A varied career

Chloe Kelling, a successful model and singer-songwriter, now has a new venture

I arrive for my interview with Chloe Kelling and I’m asked to wait in the garden. I hardly have time to start looking round at the carefully tended flowerbeds when Chloe appears. Every bit as tall and striking as I’d expected, Chloe emerges from the house wearing an oversized man’s jacket, a delicately patterned top and jeans. Chloe is known for her slightly quirky sense of fashion and, of course, she looks great as she makes her way towards me through the flowerbeds.

‘Let’s talk in my office,’ she says, leading the way not back to the house, but instead to an ancient caravan parked up next to it. As we climb inside the compact little van, the smell of fresh baking greets us. A tiny table is piled high with cupcakes, each iced in a different colour. Chloe’s been busy, and there’s a real sense of playing tea parties in a secret den! But what else should I have expected from a woman with such a varied and interesting career?

Chloe originally trained as a make-up artist, having left her home in the country at nineteen to try and make her name as a model in London, and soon got work in adverts and the fashion business. ‘I went to Japan to work for a short period, but felt very homesick at first,’ she recalls. ‘It was very demanding work and, though I met loads of nice people, it was too much to take in at nineteen. If I’d stayed longer, I might have settled in better.’

Alongside the modelling, Chloe was also beginning to make contacts in the music business. ‘I’d been the typical kid, singing with a hairbrush in front of the mirror, dreaming of being a star one day,’ she laughs. She joined a girl band which ‘broke up before we got anywhere’, before becoming the lead singer with the band Whoosh, which features on a best-selling clubbing album. Unusually though, Chloe also sings with two other bands, one based in Sweden and another in London, and each of these has a distinct style.

It was her work with Whoosh that originally led to Chloe’s link with Sweden. She was offered a song-writing job there with a team that was responsible for songs for some major stars, but gradually became more involved in writing music for her own band.

Although she now divides her time between London and Sweden, her first stay there turned out to be much longer than she’d bargained for. ‘The rooms are very tall over there and so people have these rather high beds that you climb up to,’ she explains. ‘I fell as I climbed up the ladder and cracked three ribs. Although the people at the hospital were very kind, I was stuck there for a while, which was very frustrating. Sneezing and laughing were so painful at first, let alone singing!’

It was while recovering from her injuries that Chloe hit upon the idea of staging what she calls vintage fairs. ‘It was snowing in Sweden and I wanted something nice to look forward to.’ Chloe had always loved vintage clothes, particularly from the 1950s, and decided to stage an event for others who shared her passion. The first fair was held in her home village and featured stalls selling all sorts of clothes and crafts dating back to the 1950s. It was a huge hit, with 300 people turning up.

‘When I had the idea of the first fair, it was only meant to be a one-off, but we had so many compliments, I decided to go ahead with more,’ says Chloe. ‘There’s something for all ages and people find old things have more character than stuff you buy in modern shops. It also fits perfectly with the idea of recycling.’ Looking round Chloe’s caravan, I can see what she means.

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Dream Jobs

By Giovanni Marks

During our teens, all the pupils at my school had to have a meeting with a ‘careers advisor’ who only seemed to know about jobs at the local ship-building works. That was fine for some, but many of us would have liked to hear about a wider range of opportunities at that time. If only she had known about the jobs I’ve been researching for this article! It seems there are positions out there that are almost too good to be true.

Take, for example, the job with the title ‘Ice cream flavour advisor’ for ice cream manufacturer Frederick’s. Imagine making and tasting ice cream for a living! From the Fredrick’s website I learned that the people who do this job are all chefs and food scientists, and often go on what they call ‘taste hunts’ where they travel to other countries, trying new foods to get inspiration for new products. The website’s home page also states that ‘every ingredient deserves consideration’, meaning anything from peanuts to potatoes could make it into the next flavour advisor’s invention. I guess the one downside of this job could be tasting failed creations.

