Large cup with two handles in Costa. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
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Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Costa's Large Cup For Cappucino or latte
Large cup with two handles in Costa. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
Saturday, February 14, 2026
Valentine's Day for Wine Society
Angela Lansbury at the Central London Wine Society meeting.
We told the story of St Valentine, quoted Chaucer and Shakespeare on the subject.
We tasted wines whose labels featured Romeo & Juliet, Champagne Jean Valentin, Sanct Valentin, and Château Valentin.
My latest book, Embarrassing Moments, is on Amazon. Have a look at my books.
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Valentine's Day Feb 14, or July 6 or July 30th
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/53812099@N04/14763863277/
The hand heart was made popular by Korean pop groups, and was a sign of friendship made when the north and south Korean leaders met and were photographed together on a mountaintop. It costs nothing, creates no litter, and is a good international sign because it is universal so you don't need to speak another language.
Singapore Valentines - Be Prepared
SPRINGTIME
Februa is Latin for to cleanse, or to clean. Spring cleaning.
In the old calendar mid February was when some birds started courting matching, nesting and mating and work started in the vineyards.
In ancient times in Israel girls would wear white dresses and dance in the vineyard where boys would be waiting to propose marriage.
But marketing has amazing success. If you can create greetings cards, fill restaurants, sell jewellery and gifts and cookie cutters and cups with messages about Valentine's Day or hearts, you will sell them to children and adults, the young and the old, the single and married, anybody who wants to part with money for a message or a product with red and hearts.
ITALY, ROME & VALENTINE - La Festa di San Valentino
In Italy you wish Somebody Buon San Valentino.
More than one Christian called Valentine, a popular name was martyred, and various churches claim to have bits of the saints bodies.
February14 is the day associated with Valentine's Day by Roman Catholics. the Eastern Orthodox celebrate In July 6th or 30th.
At the Central London Wine Society on Feb 11th Three Valentine's Day wines come to the UK from Europe, notably from France, Italy and Spain. Let's start with Italy.
ITALY
In Italy keys are given, representing the key to my heart, unlocking.
February is is named after the Roman God Februas and was the spring cleaning month.
ITALIAN FOOD
The Italian for biscuit is biscotti.
FRANCE
In France you might celebrate Valentine's Day with dinner, or a dinner on a boat on the Seine in Paris, or a helicopter ride. Your celebratory wine would be Champagne, from the Champagne region.
Macaroons.
SPAIN, Tapas and Turron
Feliz San Valentín - Happy Valentine's Day. Feliz dia de San Valentin.
In Mexico they say, Happy Valentine's and friendship day.
Delicious Drink
The Spanish white wine equivalent of sparkling Champagne but cheaper is Cava, originally from cellars or stores in caves.
Favourite Food
Turron - Sweet
A Spanish gift might be turron, which is nougat, made from almonds, honey and egg white. A modern version is chocolate covered.
Tapas - Savoury
The Spanish food served in bars with wine is tapas. Originally supposedly tiny pieces of bread or sliced meat put on the top of glasses to keep off the flies. Or to keep off sand blown from the beach, says another story. The translation offered is lid or cover. To make an alliterative reminder, I think of the word top.
We ordered tapas in a bar in summer 2025 in Bilbao, the ferry port on the northern coast on the east (Santander is on the west). We thought it was expensive and would be the bite or two size of cocktail party canapes, but it was a large portion, as filling as a hamburger. Maybe pintchos (pintxos, which is plural, from pinchar to stab) not a pinch but sometimes skewered horizontally or toothpicked vertically to hold it all together.
You can also get dessert tapas.
UK
Chaucer, an early influencer, wrote a poem about Valentine's Day to celebrate the anniversary of the engagement of the 15 year old King of England.
In the UK Cadbury's introduced heart shapes boxes of chocolates.
Nowadays the innovation is that the chocolates themselves are heart shaped.
|Valentine's Day is big business in the UK, the USA and Singapore which has four languages mainly English, also Chinese, meaning Mandarin.
IRELAND
|Dublin in Ireland has a church with a relic and those without any love can pray to find love.
WALES
The Welsh celebrate on January 25th, recalling the tragic story of Welsh princess
You can make a heart sign with your thumbs and first fingers.
