在台灣叫省錢大作戰

紐約時報教frugal traveller

PULSE | 31.08.2010 | 20:30

London on a shoestring

London's calling...

England's capital is one of Europe's priciest must-see destinations. Nevertheless, our handy shoestring guide should ensure that cash-strapped travelers are able to shop, dine and sight-see with the best of them!

The writer Samuel Johnson famously said that "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life..." Pulse, needless to say, is tired of neither!

Report: Sarah Stolarz

Listen to the shoestring guide to London

DW-RADIO: Pulse

中國買家

近來中國富豪投資海外房產的勢頭越來越強勁，最新的數據披露，中國買家已經成為在倫敦購房最積極的投資群體，在過去12個月裡，英國有10.8%的新開發項目已被中國買家買走。

大陸媒體27日報導，地產公司第一太平戴維斯的倫敦住宅板塊負責人約翰森（Jonathan Hewlett）介紹，在今年初該公司曾促成四五單均價超過200萬英鎊的中國買家購房生意。該公司的統計數據顯示，來自中國大陸和香港的買家佔據倫敦新開發項目買家數量的35%，中國買家已經成為在倫敦購房最積極的投資群體。而仲量聯行英國公司的統計數字則顯示，在過去12個月裡，英國新建住宅中，英國買家占比36.9%，中國買家占比10.8%，位列第二。

另外，由於倫敦是英國一些大學的根據地，越來越多的中國投資人因為子女就學而考慮買房。英國地產代理公司相信，隨著越來越多中國買家在倫敦「入市」，可能會帶來倫敦房價的上浮。

“气味体验” for tubes

2010年08月24日 06:21 AM

乘地铁的“气味体验”

作者： 安娜·玛丽·索罗维奇

1858年，未经处理而涌入泰晤士河的污水曾导致一场大灾难，差点让英国国会移址到汉普顿宫。但是今年我们身边污浊的气味已不能归罪于下水道了。小小香水，大有文章

乘地铁出行已成为“被烧烤”的苦难历程，而在冬天抵御寒风的公共巴士到了夏天就成了火炉——进一步刺激了乘客身上算不上香的味道的弥漫。街道上更是有一群群十几岁的年轻人，他们那洋溢着“青春热汗”的身体一路散发着用Abercrombie & Fitch香水遮掩下的味道——相比这种浓烈的香水气味，我更愿意去闻被它掩盖的汗味。

我竭尽所能地努力将注意力转移到更令人高兴的事情上来,同时也为了分析一下我对都市恶臭的反应，于是我决定参加在英国科学研究所举办的一个讲座，它的主题是“气味的科学”。结果我发现，原来这世上本没有什么不好的气味，我们之所以认为有些气味让人捂起鼻子，那只是童年留下的条件反射而已，也是社会化进程的部分内容之一。

“我们已经形成了发现难闻体味的条件反射，”香水调配大师、本次讲座的演讲者之一的乔斯•玛丽安•维拉斯盖斯(Jose Maria Velasquez)说道。他把乘坐地铁比喻成“气味体验”，堪称其对于此项工作献身精神的极端例证。

对于那些不愿意参与此类体验的人，他举了一个查理二世复辟时期的例子供参考。在那个时候，花花公子们在身上缠绕着撒有香水的丝带，这样他们走路的时候就能产生一个香气扑鼻的空间。我曾有过片刻时间去认真考虑这个除臭方法，但我最终意识到，在伦敦这样拥挤的城市里，类似绑香水丝带的方法会遭致其他人愤懑的非议——也许会碰巧被我漂浮的丝带缠绕到。然而我也不可能回到伊丽莎白时代，手拿一小束花或带个香囊。

在讲座结束后，我偶遇了一位在香水行业工作的朋友，他对于一些不为人知的知识很有了解。当我提起“2010奇臭”这个话题时。他笑了起来，并且告诉我：“早在2001年，奎斯特国际(Quest International，大型香料公司之一)就曾尝试解决这个问题，他们的做法是让地铁里充满香气。”

原来那年伦敦地铁公司尝试通过空气除臭来制造一个更为舒适的旅行环境。在詹姆斯公园大街、尤斯顿及皮卡迪里广场的地铁站台都铺设了一层含有香气胶囊的物质。当上下班的人群走过时，胶囊就能散发出香气。然而，因为一部分人不喜欢这种味道—“哪里来这种讨厌的鲜花味道？”——这个办法就被抛弃了。

