One of the biggest excuses people make for not travelling is a lack of funds.

Let this couple serve as your inspiration. Vihjan and Mohana, both almost 70 years old, have travelled the world despite only being able to save approximately £3.30 towards their trips every day.

The couple run a small tea shop in Kochi, a port city in India, and dedicate their lives to visiting as many countries as possible. So far, they have travelled to 23 placds, including Singapore, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina and New York City in the US, among others.

How do they travel on such a small budget?

In a video on Twitter, shared by chairman of the Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra, the pair tell their story, which has since gone viral.

Around 56 years ago, Vihjan started his tea-selling business, and now the pair have over 300 to 350 customers visit their shop, Sree Balaji Coffee House, on a daily basis.

They collate their savings and also apply for bank loans, which they pay off every three years. Then, they travel to their country of choice, and on their return, begin the process all over again.

Vihjan and Mohana, who have been married for 45 years, carefully plan how they will spend their hard-earned money during the trips, and use very little when not on the road.

They have no employees either, thus saving on expenses.

So far, the video has been retweeted more than 11,000 times.

Many people commented on how inspiring the couple are, while others asked for the exact location to their shop, so they can taste the tea.

Speaking in the video on what he’s learned during his many travels, Vihjan said: ‘It will change your mind and your culture.’

Next on their agenda is Scandinavia, with Sweden, Denmark and Norway on the list, along with Greenland and the Netherlands.

This isn’t the first video they’ve featured in; a documentary was also made on the couple by director Hari M Mohanan. It was presented at the Filmfare Awards in 2018, and received an award for Best Film in the non-fiction category.

Dreaming of your own adventures? Don’t let money stand in your way.

Instead, do like Vihjan and Mohana, who are living proof that anything’s possibly if you dedicate yourself hard enough.

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Oh, okay, wow.

I thought we’d left the weird and ridiculous jeans in 2018, but alas, we have not.

Designers intent on ruining the go-to pairing of a jumper and jeans have clawed their way into the new year, continuing to create all manner of denim-related evil.

In case the risk of bootcut and low-rise jeans making a return wasn’t enough to instill fear in your heart, brace yourself for something that may be even more unsettling: asymmetrical jeans.

Yes, these are jeans that are straight cut on one leg, and a wide leg on the other.

Are these evil incarnate? Or simply a way to try the skater boi trend while also showing off all the work you’ve done on your glutes?

That’s an answer you’ll need to find for yourself, but if you do decide that asymmetrical jeans are exactly the weird flex you’d like to bring into your life, you are in luck, because they’re available for pre-order for $375.

The jeans are the work of designer brand Ksenia Schnaider, run by husband and wife team Ksenia and Anton Schnaider.

They’ve previously shown off denim trenches and dared us to try jorts over our jeans, so we really shouldn’t be surprised that they’re responsible for this… unusual take on standard trousers.

But if you aren’t able to pay designer prices to try what may be a passing trend, do not fear.

Simply buy one pair of wide leg jeans, one pair of standard skinnies, cut em in half, and stitch one leg of each together. Congratulations, you have created Frankenstein’s fashion monster, and you should be very proud.

While we’re at the cutting edge of fashion, though, could we all make time to increase the number of pockets in women’s clothing? I could really do with somewhere to put my keys when I nip to the corner shop.

Just an idea, but that may be slightly more pressing than that tiny sliver of hope that one day someone would create clothing that lets me to wear two styles of trousers at once.

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As of late, there’s been a lot of talk around Meghan Markle’s relationship to her husband Prince Harry’s family.

Rumours of feuds and pressure to conform to the royal etiquette are rife, and it brings up a very common issue.

What happens when you don’t like your husband’s family?

More often than not, issues seem to arise between wives and mother-in-laws (though they most certainly do exist on both sides), so much so, there was a movie made about it.

Who can forget Monster-in-Law, when Jane Fonda ‘accidentally’ poisoned her daughter-in-law, Jennifer Lopez, by putting nuts in the gravy?

We asked women to tell us their horror stories and although they might not have resulted in a trip to the hospital, they’re horrific, all the same.

Sharon, 36, Liverpool, works in healthcare

‘She’s not my current mother-in-law, but my ex gave his mum a key to “bring round the clean washing” (yes she still did all his washing – not mine!) And he was 35 years old at the time.

‘Anyway, one Sunday morning we got frisky in the kitchen and were having sex on the side.

‘His mum let herself in, along with his gran. Both had come straight from church and were greeted with the sight of us horizontally jogging all over the worktops.

‘She cried, and they went back to the car. He ran after her with just a tea towel over his bits.

‘He was really apologetic to her and it pissed me off because she’d invaded our home unannounced.’

Amanda, 35, London, part-time student and substitute teacher

‘My mother-in-law is horrible.

‘The first time we met, she assumed I was a Muslim, because “oh, well, you’re dark and from the Middle East”.

‘That in itself wasn’t the big issue, but she followed it up by asking how our relationship even works, since my fiancé is white.

‘At Christmas, she’ll give our kids and my fiancé a gift, but will purposefully not buy one for me (despite the fact we always get her one).

‘And sometimes, when she really wants to anger me, she’ll point out that having a c-section isn’t a real birth, and that all real mums will breastfeed their children. The latter hits home hard, because I was unable to due to medical reasons, and she knows that.’

Mimi, 25, London, journalist

‘I don’t have any specific stories as such, but my mother-in-law is terrible.

‘From the start she’s resented me for having a career, she thinks I’m posh and made of money because I live in London.

‘She once tried to make my fiancé, her son, pay for bills and water when we stay at theirs on the weekend for one night.

‘We now sleep on the floor when we visit.

‘Last time I was there, she said she “hated house guests”, and she and her husband ignored me the whole time.

‘She’s also not contributing to the wedding , s she thinks “that’s the bride’s job”.

‘All she talks about is herself and she me pictures on WhatsApp of her bruises going “poor me”. She’s just a very odd woman with the world on her shoulders.’

