How to make a travel scrapbook or photobook

Captain Cook kept a log book. 

Marco Polo's travel records, with coloured pictures and text, coloured contrasting fonts, and a fancy border. 

Christopher Columbus wrote records. 

The Titanic has records. 

Your baby photos and baby travels will be interesting in years to come. I was recently asked by my grand-daughter's other grandparents, 'Do you have any photos of your son, so we can see if she looks like her father at that age?'

I hunted all over the internet. Nothing from forty years ago.

I looked in a couple of boxes of old photos. I found one of him in the USA aged about seven. 

Then I searched framed pictures on the walls. I found two school group pictures. But no baby pictures.

Finally, looking for a family tree book, I found a baby album! I had started compiling when I bought it from the hospital trolley when he was born. Baby's first year. Four more good photos. One shows him trying to eat sand at a Lido (Ruislip in London) and grimacing. 

The in-laws were impressed and delighted. They said, 'He looks just like her. She looks just like him!' 

I bought a baby book second hand from the second hand charity shop in London. I prefer to keep books and photo in London. If you carry them around, they can get bent or lost. In the tropics, the heat makes the paper go brown and develop brown spots, or go mouldy - or get insects. Books 

The simplest book has a cover picture of a country or the traveler. Use a map or signpost or picture of yourself or your family at the location. (If you want to take a local photo, think of the classic, some say cliche, a picture of a tourist with their right arm outstretched, apparently holding up the Leaning tower of Pisa or the Eiffel Tower or any local skyscraper.) 

Cover the book with wrapping paper, such as birthday paper, anniversary, Xmas. Make a mosaic from the photos inside. Photos can be horizontal, vertical, or turned at an angle.

Out of focus pictures or faded pictures can be a backdrop to text.

Make A Book

The Pages

To make a book from scratch, you can fold A4 paper or card in half. Take half a dozen pieces. Stitch them together with one to three stitches along the seam, securely knotted on the outside. 

Put together two to six sections like this. 

The Spine

Cut a piece of fabric larger than the spine and glue the paper folds to the fabric. 

Outside hard Cover Base

Then add card for the hard-backed cover. You could use thin card from a new shirt. Two of these stuck together. 

Alternatively, thicker card from a cereal packet. Or corrugated paper from packaging. 

Cover with wrapping paper - cut larger that the cover to fold over. Cut two slits to go inside the spine. 

Use plain coloured paper for the inside cover. Cut this slightly smaller than the book pages, big enough to stick over the outside cover. 

I would stick on a printed photo on ordinary paper. If possible, print with a frame printed around it. 

You could create a window. Or use the window for framing photos from a craft shop, or download an oval or rectangular frame pattern and cut it out.

You can also buy book protectors in transparent plastic, cheaper if you buy half a dozen rather than just one. If you can't find the right size, instead cut the card cover to fit the plastic over-cover.  

Windows

You can create windows from window envelopes.

Your Travel Record Book Titles

Think of an alliterative title. For example: 

A-D titles

Angela's Adventures. Ava's adventures.  Air travel and Anna. Amy in Asia. Astrid's travel around America.

Baby's First year travels.  Baby's First Year in England. Bob's Biking Tours,

Carole's car journeys. Clare's Climbing Holidays. Clara in Canada. Claud's Cruises. Charlie and churches. Carrie at College. Caroline's Coach tour(s). Camping with Corinne.

Dining out and in with David.

E-K titles

Emily Emigrates. Exploring with Emily.

Frankie and Family holidays, Frances flies around the world. Fun times with Florence. Florence in Florence. Fanny in the Fall. Fun with a foodie family. Flora's first year. Fiona's first five years. Fanny's/Philip's photos.

Great times with Greta. Global traveller Gwen. George and the Great outdoors. Greg's Guided Tours.

Harry's Hiking. Happy days with Hilary. Holidays in Hungary. Our history of Hatch End. Home and Away with Harriet. Harry's Holidays.

