Taking Photos of Foreign Brides - When you are a foreign tourist

I read about a couple who gatecrashed a wedding in the USA. The bride was cross. The gatecrashing couple apologised and offered to send a belated gift.

What's your view? Here's mine.

I like taking photos. If I go to a hotel and see a pretty bride and a pretty dress I often try to get a photo.

As I'm obviously a tourist, or different race (e.g. Westerner at an oriental wedding) I am sometimes beckoned forward. I immediately compliment the bride on her beautiful dress and wish the couple every happiness.

I only stay or eat or drink if invited to do so. If not, I smile and bow out still smiling for having been allowed to distract from their family gathering.

I am sometimes invited to pose with the bride. I am sometimes asked to give them the photo which I can do immediately from my mobile to theirs.

If the bride is paying for every guest, she might not want to pay fro strangers. If the bride has paid in advance for people who didn't turn up she may be glad to feel popular and admired. it's always polite to approach the hosts, not to scare them but assure them of your goodwill.

Polish? Yes, you can understand Polish!

Polish Language
    Take a bus ride around London and you'll see Polish shop signs. On the ride from Heathrow airport in the west towards Harrow and on into London you will see food shops. A local landmark for routing car drivers is the Polish war memorial.
You can see a picture of the war memorial on Wikipedia.

  Poles nowadays arrive by plane. They also arrived by ship in the southern port of Southampton. An area there is known as Little Poland.

alkoholu - alcohol
delikatesy Polskie - Polish delicatessen
Nie means no, not, negative, don't. (Like the Russian niet.)

  Now let's visit Poland. Warsaw is the huge capital with old areas rebuilt with cobblestoned streets in old style but clean.
   Krakow, a former capital, a very pretty little town with a historic main square.

Harrow's Heroes and Heroines Displayed In The Civic Centre

Harrow's civic centre has tributes to heroes and heroines of Harrow and the world.

At the entrance turn right to enquire from the reception desk; turn left to see the Kodak history display

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited Harrow.

Tiles include well known people such as: the poet Byron; runner Roger Bannister. You'll also see organisations including the masons; and landmarks great and small.

Winston Churchill went to Harrow school.

Byron was at Harrow school. He is buried here. So is his daughter - in St Mary's church - that's the famous spire you see on the top of the hill when you are driving towards Harrow or passing Harrow in the metropolitan line train.

(I'm updating this today and loading up more pictures but so I don't lose my work I'm adding them to the site and not waiting until it's finished. Come back and read more later.)



Current Mayor in 2014
Harrow is a very diverse borough. Schools and pupils and teachers do well.

Sweet Singapore, Sand, Sea, English Spoken, Skyscraper Hotels, Speeches & Sport

Yesterday I was asked if I had unlimited money where would I go. If I had unlimited money I would go on a round the world cruise or stay in the world's top five star hotels and all the Michelin restaurants and take guided tours of every city - but that would not be interesting to the listener so I answered the question about which city do I know well enough to recommend and where would I go back to if I were elsewhere. Singapore. Why?
    Day and night entertainment for all the family, night safari. Watch animals close-up, not caged, but separated from you by fenced ditches.
    Museums with English-speaking guides.
    Food at all prices everywhere - food courts with kiosks in most office blocks, shopping centre blocks and also a food shop or cafe in the private government run housing blocks. the food courts are sometimes in the basement or ground floor, sometimes mid-way or at the top, often both.
   People who speak English but a non-English speaking majority culture (Chinese) with a couple of other cultures for variety (Little India and also Malay cuisine).
   Safety taken seriously.
   Clean.
   Ultra-modern - self-flushing toilets.
   Swimming pools in most of the private housing blocks used by ex-pats or at the country clubs and some public swimming pools and pools in many hotels.
   The most wonderful and diverse modern architecture.
   Lots of theatre and world-famous acts flying in.
   Beaches.
   Shopping galore, from high class to hawker centres with adjoining markets around the perimeter of the city.
   English speakers welcome at Toastmasters International clubs all over the city. Prices vary from those meeting enlarge hotels where you pay for the buffet meal to suburban centres.
   Always something new. Towers with views.
   Easy to get around on the underground with a pre-paid ticket.
Tour pickups from major hotels.
Here are some attractions:
1 Sentosa Island (beaches and museums).
2 Singapore Flyer (big wheel with commentary).
3 Safari Park.
4 Bird Park.
5 Factory tours.
6 Boat tours along the Singapore river, out to other islands, and Duck Tours amphibious (water and land) vehicles.
7 Museums.
8 Food from Dinner at Raffles hotel to hawker centres. Top of the tower restaurants.
9 Hotels such as The Forest, Mandarin Oriental. I like a hotel with waterfalls and features and a great swimming pool and a good shop.
10 Toastmasters Clubs. Meet at the YMCA,YWCA, hotels and Community Centres.
If you are sporty, fearless, energetic, and like running, go to a meeting of the Hash House Harriers who run through the jungle, men on Monday nights, other nights for women, families, people with dogs.

