Fishguard Bay - Setting For Under Milk Wood

A plaque on the little Harbour at Fishguard Bay tells you this was used as a setting for the film of Under Milk Wood, the poem written by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, in the film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. You can happily while away an afternoon walking around the bay. Or watching or participating in the kayaking. You might like to take the bus around the bay to the Fishguard Bay hotel, on the hillside opposite, actually in Goodwick, with a view over Fishguard Bay. This was where Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole stayed when making the film.

Back down on Fishguard Bay, The Cafe on the Quay is a cheerful place for tea, with a small gift area. Proceedings are presided over by jolly Jo, who will tell you about local events, boat competitions and music festivals, and people, such as the twins and the police.

The houses around the bay and throughout Fishguard are painted in contrasting colours, creams and greens, and blues and plums and pinks and rust red. The Town Hall is green, and that's where you find the tapestry about the ladies with their black hats and red shawls who helped head off an invasion by the French.

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

Making matching jewellery for your holiday

I was very impressed when Alison Chisholm told me she had made a matching necklace, bracelets and ring (and ear-rings for pierced ears) to go with her holiday outfit. She advised me that you simply need beads in the colour you want, see-through elastic thread, and glue to seal the knots.

She chose four colours of beads, pearly ones and blending colours. To make the ring, you have large beads for the part on top of you finger, smaller ones underneath. You can buy the thread in various sizes, depending on the size of the holes in your beads. Smaller beads with smaller holes means you need finer thread.

After threading your beads, you tie a knot and seal it. Failing all else you can use clear nail varnish. You need to tie a knot which won't come apart. Any knot website or boy scout website will tell you.

You could use ordinary glue such as UHU. But jeweller's glue is easier to handle. You move the knot inside a bead to hide it.

Where to buy beads? In a craft shop. For example, in Fishguard, Wales, Jane's Craft shop offers a chance to browse in a craft shop and stop for tea.

Another way to buy beads economically is to look for seasonal offers in shops which are usually inexpensive, such as Primark, which could be offering sets of three bracelets made of beads which you can detach and re-assemble into jewellery, for less than what it would cost you to buy the beads individually.

If your bracelets and rings and necklaces are on stretchy thread you may be able to dispense with clasps.

Branches of the Hobbycraft stores are all over the country. The one in Watford is bigger than many supermarkets. Staff are usually very free with advice. You can sometimes find free leaflets or paid for classes for children and adults.

If you don't have pierced ears, you can buy adapters to which you can attach other items. The word to use in your search on the webs is findings, which means part for making jewellery, such as clasps. I looked at sets of jewellery making kits including pliers and an instruction book.

Why do you need pliers, not just tweezers? The pliers are for twisting wires if you thread jewels on wires or make metal jewellery. The two sizes of pliers are so you have a bigger stronger pair for thicker wires.

janes-fishguard.co.uk
hobbycraft.co.uk
www.primark.com

Angela Lansbury  

Food on the train from England to Wales: bara brith

You can find out in advance whether your train will have a trolley or a buffet car. Some tickets say any route.  But if you have a reserved seat this may complicate the situation. If you have documentation confirming passenger assistance, you may have to specify whether you are in a wheelchair or simply need help transporting luggage.

I received literature specifying where I was receiving assistance and the train times and seats reserved On the back was the explanation of symbols showing whether each train had a trolley or buffet service. As I was travelling with two suitcases on wheels, a bag and an umbrella, I knew  that once I was seated I was unlikely to want to walk along the carriages, either without my luggage, or dragging it all behind me.

If you have a reserved seat far into the carriage, but have to leave one of your suitcases in the luggage area by the exit doors, you may want to keep any valuables such as a computer in your shoulder bag or a bag small enough to keep with you. You might also want to lock your luggage. Alternatively to leave an old phone or out of date laptop inside it with 'find my phone' operating, in the hope that if you luggage goes missing, you can see where it is.

I can't say it helped me. When my shoulder bag went missing from over my shoulder as I got off a bus in Singapore, my phone simply registered phone turned off. So neither the phone nor the bag it was in could be located.

As a result I am not keen on trusting my bag out of my sight. Not sure the insurance covers it anyway. I did know that I would not be keen to change carriages leaving a bag behind.

If you switch routes, you may find the food service on your train is different. On some trains passengers are allowed to buy food from an area within the first class carriage even though they are travelling in a different class.

The food may be provided for the first class passengers in their ticket price but cost extra if you are in another class. If you expect to drink a lot of coffee, it could be cheaper or better value for you to pay for an upgrade to first class on a certain section of the route, and get free coffee, rather than travelling second class and paying for several coffees (or other food and drink, depending on price and route.

You are likely to hear an announcement after you have boarded the train telling you the cost of upgrading for different sections of the route.

Bara Brith
On a train I took to Wales, the buffet trolley included bara brith. I looked this up on the internet and found it was Welsh fruit cake. I enjoy the opportunity taste local food. The journey becomes part of the adventure, before you reach your destination.

Bara brith can be not merely a fruit cake (in a square shape so known as a fruit loaf). It is known as speckled or mottled bread. The speckling comes from the currants or raisins I suppose. It can be made with candied peel as well, and enriched with tea, orange or lemon juice, honey or other ingredients. Check the packet before or after buying to see what you are getting. An English fruit cake is eaten on its own. The Welsh fruit cake is traditionally eaten with butter, Welsh butter.

http://www.visitwales.com/explore/traditions-history/recipes/bara-brith
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bara_brith_33441
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bara_brith
Angela Lansbury, travel writer. 

Fishguard tapestry and more to do

Fishguard is famous for the Welsh ladies with tall black hats and red shawls who repelled an invasion by French militia who thought the black and red were uniforms and the pitchforks were weapons. When? 1797.

The story is told in The Last Invasion tapestry currently displayed in the Town Hall above the Council Offices. Unfortunately this means that the town's main tourist attraction is closed weekends, evenings and bank holidays.

Understandably the people of the town, especially those in the open seven days a week Ocean tourist centre think the tapestry should be moved somewhere more accessible to the tourists. I agree.

More ideas on what to see from the Pembroke tourist site or the handy page on the Writers Holiday website, compiled by Malcolm Chisholm. The listing is designed to help partners of those on the Writers Holiday but it's helpful to everybody. (And if you haven't yet been on  WRITERS HOLIDAY, which includes painting courses, poetry, fiction and non-fiction, check it out.)
writersholiday.net

http://www.fishguardartssociety.org.uk/The%20Last%20Invasion%20Tapestry.html

Angela Lansbury, author, travel writer and photographer, speaker.
My latest book is Larry the talking labrador.

What to do in Fishguard: the ferry, beach, books on the sea, and sea life exhibition

Fishguard is a quaint two centre harbour and village, end of the train line, where the boat train meets the Ferry crossing to Ireland. Fishguard's fun is seeing the sea and learning about wildlife. As you walk along the front, watching children leap over the low rock, you are invigorated by the sea breeze and the sea smell, tangy, salty, sharp, evoking memories of seaweed, fishy.

The Tesco Express sells bottles of water and sandwiches for £1.10 and fruit packs if you want to go for a healthy walk. By the tills are books on the area, Wales, and wildlife.

Opposite Tesco, across the road, is a seafront path leading to a large glass-sided, two-storey building containing a cafe, gift shop and exhibition areas.
 The Information counter by the doorway has lots of leaflets and people to answer your questions. An exhibition with a tour guide for a small cost every hour or so is about sealife and has a video and aquariums.

The handy gift shop sells jewellery and scarves and items for making mould of sand, and books on birds, seabirds, insects, flowers, SAS survival.

Check out their second hand books for sale making money for the Ocean project.

Birds and books and fish and jewellery.

The bus doesn't run on Sunday. You will have to walk uphill to the Fishguard Bay hotel, where you can buy a bar lunch and read about the filming of Moby Dick and Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood.

If you really want to see the sea, you can take an afternoon trip to Ireland (Rosslare). If you are British or Irish you do not need a passport, just a drivelling license or utility bill. (Check the Stena site for up to date details.) The cost of the trip is only £5 for a foot passenger.

Next post will be about the tapestry and history.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.
Author of twenty books, the latest being Larry the Talking Labrador.

Fishguard, Famous for Moby Dick, Under Milk Wood and Lusitania

Isambad Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), whose statue stands on Paddington station, built the railway lines west from Paddington to Bristol, across bridges he built, such as the Bristol Suspension Bridge (opened 1864), on to Wales, where ships such as the passenger ships Brunel designed were to carry passengers to the USA (SS Great Britain 1843).
This was around more than a century ago.

Fishguard Harbour railway station opened 1906 jot serve the ferry service to Ireland.

Today the  Fishguard ferry and ship port, still runs a ferry service to Ireland. The trains from London are designed to meet the ferries. That explains why the second train I could have caught on a Saturday arrived at 1.30 in the morning. I thought the Fishguard Bay hotel would be locked up for the night, and nobody would be pleased to see me. The reason is that the ferry leaves at 2 am. The train passengers are expected to have time to get into the ferry.

