El Alamein museum and cemetery - more to this story - Churchill's quotation

 

El Alamein in Egypt

Curiosity Satisfied

El Alamein like so many battlefields is a mixture of facts, sadness and happiness. The facts are how the place operated before during and after battles. Facts - The big things such as the tanks. The small things such as the badges.  

Emotional Experience

Sadness - people who died. Especially in tragic circumstances. Or if they were your family members. 

Happiness, satisfaction, the safety precautions, the ingenuity, that a victory brought an end to the conflict, in that place, for the living, and the dead, on both sides. 

Sometimes, reconciliation,  between descendants on both sides, or veterans - especially between those who really did not want to be there! Some did not want to kill, some did not want to be killed, some did not understand what they were fighting for, some were homesick.

Sources Of Stories And Quotations

Wikipedia is a wonderful source, a wonderful resource. It started out using and combining the out of date Encyclopedias such as Brittanica, and the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Jewish Encyclopaedia, for all the historical stuff, and early science and culture, gradually adding updates from experts and individuals.

 Photo sources

Plus the photos. Now Flickr is just one source of photos. More photos are added directly to Wikipedia by authorities and by members of the public. 

El Alamein's Pivotal Part in WW2

My Interest

 

Wikipedia gave me a succinct guide to El Alamein, updated from when I last looked, with links to all sorts of outside sources. My late mother's first husband was killed at El Alamein which is what sparked my interest in a place I have not yet visited. However, I have visited many WWI and WW2 sites in Europe and the USA's civil war sites. Stalin said, one death is a tragedy, many is a statistic. Often one family member's involvement can inspire a lifelong fascination with everything to do with the whole of WWI, WW2 and wars any time and everywhere. As if somehow, some clue as to how those involved lived and died, how others traced ancestors, it all adds up. We cannot turn back the clock. But we can turn on the clock and create memorials and solve puzzles and mysteries. The past is a jigsaw. Sometimes one piece in the jigsaw is a date, death certificate, or photo, which sends you on a quest to find more pieces to create the full picture. 

The two exciting revelations on El Alamein - it was a turning point in the tide of WW2.

Churchill said, 'Before El Alamein, we never had a victory. After El Alamein, we never had a loss.'

Listen to the language. What makes it so memorable. Firstly the positive message. Secondly the actual language. Contrast, 'before, after'. Contrast, 'victory, loss'. Repetition, 'El Alamein, we never had'. 

For lovers of quotations, another famous quotation which I have often heard at meetings of Toastmasters International speakers' training clubs, and seen on the web is.

This is not the end. It is not the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning.

We use this quotation to inspire ourselves and others to continue on with any venture. But churchill was referring to one particular incident. The battle of El Alamein.

After  the allied  

Label your photos and certificates - here's why

Paper Storage Problem

I inherited boxes, deed boxes, of old papers and certificates after the deaths of my parents and uncle. Some of the documents were clear. I was awarded a pass in a speech test as a child. I had totally forgotten it. Bu there was my name and the name of the organization and date.

Holiday Photos

  Later I looked at notes I was making. I had a photo with the name of an Italian restaurant, IO, in Singapore. I had other photos of an Italian restaurant in London, Osteria Modigliani. If I simply labelled the photo 'us in Italian restaurant', that would be meaningless years later. Since it was a restaurant I went to the previous week in Singapore, I knew where it was. However, if I had looked at it back in the UK twenty years later, I would have forgotten.

Awards And Ribbons

  Similarly, I found myself writing on the back of a ribbon for Best Speaker, from Toastmasters International, the date and place. What was missing? My name!
I know my name. I know I won the ribbon. But if I dropped it in another meeting, nobody would know which of the twenty people in the room the ribbon belonged to.

  My husband also won a ribbon. Which was his ribbon and which was mine? When we both die, our son will inherit all our possessions. He won't know which ribbons were won by which of us. If a stranger were to be your executor, and they find a certificate with no name on it, there's no record of who won it and what date.

Diary -  of a Nobody!

  Why would anybody care about your old diaries? Maybe you are not a VIP. Let's look at a few scenarios.

AA Certificate

  I have an AA award to my father from the 1900s. Maybe not very important to anybody but him when he was alive. Not important to anybody but me now. But in a few decades time that could be important to my grandchildren or even to the AA.

Roman Records, Victorian Victories, Recent Way Of Life

   A Roman inscription is fascinating to children and teachers nowadays. The everyday life 100 years ago is fascinating to schoolchildren.
   Cemeteries worldwide show that after people have died their relatives, and even strangers, think that a recording of somebody's life should be made and kept.

