Marilyn Monroe Exhibition in London

 

My Marilyn Monroe Clock. Picture by Angela Lansbury.

I am a Marilyn Monroe fan. I bought this clock in America when we were living there.

Now, in November 2024 there is a Marilyn Monroe exhibition in London which contains many objects acquired by a private collector, as you learn from the exhibition's website which has several pictures of the exhibits. 

Marilyn is so popular, this exhibition is a must for many enthusiasts. However, the cost is well over twenty pounds which is more than some people want to pay. If the cost or distance prevents you from attending you will find a lot on the web including invaluable first stop wikipedia whose end notes send you in all directions including museums, statues, film locations, hotels where she stayed and other places where you can travel.

We watched all the Marilyn film or excerpts on YouTube supplementing by ordering all the Marilyn films, sometimes in better quality, or worse quality, which we watched during and after Covid. We found 22 films, both the commercial film and short 'student' films. The first one is just a few seconds of her saying Hi outdoors. The last one which I recall is the misfits, released in 1961, the year she died. 

Books About Marilyn

I read two books about Marilyn. I first stood in Waterstones in Singapore and read the last page of all their books on Marilyn. I wanted to see what they said about Marilyn and whether she committed suicide or was killed. If so who was the suspect?

Was the book well-researched, interesting, well-written? I was doing this research before deciding which book to buy. I recall that despite intending and budgeting to buy one book I ended up by buying two books.

The UK exhibition is conveniently just 2 minutes from London Bridge Station.

Fabulous Food, Drink, Ice Cream, Pastry and Self-Cleaning Ovens at the FHA, HOREco Expo At Expo in Singapore

 If you are in the business, of restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, the show is on at the Food and Hotel Asia show at Singapore Expo 25 to 28 October 2022.  MRT Expo on the blue Downtown line. Time 10 to 6 pm, except the last day when it closes at 4 pm.

See equipment, try coffees and pastry and ice cream and cocktail and smoothie mixes, everything for the restaurant or hotel owner or chef.

Useful Websites

www.fhaHoReCa.com

Buy Polish Sweets from Wedel, White Marshmallow Covered in Caramel and Many More flavours

 If you visit Poland or anybody from Poland is visiting your country for a holiday or exhibiting at an exhibition, ask if you can try, or if they can buy you some Polish sweets. They are unlike anything you have had before. 

My Polish friends from the jewellery show in Singapore kindly gave me a box of Wedel 'chocolates'.  You might call them sweets, although several varieties are chocolate covered. 

They come in double layer boxes of small cylinders.  Three strips of six, 18 per layer, 36 to a box. That is one a day for a month, if you are living alone, or your partner does not eat them. Or one each for two of you after dinner every evening for two and a half weeks. 

They are very more-ish. As with chocolates, you need to limit yourself to none if you are trying to lose weight, one if you wish to stay the same weight, and two at a weekend or if you are happy to put on more weight or start dieting on Monday.

The Story Behind The Sweets

The Greeks started it, with their myths about bird milk. 

Shops

You can buy them in London, England, which has a large Polish community. Look for Polish shops and delis.  The supermarkets stock them too.

Online

Online I found them at assorted prices. But the cheapest ones were the same price if you had to pay high postage. So if you can get them with free postage that brings the price including postage down from a whopping 20 to a reasonable 5 (pounds or various dollars, American, Singapore, Australian).

If you look at all the varieties online, if you visit Poland, you can take your picture to compare, in supermarkets, in the duty free shops on the way out with your last cash. 

If you are not travelling but being visited by travellers, or meeting them, or are expecting to see a visitor or seller from Poland, ask them to bring you back either any variety or the one you find hardest to get or most expensive, including postage, online.

What travellers can see:

First look for the Wedel logo. An elaborate E, two letters e in the name, and a diagonal Italic f shape curve underneath.

The firm is big, huge. This is their fine factory building. The polish word for factory is similar to the English word fabric, fabryka.

However, holidaymakers are more likely to want to visit the original Wedel shop and tea place. 

Or a shop such as this one in the Intercontinental hotel in Warsaw, Poland's capital.

