Name: Floodlighting. Age: The term – said to be coined by the author and psychologist Brené Brown – is new. The toxic dating practice it describes may have been going on for longer. Floodlighting? Let me guess, is it taking a first date to the evening football match at Anfield, although you know they are … Read more
Slow down In the age of true fibre broadband the speeds available can be tremendous – and providers often try to upsell people to expensive, higher-speed packages. One way to save money is to pay for only the speed you need. For most households a speed of 100Mbps is likely to be enough, although it … Read more
Joanna Thomas* was working for a UK government department when she received a bonus. Her earnings, as had been the case since she got married in her early 20s, went into her only bank account: a joint one shared with her now ex-husband. The cash landed in the account in the morning. By the afternoon, … Read more
Netflix could solve this problem if it would just give me a big red button to nuke my kids. Like, not actually nuke them. But, yeah, blow those freeloading teenagers off Netflix whenever I choose. Such a beautiful, all-powerful button should only be on the app of the primary account holder – you know, the … Read more
When I got a nasty case of indigestion just before the UK-wide Covid lockdown in March 2020, I assumed it would pass in an hour. A pizza was the initial culprit, molten with cheesy goo and drenched in garlic dip. A week later, though, it hadn’t gone away and I was struggling to swallow due … Read more
Standing on the sun-warmed sand, we watch swell lines rolling towards the shore. Surfers dot the water, eyes trained to the horizon, waiting for their next ride. My eight-year-old daughter glances up at the unrelenting blue sky. “Are you sure this is winter?” she asks. We’ve just arrived in Praia da Luz, a small beach … Read more
I can never get my vegan yorkshire puddings to work – help!Traditional yorkshire puddings have eggs and milk to thank for their golden, crisp and puffy looks, so it’s no wonder people run into bother in their absence. “Vegan yorkshires are a mighty task,” says Lianna Lee Davis, who is behind the much-lauded vegan Sunday … Read more
Our eight-year-old daughter has, unbeknown to us, managed to spend over £8,500 over 90 days on the Apple app store. We did not realise that our HSBC debit card had somehow been linked to her iPhone and had no idea that she could spend so easily. She was not aware that the money she was … Read more
Name: Bryan Johnson. Age: 47. Appearance: Not a day over 45. He’s that multimillionaire who’s spending his fortune trying to live for ever, isn’t he? He calls it “biohacking”, but yes, that’s him. Is he broke yet? Not yet. Johnson spends a reported $2m (£1.6m) a year on project Blueprint, his personal programme aimed at … Read more
As part of her training to be a counsellor, Jill Le Jeune gave a presentation about sex. Her group had worked with people who had experienced trauma, low mood, suicidal ideation. “And everyone was very comfortable around these difficult subjects,” she says. But talking about sex made them squirm. “I thought: actually, I’d rather talk … Read more