Napkin With A Neat Buttonhole To Protect Your Clothes When You're Eating

Problem
How do you protect the front of your blouse or shirt?

Answer
Cover your front with an absorbent napkin. But how do you attach it neatly?
Here's the answer:

Napkin with buttonhole from The Tanglin Club, Singapore.

Photos by Angela Lansbury.

Full marks to the Tanglin club for providing these. I imagine that the suppliers wordwide can do this. If not, large hotels and restaurant chains and organizations where staff wear uniforms have departments with sewing machines which can make buttonholes.

If you are an individual with a sewing machine, or have a neighbour or relative or friend with a sewing machine, you could insert a buttonhole into a table napkin.  

A useful item for yourself if you eat out or travel a lot. Maybe a Xmas gift from a practical friend.

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

Shopping Online In Singapore And Asia and UK and USA

The USA is so big and so much of it is rural, so for years the Americans have enjoyed delivery to their homes, and even in the early days not just delivery of a shed but delivery of a DIY home!
Nowadays, in the USA life is easy. Amazon. com.

Problem Solved in the UK
In the UK I use eBay and Amazon. Amazon.co.uk. Sometimes the price of delivery from the USA is very expensive.

Flag of Singapore.

Problem - Singapore
Who delivers in Singapore? I could not get Lulu.com to deliver my self-published print on demand books to Singapore.

However, many Chinese suppliers offer delivery worldwide - and for free!

Answers
It's not that difficult. Big Brother is watching you (as George Orwell told us in his predictive novel 1984). As soon as you turn on your computer / laptop / phone in Asia, and do a search, the local companies appear, clamouring for your attention and your business, pushing out your usual top of the list suppliers.

They know where you are!

My family in Singapore order through Lavada.
IKEA delivers furniture. (We recently August 2018 ordered a full-length mirror for a rented condo.)

Long ago I ordered a Brother sewing machine which was delivered. I could have had a demo lesson in the store but paid extra to have somebody come to my home and demonstrate the machine.

He spoke English with a Japanese accent which I had trouble understanding. However, he threaded up the thread, and the bobbin, and left me with a square of cloth with all the kinds of stitches I could do, straight, zig-zag, and so on. (Have your cotton reels and bobbins and spare fabric ready.)

I read through the instruction guide but something was lost in translation. the book repeatedly told me it could guide me in butter sewing.I presumed this was an oriental euphemism for quick sewing, or computer programming of the machine stitches. At the end of the instruction book, I found a mention of better sewing. I realised that butter sewing was a misprint, or a correction by an automatic predictive text.

Nowadays you can probably watch demonstrations on YouTube of anything which you want to know about any kind of machine or product. Wikihow is a useful source.

Warnings About Online Drugs
Check with your doctor about prescription drugs. Check online before ordering for the safety of any unknown product. For example, some weight loss systems have been in the UK news as being ineffective or dangerous, even fatal.

You may find that a drug which is permitted in one country is forbidden in another. Also, you might need to keep a doctor's prescription if you are carrying pills for yourself or another family member from one country to another. Keep the packaging and the doctor's prescription. The doctor's prescription is also useful if you are re-ordering overseas.

When you run out, keep the empty packaging. I went into a pharmacy in Singapore and at the airport. The pharmacist wanted to know the brand of medicine (Thyroxine) I was using, because, she said, different brands have different strengths, so you need to know not just the number of grams and the generic name, but also the manufacturer of the drug.

Double check ingredients, especially items which should not be taken with other products or foods.
Some medicines cannot be combined with citrus fruit. So, if you or your granny start the day with half a grapefuit and a glass or orange juice, either you have to change your diet, or choose a different pill in case anybody forgets.

Check for ingredients if you have allergies, or are collecting for a family member, including children and the elderly who are forgetful. I have even made a mistake for myself.

Once or twice I and my doctor have forgotten to check. I opened a packet and read the instructions and ingredients. I discovered a product contains aspirin and a member of my family is allergic to aspirin.

On another occasion, the pills were giant size. The patient refused to take them because they were having difficulty swallowing, especially large pills which looked alarming and were hard to get down.

Ocado just sent me a code for 30% off online grocery shopping in the UK. The code runs out September 29th 2018. However, I expect they will send another later.

Useful Websites (alphabetically)

ASIA - IKEA
ikea.com

ASIA - Lavada
https://www.lazada.sg/shop-sewing-machines/

ASIA - MY US claims to reduced shipping costs
https://www.myus.com/welcome/

ASIA - Qoo10
Qoo10.sg

UK
Costco
www.costco.com

Ocado online grocery
https:/www.ocado.com

Superdrug
https://onlinepharmacy.superdrug.com

WORLDWIDE
WIKIHOW
wikihow.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts covering online shopping. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite entertaining and most useful posts.

Marvellous Murals In Little India, Singapore

At the time I noticed that the horses, large and incongruous in a side alley, were on the theme of Race Course Road. Only when I looked at the photo of the mural later did I realise the humour. The horse and rider are shown not on a racecourse but leaping over vegetables - bags including carrots on the left, and fruit - oranges on the right, which have been knocked onto the ground.

Problem
Which way is the quickest route to Mustafa's department store, to and from Farrer Park MRT, or Little India?

We changed at little India and got off at Farrer Park on the way there. We thought it would be quicker to walk back to Little India MRT station. Why? To avoid the delays of walking around Little India station to change lines, then along the underground exit from Farrer Park, finally the short walk from Farrer Park to the department store (turn left towards the Indian temple).

We were wrong. It's a hot walk back to Little India station. However, it has two advantages, One is that if you keep in the shade of the covered way in front of the shops, you can't see what they are selling. Lots of suitcases on wheels, mobile phone covers, clothes, and a man with a sewing machine outdoors - handy if you want something repaired.

Murals
An added bonus was discovering the murals near the MRT. The first one we found was the amusing mural depicting a worker with tools and rubbish.

Next was a mural of horses. Unusual? Why horses? You are on Racecourse Road. One way to remember the street on your map needed for the little India MRT exit. Racecourse Road has some of the well-known Indian restaurants which we visited int he 1990s before the MRT was built.

The last annoyance was the Little India exit we reached had an escalator up and none down. You might think that the extra walk and exercise does you good. You might find walking or running up and down stairs and stations and back alleys is exhilarating. On the whole, most days, I prefer not to arrive feeling hot, damp and tired.

When you are rushing into a station to catch a train to meet friends or for an appointment, you might not have time to register what's on the nearby mural. This one seems to show a bull with horns riding a bicycle.

When I saw the murals, I had wondered, vaguely, whether the artist had been paid by the owner of the building, or was the owner of the building, or like Banksy, had just painted the murals for a joke or a dare or to practise on an empty wall.

I then googled murals in Little India and discovered that the source of the artwork was artists at the nearby LaSalle art college. The source of the funding was the heritage department.

Useful Websites
visitsingapore.com
http://www.lasalle.edu.sg/praxis-press/cattleland-art-walk-little-india/


Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts on Little India and Indian restaurants. Please share links to your favourite posts.