Toys For Entertaining Travelling Toddlers & Children in Restaurants & Hotels Improvised

How do you keep your little ones entertained when travelling? You are waiting for your first course or main course to be served in a restaurant. Or you are in your hotel or self-catering suite, waiting for an important phone call. You want the children to be quiet but happy.

Cat's cradel picture from Wikipedia.

String For Cat's Cradle

We gave three children aged 3, 9 and 11 a book each. The books were wrapped in discarded brown paper and tied with old plain colour string. I was embarrassed not to have fancy coooured paper and ribbon. However, the 11 year old girl immdiately used her string to start cat's cradle and eave patterns on her fingers. The other two children wanted to be shown by her how to do it. That kept all three of them entertianed for 15 minutes until the food arrived.

The moral is, save a piece of string in your bag to creat a game. If you have two children, they can entertain each other with copying and competing.

Paper Fortune Teller

The one most people know is the fortune teller, made by folding in the corners of a swuare, turning the paper over, folding in the corners again. Draw numbers on the four top visible corners. 

Underneath write the question, or answer, or a good fortune prediction.

Children can decorate the top four corners.

From Wikipedia.

Paper Napkin Origami

You can use the white paper from envelopes thrown in the waste bin, or used to give you information on the hotel or conference centre. Or a spare paper tablemat for children in a restaurant. You will find instructions on the internet if our hotel or restaurant has a connection.

If not, you can download an instruction, printing at home or in the office.

Learn how to make simple paper folds. 

 A DIY Dolls House

You can improvise a dolls house from a shoe box and a tote bag. 

DIY Dolls House Furniture

A box from a free pen, made a a miniature sofa-bed for a Fisher Price dolls' house which had no funiture. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

A case for a pen (a free gift from Jiva Hoa Lu Retreat, Vietnam) opens up to make a miniature sofa.

Hoa Lu means flourishing capital. Hoa Lu is a former capital of Vietnam.

The small box in the bathroom or from previous trips makes a small suticase or delivery package.

Key Rings

The doll on a key ring (detached from the key ring) inhabits the house.

The car on a key ring (detached) becomes a car outside the house.

Flowers & Bases

Tiny artificial flowers from a corsage make a vase of flowers, or a plant plot. 

A thimble makes a plant pot or vase., or hem

Small coins make stepping stones on a green paper lawn.

Toothpicks make walking sticks ski sticks or broom handles.

An old toothbrush head makes a broom, or brush for a dustpan and brush. 

Dental floss makes a washing line in the bathroom or hangs teeny curtain, or xmas decorations from sparklers.

Christmas Cake Toppings

Christmas cake toppings include trees for indoors or by the front door or beyond the window.

A postcards of a hotel can go behind a window to provide a street view. when viewing the house from indoors.

A wine bottle cork maes a stoool or table covered with a teeny piece of fabric, such as an old handkerchief or hem of a skirt, or the end of a long tie belt. For stability, glue a coin under the cork.

A parasol from a cocktail makes as umbrella or a garden umbrella..

See later post on March 5th.

If I were you, fellow traveller, comic poem by Angela Lansbury

If I were you

I would speak Chinese

And not waste time

Saying thank you and please.

If I were the king

I'd make everyone speak the King's English

I'd ban Korean, and Greek

Bad Grammar, Creole, Russian, Vietnamese and Singlish. 

On second thoughts

We would learn Esperanto in school

An international language

Would be such a handy tool.

If I were you all the buses

And Sundays newspapers would be free

But f I were you

I would not be me

If I were a bee

I would make flavoured honey

Give beehives to every gardener and farmer

We'd all make lots more money

If I were a bird

I'd sing in tune, and parrot every word

Teacher's lessons repeated, re-heard

If I were not a bird-brained bird

If I were a horse

I would run fast of course

And neigh 'til I was hoarse

If I were an internet, animated, 3D horse

If I were a cat

I'd sleep on the mat

Catch mice as cat food, save money on that

If I were a cat

If I were a cloud

I could not laugh out loud

I'm sure it's not allowed

If you are a digital cloud

If I were a tree

How odd that would be

Much more animated than me

If I were overprinted on a 3D tree

If I were a fish

I'd swim in the pond or sea

Then be preserved in a car key ring

How lucky I am that I'm me.

Two colour suitcase in red and blue block colours. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

If I made travel goods

And make them all block colours

To go with matching clothes

Yes, I really would

If we had to start again

Maybe we'd all be men

All cocks and no hens

Pack unisex clothes, if we had to start again

Lastly, if I were you

That would never do

You know that it is true

For I'm me, and you are you

If you were in this room

And not just on Zoom

You could stand on the balcony

And watch tropical flowers bloom

Travel websites, now we've thought about it

Always tell the truth, I know you'll never doubt it

The museums closes Mondays, but on the web we travel far

Today I travel online, and love things the way they are.