Why do boats and trains leave late at night or early in the morning? No, it's not so that your taxi has a clear run racing you to or from the airport of ferry port. It's so that your boat or plane disgorges its business passengers at the right time for them to arrive at the office in the morning.

The Railway lines had transformed travel in the UK since the 1860s, when the world's perception of time changed. No longer could every town time itself independently and accurately in time with the sunlight. Instead the towns across Britain had to co-ordinate their clocks and watches with Greenwich mean time abbreviated to GMT.

From the port of Fishguard the ships left for the USA. In WWI the ill-fated Lusitania sank. Later ships left from the port of Southampton. The Titanic left in 1913, an unlucky year for her passengers, although lucky for anybody who missed catching the ship.

Today the train lines still take you from London, England, to Fishguard in Wales. The big hotel on the hillside overlooking the bay is Fishguard Bay hotel. By the bar are accounts and pictures of famous films made in the area. Moby Dick was filmed in the bay which you can see from the hotel's front windows and terrace. So was Under Milk Wood in 1971, starring Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole and Glynis Johns who stayed at the hotel. The old newspaper accounts tell of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton staying at the hotel. In 1979 the hotel was designated a building of Historic and Architectural and Interest.

Fishguard Bay Hotel is a popular spot for weddings of local people. A bride was on the terrace greeting her guests, when I arrived in July 2015.

Her white dress contrasting with the green trees Wales, like England, is green from abundant rainfall. Wales is the land which inspired the best-selling book How Green Was My Valley.

The bride could have served a wedding breakfast of meet or fish, followed by a disco with a buffet of hamburgers. Not everybody wants to get all dressed up and then eat with their fingers, but finger food is the fashion nowadays and cocktail parties have always served canapes. As Marie Antoinette never said, Let them eat burgers.

Fishguard bay serves freshly cooked food. I was particularly partial to the plum tart with cream. Does the Fishguard Bay Hotel serve fish? (The phrase is the pope a Catholic springs to mind.) Yes, sometimes salmon, sometimes trout, almost always a meat dish a fish dish and a vegetarian dish.

The hotel is currently being upgraded. The sea view from the terrace and dining room are delightful. But the rooms are a mixture. A group of us were playing musical bedrooms. A previous year I was sharing a room so we had a front room with sea view and sea gulls looking through the window at us trying to get in.

I asked one of the seagulls if he'd been an unpaid extra in a famous film. But he didn't answer. I think that was before his time.

This year I had a room at the back, 119, no sea view, a sheer cliff of greenery. Ideal if you want to write a script for a horror movie. Things brightened up literally, when I discovered two spotlights over the bed. I complained that the light over the mirror was not working. Immediately up came a desk lamp. A day late (Sunday) the manager produced a replacement bulb. My room had a double bed and bath. TV. All day seaside music from gulls outside.

Several rooms are singles. One of the front single rooms has the view obscured by a tree which apparently has a preservation order on it.

The room with the least outside light is ground floor room number three, which has two high windows, like being in a castle with narrow high windowed, except you are on the ground floor. Oddly enough, I thought this was an ideal room for a honeymoon couple, romantic anniversary, or jolly dirty weekend, where you want total privacy. It was also the best decorated room, not that Victorian royalty carpet and with cream walls so loved by old hotels, and whoever decorated other parts of this hotel, instead bright white and brand new contrasting colours, delightful.

See the hotel whilst it still has the old atmosphere and creaking stairs. The downstairs front room with the magnificent decorated ceiling is already modernised at great expense. The old high ceiling has been replaced by a part false ceiling suspended to reveal the old high ceiling around the edges. The modernisation includes a handy a screen for showing football films, a screen which can be let down to conceal the view of the carved wooden fireplace.

The staff can't do enough for you. I asked for a couple of extra hangers and got half a dozen. Slices of lemon for the water jug. They have weddings many weekends in summer, just when two or more members of staff take off on their own holidays or family weddings.

The Visit Wales awards the hotel a 3 star rating. When the hotel first opened, it had a designated smoking room. Now it is entirely non-smoking.

Writers' Holiday is held here annually, attracting visitors from Wales, England, Scotland and as far away as Australia.

For the 2016 programme - see Writers' Holiday website.
writersholiday.net

(Writers Holiday 2015 July Monday 27 to Saturday Aug 1st courses include Writing Children's books and Travel photos.)
Writers Holiday Feb 2016 19-21 £229, or day delegate £129.
Writers Holiday Monday 25th July to Saturday 30th 2016 £499 full board and accommodation or day guest only rate of £299 (Courses include writing ebooks.)

www:fishguardtrains.info
wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishguard_Harbour_railway_station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel
Fishguard Bay Hotel
Quay Road
Goodwick
Pembrokeshire
Wales
SA64 OBT
Tel:01348 873571
email:reservationsfbh@gmail.com
Website www.fishguardbayhotel.co.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, speaker.

Americanese and Britishisms

'Two countries divided by a common language. 'A few words translated:


Americanese - Britishisms
hacks - tips
Pantyhose - tights

British English - American English
tights - pantyhose
tips - hacks


Angela Lansbury
Travel writer, photographer, speaker.

Landmarks in Novels

Travel writing needs updating constantly as hotels, restaurants and attractions open and close and change their names locations and phone numbers. I thought that if I gave up travel writing and stuck to novels set in the past, starting at least a century ago, the research would by much easier.

My first mistake with my historical novel was with the statue of liberty. I had my hero in 1880 getting off the boat from Euopre to the grand view of the statue of liberty. Only one problem. He couldn't see it. Except on paper. It has not yet been built.

See my previous post about landmarks in novels.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3172264/Is-ultimate-holiday-read-New-travel-book-uses-GPS-adapt-plot-include-nearby-landmarks.html

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

Books set in your destination

Pick the plot's landmarks by choosing your destination. Benjamin Disraeli (The British Prime Minister in the Victorian era, not his father Isaac Disraeli) said, when I want to read a book I write one. If you want the illusion of creating your own book, here's the solution.

Travellers often pick up guidebooks about the destination from the airport or on the ferry, but what about fiction? Some destinations are obvious places to buy books set there. For example, in the UK, a book by the Brontes when visiting the Bronte museum in Haworth, Yorkshire in the north of England. I bought Withering Heights by Emily Bronte, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and the novel by Anne Bronte. Many homes in the area are places featuring in the novels or were homes of the Brontes or their friends. Dickens features many landmarks. You can do walking tours of London and see sites connected with famous authors, then read the books.

I often visit homes of famous authors. Or pick up the children's or adult's book set in the local area. In Australia I bought Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by their best selling author May Gibbs after visiting a museum about the author and the illustrations of Australian plants.

In the USA I bought books by Arthur Miller, Hemingway, Edgar Allen Poe, and Jack London.

But now here's a new concept. The book which you change by slipping in your location.

The idea of audience interaction dates back a long time. At the Canadian Expo in the sixties you could watch a performance of a play in which the audience voted. So if there were four times when you could vote there were - was it sixteen variations? I'll have to get a mathematics expert to help me on this one. Yes, my tame statistician confirms there are sixteen variations.

Now there's a pioneering story which changes the plot to include local landmarks in major cities. I'd like to change all my books to happy endings. Surprise endings and happy endings. I may not be with the majority on this. Women's magazines require short stories to have happy endings. But films and novels are different.

I think it was one of the great American novels by Hemingway, later made into a film, where studio audiences were shown two variation and asked to vote. To the surprise of the film producers the audiences chose the sad ending. More realistic? The Chinese like classic works to show grim reality. Not me. But I do like local landmarks on my literature.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3172264/Is-ultimate-holiday-read-New-travel-book-uses-GPS-adapt-plot-include-nearby-landmarks.html

Using your phone, iPad and laptop when travelling

Your phone
Many cities, stations and cafes have areas where you can work on your laptop and log into wifi and hotspots. For example, sitting waiting for a bus in Switzerland I read a sign telling me I was in a hotspot. In the UK in London on stations you get free wifi, although the time is limited. You can also use phones in branches of Wetherspoons pub and Costa coffee shops. At Costa you may have to log in and get their password, but usually once you are on the system it works at every coffee shop.

Your iPad
A friend of mine from Writers' Summer School wrote to me on Facebook that she was unable to use her iPad to connect to the log on system for charging on Virgin, although the system says you can charge your iPad. Before that I hadn't even realised that you could use sockets to charge up use your machines on long journeys.

Charging Forbidden
Sockets on London overground trains have signs saying Not For Public use. This is a big disappointment. It costs them very little. In fact, surely it's like charging your phone in a moving car. The electricity is generated by the car.

I look forward to the day when my laptop and phone will be charged by sunlight or the movement of my wrist, - even a wind up computer, like a wind-up radio.

Meanwhile, if you invest in a power pack and charge it before you set off on your day's travels, you can be sure of more security and the ability to make that vital phone call, 'I'm here at the station/airport. Come and find me!'

Please, Mr Mayor, help the public use phones on public transport. What's the point of giving us free wifi when a phone has died.

The most vulnerable people are the ones most likely to have phones which die on them.  When we travel home late at night, that's when we need the safety of a phone.

