French words of the day: façade

clientele - Even more classy than clients, but you can have one client, whereas clientele is a class of people rather than a few who can be counted, e.g. 'Three clients are waiting for you, part of your regular clientele.'
discotheque - dance place playing discs rather than having a live band, but many would have both
façade - misleading/false face or front, sometimes with nothing behind it, or nothing of the same style
raison d'être - reason for being / justification / purpose e.g. 'What is the raison d'être of this committee - to organise club meetings - or just have jolly lunches?'
Renaissance - rebirth (cultural)

Hatch End - old and new shops - Oxfam has gone - where next for a bargain buy?

Alas Oxfam in Hatch End is no more. It closed Saturday Feb 21 2015. Why? I thought it might be a rental increase, but rumour says that although the prices had gone up, despite or because the profits had gone up, the profits had gone down. I don't like repeating rumours. I shall miss the shop.

A sign above says To Let. So what will open next?

Bargains and Charity Shops Elsewhere
If you are looking for a charity shop, to donate goods or to buy, try Pinner, which has two or three. Or Stanmore which has one. Harrow has at least one, so does Watford.

Too far to travel? Charities have their own websites. Some of them advertise clothes on Ebay.

If you are simply looking for cut price clothes, try Primark in Harrow. Harrow has a Poundland - even sandwiches for £1.

Back To Hatch End
If you are forced to go through your wardrobe, and try to get those too small, too large, or out of date clothes to fit, in the same parade in Hatch End is the alterations shop.

More Shops In Hatch End
What other shopping opportunities nearby? Tesco nearby has Easter eggs out and after Easter you'll probably see some bargains. Morrisons has a few items such as kitchenware in its Value range.

Impeccable has five waistcoats for £10. Wedding season will soon be here. If you are not going to a wedding, who needs a waistcoat? You could cover that shirt or blouse which won't meet in the middle, or conceal a stain. Or simply add a touch of sheen and gold to look smart.
339 Uxbridge Road, Hatch End, Middx HA5 4JN, tel:020 8421 1111. They have another branch in Weybridge, Surrey.
www.impeccablewear.co.uk

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer, author and speaker.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

The Miracle of Mosta in the Middle of Malta

A map of Malta shows you how easy it is to drive around. Roads across the island lead you to the most amazing sight.

Map from Wikipedia article on Malta.

In the middle is the wonderful domed Roman Catholic church of Mosta. The exterior out-does all the other churches and cathedrals I have visited. I imagine that the architect who designed must have been a part-time pastry chef used to decorating wedding cakes with little wavy lines and rows of patterns.

This picture is from Wikipedia. I hope to find an even better picture for you later. You can just about see the stone 'frills', which must be honoured with a technical term. The tops of the pillars are a riot of little curvy leaves. We drove in from a curving side street and suddenly saw a slice of yellow stone wedding cake at the end of the 'trik' (track or narrow lane).  

This picture from Wikipedia (by Vask retouched by Arch2all) shows the yellow colour of the local limestone.

The lower walls behind the pillars are filled with niches containing statues. The statues often have golden halos or gold patterns on the Madonna's robes which are traditional blue and white.

Inside the dome and walls are all blue and gold. This is Europe's third largest unsupported Christian dome after St Paul's in London and St Peter's in Rome.

 In World War II a German pilot dropped a bomb on the dome. It burst through the roof during the Sunday evening service (mass) and rolled along the central aisle. Whilst in London you and I might have ducked behind a pew and prayed, this place has only fold-up chairs. So, seeing the bomb rolling towards the doors, to avert a collision, a quick-thinking person sprang up and opened the door(s). Three hundred people prayed. The bomb rolled out and down the steps without either damaging the building further nor hurting a single soul.

Photo by T Sharot. Copyright.

After the war, I was told, the pilot of the plane came back to apologise. 

Wikipedia has a whole article on it, the date in 1942 when the bomb fell, that 300 people were present, the fact that the original bomb was dumped at sea, so the one displayed is a replica. Wikipedia also had the name of the architect and the fact that the rotunda is 'unsupported' (by internal pillars) but rests on a massive, strong, thick circular wall, thirty feet wide (9.1 metres). 

The air is heavy with incense.

You may wish to stop in town for tea. It's a bright little town with lots of smart shops. You can sit enjoying a view or the cathedral on the first floor (this is level two if you are American - Brits have ground floor and first floor) in a nearby cafe on the corner. 

We found an even bigger and better selection of cakes in a small specialist cake shop, called The Cake Box, on the street level left hand corner as you face the front of the church, a few steps across the road diagonally facing the cathedral.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotunda_of_Mosta

The Cake Box, Mosta, tel:+365 2010 9255; email:thecakeboxmosta@cateressence.com

They don't have toilets but there's a sign to public toilets nearby. 