也许这些人不喜欢用像香皂和水这种奇怪的、现代的除臭方式来掩盖他们自然的气味。难道他们丝毫不受Lynx香水的影响？难道他们对Tom Ford香水从来都不予理会？

也许他们是斯堪的纳维亚气味艺术家西塞尔•托拉斯(Sissel Tolaas)的粉丝。托拉斯认为，我们已经“丧失了嗅觉”，我们应该忽略“好气味”和“坏气味”所隐含的情感因素。托拉斯是个超级幽默的气味专家。她曾经在参加一个盛装聚会时带着她的艺术作品之一：充满男性汗液的香气。很显然，此举旨在挑战性别的概念。

也许我们之中有支持者——至少那些男性同胞们——已经阅读了加大伯克利分校一个团队出版在《神经系统科学报》(The Journal of Neuroscience)上的研究结果。该研究证明，男性汗液气味可以增强女性的性冲动。另一方面，他们也可能没有将这篇报告读完。因为该研究还发现，女性的应激激素水平，也就是压力荷尔蒙水平，会因男性体味的刺激而激增。(面对满满一车厢高度紧张女性，男人是不能去冒险的，哪怕其中有些女性很让你着迷。)

有可能人们只是在考虑自己的健康问题。尽管尚未发现老年痴呆症和止汗药中的铝含量之间有确定性联系(乳腺癌和止汗药之间也是如此)，但愈来愈引发关注的争论也许会促使一些人彻底停止使用止汗药。

然而对这些人来说，他们还有其它一些柔和而不威胁生命的选择。比如，切半个柠檬涂抹在腋下，将有助于杀死导致体味的细菌，同时也可以避免由于止汗药里的铝与汗液作用而在白色衣服上造成的黄色斑迹。你也可以使用Tom's of Maine、 Neal's Yard、 Aesop以及 Dr Hauschka的除臭剂，所有这些都不含有刺鼻的气味。最后还有PitRok，一种除臭晶体，看起来就像一把雕刻的水晶石魔杖，能够抑制产生臭味的细菌的生长。我有一位擅长乒乓球的男性朋友用过这种产品，他发誓说这是最好用的产品了。

安娜•玛丽•索罗维奇(Anna Marie Solowij)是Vogue杂志的特约编辑。

platonic friend service

《中英對照讀新聞》Rent a friend website launches for lonely in UK 英國成立租友網站，服務寂寞人士

◎羅彥傑

A new service is being launched in the UK for lonely people to hire a "strictly platonic" friend to go to the movies or a restaurant with them.

英國將推出給寂寞人士聘請「純柏拉圖式」友人看電影或陪吃飯的新服務。

The‘Rent a friend’service has already become a hit in the US where more than 218,000 people have signed up to spend time with strangers.

「租友」服務已在美國大行其道，當地超過21萬8000人已報名要和陌生人共度時光。

Now UK members can pay £；15 to join the site and browse potential friends in their area before hiring them out for a friendship session.

現在英國會員付15英鎊就能加入該網站，並瀏覽所屬地區的潛在友人，之後聘請他們來一場友誼活動。

However, don’t get the wrong idea, you really are only hiring a platonic friend to spend time with… if you turn up expecting more you might need to call a lawyer.

不過，別想歪了，你真的只能聘請柏拉圖式友人一起共度時光……如果你最後有非分之想，可能就必須打電話找律師了。

A spokesperson for the site said： "You can rent a local Friend to hang out with, go to a movie or restaurant with, someone to go with you to a party or event, someone to teach you a new skill or hobby, or someone to show you around an unfamiliar town."

該網站一名發言人說：「你可以租一名當地友人一起閒晃廝混，看電影或上館子，和你一起跑趴或參加活動，教你新技巧或嗜好，或者是帶你逛陌生鄉鎮。」

新聞辭典

get the wrong idea：片語，產生誤會、把事情想歪了。例句：My girlfriend will definitely get the wrong idea if I start shopping for baby seats.（如果我開始採買嬰兒座椅，我的女友肯定會想歪了。）

turn up：片語，證明是、結果是。例句：They turned up having done no preparatory work.（結果證明他們沒做過準備工作。）

hang out：片語，閒晃、廝混。例句：Don’t hang out with that guy any longer.（別再和那個傢伙鬼混了。）

瘋英國（Fun in UK）

（中央社記者謝佳珍台北23日電）英國貿易文化辦事處瘋英國中文部落格，即日起至9月15日舉辦徵文創作比賽。透過文字、照片或影像創作方式，分享「我眼中的英國」，第1名可贏得台北倫敦來回機票1張。