My Top Tips
1 Time your arrival and departure so you can take the free bus tours offered by some airlines.
2 Get the free maps from the airport on arrival and look in them for discount coupons.
3 Look out for free newspapers in the MRT stations.
4 Buy an MRT pass and get the free map of the MRT on arrival. Saves time in peak periods and if it's raining it's hard to get a taxi.
5 Programme the numbers for calling a taxi into your phone. Note the a surcharge for pre-booking a taxi.
6 If it's raining and you like shopping take the underground passageway from Orchard MRT along Orchard Road.
7 Cheap shopping at Mustapha's in Little India - and one section is open 24 hours.


More information from
Tripadvisor
Wikipedia

Toilets For Home and Travel In The Old Days

In the late 1940s and early 1950s in England in cities and suburbs in homes and in hotels beside every bed in a home or hotel you had a bedside cupboard housing a potty.
The bedside cupboard had a small drawer for your spectacles and watch. Underneath was a large cupboard with a door big enough for the potty.

In a house, if no potty cupboard, the potty went under the bed and a piece of cardboard or large plate covered it to prevent smells and keep off flies. Your mother or grandmother or the maid or hotel chambermaid emptied the potty in the morning.

Council houses in Edgware had a downstairs toilet which was outside the kitchen door to the side at the top of the indoor steps leading down to the garden.

You went in the woods only if you were on a motorway, or camping.  On a day out with children you took the potty in the boot of the car. Some potties were designed with lids.

Wikipedia shows chamber pots from Greek times, people throwing the contents of pots out of windows into the streets in medieval times, and modern chamber pots.


Nowadays you can buy devices for men and women which look like funnels. Some people keep them in their cars.

A quick hunt around the internet reveals folding toilets, like camping stools, for camping and travelling.

Heroes Of Harrow - Trollope

Byron went to Harrow School.

Winston Churchill went to Harrow School.
You can take a tour of Harrow school.

Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope wrote Orley Farm.
His life story is in Wikipedia. He worked for the post office and introduced the red post box, the pillar box.
Quotations from Trollope are in Wikiquote
More quotations in brainyquote.com

Angela Lansbury, author of Quick Quotations. See Lulu.com

Ghosts? Real Terror or Fun Tourism?

A man in the USA declined to move into a house on property which is reputedly haunted. Often the house where a murder took place is pulled down and another property is built there.

I don't believe in an afterlife so I don't believe in the power of ghosts. What can ghosts do? Throw things about? If you are worried, here are some thoughts to help you sleep at night.

Nerves, Negligence, Negatives and Positives
Belief in ghosts is negative belief that something bad is out to get you. But if the ghosts of the unhappy or vengeful haunt a place, surely the ghosts of helpers will also hang around to help you.

Shadows
Trees make shadows through windows. Thunder and lightning will wake you.
Shadows can be created by fluttering curtains and large objects within a room.

Sigh Problems
My late father was an opthalmic optician. After he died I read through his professional journals. One of them carried an article about diagnosing a sight problem. My father used to say he could predict the problems of a customer who walked in the shop from whether they wore glasses already and their age.
For example, after 50, most likely wanting reading glasses. Already got glasses, distance glasses, probably want bifocals.
Like him, the writer of the magazine article suggested certain things aid by a patient suggest a possible problem which you should then test for. A patient who starts, 'I hope you wasn't think I'm mad - but I keep seeing people with large heads, and large hats ....' That was caused by a sight problem. It's an after-image, with distortion.

Spills
Objects will probably fall off shelves because you are a nervous hoarder and pile things up high and put up shelves which slope. Or the land is over a railway or earthquake fault which shakes things down.

Chills
If you don't have proper draught proofing, rooms are chilly. A hotel manager told me that worrying chills vanished after he installed double glazing.

Animal Noises
The patter of tiny feet means you have squirrels or pigeons or rats in the attic. Call in the exterminators. Otherwise you will have a fire. Not set by ghosts. If you have insurance, they will find that your wiring was chewed by a pigeon or squirrel or rat or your escaped tortoise or your neighbour's.

Insects
I remember hearing noises in a guesthouse in Greece. We were terrified. We turned on the lights and found insects in our leftover chocolate bar wrapper.

Even spiders can make a noise or build a web. Wasps build nests. Flies buzz against windows and zoom around. If you are a light sleeper, you will wake.

