Packing To Leave & Return Home

Packing box and see-through box. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Planning To Leave

I once came home with only one slipper. A popular modern saying which is set as an impromptu speech (a two minute 'table topic', selected from the table or screen by number) is 'We learn faster from our mistakes - do you agree?'

Yes. After losing my slipper, I learned to keep a list of what I packed.

What have my family left behind, or nearly left behind? The food for the jourrney left in the fridge. The toddler's toys in the hotel cot and cupboard. The pen, noebook, map, hat and gloves in the ca's glove box.

Packing lists are useful for three reasons. Firstly to check that I packed everything on leaving. Secondly, to be sure nothing went astray in transit on arrival. Thirdly, to be sure everything is with me on leaving the hotel or holiday home.

1 Packing Lists

1 Make a packing list before you leave. 

That way, when returning home, if the slippers are missing a tick on your checklist, you know to check under the bed or in the bathroom or in the cupboard.

For A Brief Trip

2 Addresses

Take the addresses and phone number of the place and people you are leaving, . Also make sure every member of your group has all numbers of those at the destination. This ensures everybody is organized. Your passenger can check or ring ahead if you are the driver, stuck in traffic, unable to check a phone number. Or you can separated on the journey. Or your jacket contained your paperwork goes missing.

3 Umbrellas

Pack an umbrella. Or keep one in the car. You can keep it in the glove box, the boot, under the seat. Remember it is there. Retrieve it from a hire car. Collect it from the umbrella stand at the entrance to a restaurant.

4 Fill the vehicle tank

Fill the car with petrol. 

If it is not full, allow time to stop and fill up. This applies when leaving 

Put the address in your satnav in the car and in your mobile phone. Get familiar with the car satnav and the google maps or other service such as Street View on your mobile phone.

Check for train cancellations. Check weather warnings. Check road motorway closures and diversions.

Packing

I have managed to leave all sorts of things behind. You may know the humorous song, because of battle the kingdom was lost, because of the horse the battle was lost, and all for the loss of a horseshoe nail.

What have I lost? A bathrobe behind a bedroom door. It belonged to my boyfriend. I was checking out while he was on the last day of the conference. That relationship came to an end. I married somebody else. 

A passport in a shoulder bag on the back of a dining chair of family friends in France. We never got to Italy from France.

Crockery in the dishwasher. Food in the microwave. The dictionaries - I have loads at home - why buy more, unless you don't want to carry them outwards, but then your packing is heavier on return.

Friends have left behind pets, which went missing. One family even had to cancel their emigration flight because a child who didn't want to leave went and hid.

To sum it up, packing needs preparation, and precision in planning, when you need to return home from a hotel or a winter home overseas, or moving country for a new job, or back home to look after parents or see grandchildren. Your mind is on your destination and plans. But you need a checklist of things you must take with you and do.

Let's start with the commonest situation.

Leaving A Hotel

Check items in the bathroom. And on hooks behind the door. On the shower shelf.

On the balcony. Items hanging over railings. Left on chairs. 

The Bedroom

Check under pillows, inside bedding, under the bed.

Empty the fridge. Ensure you have your food, drink, medicine. Check any food, drink, or pills, left downstairs in the hotel kitchen or bar.

 Check all the hotel drinks and foods are returned if you took them out to make room for takeaway food.

Reception Checkout

Check you have handed in all room keys. 

Pay bills, and check bills. 

Leaving A Ski Resort

Remove drying boots and clothes from balcony and radiators.

Check for any skis and boots and jackets left in a locker room. Return locker keys. 

Reclaim deposits on rented skis, boots, clothes, snowboards. 

Allow time to clean off ice and dirt, pack skis and boots and snowboards in zip up bags or special packaging, and large item check-in at airport.

Beach Resorts

Remove swimsuits, swimming hats, bath towels, beach clothes, wraps, and swim shoes from balconies or radiators and bathrooms, and lockers.

Pack children's beach rings, buckets and spades, or allow time to give them away. Unless the airport has an area for tourist to leave beach items for others, to loan and recycle instead of using landfill for abandoned items.

