Cheerful Chinese New Year Lion Dance and Dragon Dance

Flag of China

You can't visit China now because of the quarantine over the Wuhan virus, but you can see a lion dance in many places.

I saw a lion dance in Singapore. The lion dance has two people with poles, hidden, holding up the lion head. I have seen both several times in Singapore.For Chinese New Year and openings of restaurants and businesses.


Singapore flag

 First I saw the large lion faces on the ground.


I've got my eyes on you. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

First I notice the big yellow and red lion's faces.

Then the red shirts of the team of men doing the lion dance.

The music started up. I'm not a fan of noise. But the music was mesmerizing. Even more so, the colours and the movement.

The lions danced into the restaurant and out again, delighting the onlookers, children, adults, the elderly.

Then the dancers gathered together in a line and lifted the head and body for the Dragon Dance.

The clashing music started.

The sticks, not bamboo which I imagined was used in the old days, but metal tubes, were used to raise the long lion body. More a snake than a lion.

They whirled, they twirled, they acted in unison, one after another, up and down, like a Mexican wave of the audience, standing and sitting and standing at a football match. A diagonal circle. A spiral. The music was jarring but the images were soothing. The colours were entrancing. The spectacle was mesmerizing.


Dragon Dance at Buona Vista mall beside the MRT railway station, Singapore. Photos and videos by Angela Lansbury

Several times I tried to walk away. When the music stopped. Then the music started again. I turned  to look back. I ran back. I stood at the back. Another photographer steeped sideways blocking my vision. I moved forward to take a better picture.

So, sort out the dragon dance, the lion dance and the tiger dance. The dragon dances are performed in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Chinatowns in Canada, the UK and USA and Chinese restaurants and businesses worldwide. The tiger dance is performed in India, Indonesia, Japan and Nepal.


Celebrations in Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_dance
singaporeair.com
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Singapore

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

Cold weather clothes for Toastmasters

You can now buy cold weather clothes for Toastmasters International meetings.

The TI website offers beanie hats, scarves and gloves. you can order online. buy for yourself. Buy as a gift. Put on your wishlist. Order for a gift for a prize at a contest. Use as an incentive.

Useful Websites
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
https://www.toastmasters.org/shop/gifts/accessories/6947--Knitted-Winter-Set

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a member of three Singapore clubs and one London club. One of the Singaore clubs is Singapore online toastmasters which has members and guest speakers from other areas including the USA. 

Coronavirus Masks in Singapore and Free Masks, precautions, and info worldwide

Coronavirus started in China but is spreading worldwide.


Thursday March 30 2020

The Good News
I see noticeably more masks being worn in Singapore.Three different toastmasters clubs are sending me updates on WhatsApp.

I declined to shake hands at a Toastmasters Club and instead did a namaste greeting. I bowed my head and brought together the palms of my hands.

On the MRT, at Cashew MRT, I saw a man wiping down the places where you touch 'tap in' your MRT travel card.

The government plans to distribute masks for free, from Saturday February 1st. Four masks for each household. More on request when needed.

You pick up your masks from local Community Centres, showing your ID which lists your home address.

My husband asked me, 'How can you speak at a Toastmasters club if you are wearing masks?'

I replied, 'You can wear your masks in public places, as you walk through the building, and when sitting next to somebody. You take off your mask when you are in the centre of the stage well away from others.'

Masks only last effectively 24 hours.
The government website I looked at said wear a mask only if you are sick.
I presume this saves the masks for when you need them.

I am glad I joined Singapore Online Toastmasters Club.

Around the world
Cruise ship grounded
Taxi driver in China wearing complete hazmatcombat kit
Plane Passenger wearing cycling helmet
Airport passengers in China wearing cut off giant plastic bottles upturned on their heads
Dogs in masks

Useful Information From The Web
SINGAPORE
Information from the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH)
www.moh.gov.sg
https://go.gov.sg/whatsapp
https://www.gov.sg/article/masking-up-how-and-when-you-should-do-it
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Singapore

Information from newspapers
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/wuhan-virus-every-household-in-singapore-to-get-4-masks-collection-starts-on-feb-1

UK
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7947315/Scientists-develop-vaccine-Chinese-coronavirus.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-information-for-the-public

USA
Map regularly updated showing new sources and cases.
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

WHO
https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus

Travel
singaporeair.com

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Tips For Motorists, Including A puncture Repair kit

Motorcyclists and drivers of vehicles can carry a tyre puncture repair kit.

