Gun Culture & Fatalities. Who is to blame? Lessons from the USA and Singapore

The first time I went to the USA and saw a gun, on a policeman, I asked how many people had guns.
I think I was in Florida. He replied, 'Every household around here has a gun. Most people have several.'
After reading about the Sandy Hook School massacre of 6-year-old schoolchildren in late 2012, I read several more stories about children being killed, some deliberately, some accidentally.
The debate is raging about whether you should lock up the guns - away from households, lock guns within households, or lock away the people the authorities deem insane - before the dangerous ones kill anybody else.
Today I read two reports. One of a muttering woman who pushed a man, a stranger, onto a railway track in New York.
My reaction to that is: lock up the insane; and put barriers on platforms like in Singapore. Trains have to slow down to a crawl within the station to line up with the barriers.
The other tragic story was about the father with a child - the two-year-old grabbed the parent's gun and shot himself.
Should the gun carry a warning? It probably does. Small type. Matter of fact.
The warning must be more strongly worded. It should make it clear that leaving guns out leads to prosecution. It should list the numbers of fatalities to show it's not just a possibility but a probability.
Some parents are under average intelligence. (If average is the half way point, half are under average).
Some parents are young. Some gun owners are new gun owners. Some are new parents. New parents are tired by sleepless nights. Some are worried about something else - such as intruders, burglars.
Every gun should come with the instructions in large type to this effect:
Do not leave a gun or ammunition in reach of children. Place a lock and strong barrier between the gun and the child. A child is not legally responsible and should not have access to guns. A child can grab a gun or imitate you or set it off accidentally. You could set it off accidentally.
Even if you are in the same room, the child can grab the gun and play, injuring itself or others.
If you leave guns available to children, you are liable to criminal prosecution.
Many others have made a fatal mistake.
Numbers and names of children killed this way include: Sincere Smith, age 2, South Carolina, grabbed gun on Christmas Day, 2012. Father Rondell Smith, 30, arrested Wed 26 Dec 2012, Daily Mail newspaper report Dec 29. Do not add your family name to this list. The father got the gun after 'an intruder broke into the home'.
So indirectly should we blame the intruder? Make burglary, with or without a weapon, an offence which causes deaths indirectly?
Prevention is better than cure. Remove any one cause to reduce the casualty list. Remove two or more dangers to bring the numbers of lives lost nearer to the ideal of zero.

Train Passenger safety in the USA, UK, Singapore and worldwide

Yes, of course - trains should slow to a stop before the station and then edge forward slowly. Stations should have a stop train emergency button and an SOS arm signal passengers can give to a train as warning. How about sunken grab handles so people can climb out. What about barriers to stop commuters approaching until train doors align with platform doors (as in Singapore).

Prank Calls - My View Differs

Following the news that a nurse committed suicide after an Australian station made a prank call.
a) Prank calls aren't funny when you're upset and don't know who made them. I don't find them funny. I would never do this. I've received prank calls. You can be frightened or annoyed by strangers and worry what they will do next.
b) Where was the apology immediately after the prank call? The request for permission? Many programmes which televise prank calls tell you nobody was hurt and that people who were 'victims' then told it was a prank found it funny and agreed to being televised. If the radio station had apologised and got permission from the nurses, their managers and the royal family the nurse wouldn't have committed suicide and would have been a celebrity not a victim.
c) Clearly nursing was this nurse's life. Her moment of pride and joy at working with the royal family was turned to ashes.
d) Suicide: Your family should come first, before the royals, a job, outsiders.
e) The queen, my late mother and I would not make prank calls. Would people you trust do so?

What To See and Do in Brighton

Brighton's famous 'old' buildings are Brighton Pavilion, Brighton Pier and Sussex University. I went back to Brighton with an alumni of Sussex university to hear Asa Briggs talking about the history of the university. He was also signing and selling copies of his books including one on Bletchley Park (which we bought).

The Brighton Wheel

On the front beside the pier which is floodlit at night, is the Brighton Wheel. The Lanes, as quaint and winding as ever, contain amusing street art such as a mural of Alice on the side of a small building. I spotted clocks in the shape of dogs with wagging tails, I presume going up and down every second.
The numerous jewellery shops are high priced, most rings cost three figure sums, three hundred pounds or more for a silver ring, up to four figure sums. The smart clothes and leather boot shops had sales but still not for the low end budget. However, the rest of Britain has budget shops with peeling paintwork, so it's good to see Brighton boutiques so smart and chic, even if you stick to window shopping.
 We opted for the tried and tested places for coffee and cake at tea time, a branch of Cafe Rouge, offering mulled wine.  Around the corner is one of Britain branches of Jamie Oliver. (He has about twenty five now I believe.) I was amazed how large it is, on two floors but near Christmas and at weekends you'll still be safer if you book a table. The restaurant serves prosecco and Italian food. The kids menu can be viewed through what look like binoculars (?).
Drive along the seafront and you'll see the hotels and blocks of apartments. A statue of Queen Victoria stands surveying the sea at the junction as you drive west towards Hove. Inland attractions include Port Lympne.
More information from:
Jamie's Italian, Black Lion Street, Brighton.
Jamie's Italian, 19-21 Nile Street, London N1 7LL.

Bilingual Speakers' Clubs

 I would love to go to a French or Spanish bilingual Toastmasters International speakers group in London. We have several but London is big and they are a long way away. It would be good to have an international day with speeches in three foreign languages or to be visited by members of the bilingual club.
A bilingual club is not the same as a foreign language club.
I was told by somebody in Singapore that going to a Mandarin speaking club helped them learn Mandarin. So I went to one. But I hardly understood a word all evening. I assumed that somebody would speak English or translate. I should have got hold of a manual in that language first and got some basic phrases translated. 

Testimonials and gains from Harrovian Speakers Club

On Linkedin somebody asked if anybody had specific gains from going to Toastmasters speakers clubs and workshops. Yes. Several people have specific gains from my club, Harrovian Speakers. For example, a former president who rehearsed his sales presentations at Harrovians and as target speaker at a contest and started a successful new business. I asked our webmaster Warren Sheng to add a page of testimonials to Harrovian Speakers' website. (harrovians.org.uk) At a committee meeting (open to all members guests) in B & K restaurant, Hatch End, one of our committee members, Gosbert, said he'd been asked to be a governor of a local school as a result of his speech. I wrote his comment in my diary, read it back to him, and have sent it to Warren, and Gosbert for approval, to be added to our website.
(Angela Lansbury. President Harrovian Speakers. Meets Stanmore, Greater London, first, third and fifth Mondays each month 7 for 7.30 Glebe Hall, Stanmore. If you are in London, come along. Dec 3 2012 Freddie Danniells head of UK and Ireland is running a workshop on winning an international speech contest.)

Hospitals worldwide

I am haunted by the idea that when I left my t mother in (Watford General) hospital they deliberately killed her. The nurse who phoned me was in tears and said, "I was there when she died". I now regret leaving my mother alone when I took my father home to eat lunch. I feel that family should be both informed and consulted daily about the patient's intake of food and drugs.
Bring UK hospitals up to date with the rest of the world's population. Daily reports on patients to family could be done on progress online reports shared with the family like businesses. Or text messages to and from mobile phones which most people now use all day for both business and social purposes.

Travel and laws on smoking, age of consent and dangerous dogs

Laws vary from country to country and in different states in the USA and in different towns. For example, smoking in public places. The age of consent and marriage vary. Age of consent and age at which you can marry, with or without parental agreement - are not the same. (The first time I looked the lowest age varied from 12 in Alabama to 21 in California.) Today I looked at the ownership of 'dangerous' animals.

I read about an event in the USA. We have a problem, three 'loving' dogs kill their 'loving' owner. The dogs are pit bulls and mastiffs. So look down all the dog owners' comments for causes and solutions.
'My dog is ok,' like  'my dad smoked and lived to 100' might be useful information on your situation but cannot be transferred to another individual or a group of 1000 or more until we have statistics. However, if we do want to take individual experiences and see if they form a pattern or group, from a small sample of perhaps 100-300 comments:
These are: dogs are territorial, new dogs establish a pecking order and fight; don't try to break up a dog fight; get big or dangerous dogs neutered; take dogs for training; don't  adopt an adult dog when you don't know it's history; don't have dogs in a pack when you are home alone because you could overcome one but not a pack; and my favourite, quoted as law of success 3 - 'don't have any pet which can eat you'.

