You are your absolute best at dancing after one bottle of wine

December 20, 2017, 3:38 am

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There’s nothing more awkward than sober dancing at parties.

You’re never as smooth or impressive on the dance floor when you’re on the soda and limes.

But that’s no reflection on your poor skills or potential alcoholic status.

Because it turns out that your dancing skills peak after consuming one bottle of wine.

The Times’ science team have been investigating how much booze it takes to improve your dancing.

And they found that one bottle significantly improved dancing quality…but any more and ‘things deteriorate catastrophically’.

For their experiment, the team got 55 people to play a dancing game on an XBox, which rewarded them for copying dance moves. They recorded how many drinks each person had over… Read the full story

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Please don’t let women take on all the emotional labour this Christmas

December 20, 2017, 3:58 am

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Every year my mum cooks Christmas dinner.

She starts early, prepping what can be prepped the night before, then bunging meat in the oven, glazing pastry, and decanting sauce from jars to little pots all of Christmas morning.

She’ll pop her head out of the kitchen to open a present when it’s her turn, clearly flustered, and then will race back to the kitchen as one of many alarms starts to bleep with desperate urgency.

That’s all while the rest of us settle in the living room, unwrap presents, and have a jolly old time – pushing down any guilt caused by the knowledge that someone’s rushing around glazing carrots with honey in the next room.

Cooking Christmas dinner clearly isn’t a pleasant experience for my mum. She’s stressed out, she feels immense pressure, and she’s stuck in a sweltering hot kitchen roasting potatoes when she should be relaxing and enjoying the festive season.

But she does it anyway, because someone has to cook Christmas dinner, and… Read the full story

How to combat loneliness at Christmas and look after your mental health over the festive period

December 20, 2017, 4:00 am

≫ Next: 5 alcoholics reveal how they cope during Christmas and New Year

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Loneliness has nothing to do with being alone; feeling lonely can happen whether you are on your own or in a crowd.

Loneliness is an all-consuming darkness, possibly with feelings of anxiety or sadness, triggered by feeling isolated due to lack of connection or communication with others.

There’s a taboo around loneliness that we need to break

It is a serious problem that’s not only putting the NHS under strain but putting lives at risk.

Older people are often cited as being… Read the full story

5 alcoholics reveal how they cope during Christmas and New Year

December 20, 2017, 4:00 am

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’Tis the season to get bladdered every day… right?

The festive season is problematic for alcoholics.

Alcoholic help: How comedy brought me back from the brink of alcoholism

Heavy drinkers who’ve quit altogether, and manage their addiction just fine during the rest of the year when seldomly forced to associate with drunk people, will feel explicit or implicit peer pressure to drink.

‘Oh go on then. Why not. Just one won’t hurt.’

On the other hand, alcoholics still very much in the… Read the full story

If you’re sick of people, it’s time to pack up and move to this stunning cliff side house

December 20, 2017, 4:24 am

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Christmas is so hectic and people-filled that even the hardiest extrovert can be found shaking under their duvet by New Year’s Eve.

So let’s all take a moment to look at something calming and folk-free.

This incredible ‘isolation cabin’ is being built into a rock face in Calgary, Canada, and will be suspended right above a river.

Designed to blend into its surroundings, the raw concrete, glass and matte black steel home is also set to have a sunken bedroom.

It’s going to be located six steps below the kitchen, along with a shower and opaque-glazed loo.

The square-shaped house has been named Maralah by Laav architects, the firm behind the… Read the full story

Photographer creates billboards to show the brutal reality of Christmas in Yemen

December 20, 2017, 4:28 am

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Christmas should be a time for joy.

But in between wrapping presents and drinking all the mulled wine, we can easily forget the struggles of others.

A street photographer has aimed to highlght the brutal reality of the festive season in a warzone. In Made in Berlin, Igor Dobrowolski, exposes pre and post war life in Yemen.

The snaps contrast our familiar Christmas with themes we don’t normally associate with the period: starvation, malnourished children and destruction.

Read the full story

KFC launches a family sized bucket of gravy just in time for Christmas

December 20, 2017, 4:41 am

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KFC gravy-lovers, rejoice: You can now smother your turkey dinner in copious amounts of your favourite side dish, as KFC has launched an all-new family sized bucket of gravy, designed as the ‘perfect family roast accompaniment’.

