5 apps to help you survive a long-distance relationship

September 17, 2017, 4:57 am

≫ Next: This story about an elderly couple is too heartrending for a Sunday

≪ Previous: Why Taipei not Hong Kong or Kuala Lumpur should be your next Asia holiday

metro illustrations — (Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

Having been in a long-distance relationship, I feel the pain for all you guys out there trying to make it work.

It’s difficult being with someone but not really ‘being with’ them when you need a hug, or want to go out and get ice cream.

Give peas a chance: why 2017 is the year of the pea

Thankfully, we live in an age where you can contact your boo whenever you feel like it.

These apps will help you go one better, though, and feel closer together even if you’re hundreds of miles away.

1. Couple

Read the full story

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This story about an elderly couple is too heartrending for a Sunday

September 17, 2017, 6:05 am

≫ Next: This Twitter account will send you cat pictures whenever you need them

≪ Previous: 5 apps to help you survive a long-distance relationship

If you’re still feeling a little fragile, brace yourself.

Because here’s possibly the most heartbreaking story you’ll come across this weekend.

ATTENTION: Vegan Baileys is arriving in the UK this week

Twitter user James Morales works at a pharmacy and he’s gotten to know a number of regular customers who come in to pick up their prescriptions.

Like one lovely elderly couple who collect their meds every week.

That was, until the old man turned up alone one week and James got a life lesson that he’ll never forget.

Today I had one of, if not, THE saddest experience of my life. I know… Read the full story

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This Twitter account will send you cat pictures whenever you need them

September 17, 2017, 6:09 am

≫ Next: New Ben & Jerry’s flavour Home Sweet Honeycomb raises money for refugees

≪ Previous: This story about an elderly couple is too heartrending for a Sunday

Friends and family can only console you to a certain degree. For everything above their pay grade, there are cats.

Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are basically made for images of our feline friends, and there are thousands of accounts dedicated to providing us with them.

Money-saving tips that won't suck the joy from your life

On Twitter, the @catsu account has exploded in popularity recently. That’s partly down to their expertly curated and regularly updated repertoire of cat pictures, but also because they’ll send you a unique picture every time you need one.

Exhibit A:

pic.twitter.com/kGgvAb08qK

— (@catsu)… Read the full story

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New Ben & Jerry’s flavour Home Sweet Honeycomb raises money for refugees

September 17, 2017, 7:02 am

≫ Next: How to get incredible abs like Lilly Sabri in just 15 minutes*

≪ Previous: This Twitter account will send you cat pictures whenever you need them

Ben & Jerry’s are on a roll this month.

As well as launching three vegan options they’ve also created a new (non-vegan) flavour.

Home Sweet Honeycomb comprises sweet cream ice cream, honey caramel sauce and chocolate-covered honeycomb chunks.

Coconut almond fudge chip Ben & Jerrys copy.jpg

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield has some surprising news

It has another sweet aspect to it too.

Proceeds from the new flavour will go to the International Rescue Committee – a group that supports refugees around the world.

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How to get incredible abs like Lilly Sabri in just 15 minutes*

September 17, 2017, 7:38 am

≫ Next: 5 things on your Facebook feed that will make you realise how pointless it is

≪ Previous: New Ben & Jerry’s flavour Home Sweet Honeycomb raises money for refugees

Abs are really the hardest nuts to crack.

You can build up your hamstrings and calf muscles quickly through cardio and a little weight work. You can get defined biceps pretty easily if you do a few isolated workouts a week.

How to get incredible abs like Lilly Sabri in just 15 minutes

But core strength is something that many of us work on and yet see very little difference.

Women especially might see definition forming up top but the further we head towards out belly buttons, the softer our bellies get.

