In my previous article, I attempted to establish the hard style of Aikido that was first introduced to the West in the 1950’s. I would like to emphasize the fact that I get no satisfaction from publicly criticizing Aikido and I get a great deal less satisfaction when I see Aikido being brought into ridicule.

To continue from part one…..

Hard training

The training in and exercises in those early days were very hard and physical, with karate style kicking and punching a very integral part of our warm up, followed by 200 press ups on the backs of the wrists, with fingers pointing both inwards and outwards, very often while you were in the raised position Abbe Sensei would instruct another student to sit on your back, as we were the only group of five Dan grades in the UK and all in the same dojo then this was the training in all the Aikido dojos in the UK and today we are the only organization in Aikido still doing these press ups.

The purists say “these press ups are bad for you” what they really mean is they can’t do them, this is all part of the watering down of traditional Aikido.

Choreography

Aikidoists are often accused of practicing ” Choreographed Aikido” and to be honest I must admit that these claims are very often justified, with Uke (attacker) preparing to break fall long before he makes his attack, and most of them attack off balance , therefore making any multiples of techniques possible with the minimum of effort and of course this makes Tori (defender) look “fantastic”.

What is really sad is that these people believe that this is good Aikido. Kenshiro Abbe Sensei would always say to us that “two” students are training at the same time, one is Uke who is learning and improving his attacking techniques and his opponent Tori is also learning and improving his defensive techniques, whilst we were training with Abbe Sensei if Uke’s foot or heel came off the mat as he attacked Abbe Sensei would give the offending leg a good whack with a shinai (bamboo sword) he would then say ” My English is very bad but my shinai speaks fluently!”.

If Uke attacks on balance then it is obvious that Tori’s technique must be good and strong to throw him, and as Abbe Sensei said so many times ” two students are training”. Mark Eastman a strong young Dan grade with me went on a seminar recently where there was a 6th Dan. The 6th Dan refused to use him as Uke stating ” I can not use you as you do not harmonize with me”, he was not being awkward or difficult just attacking on balance.

Diluted training

Today all of these traditional exercises and training methods have now changed to a simple warm up routine with jumping up and down on the spot and lots of deep spiritual discussion. Hard exercise is now considered to be aggressive and not in harmony with the true spirit of Aikido.

Abbe Sensei said that hard training developed the spirit, he also referred to Ki during those early days as he demonstrated the power of his technique, when asked to explain the meaning of Ki, he said not to worry about Ki as that would be a part of our training and development.

He then said “Only when you reach first Dan will you be able to understand the true concept of Ki as a further extension of your Aikido.” I still believe that line of thought, and the instructors in our dojo’s very rarely speak of Ki although it is taught as a important and integral part of our training and study.

Ki Aikido

Although Ki is generally recognized as the spirit and breathing during the application of technique, every teacher and student will offer a very wide and varied and sometimes bizarre interpretation of the meaning of this much abused word. The main problems arise and are created by the teachers themselves, who very often mislead their students to the extent that they almost believe that Ki is a form of magic. The following is one prime example from a very prominent Aikido magazines letters section.

Title: The Spirit of Protection

I am a carpenter and 2nd kyu in Aikido. I was working in a large new home doing repair work, I had finished my job and was heading for a long staircase when I noticed the owners two year old son was heading for the same stairs from the opposite direction. As he approached the top of the stair he was watching me and not where he was going. I was too far away to grab him, so I shot to him (irimi) and stuck my arm straight out to him, my “Ki” went through the little boys’ face and out the back of his head, he fell backwards and started crying. His mother heard the crying and came up the stairs, when I told her what had happened, she thanked me, I said “Don’t thank me, Thank Aikido”.

That poor child may well now be as disturbed as the writer.

Harry Potter Ryu

There are many such misguided examples which I will refer to in future articles, it is this kind of nonsense that brings Aikidos credibility into doubt I am fully aware that every martial art has its own version of ” Harry Potter” in their ranks, what I fail to understand is that there are more of them in Aikido than all the other martial arts combined.