The colours of Malta: red and white, yellow and orange, green and blue

The colours of the Maltese flag are red and white, as are the bottles of wine you can buy at the airport and the big red tote bag I should have bought at the airport.

The sandstone is yellow and the buildings are noticeably yellow, unlike Italy to the north known for its white cubs, Malta is yellow.

The sea is blue and the trees are green, fir trees, olive trees, palm trees, a mixture. In the town squares of the Capital, Valletta, are trees cut into square topiary, lemons and oranges visible on trees in February.






The glassed balconies are the major feature of the architecture. We spent our first day walking up and down the sloping streets of Valetta, admiring the purple and green balconies. The narrow sloping streets reminded us of San Francisco.

Travelling With Ryanair To Malta and duty free Maltese wines

The flag of Malta is red and white, just one of the things I learned on my trip to Malta. Tickets to Malta on Ryanair in off-season February were a bargain, about £37 each way per person, still under £100 per person return for a warm break in a country which was new to us.

You do have a small allowance for your check-in bag and your carry-on bag. We had our own hand-held weighing device which we used when packing the night before. Malta is not the rocky, grey outcrop I had imagined, but a colourful country, with red and white flags and red and white wine grown on vines in the green fields and hillsides. (More about the colours of Malta in my next post.)

This small weighing device we took with us to use on the return trip to check our souvenirs had not added too much weight. The advantage of buying your wine to take home at the Malta airport from duty free is that you are beyond the weighing point.

The red bottle has the red wine and the white bottle has the white wine. These wines are not too alcoholic, only 11.5% for the white and 12.5% for the red, so you can drink more of the white without getting too tipsy. As the back of the bottle tells you the wine is produced and bottled for the Nuance Group by Emmanuel Delicata winemaker at the Winery on the Waterfront at Paolo. 

I thought the red and white bottles were rather jolly, to display when talking about my travels or Maltese wine to a group such as Toastmasters International Speakers clubs. Afterwards when the wine has been drunk, you have a rather jolly pair of bottles to display or use as flower vases.

Packing light and travelling light, secret of silk ...

Silk, yes, silk, is the answer to travelling and packing light. Just in case you luggage is lost or delayed, you can take a small extra garment in your hand luggage or handbag.

Silk Underwear
For a weekend away, wear two pairs of lightweight silk underwear, briefs and larger if you have them. One can be washed, maybe dried fast under the hotel hair dyer, even the hand dryer in a toilet. You still have the spare outer pair. Not too bulky for travel. Warm for leaving a cold country, light for arrival somewhere warmer.

Silk Vests
What else? Silk vests are light. Same principle. Wear one and pack one. You could even wear one short sleeve and one long sleeve or sleeveless tank top.

Silk Blouse or Dress
Silk blouse, even a long sleeved one with a tie bow neck packs light or is light to wear. Silk sleeveless dress is small enough to post through the letterbox, and can be worn as a sleeveless dress or as a slip under your travelling outfit.

Silk Jacket and Hood
A lightweight silk jacket with a hood is a handy cover for travel, covers arms in religious buildings and provides protection from strong sunlight or draught air conditioning. It packs away small in a tote bag if you are carrying it just in case, or don't want to risk leaving it behind or losing it in a restaurant.

Silk Scarves
To brighten up a garment in a subtle colour, add splash of colour from a scarf, which can double as a belt.

Why Go To Malta? Everything (but sandy beaches are on the outskirts).

Looking for a break in spring or autumn, somewhere sunny and south - I wanted somewhere I had not visited before and picked Malta - what a marvellous choice.

Geography
Where? Mediterranean islands. The three main islands are Malta, Gozo, and a little stippling stone between them with one hotel, Comino. The largest island is Malta.
Gozo is 14 km long and 7 km wide. You can see two or three sites in a half day trip going across on the ferry with or without your car.
How long? The flight is only about three hours.

Weather
Warm? A quick check on the weather showed 13 degrees C, around the fifties, much warmer than the UK and most of Western Europe. Malta is south of Sicily, north of Libya and the North coast of Africa, which makes it the ideal warm place for an off-season break; its location as a stepping stone between Africa and Europe means that traders and raiders have filled the place with culture and history. Let's start with language and place names.

Language
Language-wise Malta is ideal. Everybody in shops, museums, transport, passers-by in the street, speaks English, mostly better and easier to understand than people in London. Plus the delights of finding that many of the words and people are from other countries and you are constantly learning about other cultures, since your new smiling friend is keen to chat and tell you how they are half Maltese, half something else - one was Welsh-Romany, some lived in the UK, studied in the USA or were brought up in Australia.
Maps and signs are in two languages at least, English and Maltese. It's quite easy to read and understand the Maltese which is written in our letters with a few little squiggles. For example, mappa is map.

