Lost Or Stolen? Where Is it?

Two items I lost were found.

Missing Phone
First my phone. I left a meeting.

Went to the toilet.

Walked along the shops. Stopped. Thought of taking a photo. No phone.

I hunted everywhere. All pockets. Bag. No luck.

Retracing Steps
Before going back to the office to ask, I thought, I should retrace my steps to the toilets and check every cubicle.

I walked back towards the toilets. I passed the lake with swans. As on my previous journey, I paused to admire the swans. I looked down and saw something black on the ground - my phone!

Undamaged.

It must have fallen out of my pocket after I put it away.

I needed to sew on the loose fixing which had come off one side of a jacket pocket.

Two lessons:
1 Check your phone every step of your journey. Look behind every time you leave a place.

2 Retrace your steps.

3 Worst case scenario, know your phone identity details.

4 Keep looking. Even if you think it is hopeless, keep looking.

5 At home or the office, do not put a phone down anywhere it could get left, or fall off, such as the back of a table, the edge of a table, under a newspaper or piece of paper or jacket which you move.

https://www.safewise.com/blog/tips-for-recovering-lost-or-stolen-items/

About the author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer. Never lost anything - but tells lies. Oops. Let me change that. Has lost lots of things, but usually finds them eventually.

Please share links to your favourite, serious and funny posts.

How To Prevent Burglary When You Are Away Travelling

Are you travelling half way around the world for a long time? Or even around the corner for five minutes. You could come back and find the front door locked from the inside. What does that mean? In 2020 Carolyn Flack's friend was on suicide watch for her friend, popped out to the shops and came back to find her friend dead.  In the same week, two members of my family arrived home to find their house burgles. What to do? I asked the police as well as several friends, family members, everybody I knew around the world.

The best way is to have a trusted family member move in. Some people employ a permanent housekeeper or maid or a temporary house sitter or somebody who looks after the pets and is an unofficial house sitter.

If you live in an area of high burglary, take extra precautions.

Prevention and Precaution
Photograph your house and items of value and receipts before leaving, so that if there is any police report of loss, or to identify items found (if they arrest a burglar and find items on them.

You can install lights to make the place look busy in the evening. Ask a trusted neighbour tih a key to check the post is not overflowing and maybe move the car. Inform other neighbours who is scheduled to visit.

Gardeners
You might have the gardeners and window cleaners to have access to the front or side or back.

If you have any misgivings, you can also install lights to come on at the sides and back and front of the house. Also a camera inside.

House Sitting And Visits
Keep the numbers of neighbours, police, and family, on both phones for your two homes or two offices, to avoid roaming charges and be sure you can call instantly.

If Burgled
If you should return and find the place has been disturbed, phone the family first to check who called and when.

Latch!
If the front door latch is on, the burglars might be inside or escaping from the back.

Safety When Checking
Do not enter alone without telling anybody. Worst case scenario: You could be attacked. you could find your loved one or house sitter has been killed  or died and the door locked  from inside by them or others.

So, just in case, leave one person outside and in contact by phone and shouting and phone to warn another family member who is not with you.

Undisturbed Scene And Fingerprints
Wear gloves and avoid adding your finger prints to the entry points to the house and any flat surfaces which could contain an intruder's prints.

Call the police immediately.

Insurance
Note how soon you need to inform insurance. It helps to have photos and/or records of purchases.
Ebay has records going back about two years (depending on the time of year). In February 2020 I checked. An arrow at the top of the page section lets you choose this year, least year and the previous year. I suppose they have too many to record all purchases. This is a shame.

Prevention is better than cure.

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

Plastics - what we could and should do

I used to imagine that pollution was a problem of modern cities. When I travelled to third world developing countries I was shocked to see the litter in their villages and urban streets and in dumps on the edge of the cities. The developing countries were developing litter and pollution.