One motorcyclist told me that he carries a kit. After several punctures he has three strategies.

1 He avoids driving into gutters where nails and screws roll. So he abandons the old system of driving around speed bumps into the gutter.

2 Carry a puncture repair kit.

3 Wear a GPS watch and take maps. That way you know where you are when you are down a side road and you call for help.

4 Tell somebody where you are going.

5 Take food and drink and a first aid kit even if you have a dinner destination planned.

6 On out of town fun day trips, go in a group.

Meet up as near as possible to your home. Travel in a group and keep an eye out for each other. That way if one person has a puncture, another can help.

Help how?

1 Take you on the back of their bike on to your destination, such as a dinner, hotel for the night, day out.

2 Take you to a garage to buy a kit, then take you and the kit back, or let you go back from the inhabited place in a taxi.

3 Or inform a mechanic who can take you back to your vehicle in his, then repair it.

4 Or get you home for the night. You can then go off in a taxi to the garage and summon a mechanic.
This may be important if there is a delay such as on a bank holiday where help from emergency services takes hours.

5 Bring you food and drink and company while you wait for help.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer. Please share links to your favourite tips.

Face masks for travel - and other effects of the coronavirus

The latest coronavirus is affecting everybody, bit by bit.  Today Wed 25 Jan 2020 face mask ads when I googled masks took me to Lazada which was out of stock. Amazon had them. Mostly at high prices. until I changed the search to low price.


Yesterday, Tuesday, I spoke to somebody in Singapore who said she was very busy at work. She said, "All our staff at work have to do the jobs of those at Wuhan."
I asked,
'Where do you work?'
She replied,
'Fedex.'

The lockdown over the virus doesn't affect only the travel industry who have no work, and the hospitals which are overworked. Teachers whose pupils are at home, now conducting lessons online.

Useful Websites
singaporeair.com
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Singapore

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

Auschwitz Liberation and so called fake photos

On Jan 27, the liberation of Auschwitz, in Poland, liberated by the Russians, is commemorated. Were the photos of Auschwitz 'fake'. I believe they were the real people, in the real place, taken later. Like wedding photos taken a day later.  They are not 'fake'. The people and clothes and event were real.

In January the camp was filled with snow, says Anne Frank's childhood friend, and posthumous stepsister, Eva.

Fake? That's too strong a word. But this isn't new knowledge as far as I am concerned. When I visited Auschwitz, on the coach we were shown a film and stills. Our multilingual guide told us (the English translation being less detailed and clear than the Polish and German) that during liberation, the surviving children were weak, some too sick to stand, and distressed, and distressing to look at, unable to stand in an orderly group for photos.

The children spent several weeks or months, at first in recovery centres, and with families. Some did not recover for years, if ever. They were too scared to go out in the light, or go into a street with people in uniforms and dogs.

When enough children were physically and mentally healthier, able to travel, fatter and fitter, as shown in these photo, they were taken back to the camp, dressed in the camp uniforms, to be photographed as a group.

Child survivors of Auschwitz, not on the snowy day of Liberation, but, after being taken by their Russian liberators to recuperate, were returned to put their prison clothes on again for a reunion photo commemorating their liberation.

I took this well known photo from Wikipedia.

This was so the Russians could have a record of the people and the place, and the fact that the Russians had liberated it.

So the photos are of children liberated, but not on the day of liberation. The dates are not what you think, if you think that photo of children was taken on the day of liberation.

My understanding is that it was a later re-enactment or reunion celebrating and recording their release.

As for identifying people and place - everything was chaotic. I have enough trouble trying to identify my family photos taken any time earlier than last week. And those old photos from the fifties and forties.

