There is a commonly-held notion that golf is a pastime and sport of big shot entrepreneurs and businessmen. It also has the reputation of being an exclusive, elite sport that is not accessible to regular blue collared employees. However, this is not really the case as modernization and commercialization have brought this so called elite sport into the reach of the common worker.

This is because you don’t need to get hold of sophisticated equipment to play. Unlike big game fishing and polo which need a lot of resources – a boat and a horse respectively – golfers just need a set of golf clubs, which are reasonably affordable these days. Bearing this in mind, retirement gifts for golfers and aspiring ones are more easily thought of.

Personally made retirement gifts to personalize golfing equipment is quite an easy task as you could easily make it personal by embroidering such items as home made golf club pouches, and caddy covers. These can be knitted that is if you are into knitting or any similar craft which may require different materials.

Another idea is to tap into the fashion aspect of golfing which means to focus on the things worn by a golfer. You may even set a new trend in golfing apparel using a lively imagination and an interesting clothing design for your retiree.

Common gifts. The most usual way of buying a retirement gift for golfers is to go to the closest sports shop and get your retiree something sold there. It may sound a little impersonal to give the retiree a commercially made gift, but then this may actually be really useful, if the retiree is still a novice golfer – you might want to get him a set of golf clubs since it is the basic requirement to be able to play golf.

Moreover, you may find other accessories there that your retiree golfer still needs, but then perhaps you could also use your imagination and think about what you can make to enhance the golfing equipment he may already have.

Commercially available golfing equipment is also useful, if you want to make your retiree feel professional. You could give him a famous set of clubs, making him look like a pro.

Gags and Jokes The fun part of deciding to give a joke present instead is the humour these items can invest. It also adds to the brighter aspect of the golf-playing retiree’s party and his friends will be able to join in with smiles, laughs and jokey comments too.

The gag present should be bought very carefully as the joke present may represent a sensitive matter for the retiree, especially if he is still a newbie player. Joke gift in relation to golfing might be taken negatively and discourage or at least hinder their learning and progress as they are disturbed by the idea represented by the gag gift given to them.

However, for more advanced golf players who are already acquainted with the way golfers think, the gift of a good joke gift on their retirement day would be quite amusing because they would already know golf not only as a method of relieving their stress and getting some decent exercise but of actually just having some fun too.

People ought to see retirement gifts for golfers as just a simple method of encouraging your golfing friend to appreciate the funny side of life after his working life has ended.

Enjoy yourself if you are going to or planning a Golfer’s Retirement Party, but if you want to get a deeper understanding of retirement, please go to our website Retirement Planning. This article, Retirement Gifts For Golfers has free reprint rights.

Vacation Property For Rent

19 October 2010

If you are thinking of buying a vacation rental property, there are two things that you can ultimately do with it. Some owners of vacation rental property intend to live in it most of the year round themselves and others intend to rent it out for most of the year. There is no doubt that vacation rental property can present an excellent income stream.

However, there is a huge difference between vacation property rental and residential property rental. This has to do with the fact that holiday makers are not inevitably looking for the same amenities in a vacation rental property as they are in a home.

One thing that does affect the desirability of both vacation rental property and residential property is location. However, a good residential property for a young family may need to be close to schools and other amenities and for older people being near a school is more like a hassle.

Similarly with vacation rental property, you have to know your target market. You have to discover the answer to the question: why do people come to this location? And then buy a vacation rental property that matches the highest volume profile.

In this way, you will never be short of tenants and you will be sure of high rents too. For instance, some people might go to the Caribbean island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands for the diving opportunities it presents while others may want to investigate the tropical rain forests. However, younger travelers might not want to go far from the only largish town on the island, Christiansted, so that they can take part in any nightlife going on.

One thing that everyone requires is security. The person who rents your vacation rental property will want to feel safe. That is secure from falling masonry and rickety stairs and secure from burglars. That means that your property should be well lit both internally and externally and have sturdy doors and locks. Windows should be lockable too.

It is a good idea to provide a kitchen like the one a family would usually expect at home. So, an American kitchen with American style appliances for American families, if they are the people you are trying to attract. Again, you will have to investigate the typical visitors to where you want to buy a vacation rental property. A younger family may eat in at night, an older one may never eat in at all. The kitchen should be well-equipped, furnishings should be comfortable and recreational gear should be provided too.

