Perfect and Vital Photos of Holiday Resorts, Business, family, friends, clubs

A welcome sign can be used to open a slide show or blog.
 

You can take photos on travels, whether on business or holiday, either for a purpose or as a backup.

These are the photos I take

IN ADVANCE - TICKETS & LUGGAGE & PEOPLE

If you forget, take luggage in transit or as you check-in at an airport.

Suitcases showing colour, style (hard side), size and brand, for identification in case of loss. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

1 TICKETS

Tickets and reservations. They may be on the internet but the internet could go down. They may be on my phone but the phone might need charging or not get a connection to show them.

The hotel, plane, or tour or restaurant might not recognize you. Your reservation letter would reveal that you are at the wrong branch of a Holiday Inn. Of an Asian hotel has listed your first name as a family name. 

2 BAGS

Photos of luggage. In case I need to search, send others to search at baggage claim, or fill out a form. If you lose luggage they ask the colour and brand. If you have eight items it is hard to remember, and if there is a query, or language problem, you can show a picture.

3 PEOPLE

Photos of your companions are useful. Lose your husband at an airport or meeting. In a large shop? Lose a child? Show the photo to an official or bystander.

DESTINATION

4 Destination photos. PLACES. 

First I take my hotel. If I get lost, I can show the picture to a local person. Even if I can't speak the language, or the cannot understand my accent, they can lead me to the end of he road and point to my nearby, yet seemingly elusive hotel.

Hotel Imperial, Valladolid. Spain. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

5 PEOPLE

Photos of people on business, or friends. Take a photo to add to your contacts. If you have six people called Marie, or Patel, or Ali, you will be able to identify the person who you promised to send the photos of the three of you at an event.

6 FOOD & DRINK

Photos of wine bottles, labelled food at a buffet, so you can ask for it in a local supermarket to take home as a souvenir or gift.

7 Photos of yourself. For a passport photo or visa or ski lift pass. Or in action to show your credentials as an expert, as a chef, of speaker, on a TV show, with the book you are selling.

8 YOUR FAVOURITES AT HOME

Photos of books or goods or restaurants you want to sell of recommend.  If you live in a well known place such as New York or Rome, you might meet somebody who says they are going there, so can you recommend a restaurant or hotel. Take your favourite hotel or restaurant or museum photo just before you go, so you can show it, and WhatsApp it to the person who asks you.

9 LOCATION NAMES

A name, phone, signpost, welcome design of each city or hotel. This helps you to identify cities, landmarks, churches, temples, people, hotels, every picture taken on holiday. Date each picture in the caption, with the country. It's obvious at the time. Three years later, it won't be.

10 WEDDINGS

Weddings. Photograph the invitation showing the names of the bride and groom, and their parents. Then the main people at the top table. Add those at the table where you sat. Any person you spoke to. 

Record the name of the caterer or photographer, if you wish to do business with them later. The official photographer might take only those at the top table. Ignoring your family, your best friend, or Auntie Sally from overseas who dies so you have no happy photo of her for the obituary because nobody else took a photo of an old lady, only of the teenagers dancing.

11 VIP Conference Speakers

 At a conference, photograph the speakers, people you meet, those given awards. A video of a speech if its brief and not using up too much of your camera or phone memory. Sometimes people are very grateful to have a record.

Remember to get your own speech recorded. And a photo of yourself being presented with an award. This is handy in years to come, including an end of year party for a slide show of members, or a celebration of a hotel or restaurant or club at the end of the first year or after ten years or twenty.

Birthday picture of Angela. If a photo is blurred, it can later be edited. Some software programmes which you can buy or get free will do this. I was offered a sharpening of photo service on one of the websites like ancestry com and 23 and me. In Jul 2024 my Samsung Galaxy phone started offering to save photos in higher resolution, which would take up more space on the phone because of increasing pixels if you did it for lots of photos. An alternative is to save special photos in the cloud or on a remote disc, on another phone, on another family member's phone. Or take more photos, checking which are blurred and saving the better ones.

A birthday or anniversary picture can be used to send to family overseas, or a montage of pictures for an anniversary, a screen covered by photos, the birthday of an 80 year old or somebody reaching 100 years old. A happy picture can also lift your spirits at a funeral.

12 DRAMAS

Accidents and dramas. Your photo could help with an insurance claim.