The reason that I am so critical and vociferous about Aikido is that every day I see these people watering down this great martial art that I have spent most of my life studying, teaching and promoting for the past 46 years. I am often asked “Sensei, which do you think is the best and worst martial art”.

I always make the same reply ” All the martial arts are good, if there is a problem with any martial art, then it can only be the people who represent that particular art who misrepresent their art ..
Continued in Part three..

http://www.EllisAikido.org
http://www.geocities.com/britishaikido

About the Author: Henry Ellis Sensei is the Co-author of the book Positive Aikido.Ellis is a direct student of the legendary master Kenshiro Abbe Sensie 1915 - 1985. Today there are only four surviving Aikido students of Abbe Sensei. Ellis is a very controversial writer on the watering down of the Martial Arts in modern times.

Source: www.isnare.com

It’s a beautiful day on the first tee. The day is full of optimism and opportunity. Looking down the beautiful lush green fairway my heart beats a little faster as I think of the pleasure that waits.

Hole #1

I step up to the tee and glance left at the trees.

“Don’t go there” but golf is not fair.

I take back the club and give a mighty rip.

Left in the trees, a curse falls from my lip.

Back to the bag with head hung low.

I trudge through the trees looking to and fro.

Where is that ball that would not listen!

Suddenly out of the shade I see it glisten.

What light through yonder trees does break!

I think I see a shot that I can make.

Hope rises in me as I step up to the ball.

I swing at it hard and give it my all.

To my surprise it comes out straight.

I walk out of the woods feeling just great.

The ball’s in the fairway and the sun shines bright.

Life is good again, all sweetness and light.

It is 200 yards for me to reach the green.

But of course there lies a sand trap between.

I think not of the peril and give it a lash.

The ball lands in the sand trap with a big splash.

Crushed now I fall down onto my knees.

Begging the golf gods to have mercy please.

I pick myself up and giving my head a shake.

This game has no mercy and does not give a break.

I reach the sand trap and stare in dismay.

Why does it always happen this way?

I’ve one foot on the grass, one foot in the sand.

It is all I can do to make myself stand.

Flow through! Follow through! That’s what they say.

But I don’t follow through today’s not my day.

It hits the front lip and falls back in the trap.

My friends all laugh and begin to clap.

This is life and death! Can’t they see my despair!

I crawl back in the trap and shout “This isn’t fair!”

I stand over the ball and swing with all my might.

The ball pops out high on a beautiful flight.

It bounces once on the green and begins to roll.

I can’t believe my eyes as it curls in the hole.

I raise up my hands in sweet victory.

What’s happened before is all history!

My friends shake their heads, don’t believe my luck.

I’ve parred the first hole and they all owe a buck.

I pull the ball form the hole and give it kiss.

What a great game! Today I can’t miss.

Kevin Redmond is a senior design supervisor with a large engineering firm in Canada. When not working he tries to play golf and loves the game. He also runs a consumers Website called http://www.avoidconfusion.com which has lots of great deals from golf to music to art and more. Check it out.

Not just food for pandas or the stuff of cheap picnic mats, bamboo is now being processed with modern techniques into beautiful “hardwood” flooring that beats standard wood floors in durability, hardness, and dimensional stability.

An added bonus to these beautiful floors is the knowledge that bamboo, unlike wood, grows quickly and abundantly, reaching maturity in five years or less. Red oak and maple, by comparison, can take decades to mature and then have to be replanted. Clear-cutting of forests also has a negative environmental impact and threatens the planet’s biodiversity.

After harvesting, cutting, processing, and finishing, bamboo flooring installation is not much different from standard hardwood floor installation. The important steps in installation occur before putting in the bamboo floor. First, make sure you buy from a reputable manufacturer who is willing to back up their product with a warranty.

