LANDLORDS' PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS WORLDWIDE - TASKS

 

1 LANDORD & OWNER EXPERIENCE

Whilst living overseas, renting in Singapore, I was a landlord in London.

What are the landlord's main problems?

1 Payment of rent - or lack of it. Unemployed tenant. Covid and self-employed worker.

2 Empty flats - insurance, dirt, leaks, vandalism, squatters, expenses of council tax and maintenance.

3 Children - damage and overcrowding.

4 Pets - damage to the flat, the common area, noise annoying neighbours. |New legislation says you cannot refuse to have pets for no good reason. A good reason would be that you are already bound to no pets by your own contract. You might be allergic to animal fur and feathers, as I am. A good tenant might be willing to have pets neutered and wormed and to take out insurance. 

On the plus side, one tenant told me that after a neighbour got a cat, the mice problem ended. 

5 Noise

You can download an ap on a smart phone to check noise.

6 Tenants leaving tenancy early too early or too late

7 Mould

8 Equipment failure.

9 Furnished or unfurnished.

10 Gardening, garage doors, subsidence drains, storm damaging fences and patio doors.

Useful Websites

When the landlord came round and saw the skimpy curtains a few weeks later, he said, I wish you'd told me last month, I could have got them replaced. Now it's too late. Landlord's loss.

The moral is, make sure anything missing or broken is listed on the inventory and recorded in an email immediately. 

It's good for the tenant. And good for the landlord.

 LANDLORD'S problems

Protecting Building From Damage By Movers 

On moving in and out, tenants had to pay management to put protective baffling on the lifts and corridor floors and flat doorways. This is very sensible. 

As a landlord we should have this in the UK. Instead as a landlord, I suffered from complaints that the corridor carpets were ruined by tenants moving in out. 

I have tried to keep the flats fully furnished and not to allow furniture to be moved in and out.

Fire Safety & The Elderly

If you rent out to retirement age people, the advantage is that you don't have children creating noise and damage.

On the other hand, an elderly person might keep burning the toast and setting off the fire alarm.

They might fall over steps outdoors or in a hallway or stairwell and blame the owner or building management if a light bulb has not been fixed instantly. 

The solution to the light bulb problem is to stock replacement bulbs on the premises. The person in charge or changing light bulbs could be the resident porter, or another resident of the building, or the person reporting the problem could collect the key to the light bulb cupboard. 

A whatsapp group for residents could ensure another person provides a ladder, or person to ensure safety of the person changing the light bulb, and the protection of the cupboard from theft. 

Landlord problem - Leaks

In London we had a leaking heated towel rail in the bathroom. I tried two plumbers who were not available. 

I looked online and up popped an ad for a 24/7 service. They wanted about 90 pounds paid upfront, which I paid. They said the plumber was on another job half an hour away. I said ok. 2.30 pm. I go half hour postponement until 4.30 when it was dark. Then I was told the plumber agreed with the tenant to come back next morning. ok. I did not want to drive over in the dark and hang around. Later Sunday the towel rail burst sending water everywhere. The porter called the fire brigade who turned off the water and the electricity.

Next day the plumber arrived. He fitted a new towel rail and charged about nine hundred pounds.

He said that the radiators were on the same system and also likely to leak, and that would be about six thousand pounds. 

I called back the other two plumbers.

One said the towel rail was not on the radiator system but on a separate system which was turned off under the bath. 

The other one said that the towel rail on the hot water system should not have been stainless stell, which you identified by attaching a magnet. 

The original plumbing company would not tell me the maker or guarantee of the towel rail and said the guarantee was from their company. I would not let them do any more work for me because of their huge prices and unhelpfulness. The staff on the phone were very soothing and knowledgeable. But the plumber had not turned up in time. I then had to spend another thousand or so on replacing the wooden floor of the hall which was flooded, plus the disruption of time spent choosing flooring, pulling up the old damaged flooring, wait for concrete floor to dry, survey, choosing new flooring - I refused to have glue down flooring because I'd had that previously and when replaced, the carpet fitters said the wrong glue was used and instead of pulling up sheets, you had to chip off the stuck down panels inch by inch which took hours and cost me a lot. Glue could also be a fire risks.

Landlord problems - Fire Alarms and Extinguishers

After the New Year's Eve fire in Switzerland, I am now looking at supplying a fire alarm, fire extinguisher, and fire blanket. I am included to not get the fire blanket. Neither I nor any other amateur would be likely to risk getting close enough to put down a fire blanket.  Spraying powder or anything else from a distance is more likely to be done.

FINDING A NEW TENANT

DIY

Advantage

Advertise online for free or low cost.

Disadvantage

You could be inundated by time wasting replies and costly research into credit worthiness of people who turn out to have no income, to be bad payers, to have criminal records, bad references for damaging property, overcrowding and creating mould. Old tenant not leaving, so your prospective new tenant is lost or you cannot move back into your former home and take up a job or get married. 

Agencies

Management

Landlords' best practice

For landlords

1 Answer immediately. 

2 Fix problems quickly. 

3 Use check-a trade. 

4 Ask your local whatsapp group for reliable plumbers, electricians and other workers such as gardeners, fence builders, drain fixers.

The tenant is not a friend, but a business contact. 

Keep calm and carry on.

My family say,

 'It's not a problem, it's a task. Everything collapses after twenty years and needs replacing. That's what money is for.

Check reviews on Websites on tradespersons and businesses

checkatrade.com

tripadvisor.co.uk

Useful Websites on Fire Alarms

https://www.fireprotectiononline.co.uk/small-kitchen-fire-safety-bundle

£56.12 for smoke alarm, fire blanket and fire extinguisher (powder).

..................................

https://simplyextinguishers.co.uk/landlord-fire-safety-bundle

£46.79

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Fire extinguisher and bracket 

£16.49 on ebay

.................................................

https://www.fireandsafetycentre.co.uk/collections/quantity-discount-available

£38.27 triple bundle

You might also want a carbon monoxide detector.