It has taken years of research to date photos, verify the places they were taken, and the people. The archives have lots of real time photos which were not released postwar, because they show the dead and dying. At first some photos and films were released, but it was quickly found that relatives would go to the cinema and see the dead bodies of family members.

This was not only distressing for the relatives who burst into tears, or fainted or screamed, but also caused chaos and upset to everybody in the cinema. Many of the photos are still not released because they are too distressing for people still alive today and their descendants, more so even than for people in general.

On Facebook, my friend Georgia, from Harrow and Harrow Writers, said she was skeptical about articles from the Mail because years ago their attitude was ....

Useful Websites
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7933509/Anne-Franks-step-sister-claims-photos-showing-liberation-Auschwitz-FAKE.html
Poland
https://www.pot.gov.pl/en/information-about-the-polish-tourism-organisation/polish-tourism-organisation-international-offices
https://poland.pl/tourism/
Krakow
https://www.visitacity.com/en/krakow
https://www.muzeumkrakowa.pl/branches/oskar-schindlers-factory
Auschwitz
https://www.viator.com/Krakow-tourism/d Anne Frank
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/CAICnOLtC0lDLg?

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

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

What You Could See In Wuhan, Hubei, China (But can't currently visit in early 2020)

Flag of China.



                                                                              Hubei

The outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020 has put the city of Wuhan into quarantine.

Wuhan is inland. Shanghai is on the East coast and the name Shang-hai means on sea.

China's capital is Beijing
. The name Beijing,  means "Northern Capital" (from the Chinese characters 北 for north and 京 for capital).

Nanjing 
Nanjing means Southern capital.
Wiki explains:

The city has a number of other names, and some historical names are now used as names of districts of the city; among them is the name Jiangning or Kiangning (江寧), whose former character Jiang (江, Yangtze) is the former part of the name Jiangsu and latter character Ning (寧, simplified form 宁; 'Peace') is the short name of Nanjing. When it was the capital of China, for instance during the ROC, Jing (京; 'Capital') was adopted as the abbreviation of Nanjing.

The city first became a Chinese national capital as early as the Jin dynasty. The name Nanjing, which means "Southern Capital", was officially designated for the city during the Ming dynasty, about six hundred years later.^[d] Nanjing is sometimes known as Jinling or Ginling (金陵, "Gold Hill") of the eponymous Ginling College;

Elsewhere in China, major attractions in China have closed, such as The Forbidden City in the centre of Beijing, the capital, The Great Wall (a side trip from Beijing), and Disney in Shanghai.

So, where and what is Wuhan, I wondered. The city's population is reputedly bigger than my birthplace of London, England. Yet until this week, I had never heard of Wuhan. What are we all missing?

The city's name comes from three towns separated by two rives, the Yangtze and the Han. Wu was one part of the city. Han was another.



Historically this is the most important building.
In 1911 Sun Yat-Sen made a proclamation in this fine building overthrowing the last dynasty in China and establishing the Republic. He was and is revered in both China and Taiwan. (He lived long before Taiwan was occupied by Japan until the end of WWII. During WWII the treasures from Beijing were evacuated from advancing Japanese. After WWII and civil war between the Communists and nationalists, Taiwan and China were separately ruled.

Sun Wen 12 November 1866 Cuiheng, Guangdong, Qing Dynasty
Died	12 March 1925 (aged 58) Beijing, China
Resting place	Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Nanjing, Jiangsu

Chairman Mao Zedong's Summer Villa Museum
Mao Zedong, (1893-1976), the founder of the People's Republic of China and Chairman of the Communist Party of China.
Another building connected with a VIP later in Chinese history.

Yellow Crane Tower

This tower, the Yellow Crane Tower, which you often see in the distance in aerial shots of the city, is huge, as you can tell from the size of the people in front of it.

Sculpture Park

Battleship

Changchun Taoist Temple (temple one) -



Baotong Buddhist temple (temple 2) -

If you can't visit China, or Hong Kong, try Singapore.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wuhan
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wuhan
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Singapore

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

Coronavirus update Sunday 26 2020.

Flag of China.

Sunday. Death toll in China is 55.

China has banned travel into and out of Wuhan province (a large area like a US state) and most travel around the area.