No Tobacco Day

World No Tobacco Day is May. Sorry you have to wait. You can't stop smoking today. No you can't!
(This is  aimed at people who have an inbuilt fight mechanism and always want to do what they are told not to do.) 

Responsibility starts today - with your next meal

You are responsible for your day and your life. I read an article about the life of Duke, who promoted cigarettes by using a machine to cut them to size, sealing the ends, and marketing them to the USA and Britain and the world. The carefully researched article, succinct and in easy to read popular style, is inspired by a biography of Duke which has been published. The article also looks at Kalashnikov and Nobel. The article ends with Kalashnikov saying that what is done with his invention depends on action by governments.  I was amused to read that a premature obituary of Nobel which described him as an agent of death upset him so that he donated money for the Nobel peace prize. I shall go back to the question of cigarettes because it is simpler. You can choose whether to smoke a cigarette. You can choose whether to buy cigarettes. You can choose whether to buy them for others. You can choose whether to sit in smoky places and smoke over others.
I admit it is easier for me because I am a lifelong non-smoker and am not addicted. But my parents both smoked. When my father was told by a doctor to give up smoking, my father did so immediately. (Admittedly I now know from personality typing in Myers Briggs that my father was that personality type.)
Let's continue to look at the way we blame others. My uncle on his deathbed in hospital c 2005 was still blaming his parents who had died two decades earlier in the 1950s and/or 1960s. My son who was taking an exam for his MA in psycho-sometric studies was aghast and amused that his great-uncle was still blaming parents who had died years earlier. (My son still blames me for what I did when he was a child ten or more years ago, but I'm alive, but uncle's parents had been dead for two decades.)
Look around you at people who are dying of smoking or cancer or overweight (all those people with paunches) and won't change their smoking habits or diet or do exercise. Yet they, and we, blame the inventors of the food, drink, or cigarettes. Or the distributors.
I find it easy to condemn the cigarette smokers who are living OK, starting to get ill, trying to give up, or saying what's the use it's now too late. My problem is eating. But you can give up smoking altogether. You cannot giving up eating altogether. You have to make choices at every meal.
Well, I must go off and eat fruit and do some exercise. Because I know that I cannot change the past. I can condemn the people of the past. But the only thing I can control is my thoughts, attitudes and actions today.
You can sometimes indulge. You can have a day off, or a week off. I can overeat, trying new foods at the World Travel Market, when visiting countries on business or holiday. But your life must form a sensible pattern. Like a sea-saw, bad habits which lead down to death must be balanced by those which lead up to good health.
Maybe you can drink for five days and give up for one or two days a week. I think that's just starting the habit of giving up.
What about giving up food. Traditionally, long before the modern knowledge about diets, Jews fasted for one day a year. (The orthodox have other fasting days.) Moslems fast during daylight hours for a month.
The latest drink reduction idea is two non-drinking days. I have one friend who goes without drinking after the indulgence of the Christmas holidays for the months of January to March. You can look at your lifetime, your year, your week, your day, and plan your healthy lifestyle. That is your responsibility, your control, your pain and your gain. 

Impartiality is what I expect of the BBC

The answer is so simple - I teach it to children. How to pass an exam with an essay on any subject. Impartiality was taught to me every time I did a course on journalism, by a secretarial college which taught me typing and by a National Union of Journalists course. Your audience of readers or listeners is unknown and includes people of all ages and opinions and beliefs. To be fair to the subject of your programme and the audience you must be like a court of law and answerable to a court of law. It must be impartial, not screaming praise or condemnation. If an accusation is made, you must hear both sides of the case, the allegation of the victim, and the defence of the accused. An offence which has not been proved by a jury of 12 or 3 magistrates or a high court judge is merely 'alleged'.
This applies whether you are dealing with an individual or a country or a continent. When I pay the BBC my money I expect them to be impartial and fair to both sides by giving equal space and time to both sides. Before a story goes out it must be checked and both sides must be quoted.

River, Rowing, Henley & Mr Toad

 'River and Rowing Museum has three galleries dedicated to Rowing, Rivers and the history of Henley on Thames.  The Museum is also home to the magical Wind in the Willows exhibition, which brings to life the much-loved story with 3D models, lighting and music.'

The River & Rowing Museum, Mill Meadows, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 1BF. Tel. 01491 415600.

The Museum, terrace café and shop are open every day from 10am - 5.30pm in summer and 10am - 5pm in the winter

Tickets give FREE admission for a whole year!

Admission is just £8 for adults, £6 for children, students and seniors. 

Which Wines Should I Serve At My Home Dinner Party?

file://localhost/Users/angelasharot/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Modified/2012/8%20Nov%202012/IMG_4150.jpg

Champagne Quotations -
'In victory you deserve it, in defeat you need it.' Napoleon. (I used to worry about quoting quotations accurately. Then I found that famous people who found a witty line went down well would repeat it many times, differently each time. Misquotations are usually more succinct and sound better than the original.
Many famous quotations are translated from the original French in different English words.
I am a happy drinker and a happy wine writer.
Best quotations on drinks and Champagne? I dream of champagne. And making witty remarks about champagne. After a glass of champagne I have sweet dreams and think I have made witty remarks. I have to write down witty remarks, otherwise next day I just have a forgotten dream and big smile. See my book at the end. Now onto a beginner's guide to which wine to serve at your dinner party.

Wine Expert's Advice On Which Wine To Serve
Travelling Trevor is fast becoming a wine expert as a result of the wine tasting lunches, dinners, and evenings, at Berry Brothers near Piccadilly, where he is often sat (I mean that correctly in the passive sense - seated by others) beside the vineyard owner. The vineyard owner often challenges you to guess the grape ('hm - not too sweet, a little dry, only been in the vat xx years, slightly acidic' - so the year? ('wine going brown - may be older').  Trevor often identifies the grape and country and gets the year right or almost right within a year.

Trevor also visits to the Wine Society tastings, consults the wine guidebooks, reads the history of the vineyards, google maps show which bank of the river has the slope getting sun or rain. After years of tours around wine areas of Champagne, Germany, USA, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, now this year he visited Burgundy vineyards and stayed overnight taking photos for them and was rewarded by tastings of unusual wines. (He's an award-winning photographer - in the shortlist for a National Geographic stills competition and and outright winner for a video Boris in London competitions). We have also bought the 'bargain' (reduced price but still a luxury - but including wines you could never normally afford) at Petrus restaurant in London - Petrus being the name of a wine.

When we manage to gather friends from all corners of the globe in Singapore, or the family all meet up in London, we try to have two wines of the same type, but usually a cheap wine and an expensive wine, to compare. We all do a blind tasting and make notes on which wine we prefer, and guess which is the expensive one and which is the cheap one. Then Trevor reveals the labels and prices.

Alas, I'm only just learning to like the tanniny reds and acidic whites. I'm still willing to drink Portuguese Mateus Rose, though German Liebraumilch and Italian Asti Spumante (town of Asti, spumante meaning sparkling) are starting to taste like lemonade and make me wonder whether I am heading for diabetes with too much wine and sugar. So I try to limit myself to one glass with a meal, maximum two.

However, on special occasions I still look for a glass of French Champagne or Italian Prosecco or Californian sparkling rose, a zinfandel, plus a teeny tumbler of an after dinner Muscat. My eyes light up at really sweet wines, German Auslese, Spatlese (spat - late, like me, late but sweet) or a New World Icewine from the USA or even New Zealand.

But when Trevor is emailed by another younger member of the family for advice on which wine to serve at home-cooked dinner party, Trevor says with more authority:

Dinner Party Pairings

Re your dinner, any red wine goes fine with any red meat.  The matches we’ve been trying (mustard with Burgundy, pepper steak with Syrah etc) seem to me no more than interesting experiments.  My preference would be to match lighter meat (lamb) with lighter, fruitier wine (Beaujolais, Burgundy, Rioja or Chateau Musar).  Hold the Bordeaux, Syrah and Italian for steak.

