Keep Calm When Travelling - And Avoid Embarrassing Moments

 

How do you keep calm when travelling? I have learned from my sinking heart moments what to do. What were my sinking heart moments? My Embarrassing Moments - I have written a book about them.

The Lost Coach

We were the first coach to arrive at a car park in China. However, when I got back to my coach, the car park was full of coaches. I knew our coach had been parked near the fence. I hopped on the front coach.

The coach drove off. The guide spoke in German. 

I asked him to repeat what he had said in English. 

He said, but this is a German group. 

I was on the wrong coach! 

The coach had to drive back to the car park. The coach driver was not happy. But I had my own problems.

I ran around frantically. Which was my coach? Finally, the guide on my coach called out to me. 

Most mishaps can be prevented with a little forward planning - and a few photos.

1 DESTINATION DETAILS

Know where you are going. Put the address in your contacts list, your diary, and phone. Add the address with map and directions in your computer, mobile phone or car satnav. Know the motorway numbers, exits, alternative routes.

2 CONTACT DETAILS

Know vital contact details. 

Emergency numbers at your destination. 

Hotel or restaurant address, and the name in which the booking was made.

3 BACKUP PLANS

Have backup plans for everything. A second restaurant or hotel. Spare clothes in your airline wheelie bag.

4 ALLOW TIME FOR DELAYS

 I don't arrange meetings the day of travel, nor driving the day after. Then delays don't stress me. I don't get stressed driving tired, nor drive when accident prone.

5 ID

Check all passports and visas and driving licenses and credit cards for expiry dates the month before travelling. Carry a pair of spare passport photos for a replacement passport, or lift pass.

6 CAR & coach

Check your car tyres pressure and petrol levels a day in advance or better still a month in advance.

When leaving a coach for a break during an excursions, note the numberplate and photograph the coach and driver.

7 BOOKS, TOYS

 Have a book or activity to amuse yourself and family. Have activities to keep children in seats with books or toys with no pieces to lose.

8 IDENTIFIABLE CLOTHES

Wear matching colour outfits to find each other in crowds.

9 MEETUP POINTS IN PUBLIC PLACES

Arrange where to meet up in cafes and malls and outside toilets which are at the ends or corridors or with gents and ladies in different directions.

10 MEETUP POINTS IN HOTELS

Decide on hotel reunion points, lobby, reception, restaurant or bedroom, or in car in car park, gym or swimming pool, or hotel shop.

SET WAITING TIMES

Have waiting limits. Arrange whether to jump on the first bus, train, taxi, or wait for the group.

Inform your group leader if you are leaving after a fire, flood or emergency so nobody endangers themselves nor wastes time looking for you.

TRAVEL KIT

Carry: 

spare plasters, 

a comb and comb case, and 

a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Take a photo ID. 

Carry a badge and lanyard, in case you are not on the meeting list and they have not printed your name badge. You can also be photographed wearing your name badge and carrying your company brochure or your book if you are an author.

About Angela's Books

I am the author of twenty or so books and e-books on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Lulu.com

My latest book in 2025 was Embarrassing Moments.

How To Secure Pockets When Travelling

Photo by Michael Sheehan in Wikipedia.

The ideal travelling jacket has outside pockets for quick access to unimportant or not valuable items such as handkerchieves and combs, but secure inner pockets for money and credit cards and identity cards or passports.

If you don't have the time or money, some inexpensive items can be bought new or second hand. Search for photographer's jacket, fishing jacket, travelling jacket and pockets. Other words such as gilet may bring up more results. I check Amazon, Ebay, Pick pocet proof clothing.

You can also find belts with pockets at camping shops and ski and outdoor wear shops.

If the clothes you order on line have pockets which are not secure, or you have clothes which you love, but want to add security, here are some options.

1 Wear a belt with a zip compartment under your jacket.

2 Make a belt with a zip. Cut a wide hem off a long dress or old coat or old coat or jacket lining.  fold it horizontally and before seaming it up, add a zip in the middle.

 3 Secure all the pockets on all garments you intend to wear whilst travlling and clothes you are packing to wear at the destination.

When buying bags and tote bags, look for zips and press studs or Velcro (touch and loop closure).

Inserting a zip is easy. Decide where you want the pull part to be and pin or safety pin that in place. Decide if you want the zip visible or hidden half an inch inside. Sew down both sides of the zip. Secure the end by sewing across.