Marianne, 60, Sweden, retired

‘My mother-in-law was the absolute worst, she actually drove me to the brink of madness. At one point, I was experiencing serious mental health problems because of her.

‘She never left us alone, and butted into everything. She’d enter our bedroom without knocking when she stayed over, she’d come and interrupt our private conversations and ask that we tell her what we’d been chatting about.

‘Despite my husband and I making it very clear we didn’t want her opinion.

‘And worst of all, she was very cruel to our children, she didn’t like them and made sure they were aware of it. When they were younger, she’d say bad things about them and about my family to me, and it would cause us to fight a lot.

‘Eventually, we just stopped visiting.

‘And some 15 years later, my husband and I got divorced. His family played a big part in that.’

Christina, 32, Huddersfield, financial controller

‘It’s a long story, but on one occasion my mother-in-law hit me and stormed out, after which we didn’t speak for months.

‘Just before Christmas, still not speaking, she summoned my husband to see her, saying she had medical health emergency news that couldn’t be told over the phone.

‘My husband went to her house, thinking she was going to tell him she was terminally ill.

‘Turns out she had vaginal dryness, and wanted him to hear it straight from her and nobody else.

‘As soon as she’d said it, she began talking about the kids and holidays, just like it was nothing and we’d all made up.’

Names have been changed, to protect the privacy of these women so they can gossip about dreadful mother-in-laws (and to prevent future fights).

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Being a pudding developer and tester is a very varied job.

I joined Pots & Co in 2016 as their recipe developer after I studied food design and food science at university, and a large part of my day is tasting our puddings.

My job means I constantly need to keep up to date with food trends by checking new market launches, attending food events and exploring restaurant menus.

Once we’ve done some research, we come together as a team to discuss alterations we can make to the already existing range as well as brand new puddings, using what we have learnt in our research as a basis.

Sourcing the best ingredients is also an essential part of my job. And we also organise regular tasting sessions (the best part) so that we can evaluate the recipes and decide when we should launch new puddings.

We often have very strict deadlines when developing these recipes so this can make the job challenging, especially as all the puddings are carefully made by hand in our London kitchen.

Once the recipes are finalised, I pull together the information that you see on the sleeves of the puddings, including nutritional values, the ingredient breakdown, the barcode and shelf life for the best before date.

No two days are the same and the job of a pudding developer requires both creative and scientific skills.

I love working with puddings as I know that my work on developing and testing the recipes will translate into joyful feelings for all of those who buy and then eat the puddings.

There is also a lot of really interesting design and science behind developing all puddings and they are really exciting to work with.

Puddings are the sweet touch that make you smile at the end of your meal, they are the thing we look forward to at lunch or dinner and are about pleasure more than anything else.

However, not all puddings taste delicious, especially when we are developing them. The worst pudding I’ve ever eaten was a low-calorie vegan pudding made from coconut milk, lemon and lavender with stevia used as a sweetener.

On paper it sounded nice but in actual fact it was a horrible combination of flavours. You won’t be surprised to hear that we decided against launching that one.

Sometimes you can turn recipes around when they don’t go right the first time. When I first started developing our Raspberry & Vanilla pot everything was going swimmingly and I thought we were on to a winner.

For each new pudding we develop we have a kitchen trial test for the cooking method and we also need to test the shelf life of the product. But 10 days after we produced the Raspberry & Vanilla pudding, I realised that it had not only changed in colour but it had developed a look similar to what a pink Dalmatian might look like – the surface was covered in pink dots!

Luckily, we managed to work out the science behind why it had developed these spots and fixed the issue.

Ironically, I’m actually more a savoury person and would normally pick cheese over puddings but that’s probably because I’m lucky enough to eat the equivalent of at least two puddings a day for work.

When I do eat puddings outside of work my favourites are usually fruity puddings such as Eton Mess, Lemon Tart or Rhubarb and Custard.

However, being French, my guilty pleasure has to be Chocolate Eclairs!

I don’t tend to diet as it would be very hard to keep this up when in the office and I don’t like to deprive myself of the food I love the most.

However, I do try to eat everything in moderation and have recently joined a gym as one of my 2019 resolutions is to do more sport and fitness so that I can eat as much food, puddings, cheese boards, eclairs, as I want!

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An event where you could ice-skate alongside real life penguins in London has been cancelled.

The event, due to take place on 19 January at Queens Skate Dine Bowl in Bayswater, London, promised that customers could meet five Humboldt penguins and their handlers to honour penguin awareness day and raise money for birdlife.org.

But PETA and other animal welfare groups raised concerns about the event when it was announced.

There was also some confusion about the promotion material for the event at the image above showed four Emperor penguins rather than Humboldt penguins, which look like this:

PETA wrote on Twitter: ‘Using penguins to draw in paying customers is cruel and unthinking. Humboldt penguins belong in cold water and on the rocky islands off the coast of South America, not on a skating rink in London.

Forcing them to endure the stress of being hauled around and then let loose in an unfamiliar environment – with hordes of strangers – can only leave these sensitive animals confused, stressed, and petrified.’

They launched a petition, which received over 1,000 signatures before organisers announced that they had cancelled the event.

A post on their Facebook page said: ‘Penguin Awareness Day at QUEENS has been cancelled.

‘The event was intended as a non-profit, educational & accessible experience to increase awareness and education about this beloved engaged sea-bird, with monies to be raised for BirdLife International. Helping penguins who are endangered in their natural habitat.

‘Sadly due to the concerns raised by various animal protection groups including PETA & Freedom for Animals – we have had to cancel the event in the interest of the penguins & our guests.

During the January winter sales, Cassie Esplin, bought herself a sex toy.

The 25-year-old bought the Buzz Tongue Finger Vibrator from online sex shop Lovehoney and was just about to use it when the batteries flew out of the device.

