Fixing a broken suitcase

 I bought a small broken suitcase from St Luke's charity shop which raises money for hospices. The handle would not retract.

Putting Away Papers From Writers' Summer School at Swanwick, And Memories, And Plans For Next Year

 I needed a small suitcase on wheels to move my books to the book room at the conference. I started by buying a little suitcase to store my heavy books. I bought it second hand. What else could go in with the books for next year or the year after, my next conference? 

Storage Suitcase Contents

1 In addition to having heavy books, I have also stapled handout papers in see-through folders. 

2 The travel directions are always useful. 

3 This time I have added the business cards, each card marked with the year. I have held them together in an elastic band. 

4 I have last year's notebook, half filled, with the year on the cover. The empty half will do for my next conference.

 I have everything ready from the most recent annual Writers' conference ready for next year in my small wheeled suitcase. What if I don't know where everything is, next year? Today I attached the label to the suitcase showing the contents. I shall take a photo of the suitcase and email it to myself.

Next year, or the year after, I will be able to note the names of people I previously met. I will be able to recall the books they wrote, or the talks they gave. 

Committee Names

I will be up-to-date on that year's committee. I will know whether it was their first year or a repeat.

Book Buyers Recorded

I should also remember who bought one of my books. I want to greet them amicably. I can offer them a follow-up book.

By taking a photo of myself signing the book, with the buyer, I can keep a record.

Past Notes

Will I ever read all those past notes? Probably not. I might not be able to read my hand-writing. 

Why wasn't I typing on my laptop, or writing notes on my mobile phone? The main conference hall had everybody sitting around round tables.  Unfortunately, most of the rooms had neither tables not trays attached to chairs. 

The Speakers mostly offered to send slides to participants. 

Notes For Next Year

Variable Cuisine

What was the food like? A rollercoaster. Some meals were wonderful and some were terrible. I was happy with chicken and potato. Once two types of potato. 

Then my chicken was red in the middle, like others had been. Friends, even enemies, on my table insisted that I send it back.

The best meals were those on the first and last nights. The Saturday dinner when we arrived seemed to have meat and potatoes and vegetables and so did Sunday lunch. Then the evening meal seemed to be salad. From then on it was a summer menu with one meal main salad and nothing substantial. However, the last night's dinner was wonderful.  I opted for the fish with Thai sauce, which was green and tasted of lime, maybe slight coconut or lemongrass. Fabulous. Fabulous flavours. 

I have been trying to reproduce it. I have been looking at recipes and ingredients. Thai chicken? Lemon sauce? Lime? Sweet and sour with lime? 

The nearest I have got to it at other restaurants was lemon chicken at the Royal China in . But that was lemon, not lime, and not green.

Their cakes at tea time were great. The biscuits were not as good as previous years. At morning break time, plain biscuits. the gluten free biscuits had more crunch and chocolate. 

Service, likewise was varied. Lovely ladies tired to help, offer more, bring food from the cafeteria to the table for the elderly or incapacitated. Others angrily insisted that vegetarian options were only for vegetarians. The cheese on the buffet ran out, so I assumed it was finished. Later when I went back for dessert, I saw that a refill had arrived, but only after a crowd of people hanging around, creating a traffic jam queue like a food ball crowd, and giving up. Choice of two desserts. Only two. Mostly both good. Often one was fruit. Sometimes rather gelatine like. 

On the third day I found porridge. At breakfast time on the day before last I discovered that porridge was available on request every day, from the kitchen. You just had to ask. Even though I've been going there for twenty years, you forget when you haven't been back for a year. The system changes. Communication is not their strong point.

The girls on the front desk are very friendly and helpful.

Drinks

The drinks machines were wonderful. I opted for cappuccino but lost interest. However, on the full day two, the Monday, I discovered that powdered chocolate was in a glass container beside the machine. Never mind the machine with no cocoa option. Never mind the lack of chocolate biscuits for everyone. I had my chocolate fix.

For me the highlight of the conference was the opportunity to act in the five minute play. Some of the plays had few characters. One was a monologue.  Because our play had seven characters I got to meet a lot more people. It was a comedy. I needed a comedy.

With all that food, lots of it, we needed some exercise.