In the Poish language cz is pronounced like ch. The c becomes a K. The t becomes a d. Czekolada - chocolate. (Pronounced check - oh-larder.) You can translate using translate Google, and click on the symbol under the word to hear the pronunciation. 

b

Back in 2017 you could see the Wedel sweetmeats symbol on the Polish airliner or the airline LOT

Description	LOT (Ptasie Mleczko Livery), SP-LDF, Embraer ERJ-170STD
Date	29 January 2017, 09:37
Source	LOT (Ptasie Mleczko Livery), SP-LDF, Embraer ERJ-170STD
Author	Anna Zvereva from Tallinn, Estonia

Look at the picture closely and you will see the chocolates and a bird shape.

If you are ever in Russia you might see the Russian equivalents of the Polish sweets. there is also a white cake which looks a bit like cheesecake.

Useful Websites

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ptasie-Mleczko

A useful summary of different types of Polish chocolates, their colours, ingredients and names.

https://www.polonist.com/polish-candy-sweets/

Exhibition on the history of women doctors in London

We were looking online to find out how to get copies of birth certificates because our son is getting married. I mentioned that I was born in the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospital, on the Euston Road, Euston Square, London, the hospital being named after a pioneering woman doctor. I thought the hopsital had closed and been demolished. It's more complicated than that, and three places are named after her and you can see an exhibition.

The original hospital amalgamated with another and moved, then moved again into a wing named after the same illustrious female doctor as a wing of the redevceloped University College Hospital.
I studied at University College, one of London's prestigious colleges, known for its statue of founder Jeremy Bentham, which came and went as it was stolen by students, reinstated, taken away, and restored.

Next door is the hospital so as students at the college we often met students from the hospital, and I went into the hospital for free dental treatment when it had an open to the public dental department. this did mean having your teeth inspected or pulled out by a junior, under supervision, but saved on the anxiety of worrying about an appointment.

But what of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital. Elizabeth, fine British name, easy to remember if you take the trouble to think about it. Elizaabeth comes from the Hebrew, El for God, Beth for house, as in Bethlehem which means house (of) bread. Elizabeth, recalling Elizabeth I whose father Henry VIII separated the Church of England from the Catholic church, a name unermarkable in the UK mainland, but which spells Church of England in Northern ireland where Catholics prefer to  e called Mary and the names of saints such as Theresa. On to her middle name, Garrett, she was not living in a garet, which was part of many Victorian houses in her era. Finally, her surname Anderson, son of Ander or Andrew.

However, in the building on the site of the original hospital where I was born, you can see an exhibition about Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and the hospital.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. Picture from Wikipedia.

I have chosen this photo from several in the Wikipedia article because it shows her in her heyday, mature and determined, still a handsome woman.

My late mother claimed that she had one of the first Caesarian operations, post-war (world war two). Which is rather odd, since the first Caesarian operation was named after the baby who became Julius Caesar - or his ancestor. So that would have meant an awfully long gap. When I checked on Caesarians I found that the early ones were done to save a baby from a dead or dying mother. Only after the introduction of antibiotics did it become likely that the mother, too, would survive.

I suspect that Caesarian operations were rare in WWII because of the risk of losing the lights and electricity in the middle of the op or an air raid warning sending everybody scuttling meaning that nbody could sew up the mum.

The place where you were born is not necessarily the place where your birth was registered, though it is likely to be nearby.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, (born June 9, 1836, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, Eng.—died Dec. 17, 1917, Aldeburgh), English physician who advocated the admission of women to professional education, especially in medicine.

In London there are at least three sites connected with Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the wing at University College hospital, the exhibition in the building on the site of the hospital named after her where I was born, and a school visited by Michelle Obama, wife of a previous US president. 

Useful websites
https://www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate#other-ways-to-apply
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/29/michelle-obama-elizabeth-garrett-anderson-school
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Garrett_Anderson

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

Dulwich Picture Gallery, Cafe, Mausoleum, Trees and Park

If you don't mind spending the money, check out the price of the entry with the exhibition. Be warned, it's timed entry, so arrive early if you plan to spend time in the café opposite, on bench seating, or sitting in the park.

The building has an interesting history. It's the only art gallery I know with the mausoleun of the owners inside (although a few  houses have this - such as Puccini's in Italy. Some museums to Presidents of Countries have portraits of the man in office and historic paintings of the era. I am thinking of the mausoleum of D Solomos on the Greek Island of Zakinthos also called Zante. Also the American President Robert E Lee, leader of the South in the Civil War, buried in Lexington, Virginia, USA.

