So in order to calm continuing unrest over the EU question, David Cameron recently promised that if the Tories win the next general election, we’ll get a referendum on a “re-negotiated settlement” in 2017. This basically means he’s going to try and convince the rest of Europe that the UK deserves special treatment on certain aspects of its relationship with the union, and then we’ll get to vote on whether we like the deal. But for many, this is seemingly not enough.

In the past three weeks, we’ve seen Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party win one in every four votes in local council elections across England. This was followed up by former chancellor and Conservative heavyweight Lord Lawson writing in The Times that he would vote to leave the EU in a 2017 referendum. He described the union as a “bureaucratic monstrosity”, before adding that the economic gains of an exit would outweigh any potential costs. And then last week, Cameron and his Conservatives upped the stakes again by publishing a draft bill setting out how they would deliver a 2017 referendum. 

I read all this stuff and I know there’s a huge debate going on, but I don’t always appreciate the two sides of the argument. In the words of The Clash (and later, rather brilliantly, Gavin and Stacey’s Nessa) should we stay or should we go now? To b-EU or not to b-EU? So here I present to you, an idiot’s guide to the EU Hokey Cokey Debate…

In: Why we should stay

1. Being part of the 27-member-state EU (a United States of Europe, as some refer to it) gives us real clout on the world political stage. We are stronger together, or so the argument goes, and leaving the union would risk reducing our influence and isolating ourselves from the rest the world on global issues like climate change and trade. Leaving would also mean we had no influence over legislation which could still impact on us.

2. One of the most hotly contested aspects of the in-or-out debate is the cost of the EU. Those who advocate us sticking with the union point out that the UK put around £8.9 billion into the EU last year – just 1% of our GDP, and a small price to pay when compared with the benefits of being in the single market. Plus, since 1973 we’ve got back more than half the money we’ve put in.

3. There have been warnings that millions of jobs could be lost if we left the European Union, as businesses look to move to cheaper countries elsewhere. 3.5 million UK jobs depend on exports to the EU, and many are concerned that an exit could place these in jeopardy.

4. We need to stay to protect our financial services industries, or so say the pro-European-ers. Companies dealing with the Eurozone could desert the City, taking their money and tax revenues with them.

5. Being part of the EU allows us to benefit from protections such as European employment law, and some argue that the influence of union legislation is vastly exaggerated, with as few as 15% of our laws coming from the EU. When it comes to immigration, again there are accusations of scaremongering. EU passport holders account for less than 2% of our welfare bill, and perhaps more importantly people who come here from the EU to work make a huge contribution to our economy, bringing important skills and paying taxes.

Out: Why we should go

1. At a time of punishing financial austerity, being a member of the EU is a huge financial burden, say Eurosceptics. Our net contribution the the EU – or “membership fee” – is around £8 billion a year and leaving could save £32 million a day.

2. On top of this, one of the main themes in Lord Lawson’s argument last week was that leaving the EU was essential to ensure the health of our financial services industry. He argued that while events of the last few years undoubtedly exposed a “cultural decadence” that needs to be reigned in, regulation from the EU risks stifling a vital sector in our economy in a dangerous manner. Add to this the UK’s continuing isolation from the troubled Eurozone bloc and the case for exit is clear, or so says Lord Lawson.

3. Those who think we should exit the EU also argue that its political importance is vastly overestimated. The world has changed since the EU was formed, they say, and the outlook should now be far more global. Plus, the UK would still be part of the UN Security Council and NATO, giving us important platforms of influence.

4. The global outlook argument has also been used to dismiss fears about the negative effect exiting the EU could have on jobs and trade. The greatest export opportunities today are in the developing world, Eurosceptics say, and SMEs (small and medium sized businesses) would be freed from restrictive European legislation. Far from jobs being lost, millions could be created.

5. When it comes to soveriegnity, leaving the EU would once again give us control over our own legislation, although we would still be bound by the European Court of Human Rights. There is also the highly contentious issue of immigration – leaving the EU would allow the UK to regain control of its borders, and many say reduce the added burden on our welfare bill.

So, made up your mind? Nope, me neither. But the next five years will be crucial in this debate, and you’ve got to start somewhere. Watch this space.

