What I saw and what to see in Hong Kong

I flew from Singapore to Hong Kong on Singapore Airlines. The flight was about four hours, time for one meal, lunch.

Easy Train and Shuttle Bus
From the airport we took the train a few steps away from the place where we collected baggage and bought the return train ticket. The train has about four stops, very easy.

From the stop where we alighted, shuttle buses go to the major hotels. You get a free look at Hong Kong from the train and the shuttle bus if you arrive by daylight.

Sights and Lights
I saw the big wheel down on the sea front. I liked the lights changing colour on the front of the Park Royal hotel building.

The streets had enormously high thin skyscrapers. Then trams ran along the streets. The first hour, seated in the train and on the bus, I loved it.

Walking Litter-Filled streets
Walking around on the uneven streets littered with cigarette ends and rubbish bags I was less happy. In Singapore I smell jasmine flowers and trees in the suburban gardens and incense and curries in Little India. In Hong Kong I smelled cigarettes outside restaurants and bags of decaying rubbish.

Crossing narrow roads, I was dodging trams, which you can't hear because every body is talking and shouting all around you. The vehicles are ringing bells and the pedestrians' 'cross now' lights are bleeping.

After Singapore's six lane motorways, it was quite crowded and claustrophobic.

In Causeway Bay, which friends in Hong Kong say is an upmarket area, the litter is everywhere, unlike pristine Singapore. I was overcome with homesickness for Singapore. I had to get a grip on my attitude and keep telling myself I was enjoying it.

Chinese Dinner
We went for dinner at a vast Chinese restaurant. Fish tanks containing enormous live fish were on the ground floor. My friend eats dim sun there twice a week, reasonably priced. If you go for dinner, be careful you are not persuaded to order fish at the highest prices. They have cold beer and hot Chinese tea.

American Coffee
Afterwards we went to an American coffee shop where I had an excellent lemongrass and passionfruit long drink, plus an unnecessary but tasty crumble and part of somebody else's strawberry tart. Very young and trendy and noisy.

Our friends in Hong Kong pass their tap water through a coral filter to ensure it is drinking quality.

I just asked a friend who lives in Hong Kong what one should see. He recommends:

Great photo opportunities:

Dr Sun Yat-Sen's Museum
Castle Road
Mid Levels (above central)
Hong Kong
Free

Sanitarium in Sheung Wan

My personal spell check says crematorium but sanatarium.)

The old PMQ (police married quarters) is Staunton street, now converted into a cultural centre come shopping mall with free films and activities.

Upper Lascar Row - art galleries. Old Hong Kong.

TRAIN
MTR (unlike MRT in Singapore) is the only railway system.
Take the train from Causeway Bay to Central where the big wheel is by the star ferry.

Sanitarium which has been moved from Central to Stanley. Massive Victorian sandstone building. Each block was numbered so it could be put together again and rebuilt like Lego.


Angela Lansbury

DIY Gift and Card Wrap For Hosts on Holiday: Tips and Tricks on Making Cards, Envelopes, Pretty Parcles

When I travel, especially on long trips, I take at least one outfit for a grand occasion (in case I get invited to a wedding, anniversary or big birthday party. I also take half a dozen cards with matching envelopes, for wedding, birth of boy, birth of girl, congratulations, thank you, and happy birthday, and unspecified.

I also pack a small card to attach to the neck of a bottle of gift, plus a piece of folded into squares wrapping paper and a length of ribbon, and a folded flat gift bag and a flower shape bow. And a piece of sticky tape. (You can buy a bag of ribbon bows from a pound shop or Japanese Daiso.

Packing
These can be packed flat in the lid of a suitcase, especially if you have a hard-sided case, or carried in hand luggage. It saves time shopping at the other end.

Cutting Paper
If you are travelling by car you can take a Swiss army knife containing a knife and scissors. This is likely to be taken from you at security in an airport. It might be posted on to you (requiring you to go back through security, post it, find an envelope and stamp and postage box and then come through security a second time - happened to use once - but you are likely to lose it.

I travel with a tiny pair of nail scissors and / or a metal nail file in my checked in luggage.

If you have no scissors here's how you cut paper. Fold it down over the edge of a desk or counter top. Fold it back the other way. Repeat. Use your finger nail or a weight to make the crease firm.

Cover the part which must remain intact with a book or heavy weight to ensure the paper does not suddenly tear off sideways.

Pull apart very slowly from one end of the crease. Pull apart very slowly from the other end of the crease. Pull along the whole crease.

Cut the exposed end with scissors or scratch off fraying parts with your finger nail or a knife from the kitchen.

If the edge looks ragged, fold back over a ruler edge or the edge of a desk or a big book such as a phone directory.

Making a Card
Make a plain card from white paper or card. Stick on a fancy picture. Alternatively stick on a photo of the donors or recipients.

Making An Envelope
Take a discarded envelope from your waste paper bin. Pull it apart to see the shape. You could use part or all of it as a white liner for a coloured envelope.

To get the correct size of envelope, place your greeting card on white paper. Draw around it in erasable soft pencil ((HB or 2B - with a putty rubber or rubber band to erase). Draw the other four triangles or oblongs from the sides of the oblong covering the card size. Allow room for the four folded in sides to overlap.

Make an envelope template on scrap paper first. When you have your roughly drawn and cut and pasted template the right size, do it again with the coloured or thicker white paper.

Wrapping Prettily
How to wrap a parcel prettily? Go online for directions, ideally on YouTube. Fold paper like a book cover with four triangular folded in corner. Hide overlaps with a double fold. Hide torn edges with a double fold like a hem.

Or leave the parcel ends unfolded like a Christmas cracker, tied with two pieces of small ribbon tied in a bow each side.

Finding wrapping paper or bags
Use wrapping paper to make a bag. If the paper is thin, then use two thicknesses to make a bag.

If you have bags but no cards and no wrapping paper, cut up a bag to make a wrapper. You can make a box, and a matching card. Or a matching card and envelope.

Box Shape Template
How to cut a box or envelope? Two methods. Take a food box from your litter bin and flatten it.

Copy the silhouette onto clean paper. (Newspaper or the printed side of discards from printed paper might leave black ink smudges.)

Practise on plain paper before cutting your coloured paper.

Extending Paper
If you don't have enough paper for the entire box, use two contrasting coloured papers. Or cover the gap with a ribbon or a business card. Or cut an oblong or diamond or strip or figurine from an old greeting card or advertising leaflet or magazine.

Glue
Stick with glue. If no glue use stick tape folded into a loop on the back of the item you wish to stick.

Or get a tiny piece of tape from reception at a hotel or a colleague's office.

Hide Mistakes
If you have cut badly, or have a torn edge to cover, conceal it under a bow. Make a fancy horizontal or vertical design from another piece of the wrapping paper. Make a rose or bow from a contrasting piece of paper. Or cover with a hand-written card with a message of congratulations, good will, and the donor's name.

How to Curl Ribbons
Ribbons can be curled up by running the blade of a sharp knife or scissor blade along the end of the ribbon or the whole of the ribbon.

Failing all else, ask for help from any Japanese man or woman, serving in a store, shopping in a store, sitting beside you on a train, or even at the party on arrival.

When Do You Take A Gift to Dinner Or Tea Invitations In The Far East?

Take A Gift?
When I invited VIP members of the British Club and American Women's Association to lunch, I was quite surprised when they arrived with a wrapped gift for me. Sometimes, I presumed, this was because it was considered the done thing to reciprocate with a gift always. In that case, if they invited me for lunch, I should find a suitable gift to take for them when I visited their club or home.

