Use a Pen and Paper To Entertain Children In Restaurants

White envelope, small scissors and pen for entertaining in restaurants. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

While waiting for service in a restaurant, you want to keep children siting at table - not racing around annoying other customers. 

One restaurant manager told me, "If I see children running around, I tell the parents, 'I have waiters carrying scalding hot tureens of soup. You tell your children to stay sitting down, and I won't have to tell my waiters that in case of accidents, dial 999 and call an ambulance."

So that you don't have to chase after your children in all directions when they hide in toilet cubicles, duck under tables, or go upstairs and downstairs, keep them entertained at table.

You can do this easily with a pen and a piece of plain paper, even an unwanted envelope from a letter. 

You can fold the paper into a hat for your head and decorate it. Write happy birthday or merry Christmas, or the dish you have ordered, such as chicken and chips, with a drawing.

Origami hat to fit a finger. With face drawn on using a black ink pen. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Or make a small hat to go on a finger. Draw a smiley face on the hat.

Or a plain colour hat to go on a finger. Draw a face on the top of your finger.

Some restaurants have menus and drawing pencils. Some airlines have coloured pencils which you can keep for use during a holiday.

With foresight, you can bring with you washable paint pencils and sheet of paper. Most parents have safety scirros with rounded ends for the smaller children. You can prolong the entertainment and suspense byy making a game out of presenting the toys in three different paper bags or envelopes marked 1, 2 and 3. What have a got in bag one? a pair of scissors!  

Happy Eating Happy Evening!

Ten Oriental (Japanese) Words You Already Know

Japanese flag

We know more Japanese words than we realise. Just do a quick count of the words you know. You don't know a single word? Yes, you do. What inspired this thought of mine?

On Instagram I saw a friend's picture of papercutting Philippine style, kiri gami. At first glance it was a long word which I could not remember. ki-ri-ga-mi. Japanese is staccato, even toned, every syllable pronounced, like bullets fired from a machine guns.

I re-read the word for paper cutting, kirigami, and it sounded familiar. It sounded like origami.  So I looked up the word for papercutting. That sounded like origami. So I looked up origami. Well, I never.

Ori means folding
gami means paper.

So I can go into a shop and ask for orgami gami - paper folding paper. So can you. I thought you would be interested in seeing how many Japanese words you already know.

The word origami is already familiar. I didn't know the word kirigami. But it is easy to remember that kiri is cut. K and C sound the same, alliterative. Kiri - cut. Cut - kiri.

So I could go into a pharmacy or visit a doctor in Japan and point to my stomach and say hari.

Let's add what else we already know.
Goodbye is Sayonara.
What about hello? People answer the phone, mushi mushi.

Hai is not Hi but yes. I can remember that by using the phrase, 'Yes, hi'. Imagine somebody asks, is that you, maybe using your name.
Angela?
Yes - hai.
I think, 'Yes, hi.'
I say: Yes, hai.

English - Japanese
belly - hari
cutting - kiri
folding - ori
goodbye - sayonara
hello (on the phone) mushi mushi (written moshi moshi)
paper - gami
paper cutting - kirigami
paper-folding - origami
suicide by knife - harikiri
yes - hai

Japanese
hari - belly
gami - paper
hai - yes
harikiri - literally belly cut(ting) - ritual suicide with knives in the days before guns
kiri - cutting
kirigami - paper cutting
moshi moshi, pronounced mushi mushi - hello on the phone
ori - folding
origami - paper folding
sayonara - goodbye

Now, if I am asked if I know any Japanese I can smile and rattle off ten words:

Here's a bonus:
kamikaze - divine wind

https://www.rocketlanguages.com/japanese/words/basic-japanese-words

A great website about compound Japanese words and their pronunciation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendaku

You might prefer to stick with or supplement with
Duolingo


Memrise


Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Horrors or happiness? Do gloomy stories and ghoulish places upset you? Cheer up.

Oh No
I can see why you would not buy a house where a murder happened last week, unless the price was low. You would need to clean it up and sightseers could be irritating. I can also see that you might want to wash clothes bought secondhand. However, I was impatient when I read that somebody said they could not keep old crockery and clothes from ancestors because of the bad vibes.

