Evidently, if you missed the memo, the UK is in the clutches of a "I heart animals forever and ever and ever for like ever…ever" epidemic that scientists have warned will melt our hearts like cheddar cheese on top of a slice of bread being grilled in an oven.

First pandas, now lemurs, soon it will be lobsters and giraffes and monkeys and elephants and…well, you get the picture.

At the West Midland Safari & Leisure Park, perched amidst the splendid backdrop of Bewdley in Worcestershire, workers are positively giddy about the fact they have been privileged to see a romance blossom between two of its lemurs.

British holidaymakers are to benefit from new changes that have come into place over charges that are added when people purchase foreign currency, the Office of Fair Trading has announced.

Five major banks – Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and the Co-operative Bank – have agreed to stop charging customers who purchase foreign currency with their debit cards.

This means they will be spared a costly surcharge that tended to waver around 1.5 per cent and two per cent.

Other notable changes include banks agreeing with the OFT over the need to provide "clearer, more accessible" information about the stipulations tied to using cards overseas.

Sport, sport, sport and more sport, the phrase London 2012 has now become synonymous with, well, sport!

London & Partners, the official promotion organisation for the capital city, revealed that as the city prepares to usher in a new year, it will also be preparing for a bounty of sporting events in the run up to the Olympic Games.

As for the Games themselves – you can't get any sportier than that!

You know that funny feeling when you wake up and you're hungry and so you figure I'll have some porridge that releases energy so slowly I'll be good till lunchtime no problemo. It gets to 9am and your belly rumbles. What's this nonsense you asky?

So you knock back a pint of water and chomp on a banana, thinking no problemo. This works till 11am and you wonder what the devil is going on? In response, you have one of those 99-calorie chocolate bars that is never quite enough…

There's change afoot in people looking to take a gap year. That change is so profound that the term itself could become a pastime, a relic of a bygone era – times; they are 'a changing'.

People are now looking to take short breaks when it comes to going on gap years, according to Phil Murray, director of Gapadvice.org.

"Nowadays in particular, they have got a 15-month gap [if they are attending university a year later], [so] it may be that young people are no longer doing the traditional six months volunteering," he explained.

You just got to love Picasso. The man was a supremely talented artist, wonderfully charismatic and renowned for his joie de vivre.

His work can be seen all over the world. Now, though, in the UK, we will all have the opportunity to see what is described as one of the 20th century's most valued etchings – produced by the Spanish genius between 1930 and 1937.

The complete collection of etchings, 100 in total, has been gifted to the British Museum by Hamish Parker, a City financier with a big heart. He splashed out a cool £1 million.

Every year thousands of keen rock climbers head to the Lake District to test themselves against the hundreds of boulders and cliffs in the region.

But in the coming weeks, people will not only be able to enjoy the thrill of climbing themselves, they'll be able to hear all about professionals' experiences and watch their daredevil expeditions at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival.

Kicking off on Thursday November 17th, the event brings together some of the best climbers in the world to share their entertaining, and often jaw-dropping, stories.

Holidays are meant for relaxing right? Sitting back with a nice cool drink watching the world go by, lazing in a hot tub or lying on a beach somewhere are all typical relaxing holiday activities which will help reduce your stress and ensure you are rested and ready to return to work when your long weekend/week/fortnight is over.

However, there is another way to get your mind off the stresses and strains of everyday life and relax you – an active holiday.

Leeds International Film Festival is the largest of its kind outside of London, which pretty much reveals just how big and important it is in the national cultural calendar.

This year marks a special moment in the festival's history, as 2011 sees it celebrate its 25th birthday, a quarter of a century of entertainment, fun and breathtaking cinema.

At the opening Gala, Andre Arnold's new screen adaption of Wuthering Heights – the classic Emily Bronte and English literature novel – will usher in proceedings for what is certain to be a jam-packed, extravagant and too good to be true event for film aficionadas on a short break in the city.