Which office coffee maker?

We're so spoilt for choice nowadays that it can sometimes be tempting to think about giving office coffee and espresso machines like this a miss in favour of the straightforward teabag, which takes no prisoners, and requires no decision, except for how much sugar, milk, honey or whatever else you want to put into your cup of boiling water.

But perhaps we should take a second look. After all, these machines haven't just come about because we're hooked on gadgetry. The modern age cries out for ways of pleasing people with all different kinds of taste. Our workplaces are so diverse, and especially during a recession, so demanding, that we should take the prospect of choosing the beverage that's going to keep us going through the day as a welcome addition to our lives. Better that than to be brewing out of a copper pot over a bundle of sticks you've collected at five in the morning.

So with all this choice, how do we choose? Rather than draw you to particular brands, here are three tips for choosing the right kind of machine for your office - either for you to buy, or to present to your boss as a recommendation for that increased productivity which is the golden egg of all business.

1. Will the machine fit in your kitchen? Check its footprint, and make sure the machine and all associated accessories will happily find a place in your kitchen as well as your standard old fashioned kettle - which you won't abandon just in case you need to make a hot water bottle or just have some hot water handy for a drink the machine doesn't make. If you don't do this, the risk is the machine will lie dormant in your cleaning cupboard instead.

2. Does the machine offer sufficient numbers of flavours and drinks to cater not only for your staff and colleagues but also for any potential visiting clients? Make sure when choosing that you don't skimp on this detail or you may find everyone turning on the kettle instead.

3. Is it easy to procure the drinks sachets and other accessories for your machine? And are they economically priced? Make your choice, but make sure it's going to be easy to stock up, and that it's not going to cost you a fortune - otherwise, again, you'll be buying something which will soon be lying redundant.

Are you looking for used coffee makers? Check out free safe classifieds for some inspiration.

The benefits of Office Vending Machines

The coffee and tea rota is common in many offices throughout the country as a way of sharing the job of making tea or coffee for staff. However, this can result in unnecessary arguments and hassle as many of us have experienced. One way to resolve this is for businesses to invest in vending machines to supply staff drinks. Here we look at the reason why vending machines are a popular choice for many offices in the UK.

Choosing the right vending machine is dependent upon how the business feels about drink quality, efficiency and cost. Cost is obviously the biggest decision that will determine whether a vending machine will be successful in the workplace. Cost per cup guides and length of contract provide a starting point but there are also other factors to consider before making a final decision.

Each working day, employees leave the office for at least 15 minutes to purchase hot beverages or refreshments. Yet research has shown that a quality vending machine would make them less likely to leave the workplace and would be a visible daily benefit at work.

Just think about how much time is spent by people waiting for the kettle to boil and making tea and coffee and washing up. A recent survey by Tetley Tea suggests the average time taken to make a cup of tea is 4 minutes and 27 seconds. Tea consumption rate averaged at 3 cups per day. Over the period of a year, this accumulates to considerable amount of time lost. The advantage of a vending machine is that it dispenses a drink in less than 20 seconds.

Vending machines require no need to buy milk, cleaning products and wash up dirty mugs. All it requires is a contract with a company who will look after the machine for you, service it and stock it.

With a vending machine you often get a variety of hot and cold drinks to chose from. An office will typically have people with differing tastes. Some prefer hot chocolate whilst others prefer herbal teas.

The facts are undeniable. Quality refreshments at work increase employee satisfaction and drive greater productivity. Installing Vending Machines will result in the following benefits:

• Employees Feeling Valued - when refreshments are available, employees feel their needs are recognized and respected, leading to increased satisfaction and productivity.

• Total Workplace Satisfaction - an extensive variety of the most popular brands of refreshments, state-of-the-art snack and beverage vending machines, commercial coffee makers and special promotions throughout the year gives energy to any workplace.

• Conveying the Right Image - the ideal breakroom and meeting-room environment for customers and employees leads to better relationships, higher retention and increased revenue potential.

By David John Martin

How to Really Be Sexy in Lingerie

I remember my first, and last, Erotic lingerie party with one of the largest acceptable sex shop outlets. A friend of a friend (isn't it always the way), was working for them, and a large gaggle of girls congregated at someone's house to giggle over vibrators and try on sexy corsets.

It was the games which annoyed me. I remember one which involved holding a piece of paper on your head, and trying to draw a penis onto a man. I may be prejudiced as I've always hated party games, but this seemed so juvenile, and the antithesis to being grown-up and buying sexy lingerie.

Only such events are never about maturity. My excuse for even having been to one of these parties was I was sixteen at the time. I can't imagine going to one if you're not a teenager, but I know lots of women do. Maybe they're supposed to be liberating, but sniggering over strap-ons is not liberating.

I could possibly have forgiven all of this had the underwear I ordered (yes I know - but after a few drinks everyone felt obliged) was of a decent quality. However, it wasn't, and it fell apart very quickly, and was made out of horrible materials.

Decent materials is in fact one of the most important keys to decent lingerie. It is one of the reasons why I never buy lingerie online (the other reason being I'm a size 16, and it is impossible to know what will actually look good on a website). Even if an item is described as one hundred percent silk, doesn't account for what the lace is made out of, what quality of elastic is used.