-ends-

As the old Irish jokes goes, when asked the way, a bystander replied, 'If I were you, I wouldn't start from here.'

Christmas Gifts From Travellers To Travellers, from Journals, Maps and Suitcase Covers, to Aprons, Chocolates, Key Rings, Umbrellas and More

My ebook on improve your English with alliteration is available for download from Amazon. 

English dictionaries of all sizes can be bought on line. 

If you are obsessed with Stonehenge or the Loch Ness Monster, or know somebody who is, then, failing a trip to visit the original and/or the museum, a key ring, poster or book is a cheaper alternative to stick inside a Christmas stocking for amusement. Or inside a Christmas cracker, the DIY sort.

I bought towelling bath mit from Primark with a Union Jack.

Gifts From England

Chocolate

Passing through Heathrow airport? We bought Terry's white chocolate  and orange bar. It tastes good. It's different.

Tesco Express in London often has cakes topped with Thornton chocolates.

Also look for Kendal Mint cake.

English Heritage

Union flag (union jack) golf umbrella, twenty five pounds (plus postage?) with navy outside and the Union Jack inside.

The cheapest union Jack tee-shirts are on ebay. Some of them have messy edges to the flag. You can buy tee-shirts with the flag large or small and the normal way up or sideways.

Stonehenge

Spinner key ring; oven glove. Socks. Bottle opener key ring. 

Book: I never knew that about England. Tells you where Wendy and Long John Silver are buried, and where King Alfred burned the cakes.

British food includes:

Bakewell tart, malt loaf. Cadbury's chocolates. Quality Street chocolates. Scones. Mrs Beeton recipe book. Fray Bentos tinned steak and kidney pudding. Marks & Spencers thick cut marmalade. Ginger in syrup in glass jars from supermarkets.

Harrods goods with their symbol. Toby jugs. Wedgwood crockery. (All cheaper in the January sales - which often start online as early as Boxing Day, Dec 26, or even Christmas Day, Dec 25.)

Diabetic and gluten free goods from pharmacies. 

Kosher and halal goods from supermarkets and speciality grocers.

Large numbers of Chinese and Indian (mainly Pakistani and North Indian) restaurants, some vegetarian restaurants. Indian sarees and items from areas such as Southall in London. Bit Chinese mall on the Edgware Road in London.

Numerous art galleries and museums and stately homes have shops. Sherlock Holmes items from their shop near baker street station.

UK flag mask

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/united-kingdom-union-jack-england-britain-flag-vintage-distressed-finish-design-turnpike.html?product=face-mask-flat

Winter Novelties

Paperweights which show falling snow when turned upside down.

Travel Novelties

You can buy a suitcase, a suitcase set, or suitcase cover with pictures of the UK, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, or the words New York.

I bought a cover to cover a scruffy suitcase. The cover prevented me from reaching into the outside pocket which was a nuisance. However, you might find it adds security by preventing things from falling out or to stop petty pilferage.

Gifts From Scotland

Loch Ness Monster

Scottish shortbread biscuits

Tartan hat or kilt, tee-shirt or teddy bear toys or key rings wearing tartan kilts and hats .

Whisky

Gifts From Wales

Welsh cakes

Welsh love spoons

Tee towels with words of Welsh or Welsh recipes

 

Gifts from Ireland

Aran sweaters

Items in green and with four leaf clover motifs

Personalize

Personalized with your surname in the middle, Monopoly, ordered from Selfridges.

Looking for a bargain?

Lidl, the low price German supermarket in London, England, before Xmas sells stollen bites from Germany.

Hanukah theme gifts will be reduced price after the end of hanukah, widely sold in London UK supermarkets, Jewish delis and shops, and the USA bargain stores.

After Christmas you can stock up on Christmas theme items for next year.

Soon to come, more ideas for you. 

Classic companies in the UK include department stores Hamleys, Selfridges, Harrods, Marks & Spencer, Tesco. 

Classic chocolates are Cadbury's, Thorntons, After Eight, Hotel Chocolat, Terry's.

Classic flags are the Union Jack, flags of Scotland, Wales, and Eire, the USA, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, England, Football teams.

Classic US authors include Dickens, the Brontes, Jane Austen.

Classic US authors include Edgar Allen Poe.

Classic Christian gifts are from churches and cathedrals.

Classic Jewish gifts are from synagogues and Jewish gift shops and Jewish museums.

