Izgara Turkish Restaurant in dining capital of London

Izgara Turkish restaurant has opened in Hatch end. One of our local papers described Hatch End as restaurant capital of London. How many restaurants? About 18 and you can walk up and down and check the menus in the windows in a distance of about 500 yards in less than 5 minutes, if you are quick. Alphabetically: Ask, Casa Mia, Coriander, Fellini, Orama, Mosfilo, Sea Pebbles, Zia Teresa, and more, plus the places in the supermarket and arts centre. Cuisines are Greek, Indian, Italian and now Turkish at Izgara.

Will another rival restaurant cause any worries to the existing restaurants? I don't think so. The more the merrier. Another opportunity will attract more diners to the area, and offer more choice to those wondering whether to go elsewhere or stay nearby.

Izgara opens lunch time today (Monday 30 Nov 2015). It is open to the public every day including Monday when you struggle to find a restaurant open. Noon until 11.

Yes, it is a new addition to the Hatch End restaurant scene, Izgara, Turkish for grill. I confess I have struggled to remember and spell Izgara. At first I thought is a guru. Wrong.  Not two Us. Two As. Think A star, twice. The last letter is A.  So I made myself a memory aid (mnemonic). IZ G rill  A nd Really Appetising. I Z G A R A.

Izgara. Open noon Monday 30th November 2015. From noon to 11 at night. Run by the same owners as Izgara in Edgware and the team who operate the other two restaurants. 

The Hatch End manager told me his name is Shukur. Pardon, how do you pronounce it? He smiles because he's been asked before, and he has a ready answer. He says think of pronouncing it like sugar.

Where is Izgara? Two doors along from Fellini, the big indoor-outdoor Italian restaurant curving round the corner. Izgara replaces Zaza, another Italian restaurant, from the Italian group which has a restaurant in Pinner, if you are looking for them. I looked at the Zaza restaurant website to get the street number of Izgara for you but the Zaza restaurant website already says they've closed their Hatch End branch.

I'll send somebody out to stroll around Hatch End and get Izgara's street number, as I haven't time to keep researching restaurant numbers. Anyway, Hatch End is a small place. Just walk along the station side between Pickwick Walk on the corner towards the traffic lights where you cross the road and you'll find Izgara.

If you like Mediterranean food, you will like this. If you can't tell Turkish food from Lebanese, Greek, Israeli, that's fine.  You'll recognise kebab, cubed chicken and lamb, hummus (chickpeas), pink dip, tabouleh, rice, tomatoes, aubergine. 

Here's the owner  of Hatch End Izgara (right) with keen customer from Edgware branch who popped in to see the new Hatch End branch, as he was passing the night before the opening when the owner and his partner and their family were celebrating.

I'd been watching that sign, 'Izgara, Hatch End, coming soon,' for days. 

They serve Turkish coffee, Turkish wine, and a yogurt drink. I tried the Prosecco. In my opinion you can't go wrong with Prosecco.  (Ok. It's not Turkish it's Italian. But it's popular. Like cola.) Where wine is concerned, I'm not mad about dry reds and whites but if you are interested here's what the Turkish red and white wine bottles look like.

I love the lights and the ceiling.

Candles at night. Proper sea salt and peppercorns.

Here's a Turkish yogurt they use in their yogurt drink, which must be the same concept as lassi which I love in Indian restaurants. I'm always trying to add milk, yogurt and cheese to my diet to keep my teeth while and hopefully keep my bones strong.

Izgara Website

www.izgararestaurant.co.uk

And if you see what looks like a spring roll in Izgara, it's a blini, a rolled up thin pancake, with the ends folded in, filled with soft cheese.

See more pictures and facts about the food in my previous posts.

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

See my other posts, always offbeat and entertaining, humorous, well-researched. Books on etiquette and comic poetry and more on Lulu.com and Amazon and ebooks coming soon.

Izgara Restaurant, Hatch End, Preview of the new Turkish restaurant

The outside at night.

The decor is lovely. 

Here's the savoury food laid out buffet style at the back.

This white tree trunk effects separates the kitchen at the back.

Fresh salads.

Two kinds of rice.

