Instant Fan In A Hot Country, Hot Hotel Room, Hot anywhere

Need a paper fan? In a hurry? When would you need a cooling, fan, a fake fan? I often do, in Asia, especially Singapore, in London in the summer, in the USA, even New York in summer, and Washington DC, on the same latitude as Madrid in Spain.

In a hotel bedroom before the air con starts to take effect. In a conference room in Wales at Writers' Holiday. You look around at somebody who had a fan and think, aren't they lucky. Never mind having a fancy fan, any fan would do.

You could splash water on yourself from your water bottle, or the tap in the toilet, and wave a piece of paper, such as the meeting programme. But there's no meeting programme. They are saving money on paper and ink and time and claiming to save the planet and the trees by asking everybody to read the programme online on their phones.

But there is a solution. Just use a piece of stiff paper or card.

Where from? Your office. Your wastebin. The office bin.
The hotel bin.

Free brochures you picked up but have read and no longer need.
Paper bag or cardboard bag which you or somebody else discarded.
Large envelope.

Two methods.

Pencil
1 Use a pencil or disposable bamboo chopsticks for the upright, like the post of a flag.

Point First
Put the pencil, point first inside the envelope. Why point first? To avoid geting the point marking your hand with colour or hurting your skin.

Pencil Without a Point
Here's a use for a new pencil you were given at a trade show which has no point yet, so you cannot use it to write until you get home or back to the office.

Envelope
Envelope too flimsy?  Fold it in half. Use two. Look for another, bigger stronger envelope.

Concertina
Fold your paper in half then in half again, and again. Until you have long oblongs. Unfold and re-fold, alternating the folds.

Hold the bottom together by turning it up an inch or two which you grasp when fanning yourself.

At home you could make yourself a pretty DIY fan from fancy coloured paper. Use stiffer paper or card on the outsides when the paper concertina is closed. Decorate the outside or edge with silver paint or silver foil or cooking foil or sweet wrapper.

Or buy plain coloured paper to match your outfit  from a stationery store or art shop.

Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a cheap notebook than a piece of art paper. Even a book with a back cover you can tear off would be good. That way you get a fan and a notebook.

Or buy a ruler and ask the shop for a paper bag. Use the ruler as the stiffener and fold the bag into a concertina.

Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Video on Chinese (Mandarin).

Flag of China.

Fascinating video on Chinese (Mandarin).
I just found a fascination video. The Chinese start with the big numbers first, so the date goes in this order: year, month, day.
Envelope addresses are written in Chinese with the country first and the name last.

From this video, you will pick up or reinforce the symbols for north, south, east and west. Very handy, for placenames on maps, street signs, and the railway (MRT) maps in Singapore.


Singapore flag

Useful Website
https://oliverlanguages.com/chinese/lesson12.html?fbclid=IwAR2pPpnzNuDGByZe-blxZz3efF6M06uwejuNo4wUBjk4klyF0ic1PIiP_RY

AUTHOR
Angela Lansbury.

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.

French Abbreviations You Can Recognize and Use On Letters and Envelopes

Problem
I was looking at an envelope sent to me by the PR department of a French museum I had visited on a travel press trip. The envelope address me as Mme. I assumed that was Madame. But if Mme was Madame, what was the abbreviation for Mademoiselle?

I soon found the answer, although I was diverted into reading an online article about the difficulties translators have with abbreviations.

English - French
Mr - M
Miss - Mlle
Mrs - Mme

French - English
M - Mr
Mlle (Mademoiselle) - Miss
Mme  (Madame) - Mrs

Now you know.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on French and other languages and places to see in France and other countries. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Improvising on a Working Holiday - from speech note cards to sewing thread

Problem
How do you improvise on holiday? Improvise notecards for a speech, sewing kit, dictionary.

Answer
Necessity is the mother of invention. Here are my hacks (hacks is an Americanism - in Britain we say tips).

Story
I was in a hotel in Wales as a spare partner when my husband was on a business trip. I am left in an isolated hotel room for hours and want to plan a speech. I have no card index cards. The shop has only drinks, clothes and Welsh souvenirs.

I created cards by cutting up all the white card I could find. I raided the waste paper basket, looked in the desk drawers, and searched my own and my husband's possession for white paper.

Tips

Writing Paper/Notecards
Sources of white paper:
Hotel notices -
daily newsletters,
Letter welcome Mr and Mrs so and so
the back of the key card holder
Free envelopes
out of date magazines with a page which is half blank
white card from new shirt
lower half of laundry list or returned laundry list no longer needed
ask hotel reception for used envelopes, scrap paper
back of paper bag
discarded packet from take away (Americans say take out) food.

Use pencil from hotel, or ask for one, and use item on desk top or magazine to create straight lines.
Draw lines along paper to create lined paper.
Draw lines for margin.
Draw line for frame
Draw line under headline or date.
Photograph your notes on your mobile phone as a prompt in a later meeting.
Email it to yourself for a permanent record.

How to cut
Fold thin paper over desk top edge. Reverse paper and crease the other way.
Draw line along fold.
Or keep folding until crease breaks or is weak enough for you to tear neatly.
Place heavy object such as a book or directory over paper to prevent the tea going diagonally across the area you wish to preserve.
Cut with scissors, nail scissors, or borrow scissors from reception. If they won't fetch scissors, ask them to cut the paper for you. (Choose non busy time. If you have time, chat to them first.)

Card Index cards
For notecards for speech or address cards
Copy any address card your already have.
Use a needle or safety pin or tip of pair of scissors to make holes on top right of cards.
Link cards with dental floss or plaited cotton from sewing kit.
Pull thread from free airline socks - you'll get another pair on the way home, won't you!
Use the blank backs of address cards to make notecards for speeches.
(If you really need the address cards, you can photograph your notes and keep the cards as address cards later.)

Sewing kit
Ask housekeeping or reception at hotel for thread and needle.
Use your hair or dental floss for cotton. Borrow a needle from housekeeping or another guest.

You need only three to ten cards for:
Speech outline
Shopping list
Language translation dictionary (1 Dates 2 Greetings 3 Illness 4 Menus 5 Numbers 6 Prices 7 Questions 8 Times)
You don't need to know how to say all these. Just ask the receptionist or a fellow guest or the concierge or a bored waiter to write down the words. Then point to them later when you need them.



(Not destroying anything vital, only items which are dated and will be thrown away.)