Lifestyle

Sleeping bags for children, surely just another gimmick to get more cash out of parents? How wrong I was.  I think this could be the most amazing sleeping bag ever made...  and I want one. My son was lucky enough to test out the Vango Starwalker Junior Dragon sleeping bag for a fun filled ‘night at the museum’ sleepover. It was a very fitting environment to test a dinosaur-esque sleeping bag. When it arrived I was struck by how small and...

A national gym chain has been blasted for threatening fat people with alien abduction. A controversial 20ft-hight poster was erected in Derbyshire by Fit4Less showing a green alien and a person being beamed up by a green light into a spaceship. The text on the gigantic billboard reads: “They’re coming…and when they arrive they’ll take the FAT ones first!” It also says “Save yourself!” next to an arrow pointing to the gym’s website. Parliamentary advisory Natalie Harvey, 39, who founded Nottinghamshire charity...

It was only when Dianne Vavra looked up one evening to see her husband streaming a basketball game on his laptop, her son absorbed by Mario Kart on the Wii and her daughter playing a game app on an iPod Touch that she realised. “The family was in the same room, but not together". The concept, dubbed the "Domestic Matrix" by the New York Times - families sharing a common space, but plugged into entirely separate planes of existence through technology - is...

A video of a dog that plays dead so he doesn't have to leave the park is breaking the internet. Although the video was uploaded over three years ago it has recently gained traction and now has more than six million views! The golden retriever, filmed in Atlanta, Georgia, was so insistent that it would stay in the park that it decided to play dead to fool its owner into staying longer. However a nice meaty stick finally convinced him to...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food During the summer of 2014, a fundraising challenge – The Ice Bucket Challenge – became a global success. Partially due to our innate desire to terrorise our friends, but mostly thanks to social media – the campaign went viral with over one million videos posted to Facebook, and raised approximately $100 million (approximately £70 million) in donations to the ALS Association: a charity that raises awareness and funds towards research for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,...

Many of you may have heard the government’s latest wheeze to interfere in education: to force all schools to become academies. Now, in times past, the term academy as a title of an organisation was seen as a sign it was quite good. When someone found out I worked at an academy, they were impressed - clearly I must be a super teacher in a super school if it’s called an academy. Being the humble servant of the state that...

Glasshouse Salon is a new and exciting salon tucked away in East London’s trendy Broadway Market and London Fields. Unlike most hair salons - who use products tested on animals and packed with harmful chemicals - GlassHouse Salon prides itself on its organic and ethical products. The vast majority of the products are vegan (bar a hair wax which contains bee wax) and are not tested on animals. What’s more, it’s reasonably priced for an organic hair salon in the...

By Richard James, Chair of the YMCA in London CEO Network and Chief Executive of YMCA London South West, ahead of the YMCA in London Manifesto launch at City Hall As we approach the London Mayoral elections we are learning more about the individual candidates and what priorities they see for the capital. However, many of the issues candidates have announced they will tackle so far have been in existence for some time. Most notably the inequality that exists across...

New research has revealed that the average British child now receives over £5,000 in pocket money over the course of their childhood for helping out with spring cleaning chores. The study of parents with children aged 3 to 16 found 60 per cent tempt their money-savvy kids with financial gain if they help out around the house, while 44 per cent admit to bribing them with their favourite treat. Modern kids earn 54 per cent more pocket money than their parents did when they...