I also read that somebody was fined for staying more than two minutes at a pickup point.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/iphone/11737063/Man-arrested-after-charging-iPhone-on-London-Overground.html
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-2242801/The-trick-beat-private-parking-tickets-I-dodged-service-station-fine.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2981794/10-minute-let-avoid-parking-ticket-month-new-law-let-overstay-meter-without-fine.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3170758/Pregnant-mum-hit-70-parking-fine-stopping-just-SIX-minutes-partner-changed-baby-s-nappy.html


Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.

Thoughts on safety around animals

1 Don't turn your back on an animal to take a selfie.
2 Others may be standing apparently safely near animals - but they might be attacked in five minutes time - and so could you.

An animal looking at you may be preparing to attack. A woman was taking a selfie in front of a bison in the USA. Luckily she lived to tell the tale.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3171312/Bison-injures-woman-posing-selfie-Yellowstone.html

Don't lie down either. Especially not near an emu in Australia. It could get amorous.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3171456/The-moment-emu-tried-mate-backpacker-Australian-outback.html

And while we're on this subject, keep your dog on a leash well away from water in Florida.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3171575/Woman-leaps-pond-wrestles-7ft-alligator-bare-hands-successful-bid-rescue-pet-dog-reptile-s-jaws.html#comments

I have just written a fictional book about a girl with a dog trying to escape from an escaped lion at a safari park.
It is called
Larry The Talking Dog, Cathy Cat and Escaped Lions.

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

Action For Summer: Packing; Pills; Preventing Heatstroke; Underground Malls

Top tips I picked up.

1 Wear light colour clothing.
That sends me re-packing my summer holiday suitcase. Do I need to remove all the black clothes and change them to white? The white clothes don't just look more summery. They keep you cool.

Did I wast my money buying black clothes? The black clothes such as tee-shirts with metallic palm trees are fine for indoors in icy air conditioning, in the cooler evening. But not if you are likely to be asked to go out for an afternoon walk and don't want to waste time changing clothes.

Those robes men wear in the middle east are right for outdoors in the sun. The black clothes women, and widows, often wear, are only suitable for indoors in air conditioning.

2 Drink water.
Not just for comfort. So you can perspire and cool off.

3 Recognise heatstroke.
If anybody is getting confused, cool them quickly with ice under the armpits.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/medications-cool-summer-heat/story?id=16724277

Where is it hot? In the South of North America but also in summer you can be sweltering in New York and Washington DC. I remember when I lived in Washington DC zig-zagging down the city streets in and out of shop doorways and diverting through department stores to cool myself.

In Singapore visitors from overseas go shopping in Orchard Road and complain the country is too hot. But running from the central crossroads along Orchard Road you can descend to Basement one or Basement two and walk about half a mile along the underground shops, full of cafes and shops and even an aquarium and market stalls and food courts. If you start at Tang's, or Orchard Station, you can walk from there underground across the road to other malls and hotels.

Pills
1 Keep them in your bag (US Purse) or pocket, not in luggage which might be stored in a hold or left out on the tarmac beside the plane.
2 Carry an insulated sandwich bag.
 (Americans when they say purse mean what the Brits call a handbag. What the Brits call a purse, the Americans would call a change purse or wallet.)

Water
USA
The USA is very good at providing drinking water in hotel on every other floor and in the lobby of many buildings and and hotels and waiting areas.

UK
In London there's now a water dispenser in the Passport office at Victoria.

In a hotel, you will often find water dispensers in the gym.

Worldwide
Remember to drink water provided free at many coffee shops, before or after you drink your coffee. Collect the water when you collect your coffee and make sure you and the family all drink a glass of water each before you all leave.

Angela Lansbury B A Honours, travel writer, photographer, author, speaker.

Follow me on Facebook, link to me on linkedIn, watch me performing poetry and explaining easy ways to remember grammar and spelling on YouTube.

Making your travel blog with a MacBook - photo problems solved

I write an amusing travel post for you and go to load up the essential picture, the photo of the food at the restaurant I'm reviewing, or the travel suitcase. A picture is worth a thousand words. But I can't load up the picture. I thought it was because I did not know how to do it. Or the internet was slow. No. I and you and others have had the same problem.

You may have had trouble loading up your photos if you have a new MacBook or have installed new software on an old machine. In the good old days, you were probably able to move photos instantly simply by clicking on the little icon above your draft post, the one with the cute picture of the blue sky, then clicking on pictures, but wherever you search, no photos appear, just a blank screen.

I had moved from Blogger to Wordpress but it didn't help. That's because the new software and your Blog post on either Blogger or Wordpress won't talk to each other. If you go onto the forums you will find that you are not the only person with this problem.

The solution seems to be to move your photos out of the new photo system (with the rainbow petals on a schematic daisy) onto your desktop. Then move them across. From the computer using customer's point of view that's a time consuming, backward step. You have paid a lot of money to install what you thought would be a new system and instead you are worse off than when you were on the old system.

From the point of view of the paying customer, it's time Apple and Blogger and Google and the big boys, and girls, got together. It's no good pretending that it's not our company, not our fault, not our problem.

If you are running a trusts industry, (and a computer is a kind of tourist industry), you want to ferry people from one country to another. It's no good creating a wonderful plane or ferry service when the foreign country won't let anybody from your country land. You advertise your wonderful modern ship. But it can't get into the ports where your customers used to go on holiday.

You land them on a remote island, with no sight of the destination, and no guidance how to get there. (And you have charged them a lot of money.) Some of them will try to get back on the overcrowded sinking little boat (the old laptop with iPhoto, which keeps sinking under the weight or volume of pictures and data.)

Others will shout out you. But nobody seems to be listening. If the makers of the grand cruise ship, admittedly a beautiful ship, although it won't take you to your destination. won't listen, or at least don't admit that they have heard or intend to do anything, what's left for the customers to do.

Get together. Post information. (As I am here.)

Hope that the go it alone experts will come to everybody's aid. Appeal to them. As I am now. Go and work for Apple, Google, Blogger, Wordpress, and solve the problem. If you are in marketing, persuaded your boss that you should contact the other company and do a deal which will benefit both of you.

What if you've tried to get a job with 'the big boys' and failed. Or you are far away from their office, or in another country. You don't have a great cv. Or you prefer to work from home. But you are smart. You think you can solve the problem.

Do us all a favour. Tell us the solution. If you like, if you care more about fame than money, or think fame will lead to fortune, add your name to it. The Fred photo fix. The Smith software solution. The Ali apple answer. The Lim longterm solution.

All those computer geeks who are spending their time doing damage to big companies instead could be doing everybody a favour and and instead of being hidden villains in danger of going to prison they could become popular heroes with the chance of being famous and respected by finding us solutions. Get our photos back up on our travel blog posts. Fast. Thank you.

Then you will have the pleasure of seeing a great picture on my blog posts every day, not just at the end of the day or week, when I've had time to do things the long way round. Yes, I'll come back later and add a photo - if I've got time.

Can you help? Can you spread the word? Can you like this post or forward it? Please do so.

Angela Lansbury B A Honours, travel writer, blogger, author, speaker.

Learning Languages, just for fun: Italian through cookery demonstrations

The brothers who learned 11 languages and others like them recommend that you don't just learn languages but practise them daily and immerse yourself in the language in your favourite activities. I just by chance found some recipes demonstrated by Italian cooks.

The first video I found was on Facebook and was silent and showed how to extract juice from watermelon. I shared it and watched it again. I was then tempted to seek out others from the same website. I found a recipe for potatoes. Up popped the ingredients in English. Accompanied by the commentary in Italian.

On Facebook you can translate the comments and the videos into your language from another language. But on the Italian site I wanted to hear how the words were pronounced. It was obvious that sale was salt.

Here is the link the recipe I watched.
http://video.agrodolce.it/prime-uve-mixology-giro-del-mondo/

Italian - English
Your first ten words:
sale - salt
burro - butter
del - of (the)
e - and
mondo - world
dolce - sweet
patate - potato
pesce - fish (as in Pisces)
salute - cheers
tonno - tuna

Angela Lansbury B A Honours, travel writer, author, speaker.

Safety and swimming pools worldwide

Two well-publicised fatalities in swimming pools: one in the USA, one in the UK. (Demi Moore. Barrymore.)

Pools in Private Residences in Australasia
In Australia and New Zealand it's the law that you fence off swimming pools so that children don't fall in after it was found that more people died in swimming pools than in the ocean. This was featured on stamps - as I learned in the post office in New Zealand.

Pools in Condos in the USA
When I lived in a condo in Rockville, Maryland, USA, the pool was surrounded by tennis court style see through wire netting over six foot high - nothing you could vault over. The pool was locked at night. Insurance or local bye-law or state law or all three said you had to have a lifeguard on duty when the pool was open. In fact you had two lifeguards. So if one had a sandwich break, or went to the toilet, or turned up late, or went off early, or turned their back to talk to somebody, the other guard was still sitting watching the pool.

 It's time that worldwide swimming pools were fenced off. Maybe make it mandatory to add a warning sign on the gate.