As Cassie inserted the batteries to the vibrator, the battery pack – which appears to have corroded – apparently exploded with so much force that it hit her bedroom ceiling.

It landed on her top, burning a bit of her jumper and leaving a mark on her chest as well as her ceiling.

‘I was going to try it for the first time and it made a really loud bang. I just froze. I was so shocked,’ said Cassie, a car dealership worker.

‘I just thought “oh my god what has just happened”. I was holding it close to my face and it could have hit my eyes. I could have been blinded by a £4 sex toy.

‘Thank god I wasn’t using it. It could have caused some damage. I jumped out of my skin. I was in so much shock.’

Cassie bought her new sex toy – reduced from £12 to £4 – online and has used other toys without any problems. She chose this particular one after a friend recommended it.

It was delivered to her in the post and came with the battery she claims ‘exploded’ when she tried it out that night.

‘As soon as I put the batteries in it just exploded in my hand,” she said.

‘Part of it hit the ceiling and landed on my chest. I feel too scared in case something like this happens again. I couldn’t believe what happened.’

Cassie then complained to Lovehoney who offered her a full refund.

A spokesperson for the brand said: ‘This is the first complaint we have received about this product.

‘We offer all customers a refund if they complain that a product is faulty as part of our customer service. We take all customer complaints very seriously.

‘We have spoken to the complainant and are arranging collection of the product for full testing.’

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A husband and wife who are both doctors are expecting their first child.

The 32-year-olds work different hours, with the wife working fewer hours.

After becoming pregnant, she has, naturally, decided to take it easy and rest up as she is tired a lot more and can’t do all the household chores she used to.

So the husband decided to rant on Reddit to ask whether he was an a*sehole for telling his wife that being pregnant doesn’t mean you get to be lazy.

And of course, the internet said yes.

‘I want to support my wife as much as possible…but ever since we found out we were expecting, she has suddenly become very different,’ he wrote.

‘She lost interest in work, we had recent fights about her wanting to quit medicine and stop working entirely to focus on caring for the kid. She no longer helps out around the home. I have to do all the laundry, cooking, dishwashing, trash, bathroom cleaning because she says she is tired all the time.

‘It’s not that she is physically confining herself at home because she is feeling fatigued, she is often still out and about either hanging out with her co-fellows and girlfriends or sits at home watching TV.’

The husband, who earns $550k (£427,949) a year with his current working hours, revealed he ‘lost it’ when his wife spent $1,200 (£933) on a pushchair without telling him.

‘Finally…I blew up at her yesterday when she didn’t go out to pick up some groceries when I asked her to prior to leaving for work. I yelled at her that being pregnant does not automatically make you disabled and unable to do anything.

‘In any case, she got pissed off gave me the silent treatment since yesterday, am I the complete d*ck here for saying that or what?’

While most people had plenty to say, (mostly commenting on his issue with buying a $1,200 stroller while on a $550k salary), others left him some constructive advice.

One person told him to be more respectful of his wife’s condition: ‘She works 30 hours a week and is pregnant, is flooded with hormones and is probably a bit depressed, losing her drive for medicine with all the nesting instinct. It can be a bit physically exhausting.

‘You may be earning 90% of the money, but if you think that makes you nine times as important than your wife, you aren’t going to be married for very long. A marriage is a partnership, you are equally important.’

Sound advice.

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We know reducing the amount of plastic we use is important.

And brands are starting to get on board.

Lush has been one of the brands leading the change and this year they have launched everything from ‘naked’ shower gels to refillable lipsticks.

And now they are launching their first completely plastic-free shop in the UK.

The shop will open this this Friday, 18 January, at 10 Market Street, Manchester.

And, rather than scanning labels for information, visitors to the shop will instead be able to scan products directly using the recently launched #LushLabs app, replacing packaging with a digital solution.

Lush Lens is an in development experiment feature which enables Lush to reduce their impact on the environment by using the phone’s camera and Machine Learning to recognise products through the user’s smartphone camera, and give the customer detailed ingredient information and ‘how to use’ demonstrations via the app.

The new Naked shop in Manchester follows the opening of Lush’s first Naked shops in Milan and Berlin.

Mark Constantine OBE, Lush Co-founder and Managing Director, said: ‘In Lush we work in an industry where the packaging costs the customer more than the product. Now, the customer needs to worry about how to recycle something they didn’t want to buy in the first place. ]

‘This seems like a raw deal to us. If we can cut out all the plastic packaging, we can give our customers better value for money.’

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When you’re in a relationship, it can be tough to align your schedules, especially when it comes to maintaining a social life.

One woman who’s had problems with alcohol dependency revealed how she would sometimes spend nights out and come home late, much to the dismay of her boyfriend.

Though she took up drinking while mourning her mother’s death, she decided to stop going out and become sober as a result of her boyfriend’s frustration.

But now her boyfriend has started going out and coming home late, so much so that she has imposed a fine on his habits, charging him $50(£38) if he passes the 5am curfew.

The couple, who have been together for two years, have struggled with one another’s social habits, she revealed on a Reddit thread.

‘My boyfriend got a new set of friends and now he stays out mostly every weekend until 3-5am,’ she wrote.

‘I don’t ask who he’s with or what he’s doing before he leaves. I don’t bother him while he’s out. I want him to have his space because humans deserve that.

‘But, it still bothers me that he’s late only because of the double standard that he’s set in our relationship. He says that he deserves the benefit of the doubt because “he’ll respond to a call or text at any time”. But I almost never call while he’s out unless it’s an emergency because we live together.’

She said it wasn’t so much the problem of him going out as it was the fact that he had become seriously angry when she would go out, something she stopped for his benefit.

Her frustrations were also to do with the little information he leaves her about his whereabouts.

So, she decided to come up with a solution, something for both of them to follow, to make it fair.

‘If either one us aren’t home 4am, we have to give the other $50 and no one can be angry,’ she explained.

