Not so long ago, in the grips of an intense episode of depression, I phoned the local out-of-hours mental health helpline late at night.
I was teetering on the brink of crisis and desperate for help.
The advice I was given?
‘Try having a nice warm bath, or reading a book.’
It made me realise that over the past few years, self-care has become something of a panacea where… Read the full story
If you’re single, you’ll be aware by now that you can’t actually be yourself when dating.
There are unspoken rules in the dating game.
I’m here to call bullsh*t on them.
As a fresh 19 year old, I remember getting a bit of a kick out of knowing how to ‘play the game’.
You texted back an hour ago? I’d wait three. I always kept a little bit of myself back, leaving my potential date intrigued. In conclusion, I was a dating wizard.
Fast forward a few years (*cough, nine years*), with a few long term relationships under my belt I can tell you this now, I am naaaaat here for the… Read the full story
Have you ever been at a party and realised that you’ve run out of champagne?
If so, you’re a lot fancier than I am because my dinner parties come with a singular bottle of cava and once that’s done, it’s on to wine. Probably in a chipped mug.
But if you’re classier than I am (not hard) then all of your dreams are about to come true, because London (or at least selected postcodes in London) now has a champagne delivery service.
Whether you’re having a party or you’ve forgotten to buy Greg from Marketing a leaving present, The Finest Bubble have got you covered.
Back in 2007, when a then 18-year-old Adele got paw prints tattooed on her breasts in homage to her beloved family dog Max, she thought she’d love them forever.
Newfoundland Max had just turned eight which is the average life expectancy for his breed, and Adele wanted a permanent reminder of her furry friend, ready for when the inevitable happened.
So got a large paw print tattooed above each breast – each eight inches wide and three inches tall.
Then student Adele popped along to a local tattoo studio in her hometown of Leicester clutching an image of… Read the full story
The poppy symbol is popping up everywhere this time of year as we near Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday when people across Britain will fall silent for two minutes in a mark of respect for those who died in World War I and II.
The poppy became a symbol for the war dead after the famous poem by John McCrae described the poppies growing out of the soldier’s graves in Flander Fields after World War I.
The symbol has been donned on Brits lapel for the last 100 years in a… Read the full story
Freelancing nowadays has become so ubiquitous, it’s as if it’s taken over the humble 9 to 5.
If you feel like you keep seeing more and more people opting to be self-employed, you’re not far wrong. Recent stats have shown that more women are to be self-employed, with 51% of freelancers aged between 16-29 since 2008.
It’s easy to get swept up into thinking you can do it easily too – after all, all you need is a laptop, right?
But before you put your out of office on forever and give up on scrambling for a seat on the Central line, here are all the things you… Read the full story
You close your eyes. You hold your breath. You do a high-speed count of how many stupid overpriced lattes you downed this month. You do a little prayer.
This is the moment you check your bank account for the first time in ages.
If logging in to your online banking fills you with dread and covers your forehead with sweat, you’re not alone. Bank balance anxiety is a very real, very common thing, experienced by all of us budgeting failures who like to pretend their bank account doesn’t exist until they’re forced to confront it.
Those who suffer from bank balance anxiety avoid receipts from ATMs, refuse to note down all… Read the full story
If Instagram is to be believed, every damn pet owner is a professional photographer.
My feed is full of super slick pics of Reagan the labradoodle, Ralphie and Boss the Newfoundlands and of course, the late, great Irie the husky (rest in peace, little one).
It makes the terrible pics I take of my furry cockapoo niece look like trash, and it makes me feel sad.
But you know what cheered me up?
When other pet owners in Japan started sharing their horrendous dog pics, using the hashtag #いぬの写真ヘタクソ選手権 – which roughly translates to #BadDogPictureChampionship.
Here are our… Read the full story
Name a dreamier job than getting to spend your days hanging out with cats and kittens.
This may sound like the fantasy of a cat-owner daydreaming in the office, but seriously, it’s a real job that you actually have a chance of getting.
A new cat cafe, called Kitty Cafe, is set to open in Leeds in December. To make sure they’re ready to welcome customers into their kitten-soft embrace, they’re now on the search for members of staff to build their team.
Yes, that means the Kitty Cafe is recruiting people to hang out with cats all day.
Owner Katie Charles-Richards is looking for kitchen staff, floor staff, and cat staff… Read the full story
You’d think that engagements would bring friends closer together. They’re a happy moment, right?
But in my experience, engagements seem to do the absolute opposite, testing friendships to breaking point.
Take my university friend Vivienne*. When she announced her engagement last summer, I was thrilled. We’d chatted about the day in such detail for years – from the location to her dream dress designer – that I’d assumed it was a given I’d be a bridesmaid.
When she stopped responding to my calls and cancelled on our weekly brunches, I initially chalked it up to the stress of organising a wedding and starting a new job.
But a few months… Read the full story
Forget the chocolate, because you can enjoy 24 days of kink with your better half, thanks to Lovehoney’s Best Sex of Your Life Advent Calendar.
