I don’t have hay fever, but based on how I react to walking outside on a hot day, I’d forgive you for believing I do.

For some reason, getting off the train into the sun, opening my door onto a ray-soaked street, and even leaving a tree’s shadow into a bright spot triggers a huge, eye-watering sneeze – and until now, I had no idea why.

But it turns out it might be my genes, per the Cleveland Clinic.

It sounds like I’m experiencing a “photic sneeze reflex,” also known as “autosomal dominant compelling helio-ophthalmic outburst syndrome” (ACHOO syndrome – teehee).

An extract from Medical Genetics Summaries says that “Affected individuals report a ‘prickling sensation’ or sneezing in response to a bright light.”

It’s elicited by going from a darker area to an area of brighter light (like stepping into sunlight from indoors), or simply having a bright light shown to you.

This can be “uncontrollable.”

“About one in four individuals who already have a prickling sensation in their nose will sneeze in response to sunlight, but ‘pure’ photic sneezing is far less common,” Medical Genetics Summaries shared.

If one parent has the condition, their child has a 50% chance of developing it.

But the Cleveland Clinic says we don’t know exactly how many people have the condition.

On average, they add, it seems to be about 15-30% of us: white people, especially white women, may be more likely to have the trait.

It’s a genetic issue, but we don’t know yet which genes are responsible.

It happens because of a misfiring in a facial nerve that goes from your eyes to your nose. The constriction of your pupils as your eyes adjust to the light triggers the sneeze.

It can be if you’re operating heavy machinery or driving: “for example, exiting a road tunnel on a bright day.”

Pilots might need to be more cautious, too.

There’s no cure for ACHOO syndrome, but you can make the journey from darker spots into lighter areas easier on the eyes.

Shielding your eyes with a hat or sunglasses might help.

And the Cleveland Clinic recommends we “Use the ‘transverse philtral pressure technique,’ which involves applying pressure to the area between your nose and your lips.

“If you’re doing it right, it should look like you’re giving yourself a moustache with your finger,” they said. This may interrupt the sneezing signal.

I’m learning so much more about myself than I expected today…

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I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: having to decide what to eat three times a day is an impossible task.

It’s really indicative of us being in late stage capitalism (sorry Marx, you would’ve hated 2026) that even thinking about our meals is an exhausting endeavour, but unfortunately that’s not something we can cure.

What we can solve, though, is the effort required to simply make dinner at the end of the day.

Whether you’re a parent, living with a partner, or simply need to be able to get home and not worry that you’re going to get your intake of protein and fibre at the end of the day, I’ve made it my job to find the very best recipe boxes and meal kits on the market.

Until now, I’ve been quite fundamentally opposed to having someone else tell me how to cook. Call me a control freak, but I really do think I know better than a recipe what I will like.

So I’ve had high standards going in to this, and I’ve tested each box in the list to make sure I find the best options for people at each cooking level.

For each recipe box, I’ve considered how clear the included recipe cards were, the number and range of options, the packaging and storage, how easy they were to cook, the quality of the ingredients, the flavour of the end result, and who I thought each box would be best suited for.

Keep reading for a round up of my favourites.

• Packaging is recyclable
• Healthy and protein-heavy
• Plant-based
• Donates a meal to a child in need every time a box is ordered
• Easy to follow instructions

• Plant-based isn’t for everyone

When people hear the term ‘plant-based’ they immediately jump to the conclusion that it won’t be good.

Proving that you can make restaurant-quality plant-based food at home (and we mean the same quality as a regular restaurant, not a vegan one, before you shut off!) Grubby has created a recipe box that’s healthy and easy to follow.

You can choose a box for two or four people, and the options all state how much protein and fibre they include, making it easy to stay healthy.

What I loved most about this box is that everything about the packaging is great quality, not just because the paper is thicker than other flimsier recipe cards, but because most of it is recyclable and there’s minimal plastic.

As for the ingredients, you can tell they work with seasonal suppliers; that’s what makes Grubby a B-corp!

While the recipes were easy to follow, they might be for slightly more advanced chefs than other recipe boxes in this list – as in, one recipe called for making your own hummus in a blender. Personally, I enjoyed that, because I don’t like being treated like I don’t know how to boil a kettle.

And I have to say, every time, the overall end result was more delicious than any of the other boxes I tried. It was consistent, and even my meat-loving girlfriend enjoyed everything I made.

Grubby also makes ready meals, which are equally as tasty and can. be kept in your freezer for a rainy day.

• Recipes are easy to follow, and you can double if you’re making a recipe for four
• Specialised diet options
• Ingredients are fresh
• The finished result is tasty

• Uses lots of little plastic packages

Unlike Grubby, Green Chef has options for every kind of dietary requirement. You can choose from keto, high-protein, calorie conscious, vegetarian, vegan, lower carb, pescatarian, or flexitarian meals, and the menu is updated every week.

It arrives neatly packaged so it’s easy to store in the fridge, however there were some random ingredients loosely packaged so I wasn’t sure which meal they correlated to.

As I’m pescatarian, I chose meals with a combination of fish and vegetables, and most of the recipes I chose had a lot of fibre.

Each recipe card includes photos, which makes it straightforward to follow, and although I was suspicious of the fact they use random ingredients I wouldn’t normally use, the overall flavour was very good.

You can also choose add-ons like mozzarella or soups to keep you going throughout the week, and I appreciated that the meals often take no more than half an hour to make – perfect for a mid-week dinner.

• Recipes are beginner-friendly
• They have an option for meal boxes for one
• Very family-friendly recipe options

• Again uses lots of different plastic sachets etc
• Uses creme fraiche in everything (why?!)

