Create Angela's Alphabet With Cutlery, Cocktail sticks, and Toothpicks in restaurants and on flights

 

I tried making curved letters using the lids of miniature jam pots which you get in hotels. That did not work well. The O worked. I have seen business logos where the O in the business name was turned into a solid disc pattern, sometimes to respresent something they are selling.

I had already broken a cocktail stick in half for the entre horizontal line of the letter E.

But a G with half cocktail sticks, from a cocktail stick broken in half, with the horizontal alone, or a horixontal half stick with the other half hanging down from the tip was not easily recognizable as a G.

Then I started looking at alphabets and realised that you can make a squared alphabet.

You have a choice. For example, the letter E can be made with the three full size cocktail sticks for the horizontals, needing four sticks altogether.

At Home

At home I have a complete  set of a cylinder of cocktail sticks, bought from a hardware store. You can buy them in many supermarkets. 

In Restaurants

In a restaurant you would need to collect several. Either a container with several. Or unused ones if everybody at your table has been given one. 

On Planes

On a plane, you might be given one wrapped toothpick per person per meal.

With a family of three, such as two parents and one child, you would get three per meal, six if you saved them on a two leg outward journey, or six if you savved them from the first journey for the return journey. 

You could even use them still in their paper wrappers so that they can be returned to each person for use as a toothpick.

It might be simpler to use the metal or plastic cutlery. Or ask the server if they had any spare toothpicks. Or ask other passengers if they have unwanted wrapped toothpicks.

Have fun. Lots of fun for adults and children. Amuse and amaze your family, friends and colleagues.

My previous posts give more details and pictures of creating names with cutlery, and cocktail sticks.

Please share links to this post with your family and friends.

Angela's Alphabet with Cocktail Sticks & Chopsticks. Create the names Ava, Ali or Li with knives and forks or chopsticks - Ava's Knife & Fork and Angela's Chopstick Alphabet games

 Ava's Alphabet With Cutlery

You can play a game with small children. and teach them to read the Roman (English and European) alphabets using knives and forks. This teaches them the alphabet. 

It also keeps children at the table with you.  This is good because it stops them getting bored. It creates rapport. It prevents them from running away colliding with waiters and restaurant patrons, disturbing diners at other tables.

Or worse still, going out of doors left open or opened by incoming and outgoing guests. Then the child disappears, potentially running into traffic. I've seen this happen Worried bystanders intervene, calling the parents or carers away from the table. Much more fun to keep everybody at the table, busy, learning, creative, happy.

Now, how do you create names? Let's start with simple ones. Which are used not just by English speaking people but can also be used for Asian and Oriental people and languages, when travelling to other countries, or out to a restaurant serving ethnic food in your home city.

It is easy to create short names such as Ava, Al and Ali and Li.

Ava created from chopsticks. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Li - Surname

For example, the surname Li is very common in Chinese and oriental families. It is a surname or family name. But in the orient the family name is first, as in Singapore Late Lee Kuan Yew. Li  is written differently in Chinese picture writing or Vietnamese picture writing, but transliterated into the English as Li or Lee (depending on the tribe or area or country). 

It is also easy to create E, as a first name or family name.

Add A and you have Ali.

Subtract I and you have Al, short for Alexander and other names..

AVA's Knife and fork Alphabet

I was shown the use of knives and forks to make the letters A and V by a Norwegian friend who was teaching her niece. I can't find any references to this on the internet so after adding spoons for the horzontals of the A and chopsticks for an orintal version, I first thought of naming it after myself. That goes well because it is alliterative. 

 Angela's Alphabet. But Ava's Alphabet would be even more appropriate as this uses the straight line letters, shorter letters. So maybe the knife and for version should be Ava's alphabet, and the chopstick version should be Angela's alphabet.

Ava's Alphabet - with cutlery

So, here I shall use the name Ava's Alphabet for the knife and fork version which Ava used when I last saw her.

Please share with your family and friends the link to this post.

How Should You Eat A Croissant?

Tesco almond croissants. A pack of two, each croissant 310 calories. The pack of two costs £1.70 online. 

Croissants and Cutlery

 The Indians eat with their hands, which is their tradition. The French dunk their croissants in coffee, which is their tradition. (When in Rome, do as the Romans do.)

However, in the UK, in 2023, we are in post Covid-19 times. We have fears of a return of other pandemics. We have an increasingly high proportion of the population being the vulnerable elderly. 

Therefore, we should set an example to the young and old of not using fingers in communal plates. Also, we should not use fingers instead of cutlery. Why? 

