A Day in the Life of Tracy Baines

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My life is full of distractions, it always has been. It’s one of the hazards of working from home. These days the distractions are mostly delightful and indulgent. First of all we have a new puppy, Harry, a springer spaniel and for the time being his needs come first. At the moment he’s snoozing in his bed at my feet but mostly he’s biting at my files and books and I am constantly telling him NO. He’ll learn.

harry

Once I’ve fed him and myself I’ll get to work on something easy like a blog post, just to get the writing flowing. If I start with emails it’s all too easy to get distracted so I leave that for later when I need a brain break.

 

I’m working on a book about my experience with my daughter’s eating disorder and the effect it had on the family. It was the kind of book I needed when we discovered how ill she was. It’s hard work as it brings back the awfulness of the situation so after about an hour I’m looking for something lighter to play with.  I might edit a couple of chapters of my novel or work on the second Nelly’s Jellies picture book for children, or an article or short story. I write for magazines such as You, (South Africa), That’s Life Fast Fiction, (Australia) and most of the UK women’s magazines.

 

After lunch my daughter usually appears with my grandchildren, Elsie and Hadley. The kettle goes on and we sit and chat and generally let the grandkids call the tune. So it might be CBeebies with Mr Bloom and Show Me, Show Me, or an hour in the garden. Sometimes my son comes over with his wife and my grandson, Huxley, and then the house becomes full and noisy and before long I want to escape to the quiet of my office and get back to work.

grandchildren I tend to use the afternoons for admin or going out for lunch with my husband. I can’t say long suffering husband as it’s been the other way around for years and now it’s my turn to pursue my writing career. When he goes out to the golf club  I might work for an hour or two in the office, editing a short story unless I’m teaching in which case I might arrive early to class and work on something or catch up on reading and research. I try to use as many ‘bits’ of time as productively as I can to work on my writing as for years that was all that was available to me. I think that’s why short stories are perfect if you don’t have a lot of time to write. You don’t have to hold so much in your head all and yet you have the satisfaction of seeing your work in print. A quick fix if you like.

 

 

 

Kate Moss & Cara Delevingne Team Up For Burberry

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Burberry has made a very smart marketing move: hiring two of the hottest supermodels for their new fragrance campaign. There may be an 18-year age gap between Cara and Kate but they are both super-cool and look great together in the campaign.

burberrycarakatemoss

Credit: Mario Testino Instagram

Credit: Mario Testino Instagram

mariotestinoinstagramburberryCara Delevingnekatemoss

The campaign is for Burberry’s first ever blockbuster fragrance: My Burberry. Photographed by Mario Testino, they both look stunning in Burberry trench coats.

Watch the video below for a behind the scenes insight into the campaign.

What do you think?

One Direction, Jennifer Lawrence, Game of Thrones All Make It Into The Guinness Book of Records

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The 60th anniversary edition announces the latest record breaking achievements of the stars!


BOY BAND ONE DIRECTION SCORES INCREDIBLE RECORD FOR FIRST UK GROUP TO DEBUT AT NO. 1 IN USA WITH FIRST THREE ALBUMS

onedirection

JENNIFER LAWRENCE GRABS TITLE FOR HIGHEST-GROSSING ACTION-MOVIE HEROINE FOR HER PORTRAYEL OF KATNISS EVERDEEN IN THE HUNGER GAMES MOVIES

 

MILEY CYRUS EARNS RECORD FOR MOST SEARCHED POP STAR ON THE INTERNET

 

SHAKIRA IS THE MOST LIKED PERSON ON FACEBOOK WITH 100 MILLION LIKES

 

GAME OF THRONES IS MOST PIRATED TV PROGRAM, DOWNLOADED AN AVERAGE OF 5,900,000 TIMES PER EPISODE

 

Available throughout the UK on September 11th, the star studded  pages of the world’s best-selling copyright book, the Guinness World Records 2015 Edition features groundbreaking record achievements by the world’s favourite celebrities across film, television and music.

