Eric Armstrong

Improving Industrial Relations (1985) presents and discusses the findings of research into the advisory function of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS). ACAS is most widely known for its attempts to resolve industrial disputes through conciliation, but most of its endeavours lie in its advisory role to improving industrial relations.

Improving Industrial Relations (1985) presents and discusses the findings of research into the advisory function of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS). ACAS is most widely known for its attempts to resolve industrial disputes through conciliation, but most of its endeavours lie in its advisory role to improving industrial relations.

A charming and topical tale about a number of dogs violently snatched from their homes and taken to an isolated compound in prepartion for their illegal sale. One of the captive dogs, a yound Lhasa apso, tries to organise an escape aided by a very unusual cat and a feral Patterdale terrier. Relentlessly pursued through the countryside by criminals, the dogs have to live by their wits in order to complete the long journey home. As their enemies close in, a vengeful predator occasionally assists them as he tries to hunt down the dog who betrayed him as a puppy.

Learn how you can practice a meditative form of yoga-even with a typically Western "gymnastic yoga" session going on around you. Learn how to find your meditation posture. Develop the specific combination of strength and flexibility required to maintain it effortlessly. Perhaps most importantly, learn the Figure-8 Energy Breath-a breathing pattern you can use to supercharge your asanas and your workouts, and start you on the road to energy flow meditations. It's all in Bench Yoga, volume 1 of the Subtle Energy Yoga series.This is yoga for you Beginners: Gentle yoga anyone can do. Don't let age, weight, or injuries hold you back. If you can sit in a chair, you can do this Experts: Accelerate your progress. Strengthen your asanas. Build to Lotus.Everyone: Enjoy a meditative energy-flow practice. Raise chi. Meditate Need a break? Meditate Enjoy a perfectly upright, perfectly balanced, perfectly comfortable posture.Prepare for your inner journey From yoga to meditation.From meditation to the sublime experience of internal energy.Discover these simple truths: Meditation and internal energy flows open the door to joy and happiness.They are the key to a connection with the divine-the unending source of inspiration and love.From the Back CoverBench Yoga is a perfect blend of meditation and yoga that anyone can do. If you can sit in a chair, you can do it. If you can sit in Lotus Pose, you can still benefit from it. And the ancient tradition of a sitting bench can help you get from one to the other Make Yoga EasierNot everyone can get down to the floor-or get back up again. Not everyone can do the asanas (poses) without support. But everyone can sit That's where the Yoga Bench comes in.Sit straight, meditate, progress to Full LotusYour Yoga practice should make it possible to sit long and sit strong. Why? To meditate It's always been the goal of Yoga. A bench can help you develop your capacity to sit effortlessly and comfortably.Connect with an Ancient TraditionAll over India there are pictures and sculptures of gods and ancient gurus sitting on a bench, a tree stump-even the back of a cow or tiger Typically, they are sitting with one leg up, and one down. They knew something Eric Armstrong is reinvigorating that tradition with a Yoga and Meditation practice built around a sitting bench. It just may be the most important of your Yoga practice Improve your Yoga/Meditation practiceYou can easily sit in the ideal, upright posture-without back pain.You won't strain or slide off, even if you have limited flexibility.A wide variety of sitting positions let you meditate longer and more deeply.Get up and sit down as easily as a chair. Change positions easily.Support for standard asanas makes them easier.Special asanas help you progress to Full Lotus.This book shows youWhere to buy a bench, how to build one, how to set it up and use it.The 11 basic sitting positions with 45 variationsStandard Yoga asanas using the bench and a Yoga Block for supportSpecial asanas that build flexibility in the hips and legsPlus a collection of exercises to build sitting strengthThe asanas and exercises promote internal energy flows - a great prelude to meditation. You sit comfortably with ease, poise, and clarity to enjoy the deepest experience possible. It's a revival of the ancient wisdom of Yoga. Note: The Kindle version has live links and color pictures.