We want to thank everyone that joined in and promoted – and that pledged their health goals with us this summer. I think we are almost ready to Make It Happen!

**This is a sponsored post

Some people may find it pretty easy pack in their meat habit over night, however I believe that a more transitional approach could be best, especially if you eat a lot of meat normally. Your body will be used to a certain level of nutrients and energy that come from the meat, for example heme iron which is the animal form of iron. This form of iron is the most easily absorbed, however plants have iron in abundance but in its non heme form. It can take the body some time to get used to absorbing iron from plants, so to help avoid feeling tired or low on energy you could take a more transitional approach over a few weeks.

Don’t forget the ‘veg’ in vegetarian

Vegetarian diets are often hailed as being healthier but a big part of that is when you are actually eating those veg! Try not to become a ‘junk food’ vegetarian – yes chips and cheese and tomato pizzas are vegetarian but you won’t see any benefits eating those kind of foods. There is an amazing amount of delicious, healthy vegetarian food available now, but just experimenting with vegetables is a great start.

Resist the meat alternatives

Meat alternatives such as Quorn, veggie sausages etc are fine in moderation but it is often tempting to just replace the old meat in your diet with one of these processed products. Most of these processed products contain a shit load of chemicals and soy isolates and are not the healthiest choice. If you are concerned about protein look to beans, eggs, plain non GMO tofu and tempeh instead, these foods can taste amazing and are so much better for you than something that was made in a factory!

Review your supplements

I’m not one for suggesting supplementation if there is no need, however I believe that in this day and age of food transportation, nutrient depleted soils and just modern life, we all benefit from some supplementation. This is even more key for vegetarians and especially for vegans. I would take a good all round vegetarian / vegan multivitamin. It should contain vitamin B12 which is essential for vegans as this vitamin is only found in animal derived products). I would also recommend a plant based omega 3 supplement or adding ground flax or flaxseed oil to some meals and snacks.

Eat enough!

I know that might sound daft when let’s face it, the majority of us are seeking to lose weight. However, this is a trap I fell into when I was vegetarian / vegan for a couple of years. When you remove meat and fish from your diet (eggs and dairy if you are going the whole way and becoming vegan) you are removing a major source of calories and energy. That might work well if you are looking to drop a few pounds, however if you are not and if you are already very active you need to make sure you are eating enough to keep yourself well fuelled. Your portion sizes may be bigger than you are used to as plant based foods tend to have more volume for their calories than animal based foods, just keep an eye on your energy levels as you go!

Overall I think vegetarianism and veganism can be an exceptionally healthy way to eat, however I do firmly believe that different things work for different people. I’m sure that some people would disagree with me, but in my experience I don’t believe that everyone’s body is suited to a vegetarian diet. Mine wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t eat less meat, and make the meat that you do eat come from high quality sources. Most importantly, eat that veg!

A few weeks later, I decided to make a slightly smaller scale but much longer list to back up The List. The title of it you can find at the head of this post. It’s made up of tiny tidbits of advice I’ve picked up along the last 29 years of my life from magazines, from friends and from the long, hard graft of personal experience. It’s an ongoing list and it’s nowhere near complete. I’m going to share the first 7 components of this list with you and maybe you can use them as a starting point to make your own list. It’s not designed to fill a hole or fix parts of life that have gone wrong, it’s just a supplement. To improve upon the good stuff that’s already there.

Drink More Water

How many of us actually drink enough water every day? Do we make time to sit and gulp down 8 glasses of the wet, tasteless stuff, and if not, why not? Is it because we’re so rushed off our feet that we just forget, or because coffee, juice, gin or beer are much yummier, buzzier options? We should make more time in the day to stand still for a minute and drink a glass of water. It’s good for our skin, it’s good for our brains and it’s good for our bodies. In short, it’s just good. And we shouldn’t neglect the little things.

Drink More Water – make a tiny cup of tea from a tiny kettle.

Clean Out Your Wardrobe

THE NEW RULE: If you haven’t worn it for 6 months, give it away, throw it away or sell it. You don’t need it and hanging onto things thinking ‘but maybe one day…’ gets you nowhere. Be brutal. After all: tidy wardrobe, tidy mind. Or something.