One Direction score a remarkable first and make their way to the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® 2015 Book with an unprecedented hat-trick of No.1 debuts on the Billboard 200 albums chart with their record title for First act to debut at No.1 with their first three albums (USA). Their album Midnight Memories debuted in pole position last year following the chart-topping success of Up All Night and Take Me Home in 2012. One Direction is the only act in the history of the US albums chart to debut at the top with their first three releases. The boys received their Guinness World Records certificate in New Jersey at the MetLife Stadium on their Where We Are Tour, with Niall making the announcement on stage surprising thousands of screaming fans.

 

Niall Horan from One Direction commented: “This really is one of our proudest moments, both for us and our incredible fans. Whenever we talk about it we always say how cool it is that we did it first, how sick is that?!”

 

Heartthrob Jennifer Lawrence, Forbes’ 2013 second-highest powerful actress and Academy Award-winner lands a spot on the film pages for Highest-grossing action-movie heroine. The phenomenal success of the first two Hunger Games movies (USA, 2012 and 2013), means that the character of Katniss Everdeen played by Jennifer Lawrence is the cinema’s most successful action heroine at the box office, with both films grossing a total of £928 million internationally. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was the highest-grossing post-apocalypse movie, taking £255,278,000 in the USA and £519,711,000 worldwide.

 

Coming off a controversial and highly publicised year, Miley Cyrus’s popularity peaked after she ‘twerked’ with Robin Thicke at The 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, gaining her a place in the 2015 book for her record title, Most searched for pop star on the internet.  International superstar Shakira who recently announced her pregnancy, set a social media record when her 100 millionth fan clicked the “like” button on Facebook, making her the Most liked person on Facebook.

 

Records also tumbled on the small screen, the hugely popular HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones staring Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey and Kit Harington makes its way to the 2015 book for Most pirated TV programme byretaining its spot of Torrent Freak’s top 10 list of most pirated TV shows, with 5,900,000 downloads per episode. One of the main reasons the show remains the most pirated TV programme is HBO’s refusal to license the series to Netflix. HBO and Warner Bros executives also stated controversially, that “receiving the title of the ‘most-pirated’ was better than an Emmy”, creating a “much needed cultural buzz”.

 

Other stand-out entertainment records to grace the pages of GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS® 2015 Book include:

 

  • Highest annual earnings for a television personality (male) and the highest earnings in TV overall – is £62.4 million for the year ending June 2013, a record shared by reality TV judges Simon Cowell and Howard Stern.Cowell ranks higher than Stern when other factors, such as marketability and social media ranking, are taken into account.
  • Most Oscar wins: Best leading actor – Sir Daniel Day Lewis becomes the first actor in history to win three awards in the Best Leading Actor category for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in 2012’s Lincoln, to add to his previous wins for There Will Be Blood (2008) and My Left Foot (1990).
  • Most billion-dollar films at the box office – actor – Gary Oldman shares title with Johnny Depp and Hugo Weaving for (The Dark Knight Rises (2012), The Dark Knight (2010), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2 (2010)).
  • Fastest-selling iTunes album – Beyoncé features in the new 2015 book for the release of her incredible self-titled album which sold 828,773 copies worldwide in the first three days of availability.
  • Most powerful actor – Hugh Jackman takes the title and is the 11th overall in the list of most powerful celebrities. The list measures fame in terms of factors such as earnings, media exposure and internet presence.
  • First musical act to perform a concert on every continent – Music legends Metallica who performed at Glastonbury this year, gain the title after entertaining 120 scientists and competition winners at Carlini Station in Antarctica on December 8th, 2013.
  • Highest annual earnings for a film actor – Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr now share the record, Tom Cruise earned approximately £46.6 million between May 2011 and May 2012, and Robert Downey Jr made the same amount between June 2012 and June 2013, benefiting from the proceeds of both The Avengers (2012) and Iron Man 3 (2013).
  • Most swearing in one film – In the film The Wolf of Wall Street (USA, 2013), there are at least 687 expletives – an average of 3.81 swear words per minute.
  • Musician with the most Twitter followers – Katy Perry with 52,463,838 followers
  • Most words in a hit single– Eminem with 1,560 words In 6 minutes, 4 seconds
  • Most “likes” on an item– Vin Diesel for a Facebook photo of himself and the late Paul Walker
  • Longest continuously running film franchise–Godzilla over a span of sixty years

 

This year the 60th edition of the 2015 Guinness World Records book includes a special throw back section which looks at the past 60 years and how the film and music industry has seen a huge increase in technological sophistication including a social media revolution with the creation of Twitter, Facebook and digital music. It’s almost hard to believe that six decades on there are some records which still remain unbreakable! A few of these records include, the Best-selling single (“White Christmas”) by Bill Crosby’s (USA, 1903-77) which has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide. The Highest grossing movie (adjusted for inflation) remains unbeaten by Gone with the Wind (1939) which took £88 million at the international box office – but with adjusted inflation comes up as a total gross of $3.44 billion.

