Italian Coffee: il caffe Italiano+ 6 free coffee cup. Also coffee machines

Italy, the home of Espresso, has more than one brand of coffee, always something new to discover. Earlier this year at the Bellavita exhibition on Italian food and drink in London at the Business Design Centre I had the chance to try new coffees and cakes. The company is old, founded in 1870, but they have lots of flavours which will be new for you to try.

I am learning Italian through Duolingo, but the website was a challenge so I turned to the English.

Here's one with a name which is easy to remember: ilcaffeitaliano - the Italian coffee.
Photos will be added shortly.

The capsules come in different colours and several flavours. Go onto their website and click on English or any other language you choose. The capsules vary in price according to the flavour and the number you are ordering. You get a choice of three different quantities. Some flavours the minimum number is 50 capsules, others sixty capsules, others 100 capsules.

I'll list the flavours alphabetically:
Barley
Dek Intensity
Firenze Intenza 8
Ginseng
Irish Creme
Mocaccino
Vanilla
Venezia Intensity 7

You can buy Nespresso machine compatible capsules. (Most of the capsules I've seen come in two categories, the little cups compatible with Nespresso machines which seem to be an industry standard for the machines used in homes, and the large flat ones used for huge machines in supermarket size retail outlets. (I did once buy capsules which weren't comparable from a UK supermarket.)


You can also order capsules with six free cups. The Italian for cups is tazzine. So one of the cheaper flavours is £29.99 plus £4.99 postage to the UK or Europe, including 6 cups. A cute novelty present to buy yourself, take home, if you are travelling leave coffee and cups for your hosts as a thank you. Or order them to be delivered to your new home or holiday home when you arrive at your (holiday) destination to enjoy novelty coffee throughout your first week.

I called in a member of my family and they pointed out that the prices were not pounds sterling but euro signs, which meant even better value than I had thought.

We carried a small coffee maker (designed for camping) plus coffee capsules, when staying for a week with a friend in Hong Kong. Finding our hosts had no small coffee cups, we bought a set for them as a thank you.

I wrote a couple of posts earlier this year.

www.bellavita.com
www.ilcaffeitaliano.it

The it at the end of the website name stands for Italy.

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

Coffee, cheese and fruit for elevenses and snacks

I love having cheese as a snack, don't you? I find it's a good pick me up, gives me protein. In the afternoon I have water because I don't drink coffee with caffeine after lunch time.

Here's my morning snack, coffee with fruit.

Glossary
Elevanses - snack at around eleven o'clock in the morning. UK term.

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

Strong and Salty Crunchy Cheese

Food for thought - cheese. A great snack mid-afternoon when you sink.

I like salty hard cheese, ideally with a teeny bit of crunch. My two favourites are
1 Montgomery Cheddar, from England - strong flavour
2 Comté, from Eastern France, (their version of the Swiss cheese Emmental) has a slight salty crunch.

You can buy both of them from La Fromagerie, Moxon Street, Marylebone High Street, near Baker Street and Baker Street tube station.

See my previous posts on: cheese; La Fromagerie; and Marylebone; and Baker Street.

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

Where to sit on a plane? Your options ...

http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20160919-where-should-you-sit-on-a-plane

Where do you sit on a plane? Obviously first class, if you can afford it or somebody else is paying.

Two factors are not necessarily dovetailed, comfort and safety.

In the middle of the vehicle, on planes like in ships, means less problem when you are dipping forwards or backwards.

I hadn't realised that the larger planes fly higher which is one factor which makes them less bumpy, above the turbulence.

The report says you are more likely to get an empty row of seats towards the unpopular back area.

I used to like a window seat so I could see the cities as we flew overhead and approached. You can also take photos. And you can lean against the wall.

The aisle seat means your elbow gets knocked. Your toes might be run over by a passing trolley or trodden on. Then the passenger who empties the overhead rack sending flying missiles at your head is more likely to score a direct hit on on a target such as somebody sitting in an aisle seat.

The centre seat gives you two chances of making a friend. You are more likely to be left with empty seats, because couples will take a row with a free aisle seat.

I am just telling you this to persuade you to take the window seat or the centre seat. I prefer the aisle seat. I need to hop up and down to the loo and to get exercise because I eat all the food.

Rest assured, in an emergency I won't be blocking the way. I'll be first out. And I won't stop for my overhead luggage either. I'll have my passport and phone in a pocket.

If you are ever in the centre seat and I'm beside you, you have the opportunity for plenty of conversation.

http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20160919-where-should-you-sit-on-a-plane

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

Consumer Questionnaires - why I answer them

I always answer questionnaires so I can have my say about products.

But I not longer answer giant questionnaires which take twenty minutes to fill. Too time consuming. In the old days if it was a long questionnaire run by somebody doing market research on the doorstep or stopping you in a shopping mall you would get something small and free such as a pen.

Once we were stopped at Heathrow. My son, then aged under ten years old, was asked by a lady interviewer, 'Are you travelling on business or pleasure?' The poor little lad was opening and shutting his mouth trying to decide. Eventually, with some intervention from me, he and I agreed that his father was on business but the boy was on pleasure.

Especially not if they are designed obviously to gather detailed information about me and my lifestyle and buying habits, everything from my age and income to which books and white goods and insurance I already own or buy, and then I presume inundate me with leaflets on everything from insurance to books.)

I just completed a survey on a new brand of coffee. They want to know how likely I am to try it. They missed out several things:

Would I get a reduced price the first time they launched it in a venue? Does it come decaffeinated? Does it have a free little biscuit with it? Does it come in special branded cups or elegant cups?

If it's a premium price, would they offer a bottomless cup (endless refills at breakfast time, as done in some hotels, restaurants and pubs).

Survey Design
I wish I'd told them in the tell us why you like this ad /don't like this box early on in the survey. I've previously put comments in an early box only to find another box for general comments at the end. The box for comments should be headed 'this box is your only place where you can make comments' or 'please answer only this question - room for general comments at the end'.

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

How To Take Better Photos

I was reading the rules for entering the competition for photos of monuments for Wikipedia when I clicked through to their advice page on taking photos. I knew several of the basics, including:

1 Make sure your picture is horizontal
2 Or correct it later
3 Ensure the autofocus is on the main subject of the photo.

Photographing People
Regarding autofocus, I know that when you are taking a picture of two people, you have to ensure that the camera is not focused on the wall behind and between them, in the centre of the picture.

Focus Fix
On some cameras which focus on whatever is in the middle of the box shape frame or cross in the middle of the picture, you can focus on the person, one of the people, press something to hold that focus, and then move back to correct layout. I have never mastered this. Also it causes delay. I prefer to move one of the people into the middle and have the other person behind looking over their shoulder.

What Wikipedia adds is how the camera might focus on the foreground, such as a lamp post, which is incidental, whilst the main subject of the photo, the cathedral in the middle distance, is out of focus.

The Wikipedia article handily shows several photos of the same scene.

Before And After
I have always wanted to do a before and after photo guide, or a wrong or right guide. Every time I delete a bad picture I think, maybe I should have kept that as an example of what goes wrong and how to correct it. I probably will do so eventually.

Meanwhile, enjoy the useful Wikipedia article, which is clear and not over technical which is the fault of many books on how to improve your photographs.

http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org.uk/category/common-photo-errors#11

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

How to Identify and Block A Premium Rate Call To a UK number on an iPhone

If the number just rings you once it is probably a premium rate nuisance call. If it is your family and they nudge the phone and call back accidentally, they will call again.

To find out who called, type the number into Google. Up comes who-called.co.uk

They will alert you to codes starting premium rate numbers. The one I just checked started 0843, which I saw charges about 45 p in the UK on top of your call providing about 10p per minute. (Other numbers from overseas could be higher charges.)

