The Mystery of Peter Answers

When people ask Peter where they will go for the holidays I usually give a variety of answers depending on who they are and what they like to do. But when people ask Peter where they should go for the holidays Peter Answers the same almost every time – Holidays to New York.

New York is always a great place to visit. The culture diversity, the great things to see and do, and the simple fact that when you are on the East Coast you are close to so very many other states if you wanted to do something outside of New York all add up to terrific reasons to visit.

Here are my top five things to do while enjoying New York Holidays:

1. Visit Central Park – In the summer you can rent a boar and navigate the lake. In the winter you can skate on it.
2. Visit the Statue of Liberty – It’s fun to take the ferry boat out and spend a little time around the grounds. It’s big close up!
3. Go to a New York Yankees game – just don’t wear a Boston shirt, you wouldn’t want to get beat up!
4. Shop shop shop until you drop drop drop – New York City has the best shopping in the world.
5. Have lunch from a street cart and dinner at a fine dining restaurant – NYC has it all when it comes to food.

If you are truly lucky to have seen Holidays New York style then you know that this city loves holiday lights and decorations. Here are my top 5 holiday light displays:

1. Rockefeller Center – The lighting of city’s most famous tree marks the unofficial start of the winter holidays.
2. Bryant Park – Once you’ve gotten a look at the tree, visit Celsius, the on-site restaurant and bar.
3. South Street Seaport – This 50-foot Douglas fir has the Big Apple Chorus not only appearing at its unveiling but also performing every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday thereafter until Christmas Eve.
4. American Museum of Natural History – A team of 40 volunteers begins in July to create some 500 origami figures for this one.
5. Metropolitan Museum of Art – The twenty-foot-tall spruce at the Met is adorned with 50 eighteenth-century Neapolitan angels and flanked by hundreds of crèche figures.

So, where will you be going for the holidays? New York baby. And that’s Peter’s Answer!

Peter knows that there are fewer things that make a woman happier then getting a bouquet of beautiful flowers. Oh sure, a nice diamond ring, mink stole or fancy new Maserati would probably do the trick as well, but ultimately the simple gesture of buying a flower can truly bring a glimmer of love into your woman’s eyes.

When buying flowers for a loved one there are a few things you need to consider:

Type of Flower
I know that this probably seems pretty obvious, but before you set out on a journey to buy flowers you had better figure out what kind you want to get! You have a lot of options in this area and the option you choose will determine exactly how much of a hole it will leave in your wallet. Interested in a simple bouquet of carnations or daisies? Well then you can get a gorgeous vase full for less than $40. No flower will do for your gal but a rose? Then you may have to pony up the bigger bucks – depending on season you might pay $10. For a single rose! But guess what, in Peter’s experience you have to spend the money to get the grand reward, if you know what I mean!

Type of Container
If you have a lot of vases around the house then you can buy simple cut flowers and then use your own vase. If you go this route you will save money. However, who wants the hassle? And if you are shipping this gift to a friend who lives elsewhere then you will want to make sure they have a place to put their flowers and the only way that you can make sure of that is to buy a vase or basket. Fortunately, most bouquets these days come with this option. Peter answers that you should go for a simple yet elegant style, particularly if you have purchased a dozen roses.

Where to Buy
You really only have a few options when it comes to buying flowers. You can visit your local corner flower cart, which unless you are very lucky you probably don’t have. Or you can visit a flower shop in a strip mall or something, but that requires getting out of the house. So the last option is the best – buy your flowers online from the comfort of your own sofa. What could be better?

So in summary, if you want to show your lady how much you love her, skip the fancy car and go for a wonderful bouquet of flowers. And that’s Peter’s Answer!

If there is anything Peter Answers knows less about it would probably have to be beer. Peter is not a beer drinker, and doesn’t normally buy beer as a gift for anyone. However I do know that there are many people out there who do enjoy a beer tasting every now and again and it is to them (and their friends!) who I dedicate this question to.

Where can I buy a great beer gift basket?

First of all we need to define exactly what does this mean. What is a beer gift basket? Quite simply these are baskets that have bottles and cans of beer as the main ingredient to a gift basket that you would send to a friend of yours. But in addition to including great beer like Guinness, Killians beer or Summit, these gift baskets also add things like beer nuts and chips, to make sure the beer swiller has plenty of food to allow him to drink more beer!

Because style is important these gift baskets usually come in a very stylish basket so that when all the beer and food is consumed the basket can still be used for other things like a simple decoration or maybe to even reuse as another gift.

My choice for buying beer gift baskets is My Gourmet Food Gift Baskets, where they seem to have a nice collection of gourmet food gift baskets and at least a couple of good beer gift baskets.

Who knows, Peteranswers may just get a hankering for trying out some of their beer. And maybe you will too if you go out and purchase one of these great baskets.

And that is Peter’s Answer!

If you are like Peter Answers and love to visit exotic locations then Sri Lanka is for you. But you already know that, don’t you? What you really want to know is will you ever get to visit Sri Lanka?

Before we discuss the possibilities of you ever visiting Sri Lanka it would be good to learn a little bit more about the country.

History of Sri Lanka

Did you know that up until 1972 this little island in the Indian Ocean was called Ceylon? Not many people today know that but it wasn’t so long ago that it carried a different name. Sri Lanka is situated only about 20 miles off the southern coast of India and the island boasts a population of about 20 million people. The natural beauty of Sri Lanka’s tropical forests, beaches and landscape, as well as its rich cultural heritage, make it a world famous tourist destination. If you are lucky enough to visit Sri Lanka then make sure you bring the appropriate dress – Sri Lanka climate is tropical and warm.