Private Pools in the UK
Friends of mine living in Hendon used to have a pool. The husband, who was in the medical profession, would not allow his wife or children to swim alone. If the wife was alone she would invite a friend or neighbour into the house if she wanted to swim.

That was to guard against anybody getting into difficulties in the water. Falling in. Or having a heart attack or fainting fit whilst swimming.

What should a warning sign say?

1 Only enter if you can swim and are sober.
2 No unaccompanied children.
3 No parties of more than 100 people without a lifeguard.
4 Nobody to swim solo.

Safety - you can learn from living overseas and seeing what other countries do for safety.

Neighbours in Pinner have a pool. Theirs has a low gate. They had four children.

They were also worried about the safety of their neighbour's children. Even when the swimming pool owners were away on holiday, they were concerned that their neighbours children would leap over the low fences between the gardens for a secret dip - even without the swimming children's own parents knowing.

US and Singapore
Many condominiums in Singapore and the USA have swimming pools. In Singapore I went to a meeting in a condo which had been in the newspapers because a toddler had drowned in the unfenced pool. The family had been preparing for a wedding or similar large celebration. Both mother and maid thought the other one was looking after the child. the family were busy making food, serving drink and greeting guests. I thought back to the USA, where I had loved in a condo with a gated pool. That accident could not have happened if the pool had been gated.

What about pool parties? I've been to blocks of flats where they have barbecues beside pools. People eat and drink, stand by the pool watching swimmers. Party goers and visitors walk by the pool. People stand in groups, step back and fall in.

Children and adults, drunk or sober, push each other in for a joke. Women trip over long dresses or dogs or their own bags left lying on the ground. Waiters and bar staff carrying drinks on trays at shoulder level have their eyes up on the drinks or guests and trip over obstructions such as recliners pulled across the path.

I used to wonder why hotel pools and condos closed pools at night. I thought it was to stop people falling in when it was dark, or to stop late night parties making noise when others wanted to sleep. But I now realise that people tend to drink more in the evenings and get drunker as the night goes on. An old saying comes to mind, better safe than sorry.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker. 

How to find favourite posts, fill in a week's travel posts and delay posting

I accidentally put up a blank post. Ten people appeared to have 'read' it. Without a title, what would cause anybody to open it? Of course they could have opened it out of curiosity and found nothing. Or was it spammers and search engines?

If anybody does open a post on which I have put a title, but being in a hurry, I published immediately, instead of saving the headline as a draft, they will see the page surround which shows links to my previous posts. The most popular or most recent ones appear first. So although they cannot see a new post, at least they can see links to several of the popular posts.

When I first edited the post surround, I was a little disappointed that the previous posts' links now appeared at the top of the page, instead of in a column on the right, as previously. That delayed the reader in reaching the headline and first line of my new post. The space might be annoying for those who read on a mobile phone's small screen.

A check on the statistics of my readers showed that the majority were not reading on a small screen mobile phone but on a large screen. So I could ignore the mobile phone users. Or could I? Should I? I am very fond of pointing out to myself and others that ten percent is the difference between profit and loss, the difference between being top and second in any kind of competition.

So now I am careful. My next job is to create a delayed post system, to create seven finished posts on Sunday, with delayed and date specific load up though the week, so I am not rushing to post and you can be sure of a new post every morning.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.

Where to eat on Sunday in NW London

The Hare
The Hare in Harrow Weald was fully booked on Sunday night. They do offers for children. They do a jazz night. A jolly pub with outside seating on a Sunday night. And great food.

Leef Robinson or Gilbert's
If you arrive hoping to walk in and are disappointed, because they are full, within driving distance are the Leefe Robinson. Or Gilbert's in Grimsdyke hotel.

The Road
The road to Gilbert's has been vastly improved since the bad old days when somebody we know overturned their car on one of the bends into a ditch. (Passengers were OK. My car, driven by somebody else, wasn't.) Great warning signs, lights, barriers, humps - a much safer road.

Nearby, opposite the entrance to Grimsdyke hotel, is the popular car park offering a great view over London and the Wembley Arch, as late as 8.30 pm on a summer Sunday evening.

Gilbert's
Gilbert's restaurant has a proper chef and the menu changes. So if you went there a month ago you will be offered a different set meal.

Choice of small tables for two or larger tables for four. Nice lamps and traditional decor. Quiet when we went there Sunday night. Good for private, personal or business conversations.

Set two or three course meal.

While waiting for our first course, we were offered a choice of tomato bread or raisin bread.
Delicious raisin and nut bread, with butter.

We planned on having the dessert but by the time we had eaten the bread and starter we were full.
Portions of the main course were large.

Potatoes filling. Large chunky chips or potato Dauphinoise, an oblong 'cake' of sliced potato.
Vegetables to share. Steak came with battered onion rings. Lamb in big chunks (not the thin slices you sometimes get at a carvery).
Candle and flower on the table. Coloured table lamp nearby.

The new wine list has newer bottles. We accepted the offer of an older Chateau Neuf du Pape. You might think an older bottle would be better. You might want to try it out of curiosity.

 Using a smart phone to check the ratings, we found that the older wine we were offered had by now lost its flavour and was past its best. After trying it, we agreed. Next time we'll opt for the newer wine from their new list. A more recent year, but a better year.

Jazz music playing quietly. I'm not a fan of jazz, but it's good to have faint music so you can concentrate on talking to your dining partner and not hear other people.

Angela Lansbury B A Honours, travel writer, author, speaker.

Why staff are closing early and clearing up on Sunday night in the UK

Sunday night 2015, you might think easy to book. But some hotel restaurants find Sunday lunch time is busy with family meals. Sunday evening is less busy because people are going to work next day so they want early nights or time to prepare postponed jobs or be ready for an early start travelling to a far off destination.

As a result, some hotels keep their chef busy Friday night and Saturday night and Sunday lunch and give the chef Sunday night off. This means a shorter menu, bar meals only - main restaurant closed (for example, Hawtreys Restaurant at the Barn Hotel in Ruislip), or half the restaurant area closed (Carvery near Watford) because of smaller number of customers and not enough staff.

I puzzled over this. Why can't customers sit where they want? The seating area is 'full' - but it's a self-service carver, and I see empty tables. Why can't I take a drink there while waiting for a table? Why can't I eat a meal there?

Glass or restaurant half full or half empty? Does it annoy you when you are having dessert or lingering over coffee, and staff start sweeping in the distance, or worst of all, putting chairs on the table next to you. Are they trying to tell you to go?

I watched staff clearing up around 9.30 when many places close in the UK on Sunday night. (Just when restaurants are opening in other parts of the world, such as hot Spanish countries where they have had a siesta in the hot afternoon.) It struck me that in the UK, if I were the minimum wage waiter, or even the well paid manager, shutting the restaurant on Sunday night, I'd want to clear up quickly and go home.

The cleaners/staff/managers are clearing tables after you've finished. They are re-laying tables and wiping tables and cleaning up tables and floors under tables, will want everybody in one area to halve their work load and get home quicker.

If you've ever worked in a fast food place or restaurant, the customers int he USA have often worked their way through college, and a high proportion have taken a job at a fast food outlet when they were students. This is not considered demeaning, but is very useful experience. If nothing else, you understand why the staff are doing what they are doing. Like most people, they are not inconsiderate or annoying you to spite you. They have good reasons for doing what suits them. You think they should be thinking of you. You are the customer. But if you think of them, you might find you increase your own goodwill and satisfaction with their service.

I sometimes start a conversation out of curiosity, or to break a silence. It's amazing how often an apparently introverted, maybe tired, server, brightens up when asked a basic question. Even responding to hearing you address them with a remark such as: 'You seem busy tonight. Are you busier on Saturday?'

You might get an answer such as, 'It's quiet/busy because it's the school holidays. / We ran out of food/drink/were busy because we had a wedding. It's always busy/empty on Saturday/Sunday.'

To my amazement an apparently grumpy server became animated, all smiles, keen to talk. Just one sentence from us to them had 'opened the floodgates'. What a difference a short conversation makes.

We left very happy, feeling that we had a friend at the restaurant. Ended on a high. We left a good tip, and didn't begrudge it. We felt they deserved it, for making our evening.

We also feel that if we go back to the same restaurant, we have a friend. We are a regular customer. A good customer. Even if they have run out of tables, they might shift the barrier and say, 'It's OK - you can sit here.'

Angela Lansbury B A Honours, travel writer.

Packing Cheap, Travelling Light and Buying New

The British used to admire the French for their chic clothes, and the Americans who always looked as if they were wearing new, uncreased clothes, despite travelling to the UK on long flights, often overnight. What are travellers' style secrets?

American Throwaway, and New Bulk-buy
When I first went to the USA I was astonished how cheaply you could buy t-shirts. In the south and Caribbean, stalls were offering cheap t-shirts or two for the price of one or special deals on three. I concluded that the reason why Americans looked as if they were wearing new clothes was that they were wearing new clothes.