To block the caller on an incoming number on an iPhone, I was shown in the Apple shop, you tap on information. Scroll to the end of the options and you see block this caller. Tap on block. (The number is still in your recent calls, if you want to check the number again - for example, if you want to list the number and make comments for the benefit of yourself of others receiving calls from the number.

Watch out that you don't accidentally click on it and call the number. I would delete it as fast as possible, so you don't call it back, neither does anybody else using your phone and searching for a recent caller's number.

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

Saving and Sharing Your Drawing From iPad to Phone, Laptop and Instagram

If you have created a drawing on an iPad in an Apple store, or on your own iPad, you may want to save it and transfer it to your mobile phone or laptop and then share it. How?

You can transfer it via a bluetooth connection to your phone.

I had joined Instagram on one of my devices, but had to rejoin it for the other device.

I sent my photo to a website but it arrived sideways and with the artist's signature partly missing.

Once the photo was loaded up, I could not change it. I had to delete it. Send it to my laptop. I had it in downloads. I slid it across to iPhoto. I then changed the direction, made it smaller so my signature was visible, and created more contrast.

Because I was in a workshop which was coming to an end, I had to work quickly. If I had had more time I would have achieved a better result, as you could if you spent time.

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

Attach The Keyboard, Draw and erase on an iPad; or Sony Xperia phone

Attaching The Keyboard
First I learned how to attach the iPad to the keyboard. I'd been trying to balance it in the nearest groove. Instead you attach it to the magnetic triple dot at the back of the keyboard concertina flap. Then you fold it back towards the keyboard.

You don't need to plug the keyboard in. The keyboard is now connected to the iPad using the three teeny pinhole sockets

I drew a quick caricature on the iPad as a test to see how to use the Apple pencil and features.

If you can't afford the iPad and pencil but want to try drawing,I had discovered that you can draw using many programmes on smart phones. For instance, on a Sony Xperia, I was able to draw people who sat nearby when I was sitting waiting in a queue.

Delete Triangle
If you wish to delete a hasty line, a wrong colour or a circle which is misshapen, you touch the reverse arrow at the top of the icons on the column on the left of the iPad in vertical mode. This deletes the whole of the last action.

Delete Eraser Symbol
If you wish to be more delicate, just cut out part of the last line you drew, you tap on the symbol for the rubber. To start drawing again, remember to tap once more on the pencil symbol.

When you have finished, you might want to save your drawing to another device such as a phone or laptop and then upload it to a website such as blogger.com, Instagram or Webpress.

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

Drawing Caricatures with an iPad: how? I learned: battery charging+drawing

Drawing caricatures with an iPad. I've tried it several times.

Battery Charging
The first thing you do is make sure your iPad battery is charged. You can link an iPad to a plugged in laptop but the iPad charges faster on a link to an electrical socket. If you see the almost empty battery the iPad is charging. (If you see the cable picture it is telling you that you need to connect a cable.)

It can take a while to get back to 100 per cent charged but you can start using the iPad whilst it is plugged in and charging. After two hours the iPad was 50 per cent charged.

Pencil Charging
If your pencil needs charging, you remove the cap and plug it into your iPad.

Drawing
You can choose the fineness of the line you want to draw by tapping on the picture of a fine line pencil or a broad paintbrush or something in between. Tap on black dot from the tiny palette.

Then tap on the circle of colour above the colour dots. Spin the circle clockwise to change the shade.

You can also lay the tip of your electronic pencil on it side - at a diagonal. Drag it along to create a wide shaded grey, like a watercolour wash.

I used it for fill in for face colour, and hair. The fine pencil was better for the edges of the lips, both the darker colour of the lips' outline and the skin edging the lips.


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

Drawing Caricatures using an iPad - why do it?

Why draw a caricature? Why not just take a photo?

1Because you can draw on an iPad and your subject might think you are writing a text message, whilst they would either get annoyed or pose un-naturally if they thought you were taking a photo.
2 Because your subject is photo shy.
3 Because they would be flattered and intrigued to have a caricature. They may have had lots of photos but never have had a caricature.
4 Because it is more creative.
5 Because you can sell it. People can take their now photos as selfies but they mostly cannot draw a caricature.
6 You edit out the unnecessary and capture the essence of the person.
7 Because you are proud of your artistic skills. It's fun, creative.
8 Because the sitter has to keep still and talk to you whilst you are drawing, creating rapport and a friendship more than spending two seconds taking photos.
9 Because you have no chance of winning a photography competition but think your original drawings might win a drawing competition.
10 Because somebody asked you to do it. To raise money for charity at an event.

Angela Lansbury

World Tourism Day - Sept 27 - Vilnius and Lithuania

Today is World Tourism Day. Gosh - I'd forgotten. What reminded me? An email from Vilnius.

Vilnius is in, um, where? Remind me. It's the capital of Lithuania.

What can you see?
Palace.
Tower.
Museums covering:
Art.
Pushkin.
Poet Adam Mickewicz.
Pilgrim route - ap.
Jewish heritage sights - ap.
Holocaust museum.
Genocide Museum (KGB).
War and tanks museum.

What's new?
Design hotels - but not until 2018. An ap for tourists. Film and music festivals.

http://www.vilnius-tourism.lt/en/what-to-see/museums/adam-mickiewicz-museum/
http://www.vilnius-tourism.lt/en/2016/08/boutique-hotel-chain-design-hotels-comes-to-vilnius-old-town/?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius

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

Photographic Competitions - some suggestions, or Instagram

Google photographic competitions to see what you can enter and what inspires you.
What do you need to do?
Take photos in the categories listed.
Make sure your photo is sharp.
Do not take any pictures which might infringe somebody else's copyright.

First look through your existing photos to see what you have in the listed categories.
If you have a good subject, but bad lighting, go back and take more photos in better light. If your photo is not sharp, go back and take another photo with a tripod.

If previous winning competitions included human interest, or objects to illustrate size, add these to your composition.
1 Dress in your best clothes. Take a selfie. Or use time lapse.
2 Take your dog or a family member's dog. For example, a photo of a tree might be enhanced, or size exaggerated, with a dog or bird.
3 Set up time lapse in your garden and take multiple shots hoping a bird or cat or spider will come into view.

Many competitions have closing dates far ahead. You have time to take many different photos or many photos of the same scene with different lighting, people, or added objects.

Emotions
Add the joy of a prizewinner. The sadness of a funeral. Loneliness. Crowds. One person out of step.

Contrasts
Large and small. Old and young. Light and dark.

https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/2017/open

Instagram
If you don't feel your photos are ready for competitions, you might like to use Instagram. A new friend told me she does not use Facebook which is full of distracting text. She used Instagram just to put up photos.

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

Watch out for pickpockets and thieves when taking photos

A photo has been published in the Daily Mail online and several other places showing a lady posing with two girls in national costume. It is alleged that one of the girls with her hands on a watch was attempting to steal it. The watch was later missing.

Read the story and form your own opinion. Whether or not a theft was in process, it is a reminder to travel with inexpensive items and cover them up in public places.

Readers made many different comments. For example:

1 Travel with inexpensive jewellery and watches. I sometimes buy two of a cheap item, either same colour or different colour. If one is stolen or lost, I have a replacement at home.

2 Take insurance.

3 Do not pose for photos with children because
a) You might be accused of exploiting them
b) They should be in school, not out being photographed
c) They will demand money
d) They are orphans or kidnapped for the express purpose of getting money from tourists and you are encouraging the kidnappers
e) They offer to photograph you and then run off with your camera
f) While you are distracted they steal from your bag or pocket or remove your watch
g) A common technique is to press against various parts of your body with two hand of each person so you are not noticing the hand doing the theft
h) Your eyes are on the photographer not on the people standing alongside you
i) They could steal from the person being photographed, the photographer, or both

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1853867/two-tiny-thai-thieves-in-traditional-dress-steal-from-a-female-tourist-but-would-you-have-seen-what-theyre-up-to/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3807242/Adorable-thieves-traditional-dress-photographed-moment-stole-woman-s-watch-wrist-outside-temple-Thailand.html

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

Listed Buildings To Visit And Photograph

If you want to take a daily walk or a free tour of your area of the city where you are living or visiting, look at a map and find the historic buildings nearby. You might pick historic buildings in your nearest high street, or old buildings in the countryside or down leafy side streets.

