Personal Development (Self Help) Blog

A two-part guide to the best summer pubs, free with the Guardian Saturday 13 June and the Observer Sunday 14 June

(GU: Original Article)

Covent Garden seems to put as little into its pre-operatic sandwiches as it has into the set of its new production

What £17 at the Royal Opera House gets you: nine mouthfuls of what was billed as an 'open sandwich' – in reality, postage-stamp-size lumps of stale, over-refrigerated bread with an excuse of a 'filling' on top of it, a dozen tiny olives, a slice of lemon (very important), and a beer. I'm glad that Covent Garden is heavily subsidised: what on earth would the prices at the bar be like without its annual Arts Council millions? You'd need a mortgage for a pre-operatic amuse bouche.

Cynically, I could say I spent more on my vague imitation of a sandwich than the ROH seems to have on the sets and costumes for Christof Loy's new production of Alban Berg's Lulu, with its aggressive, willfully contrary minimalism for one of opera's most sensual creations. Even if there were some outstanding vocal performances from Agneta Eichenholz, making her debut in the title role, and Michael Volle as Dr Schön.

Andrew Clements reviews the show in tomorrow's paper. This will be a controversial production: it moved even the normally restrained first-night crowd at Covent Garden to boos, and had the experienced Lulu-watchers in the row behind me apoplectic with indignation. See what you think, if you can get along before 20 June; it's a production that's worth hearing, for sure, whatever its visual asceticism.

(GU: Original Article)

Mat Follas won MasterChef earlier this year and is now taking the plunge and working towards the opening of his restaurant - and he wants your advice ...

When the people at Word of Mouth asked me if I wanted to blog the progress of my start up restaurant, The Wild Garlic– my first thought was: when? Since winning Masterchef, there's been no time to breathe and the amount of work to be done has just increased by about 70% (if I'd won The Apprentice it would be at least 110% ... am I the only one who hates those overstatements?).

It also struck me that in the midst of all of the panic and work involved in getting the restaurant under way, writing a few posts would force me to pause - give me a chance to step back, stop and calmly think about what we're doing. Most importantly, I'm hoping to get some good honest feedback from Word of Mouthers – you're known for being an opinionated lot when it comes to eating out, and I think this is a brilliant opportunity to get some real help with some of the decisions I need to take from people who know what they like – and don't like – about the places they eat out in.

So I'd like to say don't hold back, I'm keen to hear your thoughts. But in all honesty, there's just one bit of feedback I really don't need – yep, it's the worst time, economically speaking, in the last 20 years, that I could have picked to do this, and yes, I'm clearly mad to consider opening a restaurant in the current climate. But there's not much I can do about that now!

A few weeks ago, I finally resigned from a corporate IT job. After 11 years and one week (not sure how many hours but I was close to counting), I sat for half an hour wavering over pressing the 'send' button ... wondering how we were going to pay the bills ... all that job security gone ... that wage coming in automatically every month. The decision itself wasn't hard but actually doing it, pressing that button, was another thing entirely. But ... bye bye IBM.

I didn't look back for long – I'd already signed the lease on a great little place in my local town that I'd had my eye on for a few years. It had been a locals' pub in a town of three pubs and no restaurants, struggled to find its place for years then been transformed into a nice bistro run by a young couple who made a real success of it before selling it at the height of the property boom.

The buyer was a good cook, young and with a clear idea of what he wanted to serve, but unfortunately it wasn't what the locals wanted to eat. After realising too late that he had to change, the business ran out of funds about the same time as I was finishing MasterChef.

After extended negotiations and lots of looking at other sites we eventually took a lease on the building. It's taken three months to the day, from agreeing to purchase the lease, to actually signing it. It's incredible - the stress; the rows. People keep asking how it feels to be fulfilling my dream. Well, at the moment, it feels like I've got a big lump of cold sick stuck in my stomach.

But no matter, it's in my name now. I got up with great determination the day after signing, had breakfast and charged over to the restaurant. Finally I could walk through the door and take a sledgehammer to the oversized bar and start to make it look like the image in my head. At last I can begin getting ready to open. And this is where the first lot of decisions come in – the all important look of the place.