‘My reasoning is that he’s either going to tire of paying the $50 and come home on time or afford me the same level of understanding for occasionally staying out until the bars close.

‘I’m serious. But, what do I say to this man? I’ve tried several times to explain to him why I don’t think this double standard is fair. He doesn’t listen.’

The Reddit user asked people whether she was being unreasonable and most replied saying their relationship may be doomed.

‘Your lifestyles are not meshing,’ replied one person. ‘Congratulations on your recovery, but he is not in the same boat. You’re both on different cruises.

‘Your issue is trying to fine him to change who/what he is. His issue is ignoring your needs.’

While some said to end the relationship, others said to have an honest discussion about the double standards. Others simply advised giving the boyfriend a taste of his own medicine and staying out equally late.

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When your little one is sick, you’d do anything to make them feel better.

And one mum has come up with a rather inventive way to help her baby’s chest congestion.

She used a vibrator sex toy and rubbed it on her baby’s back to try to remove some of the build up in her lungs.

In a Facebook post of the picture, parenting page Melons and Cuties said:

‘Our customer shares her remedy for chest congestion!! Use on baby’s back while sitting in a steamy bathroom. Brilliant!!!

‘Note that many hospitals and respiratory therapists use these in the treatment of respiratory issues on the BACK in hospital settings. It is common practice.

‘We are just sharing the information and do NOT sell this product. *We do not support mom-shaming and those comments will be deleted.’

And unidentified mum got lots of praise.

One poster said: ‘HILARIOUS!!! But also a BRILLIANT representation of how motherhood requires you to be resourceful lol REAL LIFE.’

Another added that her baby was in the neonatal intensive care unit when they were born. She said: ‘The respiratory team had vibrators of all sizes for this. My husband about lost his mind the first time they used one on our baby. They are perfect for the job!’

And someone else said: ‘Just because something has a sexual purpose some of the time does not mean that’s the only thing it’s good for. This logic also applies to people.

‘Having a sick child can be hellish. Within reason I say whatever works.’

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We know the internet is awash with pets doing human things and still, we can’t get enough of dogs skateboarding.

And guess what? Can’t stop, won’t stop.

Pumpkin the bulldog is the latest doggo showing off her skating chops and wowing thousands of people online.

The 14-month-old pooch has become a natural at skating through the streets after teaching herself as a pup.

Now she can be seen regularly flexing for her followers in fancy dress and even in her very own ‘Pumpkin skater girl’ bib.

Owner Debra Chandler, from Leicester, has Facebook and Instagram pages set up for Pumpkin, as well as a new YouTube account.

She said: ‘It started when she was just an eight-week-old puppy and we bought her a skateboard just for a laugh, really.

‘I’ve seen bulldogs in the USA skateboarding but none over here and thought it would be great if she took to it.

‘We’ve never forced her on it or used treats to tempt her. She just naturally jumped on it and proved to be a complete natural.

‘It took her a while to master it though but now she’s always by the garage or the car constantly looking for her skateboard.

‘As soon as I show her the skateboard she starts jumping up and down and gets really excited.

‘She’s got a drive to do it. She just climbs on board and then casts herself off – she can go quite fast.

‘I just let her do it because she finds it so much fun and she can just keep going and going.

‘She’s completely obsessed with it, even if I put out a bowl of treats in front of her she wouldn’t be bothered and would only want her skateboard.’

Pumpkin’s dad, Prince, who is five-and-a-half years-old, runs after Pumpkin when she’s doing the skateboarding but doesn’t fancy taking up the sport himself.

But with up to 6,000 hits for just one video, the fame might lure Prince to stardom too.

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A teen who is allergic to almost everything around her survives hour to hour thanks to her canine companion who warns her before deadly reactions strike.

McKenze Messman, 17, from Lincoln, Nebraska, is left housebound most of the time due to her conditions and often sleeps for up to 15 hours a day.

Her initial reaction happened over three years ago after swimming in a lake, when on the way home her face ballooned, getting progressively bigger over two days.

Doctors were baffled by the cause of the ‘freak accident’ allergy, until she suffered symptoms at school that led to seven anaphylactic shocks in one month.

At the Mayo Clinic, she was diagnosed with Mast Cell Activation syndrome, causing her body’s autoimmune system to be triggered by everything from the sun to perfumes and food.

The family adopted Makki, a Goldendoodle, in 2016, who they would train to sense McKenze’s histamine levels and heart rate are high, and warn her before a reaction.

This allows her to take medication to reduce the severity of her symptoms or get herself into a comfortable place ready for when she has a seizure.

McKenze said: ‘When I’m going to have an allergic reaction she licks my hand, for my heart rate being high she nudges my leg or hand, and when it’s a migraine she paws my leg.

‘We trained her to sense my histamine levels, but she actually learned to measure my heart rate on her own, she was already in tune with my body and picked up on that herself.

‘She alerts me to changes in my body but also picks up dropped items, so I don’t have to bend down and can turn my light off and on when I’m having a migraine.

‘Anaphylaxis is when your airway closes, so it can be fatal any time that happen.

‘Usually because of Mokki I don’t go into anaphylactic shock, she alerts me 20 minutes prior to it happening, she is my lifesaver, but if I need her to, she can also fetch my EpiPen.

‘It’s easier getting out of the house knowing that I will be ok and that I won’t be taken by surprise.

‘On a good day I can go outside for two hours but on a bad day I don’t leave the house, it really depends on how I’m feeling.

‘Lots of things can cause a reaction from citrus to strong smells like cigarette smoke and perfume, milk, chocolate, cheese, the sun and more.’

McKenze was nine months old when she suffered an allergic reaction to cow’s milk, at a year old she would suffer her first anaphylactic shock due to nuts.

She abstained from consuming those foods but suffered another two reactions by the age of ten.

Due to this history, her more recent reaction during the summer of 2015, was believed by her family to have been due to the smell of nuts.

But three days into the school year, she realised it was more than that when hives began to appear on her face in her classroom.