Evil Smells
Dead bodies make evil smells. Not just humans. Rats. Pigeons. Drains. Gas leaks.

Haunted By Good
Angel on my shoulder. What about all the places haunted by good people? Why don't your dead ancestors throw life belts into swimming pools to help the drowning?

If you think evil people haunt you, it's because you are nervous. Having a bad day. Find sone jolly people. Play jolly music.

Evil and Good
 Even if there were an afterlife - no need to be afraid of the dead.  What harm can they do? Even if you die of shock you'll survive in the hereafter anyway. They should be more scared of you as you will be coming after them.

Bridges and Stately Homes
If you think the dead haunt us, then most of Northern France and Belgium are haunted by ghosts of WWI.
The whole of the USA is haunted. The old parts are haunted by people who died at home in their beds.
Every bridge where you see the plaque to the men who died building it. (We saw the plaque on that long one - is it south Carolina?). Some bridges are notorious for people who jumped off.

Stately Homes
Haunted homes? So are most stately homes. Where did the owners die? In their beds.

Battles and Bombs
Every battlefield. Every museum. Bombed cities. The East end of London.

Department Stores and Offices Worldwide
Many department stores should be haunted. (Whiteleys in Queensway, now gone, where the owner was shot by his son. One of the Knightsbridge stores where a member of staff was killed by a boyfriend.)

Singapore
Those skyscrapers, all modern, can't be haunted. In Orchard Road one of the department stores was built over a cleared Jewish cemetery.

In the UK in York when digging foundations they found deep down a Viking city. That has now been preserved as Jorvik Museum, chief tourist attraction.

Transport - Airports

Ships
Ships which sank and have been restored as museum sites for schoolchildren. Mary Rose. The Titanic exhibits, the Titanic relics and exhibitions. The Titanic museum in Belfast. Nelson on The Victory.

Transport - Roads and Cars
The car museum with the Kennedy car.
Murders have been committed on London buses.

The Mafia museums.

Hospitals
Every hospital has a morgue. Operating theatres where people died. And wards and rooms where people died. Beds people died in. Sheets people died in.

Every ambulance has transported people who killed or were killed.

Trains and railway lines
Ever heard of McGonagal's poem about the Tay Bridge disaster? Read your history books. Your local papers. There's been a murder at most train stations. People pushed on the line. Jumped.

Most airports have had a fatal crash.

Most historic houses, whole cities from civil war days, don't bury your ancestors in a cemetery or go to a funeral, and never go to a hospital or shake hands with a doctor or nurse, as for crossing the road, people have died on the main road or most cities, and dig up buildings for a skyscraper and you find a cemetery or at least one body.

Heirlooms
Every piece of vintage jewellery was worn by somebody now dead. Your own family heirlooms. Most people think their own parents and grandparents died untimely deaths. It was the negligence of the hospital or doctor or nurse. He lost the will to live - lost soul - suicide. He died suddenly - struck down by unseen forces.

Life-Saving Items
But what about the good things? One family has the bullet which saved the life of their WWI ancestor. (At the time before WWII, WWI was called the Great War).

Earthquakes and Tsunamis and Volcanoes
San Francisco suffered an earthquake. Two earthquakes.
Don't cross a bridge in San Francisco. How far do you want to go back?
Niagara. Keep away from the Falls. People have fallen in them. Deliberately.

Animals
Dinosaur bones? Dinosaur killers? Then the natural History museum must be haunted. Most non-vegetarian animals ate something else. Alive.

Many humans eat live oysters. Vegetarians should avoid cities - full of meat eaters.

As for wildlife safaris. Avoid lions. What about birds? Cats bring bad luck. Cities are full of them. Both my neighbours had cats. For twenty years I never left my house unless I was accompanied.

Ghosts?
Ghosts. I don't believe in them. But if they exist, those who don't believe in them will haunt everybody who admits to being afraid of ghosts.

Who needs ghosts? We have enough trouble from living nutters.

Good Ghosts
My house is haunted. By my mother. She says, Don't worry about other people's lives and problems. It's not your problem. Get on with your own life, dear. You've only got one life. Enjoy it.

Price
Want to buy or rent a house at a cheap price? Says it's haunted.

Tourism
Who else is haunting good for? Ghost hunting weekends.
Want to get guests at a hotel? Get the local paper to write a story about it's being haunted. Sceptics will drag along their scared friends.Yes, ghosts are good for tourism.

You can go on ghost tours of cities such as London and York. Walking tours and bus tours. Jack the Ripper tours in the East end of London.

