NHS warnings to travellers and free help

 

The UK's National Health Service has online information. In surgeries, nowadays often called medical centres, you can  pick up leaflets, read posters, and watch slides and videos on screens in waiting rooms.

Currently, in November 2025 you can see information on

What to pack in terms of pills and medical supplies, especially if you have certain long-term conditions.

Flu jabs for adults and children.

Reminders to update your doctor if you change your phone number or address.

Useful NHS website

Www.nhs.uk

Nothing suitable to wear? How to pack light, with variety and smart clothes for the evening

 If you plan to go out, or to travel, you need tp pick clothes suitable for your destination. If you fly from the north of the globe to the south, the seasons are reverses.

Drawers full of clothes. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
 

I do not have a thing to wear

I've loads of clothes like uncombed hair

I've silk which does not go with leather

And jeans which do not go with feathers

I've boots although it's hot outside

A missing button, or a stain

I've lots of stuff, too much to hide

Broken umbrellas for the rain

My new top is a size too small

I can't do its zip up at all

And most of the elastic's gone

One dress too short and one too long

I ought to sell what I don't need

But selling's such a dirty deed

An empty shelf? Destroyed! Not freed!

An empty shelf need socks like seeds

Although the bedroom looks like hell

Looking at it makes me unwell

I hunt and sort, but truth to tell

I cannot find one thing to sell.

I cannot throw a thing away

I know selling should start today

What I'd ask is too much to pay

And so the whole lot has to stay.

What do you wear, I hear you say

I cannot make a decision

So I've found a good solution

I wear the same dress every day.

-ends-

Tips on packing

I start packing months in advance. Anything vital is either packed or added to a packing list. Clothes which dry fast. Items which match. Gifts for others.

When packing for holidays, one black skirt or pair of jeans with three or four tops in various matching or contrasting colours gives several outfits with less space. However, I find dressing is quicker if you have one pull on dress. Add a couple of scarves to doll it up for dinner in a smart restaurant or hotel.

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How To Pack A Suitcase or Rucksack Efficiently - by Angela Lansbury and Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin monument, USA.

Emergency Exit Suitcase

In earthquake-prone Japan, the Japanese, with experience and foresight, keep an emergency bag by the front door to grab in the event of a quick evacuation. 

If the taxi to the airport arrives early (which it should, in case you have a last minute hunt for your passport and tickets) you are ready to go. (The Americans like to say, alliteratively, good to go.)

'A place for everything and everything in its place,' said a well organized and much travelled American, Benjamin Franklin. Another daying I like is: Don't put it down. Put it away.

Smaller seal-tight boxes can be used in suitcases or backpacks when packing for trips. On the outward journey to keep all your underwear or your swimsuit and swimming hat and goggles in one place. Or your night clothes quick to find when you land in the middle of the night. To protect clothes from rain when your suitcase is sitting in a pile on the runway waiting to be loaded.

For bringing home dirty laundry. Wet swimsuits. Washed items not quite dry. And things you need in a hurry which would be hard to locate in a suitcase, such as a sewing kit or toothbrush, face flannel, or small towel. Ideally packed in the inside pocket of the suitcase, far right. If there's no inner pocket in the suitcase, 

When I was a busy traveller and travel writer, before Covid-19, I often kept one small suitcase ready packed with a swimsuit and night dress and spare underwear and shoes and a reversible dress, ready to go in a hurry. Or ready to tell an impatient panicky spouse, "I have already packed!"

The secret to quick packing is to know where everything is. Your packing list can be pasted inside your door to the wardrobe or clothes closet. A second copy to pack so you pack quickly for the return journey and don't leave behind the slippers under the bed, the bathrobe behind the door, the hat in the top of the hotel bedroom wardrobe, the contraceptives under the pillow, the child's toy in the cot or in the empty drawer, your jewellery on the bedroom basin when you washed your hands, your jacket on the chair of the breakfast room in the hotel, your umbrella in the boot (Americans say trunk) of the taxi (whose lost and found number is on your packing list). Your valuables in the hotel bedroom safe, or at reception. Photos of all your suitcases to show the hotel porter (bellhop in the USA) or airport staff when you are hunting for the missing item, looking around the carousel for the fourth suitcase, or making an insurance claim, or showing that the item was not damaged before check-in.

The passport and tickets should be in a set place, always.

Your night dress and slippers, maybe a short light robe. Swimsuit and swimming hat (plus goggles and a tiny towel). Spare shoes or evening shoes or walking shoes or beach shoes. cosmetic kit. Medicine or prescription. Spare reading glasses.   

  Today I sorted a drawer. Underwear. First thing in the morning, when I have energy. And need to select underwear. 

