Buy Polish Sweets from Wedel, White Marshmallow Covered in Caramel and Many More flavours

 If you visit Poland or anybody from Poland is visiting your country for a holiday or exhibiting at an exhibition, ask if you can try, or if they can buy you some Polish sweets. They are unlike anything you have had before. 

My Polish friends from the jewellery show in Singapore kindly gave me a box of Wedel 'chocolates'.  You might call them sweets, although several varieties are chocolate covered. 

They come in double layer boxes of small cylinders.  Three strips of six, 18 per layer, 36 to a box. That is one a day for a month, if you are living alone, or your partner does not eat them. Or one each for two of you after dinner every evening for two and a half weeks. 

They are very more-ish. As with chocolates, you need to limit yourself to none if you are trying to lose weight, one if you wish to stay the same weight, and two at a weekend or if you are happy to put on more weight or start dieting on Monday.

The Story Behind The Sweets

The Greeks started it, with their myths about bird milk. 

Shops

You can buy them in London, England, which has a large Polish community. Look for Polish shops and delis.  The supermarkets stock them too.

Online

Online I found them at assorted prices. But the cheapest ones were the same price if you had to pay high postage. So if you can get them with free postage that brings the price including postage down from a whopping 20 to a reasonable 5 (pounds or various dollars, American, Singapore, Australian).

If you look at all the varieties online, if you visit Poland, you can take your picture to compare, in supermarkets, in the duty free shops on the way out with your last cash. 

If you are not travelling but being visited by travellers, or meeting them, or are expecting to see a visitor or seller from Poland, ask them to bring you back either any variety or the one you find hardest to get or most expensive, including postage, online.

What travellers can see:

First look for the Wedel logo. An elaborate E, two letters e in the name, and a diagonal Italic f shape curve underneath.

The firm is big, huge. This is their fine factory building. The polish word for factory is similar to the English word fabric, fabryka.

However, holidaymakers are more likely to want to visit the original Wedel shop and tea place. 

Or a shop such as this one in the Intercontinental hotel in Warsaw, Poland's capital.

In the Poish language cz is pronounced like ch. The c becomes a K. The t becomes a d. Czekolada - chocolate. (Pronounced check - oh-larder.) You can translate using translate Google, and click on the symbol under the word to hear the pronunciation. 

b

Back in 2017 you could see the Wedel sweetmeats symbol on the Polish airliner or the airline LOT

Description	LOT (Ptasie Mleczko Livery), SP-LDF, Embraer ERJ-170STD
Date	29 January 2017, 09:37
Source	LOT (Ptasie Mleczko Livery), SP-LDF, Embraer ERJ-170STD
Author	Anna Zvereva from Tallinn, Estonia

Look at the picture closely and you will see the chocolates and a bird shape.

If you are ever in Russia you might see the Russian equivalents of the Polish sweets. there is also a white cake which looks a bit like cheesecake.

Useful Websites

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ptasie-Mleczko

A useful summary of different types of Polish chocolates, their colours, ingredients and names.

https://www.polonist.com/polish-candy-sweets/

How Could Ebay Improve Customer Satisfaction? Prices, Pictures and Prolady Cape Blazer

Problem
I love ebay. I'm an addict. I find bargains, wonderful items.

When things go wrong I am doubly outraged that my trusted and reliable service has fallen short.

What could be improved? Allow more space for realistic and detailed comments on products. In the early days, most items seemed to be one-off items sold second-hand by individual sellers, never to be repeated so there was no point rating the quality of products, only the service. However, increasingly,  I find I am buying regularly stocked items from shops which can sell an identical item to me and other customers.

Prices
Make prices match products. Websites show a 'cape blazer', but prices jump from £2-5 to £8-12 when you select size & colour; timewasting.

Pictures
Makes pictures match what is being sold. Some pictures are so out of focus, you cannot see whether the item is good or bad.

Capre Blazer
I bought a cape blazer from Prolady who shows a model in a curved jacket, but the one I received was angular. Angular designs are neither flattering to one's figure, nor soothing, unlike curves.

Stop clothes sellers showing a manufacturer's model wearing a brand new item, in a different colour, when the item being sold is thirty years old and frayed and faded and a totally different colour. (Sellers don't show another shoe or cup!)

They sent a cape, not a blazer, no underlayer bodice with armhole. Photos of parts of the real garment are now added, but the misleading model picture is still shown on Prolady and other sites.

The item I received was inexpensive and was probably worth the money. It creases badly but I can wear it around the house.

I tied the hanging front pieces to stop it slipping off. It's thin for casual summer wear summer daytime in a hot country. Don't expect it to look ultra-elegant or be warm at night in air conditionting or cold weather in winter.