Firstly, to protect ourselves from contamination. Secondly, so that we do not forget when in groups. Thirdly, to be sure we are not set a bad example. to children or grandchilden or other observers. 

Cutlery is convenient. Cutlery protects us. If in doubt, use cutlery instead of fingers.

Cutlery can also be used to cut croissants. Why?

Croissants and Calories

Croissants are highly calorific. Especially my favourite, almond-filled croissants. You can get them warm and freshly baked from Tesco Express in Hatch End, NW London, England, UK. Use a knife and fork to cut them in half, for sharing, or eating the second half at a later meal. 

If you go shopping in the evening, you sometimes see croissants reduced from one pound (sterling) each to 30 p. If you want to give me a treat, buy me an almond croissant!

Angela Lansbury

Author of Etiquette for Every Occasion.

Please share links to your favourite posts

How The Hotel Hair Dryer Can help you on holiday and in longstay quarantine

If you are stuck in a hotel on quarantine for two weeks of more you might be looking at what use you can make of what is supplied in your room.

Hair

A hotel hair dryer has many uses. It can dry your hair after a shower. You can plait your hair and dry it with a dryer to end up with waves and curls.

You can cool yourself by taking a cold shower and using a cold hair dryer. Or warm yourself with a hot shower and hot hair dryer.

Swimsuit

Or dry a swimsuit. Or swimming hat. Or a shower cap. Or a bathrobe. If you think the swimming cap material is sensitive to heat, run on cold. Or dry off off with paper towels. Or with a bathroom towel, then dry the towel with the hairdryer.

Clothes 

It can dry your underclothes and socks. It can dry your wet shoes and rained on outer clothes and even an umbrella. If you think the heat might cause damage, you could try running it on cold or half heat. You can also dry a wet bath towel, hand towel, or face flannel.

You can dry off plates, cups and other crockery. You can dry off cutlery. 

You can dry up spills on the table before you put down your laptop. 

Snow - How to prepare for the cold when travelling and avoid or find snow

One year I was booked on a walking tour of East London. The weaterh was really cold. Why was I so cold? In the USA at ski resorts I had walked around in snow and not felt so cold. The reason was, I was wearing padded ski jackets.

I hunted in the clothes cupboard. I found a ski jacket. It was dayglo colours. I looked absurd.

I arrived to join my group. They were all normally dressed, neat suits and coats and jackets. I felt silly.

However, at the end of the tour, an American lady said to me, "You were the only person dressed suitably for the occasion!" I was so grateful to her for saying that. I wished she had told me earlier.

So get out your ski clothes. One year I arrived in New Zealand with everything except a ski jacket which fitted. The shops were out of my size, had ridiculous prices, or were a bus ride away from my family's hotel. I walked around the shopping centre and found a second hand shop. Just the thing. Not as cheap as I wanted.

I took it to the counter. The assistant looked at it. He said, 'Sorry, it's missing a button, and this zip on the inside pocket is stuck, and there's a stain on the inside of the arm - nobody else will see it, but you might not like it. I could make a reduction, if you really want it."

I was so happy!

Feb 27 2020 It was snowing in London but not laying on the ground. The online newspapers showed white snow in the north of England. What does that mean for travellers?

It's good for ski resorts, if it's the right kind of slow, not turning to slippery slush which you sink into, nor freezing into slippery ice. Shoes with gripping soles are an advantage and you can buy overshoes and carry small slippers to wear indoors to protect floors from spikes and melting snow.

Food And Drink
I always like to have something to eat and drink with me. It cheers you up if you are waiting an hour for a train or bus or in the cold at a bus stop or on a draughty railway station.
If you are in a car you can stock up with food and water.

One year I made the mistake of putting it in the boot (Americans say trunk) of the car. Food, drink, and umbrella were all in the back. If you are in pouring rain you don't want to have to get out and get soaked fetching your umbrella and food and drink.

Emergency Toilet
In major motorway upheavals sometimes a toilet bus will go along the hard shoulder. Do you want to get out, in bear country, or after your car is cornered by an elephant in a safari park?

A large container with a sealable cover makes a makeshift toilet which can be emptied out later or immediately, from a door ajar if you are in the countryside and don't want to leave the car.

Yes, I was on a platform in Cardiff, Wales, recently, waiting for the train back to Paddington, London. I chose not to go into the waiting room, although that might have been warmer. Why?

Where To Sit
1 I wanted to keep away from others to avoid coronavirus.

