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Community Clubs: Why The No Food Nor Drinks In Rooms Rule?

Singapore flag.

Community Clubs

I did not understand the no food rule in rooms in Community Clubs until I went to the office and asked for the cost of hiring a room. The cost of hiring a room is in one box. Another box is for the cleaning of the room. You can only leave that box unticked or cross it out if you cay that there will be no food in the room.

So, frequently, at a Toastmasters meeting, the food for breaktimes is on a table outside the room in the corridor. What do you do when the bell rings for returning to the room and you are half way through eating?

Afterwards the paper plates are gathered up. The organizers rush around diligently clearing away. I thought this must be some kindness to cleaners so that they can go home only. Now it appears to me that it is to save the club having to be the cleaning fee - or getting in dispute with the building management.

In addition to Toastmasters Clubs, many other groups adopt the same system of having food outside in the corridors.  I can tell by observing the food on tables in the corridors

What if you or a visitor forget or don't understand and take food into the meeting room?

Does it matter? What could go wrong?

It's very easy to put a plate on the floor and then move your chair or feet and accidentally knock the contents onto the ground. In a hot country like Singapore, you can attract insects.

What about water? Water, if spilled, might dry up fast and without leaving a stain. I often hear people say, "Don't worry. It's only water."

What could go wrong with water?
1 Some insects thrive on water. So does mould.
2 You might walk the mud or dirt o your shoes over the water, leaving dirty patches on the carpet or tiled floor.
3 Water on tiles can make people slip.
4 Kick over water, or even knock it over on a table, you ruin your contest certificate, your notebooks, your books.

The book pages all stick together. The ink runs.

The book sticks to the table. Later the dried up pieces of paper have to be removed. You have to donate tissues to mop up the water. Tissues disintegrate and make more mess.

Attempts to clean up the spillage are a distraction and an embarrassment. At very least, consider what could knock over the paper or plastic cup or glass or porcelain cup. What movement might knock the glass? Such as moving the chair, pushing your bag under the chair, sitting on the plate, dropping the paper cup of water off the collapsing paper plate when passing the half-drunk water to somebody else.

Look for an alternative, such as placing the cup at the back of a nearby surface.

Some rooms have a water dispenser inside the room. That means your glass of water is permitted. But it would still save a lot of trouble if you drink near the dispenser.

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

Renting a flat or house in England, UK

Angela at Heathrow with a model of the queen.

You can look at where you will be working or where you or your relatives will be studying and draw a line around the distance you are prepared to travel, whether on foot, by car or public transport.

You can reduce the problem by choosing to study in a place where the first year students live in accommodation, or where the workers share accommodation, eg nursing.
You can check out the area on Streetview.

Also if you company has two offices and you are likely to travel between the two, or to be able to request a transfer, decide which venue has a better cultural sporting or social life, or live half way between the two.

If you are setting up a company look at accommodation as well as workplaces.

Typical UK Dwellings
Central London
Price is at a premium in the centre. Notting Hill and Hampstead are trendy as is upcoming Islington. Old Victorian buildings. Terraced housing. Blocks of flats. Check the frequency of trains and cost of travel.

Leafy Suburbs With Semis
In the suburbs you will find semi-detached and detached houses. Edwardian, Victorian, mock-Tudor.

Red brick, typical of London and Southern England. Edwardian and Georgian houses, with sash windows. Dormer windows.  Red tile roofs. A wooden fence around the garden. Chimney pots on older houses.

More rarely, art deco, white with a flat roof.

 Also flats over high street shops. Lively but noisy traffic and passing drunks and people coming out of pubs and restaurants late at night.

Art deco house in Harrow area.

The South London suburb of Richmond, and northern historic Harrow on the Hill are great to visit.

London's new Elizabeth line is being extended. This could change commuting times and house prices and rental income and rental charges.

Property Agents

What Americans call realtors are known in the UK as estate agents. Local newspapers run articles on property prices and areas and advertisements of properties to buy or rent.

If you are looking to buy a converted church, ruined castle, windmill, house of an author, or any such novelty, look at the upmarket newspapers.

Condensation and Mould
A major problem in the UK is condensation. A Finnish tenant told me that in Finland where it is too cold to open windows in winter, all homes are designed with ventilation.