Travel Diaries

Cheap Travel Diary For Children

If you cannot travel, you can cut out or print pictures for a wishlist. Or start collecting stamps. I remember as a child seeing pagodas and Ankor Wat. When I finally reached Ankor Wat, at retirement age, it exceeded my expectations, and it was not the only building in that style but one of many. Also, by then it was not remote and eerie, but surrounded by sellers of postcards and drinks and even restaurants in huts and one storey wooden buildings. 

Finally, there's the KrisFlyer shop.

Useful Websites

Child's union Jack cap

https://www.lazada.sg/products/union-jack-uk-england-flag-united-kingdom-united-kingdom-england-london-kids-baseball-hats-childrens-cap-hip-hop-caps-childrens-cap-hat-hats-for-children-childs-summer-cap-sun-hats-cap-for-boy-

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-10274603/Christmas-gift-ideas-traveller-life-luggage-tags-heated-jackets.html

https://www.english-heritageshop.org.uk/

https://www.english-heritageshop.org.uk/collections/exclusive-collections/stonehenge-medallion-collection

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/shop/

https://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/cat/board-games-monopoly-by-you-silver-tokens-personalised-board-game_R03866787/

https://www.notonthehighstreet.com/

https://www.britishcornershop.co.uk/

https://www.theirishstore.com/irish-gifts

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Traditional_foods_of_the_United_Kingdom

Tee shirts with Union Jacks on ebay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282830021956?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM

https://www.facebook.com/KrisShop/

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/united-kingdom-union-jack-england-britain-flag-vintage-distressed-finish-design-turnpike.html?product=face-mask-flat

About the Author

About the author of this blog

About the Author of this blog, Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books, including: Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

I  also have a blog on comic poems.

 Please share links to your favourite posts. 

Romanian Everyday Phrases - and handy Flashcards

Problem
You are in a restaurant and keep hearing the same phrases. What do they mean?

Answers

Romanian - English
0 - a
buna - good
d i m i n e a t a - morning
ea - she
el - he
l i m b a - language (both words start with letter l and contain the letter a; m and n are adjacent letters, and b looks like a g upside down)
n o a p t e - night
p o f t a - stomach , appetite (think of it as pigging yourself out - be a happy pig - enjoy your meal)
z i - day
z i u i a - afternoon (The word z i u i a looks like a longer word than day which is zi in Romanian. Similarly the word afternoon is longer than day in English. The last letter of ziuia and first letter of afternoon are the same; afternoon has two letter o vowels and ziuia has two i letters.)

English - Romanian
a - o
day - z i
evening - s e a r a
good - bona
he - el
she - ea

Flashcards For Languages
I keep getting messages that Duolingo is developing flash cards. Sounds good. You can create flashcards for any language, or indeed any subject. But I have not yet managed to access and create my flash cards.

In theory I could make flashcards to carry in my pocket of all new words. Just cut up old white envelopes to a certain size. How to get them all the same size? Use an out of date cards of credit card size.

Make a hole through one corner and thread them together with a piece of cotton (from a hotel sewing kit), a piece of wool, or a rubber band. Tie a slip knot so you can untie and reorganise the cards.

Alternatively use one of those key rings which open easily.

You can write both words on the same side as a simple memory aid. Keep them in alphabetical order. Alternatively arrange by subject.
If you want to test yourself, write the word on opposite sides, such as Romanian on the front and english on the back. If possible use different colours.

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

Travel diary, notebook, pen, storage box. Possible gifts.

TRAVEL DIARY AND NOTEBOOK

One of the things I pack for any travel trip is a notebook and pen and pencil and rubber.

If I have a long trip or side trips, I pack at least two notebooks, to be sure not to lose the entire trip by leaving my jacket on the plane on the way home. I photograph highlights, business cards and addresses. If I have a base in one country and a weekend away, I take a fresh notebook just for that weekend. 

An alternative would be to have a Filofax. 

I like a notebook with an elastic band around it and a pencil attached. Another aid to travellers is a pocket in the back cover. You can buy a diary or 'travel notebook'. A friend bought me a travel notebook as a gift. 

If a hardback notebook is too big and heavy, leave it behind and write up your scrappy notes in neat handwriting on a dull or rainy day when you are stuck at home.

Notebook Storage

Where to store all these vital records? A shoe box will do. Label it with dates. keep all diaries and travel diaries together. 

(Something to leave the children, be sure your diaries are kept and not chucked out in a garage sale of books. Keep notebooks near photo box to be sure you take them with you have a quick clear out when moving house, downsizing or moving to a retirement home.)

 Cover your storage box.  With what? How about all those luggage tags and boarding passes, which will make a quick record if you want to check where you went and when.