The next step in bamboo flooring installation is making sure the subfloor is dry, clean, and level. Dirty subfloors will not bond well with the adhesive, and subfloors that are not dry will eventually cause rot. If not level, the bamboo flooring will squeak when walked on. If you are competent in home repair and good with your hands, you may be able to complete the bamboo flooring installation on your own. In some cases, with certain types of bamboo flooring, a professional will be needed.

Bamboo flooring may be glued down using a moisture barrier flooring adhesive. After applying the adhesive to the subfloor with a trowel, the bamboo flooring planks should be immediately placed. You may also install bamboo flooring using a nail gun over plywood or particleboard. Once starter rows are secure, subsequent planks should be nailed directly above the tongue at a 45-degree angle to face.

After installing the bamboo flooring, you will care for it in a similar way to hardwood floors; frequent dusting/sweeping, occasionally mopping, and use of wood cleaners. With regular care, bamboo flooring will add a stylish, beautiful component to your home for many years to come.

Geoff Hugh www.plasmatvreviews.net

Setting goals is challenging for many people because they’ve had more experience at failing to achieve a goal, than they have of successful achievement. Therefore, if the idea of setting goals makes you wince, relax and read on. You’ll discover a new way of setting goals which will inspire you.

=> Set little goals at first: start small

Set small goals. Small goals are achievable, and they’re not intimidating. Setting small goals, and achieving them, gives you confidence. Each day you will improve your writing skills, and you will learn more about how to market.

Setting small goals applies whether you’re a beginner, or a pro.

1. Your first goal: Market — RIGHT NOW

Aim to market every day. Your marketing effort for the day may be simple: you may send a stay-in-touch email message to a client you haven’t spoken to for a month.

Maybe you spot a new potential market, and you send them a quick note, telling them something about your business, yourself, and your current clients.

If you’re just starting out, please don’t let this faze you. Play up your beginner’s status. People will help you if you give them the chance.

I fit my marketing in around whatever else I’m doing. I take my handheld computer with me when I’m out and about. If I’m stuck waiting in line at the Post Office, I spend the time downloading my email, and dashing off a quick note to a client I haven’t contacted this past month.

If I’m at the library, I browse through the business directories in the Reference section. This takes less than five minutes, and I always come away with at least five new agencies, or five new businesses to contact.

If you make marketing part of your everyday life, it doesn’t seem like such a chore. Nor do you get hung up on whether people respond to a email message, or a message you’ve left on their voice mail. People often don’t respond, unless they have work for you immediately.

Here’s a funny/ tragic story. I was communicating with a prospective copywriting client, who owned a gardening center, in Perth, which is 5000 miles away, on the other side of Australia. I’d been chatting to and fro with him via email for about a year. He had plans to revamp the copy on his Web site, send out some news releases, and much more. Finally he sent me an email to tell me that he was going out of business. He couldn’t pay his staff or his suppliers. He’d been hoping his business would turn the corner, but it hadn’t.

Although I didn’t do any writing for him, I did form a relationship with him. This is the kind of relationship you need to form with as many potential clients as you can. Even if your prospect has no work for you right away, stay in touch. Contact them every month or two. Be interested in them and their business.

When they need whatever it is that you do, you’ll be the person they call. You’ll also find that your prospects will pass on your contact details to others — so communicate, a little and often.

2. Your second goal: Get known — promote

Many business owners are “hit and run” marketers. This procedure won’t help you to build a business. You’re selling to people, and people buy from those whom they know and trust.

This means that to sell to a market, you first need to become known to a market. Yes, you can get extremely lucky, and may make a sale the first time you contact a particular market. You can’t count on it happening every day, and depending on luck is no way to build a business.

Send out a news release at least once a month. Get your name out there.

3. Your third goal: commit to your marketing campaign

Being committed to marketing means exactly that. It means that like Nike, you just do it.

I read a profile of Mary Kay Ash, the cosmetics queen. When she was starting her business, and for many years thereafter, she was always the last person to leave the office. Long after others had left, she’d been busy making just one more marketing phone call.