Currently it's all beech veneer tables, white fabric chairs and leather placemats, which are not my style at all. But is my own taste going to be right for the restaurant? I'm wondering if I should go country kitchen - all wood - or something a bit more modern, like the clean lines and stainless steel Kevin McCloud is so fond of.

For furniture, we've made contact with Marnie Moyle, an amazing outdoor table designer who I'm very excited about (and flattered that she likes what we're doing) … but her beautiful tables are designed for outdoors and I'm not sure the the chairs she has with them work inside.

Can I fit her furniture with something else, I'm thinking, or do her tables have to be properly matched with equally high end chairs? I personally think that £20 indoor chairs around those tables will work - it's eclectic and very much us, but I'm suspending judgement for a time, surfing the web, looking at country cottage styles until I see some Arne Jacobsen chairs (is that just my teenage memories of Christine Keeler getting the better of me?). If you've got any good links you reckon I should see (for the furniture that is, not Christine Keeler!), please share them below.

There's also the question of the huge bar in the restaurant that dominated the place before I knocked it down (yep, that's right, please don't say the one thing you'd want is a huge, oversized bar). But what should I replace it with? It would be a great daytime seating area for drinking coffee or wine, a comfy area to wait in or even act as a casual overflow dining area for a few walk-ins. Or we could squeeze a couple of small tables in. The thing is, I want customers to enjoy the space, stay for the evening, maybe have an extra glass or two of wine. If they're comfortable enough to stay for three courses, I think that's worth more than the extra revenue of trying to turn a table.

The more I write the more questions come … I need to get on with making the kitchen workable (and easier to clean), so no doubt there will be more questions to come, from menu to front of house staffing issues. But in the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on style. What brings you into a restaurant and, more importantly, what brings you back? What are your "must haves" and "don't do's" for a restaurant in terms of space and design?

(GU: Original Article)

The economic downturn and a bout of bad weather has caused a punnet plummet, leaving the industry in a bit of a jam. But has the fruit has simply fallen out of favour with us? And will it ever be top of the crops again?

Admit it - there was a time when we just couldn't get enough of them. Luscious, juicy British strawberries whose arrival signalled the beginning of spring, stunning in their simplicity and needing little more than a lick of cream or even a glass of champagne.

But research earlier this week suggested that the Great British love affair with strawberries has ended. According to market research firm TNS, the volume of strawberries fell 9.2% in the 12 months to the end of April, prompting fears that the quintessential summer fruit has fallen from favour. It blamed the recession for the decline of strawberry sales, and said consumers were increasingly opting for a different, cheaper fruit or even something else for dessert.

For families on a budget, picking strawberries on a summer's day outing at a pick-your-own farm has been a time-honoured pursuit. But in another ominous move for our favourite berry, insurers have told the owner of one of the oldest pick-your-own farms that he will have to install walkways and bridges, place handrails round ditches and fence off potholes, while his insurance premiums have rocketed after a claim from a member of the public who injured herself.

But if you thought the poor old British strawberry was heading for the great compost bin in the sky, put your hanky away and whip out your strawberry set. (Yes, my mother was the proud owner a Wedgwood one - a bone china basket with two separate compartments for cream and, yuk, sugar). The combined might of retailers and the strawberry industry itself - now gearing up for perhaps the UK's biggest strawberry-fest, Wimbledon, later this month – insisted strawberries are as popular as ever, but that sales had slumped because of the cold and wet weather last summer.

The trade body representing the - don't laugh - berry industry (British Summer Fruit if you must know) said sales of British strawberries more than doubled last week compared with the same period in May 2008. It said there is huge demand for British strawberries as consumers enjoy picnics, barbecues and other al fresco entertainment, while consumers could take their pick from an unprecedented range of varieties, including the naturally sweet types favoured by Brits.

This year's strawberry-seekers can look forward to sweeter and juicer berries, which, according to Laurence Olins, chairman of British Summer Fruit, is a result of the "mild and warm spring weather, with no frosts and good pollination, lots of bees as well as a good amount of uninterrupted sun to ripen fruit".