The local language is written in our alphabet although words sound familiar, since the origins or base are Arabic/Aramaic/Semitic/Hebrew, but they have thrown in lots of Italian from nearby Sicily, English, having gained independence from England in the older generation's lifetime, September 1964, and since Maltese is not a worldwide language many schools use English as the language base, and speak a second or third language which is either English, Italian, French, Spanish or German.

Street names are simple. Walking around the pedestrianised narrow streets in the capital Valetta, and many of the other towns, streets are mostly Trik, meaning track or street. You can see that the local religion is Roman Catholic because of the madonnas and saints on every street, many niches, street corners where tiny statues with a book in their hand beckon you as if to guide you to a parking place, whilst signs all around warn of permitted hours or parking zones.

The cities are a visual delight, every hill has a domed church, a walled fortress, a city wall, undulating streets like San Francisco, a photographer's delight, and houses of yellow sandstone, with projecting glassed balconies, where Romeo and Juliet could tryst, reminding me of photos of Yemen, water everywhere, sailboats and cruise liners, marinas, harbours.










British and Multi-cultural
You'll also find Costa coffee bars with wifi, Marks and Spencers unaccountably near orange and lemon trees and a statue of queen Victoria outside the church. Palm trees and olive trees and fir trees, and folded umbrella shape trees. If you want local Malta, many restaurants offer rabbit stew, like a chicken casserole, and Maltese sweets featuring whole and ground almonds clusters, biscuits and cakes and all kinds of nuts, figs and fruitcakes.

Bargain Breaks
Off-season bargains include hotels such as the Excelsior and Phoenicia in the centre of Valetta.

More Info
More information from the Malta tourist board (office on the arrivals side of the only airport, open late at night - I found it hidden beside another tourist office which was shut. Pick up the brochures and look for discounts on restaurants and tours and other offers on the hop on hop off buses and museums and tours.

French words of the day for connoisseurs: amateur, bain-marie to repertoire - and making mayonnaise

amateur
bain-marie - Mary's basin or bath, bowl or pan suspended in hot water, for steaming, lie poached eggs but usually bigger for delicate sauces like melting chocolate, or hollandaise - an egg rich sauce
chauffeur
cjef
connoisseur
croissant
cuisine
debut
entrepreneur
mayonnaise - egg yolks(s) (usually two egg yolks) whipped up with oil, traditionally olive oil
separate the yolk from the egg, dribble in oil with drops slowly or it doesn't emulsify but ends up runny - you must get air in as fast as the oil. When it starts to mix well you can add slightly faster. Add lemon juice to add flavour - maybe this helps the emulsion?
milieu
repertoire

In the right milieu your chauffeur will drive you to a restaurant patronised by millionaires where as an amateur you can enjoy your debut as a from a chef in his milieu you learn from a connoisseur how to make croissants and use a bain-marie to make mayonnaise. 

New Places In Singapore - Combine Two Safari Parks

Singapore's pioneering attraction is the Night Safari. Friends of min recently took this tour. They went round on the train twice and each time saw different animals. I've heard it said that fifty per cent or ninety per cent of animals/insects etc are nocturnal. (Please don't photograph your kitchen in Singapore at night. It's dreadful coming in to the kitchen and hearing rustling. A cockroach behind the waste bin disappears under the door.

In Greece we woke out night thinking a burglar was trying to climb through the curtains. It was an 'empty' chocolate wrapper on the windowsill.

 The lizard in your shoes which you kicked under your bed in the night. Always empty your shoes when trekking, in case of scorpions.

In Singapore one schoolgirl picked up her schoolbag in the morning and found, not a snake, but the skin in had discarded and left behind.

I am not keen on wildlife in a kitchen unless it is dead, chopped up, in a tin, cooked and eaten by somebody else, preferably earlier in the day. Not in my kitchen, theirs, in a public place such as a safari park. At least if you were approached by an escaped animal you could throw them your leftover lunch or dinner.

Most zoos and safari parks have an emergency plan for rounding up tourists and keeping them in a safe place. I always know the route back to the tourist shop and plot which tee-shirt to hide behind. Now I suppose you are wondering if I am serious or joking. A true word spoken in jest.

Near the Night Safari is the river/water/sea safari which shows you water creatures from different continents, such as the Amazon.

The two parks are nearby so you can go from one to the other, especially if you are on a cruise or flying by plane on a brief stopover.  

Pubs and places to eat near Harrods and Knightsbridge in Motcomb Street, outdoors or inside

Where can you eat (or smoke) outdoors, getting your healthy vitamin D in spring, summer, autumn or winter near Harrods?