Leaving A Winter Home

Turn down heating. However, leave enough heating to prevent broken pipes bursting and leaking. Arrange for family to check property heating and plumbing

Leaving For A Holiday or New Home

Check all travellers have passports, o ID including driving license, plane or ferry or train or coach or bus tickets. 

Check neighbours will push in post.

Check all members of the party have address and phone number of destination, last check-in time, onward travel from airport to destination. 

Overnight clothes in case of lost luggage, photo of luggage to fill in forms asking colour and make of lost suitcases.

Arrange neighbours to water plants, or put plants outside, or add watering systems.

Check no items are left behind a front door or bedroom door. 

Rental Car

Check  no luggage or bag is left on the doorstep. Nor on the top of the car. 

No keys left in the front door.

No car keys left in the car - unless that is required by a rental company. Nor in the boot, or glove box

Leaving Your Old Home For A New Home or Holiday

Fridge

Empty fridge of milk, or take it to neighbours. If you leave it on their doorstep, warn them in advance, or leave a note or email to tell them it was from you.

Gas, Electricity, Lights

Check you have turned off gas, electricity, lights. Check you have set timers to turn on lights or sounds to deter burglars, or engaged house sitters. 

Insurance

Your insurance might have a limit on the amount of time the property can be left empty. They may extend the time 

1 f you inform them in advance, 

2 have relatives  and/or neighbours going in and out to make the place look busy, 

3 or are willing to pay an extra premium to insurance, if you decide this is cheaper than a house sitter. 

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

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

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.

Code words for travellers

 

What are useful code words for families. 

Anticipated Dangers

When I was in Hong Kong with my son, we had already arranged a code word for let's get out of here, or away from these people trying to sell us fakes watches and engage us in conversation or lead us down dark alleys or up staircases away from other people.

Family Member Code words

We weren't going to see my husband who was working until after 5 pm. So any comment about meeting Dad for lunch or tea, was a signal to get away. 

Other possible messages could be speaking to your grandparents (who are dead).

Pets

You can use the names of pets, or feeding pets (who are dead).

Vehicles

You can mention cars you no longer own, to indicate we must get away

Sport

Use code words from football teams or tennis games or golf or snooker if you don't play these sports.

Bargains

You can also arrange for codes when bargaining, to indicate you don't want the goods at any price, or think the price is too high, or you should accept.  Do you have any (your local currency) could mean its cheaper back home, or we already have these. 

Useful Websites

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12616047/Criminologist-simple-hack-family-safe.html

Please share links to your favourite posts

What have drivers and passengers Left In Hot Cars? Two children. What can you do to prevent problems and accidents?

First, worst story - dead children
A dad in the USA left his children behind in a car instead of taking them to a day care center and they died. What can you do to prevent that happening to your children or pets?

I wrote on Facebook:

Recorded message when you switch off engine and open car door. For example, 'please check car for valuables including children and pets'.

'Look back before you leave,' like the British, 'look right, left, right again,'reminder for road safety, taught to schoolchildren.

Two baby shoes on front passenger seat as a reminder to check for baby.

Message mum to say where babies are.

Set yourself an alarm to remind yourself to deliver the baby or pet, or check it has been done.

Daycare centers to call both Mum and Dad on an automatic dial system when babies are not delivered and checked in.

Second Worst Story - Dead pets
Worst case scenario, dead pet. 
Second worst case scenario, somebody breaks your car window to rescue your pet.

Third Preventable Problem - Exploding Fizzy drinks
All sorts of things can be left in cars which are hot or cold.

When I was living in the USA, we left coke cans in the boot of the car. (Americans call the boot the trunk.)

The cans of coke exploded and made a dreadful mess.
👀
Fourth Preventable Problem - Melting Food

In Europe, in France, I left bars of chocolate on the back window shelf.

I returned to find empty packets. 

I demanded of my family, "Who has eaten all the chocolate. Two whole bars!"