Sainsbury's will reveal today that despite the overall slump within the industry, sales of its basics strawberries - costing just £1 a punnet - are up 87% year-on-year. Its experience is that customers buy basics strawberries to use for sauces or smoothies, and upgrading to the standard variety as a pudding or on their own. Those who hate the over-the-top plastic packaging with lids on punnets will be be pleased to hear that the supermarket chain has also introduced simplified and greener packaging.

So - share your strawberry-buying habits with us. Have you cut back on them in a belt-tightening, recession-busting exercise? What do you do with the manky ones? And, of course, we'd love to know your berry best recipes too!

(GU: Original Article)

Once thought to be in danger of extinction, the waiter's most esoteric skill has been spotted in use in a seaside restaurant

Picture this scene. I'm sitting in a restaurant in the benighted, south coast necropolis I'm forced to call my home town. I am treating the loose confederation of dysfunctional sociopaths I begrudgingly call my family to a meal. The restaurant has few pretensions save a jaunty, nautical theme and a menu which runs deep to frying and is untroubled by foams. The meal, criss-crossed with the kind of catastrophically unpredictable stresses unseen since the Tacoma Narrows bridge disaster draws to an uncomfortable close and I move to attract the attention of the waiter with that faint-smile-and-eyebrow business that has served me in the finest restaurants in the world.

As my eyes seek his to communicate that age-old message - I wish to complete our transaction, to give you my money and leave - his glazzies swivel like turrets in his head, ranging randomly around the dreary room. At first I'm confused. Some sort of seizure? Has someone, without warning, released a bat? And then I suddenly twig … a surge of recognition tinged with nostalgia. The bastard is trying to give me waiter's eye. I haven't seen that in a commercial dining operation since 1986.

You may have experienced waiter's eye yourself, if you're old enough. It probably reached the level of an artform in the UK around 1953, while menu requests could be refused because of rationing and two world wars had made deference uncomfortable to those forced into service roles. The trick was to avoid the customer's eye until they felt that they had no power to command you. At which point you could drift to the table as if it had been your own idea and be as rude as you could to them without being hit.

I think it was TE Lawrence in The Mint, his record of life as an Air Force ranker, that best explained the offence of dumb insolence. Military codes defined hundreds of ways one could be punishably insubordinate, but found it impossible to deal with a man who just stood, silently radiating resentment. With the invention of dumb insolence, it was finally possible to have him strapped to a gun carriage and flogged for it.

Dumb insolence is easy. Waiter's eye is a trade skill and I've worked with some real pros; people who could plausibly ignore you if you were trapped together for eight months in a space capsule. In Chicago I once dated a waitress who was so good at it she wouldn't catch your eye during intercourse.

But all floor staff bow in honour to the master, Bruno "yeux mort" LeClerc, a waiter at Les Deux Magots who on a dark day in that bleak November of '49, over a period of eight and a half hours, actually ignored an American tourist to death. Sure, he was a manic depressive existentialist with a debilitating astigmatism, but you can't let innate advantage detract from the man's genius. We are not worthy to fold his napkins.

To really have what it takes you need steely, ninja-like self-control, a perfectly-tuned sixth sense for punter tolerances and, most important of all, the ability to always appear to have something more important to look at. That's the trade secret. Find something to fix your eyes on - it doesn't matter if it's the back of that guy's toupee or the wen on his date's upper lip - and look engaged.

It does my heart good to watch it done well, by a pro. It gives me a great welling of nostalgia for the generations of waiting staff who've perfected it. I might not have minded this waiter's eye but as he stood there, slack-jawed and staring like freshly stunned tuna, I could see he just didn't have the focus, the attitude, the professionalism. I wanted to jump up and shake him. If you're going to do it, kid - do it right.

Have you experienced waiter's eye, up close and personal? Ever feel the need to shake the staff out of their stupor?

