The Reason For The Eight Lights and Fewer On the Hanukiahs worldwide

Mincemeat tart with pastry forming a six point star, at John Lewis, Brent Cross shopping centre.

Singapore Hanukah Lights

I remember seeing a giant Hanukiah in central Orchard Road in Singapore. Only three candles were lit. I thought, 'What a shame. They have spent a lot of money making that lovely sculpture, monument, and the electrics have failed.'

I did not realise that it was the third day of Hanukah so three lights are lit. I discovered this when a girl from London arrived to stay and she had brought with her a candelabra, a candle holder, and a set of candles, which she left with me as a gift.

London Lights For Hanukah

 In Central London the best known location is Trafalgar Square. It has the largest Hanukiah in Europe. The lights are lit up from the first day of Hanukah, on December 14 until the last day, eight days later, Dec 22.

 Hanukah is a Jewish festival, celebrating the lighting of the candles in the temple in Jerusalem, when Jews were able to rededicate the temple after the Roman leader had tried to install Roman Gods. The story goes that there was not enough pure oil, the Romans had sacrificed a pig, deliberately to desecrate the temple. I don't know why it was so difficult to get a supply of oil. However, it seems that it took eight days, but the little oil they had which should have lasted only one day, lasted eight days, a miracle.

The Candles of  Hanukiah

The festival is also called the Festival of Lights. On the first day, one candle is lit, using a second helper candle. One the second day a second candle, total three. Until on the last day all eight are lit, nine if you count the helper candle.

Sets of Candles

If you buy hanukiah and a set of candles, you will have a box of 44 candles. Not just eight. Why so many? I automatically tried to add them up, 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8, plus 8 more for the central, more rarely on the side, candle used to light the others. The usual way of counting is starting with two on day one, the first candle and the helper candle, called a shamach. 1+1=2,  ... 8+1=9.

Oil Based Food

In synagogues and other places where celebrations are held. oil based food, usually donuts, is served. Greeting cards will show oil and oil based food.

 Often children are supplied with kits to make a hanukiah during the 8 days, on the first day. You may have to go early and sign up in advance, because the number of kits may depend on the budget for the number of children expected.

Did Jesus Celebrate Hanukah?

Yes. Jesus celebrated the festival, the Feast of Dedication, as it was then called, as recorded in the New Testament in the gospel of John 10.22.

Useful Websites About Hanukah

Wikipedia Hanukah

Haukah candles

Hanukah history

Update on Dec 15 2025

https://www.thetimes.com/world/australasia/article/sydney-shooting-antisemitism-attack-jewish-holiday-chanukkah-zkk6dvt7d

Please follow me and share links to my posts.

Muslim Family Travel To Israel, What Happens Next is Hilarious!

A feel good video. Stunning hotel with views over the city. Rare glimpse inside the spacious great mosque.

New Biblical Site Discovered in Jerusalem, City of David

Photo from Wikivoyage.

Let's hope the promised peace from January 2025 will allow us to visit areas which have been inaccessible.

An exciting new discovery from Archaeologists in Jerusalem. A biblical character is recorded as having destroyed local temples, one of which was hidden to save it and the artifacts in it. 

Archaeologists have recently revealed the buried bulding they believe to be the mostly a destroyed local temple. It contains floor channels which could have been runaways for blood from sacrifice on an altar. 

An obelisk which was worshipped remains, and evidence of oil. 

The destroyer, Hezekiah, was recorded in the New Testament as being an ancestor of a Jesus.  

I was shocked to read that a leader had destroyed a pagan temple. And destroyed a little local temple in order to promote a larger central temple so that he had control. How many times has this happened in history? Many. 

In the UK and probably elsewhere Roman temples were build on hilltops previously occupied by pagan buildings.  

Nonetheless, a fascinating discovery from long, long ago.

Useful Website

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14291409/Shrine-Bible-sealed-Jesus-ancestor-OPENED-3-000-years.html

Hanukah symbols and where to see them - eg Trafalgar Square, London, or buy them

A hanukiah with eight branches and coloured candles and the six point Star of David.

