Kids corner competitions

KIDS CORNER
If you're a kid or a parent of a kid- don't forget to enter (or get your kids to enter) our monthly competitions in the kids corner section of the Phonebox magazine! Have a look in the magazine, or in the online magazine by following the link here.

We've got a word search, drawing competition and 'power puzzle' to enter, and with a top prize of £10 and runners up prizes of £5, it's well worth entering!

Have a look at June's page here:

What are you waiting for?! 

Send your entries to:

Kids Corner,
Phonebox magazine,
Unit 2 Stanley COurt,
Olney,
Bucks,
MK46 5NH

The closing date is June 15th so make sure you get them in quick!

Phonebox Walk

Hooray for another bank holiday weekend! It seems only yesterday we were off for Easter, not that we're complaining, and now it's already the first May bank holiday. We've got our fingers crossed for some nice weather this weekend, and if we get lucky with that, why not give our Phonebox walk a try? You can follow the link to the interactive magazine here, or have a flick through your hard copy if you've got one (which might be easier so you can take it out with you and not get lost!)

This month we've got a nice 5 mile walk for you, which should take around 2 hours and takes you through countryside and along the canal and riverside to Cosgrove. We hope this walk inspires you to try others of your own, and to explore and make the most of the lovely places surrounding Milton Keynes where you can walk and enjoy picturesque scenery. Keep your eyes peeled for next month's Phonebox walk, or if you can't wait until then, why not flick back to a few of the old copies and try a few of those walks?! Enjoy!

World Compliment day

This is a nice one!  World compliment day seems to be pretty much just the reminder to be nice and share the love a bit! Imagine if everyone shared a compliment today, a genuine one that isn't just any old comment for the sake of it, people would undoubtedly be so much happier.

Strangers passing each other could say something nice for a change, or even just smile, when on any other day they might feel like they can't… which is kind of sad if that is the case. It's all too true that if someone were to randomly come up to you in the street and compliment your hair you may be a little weirded out, probably depending on the person, place etc., but still, we wouldn't find it normal would we? It just doesn't happen often enough. So here's your challenge- give a stranger a compliment today! You don't have to be weird about it, just act like it's the most normal thing in the world, and then maybe it will become so… what harm could it do?! You could even be really subtle about it, like try leaving a post-it note with a compliment on it on someone's desk, or tweet something positive to your followers, let's get involved!

Spring?!

Are we beginning to see a glimmer of Spring? I know it officially isn't springtime until the end of March (at least) but the evenings and mornings are beginning to get lighter and this is very good news indeed! The past few days I've been woken up by the sun shining in on my face, which as much as I love my sleep and don't like to be interrupted, definitely makes a welcome change from trying to get up in the dark! I even saw a bit of blue sky today…shocking I know!

It really does have an effect on your mood though, doesn't it?! Leaving work in the sunshine rather than the dark makes you feel like you've still got a few hours left to enjoy the day, rather than feeling the need to crawl inside by the fire with a duvet! The worry in the back of my mind is the reminder that we have often had snow as late as April… I'm hoping we've missed out on that weather this year but maybe that's being a little too hopeful! It looks for now that it's just rain, rain and more rain in store, fingers crossed this sun stays about, we sure need it to dry up all this flooding!

Sarah

'Tell a fairy tale day'

For adults and children alike, fairytales have a special place in many of our hearts, and some of them are even aimed at the adults- a little bit too scary for the kids! Today is tell a fairy tale day, whether or not this tends to be implemented in schools or libraries I don't know, but I can imagine these would be the places to celebrate the day! For those of you with kids it might be the opportunity to get out some of the old-school fairytales or opt for the more modern day film versions of one of them!

Fairytales go back for centuries, originating as tales which were dramatically told or enacted rather than written into books, and the idea of telling such stories has carried on through the ages. The Brothers Grimm were the first to actually put the fairytales down into book form, in a way of trying to preserve the plot and characters of the stories. They initially collected German fairy tales, and later went on to re-write many of them to change them more into stories than folk tales.

Called fairy tales because of their inclusion of fantasy creatures, the term is perhaps a bit looser today than it was, but the stories typically include fairies, trolls, goblins, elves, dwarves, giants, witches etc. So it should be easy to find a tale with one of them in, have a read and enjoy tell a fairy tale day, or why not use your imagination and invent your own! (or get the kids to!)

