Cemeteries, Mausoleums and Memorials You Should Visit

Who goes to visit mausoleums? Actually a lot of people. The Taj Mahal is one of India's prime attractions.
Some of the best known and popular graves and cemeteries and memorials for tourists to visit include

Taj Mahal, India. Photo from Wikipedia.

places I have visited - these include:
Hampstead and Highgate cemeteries in London;
The Menin gate in Belgium;
Normandy battlefields and cemeteries and memorials (each time we drive through);
Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.

Even without intending to, you pass the hilltop cemetery in Hong Kong.

On my wishlist:
El Alamein in Egypt where my mother's first husband is commemorated. (I am the daughter of her second husband. Yes, I checked the dates to be sure.)

My Favourite Fun Gravestone:
Spike Milligan's humorous reproachful, "I told you I was ill".

Here's a handy list of popular places:
UK
London, England:
Highgate Cemetery (Karl Marx and tours)
Kendal Green Cemetery
Hampstead Cemetery
Scotland
Glasgow hilltop cemetery
St Ives peaceful hilltop cemetery

Austria
Graves of Musicians in Vienna.

Belgium
Menin Gate.
Lists the missing with no known grave. Last post played at sunset.

France
Paris:
Pere Lachaise
Montmartre:
Heinrich Heine
Normandy:
Take tours of battlefields and memorials

India
Taj Mahal

USA
Washington DC
Arlington.
Al Jolson.
Elvis, Graceland.
Cowboy graves in the Wild West.

Germany
Belsen:
Anne Frank.
Mendelssohn

Hong Kong
Seen from the airport train, hilltop Chinese cemetery.

Poland
Auschwitz
Huge statue of Chopin in Warsaw park.

Photo by Arne List in Wikipedia.

Turkey
Gallipoli

Egypt
El Alamein memorial and cemetery

Useful Websites
Find a grave
https://www.findagrave.com/
El Alamein
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1966588
visitbritain.com

Tips
www.ancestry.com

https://www.ancestry.com/dna/

http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records-in-census-land-and-surveys/and_census

https://blogs.ancestry.co.uk/cm/diary-of-a-dna-test/

Singer Freddie Mercury of Queen, a Zoroastrian:

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/02/freddy-mercury-brookwood-cemetery-and.html
German-Jewish Poet Heinrich Heine

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/02/where-to-see-statues-and-memorials-to.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Funerals: who should attend? what should you wear?What more can you do?

The Taj Mahal, India. © Yann Forget in Wikipedia

Do you visit graves and mausoleums of people you don't know? Millions visit the Taj Mahal, every year. Do you like attending funerals? Many people flew across the world to attend the funeral of Princess Diana, even though they had never met her, nor any of her family.

However, others won't or can't attend the funerals of family and friends. Some people just don't like funerals. Why?

Distress
The upset at losing somebody.
The reminder that we are all mortal.
Seeing the family looking tearful.

Confusion
The confusion of not knowing relatives from friends.
Not knowing what to say.
Not knowing what to wear.

Black Catholic Dress Code
A year or two ago, never forgotten, I turned up in a black and white patterned jacket at an all-black Catholic funeral in the UK. I had to drop to my knees behind the pew in front and reverse my jacket. Luckily it had a black lining.

Timing of Funerals and Flights
This year, 2019, some of my family just changed their flights specially to attend a funeral in London. We had weeks of pre-funeral uncertainty over this. My flights were redemption flights which cannot be changed without paying a premium. So we kept postponing the booking of my flights. Finally, after a couple of months of waiting, we booked my flight. Then we were told the date of the funeral.

Jewish And Muslim Fast Funerals
By contrast, Jewish and Muslim funerals happen fast, so fast you sometimes risk missing them. Traditionally funerals would happen fast because bodies go off in the heat.

I recall a Muslim friend of mine who was angry with her religious authorities who wanted the funeral of her grandparent to take place so quickly that she would not be able to get there. She needed to take a round the world flight from Singapore, allowing a few hours to spare in case of any flight delays.

She had lots of things to arrange. Not just the flight for three people when planes were full in high season. Packing for the children. She was pregnant and needed a doctor's letter for the airline saying she was safe to fly and would not give birth in mid-air.

Jewish Orthodox Tradition
I attended one Jewish funeral, years ago, when somebody I knew pointed out that I was wearing black leather trousers. Both leather and trousers were considered unsuitable. However, the mourners made no comment on my clothes and said they were very glad I attended.

More recently I attended an Orthodox funeral. To me any synagogue which is not Liberal or Reform sounds Orthodox. Best to ask the dress code. I was surprised that peole were wearing mixed black and colours and colours. Only the immediate family wore all black. That way you could identify the immediate family.

My wearing all black caused confusion. Three people assumed I was one of the daughters. They told me, "So sorry to hear about your father". Since my own father had died recently, that caused even more confusion.

Christian Delayed Funeral
Contrasting with Jewish and Muslim funeral which take place fast, Christian funerals can be delayed endlessly. Recently we kept waiting weeks for news. 'Will it be a quick family service only, with a public memorial service six months or a year later?'

After weeks of uncertainty, my family not booking return fights, the date was been announced. it turned out that the widow, who also lost their son earlier the same year, had taken events badly, and had been yo-yoing in and out of hospital and nursing homes.

Time Off Work
I heard that my family were disappointed that only about thirty people turned up. None were noticeable from the deceased man's workplace, which was a bank.

I can see that an important institution cannot have double figures of people taking the day off, whether as paid leave or as holiday allowance. However, I think one person as representative of the company should go.

Back To Work
I have been to events where people who are working attended the service, then disappeared.

I asked, "Why did they leave so early? Why didn't they stay for the reception? Everybody was invited!"

"They could not take the whole day off work." So they attended only the late morning service, not the family get together over lunch food afterwards.

Others might miss the religious service, but come to the house after work to console the family by ensuring they are not alone and lonely.