One of the keys to feeling, and looking sexy, is feeling comfortable. Unless you are a very good actress, you will never look good unless you feel good. Wearing sexy lingerie is a very tactile experience, both for the wearer and whoever you may want to share said lingerie with. Polyester is not sexy, however nice it may look, because it feels like cardboard.

I would never go to one of these parties again. Not only do I feel too old, I don't see the point. Even if one of my best female friends decided to become a representative, I would not go. I am too old to be embarrassed into playing games, and I don't find sexual aids funny. Fun, yes, but something practical, not something to giggle over.

Sexy is very different to smut. All these kind of parties do is reduce something beautiful into something seedy. Women's liberation has meant we are now allowed to talk about, and enjoy sex. However, it doesn't mean we need to be reduced to the mentality of fourteen year old boys. It should mean we are able to derive pleasure from the beautiful, tactile, sexy experience wearing good quality lingerie can evoke. Good lingerie is about feeling good about ourselves as women, and we should not denigrate this experience.

Articale By Sarah Maple.

I get ready to buy my first car and tips on fooling your parents.

I have just recently passed my driving test on my third attempt (not that it was my fault I failed my first two tests you understand) and I am now looking forward to buying my first car.

When I say ‘buy’ what I actually mean is look for one and then ask my parents to buy it for me. I know that I will be able to get something reasonable because they want me to be safe, not driving around in a 20 year old heap of junk that could fall apart at any given moment.

I have seen the look on my parent’s faces when they see my friends rock up the drive in their bruised bangers, and I know it was a look to be exploited. Of course I realise how lucky I am to have parents who can afford to buy me a car whilst many of my friends worked hard to be able to afford their four (and sometimes three) wheels.

I remember broaching the subject of two wheels with my mother and watching her turn white. I was explaining how motorbikes were not as expensive and that I had been thinking of buying one. After all, I said, it can’t be that hard to get a motorbike licence after learning to drive a car!

Horrified, she told me that people who worked in hospitals had a nickname for those who rode motorbikes, and it was ‘organ donors’. That put me off quickly but I do believe it had the effect I was looking for. They agreed to get me a car pretty soon after that, so here I am now trawling online car dealerships and the local paper looking for suitable rides.

I haven’t got off completely scott free. My father has insisted that I pay for my own tax and car insurance. I guess it was as his own special form of insurance against me choosing anything too flashy. Dad is a hard man to fool.

Now I have the problem of finding a car that I like and making sure that it’s not going to totally blow my budget financially. I am a student so before you ‘tut tut’ at me it’s not as if I have a steady income that I am greedily stashing away. Also, before you tell me I should be getting the bus at my age then I ask you, with a bus to the local town around twice a day could you cope? Probably not!

I have vowed to keep my car clean once I finally get my hands on one. No empty packets of smelly McDonalds or screwed up parking tickets for me. I have already found the perfect leather CD case and mini vacuum cleaner. I bought them at the supermarket yesterday along with a short aux cable so that I can listen to my ipod on the in car stereo system. Ok, I’m probably getting ahead of myself a bit but these boots were not made for walking. More like pushing an accelerator.

By Sarah Maple

People Do More of Online Shopping in Europe but Still Less than Last Year

The results of a survey by comScore show that European consumers have already entered the holiday shopping period craziness with traffic to e-commerce sites growing everywhere in November (by 10% in the UK, 11% in Germany and by 6% in France where the holiday shopping season usually starts later anyway) compared to the previous, non-holiday months.

But while this information may sound optimistic, we should not forget another point here and that one is more than disappointing: the thing is that all the online shopping sites are now experiencing decline in European visitors compared to previous years.

The most pitiful situation is in the UK where online retailers lost 10% of visitors year-on-year. For example, eBay traffic dropped by 20%, Amazon lost 21% while Tesco Stores had 28% less visitors this year than they had in November of the previous year. In Germany e-commerce also saw an impressive decrease in visitors by 7% - even despite of the highest traffic growth in November compared to previous, non-holiday months. But this is not surprising given the fact that in Germany eBay traffic dropped by impressive 18%, Amazon by 15%, and Otto by 10%. The situation is somewhat better in France where online retailers only had 2% less visitors in November 2008 compared to the same period of 2007 with some sites even gaining traffic: for example, while eBay lost 3%, Apple managed to increase its traffic by 7%.

Please read the full article by Svetlana Gladkova at Profy.com

3D Online Shopping - The Future

Online Shopping – A Beginner's Guide

Buying goods and services online used to be a minority activity – the preserve of the geeks and the ‘early adopters’ who are willing to try anything new. But in the last few years, online shopping has become a mainstream activity. In January 2003, the Office of National Statistics reported that online shopping accounted for 6 per cent of all UK retail shopping expenditure. The same source reported that UK businesses sold £23.3 billion-worth of goods and services over the Internet in 2002 – a rise of 39 per cent on the previous year's £16.82 billion. Many thousands of UK residents buy books, music, DVDs and other goods from e-retailers like Amazon.co.uk. A larger number now use services like Tesco Direct, Ocado and Sainsbury, either to save personal time or to have groceries delivered to relatives, holiday homes, etc. The only way to buy tickets from most budget airlines is via the Web. People – especially younger ones – have become accustomed to booking theatre, concert and cinema tickets online, for example.

Find more information here