Old buildings
Let's look at this logically, and carry it to the extreme. If you don't want anything associated with anybody who has died, you could never preserve a building over 100 years of age.   You would have to rebuild all old hotels and office buildings. All museums would be shut.Hospitals
It does make sense to limit visitors to hospitals to cut down on infection, brougth in or taken out. However, you need to balance the benefits. If you are over-sensitive, you could not go into a hospital to get an x-ray because of all the bad vibes. Doctors and nurses could not to their jobs because every hospital has seen at least one body.

Frankly, every hospital has a morgue hidden on the premises. (Admittedly hard to find. the word morgue does not appear on the hospital signposts.

I drove all around Barnet hospital trying to find the morgue to see the body of my late uncle and went back to reception a second time to get directions.

I used to wonder how nurses and doctors manage to carry on.

Why undertakers are sometimes seen joking around and acting apparently disrespectfully to the dead in coffins. There are various ways of coping:

1 Ignore the situation.
Don't stop to read the inscriptions. Don't think about it.

2 Note It but don't dwell on it.
Note it briefly, then quickly move on.

3 Shrug
That's life.

4 Laugh

Treat it as a joke. (Hence the WWII wartime songs: 'They scraped him off the tarmac like a pound of strawberry jam ...')

5 Concentrate On Helping
War Memorials And Plaques
If you allow yourself to be worried by every sign, you would need to keep out of town centres because of the war memorials.

If you cannot cope with mentions of deaths and disasters, you cannot send your children to traditional schools because they have wall plaques mentioning of those who died in WWI and WWII.

Travel Trouble
Stations and Trains
Don't go into the underground stations.
Don't go on trains. They go through level crossings where there have been accidents.
In the USA I was upset to read on a long bridge that people has lost their lives buildings. But the same applied to the Channel tunnel. In fact construction has the highest fatality rate of any profession or trade.

I have since made a mental note and found that almost every project I have visited has a memorial somewhere.

Cities
Avoid all cities, especially London and Europe. They have Roman remains and were rebuilt over bomb sites. The same applies to many cities such as East London, Coventry, German cities, Poland, etc.

Any house over 100 years old probably had somebody die in it. Either the old folk died at home. Or the mothers died at home in childbirth. Did I mention the under fives who died?

Famous Homes and Homes Of The Famous
Don't visit the Bronte house in Haworth. The writers all died.

Indoors
Don't visit friends with leather furniture and don't sit on leather chairs in hotels and restaurants and airports.

Natural Objects
Don't touch a shell because it's the house of a sea creature now dead.

Don't go in a wooden building. Don't use a pencil or paper.

Enough of this nonsense. The world has been around thousands of years and thousands of people and animals and plants have died all over it.

Caution
There are places to be avoided, accident black spots.

Positive Thinking
However, having taken all necessary precautions, no point constantly worrying that every item you touch or place you visit might have negative associations.

Plenty of people keenly travel to the WWI and WWII battle sites.  The Titanic exhibition in Ireland. Forewarned is forearmed.

Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Useful Websites
https://www.gobear.com/sg/travel-insurance

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

Did You Miss The Overjoyed Art Shop Course On Calligraphy? Check Online: How to improve your lettering consistency

I read some back email and found I had missed a calligraphy course at my favourite art shop in Singapore, Overjoyed, which is near the LaSalle school of art.

I found a couple of videos online.

One shows you that a fryaed pen on the wrong paper produces hairlines on your strokes. The one above shows how you can practise strokes to get them consistently vertical or curved.

Something to practise when I am waiting at an airport or railway station.

Get more out of life. Do not waste a minute.

Overjoyed has two floors of art materials, plus a separate shop opposite their entrance in the basement, selling all kinds of pens. Calligraphy classes helping you to use suitable pens and buy more seems logical. Although I missed one class, I expect to see more similar events.

www.overjoyed.xyz

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on Overjoyed. Please share links to your favourite posts.

