Carnivals Worldwide and Summer Sundays in London, Singapore or DC, the The Sunday Times, Silverstone, and Notting Hill Carnival On Mobile Phones

West Indian Parade or Labor Day parade, first Monday in September, New York, USA. Photo by Shankbone. From Wikipedia.

Problem
Where to go? What to do?

Bank Holiday in the UK and I am waiting to see the Notting Hill Carnival on TV iplayer and checking on Carnivals around the world.

In the UK my family have gone to Silverstone. I haven't gone to Silverstone. The ticket price is too high - about £75 per person and up. (Plus parking. They bought tickets for the event months ago but forgot about parking which would have been cheaper in advance. They spent a long time trying to book parking on line yesterday, Saturday, the day before the event, without success. You could book online for today, yesterday, Saturday, but not for tomorrow, Sunday.)

We have already paid for the sports TV. So they can watch TV whilst being at the show, as well as later.

Notting Hill Carnival. Photo from Wikipedia.

Meanwhile, back in London, England, Notting Hill Carnival is free. So is watching on TV.

These are one off events.

Every Sunday in England, Britain, we can fill our day reading The Sunday Times, the British version. You can subscribe to it on line for a fee. (I am currently using online without spaces as an adjective but without spaces as a noun. Go on line to watch online events and read online newspapers.)

The British Sunday Times can keep you busy for easily an hour or two.

Sunday In Singapore
In Singapore the same goes for Singapore's big Sunday newspaper. It is summer weather in London so you can sit in the garden or go to a park or a pub for Sunday lunch. In Singapore, most people live in flats and condos. You could sit on a balcony or go out to a park for a walk. I find the weather too hot and humid for outdoors in Singapore. I look for a swimming pool in a condo, a country club pool or a public pool. The trouble is they often close off the condo and country club swimming pools on National holidays for a BBQ by the pool with the local member of parliament or a swimming competition or another paid for ticketed event.

Singapore's National Day parade is annually on August 9th. Also see Fireworks on New Year's Eve., parades on New Year's Day; other festivities in areas such as Little India for Diwali and cultural and religious celebrations including Hindu Thaipusan in January or February.

Sunday in the USA
In America you also have public paths and across of woods, all along the East coast, everywhere. Although some of the major parks have tolls, there are plenty which don't.

When we lived in Rockville, Maryland, near, north of Washington DC, we would get in the car after work on Friday evening and head out along the motorway along the East Coast Parkway for a weekend away through the woods. More than fifty states to see, south through Virginia, North and South Carolina, Florida, Atlanta, New Orleans, or north to Pennsylvania and up towards New York.

The 24 hour all day stops and breakfasts and 24 hour supermarkets in the USA always provided us with plenty of budget food, and out of town family run, owned by 'mom and pop' motels.

Living Overseas
If you have travelled to another country to live or for a short break, you can look at local free newspapers in hotels and restaurants or dropped through the door of your bedroom or condo for events. Google maps to find the nearest outdoor park.

I try to get outdoors for a short walk every day (if I can't swim). I wear very cover up clothing and my latest annual check up told me I was short on vitamin D. That's what happens if you wear clothing covering everything except your face and feet and hands, whether you do it for religious reasons or to protect yourself from sand and dust and mosquitos and melanoma.

Lazy Sunday in London, England
Restaurants in London have their tables out on the pavement. A great way to spend Sunday, outdoors, Sunday brunch, watching the world go by. Time to stop snoozing and go out in the sun.

Two members of my family and a friend in London are off to Silverstone - a trace track on a converted air field, like so many race tracks. They have taken the current  Sunday Times. A combination of sport and culture.

What can we read? Motor Cycle News British MOTGP Preview, a 32 page Silverstone guide. Waitrose weekend, the supermarket's free newspaper, or an old copy of The Sunday Times.

Notting Hill Carnival
I am looking at Notting Hill Carnival on TV from afar, a British tradition started in 1966. The Sixties. The great music era.

The public can buy face paint and dress up at the last minute. But the carnival dancers and singers have been planning, practising, and making matching costumes all year. No wonder they didn't want to cancel or change the venue. Time to stop snoozing and go out in the sun.

Notting Hill Carnival. From Wikipedia.

Watching Events On Phones
If you are out and about, watching major events on your mobile phone, if you have two phones of different sizes, (or an iPad or laptop) as well as your mobile, you may wish to switch to the phone or device with the larger screen.

Sometimes the SIM cards are tied to the phone. If not, you have a choice. Load up the aps you need when switching phones or to an iPad or laptop. Check before leaving home. Take the other phone with you in case of problems.

What else can you do out and about or home alone?

Notting Hill Carnival
I can't understand why they don't have the whole day of the Carnival on the news continually. I think it's the cost. London Live broadcast starts at 4 pm Sunday Aug 27.
However, I have found some great pictures.

http://www.itv.com/news/london/2016-08-29/in-pictures-best-of-notting-hill-carnival-2016-grand-finale/

A video on the preparations and theme with Green For Grenfell (nearby skyscraper fire in which more than 80 people lost their lives), and dinosaurs in green.
http://www.londonlive.co.uk/news/2017-08-24/mahogany-arts-prepare-for-notting-hill-carnival-2017

Home Alone?
Watch the film Notting Hill. Nothing to do with the carnival, but a light hearted comedy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notting_Hill_(film)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/stickyjerkwingswiths_91690

If you can't attend, what's next in the tourist calendar?
For anybody whose family have birthdays in January, February or August, that's the birthday party or present sorted.