In the UK, you have to open windows every day, especially if you are generating liquid. If you reckon one person generates one pint of liquid, four will generate four times as much.

So one person in a two bed flat and opening the patio door daily to go out and sit in the sun and play Scrabble would not have condensation.

After she moves out, the next tenant has a niece and two grand-daughters, four people. The windows are shut all day.

They are offered a dehumidifyer but it needs emptying and costs them money in electricity bills. They are cooking with kitchen windows shut, water generated by the kettle and casseroles. Four people having baths and showers. Four people breathing and perspiring, means lots of condensation.

If condensation forms on windows, this needs to be wiped off daily, or at least weekly, as otherwise the curtains will go black from mould. Blackened net curtains can be soaked in bucket of cold water, with a little bleach added - read the instructions. on the bleach and on the fabric to be sure this is ok.

Try a corner first. I have successfully revived white net curtains and heavier drapes. However, it takes time, effort and care.

I would not do it with pets or children in the house. You need clear thin bleach, not thick stained blue or green bleach nor strong bleach for cleaning drains. I tried it first on curtains which would otherwise have been thrown away. I reckoned I had nothing to lose except the cost of the bleach and my time. I saved the curtains. They were useful spares. Who needs spares? If you take down your crutains to clean or wash them, whilst you are waiting for them to dry, you have a spare pair to hand up.

Author
Angela Lansbury

Chinese Etiquette For Chopsticks, Rice and New Year and Lo Hei

Problem
How do you spread maximum goodwill during lo hei and Chinese New Year?
How do you avoid offending people?

Answers
1 LO HEI
Organise or attend a reunion of family or friends or a club at which Lo Hei is served at the start, middle break or end of the meeting. Lo Hei is Chinese New Year dish of colourful mixed vegetables, often mixed up in front of the diners, adding each colour and symbolic food in order. You can buy Lo Hei sets in supermarkets. You can look on line to find the best prices.

Gold and Prosperity
The little oblong puffs symbolise gold or prosperity.

Fish
The fish might be prawns, king prawns, smoked salmon strips, dried salmon skin.

Story
At a Toastmasters meeting I attended at Toa Payoh Community Centre, the organiser had the list of ingredients and what they symbolise on her mobile phone (in Chinese characters). So she was able to read off instructions to others who were opening the food packets and tubs provided.

Jewish, Seder and Order
If you have ever been to a Jewish seder night or watched one on the internet or read about it, you will notice that the Seder service also takes different symbolic foods in order, symbolising sweet and sour events in history, drawing your attention to the different tastes (and colours). The word seder means order.

Fish Or Vegetarian?
Ideally last you add fish on top, in small strips, and mix it in so all diners get some. Before adding fish check if your diners include, vegetarians and those allergic to fish or shellfish. If so, you can either add the fish separately, or give them a portion before adding fish.

Left Or Right Hand
In Asia you use your right hand for eating and handling food, your left for dirty jobs, washing the floor or handling genitals when going to the toilet. Do not hand food to people with your left hand.

Chopstick Tips
When separating pairs of chopsticks and handing them around for a lo hei, make sure you open the packet at the end with the thickest part of the chopsticks, or allow each person to open their own, or to separate the sticks, or hand them from the thick end, so you are not handling the pointed end which goes in their mouths. (In fact, you are not supposed to put the pointed end in your mouth, because it goes back into the communal bowl to pick up the next piece, but I still don't like to see somebody's fingers on the ends of ht chopsticks which some Westerners will put in their mouth, and which everybody will put in the communal fish.

Chopsticks and Rice
Easy To Eat
If you don't like rice, or can't handle picking up grains of rice with chopsticks, then Lo Hei is a great dish. All the food is shredded and mixed together so you don't have to cut or mix or pick out anything.

Chopstick - flat or upright?
If you are given rice earlier or later, do not end by putting your chopsticks upright in leftover rice like incense sticks. This is only done for offering food to your dead ancestors. So to leave chopsticks upright in rice is offensive, upsetting and confusing for others. Don't do it even if you are not with Chinese friends, or if you are at home, because it sets a bad example to other Westerners and children who are then likely to do it in public restaurants where they will get wary looks from waiters, and be admonished by Chinese friends.

Chopsticks Resting Flat
When you have finished eating, lay your chopsticks flat. In restaurants you are given a chopstick rest on which to place your used chopsticks.