It just isn't the glamorous outfit I hoped would transform my life. It won't make me look gorgeous like the girl in the picture. It won't turn me into a TV star, impress a millionaire and make him and the whole world fall in love with me and praise my extraordinarily elegant outfit.

Despite this I am still addicted to dBay and cape blazers. Like a gambler, always expecting the next purchase to be 'the one'.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. For articles on cape blazers in white and pink, see my later post. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

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.

Update on Dax Festival With Bull Fighting, Food, Free Concerts

Map from
http://freecountrymaps.com/map/towns/france/26691402/

Problems
1 What happens at the Dax festival?
2 What about the bull fight? Would I enjoy Dax, Bayonne and Biarritz even if I don't want to attend a bull fight?

Answers
1 MUSIC, SINGING AND DANCE
Yes, it's like a whole town costume party with everybody dressed in red and white. Bands come from all over Europe. There's singing, dancing and parades in the street. Finishing with fireworks.

2 BULL FIGHTING
It's worthwhile reading a researching about bull fighting. I now know the difference between a picador and a matador and a toreador. If I am indifferent to bull fights, or against bull fighting, or fearful and don't like blood, it's good to know about them without the travel, financial cost and guilt of actually attending.

I haven't attended a bull fight recently (not since I was taken as a teenager on a trip to Spain years ago). But I have just watched several videos and close up photos.

Research
I have spent several hours talking to and interviewing my nearest and dearest about Dax and bull fighting and music. I checked up on the internet on the technicalities. By the time I plan my next trip I shall have forgotten. So I need this post for my own records. What is useful to me, could also be useful to you.

Whilst watching the videos I tried to identify the music played during the opening ceremony for the bullfight from an ap on my phone. No luck. Next research will be the national anthems, popular songs, songs played at bull fights*, checking the music credits, if any, on the souvenir programme, plus national flags flown above the bull ring.

Memory Corner
My late parents had a flat in Marbella in Spain.  We once drove across France literally with a kitchen sink from Wickes for them. We also drove to Portugal, staying at French chateaux hotel, Spanish Paradores, and Portuguese Pousadas.

How To Get To Biarritz, Bayonne and Dax
On previous trips we have driven many times through France to Spain.

Driving through France, we stopped to see Biarritz. We clearly remember a stay a night at the Palace hotel. (When we were all in full time employment. Those were the days!)

On this trip the route was budget Ryan Air to Biarritz, then picked up by car from a British friend who lives in the area.

The Dax festival season is also British and French school holidays, so the Hotels in Dax are booked up and high prices, like 200 Euros for a bedroom. You can stay in a gîte or guest house out in the countryside if you have a car.

Fly on a cheap airline to Biarritz, a chic little place with a casino and grand Palace hotel.

Alternatively, as part of a grand tour starting at Paris, take the train to Dax and Bayonne.

What's in Bayonne? It is a city with a grand cathedral and with hotels, about an hour away. You will find it useful to have a car.

Getting Around Dax
Within Dax you have a shuttle bus known in French as a navette (think of the English word navigate). It may be about a Euro. Where do you get the ticket - on the bus or before? "I don't know. I walked!" The walk from the car park to the Arena with the bull fight takes about ten minutes.

Tips
To identify music from a holiday video:
Ap: Sound Hound

*See later post on the festival music.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have more posts on the sights and sounds in Dax. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Buying and Renting Property in the USA, UK, Spain and Singapore

Problem
Should you rent or buy? What will it cost? What will it save in terms of money? Any risks? Advantages?

