled via human touch. Users can interact with the whiteboard using either their own finger, a pen or another rounded device.

It’s a form of augmented reality, and it’s taking the world by storm. Teachers are embracing interactive whiteboards as an imperative part of classroom activity.

Interactive Whiteboards in Schools

Since their inception into the market, the innovation of interactive whiteboard products has created a salient point for presentational mediums. IWBs have achieved their success through alleviating the need for interactivity in an otherwise relatively static form of communication. In turn, this has quite flippantly changed the ways in which children learn in the classroom.

Teachers see many positives in using interactive whiteboard products because ‘hands-on’ exercises seem to resonate better with school children, henceforth increasing their retention rates. Conversely, there are also those who are critical of the technology - notably teachers in secondary schools - who perceive interactive whiteboards to be more of a distraction for the children.

General Operation of Interactive Whiteboards

Interactive whiteboards have been designed to be user friendly, with a relatively simple interface and setup process. To set up an interactive whiteboard, you can connect the device to the computer via a USB cable (generally provided with the product, by the manufacturer). The IWB can also be synched up to a computer via a Bluetooth wireless connection.

There is a unique device driver installed within the host computer to enable the Human Input Device (HID), similar to that of a mouse or other external hardware devices. Once the software is installed, the user of the interactive whiteboard will then be able to physically interact with the output on display.

The most common form of interaction with an IWB is resistive touch-based interaction using either fingers or pointed implements, however there are also electromagnetic pen-based, IR pen-based interactive whiteboards available. In some cases, even the Wii remote has been used to operate IWBs.

Where to Find Interactive Whiteboard Resources

Interactive whiteboards have adopted an almost ‘open-source’ approach to their educational application; this is to enable teachers who use the interactive whiteboards to upload and freely share interactive whiteboard lessons with their educational peers. Most interactive whiteboard manufacturers have promoted this feature to maintain maximum levels of engagement via their use in the classroom.

For students learning through interactive whiteboards, this means that they do not face impervious amounts of boredom through the mundane repetition of lessons, thus keeping retention rates high as a result of their interest in the interactive whiteboard activity.

Interactive whiteboard manufacturers, such as Hitachi, have set up online interactive whiteboard resource communities for teachers to share and exchange lessons and ideas for their interactive whiteboards.

With the IWB trend on the rise, and more schools embracing the technology into their classroom, what is being dictated about the future of education? Only time will tell. Still premature in their use, we will continue to see added emphasis on interactive whiteboards as more and more are integrated into their respective schooling applications.

Posted by Mark 

Some Killer Interactive Whiteboard Resources for Teachers

Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) are a revolutionary form of interactive education rapidly increasing in popularity with many educational bodies across the world beginning to integrate interactive whiteboards into their schools.

Interactive whiteboards were initially received skeptically by academics, however after extensive trails in classrooms worldwide and countless studies on the subject - many schools are drawing the conclusion that interactive whiteboards can be extremely beneficial to children given their high levels of engagement.

In fact, interactive whiteboards have become so versatile that manufacturers are now allowing teachers to ‘create their own lessons’ to use on their operating systems, as well as share for free with other teachers.

Interactive whiteboard resource centres

As a result of IWB driven initiatives by the technological manufacturers, the appearance of IWB dedicated online communities has become quite widespread.

Now, there are a variety of online forums and support centres dedicated to the development and integration of interactive whiteboards into the educational community. This means free interactive whiteboard resources for teachers, and a subsequent increase in the number of lessons available to maintain the high levels of engagement expected out of the performance of interactive whiteboards in classrooms.

One such example of an online community dedicated to sharing IWB resources for teachers is the Hitachi Starboard forum, dedicated to members of the community who have adopted Hitachi starboards into their curricular activities.

Posted by Mark 

Famous People who never went to University

Many famous people, and some of the richest people in the world, never went to university. They used their first years out of school to start work, travel, or spend time trying out some of the careers that they had always been interested in. They also used this precious time to create contacts and relationships with people who would help them long into the future.

These accomplished individuals are proof that you don’t have to go to college to be a winner. Even if you attend for a short time, you don’t have to graduate to be a success.

A 2010 Bloomberg study shows that the number one source of CEOs of S&P 500 companies was the ‘school of hard knocks’, in other words, these guys never went to uni, and some never even finished high school!  The number three source of CEOs was Harvard. Go figure.

Many people agree that higher education is not necessary to be a success. According to Jurriaan Kamp, Ode magazine editor “Modern education is a wasted investment. It doesn't deliver what we need the most: creative answers to the challenges of our times... It isn't a surprise that many of the people who've had the greatest influence on our times were—from the perspective of education—failures.”

Woody Allen, famous Hollywood director, is one of the most famous college dropouts. In fact, he was actually thrown out of New York University after one semester for poor grades. He admitted “I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics final. I looked within the soul of the boy sitting next to me.”

John Carmack, founder of Armadillo Aerospace, cofounder of Id Software (the company that sold 10 million copies of Dome and Quake games) dropped out of school at 14 years and was sent to a juvenile home after breaking into a school to steal an Apple II computer. He attempted college when he was older but dropped out to become a game programmer and start his own company.

Winston Churchill, former British prime minister, flunked his sixth year in high school and was known for doing poorly in school. He applied to the Royal Military Academy after school, but failed the entrance exam three times. When he was finally accepted, he graduated 8th out of a class of 150 students. He never attended college.

The Ones Who Returned

However, some swear that the alternative can be much worse. When Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, was asked by Newsweek magazine, “As a young man you worked summers in a slaughterhouse. What did you learn from that.” His answer? “To go to college.” Sometimes, college is a better alternative.