這是瘋英國（Fun in UK）部落格首次舉辦徵文創作比賽，也是配合由英國外交部推出See Britain系列影片活動。

英國貿易文化辦事處表示，英國外交部為迎接2012年倫敦奧運的到來，特別製作See Britain系列影片，由30名來自不同國家的各行各業傑出人士談他們眼中的英國。

瘋英國部落格成立於2010年3月中旬，由在英國貿易文化辦事處工作的台灣人和英國人發起。部落格介紹英國旅遊景點、文化活動、時尚購物、創意設計，網址為http://ukintaiwan.blogspot.com/。990823

Uppark

讀者文摘介紹過

The South front of the house at Uppark

A birdseye view of Uppark in the early 18th century by Jan Kip.

Uppark is a 17th-century house in South Harting, Petersfield, West Sussex, England and a National Trust property.

The house, set high on the South Downs, was built for the first Lord Tankerville c.1690 and subsequently sold to Sir Matthew and Lady Sarah Fetherstonhaugh in 1747. Matthew and Sarah redecorated the house extensively between 1750 - 1760 and introduced most of the exisitng collection of household items displayed today, much of it collected on their Grand Tour in 1749 - 1751. Their only son, Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh, added to the collection and commissioned Humphry Repton to add a new pillared portico, dairy and landscaped garden. In the 19th century stables and kitchens were added as separate buildings connected to the main building by tunnels.

On 30 August 1989 the building was devastated by a fire caused by a workman's blowtorch whilst repairing lead flashing on the roof, just two days before the work was due to be completed. The fire broke out during opening hours. Many works of art and pieces of furniture were carried out of the burning building by members of the Meade-Fetherstonehaugh family, National Trust staff and members of the public. The fire left nothing but the walls standing, the upper floors collapsing down onto the lower floors.

Most of the pictures and furniture in the house were saved. The building has since been completely restored with many lost crafts relearned in the restoration process, and it re-opened its doors in 1995.

Trivia

• H.G. Wells spent part of his boyhood at Uppark, where his mother was housekeeper between 1880 - 1893.

External links

• Uppark information at the National Trust
• Images of England — details from listed building database (301802)

2010/8/12 BBC World News 說的Britain's Oldest House似乎不是這海邊處

Britain's Oldest House?

By Julian Richards
Last updated 2009-11-05

Mesolithic Britain was thought to have been inhabited by hunter-gatherers, constantly on the move in search of food; however, the recent excavation of a dwelling in Northumbria reveals our Stone Age ancestors to have been ingenious and elaborate house builders. Julian Richards re-assesses a distant past.

On this page

• The Mesolithic past
• Buried clues
• Ancestral nut roast
• A new understanding
• Rituals and ceremony
• The meaning of home
• Find out more

• Print this page

The Mesolithic past

The Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age, can seem a very remote and 'mysterious' time. It started in about 10,000BC, as the last Ice Age ended. Imagine northern Britain and everything north of this lying under vast ice sheets, with so much water locked up in the ice that sea levels could be 50m (160ft) below those of today.

Animals returned to graze, and with the animals came people.

What we now know as Britain was part of the European landmass in the Mesolithic Age, and was joined to France and Denmark. And the shallow fishing grounds in the North Sea that are now known as the Dogger Bank were then a huge island.

But as the ice melted and retreated northwards, the seas rose, just as they are doing today, and the newly shaped lands became covered first in arctic tundra and then in dense mixed forests. Animals returned to graze, and with the animals came people.

It is thought that they must have been constantly on the move in order to survive...

The people that returned to these newly habitable lands were not settled farmers, but were hunters and gatherers. It is thought that they must have been constantly on the move in order to survive, searching for wild foods such as nuts and berries, and tracking wild animals for meat and skins. We assume that since they were so mobile, they lived in temporary structures that were light, easily dismantled and portable.

Unfortunately, if this is the case, there are unlikely to be many physical traces for archaeologists to find. So, even though there are a few exceptions in Britain and Scandinavia where dwellings of some sort have been found, all that can usually be expected of a site where Mesolithic people lived is a scatter of finely worked and very distinctive stone tools.

