American and British English - a few words

US flag

 American - British

diaper - nappy

dish soap - washing up liquid

soccer - football

Subway - underground

British - American

football - soccer

nappy -diaper

underground /tube - subway

washing up liquid - dish soap

American and British English Words You Should Know

 USA - UK

ball hop - porter

closet - wardrobe/walk in wardrobe/cupboard

comforter - duvet

cookies - biscuits

cops - police

diaper - nappy

eraser - rubber

faucet - tap

hack - tip

(car) hood - bonnet

gas - petrol

Jello (brand name) - jelly

jelly - jam

mail - post

pants - trousers

pavement - roadway/tarmac

porter - porter (at railway stations, bell hop is at hotels)

rubber - Durex (brand)

sidewalk - pavement

soccer - football

(car) trunk - boot

underpants - pants

UK  USA

biscuits - cookies

(car) - bonnet - hood

(car) boot - trunk

cupboard - closet

duvet - comforter

football - soccer

jam - jelly

jelly - Jello (brand)

nappy - diaper

pants - underpants

paper hanky - tissues/Kleenex

pavement - sidewalk

petrol - gas

police - cop/cops (plural)

post - mail

(hotel) porter - bell hop 

tap - faucet

tip - hack

trousers - pants

wardrobe/walk-in wardrobe - closet

Useful Websites

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

Please share links to your favourite blog posts

Portuguese Words for football, garden, goodbye and how to remember a few words which sound similar to English, Spanish and French

 

Flag of Brazil

A few words of Portuguese, with my memory aids

English - Portuguese

and - e

beach - praia

club - clube (just add an e)

day - dia (like diary)

district - bairro

fish - peixe

football - futebol (change the two football letters o to U with two spikes, add an o, drop the l)

garden - jardim

goodbye - adeus (like the Spanish adios)

hello - olá

museum - museu (easy to remember, just drop the second m)

new - novo (like novelty)

old - velho (V like vintage)

or - ou (both start with letter o)

sea - mar

the - a

time - tempo (like temporary and tempo)

yes - sim (like Spanish si but add m)

Portuguese - English

a - the (confusingly!)

adeus - goodbye

bairro - district

clube - club

dia - day

e - and

futebol - football

jardim - garden

mar - sea (like the French word mer, and the Devonshire place name in the UK, Weston super mare, near Exeter, probably the influence of the Normans)

ou- or (both start with letter o)

novo - new

olá - hello (the same as the Spanish, like hello, but the o vowel is first, like holler hello)

peixe - fish

praia - beach

sim - yes

tempo - time

velho - old

Useful Websites

Duolingo

Duolingo.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santos,_S%C3%A3o_Paulo

For more on football and Sau Paulo, Pele's football club, museum and city, see my previous post.

Angela Lansbury

teacher of languages

Beginning a new language for polyglots and expats

How To Attend A Club Event - Paid For Or Free

The Christmas Tree in the Tavern Restaurant, Tanglin Club, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

How could you get to attend if you are not a member? You might be invited to an event because>

1 Guests - Family and Friends

The organizers are selling tickets guest and member tickets which are reduced price for members (who are already paying the organization and annual fee or a montly fee, as well as the joining fee) but often only slightly more for guests. If you have lots of friends through one club, they are likely to know members of another club or to be a member of two clubs. Some clubs allow members to take in friends or family as guests. 

2 Keep asking all your Singapore friends, are you a member of a club? In my early days as an ex-pat, I met lots of Americans through the American Women's Association. You could join this if you were waiting to be a member of the American Club, or in Singapore insufficient time to make it worthwhile paying the joining fee. Members of the association could meet at each other's homes for events such as bridge games and end of year parties, attend festive meals such as Thanksgiving, and attend moderately priced events in hired rooms such as the bridge game with sandwich lunch or tea. Full members had full use of the club including the swimming and could book tables in the restaurant. On a couple of occasions, one of the 'bossy' or busy or proactive ladies would suggest we all went for coffee or lunch in the restaurant. She had to book the table and the payment would be invoiced to her at the end of the month. We could either secretly slip her cash afterwards to compensate her, invite her back to our club or out to lunch if she was a friend. Or if only one person out of five was not a member, one of the other women who was a member might airily say, "don't worry, this is on me".

Free

Another system. When I first arrived, I knew nobody and was very lonely when my husband was away travelling. I would invite people to lunch at the club, but most of them were too busy with their own families and friends or work. I was desperately hoping somebody would accept and was happy to pay the cost of their lunch. My husband was having meals out with business associates all day every day. I was not even getting a Saturday evening meal out with him. He could hardly begrudge me one meal with a friend or acquaintance. 