I Ingrid in Italy and other countries. Imogen In and Out.

Jerome's Journeys.

King of the Road, Karl.

L-R titles

Lovely views of life in London.

Mark in the Middle East. Maureen at Music Festivals. Mike's meals out. Me and my take out (UK take away) food.

New things seen by Nora and Nigel

Old and new New York. Old and New Newcastle. Olive in the Outback. On the road with Olga.

Peter in picturesque places. Pictures of Pinner. Penny the passenger. Philip at Public school. Pamela's parties. Pammy's paintings. 

Quiet times with Queenie. Queenie and her Quests.

R to V titles

Raymond's Road trips with Louise.

Sailing with Simon and Suzie. All Seasons with Sarah and Steven. Solomon's Synagogue visits. Susan at School. Sonya's sketchbook.

Travel with Tony,Tony's Travels. Tessa's Travelogue. Tim's Travel Journal. Terence Tours Temples. Touring with Tom.

Umbrellas and Sunshine Days with Urs with Willisula. Ulysses at Uni.

Victor and volcanoes, Vera in Venezuela. Virginia's voyages. Veronica's Vacations. Valerie's voyages. Valerie's visits.

World traveller Winnie. Wanda waking, walking and sleeping. Wild times with William in the Wild. Warren in the Wilderness.

Xanthe in Xanadu - and other places. Xanthe's excellent trips. Xanthe and her ex travelling.

Young Yvonne in Yellowstone

Z Zoos and Places seen by Zoe

We have a well travelled grand-daughter. She has been to the UK, France, Andorra, Spain, Israel.

I looked for a baby album or baby's first five years. I found one with acid free paper. 

Stock Image

Personalized Baby Photo Album with Babys Handprint (Holds 200 photos-4x6- acid free)

Place For Baby Handprint; Place For Baby Handprint

Published by havoc, 2005

ISBN 10: 0741684438ISBN 13: 9780741684431

Seller: Ebooksweb, Bensalem, PA, U.S.A.
Contact seller

Seller Rating: 

Book

Used - Hardcover
Condition: Acceptable

US$ 32.64

Convert currency

Free shipping

Within U.S.A.

Many book sellers offer free postage within the USA or the second book delivered at no extra cost. 

I found that 26 US dollars (the combination of a book price and postage to Singapore) is equivalent to about 22 British pounds sterling.

For the UK, you can find books occasionally in Charity shops, as well as on Amazon.co.uk

Useful Websites

amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

Abe books (for second hand books with reasonable postage costs)

The history of travel writing and notable books, blogs and awards:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel_literature#Travel_journals

For the cover

https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Homemade-Book

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Travel_writing#Q1072723

https://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Travel-Journal-Leather-Notebook

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CAN'T TRAVEL? PHOTO CAKES TO BUY OR SEND

Years ago when you held a wedding, it was usual to send pieces of the wedding cake to guests who were unable to attend, whether because of age, ill health or distance.

Nowadays, you can still arrange to have parts of the wedding cake sent, especially to those who have sent gifts but are unable to attend. 

The same applies to birthdays. But what if you want to get together and see each other? In Singapore and the UK we have had lockdowns and limits on gatherings to eight people, or two households. the solution is to have the birthday boy or girl in one place, with the cake and candles, and others on Zoom or a similar platform, with suitable additions.

You can have balloon backgrounds. The words happy birthday. 

A Toastmasters club, Itaewon in Korea, sang Happy Birthday or played it with additional singing, karoke. 

 Previously at Singapore Online we have held group birthday celebrations on line for members of a Toastmasters Club. We told everybody what kind of cake would be served, sent to the birthday boy. The rest of us all bought our own version of the same cake. (It could be a fruit cake, or chocolate cake, or cheesecake. )

Drink 

The drink was also chosen by colour for everybody to raise a glass for the toast.

White (colourless - could be white wine or apple juice or water) plain or sparkling (Champagne or Prosecco or tonic water or soda or sparkling water) or red (red wine or Ribena or Cola).