Map Search
My family did a search in north west London and we were amazed at the number of listed buildings. A great opportunity for a walk and some photography.

St Anselm's Church, Hatch End.
Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Timing Your Trip
If your primary aim is fresh air and free of noise, you might choose to walk early in the morning. A late uncle of mine used to travel the world and take photos (actually colour slides - I still have them) of temples and buildings around the world at dawn.

You might also try gardens and parks with the morning dew. Carry a plastic bag like a dog poop scoop to remove litter from the ground, especially cigarette butts dropped around doorways, for your romantic photos.

Reality Pictures
Other people prefer to show life how it is. They like to reveal that beauty spots are ruined by litter. The french word verite or truth or reality comes to mind. Ralists want to show that third world countries are slums, dumps, poverty stricken, and not the idyllic places of our dreams. I like to take one of each. First the reality, then how it looked after I cleared it.

People Pictures
I also take a place without people and with people. I had an editor who always wanted people in photos. He said people made it interesting.

Local Characters
But you also need the right people. Do you want to show only local people to match the venue. Or tourists enjoying the trip. Or people meeting the locals?

A Chinese magazine might want only Asians. Or they might want only foreigners, because that's what readers aspire to imitate, or because that fits the text. Or because they already have lots of local people and want something different.

Fashions
I found that people in last year's fashions dated a photo. They look untidy with shirts hanging out. They were inelegant. For a fashion magazine the aim would be to include cute characters.

Passers-By
Passers-by are often keen to pose.
They might move and caused blur.

What if you want a natural shot. Even people standing still or slumped can be an anomaly. An amazing number of people shut their eyes, cover part of their faces, glare, stand looking gormless.

Others are in the wrong place with trees and lamp posts growing out of their heads.

They run forward demanding money. Or try to rob you whilst you are taking a photo.

They move hands and wave and cause blur. They move out of shot at the last moment, leaving bits of bodies. You get a disembodied arm or foot as if you are chasing a fugitive.

The solution is to take lots of shots. Choose the best. (This is called bracketing.)

Twilight
I like twilight pictures. I won a competition from Polaroid and a ferry company when we were given Polaroid cameras. I took a statue silhouetted against the still light evening sky.

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

Got your passport? Lost your passport? Door keys? Sunglasses?

I bought a black silk skirt on eBay. The crestfallen seller says she can't find it. She will refund my money but keep looking and if she finds it shall contact me again.

I know the feeling. My own notable losses:
1 PASSPORT COVER HIDING PASSPORT
I bought a pretty silver cover for notebook and put it on my passport. I missed a press trip to a theme park in France because at the last minute I could not find my passport.

Moral: If you place a cover on a passport, make sure the word passport is visible - either written on the outside of the bag or wallet or cover, or listed elsewhere in a list called something like VITAL INFORMATION, or your packing list.

2 FORGOTTEN PASSPORT
Many taxi drivers before setting off for the airport all ask: Have you got your passport(s). Have you got your tickets? (Get them out and check in case you changed your coat at the last moment into something warmer or lighter, or changed to a bigger or smaller handbag.) The taxi driver's reason for asking is usually, "Yesterday we were half way to the airport when ..."

3 PASSPORT STORED IN SUITCASE
I once left my passport in my suitcase. Next year or next trip I forgot. I always look for my passport first. No point packing if you don't have a passport. You need the time to get to the passport office to get a new one or hunt for it. Eventually the family said, pack now, get something done, and look for it later. I got out the suitcase and found it. After a stressful time worrying and searching. I needed the holiday.

My mistake was a classic case of 'it seemed like a good idea at the time'. I had thought, I'll leave my passport in the suitcase so I can't go without it.

Well, is it in the outside pocket or in the inside pocket (and the suitcase key lost). How many suitcases do you have? Will you have forgotten where it is by the time you take your next trip?

No point hiding it in the suitcase so burglars won't find it. A policeman told me: One of the things burglars do is look for a suitcase or large bag in which to conceal or carry items from the house.

4 MISSING KEYS IN SUMMER BAG? BEACH BAG
My late mother returned from holiday and lost her flat's front doorways. Luckily my father had his. My mother worried. (About that and another problem. You could blame either worry. Or the fact that she had too many worries, or was a worrier. She had a stroke and died a week later.

My father then worried about the missing keys. Should he change the locks and pay for new locks and new keys?

I dealt with the easy problem first. Collect mother's clothes and bags. I went through each of her bags checking the pockets inside, before taking them home or giving them to charity or throwing them away. My father watched as I went through each bag. At least half a dozen. He got impatient. "Don't bother - they are all empty."

I got to the last one. Guess what I found? Yes, my mother's door keys inside a straw beach bag.

Moral; Search through the pockets of clothes and bags and suitcases before storing them.
Search through the pockets of clothes and bag and suitcases before giving them to charity. Search through the pockets of clothes and bags and suitcases before going them to another member of your family or a friend.

On holiday: Search through the pockets of clothes and bags and suitcases if you have lost your passport or door keys, sighted glasses, sunglasses, hotel bedroom keys, or anything else.

5 SEARCHING SYSTEM
You've lost it?
I presume you have run through the checklist of:
1 Is it parcelled/packed up and ready to go on the hall table? In a plastic bag ready to be folded and labelled?
2 Did I put it in the car boot to go to the post office? Is my missing item pushed or fallen under car seat? In the car side pockets?
3 Is it hiding under something else - larger / same colour. Another skirt. A pile of newspapers.
4 Is it in the room where I photographed it?
5 Is it hanging in my wardrobe? (Check under other garments from both hanger level and skirt level, hidden under another coat, jacket or skirt?)
6 Is it hanging behind the door on a hook such as in the bathroom?
7 Did my tidy-minded spouse take it to a charity shop or throw it away without telling me.
8 Have I worked clockwise around the house, tidying as I go.
9 Have I checked below and behind all flat surfaces and between all furniture (eg bedside tables and chairs, bookcases).
10 Did I leave it in a suitcase from last year's holiday for security or storage or out of season clothes?
11 Is it somewhere else outside the home: - shed, garage, conservatory, lobby, hall hat rack, car or van, home of parents, children, friends, home office, work office, study, attic, basement, inside washing machine or tumble drier or behind them? In airing cupboard? On ironing board?)
14 Have I left food in the fridge, or in a large cool box or picnic box?

Also have a system. Always keep your passport and keys in the same place. Tell another member of your family. Keep a note - even if it is coded or encrypted. One day you'll be the one who has everything right and you'll be able to quickly sort out everybody else's problems and forestall disasters.

People will wonder how you do everything so well. Experience. Like the taxi drivers, learn by your own mistakes - and the mistakes of others.

Angela
Author of How To Get Out Of The Mess You're In. (Lulu.com)

Packing, Unpacking and Photo-packing Efficiently

I unpacked a weekend bag containing a night dress, a swimsuit and wrap, two caftans, one set of matching underwear and socks, a matching baseball cap, and a folding fan.

I now have four choices.
1 STORE CLOTHES IN WEEKEND TRAVEL BAG
Leave the contents in the bag which I store in an overhead cupboard, under a bed or chair or in the attic.

2 PHOTOGRAPH CONTENTS
Photograph the contents and keep the bag already packed for another weekend trip. I used to keep a bag packed when I was at my busiest as a travel writer in the 1980s and 1990s, until my mother died and I became a carer for my late father.