What to do with paper and plastic bags when travelling

You get lots of bags when shopping. I save mine. When I run out of room, I stick shopping bags and tote bags in suitcases. On my next holiday or working trip I will have a handy bag for souvenirs and overflow packing and packing shoes so the dirty soles don't mark clothes.

I see many bags discarded in shopping centres. I think shoppers feel obliged to use them to exit the shop to show they have bought the goods, then decide they have too much to carry. They either wear the clothes they have just bought and then discard the bag, or consolidate the bags.

Why don't they do it in the shop? Not to hold up the queue when paying. Need to find a bin.

No wonder the Singapore MRT train stations' announcements tell you that if you have parcels, please use the lift.

Blocked By Big Shopping Bags
I used to wonder why. Now I know. With wide carrier bags, you block the escalators. You also block the pavements. Try overtaking two parents and two children and their shopping - or three Japanese tourists, all festooned with bags.

Re-using Paper Bags
It hurts me to see perfectly good bags abandoned. Sometimes I rescue a clean bag. I use the bags until they fall apart.

Then I like to save the ribbon handles and the coloured rope handles. I put the ribbons into my sewing box.

In theory you could cut up the bags to create new smaller ones.

Carfts and beds
I recently read a website for crafts-minded people about making beads from paper. there is also papier mache. Or lining drawers.

Drawer Liners
I recently used wrapping paper as drawer liners. Once the drawer is full, it doesn't matter if you have used Xmas paper or wedding paper or some other season paper. You rarely see it under your piles of clothes or stationery.

But what about plastic bags, waterproof bags? Plastic bags can be used to line wastebins. Also as drawer liners.

Plastic Bags when Travelling
Wrappers for shoes when packing a suitcase. Covering or double wrapping liquids such as cosmetics and bottles of drinks. Covering books and notebooks which get battered and would appreciate protection when you are travelling and in rain.

One website has thirty suggestions for reusing paper bags.

Some people have set themselves the task of cutting down on the amount they throw out.

Many items could be re-used by schools for crafts and art lessons if the schools put up a sign and bins to take the treasures which others throw away.

Some supermarkets have bins for bags you no longer need. You might want a big bag to carry home your shopping, but be able to return it later when you are buying only smaller or fewer items.

Some manufacturers suggest new uses for their packaging. I have seen boxes which can be turned inside out to make a toy dolls house or a board game with the game and pieces you fold together, all printed on the back. A bonus for families, as well as good for the environment.

I have seen YouTube videos showing how plastic can be twisted and compressed, or shredded and  used to make bricks for building houses. I look forward to the day when everything is recycled.

Meanwhile a few ideas for those free toothbrushes and old toothbrushes: for painting, cleaning, even making one into a bangle.

Meanwhile, some ideas for you:
https://www.favecrafts.com/Green-Crafting/How-to-Make-a-Purse-from-Plastic-Bags
https://www.favecrafts.com/Green-Crafting/10-Crafty-Uses-for-Old-Toothbrush
https://www.favecrafts.com/Green-Crafting/14-Creative-Uses-for-Mesh-Produce-Bags

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

Lovely coloured lanterns in Hanoi, Vietnam

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I presume these lanterns are paper or reinforced paper. You see them strung across the fronts of shops and restaurants. Another design has paintings of flowers or other patterns on the coloured background.
In Hanoi, capital of Vietnam.

In the UK we most often see the circular, collapsible lanterns, mostly in plain white, sold in cheap stores. These lanterns in Vietnam are more like a teardrop design.

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. I have several more on Hanoi, Halong Bay and Vietnam.

Storing Travel Brochures and Video CDs In Shoe Boxes With Labels

Problem
I have a stack of brochures from a trip to Italy but they are creating a clutter. They slide off the table onto the floor. I put them in a plastic bag. Disaster. Too many bags. I'll never be able to find them.

 I pack them in a shoe box. Now I have them neat but I still can't find them.

Answers
Shoe Box Labelled with Pen
1 You can write the name Italy on the end of the shoe box in pen. Yes, I do that. It does not look tidy, organised, professional. Besides, the writing is too small and I still can't find it.

