Text talk for pick ups

When you are a pedestrian being collected by a friend who has a car, you need to arrive first. It saves time if you know which exit to take from the station.

I had lots of offers while waiting by a bus stop for my friend to collect me - offers mainly from taxi drivers!

I texted briefly that I had arrived at the designated meeting point. My driver replied:

Otw= on the way

Angela Lansbury

Two ways to take a panorama from a hotel or home balcony

Problem
Your eye sees the panorama. The camera sees just a small section.

Answers
1 The iphone has a panorama facility. Locate the panorama icon and hold it down whilst swinging the camera. You can get a 360 degrees view.

2 you can stitch together a series of stills which you have taken by moving your camera fractions of an inch, holding it steady on the edge of a balcony or wall or table or upright. (Do keep the camera securely fastened to yourself by a strap so you don't drop it over!)

The free softward available on line is called
hugin.

We did a sunset panorama of the whitle skyscrapers turned pink in the sunset. The hugin system made all the skyscrapers upright.

You could also do the same view at different times of day, morning, noon and evening. The contrast is interesting for you as a camera operator and as a display of contrasting pictures.

An interesting contrast would be something in the foreground such as a seasonal plant, so long as this remains in focus.

Foreground
If in doubt, try the photo once with the foreground item and once without. I like a picture with a table and two empty chairs and a vase of flowers or a bowl of fruit, or a pot plant.

You could add more interest with hobbies.
Cultural or artistic and creative items
Such as an artist's easel,
A magazine or book
Notebooks and pens

Sporty items: a bicycle, swimming or diving gear,

Local interest
Guidebooks, a book or local magazine,
 something local to the area such as a tile,
a decorative empty birdcage,

Personalise The Picture
Print a card with your name and hang it on the wall. No matter how small. That identified your photo (in case anybody ever wants to copy it. Even if nobody sees, you will know. It could be like the teeny picture of Hitchcock in his films (movies), and the tiny mouse carved by the carver in the north of England on everything he created. A challenge for the viewer is to blow up the picture and find the hidden card with your name, perhaps a tag on a basket of flower.

Clothing
a ranger's hat, climbing boots, skis, a surf board,

Food and drink
a diary, the novel you have written, a cocktail, local fruits, winter flowers, spring flowers, summer flowers, autumn flowers, seasonal items such as pumpkins, Halloween, Valentine's day, a Santa outfit, reindeer and sleigh.

Alternatively, add a seasonal border later.

Eliminate Clutter
However, you will probably find it hard to focus on the foreground. In that case, make a point of moving anything which could spoil the view.

Clean Up
In a hotel, you might need to clean the chairs and wash down the table and floor area.

You might want to take a second picture with focus on the foreground items and the backdrop as a backdrop.

Printing A Panorama
You can also print out a panorama as a long poster to brighten a boring bedroom or long living room or corridor wall.

Christmas and Birthday Gifts
You can roll it up and post it as a Christmas present. We took a panorama of a vineyard (Rioja, Northern Spain) with the vineyard owner on the top of a hill pointing out the landscape and river below to a visitor.

Making Use Of Spare Time
If you are stuck in a hotel room or at home waiting for visitors to come back from a conference or arrive off a plane, you can amuse yourself by filling the time with some photography.

Hotel Viewpoints
In Madeira our bedroom balcony gave a view partly spoiled by a crane. I walked along the corridor and found a deserted public balcony with a fabulous view. The moral is, check the public areas all around your building for alternative views.

Angela Lansbury
travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

To find out when a bus will arrive in Singapore

I looked at the apps suggested at a bus stop in Singapore.

I asked somebody at the bus stop for help. She saw me scrutinizing the bus stop number and asked if I needed help.

By this time my bus was due to arrive and as if by magic it appeared.She told me that to find my bus time I needed an ap called Singapore buses. It took only a few seconds to download it. My mobile phone screen showed a dozen or so bus numbers up to six hundred and something. I flicked them up faster and faster.

Then to look for my stop. I spotted what I thought was the name of the block opposite. However, my helpful new friend pointed out that I would get the arrival time of the bus the other side of the road. I needed the magic word, the vital word, the essential word 'opposite.

Website Aps

Singapore buses

Others
Google maps
streetview

Author

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

Glossary (dictionary)
SD - secure data - extra storage space for photos, videos .
SIM card - the one which has your phone owner details, linking your phone to the company from whom you rent the monthly allowance.

In theory you can change the SIM card to a new phone, for example, hiding your expensive Apple iphone and taking a cheap phone on a trek or to a market, transferring the Sim card from your expensive phone/camera to a cheaper one.
Alternatively, you might wish to swap the new SIM card into your better phone in order to take good photos on holiday.

However, some phones are fixed to prevent this happening so that thieves cannot switch their SIM cards into a stolen phone. So you might have to get the shop where you buy the phone or rent it to change the Sim card as they have the unblocking device or permission.
The best time to get this done is when you are renting the new phone, when they will gladly agree to anything to secure the sale.