You can buy a combined smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm.

also check ebay, amazon, lidl and asda. costco uk and costco usa.

Being A Tenant worldwide

30 YEARS OF TENANT EXPERIENCE

I see things from both sides. Although I am both a home owner and landlord, in Singapore I was a tenant in 5 properties over a 30 year period. Our first flat was centrally located. It was brand new.

TENANTS' CHALLENGES - WILDLIFE

However,  it had cockroaches. In the kitchen. 

Which is worse, creatures you can see, chase, spray? Or creatures which come out at night and leave behind droppings, trails, holes, smells, or make noises behind the walls.

In England we hear the saying, you are never far from a rat. What about snakes in Singapore? In the USA we were told on a tourist trail though a national park that snakes are scared of noise. You can march heavily, sing, and throw stones ahead to frighten them off the path.

Snakes - invisible

A girl downstairs in our newly built block of lats near central Orchard Road discovered in her school bag a snake skin, which local snakes discard annually. Singapore has 70 species of snake.

 In 30 years I never saw one in the city, except a large one on the fence at a noisy party. It obviously hadn't read that small snakes are scared by noise.

Neither had the London snakes learned to beware of humans, noisy nor silent. My parents in London, England, had had a breeding pair of adders in their garden backing onto woodland in Stanmore in 1978. The snake basked in the sun happily beside our neighbour who had been snoozing in a deck chair. Maybe she should have played the radio, quietly.

Apart from wildlife, in Singapore, I had three main problems. 

TENANTS' Problems

1 Mould PROBLEMS

As  tenants in Singapore, we had mould, from tropical rain running from the flat roof down the outside walls of the skyscraper. 

Mould Solutions

Painting over was a temporary solution. The problem returned the following year. Another company had a more expensive but effective solution of removing plaster and adding a waterproof lining.

In the UK the maintenance company rep showed that a device for detecting damp could show the damp from the top corner, being a ceiling leak from pipes or broken guttering. A mould patch half way could be foliage or an overflow pipe from a kitchen boiler. 

Mould alongside a bed meant that the one pint of water which every adult, two children or two pets breathe out, was going onto an adjoining wall. 

Walls should be free of leaning furniture and furnishing to allow airflow. 

So curtains should not rest against windows and walls.

 Bedding such as headboards and duvets should be a gap away. 

Cupboard contents should be inside racks away from the back wall. Fifties style furniture on feet is best to allow air flow. 

CHAIRS

The oriental and Middle eastern style of living, with cushions around the walls and on the floor is fine for hot, dry climates, But the lack of air flow produces moisture turning into mould.

Also windows should be opened.

TENANTS PROBLEMS

2 Missing Furniture or furnishing

We went into the new property and a shelf was missing in a kitchen cupboard. 

My family said, don't complain, we don't need it.

When we moved out two years later, our leaving inventory showed a missing shelf, so the letting agent charged us for the replacement. Tenant's loss.

The new curtains didn't quite meet. My family said, don't complain. 

3 Street Noise - Tenant's Problem

DAYTIME NOISE

In little India we backed onto a busy street with an Indian temple. We could drown out continuous noise from traffic by playing music. 

However, we had loud intermittent noise from processions. Indian processions for example, Thaipusan. And noise from lion dances at Chinese New Year.

Night NOISE

In Singapore you can report noise at night. 

A friend of ours with a pilot in the family told us they had been disturbed by builders digging by the road nearby late at night. 

The family went out to remonstrate. 

The foreman shrugged, and lied. 'We have to dig now. It's a gas leak.'

The family retorted. 'We have already reported you to police who are on their way. It's not a gas leak. This street is on bottled gas.'

The workmen quickly threw their gear into the truck and drove off.

To conclude on Good Tenants' BEST PRACTICE  

For tenants

1 Pay on time and send a whatsapp saying you have done so.

2 Report leaks and other problems promptly. 

3 Preserve all guarantees, and fire safety stickers on furniture.

4 If you go abroad tell the landlord you are away and who nearby has the key if there is a leak, fire or other problem. 

5 Inform the landlord if you have anybody to stay longer than a fortnight. The landlord is legally obliged to check that he is not renting out to illegals. He or she needs to know that relatives staying in your flat are not squatters.

4 If given notice, leave. You might want a good reference. The landlord who wants to get rid of you might be tempted to give you a good reference but is legally obliged to tell the truth and risks a large fine by not doing so.

3 If you can, clean the oven or have it professionally cleaned. Hire a cleaning company to leave the whole flat as it was when you found it, including carpet cleaning.

-ENDS-

Fire Safety In Public Places - Swiss Fire New Year's Eve

The New Year's Eve Fire in Switzerland set me researching safety for my own home and buildings I manage, events I manage at club meetings, and places I visit. Toastmasters Clubs worldwide, mostly, although not always, follow the American and British protocol of the Toastmasters of the day starting the meeting by indicating the fire exits to use if we hear a fire alarm.

 If you rent out a flat in the UK to one person or more, you need both gas and electric inspections for safety every year, for which the owner has to pay, tax deductable from profits. 

Cars need an MOT safety test every year.

Every restaurant, bar and night club should have a safety and fire inspection test. 

It's mandatory to have a now wash your hands sign over staff toilet basins. There should be signs saying no cigarettes, naked flames, candles, fireworks, except for cooking under cooker hood with fire blanket and trained person present..

Please share links to your favourite posts.

An article in the website of CROSS draws attention to two or three other safety factors not often mentioned.

1 In discos there is often a lot of noise which can disguise or delay calls for help or evalucatuion, even fire alarms

2 Dim lighting in night clubs or when illuminated firworks are used adds to conusion.

3 Unlike offices, events often take place in premises where patrons do not know the layout or the fire exit and door  and exit locations.

Please share links to useful blog posts.

When redecorating, you might wish to think about safety, which includes windows which open from the inside, and knowing how to open them.