A REVOLUTIONARY NEW APPROACH to reading greens and making putts.Everything you need to know to become a GREAT putter. Learn how to read greens, anticipate breaks, and evaluate putts, plus tips for choosing your putting strategy. Comprehensive Keys to the Green shows you how to get the right feedback from a chip or putt, so you can determine if the line was off, or the speed was off (or both), and, if so, by precisely how much -- critical information for your putting success.Best of all, your first chip or putt will give you all the information you need for the next. With that information, you'll be well on your way to lower scores.The PERFECT COMPLEMENT to the AIMPOINT SystemThat system tells you how to predict the amount of break and pick a point of aim. It does a great job, too. In fact, it was one of the original inspirations for the "Keys to the Green" system.But once you predict the putt, you have to make the putt. After a miss, which generally happens the first time, you need to determine if your prediction was off, or your execution.Was your putt too fast or too slow (execution)? Was it too high, or too low (prediction)? Or was it a combination of factors (it generally is), and if so, by how much of each?The Keys to the Green system is the perfect way to tell if your green-speed estimate or finger-alignment was off, giving you an inaccurate read, or whether you had the wrong speed. That feedback helps you can make the right adjustment for your next putt.And More The book also covers putting mechanics, and the entire putting process from initial read to final stroke evaluation. It shows you how to anticipate which way the ball will break as it encounters different slopes (a few of which are decidedly non-intuitive ). It also includes bonus material to help you set up a practice program.Comprehensive Keys to the Green is a clearly-written, easy-to-follow guide that will have you mastering the greens in no time. Use this manual to save multiple strokes per round, in the easiest part of the game (The Kindle version has color diagrams and live links.)

A guided tour of Central Birmingham, showing how the city has been transformed over the last century.

Birmingham’s War: Voices of the Second World War is a collection of 100 accounts by local young men and women who served in the armed forces during the Second World War. They have been collected by Eric Armstrong, a fellow serviceman from Birmingham, who includes an authoritative introduction and commentary throughout the text. These long-forgotten accounts provide a captivating insight into the lives of young people from Birmingham and their experiences as they defended our country during the Second World War.

When Skyler C. Gull builds a sand castle, he finds it missing and goes on the search for the sand castle thief. Children of all ages will love this delightful seaside tale. Visit Skyler at www.skylerseagull.com

In this insightful memoir, incidents, thoughts, and emotions of a Birmingham boyhood are carefully surveyed. The earliest memory recorded derives from the sights and sounds of the Charleston, while the last is that of a lingering kiss from a childhood sweetheart. In between is a journey of self-discovery in a rapidly expanding world-a world that soon ignited with the outbreak of the Second World War. Through the personal upheavals of an extended family in the Black Country, the changes in Eric Armstrong's life are set against a variety of overlapping contexts, from countrywide events (such as the general strike of 1926) to the disturbing events in Europe (and particularly Germany). The author recalls how he marvelled at the achievements of Amy Johnson, Charles Lindbergh, and Malcolm Campbell; he also revelled in the cinematic delights of King Kong and the dancing of Fred and Ginger. These interests and more are reflected in the nearly 200 rare and unpublished photographs found within.Deeply entrenched in cultural and social history, A Birmingham Boyhood 1923-40 evokes, with tender memory, the manners and morals of those days, reflecting the myriad changes in Birmingham (and the wider world) throughout this tumultuous period.

As the nineteenth century progressed, shorter working weeks brought more leisure time and improved opportunities to promote and take part in sport and entertainment. By 1900 two professional football teams had become established in the league, Edgbaston had become the home of Warwickshire County Cricket Club, and ball games such as rugby, hockey, netball and tennis flourished. Birchfield Harriers regularly showed a clean pair of heels to clubs near and far. Gymnastics and swimming also became very popular. During the first three decades of the twentieth century music halls, theatres and the cinema attracted impressive numbers of patrons. All of these enjoyable activities are described in this book with over 200 photographs, postcards and other wonderful memorabilia. Coronations are also featured and the week-long city-wide pageant in 1938. Look out for the small boy who surely put the 'imp' into 'impudence'!

