Glasses and Goggles To Help You See When Swimming

Problems
tight silicone hats press on the sides of your normal glasses when you wear them in water.
Some glasses will go rust in water.
You need glasses when swimming in the water for these reasons
1 to protect your eyes from splashes
to see close-up
To see at a distance
To keep your eyes adjusted to your normal spectacles
Goggles over glasses enable you to open your eyes underwater and see fish and take photos and avoid dangers and approaching large fish and boats and pick up coins and lost items and avoid colliding with the swimming pool walls and other swimmers.

Answers
Some large stretchy turban like swimhat has room for glasses without pressing if you are swimming with your head out of water, paddling or doing breast stroke - with your head up (which could give you back ache one swimming instructor told me).

Some goggles are designed like the cheap glasses you can buy which are adjusted for short sightedness or long sightedness.

Other members of my family can manage with non-prescription glasses bought off racks. (Not me, because my eyes are different and a lens suiting one eye does not suit the other one - I can see a menu using them by shutting one eye in an emergency, but no good for preventing headaches.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

I Forgot Packing List

Problem
You always forget something, even when you make a packing list.

Answer
Keep a list of things you forgot previously - and where you left them and why.

Stories
My I Forgot Packing List

My passport
1 At home - I was so busy making sandwiches for the trip down to Dover I forgot my own passport.

2 Visiting our au pair girl in France, I left behind in my hotel bedroom my passport hung on the back of a chair.

3 visiting the USA, I left behind my passport in the box art security.

My Underwear
On a trip across Russia to Japan, I had only one set of underwear which I was wearing for a four week trip.

Sunglasses
On a trip to a ski resort I forgot sunglasses. Sunglasses are not just for summer. Snow is blinding white. I found it a nuisance to have clip over sunglasses on sighted glasses, and the same applies to goggles. Now I order photochromic lenses, so I can never go on a trip without sunglasses.

(Not photo chronic, photo chromic. I must remember to check the blog post after it appears.)

Now I have travelled all over the world. I should be the perfect packer. I should never forget anything, right?

Nope.

2016 - I forgot lip salve.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker. Please check my other posts and other blogs. Like and share. Also on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram. Youtube videos. Books on Amazon.com and Lulu.com

Got your passport? Lost your passport? Door keys? Sunglasses?

I bought a black silk skirt on eBay. The crestfallen seller says she can't find it. She will refund my money but keep looking and if she finds it shall contact me again.

I know the feeling. My own notable losses:
1 PASSPORT COVER HIDING PASSPORT
I bought a pretty silver cover for notebook and put it on my passport. I missed a press trip to a theme park in France because at the last minute I could not find my passport.

Moral: If you place a cover on a passport, make sure the word passport is visible - either written on the outside of the bag or wallet or cover, or listed elsewhere in a list called something like VITAL INFORMATION, or your packing list.

2 FORGOTTEN PASSPORT
Many taxi drivers before setting off for the airport all ask: Have you got your passport(s). Have you got your tickets? (Get them out and check in case you changed your coat at the last moment into something warmer or lighter, or changed to a bigger or smaller handbag.) The taxi driver's reason for asking is usually, "Yesterday we were half way to the airport when ..."

3 PASSPORT STORED IN SUITCASE
I once left my passport in my suitcase. Next year or next trip I forgot. I always look for my passport first. No point packing if you don't have a passport. You need the time to get to the passport office to get a new one or hunt for it. Eventually the family said, pack now, get something done, and look for it later. I got out the suitcase and found it. After a stressful time worrying and searching. I needed the holiday.

My mistake was a classic case of 'it seemed like a good idea at the time'. I had thought, I'll leave my passport in the suitcase so I can't go without it.

Well, is it in the outside pocket or in the inside pocket (and the suitcase key lost). How many suitcases do you have? Will you have forgotten where it is by the time you take your next trip?

No point hiding it in the suitcase so burglars won't find it. A policeman told me: One of the things burglars do is look for a suitcase or large bag in which to conceal or carry items from the house.

4 MISSING KEYS IN SUMMER BAG? BEACH BAG
My late mother returned from holiday and lost her flat's front doorways. Luckily my father had his. My mother worried. (About that and another problem. You could blame either worry. Or the fact that she had too many worries, or was a worrier. She had a stroke and died a week later.

My father then worried about the missing keys. Should he change the locks and pay for new locks and new keys?

I dealt with the easy problem first. Collect mother's clothes and bags. I went through each of her bags checking the pockets inside, before taking them home or giving them to charity or throwing them away. My father watched as I went through each bag. At least half a dozen. He got impatient. "Don't bother - they are all empty."

I got to the last one. Guess what I found? Yes, my mother's door keys inside a straw beach bag.

Moral; Search through the pockets of clothes and bags and suitcases before storing them.
Search through the pockets of clothes and bag and suitcases before giving them to charity. Search through the pockets of clothes and bags and suitcases before going them to another member of your family or a friend.

On holiday: Search through the pockets of clothes and bags and suitcases if you have lost your passport or door keys, sighted glasses, sunglasses, hotel bedroom keys, or anything else.