Husband, "not guilty." 

Child, "not me." 

Then I found a flattened wafer of sticky chocolate under the wrapper. Melted in the mid-day sun.

👪
Fifth Preventable Problem
Mouldy Litter
Go to a drive-in. Buy a takeaway meal. You should get rid of all the wrappers and apple cores etc in a bin as you drive away, or when you leave the car.

A day later, or a week later, you might open the door and find it is full of a dreadful smell. Leftovers in a box stuffed under the seat. Undiscovered for a week. Yuk.

Cars get hot and cold. Don't leave any of these:

1 Children
2 Pets
3 Food
4 Drinks
5 Wrappers and leftovers from take away food. 

Clear the car. Check the car.

What else?

Driver - Look on top before you drive off. Your wallet? Your shopping.

Look behind before you drive off. From a supermarket, your last bag of shopping. The shopping trolley you are about to back into. 

The bollard. Crunch! What was that?

That's happened to us a few times.

Look in the back seat before you drive off.

Check you have the address and phone number of your destination before you drive off. We drove to Hampstead in London to visit our friends from Singapore. Got there, both assuming the other had the address. Maybe we could recognize the door. A long road, with multiple occupancy. Names might be landlord and not temporary tenant. Waste of time. Missed diner.

Check the drive is clear before you turn in. If you can't see, drive slowly and hoot quietly.

Do not drive backwards nor forwards when anybody is behind or in front of the car. You could go backwards or forwards by mistake.

What will I talk about at Toastmasters tonight? My last meeting as President. Something more cheerful.

Useful Websites On Car Safety Systems
https://sea.mashable.com/tech/5580/high-tech-alarms-go-off-when-kids-are-left-in-hot-cars
https://www.fatherly.com/gear/best-car-seat-alarms/
https://www.mother.ly/news/best-car-seat-sensor-app/waze

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other Wednesdays are workshops on app 

learncool.sgOr quicker to type and easier to remember: 

 tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_self-study_programs

https://www.facebook.com/angela.lansbury.121

https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-say-thank-you-in-several.html

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/05/introducing-yourself-in-english-spanish.html

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html Please share links to your favourite posts

https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

translate.google.com

duolingo.com

How to Choose Backgrounds for your videos

Back in the good old days before COVID-19 I was out every night at Toastmasters meetings.

Now I am online several times a week, sometimes at two overlapping meetings, talking to people all around the world.


Singapore Online club. you can see that plain backgrounds are effective. 

Were you thinking of creating a video indoors - or outdoors? both have their advantages. Let's start with indoors - including a backdrop creating the illusion of outdoors.

I have watched several videos of people giving speeches in club and area contests with distracting backgrounds. First, a background of a bed topped by clothes. , a distracting clock in another time zone from mine, a whirring ceiling fan in the centre giving the impression that the speaker is Harry The Helicopter.

Not to mention the mother or husband bringing in a hot drink of plate of food, the granny or maid limping up the corridor behind and then disappearing into room two, reappearing in the corridor with a bag of washing, going off to room three.

Others have had toddlers demanding cuddles or climbing onto their lap, grinning or even singing. One contest convener specified that the person manning the cameras must be single with no family nor pets in the same room or dwelling causing distractions.

To create the illusion that you are in San Francisco by the Golden Gate Bridge, or on an exotic beach, you simply pick one of the four optional backgrounds provided in Zoom and ManyCam. 

(What's this? Think of it as many cameras. The illusions of extra backgrounds projected from another camera.) 

This works best if you have a screen. You can buy green screens in various sizes. 

Wall backgrounds

You could alternatively sit with your back to a big blank white wall, a white screen in an office or school. 

If your study has a filing cabinet or pictures on the walls, this ruins the effect. Consider having a picture to match the subject of your video, or a series of posters. You can print them from your computer, including your own holiday or trip photos.

If your printer only takes A4 size paper, you can still make a larger print to look bigger or more impressive or be seen or to cover what is behind.

