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

Workers Without Bedding In Hong Kong, and Preventing Bed Bugs In Asia

Hong Kong's Time Square is one of the most expensive areas of Hong Kong (island). Yet in the high rise housing above the shops, you find a mixture of the poorest and richest.

Doorway Rubbish
A doorway with a rubbish filled stairwell suggests worse beyond. Yet the steps were painted with colourful flowers, now worn away.

The steps leads to the office of a smart business. Inside all is elegant.

Beyond that is the home of a friend of mine. Renovated. Very local.

My family had written to request accommodation. The owner asked, 'Would Angela like to sleep overnight on a yoga mat?'

Now the other family and mine are used to trekking up Everest and Kilimanjaro and spending nights in tents and hammocks, sleeping in hostels.

Sorry. I will sleep on a one star hotel or a youth hostel. But I gave up camping after my first experience at the age of 16 when we trekked uphill in the dark with torches past cows to toilets made of giant tin barrels. I do not camp on floors, unless I have a mattress.

My family replied on my behalf, that, 'No, Angela would prefer, expect a bed.'

With great rouble and ingenuity, specially for my visit, an IKEA wardrobe is turned on its side to form a bed base. The area is extended with more wood. A thin mattress is laid on top and a new set of matching sheets and pillows.

The window curtain is removed and fixed to a rail to create the side wall, a bit like a hospital bed. The base of the bed is concealed behind a wall improvised by another IKEA cupboard and a giant fridge.

En route, I passed the constantly open door of a group of workers who appeared to sleep in bunk beds with no bedding. Compared to them, we are in luxury.

I hesitated to take a photo. I should have got into conversation, asked where they were from, and taken a group photo, printed it for them on a friend's computer, or emailed my friend a copy, catching their surroundings to show you. I can't so I shall have to describe it.

All I need to say is that I could see the bare board floor, the wooden bunk beds with no bedding (reminiscent of those photos of Auschwitz) the bare board table, and workers perched on low wooden stools.

I had mixed reports about the other inhabitants of the building. One person told me, "People work on building sites. They are used to being surrounded by rubble. Pointless clearing it up - they will just make more mess next day."

Another person told me: "The workers are very good. They try to clear up. I've offered them a small tip to clear up. But people from outside tip stuff in."

Wooden Floors
I remained bothered by their lack of bedding. What about wooden floors? OK, everybody has wooden floors. Some people varnish the floors. Some people stain floors black. Wooden floors were the fashion. Carpets need sweeping and rugs must be bashed out by maids or cleaners or you. If you have carpets you must take off your shoes.

In the UK in my lat parents' home the rules were and still are that tenants must carpet their floors to prevent noise. What sort of noise? Footsteps. Furniture movement - such as dining chairs. Drawers shutting and wardrobe doors and room doors. Echoing of voices.

Noise
In Hong Kong the traffic outside creates such a din that most of the time you don't hear the people living and working above and below. You are more likely to hear people passing, clattering footsteps and talking on the concrete stairs outside beyond the front door which opens onto the living room or main room. Or the sounds from outside your open window of the shouting revellers, clattering carts, horns of cars and taxis, tooting traffic and trundling trams. And the clattering of rain on metal roofs, cars, awnings, and metal rubbish bins all around.

Donating Bedding?
As you can imagine, I am not happy about the way the workers are obliged to live. Surely I or somebody else can obtain a job lot of sheets and pillowcases for them.

Would they be grateful? I can see that they might not want the nuisance of tablecloths, nor rugs to trip over. But would they want bedding?

When I arrived back in Singapore, I told a friend about the beds with no bedding. Her view was totally unexpected.

"They won't want bedding," she said. "It attracts bed bugs. Even if you give them new bedding, it soon becomes infected. The bed bugs would get in their clothes and bite everybody."

Getting Rid Of Bed Bugs
She sighed, "It's dreadful trying to get rid of bed bugs. We brought them back from a five star hotel. Bugs got into everything: the bedding, all our clothes, the curtains, tablecloths, behind the furniture, everywhere. We had to throw out all our clothes.

"Now, when we go on holiday, I buy a new set of sheets and pillowcases and even pillows. At the end of the holiday I throw them away."


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

Medical Care Overseas: hospitals and ICE

If you travel a lot it is handy to have worldwide travel insurance cover which saves you having to stop to buy cover every trip, you can remember your insurance company more easily and it saves the risk of leaving in a hurry and forgetting to insure.

If you are taking a business trip, or hiring a freelance, it's a good idea to be sure the company covers everybody in the group. Then the group leader can phone back to the office for all the details and the full time all day office workers and HR department can deal with paperwork, leaving the families free to do hospital visits and get on with their own lives and work.

When I was sent to Corsica on a travel press trip for Brides magazine, the editor told me that the company was providing insurance. I replied, "No need. I have annual insurance." She told me that her company insisted everybody was covered by their insurance.

In the event, I was knocked down by a car, as a large number of us crossed the road after our coach broke down on the way back to the airport. It was a classic pedestrian accident.