Laundry
For a special occasion, a celebration lunch or dinner, you can buy an inexpensive item and keep it in its packaging. Alternatively, if you've worn it on the journey, send it to the hotel laundry. If you hotel's laundry is too expensive, you might be able to find a local laundry shop by looking in the local directory in your hotel bedside table or desk, or just use your phone or the free computer terminal in the hall of the hotel.

Cleaning and Ironing
Ask hotel staff if the hotel has a washing machine or iron for guests. Some hotels hide the iron at the back of the wardrobe, have a washing machine hidden in the basement or up on the 4th floor. Ask. Alternatively, housekeeping will send you an iron and ironing board, usually supplied only to the suites but often supplied to any guest who asks.

If your hotel provides a valet service for a suite, or a club lounge, the staff may be able to advise or organise washing or pressing of an item.

Larger hotels offer a laundry service. Hostels and budget hotels often have a laundry room.

In-flight Clothes Change
A PR girl for a travel company taught me her trick for looking good on arrival off a flight. She travels with a spare lightweight outfit to wear on board. She greets her group at the airport in a tailored business suit. Immediately after boarding she changed into loose onesie for sleeping. Arriving overseas in the morning, she changed back into the business suit.

If you are a frequent flyer the airline personnel often offer to hang up your coat. This keeps it pristine and crease free. Less chance of dropping your tray dinner all over it.

If the flight is less than full, you have more chance that the crew will offer to do you favours even if you are travelling in Economy. Especially if you tell them that you are travelling to a wedding or a new job or you have a reason for wanting to look smartly dressed.

If you are buying souvenirs for family, consider buying two (or more) t-shirts, one as a gift for somebody, the other to wear on holiday, or two as gifts, or two to wear on holiday, and negotiate a price for buying more than one. The same obviously applies to other clothing, sandals. If you have a partner who has nothing to do while you are at a business meeting, sports event or conference, and they like shopping, you can occupy them by asking them to organise laundry or better still sending them to buy clothes.

Colour Co-ordination
Either co-ordinate colours with yourself, or what is available.You can pay to have a company choose your colours - known in some systems as spring, summer, autumn and winter colours. But holding colours against your skin or hair or eyes or lipstick or shoes or coat will often show you which basic colours or accessory colours suit you.
 In China red is a favourite colour. You could match your company colours, or go for your football team's colours.

Fitted Clothes
A neater look is created by wearing fitted clothes. A loose garment can be tightened by wearing a belt. You could use a long scarf as a belt. Or turn the garment inside out, create a seam up both of the sides with a couple safety pins. If you have time loosely sew the seam with the hotel sewing kit. If you don't have a sewing kit in your room, ask for one. Or if none is available, a member of the hotel staff, or another guest might be able to lend you a needle and cotton.
Make sure the garment is still loose enough to pull over your head.

French girls, on casual occasions, as tourists, or on the beach, sometimes tie the lower corners of a causal shirt into a bow, making it fit across the bust.

Matching Colours
In the UK, the 99p shop and Pound World sell slippers in colours. You can co-ordinate bedroom slippers with your night clothes or casual wear. Either one pair. Or even matching slippers for two or more pairs of pyjamas or night dresses or wraps.

Wraps For Beach and Bedroom
A long scarf doubles as a beach sarong. A light wrap around dressing gown does for both beach and hotel wear.

One one occasion I forgot to pack pyjamas, so I wore the hotel dressing gown in bed. It was warm and the bedroom was air conditioned.

I found the belt was uncomfortable. But I was glad to be dressed when I had to rush to the door on hearing knocking. I found a man delivering the early breakfast I'd ordered before my dawn flight home.

Crease-free
The three ways of having crease free clothing are:
1 Buy new at home
2 Buy new at destination
3 Send to laundry
4 DIY ironing
5 Wash garment and hang it to and drip dry in shower room steam
6 Invest in outfits of synthetic non-crease fabrics. Poly-Cotton is a compromise, cool enough, yet relatively little creasing.
7 Hang everything immediately.
8 Pack clothes on thin hangers, the sort you get from dry cleaning shops. If you don't have enough, you can buy them, or pick up spares from other people, or even shops.

Travelling Light
You can buy jackets with multiple pockets designed for photographers, sports, and people on airlines with luggage restrictions.
Alternatively add pockets to the inside of your own shirts, a jacket, even a T-shirt. Pockets can be expensive to buy. You can make pockets from old garments.

Pockets
A shirt with a frayed collar and cuffs still provides a ready-made breast pocket you can cut off, cuffs which can be seemed and reversed. A too-small child's uniform had pockets in the jacket for mother's jacket. Old trousers (USA readers - trousers are pants) and jeans also have pairs of pocket.

I invested in dressed which can be worn three or more ways. I find long skirts which pull up to make a dress with a halter neck strap work well. However, many of the wear six ways dresses require a slim figure which looks good in very tight or very folded clothing. the fabrics are often thin, flimsy and cheap and easily crease, dull or day-glow colours.

Reversible jackets
You can buy reversible clothes for men, women and children. I have a permanent search on eBay for reversible everything, reversible skirts, reversible dresses, reversible jackets, reversible scarves, reversible belts, reversible pendants, reversible bracelets, reversible stone rings.

A jacket which reversed to black seemed dull and boring on the black side. I don't wear black at night. I want to be seen when crossing the road. So I wore only the coloured side - until I arrived at a funeral. Everybody was in black, about five hundred people, an entire church full of black, only little me in bright patchwork! I 'accidentally' dropped my hymn book, removed my jacket, sat up again and replaced it, now wearing black. I found myself muttering a short prayer, 'Thank you, God, for my reversible jacket.'

Happy Travelling!

Companies offering reversibles
UK JD Williams and catalogues in the same group of companies
Asia - many Chinese jackets are reversible, lined with silk. Even if they are not sold as reversible, you can reverse them. You may wish to remove the conspicuous white inside neck label, cover it with a piece of coloured ribbon, or wear a neck scarf which hides the label.

Reversible Jackets For Men
marksandspencer.com
landsend.co.uk
jdwilliams.co.uk - I saw a festival jacket in the 2015 summer sale at £34.
Cheaper items in the USA from aliexpress.com

Pockets in jackets
Ski wear usually has lots of pockets.
ayegear.com - not cheap. £139.99. Loads of pockets.

Price Comparison
On eBay you can search and sort prices low to high, including postage.
On eBay you can put items into your cart and then compare prices before buying. On eBay if your watch list is full you can do a Collection for comparison, and fill in the price on the notes.
Several comparison sites bring up everything available in a search. These appear at the bottom of your screen when you are on eBay.
Idealprice.co.uk

Quality Checks
To get an overview of quality, you may have to search around. For example, you find something cheaper on Ebay than on Amazon, but you might find more customer feedback on Amazon or on the brand's website, or even a site which is out of stock in your size is still handy for customer reviews.

What could go wrong? A reversible dress may show the reverse below the on top colour. To me this is usual. You could put a string size ribbon or belt on the lining to hold it up.

The fabric could be too light or too heavy. Chiffon can be scratchy. Silk can range from tough to so lightweight that the seams tear. Decide if you want softly draping or robust. A plain colour might show stains. But you could cover them with muttons or patches, of flowers made from a piece of the hem.

A light-weight bag could be too light to carry heavy objects or tear easily at the seams or when sharp objects or corners project from heeled shoes or goods you place inside. Light four wheel luggage might not wheel easily over cobblestones, rough tarmac, bobbled paving at crossing supposed to help the blind but annoy anybody using wheels.

If you know this already and don't care, then the overall satisfaction rate might convince you that as you are not so fussy the item is a good buy, or good for the price, or good enough for one trip.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.
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Packing a small suitcase

How do you pack a small suitcase and travel with enough clothes for all weather?

Dressing For All Weather
You are supposed to dress for your destination. Very funny, when you are going to a hot country staying by the beach, and you are setting off in pouring rain. You don't really want to wear wet sandals for fourteen hours, not even four hours, not even forty minutes. No good adding socks because you just get wet socks.

For clothes, the secret is to dress in layers. Two layers when you leave in the cold. A camisole which doubles as a sun top. A bikini or beach shorts instead of underwear. Then if your luggage is lost or delayed you can race for the beach and swim before dinner, go down to the pool whilst the luggage from your group of 100 is being delivered.

Rain?As a last resort, you may have to wear overshoes. The sort you are given at some gyms with pools.

Bag Pockets
The user of a computer suitcase told me it did not hold a lot apart from the computers and flat papers. It has several zips and compartments so you can organise - or lose - your papers. A place for everything and everything in its place.

Date Order Pockets
You could keep everything in date order, whatever you need first in the front pocket. Or the heaviest item at the back by the handle to balance the suitcase and stop it tipping forward.

Keys
I have several organiser bags which have so many pockets that I keep losing things. I used to lose my keys at the bottom of a bag. Until I attached them to a key ring attached to a ribbon attached by a safety pin to the bag. If you are handy you could sew into every bag and suitcase a ribbon. If you prefer, a secure chain. Even if you attach the ribbon or chain to the back or bottom of the bag or in a pocket out of sight, you can remember it is always on the right, or feel for the end of the ribbon and then locate the keys wherever they have hidden themselves.