13 LANGUAGE

Learning languages is aided by photos of signs, menus, even laundry lists.

VIDEOS

You can also take a video of your walk from a hotel to a nearby shop or railway station. Then reverse it to find your way back, or to tell another family member or business associate or club member where to find you and the venue

PHOTO TIPS

Photograph food from displays, but not through glass.

Photograph yourself smiling. Unsmiling for passport photos. 

Without glasses and hats which obscure eyes. 

Cut or pin back fringes covering eyes for passport photos.

Unfold arms to look more welcoming for PR for yourself or a company. People think folded arms look more important. No. It just looks like you don't want to get involved with others. Or you have something to hide. Norwegians are serious people. The USA, UK and Europe go for the friendly smile.

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Preventing and Dealing With Crowd Control and Disasters

New Year's Eve in Singapore

I have been at two potential crush events. The year 2000 in Singapore I want to see the Harley Davidson bike parade along Orchard Road. Pedestrians were flowing freely with plenty of space. Then, just before the parade, ribbons barriers were put up to keep pedestrians out of the road. 

I tried to get back to the MRT station to leave, I was swept along, packed in like a sardine. Being small, I was almost crushed. It was claustrophobic and scary. 

New Year's Eve In London

My second experience was in London on New Year's Eve at a bar-restaurant near Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. Although we waited until gone midnight, about 12.15 to leave after the crush, we hoped, the nearby station was cordoned off and an airport style queue (Americans say line-up) was being controlled by police. They and signs told us for faster entry, to use different entrances, or different stations. We went back to the bar, ordered more drinks, and tried again at 12.30 and after a wait, were able to get the train and journey home. 

Lessons Learned

What are the lessons learned? On major national holidays you can either have ticketed and seated events, and crowd control with policed barriers in narrow streets and building entrances, one way systems, and entrances and exits of stations. Yes, it costs money, so does calling police in at the last moment and dealing with disasters later.

Korea

Police were deployed for Halloween in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. But they were unable to control the crowd. How can you prevent this? You need a gap along one side for police and emergency access only. You need sign-ups, even for free events.

Do you have any other suggestions? Please tell me and the forums and the authorities.

Xmas and New Year

We have Xmas and New Year ahead. I am now more conscious of crowd control being necessary, booking in advance, planning timing. The safest place is at home watching on TV.

What kinds of control are possible?

1 Number estimates from previous events.

The Koreans had figures from pre-Covid. They underestimated the surge in post-Covid crowds.

2 Ticketed counting and limiting

This is often done at indoor events. Fire regulations and insurance require limits to the numbers of people allowed in. We are familiar with this - in London at art galleries, exhibitions. Banks do it. Singapore does it in government offices. Singapore Airlines does it in their office issuing tickets and dealing with queries. Eventbrite issues tickets for free events. At Toastmasters International club meetings, speech contests, we in the audience are sometimes asked to sign up so that the organizers can manage catering.

Sign-ups and tickets.

3 Zig Zag Barriers

I recall going to Disney in America and seeing the S snaking lines. That was new. Not known in the UK. Now we have these at Heathrow airport at security.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_control#:~:text=Crowd%20control%20is%20a%20public,cause%20many%20hundreds%20of%20fatalities.

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

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

https://eumeainfo.motorolasolutions.com/safe_stadiums_solution_brief

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How To Pack A Suitcase or Rucksack Efficiently - by Angela Lansbury and Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin monument, USA.

Emergency Exit Suitcase

In earthquake-prone Japan, the Japanese, with experience and foresight, keep an emergency bag by the front door to grab in the event of a quick evacuation. 

If the taxi to the airport arrives early (which it should, in case you have a last minute hunt for your passport and tickets) you are ready to go. (The Americans like to say, alliteratively, good to go.)

'A place for everything and everything in its place,' said a well organized and much travelled American, Benjamin Franklin. Another daying I like is: Don't put it down. Put it away.

Smaller seal-tight boxes can be used in suitcases or backpacks when packing for trips. On the outward journey to keep all your underwear or your swimsuit and swimming hat and goggles in one place. Or your night clothes quick to find when you land in the middle of the night. To protect clothes from rain when your suitcase is sitting in a pile on the runway waiting to be loaded.