No need for wine with desert (it would have to be a sweet wine though – sweet white if fruit-based, sweet red with chocolate).

Cheese is fussier.  Soft white cheeses, including goat, go very well with well-chilled Sauvignon Blanc.  For waxy yellow cheese like Dutch or Emmental I have yet to find a wine that works.  Hard, crumbly, yellow cheeses like cheddar, manchego and pecorino need a red wine and mature examples can soften any amount of tannin.  Blue cheese like Stilton is famously paired with port (salt vs sweet) but I think it’s too much richness altogether, would just enjoy the cheese.

Love These Links:

Berry Brothers and Rudd Shop, 3 St James's Street, London

Berrys Bros & Rudd
3 St James's Street
London SW1A 1EG
Tel:+44 (0)800 280 2440

Email: bbr@bbr.com

Frequent seated lunches and dinners can be very pricey but you still need to book early because they sell out fast.

Bin end shop Basingstoke (frequent tasting mornings with tutoring sessions for a small price about £5-10)

Berry Bros. & Rudd Hamilton Close Houndmills Basingstoke Hampshire RG21 6YB

www.bbr.com

thewinesociety.com (Wine tastings for members - you can join - it's a public co-op, and they sell wines, bargain bin ends, and glasses, books on wine and wine theme tea towels.) 

Angela's Wine Glass Etiquette and After Dinner Quotations:
Watch Angela Lansbury on restaurant etiquette on you tube

Buy books by Angela Lansbury on speeches and Quick Quotations For Successful Speeches, for after dinner speeches on lulu.com

'When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.' (Henry Youngman, 1906-1998.)
'If this is tea, bring me coffee, if this is coffee, bring me tea.' Abraham Lincoln.

Send offers of free dinners and news of wine tastings (press, public or personal).

Invitations to free dinners and wine tastings are accepted with blushes or gratifying (to you) and embarrassing (to me) eagerness! 
My email is annalondon8@gmail.com (I am not Anna but Angela. tried to get 'Angela London and a number but several others already had the same idea. However, I managed to snap up the Chinese 'lucky number' 8.)

Amazing Animal Destinations - Cameroon to Falklands

The Cameroon (Nigeria's Neighbour) has dinosaur footprints, wonderful waterfalls, and every kind of living animal, reptile and bird, such as crocodiles, lions and hippos which you might wish to meet, or not meet.

If the Cameroons offers wildlife, the Falklands offers tame life. Penguins and others.
www.falklandislandsholidays.com

Paraguay offers birdwatching.
www.paraguay.gov.py

Travel Must See and Wishlists - Salt Mine Wedding Hall

On my lists:
Europe:
In Poland's lovely former medieval capital of Krakow I've seen the country's most visited site, Auschwitz and the happier tale of rescue at Schindler's Museum. Still to see for me is the Wieliczka Salt Mine.  A fine brochure shows the caverns with chandeliers used for banquets and weddings.

Blogging is big business for Travel, Destinations and Hotels

Technology and social media are sweeping the scene at this year's World Travel Market. I used to feel apologetic about the fact that I was blogging more than writing magazine articles. But the top bloggers now have huge followings.

1 I was at World Travel Market. Staying a third night at Ibis City airport for £75. I got on the waiting list and they texted me lunch time to say they'd a cancellation.

I could not get a discount. they were fully booked. But they had a room so I stayed until the last night, Wednesday. I found them through their sister hotel on the internet. They sent me a follow-up questionnaire through email. Now I'm blogging about them.

2 SEO One afternoon I went to a session on blogging. Hotels and destinations sell huge amounts as a result of social networking.

You can read about it on the World Travel Market website.

They mentioned: travel blogger association, travel blogger unite TBU book of travel bloggers;

tbex US conference;

speed-dating at ITB;

Professional travel blogger association.com

iambassador;

navigate media group.

Rihanna has 90 milion followers and half a million likes and several million comments - she is PR for an island;

livingsocial is amazon backed;

the average age worldwide is 26 and this affects use of the internet and internet for travel;

Pinterest is the second most popular site;

shopping uses zappos.com

Starbucks sold 1.5m gift cards thru livingsocial

the Fairmont hotel in San Francisco sold 114 really expensive suites

AIRBNB Fieldtrip Hoteltonight

A customer does 26 searches for a holiday

I asked a question and said I blogged on wine trails. 

But I need to get more links on my blogs to increase readers.

 

Afterwards a lady came up and said she does personalised tours

She is Mary E Dardenne marydardenne@decantertours.com wwwdecantertours.com skype twitter and fb Decanter tours

she does individual upmarket press tours.

Some travel bloggs and travel bloggers to watch out for:
Visit the Velvet Escape travel blog:
Keith Jenkins, founder and publisher.
www.velvetescape.com

I also met Janice Leith Waugh, 'The Solo Traveller's Handbook (2nd edition), for those who love and those who long to go solo'. She blogs four times a week, inclduing her own blog, a destination chosen by her group, and featured photo of the week.
thetravellershandbooks.com

Another is Melvin Bocher of traveldudes.org 'for travellers, by travellers'.
www.traveldudes.org
twiter.com/traveldudes
facebook.com/traveldudes


Sites such as Tripadvisor are consulted by a high proportion of consumers of all ages.
I went to a seminar on crisis management.

Russia's Golden Ring of Astronauts, mice and More Entrancing Stories

The Golden Ring of Russian towns starts in the capital, Moscow, or at the Golden Gate in the town of Vladimir. Or Yaroslavl, 'space capital of Russia', birthplace of the first woman astronaut, Valentina Tereshkova (1963). See the Planetarium.
The little town of Myshkin (meaning little house - mysh is Russian for mouse) has Myshniye Palatye (Mouse chambers) whre King Mouse and Queen Mouse greet visitors and in the underground zoo are exotic mice and rodents.
More sites and stories involve The Snow Maiden palace in Kostroma, Alexander Nevsky and Pushkin's characters, plus vodka at, a jam libeary www.cgr.su

Famous People - Past, Present, Future by bus

Three bus tours of London were operating stands at World Travel Market. Big Bus Tours London hop-on hop-off sightseeing charges adults £29 but when I raised eyebrows at the price they pointed out that you also get free river boat trips and free walking tours. You get discount vouchers givingsavings from £1.50 to £5 on attractions such as London Aquarium and Madame Tussauds.
Big bus tours are also in Abus Dhabi, budapest, dubai, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Miiami, Muscat, Paris, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Shanghai and Washington DC.
www.bigbustours.com

City Sightseeing tour buses issue an amusing calendar with facts on different countries. Cities covered include Bath, Berlin, Brussels, Belfast, Cape Town, Colchester, Glasgow, Moscow, New York, Panama and more.
www.city-sightseeing.com

Famous People In London - Footballers, Michael Jackson and more

Michael Jackson's statue is at Fulham football club grounds because Mohamed Al Fayed of Harrods fame was a huge Jackson fan. Also see the Johnny Haynes statue and restaurant of World Cup winner George Cohen.
Fulhamfc.com/cottagetrours
You can also do tours of Wembley stadium.
wembleystadium.com/tours
chelseafc.com/tours
 

