Diet Expert: How eating high-protein foods can help you conquer the 5:2 diet November 4, 2013 THE 5:2 diet, which evolved from the concept of intermittent fasting, has has been growing in popularity as an effective method of weight loss and weight management. Earlier, intermittent fast regimens such as the alternate fast day consisted of a “feed day” alternated with a “fast day”. A 24-hour total fast is quite challenging, so [...]
BMW electrifies driving in the city November 4, 2013 The German manufacturer’s first electric car is both a revelation and a bargain LOTS of companies claim their products are revolutionary. But when BMW says its new i3 electric car is ground-breaking, it means it. Usually, electric cars are bought by eco-conscious people on environmental grounds. Such cars are often compromised in terms of space and [...]
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A rural idyll a stone’s throw from London November 3, 2013 Under an hour from the capital, the Four Seasons Hampshire is the perfect place to recharge your batteries THREE years ago, during my first ever stay at a Four Seasons Hotel, my friend and I invented a game. In order to win all you had to do was walk from our room to the bar [...]
Hotel focus: Oitavos, Portugal November 3, 2013 TRAVEL writing tradition dictates that a property sitting amid mountains, forestry or, in this case, the windswept dunes of Portugal’s Atlantic coast, should be described as “nestled” among its surroundings. Not the Oitavos Hotel though. The five-star hotel near Lisbon looks like it has crash landed in the sand and grasses – a tower of [...]
A Marvel-ous second outing October 31, 2013 FILM THOR: THE DARK WORLD Cert 12a | Four stars ONCE every five thousand years the nine realms align, and the dark elves use the opportunity to plunge the universe into darkness. To do this, they need the Aether, an ancient force of evil which – for inexplicable plot reasons – has possessed the body [...]
A real indie gem October 31, 2013 FILM SHORT TERM 12 Cert 15 | Four stars SHORT Term 12 has already won both the Grand Jury and Audience prize at this year’s South By South West festival: that’s some billing to live up to. It draws you into the tortured world of a temporary foster home for troubled teens. The various trials [...]
Modern drawing room farce disappoints, despite strong cast October 31, 2013 THEATRE RAVING Hampstead Theatre | Two stars I THOUGHT you didn’t agree with stereotypes?” says Keith to his wife Briony. “You’ve restored my faith in them,” she fires back, stingingly. Actor and playwright Simon Paisley Day obviously has plenty of faith in them, too – the whole of Raving is built on them. Keith (Barnaby [...]
Musical hits the right notes October 31, 2013 THEATRE THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS The Young Vic | Four stars THE Scottsboro Boys tells the story of a real-life miscarriage of justice that caught the imagination of pre-Civil Rights America. In 1931, nine black teenagers – some as young as 13 – were frogmarched off a boxcar they were riding and accused of raping two [...]
A moving and funny acting master-class October 31, 2013 FILM PHILOMENA Cert 12a | By Daniel O’Mahony Four stars PHILOMENA is inspired by true events, though there are moments so heart-rending you wish the source material were fictional. It tells the story of Philomena Lee (Judi Dench), a working-class Irish woman who became pregnant as a teenager in the 1950s. Sent away to a [...]