Oris Replica Watches Can You Love Two Men At Once
Can you love two people at once and stay married?
I have interviewed dozens of wives who love, or have loved, two men simultaneously. They have shared different strategies — and different outcomes — to this “euphoric, painful juggling act” as one 42-year-old wife put it. She says she “deeply loves” her husband of 20 years, father of her two young children, though is “madly in love” with her first boyfriend with whom she chatted all night at a recent high school reunion.
She wants to stay married and stay in touch with her teenage love, which she has, so far, kept as a “text- no-sex-affair.” While the numerous conversations I’ve had with wives on this subject show there’s not one surefire cure for this schism of the heart, here’s one piece of advice that comes up a lot: It is possible to love more than one at a time if you love each person differently. Translation: It’s rough on the psyche to have multiple sex partners unless you swing or come from a polygamous culture.
“My old boyfriend and I realized that we have to keep our revived love affair virtual,” says the wife described above. “We had a lingering goodbye kiss — okay a long make-out — then when we got home we both realized, ‘Put us in the same room and it is absolute, guaranteed disaster for our marriages.’ So we communicate online Oris Replica Watches, and maybe, someday we can meet again — if I outlive my husband…” Her voice trails off.
There is often a powerful longing, and curiosity, about “the one who got away,” the prom date who re-appears 10 or 30 years later — with less hair and more belly but with the same penetrating eyes. Old boyfriends are our history-holders; they watched us grow from girls to women, they took us to drive-ins in Mustangs on summer nights.
The chapter on flirty friendships in my book “The Secret Lives of Wives” has prompted a deluge of mail from wives who swear by their boyfriends-with-boundaries, men they love in their hearts and not with their loins. These flirtations can spice up the gray corridors of a long marriage. Feeling sexually and cerebrally charged by others beyond a primary relationship is a natural response of the human animal. And when kept within limits, who can deny that it feels good?
Men we aren’t married to find us smart and extraordinary because they don’t live with us in the grind of ordinary life, with kids, mortgages and sinks strewn with toothpaste and their newly shaved facial hair. In old boyfriends, we find our lost youth; in new men friends, we get the endorphin rush of being on a first date. The trouble starts when sexual crackle between two people who aren’t married to each other erupts into a roaring bonfire love, an urgent attraction that is both dangerous and delicious. These are the stories in the “Naughty Girls” chapter of my book, depicting wives who cross the line Breitling Replica Watches, propelled by a “passion I need and am not getting at home,” as one woman accounts for her “justified” philandering .
This is a wife who is married to a man who has initiated sex “maybe four times” in 25 years of marriage, and each time was “cold and unsatisfying,” she says. She doesn’t want to divorce a man she loves as a friend, and who is a doting father and grandfather.
“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” she adds. “I feel like I’m getting the best of both worlds — a stable family and passionate love. And so far I’ve been successful at compartmentalizing my two lives without suffering.”
This woman is rare in that she possesses the compartmentalizing skills most prevalent in the male species. Most wives who speak to me about sleeping with men they aren’t married to feel like their insides are being torn up. I hear the word “Xanax” a lot.
“Sleeping with two people at once is exhausting, torturing and makes you bitchy to your kids” is one common summation.
Acting out on forbidden love has been shaking up, and shattering, marriages since men and women first started forming permanent bonds. I can’t interview women from prehistoric times who played around in the cave next door. Yet I bet their reflections wouldn’t be that different than those of the modern women in “The Secret Lives of Wives,” who come from a plethora of experiences but agreed on one thing: There are no road maps to navigating illicit love. Only you know what you are capable of doing, without losing your mind.
Can you handle a secret second life? Are you willing to risk your marriage since most secrets get found out? Can you keep a sexy male friendship in the platonic state while feeling stuck in a loveless, sexless marriage? If that answer is “no,” can you handle a divorce?
I know I leave you with more questions than answers on this subject that has fascinated writers like me for centuries. Yet there is one fact I know for certain: Fantasy is too often better than reality. A new boyfriend becomes an old boyfriend who probably shakes gross facial hair off his razor into the sink like that yucky husband of yours does. Holding a flirtation at arms length allows you to sustain the alluring mystery.