Famous People In St Paul's Cathedral - no man is an island

St Paul's statue is on the front of the building and architect Wren is buried inside. Wren's son wrote the motto (in Latin), to see my monument, look around. The inscription is repeated under the dome.
Nelson, whose column you may have passed on the column in Trafalgar square, is buried in St Paul's. So is Wellington. Donne, who wrote 'no man is an island' became Dean of St Pauls. His memorial was here before the cathedral was rebuilt by Wren after the great fire of London. Donne dressed himself in a shroud to be prepared and a drawing of him when alive wearing the shroud was used to create his memorial after he died.
See more poets and artists (William Blake memorial, John Everett Millais, JMW Turner), architects, scientists (Alexander Fleming, Henry Wellcome,) musicians (Arthur Sullivan) and the military and politicians Winston Churchill Memorial gates..
The entry price of £15.50 per adult (concessions students and senior 60+ years £14) includes guided tours of the cathedral and crypt, a film, and access to the whispering gallery - where whispers echo, the Stone Gallery and the top Golden Gallery giving views over London.
From the Golden Gallery you can see The Monument (to the Great Fire of London), The Gherkin, and The Shard. The two and a half hour visit is cheaper than Westminster Abbey, they say.
The Multimedia guide included is in 11 languages plus a British Sign Lansguage version and audio-only for blind and partially sighted visitors.
See my other blogs, and Angela Lansbury author / travel / poem/ restaurant etiqeuetter on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn.
My articles on travel are also on my old websites. My latest books are available on lulu.com as paperbacks which you can have posted (mailed) and as downloads.
Next spring (they predict March)  you'll be able to go up the Shard for a view over London. Meanwhile you can climb St Paul's and view the Shard.
www.stpauls.co.uk

World Travel Market news don't Knock Knock in Ireland

Don't knock a visit to Knock knock who's there in Ireland. Seriously, after a visit to the Guinness shop in Dublin, the most visited venue in Ireland is the town and shrine of Knock, yes, that's how you spell it. After Lourdes, it's one of the most popular places for pilgrimages and stories of cures.   Mother Teresa went there and so did Pope Paul. A million people a year visit Knock.
Knock is also a town which wins awards for being Tidy Town.
I met an Irishman called Michael who is the hotel manager of Westport Woods Hotel which has a spa and runs lots of activities such as 'dancing for pleasure' (why else do you dance? - I suppose to win competitions). If you are less physically active but more mentally active the hotel also runs Bridge weekends. Guaranteed to cure boredom.
You will forgive me if I knock off now
Angela Lansbury
www.westportwoodshotel.com
www.knock-shrine.ie

Animals, Fire Temples and Country tales

FLANDERS & THE GREAT WAR REVISITED
Flanders will be running a huge tourist and visitor welcome programme 2014-18 to recall the Great War or First World War.
|They gave away packets of poppy seeds with the poem by Canadian John McCrae - In Flanders Fields.
Although it includes as well as the words Flanders and poppies the request 'Take up our quarrel with the foe' it was written in a time and place when that seemed suitable. However, Flanders is welcoming visitors from 50 countries including Germany and will be recalling the Christmas truce when the allies and German soldiers played sang carols together, played games and shook hands - and had to be forced by powers above to resume fighting.

www.visitflanders.com

FIRE TEMPLE, ZOROASTRIANS
Azerbaijan has a temple of fire built on a natural gas plain in 1700s for the Zoroastrians. Their country is full of amazing buildings of all ages including Gobustan petroglyphs, rock carvings of men and animals.
www.gobustan-rockart.az


TRIPS and RESEARCH
More useful contacts:
wtmlondon.com
famtripsandinspectionvisits.com
 

HELP! LOST BAG WTM Blonde blogger wearing red Virgin socks (me|) has lost (my) silver grey wheelie bag at ExCel World Travel Market.
My favourite much-bashed bag has a Singapore Airlines frequent flyer tag with Angela Sharot on it and an orange ribbon tied to the handle. The bag looks battered and the handle won't retract but it contains all sorts of valuables - like my socks. And my fishnet tights. Luckily I did not put my laptop and my mobile phone cum camera in the wheelie bag.
I tried telling two sympathetic security offices and filed a loss report. I went to the press office. If you find my bag take it to the press office - whose reception girls by now know me very well. They are still smiling. I should have photographed myself with my bag. I suggested that Virgin should sponsor tags next year for all one's valuables, bags and cameras and coats. Offers of a replacement bag, tags etc gratefully received. I headed to the Virgin stand for red socks and tried their new wide seats in Economy Premium with wider armrests. The Show Security say that lots of lost items turn up when stands are dismantled.Wish me luck.
ExCel security suite for lost property tel:020 7069 4445
annalondon8@gmail.com

Travel Snippets - Looking at Larnaka, Latvia, Lithuania

Larnaka
On the southern coast of Cyprus, Larnak is associated with Lazarus, who went to Cyprus after being raised from the dead by Jesus. You can visit the Museum of St Lazarus and St Lazarus church. Also Archaeological and Paleontology museums. Lazarus was an incoming or immigrating resident. Another famous man, an outgoing or emigrating person was Larnaka-born stoic philosopher Zenon who went to Athens.

You can marry on the island of love. Walk along the Palm Tree Parade and if your budget is exhausted there's free entry to the Pieredes Museum.

High street bakeries make honey pastries for Xmas markets and gifts. You can make your own olive oil and carob syrup and cook savouries and sweets on a day in November, organised by the owner of the olive oil factory and olive restaurant in Skarinou village for £53 for residents at Palm Beach Hotel and Bungalows at 4 star hotel, seven night holidays from £557 per person (sharing) in November.
www.planet-holidays.co.uk Planet holidays 0871 871 2234
www.palmbeachhotel.com
wwwlarnakaregion.com
press visits contact Marlen Taffarello 01780 481689 marlen@fcdcom.co.uk
www.visitcyprus.com

Latvia
Latvia - all roads lead to Riga, the capita, European Capital of Culture 2014.  The widest waterfall, called Venta at Kuldiga; wooden toy construction kits for houses, Ligatne underground bunker, latvia.travel/sight/secret-soviet-bunker-ligatne. Museum of fateful objects. riga2014.org
see www.latvia.travel

London
Pestana Chelsea Bridge
Chelsea Bridge Wharf
Sat nav SW8 4PP www.pestana-chelseabridge.co.uk
Marketing and PR priscilla.nascimento@pestana.com

Lithuania
See Vilnius Old town, Grutas Park in the top ten of the world's weirdest museums.
Rye bread and herring and all kinds of potato: sausages, amber processing Amber Road. What's not to like!
www.Lithuania.travel
www.tourism.lt

World Travel Market 2012 Delights of London From Budget Hotels

World Travel Market 2012 Delights of London From Budget Hotels


The main Ibis by the ExCel centre (above) is fully booked and cost well over £100 but I found another Ibis Budget City Airport hotel was within walking distance of ExCel where the world's tourist boards and attractions gather in what is now a remodelled area of East London.
    Why did the show move from Olympia/Earls Court (closing down) to here - miles from Heathrow? ExCel was chosen because it's London's biggest conference centre, they told me. I was chilled from cold wind blowing up skirts Marilyn Monroe style through East London docklands from the sea.    But I was entranced by the overhead aerial pod (cable car) carrying tourists across the river.

Helpful hotel staff had suggested a quieter room over the car park.  Both the hotel and (Whitbread's) Costa next door offered breakfast of a takeaway almond slice at £1.50. A bedroom cost a modest £75, had a lovely soothing lime green colour scheme,  and the dinkiest little light over the bed - just reach up and tap and lights go off - and on again next morning after my helpful wake up call. 

  I was born late (Caesarian) but try harder by booking a hotel the day before at my destination. No time to wait for a taxi. The hotel staff give me a call by knocking on my door. Either because there is no phone in the room or the see thru hem dress I wore yesterday is even sexier than I thought.

    So, already wearing my pre-printed badge, I'm soon running after others also dragging carry-on airline bags. The nearest DLR to the IBIS City Airport was Pontoon bridge and I was excited to find that I was walking across a pontoon (moving) bridge where signs warned pedestrians to stand back and get off when the bridge was moving

I ran along the huge centre to the press office for the press networking breakfast. Networking would have been faster if it had been like Speed-dating with everybody having half a minute to exchange business cards. Leith breakfasts had tasty almond pastries and they kept running to refill the run out coffee.

The Ramada reception had asked a hotelier for £300 but he found an offer of £150 on the net.
My Budget Ibis at £75 was starting to look like a bargain.

