St Patrick's Day green dress

 

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I decided to wear green and orange for online meetings all through the month of March to celebrate St Patrick's day.  

The Flag of Eire

St Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. His day fell on a Sunday this year, which is a great day since you can celebrate all day at the weekend.  But in the USA they start serving green drinks at pubs near universities before St Patrick's Day. 

I posed questions about St Patrick's Day at Toastmasters clubs in the UK and online to Asia. Many people in India have not heard of it, so I had a chance to enlighten them.

Green Colour

Why green? Ireland is known as the emerald Isle. The countryside is green. The same as other parts of the UK, notably Scotland, the lake district of England, where the water falling from the Westerlies, westerly winds, creates lakes.

St Patrick

St Patrick supposedly travelled from the mainland UK to Ireland to convert the Irish to Christianity. Now in Eire the majority are Roman Catholic, with the pope in the Vatican as the head of their church.

Snakes In Ireland

So the, story goes, had miraculous powers. He exterminated all the snakes in Ireland. Whilst it is true that there are no snakes in Ireland, and have been none since his time, researchers found that there were no snakes in Ireland earlier either. As they say, why let the truth get in the way of a good story. 

The Blarney Stone

Perhaps we should credit the famed Blarney stone. Legend says if you kiss it, it gives you the gift of the gab.

New York

The Irish Heritage Museum in New York has an exhibit about Irish dance dresses, which frequently have green, at least as a border.

The places to see Irish costumes next year include, pubs in the UK, pubs in Singapore and Malaysia, Japan and Korea,, The USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, especially Montreal, Moscow, 

If you want to stock up for next year, or buy second hand, look at Shein, Amazon, Temu and other places for green hats, ties, bow ties. You can also buy spectacle frames, scarves, stocks, bunting, and sleeves which look like tattoos.

Favourite motifs include shamrocks and leprechauns.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick%27s_Day

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Sylvia's Phone holder

 After Sylvia lost her phone, left behind in a taxi, she thought, she invested in this phone holder. It  has a flap which slides under your existing phone  protection case..

https://www.shein.co.uk/Clear-Phone-Case-With-Chain-Lanyard-p-6338482-cat-1923.html?onelink=2/2nv2itayitn9&skucode=I74dhsufx525&url_from=ukadplase2110181727436529iPhone14_GPM&cid=16905480376&setid=&adid=&pf=GOOGLE&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4NujBhC5ARIsAF4Iv6d1HOIW0Djdm6Ul-KPtjNBNPqD7AxmEYFlfk-OttQeNAxiuhd3kXRoaAk1gEALw_wcBlus the time and trouble and stress. 

Photo by Angela Lansbury. 

Sylvia lost her phone. She thought she left it in a taxi. If you have the number of the taxi you can ask the taxi company.

I always ask for a receipt. Then if I left anything behind I can call the taxi company. 

If sthey say, we don't have it, you can then work down your list of places you could have lost it.

 The driver might say he does not have it. Why not? It could have been picked up by a later customer. 

You might have dropped it in the road when getting out of the vehicle (I lost a cross body bag earlier this year. Luckily the finder gave it in to the club adjacent to the kerbside.)

Sylvia bought hers fro a phone shop, It cost about 25 Singapore dollars. She said that was a lot less that the cost of replacing a phone, 

I found cross body phone cases with chain on Shein for under ten  dollars. Plus a discount offered if you are signing in for the first tie and sign up.

Useful Wevites

https://www.shein.co.uk/Clear-Phone-Case-With-Chain-Lanyard-p-6338482-cat-1923.html?onelink=2/2nv2itayitn9&skucode=I74dhsufx525&url_from=ukadplase2110181727436529iPhone14_GPM&cid=16905480376&setid=&adid=&pf=GOOGLE&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4NujBhC5ARIsAF4Iv6d1HOIW0Djdm6Ul-KPtjNBNPqD7AxmEYFlfk-OttQeNAxiuhd3kXRoaAk1gEALw_wcB

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Valentine's Day, Singapore and Worldwide: Dinners and heart shaped pattern clothes, chocolate covered fruit and heart shape biscuits

Pink lights on the trees in Scotts Road where it joins Orchard road at the heart of Singapore. The centre of Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

 On Monday Feb 13 I was at a wine dinner at the Tanglin Club's group, The Affordable Wine Society. They organizers wondered why they had fewer people than usual? Was it because they were serving white wine, Chardonnay, from France, South Africa, Argentina, and New Zealand? 

