Summer Solstice

Tomorrow is the summer solstice, which means it’s the longest day of the year. And if you want to celebrate the day in style, visit www.new-age.co.uk.

This site tells you the exact time the sun rises and falls today and where to go to see it in all its glory. There’s also a gallery of stunning photographs taken at the summer solstice at Stonehenge over the past five years.

Grumble Text

Take a look at www.grumbletext.co.uk if you have a problem with premium rate calls, maybe or anything else to do with telecoms mobiles, texts etc. Have a grumble about it here and see what others say

Restyle Me

Inviting people to rate your fashion sense sounds like asking for trouble, but www.restyleme.com provides an effective means of doing so. Simply upload a photo of yourself for other users to judge, while you do likewise to their pictures.

The fun part comes from the ability to highlight specific elements that you like or dislike in a person’s style - from hair, clothes and makeup to teeth and tattoos - and post comments on his or her page.

Online Office

It’s impossible to take your office with you everywhere you go, but when you need the basics visit www.zoho.com. This is an online suite of free business programmes, with everything from word processing and presentation software to tools for creating databases. This helpful site will mean that you’ll never miss a deadline again.

Test Your Breath

If you’re about to go on a hot date, you’ll want to make sure your breath is minty fresh. So all you need to do is go to www.testyourbreath.ca and type in the last meal you ate. The online breathalyser will tell you how offensive your breath is before you leave the house

Money Exchange

If you’re just about to head off for your summer holidays, take a look at moneyfacts.co.uk. This site will check the exchange rate of your chosen destination and help you get the best available deal. It will also make sure you don’t get stung by massive commission rates.

Burger Tycoon

If you think flipping burgers is easy, try running the fast food company that makes them at addictinggames.com/burgertycoon.html.

In this simulation game you run the company from growing fodder to the boardroom with the aim of making the company a success.

Guess The Age

If you’ve ever embarrassed yourself by wildly over or underestimating someone’s age, then train your skills at www.ageproject.specialsnowflake.com. People upload their photos and you guess their age. It all goes to prove that age really is just a number.

Wildlife On Film

www.wildfilmhistory.org is an indispensable website that brings together 100 years of capturing nature’s great and small creatures on film in one handy location.

With a mountain of films, photos and oral histories, it could take almost another 100 years to trawl through all the content on this website. Delve into the oral histories to learn more about the lives of the filmmakers, but most of all make sure you watch some of the brilliant wildlife footage from yesteryear.

Lookin’ Italian

For lovers of Italian cuisine and wine, www.italyabroad.com is a worth a visit. Set up by two food and wine loving Italians living in the UK the site sources Italian favourites like olive oil, artichokes and wine from Italian artisans. The attractive design makes it easy to navigate, with a clear menu system offering instant access to areas like Events, Restaurants and Recipes.

Raffle Tickets

If you’ve bought more raffle tickets that you care to remember over the years, but you still haven’t won anything, then check out www.raffle.it.


Unlike a traditional raffle, where a random number is drawn, here the lowest unique number is declared the winner. Every time you play you are rewarded with a voucher, which could be for a discount on your next purchase at certain high street retailers, or even a product itself.

The results of each raffle are posted on the site as soon as the winner has been confirmed.

Park Life

National Parks are large areas of land in England, Wales and Scotland, that since 1949 have been protected as beautiful areas for the benefit of the nation.

They contain many of the UK’s most breathtaking landscapes. There are 14 to chose from and www.nationalparks.gov.uk could help you decide which is your favourite.

Game On

Got a spare half hour to kill while the boss is out? Log on to www.bestarcade.com and choose from over 3000 video games. Choose from a range of categories including ‘platform’, ‘shoot ‘em up’, ‘brainteasers’ and ‘racing’.

Keep Calm

If you’re off on your summer hols soon, the last thing you want is to be feeling stressed before you go. So do something that helps you relax, be it mediation, reading or walking. Visit www.relaxationforliving.co.uk for some ideas on how to keep calm.

Going Dotty

www.games1.org/games/worms.swf is an odd little game that will remind you of a simpler time. The aim of the game is to make sure that two black dots don’t crash into each other. And if you think that sounds easy, give it a try.

Easy As ABC

Even young children now are finding it difficult to resist the lure of the computer, but it need not be a bad thing. Encourage your kids to read more by visiting www.lovereading4kids.co.uk. The site allows you to download and print off opening extracts of hundreds of children’s books, and encourages kids to discover new authors through their recommendation service.

Bright Spark

You can’t move on the internet for sites about the supernatural, but if you don’t subscribe to that world view, there’s now a home for you too.

If the prospect of ghosts and gods sounds like hogwash, head for www.the-brights.net. There you’ll find a movement of like-minded people who believe in nothing but science and evolution. So if you’re an atheist, humanist, or just a skeptic, check it out.

Baking Mad

If you like cake you are going to love this site www.bakingmad.com

From the very opening page the design is delicious. There are plenty of mouth-watering illustrations, and with a menubar across the top it is a real dream to navigate.

Check out the recipes drop-down menu first for the staples, then why not sift for ideas under baking ideas. Here you will find suggestions for particular occasions, such as morning coffee treats and winter warmers.

All the recipes are really easy to follow, with step-by-step instructions and plenty of pictures to illustrate.

And because cakes are not traditionally considered a healthy food, if you want to know all about nutrition then browse through the sections under health.

Think U Know

Any parent whose child goes online will no doubt have worried about who they might meet and talk to in cyberspace. Think you know who you are talking to online? Think U Know is a site set up by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre in the UK, but its advice is relevant wherever you are. Find it at www.thinkuknow.co.uk

First of all, I love the design of the site. It has impact without being over-dramatic and it loads really quickly, especially the video on the opening page, which is well worth a look for any teenager who is new to online communities.

Parents should be aware that it is very frank and open about the potential dangers, so make sure you are around to offer support if they are disturbed by it. But perhaps better they be disturbed by the potential than fall into any traps.

Laid out in easily accessible chunks, covering all sorts of subjects like mobiles, podcasting, chatting and the like, the site teaches that the internet can be great fun, but also teaches children to recognise the signs of grooming and abuse. And if they should come across trouble, there is an easy way to seek support and report an abuser to the UK police - just use the Report Abuse tab at the top. Here you will also find sections aimed at parents and teachers.

All in all, a very good website.

Skoool

Education is important the world over but it can also be very different the world over. What I particularly like about www.skoool.com is that it recognises and caters for these differences with dedicated sections accessible from the opening page.

Regions covered at the moment are Ireland, the UK, Thailand, Sweden and Turkey. Just click on the relevant button to enter the country-specific site.

Once inside the site, everything is very self-explanatory and nicely designed. There are games, study tools and plenty for the teacher and parent too. Scan the tabs across the top with your mouse pointer to reveal dropdown menus, and explore in your own time.