Weddings Worldwide - Reviewed after a Singapore Muslim Malay style wedding reception

Angela dressed as a guest for a Malay Muslim wedding in Singapore. Photo by Sharot family.

For a Malay wedding I wore an outfit which covered my arms to below the elbow, and covered my legs.

Weddings worldwide differ. I should know. I have written several books on the subject and been to Christian ,Jewish and Muslim weddings, English, French, Italian, Chinese and Malay-Singaporean style weddings. I have also conducted a mock wedding ceremony when the officiant was late and the bride wanted sunset photos in the Botanical Gardens bandstand.

My latest venture was to the wedding of a good friend in Singapore. It was a Malay style Singaporean venue. What made it different from, for example, a Chinese wedding or an English wedding?

An English wedding usually has a maid of honour or matron of honour  (the latter a married woman) and/or a couple of bridesmaids who are best friends or sisters. An American wedding can have a dozen bridesmaids, perhaps classmates of a college student.

A UK wedding might have ushers, males in co-ordinating colours showing people to seats.

In Singapore the wedding took place in a wedding hall on the upper floor of a skyscraper shopping mall. confusingly the car parks were on the third level. The wedding venue was on the 2nd or third.

A man wearing what looked like a traditional Sikh outfit, a colourful trouser suit with braid and headgear was in the street outside. When we stopped to look at the directions and try to work out the entrance to the building, he stepped forward to help us. I thought he was a polite bystander. However, he followed us into the building, and confirmed the level when we reached the escalator. So I presumed he had been parked outside by the organizers of the wedding or the venue.

We had been wondering how to present our gift of money. (In the UK you don't give money. You have a wedding list in a department store, nowadays maybe two, or online.)

At a previous wedding which was Chinese, the welcome table outside the hall ticked off our names, counted out the money, and gave us a receipt. Like an accountant. that way no money could drop out or go missing between the donar and the couple. 

At the Muslim wedding reception, the venue had a welcome desk inside the room, before a flowered arch. the table had a large box like the one for Xmas cards at house parties or Writers Circle Club parties in the UK. 

Card Sizes

I had been embarrassed that my greeting card was so small. At Christmas parties and weddings and birthdays in restaurants in the UK, visitors present cards up to A4 size. Mine was A5 size. At the last minute I had found  in my emergency greeting card box, several greetings cards and chosen one. (Rejecting the cards which said Happy Christmas, happy birthday and Condolences!)

I decorated it with gold glue glitter to make it more festive. 

St the venue I slipped it into the box and was presented with a thank you going home gift which was a small jar of teeny chocolate biscuits in a silver glitter cube shaped box.

To my surprise, my husband later assured me that my cards was large enough. He said my card was distinctive -larger than the others. The other envelopes were all the size of red packets given at Chinese New Year. 

Red Packets

Chinese New Year follows Christmas in the tourist calendar, being in January or February. Red packets used to be given away to bank customers. Now that banks are online, red packets are shown on websites and you can make donations through the web.  

The shape is elongated. They come in two sizes, mostly, like a half width of an A6 pocket diary.   

The food was laid out buffet style, 

Seating

The tables were round and there was free seating. I thought that worked well. You could choose to sit with family and friends, sit at the front to take photos, sit at the back keeping noisy children out of sight, mix with new people.

The End

The buffet was cleared away. We waved goodbye.

Layout and Dais

the central hall was a path leading up to the dais where the happy couple sat surrounded by flowers, to greet you. An mc alongside the couple had a microphone to call out who was approaching, and then hand you the microphone to give out an announced good wish.

(He was aided by a young lady a few feet in front who asked your name and how you were related to the couple. My husband and I later speculated on how she conveyed the message to the couple.

Sheraton Towers Hotel, Singapore, Costs and Savings On Food

Singapore flag.

I have a hard job trying to persuade my family to set foot inside the Sheraton Towers Hotel in Singapore. One of my family members used to work for a company which had a branch in the office block nearly next door. So, a couple of colleagues popped into the nearby Sheraton for a couple of coffees. Very elegant surroundings.

Sheraton Towers Hotel from the upstairs, second level gallery.

However, the colleagues were shocked when they were presented with a bill for 25 Sing dollars.

