Events, Home, Health & Style

Last Minute Homemade Halloween Costumes

What’s your favourite holiday? Christmas? Easter? Or is it Halloween? The day when we let our imaginations run wild and, instead of feeling that we have to prettify, we are encouraged to look as disgusting as possible.

I love Halloween, I love getting dressed up and playing games. I love bobbing for apples and grossing everyone out. Once upon a time we just threw on a sheet with eye holes cut out, those days are long gone. Now we consider our costume choices carefully. We co-ordinate, we plan and we get excited. You don’t need to spend a fortune on fancy costumes though, nor do you need to be an expert face painter. Here are a few ideas to get you started. 

 

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Science, Nature and Tech

Why do we get Hiccups?

why do we get hiccups

Everybody gets hiccups (also sometimes spelt ‘hiccoughs’). Even when babies are still in the womb they hiccup, which can feel very odd to their mother! But why do we get them and how can you stop them?

What are Hiccups?

Hiccups are caused by the diaphragm (pronounced DYE-uh-fram). This is a large, dome-shaped muscle that sits at the bottom of your chest cavity, below your lungs. When we breathe in the diaphragm tightens, helping to pull air into the lungs, and when it relaxes it forces the air back out again. Sometimes the diaphragm becomes irritated and instead of tightening smoothly it does it in a jerky way, which makes air suddenly rush into your throat. This air is stopped when it hits the voice box and makes the opening between the vocal cords close very suddenly. This is what produces the sound of the hiccup.

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Art & History

I am Not a Tourist, I Live Here – Mexico

“Why don’t you have a tan?” This is the question Dr Cath Andrews is always asked on returning home to the UK from Mexico. It seems that Mexico lives in the British imagination as a tourist destination, where the sun always shines and all residents must have time to sunbathe.
Cath explains that living in Mexico is very different to visiting as a tourist. 

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School & Career

A Homemade School

Dr Lesley Beeton visited South Africa and visited a school to find out what it’s like to go to school in South Africa.

This is the Drakensberg in South Africa. In English, it means ‘Dragon Mountain’. The children in this part of South Africa face a daily commute to school. In the area where I was staying, the nearest town was Bergville. With the windy roads through the mountains, this journey can take almost an hour. School starts early too, at eight o’clock, so that means getting up around 6 am to be ready for the taxi.

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