Mayfield Villages Update

I wrote about Mayfield Villages in a previous post. It is a retirement block with a large downstairs communal area, with an indoor swimming poo. Here, for my own benefit as much as yours, is a reminder of what I have learned. Mayfield village, in Watford, north west London, is a retirement home for the active retired.  Not a nursing home, nor a home for those who cannot look after themselves. Although you can have a carer to live with you. One and two bedroom flats.

Advantages

1 The flats all have balconies.

2 Helpline in the flat. 

3 Call-in system, so if you don't call in they investigate to check if you are ill.

4 The swimming pool

The slender swimming pool has only room for three people to do laps up and down. So you have to book your slot. But most people prefer the sociable water aerobics activities, exercises with dumbells in water. 

Residents can set up their own activities. Once a month on a Saturday night the residents organize an activity or entertainment.

Any Disadvantages?

Not enough storage space for a hoarder. I have a three bedroom dwelling, with a large living room, a conservatory, a shed, a garage.  

The lease is only 250 years. If you are over 55 it won't lose value in your lifetime. Four generations of people could live there. I suspect that in the last hundred years, the lease will be extended at a cost to the then current owner.

But lots of people not quite ready to buy have stayed on the mailing list. 

How do you book an appointment? To see a flat and be on the mailing list for activities open to visitors who are potential buyers. 

The Brent Cross development will be one block, not two. One block sounds more convenient to me. No need to go out in the cold to get to the swimming pool, sauna and whatnot.  So I am more interested in Brent Cross. Which is nearer to the centre of London. And my family.

Is there a Jacuzzi. That's a brand name. The general term is spa bath.

Some people like to have a two centre day. Sit and read in one block. Then go back home to yours. For them, Watford is already open.

My contact is Gordon Osborne, gordon.osborne@mayfieldvillages.co.uk

If money were no object what would I do ? Travel to ...

Travel

 I would buy both a round the world cruise, On second thoughts, one better, take up residence on a cruise ship designed for that purpose.

I would also buy a round the world air ticket. 

I would visit every country of the world, with a series of meetings on the country's successes and failures. A dozen categories,  for example, housing (Singapore's HDB, housing development board.)

Hotel

Afterwards, I would live on the top floor of a hotel to eat hotel meals in their restaurant and have all the housework done. 

Work

Buy up property and renovate it. 

Take a role in national or local government.  Fill potholes. Remove cobblestones and trams to make safe pavements and roads. 

Shops & Services

Make every apartment block have a corner shop, a doctor, dentist office. a frats and repair shop, and an all year swimming pool and each flat would have a balcony and safety windows and safety railings on the balcony. 

Security

Murderes and rapits would be imprisoned for life and if released kept in gated communities and tagged. 

No protestests or parades could block roads. One lane would always have to be kept free for buses, taxis, bikes, hired bikes, joggers and emergency vehicles.. 

I would install a worldwide online free health service. Funded by donations and part of ineritance tax.

Inheritance Tax

 Inheritance tax would only be charged on savings. Nobody would have to sell their house to pay bills or taxes. 

Squatters and Immigrants

Squatters would be sent to live in tiny homes, and would have to help build more tiny homes in exchange for the right to live in one. Immigrants would similarly be given tiny homes and like students, would be given loans they would have to pay back.

Students

 Every school leaver would have not just abstract subjects but a series of skills, like scouts, make clothes, growing food, cooking food, painting and DIY, sewing, knitting, crafts.. 

Useful Websites

Residentail Cruise

https://aboardtheworld.com/

Your choice of cruise liners

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

Free Fruit, Free Coffee in America, free travel, what would you offer the world with your unlimited budget?

I was updating my Facebook page and came across the question of what would I do if I had a million pounds to spend. My reply was what was on my mind then.

Free Fruit and Chocolate

I remember getting free chocolates at a Swiss Hotel in the USA and Singapore. Free Fruit at hotels in the USA. Free coffee at some hotels. Free water all over the USA. 

