Escapism - Travel To Escape Threats, Bad Memories, and illness - Getting Out and Back Quickly

Let's start with the worst case scenario, needing fast action.

Threats

What can you do to escape danger? In some countries such as the UK and USA you can take out a restraining order. However, this does not always succeed.

 When somebody is trying to kill you, or your child, you could take your child on a holiday to a foreign country and then change hotels. Take a trip from there to a different country. 

Before sending a letter or making a phone call, you could go across the border to an adjoining country for the day. So that your location is not known or traceable. Rent your home to somebody who does not speak English who looks of a different race. 

Witnesses

What if you cannot leave the country because you are needed in a court case?

1 In some cases it is possible to give evidence by video link from a separate room.

To avoid danger, to save the cost of travel, and missing work or medical appointments, you may be able to give evidence by video link from another country. I remember this being done in Singapore.

2 Your country might organize a witness protection scheme.

Changing Identity

You could change your name by deed poll.

You could adopt a pen name or professional name.

You could change to a shorter name, from Alexander to Alec or Al.

You could change back to your longer name, from |Al to Alexander.

You could alter the spelling of your name, eg from Jane to Jayne, or from Jayne to Jane.

You could marry somebody and take their family name.

You can change your email from your name to your status or profession. eg from John Smith at the Company to Treasurer at The Company.

Moving permanently overseas

Since Brexit you have to consider several legal and financial questions 

1 Do you have the right to reside overseas permanently?

2 Can you buy property overseas?

3 Can you receive your pension overseas?

4 Can you avoid paying tax in two countries?

The cheapest form of accommodation is often camping. 

If wartime or security causes your holiday, or return flight to be cancelled, and you need to return home for work, children's schooling, consider whether you can hop countries. You might use budget airline, private plane, taxi, bus, ferry, hire car, shared expense car. You could start a whatsapp group for all the passengers on a stranded plane, which cannot fly because the crew are over their flying hours limit.

To leave or return in a hurry, you could even buy an old or new car and sell it at the destination.

Useful Websites

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15793521/Mother-died-Bristol-explosion-hailed-hero-saving-child-seconds-gangster-ex-boyfriends-grenade-

https://www.college.police.uk/app/prosecution-and-case-management/victim-and-witness-care

https://www.myexpattaxes.com/

https://www.singaporelawwatch.sg/About-Singapore-Law/Civil-Practice-ADR/requirements-of-foreign-jurisdictions-on-the-taking-of-evidence-given-voluntarily-by-way-of-live-video-link-from-a-witness-located-in-their-jurisdiction-in-civil-proceedings-before-singapore-courts

What kind of questions should you ask? For Impromptu speeches. In life.

Many schools and universities have debating socieities or Toastmasters International clubs. The latter are holding contest online now and through the summer, culminating in the grand international contest, held this year in Paris. You can see previous years' contest winners online on Youtube.

My experience is that if you ask practical questions, you are more likely to get useful answers. You will get a practical answer if you ask, Would you invest in property now, why or why not?
You could ask another question such as, "Would you recommend starting your day with doing exercise or checking your bank balance and stocks and shares. Why?"

If you ask abstract questions, such as, "Which is better health or wealth,  You often get waffling answers. Beginners don't know where to start. Some people run out of ideas half way.

Yes or no questions in real life are known as closed questions. The other person answers yes or no and does not continue. An open ended question gets a longer reply.
 However, a beginner might find it easy to answer the yes no question and then continue.

So a table topic of impromptu speech contest could start with, Do you agree with capital punishment or not. Expalin why.

Useful Websites
Toastmasters International Find a Club

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is president of Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters club. Meeting the first wednesday evening and third Saturday afternoon.

Airline and Holiday Horror Stories Told Over Supper: Lost Luggage & cameras and keys, buying property and a dead body a dead body

"Don't get me started!"
Around the table at supper we all told our stories:

Airline Horror Stories
Everyone has a favourite airline and a favourite airline horror story. Walter prefers Easyjet to Ryanair.  However, he complained, 'Luggage allowances are getting smaller and smaller. I was asked to pay for luggage. I had bought a cheap ticket with NO luggage allowance!' When dealing with an unknown airline, the moral is, check the luggage allowance.

I asked, 'What of the early days of plane travel? Was it always so much better?'
Walter said: 'Years ago we got on the plane and a family who had never travelled before got on with us. First they changed from their clothes into their night clothes. Then they unwrapped their cooker and prepared to light it to cook supper!
'I called an air hostess who came running to stop them.'

Nicky, a hotel owner warned us about the hazards of buying property abroad in Asia.