If I sort one drawer a day, by the end of the week I shall have done 7. By the end of the month, one room will be completely sorted.

 If I did one drawer in each room each day, the whole house would be done by the end of the month. Make that, the end of three months or a year. 

Since I need to stand up from the computer, it's a welcome break. Instead of eating, I shall do sorting.

Sorting Underwear

I used to lay everything flat. I thought that saved space. When packing a suitcase. So the same applies to drawers.

But each time I pulled out an item, the whole lot got jumbled and would not fit back in the drawer. Urgh!

Then I saw Marie Kondo, folding things into a drawer on video, on Youtube. She rolls everything or folds it, folds it again, and again, and stands it vertically. Then you can see the colours. Her method looks neat.

Bought dividers - advantages and disadvantages

Dividers are the best thing. Many of them come flat packed and slot together. In theory, after buying a set, if it fits, or doesn't, you can copy the design on card. 

Where do you find card? Inside and behind a new shirt packaging. The reinforcement at the base of a paper tote bag which is falling apart and will be thrown away or used as a carrier for recycling.

But sometimes bought dividers are too small. Not everything fits into a tiny space. Oblongs or honeycomb, all the same size. 

Any divider is better than none. You can start with an empty Kleenex tissue box. Cut diagonally with scissors towards the four top corners. Fold down the four flaps. They reinforce the edge of the box. You now have easy access. You can see the contents better.

How To Cut Down A Box

If necessary, if your drawer is shallow, you can cut down the vertical seems an inch or two, and fold the flaps lower. You might want to measure the height of the drawer, mark the height, less a centimeter, on the box. Use a metal ruler to score a line with the tip of the scissors and make a neat horizontal crease in the cardboard, holding the metal ruler to keep your edge straight and prevent jagged tearing.

Advantages of dividers are that you see each item. You do not move anything else when you empty an item. 

You can sort by colours. Your favourite on the right. Unless you are left handed. 

So either black goes on the right, or red, or white. If black is on the far right, white is on the far left. Or vice versa. Intermediate colours go in the middle. If bright red is your favourite, and dull brown your least favourite, put the red on the right, the brown on the left. On the other hand, if you favour earth colours, put brown on the right, with orange and green for autumn, the luminous yellow and turquoise and summer colours on the left.

You can also sort from front to back by size. Thin and small thongs at the front, thicker and bigger granny knickers, corsets or pantaloons at the back, or vice versa.  

Seasonally - winter stuff goes at the back in summer. It moves to the front in winter. Or maybe an opportunity to put items into storage, on the top shelf, labelled in a suitcase, with an email to yourself in a folder labelled storage, or in the attic. 

Moths and Mould

You also want to add moth balls, and/or take things out and shake them out regularly.

Don't put clothes in the garage. They are likely to get dirty or mouldy. 

See-through Dividers

You might have see-through dividers or boxes sitting taking up space in your kitchen drawers. They can be moved to divide drawers.

Whilst travelling, you might like to see the memorials to Benjamin Franklin in Washington DC, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; and Craven Street, London WC2, England, UK.

Finally, pack a list of Americanisms and British English.

UK - USA

autumn - Fall

bonnet (car) - hood (automobile)

boot - trunk

car - automobile

chemist - pharmacy

garage - gas station

high street - main street

lorry - truck

luggage - baggage

momentarily - briefly

motorway - autoroute

pants - underpants

porter (in a hotel) - bellhop

tap - faucet

trousers - pants

turn right - make a right

windscreen - windshield

Useful Websites (more will be added shortly)

www.fi.edu/exhibit/benjamin-franklin-memorial

Philadelphia

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

Washington DC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Benjamin_Franklin_(Washington,_D.C.)

Read more posts by Angela Lansbury, travel writer, English teacher, tutor and trainer, fashionista. Everything you wanted to know and need to know for your fun trips. Read posts on destinations, travel clothes, packing, preparing to learn languages and famous authors' statues, travellers' homes, trails, museums, historical houses - plus fun food, and bargain shopping.

Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts with your favourite friends.

Oh, no - it's broken. What shall I do? Copy Japanese Repairs with Glittering Gold and Staples

Tunisian Trick Jugs
My first experience with packing fragile items was on a trip to Tunisia. They make wonderful trick jugs which have a lattice top half and in some cases the water flows up to the spout through a channel in the handle, around the rim at the top to the spout. How to refuse to buy one? Impossible.

I refused to buy one until the last day. I bought one. The seller offered me two more at reduced prices. I bought one.

Packing
How to pack it? Difficult. In theory a hard-sided case offers more protection.