Language Preserved In Captions

Even the way you record names and places and people and events can be important.

Lockerbie Plane Crash

 Do you recall the Lockerbie plane disaster? A plane came down over Scotland caused by a bomb. All the possessions of the people were stored for decades afterwards. The curators of the possessions meticulously recorded every item. What use were the items?

a) They were used to identify who was on board. 

b )They were treasured by the relatives and descendants. 
  We went to Scotland and on the drive back to London, England, from Edinburgh (where we attended the jolly Edinburgh Festival with its street comedy acts) we passed the sign to Lockerbie.
If you go to Scotland you can visit the cemetery. At the far back, right, at the top of the slope, is the semi-circular memorial with the lives of each of the passengers and crew victims around the front and on the wall at the back. The lives of each person are meticulously recorded.

Why Label Awards, Documents & Photos?

   If an entire family dies in an accident, there's nobody left to ask. But the papers, photos, certificates, awards and other items with dates and names tell their story.
  So please label every photo and certificate with the name, date, place. Your moment of happiness and success will be recorded for the information and pleasure of your descendants and even complete strangers.

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

Please share links to your favourite posts.

An Indian View of Sharing Your Life Story, Anne Frank and Spike Milligan

Problem
Do you really want feedback? Or only praise? Somerset Maugham said, "People ask for criticism but they only want praise. I recently gave a workshop on Writing and Sharing Your Life Story. I asked for feedback, which came to me on forms I had printed.

I was also evaluated in my manual for speeches from Toastmasters International. I was evaluated on the Entertaining Speech.

During my workshop I started by asking, 'How many people feel their lives are not sufficiently exciting, or that you are too young to write memoirs?' 'Are you concerned that you have not travelled anywhere, or anywhere exciting in the last year?'

Anne Frank
Then I showed the Diary of Anne Frank, a best seller written by Dutch Anne, who was under twenty years old, and did not leave the building where she lived in Amsterdam.

During her lifetime the diary was not published. It was not even read by one other person. It remains one of the century's and the next century's most popular books, full of insight and optimism.

Spike Milligan
I ended by saying that even death can be humorous if the writer or the person while they are living chooses to make it so. I showed the gravestone of Spike Milligan, with his witty words, 'I told you I was ill'.

The cemetery administrators would not allow that to be written on the English language gravestone. So the family had the words inscribed in Gaelic.

Indian Viewpoint
My feedback from an Indian member of the audience was that he and the audience found my two and a half hour presentation colourful and entertaining. However, Indians would find it hard to identify with Anne Frank who was European and Jewish.

Also Indians cremate their dead. So they would not necessarily understand the word or concept of a gravestone.

Wow. I shall obviously have to go back to some Indian friends and ask them how to make the start and end of my talk more relevant to them. Can I relate Anne Frank and Judaism and Nazis to the caste system?

Can I show how gravestones and war memorials record the words of famous people succinctly, and summarise their character, their optimisim, stoicism, humour in the face of adversity, sense of continuity with history?

Singapore
I was not in India but speaking to a multi-cultural audience in Singapore. They say that travel broadens the mind. It certainly does.

Useful Website

https://www.hitendra.com/hitendras-articles/what-anne-franks-diary-can-teach-us-about-living-through-a-pandemic-and-finding-our-true-self

https://www.annefrank.org/en/about-us/what-we-do/worldwide-activities/india/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. My books are on Amazon and Lulu.com . Take a look. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Reminder - Wear White Colours At Hindu Funerals. What about weddings?

UK - still lots of funerals are all black. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I was told not to take photos at a funeral (UK Jewish liberal) so I have here just the cemetery attendants taking away the bier which transported the coffin to the grave.

In India, photos of the mourners gathering to pay respects to see Bollywood film star Sridevi Kapoor in Mumbai show hundeds of people in all colours. The VIP film stars have arived in white. 

Problem
What colours to wear at weddings and funerals in Asia?

Answers
Funerals
Hindus wear white for funerals.

Weddings
(Symbol of purity, just as white, which was established for Weddings in the UK and worldwide by Victoria in 1840.)

Indians and Chinese
The Indians and Chinese brides were red (auspicious and lucky).

However, many brides, especially Japanese, and in Singapore, will change dresses, perhaps wearing white wedding dress for one part of the ceremony, usually the formal part, and photos, changing into a shorter coloured cocktail dress for ease of movement dancing at the reception.

Best to remember check on what colours you should wear. Worldwide, the rule would be for the immediate family to co-ordinate with the bride, whilst others should not dress in the same colour as the bride. You don't want to be mistaken for the bride, nor to rival her.

