Siobhán Norton

For most parents, a morning of ice skating followed by lunch is an easy way to keep the children entertained as the Christmas holidays come to a close. But for Alexa Baracaia, it’s an outing that needs to be planned meticulously. Alexa’s son, eight-year-old Sidney, is allergic to egg, peanuts, nuts, sesame and lentils.

You would think that an Irish Christmas doesn’t look all that dissimilar to a British one. We have the tree, the turkey and trimmings, carols and cards. But there are a few differences to the way we do things. We don’t call him Father Christmas for starters, but Santa, or even Santy.

When you are diagnosed with a chronic illness such as multiple sclerosis (MS), you go through the five stages of grief: denial, anger and all that. It makes sense, I suppose – you are mourning the life you had before diagnosis. I tacked an additional stage on during my “grieving” process: defiance. I was 30 when I was diagnosed, and relatively fit, although never exactly sporty. But, now that I knew about this shadow looming over my life, I resolved to be a fighter. Not just a fighter, a superhero.

It must be difficult to shake the inferiority complex if you’re any region of Denmark outside of Copenhagen. As the capital becomes the darling of the design world, provincial towns and cities can hardly get a look in.

Call me superficial, but I love to shop. On a day off, there’s nothing I like more than to wander around a department store, browsing through rails of clothing. I covet certain pieces that I will never buy, being either too outlandish to be considered office appropriate or too extortionate for me to justify. But I love to touch the fabrics, see how skirts drape, coo over supple leather and intricate lace.

Ever since pop stars first led the youth out of the dull expectation of parental obedience and into the bright pastures of rebellion, and sexiness, adults have attempted to curb their perceived excesses. Sex and nudity have always been at the forefront of their concerns. But recently a new generation of female pop stars have been using their platforms – and bodies – to fight against the pressures of body image.

The Scandic group’s newest property is a hotel with a difference – part boutique retreat, part hangout spot – in the heart of the Swedish capital. The thinking behind this “lifestyle hotel” is it’s not just somewhere to rest your head, but a base from where you can explore the city as well as mingle with locals and tourists alike.

It’s not the first time that an item of clothing has caused a stir in the Irish parliament. Ministers have raised eyebrows after turning up in jeans, open-collar shirts and even flat-caps. No garment, however, has sparked such debate as a little scrap of lace, produced with a magician’s flourish from the sleeve of TD Ruth Coppinger, and brandished for all to see in the Dail chambers.

We could all do with a little sprinkle of magic at the moment, but it appears even Mary Poppins can’t pull a magic money tree out of her carpet bag. The Banks family has had to downsize from their white townhouse in the 1964 film to a more modest abode that would “be more accessible for today’s audience”, according to the producers of Mary Poppins Returns, out next month.

It would appear that 2018 is the year we all became eco-conscious – at least if the dictionary is to be believed. Collins has named “single-use” as its word of the year, reporting a four-fold increase in its usage as we discuss the problems associated with disposable coffee cups, water bottles and plastic bags. The European parliament has just back a ban on some single-use plastics, and the UK is planning to introduce a tax on plastic packaging. We fret about plastic straws in our drinks, the

How do you know someone’s a vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. Har dee har har. We all like a little joke at the expense of our plant-eating brethren, don’t we? They deserve taking down a peg or two, the sanctimonious lot. The jokes are starting to wear a bit thin, though. William Sitwell, the editor of Waitrose Food magazine and a critic for BBC’s Masterchef, has apologised for jokingly suggesting that vegans should be trapped and killed, in response to journalist Selene Nelson, who had pi

It gives a whole new meaning to the term “junk food”. This week, a study revealed that tiny plastic particles were found in the stool samples of eight people from countries including the UK. It was only a matter of time before the ubiquitous packaging found its way to the top of the food chain: plastic has been identified in fish, water, beer and honey. We’re grinding it on to our meals along with our expensive sea salt. It’s in the microbeads, now banned in the UK, that have been commonly foun

There are a few places in the world that perfectly fit the “honeymoon paradise” cliché. Fiji is one of them: the 330-island archipelago, with its thousands of miles of white-sand beaches, palm trees, coral reefs and luxury resorts, has romance in spades. But when the world’s most famous newlyweds, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, visited last week, they offered a glimpse into a country with so much more to offer beyond the beaches. I visit just days before Harry and Meghan landed as part of the

The youth of today, eh? Far from teenage rebellion, it seems that around a third of them are – brace yourselves – not drinking alcohol at all, while 17 per cent say that they have always been teetotal. Pause for the lamentings of older columnists everywhere, bemoaning how boring “Generation Sensible” has become and beseeching them to give sex, drugs and rock’n’roll a whirl. Hey, Baby Boomers: leave those kids alone. Dare I suggest that the younger generation is getting it right? They may be br

I’m not sure how it took me until I was standing at a fork in the overgrown path, swatting away dragonflies with my crumpled map, to remember what a bad sense of direction I have. Out here, on the brink of a ravine in the southern Italian countryside, my trusty Citymapper app was useless. I squinted at the map again, then at the path ahead. Time to retrace my steps… I’m one of those irritating people who call themselves a traveller, yet I’ve been mostly shielded from anything resembling a chal

The master of ceremonies looms over our table, coiffed moustache curling further north as his near-maniacal grin widens. We nod, shy and self-conscious despite the fact that the wine was already flowing. I’m not sure what to expect from a night at Lio, a dinner party-meets-cabaret-meets-nightclub in Ibiza’s high-end marina district. We’ve been here 10 minutes, and already are a bit slack-jawed: rhinestone-twinkling performers greet guests like old friends, women strut through the dining area l

Grabbing a quick lunch is something many of us do without a second thought. If you suffer from an allergy, however, you get used to lingering in front of the fridge section, reading labels and scanning ingredients to see if there’s anything “safe” to eat. Some outlets were never too keen on that. In recent years, even as the range of “free-from” products increased, and most retailers upped their game on allergen labelling, there has been a quiet backlash from some “artisan” producers and resta

I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to retirement. Granted, I’ve got about three decades to go (or more if the goalposts keep moving), but by then I’ll be more than ready to put my feet up. Or perhaps not, if the health tsars have anything to do with it. A new campaign from ukactive is encouraging pensioners to consider retraining as fitness instructors to help over-55s feel more comfortable in the gym. I know what you’re thinking – we slog all our lives and then you want us to pra

The Belsfield Hotel has had a Laura Ashley makeover, one of two Laura Ashley hotels in the UK. A third, Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire, will join the family next spring. The British textile brand has also announced plans for expansion overseas to the Middle East and Indian Ocean, hoping to stimulate its interior decor sales by showcasing them in hospitality environments. The hotel is perched on the banks of Lake Windermere, with rooms offering panoramic views. About a five-minute walk from

Douglas McMaster launches into his spiel before we’ve even taken a seat. The sofa we’re about to sit on has been upcycled from waste materials, he tells me, as has all the furniture in his industrial-chic restaurant, Silo. Some very decent coffee materialises in front of us, along with milk that arrived at the restaurant that morning in a giant pail (the staff use it to make yoghurt, cream, cheese and butter, too), and two fizzing glasses of kombucha, a fermented tea that has been brewed in-hou