Mini Cryptic Crossword

Across

1. Twisted fir cone provider (7)

7. Beneath sheltering in thundery conditions (5)

8. Fruit grown from a melon (5)

9. Prisoner driven to agree (7)

11. Overweight part to be sent (5)

13. Foodstuff termed a stew (3,4)

17. Unit I constructed for Arctic people (5)

19. Natural habitat in the periodic table (7)

22. The Spanish after very warm place to stay (5)

23. Garment cut in pieces (5)

24. Exploit the power of stable gear? (7)

Down

1. Small room with nothing in the orchestra (5)

2. Quantity men rub the wrong way (6)

3. Enclosed and fought with swords (6)

4. Dash occupied by one wreck (4)

5. Lied about being lazy (4)

6. Trace around a container (5)

10. Bird observed in Botswana (4)

12. Appear to be a join, we hear (4)

14. Choice reply (6)

15. The gospel truth is holding back a swimmer (6)

16. Concavities seen in decadent spot (5)

18. Least organised accounts (5)

20. Nose broken for ages (4)

21. Engrave one hundred in the new style (4)

16 When you hear the phrase ‘exercise class’, you probably think of circuits, aerobics, step or spin. While dance might not be the first thing that comes to mind, it’s actually a fantastic way to keep fit. And a whole lot of fun...

The benefits of dance

Dancing can tone and strengthen your muscles, improve your flexibility and balance, burn calories and give you a full cardiovascular workout.

Dancing is also good for your brain, particularly if you need to memorise routines. Some studies have found that dancing regularly can even help to protect against dementia. And it’s great at relieving stress and boosting your mood. (It’s difficult not to smile in a Zumba class, even if you feel utterly uncoordinated.)

Some classes are aimed at seniors or people with reduced mobility. No one will care if you get the steps wrong. And lots of classes are available online, so you don’t even need to leave your house to join in.

Which dance class to try?

The best class for you depends on a whole range of things, including your exercise goals (e.g. increased flexibility / cardiovascular workout etc.), music tastes and commitment. We’ve included a few of the most popular classes below.

Salsa

Salsa is energetic, sociable and a lot of fun. You don’t need a partner and most salsa schools offer beginners’ courses.

Zumba

Zumba is perfect if you’re looking for an all-body workout. You’ll be dancing to Latino music, and there’s often a real party atmosphere.

Clubbercise

Miss your clubbing days? Or feel self-conscious dancing in front of people? Clubbercise classes are held in a darkened room. Think disco lights, glow sticks and classic dance tracks from the nineties, noughties and beyond.

Ballet Fusion

Ballet Fusion combines traditional ballet with exercise, so it’s good for improving your posture, flexibility and strength. Alternatively, if you loved ballet as a child or always wanted to learn it, why not try an adult ballet class?

Ballroom and Latin

If you want to master a new skill, then ballroom or Latin dancing could be perfect. You can sign up with a partner, or just join a group class and get paired with different people. It could help to improve your fitness, concentration and coordination. And you’ll be able to show off at the next wedding you go to.

Dance fitness /

Dancercise

These classes combine aerobics with dance moves and tend to incorporate a lot of different styles, from street dance to bhangra. They’re upbeat and you’ll work pretty much every muscle group.

Find out more

Ready to get started? Check out what types of classes your local leisure centre offers. You’ll also want to search for classes online, as some instructors hire space in church halls, community centres and other venues.

The Satsuma Complex – Bob Mortimer

Romance, humour and mystery combine to great effect in Bob Mortimer’s first novel. 30-year-old Gary lives a quiet, uneventful life. He’s open to love but hasn’t done too well with it so far. Then he heads out for a drink with his friend Brendan and meets a woman with whom he feels an instant connection. So when Brendan goes missing, Gary has more than one reason to find the mystery woman and get some answers.

A Scatter of Light – Malinda Lo

A coming-out and coming-of-age novel set in California, A Scatter of Light follows Aria as she falls in love for the first time. Aria is spending her last summer before university with her grandmother. It certainly wasn’t the holiday she’d planned, but it turns into a summer of self-discovery as Aria finds herself falling for her grandmother’s gardener, Steph. A slow-burning, bittersweet novel.

The Man I Never Met – Elle Cook

When Davey misdials and ends up calling Hannah, it sets off a string of texts that has them both hoping for something more, despite the fact that they live thousands of miles apart. But when they finally arrange to meet in person, Davey doesn’t show. His reason is one that seems certain to keep them apart, but neither is ready to give up on what might be.

Maame – Jessica George

Maddie has long been called Maame by her Ghanian parents. It’s meant as an endearment and an acknowledgment of how helpful and dependable Maddie is. With Maddie’s mum so often abroad, Maddie becomes her ill father’s carer, giving up much of her own life in the process. Then Maddie gets the chance to move out. She wants to start living for herself and maybe even to find love, but is she ready to break away from being Maame? At times laugh-out-loud funny, at other times poignant or outright shocking, Maame is a powerful debut novel.

