Barbecues Are Banned In Britain - Even Your Doormat Is A Danger!

 I got a high pitch buzzing warning on my mobile phone.  The text was a warning from the government to not start barbecues or any flames outdoors, since the smallest spark could set off fires, endangering homes, businesses, people, and emergency responders. The warning mentioned a ban on fireworks and firepits.

I remember in previous years on the last night of our Writers' Summer School at the Hayes Conference Centre up in the cooler Midlands (cooler than London where I live) on the last night there was a sing-song around the firepit. They used to toast marshmallows. I enjoyed the songs, although I was wary of being bitten after dusk by midges, mosquitos, whatever.

However, this year the event did not take place on Wednesday August 6th, the last night. Only when I got the warning from the government, today, Friday August 8th, two days later, did it occur to me that the event was probably discontinued for safety reasons.  

This follows reports of fires.

Temperature 30 degrees Centigrade in London. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

A kitchen clock with the day's date, the time co-ordinated with British summer time from a signal, and the temperature, is one of our most successful 'modern' purchases.

The temperature is 30 degrees centigrade in London, which is 82 Fahrenheit. But not humid like Singapore (where we lived for 30 years, on and off 1993 to 2024) which is sticky heat.

Elsewhere in Britain temperatures reached even higher. Homes were destroyed by wildfires. One woman lost 100 years of family photos. I have many of mine shared on social media, on WhatsApp, and in blogs.

Emergency Evacuation Suitcase

The Japanese keep a suitcase by the front door containing identity documents, food, clothes and more. A small sleeping bag would help if you wanted to sleep elsewhere.

Home Protection From Wildfires

1 Move away from your doors any inflammable items such as 

doormats, or 

plastic wheeled bins, or 

pot plants. 

They could set fire to your front door or back door.

2 Clear leaves and debris from gutters.

3 A wooden side gate can catch fire. A metal gate is safer.

4 Embers can fly in through vents under the house or in the roof. These need to be covered in small fireproof mesh. It can be done professionally, or DIY.

If asked to evacuate, do so. Leave while you can. Smoke can turn day into night so you cannot see to drive. 

AI told me

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+save+homes+from+wildfires&oq=how+to+save+homes+from+wildfires

Useful Websites On Alerts & Fires

gov.uk.alerts

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16052031/UK-heatwave-wildfires-trains.html

Cheap T Shirts for making matching outfits

t shirts for only a pound in a variety of colours? Just what I need.  I have been through my wardrobe. I have shorts in patterns and t-shirt with slogans and pictures and they clash. I need plain colour shorts and plain colour t-shirts to make up sets to wear.

Otherwise I have loads of separates which don't match anything. But the family have banned me from buying more clothes because I am spending too much and the wardrobes are overflowing yet aI claim I never have anything to wear and to out looking bizarre with two many clashing patterns, or take hours to dress.

Yes, I know the problems with cheap tee-shirts. Wear it once and it's stained.  (Answer is to tie - dye it.) The seams split. The fit isn't right - too tight or too baggy or just not smart enough for the nice restaurant at lunch or supper.

Needs ironing if it's cotton. Cheap and nasty if it's synthetic, and the fabric won't match anything else.

I still feel I must look at the website. What do I find. Most of those lovely colours, the emerald green and bright orange are only for children. Ladies long sleeves are black, or white, OK, that goes with a lot of things. Ladies are also in pink and yellow. But what If I want long sleeves to guard against mosquito bites and dengue fever? I can wear a jacket or blouse on top of a short sleeve tee. To get navy I would have to buy a men's size. Best to go into a shop to see the sizes and colours and fabric. Good for a gift for a meeting, Xmas, or summer picnic or barbecue, sports day or running club or give or lend to a friend for jogging together.

http://www.poundshop.com/fashion/clothing?p=2&utm_campaign=HFPS-TS-26-03-16&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Newsletter

Sewing an outfit
If you want matching shorts, at that price you can afford to buy two pairs and cut shorts. Or use the second pair to make a wide strip into a wrap around skirt to wear over bikini bottoms or shorts which don't match but provide a flash of contrasting colour. You could even buy three to make matching shorts, t shirt and long sleeve shirt or jacket. Use a spare strip to add a scarf or attach it as a mock scarf. Make a belt to match from strips seemed and turn inside out. Sew both narrow end edges straight or in a v-shape.