A great deal of people like to take their dogs with them, so you might like to consider making the vacation rental property friendly for pet owners. If the furniture is robust, massive oak or something similar, dogs will not be able to damage it easily. Plastered walls without wall covering and tiled floors are also conducive to having animals in the house. This is a definitely growing niche market for vacation rental properties

And last but not least, remember that people like to be able to keep in touch when they are away from their loved ones, so Internet access is a growing essential too. People can VOIP, so a phone is not so imperative these days. If you bear these points in mind, you can have a profitable vacation rental property where you can holiday free too.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

Saint Croix is the largest of the US Virgin Islands, which lie 1730 miles east south east of Miami and 93 miles west of Puerto Rico. This sector of the Virgin Islands has belonged to the United States since 1917 when they were purchased from the Danish government for $25m in gold to safeguard American coasts from German U-boat attack.

At the time, it was feared that Germany would subjugate the islands and construct submarine pens there in order to attack American supply shipping, which was essential to the allies in Europe during the First World War.

The US Virgin islands is a group of about 60 largely unpopulated islands, the four biggest of which are called St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John and Water Island. (By the way, ‘Saint’ is pronounced in the English manner). The Islands’ residents, however, have other names for these four which are Twin City, Rock City, Love City and Small City respectively.

Christopher Columbus landed there on November 14th, 1493, but there is evidence of human habitation on the island going back to 5000 BC. In fact, the Arawaks and the Caribs made up the islands’ populace, before the Europeans arrived.

Possession of St Croix and the other Virgin Islands changed a lot over the following centuries, but it became infamous to many people as Santa Cruz, which is its Spanish name. As Santa Cruz, St Croix featured prominently in 17th and 18th century stories of pirates and buccaneers on the Spanish Main.

In fact, after Spain initially took control of the island, it changed hands seven times; having been Spanish, British, French, Maltese, Dutch, Danish and now American. The inhabitants of the US Virgin Islands are now US citizens and carry US passports. They also use the US dollar and US laws.

St Croix was an agricultural powerhouse in the Caribbean until the 1960′s when the local government determined it was time to industrialize. The island is now home to HOVENSA, one of the largest oil refineries in the world.

There is also a large distillery, the Cruzan Rum Distillery, which used to produce rum from sugar cane grown on the island. Sugar cane, or its extract, molasses are now imported from the Dominican Republic to manufacture Southern Comfort and Cruzan Rum. Diageo is planning to build a distillery there too in order to produce Captain Morgan Rum.

Inhabitants of the island call themselves Crucians. However, there is a great deal of debate about what constitutes a ‘real Crucian’. Many say that a Crucian is someone who was born and raised on St Croix, while others claim that descendants of the slaves that the Danes brought over in 16th and 17th Centuries are the only true Crucians.

Many Crucians can trace their ancestry back to Puerto Rico or other Virgin islands as the sugar cane industry attracted a lot of migrant workers in the 1930′s, 40′s and 50′s. There was also an inflow of down-islanders (ie from other Caribbean islands), as the residents say, after the industrialization of St Croix in the US Virgin Islands in the 1960′s and 1970′s as tourism and oil became more central to the economy.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

There are lots of destinations for people interested in sailing and if you are tired of the Virgin Islands then try the rest of the Caribbean.

The Caribbean islands are part of an island chain stretching 2,500 miles. Given the enormous distance, it is no surprise that tourists spend weeks out there in order to get pleasure from the splendour that it has to offer.

Just like in the Virgin Islands, there are lots of charter firms you can try for various hobbies. These firms come in different sizes, but perhaps the best is the yacht charter.

When you charter a yacht, apart from the yacht, the other elements and benefits that come with it are meals, separate guest rooms, a galley, toilet and shower.

Since you are the paying guest aboard the boat, you can customize the menu by telling the crew before the voyage what you want to eat. You can help out by buying the provisions yourself, having someone from the crew do it for an additional fee or choose a set menu from one of their pre-composed packages.

Since most of the islands in the Caribbean are small and uninhabited, you are sure to explore places that not many have seen. But if you can’t afford to rent a chartered yacht, don’t worry because you can probably get one that will cost as little as $50 if you are able to book a pre-arranged trip with several other guests to share the cost.

One thing you ought to be prepared for during you sailing vacation is the possibility of a storm. These generally occurs during the months of June to November. If you are not sure that this is the best time, book the trip on another date.

But if you are adamant about going on your dates, there are some online tools you can use to check if the area you will be sailing in has ever been hit by a storm before.

The other option is to plan your itinerary to the Caribbean islands further south because they are less likely to be affected by a storm. These places include the islands of Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, Curacao, and Turks and Caicos.

