How to mend a broken watch strap temporarily while travelling

Mustapha's Department Store, Singapore, stocks watches. Sengkang~commonswiki 

My watch strap has broken yet again. It is a Takane watch. i bought it in Mustaphas, the multi-storey, multi-building, 24 hour store in Singapore near Little India and Farrer park MRT underground strain stations. (Other branches in India.) Mustapha's has a big range of watches. So do numerous shops and kiosks in Singapore and worldwide in major cities.

Why did I choose this watch? Not too big. I have a small wrist and large watches feel heavy, and look absurd. Yet it has numerous features. time date, day of the week.

Also waterproof to 50 meteres. I never go that low in the water. The important thing is that it should keep going after I jump in the shower, minimum of twice a day and up to four even five times a day, plus a daily swim, in Singapore. In the UK, it must survive washing up, washing clothes, shower, occasional swims.

I can't be bothered with taking it off every time I wash my hands. I might lose it. Or lose my friends who rush out. Or keep everybody waiting. Clog up the queue (line up) for hand
basins in public places.

Anyway, I would keep forgetting. I once bought a watch which was not waterproof. I only wore it about an hour. Then I did the washing up after the next meal and it was kaput.

In the old days, watch straps were attached by a metal rod which expanded and could be pressed in to remove the strap to replace it when broken and to change the colour of the strap.
Every now and then the watch strap would fall off. You needed to find the rod and replace it. A nuisance. Now watch straps are fixed. but if the strap breaks you cannot change it.

Takane
The Takane warranty is for a year. You need the Takane warranty card to show date of purchase. Wear and tea on watch strap is not covered.

Mustapha's Department 24 hour Store Singapore
The assistant at Mustapha's was helpful. He offered to keep my watch and show it to the Takane rep and see if the company would provide a replacement.

I went back the week after. a different assistant. No replacement watch and no sign of the old one. I had specifically insisted that they write a note attached to the watch to keep the broken one and return it.

So, when the second watch broke, I had the old watch and broken strap. We tried glueing the broken watch strap of the most recent watch, with tow types of glue. No luck with either. You could glue it but the constant pressure of the wrist movement soon broke it again.

We then tried using the old strap as a splint, a strut underneath. It was the right colour, black, and the right width. That did not work either. Again, it could be glued on but soon fell off.

The family argued that I did not need a watch. I could use my phone. that doesn't work. The phone is in the other room. It is on charge. I am using it during a call and want to check the day of the week.

I am in the swimming pool and want to check the time.

Finally, I tried linking the two halves of the watch with a thin ribbon through the holes. That worked.

Disadvantage of Temporary Ribbon
The ribbon is not tight enough. The ribbon is not elegant. The ribbon gets wet when I wash my hands, or wash clothes or crockery or swim. But it is thin ribbon and dried quickly. At least I have a watch until I can buy a replacement.

Fraying Ribbon
Next problem, the ribbon starts fraying. I notice it because the long thread is tangling up with other items.

I recently read a reminder that you can use nail varnish to seal fraying cloth or tears in cloth. A clear nail varnish will not be visible. It could be scratchy. It does at least a temporary repair.

Will I buy the same watch again? Last time I wanted to try a different brand, but the colour I wanted, red and black, was made by Takane. The assistant and my family both thought that a different brand would not be a guarantee of a better, more durable strap.

At least we now know how to make a temporary repair.

Videos
Online a video shows how one repair results in the join coming apart. When the second repair works, the watch strap simply breaks in a different place. Like shoes with soles which start breaking up.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Centre
https://www.mustafa.com.sg/
https://takane-watch.com/
https://takane-watch.com/pages/warranty-policy
How to mend leather watch straps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEKvfZpc8d4
Attempt with shoe gloo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEqJH6X8LAk
singaporeair.com

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

Coronavirus update Sunday 26 2020.

Flag of China.

Sunday. Death toll in China is 55.

China has banned travel into and out of Wuhan province (a large area like a US state) and most travel around the area.

The Coronavirus is a family of viruses including the common cold, SARS and MERS.
Sars in 2002-3 killed 800.
MERS (Middle Eastern virus) killed 700.

Elderly and Young
So far, in 2020, the latest version has killed mainly those over the age of 50, except one case.

Some commentators shrug. It's only the elderly. And the young.

I read about one family. An extended family who had travelled back to China. When they left they were ok. Now the grandparents and grandchildren are all sick. Imagine being a grandparent, wondering if you will die and if you have infected your grandchildren.

Imagine being in the middle, having your parents and children all ill. Imagine being a child. You don't know whether you will live You don't know if your grandparents will live. Your parents are dividing their time between you and the others of you, two siblings and two grandparents.

You cannot travel. You cannot work. Everybody is quarantined.

Spanish Flu 1918
The 1918 Spanish flu killed more people than WWI. 500 million were affected and more than 50 million died.

It killed the young, who had no immunity.

One of my ancestors died of it. He was in South Africa. He was a young married man who jumped up from his sick bed and ran downstairs to answer the phone call from his sister (my granny Hetty) who was in London. He dropped dead.

His wife never remarried. After her sister-in-law, my granny, had died, my mother kept up correspondence. Eventually my mother went to South Africa to visit the now elderly widow.

I look online and read that somebody I know has a cold.

I wonder. Is it just a cold?

I hope they keep following instructions. Wash your hands. Do not touch your eyes and face with your hands.

Keep away from crowds and people who are coughing.

Carry tissues and/or wear a mask.

Useful Wbsites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Singapore

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

The River Walk Indian Restaurant On The Singapore River

Problem
Where can we eat an Indian meal, for a set price (no surprises from the management or a fellow guest who eats double).

Answer
An Indian buffet lunch. We chose the River Walk Tandoor restaurant. A tandoor is an oven, traditionally clay. tandoori, means tandoori style food. Restaurants in the UK are frequently called  (X... X... ) tandoori restaurant.  Here in Singapore in theory you have a choice of outdoor and indoor seating.

We went for a Sunday lunch and were told to eat outside. In theory you can't make a reservation for an individual or small group. There's no reservation number. However, a large party had booked the whole of the inside so they could be together - or maybe the restaurant kept them together for ease of  counting the number of them dining and ease of payment.

Luckily we took our main course just before they arrived.

What was good, bad, or indifferent?

Good
You can wash your hands in a basin below a mirror near the eating area without going out to the toilets.
Service was smiling and obliging.
Fruit for our health conscious family member and a diabetic family friend.

Bad / Indifferent / mixed
Toilets
The toilet seems to be part of the restaurant at the end of a corridor - then I wondered whether it was communal to the building's occupants. It has, as the popular saying goes, 'seen better days'. Beautiful blue tiles. If you concentrate on the tiles, you will be happy. If you frown at the state of peeling and dirty paint on the back of the cubicle door you will be less happy.

Best of All
A little aquarium by the door to the outside seating.
Gulub jamun - my family's favourite
Proper chairs - no problem with chairs being high backless bar stools nor backless low stools. (I have sat in gourmet restaurants in London paying high prices to perch on a high stool several miles away from my handbag which was on the dirty floor, bag kicked by passers-by, with hankies and business cards out of reach.)

A board