Tickets
Your vital tickets should always go in the same pocket, with nothing else in the way of anything like a train pass which you need to press against a station card reader, unobscured by anything which could fall in front and block the card.

Protecting Food
If you are likely to save a half eaten sandwich, a box or neatly folded plastic bag, perhaps kept small by a rubber band, is handy.

Drinks
As a precaution, try to keep food and drinks, or liquids which might spill, separate from papers. In fact separate from a new treasured suitcase. I have been called onto a delayed plane in a hurry, taken along my yogurt, ended up with packed underwear,  packed bikini, diary, comb, and the inside of the tote bag covered with strawberry smelling pink yogurt. I try to keep all food and drink separate in another bag.

Linking A Second Bag
Some people check whether a small wheel on suitcase will support their second bag which is either a tote bag or a handbag, or just an airline bag or plastic bag.
You might like to link the handles of the two bags so you don't leave your drinks on the plane, your sandwich on the train, or your conference papers in the conference hall.

Books
If you are a visiting author at a conference selling a book or promoting yourself, always have one copy of your book in your pocket. You can show it to an acquaintance or new friend in the queue or during a delay or long train journey or long flight. Use it to rehearse your reading or speech.

If you haven't written a book, read your favourite. For example, a book on business. Motivation. A classic work you haven't read. Teach yourself French, Spanish, Chinese. Take a book such as Chicken Soup for the Soul to keep you calm in case of delays.

Take a diary or travel book and research restaurants or hotels or museum opening times at the destination. Take a list of conference organisers or those attending or the first night speaker. Learn their names. Remember who they are likely to know.

If you do meet colleagues/groups at the airport, or in the shuttle bus to your conference hotel, it's easier to remember them and start a conversation, 'you are the conference organiser, Mr/Mrs Smith/Patel/Ali, I've read so much about you. Do you know Mr/Mrs/Lee well?'

If you can't remember what they do, and are shy to admit it, you can ask about somebody else on the committee. Have you met so and so (the organiser/speaker)?

I've found asking about their suitcase or their techniques for packing is also a good, neutral subject.
I recently bought a small light Karabar four wheel suitcase through eBay for about £20 including postage (see previous posts).

Angela Lansbury BA Honours, author, travel writer, speaker.

Colour co-ordinates of shoes and a small carry-on or cabin bag

First things first. Shoes. Open sandals for summer - or shoes which protect your toes. Protect them from the rain. Protect them from the doors. Protect them from people who drop things out of the overhead luggage onto your feet. Or run over your toes with their wheeled luggage. Or even their feet. Doors which swing back onto your feet? You could have study capped walking shoes for travelling, and sandals for the other end.

I wear socks with sandals. I used to wear socks after I developed sore red spots or broken skin or blisters. Now more often I go for prevention rather than cure. It looks odd to wear socks with a short skirt - until somebody makes that a fashion. The trick is to  either buy black sandals with black socks, white sandals with white socks, and stay cool. Then quickly add black, white, tan, or colour co-ordinated knew high socks or tights on top or instead to look smarter when you get to your destination.  

If you can co-ordinate the colours of your shoes and tote bag and suitcase, plus accessories, scarf, baseball hat, sunhat. gloves, umbrella or parasol to protect you from sun, you have a completely co-ordinated outfit. Plus the matching necklace, bracelet, watch strap and ring. Also your box file or notebook and pen. 

Some people do this automatically. Some men go for everything black, or everything grey, or everything brown, or everything navy. A workplace may co-ordinate their colour scheme.

It can get a bit tiring and same-y. I went to a school which had a bottle green uniform. Admittedly brightened with a thin stripe of pale turquoise and red. With a paler green dress for summer. But I still would not wear bottle green for years. 

Some people simply go for this season's colour. All black is businesslike, safer in a crowd. 

Two wheel cabin cases with owls, only £14.99

A wise own said a two wheel suitcase is available on line with free postage. Never mind the size, feel the weight.

If you don't mind having two wheels (rather than the latest four wheels) you can get a cheaper suitcase. Karabars sell a two wheel pull along case in lots of patterns. My favourite is the owls.

The price is only £14.99 with free delivery. That saves about five pounds, a quarter of the price of the £20 model. But £20 is still a good price, if you must have four wheels.

If you look at the pictures on eBay and blow them up larger, you'll see that the handles on the top and side are flat, not padded. I think they are assuming that most of the time you will be pulling the suitcase, only carrying it when walking up stairs.

If you want a padded handle, either inspect pictures carefully, or look at suitcases in local shops to decide the style and size you want, before buying from a shop or ordering on line.

Note the 20 inch cases are really weeny, for those airlines which limit you to a tiny carry on case. You might consider a bigger case for daily use, or a set of three.

If I wanted to protect a laptop computer for work, I would pick something more padded and heavyweight, less likely to be damaged by pointed objects, or slashed by a thief. You can lock together the zip tabs on many of the 'good value' cases. They are more secure than shopping trolleys.
karabars.co.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker. 

More four wheel suitcases and wheel sets

If you are in the USA you have different choices because it costs a lot to ship sets of luggage, three suitcases, to the UK.

Having already acquired a small cabin bag on wheels, I'm now looking at the more substantial hard cases, or a stacking set. Space is at a premium in many locations, whether at home or in a hotel room.

20 inch case for £25 (less a penny, £24.90), free economy shipping, choice of colours including maroon, fastlineproduct, on eBay.

More brands include Rock.

Children
For children various designs include Spiderman, a little suitcase they can sit astride.

Business
For computers and files, some companies buy their staff bags such as the one with the brand name Kensington.
kensington.com
Samsonite.com
tesco.com

The user of a computer suitcase told me it did not hold a lot apart from the computers and flat papers. It has several zips and compartments so you can organise - or lose - your papers. A place for everything and everything in its place. You could keep everything in date order, whatever you need first in the front pocket. Or the heaviest item at the back by the handle to balance the suitcase and stop it tipping forward.

She had bought herself a wheeled suitcase from TKMaxx in the sale, half price, reduced to about £45, and various brands were offered including Guess.
temas.com

If you want to add wheels to an old suitcase (how - superglue - maybe a suitcase repair shop could do it for you) you can buy sets of wheels on eBay. I've also seen a single wheel, which you attach with two screws and a rivet, not supplied.

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

Four Wheel Suitcase by Karabar

The four wheel suitcase by Karabar is blue, as shown in the picture on their website and on eBay. (You can get cheaper four wheel cabin cases from the chain stores if you are prepared to have black.)

I was pleased it was blue. I had worried that maybe they showed blue in the picture but it was a stock photo. But it is blue. Not a nice blue. Sort of petrol blue which does not go with anything, not a nice royal blue, but at least I can recognise my suitcase, amongst the dozen on the shuttle bus to the plane, or be reminded to take it as I glass back and do my suitcase body count, accidentally counting my umbrella as an extra item and forgetting the carry on bag.

Handles
The handle pulls up tall. The material looks thin and flimsy, like paper, but the guarantee is for three years (which will cover stitching I suppose, but not holes made by your contents in the suitcase nor mishandling by baggage handlers.

The two handles on the top and side are almost flat, no padding. But you are pulling it along with the handle. But you do need the handle when going up or down a flight of stairs at home, at an office, in a power cut, at an airport, or a railway station.

Is it sturdy enough to carry a camera bag, large laptop computer or heavy bottle of wine? I think you would have to secure them with the internal straps - only attached to the flimsy looking liner, or wedge the contents between something else.
It was delivered by MyHermes.
www.karabars.co.uk

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

Travel shoes - comfort and style

Last time I took a flight we had to remove out shoes at security. This is not a good time to be wearing shoes with three buckles, or lace ups from toe to thigh. Trying to watch three trays of coats and bags and cameras and belts with metal buckles, metal pendants, while struggling with tripe buckled shoes is not my idea of fun.

I like to travel in shoes with velcro or 'snap and close' fastenings. They detach fast. They fit when your ankles swell in-flight or after a long flight, or going from home country to cold and vice versa.

Pineapples
I was in a branch of Office shoes looking at their sale items. I liked a pair of slip on flat canvas shoes with a pattern of pineapples. The first problem is white shoes will get dirty quickly. The second problem is you have to co-ordinate them with plain colours. I hate mixing one pattern with another. It used to be the sign of a disorganised person. Designers tried to make it a new fashion trend. But you have to be extremely elegant to carry it off.

Like torn jeans, it looks great if everything else is immaculate, freshly washed hair, perfect make up, fancy nails, brand new designer bag, and you have the figure of a model girl. If you have been up all night on an overnight flight, with tousled hair, baggy eyes, three pieces of luggage, one polka dot, one orchids, two patterns on the suitcase tags, pineapples on your shoes, palm trees on your skirt, striped Breton t-shirt, sorry, it looks a mess.

You would be better off all black or all white with just one item in a colour of pattern. So if I travel all black, or all white hm ....

Touch and close shoes:
This year's shoes from Hotter include the Glow design in two co-ordinating colours.
Clarks (currently sale)
Cushion-walk
Easystep
Free-step
Hotter (currently sale online and in store)
Josef Seibel


Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.