If you like the idea of going sailing around the Caribbean there are ample opportunities. You could do far worse than start in St Croix in the US Virgin Islands and travel south or west. If you start in St Croix, which the pirates of old used to call Santa Cruz, you will not need a passpert and can take your pets with you, but you will need more ID if you call into foreign islands.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Hotels. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

Wrestling moves are not straight-forward, since if you are not looking closely, you could believe that the throws are real. At the moment, I am still a little reluctant to fill you in on the throws, since I am not a wrestling fan, however my son is, and he is going to give us the inside information on wrestling moves to help you see wrestling for what it is, fake.

For instance, one of the oldest moves is the ‘banana splits’, although, these days, the move is now famous as the ‘leg splits’. This move entails the one wrestler putting both hands on the legs of the other wrestler and pushing the legs apart as far as they will stretch. This move will force the wrestler to put his/her own shoulders to the mat. If the wrestling move were genuine and the wrestler failed to give in, his/her legs would split some muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc.

The ‘Cobra Clutch’ is another of the holds that would in reality cause agony. The cobra move is universally recognizable as the cross chokes or arm locks. The challenging wrestler will come from the back of the other pugilist and using a single arm in the “Nelson Hold”. The opponent will then use his/her arm to tug the wrestler’s arm trying to prevent him from pulling across the neckline and choking him as a result. The back clutch, or bombard is similar but the challenging wrestler is on his back under his opponent extending his arms upward from behind.

The ‘Rock Bottom’ move involves the adversary drawing his opponents arm over his shoulder. The wrestler then places the opponents arm over his/her shoulder and lifts and dives forward onto the mat. During this attack, the challenger is hitting the mat head first, which if actually executed, would strain bones or at least result in some serious pain.

The ‘Choke Slam’ is the move when the attacking wrestler grips the opponent’s arm and lifts his arm close by his opponent’s side, over his shoulder. Then he lifts the opponent and throws him down onto the mat.

The ‘Big Boot’ move is a running attack, the wrestler lifts up his boot connecting with the face of his opponent. A kick in the face with a boot in other words, which would knock a person on his/her rear any time, causing the kicked person to feel severe concussion for a while.

What makes wrestling so exciting is the phoney dialogue, the costumes, the characters and the moves. If you think of the movie Superman, and how he dresses, you will see that without his outfit he wouldn’t have any character appeal as Superman. Likewise, the wrestlers wear outfits that make them seem like they are super heroes of the ring, punishing the villains. Each wrestler has his/her persona in the ring. It is usually quite peaceful, but made to look violent!

However, wrestling does have rules, as well as restrictions, even though the moves are all phoney. Wrestlers must respect the ropes of the ring, as well as the colour codes.

The styles have their own set of rules, however freestyle and folk style are similar. Usually, the styles are enacted so well that you wouldn’t know if the wrestlers are using the freestyle, folk style, or Greco style.

As with a script, most of the moves are composed and rehearsed, which means that a director is off camera using his/her hands to direct the wrestlers in the rings. For the most part, wrestling is nothing more than an act with a few exemptions like when the KAYFABE brakes down, when a real fight can break out. The KAYFABE is wrestling’s means of verbal communication.

Do you have an interest in wrestling? If you need to learn lots more about the moves, the stars and the show, come to our website and read wrestling revealed. Unique version for reprint here: Reenacted Moves In Wrestling.

Golf Vacation Packages

30 September 2010

If you are looking at senior golf vacation packages where you can get golf lessons, a friendly game of golf or watch a PGA Tour, you might look on the Internet to see where the best destinations might be. You could travel to Arizona, Hawaii, Bermuda or Myrtle Beach.

You can have some exciting rounds of golf when you reserve a senior golf package that includes accommodation, airfare and a few days of golf. You will not only enjoy your golf, but the many attractions in the area as well. Vacation packages are remarkable and when they include golf at a very prominent club, you will have an even better time.

Myrtle Beach has some of the most impressive golf vacation packages with diverse activities built into each one. You can play the Big Cat and even have a lesson or two from the former Senior Golf Tour player Gary Cowan. Gary Cowan was the winner of two majors and had eight appearances in other majors.

You may prefer the Big Cat package, the Fanatic golfer package or the four rounds and three-night package. The latter is for the true golfer. Four days of golf and only three-nights in the hotel is what you get with this vacation package.

In Maui, you can play one of the courses designed by Robert Trent Jones; enjoy a day in the warm sun and experience a golf course like you have never played before. You can stay at the Kaanapali Beach hotel and take the short walk to the golf course.

The two courses are a senior golfer’s delight. The South Course has an executive style, but with little difficulty whereas the North Course runs through the foothills and along the beach and is considered a challenging golf course. It is also home to the PGA Tour.