For bringing home dirty laundry. Wet swimsuits. Washed items not quite dry. And things you need in a hurry which would be hard to locate in a suitcase, such as a sewing kit or toothbrush, face flannel, or small towel. Ideally packed in the inside pocket of the suitcase, far right. If there's no inner pocket in the suitcase, 

When I was a busy traveller and travel writer, before Covid-19, I often kept one small suitcase ready packed with a swimsuit and night dress and spare underwear and shoes and a reversible dress, ready to go in a hurry. Or ready to tell an impatient panicky spouse, "I have already packed!"

The secret to quick packing is to know where everything is. Your packing list can be pasted inside your door to the wardrobe or clothes closet. A second copy to pack so you pack quickly for the return journey and don't leave behind the slippers under the bed, the bathrobe behind the door, the hat in the top of the hotel bedroom wardrobe, the contraceptives under the pillow, the child's toy in the cot or in the empty drawer, your jewellery on the bedroom basin when you washed your hands, your jacket on the chair of the breakfast room in the hotel, your umbrella in the boot (Americans say trunk) of the taxi (whose lost and found number is on your packing list). Your valuables in the hotel bedroom safe, or at reception. Photos of all your suitcases to show the hotel porter (bellhop in the USA) or airport staff when you are hunting for the missing item, looking around the carousel for the fourth suitcase, or making an insurance claim, or showing that the item was not damaged before check-in.

The passport and tickets should be in a set place, always.

Your night dress and slippers, maybe a short light robe. Swimsuit and swimming hat (plus goggles and a tiny towel). Spare shoes or evening shoes or walking shoes or beach shoes. cosmetic kit. Medicine or prescription. Spare reading glasses.   

  Today I sorted a drawer. Underwear. First thing in the morning, when I have energy. And need to select underwear. 

If I sort one drawer a day, by the end of the week I shall have done 7. By the end of the month, one room will be completely sorted.

 If I did one drawer in each room each day, the whole house would be done by the end of the month. Make that, the end of three months or a year. 

Since I need to stand up from the computer, it's a welcome break. Instead of eating, I shall do sorting.

Sorting Underwear

I used to lay everything flat. I thought that saved space. When packing a suitcase. So the same applies to drawers.

But each time I pulled out an item, the whole lot got jumbled and would not fit back in the drawer. Urgh!

Then I saw Marie Kondo, folding things into a drawer on video, on Youtube. She rolls everything or folds it, folds it again, and again, and stands it vertically. Then you can see the colours. Her method looks neat.

Bought dividers - advantages and disadvantages

Dividers are the best thing. Many of them come flat packed and slot together. In theory, after buying a set, if it fits, or doesn't, you can copy the design on card. 

Where do you find card? Inside and behind a new shirt packaging. The reinforcement at the base of a paper tote bag which is falling apart and will be thrown away or used as a carrier for recycling.

But sometimes bought dividers are too small. Not everything fits into a tiny space. Oblongs or honeycomb, all the same size. 

Any divider is better than none. You can start with an empty Kleenex tissue box. Cut diagonally with scissors towards the four top corners. Fold down the four flaps. They reinforce the edge of the box. You now have easy access. You can see the contents better.

How To Cut Down A Box

If necessary, if your drawer is shallow, you can cut down the vertical seems an inch or two, and fold the flaps lower. You might want to measure the height of the drawer, mark the height, less a centimeter, on the box. Use a metal ruler to score a line with the tip of the scissors and make a neat horizontal crease in the cardboard, holding the metal ruler to keep your edge straight and prevent jagged tearing.

Advantages of dividers are that you see each item. You do not move anything else when you empty an item. 

You can sort by colours. Your favourite on the right. Unless you are left handed. 

So either black goes on the right, or red, or white. If black is on the far right, white is on the far left. Or vice versa. Intermediate colours go in the middle. If bright red is your favourite, and dull brown your least favourite, put the red on the right, the brown on the left. On the other hand, if you favour earth colours, put brown on the right, with orange and green for autumn, the luminous yellow and turquoise and summer colours on the left.

You can also sort from front to back by size. Thin and small thongs at the front, thicker and bigger granny knickers, corsets or pantaloons at the back, or vice versa.  

