The 2010 Wimbledon Championships begin June 21st and end July 4th and the winners will take away 1 million pounds in prize money. The All England Club , who hosts the Wimbledon Championships, apparently aren’t feeling the pinch of the global economic decline and announced in April that the men’s and women’s ‘singles’ with the winning Wimbledon scores will each pocket a million pounds.

The 2010 Wimbledon Champions will not only move up in the Wimbledon tennis rankings, but will move up on the Forbes rich list. As the trophies are presented July 4th, the All England Club will present the over-sized cheque on Center Court to the winners, but not announce just how much work went into gathering up this prestigious cash prize, they’ll most likely present the 1 million pounds without any fanfare or vulgarities like the US Open does. The disclosure of the million pound cash prize back in April, will be considered the only time the Club will discuss this amazing news.

This ‘singles’ winners prize is an 150,000 pound increase from 2009, and is considered quiet a feat, one that makes a bold statement about how solid the financial base is for the Wimbledon Championships. What helped with the decision to raise the cash prize is the weakened pound compared to the dollar and the Euro. The All England Club didn’t want their international tennis players to look at the currency exchange rate , which the sterling has fallen by 25%, and consider that their winnings was worth considerably less than that of the US Open, the French Open and the Australian Opens cash prizes. The amount of the ‘singles’ Champions prize money is considered very important to the All England Clubs board members because it demonstrates the fact of just how the Wimbledon Championships are successful and it demonstrates just how they really do care about the players themselves.

The players, after all, are what the Wimbledon Championships are all about, and it’s important to reward them properly for their extraordinary talent and skills in this highly competitive individual international sport.

One of the most well known aspects of the city of Austin, Texas is its music scene and the support it has for developing the careers of new musicians. This is also one of the features that draws numerous tourists to its clubs, and other attractions of course, every year. Some of the guests in the local hotels are themselves musicians and have arrived in the city with hopes of finding a place to live and possibly even gaining employment. Ideally they would find work in one of the great clubs, but most people, particularly artists of one sort or another, will take any work they can find when first moving to a new city. Some of the popular live music clubs in Austin include the Austin Music Hall, B.D. Riley’s Pub and The Backyard. There are numerous others, far too many to describe here, but finding them out is half the fun, so take the time to explore the Austin music scene and even visit the city if you have the chance.

The Austin Music Hall is one of the city’s premiere performance venues and getting a gig here is a great thing for the local musicians. Although many of the performances are open to audiences of all ages, there is a bar and restrictions to it are in place. The hall has recently expanded to approximately 43,000 square feet, which can host quite a few patrons. B.D. Riley’s Pub is one of the city’s good time places. Of course it has Guinness on draught and it will serve the green Guinness on Saint Patrick’s Day. In addition to the bar and great music, this place has a nice menu including a great place of fish and chips. The Backyard is one of the city’s outdoor venues and attracts national acts. And it is known for being ecologically friendly as well as offering some of the top professional musicians and bands.

One of the many neighborhoods worth a visit in Vancouver, Canada is Chinatown.  Over the years, many of the cities Asian population has moved out of the city to the suburb of Richmond, however the neighborhood remains delicately charming and relatively non-touristy.  As in many large cities in North America, the cultures are eclectic and varied, each one with their own Chinatown.  The Canadian Chinatown is one of the largest on the continent.

Many of the rental properties in this neighborhood and those surrounding are in good hands with TransGlobe Property Management, and the sense of community is carried over from the streets of the neighborhoods to the buildings and the businesses themselves.  In Canada, many of the Asian population are Cantonese speaking and for them now, Chinatown is the place to go to do their shopping.

For those populations as well as everyone else, this is one of the best districts to go out to dinner.  This is one of the neighborhoods which was founded and settled at the same time the city was, by many of the migrant workers who came in to construct the Canadian Pacific Railroad.   During this time, the tension between the races was such that there were walls built that surrounded Chinatown for security.

By the 1950′s the area had fallen into shambles, and couple of decades later, during the 1970′s the city had considered tearing it all down completely and building a highway.  But the public protested and the neighborhood was rebuilt.  TransGlobe Property Management and others renovated the existing structures, and it remains one of the many wonderful neighborhoods to spend some time in when traveling through the city of Vancouver.  The neighborhood is filled with restaurants and market places and the culture of the many who were there when the city was born.

Gertie’s husband Will was being transferred to Charlotte, North Carolina. This was going to be quite a change for Gertie who had lived her entire life in Tucson, Arizona. She even went to college there and settled in the mid sized desert town thinking she might live there her entire life. All she could remember about Charlotte, she had never even been there before, was how nice all of the people sounded on the phone. This makes more sense when it is put in context with her job because she worked for in the customer service department of a major retail store through most of high school. She had many people call in from Charlotte and they were always extremely polite and she thought they were some of the nicest people she spoke with.

This memory was all she knew of her new home so she and Will planned a two week vacation in Charlotte since they weren’t going to be moving there for another year. Gertie made their reservations in one of the Charlotte luxury hotels and paid careful attention to the disposition of the person on the other end of the phone helping her. Sure enough, she was very friendly sounding. One the plane flight Will began to talk about the early significance of Charlotte to the country’s development and this intrigued Gertie a great deal. And as they began their final descent into the city Gertie was stunned by the beautiful skyline.

As if to emphasize the historical significance of the city, which Will knew would impress his wife, he took her on an excursion the following morning and brought her to where James K. Polk, the eleventh President of the United States, had been born. The replica of his family home inspired Gertie’s curiosity and interest and she was sure that she would enjoy all these historic elements of Charlotte and the region. They enjoyed a quiet picnic out in nature and Gertie considered how different the geography and climate was from the desert. The next day they spent in the Mint Museum of Art and Gertie had a great time and enjoyed the permanent collection. They had lunch in a beautiful sidewalk café and Gertie knew as she sipped her tea that she was going to be happy there.