This is the spirit you need to aim for in your marketing efforts. Make just one more phone call. Send just one more email message. Every day.

Whatever your business, you won’t succeed unless you make it a habit to do some marketing every day. Start small, set tiny achievable marketing goals like those I’ve suggested. If you do that, your business will be a success.

Wouldn’t you like to clone yourself as a writer, or have someone do your writing tasks for you? Contact Angela Booth at http://www.angelabooth.com now because Angela expertly ghost-writes articles, proposals, marketing communications, Web copy, and books. Yes, you’re the author of the words Angela writes for you. Angela is fast, reliable and professional, and works with individuals and small businesses as well as large companies.

The kinds of house sitting opportunities I’m about to tell you about are available to anyone, anywhere with an email address who can get online to check for offers of house sitting jobs (and then transport themselves to the owner’s property of course, but that comes later).

If you’re thinking that you would like to housesit to make some extra money, turn away now. Because if you advertise your house sitting services with an online matching service such as mine, you won’t be paid a cent for your efforts. In fact, you’ll be paying for your share of the bills during your house sitting assignment (and you may be asked for a security deposit by the home owner).

What is a free house sitter required to do? While the home owner is away everything continues in the property as usual (that’s where you come in!). Bills need to be paid to keep services connected, plants need watering, gardens, lawns and trees need to be maintained, mail and phone messages may need to be forwarded, and pets remain as demanding of love, care and companionship as ever. While the relationship between home owner and house sitter is mutually beneficial and based on trust the house sitter is, in effect, working for the home owner. The house sitter agrees to occupy the home owner’s property for a given period of time. Generally the house sitter is required to be in the property most evenings and nights (although, like everything, this may be negotiable), giving the property its usual occupied appearance to deter burglars, squatters and vandals. Often, there will be one or more animals to care for (these can be fish, rabbits, cats and dogs, hamsters, goats and horses!)

What costs does the house sitter have? The house sitter funds all their own day-to-day requirements while on assignment and generally agrees to replace everything of the home owner’s that they consume. Before the house sitting assignment begins, both parties need to sit down and spell out who is responsible for which bills. Generally, any vet bills and costs of maintaining the property should remain with the owner, while the sitter takes care of their share of utility bills. A security deposit may also be required by the home owner to insure against any damages. This is negotiable but shouldn’t be more than the cost of a month’s rent for a similar property in the area.

How do I advertise my house sitting services? You could advertise your house sitting services by word of mouth (fellow RVers are especially in need of house sitters), by company email, by taking out a small classified advert in a local paper or by sticking your own advert on public notice boards. All of these methods may attract the attention of a local home owner and result in an offer of a house sitting assignment.

However, if you are currently in Canada and want to house sit in Florida (for example) you’ll need to ‘go global’ and advertise your house sitting services with an online house sitting directory. These websites generally follow two basic models of business practice. In the first fully online model, house sitters pay an annual fee (usually around US$30) to create their own sitter available advert which is online and searchable 24 hours per day. Home owners then search the website’s database and contact house sitters directly. You can also personally respond to any sitter wanted adverts on the site.

In the second model, the website only serves as an advert for the business which is conducted by the administrators ‘behind the scenes’. For an annual fee (this can be US$95 or more for the whole package) the business owner agrees to include the house sitter’s advert in either an email or printed mailing list which is then posted out to an unspecified number of home owners. There may also be the option of paying to receive a list of sitter wanted adverts by email or post. This second type of service may seem less transparent than the first - you don’t actually know if your advert has been sent out or how many home owners may have seen it. However, if the site seems well established and has many testimonials from satisfied customers then it should be worth the initial investment.

What should I look for in a good house sitting website? To have any kind of success as a house sitter you need to spend the relatively small fee (membership fees on the reputable sites range from free to around US$95 per year) to list with a website that is well-designed and informative, with good usability and a logical navigation structure.

