New Zealand Airline Socks In Beautiful Colours

 I love airline socks. And these stripey socks match many of my outfits.

Angela Lansbury wearing New Zealand Airline socks. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

Don't you love free gifts? Doesn't everybody? Apparently not everybody. I saw a sock left behind, by a departed passenger, as I left the plane. 

For a fleeting moment, I was tempted to leap across the plane and grab the abandoned sock. But the thought fled.

I trundled on, forever haunted by the thought that I had lost out. A wasted opportunity. A wasted pair of socks. If you ever find an abandoned pair of airline socks, send them to me. Even if they have been worn by a member of one's own family, or another family, a pair of airline socks can be washed by hand, and often by machine. They come in really handy. 

I have airline socks from Singapore Airlines, pre-Covid, in navy blue, or maroon. I have a red pair from Virgin Atlantic.  

These New Zealand socks are the best. Beautiful colours. Stripey. Go with green or blue. It is worthwhile going premium Economy on Air New Zealand just to get the socks. A great start to my holiday.

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My Mango Misadventure

Problem
You see items on the floor. Your first thought might be - it's free, free goods, free food, unwanted. Your second thought might be, but it's dirty. Your next thought might be, put it in a plastic bag and wash it later. More thoughts. You should not take what doesn't belong to you. You are not supposed to take fruit from trees. But what about windfalls?
Put me down - you don't know where I've been! What could go wrong?

Answer
I picked up a mango. I could not see which tree it came from. I picked it up. It made a lovely / dreadful smell in my tote bag. I had visions of home made mango lassi.

Story
When we got our windfall mango home, we washed it. Then we cut it. Out pops spider or something similar.

We try cutting out one side of the fruit. But the other side is affected.

Er - no. Not worth the risk. I need not go into details.

OK, I'll go into details:
1 Yuk - as the old joke goes, the only thing worse than seeing a worm in the apple you are eating is seeing half a worm.
2 You could get an upset stomach.
3 It could multiply.
4 You could excrete living creatures.
5 You could get one living creature stuck and growing in any part of your body causing irritation, pain, a growth.

Presumably cultivated fruit (on trees in orchards) is sprayed against insects. Maybe fruit trees in public places are also sprayed to reduce the numbers of insects causing problems and infecting other trees. Maybe not.

I have great respect for farming methods and farmers. I have had such trouble with everything in my UK garden, from aphids on roses to slugs in strawberries to insects eating fruit on trees and birds eating fruit on trees and making holes in fallen fruit and leaving only half of each windfall apple.

Never mind, say the family. It didn't cost anything. Learning experience.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Asking For Freebies

Asking For Items
I never take things from hotels. I wouldn't want to spoil my day with the worry and guilt nor upset the staff with the feeling that somebody had stolen something. They might even get blamed for theft or expected to pay for the missing item.

I ask housekeeping by phone or or room cleaner in the bedroom or corridor if I like something. Sometimes if you want something such as a sewing kit, they bring you one, even if its only for the suites and you are in an ordinary room.

They or you may think they deserve a tip. If you are in America, where the room cleaners are tipped and leave a note with their name, you may feel that any gift deserves an extra tip or that you deserve a gift in exchange for the tip.

If none of this happens, at check out, with my cases packed, I can go to reception holding the item I want, whether it's a pen or pair of towelling slippers or whatever. I can ask them to check with housekeeping whether they throw the items away or wash them or have spares. I can say if they don't mind replacing it from stock but want to make a charge I'd like to know what the price to me would be it is.

Even if two times out of three they say that they need the item, that's ok, you are saved the embarrassment of being caught. The one time they laugh and say, 'Take it!', you can go off happily with your free gift with profuse thanks and smiles all around.

Angela Lansbury, author and travel writer and English language teacher.

How to shower after an accident

In Cyprus on a travel press trip I and fellow travel writers were being shown around the nearby landmarks before rushing to lunch. I asked to take a photo of something we passed. The driver said he couldn't stop because there was no parking. He double parked and I opened the car door to get out and take a photo. he then saw a car pull out just ahead creating a space and keen to capture the opportunity accelerated. My foot dragged on the ground. I shouted. He stopped. My foot was bleeding.

He insisted we went to hospital, which was the right decision. When we reached hospital I was told I needed a Tetanus jab. When did I last have one? Within the last year, the last ten years? I could not remember.

It's a good idea to list all the jabs and illnesses you have had and keep the record on your computer and/or in a printed out list in the folder of vital information in which you keep your passport which travels with you on every trip.

Because I could not be sure, the hospital decided to give me another jab, since having two was no harm, they said, just costing me time and money, whilst not having the jab if I needed it, they said, would be a health risk.

They bandaged me up and told me not to shower or swim for three days because I had to keep the bandage dry. I had a three day business trip in a grand hotel with a swimming pool.