A vehicle breaks down. The people trying to fix the problem or gather their possessions have their mind on the major problem, the broken down vehicle, rather than on the everyday problem or crossing a road safety. Large numbers of people are in the road where one would not moral cross the road, on a busy motorway or the brow of a hill or just over a hilltop.

The company's insurance proved very comprehensive. I was given private hospital treatment. I had a TV in my room.  The curtains were so pretty (Sanderson's) that I contacted their housekeeping department and asked to buy the curtains when they were sold off. Many months later I was phoned and bought the crutains and they are still in my home today as a reminder of that time.

Travel Trips
If a group of you are taking a tour of Europe or Malaysia in a car convoy or  on motorbikes or any kinds of journey its prudent to know everybody's cover in case of an accident. If you are the organiser or leader of a group, you should know the local hospitals and the medical insurance of everybody and the home phone numbers in case you need to inform families at home of any delay.

Even a simple thing such as a cancelled ferry crossing can cause anxiety. I was on a conference in Indonesia one weekend and a group of about four of the men went off across an island expecting to be back by nightfall. They weren't. I remember one of the other wives phoning my hotel room at about midnight and saying that if I was worried and couldn't sleep she would come to my room or I could come to hers.

Next day the men phoned to say that they had had a series of adventures, ending with driving across the island with a local driver.

Only days later did they reveal assorted en route stresses. The car broke down. It ran out of petrol.

Their driver diverted to his so-called relative's house for a snack and the group were offered food and drink. One of the group cautiously refused the food and drink, just in case it was drugged and they were being set up for a robbery. The rest of the group followed his example.

Meanwhile, back in the safety of a civilised city, what about minor mishaps?

CPF
In Singapore the Permanent Residents are in the national CPF system. They are likely to go to a government hospital such as the Singapore General Hospital. The majority of the cost will come out of the savings scheme they have paid into out of their salary, but they may need to pay for a top-up.

NRIC

To fill in the paperwork they or staff or you need to produce the credit card size NRIC, national card with photo ID. In theory everybody should carry their identity card at all times to produce it when challenged, gain admission to many office blocks, and use it for claiming everything from medical care to lottery prizes and even store card redemptions. 

If you are looking for a private hospital your choices include Mount Elizabeth in the centre of the city which is easy to reach for quick admission and follow-ups and visits. from family and friends. Out of town, and perhaps more peaceful, is Gleneagles. 

When I go to a new city or new country I like to check out the doctors and dentists and public and private hospitals and keep a note in my diary, well before I need them. 

ICE number

You could also add a sticker on the back of your mobile phone the ICE number. If your phone is locked nobody can get into it to phone your family, so you need it written on the outside. ICE is in case of emergency, so your family and colleagues waiting for you to arrive at home or work can be informed of the reason for the delay and come to visit you with clothes and money and messages of goodwill and anything else you might need. ICE was devised by an emergency services worker frustrated by not being able to call relatives to let them know when he had transported somebody to hospital.

The old cliches come to mind. Fore warned is fore armed. Better safe than sorry.

UK Hospitals
If you phone a UK hospital for information, it will only be given out if you are listed as next of kin. You will be asked to provide the name and details of the person you are enquiring about. You end up in a chicken and egg situation. You phone the hospital to ask to speak to somebody. The switchboard ask which ward they are in. Until you speak to them you don't know.

I have had four different relatives in UK hospitals in three or four hospitals over the years. As soon as you get to speak to your relative, or somebody who phones to tell you that your relative is going in for surgery and won't be able to speak to you for so many hours or days, ask which ward they will be in.

I had an uncle in Barnet hospital and he was in three or more different wards. For observation he was in a geriatric ward. After surgery he was moved to intensive care. Then to another ward. He got an infection and was moved to another room for isolation.

The first time he moved I got a shock and thought he had died. You arrive and find an empty bed, or somebody else in the bed. It's surreal.

Serious cases may be sent to a specialist hospital.  Infectious cases may be sent to an isolation hospital. Within large hospitals, whether public or private hospitals, other wings or buildings may house private bedrooms, physio departments, outpatients, doctors, dentists, consultants in consulting rooms.

In the UK, Mount Vernon has a separate private hospital in the grounds. By Northwick Park hospital there's another specialist block, St Marks, plus diagnostic centres in what looks like prefabs in car parks.

In the USA I had a problem with a tooth and went to a dentist. I was scared that I would get a huge bill. In the UK a dentist usually insists on checking your whole mouth and identifying which teeth have problems.

In the USA if the dentist I visited had checked my whole mouth I would have had a huge bill, they said. But the billing was for the number of teeth checked. So one tooth checked and sorted was quite a reasonable price. Best to check prices before going for a checkup or filling or cracked tooth. the bill could be a shock or a pleasant surprise.

Glossary
CPF Central Provident Fund (Singapore)
HR Human resources (USA and worldwide; in the UK often called Personnel department)
ICE In case of emergency
NRIC (National Registration Identity Card, Singapore)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Registration_Identity_Card

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.