You can sit beside
Einstein - Washington DC, USA
Einstein - Vail, USA
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AUTHORS
Agatha Christie - Torquay, England, UK
Mark Twain - California, USA
Useful Websites
https://www.publicartinpublicplaces.info/PUBLIC-ART-BY-CITY/Cities-A-to-K
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See my earlier posts on statues of people on benches you can sit beside
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1 Start with some loan words which are the same in both languages.
2 Learn 5 to 10 basic words, hello, goodbye, please, thank you, one, two, three, and, the.
3 Add one simple sentence, such as my name is or where is the toilet, or (I want/need) water, a sandwich.
4 Learn I you, he, she, it, we, you plural, they.
5 Learn the sentence structure. Is it subject, verb object, like English, or subject, object verb?
6 Learn plurals. Add s, as in English, x as in French, es, as in Spanish, or double (repeat) the word as in Malay, Indonesian and Chinese.
7 Learn some common first names or surnames.
8 Learn some common place names.
9 2 Take up an online course such as Duolingo. Do one exercise every morning, while waiting for breakfast, or coffee, or waiting for transport.
10 Start a notebook with target language words and start talking to yourself in the target language and noting words you don't know and need.
Where can you learn and practise speaking German?
Flag of Germany
You can use German in Germany, Austria and German-speaking parts of Switzerland. Also Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and parts of Belgium and Italy.
A one week plan - beforehand
Learn ten words a day for 7 days and at the end of the week you have 70 words.
During a one week holiday note ten words a day. that's another 70 words. 140 total. You will recognize people speaking your target language, and be able to identify magazines, newspapers and street signs in the target language.
On a one week or fortnight's holiday take a language course. Or organize a homestay with a family who speak the other language. A meal, a weekend, a long weekend, or whole week. You can invite them back to your place later the same year or another year.
Aim to learn 1000 words in a year. If you learn only one word a day, most days, you have 300 or more words in a year. If you learn ten words a day, without breaks, and with revisions, you have 3,650 at the and of a year.
A the end of five years you will be fluent in one language or get by in five languages.
Some online courses match you up with native speakers.
Failing all else buddy up with a friend or new friend who wants to try the new language.
Buy or make sets of stickers for around the house in the target language, if you live alone or your family agree.
Play songs in the target language and learn the words.
Know clothes sizes, colours, the date, your favourite foods, favourite sports, or business words such as meeting, buy, sale, discount, entrance, exit, open, closed.
Know simple danger warnings such as stop, go, danger, fire, flood, river, airport, no parking, no smoking, no entry.
Advanced Language Learning
Know plurals, past, present and future, a statement and a question,
1 Read bilingual labels on clothes, addresses on food and drinks and wine bottles.
2 Read a newspaper in the target language.
3 Watch a film with subtitles, twice.
4 Learn English from the target language in Duolingo.
5 Switch your Wikipedia to the target language. Have the other language on your phone or a second phone or another computer screen.
6 Switch your phone to the target language.
7 Switch your satnav to the target language.
8 Join a Toastmasters International or other social or sports group which speaks the target language.
9 Find a friend, marry somebody who speaks the other language, or work for a company which uses the target language.
10 Take holidays in the target language country, and other countries which speak dialects.
Useful Websites and books
Useful |Books
First thousand words in (Usborne books)
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The Laundry Restaurant in Brixton, which we know well, was the venue for the retirement party for the co-organizer of the Central London Wine Society. The restaurant had a large enough area for our group of up to 30.
Choice of Dining Areas
The restaurant has three dining areas, a large front patio, open air but sheltered. A smaller ground floor area indoors has the bar area, bar stools and a secluded area with a couple of tables, plus a large downstairs area with three long tables which suited our group of about 28 diners.
Menu Choices
We had the set menu, of three sharing starters, platters of about six portions of a) autumn salad, meatballs, and a tomato puree. The choice of main course included duck confit, which is leg of duck, which most people chose. A couple of people took the alternative trout, and one had the vegan option of pumpkin and chickpea.
The duck came with ample lentils. We had also ordered an extra side of fries - fried potatoes, known in the UK as chips, short for potato chips (while in the USA chips means what the British call crisps).
Dessert was delicious, a triple chocolate brownie, a small solid cake a big like a cross between cake and fudge, with pieces of whole chocolate inside.
Free Corkage
Tuesday is no corkage day which is why we had chosen a Tuesday. The club supplied bottles of booze, and one or two people donated bottles, and we had one giant magnum. We brought extra glasses and corkscrews. On other days the restaurant charge £25 per bottle, so quite a saving for a group like ours. But if you are teetotallers, all days of the week would be equally suitable for you.
Organizing
As you can imagine, the whole event took many hours of organizing on our part. Start with selecting a restaurant, the room, the layout of the tables, so speeches could be heard, even without any table plan for who should sit where. In the end we had the guest of honour at the end of one table so he could be seen by most of the people at the other table.