Pocket using No sew Velcro
To make a safety pocket for your keys, travel card or credit card or phone, use a strip on the inside for a pocket. To fasten sew a loop and a button. Or a slit edged with blanked stitch and a button which matches or contrasts. Or iron on or sew on a piece of velcro (stick and loop tape).

If you can't get to Poundland for summer offers, also look at Primark. Primark has white crew short sleeve t-shirts for ladies from £3. Stores are in UK, Wales, Ireland, the USA and Europe.
See
primark.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer

Waterside Restaurants and Waterfall Hotels

For a romantic meal, a romantic holiday or a scenic photograph or selfie, look for waterfalls with nearby restaurants or bridges and hotels which are waterside, lakeside, seaside, have outdoor waterfall, indoor waterfalls, or are near waterfalls where you can take a day trip. Here is a list of my favourites in the UK, USA, Malts, Singapore and more. Plus tips on how to find and photograph waterfalls.

I have fond memories of:

Waterfall hotels in Singapore:
Hyatt Hotel, Scots Road Singapore. Waterfall into pool, accessible to residents and if you book a table for food and drink at the poolside bar
Shangri-la Hotel, Singapore.

If you don't find a hotel or free spot by a waterfall, invest in a day trip to the indoor gardens with the huge waterfall - a half day trip. Gardens By the Bay, Singapore.

Wedding Photos in Singapore/Malaysia Brides often take a trip to a waterfall in Singapore or Malaysia, dressed in bridal gear. The photo can be blown up to life size as a welcome sign at the door of the wedding reception venue. Afterwards the picture can be made into a poster of framed, or made into a mock oil painting with a canvas effect and framed. Other uses of your picture are wallpaper or a photo over your bed at home.

Philippines:
Shangri-La, Manila.
Peninsular Manila had waterfall but it was turned off last time we went there.

Waterfall hotels in the UK:
Fishguard Bay Hotel, (by Goodwick and Fishguard station), Wales. Restaurant with best views from tables for two or six seats by window. (Others tables with part view, or no view, against wall or obscured by pillar!).

Malta:
Grand Hotel Excelsior with outdoor pool (seasonal).  Indoor pool. Tiny beach, might be viewable but accessible only at certain times, not when I was there.

Waterfall hotels in the USA: (Being researched - updated later.)

Reasons For Closing Pools
When using pools or waterfalls for a holiday swim or just a photo, check before booking that the pool will be open in the dates you are visiting. Get the reply in writing and make it clear if your booking depends on this (i.e. a refund or free drink as compensation will not do).

Ski, Gym and Swim
Years ago we stayed at a Best Western hotel at a ski resort in the USA. We'd booked the hotel because of the pool so the non-skiers in the group would have an alternative entertainment and exercise and meeting place. The pool was shut with access blocked by a huge roll of flooring. We were offered a free drink as compensation. This did not make up for the embarrassment as we had booked for ourselves and friends as we had boasted about our hotel and planned to invite them to our hotel and show off.

Nor did it cover the wasted weekend for some of us. The hotel was getting renovated elsewhere. When we sent pictures to head office, the organisers were horrified and we got a full refund. I could have saved my family, the hotel, and the umbrella organisation embarrassment, and money, if I had made a phone call and follow up email confirming that the pool was open during the whole of our stay.

If you are at a ski resort or on business and want to use the pool, poolside bar, or waterside restaurant, in the evening and weekends, check the opening times. Especially if your flight arrives late in the day and you want dinner on Sunday evening in the waterside restaurant with the view.

Malta
In Malta the riverside restaurant's buffet had closed and last orders were taken and chef gone home after we had checked into the room, got our luggage, showered and changed. We had to have bar food with no view instead. We got the big restaurant with the view next day at breakfast time.
On the smaller island of Gozo which we visited by ferry for the day, we found a restaurant serving lunch overlooking the pool with a waterfall near a public beach. We had lunch elsewhere at a grander hotel with views over the swimming pool.