I have not taken the time to do what I was advised by a much-moved mother in Rockville, Maryland. She told me, when moving house, label every box on all six sides, the four sides and the top and bottom. That way, however the boxes are stacked, you can sill see the label from every angle.

I could then use a black felt tip pen. It would not look tidy, even if I used a ruler to keep the bottom of letters straight, drew a faint pencil line an inch above, marked the spacing of the letters with dots.

Better to print. I could print out the word Italy in large black type, by enlarging the font to the largest size allowed. But that takes a lot of ink. I then have to fix the flimsy paper onto the box.

I get out a brochure entitled Umbria to read and put it back down on top of the box. The width is just the right size. I could tear off the cover and stick it down.

I don't like to destroy a brochure - even though I often have two copies of brochures. Besides, I don't have time.

I reach for a long elastic band, the sort you get on parcels held together by the postman. (In the USA you would say mail man). You find elastic bands on the ground everywhere, all over the world. I have seen them in Italy and Singapore. Lets over the whole top. Find another brochure.

My first effort was simply to leave the brochure on top of the box, attached with a big rubber band. That worked very well when the shoe box was on a long table.

But sideways on, the original shoe box name on the lid is a distraction.

My next effort was to look for other items to stick on the sides.

You can also make a collage of travel brochures. All from one country, or from several. This works on a small box, a shoe box.

Of course the answer for a DIY or craft enthusiast is to completely cover the box with a holiday theme. Stick on duplicate photos. (I have loads from America in the late 1900s.) Print pictures from the computer, maybe print from my own photos on the laptop or mobile phone.

Or cover a box with Xmas birthday or gift wrapping paper. Add a window in the centre with the word Italy.

Or cover a box in white and draw a freehand sketch. Add large curly calligraphy of the country name. Make six matching boxes from different states of the USA. Or stack boxes for countries in South America, Europe or Asia, Russia or China and satellite countries.

I hate cardboard boxes. yet they are too good and stiff to throw away. They keep dust off the contents. They group things together. They stack neatly.

For more details on Umbria:
www.umbriatourism.it

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

Be Prepared - travelling with tissues

Problem
What should you carry to be prepared?

Answer
Basic emergency medical supplies, which for most people would include paper tissues, a sticking plaster or two, and an aspirin or panadol.
Some people carry water and a chocolate bar or an apple on any journey. Others take a plastic container with a secure lid for leftover food. (If it's big enough, it could also be an emergency potty for children or adults if you break down on the motorway in snow or fog or get stuck in a ski lift.)

Stories
1 A Facebook friend, David Astbury, told us how he supplied a fabric handkerchief to stop the bleeding of a child who fell of mother's lap at a wedding. I replied:
The magic is not in having a fabric handkerchief - paper tissues would have done just as well. The magic is knowing in which pocket you have placed the handkerchief or tissue in order to produce it instantly on demand. The average person can spend twenty minutes searching for a paper tissue, a door key, a train ticket, their spectacles, their handbag, or the right coins for payment at a till. I know. I'm an average person. Trying to be above average. A place for everything and everything in the correct pocket.
Angela Lansbury, author of How To Get Out Of The Mess You're In (a book I wrote to remind myself of everything the rest of the family and the world had taught me, all of which I forgot until and after I wrote the book.)
2 I was stuck on a three person ski chairlift in America, with two other people. Balanced in mid-air. Can't even wriggle or reach in a pocket. No food or toilet. Sitting in the cold. Eventually saw people ahead being removed by a rescuer who was abseiling. Then a megaphone told us the lifts would be starting again.
Why do you need tissues? To blow your nose. Emergency toilet paper. Mopping up spills when you talk with your hands and spill wine or water. For the child or adult who starts bleeding.

Tips
1 Before leaving the house check your checklist - which could be stuck on the back of the front door or in your phone or diary:
2 Address and phone number of people and place you are visiting. Ideally phone to check they are open and will welcome you.
3 Depending on your location, you might also carry a small umbrella.
4 Carry a pen and paper and a business card.
5 Mobile phone.
6 Paper tissues.
7 Hat and gloves.
8 Wear white at night. (To be seen by traffic when crossing the road.) I keep a white scarf or hat or bag handy. Failing all else, carry a newspaper. A newspaper is also handy if you sit on one of those cold metal seats at a railway station. (But newsprint is black so don't sit on a black newsprint item wearing a wet or white or light colour coat.)
9 Go to the toilet before a journey, even a short one on a ski lift.


