Build a Lego Room, Visit Legoland Or Move? Are you thinking of building a propery, taking up citizenship or renting or buying a condo? What apartment and condo really mean

 You could build your dream house from Lego or on a computer, or admire pictures on the internet. I have moved around the world, mostly renting, dreamng of buying and building, visiting friends who have done so and listening to their cautionary tales. 

Let us start with the simplest move, when you go to another country to look around, holiday, take a job overseas, and consider buying or building overseas or back home, using all your ideas. 

American homes are bigger. Huge rooms. Huge houses. Huge bedrooms. Often with a walk in clothes closet.

I always thought a flat was just a dwelling on one level. An apartment was grander, bigger. A condo was a big development, like a village of blocks of large size flats or flats of 2 to 5 bedrooms mixed in each block, with shared facilities. What kind of facilities? Most importantly for me, a swimming pool. For my husband, a gym. Extras are often a shop or two, even a nursery school, a hairdresser, and a meeting room for hire. 

England is too cold most of the year for swimming, although neighbours in London and friends have had pools where I have swum. For us Brits, the dream is a hotel or condo with a landscaped pool, in Florida, or Spain, or Singapore.

In the USA

In the USA we first lived in a shared town house owned by the company where my husband had a new job, transferred from London within the same company. Rooms on each of the three floors were rented out to incoming staff. These were permananent staff, staying for more than a week and up to a year before they found their own place to live. This was great for sharing meals, tips, cars, social life. We moved to live in a conso with a swimming pool.

The estate agents used to send a packet of offers of everything from bedding and curtains to food delivery, to every new guest, renter, or owner. 

Our apartment in Rockville Maryland had a swimming pool open in summer. It was closed in winter and nigh time and surrounded by tennis court style high netting. Two lifeguard seats were there and two of the resident's teenagers were empolyed as life guards. This was to do with local laws and insurance.

Pol fencing. Photo from Med55 in Wikipedia.

Australia has rules about surrounding home swimming pools with fences and lockable gates.

Other American ideas which I liked:

Old People's Home linked To Leisure Centre

The home for the elderly was at the end of a short covered walkway leading to a leisure centre with a library, swimming pool sna djacent cafe. Our neighbours took us there to visti their granny. They spent every Sunday lunch time there. The grandchildren used th pool. The parents read the free newspapers and watched. The granny had company from her family and other residents.

And a pool for exercise. A card room.Lots of visitors and people to see. The visitors were all relatives and were identity checked with membership cards on arrival.

The pool and gym provided exercise. 

Later we moved to Singapore.

I was sent a link in Singapore to a website which might be run by an estate agent or be a scam, so I am reluctant to pass on the link. However, I have observed these points for you to notice:

In Singapore there are three main kinds of property, Housing Development Board (HDB), several levels of estates built at different periods, some only rented but most available to buy. Sometimes in some places you have to be a resident in the property for five years before you can sell.

What to look for:

Status of Buyer

1 Is ownership of an HDB flat open only to Singapore citizens (passport holders) and Permanent Residents (those who won't take up Singapore passports because they are unwilling to give up their other passports, which is a requirment).

2 Is it a subsidized government development and only available to first time buyers who have no property overseas.

3 Is there a requirement that you have lived a certain number of years in the coutnry.

Status Of Buyer or proximity to Schools,/Miltary or Govenment property

4 Is there a restriction on the type of preprty or area where you can buy (due to local restrictions on foreigners or any member of your family having a criminal record, not near a military, base, not near a school, not on ground floor or the lower five floors of a builing (once introduced on foreign ubyers in Sinapore to prevent foreign owned buildings being used to orchestrate riots).. 

At one point you ould not have windows overlooking housing occupied by government ministers, so apartments in one block had narrow high windows on one side of the building and you could not alter the windows).

5 Are the buildings in a condo with high security. in Singapore most condos are gated and vehicles have to say who they are visiting and give their ID. So you cannot drive around a condo just to see the outside, except with an agent who gives his ID to the gatekeeper, and with an appintment to meet the unit owner or collect a key.

6 You can learn a lot from 360 degree views from apartments currently on sales. However, apartments can vary enormously. One looks out on a mountain, another on a car park another on a dustbin area, another on the swimming pool. 

Cashew Heights, condo, Singapore.

A video does not tell you about traffic noise. If the land next door is sold for another development, or knocked down for another, you could have a year of building works noise, dust from the buildings site, water cut off, electricity cut off (deliberately or accidentally), distubance of snakes and wildlife such as monkeys. 

7 Redevelopment could be prevented by neighbours, objections from governemnt, builders going out of business. In Singapore sometimes you are protected by a law preventing building starting unless their are sufficient funds to finish the project. Sometimes in the past the first building in a complex is sold to get a bank loan to start the second building. If there is a recession and the first building does not sell, your deposit on the second buidling would be lost t the defunct company which could not finished the development. 