Toilets? Where? Behind the glass mirror (door - push) by the bar. 

As you see, all new, modern and clean. I couldn't take a picture of the mirror behind the basin or I'd shown myself several times in one of those multiple reflection effects.

For the Edgware branch menu see
izgararestaurant.co.uk

More to come soon.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.

.

Izgara Restaurant Hatch End, opening Monday 30th November 2015

Opening Monday 30th 2015, the long awaited Izgara Turkish restaurant in Hatch End. So I was told by the jolly and friendly manager Shugur. Think of the word sugar, he told me.

I got a good impression of the place even before it opened. He jumped to his feet and came to the door when I stood outside. He didn't want me to take a photo until it was looking right and the windows were cleaned.

The website will be ready soon.

They are opening Monday 30th November 2015, at mid-day, until 11 pm. From then on they expect to be open the same times seven days a week.

See my previous post about the meaning of the name of the restaurant and what is on the menu at their other branches.
See my next posts for pictures of inside, food and wine, and owner.

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

Black Pepper Restaurant in Hatch End, for couples, or groups

We had booked a back room for a committee meeting. I've been going to this restaurant for years and didn't know they had a back room. According to the way they configure the tables, as a solid rectangle of three tables, or a U shape, it can seat a small number cosily or a large number elegantly for a formal occasion.

The server popped in often to take orders and bring food.

Somebody else ordered mussels and said half wouldn't open but when that was drawn to the attention of the management the price for that dish was removed from the  bill. No arguments. I thought that was good service.

I ordered two courses meal from the set menu.

I  like sweet wine. I looked for the dessert wines and ordered a glass of muscat (muscat is the grape which usually makes sweet wine). I feared that as it was listed as dessert wine I might get a tiny portion in a tiny glass. I was pleased to receive a large glass so that I looked like I was drinking a proper white wine with my main course.

The duck main course was pleasant, along with the vegetables, sauce potatoes and spinach. Not over-large. Good enough. Just right.

So was the cheesecake, glad to say it was not that disappointing shaking, squishy, collapsing cheesecake but a solid piece of cheesecake, almost as solid as the famous New York style cheesecake which I used to eat in Starbucks and several other coffee shops in Singapore. A reasonably, sensibly sized piece, not too large, which assuaged my guilt feelings and fear that my calorie count was weighing down the seesaw.

The ground floor toilet is for those with wheelchairs but also handy if you cannot manage stairs, or don't want to when you have a long skirt, and heeled shoes, and a glass of alcohol inside.

Why have I not voted it five star? Because four stars means good enough to go back if you live nearby. I save five stars for Michelin quality food with weird ingredients, and food you want to photograph, and places you should visit from outside the area or indeed across the world.

I ordered decaff coffee. I saw somebody's else's tiramisu desert in a high round bowl which I mistook for a cup and thought it was a cappuccino with con panne, with cream.

So when my coffee came plain without cream on top I was disappointed. Not the restaurant's fault, but I must remember for next time. Nothing special about the coffee. No fancy cup. No complimentery chocolate with the coffee. If you want to delay your departure, maybe.

My share of the bill was about £25 including 10% service.  No fuss when one of the group wanted to pay their share with a credit card. Up comes the machine.

The group voted that we were happy to go back.

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

Panettone - all kinds: from Italy, England, Tesco, Morrisons, Caffes, Wine Society

Panettone is a traditional cake from Italy, made at Christmas. I first tried panettone when I was given it at Christmas at Fellini caffe restaurant in Hatch End. My panettone came in a big box. When I received one in a tin, I was much more excited by the tin than the contents.

The panettone looked great, huge. I wasn't over-impressed by the taste. Until this year, when we had the remains of a previous year's panettone every day for elevenses for over a month. Now I'm hooked.

It's like brioche, like croissant, but slightly less over the top with the calories. if you can resist eating a whole one!

I am now absolutely an addict. I look for the piece of panettone with my coffee, the way other people anxiously ask, 'where's the milk', or 'got any sugar'?

Panettone can be presented in a decorated cardboard box, but also in a keep it until next Christmas circular high tin. Handy to keep as a home for any panettone which you buy which does not come in a tin.