Pantechnion
10 Motcombe Street
London SWIX 8LA
thepantechnion.com
Tel:020 7730 6074.

The Pantechnicon, Motcomb Street

Courtyard at the back of Rococo Chocolates, Motcomb Street.
They run classes in the kitchen teaching you to make truffles or chocolate puddings.

(The shop has other branches in Chelsea, London,
Marylebone, 3 Moxon Street, WIU 4EP
or Grosvenor Hotel, Chester, CH1 ILT tel 01244 895610,

www.rococochocolates.com
chocolate shop

French words of the day

troupe - band or team, often of dancers or performers
première - first, opening night, grand opening performance

18 Ways to keep warm in cold countries and cold weather - 18 Tips and tricks

A writer asked how to keep warm when sitting writing.

1 Firstly you could write standing up and jiggle about.

WARM UP
2 Start your day with a hot bath. 
3 Have a hot drink, held in your hands, with a cover so it doesn't spill. 

4 Set a buzzer and every half hour get up, dance to music. 

5 Wash hands in hot water and soak them in basin of hot water. 

6 At your desk: Hot water bottle on your lap or as a wrist rest. 

7 Wear a neck warmer. 

8 Wear a hooded dressing gown or house coat. 

9 Sit under car rug. 

10 Wear knee length boots or big boots with two pairs of socks. 

11 Sit in the smallest room. 

12 Put door stops or cushions over draughts around doors, keyholes and windows. - but air rooms to prevent moisture growing mould. 

13 Have an afternoon nap or early night. Work in bed with a hot water bottle or electric blanket. 

OUTDOORS
14 Go for a walk outdoors wearing a ski jacket and gloves and a hooded scarf. 

15 Buy chemical hand warmers from a ski resort. You shake the chemicals to mix them. The ones we bought lasted about 30 minutes. But in insulated gloves they will stay warm about two hours. You then have to buy more  

16 If you take an organised walk, such as a Dickens tour, Beatles Tour, Jack the Ripper tour, you will need warm shoes and clothes. Once winter I was invited on a London walk. As I dressed to go I almost turned back when I opened my front door to be greeted by a chill wind. 

I wondered how I had survived skiing holidays the previous two years in the USA, with knee high snow, and icicles hanging from the windows. Quite simple, we had worn ski clothes. Pity I didn't have them. Actually I did. I hunt through the cupboards revealed ski jackets or various thickness and colours from plain to shrieking - 'help - find me in an avalanche - look here!' 

More rummaging produced socks so thick they could only be worn with boots. The warm gloves matching the hat would suit a boxer and look absurd with anything except a complete ski outfit.

Nobody I knew was on the walk. I wore the ski outfit.

When I reached the meeting place, I was the only person dressed in absurd shouting colours. The tour guide was not interested in criticising my clothes. He was only interested in remembering his stories.

As we progressed the other walkers got chillier and chillier, sniffing, hugging themselves to keep warm. At the end an American couple said enviously, "We wish we had thought of wearing our ski clothes. You do look nice and warm."

INDOORS
17 Sew your old scarves with small seams at midpoint to make hoods to wear indoors and out. 

18 Wear gloves with fingertips cut off or buy them in Poundland so you can type wearing gloves. Some mittens have fold back finger covers but when folded down they cover all fingers.

Angela is a travel writer, author and speaker.

Pleasures of Lunch at Petrus Restaurant in London

Petrus restaurant is named after a fine wine and in the centre of the restaurant is circular see-through wall showing bottles of wine. Circles and cylinders as well as waves and curves abound in this restaurant, which makes it restful, was well as carpets, curtains and tablecloths muffling the sound.

Happy Chinese New Year in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, England, Canada and the USA

My pictures of previous years' Chinese New Year decorations in hotels and shopping malls in Singapore.

Red decorations and Chinese characters.

Chinese lanterns in orange.

The lion dance. Very noisy.

Fireworks in Beijing video is on the BBC site and there must be many more on Youtube from Chinese areas: China, Singapore, Taiwan, Chinese areas in Malaysia, Chinatowns in New York and San Francisco in the USA, Vancouver in Canada, London and Manchester in England - and on Chinese language sites.

First thing to do is send cards, cards, emails to friends overseas. In Singapore we would be given free red packets by banks and even McDonalds, containing advertising or discount vouchers in the red packets in which you traditionally give money, especially from married elders to the young and single. This is a Chinese tradition and eight is lucky so multiples of eight are auspicious.

You are likely to hear the sounds of the lion dancers carried on trucks (lorries as we would say in the UK) to destinations where they will perform. Troupes will dance outside restaurants newly opened, shopping malls, hotels and public places.

Gong Xi Fa Cai  (Happy New Year)

Angela Lansbury B A Hons is a travel writer, photojournalist, author and speaker.