Novel and Influential Architecture and Lighting
From the outside the building is not that interesting, but inside is different, lit by overhead natural light. Not entirely a new idea. Buildings pre-dating electricity, often had skylights, until the cruel and unhealthy window tax ruined architecture and health.

Yes, whatever the exhibition, you need to see the building and learn about it. The ticket counter is in the entrance and you'll only get a step or two inside unless you buy a ticket.

The architect, John Soane, is also connected with his own gallery and other buildings in London. Learn about his influence on architecture in London and around the world.

Fashionable Clothes Then and Now
Clothes of the old days are such a contrast to today, in summer. Girls walking around the park and London underground stations are in tight short shorts with franges, strappy tops, split side skirts, lace tops and tops with lace insets showing tantalising glimpses of what's below. Old masters often show naked cupids, naked women bathing or being molested. Hwever, they were the porn of the day for the rich. Portraits show people wearing heavy and covering clothes. Then I read that one of the three benefactors and builders of the museum, in the central mausoleum, and saw their pictures from the covered up clothes of the Victorian era.

The lady's portrait is on the outside wall in the gallery, just across from the entrance. She is enveloped head to foot in black cloth, with a large hat and huge ruffled collar, like a cross between Elizabeth I and a clown. The caption says that her outfit is typical of a middle class married woman of her day.

What of the Old Masters collected by her husband, who was both a well known actor of the day and a collector of paintings? I had read about one of the Rembrandts from the collection being loaned to a big Rembrandt exhibition in Edinburgh for the summer of 2018.

Bawden Exhibition
However, we went there to see the Bawden exhibition. Bawden straddled an era from well before I was born until my childhood. But I'd never heard of him. I like the touches of humour in his detailed painting.

Café Cost
I has made the mistake of rushing out and not taking food or drink. The cafe was pricey. All over the world you can buy fast food or a supermarket or chain store lunch consisting of a sandwich, a piece of fruit or dessert and a drink for about five pounds. Here you would pay double.

The shop sells an artistic but expensive, bottle. That's the latest idea, for those who want to ditch plastic water bottles, to save the sea creatures. However, even if I had decided to splurge, to invest, without any water it was already heavy. Where would you fill it? No fountain in the main gallery.

Printed Guide To Trees
I discovered a guide to the trees in the park. You could easily spend an hour or two walking around identifying the trees and photographing the leaves and yourself against the tree trunk, and the whole tree from a distance.

Whether you opt for the gallery and exhibition, or just the park, a great day out. I had a short ride on the train from Victoria station (various routes) first thing in the morning.  You can then catch a P4 bus or walk to the Horniman Museum which is free. The journey back from the station near the Horniman seemed to take longer.

The walk from the station to Dulwich Picture Gallery is clearly signposted and takes you along leafy roads with grand homes and public buildings. You also pass Dulwich College which was founded by the people who built the art gallery.

From here go to the Horniman Museum. The bus stop is across the road from the main entrance of the Dulwich Art Gallery park.
For a description of the indoor musical instruments gallery, see my other posts about the Horniman.

Useful Information and Websites
www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk
Tel: +44(0)20 8693 5254
visitlondon.com
visitbritain.org

I took the P4 bus to the Horniman Museum.
https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Dulwich-Picture-Gallery/Horniman-Museum

Horniman Museum and Gardens
100 London
SE23 3PQ
Tel:020 8699 1872
horniman.ac.uk

tfl.gov.uk (Transport for London for trains and buses)
citymapper.com
rome2rio.com

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

Have your say on designs for the Dulwich Art Gallery Extension

Problem
The Dulwich Art Gallery has done what I think all new architecture plans should do. They have run a competition with half a dozen or more designs by various professional and amateur or student groups submitting 3D models and then let the public choose the best.

You can walk along a glass-sided gallery without going into the main exhibition, in the big old building, which was pricey, costing us the best part of £20 for two, even with concessions for age.

Most were decidedly modern. But some were unsettling.

I liked three of the designs which were colourful and curved.  They would all have been great as freestanding buildings.