If you are searching for something out of the ordinary, you might like to try the senior golf vacation package to Bermuda. With nine golf courses spread out on twenty-one acres of land, you will discover that this is one of the most exceptional experiences of a lifetime. You can pick from fourteen hotels and resorts that offer senior golf vacation packages. With sea all around, you will feel the warm breeze and smell the ocean as you enjoy a great game of golf. Many vacation packages include at least one day of golf, but you can find vacation package deals with more days as well.

However, the story of senior golf vacation packages does not stop there. You could enjoy a trip to Arizona where you find some of the leading golfing schools. The golf courses in the area host the PGA and the LPGA. The Scottsdale area is filled with many senior friendly golf courses that will intrigue even the skilled golfer.

Not only do you have the game of golf, but some of the best leisure activity is on hand in the area as well. You can arrange a senior golf outing anywhere you can find a great package deal and professional lessons.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

Are you thinking of taking a vacation in the near future? How do you normally go? Do you fly there and then sort yourself out or do you take vacation packages? It is clear that vacation packages are simpler and usually cheaper too.

If you go DIY, you will need to book reservations on an airplane or a bus and a hotel and taxis and a car hire company. If you would rather avoid all this, you could book either a vacation package of one of the all inclusive vacation packages.

Although many vacation packages are extremely good, some people refuse to use them. This can be for several reasons, but the most common are out of a of feelings of adventure, independence and snobbishness. In fact, most of the people who do not take vacation packages are younger, single individuals.

Married people with families are the main users of vacation packages and especially all inclusive vacation packages. There is a difference between the two types. All inclusive vacation packages are grand for families with hungry children. You know, the normal kind, who are always saying: ‘Give me a dollar for an ice cream, Dad’ or ‘I’m hungry, Mum!’.

On an all inclusive vacation package, all of these snacks and three main meals a day and all drinks are included in the cost of the holiday – hence, the name, all inclusive vacation package.

However, there is more to it than that. All inclusives also incorporate on site games and amusements and some others as well. For example, a Caribbean all inclusive vacation package might include the use of snorkels and goggles, but it would seldom stretch to the use of scuba gear or wet suits.

Another benefit of the all inclusive holiday resort is that they often cater for families with young children. They may supply child alarms in the chalets and free entertainment for adult holiday makers in the evening and night too. The resort might also provide baby sitters and a free taxi into town.

All inclusive vacation packages are a very different product from normal vacation or rental packages. All inclusives are more geared towards families with young children between, say five and fifteen, because children of this age eat a lot, although it is usually junk food, which typically costs a lot on holiday, but is in fact, cheap to make. The evenings’ entertainment is also on site so that parents can be easily reached if there is a problem.

On the other hand a normal vacation package will usually provide breakfast only, so that you can go out for the day and do what you like.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix all inclusive vacations. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

The US Virgin Islands came into America’s possession in 1917 after Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to it for $25m in gold. At the time, the USA was worried that the Germans would gain control of the islands and use them as a base from which to launch attacks on America.

The status of the US Virgin Islands is one of an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States. This means the residents of the US Virgin Islands are US citizens, but cannot vote in US presidential elections. Therefore, US citizens do not need a passport to visit the US Virgin Islands.

The US Virgin Islands are part virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward islands of the Lesser Antilles along with the British Virgin Islands. The three main islands of this American territory are called Saint Croix, Saint John and Saint Thomas. There is also a much smaller island called Water Island. All together, there are about 60 islands with a total surface area of 133.73 square miles, although most of the islands are uninhabited.

The four main islands of the US Virgin Islands are known to their residents by nicknames. These are ‘Twin City’ (St. Croix); ‘Rock City’ (St. Thomas); ‘Love City’ (St. John) and ‘Small City’ (Water Island) and their total population was 108,612 in the 2000 census.

Since the 1960′s, the islands turned their focus from agriculture to heavy industry and tourism and the US Virgin Islands are a very popular destination for American tourists and honeymooners. It is very easy for Americans to get there because a passport is not required, the islands are only 1,730 miles east south-east of Miami, the currency is the US dollar and everybody speaks English.

The islands enjoy an arid, pleasant climate. The average temperature in the capital, Charlotte Amelie, is 33c in the summer and 30c in the winter. September to November are the wettest months and February and March are the driest. The USVI are subject to hurricanes. Hurricane Hugo in 1989 was particularly devastating, but the islands were also hit in 1998, 1999 and 2008.