Happy VALENTINES DAY
Italy
Shakespeare's Ophelia mentions St Valentine's day in the play Hamlet.
AMERICA
American Valentines In Schools For SchoolchildrenWhen I went to live in America our son came home from school with a birthday card for Mummy, and he wanted to make a card for his teacher, which he said all the schoolchildren were doing. I was surprised, because in those days in the UK Valentine's Day cards were only for the unmarried and courting.
Search online and you can find recordings of Valentine's day songs for the age of toddlers upwards. In America children give friendship cards to teachers. Finland also has friendship days.
ASIA
Valentine's Day month. I recall being in Singapore for the month of February and visiting several Toastmasters International Speakers' clubs. At the first Valentines theme club meeting I attended, the table topics master asked, What would you do on Valentine's Day? What is the best restaurant for Valentine's Day? Where would you go, what was the best gift, and so on. She/he - I forget which - was looking for ideas.
In Malaysia Nowadays The Muslim movement has opposed valentines day, because it is western and encourages sex outside marriage, fornication, adultery and immorality. To counter this view, Valentines Day is being promoted as a time for married couples to celebrate with date nights, buying expensive champagne, boxes of chocolates, and flowers. Plus of course clothes with hearts, and large cards.
In Japan women workers give chocolates to their co- workers, and a month later the men reciprocate by giving chocolates to women.
INDIA
The Hindus are against pubic displays of human affection. Instead, they tried to introduce hug a cow day. This strikes me and struck many others as an against the animal rights of the cow to refuse, besides being impractical and sometimes downright dangerous activity. Cows are too large to hug and do not necessarily reciprocate nor cooperate.
Useful Websites
February
Valentine's Day
A neat summary about Valentine's Day
ITALY
To make your own heart shaped biscuits, heart shaped cookie cutters (biscuit cutters we would say in the UK
SPAIN
Spanish turron
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Feb 10th is Teddy Bear Day - With Museums and Statues Worldwide
Teddy Bears And The USA
Teddy bears, named after President Teddy Roosevelt, who, one version of the legendary story goes, was on a bear hunt in 1902 in Mississippi, when he saw a baby bear and declined to shoot. This story has been disputed, but, as the saying goes, why let the truth get in the way of a good story.
In the USA I stayed at the Hotel Colorado, Colardo Springs, in the US state of Colorado, which is Spanish for coloured, where Teddy stayed in 1905 during the incident where he was given a toy bear.
Paddington Bear in London
In London you can see a statue of Paddington Bear on Paddington station and be photographed alongside.
Photo by ScheWo in Wikipedia under Paddington Bear Statue.
In England you can visit the World Of bears shops.
Teddy Bear Museums
Teddy Bear Museum, Dorchester, Dorset, England
Stratford upon Avon, England, UK - moved elsewhere.
Useful Websites on Bears and Teddy Bears
https://www.worldofbears.com/product-category/last-chance/?meta[_price
wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_bear_museum
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=bear%20birthday
https://collectinsure.com/2024/05/30/guide-to-teddy-bear-museums-and-accessories-worldwide/
Teddy Bear, USA
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/encyclopedia/culture-and-society/teddy-bear/
Padding Bear, UK
https://paddington-experience.london-tickets.co.uk/
Pooh Bear, E Sussex, UK
https://www.emp.co.uk/fan-merch/winnie-pooh/
ebay - buy bears
Expect to see teddy bears in toy stores and museums of childhood.
For a bear theme birthday party, DIY, Amazon sells bear balloons, bear paper bags for going home goodies and presents, paper plates and banners with bear themes and cake toppers.
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Monday, February 9, 2026
Spanish Words For Today
Countries where Spanish is an official language. Map from Wikipedia.
Spanish is a useful language to learn. It is widely spoken as a first language in several South American countries. It is spoken as a second language in much of the USA. In Europe it is spoken in Spain and Spanish speaking islands. Portuguese and Italian are similar to Spanish.
