Mubeen Blogs

Underbelly, Edinburgh Maddie and Marcus Rice relate with words and songs the lessons passed on from one woman to a younger one An unexpected theme on this year’s Edinburgh fringe is assisted dying. It is central to Morna Young’s After Party , about a matriarch who chooses to die after her 80th birthday, and Ben Harrison’s adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies , in which a terminally ill man travels to Dignitas. It is hinted at in Eilidh Loan’s Cathy , about a woman adjusting to bereavement. And it is here again in this breezy storytelling show by sibling duo Maddie and Marcus Rice. The semi-fictional tale is about Maddie’s befriending of the 87-year-old Darcy O’Shea, an artist and piano teacher 50 years her senior, who is full of zest and vigour. As Maddie puts it, she is “unapologetically herself”, a woman living a life of happy self-reliance with limited tolerance for anyone else. A long-gone partner nicknamed her Dandelion because of her sticky-up hair, and it suits her personali...

Gvardiol’s stoppage-time strike gives City points ‘I’m looking for solutions. When you win games it helps’ Enzo Maresca said Manchester City remain a “work in progress” after Sunday’s last-gasp win over Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium. Marc Guéhi’s 85th-minute equaliser and Josko Gvardiol’s 91st-minute winner gave City’s new manager victory in his first game, after Marcus Tavernier’s first-half strike for the visitors. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/12v9BXb

Miranda Luby was only 36 years old when her tinnitus arrived in the middle of the night, without warning and for no clear reason One night two years ago I was lying in bed when I began to hear a high-pitched, electronic hum. The scene that followed would be comical if it wasn’t so traumatic. I roamed around the house in my PJs, frantically pressing my ears against various electrical appliances. It took half an hour to realise the sound was coming from inside my own head. I’d heard ringing in my ears before, rising then falling, like a one-note crescendo of an orchestra. As a kid I used to believe the myth it was the sound of dying ear cells, playing a swan song for a frequency I’d never hear again. This was different. This time, it didn’t stop. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/39xCF61

After exodus of key players, youthful arrivals over the summer amount to a fresh beginning with plenty to get excited about Last season was the greatest Aston Villa have enjoyed since they won the European Cup in 1982. They claimed their second European trophy by lifting the Europa League , but even without that would have secured Champions League qualification by finishing fourth in the Premier League. Despite a miserable start during which they failed to win any of their first five league games, there was even a spell around Christmas when it looked as though Villa might be challengers for the title. The question after a season like that is always: where next? Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/QXg7j3k

Exclusive: Of 224 branded infant foods and snacks, more than half are in breach of guidelines brought in a year ago Almost a quarter of popular branded baby foods sold in UK supermarkets still contain excessive amounts of sugar, analysis suggests, a year after the government introduced voluntary industry guidelines . In August 2025 the government gave baby food manufacturers 18 months to reduce the sugar and salt content of their products, stop marketing snacks to infants under 12 months, and address misleading and inaccurate labelling that makes some infant foods appear healthier than they actually are. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/oRv2Cq8

A record amount of sargassum has piled up along coastlines of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Sargassum is a brown seaweed that causes lower oxygen levels and foul-smelling gases when it decomposes on beaches. Researchers and marine scientists have warned that the algae build-up starves underwater plant life of sunlight, affects human health and can leak arsenic into sand Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/BYH349i

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh This fantastic comic play from the Radio 4 trio unleashes a torrent of great gags and illusions Horror pastiche has a proud lineage at this festival – for example Garth Marenghi , and Andrew Doherty’s hit Gay Witch Sex Cult two summers ago. In that company, Crybabies ’ The Scaring can stand as tall as the demon Haeldrrun towering over its finale: it’s another fantastic comic play from the Radio 4 trio of Michael Clarke, James Gault and Ed Jones with chills as well as laughs, and production values rarely seen on the fringe. A tale of demonic possession and a disillusioned priest, set in a guesthouse that makes the Overlook in The Shining seem five-star by comparison, it’s as tightly packed with smart gags as a hotelier’s cellar with the corpses of slaughtered guests. The plotting, too, is twistier than Regan’s neck in The Exorcist , a moment referenced in one creepy/comical scene here featuring a haunted dolly. It begins with two priests exorcising a bea...