There is the last minute hunt for the black clothes, the shoes, the socks, cuff links, change jewellery. When my mother in law was in her nineties, I had a black dress and matching hat hanging on the far right of the wardrobe, ready for her funeral or anybody of her generation. I was prepared.

Sometimes the deceased person themselves asks for no fuss. Freddie Mercury was one. You cannot see a grave for him. Only a plaque.

Plaque to Freddie Mercury in Feltham, London, England.

And statues of Freddie.

Statue of Freddie Mercury in Montreux, Switzerland.

To allow the ground to settle over a grave, only several weeks after the funeral, a heavy headstone is set up.

In Singapore I learned that there the Indians have no idea what a gravestone means. I gave a talk, ending with a picture of Spike Milligan's humorous headstone message, in Gaelic to thwart restrictions. The English translation is: I told you I was ill.

Indian Cremations
The Indians had cremation, but no headstone. So don't assume that all family, friends and colleagues will understand what is required.

Distant Relatives
At one funeral in London, an ipad was set up so that family in Australia could watch the event and join and and speak to those attending.

Records
For anybody who misses the event, you can keep a copy of the funeral oration, or the obituary in the local newspaper, to post on to wellwishers.

Traditionally, funeral directors and tombstone suppliers have cars which they sell, announcing a funeral, or thanking those who attended.

Another record is to list your deceased family member's gravestone or obituary on find-a-grave, ancestry, or one of the memorial websites.

Useful Websites
find a grave
visitbritain.com

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See other posts and next post on cemetery visits. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Why Buy An Elegant Vietnamese national Dress? '' áo dài " Which Weight And Style?

Trump went to Vietnam in February 2019, to meet Kim Jong-Un, staying in the North at Hanoi.

Vietnamese flag.

Photo of high school girls on bicycles in the capital, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly called Saigon) in the south. Photo by Brian Jeffery Beggerly, in Flickr, used in Wikipedia article on Vietnamese dress.

Why White?

You will see people wearing the traditional dress. White might seem impractical, but it is favoured by schools, hospitals, the police and organizations who want everybody to look clean and smart. 

Washing White

Do you want to wear an all-white outfit when travelling? Some outfits come with two pairs of trousers so you can wash one whilst wearing another. Or you could strike a bargain for buying two complete outfits.

Labels

The other thing to look for is a label saying the outfit can be washed. Some of the heavier embroidered evening dresses say dry clean only. Others say do not wash and do not dry clean!

If you just want to photograph the national dress, you will see girls posing on the bridges around the lake by the old city in Hanoi in the north.

If you go to Vietnam and have spare time, you are sure to do some shopping. From Hanoi on the way to scenic Halong Bay, coaches and cars make a toilet, refreshment and shopping stop at vast out of town shopping complexes which sell food, clothes, paintings, jewellery, handbags, dresses.

If you want to grab a silk outfit costing double or triple figures, you will find racks of them.

Halong Bay Motorway Shopping Stops

On the drive north I was taken aback by being dropped at a huge factory complex with painters, embroiderers, racks of clothes, bags, paintings, a coffee shop and restaurant, and toilets. Why delay my arrival at Halong Bay? However, the delay did not matter. When we reached our destination, the different buses and taxis had to wait until the last taxi arrived before catching the launch out to the large cruise ship.

If I had bought an outfit on the way up, I could have worn it for photos, selfies, at evening dinner, on the cruise around scenic Halong Bay.

On the way back I was looking forward to the stop, with no rush to reach the destination. 

An hour went past. Then another hour. I asked, "Where is the shopping mall stop.?

"Ahead. Not yet."

Half an hour later, I asked again and got the reply, 

"We have gone past it."

I was furious. I said,

"Then turn back, or stop at another one."

The driver muttered to the accompanying people who spoke some Vietnamese.

"He says that if we stop, we might get caught in traffic and be late back."

I replied,

"I have paid for a three day guided tour. This afternoon I have not seen a single landmark, nor heard the name of any city we passed. I want to buy a souvenir. More urgently I need a toilet, so we have to stop somewhere. No I don't want to crouch behind a bush. I want a toilet in a hotel or shopping mall so I can wash my hands."

We stopped at a shopping complex. I went straight to the dresses area.

Sleeveless or Sleeved?

I asked an assistant, "Why are these two similar outfits different prices?"

"One has sleeves, the other no sleeves."

Ah, so sleeveless is cheaper. For me the deciding factor was that my upper arms were too wide to fit comfortably and not risk tearing the seams. Sleeveless dressed were more flexible. 

That evening we went shopping in Hanoi's old quarter. The cheaper clothes at everyday prices, are in the little shops in Hanoi's old town. What to look for?

Mandarin Or Other Collars?

The traditional Mandarin collar is distinctive and looks right in Asia. However, a conventional neckline might take you more places.

Vietnamese National Dress  

Fabric Weight
A light-weight floating áo dài - Viietnamese national dress for women. You can buy day or evening wear in various fabrics and styles. Choose thicker fabric to hide your bumps and curves. A stiff fabric for formal evenings (a bit like choosing the thicker stiffer Thai silk).

Silk
Alternatively, if money is no object, smooth and sexy silk looks classy and elegant. 

Synthetics
A cheaper version comes up in synthetic fabrics such as polyester which is washable and hard wearing, good for regular daytime use if you make it your standard wear on holiday.

At Christmas 2018 the weather changed from summer to winter overnight. 

The shops stock clothing for all weathers.

Rails of clothes hang outside shops in the old quarter.

Colourful Vietnamese lanterns outside an Old City shop. This is the sort of place where you will see paintings of girls wearing the traditional national dress.

A view over the old quarter from one of the better rooms at our Japanese-owned hotel. Each street in the Old Quarter will have several hotels which look one room wide, and extend upwards for five or more storeys. Government ministers stay out of the crowded Old City at large, secluded hotels. the advantage of these small hotels is the price, and the fact that you have the Old City to explore outside your door.