The Switch – Beth O’Leary

Eileen and her granddaughter Leena decide to swap homes for two months. While Leena moves up to Yorkshire to de-stress and calm her thoughts, Eileen heads to London to look for love. It’s been four months since her husband left her, and Eileen is more than ready to rejoin the dating scene. And rejoin it she does, with gusto.

We All Want Impossible Things – Catherine Newman

Edi and Ash have been through so many things in their 40-year friendship. Now Edi is dying in a hospice and Ash is, as always, by her side. The two relive their time together, but Ash also has to face up to the fact that her present life is a bit of a mess. And soon, she’ll need to face it alone. While there are sad moments in this book, they’re accompanied by humour and compassion, so it’s surprisingly uplifting.

In case you haven’t heard, it’s a jobseeker’s market at the moment, with many employers saying recruitment has never been more difficult. Lower skilled jobs with a higher turnover of staff are where most of the vacancies are. Waiting staff, retail assistants and general administrators could find other openings easily, although they aren’t necessarily going to see a big increase in salary.

If you are highly qualified in a specialist skill there will be fewer vacancies, so it’s not as easy to find the ideal opportunity.

Job-hunting and going for interviews is timeconsuming though, so it’s worth thinking about what it is you want from a new employer before you start.

More money

You might think wanting a pay rise is a given, but it’s not as high a priority for everybody as you might think. If you are still living with parents, have family commitments, or you are older and have paid off your mortgage, maybe you would be willing to take a lower salary because it’s a better fit with your life goals.

Different hours

If you are looking for full-time work, it could be that full-time-but-flexible is more attractive. A skylark will want to get going early so they can finish early too. If you are a night owl and your job doesn’t need you until the afternoon or evening, that could really appeal to you.

If you need part-time or flexitime, an employer with a bit of sympathy for short-notice time off is going to be a good option. It’s a lot less stressful to know changes in hours are under your control, especially if you have children to care for.

Location

Commuting for the job of your dreams is something you might put up with. But don’t get lured by a super career and salary, only to find that travel (and travel disruptions) eat into your personal life, and the pay rise is wiped out by fuel or public transport fares.

The buzz

If you are an introvert, a small company where you work in a quiet office with just one or two people will be ideal. But if you are outgoing or young and hoping for a bit of a work-hard, playhard environment, seriously question whether you are going to get that in any opportunities you chase. You spend a lot of time at work, so the business ethos has to suit you.

Benefits

There might be tangible financial benefits such as a bonus, a good pension scheme and private health cover. But equally, extra holiday, workfrom-home days, onsite parking, an early finish on a Friday or an air-conditioned office with a view could be the clincher for you.

It’s a no

Make a list of absolutely-no-way terms before you waste your time and theirs going for an interview. Finally don’t talk yourself into accepting the first offer if it’s not suitable, just because you are unhappy where you are. With plenty of vacancies out there, hold your nerve and find the right fit.

Each word to be three letters or more (but no plurals), and all must contain the central letter. There’s at least one word which uses all of the letters.

Target: Excellent: 25 or more words

Good: 20 words Fair: 17 words

Mobile b icycle Service & r epair

• place of work then return to you at your convenience.

I can pick up your bike from your home or

• service, all work and repairs will be quoted prior to commencing.

From a safety check, new build to a full

• defects are spotted so there will be no unpleasant surprises.

Will contact you immediately if any other

Free pick up and drop off within a five mile • radius of Surbiton.

You have two minutes to find all the words of three or more letters that can be made from the letters above. Plurals are allowed, proper nouns are not. The 6-letter word will always be just a normal everyday word.

3 letters: 10 4 letters: 11 5 letters: 2 6 letters: 1

What do we mean by gender?

We tend to use the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ interchangeably, but they’re actually different things. Sex is about our visible biology: when we’re born the doctor looks at our bits and proclaims “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” That’s our sex.

Gender is different: it is the label you’re given –boy or girl, man or woman – and the rules you’re expected to follow. The rules vary from place to place, from culture to culture and from era to era: boys don’t cry, girls are nurturing, those jobs are for the boys, girls should and shouldn’t do certain things… that’s gender.

Largely the judgement of your gender will be based on what your sex appears to be, based on things like your clothes, your haircuts and other visual cues.

For most of us, our gender matches our biological definition. That’s often called ‘cisgender’, where ‘cis’ means ‘on the same side as’.

However, some people’s gender doesn’t match their birth sex, and those people may be transgender, non-binary or use other terms to describe themselves.

What does transgender mean?

