Hach End festive lights and jollity

 

Reindeer outside Sea Pebbles fish restaurant.

Commemorating Harrow becoming a London borough.

Izgara Restaurant has red, white and green, greenery, baubles and red and white candy canes, an idea making sticks of rock look like a shepherd's crook.

Sea Pebbles fish restaurant entertains with reindeer, blue white and gold baubles and greenery and hanging stars.

Tanna's pharmacy has a white Christmas tree on the door, and a white reindeer of the left window.

The Steak restaurant has lights on the trees by the board proclaiming the lunch offer.

Kiyoto Japanese restaurant has white snowflakes scattered across the windows.

Tanglin Club Singapore, Xmas tree decoration, lights, choir

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

Tree

The Tanglin Club in Singapore celebrated Xmas with a Christmas tree light-up. This year , 2023, a reinder was in blue lights. 

Santa

Santa as usual paraded around, then sat, so people could be photographed standing alongside. 

Choir

A choir sang carols from the sweeping senu curcular staircase.  

Stitl walker

Other entertainments included a stilt walker. You could be phtographed alongisde.

Photo Booth

My favourite was the photo booth. This was free. They had a series of hats and decorated glasses, headbands, beards. After having my photo taken, I went back to look at the table of accessories. I had seen somebody wearing somthing I preferred to what I had chosen. I was considering queing up again but the queue was too long. So I decided to wear it and ask somebody else to take my photo. Nobody was to hand. So I reversed the camer on my mobile phone and took a selfie.

Then I spied another head dress which I fanced wearing. Nobody in charge noticed or cared. So I took selfies of myself with all the props in turn.

Swedish is so easy!14 instantly recognizable and memorable words you can use in four countries

 Swedish is simple. 

Book is bok and mouse is mus, rhyming with moose. If I wake in the night I can use the time usefully learning words of Swedish.

Anka is duck. I found that difficult at first. How do you anchor a duck? Then I realized that both the English and the Swedish contain the letter K. Reindeer is even simpler and shorter, ren. A bit like texting. 

Swedish - English

anka - duck

bok - book

doktor - doctor

fisk - fish

gav - gave

glas - glass

hus - house

ja (pronounced ya) - yes

mus - mouse

polis - police

ren - reindeer

stol - chair

stopp - stop

taxi - taxi

English - Swedish

book - bok

chair - stol (like the English word stool)

doctor - doktor

duck - anka

fish - fisk

gave - gav

glass - glas

house - hus

mouse - mus

police - polis

reindeer - ren

stop - stopp

taxi - taxi

yes - ja (pronounced ya)

But where can you use it? Not only in Sweden. It is one of the two official languages of Finland, which has a large Swedish speaking population. It is also mutually intelligible in Norway and Denmark. It is one of the official languages of the European union.

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

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

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Swedish_phrasebook

Update on Elves Hideaway and Other Fun in Finland

Problem
Where is the Elves Hideaway - Finland -  and what to do with the family? I heard about this place at the World Travel Market in London where I saw model elves and a book about an elf in a yellow dress and was instantly intrigued.

Answer
I'm beginning to get it sorted.

Gingerbread House
At the centre of the complex is a theme area containing a cute Gingerbread House where you can learn to cook, I presume, gingerbread biscuits.

Whilst I could sit indoors all day eating gingerbread biscuits and reading about elves, I know most people would want to start by seeing :

The Great Outdoors
There's the Ski Levi area.

A hot sauna outdoors.

Skiing.

Or what looks from the poles in the picture like cross-country skiing, but no skiis. It's actually snowshoeing.

Snow landscape.

Reindeer and Reindeer Sleigh Rides

Husky dogs

(Alternatively canoeing in summer.)

Theme Park Area
A trail leads you through a theme park area, with an entry fee of 15 Euros.

Elves Workshop
Elves Workshop this looks great. The children wear red or green triangular hats like honorary elves. Instructed by Santa, the children make handicrafts such as little dressed model elves.

See my previous posts on elves. This story will run and run or rein and rein, dear.

Souvenirs
They suggest warm socks in seasonal colours.

Accommodation

Accommodation is varied styles and colours, all very modern and attractive.  The picture above shows a neat modern double room. Finnish hotels specialise in having at least one room with minimal carpets and drapes for the benefit of allergy sufferers. Cuts down on dust.

I go for rustic rather than modern, but it depends on your budget, how many of you, whether you want a double room, a family room or a suite in a villa, and the availability. I also like colour, a touch of red.

They offer various discounts.

Your contact details:

Elves Hideaway
Finland

They say:

Our hotel website is located at http://www.hulluporo.fi

Our experience village is located at http://www.elveshideaway.com

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

Fellini Fun For Christmas - Lights

Fellini caffe and restaurant, Hatch End, serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, cake ice cream. Also Christmas dinners and New Year's Eve celebrations and other events.

http://www.felliniacaffe.co.uk

Lovely website, plays music.

What's the song on the website?

http://mashable.com/2010/03/30/identify-song-apps/#VZEK1tpQbkqI

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Lord Mayor's Parade, London on BBC, James Bond and HM the Queen as blow up dolls

The Lord Mayor's Parade went ahead in London, Saturday November 14th. Later in the rainy day if you've missed it you can see it on the BBC repeat.

The tragedy in Paris did not stop the in London, but two minutes of silence was observed.

Highlights included the orange James Bond car. For those who like the traditional, a blue Santa on the  blue section of the Plumbers of Pimlico. The BBC write up said the show included two reindeer, though I couldn't see them. Maybe you can spot them.

The motorcycle stunt team of riders formed a human pyramid based on a line of motorcycles.

Marching bands provided jolly music including the tune of Life On the Ocean Wave.
Blow-up displays blowing along in the breeze overhead. And stately blow ups sailing along regally included several depictions of HM the Queen in assorted costumes. Unlike Queen Victoria, apparently H M Queen Elizabeth II was amused.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06ply4m/the-lord-mayors-show-2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FqXlPn3Yo0 (Bells peeling etc)
Lots of previous years' shows are on YouTube
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Mayor%27s_Show

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