Every time I mention the Sheraton Towers Hotel, my relative regales me with the same story. "They charged us for two coffees when I ordered a double espresso, instead of the usual thirty percent extra. Although the coffees came with a small biscuit, 25 dollars for coffee for two people seemed to me excessive."

I would have gone without the coffee and just had a cake for under ten dollars - or is that the take away price. Add 'plus plus', meaning tax and service, at about 17 %. You are back to nearly 25 dollars. But you have eaten cake.

The same applies in many places. The price of a cup of coffee seems excessive compared to the price of a seat meal including coffee.

Buffet Meal
What if you want to eat a proper meal? The buffet is open every night, yes, seven nights a week.

Discounts For Hotel Guests
Hotel guests get a discount.

Discount For Visitors
I was attracted by the sign of a discount, and it turned it out there was yet another discount. Wednesday is 'ladies night' when females are given a fifty per cent reduction. So, if I and a male partner, husband, son or colleague, came together, I would get a fifty percent reduction, although the mean would be paying full price.

I suppose it is to fill up the restaurant midweek, when it is maybe filled with businessmen. Anybody want a lady for a cheap date?

It is not that cheap. Add plus plus and you are in for nearly 100 dollars.

Toastmasters International Meetings
However, I have news of a bargain for you. The buffet price makes twenty dollars look a bargain, coffee plus savoury and sweet snack and entertainment. Yes, attend a Toastmasters Club of Singapore meeting on one of the first three Monday evenings in the month.

Sheraton Hotel. Opulent surroundings. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Arrive early, at or after 6 pm, to queue (line up as the Americans say), register, write your name and phone number and email, Toastmasters club if any, pay, get a receipt and a badge. Then help yourself to some savoury, a couple of pieces of chopped fruit, and coffee or hot or cold water with help yourself to thinly sliced lemon.

You can chat and network with members of the club (mostly Chinese, Indian, Asian and Eurasian), as well as visitors from all over Asia, China, Vietnam, and Europe, the UK, Belgium or France, and many other countries.

In the meeting interval the staff bring out the leftover savouries, and fruit. You have to be quick to get the fruit - it soon goes. You could miss out.

 At least you can get more coffee or water. But the staff start clearing away at the end of the interval and the coffee and water are gone after the meeting. So if you want a glass of water to sip through the meeting, or before setting off home, keep hold of it.

In the evening you are likely to hear piano music from the grand piano as a background. Toastmasters clubs like you to tell them in advance if you will be attending, so they can be sure of providing enough food for you.

Useful Websites
Singapore Airlines
singaporeair.com
visitsingapore.com
https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sinsi-sheraton-towers-singapore/

Author
Angela Lansbury, ACG, ALB, member of two Singapore Toastmasters Clubs, Braddell Heights Advanced and Tampines Changkat Advanced.

The River Walk Indian Restaurant On The Singapore River

Problem
Where can we eat an Indian meal, for a set price (no surprises from the management or a fellow guest who eats double).

Answer
An Indian buffet lunch. We chose the River Walk Tandoor restaurant. A tandoor is an oven, traditionally clay. tandoori, means tandoori style food. Restaurants in the UK are frequently called  (X... X... ) tandoori restaurant.  Here in Singapore in theory you have a choice of outdoor and indoor seating.

We went for a Sunday lunch and were told to eat outside. In theory you can't make a reservation for an individual or small group. There's no reservation number. However, a large party had booked the whole of the inside so they could be together - or maybe the restaurant kept them together for ease of  counting the number of them dining and ease of payment.

Luckily we took our main course just before they arrived.

What was good, bad, or indifferent?

Good
You can wash your hands in a basin below a mirror near the eating area without going out to the toilets.
Service was smiling and obliging.
Fruit for our health conscious family member and a diabetic family friend.

Bad / Indifferent / mixed
Toilets
The toilet seems to be part of the restaurant at the end of a corridor - then I wondered whether it was communal to the building's occupants. It has, as the popular saying goes, 'seen better days'. Beautiful blue tiles. If you concentrate on the tiles, you will be happy. If you frown at the state of peeling and dirty paint on the back of the cubicle door you will be less happy.

