Holiday Reading - Comedy, Tragedy, Tragic-Comedy Or Fun Fiction - packing books, suggestions

Problem
What do you read about the country before you go there? On holiday? When delayed at the airport? On the beach?

Why Misery Memoirs?
A misery memoir, which makes you find your delays and inconveniences pale by comparison?

Write A Novel
In November you can sign up to write your own novel. (Maybe faction - fact turned into fiction to protect you from libel action by your nearest and dearest!

A Good Story
I just reminded my neighbours of the time they took in an umbrella I had delivered, thinking it was a free gift from a catalogue company. Now they say they have no recall of this incident. Luckily we are all on good terms. They just grin and say, "No recollection of this - but it's a great story!")

Prison Memoirs
I like to read true stories. Ideally with a happy end.

However, other people like drama, horror stories, read about the 'Bangkok Hilton' - prison. I frown. Unless you are planning to risk ending up in prison, why subject yourself to such miserable reading!

I must admit, I have read three prison memoirs. They make rivetting reading. They make me think about not carrying anything for anybody else.

Refusing Parcels
I suppose it's a warning not to ever take a parcel for anybody else. I was asked to take a parcel on a ferry by a stranger.  No way. A nuisance. A stress. A danger. I told her to give it to the ferry staff.

Then, good friends ask my family to bring over items from shops.

If you do take a parcel, insist that it is unwrapped because it is going to be unwrapped by the customs officers anyway. And insist that the person who gave it to you puts their name and instructions on it including their signature e.g. wedding gift from John Brown to Auntie Mabel.

How do you refuse? Say you are already overweight. Tell them you are unsure of your direction and time or travel and to send their parcel by air, tracked, instead.

Carrying Books
To save delays, open all wrapped goods, such as those sent by Amazon and carried along with you. Re-seal them so they don't fall apart and are protected, but can be quickly inspected.

Cover paperback books with protective covers, preferably waterproof covers or ziplock bags so your water does not spill onto them.

What do you want to read?
Here's a list I made at Writers' Summer School when I attended an excellent course run by Paul Dodgson at The Hayes, Swanwick, Derbyshire:

Other People’s Houses Core Segal (Kindertransport siblings).

Into the Arms of Strangers.

Writing Autobiography by Laurie Lee

Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall

A million little pieces by James Frey

Clive James Unreliable Memoirs

Jan Morris Conundrum

Beach books
Pick your own comedy or chick lit.

Misery Memoirs
Bad Blood by Lorna Sage.
(My book group read this. The book group organizer said, "A misery memoir - but funny!"

Evocation of The past
Rosie by Rose Tremain.
I read an extract. Not enough action for me. But others like the picture of the past.

Prison And Prison Escape Books
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/apr/11/books-behind-bars-five-best-stories-prison-life-alan-sillitoe-erwin-james

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Could you get a group discount? Or a free place?

Problem
I am offered group discounts. I am not a group - or am I?

Answer
You are probably a member of a group or know somebody who is. For example:
1 Planning a wedding or a stag or hen night or weekend away.
2 A big birthday party - even a small one of you and a partner and a few other couples.
3 A music group.
4 A book group.
5 A Toastmasters group.
6 A sports club.
7 A study group - languages, taking and exam in languages, religions, attending a festival, a national day celebration.

Your group leader is probably sent loads of offers and does not tell you about them but just bins them.

Your local group probably organises lots of events at reduced prices. To give some examples:

My local gardening club goes on outings to distant public gardens. They have offers on bulbs.

My book group organises outings to plays and films.

Other groups such as U3A (University of the Third Age, for retired people) organises outings.

You could join a group in order to find somebody else doing the work of organising the trip, to get reductions, or simply to find company.

What sort of outings could you organise?

1 An evening to the theatre. A visit to a TV show.
2 A day trip to a museum, stately home, festival.
3 A weekend away during a holiday.
4 A holiday (eg a bridge holiday for a bridge club; a trip to Wimbledon for a tennis club).

