Rough Trade Shops (independent music store)

All Star Lanes (bowling)

Junky (clothes shop)

Blondie (vintage boutique)

Rokit (vintage clothing)

Absolute Vintage (shop)

Beyond retro (vintage)

Vibe bar

Big Chill

Match Bar (East Room)

Liberties (bar)

Caffe Crema

Betty & Getty (vintage shop)

Roundhouse Studios

Etcetera Theatre

Hobs (hair salon)

The Lock Tavern (pub)

Dappa Hair Boutique

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Researchers from the US National Cancer Institute asked more than half a million Americans about their food intake and recorded their health for 10 years.

Risk of early death rose by 13 per cent in those who ate around 160g of red meat a day. Those with the lowest red meat intake had a 21 per cent lower risk of heart disease than those who had the highest intake.

Glenys Jones, a nutritionist at the Medical Research Council said: “This research is consistent with a growing number of studies looking at processed and red meat intake and their relationship to ill-health.”

Those eating dangerous amounts were consuming the equivalent of a 6oz steak every day.

To help prevent heart disease and cancer, the study suggests an average daily limit of about 19g of red meat for women or 25g for men.

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Photo: Jack Two

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The new scheme is a response to the recent rise in teenage pregnancy. It will be introduced in six schools in Oxfordshire this July by the county council and the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust.

Any girl at the four schools in Oxford and two in Banbury will be given the opportunity to ask for emergency contraception without their parents’ consent. Child protection staff will only get involved if a girl aged be 11-13 uses the service

Parents have raised concerns as the scheme doesn’t highlight how many times girls can take the pill. A dad who has a daughter at one of the schools said: “I’d hate my daughter using this service without my knowledge. Contraception is a subject parents should talk to their children about.” Another parent said: “It feels as if they are colluding against parents. It’s extremely disturbing.”

But a spokesman for the Family Planning Association said: “This text service is an innovative approach that should help young people access, not just emergency contraception, but also sexual health advice from trained health professionals. Providing young people with confidential and high quality contraceptive services is an important and effective part of the strategy to reduce teenage pregnancies.”

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Photo: Brandon Christopher Warren

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1. Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
2. Chop the onion and garlic finely and cook slowly with the butter and olive oil in a wide sauté or frying pan over a gentle heat. Add the chicken.
3. Add 6oz of risotto rice and stir gently so it is covered with the oil/butter.
4. Dissolve the stock cubes in about one and a half pints of boiling water.
5. Pour a glass of white wine – or better still, Cinzano Bianco – into the rice and stir. When the rice has absorbed the wine, slowly add some of the hot chicken stock.
6. Over the next 15-20 minutes, let the rice mixture cook over a gentle heat. Whenever the rice looks like it has absorbed all the liquid add some more chicken stock. Don’t let it dry out.

When the risotto is ready it should be slightly runny, and the rice firm but not crunchy. You might not need all the stock but if you don’t have enough, extra water or wine can be used if the risotto seems too dry.

NOTE: At this stage, chopped up mushrooms and/or a handful of frozen peas can also be added.

7. When the risotto is ready, check seasoning and add salt if required. Add well ground black pepper and serve with chopped parsley, lemon wedges and grated parmesan.

You can make this dish with the remains of a roast chicken too. Just wait until step 7 to add the cooked chicken to the risotto mixture.

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I’m standing in a grassy arena, surrounded by 50,000 bare-breasted girls, all singing and dancing. To my left, watching the proceedings, there’s a man wearing a leopard skin loincloth and a red feather head dress. Yesterday I was in a classroom in South Africa teaching poetry. Now I’m in the middle of the Swaziland Reed Dance, and the man in the loincloth is the country’s King. This was not how I imagined my first visit to Swaziland.

How does a white girl from England end up taking part in a traditional African ceremony? I’m spending the summer as a volunteer teacher in Mpumalanga, South Africa, in a township. One of the teachers at a friend’s school just happens to be related to King Mswati III, Swaziland’s ruler and one of the world’s last “absolute” monarchs. Meeting members of the Swazi royal family is not uncommon – the king’s father reportedly had 210 children.