For those worried about the health implications of eating so much ice cream, then how about something more active? The perfect job for water sports lovers was advertised in 2015 by holiday company Travel Now. They needed a water slide tester! This involved getting into swimming gear and speeding down slides at various holiday centres around the world to check for any issues. The company was seeking applicants with strong written and verbal skills, experience in social media and a willingness to travel.

Another job that seems impossibly wonderful is one for those who dream of living on a remote island. As the caretaker of a private island in the Maldives, Simon Grainger gets to enjoy fabulous weather, fishing and boating as part of his job. However, he says that while it may sound more like an extended holiday than work, the responsibilities of the job can be very demanding. These include maintaining and repairing the island owners’ property and cleaning up after storms. On top of that, being by yourself on an island means that your social life suffers. Seeing friends involves an hour’s boat ride, which is never easy and sometimes impossible. Grainger warns anyone considering a job like his to be realistic about it. He explains you’ve got be very practical with good physical fitness, and happy in your own company. If you are this type of person, you’ll do the job well and
never want to go back to life on the mainland.

A fortune cookie is a moon-shaped biscuit given away in Chinese restaurants that contains a little piece of paper with a message on it. Millions of these are read every day, but few realise that people actually get paid to write the words of wisdom you find when you crack your cookie open. Daisy Cheng, president of New Asian Food in Los Angeles, used to be one such person. It wasn’t exactly her chosen career path, it was more of a role she fell into. When the company expanded and realised they needed to update their cookie messages, she was asked to do it because her English language skills were stronger than other employees’. She found it difficult to start with, but soon she was finding inspiration everywhere, from subway signs to newspapers.

As a writer myself, I would love to create messages for fortune cookies, but I would be delighted to do any one of these amazing jobs. Listen up careers advisors!

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The homes of the future viewed from today

Mark Finchley reviews TV series Tomorrow’s Homes

Having just watched the whole of Channel 8’s TV series Tomorrow’s Homes, I’ve been wondering about how anyone can predict the future of domestic life. You’d imagine that if you knew what architects and technology companies were developing now to make life easier, more exciting and more beautiful, you’d have a pretty good idea of what to expect in tomorrow’s homes. In reality, it’s more complicated, and just as much about what we’ll choose to hang on to from today’s – the things that are ‘future-proof’. In the 1950s, people thought that in the twenty-first century household tasks would be done by labour-saving devices or robots – with food pills for dinner. Yet people still wash up and cook, even though the technology exists that makes neither of these tasks necessary.

Tomorrow’s Homes, however, dared to make predictions which it turned into reality using an average home belonging to a family called the Forseys. Four miles of cable were installed in the house so that all the electrics, from lights to the fridge, could be controlled via the internet, and various other devices and gadgets were introduced in addition to this. The family were then filmed as they got used to their new home life. Programme presenter Harry Thwaites is also a consultant who spends his work life imagining the
future, so testing out his ideas for the programme was a fascinating experiment for him. His approach was to use technology that was not totally brand new, but had only
recently become more affordable. CCTV cameras for security have been around for years, for example, but they are no longer only an option for the mega-rich.

The Forsey family consists of a husband and wife with four children and two grandchildren. They appear to be very natural and ordinary on the programme, and it was always interesting to see how they reacted to the technology they were testing. One example that sticks in the mind is when Janine, the mother, enters her reconstructed, all-white home (after successfully unlocking her new front door by using her thumb print as a key), and she immediately bursts into tears – quite understandably it has to be said. A short while later, her husband Ben gets locked out because the skin on his thumb is too rough. As the series progresses, however, they slowly come to accept the technology, and even start to believe it could have some value in their lives.

I was keen to see during the show if anything emerged as potentially future-proof, and there were some great examples. To help Janine deal with various worries, she was provided with a mind-controlled relaxation tool. This was a kind of headband connected to a DVD, which, incredibly, she could control with her thoughts. When
she relaxed mentally, she made an image of the sun go down, as it would at night, on the DVD. When she had tried the gadget and achieved the sun set, she
was asked how effective the gadget had been. Janine commented, ‘Nothing can compare to a nice cup of tea and a good soap opera!’