I often feel unsafe in shopping malls, and toilets, which are at the ends of corridors, with no windows. And buildings which have solid walls street side. No room for a fire engine. No window to climb out of. Not even a window where you could raise a sign asking for help or show that a person is inside the building.

A restaurant up a flight of steps means that your emergency exit is a place which looks like people will fall in haste or fall over each other, and collide with would be rescuers..

A spiral staircase to a basement is not ideal for a fast exit.

If I don't see a fire exit. I try to sit near a door, away from the kitchen.

Useful Websites

SAFETY

https://www.cross-safety.org/uk/safety-information/cross-feature-article/fires-nightclubs-started-pyrotechnics

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+are+bengal+lights

WORLDWIDE FIRES

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

SWISS FIRE

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/switzerland-swiss-bar-fire-owner-6z2nnv6fq

VIDEO

https://uk.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=mail+swiss+fire&type=E210GB885G0#id=3&vid=222bbd08dee9ddf4b2bab9916fa98119&action=click

Victims of Swiss Fire

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3vel0xvlvgo

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/swiss-ski-resort-fire-every-36490994

Update on Swiss fire on New Year's Eve

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/switzerland-swiss-bar-fire-owner-6z2nnv6fq

Please share links to useful posts from my blogs.

Remember Spanish Words

How to remember Spanish, if you are learning Spanish, or teaching others.

arroyo - stream, like a little river, or rivulet, variation on rio which is river

ayuda is aid

calle is street, bigger that an alley, more like a cariiageway, combination half way between the two, calle

centro - centre

Fumar is to smoke.

No fumes. If you smoke, they will be fuming.

mill is molina in Spanish, like moulin in French

pastel is pastry, pastries, cake

 Ruido is noise. A rude noise. Ruido.

Spanish - English

Arroyo - stream

bien organizado - well arranged/organized

calle - street

centro- centre

Cerca de la estación de tren - near the railway station

un club - a club

comodo - comfortable

fumar - to smoke

el molina - the mill

pastel - cake

¿Puedo ayudarte? - can I help you?

ruido - noise

espacioso - spacious

English - Spanish

cake - pastel

centre - centro

a club - un club

comfortable - comodo

the mill - el molina

near the railway station - Cerca de la estación de tren

noise - ruido

(to) smoke - fumar

spacious - espacioso

stream - arroyo

street - calle

well arranged/organized - bien organizado

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Noise in American and other buildings

 We lived in a USA apartment complex, three storeys high. In all of the three buildings the people on the ground and middle floors had running complaints about the noise from the people overhead. Like shared driveways, overhead noise on a constant basis will cause constant stress and eventually drive some tenants or occupiers to ugly confrontations. We regulate everything else, fire escapes, electricity, water. Building regulations need to change to limit noise and install complaints and mediation procedures.

Useful Websites

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12694133/Brooklyn-murder-shooting-neighbors-noise-dispute.html#comments

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Expat or moving house and want to install a dishwasher?

 In the USA you are lucky. Most homes will come with a dishwasher. The only trouble is if you move in and find the existing model is rusting, leaking, or not working. In the UK most homes have dishwashers.

In Singapore most homes don't. Flats are built with a scullery and maid's bedroom and toilet/shower. People traditionally have maids, or home helps. 

I heard of an American ex-pat who said he would only rent a flat i

If you have a maid - what if she is not to be trusted with your glassware?

1You might want to upgrade to a new dishwasher. Some models have pull out trays, cutlery racks: more accessible filter change. You might want to move your dishwasher from ground level to waist height so you don't have to stoop to fill it and empty it. You might want to move it to get the noise away if you work in the kitchen-diner en suite with a living room. 

2 A helper has moved in. You have had another child. A parent has moved in. A lodger has moved in. Your in-laws are staying for the summer. The amount of washing up has doubled. You are planning a dinner party and need to wash up a lot of items. You need to re-use the plates from the starter for the dessert.

3 You are in quarantine and your teenage children or spouse do not want to do chores when they have work or homework.

4 You are getting older. The dishwashing which seemed easy before is now too tiring or time-consuming.

5 You are working from home.

6 Your last dishwasher leaked all over the floor and you want a new one with a guarantee. You also want the risk of it flooding kept away positioned away from the busy kitchen.

7 You are paranoid about washing machines and tumble driers and dishwashers catching fire and want them away from the kitchen and the overhead bedrooms.

If you are a handy DIYer, this could take 2 to 4 hours.

You need a strong enough support for a table top dishwasher. We had a sink in a plywood worktop The back wall against which the dishwasher would a wall which was not a firm support concrete wall but a flimsy thin wooden  room divider to create a maid's bedroom.

We needed tiles on the wall behind the sink, before installing the dishwasher.

The dishwasher needs 

1 Electricity. It could plug in. If  you think the plug is away from the water and is safe. You want an accessible plug. And a label. And a plug clearly marked on and off, so you don't call out an expensive repair person which somebody or something has jogged the switch. You want to be able to turn off the electricity during repairs. Or doing some simple jobs such as emptying the filter. Or attach the machine direct to an electricity wiring supply. Check what your installer is doing. Consider the options.

2 It needs water to come into the machine. Hot water. Unless the machine is designed to heat water. 

3 It needs to attach to the run-away pipe under the sink, or to feed into a drain. You need it below an s bend so that you don't get dirty water feeding back up into the sink, or smells.

If you are installing a waste disposal at the same time, the cost for two jobs could be cheaper if done together. And cause less disruption.

Don't take my word for it. This is not necessarily what is safe or permitted in your property and country. Just a handy reminder guide to what you (and I) need to check on.

Useful Websites

https://www.wikihow.com/Install-a-New-Dishwasher

https://plumbinglab.com/how-to-plumb-a-dishwasher/

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

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

About the author of this blog post

About the 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.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.

Quick Quotations

Who Said What When

 

Sunline Paon Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam - Recommended

The entrance hall has delightful decorated with a gilded version of Klimpt's Kiss and other artworks. A glass cup of refreshing lemon drink on arrival.