Seasonally - winter stuff goes at the back in summer. It moves to the front in winter. Or maybe an opportunity to put items into storage, on the top shelf, labelled in a suitcase, with an email to yourself in a folder labelled storage, or in the attic. 

Moths and Mould

You also want to add moth balls, and/or take things out and shake them out regularly.

Don't put clothes in the garage. They are likely to get dirty or mouldy. 

See-through Dividers

You might have see-through dividers or boxes sitting taking up space in your kitchen drawers. They can be moved to divide drawers.

Whilst travelling, you might like to see the memorials to Benjamin Franklin in Washington DC, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; and Craven Street, London WC2, England, UK.

Finally, pack a list of Americanisms and British English.

UK - USA

autumn - Fall

bonnet (car) - hood (automobile)

boot - trunk

car - automobile

chemist - pharmacy

garage - gas station

high street - main street

lorry - truck

luggage - baggage

momentarily - briefly

motorway - autoroute

pants - underpants

porter (in a hotel) - bellhop

tap - faucet

trousers - pants

turn right - make a right

windscreen - windshield

Useful Websites (more will be added shortly)

www.fi.edu/exhibit/benjamin-franklin-memorial

Philadelphia

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

Washington DC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Benjamin_Franklin_(Washington,_D.C.)

Read more posts by Angela Lansbury, travel writer, English teacher, tutor and trainer, fashionista. Everything you wanted to know and need to know for your fun trips. Read posts on destinations, travel clothes, packing, preparing to learn languages and famous authors' statues, travellers' homes, trails, museums, historical houses - plus fun food, and bargain shopping.

Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts with your favourite friends.

How To Promote Your Club Conference Or Event

How do you promote your club conference or event? I have been looking into this to repeatedly and contunually promote Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters speakers group in Singapore meeting twice a month on the first Wednesday evening and the third Saturday afternoon, and a one-off event, the Pathways workshop at Tampines Changkat community club on September 28th.

Choosing The Event Date
The first point to notice is whether the orgnaizers or stars are available. Give them a choice of dates. You might not want to have a party for teeneagers during their exam week or when everybody is away for the summer break. Offer the star turn or workshop leader a choice of dates or ask when they are free.

Then check whether you have competing national, local, or same society events on the same day. If possible, change the day. If not, make use of the overlap.

Joint Promotions & Conflicts
You could promote both events and ask people to sign up for one or the other. Or get publicity about your concern over the conflict. You may rmember a royal wedding with took place on the same day as a sports event.

Posters
How do you create a layout? You want a banner headline, one or two photos or a mosaic. Details in a text box of where, when, directions, price, contacts, sign up. Is the event free, or price or prices for different people (members and non-members or guests, earlybird or pay at the door.

Use Canva. Or Powerpoint.

Tickets
On websites such as Eventbrite you can ask the guests to print off a ticket or show you their registration or payment on their phone if you are sure the event venue will have internet connection. If no internet connection, arrange for somebody to have a charged phone to act as a hotspot.

How To Print Tickets Cheaply And Quickly
You can make DIY tickets and ticket stubs. Across an A4 page you could print at least four horizontal tickets, possibly as many as 16.

Numbering Tickets
Why number tickets? To prevent fraud from photocopying. To keep track of tickets and numbers sold. To match up the ticket sold with the ticket stub.

Prices and Reductions
If you are not selling tickets and people are complaining about the price, you could offer a reduction or buy one get one free (to fill up the empty room).

Useful Websites
canva.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. President of Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Club. Area S3 director.

Introducing yourself with names, handshakes, namaste, and claiming your tickets

When I first went to Asia, specifically Singapore, I was stressed by lost restaurant and hotel bookings and discovered these vital things:

BUSINESS CARDS ARE SOMETIMES VITAL, ALWAYS HELPFUL
1 You must hand over a business card with both hands.

2 You do not put somebody else's card in a back pocket which you sit on.

3 An office receptionist wants your card so she can check she is not inadvertently sending an office junior to meet the CEO or vice versa but can match you up with the correct department and level of expertise and status.

4 People want your card in order to pronounce your name, remember it, and find some subject to discuss, such as, "Where did you do your degree," or, "Oh I see you were in England. I studied there. My son is studying there now."

5 You need a business card to hand quickly to somebody on a us or train when you or they leap off on reaching your stop, no time to write it out.