I tried wrapping in socks and a tee shirt in the middle of the case. The smaller one inside a show survived. Another one cracked.

You can see the puzzle jugs at museums in the UK. They were once popular in pubs (taverns).

But when I went from the UK to Tunisia puzzle jugs were a novelty to me. The ones in the UK had circular holes. The ones in Tunisia were X shaped lattice, unglazed and more fragile.

Puzzle jug from the Museum of Somerset, England, UK. Picture from Wikipedia.

If you want to buy one, ebay has many at low prices, with and without lids. More on Etsy. Amazon just showed me puzzles.

If you have something broken and love it too much to part with it, you can turn the broken part or crack towards the wall.

Plant Pot
I have done this successfully with a broken blue plant pot. I have used broken crockery for plant pots and saucers in the back garden in the UK.

In Singapore saucers under plant pots are banned in cemeteries because the saucers can fill with rainwater and breed mosquitos.

Indoors, you have less problem with water.

Indoors Efforts
Again I did it the hide and seek the crack trick with a broken lamp base.

We have done invisible repairs on many items. A Balinese wood hanging.

But the Japanese have developed repairs into a fine art.

More than a thousand years ago a VIP ruler sent an item for repair. It was repaired with crude staples.

Later, another era, another ruler, another court, they stuck together broken pottery


Ceramic from Korea in the Ethnological Museum of Berlin, Germany.
Photo from author Daderot in Wikipedia article on Kintsugi.

But because it was for the court, only the best would do. They added gold.

Variations on this include silver and other less expensive metals.


Repaired porcelain from the Tokyo National Museum, Japan.
wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Dish_with_hollyhock_design%2C_Nabeshima_ware%2C_Edo_period%2C_18th_century%2C_overglaze_enamel_-_Tokyo_National_Museum_-

This chip in the top is so well cone that I kept looking at the pattern on the plate and could not see the gold filling at the top until I read the caption.

The repair was made in the 1700s. If you have a beautiful item, it is worth saving.

So you need not discard a broken item. Repair it. Make the repair a feature.

Useful Websites
Information on Repairs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi

Information on Puzzle Jugs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzle_jug

Buying Puzzle Jugs From the UK
https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/puzzle-jug

Where to see what's described:

Germany
Ethnological Museum of Berlin
Korean ceramic. Repaired dish.

Japan
Tokyo National Museum
Repaired porcelain dish from Edo era.

UK
Puzzle Jugs.
Somerset Museum, England.
Liverpool Museum, England
Puzzle Jug.

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

Different Ways of Packing - the student way

Problem
How do you avoid packing on the last night if you have a late night farewell?

Packing
By Angela Lansbury

"How should I pack? Tell me, how do you pack?"
Chris says, "I pack light - don't care what I lack.
Who cares what you wear! I don't care what I wear
I pack like a student, rolled, creased or flat

"Every day I take out what I'll wear for that day
At night I put dirty clothes away
In a plastic bag carried home to mother
That's a handy trick I learned from my brother

"What's left in the case is labelled, it's mine
So I'm always half-packed for the next time
Oh, Angela, you make far too much fuss
Just throw it all in and do it like us!"
-ends-
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Packing a suitcase efficiently, learning and teaching

Problem
How do I learn to pack a suitcase?
Can I get somebody else to do mine?
Can I teach somebody else to do their own better?

Answers
I just watched a video on Facebook showing an oriental looking lady folding tops like long sleeved tee-shirts, then a large item such as a duvet or sleeping bag.

Basically, you fold the item right to left half way, then left to right, making an item with two vertical folds into a long vertical strip, then fold that half way upwards. Finally you bring one part around inside out and back around the rest or it to make part of it into a bag securing the rest of it.

With a long sleeved piece of clothing, you fold the arms either into the middle or diagonally. Then use one of the sleeved or the back as a boag around the rest of it so the folds don't come apart and it stays compressed and in shape.

Start learning with a small item such as a tee-shirt. Then learn to fold a larger item.

I bought folding items, which look like triple mirrors or triple painting with two hinges joining the two outside pieces to the central piece. They are supposed to help get all your items tthe same size to make a neat pile to put in a cupboard.

The video is most impressive. Not just what she does, but also the speed. I have often watched demos at exhibitions. The person doing the job probably spent an hour or day or week training, repeating until they got faster and faster. Then they remember what to do, and are tired of it so they are keen to rush through.

I've seen chefs and knife demonstraotrs chopping up carrots and cucumbers in 20 seconds. I would go much slower, scared to cut myself. But I only ever do it once every six months. The same applies to packing a suitcase.

Packing Services
Some hotels offer unpacking and packing services. If you have an expensive suite you might get offered this for free as part of the valet service.