Favourite Funky Suitcases

My favourite today is a cabin bag or set of three with stamp patterns or polka dots. On eBay. UK based seller. Fastlineproducts. £27.99 including postage. If you get your order in early they ship same day.

The trouble is, to look co-ordinated, you have to wear only one colour with your multicolour suitcase or travel bag. So a black and white bag looks great with either all white clothes, all black, or black and white. Red and white polka dots would look very smart with an all white or all red outfit.

I saw a listing from the USA where you can buy a Hello Kitty suitcase, price over £50 - plus expensive delivery to UK, better value if you order from supplier in your country , except some sellers in Asia, such as Korea, send postage included.

Of course that is reflected in the price, but you don't click buy now in a hurry and then find you've added half as much again in postage. I usually set my eBay hunt to price and p and p lowest first so I don't get last minute surprises.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.

Recycling Suitcases & Bags, Pre-packed

In the good old days when everybody had only one handbag, and it was a good one, a bag came with a zip up pocket containing a zipped purse attached by a chain to the bag, and a tiny mirror.

If you buy Travelog bags, they often come with multiple pockets and some models even come with a tiny torch attached. My experience of tiny torches is that the battery is always dead and you cannot find how to turn them on. In fact you often can't find them at all. The more pockets you have, the longer it takes to find anything.

Second-hand and Vintage
I do recycle - buying second hand bags on eBay. Some people have many co-rodinated travel outfits. Others travel with just black and white. A black and white jacket does for summer and winter and lightens an all black outfit which otherwise looks like you are chief mourner at a funeral and/or suffering from incurable depression. In my heyday as a travel writer, when I was often doing two trips in a week, I used to keep my travel clothes permanently in the travel bag.

Quick Pack And Unpack
One tip I picked up from a friend at the Writers' Holiday, pack one outfit per day and at the end of each day, put your clothes back in the suitcase, (perhaps in a bag marked laundry or a hotel's laundry bag), so on the last day there's only one outfit to pack. When you get home, put everything in the washing machine - don't waste time sorting out whether there's one item you never wore.

Colour Coding
If your clothes are colour coded you wore everything. For example, black and white on Saturday night, red on Sunday, orange on Monday, pink on Tuesday, green on Wednesday, yellow on Thursday, blue on Friday, black on Saturday.

No time or space for complete outfits? One, two or three basic outfits, shirt or trouser suit, dress or caftan in a neutral colour. Beige, or black skirt and white blouse, with a tie or scarf or cravat in a different colour.

Jewellery
Jewellery silver or gold or silver or gold tone, or black and white, or three two colour necklaces, one red and pink, one green and blue, one yellow and orange. You could make your own from beads if you are handy, or buy a set of multicolour bangles. or buy two of those magnetic bracelets which wind around, one for a necklace and the other as a bracelet. You could even use a third to make decoration for your belt or bag or shoes.

The packing list stays taped in the lid of the larger suitcase or front pocket of the small carry-on one.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.

Four Wheel Luggage - before and after

Strong or flimsy?
I eagerly await delivery of my four wheel suitcase. When it arrives, will it be strong or flimsy? I read reviews on Amazon. Some people thought the so-called light suitcases were fine for weekends and backpacking but would not stand up to long trips with dozens of flights or repeated use. The guarantee is usually for only a year and that is for manufacturing faults and failures, not for the item being so flimsy that the airline handler or baggage carousel breaks it.

Reporting Breakages
If your bag breaks during transit, you need to report it before leaving the airport. (A nuisance if your pre-booked taxi is waiting.) On one occasion my flight was late and I grabbed my bag off the carousel. It wasn't until I got home that I realised that the brand name tag was pulled off, one of the wheels was missing and there was a hole in the back.

If you are poor, you need to take trouble to inspect your luggage on all sides at every point of the journey. You might even photograph it at each point, to be sure you have before and after pictures, and to identify what you have lost if it's missing.

Keep Calm
On the other hand, if money is not so important, instead of upsetting yourself, look at it as a relatively minor cost, compared with the total price of the holiday, or your year's travel, a tiny percentage. Some people reckon bags will bet bumped about and just buy cheap luggage and replace it. Others go for the most expensive luggage which is built to last. (Samsonite, named after Samson, the strong man of the bible, is supposed to be sturdy. Check the brand name on the luggage of airline staff.)

Wheels - tips and tricks
When I first got my wheeled cabin bag I kept lifting it above cobblestones, pebbles or or rough tarmac to save damaging the wheels. Now I only lift it when going upstairs.

When the wheels lock, I've discovered that you can unjam them by wheeling them backwards in the opposite direction, backwards and forwards a couple of times.

Cracking Plastic Interiors
One of my suitcases disintegrated inside. The black plastic kept cracking. I kept finding little triangular pieces of solid black plastic and didn't know what they were. Eventually I discovered that they were a reinforced area behind the zip-up lining. I emptied them out until the whole lot had gone. I then had a less sturdy but lightweight bag for quick trips.

Recycling Your Old Suitcase
The old suitcase was still useful for storage. Before putting it in a high cupboard, or letting it get lost behind the Xmas tree in an attic only reachable up a vertical ladder, by a grandson who has a degree in acrobatics, label and record the contents. The luggage tag can be reused as a quick label.

I photograph the contents of the suitcase before putting it away, even if it is empty or storing a smaller suitcase. You might like to do this. Then keep a list on your computer or pasted inside the attic door with a photo of the item and sit of contents.

Yes, one day it will help a burglar, or your throw it all out ex. Or your descendants doing house clearance, muttering, 'Why did Granny keep this old suitcase with the missing handle, no wheels, storing the disintegrating plastic bags?'

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

Costa Northwood - Bigger and Better

Costa Coffee shop in Northwood seems to have grown, literally bigger, and much better, since I last visited, perhaps as long as six months ago. Better choice of food. Bigger seating area. More spacious.

Inside it now has attractive murals of Italy giving it a jolly Mediterranean atmosphere. The mural remind me of holidays when you relax and have unlimited time.

No longer a small corner shop, it has expanded, lots of seating and choice of outlooks. I chose the bright, open outlook of the front looking onto the road and across the high street. At a busier time, or for a change, I might choose the side facing onto the quieter side/road alley.

Alternatively, choose the privacy of the windowless side without the distractions of movement or noise from outside traffic. The background music adds jollity and extra privacy for your own conversation, as well as protecting you from the distraction of other people's chatter.

Parking
I was afraid to take my car. A relative assured me that it's possible to park so we went in his car. The parking area opposite the library behind Ask Italian restaurant allows 30 minutes free parking but you must take a ticket and display it to show when you arrived.

I frowned and said, 'We've only ten minutes to walk there and ten minutes back means only ten minutes to have coffee.'

The retort was, 'But it's only two minutes to Costa, so you have nearer twenty minutes.'

Food and Drink
We had time for a warmed melted cheese toasted sandwich, a slice of chocolate cake, an almond slice and a cup of coffee with a decoration on the topping.

My reason for preferring Costa is the almond slice. As you see in the picture, it has real almonds on top. Also chunks of real almond in the filling. Admittedly it is rather sweet, and despite looking small, it breaks my calorie allowance. I usually try to share it with somebody.

I chose to sit next to the newspapers. They had the Metro and Evening Standard and The Times. It was near 5/6pm so we were able to have high tea/early supper and still find a newspaper to read.

A quick race back, pausing carefully and looking both ways on the Zebra Crossing.

No parking charge.

Cards
The Costa card requires you to log online to register it. You can also buy gift cards which are displayed immediately above the Costa Cards. In a hurry, I grabbed one of the gift cards thinking it was a Costa Card, realised my mistake and swapped it for the Costa Card.

Angela Lansbury, BA Honours, travel writer, author, speaker.

Biking Tours of London

Picture from Wikipedia. See Wikipedia for credentials.

Where can I go on a bike tour of London? Somebody asked me this on WAYN. Sensible question.

I don't bike but everybody else in my family does. They bike and motorbike, which I feel are opposites, a bit like liking both cats and dogs. Each to his own.

In London, even the far off suburbs, you see the cycle route signs. Seriously, if you don't have a bike in London, the quickest and simplest way is to hire what used to be called the Boris bike (what's now in 2015 called Barclays Bike). Look at their map which is probably online and comes free when you hire their bikes. Pick the tour fitting your time allowed.

Biking To Famous Central Sites
As a tourist you will have to prepare for traffic driving on the other side of the road, the left. How do you remember whether it's left or right? Where were you sitting last time you were driving or passenger in a car at home or visiting a foreign country, or as a passenger on a bus? (Car steering wheels in the UK are on the right (facing forward inside the car). On a bus in Singapore I recall sitting on the left with the driver on the right, same as in England.

If you are from  country which has the same system as the UK that's no problem. If you are used to driving on the other side of the road, you might feel and be safer following a group led by a local cyclist who is used to London traffic.

