Advantages: Excellent leisure facilities, good reception staff
Disadvantages: Sullen bar staff, poor service, the no-smoking brigade will be outraged, the sink/toilet scenario in the en-suites, Expensive drinks

...Destination Salford University and was time to deviate from my usual city centre outlets and opt for something a little more luxurious and expensive with a price tag and leisure facilities to match. Apart from anything else, the last time I stayed in the centre, the staff gave me wrong directions to the University and I turned up late for my meeting. This time it was me giving a presentation, and being my third day on the road I wanted something different. I trawled the Internet, read Ciao, and landed on the Menzies Avant Hotel in East Manchester (well Oldham to be correct) and 10.9 miles from Salford; with a 10:30 start, it would do. Trouble is, their website was quoting £120 for a double room, way outside my subsistence rate. Laterooms were offering around 300 hotels on the Manchester search, so it was time for the hotel search... Read review

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Advantages: Comfortable Accommodation at a Reasonable price, Convenient for Manchester, Leisure Facilities, Oldham's only 4 star hotel
Disadvantages: Some service aspects a little disappointing, immediate location not great, tired bathroom

...on the hotel's part. Overall, I was a little disappointed in the hotel, although not overly so that I would not use them again. I am very familiar with their main competition up the road, as I worked for that group for a long time, and I did not see any discernible differences in the bedroom quality despite the fact that the Avant is one star higher. I think the Avant will always be a popular hotel and is suitable to business users to the many businesses on the Oldham-Manchester routes, and indeed will be popular with Wedding guests at weekends. While it is not an overly luxurious indulgent hotel and indeed not in a dream location, it is going to offer generally good accommodation and service for a reasonable price, despite the negatives I have mentioned. Recommended 7/10 www.menzies-hotels.co.uk Menzies Avant Hotel Windsor Road... Read review

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Advantages: Excellent retelling of Roman history
Disadvantages: Lashings of sex, violence and bad language

...series but a strong performance is given throughout. Two other secondary characters return for the second series, Cicero and Brutus, and if there is a glitch in the casting or characterisation it is with these two. Brutus, played by Tobias Menzies, is a frustrating character. Born to greatness he often founders under the pressure of his famous name and the high expectations it places on him, maybe this was the intention but I feel his weakness is overplayed and it's hard to buy into the character. Cicero is another I feel is misplayed. Although well-born Cicero was by no means nobility, he made himself very wealthy and rose to great power and sat as Consul at a relatively young age. These things didn't come easy in Ancient Rome yet the character is played as a slightly foolish coward. Repeatedly manipulated and deceived he continually... Read review

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Advantages: Authenticity, Script, Acting, everything
Disadvantages: not likely to be a third season, DAMN!

...and Pharoah of Egypt. The box itself and discs are very well done and give a clear distinct impression of quality. The Cast ------------- Kevin McKidd ~ Lucius Vorenus Ray Stevenson~ Titus Pullo Ciaran Hinds~ Julius Caesar (Season 1; cameo in Season 2) Polly Walker~ Atia of the Julii James Purefoy~ Marc Antony Tobias Menzies~ Marcus Junius Brutus Lindsay Duncan~ Servilia of the Junii Indira Varma~ Niobe (Season 1; cameo in Season 2) Max Pirkis~ Gaius Octavian (Seasons 1/2) Simon Woods~ Caesar Octavian Nicholas Woodeson~ Posca Kerry Condon~ Octavia of the Julii David Bamber~ Marcus Tullius Cicero Lee Boardman~ Timon Michael Nardone~ Mascius Chiara Mastalli~ Eirene Lyndsey Marshal~ Cleopatra Zuleikha Robinson~ Gaia (Season 2) Camilla Rutherford~ Jocasta (Season 2) Allen Leech~ Marcus Agrippa (Season 2) Alex Wyndham... Read review

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Advantages: Good and imaginative descriptions
Disadvantages: Some unsupported interpretations and speculations

...I am of two minds about this book by Gavin Menzies. I find it absolutely fascinating to read some of the speculations and interpretations that he puts on different maps and findings. I find it credible to believe that Chinese fleets of the early 1400s would be trading in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean, making regular journeys to places as far as Africa, and perhaps reaching the Pacific Coasts of North and South America a few times. However, I don't know what to think of such issues as Puerto Rico not only having been discovered by Chinese Fleets, but that based on this information, the Portuguese would have colonised areas in the Caribbean a generation prior to Columbus' journey - there seems no credible reason why Prince Henry the Navigator, being given such acclaim in history as he has been, would not also be credited... Read review

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Advantages: A remarkable eye-opener on a neglected subject
Disadvantages: I'm bracing myself for the academic backlash...