I am brushing up - beginning again - my knowledge of Italian. I was learning Italian on Duolingo a year ago. This year I am learning Spanish. So I am doing Italian for Spanish speakers, which enables me to learn Spanish at the same time as learning Italian. The instructions are in Spanish, mostly only one to three words, often similar to English words. Because they are repeated even the unfamiliar words gradually get drilled into my mind. You could do the same with any two languages from the most common ones learned by speakers of your second language.
I note down new words in my A5 notebook (book size). I create columns quickly by folding each page in half vertically, making two sections, then again to make four creases. To write more neatly without overlapping columns to crush in long words and phrases, I draw a line vertically with a pen or pencil, using a ruler or anything else straight nearby on the desk.
I head the columns Spanish-English. An alternative would be to use the right hand half of the page for English-Spanish. Or to use the right hand page for English-Spanish.
Spanish - English Easy Words
adios - goodbye . The English is from God be with you. Adios comes from to God. a - dios, to the deity
buen - good (like French bon as in bon voyage, good journey)
buenos noches - good evening / good night
continuar - (to) continue
errores - errors
excepto - except
medala - medal
Perfecto/a (adjective matching masculine or feminine noun) - perfect
perfil - profile (both words have the letters p r f i l in that order. The e in the Spanish jumps to the end of the English word.
veloz -/velocity/speed/time
voz - voice
What is the difference between a medal and a medallion? The shorter word is for the smaller object. A medal is attached to a ribbon and worn as an award for an achievement in a military battle or a sports contest. A medallion is larger, a souvenir of an important occasion and displayed on a stand on a shelf, and given or kept in a box lined with colourful contrasting shiny satin, if made of silver or gold bought as an investment.
English - Spanish
(to) continue - continuar
except - excepto
good - buen
profile - perfil
velocity/ speed / time taken - veloz (starts with the same four letters)
voice - voz (starts with the same two letters and ce and z sound similar)
Wikivoyage phrasebook explains pronunciation and origins of words, and similar sets if words
- Spanish - English (The first pronunciation is from Spain, where the language originated, the second is from Latin America.)
- círculo (THEER-koo-loh/SEER-koo-loh) → circle
- circulo (theer-KOO-loh/seer-KOO-loh) → I circulate
- circuló (theer-koo-LOH/seer-koo-LOH) → he/she/it circulated
- estás (ehs-TAHS) → you are
- estas (EHS-tahs) → these
- origen (oh-REE-hehn) → origin
- orígenes (oh-REE-hehn-ehs) → origins
- ciudad (thee-yoo-DAHD/see-yoo-DAHD) → city
- ciudades (thee-you-DAH-dehs/see-yoo-DAH-dehs) → cities
- A Spanish restaurant with a Spanish guitarist in Manila, the Philippines was called Circulo.
- I have listed them in reverse and underlined the syllable you emphasize
- English - Spanish
- circle - circulo
- I circulate - circulo emphasis on the middle syllable, the same as the English
- he/she/it circulates - circuló
- city - ciudad (thee-yoo-DAHD/see-yoo-DAHD)
Accents show words which are pronounced the same but have different meanings: Eight words, sixteen meanings.
- él (he) el (the)
- té (tea) te (you [object])
- tú (you [subject]) tu (your)
- mí (me) mi (my)
- dé (give [present subjunctive]) de (of/from)
- sí (yes) si (if)
- sé (I know) se (one [pronoun])
- más (more/plus) mas (but)
Useful Websites For Learning Languages
Spanish Phrasebook in Wikivoyage and Wikitravel
Italian phrasebook in Wikivoyage and Wikitravel
translate google
https://translate.google.co.uk/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Spanish_words_borrowed_from_Italian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Spanish_origin
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St Albans Wine Club and Wines From the French Loire Region
Left Trevor Sharot, member of the Wine Writers |Association. Right Thibault Lavergne, of The Wine Story Club based in Little Hadham, Hertfordshire.
During the meal you are entertained by a talk about the wines. The cost of a meal with a chance to taste half a dozen or more old wines which have had time to intensify their flavours, wines at prices which some of the people attending would only pay for wines for special occasions.
