Champagne is on planes, and trains, in airport lounges and even railway stations.
Airport Champagne
You can find Champagne bars at airports. Such as Heathrow in London and Stansted in the UK. To start your holiday in style.
Railway Station Champagne
St Pancras Station in London, England, has the longest Champagne bar, they say. Go upstairs.
Time, tide and weather reports are printed in local and national newspapers. You may be able to read them online on your mobile phone.
Or pick up free newspapers in supermarkets and train stations at your destination. Supermarkets' own newspers will remind you of local national holidays and special seasonal food and drink.
În London, England, look for Metro newspaper
Don't miss deadlines in your lifelines
Omenously I missed my first
So I was born Caesarian
A timed plan B surgeons rehearsed
Our five-year-old learned about time
She demanded a big, pink clock
I am glad to say it arrived on time
But alarmed us with loud tick-tock
Pink kiddie clock from Amazon. Sharot family photo. Edited by Angela Lansbury.
Never in ten past million years
Would I have added pink ears on top
But it works. She watches hands turn
Breakfast, travel to school, bed, stop
She knows about tricycles and bicycles
About big buses and long trains
She looks at pictures of big ships
Cruise liners and big aeroplanes
She asked, 'What is a lifeboat for?'
We don't want to make her panic
No need to tell her of shipwrecks
Rules dating from the Titanic
We tell her, 'You must have plan B
For each eventuality
If your big ship is stuck on rocks
Go home on small boats pulled from blocks.'
Another deadline passed today
My poem missed it yesterday
So it will not be in a book
But it's on here, dear, when you look.
We all know daytime's when it's light
Watches and clocks spread to time trains
We set alarms in mobile phones
To make sure we cstch tides and planes.
-ends-
Summary and general information
1Nationwide timing, instead of each area using sunrise and stars, was needed after railways needed to co-ordinates timetables and clocks.
2 The requirement for ships to have enough lifeboats for all passengers came in after the enquiry into the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
Travel tips
1 You can use a mobile phone as an alarm clock.
2 In my phone settings, the alarms over-ride my don’t disturb setting.
3 Check your phone to re-set alarms in new time zones.
2 Check your date of arrival as well as time. We once missed a party held in our honour, not realiding that we left Lonfon one day but reached Singapore the next day.
2 Our five year old understands time to get ready go to school and to leave for private and public transport.
Please share links to your favourite posts. I have blots on travel, poetry, and dress of the day.
Buildings are badly designed.
Accidents waiting to happen.
1 Some people keep threatening to commit suicide.
2 Others keep threatening to kill other people.
3 Some buildings have a history of accidents, due to poorly designed windows, low balconies.
4 Lack of maintenance - window hinges, loose glass, rusting balcony supports.
5 Cleaners open windows.
6 People climb up buildings after forgetting keys.
7 Drunks climb for a dare, for attention getting videos.
8 People climb out to escape a fire, an intruder, of if drunk, an imagined monster.
9 In Singapore maids cleaning windows fall due to carelessness of the maid or the employer who insists the worker does risky things.
10 Peoole taking photos, or sitting on balcony edges learn backwards and topple, or reach for a hat which blows off, dodge a playful blow, or an insect, or learn to get a better view or photot.
11 Lack of maintenance, lack of repairs, or lack of checking of doors, windows, walls, hinges, supports.
12 Trying to rescue an animal, child, adult.
13 Child, or adult with low IQ, does not understand the danger of climbing out onto a ledge.
14 Too many people on a balcony.
15 People, adults or children, sitting on each other's shoulders,
What can be done for safety?
1 Some developments are stepped, so you can only fall one storey.
2 Trees and bushes can break a fall.
3 Playgrounds have special surfaces beside slides.
4 Some hotels in USA cities have non opening windows. I was shown a hotel like this in San Francisco.
5 Singapore public housing if you own a cat you must have bars balconies to protect cats. And protect people the cats would fall on.
Useful Websites
British favourite chocolate. Cadbury's. Totally different flavour to American Hershey's which to the British tastes stronger, more bitte and wax.
Hershey's was designed not to melt in the heat when carried as an energy and mood boost by soldiers.
Cadbury's was always the king of chocolate, supposedly containing calcium filled milk when markets sold cheaper chocolate used by confectioners, and like Hershey's, using a substitute for milk which would not melt in the heat. A flood of memories from childhood.
More memories of holidays in the USA when somebody stole the chocolate from the back window of the car. Then we realised it had melted in the heat.
Check out any city you are visiting for chocolate tours of chocolate factories, chocolate tastings and chocolate making in chocolate shops. In the UK. London and York, especially holidays such as the late May Bank Holiday. And before Xmas. I have been to chocolate museums, exhibitions and shops and events in New York, USA. London, England, York. England, Switzerland, and Umbria in Italy. See my previous posts for mouth-watering pictures.
If you are in London, go via a chocolate shop. In Euston we found wonderful chocolates at Hotel Chocolat. A box of chocolates all different. Sometimes you can make up your own.
A day later we bought chocolates from a Laderach of Switzerland chocolate shop in St Pancras station. My husband asked them for all identical chocolate dark chocolate balls to share with a group when we ordered coffee after a lunch ending with a drink of port. They don't usually do that. Like Hotel Chocolat they provide variety. However, they are customer orientated and provided what he requested, a box of identical chocolates, so everybody had the same, and no delay choosing which one.
They discussed the chocolate content about which my husband was quite knowledgeable and insistent. Once on his birthday., I went to buy him a bar of dark chocolate in my local supermarket. I saw three different percentages of chocolate, hesitated over whether to buy the one with the highest percentage, or two, or all three in case I got it wrong. That proved interesting as we were both able to compare all three. To our surprise, both of us found the very highest chocolate content made a chocolate which we found too bitter. Incidentally Laderach features slabs.
Currently, in May 2026, they have a newsletter offer. Sign up for their newsletter and you are entered into the following month's draw date for a free slab (bar) of chocolate.
Handy if you are in a hurry. I was not impressed by the plain chocolate balls, but my chocoholic friend had no trouble eating two chocolates. The slabs come in nut toppings, white with fruit flavoured swirls and many more surprises. Their locations include several in Switzerland and German as well as Dubai and Orlando in the USA.
The business is run by a family, now in the third generation. The family name is Swiss-German meaning clearing, for people living near a clearing.
They have a museum in Switzerland.
However, if you have time, go to Euston, Hotel Chocolat. A feast for the eyes and tastebuds. Nothing to match the visual appeal or taste, and possibly higher price, but worth it, whether for yourself or a gift, at Hotel Chocolat.
You'll find them on Amazon and ebay but I recommend the Euston shop if you are passing through Euston. Or check online for your nearest physical shop or supplier.
Other locations offer their drinking chocolate in assorted flavours, hot or cold.
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Wednesday in Pinner, the annual fair. But we didn't intend to go there. We didn't even realise it was on. If we had known we would have thought we could not go because we spent all day in central London. We had missed the fair for many years, many times. A train journey diversion sent us home via Pinner. We walked out of the station. Saw the road was blocked by funfair rides, so no buses. We had to walk through the Pinner Fair to the other end to catch a bus. Never mind.
We enjoyed seeing it. This is what we saw.
Fun food. Chocolate strawberries.
High rides.