Tossing High
When tossing the Lo Hei before you all start to eat, the story goes that the higher you toss, the greater the prosperity. The Chinese seems to regard this as great fun.

Tossing Carefully To Protect Carpets /Floors
However, in some places the owners of the building might not appreciate having food on the floor. (A nuisance for staff to clean up. If your room is a dance hall, or yoga hall, the barefoot dancers won't want your food or grease on the floor. Food on the floor also attracts insects.

Several possible solutions:
Provide an edge to the bowl - such as paper table cover.
Place a larger flat platter underneath the central bowl.
Ask everybody to toast carefully and explain why.
Tell everybody you will need everybody to help clean the floor afterwards - and hope this discourages them from making a mess they have to clean.
Bring kitchen towel to clean up the floor.

Giving And Receiving Advice
Don't worry about doing things wrong and being informed or corrected. Speak and think positively. For example, "Thank you so much for telling me!" "I'm so glad you told me / helped me / warned me (mother-in-law / teacher / guide / my friend). You have saved me so much possible confusion / embarrassment!" "I do love learning about foreign / other /Chinese culture."

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts here on this blog and other blogs on blogger.com You will also be able to read more about me on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and elsewhere on the internet. Take a look at my books on etiquette, travel, languages and other subjects on Amaxone and Lulu.com
Please follow, like my posts and share them with your family, friends and colleagues.

Why staff are closing early and clearing up on Sunday night in the UK

Sunday night 2015, you might think easy to book. But some hotel restaurants find Sunday lunch time is busy with family meals. Sunday evening is less busy because people are going to work next day so they want early nights or time to prepare postponed jobs or be ready for an early start travelling to a far off destination.

As a result, some hotels keep their chef busy Friday night and Saturday night and Sunday lunch and give the chef Sunday night off. This means a shorter menu, bar meals only - main restaurant closed (for example, Hawtreys Restaurant at the Barn Hotel in Ruislip), or half the restaurant area closed (Carvery near Watford) because of smaller number of customers and not enough staff.

I puzzled over this. Why can't customers sit where they want? The seating area is 'full' - but it's a self-service carver, and I see empty tables. Why can't I take a drink there while waiting for a table? Why can't I eat a meal there?

Glass or restaurant half full or half empty? Does it annoy you when you are having dessert or lingering over coffee, and staff start sweeping in the distance, or worst of all, putting chairs on the table next to you. Are they trying to tell you to go?

I watched staff clearing up around 9.30 when many places close in the UK on Sunday night. (Just when restaurants are opening in other parts of the world, such as hot Spanish countries where they have had a siesta in the hot afternoon.) It struck me that in the UK, if I were the minimum wage waiter, or even the well paid manager, shutting the restaurant on Sunday night, I'd want to clear up quickly and go home.

The cleaners/staff/managers are clearing tables after you've finished. They are re-laying tables and wiping tables and cleaning up tables and floors under tables, will want everybody in one area to halve their work load and get home quicker.

If you've ever worked in a fast food place or restaurant, the customers int he USA have often worked their way through college, and a high proportion have taken a job at a fast food outlet when they were students. This is not considered demeaning, but is very useful experience. If nothing else, you understand why the staff are doing what they are doing. Like most people, they are not inconsiderate or annoying you to spite you. They have good reasons for doing what suits them. You think they should be thinking of you. You are the customer. But if you think of them, you might find you increase your own goodwill and satisfaction with their service.

I sometimes start a conversation out of curiosity, or to break a silence. It's amazing how often an apparently introverted, maybe tired, server, brightens up when asked a basic question. Even responding to hearing you address them with a remark such as: 'You seem busy tonight. Are you busier on Saturday?'

You might get an answer such as, 'It's quiet/busy because it's the school holidays. / We ran out of food/drink/were busy because we had a wedding. It's always busy/empty on Saturday/Sunday.'

To my amazement an apparently grumpy server became animated, all smiles, keen to talk. Just one sentence from us to them had 'opened the floodgates'. What a difference a short conversation makes.

We left very happy, feeling that we had a friend at the restaurant. Ended on a high. We left a good tip, and didn't begrudge it. We felt they deserved it, for making our evening.