Israel's Attractions
   At the Israeli tourist board promotion I've perfected my introduction, 'My name is Angela Lansbury, I'm a freelance travel writer and I'm researching my forthcoming book on Jewish travel. I already know about Abraham and Moses, and Jesus, but I and my readers would like to know about modern figures, pop starts like Amy Winehouse, or the Beatles, and why and when they visited Israel, or if you are buying souvenires of them, and your plans for more people of interest to the younger generation.' Madonna is mentioned, a barmitzvah, and the fact that the Beatles were discouraged by a prime minister who thought they'd be a bad influence on Israeli youth. Also an Israeli opera festivfal featuring operas such as Nabucco, famous for the music of the Hebrews.
   In the press office outside the conference room I've just met my friend, freelance travel writer, Louise Cahill, who I met at Swanwick Writers' Summer School. She's still thanking me for introducing her the Toastmasters speakers' clubs. Toastmasters' teaches you to give impromptu speeches in 2 minutes. I don't know whether it's the training or her natural brightness but she has a good question for the ministers of tourism, more succinct than my question, 'What can I as a freelancer offer to editors which will make them think: I must run this story" ?'
   We learn that Israel that Tel Aviv was voted the most innovative city (yet actually it's all art deco), Israel has four seas, the Red sea, the Dead Sea. the Sad sea of Galilee (aside losing money and water) and Israel's successful Facebook page has 1007,000 people.The Israelis calim to have invested money in historical sites connected with all religions and Palestinian tourist boards are taking the first steps towards joint marketing. Just time for a quick half bagel and I'm off to the next show. Tell you more later.

London's Latest Attractions and Travel
1 km cable car goes to Greenwich peninsular.
thecrystal.org
createlondon.org
ssrobin.org
industri-us.org
wakeupdocklands.com
gasworksdock.org.uk
wbstudiotour.co.uk (Harry Potter studio Warner Bros tours)
stratfordlondon.app.com
emiratesairline.co.uk
wtmlondon.com

World Travel Market News From South America

Amy Winehouse's polkadot dress, borrowed from the designer for the cover of Back to Black, was bought and will be displayed at the Museo de la Moda in Santiago, Chile.
wtmlondon.com

Etiquette worldwide

If you are going to the World Travel Market in London, here's the website.
http://www.wtmlondon.com/

If you are interested in etiquette, here's my video on you tube.

/www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlQsmG_dSxE&feature=relmfu
Angela on restaurant table etiquette

Harry Potter Tours Worldwide and Good Hobbits

Driving north of Watford, Hertfordshire you pass the signs to the Harry Potter Tour opened earlier in 2012.  I was keen to go and thought I'd get a dinner date to take me and treat me - until I saw the adult entry price is £28. Maybe I can wave a magic wand and get a trip. The first step in any trip is to do research on deals. Either find a reduced price off season deal or get something else thrown in free.

From central London you can book a tour with tea or lunch or dinner at a de Vere Hotel (which has a swimming pool - might stay there one day). A hunt around the net shows pictures of the studio sets - at first sight it's a great day out for a family, with a family ticket for four (2 adults 2 children) costing about £83. What about a little souvenir from the shop as you leave? Add about £25 for a wand. I might treat myself to a stage prop, but I can see that if you've two or three children, it's a bit pricey, even if they share. ('Play nicely, childen!')
(What does the wand do? Light up? I presume something flashy, literally. With batteries? It's fourteen inches long and you wave it and it goes on. Wave it again and it goes off. Type in Harry Potter wand on the internet and you'll find them at all prices, literally more or less.
 You can buy a broom in Tesco Express for halloween. Prices should be down on Nov 1st. By next week you won't get one for money or love. I bought a broom for 24p. I shall only use it once a year in a speech and I need to store it all year but I could not resist the temptation of a bargain. Would a Harry Potter wand be a better investment?) 

If you are a tourist or want a holiday treat you might as well add a wand to the cost to the price of your flight and accommodation and meals if it makes your trip. For a day out with children, it compares well with similarly priced  Madame Tussauds and theme parks like Thorpe Park and Alton Towers.

Adults would probably think it's no more than a football ticket - as for the tickets for the Olympics- people were paying hundreds of pounds.  

Is the Harry Potter trip worth the money. Yes. Especially as you learn about film production as well as seeing sets of this film.
The latest I learned at WTM is that in November 2012 they added the ability to walk across the bridge you could previously only view from afar. What bridge? The one which Harry stands on at the end of the film as everything explodes around him.

Trusty wiki reveals that you could also visit the Harry Potter theme park in Florida; and they are building one in west coast USA near Hollwood. 

On one of the forums an adult said you can visit The Hobbit pub in Southampton for free. (Then buy a cocktail or tee-shirt - according to the pub's website.) The pub had a dispute about copyright which despite their arguing that the word Hobbit predates its use by the company. But they seem to have settled amicably on a fee of £65 a year. Last time I looked you paid a fee of about £25 for an amateur company or school to perform a copyright play or musical.

If you want me to jump around on stage in my wig it's £50 an hour for a family of four - or any number. See me at Harrovian Speakers in NW London (I'm President and open and close the meetings). I also appear for at other toastmasters clubs in the UK and Singapore.

Most years I'm at the World Travel Market in Edexcel in London.
HARRY POTTER and HOBBIT and HAZEL NUTTER websites
www.thehobbitpub.co.uk.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114972/Harry-Potter-studio-tour-review
booking.deverevenues.co.uk
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The-Wizarding-World-of-Harry-Potter
wbstudiotour.co.uk
www.harrovians.org.uk
https://sites.google.com/site/annalondon8/jewishtravelguideandquotations
http://www.wtmlondon.com/ (World Travel Market 2012 at Edexcel)

International Justice - Travelling To Court

In the UK a trial is cancelled. One party was told the wrong dates so the case was dismissed.
What happens in a case where the woman doesn't turn up because she is missing or dead and the accused is let free to attack again? In a recent case, I think in the USA, the courts used a video of the missing presumed dead woman's accusation because although she was not around it was 'in the public interest'. In many cases the woman or girl or child - or man - is scared or can't to through with a trial. In Singapore they have video links. If the person needed is in another country this saves the cost of flying them in.
What happens on days when the planes and trains and buses aren't running or bad weather? You would not cancel the trail - justice stopped by bad weather and typos.
You could even have a phone-in. Can't the judge or court phone the missing person and ask, 'where are you?, put the phone on speaker, then later have the person turn up in court when traffic allows.

WORLD TRAVEL MARKET, BEST BUDGET HOTELS & IBIS

Budget Hotels - IBIS EXPRESS and more
The Charms of the East London Edexcel Location

The World Travel Market moves with the times and years ago it was at Kensington Olympia but it is now held at Edexcel on the Docklands Light Railway. It looks new and exciting.

East London is great if you are travelling into the City Airport, although not for me. East London was probably cheaper at first for the organisers, it's bringing heart-warming life to an area which needed redeveloping and big signs show Arab countries investment but the location still seems worryingly inconvenient to travel agents and the travel writing press like me travelling from West or North West London in the Heathrow direction.

The show used to have major events for the press all week but now the big day is the opening day starting with breakfast at 9 am. How do you avoid the stress and risk of a late arrival after travelling 2 hours with waits and delays at three or more train interchanges?

My policy as a travel writer, tourist and Anxious Angela is always to arrive the night before - as I do on site at my Writers' Holiday in Caerleon, Wales. Airports often have a hotel attached. Every conference centre should have an attached hotel, or two or three, like shopping malls in South Africa.

For WTM I want a budget hotel nearby 'my' WTM.

So what are the overnight options? The hotels increase their prices if they are alongside a conference centre during a conference and are also fully booked. I was quoted more than £200 a night. (without breakfast and wifi which is £10 a day and you have to organise it yourself with the whole hassle of passwords and not getting a connection for half an hour of the one hour you want to use it. I was considering Sunday to THURSDAY.  For that money I could have paid for a taxi home to cart my clobber.

IBIS and Budget hotels

So I looked into the value for money IBIS hotels. I logged onto the WTM site and the IBIS hotel next to the conference centre had a room. I left my computer for a minute to discuss my budget 'one night or three?' But by the time I got back the room had gone!
The rooms were available and not available, like traffic lights. That's because you, the customer can book and cancel if you change your mind or change your plans. Until 2 pm on the day of arrival.