Over the next three weeks she went into anaphylactic shock seven times.

McKenze has also since been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), which collectively act as the ‘perfect storm’ causing seizures, fatigue, muscle pain and more.

She describes two-year-old Makki as a ‘lifesaver’ with her even able to fetch an EpiPen and on a day-to-day basis helping her to leave the house with fewer concerns.

McKenze said: ‘It was pretty scary, but I didn’t want to leave class, so I texted my sister, who then made a nurse come and get me.

‘I didn’t want to draw attention to myself and that I was having a reaction, I didn’t think it was going to be that bad.

We don’t know the cause, but it can be triggered by stress, so from getting assignments done and other things.’

McKenze is now educated at home and often needs to use a wheelchair so that she can avoid triggering a reaction.

She went from training for up to 20 hours a week in gymnastics and three times a week in cheerleading to being mainly homebound due to her conditions.

McKenze said: ‘Before I was really into gymnastics and cheer, so not being able to do that anymore sucked and was really sad for me.

‘Now I have to find things I enjoy and can do better at home, I read a lot, as well as writing and knitting.

The conditions cause a variety of symptoms for McKenze ranging from seizures to fainting, stomach cramps, muscles pain, crippling fatigue and more.

Her mother Angie, 42, added: ‘Before having her wheelchair we found we could go to the mall for maybe 15 – 30 minutes then would have to go home.

‘This allows her to be there a lot longer and have more family time.’

Despite her difficulties McKenze remains hopeful about the future.

She added: ‘At first I was really upset as I wanted to be a surgeon but that’s kind of impossible now, I’ve accepted that and want to be a writer – I can do that.’

McKenze’s family are fundraising to help with her mounting medical bills: http://www.gofundme.com/kenzesfund.

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Britain’s oldest ballerina has achieved the highest accolade possible from the Royal Academy of Dance – as she celebrates her 81st birthday.

Sprightly Barbara Peters has received the top Grade eight award from the renowned dance skills with a pass rate of 73% – with no concession made for her age.

The grandmother-of-eight’s performance was en pointe as she was granted the award 79 years after she started dancing at just two-years-old.

Amazingly, she did her exam on the same day that her granddaughter, Mia, 11, smashed her Grade two.

Barbara, from Halifax, West Yorks., said: ‘As I was coming out of my exam my granddaughter was going in, that felt so special, it was quite an emotional moment. I felt so proud.

‘It’s the first time a grandma and granddaughter have done their exams on the same day.’

The daughter of a mechanic and domestic servant, Barbara’s love of dance came after a friend of the family took her along to a class with her own daughter.

Barbara’s passion for ballet and great influence had meant all her three children – two boys and one girl – and eight grandchildren, also boys and girls, have all danced.

Barbara took her first dance exam when she was just nine-years-old and had achieved grade five by the time she was 12.

Barbara’s whole life has pirouetted around ballet as she gained a place at the Royal Academy of Dance to train as a ballet teacher in 1956 and opened her own school six years later – at just 24.

She has taught thousands of children how to dance.

She also became an examiner for the RAD in 1963 – at the time she was 25 and was the youngest examiner they ever had – and mixed with the likes of Dame Margot Fonteyn and Dame Darcey Bussell.

‘I do think my fitness now is definitely due to how much I have danced throughout my life,’ said Barbara.

‘It’s not about a pumping cardio workout, dancing is a great exercise to keep your strength, but the fact that I continue to do it, even now, means I keep as fit and healthy as I can.

‘I can still do all the powerful dance moves, the leaps and pirouettes but I can’t do them like an 18-year-old can.’

Just when Barbara was considering retirement in early 2000, she got involved with her daughter, Claire O’Connor, 45, to create a ballet dance franchise for pre-school children, babyballet.

But it was when Claire introduced adult classes in 2015 that Barbara decided to return to lessons and take-up where she left off.

‘Because we all had previous experience in the adult class we decided to go straight into training using the Grade six syllabus.’

When Barbara was awarded her Grade seven last year the Royal Academy of Dance told her she was the oldest ballet dancer in the UK.

Barbara said: ‘I was delighted with that, but once I had achieved that I knew I had to knuckle down to get my Grade eight.

‘As I’m getting on I decided I wanted to make sure I did this while I still can.

‘The others in my group are not completing their Grade eight until later this year, I felt I needed to get this done, to make sure I could do it.’

Barbara stuck to her usual weekly lessons until six weeks before her exam when she took on a gruelling regime of two hours of ballet a day.

Her exam last year saw her perform for 50 minutes, demonstrating her skill on the bar and executing four solo dances to show technique and musicality.

Barbara said: ‘I am so grateful to Claire for introducing those adult classes, if it wasn’t for her, I don’t think I would have done it.’

Daughter Claire told how the death of her artist father, Jack, of a brain tumour when he was 77 in 2011 had hit her mum hard.

‘For a moment mum lost herself but it was coming back to dancing that has seen her come back to life. she has her sparkle back. My mum is an inspiration and she’s wonderful.’

Barbara now plans to continue teaching with a couple of new initiatives, Silver Swans – that teaches ballet to the over 55s, and Discovering Repertoire – which is for adults who wish to learn classical ballet moves.

‘I will keep going as long as I can, dancing is my life and I don’t want to be without it,’ said Barbara.

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Newborn photoshoots have become pretty popular.

When your friends are new parents, you can expect cute pictures of their tiny bundle of joy.

But what if you missed out on the trend when you were a baby.

Well one woman proves it is never too late.

Jamie Dragisic, 34, posed for the pictures taken in the style of a newborn shoot, despite being a little more grown-up.

They were taken by her friend Giedre Gomes, from Cedar Lake, Indiana.

She explained: ‘I met Jamie when we moved to our new house in Indiana two years ago. Who knew that we end up having so much in common and text each other every day.

‘Jamie not only looks like Melissa McCarthy (in my eyes) but also she is super funny, just like her.