Advantages Of Co-ordinated Outfits
An ankle length outfit makes you look taller and pencil shape, even if you are not tall but on the shorter size. Asians wear outfits with matching trousers and scarves, much more put together. A matching fabric, and does not cut you in half into two squares like jeans or skirts with odd tops. If you arrive in the unflattering Western 'separates, you will find the Asian outfits make you look good.

Version For Men
A similar version for men is made of heavier fabric.

Repeated Patterns We found the same range of colours and styles in several shops around the old town. If you check the business cards this is not surprising. A shop owner may have another branch in the next street. If you want a larger or smaller size, they have stacks of them in cupboards or shelves below and above or at the back. 

Old alleyways link the streets and are used for storage.

They may even send an assistant out the back to get you another size. On one occasion they assistant came back ten to twenty minutes later. When I left I asked for the business card and learned they had other shops nearby. I realised they had run out of the back entrance and along an alley behind the shops to their other shop.

Bargain
It is worthwhile trying to bargain if you don't like the price or want to buy two or three for yourself or friends.

Choose Your Favourite Fabric Weight
Although I liked the lightweight outfits, they showed my bulges and underwear lines - bra straps and bumps for the fastening, slips, visible panty line. I found the darker, heavier fabric concealed what was underneath, flattered me - and my budget. 

Underwear
On an evening out you might wear a one piece undergarment which smoothes, such as a Spanx. However, I did not want to wear a constricting undergarment all day on holiday, doing lots of walking, and leaping on and off the high steps of buses.

However, the heavier fabric was too constricting, tight, and hot, when I reached hot and humid Singapore. 

By the time I got back to London I had forgotten my new dress. So, plan where you will be wearing your purchased outfit, whether on holiday, back home, day or evening, for a special occasion, fancy dress, or when giving a talk about your travel destination.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

What to see at City Hall MRT and the Padang in Singapore

City Hall MRT escalators bring you up outside a shopping mall with a large Starbucks and McDonald's where you can meet your friends, but if the weather is clear there's plenty to see outside.

Facing the road, you see the padang in front of you. The Padang, a Malay word, is not a paddy field, more like a playing field. In the old days National Day parades and other events would be held here in front of city hall. (In the UK, you will more often find a 'town hall' on the main square or green.) The dignitaries would be watching from seats set up in from of the City Hall.

Nowadays (2019) you can see people on the Padang racing around, desite the heat and humidity, energetically playing all kinds of sports.

Notice the Characterful Cricket Club
To your right is the Cricket Club, a low building with attractive orange roof tiles. Across the road from it is another building with orange roof tiles and a white tower, the old Vic theatre. Nowadays live performances are usually held at the larger and modern stadium just along the road.

See Singapore Recreation Club building
On the opposite side of the padang to the cricket club is the Singapore Recreation Club. In front of the SRC is a small fountain and an account of the club's history. As you walk up the  road towards the SRC, you come to a dogleg double road crossing. To your left is the Swisshotel. In the distance, framed by trees, is the cricket stump silhouette of the magnificent triple tower Marina Bay Sands, one of Singapore's main landmarks.

The SRC is a members' club with a swimming pool. Sometimes the ground floor conference room is rented to other organizations. I have been there two or three times to the SRC Toastmasters Club. The SRC has a bar where you can sit looking out across  the grassy padang, watching the tennis and the team sports. Inside is a swimming pool, open to visitors for a fee. So, if you know somebody who is a member, accept any invitation offered, work out what it will cost them or you, and enjoy.

In a case in the hall they have on sale long full size umbrellas at a reasonable price in assorted colours.

MRT Stations Nearby
Pick up a copy of the free MRT map which is is a rack by the window of the ticket office in most stations. On the back is a mini map headed Approximate Walking Time Between Stations Nearby.

The brisk walker who devised this map for hurrying commuters claims that you can walk to Esplanade on the yellow circle line in five minutes, or Bras Basah in only seven minutes. If you find yourself between City Hall and the other big train hub Raffles Place, note that it is only a ten minute walk from Raffles Place to Chinatown.

To change from the blue Downtown line to the Yellow circle line go to Promenade.

Promenade MRT station platform mural. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Useful Websites
singaporeair.com
visitsingapore.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Fun, filling Food From The Philippines: Chicken, Jollibee and Adobo

I went to a speech contest in Singapore help by Filcom, a Toastmasters International Group. I learned about Jollibee and Adobo.

Jollibee
Jollibee is a Philippine food company, 'one of the fastest growing companies in the world!' said one of the girls, proudly. I was already familiar with the name, but had not realised that it began, came from, the Philippines. In 2019 they had more than 2019 stores, franchising, I presume, helping the rapid expansion.

Photo by Ramon F Velasquez in Wikipedia in article on Jollibee.

The Jollibee, the mascot, is a bee wearing a chef's hat.

Adobo
That night at the Filcom Toastmasters meeting, the question for the impromptu speech was:
If you had the ingredients; chicken, soy sauce and vinegar, what would you make and why?

Almost everybody started, "These are the ingredients for adobo, the Philippine national dish."

Afterwards I went online to look up the recipe. It turns out that you can use pork or fish instead, but the all time favourite, all over the country, or at least in the capital, seems to be chicken.

The word adobo comes from the Spanish for sauce or marinade.The vinegar would originally have been a way of preserving food in the heat. the vinegar could be coconut vinegar, or cane vinegar. You can also have a vegetarian adobo. The flavour is a mixture of salty, and sweet and sour.

In Latin America you get an adobo with different local ingredients.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Philippine_dishes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jollibee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_adobo

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Retire to a Hotel? Or A Cruise?

A UK HOTEL
Mrs Thatcher spent her last days in the Ritz Hotel, in London.

The Ritz Hotel, London. Photo by Dickbauch in Wikipedia.