My first photo was just of all the items jumbled up. That looked untidy and was discouraging. So I folded everything into oblongs - easier to re-pack or store in a drawer, and matched the hats and underwear by colour.

I could have added, or noted, any missing, matching items such as a swimming cap and shoes. My other missing items would be swimming goggles, slippers, a small flannel or towel, spare socks, toothbrush and toothpaste, or wash kit (usually in either handbag or pocket or acquired en route on airline. Plus mosquito repellent or sign relief or both.

WASHING
You wash the contents at the destination. Then wash your travel clothes and put them back in the bag on top of the other clothes.

Make sure you don't leave a wet swimsuit in the bag. If it has gone mouldy, you may have to soak it in a mild bleaching solution to get rid of visible mould, then run it through a washing machine three times to get rid of the smell.

I did this once, after getting mould on a brand new swimsuit. I was not prepared to throw it away.

I reckoned that even if I ruined the elastic, that was no worse than throwing it away. If the elastic had gone, I would have recycled any fastenings and cut the good parts out in strips, spiralled and sewn in place, to make rosettes on black swimsuits and/or black sarongs.

3 RE-PACKING FROM THE LIST
If you need to use the clothes back home, or want to use the wheeled bag, you unpack the contents. However, you keep a photo of the contents as a visual packing list.

You might change the contents seasonally in the USA and Europe. But take a photograph to speed packing next time.

SEASONAL CLOTHES
Or keep two or four small bags colour coded for seasons. Red for summer. Orange for autumn. Pink for spring. Black or white for winter.

If you possess only one suitcase on wheels, such as a black wheel on bag, just photograph the contents with a piece of coloured paper or seasonal pictures such as Santa, daffodil for spring, autumn leaf. Or simply print the word of the season to place alongside the contents:
SPRING
SUMMER
AUTUMN
WINTER.

Keep the picture on your computer under the title packing. Or print the list and put it in the top of the suitcase or the outside pocket, if it has one, or the inside of your wardrobe / closet door.

You are now ready to re-pack for the next trip using the visual aid to find the contents. You can also use this as a checklist in a hotel to be sure your swimsuit has not been left behind hanging to dry in the bathroom or balcony.

VALET PACKING
If you are in an accident, or hospital, or are on business half way to the airport and running late, you can ask a family member or colleague or hotel valet to pack using the photo list.

I've never had valet packing. Only valet parking. But now with the aid of the photos I can be my own valet. It's so much simpler and quicker to use a photo as a packing list. I feel more efficient.

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

New Indian Restaurant, Khana Delicious, In Hatch End, Pinner, Middlesex

Hatch End has been called the restaurant capital of North West London. You have a choice of about sixteen places to eat in a tiny high street and always something new opening or changing. Two premises have closed. Serrata = closed until further notice. Another is still under renovation.

But the good news is former Pizza and Prosecco has open-end with a new concept. Khana Delicious. Brunch and pizza at lunch time. Indian flavours for the evening.



Driving There and Parking
Stopping in Hatch End to look at the new restaurants and menus is always interesting. You can park in the slip road outside Khana Delicious of if there's no room, one of the side roads or the car park behind the shops on the opposite side of the road.

Train Lines
Hatch End has some 1930s architecture (so does Rayners Lane). Hatch End is part of Pinner, a short drive or bus ride, where you can see historic timber frame buildings. Even older is Harrow on the Hill with Harrow School.

Hatch End station is on the line out of London from Euston. Pinner is on the Metropolitan Line. Rayners Lane is on two train lines.

Walking
Want to walk off the calories? You can take a walk along the old Grim's Dyke from Hatch End station, where a plaque shows the route, ending at one of the pubs or restaurants back in Hatch End or historic Grimsdyke Hotel (see previous posts).

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

Free wine tasting at Majestic

On the corner of the road leading to the wonderfully art deco Ruislip Lido lakeside restaurant selling cheap meals and drinks is a branch of Majestic where you can try tasting some new wines and spirits for free.

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

Flowers At the Moon & Sixpence Weatherspoon Pub

The flowers are out in London after a heatwave. I feel freezing cold, returning to the UK from Hong Kong and Singapore. The London temperature is now 20 degrees C, according to a handy kitchen clock which gives not only the time but all sorts of other useful information, of which the most useful is the temperature.

I went onto a temperature conversion website to find out what 20 degrees means in fahrenheit. It is 68 degrees f. I know sixty is chilly but 70 is warm. Why do I feel so cold at 20? Is it because I am tired?

The apples are dropping from the trees. The figs are not yet ripe. England's wine growers have had a great year.

However, parts of France have not been doing so well. Hail hits in the cooler areas of the cooler countries, not Italy and Portugal but Northern France. Where exactly? French areas of the Loire and Bordeaux are susceptible to hail which can arrive suddenly. Hail stones the size of golf balls can not only spoil the grapes. Hail stones can damage or destroy the support system, the roots of the vines.

So, as you sip your wine, beer, juice or water, or tea or coffee, just enjoy the picture of flowers in sunny weather outside the Wetherspoons Moon & Sixpence pub. This branch has tables at the from if you like to see and be seen, watching traffic and passers-by, or tables in the garden at the back. Several more restaurants in Hatch End and London have outdoor seating for eating and drinking.

http://www.rapidtables.com/convert/temperature/celsius-to-fahrenheit.htm
https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs

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

Photographing Groups So All Are Seen - including the photographer

How do you photograph a group so everybody can be seen, with VIPs in the middle?

First take the VIPs or prize winners alone. Then the committee. Then photograph the whole group.

You can't ask visitors or ordinary members to stand at the sides. But you can ask the VIP such as the mayor or president, or visiting speaker to stand in the middle.

You can't tell one person to move back. You can ask the smaller people to stand at the front. Or ask the VIPS or prize winners to sit on chairs at the front holding their trophies.

Sometimes the VIP or President is the person keen to have a photographic memento and also the person with the clever camera or the camera kept handy. In order to get them in the photo, somebody else should swap places with the photographer to take another photo including whoever took the first photo.

An alternative is to use a tripod and a time lapse. The photographer then sets up the camera, on time lapse, makes sure there is a place to stand in the group, warns the group the countdown and dashes into place - reminding everybody to smile.

If you are planning to do this for the first time, practise taking time lapse photos of a group of chairs and rushing into place.

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

Chatting: Signalling Come and Go and Personal Space

I wrote about the I talk to Strangers badge on Facebook. A friend of mine on Facebook (a real friend who found me on Facebook but knew me years ago from a post graduate literature club) told me on holiday she used body language if she needs to discourage chats from a fellow diner at a hotel who apparently thought she ought to eat the dish he had ordered and in the way he suggested.

Mostly I'd be delighted to chat about food to a stranger, and adopt their suggestions on the principle of try anything once.

She was making another point. That you can use body language to encourage or discourage conversation.

Touching
Closeness is another factor. I recently sat next two three Singaporean friends (two long-standing friends and another I met on an aircraft and chatted to for several hours). In all three cases these ladies were tactile. The first two prodded me with their fingertips to hold my attention when making a point.

Arm Rest
The third was taking over my arm rest. I kept trying to move away each time our arms accidentally touched. I considered putting up a cushion as a barrier.

But we were friends. We were deep in conversation. Since I wanted to be psychologically close to her, I decided physical closeness was the way to go. If you can't beat them, join them. So I snuggled up withy arm comfortably against hers.

Photo Barriers and Linking Arms
On another occasion I was standing in the back row of a group being photographed. The jolly and friendly club committee member standing in front was blocking the view of me by standing arms akimbo. I could not push him out of the way. I instinctively took hold of his elbow. Since did not take the hint to move, I linked arms with him and hugged his arm tightly. Much better visually and psychologically. I was now friends with him in the picture and in life.