Learn How to Say ‘No’

Saying ‘yes’ all the time ends up with things being really exhausting. Either you’re running around everywhere trying to do everything, attempting to seize every opportunity, striving to not let anyone down and not making enough time to relax and enjoy yourself, or you’re saying ‘no’ to some things from the outset, and making life a little calmer. Yes, you’re shutting yourself off to possible opportunities if you do the latter, but that’s…life. You can’t do everything, all of the time.

Accept Advice From Others & Incorporate It Into This List (Lightheartedly)

My best friend just gave me a self-help book for my 29th birthday. It’s called ’101 Things To Do Before You’re Old, Married or Have Kids’. It’s pretty fun reading and it has some awesome ideas in it. I just need to be mindful of number 3 on this list and keep my sense of reality too. ‘Invest in a Burberry trenchcoat’ seems like excellent advice, but do I really have £2,000 just hanging around, maybe down the back of the sofa? No, no I do not.

Be Comfortable

I just went to my friend’s 30th birthday party, at his house in a different city, with a bunch of people I had never met before. It was a stay-up-all-night affair, the sort we used to handle as teenagers with just the clothes on our backs and a bottle of vodka in our handbags. But I’m not a teenager anymore. I took a John Lewis knitted blanket, my slipper boots and I didn’t drink. I was warm, comfortable, sans-hangover and I still managed to stay up all night and party with the best of them. Sometimes you just gotta say ‘screw it! This is what makes me comfortable and happy’. Also, everyone was jealous of the blanket and slippers (it was snowing out).

Sing the Loud, Long or High Notes in a Song…Loudly

Put your full force into it. It doesn’t matter if you can’t sing (I can’t sing). In fact, sometimes it works best if you just scream out as loud as you can. Just take a deep breath and let it all out. Bellow it. Scrunch up your face while you do it. I like the shouty ‘Rarggghhh’ bit in Sabotage by The Beastie Boys and the bit in Recovery by Frank Turner (his most recent single – listen to it RIGHT NOW if you have not yet done so) that goes ‘SURVIVVVVVVVVVVVE!’ It’s great. Do it. You’ll feel loads better. Pick a song with a great shouty bit or high note and let rip.

Do Not Play Mind Games With People

Just don’t do it. We are not the game-players and we do not play games. For example – reply to a text message right away, when you remember or not at all. Regardless of how the other person chooses to behave. None of this ‘I must make them wait 2 hours and get them to sweat a bit’. The best friendships and relationships are based on honesty and trust and an eagerness to communicate with the other person. Some games are awesome, but not mind games. Opt out, make life a bit simpler for yourself. Hopefully all other parties involved will follow your example (and if they don’t, they probably aren’t worth your time and attention).

As I said, the rest of the list will come with time. Make your own, and stay tuned for more of mine…

Like gigs, festivals are not without their fair share of moshpits. Often sweaty, with the added benefit of being either muddy, wet or dusty depending on the weather, they are are a rite of passage for many a festi lover if that sort of thing floats your boat. But as always at a festival, you have to stay safe, stay respectful and basically not be a dick about it. Moshpits are all good fun until someone acts like an utter shit or someone breaks their nose. So here are a set of simple rules to live by if you fancy flinging yourself headfirst into the circle pit this summer.

If you are in it, you’re in it

If you are anywhere at the front near the barrier, just slightly back where a huge space is opening up or squished in a massive crowd you can be pretty sure you’ll be knocked about a bit. Because you are in the mix. It’s the place where (if you like that sort of thing) good stuff happens. Like mad jumping, dancing, screaming and of course pushing and shoving.

So, if you are in this situation, and you don’t want to be, I implore you to move. Generally speaking festival crowds are great at getting people in and out of the moshpit, particularly if you look faint or worried or injured. If you’ve accidentally ended up in a stampeding crowd, no one can blame you for wanting to get the heck out.

But please, for the love of all that is moshing do not stand rigid still in the middle, or at the barrier, bitch and whinge and then start kicking off with anyone who happens to touch you. You are at the front of a gig. It’s going to happen. Kindly move along to the back where touching is not obligatory.