Best of All
A little aquarium by the door to the outside seating.
Gulub jamun - my family's favourite
Proper chairs - no problem with chairs being high backless bar stools nor backless low stools. (I have sat in gourmet restaurants in London paying high prices to perch on a high stool several miles away from my handbag which was on the dirty floor, bag kicked by passers-by, with hankies and business cards out of reach.)

A board

Why Pleasures Outweigh Problems at Pestana Casino Park Hotel, Madeira

A hotel dining room with stunning scenery - a panorama of the bay. If we had been couples, instead of a group of 35 spread across three or four large ten-seater round tables, I would have had breakfast and dinner on the patio outside enjoying that view. I twice changed tables in order to enjoy the view.

Several hotels along the front have equally stunning views. So do the Funchal restaurants along the front. So do the hilltop hotels and restaurants. When you think about it, most of the hotel or restaurants are either on the flatter lower coast road, or the top of the central mountain ranges. A few small former farming cottages are perched on ledges the hillside.

Wonderful buffet. Fresh fruit salad. Fresh salads. Nuts at breakfast. Olives at dinner time.

Little round Portuguese custard tarts and similar circular-shaped pastries, almost flaky outside, with shredded coconut filling and a glace cherry or two on top, or treacle filling with crunchy nut knibs on top.

Problems
Minus 1 The outdoor pool is too cold.

Minus 2 No tea and coffee making facilities in bedrooms. (As several people on Tripadvisor noted, many one and two star motels and hotels offer free tea and coffee making facilities and free refills.)

Minus  minus 3 No free jugs nor glasses of tap water with dinner.

Minus 4 High prices for bar drinks and coffee and tea.

Minus minus 5 Car hire booked through the hotel was much higher than through other bookings at airport and online.

Minus minus 6 Our group had booked half board. We were told no refunds if we decided to take the meal elsewhere. Two of our members ran their own 'hotels', with accommodation and food for guests, one in Portugal and one in Indonesia. They were not prepared to let this go without argument.

Answers
1 The first day I climbed straight out, then thought, now I'm cold, I might find it less cold. I did a few feeble splashes and got out and went downstairs.

2 I drink too much coffee at home. I didn't miss it.

3 This caused a major upset, a constant distraction and debate. One of our group got out his own bottle of water to make a point. He then had a confontation with a waiter who came to whisper that the manager had said we were not allowed to bring in water from outside.
Afterwards, another guest said to our member, 'Don't blame the poor waiter for keeping his job by passing on the manager's message. Ask to see the manager.'

On the last night, our fourth evening meal, I had a drink outside the restaurant. During dinner in the hotel I did not order another drink because I felt too much alcohol and no water was not a good idea. I would be either sleepy or sick.

Water
At breakfast the buffet had a water urn but beside it was a big notice telling you not to refill your bottle or cup and take it onto the terrace.

The buffet
I loved the meats, fish, nuts, salads, and above the wonderful pastries. I was not overly thrilled by the Madeira cake, a heavy fruit cake with the island's so-called honey. I don't know how this 'honey' gets past trade description as everybody admits that Madeira 'honey' is cane sugar.

Bedrooms
Only one chair for two people and not enough room to the right of the TV for two laptops. Impossible for two people in a room for two to sit at laptops. (A common problem. In some hotels you can ask for another chair, or another high side table. The low side table does for a drink but you cannot read or look at any text such as an email nor the news nor booking local events and restaurants.

Minus Corridoors were very dark but I had a room by the lift so this did not affect me.

Minus /Plus VIEW
I was not pleased to have a room with a partial sea view but two cranes, one either side.  Slightly to the right of centre was the Savoy hotel building site. I would have preferred the port view overlooking little boats coming and going. This will change after this autumn and next spring if the Savoy is finished on the time the outside hoarding claims is the aim.

By day two I had discovered that the upstairs Jacuzzi and that the downstairs pool had Jacuzzi jets. Great fun for children.

Plus
Beside the tennis court was a hidden children's play area with slides and so on but nobody seemed to be using it. The kids were all shouting and splashing in the pool.

Other adult swimmers complained that the indoor pool was a curved shape and full of children jumping in so you could not swim in a straight line nor without fear of being bumped or hit.