What can you do?
1 Reveal the problem. Spread the bad news
2 Prevention. Do your bit to not buy plastic.
3 Do your bit to recycle plastic.
4 Spread good news about recycling initiatives.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
When I tried to photo individuals, my own families, or locals, I would rush to remove bits of litter spoiling the picture.

Should You Photograph Litter - yes or no?
When I tried to photograph graffitit and litter and dumps, my family objected. You would think they were employed by the local tourist board. They did nto want me to show litter. They thought it was unkind and disrespectful and ungrateful to both the family who had contributed to the cost of my family to show me good things in other countries as well as unfair to local people and might repel other potential tourists.

My view: Hiding the proble.. Not facing the problem. Not dealing with the problem.

Litter After Events
We have all seen photos of the litter left behind and the clear up needed after a major concert or event, whether in a farmer's field or a city centre. Sometimes the clean-up is represented as a story of horror. Sometimes as a forgotten team, the hard-working and saintly clear-up team.

Litter Picking
As soon as you think about it, your realise that a clean up can be done if somebody is willing to pay the cost.

DISNEY
Disneyland has huge numbers of people. They don't have litter during the day nor the morning after. Disney doesn't have signs threatning to fine you like Singapore. Disney has teams of people picking up litter at the time and after closing hours. (I can imagine somebody saying, yes, so that's why the prices are so high.)

SINGAPORE
I have read compaisons between Hong Kong and Singapore. Generally they show that Singapore does not just have people who are more litter conscious or more afraid of being fined. Singapore spends more on people picking up litter. You can employ low-paid foreign workers, conscript your army or gap year students, pay students pocket money, employ the handicapped with an easy job, have volunteer days.

Litter Disposal
But, after you have picked up the litter, where does it go? The official litter pickers and volunteers may be more keen or more skilled at separating litter into different types.

But we still have the question of where to put the piles of litter, neatly sorted, but what next?

The Disposal Problems
1 Plastics in the ocean are damaging wildlife, fish and birds.
2 It is aesthetically displeasing to see litter on the previously pristine ocan floor
3 Discarded litter causes fires in forests
4 Discarded litter causes fire in cities (The UK's fatal King's Cross station Fire was attributed to litter possibly catching fire due to a spark or cigarette end

Solutions Aggravating The Problem
China has stopped importing waste to put into landfill - which helps them but puts the problem back on others.

Local councils in the UK used to dump both sewage and unfiltered waste from sewage pipes into the ocean.
Burning waste makes pollution.
Shredding plastic makes smaller particles which get trapped in balleen whales. The balleen is a kind of comb instead of teech which filters their food so tiny creatures go through to the whale's stomach.


The balleen in a balleen whale which gets clogged with microplastic. Photo of ballen from Wikipedia article on balleen whales.

GOOD NEWS Current Solutions - Recycling

UK
UK COUNCILS
1 Harrow - compost machines
2 Hillingdon - biodegradable bags for kitchen waste

UK SUPERMARKETS


3 Waitrose is replacing plastic trays for ready meals with material which will compost at home



4 Morrisons is introducing plastic free fruit and veg - sold loose.

USA -
1 DIY shredding and reforming thin plastic (bags) into multi-colour sheets
2 Loopstore is collecting, washing and reusing packaging. They are linked with brands such as Body Shop, Colgate, Crest, Dove, Febreze, Haagen Dazs, Tide and many more.

AFRICA
1 Africa - turning plastic mixed with sands into durable protective roof tiles to build new homes and replace or improve shanty housing

Future Solutions
Small scale recycling businesses employing the handicapped in the UK. No need to worry about creating huge profits for shareholders if they are not for profit recycing organizations whose part purpose is to provide employment, teach skills and give satisfaction to employees.

Some Sensible Slogans
A journey starts with a single step (Chinese, attributed to Confucius)
Be the change you wish to see (Mahatma Gandhi)

Useful Websites
Problems
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7054471/Plastic-debris-bigger-risk-filter-feeding-whales-OIL.html

Solutions
SINGAPORE

UK
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7056017/Waitrose-unveils-worlds-compostable-ready-meal-trays.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed
USA
https://loopstore.com/
https://loopstore.com/brand-partners

Author Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite pages.