Warnings About Buying Property
Nicky said: 'I went to buy a property and I could see from the plan that it wasn't the area they claimed. When I asked the girl, she replied: "The common area outside the lifts is divided between the six flats on that level so that counts as part of your floor area."

'I then asked about the swimming pool. She said, "The residents can use it free for five years. After that you have to join the club owned by the management to use it." '

I asked Nicky, 'Have you heard the story about the hotel guest who mistook the bedroom door for the bathroom door and locked himself out - in the nude - in the hotel corridor! Do you think it's a true story?'

Nicky said, 'Of course it is. Lots of hotels have self-locking doors. If you have a hotel with fifty or a hundred rooms, somebody locks themselves out every day. Once a week somebody is in their underwear or semi-dressed. And every month or year somebody will be completely nude. This happens all over the world. What is surprising is that once somebody thought it wasn't a true story. You don't believe anybody was that naive, do you?'

Hotel Horrors
The Dead Body
The story goes that a man checked into a hotel, collected his key, and found a dead body in the bed. When the living guest returned to reception, the receptionist didn't seem the least bit bothered. He simply handed over another key and said, 'Try this room.'

I am told that deaths in hotels, as well as on planes and coaches, are something staff have to prepare for. You can cover a body with a blanket and pretend the dead person is sleeping or resting. Or move them behind a curtain, in first class. Or down into the crew sleeping area.

Hotels wheel out dead bodies, covered with cloths, like dinners, on the large dinner trollies for room service, or wheeled tabled used for conference catering.
When a relative of mine was in an old people's home we were asked to stay in the room with her for ten minutes. Later, I asked the supervisor why. She explained that they were wheeling out a dead body, not unusual in a home for the elderly, and wanted all the living in their bedrooms so as not to see and get upset.

Hospitals, in the UK, move bodies on covered trolleys in separate lifts to the basement.

The Wrong Key
In a New Orleans hotel I could not get the door to open. The bell-hop arrived with the luggage. He tried the key and the door opened, a man in a bath towel frowning.

I gasped, 'What are you doing? This is my room.'
He retorted, 'No it isn't. It's my room!'
The porter shrugged, resigned, 'Oh, no. They can't get the keys right. They do this to me all the time.'

Let me move on to lighter subjects.

Video Lost
A honeymoom couple returned and showed their video to the whole family, including me. The husband turned on the video and proudly announced, 'This is our honeymoon video.' The opening shots were blank. He wound on. Still blank. He wound on further. Still blank. He would to the end. Still blank.

It could have been a tragedy. Luckily one of the audience had a sense of humour. She said, 'It's all censored. You just have to imagine it!' She burst out laughing and soon the whole room was in hysterics.

Camera Catastrophes
Finally, a mixed blessing story. Tom dropped his camera on a stroll up a mountain near a friend's house in New Zealand. The pair retraced their steps several times but could not find it. A year later the New Zealand friend reported, 'I found your camera. It was broken and unusable but I have retrieved the memory card with all your holiday photos!'

As Shakespeare said, Alls's well that ends well.

About the Author Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts. What are your favourite memories?

Insurance, property, car, rental agreement, and other items to list when travelling overseas

Problem
Whether travelling overseas for work or pleasure, for a one month trek,or indefinitely, you need to allow a day or two to photocopy or duplicate onto a second computer or backup device all your insurances and paperwork. For example:

Supposing you are leaving the USA to work or study in the UK and have a flat in New York and a home you rent out in Florida.

You need a record of your insurance for both properties to hand so you can renew. The terms are different for occupied and empty properties.

The same applies to your travel insurance (unless it is organized by HR of the company you work for). If your insurance is organized by your company, it might not cover a skiing holiday, and will almost certainly not cover you for any country where the government says Americans should not travel, even if you are prepared to take the risk.

On the other hand, let's suppose you are travelling from the UK to the USA as we did. We extended out stay overseas and had problems with the house being empty in the UK (because tenants moved out early and we came back late.) The house was not covered whilst empty.

We could have got around this by having a neighbour or relative with a key doing what the insurance company wanted, not having a house which appeared empty. They could have been collecting the milk, mowing the lawn or paying the gardener to do so, cleaning the windows or paying the window cleaner to do so.

Family should have been just popping in every day or two, with lights on switches to go on and off, making the odd cup of tea, without actually living their full time, just going in and out regularly. 

You might prefer house sitters, if your family are too young or old to be relied upon, or the neighbours are unable or unwilling to help, because they are in wheelchairs, bed-ridden, walking with sticks and can't manage your home entrance staircase, or themselves overseas on holiday, or are developing dementia.