This blogger’s book, “The Secret Lives of Wives” can be found here, and she can be found on: www.iriskrasnow.com
Vale Ore Carrier Sails for Singapore After Calling
By Alaric Nightingale
Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) — Berge Everest, one of the world’s largest iron ore ships, signaled it is sailing to Singapore after calling Dalian in China Omega replica watches, according to a signal from the vessel today.
The ship is operated for Vale SA Breitling replica watches, the iron ore producer spending at least $8.1 billion on such vessels to cut its long- term freight costs. The carrier’s draft is 14.4 meters compared with 21.3 when it arrived at the Chinese port, indicating it unloaded.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alaric Nightingale at anightingal1@bloomberg.net
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Telefonica Second-Quarter Profit Falls 27%, Missin
By Manuel Baigorri
July 28 (Bloomberg) — Telefonica SA, Europe’s second- largest phone company, said quarterly profit slumped 27 percent, trailing analysts’ estimates, as intensifying competition cut earnings in its domestic market of Spain.
Second-quarter net income was 1.54 billion euros ($2.2 billion), compared with 2.12 billion euros a year earlier, the Madrid-based company said on its website today. Profit had been projected at 1.64 billion euros, according to the average estimate of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales climbed 2.2 percent to 15.45 billion euros, missing the 15.7 billion-euro average estimate.
In Spain, revenue fell 6.1 percent in the first six months, with profit margin sliding 2.3 percentage points to 44.7 percent. Chief Executive Officer Cesar Alierta will slash the Spanish workforce by about 20 percent in the next three years as he bets on Latin America’s economic growth to win back investors discouraged by Spain’s unemployment rate, at 21 percent, the highest of the euro countries.
“Spain will recover at some stage and I wonder how the market will look like because it’ll be hard to boost prices up and realign them again,” Roger Appleyard, head of global credit research at RBC capital markets in London Omega replica watches, said in a phone interview before the release. “The huge costs of job cuts tell you how much pressure they are under.”
Spain’s former phone monopoly said earlier this month it will pay about 2.7 billion euros to eliminate as many as 6,500 positions in the country and will book the whole cost this year as one-time expenses. The operator employs about 35,000 people in its home market.
Telefonica has fallen 7.3 percent in Madrid trading this year, cutting the operator’s market value to 71.7 billion euros. The Bloomberg Europe Telecommunications Index was little changed in the period. France Telecom SA and BT Group Plc also report earnings today.
Spain’s weak economy is forcing consumers to look for cheaper phone tariffs from rivals such as TeliaSonera AB’s Yoigo unit Breitling replica watches, France Telecom’s Orange and Jazztel Plc.
Second-quarter revenue was boosted by Brazil, where Telefonica last year took over Vivo Participacoes SA, the country’s largest wireless operator.
Telecomunicacoes de Sao Paulo SA, the Brazilian unit of Telefonica known as Vivo, said yesterday second-quarter net income rose 30 percent as it added subscribers.
Telefonica, which told shareholders in April it plans to cut its debt to between 2 and 2.5 times of Oibda, shelved a share sale of its Atento Inversiones & Teleservicios SAU unit after a discount in the offer price failed to entice investors amid tumbling equity markets. The initial public offering of the call center business was suspended indefinitely because of “unfavorable market conditions.”
–Editors: Kenneth Wong
To contact the reporter on this story: Manuel Baigorri in Madrid at mbaigorri@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net
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Audis $301,000 Topless Racer Targets Ferrari to Be
By Andreas Cremer
July 1 (Bloomberg) — Audi AG is taking aim at Ferrari SpA with a convertible version of the R8 GT supercar, as the Volkswagen AG unit hones a high-end sporty image in its quest to overtake Bayerische Motoren Werke AG as the luxury-car leader.
The R8 GT Spyder, Audi’s most expensive series production car, boasts carbon-fiber in the front and rear spoilers to reduce weight and help the car accelerate to 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour in 3.8 seconds. Priced from 207,800 euros ($301,300), the model costs more than Ferrari’s California and the Mercedes-Benz SLS roadster, underscoring Audi’s ambitions.
“Audi is pursuing its campaign for the top luxury slot with heart and soul,” said Wolfgang Meinig, head of the Bamberg Tag heuer replica watches, Germany-based FAW Research Center for the Automobile Industry. “They have steadily enhanced their product portfolio and are engaged in refining the top end of the range.”