When going to a new country, try to sort this out in advance. When a family is preparing for a wedding or funeral, you often cannot get through by phone.

Especially with mixed-nationality marriages, for example, a couple who met at work when both were lonely at an overseas posting, they have gone to another country for a first or second wedding reception with the parents of one side or another. I have been to three weddings in Singapore, Chinese-Indian and Chinese-Italian, Chinese-New Zealand, which incorporated traditions from two cultures. They might hold three ceremonies, whilst holding a third wedding for colleagues in the country where you met them.

Wearing Suitable Funeral Clothes
In the UK you are safer wearing either black or a dark colour such as navy. In case the immediately family are in solid black, others not, you might wear a contrasting colour scarf. The same applies as for weddings, that the immediate family are too upset to talk and a third party is giving out the information and hard to contact, so the earlier you can ask, the better.

If you have a car, you can take an alternative jacket.

Useful Websites
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5443881/Bollywood-legend-Sridevi-mourned-fans-Mumbai.html

For photos of Sridevi Kapoor also see Wikipedia and page for photo originals
 and for permission to copy photos see Wikipedia.
 http://www.bollywoodhungama.com (See Wikipedia.)

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

Snippets From Singapore's Airport: Terminal 4 opening; Terminal 5 building; Housing + Feeding The World; Airport Security and Food

Singapore Airport
Singapore airport is the best airport in the world. I am not the only person who says so. It wins awards and votes consistently.

Terminal four has just opened in Singapore's Changi AIrport, used for Cathay Pacific airline. 

Construction has already started on building Terminal five. It will be as large as all the other terminals combined.

So Singapore expects many more people to arrive. Where will they put all those people? In new hotels, if they are temporary visitors. But they will also need more restaurants and offices and places of entertainment if they are on business. No wonder you see construction everywhere in Singapore. Can our planet take all these people? 

We can build houses, but how will we feed everybody? Where will we find the land? Travelling to other countries, in person, or over the internet, shows us answers. Singapore's answer to lack of land is to extend the main island by building up artificial islands using unwanted waste, rubbish collections. Solve two problems, where to put your unwanted rubbish, and how to find construction material. 

Water and Crops
Singapore has pioneered growing plants in the air, in conservatories, plants living on the humid air and projected water.
Hydroponics.

Time to water the desert, use all those empty areas, miles of sand, uninhabited scrubland. 

What about the land occupied by cemeteries. The Jewish cemetery in Orchard road was removed, moved, to make way for what is now the Ngee Ann City skyscraper containing a landmark shopping mall on the lower levels.

More recently, another big cemetery has been cleared away. I think it was for a motorway. A member of Friends of the Museum was given an award by the government for organizing a project to photograph all the gravestones, for the benefit of relatives and historians, before they were moved.

Maybe it’s time to turn dead bodies into compost, woodland burials, to create trees giving the world oxygen. 

Trees

Speaking of trees, 

Plants

All plants create oxygen. At night they go into reverse and use oxygen, so it’s said, and hospitals tell you to remove plants. 

(Watering flowers is time-consuming. Maybe volunteers could do this task. Quicker to water plants if all the rooms looked onto a central plant area. Flowers for one person would brighten the whole floor, as they do in any multi-occupancy bedroom.

Airport Security and food boxes

In security, somebody was carrying leftover food in a cool bag. 

Security asked, "Have you any dry ice? Dry ice is not allowed."  

Presumably the reason is because this could go off accidentally and cause panic.

Berry’s of London

Berry & Rudd of London has recently opened and expanded their operations in Singapore. They began by sending their VIP London marketing and sales man to wine and dine the big spenders, the big wine buyers in Singapore, to fine dining. They also held a grand wine tasting in Singapore at lower prices than they would have charged in London. If you like wine and good food and matching wine and food, now is a good time to look for their wine tasting and dinners, whilst prices are so tempting.

More information from:
Changi Airport
http://www.changiairport.com/corporate/partner-us/changi-east.html
http://www.changiairport.com/en/airport-experience/attractions-and-services/information-and-customer-service-counters.html

Singapore tourism

Author

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

Follow Jules Verne, The Author, In France

 JULES VERNE
The name Jules Verne popped into my head when I was writing about a hot air balloon festival. The picture of a hot air balloon is on the cover of one of his books. I have remembered it since childhood.

Wikpedia says:

Jules Gabriel Verne (/dʒuːlz/^[1] /vɜːrn/;^[1][2] French: [ʒyl vɛʁn]; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright.