Look after those around you

I see some awfully small people dive head first into the middle of circle pits (me included), and I do indeed worry for their safety (and sanity). The first and most important rule of being in a moshpit is to look out for those around you. That includes picking up a falling mosher at all times. Sometimes the crowd can overtake you and you’ll end up on the floor with the entire crowd jumping all over you – not cool. Pick that person up, lend a hand as you are dancing and they’ll laugh, thank you and go about their business.

If someone is hurt but no one is moving to let them out of the crowd (if the crowd is tight they may not have seen/be able to move quickly), ask the people around you to lift the person up and crowd surf them to the front so security can help them out.

Finally, if you are not in the moshpit but around the edges, you are part of the game too. Push people back in the pit and catch those falling as they run around the sides. Be helpful.

Understand fully what you are getting into

You need to understand what the crowd are like before jumping fully in – I’m terrible at this. Sometimes the music overtakes me, I jump straight to it and before I know it I’ve been punched in the face because I’m essentially the equivalent of a blonde rag doll in these things. Observe the action – how brutal are the individuals bouncing around this particular pit? There are many different types of moshing, and adapting to these is an important step if you want to enjoy it.

While the objective of a mosh pit is to make physical contact without getting hurt, there is a good degree of unpredictability and risk. Much of the risk comes from the type of music playing. Ska will be more relaxed, while metal and some punk will be rougher.

Once you’ve decided to get involved, you need to brace yourself. Be ready for those slamming into you and keep your hands ready to bat away any flying people towards your general area.

Also seriously – don’t leave valuables in pockets where they can fall out. Worst idea in a moshpit ever.

Don’t be a dick

Don’t be that person who goes over the top and starts really punching people. Don’t be the person who pulls people (specifically small girls) into the pit who don’t want to be there. Don’t hit people – this isn’t a fight. Most of all guys, don’t grab a feel of the female moshers. This has happened to me more times than I care to mention and it is vile, degrading and not cool.

Essentially, don’t be a dick, and you’ll be fine.

So, with a little knowledge and a lot of dutch courage, you can make your way through a moshpit unharmed. What are you waiting for? Jump right in!

Now, as we approach National Vegetarian Week, I’m personally celebrating being meat free for several months and seeing the effects both on my body and on my mind.

I became vegetarian right slap bang in the middle of the horse meat scandal where I vowed to shun pork crackling on my Sunday lunch, bacon sandwiches on a hangover and Nandos. Oh Nandos. Saying that, I never especially liked or ate much meat. Red meat, for me, was something I ate in burger form when I was feeling especially knackered and felt like I needed some more iron. Pork was a nice Sunday lunch option but never the be all and end all and chicken was something I grilled and cooked three to four nights a week but I was fairly sure I could get over that.

When I made my decision to go veggie, I started researching into the ethics of meat production just to see if it would give me that little extra push to go from someone who doesn’t really like meat and would like to be a bit healthier to someone passionate about being a vegetarian. I researched online, read blogs about people’s veggie lifestyle and looked up recipes that would embrace my hatred for mushrooms. But I worried about my cravings – what if I did really fancy a red thai chicken curry? And how on earth would I give up my beloved chorizo? Chorizo was my world. I added sliced chorizo to cheese on toast at lunch, in a traditional paella, in my infamous chicken and chickpea stew.

The initial panic about how I was going to cope nearly made me not bother but then I turned to Facebook. I wrote a jokey status about how I was going vegetarian but was worried about giving up the aforementioned delicious, life enhancing chorizo but in came my vegan friend Jake and linked me to “Cheatin’, a meat free alternative - Chorizo style”. And I was sold, although not perhaps on the idea of “eating it out of the packet” as a “great way to make friends”, which Jake rather spuriously claims. 