Tourism is the industry that most of the islanders are engaged in and about 2,000,000 people visit every year, many of them on cruise liners. St Thomas and St Croix are the best equipped to deal with tourists offering hotels and resorts along with lovely beaches and fine restaurants. Water sports are the main activity, although tourists can also hire horses or jeeps to discover the interior of the US Virgin Islands.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

Saint Croix is the biggest of the US Virgin Islands although the capital city, Charlotte Amelie, is located on St Thomas. Saint Croix itself has two towns Frederiksted (pop. 830) and Christiansted (pop. 3,000). The name of the island comes from the earlier Spanish name given by Christopher Columbus in 1493 – Santa Cruz or ‘Holy Cross’. As Santa Cruz, Saint Croix gets a lot of mention in swashbuckling stories of pirates and buccaneers sailing on the Spanish Main.

The populace before the Europeans arrived was Arawak and Carib and they had probably been there since about 5000 BC. After 1493 the population of the Caribbean became embroiled in a 100 years war with the Spanish and the kind of people living on the island changed forever.

Saint Croix has been owned and therefore predominantly occupied by the Spanish, The British, the French, the Dutch, the Maltese and the Danish all of whom had slaves and plantations

The slaves were manumitted in 1848, but many chose to stay on Saint Croix. Descendants of slaves still live on the island. The total populace of the island is now roughly 60,000.

English is the official language and is the most commonly spoken, although there is also some Spanish, French Creole and Virgin islands Creole, also known as Crucian, which is spoken by most inhabitants in informal situations.

This Hispanic section of the Crucian population is mostly of Puerto Rican descent. The US bought Vieques from Puerto Rico during the Second World War and evicted its inhabitants. Many moved to St Croix because of its resemblance to Vieques. These people have integrated well, but also kept a few of their old customs. They frequently speak a mixture of Spanish and Crucian English in a distinctive form of Spanglish.

Continental Americans make up about 13% of the population and mostly live on the eastern side of St Croix. Arab Palestinians are also a sizeable minority owning most of the petrol stations and supermarkets on St Croix. Other modern immigrants have come from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Philippines.

There has been some tension between immigrants and those calling themselves ‘real Crucians’, but it has largely evaporated because of to intermarriage. There have been attempts to define a ‘real Crucian’.

The matter seems to have been sorted out when in 2009, the recommended U.S. Virgin Islands Constitution voted by the Fifth Constitutional Convention proposed three definitions of U.S. Virgin Islanders: “Ancestral Native Virgin Islander”, who have ancestral ties (and their descendants); “Native Virgin Islander”, who were born on the island (and their descendants); and “Virgin Islander”, who are any United States citizen who has lived in the territory for five years.

Christianity, in the guise of Protestantism is the predominant religion, although the Hispanic community is Roman Catholic. There are also small groups of Jews and followers of Rastafari, Islam.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Virgin Islands. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

I picked up one of those ‘Golfing for Women’ type magazines the other week and got to asking myself where these women actually live, who wear the golf apparel shown in women’s golfing magazines? I have never seen women, not even the pros, wearing such expensive and flamboyant clothes.

It’s easy to spend money kitting yourself out for golf: hats, sunglasses, gloves, shirts, shorts, socks, windbreakers and shoes all add up quickly, even if you shop at the sales. Then add in equipment, bag and cart and you have to play quite often to keep the “CPU” – cost per use down to an acceptable level.

One half-page advertisement showed a beautiful young ‘golfing lady’ in very tiny shorts (like that’s admissible on golf courses!) that cost nearly $300, a golf shirt at almost $600, a jacket by Ralph Lauren at almost $200 and two-toned Utuser shoes costing $400 plus.

That totals about $1,500! I know that I could never hope to get the CPU on that outfit down to anywhere near a normal level in my golfing lifetime! Don’t get me wrong – I love clothes and I really love shoes, but could never afford, nor even want, golf shoes or pants that cost as much as a lot of people’s weekly wages.

Granted, you need comfy golfing shoes that don’t look like an old pair of wooden clogs, but honestly, you will be able to buy cheaper and yet still trendy golfing shoes.

I have bought a couple of really stylish golfing outfits, even though none of them are famous brand names. If I were to total up the cost of all of those articles of clothing, it would not add up to the price of a Tse golf shirt. Personally, I would rather have several stylish outfits than one that is priced way over-the-top.

If I were to wear a $1,500 outfit to play golf in, I would just be too worried about getting it grubby or perspiring in it to play a proper round of golf.

If you enjoyed this article on fashion and ladies’ golf attire and you would like to read more about golf tips, please go to our website on Golfing Tips for Novice Golfers Also published at Ladies Golf Apparel And Fashion.