Building is badly designed. You cannot get to the downstairs pool except by a long staircase, not ideal when you are in wet shoes from the outdoor pool - which you have left because it is too cold.

The outdoor lighting by the poolside upper deck changes colours which is amusing, but it gets distracting and annoying to see your friends' faces going green, purple, blue, grey, every thirty seconds.

Receptionists do not smile hello or goodbye, only notice when you are right next to them. I think you either need a bowing doorman or a pretty girl or handsome man at the end nearest the door to wave goodbye and smile hello every time you walk into and out of a four or five-star hotel - in fact any hotel.

By the end of the week, the staff were smiling at me, and I was approaching them, deliberately smiling, and giving my room number, and they smiled back and said, 'Enjoy'.

The casino is outside in a separate building, much better than Las Vegas hotels where you walk through a lobby of slot machines to get anywhere. One of our members went to the caino and said it was smoky so she came back. Another member went on another day and said their was a meal cheaper than at our hotel.

Thinking about it later, yes, casinos often have low priced food, either to lure you in, or keep you on site.

On balance, a wonderful hotel. Poeple at the nearby Pestana hotel, the other side of the Savoy site, seemed even happier than our group.

One of our group went to visit the famous Reid's hotel. She liked it. She prefers traditional hotels to modern hotels. Having looked at the photos, I think our modern hotel was better, and nearer to the city shops, walking distance.

If I think of the hotel, I think of that panoramic dining room sea view, through a wall of glass which you enjoy descending a circular ramp every morning and every evening.

Useful Websites
pestana.com/hotels
visitmadeira.com

Author
Angela Lansbury

Sheraton Towers Hotel, Singapore, For Fountains, Food and Well-dressed Toastmasters

A well-dressed, handsome young man at the Toastmasters meeting in the Sheraton Towers Hotel, Singapore. Notice the royal blue shirt with the colours on the collar and sleeve edges. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Problem
What to eat first in Singapore, Eastern or Western? What was your favourite childhood food? That was the question asked as an opener to visitors at a Toastmasters International meeting in the Sheraton Towers Hotel. The responses included chicken rice (a Singapore favourite), ice cream, and assorted Asian dishes.

The Sheraton Towers Hotel plays host to the Toastmasters Club of Singapore the first three Mondays of every month. Most meetings are open to members of the public and for twenty dollars you have an evening of entertainment, coffee or water and a savoury snack from the buffet before the meeting starts, more water with lemon or coffee and more of the savoury food plus some kind of sweet snacks and fruit in the interval.

The food choices rotate. Sometimes you get shellfish. Today something of everything, rice, noodles, cheese sandwiches, Indian flat bread, avocado sauce, an Indian fried dough circle (a bit chewy) and watermelon, so refreshing.

Next Monday is the club's AGM and not for visitors. Occasionally a meeting is postponed for a holiday or other reason. So it might be in your interest to check it is being held. Use Find A club and email them the day before.

Toastmasters has about 250 clubs meeting in Singapore. I attend one almost every day. If you want to save money, you could go to one of the many clubs which don't charge visitors a fee.

So why go to the events at the Sheraton Towers Hotel. What is the advantage?

The Sheraton Venue
You will meet professional people who are not short of twenty dollars. You get to see the magnificent Sheraton Towers hotel. I never tire of looking over the balcony and admiring the indoor fountains. So long as you don't mind risking a shellfish buffet occasionally (I am allergic to shellfish) you will mostly find something good to eat and drink.

Sheraton Towers Hotel Toilets
The toilets are elegant and plenty of toilets with seats, orchids in the toilets, music. (Toilets at the other venues, Community Clubs, are a bit unpredictable, often have the toilet paper outside the cubicles, and only two or three toilet cubicles of which one will be a hole in the ground.)

Even the lifts are elegant. The stairs are carpeted. On the upstairs landing are seats and before or after a meeting you can sit and stand undisturbed enjoying the elegance and calm.