There you are doing 100 crunches at the end of every workout… Read the full story

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5 things on your Facebook feed that will make you realise how pointless it is

September 17, 2017, 9:00 am

≫ Next: This giant Hotel Chocolat advent calendar contains gin and chocolate

≪ Previous: How to get incredible abs like Lilly Sabri in just 15 minutes*

Just put the phone down (Picture: Dinendra Haria/REX/Shutterstock/Metro)

Before writing this, I took a moment to scroll through my Facebook feed.

I don’t do it often, and the five-minute browse was a welcome reminder why – Facebook sucks you in, and not in a good way.

11 things women need to stop doing on Facebook right now

Can you ever imagine for a minute that on your death-bed, you’ll be thinking to yourself, ‘I really wish I’d spent more time on Facebook’? No.

So for anyone who wastes hours a week on Facebook, here are five things I just saw in my feed, to remind you… Read the full story

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This giant Hotel Chocolat advent calendar contains gin and chocolate

September 17, 2017, 9:08 am

≫ Next: Model proves that weight loss and happiness aren’t linked

≪ Previous: 5 things on your Facebook feed that will make you realise how pointless it is

If you can’t decide between a gin advent calendar and a chocolate one this year, fear not.

Because Hotel Chocolat has created a 2017 advent calendar with both – and it’s absolutely massive.

The Grand Advent Calendar contains a big festive mix of truffles, pralines, chocolate wreaths, chocolate snowflakes, chocolate Santas, slabs and luxury hot chocolate mix.

What’s more, there’s also 50ml bottles of cocoa gin and salted caramel vodka inside.

Other chocolatey treats include chocolate-filled crackers, a hazelnut bûche and macadamia chocolate snowballs.

The advent calendar costs £68 and you can order it online or find it in a Hotel Chocolat store from November 1.

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Model proves that weight loss and happiness aren’t linked

September 17, 2017, 12:46 am

≫ Next: How having access to social housing helped my mental health and got me back on my feet

≪ Previous: This giant Hotel Chocolat advent calendar contains gin and chocolate

There can’t be many women who haven’t thought that losing weight would make them happier.

If only we could shift a few stone, we’d feel more confident, look better, be healthier.

Model proves that weight loss and happiness aren't linked

But that isn’t always the case – as one model and body-positive activist is proving.

KhrystyAna says that back in 2013, she was busy tying to become ‘small enough’ to make it as a fashion model.

‘Technically I have never been small enough,’ she writes.

‘Even back then with all the dietary suffering and daily long hours… Read the full story

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How having access to social housing helped my mental health and got me back on my feet

September 17, 2017, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: ‘I will not crumble. You will not win’: An open letter to my depression

≪ Previous: Model proves that weight loss and happiness aren’t linked

Small detached house surrounded by tall blocks of flats — Social housing isn’t what you expect it to be (Picture: Getty)

Growing up, I was told that all council estates were dirty and that social housing tenants were lazy scroungers who were likely to steal anything that wasn’t nailed down.

Then I became a social housing tenant myself and I realised that this definitely wasn’t the reality.

Can we please stop giving people in their 20s such a hard time?

I’m sharing my story in support of Housing Day – an annual campaign that celebrates social housing.

This year, the campaign is focusing on stigma and, as a… Read the full story

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‘I will not crumble. You will not win’: An open letter to my depression

September 17, 2017, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Unicorn cereal has just landed in the UK and it actually looks pretty good

≪ Previous: How having access to social housing helped my mental health and got me back on my feet

Dear you,

I feel you, my depression, creeping in again, gradually.

You never come banging down doors; you prefer to move back in piece by piece – first bringing the self-doubt, then piling in the emotional baggage coupled with dread.

You whisper in my ear like a lover but it’s never the sweet nothings I expect.

You tell me I’m unlovable and that any time a plan changes it’s because nobody wants to spend time with me.

You wait until I’m sat in front of the mirror to tell me my hair is too frizzy, my skin too patchy and that my body is too lumpy, too angular, too thin, too wobbly all in one.

