Lifestyle

Your friend gave you little choice but to end your relationship. You were right to prioritise your own wellbeing I had a friend who I always felt on edge around, but I tried to push past that and give them an opportunity. They had experienced childhood trauma and had mental health issues. I put my discomfort down to having to be a bit more accommodating . They seemed incapable of maintaining friendships and would paint themselves as a victim, saying they constantly get ghosted . Continue reading...

The Guardian Lifestyle • 5 hours ago

Vieni dances a fine line where British Italian restaurants often fail Vieni, an Italian restaurant in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham, is small, Sicilian and scrappy. The Instagram bio of its chef and founder Angelina Adamo reads, “Bite off more than you can chew and learn how to fucking chew”, which feels like a battle cry for almost everyone stepping into hospitality, especially independent places like Vieni, where the waters are choppy and your skillset needs to be varied. Arancini with one hand, signing off payroll and ordering loo paper with the other. Vieni, which is about a mile or so from the city’s Bull Ring, is a million miles from Albert’s Schloss , Big Mamma’s La Bellezza and the multitude of vast, impersonal pleasure machines that have spread their legs in Brum city centre. Of course, a gigantic Rosa’s serving pad thai and Tattu with a plastic purple flower ceiling all have their place, and make people happy, but I have joy in my heart for places like Vieni. Continue reading...

The Guardian Lifestyle • 5 hours ago

At work, Alison Muir ’s relationship with Peter Thorn veered between flirtation and hostility, until one day he stopped sidestepping his feelings Find more stories from the moment I knew series In 1990, I’d started an exciting job as executive assistant to the director and chief curator of the not-yet-opened Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. On my first day, I was introduced to Peter, the museum’s talented publications manager. I smiled as I shook his hand, but he made no distinct impression. As I settled into my role, I felt as if he was deliberately avoiding me. I chalked it up to his apparent conceit as, along with good looks, he had a swagger and confidence that made half the female staff infatuated with him. Continue reading...

The Guardian Lifestyle • 14 hours ago

Tomatoes come into their own in summer, but which supermarket offerings are super sweet, firm and juicy and which are forgettably flavourless? • The best supermarket salad bags From brick-red to intense maroon, the tomatoes in this test varied greatly, with the most flavourful ones often also being the richest in tone. I measured the sugar content using a Brix refractometer, and the tomatoes’ sweetness also varied hugely, from a sometimes bland and watery Brix score of four (each point represents 1% sucrose in the juice by mass) to a satisfyingly sweet seven. I also scored the tomatoes on overall flavour. The sweetness of the best examples is well balanced, with a refreshing acidity, a fresh and potent tomato leaf aroma, and a complex umami profile that provides an explosion of flavour in the mouth. I also awarded points for value for money, provenance, transparency and growing methods – though, disappointingly, an organic certification did not necessarily equal the flavour I’ve come to expect. Continue reading...

The Guardian Lifestyle • 22 hours ago

The England defender wears a tracker, the heptathlete is experimenting with kiwi fruits – and world champion swimmer Adam Peaty swears by hours and hours of history videos … Katarina Johnson-Thompson Continue reading...

The Guardian Lifestyle • 23 hours ago

The singer on struggling with the English weather, a secret celebrity crush, and her terror of tinned spaghetti Born in Sydney, Australia, to an Italian father and Australian mother, Natalie Imbruglia, 51, joined the cast of Neighbours at the age of 17. In 1997, she released her debut album, Left of the Middle, which gave her the global hit single Torn. She releases her seventh studio album, Algorithm, on 4 September. She lives in Oxfordshire with her son. What is your greatest fear? As an Italian, tinned spaghetti. As a child, I was once served it at someone’s house. It was quite frightening. Continue reading...

The Guardian Lifestyle • 1 day ago