Packing On Hangers
I find packing and unpacking quickest if you keep everything on hangers. Take the item out of thw wardrobe on the hanger. The top edge is already straight. The lower edge follows the edge of the suitcase. A bouse or skirt might need only one fold. A longer item folds back a second time from the top. If necessary you then fold in from the sides, again using the suitcase iteself as the frame.

Which Hanger?
If you have had an item laundered or dry cleaned at a hotel it often comes back on a hanger or neatly folded. If you don't wear it, then it's ready to be packed neatly for your next trip.

If you have to choose a hanger, I find large hangers take up space. Plastic hangers sometimes break. The safest is a thin wire hanger, the sort you get free from dry cleaners. If you want to look neat, packs of hangers are sold by department stores, on line, or from bargain shops.

Free Hangers
I have also asked stores such as Marks and Spencer if I can keep the hanger. Often they say yes. If you are short of hangers, ask every time. Even if you get rebuffed half the time, you still get one or two new, handy hangers.

Double Duty Hangers
If you have a hanger with a dry cleaned item and a plastic cover on top, you can hang another blouse on top. Ideally you want to do this without too much creasing nor hiding of what is underneath.

On one occasion, I could not find any hangers. I asked a shop assistant if I could keep the hangers if I bought items. I bought a bra, matching pants (Americans call trousers pants and would say underpants) and a couple of cheapest t-shirt. I then had three hangers and I added my own clothes on top of the bought item for packing.

You can usually use a hanger for two items. If you add a third or fourth or something heavy you risk breaking the hanger.

Unpacking
Unpacking is easy. You lift each item out and hang it up on the rail in the wardrobe. (Americans say closet. In Britain we occasionally have a walk-in closet, but usually only in a hotel suite or mansion.)

For a five day conference I have five or ten outfits. I hang item for day one on the right, for evening one outfit on the left. Matching bra, slip or underwear is on the same hanger.

(An alternative method is to hide glamorous outfits under boring buttoned up coats. The idea is so no staff are tempted to try on the outfit or take it.)

You keep adding outfits right to left. I might be wearing one outfit more than once. If so it goes back at the left so I wear something different every day.

When an outfit has been worn, and you won't wear it again, it can go back in the suitcase. Then on the last day you have only that day's clothes to pack.

If you find an outfit is wrong for the climate, or too small, you know you are not going to wear it, or you adore one outfit which you wear every day, anything not needed can go back int the suitcase. This speeds up packing, and decision making when getting dressed.

Another system: Black skirt or jeans which I wear with everything, every day, goes on the right. White blouses or tee-shirts go on the left. Each tee-shirt after use goes inside a laundry bag, either sent off to the hotel for washing, washed and hung up in the bathroom to dry before packing to go home.

If you are short of time and need to pack dirty clothes, your night clothes on the last day, or your clothes from all week, pack dirty items in a laundry bag so they don't infect clean clothes. They are ready to be pulled straight out of the case and carried to the washing machine when you unpack at home.

We used to talk about German efficiency. Now we think of Japanese and oriental efficiency and Chinese business sklil. My biggest regret is not insisting that a three year old pick up his own clothes and toys and put them away each hour and each evening before bed time. What they learn at 3 they do at 30. If you pick up a child's clothes and toys they will still be throwing things on the floor later in life, as chaotic students, or singles who can't commit to marrying or can't find anybody to put up with their untidy habits. If you teach your toddler to do this, they can come round and tidy up for you when you are sick and tired or old. You won't need to ask. It will be a compulsion, an obsession. You know those people who insist on straightening your pictures, tidying your house as they walk around it, making tea, playing mother, instead of letting you be hostess. (In Asia often the eldest daughter. The same happened in large families in the UK in my maternal grandmother's day when by the time the oldest girl was twenty she had ten younger siblings to look after to help her mother who was pregnant or widowed or both.)

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on packing. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How To Create Art With Nothing But A Cup of Coffee - warning: watch for stains and insects

Problem
You arrive at your wonderful destination. Great view. But you left all your paints at home. Too heavy and bulky to carry. Or you just forgot.

Answers
1 Add paints and pad to your packing list.
2 Buy tiny colouring and painting sets to carry.
3 Look around for items you can use to improvise. Such as? Anything you could use to dye clothes. Anything which makes nasty stains on clothes.

Stories
I once sniffed a flower on the table at the Wetherspoons pub in Hatch End, London. I couldn't understand what had stained the front of my white blouse. I had not eaten curry. Then I returned a week later and sniffed the lovely white lily and got yellow on my face and fingertips.