The following year I saw several tempting large, luxurious high-priced presentation boxes in another Hatch End cafe. I must admit I was daunted by the price.

Now panettone is in several supermarkets in England.

Wine Society
I also saw pentane in the Wine Society's shop in Stevenage.  They have a catalogue. You have to be a member to buy. I have found it well worth while to have at least one member of the family a member.

This is the one in the Wine Society.

Panettone. Now in England, is ubiquitous. Meaning it is found everywhere.

Morrison's panettone. Best price I've found. Fruit was fine. The 'cake' rather too bland for my taste. I'll try the chocolate next.

Paxton and Whitfield Panettone. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Morrison's Panettone
This week I have tried two. The cheapest was only £2 from Morrison. Cooked in their bakery in the Hatch End branch of Morrison, that quintessential English supermarket. What was good about Morrison's panettone? The irresistible bargain price.

What about the taste? The sultanas. Large sugary sultanas.

The label says it also contains currants and candied peel. I haven't yet found that. But today I had a small piece.

(If you've read my posts before, or met me, you will know that I attend Toastmasters International. We are taught to commend, recommend, commend. Praise, add a suggestion, for improvement, praise. In other words, I do not rant and rave. I damn with faint praise.)

However, if you want more of a melt in the mouth egg flavour, you might try a panettone from Italy.This one says Antica Ricetta which I presume means ancient recipe.

This was ours in England.

This tin says Merry Christmas.

This tin says 'panettone classico'.

Plenty of information, which you can translate with guesswork, or on translate Google.

Panettone in Singapore

Similar from Cold Storage in Singapore, catalogue on their website, scroll down beyond sweet treats,

Singapore $31.350 for a 1000 gram size.

https://coldstorage.com.sg/media/uploads/pdf/cs_catalog_2015.pdf

Americans can use the Panettone circular high tins as popcorn containers, or vice versa, use a popcorn container to store panettone. 

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

Muscat - more mysteries

The Beaume to Venise muscat wine mentioned in a previous post has French dialect words on the label. The language is Occitan, probably from langue d'Oc - language and land of the Ocs.

I have pictures of another bottle of Muscat wine.

This one, usually, has the word muscat embossed in glass on the clear bottle which looks brown because of the brown colour wine inside the bottle.

Wines go brown as they age, like fruits such as apples.


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

French words of the day: bureau, bureaucrat, and easy languages

English language has many french words. Bureau can mean a desk, or an office. A bureaucrat is a stickler for following rules and procedures.

Easy to read languages
In Europe you find that Spanish is the easiest language to read off signs as you drive through the country.

French words are the ones I find most often in English newspapers, especially the erudite newspapers such as the Sunday Times.

In the Far East, Asia, foreign scripts are a challenge. The easiest language to read is Bahasa Malay in Malaysia.

Angela Lansbury, writer, photographer, teacher.

Wine Society Christmas wines and foods, tastings, dinners and events

Wine Society Christmas Food

Wine society shop in Stevenage. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The Wine Society shop in Stevenage is seasonally decorated for Christmas drinks and foods which were displayed to members and guests at a tasting on 26 January 2015.


Wines - Prosecco At Moderate Price and more
I tasted several red and white wines, making notes on the sheet provided. I liked the Prosecco, which we started with, the wine society's own label, which is moderately priced. The last three wines were sweeter or dessert wines.  I must admit I am not really a fan of Madeira. But that's the whole point of the tasting, to find out what you like, so that you buy what you enjoy and don't waste money on what you won't want.
The Prosecco didn't have a lot of aroma, but it was good enough.
Prosecco Brut DOC. 11.5% so not overpoweringly alcoholic. £7.75 a bottle. £93.00 for a dozen. ref IT20511.

The Prosecco can be ordered in a gift pack with mixers of fruit juice including rhubarb, which you don't often see in supermarkets

Wine Society Festive Foods
Also to sample were the pates on crackers, wild boar pate, salmon pate. This year I didn't taste the rabbit.

I prefer their cheeses.

My top tastes were the Wine Society chocolates, really yummy. I mean the selection box. Very more-ish.