Lakeside Walk

this year no cows were visible. However, a friend of mine claimed to have seen goats up close in an adjoining field. I did not see goats up close, but we had a plesant walk around the lake, and the gardens.

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Practising Thinking And Speaking In German

 When I go to bed I lie awake thinking in German. Instead of counting sheep I count the words I know. The Duolingo system tells me I know more than a thousand. 

Listening Exercises

People used to complain that online courses, or book courses, taught them to read but they could not speak a new language. Duolingo has added in the last couple of years listening exercises where they check whether you have heard a specific word, a choice of three of a set of about six words, or which of two similar spoken words.

Speaking Exercises

There are also speaking exercises where you repeat a sentence which is both spoken and written and the system gives you a tick and congratulations or asks you to repeat it twice more until you get it right, or it says, let's move on from now. Every now and then you get asked to repeat exercises from the previous half hour or set of a certain number of exercises which were not right first time.

Practising Useful Vocabulary

When others are asleep I can't practise speaking aloud, but I can think through the names of items in the room, the house, an imaginary hotel, and requests at an airport, hotel or restaurant. 

I can tell the hotel or restaurant everything was perfect.

German - English

perfekt - perfect

English - German

perfect - perfekt

During the day I note useful, similar words from my activity, which today was reading jewellery-making instructions.

German - English

Armband - bracelet

elastische - elastic

hier - here

Informationen - information

klarer Nagellack - clear nail polish

Knoten - knot

Kordel - cord

Minuten - minutes

optional - optional

Schere - scissors (shears)

English - German

bracelet - Armband

clear nail polish - klarer Negellack

cord - Kordel

elastic - elastische

here - hier

information - Informationen

optional - optional

knot - Knoten

minutes - Minuten

scissors - Schere

  Where can you learn and practise speaking German? 

Flag of Germany

Flag of Austria

Flag of Switzerland

You can use German in Germany, Austria and German-speaking parts of Switzerland.  Also Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and parts of Belgium and Italy.

Flag of Luxembourg.

Flag of Liechtenstein.

-ends-

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Royal China Restaurant in Harrow

 Where shall we eat? Chinese for a change. We narrowed the choice down to four in our area of north west London. The Royal China and the Panda's Kitchen were in Harrow, Chin Chin in Pinner, or Bang Bang food court.

We decided that Bang Bang food court with lots of options was interesting, a great idea for lunch, but we wanted to sit and talk over a leisurely dinner without jumping up and down and being surrounded by the coming and going of passers by. So we decided to leave Bang Bang to a couples outing at lunch time.

Chin Chin in Pinner was very slightly dearer, open Sunday, closed Monday. Panda's kitchen sounded small.

Royal China with its numerous branches worldwide sounded a safe bet. So Royal China was our choice. 

I had checked online to see what was open on Sundays, as well as the price range. I also looked at the dessert lists, the wine lists, and whether there were chicken dishes without shellfish as I am allergic to shellfish. Finally the parking possibilities. 

We had booked online with a credit card, for 6.30 pm in order not to finish too late because our grand-daughter had a summer camp and our son was working on Monday.  

When we arrived at 6.30 we were early enough to choose a table. There were lots of large round tables.  I opted for a banquette so my grand-daughter could snuggle up and I had somewhere to park my handbag within easy reach. The waiter who greeted us moved  a square two seater table next to a four-seater table together to make a larger oblong for five.  

We ordered a bottle of Riesling which was reasonably priced. 

Prosecco by the glass was also available. The wine list included a large list of alcoholic and non alcoholic options including a mango concoction.

Duck

Peking duck. China may have changed the name of Peking to Beijing. We are used to that. But Peking Duck is from the old days, and we still call it that.

We ordered another box of pancakes, kept warm in a circular straw container, like a breathable biscuit tin. The sauce was very moreish.

We also ordered one plain rice, one enhanced rice.

Fish

They asked if we wanted the fish filleted. So they removed the bone from it on another table.

Chicken

I could have had chicken with lemon sauce or chicken with cashew nuts. I have cashew nuts at home. Lemon sauce is hard to get right. 

So I opted for the novelty of chicken in lemon sauce. It was a good lemon sauce. Opaque. Thick. Not one of those invisible sauces which you have to search for.

