business

Margaret Murphy had a lovely house in Brisbane, Australia, and four children when she noticed “a cumulative feeling” that she wanted a different sort of life from that of her husband, Peter. They had been happily married for 30 years but their children had grown up, and in the emptier house their “different expectations” became … Read more

‘Jump in, comrade,” my driver honks and calls out the window of the smallest, boxiest car I’ve ever seen: the communist vintage Yugo. I’m setting off on a tour of Yugoslav-era Belgrade with driver Vojin Žugić from Yugoverse tours, a company in the business of cold-war nostalgia. The car is a time capsule, with its … Read more

Become a governor An important part of a school’s leadership, a governor helps provide strategic direction for its running. The role usually involves termly meetings of the full governing body and membership, and meetings of one of the subgroups. You will also be expected to be on any complaint, exclusion and disciplinary panels. There is … Read more

You walk into a room and forget why. Someone introduces themselves at a party and within seconds you’ve forgotten their name. You can’t remember where you parked the car. You’ve put your phone in the fridge. You can’t recall your granddaughter’s name. Your best friend dies and you keep forgetting they’re gone. Is it tiredness, … Read more

Name: Vacation hoarding. Age: Recent, but growing. Appearance: Needlessly exhausted. Speaking of exhausted, you look shattered today. I am. I haven’t had a day off work for 11 months. What about your annual leave? Oh, I don’t worry about that. I am a “vacation hoarder”. How convenient. And also how stupid. Why don’t you take … Read more

It’s marathon season and, among the technical-fabric-clad army of runners toeing the start lines at the big city races, there’ll be thousands of mildly terrified first-timers. They’ll be ready to tackle the 26 miles and 385 yards – and take a daunting step into the unknown. Or more like 50,000 steps. The Guardian’s journalism is … Read more

This dish manages to be simultaneously spring-like and comforting, thanks to the intense flavour from the pea pesto. Telling you to stir whole peas through orzo feels a bit too much like nursery food, but if you are serving this to small children who are amenable to pesto pasta (mine are not), I’d suggest finely … Read more

For almost all her life, Heather Graham says, she was a “people pleaser”. It was encouraged in childhood, she says, this obligation to put others’ needs above her own, and it endured even after the 1997 film Boogie Nights had made her a star and she had severed all contact with her “judgmental, authoritarian” parents. … Read more

Before every dog agility event, the human handlers walk the course as a group – without the dogs – wandering slowly round the ring with one hand or the other outstretched. It’s an eerie thing to watch, like a crowd of bleary eyed tourists wearily progressing through an airport. Ga6789 But it’s important: the dogs … Read more

‘When you talk about ‘burning fat’, you’re talking about the oxidation of body fat; the breakdown of lipids into fatty acids to use them as fuel,” says Bethan Crouse, a performance nutritionist from Loughborough University. It’s the process that needs to occur for someone to lose weight or go through “body recomposition”; losing fat and … Read more