It's Raining? Is your umbrella broken? Have you lost it? What you do is ...

Hiking near Brasov, Romania.

After the rain stopped, it was sunny, but with puddles. 

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I always pack a small folding umbrella on holiday. Small, so that I can take it everywhere, including in a smaller bag for an evening out in a restaurant. But small umbrellas are not windproof. 

My small umbrella quickly broke on the strong winds. So I borrowed a man's umbrella. I went walking, armed with a medium sized folding umbrella to hide behind when we went hiking in Romania, because the hiking trails in Romania had no toilets. You cannot carry a big umbrella whilst walking with the aid of two pointed sticks. 

It didn't rain all the time in Romania, on my hiking holiday. I was forced to go on the walk because the sun came out. But the rain left puddles, completely across the path in two or three places. One large puddle had already provided a home for yellow-bellied frogs. I'd never seen wild frogs that close. It was one of the highlights of the walk.

I saved my umbrella to get it repaired in London. But the repair was the price of two umbrellas.

James Smith & Son, Umbrella shop in London, England, selling and repairing umbrellas. Photo from Wikipedia.

Buying Umbrellas
I love buying umbrellas. I have an umbrella with a Union Jack on it. It frequently rains when I am on holiday. I once want to a country which claimed to have rain only five days a year, but they were the days I was there.

Here we are in Brasov in Romania in the Rain.

Umbrellas in the rain in Romania, photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I thought these umbrellas were for shade from the sun in daytime. 

Here I am, in the rain, in Brasov, Romania, in the smallest street, with an umbrella protecting my mobile phone as I try to take photos in the rain.

These people are on a walking tour, in the rain. In Romania. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Problem - Repairs
Where can you get an umbrella repaired?

I thought there was an umbrella repair shop in London. At one point I thought it was closing down. Maybe they were just on holiday. They opened up again. What is the cost of repairing an umbrella? Somewhere, Glasgow I think, there's a recycling centre which teaches people to repair anything and everything and sells broken good once repaired to charity. 

French Umbrella Repair Shop There are videos on youtube for repair but not the bits I want to repair. Would the French shop fix umbrellas if you posted them? What's the cost of posting an umbrella? 

Singapore's Umbrellas
Singapore has two seasons. In rainy season it rains all day for at least three days solidly and the rain seems to bounce up the knee level. In the other season the sun is out in the mnonring to fool you, then hits you in the afternoon when you plan to go for a swim and often keeps going until time to go home when all the taxis have busy signs. Luckily there's Uber. The trick is to live near the underground stations. 

Singapore has a plan to build covered ways all over the island, from the stations along the main road and to the schools. Then the children won't get their boots and books wet.

 I always pick up broken, abandoned umbrellas. In Singapore, when you think, oh dear it's raining and I have no umbrella and you are nowhere near the shops, a couple of times I have retrieved a broken umbrella. 

I picked up one to get to the station. Once through the station barrier, I tried to fold the umbrella but it was jammed. I felt a right twit on the train. I was blocking the aisle. Somebody gave me a seat. I put it, still open, down by my feet with my bag inside it. 

I smuggled it into the house. Where to hide it? I hid it, still opened in the shower.

Eventually, somebody cut a spoke to let it down.

I like to keep pretty, broken umbrellas in the hope that I can re-use the fabric to replace the fabric on another umbrella which has rust along the fabric over the spokes. But it's hard to get the fabric off without tearing it. So I never do.

Wikihow sometimes has repair advice. But it's always how to replace the handle when your trouble is attaching the spokes, or replacing those bits that fit on the end of the spokes. 

Sometimes I can sew the fabric through the hole at the end of the spoke, but if the spoke has broken at the end I have not yet found a solution. I once thought of trying to attach a needle to the spoke with glue, but after I had glued my fingers to the spoke, then held the needle to the spoke for ten minutes, the needle still fell off, so that seemed too dangerous. 

Have you had any luck repairing umbrellas?

Useful Websites:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-43007051/i-fix-umbrellas-to-save-the-world

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-38473422/umbrella-sends-distress-alert-when-left-behind

https://www.james-smith.co.uk 
(Sells new umbrellas and repairs your old ones.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Also see
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/rain-in-singapore-good-and-bad.html

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