No time? No Zip?

Use a small zipped fabric toiletry bag. One you already own or buy a cheap zipped bag. Sew it inside a tote bag. Remove the inner pockets from a garment you were throwing away and keep them in a sewing box and add them to your travel garments.

Do you have a garment with false zips, ones which actually work but have no pockets behind them? Add a pocket behind. The simplest pocket is just a square sewn up on three sides.

Useful Websites
amazon
ebay
pickpocketproof clothing
https://www.facebook.com/ClothingArts
https://www.clothingarts.com/

About the author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer.

Medical kits for days out, weekends, travel to hotels and second homes

What do you take on a day trip or holiday or business trip? The first thing you think of is 'Don't forget your toothbrush'. And the toothpaste.

Toothbrush and Toothpaste
It's handy to keep a small or folding or head-covered toothbrush with a small toothpaste in your pocket or a zip up bag. Plus a comb in a case (so you don't pierce your fingertips).

Tweezers
I like the tweezers cum nail file bought from Tanna's chemist in London. They also stock a magnifying mirror for the bathroom at only £1.

Sometimes it's cheaper to buy the cheapest manicure kit than to buy all the items, or even one of the items.

Swiss Army Knife
A Swiss army knife has a built tweezers, scissors and nail file. When buying, invest in a model of knife which has the gadgets you need. If you lose the tweezers, you can buy spares from some shops. Phone first, to be sure the spares are in stock. You could buy a spare teeny tweezers to carry when your knife has to be checked in on an airline.

Sticking Plasters
I used to carry an Elastoplast UK (brand name for sticking plaster) in the zip up compartment of a tote bag. Plasters are useful for minor cuts as well as to protect blisters from rubbing shoes.

Pill Names
If you are on regular medication, it helps to paste the end of the cardboard tube inside your diary so that if you ever run out, you can show it to a pharmacist who cannot understand your verbal English.

(Also look for a lightweight corner of a leaflet in multiple languages.) At least you can put it through google translate.

Spare Pills
If I am travelling on a ten day trip I always carry enough pills for an extra 2-5 days. Then if the flight is delayed or I extend the stay I still have enough pills without wasting time on a shopping trip to get more.

Hair Dye Box End: Colour Name and Colour Chart
If you dye your hair and are away for a month after the last time you dyed your hair, you cannot take liquids on many planes, but the end paper of the box can be shown to a drug store to show that you are looking for hair dye, and what colour.

Insect Repellent and Sunscreen

Checklist
1 Toothbrush and paste
2 Comb and comb case (and/or small folding brush, ideally with mirror)
3 Tweezers, toothpick and nail file (Swiss Army knife)
4 Small magnifying mirror or YSL lipstick with mirror finish case
5 Sticking plaster / or bandage and zinc ointment for healing
6 Small shampoo (also serves as hand wash and clothes wash) or wet wipe
7 Moisturiser (for face, hands, feet).
8 Insect repellent and sun cream
9 'Stingose' or similar sting relief and / or antiseptic cream
10 Zip up waterproof wash bag

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

Photographing and videoing yourself, friends and family

When you plan a wedding or funeral and know the photo of the central  characters will be recorded on photographs which will be on record, you take great care that the clothes are elegant or attractive, the hair is adjusted and the women's make-up is neat and any blemishes are covered. The same applies to the model in a promotional video for a business.

At a formal occasion you have many photos of the chief personalities and the professional photographer edits out, or the paying customer rejects, any photos in which the bride, groom, or main speaker has their eyes shut or stands awkwardly.

Now that so many of us are being photographed in public places and events, and taking photos at public places and events, we are increasingly finding it important to look our best at all times in photos.

The Problem and Solution
Here are some problems I have noticed:
1 Lopsided Clothes - tie or scarf of boy or man
a)  A barmitzvah boy's tallis* (scarf) hangs lopsided. Children in photos have skew-whiff ties.
b)  Ask person being photographed or parent or pairs of children to check each other

2 Lopsided Clothes - scarf of man or woman
b)  Speaker at Toastmasters' meeting has scarf hanging longer on one side.
 Photographer asks people posing to check

3 People in back row are hidden
Ask small people to come to the front. (You might ask taller people to stand at back but its friendlier to ask small people to come forward rather than pushing people to the back.) If time, arrange taller people or VIP or visually appealing costume such as mayor in regalia in centre. Arrange heights in an arch from the centre. Alternatively a line.