(GU: Original Article)

I hesitate to admit this, but in the third trimester I'm incredibly stupid. I wish I could skip this bit

I hesitate to admit this, a) because of feminism, innit and b) because I worry that it might damage my credibility elsewhere in this newspaper, but I remember this from last time I was pregnant. In the third trimester, I am incredibly stupid. I was thinking this morning about which of my close friends were only children, and got to S. What about S? I thought. Does she have brothers and sisters? And then I remembered that she's my sister. T, who has a doglike cunning far beyond anything exhibited by the dog, has been taking advantage of my confusion to do things he isn't normally allowed to do. I think he must have been keeping a to-do list, ready for when the opportunity presented itself.

Yesterday he squirted his water pistol into the headphone socket of the stereo while I watched. Then he posted some 2p coins into the coffee machine where the pods go, while I watched. Some minutes later - 40? An hour? - I thought maybe I should fish them out, but the task defeated me, and I finished up trying to make coffee with pods and 2ps. I thought I would just end up with a coffee and some hot coins. In fact, I have broken the machine, and he's broken the stereo.

So I decided to have a fizzy drink, got T a juice at the same time, and swapped them by accident . . . He, unused to fizziness, thought maybe he could improve the drink by pouring it on the floor and lapping it up from there. And even though I'd just drunk his juice, I didn't notice anything was up till I looked round and the floor was a puddle, and he was peering into it, transfixed, like a little Diet Coke Narcissus.

On the way to the polling station, I forgot who I was intending to vote for; all I could remember was that it was the one C said looked like a lovely Dulux dog, and I figured they probably wouldn't have their photos on the ballot paper. It struck me that even if they did have their pictures attached, more than one of them might look like a dog. I also forgot that MEPs customarily have their parties written next to their names, so I would have been able to work it out once I got there. Anyway, I ended up going home to check, and momentarily - honestly, not for long - forgot that I'd been intending to go out.

I wouldn't mind if it was a trade-off: you swapped your basic observational and forward-thinking skills for some other plane of understanding, like Picasso and his burst of creativity in his 70s, which he exchanged for a certain amount of mobility, though he still managed to get quite a lot done, ahem, lying down (I wish I could be more specific - Joan Bakewell wrote something amazing once about brainwaves in old age, but unfortunately every time I look for it on the internet, I get distracted by some foolish other thing! This is stupid, I've been here hours. Picasso is dead and I am way too hot!)

The reason celebrities, apparently, have elective caesareans three weeks before their due dates is because if you miss that last bit where you blow up like a puffin, it takes months off your figure-recovery time. I have ceased to believe this stuff about what celebrities do, and how they get twins put in on purpose, and how they are not only too posh to push, they also get liposuction on the way out (though I have not ceased to peddle these rumours).

I'd go further, in fact, and say these aren't just untrue, they're not even meant to be true, they're just symbolic gestational wish-fulfilment like, every time you think, "I wish I could have got twins so I didn't have to do this again" or, "I wish I didn't have to go through labour" or, "why can't you find a good surrogate when you need one?", your mind skips by custom to "I bet that's what Angelina Jolie does." For all I know, Jolie's pregnancies are just a figment of the global imagination. It's possible that Jolie herself doesn't even exist.

Where was I ... Oh yeah: you are not meant to wish away the last eight weeks; it is a jinx and it disrespects the trauma of having a premature baby, and all that ... but I could really do without these last eight weeks.

• Cluster around Dunoon appears to be spreading
• UK total of swine flu cases now at 459

Two more schools have been closed and a fifth person has fallen seriously ill from swine flu after health authorities reported another large jump in confirmed cases.

Health officials said there were 55 new cases across the UK today, taking the running total so far to 459, including a woman aged 44 now in a hospital high dependency unit in Scotland.

One of the largest clusters of case so far – surrounding the seaside town of Dunoon in Argyll, where one primary school has already been closed and around 70 case reported – appears to have spread.

There were 21 new cases in the area, including children at two primary schools in Cowal near Dunoon. The two schools were closed today, with more than 200 children sent home and given anti-viral drugs as a precaution.