Whether you find cooking a drag or you’ve been told you’re not very good at it (kids and partners are cruel, I’m sorry) Hello Fresh creates a recipe box that takes all the thinking out of cooking and really leads you through it step by step.

There are plenty of recipe options for meat eaters and vegetarians, and it’s the only recipe box I know of that has an option for one. As someone who mostly cooks for herself, I really appreciated this detail – it also cuts down on waste!

However, Hello Fresh was the box I liked the least. Maybe I ordered the wrong recipes, but every single meal I made included creme fraiche, and by the end of the week my stomach was paying the price.

Plus, the taste just wasn’t as good as other recipes. I don’t know if it’s because it’s trying to be family friendly and include options kids and fussy eaters would approve of, but some of the recipes use creme fraiche and other ingredients seemingly for no reason.

Some of the instructions seemed anti-intuitive and unclear, and I’m not entirely convinced this will make you a better home cook.

There are also fewer options for dietary requirements, and less information about the nutritional value of each recipe than other boxes.

I’d say this is really best for absolute beginners or completely time-crunched families, as it leads you through things at a granular level and doesn’t require much thought.

• Lots of dietary options available
• Can be kept in the freezer or fridge
• No need to chop or fry anything
• Tasty
• It offers seasonal menus
• Great employer

• You gotta turn the oven on

Sometimes you want to come home and not have to think about anything other than turning the oven on, and maybe boiling a few peas.

If there’s one thing that will save you trouble of an evening, it’s COOK.

These ready meals come in a whole smorgasbord of different cuisines, and there are options for all the family, from fish pie to tikka masala, and even canapés for a dinner party.

On the whole, the quality is really excellent, and I love that they have desserts.

However, whoever they work with for their delivery needs to figure it out because they often leave things at the wrong address – our deputy editor’s neighbour is well-fed, she reports.

If you’re ever looking for a gift for new parents, COOK is the one. They’ll be able to keep it in the freezer, and it even has a new parents bundle.

And, on a side note, COOK is an excellent employer – it has a RAW Talent scheme that employs people struggling to find work for various reasons. Big up COOK!

We all lead busy lives, and whether you’re a Michelin-grade cook or complete newbie, deciding what to eat at the end of the day is a lot.

One thing I’ve loved about having recipe boxes is never having to go to the supermarket. Often, I find myself buying ingredients with lofty ideals of making a specific meal, only for it to expire before I have time to use it.

You’ll also never have to decide what you feel like eating, or figure out if you’re consuming a balanced diet because most boxes tell you about the nutritional value of each recipe.

Recipe boxes can also be a great way to learn new recipes, or at the very least get inspiration from.

However, you might not always want the meals you have in your fridge. Some recipe boxes come with tiny sachets of ingredients that somehow never get used, so they end up hanging around your fridge forever.

This might also mean more waste than if you went to the supermarket, because things can go off pretty quickly.

Overall, recipe boxes and meal kits can be a great way to save time, money, and energy.

Lots of the ones on this list have offers for first time buyers. The best one I tried was Grubby, as it’s healthy and plant-based. But, if you’re staunch about having some meat or protein in your diet, I’d go for Green Chef, as it has a ton of dietary options and the final result was consistently great.

Yesterday, parts of London’s Underground network reached a sweltering 33°C, The Standard reported.

That’s three degrees above the government’s upper limit for the safe transport of cattle.

According to Bloomberg UK, the network of underground trains can be 5°C hotter than the high temperature on the street.

To be honest, I hadn’t put much thought into why that might be. Hot day, little air con, and tonnes of people – a recipe for a sauna-level carriage, I reckoned.

But it turns out that a good chunk of that notorious heat comes from an unexpected source, which has nothing to do with either the air temperature or the mass of people.

In 2007, a Rail Engineering report found that a lot of the heat comes from braking.

That’s because the friction created during the process is very intense, creating a lot of kinetic energy that gets converted into heat energy.

Forbes says braking is responsible for about half of the higher heat, while passengers account for 2% of the warmth. Rail magazine puts the combined effects of braking and train motion at 80% of heat input.

Then, there’s the ground into which the tube network was built.

It’s largely clay and chalk, both of which hold onto heat. This is particularly troublesome for deeper tube lines, which have less access to air.

This heat builds up – per Rail Magazine, the average tube temperature in 1900 was 14°C, compared to today’s 20-25°C.

Not all tube stations have adequate ventilation, either, meaning hot air has nowhere to escape. The heat simply builds and builds, and because extracted hot air often has nowhere to go, not even air conditioning will provide an adequate solution.

It’s no easy feat. London Underground’s Programme Director for Infrastructure, George McInulty, told Rail magazine: “We can increase the capacity of shafts, and we did this during the upgrade of the Victoria Line in 2011/12.

“But we were lucky that it was only built in the 1960s, with half an eye to improving ventilation at a later date and introducing a service of over 30 trains per hour. Elsewhere we’ve been less lucky, and have had to look at retrofitting stuff where we can.”

Air conditioning is simply not an option for tunnels that can’t let hot air out; it’ll simply heat some older, hotter lines up more.

Some solutions, like turning a lift in St Paul’s into a fan, have helped. In Victoria Station, water from a nearby river is circulated in pipes around the tunnels to keep them cool.

But these clever workarounds are not universally available.

McInulty said: “We can make gains from deceleration, and we are buying trains with regenerative braking, which produces electrical energy from braking rather than all that heat from friction.

“And there are other things that go unseen by the public that make a difference – we have put a thin film on the windows of Central Line trains, so they absorb less energy on the outside parts of the line which is then dumped underground. We’ve also made massive steps in using LED lights which give out less heat.”

Still, it’s hard to see how the tube will cool down significantly any time soon.