The website should be easy to find through a search engine. To check how established a website is and how high they are ranked with the search engines, type a generic term such as “house sitters” (use double quotes to perform the more useful phrase search) into the search field of your preferred search engine. Your house sitting directory site of choice should be listed in the top 100 page returns.

If you regularly use the Internet, you will have your own criteria for what makes a good website. Peruse the different sites, try out the search function for both sitter available adverts and sitter wanted adverts. Read through the FAQs section and see how well-informed you feel at the end of it. If membership on the site is free, join as a member and create your own sitter available advert. What have you got to lose?

What should I avoid in a house sitting website? If a website is very badly made and difficult to navigate it’s very likely that home owners will be staying away from the service in droves. Be wary of those online businesses that ask for a hefty up-front membership fee (anything over US$95) but offer no guarantee of satisfaction. If a website seems cagey about just how many of their house sitter members are being offered house sitting assignments and hides how they operate their business give them a wide berth. Often these websites are just selling the dream of rent-free accommodation, which never materialises for their disappointed members. How do I get started as a house sitter? Once you’ve got your advert online you’ll need to prepare yourself for any eventuality (house sitting is like that). If you’re not that confident with pets you may want to get cosy with a few of your friends’ cats and dogs to prepare you for the inevitable pet sitting duties that accompany house sitting assignments. Get your references in order (or ask the relevant people to become email and/or phone referees for you) and commission a police background check on yourself to show home owners that you’re not a member of the Beagle Boys (remember them?) Make sure your passport is current in case something great and last minute comes up. You’ll also need to open an email account that you can travel with (if you haven’t got one already) that has a generous storage limit (Yahoo offers a huge 250mb as standard). It is crucial that you remain contactable - if you are not from mainland USA forget about opening a Hotmail account as these are notorious for having a tiny inbox that is continually going ‘over limit’.

Finally, once you’ve chosen a website (or another method of advertising) don’t fall into the trap of waiting for home owners to advertise their house sitting assignments so that you can contact them. The vast majority of home owners prefer to search sitter available adverts and contact house sitters directly. If you don’t create your own advert, no one will be able to find you!

What are my chances of being offered a house sitting assignment? There are many factors that influence your chances of being chosen for an assignment. Some of these you can’t control (such as your age, marital status and country of residence) others you can (such as providing references, offering home owners a security deposit, a police background check and the chance to interview you for the job before making a decision). The importance of having a well-written advert describing yourself and your experience in adequate detail (around 100 words) cannot be overestimated.

Conclusion In my work as a website editor and administrator I come across a great many lonely online classifieds and forlorn requests on bulletin boards from people who are looking to trade their house and pet sitting services in exchange for free accommodation. These types of requests are the Internet equivalent of ‘whistling in the wind’ as the right people never see them. Fortunately, the creation of online house sitting matching services has provided the space and the facilities for home owners and house sitters to find one another at last.

House sitting worldwide is about bringing people together from around the globe for the free exchange of services (house and pet sitting) with goods (accommodation). Making yourself available as a house sitter could be your first step towards one of many life-enhancing adventures. Whatever you’re seeking from a house sitting assignment, there is undoubtedly someone out there who has the right house sitting opportunity at the right time for you. The challenge is finding each other! Best of luck with your house sitting.

Breaking the Fast

After fasting all night long, nurture your body with some good high
quality food. Get your body purring with a nourishing meal. After six to
eight hours of rest, the fuel light is on and the engine is begging to
be re-fueled, not only with food, but with water. Hydration is vital
after a night of sleep to keep the body and organs functioning properly.

It is vastly better to choose healthy organic food, but no matter what
your choices are, eating breakfast energizes the body and mind, and
carries you more efficiently throughout your day. Some people think
skipping breakfast will aid them to lose weight, but it is actually the
opposite, eating breakfast helps you lose weight, especially when choosing
the appropriate foods. Plus it gives you a positive attitude, heightens
mental concentration, and helps you perform better all day long.