I like the idea of using whatever is to hand to draw, coffee, chocolate, dust, charcoal. That's how art started, I suppose, on the walls of caves.

There's only one problem with using food and drink for drawing, especially in hot countries. I had a heart shaped red pendant made of painted dried dough from central Europe in my costume jewellery box in Singapore. I think the pendant was from the Croatia stand at the World Travel Market in London. A year later I discovered nothing but a red string and a box of ants.

Little Boxes
I am also fond of saving pretty chocolate boxes. I like the pretty decorative box, with the ribbons, the patterned paper, the gleaming gold paint. Open it and my eyes light at the sight of the handy dividers. I love the cute compartments. One could use them for storing ear-rings, pencils, whatever I might want to store for later.

Unfortunately, I just had to throw out the cardboard box which once held dates. It had acquired black dots of mould or droppings. The box is ruined, nasty to handle. If I kept it, in future I would be afraid to open it. What might I find?

I managed to salvage the see-through plastic compartment inside. I spent some time washing it out. Then I dried it. I shall watch it for a while. Suspiciously. Is something still breeding?

Tips
When handling clothes and foods which stain, wear gloves and a waterproof apron - or a cotton one which you want to look like an abstract painting.
a) Brown from coffee, tea, tights.
b) Pink, purple or red from red hand wash only clothes. Beetroot. Raspberries. Red currants. If you don't want to use leftover fruit, maybe the wash from what leaked into the box.
c) Black from newspaper print.
d) Dried out felt tip pens.
e) Yellow from stamens - watch out - terrible stains.

http://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/how-to/Contemporary/1712/how-to-paint-with-coffee

http://www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/competitions/Unknown/1719/win-a-painting-holiday-in-italy?

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel photographer and writer, author, illustrator, speaker. Please like, follow and share my posts and blogs.

Packing Tips - My Favourite is Filing

Packing like a professional. I wish I had a packing service. I've heard of hotels which have valets who unpack and re-pack for you.  My dream is for a pre-packed suitcase. You tell the supplier your sex and height and wight or clothing size, which sports (such as swimming or skiing, tick a box for all the times you want included. Along comes a wheeled backpack which doubles as a seat if you are in q queue at the airport.

Meanwhile, time to stop dreaming and start packing.

Filing
Save space, save time, no ironing and no frantic searching!

Alternative Systems
I looked at the system of folding clothes by letting them hang over the edge of the suitcase and interleaving them.

Shoes and Socks
I already knew the tricks of placing socks inside shoes, wrapping shoes in plastic bags.

Toiletries and Sewing and Stationery
I already use zip up plastic bags. (I also use re-seal plastic boxes for food, drinks, sewing kits,stationery for conferences, and toiletries.

Back to Filing
However the new idea which most appeals to me is the 'filing' method which enables you to see each item packed separately and withdraw it without disturbing the rest of your packing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3553356/The-ultimate-packing-hacks-revealed-military-roll-help-prevent-pesky-creases-save-space.html


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

Packing Secrets

I shall cover packing lists, guarding against loss, and travelling light.

Packing Lists
Keep a permanent packing list on your computer and printed off taped inside the lid of your suitcase. You use it for packing. Also for re-packing. Saves you leaving behind your bathrobe or night clothes behind the bathroom door.

Leave a duplicate at home in case your luggage goes missing and you need to make a claim.
A photograph of your suitcase on a camera phone is handy to show the porter or lost luggage what you are looking for.

Your luggage label on the outside should not reveal the address of the home you have left empty. You could give the details of your office or family or neighbour and warn them about this system and that your movements and home address should not be revealed to callers.

Have a photocopy of your passport and a record of its number. Also other means of identity in case it is lost.

Luggage
Systems include, shoes on the outside to reinforce suitcase, socks inside shoes to save space and speed dressing, night clothes, swimsuit or outfit needed at destination on top of suitcase.

With a couple travelling together you could split the suitcases, so that if either suitcase goes missing you both have clothes.

Re-packing For Returning Home
When you re-pack, all your original packed items should fit in. The souvenirs can go in another bag. Or buy a second suitcase. Pack a spare bag inside the big one.

Frequent and fast travelling
The quickest way to get out of an airport is to travel light with only hand baggage.
A first class passenger can usually take a suit in a plastic garment carrier and ask for it to be hung up.
If necessary wear your fancy evening outfit to check in. If you are smartly dressed you might get upgraded. Carry your smartest track suit and change into it as soon as you board the flight.
If you are being met as VIP - eg for a wedding, change back into your suit just before arrival.
Otherwise simply carry it off with you. What you carry on is weighed but what you carry off does not matter, so long as you are not switching flights.