Upstairs in the bedroom, free bottles of water every day because you can't drink the water. Best of all, the empty fridge, just so you can store your leftovers from lunch or dinner elsewhere, or food you bought from the supermarkets and the ubiquitous convenience stores.

Best Views
Tenth floor (top floor). Front room with balcony overlooking city on front.

Second choice, next door with window giving side view over the city.

 Room 1001, smaller room - I think it had only one bedside light, small desk but top floor with window and bright view.

I went up to the tenth floor to see the swimming pool and saw an open window in the corridor showing the view over the street and city. As I stood there, the door of the front room opened. An English speaking girl and her husband were just leaving. They were glad to show me their room and discuss its advantages, the view, and disadvantages, noise early morning - either from renovations above in gym - or city noise.

Quietest, Most Private Bedrooms
Fourth floor, above street noise but below top floor renovation noise. At the back with small window and no view. We asked to change rooms but the desk staff said they must ask the manager and we were told they were fully booked all week. However, we saw the two rooms on our floor were empty when people moved out. The people moving in, like us, would not know one room from another.

We moved on the fourth floor, from a room with no window over the desk, 4004, to a larger room, 4006,  with a window over the desk and a sofa. We moved into the next room, least trouble for the staff and for us.

 The beds are comfortable.

The toilets are are a dream with double jets to make you ultra-clean.The showers have jets at three levels. Hot water was shaky, vanished one mid-day, but came back later.

Lobby of Sunline Paon Hotel, Hanoi, North Vietnam.

Breakfast Buffet

The buffet is plentiful and varied and changes every day. What was best? Boiled eggs, or fried eggs cooked to order. Chopped fruit salad.Yogurt with or without sugar. Sometimes baked beans. Sometimes potato or sweet yam. 

Lots of oriental stuff, too. Processed cheese in triangles was shaped just right for a triangular sandwich. Butter in small packs. 

Least appealing to me - croissants and chocolatines were not moist and buttery. Small muffins, good size, nothing special. Scrambled egg cooked to order needed the whites whipped into the york with a whisk or two forks. They got it right one time out of three. 

Brown toast - not as good as the seed bread in London's Tesco Express. Olives had stones in the middle. 

The Christmas cake at breakfast on Christmas day was a surprise. Then I realised because they did not do lunch or evening meals that was the only time the chef could give us cake. Well done.

Best of all was the morning we left when the little lady who circulates collecting plates, reassured me, "You can take anything you like." 

She brought me a plastic container with a lid and two white plastic forks and two knives. I'm not the only one. I religiously read through other people's experiences on Tripadvisor and she often does this if she knows you are leaving.

The tea and coffee in the room did not have any little ersatz milk or dried milk powder sachets. Only on the last day did I think of asking if I could take my leftover half glass of milk up to the bedroom. 

The chef was not bothered by the loss of milk. (Contrast to the hotel in Madeira which had signs up forbidding you to take water because they wanted to sell bottled water.)

However, he wanted the glass back by 11 am when he presumably shut up the kitchen for the day. (He must be there at 5 or 5.30 to have the breakfast out and ready at 6 pm for all those people on early tours, to Halong Bay and around town, or early flights.

No problem. The bedroom had two cups and two gasses in the shower room. I dashed straight back with the glass.

Best
Japanese owned. Bright, clean and modern.

Friendly, helpful staff on reception. Delightful staff in restaurant.

Location
Perfect. A few steps from the lake.
What could be better? If you were to spend a fortune on a hotel such as the Apricot in what looked like one of three streets in the city with a proper pavement out front instead of crossing potholes. A grand hotel with a lake view from your hotel balcony would cost a lot. You can make do with walking around the lake by day and having coffee or dinner at a place with a view.

Could Be Better
Steps up to reception. They can't change this. All the small hotels are like this.
Once inside on lobby level, the lift from reception goes to all floors.

Swimming pool - no banister December 2018-January 2019. I was really bothered about this. Somebody who had been swimming could slip with wet feet or wet shoes. My mind went into overdrive, recalling people who fall of cliffs taking selfies, and over low barriers on mall escalators after dropping hats and phones or swatting flies and wasps. I could also imagine a workman with a see-sawing load, an arguing couple, or two tumbling toddlers or teenage brothers hitting each other like so many I see sparring in supermarkets and railway stations.

Also I keeled over earlier this year (2018). I lost my balance unexpectedly, fell sideways, and ended up in hospital. I fell on a level floor - no sheer drop!

The banister they installed for me, leading up to the pool in Jan 2019.

Gym

Room View
Rooms at the narrow front look over the city. the building has ten floors. Like most buildings in the old city it has a narrow frontage to do with tax on size a century or so ago. Now buildings extend up 5 or ten floors.
Clean and modern.

Other rooms on the sides and back view an internal courtyard, nothing to look at. Our first room on the fourth floor (402?) had no view from the desk which was against an internal wall. Depressing. We switched to the room next door.
I would go for tenth floor front.

Tenth floor side view window. Small desk area, but chief feature is the window above it.

Pool and Gym
In December 2018-Jan 2019 they were reconstructing the staircase to the swimming pool, and the gym overlooking the pool. This meant some noise from early morning. By December it was too cold to swim anyway. If you are intent on using the pool or gym you might check on current state of construction.

This applies to all pools in hotels, motels and villas worldwide. Ask if the pool has water, is accessible, and if the pool is outdoor whether weather is suitable for swimming in an outdoor pool throughout your stay.

In the USA I picked a motel near a ski resort because it had a pool. The pool was having renovation.

In Vietnam we upgraded in budget to this hotel from another in order to use the pool. We did not use it. The first day or so there was no barrier to the stairs, Then we went away to Halong Bay. When we returned the weather turned too cool for swimming.

On my last morning, I checked for an update to see if they had finally completed the banister. On the contrary, it had been removed.