8 Don't accept verbal assurances. Check a legal document. Check the history of developers. Go to see thier previous developments to see if you like the finish.

9 What to lok for:

Is the parking covered or will you get leaves and bird droppings?

10 is the building on stilts to withstand flood water?

11 Will the building have fire alarms and a lightning conductor?

12 Are you dealing with the owner of the land or apartment. Have you checked their identity and have you met them?

13 Are tenants of your property allowed to have children and pets and to sub-let? Can you veto the tenants?

14 Do you need to let the place to pay off the mortgage? If so, can you have any guarantee the place will be let? Can you reserve one period a year, such as Xmas or Easter for your own family holiday?

15 What is the cost of a porter and mainteance/ Is there a contingency fund to deal with a 20 year old boiler, boiler switches for communal hote water, subsidence and tree roots under the ground floor, leaking through the flat roof (Singapore and UK I have been in buildings which had this) and leaking down the outside walls.

In Singapore A balcony can be turned into a fruit and vine growing area. I have seen vines growing on the balcony of a neighbour in Singapore. They also have allotments. You may need to get on the waiting list early for an allotment.

Angela Lansbury watering plants on a Singapore balcony. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

The tallest plant is a miniature lime tree. The small bitter oranges were used by us to make marmalade. 

Other plants which grow well are aloe vera. The aloe vera plants sporut babies. 

Anther success was  lemon grass, bought for food from the supermarket. One piece cut into four soon grew more.

In Singapore the plan is to tturn flat rooves of housing into gardens for fruit and vegetables. The plan is called 3030, meaning 30 percent of the coutnry's needs will be grown within the country by 2030. 

In Singapore many flats have a mmaid's room and toilet. One family has converted the mai's room area into a kitchen and made the kitchen itno a dining area off the lviing room.

16 Can you buy up an adjacent flat or nearby flat for your parents, children, grandchildren, cusins, future husband or wife, guests, or to let out and easily visit the proeprty even with travel restrictions.

Remember, when it is a bad time to sell it could be a good time to buy. And vice versa. 

What can go wrong? Worst case scenario, the developers disappear,, run over time, use substandard concrete, build onto foundations not strong ennough to support an extra storey, added without planning permission later. Worst case scenario, loss of life of builders or tenants or guests. 

In London I have seen the worst and the best.

Thinking of Grenfell Tower in London, a goverment building, Beiru explosion and firet, the tsunami in Asia, and the Versailles wedding disaster in Israel.)  For every one of these cases you can read comments on what could, or should have been done to prevent thse events, and what is being done now to protect people in future.

Some laws seen to be there just to make life difficult nm and cause paperwork delays. Other laws seem there so the governemtn can collect taxes for inspection and permits, or for intermediaries to collect bribes to speed things up. to look on the bright side, many of the laws are there to protect the builders, the owners, the buyers, the sllers, the inhabitants, and those renting.

The 'Finish'

What can go wrong? In Singapore, we had a batrhoom floor which sloped the wrong way, so the shower water did not run down the drain but collected in the opposite corner, creating mould. I have rented property which had basins cracked by the installers, light fittings broken by tenants.

In the UK, a neighbour's insecure low wooden side gates were opened by burglars. The remedy, required by the insurance company, was to install a metal gate with a high top.

Downstairs bedroom

I met a family who needed a ground floor bedroom for the huband in a wheelchair. they bought a house in a secluded cul de sace. The double garage of the house had been converted by the sellers into a a large ground floor bedroom, with parking for two cars in the open on the forecourt.

More Cupboards

Another person I met had converted open shelving in the kitchen into high cupboards to create extra storage space. 

Space under stairs can be cnverted to a libary, with a desk, clothes closet, shoe cupboard, downstairs toilet. 

Space under stairs can store boks or horizontal wines.

The attic can be made into storage, a guest bedroom, or a bedroom and bathroom, or an art room with a skylight for the painter, or writer and illustrator.

A conservatory can be a playrom or an artist's room or for watching bird and animal life.

Too Many Roms?

In London the UK I met a widow who had her old-fashioned house knocked down and built herself a double size basement flat, plus three floors of two flats above to provide income. She went to visit the developers' other proerties he had built to see if the finish was god enough.

UK Lego Room

Another young London couple converted one bedrom into a children's play room. Every birthday and Christmas they asked every family member of guest for Lego. By the time the children reached the age of five, they had an entire room filled with Lego. They had more Lego than their local toy shop.No problem keepign children busy and ut f your way, or off the computer. Easy to entertian visitng children and guests. 

What can you build? Everything from buildings to rockets.