Top

Buried clues

Mesolithic footprints on the coast at Howick ©The fact that we have found so little from Mesolithic times is what made the discovery that I heard about last year all the more remarkable. When amateur archaeologist John Davies spotted flint tools eroding out of the edge of a sandy cliff face near the village of Howick, in Northumberland, he reported his finds. When Newcastle University archaeologist Clive Waddington went to investigate, he realised that this wasn't just a scatter of flints on the surface, but the first indications of something deeply buried.

A small exploratory excavation showed that this was a Mesolithic house, dating back, on the basis of the flint tools found inside it, perhaps as much as 10,000 years. When I was told about it, this was what really intrigued me, as even at first sight, this was far more than the expected flimsy structure; it was both substantially built and very early in date. What could this, potentially the oldest house in Britain, tell us about life in the Mesolithic, and would it change some of our existing ideas?

...over many weeks, the fragile structure of the house was teased out.

The excavation was far from easy. The sand was either baked rock hard, in which case all the vital colour differences that distinguished the individual layers simply disappeared, or it was wet - good for the colours but too soft to walk on. Boots were banned; it was either socks or bare feet. But somehow, over many weeks, the fragile structure of the house was teased out. It consisted of a shallow circular hollow, cut into the sand, a small segment of which had disappeared over the edge of the cliff.

Within this lay the structural evidence - a circle of substantial post holes, with charcoal stains in their bases, and a number of smaller stake holes, some angled in from outside the hollow. But what were even more remarkable were all the hearths that lay inside the house, shallow depressions filled with charcoal and burnt nutshells, flecked with fragments of bone, the evidence for 10,000-year-old meals.

Top

Ancestral nut roast

Excavations of the fireplaces revealed some startling finds ©It was the nutshells, those of the hazel nuts that had survived burial due to having been charred, that provided some of the most important evidence for both the way in which the house had been used, and for how long. Some of the hearths appeared to have been used solely for roasting nuts, and the sheer quantity of shells suggested that large quantities of food were being gathered and preserved here, presumably for consumption in the winter when food would have been scarce and hard to find. This was one of the first indications that the house might have been lived in on a permanent basis rather than seasonally, as part of a cycle of migration in search of food.

But there was another way in which the nutshells could provide information about the house. Radiocarbon dating relies on measuring the radioactive carbon absorbed during their lifetime by all living things. A tree, for example, will absorb its carbon throughout its life, with the result that the inner ring of a large tree may be hundreds of years older in radiocarbon terms that the outermost ring that grew the year the tree died. Nuts, in contrast, grew and fell or were picked in one season, so they only contain one year's radioactive carbon. This is what makes them such ideal samples for precise radiocarbon dating.

The house was built in about 7,600 BC and...had been lived in for perhaps as long as 100 years.

Alex Bayliss, of English Heritage's Scientific Dating Division, realised that the house uncovered at Howick offered a unique dating opportunity. There were thousands of ideal dating samples in the form of nutshells to choose from; the resources were available to date up to 20 samples (radiocarbon dating is an expensive process); and the best part was that there was a sequence of hearths from inside the house, one on top of the other, sometime separated by layers of clean sand.

This meant that Alex knew the order in which the dates from individual hearths should fall, the earliest at the bottom of the sequence, and this would help to narrow down the range of each date. Had 20 samples from the interior of the house been dated without knowledge of their order, then the best that could probably have been hoped for would have been to say that the house fell within a 400- or 500-year date range. With the information from the sequence, possible only because the house had been so carefully excavated, Alex was able to state that the house was built in about 7,600 BC and, even more remarkably, that it had been lived in for perhaps as long as 100 years.

Top

A new understanding

A reindeer head-dress found at Star Carr, a Mesolithic site in Yorkshire ©So, does this house, sturdily built of substantial wooden posts, where, according to the dating evidence, several generations of Mesolithic hunters built hearths to cook their meals and keep warm, change the way in which we think about life at this time?

There are clearly places within Britain and the continent of Europe where the natural resources would allow all year round occupation. Howick is one of these, sitting on the coast, with a combination of resources based on the land - such as animals, flint for tools, wood for construction and fuel - and on the sea, which would provide fish, seals, sea birds and their eggs, and shellfish. There is even a nearby source of fresh water, a stream that investigation proved had flowed at the time that the house was occupied.