AUTHOR
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Follow my posts on this and other blogs, also on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram. Please like my posts and share.

Are You Baffled By Washbasins? Some secrets ... Trail and Error!

You go into the toilets at airport, hotels, restaurants and you need a degree in toilet design to find the toilets, lock the cubicle door, locate the soap, turn on the water to wash your hands.

PROBLEMS
1 First, where's the toilet?

2 You want to wash. How do you turn on the tap?

3 If the tap is hand operated, now that you've washed your hands, how do you turn off the tap without putting germs back on your fingers?

4 Where is the soap? How do you extract it?

5 Where have they hidden the towels? How do you get the hand dryer to start?

6 Where is the exit?

7 You have forgotten your comb. Or can't find it. What can you do?

8 No toothpick. No toothbrush.

FINDING THE TOILET - PROBLEMS
You are in a restaurant in Singapore. The toilet is down the corridor somewhere else in the mall. How do you find it?

You are in a Community Centre. Where's the toilet?

You are in a hotel. Where's the toilet?

You want an elegant and safe rest room in a foreign city. Where can you find one?

Here are some answers.

LOCATING TOILETS
1 Where is the toilet?
The first thing a traveller in a foreign country needs is the sign for the toilet.
Mostly toilets have signs. If you are lucky they have symbols.

CHINA
I once made a mistake in China. I copied down what I thought was the sign for Ladies. Next time I saw the sign I walked in confidently and quickly realised I was in the Gents. I had copied down the sign for toilets.

SINGAPORE
Go to the toilet first, everywhere. If you try to go to the toilet at the end of the break, you might get locked out of the conference room.

Community Centres for Community Clubs
I got locked out once at Yuhua Community Centre in Singapore. The toilets were one or two floors below. (Some places have gents on one level and ladies on the next alternating.)

The conference room was locked during contests and had a self-locking door which closed behind the last person. The contest organiser had the key and door was propped open or held open or opened from the inside.

In Singapore nowadays in community centres the ladies and gents are adjacent and the washbasins are shared. At a community centre in Singapore I was able to spot the toilets from afar by seeing the bucket and mop outside the door. On another occasion I just ran anti clockwise around the building until I found the toilets.

Trail and Trial
Yesterday, yet again, I was temporarily baffled in a shopping mall. But at least after much trail and error I can solve the problem. That funny pun on trial and trail came by accident from auto correct. I typed trial and error. Auto correct inserted trail and error.

If you are lucky, a building has toilets on every floor, gents near ladies, same location on each floor with ground floor busy with a queue and more space and cleanliness upstairs.

Some shopping centres have toilet in the basement food court and the top floor restaurant area. In Singapore many office buildings have toilets only accessible with a key.

If you are running a meeting, tell people where to find the toilets, the length of the meeting and when their will be an interval or when the audience can slip out to the toilet (eg between speakers). You don't want people leaving and disappearing forever.

In Singapore went to a property seminar in a tower block. At the end I rushed off to the toilet, 10th floor locked. So I went to the ground floor, also locked. So I ran next door to the Sheraton hotel.

By the time I got back I had lost the opportunity to network and exchange contacts. Similarly, so had the organisers lost me.

ASK OR COPY
TAP TRIALS
If all else fails, ask somebody else. Or watch what they do and copy it. If they are turning a tap clockwise and your tap is not turning, then your tap may be malfunctioning. After they finish, use the tap they used.

If they are turning the tap clockwise and it's working, whilst you are trying to push it in, downwards, with no success, you are malfunctioning.

There are a limited number of ways water spray can operate. You turn the tap clockwise. You move the lever or knob up and down. You push it left or right.

You move your hand up to operate a sensor below the tap. You move your hand down to operate a sensor lower down the basin.