‘Being a mom of 3 little girls and hearing ma, mom, mother, mommy a thousand times a day, she ended up telling her kids to refer to her as “Beautiful Amazon Princess”.

‘The best thing about Jamie is that she couldn’t care less what other people think.

”It’s hard to find people like that. Being a photographer, I use her a lot for my funny projects like this one. She had no shame recreating baby photoshoots, putting a diaper on, or putting her naked butt in the air. When I asked her if she would like to do it – her answer was “When? Let’s do it!”

‘We both started brainstorming, looking for baby pictures we could take and then we had a blast doing it! These projects are not to show my photography skills, they are meant to show the funny side of me. I’m far from a serious, conservative person.’

‘Its not that I’ve been thinking about the shoot for a long time. We were just texting laughing , we may or may not had a beer or two  –  and the idea was “born”. I asked her the next day if shes still on board. She absolutely was.’

Jamie and Giedre are used to taking some ‘brave pictures’ together – last year Giedre created a collection to show the reality of motherhood, including one of Jamie on the toilet with her kids around her.

Mum-of-two Giedre added: ‘That was the bravest one – sitting on the toilet. No one else wanted to do it – and she said: “GG, this is my life , I don’t care – take pictures”.’

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You can follow Giedre on Instagram, Facebook or on her website.

We all know Meghan Markle is a style icon; whatever she wears becomes all the rage.

The Duchess of Sussex has been quite the ‘rebel’ when it comes to fashion, having worn dark nail polish last year, against royal protocol.

Recently when she was visiting one of her four patronages – charitable causes that will be the core of her royal engagements – she was seen wearing crawler earrings, a first for any royal.

The style of earrings which make it look like you have three piercings instead of one is not only trendy but the brand she chose also use some amazing scientific technology.

The lab-grown jewellery which included ethical diamonds were created by designer brand Kimai, a company dedicated to sustainability.

The18-karat gold Felicity earrings were made in Belgium using cultured diamonds which means they have the same properties as mined diamonds but are better for the environment.

The traditional practice of mining diamonds ‘displaces land, wastes water and pollutes the air. Not to mention puts a strain on local communities,’ the company said in its mission statement.

Though the jewels look pretty chic, they will, unsurprisingly, cost you a pretty penny. It’s available on the Kimai website in gold, silver, and rose gold for a tidy sum of £315.

If you like the style but can’t afford to fork out for ethical diamonds, there are cheap alternatives, ranging from £12 to £40 on Etsy, to Oliva Burton crawlers.

Ethical fashion is certainly a big staple of Meghan’s wardrobe as she has also enlisted products from ethical jewellers Pippa Small and Ecksand.

Other brands with sustainability or socially conscious messaging include Rothy’s Flats, made from 100% used plastic water bottles, and Veja trainers made from wild rubber.

Her other choices include Outland Denim, a brand that gives jobs to victims of sex trafficking.

We imagine she’ll be taking her eco-conscious fashion habits in the future and are excited to see what else she introduces to us in 2019.

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One of my favourite rants is the imbalance of emotional and domestic labour between men and women.

It’s one of the issues which continue to oppress women, contributes towards the wage gap and, however childish it might sound, is just plain unfair.

So you might wonder why a measure, ostensibly designed to make domestic labour more equal, is so offensive. But I’m afraid when it comes to the ‘honey do’ list, that’s exactly what’s happening.

If you haven’t heard of a honey do list, I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time. Like baby showers, bridal showers and prom, honey do lists are making their way over the Atlantic.

Urban Dictionary (Oxford hasn’t caught up yet) defines honey do lists as follows: ‘Chores assigned by ones mate (usually wife). This list normally includes household chores or errands and typically are assigned at the most inopportune [sic]moments (ie: sports event, relax time, vacations or days off, snow days, etc..). Also can be a bribe for sex…’

Apparently the person in question doesn’t see themselves as having an equal responsibility to the running of their household. Or at least not during times when sports are on. They also seem surprisingly comfortable with the idea that sex is a vending machine, where you put chores in and get orgasms out.

Honey do lists might have started as a purely theoretical concept but you can now buy or print a wide variety of actual honey do designs.

The most galling part of honey do list (other than adults having to be told what to do housework) is the tweeness. Everything from the name to the syrupy ‘thank you for your help’ at the bottom is so saccharine it’s probably giving you cancer.

If you need a fellow adult to do a job around the house, it would seem obvious to me that you’d say something along the lines of ‘Darling, the washing needs to come out of the machine.’ And then unless they’ve got tickets to a private Taylor Swift concert or recently lost a finger, I’d expect them to do so.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the design featured above was aimed at children. But it’s not. It’s aimed at adults who are being treated like children by their significant others.

Cutesy honey do lists are for people who aren’t able to have that conversation – people who are worried about being ‘nags’.

‘You need to wipe the bathroom floor if you get water all over it’ goes from an instruction to a nag. Nag is an emotionally loaded word designed to make women feel stupid, controlling and unappealing.

Making women worry about nagging is one of the top 10 best/worst things that the patriarchy ever did. Instead of feeling able to ask perfectly reasonable requests which share the burden of living together, women are apparently supposed to feel guilty.

There is nothing wrong with nagging. If you are being nagged to do something it is because you are failing to pull your weight, not because your partner is ‘a nag’.

Honey do lists are designed to cover the nag in sugar and make it feel like a sweetly framed request rather than a demand. They’re for women who don’t feel capable of saying ‘you are an adult, clean up your shit.’

However you balance your household work load is your choice, of course. But if you want the man or woman in your life to put up some shelves or clean the bathroom then take responsibility for it. Ask him like an adult, because that’s what he is.

If your partner requests that you do something, don’t call her a nag. Don’t question it. Just do your bloody bit. You’re not a child, and you don’t want to act like one. And I’m afraid reacting better to a request which is written on a special cutesy notepad is exactly what children do.

