Schuetz

Until quite recently the choices for breakdown cover where limited to two major companies, the AA and the RAC. Even today they are the two most popular choices of motorists. However there are others creeping in, for example Green Flag from the supermarket Tesco is just one of those bringing more competition to the market.

With the average cost of breakdown cover costing around 35 and the typical cost of recovery being around 70 then it could be worthwhile taking out motor breakdown cover.

When choosing cover there are a few things you should take into account before selecting which provider to go with. For example, the average response time to reach you should be around 20 to 40 minutes so it is worthwhile checking this out.

If you go beyond anything but the very basic cover then it can get quite complicated. However typical things you can watch out for include whether the policy includes home recovery. This means that your car will be repaired should it break down while at home or near your home.

Is the cost of alternative transport included in your policy? For example, if your car cannot be fixed immediately, do you get a hire car or will the company transport you to your destination?

Does the price include the breakdown service getting in touch with friends or family members to let them know you are stranded and will be late?

Also, look out for whether the policy is vehicle based or people based. Some of the larger providers offer this type of cover. If vehicle based, then it is the car that has the cover, no matter who the driver. If it is people based, then the person who is covered could be in any vehicle when they call out the breakdown cover.

And finally, does the cover include the cost of breakdown if you are on the continent? Once you have checked out the cover and you can make an educated choice as to which of the options best suits your circumstances.

Louis Rix is a Director of Netcars.co.uk, one of the UK's leading motoring websites. First established in January 2000, its mission is to become the UK's number one site for used car searches and motoring information. Netcars also provide Car Loans, finance and insurance.

Imagine. The two of you have been in a relationship for years. You are either married, living together or have been long-time companions in some other form of relationship. Suddenly, you start to develop erotic power exchange emotions and fantasies. Or your partner does. Now what? How do you introduce this to each other? What will happen to the relationship? Will there even be a relationship? How will your partner respond to this?

This is hardly an uncommon situation. In fact, a lot of people have this problem; it is not unusual for people to be confronted with feelings and fantasies about erotic power exchange in a later stage of their lives. It may be these feelings have been there for a long time, but have been suppressed. Or they "just came out of the blue," so to speak. Since it is hard to determine what exactly triggers these emotions, it can happen in any stage of your life. And, many people find it difficult to find an outlet for these emotions, especially when they already are in a relationship. People are afraid of being rejected, or just called crazy. They may be afraid their partner may not be willing to share their feelings. In fact, it is entirely possible the partner already has rejected it.

You may be kinky, but you are certainly not insane

First of all: whatever your emotions are, you are not crazy, you are not alone and these feelings are perfectly normal, even if what you fantasize about seems extreme. Scientists estimate between 15 and 30 percent of the adult population has fantasies about erotic power exchange in some form. Next, these emotions - dominant or submissive - are very hard to suppress or ignore. Sooner or later they have to come out. Ignoring them may seem a short term solution, but in the long run it is not. You may be "kinky," but you are perfectly sane.

The best advice is to talk about these emotions, no matter how difficult this may seem to you. If there is mutual trust and respect between the two of you, there should be no reason to be afraid. This may sound rude, but if you seriously think there is not enough trust, understanding and respect in your relationship, well, you may have to consider what kind of relationship you are in.

Next, do not overdo it in the beginning. It may be that you have cherished your fantasies for several years, before coming to the point where you want to talk about them. Remember that everything you are going to talk to your partner about is probably entirely new to him or her. Your partner may be open minded, but you should give him or her sufficient time to get used to this new situation. Another wise thing to do is to prepare yourself. Before you start talking, try to identify exactly what it is you want to talk about. Try to acquire some more general knowledge about erotic power exchange, so you are able to explain the phenomenum and not just your own emotions. It is usually very helpful to have some general information on the subject available for your partner, so he or she can form an independent judgment, based on your emotions, plus objective, outside, general information. Printouts of our FAQ sections and this document will probably be very helpful at this point. And there are several good books.

If you are the partner on the "receiving end," the best advice is to be open. Of course, this new information may trouble or even scare you. That is very understandable. If it does not, well then both of you may share quite a lot here and there is much to talk about. Still, if your partner does not do it, see to it that you get yourself informed.

Coming out

What you are looking at are, in fact, two different things: one being the general "coming out" and the other being the relationship with your partner. Although this may sometimes be difficult, try to separate these two topics. Do the "coming out" first and than look at the perspectives for your relationship. This will require time, patience and mutual understanding. A coming out situation has been described as difficult to most people. Coming out usually is preceded by a period of uncertainty, and sometimes very strong feelings of loneliness and fear. That is what makes coming out so difficult. Even when the coming out process has started, it may take some time to get rid of these hidden fears and uncertainties. People in a coming out phase are usually very vulnerable and overly sensitive to even the slightest indication of possible rejection. That makes it hard to talk to them.

Another form of behavior, typical to coming out, is to drain yourself completely. Once the waterfall of words finally starts, it looks like the entire dam is giving way and the overwhelming flood can not be stopped. To the partner on the receiving end this is very difficult and it may feel like a blizzard coming at them. It is very wise to try and do this in small doses at a time.

A third factor you should try to take into account here is something that a lot of people, attracted to erotic power exchange, tend to do. This is called shopping list behavior. What happens is that novices probably have had one particular fantasy for years and the first thing they want is that fantasy to be carried out exactly as they have envisaged it, including every little detail. This of course is first of all almost always impossible. Secondly, it does not leave any room for your partner, who may have other thoughts about this. It usually kills the situation, before it even started.

