It's been a good week for … fizz

It's been a good week for … fizz

It's tough in times of austerity when you can't splash out on your favourite champagne. Thankfully, our clever cousins Down Under have come to the rescue. Cheryl Marshall from Perth, Australia has caused a bit of a stir on YouTube after sharing her recipe for homemade "champagne".

Complicated it isn't. For Aussie champagne, all you need is a wine box (full) and a SodaStream. Fill the SodaStream bottle with wine, hit the button, drink.

It's possibly not one for the connoisseur, but it's January, so who's arguing? I'm confident Cheryl's Champers will transfer to UK shores quite easily. Obviously, for copyright purposes, the name will have to change. The Brit version? Pom-agne, of course.

It's been a bad week for … eating festive leftovers

Those last few mince pies, the cake and the shortbread have got to go. So says Gwyneth Paltrow, who has furnished us with her annual detox tips.

Her lifestyle site Goop - "where food, shopping, and mindfulness collide" - has once again shared its latest popular regime, urging fans to give their digestive systems a rest and get the year off to a good start.

This year's offering from Skinny Gwynny is, apparently, a little less enthusiastic about wholegrains, but tomatoes and aubergines are still the work of the devil, although heaven knows why.

What she's learned from her doctor - detox diet specialist Dr Alejandro Junger - is that you can detox effectively while you continue to eat, as long as you cut out the stuff that interferes with the detox process. Basically, anything that makes January bearable.

"Just say no to alcohol, caffeine, added sugar, gluten, dairy, soy, corn and nightshades (white, blue, red and yellow potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant)," notes Paltrow.

The friendly advice does not stop there. "You want to keep your digestive system moving, so drink plenty of water (hot water in the morning is key), and think about kicking the week off with a colonic - they definitely get things going," she counsels.

The best thing about the offerings from the paltry Paltrow pantry is that the regime only lasts seven days.

The Christmas cake will keep far longer than that.