Answers
You have several ways to find out prices:
1 STREET SEARCH
Search the internet for a location such as a street - if the street is purely residential and not known for anything else such as a department store, statue, museum or murder case, up will pop ads for house agent sales.
Street view will show you the type of housing and amenities near by.
Maps will show underground train stations, green parks and tennis courts, hidden behind housing
names searches will bring up: beaches, garages UK term - in the USA and elsewhere petrol stations, or gas stations,
golf clubs, leisure centres, libraries, railway stations, schools, swimming pools, tennis courts, motorways, airport.
2 NEWSPAPER ADS
In Singapore we went through the classified ads in the major newspaper, The Straits Times, to find out rental prices in the central business district and district one where the American live, the Orchard Road shops and the American Club for social life.
3 PROPERTY AGENT
You can sign up online or go into the office. Some agents will run you around in their cars to several properties in a day. You may have to wait two or three days whilst they find somebody not already committed to showing other customers around, and to allow time for them to contact all the properties in your price range and to collect keys from the owners and, for a second viewing, to arrange for you to meet the owners. If you are on a job interview trip for just a week or two, line up the agents on day one as they might take a day to get back to you by phone and then say nothing in your price range or nothing in your area, or they might waste your time showing you unsuitable properties. (However, sometimes they know the owner has asked a higher price in the hope of getting it, but will come down, or that you might be willing to pay more if you see a must have property.
In Singapore we wanted a large property with a swimming pool within walking distance of the main street, Orchard Road, and near an MRT underground railway. The agents and friends all said impossible, at our price limit. However after turning down all the phone calls offering properties miles away or twice our budget, we were offered a 'very old' property, which was not the brand new gleaming sort of property most CEO Americans would want. The property had been on the market and empty, we negotiated a deal which suited both sides, and we rented it.
4 SHOP THE AGENTS' WINDOWS
On holiday in an area you like?
Walk around the area looking for properties in your price range in the agents' windows. Drive around your favourite areas and look for sale boards. Having located a suitable street, a house or shortlist of houses whose exterior you like, go into local agents with your specific enquiry.
5 PERSONAL ENQUIRY
Drop a note through the doors of every house in a street you like. Or walk up and down and give your business card to everybody saying you want to rent. Ask every business in the area if they know anybody. Put an appeal on the club notice board. Ask advice from colleagues at your new place of work, and ask personnel if you can share with another worker, or another family, to reduce cost.

Story
UK
In London a friend of man drew the location of his new job and a circle of five miles around it. He then picked out the railway stations and bus routes direct to his place of work within the circle. He went to an estate agent to ask about rental properties where he could live in the area. He already had the streets of interest marked.

USA
In Boston, USA, the company which took us to the USA had a house which had enough rooms for two or thee employees and the their families to live on different floors for a few weeks or months until they could rent a flat for a year. It worked very well. You could always buy kitchenware and bedding on sale. You might be able to buy small essentials on expenses. If not, you just bought cheaply. When you left you offered your kettle or toaster to the new people coming in at a cheap price, or a box of kitchenware (and mops etc) and bathroom goods (shower curtain) and bedding.

SINGAPORE
In Singapore a chat to local people soon reveals what you need to know. A bought condo flat with three or four bedrooms might be one and a half million Singapore dollars to buy, if you watch and wait for a good deal, up to two million.

Sounds a lot? One couple got a mortgage. How much is the mortgage? It varies depending on the pay back time. You might be given, and seek, a bigger mortgage with two wage earners. One couple smiled, "before we retire!" They wanted to pay it off fast while they were still earning well.

SPAIN
Laws may be different. Check language, translation, rules about foreigners owning.

Tip
SHORTLIST REQIREMENTS
Location, location, location. Can you work there? Will you make friends? Is it suitable for children/ pets/ garaging a car. Public transport? Should you buy before you retire in order to establish friends and club memberships in the new area?

Glossary
UK - USA
UK house agent, property agent, property; - USA realtor, real estate
UK council house; USA affordable housing, social housing; Singapore HDB (Housing Development Board)

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

Prices and purchases in Greece - off the beaten track - nuts about Vin Doux from Samos

Off the beaten track in Greece prices and purchases are much cheaper - but with limited choice and simple living.

Fly to the south west, the raggedy round lump slightly nearer to London than Athens. Hire a Hertz car.

A four star hotel in Olympia (with half board!) under £100.

Cheap wine. Delicious giant tomatoes and melons more flavourful than those in supermarkets in London.

Nuts. Did I mention nuts? Almonds and walnuts.

At the breakfast buffet the hotel at Olympia had a big bowl of nuts. Soft nuts. Almonds. Maybe the ones from UK are dried - you fear they will crack your teeth. The nuts at the hotel buffet were delicious, 'cracked open in your mouth like popcorn'.

It was a mistake not to have brought back some nuts as stocks and souvenirs and gifts. But we brought back Greek wines at lower prices than in the overseas supermarkets.

Airport Shopping
The little local airport, Kalamata, is relatively small and not the supermarket size shops you get at airports in a capital city.

What about the Greek equivalent of the brand name which has become a generic terms in England, Turkish Delight? We used to buy it from the Greek Cyprus shops. Known as Loukoume. So here's a list for the next trip, what to try, buy and/or bring back:

Photo by Angela Lansbury

Wines
What we did buy was wine. Wine, such as Vin Doux, small berried Muscat from Samos. The island of Samos is the only place outside France allowed to use certain terms. Vin Doux is French for sweet wine.