However, two of them dwarfed and distracted from and hid the historic old art gallery building. So that eliminated them. I was left with one which would have got my vote.

None of them managed to echo the original building. The current modern building houssing the cafe looks decidedly odd. You sit in a a modern buidling, looking at an old building. I felt both of them detracted from the enjoyment of the other.

If you hate old buildigns, and would like a modern design to hide the historic buidling, you could choose one which does just that. You can go online and register your vote. Your chance to influence a London building of the future.

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

What's Is Free And What's Not At Museums And Why?

Problem
The museum is advertised as free. But when you get there they are charging for exhibitions. Why? And what's all this timed entry for?

Answers
Sometimes a rich person or a keen collector leaves their collection of art or objects to the local school or council or the entire country, stupulating that it must be free for all to see.

So far, so good. However, to display works of art or museum objects you need two things, a building with a repair fund, and payments staff. If the museum then attracts other donations, the museum is in a fix. Can they really way, we have two rooms each with space for ten paintings, we already have ten Rembrandts and Ten Van Goghs, what's more people don't want them in the same room, so we don't want your painting.

What can they do? Put out the popular paitnings and keep the othersstacked  downstairs in the basement in storage and hope the buildings won't flood and the paintings won't get stolen without anybody realising the box is empty, or lost or forgotten.

Open another branch museum in another city. Send the piantings off around the world on a tour, charging the recipient museums and countries fees high enough to cover the transport and insurance and travel escorts, and packing and unpacking, and policing on arrival and crowd control.

This has risks but also advantages. Poeple get to hear about your museum. the basement is temporarily cleared of clutter. You can generate income to pay for your staff and increasing updating your home museum or gallery's facilities which never used to be there.

For example, such as self-flushing toilets, security cameras, touch screens to answer visitor questions, guided tours on hand-held devices. What else? Ramps for the disabled, fire exits and fire doors and maybe sprinklers and connections to the police or fire service to comply with new regulations. Modern security may require bag searches and lockers for backpacks. More toilets, self-flushing, hand driers, replacing broken seats and hooks. Building - overhaul of leaking roofs and rising damp. More restaurants and a bigger gift shop to cope with and conveneience the increasing number of visitors. Regular cleaning. Organising events to attract the donors and Friends Of The Museum. training museum guides. Updating captions. Adding direction signs.

At the Horniman museum in London somebody working for the golf area (crazy golf I think) said that the golf there in the summer served a dual purpose. It entertained and attracted visitors.  He didn't say but it just occured to me, the extra outdoor activity kept down the numbers indoors reducing overcrowding. The outdoors attraction, kept some of the excitedly shrieking small children away from disturbing museum visitors. Families and community minded people would be glad children and adults and grandparents could walk or run around in fresh air and get vital vitamin D. The cash could help fund the constant drain on funds by the main museum which needs upkeep and staffing and ever increasing acitivities nowadays, such as marketing and printing.

With public libararies and swimming pools and minor museum in London and all over the UK threatened with closure or already closed, you realise that keeping a free museum free running and serving the entire community requires effort and money.

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

Rembrandt Exhibition In Edinburgh Summer 2018 plus the Edinburgh Festival

Problem
When to go to Edinburgh? What's new?

Answers
Right now the Rembrandt exhibition is starting this weekend. Later this year, there's the Edinburgh Festival.

I shall quote from their press release which reached me July 4th 2018:

'Britain’s love affair with one of history’s greatest artists will be explored in the major Festival exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery this summer.'

Yes, the British, along with the rest of the Europeans, are keen on Rembrandt.
If you go to Amsterdam, a major draw is the giant Rembrandt painting, The Night Watch.  Why this subject, why such a big picture, why so many people? The answer was simple. The Night Watch was a group who paid to have their portrait painted.

Painters are often drawn to paint the poor. Why? Across the Channel, in Europe, crippled French painter, Lautrec, painted the poor who he met in bars. 

The poor will pose for free, flattered by the attention. Or they pose for little money. Lenkiwicz, in southen England, painted the poor.


Painters are also drawn to paint portraits the rich, who will pay to have their portraits painted and immortalised. 

Rembrandt was known for portraits of people, portraits of everybday life, and use of dark and light, influenced by other painters who were inflenced by the Italian master of dark and light on people's faces, Caravaggio 

Most people who have been to art galleries or studied art will know of Rembrandt's self-portraits and his pictures of Jewish characters such as The Jewish Bride, in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. 

I was puzzled as to why Rembrandt drew  so many Jews, more it seemed to me, than other painters who were not Jewish. Then I learned that Rembrandt lived in or alongside the Jewish area of Amsterdam. 

Artists often live in budget accommodation in the lively, crowded, areas of a city, when they are students and poor and unknown and starting out. Some make money and move on. Others stay where they have always been.

"Rembrandt: Britain’s Discovery of the Master, which opens this weekend, (July 2018) is the first exhibition to tell the exceptionally rich story of how Rembrandt’s work in Britain has enraptured and inspired collectors, artists and writers over the past 400 years." 

Why go specially to Edinburgh? You can see Rembrandts in major galleries in London and all over the world.

They say: This major new exhibition, which will only be shown in Edinburgh, will bring together key works by Rembrandt which remain in British collections, as well as treasures that have left the country. Some of the exhibits have never been on public display before, while others return to Britain for the first time in decades, some after even a century or more."

I looked in Wikipedia. Rembrandt is, of courese featured, with useful details about which paintings are where.

The exhibition will include outstanding works such as Belshazzar’s Feast (c.1635) from the National Gallery London, and Girl at a Window (1645) from Dulwich Picture Gallery. 

Interesting. A tourist might go to one or two art galleries in London. London's National Gallery, bang in the centre of London by Traflagar Square, would be high on everybody's list. Dulwich Art Gallery, more for the cognoscenti.

They go on to say: "as well as star paintings now overseas, such as The Mill (1645/8) from the National Gallery in Washington, which left Britain when it was sold to a US collector for the staggering sum of £100,000 in 1911."

The last time I went to Edinburgh, our main objective was to see the Edinburgh Festival, We also went to the National Gallery, which was free. (Often exhibtions make a charge - which covers the enomous cost of transporting and insuring those paintings, maybe paying the painting's owners for the privilege. 

How long is it on?  Rembrandt: Britain's Discovery of the Master, showing exclusively in Edinburgh from 7 July – 14 October 2018. 

The Edinburgh Festival (comedy and drama, paid professional performances in theatres and fringe free, pay what you like, pass-the-hat, events in pubs and on street corners, is 3-27 Aug 2018, so you could combine both.

Scottish National Gallery

The Mound

Edinburgh

EH2 2EL

Scotland

Tel: 0131 624 6200.

You get 50% off exhibitions with the National Art Pass.

Opening times:

10 am - 5 pm. Extended to 7 pm Thursday, and to 6 pm in August. Sometiems you leave sightseeing until the last day when you rush around. You might want to choose a less busy time to beat a queue or walk around freely and see the pictures close up or from a distance when it is less crowded. 

You might want to get there at least half an hour or an hour early, better still at least two hours before closing time, in case last admission is well before closing, and to get your moneysworth.

However, admission tickets are timed and priced accordingly. Tickets for 10-4 pm cost £15 with concessions from £13.50. Before 11 am (10 am-11 am) and after 4 pm tickets are £10, with possible concessions. You buy get electronic tickets in advance online.

Art Pass membership is not cheap, £67, but gives admission to 240 places as well as 50% off exhibitions.
Look for concessions for children, couples, families and groups.

If you cannot afford the cost, bear in mind that a few art galleries and museums in the UK are free, such as the major museum in Cardiff, Wales.

In London, you can visit the National Gallery. There's a Rembrandt plus another exhibition on Edward Bawden this summer (2018) at the Dulwich Gallery. (See later post.)

Edinburgh
Scottish National Gallery
nationalgalleries.org

London
National Gallery
nationalgallery.org.uk

Dulwich Picture Gallery
Gallery Road
London SE21 7AD
Tel: 020 8693 5254
Tickets Adult £16.50. Senir £15.50.
Concessions £8 (for students, disabled, unemployed, Art Fund, Museum Association members).
Under 18s, Carers, Frieinds of The Museum, free.)
book online:
dpg.art/bawden

Gifts:
dpg.art/shop

Useful Websites

https://www.artfund.org/whats-on/exhibitions/2018/07/07/rembrandt-britains-discovery-of-the-master-exhibition

visitbritain.org

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/rembrandt-britains-discovery-master (To buy tickets on line)

https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Author

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

Is your name Jack or Rose? Free entry to Titanic Belfast, N Ireland, Nov 19 -Dec 19 2017

If your name is Jack or Rose or a variation of it, you get free entry to the Titanic exhibition in Belfast, Northern Ireland, between Nov 19 and December 19, 2017.
To prove that it's your real name, take your birth certificate, passport or driving license.

More details from their website.
www.titanicbelfast.com
Please share your favourite posts.

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

Malta's Famous Arch Collapses Into The Sea

Malta's famous arch which collapsed in March 2017.
Photo by Angela Lansbury, 2015, copyright.
All rights reserved.

Problems
Malta's famous arch has collapsed into the sea. What can photographers and tourists do now?

Answers
This is not a new problem. The same thing happened to an arch in Australia. If you already have a picture, even if you don't, you can take a picture of the remains of the old arch and compare it with one showing the arch as it was.

The arch in Malta is one of the landmarks on the lesser known and smaller island of Gozo. The only money-making enterprises I could see were charges for car parks and the restaurant overlooking the adjacent blue pool, which is still there.

The restaurant overlooking the pool beside the fallen arch on the island of Gozo, Malta.
Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Several possible solutions:

1 Build a reproduction of the old arch nearby in a theme park for people to be photographed on the reproduction.
2 Build a Malta in miniature showing the arch as it was.
3 Encase the whole thing in protective glass with concrete supports and buttresses and install a fake piece in the middle, with windows into the original layers. (This would cost a lot. It would also destroy the 'natural' feel. But you can attract visitors to the Grand Canyon and other landmarks in the USA and China and worldwide with bridges and landmarks installed this century or last century.
4 Install an exhibition of before and after photos, from professional and mature photographers, local people and tourists.
5 Recreate the arch with either a ladder and viewpoint, or walkway up a slope to one side at the back. Use the same or another artificial arch with a waterslide into a swimming pool.
6 Create a last landmarks exhibition with all the fallen arches and other landmarks of the local area through the ages and similar items worldwide.
7 Run a competition for reproductions of the arch, made from rocks, plastic, plasticine, Playdough, toothpicks, lolly sticks, cereal boxes, plaster of Paris (with a sponsor or two from toy companies or craft companies). Show some of the original in an exhibition and photos of the others.
8 Create a model of the arch in a children's playground with safety barriers and a slide.
9 Run an annual event when a beach fair is held, with prizes for the best tee-shirt featuring the arch.
10 Make a local rock cake or meringue in the shape of the arch or a flat cake with a photo of the arch in edible icing horizontally, or vertically.

Stories
The similar arch in Australia fell. It was a popular walk along the top from the nearby cliff, out over the sea for the view and selfie photos. I heard that a couple had got stranded on the end. They had to be rescued.

What a drama. Not knowing if the rest of the arch would collapse. No food or toilet. Unable to get back to home or work.

Real Stories and Fiction
The story was nationwide sensation. According to the person who told me, this event caused more problems for the people involved. (I was unable to find the facts on the internet - so this is just a rumour. However, as the saying goes, why let the truth get in the way of a good story: Here's a drama I or you could use in a short story, or novel:

This is how the Chinese Whispers version goes. The couple were supposed to be at work. Their employers did not know the people were off work - people who not at home sick, or at work, or out delivering or making business calls. (One company or two - if you are writing a novel - your choice.

Their respective families did not know the couple were not at work. At least one of the couple was married, and the spouse saw them on the TV news. One of the couple may have lost a relationship, a marriage or reputation.

You could make this into a short comedy. A short joke or anecdote. A short story or novel.

You could write a tragedy. A short story or a novel.

Or a cautionary tale. Safety for travellers.

Tips
You will find advice on many sites for hiking and climbing areas. Most of the advice applies to a long stroll along flat ground and tourist spots as much as remote areas. The rules are helpful whether you are walking in the woods, the countryside, or along a clifftop or beach.

Notice what the devices for evacuating an aircraft include: something to support you in the sea, a whistle and a light. A lifeboat has extra items. But if you are on your own you need food such as Kendal Mint cake. You would not take chocolate covered mint cake in sunshine because it would get sticky. I once read that Hershey chocolate was developed for soldiers in hot countries who needed a chocolate bar which would not melt in the pocket or backpack.

1 Always take a phone, and a charger.
2 Leave details of where you are going, and/ or photograph your route. You might take photos you would not make public, but which will be on your website or in the network 'clould' if emergency services or family are looking for you.
3 Carry food and drink.
4 Take clothing for hot and cold weather, in the hot day and cold night.
5 Wear or carry something you can wave or use as a signalling device.
6 And use the toilet before not after taking a long walk. You never know how long it will be before you get back.
7 Guides off a trail should have walkie talkies to keep track of the group.

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

What To See And Do At Heathrow Airport and the World's Best Airport, Changi, in Singapore.

Heathrow airport has improved, with interesting pictures showing the development of the airport and famous people passing through, such as HM The Queen, and the Beatles.


When I searched the internet I found an article on exhibitions of sculptures representing runners and others at the UK Olympics; also a webpage seeking exhibitors for future presentations.
http://www.moodiedavittreport.com/heathrow-celebrates-british-sporting-talent-with-t5-exhibition/

But the world's best airport, according to many awards, and many travellers, including myself, is Changi in Singapore. Every visit brings a new surprise, plus renewed admiration for the permanent aspects.

In April 2016, Changi Airport provided a photo opportunity where you could stand between giant wings, like the female model symbol on a Rolls Royce car.



The halls and carousels are decorated by seasonal displays.

In August 2016, Changi has small models of buildings illuminating by lights which change colour.




(More photos being added shortly. I've just learned how to link my foreign phone to my laptop to download the photos. I went onto the internet and asked. Up popped the answer. First you download the software to link the machines. Then I had to delete some photos from the camera. I had lots of duplicates where I took two in case somebody clinked their eyes or one picture was blurred.)
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, Singapore resident.

Eurasian Exhibition and WWII Exhibition in Singapore

The Eurasian centre is near Geylang. On the ground floor, up a few steps, is an exhibition on Eurasians.

I had always thought that Eurasians were mixed Europeans and Asians - Chinese - the majority face and language of Singapore. When I first came to Singapore, it was just before the air crash which killed writer Bonny Hicks and I read her books, 'Excuse Me, Are You A Model?', and 'Discuss Disgust', about the problems and prejudice she faced as a child, and as an adult.

But at this exhibition I discovered that the Eurasians at this centre and in the Toastmasters club were not Chinese but mainly mixed Indian and British.

What is the difference between Eurasian and Anglo-Indian? Eurasians and a mixture of Europeans and Asians, have a European parent, usually the father, and an Asian or to be more precise, Indian mother. Anglo-Indians have two Indian parents but are brought up in Either India or often in England, and look Indian but speak Fluent English from childhood and are completely Anglicised in their cultural customs as well as language.

The majority of them will have two Christian parents, not as I expected, Anglicans, but often Catholics. With language and religion in common, they find it easy to get along, have shared interests, and gain acceptance from both families.

Exhibition and Eurasian History
What is there to see in the exhibition? After the explanation of who are or were the earliest Eurasians, you see the history of the organisation. Not a phenomenon of fighting prejudice at the Thirties or WWII. Nor in the Liberal days post-war. But way back in the 1880s. Yes, long before Lee Kuan Yew decided that best way to prevent riots and massacres was to divide the races up so that no sub group could gather together to plan trouble. Lee Kuan Yew ensured everybody would have friendly neighbours in a mixed race community,

Raffles, by contrast, had established enclaves such as we now see in Chinatown and Little India. Similarly, the earliest settlers, gathered at clubs for groups of people speaking the same language. So the Eurasians, like many others, founded a club where they could meet, speak the same language, and eat familiar food.

Wedding Dress
The largest and most striking exhibition piece is the wedding dress in white. I also liked the letter from the groom to the parents of his bride to be. He ended by telling them that he had already approached his own parents and received their blessing.

White Bread Sandwiches
Today the club has a restaurant on the ground floor. To my surprise, when they provided sandwiches, the sandwiches where white bread with vegetables and or cheese or egg, but into large triangles. The fashion nowadays is to serve a mixture of brown bread, considered healthier, or a usually appealing mixture of brown and white, often cut into smaller sizes.