Why Choose Toastmasters Club of Singapore?
If your evening is Monday, then this is the biggest and best club. I have visited more than fifty Toastmasters clubs in Singapore (plus others in the UK, China, Czech Republic and Thailand). The two big and bustling clubs are AIA (American Insurance Association) and TCS. AIA is Thursday. They are an in-house club for the business, and like most in house clubs, you are expected to be invited personally by somebody who knows you and you have to give up your identify card for inspection at the entrance to the building. They have one meeting a month in-house only, the other open to guests, most of whom are members of other Toastmasters clubs or Toastmaster VIPs.

What does TLC do well? Huge numbers of people. They might have 30 guests. Plus of course their own members. (Other clubs can vary from ten to twenty-five attending, except for the Xmas party which generally attracts a crowd.) TLC has a stage. The screen is set up and the two flip-charts are to hand for anybody who needs them. (Unlike clubs in church halls and pubs in London, England where you are told, "If you'd asked me, I'd have brought the screen and projector and flipchart. Do let us know next time.)

Impressive Organisation
At TLC and AIA everything is set up. AIA is even more technically organized. They start the meeting by playing music and marching in with the club banner. One technology expert sits with his laptop writing the names of speakers and projecting them onto the screen.

You can imagine my surprise the first time I attended AIA when they announced the table topic (impromptu speech picked from the table) and saw my name on the screen. They had typed my name into the laptop, and projected it. Easy enough to do, if you are a techie expert and do it all through the meeting every time. But hardly any other club does it, except on special occasions such as contests and awards nights.

By the time the Sheraton meeting ended I was on a high. The last two meeting I won the ribbon for best speaker. This time I did not get to speak. But I networked with several interesting people before the meeting and Hotel during the interval.

During our meeting at Sheraton Towers Hotel when a novice speaker spoke quietly I was distracted by laughter and chatter from another event. What was it? I shall reveal all about the food delights of chocolate and unusual ice cream in the next post.

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

Meal Deals; Indian, Chinese, Buffets, Bargains, Now Until New Year and January

Indian and Chinese meals
In the UK and worldwide look for Chinese and Indian restaurants which often have set meals including coffee or tea. Before ordering or booking a buffet at an Indian restaurant or hotel buffet, check whether dessert and coffee are included. Look in free newspapers and magazines.

In NW London Optima is delivered to suburban homes. Optima runs a one page restaurant review and usually a page with four or advertisements often offering season deals.

Christmas
Christmas set menus are popular - often at higher prices than previous months. If you are on a budget look for deals in the carveries and budget pub chains.

Free Champagne For New Year
Premium prices are for Christmas Day and Christmas eve. New Year's Eve meal deals often include once glass of Champagne.

Central London and suburban restaurants are so popular and often fully booked. In fact many often have two sittings, especially for New Year's Even. You may get a glass of champagne on arrival for the first sitting, or if you arrive early in the evening. They hope you'll order a second glass or a bottle to go with your meal. Then maybe more champagne after midnight.

After Midnight
The railway station had such a crush one year at midnight near Traveller Square, with the street outside packed with people wall to wall. Everybody was in concertina queues (Americans would say line-ups) behind ropes like a queue at Disney World. It was time wasting and claustrophobic. We went back to the restaurant and our leftover food and wine had been thrown away so we had to order more.

The second sitting often gets free glass of champagne at midnight. However, again the restaurant hopes you will order more wine during the meal.

January
Bargains start in January to fill up restaurants after everybody has spent on Christmas and is dieting, staying in, or on a budget. Some people stay home on Christmas and New Year and then eat out in the first week of January. Restaurants are getting wise to this ploy. Some are starting their bargain meals not on January 1st but a week later.

Buffet Deals
In Singapore you can find many offers of Sunday lunch buffets including either a glass of Champagne or sparkling wine, sometimes free flow sparkling wine. Look in the newspapers.

Lunch Time Bargains
In the UK many restaurants off a lunch time or evening deal of a one course, two courses, or three courses, at an apparently low offer on a chalk board outside the restaurant on the pavement. (Americans call the pavement the sidewalk). When you add on the price of a drink with the meal, dessert and tea or coffee, plus a service charge of ten per cent or twelve and a half per cent, the price of your meal doubles.

French Set Meals
In France it is a legal requirement to offer a set meal which includes everything, usually including one glass of wine or tea or coffee. This is usually a daily special.