USA Scene

Lego. Houston.USA
NASA's image of the day.

UK Lego Scene

Trafalgar Square, London, England, built in Lego, shown at Legoland,  which you can visit in Windsor, England.

Useful websites

https://www.legoland.co.uk/

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/singapore/safety-and-security

About the Author

Angela Lansbury and her family have lived in the UK, USA, Spain and Singapore.

Worst Case Scenario For Travellers - Be Prepared With Alternative Travel, Accommodation And Food

Worst Case Scenario
I like to travel fully prepared to re-route in an emergency. What are the alternative modes of travel?

USA
You can get delays anywhere. We were bumped off flights in the USA at Xmas. (Bumped meaning denied boarding, or boarded and found your seat already occupied and were asked to get off the plane.


The first time I experienced a major delay was on a flight to India.

Indian flag.

INDIA
The first travel delay I had was outgoing from Heathrow, London, on a flight to India. Engine trouble. We were told to wait. Another plane was due in from the USA and we would be transferred to that flight. Wait a couple of hours.

An American was canny. He told me and other passengers, "Goodbye folks. I'm going to book on another airline. The plane will not be arriving in the next two hours."

I asked, "How do you know?'

He replied, "I phoned the USA and it has not taken off yet. the flight takes five hours or longer. So it cannot arrive here at the time they told us. You will be hanging around all day."

What could possibly go wrong?

EUROPE - UK, London
We were at home asleep before midnight, in a quiet suburb, woken when we heard banging. A woman was driving out our car and shouting.

We called the police. She drove off but we had the number plate.



EUROPE - France
We overnighted in a small hotel garni (guesthouse). We woke in the morning to find a large vehicle, possibly a delivery van, or cleaning vehicle, had damaged my mother's car.


EUROPE - Madrid, Spain
We drove out car to Spain. We parked outside Madrid Zoo for a few hours. We returned to find the window broken by thieves. We had to hire a car one way back to our home, leaving our car to be repaired and shipped back.



The flag of the Czech Rpublic and the former Czechoslovakia.

EUROPE - Prague, Czech Republic
One year we drove our car from the UK across Europe to Prague in the Czech Republic. Our car was broken into. Windows smashed. Over Xmas and New Year garages were shut, police stations were shut or they were out manning the crowds. Parts needed to be ordered were from factories shut over the holidays.

Make sure you are fully insured and have the insurance company numbers.



EUROPE - Spain - Marbella
My handbag was snatched as I was unloading the car. My husband chased after the assailant's car, put his hand through the window, and was dragged around the corner and disappeared.

I ran after the car, screaming, "Let go!"

My husband reappeared but had to go to hospital to be patched up.

A passer-by, alerted by my screaming, saw the car dragging my husband and memorised the numberplate. I could not write down the number because the bag containing my pen had been stolen.

We reported the crime. The police had arrested one of the four boys in the car, a stolen car, when it went around the corner and crashed into parked cars. I was left in the waiting room with my small son, sitting opposite the lad who had stolen my bag and whose gang had injured my husband.

Alternative Transport
Can you go buy a low cost flight, another airline,or hire a helicopter? Could you take a train, a ferry, a bus, a taxi, hire a self-drive car.

Could buy a motorbike, rent a bicycle?

Even if you have the money, and can afford to pay a driver, and have a driving license for that vehicle, what if the emergency means all the hire cars are booked?

What about hiring a minivan or coach to drive a whole group of people? I read of one incident where an airline had no plane able to take people back to the UK.

Somebody said, "They could hire a coach and take us back!"

What about everybody hiring cars? No cars were available. Besides, the price quoted for hiring a car was equal to or more expensive than hiring a coach!

An enterprising passenger with initiative and funds decided he would hire a coach. To recover his money, and do everybody a favour, he sold tickets to all the other passengers. He got everybody back from Europe to the UK.

The moral is, always have your international driving license, or a photocopy of it, even if you had not intended to drive.

Alternative Routes
Go to an intermediate country away from terrorists, natural disaster, medical emergency or quarantine?

Alternative Accommodation
What about accommodation? Could you hire a flat, or a caravan to live in at lower cost than staying in a hotel for months?

ISRAEL
I heard from people in Tel Aviv that they were in what I call a semi-quarantine, not confined to their rooms but allowed to leave so long as they kept distance from others. They said they were allowed out to exercise and had walked along the beach.


Flag of Israel

QUARANTINE and homestay and isolation
What about food? Can you pack tinned food in your suitcase or carry on bag or briefcase or handbag. I like to travel with a small tin of sardines, and another of baked beans, and a third of fruit, in case we arrive late and the hotel restaurant is closed, or we are stuck at an airport, or stuck on the runway for hours.



Flag of Singapore

Home Delivery
Find out who does home delivery? My family renting a condo in Singapore found out about a shop selling provisions in the condo. We asked if they would deliver if we were ever quarantined. It turned out that the shop already offered delivery to the 1000 people on the estate. But few people bothered to use this service. So we took their names and phone number and put it in our phones and on the fridge in case we ever needed it.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a British citizen and also had family who are Singapore Permanent Residents (a renewable legal status).

Holiday protection and the collapse of Thomas Cook - what safeguards can you take

When booking a holiday, check what safeguards are in place to protect yourself and your money. Have a plan B.

Various schemes could protect you.
ATOL - for flights and more
ABTA holidays without flights
Credit card
Debit card

Always have a book or activity to keep yourself happily occupied  in case you are delayed for hours at an airport.

See later post on stranded.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7496085/Thomas-Cook-Q-Im-abroad-trying-home.html

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

How The Haze Affects Your Health, Finances and Travels

Where is the haze and when and why?
My family has been experiencing haze in Singapore. I have cancelled my daily swim and I will tell you my other expeiences in a moment. But you will be wondering which countries are affected and how this affects your business and holiday plans.


Haze in KL, Malaysia.



Haze over the Merlion, symbol of Singapore. Picture from Wikipedia article on haze.

This is a neat summary by Wikipedia.

The 2019 Southeast Asian haze is an ongoing trans-national air pollution crisis which affects several countries in Southeast Asia, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Thailand began to experience haze in February 2019 until mid May 2019, peaking in March and April. Later in the year, starting from June-July 2019, Indonesia began to experience haze. Malaysia was affected from August 2019, while Singapore and Brunei experienced haze in September 2019.

It is the latest occurrence of the Southeast Asian haze, a long-term issue that occurs in varying intensity during every dry season in the region. It has mainly been caused by forest fires resulting from illegal slash-and-burn practices, principally on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan,

Flag of China

Yellow Dust, China and Korea
Yellow dust has also affected Beijing in China, and Korea, but that's another problem, an extra problem. Meanwhile, in Asia we have haze.Who cares if you are not in Asia? Well, there are lessons to learn for the USA and Europe, your overseas colleagues could be affected, and your investments may be affected.

Haze All Over Asia
The haze is bad for business. It doesn't just affect the children, the elderly, the pregnant, the nervous.

Flag of Singapore

Flights
First, the haze can affect flights. You can't land a plane if you cannot see. You cannot fly across the city.

Flag of  the USA

As I discovered on the day of 9/11, if the flights in one part of the world are affected, there's a knock on effect in other parts of the world. Planes are turned back or don't set off. People miss their connections and half empty flight are cancelled. The plane from one continent does not arrive so the ongoing section is also affected. A delay in take off means the pilots and crew are over their permitted time and the plane has to wait for another crew to bbe assembled.

Road Transport
Increase in road accidents. Cars run into each other. Poeple try to tailgate and hit the car in front which slows or stops when visibility ceases, causing accidents.

Your air crew may be in airport hotels, and so may the passengers. But if some of them are in the city and cannot get to the plane that causes problems.

Different countries have different solutions. Take India, for example.

Flag of India

Indian Car Pollution Solution
Cars in cause pollution. So oen measure has been to allow cars to operate on alternating days according to the numberplate, odd numbers one day, even numbers the next.

Car Sharing
So if you and your enighbour have cars which fall into different categories, on odd number days you share one car, on even number days, you share the other.This works if you don't have more than half the seats filled by one family.

Pedestrians and Cyclists
I am planning a trip to a company in Singapore. That involves a walk from the station. But we are told not to go outdoors. Sports are cancelled. Construction workers are recalled. The security on the gate.

Zoos
The staff in the Safari park. The animals in the zoo are inside.

Symptoms
What are the symptoms of the haze? I keep clearing my throat, as if I have a sore throat or bad cold starting. My eyes look bloodshot.  I keep coughing.
My eyes feel prickly.

Business Meetings
So, I don't want to walk to my business meeting. What are the alternatives? I could take a bus. But that involves sitting out in the open air waiting for the bus if the bus is not frequent.

Offering Lifts
I might get a lift back to the station. I might not.

Taxis And Costs
What about the cost of the taxi? There and back. Twice a day for a week, or more. 28 trips averaging 10 dollars. What if the other person cancels? Waiting for the taxi at the pick-up point exposes me to the air.

Schools Closed
Schools are closed. That means parents have to stay home to look after their children. Shops and services and businesses are closed.

Sports
The swimming pool lessons are cancelled. The golf tournaments.

Swimming pool in Singapore.

Restaurants
Restaurants with outdoor seating are losing half their business.

Waiting For Your Driver
I could call a grab or taxi. Both ways if I do not get a lift home. The person kindly offering me a lift wants me to wait at the pick up point outside the station. But that involved standing by traffic fumes and breathing in the haze. I have to arrive early to be sure not to miss the driver.

Motorcycling
Motorcyclists are affected. You could cancel your outing and your trip to the outdoor restaurant. Order food delivered. But the Domonis pizzza and McDonalds delveries and Deliveroo might cancel delivered to protect the health of their drivers.

Social Engagements Cancelled
My Singaporean friend Shan (ethnic Chinese, speaking Mandarin friend who married a men from Australasia, has a second home in Australia. She decided to fly back to Australia last time there was a haze. So her lunch with me was cancelled. I started to feel like the last rat on a sinking ship.

Buying Property
Singaporeans keep telling me to sell my home in the UK and buy in Singapore. If I sell up in the UK I have nowhere to go back to. I am having second thoughts. Will I really want to reture to Asia and the haze when the haze is bad for the elderly?

Wind Direction
The wind blows away the haze. Relief. Then the wind changes.

Where Is the Fire?
Fires are in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Flag of Malaysia

Talks are taking place about fines or punishments for those who are residents of one country, running businesses in another. Instead of waiting for Indonesia to fine the subsidiary company in in Indonesia, fining the main company in Malaysia or Singapore, and vice versa. If it costs only 40 dollars (per foot, per acre or whatever.  to clear land by fire, but to clear by other conventional means costs 400, a business is tempted to take the cost effective route. If the government fines so that the balance is changed, or puts poeple in prison, or takes other measures, that might affect the matter.

Who is paying for the preventive measures? It costs money to send out planes, drop water, deploy the army. Add the cost to the emergency services, sending the firefighters, compensating firefighters who lost their lives, ambulances, hospital staff.

Farmers have lost lives trying to protect their crops and cattle.

Shutting Windows
In Singapore we are looking at windows. The open air scullery areas. The maids walking the dog and cleaning the car in the open sided car parks.

Wearing Masks
The number of people wearing masks is increasing. The people across from you on the train are wearing masks.


Masks

Buying Masks
You can buy masks from pharmacies but when there's a spike in the haze the masks run out. Some masks are only effective a few hours.

Masks are unfomfortable to wear.

Before buying a mask check the different kinds. Dust marks are not the same as haze masks.


Tourism Affected
Do you enjoy tourism when there's a haze. Even if you were not worried about your health, the safari park is shut. The walk to the Gardens By The Bay from the MRT means you might take a taxi instead. The cheaper hawker centre, the outdoor food court, will be deserted and closed.

Coffee Shops and Fast Food
The outdoor areas of McDonalds and Starbucks are empty.

Photographs
The picture of the Taj Mahal or another pretty building, the mosque in Malaysia, all shrouded in mist, or against a white sky instead of blue. The 'ordinary' buildings, the skyscrapers, are against a white sky.

Windows and Fans
I wake to feel groggy. The air is stifling. What is wrong. The patio doors to the balcony have only a little gap for air. I close them. The bathroom air is bad. The high window by the shower is adjar, always. I must clea a path to all doors and windows to clear them in a hurry. We used to leave open the doors and windows to create a through breeze and save the cost of air conditioning.

What I Cancel
If a meeting is held in the outdoor void deck of a Community Center, I won't stay. If the get together after the meeting is at an outdoor hawker center (food court) I won't go.

Tip
Look for free masks given away free at hospitals and clinics.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Dust
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asian_haze

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

How To Buy And Use A Mini-Tripod With Your Mobile Phone

I just took a photo with my mobile phone on a tripod, for the first time. Success? What took me so long?

Problem
For years I had seen people setting up their mobile phones on desks to record themselves giving a speech. I had also seen people set up a mobile phone on a tripod to take a wide-angle photo of a group, set the timer and run to join the group.

I had suggested that a group I belong to should invest in a tripod so that members and visitors could record themselves speaking.

I recall the format: attention, interest, desire, action.

Why record yourself?

Attention
You can share your photos and make friends and win kudos. Keep in touch with guests.

Equally important, look at the photo. The camera makes you pay attention to yourself and your surroundings. The camera does not lie. Friends will be polite. You look in the mirror and from the front you look okay. But from the back, the mobile phone photo or video reveals, your hair is uncombed.

Hair - Bald Patches and Roots
Your camera says that when you walk onto the stage everybody can see your bald spot. Back view shows the roots of your hair are a different colour. Nobody will tell you that. The camera will tell you.

Interest - Your Outfit Analysed
The camera shows if your shoes are down at heel, or your shirt is hanging untidily below your jacket. If you got your appearance, your look, just right, the camera tells you that you looked wonderful, even if everybody else was too busy to take time to congratulate you.

The Room Revealed
The camera will tell you that the room looks a mess and a fire hazard with bags in the aisles. The Sargeant-at-arms responsible for the room set up and health and safety should be like the air hostess before take-off. He or she should walk up and down the aisles to check the route to the exit is clear and ask for obstructions to be removed, before they trip up somebody running up the aisle to speak on stage.

Desire
Yes, I had wanted to record for years. The camera can be set up on the front table. No need to have yourself on recorded telling somebody else, 'Press here'. If other people are too busy with their own speeches, never mind, you can record youself.

In Focus
The other great thing about the tripod is that you can take photos indoors, at night, in poor light and artificial light, with less risk of camera shake.

Action
How did I do it? The first surprise was that the tripod was so cheap. I already had a tripod. I must have bought it from the Poundland Shop in Harrow, London, England. The tripod was still attached to its backing, which said that it came from Birmingham, which is on many items supplied to the Poundland Shop.

So it had cost me only £1!

First step was to cut the plastic ties, relasing the tripod from the instructions and backing and pop the tripod into my bag. The tripod folds up small.

At the venue, second step was to attach the camera. I struggled with this. I was trying to pull the supports sideways and they clearly would not go. I asked my friend Anand for help and the problem was isntantly solved. You really have to be logical. It's like those taps in toilets. Process of elinination. If the door won't push, try pulling. If it won't go up sideways, try up and down. The camera was fixed by pulling the grip upwards, inserting the camera into the space, and letting the grip back down.

USING THE TIMER
At the end of the evening, we took a group photo. Another expert came to my aid. He set the camera up at the back of the room, checked everybody could be seen (small epople at the back come forward into the front row). He set the timer and ran to join us.

Afterwards, I went to take a photo but nothing happened. The camera was still set to timer so there was a delay.

REMOVING THE TIMER!
I ran after the photographer and asked him: 'How do I turn off the timer, and set the timer?'

He showed me that on an LG phone, the timer is in settings. You can move the timer through three settings, three seconds, ten seconds, and off.

Practising Using A Tripod
Before setting off to a meeting, try out your new tripod. Go onto the internet and type in the brand of your phone and the question, how do I set the timer.

Practice doing it at home. No tripod? Ask to see somebody else's and ask how the delay device works. Now that you know how to use it, you will be more inclined to buy one for yourself.

Buying a Tripod
If you don't have a tripod, look for one next time you are in a camera shop. You don't see one displayed?  Ask if they have one? Too expensive? Ask if they have a cheaper model. They might have a different one. Or they might mutter, "You can get one down the road in ... shop.'

Alternatively, look in a budget shop. You might also get one cheaply on the internet.

Happy snapping!

If you are running a speaking club or a photography training session, look for a cheap tripod to record your training, or to demonstrate the tripod to your pupils.

Harrow, London, England has both a Poundland and a One Pound Shop. Keep checking because their  stocks change all the time.

A miniature tripod from a budget store is also an inexpensive gift which is small enough to go in a Christmas stocking for children or adults. You'll be surte to get good use from it, taking pictures of the family's Christmas dinner.

Useful Websites
Lazada
A sturdy tripod at S$16.99
https://www.lazada.sg/products/heavy-duty-tripod-ubeesize-phone-and-camera-tabletop-mini-tripod-with-cell-phone-clip-holder-for-iphone-smartphoneswebcams-compact-camera

You Tube Demo of Poundland tripod


Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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Claiming For Compensation For Delayed Trains

Problem
Your train journey is delayed. Other passengers or station staff tell you that you are entitled to compensation. What do you need to do?

Answers
Take a photo of your tickets.
Photograph the station clock or your watch or make a note of the time you reached your destination.
Collect a freepost envelope from the station.

If you are too tired, need to rush to make another connecting train, see a long queue, or get rushed off by the people meeting you, you can manage without the envelope.

You will have to provide an envelope for your claim - you can write on it the freepost address and will not need a postage stamp.

Alternatively, you can make your claim online.

Go the company's website and look for the claim form.

You need to take a photo or scan of your ticket and load it up. There is a limit on size.

Fill in the other details. these include stations of departure and arrival.

At the end, when you have completed the form, you need to click on submit. I clicked on submit and nothing happened. I did not know whether the problem was:
My photo was too large.
I had no internet connection.
There was a faulty link from the form to the office.
We had previously had trouble trying to buy tickets. We had came back a day later, and had to buy through the phone system.

I prefer not to post off the tickets but to apply online.

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

Photos and Privacy: Are You Followed As Photographer And Your Subjects Safe?

Photo Problem

What does your photo reveal?

How Data Can Help You - Locate You In Emergency

I have looked at lots of photos on Wikipedia which show the type of camera and place. They get the place from a GPS reading built into the camera of smart phone. That's really handy. If you are floating out to sea and need help, lost in a snowstorm, trapped by an abductor, in a car which rolled off a road into a gully, your photo will tell anybody you send it to where you are.

Revealing Location Of Valuables
What about your own photos? Supposing a film star or a friend is showing their diamond engagemnt ring? You take a photo.

They change their mind and say, "I don't want my photo taken."

You agree not to put it on Facebook. Then you decide to just show the lovely ring but not the face which would reveal who it belongs to. The photo data might reveal the jewellery shop, the hotel, or the country.

Marketing Fusion and Ages

Marketing organisations use fusion. They piece together a mosaic of their customers. They know that elderly people buy walking sticks, that mothers buy nappies, that large families buy giant packs of rice. No surprises there. Older people read the Help The Aged magazines, whilst young mother are likely to read Mother and Baby or Parents. The readers of car magazines and bikers' magazines form another subgroup. Some categories overlap. Others are separate.

It doesn't happen every time. You could be buying goods or magazines for somebody else. But it happens more often than not.

Government Data

The UK government has already sold off your address to marketing companies. I once filled in a library car application. My name was mis-spelled, on their computer. My library card was printed with a C instead of an L. Years later I started getting information from companies spelling my name with a C.

Marketing Areas and Journals

The marketing people also know that the seafront in one remote resort has small bungalows; another area has opulent Hollywood mansions. They know that Irish people read Irish newspapers; Indians read newspapers in their language. Technical journals are read by people with Phds. By asking you two questions about yourself, they can guess another fact, or track it down from another survey.

Seasonal Buying

Sellers, insurers and burglars know that people buy gifts at Christmas time. The same applies to other national holidays. The same goes for weddings. Birthdays also attract advertisers. I am very a happy to be emailed by Café Rouge offering me free Champagne or sparkling white wine if I book a table for four or more, better still if the offer has no minimum persons requirement. Otherwise, if one person is ill with flu, we cancel the dinner, postpone it, find the voucher has expired and never go.

Hotel Customers

It is the same sort of piecing together information as is done by the shopkeeper who ask a tourist, 'which hotel are you staying in?' If you are staying in the five star hotel, he gets out his more expensive goods. If you are staying in a youth hostel, he find you something in your budget.

GPS

When my photos are stored on my computer, it's quite handy to have the rough location. Sometimes the location is wrong, off by a few miles. The GPS is at fault.

We were looking for a cemetery for a funeral in the car. The GPS was wrong. We were in the adjacent road, separated from the cemetery by a road of houses. The entrance was around the corner and down a side road.

Delay

However, I am getting increasingly wary about which photos I show. I often put up photos a week later, after I have changed location. I no longer feel guilty that my pictures are no longer news, that I have not shown a photo taken right this second. I am not into 'news'. I am into features.

Wikipedia warns about photos:

 A photo taken with a GPS-enabled camera can reveal the exact location and time it was taken, and the unique ID number of the device - this is all done by default - often without the user's knowledge. Many users may be unaware that their photos are tagged by default in this manner, or that specialist software may be required to remove the Exif tag before publishing. 

For example, a whistle-blower, journalist or political dissident relying on the protection of anonymity to allow them to report malfeasance by a corporate entity, criminal, or government may therefore find their safety compromised by this default data collection.

In December 2012, anti-virus programmer John McAfee was arrested in Guatemala while fleeing from alleged persecution^[15] in Belize, which shares a border. Vice magazine had published an exclusive interview on their website with McAfee "on the run"^[16] that included a photo of McAfee with a Vice reporter taken with a phone that had geotagged the image.^[17] The photo's metadata included GPS coordinates locating McAfee in Guatemala, and he was captured two days later.^[18]

According to documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the NSA is targeting Exif information under the XKeyscoreprogram.^[19]

The privacy problem of Exif data can be avoided by removing the Exif data using a metadata removal tool.^[20]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5448389/Facebook-personal-data-files-Australia-inquiry.html

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Good and Bad Encounters on Buses

Problem
I was rather nervous about my bus journey. Lots of bad things happen on buses. All sorts or odd people. Even if no danger, the person on the bus beside you is smelly, nutty, too close for comfort.

Solutions
If you travel off-peak, you have a chance to move to another seat. I don't think it's offensive to move.

I often move to get a whole seat to myself. I am doing the person I leave a favour, because I leave more room for the person I was sitting beside.

Is it a personality thing? Some people like to claim a seat and stay in it. Some always sit in the same place on a bus or train every day, the one at the front with the view ahead. Schoolchildren run to the seat higher up at the back, where they can sit together on the longer back seat, be together in a group. That does a favour to the older people who don't want to risk walking up the short flight of stairs when the bus is moving, nor down them again to get off.