Alternatively, I wondered if the gift might be brought because they were leaving the country, or for the next few months. Therefore they were unlikely to be able to reciprocate with a lunch invitation. So they had brought me a gift instead.

Singapore Clubs and Associations
In Singapore the American club rules require a certain proportion of the membership to be Americans. Depending on the international economic and employment situation, the waiting list and annual membership and joining fees may go up or down. If you are not an American passport holder, you may have to go on a waiting list. However, ladies can join the American Women's Association. You cannot use the pool unless you are guest of a member (who had to pay a fee for you).

But you can attend certain functions at the club. These may include annual dinners in the restaurants for groups such as a book group, or bridge group. Members of the ladies association and their husbands will usually be invited.

When I first arrived in Singapore, I had no family or friends in Singapore and because I was not working I had not work colleagues and nothing to do all day. I was really happy to invite any acquaintance to the club for a drink or coffee or lunch or dinner.

The people most likely to respond were the senior members of the American Women's Association, the movers and shakers, the people who organised the book groups, the bridge clubs, the Friends of the Museum, the Australian Women's Association, the Australian Women's Association sewing group, the American Club newspaper or Australian club newspaper editors, members of the local journalists' associations, local writers and authors and book club members or the British club womens' association book club organisers.

Japanese Reciprocation
I soon found that the Japanese ladies would eat only a one course meal and no drinks. However, they would invite me back to the Japanese club, or to their homes for tea.

When I invited the Japanese ladies to my home for tea, they brought a small cake or gift exquisitely wrapped in fancy paper with a bow or origami design on top and a hand written note of thanks in gold Italic writing.

Inviting people to dinner at a club is an alternative if you have no home because you are in transit at a small hotel, staying with friends, waiting for your furniture to arrive at a rented flat, or just suffering from jet lag.

Inviting People Home
You may be invited back to somebody's home, for example in Singapore. Americans in the Far East often hold pot luck parties. They insist that everybody takes away leftovers.

People who know each other instead often take a gift such as a fancy notebook or photo frame.

People who can't get babysitters or give their maid / amah the day off on Sunday might turn down an invitation to go out for dinner on Sunday night but invite you over for dinner on a Sunday night. You might offer to take wine and dessert if they are supplying the main course, nibbles and pre-dinner drinks.

You don't want to be the only person to arrive empty handed at a Japanese ladies tea party. If you are invited to tea or dinner with the Japanese, you might like to buy a small item from a Japanese store and tell them it is a gift, so that they can add suitable wrapping.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Author of How To Get Out Of The Mess You're In.

Reciprocal Club Membership: American Clubs, Tanglin and others

If you belong to a club in one country you can find a list of reciprocal clubs in another country.

In a city full of museums and attractions you might want to be out seeing the sights, not sitting in a private club. Why would you want to visit a club?

A city you have visited many times before - you no longer want to be amongst the jostling crowds. You just want peace and quiet.

A place to wait for your friends who are busy with business meetings or cannot say what time they will arrive.

You want to take your local friends somewhere they don't already know.

First, get a list of clubs which have reciprocal arrangements at your destination. Then email or visit your club's office and ask for a letter of introduction.

Your club might send a copy to the club you are visiting.

Restrictions may apply.

For example, the American Club in Hong Kong says you may visit only twice in one year, for visits of up to a fortnight.

That doesn't affect me, but it's a bit disappointing. In the old days I was under the impression that if you were a member of a club, but missed out by being half the year at a home or business in a second country, instead you could use one of the reciprocal clubs. After all, they are benefitting from your spend in their restaurants.

The other question is, can you actually make use of the facilities? My prime reason for going to the American Club in Hong Kong would be to use their swimming pool, because we are not staying at a hotel but with a friend in a small apartment.

If the club says you can use the restaurant but not the pool, and all we get is the chance to sit at a restaurant beside a pool or overlooking a bay we might be better off going to a hotel with swimming pool.

Another factor is that when visiting the other other club you have to remember to take along your letter of introduction and your passport. I don't want to travel around Hong Kong carrying my passport. I had my bag and passport stolen in Singapore. It took days of going back and forwards to the embassy to get a temporary passport, then in the UK to get a permanent one, plus money to obtain both the temporary one week passport and the replacement permanent passport.

In Hong Kong there are two American Clubs, both on the main area, although one is called a town club and the other a country club. I looked at them and the Country Club seems to be the one with the pool.

If you are a member of a club you normally show your card and sign the bill and get sent a monthly bill to settle. As a visiting member you will have to pay by cash, or credit card.
You might want to check the method of payment, whether they accept American Express cards, and if you can have a bill for tax purposes if you are entertaining a business guest.

At the American club in Singapore I used to go to the Ladies Bridge game, which was weekly,(men could attend - I once took my visiting father who was in his eighties - the price including the simple buffet lunch. I also went the Tanglin Club mixed sex bridge game, where the price included a tea.

At some events, if you did not arrive early, you missed the food. At other events, if you rushed off early, you missed the food.

You might be disappointed and find that you can attend only one restaurant. On the other hand, you might make a friend of one of the members. They might be happy to take you to the facilities as their sign in guest, and you can reciprocate by paying cash or inviting them to dinner elsewhere another day or another week, or in your home country, or continue by drinking or coffee the same day at a venue outside the club.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Making mooncakes

A mooncake with patterned top.

Marvellous melt in the mouth mooncakes. If you are visiting Singapore this September you are in for a treat. It's mooncake season. Shops and restaurants and even ice cream parlours are selling muffin size delicious cakes with fancy patterns moulded into the top. You can make up your own selection in pop-up mooncake shops. All one pattern and colour. Or a set of four in different colours. Some are brightly coloured, lavender, orange, turquoise, violet. The more expensive ones come in elaborate brightly coloured paper or cardboard boxes like little suitcases.

Maybe you could re-use the boxes as jewellery stores. But make sure you have removed every trace of sugar and inserted some kind of insect repellent. I one kept a xmas pendant which was made of edible material in a wooden jewellery box. Months later I found the pendant and most of the box had been eaten away!

Moon cakes are made for the autumn Moon cake festival. They are quite expensive. And extremely calorific! Like macaroons, a little goes a long way.

You can buy moulds for mooncakes. The ones I saw were carved wood. The pattern may be relating to ethical figures or symbolic of the baker or bakery name.

I bought some second hand from a lady who was moving out of a condominium block where I was renting a flat. She said she no longer made moon cakes because they were very time consuming.

Plastic moon cake moulds are cheaper and available from the Chinese equivalent of eBay, as well as from Amazon. Some versions have a false base attached to a central spoke like a pencil for pushing the mooncake out of the mould.

Some places such as the Tanglin Club are offering events where you can learn how to make mooncakes. The Tanglin Club newsletter has the event on September 6th for members and their guests. You pay $48 if a member, $58 for a member's guest, and take home eight mooncakes in a paper container. They are all the same flavour (that's a pity) with snow skin translucent outsides.

You could look for mooncake recipes in the cookery section of bookshops.

I went online to see what recipes I could find.
https://www.finedininglovers.com/recipes/dessert/chinese-food-mooncake-recipe/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker.

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Hong Kong: A Return Visit, sites, Bus, Museums, Food, Hotel, Cantonese Translation

I am researching a return visit to Hong Kong. The name means fragrant harbour. Its nicknamed Hong Kongcrete. The skyscrapers are built to make use of land in this overcrowded area, and to attempt to prevent more landslides, which in the past have killed people, notably in 1972, according to an article on landslides and landslide prevention in Wikipedia.
A government site has a succinct summary with pictures and headlines in English and Chinese.
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/tc/curriculum-development/kla/pshe/references-and-resources/geography/history%20of%20landslides.pdf

The websites you can find offer you:

Top ten attractions.
Top Twenty Attractions.
Discovery tour (for first time visits).
Hop on hop off bus, with commentary, choice of one or two days plus an optional add on evening tour and three routes.