The open-top version of the R8 GT is part of Chief Executive Officer Rupert Stadler’s strategy to topple BMW by 2015. Because of the higher margins of luxury cars, Audi is critical to parent Volkswagen AG’s efforts to surpass Toyota Motor Corp. in sales and profit by 2018. Audi accounted for 47 percent of VW’s profit last year, while selling 18 percent of the group’s vehicles.
Stadler will today complete a two-day presentation to Audi’s top management, where he lays out a plan to capture the lead by further expanding the model lineup, two people familiar with the matter said. The Ingolstadt, Germany-based manufacturer intends to increase its product range to about 60 models by 2020 from 37 now, the people said, speaking on condition that they not be identified because the talks are private.
New Models
Under consideration is the A9, a two-door coupe based on the A8 flagship, one of the people said. The model would compete with Mercedes’s $113,150 CL and mark a further expansion of high-end offerings, which typically have better profit margins. Last year, the manufacturer introduced the A7 Sportback and updated the A8 to compete with Mercedes’s S-Class and BMW’s 7- Series. Audi’s lineup starts with the 15,800-euro A1 subcompact.
Audi needs to regain ground, with BMW widening its lead this year. Boosted by the revamped X3 sport-utility vehicle and 5-Series sedan and wagon, the BMW brand sold 20,000 more cars than Audi in the first five months, compared with a gap of 10,500 a year earlier.
Backed by the expanded model lineup, Audi will target sales of 2 million vehicles a year by 2020, up from a goal of 1.2 million this year and 1.5 million in 2015 Breitling replica watches, the people said. The target would match BMW’s aim of selling at least 2 million cars by 2020. Esther Bahne, a spokeswoman for Audi, declined to comment on the carmaker’s future model policy.
Limited Production
Competitors aren’t sitting idly by. Stuttgart-based Mercedes is building a factory in Hungary to support the rollout of four compact models, which will challenge Audi’s A3 for younger drivers. BMW, based in Munich, is developing a new line of front-wheel drive models and is rolling out the “i” electric-car sub-brand.
Audi will limit production of the R8 GT Spyder, which is largely assembled by hand, to 333 cars, Joachim Radde, head of sports cars at Audi’s high-performance Quattro division, said in an interview. The car, which is hitting the market less than a year after the coupe, will be available to order starting in August. The line will likely sell out by year’s end, Radde said.
“The R8 GT Spyder will be a boon to both image and margins,” Radde said by phone from Audi’s headquarters. “There’s demand for such top-of-the-range vehicles, and we’re paying heed to that.”
‘Extravagant Models’
Audi, which has sold all 333 of the coupe version, will begin deliveries of the soft-top Spyder in December. The car’s 10-cylinder engine powers it to a top speed of 317 kilometers per hour. The starting price is 16 percent more than the 179,400-euro Ferrari California and 6.5 percent more than the 195,200-euro Mercedes SLS roadster.
“The introduction of such extravagant models help Audi raise selling prices,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany. “The image-enhancing effects are huge.”
The new Audi hits the market at the same time as the Mercedes SLS roadster, which could be ordered from June 1. The soft-top version of the gull-wing supercar is also largely hand made. Its eight-cylinder, 571-horsepower engine takes about three hours to assemble, spokesman Pietro Zollino said.
Supercar Competition
Mercedes relies on reinforced aluminum to reduce the car’s weight and help the roadster nearly match the performance of the gull-wing version, which accelerates to 60 miles per hour in 3.7 seconds and has a top speed of 197 miles per hour, Zollino said.
BMW is following a different supercar strategy and will introduce the i8, which combines electric motors and a combustion engine, after rolling out a battery-powered city car in 2013. The hybrid supercar will have its entire frame woven from light-weight carbon fiber. It doesn’t have a direct competitor to the R8 GT.
“Audi is progressing rapidly in its endeavor to close the gap on BMW,” said Bratzel. “The R8 GT Spyder is rounding off a product range that’s very comprehensive already.”
–Editor: Chris Reiter, Heather Harris
To contact the reporter on this story: Andreas Cremer in Berlin at acremer@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net
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James powers NBA Heat over Hawks
ATLANTA Omega replica watches, Georgia – LeBron James finished with 34 points and 10 rebounds as the Miami Heat beat Atlanta 98-90 Monday (Tuesday, in Manila) to secure the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed.