 If you then later have to go back to the shop to reverse the SIM card swap, that means another journey, another wait for attention, explaining what you want and why, getting them to agree to spend time on something which is not benefitting their sales person, changing the paperwork.

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

Is it McDonalds or MacDonalds?

McDonalds McFlurry. Photo by Angela Lansbury. copyright.

Problem
The confusion occurs because there's a big Mac.

Answer
It's actually McDonalds. Saves you time when typing, only one a. The clue should be in the word McFlurry. You can say Mc-something or other. But mc on its own is hard to say. A big mc doesn't work. So they decided on Big Mac.

Oops! It's easy to make a mistake. In my title I had MadDonalds! Doesn't typing and spell-checking drive you mad. Enough to make you want to eat a McDonalds.

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

Mooncakes - Happiness Is Eating Mooncakes At The Chinese Harvest Festival

Mooncake in piecrust for Chinese harvest festival in Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
I remember harvest festival from my schooldays in London, England. fruits and vegetables and cereals laid out on the floor of the gym in front of the stage at school. Requests for donations. Living in the city, it all seemed rather remote.

Answers
Singapore's harvest festival, a subdivision of the harvest festivals in China and the rest of Asia, especially Taiwan, Hong Kong and places with Chinese populations, is much more fun, with the ubiquitous (found everywhere) mooncakes, moon-shape cakes, with a piecrust stamped with plant designs, Chinese symbols, or snow versions in white.

Inside are highly calorific and filling centres, very sweet, with the occasional salted egg yolk. The ingredients are exotic, lotus, sometimes nuts, maybe purple or chestnut colour.

A teeny section, like a slice of pie, goes a long way, very filling.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Durian delight at McDonalds

Durian McFlurry in Singapore.

Problems
1 What can I try that's new but cheap overseas?
2 Where can I get reasonably priced durian?
3 What's durian and when and where can you get it?

Answers
First, what is durian? A large fruit which smells and tastes like a cross between chestnut and banana in ice cream smoothies and cakes, but like strong sulphur or rotten eggs when the whole fruit is fresh. That's why you will see, in high season, signs on the Singapore underground NO DURIANS.

If you wanted a whole durian, which is big and heavy, you would either have to get it delivered by a specialist company, or double or triple wrap it to conceal the smell.

According to the durian delivery firm
low season for durian is January and June
mid-season is other months
high season is September!

Thai Restaurant Ice Cream
I was offered durian ice cream on my first visit to Singapore at a Thai restaurant. It was the only dessert available. They tried to persuade me not to order it, probably because they were afraid i would not like it and would say bad things about their restaurant or waste their food and demand my money back.
However, I like to try new things, so I insisted on trying it. I loved it.

Durian At Juice Bars In Hawker Centres
Afterwards I tried several times to order desserts with durian topping at fruit stalls in hawker centres (food courts). Often I was disappointed. Either the durian was not available - they served dessert without it hoping I wouldn't notice! Or they gave such a tiny spoonful or squeeze that it was gone after the second mouthful.

MacDonald Durian Delight
No such disappointment at McDonalds.

I took the number 76 bus from Yio Chu Kang Interchange (bus station) beside Yio Chu Kang MRT (railway station) on the train line. I got off at building works, probably connected to the new MRT station opening next year (2019).

Here I am in the middle of nowhere, a suburb of Singapore, on my way to  Toastmasters International meeting at a newly opened Community Club. The bus station was heaving with people. But as far as I am concerned I am in a culinary cultural desert, miles from any Michelin restaurant, with nothing but cheap food in hawker centre.

I saw the Durian sign in the street outside. My eyes lit up. I stopped. I took a quick photo.

That's new. That's different. That's local. That's unique. That sounds delicious. Delicious, delicious!

Would I stop to buy and try on my way to a meeting? Yes, even if that made me five minutes late.

Why not leave it until later? Less anti-social than arriving carrying durian ice cream or breathing it.

But the shop might be closed later. I might forget and walk back on the other side of the road. I might get a lift in somebody's car or van to the MRT by-passing the McDonalds - which is what happened.

I am so glad I chose to try the durian McFlurry. So much of it. Delicious.

The concoction came in a beaker like a drink, but was more like a cross between yogurt and squeezy ice cream. It was supplied with a plastic spoon to scoop it out. You would not want to try drinking it and getting it dripping and dropping down your clothes. The creamy part was white, the contrasting durian a yellowy pale green.

My fears were unfounded. The cup was cunningly designed with a protective top which held in the small. The food was not so aromatic that it would disturb anybody else. Nobody commented, 'What's that?'

The price was three dollars, reduced from 4 dollars said the sign. Affordable.

It was so good that on the way home I wanted another. I looked at the station for McDonalds at Ang Mo Kio. No luck.

I am now on the lookout for McDonalds. I shall go onto the website and find my nearest and see if they have a durian promotion. While stocks last. While it's the season.

If you are in Singapore, must try!

This branch of McDonalds is near the new Kebun Baru Community Club. I took bus 76 from the MRT.

USEFUL WEBSITES
www.mcdelivery.com.sg/sg

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