On previous visits I have
1 Done the escalators up the hillside,
2 rushed all over Hong Kong spending more on transport and taxis than I was saving on souvenirs, silk and clothes - no longer in the market for oriental clothes unless I spot a bargain
3 Theme parks - our Singapore based friends, a Chinese-Western couple with a five year old rated Disney in Hong Kong as less exciting than the two Disney theme parks in the USA.
4 The Police museum - half way up a hillside - the taxi was much more than the museum entrance - was a place I visited last time.
5 The Peninsula hotel. Having seen it previously when it seemed a bit faded, with nothing to see or do except have tea in the huge ground floor central lounge - would like to know if it strikes as exciting now. Probably better to stay in it than look in it. No point in visiting a hotel unless it has artworks, waterfalls, statues, or stunning architecture or a museum.
6 I have seen the hilltop view, Victoria Peak. Observation Deck. (Everything is designed to take money off you.) Views depend on weather, even more so if you are a keen photographer.
7 Big Buddha. Tian Po. Not to be confused with the Po Lin (Precious Lotus) monastery.

For my return visit:
1 A grand hotel: my family when working in Hong Kong used to like the Mandarin Oriental hotel, for breakfast, Caesar salad in the upstairs bar, but this was a long time ago.

2 Dim Sum - snacks. A huge choice. We'll be staying with friends so we'll go with our host's suggestions.

3 Peking/Beijing Duck. Either Western style with meat on it, my preference, or local style with only crispy skin served as a separate side dish.

Sorry, but however delicious the skin may be, I feel cheated if I'm deprived of meat. To me duck skin without meat is like being served crisps instead of potatoes. I want duck meat, soy-plum sauce, pancakes and Western cucumber which is much juicier than the local cucumber.

Looks like the only thing on my list is the Science Museum. Everybody else will be trekking from Causeway Bay or Central and expecting me to meet them at Stanley by taxi.

The challenge is that taxi drivers don't speak English and I don't speak Cantonese. The solution is to go to a hotel, have lunch or coffee and/or use their souvenir shop, then ask them to call me a taxi and write my address in both English and Cantonese on the hotel business card with the hotel's phone number so that if the taxi driver gets lost I can phone the hotel reception and ask them to reiterate the directions to the driver or explain to me the problem (such as one way street and he wants to drop me at the nearby corner).

Now would be a good time to start finding a Cantonese translation I can hook up to on a mobile phone. I went into Google translate and typed in Google translate into Chinese and of course up comes pinyin (English or Western alphabet phonetic spelling) Mandarin.

I re-try using the word Cantonese and get assorted sites including
google
bing
babylon - translation.babylon-software.com/english/Cantonese
lexilogos.com/english/cantonese_dictionary

English Cantonese Translation Free

Here's my final checklist:
1 Big Buddha
2 Science Museum
3 Disney
4 Peninsula / Mandarin Oriental Hotel
5 Dim Sum restaurant
6 Peking Duck restaurant
7 View from the Peak + Trick Eye Museum. (150 HK adult but !00 HK$ age over 65. 10% discount for online booking.) Shop 1, Level 3, Peak Galleria, 118 Peak Road, Hong Kong.Open 10 am to 10 pm. Website at end of this post.
8 Hop on hop off bus
9 Hong Kong Museum of History
10 Flagstaff House Museum of tea ware

If you are on your own the hop on hop of bus organises you so you don't sit around jet lagged too tired or scared to confused. Solves both the organising and translation problems, picks a place to visit, and maybe introduces you to other tourists if you make an effort to arrive early and chat to others on the bus.

Now I shall look at TripAdvisor. First the hop on hop off bus:
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/AttractionProductDetail?product=5817HK&d=2228870&aidSuffix=tvrm&partner=Viator

Costs
I see that the hop on hop off bus basic cost is about 81 Hong Kong dollars. According to the online calculator there are about 10 Hong Kong dollars to the British pound, which online is more usually called pound sterling. So the bus tour is about £8.

Hong Kong includes the main island, Kowloon on the mainland to the north, the New Territories beyond that, Lantau - the large island where air;ones land, plus some smaller islands popular for water sports. The airport has a shuttle bus costing about £10 (about 100 Hong Kong dollars single).

A visitor from Britain says: "Hong Kong is not cheap. You can spend a thousand pounds before you turn around. That's why we stay with friends."

https://www.google.com.sg/?client=safari#q=hong+kong+dollar+to+pound+sterling&gfe_rd=cr
trickeye.com/hongkong
http://wikitravel.org/en/Hong_Kong
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Indian Gooseberry, called Amla, makes preserve or drink

An Indian friend of mine from Toastmasters in London just messaged me on Facebook to say the fruit is an Indian gooseberry known locally as an Amla.

Now I am sure of the correct identity and Indian name I can find pictures and authentic recipes.
I googled how to cook and serve Indian gooseberry or a m l a (spaces inserted because spell checker or auto correct prefers alma) and if you do the same you will find several links to pages of half a dozen or more recipes.

Amla Preserve
One recipe for a sweet concoction, called Grated amla murabba or "amla ke chheel ka murabba, involves grating the fruit, making a sugar syrup, adding cardamom and saffron and storing in a sterile jar for up to a year.

I looked up the translation of Murabba and the result was sweet fruit preserve.

http://food.ndtv.com/lists/5-best-amla-recipes-759851

ALMA Drink
You can boil and/or liquidise it with added sugar, cumin and salt as a drink.

http://www.tarladalal.com/Amla-ka-Sharbat-31727r

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Watching for waterproof watches - my buy at Mustapha's

My waterproof watch stopped. No need to throw it away. Buy a new battery.

Battery
I usually try to ask the shop to fit the battery. A jeweller has the skill and tools and experience to do it quicker, without dropping and losing vital screws. If the battery is wrong, you know at once and don't need to take a second trip.

Repair
We have been struggling for days to close up the back of my waterproof watch. A friend of mine in Singapore told me that you can get watches repaired cheaply at the shops in HDB government housing estates. (HDB Housing Development Board.) She reckoned I could get my watch repaired for ten Singapore dollars, about five pounds, half or a third of the cost of the cheapest new one.

How do you find such a shop? Either take the MRT (train) to one of the estates. Or ask a colleague or employee of the place you work at or visit overseas.

Mustafa's Department Store
Meanwhile, having lunch in Little India, I was able to pop into Mustafa's department store, which is next to Farrer Park MRT station.

The lady seated at Mustafa's entry door to check bags was able to direct me to the watch department on the ground floor.

Watch Department
The large counter in prime position the centre of two aisles could offer me only one brand of watches at a minimum price of $100. I always imaged that Mustafa's, with its central cashiers and packing system, must be one store. But the impression I got on this visit was that each counter operates like a separate sub-store, ties to a different owner or manager with links to one manufacture or style or price range, no interest in directing you to another area.

I was therefore under the impression that the counter where I stopped had the store's complete range. However, by asking a second assistant, I was pointed to another area at the side where a different section had another range of much cheaper watches.

Here I discover another brand of watches Takane, not waterproof of splash proof only for about waterproof to about $30 (about £15 - see today's exchange rate on a conversion website) or $35/40 for the row above in the revolving cabinet.