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Student life and technology

By Debra Mallin, a business student at Greyfort University

Last Saturday, as my grandfather drove me and my sister home from a dinner to celebrate his birthday, he got frustrated at not being able to remember the name
of the singer of a song he’d just heard on the radio. Without a second thought, I grabbed my smartphone, searched for the song and found the name, Bob Dylan. For me and my friends, this is a completely natural course of action, but it totally astonished my grandfather, who didn’t understand how I had checked the information so quickly. My sister and I laughed and explained, but afterwards, it made me think about how much I depend on technology.

The list of the ways I use technology is endless: writing, planning, socialising, communicating and shopping, to name a few. When I reflected on its impact on my education, I saw that, for my fellow students and I, technology has been significant in many ways. Returning to the story of my grandfather and the smartphone, he had asked me more about how I used it and about university life. He said he thought we had an easy life compared to previous generations. My sister caught my eye and we exchanged a smile. But whereas she was thinking our grandfather was just being a typical 65-year old, I could see his point.

Not only are we lucky enough to have the same educational benefits as those of previous generations, we have so many more as well. We still have walk-in libraries available to us, and I can see why some students choose to find and use resources in these distraction-free locations. However, the only option for studying used to be sitting in these libraries with as many books from your reading list as you could find, yet now a single search for your chosen study topic online can immediately provide access to a huge range of resources. At universities, interaction between students and university staff is another area that has changed considerably with developments in technology. We can have face-to-face time with our tutors when we need it, and also communicate using our electronic gadgets from the comfort of our homes, or on the bus. The most popular means of doing this is via instant messaging or social media – email is often considered too slow, and it has become unacceptable for messages to be unanswered for any length of time. While this puts an extra strain on the university’s academic support team, who usually have to answer the queries as they come in, we students are greatly benefitted.

It’s important that we remember to appreciate how much the advances in technology have given us. Electronic devices such as tablets, smartphones, and laptops are now standard equipment in most classrooms and lecture halls, and why shouldn’t they be? The replacement of textbooks with tablets allows students the luxury of having up-to-date, interactive and even personalised learning materials, with the added benefit of them not costing the earth.

When we compare the student life of the past and that of the present day, it is tempting to focus on the obvious differences when it comes to technology. In actual fact, students are doing what they’ve always done: embracing the resources available and adapting them in ways which allow them to work more efficiently and to live more enjoyably. The pace of change in technology continuously gathers speed, so we have to value each innovation as it happens.

For questions 1–8, read the text below anddecide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning. (0)

 

Three theories about sleep

People spend about one-third of their lives asleep. lt seems certain, therefore, that sleep has a (0) ….VITAL….. function. However, what that function might be is still in (1) ………………………………. Scientists are far from being in agreement about (2) ……………………………… why so much of our precious time is given over to sleep.

There seem to be three main theories. The most popular states that the functions and (3) ……………………………. of sleep are primarily physiological. lt claims that we sleep in order to (4) ……………………………… the health of our body. In other words, biological processes work hard as we sleep to repair any damage done during the day and to restare ourselves to (5) ……………………………… efficiency. However, a second theory places more emphasis on the learning benefits of sleep. This theory holds that sleep allows us to process the information that we (6) ……………………………… during the day, and asserts that, without sleep, learning would not take place. A third popular theory is (7) ……………………………… on ideas about energy, saying that we need (8) ……………………………… of sleep in order to, in a sense, recharge our batteries and so have an adequate supply of energy for the coming day.