The last factor we should mention here is over prioritizing. A lot of people tend to over prioritize their (newly discovered) power exchange emotions and put them in front of everything else. Although this is very understandable, it is also very impractical and may make things rather complicated. Please check our FAQ-section and the Stages of Development for further information on this.

A playmate outside your relationship

Quite a few people will tend to look for what they call a "play partner" outside their relationship. They do so in order to avoid possible rejection by their partner. Sometimes this is done based on mutual consent between the partners. To some people this may be a solution, especially in those cases where one of the partners is incapable of following the other. However, there are some major risks involved here. Although some people tend to make a difference between erotic power play and a relationship, in fact there is no such difference. The power exchange you will have with your play partner, will without doubt lead to a very intimate exchange of emotions and will create a very strong bond. The other partner may feel left out and since it may be hard to share all these feelings and emotions on an equal basis between the now existing threesome, the risks and dangers towards your "prime" relationship are both real and immense. Although people will often indicate otherwise, very few people can live with a situation where their mate or spouse shares very intimate feelings and emotions - let alone the physical part of all this - with somebody else.

If you have trouble working out the erotic power exchange feelings between the two of you, the best advise is get help. Most modern day therapists, marriage counselors, psychologists and sexologists will not have any trouble to discussing the subject of erotic power exchange and role play. They will also understand the risks and problems involved and they will have an open-minded discussion with both of you and will take an objective attitude towards erotic power exchange. If yours does not, simply find another one. And do check the local bookstore. There are a lot of books around to help you out. Finally, you may want to talk to some people from a local BDSM-group who are experienced and can help you.

Author Hans Meijer (54) is a former Dutch journalist, now heading the Powerotics Foundation, an organisation dedicated to providing quality information about alternative lifestyles.

Janice and Thomas had the perfect marriage, everyone agreed. Both successful, good looking, healthy and happy individuals, they enjoyed vacations together and worked well on their business together.

Janice thought her life was perfect. Their business was doing well, at least according to the numbers Tom was giving her. But things started seeming a bit odd.

The first thing that happened was a strange thing to be suspicious of Tom cleaned the car out. Usually his car was a mess of fast food wrappers, files, and old water bottles. One day when he came home, it was clean. This was odd, but nothing to write home about. The next thing was the new clothes. Tom had always worn the clothes Janice had bought him in a rather boring way, and suddenly he was buying polo shirts and wearing striped shirts under sweaters with the bottom of the shirt sticking out.

Janice wasnt normally a suspicious person, but everything felt wrong. While surfing the internet, she ordered a couple of small spy cameras. She thought she was being overly dramatic but figured that shed video tape a couple of hours of Thomas boring life and feel reassured. She didnt want to be one of those women who ignored all of the warning signs and let bad things happen to them.

She chose cameras that looked like other things her favorite was the book camera and put one in Toms home office, one in the suddenly clean car, and one in the front of their office at work. Then she went away on an overnight business trip with her secretary.

When she came back and looked at the tapes, she didnt see much. Mostly sleeping, eating pizza in his office while he worked for dinner, and working. She felt better. Over the weekend, she was going to help her sister with her nephews birthday party she was spending Saturday night at her sisters and Tom would arrive on Sunday with the cake. Just as an added reassurance, she reset the video cameras, and didnt think about them.

She removed the cameras on Monday, but actually forgot to check the tapes until a week later, when Tom was late coming home from a business meeting. It was like watching really boring reality TV for the first while, until she watched the car tape. Tom was having an affair with their secretary!

Janice would never have found out without the surveillance cameras, because she would never have suspected their married secretary. With the videos as evidence, she and Tom decided to go to marriage counseling and worked things out.

James Fenske

http://www.cameraspytech.com

How to learn Business English

The Automotive Industry is truly global now, with many alliances, shared platforms, and certainly thousands of air-miles! Increasingly Japanese and Koreans are having to communicate in English with their counterparts in the US, UK and Europe. English is a global language the other day I was driving along a British road, with a Turkish guest who was talking on his mobile to a Vietnamese colleague in France about a project for a French Customer built by a German Company: they spoke English.

I have sat in numerous meetings with overseas colleagues, discussing various international projects, only to watch my colleagues struggle with communicating ideas in English.

So we have established the need its very real and immediate what is the solution? There are a number of things that an employer can consider when looking to train his people to speak, write and understand English as she is spoken in the international marketplace:

1. Lessons in the workplace.

These have the advantage of being flexible, on-site, and relatively in-expensive, and that several people can be trained at once. The disadvantages are that students are readily distracted, being on-site, or that they are not taught by a native-speaker, and certainly that there are significant gaps between sessions, with little opportunity to practice.

2. Lessons in an English school.

Attending these, often in their own time, employees show commitment to the learning process, and are taught (often by native speakers) in classes of varying sizes and abilities.

3. Teach Yourself.

This route takes real commitment, but lacks flexibility you learn what is on the tape and where do you practice?

4. Learn in a foreign country in a language school

There are many language schools out there, in various parts of the UK, where students can learn in varying group sizes, and even one-to-one. Students generally stay with host families or in hotels and guest houses when not in lectures / classes.

5. Learn in a foreign country in a teachers home

We offer this service - whilst a little more expensive than all the other options, the student has individually tailored English teaching, one-to-one, with a native speaker. Plenty of conversation practise, individual attention, learning in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere.

Andrew is a qualified TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher, with 15 years experience of the global Automotive Industry as a Sales manager with an International component and systems supplier. For more information about learning English with Andrew at his home in the UK, visit the Lets Talk 2 website.