Wine Tasting Events


The Enoteca
During a tasting event you are already getting quite enough wine. So the Enoteca machines dispensing wine to taste by the mini-glass are turned off. I imagine the staff are too busy serving the wines of the event to be be selling cards and manning machines, refilling the bottles if one runs out.

But if you go on a day when no tastings are arranged, you can have your own tasting from the machines. One machine has some cheaper free wines to taste. The other machine takes a money card which you fill with however much you want to spend.

The Spiral Cellar

Another visual attraction, for the man who has everything, is the spiral cellar. It's always a good talking point. David, who lives in nearby Stevenage, is standing looking at it. He comments that people tend to walk around it rather than across it. However, was we watch, three people all walk across it. He challenges me to guess how much the cellar costs. (It's there installed by the manufacturers so that you can buy one, if you want it and can afford it. Dave says the bottles are empty dummies. I guess, "£5,000?" he shakes his head. 

I try again, "£50,000?" 

He smiles. Nearer!

I ask, "Are you from the company which sells them?"

No. He is retired and lives in nearby Stevenage.

Events Calendar
The events calendar tells you about the wine tastings and dinners at Stevenage.

Membership
Membership brings you a newsletter, emails, the card with your membership number which you need to quote to make purchases, book an event, or going a guest, plus a voucher for your first purchase of wine from the society.

Wine Society, Gunnels Wood Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire SG1 2BT

Enquiries tel 01438 741177
Orders 01438 740222
website thewinesociety.com
member services@thewinesociety.com

Angela Lansbury,

Guess What These Place Names mean: Bury St Edmunds; Beaume de Venise, France.

I always try to check place names because it helps me to remember them, draws my attention to the spelling and points to places to visit, landmarks in the area. You might consider whether studying geography and history from books and the internet is a distraction from real life and work, a welcome entertainment, or a vital part of understanding the world.

Bury St Edmunds
Here are this week;s delightful discoveries. First I found in the Sunday Times (the British one, not one in Singapore) that the Place Bury St Edmund's is the burial place of Englands king Edmund, who was later made a saint, which brought the area huge amounts of medieval tourism.

Beaume de Venise
The second delightful discovery was when I ordered a glass of sweet muscat wine, Beaune de Venise. I knew muscat was a grape. That muscat wine is always sweet. But what did the name Beaune de Venise mean? De is French for of. I sent my sleuth's looking. I have a family member who is studying wine for an exam on wines of the world, level 4, examined by the Wines and Spirits Education Trust.

(I am toddling along behind. I passed level one, equivalent to an NVQ and requiring alone about 20 hours study and answering multiple choice questions after each chapter in a large booklet, following by a day of lectures, tasting and a final multiple choice exam, about 30 questions.)

My sleuth found out all sorts of history, going back through blogs on wine, getting academic permissions to read university articles not available to the public, and encyclopaedias on wine and history, including Jewish history. We read about the Italian popes in Southern France. The Jews in the area. The taxes paid.

The motto is q u e ben be u r a ... d i e u  v e i r a

I translate that at first glance as: who(ever) drinks well will see god.

The summary of the story of the origin of the word: Beame - an old word for cave. V e n i se was from the Latin, meaning a P r o  V I N C E, of Rome.  In Roman times. The word Provence means province of Rome.

So Beaume de Venise is the cave of the province.

I shall also always remember not just the wine but the meaning of the word Provence, a region of France, near the Italian border.  I envisage the Italians marching over the border to their province and having a nice glass of sweet wine from Beaume de Venise, the cave of the province.

Sweet wine has less alcohol converted into sugar. I thought that if you are a Roman soldier you deserve a drink, but you don't want to drink spirits and water it down or get over intoxicated. Tomorrow you have work to do. But tonight you can have a glass of sweet wine with your dinner, Beaume de Venise.

However, looking at the label, I am shocked to see that it is 15%, which to me is very high alcohol. No wonder you normally get a small portion of sweet wine at the end of a meal with your dessert. I thought it was because you had already had enough to drink or because the wine was expensive and the restaurant wants to give you less and they can get away with it because you are already full.