So now I had someone with a fountain of knowledge on slightly bizarre meat alternatives and enough friends encouraging me to go for it, it was time to bite the meat free bullet. And it was easy. I’m not going to lie and write here and say how hard it was for me, how I had to resort to watching those slightly harrowing PETA videos just to keep me going and how my boyfriend begged me to cook steak and mash for dinner rather than yet another vegetable chilli, but everything seemed to slip in place quite well. I found Pinterest a great resource for recipes and the subsequent vegetarian and vegan memes I found kept me occupied for hours. Nights out ended with chips and ketchup, the time spent cooking new recipes was a relaxing break from my dissertation and takeaways were a Papa John’s garden party pizza.

However, one gripe I do have is eating out. My boyfriend and I eat out at least once a week and lunch never proves a problem – we’ll go to Pizza Express where they have more than a few amazing vegetarian options and will happily whip me up something vegan if I fancy it. Bravo! Saying that, it’s often the fancier places that just aren’t great when it comes to vegetarian food. Once a month or so, my boyfriend and I will have a date night out where we book a restaurant, order a bottle of champagne and spend more on a meal that we do on a fortnightly shop but I’ll often be stuck with just one option for starter and one option for main.

Thankfully, I love goat’s cheese. But when are restaurants going to realise it’s not the only starter option? And mushrooms. BLOODY HELL, MUSHROOMS! I don’t especially like mushrooms at all. Not all vegetarians want pasta and mushrooms, breaded mushrooms or mushrooms on sodding bruschetta. And this is where I slipped up. My birthday weekend was spent in the luxurious surroundings of the Malmaison hotel and, as I scanned the menu in a slight coconut mojito haze, the satay chicken spoke to me like a vision in the night. Or should that be knife? The only option for my main was, again, some mushroom concoction and the coq au vin with shallots and pancetta just sounded like heaven compared to greasy, rubbery mushrooms. Would the vegetarian god strike me down if, this time, I ate meat? If I did eat meat, would it mean I’d never want to go back to vegetarianism? Could I really block out ideas of battery chickens and foul living conditions as I chomped down on a birthday treat? Turns out I could.

Calmed down by my boyfriend, I ordered the meat options as the ultimate treat and was really tempted to see if meat was all I remembered. Eating meat that night taught me such a lesson – that vegetarianism really is right for me. As I tucked into the meal, no matter how amazingly delicious it tasted, it just didn’t feel right. I can’t describe it but meat just wasn’t what I remembered AT ALL. My boyfriend laughed as I ate bite after bite with a permanent confused look on my face. 

After that incident a few weeks ago, I’m back on the vegetarian wagon and couldn’t be happier. I was given the Meat Free Monday book for my birthday which, despite it being rather smug, has the most delicious recipes for those wanting to quit meat all together or for those who just fancy a change once a week. 

I feel really proud of what I’ve achieved and I think eating meat a few weeks ago was the affirmation I needed that vegetarianism, and hopefully veganism in 2014, is perfect for me and my lifestyle.

Now, pass me the tofu!

Things haven’t improved over the years.  I’m still crap at watching films but must have stayed awake/alert for some films as I do have favourites.  Once you’ve read mine, why don’t you share yours?

Image credit : Flickr 

My favourite film

Dead Man’s Shoes. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know why. If you’ve not seen the movie then I can’t tell you for fear of spoiling the plot line. Dark, grim, engaging, shocking.

My favourite movie quote

From Ferris Bueller’s Day Off:

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.

It’s cheesy and an obvious choice from an 80s chick like myself but one that I’ve learnt to appreciate over the years. I wish I’d done more stopping and looking around over the years.

My favourite song/soundtrack from a movie

I don’t even have to pause to think of this. Somewhere In Time is a time travel move starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour and the line, “Come back to me” is just the most haunting line ever spoken in the opening scene of any film. The main score – Rachmanioff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini – just sets the mood of the whole film and when I hear it now the hairs on my arms and my neck stand on end.

A film that I wanted to star in

I think I’d be Columbia in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A small part but at least I could show off my tap dancing skills. But in these days of equality, maybe I could play Dr Frank-n-Furter. If Julie Hesmondhalgh can play a bloke who is now a woman in Coronation Street then maybe I can do the same in Rocky Horror? *slaps on heavy eye shadow*

My favourite scene from a film

Basically any dance scene will do for me. My favourites include the dance off from White Chicks, Shake a Tail Feather from The Blues Brothers, the dance scene from The Breakfast Club and Gene Kelly tap dancing on roller skates in It’s Always Fair Weather. But my ultimate is the dance scene in Pulp Fiction and one that I am determined to recreate for my 25th Wedding Anniversary.