Verne was born in the seaport of Nantes, where he trained to follow father's footsteps as a lawyer, but quit early in life to write for magazines and the stage. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a popular series of scrupulously researched adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

Verne is considered a major literary author in France and Europe. His reputation is different in Anglophone regions, where he has often been labeled a writer of genre fiction or children's books, largely because of the abridged and altered translations of his novels.^[4]

Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979, ranking between Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare.^[5] He has sometimes been called the "Father of Science Fiction". 

(Elsewhere I have seen The Bible or The Diary of Anne Frank listed first, but perhaps Jules Verne is second in the fiction category.)

Map of France. Amiens, capital of Picardy, is in the centre of the diamond sahp at the north of France, top centre of this map.

FRANCE
Jules Verne lived in Amiens, France, and wrote many of his books there. His museum is in the house where he lived in the city. The street has been renamed, Jules Verne. During his lifetime you could address the envelope of a letter simple with the words of his name Jules Verne and the letter would be sent to France, to his home city of Amiens and from there to his house.

Apart from being a world-famous writer, he was a busy organizer and benefactor of the town, building the Circus, whose exterior you can admire even if you have no time to see inside.

He is buried in the local cemetery. His grave is most dramatic, with a figure leaping out of the grave.
So, in France, three stop for the visitor to Verne trail stops, in person or on line travelling:

1 Verne house museum
Rue Jules Verne
Amiens
France

2 The Circus
Amiens
France

3 Jules Verne Grave
Cemetery
Amiens France

SPAIN
Travel from the north of France to the north of Spain. We have two cities with statues of Jules Verne, Vigo and Redondela.

Statue of Jules Verne looking out to sea at Redondela in Spain. Photo from Wikipedia.

Cinq Semaines En Ballon - Five weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne

Dramatic grave of Jules Verne in Amiens, France.

Jules Verne inspired the name of a modern travel company. Jules Verne Voyages.

https://www.vjv.com

USEFUL LINKS:

http://www.turismodevigo.org/en/monumento-julio-verne-monument-jules-verne (Vigo in Spain.)

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

Author

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

Moscow's Marvellous Stations And Nine Statues of Dogs

Problem
Where are the nine dogs in Moscow?

Answers
Some are statues inside stations, others outside.

The most memorable is the knee high statue of a little dog on a plinth. I first read about this when I was researching stations in Moscow and around Russia.

The Dog Malchik
This dog was a popular little dog in a Moscow station. Until unfortunately a lady stabbed the dear little dog to death. Passengers were so upset they started fundraising for a memorial statue. People bring flowers to place on the statue.

The dog's name was Malchik.

The Station Mendeleyevskaya
The station was Mendeleyevskaya.

How do I remember the name of the station? I start with the name Mendel. Then eye. Finally v-skaya.

Mosco's Begging Dogs In General
Moscow metro has many stray dogs, some of which beg for food. I was surprised.

On the London underground dogs are usually on leads. Some dogs lead blind people. Others accompany owners patiently, sitting patiently at their feet. Sometimes a dog is led through the carriage, accompanying a beggar. Few people wish to engage with a beggar or a dog.

But the Moscow stations have unaccompanied dogs which beg for food and ride on trains and sleep.

Four Dogs On Ploshchad Revoluyutsee Metro station

Let’s start from the undoubtedly most famous dogs in Moscow: they are the four bronze ones inside the Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro station (станция метро Площадь Революции). 

Victory Park station is below the Victory Park where you can see a monument showing an army dog which was used to locate injured soldiers. (Photo in Tripadvisor about the Vicory Park.)

Specific Dog
My second favourite is the small dog on the huge monument.

Moscow's Cemetery Dog
Moscow has a dog statue on a grave in a cemetery. The devoted dog on the grave. Haven't we heard that story before?

Britain's Cemetery Dog
In Britain the famous dog is the one in Edinburgh. You can see the statue for free in the street on a plinth. You might pass it in a car or bus or taxi. It stands on one of the main routes, opposite a large building holding events. I had given up hope of seeing the dog statue, when I came across it when we parked nearby to enquire about getting tickets for a show during the Edinburgh Festival

Recently doubt has been cast on the veracity of the story. The account of the devoted dog was written so late after the death of the man whose grave the dog favoured, that there had to be another explanation. Dogs don't live that long. Either the dog in the first written account of somebody who saw it and recorded the story was not the original dog, although it could have been the descendant of the first dog.

Another version of the explanations was that the man looking after the cemetery had a dog and collected money by telling the phony story, or pretending that his dog was the original one, possibly persuading it to sit on a nearby grave by placing meat there on a regular basis. Personally I was upset by the story of the devoted dog not finding anybody else to look after it and coming to the grave and not finding a living person. I am quite happy with a myth and a statue of a cute dog.