Pothole Problem Solved
I wrote that I would fill in all the potholes in roads in Britain. Then worldwide.

Fruit-Filled Garden For Health and Lack of Wealth
In London our bungalow, like every house on the estate, was established with a row of apples trees in the garden, and pear trees. After several decades, some of them have died. We have replaced them with apple trees offering three varieties of apples.

Fig
I also planted a fig tree. The little hard green figs are more work than apples. A nasty white sap. In a crisis, however, we would want them.

We also had an elderflower tree. The dark berries made a mess underfoot which was walked into our kitchen. The solution to the mess is to make people wear garden shoes.

Wonderful Vines
We have planted six grapevines, three whites and three reds. I loved the leaves. So pretty.

Thornless Blackberries
At one time we had blackberries. I think we had varities with thorns and eventually got rid of them. I would replace them with thornless fruit, berries, especially with global warming making a fruit-friendly environment.

What else would I do? Copy all the good ideas I have seen on my travels.

Singapore's Smart Ideas - Safer Homes
For homes: Now in 2020 my family in Singapore is in lockdown, home stay due to Covid19. Every day, to get vitamin D, two family members over the age of 70 sit on the balcony for ten minutes. It has always been my policy to look for flats with access to the open air.

In Singapore, the miniature orange tree on the balcony provides oranges but they are not good enough to eat. However, they make great marmalade.

Singapore has a policy of putting fruit trees in streets and gardens. We have coconut palms, mango and many more.

Angela Lansbury I would insist that every household had access to outdoor space, balconies for every flat, supplied with a planter seeded with fruit and vegetables and three miniature fruit trees.

 All buildings would be stepped so that nobody could fall further than one storey.  This was done years ago in a stepped puramid design of Habitat in Canada.

Can't be done nowadays? Yes, it can. A building like that is opposite the South Harrow Waitrose, where the exit to the car park is buy the garage filling station.

A soft surface like the onces in children's playgrounds in Singapore would be under every window and balcony.

For Airports - Lessons Learned From Singapore
The gaint waterfall in the middle of the shopping mall at spacious Changi airport in Singapore. Every airport should look like Singapore's airport.

From Singapore During Covid19
All meetings online. My toastmasters International meetings are online all over Asia, England, America, Europe, the world.

Civilised No Swearing - From Australia What else have I learned and liked on my travels which could be copied?
Banning swearing! from Australia.

Free travel?
Ski resports in the USA used to offer a free shuttle bus between one set of hotels and the ski slopes. At least one country offers free travel. 

Luxembourg? 

Brunei had a free funfair.

UPDATE SEPT 2020

Covid-19 means that free items on aircraft have disappeared. So have water and coffee dispensers for the public. In some places bottled water is given instead of a communal water area.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profanity

About the Author

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

I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

In addition to being a member of Tampines Changkat Advanced, and Tiarel,  I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg

Or quicker, tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

In Singapore we are on the same time zone as Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China (Beijing and Shanghai).

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Rain in Singapore - The Good and The Bad For Travellers and Photographers

Problem
Non-stop rain in Singapore on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. The TV announcers were out in the streets under umbrellas, paid to smile enthusiastically.

Answers
What's good?
1 EXPENSIVE OUTINGS ARE AVOIDED
Stay home and save money (if you haven't already paid for a night out).
2 UMBRELLA SALES INCREASE
Shops get fewer shoppers in the rain. However, those which stay open can sell umbrellas.
3 INDOORS INCREASES BUSINESS
Indoor bars and other places attract passers-by. People already in the restaurant stay there and order more.
4 Outdoor bars and balconies with parasols attract a few hardy souls.
5 WASHING DISAPPEARS
People who draped their sheets and underwear over balconies to dry had to remove them and return skyscrapers to elegance instead of looking like slums.
6 PLANTS ARE WATERED - DROUGHT AVERTED
WateredPlants on blaconies and in gardens and in the wild are getting watered and the city and countrside stay green.
7 NO SWIMMING OUTDOORS
When it rains, especially if there is thunder and lightning, pool attendants will vanish, or prevent swimmers from entering the pool for safety reasons.
8 WATERFALLS ARE AT THEIR BEST
In long hot summers, some waterfalls disappear altogther. The rain means you can see waterfalls afterwards.
9 NO REFUNDS
Some events specify that they will not offer refunds if rain causes cancellation or part or all of the event. Why? Because the staff had to turn up to work and turn down alternative work for that date. Because rain is like 'act of God', not their fault. Because otherwise they would go out of business. Because they are in business to make money and they make the rules.
10 SONGS ABOUT RAIN ARE REVIVED
Songs about rain pop into my brain:
Singing in the rain

