Easter school holidays are the perfect time to seek out some local activities organised within your community during the term break. School holiday camps and programs are offered by local city councils, art and dance studios, sport organisations, nearby farms and zoos and parks. Here are some tips and ideas to keep children happy and busy during their Easter school holidays…

Activities for home

When you factor the sugar-buzz of all that available chocolate into the mix, Easter school holidays without a set plan can be a trying time! If you put a little time and effort into doing activities with your kids, you’ll often find that the payback is several hours where they’ll play quietly by themselves. There are a lot of Easter school holiday activities that can be done at home at little cost.

Making bunny footprints

If you have younger children, they’ll love creating decorated ‘bunny footprints’ that will lead to the locations of their hidden Easter Eggs on Easter Sunday! Alternatively, make the footprints yourself and set them out to lead to the hidden egg locations.

Making coloured Easter eggs

There are several ways you can do this. For a no-calorie activity, blow real eggs by making a pinprick in either end and gently blowing through the top hole until the white and yolk has all dribbled out the bottom. You could also melt white chocolate in a double-boiler; add different colours of food dye to different batches, and set them in Easter egg moulds to make your own coloured chocolate eggs.

Painting blown egg shells and filling with liquid chocolate

Combine two wonderful activities by first blowing your eggs, then filling with liquid chocolate. Make sure you rinse the blown eggs well for this activity – a small syringe (with a needle – grown-up help needed!) is ideal for getting water into that tiny hole for rinsing, and then for getting the liquid chocolate in. If you’ve used the two-hole blowing method, plug up the bottom of the egg with Blu-tac, and wait til the chocolate is set before removing the plug and painting.

School holiday programs and camps

Some kids just crave the company of many other kids – these early social butterflies can be best occupied by an Easter school holiday program. These may be run by a local library, a council, or a sporting organisation. Your kids might enjoy movie days, try-a-sport days, craft days, etc.

Sometimes there is a charge associated with the programs … sometimes you just need to book really, really early! Check with your program that you don’t have to remain with your kids for the activities – this might be required if they are under a certain age. It would kind of defeat the purpose, too for Easter holiday fun activities.

Balancing work and family during the school holidays

Even once kids are well past the stage of wanting to stick things in powerpoints and the VCR, there is a lot of trouble they can get into while home alone. While it is temptingly easy to leave older children at home alone while you go to work, it isn’t always safe … for your carpets, your kitchen, or your kids! The general advice is to wait until your child is 12 before you consider assessing whether they are able to stay at home alone.

Make sure you book your Easter school holidays’ annual leave well in advance as it is always a popular time to have holidays.  If you cannot take annual leave and the children are not old enough to stay at home, arrange for the children to be looked after by a responsible friend or relative or send them to a school holiday camp (see above) to be looked after in a fun, safe and nuturing environment.

Easter school holidays can be an opportunity to have fun with your kids, for them to make new friends and try new activities, and even for them to start establishing their independence. Book your annual leave early and prepare activities in advance to give them a safe and enjoyable school vacation.

Are you always sitting in the nosebleed section of a concert or you do you try and buy event tickets to a festival and find they are all sold out? Here is a sure fire guide to buying the best concert seats in the house and not be left out in the cold.

Subscribe and save

Buying a subscription to frequently held events will ensure that you always have priority in regards to seat selection and you save on the regular price of tickets.  Regular events and venues like The Sydney Symphony Orchestra, The Australian Ballet and sporting events like AFL teams all offer paid subscriptions. Your subscriber card will give you priority seating, exclusive offers and discounts.

Become a member of the fan club

Fan club members may sometimes be offered premium tickets or offered presale tickets. You may find that you have to be a member of the fan club for a certain amount of time or you may not be eligible or pay a membership fee. Popular Dublin band U2 offers a subscriber service on the U2 website  for fans which gives them a chance to buy presale tickets, special offers and the latest information about tours.

Buy tickets with your credit card

Your credit company may have an association with ticketing venues which allows their customers to buy tickets at a discounted rate or have seat priority. Ticketek for example has exclusive offers for Visa cardholders. This may include access to presale and preferred tickets, box seats at select venues, premium seats, exclusive merchandise and a variety of unique VIP experiences. Check with your credit card company for more details.