Misleadingly, the French words Vin Doux n a t u r e l do not mean wine which is soft or sweet and natural, nothing added. On the contrary, it means fortified wine, wine with added alcohol bringing it up to 15%.

Most wine I drink which is sweet is only 13%, sometimes 12 and a half per cent. Oo-er! Good thing I wasn't driving home.

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

Christmas Lights in Stanmore and Santa's Pants in Tiverton, Devon

This year, 2015, Stanmore's winter decorations include white lights on the standard lamps and Christmas tree with blue lights.

The lamp posts by the traffic lights near Stanmore station have the best lights, a curve rising to two five point stars. Towards the next intersection near Sainsbury's the white lights are vertical. As you are driving into Stanmore from the station, the Christmas Tree is on the right by the parking area by the next set of traffic lights, lit in blue, by some real, permanent trees, on the right of the picture below.

Photos by Angela Lansbury.
These pictures were taken from a moving car.
Scroll down the list of my posts on the right to find better photos by Angela Lansbury of the lights in Watford and photos of the lights in central London taken by Trevor Sharot in a previous post.

The lights in Stanmore are in the immortal words of Ben Jonson, worth seeing  but not worth going to see. Very pleasant if you live in or shop in Stanmore. If you are in the area, better lights to see are in Watford's Intu shopping mall. For tourists the main attractions are the lights in central London.

Biggest success / failure story of lights this season is the lights in Tiverton, Devon, simi circular arches which are said to look like Sant's Pants.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p039491h?intc_type=fourcardmix&intc_location=avs&intc_campaign=fourcardmix&intc_linkname=signup_xmaslights_contentcard28

For Christmas lights in the USA, Far East and worldwide see Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_lights


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

More on mussels, good and bad: more mysteries solved

As a person who does not eat mussels, nor any shellfish (I'm allergic to shellfish, which includes crustaceans, as well as molluscs) mussels have always been a mystery. But I've started asking questions and getting answers.

I was sitting in a restaurant when somebody complained that half their mussels would not open.

This was in London, England. The diner complained to the restaurant server. I thought the diner might get refunded for half the dish, but the manager apologised and refunded all the money for that dish. That was the right thing to do, to mollify the aggrieved customer and the onlookers. 

I asked, "Couldn't the staff have just cracked open the mussels?"

Apparently not. I was told, "You mustn't eat mussels which don't open."

Some time later I asked another mussel eater about this. I was told, "You don't eat mussels which won't open because if they haven't opened they haven't been washed properly."

I asked, "But if the mussels could poison you, or upset your stomach, surely the restaurant should not be serving mussels which cant be opened, at all, ever?"

The reply was, "You often get mussels you can't open. About one in twenty. But fifty per cent is far too high. Lack of quality control."

I suggest you research the subject from those who know more, and follow up by checking, politely, with your local restaurant manager or supermarket or food store before buying and serving mussels at home or at any event.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, speaker and author.

Thanksgiving in the USA; Christmas in Europe: Passover

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving in the USA, not observed in the UK, except at events run by Americans, is giving thanks for landing safely in the USA after the perilous sea crossing from the UK and Europe. (Remembering the Titanic, you can see why. You would also feel the same on a ferry from the west coast of England to Ireland or in the old days on a ship across the choppy Bay of Biscay.)

Thanksgiving is the major holiday when offices shut so that families can get together for a festive meal.

The meal may start with a prayer, followed by festive food, turkey.

Christmas
In the UK, the equivalent festival is Christmas. Christmas day is a national holiday. Most attractions and shops close. Increasingly restaurants serve Christmas Day lunch at very high prices, usually served by staff who do not have children and are glad of the money. Families at home get together with special foods is Christmas day lunch. Hospitals and emergency services are provided by others of other religions or none, by singles, or on a rota system so that everybody gets free time every other year.

UK Christmas dinner is turkey, followed by Xmas pudding (US plum pudding). You will find this offered for lunch and dinner as an option in most restaurants in London, England and throughout the UK in December.

Scotland
In Scotland New Year's eve is celebrated rather than Christmas.