As a photographer, if one person is blocking another, you could ask them to link arms.

Angela Lansbury

How To Make Friends And Chat Whilst Travelling

Wear a badge which says, I want to chat. What a great idea. Not chat on social media, but chat to a real person near you.
What a great idea.

I love chatting to people.

A Singapore Taxi Chat
Sitting in a taxi to the airport, I got chatting to the taxi driver. The first comment I/we made was about noticing a new housing development. That led to discussing cutting down the jungle to make way for more houses.

What did the taxi driver think? More housing was needed, he conceded. Then he added an amusing and insightful comment on changing times. "Old Prime Minister (Lee Kwan Yew) planted trees. His son cut them down."

So true; so funny.

You can follow this train of thought in many directions. That each generation does the opposite of the previous generation. That the reason is that everybody wants to be different. That it's the swing of the pendulum. Sons rebelling against fathers.

Planting
In a country, developing and planting faces the same problems as when you plant a garden, as we did in London, England. First you have not enough greenery, not enough shade, not enough plants, so you plant trees and bushes. For a brief period things are just right.

But a few years later the trees are too tall and the bushes are merging and the grass is growing knee-highs if you don't spend every week cutting it down. Soon you are constantly pruning the trees and cutting down the bushes. Finally, you have to cut down the trees you planted.

I could write a poem or a PhD thesis or a book about this, just inspired by one sentence from a Singapore taxi driver. What pleasure from talking to stranger. I am an extravert and love talking to strangers. Maybe I should get a badge. If you get one, maybe one day I shall talk to you.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/i-talk-to-strangers-the-badge-campaign-encouraging-humans-to-actually-engage-with-one-another-a7319996.html

Mummy Preserved In Alp Ice Makes Italy's Bolzano A New Tourist Hotspot

The mummy was found more than two decades ago but new scientific discoveries are making it more interesting. The mummy, named Otzi after the Alpine area, the Oztal Alps, where he was found, can tell us:

1 He was killed by an arrow in his shoulder. A bit gruesome, but everybody in history died of something.
2 The pollen in his stomach tells us where he lived
3 His hardened arteries show this health issue was not only one from our modern times
4 Egyptian mummies had blood and stomach and brain removed so a natural mummy can tell us more
5 How do you preserve him now that he has been dug up and moved to a museum? With air con.

I never used to be keen on skulls and skeletons, although more realistic preserved bodies seemed less uncomfortable, without the ghoulish grin of the tooth revealing skull with its missing eyes and nose. However, in addition to the horrified fascination, one has the feeling that the man has achieved immortality.

Plus, above all, the history solving the mystery, and the wonders and scrupulous care of careful science painting a picture of life long ago. Offset against the inevitable revelation of the cause of death, are the revelations of the daily life. His last supper as ibex.

We know as well the comforts or clothes:
Leggings.
Goatskin.
Bear fur hat.

So often you have the joyful discovery of what would have been the wearer's pleasure and pride, their ornaments and possessions. I love the way the copper tools are described, with the axe compared to the iPhone of the day. Other people enjoy the peep into the past, almost like time travel.

Finally, the joy of the local tourist board, in Northern Italy, put on the map by the latest revelations.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3795815/25-years-Europe-s-oldest-human-mummy-Alps-scientists-say-amazed-learning-5-300-year-old-corpse.html

Adult fee 9 euros. Various discounts including fee reduced to 7 euros for seniors. Also: family tickets, tickets using local tourist cards.

South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
Bolzano / Bozen
Italy

Nearest airports are Verona and Innsbruck. The town is on a train line, then you catch a bus from the station. If you drive, park in the town centre car parks for which there is a fee.
I am surprised they are not more tourist friendly with a shuttle bus, or a car park fee reduction for people visiting the museum or vice versa. But the website helpfully gives you full directions.

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

Fun Facts For Everybody About Formula One, and Cars In California and Worldwide

Formula one race took place in Singapore yesterday, Sunday September 19 2016. Even if you have little interest in Formula one, and cannot see the race or attend it, you must have seen information on it in the newspapers or on TV.
How might it affect you?

1 You can watch the race if you can afford a ticket.
2 You can watch the race on TV.
3 You might have to avoid the area during the race time - I saw signs in advance warning of road closures and I took pictures of the signs.
4 You might have to listen to a family member telling you about the race.
5 You might be wondering whether it will be going ahead (what could stop it - the haze) and if it goes ahead, what's in it for you?
6 You can see pictures of the finish with fireworks online.
7 You can learn about the race and cars and its implications for cards worldwide.

Last year when I was in Singapore we were all worried about the F1 potentially being cancelled because of the haze. Cancellation would have been bad for the Singapore economy. Our friend who goes to the FI race for his birthday would have been disappointed.

Fortunately no haze this week this year - apparently the winds over Indonesia blew away the smoke from forest fires leaving lovely clear skies so everybody was breathing easy in Singapore. However,

FACT 1 DRIVERS ARE HOT
Yes I know that if you are a racing car enthusiast your favourite F! driver is 'hot' metaphorically, but drivers are physically hot. They can be inside a car up to two hours, driving around a circuit, strapped inside a car, going around a race track inside a car at high speed, one short stretch inside a tunnel.
It's hot inside the cars. It's so hot that the drivers have to drink water during the race. Some drivers ask for a reminder message to be sent that they should drink water.

FACT 2 WHEELS ARE CHANGED IN 2 AND A HALF SECONDS
Have you ever needed a wheel change? How long did it take? The F1 drivers who need a wheel change get it done in two and a half seconds.
Did I hear right? Surely that's twenty seconds - under a minute - really impressive.
Not twenty seconds, two and a half seconds!
How is that possible?

FACT 3 HOW THEY CHANGE WHEELS FAST
They have a man in front with the stop and go flag.
Car races in.
The jack - up man or men raise the car.
A team of people for removing wheels. One person with a large electrically driven rotating bolt turner to remove bolts from one wheel; later re-fix bolts on the next wheel. Four of those.
The wheel lifters. On each wheel, somebody to remove the released wheel; and somebody to replace with the new wheel.
After the wheel is lifted off -
The bolt or screw on machinery holders leaps forward.
After wheel is on - Four people raise a flag by each wheel.
When all four flags are raised the man with the stop-go flat raises his flag.
Driver roars off.

At the end the winners are announced and then the fireworks light up the skies.
If you are sitting at home you can see the fireworks on your screen.

It's over. So how does the knowledge of it benefit me or change my world?

One of my friends celebrated his birthday by going to the F1 race. You might buy somebody a ticket for their birthday.

FUEL in F1 cars
The braking in F1 cars is used to provide energy to re-charge the battery. Why? Because it's efficient and the manufacturers and organisers want to be seen as environmentally friendly.

This is the same system used in hybrid cars. They use braking energy to convert into power to keep the batteries going.

Did the F1 and racing car development necessarily cause the development of cars this way? My informant, (a racing car enthusiast in my family) told me that cars for the road and cars for the races were both probably working on the same idea and development independently. It's all a bit technical for me. If you want to know more, check it out on line.

CALIFORNIAN INFLUENCE
The idea of using brake energy to recycle energy for use by cars came from California where the laws about vehicle emissions prompted research and development of the use of less polluting of air from emissions from diesel and petrol (which Americans call gas).

BIRTHDAYS & FIREWORKS
So, now we have ideas for birthday presents, a glimpse of life in Singapore and Indonesia and how one affects another, how California influences cars production and cars on roads worldwide, and how racing cars and hybrid cars on our roads operate. I'm off to look at fireworks on line.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker

More On IO Italian Osteria Restaurant and Etna

What's Osteria? Hostelry, same word.


Etna - what's mount Etna? A Volcano. A friend tells me: "Sicily wouldn't exist without Etna. It's a volcano island." That explain a lot.