You need to divide the photo you are using into two or four or eight, or even more. Stick them very neatly together with no mis-alignments nor black edges nor undulating edges nor projections where corers match at the edge.

You need to find somewhere to suspend a sheet

I needed a green screen for my Braddell Heights Advanced online meeting (Wed evening 7 pm join us on Learncool.sg) so I went through all my sheets until I found a plain green colour. 

That was a long job because, having taken out all tangled sheets, I folded it all neatly, moved the pillowcases into drawers to reduce the pile, and moved a white board over the right hand drawers in the wardrobe to overhand and create two tiers in what was previously a full length hanging space.

1

• 

  David  Angela, nicely done! And how is the green screen working for you?

  • 
    
  •  · Reply
  •  
• 

  Angela Lansbury I shall tell you after tonight's meeting. Thanks for the reminder. I'll try it out. 
• Joke: Just getting out of this green dress. 
• One way to be a ghost, wear the same colour as the background. Some of the old magic tricks involved wearing black clothes and using a black curtain. If you turn your back, or cover your face with a black cloth, you disappear.
• The same applies to any other colour. Make sure you are not wearing the same colour as your background.
• Finally OUTDOORS

PARK

• If you have no suitable background at home, your home is untidy and you wish to give advice on tidying, or don't want to reveal your collection of gold bars and antiques to the tax office, the burglars and the person you are divorcing, go out into the nearest park or garden. (COVID-19 in your country or state or area permitting.) 
• Plants such as palm trees look exotic if you are in Florida, or Singapore, or even gardens in London have palm trees. Walk up and down your nearest street or search on google earth.

On the other hand, you might wish to do the reverse, conceal your local palm trees and pretend you are in London, or on a ski slope in the snow. 

• BALCONY
• You could also stand on a balcony. Even in a bathroom or toilet against the door or wall (American with all the fittings such as door handles and taps hidden by potted plants or hanging plants or the portable green screen.
• No green screen? 
  1
  • I have used a golfing umbrella. If you are holding it in one hand you have only one hand to touch your screen and record or stop recording.
• Golfing umbrella. - indoors or out
• You could also try a golfing umbrella. It tends to fall sideways.
• SHEET
•  I needed a green screen for my Braddell Heights Advanced online meeting (Wed evening 7 pm join us on Learncool.sg) so I went through all my sheets until I found a plain green colour. Having taken out all tangled sheets, I folded it all neatly, moved the pillowcases into drawers to reduce the pile, and moved a white board over the right hand drawers in the wardrobe to overhand and create two tiers in what was previously a full length hanging space.
• I reported this in the media

• 

  David Levy Angela, nicely done! And how is the green screen working for you?

  • Like
  •  · Reply
  •  · 13h
• 

  Angela Lansbury I shall tell you after tonight's meeting. Thanks for the reminder. I'll try it out. Just getting out of this green dress. One way to be a ghost, wear the same colour as the background propped up.

• 
  
• Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.) See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When. Also watch videos on YouTube.

  See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.

  
  

  Please share links to your favourite posts.

  If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club, Braddell Heights Advanced. Wednesdays, 7-9 Singapore time which is seven hours ahead of London, England. I am also a member of Singapore Online. 

How To Make A video of your home city so happy moments can be relived

You might wish to make a video or photo montage or slide show to project on a wall for yourself, your family with you, or your family overseas, at work, or in hospital.

The easiest picture to start with is a flag. Download a flag from Wikipedia. Or find an old baseball hat or tee-shirt.


Next add some human interest.

I turned family photos and interviews into a book for my neighbours, at their request.

A video from earlier times can also be comforting for those in care homes suffering from confusion due to the onset of dementia. A complex in the USA has set up an imitation of the old days, which the residents can still remember clearly. So instead of being planted in this year with new repainted changed surroundings, which do not get fixed in their 'full' brain, the new surroundings match the memories they still have.https://glenner.org/town-square/

Dementia Nostalgia villages
Chula Vista, California, town square, was the pioneer. This has been copied elsewhere in the USA and in the Netherlands and in the UK, including Scotland.