These mild cases are linked to a primary school trip involving several local schools: the 70 pupils and 20 staff at the event are being given Tamiflu. In addition, 230 third-year pupils in Paisley have been sent home.

The Scottish health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, said the 37-year-old Sikh man from the south side of Glasgow who became the first Briton to fall critically ill was now recovering. He had been moved out of intensive care.

Three people remain critically ill in an isolation ward at the Royal Alexandra hospital in Glasgow, where the 44-year-old woman is now in the high dependency unit.

Sturgeon said many further cases were expected, and underlined her warning earlier this week that the main strategy of containing each virus outbreak may need to change.

The government's emergency committee Cobra is considering whether to stop trying to prevent the virus spreading, and just treat cases as they emerge. Sturgeon said health officials were doing "all we can to slow the spread of the virus".

Video: Why do men suffer the hurty elbow or the headache from hell rather than going to the doctor's surgery?

If your child is fat, it's far more important to let them know they are loved than to encourage them to diet

As I read Stephen Fry's wonderful letter to his 16-year-old self, I considered what I would have to say to my own younger self. I am only 31 years old, but it feels like light years away from the experiences I was having as a teenager. And, unlike Fry, I don't feel that trading away the things I have now for the intensity of my teenaged misery would be a good deal. But as I catalogued encouraging thoughts for the past incarnation of myself, I realised that it is not what I want to tell my adolescent self that would have made the most difference, it's what I wish I'd had the words to tell my parents.

My parents are great people. They have loved me very much and I have loved them the same. And so it is with most parents of fat children. They love their children and, in the manner of parents everywhere, just want what's best for them. Unfortunately, even with all the loving intention in the world, there are some things parents do that just make life harder for fat kids. I can't cross space and time (curse these limitations) to pass these things on to my own parents, but hopefully these three basic messages might help some fat kids now.

1. Your kid knows that s/he is fat. If your child has any degree of socialisation, consumes any popular culture, interacts with any peer groups, they know their body is different from those around them. Very young children may not be able to put words to it yet, but the age at which children are expressing body hatred is getting younger and younger. Even kids who aren't fat don't like their bodies. So your kids don't need you to jump on the bandwagon telling them they're freaks of fat-nature. Your children need to know that you, as their parents, love them unconditionally. And, depending on their age, they may have only marginal skills at distinguishing between the body they live in and the person they are. If you tell your kids there is something wrong with their body, it's going to read as there being something wrong with them. Remember, kids aren't masters of subtlety.

2. Don't tell your kids they aren't really hungry. Telling your child that they are not feeling what they are feeling is a super way to completely destroy any mind-body connection your kid is developing. Keep in mind that there is no research into the long-term effects of dieting on pre-adolescent kids. In fact, there's not even enough research to begin to determine what sort of effect a change in diet (much less dieting) would have on a school-aged child. Though everyone seems to agree that a good breakfast is a good start. Respect your child enough to believe them when they tell you something basic about their body. I'm not suggesting that you become a slave to your child's whims, of course. But there are better ways, better language to negotiate these situations than "No, you aren't hungry".

3. Don't make deals with your child. Don't promise to pay your child for losing weight. Don't bargain with your child on the basis of pounds lost. It might seem like positive reinforcement – the same way you try to reinforce good grades or completing chores – but it's setting your child up for disappointment, failure, and shame. Because when your child doesn't lose weight – and chances are more than good that they won't because their bodies are constantly in transition – they are going to get the message that it is their own personal fault. And, especially if egged on by the body hatred of their parents, kids are going to feel ashamed of their failure to control their bodies. Never mind that their bodies are growing and developing. Never mind the way bodies put on weight as a precursor to puberty. Never mind growth spurts, changes in figure, changing metabolism, or, hell, genetics.

I understand that parents are worried. The media fury surrounding the issue of childhood obesity is enough to concern even people who don't have kids. With people accusing parents of fat children of child abuse, it's no wonder that parents are desperate to do something, no matter what that something is.