The advertised rate of a modest £49 on the website had shot up to £99 for a hotel some distance away. I booked three nights.

Then I phoned to check the hotel's nearness to the station. Nowhere near walking distance to the conference centre. You need a cab. I hate relying on cabs.

When my father phoned to say my mother was dying in hospital in 2005 it was raining and I tried to book a cab. I called six companies. Eventually I booked a cab. But it arrived 20 minutes later than it promised, firstly because of bad weather - and secondly it had diverted to fill up with petrol.
By the time I reached hospital mother was unconscious, my woebegone father gasping, 'Why are you so late?'

Now I'd rather have the second option of walking to the station. My London base is near the station. I chose to live near a station. When mother died I had to cancel a press trip to Nottingham. Now I read that they are planning a huge Robin Hood attraction opening 2015. But that's far in the future. What's in my mind? Don't rely on a cab.

Planning is all. One reason why people are late is that they are over-optimistic about travel times. Canny interviewees check journeys. Drive to your job interview destination the night before. Some people drive to check the venue of Harrovians Speakers Club of which I am president. I know Edexcel but not the Ibis hotel.

We drive to my chosen Ibis hotel the week before. I imagined East Barking would be a run-down high street dodging drunks and down and outs. No way. It is on a motorway, with a pavement beside the noise and pollution, in a cluster of three or four budget hotels, two branches of the IBIS and the one I pull into is the IBIS Express.

A very helpful front desk man tells me the cab is only £5 and you don't need to tip. I am almost tempted to switch to this place. However, no way can I walk from here.

He is able to find me a hotel nearer Excel conference centre, the City Airport. We drive there.

Quiet location of industrial estates and high rise offices and modern apartments. Not exactly a bustling shopping centre with cafes and pubs and shop windows  displaying quirky goods. But next door to a Costa which stocks my favourite almond bake slice. Long walk to the DLR but easy to find your way under the DLR to the the station. One interchange on the DLR. I book one night.

The smiling receptionist warns that people stay a night and want to stay on but the hotel is booked. I ask here to cancel my other booking but she can't. No way am I booking a second hotel in the same group when I am committed to more than £300 for another and her hotel can't sort it out.

I email the cancellation but get no reply. I shall phone them.

Then I'm off to 'my' new IBIS. What shall I pack? Not too much. No room for a nightdress. They won't have a bathrobe at a budget hotel. Costa next door supplies breakfast if I'm up before the press breakfast or can't wait until I get to the press centre.

What about breakfast in the room. A tin of prunes? Must be self opening. Try Morrisons. Oh, forget that. Since my IBIS Express hotel visit I now have the IBIS booklet showing all their hotels. Happy reading.

If you've any suggestions, please contact me
annalondon8@gmail.com

http://www.wtmlondon.com/ (Home page of World Travel Market 2012 at Edexcel lists all the events)

What You Must See at The World Travel Market - Armchair Visits

The Delights Of World Travel Market - Nott(ingham) Harry Potter, Jews' News
Drum beats echo as you wander past pictures of the world's highest hotels, romantic restaurants, and amazing waxwork museums' hologram faces. You photograph robots offering you leaflets, on your way towards double decker tourist buses temporarily turned into bars. Flag-waving countries with floor to ceiling videos have music-blaring stands divided areas into desks for tourist boards which display newly opened and renewed tourist attractions on the world's continents at The World Travel Market.

November may be a dull month worldwide but in London it's all happening. As usual I expect six foot girls in corsets from Las Vegas, maple syrup pancakes from Canada, Belgian beer and chocolates from factory shops, French wines from the Champagne region, saucers of dates and nuts from Arab countries, leaflets from Israel, Palestine, all smiling PR people.

Upstairs in the press office you get catalogues too big to carry all day, plus heavy goodie bags containing free CDs on tourist attractions if you are prepared to listen to 2 hours of statistics confused by government reps who speak no English but are translated by well-spoken saints into muttering microphones and Confusion he says. The important aim for travel writers is to network and collect address cards from tourist boards. Better still, if you are lucky, meaning eagle-eyed and beaver persistent, a busy editor who wants articles about your last trip.

Just when you are ready to collapse from dehydration and exhaustion at six o'clock the show's exits close. You are trapped like children following Germany's Piped Piper as Caribbean bands can be heard echoing across the halls. Limitless cocktails stop you stumbling up the four flights of stairs at the nearby DLR.

Did you buy a copy of a newspaper with a free big umbrella and lug the heavy newspaper around all day whilst tripping people up with the umbrella (two and four years ago) - or did you postpone buying until the evening and find they had run out of umbrellas or didn't have them this year (three and five years ago).

Olympia
The exhibition was originally held at oval Kensington Olympia, where a plaque recorded how sedate Queen Victoria in her tiara watched whooping Red Indians riding horses with Wild Bill Cody. I'm now researching budget  hotels. If you have any suggestions, please tell me.

I used to think that it was hard to reach Olympia in time and often persuaded an expensive Kensington or new hotel hungry for business and publicity to give me a four-poster bedroom for the night.

In my happy heyday I was a honeymoon specialist always in the honeymoon suite writing for Brides, Northern Echo or any newspaper whose staff I bumped into at events at WTM. Editors please call me.

Jewish Travel Guide, Anne Frank and Amy Winehouse
Now I'm blogging and self-publishing guidebooks. My latest is a Jewish Travel Guide A-Z. I started with Amsterdam's Anne Frank and compiled it for my own reference when speaking on radio. At a previous World Travel Market I discovered that Poland's most visited site is Auschwitz (featured on Polish and UK school trips). I've visited Schindler's Museum in Krakow, Poland's beautiful medieval former capital.

But my list of must visit one day tell me more still includes Nigeria's Queen of Sheba burial site which I heard about at a previous World Travel Market. I've also researched every country in the world from biblical times to WWII. Biblical sites, for example include Yemen's Queen of Sheba attractions.Thoughout the year I watch the news. Amy Winehouse's dress was bought by a fashion museum in South America. 

Wish List Of Writers', Songwriters' and Singers' Homes
On previous visits to the show I learned about Elvis's Jewish connections, lots more sites to see in the USA singers, and country singers; and an Australian country singers' museum.

As for researching tourist sites connected with my fellow authors, I haven't yet seen R L Stevenson's last home and monument in the Pacific, nor Harry Potter which is near me and a real possibility for a visit. If you have visited these places or have any other suggestions please contact me
angelalansbury@hotmail.com

Here's your link to what's on at The World Travel Market 2012 at Edexcel
http://www.wtmlondon.com/

Delete everything from (new) mobiles sent back to the shop?

Every traveller relies on a phone, for phone numbers and as one of the latest ad says, so the satellite navigation can tell you where you are. What could go wrong? Your new, upgraded phone.
A woman is worried because she took a faulty phone back to the shop and the new owner can see all her photos and new emails and bank details and passwords being updated.
Others says she should have deleted everything and re-installed icloud with a new password.
But you don't delete everything from your new phone after spending two days loading up all your phone numbers. You take it into the shop saying 'there is a problem' hoping they can fix it. After half an hour they give up and call the manager.
He gives you a new phone and promises to wipe the old one - or says he'll get it fixed and give it back - he then turns to three people waiting impatiently behind you.
By then you are late and trying to check the new phone is working and rush off.
When you phone the shop next week they tell you to keep the new phone. They can't find where the old one has gone but think it went back to the manufacturer and got binned.

