BUDAPESCHT ( BUDAPEST) Yiddish song Karsten Troyke with Chagall Paintings

I like both, Yiddish songs and Chagall paintings. How lovely to combine both.

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BBC last night of the proms - and Auld Lang Syne

  Broadcast on TV tonight Friday 14 September 2024. From the Royal Albert Hall. If you are a subscriber you can watch it live. Or later on the iplayer.

See aerial views of the Orchestra, choir, soloists. The conductor is wearing his colourful Union Jack flag shirt. And the audience have luminous wristbands.

Hear lots of old favourite British songs, English Welsh. Scottish, Irish, and the soloist Angela Blue singing in English as well as Spanish.  She was dressed in a blue dress. She threw flowers to the audience, singing a song about treasuring a a flower thrown to her by her lover.

Well-known songs include Rule Brittania, Gaudeamus igitur (Latin). Subtitles to the songs enable you to sing along and follow the words in Englsih.

What was on the 2024 programme? Sea songs and folk songs.

Land of hope and glory, Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance. The audience waving flags.

Ten months from now the 2025 two-month season of promenade concerts starts.

At the end you see a close up of the bust of Sir Henry Wood, the conductior who held these promenade concerts every year for decades. The concerts were originally held in a hall which was bombed in WW2. Then the venue was changed to the Royal Albrt Hall, which is huge.

Other favourite songs are Jerusalem, which is not about Jerusalem, but hopes for building a heavenly England in the future.

You might think that the last song would be God ave the King. But that was the penultimate song. The last song was the internationally known Auld Lang Syne.

Useful Websittes

A Previous year's concert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5uiVoZTBN0

A Cure For Haunted Houses & Hotels - Explanations for noises, lights, and hings that go bump in the night

 When I was a busy freelance travel writer for newspapers and magazines I went to visit a family-owned countryside hotel. 

At the bar, my husband and I got talking to the owner. I had researched the hotel, and found that in the old days, under other owners, it was supposed to be haunted. Yet the current hotel publicity of the website and brochure made no mention of this attention-getting and memorable fact.

I asked him, "Is your hotel haunted? Has anybody seen a ghost? Why on't you mention it?'

He told me, "When we first opened, we had a visitor who claimed the hotel was haunted. She said one of the rooms felt cold. She was a ghost-hunter. I let her stay the night for free. She did not see the ghost.

'I was getting a lot of complaintes about chilly rooms. So we put int double glazing. The chill went away. No more complaints.

'The ghost hunter came back. The room was no onger chilly. She said the ghost must have gone way. So we don't mention the ghost in our literature.'

That seems to me to be a very rational answer.

I've also read lots of stories about unnerving noises in houses. The noises turn out to be a wasps' nest

Or other creatures.

Unnerving Noises

We had noises. They were either magpies hopping about on the conservatory roof, trying to crack open fruit nd nuts..

Or the fridge turning itself on and off. The dishwasher on a new cycle. The washing machine or spin dryer on a new cycle.

The radiaators with air locks. The boiler with air locks.

The central heating turning itself on and off with a timer

We also had cats running along the fence. Foxes mmating with dreadful screas.

The gaardener letting himself into the back garden through the side gate with a key. My faather in law who had a key going to the bck garden to trim the roses and prune trees.

Worried About Being Watched

I also had the feeling I was being watched. I was. I caught the culprit. It was a fox.

Fox in a London garden. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

 I mistyped that as fax. In the olden days, a fax would come through at night. I have also been alarmed by the sound of the printer turning on and off when I was printing something. There is a delay between pressing print and the prininting starting..

Mysterious Light

Finally, those lights and ghostly figures. What are they?

Floaters in your eyes. Reflections in your spectacles.Relections of the house lights in the window pane which look like lights outside.

Flow worms and fireflies.

Cars driving pas whose headlights shine through your window.

Bumps In The Night

Somehing knocked my bed in the night. What was it.

1 My husbnd returning fro a trip to the bathroom.

2 A small earthquake. Reported in the newspaper next day.

Mail

Mail comes through the letter box. Leaflets are dropped in. Parcel deliverers get no anser and leave a note helf way though the letter box.

Door Knocking

Deliverers ring, get no answer, and leave. Popel who are lost knock to ask the way, then realise they are in the wrong street nd toddle off.

A passer-by  

Conquer Your Fear Of Flying - The Flight Attendant's Advce and Mine

 A flight attendant assures you that your plane is unlikely to crash under turbulence. The major problem is your own unnecessary worry, or reaction. 

She advises to listen to music - or call the flight attendant for comforting words. Since the attendants are supposed to remain seaated during turbulence, the best time to speak to them is before the turbulence. Choose a time when you get a chance to speak to them and they are not busy.

Listening to calming music, she said. I just like listening to music I like. Country music with a story to tell, keeps my attention as I listen for the punchline.\\

Window Seats

I used to sit in window seats to get the view. Later I preferred the window seat to take photos.

Advantages Of Aisle Seats

 Then I got given aisle seats a few times and found out the advantages. An aisle seat makes it easier to speak to an attendant. Easier for the attendant to speak to you. Easier for you to pop out to the toilet without disturbing others. Easier to get out of your seat - especially if you lift the arm rest by pressing the release button hidden under the arm.. 