Ghost Tours - Frightseeing, they say!
You can take ghost tours by bus in Edinburgh and London.
The latest London novelty is the humorous ghost tours. I love their puns on London tube stations.  Deathnal Green. (Bethnal Green.) Notting Hell. (Notting Hill.)
Tours at 7.30 pm and 9 pm (arrange your ticket earlier). Leaving from Northumberland avenue near Trafalgar Square.
Prices: Adult £20. Students/concessions less £14. Family ticket for 2 adults 2 children £55.
Tel: 0844 5678 666
In case you are having trouble remembering the number, 666 is the number associated with the devil, 5678 is a sequence.

theghostbustours.com

Travel With A Tie

Always travel with a tie. So useful for a man. Nowadays you can have a business meeting in a hotel or club without the cost of booking a business room. If you belong to a country club in one city, you can often get reciprocal arrangements with another club. For example, membership of the Tanglin Club in Singapore enables my family to meet for social or business meetings in several London clubs. But they often have a dress code.

Clubs might specify smart casual, closed shoes (not sandals nor trainers), no jeans, shirt and tie or jacket.

One item which is small to pack and carry is a tie. Quick and easy to buy (from a charity shop). Take one for yourself or the person you are meeting.

Quotations About Travel, Is it better to travel in hope than arrive?

TRAVEL QUOTE

Some quotations from my forthcoming book on Daily quotations (based on people born on this day.

Robert Louis Stevenson

• It is better to travel hopefully than arrive. 

Disraeli

• Benjamin Disraeli, PM: Never complain; never explain. Like all travellers, I have seen more than I remembered, and remember more than I have seen.  (A quotation from my forthcoming book of quotations. For my existing book on quotations, see Lulu.com))

Tolkein

• Sept 2 1973 Death of Tolkein (born Jan 3 1892). Author of The Hobbit ; Lord of the Rings.Quotes: Little by little, one travels far.

Here are some quotations from my book Quick Quotations for writers and speakers:

Travel, Tourism

• A journey begins with a single step. (Chinese Proverb attributed to Confucius and Lao Tzu.)
• Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned. (Samuel Johnson.)
• Better to travel hopefully than to arrive. (Robert L Stevenson)
• Enjoy the journey. (Babs Hoffman.)
• I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad. (George Bernard Shaw.)
• I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train. (Oscar Wilde,)
• I told a girl, 'I travel to find out how other people do things differently'. She retorted, 'I travel to find out how much people do the same, what they have in common'. (Angela Lansbury.)
• If you look like your passport picture, you're too ill to travel. (Will Kommen.)
• It is better to travel in hope than to arrive. (Robert Louis Stevenson.)
• No, I don't want you to come with me on the trek up Everest. Half way there the heel on your shoes will break. Even if you enjoy it, nobody else will. (Trevor Sharot., Consultant Statistician, to his wife.) 
• Omnibus - (Song by  Flanders & Swan.)
• Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and  
• Take only photographs. Leave only footprints.
• The great advantage of a hotel is that it is a refuge from home life. (George Bernard Shaw.)
• The Runaway Train - (Song.)
• The two best moments of a journey are when you set off and when you get back.
• To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. (Goethe.)
• Travel broadens the mind.
  Travelling is like gambling; it is always connected with winning and losing. (Goethe.)
  Travelling makes you appreciate your home.
• When I watch TV travel programmes I am never jealous of the presenters and I never wish that I was there, because I know that if I were there I would have blisters on my heels, mosquito bites on my arms, my luggage would be missing, my boat trip would be cancelled because of storms, and the bargain souvenir I had bought from a stall would be at half price in the local supermarket. (Angela Lansbury, travel writer.)
• Worth seeing? Yes. But not worth going to see. (Samuel Johnson.)
• Bicycle - you'd look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle made for two
• Car - You can have any colour you like so long as it’s black. (Ford.)
• Golf - a good walk spoiled. (Mark Twain, November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910.)
• Hiking - My knapsack on my back (Song.)
• Route/choice: I took the road less travelled and that has made all the difference. (Poem by Walter de la Mare, a metaphor about the advantages of acting independently.)

DESTINATION QUOTES

USA

All my exes live in Texas - that why I hang my hat in Tennessee.
Galveston, oh Galveston. (Galveston is S Texas.)
If you're going to San Francisco. (song)
New York, New York. (song)
Route 66. (song)

Chicago


UK
Blue skies over the white cliffs of Dover. (song)
He who is tired of London is tired of life. (Samuel Johnson.)
It's a long way to Piccadilly. (Song.)
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner. (song)


.............
Songs and jokes the tourist boards don't promote
WC Fields (gravestone humour)
I'd rather be in Philadelphia.
(That was written before Philadelphia became the top tourist destination it is now, with the history museum where I saw a wonderful exhibition about Benjamin Franklin and the Jewish Museum where I saw a wonderful exhibition on a writer. 