I reckoned it was because many people, like us decided that they didn't not want to eat out at large, expensive meals with food and wine two nights running.  The Tanglin Club has more than 4,000 members, and The Churchill Room restaurant was fully booked for the Valentine's Day evening dinner, costing  188 Singapore dollars (116.50 pounds sterling per couple, which is just over 58 pounds per person), without wine. The price was  228 Singapore dollars including matched wine, which was just over 141 pounds meaning about seventy pounds per person including wine. That was a multi-course meal.

We chose to go to the wine dinner instead. Others might have chosen to opt to go out and splurge on Valentine's Day. We treated our wine dinner as our Valentine's night and I wore hearts in black.

Angela in black heart top. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

Angela in an outfit featuring pink hearts for an online Zoom meeting with the them of love.

A Toastmasters International Club came up with a fun idea for those without a Valentine's Day Date Online

Shein blouse printed with small black hearts.

Tesco shortbread assortment, bought before Xmas 2002, a gift to Angela Lansbury.

DIY Valentine's Day pop card by Angela Lansbury. Heart shaped shortbread biscuit in tin box from Tesco, UK. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

BISCUITS

Tesco heart shaped shortbread biscuit. There were two of these in the box.

I made the card by drawing a heart and filling in the red with a watercolour pencil. You will find them in large stationery departments of book shops, supermarkets, art shops, department stores. I have bought them from Wilko in the UK, WHmith in Brent Cross, Mustafa's in Singapore. See my other posts on watercolour pencils.

TOASTMASTERS THEMED MEETINGS

Un-Valentined - A special meeting for Single Toastmasters who have absolutely no plans for Valentine's Day evening. 

Eligibility Criteria:

1. Single

2. Valentine's Day evening plan is to sulk at home

3. Enjoys the company of Toastmasters

Date: 14th Feb 2023

Time: 9 pm (IST) | 3:30 pm (UTC) | 10:30 am (EST)

Zoom Meeting

POETRY MEETINGS

Poetry groups run the theme of Valentines or love.

See Facebook Groups. For example, the Fertile Brains. They have a WhatsApp group.

Useful Websites

Tanglin Club, Singapore

Toastmasters International Find a Club

UK

Berry Bouquets

12 chocolate covered strawberries. Twelve pounds.

https://berrybouquets.co.uk/questions/milk-choc-gift-box.html

USA only- cake petits fours

Box of little cakes in various colours and designs. Picture of cakes' insides on website.

https://www.swisscolony.com/p/valentine-petits-fours-003191.html

Worldwide

https://www.facebook.com/ediblearrangements

Tesco Recipe

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/funfetti-heart-biscuits.html

Edible Bouquets

https://www.ediblearrangements.ae/fruit-bouquet-detail.aspx?ArrangementID=611

Edible biscuits heart shape

https://www.fairmart.app/store/costa-rhu-indian-supermart/britannia-little-hearts-biscuits-264oz-750g-biscuit-de-patits-coeurs-soft-and-delicious-biscuits-kid-03582?utm_term=&utm_campaign=CostaRhu_Purch_PerformanceMax&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=5402163297&hsa_cam=18866472471&hsa_grp=&hsa_ad=&hsa_src=x&hsa_tgt=&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAiA_6yfBhBNEiwAkmXy50vIg1iUB8MNwCLr_RvlI4g5836NosgNi4OLJ2Bd0bc1MVTUKlft4RoCx40QAvD_BwE

Watercolour pens and pencils

https://www.amazon.sg/Faber-Castell-PL154312-12-Piece-Water-Colour/dp/B008UOTXO2/ref=sr_1_2?adgrpid=97178868873&gclid=CjwKCAiA_6yfBhBNEiwAkmXy546pD8TFkMVeK2l11v4_ybiQr_owzrlN-ZCRDlmYkcbulUEaoZ2_gBoCflAQAvD_BwE&hvadid=587401505212&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9062509&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=17528429277747009784&hvtargid=kwd-256622149&hydadcr=13813_339767&keywords=watercolour+pencils&qid=1676371197&sr=8-2