Summary
Hanoi has more potholes in roads and pavements than London. (Want to avoid potholes - go to Singapore.)

We walked into the lobbies of many hotels, eating in the restaurants and asking the way. We still felt ours was the best.

See more reviews by us and others on Tripadvisor and booking.com

Sightseeing
See other posts.

Food Tour
See other posts.

Airport Transfer
Taxi can be organised by the hotel at your expense. Right next door is a tour operator offering a taxi transfer at a lower price. However, we opted to pay more, knowing our hotel would be on the phone to the taxi company, and would call us from the restaurant or phone the hotel room.

For hotels

booking.com

Comparison site:

https://www.clicktripz.com/rates/search/index

For airlines

travelok.com

vietJetair.com (Comprehensive list of budget airlines in Wikivoyage.)

For transport

https://www.grab.com/vn/en/

Language

Duolingo.com 

(Remember to click on the sound symbol to hear how words are pronounced.) 

Author

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

Hunting For A Home In The USA

We went from the UK to live in the USA.

USA
Positives - Space
In the USA rooms are larger. Near Washington DC we had large rooms and walk in closets for hanging clothes.

Negatives - Noise
Our main problem was noise from neighbours. The building construction was flimsy, with wooden floors meaning your footsteps were heard by the people below. Even walking normally, your steps were heard. If children ran up and down, the problem was exacerbated.

Working Late
In Asia the Chinese work hard and late at night you can see the restaurants still open. Similar work ethic appplies to East coast America, New York and Washington, DC. We would sometimes go into work at the weekend and the place was never empty. Somebody was always there working. HR and marketing department were phoning, recruiting staff, or conducting interviews.

In the evening, we would pop back to the office to collect papers or check on a programme left running on a work computer. Somebody would organize pizza or something else on expenses to feed everybody. Your colleagues were people you saw day, evening, and weekends. They became lifelong friends.

We lived in Connecticut in a shared townhouse, also Rockville, Maryland in a top floor, third floor flat in what the Americans call a condo. I suppose the addition of a swimming pool meant that it was a condo.

Shared Company House
Whilst we were looking for a place to rent, the company put us up in a house they owned. Somebody had worked out it was cheaper to house three of four company staff members plus overseas visitors in one house, rather than pay lots of hotel fees. Maybe somebody bought a house then went out of town and rented it to the company, or sold it to the boss.

The system worked well. On arrival instead of being alone in a hotel you had friends from the company to advise you where to get a good meal, go out for the day, hire a car, or buy bedding. New arrivals could borrow items or take them from a cupboard of stock left behind.

Small items such as kettle or toasters could often be bought on the company's expense, if it was for shared use. You just bought cheap. You left it behind, or replaced it with a cheaper item, if you had spent above the amount that the Accounts department thought reasonable.

Similarly with the bedding. If you took a fancy to the sheets, you replaced them with something on sale. If not, they went back into stock and you bought new for your new home,or used the stuff which was eventually shipped over.

Condo Or Flat?
The Americans use the word condo exclusively for a complex with extra facilities. They use the word flat for a simpler dwelling. The Brits simply use flat to mean one storey dwelling rather than a two storey house.

That's the reverse of the American yard and the British back garden. To the British a yard is hardly more than a yard, a few feet of paved area for storage at the back of a terraced block. A yard in Britain is small. No flowers nor trees. In Britain we would say,"It doesn't have a proper garden, only a small yard."

I remember my shock when a visiting American in the UK told me, "I like your yard."

Story and storey
Americans also say story for storey. For Brits a story is a tale with a plot. A storey is a level in a building.)

Points to consider:
View
Size of rooms
Noise from outside
Noise from neighbours and below and above
Likelihood of neighbouring land being built on
Cost of heating or aircon - or both
Nearness of swimming pool or gym or on site

With Streetview you can now check the outside and outskirts of the streets and buildings.

Author
Angela Lansbury

How to choose a flat overseas, comparing Singapore

Singapore flag hung from balcony on National Day.

Singapore
A friend of mine in Singapore lives on the 25th floor.

I asked, "Do you like that?"
He replied, "I love it."
I asked, "You mean the view?"
"No the breeze. We don't need the aircon."

I have lived in the UK, USA, and Singapore.

USA
In the USA rooms are larger. Near Washington DC we had large rooms and walk in closets for hanging clothes. Our main problem was noise from neighbours. The building construction was flimsy, with wooden floors meaning your footsteps were heard by the people below. Even walking normally, your steps were heard. If children ran up and down, the problem was exacerbated.

Points to consider:
View
Size of rooms
Noise from outside
Noise from neighbours and below and above
Likelihood of neighbouring land being built on
Cost of heating of aircon
Nearness of swimming pool or gym or on site

Advantages of Swimming pools

In Singapore most residents lived in the government run HDB housing blocks. An expat who has married a Singaporean may be eligible for an HDB house. You can usually find a public swimming pool nearby. 

An expat with a reasonable income will be expected to rent, or buy, in the private sector, where condos such as this one have a central shared swimming pool.

Noise

You are likely to want to have your windows and patio doors open (unless you can afford to run the air conditioning all day). You will probably hear echoing from swimming pool (even parents, grandparents and the swimming instructors shouting across the pool to children learning to swim). You might also get noise from the playground, people enjoying barbecues, nearby traffic, nearby schools.

I met one family where the wife went home to her country because the buildling work noise adjacent to her block was intolerable and the water was cut off for thee days. She had children and sleepless nights from a baby and wanted to take afternoon naps. If you are at home all day, or working from home, and cannot tolerate noise, this could be a nuisance.

The short-term solution is to go out for the day.

On the other hand, if you are the sort who sleeps through a thunderstorm which wakes everybody else, and are working away a lot, you could get a good deal of low rent on a block which other people won't take.

In the early days in Singapore, we lived right in the centre. Our employers' package included a car and we had a tiny flat, a brand new block, poor outlook, with only cold water in the kitchen taps, and no windows in the brand new kitchen, just grilles. I hated it.