Chocolate covered peanuts day

Possibly one of the stranger food-themed days, chocolate covered peanuts day is here! I'm not sure if I've even tasted chocolate covered peanuts, let alone celebrated their 'day', but getting into the spirit of these days until we find one we recognise (come on pancake day!) let's go with it!

Apparently these snacks are pretty easy to make, melt some chocolate and chuck in some peanuts, and I guess depending on the type of peanuts you decide to buy you could quite nicely come up with some different flavours. For example, mixing salted peanuts with milk chocolate would give you that classic salted chocolate taste, or even honey roasted peanuts and milk or dark chocolate for more of a salted caramel flavour. I'm not too sure I like the sound of peanuts covered in white chocolate, but each to their own, it's probably worth a try! As I'm sure you can imagine, this day is believed to have originated in the US, with the first chocolate-covered nuts being sold commercially in America back in 1925, so it's probably about time you tried some if you haven't yet! Enjoy!

Cherry Pie Day

Well these so called 'days' more often than not appear to be related to food… what a shame! Today is cherry pie day, an excuse to make (or buy) a nice cherry pie! Originating from North America, cherry pie has now spread across the globe and it is now popular in many countries!

A nice change to all of those apple pies you may have been eating as they've been falling from the trees, cherry pie has that lovely sweet taste to it, great with cream or ice cream or custard…mmm! Apparently, the ability to make a good cherry pie was once the test of an American girl's suitability as a wife, so I'm guessing it must taste pretty good if done right! Don't worry if you're not the baking type though, no one here is analysing your American wife abilities, most supermarkets will take that job off your hands and sell a pretty good cherry pie!

International tug-of-war day

This is a different yet interesting day, international tug-of-war day! The tug-of-war dates back to centuries ago, a simple sport and a way of resolving ownership disputes over food and clothing, with imagery of people pulling in opposite directions being found on stone carvings, and in ancient texts and legends. The sport appears to have been practiced in Egypt, Greece and China, coming out of a legend that the sun and moon played tug-of-war over light and darkness. The Vikings even used animal skins stretched over a fire pit… lovely! 

'Flappy Birds' game gone flappy!

Today's top news? 'Flappy Birds'. You might be wondering what on earth it is, especially if iPhones and apps are somewhat unchartered territory to you, but this phenomenon has taken phone gaming to a new level. The game consist of tapping the phone screen to get a bird to fly between tubes…and that is it. The simplicity of the game may have led to it's addictiveness, and it quickly became 'the game to play'. Among kids and adults alike, high scores were being compared, with people sharing their excitement over high scores on other social networking sites.

But yesterday, the creator of 'Flappy Birds', Doug Nguyen, removed the game from the app stores, saying that the game had ruined his life and that he'd been receiving death threats via Twitter as a result of the app.

Olney Pancake Race

We're counting down to the big event in March, the Olney Pancake race. One month to go as of yesterday, excitement is building as advertising gets out and people start practicing for the big race… I assume they'll be practicing anyway, with such great prizes on offer! Prizes this year range from Six Nations rugby tickets, to football tickets and vouchers. With such a limited number of spaces available, 25 to be precise, we're guessing most of them have already been snatched up by the Olney ladies wanting to compete and catch a moment of fame. The highly famous event attracts numerous reporters and onlookers every year, and so this year is set to be no different. We're looking forward to it!

Find out more here

Top City Breaks

We're on the approach to 'V-day' and whether you want to sweep a loved one off their feet this Valentines weekend, or just want to escape away with friends, we've come up with a selection of weekend city breaks that should do the job. You've just got enough time to get planning, but don't leave it too much longer!

Mannequins, keeping up with the size of Britain?

You may have come across them in ‘plus size’ stores in the past, but mannequins larger than a size 10 are now to be found in more high street stores. Debenhams in particular has decided to move away from only having size 10 mannequins to introducing some at size 16.

Research has shown that customers are more likely to buy clothes when they see them modelled in their size, and with the average UK woman today being a size 16, it seems to make sense. The hope is that being able to see the clothing presented on a figure they feel they can relate to will make women shoppers feel better about themselves, and they will consequently be more comfortable shopping.

It is a true point that seeing mannequins modelling size 10 clothes or sometimes even smaller can be difficult if you're shopping for a larger size. Different styles often suit different body shapes, and so seeing the clothes at a size 10 doesn't always help those looking at size 16 to imagine how the item will look on them.