We also feel that if we go back to the same restaurant, we have a friend. We are a regular customer. A good customer. Even if they have run out of tables, they might shift the barrier and say, 'It's OK - you can sit here.'

Angela Lansbury B A Honours, travel writer.

Packing Cheap, Travelling Light and Buying New

The British used to admire the French for their chic clothes, and the Americans who always looked as if they were wearing new, uncreased clothes, despite travelling to the UK on long flights, often overnight. What are travellers' style secrets?

American Throwaway, and New Bulk-buy
When I first went to the USA I was astonished how cheaply you could buy t-shirts. In the south and Caribbean, stalls were offering cheap t-shirts or two for the price of one or special deals on three. I concluded that the reason why Americans looked as if they were wearing new clothes was that they were wearing new clothes.

Laundry
For a special occasion, a celebration lunch or dinner, you can buy an inexpensive item and keep it in its packaging. Alternatively, if you've worn it on the journey, send it to the hotel laundry. If you hotel's laundry is too expensive, you might be able to find a local laundry shop by looking in the local directory in your hotel bedside table or desk, or just use your phone or the free computer terminal in the hall of the hotel.

Cleaning and Ironing
Ask hotel staff if the hotel has a washing machine or iron for guests. Some hotels hide the iron at the back of the wardrobe, have a washing machine hidden in the basement or up on the 4th floor. Ask. Alternatively, housekeeping will send you an iron and ironing board, usually supplied only to the suites but often supplied to any guest who asks.

If your hotel provides a valet service for a suite, or a club lounge, the staff may be able to advise or organise washing or pressing of an item.

Larger hotels offer a laundry service. Hostels and budget hotels often have a laundry room.

In-flight Clothes Change
A PR girl for a travel company taught me her trick for looking good on arrival off a flight. She travels with a spare lightweight outfit to wear on board. She greets her group at the airport in a tailored business suit. Immediately after boarding she changed into loose onesie for sleeping. Arriving overseas in the morning, she changed back into the business suit.

If you are a frequent flyer the airline personnel often offer to hang up your coat. This keeps it pristine and crease free. Less chance of dropping your tray dinner all over it.

If the flight is less than full, you have more chance that the crew will offer to do you favours even if you are travelling in Economy. Especially if you tell them that you are travelling to a wedding or a new job or you have a reason for wanting to look smartly dressed.

If you are buying souvenirs for family, consider buying two (or more) t-shirts, one as a gift for somebody, the other to wear on holiday, or two as gifts, or two to wear on holiday, and negotiate a price for buying more than one. The same obviously applies to other clothing, sandals. If you have a partner who has nothing to do while you are at a business meeting, sports event or conference, and they like shopping, you can occupy them by asking them to organise laundry or better still sending them to buy clothes.

Colour Co-ordination
Either co-ordinate colours with yourself, or what is available.You can pay to have a company choose your colours - known in some systems as spring, summer, autumn and winter colours. But holding colours against your skin or hair or eyes or lipstick or shoes or coat will often show you which basic colours or accessory colours suit you.
 In China red is a favourite colour. You could match your company colours, or go for your football team's colours.

Fitted Clothes
A neater look is created by wearing fitted clothes. A loose garment can be tightened by wearing a belt. You could use a long scarf as a belt. Or turn the garment inside out, create a seam up both of the sides with a couple safety pins. If you have time loosely sew the seam with the hotel sewing kit. If you don't have a sewing kit in your room, ask for one. Or if none is available, a member of the hotel staff, or another guest might be able to lend you a needle and cotton.
Make sure the garment is still loose enough to pull over your head.

French girls, on casual occasions, as tourists, or on the beach, sometimes tie the lower corners of a causal shirt into a bow, making it fit across the bust.

Matching Colours
In the UK, the 99p shop and Pound World sell slippers in colours. You can co-ordinate bedroom slippers with your night clothes or casual wear. Either one pair. Or even matching slippers for two or more pairs of pyjamas or night dresses or wraps.

Wraps For Beach and Bedroom
A long scarf doubles as a beach sarong. A light wrap around dressing gown does for both beach and hotel wear.

One one occasion I forgot to pack pyjamas, so I wore the hotel dressing gown in bed. It was warm and the bedroom was air conditioned.