Any problems with the set meal? We found this limited choice of set meals might not suit everybody,or both of you. You might find you have to go a la carte for one person which brings up the total cost on your joint bill. For example, if you are in a group and one of the courses is shellfish, or brains.

However, it's a great idea to protect the consumer and I wish the EU would make it standard and the Uk government would follow suit.

UK Newspapers and magazines
You can pick up copies of Metro and Evening Standard at the entrances to stations in London, England. Another free newspaper is City am.

Singapore Newspapers and magazines
In Singapore, Today newspaper is delivered to homes and in boxes in the central stations such as Orchard MRT. It's easier to find ads for meal deals in the paper version than on line.

Finally, if you are stuck at home, can't get a babysitter, Gousto can deliver a recipe and the ingredients.

https://www.gousto.co.uk
http://www.optimamagazine.co.uk
https://www.tobycarvery.co.uk/restaurants/east-of-england/aldenhamwatford/offers/christmas

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

East meets west in Singapore, Sheraton Towers hotel's waterfalls, bagels and durians

I recently attended a couple of Toastmasters International meetings at the Sheraton Towers hotel in Singapore, conveniently near Newton MRT. The cost is $20, a lot for a Toastmasters meeting, most of which offer free entertainment and food to guests who are potential members. But for $20 you can get an evening of networking, up to eight entertaining prepared speeches, a buffet of noodles, rice, often sandwiches and/or local food and fruit, coffee, ice water and lemon slices. $20 is about £10 in English money.

If you want to join this Singapore Toastmasters club, get a mentor, and attend regularly (they have three meetings a month on the first three Monday evenings, from 6.15 onwards, the cost is higher than most other clubs. Did I hear $500 - about £250, for 6 months or a year? If you are in business, this would come off your tax or be paid for by your employer as a business expense and it trains you to give presentations, preparing slides, managing slide or video presentations, timing a presentation, and writing speeches and delivering them in an entertaining and audible manner with correct presentation.

Meanwhile, if you do not have the time or money to join for a whole year, you can attend a meeting as a guest for the guest fee of $20. You learn from the feedback given after the speeches, analysing the good aspects of each speech, and recommending improvements.

Sheraton Tower Hotel, Singapore, dining by the waterfall

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright Angela Lansbury. More photos available.

Sheraton Hotel Decor and Delights
And while you are there, you get to enjoy the glamorous surroundings of the Sheraton hotel. Notice the rope pattern on the banisters going up the grand staircase from level one (in England called the ground floor) to level two.

From the balcony you can look down on the fountains below and the waterfall behind glass at the far end of the ground floor restaurant.

Fancy The Food?
I looked at the downstairs display of foods in a cabinet. A whole cake for a party for $65. A piece of cake for about $8. A bagel for about $3.50. Fresh fruit.

Toastmasters Buffet
Upstairs with Toastmasters, the $20 for the buffet at Singapore's premier Toastmasters club and an evening of entertainment (roughly 6.15 to 9.50 pm), seems good value. I liked the filling fried rice, passed on the popular glass noodles with red pepper, and liked the little salmon pastries, and filled up on easy to handle tomato sandwiches.

The apple crumble pastries were great. I passed on the fruit with the black seeds but enjoyed the red water melon, orange melon and black grapes.

PS The rest rooms (toilet to my UK readers) have flower displays (orchids) and background music.

TOASTMASTERS MORE INFORMATION
www.toastmasters.org.sg
enquiry@toastmasters.org.sg
facebook.com/ToastmastersSingapore

SHERATON HOTEL MORE INFORMATION
Sheraton Towers Hotel, 39 Scotts Road, Singapore 228230
sheraton.com/singapore
sheratonsingapore.com
Tel: (+65) 6737 6888



Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Food on the train from England to Wales: bara brith

You can find out in advance whether your train will have a trolley or a buffet car. Some tickets say any route.  But if you have a reserved seat this may complicate the situation. If you have documentation confirming passenger assistance, you may have to specify whether you are in a wheelchair or simply need help transporting luggage.

I received literature specifying where I was receiving assistance and the train times and seats reserved On the back was the explanation of symbols showing whether each train had a trolley or buffet service. As I was travelling with two suitcases on wheels, a bag and an umbrella, I knew  that once I was seated I was unlikely to want to walk along the carriages, either without my luggage, or dragging it all behind me.