The Census & Postcode - what's in it for you? Insurance and Shopping - Home - and away.

The old censuses of 100 years ago tell me where my ancestors lived in London, England, and who their parents were. We had early forms of postcodes and census results.
   I knew information was being passed on because I had a mis-spelling of my name on my library ticket from a library in Edgware. A year later I started getting mailing shots with the same mis-spelling.
   I travelled to America and saw the zip codes.
   In the 1980s in the UK information gathered for marketing and advertising was limited to the census results. Now it is cross-referenced.
  How does this benefit me or you as a consumer. One benefit is when buying insurance.

CAR INSURANCE
  I can phone for a car insurance quote. The insurance company agent asks for my postcode. I get a quote within minutes. I can also buy insurance for travelling at the last minute. I go on line or pick up my phone.    

TRAVEL INSURANCE
    If I have time, I buy travel insurance for the year by shopping around at the start of the year. Then no last minute panics. Time to find a company offering a better deal for the same price. I can also take time to list what's on offer and ask if an extra item can be added on the list of what's covered, such as longer trips, or luggage (baggage in the US) left in cars.
   Targeted advertising meets my approval. I would rather be sent information on writing courses and hotels with swimming pools than football tickets and toddlers and children's football shirts or insurance for pets. I don't have pets. I travel too much. I'm happy if companies waste less on advertising. I remember the quotation about half my advertising budget is wasted but I don't know which half.
  Who said that? It is attributed to John Wanamaker, US department store magnate. Back to my book of quotations. I shall look up some quotations on travel for my next blog.


  

Travel and the Nanny State - Tidy the Toilets As You Go

  Commentators on forums complain, "Why do we need to be told this?' and 'Surely it's common sense' and 'We don't want a nanny state.
   Sorry, but we do. A trip along your nearest motorway and a stop at the toilets will tell you that the washrooms need to be checked every hour,whether it's one cubicle or 20. If not, the place degenerates into a slum. the average person cannot take the new toilet roll off the shelf to replace the one which has run out. Some people can't or won't wipe up after themselves.
   Very few are nannies who not only leave a place as they found it, but try to clear up the mess left by others before they start.
  I used to sometimes clear up others' mess after I finished, out of a sense of tidiness and gratitude to the establishment owners for supplying free facilities. Then one day I realised that it's better to clear up before you start, so you can enjoy the pleasure of a nice clean place.

How to Protect Your Suitcase & Valuables?

   Everything I have is of value to me. Unless I buy a book at a charity shop and wear dirty torn old clothes.
   Whether on business or holiday I like new clothes, new underwear. But I try to keep my camera in my pocket and photograph the contents of my suites at the airport before sealing the bag and checking it in. That way if I have an insurance claim I have proof.
  The trouble is you buy new clothes or goods on holiday. Then you have to bring them home. You can't put everything in carry on luggage.
   When we were living in the USA, we had to bring everything back. We thought goods were safer in suitcases with us than in containers.
  One solution is wearing clothes with large pockets. But what about pickpockets at airports? And happens when you take off your coat when asleep overnight? Or going to the toilet? Other people can access your luggage in the overhead lockers.
    If you see me get off an airline wearing two dresses it's not that I've stolen one. I've bought it. Or decided my two silk dresses are safer on me than in a suitcase.

Zoo Safety Rules & Rehearsals

    When on holiday, especially family holidays with children, a zoo, bird park or safari is a  popular outing. But how safe are zoos. You always wonder. A BBC article explains the safety measures including those taken by Colchester zoo after wolves escaped.
    Why are wolves classed as danger category one out of three? Not only are animals unpredictable, so are human members of the public. (Plus other animals: pets, livestock, wildlife.)
   Even an escaped 'pet' can be a problem. Such as the rhea on the loose in England. We were told it has such long claws it can kill a human with one slash.
   Ah - but not adults, only babies? Mothers with babies going to zoos, or having a picnic in the local park, do not want to hear that animals on the loose can 'only' kill babies.
   And property. An elephant on the loose can crush or overturn a car. Any animal can cause an accident by colliding with a vehicle or making traffic on motorways swerve.
   Looking at the situation from a financial point of view, you don't want to frighten away the zoo visitors, put up your insurance, or fight law suits.
   I was interested to see that restaurants and information centres are designed as places of refuge for members of the public.
   Now you know. But it's time for a zoo safety certificate with stars, like the ones on restaurants.

Fellini Caffe & Restaurant Restored

Fellini Caffe and Restaurant is being restored to the old format of one large restaurant. Back to the traditional Italian restaurant with an Italian piazza atmosphere. I must admit I have always liked the tromp l'oeuil windows with Italian scenes.