Also schoolchildren know the route. So they can sit at the back and rush off quickly at their stop. Strangers need to sit near the doors, watching for signs, or listening to the announcements.

I move to sit against the window and enjoy the view. If somebody large sits beside me, they have to spill into the aisle. I am firmly supported by the seat. I do not have my pockets exposed to people passing. I can put my bag against the window. I can tuck my clothes around any pockets.

But seeing the stop before mine I go into panic mode. I move to be near the door ready to get off without delaying the whole bus. I might move to the front to ask the driver if this is the nearest stop to my destination, such as a railway station. It's not always obvious. In a big station, (as happened to me in Singapore) the driver told me to wait until he pulled into the terminal, to save the delay and danger of crossing a busy road.

On my last trip, I moved to stand up in the wheelchair space to take photos. A woman with a buggy got on. I immediately offered to move to make way for her. She said she was fine. She sat down with the buggy next to her, leaving the space the other side of the pole for me to stand.

later, having taken a specific photo of a landmark, I sat down. As I sat in a single inward facing seat by the door, the bus stopped. A man who was unshaven, with missing teeth, said something I could not understand. it sounded like 'ez well ah'. He pointed at my hat. My hat said Venezuela. I was given it at the Venezuela stand at the World Travel Market in London. My hat gets lots of comments. I am a walking advertisement for Venezuela.

The old, unshaven man gave me a big smile. I gave him a big smile in return.

A moment later he was gone. No harm or danger to me. A smile and comment from him to cheer me.

An encounter to brighten his day. If I had been in the street I might have tired to evade a character I didn't know trying to make conversation. But because it was a bus, and I was surrounded by people, and he was getting off, and I could choose to get off at another stop (which I was doing anyway) I was safe and happy to brighten his day with my smile.

Thousands of bus journeys in every city every day. A few end in tragedy. Most end in comedy, if that's what you want.

I had met people who were unsmiling, smelly, mentally challenged, but also conversational people, young people, old people, smiling people, polite people, people to take me way from problems. Better than mediation or sitting at home alone. For a change of scene, take a bus.

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

Light Relief - writing poems whilst travelling

Problem
How to pass the time during a delay? How to see the funny side? How to make good use of your time? I write comic poetry and when I remember and feel inspired I write poems about problems. I met a Singapore Airlines pilot at a toastmasters International meeting and said I would give him a poem, but our paths did not cross again. He was always away flying. However, for your entertainment, here's a new reproduction of my poem.

Answer
To be performed wearing a cap with gold buttons.

The Pilot Speaking
by Angela Lansbury

"This is your co-pilot speaking
I promise we're leaving on time
I know you feel like you're dying
Just breathe deeply, and you'll be fine ..."

"This is your co-pilot speaking
I'm sorry about the delay
If you look out of the windows
You'll see goat herds on the runway

"We don't usually tell you
When we see a snake on the plane
I lift my feet in the cockpit
Calmly sigh, 'Oh no - not again!'

"Whilst I am waiting for the vet
I announce, 'We're waiting for parts ...'
I send for vets - and two doctors
Mine quickly checks my waltzing heart!

"We know you've paid lots of money
We pretend complaints don't cause stress
Altitude makes food taste funny
Crew clean toilets, they do their best

"I have you enjoy a pleasant flight
A safe journey, a lovely day
Remember whilst you have a holiday
We're working, driving, smiling, all day."

Copyright Angela Lansbury
April 21 2017

Quick facts
Single animals or whole herds can get onto fenced or unfenced runways, especially in Africa.
Snakes on the plane have happened several times - either in passenger area or cockpit. Planes from some destinations are checked for stowaways - local wildlife which slithers in. Animals and reptiles and pets can also escape when carried officially or unofficially in luggage, or hidden under the passenger's clothes.

Snakes on a plane
Wikipedia:
The (movie) story is credited to David Dalessandro, a University of Pittsburgh administrator and first-time Hollywood writer. He developed the concept in 1992 after reading a nature magazine article about Indonesian brown tree snakes climbing onto planes in cargo during World War II.

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

Travel insurance - what to look for

What to look for:

• Cover for missed flights. 
• (Cover for delay (leading to lost connection? I thought recompense for delay over a certain number of hours was now given in UK by law by the airline?)
• Cover for cancellation due to illness of partner or travelling companion.
• Requirement to have items in locked boot, when your own car or potential hire car is a hatchback.
• Cover for items over £500 (such as a laptop).
• Medical insurance. (Or flight back to your country where you may already be covered by eg by NHS or your insurance.)
• Length of trip - if there's a limit on time of any one trip.
• Age and health limit on medical cover.

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/holidaymakers-warned-over-worthless-travel-insurance-5194

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker. Author of How To Get Out of The Mess You're In.