Dessert

The banana dessert was not available. So, instead we had the apple fried in batter, with ice cream. One piece for each of the four adults. The ice cream, flavoured by the sea of syrupy sauce it sat in, was very tasty.

Service

The waiting staff, more running around than waiting, wore black synthetic gloves. I like that. Hygienic.

Service was willing. Food came up slowly, which suited us as we wanted to talk to our family without being rushed.

Price

Exactly as predicted. In effect, we had a three course meal for four including a glass of alcohol at just under forty pounds per person.

Noise

When the place was full, as the evening progressed, there was plenty of noise. Enough for any noise made my our grand-daughter not to be noticed. But the floor is carpeted, not like tile-floored Italian restaurants, so there was no intrusive echo. Just right for private conversations. And not hearing the words of others.

Decor

Black wood tables. Orange lanterns. Nothing special. But the gold printing on the business cards, the toothpick cases, and the wet wipe packets, was a fancy touch.

All in all, would we go back? Yes. ( They also have London branches in Baker Street, Chinatown, Canary, and Fulham, plus more in Hong Kong, Shanghai and elsewhere in China, and Dubai.)

But first, for a change, we must try the Panda's Kitchen next door. Panda's Kitchen has Szechuan or Sichuan cuisine and an extensive vegan menu. They have one branch in Harrow, another in Angel, London. 

Panda's Kitchen

152 Station Road, Harrow HA1 2RH.

Harrow

hello@pandas.kitchen

Angel 

angel@pandaskitchen

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Perfect German with words almost identical to the English

 German - English

campen - to camp

das Ende - the end

Freitag - Friday (Fr i a in both words and the final letters g and y both have tails)

Hilfe - help (consonants H and l in both languages)

Mann - man

Park - park (noun, as shown by the capital initial letter, not the verb)

perfekt - perfect

Poster - poster (the nouns in German have capital initial letters)

Problem - problem (das Problem, the problem)

Schere - scissors (looks like shears, both German Schere and English scissors contain the initial letter s and the letters c and r) 

schneiden - to cut (Years ago my family living in Edgware in north west London used to know a lady called Mrs Schneider. It was a surname for Germans including Ashkenazi Jews who were tailors or occasionally wood cutters)

Wald - forest (I used to know a family called Waldman)

Useful Websites For German Words and German Family Names

To learn German for free allowing ads, or paid for without ads

duolingo.com

To find the origin of names

familysearch.org

en.geneanet.org

Ask Gemini

  Where can you learn and practise speaking German? 

Flag of Germany

Flag of Austria

Flag of Switzerland

You can use German in Germany, Austria and German-speaking parts of Switzerland.  Also Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and parts of Belgium and Italy.

Flag of Luxembourg.

Flag of Liechtenstein.

-ends-

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Marvellous Medlar Restaurant in the King's Road, London

The King's Road was the private road created in the 1670s to take King Charles II from St James's |Palace to Hampton Court, Kew and west London. Only royalty and a privileged few who carried copper tokens or metal passes with the monarch's initials could get past the gatekeeper. Charles II was called the Merry Monarch, known for the restoration of the monarchy after puritanical Cromwell.

In  1830 the road was opened to everybody in the reigns of King George IV and William IV.

Landmarks include at the Eastern End, the Peter Jones department store, a grade II listed building on Sloane square, and the Saatchi Gallery on the Duke of York Square. 

A few steps from Medlar restaurant is 430 King's Road, World's End fashion boutique established by designer Vivienne Westwood. You can see outside the clock with a 13 hour dial (remember the clock which struck 13) and the hands rotate ani-clockwise at disconcerting speed, turning back in time, representing counter-culture.

Medlar Restaurant

A medlar is a fruit used for making jelly. The fruit was popular in medieval times. It has multiple seeds at the centre, like an apple, a feature known as a pome, and like the apple tree has abundant flowers, white flowers. 

Why did it fall out of favour? At one time it was uniquely useful in being picked when hard, then ripening to soft eating quality in mid-winter. Now that we have other fruit food available in winter, the medlar has lost its advantage. 

Also in its heyday it was ripened at home. It turns to mush when transported, so not suitable to be stocked by supermarkets in modern times.

At the back of the restaurant is a secluded spot attractively arched by white flowers on branches. I admired that at the time, but it wasn't until I got home and researched the medlar tree that I realised that the decor reflected the name.