I have been invited, along with the other volunteers, to take part in the final day of the Reed Dance. The dance, Umhlanga, is a week-long annual celebration where girls from all over the tribal areas of the country come to pay tribute to King Mswati’s mother, the joint head of state. She’s known as Indovukazi, the Great She-Elephant.

Most of the girls are in their teens, but some are younger. They spend the week collecting reeds from designated areas to present to her. Then it’s a lengthy walk to the royal palace, where they repair the wind breaks around her huts in the compound.

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Acroyoga combines yoga, thai massage and acrobatics. I’m at the Third Space gym in Soho, London, to try it out. Our instructor, Anna Karides, explains acroyoga was founded five years ago in California. “There are only five instructors in the UK”, she says. I feel privileged.

The first routine poses a few problems. We are told to turn our body sideways and keep our balance using one hand and our feet. We stretch our other arms into the air. I start to wobble when Anna asks us to bring one foot up to the knee of the opposite leg. I try to keep my balance. There’s a liberating stretch in my abdomen and down my back. I inhale and exhale deep long breathes three times.

We come to the end of the sun salutation regime. The moves become more difficult. I’m in the down dog position. I bend my knees, bringing by stomach as close to my thighs as possible. I feel a painful pull down the backs of my legs. Everyone else has managed to get at least their elbows to the floor, some even their heads. Flexibility takes on a whole new meaning.

Then, the part I’ve been waiting for: the acrobatics. A handstand seems easy enough. I did it in school. The weight of my body makes my arms bend under the strain. I have to jump down. Anna says, “It just takes practice. Your arms need to get used to carrying the weight.”

My disappointment is replaced by the exhilaration of “flying”. The base person lies in the shape of a right angle and uses their legs to support me in the air. Their feet rest on my stomach. The aim is to get my body in the shape of an aeroplane. I can hardly balance. My hands keep instinctively shooting towards the floor for support. This stops me from achieving the perfect flying position. It doesn’t, however, lessen the excitement of being suspended in the air.

Working in pairs is the safest way to do acrobatics. “You can get deeper into a stretch with the help of a partner. You always manage to push yourself further, because they can help you,” Anna says. “It’s more fun to work with a partner.” When moves don’t work, the acrobats collapse in a heap of giggling. Anna explains that a spotter stands by to make sure everything is safe.

Acroyoga is the most challenging discipline I’ve ever tried in terms of fitness, flexibility and strength. However, my brief flying experience gives a glimpse of how fun acroyoga would be with more practice.

The Third Space, 13 Sherwood Street, Soho, London, W1F 7BR, Tel: 0207 439 7333

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For six months the winner will live on Hamilton Island off the coast of Queensland in a luxury apartment blogging about the islands to the world. For this he or she will earn £70,000. Sound good? It did to the 35,000 applicants and became the biggest ever viral marketing campaign.

Of the 48 shortlisted, four are Brits. Tell! caught up with three of them to see how they’re coping with the prospect of getting the world’s cushiest job.

1. Doug Stidolph, 20, Student
2. Holly Smale, 27, Writer
3. Ben Southall, 34, Charity Fundraiser

What made you apply for the Best Job In The World?

Doug: Every single fibre of my being! I came across the job in the paper the first day it was announced. It was 19 January - apparently the most depressing day of the year. After reading the offer of working on a tropical island off the coast of Australia for six months I thought, I have to do this. This job is just made for me.

If you get the job, you get £70k, not bad for six months in paradise. Are you in it for the money?

Holly: Goodness, I wish I was in a position to be able to say no. Maybe a few years ago I would have said that the money was irrelevant but I’ve spent as long as I can remember in debt. That kind of money would mean I could move out of my dad’s spare room and buy my own place. It would also give me the freedom to keep writing for a little while longer, which is what makes me really happy. The money would change my life. To pretend that it wouldn’t matter to me wouldn’t be honest

If you get the job, what excites you the most about going?

Ben: The chance to dive in the most famous reef in the world. I only started diving last year but have been lucky enough to dive in some of the best locations in the world. I’d love to have the chance to add the Great Barrier Reef to it. My girlfriend lives in Canada, and when I get the job she’ll join me out there.

What are you squeamish about when travelling?