6 Many people have unpronounceable names, so they use a Western nickname, ideally using their initials or a name which starts with the same letter.

7 Chinese names start with the family or clan name, then secondly the 'first' or given or personal name.

8 A hotel or airline may think your first name is your surname. We several times tried to check into a hotel or onto an airline which claimed to have no record. When we were able to persuade the receptionist to let us check the list we were able to identify the problem.

9 People overseas do not know which is your first name and which is your surname, nor how to address you. A common question is, "How do I address you?"


Photo from wikipedia in article on Namaste.

10 Namaste
Namaste as a Hindu greeting. Namaha is bow and te is you. This greeting is said in Parts of Nepal, depending on the tribe, as well as in India.

As a hands together greeting you will find it from all sorts of people in all Asian countries, people wearing religious dress, especially women, airline staff, restaurant staff, hotel staff.

If you want to avoid touching other people's sweaty hands by shaking hands before eating from a buffet at a hotel or meeting, you can put your hands together in a namaste as you enter a room. Then  bow in greeting to various people, without embarrassing them by avoiding their proffered hand.

If you are running a meeting, carry a tray of drinking water and nod in greeting and wear a badge and say your name and ask the other person's name. That prevents your attempting to shake hands with people who don't shake hands.

Pronouncing Names Correctly
Consult the guest list in advance, or when signing in. Ask how to pronounce any unfamiliar names. If you are running an event, prepare name badges from your guest list. Read the names aloud and practise saying them. You can look up the people on Facebook or Linked in so that you recognise them. You could even put them in your contacts list.

As a hotel guest, you can check out the hotel manager or reception staff. This can provide their name, ensure you know who to greet. You could say something relevant, like, "Good evening Mr Wong. You must be the manager. I recognize you from your Facebook page. I saw you greeting the prime minister when the hotel opened last year."

If you later, want to move to a room overlooking the pool, or get an upgrade, you already know the manager, and feel at ease approaching him (or her). He (or she) already knows you and feels well disposed towards you.

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

Fabulous Fazer Chocolates and Chocolate Factory visit in Finland

Fab chox! 

I was given Fazer chocolates in Singapore. Alcoholic centres. Crunchy. Great chocolate. Different colours wrappers for different flavours. gold and green, or gold and red and green and blue wrappers.

The alcoholic chocolate wrappers have letters in various languages about the contents.

Maraschino by Fazer. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Maraschino is a liqueur made from the Marasca cherry. The bitter sweet cherry comes from a European coastal tree.

Chocolate Factory

I looked Fazer up on the web and found they had a factory you can visit in Finland. Open every day of the week. 

You can visit their factory shop during opening hours for free. They sell chocolates, bread, cereals, t-shirts, magnets and more. They also have a cafe. The winding path to the factory leads past the trees and bushes which contribute ingredients and flavours to their products, such as chocolate, and sugar beet.

Booking Tours
But you must book a factory visit with guided tour. The fee (at the time of writing, Jan 2019) eleven euros plus the ticketmaster fee.

Where
The Fazer factory is about 40 minutes from Helsinki city centre.

Chocolate Worldwide
You can do chocolate factory visits all over the world. I've been to shops and factory tours in the UK, Cadbury's, in Switzerland, Alprose. Americans lover Hersheys. Chocolate fairs take place in London, England, Perugia, Italy, and many other places. (See my previous posts on chocolate.)

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

More Information from
https://n.stuccu.com/s/Fazer+Chocolate

Visitfazer.com

https://www.visitacity.com/en/helsinki

https://www.visitfinland.com/

Author

Angela Lansbury

For chocolate cake in Singapore, see last post.

Lost tickets, passports, suitcase?

Problem
Where did I put it?

Answer
Photograph items put in the attic. or hidden in suitcases.

You need a file called Where is it? Write in it location of everything from Xmas gifts and Birthday presents, hospital appointments, exam locations, spare keys, wedding invitation reply cards, black plastic bag bin liners, hoover bags, potato peelers, corkscrews.

Suitcase keys and locks should stay on the suitcase.

Email yourself copies of everything: your passport, your tickets, the hotel where you will be staying. Your travel insurance. Your skis. Your goggles.

