1. Cape Verde

Cape Verde is one of the fastest-growing year-round sun choices for UK holidaymakers. With an average April temperature of 26C, incredible white beaches and world-class watersports, it’s no wonder the islands are ‘the new Canaries’, and they’re only a six-hour flight away.

2. Oman

Oman can get really hot in the summer, but in spring the temperature is comfortably in the late 20s. Some of the best beaches on Oman’s 17,000km of coastline are around the capital Muscat, such as dramatic Doqum, with more super sands at Al Sawadi, only an hour away.

3. Goa, India

Summer is monsoon season in Goa, but go(a) now because spring is gorgeously hot, dry and sunny. Indulge your fantasies for exotic palm-backed beaches (preferably with a cold Kingfisher beer from a beach café in hand) at Anjuna and Vagator in the north of the state, where hippies have been sun-seeking since the 70s.

4. Gran Canaria

April is a little early for a week in your bikini in the Med, so head further south to the Canaries for spring sun. Gran Canaria’s climate actually varies across the island, but in the sub-tropical south you are pretty much guaranteed spring sunshine and temperatures in the mid-20s.

5. Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

Sharm is hot all year round, but the mercury is on he rise now, with 30C the norm next month, encouraging lazy days on the sun lounger. If you’re after more activity than sunbathing, the warm waters of the Red Sea are a scuba paradise.

6. Croatia

Croatia gets hot in the height of summer but a visit early in the season will still get you a sunshine fix, and you’ll also beat the crowds to the beaches and islands of the Dalmatian Coast. Try Zlatni Rat on the island of Brac – often rated as Croatia’s best beach – or the aptly-named Rajska Plaza (Paradise Beach) on Rab.

7. Sardinia

The Mediterranean island of Sardinia boasts Caribbean-standard beaches, like Chia – only an hour from Cagliari airport – and the exquisite Cala Luna on the glamorous Costa Smerelda. Summer is scorchio, while September, when the crowds have gone and the temperatures have dropped a little, is a lovely time to visit.

8. Bodrum, Turkey

Bodrum in Turkey is a summer holiday favourite for Brits but the resorts of the ‘Turquoise Coast’. No wonder – it’s reliably hot and sunny from late spring to mid-autumn. In high summer it can hot 35C, which might be too much for some, but you’d give it a go, wouldn’t you?

9. Florida, USA

Of course, it’s a longer trip to go Stateside, but it’s no surprise that so many Brits choose Florida for their holidays. As well as the excitement of Disney and all the Orlando theme parks, the Sunshine State boasts incredible beaches on both its Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastlines, and glitzy resorts like Palm Beach and Clearwater.

10. Vietnam

The recent launch of direct flights from the UK and the opening of a number of high-end luxury resort hotels have propelled Vietnam into the spotlight as a new possibility for long-haul sun.  Ong Lan Beach and Bai Sao on the island of Phu Quoc is possibly the best beach, but there is plenty of competition.

So what if you have been the best mum, or a loving dad in the past, you now have an additional expectation to meet; that of being a good grandparent. When it comes to grandparenting, it is akin to honing your parenting skills and what beats being the best? Absolutely nothing.

“George Banks must accept the reality of what his daughter’s ascension from daughter to wife, and now, to mother means when placed into perspective against his own stage of life …. George must now contend not only with his new status as a grandfather …” ~ Father of the Bride Part II

One of the most important appraisals in life comes forth when you become a grandparent, it thus makes you an important member to be cherished, valued and loved, nevertheless. Your sole duty as a grandparent is to enrich and inspire the life of your grandchild. Now that won’t be much of a hurdle, especially if you have been a parent before and know the tricks to right parenting. The best part of being a grandparent is that you get to revisit your childhood, play with innocence and recreate memories of a different kind altogether. In a family, if parents are the building blocks, grandparents become the base pillars and the cement that holds the family in place, at all times. Grandparenting is no rocket science. If you trust your instincts, you would certainly know how to be a good grandparent.

(*Click on the images for a better view.)
BEING A GOOD GRANDPARENT

Between You and Your Child		Grandparents are the footsteps to the future generations. ~ Author Unknown You have another member to share your child with, and invariably, your child becomes the link between you and your grandchild. Hence, it is absolutely essential that you maintain a healthy bond with your child. Respect your child and his/her spouse with their decisions to raise their offspring. Offering a helping hand is a good gesture, but keep it minimalistic to avoid interfering in their parenting skills.
Spend Quality Time		To become a grandparent is to enjoy one of the few pleasures in life for which the consequences have already been paid. ~ Robert Brault A loved one doesn’t seek for monetary gifts, rather seeks a loving companionship. Spending quality time with your grandchild will work in your favor and strengthen the bond between you and your grandchild. Children learn by listening; it would benefit you if you keep a few stories ready in mind. In the initial days, you might be expected to help around with caring for the child. Be prepared to give your time and attention.