Transgender is when the gender everyone thinks you are – such as man or woman – doesn’t match who you know you are. For example, you might have been born in an apparently female body but your mind strongly disagrees. People who take steps to fix that, for example by changing the clothes they wear or even undergoing surgery, are typically called transgender or trans for short. Trans means ‘across’, and trans people cross from one gender to another.

What does non-binary mean?

For most of us, gender is a binary: there are only two options, man or woman. But not everybody feels they fit into those categories. If you imagine gender not as a binary but as a spectrum, most people are at one end or the other – but some people are much closer to the middle. That’s non-binary. Non-binary people don’t feel they can categorise themselves as either a man or a woman, but somewhere in between the two.

What

about genderfluid and other terms?

Genderfluid is a bit like non-binary but it’s less fixed: genderfluid people may feel closer to male or female at different times. And you might see the terms ‘gender expansive’ or ‘gender non-conforming’. They’re used to describe people who don’t stick to traditional gender roles, so for example someone born male with a very feminine presentation might still feel 100% male but enjoy expressing himself differently from most men.

Here to stay

Society’s oppression – from opinion to the law – meant that these variations were very much hidden in the past, and in many societies still are.

Times have changed though, and younger generations are not only accepting of non-traditional gender definitions, but rail against a world where appearance, behaviour, places and products are meant only for one narrowly defined gender.

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Speak to Carol Stevens-Stratten carol.stevens-stratten@lewis-dick.com

WE ARE YOUR LOCAL LAW FIRM, & PROVIDE A HIGH QUALITY SERVICE quote 020 8393 0055 ewell@lewis-dick.com or visit our website www.lewis-dick.com

The little buys that can make a really big difference

With the price of gas and electricity currently in orbit, the cost of living seems to be soaring ever upwards – but with a few well-chosen buys you can make a big difference to your energy bills. And you don’t need to spend a fortune either, so these gadgets will pay for themselves very quickly.

The best place to start is your central heating system. If you don’t have a smart thermostat, or worse, if you don’t have a thermostat at all, you’re probably paying to heat empty rooms or to keep the heat on longer than necessary. There are lots of smart thermostats to choose from, but one of the friendliest is the Hive from British Gas. It connects to your heating and you can use its remote control, smart speaker or phone/tablet app to set schedules, and if you use the app it can tell your heating when you’re leaving or coming home and set the heating accordingly. We installed one a couple of years ago and it made a big difference to our gas bill.

Lighting accounts for a lot of our energy use too, so if you haven’t already moved to LED bulbs you really should. For example, if you have a downlighter with halogen GU10 bulbs, swapping them for LEDs would reduce their energy consumption by as much as 90%: a 5W LED emits the same light as a 50W halogen bulb. And if you’ve been thinking about getting smart bulbs, they’re all LED too.

Don’t forget about the kitchen either. Your hob and oven use a lot of energy, and there are often much more efficient options: a 900W microwave uses a fraction of the energy for a fraction of the time. But of course you can’t microwave everything, which is why many of us are buying Instant Pots or air fryers. Air fryers are effectively small ovens with a big fan inside, and they cook faster and at lower temperatures than an oven; Instant Pots and similar devices can slow-cook, stew, pressure-cook and more, while using a fraction of the energy of a hob or oven.

Smart thermostats from the likes of Hive, Tado, Google Nest and Honeywell give you much more control over your heating and can make a real difference to your bills. £119, hivehome.com

You can pick up a small air fryer for under £50, but this Philips is a much better family appliance thanks to its five-portion capacity and Rapid Air technology. £125, Philips.co.uk

A smart thermostat is just the start. Smart radiator valves can ensure you’re not heating empty rooms, saving even more money. £54, hivehome.com

Philips Hue Starter Kit

If you fancy smart, colourchanging, programmable bulbs then Hue is hard to beat: it has tons of indoor and outdoor lights and bulbs, and the starter kit contains everything you need to get up and running. From £90, meethue.com

Instant Pot Pro

Don’t pay full price for any Instant Pot: they’re discounted in every big sales event. They’re all good but our pick is the Instant Pot Pro, a 10in-1 pressure cooker, slow cooker, soup cooker, rice cooker. £169, Amazon.co.uk

To advertise call Karen: 020 8274 0096 email: karen@berrylands-companion.co.uk

It’s easy to underestimate just how important your car’s tyres are. But they’re the single point of contact that your car has with the road, so it’s vital that they’re fit for purpose.

We’ve spoken to Davanti Tyres about what to look out for when choosing tyres.

Size

Getting the right size of tyre for your car is crucial and they should be the same size as the ones recommended by the manufacturer. You’ll find this information in the documentation supplied with your vehicle.

Davanti Tyres general manager, Peter Cross, says: “Your tyre’s sidewall also contains all the information about your tyre that you’ll need.” Make sure the new tyres you’re planning to fit don’t have a lower load-carrying capacity than the originals. This is particularly important when you’re travelling with a fully loaded car.