Droughts and Water Restrictions
What else could interfere with your view of water? Drought and flooding. Rarely the waterfall reduces to a trickle.

Water can be turned off because of restrictions on water usage in high summer in a country or city drought. More local problems include hotel renovations, or pool cleaning. The pool may be drained for cleaning, or to stop people falling in, or covered to stop autumn leaves, in the off-season.

Pools are also shut in cold weather (perhaps because of the lack of heating, or cost of heating water). Or lack of demand. And dismissal of lifeguards required in some US states - when we lived in Maryland, USA, by insurance.

Late Night Pools
Outdoor pools can also be a source of noise at night from official parties or revellers. Or they could close at 5 pm, 6 pm or 8 pm, when the door through the leisure centre where towers are provided is locked at night.

Closed Pools
I have found the outdoor pool inaccessible off-season in Malta (although the indoor pool was available).

Securing Views
Free seating (Fishguard Bay Hotel, Wales, on Writers' Holiday every July) means you have to arrive early to bag a table with the best view. A little research and the romantic retreat can be yours.

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

Safety and swimming pools worldwide

Two well-publicised fatalities in swimming pools: one in the USA, one in the UK. (Demi Moore. Barrymore.)

Pools in Private Residences in Australasia
In Australia and New Zealand it's the law that you fence off swimming pools so that children don't fall in after it was found that more people died in swimming pools than in the ocean. This was featured on stamps - as I learned in the post office in New Zealand.

Pools in Condos in the USA
When I lived in a condo in Rockville, Maryland, USA, the pool was surrounded by tennis court style see through wire netting over six foot high - nothing you could vault over. The pool was locked at night. Insurance or local bye-law or state law or all three said you had to have a lifeguard on duty when the pool was open. In fact you had two lifeguards. So if one had a sandwich break, or went to the toilet, or turned up late, or went off early, or turned their back to talk to somebody, the other guard was still sitting watching the pool.

 It's time that worldwide swimming pools were fenced off. Maybe make it mandatory to add a warning sign on the gate.

Private Pools in the UK
Friends of mine living in Hendon used to have a pool. The husband, who was in the medical profession, would not allow his wife or children to swim alone. If the wife was alone she would invite a friend or neighbour into the house if she wanted to swim.

That was to guard against anybody getting into difficulties in the water. Falling in. Or having a heart attack or fainting fit whilst swimming.

What should a warning sign say?

1 Only enter if you can swim and are sober.
2 No unaccompanied children.
3 No parties of more than 100 people without a lifeguard.
4 Nobody to swim solo.

Safety - you can learn from living overseas and seeing what other countries do for safety.

Neighbours in Pinner have a pool. Theirs has a low gate. They had four children.

They were also worried about the safety of their neighbour's children. Even when the swimming pool owners were away on holiday, they were concerned that their neighbours children would leap over the low fences between the gardens for a secret dip - even without the swimming children's own parents knowing.

US and Singapore
Many condominiums in Singapore and the USA have swimming pools. In Singapore I went to a meeting in a condo which had been in the newspapers because a toddler had drowned in the unfenced pool. The family had been preparing for a wedding or similar large celebration. Both mother and maid thought the other one was looking after the child. the family were busy making food, serving drink and greeting guests. I thought back to the USA, where I had loved in a condo with a gated pool. That accident could not have happened if the pool had been gated.

What about pool parties? I've been to blocks of flats where they have barbecues beside pools. People eat and drink, stand by the pool watching swimmers. Party goers and visitors walk by the pool. People stand in groups, step back and fall in.

Children and adults, drunk or sober, push each other in for a joke. Women trip over long dresses or dogs or their own bags left lying on the ground. Waiters and bar staff carrying drinks on trays at shoulder level have their eyes up on the drinks or guests and trip over obstructions such as recliners pulled across the path.

I used to wonder why hotel pools and condos closed pools at night. I thought it was to stop people falling in when it was dark, or to stop late night parties making noise when others wanted to sleep. But I now realise that people tend to drink more in the evenings and get drunker as the night goes on. An old saying comes to mind, better safe than sorry.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.