You tread on a pedal under the basin. This system means you are not touching anything with your dirt hands. You cannot break the handle by pushing it the wrong way, nor wear off the pretty gold or silver colour plating.

Sometimes the clue is on the mirror. If you are looking at the basin or looking at your face in the mirror you may miss the sign. Look at the mirror. Check again further along the mirror for another sign.

Yesterday I found a sign for the towel after I washed my hands. Looking back, I realised I had missed the sign for the soap.

HIDDEN SOAP
Do you need soap? Yes, you do, even if your hands don't look dirty. I discovered that in Singapore in 2016. Signs reminded you to use soap, explaining that soap will kill more germs than water alone.

Sometimes, at motorway stops in the UK, I have been on the int of leaving the washroom after washing my hands, and then discovered a soap dispenser on the wall near the exit. Sometimes dispensers offer a gel (alcoholic?) which cleans your hands without the need to wash and rinse.

TOWEL
Why bother to dry your hands? Another reminder from Singapore is not to wave your hands about sending drops onto the floor. Other people may slip on a wet floor.

If there's no paper towel, there may be a blower on the wall.

If there's no blower, there may be paper towels under the mirrors. Two clues. An almost invisible sign on the mirror above your basin or at intervals along the mirror, sometimes above alternating basins. So the signs are not above your basin but above the basins to the right and left of yours.

SOAP
If you see nozzles, this shows there must be a soap dispenser, either full or empty. Move your hands and a colourful blob of gel will either land on your watch or miss your hand and land on the white basin. Wipe it off and use it and / or try again.

PULL OUT PAPER TOWEL
If you don't see a sign, or see a sign but don't understand the symbols, look under the mirror. You will either see the paper towel, the empty paper towel dispenser. If your paper towel dispenser is empty, look along the mirrors for another dispenser.

PAPER TOWEL DISPENSERS
If the paper in a high dispenser showed just a sliver of paper which won't descend or tear, however hard you try to grab and yank, don't drive yourself nutty pulling off tiny silvers of paper, nor risk breaking the machine. Look for instructions. You may need to hold your hands below the machine which then makes the paper descend automatically. You will hear a whir and an oblong of paper will descend, often perforated for you to pull it off neatly.

Not enough paper? Try again. This time you know what to do!

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

DIY Gift and Card Wrap For Hosts on Holiday: Tips and Tricks on Making Cards, Envelopes, Pretty Parcles

When I travel, especially on long trips, I take at least one outfit for a grand occasion (in case I get invited to a wedding, anniversary or big birthday party. I also take half a dozen cards with matching envelopes, for wedding, birth of boy, birth of girl, congratulations, thank you, and happy birthday, and unspecified.

I also pack a small card to attach to the neck of a bottle of gift, plus a piece of folded into squares wrapping paper and a length of ribbon, and a folded flat gift bag and a flower shape bow. And a piece of sticky tape. (You can buy a bag of ribbon bows from a pound shop or Japanese Daiso.

Packing
These can be packed flat in the lid of a suitcase, especially if you have a hard-sided case, or carried in hand luggage. It saves time shopping at the other end.

Cutting Paper
If you are travelling by car you can take a Swiss army knife containing a knife and scissors. This is likely to be taken from you at security in an airport. It might be posted on to you (requiring you to go back through security, post it, find an envelope and stamp and postage box and then come through security a second time - happened to use once - but you are likely to lose it.

I travel with a tiny pair of nail scissors and / or a metal nail file in my checked in luggage.

If you have no scissors here's how you cut paper. Fold it down over the edge of a desk or counter top. Fold it back the other way. Repeat. Use your finger nail or a weight to make the crease firm.

Cover the part which must remain intact with a book or heavy weight to ensure the paper does not suddenly tear off sideways.

Pull apart very slowly from one end of the crease. Pull apart very slowly from the other end of the crease. Pull along the whole crease.

Cut the exposed end with scissors or scratch off fraying parts with your finger nail or a knife from the kitchen.

If the edge looks ragged, fold back over a ruler edge or the edge of a desk or a big book such as a phone directory.