Now I sit in aisle seats. No looking down at the ground from a height. 

Instead, the distraction of people. Instead,l ooking forwards. Such a long, huge plane. A view of unphased crew. \

To take a photo, just ask the person in the window seat to take a photo. Or the person in the middle seat, who will either on your further instruction, or their own initiative, pass your phone to the person in teh window seat.

checking your photos for camera shake and good angles will keep your mind off the turbulence.

Useful Website

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13848807/flight-attendant-viral-video-advice-fears.html

How to recycle old maps

 I have lots of old maps ans brochures. My family say,'Too much clutter. Throw them away. They are out of date. The offers are no longer valid. The phone numbers have changed. The prices are out of date.'

What can you do?

1 Use maps to decorate scratched suitcases. 

2 Cover old diaries.

3 Cover holiday notebooks.

 

4 Cover old boxes of leaflets and holiday information.

5 Stick on the front of DIY greeting cards.

6 Cover a screen or room divider.

7 Stick on unwanted old fridge magnets.

8 Make a family card game, snap of countries,

9 Make a game 'Guess the country'. Make cards from travel leaflets, with place names on the back of each picture. Add the date of your holiday, or the event shown. Each player picks a card from a pile and guesses what is on the back. 

10 Make a reading box to place by the toilet, or in a rack on the back of the toilet door..

New uses for old business cards

Card Backs

If old business cards have blank backs, You can stand them upright to label card boxes.

You can thread them on a piece of thread or string tied in a loop, or on a key ring or clippable D ring. Then use the blank sides of the cards for words in a foreign language, curency exchange rates, or the cue cards for main points of a speech or sales pitch.

Naming Your Property

What about cards printed on both sides?

Family History Books

Old family cards with previous addresses can be pasted on the front of a bought or DIY family history record book. Alternatively, stick them inside the front cover, or on a page headed Where We Lived.

I put old business cards in all my wallets and purses and jacket pockets. If I leave anything at the home of a friend, they can see it's mine.

I have had many group meetings at my home where somebody left behind a hat or umbrella. You can put out an appeal on the group website. Every group has this problem.

Hotels

Some hotels will keep the property of a VIP forever. However, most dispose of unclaimed items after 3 months.

If you have your name and an out-of-date photo or address, strangers might not have the gumption and initiative to search for you on LinkedIn and find you. However, friends and family will know it's you.

You might think you had lost your hat on the train. You might not want to depress your host with a tale of woe and make yourself look a fool. Not realising that you left the item at your friend's house.

Name and phone number business card with money in purse. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Safeguarding Money

My father told me how a friend of his came to visit. A day later my father found an envelope containing a large sum of money.

He could not work out how it got there. Eventually, his friend phoned to thank him for the recent hospitality. My father asked,

'Did you lose an envelope containing money?'

'Yes, I did. I'll collect it right away!'

The friend rushed around. He gratefully bowed on receiving his precious envelope. He counted out the twenty pounds notes to confirm it was all there. It was. 

He then, took a twenty pound note, and handed it to my father.

My father backed away, laughing.

My father told me, 'Ridiculous. As if I was a stranger in the street, hoping for a reward. I was his friend. I was not taking or expecting any money. It was his money!' 

Years later, my father still remembered and still laughed about it.

Of course, with the name of the owner on the envelope, there would have been no mystery to solve. Or a business card.

-ends-

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American Schools, Guns, Prisons and Home Schooling

Another tragic shooting at a school in the USA. Everyone is asking, who is to blame, who could have prevented it, what more can be done to prevent such a thing happening again, in the USA, and elsewhere. 

Governments in the USA and UK cannot afford prevention or cure, they cannot afford or arrange prisons and mental health care. Yet they can afford to manufacture and sell and market guns. 

Time to build prisons and mental prevention therapy. Time to tax guns to provide prisons and separate schools for troubled children. 

Home schooled children should all have compulsory online classes. Why? To prove the children are alive and well and learning from a curriculum enough to pass termly tests. 

 Violent video games and online forums should be compelled to carry warnings. What sort? Like those on medicines

 about side effects and 

who should not take the medicine and

 what to do and where to go to prevent harm to yourself and 

Securing the item to prevent harm others 

What to do if you have negative symptoms. 

Articles like those in newspapers reporting crimes should try to prevent copycat crimes by ending with warnings and helplines. Just like articles on suicides end with the number of the Samaritans in the UK and worldwide equivalents.

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More Chances To See Hotel Ducks in Roanoke

 I had read and told you about the Peabody Hotel Ducks in Memphis, Tennessee, in the south of North America, in the USA. I searched online and found the group have another hotel, a Peabody hotel, in Roanoke which is in Virginia. 

I lived in the USA in Rockville, Maryland, in the north of Washington DC. At weekends, we would leave early on a Friday late afternoon or evening and head down the coast to warmer weather to see another city or attraction in the USA. 

The Roanake's Peabody hotel is only three hours away from Washitnton DC, whereas the Memphis hotel is about four hours away. Travelling is easy in the USA. 

Driving There

We used to love driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway, a mountain top route through the forest, traffic-free and way above the motrowary along the coastline. The motorway was quicker but you could always turn downhill if you needed toilets and refreshments.

So if you are in a big city in the east coast as a resident, business person, or holidaymaker, think about going south to see the ducks. The five mallard ducks marching in to the fountain, then out again later, is a great entertainment for both children and adults. The ducks are very opular so to get a good view go early to either get a seat or stand along the duck route as they march in at 11 am, or beside the fountain, or on the interior balcony above if you are in a bedroom.

It's free for visitors, and the hotel has lots of bars and restaurants.

What else is there to see and photograph in Roanoke. Its famous feature is the hilltop star.  The city is now known as the star of the south.

Useful websites

Wikipedi on Roanoke

Wikibvoyage

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Roanoke

Tripadvisor

The hotel group websites

https://www.peabodyhotelsandresorts.com/gallery

My article on the other Peadbody Hotel with ducks in Mephis, Tennessee (with music attractions, Elvis assocations).

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Prevention and Cures For Clothing Disasters - When more of you and your underclothes is showing than you intended

 

What are your everyday clothing disasters? At home, or on holiday.

My mistakesi include:

Wrap Around Skirts

1 A wrap around skirt which unwrapped in Little India.

Twenty strange men rushed to help me. I wasn't sure which ones were pickpockets and which ones had wandering hands. But half of them were helpfully pushing away the others. I was providing both a free striptease show and a free wrestling match. Two thousand other little boys and big men stopped to

Flay Away Hats

2 My large brim hat which blew off in the taxi from the airport in Cambodia. The taxi was a motorcycle trishaw, open-sided, no protection against flying objects. The motorcycle's speed over potholes created a switchback effect requring both hands to hang on, plus a nine force gale causing the hat to levitate. My hat disappeared under a passing lorry and flattened. As I looked back, I saw it boomerang around both sides of the road, causing near accidents. By the time we had explained to our driver,

Round ht elaastic can go aat the back under your hair.

I like to tie aa flat ribbon aat the front, like an old fashioned bonnet. Under your chin a cord elastic is uncomfortable. You are better off with flat thi hat elastic.

Tip

Fasten all wrap-around skirts with two ssmall safety pins or two secure brooches for extra security.

Sew small snaps (the UK term is press studs) to secure skirts and wwrap-over tops.

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Why Fly The Day Before Departure?

My family always allow a day or two on arrival and departure by flight or ferry or ship. You never know what delays you might encounter.

 Why fly the day before?

If you are on business, can you leave at the last minute and cut it fine?

You fly out for Xmas. then somebody aasks you to a New Year's Eve party.

Xmas flight on Singapore Airlines. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Business Trips

Better to fly out Friday night, rest at a hotel and go to work Monday morning. Only fly last minute if you are the prime VIP of the meetingg and it can be postponed if you are late. Then make sure you have paid a little extra for a refundable ticket if you have to change flights.

Useful Websites

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13814987/Family-heartbroken-watching-dream-8-500-cruise-leave-port-without-making-common-travel-mistake.html

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The Peabody Hotel Ducks in Memphis, Tennessee

 

Ducks in the fountain.

The red carpet parade.

Ducks close up.

Overhead view of fountain with ducks and onlookers.

You can see a series of pictures in Wikipedia and on the hotel's website. The Peabody Ducks live on the roof of the hotel. Every day they parade down the red caret to music and end up in the hotel fountain for a few hours of the afternoon, until they ceremoniously return.  They have their own little duck hotel on the rooftop.

This has been going on for decades and ducks don't live forever. Pet ducks, depending on specis, can live from five to 10 to 15 years.

So new ducks have to be trained to follow the group

A few facts

When did it start? 1930s

Where is the hotel downtown (city centre)

Time of march

11 am and 5 pm.

Type of duck

Maallard\

Useful Website

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122183881196197962&set=gm.1028260391958441&idorvanity=785121569605659

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Social Dhaba Indian restaurant

 Hatch End is not short of Indian restaurants, nor of customers flocking to enjoy the food. The Indian restaurants include Social Dhaba, conspicuous on the corner. A few shops to the right is Sakonis. Across the road is Rude, North Indian. To the left is Coriander. We like to try new restaurants when they open. Later on, we go back to each in turn to support them all and see what has changed or been added.

The expansion and widespread availability of home delivery services such as uber eats, means that you can enjoy home delivery if you have no babysitter, or when you are the babysitters.

We tried. Social Dhaba for a take away service. We were within walking distance. 

We found the menu online and phoned family elsewhere in London to ask what they wanted to eat.

One person is a meat eater and opted for the mixed grill, called on the bill Mix Grill Platter.

Somehow we ended up with a plastic delivery bowl of plain yogurt and a smaller bowl of raits, yogurt with herbs.

We finished with dessert, delicious balls of gulub jamun, served with ice cream.

Everybody was happy with tbeir meal. Iwas pleased with the peshwari none which was filled with coconut. 

Dining in options include window seats with candles. Photo by Angela Lansbury

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