What's bad?
1 PHOTOGRAPHY - POOR VISION
The camera you hired for four days for New Year photography will not get the best shots. If you were a wedding photographer you would have to deal with it. You could take indoor shots. Or make a feature of rainy shots, or contrast before and after or same scene in sun and rain.
2 CAR CLEANING STILL NEEDED
You may be tempted to give up cleaning your car in the hope that the rain is doing the job for you. Rain is not necessarily cleaning your car. It may be depositing acid which eats into chrome. You need to wash off the dirt, salt, bird droppings and remove damp leaves from crevices, dry off smears.
3 SLIPPERY ROADS
You also need to check your car tyres have good tread to deal with gripping wet roads.
4 SHOPS & RESTAURANTS WITH OUTDOOR TABLES LOSE OUT
An Indian restaurant owner complained that since he has half his business from his outdoor tables, in rainy times he loses business.

WHAT'S GOOD?
In my lists, the good features of rainy days outweigh the bad. Is that because I am a psoitive person?

When the sun comes out you don't complain the weather is too hot. You are grateful for the sunlight and appreciate its advantages. You rush out with your camera.

CHEAP UMBRELLAS
Cheap umbrellas are sold in Seven-Eleven. Only four dollars for a small fold up umbrella which you can afterwards put in your bag. You can buy similar for only four dollars, different patterns, in the drug stores such as Guardian and Watson and some supermarkets. One member of my family who lives in Singapore says:
"You get what you pay for. Cheap umbrellas won't last long. But even if they only helped you out ofr one trip or one day, they are only the price of a cup of coffee."

Useful websites
http://brandinsider.straitstimes.com/audi/essential-car-tips-rainy-season/

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

Doorways, balconies and corridors in condos and HDB flats

Whether you are in an HDB or an affluent condo with four rooms and plentiful built-in wardrobes, you will see in corridors a constant entertainment and amazement. Wardrobes of shoes. Bicycles. Balls. Pairs of china elephants guarding against theft. Small shrines to Chinese ancestors with the remains of joss sticks. Small plants and large plants.

It's feast or famine. People who grow one plant have a garden centre around the door. A miniature jungle surrounds the door frame, hanging from ropes, a cluster of plant pots, wall mounted half moon containers, a dinner service of plant pots, a kitchen garden invading the steps, growing over the balcony like hanging gardens obscuring or providing the view.

Looking out of the living room onto the corridor of an HDB flat. You can see the plant on the left and a small diamond shaped hanging attached by a hook to the horizontal slat of the ventilation grille secondary outer door. 

I have even seen a collection of umbrellas hung from the horizontal slats, I presume not as decoration but to avoid cluttering the tiny flat and convenient fro grabbing when you get to the door and think, I should take my umbrella.

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

Town Planning: Skyscrapers; Green Wall; Balconies; Trees; Fruit Trees worldwide

London

What are the elements which every building should have? 

1 Access to parking for delivery vehicles and emergency vehicles. How are the handicapped, the letters, parcel post delivery, the furniture, the ambulance and the fire brigade ladders going to reach the building?