Rococo Chocolates in Motcomb Street, near Harrods and Knightsbridge station

Places to eat near Knightsbridge station and Harrods: Petrus, Patisserie Valerie and more

Knighsbridge station has several exits on both sides of the main road, bringing you out either beside Harrods department store or on the other side of the road beside the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Harrods contains several eating places, as does the next department store. The Mandarin Oriental has Dinner restaurant overlooking the park - high prices, amusing ice cream cart, or a smart basement restaurant, or interior bar beside the entrance to Dinner restaurant. (See my previous posts on the Mandarin Oriental restaurants or my reviews on Tripadvisor.)

I drew myself a map of the restaurants I was planning to visit in Motcomb Street. I went to Patisserie Valerie, Petrus, and Rococo Chocolates. all within steps of each other.


Motcomb Street has a couple of traditional red telephone boxes as well as a grand Greek stye facade, the Pantechnicon, with columns. They look to me like Doric columns, the plain ones. (Ionic columns are curly both sides of the top of the column, the capital, like scrolls, whilst Corinthian columns have fussier or prettier multiple leaf effect.)

Patisserie Valerie. (See previous post.) Indoor and outdoor seating.

Petrus restaurant. (See subsequent post.) Indoors. Pricey with special offers at lunch time, for special occasions, starting at just under £40 per person for a three course meal, plus wines, coffee, service. But you can pay a lot more, choosing vegetarian meals, taster menus, and dramatic desserts.

Rococco chocolates. (See subsequent post.) Indoor seating, and outdoor seating front pavement and back courtyard. Roccoco chocolates evokes all sorts of punning idea. Roccoo. Cocoa.

Walking towards them you pass several more.

Angela Lansbury BA Hons
Author, travel writer, photo-journalist, Speaker.

Patisserie Valerie in Knightsbridge

Patisserie Valerie - good food, good drinks and good value. About £10 for a two course lunch. Seating inside or out.

Nearest underground station, Knightsbridge.

Salisbury Cathedral Wiltshire: Magna Carta on a cake - make your own photo cake

A copy of the Magna Carta on a cake is on display in Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire, England. The cake maker spent 22 hours carefully copying the writing, painting it by hand with edible ink using a brush with a cut down point for the tiny writing. What's in it for me and you?

1 Visit Salisbury cathedral to admire the cake maker's work. (Check their latest exhibitions and website photos of previous exhibitions. )

2 Commission a cake from her with writing drawn on.

3 Commission a cake from somebody else with writing drawn on.

4 Bake a cake and draw on writing imitating an old document or invent your own.

5 Buy a shop cake, such as a Marks and Spencer fruit cake topped with white icing and write on your own message or document.

6 Order a birthday cake with a photo (of book or document including writing/text) printed on. (I have four family birthdays and one wedding anniversary this year and possibly an exam pass to celebrate, plus of course Easter, Xmas, club events - and in Singapore some Toastmasters International speakers' clubs celebrate the club birthday, the club President's birthday or every committee member's birthday or every member's birthday - followed by a speech from the member.) For one birthday my family ordered a photo showing me and my latest book. The photo is sent to the company at least three weeks in advance.

7 Order edible cake toppings from a company which prints the photo. One large picture or several small ones to go on cupcakes. If ordering the small size, watch out that the message does not cover the face of the birthday boy or girl.

7 You can make a cake with a picture of a holiday trip, either your landmark, or the group of people, or the group in front of a landmark. 

Useful Websites

wikipedia

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

wikivoyage

wikitravel

https://www.getyourguide.co.uk/salisbury-cathedral

Edible picture cakes. One of many suppliers

https://www.carvel.com/cakes/perfect-picture-cake

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Please share links to your favourite posts

What to drink: Champagne, Cava and Prosecco

Celebrating a special occasion or is any night out in a restaurant a special occasion? While waiting for your food sparkling wine is the favourite tipple. If like me you prefer to drink water to remain clear-headed whilst choosing your food, then a little fizz with the food is fun. It keeps you interested in the drink and raise a glass to your companions and lock eyes and smile.

But let's be more serious and sensible for a moment. Let's think about places and prices. At San Marzanos in Hatch End their shop sign reads Pizzeria and Prosecco bar. Pizza and Prosecco are both from Italy. A good matching of country for food and wine. Cava is a sparkling wine from Spain. Top of the range or price and the French would say, quality, is Champagne.

Cava originally came from caves or cellars around Barcelona in North East Spain. Cava is made by method champenoise, or traditionelle in bottles, whilst Prosecco is made in tanks, so its cheaper. If you can't tell the difference and don't care (nobody does once they are onto the second glass - surveys have found - surveys of consumers drinking various drinks including whisky)  cheaper is better, better value.