Christmas is celebrated on different days in Scandinavian and Latin countries in Europe, eg Jan 6th.

Seder or Passover
The Jewish equivalent is the Seder night or passover, a thanksgiving for surviving the great plagues inflicted on Pharaoh and the long, dangerous journey through the sea and parting of the waves. You see this thanksgiving meal depicted in medieval paintings in national galleries of Europe, showing Jesus and the Last Supper. In paintings you see wine in silver goblets (before wine glasses became both affordable and classy and became the way to drink celebratory drinks).This festival takes place around the time of Easter.

BBC report on Black, Mexican and other thanksgiving.
Seemed a bit thin to me, but I liked the picture of trying not to tread on others' shoes around the doorway. I have never understood why the Chinese, Singaporeans and Asians who are so disciplined and fussy about rules and religion do not put their shoes neatly in pairs, parallel to the wall or door, or facing outwards for exit.

Useful Websites
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-34922821

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(Canada)

http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/what-is-thanksgiving-when-and-why-americans-celebrate-turkey-day-a3118576.html

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

American and British English: casket and cop to Tannoy - and pronunciation

American English - British English

On my first visit to America from England we went to Disney. On the monorail we heard the announcement 'we will be landing momentarily'. We heard the same from the pilot on an airplane. To us that implied, we will be landing for only a moment, so don't remove your seatbelt nor get out nor off.However, all the other passengers jumped up. For a moment, we thought they were Spanish speaking people who had not understood the instructions in English. Then we realised that the people who had not understood were us. We would be carried on to the next stop if we didn't follow.

a quarter after - a quarter past
at this moment in time - now
bassinet - cradle
casket - coffin
cop - police
elementary school - junior school
grade - incline
guys (could be mixed sex or even all girls) - folks, people; guys is male as in boys, fellows, lads
high school - secondary school
make a left - turn left
make a right - turn right
momentarily - shortly, soon, in a moment
Hershey (brand name of dark chocolate)- Cadbury's (brand name of chocolate)
junior (after a name) - son of
private school (paid for privately - public school (grand, traditional fee paying school, often in historic building with a boarding house, now open to the fee paying public not just run by monks and attached to the Church of England as in previous centuries)
senior (after a name) - father of
seniors / retirees - pensioners (O A P short ford age pensioner is increasingly being seen as derogatory or not politically correct
Tannoy (brand name) - public address system, loudspeakers

Pronunciation
'erbs' - herbs
'rout' - route (as in root, toot, hoot)
'yawl' (Southern drawl contraction) - you all

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and English teacher.

American and British English - auto to yard

American - British

auto /automobile - car
bus (as in Greyhound bus, single decker long distance) - coach
candy - sweets / confectionary
closet - cupboard
consignment - second hand sale or return store, where donor and shop share profits
comforter - duvet (bedding)
diaper - nappy
drug store - chemist
eraser - rubber
fall - autumn
hack - tip
hood - bonnet (car)
hooker - prostitute / street walker
hose - stockings / tights
Jello (brand name) -  jelly
jelly - jam
line - queue
pavement - tarmac / roadway
pickup / pickup truck - HGV, trailer ?
program - programme (theatre)
program - program (computer)
purse - bag (lady's handbag)
rubber - condom / Durex
Run - ladder (in stockings / tights)
Kleenex/tissues - paper hankies (Kleenex is a brand name so I have given it a capital letter)
sidewalk - pavement
subway - underground / London tube
store - shop
story - storey (level of building)
story - story (tale in book)
thrift store (cheap shop) - charity shop
truck - lorry
trunk - boot (car)
tuxedo - man's formal jacket with no tails, named after place where tails were cut off - dinner jacket
wallet / coin purse - purse
yard - garden

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

Travel diary, notebook, pen, storage box. Possible gifts.

TRAVEL DIARY AND NOTEBOOK

One of the things I pack for any travel trip is a notebook and pen and pencil and rubber.

If I have a long trip or side trips, I pack at least two notebooks, to be sure not to lose the entire trip by leaving my jacket on the plane on the way home. I photograph highlights, business cards and addresses. If I have a base in one country and a weekend away, I take a fresh notebook just for that weekend. 