Could we do the same, spending less?

Retiring to a hotel was done by elderly people years ago in the UK. I visited Peebles Hydro in Peebles, Scotland. They had one elderly resident who had been staying there for years. She was the last of several.

The hotel planned to stop offering long-term accommodation. As they upgraded the hotel and raised prices, they felt they could not raise the room rate annually beyond the original budget and force out the resident who was on a fixed pension.

HOTELS
Advantages of Hotels
I can see the advantages of a hotel when you are fit and active. In fact, the swimming pool and gym of a hotel, and constant company and stimulus, could help you postpone dementia and depression. Ideal for the widow or widower who wants company.

Friendly Faces
What if you like familiar faces? You could move into adjacent rooms with a spouse or a friend. You could choose interconnecting rooms.

USA
Jewish Complex
When I lived in the USA, in Washington DC I visited a Jewish complex which had a residential home for the elderly linked by a walkway to an activity complex. the general building contained meeting rooms, a swimming pool and a library.

The complex was run like a country club. If you did not (yet) have a relative in the retirement home, you needed to invest in a single, couple or family annual membership to use the swimming pool. The families could visit on a Sunday morning where you could buy a bagel brunch beside the pool and read the free newspapers.

The advantages for residents included kosher food, sing-songs and activities.

DANGERS & DEMENTIA
Our relative, when widowed, had stayed in a block of one bedroom flats with a warden and weekly activities.

Retirement homes usually have emergency bells or regular checks on vulnerable residents.

We moved her into a retirement home which provided all meals when were living overseas and she started falling. It was not safe for her to be alone.

DEMENTIA
The situation got more urgent when she went missing.  Her doctor advised us to call the local hospitals. For security reasons, the hospital would not tell me, the daughter-in-law, whether she was in the hospital.

We asked the doctor to check. Then my son, who was her grandson, and as a blood relative had more rights than I did, was able to get the information and visiting hours. She was released into his care.

She had checked herself into the hospital, which she thought was a hotel.

Retirement homes usually have emergency bells or regular checks on vulnerable residents.

NURSING HOMES
Nursing homes offer extras. For example, staff to help you dress, clean your teeth, and change the diaper (UK nappy) for the incontinent. They also supervise the taking of medication.

On the other hand, you can get health visitors to do daily visits or twice a day visits if you are living at home in London. Would they visit if you lived in a hotel?

FREE TRANSPORT
Currently (2019) London offers free transport to the elderly although they are considering removing that bonus.

I like the idea of using an airport shuttle bus for free transport and a change of scene, to try new restaurants.

Many big hotels offer free shuttle buses to major shopping centres.

HAPPY HOTELS!
To sum up, so long as you have your wits about you, you might consider retiring to your favourite hotel group. If you register as a frequent guest, they might give you upgrades and birthday cakes. The happy hour could keep you happy.

CRUISES
Other elderly people have sold up their home and gone on round the world cruises. What entertainment do you get? Daily dancing. Food and exercise. Entertainment programmes. Sport. Lots of company. See the world, without having to fly or pass medicals to fly.

SAVINGS & DISCOUNTS
You can also get discounts at some hotels for seniors. Some cities offer reduced price travel for seniors. you can get discounts at many hotels in the USA with membership of the AAA (American Automobile Association), the military and various other deals and discounts.

If you are looking for a hotel with extras:
Seaside hotels
Mountaintop hotels

I religiously read through five pages of comments. One person thought that you had to check out of a hotel on day 2 because otherwise the hotel is subject to landlord-tenant laws.

USEFUL WEBSITES
https://www.extendedstayamerica.com/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6743907/Man-says-hell-spend-golden-years-Holiday-Inn-not-nursing-home.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

What Trump and Kim Jong-Un Should See In Hanoi and Vietnam

Vietnam flag from Wikipedia.

I was in Hanoi at the New Year and here are my top picks:

1 ROMANTIC CRUISE
Take a trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay. Cruise through the green outcrops of rock reflected in the water.(The technical term is limestone karsts.)  Luxurious small and large cruise ships provide enough luxury, privacy and security. They can sit at tables for two watching the scenery go by.

2 LAKE WALK
Kin Jong-Un enjoyed a walk about in Singapore. Hanoi has two lakes you can walk around. On festive occasions the area is made pedestrian-only and car-free.

3 LUXURY HOTEL
A lakeside hotel with suites offering lake views would be just the thing.

4 SHOPPING
Will their wives be with them? No. But Kim Jong-Un's sister was seen alighting from the train. She might buy for herself and other members of the family, a great souvenir, a made to measure dress, the traditional Vietnamese tunic, knee length of longer, with slit slides and a long scarf and matching trousers. In silk, of course. (I bought one ready-made, in black and red.)

áo dài - Viietnamese national dress for women.

WHAT NOT TO DO
Prison Museum.
Too much anti-French and anti-American text and pictures. They would need a diplomatic guide to steer them past the early days of fighting and imprisonment towards the statue of the Vietnamese revolutionary leader and reconciliation.

Ho Chi Minh

CROSSING THE ROADS
You need an escort and the road closed. Otherwise the scooters come at you from all directions. If renovators can quickly fill in a few potholes, that would help.

Late Update on Hanoi Hotels:
Trump - probably staying at the J W Marriott
Kim Jong-un - Melia Hanoi Hotel
Summit destination: Sofitel Legend Metropole

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

How To Lay Lino When Renovating and Renting Or Renting Out

Laying carpet and lino is easy. Easier than you might think.

I watched the carpet layers. Roll it out along the edge of the room. Get out a Stanley knife and cut.

Fasten the sides and under-door strips with the metal strips sold for that purpose.

The fastening strips have upright spikes to grip the underside of the carpet. Three holes for nails or screws allow the strip to be attached to the floor.

Should you lay new lino over old?  One person says, "That's amateur." I disagree.

