More On Smoke Alarms Choosing, Fixing, Using

You may wish to choose a smoke alarm for the home you are renting out whilst travelling. Or a portable smoke alarm for camping. 

Choosing A Smoke Alarm For A Residence

If you don't know anything about smoke alarms, you can compare costs. Why pay more for an identical product. I found smoke alarms for twenty pounds. Then others, supposedly later models, with ten year batteries. 

However, not suitable for kitchens or bathrooms. Why? Because they are so sensitive that every time you cook toast in a toaster or steam up the mirror, the alarm goes off.

The danger is that the occupant will get annoyed, the neighbours will get annoyed, and the occupant will remove the battery, so the smoke alarm does not do its job.

I thought about this. Maybe if your toaster is causing the smoke alarm to go off, you should eat bread and not toast, because you are sending damaging smoke into your lungs.

What about the mist in the bathroom? Maybe if you are creating mist in the bathroom, you are creating moisture which is creating mould. So you should be opening the windows before and during your shower. And running the extractor fan, which should be checked and cleaned regularly.

Smoky air and  a bathroom with no fresh air are not good for your health. Having thought about that, I went back to the question of whether to buy a smoke alarm which does not goes in the kitchen and bathroom. You will want to close the bathroom windows shortly after the mist has cleared, to prevent burglaries. We had a burglary at a neighbour's, through the bathroom window, when the residents were downstairs watching the noisy TV. The burglars took  jewellery from a bedroom.

Following the instructions, we fitted a smoke alarm in the corridor between the kitchen and the bedrooms.

The idea is to alert you to a fire at night. You should not be leaving food cooking unattended in a kitchen. You set an alarm to remind you to check on it and turn it off. You check all switches are off before leaving a room.

What is the ease of setting the alarm? Some alarms have a button you push. If the ceiling is low, you can reach up. You might think of standing on a safe stool, rather than on a chair, with somebody else to steady you, steady the chair, and check you don't fall, or catch you. Another way is to push up with a broom handle. This means keeping the broom nearby.

Some alarms have a cover which can be removed to check batteries, after the base is screwed to the ceiling. 

Portable Alarms

An alarm which changes colour for carbon  monoxide, and sticks on, can be taken with you and affixed in a rental property. Stick it on the flat surface of a cupboard. Write yourself a note or set an alarm to remind yourself to remove it after your last meal, before leaving the property if you are temporarily overseas.

Got a gap year? Want to increase your skills? Retired? Take a course in plumbing or electricity and qualify. This could be a source of employment and income. Save you time and money. 

If you are not qualified to do the work, you can still save time and money by briefing the workers. Enable you to check that workers are doing the right thing. Help you to choose suitable equipment. Youtube has loads of videos on how to fix simple things like smoke alarms. 

Below are what I have found. Not items I have tried and recommended. But useful links so you can start your investigation quickly.

PS

Rather than only being alerted to a fire after the event, consider fire prevention.

What to avoid? As we have learned from the tragic fire in Switzerland at New Year 2026, keep flames away from anything flammable and if possible, avoid using candles, incense, indoor and outdoor fireworks, pyrotechnics, furniture without a fire label (and don't remove the labels).

The oven should be cleaned regularly. When my son was a student, a group of boys share a flat. None of them cleaned the oven. Eventually the grease built up and the oven caught fire. 

If you have a dishwasher, some of the removable fittings can be washed in the dishwasher. If it does nto clean them completely, after one or two long wash cycles, you may find that the warmth of the dishwasher has loosened the grease well enough to make it faster and easier to clean by hand afterwards.

Useful Websites on Fires

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Portable-Monoxide-Detector-Rechargeble-Working/dp/B0DP2DDTPK/ref=s

'Which' UK consumer guides

Wikipedia

Wikihow

Youtube

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/various/vaud-bans-pyrotechnics-in-bars-and-restaurants/90747380?utm_source=multiple&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=news_en&utm_content=o&utm_term=wpblock_teaser-wide-card-query-list

https://www.britishfireworksassociation.co.uk/

https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/safety/fireworks/

Update 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15534415/Boyfriend-waitress-killed-Swiss-inferno-reveals-hour-long-battle-try-save-life-truth

Your Traveler's Calendar

This travel calendar is useful in several ways. You can plan to hold a holiday to conincide with a festival which offers lights and parades, events, exhibitions and activities and excietment. Or you could seek to avoid the busy times with booked rooms and higher prices.

A Traveller’s Calendar

January

from Wikipedia.

Jan 1 New Year’s Day. Concert, Vienna, Austria.

USA Tournament of the Roses Parade, Pasadena, California

Orthodox Christmas Jan 7

Jan 5 Evening before Epiphany.

Jan 6 Greek & Russian Orthodox (Christian) Epiphany. (Birth of Jesus.) 

Jan 26 Australia Day. 

Burns Supper Night, Scotland. 

Jan 27 Holocaust memorial day (liberation of Auschwitz in Poland)

Chinese New Year (Moving dates.)

February

Feb 6 New Zealand Waitingi Day

Feb 14 Valentine’s Day (Ireland, Italy and worldwide)

March

March 1st St David’s Day, Wales

March 17th Irish St Patrick’s Day

March 20 French Language Day

April

April 20th Chinese Language Day

April 23rd St George’s Day, Shakespeare’s Birthday.UN English Language Day. 

Spanish Language Day.

April 25th Anzac Day (Australia and New Zealand)

May

May 1st Labor Day

May 5th Cinco de Mayo.

Jun

June 2nd Italian Feast of the Republic. Flypast of tricolor arrows, red/white/green flag colors

JUNE 6th UN Russian Language Day

20/21/22 Summer Solstice (Longest day)

July

Jul 4th American Independence

July 14th Bastille Day, France

July 18 Nelson Mandela Day

August

August 1st Swiss National Day

August 9th Singapore National Day

August 15th Indian Independence Day

September

Sept 21 Belize Independence Day Parade and Carnival

October

Canadian Thanksgiving, 2nd Monday in October.

