Instant Fan In A Hot Country, Hot Hotel Room, Hot anywhere

Need a paper fan? In a hurry? When would you need a cooling, fan, a fake fan? I often do, in Asia, especially Singapore, in London in the summer, in the USA, even New York in summer, and Washington DC, on the same latitude as Madrid in Spain.

In a hotel bedroom before the air con starts to take effect. In a conference room in Wales at Writers' Holiday. You look around at somebody who had a fan and think, aren't they lucky. Never mind having a fancy fan, any fan would do.

You could splash water on yourself from your water bottle, or the tap in the toilet, and wave a piece of paper, such as the meeting programme. But there's no meeting programme. They are saving money on paper and ink and time and claiming to save the planet and the trees by asking everybody to read the programme online on their phones.

But there is a solution. Just use a piece of stiff paper or card.

Where from? Your office. Your wastebin. The office bin.
The hotel bin.

Free brochures you picked up but have read and no longer need.
Paper bag or cardboard bag which you or somebody else discarded.
Large envelope.

Two methods.

Pencil
1 Use a pencil or disposable bamboo chopsticks for the upright, like the post of a flag.

Point First
Put the pencil, point first inside the envelope. Why point first? To avoid geting the point marking your hand with colour or hurting your skin.

Pencil Without a Point
Here's a use for a new pencil you were given at a trade show which has no point yet, so you cannot use it to write until you get home or back to the office.

Envelope
Envelope too flimsy?  Fold it in half. Use two. Look for another, bigger stronger envelope.

Concertina
Fold your paper in half then in half again, and again. Until you have long oblongs. Unfold and re-fold, alternating the folds.

Hold the bottom together by turning it up an inch or two which you grasp when fanning yourself.

At home you could make yourself a pretty DIY fan from fancy coloured paper. Use stiffer paper or card on the outsides when the paper concertina is closed. Decorate the outside or edge with silver paint or silver foil or cooking foil or sweet wrapper.

Or buy plain coloured paper to match your outfit  from a stationery store or art shop.

Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a cheap notebook than a piece of art paper. Even a book with a back cover you can tear off would be good. That way you get a fan and a notebook.

Or buy a ruler and ask the shop for a paper bag. Use the ruler as the stiffener and fold the bag into a concertina.

Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

How to remember to take or pack pills

Problem
I am in such a rush on travelling days, or any day, I often forget if I have just taken a pill.

Answers
A large seven day pill box. That is too large except for a very large pocket. You might want to buy jacket with a larg pocket, or sew a large pocket onto a garment, or wear a neck bag or cross-body bag on the plane.

I don't like pills kept in a jacket pocket next to the heat of my body or the heat of a recently used laptop, because the packet tell you to keep the pills cool.

A small four day pill box for a pocket for a weekend away or while travelling. (A pill needs to be in your pocket when your airline breakfast tray arrives, not in the bag in the overhead locker, when theaaisle is blocked by the breakfast cart.

Ordering Pills
Order pills for your entire stay away and a day or two extra becuase:
If you are travelling overnight you need another pill on the day of arrival.
You might decide to extend your holiday.
Your flight might be delayed a day, or longer.
You might want one pill packed in a bag, but a backup in your pocket in case even your backpack or wheel on cabin bag could go missing.

Records
You need a record of your pills and the prescription. Why?

You know it's medication. The people in security checking 500 people a day or a week or a year have to be sure what that white liquid or powder or pill really is.
1 To show it's required personal medication and not something you are selling (which would be illegal in another coutnry or your own if you are not a doctor nor permitted to do so).
2 To prove it's medication (and not some poison you are planning to drop in a stranger's drink!).
3 To show it's actually medication and not something else (such as gunpoweder or an explosive).

Packing
Singapore Airlines and other people tell you not to pack your medication in luggage.
Why?

Your luggage could be delayed.
Your luggage could go missing.
Rain could damage your luggage.
Impact could break your luggage and any bottles.
Your luggage might break open and things could fall out.

Thieves could take out your medicine to save themselves money or to sell it on. Who?  Passers-by in the airport.  Staff in luggage handling.

Chancers could collect luggage from the carousel at the other end.  Nobody would notice if a stranger grabbed your black bag. Easy for them to do. If challenged, they would just say it was a mistake and looked like theirs.

Noting Pill Taken
So you have packed your pills in your pocket or bag, but you are rushing to the airport. You took today's pill - or did you?

You arrive at the other end, jetlagged all week, sleeping until noon. You took this morning's pill when you got up to go to the bathroom and clean your teeth when the alarm went off. Or did you?

If your bags are still locked, or if your pills are in the fridge, you could still be confused. I have devised two systems.

1 Each time you take a pill, whilst it is still in your mouth, or before you put the box away, write the date you have taken the pill. Keep the record on the fridge secured with a magnet.

2 I used to check the bin for the mpety pill packet. However, could I be sure the one at the bottom of the bin was today's, fallen down, not yesterday's.

Alternatively keep the empty pill wrapper out visible on a work surface until after lunch or until bedtime. Write down the date on a piece of paper under the wrapper by your drinking glass on the dining table or by the kitchen sink.

I hope this helps you. If you have any other suggestion, write to me on Facebook referring to this article and teh date of the article. I have written several articles on pills, packing, destinations and other subjects. Please bookmark and, if you have a favourite post, share the link with your friends.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker. I can give you an entertianing talk or workshop about travel, tailored to the interests and needs of your group. Contact me by email or through Facebook.

Escaping Pollution from the Haze in Singapore, now Saharan Sand Smothers England

   In Singapore in June we suffered from the haze. Schools and colleges closed. Even if you could travel by underground and stay indoors, buildings were closed because maintenance staff who worked outdoors had to be sent home.
   You started to see people wearing white masks in the streets and walking through the underground stations. Pharmacies sold masks but there were long queues. I finally bought a mask. I discovered there were two sorts of masks. They cheaper ones lasted only two or three hours and you bought a pack of them. The more expensive ones lasted longer and were so expensive you bought only one.
     Singapore and Malaysia have a monsoon season with threatened flooding in early pre-spring. Often the roads are flooded so schools are closed.
    I thought I'd be safer spending spring or summer in London. But we had flooding in the UK. The Thames barrier protects most of London.
   Then in April, a day after April Fool's Day, we have sand from the Sahara flying all the way to the UK. What's the solution? Planting trees in the Sahara desert to anchor the soil?
  An end to jogging, since we have been warned not to do outdoor exercise.

A neighbour i London stopped to say from her upstairs windows she looked down on the sand on our home's wheelie bins.

If we sweep it up I suppose it must go in the brown back to nature bin reserved for earth and twigs.

Here's a car windscreen, covered in the gritty red sand. You must wash it off before starting the windscreen wipers or you hear an unpleasant and ominous graunching noise. Yesterday smog. Now silence. The cars have stopped running. The birds have stopped singing. It must be time for lunch.