Hanukah dates vary from year to year because the Jewish calendar is like the Muslim calendar and does not follow the reformed gregorian calendar which attempted to ensure that dates from more uniform from one year to the next and kept in tune with the seasons, but instead with the phases of the moon. This year, 2022, the eight day Jewish festival of lights, Hanukah, starts on the evening of Sunday December 18th and ends on December 26th which is Boxing Day in the UK and several other countries, or in the Christian calendar, St Stephen's Day.

In the UK the newspapers showed King Charles III of England visiting a Jewish community centre JW3 in London, and dancing the hora with Anne Frank's posthumous stepsister, just before Hanukah. King Charles III was presented with a hanukiah. 

If you look at Wikipedia you will see US Presidents with hanukiahs and rabbis.

Hanukiah

The hanukiah is the nine branch candlestick, a candle for each of the eight nights, plus the 

The most familiar symbol is the hanukiah. 

Jerusalem, hanukiah at the Wailing Wall. 

Other hanukah symbols are the dreidl, a spinning top, and chocolate coins covered in gold foil, called Hanukah gelt (German or yiddish for gold or money). Both are gifts for children, or adults.

Hanukah gelt, coins of chocolate covered in gold foil.

Food For The Festival of Light

Food with oil reflects the story of the miracle of the oil which burned for eight days, when it looked like there was only enough oil for one. Food using oil starts with the savoury latkes or grated potato, fried in oil. I like to eat latkes in the UK at Jewish style deliatessens such as B & K in Hatch End.

For desserts or snacks, you can enjoy jam doughnuts. (Americans call jam as jelly. What the British call jelly, the Americans describe by the brand name, Jello.)

Jam doughnuts, cooked in oil for hanukah.

When I was visited by an Orthodox Jewish person they brought with them a hanukiah as a gift which they lit during the 8 days of hanukah. 

Candles

They brought the 44 candles you need. Why so many? One day one, you light the servant candle, the highest one, as well as the first candle. On day two, the servant candle and two candles, which makes 3. Add them all up until the last day and it makes 44 candles. Yes. Try it.. The numbers are 2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, which adds up to 44. 

Around hanukah, time the Jewish shops either sells the hanukiah with the candles, or remind you to buy the set of candles.

Expect to find all these items either in a supermarket in an area likely to have Jewish customers and Jewish communities or community centres or public buildings which celebrate the holidays of all religions. In Singapore the 9 recognized religions are recognized and the Jewish community sponsors giant hanukiahs, as the plaques below will tell you.

You can buy tee-shirts with hanukah symbols and messages, other garments, and baubles for a hanukah bush.

The Hanukah Bush

Hanukah Socks

Instead of a red large sock for Santa to fill, for Hanukah there are blue socks.

I was researching for my speech on Christmas, Hanukah and Chrismukah for Toastmasters International clubs which I belong to, including Braddell Heights Advanced, and Singapore Online Dynamic, and Tampines Changkat Advanced. I added two blog posts on the subject on travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com I discovered that there was a hanukiah on Traflagar Square, and the England's King Charles III in London was given a hanukiah in London where he visited a Jewish community centre and danced the hora with Anne Frank's posthumous sister. (After WW2 ended, Anne Frank's father moved from Holland to England, lived around the corner from me in Edgware, which I only learned years later. He married another survivor whose daughter is still alive.)

Where to see a hanukiah>

ISRAEL

Jerusalem, wailing wall.

Jersusalem, windows in the Hadasseh hospital.

In public places, buildings and squares. In the windows of homes. On dinner tables at dusk.

USA

In New York, in public places and Jewish museums, synagogues, and homes.

UK

In Trafalgar Square, London. 

Public places such as Edgware and Golders Green. 

Menorah outside Edgware station, Middlesex, NW London, England, UK.

Supermarkets in Golders Green and Hendon.

