Guests at the Arena Birmingham had a very special Christmas treat today, when David Walliams came to town to introduce the live show of his brilliant, poignant bestseller ‘Grandpa’s Great Escape’. The brand new adaptation is a true festive treat, a lovely story of the relationship between one boy, Jack, and his grandfather, a World War Two hero pilot who is increasingly disappearing into his heroic past. The story is set in the 1980s, which leads to some very funny scenes featuring Jack’s mom, an aerobics instructor in head to toe shiny lycra. It also gives us a great soundtrack of Duran Duran hits, which in the view of this…

As families prepare celebrations, parties, and for the arrival of Santa this holiday season, they also anticipate enormous amounts of stress. Families and holidays simply invoke stress and it seems there are more causes for it than ever before. Exactly what is it that causes stress for so many people? Talkspace wanted to know. A recent poll revealed what members say causes them the most stress during the fun, festive family events.  Politics Wherever we go, politics seems to be a topic people cannot stop talking about. Social media. Supermarkets. Newspapers. Television. And, yes, at the dinner table. If you’d rather avoid this topic altogether, you are not alone. It’s…

Especially when you buy your first home, it’s easy to bypass paying attention to the quality of its roof. After all, you’ve bought the place, and may be planning on living in it forever – job done! But even when you’ve been living in the home for a long time, without seeing water trickling through your ceiling it’s easy to forget the roof is even there – let alone check how healthy it is, and this could be a mistake because maintaining your roof helps to keep roof repair cost affordable. Ultimately, the roof is often one of the last things home owners think about until it’s too late. But…

The rules of Christmas dressing are like no other time on the year. Wear sequins in the daytime? Absolute yes. Every jumper or top has to be so glittery it leaves a trail everywhere you walk. Another absolute tick in the box. It’s Winter, and it’s cold, but this doesn’t mean the tree should be the only one dressed up. Christmas is for daytime sparkes. But then January comes and the old rules return. Winter muted colours, sparkles totally banished, or kept for the odd night out, and the sort of outfits for women by justyouroutfit, the glorious party wear, sheer sleeves and sparkles you find in abundance over the…

It has been billed as ‘Immersive, Pop-Up and Something A Little Different’, it has taken a disused restaurant space in the heart of Birmingham and turned it into a a festive pop-up with over 88,000 fairy-lights that make it unique, ethereal and beautiful. It is the Bompas & Parr’s festive tea parlour and party bar and event space ‘Once Upon a Time in Birmingham’, and yesterday, thanks to my December Buckt UK subsciption, I journeyed to the centre of the fairy lights! Buckt offer a couple’s activity box that offers between 3 and 5 activities each month in the Birmingham and Manchester areas. You subscribe to Buckt box, choose the activities you want to…