BACK TO WORK Job hunting in the coronavirus pandemic: Eight tips to help you secure a new role

 

If you've lost your job due to Covid-19, you’d be forgiven for wondering if it’s even possible to find a new opportunity - but we take you through ten tips to help boost your chances of securing work.

'No amount of bingeing on nature programmes can prepare you for the Galápagos'

 

When you grow up with a parent who is a teacher it is assumed you will breeze through their specialist subject with ease. My dad taught biology, and things started well.

Destination roulette and the quarantine shuffle: the new travel landscape

 

The government’s ever-changing travel corridor list has turned booking a holiday into a game of chance. So what are the risks and which countries are a safe bet?

48 hours in . . . Jamaica, an insider guide to the home of reggae and rum

 

Laid-back living, soft sandy beaches, warm hospitality, rum, reggae, rushing waterfalls, lush mountains – Jamaica is the Caribbean island where people flock, as its most famous son Bob Marley once sung, “to feel all right”.

Inside Westminster Abbey after its longest closure in 67 years

 

When the great west doors of Westminster Abbey banged shut in March, nobody, least of all the new Dean of the historic church, could’ve foreseen that they would remain so for almost four months – the longest period since 1953, when preparations were being made for the Queen’s coronation...

Man about town! One Direction’s Niall Horan enjoys a night out at Soho House as he makes the most of his time off from touring

 

One Direction are currently enjoying some time out from their On the Road tour and band member Niall Horan certainly seems to be making the most of the break.

Spiritual suppers: cookery classes with a monk in the shadow of Mount Athos

 

“You are going to remember me by the tip of my knife!” scolded monk Epifanios, pointing the sharp end of a large chopping knife at his female kitchen hand. At the Eagles Palace hotel in Halkidiki a cooking demonstration was underway. Most of us were watching and one guest was ‘helping’.

Ten things to know before dating an Argentine

 

1. A date isn’t a date until it happens

Argentines struggle to arrange dates or as my Argentine friend, Max Gigena, puts it: “Our country is so unstable, that it’s difficult for us to make plans. We know that whatever we aim for will ultimately fail.”

Dream Suite: Musician's Penthouse, Corinthia London

 

Tucked into one of the hotel's turrets, Corinthia London's two-storey Musician's Penthouse offers Dream Suite-drama in spades. For parties, there's a lounge area with double-height ceiling and grand piano, and for socialising, an ample terrace with scope-the-city views. With a butler on call, the penthouse offers the ultimate in sophisticated, “in-residence” entertaining...

Caribbean cruises: what to do on land and where to stay

 

Even if your cruise departs from one of the other Florida ports such as nearby Fort Lauderdale, or Fort Myers two and a half hours’ drive away, and not Miami, the city is still the best place to spend a few days before or after your sailing, with an evolving art scene, vibrant nightlife and cuisine from many different cultures.

Kayaking in Venice: who needs a gondola?

 

It's rush hour and there's a traffic jam on the Grand Canal. Popping out into the canal from one of the narrower waterways is a trio of gondolas; hurtling towards them is the number-one vaporetto (water bus) loaded with its summer cargo. So far so familiar, but in the midst of this waterborne whirl of gondolas, buses, taxis, pleasure and motorboats there's me, in a kayak, with a honking, crane-bearing delivery boat up my backside.

Government guidelines over what makes a family 'vulnerable' have left many confused and at risk

 

What a week to be a parent. Family life is upended, children’s routines dismantled, exams cancelled, grandparents forced inside, and parents told they may have to stop working in order to supervise and home-school their children.

10 BEST PLACES FOR A UK WEEKEND BREAK?

 

As we’ve seen recently with holidays to Spain, France, Croatia and other European destinations, little at the moment is guaranteed where international travel is concerned.

Post-lockdown Amsterdam is a crowd-free joy

 

The tourists are trickling back but the streets and canals are still quiet enough to make cycling around the city an unexpected summer treat.

There are many things I’ve missed about travelling in recent months, but it took a chocolate shoe rolled, high heel to toe, in hundreds-and-thousands to remind me of the simple pleasures to be found inside a European chocolaterie.