ASIA

Displayed at the Singapore synagogue in Waterloo street. In previous years they had one in Orchard Road.

WORLDWIDE

Jewish museums in many countries including Australia and South Africa, and Europe.

A Toastmasters club poster.

A neutral greeting encompassing everybody is Happy Holidays.

Here is a greeting from a Toastmasters International speakers' club.

Useful Websites

https://www.judaicawebstore.co.uk/hanukkah-candles---rainbow

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hanukkah-Ornaments-Chanukah-Supplies-Decorations/dp

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hanukiah-Judaica-Holyland-Menorah-Hanukkah/dp/B00GC48E6K/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1XC756GF648S2&keywords=hanukiah&qid=1671293365&sprefix=hanukia%2Caps%2C132&sr=8-3

UK

https://www.london.gov.uk/events/menorah-2022-trafalgar-square

Updates

https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/all-light-on-the-night-hundreds-flock-to-trafalgar-square-for-chanukah/

You can look inside the book by Eva Schloss on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/After-Auschwitz-heartbreak-survival-stepsister/dp/1444760718/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1671295570&refinements=p_27%3AEva+Schloss&s=books&sr=1-1

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Why is North in the north on maps? Who decided? Is it always that way?

 

I researched left, right and centre, as the saying goes for the answer. North, South, East and West. I thought I read on Wikipedia or somewhere else about the man I had never heard of who established north on maps in Europe. My second search showed that Ptolemy has north on maps in ancient times, and European maps put north in all sorts of places until am copied the older system from elsewhere and much later his version was copied onto printed maps in Europe. 

Then I discovered something fascinating. Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer living in Egypt, put north at the top because he started writing at the top. But also from the top left. 

But why north? Because of the north star - but that was done by people living in the south, down under.  Maps were printed with the west at the top by another culture which made their city the most important place in the universe - but why put north at the top and not in the centre. 

China

The Chinese call their country centre, a square with a line through it. I learned that from looking at signposts in Hong Kong.

Sailors, North and South

Another theory goes that sailors were following the stars. 

Or South was at the top of the page, because in Egypt the Nile flows north to the Mediterranean sea.

Mecca and Jerusalem

Then the Arabs lived north of Mecca which was in the south. (But graves of Muslims and Jews in Europe face East towards the holy lands and places, Jerusalem and Mecca.)

Vienna, Austria

We drove around Vienna in Austria arguing about whether to go left or right because my husband was driving, watching the signposts, but I was reading the nap which had south at the bottom of the page following ...

The north pole is at the north. But ...

"You could turn the piece of paper round," my husband suggested. 

 I retorted, "But then the writing is upside down. I could stand on my hands and read it that way. Or place a book on a lazy Susan." 

It is a convention. Sometimes. But not always.

The English write North, South, East and West starting with capital letters. 

Swedish North is north

The Swedish language does not use capital letters. You just have to go with the flow.

Australia

And don't get me started on the way the water runs down the plughole in the bath in Australia. 

Or Christmas in June.

Useful Websites

https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/why-maps-point-north-on-top/

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

https://thepointsguy.com/2017/07/travel-myths-backwards-water/

Sholom Aleichem and where to see his memorials in Netanya in Israel and in the Ukraine

Sholom Aleichem created the characters such as Tevye featured in the film (movie) Fiddler on the Roof.

 USA

Ukraine

Israel

Sholom Aleichem statue in Netanya, near Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo from Wikipedia.

Sholom Aleichem memorial in Bohuslav, Kiev province, Ukraine

Netanya, near Tel Aviv, Israel. 

Picture from Wikipedia article on the man.

Sholom Aleichem In Hebrew

Sholom Aleichem was his pen name. It means peace be with you in Hebrew and Yiddish. Sholom, like salaam in Arabic, means peace. The capital city of Jerusalem also contains the word salem. The consonants are s, l, and m. The vowels change with time and place. 

The Moustache Fashion

I like to see the portrait of the man which shows the moustache which was the fashion of the day. Then clean water was not so abundant and people were poorer and could not necessarily afford to visit the barber and did not have electric razors. 