They have a lovely website which plays music and gives the history of 'Andy' and the Fellini restaurant.

Fellini Caffe and Restaurant

Hatch End

Pinner

Middlesex

HA5 4HR

Tel: 020 8428 0111

www.felliniacaffe.co.uk

Well, it has now opened with the ice creams right by the entrance onto the street.

Bar Boulud Winetasting Wedding Anniversary Dinner

  
 Harrods is a landmark in London, lit by a silhouette of white lights. If you don't arrive on the top deck of a London bus for a view, or in the luxury of a chauffeur driven car, you can use London's underground which is enjoying a continuous upgrade with natty artwork and histories and modern innovations such as posters which turn into movies. 

   One tube (underground station) exit brings you up alongside the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, favourite rendezvous of royals in the ballroom at the back, where the renowned restaurant overlooks the park. We had once opted for lunch at the world famous upstairs restaurant with its view of the park. Why would anybody go downstairs? It's cheaper, but not that cheap. No view. 

   We went downstairs to Bar Boulud for a wine tasting. My feeling about the restaurant rocketed from minus five to plus five star. Why the bad start?

  I asked for the coffee menu. Nothing annoys me more than being told you can have anything you want. I want the menu.

  It's actually a legal requirement. The law was brought in after a murder or two when ordinary fellows lured into a drinks bar by girls were persuaded to order bottles of champagne, not told the prices, asked to pay hundreds of pounds, which obviously they couldn't, and fights ensued. 

   In steps consumer legislation. You must tell the customer the prices. I ask the prices and I'm told that all the coffees are four or five pounds.

  This results in my evening out, my wedding anniversary evening, starting with a row with my spouse because I've committed the faux pas of asking for prices. 

   I shouldn't have to ask for prices. Really annoying for the lady. I've been in restaurants where I've asked for kir, the waiter has suggested kir royale, the price has leaped from £6 to £12, and I've really upset my blind date or acquaintance. 

   Then the next date, I've denied myself the kir royal. Only later I have discovered my host was on expenses. What's more, the only difference in price was 50p.

   In addition, I might order the same as my dining partner, an espresso coffee, but I am missing out on all the other items which are on the menu I can't see. I decide to ask for a juice. Do they have juices? Yes. But without the suggestion from the menu, I might not have thought of that. 
   
   We don't need coffee. My dining partner and I have had three or four already today. He's already over-hyped, irritable and argumentative. Maybe I'd like a hot chocolate instead. Or decaff. 
   Why am I doing all the work? The restaurant manager or buyer has spent ages stocking up with all sorts of delights and I am not being offered them. What can this place offer which I won't get at Costa or at home? 
  My next question is ask what is the choice of juices. The list includes one unexpected item, lychee.  I've never had lychee juice before. 
   I order lychee. Delicious. I still want to know why I didn't get the menu. Don't tell me that the Mandarin Oriental does not have the resources to print. They could even print their own menu. The hotel has an office. A business department. They must have access to a printing machine. Next time I'll ask when they want and print out my own menu and give it to them. 
  
   Or call in Trading Standards.    

   Eventually, on my way to the ladies, I pass a counter with a stack of menus. I take one. Oops - customer seen taking restaurant property - somebody comes rushing over to 'help' me. Yes, I may take the menu.  Still can't find a menu listing coffee and juice. I bet they can make Irish coffees and all sorts of things.   

   By the way, whilst the toilets are on my mind. Coming out, I don't know whether to turn right or left. Neither does another patron. Glad there's no fire. i suppose you just run in either direction. I presume the other door leads you out somewhere.  

   Downstairs, basement level, is Bar Boulud, named after chef Daniel Boulud, with wine looked after and presented by French sommelier David. Some say the restaurant has the best burgers in London. 

   A long, high table, flanked by high chairs, was laid out with semicircles of six glasses, the exciting setting for a Chablis wine tasting. Our pre-booked anniversary treat for two cost about £35 each, which as wine tastings go was good value. We wee given six glasses of dry white wine.

    Plus wonderful little cheese puffs. (Only about one per person, but I was sitting next to the diet police. You could taste two, even three, if you are no on a calorie count diet and the others aren't eating because other drinkers are too busy drinking and dieting). 

   Berry Brothers & Rudd were charging over twice that price. But our recent Berry Brothers tasting included a folder of tasting notes, the setting of a historic wine cellar, a platter of cheese and nibbles per person, two talkers, chocolates (for that tasting which was on pairing wine and chocolates) and a slide show. (See my previous blog.)

   To avoid a row I go off to the ladies. Very nice. On a second trip I discover hand lotion. The dispenser bottles for liquid soap and hand lotion are identical with small labels you don't see from a distance.   