When I got back to the UK, I went into my local chemist (with a pharmacy - in the USA known as a drug store) stocked a First aid Microporous tape, asking for a bandage or better still a smaller Elastoplast (the brand name used universally in the UK - known in the USA and elsewhere as a sticking plaster). The assistant offered me a choice of plain or waterproof plaster, but as the sticking plasters were too small, sterile wound covering, a roll of (sterile?) bandage and waterproof tape.

I later asked a hospital worker why they did not issue this as standard. Was it because they could not be sure the tape would adhere in water and they wanted to avoid complications or being sued? No. The reason was cost.

However, if I took in my own supply, the hospital nurse would use it. The cost was minimal. It was certainly worth my while spending under ten dollars to be sure I could swim - and shower, on holiday after a minor accident and skin abrasion.

The cost is small and the item is so small that it is easy to carry and store. You may never need it. I hope you and I don't. But that's the joy of first aid kits. If you don't need them, great. But if you do, you are prepared.

For several months afterwards I traveled with the small box of Microporous tape, for my own use; also to offer to a hospital if they needed to bandage me. I added it to my first aid kits in the car and kitchen.

In theory, if a hospital or first aid post or doctor gives you a bandage that is not waterproof, you could cover it afterwards with waterproofing. Check first with them that it is safe to do so, because your skin cannot breathe after you add the tape.

But even if you put the tape on during a shower or wash, to protect your wound from splashes when doing household chores such as washing dishes or clothes, or even outdoors, on a boat, or in a downpour of rain, or walking in sandals through puddles, you might find it useful.

If you are poor and obsessive, as I was at that time, you could buy just one and carry it in your bag or move it from place to place. If you are a control freak and want to look after the world, more like my situation now, you could get yourself a business name and cards, buy a dozen wholesale, place them in three or four places, one in each bathroom, in the kitchen and car, with a second set for your granny or grandad or son or daughter, and another set for any accident prone family member, friend, or your workplace.

Packing List
First aid kit
Waterproof plasters
Waterproof tape
List of dates of jabs and inoculations especially tetanus jab

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

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author speaker.

More on mussels, good and bad: more mysteries solved

As a person who does not eat mussels, nor any shellfish (I'm allergic to shellfish, which includes crustaceans, as well as molluscs) mussels have always been a mystery. But I've started asking questions and getting answers.

I was sitting in a restaurant when somebody complained that half their mussels would not open.

This was in London, England. The diner complained to the restaurant server. I thought the diner might get refunded for half the dish, but the manager apologised and refunded all the money for that dish. That was the right thing to do, to mollify the aggrieved customer and the onlookers. 

I asked, "Couldn't the staff have just cracked open the mussels?"

Apparently not. I was told, "You mustn't eat mussels which don't open."

Some time later I asked another mussel eater about this. I was told, "You don't eat mussels which won't open because if they haven't opened they haven't been washed properly."

I asked, "But if the mussels could poison you, or upset your stomach, surely the restaurant should not be serving mussels which cant be opened, at all, ever?"

The reply was, "You often get mussels you can't open. About one in twenty. But fifty per cent is far too high. Lack of quality control."

I suggest you research the subject from those who know more, and follow up by checking, politely, with your local restaurant manager or supermarket or food store before buying and serving mussels at home or at any event.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, speaker and author.

Mint tea at home or hotel rooms

Mint tea served at hotels and restaurants and conferences is often made from several tea bags in a pot. But you can easily make your own mint tea with fresh mint. If you like Mint tea bag, try Twinings.

The Moroccans make wonderful mint tea with added sugar. You could add honey instead. Better still, simply sip sugar-free mint.

Different kinds of mint bought from garden centres will give different flavours. There's peppermint and spearmint or simply mint.

I tried mint grown in my own garden one summer, but found my mint was full of aphids, little greenfly. In theory you could wash the mint off first. Or strain them out afterwards. Or both. It was a whole palaver.

Easier to spend £1 or 99p on fresh mint from the supermarket. Start again.

Or buy mint in a pot from a supermarket, add hot boiled water, at home or in a hotel, and you have mint tea.

Warning - wait for boiling water to colour add water.  I burned my lip on boiling water, so I had to sip cold water, which I added to the mint tea. Now I know why I like coffee - because you can add cold milk so you don't burn yourself.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Fresh mint in a pot from Morrisons in London in November 2015, bought by a member of my family.
We're here to help they say.
www.morrisons.co.uk
customer service helpline 0845 611 6111.

In the UK 0845 numbers are usually the price of a local call from landlines. Check your service provider or mobile phone company to be sure and if you have a choice of phones and there is a difference in charge, pick the cheapest or try to make a free call through Skype.

Angela Lansbury.
Travel writer and photographer.