 

Pre-order Guinness World Records 2015 here.
 

 

Research reveals that drinking tea reduces non-cardiovascular mortality by 24%

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More evidence on tea and reduced risk of mortality

tea

Drinking tea reduces non-cardiovascular mortality by 24%, reveals a study in 13,000 people presented at European Society of Cardiology Congress by Professor Nicolas Danchin from France.

 

Commenting on the study, Dr Carrie Ruxton from The Tea Advisory Panel (TAP) notes: “This study investigated the risk of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular mortality in relation to tea and coffee consumption in a large population of French people at low risk of cardiovascular disease. The study included 131,401 people aged 18 to 95 years who had a health check up at the Paris IPC Preventive Medicine Centre between January 2001 and December 2008. During a mean 3.5 years follow up there were 95 deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 632 deaths from non-CVD causes. Tea consumption was assessed by a self-administered questionnaire as one of three classes: none, 1 to 4, or more than 4 cups per day.

 

“Compared to no tea drinking, tea drinking lowered the risk of non-CVD death by 24% and the trend towards lowering CV mortality was nearly significant. When the analysis was extended to 2011 tea continued to reduce overall mortality during the 6 year period. Most of the effect of tea on non-CV mortality was found in current or ex-smokers, while tea had a neutral effect in non-smokers.

 

“In this study, tea had a more marked effect on blood pressure than coffee, with a 4-5 mmHg decrease in systolic blood pressure and 3 mmHg decrease in diastolic blood pressure in the heavy tea drinkers, compared to non-drinkers, when adjusted for age. This effect of tea on lowering blood pressure has been found in several earlier studies. A meta-analysis of 25 randomised controlled trials published in the British Journal of Nutrition [1] involving 1476 people found that long term tea intake reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure while acute tea intake had no effect. The blood pressure lowering effect was apparent in people who consumed tea for more than 12 weeks.

 

“Tea drinkers also had a better cardiovascular risk profile in this new study than people who did not drink tea. For example, tea drinkers had a healthier lifestyle. One-third (34%) of the people who did not drink tea were current smokers compared to 24% of those who drank 1-4 cups per day and 29% of those who drank more than 4 cups. Physical activity increased with the number of cups of tea per day from 43% in the moderate tea drinkers to 46% in the heavy drinkers.”

 

Dr Catherine Hood from TAP adds; “Overall this study adds to the growing evidence base that tea consumption reduces cardiovascular risk. This is likely related to the flavonoid content of tea. In addition to effects on blood pressure, a study published earlier this year found that drinking more than three cups of tea daily is associated with reduced arterial stiffness.[2] Other previous studies have shown that black tea improves blood flow through the arteries[3] and can reduce the risk of stroke.[4] Two recent meta-analyses have found that tea consumption improves cholesterol profile mainly by reducing LDL (bad cholesterol). [5] [6]

 

“Tea is a very popular beverage in the UK and these findings across several studies continue to suggest that Britain’s’ favourite beverage is good for cardiovascular health.”

 

 

Why Mothers Stop Breastfeeding

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GentleIt’s not your imagination– all babies go through a difficult period around the same age. Research by Dr. Frans Plooij Ph.D. and Dr. Hetty van de Rijt Ph.D., authors of The Wonder Weeks: How to Stimulate Your Baby’s Mental Development and Help Him Turn His 10 Predictable, Great, Fussy Phases Into Magical, has shown that babies make 10 major, predictable, age-linked changes – or leaps – during their first 20 months of their lives taking place around weeks 5, 8, 12, 19, 26, 37, 46, 55, 64 and 75. During this time, they will learn more than in any other time. With each leap comes a drastic change in your baby’s mental development, which not only affects his mood, his health, sleeping patterns and the “three C’s” (crying, clinging and crankiness) but also… babies drinking and comfort seeking habits. Unfortunately these Wonder Weeks are often a reason for moms who do not know about these wonder weeks, to stop breast-feeding their child.

