Notting Hill Gate Carnival Videos Are On YouTube! Music, Colour, Singing, Dancing!

Problem
I was looking on the BBC and Daily Mail sites and finding little of nothing.

Answer
Then I looked on Youtube and found this years' (Saturday Aug 27 2017) as well as 2017 all in one place without having to flip from one news site to the next.

The reporter getting daubed with paint:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzrEJSl_Yks

Nottingham 2017
I clicked on this because it popped up. I thought it was Notting Hill. better than the Notting Hill videos.
Best so far of this year - Nottingham Carnival 2017, starts with great music and lots of different bands. If there's one you don't like, slide the slider to the next.
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIQRcF9tDss

Highlights of 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkI5og9jum8
Annoyingly when you copy the code you get the numbers and letters and not the title , so, especially when the video jumps to 'on next' you are not sure whether you have caught the current title or a subsequent one.

This has some good if repetitive music, some stunning near naked dancers of both sexes gyrating. I was reminded of the quotation that dancing is the vertical expression of a horizontal desire.

I just looked up the quotation. It was George Bernard Shaw. He said perpendicular, not vertical. As is usually the case, the relative nobody who repeats the quotation incorrectly succeeds in saying it more succinctly and memorably that the famous person's original.

I suppose the best part of the Notting Hill Carnival is being saved for the Grand finale tomorrow, Bank Holiday Monday. Come back.

Meanwhile:
Toronto Caribana 2017. If Rio has Rio Toronto has rears. "If you've got it flaunt it," says the nearest male in my family when I call him to comment. Busts too. Glamorous girls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuCXSLE8kQE


Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Author of Quick Quotations for Successful Speakers. See previous posts on Carnival in UK and worldwide. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Cosy Cave Restaurants and Cool Cellars from London, to Liverpool, and Nottingham to Romania

Cellar Restaurant in Brasov, Romania. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Problem
Where can I go that's different, amusing?

Answer
Cave restaurants, cellar bars and underground tours.

Cellar Restaurants and Tours in UK
This week in July 2017 Liverpool city in England discovered a new large underground hall to be added to the existing complex below Mason Street.  The Williamson Tunnels were built by Joseph Williamson, from waterproof solid bricks (unlike the spongey ones used for houses in the city). Liverpool also has a Memorial Garden to him. You can take a quick free peep through the porthole style glass window underfoot Liverpool One Precinct. Or join a tour of the tunnels and see the museum and cafe.

(Whilst in Liverpool see the Beatles museum and Carn tour; the Anglican Cathedral; plus some of the city's free museums. Whilst in this area, visit Chester and North Wales.

Also north of London, Nottingham has many caves carved in the sandstone beneath the city. I have put on my list of places to see on my next visit the
Cave restaurant: Hand and Heart pub, Derby Road, Nottingham.

In Edinburgh, I had dinner in one of the alcoves underground in a pub near the city centre by the book fair during the Edinburgh Festival, an annual event. For recent reviews of The Cellar Door see tripadvisor.


I have also dined underground in Warsaw, Poland.

Underground at The Don, in London. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Would you like something grander? In London I loved the underground rooms at the Don Restaurant, which you can hire for events such as weddings. I dined in the expensive gourmet restaurant upstairs (when they had a half price offer). See my earlier post.

Cellar Restaurants in Europe
I once went through the catalogues of the major hotel groups such as the Relais hotels and Chateaux Hotels and Prestige hotels worldwide, noting all the cellar restaurants. In the Rathaus or town hall of the city centres in Germany you often find an underground beer hall and restaurant serving the local food.

Earlier this year I had lunch in an alcove area in Brasov in Romania. See my post on this.

Websites
LONDON, ENGLAND
The Don restaurant
The Courtyard
20 St Swithins Lane
EC4N 8AD
Tel: 020 7626 606
www.thedonrestaurant.com
www.thesignofthedon.com

LIVERPOOL
http://www.williamsontunnels.co.uk

TOURIST INFORMATION
USEFUL WEBSITES
https://tfl.gov.uk
https://art.tfl.gov.uk/projects/permanent-commission-by-daniel-buren/
www.visitlondon.com
www.londonpass.com

SCOTLAND
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186525-d718615-Reviews-The_Cellar_Door-Edinburgh_Scotland.html
www.visitbritain.org

ROMANIA

Gratar Urban, (Urban Grill), 

Strada Michael Weiss, 

Brasov 500031

Tel: +40 731832033

https://www.facebook.com/GratarUrban/

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

Statues To See - Places To Pose For Selfies: with Einstein or Robin Hood, or maybe a guitar?

Problem
What can you see which is free, and isn't shut when it rains or on Monday in winter?
Statues.

Answer
Public statues. Great for the cover of a book, travel diary or start of a slide show.
I've got a little list, as comic opera writer Gilbert would say.

