WATCHING THE WORLD CUP

Apologies if you don't like football, but I do. I used to play (Camberwell Old Fallopians) and watch (Crystal Palace), and I've been to a World Cup quarter-final (Senegal v Turkey, Japan 2002) so the four-yearly tournament is definitely on my watch list. Last night it kicked off with Brazil v Croatia, a strange game but certainly not dull and tonight I'll be watching Holland v Spain, a rerun of the last World Cup final. España! España! If you want to plan your match-watching, see our World Cup Match schedule, as well as lots of other Brazil 2014 fun.

EATING APRICOTS

No fancy recipe, just fresh apricots from the market round the corner. The first two I tried were not quite ripe and made my colleagues wonder what was going on as the sharpness made my face screw up of its own accord. But now, a couple of days, later, they're sublime! Love apricots? See all of our gorgeous apricot recipes

CHANGING TO THE SUMMER DUVET

It's been warm where I live for a good few days now, and finally we dug out the summer duvet. So now we sleep lightly covered, rather than in an endless cycle of waking up too hot, kicking off the quilt, waking up chilly, pulling it back on, waking up too hot etc etc. You can't beat a good night's sleep and if you find that hard to achieve, see our 28-day sleep plan designed to help.

RE-READING 'THE GROUP' BY MARY MCCARTHY

I say re-reading, but when I first picked this up I was about 13 and too young to understand the lives of a group of friends graduating from Vassar in 1933 as they grappled with relationships, sex, contraception and women's place in society. When it was published in 1963, 'The Group' made the New York Times bestseller list and stayed there for almost two years. I found it on the shelves of England's largest second-hand bookshop, Baggins Book Bazaar. I've only just started it but I'm finding it hard to put down - and there have already been several 'ringing a bell' moments so it obviously made a big impression on my younger self! I would say buy it in our online bookshop, but it's no longer operating, so you can buy The Group from Waterstones.

NOT BUYING TWO LOTS OF TRAVEL INSURANCE

I suppose it's better to have two travel insurance policies rather than none, but I can think of better things to waste my money on. For most of last year I had two policies running simultaneously because of the insurance companies' habit of automatically renewing your policy unless you tell them not to. So, in a fit of organisation, I put a note in my diary of when my current annual policy (just the one, this year) expires. It's in the middle of my holiday, but I know teh date and I'm poised to send a 'no thank you' reply to that 'we'll renew this unless you tell us otherwise email'. Allaboutyou now has a financial products website: www.allaboutyoumoney.co.uk which can give you an instant quote on travel insurance. And don't forget your Ehic!

What have you tried this week?