You might as well ask your partner for some pocket money, make yourself a star chart and see if they’d be open to experimenting with adult breastfeeding.

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If there’s one story that we all love to read, it’s the demands of an unreasonable bride.

It doesn’t matter whether she’s setting a bizarre dress code based on your weight, or simply telling you to put aside $4,000 to attend the nuptials, stories about brides (and let’s face it, it’s very rarely the grooms) becoming utterly unreasonable are fascinating.

Lots of us have experienced our own versions of unreasonable wedding expectations, even from couples who pre wedding planning were perfectly nice, normal people.

So what is it about planning a wedding that turns normal people into entitled, grabby nightmares? According to Sarah George, digital editor for Bride and Bride: The Wedding Show at Tatton Park, it’s about money, and stress. She tells Metro.co.uk:

‘With so much to organise – from finding the perfect venue and searching for the dream dress to liaising with suppliers and co-ordinating guests – all the while, sticking to a budget, it is no wonder that brides (and grooms) can show signs of stress.

‘With the average wedding cost now exceeding £32,000*, there is so much pressure to make the wedding day perfect in every aspect and the seamless transition from each stage of the day requires meticulous planning months in advance.’

Editor of Wedding and Wedding Flowers Katie Byrne added to this, explaining:

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The end of a relationship is never easy – even if it has just been a few months.

It leaves you feeling sad and empty and with time to fill, it often becomes an excuse to start a new hobby.

But forget learning a language or starting running – this woman decided naked hiking was the perfect solution to get over a string of failed relationships.

Megan Marie started posting snaps to Instagram to make her exes ‘jealous’ but she has now fallen in love with the unusual outdoor hobby.

Normally more of a city girl, the 35-year-old now takes regular jaunts out into the wilderness, trekking through national parks completely in the buff with her trusty canine sidekick Wembley.

Initially, in 2016, she began to document her expeditions online – uploading snaps of herself nude while out in the wild (just a NSFW warning – they are posted below) – in a bid to make her former lovers envious.

But now, she has built up over 20,000 followers, and what started as a jokey hobby has developed into something more purposeful, as she uses her platform to discuss topics as varied as hiking safety and mental health.

Explaining her decision to start stripping off in the great outdoors, Megan, who is from Kansas City, Missouri, USA, said: ‘I was going through a bit of a rough patch and had had a few disappointing relationships that didn’t really go anywhere.

‘I suppose I was searching for something – freedom or independence – and I wanted to do something that would be cool enough to make my exes jealous.’

Megan, a manager at a veterinary clinic, began hiking – at first fully clothed – when she found herself single again in 2015, after her relationship of a few months broke down and she made a vow to become more self-sufficient.

This, coupled with a New Year’s resolution for 2015 she had made with her sister Erin, 34, to go camping together more, pushed her to embark on a two-week 2,500-mile road-trip from Colorado to San Francisco – something she would previously have found too daunting.

Setting off in late May, the pair slept in a tent every night, and ate only dehydrated food packs.

‘I was really nervous before going, thinking about all the things that might go wrong,’ Megan explained.

‘But we had such a blast, and afterwards I felt a rush of pride and excitement at having completed something that before had been so nerve-racking.’

From there, several more trips with Erin to various national parks around the country followed, and Megan recorded their adventures by posting shots of the scenic landscapes to her Instagram page.

Then, after a friend jokingly suggested that she should take a photo of herself in the buff, Megan rose to the challenge, posting her first nude picture from her two-week trip to California in July 2016, taken by her sister Erin of her facing out onto a beach at Big Sur, California.

‘I was pretty nervous about doing that,’ she recalled. ‘It isn’t something I’ve ever done before and I really worried about what people would think.’

To her delight, though, the picture was liked hundreds of times.

Encouraged by the positive response and requests for more from her followers, she soon uploaded other cheeky snaps and it became a regular, weekly thing during the summer months.

As her follower count began to increase, she decided to use the attention she was getting for good, and began posting about important issues, including mental health.

‘The trips have helped me tremendously with my own mental health, having suffered myself from depression,’ she said.

‘I tried for ages to build up some sort of a following on Instagram with wildlife and landscape pictures, then as soon as I start posting pictures of my butt it just takes off.

‘Of course, I know that it’s an account full of bottom photos, but I feel that now I have such a following I should use that in a positive way to talk to people about important things.’

Now two and a half years on and more than 50 bare-bottomed photos later, Megan has become an assiduous documenter of her rambles in the wilds, which she makes with her dog Wembley, a schnauzer.

To capture each picture, she will find her way to a quiet area with no one around, take her clothes off and pose as the camera – held either by Erin or on a tripod mount – captures her.

‘I really enjoy the excitement of being out in the open air without any clothes on and the adrenaline of seeing what I can get away with,’ continued Megan, who says she tries to avoid being seen by other hikers by stripping off for no more than 15 minutes at a time.

‘But it’s not at all in a sexual or erotic way, as I know some people must assume.

‘I know a lot of people struggle to separate nudity and sex, but for me it has never really been about that.’

Not everyone is as comfortable with Megan’s disrobing, however.

Describing her parents’ reaction, she said: ‘When I told them they seemed quite disappointed in me, but thought, “Well, that’s just Megan,” and since then we haven’t talked about it once,’ she explained.

Still, undeterred, Megan has vowed to continue posting for the foreseeable future, both for her own enjoyment and as a way of maintaining contact with the thousands of people who follow her naked jaunts.

‘I’d be lying if I said that there wasn’t a part of me that enjoyed the attention of it all,’ she said.

‘But it makes me feel equally good to think that I have a platform from which I can communicate with people. It just so happens to be the case that that is through pictures of my naked butt.’

As for Megan’s love life, she is currently in the early stages of a new relationship with a man she met on a dating app.

‘Within a month of our first date, I managed to convince him to come with me on a hiking trip in Utah, where he took a picture of me doing a nude handstand,’ she said.