As someone who grew up in the wilds of Lincolnshire, a place with one bus an hour was considered well-connected.   Meeting someone completely new was a rare occurrence, as you could be confident in their inevitable link to your neighbour’s cousin’s ex-school teacher’s dog.

Perhaps this explains my unending enthusiasm for the totally contrasting 24-hour London. It amazes me how every underground train, every black cab, can contain so many people with different lives at once unavoidably intertwined yet completely separate.

Although I’ve now said goodbye to the sticks and moved to a place with a more reliable transport network, my love for the UK’s number one city shows no signs of burning out anytime soon.

London is ace. It’s as simple as that. The excitement begins on arriving at St Pancras station, end of line for trains from the East Midlands. It would be easy to spend a good half day there alone, head swivelling Exorcist-style magnetised by the amazing retail opportunities before you’ve barely stepped off the platform.

If you succeed in making it through the St Pancras festival of spending delights without too much plastic card abuse, a whole world of fun and opportunity awaits.

Be a tourist and do the all the classic big hits – London Eye, Tower of London or Buckingham Palace.  Stay with a friend and let them show you their London, or just pick a corner and make it your own for however long you’ve got to stick around.

London Bridge/Bankside, an alcohol-influenced detour to Goodge Street and some evening entertainment in Camden, are a few pretty good bets when it comes to places to knock about:

Stay at:

The Citizen M hotel in Bankside. If you Googled ‘cool place to stay’ this may well pop up at the top of your search results.  The words “Another world is possible” are spray painted onto the exterior of the building, step inside the doors and you might just start to believe it.

One of only two of its kind in the UK, Citizen M is a whole new concept in hotels aimed at “those who travel the world with big hearts and wide eyes”.

Perhaps the wide eyes requirement is so you can fully admire a giant Mario Testino photograph of Robbie Williams, face part-obscured by a pair of Union Jack pants, artfully placed in the lift waiting area.

Robbie plus underwear is just one element of the hotel’s charm.  There’s a library of inspirational books to browse, free wi-fi, and super-modern Samsung Galaxy tablet operated rooms. A few simple swipes of the ‘MoodPad’ allows you to the open or close the window blinds, choose the temperature and lighting and even pick an atmosphere!  Party for me please!

Eat at:

The Refinery. Just over the road from Citizen M, this buzzing restaurant bar is a great choice day or night.  Food is served in tin cans, buckets and other random vessels in keeping with the industrial-chic themed interior.  Don’t miss their fish finger sandwiches  - so tasty Captain Birdseye should be shuddering in his haddock-scented boots.

Borough Market.  Give your senses a treat at the heart of the UK’s culinary history.  Wander about slurping hot chocolate with chilli or freshly squeezed fruit juice, and see how far you can walk with a carton of delicious street food without throwing it down your front. Village folk can also feel at home with soil-covered produce sourced from the potato fields of Lincolnshire.

Be a tourist at:

The Clink prison museum.  If you’re feeling the need to expand your library of gruesome facts why not learn all about crime and punishment 1144-1780s style on the site of the South Bank’s notorious jail.

Take a tour of Britain’s oldest slammer and next time you’re having a bad day you might spare a thought for the sorry existence of a medieval prisoner.  Fancy sitting in a stinking hole waist-deep in raw sewage being circled by rats doing rodent paddle? Thought not.  Or how about having your tongue clamped with an iron torture contraption for gossiping too much. I’d give that a miss too.

The Shard. At £25 per person to ascend Western Europe’s tallest building it’s a bit steep (sorry).  But think of it this way – from 800 feet above the capital you can tick off the whole tourist wishlist in one outstanding 360 degree, 40 mile view.  Play spot the attraction bingo as you take in London’s iconic skyline.  Is that Wembley? Is that the Gherkin? Yes it is! You really can see it all.