Service
Everybody rushes around. A bit confusing as two people may try to take your order and you want to be careful not to order twice. Another confusion was that we wanted a quarter bottle and one glass, not two glasses of wine but one empty glasses, and one glass of white wine.

Anna Borrasi a jolly lady, is Partner / Chief Operations Officer.
IO
#02-01-hillV2
Hillview Rise
website: io-osteria.com
IO Osteria@Hillview
Phone: 671071050
Two other restaurants on one of their business cards:
Etnaitalianrestaurant.com

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

Are You Baffled By Washbasins? Some secrets ... Trail and Error!

You go into the toilets at airport, hotels, restaurants and you need a degree in toilet design to find the toilets, lock the cubicle door, locate the soap, turn on the water to wash your hands.

PROBLEMS
1 First, where's the toilet?

2 You want to wash. How do you turn on the tap?

3 If the tap is hand operated, now that you've washed your hands, how do you turn off the tap without putting germs back on your fingers?

4 Where is the soap? How do you extract it?

5 Where have they hidden the towels? How do you get the hand dryer to start?

6 Where is the exit?

7 You have forgotten your comb. Or can't find it. What can you do?

8 No toothpick. No toothbrush.

FINDING THE TOILET - PROBLEMS
You are in a restaurant in Singapore. The toilet is down the corridor somewhere else in the mall. How do you find it?

You are in a Community Centre. Where's the toilet?

You are in a hotel. Where's the toilet?

You want an elegant and safe rest room in a foreign city. Where can you find one?

Here are some answers.

LOCATING TOILETS
1 Where is the toilet?
The first thing a traveller in a foreign country needs is the sign for the toilet.
Mostly toilets have signs. If you are lucky they have symbols.

CHINA
I once made a mistake in China. I copied down what I thought was the sign for Ladies. Next time I saw the sign I walked in confidently and quickly realised I was in the Gents. I had copied down the sign for toilets.

SINGAPORE
Go to the toilet first, everywhere. If you try to go to the toilet at the end of the break, you might get locked out of the conference room.

Community Centres for Community Clubs
I got locked out once at Yuhua Community Centre in Singapore. The toilets were one or two floors below. (Some places have gents on one level and ladies on the next alternating.)

The conference room was locked during contests and had a self-locking door which closed behind the last person. The contest organiser had the key and door was propped open or held open or opened from the inside.

In Singapore nowadays in community centres the ladies and gents are adjacent and the washbasins are shared. At a community centre in Singapore I was able to spot the toilets from afar by seeing the bucket and mop outside the door. On another occasion I just ran anti clockwise around the building until I found the toilets.

Trail and Trial
Yesterday, yet again, I was temporarily baffled in a shopping mall. But at least after much trail and error I can solve the problem. That funny pun on trial and trail came by accident from auto correct. I typed trial and error. Auto correct inserted trail and error.

If you are lucky, a building has toilets on every floor, gents near ladies, same location on each floor with ground floor busy with a queue and more space and cleanliness upstairs.

Some shopping centres have toilet in the basement food court and the top floor restaurant area. In Singapore many office buildings have toilets only accessible with a key.

If you are running a meeting, tell people where to find the toilets, the length of the meeting and when their will be an interval or when the audience can slip out to the toilet (eg between speakers). You don't want people leaving and disappearing forever.

In Singapore went to a property seminar in a tower block. At the end I rushed off to the toilet, 10th floor locked. So I went to the ground floor, also locked. So I ran next door to the Sheraton hotel.

By the time I got back I had lost the opportunity to network and exchange contacts. Similarly, so had the organisers lost me.

ASK OR COPY
TAP TRIALS
If all else fails, ask somebody else. Or watch what they do and copy it. If they are turning a tap clockwise and your tap is not turning, then your tap may be malfunctioning. After they finish, use the tap they used.

If they are turning the tap clockwise and it's working, whilst you are trying to push it in, downwards, with no success, you are malfunctioning.

There are a limited number of ways water spray can operate. You turn the tap clockwise. You move the lever or knob up and down. You push it left or right.

You move your hand up to operate a sensor below the tap. You move your hand down to operate a sensor lower down the basin.

You tread on a pedal under the basin. This system means you are not touching anything with your dirt hands. You cannot break the handle by pushing it the wrong way, nor wear off the pretty gold or silver colour plating.

Sometimes the clue is on the mirror. If you are looking at the basin or looking at your face in the mirror you may miss the sign. Look at the mirror. Check again further along the mirror for another sign.

Yesterday I found a sign for the towel after I washed my hands. Looking back, I realised I had missed the sign for the soap.

HIDDEN SOAP
Do you need soap? Yes, you do, even if your hands don't look dirty. I discovered that in Singapore in 2016. Signs reminded you to use soap, explaining that soap will kill more germs than water alone.

Sometimes, at motorway stops in the UK, I have been on the int of leaving the washroom after washing my hands, and then discovered a soap dispenser on the wall near the exit. Sometimes dispensers offer a gel (alcoholic?) which cleans your hands without the need to wash and rinse.

TOWEL
Why bother to dry your hands? Another reminder from Singapore is not to wave your hands about sending drops onto the floor. Other people may slip on a wet floor.

If there's no paper towel, there may be a blower on the wall.

If there's no blower, there may be paper towels under the mirrors. Two clues. An almost invisible sign on the mirror above your basin or at intervals along the mirror, sometimes above alternating basins. So the signs are not above your basin but above the basins to the right and left of yours.

SOAP
If you see nozzles, this shows there must be a soap dispenser, either full or empty. Move your hands and a colourful blob of gel will either land on your watch or miss your hand and land on the white basin. Wipe it off and use it and / or try again.

PULL OUT PAPER TOWEL
If you don't see a sign, or see a sign but don't understand the symbols, look under the mirror. You will either see the paper towel, the empty paper towel dispenser. If your paper towel dispenser is empty, look along the mirrors for another dispenser.

PAPER TOWEL DISPENSERS
If the paper in a high dispenser showed just a sliver of paper which won't descend or tear, however hard you try to grab and yank, don't drive yourself nutty pulling off tiny silvers of paper, nor risk breaking the machine. Look for instructions. You may need to hold your hands below the machine which then makes the paper descend automatically. You will hear a whir and an oblong of paper will descend, often perforated for you to pull it off neatly.

Not enough paper? Try again. This time you know what to do!

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

The Moon and the Mid-Autumn Festival

Mooncakes which you can buy all over the world on the Internet are made to celebrate the full moon at the mid-autumn festival. The date varies because it uses the lunar calendar.

It all sounds very abstract until you walk home at night in Singapore and see the moon shining overhead, as it has done for centuries.

At a Toastmasters International speakers club a member said that he felt it linked him to his relatives all over the world. As a child he thought everybody looked up at the same moon.

Somebody said that it depends which part of the world you are in. Now we have the internet we can all look at the same moon and celebrate snowy Christmas on a Christmas card online even if we are in Australia where the seasons are reversed. We can link to people in other parts of the world and traditions linking us to memories of our childhood and our grandparents and ancestors long ago.

The mooncakes which were once only eaten by the Chinese with friends and family are now available to every tourist and friend and business to share with colleagues and friends.

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

IO Italian Restaurant in Singapore for pasta and great desserts

IO Italian restaurant in Singapore still serves a huge range of Italian food and glasses of wine, especially desserts. Where is it? The IO Italian restaurant is on the upper level at HILLV2 near Hillview MRT station. You need to book a couple of days in advance to get a booking at the early sitting or late sitting on a Saturday night. But they do accept walk ins at the cross over point if they've got a table.

If you don't get in,you can buy the away food and drink and the upper level has Chinese and Indian restaurants with more down the escalators.

What's the decor? Wooden,

Atmosphere? Crammed with tables close together. But glass picture windows at the back. Huge, echoing, crowded on a Saturday night and humming.