Victorian Sandwiches
Only after reflecting on the style of food, and the Victorian era origins of the club, did it occur to me that triangles of white bread with cucumber would have been the fare of the Victorian era.

WWII Exhibition
Upstairs was another exhibition about Eurasians, this time concentrating on how they fared in WWII. Like the exhibition I had seen a day previously at The Old For Factory Museum, about WWII (on the site of the surrender to the Japanese) this history of the Eurasians included maps of the region in WWII and some stories including a few harrowing ones about those who disappeared and living in fear.

On a brighter note, and of interest to those who are nervous about bringing in groups who might include a Japanese friend, a large display is about a Japanese man who saved Eurasians by sending them to a centre in Malaysia, out of the way of greater danger in Singapore.

MRT Aljunied
K a l l i n g

A map of their location is on their Facebook site.

Eurasian Association, Singapore
139 Ceylon Road, Singapore 429744.
Tel: (+65) 6447 1578
Email:membership@eurasians.org


Angela Lansbury B A Hons, CL, ACG.

French words of the day: blasé; Champs Élysées;

Reading an article about an exhibition in Paris, I immediately focus on French words which are familiar to speakers and readers of English.

French - English
alliance - alliance, joining an ally, partners in peace or business or a club
Alliance Francaises - club of French speakers in countries such as London, England and Singapore, usually a building housing a French restaurant or café, library or bookshop, meeting rooms
amour - love

blasé - nonchalant (there's another French word!), could not care less
nonchalant - non is no, c h a l e u r (oops - must separate the letters because spellcheck turned this word into cholera) is warmth, lack of warmth - could not care less, indifferent
capable (pronounced cap ah bull) - capable (pronounced cape -a-bull)
Champs Elysses - you recognise the name of the French street.
Champs - fields
avenue - wide street usually bordered by trees
boulevard - grand street
entente cordiale - cordial or friendly understanding (a political alliance)
exhibition (the t is pronounced like an s) - exhibition (t is pronounced like sh)
faux - false, as in faux pas, flash step or mistake
finesse - finesse, as in fine - ness or skill
metre - meter in English is measure
kilometre - thousand metres
restaurant - restaurant
restaurateur - restaurateur or restaurant owner or restaurant manager
suede - from the French gants de Suède, gloves from Sweden, soft matt kid leather
tableaux - pictures
voyeur - watcher, onlooker

I have read two sentences and already recognise six French words. You know more French, and use more French than most people realise. (realiser?)

It will soon be lunch time and I have to resist the temptation to drink a kir royale.  Royale is royal with an e on the end.

Angela Lansbury, author, tutor, speaker.

What to do in Fishguard: the ferry, beach, books on the sea, and sea life exhibition

Fishguard is a quaint two centre harbour and village, end of the train line, where the boat train meets the Ferry crossing to Ireland. Fishguard's fun is seeing the sea and learning about wildlife. As you walk along the front, watching children leap over the low rock, you are invigorated by the sea breeze and the sea smell, tangy, salty, sharp, evoking memories of seaweed, fishy.

The Tesco Express sells bottles of water and sandwiches for £1.10 and fruit packs if you want to go for a healthy walk. By the tills are books on the area, Wales, and wildlife.

Opposite Tesco, across the road, is a seafront path leading to a large glass-sided, two-storey building containing a cafe, gift shop and exhibition areas.
 The Information counter by the doorway has lots of leaflets and people to answer your questions. An exhibition with a tour guide for a small cost every hour or so is about sealife and has a video and aquariums.

The handy gift shop sells jewellery and scarves and items for making mould of sand, and books on birds, seabirds, insects, flowers, SAS survival.

Check out their second hand books for sale making money for the Ocean project.

Birds and books and fish and jewellery.

The bus doesn't run on Sunday. You will have to walk uphill to the Fishguard Bay hotel, where you can buy a bar lunch and read about the filming of Moby Dick and Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood.

If you really want to see the sea, you can take an afternoon trip to Ireland (Rosslare). If you are British or Irish you do not need a passport, just a drivelling license or utility bill. (Check the Stena site for up to date details.) The cost of the trip is only £5 for a foot passenger.

Next post will be about the tapestry and history.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.
Author of twenty books, the latest being Larry the Talking Labrador.