The Coronavirus is a family of viruses including the common cold, SARS and MERS.
Sars in 2002-3 killed 800.
MERS (Middle Eastern virus) killed 700.

Elderly and Young
So far, in 2020, the latest version has killed mainly those over the age of 50, except one case.

Some commentators shrug. It's only the elderly. And the young.

I read about one family. An extended family who had travelled back to China. When they left they were ok. Now the grandparents and grandchildren are all sick. Imagine being a grandparent, wondering if you will die and if you have infected your grandchildren.

Imagine being in the middle, having your parents and children all ill. Imagine being a child. You don't know whether you will live You don't know if your grandparents will live. Your parents are dividing their time between you and the others of you, two siblings and two grandparents.

You cannot travel. You cannot work. Everybody is quarantined.

Spanish Flu 1918
The 1918 Spanish flu killed more people than WWI. 500 million were affected and more than 50 million died.

It killed the young, who had no immunity.

One of my ancestors died of it. He was in South Africa. He was a young married man who jumped up from his sick bed and ran downstairs to answer the phone call from his sister (my granny Hetty) who was in London. He dropped dead.

His wife never remarried. After her sister-in-law, my granny, had died, my mother kept up correspondence. Eventually my mother went to South Africa to visit the now elderly widow.

I look online and read that somebody I know has a cold.

I wonder. Is it just a cold?

I hope they keep following instructions. Wash your hands. Do not touch your eyes and face with your hands.

Keep away from crowds and people who are coughing.

Carry tissues and/or wear a mask.

Useful Wbsites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Singapore

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

Writers Holiday In Fishguard, Wales - What will it cost you?

The cost of the basic holiday in February 2020 is 249 pounds sterling, the same as in 2019.

What are the extras?

You could pay an extra 49 pounds for arriving on the Thursday or overnight on the Sunday.
You might need to add a couple of extra lunches.
Lunch on the train going there.
Walk down to the supermarket and buy a sandwich, or stock up with food before leaving home.


TRAVEL FROM LONDON
Trains from Paddington to Fishguard.
Car - free parking at Fishguard Bay hotel.

STATIONERY
You could stock up on stationery earlier in the year at Poundland
At the centre you might spend money on notebooks and pens. Why not? It saves carrying them there.


DRINKS
Cost of drinks in the bar will be extra.
So will tea in town. If you go with a group somebody not on a budget will probably persuade the group to all have tea.

http://www.writersholiday.net/

What I learned from visiting Auschwitz in Poland, And About Anne Frank

Flag of Poland. White above red.

Not to be confused with  the flags of Singapore and Indonesia.

Flag of Singapore. Red above white. Has the crescent, a reminder that Singapore was once part of Malaysia.

Plain red above white.
Flag of Indonesia.

The first thing a Polish guide will want to tell you is that Auschwitz may be on Polish soil but it was not run by the Poles.


It was run by the NAZI party of German when Poland was occupied by Germany in WWII.



Auschwitz is the German name for the small Polish village on the outskirts of Krakow. Quaint, historic Krakow, the former Krakow, is a pretty little town, the former capital in the south of Poland. The Germans invaded and could easily capture the small city near their border, quicker and easier than capturing the larger city of Warsaw further away. That's the reason why over-run Krakow was preserved by the Nazis, whilst Warsaw was destroyed in the war.

Auschwitz, the camp, was outside the new German HQ in Poland, and less time and effort to transport the prisoners there.

I put off visiting Poland and Auschwitz for years because I thought it would be too upsetting. I was right.

One of the things I learned, was they showed a couple of photos of people taken on the day they arrived and three months later. The reason for the numbers tattooed onto inmate's arms was that people's faces were so thin, and lined and haggard, so different, that after 3 months you could no longer recognize them from their original identity photo.


Anne Frank

Anne Frank, her sister, Margot and mother and father were in Auschwitz.

Children under the age of 15 were killed on arrival. Anne was 15 so she survived the first selection, and was set to work, like the rest of the family. The mother died there, giving her meagre rations to her two daughters.