Drink and be entertained at:

The London Cocktail Club, Goodge Street.  Just in case the name has you flummoxed this place does cocktails, and does them well.   A lesson in shaking up the top shelf spirits, smashing up raspberries and pouring from multiple bottles at this cosy underground bar will teach you anything you ever wanted to know about booze. Sadly the more than generous measures mean you’re unlikely to retain a single fact.  How many different types of tequila did you say there were barman?!

The Jazz Cafe, Camden. A short hop along the Northern line brings you to another place with a baffling name – The Jazz Cafe.  What kind of music can I listen to there I hear you cry? This time it’s a valid question because here your ears will be treated to so much more than just jazz.  Despite having its origins in said genre this amazing venue is now home to soul, dance, funk and hip-hop and attracts big names old and new.

Recent performers to have taken to the stage/decks include Arrested Development, Grandmaster Flash and a whole host of other musical legends. With an 80s vs 90s retro party every Saturday night as an added bonus, what’s not to like?

What are your favourite London things?

So how to you get the most out of Pinterest – how do get you get top buck for your pin? Well our Pinterest 101 series will help you do just that, and this post will help you pin with perfection.

What is a pin?

Every image that you add to your boards is what is known as a pin – instead of pinning a cut out to your bulletin board at home, you just do it online. Simple. In most cases, each pin links back to a website that gives more information about the image or the person that pinned it – which is perfect if you’ve got something to market like your own blog post, business or product.

There are four basic ways to pin to your boards -

1. Using the Pin It bookmarklet
2. Copying and pasting a link to an image
3. Uploading your own image
4. Repinning from other users

Let’s jump right in.

Using the Pin It bookmarklet

The easiest way to pin any image from across the web is to install the bookmarlet via the Pinterest website. This will install a “Pin It” to your web browser toolbar, and you can just hit it whenever you see an inspiring image that belongs on your board.

When you find the image you want, just hit the Pin It button, and you’ll be faced with a selection of images like in the screenshot above. You just choose the image you want, and then you are given the option to select which board to pin it to, and to give it a really snazzy description. Remember to make this interesting and personalable – and that you can use hashtags too to make you pin easier to find.

Copying and pasting a link to an image

If the Pin It bookmarklet isn’t working on your browser or you just don’t want to use it, you can upload a pin using a url. Just click on the Add button on the top of your screen, and when prompted, you can add your URL. This will find images in much the same way as the Pin It button, but doesn’t always find the same range of images that the button does.

Uploading your own image

If you have your own images which are not available on the web and therefore you can’t pin using these methods, you can upload your own! Got to the Add button again and this time select “Upload a Pin’. Browse to find your image, and click open to upload it. You can then, in the same way as other methods give your pin a description and choose a link for the image to point to. This could be your website, Twitter profile, blog – it could really be anything you want to give some attention!

Remember though, if it is not your image in the first place, please make sure you link back to the original creator.

Repinning from other users

Another way of populating your boards and really sharing the Pinterest love amongst the community is to repin from others. When you first fire up Pinterest, your home screen will include all the most recent pins from users you follow – and if you see something you like, you can just repin that image right there!

It is simple to do – just hover over the image in question, and the repin button will appear at the top left. Click it, and once again you’ll be given all the options you need to add to a board of your choice and add something to the description.

I populate a lot of my boards through repinning – I think it is a great way to share beautiful images across the platform and beyond, and at the end of the day you want people to repin your images too – so it is nice to reciprocate.

So why not get pinning and repinning and populate your boards with plenty of pretty!?

You can follow The High Tea Cast on Pinterest right now.

The advice is so conflicting: I should eat only vegetables, I should eat mostly fat and no vegetables, I shouldn’t cook my food, I should juice everything, I should detox, I shouldn’t detox, I should eat like a caveman, I should fast two days a week, I shouldn’t ever fast, I should eat all of the protein that ever existed, I should never eat sugar, ever and fruit is bad for me. Sometimes, I really hate the internet and its indecisive ways. Except when it’s providing me with images of Ryan Gosling, of course.