October 3rd German Unity Day

October 31st Halloween

November

November 1st and 2nd Day of the Dead in Mexico

November 11th Remembrance Day (WWI Armistice, WW2 and all wars)

December

December 18th Arabic Language Day

December 24 Christmas Eve

Dec 25th Christmas Day

Dec 26th Boxing Day in the UK, St Stephen’s Day in Germany

Dec 31st New Year’s Eve. Midnight Mass. 

Useful Websites

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

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

Please share links to your favourite posts. Follow this blog.

How To Check Decaf Side Effects, Flavours and Record Who Likes What

When we travelled to Utah in the USA, we were surprised to find that the Mormons are not allowed to drink coffee. Coffee, being a stimulant. A drug.

I started drinking decaf last thing at night. Then a doctor suggested I would sleep better, and not jump up in the night to go to the toilet, if  I stopped caffeinated drinks after lunch time.

More recently our son decided to drink only decaf coffee. He cut down to no more than five cups of caffeinated coffee, and gradually reduced the number of caffeinated coffees, until he ended up drinking only decaf. 

Caffeine is in lots of things. We now no more than years ago about what exactly goes into our food and drinks, and we have numerous sources of information.

I read somewhere, I believe it was on Quora, that decaf is made with different beans which have more fat. I did not see any evidence for this. If it is true, it might apply to some brands and not others.

The Nescafe site said they use the same beans, but treat them differently. 

Wikipedia describes different systems, such as the Swiss water system.

Decaf has been around for longer than you might think.

With so many coffees, and decafs, now available, how do you keep track of them? How do you remember what you liked and what the rest of your family liked? 

Recording Tastes of Groups Of Drinkers

When I had a group of workmen in my house and I made tea for them every day, I kept a list of who took sugar and how many lumps, and who took milk. I stuck the list on the back of the top cupboard door. This works if you have the same people on a regular basis. 

If you have a constantly changing group of people, such as in a restaurant, or a club, or workplace, you could make a list on a laptop, and save it for future reference. You could share it in google docs, or print it out and place it on a clipboard.

Recording Favourite Drinks of Singles and Pairs of Drinkers

Nespresso Capsules

Storage

If you have a selection of coffee bottles or cardboard packets, you can devise a system running left to right. This would also work for the short sighted or blind. If you drink the Italian way, with mild breakfast coffee and strong coffee after a big evening meal, then you would put the regular coffee on the left and the espresso at the right.

If you operate the way we drink in London, with a strong coffee to wake you up in the morning, but decaf at night, or after lunch, you place the stronger coffee on the left and the decaf on the right. 

You can mark his and hers in different colours with coloured pens, or stickers, or stars on post-it notes.

We keep capsules upright on a work surface, or flat in a drawer, with the name of the coffee written in pen on the inside of the lid of the box.

If it's just you, or a couple, such as a husband and wife, or parent and child or grandchild, you can instead mark the container or containers.

You can buy a metal rack for capsules. We soon found that, with a regular monthly order, we had more capsules than space on the small metal rack.

Useful Websites

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

Chocolate gifts for yourself and your hosts

Chocolates are usually an acceptable gift.

The everyday chocolate favourites from UK supermarkets are the home-grown companies of Burnsville and Cadbury. Americans generally prefer their brands such as Hersheys.

However, for a special or novelty gift you might look for something which seems more expensive or unusual.

In the UK a favourite local brand is Thorntons who also make chocolate cakes. Green and Black's was bought up but is still highly regarded as a speciality chocolate in all kinds of flavours, with the bars of flavours such as fruity ones such as orange also appearing in boxes of tiny assorted flavour bars.

In UK shops you can buy European brands such from Belgium, also Swiss brands such as Lindt. If you want an upmarket own brand from a supermarket in the UK, Marks & Spencers often has seasonal specials or Belgian chocolates.


For a quick, inexpensive gift, look in Poundland. You can afford to buy two or three small boxes just in case.

I sometimes put them in hand luggage for any trip. I can be sure that even if our luggage went astray we would have gifts for a hostess or host and any unexpected invitation to lunch or dinner.

If our plane were delayed on the runway for hours, at least I would have some sustenance.

Americans will often take a small gift to an invitation to lunch at a restaurant or club, especially good idea if you are not sure you will be able to reciprocate.

An Australian brand is Chocolatier.

Happy munching and giving.

Swiss bed in a box turns cars into camper vans

Swiss army knife ingenuity has made a bed in a box, with table and cooker too.
The bed can be pulled out and  put up in five minutes. There's a table and cooker too.
The inventor is Philippe Peraklis. I've just written to the company.

The bed even levels itself. I've written to them asking if, when and where you can buy and what price. I'll let you know later today or tomorrow or whenever they reply so come back to this blog and read again. (I'm also on Facebook.)
Angela Lansbury the author, travel writer, photographer and blogger

A bed inside a suitcase
And a suitcase in your car
You eat and sleep by day or night
You can stop wherever you are.

If you're out on a holiday
Or with your fancy man
Just bring your suitcase just in case
No need to make big plans

If your working on a big job
And need to take a little rest
Even at home, when not alone
And two too many guests

They've thought of something new
Well. bless their cotton socks
Well, goodness me, wish it were free
That handy bedroom in a box.
***

(I'll add a pic in a moment
Yes back in a jiffy
 -I thought that I would make a start
 'cause I don't want to lose my blog -
my internet connect's iffy!
If I forget give me a jog)


Here's a picture I downloaded from their press release.

I love their logo too.

Their details
swissroombox.com