Making a Card
Make a plain card from white paper or card. Stick on a fancy picture. Alternatively stick on a photo of the donors or recipients.

Making An Envelope
Take a discarded envelope from your waste paper bin. Pull it apart to see the shape. You could use part or all of it as a white liner for a coloured envelope.

To get the correct size of envelope, place your greeting card on white paper. Draw around it in erasable soft pencil ((HB or 2B - with a putty rubber or rubber band to erase). Draw the other four triangles or oblongs from the sides of the oblong covering the card size. Allow room for the four folded in sides to overlap.

Make an envelope template on scrap paper first. When you have your roughly drawn and cut and pasted template the right size, do it again with the coloured or thicker white paper.

Wrapping Prettily
How to wrap a parcel prettily? Go online for directions, ideally on YouTube. Fold paper like a book cover with four triangular folded in corner. Hide overlaps with a double fold. Hide torn edges with a double fold like a hem.

Or leave the parcel ends unfolded like a Christmas cracker, tied with two pieces of small ribbon tied in a bow each side.

Finding wrapping paper or bags
Use wrapping paper to make a bag. If the paper is thin, then use two thicknesses to make a bag.

If you have bags but no cards and no wrapping paper, cut up a bag to make a wrapper. You can make a box, and a matching card. Or a matching card and envelope.

Box Shape Template
How to cut a box or envelope? Two methods. Take a food box from your litter bin and flatten it.

Copy the silhouette onto clean paper. (Newspaper or the printed side of discards from printed paper might leave black ink smudges.)

Practise on plain paper before cutting your coloured paper.

Extending Paper
If you don't have enough paper for the entire box, use two contrasting coloured papers. Or cover the gap with a ribbon or a business card. Or cut an oblong or diamond or strip or figurine from an old greeting card or advertising leaflet or magazine.

Glue
Stick with glue. If no glue use stick tape folded into a loop on the back of the item you wish to stick.

Or get a tiny piece of tape from reception at a hotel or a colleague's office.

Hide Mistakes
If you have cut badly, or have a torn edge to cover, conceal it under a bow. Make a fancy horizontal or vertical design from another piece of the wrapping paper. Make a rose or bow from a contrasting piece of paper. Or cover with a hand-written card with a message of congratulations, good will, and the donor's name.

How to Curl Ribbons
Ribbons can be curled up by running the blade of a sharp knife or scissor blade along the end of the ribbon or the whole of the ribbon.

Failing all else, ask for help from any Japanese man or woman, serving in a store, shopping in a store, sitting beside you on a train, or even at the party on arrival.

Carrying Gift Wrapping Paper, Card, and Making Christmas Trees - Let's Craft with ModernMom - 12 Days of...

A video of making wrapping paper into conical tree table decorations is a great idea if you travel to a flat, second home or all suite hotel and want a table decoration for Christmas or New Year or a birthday. it reminds me of how I often travel with wrapping paper for gifts, because a wrapped gift has to be opened for customs and excise or security.

I travel with a roll of wrapping paper, a teeny set of paints or couple of felt tip coloured pens in different colours, and a roll of sticky tape. I have leftover wrapping paper to re-cover box files or to do craft work.

Transporting Paper Without Creases
A roll of wrapping paper can be transported flat in the base or lid pocket of a suitcase. Alternatively, use the outside pocket of a carry on bag.

Roll paper you need to keep flat (such as a certificate or birthday card or poster) either inside or outside a cardboard tube. Where do you find a tube? Use a tube from kitchen roll paper. Or make a long tube of two or three toilet paper or kitchen roll inner tubed taped together to make a longer one.

Alternatively, keep a tube from a poster which has been posted to you, or any kitchen roll. Roll up, the paper to be protected inside the stiff cardboard.

A kitchen original tube can later be cut to make a cone.

The more remote your destination, the more impressed others will be by such items as wrapping paper. For example, on a trek up Everest, one of the members had a birthday. The Sherpas (one of many mountain tribes of Nepal) cooked a cake. Friends among the trekkers had brought the cake frill and cards. On Mera Peak, in the Himalayas in Nepal in the year 2000.

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