Weekly roundup 45: Pick up sticks

Like many of you, I walk through the park most days with my kids. And, like many of you, at this time of year I let my kids pick up and play with interesting-looking sticks and leaves. I usually like them to leave their treasures in the park, but occasionally they can bring especially cool finds home, to leave at the door and take back to the park another day. Very rarely do sticks make it into the flat itself.

Then one day last week, I saw this bad boy on the ground. And never mind the kids, I dragged it home myself, my head full of possibilities. A minimalist Christmas tree. A wall hanging. Paint it! A DIY dream! I did scrape up the ceiling getting it upstairs but surely, the bigger the stick, the greater the possibilities?!

In fact the possibilities have overwhelmed me and this beast is just stood towering up to the ceiling mocking me. Please help! What shall I do with it? Best answer gets a prize 😇.

- Shreya

Teepee time

If nothing else I could take the stick back outside to build a teepee palace - if that's up your street, here's some instructions.

Slightly more achievable crafting with sticks

My 4 year old and I made some stick people using ice cream sticks and googley eyes from Poundland. I gave mine green hair made from sequins. He gave his a colossal wingspan. There are no rules! (For some other crafting ideas using 'popsicle sticks', look here).

Kid-friendly ChopSTICKS

Ramen noodles are the perfect warming dish for this weather, and no one does them better than Tonkotsu - found across London and Birmingham. 

They're also super kid-friendly: kids get their own chopsticks, ramen and bento menu, colouring pages and pencils - plus, most school holidays a child can eat free with a paying adult.

(Their homepage also have a video showing ramen being made and it's very satisfying.)

And finally, something completely different: the latest crypto drama explained

"FTX", "Binance", "bailouts"... to many of us the world of cryptocurrency seems opaque and pretty irrelevant, but occasionally something happens that breaks through the noise. This week, that was a crypto exchange nearly going bust, sort or being saved, but now going down again. It's all feels far away but billions are being made and lost, and regulators are taking note. Here's a good explainer.