Mother's Day Weekends Away, Surprises, DIY Cards, Recycling

The late rooms sites are offering a night or weekend away. I'd check with Mum if she'd like a meal out or a night or weekend away before booking one.

Weekends Away - Paris
I met somebody who told me he'd arranged a surprise weekend in Paris but kept it secret, planning to surprise her on Saturday morning. His girlfriend thought he'd done nothing for her birthday so she accepted an offer to take the train up north to see her sister and disappeared on Friday!

So make it clear that certain times are blocked out. Just keep the destination a surprise.

If you need to depart in a hurry and want the packing done, tell Mum whether it's warm or cold, city or countryside. Another option for surprises is the quite lunch or dinner. You could have a member of the family from another city waiting at the restaurant to join you. The more the merrier.

Alternatively or in addition, after eating out, return home to a big party. Or a member of the family or a close friend who has flown in from overseas.

If travelling overseas or abroad, make sure mother has a passport with more than 6 months left on it, same for you. Some countries won't let you in with a passport which is expiring within less than six months or a year.

Have a happy day.

Holiday Wish List
By the way, why not make a public wish list of places you'd love to visit. Then family can group together merging funds, or spot a special offer and whisk you away to somewhere you actually want to visit.

I'm happy to go anywhere I haven't been before, and anywhere I have been to before - to see if it has changed.

Still on my unvisited wish list: Iceland; Estonia, Ukraine - Lemberg and Odessa - any part that's in peacetime at the time of travel, Latvia, Lithuania.

Dinner a deux
Offers are flooding into my email inbox. Senders range from gourmet Galvin for family friendly Z i z z i  (one z then two). The latter offers a mimosa and a competition.

Group Dinners
To take advantage os special offers requiring a minimum booking of a table of four, combine with a next door neighbour's family, especially if their family also includes a mother (grandmothers and aunties may also be mothers with children overseas or in another city). Make sure all the mothers are given cards or gifts.

Google Searches
Google searches for you:
Late rooms
Luxury for less
Mother's day (add your home location)
Mother's day (add mother's chosen day out or holiday location)
Your local supermarket offers
Chocolate, champagne,
Your mother's basket on eBay and Amazon.

Mother's Day Cards
Short of a card on the day, or can't afford one, at the shocking prices? Look in Poundland and cheap shops. Find an old family photo, mount it in a pice of card making four diagonal slits to hold the photo corners. Anything will do, for example, a baby photo of the children, an only child being born,  and 'thanks for 35 happy years'.

DIY Mothers Day Cards
Want to do better next year? Through the year note down all the things mother does and write a list of thanks on next year's card, or print a certificate:

Thanks to the world's best Mum, for
Babysitting
Baking Cakes
Being a passenger
Cooking Sunday lunch
Cleaning
DIY
Doing the accounts
Driving us to school
Flower Arranging
Gardening
Helping with the mortgage
Kisses and cuddles
Sewing on buttons
Shopping
Taking in Parcels
Teaching us ...
Tidying up
Visiting us in hospital
Washing
None of the above - teaching us to be self-reliant.

Positive Negatives (a name I just invented)
You could make a joke tick list crossing off things she doesn't do such as drinking, gambling and taking drugs.

If you don't have a mother but you have a stepmother or friend or neighbour who is like a mother you could do something similar.

Recycling
Save this years card for next year. If your mother likes recycling, recycle one year's card for the next, but add a new page for each year.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer

Wine Ice Cream from mercers dairy.com, including mulled wine

Here's something to take to a Xmas party. Wine ice cream. All over the USA. You can order online.

When will it come to Europe? I'll look for a recipe to make your own.A good way to use up leftover wine. Tip it over dry cake or ice cream.

Ice Cream T-Shirts
I also like the t-shirts. But you have to order ice cream to qualify for being able to buy a t-shirt. I can't order because I am not in the USA. Does anybody want to send me a tee-shirt!

Wishlists
Maybe they should start a wishlist for tee-shirts.  Every company which sells retail or through websites should have wish lists as well as wedding lists. That would help enormously when buying Xmas and birthday gifts. Have a monthly or annual giveaway to keep people coming back.

I watched an amusing video of people trying out various flavours. Chocolate. Merlot. Strawberry sparkle.

Wine Ice Cream Flavours from Mercer's (alphabetically):
Cherry Merlot
Chocolate Cabernet
Peach White Zinfandel
Port
Red Raspberry Chardonnay
Riesling
Spice (mulled wine)

The HQ seems to be in New York but they are all over north america with one spot in the north of south america.

I looked at the link wondering if I would find the tee shirts but could find only ordering ice cream.
http://www.mercersdairy.com/#!shop-online/c1prr

I wonder how wine ice cream would suit hot Singapore. In England in November it's so chilly that our thoughts are on mulled wine more than wine ice cream. Hot toddy and mulled wine.


If you are driving or working and don't want to go anywhere near alcohol or caffeine (my doctor told me not to drink coffee after lunch time, you can make a punch bowl with a non-alcoholic punch or one which looks like red sangria and keep diluting it.

I checked Wikipedia and was amazed to discover several entries on wine ice cream.

Wine ice cream, zabaglione, made with wine and egg yolks, is popular in Argentina.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabaione

Note that the Italian spelling is different, so that is not necessarily a typo, or I hope a not a spell checker fairy's change.


Angela Lansbury Travel writer and photographer.

Travel Wishlists and Wedding Gifts: Sandcastle Art Museum

The Sandcastle Art museum in Japan is on my wishlist, from yesterday. I've already lost track of where I saw it. Was it on TripAdvisor, or Metro, or The Evening Standard, or the BBC travel website, or the Daily Mail online? Today I found it, Tottori Sand Museum, on TripAdvisor. Tottori is a seaside town known for high sand dunes, on the west coast of Japan. The museum has changing exhibitions.

From Wikipedia. See Wikipedia for more details on this photo and for other pictures.

(For more details see next post.)

Recording A Travel Wish List
My travel organiser vow is to note my wish list immediately on a page in my diary. No room in the diary? I create lists on the blank endpapers of books. In my new diaries I start my making on index of black pages which don't yet have headings.  If I've started a diary late in the year, I re-title earlier pages.

When I go on holiday, I have a wishlist of sights to see at my destination in order or priority.  I check opening hours and closing days. So much easier to research on the computer or laptop at home than trying to do it when looking for an internet connection overseas in a hotel which charges, or an isolated location, or a cafe where you need a code whilst the waiter is busy taking orders from customers.

You may be able to make yourself a wishlist on a wishlists, you can add it to your own profile. Or find a book on it and add it to your reading wishlist, or for your birthday presents wishlist, even guides to read on your honeymoon on your engagement party or wedding list. If nobody buys them for you, you have a note for yourself, and can use cash you are given to buy the books or entry fees.
If you are art lovers and already have everything, perhaps a museum, art gallery or zoo annual membership, or even a life membership of an organisation such as a golf club or a society supporting a National Trust or bird watching with entry to the local centre, safari park, national gardens, restaurant club, wine society or a zoo.

If the books are too inexpensive for a single present, they can be used to top up the expenditure on another gift. For example, in some countries you display gifts on a table with the donor's name, so you might have a book with a display card saying, Aunty May bought us a washing machine and this lovely book on ...