Should you only visit statues of real people? Heroes and heroines from history. learning about history of your own country and other people's. Or is it worthwhile to see statues of biblical characters, heroes from history, myths, angels, devils, monsters, characters from films, guitars and funny animals and advertising signs.

Real and Mythical People:

The Agatha Christie Memorial is a memorial to author and playwright Agatha Christie, located at the intersection of Cranbourn Street and Great Newport Street by St Martin's Cross near Covent Garden, in London, United Kingdom.

UK
Devon
Agatha Christie bust.

Nottingham
Statue of Robin Hood, by the entrance to the castle. Children love to pose next to it for pictures.

POLAND
Bust of Marcel Proust in Celebrity Alley in Kielce, Poland.

PORTUGAL and Portuguese speaking islands
Madeira
Bust of footballer Cristiano at Madeira airport. Shows his famous grin. (See my previous post.)

USA
Washington DC
Einstein, huge seated statue. You can sit beside him. In Washington DC near the Lincoln Memorial.

I thought statues of Queen Victoria would be the most popular. I have seen so many around the world, in the London, England, the USA, Singapore and New Zealand.

However, I was amazed by the number of statues worldwide to Robbie Burns.

American and New Zealand have the most amusing, unexpected statues.

GUITARS MUSIC AND MORE

AUSTRALIA
Big guitar in front of museum building.
biggoldenguitar.com

USA
OHIO
Giant guitar outside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio.

TENNESSEE
Giant guitar on sidewalk at Nashville, Tennessee.

Tips
For detail, take photos at sunrise.
For keep shadows, take photos at noon.
For silhouettes against a pale sky take photos at twilight.
For a red glow, take photos at sunset.

Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Robert_Burns_memorials


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

Signposts and memory aids for photos, souvenir and recommendations

When you come home at night you remember the name of your restaurant and your friends, the nearest station, the city. A year later when you want to caption the picture, or find it, or recommend a hotel to a friend, the name escapes you.

The simple answer to this is to take a photo of the name of the city, the street, the hotel, the restaurant, the taxi number.

What's the restaurant name? Table at 8? Restaurant at 9? After 8 Restaurant? Table at 6 or 7? Table or tables at 7? Ah - Table at 7.

When you want to caption your photo, argue with your family about the name of the restaurant, find out if the place your friends visited the year previously was the one you saw this year, or phone about your lost wallet or umbrella, you have the name instantly, complete with the visual reminder.

Was I in Clarke Quay or Boat Quay? The map shows they are adjacent. My photo tells me.  I was in Clarke Quay. Clark or Clarke? It's Clarke. 

Take the photo on arrival, when you have nothing else to do or are waiting for others to arrive. If it's a place you visit often, the chances are that the first time you visit you will be impressed enough to want to take a photo. By the following day or week it will be raining, or dark. Later, you will be bored, or your family will say, 'Stop - enough photos' or, 'We're in a hurry.

Statues and Landmarks In Sunshine
I remember visiting Nottingham, England on a press travel trip. We passed the statue of Robin Hood. It was sunny and I wanted to stop. The guide said, "You can do it later".

The next two days it rained. On the last day we took a short cut back to the station and didn't pass it. Besides we were hurrying to catch a train.

I've never forgotten. That would have been my landmark statue.


Yes, the tourist board can send a picture. But it's their copyright. The photographer may have rules about entering his name in the caption.

The photo might be a year old. The magazine may have used the generic photo already or not want the same photo that the rival magazine or newspaper is using. Maybe they already have that picture on file. They already covered the story last year.

Why should they take my text? A glance at the accompanying photo will tell the editor that he or she has seen this before.

I always find a new angle. I might want myself, little me, in the picture to show the height of the statue.

Human Interest and History
My face adds human interest. My face added proves that I visited the place. This is up to date and a personal story, not a press release put out by the tourist board, identical to that published in every other newspaper.

But clothes can date a picture. So can cars. And your face growing older. Somebody can look at you and ask, "When was this taken?"

Historic photos are useful. If the building is demolished later. O to show your town through the ages.

I might get paid for my own picture. I can't get paid for somebody else's picture.

If I'm told, "You can do it later," I reply, "I'd rather do it now and strike if off the list of things I have to do." Or I say, "Let's do it now while the sun is just right."

Obstructions
A day later the cathedral is covered in scaffolding. (Umpteen times in England and Europe.)

Two hours later when we walk back past the church with all the statues it is in shadow and a fast food van is parked in front of the church. (That happened to me in Malta.)

Handy Captions
A caption of a hotel or museum is useful. Why did I take that buildings with columns? Is it the hotel where I stayed? Budget b and b? Or five star luxury? Or a national museum?

Signposts
The photo as a signpost to the reader. If it's not visually appealing, use it small as a signpost or opening to your title page on the slide show. It's also a caption writer for you, saves hours of searching though maps and distractions on the internet.

Where was I? River Valley Road.

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