Make it Yummy

With so many delicious options to choose from, why not make your
breakfast a fun sensory feast? Treat your taste buds to natural naked foods
like fruits in season - a wonderful way to get the day rolling.
Optimally, a well-rounded breakfast includes food from three different food
groups. Create your meal from a choice of whole grain breads or cereals,
fruits, proteins, milk or yogurt, and fats. Protein rich foods are an
excellent choice in the morning as they help to steady blood sugar highs
and lows that can leave you feeling dragged-down and starving by 10 am.
Heart healthy fats (containing essential fatty acids) like olive, flax
and peanut oils, are important to keep as a staple of your diet.

But dont ignore the importance of water, a vital part of breakfast is
drinking fluids, as hydrating the body after a long night of sleep is
necessary.

Thoreau Knows Best

Henry David Thoreau said, Water is the only drink of the wise man. He
knew the secret to good health, energy, vitality; a properly hydrated
body even heightens mental awareness and spiritual consciousness. Water
is life. The fact that our bodies are made up of about 70% water alone
speaks of our organic connection to the source and our need to
consistently replenish that very source.

Water is vital to many body functions:

1. It keeps the body temperature regulated.

2. Water dissolves nutrients, then transports them, making them
available to the whole body

3. Water removes waste and toxins from the system

4. Prevents fatigue, dizziness, hunger, dry skin, dark urine and
general lethargy which are signs of dehydration

Water Yourself

With all healthy choices for breakfast food, make sure you can absorb
the nutrients with proper hydration. That means enough of the right
kind of water each day. The naturally present water in raw foods is a
great source but also make sure your water has a low surface tension.

Though most tap and bottled water has high surface tenions, there are
ways to make water more available to your body’s cells.

Silica is a natural mineral and special forms of microcluster. silica
are small enough to change the absorption properties of water. Ask your
vitamin store for it.

For more information about optimal sources of hydration, visit:

http://www.drhealthsecrets.com/news_breakfast.html

This article has been brought to you by Dr Patrick Flanagan, a cellular
hydration expert who has developed a unique mineral form called
Microcluster. silica and silica hydride to dramatically increase longevity.
Silica hydride is also the most powerful antioxidant known. To learn more
about Dr. Patrick Flanagan and ways to more beauty, health and longer
life, for less than $1 a day, please visit:

http://www.drhealthsecrets.com/news_breakfast.html

You will also find a link to download the Wetter Water Report by Dr.
Patrick Flanagan for FREE.

There are countless reasons that can often make the amazing hair strands on your scalp shed, the common issue is hereditary baldness. Male pattern baldness might well become an issue for as many as 45 per cent of lads under the age of thirty nine years old. The normal chap has more than seventy thousand hair stands on their full scalp and will often very easily drop 75 to one hundred and fifty hair follicles everyday through brushing, showering and sleeping. This can often sound like a lot but actually it is average. Check out the latest hair loss treatments at Advanced Hair Studio.

The abnormal rate of hair loss is when folk are losing more hair than what is growing back out. And men and women will soon begin to realise guys and girls have abnormal hair loss when people begin to see your hair not coming back. It is always best practise to check with a hair care professional to make sure folk are not seeing the side effects from any hair disorders or under major depression.

The most common cause though is hereditary baldness. This occurs when the hormones in your body force the hair follicles to die. This closing effect makes the hair follicle unable to grow.

If guys and girls are worried you might go and talk to a hair specialist and investigate what sort of hair follicle loss you are seeing the side effects from and also investigate what brilliant hair loss treatments are available to you.

Property Index is an online platform that gives buyers access to thousands of properties www.propertyindex.com. Property in America is currently booming so browse the range on offer at Property Index.