If there's none near you, photos of museums and toy museums might provide nostalgic photos. For example, in London, England, the Geffrye museum has rooms from various eras. You might also find old items in the garage or attic.

First I shall tell you how I wanted to make a video for my father who was in hospital. Then I shall tell you how to do it.

Time Travel
It's easy to find items from different eras, pop groups, politicians, clothes. For example, the Seventies in Wikipedia immediately supplies me with photos of Bruce Lee (statue in Hong Kong) and Margaret Thatcher in the UK.



Hospital to Home?
When my father was dying in hospital he wanted to come home. It was not practical. For several reasons.

He was so frail he needed a driver and two people to wheel a stretcher. We needed to arrange an ambulance to transport him. He was no longer eating and could not swallow so i no longer had to worry about food or drink. He might have needed a change of bedding and somebody to lift him or roll him to change the sheets.

He was likely to die en route. This would be pointless for him, distressing for us and the ambulance crew, costly for the health service or insurance or us.

If he died at home we would have a decomposing body possibly oozing blood and body fluids creating a smell so you had to shut off the room until the undertakers arrived.

His body fluids and MRSA or clostridium difficile would infect the home and reinfect him or infect other residents.

We might need to pay for a deep clean or decontamination.

We would associate the bedroom with his dead body.

I was trying to organize his return home and while I was telling him so, he sat up to try and hear but the strain was too much and he died.

Looking back, I can see that he did not want to be in hospital (Watford hospital). You had to pay for the TV which was delivered but not turned on. Neither the patient nor I nor any or the nurses knew how to operate the TV so it was never turned on.

His bed was facing a painting of a church surrounded by gravestones. The last thing you want in a hospital's ward is a picture of gravestones. It is not encouraging for the nursing staff, the patient nor visitors.

Happy Hospital Pictures

Cartoons





































Smiling nurse.
Smiling doctor with best bedside manner.
Hospital shop with flowers and gifts.



Be Prepared
At the time I thought of bringing in a photo from home, or photographing his home and printing it out. The time to prepare photos and videos for a hospital patient is a year or two earlier, when you don't need it in a hurry, and are not stressed. It can be a fun project.

PERSONAL STORY
You can make a print on demand book through Lulu.com

Then load up the photos into a video.

WEDDINGS
Weddings overseas in 2020 can include the couple marrying, their parents overseas.
I went to a wedding in Singapore at least ten years ago. The couple had three wedding ceremonies and receptions. In both parents' countries they held a religious ceremony.

Then in Singapore they held a secular ceremony and projected photos and videos of the other ceremonies with their parents onto huge white walls.

LANDMARKS / Maps
Wikipedia has maps and flags. These can be used on the title page or as a small footnote or an overlay.

The title can show either the country, city, or village or family home.

PATTERN & DESIGN
Make a clock face of pictures - places where you lived or worked or holidayed.
Or a chequerboard of photos of places or people.

Signposts and Humour
Add signposts. Add humour. You can find humorous signposts. In every country the local wildlife can be a source of amusement and amazement. Or the wildlife of another country can be a source of amusement and amazement.

Signposts of Transport
Signposts of transport can illustrate how you travelled.
Signposts can introduce your favourite hobby. Such as trains,

 Or cycling.

Signposts can show your work, as a train driver, truck driver, ticket inspector, whatever.

MUSIC
Add music.
National anthems.
Tunes from each decade.
Wedding march.

1 Title
Start the Video with the time and place and people.
group photo? Or a series so you can cut out the deceased?

For a widower, will you want to show only his beloved partner?

Or will you want her left out and only the people who are alive and speaking and sending messages.

Just in case one of the grandparents dies before the other, you might want a loving message, or even just a joking message.

If you are religious, you might want both to recite a favourite prayer, slowly and calmly.

You might want season flowers, a mountain you visited, a lake, a walk, a pet, animals, fish, cats or dogs.

PETS, ANIMALS & WILDLIFE?
Include happy pictures of pets, animals, birds, wildlife.