For questions 1–8, read the text below anddecide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning. (0)

 

News sharing

 

The way we obtain our news coverage is always (0) …..ENVOLVING…….. . The public can gain information on current events from a wide variety of (1)………. . Centuries ago, news was obtained either by word of mouth, with town criers (2)…………. citizens of news and by-laws, or from print, with notices posted on doors of the local inn. With the (3)……….. of radio, whole families could (4) ………….. together in the living room to listen to the daily news bulletin. Even today, when TV sets occupy a prime (5) ……………… in the most used rooms in our house, some listeners remain faithful to their radio stations. Except, of course, for the fact that many will (6)………….  in to them on their computer or tablet instead of turning their radio dial.

With the (7)……………  use of social media, news travels faster than ever before. Minute-by-minute coverage of the news no longer relies on TV networks. Increased internet access enables individuals to share photos, opinions and even live videos with one sharp (8) ………………….. on the screen.

Read the sentences below.
Choose the best word (A, B, C or D) for each space.

For questions 1–8, read the text below anddecide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning. (0)

 

Hobbyists around the world unite

No doubt you may be (0)……inclined…… to think that in this day and age, traditional pursuits are no longer ‘in’ and that we would have (1)…….. away with old-fashioned hobbies that don’t involve computers. Nothing of the (2) . If anything, the internet has made it easier for people with specialist hobbies in different corners of the planet to (3) ………… themselves to their passion and to support one another.

With one quick press of a key, (4)…………. car collectors are online, comparing notes and restoration (5) …………. with enthusiasts in distant lands. If a part needs replacing, a vast electronic inventory is out there (6)………. and waiting. After a day in the field, birdwatchers can post sightings they consider worth sharing with likeminded enthusiasts who will immediately (7)………………. to their passion.

Thankfully, face to face contact does still take place. Historic car rallies and races have a large following. Come Sunday morning, children and adults alike still meet to swap, or perhaps even (8)……………………. , the cards missing from their collections.

For questions 1 – 12, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap.
There is an example at the beginning (0).

Fingernails growing faster

People’s fingernails and toenails, (0) …according… to a recent study, are nowadays growing more quickly. Research (1) ….. out at the University of North Carolina indicates that the speed at which human nails are growing has increased by (2) ….. to 25 per cent over the last 70 years.

The results of the study show that the (3) ….. human fingernail now grows about 3.5 mm a month, (4) ….. with just 3 mm seven decades ago. Toenail growth, (5) ….. only about 2 mm per month, was also up on the figure (6) ….. in a similar survey done 70 years ago.

Researchers (7) ….. the rapid increase down to changes in lifestyle, particularly the greater (8)……. of the importance of regular exercise and a healthy diet. This, they point out, is in (9) ….. with similar trends in the height and weight of present-day adults.

nterestingly, it appears that nails (10) ….. to grow fastest in warmer conditions, with the quickest growth (11) ….. among young people, and men. The fastest-growing nail is on the middle finger, while that on the little finger is (12) ….. far the slowest, at only a fraction o ver 3 mm each month.

 

For questions 1 – 12, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap.
There is an example at the beginning (0).

Holidays at home

Official figures show that the number of people (0) ..TAKING….. international flights is decreasing, and that this is (1) ……. in significant changes to holidaying habits. 

As the cost of air tickets increases, it appears that more and more familias are choosing to (2) ….. their summer holidays at home. People are also becoming more (3) ……. of the harm that flying does to the environment, and see it as a way of helping to (4) ……. the planet, too.

For many parents a summer with no airport queues or overcrowded resorts may seem attractive, but the idea might well be less (5) ……. with their teenage children, who are probably (6) ……. to flying off to the Mediterranean or Miami as soon as school breaks up. So, the question is, how can young people (7) ……. lots of fun when so much will be closed far the holidays, and so many of their friends are (8) ……. to be away?

The answer may lie at the local sports centre. Nowadays, many centres organise summer activities aimed at young people (9) ……. either on indoor or outdoor sports. These might range, far instance, from playing table tennis to (10) ……. mountain-biking. As well as being healthy and enjoyable, taking part in activities like these is also an excellent way to (11) …… new friends. Far the most popular activities, though, it is advisable to (12) ……. early far a place – perhaps two or three months in advance.