AA
If you hire or buy a car, or co-drive, you will want to have a breakdown service. The AA automobile association will already by familiar to those who have lived in the USA and heard of the AAA, American AA. (The AA also turned up in Singapore.)

Two other services in the UK include the RAC.

But what if you are not driving?

UK Road Tax
In the UK if you leave a car off road on a driveway or in a garage, or are away, you can save on road tax if you declare your car off road. You must do this in advance, not in arrears.

If you are sure you won't go back home, it  can be worthwhile. However, we eventually decided this wasn't not a good idea.

Family Using Your Car
Our son and father in law were using our car if theirs was off road or in the garage or somebody was nearby.

We suspected the gardener or neighbour was using the car when we found the petrol had run low. If you have relatives at home or nearby using the house, even if they have their own cars, if you take yours off the road, or insured let it go uninsured, you need to warn them that they must be sure to get  it insured for them to drive. They might also get a parking ticket.

You might ignore that, thinking it is nonsense. Of course I was not in Edinburgh. I had just flown to Thailand. Then you get fined.

"Son, this is absurd. I've been sent a parking ticket saying the car was in Edinburgh."

"Er, Mum, actually we went to Edinburgh for New Year's Eve. My car had had an accident and was off road - I didn't want to worry you. So I used yours."

So make sure the family and friends, house-sitters and others tell you when they are using your car.  And fill it up with petrol (in the USA you  would say gas). No use flying home, expecting to take a long business trip to another city, and finding the kids have emptied the tank on their jaunts assuming you would fill it up, using your time and money.

Protecting Your Car
If you have a valuable car and are leaving the house empty, which may be obvious to the postman, or  others, you might wish to move it elsewhere. One system is to pay a local garage owner to leave an employees old car on your driveway or in your garage. Your more valuable car is moved into their house or garage where it is supervised 24 hours. (You may or may not need to change your insurance if this is long-term.)

Goodbyes
Don't stand on the doorstep saying goodbye, allowing workers up and down the street, or walking past, to hear that you are leaving the house.

It is easy for thoughtless neighbours to walk up the drive shouting, "When are you leaving?" or, "Have a safe trip!" alerting the assorted workers on the property opposite to watch you loading your suitcases in the car.

On one trip, we would come back on a flight and want to use the car to pop out to the supermarket for groceries before we recovered from jetlag and had time to sit down and record that the car was back on the road.

Of course, we could have done the paperwork from overseas the week in advance before returning. But if you can only do so for blocks of one month, the dates may not suit you. If you are yo-yoing unpredictably back and forth, it may be simpler to not declare the car off the road, and forego the financial saving, rather than have the hassle of the changing and the risk of missing out a day and being fined.

Keeping Records
So you need to have all the numbers to hand. For an organized person, this is all obvious and simple. If you are going abroad for the first time, or are a creative time or hate paperwork, this can be a nightmare. The simple solutions include:

You might choose to keep all vital information in one box file or book which travels with you. Keep it on your laptop and print off a copy on your pinboard. Check the last week of the month for all bills regarding back home.

Vital records can be kept in a marked place on a shelf or left on the fridge door or pinboard or miniature whiteboard.

That way you can phone home and ask somebody to check the fridge door and send you a photo.

What if the only creatures left in your property are not pets but ...

Insects and Animals

Foxes run around the suburban roads and gardens of London, especially at night. This little fella with a couple of family members was in a garden in London.

I found a family member was afraid of spiders and would not go into the house alone on seeing a spiders web. After that I left a spider spray just inside the front door.

If you are renting out your property, you might want to mention pets, no pets, and wildlife. If

Pets
Make provision for pets. I think even hibernating pets should be moved to another place where they are supervised. My friends' house burned down, they claimed and apparently believed, when the weather changed and the hibernating pets woke up unexpectedly early, felt hungry, chewed the electrics and started a fire!

You can also have house-sitters and dog-sitters and dog-walkers. You need to research catteries and dog holiday places if you are planning to leave pets at home, in case your relatives or neighbours fall ill or are away on business travel or their own holiday. Check your pet insurance and leave details of the preferred vet and keep these details with you in case you get a call saying your pet is sick and what should you do.

Now, what about your own health.

Doctors and Dentists
If you have follow-up hospital appointments or dental checks, also time the home visits. An alternative is to have trusted doctors and hospitals in both countries. You may need to take copies of your latest medical checks, even x-rays, with you from one country to the next.