‘He’s really accepting of my hikes and loves the fact that I put my a** out there – both literally and figuratively.’

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If you’ve nailed your skincare routine, or treat yourself to monthly facials you may not have obvious pores.

But for the majority, pore size is a common skin concern and they can be difficult to target.

Unfortunately you cannot close, or get rid of pores no matter how much you try, as pores are in fact holes for hair follicles, which are completely normal and natural.

Pores can appear enlarged for a number of reasons including; genetics, hormones, diet, smoking, pollution or debris, oily skin and make-up – the list goes on…

But that being said you can minimise them.

PIXI Glow Tonic

Toners and chemical exfoliators that contain glycolic and salicylic acid (aka AHAs and BHA if you aren’t in the beauty know), tighten, brighten and refine the skin’s texture.

These power acids dive deep into pores to help remove dead skin cells and excess oil, that could run the risk of turning into a pesky blackhead.

Pixi Glow Tonic is an industry favourite, best known for its ability to minimise pores and enhance your skins natural glow thanks to its potent formulation of 5% glycolic acid, as well as aloe vera to soothe.

Pixi Glow Tonic, £18, cultbeauty.co.uk

Paula’s Choice 10% Niacinamide Booster

We hear it again and again, ‘you can’t remove pores’, but listen up, you can help tighten them.

Niacinamide (vitamin B3) the main ingredient in Paula’s Choice 10% Niacinamide Booster, is a mighty multitasker. Not only does it reduce blemishes and congestion. It visibly improves uneven skin tone, fine lines, wrinkles AND the appearance of enlarged pores.

Paula’s Choice Skincare founder, Paula Begoun explained, ‘as a cell-communicating ingredient, it detects what’s going wrong inside pores and “talks” to the misbehaving parts, telling them to begin acting in a more normal manner.

‘And the pores get the message, which in turn causes them to become smaller and less prone to clogging.’

Paula’s Choice 10% Niacinamide Booster, £34, paulaschoice.co.uk

Drunk Elephant A-Passioni™ Retinol Cream

Retinol, too, is a highly effective way to act on pore size and congestion.

Effectively resurfacing the skin over time, it can shrink the appearance of pores and is also scientifically proven to diminish the appearance of fine lines and deep wrinkles.

Drunk Elephant A-Passioni™ Retinol Cream has been formulated with 1% pure vegan retinol and some other nutritious superfood extracts like passionfruit, apricot, kale and winter cherry.

Retinol can sometimes cause dryness and irritation, but no fear, there’s a miniature of Drunk Elephant B-Hydra Intensive Hydration Serum included in the box so you can mix together to create a more comforting concoction.

Drunk Elephant A-Passioni™ Retinol Cream, £62, spacenk.com

Kiehl’s Micro-Blur Skin Perfector

The right primer will essentially ‘fill in’ large pores instantaneously, so when you apply your foundation they will look less noticeable.

The Kiehl’s Micro-Blur Skin Perfector, will not only decrease pore size, the hydroxy acid packed formula keeps them clear in the long term.

It’s also suitable for all skin types, tones and free from any nasties.

Kiehl’s Micro-Blur Skin Perfector, £24.50, spacenk.com

The Body Shop Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask

Charcoal and clay masks work like magnets to draw out impurities and absorb whatever grime is lurking in the shadows of your skin.

They’re a must-have in all skincare cabinets, whatever your skin type.

The Body Shop Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask is not only budget friendly coming in at under £20, it also helps to refine the appearance of pores for healthy-looking skin without being too drying.

Along with charcoal, it also contains green tea leaves and organic tea tree oil, to help combat oily skin and to attain a clearer, blemish free complexion.

The Body Shop Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask, £17, thebodyshop.com

Biore Deep Cleansing Charcoal Pore Strips 6 Nose Strips

Nose strips can help, but they’re are a quick fix, rather than a long-term solution as they won’t stop blackheads from recurring.

These strips from Biore target clogged pores and draw out oil for a quick clean.

Simply wet your snout, apply the strip, wait for it to harden, peel off and then examine the goo removed (dead skin cells, dirt, hair, oil and, yes, blackheads)  – we know you want to.

Biore Deep Cleansing Charcoal Pore Strips 6 Nose Strips, £8.99, feelunique.com

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Your makeup faves are problematic; some of them test on animals, don’t treat their workers properly or aren’t vegan.

One brand dedicated to being plant-based and cruelty-free is Milk Makeup which delighted American shoppers when it set up shop in New York and L.A.

And now the company is coming to the UK.

The Milk family are introducing their ethically conscious and inclusive makeup to British shores in the form of a London pop-up store as well as online on the Cult Beauty website.

The line has been available on Sephora (when will you come to the UK, you tease?) for some time but British vegan cosmetic fans no longer need to do a massive Sephora haul when they go abroad as now anyone can access Milk products online.

Founded by former beauty and fashion editor and now E! entertainment correspondent, Zanna Roberts Rassi, the range is suitable for on the go application.

Those who end up doing their makeup on the morning commute will be delighted with the long-lasting and pigmented items that also claim to have skincare benefits.

You can look forward to a brightening face mask as well as a watermelon serum, hydrating oil and more.

‘Because the world throws a lot at you, including tons of gross toxins, Milk Makeup strives to be clean,’ it explains on the website.

‘We care about what we put in our formulas just as much as what we leave out — we’re cruelty-free, paraben-free, and 100% vegan. It’s clean, cool beauty.

‘We formulate with nourishing alternatives like watermelon extract and mango butter. Being clean also means that we’re always on the lookout for innovative, good-for-you ingredients that still deliver in the payoff department. Our guarantee? Makeup and skincare that work hard and play harder.’

If that’s got you excited, you’ll be pleased to know that the products will be available towards the end of the month (just in time for pay day).

The pop-up store with Cult Beauty is open on 26 and 27 January at 6a Langley Street, Covent Garden and then goes online on their website from 28 January.

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