My husband is a wine educator and a member of the circle of wine writers. I have only level one of the WSET but he has level four, the diploma, the highest level you can take unless you are in the trade such as a sommelier, wine shop worker. We drive out of London to Welwyn Wine Society, St Albans' Verulam club, and events at the Wine |Society's huge shop with an upstairs restaurant in Stevenage, as well as the Civil Service Wine Club meeting in London and other events such as the London Wine Fair.
On Saturday Feb 2026 we met for the Verulam Wine Club's monthly meeting and looked forward to a seated meal, tasting ten wines, along with cheeses, salads, olices, bread and pate, all for only £18 per person. Plus an entertaining talk about each of the wines.
How do you manage to stay awake and sober enough to drive home? You can appoint one of your group as a designated driver, and he can just sip the wine and spit it out into a spittoon. Usually spittoons are provided, for you to tip out leftover wine after sipping it, and the water used to wash out the glass.
In theory the organizers could ask the speaker to supply a couple of low alcohol or no alcohol wines among the selection but this is rarely done, except at huge wine fairs and conferences where those items are promoted by the manufacturers and distributors and advertising agencies and supermarkets.
Alternatives are to take a taxi home, call a family member to pick you up, or stay at a budget hotel overnight, booking early to allow time to shop around for a good rate.
On February 7th 2026 the guest speaker was UK based Frenchman Thibault Lavergne, of The Wine Story Club based in Little Hadham, Hertfordshire.
I like sparkling and sweet wines. and as usual, we started with a sparkling wine which as usual was my favourite until the last wine, a sweet wine, which took top place in my list.
We were supplied with a sheet about the wines, with space to write comments on the colour, aroma, flavour, and finish (whether it left a lip-smacking after-taste in the mouth).
I also enjoyed all the cheeses including French brie. And chutney dark red like strawberry jam but slightly savoury. The large olives were unusual. I should have asked the club's volunteer organizers where the olives were bought.
The Evening's Entertainment
Each table of the three long tables was given a laminated map of the Loire valley in northern France where all the wines came from.
Chinon is associated with author Rabelais, who lived about a century before Shakespeare and his name in French equivalent of Rabelasian, means epicurian, a lover of wine and food, French food and wine of course.
The local stone is carved out into caves which are cool for storing wine.
You can stay in an underground cave, an A and B.
My wine of the night was Coteaux du Layon.
As usual the prices were only revealed at the end. That way you have an unbiased view of the wines. (we'd previously at another recent event had a comparison of Lidl and Waitrose wines, where about half the room preferred (voted for by a show of hands) the Lidl wine at under ten pounds.) However, tonight we had an opportunity to taste more expensive wine and most of the wines were about £29.
As usual the speaker offered a discount of ten percent off the wines he had displayed to those attending the event.
Budget Events For the Public
If you want to attend a wine club event, or start one, you can link up with events in your area through Meetup and Eventbrite. Social clubs sometimes hold evenings of affordable wines.
If you are organizing a special event such as a birthday, wedding, anniversary, Christmas or summer party, you might be interested in going to a dinner as a guest or member, or starting your own club.
Clubs for financiers and investors, bankers, lawyers, university alumni, and trade associations, and wine educators and students, offer a chance to watch slide shows and enjoy tutored tastings of more expensive wines at more expensive events, which are free to wine suppliers, distributors, sommeliers, and those big buyers from supermarkets and others with big budgets working in the trade.
Raffles For Wine Bottles
At the Verulam Wine club at the door on entry you can buy raffle tickets for one pound. Half a dozen bottles were raffled, some being leftovers from the club[s previous events, Mostly it's a bit of fun and we don't win. But this time we won a bottle, which added to the jollity of the occasion.
Prize Bottles And Gifts
You can also ask the organizer or speaker to arrange for the supply of bottles for the raffle. Or present a bottle as a gift to an organizer, speaker, or somebody celebrating a birthday.
The Wine Story Club. 2 Hadham Hall, Little Hadham SG11 2AU, Hertford.
Wine Tasting Clubs & Wine (Buying) Clubs
Wine Tasting Clubs enable you to meet others to enjoy educational tastings.
Wine Sellers have wine clubs which offer subscriptions services delivering cases of wine each month. Some of them also organize wine tastings in shops.