We then moved to a huge old-fashioned top floor flat, stifling hot with a magnificent view over Singapore in both directions with balconies both sides.

We were shown all sorts of time-wasting places. One flat had no blaconies and high horizontal slit windows so as not to overlook nearby VIP government minister housing. Another flat with no balcony and small windows reminded me of a prison cell. Despite reasonable sized rooms it was claustrophobic.

Although we had asked for a flat near a station, we were taken to see suburban house just in case we liked it. It was built against a near vertical hillside, with only just room to walk around the back and the view straight into the hillside yards from your face from the windows in dark rooms. Big and cheap, fine for a single parent or couple out travelling or entertaining every night in restaurants, leaving behind small children and a maid, not for us.

Australia and Australians
In Singapore, Australians like to live on the East coast near the beach. You can run along the shore and have sundown parties at seafood restaurants.

Singaporeans like Australia because it is a chance to buy, with freehold. In Singapore large numbers of freehold properties are only 99 years. In the second half of the term, the re-sale value of the property can drop a lot, maybe as much as half, because you can your children can live there but you have nothing to leave to your grandchildren, neither the place to live nor the financial value.

Singaporean companies run by the Chinese tend to work longer hours. The Singaporeans will work evenings and weekends and expect you to work late and work Saturdays or Sundays.

Similar work ethic to East coast America, New York and Washington, DC.

In Australia, you are more likely to leave work at 5 pm for a drink or a swim.

Success!
In Singapore we moved into a remote suburb where the local railway station was still being built. Scheduled for six months later. We got a reasonable rent, after hunting all over Singapore for something we could afford. In purely financial terms, the cost of taxis was offset by the saving in rent. I spent part of the first six months in the UK anyway. When we finally settled in, we loved out new place and the rent was fixed for two years.

TRANSPORT
Nearness to bus and train
Being on the line to work or social activities
Near the airport if you travel - but what you save on living further out could pay for a lot of taxis.

In the USA being on the route and near the stop for the yellow school bus service.

Your checklist:
First make your one must have factor. With me that is a swimming pool.

1 Location
2 Bedrooms: Number of bedrooms - visitors, study etc.
3 Facilities: gym, swimming pool, social activities.
4 Shopping - nearness to shops, shop on site.
5 Heating or aircon.
6 Cost - does the agent say it's negotiable. Maybe the householder asked a high price because there was a chance somebody would take it; also they were afraid they would get lower offers than their asking price so they raised the asking price. A huge block may have two or three units at different prices. See them all before deciding.
7 Noise. Ground floor or low floor is better in a fir or when lifts (elevators won't work). High floors are above traffic noise and give better views.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer

Personal Alarms, Prices and Scams

Problem
How to keep yourself and your family safe from attack. Pepper sprays are legal in some countries but  illegal in others.

Instead or in addition you might consider a personal alarm. One type operates with a pin you pull, rather than a button. The idea is that a button could be triggered accidentally, but a pin has to be pulled out.

I always compare prices before buying and check reviews. Amazon usually has reviews of fast-moving products.

If it's a company you don't now or you think there a hard sell to buy now, you might check the company name agains scams.

Angela Lansbury, author.

Alarming attackers in streets, parks and car parks, when you are alarmed

Here's an advertisement feature for an alarm system you carry which makes a loud noise when you pull a pin. The idea is to frighten off the attacker.

It can also be used to call for help when you fall. (But it makes a nasty noise.)
https://safepersonalalarm.com/safety/girl-uk.php?affId=CB771A3E&c1=uk&c2=comp_45-65unk_all_trag&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInMLizfKt3AIVKqJRCh1Ttwf7EAEYASAAEgLRKfD_BwE

Author
Angela Lansbury

Jurong Frog Farm: What's the difference between frogs and toads? Hear a bullfrog!

Problem
Where can I go that's different? I like animals, and food. Please, no snakes nor crocodiles. I've done crocodiles. I don't like them, living, dead, swimming around in the sea, or in tanks.

They make a charge for tours. You must book.

Answer
Jurong Frog Farm.

What can you do? See frogs. Learn about frogs. American bullfrogs. Eat frogs (frogs' legs).

American Bullfrogs
How do bullfrogs get their name? Bullfrogs get their name not from their size and shape but from the noise they make, like a bull. Bullfrogs make this noise when defending their territory.

Frogs And Toads - What's The Difference?
Frogs are like fish (f for fish and f for frog). They have webbed feet and live in water. Their legs are longer than their bodies because they swim a lot, and also jump a lot. Their skin as flat and slimy, covered in mucus, for better swimming.

Toads
Toads can live away from water and have drier skin covered in bumps like warts. Their legs are not webbed and are shorter than their bodies.

Where can you get more information? Wikipedia for detail, the simplified Wikipedia for a faster and simpler explanation, Wikihow, online teachers' materials simplified and clarified for school and homework and go to the frog farm.

Eating
I don't like eating frogs. Or quails. The French happily eat frogs' legs and I admit having eaten quail and chicken. I can live without eating frogs' legs and quails. How about you and your family?

I suppose it's no different, from some people's point of view, to members of the public drinking milk or eating meat but also liking cows. No different to being a kindly farmer.

Where?
North of the island of Singapore.
Jurong Frog Farm
1 Lim Chu Kang Lane 6, Singapore 718864.

Useful websites:
http://jurongfrogfarm.com.sg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bullfrog
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1119055&q=bullfrog+recording (Hear a bullfrog!)

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

How to see or avoid brown bears near Bram Castle in Romania

Problems
How do you avoid brown bears?
How do you get to see them - safely?

Answer
Romania has more than half of Europe's brown bear population. Most of them are in Transylvania, which, as you might expect from the name, is a wooded area.

In June 2017 the British newspapers reported that the road to Dracula's castle had been closed because of sightings of bears.