I looked at the cheaper ones first, then decided they were not what I wanted. Besides the difference of 5 or even ten dollars was under £5. For me, it was more important to get a watch which would not be in danger of breaking every time I washed a cup, or washed my hands, especially in Singapore where I went in the shower at least twice a day, often three times a day, or went for a swim every day.

Takane Brand Colours
The Takane brand offered a whole range of colours. I could have had black, pink, orange, royal blue or mixed colours.

I chose a black and red watch. The strap is black. The dial is red. The black stays clean in daytime and looks sophisticated with black evening clothes. Style M403. I found it later on the website.

The red is a cheerful touch. Unlike an all red watch, the red won't clash too much with orange and pink clothes.

Size
Equally important, the Takane watches also come in both small and large sizes. The large ones, apart from being heavy, look clumsy on my small wrists, as if I have borrowed somebody else's watch. Big watches look clumsy on a small wrist.


Instructions In Box
I chose to wear it but asked to keep the box. Just as well I did, because the box contained instructions.

Four Buttons
I liked the fact that my watch did not have symbols on the four oblong buttons but English instructions, clockwise from top left, reset,st/stp, light, mode.

Setting Accurate Or Fast
I asked the man in the shop if he would set it to the right time. I wanted to have it going right away, to be sure it worked, and to save the half hour reading instructions.

On second thoughts I asked him to set it plus five minutes to make sure I was always five minutes early or on time rather than five minutes late. (This worked brilliantly. I kept dashing out five minutes late, but actually on time. So I was on time or early everywhere.)

Instructions
I later looked at the instructions in the box. It is has a 100 year calendar. That should be enough for me.

I shall photograph the instructions in case I lose them and to have them handy if I want to use the stopwatch or change the battery, or buy a battery (CR 2025 - who would know). In addition to having a back light, it has a stop watch. And dual time!

I am very pleased with my purchase. I have been looking all over London at watch shops, department stores, motorway stops, and most of the watches are not waterproof, are huge and heavy, or cost too much, usually all three.

Now I know a brand which suits me, I can probably buy them on line.

The brand - Takane.
www.takane-watch.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer,

Update on the mystery gooseberry

I asked half a dozen Chinese people if they could identify the mystery green fruit I had bought previously at the fruit and vegetable stall on the corner of Campbell Street and Serangoon Road next to The Verge shopping mall skyscraper.

The Chinese people I asked could not identify the fruit.

I asked an Indian man. He said the fruits grow on bushes all over Singapore, both wild and cultivated. he said he could not tell me the name of the fruit in English. I asked how you cook the small rock hard fruit with the even harder stone in the centre. He said you cut out the stone and cut the fruit into tiny pieces and serve it in a savoury sauce as a side dish. "Any Indian women can tell you," he assured me.

I went back to the stall where we had bought the fruit and asked the seller, "What is this fruit called?"

He said, "Gooseberry!"

I asked how you cook it.

He said you eat it raw.

If you know more, please tell me.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

English gooseberry, Chinese Gooseberry and Indian Gooseberry from Singapore's Little India

We bought what looked like giant gooseberries in Little India in Singapore, expecting to get the flavoursome gooseberries we were used to in England.

English Gooseberries
The English or bought in London gooseberries can have a slightly sour taste but when cooked up in a sugar syrup are delicious and highly flavoured, nice by themselves. You can add them to crumbles or fruit salad but they are a delicate distinctive flavour.

Chinese Gooseberries
We thought at first that what we had bought might be Chinese gooseberries. No. When I checked on line I realised that Chinese Gooseberry is another name for kiwi fruit, a totally different fruit, very popular in London sliced into fruit salads or as a decoration.

Indian Gooseberries
The fruit we bought in Little India in Singapore, it now became apparent, were Indian gooseberries. At first bite it was obvious they were not the same as English gooseberries. We found them quite horrid. No soft centre and seeds. Solid and tough to bite, liken an uncooked potato. Tasteless but slightly sour.

We tried cooking them up with a sugar syrup. (That sounds like a tautology. What other kind of syrup could you have if not sugar? You could have sugar from a fruit such as fructose, or from milk, called lactose.)

We tried to hide the result in a fruit salad for breakfast. Nobody was fooled. Nasty solid, hard to bite, nothing you could chew or suck. Am I being poisoned? I removed the solid, tasteless bits.

Indian Lady's Recipe Blog
I then tried searching the internet for enlightenment. I found it immediately. A lovely Indian lady recalls her childhood picking these fruits and eating them fresh. She claims they were juicy. She says the secret is to eat them with salt. Then sip water which by contrast tastes sweet.

The fruit we bought were not juicy. I hacked at them with a knife on a chopping board and had trouble cutting them. I thought that like everything else we had bought they would be ready to eat. Was I supposed to keep them ripening?

The fruit she says, is an acquired taste. I have acquired a taste for yogurt which I did not like the first time I tried it. I have acquired a taste for durian ice cream or durian cream or durian cake which I love, like a mixture of chestnut and banana, although I don't like fresh durians with their sulphurous bad egg flavour.

My Verdict
However, I have had two goes at fresh and cooked Indian gooseberry. Since we have a few left, we will try one last time with salt or pickling, or candying, the way we dealt with rock hard figs in London, which made delicious candied figs. After that, if you don't ever hear from me again on this subject, my verdict is, stick to fresh gooseberries from England or America.

On the other hand, if what we bought was not an Indian gooseberry - what was it? It is green, rock hard, with six segment divisions visible on the outer skin.

http://www.lovefoodeat.com/how-to-eat-indian-gooseberriesamlanellikai/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Haze in Asia - how it affects daily life, business, tourism

Weather and circumstances can change overnight. It's good to have flexible plans. Last week, brilliant weather in Singapore. Now there's a haze. I'm glad I gook lots of photographs when the sun was out. A friend of mine who has a business in Singapore says she needs to stay in Singapore to look after her business. However, if the haze gets any worse, she will fly off to Australia.

Here's sunlight and blue sky and a colourful skyscraper, taken in Singapore, the way I would like to remember it.


From the tourist's point of view, it's not just a question of not getting the best photos in the haze. Even sitting indoors, you wake in the morning to the smell of smoke. Your eyes prickle. Your nose and throat fill with mucus to try to combat the incoming bad air. You keep clearing your throat.

You run around checking all the windows are shut: check the bathroom or shower room windows; the bedroom windows and sliding doors, the living room sliding doors, the kitchen windows.

What a disappointment. This window and door shutting exercise came the day after I thought one should open windows to allow in a refreshing cool breeze to combat the stickiness of a humid day.

A white grey sky is depressing. Instead of blue clouds, just white. Instead of green trees, ash grey. Distant skyscrapers seen through a mist, out of focus. Everything looks slightly dirty instead of bright. White buildings are ash grey. Only one person in the swimming pool.

Wait for what happened in previous years, reading haze reports, schools closed, sporting events closed. Outdoor events cancelled.

If you have a kitchen with grilles instead of windows, each time you go out to your washing machine or hanging rack in the scullery area you are breathing in smoke and have to keep the door shut.

Clothes hanging on washing lines smell smoky.

Businesses
Businesses are suffering. Nobody is going out shopping. Parents stay home to look after children who stay home instead of going out to play or to sports activities.

Restaurants
Fewer people are out and about. Restaurants with outdoor seating are not thriving.

Travel
Take the underground railway rather than sitting at bus stops breathing the smoky air.

Time to check flights out of Asia.