Tips
For groups of ten or more:
Theatre
Pre-theatre meals
Attractions reduced if packed with other elements such as dinner, show or travel include: Arsenal Stadium Tour and Museum, Churchill War Rooms, Co Cola London Eye, HMS Belfast, Kew Gardens and Palace, Shakespeare's Globe Tour and exhibition, Warner Brothers Studio Tour, Wembley Stadium Tour, Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum and Tour, Windsor Castle, ZSL London Zoo, Pantomimes and Christmas shows and many more.

Do some comparison shopping and see what deals you can find for reductions for the whole group, the birthday boy or girl, the free room for the wedding couple or the group organiser.

Free Places
Many organisations offer free places or entry for carers. For example, if you are pushing a relative in a wheelchair, driving a minibus, or have four foster children, you might find it worthwhile to check everything on offer.

If you simply want to organise an event, and provide extra networking or seasonal cheer for your group, you might consider it worthwhile to pay the premium a a commercial organisation charges for organising it all for you. On the other hands, if you have time, make sure the offer price for a group is less than you can get for yourself by booking direct with a theatre, attraction, restaurant.

If you need to organise lunch boxes, or sandwiches for a summer BBQ or Xmas party for your club, or you are area director for a group of clubs, you might find it worthwhile joining a wholesaler which has membership for businesses, charities and other organisations with bulk orders for catering and supplies, such as Costco.

Websites
GROUP DISCOUNTS
www.costco.com (For the USA)
www.costco.co.uk (For the UK)
www.encore.co. uk groups@encore.co.uk / tel: 020 7492 1525.
https://carers.org/article/days-out

Happy travelling!

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Flying on Thanksgiving and Owls You Can Make For Thanksgiving

When are the flights empty? Apparently if you want a choice of seats, pick Christmas Day, and in American Thanksgiving Day.

If you are in the USA (fourth Thursday in November) you will be surrounded by people celebrating Thanksgiving, and eating turkey.

Some people like to give guests a take home present. I love these owl biscuits you can make at home wherever you are on Thanksgiving and give to your hosts or guests. Also a great gift to take to a pot luck party, A book group, Writers' Circle, or a Toastmasters meeting.

Two great ideas you can copy, even if you don't have time or reason to make owl biscuits this week:
1 Use a glass tumbler as what the Americans call a cookie cutter.
2 Use balls of dough for decoration, add chocolate buttons for buttons or eyes, use almonds for beaks or claws of birds or animals.

https://blog.etsy.com/en/butter-cookie-owls/

The story of Thanksgiving, according to this account, was not just a dinner thanking God for a safe arrival, but both the God or fate and the natives (then called Red Indians) who had taught the Pilgrim Fathers (and mothers) how to draw and cook local foods. The dinner included turkey, shared with the natives, cranberry, so named because of the stalks bending like cranes.

http://www.crewsnest.vispa.com/thanksgivingusa.htm

If you are not American, you might wish to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Canadians, who celebrate on the second Monday in November.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(Canada)

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

English afternoon tea for a book group: brown bridge rolls and lemon drizzle cake

If you are a reader - and you must be if you enjoy reading blogs, you can meet local people in other countries by going to a book group. In Singapore I went to book groups attached to the American club and a South African book group.

Some of the book groups met in a club house, such as the American Club in Singapore. You could join the American Woman's Association which cost less than the club membership and it was easier to join if you were not American.

Most of the meetings were in the club but some were in people's homes. In order to encourage people to volunteer houses, many meetings were either just coffee and biscuits, or end of year meetings were often pot luck, with many people bringing home make cakes. The British tended to make one big cake. The Americans were fond of making muffins. In England we used to make smaller fairy cakes for children's parties.

What can you serve? In England at a book group we like to serve bridge rolls. Toppings can be cream cheese, chopped egg, smoked salmon, tuna, tuna and sweetcorn, and other fish such as herring. For a special occasion such as a party you would slice something circular for a decoration in the middle, slices of tomato, olives, cucumber, a contrasting colour.

If you can't get bridge rolls, a very good substitute is marks and spencer rolls. They come in white or brown.

Favourite cakes are lemon drizzle cake, with or without icing, chocolate cake, cakes with nuts.

Of course, if you were reading Marcel Proust's A La Recherché Du Temps Perdu you would serve madeleines, oval shape cakes, which you can buy in large supermarkets in the UK.

Angela Lansbury, author.