4 Brighten dull line-up of known or known people
 In a wedding photo create movement or action or links. For example, everybody facing the right, everybody looking at the bride int he centre,  everybody raising a glass, linking arms on New Year's Eve, ballet dancers with right toe forward and hands together overhead, heads turned left.

5 Two people standing apart, but camera will focus on distant wall behind in centre
Ask people to stand together, or overlap. Alternatively, have one sitting, the other standing behind. Stand them back against the wall of the room so camera is not focussed on the wall in the distance. Get the club banner or vase of flowers in the centre so something in focus in the centre is of interest.

3 One shoulder higher
Very common, as any tailor can tell you. Can be made worse by carrying a bag on the right hand side which makes the right shoulder either droop or such up, or by sitting at a desk with right arm raised writing or by a car accident injuring collar bone or arm.

4 Standing Lop-sided
Standing with one leg forward or back. a) Get people to stand up straight.
b) Alternatively make a joking feature of it.  A comedian or kid or masked character or person pulling a face can make it look like the lopsided stance is deliberate and increases the funny effect.

5 Toes pointing in
Makes a shoe model, or any model, or any adult woman look like a gormless five year old. Ask the model person to keep feet parallel. I've seen this in Hotter shoe catalogue. I love the shoes but hate the pictures which do not draw attention to the shoes but distract me. I feel like throwing a catalogue in the bin when the photographer has an adult model or even a child with toes painting in. Anybody into chiropody or the Alexander technique would tell you that you are inviting foot and spine trouble to stand with toes pointing in - or you are giving the world the news that you already have a problem.

6 Knees apart when sitting
Makes a fat person look larger and aggressive. On a woman with a short skirt gives an ungainly view up legs of underwear or worse and distracts from face.

7 Folded arms in audience
Makes the member of the audience look bored and disrespectful and half awake.
Suggests the speaker is boring and the event is a waste of time.

8 Bags on floor
Trip hazard. Flusters members of audience leaving chairs to go on stage. Looks untidy in photos. Obscures full view of person being photographed.

9 Lopsided banners
Straighten the banner. It's an advertisement for the club - and the photographer. Don't look sloppy. Look smart. Nobody will know that you took the trouble to get the banner straight. But you will know. Yes, I got that right. Without my going to extra trouble. they would not have been looking as good as they do.

10 Lopsided badges, lanyards or necklaces
People were badges upside down, or the badges droop. Get them horizontal.

11 Untidy hair
At a recent meeting I watched a video of somebody else who had an uneven hair cut. I felt like going up and offering to cut the person's hair for free. It's hard to cut your own hair.  Imagine my horror when I then saw a video of myself at the same event, with my hair not combed, untidy at the back. I often arrive at meeting in a hat or hood which I remove. I go to the Ladies and comb my hair. On this occasion I was waylaid by organisers wanting help. I suggest that at meetings people get into pairs in advance and do a mutual check, whether for photos or just general appearance.

12 Create Interest For Singles and Pairs
Singles in photos and paintings can have an item in their hand such as a tennis racket or a pen or a book. Add a nearby decoration such as a vase of flowers, trophy, or something on the wall behind, such as the name of the venue, the restaurant menu showing the location name, or stand them beside the signpost of the city, the name of the museum, (providing this is not a security risk), or a uniformed person nearby such as the concierge of the hotel, the pilot of the plane, a person of a different height or race, a Masai warrior, a scuba diver, a shopkeeper with a bucket and spade, a waiter with a bottle or cake, a sign saying Best ...., a poster or advertisement, a calendar showing the date, the hotel flower display in the lobby, the flowers in the garden, the shops' s or neighbour's cat or dog or bird, a show room bicycle or car, a pretty or funny coffee cup or mug.  Take serious and smiling photos. Then they can be used for both happy occasions such as weddings and serious ones such as funerals.

Footnote
*(For anybody who doesn't know but wants to know, the tallis/tallit or fringed scarf, worn by Liberal Jews on special occasions as well as the Orthodox Jews at all times - follows the instructions in Leviticus or laws in the Jewish Hebrew Bible / English Christian Old Testament which is a translation.)

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