You are sure of a soundproof and soft undersurface.

Rip it up, and you may find it is attached with glue so you spend hours trying to remove it and get lumps left behind.

To flatten the floor you would have to hire a heavy machine which could damage your doorways, steps, cupboards, bathroom fittings.

How to fit around bathroom fittings? Easiest is to use carpet tiles or line tiles. Take a piee of newspaper and draw around the baths and basins on the reverse. Cut to fit and adjust your pattern. use the pattern to transfer the lines to the underside of the carpet. Be sure any mirror image pieces are the right way around.

Add bathroom mats to conceal any gaps and be sure drips are caught by the mats or carpet and not forming mould.

Or should you rip lino up and start again - doubling the price?

If you have read my previous posts on laying driveways and carpet, you will know I am suspicious of any attempt to double the price after the work has started. I also don't like the damage and dust.

Which Colour - Light Or Dark?
What of the colour? Colours go in fashions.

The current fashion is for dark colours. Grey granite wet rooms. Dark tiles.

I hate them. I have great wall tiles and grey bathroom tiles in Singapore. The place always looks like it has mould. You never know if it is clean.

Grey is depressing, the least popular colour is many surveys. I like white.

Clean white. Hospital white. Healthy white.

Clean Cups?
I learned long ago that you can see if your tea cup or coffee cup is clean if it is white. Brown or grey inside a cup or mug is a disaster, a health risk.

Carpeted Bathroom?
In London I wanted to use spare carpet for the bathroom. What with men and boys not aiming at the toilet, or dripping, children splashing in the bath. The flat dwellers did not like that idea. They thought lino would keep cleaner and be quicker to clean.

Advantage of carpet? Lee likely to break a dropped glass tumbler used for leaning teeth. Less likely to slip and fall - good for the elderly and children. If you do fall, a soft landing. Warm underfoot at night or day.

HELP!
Big DIY stores have leaflets you can consult whilst working. The YouTube videos train you and tell you what you need to buy. You might not have thought of knee pads. Or testing for damp on the floor, or turning off the bathroom heating the day before.

Wash the floor the day before - and the toilet as you will be kneeling next to it.

Many people comment that, unless you are a hospital, no need to glue down all the vinyl. Also it is easier to remove later if you do not glue it all over. Just use the double-sided tape at the edge.

You might need either a buddy or a stick to help unroll a long sheet of vinyl.

In Singapore in the bedrooms and living areas we have vinyl imitation wood tiles - long oblongs like planks, which slot together. Near doorways they slide apart and leave gaps. You would get around the problem of gaps by having a one piece imitation wood roll of lino.

B & Q UK has this helpful video
UK Video on Laying Lino in Bathroom
(Most of what they show applies anywhere.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDUD36VPD_U
diy.com

American Video On Laying Lino I Kitchen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BO3k9j1Q3c
Apart from the accent being American, the only other difference is that the names of the stores mentioned in the comments are American.

What to buy:
Vinyl large enough for room with a little edge
sealant +
+ edging strip
knee pads
knife
backed tape
silicone seal
spray ?
washing up liquid
working gloves
hammer (to hit any protruding nails)

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

New Wallpaper?: Start Again or Paper Over The Cracks and Preserve History?

In my previous post I talked about laying a driveway and laying a carpet. Now I shall discuss wallpaper and lino for bathrooms and kitchens.

Wallpaper
I had a quotation for putting up wallpaper. After starting, the workers decided they had to strip off the underlying wallpaper, and the underlayer, and re-lay lining paper. More time and expense.

They claimed that if they put the new wallpaper on top, the old wallpaper would come away from the wall. They showed me the seams.

I said: "I don't have the time nor money for a longer job. Stick down any loose corners with wall paper glue."

Since the worker was expected at another job shortly, he agreed. It worked out just fine.

History of Wallpaper
At the same time I read a newspaper account of an old home where the owners discovered as many as seventeen layers of wallpaper from different eras. They were able to restore a home to the Victorian era, using the old wall paper or by copying the design.

Preserving Walls
Another building, a church or chapel, was renovated. Under the later wallpaper and cladding, they were able to reveal a priceless medieval painting.

To my mind, a building has its history, which it is important to preserve.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please save links to your favourite posts.

Renovating Your Home Or Rental Home's Driveway and Floors: watch out for added work, time, mess and charges

The Driveway Lower Layers
The first time I met extra charges from builders was when I had the driveway re-laid. It was a lovely red tarmac but grass was peering through.

I didn't want brick. But this seems to be the modern thing. The advantage is that if you need to lift the driveway (we did for the gas board after we smelled a leak), the bricks can be lifted from one area of the drive and re-laid, no change in colour from newer tarmac.

I got a couple of quotations for relaying the drive with bricks, took the cheapest, and told him that I had a small budget and could not go over budget?

Were there any extra costs, VAT, anything else?

The assured me that was a fixed price. He would lay down a brick surface.

I assumed it would go on top. No. He insisted on digging up my lovely undulating red tarmac to lay the bricks on a new even cement surface.

Then he told me he had to dig up the existing cement underlay.

Then he said it was unusually deep, three feet instead of one foot. (Not sure of the exact figures.) He needed special digging equipment at vast expense. It would take a few days longer.

Since I was going overseas, but didn't want him to know that, I was not pleased at the longer time. And definitely not pleased about the extra cost. I refused to pay. I did not have the budget for it.

He agreed to finish the job, with or without the digging machine. He wanted cash.

However, I did not want to run around with that amount of cash. No guarantee that I could prove I had paid.

I insisted he came with me to the bank. They counted out the cash. I handed it straight to him under the bank cameras. He could not say I had removed any of the money. He knew the bank had just counted it.

I had a new drive. the gaps between the bricks were not sealed, just loose sand. Plants pushed their way through.

