Buying For A New Rented Flat

An internet correspondent tells me that moving into his new place he has to rush out and buy bacics because he forgets that rented flats don't have plates and cutlery and sheets like a hotel.

You get the extras in a 'full service flat'. Or you tell your agent that you want a flat with everything in it. The flat owners might have all the stuff cluttering up their home, having removed it because a previous tenant insisted on having the space for the tenant's goods.
The most successful system I ever experienced was when we went to the USA and stayed in a company (employers') three or four storey 'town' house. At first it seemed bizarre to be sharing with strangers and a security risk. However, it had many advantages. The employees could share a car or travel by train or bus showing the route to the newcomers.

Kettles and light bulbs and duvet covers were either bought on expenses or bought by people who'd lived there before and left them behind. You bought basic stuff cheap, as everything is on sale in a cheap store somewhere, not worrying about quality or colour because you were sharing.

When you moved on you left half of it behind because you'd discovered the easy way that you liked knives with serrated edges or saucepans with two handles rather than one or vice versa. Or you took the small items with you when you moved into your new flat. Then when you bought your own stuff and needed space you took the the goods back to the shared home or gave it to somebody at work who asked, 'have you got a spare toaster?' Everybody gained and you made friendships.
Angela the expat

Add Face Photos To Your Phone Contact Numbers

HOW TO ADD FACE PHOTOS to your phone contact numbers

Here's I do it with my Nokia phone but if you have a different phone I suggest you consult your manual or ask in ask.com or google it. Or just follow my directions and see if your phone does something similar.

In my Nokia phone:

1 TAKE PHOTO

 Use your mobile handphone take a photo of your family, or a committee member, a club member,  a work colleague or your mentee/mentor.

You can also take a photo of yourself where you met.  If the member is absent or doesn't like being photographed, or is having a bad hair day, take the work or club venue. You could take a group picture (although each individual comes out small).

Or search your existing photos. For example, a portrait from a family photo album, famed photo, or Facebook, LinkedIn, the internet, or any other source.

2 From phone menu select/click on Camera.

3 Select View Previous

4 Open

5 Use Image

6 Set as contact  (if taking photo after adding phone number to phone)

Add Contact appears. 

7 or New Contact (if taking photo before adding phone number to phone)

8 Existing Contacts list appears. Scroll down to your new member's/friend's name and Click on the name of the contact.

My powerpoint/keynote Speeches

I have speeches on these subjects:
Good Grammar
Inspiring Lives
Harrow Celebrities
Polish Heroes
Speech Disasters
Spelling Is Simple
Perfect Pronunciation

Harrow Council Chamber, The Lights, The Mayor and The Mace

Harrow Council chamber is a wonderful tiny modern theatre with perfect acoustics. Our speakers from Harrovian Speakers (a branch of Toastmasters International) were fascinated by the lights and control of meetings. At Harrovian Speakers we limit speaking times with green orange and red lights, like traffic lights. But at Harrow Council they make do with only green lights. When the green lights are on you may speak. When the green lights flash you have one minute to go. When the light go off you must be off. If you refuse to go the mayor can stand up and walk out and the meeting is over.

Should a speaker be so irate that he attacks the mayor, the mayor is defended by the mace. The mace was originally a club, though now it is disguised by beautiful ornate decoration so you might not know its real purpose.

In 26 years of Harrow Council meetings the present holder of the mace has never needed to use it. Once in St Albans an irate person went to attack the mayor and was hit with the mace. This being modern times, the irate party tried to sue. However, the law was on the side of the man with the mace. So now, please sit down, children, and do what you are told!

(Many, well-behaved, school groups are invited to entertaining talks and walks around Harrow Civic Centre.)

Angela Lansbury, author, speaker.

A Rare Treat Seeing Harrow Celebrities' Pictures At Harrow Civic Centre and The Mayor's Parlour

The Mayor of Harrow, Mrinal Choudhury was invited by President Ruth Vishnick to Harrovian Speakers (a branch of Toastmasters International) where he gave us an amusing speech about multi-cultural Harrow.  He reciprocated by inviting our members to the Mayor's Parlour at Harrow's Civic Centre, to see the pictures of local celebrities. The Mayor of Harrow has a packed calendar and can visit two or three groups a day, so he has three speeches in his pocket, moving the next speech to the front, the speech he has just given to the back.

I learned this when I went with members of Harrovian Speakers to visit Harrow's hideous Civic Centre. Many, having seen the modern building only when driving toward historic Harrow on the hill, regard the civic centre as an ugly pair of oblongs. So it was quite a surprise to learn that the complex won an award. As you get nearer it starts to improve progressively. From the outside, it's first best features are the flowers, shrubs and trees reflected in water at the entrance.
Just inside the entrance is a picture of HM The Queen in front of a wall of tiles, so many, all different, that we had no time to see them all.

Upstairs is a third attraction, photographs of previous mayors. Most wear their ceremonial black hats and the fancy lacy white jabot. One mayor did not wear the frippery, but later regretted his decision when he realised that the people of Harrow, from the tiny children to the elderly, loved the ceremonial costume.

Alongside are the fourth attraction, pictures of Douai, the French city with which Harrow is twinned, in the hope that links of friendship will prevent wars. Photos show Douai's giants in a costumed parade.

Only in retrospect did I start counting the numerous groups of things to see in the Civic Centre.
At the time I thought that the first major point of interest was the stained glass windows made by Whitefriars Glass. The most memorable window shows Winston Churchill, who went to Harrow School when he was aged 12 in 1888. I have a speech on the subject of my visit. I wondered how to remember the date 1888. Easy. The Chinese think three eights are lucky. For the East End of London 1888 was an unlucky year, the year of Jack the Ripper, when you were far safer outside London at Harrow, which has now been given the title London Borough of Harrow.

Across the Bridge is the Council Chamber. I shall write a second blog on the council chamber, Anne Frank, and the mace. I shall write a third blog on the Mayor's Parlour, Gilbert, librettist, who wrote Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and how he reputedly died with two naked ladies.