...If Chinese history has ever seemed a closed book to you, this remarkable work of history may be a means of enlightenment. Menzies (a former Royal Navy submarine commander turned historian) has compiled a work of considerable weight in favour of a revolutionary theory: that the world was circumnavigated and explored in detail not by European but by Chinese explorers over 70 years before Columbus set sail for the New World. 1421's title referes to the year when, according to Menzies, the Emperor Zhu Di launched a vast armada with the modest aims of exploring the unknown regions of the world and bringing all such discovered lands within the realm of the Chinese trade and tribute system. This distinctly Chinese form of soft colonialism was already well established in the Pacific region, India and East Africa by the 15th Century... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Wonderful read, well-researched
Disadvantages: None

...In the 1400s, China was a powerful, seagoing nation, with a massive empire. However, China's empire was not one based entirely on conquest it was much more subtle than that. Although China used the might if its army and navy when it felt it was required to make a point, it was much more interested in utilising diplomacy and trade. In his book "1421, The Year China Discovered The World" Royal Navy trained navigational expert Gavin Menzies explores the controversial idea that China sent out massive fleets of gigantic ships to explore the world in an attempt to bring other nations into its sphere of influence by trading peaceably with them. Menzies describes how the voyages took some two years to complete and that during that time the fleets were able to map out the world in very accurate detail. Far beyond the capabilities... Read review

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Advantages: Generally doing a good job
Disadvantages: Room for more clarity. Safety of non-English speakers compromised

...It only struck me after becoming a Schools Cycling Instructor that I had been carrying many misconceptions in my head relating to rules of the road, and in particular, road signs. It also strikes me that if you passed your driving test many years ago like me, and have never been banned from driving (possibly requiring a re-test), that your knowledge of the UK Highway Code probably lies frozen at some distant point in time. Apart from being shown pictures of road signs along with a few other questions, you’ve also never had to sit the theory part of the current driving test. OK, own up, who has a copy of the Highway Code at home? Hmmm, thought so. We all like to think that we know what various road signs mean, and to a certain extent, thanks to their pictorial nature this is at least partially true. However, the more I... Read review

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Advantages: Speed camera warnings, accident blackspot warning, gets you there
Disadvantages: annoying audible in average speed camera area

...I bought a road angel navigator 6000 a little over a year ago now, i got it second hand for £50 as it had no sd card that contain the maps included, i was quite happy as my friend had one of these with the sd card so i figured i could just make a copy of his card, insert it and away i go. This is what i did and hey presto off we go no problem at all. To be honest i don't actually find the 6000 to bad although i notice a few people have come up with some horror stories regards the software not giving them the correct information. Its a simple basic machine that does what it says it does. I have used it on several occassions when travelling round glasgow, edinburgh and birmingham and find it to be of satisfactory use. Ok so there are a few bad points to it but you almost come to expect this with everything in this day and age... Read review

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Advantages: Interesting look back on road haulage in the 1950s
Disadvantages: Not really any

...Whilst wandering around the shops of Shrewsbury, we decided to look at the Scope charity shop. I noticed that they had started selling a range of new DVDs produced by a company called Delta, of Orpington in Kent. (you can contact them at 222 Cray Avenue, Orpington, Kent, BR5 3PZ or via www.deltamusic.co.uk) Delta are marketing the films produced by the British Transport film unit. The first one I bought (I'll be going back for more!) is called 50s Road Hauling. The first film on the DVD is called Dodging the Column and was produced on 1952. (You'll note that the person who thought up the title has the same irksome habit of producing appalling punning headlines as I do. Sorry. But we just can't help it. Apparently for a time the road haulage industry was privatised, hence the British Transport Film unit and the use of the Lion... Read review

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