Planning Future Trips
In theory you could check each year's haze and plan to travel outside both the spring monsoon rains and floods and the hot summer heatwave and haze. However, this year late rains prevented fires in Indonesia from starting spontaneously or being started deliberately to clear the land for palm oil trees. So the haze season started later.

I am now editing photos I took in early August in good weather and brilliant sun which I took for granted.

For keen photographers, the moral is, take your photos while the sun is out. Never put off until tomorrow, a photograph you can take today.

For daily updates see:
http://www.haze.gov.sg
I have posts from previous years on the causes of the haze and its effects and prevention.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Jewel of India Restaurant, Little India, Singapore

Jewel of India restaurant in Singapore was the choice of a Singaporean Indian friend. He knew of the restaurant from being involved in the researching and writing of a book about Indians in Singapore.

The restaurant is in the Park Royal Hotel. But not part of the hotel. Separate entrance in mall below, entrance at the side of the building.

Initially we were confused about the hotel's location. We came out of Farrer Park MRT station (the railway, mostly underground in the city centre, but with overground and monorails outside in the far suburbs). From the exit which we chose, we looked across the road to the Park Hotel which was being renovated. However, going back along Kitchener Road along the side of the shopping mall, we quickly saw the Park Royal Hotel.

Again, we were confused. The roadside has a blocked off entrance. Walk past the wall of water and you find the entrance to the building. The restaurant entrance is in a small indoor shopping area.

The manager was extremely helpful. We moved tables, found the new table was too wide for confidential or quiet chatting, so he moved one of the bench seats closer to the table and turned down the music.

The manager offered to ask the chef to cook up food to my specifications. I wanted non spicy. I asked for korma - white sauce with nuts. I got cashew. Very nice. Two others opted for biriani. The biriani choice was good. (Lamb, as usual, I found too tough. I always opt for chicken.

Our friends had rightly surmised that one dish is enough for two. The

The menu is on an electronic device like an iPad attached to the underside of the table, only one per table so you have to take turns if you are four on opposite sides of the table.

Drinks
I chose mango lassi to start. Always good. I also tried somebody else's order of lime juice, very refreshing.

Buffet
I looked at the buffet, available at lunch and dinner. It included rice, a curried chicken, vegetables. My family insisted that my diet did not allow me to succumb to the temptations of a buffet.

When I got home and looked at my photos, I realised that the buffet food was kept hot on a cooking range, rather than the more common candles.

The Food
The food was copious. I had the chicken korma and was pleased. We ordered biriani chicken and biriani lamb. The manager suggested mixed breads, garlic nan and others.

Some greasy fried poppadum came up first to go with a slightly spicy green dip.

We also had a bowl of white raita - yogurt sometimes with cucumber added - not an extra order, it came with one of the dishes. Yogurt is always a soothing stomaching calmer if the food is too spicy.

Despite ordering only three dishes between four, we had enough leftovers to provide a takeaway for a snack.

Take Away In Singapore
In Singapore's heat it's not a good idea to carry leftovers about. I saw a sign in Nee Ann City's basement fish department saying that if you are buying food to take home, you should get it home within an hour. It is better and safer if you are eating in an air conditioned restaurants - as opposed to an outdoor hawker centre where your food has already been on the table an hour - or live nearby and/or are going straight home.

Price
The price was about £10 per person. That's for three main meat dishes shared by four, breads, rice, two non-alcoholic drinks - and enough left over for a takeaway for one couple.

Toilets Outside Restaurants and Business or Social Meeting Rooms
I had had an upset tummy earlier and was rather concerned about eating spicy food and having a long delay before finding a toilet. The toilets are disconcertingly not inside the restaurant but you have to use the public toilets at the end of the corridor outside. This is often the case in Singapore, OK when the public toilets are nearby, not if they are a distance away and you are in a large group.

At Singapore's Chymes complex (lots of restaurants around a converted church, with toilets hidden up a flight or two or stairs, I once left my toilet visit to the end of the evening and lost my group who went off to another venue without me. It ruined my evening. If there's any danger of losing your group, go out to the toilet during the meal.

On another occasion, at a Community Centre (I think it was Yu Hua) I was locked out of a Toastmasters Meeting where I was a judge in a speaking competition. At the end of the half time buffet food and comfort break, I had to race along a corridor, then down two flights of stairs to the ladies toilet, then find my way back. Firstly, during competition speeches, the doors are sometimes locked to stop latecomers, The meeting room door automatically shut unless somebody held it open. Luckily,somebody came out so I was able to enter unobtrusively and nobody realised my narrow escape from disaster.

I enquired some time ago about regulations in the USA and England. In my local area in London, the requirement was for a restaurant to provide toilets if they had more than four or six seats. Normally I ask for the toilet before ordering food and if there's no toilet on the premises I take my business elsewhere.

Surrounding Shops and Stalls in Little India
You can take the MRT straight home. If you do not have food to take straight home, you might wander back towards Little India station, along the famous shady sheltering, the covered 'five foot ways' outside the shops, established as a building regulation or norm, by Sir Stamford Raffles.

Near Little India station we found a fruit and vegetable stall.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author of twenty books including Quick Quotations (for speakers and writers); and forthcoming novel, The Tailor and The Spy (Lulu.com and will be distributed shortly through Amazon and other sites.)

News, Newspapers, Singapore's late President, S R Nathan, honoured

You can consult your country's newspapers whilst away from home - I read the BBC news online and the Daily Mail online. I can also read on line the news from Singapore Straitstimes.com ;

This week's news featured two main personalities. Singaporeans are celebrating the success of Jacob Schooling who won the 100 meter butterfly swimming event.

The other life being celebrated was the President.

The news from Singapore is about S R Nathan, former president, who died this week. I discussed this with a Singaporean Indian friend. As in many countries with minorities, a minority VIP is appointed as President when the Prime minister is from the majority group (in Singapore the Chinese are the majority and the Malays and Indians are minorities with English speaking groups).

The president has to be a Singaporean, I think a Chief Justice. As my Indian friend humorously said, "You have to to be a citizen and to have worked hard helping the government and the people for many years. You can't be The President if you're a recently arrived Filipino tap dancer or a tightrope walker!"

In Little India a picture of S R Nathan is in the street alongside a tented area with seats for speeches and homages.

I go back to the Singaporean newspapers with renewed interest. To my surprise I find that S R Nathan is a great example of the rags to riches story beloved of motivational speakers at Toastmasters International meetings all over America, England, Singapore and the world. S R Nathan lost his father at an early age, did badly at school, but in later life through hard work and determination rose to prominence.

(Photo to be added shortly.)
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and

Indian Restaurants in Singapore

Jewel Of India Restaurant, Singapore
On every trip to Singapore I try to go to an Indian restaurant with an Indian friend. A popular area for trying out Indian restaurants is Little India, although you will find Indian restaurants all over Singapore.

MRT to Little India
Little India is a station on the MRT (Mass Railway Transit). You can get a map of the railway system from the ticket offices at main nations, as well as looking at it on the internet on your phone if you have a connection.

The Little India station is on the blue Downtown line (stop DT12) as well as the purple North East line (stop NE7). I need a magnifying glass to see the number on the map unless I am reading in daylight by a window.

The station is huge with long underground walkways and several exits, so if you are meeting anybody or following directions make sure you know in advance which exit to take.

Little India is a large area, so you might be going to another MRT station such as Farrer Park.

We try to avoid Little India on Sunday when all the Indian workers have their day off and are brought in on buses and the pavements are crowded, often with waiting for a table at peak time in the smaller restaurants.

(See later post on Jewel of India restaurant.)