The most important thing a parent can do for a child is to let them know they are loved. Again, that doesn't mean caving in to your children. But it means setting a good example – no more moaning about your thighs in front of your daughters. It means teaching your children that physical activity makes their body feel better no matter what their body looks like – it isn't punishment for having a nonconforming body. It means teaching your children that there are lots of different foods in the world and that eating the healthful ones can also make your body feel better – no matter what size that body happens to be.

Don't use your child's weight as the sole indicator of their health. Or of their worth. You are their parents; they need you to love them. Your kids probably don't have the words for this, but their future selves will thank you: if you'll excuse the pun, fat kids have enough on their plate without being burdened with your body shame, too.

Ailments in later life may seem unavoidable, but in fact there are many ways to keep your body healthy for longer. Cherrill Hicks explains how to boost your chances of a healthy old age

What's the best way to protect ourselves from ill health as we get older? While there's nothing we can do about some factors - such as the genes we inherit from our parents - there are steps we can take to minimise the risk of a painful and disabled old age. We take a look at five age-related ailments and diseases and explain how to cut the chances of them developing. As you will see, many of the same preventative strategies - not smoking, eating and drinking healthily, exercising and watching your weight - offer protection against a range of serious health conditions.

Cancer

Research now shows that half of all cancers could be prevented by lifestyle changes.

Stop smoking: It not only causes lung cancer but also increases the risk of mouth, stomach and cervical cancer. Pipes, cigars, roll-ups and low-tar cigarettes are no healthier as alternatives. Second-hand smoke is a risk factor, too: avoid living in a smoky atmosphere.

Drink less alcohol: It's a risk factor for seven cancers and a recent study showed than even a daily glass of wine increases a woman's chance of breast cancer. The less you drink, the lower the risk: a maximum two units a day for women and three to four units for men is recommended by Cancer Research UK. A unit is half a standard (175ml) glass of wine, a half pint of standard beer or one measure of spirits.

Eat a healthy diet: It should include five daily portions of fruit and vegetables (thought to cut the risk of several types of cancer), plenty of wholegrain bread and cereals (cuts the risk of bowel cancer), and only a small amount of saturated fat (linked to breast cancer). Eat less red and processed meat (a risk factor for bowel and possibly stomach cancer) and cut down on preserved foods high in salt (they could increase stomach cancer risk). Steer clear of vitamin supplements: recent research has shown they don't protect against disease.

Maintain a healthy weight: It can reduce cancer risk. You can find out if your weight is healthy for your height using the body mass index (BMI): multiply your height by itself (in metres) and then divide by your weight (in kilograms). Anything between 18 and 25 is healthy.

Exercise regularly: It's thought to reduce the risk of bowel and breast cancer. Just 30 minutes of moderate activity a day, at least five days a week, is enough. Any exercise will do, as long as it makes you slightly warm and out of breath. Split it up into 10-minute sessions if it suits you.

Take care in the sun to reduce the risk of skin cancer. Stay in the shade between 11 and 3, or cover up; in the sun, use sunglasses with standard UV protection, a wide-brimmed hat and a broad spectrum sunscreen (which protects against both UVA and UVB rays) with an SPF of at least 15; apply liberally and often. Avoid sunbeds - they're no safer.

Take part in the national screening programmes for breast and bowel cancer (the last is still being rolled out). Screening may detect pre-cancerous changes as well as early-stage cancer. What age you'll be offered it depends on where you live in the UK, but when you're eligible you should receive an invitation.

Talk to your GP if you're worried about a family history of cancer. You may qualify for special screening and referral to a genetics centre.

If you're a woman, bear in mind that HRT increases the risk of breast cancer, as does the contraceptive pill (although the risk returns to normal ten years after you stop using the pill). Having children, especially early on in life, reduces the risk of breast cancer, as does breastfeeding; the longer you breastfeed the greater the protection.

More information on breast,boweland skin cancer

Cardiovascular disease

The best way to reduce this group of illnesses is to reduce or prevent the build-up of clumps of fat in the arteries (known as atherosclerosis). They can result in dangerous blockages which cause heart attacks and strokes.