People have populated the island of Sri Lanka since ancient times – Paleolithic human settlements have been discovered at excavations in several cave sites in the Western Plains region and the South-western face of the Central Hills region.

From 1983 to 2009, there was an on-and-off civil war, predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist militant organization who fought to create an independent state named Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island. This has in turn resulted in ethnic cleansing of Muslim and Shinhalese from the area which Tigers claim to be Tamil Eelam. Both the Sri Lankan government and LTTE has been accused for various human right violations. However, number of notorious atrocities committed by LTTE, including suicide bombing, forced conscription of child soldier and ethnic cleansing of non Tamil cause many countries to classify LTTE as a terrorist organisation.

On May 19, 2009 the President of Sri Lanka officially claimed end of the Civil War and the defeat of the LTTE following the death of its leader and much of its senior leadership.

Where to stay in Sri Lanka

Hotels in Sri Lanka are abundant and of a range of classes from very meager and inexpensive to high-end and luxurious. It all depends on what you want to get out of your stay. If you are looking for a book to read to recommend some good hotels then I would suggest Cool Hotels: India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, it is a very nice read and offers some good suggestions no matter your budget. With more than 500 ravishing full-color photographs, Cool Hotels brings you to the best hotels in India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. The super-deluxe establishments included here are all at the cutting-edge of hotel design and management. Each property has been hand-picked according to a set of criteria that includes a strong design aesthetic, architectural integrity, and a sense of individuality a million miles away from the cookie-cutter approach of chain hotels. Many of these properties have never been featured in guides before, and many have recently opened.

What to do in Sri Lanka

When visiting Sri Lanka I suggest three things – eating, going to festivals and watching a cricket match.

Sri Lankans have added western influences to the customary diet such as rice and curry, pittu (mixture of fresh rice meal, very lightly roasted and mixed with fresh grated coconut, then steamed in a bamboo mould). Kiribath (cooked in thick coconut cream for this unsweetened rice-pudding which is accompanied by a sharp chili relish called “lunumiris”), wattalapam (rich pudding of Malay origin made of coconut milk, jaggery, cashew nuts, eggs, and various spices including cinnamon cloves and nutmeg), kottu, and hoppers (“appa”), batter cooked rapidly in a hot curved pan, accompanied by eggs, milk or savories. Middle Eastern influences and practices are found in traditional Moor dishes. While Dutch and Portuguese influences are found with the island’s Burgher community preserving their culture through traditional favorites such as Lamprais (rice cooked in stock and baked in a banana leaf), Breudher (Dutch Christmas cake) and Bolo Fiado (Portuguese-style layer cake).

Every year on or about April 13 Sinhala and Tamil people celebrate Sinhala and Tamil New Year Festival, and Muslims celebrate Ramadan. Esala Perahera is the grand festival of Esala held in Sri Lanka. It is very grand with elegant costumes. Happening in July or August in Kandy, it has become a unique symbol of Sri Lanka and no visit would be complete sithout seeing it. It is a Buddhist festival consisting of dances and richly-decorated elephants. There are fire-dances, whip-dances, Kandian dances and various other cultural dances. The elephants are usually adorned with lavish garments, and the good news for visitors is that it is very rare to be trampled! The festival ends with the traditional ‘diya-kepeema’. The elephant is paraded around the city bearing the tooth of Buddha.

While the national sport in Sri Lanka is volleyball, by far the most popular sport in the country is cricket. The Sri Lankan cricket team achieved considerable success beginning in the 1990s, rising from underdog status to winning the 1996 World Cup, as well as the Asia Cup in 1996 and 2004. Sri Lanka remains one of the leading cricketing nations in the world, with the national team reaching the finals of Cricket World Cup 2007, where they lost to Australia. When you schedule your trip don’t forget to include a cricket match.

So will you ever get there?

So will you ever get to visit Sri Lanka? Well, peteranswers feels as though unless you already live in the Eastern hemisphere that the answer will be no. It is just too long and exotic a trip for you to be taking in this bad economy. However if you already live in say, something like the Philippines, then I foresee a trip to Sri Lanka in your future!

And that is Peter’s Answer!

I don’t think many of you have noticed but Peter Answers has been feeling under the weather for a number of months now. Being the world’s leading free virtual tarot puts a lot of pressure on a guy and the fact is that the pressure has just been too great for some time now. Have you ever felt that kind of pressure? I am betting that you have, because I see it every day in the sorts of questions that people ask.

So what do you do when you feel pressure to perform, whether performing is answering questions, or writing articles like this one, or even just going to work day in and day out? Well there are a number of things I believe you can focus on and these are the top priority items that will keep you healthy, alive and ready to answer more questions like Peteranswers.

First, you must recognize that you are not alone. I know that sometimes it feels as though you are the only person in the world dealing with the problems you have but you must realize that is not the case – many other people are struggling just like you are. Instead of thinking you are alone, actively go out and seek people like yourself that are having to deal with your problem. There is strength in numbers, my friend! In my case I talked to some other people who were having a very hard time getting the energy to write every day like Peter Answers used to do. Once I realized that this was a normal phase to go through I was able to get past the idea that I was out there all alone. Even if you live in the farthest away area of the world you can find other people by joining one of many Social Networks – these networks have the power to bring like minded people together to solve problems like this.

Second, one you recognize that you are not alone then you must do something about it. For me, the answer was easy – I needed to start writing again. Once I start writing then I will start answering your questions again and that will make everyone happier. Find what your problem is and just start addressing it with little baby steps if you can. Once you start up you will feel much better, I guarantee it!

So, do what Peter Answers is doing – get back on the horse!

Second,