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Night tube in London, Victoria and Central Lines

At last it has arrived, the night tube in London, England. It's on the Victoria and Central lines. More lines will open later.

If you want to know the times of trains and last trains and best routes, use:
tfl.gov.uk

that should be t f l but spellchecker keeps turning it into tel.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer.

Learning Languages, Careers and the Language Show in London, October

Note for your diary:
The first language show I've seen
This one is in London, England.

Languages Live
14 October - 16 October
14 October at 10:00 to 16 October at 18:00 in UTC+01
pin
Olympia Central, Hammersmith Road, London W14 8UX

The show will include careers as translators, a children's challenge and lots more.

I speak French fluently and I'm learning other languages on Duolingo: German, Spanish, Italian and Russian.

I just asked a Ukrainian friend who speaks Russian if she knows any Russian songs (apart from Kalinka).

The website has links to directions.

to plan your journey use the website tfl.gov.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, Author and Speaker.

Seclusion, Cinnamon, Fruit flavour but little fruit in the McCafe

McDonalds in the USA and Singapore
I made a new friend and we both decided we wanted to have time to talk longer. My friend suggested 'McDonalds'. I used to be a devoted daily follower of McDonalds when we had a child under ten years old. One of the attractions was the free toy. This was more important to me than our son. I am a sucker for freebies. Afterwards my tastes progressed on to Burger King and when I first arrived in Singapore, after 6 months of trying to eat local I reverted to Burger King for hamburgers and Starbucks for coffee and water and found my mood much improved. (I might have had an allergy to MSG or have been suffering from dehydration, cured by going to American style outlets where it was OK to ask for or help yourself to water.)

Later, with family members recovering from cancer, in the UK and Singapore we were on a strict regime of lots of fruit and vegetables. We avoided processed foods. We had a preference for brown bread, seed bread, crackers, or, because I was on a calorie cutting diet, no bread.

However, when I'm eating with others I go with the flow. A little of what you fancy does you good, goes the old saying. For physical and mental health. So a little of people you fancy, friends, does you good.

Besides, McDonalds has inexpensive coffee, I thought.

McCafe
To my surprise my friend walked into the mall at Toa Payoh in Singapore, beside the MRT underground station, towards the McDonalds and then veered to a cafe on the right. It turned out to be the McCafe which I had heard about but not yet visited so I was keen to check out the prices and choices.

I'd been under the impression that it would be alongside the serving area of McDonalds, a different cashier, or on the opposite side of the room. I had not envisaged a separate unit with a cake display,like the established coffee chains such as Starbucks and Costa.

I looked at the prices. Oops. Not the cheap coffee I expected at McDonalds. The coffees all seemed more or less the same price. My friend chose a capuucino so I opted for the same. It was served in a large solid cup with a pattern in the froth on top. My fired asked for tap water so I did the same.

I looked at the cakes and saw what purported to be three or four vairites of cheesecake. Strawberries mixed in - a marble effect, something brown, either chocolate or Oreo cookies. A solid orange was mango. That was my choice.

I must admit the mango, although flavoursome at first bite, was light like a mousse or blancmange. Although it had a nice solid biscuits base, and being on a diet I would not expect or complain that I wanted a larger slice, it was not the solid clotted cream and baked effect of New York style cheese cake I had always loved in Singapore.

My friend chose a cinnamon dessert. It looked a bit like profiteroles with small balls of dough covered in cinnamon. I have read that cinnamon has health benefits.

We chose a delightful table, behind the square bar, against the floor to ceiling window, wo we had the entertainment of watching passers-by outside, but nobody pushing past us so I didn't have to keep watching my bag and packets the whole time. I could concentrate on my friend and our conversation.

Looking back on it, I loved the seclusion of the tables for two at this particular venue. The tables were tiny. But I could put my bag on the floor against the window - not very hygienic, but at least nobody passing would have access nor would they fall over it.

Looking back on our food choices, I don't think I'd have the mango 'cake' again. Nothing cake-like about it, apart from the shape. It seems to me you have more chance of finding fruit or vegetables in the regular McDonalds than in the coffee shop. (Starbucks elsewhere served an apple.)

Would I go back? Yes.

I looked on TripAdvisor and could not find McCafe in To a Payoh listed. I googled McCafe To a Payoh and found a Singapore food site which listed all the McCafe branches and discovered that Toa Payoh has four. At this point I have to hunt through my stored receipts to locate the branch I visited. (I always keep receipts. If you leave behind a phone or lose your doorways or hat or gloves or anything else and need to ring around, it's so handy to have the phone numbers of everywhere you have visited, if only to phone and get a no luck and eliminate them from your list of places to check.


According to a reviewer who is regular customer, the McDonalds sometimes has free flow of coffee in the morning breakfast time.

I picked up a leaflet in McCafe offering a loyalty system which gives I free beverage with 5 stamps.
Visit
www.mcdonalds.com.sg/mccafedevotee

For reviews on local websites see:
hungrygowhere.com
goodfood.sg

McDonald's To a Payoh HDB Centre
490, Lorong 6 Toa Payoh
Number 01-11 (ground floor, unit 11)
Singapore 310490
tel:63972392

My bill says I had a Mango Cheesecake Set at S$6.50 and aM Cappuccino (MC) at 0.70 total 7.20.

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

Seclusion, Cinnamon, Fruit flavour but little fruit in the McCafe

McDonalds in the USA and Singapore
I made a new friend and we both decided we wanted to have time to talk longer. My friend suggested 'McDonalds'. I used to be a devoted daily follower of McDonalds when we had a child under ten years old. One of the attractions was the free toy. This was more important to me than our son. I am a sucker for freebies. Afterwards my tastes progressed on to Burger King and when I first arrived in Singapore, after 6 months of trying to eat local I reverted to Burger King for hamburgers and Starbucks for coffee and water and found my mood much improved. (I might have had an allergy to MSG or have been suffering from dehydration, cured by going to American style outlets where it was OK to ask for or help yourself to water.)

Later, with family members recovering from cancer, in the UK and Singapore we were on a strict regime of lots of fruit and vegetables. We avoided processed foods. We had a preference for brown bread, seed bread, crackers, or, because I was on a calorie cutting diet, no bread.

However, when I'm eating with others I go with the flow. A little of what you fancy does you good, goes the old saying. For physical and mental health. So a little of people you fancy, friends, does you good.

Besides, McDonalds has inexpensive coffee, I thought.

McCafe
To my surprise my friend walked into the mall at Toa Payoh in Singapore, beside the MRT underground station, towards the McDonalds and then veered to a cafe on the right. It turned out to be the McCafe which I had heard about but not yet visited so I was keen to check out the prices and choices.

I'd been under the impression that it would be alongside the serving area of McDonalds, a different cashier, or on the opposite side of the room. I had not envisaged a separate unit with a cake display,like the established coffee chains such as Starbucks and Costa.

I looked at the prices. Oops. Not the cheap coffee I expected at McDonalds. The coffees all seemed more or less the same price. My friend chose a capuucino so I opted for the same. It was served in a large solid cup with a pattern in the froth on top. My fired asked for tap water so I did the same.

I looked at the cakes and saw what purported to be three or four vairites of cheesecake. Strawberries mixed in - a marble effect, something brown, either chocolate or Oreo cookies. A solid orange was mango. That was my choice.

I must admit the mango, although flavoursome at first bite, was light like a mousse or blancmange. Although it had a nice solid biscuits base, and being on a diet I would not expect or complain that I wanted a larger slice, it was not the solid clotted cream and baked effect of New York style cheese cake I had always loved in Singapore.