2 Emergency exits, fire escapes.

3 Windows to signal that you need help, windows to allow ventilation, sunlight for vitamin D to occupants.

4 Sustainability - workplaces nearby.

5 Food production places nearby. What happens in a tidal wave, ash preventing flights, flooding, fire, bombing, isolation due to sinkholes, famine from harvest, wartime, civil riots, snow and ice underfoot, kids are quarantined, granny breaks her ankle or hip? Yes, you could grow mushrooms under the sink, and tomatoes on the windowsill - if you had a sunny window. A 

Colour, Curves and Comfort

Worst new: Harrow is becoming oppressive with huge windowless walls rising from the pavement. 

Best new: It is good to plant trees to break up the paving area and this is being done in the upgraded outdoor pedestrian shopping area linking the two big malls, St George's, which has friezes of St George inside at the top, which most people probably don't even notice, and St Ann's opposite the Harrow on the Hill railway and bus station.

Best Old

Here's old Harrow, with horizontal lines, arched windows, arched architraves, statues with semicircular plinths adding more curves. Patterned brickwork.

Best Design

The new complex which has been finished after years of being empty, is both curved and stepped. (But a commentator said that curved walls are a nuisance from the inside because it's hard to get an office desk and furniture to fit.

Worst Windows

The worst windows are the tiny ones. The worst balconies are the tiny ones too small for you to sit on a chair or a low lounger.

Food and Famine in France

Goose Fat and Garlic by Jeanne Strang, Country recipes from South-west France, revealed the history of peasant farming in the area. After years of famines causing peasant farmers to lose their entire crop, their living, privation and starvation, the country farmers learned to have rotating crops. For the dwellers in flats , allotments should be provided. If you have a piece of land in mid-air, you need a garden on top of the flat below in a stepped building, an allotment in the free area around the base of a skyscraper, or allotments within walking distance.

Singapore Fruit Trees In The Street

In Singapore I walked along a street towards a bus stop passing mango trees which had mangoes lying on the ground. If every city was lined with fruit trees, we could alleviate starvation and poverty. And teach children and adults about the value of trees and fruit, and being a vegetarian or fruitarian.

Mango Tree

Mango fruit

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I can see the problems. The children and maid of the house next to the mango tree take all the fruit. The coconut palm is a danger to people and passing cars when the coconuts fall. So people must be employed and trained and insured and paid to pick the coconuts before coconuts fall of their own accord.

Worst Walls

The worst walls are those right next to the pavement and going up sheer.

I believe buildings should be stepped. For three reasons.

1) Safety. In a fire or disaster you have only one level to descend to escape flames and damage.

2) Flat roofs are are needed for infinity swimming pools and helicopter landings. However, in the UK you need steep diagonal roofs, rarely for snow, but often for rain.

Drive over the bridge over Harrow and Wealdstone station outside the civic centre. Skyscrapers are built so close to the road, that the poor little balconies must be filled with fumes. The windows view traffic and hear noise. 

Best Balconies

I see the adverts for new flats in the area of Harrow, all over London, and in Singapore. I am very glad that people in flats are being offered balconies. Otherwise you are in a prison cell all summer, and in the evenings. 

With global warming, and people used to living in flats in hot countries, or coming from houses with gardens, more people expect balconies. The youngsters and yuppies want to sit on balconies for evening drinks and meals. The poor and the pensioners want their washing on the balconies (discreetly hidden by frosted glass or low bamboo fencing).

Beautiful bridges

Bridges bedecked with flowers from Changi airport into the city centre and all over the city roadways.

London - building of the garden bridge, not yet open.

Singapore - art bridge at Robertson Quay

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer

Malta's Capital City Valletta and Its Delightful Architecture

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright Angela Lansbury.

Malta offers a mixture of cultures. Two girls working in Malta, originally from Europe, said Malta reminded them of Britain: the red phone boxes, red letter boxes, driving on the same side of the road, the same sockets and three pin plugs. The statue of Queen Victoria. English is one of the two main languages.

The other language is Maltese. 

From Wikipedia:

The Republic Square (also known as Queen's Square or Piazza Regina) is a small square found in front of the National Library of Malta in Valletta. In the middle of the square is a statue of Queen Victoria, hence the name Queen's Square or Piazza Regina. The open space of the square is used by open air cafés, the most famous one being Café Cordina.