The club cannot order wine at wholesale prices and sell them on to members at retail prices without getting a trading license. However they could buy a case at wholesale prices to serve at events such as a Christmas party. And they can serve tiny tasting measures without the license needed for selling or serving full size bottles. If you need or want to know, check the latest regulations in your building, area and country.
Event Alcohol Bans And Permission
In addition to legal requirements, some premises such a churches, temples, and schools, may forbid the serving of alcohol on their main premises and hired rooms, annexes and outbuildings. This could prohibit serving wine at a Christmas party, wedding reception, or a visiting speaker offering the audience glasses of wine. Check alcohol permission to be sure the fun and informative event you envisage will be allowed.
Useful Websites On Wine Clubs
The Wine Story Club
Cave Hotels
Verulam Wine Tasting Club
Organizing Wine Tasting Wine & Food Quantity Versus Networking/Dating Meetup
Legal Wine Measures
Wine Measures
British Heart Foundation & Bottle and Glass and Measure Sizes
Wine Selling Clubs
Please follow my blogs (on travel, wine and dine, dress of the day, writing comic poetry, save by bookmarking and share links to your favourite blog posts.
Angela Lansbury is the author of twenty books and ebooks on weddings, toasts, quotations, poetry and writing poetry. The latest book about travel and teaching and public speaking problems is called
Embarrassing Moments.
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Swiss and Iraq fires - lessons learned
To prevent tragedies, you need prevention and cure. Major fires have happened in the USA, Ireland, Iraq, Brazil. What lessons can be learned?
Iraq Wedding Fire
Pyrotechnics at a wedding in Iraq in 2023 killed more than 100. The world should have learned from the videos of that.
Prevention and Cure
The first thing you need and easiest to fix is fire extinguishers.
They should not be locked away, which renders them useless. It should be a criminal offence to use them when there is not a fire.
Following the instructions, we fitted a smoke alarm in the corridor between the kitchen and the bedrooms.
The idea is to alert you to a fire at night. You should not be leaving food cooking unattended in a kitchen. You set an alarm to remind you to check on it and turn it off. You check all switches are off before leaving a room.
What is the ease of setting the alarm? Some alarms have a button you push. If the ceiling is low, you can reach up. You might think of standing on a safe stool, rather than on a chair, with somebody else to steady you, steady the chair, and check you don't fall, or catch you. Another way is to push up with a broom handle. This means keeping the broom nearby.
Some alarms have a cover which can be removed to check batteries, after the base is screwed to the ceiling.
Portable Alarms
An alarm which changes colour for carbon monoxide, and sticks on, can be taken with you and affixed in a rental property. Stick it on the flat surface of a cupboard. Write yourself a note or set an alarm to remind yourself to remove it after your last meal, before leaving the property if you are temporarily overseas.
Got a gap year? Want to increase your skills? Retired? Take a course in plumbing or electricity and qualify. This could be a source of employment and income. Save you time and money.
If you are not qualified to do the work, you can still save time and money by briefing the workers. Enable you to check that workers are doing the right thing. Help you to choose suitable equipment. Youtube has loads of videos on how to fix simple things like smoke alarms.
Below are what I have found. Not items I have tried and recommended. But useful links so you can start your investigation quickly.
PS
Rather than only being alerted to a fire after the event, consider fire prevention.
What to avoid? As we have learned from the tragic fire in Switzerland at New Year 2026, keep flames away from anything flammable and if possible, avoid using candles, incense, indoor and outdoor fireworks, pyrotechnics, furniture without a fire label (and don't remove the labels).
Clean Oven To Prevent Fire
The oven should be cleaned regularly. When my son was a student, a group of boys share a flat. None of them cleaned the oven. Eventually the grease built up and the oven caught fire.
If you have a dishwasher, some of the removable fittings can be washed in the dishwasher. If it does nto clean them completely, after one or two long wash cycles, you may find that the warmth of the dishwasher has loosened the grease well enough to make it faster and easier to clean by hand afterwards.
Useful Websites on Fires
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Portable-Monoxide-Detector-Rechargeble-Working/dp/B0DP2DDTPK/ref=s
'Which' UK consumer guides
Wikipedia
Wikihow
Youtube
https://www.britishfireworksassociation.co.uk/
https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/safety/fireworks/
Update
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