The bucket features a quad-spout mechanism, and holds more than 700ml of gravy. That’s nearly a litre of gravy, guys.

KFC say it’s been ergonomically crafted, and ‘painstakingly engineered for a perfectly smooth pour’. Sure.

Currently, the bucket is just on a trial run to ensure it lives up to the expectations of KFC customers. If it’s a success, it’ll be rolled out across the country.

The trial comes in response to the growing… Read the full story

Primark is launching a pizza blanket and we’re here for it

December 20, 2017, 4:45 am

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There are few things better than pizza. We don’t care what kind it is – even if it’s cold or if the crusts are too thick, we’re sold.

But we may just have found something better.

One shop is now selling a blanket in the form of our favourite treat so you can now chill in your very own slice of pizza.

And who is responsible for the item we didn’t even realise we needed till now? Trusty Primark of course.

The blanket has pepperoni, mushrooms and peppers and unsurprisingly, their Instagram post has got everyone a little bit excited for the product.

And who can blame them? Who wouldn’t… Read the full story

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Mum donates breast milk to 20 families around the UK

December 20, 2017, 4:52 am

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A mother-of-one has become a breast milk donor to dozens of families across the UK after providing enough milk to fill three freezers.

Mum-of-one Harriet Tutton, 28, from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, started expressing her milk when her daughter Luna struggled to latch as a newborn.

But she produced a lot more than she needed.

After filling her own freezer, she then used her mum’s freezer and even her partner’s mum freezer before taking to social media to find another solution.

That’s a lot of milk.

She said: ‘I joined a Facebook page called ‘Human milk 4 human babies’. It’s an amazing informal milk sharing page.’

Harriet has since donated milk to 20… Read the full story

Man left in hysterics after receiving an unintentionally rude Christmas card from family

December 20, 2017, 4:54 am

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A man has been left laughing at his family’s expense after his aunt and uncle sent him an unintentionally rude Christmas card.

Rob Cook received a card from his aunt Les and uncle Roy, wishing him a merry Christmas.

The card read: ‘Rob. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

‘Have a fun one & try not to work too hard.

‘Lots of love Lesley and Roy’.

It seems harmless, right? Except the word ‘work’ accidentally looked just like ‘wank’ – making the message read: ‘Have fun & try not to wank too hard’. Just the message you want to receive from your loved ones at Christmas.

Finding the card pretty… Read the full story

Yo! Sushi has added delish new vegan dishes to their menu

December 20, 2017, 5:56 am

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Think back to just a year or two ago and you’d have been hard pushed to find a decent vegan option on a mainstream restaurant’s menu.

I say ‘decent’ because there often was the odd thing – maybe a sad little salad, or a bowl of chips.

These days, cruelty-free cuisine is creeping into the consciousness of more and more of our favourite food establishments – in the last few months alone we’ve munched our way through brand new vegan offerings at The Diner, Wagamama and Read the full story

The most popular baby names predicted for 2018 are inspired by the royals

December 20, 2017, 6:00 am

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We all rejoiced when Harry and Meghan were engaged.

It seems like news of the royal wedding have even had an influence on baby names, according to new research revealing pregnant women’s baby name choices.

George and Charlotte have made the top 20 names for 2018 with other royal favourites for boys such as James, Henry and Arthur on the list.

And Game of Thrones have clearly inspired parents too, with Aria ranking the 18^th most popular name for girls next year.

And good news for any Olivia fans: although the name was knocked off the top spot earlier this year, it’s made a comeback, hitting the number one… Read the full story

University counsellor spends free time making beautiful leaf artwork for students to discover

December 20, 2017, 6:02 am

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If you think you’re looking at alien leaf crop circles, then think again.

These works of nature art are actually made by a real-life human being – a certain Joanna Hendrick, student counsellor at Sacramento State University in California, USA.

She rakes the leaves from the campus’ ginkgo trees into pretty patterns every autumn, as a special treat for everyone at the uni.

Joanna first started making the artwork in 2013 to give her fun backgrounds to take pics of her kids against, but everyone loved it so much that it’s become an annual thing.

Over… Read the full story

The world has been blessed with sparkling rosé in a bright pink can

December 20, 2017, 6:04 am

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Ah rosé. Loved by wine fans the world over, thanks to its refreshing taste and 10/10 neckability during the summer months.

