Innholdsfortegnelse for Monday, January 16, 2023 i Woman's Own

We’re pretty much into the second half of January, but this time of year always feels like a slog. I pre-empted it and made plenty of plans (you can never have enough, in my book), because the only way to get through what feels like the longest month of the year is by surrounding yourself with your favourite people – the ones who you want to do everything and nothing with, the ones who’ll take you at your most glam and peppy but also when you’re in leggings and wanting to do nothing but slouch on the sofa with a glass of wine (or what our columnist Dawn calls hibernating!). Even if you fall into that last camp (the leggings camp!), can I suggest one small activity – giving the…

Linda Robson is one of TV’s most recognisable stars. However, it hasn’t always been smooth-sailing for the Birds of a Feather actor, 64, who has suffered anxiety and OCD, and admits she feared she was ‘on the way to being an alcoholic’. As things spiralled, Linda admitted to drinking a bottle of wine a night, while her family tried to stop her buying alcohol. The Loose Women panellist even asked strangers to buy booze for her. ‘I’d find money and say, “Excuse me, I’ve lost my key and can’t get out. Would you be able to go and get me a little bottle of vodka from round the corner?”’ she said. ‘A couple of people did. But one day, I asked a man to do it and he turned out…

LET’S START HIBERNATING… We’re not much different from hedgehogs and dormice It wouldn’t be the first time in my life I’ve been called an old bat, but now it’s January the husband might actually have a point. Because, work aside, the thought of going outside on these endless, freezing, pitch-black winter nights is about as appealing as watching all the Christmas telly programmes on repeat. Which, as they were mostly repeats of repeats in the first place, is really a grim prospect. And as much as I love my mates, my settee and a nice Shiraz are infinitely more appealing. Which is where bats come into it because, along with dormice and hedgehogs, they are one of only three groups of mammals in the UK that are true hibernators. Hibernation…

Protecting your ears is easier than you think Do you avoid dinners with friends because you can’t follow the conversation? Struggle to hear when there’s music playing? Or are you fed up with asking people to repeat themselves? You’re not alone and shouldn’t be embarrassed – around 42% of people over 50 have some form of hearing loss*. But you could be making it worse without realising. Here are the triggers you need to know about – and what you can do to help preserve your hearing… 1 SMOKING ‘This can have a huge impact,’ warns audiologist Katie Ogden from resound.com. ‘Smokers have a 70% higher chance of losing their hearing.’ Smoking can damage and cause blockages in your Eustachian tube, which runs from your throat to your middle ear,…

PREP TIME: 5 MINSCOOK TIME: 10 MINSCALS: 545 FAT: 30GSAT FAT: 8G CARBS: 28G Spicy ground pork udon SERVES 2 Quick and easy with no heavy prep required, as everything just gets thrown straight into the wok, these spicy noodles are a simple mid-week winner. YOU WILL NEED 1tbsp vegetable oil350g minced pork1tbsp minced garlic1tbsp minced ginger2tbsp doubanjiang (fermented chilli bean paste)2tbsp honey1tbsp white rice vinegar1tbsp light soy sauce2tsp dark soy sauce2tsp chicken powder or bouillon powder3 spring onions, roughly chopped into 5cm lengths150g bok choy, cut into bite-sized pieces300g straight-to-wok udon noodles1tbsp Chinese chilli oil HOW TO DO IT 1 Place a wok over a medium-high heat, add the oil and then the pork and fry for 2-3 mins or until slightly golden brown. Add the minced garlic and…

Sitting down to breakfast, I eyed up the plate in front of me. Sausages, bacon, fried eggs, beans, mushrooms, hash browns and buttered toast… there was nothing better than a full English to start the day. The perks of being married to a chef! I’d met Martin, then 43, in 2009, when he was the head chef at the hotel where I worked in Eastbourne. ‘WE HATED EXERCISE AND LOVED NIGHTS IN’ I’d been a single mum of three, working as a housekeeper, and the two of us hit it off over our biggest passion… food. Martin loved cooking, and I loved eating. ‘Let me cook for you,’ Martin had said. He made the best steak and chips, and his recipes won my heart. On my break at work, he’d…

PERSISTENT COUGH IS A WORRY Q All my life I’ve been a smoker, and I have had a ‘smoker’s cough’ for some time now. I haven’t given it much thought, but recently I saw an NHS advert on the TV saying that anyone with a persistent cough for more than three weeks should see their GP. My cough hasn’t changed in months – do you think that it is really necessary? A Yes. Your GP will want to see you with this and check it out with a few tests. It may be that you have some lung damage from a lifetime of smoking, and they will be able to help with the symptoms and support you in trying to quit. Could his cancer be hereditary? Q My father died…