Babysit your Grandchild		Everyone needs to have access both to grandparents and grandchildren in order to be a full human being. ~ Margaret Mead Offer to babysit the child in case your son/daughter is a working dad/mom. New parents will obviously need someone around to help about with caring for the child. Do your bit to help your child, but remember never to overdo things, for it may seem to be intruding on the young parents. Your presence will be much appreciated when you give your child and his/her spouse their own space with their child.
Make them Love and Care for You		To a small child, the perfect granddad is unafraid of big dogs and fierce storms but absolutely terrified of the word “boo.” ~ Robert Brault Strengthen your bond with your grandchild by making every visit interesting and meaningful. Sing them songs, play with them, pamper them with gifts, tell them stories, talk to them, make them gurgle with laughter; do everything to make them feel special. Even if you are staying a mile away from your grandchildren and cannot meet them very often, make it a point to call and ask about them; besides, do whatever it takes to make them want to come back to meet you.

Plan Activities		Grandparents are there to help the child get into mischief they haven’t thought of yet. ~ Gene Perret To be a good grandparent, become popular among your grandchildren. Meticulously plan out fun activities and tasks that you can do with your grandchild. You can even assign a few tasks where they can help you out as well as bond with you. Activities like car washing, lawn mowing, gardening, fruit plucking, carpentry, cooking, etc., can be more fun when it is done in the company of your grandchild. Make everyday activities fun and interesting for the new learner, you never know your grandchild might enjoy doing what you do best. Besides, your grandchildren will remember you for all the fun time they had with you.
Impart Family Values		Grandparents hold our tiny hands for just a little while, but our hearts forever. ~ Author Unknown When it comes to the moral upbringing of the child, parents mostly rely on the grandparents to impart the traditional values. Grandparents are meant to pamper the child, but remember to do it in moderation so that the child is not spoiled for choice. Whenever you get the opportunity to be with your family, grab it I’ll say and use it to teach (not preach) your grandchild about the customs and traditions. Every once in a while get the family together and spend time with your entire family.

Truly I tell you, there is no blessing greater than having a grandparent or two, to comfort and give solace, especially when you feel that things are going the wrong way. The loving gentle arms of a grandmother can wipe away the blues of not just an infant but also of the seemingly lost teenager. To my grandparents who have always been instrumental in my growth years … “I can’t stop loving and remembering them!”

Oats are those magical grains who lower your bad cholesterol, improve your metabolism, make your skin glow, provide you enough energy without piling the calories, control diabetes if you have it … basically, it plays the role of a lifesaver. Along with these all-too-visible benefits, oats can protect women from breast cancer, increase immunity, and they save you from heart disease as well.

So what is the reason why most of us shy away from eating a healthy helping of oatmeal? You guessed it right! It’s “healthy”, and we usually tend to put all healthy foods into the tasteless bracket. But that should really be a thing of the past. Many of us think of oats as chewy, lumpy and unappetizing, and whichever way they are cooked, they retain these original qualities. To a certain degree it is true, but the varieties of oats available these days will leave you with no reason to complain about. Processed oats are the answer to all your health problems, so go through the varieties that follow and take your pick!

Types Of Oats

A little technology and a whole lot of history form the base of the oat grain’s journey from the fields of Scotland right to our breakfast tables. A staple porridge ingredient in Scottish households since centuries, we have only recently begun to discover its health benefits. Today, we find a long list of oatmeal types ranging from traditional to instant, tailor-made to suit our requirements and culinary skills. Here is the list.

Rolled Oats

As with grains, oats have a hard outer husk, which is removed to obtain the grain, which is within the bran. This grain is called the groat. These are roll-pressed into flat flakes, then they are steamed and slightly toasted, which gives you your rolled oats. At times, you also get rolled oats without the bran, which enables them to cook faster in the absence of the hard exterior. Packaged rolled oats mostly undergo a little baking, to reduce the cooking time. They can be thin-rolled or thick-rolled, and again that influences the cooking period. You can also get oats that are rolled and unprocessed, which makes them a part of the “old-fashioned” variety, and they need to be cooked in the same old-fashioned manner.