What do you think? Does it make a difference to you what size mannequins you see in the stores? Do you see them as a representation of the human body or just as something to hold up the clothes on promotion?

Sarah

National Carrot Cake Day

I'm never sure how many of these 'National days' to believe… but this is one I'm happy to go with. National carrot cake day- an excuse to eat cake, does it get any better?!

I've dug out a carrot cake recipe from the BBC Good Food website so you can have a shot at making your own and really get involved with National carrot cake day!

National Backwards day

Sarah

However you choose to celebrate backward day, I do hope you enjoy it!

You could try talking backwards… !confusing be would that Now

Maybe writing backwards isn't that clever either.

You'd most likely fall over, knock into people and really not get a lot done!

I'm not sure how efficient it would be to propose that you do everything backwards today.

You'll have probably got the the bottom and then had to read it again before you realise, so I apologise!

So you need to read this from the bottom to the top.

Today is backward day.

National Escape Day

Today is (apparently) National Escape Day! What does this mean? Well you probably don't take that too literally and run out of your work office screaming: "Escape!escape!" but maybe take it on board as an idea for doing something fun...

You could escape from your normal routine by making a small change, escape from eating the same lunch and go and try something new, escape from your home town for the weekend and get away…you get my drift. I'm not too sure which of these concepts the idea of 'escape day' is meant to encompass, but there we go, take your pick and make it what you want, or just ignore it…both work!

Sarah

Fire in Newport Pagnell

January draws to a close and, thank goodness, so far the snow has stayed well away. The same can't be said for the rain though, can it?! We need a nice long spell of sunshine to dry up all those waterlogged fields, but that would be a bit too much to ask for, it seems. How many of you saw the recent fire in Newport Pagnell? While homes temporarily ran out of water while the firefighters tackled the blaze, the surrounding flooded fields seemed somewhat ironic. Thankfully no-one was hurt, and it was eventually under control, despite taking a number of hours.

I heard some people asking how a warehouse of fridges could possibly catch fire, a seeing as they're so cold… well, this is true, they are cold (when switched on!), but it's the large amount of plastic they contain, as well as highly flammable insulation, which causes a fire to spread quickly once starting. In fact, fridges and freezers are the most dangerous household appliance when involved with a fire… so don't let that cool interior fool you!

Let's hope the fire was a one-off, and that February brings us no more fires and some sunny weather! Although Christmas is a distant memory, I still can't quite believe it's almost February… Time sure flies!

Sarah

Happy Christmas Eve!

Can you believe it's "that time of year again?!" I know we all say it every year, as though for some reason we're surprised that time continues to move on, but it does always seem to creep up on you, and before you know it it's Christmas Eve! There's just something about the build up to Christmas that helps create such a special day, and although we all moan about having decorations up and Christmas cards for sale in shops from around October, I suppose it does help with the build up to the big day!

We at the Phonebox would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and New Year, and hope you all look forward to receiving your January edition of the Phonebox through your letterbox soon, which we've all been hard at work on! But now it's time to shut up shop for a few days, put our feet up and eat as much turkey and mince pies as we can manage! Hope you have a great festive season, and have a very Merry Christmas.

Sarah and the Phonebox team

Introducing...

Hello!

I'm the new kid on the block here at the Phonebox magazine- nice to meet you! My name is Sarah, I'm 23 and originally from Brighton.

I graduated from Southampton earlier this year with a degree in magazine journalism and am now putting my skills to good use at the Phonebox (or so I hope!) I've been working at the Phonebox magazine for a couple of months now and am now going to be writing regularly on this blog. It would be great to hear any feedback on anything I write- please don't be shy!

You can expect to see a little bit of everything, and like I said, do give your feedback and I can learn more about what you want to be reading! I'm new to the area, so will be writing about my discoveries, and letting you know how I'm adjusting to living away from the sea! So far so good, I'm loving driving through all the little villages and countryside- it's very picturesque! I've been on a mission to get to know the local pubs in Newport Pagnell, so will be keeping you updated with my findings- if you happen to have any tips of good ones I'd love to hear, equally any to avoid! I visited my first restaurant in Olney today, the courtyard for our staff Christmas lunch, very nice- now there's just a few more to visit, what a hard task!

Well I'd best get back to writing for the mag, working an issue in advance is quite confusing but I'm slowly getting used to it… February here I come!

Sarah