You could mix:
Tourist board and promotional photos

Signposts
Pictures from the old days.
Pictures of how old the grandchildren think you are.

Funny Photos

Birds
Pictures from the internet of local wildlife, and garden birds. Xmas cards.


Family Photographers
Photos by recipients of the video (by grandparents).
Photos of grandparents.

Friends, Neighbours and Colleagues
Search the media such as Facebook.

Pets
No animals if the recipient hates cats or dogs.
But lots of funny photos of local wildlife and domesticated animals.

Camels. I rode a camel to Petra, in Jordan. Pictures can help you recall cou. I also saw a camel galloping towards our coach on the motorway. A Bedouin asked me to look at the horizon and tell him how many camels I could see. None. He assured me that he could see several. he said that if you spent your days scanning the horizon, your eyes got used to focusing on the distance.

You might keep the pictures separate, either as photos, not part of a video. but a separate video clip. That makes it easier to can edit them out later. You might also take a photo of parts of a movie, still the movie and photograph with a camera or do a screen shot.

For example:
Title - Smith Family Summer Holiday In Florida
Florida signpost/Florida holiday brochure

Car, plane or train, family members in seats
Family home or holiday condo or hotel
Breakfast at hotel
Family around table
Lunch
Dinner
Excursion

Photo album of India

People From A Photo Album
Wedding photos
Grandchild paying compliment (video of child looking at album, 'Granny - you were such a pretty bride!'
'Grand-dad, were you really married more than 40 years?'

Family members playing sports, musical instruments, in driving seat of car, on static motorbike or bike, holding surf board on beach
Family wedding photos
Family certificates
Family blowing kisses
Swimming pool
Compliment several generations doing the same work or having similar achievements.

No Photo Album
Create your own. Album cover. Make a title page.

Have the family gather around the video screen.
Have them pointing at photos of landmarks or souvenirs.

Looking Backwards Or Forwards To Achievements
When the funeral officiant came to interview the family about a deceased elder members, we had two of his children who had achieved success academically. One was a university lecturer. The other a university professor. But the deceased had no degree, no achievements. I was quite despondent about what the officiant would be able to say. Would he say that poor Dad had never had the opportunities. Must have been jealous. Must have felt keenly what he had missed?

No. The officiant put a positive spin on events. He assumed the best. He said father had had no opportunities to get a degree. How proud he must have been when both his sons achieved such success.

You can do the same in reverse. Descendants not so good? Say how thrilled they were with their illustrious ancestors.

Grandparents with no education nor profession outclassed by achievements of children or grandchildren? Say how proud grandparents were to have parented such a line of illustrious high achieving pioneer descendants.

Happy Surroundings
What's your idea of heaven? What is your idea of a peaceful death? To be surrounded by loved ones. If not the living, the photos and videos of them when they were alive, at their happiest times.

Music
If you cannot be by the bedside all the time, you can play soothing music.

The Last Laugh
The last laugh could be the funny things they said. Or their favourite joke. Or a cartoon of members of the family.

Useful Websites
https://www.today.com/health/dementia-day-care-looks-1950s-stimulate-patients-brains-t126727
https://glenner.org/town-square/
https://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2018/mar/12/life-dementia-village-development-kent-hogeweyk
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/the-power-of-memory-nursing-home-recreates-old-streets-to-help-9093606
https://www.citylab.com/design/2018/09/why-a-memory-town-is-coming-to-your-local-strip-mall/569905/
https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/16/apple-aims-to-get-an-ipad-in-the-hands-of-every-hospital-patient/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8238969/Stark-guide-deathbed-etiquette-released-bid-aid-families-hit-coronavirus.html
https://www.artofdyingwell.org/caring-for-the-dying/deathbed-etiquette/deathbed-etiquette-and-the-coronavirus-covid-19/
https://www.artofdyingwell.org/how-deathbed-etiquette-is-changing-as-we-cope-with-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-in_syndrome

Author, Author! About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.) See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When. Also watch videos on YouTube.
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