Do an all-nighter

For popular concerts, devoted fans have been known to sleep at the ticket booking office and wait for the doors to open. Your best bet is to find a booking office that is located in a less populated area and bypass the crowds. This may be a better way than booking online as it will be easier to pick out your seats. Most online ticket outlets only offer pre-selected seats on a “best-available” basis, which may not be your preferred choice.

Buy tickets online

Specific venues, ticket agencies or promoters may sell tickets online. Subscribe to their newsletter for personal event preferences, exclusive member special offers and regular updates on upcoming events on sale. Ticketek offers a premium service called Privilege Club  which costs $95 a year and an express booking line that jumps the queue. Benefits include priority access, VIP offers, waitlisting and offers to special packages.

Gone are the days where camping out in front of the ticketing office was the only option to secure good seats to shows, concerts and entertainment. The Internet has brought a realm of new opportunities so by signing up to venues, ticket agencies, promoters or fan club’s newsletters, you will be in the best position to find out about presale offers and secure the best seats available.

The Christmas budget can be hard to keep in check when you have a lot of relatives to buy presents for but here are five entertainment Christmas gift ideas that the whole family can enjoy.

Board games

There is nothing more fun than a board game to brighten up a dinner party or act as entertainment on an otherwise boring afternoon. Start a boardroom game revolution in your family and give a loved relative a gift they will treasure and is just good old fashioned, family-fun entertainment. Classic board games and much-loved favourites include Monopoly, Twister, Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble.

Foxtel Subscription

Foxtel (depending on the packages you choose) can offer a large array of entertainment, comedy, sitcoms, children’s shows and nature documentaries and entertain a family for hours on end. At an added cost, Foxtel IQ can offer you even greater flexibility by allowing you to tape your shows on a hard drive and watch at your leisure. Bear in mind that you need to check whether Foxtel is available in your area or building and that you need to pay for installation as well as the cost of the subscription. Conditions will apply so read the contract carefully.

DVD Box Sets

DVD box sets always make a great gift and are perfect for a rainy day, lazy night in or movie marathon. Popular box sets include TV series such as Sex and the City, Friends or Doctor Who or popular movie series such as James Bond, Star Wars or Twilight or classic movie box sets with actors such as Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe or Clarke Gable. Set aside a day on the holidays or organise a movie night where you can enjoy the movies with your friends and family.

Movie tickets

Movie tickets always make good stocking fillers. You can get book of movie tickets from leading cinemas such as Hoyts, Greater Union, Reading cinemas and all leading cinema chains. With movie tickets, certain conditions may apply such as not being able to see the movies in peak hour times such as a Saturday night. You’ll be able to watch the latest blockbusters whether they be sci-fi, historical dramas, romantic comedies or suspense movies. Over the Christmas and holiday period, there should be family and children’s movies on offer that everyone can enjoy.

Nintendo Wii

The Nintendo Wii is a great Christmas gift and an interactive games system that the whole family can enjoy. With a vast range of games available and intuitive controls, it is suitable for the little ones but games such as Wii Fit will also provide entertainment for mum and dad. Wii is much more than a games console. With the built-in Wii Channels you can surf the Internet, edit your digital photos, check the news and weather, and much more.

Buying Christmas presents the whole family will enjoy is a great way to encourage family time and bonding over Christmas with the added bonus of saving money on individual Christmas gifts.

You’ve just broken up with the love of your life and you need a movie to reignite your belief and faith in love. It’s a good idea to stay away from violent movies but romantic comedies should help ease the pain of a breakup and show there is still hope for true love. Here are five of the best movies to watch after a break-up.

The break-up

This is a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston (Brooke Meyers) and Vince Vaughn (Gary Grobowski). The movie is about a couple who live together and decide to break up after one too many nights of petty bickering. They try and one-up each other with the ultimate battle of the exes and each performs crazy and mean-spirited stunts to try and force each the other person out of the condo. Brooke finally realises that she needs to move out for the sake of her sanity.

Moral of the movie: Makes you realise that some break-ups are for the best.

Pretty Woman

Julia Roberts (Vivian Ward) is cast as the prostitute with a heart of gold who meets millionaire, Richard Gere (Edward Lewis). He asks her stay the week with him for $3,000 and despite his best intentions; he is won over by her naivety and her lust for life. She shows him that there is more to life than business and a lot more time should be devoted to pleasure and enjoying the simple things in life.