I had an accident overseas and the hospital in one country wanted to give me jabs, tetanus, but I could not say when was the last time I had them.Without I risked an infection. I could not have a jab before  the date the old one expired. First it was a waste of money. Second, I hate jabs. Third, because the double dose would have overloaded my system.

If you are on a doctor's register in the UK, you can book an appointment from the UK. Unfortunately for confidentiality reasons and security, they might block calls from overseas numbers which are not registered, or only allow one number.

Now, let's think about property, again.

Rented property
If you are renting out your home or another property, you should have to hand, the name of the people renting, their phone numbers, the contract so it can be renewed and updated, the amount of the deposit, which might not have increased despite a rental increase, any insurance of the property, or the insurance of their deposit.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Lost and found in the USA, UK, Singapore and worldwide

Lost and Found
I was thinking it was time somebody set up nationwide and worldwide lost and found websites. You need one centralised place to report losses. In Singapore We had to go to the terminus of two different bus lines, a police station, the UK passport office, and the NRIC office.

(I was thinking we need a lost and found site like Tell Us Once. What's that? In the UK in the old days after somebody died if you were the spouse or descendant or lawyer / executor you spent months writing to different government bodies. The death certificate needed for funeral plans took priority, so the pension would continue to be paid and had to be paid back. Hours of work, week, months, for the family, and masses of extra paperwork and muddle for the government offices. Now a wonderful website called Tell Us Once informs all government bodies simultaneously.)

Lost and Found in the USA
I went hunting on the internet and immediately up pops a site for lost and found in the USA. The alliterative subtitle is For property and pets. Such a great idea. The website connection is lost but I love the idea.

Finders Keepers
But maybe a 'lost' item was not stolen but just lost. How many items get lost?

Taxi Lost and Found
A sign in the Singapore taxi warns that fifty per cent of items left in taxis are either wallets or phones. Sometimes a recorded voice tells you to check you have left nothing behind. What more can they do? I think the driver should have a camera on the back which enables him to check.

Taxi Drivers Could Help
Every driver should give a receipt automatically, not just ask whether you want one. Driver should announce his name and the taxi company. For example, "My name is Mr Lim. Thank you for booking GrabTaxi." "Hope you had a good journey in grab taxi. Check you left nothing behind? Nothing on seat, in the pocket? Keep the receipt. If you lose anything, call GrabTaxi and tell them you were in Mr Lim's taxi. Have a great visit."

Receipts Identify Your Taxi
I always ask for a receipt from the taxi. That way if anything ever goes missing you know which taxi and which service. There could be five or more taxi companies and hundreds of taxis.

Finders Keepers
An old saying suggests Finders Keepers. Not so. British courts have set precedents proving otherwise. To give a couple of examples, somebody who had money moved into their bank account in error had to repay it. Treasure from Roman or earlier times has been deemed crown or national property. I shall search and research this and update this post or add another later with details.

In the UK it used to be the case that if you took something to a police station and it was not claimed after three months the finder could keep it. However, you were still expected to return the item.

Accepting Loss - How Soon?
How long should you wait before accepting something is lost? Eventually something might turn up?

Common sites for losses.

Accepting Loss
Some people take the attitude, wave goodbye to what's gone and move on. In Singapore a well-known expat family lost a son who committed suicide. (He had suffered from a slight handicap and was bright and successful and personable yet had been bullied.)

Persistence Pays
On the other hand, a famous quotation - Winston Churchill said, Never, never, never give up.

Lost children - like Madeleine McCann. Lost pets - occasionally turn up miles from home and are reunited.

On Transport
Have your property packed up ready to go when a bus arrives or you reach your stop.

When Should You Give Up?
After you have done all you can. In Singapore I went to the two terminus points at the end of the bus looking for my lost wine red bag containing my passport, NRIC and two phones, my iPhone in a purple 'clam. cover, the Singapore phone in a Cappucino cover.

Staying at one address is a great help. Every time you change address it becomes harder for the finder to return your property.

Losses
My handbag cut in Marbella. Stolen car drew up alongside. Thief cut the handle of my bag. Driver veered around corner and crashed. Car occupants ran. Driver disappeared. My bag was found cut plus Swiss knife - which only later did I realised had been used to cut the handles.

Successful Lost item Found
I lost a valued glove when out looking for a place to live. A week later I retraced my steps. A kind person had stuck the glove upright on top of a post, easily seen.

They never knew I found it, only that somebody had removed it. A belated thank you years later from me - I should have left a thank you note.

In the old days in the UK you could take lost property straight to the local police station. Unfortunately police stations have closed down and centralised. You have to travel a half hour round trip.