The clean shaven look came in during WWI. Then soldiers had short hair and not beards nor moustaches because they had to wear helmets or gas masks in the army. 

Later beards and moustaches became the bohemian, artistic look. Writers, songwriters, musicians, singers. Then in the nineteen sixties, the hippy look. 

Later still associated with primitives. On the one hand, this can be associated with good, simple, healthy and virtuous and honest, or uncultured. It could be associated with orthodox, traditional religious - or violent, aggressive terrorists. But in his era, it evokes a look which is artistic and romantic.  

Now let's look at the text. It is Cyrillic. Best known to most people outside Europe as Russian, which is almost the same as the lettering used in Bulgaria, I discovered on holiday in Bulgaria.

Unlike the earlier language of Hebrew, Cyrillic, named after Cyril, a priest, combines Greek and Hebrew letters. 

What looks like a W is the sound for Sh in Sholom. 

Once you recognize the Sh, it is easy to see the letters Sh-M A-L is his name, Sholom and Aleichem. 

The L looks a bit like you are starting to write a lower case l, in cursive or italic with an upward curve. Then you come down as if about to write a capital L, but you can't be bothered to finish it with the line across the bottom as you already have a line across the top, and Hebrew and Cyrillic have lots of letters which seem to be upside down or back to front or left to right. (Of course, our writing came later, so we are the ones who changed it.) 

The X is the sound like clearing your throat, like the Scottish ch in loch as in Loch Lomond.

I am a teacher of English and other languages, which I am always learning when I travel. 

Tel Aviv

Whilst I am on the subject of language, the word Tel Aviv means hill of spring, or springtime. You will see the word Tel on modern maps of the middle east. Aviv or Aviva is a girl's name. Like the word April, for the month, and the girl's name, April, for girls born in the month of April.  Tel Aviv has the old city up on the hill, and the suburbs spread along the sandy beach. The city was founded in 1909. 

Tel Aviv's Art Deco

Architecturally, many modern buildings, now historic, are from the nineteen thirties, which to me looks like art deco (deco short for decorative), but which is strictly speaking called Bauhaus. Haus is German for house.   

Netanya

Netanya is north of Tel Aviv. It is named after Nathan, the co-owner of Macys department store. Nathan's brother died on the Titanic. 

Useful Websites

A traveller's sukkah which fits in the trunk of your car

You can buy a ready-made sukkah.

Learn something strange every day. You can buy a fold-up safari sukkah which fits in the trunk of your car. I suppose this would be really handy if you were a single son visiting your Auntie Rachel and wanted to put up a two-person sukkah in a hurry. This is from the UK, from a company with offices in three areas of London plus Manchester.

In the USA you can buy a pop-up Sukkah.

Schach - Roof

The website said it comes complete with a schach. I had to look up that word. As I suspected, it is Hebrew and means roof. Now here's the odd thing. It has to be made of something that grows, not a fabric tent. More like twigs. 

After I saw huts at harvest time in India, in the middle of fields, as a temporary shelter for the worker guarding the harvest, the bales of crops, I wondered if a shelter was the idea behind it, or the origin. However, far from protecting you, it has to be open so you can see the sky and it must let in the rain!

I knew it had to be open to the sky. I knew that, because last year I read that if you build one on a balcony, as is done on many apartment blocks in Tel Aviv, it is only authentic, no, that's no a strong enough work, only valid, if  it is open to the sky, not a balcony completely covered by another. 

One year I went to a Sukkah ceremony at the Northwood and Pinner Liberal synagogue in Northwood. I met people who were not Jewish. For example, from the Methodist church next door. The event was also advertised in the local library and assorted free local newspapers and magazines. Other visitors were from multi-Faith organizations such as the Three Faiths organization, uniting Jews, Christians and Muslims. We had honey and apples to eat. Like at Jewish New Year.