With every new wonder week a baby gets a totally new perception of the world. Every Wonder Week is like waking up on a strange planet. A baby did not ask for this, did not see it coming, but suddenly this whole new world was there. What would you do? You would retreat to a well-known and safe place. For a baby that is mom. How would you do that? By literally clinging to your mom. Being one with her, holding on tight and the best way to do that would be via literally sucking yourself to your mom. This is where breast-feeding and Wonder Weeks meet. Whilst on the one hand Wonder weeks are in fact something good and signal progress in development, on the other hand, when the Wonder Weeks are misunderstood, they are often the reason moms give up breastfeeding.

“My daughter was crying so much that I was afraid something was terribly wrong. She wanted to breastfeed constantly. I took her to see the pediatrician, but he couldn’t find anything wrong with her. He said he just needed to get used to my milk and that many infants went through a similar crying phase at 5 weeks. I thought that is was a strange thing to say, because she hadn’t had any problems with my milk until then. Her cousin, who was the same age, kept crying, too, but he was being bottle-fed. When I told the doctor that, he pretended he hadn’t heard, I didn’t push the subject though. I found out about wonder weeks later on, but I keep on wondering why nobody told me about these wonder weeks earlier.” – Julitte’s mom, 5th week

Wonder Weeks and the milk doubting moms:

Wonder Weeks: One of the reasons mothers stop breastfeeding? As the baby gets more Clingy, Cries more and is more Cranky during a wonder week, many mothers start doubting themselves. Are they doing something wrong? If a baby wants to drink so often, does this mean they do not have enough milk? Or is their milk not good enough? Moms who know their baby is in a wonder week, don’t doubt themselves or their milk.

“Around the third wonder week my daughter suddenly started nursing less. After 5 minutes, she would start playing around with my nipple. After that had gone on for two weeks, I decided to start supplementing my milk with formula, but she wouldn’t have any of that either. This phase lasted 4 weeks. During that time I worried she would suffer from some kind of nutrition deficiency, especially when I saw my milk supply starting to diminish. But now she is drinking like she used to again, and my milk supply is as plentiful as ever. Now I know this is normal behavior during a wonder week. I never doubted my milk again since I know when these wonder weeks are.”
– Hannah’s mom, 19 th week.

Wonder Weeks and the exhausted moms:
Even the moms not doubting their milk sometimes give up breastfeeding. Simply because the impact of the leap on the behavior of their child is wearing them out. The moms that know about Wonder Weeks tend to be less exhausted as they know what is happening and that Wonder Weeks are actually a good thing.

Wonder Weeks and the mom of a six month old:
One of the most difficult leaps is the one of relationships, around six months after due date. The exact same time breast milk alone is not enough anymore and most parents start to give solid food as well. Mom is exhausted from the leap, doesn’t sleep or sleeps very poorly, while at the same time her child needs food. Just days after giving the first ‘meals’, the baby is in a much better mood. Often moms explain this whole sequence of events wrongly and seem to think their child was in need of other milk than theirs. While in fact the child just went through another leap and finished the leap when he turned six months.

Wonder Weeks and nipple cracks or abrasions:
Pain is, logically, one of the reasons moms want to stop feeding their child. When a child is in a Wonder Week he wants to drink many times more often than is normally the case. As this is one of the only times a baby is quiet, a mom doesn’t really pay as much attention to the feeding process as she normally would. Often resulting in wrong feeding positions, resulting in i.e. cracked nipples.

Making parents aware of Wonder weeks will enable parents to understand their baby’s behavior much better and will help many moms to continue feeding their child and to make sure these Wonder Weeks are not a reason to give up.

Dr. Frans Plooij Ph.D. and Dr. Hetty van de Rijt Ph.D. discovered the leap phenomenon while studying chimpanzee mother infant relationships in the Gombe National Park, Tanzania, East-Africa together with Jane Goodall. They are the authors of the book The Wonder Weeks: How to Stimulate Your Baby’s Mental Development and Help Him Turn His 10 Predictable, Great, Fussy Phases Into Magical

Dr. Frans Plooij Ph.D. is always willing to educate professionals about these Wonder weeks, or answer questions via Skype or email. He regularly has Skype sessions with moms around the world.