A few months later I found the driveway was sinking under the weight of a large car and delivery vehicles, such as a gardener's van and all sorts of heavy vehicles. Now I knew why the builder of the house had laid an extra deep foundation, to support not just walkers and bikes and minicars, but large saloons and delivery vans.

All sorts of heavy vehicles arrived, I noticed:
Window Cleaners.
The gas board.
The garden shed delivery van.
Postal van delivering parcels if no room in the road outside.
Grocery delivery van.
All large, heavy vehicles.

More recently I had another experience with prices inceasing, caused by what was hidden underneath, they claimed.

Carpet Laying
Next I called in carpet layers to install a new carpet. John Lewis was charging a lot. I went for a cheaper option.

After I had paid and waited for the order, I got another bill for over five hundred pounds to lay the carpet. Too late to change now. I had waited a month. I had paid for the carpet.

The carpet layers arrive. They want extra for moving furniture.

But we had already paid for moving furniture. I call the company. They say I must pay the carpet layers, and the carpet suppliers will give me a refund. But they won't call me and ask for my bank details - because of data protection - I have to call them to ask for the refund.

Next, the carpet layers go to remove the unerlaying carpet. It makes a huge sut all over the newly painted walls and the rolls of new carpet and the curtains and sofas.

It will cost me over two hundred pounds to clean the entire flat.

Next, the carpet layer says my underlay has been stuck down to the concrete floor with araldite or some strong glue.

He wants to go off and rent a huge heavy machine to remove the carpet and re-level the concrete. this will take another day as the machine cannot be delivered until tomorrow and he has another job. But the tenants are due to move in tomorrow - and the cleaners are booked for today.

The price for the carpet laying is now doubled. I do not like the idea of a big machine. It could damage the buildings doorways landing me with another bill. The carpet layer will take time off work from the strain of lifting it up the steps of the building.

I am not happy. He wants to drive off and do a tour of companies which might stock the machine.

I suspect I won't see him for hours, days. I have just spent two weeks hanging around whilst plumbers go off looking for the nuts and pipes they needed, they said, for fixing new taps. That was a job I thought would take an afternoon. However, it took two weeks. The cost of parts and labour kept escalating. Supervising the work and just opening and shutting and locking up the doors kept me on the site waiting from 9 am until they turned up at four pm and finally left at 10 pm.

I told the carpet layer, no. Just lay the new carpet on top. I want the old underlay underneath to deaden sound, which is one of the requirements for the leaseholders.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Two Mobile Phones, Too Many Messages; And Lost Messages?

My phone has too many photos and videos. The phone is full. The memory card is filling. I shall have to take photos off the phone and store them.

How To Delete A Photo?
I just spent two hours in 'gallery' deleting: Happy New Year, happy Chinese New Year, (several messages in Chinese which I don't speak); Have A Great Day, Sending you hugs; Happy Monday; God loves you; Happy Monday and God loves you; Believe in yourself; Smile; and Thank you for your smile.

Most confusing are platitudes like: 
'Strangers send conundrums 
but the conundrums are 
why they are strangers and 
why are they sending conundrums. 
Anonymous.'

Deleting A Group
I have deleted myself from one group. I tried to delete a message from one person but when I hit 'delete chat' every message, picture and video in that group vanished. 

A blessing. Clearly God loves me, but only on Tuesdays, until I get another message.

I have missed some messages and events which came to me on Whats App. I don't tell the entire world my movements, for security reasons.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share your favourite posts.

Polyglots On Facebook Found Another Language Learning Website

I was on the Facebook polyglots website reading posts by others who like discussing and learning lots of languages.

Somebody mentioned livemocha.

I have plenty to do on Duolingo. You might like Memrise if you want to record all your memory aids and see those of other users.

Useful Websites (alphabetically)
DUOLINGO
duolingo.com

LIVEMOCHA
https://www.livemocha.co/

MEMRISE
memrise
https://www.memrise.com/apps/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share liks to your favourite posts.

Where To See Statues And Memorials to Poet Heinrich Heine and the Lorelei

Grave of Heinrich Heine, in Montmartre Cemetery. Photo by Jessica Kemper in article on Heine in Wikipedia.

France

Heinrich Heine spent his later years in France and died and was buried in Paris. He lived from 1797-1856. His grave is is the

Montmartre Cemetery.

A statue of him is in Toulon.

Germany

Heine was born in Germany and wrote in German. I saw a reclining statue of Heine in the northern port of Hamburg.

Israel

Heine caused as much controversy in Israel as in Germany. A street was named after him. 

UK
Portrait of Heinrich Heine in the National Portrait Gallery, London, England.

USA

A statue to Heine is in a park dedicated to  Joyce Wilmer, another poet, who wrote the poem about God creating trees.

Useful Websites
visitLondon.com
visitbritain.com
visittheusa.co.uk

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Best and Biggest Lunch At B and K Salt Beef Bar, Restaurant and Take away In London, England

the mixed hors d'oevre I had on a previous visit. Photo by Angela Lansbury. copyright

.
Salt beef. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Tripadvisor asks if you ate there with family or friends. Both. Four of us, two couples. We had lunch.

One person, in a wheelchair, had already managed to negotiate the doorway when we arrived.

The toilets are at the back on the ground floor. That's good. I hate going up or down a level.

First choice, set meal or not? I chose the two-course set meal. The food is always too much for us. So a shared starter and a shared dessert is good.

Starter
Start with chicken soup. It comes with a dumpling, or kind of ravioli, pasta around meat. Both, I think, costs a little extra. One soup, two spoons. No problem.

With your main course you might have chips or latkes. Latkes, fried grated potato. don't seem to me to be what they used to be. Not such a huge difference in satisfaction between latkes and chips. I was happy with both.

I made the mistake of going for chicken. Because I like chicken. But you can have chicken anywhere.

I should have had the fish balls. They were wonderful. Moist. Tasty. My friend received four, which she planned to share with her husband. Four ended up just the right amount for four people. Next time, for me, it's fish balls.