Stop smoking: It damages the arteries, and quitting is the single best thing you can do to reduce your risk.

Exercise regularly: It will lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Maintain a healthy weight: If you're very overweight, a structured weight loss programme of diet and exercise, with support from a health professional, could help you lose about 5-10% of your body weight within six months - enough to reduce your chance of getting heart disease. In particular, keep your waist measurement in check: 94cm and above for men and 80cm and above for women is a health risk.

Eat a healthy diet: There's some evidence that oily fish (such as herring, mackerel, salmon and pilchards) protects against heart disease. Eat two-three portions of fish per week, at least one of which should be oily. Cut down on salt to a maximum of 6g a day, and less for children.

Drink alcohol in moderation: One or two units a day is thought to protect the heart in men over 40 and women after menopause. But excess alcohol raises the risk of heart problems.

Manage stress: There's no evidence that stress is a direct risk factor, but it may contribute in some way. Learn some techniques to help you relax.

If you're over 40, have your risk factors assessed by your GP. He or she will calculate your chance of developing cardiovascular disease over the next ten years. If you're at high risk, you'll be advised to make lifestyle changes and have drug treatment.

More information on heart attacksand stroke

Memory loss and dementia

There's no sure way you can prevent dementia but regular exercise and a healthy diet, with plenty of fruit and vegetables and limited fat and salt intake, can help keep the brain healthy.

Stop smoking: It has a harmful effect on blood vessels in the brain.

Keep your mind active: Research has found that reading, playing board games, playing a musical instrument and dancing are all linked to a reduced risk.

Stay involved socially, whether through work, community activities, voluntary work, or religious groups.

Make sure you get enough vitamin D (mainly through sunshine): Although it's not yet proven, some recent evidence from Manchester University has linked low levels of vitamin D to cognitive problems.

Get your blood pressure and cholesterol checked regularly: They are both risk factors for dementia.

Drink alcohol in moderation: Some research has suggested that moderate amounts of red wine may help to protect the brain against dementia.

More information on dementia

Osteoarthritis

Two in every 10 people over 60 suffer from this painful joint disease that affects the hips, knees, spine and hands. It usually comes on gradually, so at the first sign, you can take steps to keep it at bay.

Maintain a healthy weight: Probably the single most important thing you can do, as extra weight puts a strain on the knee and hip joints.

Exercise regularly: It protects joints by keeping the muscles strong. If you're not sure what type of exercise you need, get referred to a physiotherapist

Look after your joints: Protect them from sports-related injuries and repeated minor injuries. Repeated kneeling and squatting can put stress on the joints.

Don't overdo things if you already have some pain from arthritis.

More information on osteoarthritis

Diabetes

Diabetes, caused by too much glucose in the blood, can lead to serious health problems like heart disease, stroke, nerve damage, eye and foot problems.

Lose weight if you are overweight or obese. You may need to consider taking medication in conjunction with lifestyle changes. In particular, keep your waist measurement in check (see cardiovascular disease, above).

Exercise regularly

Give up smoking

Drink alcohol in moderation

Have your blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked regularly

More information on type 2 diabetes

• For up-to-date health advice on hundreds of conditions and treatments, visit guardian.co.uk/besttreatments

Vicky Bhogal, author of the recipe book Flavour, challenges you to Take Three. She suggests a trio of ingredients; you include them in a recipe, and the best recipe wins some goodies.

Plus, a recipe exclusively extracted from Vicky's book, Flavour, for Word of Mouth readers: Courgettes stuffed with coffee rice and oregano

"Don't play with your food!" Many of us remember this reprimand from our childhoods, usually as a justified response to grumpy cross-plate pea-pushing or the sculpting of mashed potato snowmen. However, even though being serious about food is important - the quality and ethics of ingredients, traditions and techniques are all important to me - it's also refreshing sometimes to have a little play.

I don't mean some sort of boisterous, unruly activity that could land you on the naughty step, like beating your dinner with a Lego truck. I mean the considered, intuitive art of connecting with your own tastebuds and experimenting a little with combinations and expressions of flavours. A little avant-garde creativity, if you will.