James Jones had two crucial three point baskets down the stretch for the Heat who won their third straight game.
"It took us 81 games to get to this point but there’s a lot more work to do," James said.
Miami secured its postseason spot after Boston lost to Washington in overtime on Monday.
That gave the Heat a two-game lead over the Celtics with only one game to play. Miami will face Philadelphia in the opening round of the playoffs. The Celtics will get the third seed and will face sixth seeded New York Knicks.
"Sometimes it’s not pretty Breitling replica watches, but we’re doing the little things necessary to win," Heat star Dwyane Wade said. "That’s what will matter in the playoffs, because some games won’t be so pretty."
Josh Smith returned from an injury to score a team-high 17 points for the Hawks who nearly rallied from a 20-point deficit. Atlanta lost their fifth straight game but they hope to snap that dubious string when they face Charlotte Wednesday in their final regular season game.
The Hawks went to a makeshift lineup for the final period and nearly pulled it off.
The game got testy with just over three minutes to go when Zydrunas Ilgauskas took exception to the move and smashed the ball off Atlanta’s Zaza Pachulia’s back as he turned to head back down the court.
Ilgauskas was ejected by the officials.
"I didn’t know if it was the ball or a punch," Pachulia said. "I don’t know what he was mad about."
Cameroon-born Aussie boxer gets title fight with W
NEW YORK – Cameroon-born Australian fighter Sakio Bika will meet unbeaten Andre Ward for the American’s World Boxing Association super middleweight title on November 27 in Ward’s hometown of Oakland Tag heuer replica watches, California.
Promoters announced Friday that Bika would replace injured Andre Dirrell as Ward’s opponent in what was to have been part of the Super Six World Boxing Classic but will instead be simply a title defense for Ward.
Bika, 28-4 with two drawn and 19 knockouts, could walk off with one of the Super Six top prizes, even though he was not added to the tournament’s field, if he can upset Ward, 22-0 with 13 knockouts.
The Super Six event, with two world titles at stake, has been diminished by pullouts from three fighters due to injuries, the most recent being American Dirrell last week because of dizziness and headaches.
Ward was awarded two points in the Super Six standings for a forfeit victory due to Dirrell’s pullout and has now clinched a spot in next year’s semi-finals with a tournament-best six points.
Also now set for the semi-finals are Germany’s Arthur Abraham and Britain’s Carl Froch, who meet in Helsinki on November 27 for the vacant World Boxing Council super middleweight crown.
The fourth spot will be decided November 6 between two injury-replacement Super Six fighters Breitling replica watches, American Allan Green and Jamaican-born Glen Johnson, in a bout at Las Vegas.
Green is a fill-in for countryman Jermain Taylor while Johnson replaced Denmark’s Mikkel Kessler.
Nadal thrills in Bangkok debut
BANGKOK – Rafael Nadal put on a typically commanding performance in his Bangkok debut on Thursday Omega replica watches, the Spanish top seed progressing with the minimum of fuss in his first career match at the Thailand Open.
The world No. 1 demolished feisty Belgian qualifier Ruben Bemelmans 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash with Mikhail Kukushkin after the Kazakh saw off another Belgian, Olivier Rochus, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.
Fans in the sell-out crowd cheered and clapped wildly for Nadal, who has won the last three majors, and the popular Spaniard also met Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the pair exchanging gifts.
"The first round is for sure never easy Breitling replica watches," said Nadal.
"I had some time off after winning the US Open and spent a week in this great country. I played well but I must improve for the next match."
It was not such a good day for Spain’s other top player, as German Benjamin Becker defeated second seed Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-4.
Verdasco had not competed indoors since February — and he paid the price as he tried and failed to adjust.
"The start was the toughest part," said the Spaniard, who trailed 5-1 in the opening set and lost his serve in the penultimate game of the match on a fourth double-fault to open the door for Becker to serve out the win.
"I haven’t played indoors for so long. He had a match already and was comfortable on the surface. He played better than me today and deserved the win," said Verdasco.
In other second-round action, Finn Jarkko Nieminen put out last year’s losing finalist as he defeated Serb seventh seed Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 at the Impact arena.