Anne and her sister survived Auschwitz and were sent to Bergen Belsen in German when the Germans retreated. Anne and Margot died in Bergen Belsen.

Their father survived. He later married a woman who had lost her spouse and offspring in the war. They had met regularly in the weeks after the end of WWII searching, for news of their families at the centre giving news of people found dead and alive.

Anne Frank's father moved from The Netherlands to Switzerland and his stepdaughter to London, England. She and her husband lived in Edgware where I grew up. I did not know that until after he died. The family kept a low profile.

Why no mention of Anne Frank in Auschwitz? Because the authorities do not want to single out one person but tell the stories of all. Because Anne Frank's possessions are elsewhere, in the Netherlands. She is already well documented in her WWII hiding place, now a museum in Amsterdam, Holland, The Netherlands; in Frankfurt, Germany, in the Jewish museum; and in the USA Anne Frank Centre.

Birkenau Birkenau I was advised that to understand what happened at Auschwitz you must visit Birkenau, just down the road. Yes, you must. In the first museum its is like a house of horrors boarding school.

Birkenau is totally different. fields. Huge hangars. Going on for miles.

This huge hangar in a field surrounded by barbed wire was for the French. The next huge hangar in the next field was for the Dutch. The next huge hangar for the italians. Stretching as far as you can see. All destined for death.

Stretching as far as you can see for all the nationalities and languages. Into the distance. Suddenly you understand this was not just cruelty to this person and that, but to hundreds, thousands. The trains brought them from all over Europe. Suddenly the map of the railway routes, which I had seen on the outskirts of Munich, at Dachau, were not just a plan of railway lines, but a horror of wiping out people in every country of Europe, an entire continent.

Belsen Anne's family had left Germany to live in Holland. Finally, those who survived Auschwitz, returned to Germany, to die in Belsen.

Saviour Schindler Let's end on a lighter note. The museum in Krakow in the factory connected with Schindler tells about those he saved. Every story is of gratitude, to the saviour, Schindler. A person who survived. In a sea or sorrow, one beacon of light, a lifeboat.

Poland's Trails Also in Poland, see the Jewish museum in Warsaw and do a Jewish tour. Visit Bialystock and learn about Zamenhof and his new language of Esperanto.

More trails tell you about Chopin and Copernicus.

Places to visit
Anne Frank house, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Auschwitz, Poland
Bergen Belsen, Germany
Anne Frank Foundation, USA


Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, Holland, The Netherlands



Statue of Anne Frank in Amsterdam, The Netherlands



Anne Frank Center USA

Useful Websites

Poland
https://www.pot.gov.pl/en/information-about-the-polish-tourism-organisation/polish-tourism-organisation-international-offices
https://poland.pl/tourism/
Krakow
https://www.visitacity.com/en/krakow
https://www.muzeumkrakowa.pl/branches/oskar-schindlers-factory
Auschwitz
https://www.viator.com/Krakow-tourism/d Anne Frank
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/CAICnOLtC0lDLg?

About The Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
See later post about Auschwitz
Please share this link and links to your favourite posts.

Chinese New Year and the Year of The Rat

Flag of Singapore

You might have noticed Google's sign depicting the rat. This is the Chinese/Asian year of the rat. 

The rat has good and bad qualities. The good quality is that the rat is ambitious. 

Sign in Gardens By The Bay, Singapore. 2016

Photo: Marcin Konsek / Wikimedia Commons

Rat - Chinese zodiac sign. Inside Flower Dome

Rat Attribute wisdom. Characteristic:
Intelligent, adaptable, quick-witted, charming, artistic, sociable.
Year of birth: 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1964, 1996, 2008, 2020.

In the west we tend to think of real rats as bearers of disease such as the plague and Weil's disease. But a symbolic rat, is a much friendlier creature, like a soft toy depicting a teddy bear, a symbolic pig, or a symbolic dinosaur.

Stone monument with a carving of a mouse, at Mount Hôrai-ji Buddhist Temple, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Yanajin33 - Own work

Useful Websites
singaporeair.com
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Singapore

About The Author

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

Please share this link and links to your favourite posts.