Shortly afterwards I set off for Romania, landing on a Ryanair plane at Bucharest, picking up a Thrifty hire can and driving to Basov city, the Dracula castle area with many hill walks.

Gorgeous Gorge
Tuesday we walked up a pebbly path through a winding gorge with a stream running down the side. With no toilets of cafes at the start of lower level, I was bothered by the fact that animals could smell our sandwiches and crumbs in backpacks or bags, pockets and on fingers.

Without toilets, if we used woods as toilets, animals might also smell anything left on the ground or clothes or shoes or hands. I regretted not having brought wet wipes. You can use a small amount of your precious short supply of water to wash your hands.

In the USA and Canada on previous journeys and this time in Romania I read with interest the warnings about not leaving picnic food on the ground or in cars.

I was reading about the bears on a poster in the park when met a couple who asked if I had seen a bear? I replied, 'No, have you?" not expecting their reply:

"Yes. Yesterday."

"Here!"

"No."

"Where?"

"A guide took us on a bear hunting safari.  The guides phone the government office in charge of wildlife. They know where the bears are. They told us where to expect bears so we headed that way. We had to wait an hour until the bear turned up. It was rather far away. But we got some pictures."

So far, so good. The government is keeping track. If you want to see a bear you can, in the safety of being with a guide. Presumably, if you don't want to see a bear it's highly unlikely.

Wrong.

The Seven Stairs
The next day I took the first part of the Seven Stairs walk on Wednesday, which leads to the seven stairs which are vertical or near vertical ladders, right at the end of the path at the highest point to the summit. My friends and family (in a big group of nearly 30) took this walk and the more experienced and intrepid walked scaled the stairs and brought back photos.

Meanwhile I slowly followed them along the first third of the mountain path, which again led up a mountain starting on tiring pebbly paths, alongside forest. This time with more grass on one side.

On the way up I met Joost, who was overtaking me.  He said, "You can download an app to frighten off bears." He demonstrated it. We could hardly hear it above the noise of the stream.

I continued. I gave up following my group at a fork where the path got steeper.

I had walked all the way down to the car park when I met up with a Singaporean. We had so much to say that he persuaded me to accompany him back up again. having someone to talk to, and knowing where I was going and how far made it much easier than the first time.

He told me that he was staying in a youth hostel (which he found by searching on the internet for hostels worldwide. A new friend from the hostel told him, "I saw a bear on the path you are taking. I remember what I had been told. It's important not to take them by surprise because if they think you are creeping up on them they get freaked out. So you make a noise. Call out. Make yourself look big. You might throw a stone, not at them but near yourself."

The following day another member of our group had taken a picture of a bear paw on his hand phone.

If you go down to the woods, or rather up to the woods, as the song says, "You're sure of a big surprise." The teddy bears are after your picnic.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to my posts.

Lebanese Food from Lebanese Restaurant Lattakia

Problem
What should I order in a Lebanese Restaurant?A Lebanese restaurant in London, England. My family went to Lettakia, which has a Lebanese chef and a Syrian owner.

Answer
The menu is much the same as other Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean restaurants, Greek, Turkish, Israeli, and food you will find in take away places in the UK and in UK restaurants and supermrkets, Going clockwise around the Mediterranean coast on a map you see Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel., On a Greek holiday you will see stuffed vine leaves. In a UK supermarket such as Tesco Express you will find humous on the vegetable section, and in a large Tesco in cosmopolitan Harrow you will find three varieties of humours.

Lebanese Bread
The bread is distinctive, like a flattened balloon with an empty centre. A bit like pitta, but more crisp than doughy.

Hot bread at Latakia Lebanese Restaurant Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Free bibles of pickles and olives. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Free Nibbles
Lettakia restaurant is small but on a busy weekend evening it is buzzing, nosy with families and small groups. The chef and owner and the blonde who serves were busy constantly walking up and down and serving tables. As we sat down the chef nodded to the server who brought up the menu and very quickly a plate of pickled including large olives. The lurid purple coloured items turned out to be bland. So, if you are not into acidic pickles, pick the purple pieces.

Next small round pieces of hot bread appeared, followed by three small dips.

Mixed Starter
We were having a family meal with one person likely to arrive late. So we took the easy option. A mixed hors d'oovre starter and a mixed grill main course. Any doubts we had were immediately waylaid by the fact that the member of staff near the door immediately greeted us and remembered us because we had phoned to book a table.

Wines
We found the wine list on the back of the menu, a good selection of wines. Lebanon in the Sixites was famous for being a country where Moslems and Christians were co-operating well. Then the politics flipped, like turning over a spoon, from yin to yan. But in the restaurant you are transported back to the good old days when everybody mixed happily, within the country, and with the neighbours and visitors from outside. Although Moslems and Jews traditionally don't drink much wine, both Lebanon and Israel, like Greece, produce wines. Any doubts we had as to whether they would serve wine were allayed by a picture of the restaurant on their website showing wine bottles on the counter at the back.

I recall a story about how a vineyard in Lebanon during fighting had to transport wine across a battle zone. They succeeded in getting the wine to its destination.

Prosecco (italian) wine, and water with a slice of lemon at Latakia restaurant. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Red Lebanese wine at Lattakia Lebanese restaurant. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Lebanese Red Wine Expertise
Lebanese wine was well known to us. What our tour qualifications? Our family includes one wine buff. (He has Wine and Spirit Education Trust qualifications - studying wine daily for the last four or five years and writing a book on wine) was delighted to see well known names of red Lebanese wine.

White Wines For All
I am a comparative wine amateur (me - WSET level one, which is only equivalent of NVQ and about 24 hours of study from a books with self administered tests at the end of each chapter,a six hour day of tasting and tuition ending with a multiple choice test. Plus decades of visiting a vineyards and wineries in France, Germany, UK, Australia, South Africa, Spain but not yet Lebanon. I was happy to see both Prosecco (white sparkling from Italy) and Rose on the menu. I like white and rose wine, low alcohol, and sweet wines which are low alcohol. So between us our family covers the spectrum of tastes, from the cheap and cheerful to the connoisseur.

