The newest addition to the Big UK Guide is the leading provider of water fountains and supplies in the United Kingdom. Fountain Direct serves homeowners and commercial clients through two separate divisions. They offer OASE quality products for filtration, watercourse pumps, fountains, underwater lighting and all at very competitive pricing.

The Personal Trainer Network offers UK residents a super easy way to locate a personal trainer in their area or when on travel. Just click the area on the map that you’re interested in and all participating personal trainers will be displayed. For personal trainers it’s an effective way to find new clients as well.

Their sister sites include a Personal Trainer jobs network and a directory of health clubs in the UK.

When Fai and Cecilia took over management of their restaurant in 2005 they renamed it from Phoenix City to the Happy Gathering Chinese Restaurant. They haven’t stopped since! Happy Gathering quickly established itself as a favorite family restaurant attracting young and old alike.

Happy Gathering Chinese Restaurant is located in a convenient spot on Radcliffe Street within the Royton town centre. They have 2 floors and make the fully furnished upper floor available for hire for parties and company gatherings, …Happy Gatherings!

Thankfully many in the U.K. Muslim community have spoken out about the recent incident in the Sudan where a British teacher has been convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear “Muhammad.”  While some Sudanese are marching in the streets of Khartoum near the school calling for her execution many Muslims in the U.K are asking the government to pardon her and accept her apologies.

Here are some of the responses from Muslim leaders in the U.K.:

Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, accused the Sudanese authorities of “gross overreaction.”

“This case should have required only simple common sense to resolve. It is unfortunate that the Sudanese authorities were found wanting in this most basic of qualities,” he said.

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, a political advocacy group, said the prosecution was “abominable and defies common sense.”

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies, which represents 90,000 Muslim students in Britain and Ireland, called on Sudan’s government to free Gibbons, saying she had not meant to cause offense.

“We are deeply concerned that the verdict to jail a schoolteacher due to what’s likely to be an innocent mistake is gravely disproportionate,” said the group’s president, Ali Alhadithi.

The Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim youth organization, said Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir should pardon the teacher.

“The Ramadhan Foundation is disappointed and horrified by the conviction of Gillian Gibbons in Sudan,” said spokesman Mohammed Shafiq.

It’s reassuring to see some urging calm and forgiveness. If we’re all going to survive in this ever-shrinking world we’re all going to need to develop thicker skin and more mercy when others trespass.

It’s interesting that Eminem’s ‘Toy Soldiers’ made it to #1 in the UK and only into the top 40 in the U.S., his own backyard. Either way the music video is hot and an interesting song about the out-of-control rap wars raging in the U.S.. Enjoy the song and video.

The MOBO 2007 Best UK Female award was awarded to Amy Winehouse. For more information about her visit her official Amy Winehouse website.

Here’s a short video of the announcement and her total surprised reaction to winning the award.

Win £5,000 to get your business idea off the ground!

Scottish Enterprise has announced Business Gateway is sponsoring a contest for business ideas where the winner will walk away with a pile of money. Their Business Idea Competition allows Scottish residents who are 16 or older to enter in for a chance to win a number of prizes.

Entries can be submitted through the end of November. Good luck!

Gizmodo offers UK gizmo lovers a frequently updated blog with news about the toys we’ve grown so dependent on, as well as, information about gadgets and gizmos that haven’t yet been discovered by the masses. No doubt you’re into gadgetry so check it out and subscribe to their RSS feed .

Charity Choice offers a comprehensive directory of charities for UK residents. They list thousands of charities with easy to find links for donating and to information for prospective donors. Charities are categorized for easy browsing or easily searchable.

The organization also provides services to nonprofits, as well as, advertising opportunities.

Overall an excellent site for givers and nonprofits.

In the course of building the popular BigGuide.net internet directory I was surprised at how many of the better quality websites were UK websites out of the 16,000+ I’ve reviewed. Indeed such a large percentage of the sites approved for BigGuide were UK sites so I decided to launch a standalone UK version of BigGuide to be in a position to offer the UK internet community a better internet resource then BigGuide.net could offer on it’s own.

Coincidentally the UK domain for BigGuide UK was available for sale so I bought it at auction on Sedo.

There’s a bit of work to be done to clear out non-UK clutter and some category restructuring to do, but when complete I hope to have added a new useful internet resource free for UK netizens to use.

I’m open to advice, suggestions (including suggested websites), and feedback so don’t hesitate to send an email or comment here.

Cheers!

David Coakley