Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

If its a beach holiday, a perfect hotel, the most gorgeous beach and weather. And for a ski break, the chalet has to be perfect.

Favourite places to visit?

Anywhere in Asia. I also love Mauritius and adore Europe and get a kick out of Paris, Capri and Florence. Travel inspires me hugely. Ive just spent two weeks in Mumbai and Im going back in March as an ambassador for the Britains GREAT campaign. The people there are extraordinary and its so different to what were used to. Its noisy, fast, colourful and vibrant. But of course it has its problems and the poverty is awful.

Mauritius (Fotolia/AP)

Best ever holiday?

I cant pick one. Theyve all been good, whether it be to Careyes or Tulum in Mexico, or Mauritius.

How do you most like to spend your time away?

When Im on holiday, doing absolutely nothing. Usually Im so busy at work, juggling hundreds of phone calls, meetings and running to catch flights. So essentially a holiday should be a break from all that. I want to unwind and chill out, whether Im up in the mountains somewhere or by the sea.

Your most adventurous trip?

Bhutan. I went around seven years ago and it was an extraordinary, unique place. I hiked up to the Taktsang Monastery (Tigers Nest), which is perched high on a cliff-top and believed to be the birthplace of Buddhism in Bhutan. I did a lot of meditating while I was there.

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Kelly Hoppen's Travelling Life

The decorative lights that brighten your homes and spirits this holiday season can also pose the risk of causing home fires.

It is a lesson one Metairie family learned after their home went up in flames several weeks ago. Although the family of three made it out safely, they found out the hard way that everything can be gone in a split second after an electrical fire that started after plugging in holiday lights.

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Last month Marc Gervais and his family were getting into the holiday spirit and plugged in decorative lights outside their home, but while they slept things heated up.

"About 1:30 in the morning my neighbor comes beating on the door, I run to the back door, which was right back here, and actually saw this bright glow, I opened up the door and the wall was engulfed in flames," Gervais said.

Now the home they built from the ground up is destroyed. Fire investigators determined the fire started outside the home where they had plugged lights into an extension cord connected to an outlet.

"What they figured out was that either the cord was a really bad connection or the outlet could have been bad as well," he explained.

Now as more christmas decorations are going up in neighborhoods around town, they want to help prevent others from having a horrible mishap this holiday season.

"It's Christmas time right now and everybody's doing the same thing and so everybody's out having a good time, you put them down and you don't think anything about it and next thing you know you really should take some precautionary measures, in my opinion, check your extension cords, make sure they're good, make sure they're relatively new, buy new lights," Gervais suggested.

Jefferson Parish Fire Department officials agree and advise throwing away lights that have damaged cords or sockets. They say do not overload electrical outlets or run extension cords under carpets, across doorways, or near heaters, and do not use extension cords that are longer than necessary.

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Decorative lights lead to Metairie house fire, family warning others to be safe

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A playground surrounded by cottages that will house immigrants at a new family immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, on Monday, Dec. 15, 2014. AP / Will Weissert

DILLEY, Texas - The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a former oil field workers' camp in rural South Texas that is being converted into the nation's largest family immigration detention center, as federal authorities brace for another possible influx of mothers and children pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson visited the 50-acre compound featuring 80 tan, two-bedroom, one-bathroom cottages connected by dirt roads and newly laid grass sod in Dilley, about 70 miles southwest of San Antonio.

The first wave of about 30 immigrants will begin arriving in coming weeks and the cabins will eventually hold up to 480 people. Housing being constructed nearby will push capacity to 2,400 by around May.

Advocates say immigrant families are often fleeing drug or gang violence in Central America and should be released to relatives already in the U.S., rather than being locked up. The daily cost of family detention is about $296 per person, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nearly double the average cost of holding adults as estimated by the National Immigration Forum advocacy group.

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Women and children at Dilley will remain until they are deported, released on bond or begin immigration court proceedings that could allow them to stay in the United States. ICE says 70 percent of immigrant families released into the U.S. never showed up for follow-up appointments - part of the reason the agency is adding detention capacity.

Dilly's cottages include bunk beds and cribs that can sleep up to eight, a flat-screen TV and a kitchen - though cooking is prohibited to prevent fires. The cafeteria is open 12 hours daily and snacks can be had around the clock.

There's medical care and counselors, trailer classrooms, library and email access and a basketball court and playgrounds - all meant to showcase the softer side of immigration detention. Yet Johnson stressed that despite President Barack Obama's recently announced executive actions on immigration, anyone who crossed illegally into the U.S. this year remains a priority for deportation.

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South Texas immigration detention center set to open

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DILLEY, Texas (AP) The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a former oil field workers camp in rural South Texas thats being converted into the nations largest family immigration detention center, as federal authorities brace for the possibility that mothers and children may again come pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

Homeland Security SecretaryJeh Johnson visited the 50-acre compound featuring 80 tan, two-bedroom, one-bathroom cottages connected by dirt roads and newly laid grass sod in Dilley, about 70 miles southwest of San Antonio.

The first wave of about 30 immigrants will begin arriving in coming weeks and the cabins will eventually hold up to 480 people. Housing being constructed nearby will push capacity to 2,400 by around May.