Steel-cut Oats

Steel-cut oats are, as the name applies, oats cut into smaller fragments using steel blades. Popular in Ireland and Scotland, they are used to make porridge here. Pinhead oats are a type of steel-cut oats; pinhead referring to the grade of the cut. Similarly, Irish oats are also of the steel-cut variety. By grade, it means the size of the oats, with pinhead being the largest, moving on to coarse, medium and fine. Unlike rolled oats, these oats do not undergo processing, which means that they take a long time to cook, or they have to be soaked in water for some time to speed up the cooking process. With their characteristic golden color and nutty flavor, they fall into the “chewy” category, as the hard bran remains intact.

	Scottish Oats
	Specifically in the United States, Scottish oats are those which use steel-cut oats, steam them, and stone-ground them. Considering the fact that they are steamed, they do not take a very long time to cook. Another factor that contributes to the speedy cooking is that they are ground into a fine texture. Funnily enough, you won’t find this variety in Scotland.

	Instant Oats
	Instant oats are the popular packaged versions that have sugar and salt added to them, making the cooking process even simpler. Those of you who wish to enjoy them as a meal should go ahead and buy these, but they should be avoided by people on special diets, as this modified version of oats may not suit their needs.

	Quick-cooking Oats
	With a name that suggests a similarity with instant oats, quick-cooking oats are different in the sense that they do not have any added sugar or salt. These are pre-cut oat groats, which are flattened, so that they cook faster, hence the name.

	Muesli
	With oatmeal being the topic of discussion, their fruity German cousins can’t stay far behind. Muesli includes rolled oats along with pieces of nuts and fruit. It is a well-loved, nutritious breakfast cereal around the world.

Today, we can find oats in every possible form, and the importance of oatmeal nutrition has been harped upon several times over. Apart from breakfast cereals, we see oatmeal cookies, oat milk, oat sprouts, and even oat flour. Chocolate may be considered the food of the Gods by the ancient South Americans, but if there is one food you’d like to bet your life upon, it’s got to be oats.

Hang it
A very easy and efficient way to display your child’s artwork would be to hang it up. Where, you ask? Just tie a thin rope across your kitchen window or any place you think is appropriate, and pin up the papers to it. A curtain rod works very well too. Not only does it liven up your room, it is sure to please your children to have their work put up.

Frame it
Once in a while, your child will come up with a creative gem that will merit a permanent display. Special creations deserve to be put up in frames, as they will thus be cherished for years to come. On the other hand, you also have custom-made frames that can hold several sheets at a time, allowing you to rotate the display.

Create an Art Gallery
Your child’s room can be converted into an art gallery, and what’s more – your child can be involved in decorating it. Display the artwork into transparent plastic sleeves and hang them around the room. Hand over the charge of changing the images to your child. Cover one wall with magnetic paint so that the very latest can be put up on it.

Go Online
You can scan the artwork and put it up online. This way, they get more exposure, and your child will be thrilled to bits. Once the artwork is uploaded, there is no dearth of options – you can create online albums, put them up on Facebook or your personal web page or even send it to family and friends via e-mail. Specialized art websites aimed at children are a great place to put up pictures too.

Send it
If you know of any children’s publications that accept artwork from readers, do send them copies of your child’s work. Do keep it as a surprise and watch the amazement on your child’s face when he/she sees it in print. This serves as an excellent way to encourage creativity in your child.

On the Refrigerator
The refrigerator is a popular and traditionally-coveted place to put up any designs or drawings. Purchase some fancy magnets, or better – ask your creative genius to make some, and use them to put up all the artwork that you think deserves a special mention.

Put On a Show
Artwork is obviously not limited to paper paintings, if your child has explored the art of glass painting, ceramic work, paper mache or clay modeling, which will give you some unique home décor items. Put them up on display and watch the compliments pour in.

It sounded like a great Friday story, especially since nothing else was lighting up the ticker. A little after five in the morning, Pacific Time, Facebook issued a statement under the imprimatur of one Erin Egan, the company’s chief privacy officer for policy.

Her post put employers on notice: Demand user profile and password information to gain access to peoples’ Facebook profiles or private information and you just might wind up getting socked with a sweet lawsuit.

In recent months, we’ve seen a distressing increase in reports of employers or others seeking to gain inappropriate access to people’s Facebook profiles or private information. This practice undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user’s friends. It also potentially exposes the employer who seeks this access to unanticipated legal liability.

The most alarming of these practices is the reported incidences of employers asking prospective or actual employees to reveal their passwords. If you are a Facebook user, you should never have to share your password, let anyone access your account, or do anything that might jeopardize the security of your account or violate the privacy of your friends. We have worked really hard at Facebook to give you the tools to control who sees your information.