I think most men would want the filling salt beef. Piled high.

Afterwards we had takeaways to put in the fridge at home. Three sorts of baked lemon cake on a biscuity base. No, the chocolate looks and sound nice but hides the flavour of cheesecake. I prefer plain.

The lemony lokshen pudding and apple strudel and cheesecake lasted me another two days. Just a tiny piece with coffee. For breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea, and a late night snack. Lovely.

Filling food. Fab food.

You'll find them on Facebook and TripAdvisor and Deliveroo - but not on Mondays when they are closed.

B & K Salt beef bar and restaurant
353 Uxbridge Road
Hatch End
Pinner
Middlesex
HA5 4JN

Useful Websites
https://deliveroo.co.uk/
visitbritain.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Nosher. (That's Yiddish for snacker, one who eats between meals, like a cow which eats all day.) Please share links to your favourite posts.

Changi Airport, Singapore is bliss! Why do I say so?

A video on the plane gave the history of Singapore and made me feel proud to be a Singapore Resident. I remember when I first visited Singapore more than 20 years ago at one of the major attractions I saw a film about all the inventions of the Chinese and the East, paper, writing gunpowder. having been brought up on a diet of Bitish encyclopaedias, I was under the impression that the British invented most things.

Then when I went to work for Marchsll Cavendish on partworks, (magazines which built up into an A to Z science encyclopaedia, translated from English into German, I discovered how one-sided every country's history is. If an article said something was developed by the British - adding as an afterthoguth that the Germans later developed it, or had the original idea, the article was reversed for the German readers. Their compatriot's discovery or development came first, in more detail, whilst the British contribution, whether earlier or later in time, came second in the article.

However, the film on Singapore Airlines took Singapore from independence from Malaysia, "They said we had no infrastructure, they said we could never build a world class airline ..." - the film then shows what Singapore has done. Certainly the airline and airport leave other countries including England far behind.

I can't speak too highly of this award-winning airport, Changi.
You plane arrives and you walk up to the airport and the carpets are soft.

It is quiet.

You soon find the trolleys.

Water fountains.

Toilets
They could do with more cubicles for a plane offloading several hundred people. One toilet had a bidet and I waited for that to freshen up.

Now they have the idea, add the bidet in all the cubicles, like the local hospitals.

A desk of staff helping those in transit with more staff lurking was a blessing. I asked them how to turn my phone off flight mode and get it making calls and taking photos.

This visit, for the first time, I travelled without luggage, just a carry on bag.

Bliss.

Photo opportunities all around.

And they are already building the next terminal.

Useful Websites
singaporeair.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Berlin's ITB promotes Germany's tourist attractions: learn about Mendelssohn wedding march, Disney's castle, the Pied Piper and more

That's the German flag, horizontal stripes of black, red and yellow. Not to be confused with the Belgian flag which has vertical stripes and the yellow in the middle whilst the German flag has red in the middle.

Belgian flag.

Berlin's ITB
I just received a notice about ITB Berlin, an invitation to go and have a chance to win air tickets to somewhere. This would involve me in spending time and money on getting to Berlin.

ITB is in March. I have never been to Berlin and it is somewhere on my wishlist. If I were both in the travel trade and nearby I would go. If I were not in the travel trade, just a traveller, and nearby, I would be watching the English language and German language press to find out what is new and exciting.

My first query, the first thought in my head was, what does ITB stand for?

Wiki and the website of the organization answer that question.

ITB is German for international tourist borse = with a double dot above the o - sorry but the way to type double dots inside blogger is eluding me. I have not found it - yet. (I just heard a speech about not saying no but saying not 'yet'.) The letters and sounds of b and p are close together and borse and purse are the link. It is a purse or pocket or exchange. So, international tourism exchange, not just an exchange of information, although that comes first, but taking action, trading, booking of hotels and events and setting up holidays and travel and services and events for you and me.

Berlin's Attractions
If  I go to any event or conference I try to arrive a day early to be sure of being on time at the start and like to stay later to visit the city. What if you are reminded about Berlin as a destination, can't get to the event, but wonder about going anyway? You might well start a tour of Germany in the capital, the most populated city in Europe after London, England.

Berlin is familiar as the backdrop to the city of Cabaret, the film starring Liza Minelli. Berlin was a divided city, now reunited. Famous for the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie.

My checklist of places to visit or re-visit starts with the Berlin Wall:

Berlin wall section.
Photo by VWPolonia75 from Wikivoyage.

1 Berlin Wall Museum
See the colourful murals. Read about those who made it across, those who didn't, sadly 130 casualties, and how the wall came down with great celebration, reuniting the city, West and East.

Allied Museum, Berlin. Section of the Wall displayed.

2 The Jewish Museum
Next on my list is the Jewish Museum, Europe's largest Jewish museum.

Moses  Mendelssohn, portrait, Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany.

In the largest Jewish museum in Europe, the main old museum contains portraits of Einstein and Mendelssohn, and the eyeglasses of Moses Mendelssohn (son of Mendel). He had a hunchback and when told his young lady heard of the hunchback and refused to see him, he asked for just one minute to speak to her and apologize.

He told her, "Marriages are made in heaven and my guardian angel was told my wife-to-be would have a hunchback.
"My guardian angel replied, 'She will be unhappy. Let my young man have the hunchback - and bear all the world's troubles for her.'
"Sorry to have taken up your time. But if you liked what you heard, may I speak to you again one day, for just one minute?"
She saw him again, heard him again, and married him.

He spoke in German, so I reckon my translation into English is as good as others at capturing the essence of what he said so warmly.

Did he use those spectacles to read and teach himself Latin to become one of the leading philosophers of his day, immortalised in a play about himself and his friend Lessing? Or did he lose his sight studying by candle-light? Go to the museum and be inspired to learn more about famous, extraordinary people, and the daily lives of ordinary people, from the past.