It’s loved so much that companies have made rosé wine chocolate, rosé gummy bears and rosé ice cream.

Remember when the country did a collective dash to Aldi earlier this year when their £5.99 bottle of the pink stuff was ranked one of the best wines in the world? Good times.

Well, brace your wine-loving bodies, guys, because there’s a new rosé kid on the block, and hot diggedy dog, we want in.

Say a warm welcome to Rosé Rosé –… Read the full story

Cute countryside property looks just like Iris Simpkins’ cottage in The Holiday

December 20, 2017, 6:58 am

≫ Next: So, these pet groomers have recreated the nativity with their dogs

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Any Christmas-lover who’s a sucker for romance will agree that The Holiday is the perfect Christmas film.

Some may argue they prefer Love Actually, but come on, Keira Knightely’s awful character Juliet brings the film down a notch and Jude Law is dreamy.

You know what else is dreamy? The cute little cottage Iris Simpkin (Kate Winslet) lives in.

And so obviously, we were super excited when we found out a cottage that could pretty much be a duplicate of the fictional Rosewood Cottage is currently on the market.

Read the full story

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So, these pet groomers have recreated the nativity with their dogs

December 20, 2017, 7:01 am

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Once you’ve seen one primary school nativity play, you’ve seen them all.

All the kids wear teatowels and none of them remembers their words.

Big deal.

A far more impressive feat, however, is this dog nativity.

Groomers at Wags to Riches Pet Services in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire, uploaded a series of photos of the holy doggy scene, complete with towels and beatific stares.

The husband and wife team describe themselves as professionals in dog grooming, walking, home boarding and pet sitting and they created a similar scenario last year.

Read the full story

Woman spent £28 on stick-on veneers and wasn’t impressed, to say the least

December 20, 2017, 7:21 am

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One woman learned the hard way why you shouldn’t trust cheap things on the internet after buying a set of sparkling white veneers for just £28.

Sue Robertson recently ordered some Perfect Smile Veneers online. The veneers came with a list of instructions, telling Sue to sterilise the veneers in boiling water for two minutes and leaving to cool before placing against her actual teeth for a ‘perfect, custom fit’.

She was to keep the veneers against her teeth for a ‘million dollar smile’.

Sue followed the instructions, but unfortunately was left with more of a £1 smile – and that’s being kind.

Read the full story

British people will throw away 108 million rolls of wrapping paper this Christmas

December 20, 2017, 7:56 am

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How many rolls of wrapping paper have you bought this year?

How many have you actually ended up using?

Oh, and once the presents have been unwrapped, what happens to all that sparkly paper?

When you think about it for a minute, Christmas is a horribly wasteful time. We fill up bin bags with packaging and wrapping, some of which hasn’t even been used.

A poll of 2,000 adults by GP Batteries has found that British people will throw away the equivalent of 108 million rolls of wrapping paper this Christmas, with most of us simply throwing our wrapping paper, packaging, and old cards out with the rubbish rather than considering whether or not… Read the full story

How to stay on track over Christmas if you’re training for an event

December 20, 2017, 8:01 am

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Christmas is not a time for exercise and wellness.

It’s the one time of the year that most people just want to curl up on the sofa to eat our weight in stuffing balls and Quality Street, drink ourselves silly and not lift a muscle until New Years Day.

But you know, there are some of us who have committed to events in January which require us to at least keep a loose grip on the bandwagon over the festive period.

There are plenty of races and competitions at the start of the year, for example.

And loads of us are mid body-transformations. If you’ve been training hard for months on end… Read the full story

We tried loads of Marks and Spencer’s fancy festive alcohol because ’tis the season

December 20, 2017, 8:07 am

≫ Next: Surprise, surprise, the UK’s favourite biscuit is a chocolate digestive

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Not sure if you frequent the alcohol sections of Marks and Spencer often, but they’re pretty great places to be.

Not only do they sell your fave mainstream brands, but they’ve also got fancy imported bottles that make gifts (to yourself or to another, your call), and their own brand alcohol is pretty damn great.

I mean, is it even a summer picnic if you haven’t cracked open a cold can of M&S pre-mixed piña colada? I think not.

When we saw the list of M&S festive booze this year, we thought, ‘Why not get a load of this and drink it… Read the full story