They don't have to be wildly exotic or expensive flavours. The sort of thing you might have lurking in your cupboards or pick up according to season is perfect. It's not what you have, it's what you do with it that counts.

I generally like cooking with three flavours: sometimes a classic combination that is subtly adjusted by using alternatives with similar profiles, such as apple and mint with lemongrass instead of lemon, or by taking a classic pair and adding an unexpected third, such as lime, basil and mandarin (the citrus note making them all friends).

Other combinations can be made just for the simple reason that they intuitively appeal. The third ingredient is often used in less intensity than the main two. There may be other flavours used too, but they are usually in supporting roles and not the star players.

An example is this recipe here which I've extracted from my book Flavour especially for Word of Mouth readers, where I decided to use coffee, courgettes and oregano together (playing on the bitter and vegetal notes) after seeing the ingredients used in an entirely different dish in an American magazine. I've always been voyeuristically fascinated by what other people cook and eat, so I thought I'd launch the Take Three recipe competition to nosily find out what people would do with the same ingredients.

The rules

I pick three ingredients and you send in your recipe interpretations of them (and pics!). Please comment below or email me to be in with a chance to win (do feel free to ask any questions you might have about the stuffed courgette recipe, too) and post your photos on our Flickr group. In future weeks new trios of ingredients will be posted on my website.

So, the first three ingredients are:

• Cantaloupe melon
• Ginger (in any form)
• Black pepper

You can cook and prepare anything you like as long as it uses these three flavours. And you can add anything you like to them too.

The recipe that I cook and eat the most (very scientific, I know) will win a hamper from myself with lots of edible goodies, spice packs, a copy of my book Flavour, (which you can buy here, in case you were wondering) and a few surprise trinkets.

To be honest, absolutely everything and anything will spark my desire/greed for flavours and recipes - from mood to music. Thus for June I am inspired by the recent sunshine hinting of summer sunsets to come, the tropical spiciness of Matthew Williamson printed fabrics I keep seeing on posters on London buses, and that sharp nip still punctuating the air.

Over to you - how are you going to turn these base ingredients into cookery gold?

(GU: Original Article)

It seems Little Chef's publicity-hungry chief executive Ian Pegler has taken a unilateral decision

Time to add a very little meat to the bones of the story that Little Chef chief executive Ian Pegler has started rolling out Heston Blumenthal's revamped menu - the braised ox cheeks, the macaroni cheese, the rather spiffing all day breakfast - without consulting the chef.

It seems the first he heard about it was on Monday night at the Craft Guild of Chefs Awards where he was picking up a gong. He was approached by Amanda Afiya, deputy editor of Caterer magazine. "She was the one who asked me about it, because apparently there had been newspaper reports," Blumenthal told me, in a break from developing a dish of fennel with goose powder (no, me neither).

"None of us have been consulted. Not me, or Ashley, my executive chef. The suppliers also don't know anything about it and we know that because we've asked them. Presumably if Little Chef were going to roll it out they would need to get those suppliers to quote on it, but that hasn't happened."

He admits a concern: that while they might be working to move the well-reviewed Blumenthal menu into the other branches nationwide, it could be without the suppliers he specifically identified. On the upside the suppliers to the one existing Blumenthal branch, at Popham in Hampshire, have had their contracts extended a number of times and are now employed to supply their products until the end of the year.

There has, he says, been some contact with the company, but at no point did they mention the possibility of a roll out. He is due to go back to Little Chef in the next few days to film a follow up to his January Channel 4 series for broadcast later this year.

"I would dearly love the Little Chef stuff to be rolled out across the country," he said last night. "I'm proud to have been involved. They've got a great product and it's done amazing things for the business there." During a talk to 1,500 people at the Hay Literary Festival last month, Blumenthal explained that the Popham restaurant even received a call from someone wanting to know the location of the nearest airstrip. "They wanted to fly in for lunch. Happily it was only on the other side of the A303." Clearly, the rather curious Ian Pegler wants a bit more of that high altitude custom.

(GU: Original Article)