Stories
What have I lost?:
LOST PASSPORTS (4)
1 A passport left behind on my way to a ferry from the UK to France. I was too busy distracted packing the picnic for the journey to think about the vital passport.
2 The passport lost in the drawer, hidden in a free silver passport cover which was a free gift from a magazine.
3 My passport left behind at security in the USA. I got on the plane and realised I had no passport.
4 My passport stolen in a travel bag.
LIPSTICKS & MEDICINE
4 My lipsticks at security in Heathrow. The medicine in the same see-through bag.
A SWIMMING HAT
5 I was wrongly accused of theft by a French woman in Greece who saw me wearing the same hat as the one she had lost. She grabbed it from me and shirked that it was hers. After her friend pointed out that the hat was lost several days ago, and I had only arrive fifteen minutes ago on a bus, it was clear that I was not the case of her loss. I just happened to have bought the same popular swim hat, but not lost mine. I keep my swim hat in my gym kit bag or the pocket of my wrap around towel dress.
6 SPECTACLES
I can't drive without my spectacles so I must not lose them. If I go into the bathroom and remove them to wash my face or take a shower, I place them on the lid of the toilet. They are visible along against the white surface, easy to check or ask somebody else to look. Next time I go to the bathroom, or anybody else uses the toilet, my glasses will be found.

LOST INFORMATION Forward a copy of your destination address and your insurance company to your travelling companions and the family left at home. That way they can find you, and you can find items by phoning home and asking them to check the location.

Author
Angela Lansbury author of How to Get Out of the Mess You're In.  (Altogether twenty books.) See books on Lulu.com ; Amazon.com

More Posts
See my other posts on

Lost Cars at Airports
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/losing-your-car-at-airport-what-to-do.html

Lost Buttons
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/buttons-for-travelling.html

Lost Passports, A Lost Cruise Ship
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/trackers-to-help-find-your-passport-and.html

Getting lost in a temple in Cambodia
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/how-to-get-lost-and-found-in-cambodian.html

Lost Keys
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/problem-how-do-you-find-your-lost-keys.html

Lost Pens
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/how-to-find-lost-pens.html
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Sydney and London in Canada, Watch Out For Trouble

Problems
Oh, no, not again! An unfortunate Dutch traveller bought what he thought was a cheap ticket to Sydney (Australia) but ended up in Sydney, Canada.

Answers
What do I think?
1 Every ticket or ad for a place should be legally obliged to check the buyer/traveller is going to the right place.

2 Always check whether there are two or more places of the same name.

Stories
What has happened before?
1 We lived in the USA, then went back to London. Several people sent us mail from the USA addressed to us with the street name and merely the word London. Our mail was sent to London in Canada and arrived much later, re-directed by a hand-written note on the envelope: "Try London, England."

2 When in the USA, we noticed there was a Paris, Texas.

3 Wikipedia has notes on multiple locations for names of places and people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39459471

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author and speaker.

Chocolate Show - Friday to Sunday October 16-18 2015 at Olympia

I went to the chocolate show last year. Highly recommended. If you are buying tickets at the door you want to arrive at opening time because last year by 11 am the show had huge queues.

Ticket prices:

Buy on line and you will have time to work out which day to go and which price works for you. They have concession tickets if you are retired, family tickets which might be worthwhile if you are two adults and two children, and lower prices on Sunday.

Other events after you arrive are on a first come first served basis. For example, the chocolate show in the theatre.

You can see chocolate clothes and try different kinds of chocolate. Some stands offer free tastes. later in the day you will find queues. You might also find that later in the day they have run out of the free chocolates.

Highlights of my tour included discovering chocolate shops I did not know in London, as well as on line suppliers. Here's a picture from my previous visit, when I discovered the York Cocoa House, sampled the chocolate and watched children making chocolate lollipops.

Costs and extra costs
Your children or you might want to pay extra to take a class in making chocolates or attending a show.

Discounts
Lots of stands offer discounts, only at the show, or buy two at a reduced price.

Free
Tastes of lots of Chocolate. Some are just help yourself. Some are doled out one per person in a queue. Some are given only if you are a buyer and want to taste before buying. Prices vary from £5 or under to big boxes costing about £25, also monthly clubs where you pay several pounds a month and sign up for a year or indefinitely to be sent a monthly selection.