During the nineteenth century, Britain had experienced impressive industrial growth, which enabled the country to become a major world power. This expansion brought economic improvement and a wide variety of imports which fuelled demand for a better quality of goods and higher quantities of shops at home in the British Isles. During the earlier years of the last century, many shops were to be found in Birmingham, by now a major industrial centre. The shopkeepers of Birmingham catered for their customers in whatever way they could. Indeed, the diversity of things sold in these shops ranged from foodstuffs,such as bread and milk, to cycling equipment and pet food. A marvellous, wide ranging view of shops in Birmingham, highly illustrated with over 100 fascinating postcards, Old Birmingham Shops from Old Photographs will not only appeal to lovers of shopping, but also to local historians. Many of the postcards that appear in the book feature the numerous types of products sold, a significant number from the period 1900 - 14, a time known as 'the golden age of postcards'. Advertising their wares became highly important for shopkeepers, a development which is seen on a worldwide scale today, and these adverts throw some light on the social conditions of the time, including accelerating change.

'Kids supposed to evacuate this afternoon. Later told that it is tomorrow. Said goodbye to John and all my pals. May never see them again.' In October 1939, sixteen-year-old Eric Armstrong took the coach from his modest home in Handsworth, Birmingham to faraway rural Gloucestershire. Living away from Mum and Dad turned out to be much more pleasant than anticipated. He was fortunate in his placement and made lots of new friends. Stroud turned out to be an idyllic retreat from the bustle of Birmingham, where Eric could enjoy walks, cycle rides and trips to the cinema. And as for company: 'there are lots of simply lovely girls here - all sorts and sizes ...' With warmth and vivid detail, Eric describes a time that was full of new challenges and tiresome shortages; yet also of kindness and humour, resilience and courage.

A colourful, complex mix of contrast and continuity typifies much of what has happened to Handsworth during the past century. Soho Road, and nearby, provide a prime example of radical change: bright, lively shops run by people of West Indian, Pakistani and Indian background share space with an elegant Muslim mosque and imposing Sikh Gurdwara (temple) silently calling into question a famous poet's dictum, 'Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet'. Handsworth (and part of Perry Barr) remains a residential suburb, its most famous residents surely being Boulton, Watt and Murdoch, the trailblazing eighteenth-century entrepreneur engineers whose work attracted world-wide acclaim. Even just a skim through these pages will reveal intrinsically interesting as well as highly nostalgic comparisons and contrasts, of then and now.

A History of Money and Banking in Barbados documents the development of money and commercial banking in Barbados from the date of the settlement in 1627 to the establishment of the Central Bank of Barbados in 1973. It examines the early years of barter; the introduction of British coins by the Royal Proclamations of 1825 and 1838; the issue of colonial coins (anchor money); the introduction and circulation of foreign coins; the debate over the legal tender of British silver coins and the share of the seigniorage of these coins.Armstrong examines the first banks, the Colonial Bank and the West India Bank, in the nineteenth century, the introduction of Canadian banks in the twentieth century, the expansion of Barclays Bank as well as the issue of Barbados government currency notes; the measures taken by the British government and the Caribbean governments during the Second World War to ensure an adequate supply of currency; and the agreement between Barbados, Trinidad and British Guiana (Guyana) to make their government currency legal tender in each country.Armstrong analyses the establishment and operation of the British Caribbean Currency Board and its acrimonious demise, the establishment of the East Caribbean Currency Authority, the withdrawal of Barbados from the Authority, and the establishment of the Central Bank of Barbados.

For the first quarter of the twentieth century, trams constituted the main workhorses of the public road transport system before Birmingham Corporation buses eventually replaced them completely. 1868 brought the formation of the General Omnibus Co. which ran a fleet of horse buses from High Street to various suburbs. The remaining years of that century are marked by an intricate mesh of private companies and the Corporation owning, leasing and managing transport systems. The first horse tram in the city plodded into service in 1872, operating between Hockley Brook and Dudley Port.In 1882 mechanical power, in the form of the steam tram, pioneered a course between the Old Square in the town centre, and Aston, and quite some time elapsed before the steam tram faced competition from the cable car. By 1904 the Corporation decided to take matters into its own hands and operate its own trams and buses. Overhead electric wiring appeared along steam tram routes and 1907 brought the demise of the beasts, replaced by nearly 200 trams.Following closely the 1937 routes depicted in Volume I and including the fares structure, as well as the social and sporting activities of tramways personnel, this book is illustrated with a wealth of fascinating archive postcards and ephemera depicting tramways operation of the era and placing an emphasis on the tram in its social and historical context. A must for all Birmingham transport and local historians!