My friend chose a cinnamon dessert. It looked a bit like profiteroles with small balls of dough covered in cinnamon. I have read that cinnamon has health benefits.

We chose a delightful table, behind the square bar, against the floor to ceiling window, wo we had the entertainment of watching passers-by outside, but nobody pushing past us so I didn't have to keep watching my bag and packets the whole time. I could concentrate on my friend and our conversation.

Looking back on it, I loved the seclusion of the tables for two at this particular venue. The tables were tiny. But I could put my bag on the floor against the window - not very hygienic, but at least nobody passing would have access nor would they fall over it.

Looking back on our food choices, I don't think I'd have the mango 'cake' again. Nothing cake-like about it, apart from the shape. It seems to me you have more chance of finding fruit or vegetables in the regular McDonalds than in the coffee shop. (Starbucks elsewhere served an apple.)

Would I go back? Yes.

I looked on TripAdvisor and could not find McCafe in To a Payoh listed. I googled McCafe To a Payoh and found a Singapore food site which listed all the McCafe branches and discovered that Toa Payoh has four. At this point I have to hunt through my stored receipts to locate the branch I visited. (I always keep receipts. If you leave behind a phone or lose your doorways or hat or gloves or anything else and need to ring around, it's so handy to have the phone numbers of everywhere you have visited, if only to phone and get a no luck and eliminate them from your list of places to check.

For reviews on local websites see:
hungrygowhere.com

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

Danger and Safety On Level Crossings For Cars, Lorries, Trains and Pedestrians

I hate level crossings. We have a few in London, England. When I lived in the USA we went to stay for a night at a large hotel on the East Coast. I remember sitting at breakfast and reading about the rich family who had founded the Wyeth art collection and the hotel and probably much of the town. Unfortunately one of the prominent members of the family was killed on the railway level crossing. I thought it was a freak accident. Within the next few weeks a similar accident happened nearby.

I then discovered that the railway line ran parallel to the coast the the coastal road with dozens of level crossings. The high speed trains ran up and down the line at great speed. mLots of accidents.

In the UK we have also had accidents. More often pedestrians.

A favourite question is, "What would you do if you ruled the world?" I would make all train and road crossings into traffic lights. The train has to stop completely - at every crossing.

So do the cars. You have to stop a few yards back from the barrier. The double barrier should be on both sides of the road before the actual crossing. A gap both sides should enable you as a driver to move off the crossing if caught.

The train should only move over the crossing if a sensor shows the crossing is empty. Yes, it would cost the train company a lot of money. So does building a railway. So does having the line out of action for a few hours or days until the accident is cleared. What about the cost of replacing the train, re=training another driver, the cost of compensating the family of the driver, the injured passengers, the pedestrians, or car driver. Does the cost of the insurance go up or down with the accidents?

When I lived in Rockville, Maryland, swimming pools in my area had barriers the height of tennis courts, lockable gates, and two lifeguards on duty. It was a local legal requirement and linked into an insurance requirement.

If you could not insure your train and train driver unless you adapted all railway crossings, it would be done. You would either make safer crossings, or build bridges for pedestrians, or sucked roads tunnelling under the road. Yes it would take time and money. Have you seen the length of the bridges over the sea off the East coast of the USA? And the banks with raised roads in The Netherlands? And the long bridges linking islands off Malaysia to the mainland? And the tunnels in the USA and Switzerland? Roman viaducts across valleys? The Channel tunnel? When somebody wants to complete a project, eventually the money is found, the workers are found, the plans are made, and it gets done. You might need legislation, government funding. It can be done and it should be done.

What has inspired my rant? A video. Watch it and you will be as shocked as I was. The barriers come down either side of a truck in America. The truck is smashed. The driver is lucky to be alive. Three train passengers died and the driver lost his legs. If you have any connection with insurance or government or journalism, please campaign to get safety improved.


Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

A list of glass bridges in the USA, England, and China

I read about a glass based bridge being opened in China. A few months later up popped what I thought was the same story and picture again. On closer reading I found there was a second bridge. I am compiling a list in order to be able to
a) Know if an article is about a new bridge or one which already exists
b) To know what choice is available in order to visit the nearest or the one which is the cheapest trip or the one suitable for the season in which I am visiting
c) To know how many there are in order to choose the most interesting,
d) To pick the bridge nearest to other attractions,
e) Or to do a trip to all of them either for fun or photography or both.

Which is the nearest, the nicest, the cheapest, the most thrilling, the best to photograph?
Here are the current results (Aug 2016)
1 Grand Canyon Skywalk, USA. 59 feet long.
2 Zhanjiajie, China (opened July 2016) Longest, highest. Highest/deepest bungee jump planned. Nearly 1000 feet long/span.
3 Tower Bridge glass floor, London, England.


Trying to type the name of the place in China, I looked several times and had to correct what I first typed.
z - h a n g - j i a - j i e
I have been forced to insert spaces to prevent the automatic correction system changing the syllables.

This is not a guide to the pronunciation, just a way of checking you have copied and typed it correctly.

http://www.cnto.org/worlds-longest-highest-glass-bottom-bridge-opening-in-zhangjiajie/

If you are aiming to see the world's highest or longest, you clearly aim at the one in China. If you are living in the USA, and want the nearest to visit, the shortest or quickest trip, or the cheapest or easiest to organise, you might opt for the one in the USA. You might also want to start with the one in the USA if you are afraid that you will not have the courage to cross it or want to start with the easy one and work up your courage.

How safe are glass bridges? Is the glass as strong as metal or other non transparent material. Is the glass reinforced? Will the bridges remain intact in a gale, survive erosion of man-made parts, or disintegration of supporting earth and rock over time, under the weight of you or me, under the weight of large numbers of people crossing?

Imagine you are one of the first to cross the bridge, and it cracks!
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/new-glass-bridge-in-china-cracks-causing-panic-among-visitors-apple-daily

I also wonder how they keep it clean. Thinking of the mess made on my conservatory windows and house windows, how do you keep the glass clean? Presumably you need a maintenance programme. All those muddy footsteps, bird droppings, spiders' webs, scraping and scratching from shoes and metal tipped boots, blowing leaves and sand, melting snow or rain leaving streaks?

In order to reassure tourists (and probably safety authorities and investors) and make amusing, newsworthy photos, the glass bottomed bridges have been hit by sledge-hammers and had heavy vehicles driven across the bridge. Plus people being sick, having incontinence or diarrhoea, dropping ice cream and litter, losing their hats and drinks cans, sandwiches snatched by birds. Heart attacks mid-way.

What can you do with a trip to the bridge?
Challenge yourself.
Challenge your friends and family.
Prove your courage.
Act big to impress a scared younger sibling or girlfriend.
Act protective to reassure a scared younger sibling, child, your children, or a girlfriend.
Propose marriage in a memorable place.
Have a wedding ceremony.
What about scattering ashes? Probably not allowed.
Lots of articles, images, and videos on youtube.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-37127725
http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/tower-bridge-glass-floor/

The latest glass bridge in China replaced the former wooden bridge. I tell myself I will only photograph it. Would I be willing to cross the bridge, and pay for the privilege. Once across, do you have to come back? Do you need to go all the way across then come back, or could you go to the mid point for a photo and then return?

If a bridge links an island, you have to come back. If it crosses a valley, you may be forced to cross with your group if everybody crosses and continues there journey from the other side. I remember in Canada crossing a bouncing rope bridge. You take a few steps and then somebody enters behind you and the bridge starts swinging and bouncing. In London we have a pedestrian bridge towards the Tate Modern art gallery, which bounced when it first opened, sending people into a panic. Presumably a big glass bridge is more solid.

