Toy story

Little Ibi is the mountainside pueblo with a sweet history. After decades scraping snow from the nearby peaks to make ice cream, the hard-grafting townsfolk turned their mitts to the manufacture of toys in the 1905. And they're still producing truckloads of both today. Obviously a place like this would sound like heaven on earth to most kids, so I wrote a cheery introductory feature for YeahBaby magazine (yeah, really). Lightly skipping over colourful tales of professional espionage, cutthroat competition and mass walkouts from the original three toy factories during Ibi's 'golden age' of toy making, I pointed young travellers to a more wholesome history at the town's Valencian Toy Museum. Packed full of classic toys. it's a refreshingly straightforward museum that lets the fruits of over a hundred years' labour speak for themselves. The article will feature in the December-January issue of YeahBaby magazine (bmibabymagazine.com)

Bloke's eye view

I normally write pretty neutral city guides. Simple little introductions to places I visit that wouldn't exclude too many tastes or budgets. That said, I'm a 28-year-old man. My opinion of a good way to spend time occasionally differs from that of a 42-year-old single mum with kids in tow. But I've never been one to spoon-feed addresses and must-sees. My belief is this: give a man a guidebook and he'll stay on the right track for a day; inspire that man to look around for interesting shit himself and he'll not get lost, bored or flustered for a lifetime. Writing a bloke-centric guide to Las Palmas, then, was a piece I was born to write. With strict instructions to find a few interesting things for lads to do – and without too much boorish ‘stag do’ fodder – I was dispatched by the easyJet magazine to find Gran Canaria’s beating, masculine heart for the November issue. Apologies to all those who feel left out. (ink-live.com/easyjet-inflight-magazine)