You can have the words to happy birthday in English and other languages going across the screen, if you have the professional version of zoom.

Useful Websites

PhotoCake® | Personalized Cakes with PhotoCake Edible Images

https://www.facebook.com/cakestodayco

DIY Edible Fresh Flowers on Cakes

3 Ways to Add Fresh Flowers to a Cake - wikiHow

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a British author who has lived in the USA.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

Angela Lansbury, author and speaker. Member of many toastmasters  speaker training clubs and speaking contest judge.

Angela Lansbury, the author of 20 books including Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations, has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. 

She  has several blogs and writes daily on at least two of the following:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Please share links to your favourite posts.

First words in Tamil

 

I have visited Singapore's bilingual Tamil and English club several times and having started the challenging task of learning to read and speak and write (Mandarin) Chinese, I thought it was time to tackle another one of Singapore's four official languages, Tamil.

I have used several approaches. 

The most useful for a jolly introduction, individual words and grammar is wikihow. The sentence structure usually has the verb at the end. The verb to be is not necessary. That explains why some Indian speakers create sentences without verbs. 

English - Tamil

I - nan

you -ninkal

he - avar

she - aval

it - atu

Tamil - English

atu - it

avar - he

aval - she

nan - I

ninkal - you

The Foreign Workers & Domestic Helpers language guide has Singapore's four official languages, English, Chinese, Tamil and Bahasa Indonesia, as well as Myanmar, and Bengali - the language of Bangladesh.

I didn't get on with the flashcards from livinglanguage.com/languagedemo/tamilflash

I could not work out the words from the sounds.  Good if you want to speak. I want to understand what I hear and to read. 

This flashcards would be good for me for Spanish and Italian and German where I can work out what they are saying and learn the accent. It worked well for me in Chinese.

Useful Websites

https://www.wikihow.com/Learn-Tamil

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

https://digitaldefynd.com/best-tamil-language-courses/

https://www.livinglanguage.com/languagedemo/tamilflash/11930/essential-saying-hello

duolingo in January 2021, The Tamil course is 75% complete.

Duolingo 

Languages available

Chinese, German, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Welsh, Ukrainian

Memrise

Languages available

Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Turkish

Google Translate

memrise

https://www.memrise.com/

Foreign Workers & Domestic Helpers Language Guide

About the Author

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

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.

Accurate English and Correct Spelling

Grammar

I find Grammarly very helpful. It often adds a comma after a words such as however when I have used ti to start a sentence.  If you are writing a speech, or reading aloud to check the sense, the commas indicate pauses.

Spelling

I love looking at word lists and spelling errors. The funniest I've found today was deity wrongly spelled diety. I am diety but not a deity.


Common Spelling Mistakes
wrong - right (depeding on context)

compliment (praise and flattery) - for complement (part of the matching whole or set)
complimentary (free) - complementery (part of the set, matching, going with it, completing)
dairy - diary
stationary (cars) - for stationery (letters)

Useful Websites

grammarly.com

https://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Common-Spelling-Mistakes-when-Writing-a-wikiHow-Article

https://www.wikihow.com/Sample/Spelling-Rules

https://www.wikihow.com/Sample/Common-Misspellings

https://www.wikihow.com/Sample/Spelling-Tips-and-Tricks

NB Many websites use American English and some of the words they list as wrong spelling would be correct if you were writing British English for a British speaking audience.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and Photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Anti-mosquito plants to help when travelling

Before setting off, if you have no anti-mosquito spray, consider growing one of these plants, or grabbing some as you leave home.

If you are staying with others in the UK or overseas, ask if your hosts have any of these plants in their garden: lavender, lemon balm, lemon grass, etc.

Rosemary, lemongrass and garlic are also plants which you can use in cooking. I can't help repeating the old joke: An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but garlic each day keeps everyone away.

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Plants-to-Keep-Mosquitoes-Away