The same thing happens when you start researching exercise and fitness. There’s a lot of conflicting advice about working out and seemingly achieving the same results. Should I do lots of low impact cardio to reduce strain on my joints, or lots of quick bursts to get my heart rate soaring and burn fat quicker? Or, should I do no cardio at all and only ever do weights? Low weight and high reps, or high weight and low reps? Will the 30-day shred work or just make me hurt for a month and then go back to sitting on the sofa eating cake? If I do that work out DVD, will I look just like the Pussycat Dolls?

Well, screw that. Eating well and exercising shouldn’t make life stressful; it’s supposed to improve our quality of life. Let’s cut through the crap: there are simple, long-term changes we can make to our eating and exercise habits without raising stress levels through the roof.

Don’t keep bad food in the house

Just stop buying chocolate. Simples. If there’s no chocolate, crisps or cake in the house when we fancy a treat/are bored, we’ll be forced to either not have a snack or find something healthier.

Eat less processed food

We don’t need to fill our bodies with chemicals, especially when home-cooked food is much nicer. If you’re a ready meal person, there are plenty of quick, tasty, healthy meals that can be made in less time and probably for less money, too. If we’re buying snacks, we should choose options that have a) fewer ingredients and b) ingredients that we can actually pronounce.

Mix up our exercise

If you’re like me, rigid exercise plans won’t do much for you. Fancy a run instead of the weights you’d planned to do today? Go for it. Want to do a class instead of that 20 minutes on the cross trainer you had planned? The choice is yours. As long as we work hard and don’t let ourselves off too lightly, mixing up our exercise will keep us both fit and interested.

Allow ourselves treats

If we deny ourselves all of our favourite foods, we’ll go crazy with the cravings. Instead, we can make sure we have one naughty day a week when we can eat those things we’ve been wanting. Well. Not all of them. But some, at least. There’s even a lot of research that suggests that if you’re eating healthily most of the time, having a bit of a calorie hit will give your metabolism a little kick-start. I find it easier to say no to treats during the week when I know that there’s a little tub of Half Baked Ben & Jerry’s with my name on it come Saturday.

Cut down on sugar

I know, I know, you’ve heard it before and it’s boring. But sugar really is a tricksy little beast and sneaks its way in to more food than most people would realise. I’ve been cutting down on sugar recently and I’ve noticed that my taste buds are adapting – things that didn’t taste particularly sweet before, like bananas, now taste nice and sugary and seem like more of a treat. Watch out for “low-fat” foods in particular, as most manufacturers pump them full of chemicals and sweeteners to make up for the lack of fat. And anyway, our bodies need fat (or good fats, at least) to digest some of the other things we eat more easily.

Sit down less

Easier said than done when there are desk jobs involved, yes? There are still plenty of options. We can go for a walk on our lunch breaks. We can stand on the bus/tube/train. We can get up and stretch our legs as much as possible during the day. We can make sure that when we get home we don’t just sit our asses back down. Sitting down for extended periods of time is really quite bad for us, and getting up every now and then isn’t too much effort, really…

Eat slightly smaller portions

Us Westerners eat quite a lot of food. We’ve become acclimatised to huge portions that we don’t reeeally need. A meal should, apparently, be around the size of your two clenched fists held together – doesn’t look like much, does it? But if our meals are covering our huge plates, even reducing portion sizes a tiny bit can help us in the long run.

Ramp up the veg

I used to be a really fussy eater and viewed most vegetables (especially green ones) with suspicion. However, several years on and many successful tasting sessions later, I love a lot of vegetables and try to eat as many as possible. When we’re making dinner, we should try reducing the size of our portions of rice/pasta/noodles/potatoes and adding a few more vegetables instead, We can add fresh tomatoes to our Bolognese as well as tinned ones, or roast broccoli with olive oil and garlic and add it to pasta and couscous dishes. We can also create a lovely tray bake with root vegetables or sprinkle a large handful of spinach on to omelettes or in scrambled egg. Learning to love the green stuff will add plenty of nutrients to our diets, and can replace some of the less beneficial foods.

These tips should help you to kickstart your healthy lifestyle – once you’re used to it, you’ll find more and more ways to incorporate healthy changes until you’re some kind of super-human healthy being who doesn’t need sleep. Or something.

Just remember: everything in moderation!