An alternative would be to have a Filofax. 

I like a notebook with an elastic band around it and a pencil attached. Another aid to travellers is a pocket in the back cover. You can buy a diary or 'travel notebook'. A friend bought me a travel notebook as a gift. 

If a hardback notebook is too big and heavy, leave it behind and write up your scrappy notes in neat handwriting on a dull or rainy day when you are stuck at home.

Notebook Storage

Where to store all these vital records? A shoe box will do. Label it with dates. keep all diaries and travel diaries together. 

(Something to leave the children, be sure your diaries are kept and not chucked out in a garage sale of books. Keep notebooks near photo box to be sure you take them with you have a quick clear out when moving house, downsizing or moving to a retirement home.)

 Cover your storage box.  With what? How about all those luggage tags and boarding passes, which will make a quick record if you want to check where you went and when.

An idea for a Christmas present for a traveller or items for a Christmas stocking (or Hanukah stocking - they come in blue)? A travel notebook, diary, photo box, pen, photo key ring, a box covered in travel tags you have rescued from the waste bin and taken off old suitcases. 

Speaking of key rings and photos, Staples in London, UK, has 3D key rings and photo cubes and pendants. I've seen the same in Singapore shopping malls. I'm sure the same are in America and Australia and all over the world. You'll see them in stationery shops and kiosks in shopping malls.

Staples, Watford, Herts, England. Copyaprint. 3D laser photo in glass.

If you are willing to splash the cash, dash to an outlet and order your notebooks and pens. If you are looking for a bargain, try the Pound shops. 

DIY Travel Diary or Notebook

1 If you are artsy and crafty (in both senses), or a parent or teacher, you could make a gift or get the children or grandchildren to make a travel notebook, diary, or travel diary. You could make a whole travel notebook, making the paper, the cover, binding the book, or using thick card for the front and back, making a collage on the front, cutting two holes with a hole punch, tying the pages through the two holes with ribbon etc.

2 You may be able to buy a diary with attached notebook or ribbon or a cheap notebook with an elastic closure. Check your options then add what is easiest for you to add.

3 For DIY, add a piece of elastic as a marker, attached at both ends, top and bottom of back cover on a hardback book. 

4 Stick a photo on the front. 

5 Add a loop of elastic around the middle of a pen and stick the elastic to the inside of the notebook or diary back cover.

6 Make a pocket on the inside back cover. You need not just a thee quarters page of thicker than the pages card. it needs a concertina at the top and bottom, one fold inwards.

An Italic pen and calligraphy set? If you already have a calligraphy set, time to use it to make a DIY Xmas card or New Year card including photos of the year and your hand-written message.

And if you are home alone whilst the others are away travelling at Xmas, lots of free time to organise you travel photos and diaries. 

(See previous post on stationery week next April.)

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

National Stationery Week: April-May 2016. Competitions. Xmas gifts.

National Stationery Week is back again next year; proving that picking up a pen is important and that writing matters!

When I first read it I thought it was this week. On re-reading I found it's next year.

The event will runs from 25^th April – 1^st May 2016 and has announced the 2016 theme of ‘Why Writing Matters.’ 

I thought I would share with you the highlights of the email I received from the amusingly named 

'Captain

"We at National Stationery Week, and especially myself who had to earn his handwriting licence at the age of 7, believe that the pen and paper are brilliant and can be close friends with the stylus and screen. We champion the written word and were disappointed to see that Iceland and parts of the United States are phasing out handwriting all together!

"On our website, nationalstationeryweek.com, we have a huge array of resources including lesson plans, ideas and competitions that can be interwoven with any subject for primary and secondary school children. It’ll get them exciting in writing and teach them the importance of the pen! Maybe some will be inspired to be the next Lennon and McCartney, J.K. Rowling or John Cooper Clarke. 

"Alongside this, the Cambridge University Press have launched their 2016 handwriting competition to find the neatest and fanciest handwriting in the United Kingdom.

"If you’d like to get involved with the campaign; please let me know, it’d be superb for fantastic professionals like yourselves to be involved in this brilliant national campaign triumphing stationery and championing the pen!