 

 

People Who Shared Jennifer Lawrence Nude Photos ‘May Face Prosecution’

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Jennifer LawrenceThe reaction to the leaking of nude photos of celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, was awful. Some put the blame on the victims and others shared liberally with disgusting comments. But in this new world of social media the law is always being rewritten and much like dealing in physical stolen property is a criminal act, sharing hacked photos is too. Representatives for Lawrence have already said that they will sue anyone who shares or hosts the stolen pictures.

“Retweeting your way to prosecution: Jennifer Lawrence scandal could result in a wave of prosecutions” Duncan Lamont, Partner in the Reputation Management team at Charles Russell LLP, commented:

“An individual found to be sharing, retweeting, or providing a link to material that has been hacked, could face the full force of the law. People syndicating and sharing hacked celebrity nude photos, which in the latest incident allegedly purports to feature a host of A-listers, could find themselves in serious trouble, whether here or abroad. The republication of obviously private material is a breach of privacy law, constitutes misuse of private data and is a copyright law issue. Individuals linking and sharing this material could even be prosecuted for conspiracy or obscene publication, which are criminal offences. Social media users searching for this material may want to question the morality of viewing stolen images, while those sharing them may face serious legal repercussions. People should avoid ‘retweeting their way to prosecution’. It can happen – just look at those who joked about bombing airports or tweeted information about ongoing jury trials.”

“I Was Sacked From Iron Maiden For Listening To The Eagles.” Dennis Stratton

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Iron MaidenIron Maiden – one of the world’s biggest heavy metal rock bands with over 85 million album sales – sacked their guitarist because he was caught listening to California soft-rockers The Eagles!

Speaking exclusively on Litopia’s Garry Bushell Talk Show, guitarist Dennis Stratton doesn’t mince words.

He also reveals:

How – and why – he knocked out former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno.
How sexual offender Jonathan King tricked him into a convertible bed and tried it on. Dennis told him: “If you bring your nose an inch closer to mine – I’ll bite the ******* thing off!”

Check out the interview below.

Angelina Jolie And Brad Pitt Marry: The Wedding Dress And The Details

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Angelina Jolie has finally revealed her wedding dress, and it is a stunning Atelier Versace, hand-made strapless number with a beautiful, unique veil which has her children’s drawings sewn into it. We never thought we would actually see the dress but big-hearted Angelina and Brad sold the images of their wedding day to two tabloids and donated the money to charity.  Angelina-Jolie-wedding-dress-G1 Maddox (13), Pax (10), Zahara (9), Shiloh (8) and twins Vivienne, and Knox (6), helped design the veil and we think it looks beautiful.  Donatella Versace translated the children’s pictures and embroidered them into the veil. angelina-jolie-wedding-dress-brad-pitt‘Versace is honored to announce that on August 23rd 2014 Angelina Jolie chose to wear a stunning Atelier Versace creation designed by Donatella Versace in occasion of her marriage to Brad Pitt,’ a statement from Versace said.

The children also took on key roles in the wedding, Maddox and Pax walked their mother down the aisle, Zahara and Vivienne were flower girls, and Shiloh and Knox were ring bearers. That the children would have a role in the wedding was clear in May when Jolie said ‘We are discussing it with the children and how they imagine it might be, which is verging on hysterical, how kids envision a wedding,’  They will, in a way, be the wedding planners. It’s going to be Disney or paintball – one or the other!’

 

The newlyweds said: “It was important to us that the day was relaxed and full of laughter. It was such a special day to share with our children and a very happy time for our family,”

 

Just twenty people attended the ceremony which was held at the chapel of Château Miraval, the family’s estate in the French village of Correns. Angelina Jolie’s father, Jon Voight did not attend.

If you are getting married then get your hands on a copy of The Wedding Survival Guide: How To Plan Your Big Day Without Losing Your Sanity. It has great advice on planning your perfect wedding and is written by our editor, Catherine Balavage. It is also available in Ebook format and is a great guide for wedding planning.