Doug: Cockroaches! I HATE them. It’s just something about the way they scurry across the floor making that hissing noise…eugh. They get stamped on every time. I’m usually unfazed by wildlife, but I don’t like spiders very much either. I had a Huntsman spider climb on my back on the beach one morning in Kuringai National Park, just north of Sydney. I ran screaming into the water.

What one strange travel item will you need to have with you if you go?

Doug: I think it would have to be my blue Power Ranger outfit. There’s no real reason for this to be honest, but every time I’ve worn it in the last year the results have been legendary.

How gutted will you be if you don’t get the job?

Ben: I’ll be really disappointed as I know I’m exactly the character they’re looking for, but there’s plenty of other challenges out there with my name on, like swimming the channel or rowing across the Atlantic.

Their submission videos:

www.islandreefjob.com/Holly

www.islandreefjob.com/Douglas

www.islandreefjob.com/Bens

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5. The Mona Greasa

You already know that fast food is bad for you, but now you can literally see just how bad. American artist Phil Hansen uses grease from burgers and fries to make his art. He used 14 burgers to make this 12ft Mona Lisa.

4. Ruislip Rhythms

Ben Langham is a London based engineer-cum-DJ who likes to record the sounds of the Underground. He takes a digital recorder with him into London’s tube system, capturing anything from escalators to passing trains, and then mixes them into dance tracks. “I liked the idea of having this concept, noises from behind the scenes on the tube which the general public don’t get to listen to,” said Ben.

3. Bic-ture perfect

Spanish artist Juan Francisco Casas creates 6ft portraits (below) using the humble biro. In an interview in Metro, Casas said he ventured away from oil painting for a bit of fun but then ended up coming second in a national art competition. “It was an academic competition and I knew they would think my entry was a joke. It was a real shock it was so successful.”

2. Heads and Tales by Heide Hatry

New York-based Heide Hatry creates her portraits out of untreated pigskin that covers sculpted clay, raw flesh for the lips and fresh pig eyes. “In order that the resulting portrait would appear as if it were looking at the viewer with a vital expression which the photographer had just captured at that moment,” she says. “In fact, a photographer taking a picture of a model does more or less what I’ve done with my sculptures: the model will be made up, its hair will be done, appropriate lighting and pose will be chosen.”

1. Extreme sheepherding

The Baaa-Studs – a troupe from Wales – took to the hills armed with sheep, sheepdogs and special sheep-sized LED “jackets”. And then there was art. Among their creations: a fireworks display, a giant sheep, a game of Pong and the Mona Lisa.

In using sheep as a medium, The Baaa-Studs challenge our perception of what constitutes art. By blurring the boundary between art and farming, they make a profound comment on the taut relationship between culture and nature. Or something.

Picture: little pollo

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The Rave exercise class is a mix of energetic dance moves performed on a trampoline. With neon glow sticks in your hands. It’s a custom-made Gymbox class and is apparently guaranteed to make you sweat and be as much fun as an actual rave. I’m at the Gymbox in Bank to see how much fun can be had without any stimulants.

I sway my arms in a flat semi-circle to the right and to the left, over and over again. I use my abdominal muscles to push through the move. It’s easy to look like a pro dancer as the neon-lights and darkened room create a reflection in the mirror of perfectly performed movement. I’m swinging each arm backwards and forwards in an exaggerated march, but I’m not embarrassed. I have defeated the fear of seeing myself in the mirror, because my eyes are fixated on the neon lights. When I thrust my knees up as far as I can, getting them up to the glow sticks is my aim.

The fluorescent lights add to the fun of the Rave. I feel exhilaration from creating my own mini-firework display. As I move my body to the beat I am so lost in the fun of the workout that I push on despite the ache in my legs. I move my arms as fast as I can to make the colours blur and the rest of my body struggles to keep up. I roll the neon glow sticks round each other to make a beautiful blur of red and blue.

Don’t be fooled into thinking this class is so fun that it can’t be pushing your body hard enough. There’s a dull ache in my stomach muscles and a painful strain along my calves. When I get off the trampoline I feel dizzy and my legs are wobbly. I’m exhausted but completely liberated. I really have managed to let myself go.

Gymbox, Bank, 71 Lombard Street, London, EC3V 9AY, Tel: 020 7337 9790

Photo: Corbis/Guardian

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