You slur incoherently from one bad notion to the next, and I know you make even less sense than a drunk, but I just cannot stop listen to you.

You stop me from leaving my bed, from changing my clothes, then tell me I’m lazy and disgusting.

Read the full story

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Unicorn cereal has just landed in the UK and it actually looks pretty good

September 17, 2017, 11:57 pm

≫ Next: Everyone loves this guy’s creative way of helping his girlfriend’s depression

≪ Previous: ‘I will not crumble. You will not win’: An open letter to my depression

Thankfully, most of us seem to be over the unicornification of everything that hit us like a disease earlier this year.

You couldn’t move for brands trying to add glitter and sparkles to their lattes/cakes/toasts.

ATTENTION: Vegan Baileys is arriving in the UK this week

But just as the trend seems to be all but dead, a new incarnation seems to have popped up.

And this time, it actually looks quite good.

Unicorn Froot Loops have just landed in the UK and is in supermarkets now.

Kellogg’s have just launched a limited unicorn edition of the breakfast cereal and it looks like just the thing that might… Read the full story

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Everyone loves this guy’s creative way of helping his girlfriend’s depression

September 18, 2017, 12:25 am

≫ Next: Dog-lover curbs her own designer shopping habit so her pugs can live like kings

≪ Previous: Unicorn cereal has just landed in the UK and it actually looks pretty good

Dating someone with mental health issues can be difficult.

Unless you’ve been through depression and anxiety yourself, it’s hard to know exactly what the other person is dealing with.

Money-saving tips that won't suck the joy from your life

There’s often little you can say or do to make your S.O feel better, to get moving. And it can be frustrating when they don’t respond to what your attempts to cajole them into being happier.

That’s just not how mental health works.

But one guy has got emotional support down to a fine art.

He’s decided to show his girlfriend how… Read the full story

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Dog-lover curbs her own designer shopping habit so her pugs can live like kings

September 18, 2017, 12:52 am

≫ Next: How to look after your mental health when you’re physically ill

≪ Previous: Everyone loves this guy’s creative way of helping his girlfriend’s depression

Meet Stanley and his brother George.

They’re Sharon Perryman’s two incredibly spoilt pugs who have a closet most of us could only dream of.

5 apps to help you survive a long-distance relationship

Sharon used to spend most of her cash on buying herself designer garms, but since her pugs arrived on the scene, she’s sacrificed her own needs for kitting out her dogs.

‘Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Dior – my shoe shopping habit used to be slightly crazy. But, since having the pugs, I don’t buy them anymore,’ says Sharon.

‘Now I spend all my spare time and money trawling the internet… Read the full story

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How to look after your mental health when you’re physically ill

September 18, 2017, 1:04 am

≫ Next: 43% of millennials have never used snail mail

≪ Previous: Dog-lover curbs her own designer shopping habit so her pugs can live like kings

Last week I got sick.

Not the cute sniffly sort of sick that gets you a day off work and a reason to watch old Pixar films when eating soup.

The gross kind. The ‘dear lord, my stomach hurts’ kind, that made me urgently need a toilet/vomit receptacle near me at all times.

It wasn’t pretty.

In the midst of that physical mess, I found my anxiety having a flare-up. The night before the puking began, I went to the cinema to see IT, and found myself more terrified by the worries in my own brain than Pennywise chewing off a kid’s arm.

The next day, the anxiety kept spinning. As I went home from work early and settled in to bed, I felt darker thoughts coming through, too.

I think it’s because when I’m physically sick, I put myself in situations that I used to relate to my worst periods, mentally.

When I’m at my lowest, I stay in bed, re-watch TV shows and films I’ve… Read the full story

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43% of millennials have never used snail mail

September 18, 2017, 1:04 am

≫ Next: How meet new people IRL

≪ Previous: How to look after your mental health when you’re physically ill

When was the last time you bought a stamp?

Bet it was a while back. What about the last time you wrote a letter?