We chose two pasta dishes.

DRINKS
The prosecco was so-so but they have a large range of drinks.

DESSERTS
Alas my favourite dessert (Cassata Siciliana - here made as a huge cake) was not on display. My dessert however had lots of ingredients. Take your choice of fruits or nuts or chocolate. The tiramisu in a lidded jar looked interesting but was mostly cream. I think the solid cheesecakes are a better bet. However, if you like your desserts moist, you might like to mix a creamy dessert with a dry solid one.

This place seems to suit everybody, groups, couples, families with children. Like many restaurants in malls in Singapore, you are expected to use the shared toilets outside in the mall on both levels.

Not much fresh fruit nor vegetables to be seen in what we chose. Next time I'll have a piece of fruit before leaving home. Nonetheless, a very pleasant evening.

IO Italian Osteria
4 Hillview Roade, 02-01HillV2 Singapore 5667979
Tel: +65 6710 7150
www.io-osteria.com

etnaitalianrestaurant.com

Crossrail - what's in it for you and me? Where will it be?

If you've been into central London in the last couple of years you might have noticed that Tottenham Court Road station at the west end of Oxford Street near Foyles bookshop and landmark Centrepoint skyscraper has been closed and cordoned off. Tottenham Court Road station is one of many which are being redeveloped.

Others include Farringdon.

I was excited to read that the new Elizabeth line will connect to places as far away and out of London as Reading. Not only that, journey times within London, for example from Tottenham Court Road to Heathrow airport will be quicker.

I was pleased to see one of the new stations has a floor to ceiling glass barrier, like the ones on some DLR (overhead light rail) platforms in East London. The ones in Singapore are wonderful. You know exactly where the train doors will be. You can form an orderly queue waiting on the platform behind the red lines either side of the doors.

The glass barriers also affect cleanliness, safety, and the on time trains. You cannot drop your phone, fall, push somebody onto the line, jump to commit suicide. So the trains are reliable. Less stress from delays and accidents. Good news all around.

I wish all the new stations were to be built like that. Unfortunately it appears that some are, some are not.

Several websites allow you to take a look at drawings of the new stations and the artworks.
http://www.crossrail.co.uk/news/news-and-information-about-crossrail-events

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and editor.

Mooncakes to try and buy in London, America and worldwide

Mooncakes in Singapore and Asia
I ate mooncakes in Singapore. (Cheaper in Taiwan, I was told.) The last time I tried them was at a meeting of the Bukit Batok Toastmasters Club at the Bukit Batok Community Club near Bukit Batok MRT station. The Sergeant at Arms asked everybody in the room to tell their best memories of eating moon cakes and celebrating the mid-autumn festival. The festival is celebrated in China, Hong Kong, Korea and Vietnam. Also look for mooncakes in Macau.

Lanterns
I had thought that the lanterns lit by candles were a danger and I was right. One member told us how he and his childhood friends had carefully carried lanterns but a gust of wind blew and as usual the lanterns caught fire. On this occasion the lanterns accidentally set fire to trees, "Fortunately in ht neighbour's garden - not ours!"

Nostalgically, the speakers regretted that nowadays lanterns are often lit by electronic lights. (From a health and safety point of view the modern method sounds much safer.)

Another speaker recalled how in the Sixties in Vietnam you often had power outages. The whole city neighbourhood was in darkness. Not only no lights in your own house and garden. No nearby skyscrapers, nor streets lights - unlike modern Singapore. So you had a spooky or romantic or olde worlde atmosphere. You could clearly see the large moon which the festival celebrates.

Get Together
The festival also causes the coming together of families. Like Christian and worldwide Christmas Day and the Jewish Passover or Seder Night, the festival means shared food, singing of traditional songs and reunion of families.

The Toastmasters Club had a mid-meeting interval where we had a chance to try both a sliver of the traditional baked mooncake and the colourful snow skin mooncake. We took a vote on which was preferred and the vote was almost equally divided.

England and America
I was thinking about where I could get mooncakes in London and the American continent and thought of all the Chinese restaurants worldwide and the Chinese restaurants in Chinese areas of London and Manchester in England, New York and West Coast America, and Vancouver in Canada.

Today I looked online for mooncakes in London and the USA. TripAdvisor told me that a visitor to London found the London prices four times the price in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Mooncakes Worldwide
Where can you buy mooncakes worldwide?
In Alphabetical order: China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, England.

Mooncakes in the USA
See and buy online in season in the USA from Kee Wah bakery in Los Angeles, California, USA:
https://www.keewah.us
Worldwide orders from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Kee-Wah-Bakery-White-Mooncake/dp/B005F7LXHM
http://www.chinatownology.com/mid_autumn_festival.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake
For more information and pictures of mooncakes, see my previous posts on mooncakes.

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

New Plans For Crossrail Trains and Stations In London; please copy Singapore and Hong Kong

Free event takes place in London on Friday September 23rd, at the Building Store in London showing plans for Crossrail. The new Elizabeth Line will open not next year but the end of the year after, December 2018. But here's a chance to see preview, and possibly influence the decisions. The line is set to link up London and transform stations from Haringey over in the east to Hillingdon in the West on the Heathrow side of London.

Major historic stations in central London will also be enjoying a re-fit. Streets now shrouded in scaffolding will emerge in their new glory, sparkling new and clean.

I am happy about the development, and hopeful that the new stations will provide state of the art artworks, entertainment, traditional history and modern design, and safety measures.


New pictures out of Crossrail plans. They are having a meeting in London to display the plans. Meanwhile, a few photos are online.

I looked at the escalators and felt nervous. We have had escalator accidents on London underground, in undergrounds and shopping malls in Singapore and China.

What are the causes? Children, drunks, daredevils, suicides, accidents. People caught in steps, falling, leaning, jumping, riding over rails, sliding down the handrails and edges. Teens and students sit on barriers chatting and eating ice cream or taking photos with legs having over concourses above stairwells and atriums.

Exits
I am also concerned about quick exit in the case of emergency, and signs to exits.

Singapore Safety Measures
Singapore has constant videos in four languages with subtitles on avoiding troubles. I watched videos about gaps, leaning on doors, getting bags caught caught in train doors.

Signs everywhere tell you how to alert staff, how to escape. (I did see emergency escape pictures on trains in Wales.

Singapore also has signs showing where to find alternative transport in an emergency.

Also signs to lifts for those with baby buggies, sticks, wheelchairs, suitcases on wheels.

Advantages Of New Stations and Routes
What is planned for Crossrail? You can visit their Facebook page.

In addition to the advantages for commuters, after the lull during building works shopkeepers will have more customers. People buying and selling property can expect that the new stations and train services will make property more saleable, quick sales, less stress, properties only empty briefly between sales and rentals, and prices for home owners and investors might rise.
In Singapore the development of the new train lines has been a delight. Good signs tell people to give up seats to the pregnant, and elderly.

The art on Hong Kong stations is wonderful.

I look for modern stations, shops and eating places on the move, free clean toilets. See my previous posts on stations in Hong Kong and Singapore and London.

Best station sights and sites?
London
Paddington
- see statues of Brunel;
and loving couple, not kissing goodbye but hello - the statue is called The Meeting;
Baker Street
- Murals of Sherlock Holmes inside Baker Street station and a statue of Sherlock Holmes outside.

Hong Kong:
The apple on the concourse at a station.
Videos on the airport express - like riding in a plane. All you need to add is a running commentary on the sights through the windows.

Singapore Stations (MRT)
Tanjong Pagar
- Modelled after Finland's Helsinki Central Railway station. Four statues outside. Inside, arched ceiling and six tall oblong coloured panels showing ships and houses and landscapes and the four characters and industries - like a cathedral but modern.

Little India
- Drawings of elephants on corridor walls.