His grandson wrote the Mendelssohn wedding march. (The one which sounds like descending a staircase. The rival tune is the one parodied as Here comes the bride.)

Jewish Museum Photo from Libeskind in Wikipedia.

The Jewish museum's modern extension is the famous or notorious, controversial Holocaust memorial, designed by architect Libeskind, all jagged and disorientating. Love it or hate it, a must see.

Garden of Exile, Jewish Museum.

The Holocaust Memorial

The Holocaust Memorial, Berlin.Photo by Alexander Blum in Wikipedia.

Other cities and attractions include:

2 Bonn - Beethoven Museum - the country is full of museums connected to music

3 Wine regions with wine tasting
German is renowned for white wines. Riesling is the grape which supposedly smells of petrol. (Americans say gasoline.)

4 Romantic Road (castles on rivers and lakes, black and white medieval villages on riversides and hillsides)
Rudesheim and many more - follow the trail

5 Theme parks

6 For romantic adults and young adults the inspiration for Sleepy Beauty Disney castle Neuschwanstein (German for new swan stone) in Bavaria, Germany.
See the three fairytale castles built by the 'Mad King' of Bavaria.

r	Ximonic, Simo Räsänen (post-processing) & Tauno Räsänen (photograph). Wikipedia.

7 WWII and Nazi past -
Nuremberg museum
Durer's house.

Durer's House, Wikipedia.

Belsen
(where Anne Frank and her sister died)

Munich -
 and Dachau where a map of the railway lines shows how trains took people from every major Nazi-controlled city in Europe via Germany to be exterminated across the border at Auschwitz-Birkeau in Poland.

8 Munich and the Oktoberfest
For beer, wine, food and fun.

9 The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Pied Piper's House, Hamelin. Photo by Bush6984 from the Wikipedia article on the Pied Piper.
The story supposedly records an event in the 13th century, when a rat-catcher in pied (multi-coloured) clothing, offered to lure away the rats (which may have spread plague) but was not paid more than half the promised sum, or not paid at all. In revenge lured away all the children (except three who were lame, deaf and blind). They were never seen again.

Possible explanations are that it is a legend with the pied piper symbolizing death from the plague era. If it was a real event, maybe children went dancing with a piper and disappeared into a sinkhole or the sounds and rhythm of the dancing sparked an avalanche.

Records suggest that orphans and unemployed youngsters emigrated, following brightly dressed recruiters. This resulted in the surnames from Hamelin appearing in other cities to this day.

The story was immortalised in German by Goethe, and the brothers Grimm, translated into English. The popular poem in English by Robert Browning is wonderfully rhythmic.

When I visited Hamelin I looked for a hotel where tourists could stay. When a hotel owner showed me his bedrooms and I tried to take a photo, he angrily told me to leave! I was surprised. Any English or American hotel owner would have been delighted, moved lights, asked me to write them up on Tripadvisor. I thought my PR might have been lacking.

Then I picked up a news sheet on the bus which gave an accusing account of a dispute about the funding of a re-enactment of the Pied Piper story.  I thought, so, centuries on, nothing has changed. Chilling.

However, that was a long time ago. Besides, every hotel and hotel owner is different.

The Romantic Road

Photo by Pedelecs.
Dinkelsbuhl. Romantic Road. Germany.

 Follow the trail maps and the signposts along the romantic road through riverside and hillside villages with steep gables.

Places to find local food: Rathaus Ratskeller
Berlin has a red Rathaus.

Berlin. Red Rathaus. Picture from Wikipedia.

On the main square of most cities is a converted medieval Rathaus, not a rat house (for that tale go to Hamelin) but the town hall.  The cellar or Ratskeller with big pillars is usually made into a vast cafeteria serving set meals. A bit like the British medieval banquets at stately homes. Girls and ladies and lads and men in olde worlde costume serve flagons of beer and local food at assorted prices. Busy at lunchtimes.

One notable Ratskeller I visited was in Bremen near the statue of the three animals which are a city folk legend and symbol.
Old picture of Bremen Ratskeller from Wikipedia.

Expect music, historical pictures and framed documents and local history and information on local sites and guided tours. Austrian cities have the same system of the Rathaus and Ratskeller restaurant.

German White Wine
I sampled many wines and stood on the Heidelburg Tun, a giant barrel in Heidelberg castle.
German wines include:
Auslese (late picked and sweeter as it has longer to ripen)
Black Tower (brand of white wine in black bottle)
Liebfraumilch (Our dear lady's milk, referring to the Madonna)
For something sweet, Boppard ice wine tasting in a shop on the main square of Boppard. Must book.

Useful Websites
To learn or brush up your German for free on the internet
duolingo.com

Overview of Travel
GERMANY AND BERLIN
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Germany
https://www.visitberlin.de/en
See Germany and Berlin in wikipedia, wikivoyage, wikitravel, tripadvisor.
https://www.itb-berlin.com/

BERLIN WALL
https://www.visitberlin.de/en/berlin-wall-memorial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Berlin_Wall_segments

https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowUserReviews-g187323-d196239-r542038704-Memorial_of_the_Berlin_Wall-Berlin.html
https://freetoursbyfoot.com/checkpoint-charlie/

JEWISH MUSEUM
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Jewish_Museum%2C_Berlin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Mendelssohn

PIED PIPER
Pied Piper House Restaurant, Hamelin, Germany.
https://www.tripadvisor.de/Restaurant_Review-g198595-d1356484-Reviews-Rattenfaengerhaus-Hameln_Lower_Saxony.html

ROMANTIC ROad
https://www.romanticroadgermany.com/

WINE TOURS
https://www.worldwidewinetours.com/germany/german-wine-tours/
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowUserReviews-g187345-d6698203-r391171629-Vinothek_Georg_Breuer-Ruedesheim_am_Rhein_Hesse.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on cities in Europe, the USA, Canada, Asia and worldwide. Please share links to your favourite posts.