No Reading Glasses - Borrow Some?

Problem - dark and no glasses
I wake in the night and go to type an idea on my computer. I should have left my spectacles on the computer so they were there when I needed them. But I was reading in bed. Now my spectacles are in another room and I don't want to wake somebody else by looking for them. Even just walking from one room to another or turning on a corridor light can be a disturbance.

Solutions - lights and reading glasses
Maybe I could install low-level lights in the sockets to aid walking to the bathroom or backwards and forwards in the night and the dark of early morning in the northern hemisphere. I should have a second, spare pair of reading glasses by the computer.

New Glasses In One Hour
In Singapore and the UK you can have simple reading glasses made within an hour. Take in your prescription choose a frame, go off for a coffee and come back and your glasses are ready.

This might work, or not work, if you need simple glasses for reading, or if they can do long-distance glasses which you need for driving.

Dark, Dawn
In Singapore and Asia the sun comes up suddenly at dawn. In the USA, Europe and the UK, further from the equator, we have four seasons and dark dawns in winter time. When get up early it's dark outside and in.

Light Wakes You
Normally the light wakes you, the dark sends you to sleep. I think the light in the bathroom is too bright. It wakes me. I should install a second dimmer light just for night use.

Borrowed Reading Glasses
Meanwhile, back at the computer, I see somebody else's reading glasses. Why not give them a try?

I first discovered this works at a wedding when I could not read the menu and somebody at my table loaned me their glasses for a minute so I could check on the choices for the main course whent he waiter came round to take the order. Problem was solved.

On another occasion I picked up somebody else's glasses by mistake. I could read - but not see at a distance. They weren't my glasses! But they did work for reading.

I don't want to strain my eyes using somebody else's glasses. My eyes are different, one better than the other. However, I want help now. Go on - try it!

Yes, sure enough, I can read and type this. I know that it's not a good idea to use somebody else's glasses on a permanent basis. It will re-set my eyes which are used to my varifocals. But it's a temporary solution to my problem. It could solve yours.

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

Balloon Museum and International Hot Air Balloon Festival, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Hot Air Balloons in The Land Of Enchantment

Balloons at dawn. Picture by Scott Williams shared in Wikipedia.

I have seen pictures of those multiple balloons so many times. I don't know where, but I have seen them. Hasn't everybody?

I've actually seen the balloons, by chance, when I was visiting New Mexico. I just happened to be there at the right time.

Drive Or Fly
If you want to see the balloons, and you are already in the USA, you are in luck. If you have the time, you can drive for miles in the USA, from one state to another, on wonderful motorways, with 24 hour burger bars, salad bars and food stops, and inexpensive out of town motels to break your journey.

We used to do that every weekend.  On one occasion we drove all the way from our rented home in Rockville, Maryland, just north of Washington DC, overnight down to Atlanta, Georgia. On another occasion we drove from Washington to New York State. It was always a great break for us, our child, and a visitor from Europe. If you save your airmiles, that's good, too.

Oct - 7-17 2017.
Article in Wikipedia.
Official website.

A Little History
It started in 1972 with one man wanting a balloon for publicity. They then thought of who had the most balloons, just over what we in Britain would call a dozen (12), actually lucky thirteen, in England. They flew them over. Not all arrived, but most did.

The Albuquerque Box
Once you reach Albuquerque, that is a great place for ballooning, and balloonists - what's the correct terminology? Albuquerque has mountains on one side, to the East, the low river, and the winds create a square draft so that a balloon can be blown around the square or circle and sometimes land back where it started!

Each year the event increased until they had over a thousand balloons. They decided quality was better than quantity, and cut the numbers back to one year, 750, one year 600.

On different occasions you can see a launch of something different, such as the funny shaped balloons. Birds, animals, planes. Disney characters.

Do I need to buy a ticket? How near do I need to be? You can see the balloons overhead at a distance. If you want to visit during the festival, you might enjoy booking cheaper out of town if your first choice accommodation is fully booked. Whilst you are enjoying other activities, the balloons provide an interesting addition to your photos.

The joy of being at the festival is that the balloons are so big. And you can actually enjoy rides.

Launch day is spectacular. They hold photo competitions. You can go the launch field to watch them take off, or one of the landing sites to see them land.

Look at the website. Online you will find merchandise, hotel booking suggestions.

Is it popular? Yes. The event is huge. A major tourist draw for the city, at the time and as a result of making the city known, throughout the year. The main site is the size of several football fields. To cope with millions of visitors they have a park and ride scheme.

You have to pay to park at designated points. At 'specially negotiated rates' they say.

When to go - which days?
October every year for nine days. It has just started now Oct 8 in 2017. You can book balloon flights. If you miss it, there's also a museum at the launch site.

What time of day?
There's something for larks and something for owls. That day starts at 6 am with the dawn patrol and laser show.

You can see balloons in dawn mist, as in the picture above, watch balloons in flight in full colour in daylight, and balloons ethereal, lit and static, at night, at least at dusk.

What Can You Buy?
From the main show online shop:
First of all tickets for the show. 2017 prices are $45 for five tickets, saving @1 per ticket.
Bookmarks, a Bucket List Book, a colouring book for children, a calendar for 2018, a mug, a 3D puzzle, pins, posters, a snowglobe for Christmas or as an all year paperweight, a shot glass, and patches.

Patches
Patches appeal to me. My wheelie suitcase has a tear. I've never been keen on torn jeans. Tears in clothes expose me to mosquito bites and irritation from rubbing. I keep a stock of patches in my sewing boxes. Then, when I have a hole or slit in a garment, I can stick on and/or sew on a patch of a suitable colour.

BALLOON MUSEUM
What can you see?
Short films about ballooning and a film from a flight over Albuquerque. the science of hot air and gas ballooning. Weather. Use of balloons in wartime, WWI and Zeppelins, Japanese use of balloons.

BUY From The Museum Shop:
The museum shop is open all year Tuesday through Sunday. (That's an Americanism. In the UK we would say the Britishism, Tuesday to Sunday.) You can buy clothing, wall hangings, ornaments, items related to the ballooning and other New Mexico artwork.

Is the museum and shop there outside the event dates? Yes, open all year.

VISIT
The museum has videos and activities, a buffet, a bacon for viewing the park, and they say the best view of the park.
You can also hire the museum for a wedding.

MUSEUM HOURS/ADMISSION
Tues-Sun, 9-5.
Cost: Four US dollars, for locals $1 discount with a valid New Mexico ID), seniors 65+ $2, children 4-12 $1, children 3 and under, free; Free admission Sunday morning 9 am to 1 pm, and the first Friday of the month except October.

So, if you can't get to Albuquerque for the October balloon festival, if you can arrive for a long weekend the first weekend of the month, Friday and Sunday mornings you get free admission to the museum. Ans spend what you saved in the shop.

Where To Go
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

9201 Balloon Museum Drive NE
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87113

Tel: 505-768-6020
Tel: 505-880-0500

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albuquerque_International_Balloon_Fiesta

http://www.balloonfiesta.com

https://www.visitusa.org.uk/default.aspx?pname=Travel-Planner

https://www.newmexico.org

https://www.visitalbuquerque.org

www.balloonfiesta.com/guest-guide/park-ride 

http://www.balloonmuseum.com

Author, Angela Lansbury.

Flowers to photograph in Singapore: how and why to take photos

Problem
Ho can you capture and preserve the flowers you pass? We don't yet have the ability to record and reproduce perfumes and aromas - I've read that this is being researched and one day will arrive - but you can record the flowers. Some tilt up, some tilt down. They may open at night, or open in the day to see the sun and attract the bees and close in the evening.

Answer
Here below are my flowers seen and photographed on the walk from an MRT station back to a condo. If a walk is tiring or boring, you can brighten it up by taking photos. (If your long-legged friends are walking too fast, you can stop them by taking a photo.)

A few days later it's lovely to look at the photos. I spin up and down, seeing something different in every photo each time. Looking at photos of flowers is like meditation, a distraction form stress, calming. Maybe that's why painters, in the days before photography and TV and films, provided still life paintings. From the point of view of a photographer, a flower is easier to capture than moving people, vehicles, animals, birds and butterflies. If you can add a human being, an animal, a bird, a butterfly, even a shoe or piece of litter to m contrast, show size, you are more likely to create a photo different from there average and win a competition.

I went to a lot of trouble to get the flowers without leaves which were turning brown or eaten into holes. I wanted a pretty pictures. I should have taken one with holes, for an article on what is eating your plants, or for some philosophical point about plants are food for insects, or into every life a little rain must fall and some nasty insects as well.

Another way to create a set of interesting photos would be to take the same flowers at dawn and at dusk, or in sunny and wet weather, or in a country which has seasons, in spring and autumn.

Also see my previous post showing a bird drinking nectar with its beak in an aloe vera plant on my balcony in Singapore.
Author Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker.

Flower photos by Angela Lansbury.
Copyright Angela Lansbury
All rights reserved

Listed Buildings To Visit And Photograph

If you want to take a daily walk or a free tour of your area of the city where you are living or visiting, look at a map and find the historic buildings nearby. You might pick historic buildings in your nearest high street, or old buildings in the countryside or down leafy side streets.

Map Search
My family did a search in north west London and we were amazed at the number of listed buildings. A great opportunity for a walk and some photography.

St Anselm's Church, Hatch End.
Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Timing Your Trip
If your primary aim is fresh air and free of noise, you might choose to walk early in the morning. A late uncle of mine used to travel the world and take photos (actually colour slides - I still have them) of temples and buildings around the world at dawn.

You might also try gardens and parks with the morning dew. Carry a plastic bag like a dog poop scoop to remove litter from the ground, especially cigarette butts dropped around doorways, for your romantic photos.

Reality Pictures
Other people prefer to show life how it is. They like to reveal that beauty spots are ruined by litter. The french word verite or truth or reality comes to mind. Ralists want to show that third world countries are slums, dumps, poverty stricken, and not the idyllic places of our dreams. I like to take one of each. First the reality, then how it looked after I cleared it.

People Pictures
I also take a place without people and with people. I had an editor who always wanted people in photos. He said people made it interesting.

Local Characters
But you also need the right people. Do you want to show only local people to match the venue. Or tourists enjoying the trip. Or people meeting the locals?

A Chinese magazine might want only Asians. Or they might want only foreigners, because that's what readers aspire to imitate, or because that fits the text. Or because they already have lots of local people and want something different.

Fashions
I found that people in last year's fashions dated a photo. They look untidy with shirts hanging out. They were inelegant. For a fashion magazine the aim would be to include cute characters.

Passers-By
Passers-by are often keen to pose.
They might move and caused blur.

What if you want a natural shot. Even people standing still or slumped can be an anomaly. An amazing number of people shut their eyes, cover part of their faces, glare, stand looking gormless.

Others are in the wrong place with trees and lamp posts growing out of their heads.

They run forward demanding money. Or try to rob you whilst you are taking a photo.

They move hands and wave and cause blur. They move out of shot at the last moment, leaving bits of bodies. You get a disembodied arm or foot as if you are chasing a fugitive.

The solution is to take lots of shots. Choose the best. (This is called bracketing.)

Twilight
I like twilight pictures. I won a competition from Polaroid and a ferry company when we were given Polaroid cameras. I took a statue silhouetted against the still light evening sky.

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