The Guardian

The older I get, the more I want to play rather than just work out. Have I left it too late to learn a backflip, cartwheel or forward tuck? How do you know when it’s time to slow down? I’ve been wondering that ever since I decided to live to 100 . Sure, I may not make it; but if I do I expect exercise to play a huge part, alongside a healthy diet and (seriously, kids, this really isn’t rocket sci…

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts Why are so many traditional stories for children, be they folk stories, fairytales or nursery rhymes, so dark, creepy or macabre? Rachel Parks, West Yorkshire Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com . Continue reading...

Lakes, saunas, art, food – and Hamlet’s castle. A whistlestop tour of the best that Denmark has to offer Don’t make small talk with strangers. Or talk about the weather. Or even ask people you know how they are… I read these social etiquette tips in a Denmark travel guide – four days into a 10-day trip. I’d already blown it on day one. “Look at that!” I said to the couple opposite me in the hotel…

The El Bulli-graduate and London-based chef on her favourite addition to ceviches, salads … and hair I feel like avocado oil has a lot of nutritional value. It’s something that’s only appeared on the market in more recent years. If you have a really good one, if it’s cold-pressed, then for me it has more aroma and taste than other oils; a more authentic flavour. In Mexican food, we use avocado le…

Tech giants said today’s digital native kids would be the first generation who would not know what it meant to get lost. But is that a good thing? We’ve lost direction and our brains are shrinking – at least, our hippocampi are. These seahorse-shaped parts of the brain measure about 5cm, sit just above both ears and drive our spatial awareness and orientation. London taxi drivers, famed for takin…

From timeless kitchenware to trending ingredients, here’s the Observer Food’s Monthly’s pick of presents to bring good cheer We’ve assembled some of the most delightful and desirable culinary-adjacent items you might wish to give, or receive, this season. Kitchen utensils that are as aesthetically pleasing as they are useful, quirky homewares and jars of things we love to eat – our list runs the …

Deluxe, restaurant-quality sandwiches have become a national obsession. Here’s why tuna mayo will never be the same again It’s a weekday lunchtime and about 30 people, mostly millennials in fashionable hiking trainers, are milling around in an alleyway off London’s Hackney Road. The scent of a wood-fired oven wafts in as everyone waits for the sandwich they preordered the night before; a maximum …

Baking vibrant vegetables will add colour to darker days The garden has turned a buttery yellow, the leaves of the fig and medlar, pear and plum, are mostly fallen now. Sweeping them up is a daily job involving a road-sweeper sized broom. A pleasure, actually. Before I pick up the brush, I put a tray of vegetables in the oven – scarlet peppers and fat courgettes, onions in thick segments and mayb…

An account had been opened in my name to buy it with 20 neighbours also targeted Last month an expensive GoPro action camera that I had not ordered was delivered to my house. Then the bill arrived from the online retailer Jacamo. It turned out that someone had opened an account in my name and spent more than £800. The fraudsters also created an account in my wife’s name and spent the same amount.…

Family wealth dictates our life choices. So is the Bank of Mum and Dad now behind so many of society’s growing inequalities? You know the Bank of Mum and Dad when you see it: it’s your friend who seems broke, but always has a safety net, or who suddenly (but discreetly) acquires the deposit for a home. It’s those who stayed with their parents while they saved for a flat, or stuck it out in a prof…

The TV presenter on long lie-ins, a proper Sunday dinner and the perils of a foam pit Up early? Sunday is the one morning I don’t get out of bed early. I still wake up early, because we’ve got a five-year-old. But she comes into bed with us. Breakfast in bed? Very much so. I don’t drink tea or coffee, but it’s normally me who gets up and makes a cuppa for my Mrs and an apple juice for my little g…

A new destination in Kings Cross turns its back on mod cons to cater to a fantasy of past times The Yellow Bittern, 20 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DU (020 3342 2162). Starters £7 – £8; mains £20 – £28; desserts £8 – £9. Wines from £40 Chefs gather in tribes. There are the tweezer chefs and the dude food chefs and the live-fire chefs, wisps of smoke forever rising from their singed eyebrows. Then …

Alcohol duty and how it affects the way wines taste – and are made Equilibriste Chenin Blanc, Loire, France 2023 (£8.99, Waitrose ) I’m not sure if Rachel Reeves is a wine lover. And given the fuss she’s made of the straitened circumstances of the public finances, I would in any case have been naive to think she might have cut the UK’s famously high wine duty in her first Budget. But there is one…

Your persona as an author is in the public domain, so perhaps your wife wants to keep the private you to herself The dilemma I am a 53-year-old husband, happily married for 10 years. Everything is as good as it could be, but I sometimes feel like a neglected housewife living in the 1950s, while the “husband” (my wife) is ignoring the real me – and that real me is a writer. I write anything and ev…

Argyle knits and plaid coats, tweeds and wool… This season the heritage look is back. The aim? Off-duty royal at Balmoral Fashion’s longstanding love of heritage and dressing up in the style of those attending country-house weekends has dominated the runways this season, from Chloé’s cape silhouette plaid coat to Wales Bonner’s check barn jacket styled over a dark tweed two piece. Meanwhile label…