Warren Buffett, billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, dropped out of the University of Pennsylvania after two years attendace. Later in life he enroled in university again to attain his bachelor’s degree and MBA.

As a rule of thumb, all of these people share one thing in common. They all work hard and have had to fight for what they have achieved. The harder you have to fight for something, the more you want it, and the more you are likely to achieve it.

As former president of the United States Thomas Jefferson once said, "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."

Do you have life experience but no degree? Ever thought about enrolling online for a Recognition of Prior Learning Hospitality?  Identify your past and current skills and achievements to get certified hospitality Australia.

Posted by Mark 

How to take good photos with a digital camera

A tool is only as useful as its owner.

With all of the expensive tech streaming out these days, it seems that consumers buy their next new camera before they properly learn how to use the old one. In this article, we give you the most useful tips on how to get the best out of your new/old digital camera so that you can also keep up with the changing technology and make the most out of those hundreds of dollars that you spent.

Below we break down the instruction manual and present it in simple to remember tips that you can use easily on the go.

We have concentrated on the Canon Powershot series for this tutorial. We will be expanding to other models in the future.
Here is an elementary guide for the Canon Powershot A480:

One-step settings
Most cameras have these pre-settings available, which a lot of people don't use.
You can find them in the main menu.
Explore these and learn how to reach them quickly - they are a quick and efficient way to tailor your shot to the environment with one press of a button.

“Take Night Shot”
When taking photos of your friends at night and you want to capture the night sky behind you, don’t use the flash! Use the “Night Snapshot” setting – this will ensure that your friends’ faces, and the twinkling cityspace behind them, is clear and colourful.

“Take Indoor Shot”
Great for taking photos of friends or family inside – at your favorite restaurant, even with limited lighting. Make sure your photos turn out just right for the years to come.

“Take Shots of Fireworks”
This is actually quite a useful one-step button. Makes life a lot easier when you’ve been ‘celebrating’ a bit too much at New Year’s too…

“Take Photos at the Beach”
These guys thought of everything – capture some gorgeous shots.

Pro Tips you should know and take with you to every digital camera

Adjusting the brightness (manually change the exposure)
1. Press the function button, then the up or down arrow until you see +-0
2. Make sure you see “exp” in the corner of the screen
3. Press the arrow buttons to the right or left to test out the effect of an increased and decreased exposure

Adjusting the White Balance (manually change the white balance to achieve natural looking colours in any setting)
1. Select the white balance by pressing the function button, then the up or down arrow to select AWB.
2. Press the right or left key to select an option, then press the function key to apply the change.

Custom Colour
1. Select C in step 2 above and press the menu button.
2. Press the up or down buttons to select an option ie “contrast”, then the right or left buttons to select a value. (The more to the right, the stronger/deeper the effect will be.

Shooting Long Exposures (use a tripod)
1. Select the moon and stars button. Press the right or left button to select SCN.
2. Press the up or down buttons to select the moon and stars button, then press the function button to apply the change.

After setting up your camera for the long exposure shot, select the shutter speed
3. After pressing the function button, press the up or down buttons to select 1”.
4. Press the right or left buttons to select a shutter speed, then press the function button.
5. Make sure your camera is set up sturdily on a tripod, then press the shutter button halfway to check the exposure.

The Canon Powershot A480 is excellent for the beginner to feel comfortable with knowing how to use the multi-faceted functions of a digital camera.
At less than one hundred dollars, it's a no-brainer.
When you buy digital cameras make sure you know more than the guy next to you – read the manual.
 

Posted by Mark 

Taste

A Wine Label Story by Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl has always been one of my favorite authors. Inflicted with the role of the outsider, but still managing as the insider within English society, he spies on and reproduces insidious stories that give insight to the character of the upper crust.

In Roald Dahl’s story “Taste”, a family invites the narrator of the story to their home for dinner, along with a famous gourmet by the name of Richard Pratt. Pratt is a connoisseur of rich foods and wine.

Having dined with the family twice before, Pratt had invariably been able to guess the wine being served without reading the label on the bottle. However on this particular night, the host plots to win this challenge that Pratt will not be able to guess the name of the wine and thus plays for high stakes.
So high, in fact, that the host is willing to bet his daughter’s hand in marriage to Pratt that he cannot guess the wine.   As a result, Pratt takes his time smelling and tasting the wine in order to guess its origin,

“(….) For at least a minute, the smelling process continued; then, without opening his eyes or moving his head, Pratt lowered the glass to his mouth and tipped in almost half the contents. He paused, his mouth full of wine, getting the first taste; then, he permitted some of it to trickle down his throat and I saw his Adam’s apple move as it passed by. But most of it he retained in his mouth. And now, without swallowing again, he drew in through his lips  a thin breath of air which mingled with the fumes of the wine in the mouth and passed on down into his lungs. He held the breath, blew it out through his nose, and finally began to roll the wine around under his tongue, and chewed it, actually chewed it with his teeth as though it were bread.

It was a solemn, impressive performance, and I must say he did it well.”

Slowly, the guest narrows down his choices.

He guesses the wine, to the exact year.
 
Incredulous and horrified, the family retorts and worries about the nature of the bet.

Just at the point of the drama heightening, the house maid appears at the guest’s arm with his spectacles. She reminds him that he had left them, and very loudly proclaims that she had found them in the study on top of the filing cabinet – exactly where the wine had been left to breathe!

Don’t get caught without your spectacles. Make your labels nice and clear. Use food labeling australia.

Posted by Mark