How To Lay Lino When Renovating and Renting Or Renting Out

Laying carpet and lino is easy. Easier than you might think.

I watched the carpet layers. Roll it out along the edge of the room. Get out a Stanley knife and cut.

Fasten the sides and under-door strips with the metal strips sold for that purpose.

The fastening strips have upright spikes to grip the underside of the carpet. Three holes for nails or screws allow the strip to be attached to the floor.

Should you lay new lino over old?  One person says, "That's amateur." I disagree.

You are sure of a soundproof and soft undersurface.

Rip it up, and you may find it is attached with glue so you spend hours trying to remove it and get lumps left behind.

To flatten the floor you would have to hire a heavy machine which could damage your doorways, steps, cupboards, bathroom fittings.

How to fit around bathroom fittings? Easiest is to use carpet tiles or line tiles. Take a piee of newspaper and draw around the baths and basins on the reverse. Cut to fit and adjust your pattern. use the pattern to transfer the lines to the underside of the carpet. Be sure any mirror image pieces are the right way around.

Add bathroom mats to conceal any gaps and be sure drips are caught by the mats or carpet and not forming mould.

Or should you rip lino up and start again - doubling the price?

If you have read my previous posts on laying driveways and carpet, you will know I am suspicious of any attempt to double the price after the work has started. I also don't like the damage and dust.

Which Colour - Light Or Dark?
What of the colour? Colours go in fashions.

The current fashion is for dark colours. Grey granite wet rooms. Dark tiles.

I hate them. I have great wall tiles and grey bathroom tiles in Singapore. The place always looks like it has mould. You never know if it is clean.

Grey is depressing, the least popular colour is many surveys. I like white.

Clean white. Hospital white. Healthy white.

Clean Cups?
I learned long ago that you can see if your tea cup or coffee cup is clean if it is white. Brown or grey inside a cup or mug is a disaster, a health risk.

Carpeted Bathroom?
In London I wanted to use spare carpet for the bathroom. What with men and boys not aiming at the toilet, or dripping, children splashing in the bath. The flat dwellers did not like that idea. They thought lino would keep cleaner and be quicker to clean.

Advantage of carpet? Lee likely to break a dropped glass tumbler used for leaning teeth. Less likely to slip and fall - good for the elderly and children. If you do fall, a soft landing. Warm underfoot at night or day.

HELP!
Big DIY stores have leaflets you can consult whilst working. The YouTube videos train you and tell you what you need to buy. You might not have thought of knee pads. Or testing for damp on the floor, or turning off the bathroom heating the day before.

Wash the floor the day before - and the toilet as you will be kneeling next to it.

Many people comment that, unless you are a hospital, no need to glue down all the vinyl. Also it is easier to remove later if you do not glue it all over. Just use the double-sided tape at the edge.

You might need either a buddy or a stick to help unroll a long sheet of vinyl.

In Singapore in the bedrooms and living areas we have vinyl imitation wood tiles - long oblongs like planks, which slot together. Near doorways they slide apart and leave gaps. You would get around the problem of gaps by having a one piece imitation wood roll of lino.

B & Q UK has this helpful video
UK Video on Laying Lino in Bathroom
(Most of what they show applies anywhere.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDUD36VPD_U
diy.com

American Video On Laying Lino I Kitchen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BO3k9j1Q3c
Apart from the accent being American, the only other difference is that the names of the stores mentioned in the comments are American.

What to buy:
Vinyl large enough for room with a little edge
sealant +
+ edging strip
knee pads
knife
backed tape
silicone seal
spray ?
washing up liquid
working gloves
hammer (to hit any protruding nails)

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

How to protect your cabin bag when travelling

I had luggage assist on the railways. Unfortunately, people, trying to help, didn't understand that four wheel bags need to be upright. They insisted on dragging the bags forwards on two wheels. This damaged the front pocket of the bag, leaving dirt and holes, and damaging the beading edge.