If you just want to enjoy a view over the world from the comfort of your chair, here's a 360 degree view from Tower Bridge, London.

http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/Glass-floor-360/

Angela Lansbury, author and travel writer and photographer

Advertising on the Underground (MRT) in Singapore

If you are wondering where to go in Singapore there's advertising all around. Free maps o f Singapore everywhere at Changi airport. Ads either side of the doorways where the trains stop - one alerted me to the museum in Little India (see my earlier post). Giant ads for the safari parks are on posters, columns and even on the floor of the MRT (underground and overground railway network).

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Rain and greenery in sunny, rainy Singapore

The rain in England and Ireland and Singapore and on one side of a mountain in many countries results in a luxurious cover of green trees, shrubs and flowers on the wild and cultivated land.

In Singapore you have jungle, a mass mixture of trees and shrubs and climbers, palm trees and all kinds of trees.

The cultivated trees and plants in condominiums and public areas are also a constant delight.

The lower two pictures are taken in the centre of Singapore, at the crossroads of Orchard Road and Scotts, facing the modern Ion shopping mall building covered in greenery, over the central Orchard MRT underground railway station, and the more tradition tower over Tangs department store.
Photos by Angela Lansbury copyright.

Trees In Singapore, Umbrella Signs and Motor Cycle Shelters

I love the trees in Singapore. They arch across the road providing shade and shelter.
I had heard of rain trees but was puzzled by the umbrella roadsigns on the motorway driving through the city. A motorcyclist explained: The signs are telling motorcyclist that they can shelter under a bridge a certain number of yards ahead. So slow down ready to take shelter. Surely you can shelter under any bridge? No. You would be either blocking traffic or in danger of being hit. The motorcyclists refuge are to one side under the bridge and separated safely from the slow lane of traffic on the left by barriers.

Why don't they have that in other countries? Because the rain is not so torrential and the bridges aren't necessarily new and big enough for the shelters to be built. What's more Singapore has a huge number of bridges throughout the city near enough to each other for there to be a nearby bridge for the motorcyclists to take cover.

A car made from bottle caps in Singapore

Made by the talented chefs at the Royal Plaza on Scotts Road hotel, to promote and encourage recycling.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Angela Lansbury travel writer and photographer.

Singapore Celebrations

Singapore is always colourful with bright flowers and blocks of flats and malls and individual houses painted pastel colours or vivid colours, always contrasts.

In August 2016 Singapore is celebrating and the banners and red and white flags will be on public buildings and private housing all over Singapore. A wonderful photo opportunity and very jolly and heart-warming and colourful.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Hate Heights or Love Views? Pros and Cons of High Level Hotel Rooms and Homes

This week I was on the 12th floor of a building where the power was off for upgrade of electrics around the complex. The letter to owners and occupiers was to minimise foods in fridges and backup data. Our first thought was to stock less food in the fridge. I thought of adding lots of ice inside.

The night before I put out a pill on a saucer above a cup of ice cold water so I did not need to worry about opening the fridge, nor the pill being exposed to too much heat. If I had kept the air conditioning on all night it would have been cooler in the morning.

The first reminder and update in the morning was when I went into the bathroom and the light would not go on.

What happened on the day?
I had thought that because my laptop has a battery I would not be affected. Wrong.

My laptop would not connect to the internet. No business. No social messages. Not even reading the news. I could not write and upload my blog. Could not even log into blogger and save for upload.


I ate apples which had been left outside the fridge and drank tap water from a jug.

Maybe I should go out for a swim. I should have gone down earlier. It later occurred to me this would not be a good idea. The lifts were not working. I would be in a swimsuit and flip flops. Twelve stories walking down. Twelve stories walking up. A good thing I was not travelling to or from an airport with three suitcases, and not in a room on floor 16.

I was in the bathroom when the light suddenly came on. So I knew the power was back. I got to thinking about living high and low. In an emergency such as a fire you are not supposed to use lift. The power supply could stop. You could be trapped between floors. You might spin down into the fire or smoke. People trying to get in could overload the lift. Start a fight with those inside trying to repel those trying to push in and then the overloaded lift not moving.

Firemen unable to use the lift to bring up firefighting equipment, do room to room searches, bring oxygen and stretchers.

Waiting too long for a lift when you could already be two floors below if you were running down the stairs.

It's a hard decision, whether to take a higher or lower hotel bedroom or rental apartment. The top floors may offer better views and command higher prices. The lower floors offer quick exit in an emergency, and quick exit when the lifts are being repaired or cleaned.

A power outage, or maintenance on lifts, would be a nuisance if you were planning a business meeting for several people. The longer you are staying, the greater the chance that one day you will find the lifts not working. This might be fine for a young couple, less good when you have a baby asleep in a buggy, a load of shopping or when granny comes to stay.

Advantages of the ground floor. We have friends who just married and ranted a ground floor flat with a patio overlooking the pool which is floodlit at night. They eat every meal on their balcony surrounded by pot plants and the poolside greenery. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Living like every day is a holiday. Their modern block has tiny rooms. But they love it.

Balance that against a top floor flat with a wonderful view over the city. Any high floor, typing with a view of the clouds, rooftops, the swimming pool far below.

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

What To See And Do At Heathrow Airport and the World's Best Airport, Changi, in Singapore.

Heathrow airport has improved, with interesting pictures showing the development of the airport and famous people passing through, such as HM The Queen, and the Beatles.


When I searched the internet I found an article on exhibitions of sculptures representing runners and others at the UK Olympics; also a webpage seeking exhibitors for future presentations.
http://www.moodiedavittreport.com/heathrow-celebrates-british-sporting-talent-with-t5-exhibition/

But the world's best airport, according to many awards, and many travellers, including myself, is Changi in Singapore. Every visit brings a new surprise, plus renewed admiration for the permanent aspects.

In April 2016, Changi Airport provided a photo opportunity where you could stand between giant wings, like the female model symbol on a Rolls Royce car.



The halls and carousels are decorated by seasonal displays.

In August 2016, Changi has small models of buildings illuminating by lights which change colour.




(More photos being added shortly. I've just learned how to link my foreign phone to my laptop to download the photos. I went onto the internet and asked. Up popped the answer. First you download the software to link the machines. Then I had to delete some photos from the camera. I had lots of duplicates where I took two in case somebody clinked their eyes or one picture was blurred.)
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, Singapore resident.

Mosfilo Greek Restaurant Adds To Hatch End's Pavement Dining Culture

Mosfilo Greek Kouzina
308 Uxbridge Road
Hatch End
Middlesex
HA5 4HR
Tel: 020 8421 6821
www.mosfilo.com

On the back of their business card you'll notice that they are an offshoot of the fish and chip shop and restaurants a few yards along the high street near the pedestrian crossing with lights and the bus stop.
Sea Pebbles, licensed Restaurant and take away, the Plaice to Eat,
352-354 Uxbridge Road, Hatch End, Middlesex HA5 4HR
Tel:020 8428 0203
www.seapebbles.co.uk

Sea Pebbles has another branch:
114-116 High Road, Bushey Heath, Herts WD23 1GE
Tel: 020 8950 4679.

I used to get muddled as to which was Bushey Heath and which was Bushey Village. The best way to get it clear if you are constantly driving through and still get muddled"
1 Take the business cards of two restaurants you know, one from each area.
2 Look at a map and highlight the names and write them large in black felt tip pen.

Photographs by and copyright of Angela Lansbury 2016.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
They also have a Facebook page.