On one occasion I invited a VIP lady organizer of a group, a bridge group, or a book group, or one of the national associations (American Club, Japanese Club, Australian club). She arrived with a gift for me, a silver picture frame. She explained, "I cannot reciprocate by inviting you back to my club because I am fully booked all week and we are going back to America." I then  realized that some people just accept that life is swings and roundabouts, sometimes you pay for a stranger, sometimes they pay for you. Other people like every transaction and relationship to balance, so if you invite them to a meal, whether at their home or a restaurant, you don't wait for an opportunity to reciprocate, because that might never come if one of you travels elsewhere or falls sick. You take a gift for the host. 

How do you do this at short notice? It's like planning for Xmas. If you do it on a regular basis, you can plan in advance. You and buy in the sales. You have a box or basket labelled gifts. 

All ready wrapped with fancy paper and ribbons. (The Japanese always expect gifts to be fancily wrapped. In China and Singapore even money must be presented in a lucky red packet.)

Then, if you are on the phone and are invited out and have to leave now, no time for shopping, you simply grab a gift from the box. If you like you can add the name of the person on the gift tag, and a nice message such as to my new friend, to my good friend, or thank you for the lovely lunch.

Reciprocal Clubs

If you are a member of a club, or the company you belong to has membership for all staff, you can get reciprocal arrangements overseas. For example, members of the UK civil service can join the Civil Service Club. I met him through a local Writer's club in London. He introduced me to a Toastmasters International Club. He is a member of several clubs, including some connected with Indian language groups. He arranges a Christmas dinner at the Civil Service Club for his friends.

You can visit many clubs just to be shown around with a view to becoming a member. Whilst there, look at the lists of activities. Some will be cultural. Book clubs, film clubs, national clubs. If you are sporty, you are sure to see a group such as football, cricket, squash, and cabinets of trophies or lists of events. If you are not nearby, you can check them out online. Find our what arrangements they have with clubs in your country.

If you are into sales, you might hire a table at a Christmas fare, to sell wine, jewellery, clothes, candles, food, books. You might have a customer who is a member of the club.

The Tanglin Club's Reciprocal Clubs

In Australia alone there are many reciprocal clubs, for example, several branches of the RAC club in different cities. In India, the Cricket Club in Mumbai is one of several.

Guests can book rooms in the club. See the club website for details.

Useful Websites

https://www.tanglinclub.org.sg/reciprocal-clubs/reciprocal-clubs.html

Americanisms

 US - UK

Americanism - political system promoting America

bangs (hair) - fringes

cop - policeman/policewoman (old fashioned word, bobby)

Jello - jelly

Kleenex - tissues/paper hankies

new kid on the block - newcomer

parking lot - car park

restroom - toilet/loo

soccer - football

umbrella - brolly

UK - US

Americanism - American English

brolly - umbrella

car park - parking lot

football - soccer

Fringe (hair) - bangs

jelly - Jello

newcomer - new kid on the block

tissues/paper hankies - Kleenex

toilet/loo (bathroom) - restroom

Useful Websites

See my other posts on this subject

Please share links to your favourite posts.

British English and American English - Do you know these words?

American English - British English
Lightning Rod - lightning conductor

Learn something new every day. I thought I new most American variations.
For example:

American - British
cookie - biscuit
diaper - nappy
eraser - rubber

faucet - tap
pavement - tarmac

sidewalk - pavement
soccer - football
truck - lorry

British - American
Biscuit - cookie
football - soccer
lorry - truck
nappy - diaper
pavement -sidewalk
rubber - eraser
tap - faucet
tarmac/road surface - pavement

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Born in Britain. Has lived in the USA and Singapore.

Contact Angela through
Facebook
LinkedIn
Toastmasters International
Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Club
Meets Singapore time afternoon every third Saturday 2-5, next meeting Sept 15 2020.

How To Report An Emergency, Crime And Drunks On Trains And Roads - What Is correct behaviour in public places - alcohol, trains and football matches

Most trains and buses display their emergency numbers. It is a good idea to put these in your phone. In an emergency the lights on the train might go out or it may fill with smoke. You might not want to reveal to an assailant that you are reading the emergency number.

What is acceptable behaviour in public places? Singing? Being inebriated? Shouting at your friends? Shouting at other passengers?

Irish Flag

Coming back on the train after St Patrick's night you can get a lot of happy people singing songs in unison. That is fun. That is fine.

Drunks
When the language gets blue, or a drunk starts lurching down the train and accosting passengers, that is more worrying.