Even though Property Index is still a fledgling bureau, starting their business only in March of 2007, they have become experts very quickly. On closer scrutiny, they are a unbelievably hassle-free bureau specialised in offering guidance to every customer who is contemplating to buy real estate across the globe. Their promise is to assist you hit upon bang-on what you are calling for very swiftly and, too, painlessly. Real estate is available for the asking in many parts of the world these days, undoubtedly the elite area being properties available for sale in the United States. It’s a no brainer to determine the superb realty available in the United States, one reason for wanting realty here being the houses and apartments available for sale and the terrific option of being able to live between this exciting and sprightly population.

It is one of the truly well-liked areas these days, and considering the scenic splendor and agreeable sunshine surrounding you, how could you ever go wrong? Real estate in the United States is rich in history, this area of the world is home to several nations. Some thirty years back you would find just a dribble of Britishers who are looking for realty in the United States. Ask any one person who has emigrated to the United States and they will be certain to corroborate this. Some people would tend to view it as a transient rage and others tend to view it as a as something approaching a fixation! People interested in repairing to this place may extend from yuppie couples keen on an exciting perspective to the retired intending to rest.

Do bear in mind, though, that there might be snags when acquiring realty in a foreign country — as is to be expected, there will be a hundred varied procedures when organizing, popping in or completing. If you miss out on but a single minor action this may well trigger huge snags not to forget, preeminently, financial damage. Obviously, as is to be assumed with this trendy region, realty could well be incredibly expensive in this location and that is naturally a consequence of the steep buyer demand. However, the real estate buyer is presently very spoilt in terms of choice in such an area so great in terms of pleasant land and sensational vista. Truly it can offer all, stock and barrel, any of us may ever itch for, etc.

The new year saw a massive 25% increase in consumers saving money by signing up for a broadband bundle, a new study has just revealed. The research, conducted by broadband comparison site www.broadbandchoices.co.uk, found that more and more of us are buying both broadband and home phone from the same company, making bills simpler and saving a bundle of cash.

‘Bundling’ is a simple way to organise your home phone and broadband bills, and it makes sense for both companies and consumers. Chris Eagle, Commercial Manager at www.broadbandchoices.co.uk, explained: ‘As people add more services to their household bills, they save more money and they’re less likely to switch providers. You’re unlikely to just remove one service, as the cost of your remaining services will increase. So unless you’re happy to switch everything, you’ll stay put, keeping your current provider very happy!’

One particular bundle has been making the news recently: TalkTalk’s ‘free broadband’ offer, where broadband is offered free if you take up TalkTalk’s international phone call package and line rental. The marketing for this certainly did the trick, with over 25,000 people registering their interest in just a few days.

But the TalkTalk deal (brought to you by Carphone Warehouse) might not be the best option for you. According to expert Chris Eagle, ‘Most consumers probably think the new TalkTalk package is the cheapest bundle on the market. But if you take things like connection charges, line rental, phone package and broadband fees into account then, over a year, Toucan still offers the light phone and broadband user the best value for money.’

For example:

(i) Toucan “Two-for-All” phone package comes with free weekend calls with no call package fee’s, line rental at £8.99 a month and 512k broadband at £13.99 a month giving a total of £22.98 a month or £275.76 for one year.

(ii) TalkTalk free broadband offer has line rental at £11.00 a month, £9.99 for free local and national calls anytime, and a £29.99 connection fee, giving a total of £20.99 a month or £281.87 for one year.

Its worth looking at the full year cost as you have to sign at least a 12 month contract. (18 month for the TalkTalk offer).

It looks like this type of deal will be offered by more companies in the coming months: in a competitive market like this one, the other providers will have to keep up.

The future is mobile

Most bundled offers currently include broadband and home phone, but we could see mobile phone contracts being added in the near future. With NTL buying Virgin Mobile and Wanadoo about to re-brand Orange, it looks like the home and mobile phone markets are in the process of merging to offer you a better deal. And if you could get your home phone, broadband, cable TV and mobile charges all reduced and on a single bill each month, you’d do it, wouldn’t you?

Compare UK Broadband Packages