No less than a full-court press on tax evaders – P
MANILA, Philippines – Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the government could start going after known tax evaders and corrupt tax collection officials in the next few weeks.
"This will be a full court press and we will be unrelenting until we achieve a tax effort that is commensurate with what the legal system provides for Breitling replica watches," said Purisima in a press briefing in Malacanang on Wednesday.
He said that the government intends to be very aggresive and can kick off its first action against tax evaders shortly.
"We have to review right now what we have to make sure we can file cases next week. The mandate is to send a clear signal to tax collection agencies and players that this administration means business," said Purisima.
To ferret out tax violators and colluding tax collection officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC), the government will initially utilize available public information such as base data from industry sectors to see how they are faring and how much taxes should be collected from them, and exisiting data from the National Economic and Development Authority, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and other relevant agencies.
Purisima said the government is already in talks with several multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in trying to come up with a model to allow the government to simulate how the different economic sectors are doing.
"This will help us set better collection targets for the BIR and the BOC."
The government he said will also improve the application of the Lateral Attrition Law, "which is a first step in establishing a meritocracy within the BIR and BOC."
The Lateral Attrition Law provides for a system of reward and punishment for BOC and BIR officials and employees depending on their performance. Those who fall short of their collection targets by at least 7.5% would be dismissed from service, while those who go beyond expectations would be given incentives which may include cash.
At the same time, programs such as the Department of Finance’s Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS), the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s Run After the Tax Evaders (RATE) program Rolex replica watches, and the Bureau of Customs’ Run After the Smugglers (RATS) program, will be intensified to reduce corruption.
"The handicap in the past is how to properly process these complaints, but with a very able justice secretary, we will see first action in this area."
Purisima is hopeful that the Aquino administration will be able to create "tipping points" so that even the citizenry can help curb corruption.
"When we are able to achieve an environment of increased perceived risks among players in this space, hopefully even the private sector will be more careful in being part of tax evasion."
It is estimated that some P150 billion in revenue is lost annually due to tax evasion and smuggling but Purisima said this data could already be outdated.
Local stocks fall 1.2%
MANILA, Philippines – Local stocks fell on Monday after meager gains on Wall Street last Friday.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index fell 53.49 points or 1.2% to 4,295.62.
The broader all-share index went down 26.26 points or 0.9% to 2 Breitling replica watches,763.72.
Losers beat gainers, 77 to 61 Breitling replica watches, while 49 stocks were unchanged.
Value turnover was P4.5 billion, with 1.29 billion shares changing hands.
MBC credits PNoy for laying foundations in 1st yea
…but expects to see results in year two
MANILA, Philippines – Like other business groups, the Makati Business Club (MBC) expects President Aquino to deliver results in the second year of his term after "laying the foundations" of good governance and fiscal consolidation in the first.
Aquino has been getting mixed feedback on his first-year performance, with some saying he was slow in addressing the country’s concerns on inflation and high oil prices as well as economic growth because of delays in public spending.
The MBC said the President should be credited for a number of "undeniable gains" that have laid the framework for sustained and inclusive growth in the future.
It cited mainly a Cabinet team that is sincere in fighting corruption; the passage of the GOCC Governance Act of 2011, which aims to curb the excesses in state firms; and the fiscal reforms implemented to trim the country’s budget deficit.
"These are all important and undeniable gains that should not be disregarded or belittled Breitling replica watches, and the Makati Business Club believes the Aquino administration deserves credit for these," the MBC said.
"We see that the fiscal reforms and implementation of policies that promote macroeconomic stability have inspired the confidence of the international investment community," MBC added Cartier replica watches, referring to high investor demand for the country’s global peso bonds and bond swaps, and the recent upgrade of the Philippines’ credit rating.
However, the group said it expects the President to take it to the next level "of effective implementation" in the coming year.
It cited three vital areas that need immediate action by the government: the rollout of the Public-Private Partnership program, the resolution of the NAIA Terminal 3 dispute, and the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill.
"These are just some of the critical yardsticks by which the Aquino governemnt’s performance will be measured in year two and onwards.Ultimately, it is what comes to pass in the future that will determine the true worth of the underpinnings of reforms laid in the first year of the Aquino administration," the MBC said.