Ages ago, I’d wager.

43% of millennials have never used snail mail

Don’t worry, though – if you’re looking up at that big red postbox and it feels like something of an antique, you’re far from being alone.

A new study has revealed that 43% of millennials have never sent a hand-written letter, thank-you note or parcel to someone they know, via the good old-fashioned snail mail.

Meanwhile, every single minute over 208,000 pictures are posted to Facebook and 65,000 images to Instagram.

Read the full story

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How meet new people IRL

September 18, 2017, 1:09 am

≫ Next: Anyone who has a really extra dad will relate to this guy mailing mangoes to his daughter at uni

≪ Previous: 43% of millennials have never used snail mail

When small-talking in the office last week, one guy mentioned how he’d met his girlfriend in a coffee shop.

Gasps emanated from half the room, with most of us in disbelief that that was a thing that still happened.

How to look after your mental health when you're feeling rubbish physically

He’d just gone up to her, sparked up a conversation, and asked for her number. They’ve been together for over a year now.

The reason so many of us were shocked, is because with dating websites and apps, it’s rare to hear of someone who meets a partner like they did in the… Read the full story

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Anyone who has a really extra dad will relate to this guy mailing mangoes to his daughter at uni

September 18, 2017, 1:43 am

≫ Next: Burberry caps are officially back in fashion, people

≪ Previous: How meet new people IRL

When you go off to uni, it can feel like your parents are only too glad to be shot of you.

But try as they might, they just can’t let go of the protect reigns.

How to get incredible abs like Lilly Sabri in just 15 minutes

My own dear father used to post me mixtape CDs, the odd cheque and occasionally, a round of Algerian semolina bread – just so that I could have the odd taste of home.

Bread is one thing…actual fruit, however, is quite another.

Cecilia Li forgot a box of mango that her dad had chopped up for her in… Read the full story

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Burberry caps are officially back in fashion, people

September 18, 2017, 2:08 am

≫ Next: One in eight Brits don’t cook for themselves

≪ Previous: Anyone who has a really extra dad will relate to this guy mailing mangoes to his daughter at uni

The Burberry Cap Is Back In Fashion — (Picture: EMPICS/Metro.co.uk)

We’ve all, at one time or another, owned a cap.

You may have had a Von Dutch number. You may still be rocking a New Era model.

One in eight Brits don't cook for themselves

But there’s no cap more iconic than the beautiful Burberry classic.

Now an almost distinct species, tartan-capped youths once roamed suburban shopping malls in packs, drinking blue WKDs and generally mouthing off.

Due to a series of ASBOs, they stopped congregating in public and eventually, they hung their caps up.

No one wanted to be associated with its tri-colour check.

Read the full story

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One in eight Brits don’t cook for themselves

September 18, 2017, 2:11 am

≫ Next: Lewis Hamilton going vegan is proof that animal-free living isn’t a minority interest anymore

≪ Previous: Burberry caps are officially back in fashion, people

We live in the age of convenience.

That’s never more evident than when you’ve got the hunger pangs. From snacking, to takeaway apps, to five-course meals, it’s never been easier to avoid the kitchen.

How to look after your mental health when you're feeling rubbish physically

It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, then, to find out that the majority of young Brits avoid the ‘heart of the home’ altogether.

A new YouGov survey has revealed just that, with a whopping one-in-eight Brits admitting that they don’t cook for themselves.

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Lewis Hamilton going vegan is proof that animal-free living isn’t a minority interest anymore

September 18, 2017, 2:43 am

≫ Next: This diver got treated to his very own ‘sealfie’

≪ Previous: One in eight Brits don’t cook for themselves

This weekend, Louis Hamilton announced that he’s recently turned to veganism.

The BBC reported him as saying that he hasn’t touched red meat for two years, stopped eating chicken at the beginning of the year, and recently gave up fish in favour of a plant-based lifestyle.