Lickety-split every tech news outfit worth its spurs was following with their own take, some recounting examples of job seekers forced to decide between their privacy and making a salary.

But was there a story here? Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal thinks so. He told Politico earlier this week that he’s going to propose legislation to ban employers from requesting access to Facebook accounts as a term of employment.

At first blush, it’s hard to believe that employers have suddenly, en masse, come down with a case of the stupids. Anecdotal reports don’t necessarily equate to widespread behavior.

Yet Blumenthal and legislators in Maryland and Illinois are pushing state laws to enact prohibitions against a practice they say is not isolated. To be sure, there’s some anecdotal evidence about some clueless employers. For example, my colleague Declan McCullagh recently pointed to reports about the issue from MSNBC and the American Civil Liberties Union. There’s also this piece published recently by the Associated Press, which recounts examples of astoundingly bad form on the part of certain companies where interviewers were demanding that job applicants hand over their Facebook usernames and passwords. From AP’s recounting:

Back in 2010, Robert Collins was returning to his job as a security guard at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services after taking a leave following his mother’s death. During a reinstatement interview, he was asked for his log-in and password, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. He was stunned by the request but complied. “I needed my job to feed my family. I had to,” he recalled.

Especially in the current economy, it’s the ultimate nightmare scenario: Choose principle, or choose your ability to put food on the family table. You can’t have both. That’s the sort of enraging choice politicians, technologists, and free-speech advocates find easy to rally against. Remove this from the Facebook context and it simply looks like an unfair (and counterproductive) hiring practice. Something along the lines of: “Gee, we’d like to offer you this job, but before we do, we need you to fill out a few forms so that we can look at your tax records for the last three years.” Or some such absurd quid pro quo. Lawsuit, anybody?

“It should simply be prohibited, and Facebook is also right to threaten legal action,” said Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Invariably, they will get caught up in problems that result from users giving passwords to employers.”

Maryland State Senator Ronald N. Young, who has proposed a couple of social-network privacy bills — one targeted at employers, the other aimed at colleges and universities — told me he thought the problem was “starting to be widespread” and that he’s “hearing of more and more cases.”

“We’ve even heard that some universities hired people to friend (student athletes) to follow what they read and write on Facebook,” he continued. “It’s unconstitutional. It’s like me applying for a job, and the employer saying, ‘I’d like to tap your phone and listen to all your calls and monitor your mail.’”

So are we on the cusp of a descent into decidedly bad online practices on the part of corporations? Young did not have stats on hand to support such a notion. Neither did Blumenthal’s office. Ditto for the offices of La Shawn Ford, the state representative pushing an Illinois bill to prevent employers from forcing job applicants to give up their social-network passwords.

In the end, though, that may not matter so much as the perception of an outrage being committed. The hundreds of millions of people who use social networks around the world can relate to what sounds like an egregious privacy violation, comparable to someone poking around in your house or reading your personal e-mail.

Why people who ought to know better still can’t manage to do the right thing is a source of mystery. That leads privacy advocates to look for a fix in Washington. If he had his way, Chris Calabrese, a lobbyist for the ACLU, would have Congress pass legislation prohibiting any employer or school from accessing private social-networking information. What’s needed, he says, are clear rules to make sure that we can keep control of our own information.

“One of them should be that a password means stay out — whether you’re an employer, a school, or the government. And end-runs around password protection, like asking an employee to log in so someone else can take a look, are also unacceptable.”

Sounds like a common sense approach. But what else will get thrown into the mix now that the issue has all the makings of a political grab-fest? You don’t have to be a hard-core libertarian to wonder about that.

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- Michelle Lando, is Kiwi Collection’s Director of Sales for the Americas. She is a graduate of the prestigious Swiss hotel school, École hôtelière de Lausanne.

Microraptors, tiny four-winged dinosaurs that flourished approximately 120 million years ago in northeastern China, allured mates with sexy polychromatic feathers, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The article, “Reconstruction of Microraptor and the Evolution of Iridescent Plumage,” suggests that the Microraptor, with its iridescent plumage, looked very similar to one of today’s crows.

“With numerous fossil discoveries of birds and flowered plants, we knew that the Cretaceous was a colorful world, but now we’ve further enhanced that view with Microraptor as the first dinosaur to show iridescent color,” said Ke-Qin Gao, a coauthor of the study and researcher from Peking University in Beijing, according to a press release from the American Museum of Natural History. “Just a few years ago it would have been inconceivable for us to have imagined doing a study like this,” Mr. Gao added.