Mesolithic people were prepared to modify their natural environment in order to improve their hunting grounds.

There is also evidence, exclusively from the British Isles, that Mesolithic people were prepared to modify their natural environment in order to improve their hunting grounds. Some of this evidence has been found on the inter-tidal mud flats of the Severn Estuary, far south of Howick. Here. Martin Bell from Reading University is investigating a submerged Mesolithic forest, where many of the tree trunks are burnt - evidence of the deliberate burning of woodland.

Burning is done to create an open space, a clearing that will then be re-colonised by useful trees such as hazel, and will also attract animals to graze, easy targets for waiting hunters. Elsewhere there is also evidence for the increasing use of the bow and arrow for hunting at this time; many of the very characteristic 'microliths' (literally tiny flints) from this period were used as points or barbs on spear or arrow tips.

Top

Rituals and ceremony

An elaborate child's burial ©There was another weapon in the Mesolithic hunter's armoury - the weapon of magic. Denmark shows great cultural similarities with Britain at this time, hardly surprisingly as it is simply part of the great North Sea area that is sometimes known as Doggerland. Here carved amber animals and engravings on bone have been found, that seem best explained as totems to help the hunter, or to have been used by shamans in hunting rituals.

And deer skulls have been found at a site at Starr Carr in Yorkshire; each of these has the antlers shaved down to make them lighter, and holes have been drilled in the skull so that they could be worn as headdresses. These are not 'ordinary' objects; they have no obvious function, and they can best be explained as having been used in some important and extraordinary ceremony.

A child is buried with a stone exactly the same shape as a tongue placed in his mouth.

So all the evidence, from the sturdily built house to the available resources, and the hints of social rituals and ceremonies, suggest that permanent settlement was possible in Mesolithic times. In Denmark there are sites where, although the houses are quite flimsy, they are close to human burials, some showing signs of elaborate funeral ceremonies.

A child is buried with a stone exactly the same shape as a tongue placed in his mouth. By the side of a woman buried with an elaborate necklace of stags' teeth lies a baby, cradled in the wing of a swan. These signs seem to be an attempt, for the first time, to mark out territory, to establish ownership of a place and its resources.

Top

The meaning of home

Howick house - under construction ©But did people really settle down in the way that we assume that they started to do, with the coming of agriculture, about 4,000 years later? Surprisingly, the evidence from some Mesolithic communities that lived by the coast is that they weren't eating the abundant marine food that lay on their doorstep - so can we assume that people behaved in a 'logical' way, using all the resources available to them and settling down permanently at the first possible opportunity? It is impossible to be sure.

Like so many tantalising glimpses into the distant past, it could not take us deep enough into the minds of the generations of Mesolithic hunters.

Clive and his team built a replica of the Howick House (near to the original), based on the archaeological evidence that they had so carefully observed over the duration of the excavation. For all of us that were involved in its construction (during November, in Northumberland) the experiment was driven by the need to get the roof on, light a fire and get warm indoors. To us, the effort of building the replica meant that it was now 'home', somewhere that bound us to that place and which, had we been hunters and gatherers, we would have filled with food and not strayed far from.

But we were 21st-century archaeologists, we were all used to the idea of 'home' as a fixed place. How was the house used 10,000 years ago? We knew it was a unique structure that had taught us a lot, and suggested that we should not simply think of the Mesolithic as a time of nomads in flimsy tents. Unfortunately, however, like so many tantalising glimpses into the distant past, it could not take us deep enough into the minds of the generations of Mesolithic hunters that had built it and lived in it, so far back in our past.

Top

Find out more

Books

Early Man in Britain and Ireland: an Introduction to the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic by Alex Morrison (Croon Helm, 1980)

Star Carr Revisited by AJ Legge and PA Rowley-Conwy (University College London, 1988)

Hengistbury Head Dorset: Volume 2-The Late Upper Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic Sites by RNE Barton (University of Oxford Committee for Archaeology, 1992, 1989)

Prehistoric Settlements by Bob Bewley (Batsford/English Heritage, 1994)

Top

About the author

Julian Richards has been a professional archaeologist for over 30 years. He has extensive experience of working in the field, surveying and excavating prehistoric and later sites. He has written and presented many series for the BBC including Meet the Ancestors, Mapping the Town and Blood of the Vikings.

Top