Grip

One of the main things required from a tyre is grip. There are all manner of tyres designed for a variety of uses – from winter tyres that have been developed to work well in colder climates to performance tyres that promise the best possible grip for high-powered cars.

Cross says you should consider which conditions you experience the most – wet, icy, dry or hot – as well as the road surface that you travel on most frequently. If you’re heading offroad more often, then you might need a more adventure-focused tyre, for instance.

Value for money

Value for money is at the forefront of people’s minds at the moment, and tyres are usually quite expensive. All-season tyres could be a good option for those who want decent performance in both summer and winter, as they suit a range of driving circumstances.

Plus, with an all-season tyre, there’s no need to change between summer and winter tyres in the UK.

Fuel efficiency

Tyres account for up to 20 per cent of your car’s fuel consumption, so have an impact on how efficiently your car runs. All new tyres in the UK come with an EU tyre label that gives clear information on a tyre’s performance.

These labels also show a tyre’s rolling resistance (lower rolling resistance tyres help boost fuel economy), how well a tyre performs in the wet plus have a grading for noise levels. All elements of the label have a letter rating, with rolling resistance, for instance, rated from A to E.

Being able to assess the labels makes it easier to make an informed choice on which tyres are right for you. All new tyres should have the labels clearly visible.

Cross adds: “Choosing the right tyre doesn’t need to be as overwhelming as it can seem at first. Thinking about these simple elements means that when you take your car to the garage, you can talk clearly about what you want and need, ensuring your garage fits the right tyre for you.

“As a tyre manufacturer, we have spent years developing tyres to make sure drivers get the best experience possible and enjoy driving with confidence whatever the weather or road surface.”

Blue whales are the largest animals on our planet ever (even bigger than dinosaurs) and have hearts the size of small cars.

On these dark, cold mornings, spring still seems a very long way away. Our skin and hair (not to mention our mood) often suffer during the winter months as biting winds and central heating take their toll. Thankfully, a little TLC can make a big difference.

Prefer soap to shower gel? Trii’s Hand & Body gently remove dry skin as they balm, so it lasts for a surprisingly long time. face

When your skin is feeling dry, the temptation is to pile on a super-rich face moisturiser. But dryness often goes hand in hand with sensitivity, and too heavy a product can make things worse. Instead, switch to a gentle balm cleanser. Tea & Tonic’s The Meadow’s Secret Cleaning Balm (£28, www.teaandtonic.co.uk) is a good choice. It’s 100% natural and rich in seed and flower oils to nourish your skin as it cleanses. Massage a small amount of the balm into wet skin, then wipe it off with a warm, damp cloth. The jar may seem small, but you only need a tiny amount of the balm, so it lasts for a surprisingly long time.

Exfoliating Wash Bars (£8, trii.co.uk) gently remove dry skin as they clean. They’re also rich in natural moisturisers, like aloe vera. And they smell amazing. (The lemongrass scent is particularly uplifting.)

Our hands can really suffer during winter. If yours feel dry, cracked and sore, the first thing to do is ditch your liquid hand soap. Liquid soaps usually contain sodium lauryl sulphate and other harsh ingredients that can really irritate skin. Swap to a solid soap bar, like the ones from Faith in Nature (£2.75, www.faithinnature.co.uk).

Follow your cleanse with a hyaluronic acid serum or a face oil to hydrate without clogging pores.

Body scrubs and lotions often go out of the window during winter, when we’re covered up from head to toe, but it’s worth taking the time to treat your skin now and then. Go for a gentle body scrub with added moisturisers. Sanctuary Spa’s

Signature Natural Oils Salt Scrub out of the window during winter, when we’re covered up from head the moisturisers. Sanctuary Spa’s Signature Natural Oils Salt Scrub almond, sunflower, wheat germ to

(£16) uses sea salt to exfoliate away dead skin, and coconut, almond, sunflower, wheat germ and jojoba oils to add moisture.

Your skin will thank you for it. In between uses, the

Does your scalp feel itchy, flaky or sore in winter? You’re not alone. And you don’t have to put up with it. As Anabel Kingsley says, “The scalp is simply an extension of the skin on your forehead, and therefore it should be cared for with the same attention devoted to facial skin.” Philip Kingsley’s award winning Flaky/Itchy

Signature Natural Oils Ultra keep your skin feeling soft and

Signature Natural Oils Ultra Rich Shower Oil (£8.50) will keep your skin feeling soft and pampered. Both are available at www.boots.co.uk.

Scalp range has gained thousands of five-star reviews. And no wonder. The products work to gently clean your hair and scalp, while soothing irritation, stopping the itchiness and clearing dandruff in a matter of days. From £10.50, at www.philipkingsley.co.uk.