1 Brushed-up brows By simply brushing your brows upwards, you instantly create the illusion of an eye lift. There are lots of great brow gels and waxes that do the job but an old makeup artist hack is to spray some hairspray – any will do but we find Silvikrin Natural Hold Hairspray, £4.19, Superdrug, works perfectly – on to a brow brush and then comb it upwards through the hairs to lift them and hold them in place. 2 Greys be gone With prices spiralling, you might be looking for a more cost-effective way to keep your hair looking luminous and silver-free. Step in L’Oréal Paris Magic Retouch Permanent, £9.99, Boots, probably the most fuss-free and effective product we’ve ever seen to conceal roots. You simply combine your colour…

Cosy country Global glam Serene scheme…

CLUES & ARROWS Fill in the clues in the direction of the arrows. Sudoku To solve the puzzle, each 3 x 3 box, each column and each row must contain the numbers 1 to 9. Wordsearch Which musical was an adaptation of the play Liliom by Ferenc Molnár? The answer is the one missing from the grid. ALADDINANNIECABARETCAROUSELCATSCHICAGOEVITAFOOTLOOSEFROZENGIGIGREASEHELPOLIVERTOMMYXANADU CROSSWORD Put your feet up and have a go at this old classic. ACROSS 1 Capricious (6) 4 Naval commanders (8) 10 Talk about the past (9) 11 A play (5) 12 _ of Man, 2021 heist film directed by 20 Down and starring 16 Across, 21 Across, 26 Across & 29 Across (5) 13 Citrus spread (5,4) 14 Rues (7) 16 _ Malone, Rockstar rapper (4) 19 Wound mark (4) 21…

Today, Carol looks worlds away from the numbers whiz who first appeared on our screens in 1982. It was her brains that caught the audience’s attention, but after a lifestyle and fashion overhaul, she’s a new woman! HITTING THE GYM Carol’s incredible figure doesn’t come from nowhere. The presenter spends a fair amount of time in the gym. From weights to cardio and toning, you name it, Carol does it – we’re out of breath just thinking about her workout routine. When she’s not working out three times a week with her personal trainer, Carol’s fitness regime includes squatting and performing hip thrusts with a 10kg weight, HIIT workouts, swimming and yoga. No wonder she looks so good! ACTIVE HOLIDAYS While most of us take a break from work as…

Ringing the bell with all the strength of her little fist, my brave girl, Jorja, beamed at everyone on the ward. Alongside her dad Lee, then 27, we chanted the words we’d longed to say. ‘I ring this bell, three times well, its toll clearly says, my treatment is done, this course is run, and now I’m on my way.’ It was February 2017 and Jorja, then two, was finally leaving the cancer ward after almost a year of battling a rare and aggressive brain tumour. She had survived brain surgery and endured chemotherapy and gruelling stem-cell treatment. Yet she never lost her little smile. And now, as we left the hospital, that smile radiated. I should have felt soul-deep relief, but Lee and I knew the reality. ‘There’s a…

Have you heard about? GRATITUDE CAN IMPROVE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS Going through a rough patch in your love life? Try showing more gratitude, says new research*. Experts found that giving and receiving gratitude in a relationship can be a great tool in helping couples through difficult times. Yes, your mother was right, a simple ‘thank you’ really can go a long way! The study showed it can increase commitment, while also protecting the relationship from potential harm after ‘ineffective arguing’. It worked for me Jacqui Newell, 43, from Buckinghamshire ‘A knee injury in my 20s left me with crutches for over a month, but physio wasn’t an option back then, so I suffered for many years. I now take Pura Collagen Flex+ (£39.99 for 28 servings, puracollagen.co.uk). After three months, I…

Health ask us Drowning in debt Q I am so depressed. I’m drowning in loans and credit-card debts. Every day I get texts, emails or letters demanding money and saying I’ll be taken to court. I am too afraid to talk to the credit-card people. Help. A The Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space) in England and Wales gives people in a situation like yours the right to legal protection from their creditors. If eligible, you could get 60 days of breathing space where creditors can’t contact you, take action to make you pay or add interest and charges to your debts. This enables you to come up with a plan. To see if this is suitable for you, and for help in paying off your debts, talk to a debt…