Begging
I have also been on trains where somebody with a dog walks along the train asking passengers for money. I try to look down and ignore them. If necessary, I get off at the next stop and either run along the platform beside the train and jump into another carriage (on infrequent trains) or get off and wait for the next train.

UK and Football Fans
I have sat and stood on trains in London where groups sing, shout and lark about.

Football Fan Trains
UK trains can run dry trains to football matches.

Singapore
Unwanted Conversation
I wrote earlier this year about reporting a man who had been trying to engage an anxious girl in unwanted conversation on a Singapore train.

In future I would try to photograph the person and keep the emergency number handy in my phone. It is better to report from the train rather than waiting until I reached a station, with the delay of going up two escalators.

DRUNK DRIVING


Emergency Phone Numbers
In the UK and some former commonwealth countries the number 999 is used.
In the USA 911 was chosen as being quick to dial.

AUSTRALIA
General emergency number 000.

https://www.crimestoppers.com.au/
New South Wales (Sydney and NSW)
Remember you can report your knowledge of criminal activity online (desktop version, mobile version), or by calling Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

CANADA
http://bc.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=30&languageId=1&contentId=-1

SINGAPORE

➤ If you require immediate Police response e.g. emergencies or life threatening situations, please call 999 or the Police Hotline at +65 6255 0000 (for overseas callers).

➤ If you wish to make a report for police investigation , you may do so through our e-services at https://www.police.gov.sg/e-services

MORE SINGAPORE

https://www.police.gov.sg/iwitness

UK
Police and emergency tel 999

Useful Websites
Football Trains
https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/alcohol-facts/alcohol-and-the-law/drinking-alcohol-in-public-places/
Reporting Crimes
UK text British Transport Police 61016

Railway:
If you do become a victim of crime it is important that you ask for help and report it. You can call us on 0800 40 50 40 or text 61016. In an emergency, dial 999.
http://www.btp.police.uk/advice_and_information/faqs1.aspx
https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/safety/report-a-crime-or-incident
http://www.btp.police.uk/contact_us/report_a_crime.aspx
http://www.btp.police.uk/safety_on_the_railway/if_youre_a_victim_of_crime/how_to_report_a_crime1.aspx

Europe
112

Ambulance in Romania displaying the emergency phone number, 112. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Greece, Israel and India
100 - easy to remember, especially in Greece which has a double letter e in its name and a double zero in the emergency number. 

USA
https://www.usa.gov/report-crime#item-35947
USA and Canada 911 and the Philippines.

WORLDWIDE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_numbers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunk_driving_law_by_country

Warnings in songs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Vehicle_wreck_ballads

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

A few fun football places for travellers

Cristiano Ronaldo Airport, Madeira. Photo from Wikipedia.

Problem
Where are the football places which will interest my friends and family and colleagues - and start conversations with taxi drivers worldwide! Visit England, Wales or Northern Ireland, or Madeira, to see busts and statues and museums of any family's favourite football players and teams.

Answers

1 Cristiano Ronaldo - bust outside airport

2 Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport, near Funchal, capital of Madeira, Portuguese speaking island in the Atlantic. (Stopover in Oporto or Lisbon Portugal.)

3 CV7 (football) Museum in Funchal, birthplace of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Cristiana Ronaldo's CR7 Museum, Madeira. Photo from Wikipedia.

4 Belfast, Northern Ireland - George Best airport.
Best place for football fans to visit?

5 Bust of football player for Spain and Wales in Cardiff.
Bales in Wales. Outside Cardiff Stadium. Lots of trains into Wales give you the options of routes, for example, change trains at Cardiff or other places. If there's a wait between trains, all the better. Make sure you have lightweight pullalong luggage with sturdy wheels, or light enough to carry on your back. Get off the train at Cardiff and have a look.

6 Football Museum. Statue of the falling footballer?

See a previous post.

Plenty more football and rugby museums to see worldwide, including on any trip to Australia and New Zealand. See my other posts. Please save and bookmark and share links to your favourite posts with your family and friends and football fans.

Useful or entertaining websites:
visitbritain.com
visitbritainshop.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. If you know of any others, either as a visitor or museum/city/country PR, please let me know. You can contact me here or through Facebook.

What time can I watch the royal wedding - Harry and Meghan - on TV?

Problem
If I can't be sure to be in the UK, when can I watch the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on TV?

Answers
I just ran the times through a time converter and these were my results:

UK
Wedding starts at noon in Windsor.
12.00

To be sure to avoid confusing the clock or myself I typed in 11.50, then added ten minutes to all the results. This is what I found:

USA
Noon in London, England is 7 a.m. in New York.
Five hours behind.
So, if you can get up by 7 am, you can watch it live.
Set your alarm. Make your muesli up the night before.


Australia - you might go to Australia and stop in the Far East en route.

Over in Singapore,
If you live there or stopover, when it's noon in London it's 7 pm in the evening.

Or Perth in Western Australia, it's 7 pm. That might be before, during or after your evening meal.

In Sydney, the other side of Australia, a difference of two hours, 9 pm.

Football museum, UK.

What about the football, starting, kick-off, at 5.30 pm in the UK?

Add five and a half hours to the other numbers, assuming they are correct. (Or, to be safe, re-set your time converter page.)

USA
For football fans in the USA, that is good news. The 5.30 start in the UK is 12.30, lunch time on Saturday in the USA.

Australia
Sorry to say that if you are in Singapore, or Perth, Australia, the football starts at 12.30 - gone midnight.

In Sydney it will be two hours later, 2.30 am, starting and finishing in the middle of the night.

You'll have to watch the re-play, unless you are a night owl.

Check which day! I remember ringing a friend in Australia, one Friday afternoon, and hearing that the person I was calling was out to lunch. I said, "He's out late to lunch on a Friday afternoon on a weekday."
The person the other end, his wife, replied, "No. He's out early to lunch at the weekend - here it's Saturday. Where are you calling from?"

So check your clocks.

And decide when and which way you wish to fly.

If you are watching on TV, check the schedules on the day in your country or better still the day before. Usually the broadcasts start an hour earlier, of even from dawn, with shots of the preparations, visitors arriving, VIPs, chats to foreign tourists, views of the streets before they are cordoned off for the carriage. Plus any arrivals by car or on foot. And pre-recordings of snippets of previous programmes about the venues.

Useful Websites
visitbritainshop.com

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

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

Madeira, the island, wines, restaurants, hotels and selfies with the bust of Cristiano Ronaldo

Problems
Past
I have a photo of myself with family descending the Madeira hillside on a kind of local seated sledge. Like a horse-drawn cart but with no wheels and no horse! No wonder we are all grinning. Where were we? What have I done with this historic photo? I need a catalogue of photos!

Present
Where to go and what to do? Before planning a trip, I collect information days, weeks, months, years in advance. I started with a trip to taste Madeira wine in the UK (see my previous posts). The rep for Madeira wines, Geoff, kindly sent me information.

Future
Here are some notes I have made on Madeira, based on editing what Geoff said:

Hotels - biggest and best?
Reid's hilltop hotel where Winston Churchill stayed.
Savoy by the sea.

"1.A city hotel which we use for group visits in the centre of Funchal. 

Hotel Orquidea.     

www.hotelorquidea.com   

 info@hotelorquidea.com

2. Romantic hotel. Our favourite is Porto Mare hotel.

 www.portobay.com    

book@portobay.pt

3. Restaurants, all are good. A small intimate on is 

L'Osteria Restaurant 

4.  PVP has probably the best wine selection, informal and good food.

5. All the restaurants serve the locally made table wine. It is OK, but not very exciting and rather expensive. I would say that their table wine is at a level where English wine was 20 years ago.

6. All the producers have visitor facilities, booking is required for groups. All have websites. 

7. Cocktails. A document was published by IVBAM

 If you contact IVBAM I am sure that they would be pleased to send you a copy.  ivbam.sra@gov-madeira.pt

All restaurants and bars serve freshly pressed fruit drinks."

Sites - See and Do
Madeira movie experience.
Madeira history museum.
Botanical Gardens.
Lava tunnels and waterside walks.
The artificial beach where black sand has been replaced by pale sand.

Drink
Madeira wine, rum, passionfruit cocktail.

Zarco statue in Funchal, capital of Madeira. Photo in Wikipedia by Hedwig Storch.

A famous historical figure known locally is Zarco, whose statue is on one of the main streets, Avenida Arriarcho. Zarco was an explorer and, like Christopher Columbus, some suspect Zarco was descended from a Jewish family which converted to Christanity.

Most famous living man from Madeira, Cristiano Ronaldo, footballer who has played for real Madrid and previously Manchester United. You might fly into Aeroporto Cristiano Ronaldo, named after him in 2017. Notice the bust of him in the airport. You might want to photograph it and have a selfie with it.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Please see my other blog and share links with your friends and family.
http://luxurytravelforless.co.uk

Mexican Murals Cut Crime In Shanty Town - how and where to transform graffiti worldwide

Photo of Palmitas neighbourhood, town of Palchuca, Mexico. Photo from Wikiwand.