A show at 5 pm. You will have to sit through a long demo and talk about different types of chocolate and every fifteen minutes or so a box is passed around and you can take a taste of a piece of chocolate or a chocolate kebab. I could not hear at the back and as people left gradually moved forward to a seat with a better view. Excellent talk. Helpful if you have researched in advance different kinds of chocolate and different countries. They also answer questions either in the demo or if you try to catch the demonstrator at the end.

Getting there
The station is right outside the exhibition hall.

http://www.seetickets.com/event/the-chocolate-show/olympia/872546

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

Packing a small suitcase

How do you pack a small suitcase and travel with enough clothes for all weather?

Dressing For All Weather
You are supposed to dress for your destination. Very funny, when you are going to a hot country staying by the beach, and you are setting off in pouring rain. You don't really want to wear wet sandals for fourteen hours, not even four hours, not even forty minutes. No good adding socks because you just get wet socks.

For clothes, the secret is to dress in layers. Two layers when you leave in the cold. A camisole which doubles as a sun top. A bikini or beach shorts instead of underwear. Then if your luggage is lost or delayed you can race for the beach and swim before dinner, go down to the pool whilst the luggage from your group of 100 is being delivered.

Rain?As a last resort, you may have to wear overshoes. The sort you are given at some gyms with pools.

Bag Pockets
The user of a computer suitcase told me it did not hold a lot apart from the computers and flat papers. It has several zips and compartments so you can organise - or lose - your papers. A place for everything and everything in its place.

Date Order Pockets
You could keep everything in date order, whatever you need first in the front pocket. Or the heaviest item at the back by the handle to balance the suitcase and stop it tipping forward.

Keys
I have several organiser bags which have so many pockets that I keep losing things. I used to lose my keys at the bottom of a bag. Until I attached them to a key ring attached to a ribbon attached by a safety pin to the bag. If you are handy you could sew into every bag and suitcase a ribbon. If you prefer, a secure chain. Even if you attach the ribbon or chain to the back or bottom of the bag or in a pocket out of sight, you can remember it is always on the right, or feel for the end of the ribbon and then locate the keys wherever they have hidden themselves.

Tickets
Your vital tickets should always go in the same pocket, with nothing else in the way of anything like a train pass which you need to press against a station card reader, unobscured by anything which could fall in front and block the card.

Protecting Food
If you are likely to save a half eaten sandwich, a box or neatly folded plastic bag, perhaps kept small by a rubber band, is handy.

Drinks
As a precaution, try to keep food and drinks, or liquids which might spill, separate from papers. In fact separate from a new treasured suitcase. I have been called onto a delayed plane in a hurry, taken along my yogurt, ended up with packed underwear,  packed bikini, diary, comb, and the inside of the tote bag covered with strawberry smelling pink yogurt. I try to keep all food and drink separate in another bag.

Linking A Second Bag
Some people check whether a small wheel on suitcase will support their second bag which is either a tote bag or a handbag, or just an airline bag or plastic bag.
You might like to link the handles of the two bags so you don't leave your drinks on the plane, your sandwich on the train, or your conference papers in the conference hall.

Books
If you are a visiting author at a conference selling a book or promoting yourself, always have one copy of your book in your pocket. You can show it to an acquaintance or new friend in the queue or during a delay or long train journey or long flight. Use it to rehearse your reading or speech.

If you haven't written a book, read your favourite. For example, a book on business. Motivation. A classic work you haven't read. Teach yourself French, Spanish, Chinese. Take a book such as Chicken Soup for the Soul to keep you calm in case of delays.

Take a diary or travel book and research restaurants or hotels or museum opening times at the destination. Take a list of conference organisers or those attending or the first night speaker. Learn their names. Remember who they are likely to know.

If you do meet colleagues/groups at the airport, or in the shuttle bus to your conference hotel, it's easier to remember them and start a conversation, 'you are the conference organiser, Mr/Mrs Smith/Patel/Ali, I've read so much about you. Do you know Mr/Mrs/Lee well?'

If you can't remember what they do, and are shy to admit it, you can ask about somebody else on the committee. Have you met so and so (the organiser/speaker)?

I've found asking about their suitcase or their techniques for packing is also a good, neutral subject.
I recently bought a small light Karabar four wheel suitcase through eBay for about £20 including postage (see previous posts).

Angela Lansbury BA Honours, author, travel writer, speaker.