An idea for a Christmas present for a traveller or items for a Christmas stocking (or Hanukah stocking - they come in blue)? A travel notebook, diary, photo box, pen, photo key ring, a box covered in travel tags you have rescued from the waste bin and taken off old suitcases. 

Speaking of key rings and photos, Staples in London, UK, has 3D key rings and photo cubes and pendants. I've seen the same in Singapore shopping malls. I'm sure the same are in America and Australia and all over the world. You'll see them in stationery shops and kiosks in shopping malls.

Staples, Watford, Herts, England. Copyaprint. 3D laser photo in glass.

If you are willing to splash the cash, dash to an outlet and order your notebooks and pens. If you are looking for a bargain, try the Pound shops. 

DIY Travel Diary or Notebook

1 If you are artsy and crafty (in both senses), or a parent or teacher, you could make a gift or get the children or grandchildren to make a travel notebook, diary, or travel diary. You could make a whole travel notebook, making the paper, the cover, binding the book, or using thick card for the front and back, making a collage on the front, cutting two holes with a hole punch, tying the pages through the two holes with ribbon etc.

2 You may be able to buy a diary with attached notebook or ribbon or a cheap notebook with an elastic closure. Check your options then add what is easiest for you to add.

3 For DIY, add a piece of elastic as a marker, attached at both ends, top and bottom of back cover on a hardback book. 

4 Stick a photo on the front. 

5 Add a loop of elastic around the middle of a pen and stick the elastic to the inside of the notebook or diary back cover.

6 Make a pocket on the inside back cover. You need not just a thee quarters page of thicker than the pages card. it needs a concertina at the top and bottom, one fold inwards.

An Italic pen and calligraphy set? If you already have a calligraphy set, time to use it to make a DIY Xmas card or New Year card including photos of the year and your hand-written message.

And if you are home alone whilst the others are away travelling at Xmas, lots of free time to organise you travel photos and diaries. 

(See previous post on stationery week next April.)

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

If the customers steal, then sell souvenirs! They want graffiti, pens or towels? Sell souvenirs at historic sites and hotels - what I bought

The customer is always right about what he or she wants. If you are in sales or marketing, give it to them. Use it to promote. Give some things away free to those who like freebies. Give luxury or plus version to make money. You can do two, or all three.

What Tourists Want To Leave Behind
I saw that Californian tourists were arrested for carving their initials on an ancient monument, the Colosseum. Usually people sign a visitors book. For those who want to leave behind their name, comments, witticisms, to prove 'I was here'.

Most modern attractions offer opportunities for photos, often going beyond the selfie you could take. Your photo at the attraction can be added to a key ring or printed on a tee-shirt or plate.

How do you stop the tourists stopping to write on walls, leave their mark like cats marking their territory? Keep the tourists busy, on a train, or following a guide. Keep them sitting eating, waving to the camera in a group photo, having a group photo. Then you limit their chance to do damage. You keep the goodwill. Nobody wants to walk through a site full of warnings and threats.

Obviously visitors want to leave their names. So charge the for it. Sell space on a giant modern wall alongside, adding their photo for extra money. Dress them as Romans and write their names in English and Latin. Use the money to develop the site.

Have a wishing well, or donation area, and reward them with a photo or certificate. Have their names on a card or poster.

Eventually you could computerise the visitors' records. Add statistics or names. How many Americans, people from Paris, Japanese speaking tourists, visited this site? How many children under the age of 11, and people over the age of 100, climbed the 99 steps? How many visitors this year threw a stone or coin in the pool? Gave a dollar or Euro to sponsored a brick for a canteen or wheelchair for visitors? (And got a pin or key ring or headband or hat or tee-shirt in return?

What Tourists Want To Leave Behind Souvenirs

I've been in hotels where they have signs telling you not to take the towels.

Hawaii and Hong Kong
Others are smarter and tell you that you can have brand new dry towels, packed small to take him in your suitcase, or posted on to you, for a modest price. Sometimes with added extras to make a set, matching facecloths.

At a hotel in Hong Kong, you could buy almost everything in the room, the sheets, lamps, ash trays, vases, wall art, bedcovers, pillows, sheets, even the mattress or a complete bed.

At the Halekulani Hotel in Hawaii, you could buy thick absorbent towelling robes, in sizes to fit a tall man, a shorter woman, or a young child. We bought a matching set of all three. they were bulky, and we had to pay for them to be shipped to our home. I still have one hanging in the bathroom.

Malta
At the Grand Hotel Excelsior in Malta I was impressed by the bedside notepad in a magnetic cover. I looked around the hotel shops at the crockery and was persuaded that we had enough crockery at home already. Then I saw the notepad. I bought it.

I am sure many tourists would be happy to pay for items, if you could offer them the opportunity to buy a souvenir.