Vin doux naturel which you would see in France is a fairly common label wording. But in this wine from Greece extra alcohol is added to stop the fermentation leaving residual unconverted sugar making a sweet wine.

Yeast can't survive in high alcohol so adding alcohol stops the fermentation. So this bottle is labelled Vin de Liqueur. That would have been low alcohol but because you have added alcohol, it's high alcohol; the bottle says15%!

You can buy a half bottle in the UK. My family bought a full size bottle  from Kalamata airport duty free.

Car hire
A Hertz hire car for a week cost 175 euros, about £20 a day.

"The Greeks are so friendly," recalls one of the group. A smiling brolly dolly rushed out from the Hertz office with a giant umbrella to check the mileage on return of the hire car and waited while everything was unloaded. "It was like being in a five star hotel, like the Ritz."

Read my earlier post on learning the Greek alphabet.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Planning a trip to a restaurant? How to check menus, prices and deli

You can check prices of menus at a restaurant and before your visit. For example, I have a birthday meal planned. I can go online to check the restaurant menu.

Food Checks
Check the dishes online.  Make a quicker decision when I reach the restaurant. Check alternatives if I have an allergy.

Translation of Menu Dishes
What is sourdough bread?

What are chips and crisps in the UK?
Chips - known in the USA as French fries. Usually long oblongs of potato like the ones you get with burgers in fast food outlets.
Crisps - usually deep fried wafer thin potato slices, served cold.

Translation of Menu Wines
What is a 'garage wine'? Good or bad/ Cheap or dear?

What is a 'grand cru classé'?
A 'luxury cuvée'?
A 'premier cru'?

What is vintage port?

Wine Checks
Then check the wines offered. See what matches my food choice.

Price Checks
Check the supermarket price for the wine. Even buy a bottle in advance and try it out. Decide if the wine by the glass is a bargain or overpriced.

Corks and Transporting Leftover wine
See if the wine is sure cap or corked. If I am driving, or the host is driving, and you have to order a bottle, take my own cork in case the restraint throw it away. Take something for transporting the half full bottle home.

Website Updates
Phone the restaurant to find out if the online menu is the same or if it has been updated. Are there any daily specials?

Stools and Chairs
Am I going to be perched on a high stool? (If so, don't wear tight skirt. Wear Stretch skirt.) Can I request a table with upright dining chairs instead of a stool?

Early Arrival Waiting
If they don't open until 6 pm and you plan arriving earlier, is there a pub or coffee bar nearby? Is there a coffee bar at the station where you can meet other members of the party who are likely to get lost or need help (especially those with walking sticks who won't want to double their journey by taking the wrong route.)

Coffee or Tea Locations Afterwards
After the meal, does the restaurant offer the decaffeinated tor other coffee you want, or the herb tea, or is there a nearby coffee bar, nearer the station?

DIY Nibbles and Nosh
Take my own nuts or olives if I am likely to be waiting a long time for others, or chocolates to go with any coffee. Very discreetly.

Leftovers Bags
Take a plastic bag to cover takeaway leftovers or opened bottles of wine carried home. Take insulated bag for leftovers, or food shopping done in their deli which has to be kept fresh during a two hour meal and one hour travel home.

GLOSSARY
Bearnaise - (Info from Wikipedia)
Bearnaise or Béarnaise sauce (/bɚrˈneɪz/, French: [be.aʁ.nɛz]) is a saucemade of clarified butter emulsified in egg yolks and white wine vinegar and flavored with herbs. It is considered to be a "child" of the mother Hollandaise sauce, one of the five sauces in the French haute cuisine mother saucerepertoire.^[1] The difference is only in the flavoring: Béarnaise uses shallot, chervil, peppercorn, and tarragon, while Hollandaise uses lemon juice or white wine. Its name is related to the province of Béarn, France.^[2]
Châteaux (French plural, the hat represent a missing letter s reminding you that the word is similar to root word castle or in German Cassel, fine houses or castles)
chorizo - Pork sausage coloured with pepper, from Portugal or Spain, strong flavour, uncooked and in my opinion fatty and unhealthy
cuvée - pronounced in French coo - day
garage wine - limited production, new producers, not aged, yet high price because of novelty, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garagistes
Gressingham duck - has more breast meat - for more information see
http://www.gressinghamduck.co.uk/products/fresh-duck
Premier Cru - premier is first, as in a French word used in English for the first showing of a film (in the USA movie) premiére; premier in French is pronounced prem-ee-ay. The French don't pronounce the last letter/consonant of words.
Saint - saint - in French pronounced Sant, whereas in English pronounced say-nt

Websites
http://www.bordeaux.com/us/vineyard/appellations
Google wine searcher.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer,