The DIY Dolls' House Or Theatre For Holidays

Kleenex Tissue Box House or theatre. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Kleenex Box Theatre

Here's a game for a dolls' house or theatre made on holiday. I have used an almost empty Kleenex tissue box. The had a dozen white tissues at the back form a backdrop. No need to remove them.

Ring Box Display

Inside is the lower half of a heart shaped plastic ring box. The lid broke. I was wondering what use I could make of a ring box with no lid. To display a ring handily on holiday, by a bathroom wash basin? On the bedside table? 

I found some tiny Guatemalean dolls, fingernail size. They stick upright in the slit intended for a jewellery ring. 

You can use an open ring box during the day for play whilst the ring is on your finger. Retrieve the box at night for the ring when the children have gone to bed.

Shoe Box House

You could also make a theatre or dolls' house from one or two shoe boxes, with an upright cereal box for the side staircase. Cut square or round windows using a cup or glass or coins as a template. Behind the window place a holiday brochure showing the sea or mountains or city skyline.

For afternoon entertainment, or bedtime, you could read my poem.

Alternatively, simpler, make a theatre with a stage. Make two dolls or puppets from silhouettes cut from a magazine.

Dolls' House comical poem by Angela Lansbury

 Ava had a little dolly

And the dolly's name was Molly

Molly had a taller sister

And her sister's name was Elsa

The sisters lived in a big house

Which had a dog, a cat, and mouse

A front garden, pots with flowers

A sundial clock counted hours

 

Outside was small blue car

If dolly wanted to go far

And a train in the train station

And police in the police station 

In the hallway was a rug

Where Molly met you with a hug

In the hallway by the window

Was a long inviting settee

When you had nowhere to go

Shut your eyes, dream of the sea - or tea

In the kitchen the best honey

Which had cost a lot of money

In the kitchen was a cook

With an apron, bowl, and book

Upstairs was an attic bed

A pillow where you put your head

And a box with lots of toys

But the toys made no noise

And a wardrobe with a mirror

Where dollies could dress for dinner

And some pictures on the wall

With blue gum to fix them all

On the roof a helipad

Where you could land a little plane

Some of the roof was sloping

Made a runaway for the rain

The roof had statues of a dog

A Noah's ark, tortoise and frog

A cow, a horse, even a bear

A monster with a lot of hair

On the roof the cat with claws

Sat beside the Santa Claus

He hid on the roof all year

Waiting to deliver Christmas cheer

Yes, dolly did have a brother

And a father, and a mother

Dolly-sitter Ava came to stay

When dollies' Dad went on holiday.

But the dolly girls went to school

And the school had lots of rules

About the times when you could play

The long weekends, and holidays.

At bedtime with a sigh

Dolly had to say goodbye

But Dolly was here to stay

Ready to play another day

So Ava shut the door, the house

Put in the cat, put out the mouse

She said, 'dear dollies, please sleep tight

I wish you, both, a very good night'.

-ends-

This poem should have been on my blog on comical poetry but I saved it quickly onto this blog by mistake. Tomorrow I shall add pictures to the version which I have now saved to my poetry blog. 

Toys and DIY

It would be easy to print a tiny list of rules for a school wall, or dolls. house kitchen. Six point type. Or a psotage stamp size piece of white paper with your best calligraphy. Or a piece cut from one of those irritating instruction books in tiny print in multiple languages. Or a postage stamp with the head of the president or king or hero or your country or the country you visit on holiday.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

The easiest language to learn - over is over!

 Swedish is the easiest language to learn if you speak English. Even easier than Spanish and the made up totally regular language Esperanto.

Look at these words. The initials are often the same. Everything is so similar.

Writing down the words I have just learned in alphabetical order will help me to remember them.

Swedish - English

at (with a circle over the a) - at (pronounced ought - that is what the circle is for)

bakom - behind (like at the back of) (pronounced bokom

bredvid - beside or next to, (vid sounds like see in video)

(the) dog - hunden (the hound)

du - you

flyger - flying

framat (with a circle over the a) - forward

Hasten (with two dots over the a) - the horse (the horse hastens, or hastens you, that's horse power) 

over (with two dots over the o) - over

renarna - reindeer / renen - the reindeer

sitter -  sitting

star (with a circle over the a) - standing

This lesson is over. The Swedish for over is over.

Useful websites

duolingo.com

Diwali and Dog's Day Celebrations In Nepal and India

Distinctive flag of Nepal

Problem
I was in Nepal and never saw the dog's day.

Answer
Never mind. The BBC has a story all about it. It's not just a doggy celebration. It's based on the idea that death is looking for you, dogs are the messengers, but if you are nice to them you won't die. The gates to hell are guarded by two dogs.

I can imagine some people are frowning and some are smiling. But the dog owners and dogs are all smiling. The dogs receive all kinds of favourite food, as well as garlands around their necks. Dogs, man's best friend, love being made a fuss of.

To some people from other cultures it may seem rather far-fetched. On the other hand, dogs can save lives. Dogs help the lonely and widowed.  They cheer up people in old folks' homes and patients in hospitals. Provide new interest for the family.

But get a rottweiler in a bad mood and things could turn out badly.

Meanwhile, for dog lovers it is all good news with treats for dogs and lots of great photos. Such characters.

If you are planning a trip to Nepal and you like dogs, consider adding next year's Diwali date to your diary.

What else to do in Nepal? Kathmandu with those wonderful temples with the all-seeing eyes.

Everest base camp. You can get to the base camp in either Nepal (on the south side) or Tibet, by vehicle. If you want to do the worlds' highest trek you must go to Tibet. My husband did that. I think I'll stick to Nepal and take pictures of dogs.

India also celebrates in the same way, with the crow features on the first day of Diwali, the dog on the second day, the cow on the third day.

Useful websites
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46111525
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tihar_(festival)
www.welcomenepal.com
See Nepal in
wikitravel
wikivoyage
tripadvisor
Nepal is also on Facebook and Twitter.

India
www.incredibleindia.org

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

Zoo Reviews : Write Parody Animal Reviews For Fun Whilst Travelling + Cute Photo Captions

Problem
How to brighten up a visit to a zoo, or even sitting on a park bench, or seaside bench watching the birds.

Answer
Spoof  Zoo Animal Reviews
Oregon Zoo and Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens have been doing this. What a great idea. Amusing.

An amusement for teens and tourists. Rate the animals or species at a zoo. Some zoos have started this and got attention. Create a game for the family or a school trip or charity event. Give a prize or vote for the best caption or review.

Fun Photo Captions
You could even do it to brighten up captions on your holiday snaps. I find it easier to write an advertisement than a review.

Cat : Self-cleaning.
Cockroach: Pre-historic model.
Dog: Noisy.

Fox in garden in London, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Elephant: Difficult to find a large enough parking space.
Fox: Runs well.
Magpie: Smartly dressed.
Rabbit: Buy one, get twenty free.
Robin: Very friendly.
Snake: Handle with care.
Spider: Useful for decorating corners.

Spider. Useful for decorating corners. Available in brown, black or mixed. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The old jokes are the best: Zebra - horse designed by a committee.

Use it as NLP to get over your fear and disgust - perhaps not.

USA
California Academy of Sciences
Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens
Monterey Bay Aquarium - @MontereyAquarium
Oregon Zoo - @OregonZoo ; rateaspecies
Tennessee Aquarium - @TNAquarium (On the Chatanooga riverfront)
http://www.tnaqua.org

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-5504799/Zoos-post-hilarious-Amazon-style-reviews-animals.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Informative and amusing. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How to make camera shy people look good in photos

Problem
Your friend says:
Doesn't matter what I do, I look awful in photos. It akes a genius photographer to make me look halfway human.

The staging makes all the difference. You need to put some effort into it. You must have seen makeover shows. Here are some suggestions:

1 Take several photos when you are all dressed up - weddings, anniversaries, birthdays.

2 Wash your hair in advance of the special occasion. If hair is too fly away, use conditioner. You can buy conditioner, find it in hair dye packets, get it free in many hotel bathrooms.  Buy a shampoo containing conditioner.

3 If your hair is greasy or badly cut, or you have a blad patch, or roots of a tint showing, cover head with a hairband, scarf or hat or tiara or paper hat from a Christmas cracker.

4 Place a plain person in a group photo with everybody in the same costume (like bridesmaids).

5 Dress up as a character at a fancy dress party in a costume with a hat which covers your hair and maybe part of your face.

6 Smile.

7 Add a cute cat or dog or bird or baby or soft toy.

8 Stand or sit at a distance next to an attractive feature such as a log fire in a hotel.

9 Take several photos to avoid ending up with only one in which the subject's eyes are shut.

10 Work out your most attractive feature (feet, legs, body, hands, face, eyes, hair, cleavage). Take photos which emphasize your best feature. 

11 Try different poses, such as back to camera looking over shoulder.

12 Try various outfits.

13 Go into fitting rooms of a department store and try on some fancy clothes and get a friend to photograph you.

14 Spend time photoshopping your photos. Cut out frown lines. Try showing yourself slightly blurred instead of sharp.

15 Hide behind a bouquet or vase of flowers.

16 Hold up a book you have written or your favourite book so the book is the central point of the picture.

17 Feature something you do, such as digging the garden, displaying a cake, holding a fish you have caught, standing beside your painting.

18 Put your head in a frame such as a circle, oval, heart.

19 If you are now old and wrinkled, do a collage of four or more pictures of yourself at different ages so that you or others can comment how gorgeous you looked in one of your photos when you were younger.

20 Do a funny face. Comedians such as Kenn Dodd and Mr Bean make a feature of their odd looks. Maybe you can be 'a character'.

21 Look at professional photos to find interesting poses. For example, two children or mother and child sitting back to back on a piano stool. Sitting in a meadow of flowers, hugging your dog, or eye to eye with a cat, and handing an animal a plate of food.

22 If you do any charity work, a photo of you collecting money or helping others has emphasis on what you are doing, rather than what you look like.

23 Be photographed next to the portrait or statue of your hero. 

25 Stand next to a sculpture in a sculpture park.

26 Take lots of selfies sitting at home or in the mirror in a hotel. If you take twenty-five photos you should have one good one.

27 Lots of people will say, "You don't want a photo of me!" or, "Why do you want a photo of me?" You might get them to pose if you say, "I want photo of your certificate," or, "I want you to hold the dog still".

28 Fussy people might well reject most of your photos but pick out one which they like.

29 Hide behind stage make-up such as a Union Jack or American flag on a national day or sports day.

If all else fails, and one person doesn't want to be in a group photo, ask them to take a photo of others.

Author

Why you shouldn't leave your dog in your car

Problem
You are driving along and want to go to the toilet. Just leave the dog in the car, for a minute? No, you can't said my friend Sue.

Answer
Why not? Because on a hot day it might overheat or suffocate, even with windows ajar? Because it could knock the handbrake and send your car downhill to get damaged, hurt the dog and endanger others.

"No -  because somebody might steal the dog, for dog bait," said Sue.

She said, "Last time I went on holiday my dogsitter let me down and I had to leave my dog in a dog's home overnight, but I realised it's a problem driving alone with a dog, just to go to the toilet.

So now we know.

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

How Do I Make A Lo Hei Dog for Chinese New Year In Singapore or anywhere?

Problem
The advantage of travelling and being an ex-pat is that I have lived all over the world. I now have lots of Chinese friends in Singapore who celebrate Chinese New Year with the Singaporean Lo Hei, a dish of many colours which bring prosperity. The name means prosperity toss, or raw fish, in assorted dialects.

You all use chopsticks to mix the food around and toss the food in the air as high as you can - which is supposed to bring you higher levels of prosperity and health. I want to be able to make a Lo Hei dog for the year of the dog with a dog face. How do I do it?

This version has cashew nuts, lower right edge of the plate. They have been adventurous with the colours of the dog which has shaggy carrot orange hair or ears and arched green eyebrows. I like the neat little birds' nests of shredded vegetables are around the outside. The fancy plate is white with an embossed design.

This dog has more realistic colours. The plate is a jolly orange. Orange or red are the colours of New Year and the lanterns which hang everywhere in Singapore in front of and inside restaurants in shopping malls, hotel lobbies and atriums and streets and even around swimming pools.

Answers
The first requirement is the ingredients.

For the
green, shredded cucumber. Parsely. For the
orange, shredded carrot. Mandarin or clementine segments. For the
yellow, maybe grated cheese, cooked parsnip
white - pickled onions, radish
Red - tomato
Black eyes, Two olives or one sliced in two. Or black grape.
For the nose, brown glacé cherry or sultanas.
For the collar, sliced dates.
For the ears shredded brown vegetable, hash browns or rosti.
For the mouth, red cherry.

You also need smoked salmon or other fish.

A few people have suggestions for DIY lo hei:
http://www.ladyironchef.com/2016/01/yusheng-diy-recipe/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer

How To Roll Your Rs in Spanish and Italian - with the help of my dog

Countries where Spanish is spoken as a first language.

Problems
How do you roll your Rs? You can learn to read Italian and Spanish. Then you listen and try to repeat and you don't sound the same as the instructor. You try to speak it but you don't sound right until you can roll your Rs. You don't know which r should be rolled and which is normal - except by listening to the recordings and hoping you will remember the words which roll the R. At first you manage the correct sound once, but can't do it every time. Or only say it when reminded

1 You feel frustrated.
2 You sound like a foreigner.
3 Some words have different meanings with rolled Rs. Which ones?
4 You cannot teach anybody else until you can pronounce words correctly.

Answers
Keep looking on the internet for diagrams of the mouth and descriptions and repeating the actions.

Words Needing Rolled R - not needing rolled r
perro - dog - pero - but

I shall work on constructing and translating a sentence along the lines of: My teacher likes my dog but my dog only likes other dogs. My dog does not like other dogs but my teacher likes my dog. My teacher does not like dogs but my teacher likes my dog.

Google translate gives me this result:
A mi maestro le gusta mi perro pero a mi perro solo le gustan otros perros.
A mi perro no le gustan los otros perros, pero a mi maestro le gusta mi perro.
A mi maestra no le gustan los perros, pero a mi maestra le gusta mi perro.

Remembering which word and which type of spelling requires the rolled r is easy. The one which sounds like a dog's growl is the word for dog with a double r. Think of two rows of teeth in the word for dog.

The google all the videos describing how to do it. I like to revise my searches every six months. Somebody new will have added a video by that time.

https://www.supercocoapp.com/post/how-to-roll-your-rs/

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

Dog Portraits In Coffee At A Taiwan Cafe + DIY decorated coffee for armchair travellers

I associate Taiwan with the museum displaying the Chinese Emperor's gold, but for more mundane and up to date art, take a break at a cafe where they can turn coffee froth into a picture of your, or somebody else's dog. It takes a while and they have an exhibition.

Lots of cafes and hotel restaurants can write the word Happy Birthday on a plate in chocolate, or do a quick stencil on a coffee cup. It would be worth your while to keep a list of places which do this so you can go there for a selfie on a travel trip or birthday.

The froth is made into a mountain, then the colouring from inside a small espresso size cup is dabbed on, copying a photo

Newspaper Articles:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4887202/Taiwan-cafe-s-pet-inspired-coffee-art.html
http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/06/this-cafe-will-turn-your-dog-into-woof-tastic-latte-art-6907235/

THE CAFE IN TAIWAN
My Coffi
19 Xiamen Street, Taiwan 802.

TAIWAN TOURIST BOARD
http://eng.taiwan.net.tw

DIY Tips
In theory you can make any pattern of text or a picture, with any kind of clean stencil. Draw a simple heart using ground sugar or cinnamon.
If you want to make your own decorated coffee with a stencil:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=stencils+for+coffee
While planning your trip to Taiwan, you can decorate a cup of coffee or dessert.

Coffee with a heart shape, white on brown, design in froth. From Wiki by Neely3d (C.Michael Neely).

Decorated dessert. Stencil of writing in cinnamon, brown on yellow, using Persian text, from Wikipedia by Rezarad. Brown works well on white such as a white rice pudding or mousse with a skin, with a personalised message such as Happy Birthday or Happy Holiday. 

I just ordered a stencil from Ebay. I suspect it is paper, not plastic, 16 pieces including a heart and smiling face and Xmas tree for under £1. It will do for a one off event fun novelty.

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

More Welsh Animals, from a cranky crab to a dog with a key

Problem
How do I remember Welsh words for animals?

Answers
Make unusual mental pictures.

Welsh - English
anifail - animal (both start with ANI but the Welsh animal fails to be human or English)
cranc - crab (think of a cranky crab; both words start with CRA; the letter c follows b)
ci - dog (imagine a dog carrying a key)
llew - lion (both start with the letter l, think of Leo the lion; vowels aE IOu - l l e w)

English - Welsh
animal - anifail
crab - cranc
dog - ci
lion - llew

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts. 

Photos of the Fishguard Fort, Canons, and Resolute Defence of Wales

Problem
After all those filling Welsh cakes in Fishguard, how do you burn a couple of calories and feel virtuous and ready for some more food?

A surprising number of people have been through Fishguard on their way from Wales to Ireland by ferry, yet have not enjoyed the delights of Fishguard.

Answer
For exercise, family fun, walk to the Napoleonic fort. What is a Napoleonic fort?  It was a defence against Napoleon's Bonaparte's well-known plan to invade England. He had already invaded Ireland in 1796.

Welcome to Fishguard Fort sign. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Where is the fort? Below. Down the path. "Only two minutes."

It's two minutes from me to the lady with the dog.

Another two minutes down the path towards the sea.

Now I can see it. In the distance. Another two minutes?

 Looking at the photo, with the fort enlarged, I can see four canons. How much fort? A bit of a wall. A nice archway for framing photos.

Back up again. Now we know what's down there. Take a picture. Rain is forecast for tomorrow. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Welsh man David is driving. That decorative, dangling item in the middle of the screen is very colourful, but right now in the way of my view of signs and any potential photos. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

History
The area had eight canons, which were installed when the fort was built in the late 1700s (between 1779 and 1981). The nine pounder guns were fired as a warning to the French ships approaching about twenty years later. On reflection the guns did not have much effect because the French landed in 1797. Maybe the guns frightened the French troops.

Some of the French soldiers (after losing an earlier battle to British troops) then surrendered to local heroine Jemima who reputedly marched about in a circle. I am not sure whether she intended to deceive or just had that effect by good luck. It appeared to onlookers at a distance as if she (and a few female friends), wearing red coats, visible from a distance, and tall black hats which gave them added height, were line after line of never-ending defending soldiers. Certainly the repeated marching was a sign of the marchers' resolution.

(They were only women. However, if that was the courage of the women, what would the men be like!)

More information from:
Historical information:
http://www.ecastles.co.uk/fishguard.html

Aerial view from Google maps:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.001142,-4.970037,198m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

Directions
A40 / A487 junction north Pembrokeshire.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer,  author and speaker. I have previous posts on the Fishguard Fort, walks and sights and the Invasion Tapestry Museum in Fishguard, Welsh cakes, speaking Welsh. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Paintings Produced On a Painting Holiday

 The pupils in the art workshop at Writers Holiday in Fishguard, Wales, had a different demonstration and exercise each hour long session on the painting course. For this painting we had been told to find a coin and draw around it to create a moon, leaving the paper inside the circle white (or painting it white later). We then added the sky in two or more colours. 

Some people added trees below, which was the scene outside our window overlooking the Fishguard Bay from Fishguard Bay Hotel. However, I am a city girl. So I drew a city scene.

Blue sky at night over the city by Angela Lansbury. 2017. Copyright.

A walk by the lake. By Angela Lansbury. 2017. Copyright.

I did a second painting with trees. The instructor, Susan Alison, suggested that I put something in the foreground to increase the perspective. First I added the picket fence, similar to the one outside the window. 

Fence and walk from Fishguard Bay Hotel, Fishguard, Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury, copyright.

Then I thought I would add a man and a dog. 

In one session we drew the human body facing you, then with legs bent when walking. In another session we had drawn a dog. I had asked for a session on a dog. A previous year the class had requested a session on drawing a horse.

You might like the earlier version of the painting of the lake, with its view through the trees to the boat. I am glad I took a photo of the painting at each stage. That way I could see if I preferred the original version. 

If I ruined it with too much clutter, or a poorly executed figure, I still had a photo of the original. I could copy it as a postcard or book illustration.  I could re-paint it.  

I could use both illustrations for a book chapter or short story. I could start with the view over the lake. Then the man walking the dog. Finally the lake again, without the man and dog.

However, I was very pleased with the addition of the man and the dog. 

You can see that the addition of the man and dog creates a complete change. First we have human interest. Secondly, the eye goes in the direction of the walking man. This creates the impression of a boardwalk or path. It opens up the path ahead of the man. 

For the next Writers' Holiday, (February 2018) see:

www.writersholiday.net

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts about paintings, the painting holiday in Wales, and Wales. Please bookmark and share your favourite posts.

How to learn and remember Welsh words

Problem
I am planning to visit Wales later this year. I can recognise a few words on the map but want to learn some more and understand signposts and what people are saying.

Answers
You can learn Welsh for free online using Duolingo.

I find it easier to revise and keep track by going through words alphabetically.

GRAMMAR NOTE
Welsh omits 'a' and 'the'.

Free words which are written the same
car - car
lemon - lemon
pasta - pasta

Words with initial letters the same
(Spaces inserted to forestall spell checker.)
y d w - yes

Words with the first two letters the same
o r e n - orange

Words with the first three letters the same
Welsh - English
b a c w n - bacon
c a t h - cat

Words with the same letters in different order
b e i c - bike
r e i s - r i c e

WORDS ALPHABETICALLY
Welsh - English
a f a l - apple
b a c w n - bacon
b e i c - bike
car - car
c a t h - cat
ci - dog
lemon - lemon
oen - lamb
oren - orange
pasta - pasta
y d w - yes

English - Welsh
apple - a f a l
bacon - b a c w n
bike - b e i c
car  - car
cat - c a t dog - ci
lemon - lemon
orange - oren
pasta - pasta
yes - y d w

Tips
www.duolingo.com
http://www.visitwales.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages.
I have other posts on visiting Wales, learning Welsh and learning other languages.
Please share links to my posts. 

Learn five more Romanian words for animals

Romanian - English
animal d e c o m p a n i e - pet
c a i n e - dog
hamster - hamster
pasare - bird (migrating bird passing through)
p i s i c a - cat (the last two letters of pisica are the same as the first two letters of cat)

English - Romanian
bird - p a s a r e
cat - p i s i c a (what does a cat eat? Fish. Fish sign - pisces. A pis eating ca t.
dog - c a i n e
hamster - hamster
pet - animal de c o m p a n i e

Duolingo.com Free language learning website.
www.romaniatourism.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and teacher of languages. Please share posts

How to get help from phones: medical icon for emergency; medical history, kids, dog rescue, and more

Problems
How do you get help when you have an ongoing medical problem? How to be prepared when you have no problem - yet.

Answers
We are so lucky to have mobile phones. And we can train children as soon as they can use their arms and speak to make an emergency call.

Stories
I just read three stories about people and animals who were saved in situations of danger.
1 At a ski resort in Italy, people were rescued from a building covered by snow in an avalanche.
2 Videos show a rescue of a dog from Norcia in Italy.
3 A hill walker was helped by others.
4 A mother who had a seizure and blacked out was saved by her four year old son who phoned for help, even though he has difficulty speaking.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38689142
YouTube and other sites have the dog story.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4142902/Incredible-999-call-brave-four-year-old-Jacob-Onions.html#comments
http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/25/technology/italy-earthquake-technology/ (Video with sound so don't turn on if you are at a computer and don't want to disturb others.)

Tips
The mother who was rescued mentioned having a medical icon on her phone. I checked this out on line:
http://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/medical_224
In the UK we dial 999 for emergencies, but 111 for medical advice.
In Singapore you dial 999 for the police but 995 for medical help. I saw this on a sign by a swimming pool.

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

Label family travel photos - how and why

Why label family photos? It's a nuisance. Yes, but it's harder to do it later. Read on for my success stories at the end.

The day after my mother died I went through my father's photo boxes looking for a good photo of her to put on the table at the funeral reception. I pulled out lots of photos.

I was asking the questions journalists are taught to answer in the first paragraph of a news report. Who, where, what and why?

First who. Who is this? Are they close family, a distant relative, friend or stranger? Do you know their first name? Their last name? Their nickname? Who were their family? You then get the complete picture, for example, John Smith, husband of Jane Smith, our (Mike and Miranda Brown) neighbour at 39 London from 1900 to 1950. They lived at number 37. You might even want to add historic facts and simple or juicy details.

Historic
For example: historic: such as: he owned the grocery store. This might be useful to local historians and newspapers.

Good
The good. They were good people. Why? Why should family or anybody care? They were good to us. They went on holiday with us every year. (In that case, we must invite them to the funeral, give them the photo album in which they feature constantly, or give them a few items when house clearing. Were they local heroes? Yes, they did ... Maybe after your relative dies, and the old neighbour is suffering from dementia in an old people's home and dies age 90, you will be the only one who can tell the local newspaper or the person who writes a letter asking for old stories about your town.

The Bad
Supposing your or my Mum or Dad says something like, 'Don't write this down. They sued us when our dog Rover bit their child John. Their daughter had an affair with a married man and got pregnant, then married four times.' Oops. Of course I would want to write it down.

I would have to be careful to add that the person who said this was very elderly and I never knew the truth. If I write it down and it is revealed, if I have not said it but merely reported it as a rumour, that might protect me from being sued. On the other hand the person I claim said it could be sued.

If, on the other hand, you have a verifiable fact, you can trace the facts back to a newspaper report of a court case, or a document of birth or death. You might instead attach a photocopy or print out of the newspaper cutting to the back of the photo.

You could go back and ask other surviving relatives what they knew about the case. Also ask them for photos of the people concerned. Your mother's cousin or uncle - won't their grandchildren have a photo, and a story which matches or supplements yours.

Do we need to keep this out of focus photo? Was it something you took by mistake or have you kept it because it was important?

Forgotten
Or, on the contrary, you've forgotten. Which hotel? Which place? That's why it's so much easier to label photos at the time. You still have postcards, hotel brochures. Failing all else, cut the name off the hotel brochure before you throw it away and store it with the photo, or photograph it in your collection of holiday photos to provide a caption.

I like to take a photo of a map or road sign or air ticket at the start of a journey. It provides an accurate time and date of my trip. Similarly, a photo of the city signpost before I photograph the cathedral, the hotel name before I photograph the swimming pool or bedroom, the name on the menu before I photograph the food, the wedding invitation before I photograph the bride.

Success Stories

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Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
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Truffles: where they come from, where they go, how they get there

First of all, forget the idea that you can just rush out with any dog and find a truffle. First you need the right kind of dog, ideally a retriever type dog and one you have the patience to train. You need permission from the landowner, or factory owner who has his own dogs. You have to know where to look, have a good truffle season, and train your dog to stop running about and chasing other dogs and stop by the roots of trees and sniff for truffles for truffles. Then to dig down and to bring them up intact without eating them or destroying them. Not to drop them down the hillside so they disappear, nor start digging somewhere else and burying them again. You then need a restaurant or truffle factory owner who has the clients who want to buy truffles.

I found that truffles don't necessarily grow on nice flat land, but up a steep forested mountain in a place such as Umbria. You have to know where to park your car and have the energy to climb up the hillside.

We took a long path, snaking up and up. Then trees stretch in all directions. I soon got left behind. I had to force myself to puff up, to catch up.

Next is the treasure hunt. For our demo, it looked easy. The leader of our expedition admitted, "We could have saved time and just taken a truffle and buried it for the dogs to find, so we could then have taken you back down again in time for lunch. We didn't."

Naturally, I suspected that was exactly what they did. Yes, you might search and search for hours and find nothing. If it's been a bad season.

If you succeed, you must wrap the crumbly, strong-smelling truffle, and carry your huge dirty-looking brown truffle down the steep hillside again. Without twisting your ankle. I sank deep into the autumn leaves. It's not a place for high heeled shoes nor expensive boots or socks or trousers (as Americans would say, pants). The professionals have all the equipment. Even if it's only a big basket, probably lined.

You need to be a dog lover. And have the patience of St Francis.

I soon got tired of chasing three tail-wagging dogs doing giant circles in different directions. Dogs ran in all directions, up the mountain, down the mountain.

A Good Business
One of my companions from the UK later in the day looked out at all the careful planted and tended vineyards, with the factory with the huge steel vats, and expensive wood barrels at £1000 each to make, only used for two years, more or less, and remarked, "Truffle hunting is a great business to be in. Better than vineyards. Go out with a dog and dig up something which grows itself. All you need to do is find it and sell it."

Not really. Truffles, gold and silver, maple syrup - I went to the World Travel Market in London where the Canada stand served maple syrup every year (until this year when they served bagels). Canada makes maple syrup and has something like 50 per cent or more of the world's supply. They don't have the only maple trees in the world. But they have the ability to organise the maple syrup business and sell the top quality pure product competitively to what has now become a brand name.

The same happened with gold, silver, and railways in the USA. Along comes a Mr Big, organises the business and makes a fortune. The same applies to writing best-selling novels. In theory anybody could do it. But you need the determination to persist through the first year, or five or ten, earning money from some other source.

Other people in your area, or other areas of the world, can come up with a new product, a new use, new packaging. You need to find a new recipe. (Like Crosse and Blackwell in England, two employees who got together and bought out the company they worked for and built it into a nationwide success still going a century later. Heinz - not just baked beans. 57 varieties.

Fight through setbacks. Refine your product. Market your perfect product.When you get demand you have to be able to supply and not disappoint the buyers. Here's where we learned more insights.

Delivering The Goods
Our truffle makers told us the secret of their success, not just finding the truffles, but getting them to the truffle eaters. The Chinese also produce truffles. Those truffles can be shipped cheaply and arrive fifteen days later.

But the Italians can get their truffles to a New York restaurant by courier in 24 hours, says Giorgio. The truffles travel overnight. The truffle company can dig up a truffle, phone a restaurant on another continent, and despatch it by courier.

What if the courier lets them down? I bet you have to be up all day and all night tracking your shipment. Or have an alert on a hotline if there's trouble. Your Michelin starred restaurant has promised a customer, a client or two or three that truffles will be on the menu for a special dinner. You are sending truffles, fresh truffles mind you, to a wedding. You have to jump in your own car and deliver your truffle to the next city. Or send a member of your family or trusted employee, somebody reliable and enterprising, to deliver it. You have that delivery, and all future business to that customer and worldwide reputation, achieve, and to maintain.

What could go wrong? The carrier or courier is too busy. So you send a member of staff with a car. You get a call. Accident on motorway. Two or three hour delay, no guarantee when it will end. So you send a motorbike rider, or go yourself, on a motorbike. All the time, the minutes are ticking by.

The thought of it is enough to put you off your lunch. But it didn't put me off my lunch. Truffles are something of a learned taste. Like anything else, (I remember yogurt - didn't like it first time). I shall have to go back and try truffles three times. (Hint.)

Is there any point in acquiring such an expensive taste if you can't afford to eat truffles every day? Yes. Firstly, you know if you would like them for a special occasion or treat, such as a birthday or wedding. Secondly, if you don't like them, you know that you can donate yours to somebody else who will be grateful. Thirdly, if you have tried three or four times, different qualities, recipes, varieties, and you still son't like them, you can quit feeling that you are missing out and smile indulgently at the excitement of others. You can stop revealing yourself sa somebody who has never tried them, and talk knowledgeably, or express a polite and enthusiastic interest.

So, what if you don't know the people at the truffle factory and can't afford the Michelin restaurant in New York. If you holiday in Umbria you will find lots of restaurants in the locality offering truffles on the menu.

Don't worry that you are party to some kind of fraud. The factory gives permission to local people to go and forage and buys the truffles from them.

So, now when you are looking at truffles on the shelves of your supermarket at Christmas, looking at a special offer from a restaurant on wet Monday lunchtimes in January, you can look at the truffles on the menu and the truffles on your own plate, or the plate of another diner, with appreciation of what it takes to get the truffle from the earth in Umbria and across the world to the package or plate.

In London, England you can buy white and black truffles from Umbria in La Fromagerie cheese shop off Marylebone High Street near Baker Street station.

More information from:
http://urbanitartufi.it
umbriatourism.it
Photos by Angela Lansbury, copyright, November 2016.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Truffles Found By Dogs in Umbria

I went out truffle hunting with three dogs, their owner, the head of the truffle company and lots of people keen to try eating fresh truffles.

