Angela Lansbury Speeches and Making Speeches

"Taxi!"
I'm going to tell you
How to hail a taxi in Japan and Singapore.
How to talk to a taxi driver in Singapore.
How to find a taxi in Cambodia.

I could sum it up:
1 I could say, you hail a taxi in Japan and Singapore like this:
2 I could say be positive, that you tell a taxi driver how much you admire Lee Kwan Yew, who is dead.
3 I could tell you just let your hotel order you a taxi in Cambodia.
But that would not be entertaining. So I'm going to tell you three, personal, entertaining stories.

1 HAILING A TAXI IN SINGAPORE
In England you stop a car by standing in the road and raising your hand like this. Don't do that in Japan. they don't stop for pedestrians.

BECKON
In Britain and the USA you beckon, with the back of your hand towards the approaching vehicle or person.

PAT
Not in Japan or in Singapore. You make a motion as if patting a dog.

2 TALKING TO A TAXI DRIVER


3 TINY TAXI
The best taxi I had was at the airport in Cambodia. The taxi driver met us at the airport and insisted carrying both my wheeled bags across the car park, across a second car park, across a third car park and out into the street. I thought, he's going to hail a taxi. Or walk all the way because the taxi has broken down.

I demanded, "where's the taxi?"

He pointed down the road. "Here it is?" We walked towards a stretch limousine. I thought, I hope it's not that. It'll cost a fortune. We were met by one at Heathrow returning from our honeymoon. We thought it was a treat. It was a mistake. We spent weeks trying to prove we had not ordered a huge and hugely expensive car.

Behind it was past a big Mercedes. I thought, maybe.

Then a small rusting car with a missing wheel. No, it won't go.

SMALL, OPEN-SIDED
Finally, he stopped beside a motorbike pulling a cart; a rickety rickshaw big enough for two large midgets. It had a flapping canopy and open sides you could fall out of if you didn't cling on when it swerved around a corner, overtook at an angle, or did a quick U-turn across six lanes of traffic..

PEELING PAINT
The tuk-tuk is old and traditional. It looks romantic from a distance of half a mile. Close up you can see that the paint has peeled off.

"My tuk-tuk," he said proudly.
(Show picture.)

He hoists four suitcases up onto the back ledge, unsecured. I now have to climb in. It's a bit like mounting a horse. A kind of running board like we had on cars in the nineteen fifties. A ledge you have to jump over. A narrow seat. A post to hang onto. No seat belt.

ADS
Inside, you can see that the interior of the roof it is romantically covered with advertisements for restaurants and tours in much smarter vehicles, such as air conditioned buses, a funeral carriage, and the airline to fly us back to where we came from.
He puts on his helmet. It's good to know he will be protected, if he falls off. Although we won't be.

We rev off. We have lift off. That's to say, my hat has lift off. I can either hold onto the pole, or hold onto the hat. I have to put the hat in my bag.

My husband's baseball cap from Italy rolls away under a nearby bus. after the bus passes the hat must have disappeared and done a runner, or a roll into a nearby ditch, because it is never seen again. My empty water bottle, goes the same way, adding to the litter left behind by tourists in Cambodia.

I thought this is a joke. It's about four miles. Towed along behind a motor bike. he is a very good driver. He manages to overtake two lanes of traffic and pull in second before we were about to be hit by an upcoming coaches going in both directions in the fast lane. He avoids other tuk-tuks doing you turns, women crossing the six lane highway with water buckets on their heads, groups of primary school children in pairs holding hands, a crawling baby, who mother is towing two more toddlers, and a posse of teenage goats zigging across the road, giggling, playing dare.

The roads signs are all in Cambodian. We have no idea whether we are going to out hotel or being kidnapped because when we call to him he can't hear. He can't hear because of the hooting traffic, music from the restaurants we pass, the braying animals, the creaking of the tuk-tuk, the helmet. In any case he doesn't speak much English.

By the way, I spell tok tuts T U K T U K. Spell checker keeps turning it into T U T  T UTS.

There are hundreds of tuk-tuks in Cambodia. In Siem Reap there are no public buses. We presume that is to preserve the jobs of the tuk-tuk drivers. If you want to be a taxi driver, go to Cambodia. You do not need the knowledge. You can probably find a tok-tuk on its side in a ditch. All it needs is a couple of wheel, buy yourself a helmet and you are in business.

LOSING A TUK-TUK AND DRIVER
You might think I would be glad to lose my tuk-tuk driver. We told out driver we wanted to meet him at the Ankor Wat temple gate where he left us.

CAR PARK
He said he wasn't allowed to wait an hour. The police would move him on and sending him to a car park. He points to a car park. We exchange phone numbers. But our phone won't connect to the local phone network.He tell us we an ask any other tok-tuk driver to phone his number because tok-tuks are always losing their passengers. It happens several times a day.

The first time we came back, he was not in the car park. Even if he was, when we left him there were about twenty tuk-tuks. We could have walked along the line. When we came back an hour later, there were about two hundred tuk-tuks. They weren't even still. They kept moving around. Our driver, about five foot with a moustache and a black tee shirt. two hundred other drives with about five foot with a moustache, many with black tee shirts, disappointing, not hours, and others with different colour tee shirts, discouraging, can't be ours, unless he has changed clothing.

BUDDHA
The next time I lose a driver is near a Buddha. I say that I'll meet him near the Buddha. I go into entrance A. But it is a one way system. I come out of entrance B. Where is the Buddha. Round th road to the right. After tone minutes of running I read the buddha. No a tok tok to be seen. It is a different Buddha.  I ask if there is another Buddha. Yes, they enthuse, many Buddhas.