With Christmas finished, rubbish weather and dark evenings that go on forever, January can feel pretty bleak. The third Monday of the month, dubbed ‘Blue Monday’, is supposedly the saddest day of the year, where a mixture of failed New Year’s resolutions and back-to-work misery come to a head. With millions of us reportedly suffering from the winter blues, or seasonal affective disorder (SAD), it can feel tricky to find things to look forward to. We can’t all book a last-minute holiday to ward off the January blues but, have no fear, Woman’s Own is here with our top list of things happening in 2023 to cheer us up this month. ONE LAST DANCE FOR MAGIC MIKE There are plenty of hotly awaited film releases this year, but coming up…

READER QUESTION Q I want to treat my daughter to a theatre trip in London. Is there a ways to get cheaper tickets? A If you’re flexible about what you’d like to see, you might bag a hefty saving by getting tickets on the day at officiallondontheatre.com/tkts. Or try Disney Ticket’s Magical Mondays – every Monday at noon, a number of tickets for that week’s performances of participating Disney shows will be available for £29.50 at disneytickets.co.uk/disney-day-seats-tickets. Also, the National Theatre offers £10 Friday Rush tickets – visit nationaltheatre.org.uk. Go green for less Get 20% off your first order of biodegradable Antibacterial Body Wipes from Freshwipes, by using code MAG20 at freshwipes.co.uk until 28 February 2023. New customers only, one use per customer, code can’t be used in conjunction with…

And… relax 10-16 January 2023 ASK ALEX A‘WHAT IS MY HOROSCOPE TODAY?’ ARIES 21 Mar – 20 Apr Mars direct speaks of a balanced economic and environmental structure you may want to support – try buying from local businesses. TAURUS 21 Apr – 20 May Getting back into work after a break? Look at what you love doing and ask friends and family around you to brainstorm ideas. GEMINI 21 May – 20 Jun You often help friends out, but check your partner hasn’t made other plans. Your good deeds help you sleep better. CANCER 21 Jun – 22 Jul Trust your instincts to sort fact from fiction. Staying open-minded will help you establish things and see through the confusion. LEO 23 Jul – 22 Aug As the softer side…

THE FIXER UPPER by Lauren Forsythe (£9.99, PB, Little, Brown Book Group) From her parents’ marriage to her friends’ love lives to colleagues’ work problems – for as long as she can remember, Aly has been the person trying to sort out everyone else’s life challenges. Putting her talents to good use, together with her friends from work, she decides to set up The Fixer Upper, an underground service designed to help women with the emotional labour of dating men. But things get messy when a celebrity client hires them to help transform her boyfriend. Especially since the man in question turns out to be Aly’s first love… A hilarious read. THE THINGS THAT WE LOST by Jyoti Patel (£16.99, HB, Cornerstone) There is an unspoken rule in Nik’s family:…

Toni Collette ‘I CRIED WITH LAUGHTER WHEN I READ THE SCRIPT’ The Hollywood actress is starring in an outrageous new comedy… In The Estate, Toni Collette plays Macey, whose family business – a cafe established by her late dad – faces closure after she fails to secure a bank loan. But when news reaches the family that the cantankerous but rich Aunt Hilda (Kathleen Turner) is terminally ill, Macey’s younger and much less sensible sister Savanna (Anna Faris) reckons it could be the solution. ‘THE FAMILY IS ZANY AND OUT THERE!’ So, with flowers in hand, the sisters arrive at the gates of their aunt’s imposing New Orleans mansion, but find they aren’t the only visitors. Their cousin Beatrice (Rosemarie DeWitt) has beaten them to it, convinced that the money…

ON THE ROAD AGAIN… Fresh from serving sauce on the side with singletons on hit ITV show Gino’s Cooking Up Love, the This Morning favourite is back on the road again this year with pals Gordon Ramsay and Fred Sirieix. ‘We’ve been to Spain and now we are off to South Africa,’ the former jungle king D’ACampo tells me. Expect popping corks and cheeky screw tops in lush wine country as the boys hit the road once again… BUDGIE SMUGGLED Reunited over Christmas with pal Sue Cleaver – and there was no bad blood even though she now has another telly hubby in the form of jungle camp mate Mike Tindall, after the pair formed a firm friendship on I’m A Celeb. She said Mike would keep his promise of…

Looking at the calendar in my kitchen, I sighed. It was August 2021 and I was fast approaching my 59th birthday in October. ‘The big six-0 next year,’ I said to my husband Chris, then 55. It felt like such a milestone. Chris and I had always lived an active life. We loved being outdoors and trying out different sports and activities. We’d cycled and hiked everywhere together - yet there were still so many things I hadn’t done. I decided then and there to set myself a challenge – 60 different tasks, in my 60th year, all before my 60th birthday. ‘That’s a great idea, love,’ Chris said. Grabbing a pen and paper, I began to write a list. I started small – swimming a mile in our local…