2 The waiting room attracts people from both platforms. It is easy to sit tight because everybody else is doing so, when your train is going from platform one and they are all waiting for the train from platform two.

Years ago, in France, when I was a student, I snoozed in bed thinking that because I could hear the French girls talking, then breakfast had not started nor finished and my coach had not left.
When I eventually decided to get up, I had missed breakfast, and missing the day's outing, because they were not booked to go on the outing. They were the last half dozen friends of the previous week's course and were catching another coach home in another direction.

3 On the platform you can read the overhead signs. You don't have to rush out through a heavy door. You can rise and get ahead when the platform fills so that you are early onto the train steps and doors.

Dress warmly. My relative said, "I don't need to because I am going all the way by train."

Be prepared. As American Benjamin Franklin said, Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

If you end up taking a replacement bus you could have a long walk in the cold along the platform and outside across the car park, standing in a chill wind, waiting for your suitcase to be loaded below the bus, then into the bus sitting by the open door.

Warm Clothes
Even gloves and a hat packed into a bag or pocket can keep off the chill without taking up too much room. I always look for jackets with built in hoods, the sort you buy at ski resorts and in sports shops and even second hand shops (in the USA look for 'thrift' stores).

Tube Station Toilets
If you need a toilet in a hurry, it's handy to know which stations have toilets.

Singapore Stations
In hot countries you drink more water, which means you need toilets more often. In Singapore life is easy. Almost every station has a toilet near the ticket office. Look for the sign. It's outside the barrier, so you can use it even if not travelling by train.

The toilets are outside the station. It's a good idea to go before boarding and after getting off.

If you are caught short, you could always try playing the tourist card, asking for the toilet and looking woebegone. Maybe the office clerk will open the ticket gate and let you out and in again so you don't have to pay a second fare. This happened to me the first time.

Now I know to go in advance.

In London, the tube maps mark which stations have toilets. The print is very small. I suggest getting a magnifying glass, writing a big t alongside the stations with toilets.

Changing Trains
If you have a ten minute change from a train to a replacement bus, you cannot risk leaving the group. The bus won't have a toilet.

Go to the toilet on the train half or two thirds through the journey. Take your laptop with you.

GWR
On GWR trains from London to the West and Wales, you have large toilets big enough for wheelchairs. Everything is clearly marked.

Save Your Seat
You might want to leave something behind to reserve the seat, unless you have a reservation card, or ask the person beside you or opposite to keep your seat in case anybody else tries to take your place.

Planes To Ski Resorts & Back
On a plane going from a ski resort to a warmer climate you may find it convenient to get out of your seat and removed your warm jacket. if there's no room overhead, on a regular large plane flight you might be able to ask the smiling stewardess to hang up the garment and give it back to you at the end of the flight. Set an alarm on your watch on a 13 hour flight from New Zealand or Australia back to Europe or the UK. By tomorrow morning you will have forgotten your jacket. If you change seats, the person who stowed your jacket might have trouble finding you. Allow time to get back into your outer clothes before your hear the announcements to sit down and fasten seatbelt and prepare for landing.

Garage Toilets
Driving from London west towards Wales, we stopped to fill the car up with petrol and I went to the toilet at the same time. But some places the toilet is outside the shop, around the back, which is colder.

Hotel Toilets
More chance of getting warm water.

And a warm hand dryer. This dries your hands and warms you up.

If you are a mother, a secretary, a tour guide, in charge of a group, a spare hat and pair of gloves and even spare hot drinks might come in handy.

Tiny Canape Cutlery
I found some old small cheap metal spoons and tiny three prong canape forks which my family had discarded and were about to throw out. I rescued one set of tiny knife, spoon and fork, not to heavy to carry. This enabled me to cut up a sandwich and eat half later, cut an apple. Even cold food warms you up when you are feeling chilled.

Avoid Snow - Down Under
To avoid snow, go south, to the equator or beyond. Australia or New Zealand at Christmas and Easter.

To Find Snow - Indoor Slopes
To find snow in summer, we go to New Zealand (via tropical, hot all year Singapore).

Finally, you can practise your skiing at indoor slopes in the UK and in Singapore.

Happy travelling. Keep warm. Take care of yourself.