Reforming UK Primary School Teaching - Adding Dates+History

The new list must include English spelling+ grammar. If not please add it.
Geography: continents, read maps and Satnav, find countries in the news, ancestors, classmates' origins.
Practical maths: how vacuum cleaners work, use a dishwasher, Run water in waste disposal to prevent solid food blocking drains.
Keep accounts: pocket money in, money spent.
Keep time, file homework papers, tidy room.
Possible careers + skills+exam passes for jobs. I needed Latin A level to study English at London Univ / science A level for psychology.
Music - read music and compose a simple song. Sing in tune:  start with happy birthday to you.
Politeness worldwide: Say Please+thank you. Use a hanky to wipe noses. Wash hands before+ after meals. Don't put fingers on food when passing cake slices. No fingers inside cups.Take off shoes or wear overshoes in homes where you sit or pray on the floor or babies crawl.
Languages: (Don't tell me it's confusing to learn other languages. It helps me spell and understand English knowing Latin. I wish I had learned Greek, German, and Spanish. Beggar children in third world countries can ask for money in ten languages. People with multiple borders such as Czech republic speak up to 8 languages. The Scandinavians who speak languages nobody beyond their border can speak, means they have to be near-fluent in at least one other language, English.) Russian+Greek alphabet. 100 words, 3 grammatical sentences in the present, past and future, a request and a command. 1 song, in 12 languages.

Cheap colour change tests for HIV are being developed

This is good for poorer countries which need tests but cannot afford them.
What brief news reports have not space to mention and discuss is that if this were available on the internet or from a doctor the public could test themselves without having the record on their medical records or sent to an insurance company or employer.
The NHS is likely to object because people might get suicidal if not told in person by somebody who can help deal with the reaction - or demand a re-test if the level of false positives is high. But another advantage would be people could ask potential dates or mates to take a test in public before getting involved physically and emotionally which would cut down infection rates. As we have cures or treatments to prevent, alleviate, if not eliminate, many diseases and ones which take over when your immune system is low, that must be good for the long-term health of the majority of patients as well as their partner or potential partner. It might even save the NHS the cost and time of testing people.
Currently some US states require medical tests before marriage to protect the unborn child. Also have what used to be called VD was a grounds for annulment of a marriage. So this save a lot of aggro when many people are infected and don't even realise it.
France requires every motorist to carry a breathaliser. One day every traveller will be required to carry a set of condoms and health check kits and use them before a relationship starts.
Anything which saves money and saves lives and relationships has to be good.

How do you speak on a subject when you are not an expert?

1 I wrote a book on etiquette and when I spoke on radio on etiquette I was asked why Americans eat with a fork in their left hand. I didn't know - but an American rang in with her answer. I learned that if you can't answer a question, you ask the audience. If none of them know, it doesn't matter that you don't and you can say you'll find out and let them know later. If somebody does know, you can thank them profusely.
2 You look the subject up in Wikipedia. In advance. You find the world expert on the subject who has written a book. You pick a pithy a quotation on the subject. You ask who in the audience has read the book and what they thought of it.
3 If you are asked suddenly (the speaker didn't turn up) try to get a break at half time during which you check wikipedia on your laptop or mobile phone for more ideas.
4 You ask the audience for their biggest problems and then ask who has solved that problem. You'll soon find you have a relevant or amusing or helpful comment on their methods or attitudes.
5 Turn it into a workshop. Start by flattering the audience for being such a group of experts. Ask the list of their top ten challengers and get a VIP to write these on a board. Break them up into groups of 2 or maximum ten and give them 20 minutes and then get them to give feedback. (While they are doing this, you can research the subject on the internet.)

Making Drinking Alcohol Safer

Today's news stories are about UK police shutting down premises associated with assaults and rapes. 18 year old student drinks vodka bottle in 15 minutes and falls to his death down a flight of stairs.
Don't alcohol bottle labels in many countries warn you to limit the amount you drink, like pills? If not, they should.
I've read several incidents of people dying on stag nights, usually the groom or best man. Now it's colleges. We should bring in laws like the Scandinavians. Drink must be served only with food. Anybody who spikes a drink, serves anybody else too much alcohol, or encourages them to drink dangerous amounts should be held responsible.

Where to Learn How To Give The well constructed speech

Would be writers travel to England to the Writers' Summer School at Swanwick and the Writers' Holiday in Wales and visit our Toastmasters Speakers' clubs. On LinkedIn I read a debate about how useless, even  insulting it is to members of the audience eager to learn if a speaker offers no useful advice and seems unprepared. The construction of a good speech and a good short story or novel or even a poem are all similar. Hero/Heroine/victim has an aim or problem, is thwarted, through determination beats the villain/opposition/self-doubt/disaster and succeeds.
The short story has one problem; the novel can have up to 50 obstacles. You can have clear helpers and foes such as rival companies, but also the hero/heroine can have friends or colleagues or family who become rivals or enemies pretending to be friends and baddies who are won over by the kindness and help of the hero/heroine (Read Treasure Island.) The same happens in real life in business.
At Toastmasters I've heard speeches prepared in the interval which were well constructed - and topics - often using material the speaker has used and prepared earlier for another subject. (This is how as an English tutor I've got failed mock O level pupils to reach A star. They prepared three perfect corrected well constructed essays. In the exam they used the same essay topic or the same structure such as past, present, future.)
In Toastmasters we tend to give ten different unrelated speeches practising various techniques. If you plan to be a professional speaker it's better and easier to pick a topic or subject and keep honing that. Martin Luther King had given his I have a dream speech many times. (In fact he abandoned his new speech and went back to the old one.)
I met an actress who was a professional speaker and she had only four speeches which she gave again and again so that like a play she had every word and pause planned and memorised. That's actors for you. But ENFP (extravert procrastinators like me - teachers and journalists - always interested in the news and trying something new) are more likely to try out a new subject every time they stand up.
Success in speeches can come from preparing the perfect speech and adapting it to a similar subject. The person who is winging it and not succeeding needs to join toastmasters and get evaluations, and a mentor. It's the same as preparing for a job interview and facing hecklers doing stand-up. But what stops the preparation is probably what drives people to Toastmasters in the first place - procrastination due to fear of facing the audience. Some of those top speakers have made millions on line with businesses run to collect money without ever meeting a person. That's why they have failed face to face. But they could succeed with a checklist - and the organiser should ask for a pre-speech run through of topics to be covered or give the speaker a list. We used to have the same at writers' conferences. Speakers promoted themselves reading out their books or literary agents told us they did not want anybody to contact them whilst the audience wanted tips. If the organisers had said, your audience is writers who have paid to learn how to write, what are your top three tips - please put them in your speech because if not as chair that will be my first question. That helps the speaker focus on what the audience wants.
I've been a member of two clubs in the UK and one in Singapore. At the time of writing this I'm President of Harrovian Speakers and if you are ever in London please look us up and email one of us and come along to a meeting, dinner or party. You'll meet friendly people and learn a lot about speaking and personalities.
www.harrovians.org.uk
Also check out my book Quick Quotations For Successful Speeches on lulu.com
I'll sign a copy for you if you buy it from me or buy it on line and bring it to a meeting.
When I'm in Singapore I go to a Toastmasters speakers' meeting every night when I'm not out to dinner.
You can also see me in action on YouTube How to give a good speech.
I have some books on Amazon new and used. Any positive feedback or good or helpful reviews would be appreciated.

LinkedIn Toastmasters Chat On Low Cost Videos For Websites

Angela Lansbury (angelalansbury@hotmail.com) • Carol mentioned wanting to re-do a video done professionally. Can two Toastmasters members in each district or area or club get together? Both could rehearse videoing the other and get experience in the production and what they want to achieve as subject of a video. A mutual self-help pair works well if one of them has the equipment. For free, a tiny fee, or small gift, or free lunch at home, the one with the equipment can video the other person as a practice. I'm president of our club, Harrovians, which bought a video recorder (which has disappeared with a member who is moving - I have to retrieve it). Our techie person researched it and bought second hand. I'm sure with more finance anybody in business even on a budget can buy even better. I previously had videos on YouTube taken by toastmaster William Brougham who visited my club as a GE. You can see several and how the first one is unrehearsed but others improve dramatically over time. He was already working in radio and later went on to do a university course in Australia. A toastmasters manual has tips on TV such as what to wear. When I did a rehearsal at my club I was advised when holding my books to treat them reverently and hold them steady for long enough for readers to see and not to wave them around. I'm now ready to be more professional on a website of my own promoting my club, and my books on speaking, and Quick Quotations (on Lulu - needs marketing) if anybody in London can help me with a website and video. 