TRACKING AP
If you can sell a tracking service for a tuk-tuk, you'll be in business.
Tracking already exists for saloon car taxis in Singapore. In Singapore there's an ap. When you call an uber driver, the ap shows you the progress of your taxi along the nearby streets on its way to collect you.

The morals are:
1 Keep track of your taxi.
2 Photograph the vehicle and driver.
3 Establish the time when you will meet and the name of your meeting place.

-ends-
Angela Lansbury, member of Harrovians and HOD in London, England and Braddell Heights Advanced in Singapore.

Another Taxi speech
How to plan the perfect taxi trip to the airport.
1 PLAN TIMING
Allow extra time for potential delays
Taxi / Airport Transfer Disasters
    On the way to Heathrow airport we were stuck behind a funeral procession, the hearse and two more stretch black limousines, all doing under 20 miles an hour. In front was a marching band, a brass band, the Salvation Army. Their headquarters was just around the corner.

Taxi Success
   Luckily our driver was able to turn right into a handy slip road and zoom up parallel, then cut back into the road ahead of them.
   I imagined trying to explain why we had missed our flight, "We were stuck behind a hearse!" No need.

PLAN PAYMENT
Some countries' airports have fixed rate shuttles and taxis where you pay in advance and get a ticket. Look for these in Singapore and KL.

PLAN ALTERNATIVES TO TAKING TAXIS
London - Heathrow and step free
What is the alternative to an expensive taxi?
From London Heathrow there are underground trains but you need luggage you can pull along the walk to the station, along corridors and up and down steps. London also has some all night buses but limited routes. If you plan on using these, either definitely or only in case of emergency or delay, find a hotel on the route.

PLAN CASH FOR PAYMENT
Money
Money change for taxis at Heathrow is expensive. It may be cheaper to get money from a machine or from your bank, but you may need to order money from your bank a week in advance.

In Singapore when drivers change over (twice a day) the new driver often has no change.

PLAN TIP OR NO TIP
You do not tip drivers in Singapore nor in China. In fact it is frowned upon. Locals think you are queue jumping or bribing, being condescending, or in China they might lose their jobs for taking bribes. Australia also has a no tipping culture. People are paid a proper wage and do no expect tips.

You don't tip a bus driver or bus ticket collector in London.

In some countries drivers will be pleased to have American dollars. Some taxis take credit cards.

CONSIDER BEING A TAXI DRIVER
Could you be an uber driver? If you think it's not worth the money, the hassle, the stress, you might appreciate your taxi more.

Sorry, I have to go, my taxi's waiting.

To sum up, plan routes, payment, cash, tips and alternatives. Have a great taxi, or non-taxi trip.

Angela Lansbury B A Hons is a travel writer, photojournalist.

The group leader made the introduction based on information emailed earlier by the speaker
Author Angela Lansbury did teaching practice at a girls' Grammar School in London's East End and taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in four Singapore Schools.

I began:
"The time has come the walrus said
To talk of many things ..."

I paused (to catch my breath and remember the next line) but immediately three members of the audience started to chant the rest of the rhyme

"Of shoes and ships and sealing wax," no point in stopping them, nor trying to talk over them, but I wanted everybody to hear so I encouraged them to speak louder by lifting both my hands palms upwards.

I take my props the horse and a cat or dog puppet to get the children's attention.

My assistant will read the poem on the horse from Angela's Animals.


My assistant will read the poem on the cats and dog from Poetry, Pets and Pests.

I take poems about animals to recite to schoolchildren. I read some poems about animals to children at a local library on a national book day. I read poems and short stories from my books and library books to two classes of schoolchildren and some toddlers in arms.

Afterwards one of the teachers invited to speak to English classes at a nearby primary school.

My book Angela's Alarming Animal Poems has an alliterative title. I wanted my title to b completely alliterative, just Angela's Alarming Animals. However, that might have suggested that it was a book of fiction or prose.

I wrote a poem about an unusual animal. When I was booked to speak to the school, I understood that the children would afterwards write a poem about an animal, (with my help). I thought they would be more likely to want to write about a family pet such as a cat or dog.

Gradually my collection of poems grew, and to keep them in order I wrote them out on card index cards and filed them alphabetically by subject: cats, dogs, rabbits. I already had poems on cats, dogs and rabbits. I soon had about ten poems. That list grew to about 20. In case I needed or was asked about another animal, I thought it would be a simple task to add a poem on each kind of animal. But I was sure to be asked questions such as, what do they eat, and how long do they live. As you can imagine it took a day or two to research all aspects of each animal, find suitable sketches or out of copyright cartoons, write a poem in rhyming couplets, check the rhythm, then shorten the poem or lengthen it.

After several months I had plenty of poems. But I could not read my own handwriting so I decided to print them through Lulu.com into a handy booklet.

I soon got into self-publishing. You needed a cover, a copyright notice, a bar code, a dedication. I then had to paginate and add all the page numbers. That took a day or two.

I showed the book to the family. My wonderful book, starting with Ant - our son's name is Anthony, ending with Zoo. They pointed out an ant was not an animal but an insect. But I had crocodile but had not included alligator. So I changed the listing. Now I was ready for the final check.

Anything missing. Yes, Aardvark. Do you know what an aardvark is - ant-eater. Double AA. I had to paginate again, right from the beginning.

What about axolotl. I have a poem on that, too.

By now I had too many poems for a book at a price which people would be prepared to pay. So I cut the book into two sections. I thought of calling it animals part one and animals part 2. But that was too confusing. So I called the second book: Poetry, Pets and Pests. That was alliterative. It told you that the book was poetry.