The dog was immortalised in a popular film.

Yes, Moscow's dog is not the only one.

So, you can get free amusement just by admiring the statues of the Moscow's dogs and learning about them. They say that the British are a national of animal lovers. But it seems that the people of Moscow are equally keen on dogs.

I could not find copyright free pictures of dogs. But you can see the images by typing in the words images and Moscow dogs and trains.

You can read a whole article on the different types of dogs and their strategies.
https://lidenz.ru/hidden-dogs-moscow/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendeleyevskaya

Trips To Russia
https://www.visitrussia.org.uk

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

What to see in the Czech Republic, Serbia and Slovakia, Warhol, Tesla and Kafka

Problem
First of all, they know who and where they are but I have to think hard. Which is which and what is where and who is who - or should it be whom? And what would I want to see?

Answers
If you are into art, you'll want to the Andy Warhol exhibits in Slovakia. If you are into science go to Serbia, to the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia. If you are interested in medieval times, WWII and Jewish history, go to Prague.

Czechoslovakia divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. So far so good.

The Czech Republic and Prague
The capital of the Czech Republic is Prague, all the C and K letters go with it. The Czech capital features the Charles bridge full of statues. The bridge is above the Kafka museum. The bridge leads across the river up to the hilltop castle which may or may not be the inspiration for Kafka's story.

I am a people person and to me the top attraction in any place is a museum based on somebody famous, best if it's somebody's home turned into a museum, or a trail around sites associated with a famous person. For me, Prague is Kafka.

Kafka was Jewish and there's also a Jewish museum. An extensive historic trail covers WWII, after his time, and includes Jewish sites before his time such as the cemetery connected with the medieval Golem (a bit like Frankenstein).

Combined visits:
Kafka Museum and Mucha Museum.
Jewish trail.

• The Castle
• The Charles Bridge
• The Kafka Museum - and Kafka statues 
• The Jewish Museum
• The Jewish Cemetery 
• The Dancing House Restaurant

Slovakia
The Slovak Republic has a Carpathian wine tour. See:
Andy Warhol Museum of Art
Contains more than 150 works of art by artist Andy Warhol and by his brother and his son.
http://www.region.sk/warhol/index2.html
www.slovakia.com

Slovenia
Previously part of Yugoslavia, capital Bratislava, has some caves and the notable city is the small capital Lublijana.

Serbia
Learn about the engineer and inventor, Nikola Tesla at the Nikola Tesla Museum.
Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_Museum
https://www.nikolateslamuseum.org/web/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-40171776 on Tesla museum and urn with his ashes in museum.

If you are in the USA, you may be interested in the Tesla Science centre.
http://www.teslasciencecenter.org

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on the Czech Republic and Prague. Please share links to posts.

Hong Kong's Airport Train And What You See

We bought a return ticket for the train from Hong Kong airport. The train, like the airport, is a spacious, comfortable, luxury delight.

The line is very simple, only a few stops. AsiaWorld Expo; Airport ...

A video shows you interesting features. I watched a film about Thailand where senior citizens go to school once a week and enjoy dressing up in school uniform and re-lving their childhood as well as learning skills, doing exercise and making friends.

An idea which other countries could copy. For the active elderly we have day care centres where you are offered varied options of crafts, sewing, and singing, as well as manicure and hairdressing (at extra cost).

But a 'school' with a uniform (creating neatness of dress, rich and poor alike, and a sense of sharing and belonging) is a different variation on this idea.

Out of the window I saw different sights. In the city centre you pass the Observation wheel, Hong Kong's waterfront equivalent of the London Eye and Singapore's wheel.

Nearer the airport is the port area with shipping.

A hill has the cemetery. The Chinese like cemeteries built on hills, where I presume the spirits of the dead can enjoy the view and be nearer to heaven.

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

Pinner Cemetery and Coffin In The Sky

Photo courtesy of Trevor Sharot.

Here's the coffin in the sky seen from the road in front of the church at the top of Pinner High Street.
You will find an engraved inscription on the front of the coffin which is above the arch. The coffin also projects at the back and another engraving is on the back of the coffin.

The triangular top of the obelisk mimics the gables on the church and the pitched roof of the Lych gate. Though the Lych gate you can see the entrance to the church.

The church is St John The Baptist church.

After you've seen this, you might want to stop for coffee in Pinner. You have several choices. Walk back down the High street. As you descend on your right is Pizza Express, then Starbucks, Carluccio, Café Rouge. Around the corner at the end of the road to the right you will find Caffè Nero, and Caffe Amici in Bridge Street.

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