Moral of the movie: You can find love in the most unlikeliest of places with the most unlikeliest of people.

Ghosts of girlfriends past

Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) is a notorious womaniser with a bad boy reputation. His brother Paul (Breckin Meyer) is about to get married, and Connor thinks he is making a terrible mistake. He tries to talk him out of getting married and the night before the wedding, Connor is visited by three ghosts who take him back to his past, present, and his lonely future. They try to discover the point in time where Connor changed his attitudes towards women and change him back into a sensitive, feeling, and caring person that he once was, and perhaps even rediscover his true love.

Moral of the movie: That even a womanizer can come good in the end.

How to lose a guy in ten days

Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson) works at a magazine and is asked to write a story about how to lose a guy in ten days, hence the title of the movie. In steps Benjamin Barry (Matthew McConaughey) who is a cocky advertising executive who is competing with two female co-workers for a major campaign for a diamond merchant. He makes a bet with them that if he can make a woman of their choice fall in love with him in 10 days, the diamond account is his. Andie and Benjamin each have competing agendas and eventually … well, you’ll have to watch the movie to find out what happens.

Moral of the movie: There is a lighter side to dating.

The Notebook

The Notebook is the tale of a summer romance that lasts a lifetime. The movie starts with an old man in a nursing home who is reading a story to an old woman each day. The story he reads follows two young lovers named Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) and Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling). They met one evening at a carnival many years ago. Allie’s parents separate Noah and Allie because they do not believe that Noah is a suitable partner for Allie. He writes her 365 love letters that her parents hide from her. Under the impression that he doesn’t love her, Allie becomes engaged to a wealthy soldier called Lon. However she sees Noah’s picture in the newspaper and as hard as she tries, she cannot forget her first love.

Moral of the movie: True love conquers all.

Break-ups can be difficult but try some old fashioned escapism and lose yourself in these romantic comedies that show you that romance is not dead and there is life after a break-up.

Chick flicks can be the best remedy for a broken heart, the perfect solution for a girl’s weekend away or an excuse to curl up on the couch and bond with your girlfriends. Here are five feel-good, timeless and classic movies that will make you laugh and cry.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is a classic chick flick set in the 1800s. The tale of the haughty and stubborn Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy and the feisty and strong-willed Elizabeth Bennett was based on a book of the same name written by Jane Austen. The strong appeal of this movie is the classic love/hate theme where Mr Darcy’s integrity is questioned at the start of the movie. His true character is revealed over the course of the film and we fall in love with him as Elizabeth Bennett does.

When Harry Met Sally

This is a romantic comedy set in the 1980s that asks the eternal question – can men and women really be friends? Fast forward 30 years later and we are no closer to answering that question. The movie stars Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal and features the infamous scene where Meg Ryan fakes an orgasm at a restaurant. The movie ends in a series of interviews with Harry and Sally admitting that they are married and no longer denying the initial chemistry between them the first time Harry met Sally.

Bridget Jones

Renée Zellweger stars as Bridget Jones, and Colin Firth and Hugh Grant as the men in her life, Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver. Bridget Jones was based on Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary column in The Independent in 1995, chronicling the life of Bridget Jones as a 30-something single woman in London. The movie starts off with the classic scene where Bridget Jones is alone in her apartment singing forlornly ‘All By Myself’. The chick flick hit a nerve with women in their 30s facing singledom, smug married couples and an unclear career path while still hoping for a white picket fence, 2.5 children and a happily ever after.

Dirty Dancing

The tragic death of Patrick Swayze at only age 57 of cancer has further immortalised this movie as one of the greatest dance movies and chick flicks of all time. Patrick Swayze was cast as Johnny Castle who is the older and wiser dance teacher who gives ‘Baby’, Jennifer Grey, dance lessons at an expensive holiday resort. It’s a classic turning of age film where the younger, naive girl falls for the cynical and experienced older man and the love affair transforms her from a girl into a woman. As they say in Dirty Dancing no one puts ‘Baby’ into a corner!

The Sex and the City Movie

The movie follows on four years after the television series ended which was based on a column Candace Bushnell wrote for the New York Observer. The movie is about the strong friendships of four 40-something women as their friendship and relationships are all tested in their pursuit of love and happiness. 