I had been warned about the stairs, and the toilets are downstairs, whilst we ate in a group together in a private room at the top, three flights up from the ground floor, passing a cute little bar.

Our room had a view down over the busy King's Road, with pedestrians and buses. At the back on this level is a mural of London.

The host of the event, my husband had chosen food to match his wines. Once reason for choosing Medlar is that you can bring your own bottles of booze, paying corkage.

We started with two kinds of bread, white sourdough with a sprinkle of seeds, and a darker bread, plus butter. (A good start. I much prefer butter to oil.) The butter was soft enough to spread. Everything was just perfect.

The other guests had a shellfish starter. From the online menu I had selected an quail's egg tart. The egg was on top, like a fried egg, the size of a normal egg, not the teeny quail's egg I had anticipated.

The main dish was pheasant, a very pleasant variation on chicken, chunky, solid yet soft and not stringy, tasty. I liked the potatoes sliced into thin overlapping strips.

The most memorable dish for me was the dessert, the creme brulee. Crisp burned sugar on top but not so hard as to crack your teeth. The presentation of the dessert was as a large version, nut the usual deep, small muffin size, but a proper dessert plate size. Not a limp one either, but solid and creamy.

A nice touch was the chocolates which came with the coffee which we ordered. 

Despite the fact that we were isolated at the top of the building, the service was attentive, neither too fast, nor too slow.

We started at around noon, and finished after their advertised lunch end time of 3 pm, still keen to talk, especially those who had travelled up to London for the day. 

Our friends had no trouble finding a local place to continue socialising. We walked past the reversing clock.

But I had a meeting in the evening so we waved goodbye. After agreeing that Medlar would be on our shortlist of places to return with the group, after a year or less.

PS

The Pheasantry

On the bus back to Sloane Square station, we passed the Pheasantry, at 152-154 King's Road, a Grade II listed building, with a memorable arched entrance. The name comes from a business back yonks ago, breeding and selling pheasants. 

The visual appeal comes from two caryatids, meaning carvings of stone women, or pillars, holding up the roof. The name caryatid is after a temple of that design in a Greek town of a similar name. You can see one of the original caryatids in the British Museum, as well as many more around the world, as well as the example on The Pheasantry. 

In the 1960s and 1970s the basement of The Pheasantry was a well-known club. People who went there included Humphrey Bogart, Germain Greer, and the band Queen. Plus numerous other famous and soon to be famous people. 

In August 2026 it was a restaurant with a sign for Pizza Express. The venue still has live music, jazz and cabaret. Another attraction is the bottomless brunch on Saturdays.

Down the road at Medlar, lunches are cheaper than dinners, with options for one, two, or three courses. As well as the private dining room upstairs.

My lunch at Medlar was an entertaining time with friends, with fabulous food. As a result of my visit I also learned about the medlar fruit, the King's Road, a reversing clock, and famous people visiting The Pheasantry. Food for the body, and food for the soul.

Useful Websites With Information on Medlar Restaurant and Places In The King's Road

Information from Ask Gemini, Wikipedia

https://www.medlarrestaurant.co.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_Road

www.londonmuseum.org.uk

https://www.davidconnordesign.co.uk/worlds-end

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pheasantry

https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/the-pheasantry-chelsea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryatid

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Where To Put Your Hands At Table In England and France

Angela Lansbury with her Union Jack umbrella acting as a parasol on a sunny day. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

Hands Off The Table In England

We discussed hands on the table. In England you don't put elbows on the table, nor your hands. You might be tempted to extend your arm. Why not? Firstly you obstruct the view of the VIP at the head of the table, their speech, or the person toasting them. You exclude the person on your right if your right arm is on the table and you are half turned with your back to the person on your right. You don't include them with your eyes, or see if they open their mouth, trying to speak and join in. 

You might also get your sleeve in your soup, the butter, or anything else on the table. You might talk with your hands and knock over a glass.

Flag of France.

Hands On The Table In France

The French, on the other hand, prefer hands on the table. To be sure a gentleman is not feeling the thigh of the lady beside him. Upsetting her. Or exciting her and making his wife jealous. Or slipping silver spoons into his pocket. Or concealing a knife to stab the host, or an enemy - just as shaking hands was to show no weapon in your hands.  

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