Several previous posts have featured San Marzanos in Hatch End, near Hatch End station in north west London, England.

Angela Lansbury BA Hons is a travel writer, photo-journalist, author and speaker. 

Prosecco, Wine and Drinks at San Marzanos, Hatch End

What are the Prosecco choices, and other drinks, at the new pizzeria and Prosecco bar restaurant in Hatch End? 

The first printing of the drinks menu has the same tricolour of the Italian flag colours across the top, like the food menu. The restaurant owners' plan is to print a new menu with fuller descriptions of the drinks shortly.

Your choices are:

Champagne

Prosecco

Red Wine

Rose Wine

Spirits and Liqueurs

Beers

Soft Drinks 

Milkshakes

Smoothies

Sweet and savoury pancakes

On pancakes, savoury topping is bacon, tomato and spinach.

On the other half is Canadian maple syrup, the real thing, from the sap of the maple tree. 

American, British and French pancakes

British pancakes are big and thin almost the size of a small dinner plate. French pancakes are bigger and thinner, the size of a large dinner plate, sometimes overlapping the plate, or can be rolled up. All around the Mont St Michel area they usually served in Normandy with syrup and Grand Marnier liqueur.

American pancakes are small and fat, like the size of a squashed hamburger bun no bigger than a saucer.

Frying pans for pancakes

Saucepans, frying pans, French pancake pans and teeny pans
No frying pan? In theory you can use a high-sided saucepan for anything. It's just inconvenient and makes a small base for whatever you are cooking. I learned this when a French au air girl cooked me scrambled eggs in a saucepan.

French Frying Pans
If you really want a low-sided, or virtually flat pan for pancakes, ask in a French supermarket. I used to do this on day trips across the Channel from England to France.

Smaller and Cheaper

In some cheap sections of shops with budget cookware, you can buy a tiny frying pan. Small pans are ideal for one person or small amounts. Small pans are economical on cooking oil, quick to clean or wipe out, and small to store.

I first bought a small pan because it was cheaper. Then I found I liked it at times when I was too tired or weak, physically or mentally, to handle a big pan. If you are recovering from flu, have a broken arm or collar bone or wrist, with one arm in a sling, are over sixty and feeling frail, learning to cook and afraid of making a mistake and wasting the mixture or burning it, the teensy kiddie pan might be just right for you to gain confidence and enjoy the satisfaction of home cooked, fresh food.

Pancake Day! Hurray!

I beat the diet police. I reminded them it's pancake day. We missed breakfast pancakes so we're planning pancakes later in the day, starting with lunch time.

Let them eat pancakes! (My variation on 'Let them eat cake', supposedly said by Marie Antoinette, although attributed to another lady much earlier. I don't need to move the last two word phrase. The lady was earlier and the attribution was earlier.)

This is a dieter's pancake, thin and semi-circular. A fussy chef or restaurant would make one perfectly round to fit a plate just slightly larger than the pancake. (So you match the size of pan and plate before you start cooking.)

Everybody should either know by heart or stick on the fridge or inside the larder / store cupboard door the ingredients/recipe for everyday pastries:

Pancake: Flour, egg and water/milk. (Pancake mix in any shop if you're in a hurry but cheaper to make your own and most homes have the ingredients.

Crumble: Flour and butter. Easiest pastry and fun if you like kneading with fingers, and no need to roll it out.

Shortcrust: Flour and ... You need a pastry board, floured to stop it sticking, and rolling pin, might be available in a holiday let if you are stuck indoors on a rainy day. Too much mess for me.

Biscuit base for cheesecake: Biscuits and ... I always think any recipe which suggests starting with somebody else's bread or cake is cheating, except for using up leftovers - I make an exception to this rule for

Bread and butter pudding. Bread and butter, and/or milk, and you can add sultanas.

Bread: Flour, water, yeast to make it rise - must wait, several hours in your hot cupboard with a clean tea towel over the top to be sure it doesn't overflow on your clothes and your socks don't fall in the bread. Cook in oven when risen.

Where to start?
Great to start children on cooking pancakes as the mixing is quick and easy. The cooking is fun.

Toss?
Never mind tossing pancakes. Wait until your pancake is starting to set underneath. Don't let it burn. Cook both sides by turning careful with a nonstick utensil. If money and space are abundant, and you like collecting novelties, use one of those fold-over pans.

Pancake Recipe Used Today
100 g of flour
2 eggs
300 ml milk (or less)
1 tbs olive oil (Most for frying, some in the mixture if you like)
salt to taste

More recipes
Google recipes and pick either the simplest (for beginners) or most unusual (for gourmets).
See my earlier post on the origins of pancake day and Lent and Passover and using up flour to keep the new harvest foods fresh and uncontaminated.