Despite its birdlike appearance, the Microraptor could not fly, reports the Christian Science Monitor. The tiny dinosaur’s skeleton and muscle structures did not allow it to fly. However, some scientists insist that it should still be considered a bird.

“To me a bird is an animal with an avian hand and wrist with primary flight feathers,” said Larry Martin, a professor at the University of Kansas who was not involved in study. “By that definition Microraptor is definitely a bird,” Mr. Martin added.

ScienceNow, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, reveals that after a thorough analysis of a Microraptor fossil found in northeastern China, researchers report that Microraptor feathers were loaded with a pigment granule called melanosomes. According to an article published in 2008 in the Journal of Cell Science, melanosomes “provide tissues with color and photoprotection.”

ScienceNow also reports that the particular shape of the melanosomes in Microraptor feathers suggests that the tiny four-winged dinosaur would have had iridescent plumage. Evidence that Microraptors had iridescent plumage also suggests that the dinosaur was not nocturnal, unlike previous studies have theorized.

“A data set sampling variables of extant avian melanosomes reveals that those forming most iridescent arrays are distinctly narrow. Quantitative comparison of these data with melanosome imprints densely sampled from a previously unknown specimen of the Early Cretaceous feathered Microraptor predicts that its plumage was predominantly iridescent,” the researchers from Beijing and the United States wrote in the study’s abstract.

This is not the first time that paleontologists have discovered dinosaurs with unique feather coloring. The New York Times reports that Canadian paleontologists were responsible for highlighting some of the first evidence of feather coloring among dinosaurs. In 2011, the Canadian paleontologists described creatures with polychromatic coloring that lived 70 million years ago.

Jakob Vinther, who led the study, was the first researcher to figure out that scientists could ascertain the colors of ancient feathers by looking at the melansomes in a fossil, reports Discover Magazine. “It’s one of the most beautiful Microraptor specimens out there,” Mr. Vinther posited.

The researchers believe that the iridescent plumage had a purely “ornamental function” for the tiny four-winged dinosaur, allowing the creature to attract potential mates. “This finding and estimation of Microraptor feathering consistent with an ornamental function for the tail suggest a centrality for signaling in early evolution of plumage and feather color,” the researchers wrote in the study’s abstract.

“Iridescence is widespread in modern birds, and is frequently used in displays,” said Matthew Shawkey, a biologist at the University of Akron in Ohio, in a statement obtained by The New York Times. “Our evidence that Microraptor was largely iridescent thus suggests that feathers were important for display even relatively early in their evolution,” Mr. Shawkey added.

After a thorough analysis of the Microraptor fossil, researchers ruled out the possibility that the four-winged dinosaur used its iridescent plumage to help it fly. “People had interpreted (the tail feathers) as being helpful in aerodynamics, but now we know it wasn’t aerodynamic, it actually probably hindered in flight,” Mr. Shawkey posited. “I think this is the first example of these very early ornamental tail feathers,” he added.

Prior to this study, scientists were left guessing as to what Microraptors really looked like. In fact, Mark Norell, the chairman of the American Museum of Natural History’s Division of Paleontology and one of the study’s authors, called the tiny four-winged dinosaur’s appearance the “Anna Wintour special,” according to The Associated Press. Ms. Wintour is the British-born editor-in-chief of American Vogue. “The Devil Wears Prada” is widely believed to be based on Ms. Wintour.

“This study gives us an unprecedented glimpse at what this animal looked like when it was alive,” said Mr. Norell, according to redOrbit. Study co-author Julia Clarke at the University of Texas posited that its iridescent plumage is the oldest example of that appearance on an animal.

“Some of these structures were clearly ancestral characteristics that arose for other functions and stuck around, while others may be linked to display behaviors or signaling of mate quality. Feather features were surely shaped by early locomotor styles. But, as any birder will tell you, feather colors and shapes may also be tied with complex behavioral repertoires and, if anything, may be costly in terms of aerodynamics,” Ms. Clarke added.

“There’s been a lot of speculation about how the feathers of Microraptor were oriented and whether they formed airfoils for flight or whether they had to do with sexual display,” Mr. Norell said. “So while we’ve nailed down what color this animal was, even more importantly, we’ve determined that Microraptor, like many modern birds, most likely used its ornate feathering to give visual social signals,” he added.

A press release from the American Museum of Natural History points out that “Microraptor is considered a non-avian dinosaur and is placed in group of dinosaurs called dromaeosaurs that includes Velociraptor.”