Advocates say immigrant families are often fleeing drug or gang violence in Central America and should be released to relatives already in the U.S., rather than being locked up. The daily cost of family detention is about $296 per person, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nearly double the average cost of holding adults as estimated by the National Immigration Forum advocacy group.

Women and children at Dilley will remain until they are deported, released on bond or begin immigration court proceedings that could allow them to stay in the United States. ICE says 70 percent of immigrant families released into the U.S. never showed up for follow-up appointments part of the reason the agency is adding detention capacity.

Dillys cottages include bunk beds and cribs that can sleep up to eight, a flat-screen TV and a kitchen though cooking is prohibited to prevent fires. The cafeteria is open 12 hours daily and snacks can be had around the clock.

Theres medical care and counselors, trailer classrooms, library and email access and a basketball court and playgrounds all meant to showcase the softer side of immigration detention. Yet Johnson stressed that despite President Barack Obamas recently announced executive actions on immigration, anyone who crossed illegally into the U.S. this year remains a priority for deportation.

This must be clear: Our borders are not open to illegal migration, he said.

Dilley opens as officials are closing a temporary family immigration detention center that, at its height, held about 700 people on the grounds of a law enforcement training center in Artesia, New Mexico. It opened in June, at the height of a crush of families at the border, while Dilley begins during a lull.

Link:
Nations Largest Family Lockup To Open In South Texas

The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a former oil field workers' camp in rural South Texas that's being converted into the nation's largest family immigration detention center, as federal authorities brace for the possibility that mothers and children may again come pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson visited the 50-acre compound featuring 80 tan, two-bedroom, one-bathroom cottages connected by dirt roads and newly laid grass sod in Dilley, about 70 miles southwest of San Antonio.

The first wave of about 30 immigrants will begin arriving in coming weeks and the cabins will eventually hold up to 480 people. Housing being constructed nearby will push capacity to 2,400 by around May.

Advocates say immigrant families are often fleeing drug or gang violence in Central America and should be released to relatives already in the U.S., rather than being locked up. The daily cost of family detention is about $296 per person, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nearly double the average cost of holding adults as estimated by the National Immigration Forum advocacy group.

Women and children at Dilley will remain until they are deported, released on bond or begin immigration court proceedings that could allow them to stay in the United States. ICE says 70 percent of immigrant families released into the U.S. never showed up for follow-up appointments part of the reason the agency is adding detention capacity.

Dilly's cottages include bunk beds and cribs that can sleep up to eight, a flat-screen TV and a kitchen though cooking is prohibited to prevent fires. The cafeteria is open 12 hours daily and snacks can be had around the clock.

There's medical care and counselors, trailer classrooms, library and email access and a basketball court and playgrounds all meant to showcase the softer side of immigration detention. Yet Johnson stressed that despite President Barack Obama's recently announced executive actions on immigration, anyone who crossed illegally into the U.S. this year remains a priority for deportation.

"This must be clear: Our borders are not open to illegal migration," he said.

Dilley opens as officials are closing a temporary family immigration detention center that, at its height, held about 700 people on the grounds of a law enforcement training center in Artesia, New Mexico. It opened in June, at the height of a crush of families at the border, while Dilley begins during a lull.

But Royce Bernstein Murray, director of policy for the National Immigrant Justice Center, said patterns are seasonal and advocates and federal officials alike expect crossings to increase again in the spring.

Original post:
South Texas family lockup will be nation's largest immigration detention center

Published: Monday, December 15, 2014 at 10:44 p.m. Last Modified: Monday, December 15, 2014 at 10:44 p.m.

The Terrebonne Parish Council upheld its reputation for strict application of laws regarding servitudes and rights of way.

During tonights committee meetings, the council rejected the third request for a variance from Houma resident Michael Nguyen.

For months, Nguyen has sought a variance to build a gazebo in a drainage retention pond behind his home on Port Royal Way in the Westgate Subdivision. Since the gazebo would obstruct the parish servitude, the parish zoning board denied his request for a construction permit.

In Nguyens past attempts, the parish cited its zero tolerance policy regarding variances unless some sort of extreme hardship existed. Parish officials said the servitude is necessary for the parish to maintain the drainage pond.

Nguyen addressed the council to again plead his case on grounds that there have already been several docks, decks and gazebos built in or around parish waterways.

Bulkheads are also technically illegal because theyre located within a servitude. Yet bulkheads are allowed in our parish every single day. But my structure is not. Thats a double-standard and, simply put, unfair, Nguyen said.

Nguyen also said the maintenance issue is overstated because in the 10 years since the pond was built it had not yet been cleaned. To help his case, Nguyen requested signatures of support from each of the residents of his neighborhood as well as the one adjacent to it.

Cumulatively, I have over 95 percent combined support signatures, Nguyen said. The people have spoken. Your fellow citizens have spoken. If theres a time to represent the people, there could not be a better time for the council than right now.

Parish officials disagreed.

More here:
Council rejects Houma resident's request to build on servitude

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Feng Shui 2015 by Dr. Simona Mainini: Forecast for the Year of the Wood Sheep (Goat)
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