Useful Websites
UK
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakerloo_line
https://tfl.gov.uk/tube/route/bakerloo/
https://www.gwr.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Western_Railway_(train_operating_company)
https://www.visitlondon.com/london-app
https://www.skimagic.co.uk/the-top-10-dry-ski-slopes-indoor-snow-centres-in-the-uk/

SINGAPORE
https://www.sportquest.com.sg/pages/snowcity
singaporeair.com

USA, EUROPE & WORLDWIDE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indoor_skiing

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

How To Identify Soup Spoons On Restaurant Tables In Europe

Cutlery Conundrums
A friend in Singapore complimented me on my use of chopsticks in Singapore. To my surprise he told me, "Some of us here have even more trouble with Western cutlery."
I asked, "What's the problem?"
He elaborated: "You have not just two pieces of stick you pick up, like for us, but cutlery in all different sizes and shapes. They are all for different purposes."
I gasped, "You found it a problem?"
"Yes. I have turned down opportunities to go into a restaurant, because I did not want to have to cope with all the cutlery. I am sure many people like me would be glad to hear an explanation of what all the different pieces of cutlery are used for, and in which order."

So, I gave one hour workshop on cutlery and crockery at his Toastmasters Club, Braddell Heights Advanced. I started with soup spoons, holding up a soup spoon. I asked:
"Do you know what this spoon is called, and what it is for ..."
Somebody shouted, "A soup spoon."
Since they had all been given the right answer, or at least a clue, I held up the soup spoon and asked. "Put up your hand if you think it is a soup spoon. Now put up your hand if you think it is a dessert spoon? Judging by your answers, half of you think it's a soup spoon. But half of you think it is a dessert spoon - or you aren't sure, or think it is for both purposes."

Soup Spoons
Let us start with the spoons, soup spoons. the round bowl on the spoon is deep and for sipping soup.

Firstly, the soup is served first at a Western meal. It is served last in traditional Chinese restaurants. Not everybody knows this. If you are ordering in a restaurant serving from an a la carte menu, makes sure which order the dishes will arrive, especially your soup. Once in a Chinese restaurant in China we ordered soup and it didn't arrive. We kept asking and being told through the meal that it would arrive. When the soup arrived at the end of the meal we had a discussion about the poor service and whether we could not add to or even deduct from the supposedly optional service charge.

The moral is, if you are a Western customer in a Chinese restaurant, or a Chinese customer in a Western restaurant, check when your waiting staff expect to serve the soup. If you want it served in a different order, you must explain to them and explain why.

If you are serving in a restaurant or dinner, or running a dinner or banquet, make sure the menu shows when the soup will be served.

Now, back to the cutlery. In Western restaurants the soup is servd first. You use the cutlery from the outside inwards towards the plate. So the soup spoon is on the outside right (facing with the spoon cavity at the top or north.

Importantly, the spoon bowl is circular, not oval.

In an Italian restaurant in Edgware, NW London, I asked a European member of staff for a soup spoon. I was about to write that I had no spoon, but thinking about it, perhaps I had a knife and for and dessert spoon.

She brought me a dessert spoon.
I and my family sat debating why.
"That's an insult."
"No, she's just careless."
"She's busy, not thinking."
"Maybe she's half-witted. Maybe she's dumb - which is why she is doing this job."
"Maybe she is smart and thinks this job is beneath her."
"We should be discussing the finances which we came out to dinner together to discuss, not getting distracted by actions of the servers."

None of our ideas about the cause of the problem were right. We should have called the manager and asked for a soup spoon.

On a return visit, months later, we discovered the problem. Out waitress could not recognize a soup spoon. No such item was used in her country in Eastern Europe. She was surprised and interested to hear that a round spoon was exclusively for soup. She had thought it was just a different design by another cutlery manufacturer.

The moral is
1 If you are given the wrong cutlery, speak up, nicely. You and the staff may both learn something.
2 If you are running a restaurant or a dinner event, train your staff to ensure they know the different items of cutlery.

My audience ranged in age from 9 years old to indeterminate age but probably well over the age of fifty.

If you would like a one hour speech or interactive workshop, or one which is longer or shorter, for a Toastmasters club in Singapore, or London, or anywhere in the world, please contact me.

A next post will be on wine bottles and drinks at dinner.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker.

Give Me The Chopsticks - I have Trouble Using A Fork!" How Do You Use A Fork?

 How to Use Chopsticks. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
My Chinese Singaporean friend says to the serving person, "I'll take the chopsticks - I have trouble using a fork!" For a moment I think he is joking. To be sure, I ask him: "Do you really have trouble using a fork?"

Answer
He replied, "Yes, I always eat with chopsticks."
I protested, incredulously, "I mean, using a fork is easy!"
"Easy for you you, because you are used to using knives and forks. Like you have trouble with chopsticks, I have trouble with forks."