Problem
How do you transform the city's atmosphere, the ambiance? Two things I want to change everywhere.
1 Lack of colour
2 Untidy graffiti, when the same people could use their paint spray to create lovely colours, curves, patterns, pictures of people, rainbows and magnificent murals, turning their homes and home area into an inspiration and a tourist attraction.

Answer
Today I was delighted to hear about a project in Mexico, a government initiative, employing youths who were unemployed and/or gang members, to renovated a poor area, transform their own lives and actually cut crime. (I have the word actually, which is overused, but here it fits.) I looked up the place names Palmitas and Palchuca.

Palmitas
Palmitas is the Mexican neighbourhood (as Americans say - in the UK we would say urban area, local area). However,  my initial simple searches on Google and Wiki only found other places of the same name in the USA and Uruguay.

Palchuca
Palchuca is the town, about 55 miles from Mexico's capital, Mexico City.

If only we could copy them. Soon!

We have too much graffiti in London, as you see from the window of trains.

It is a worldwide problem. Earlier this year I was horrified by too much graffiti in Bucharest, capital of Romania, ruins the wonderful old buildings. (See pictures in my earlier post.)
Berlin has artists transforming

Brasov's landmark String Street ruined by graffiti. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

 graffiti swastikas. Would somebody please start a campaign to clean up London and Bucharest. In fact, link up everybody, in the same way as international sports associations and Toastmasters International. Then people involved could take holidays in other cities to start movements doing the same there.

Pachuca - what else to see
I looked up Pachuca, Mexico, in Wikipedia. The BBC article featured the transformed shanty town. Pachuca itself is worth visiting because of its attractive architecture and several points of interest:
Firstly, the place was settled by Cornish miners.
See
1 The clock tower.
2 Football.
3 Eat the Mexican version of the Cornish pasty. I was most interested to see that the thick crust was to keep dirty hands away from the filling.

Clock Tower (or Reloj - Spanish for clock), Pachuca, Mexico, photo from Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachuca
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-40959839# (Mexican murals cut crime.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_graffiti
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-40809266/berlin-street-artist-group-cleverly-undo-swastika-graffiti
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-39101558/could-banksy-s-city-rid-itself-of-graffiti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtown_area_graffiti_and_street_art (Graffiti in Sydney, Australia)

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my previous posts. Please follow me here or on Facebook and LinkedIn and share links to your favourite posts.

Buying Football Clothes: Manchester United Hats and More

Manchester United, Arsenal and other football teams, English, Scottish and Irish, are available in shops for you to buy for yourself or as Christmas presents for friends. In London's Oxford Street you can visit a shop with two floors of souvenirs of football, to buy for yourself or friends and acquaintances, as a gift, a thank you, or a favour if they are willing to pay but want you to buy for them whilst you are in England and they are not.

The prices can be quite high. You may be surprised or not surprised to learn that some clubs earn more from selling their tee-shirt, hats, scarves and other souvenirs, than they do from matches. The selling goes on day after day worldwide.

We went looking in London for Manchester United and Arsenal clothes for somebody else who does not have a large, unlimited budget. First the assistant showed us the most expensive t-shirts. We hummed and hated and started to walk out. Then he found us the less expensive tee-shirts. We selected the cheaper of the two tee-shirts.

The Arsenal tee-shirts had the name of the sponsor Emirates dominating the tee-shirt. We decided that it was safer to stick to our brief exactly and opt for a tee-shirt where the name of the football team was the focus.

I wandered over to the sale rail in hope. I found tee-shirts for Ireland, Scotland (didn't they lose - or was that rugby?) and other teams I did not know. Nothing for Arsenal nor Manchester United.

However, right next to the sale rail was the hats and scarves display. Hey! Hats with Manchester United. The first one I looked at was £5. The second one was three times as much, £15. So the first one seemed a bargain.

The hats were warm, as might be expected needed when watching football which is a cold weather sport. (Unlike cricket which is a summer sport, very slow, lots of players standing around, in hot countries, lighter white clothes).

Would a warm hat be unsuitable for a supporter in a hot country? Such as Singapore. Never mind. It was a good price. You could hang it on a hook in your bedroom. You could wear it indoors in a breezy flat or top floor balcony at night or to a fancy dress party or in an air conditioned sports bar when watching a match.

Job done. We went off very satisfied with our purchases. I hope our friend will be equally pleased to get them. If not, he won't be short of friends who would be glad to receive or buy a tee shirt or hat with Manchester United.

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