If you are a tourist you will want to see famous sites. If you are riding solo and want to be alone but to follow the crowd, you could follow the route of one of the London sightseeing buses which take in famous sites. If you have a friend who doesn't like to bike, or they are cultural and you are sporty, put your friend on the bus tour and follow the route.

Or pick one of more sites you want to see. For example, famous buildings in central London. Or look for the pedestrian tours which you see at London stations. Or just aim to to to one famous sites (Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly, Thames Barrier, Tower Bridge, or go to a London Park, such as Regents Park, Green Park, or Clapham Common. Then back to your starting point (where you live or stay on holiday or business).

If you are more convivial, join a group. You can sign up for a free guided tour with Sky Ride Local on a website (see end of post for the London biking magazine).

Famous Out of London Sites
If, like me, you are a Londoner and already know London well, and really want to get away from work, and use your bike not to tour but the centre to explore further afield, your mental goals and physical destination are in the opposite direction.

Within London new in 2015 are the Quiet Routes. I would go along the Thames, away from the traffic in the centre of London. I hate traffic. It makes me nervous. We have had several fatal accidents in London. (For facts on this and safety tips see the second Wikipedia article listed below.)

So I would head out along the Thames, out of London, towards the West. Hampton Court direction. Further West, if you've got the whole afternoon or day or weekend you reach pretty areas with trees, Eton, Marlow, Henley.

In the opposite direction, the East End of London, the breezy areas, the Olympic area, Thames Barrier.

Going South, a favourite destination would be Greenwich. Going North, if you don't mind a hill, but like the challenge, there's Harrow on the Hill for a historic area.

Joining Singles and Groups
You could also write to a bike magazine. Browse it in a stationery store or on line. Look for a past issue with an article on London. Then buy and/or read that. One magazine is devoted solely to biking in London. (See websites at the end of this post.)

Or join Meetup and join a biking group. If they don't have one in your area, start your own.

Or go into your nearest shop selling bikes and ask an assistant where you can go on your bike. Or look for another biker browsing the store and ask them.

Transport for London has cycling guides. For more details:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cycle_routes_in_London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_in_London
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/cycling/
http://lcc.org.uk/pages/free-london-cyclist-magazine

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.

Packing List For Summer Courses

If you take a summer course, writing, songwriting, painting, sports, etc you may wish to make a packing list.

PASSPORT/ID/driving licence
MONEY/local currency for taxi?
Taxi and hotel address.
Friend/relative/conference organiser phone number and email.
Check family or friends have not moved since your last visit.
Hotel at destination open 24 hours where you could go in case of overbooking, or arriving delayed, in the night.

Address checks
Check local hospitals in case you have to be taken to hospital for minor injury and have a preferred hospital, or whether you'd prefer to drive home.
Check address and opening hours of local pharmacy (US name is drugstore).
Check address of local stationery shop/bookstore.
Check address of nearest coffee shop/restaurant for a break or entertaining hosts or entertaining networking contacts.
Take addresses of family, colleagues, businesses you could visit nearby if staying longer.

TICKETS
for train, plane. Take printed copy even if it's online in case computer breaks down.
Check time changes - are you arriving a day later? Check tickets match. Check day of week travelling.

I once flew home from a trip to the Isle of Man on Saturday, expecting to set off on a Monday to meet a group - but on Monday found they had left on the Sunday. I missed a trip to Venice to stay at the famous hotel. PR was so angry she refused to let me pay for myself for another flight and join them a day late.

On another occasion we flew to Asia, having given our hosts our departure date instead of arrival date. They cooked us a special local dinner prepared by a local lady on Saturday night, but we arrived on Sunday.)

Packing List For A Short 2-7 day educational summer course

For a songwriting course
Book on songwriting
Laptop with online songwriting course
Your songs filed alphabetically
Packet notepad for ideas
Pens
Folder
Business cards
Smartphone or device for recording song ideas
File of websites/addresses to share with new contacts
C.V.

For a writing course
A4 pad
Pen
Pencil
Pencil sharpener
Stapler filled with enough staples
Paperclips
Rubber bands
Loose leaf file
A5 or A4 box file
Briefcase or paper holdall or tote bag
Luggage tag (to distinguish your conference bag from other people's)
Dictionary
Draft of your book
Poem to read at open microphone night
Plot book or poem outlines
Flyers adverting your books
Business cards
List of your published books in date order
List of your favourite authors and books
Not of books you already own so you don't buy duplicates

Speakers /Authors giving readings
Address cards
Copies of your book
Copies of previous books to hold up during talk
post-its placed in passages you wish to read.
(Or large print photocopies of the section you wish to read as bookmarks)
Speeches and poems with highlights for important words.
Mark pauses for laughter.
Printed copy of your speech, hard copy and on line, so if you fall ill or are delayed somebody else can read out your speech and give the audience your shared advice and website.

CLOTHES
Check dress hire shops for last night fancy dress party at conference/birthday party/New Year's Eve.
 Walking shoes/sandals/evening shoes/beach, gym or sports
Socks/tights

OUTERWEAR
Coats, jackets, raincoats, rainhats, umbrellas, overshoes, waterproof boots or shoes
Dresses/caftans
Skirts
Blouses
Shirts
Shorts/Bermuda shorts/cargo pants/culottes
Trousers (USA pants/cargo pants)

Underwear pants (UK - in the USA pants are what the British call trousers so for you reading in the USA pants and underpants or panties), bras, vests, slips.
1 Neutral pair co-ordinating with all outfits
2 Special evening pair or co-ordinating with special outfit
3 Spare shoes in case others get broken or dirty
Slippers for hotel
Beach shoes
Scarves, belts, and jewellery.

BITS AND PIECES
4 Picnic: plate, cutlery, lidded box, plastic bags; water bottle./ Emergency kit: tinned sardines, grapes, orange, Kendal mint cake.
5 First aid kit
6 Cosmetics
7 Toiletries: washbag; facecloth; microfibre towel/turban;Toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shaver, shaving gel, shampoo, conditioner, soap, bacterial wipe, hair tint (for long trips), comb, brush, nail file, manicure scissors, tweezers, emery board, toenail clippers, nail varnish remover pads, nail varnish, moisturiser.
Pills (regularly taken with daily pill dispenser)
Emergency pills for stomach ache or colds, antibiotics, hay fever, allergies

SWIMWEAR
Swimsuit and swimhat -
Beach towel or wrap/sarong

Nightwear night clothes night dress pyjamas/wrap (even if you sleep nude, wrap helps if fire alarm
Spare bag fold-up suitcase/tote bag/carrier bag, for souvenirs/books/newspaper/wines/literature/ gifts for others/gifts you're given/certificates won
Wrapping paper for gifts and
Spare card for unexpected birthday/wedding/baby arrival/new home/local festival

Outfits for each day, with matching underwear and socks, shoes and coat and hat
(Unless your colour scheme is all black, or black and white with red or blue scarves, and ties
Belts to match all outfits

STATIONERY
Phrase book and dictionary for all destinations (If on laptop, find them and mark as favourites to find them easily and fast when needed.)
Print phrases you are likely to need at destination to please hosts
(Greetings, thanks, my name is, welcome, translation of first line and punchline of your speech to audience or thanking hosts for a meal)

SECURITY
Jacket with zipped inside pockets (or sew in pocket, or sew zips into inside pockets.
Belt with concealed pocket
Change purse

CLEANLINESS & SAFETY
Clothes washing gel/powder
Fly killer spray
Fly repellent for skin
Fly repellent clothes from specialist camping/trekking shops
UV clothes for outdoors
Sunglasses
Sunhats
Suncream
Calomine
Sting relief
Picture of local venomous snakes or wildlife so if you're bitten but can't catch it (dead!) you can point to picture or tell hospital what bit you.

Thank you card to post from destination country or leave behind with host.
Note of host's favourite chocolates, wines, authors colours, for buying gifts at airport as you depart to see them (or to send after you have left).

Make your own list in two columns for day and evening. Day of week (or date for longer than a week).
Rule a line left margin for ticks for when you pack to go, and on right for ticks for when you return.
Copy list on phone and email it to yourself/your family.
You could photograph the contents in the suitcase, and the suitcase showing brand name, in case your luggage is lost.

SELFIES
Finally photograph yourself at the doorstep as you leave.
Check when you get home you are still in the complete outfit, have not left your hat, coat, gloves on the plane or in the taxi.

LABELS
Label your clothes and your children's clothes with name tags or half tags which you can use to prove ownership at lost property without revealing to thieves where you live if your home is left empty or you don't want granny and the babysitters and dogs alarmed by burglars who were hoping the place was empty!

TURN OFF/THROW OUT
Leave 30 minutes extra for turning off heating, checking gas, fridge, waste bins, locks.
Before you go, turn off heating/air con or set on low. Set alarms.

Throw out milk and fruit or give it to neighbours. (We once were glad we had not thrown away the milk. We had a delayed flight, drove home, reclaimed the milk, made coffee. Then got a call to say come back for another flight. Gave the neighbours/family the milk a second time!)
 Leave door keys with trusted family. Tell hosts at other end you are leaving on time/delayed.

Angela Lansbury, BA Hons, travel writer, author, speaker.