"But, what's the problem? Holding the fork? Pushing the food onto it?"
"I can hold a fork. I used to work in an Italian restaurant as a waiter. But it's picking up the food."
"The way you do it is push food such as peas onto the back of the fork with your knife - I mean there are two ways, you can spear the peas with the prongs of the fork ...  Actually, there are three ways - you can also turn the fork upside down, like a spoon, so long as nobody is looking and you are not in a restaurant, because it's not good manners. Does that solve your problem? What kind of food do you have trouble with?"
"Spaghetti."
"Ah - English people have trouble with that, too. You eat it with a fork and spoon, not a knife and fork. You push spagetthi onto the spoon, then rotate your fork ..."
"Horizontally or vertically?"
"Well, first vertically, to get the food which is in the spoon wrapped around the prongs of the fork, then lift the fork horizontally, in mid-air, and twirl any bits which are falling off - I think you need to ask an Italian."

We didn't even get onto how Americans eat differently, by cutting up the food first, putting down the knife, then eating with a fork.

If you want a subject of discussion, avoiding controversial subjects such as politics, religions and sex. stick to discussing how to eat with chopsticks and knives and forks and spoons.

As for where you put the knives and forks on plates after eating, that's different and England and France.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. For more posts on table etiquette, knives and forks and chopsticks, see posts on Travel with Angela Lansbury. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Food photos to show your waiter or server or restaurant manager.

Problem
How do you order food when you don't speak the language?

Answer
Show photos. (More in previous post.)

Bread.

Coffee. Coffee with decoration.

German marzipan centre stollen cake.

Chocolate cake with nuts and vanilla ice cream.

Bread with nuts and fruit to accompany coffee.

Plate and cutlery.

Champagne bottle, rosé wine, jug of water. 

Meat with mushrooms, sauté potatoes and green beans.

Toilet and washbasin with toilet paper and soap.

Fruit bowl: green apples, red apples, oranges, pear (right).

Cake with fruit - orange slices on top.

Cheesecake with fruit topping and jug of cream. Background chocolate cake.

Pub lunch of baked potato in its jacket with butter, cheese, tomato, mushroom, peas. Napkin and fork.

All photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Teacher of English and other languages.

What I learned about eating while travelling

Problem
How do you eat without cutlery? How do you avoid messed up clothes?

Answers
Travel with enough plastic bags or plastic aprons or washable scarves and wet wipes.

Story
Today I tried to eat chicken on the bone in curry sauce from what looked like a lidded yogurt pot using a plastic spoon.
Do not serve chicken with plastic spoons. Adding plastic forks help hold the food in one place but doesn't help cutting it up. I expect the food shop gave away plastic spoons or the paperwork department of a shop sold them in bulk. They are great for scooping up curry sauce. However, they are useless at cutting chicken.

Tips
1 If you order or collect take away Indian food, plan obtaining some regular metal knives, or at least plastic knives.
2 Check the office kitchen for knives. Or bring old ones from home.
3 Alternatively ask the shop to cut up the meat into bite size pieces or at least two pieces so two people can share a portion.
4 If you expect people to eat with hands, provide paper napkins or wet wipes.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my book son Amazon and lulu.com Please like and share my posts.

Why I Hate Hard Floors

  Tenants in the UK are demanding laminate or hard granite floors. It's the latest fashion. The safer carpeted floors are out.
   I hate hard floors. In the olden days we had wooden floors. A disaster. High heels and metal tipped shoes ruin wooden floors. You were always told to take off your high heeled shoes indoors.
   Wooden, lion and tile floors also become dangerously slippery when wet. My gym has this problem all the time. In a small bathroom it's even worse, because you are frequently with wet feet and wet hands, eyes shut from soap, slipping on soap, naked so not protected, and exposed to hard surfaces and projecting corners and unforgiving tiles. When you fall you hit your hips and head on something hard. (Then you are locked in, fallen against the door, with an indoor room or a tiny window and nobody can get in to help  you.
   In Singapore a maid or cleaner has to mop the tiled or marble floors of living rooms and kitchen and bedrooms. Afterwards you are in danger of falling.
   Crockery breaks when dropped. So does china-handled cutlery. Even those cheap china teaspoons which match mugs, and the china rice ladles.
   The floors are noisy. No privacy in the toilet and bathroom. Every little sound is echoed, magnified, broadcast.
   Walk around barefoot or in thin socks on a hard floor and your heels go hard. Then they crack.
   Give me soft floors any time.