Singapore
In Singapore, reporting a loss at the police station, my relative told me the police did not even want to make a report on my 'lost' bag - only if it was stolen. Immediately after it disappeared, we assumed I had somehow dropped it or left it behind on the bus. But since my trace has been found, we now assume it was stolen.

Scotland
At Edinburgh, when visiting the Edinburgh Festival, we lost a camera outside a book fair. Later in the day we went back to the book fair. I went to the desk to ask if anybody had handed in the camera. Sure enough, there it was.

Cost of Loss
What is the cost of loss? You probably underestimate the cost of replacement of goods. Even a new lipstick can cost £20. Replacement passports, NRIC identity cards in Singapore, cost a lot of money.

NRIC
A property agent was asked by a security guard to leave his NRIC. He refused and instead handed over his business card as proof of identity. If you lose your NRIC, the cost of replacing it a second time increases.

Summary:
Losses:
People - children such as Madelien McCann - ongoing search. Hopefully the search for her can have three good outcomes for children, parents and people worldwide a)

Success:
1 Lost and Found website USA.
2 Colleague's empty wallet containing our borrowed library card found in attic of AGB office building, years after wallet went missing. The wallet was taken from a jacket on a chair back in building which you could enter only with an employee or guest pass. (So we now presume the wallet was stolen not by a member of staff but by a contract worker who had access to the roof space.)
3 Empty (and handle cut) shoulder bag retrieved in Marbella, Spain, when we reported loss to police station.
4 Glove found on post a week later in UK.
5 Member of Toastmasters Singapore told me he lost a wallet but within an hour an honest Singaporean had returned it to him.

Action On Lost and Found
National website for lost and found in each country. it could give you the locations of lost and found offices, how to mark and safeguard your property, where to report lost credit cards, give you a record sheet you could fill in with the brand of your handbag, the serial number of your phone, the phone numbers for your credit card companies, your office or relative to be contacted for return of items.

(You don't leave your house, leaving it empty, to collect missing doorways, or burglars could use the keys to get in your house while sending you miles away, or even around the corner). Suggestion - send somebody with your identity and/or do a visual call to identify both parties and the lost item and location in public place with witness for the handover.

Who Retrieve Useless Items
What use is an old passport, now I have a new travel document? It has a record of all my travels, including the time and date of every entry and exit. I keep my old passports. (And those of my ancestors.) I trust that one day somehow the items will be returned to me.

Adrenalin and Chase Syndrome
It is psychological closure. The human brain goes into what I shall call Seek Lost Item mode. You get a rush of adrenalin, anxiety, gear up for physical chase.

(Not just a caveman era Idea. This really happens. And is still relevant and needed. We had two physical chases after lost/stolen property. In Marbella years ago my husband chased after the stolen car whose occupants had stolen my handbag.

In Singapore my husband chased after the bus after I got off and realised my bag was missing. First he chased the bus which stopped at the lights. When the lights changed and the bus sped away, still agitated, he rapped on the window of the nearest car and persuaded the driver to chase the bus. (Thank you Zak.)

Reward
A friend suggested I should offer a reward. So I offer a reward. £20 or Singapore$20 for each of the five missing items, the bag, the iPhone and cover, the Singtel phone and cover, the British passport, the NRIC card. Total £100 or Singapore dollars 200 for the whole bag and contents.

As for me, I wil forever want the return of my lost (acronym for lost or stolen) wine red multi-zip messenger cross-body messenger bag and all the contents, my iPhone with the purple flip wallet, also called a 'clam' cover - means it is like a book with a crease down the long direction so it opens up and stands up horizontally with two slits for cards opposite the phone.
My Singtel phone a Sony Ericsson with a brown cover, a thick, back only, imitation cappuccino cup cover. Also my British passport surname Sharot and NRIC.  The items could be discarded by the thief or finder.

STILL WANTED
I have been scanning every person I see on the bus worldwide - could they have found or been given my items, and not knowingly be in possession of them, not knowing how to return them? Now we are back to the reason for a national lost and found website. I am lifting the boxes of bins. Unfortunately in Singapore

UK the old London Transport Lost Property office can now be accessed online. In the old days you had to go in person and could retrieve goods for free. Now there is a charge.

What else can we do on the lost and found websites?
'LOST TODAY'
'FOUND TODAY'

How to prove it's yours?
I can't produce my passport as evidence of identity because my passport is the lost item. But my passport has my picture - you can see it's me!

My phone is supposed to turn on with my thumbprint. However, my phone doesn't like my thumbprint. I do, however, know my phone's passcode, which no stranger would know.