The reds and wines were not impressive, but good enough. The bread was hot. The food was varied and colourful, a mixtures or tastes and textures.

Warm Welcome and Fast, Friendly Service
The speed and warmth of service was absolutely what made our visit. They were happy to leave us to talk, or to chat.

Noise
The place is noisy, hard floors, wooden tables, bad walls, all echoing. You can hardly hear yourselves speak. A bit like Italin restaurants with their tile floors.

On the other hand, if you want a private conversation, despite talking loudly, nobody else can hear you and you cannot even tell what language they are talking because there is such a buzz.

The management are thinking of adding murals, we suggested tapestries or curtains to dampen the noise. Its easier for a restaurant to keep tables and floors clean, and cheaper, if they don't have tablecloths and carpets. tapestries and curtains would not require daily cleaning, the cost and work.

The Price You Pay, The Value You Get
Free food and drink to start make you feel welcome, and that you are getting good value, despite what look like medium to high prices.

I noticed that the rose wine, Pinot Grigio, was about £4.50, whilst the Prosecco was about £6.50. However, the Prosecco with its hint of teeny bubbles seemed a generous size and lasted through the meal.

The menu wording amused me.  Cuppacino. Yes, a cuppa. E s s e p r e s s o.

I had to insert spaces because my fussy and helpful spell checker instantly changes the war to the more popular Italian spelling.

Main Course, Mixed Grill
The stuffed vine leaves roved popular. One diner said he had never liked stuffed vine leaves before but this time he did. We also liked the chicken cubes, tasty and succulent. The piece of falafel seemed overcooked and dry. But all in all, something good for everyone.

Hatch End, Hot Restaurant Location

Hatch End, just along from Pinner, is a high street full of Mediterranean restaurants, The other restaurants in hatch End are italian (Fellini, Xasa Misa, Teresa, Dolce Vita), Greek (Mosfilo), Turkish (Izgara which means grill), B & K - Jewish style although not kosher, run by Greeks) also with a mixed hors soever starter featuring the ubiquitous humous). (If anybody is reading this and their first language is not English, ubiquitous means found everywhere.

Open Plan Kitchen
I loved the archway over the kitchen at the back. A visible kitchen  has several advantages. It reassures you that the kitchen is not doing unhygienic things which nobody can see. You feel the chefs are part of the restaurant. In a small restaurant, the place seems larger, with longer sight lines.

The other nice touches were
1 The refills of hot bread.
2 The small complimentary baklavas, one for each of us, on cocktail sticks. The cocktail sticks doubled as toothpicks - in most places you have to ask. Here the toothpick was on the empty plate just when you need it at the end of the meal.

Baklavas at Latakia Lebanese Restaurant. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Baklavas
I was tempted to ask for the second of the two desserts. But we had already had the baklava, and the Leanes coffee (which I suspected was my favourite, which I know as Turkish coffee, or Greek coffee, the sludgy sort. But it was not ideal as we would have liked decaff as we all needed an early night.

The manager had asked if everything was all right twice during the meal. The manager was by the door holding it open for us as we left.

Wrapped Leftovers
When I asked for leftovers from the generous size starter, this was immediately wrapped up and brought to us. You would think this would happen everywhere. Yet it doesn't. I have visit restaurants of a restaurant in Hatch End which went out of business, where the manager looked at me suspiciously when I asked for some food to be wrapped up and said, "We don't know what you are doing to do with it." In case the restaurant say they have no containers, I carry my own. No point in being overweight from trying to finish everything on your place.

When I lived in America, coming from the UK, I was constantly gratified by the huge portions and the fact that every restaurant large or small, would wrap up your leftovers, often not waiting to e asked but volunteering to do so. All part of the service. (And less for them to clear, less waste in their bins attracting insects and rats.)

Website Menu
Lattaki, Hatch End. Their menu is on their website, if you want to check that there's something you like, or if you want translations, ingredients, or to find recipes to try out the food for yourself at home before or after a visit.

We left with the feeling that if we returned regularly we would become friends with the management. next time we will look at the menu and make some more adventurous choices. In fact, why wait until the last moment and risk not having time. I shall look at their menu again this weekend. I might even check some recipes online.

Finding Latakia restaurant, Hatch End.
How do ou find them? If you are driving into Hatch End from Pinner or along the Uxbridge road from Uxbridge or Northwood, Serrata restaurant is fist on the right. The slip road is one way so you will have to go beyond the immediate entrance to the next one, or even to the gar end and drive back.

Mrs Beeton Plaque, Hatch End. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Mrs Beeton Plaque
Notice the plaque to cookery writer Mrs Beeton on the outside. She wrote the pioneering Book of Household Management, setting the custom of writing ingredients and utensils at the top of a recipe. She lived in the 19900s. Her books are still published today, along with biographies. She was married to a publisher and sadly died young after childbirth, but not before doing more, achieving more, for herself, her family business and the world in her short life than most people do in a longer life.

Latakia has been in business less than a year. I hope they last many years more, adding variety to Hatch End, which was described in a local newspaper as Restaurant capital of north west lOndon.

Decor
The decor is subtly Lebanese with five lace effect metal hanging lamps in a tea drop shape providing ample light.

Arch
Their restaurant fascia features an arch.

Lattakia restaurant with arch. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Latakia business card with arch. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The same arch is on their business card.

Latakia Restaurant,
513 Uxbridge Road
Hatch End
Middlesex
HA5 4JS
Tel: 0208 428 9973
Email; info@lattakia.co.uk

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many mor posts and pictures of restaurants in Hatch End and around the world. Please follow me here or on Facebook or Twitter, or Link to me on Linked in, or watch me talking bout restaurant etiquette on YouTube and share links to my posts with your family and friends and suites colleagues.
(More websites to be added later. See next post for Latakia in Syria)