Angela Lansbury BS Hons CL ACG
Author, photojournalist, speaker and speech trainer.

San Marzanos Pizzeria & Prosecco Bar Menu Revealed & Translated

If you want to check out the menu it's on the front window or one of the owners will proudly hand you a copy. Red, white and green (I say it that way because I'm used to the UK flag which is red, white and blue, but here on the menu you see green, white and red, the colours of the Italian flag.

SALADS
The first dish I noticed on the menu under salads (Insalata) was tricolore, three colours, as both the Italian flag and the three colour Italian starter are known. The tricolore : colours of green avocado, white Mozzarella cheese and big beefy red Beef Tomatoes.

Another salad is vegetarian Vegetariano; and there's salad with meat: Napoli Salame, and Prosciutti.

In case you can't blow up the photo or want a quick summary or reminder:

STARTERS
Starters, first courses, Cicchetti: a range of choice including:
 olives - not just your regular olives but fried olives and gnocchi, which are a kind of pasta.  £4.95.

Smoked salmon appears on the starter menu as Salmon crostini, think smoked salmon with a crust (Toast ed ciabatta bread). £5.95.

 Or antipasti (literally before the pasta) which includes sliced Proscuitt, Napoli salami, cheese of the day and sun dried tomatoes. £6.50 per person.

PIZZA
Nine pizzas in this section of the menu, priced from £6.95 for a Marinara with tomato sauce; £7.95 For the Margherita with cheese; the N'Duja with spicy sausage at £8.95;  wild mushroom and truffle oil at £9.95.
Calzone The folded one! £11.95. Includes Friarelli (wild broccoli) and spinach (spinach). Optional chilli. and 'Nduja.

The long oblong table for groups has benches both sides. I was wondering whether this would suit the groups I know which are sometimes looking for venues for parties (a book group, a writers' group, two speakers' groups, a group of retired people mostly over 50). Each group often has somebody either with a stick or wanting a high back chair. The restaurant-bar owner says he had a group in last night and he can push together three tables with the freestanding backed chairs to make a table for a larger group and accommodate those wanting chairs with backs.

Extra toppings 95p/£1.95.
Sides include garlic pizza bread or chips picante at £3.95.

DESSERTS
Desserts from £3.95: for Affogato; Gelato 1 scoop £1.75, 2 scoops £3.25; 3 scoops £4.95.
Flavours: Nocciola, pistacchio, Vaniglia, Ciccolato, Sorbetto of the day.

MORE DESSERTS
I've emailed the menu to my family and among the desserts we were pleased to see Tiramisu. The San Marzanos version is listed on the menu as Deconstructed Tiamisu, ur homemade coffee flavoured dessert. Another item which brought an enthusiastic response was Affogato, Vaniglia (vanilla) gelato (ice) topped with a shot of espresso.

DRINKS
What about the Prosecco? I'll look at their drinks later, probably tomorrow.

GLOSSARY
You may want to check these terms:
affogato
bianca sauce - white sauce - bianca means white, therefore white pizza, sauce, or white anything
bocconcini Mozarella
bruschetta
bur rata cheese
Calabrian - from Calabria
ciabatta bread
crostini
e - and
fior di latte - flower of milk, either mozzarella cheese, or vanilla ice cream
friarelli - wild broccoli
gelato - soft ice cream, often made with milk and fruit juice and less caloric than British ice creams which usually have more cream, other fats and sugar
malanzana
Milano - from Milan
Napoli - from Naples
'nduja - spreadable pork sausage from Calabria. Picture in wikipedia.
nocciola
Parmesan cheese
Pesto
picante
pizzuros
Pomodoro
prosciutto
vaniglia - vanilla?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'Nduja

I don't see any service charge so I imagine most people will add 10% in cash. What about credit cards? I don't see them mentioned. We'll have to go (with some cash, just in case) and find out.
If you need to know anything more, or want to make a booking, their phone number is :
Tel: 0208 428 2052.

Angela Lansbury BA Hons
Travel writer, photojournalist, author, speaker, speech writer and trainer.

Rennie Mackintosh exhibition in London 2015

What did Rennie Mackintosh do? All those necklace pendants with the art nouveau flowers. Interior design including high back chairs with patterns in the middle. The building as well as exhibits at the Glasgow Museum of Art which suffered a fire in the last year. So many items, which you instantly  recognise as soon as you see them.

The man himself.

Interior of furniture from Wikipedia.

Exhibition now coming to London at the RIBA, Royal Institute of British Architects.

http://www.architecture.com/WhatsOn/WhatsOn.aspx
http://www.archdaily.com/591262/charles-rennie-mackintosh-exhibition-to-open-next-month-in-london/

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/pictures-rennie-mackintosh-exhibition-showcases-5161652

Angela Lansbury BA Hons is a photojournalist, writer, author, speaker, speech trainer and blogger.