  Back in Bar Boulud we heard an amusing talk on wine, but received no tasting notes. However, I wrote down some notes for you.  

   Sommelier David started by asking us to look at the colours of the glasses of chablis, held against a white, revealing starting on the left from a glass of almost transparent wine through to yellowy. 

  Next we were sniffing the aromas. These ranged from the negligible, through honey and acidic pineapple.

  Finally the tasting. Most agreed we liked the third and sixth of the wines. 

  My favourite lightbulb moment was when David explained the terroir. Your own garden faces the sun in one direction, whilst your neighbour's faces another direction and they succeed with different flowers and fruits. Aha - my UK garden has sun on one side, shade the other, so one side has the wide flower bed, the other just a line of trees. Profuse flowers grow on the flowerbed side. Not a single wallflower, despite plating a whole packet of seeds, two years running, the shady side. So that is why two adjacent vineyards produce different amounts and tastes of wine. Slopes on opposite sides of the river get more or less sunlight and rain, in addition to have different owners, one buying new plants and tools, the other cultivating old plants the traditional way. 

   We stayed in the restaurant for a meal afterwards. The set meal is available lunch time and only early evening so we were too late. Diet police assured me I'd already had enough calories from the wine and cheese and did not need a starter but should save myself for dessert.

   By now the restaurant was getting full. I told the server that we really wanted a table, not to have to walk around London Looking, because we'd already had lots of wine and it was our wedding anniversary. She found us a table for two, not the proper tables, which you find at the back room, or on the left facing the windows, but the lower tables on the right nearer the door. Good enough. 

   What is everybody else eating? The prices are high but no shortage of people willing to spend on an upmarket bite in this upscale corner of cosmopolitan London. Russians inhabit an upmarket tower block next door. Arabs with concealed faces jump out of taxis. 

   Bizarrely, a man speaking French to two lady friends turns out to be an Israeli who was sharing with them a huge platter of pork delicacies. Maybe he's trying to please them - or trying out what he can't get at home. Forbidden fruit? Live dangerously? Novelty? Or just a relaxed attitude, any person or food welcome, so long as it's good.    
   
   We chose one coq au vin main course, another of chicken. Tasty. Quick. Well cooked. 

   However the piece de resistance was desserts. Great choice. More a page back on the dish of the day page. I opted for the rhubarb tart. Beautifully presented. And at short notice, surprise, an extra teeny morsel of dessert with the words written in chocolate Happy Anniversary. Fully marks to the restaurant. We left with a very good feeling. 

   Before we left we took the opportunity to stop to say goodbye to another couple who had been at the end of our tasting table earlier in the evening. They tried to persuade us to book for another tasting. In addition to tasting more wine, a delightful, convivial way to renew a friendship with fellow wine enthusiasts.

Address: 

Bar Boulud

Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, 66 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LA

Phone:020 7201 3899

In case you are looking at this on a small screen such as an iPhone, the middle plate has the words Happy anniversary written in chocolate. Full marks to the chef and management.

WINE: Berry Brothers Wine Tastings - Matching Wine and Chocolate

For an anniversary treat we went to Berry Brothers near the Ritz Hotel in London for a pre-booked wine and chocolate event. Another charming, chatty couple from Leicester had been given tickets by their lovely daughter-in-law as a Christmas gift.

From the shop upstairs we are led down to the cellars where we start with a glass of sparking pink wine. I looked at the cartoons on the walls about wine.  

This event is about matching wine and chocolate. Here's real cocoa before it's turned into chocolate.

The end product - a special chocolate. The one on the left has citrus flavour. The one on the right is Earl Grey flavour (with the magic flavour of bergamot I presume).  

I learned that after eating different foods and drinking different drinks you go back to a wine you liked and thought was sweet and find it tastes quite different. Also lemon is as great an additional flavour to chocolate as orange.

Escaping Pollution from the Haze in Singapore, now Saharan Sand Smothers England

   In Singapore in June we suffered from the haze. Schools and colleges closed. Even if you could travel by underground and stay indoors, buildings were closed because maintenance staff who worked outdoors had to be sent home.
   You started to see people wearing white masks in the streets and walking through the underground stations. Pharmacies sold masks but there were long queues. I finally bought a mask. I discovered there were two sorts of masks. They cheaper ones lasted only two or three hours and you bought a pack of them. The more expensive ones lasted longer and were so expensive you bought only one.
     Singapore and Malaysia have a monsoon season with threatened flooding in early pre-spring. Often the roads are flooded so schools are closed.
    I thought I'd be safer spending spring or summer in London. But we had flooding in the UK. The Thames barrier protects most of London.
   Then in April, a day after April Fool's Day, we have sand from the Sahara flying all the way to the UK. What's the solution? Planting trees in the Sahara desert to anchor the soil?
  An end to jogging, since we have been warned not to do outdoor exercise.