I bought a patch in a craft shop. the assistant said to me, "You don't want an iron on patch. You need a glue-oo patch."

Problem
How do I prevent more damage next time? My wheel on luggage gets damaged easily. How can I protect it?

Answer
Do what you see done at the airports. They charge you to wrap your suitcase in what looks like clingfilm.

You could encircle your bag with a strap.
Use clingfilm.
Add bubblewrap.

Wrap an old blanket around it, then a plastic bag.
Place a pretty new pull-on bag inside an already old and dirty larger bag.

Author
Angela Lansbury.

Why You Should Not Feed Monkeys

Problem
Children were shrieking, running after a monkey which ran up a tree. The girls were trying to feed the monkey. A boy was chasing the monkey with a stick.

I said to one of the girls: "You're are frightening it. There are twenty of you twice its size."

She replied, "I'm trying to feed it."

I said, "You shouldn't feed monkeys. They will attack you."

She retorted: "We fed it and it didn't attack us."

Days later I spoke to a security guard who said:

"Yes, we know all about the monkey. We think it got separated from a group. Lots of monkeys live on Bukit Timah. (Central Singapore.) We called the NEA. The National Environment Agency. We aren't allowed to kill it. We have to catch it and release it.

"We've been trying to catch it for days. But it's too clever. We put food down in the open to lure it, and more food inside a cage. It took the food from the open but would not go inside the cage. Would you go inside a cage? I wouldn't. We are supposed to be descended from monkeys but monkeys are cleverer than we are.

"The reason you're not supposed to feed monkeys is that it stops them being able to fend for themselves. They aren't born knowing how to catch food. They learn from their elders. If you stop a baby monkey learning, it doesn't know how to survive and can't teach its children.

"Once a monkey learns that it gets food where humans live it hangs around. If it gets food three or four times it waits for some more. Then if somebody comes back from shopping with food in a bag the monkey will try to take it.

"We had one monkey climbing up the balconies to one of the upper flats. Luckily it didn't get inside. A monkey indoors creates havoc, hundreds of pounds worth of damage, a huge insurance claim."

A biker who is also a hasher (a member of a worldwide running group which in Singapore runs through the jungle) told me"
"We see the monkeys if we have a run through Bukit Timah. Th government used to put up little signs asking you not to feed damage. Now the signs are huge. Monkeys can be very aggressive and destructive. They can get on your bike and tear the saddle."

Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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Art restoration from Australia; & DIY restoring photos, onto canvas?

Art restoration is taking place in Australia for major art works.

In another story, in the UK an old painting with a hole in it was saved and found to be a lost masterpiece.

In London a business restores old photos.

Don't discard damaged paintings and photos. They could be next year's treasures.

I stopped speaking to and seeing a relative who threw away a huge oil painting of my father as a three year old with his grandfather. She said, "We didn't have room for it when we moved. It had a lovely frame, too."

What a shame she didn't offer it to the nearest charity shop, or better still us. She told us over dinner in a restaurant. My father went silent.

My late father. Now I just have a tiny postcard photo of my father. All my life I had wondered what happened to the painting. Dated 1915.  Not speaking to her isn't out of spite on my part. I am just too upset every time I think about it.

Please keep all old paintings. Somebody, somewhere will want them. They can be restored.

Unique art restoration business spreads wings into Asia: South Australia’s Artlab looks to commercial sector to maintain broad spectrum of expertise.

Restoring Photos
To restore old photos you can use a computer program such as Photoshop Elements, the home version, a cut down version of the more expensive professional version.

Photos on Canvas
Other companies will copy your family photo or ancestor photo or holiday photo of a beach scene or castle and print a photo onto a canvas or with a kind of mesh which looks as if it's on canvas so you have the illusion of an oil painting.
http://www.my-picture.co.uk/photo-on-canvas/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.