"Please find below a fantastic opportunity for the education sector, in conjunction with National Stationery Week and Cambridge University Press. 

"By the way, Did you know that 97% of people write their own name when they test out a new pen? Or that U.S. President James Garfield could write Greek and Latin simultaneously?"

***

An Italic pen and calligraphy set? If you already have a calligraphy set, time to use it to make a DIY Xmas card or New Year card including photos of the year and your hand-written message.See my next post on Xmas gifts.

PS Stationery with an e, letters. Stationary with an a is cars. (I have another blog on spelling.)

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

Singapore's New National Gallery of Singapore (Art)

The building is old, with an impressive Greek revival of Palladian columned front. Like the national Gallery in London and town halls worldwide.  You know the sort, with the triangular piece above and a flight of steps (designed for nimble young athletes, not people such as retired tourists in wheelchairs).

Inside a huge central entry hall and galleries up the side. But it has cost millions to renovate.
Even the escalator looks impressive. Typical of Singapore, the best of the old and the best of the new.
Go now while it's free.

Not just art, sculpture and photography. Singapore has a special gallery. But it's not just Singaporean artists. Philippines as well. The aim is to be a showcase and centrepiece for the region. Huge, wide paintings, reminding me of the Monet in France.

Admission to the museum's galleries and exhibitions is free during the opening fortnight, from Tuesday 24th November to Sunday 6th December. 

The building is the old City Hall and Supreme Court, on the Padang.
The flagstone in the middle says the floor was laid/opened in the r e i g n (spellcheck changed this to right to I inserted spaces) of George VI.
 (I remember who was who by the alliterative first letters,: George Five First world war, George Six Second world war.)
http://graphics.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/Interactives/2015/11/national-gallery-singapore-opening-interactive-feature/index.html
Visual tour of the gallery, starting with the foyer.

How to get there? City Hall MRT (mass transit which is the underground and overground railway). City Hall is a huge station and junction. A walk way leads from the station right to the gallery.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34909019
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/national-gallery/2288938.html
http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/eager-early-bird-visitors-check-out-national-gallery-singapore-on-first-day-of-public

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer

Sweet dessert wines from Austria and Italy; and a melchior

Following on the information in one of my recent previous posts, here's more about two sweet wines. AUSTRIA
Ice wine goes with blue cheese and foie gras as well as desserts.
Called a see (sea) not a l a k e n (lake, win l a k will be masculine?) because it is so big, an inland sea.
From Austria. Neuzuidersee new ... lake; south of vienna, near the Hungarian border, in fact the border runs through the middle of the lake.

I just tried this. Sweet, marmalade aroma and taste, sticky texture (known by the technical term luscious).

If you photograph the bottle standing upright whilst you are using a smart phone you get this distorted effect.

I thought I had found a quick cure by laying the bottle down on the table. Then you can read the lower half of the label more clearly.

However, the previous upright shot brings different parts of the label to the foreground, emphasising the top.

As the label tells us, it is from (aus) Austria (Osterreich), Pradikatswein - wine with a certificate; bottled by Willi Opitz.

Eis is ice. Wein is wine.

GmbH is the German equivalent of limited company. Geshellshaft (company) met (with ) limited liability.

8,5% low alcohol because so much of the sugar is still sugar and not turned into alcohol.

0,375 l or litres is a half bottle.

More information from their website: www.williopitz.at

From the label you can now see that the maker is Willi  (like william) Opitz, and Austria is at.

This bottle was bought at Hedonism wine shop in central London after one of their tastings which are held throughout the year.

ITALY
Location where it is grown and made - Passito de Pantelleria (island of Pantelleria)
grape - Muscat blanc à petits grains -  muscat grape, white at/of little berries

If you go to Hedonism wine shop on two stories there is lots to look at as well as buy.
Have you ever seen a Melchior? It is a huge bottle, larger than a magnum (2 bottles,) or a Methuselah or a Nebuchadnezzar, or a Jereboam. The cork is huge.

You need a special corkscrew to open it. And, of course, a lot of friends to help you to drink it.

ANGELA LANSBURY, travel writer and photographer.