Update Comparing iPhoto Book and Lulu photo book

The advantage of the iPhoto book is that the cover and back page seem much neater with inside pages already in shapes so you just slide in pictures. I've found how to add text to the layout with one picture but not with multiple pictures. So I've had to make one large picture with text about the pictures on the other side of a double page spread or even previous and later pages.

The Lulu book was half the price and offers the chance to add an ISBN number which means you can later offer free online editions you can print instantly at home, send to family members instantly, and offer for sale to the public. Lulu had an offer for Valentine's. If you are in no hurry you can work on a book and save it until the next time you see an inviting discount on printing or free postage.

Iphoto book

Making a photo book with iPhoto.

Text is only allowed on a text page or under a single photo, not on pages with several photos.

If you write too much in the text box the book will not load up.

I shall try Lulu.com next. However, I have spent several hours taking photos of my caricatures and loading them up sorted in order, as well as writing a page of description, so I shall try out the Apple book system first.

Saving travel photos and memories

You can save souvenirs of your travel trips in many ways.

PHOTO SLIDESHOW

Make your photos into a slide show using Powerpoint or Keynote (on Apple Mac laptops or iPads) or Mosaic. Starting with a title page and map, ending with a photo of yourself at home or unpacking souvenirs. Add music. Or recipes. Or a page of websites and addresses at the end. Or list your future or all previous trips.

WATERCOLOURS, SKETCHES & CARICATURES
I draw pictures of people I meet. I carry watercolour pencils. (Less messy and less time consuming than watercolour paints or oil paints. You can also take photos and draw pictures in the evening or after you get home.

PRINTS & TEE-SHIRTS
A print of your family with the car is useful if you often lose each other. You can point to your tee-shirt and ask, have you seen my husband, children, car?

EMBROIDERY
A lady in Singapore makes embroidery pictures of the places she visits. How could you do this? Print photos onto a tee shirt.

PHOTOS of HOTELS, RESTAURANTS, TOUR GUIDES, GROUPS

New Pizzeria Prosecco Bar - Open in Hatch End Lucky Friday 13

San Manzanos (see my previous post about the name).

Open at 6 pm on Friday 13th, 2015. The balloons inside say Good Luck for the Friday opening and are heart shape for Valentine's Day on Saturday.

San Marzanos are tomatoes, which probably appear on their pizza. Prosecco is a sparkling white wine which comes from Northern Italy, reputedly originating in a town called Prosecco near Trieste. The grape used to make the wine was called Prosecco. 

Confused? Everybody was confused. Especially when people from both Prosecco (the place) and other regions made a wine called Prosecco (place name) from Prosecco (grape) and other grapes. Now the local grape is called Glera.  

Pizza is from the South, of Italy, not America.  The Americans claim to have invented Pizza, although some say Americans invented a particular type of pizza, known as Chicago pizza, which is thick crust pizza. Trust the Americans to make everything bigger, for taller people with bigger appetites. That's how you can remember the difference. But some people prefer thin crust pizza, considering it more authentic, as well as less fattening. Plenty to talk about whilst you are sitting eating pizza and drinking Prosecco.

The restaurant's chairs and tables are an eclectic mix of colours and styles. I liked the cute and clever round table for two in the shape of a barrel. 

You might like a square table with a tile top, or maybe wood.

If you need more space to spread your bottom, bag or coat, choose a banquette. On second thoughts, I my first choice is not the chairs by the bar shape table; I shall aim for a banquette. I'm the sort who needs lots of back support. (I'm also scared of heights so places with bar stools are not for me. Especially if I lean too far back laughing at my own jokes.) 

However, alternative seating, if your back can look after itself keeping upright, is a backless cube shape stool which is safer than perching a bar stool, keeping you grounded, near the ground. But I'll leave that decision to you. I'm heading for the banquette. 

So who is going to buy me a drink and share piece of pizza?

 I arrived before the menu and for the first month they plan to be seeing how it goes and possibly adapting the menu. 

Owners And A Familiar Face

Who is in charge? I met the two owners. One is certainly a familiar face if you have had coffee and snacks in Delicious, serving coffee and bagels a few doors along. Hatch End is a hub for coffee, snacks and lunches during the day, with wine and dine in the evening. I keep counting the bars and restaurants, about 16. 

I don't yet have the restaurant's business card nor menu but I can tell you where to find it. In the middle of the high street, near the crossing. More news on the menu soon.

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer, photographer and author.

Photos copyright Angela Lansbury.

(Angela also writes comic poetry, and draws caricatures with watercolours and gold.)

Self-portrait, by 'Angella'.