Do you find that the holidays are like an endless roundabout and you can’t get off? Through all that fun and merrymaking, one thing that goes out the window is sleep – you know that ‘gentle thing, beloved from pole to pole’, the one that ‘knits up the raveled sleave of care’ without which we’d be more zombie-like than we are?So the obvious advice would be to get more sleep but Christmas comes once a year so why waste the time sleeping when one can go out and have fun – and make up later. Oh wait – there’s New Year after that – ah well, in the New Year   read more

All those goodies you just can’t resist, all that meeting, partying, getting together and rich food is so much a part of it. Is it any wonder so many of us put on the pounds? Then make New Year resolutions to go on a stringent diet. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if we just took it a little easy when it came to stuffing ourselves? When everything around us is so festive, that’s so hard to do! So here are a few practical tips about how the holiday season need not be as lethal for your waistline as it usually is. The trick is to balance it all out. You binge, you diet. That’s   read more

Boxes, gift wrapping, plastic – the festive season is probably the worst contributor to litter through the year. And most of us don’t think beyond how beautiful Christmas packaging looks. Do we push aside that vague thought of all those tons of waste clogging up our rivers and now our oceans? Isn’t it time we looked at alternatives to non-biodegradable packaging so the earth can breathe more freely? All   read more

Colds, coughs, sneezing, fever – winter just seems to hold the door open for them and usher them in. The last thing you need when it comes to the holiday season! So how do you try and avoid them? Just a few tips can steer to clear of them – hopefully!The first thing to do is to tank up on Vitamin C – citrus drinks are a great way to go. However, if you and citrus fruits or drinks don’t agree (oh, yes, there are folks like that), then avoid them and take a tablet a day. You also need to make sure your chest, feet, head and ears are protected when you go out in the cold. If you’ve   read more

Everyone’s having a great time and you want your pet to enjoy himself too. ‘What’s one tiny bit of chocolate cake?’ you tell yourself. With pets, when it comes to food, it’s so much wiser to be cruel in order to be kind. All those Christmassy goods could be poison and you might have to spend the holidays worrying at the vet rather than having a good time. Vets say that this is the season that they see pets coming to them with gastro problems heading the list of complaints.The absolute no-nosChocolate is very definitely off the list when it comes to your pets. Let’s tell   read more

All the partying, all the drinking, all the good times….and then, the suffering. The night’s bad and the morning after is usually worse. And you curse yourself for not knowing when to stop. Then you go out and do it again. It’s the same old story every festive season. So the best thing to do would be hangover management and it’s easy once you get the – er – hang of it! Water, water, before and during Drink a glass of water before you go to that party and sip on water between each drink. Alcohol dehydrates the body and the more you hydrate it, the better you’ll feel   read more