Masked Lovers. Carnevale di Venezia 2010. Photo by Frank Kovalchek in Wikipedia.

Carnival in Venice, January 2018.
Carnival in Rio, Brazil, 2018.

VENICE, Italy. Carnival 2018 Jan 27-Feb 13.
https://www.getyourguide.com/ (Events and making masks)
http://www.carnival-in-venice.eu/ (Masked ball in Venice)
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html
http://www.visit-plus.com/ Gives dates and information.

Rio BRAZIL.
Friday 9 Feb - Wed 14 Feb 2018.
http://www.riocarnaval.org/carnival-date/rio-carnival-2018.html

Samba parade at the Sambódrome, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo from Michael Baldwin from Wikipedia.

USA and Worldwide
New York, NY state, USA, West Indian Day parade, on Labor Day, First Monday in September. (Monday Sept 5 2017.)
Wikipedia has lists of carnivals in the USA, New York, New Orleans and around the world. In England even Leicester has a carnival.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras_in_New_Orleans

www.waitrose.com For supermarket addresses, opening times on Sunday, and Waitrose Weekend newspaper.
thesundaytimes.co.uk £2.50, £2 to subscribers, free from Waitrose with a minimum spend and loyalty card.
www.silverstone.co.uk for ticket prices and packages or call ticket hotline tel:0844 375 0740.
www.motorcyclenews.com See the MCN events page for Auto Jumbles, Bike Meets, Drag Racing, Enduro, Exhibitions, Festivals, Grass Track, Hillclimb, Long Track, Motocross, Rallies, Rideouts, Riding Schools, Road Racing, Shows, Sidecar Racing, Speedway, Trials, Track Days, World Record Attempts.
www.Facebook.com/MSVTrackdays

Travel and Tourism
BRAZIL
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/brazil
http://www.rio-carnival.net/sambodromo/sambadrome_tickets.php

ITALY
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html

SINGAPORE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaipusam
www.visitsingapore.com

UK
www.visitbritain.org
www.visitlondon.com

USA
https://www.visittheusa.co.uk/
https://www.nycgo.com Official page. Other websites offer discount passes.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. I have other posts on Notting Hill, Silverstone and Rossi, Italy (Perugia), learning Spanish and Italian and many more destinations and languages. See previous posts and see next post. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Birthday Meal at Bellanger Restaurant, Islington, London

The Bellanger Restaurant in Islington was recommended by AA Gill in the Sunday Times (the English one, not the Singapore version). The cuisine is from Alsace, an area of France which shares some history and wines with now friendly neighbour Germany.

I took along my own large birthday badge which you can pin on your front or place on the table, using the pull out tab at the back.

We started with pink Champagne.

Birthday message from the restaurant.

Affogato is ice cream with espresso coffee poured over it. The walnut tart was recommended by AA Gil. (I never got to taste the cheesecake since the diet police told me I was too overweight to indulge in cheesecake. Since we plan to go back, that's something to look forward to trying.)

Bellanger
9 Islington Green, London N1 2XH
reservations@ballanger.co.uk
www.bellanger.co.uk
Tel:020 7226 2555.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Taking a Trip To Malta - Travel, Airport, Airline and Package Options, Passenger Rights

We travelled to Malta booking Ryanair from Stansted, very pleased with the low cost of our Ryanair flight, and the price of rooms at the Excelsior Grand Hotel, a top class hotel with an indoor pool in the capital, Valletta.

However, views differ. Our neighbours who have a timeshare and have often flown to Malta told us they now preferred to pay just a little extra and go on Air Malta. Our friends said they preferred Air Malta which provided wider seats, from another nearer airport.

But with a timeshare, their accommodation cost was already taken care of. They were just looking at the cost and convenience of flights. Their timeshare was in an all-jumping resort complex, far away from other places, except for a taxi ride to a small town with an authentic rabbit stew restaurant. We were quite satisfied with Ryanair.

What other options are there? What if you want a complete package, trips to pre-historic monuments, underground caves, museums, numerous cities, all organised for you?

I have a travel brochure from the UK's Sunday Times. (I mention UK because Singapore also has a Sunday Times.)

The travel brochure title is European and Worldwide Escorted Tours. Having just returned from Malta, I was interested to see what was included. Prices for 8 days from £819 per person (sharing) at Golden Tulip hotel Vivaldi in St Julians, more for another hotel. The cheaper hotel has a restaurant and two pools. You can fly on Air Malta from Heathrow or Gatwick.

St Julians is a waterfront resort. If you are taken around it doesn't matter where you are because the island is only about half an hour 's drive across. (Although this extending to an hour's drive in peak hours depending on traffic and road works diversions, especially with detours on narrow lanes blocked by coaches, delivery vehicles, cranes outside building works, you name it.)

We chose to stay in the capital, within walking distance of the centre which we walked around on Sunday. We could not take more than four days and flew with Ryanair from Stansted and stayed in Valletta the capital, a city holiday rather than a resort-based holiday. The advantage of the escorted tour is that you see much more, as well as having company.
timyriviera.co.uk

Air Passenger Rights
ec.europa.eu/passenger-rights

Angela Lansbury BA Hons, travel writer and photographer.