I'd always thought you needed a wild pig to find a truffle. A large wild pig. Although little piglets are cute, and pigs on farms are friendly, I'm not so sure about a wild boar.

The good news is you don't need a heavyweight bad-tempered boar to find a truffle. The friendliest little terrier is just fine.

How do you train your dogs, and yourself - and how long does it take?

Here are some pictures of truffles. The first thing I was going to say is that sweet truffle chocolates and savoury truffles in eggs are two different things. However, the first thing I noticed in the reception centre where the big buyers are entertained was a bowl of silver foil wrapped chocolates. They turned out to be chocolate coated with a savoury truffle centre.

I was in Umbria, in the heart of Italy.
Finally, real truffle, served in food at the truffle factory's kitchen. This was just one of the surprises and delights of my informative and educational trip to Umbria.

(More text and amusing pictures in my later post.)
http://urbanitartufi.it
umbriatourism.it

Angela Lansbury

Visit Cedar Park, given to Harrow by Mr Blackwell of Crosse and Blackwell Pickles

I had often driven past the grand gateway and magnificent cedar trees on the Uxbridge Road opposite the Bannister Sports Ground named after Roger Bannister who ran the four minute mile. I had not realised that the cedar park is so pleasant nor that it has such an interesting history.

I like to take a walk every day for health reasons and one day decided I should take a daily walk in a local park of place of interest. The map of north west London's Harrow region offers many walks. You can walk the loop from Hatch End railway station, as far as Grimsdyke House hotel, which was once the home of Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan fame.

But I didn't want to walk for half a day. And I had got tired of walking around shopping centres. So I decided to explore some of the parks and earn their history.

The Cedars

The grand gates set between elaborate pillars and curved railings either side are now closed. But you have a choice of entry points, such as the one in a side road offering free parking next to the youth centre.

Near the entrances are panels telling you the history of the park. It was once the home of Mr Blackwell who founded the Crosse and Blackwell pickle company. Mr Blackwell's neighbour was another world famous man, Gilbert, the local magistrate, better known as the writer of the words for Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

both Crosse and Blackwell have fine Mausoleums further along the Uxbridge Road near the entrance to All Saints Church. Inside the church is a bust to Gilbert. Gilbert is not buried there. His wife was cross with him because he died after saving their a young girl, their protege, a young singer and her friend, who had been swimming in the nude in the mansion's garden lake and got into difficulties. The exertion and excitement gave Gilbert a heart attack it would seem.

Gilbert and his wife were buried alongside each with a fine gravestone recalling them and the singer who inherited from them, who is also buried there.

Apparently Gilbert and Blackwell exchanged words when Blackwell's dog ran into Gilbert's land. You can read all about these families on the Harrow Council website and in Wikipedia.

I walked all around the park with my tree guide trying to identify the trees. Of course I could recognise an oak. But what kinds of fir was the fine tall tree with the cones. Silly me, or course it must be the tree which gives its name to the park a cedar.

I must admit that I could hear noise from the nearby Uxbridge Road. But nonetheless it was a very refreshing and peaceful walk.

In addition to giving this land to Harrow for the use of the public, and being buried in the churchyard of the church next to the former Leefe Robinson pub, Blackwell gave the area the land for St Anselm's church in Hatch End, another fine old building surrounded by grand trees.

I was looking for a picture of Blackwell's house. What a pity it is not still standing.

The gates along suggest it must have been a wonderful building.

Photos by Angela Lansbury.

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

Photographic Competitions - some suggestions, or Instagram

Google photographic competitions to see what you can enter and what inspires you.
What do you need to do?
Take photos in the categories listed.
Make sure your photo is sharp.
Do not take any pictures which might infringe somebody else's copyright.

First look through your existing photos to see what you have in the listed categories.
If you have a good subject, but bad lighting, go back and take more photos in better light. If your photo is not sharp, go back and take another photo with a tripod.

If previous winning competitions included human interest, or objects to illustrate size, add these to your composition.
1 Dress in your best clothes. Take a selfie. Or use time lapse.
2 Take your dog or a family member's dog. For example, a photo of a tree might be enhanced, or size exaggerated, with a dog or bird.
3 Set up time lapse in your garden and take multiple shots hoping a bird or cat or spider will come into view.

Many competitions have closing dates far ahead. You have time to take many different photos or many photos of the same scene with different lighting, people, or added objects.

Emotions
Add the joy of a prizewinner. The sadness of a funeral. Loneliness. Crowds. One person out of step.

Contrasts
Large and small. Old and young. Light and dark.

https://www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/2017/open

Instagram
If you don't feel your photos are ready for competitions, you might like to use Instagram. A new friend told me she does not use Facebook which is full of distracting text. She used Instagram just to put up photos.

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