A chick flick may make you laugh and even cry but you’re bound to be feel good afterwards. Grab the tissue box, stock up on snacks, change into a comfy tracksuit and settle on the couch for some fun, light-hearted entertainment.

Here are five classic movies that everyone should see their in lifetime when the Golden Age of Hollywood was still golden and not tarnished with celebrities using sex tapes as a career launch pad, celebrities pimping out their children, starring in reality television shows or twittering their life away. Following are a selection of Hollywood movie greats starring an array of stars such as Clarke Gable, Vivien Leigh, Orson Welles, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.

Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American drama romance and was based on Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel of 1936. The film is set in the American South in and around the time of the Civil War and stars Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland. Gone with the Wind is a story about a spoiled Southern girl’s (Vivien Leigh) hopeless love for a married man played out against the backdrop of the Civil War. Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the black sheep of a wealthy Charleston family is instantly fascinated by the feisty, thoroughly self-centered Scarlett and eventually wins over her heart. Gone with the Wind won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar).

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is an American drama film made in 1941 and the first feature film directed by Orson Welles. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards but only won an award for Best Original Screenplay by Herman Mankiewicz and Welles. The film traces the life and career of multimillionaire newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane played by Orson Welles who dies alone in his extravagant mansion speaking a last word: “Rosebud”. In an attempt to figure out the meaning of this word, a reporter tracks down the people who worked and lived with Kane and they tell their stories in a series of flashbacks that reveal much about Kane’s life.

Casablanca

Casablanca was made in 1942 and starred Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Michael Curtiz. Set during World War II, it focuses on a former freedom fighter turned nightclub-owner Rick (Humphrey Bogart), whose life in Casablanca is shaken up by the arrival of old flame Elsa (Ingrid Bergman) with her Resistance leader husband. In the end it comes down to the age-old love triangle where Bergman is still in love with Bogart but feels obligated to support her husband and Bogart is in the situation of being in control of the destiny of the man who is married to the woman he loves. Casablanca won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is one of Audrey Hepburn’s most famous movies and every woman’s style reference. Set in 1961, Audrey Hepburn stars as Holly Golightly, a gold digger who is looking for the perfect husband. Gold digging never looked this good as Audrey Hepburn was the popular muse of French couturier, Hubert Givenchy and wore his designs throughout the movie. Holly Golightly meets Paul Varjak (George Peppard) who moves into her apartment block and is a struggling young writer supported by a married woman. The central struggle of the movie is whether the two of them can accept happiness and possible poverty together, or continue their attempts to trade up and find a rich spouse.

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Academy Award winning screenplay was faithfully adapted by screenwriter Horton Foote from the 1960 Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name by Harper Lee. Released in 1962, To Kill a Mockingbird reflected the state of deep racial problems and social injustice that existed in the South and was released at the height of the Civil Rights movement.  Gregory Peck stars as Atticus Finch and is a lawyer and widower, raising two small children: Scout (Mary Badham) and her older brother Jem (Phillip Alford). To Kill a Mockingbird won three Academy Awards including Best Actor.

These five movies are just a small representation of the classic movies that graced our screens from the 1930s to the 1960s. Rent out the DVD from your local video store, microwave some popcorn, make yourself comfortable and get ready to be entertained.

A young man rounds a corner in time to realize that he is about to miss his bus. Most people would search for the nearest coffee shop where they could wait for the next one. This man isn’t most people. Rolling back his sleeves he takes off, vaulting over tables and sliding under railings before leaping over the bus stop bench just in time to bang on the bus’s closing doors.

This man is a traceur, an athlete trained in Parkour.

The concept is to get from Point A to Point B as quickly and efficiently as possible, using only your body and your surroundings. Rather than avoiding obstacles, traceurs acrobatically surmount them. Parkour can be compared to some martial arts; intense training is required to perfect technique. It requires clarity in the mind and is an expressive artform with a focus on freedom, specifically in terms of physical awareness.

The practice has become popular amongst young people in major cities. It is often considered a rebellion against the urban environment. It has gained further popularity more recently as it has been featured in various films, music videos, and video games – €˜Casino Royale’, €˜The Bourne Ultimatum’, Madonna’s €˜Jump’ and €˜Tomb Raider’.

Apparently, everyone can benefit from the physical and mental demands of the sport and classes are run at various studios, with small workshops conducted throughout the world.