If you have a reserved seat far into the carriage, but have to leave one of your suitcases in the luggage area by the exit doors, you may want to keep any valuables such as a computer in your shoulder bag or a bag small enough to keep with you. You might also want to lock your luggage. Alternatively to leave an old phone or out of date laptop inside it with 'find my phone' operating, in the hope that if you luggage goes missing, you can see where it is.

I can't say it helped me. When my shoulder bag went missing from over my shoulder as I got off a bus in Singapore, my phone simply registered phone turned off. So neither the phone nor the bag it was in could be located.

As a result I am not keen on trusting my bag out of my sight. Not sure the insurance covers it anyway. I did know that I would not be keen to change carriages leaving a bag behind.

If you switch routes, you may find the food service on your train is different. On some trains passengers are allowed to buy food from an area within the first class carriage even though they are travelling in a different class.

The food may be provided for the first class passengers in their ticket price but cost extra if you are in another class. If you expect to drink a lot of coffee, it could be cheaper or better value for you to pay for an upgrade to first class on a certain section of the route, and get free coffee, rather than travelling second class and paying for several coffees (or other food and drink, depending on price and route.

You are likely to hear an announcement after you have boarded the train telling you the cost of upgrading for different sections of the route.

Bara Brith
On a train I took to Wales, the buffet trolley included bara brith. I looked this up on the internet and found it was Welsh fruit cake. I enjoy the opportunity taste local food. The journey becomes part of the adventure, before you reach your destination.

Bara brith can be not merely a fruit cake (in a square shape so known as a fruit loaf). It is known as speckled or mottled bread. The speckling comes from the currants or raisins I suppose. It can be made with candied peel as well, and enriched with tea, orange or lemon juice, honey or other ingredients. Check the packet before or after buying to see what you are getting. An English fruit cake is eaten on its own. The Welsh fruit cake is traditionally eaten with butter, Welsh butter.

http://www.visitwales.com/explore/traditions-history/recipes/bara-brith
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bara_brith_33441
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bara_brith
Angela Lansbury, travel writer. 

Please label buffet dinner dishes to help those with diets and allergies

I am looking forward to attending a buffet dinner but will it contain things I should not eat? Many people need to know, anybody who is vegetarian, seeking kosher or halal food. Also anybody likely to get stressed mentally by certain foods, such as sheep's eyeballs, frog's legs, horsemeat, brains, testicles, haggis, dog, monkey! 

Others have intolerance (feel nauseous) or a full blown allergy (ranging from a rash to trouble breathing and fainting) to dairy food, tannin in red wine, gluten, nuts, strawberries and shellfish.

I'm sure your food will be delicious so I hope to taste as much variety as possible.

But I have previously ended up in hospital after a bad experience eating what I thought was pink salmon but it turned out to be crab.

I can happily eat smoked salmon, whitefish such as trout and cod and plaice, but if I accidentally eat shellfish I am likely to develop a rash like chickenpox. My face swells up. I have trouble breathing. I vomit for 24 hours - I want to prevent this!

If you are running a restaurant, hotel or club buffet, including a pot luck dinner in a private home, please could you label any dish containing shellfish, crustaceans (crawling things with shells), molluscs (things with wavy arms): eg crab, Pacific prawns, shrimps, oysters, octopus. 

I am allergic to crustaceans and shellfish.

I can recognise a large crab and a plate of pacific prawns.

But I don't want to eat: rice containing hidden prawns/shrimps; nor meat in oyster/fish sauce. Other worries are unidentifed contents of sushi; surf and turf; prawn crackers; canapes and vol au vents with white sauce which looks like mushrooms but contains shellfish, crab sticks.

It will save your serving staff a lot of time if they don't have to keep dashing to the kitchen to ask the chefs what's in the food.

Shellfish is the most common allergy so in a large group I will not be the only one.

If your main dishes are normally decorated with shellfish, it would be an advantage to some of your guests to have another plate without the garnish. 

Many thanks. I hope to give your hotel, restaurant or club dinner a glowing report on the internet.

Please share links to your favourite posts.