TIPPING worldwide - To Ensure Promptitude?

To tip or not to tip - that is the question. Australasia has no tipping, but to get a hotel room in India you might have to tip the receptionist. In America staff want to increase the amount of tips to 25%. Customers, especially the British are objecting to the rise - and indeed to tipping altogether.
In China, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand there's no tipping. In Singapore and China staff back away if you offer a tip. They would lose their jobs if they accepted a bribe to treat one customer better than another. Other diners would be infuriated. To insure promptitude? Taxi customers are annoyed by Americans tipping. The taxi drivers ignore locals and go to the foreigners. The locals consider that queue jumping. To stop bribery of government officials, the government banned all tipping. Stop the habit. Make sure everybody is paid a basic wage to cut down on crime and beggars.
A good maitre d ensures you are greeted when you arrive and given the menu immediately. (See my YouTube video on restaurant service.)
When the manager pays the staff, if service is poor you complain to the management who train the staff.
     In the UK when service charges started consumers were promised tips would go or go to staff. But managements pocket tips.
     Staff are miserable if you've no cash. They say, 'Don't add the tip to the bill.' They argue the system won't allow it. They have to wait to get the tip at the end of the month with their wages. Pay the tip now and they can celebrate tonight. They have to share their tip with all the staff.
     Hotel restaurant bills add service and when that's added to the hotel bill another 10% is added to the whole bill at the end. So you pay another ten percent service on the ten percent you've already paid.
Governments think jobs requiring tips mean staff don't pay taxes. Staff relying on tips don't get health cover, sickness benefit, pensions.
Staff not appearing on a pay roll may be illegal immigrants. That's why they are hiding at the back and only come out to serve if you charge into the kitchen hunting for them.
The UK has a minimum wage. Tips are optional. Restaurants charging over 10% don't get more business nor reviews.
If tips ensure promptitude - maybe we should be like the story of the millionaire who tore a banknote in half and said, 'If I get good service I give you both halves. If not, I take back this half.'

Free Pavement Libraries and Boat Libraries

Great idea, especially in poor countries and poor areas but even if you do it in a rich area the poorer people who work there or walk through can help themselves and help each other. Yes, do copy this idea. Selling or giving away books to energise people and educate them and encourage trade has been done in various places over the past centuries. The bookshop village at Hay in Wales is breeding others around the world, Europe and Japan. Now in 2012 internet news is telling us about a TV programme showing us Nanie in Manila in the Philippines who started his home library with old textbooks to help educate and entertain the poor.
The first British libraries had the same aim. So did Sassoon's helping students in Bombay.
Nanie's books on boats reach the remote islands. I must search for the TV programme and watch it.
Guesthouses I've seen in the UK and New Zealand have leave or take a book on a bookshelf. Most of their books are holiday reading, novels and guidebooks.
You can take magazines to your doctor's, or dentist's if they have out of date magazines. I offered my doctors' surgery magazines - such a waste to throw them away unread as I'd bought craft magazines and children's magazines for the free gift and only glanced at each page.
A London gym also has a book table for people sitting on bikes or waiting for each other. Or maybe to educate the sporty types?
I was shocked when London boroughs, such Harrow and Brent, started closing libraries. Libraries already had regular sales of old battered books. People protested when local newspapers reported that book not sold were thrown away - not even given to local charity shops. They claimed the cost of sending books overseas prevented books being donated to poor countries. Mobile phones and computers are being recycled and carried free by some airlines to countries where schools need equipment.
What could stop you or anybody else doing this and how can you overcome the impediments? In England we have rain unpredictably all year which is not good for book boxes and shelves. But the solution is simple. A church lych gate. An awning. A porch roof. Nanie opened his home and garage. Indoors at a town hall or doctor's surgery.
My doctor's receptionist said I could not put magazines on the table but she had to check them first. Why? I suppose in case they were adult subjects or promoting a religious or political cause which could offend somebody. Or just dirty - spreading germs to the vulnerable at the doctors. Yet hospital waiting rooms have magazines to cheer and distract those waiting, whether it's a short or long wait. So helpful.
Here's an extra incentive to start a book borrowing service or book giving box. Use it to honour your ancestors or local saints and heroes. Nanie started it in memory of his parents.
In the UK in addition to rain we have laws about what you can put on pavements in High streets. You must not obstruct. But I've seen neighbours put out boxes of unwanted apples so they don't go to waste. Americans and others put unwanted goods on the pavements once a year. The internet has a Freeserve service which allows you to list things you are happy to give away, to recycle them and save yourself taking a trip to the tip.
Asian and oriental shops put up flower displays when they open. (Not just the owners. Often gift tags show the flowers were donated by suppliers or benefactors.) Surely any newly opened shop could put a box of free books on the doorstep. A restaurant or coffee bar could do the same to attract customers. Authors have donated books left at railway stations and each reader writes in their name and/or a comment and passes the book on. The author eventually gets feedback, or, at very least distribution to an audience. So, giving books - a commercial idea, and a charity idea.

Do Not Resuscitate - Man Suing NHS

September 2012 a man in a UK hospital is suing staff for putting Do Not Resuscitate routinely on his notes, apparently following guidelines.
He has Down's syndrome and Altzheimer's (if anybody doesn't know the term, one symptom is loss of memory) and is being fed through the stomach by tube.
Why not? Because:
1 Even if medical staff ask family permission it's easy to persuade the patient who feels miserable or the next of kin who feels anxious that the patient has no quality of life. Other members of the family may be more objective and know differently.
2 Family don't realise how upset they will feel at the death.
3 It's not just 'hurt feeling' about not being consulted. Carers, mothers, others, who've devoted all day every day to looking after somebody, are devasted, sometimes suicidal, when their whole reason for living is snatched away. It's also common to feel guilty and go on worrying for years 'if only I had done more to save them'.
4 Doctors can make mistakes. The patient may recover. Many no hope cases have gone on to have healthy or healthy but happy or successful lives which were valuable to themselves or others.
5 The public suspects that if the hospital or staff are having a bad or busy day somebody will say, 'Get one/all of the Do Not Resuscitate patients and accidentally nudge the drip or the patient'.
6 My father was asked if he wanted Do Not Resuscitate put on my mother. He said yes. But I, the daughter, later regretted that. I just thought, what would my mother have said if it had been me? I was her only child. She was my only mother.

l I hope one day we will also have chips at a cemetery entrance to show locations.
And removed gravestones.

BBC News - Denmark pioneers hi-tech graveyard memorials with QR code

www.bbc.co.uk

Denmark is installing graveyard technology which gives visitors instant data about the lives of the deceased, the BBC's Malcolm Brabant reports.

via the BBC website

Funerals worldwide, mourning birds warning and fasting for safety

Scrub Jays (observed by researchers in California) gather around dead birds, apparently mourning, and signal to other birds when they see a dead bird or a predator. This protects the group from danger.
I read about this in the news on the internet. Information about birds 'mourning' not only increases our appreciation of animal behaviour but helps us analayse why we like to be informed of predators and deaths which might indicate danger in our vicinity.

I had to research the reasons behind mourning customs after the death of my father, following instructions as to how to prepare the house for the funeral prayers.  Was I supposed to dress a certain way, prepare food, expect others to bring food, not eat?

From the research on birds I can see that not eating when mourning the dead has dual benefits. I always thought human mourners stopped eating because they were too upset. A secondary reason is being too busy with funerals to cook.

Not foraging gives mourners more time (as some animals spend all day eating). The mourners, especially birds and animals, spend less time hunting alone which could endanger you (whether bird/animal/human) from predators. What's more, you eliminate the danger of the family mourners, or others in the vicinity, eating something poisonous which killed the dead.

To give a few examples: poisonous berries on a nearby plant killing birds, salmonella in the household chicken, serial killer in the office or wicked stepmother or stepfather.

The group funeral makes the youngsters come together and learn about danger. This strategy protects the group, even if nobody knows the source of the poison or even that the dead bird/animal/human was poisoned.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts. I have other posts on funerals in different countries, Christian and Jewish.