A neighbour i London stopped to say from her upstairs windows she looked down on the sand on our home's wheelie bins.

If we sweep it up I suppose it must go in the brown back to nature bin reserved for earth and twigs.

Here's a car windscreen, covered in the gritty red sand. You must wash it off before starting the windscreen wipers or you hear an unpleasant and ominous graunching noise. Yesterday smog. Now silence. The cars have stopped running. The birds have stopped singing. It must be time for lunch.

Yes, you can read NORWEGIAN ! Help for armchair travellers.

   I saw a picture of Hardangerfjord in Norway, a very dramatic picture of a person sitting on a rock projecting over a fjord. Norway, more way. The word looks like ha - danger - fjord.

   Then I read more and saw the words Romantic Rosendal. I clicked on the website and found reference to hotel and karta. My first thoughts were it's not cart, must be menu. No - it's map!

Google translate found me the answer. Here's my growing list:

Norwegian - English

bank - bank
buss - bus
busstasjon - bus station
butikk - boutique / shop / store
dag - day (mandag - monday)
hallo - hello
flyplass - airport
Hotell - hotel
ja - yes
karta - map
kirke - church (like the Scottish kirk)
kredittkort - credit card
museum - museum
nei - no
restaurant - restaurant
sykehus - hospital (like sick house or sicker house)
takk - thanks


More on
goscandinavia.about.com
You'll find links to Danish, Finiish, swedish and Icelandic.

Waterloo Station, London and The Statue of railway Artist Coneo

Waterloo Station is a listed building. You will see the bronze life-size statue of seated artist Coneo with his large palette and brush in his hand. He was asked to paint the railways. Read about Coneo and Waterloo station in Wikipedia.

This photo is from Wikipedia.

South Bank Centre Balcony For Views Over London, Ginger Ice Cream and Concert Concessionss

    Before a concert in the Purcell Room at the South Bank Centre I had a quick sandwich at the bar on the upper level which serves two concert halls. We went out onto the terrace to eat the sandwiches which were brown bread and very filling.  Sitting on the upper level, looking across the water you get a grand view of London. Looking the other way you see the upper half of the London Eye (vertical circular ride, which I would call a Big Wheel, and the Americans call a Ferris Wheel - like the Singapore Flyer).
   What a pity we had no cameras. What a great view!
   You can sit safely on the balcony without risking missing your concert. You will be called. I was worrying about missing the start of the concert, and we were just beginning to get annoyed by the twilight midges, and wonder if they would bit exposed skin of other people's bald heads and faces, when we heard the handy announcements. The audiences were being called into both the concert halls.
    The larger concert hall required everybody in their seats because the programme was being recorded by BBC radio three.  Not just a lucky chance. I picked up a programme about organ recitals in April and learned that Radio Three has a permanent place in the South Bank Centre.
    (The red wine was so indifferent that we had only drunk half of it. So we threw away the rest of it as we ran to take our seats in the small hall.)
   However, in the interval we discovered the ice cream trolley offering ginger ice cream. This is made by a company called Jude. Highly recommended. Teensy pieces of ginger to suck on and crunch. Made us want to go home and add real ginger to ice cream - normally we add a small chunk of syrupy ginger to ready-made ice cream or a fruit salad.

Jude's Ice Cream
   Jude's ice cream is named after the wife of the ice cream team. The story is on the side of your paper cup containing your Ginger Spice ice. Your spoon is under the circular paper lid which has a semicircular cutout for you to lift the lid.

   The seller said the spoon was inside. I'd seen packaging like this before, the first time on an airline. This sort of hidden spoon surprise packaging always succeeds in making this consumer feel stupid, and impressed by the ingenuity of the packaging devisers.

Tickets Costing More

   We had booked tickets online, which costs an extra fee of £1.75 for the transaction, increasing to £2.75 if you book by phone.  You can book without the transaction fee if you make a booking in person at the centre, or if you are a Southbank Centre Member or in the Supporters Circle. 

   

Tickets Costing Less

   Another way you might make a saving is if you can get one of the limited number of tickets for concessions. You are supposed to show evidence of being a pensioner. If the ticket sellers don't bother to ask to see evidence that you are a pensioner, all those kind friends who assure you that you don't look your age were lying!

How to get there:

Underground and mainline: Waterloo (also Charing Cross mainline railway station or Embankment underground station)

SOUTHBANK Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX

Southbankcentre.co.uk

tel: 0844 847 9910