Botanical Gardens
- Panels around entrance about the trees and plants in Singapore.

see www.remembersingapore.org (Tanjong Pagar station)

http://www.crossrail.co.uk/news/news-and-information-about-crossrail-events

See my posts on London stations, Welsh stations, stations in Hong Kong, and stations in Singapore.

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

Confusion With Foreign Words? Lost in France.

My parents drove into a town in Northern France and looked for a hotel. It was getting dark. They spied a large hotel, with a couple of lights still on. We drove around the one way system. By the time we found the entrance to the complex the last light was off except the one over the sign which read Hotel de Ville. Why had the City Hotel shut so early?

We found out later. It was not the city hotel. It was the town hall.

Lost in Translation in France. A little learning is a dangerous thing. Brush up your French with Duolingo, the free languages website.

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

Workers Without Bedding In Hong Kong, and Preventing Bed Bugs In Asia

Hong Kong's Time Square is one of the most expensive areas of Hong Kong (island). Yet in the high rise housing above the shops, you find a mixture of the poorest and richest.

Doorway Rubbish
A doorway with a rubbish filled stairwell suggests worse beyond. Yet the steps were painted with colourful flowers, now worn away.

The steps leads to the office of a smart business. Inside all is elegant.

Beyond that is the home of a friend of mine. Renovated. Very local.

My family had written to request accommodation. The owner asked, 'Would Angela like to sleep overnight on a yoga mat?'

Now the other family and mine are used to trekking up Everest and Kilimanjaro and spending nights in tents and hammocks, sleeping in hostels.

Sorry. I will sleep on a one star hotel or a youth hostel. But I gave up camping after my first experience at the age of 16 when we trekked uphill in the dark with torches past cows to toilets made of giant tin barrels. I do not camp on floors, unless I have a mattress.

My family replied on my behalf, that, 'No, Angela would prefer, expect a bed.'

With great rouble and ingenuity, specially for my visit, an IKEA wardrobe is turned on its side to form a bed base. The area is extended with more wood. A thin mattress is laid on top and a new set of matching sheets and pillows.

The window curtain is removed and fixed to a rail to create the side wall, a bit like a hospital bed. The base of the bed is concealed behind a wall improvised by another IKEA cupboard and a giant fridge.

En route, I passed the constantly open door of a group of workers who appeared to sleep in bunk beds with no bedding. Compared to them, we are in luxury.

I hesitated to take a photo. I should have got into conversation, asked where they were from, and taken a group photo, printed it for them on a friend's computer, or emailed my friend a copy, catching their surroundings to show you. I can't so I shall have to describe it.

All I need to say is that I could see the bare board floor, the wooden bunk beds with no bedding (reminiscent of those photos of Auschwitz) the bare board table, and workers perched on low wooden stools.

I had mixed reports about the other inhabitants of the building. One person told me, "People work on building sites. They are used to being surrounded by rubble. Pointless clearing it up - they will just make more mess next day."

Another person told me: "The workers are very good. They try to clear up. I've offered them a small tip to clear up. But people from outside tip stuff in."

Wooden Floors
I remained bothered by their lack of bedding. What about wooden floors? OK, everybody has wooden floors. Some people varnish the floors. Some people stain floors black. Wooden floors were the fashion. Carpets need sweeping and rugs must be bashed out by maids or cleaners or you. If you have carpets you must take off your shoes.

In the UK in my lat parents' home the rules were and still are that tenants must carpet their floors to prevent noise. What sort of noise? Footsteps. Furniture movement - such as dining chairs. Drawers shutting and wardrobe doors and room doors. Echoing of voices.

Noise
In Hong Kong the traffic outside creates such a din that most of the time you don't hear the people living and working above and below. You are more likely to hear people passing, clattering footsteps and talking on the concrete stairs outside beyond the front door which opens onto the living room or main room. Or the sounds from outside your open window of the shouting revellers, clattering carts, horns of cars and taxis, tooting traffic and trundling trams. And the clattering of rain on metal roofs, cars, awnings, and metal rubbish bins all around.

Donating Bedding?
As you can imagine, I am not happy about the way the workers are obliged to live. Surely I or somebody else can obtain a job lot of sheets and pillowcases for them.

Would they be grateful? I can see that they might not want the nuisance of tablecloths, nor rugs to trip over. But would they want bedding?

When I arrived back in Singapore, I told a friend about the beds with no bedding. Her view was totally unexpected.

"They won't want bedding," she said. "It attracts bed bugs. Even if you give them new bedding, it soon becomes infected. The bed bugs would get in their clothes and bite everybody."

Getting Rid Of Bed Bugs
She sighed, "It's dreadful trying to get rid of bed bugs. We brought them back from a five star hotel. Bugs got into everything: the bedding, all our clothes, the curtains, tablecloths, behind the furniture, everywhere. We had to throw out all our clothes.

"Now, when we go on holiday, I buy a new set of sheets and pillowcases and even pillows. At the end of the holiday I throw them away."


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

Last Chance To Buy Mooncakes? Dash to Singaporean Centres

Mooncakes were displayed at a pop up counter in the grand lobby atrium of the Sheraton Towers Hotel in Singapore where I attended at meeting of the Toastmasters Club of Singapore. The speakers group was meeting, as usual on the first three Mondays of the month, above the hotel lobby, but I could not resist stopping to try a sample of mooncakes and pick up a leaflet.

The mooncakes were made by the chefs of the Cantonese Li Bai restaurant, which is in the basement level of the Sheraton Hotel. What does Li Bai mean? Li Bai was a famous Tang dynasty poet who lived in the 700s, to be exact 701-762, so he died having reached the grand age of 60. Did he eat well? Did he eat mooncakes? When were they invented? I don't know if he ate well but it seems he drank well, inspired to write more than 1000 poems which are still in the syllabus for Chinese schoolchildren today.

Li Bai, or Li Bo, the poet, was fond of wine, and the Li Bai restaurant leaflet shows vodka beside a mooncake. Li Bai, legend says, drowned after falling out of a boat trying to grab the reflection on the moon in the water.

The cover of the leaflet shows how the snow skin coloured mooncakes can be prettily presented. You can serve one (pink) mooncake in the saucer centre of a white lattice mini plate. Two contrasting colour mooncakes (they show yellow and green) can be served on a larger white plate.

A single white mooncake, or two or more can be presented on a silver edged larger plate, eaten with a modern slender silver pastry fork with a handle shaped like a slim pencil.

Mooncakes in Singapore are elaborate and you can buy them in pretty cardboard or metal boxes or wooden boxes which can be saved for keeping trinkets or costume jewellery, stationery, precious photos or paper, displayed in a glass cabinet, or whatever you like. The most expensive of this restaurants' boxes, a wooden box containing four pieces costs $168 (Singapore dollars - about £84!) are elegant gifts for esteemed clients.

According to the leaflet, mooncakes are available from 15 August until 15 September 2016 (the festival dates following the lunar calendar used by the Chinese as well as traditional Jewish and Muslim calendars).

The moon cakes have been sold at:
Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant
15 August - 15 September 2016
11.30 am to 10.30 pm

Sheraton Towers Singapore Hotel Lobby
15 August-15 September 2016
11 am - 9.30 pm
(Nearest MRT railway station Newton)
Pictures of the hotel in my previous posts

Takashima (city centre department store in Ngee Ann City on Orchard Road)
13 August - 15 September
10 am to 10 pm

Tampines Mall (Green East-West line, four stops from Changi airport, change at Tanah Merah)
31 August to 14 September

Jurong Point (in the west of the island)
29 August - 14 September 2016
9.30 am to- 10.30 pm

Change Alley
15 August to 15 September 2016
10 am - 7 pm (weekdays only)

Pick up a leaflet. After the event, you can read about the mooncake selection and plan your tastings and purchases for next year.

www.sheratonsingapore.com
More about mooncakes in my previous posts.

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