I found the belt was uncomfortable. But I was glad to be dressed when I had to rush to the door on hearing knocking. I found a man delivering the early breakfast I'd ordered before my dawn flight home.

Crease-free
The three ways of having crease free clothing are:
1 Buy new at home
2 Buy new at destination
3 Send to laundry
4 DIY ironing
5 Wash garment and hang it to and drip dry in shower room steam
6 Invest in outfits of synthetic non-crease fabrics. Poly-Cotton is a compromise, cool enough, yet relatively little creasing.
7 Hang everything immediately.
8 Pack clothes on thin hangers, the sort you get from dry cleaning shops. If you don't have enough, you can buy them, or pick up spares from other people, or even shops.

Travelling Light
You can buy jackets with multiple pockets designed for photographers, sports, and people on airlines with luggage restrictions.
Alternatively add pockets to the inside of your own shirts, a jacket, even a T-shirt. Pockets can be expensive to buy. You can make pockets from old garments.

Pockets
A shirt with a frayed collar and cuffs still provides a ready-made breast pocket you can cut off, cuffs which can be seemed and reversed. A too-small child's uniform had pockets in the jacket for mother's jacket. Old trousers (USA readers - trousers are pants) and jeans also have pairs of pocket.

I invested in dressed which can be worn three or more ways. I find long skirts which pull up to make a dress with a halter neck strap work well. However, many of the wear six ways dresses require a slim figure which looks good in very tight or very folded clothing. the fabrics are often thin, flimsy and cheap and easily crease, dull or day-glow colours.

Reversible jackets
You can buy reversible clothes for men, women and children. I have a permanent search on eBay for reversible everything, reversible skirts, reversible dresses, reversible jackets, reversible scarves, reversible belts, reversible pendants, reversible bracelets, reversible stone rings.

A jacket which reversed to black seemed dull and boring on the black side. I don't wear black at night. I want to be seen when crossing the road. So I wore only the coloured side - until I arrived at a funeral. Everybody was in black, about five hundred people, an entire church full of black, only little me in bright patchwork! I 'accidentally' dropped my hymn book, removed my jacket, sat up again and replaced it, now wearing black. I found myself muttering a short prayer, 'Thank you, God, for my reversible jacket.'

Happy Travelling!

Companies offering reversibles
UK JD Williams and catalogues in the same group of companies
Asia - many Chinese jackets are reversible, lined with silk. Even if they are not sold as reversible, you can reverse them. You may wish to remove the conspicuous white inside neck label, cover it with a piece of coloured ribbon, or wear a neck scarf which hides the label.

Reversible Jackets For Men
marksandspencer.com
landsend.co.uk
jdwilliams.co.uk - I saw a festival jacket in the 2015 summer sale at £34.
Cheaper items in the USA from aliexpress.com

Pockets in jackets
Ski wear usually has lots of pockets.
ayegear.com - not cheap. £139.99. Loads of pockets.

Price Comparison
On eBay you can search and sort prices low to high, including postage.
On eBay you can put items into your cart and then compare prices before buying. On eBay if your watch list is full you can do a Collection for comparison, and fill in the price on the notes.
Several comparison sites bring up everything available in a search. These appear at the bottom of your screen when you are on eBay.
Idealprice.co.uk

Quality Checks
To get an overview of quality, you may have to search around. For example, you find something cheaper on Ebay than on Amazon, but you might find more customer feedback on Amazon or on the brand's website, or even a site which is out of stock in your size is still handy for customer reviews.

What could go wrong? A reversible dress may show the reverse below the on top colour. To me this is usual. You could put a string size ribbon or belt on the lining to hold it up.

The fabric could be too light or too heavy. Chiffon can be scratchy. Silk can range from tough to so lightweight that the seams tear. Decide if you want softly draping or robust. A plain colour might show stains. But you could cover them with muttons or patches, of flowers made from a piece of the hem.

A light-weight bag could be too light to carry heavy objects or tear easily at the seams or when sharp objects or corners project from heeled shoes or goods you place inside. Light four wheel luggage might not wheel easily over cobblestones, rough tarmac, bobbled paving at crossing supposed to help the blind but annoy anybody using wheels.

If you know this already and don't care, then the overall satisfaction rate might convince you that as you are not so fussy the item is a good buy, or good for the price, or good enough for one trip.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.
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