As you can probably guess, this advent calendar is filled with 24 sex toys and games. And yes, we’re excited about the concept too.
The calendar features 24 ‘sexy tricks’, for couples looking for an ‘unforgettable adventure’.
The box, which comes in a purple, polka-dot design, contains a range of specially selected award-winning toys and cult favourites.
There’s even been some newbies thrown into the mix – which are all ‘guaranteed to spread good cheer this holiday season’. and we don’t doubt it.
Men often get a raw deal when dressing up for swanky Christmas parties.
While women can choose between maxi dresses, mini dresses, co-ords and more, men are left choosing between their black suit, grey suit or navy suit?
This year is different though, thanks to Getonfleek, who are selling these rather fabulous festive rompers.
They come in four fetching designs, and each has a graphic all over print featuring short sleeves, attached shorts, collar, button top, zipper fly and front pockets.
The designs are printed front and back on premium fabric and guaranteed to never crack, peel or fade.
Which is good to hear… Read the full story
If I were a dog and my owner left me in a bleak kennel while they swanned off on holiday, I’d be pretty pissed off.
Expect me to come running into your open arms when you come back all glowing while I’ve been sat here bored as hell?
No chance, mate. I’ll freeze you out for at LEAST 15 minutes, maybe 10 if the treats come out.
But if you checked me in to, say, a luxurious doggy hotel? That would be a different story.
Luckily for dogs in New York City, their doggy hotel dreams can become a reality with the D Pet… Read the full story
I got married in July.
You might be aware of this because I wrote about it. A lot.
Anyway, we got married, went on Honeymoon, came home. All great. Still very much in love, not suffering the post-marital sex slump we were promised and living our best lives.
There’s just one annoying thing, and honestly I wasn’t expecting this because it’s 2017 and I’m only 26 but… people keep asking me about getting pregnant.
‘I can’t come out tonight’ I text a friend, when I was heading home to sleep off a horrible cold. ‘I’m not feeling great.’
A text came back, minutes later, with a load of baby emojis.
Having spent a lot of my life writing about sex, and exploring all the millions of ways in which people have sex, I can say that very little has ever shocked me.
One of the few things to ever leave me slightly open mouthed is the concept of race play.
For the uninitiated, race play is a subset of BDSM where the focus of the imbalance in the role play stems from the races of the people in question.
In practice this often presents as people of colour role playing as slaves, or people of Jewish heritage role playing as prisoners.
We did warn… Read the full story
A dad who promised his nine-year-old daughter that he’d take her to McDonald’s on her wedding day has kept his promise 27 years later.
When Karen Tucker-Banfield was nine, she made a handwritten agreement with her father, which stated he must take her to her favourite fast food chain on her wedding day.
After years of having McDonald’s as her favourite childhood treat, her father, 60-year-old Steve Tucker, immediately agreed to the ‘contract’.
And, 27 years later, Karen was taken for a burger on her wedding day.
Karen and her father took a trip to their local McDonald’s in Newfoundland, Canada, to ensure his promise was kept. Apparently, their close friends and family… Read the full story
If you’ve always wanted to learn the craft of magic to secure your place at Hogwarts (if the time ever comes) now’s your chance, because the British Library is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an exhibit celebrating a history of magic, in which will see them publishing the book A Journey Through a History of Magic.
To celebrate the anniversary, the library is holding an exhibit to showcase the history of magic, to intertwine with it being 20 years since J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was first published back in 1997.
The exhibit, which will take place all the way through to February 2018, will unveil ‘rare books,… Read the full story
I can remember the exact moment that my husband and I crossed into dangerous, potentially sugar daddy, waters.
We’d been going out for ten months, and living together for three (a classic case of moving in together because it make financial sense) and we were planning a trip to Florence.
I got it into my head that I needed a trench coat for the trip. Every single vision I had of myself on this trip hinged on my wearing a trench coat. If I had a trench coat I could wear jeans and a striped tee and ballet bumps and look like a sort of Audrey Hepburn Kate Middleton… Read the full story
When you’re a kid, all you want is to grow up.
And when you’re a grown up, all you want is to be a kid again with no job and no responsibilities.
Which is why people went crazy for a adult ball pit when it launched in San Francisco in 2015, and even crazier when a pop-up version bar arrived in London. (The bar – Ballie Ballerson – now has a permanent location in Shoreditch.)
However, neither of these experiences were any use unless you live in San Francisco or our nation’s polluted capital.
If I say Harry Potter Christmas Jumper you’ll probably be all excited.
I get it. Christmas is good. Harry Potter is great. Jumpers are lovely. It’s a nice combination.
But sadly, we need to talk about the sentiment expressed on this jumper and now, to my mind at least, it’s a little reminiscent of sentiments expressed by You Know Who during the Great Wizarding War.
Those of you who are politically correct and up on your wizarding social justice might find the slogan a little offensive.
As we all know, there are factions of the wizarding world who feel that they are vastly superior towards the non magical population (muggles) and that they should… Read the full story