5 SEARCHING SYSTEM
You've lost it?
I presume you have run through the checklist of:
1 Is it parcelled/packed up and ready to go on the hall table? In a plastic bag ready to be folded and labelled?
2 Did I put it in the car boot to go to the post office? Is my missing item pushed or fallen under car seat? In the car side pockets?
3 Is it hiding under something else - larger / same colour. Another skirt. A pile of newspapers.
4 Is it in the room where I photographed it?
5 Is it hanging in my wardrobe? (Check under other garments from both hanger level and skirt level, hidden under another coat, jacket or skirt?)
6 Is it hanging behind the door on a hook such as in the bathroom?
7 Did my tidy-minded spouse take it to a charity shop or throw it away without telling me.
8 Have I worked clockwise around the house, tidying as I go.
9 Have I checked below and behind all flat surfaces and between all furniture (eg bedside tables and chairs, bookcases).
10 Did I leave it in a suitcase from last year's holiday for security or storage or out of season clothes?
11 Is it somewhere else outside the home: - shed, garage, conservatory, lobby, hall hat rack, car or van, home of parents, children, friends, home office, work office, study, attic, basement, inside washing machine or tumble drier or behind them? In airing cupboard? On ironing board?)
14 Have I left food in the fridge, or in a large cool box or picnic box?

Also have a system. Always keep your passport and keys in the same place. Tell another member of your family. Keep a note - even if it is coded or encrypted. One day you'll be the one who has everything right and you'll be able to quickly sort out everybody else's problems and forestall disasters.

People will wonder how you do everything so well. Experience. Like the taxi drivers, learn by your own mistakes - and the mistakes of others.

Angela
Author of How To Get Out Of The Mess You're In. (Lulu.com)

How to Hide In A Photo - face and hands or smile when appropriate

You might not want to be in a photo when travelling. For security. Whatever.

In Public Places
You can hold your own phone or camera in front of your face. You can wear sunglasses, dark glasses or a brimmed hat. This may save you from being caught on camera.

However, it also draws attention. Masks and dark glasses are seen as anti-social. They make other people nervous.

Televised events
At televised events the camera could turn towards you at any time. If you attend a concert, or even stand at a station looking up at the notice board when trains are delayed or on strike.

Stations
I was photographed on a TV camera years ago, Kings Cross station in London, on my way to Edinburgh. No, I wasn't going to the Edinburgh festival. I was meeting my family, my husband and then small son. We were on our way to Scotland, having won a trip at the world travel market. My late mother was sitting at home watching and saw face pop up on TV. I had no idea I was being photographed.

Not only that, but I was on TV again, the following week. The TV showed the same clip again, when reporting on the start or end of the problem.

So what can you do, more discreetly?

Audience
If you are at a concert you may see cameras in the concert hall. You think they are looking at the stage. But at dull moments, in the Interval, they may scan the audience.

You can also appear on still shots. Please be kind to the performers and the photographer. How often a lovely shot of the audience is ruined by the screaming children, even somebody standing in the aisle with their back to the performer. Maybe they are walking off to the toilet. Who knows. It just looks like they are not interested.

Now wonder people say, 'Don't photograph me.' They are seen in such dreadful poses.

As a photographer, I can tell you it's very annoying when you want to show the audience watching keenly as your club or VIP speaker is on stage, or your family or the official photographer scans, and the people in the front row, or down the aisles, or hiding at the back, or now listening attentively to your carefully crafted and rehearsed party piece.

Not, they are chatting to friends, ignoring the speaker. Tweaking ears, rubbing noses, yawning showing fillings in their teeth. How to hide without causing offence? Simple. Look down at your shoes.

If you are in a meeting, and a speaker is on stage, do not look at your watch. Do not frown, glare or look bored. It is a courtesy to sit upright and look alert.

The Japanese expect pupils in school to sit up and not slouch. To look bored is disrespectful to the teacher. The same would apply to members of the audience listening to the boss or a VIP speaker.

So, you know that the photographers are keen to take a picture of you. They want you to look good.

Sometimes they have politely beckoned you to be in the picture. You think you should not be in the bride's family group at the hotel. You may be right.

Posing For Pictures and Hiding
On the other hand, they may want you to be in the picture. This happened to me three times.
I was walking around a building associated with Sun Yat Sen in China and a young Chinese man was photographing his pretty girlfriend. I subtly, I thought, took a picture of them. They then posed a little ahead in my path. Just as I approached them, I realised they were photographing so I ducked out of the way. They got just a bit of me in the picture.

The photographer seemed disappointed that he hadn't got the perfect picture he wanted.  I indicated sorry. He indicated never mind. This cat and mouse game continued at several more spots around the building.

Finally we got to the exit and I asked if they would kindly pose for me. They were delighted to do so. They then asked if I would pose on my own and with them. It then transpired that they had been trying to photograph me all along!

Concerts and Theatres
But you have a reason for not being in the picture. If it's in the interval and you are not expected to watch somebody on stage, only at the camera, you can look away and the only loss is yours because you are not in the photo. Better still look down at a newspaper.

Group Photos
Stand in the back row, behind the tallest person in the row. Look down.

Go to the buffet table and stand with your back to the group.

If you are in a group of people seated, standing and moving spoils the photos and draws attention to yourself at the event and in the photo. Instead consider this:
1 Shield your eyes with your hand.
2 Hold up the programme or agenda of the event as if you are concentrating on reading. This shows no disrespect to the event but effectively hides you from view.

If you want to be in a photo but not have it published until later, you could ask the photographer. They may be quite happy to oblige.

What about hiding someone else? Just use a star. Edit on your phone.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.