Etrog - Citrus

I later visited the Sukkah of a neighbour who was a lay rabbi. He showed me the etrug. (A lemon or symbolic citrus fruit, often in a lemon shaped box.

Lulav

And a frond with four parts. Wave the lulav around, and say a prayer. (In Hebrew.)

You must turn to face north, east, south and west. Not just Jerusalem. Incidentally, Jerusalem is not always east or west. It depends which part of the world you are in. If you are in the west (of Jerusalem), then Jerusalem will be to your East. But if you are East of Jerusalem, then Jerusalem will be to your west. I suppose the same applies to saying prayers, building a religious building, and orienting a gravestone.

What is the difference between a sukkah and Sukkot? A sukkah is the temporary building. Sukkot is the festival.

Useful Websites

https://sukkahmart.co.uk/pages/about-sukkot

https://sukkahmart.co.uk/products/safari-sukkah

https://amenvamen.com/sukkah-kit-reviews

Sukkah kit

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264476751808?chn=ps&norove

The British National Anthem & UK flag Quiz: Is God Save The Queen Still your favourite?

THE UK FLAG

The UK's national anthem usually prefaces The Queen's Christmas Message. 

However, in 2007 it appeared at the end, taken from a recording of the 1957 television broadcast).

For important royal announcements, such as of royal deaths, it is played in a slower, sombre arrangement.

Other British anthems

Frequently, when an anthem is needed for one of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom – at an international sporting event, for instance – an alternative song is used:

• England generally uses "God Save the Queen", but "Jerusalem", "Rule, Britannia!" and "Land of Hope and Glory" have also been used.

• SPORT
• At international test cricket matches, England has, since 2004, used "Jerusalem" as the anthem.
• At international rugby league matches, England uses "God Save the Queen" and also "Jerusalem".
• At international rugby union and football matches, England uses "God Save the Queen".
• At the Commonwealth Games, Team England uses "Jerusalem" as their victory anthem.

SCOTLAND

• Scotland uses "Flower of Scotland" as their anthem for most sporting occasions.
• Wales uses "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" ("Land of My Fathers") for governmental ceremonies and sporting occasions. At official occasions, especially those with royal connections, "God Save the Queen" is also played.
• 
  
• IRELAND
• Northern Ireland uses "God Save the Queen" as its national anthem. However, many Irish nationalists feel unrepresented by the British anthem and seek an alternative.^[65] Northern Ireland also uses the "Londonderry Air" as its victory anthem at the Commonwealth Games. When sung, the "Londonderry Air" has the lyrics to "Danny Boy". At international rugby union matches, where Northern Irish players compete alongside those from the Republic of Ireland as part of an All-Ireland team, "Ireland's Call" is used.

ENGLAND

In April 2007 there was a motion to the British Parliament to propose that there should be a separate England anthem: "That this House ... believes that all English sporting associations should adopt an appropriate song that English sportsmen and women, and the English public, would favour when competing as England". An amendment  was proposed by Evan Harris that the song "should have a bit more oomph than God Save The Queen and should also not involve God."

Quiz
1 A popular song at Scottish Sports events is:
a) Flag of Scotland; b) Flower of Scotland; c)Thistle of Scotland

2 A popular Irish song is
a) Paddy boy, b) Danny Boy, c) Derry Boy

3 The original royal radio message was by which king?
a) George V, the Queen's grandfather, who died in 1936
b) George VI, the Queen's father
c) The king who abdicated

4 The UK flag includes flags of
a) England only, with two made up flags; 
b) England, Wales and Scotland, 
c) England, Ireland and Wales, 
d) England, Ireland and Scotland
e) None of the above - three random flags

5 Alternatives to God Save the Queen are
a) God save the King
b) God Save the Prince
c) Save the Queen
d) Britannia
e) Star spangled banner
f) Londonderry
g) Jerusalem

6 The Queen's grandfather died in
a) 1910 b) 1936 c) 1952

7 The UK flag consists of which three flags
a) St George b) St Patrick c) St Thomas c) St Stephen e) St Andrew 


ANSWERS
1 b
2 b
3 a
4 d
5 a d g
6 b
7 a b e

^{Useful Websites}

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Christmas_Message]}

Author, Author! About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.) See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When. Also watch videos on YouTube.
See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Where To See Einstein Everywhere: on TV, Books and Magazines, USA, Germany, India, Israel, Taiwan and more

Einstein with Charlie Chaplin. Photo taken 1931. Public Domain. From Wikipedia.

 On a Singapore Airlines flight in January 2018 I watched an episode of a series of nine of a USA TV film series about Nobel prize winner Albert Einstein. All episodes were listed with a summary. 

The episode which I watched was about Einstein resisting attempts to get him to support the Hebrew university of Israel, before the founding of Israel. Very interesting picture of his strong second wife, Elsa. 

The film brings up all sorts of interests and controversies. Einstein and Judaism. Einstein and assimilation. Einstein and fund-raising. Einstein and communism. Einstein and Germany and being German before WWII. Einstein and America and being an American.

Einstein and the Atom Bomb

I also went to a Toastmasters meeting in Singapore where one of the speakers presented a defence of Einstein against accusation that he was the cause of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima (presented as a bad thing in The Times magazine in the USA in the 1940s). Makes me want to read books about Einstein’s life.

TV Series
Genius (This National Geographic series on Einstein had ten Emmy nominations)

Places to visit (Alphabetically:) 

CZECH REPUBLIC
Panoptikum, Prague.

GERMANY
Germany

INDIA
Science park, Kannur, Kerala. The city of Kannur is called the crown of Kerala, land of looms and lores (stories as in folklore).

ISRAEL

Bust in Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

English: Robert Berks (US-american, born 1922): Albert Einstein Millennial Monument, Jerusalem, Israel Academy Of Sciences And Humanities, Albert Einstein Sciences Garden. Replica of the 1979 monument located at the US National Academy of Sciences. Photo author Eftib in Wikipedia commons.

JAPAN

Hiroshima, Japan

Spain
Statue of seated Einstein at the entrance to the Science Park and Museum in Granada, southern Spain.

TAIWAN
Juming Museum. Lovely white statue of Einstein carrying a brolly and a bag.

USA - see giant statue of reclining EInstein, near Academy of Science, on Independence Avenue NW, Washington DC, USA

For photos of statues and busts, nothing in Wikitravel and nothing in the aritcle on Einstein in Wikipedia. I eventually tracked down photos of statues in commons.wikimedia.org .

Useful Websites
EINSTEIN
wikipedia
Wikiquote

TRAVEL
Spain
http://www.parqueciencias.com/parqueciencias/ Einstein statue

Author

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

About Angela Lansbury

I’m Angela Lansbury.

I’m not related to the actress but she does wonderful publicity for our name. I would love to meet her and the other thirteen people who are lucky to share the name.

I live in London and Singapore. I like to think that I am ‘a citizen of the world’.

Skills

DRIVING & NAVIGATING

I travel the world, hiking from a luxury hotel, sitting on a plane or train. I’ve been white water rafting in the USA and New Zealand. I drive a car occasionally, but much prefer to be a passenger. I navigate using maps, satnav, and dresses in shop windows.

Best of all is being collected by a car owned by the hotel. A proper, luxury hotel, where somebody carries your luggage.

TAKING GREAT PHOTOGRAPHS

I take travel photos with a smart phone. You don’t need a luxury camera. It’s lovely to have a camera which takes both videos and still pictures, as my husband does when climbing mountains such as Kilimanjaro. But I can take photos with any camera.

I once went on a ferry trip to France, partly sponsored by Polaroid. I won a camera in the competition with one of my twelve last-minute photos taken the port, of a statue against the sunset. The statue was just a silhouette.

The candidates from the photography magazines looked at it suspiciously. One of them conceded, ‘Contre jour’.

I was a bit worried because I didn’t know the term. I knew contra was against and jour was day - had I done something against the rules of the day?  

No. One of them kindly explained,  “Contre-jour meant taken against the (day)light.”  

EDITING PHOTOS

People who protest, “Don’t photograph me - I don’t photograph well,“ allow me to take a few photos, then later say, “Wow - you  make me look good!”

I photograph them holding something suited to their hobbies or the location, such as reading a newspaper and peering around it, or hugging a distracting dog and wearing sunglasses. The girl wearing sunglasses as well as the dog.

Making Friends

One of my friends told me: "I don't stay in luxury hotels; I doesn’t stay in hotels of any size. I prefer to stay with friends." 

If you can spend less on accommodation, you can spend more on other luxuries.

How Do You Make Friends In New Places?

When I was a teenager I watched a boy circle a room circling clockwise around a room, chatting up all the girls, complete strangers, who transformed, smiling animatedly and gave him their phone numbers, whilst other boys had no success and didn’t fancy anybody. One of the other boys muttered, “How does he do it? What is he saying to them?”

Only one person knew.  I proceeded anti-clockwise around the room until I could confront Casanova. I  asked him, “What’s the secret of your success in conversation with girls?”

He replied, “Everybody has something good. If a girl is hideously ugly, she may be carrying a nice handbag. So I compliment her on her taste in handbags.”

Photographic Experience

When I am photographing, I remember what he said. If my subject has pretty, patterned shoes, but a plain face, I focus on the feet. Their face can be half hidden by a stunning sunhat,  an amusing umbrella, or glass of pink champagne. If you don’t have a handy hat or umbrella, walk  into a department store and try on a hat just long enough to get three shots.

If you don’t have a glass of champagne and can’t afford one, what then? I go into a grand bar and ask for an empty glass or add water, or buy tomato juice.

EDITING SKILL

I edit out their wrinkles, make the pretty girls sharp, and the ugly ones gently out of focus.

FRENCH CONVERSATION

I speak French fluently. (“Oui!) My aim is to learn one language each year, and five minutes a day, learning two more. By the year 2027, I should be fluent in ten languages. 

Ten years after that I shall probably be fluent in twenty, or I shall be dead, of exhaustion. 

I am learning conversational Chinese, German, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Malaysian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian. Spanish, Welsh. I am learning with the aid of Duolingo, Earworms and taxi drivers.

I am a great listener.  

When I was a postgraduate I made friends with a girl who said, “It’s my policy to be friends with everybody.” Good policy.

COLOURFUL, MEMORABLE CHARACTER

I make friends everywhere I go. I don’t generally read novels during my travels. I watch the scenery for interesting photo shots and smiling faces. But I read business cards which people give me with the excitement of an avid reader discovering the denouement to a thriller.

A woman in a jewellery shop in New Zealand remembered me when I returned five years later. I asked, “Do you remember everybody?”

“No,” she replied, “But I remember you!”

Experience

At Grammar school and Sunday school, I studied English grammar, and other subjects useful for a travel writer: French, History, Latin, Hebrew, Religious knowledge,  art appreciation, country dancing, and singing folk songs out of tune.  I picked up enough maths to enable me to count my change, whatever the currency, and to check it twice.

UNIVERSITY

I studied at University College, London. I wish I had studied Swedish.

Postgraduate Training

As a postgraduate, I studied shorthand, typing, and business at a Secretarial College. I learned Pitman’s shorthand, all dots and dashes,  which I promptly forgot.

Travel Recording

Later, I learned Speedwriting which is abbreviated like TextSpeak. It comes in handy when I am taking notes from a recording on an open-top bus on a city tour. Tape recordings don’t work because of the background noise of the engine him and the passing traffic and people behind you talking loudly in other languages over the English.

When I became a journalists and went to work for IPC, it was obligatory to join the National Union of Journalists. I was thrilled. I was sent on a journalism course at London College of Printing where I studied law for journalists. I was a sub-editor on Woman and Woman’s Realm.

Writing For a German Audience

I wrote for encyclopaedias and partworks, notably on a science partwork to be translated from English to German.  I remember researching  bridges of the world. Everything had to be written for a German audience. It was an exercise in diplomacy, long before political correctness. Amazing how copy about the Allies sounds different when the subject of a sentence changes and you are self-censoring.

Freelance Travel Writer

I became a freelance and wrote travel articles for:

• Brides.
• Parents
• Good Motoring.
• Northern Echo.
• And many more.

The walls of my house are full of framed copies of articles I have written. Articles used to get stuck together in filing systems. It’s quicker to find an article by racing up and down the corridor. I call it wallpaper filing.

Books On Travel

I have written twenty books. The earliest was Enquire Within Upon Travel and Holidays.

Researching Jewish Interest

My most recent is a Jewish Travel Guide. It was the result of my being asked to speak about travel on a Jewish travel programme on the radio in London. I thought that there would not be much to say. How many Jewish places are there?

Anne Frank’s House in Amsterdam, The Netherlands,

The Jewish museum in London, and

The Jewish museum in Manchester, and

Schindler’s Factory Museum in Poland near

Auschwitz, and

Jerusalem in Israel, and the

Jewish Museum in Washington DC, and

Singer Island in Florida named after the man who aimed to sell every house a sewing machine.

I found a story in every country and every state which had somebody Jewish connected with it. For example, I went to Niagara Falls. What could I say of Jewish interest? Marilyn Monroe made a film at Niagara Falls. She married Arthur Miller, who was Jewish, and she converted to Judaism.

Niagara also had a museum to Houdini. He  was Jewish.

I remember standing on the USA stand at the world Travel Market and talking to a tourist board rep about Elvis. I eventually admitted, “I’m looking for a story of Jewish interest for a radio programme. I don’t supposed you have a Jewish story connected with Elvis, do you?”

The man grinned, “I sure do. Elvis turned on the cooker on Saturday for a Jewish neighbour. He was a - what do you call it?”

“ A shabbos goy - a non-Jew who helps out on Shabbos, the sabbath.”

To capture and record all the stories because I could not read my handwriting nor co-ordinate my filing, I ended up publishing a book about Jews in every country. To make life easy for me and the reader, I listed the countries alphabetically. Then, of course, I had to search for something to suit every letter of the alphabet.

You might think at first, as I did, that there can’t be that many stories. Yes there can.

But surely there’s nothing to interest people who are not Jewish?

Yes, there is! I was surprised in the Cat Museum in Kuching, Malaysia, the name Kuching means cat. Who do I see in a photo with her cat.  Anne Frank!

Resident of Spain and Singapore

When my family lived in Spain, we travelled all the way down through France and Portugal into Spain, literally with the kitchen sink, bought from Wickes in North Harrow, all the way across Spain to Marbella in the far South.

I lived with the family in the USA and Spain. I taught English in four schools in Singapore.

Having a base in England, still part of Europe, makes it easy to do short trips using RyanAir. The highlight of this year was Romania and Dracula.

What can you do for cheap flights from Singapore? Airmiles. This year’s highlight was Cambodia. A favourite saying you hear often in Singapore is, “I can get it for you cheaper.”

Awards

My best prizes was a trip I won as a postgraduate student to Japan, via Russia, staying with Japanese families and at Japanese youth hostels, such as one at Hiroshima. Afterwards, I stayed on for a night in a luxury hotel in Tokyo before catching the shop and plane home. Dinner was bought by my American boyfriend who was there just for the evening before he flew on. I had travelled on an overnight couchette train to meet up with him.

Later, one of my books was a best seller. Because of my books, I have spoken on the radio all over the world. In addition to winning awards, I have presented awards.

I presented the awards at a Murder Weekend in Wales.

I presented awards at a competition for matchmaking romantic singles in Singapore.

I hope you will quote me. I love quoting famous people. Disraeli said, When I want to read a book, I write one.

I have written or perhaps I should say, edited, two books of quotations>

Quick Quotations

Who Said What When