Buying and Signing A Card
I had waited upstairs to get all the guests to secretly sign a large card (after a previous day check by two people of five card shops in different parts of London to find a large thank you card).
Upstairs I was able to direct everybody downstairs. One of the waiters was able to direct my group members towards me, whilst other diners were offered tables outside or on the ground floor.
As I was upstairs, I risked missing out on the opening of the starter Champagne or sparkling wine. At my request, one person brought the glass of the Champagne starter drink upstairs to me whilst I waited for the latecomers.
Location and Latecomers
We had sent a map of the venue location. One person waited in a cafe for somebody who was late and they could not communicate by phone.
ToiletsThe toiletd are in the basement. A staircase with turns maked going foxbn ezdier and safer.
Parking
Some paid for car parks are nearby. You are liable to get a parking ticket even in streets by buildings on on a private estate midweek lunch time, although Saturday evening is free, unless your friend you are visiting or collecting from nearby flats has resident parking coupons which you remember to ask for and which they can find quickly to give you,
Useful Websites
After I read the distressing news about the fatal accident at a safari park in Yorkshire, I recalled a cautionary tale about a lion. I first came across the poem The Lion and Albert when it was performed at a Christmas party for the American Women's Association at the American Club in Singapore, or at the British Club, probably at both the same year by the same person. Later I tracked down the story online.
This is a classic satirical cautionary tale from Belloc's Cautionary Tales for Children (published in 1907).
This is a famous northern English comic monologue (often performed by Stanley Holloway) written in dialect.
Hilaire Belloc passed away in 1953. His copyright expired at the end of 2023 (70 years after 1953), meaning his works are now out of copyright and in the public domain.
Marriott Edgar passed away earlier, in 1951. His copyright expired at the end of 2021 (70 years after 1951), meaning his works are also out of copyright and in the public domain.
The Wetherspoons pub located right near the lamdmark Blackpool Tower was named The Albert and The Lion in honor of the poem.
Actor Stanley Holloway made the monologue famous. Pictures and stories about the actor are around the pub.
Blackpool's Memorabilia
The poem mentions Albert buying his stick with the horse's head handle in Woolworths. Memorabilia of black pool includes Woolworths store, Blackpool Tower Circus, and the comedian couple Laurel And Hardy.
The well - known lion, Wallace, gave Marriott Edgar the idea of calling the lion in his poem Wallace, which became a popular name for a lion at that time (like Jumbo the elephant and Rover the dog).
An altogether safer way of seeing animals is on videos, or taxidermy (stuffed dead animals) in museums.
The Wallace lion cam be seem in two museums, one in the south east of England and one further north.
Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens: Later, a famous 19th-century touring lion named Wallace (associated with the lion tamer Martini Maccomo) was stuffed by a local taxidermist and bought by the museum in 1879, where he remains a well-known permanent fixture on the ground floor.
Useful Websites On Places To Visit
Wetherspoons Pub with Albert & Lion Memorabilia
Salffron Walden Museum, Essex with a Wallace Lion
Sunderland Museum with a Wallace Lion
After the fatal incident in the Yorkshire wild life park I asked Gemini AI if Singapore Safari Park, which is linked to the zoo, has had accidents, and what safety measures were introduced. the safety measures included a moat, glass, and barriers which overhang at the top like a half tester bed preventing climbing in and out.
I recall seeing signs by road, listing the numbers of fatal accidents in accident black spots. Maybe it should be required to list fatal accidents on beaches, level crossings where roads or footpaths meet railway lines, and at zoos alongside warning signs.
The Victorians had cautionary tales to present dangers and warnings in a lighthearted way.
I was thinking about how you start a discussion with children about how kittens are not cats, and tame pets are not wild pets, and animals which know you are not the same as animals encountering strangers.cautionary tales.
I would keep small children and those who are mentally challenged at petting zoos, so they cannot endanger themselves, other visitors. or the animals or keepers.
Following the fatal incident on Saturday, October 10—when a man entered the Amur tiger enclosure—the park closed on Sunday and Monday, and its continued closure has extended as safety investigations by the City of Doncaster Council and South Yorkshire Police carry on.
While the main wildlife park remains closed, surrounding areas like The Yorkshire Hive have stayed open.
No, the main part of the
-Post written morning of October 13th 2026 ends-
If you want a petting zoo, for a child, there's one in Mill Hill by a soft play centre.
Visitors, adults and children, are advised to wash hands (some say and clothes) after touching animals to reduce risk of catching anything.
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https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16206573/Man-mauled-death-tiger-child-actor-Harry-Potter.html
Contrary to earlier impressions that the man who died might have been a loner, a loser, a vulnerable person, he seems to have had a successful career in films, which makes the cause of his actions, and the whole event even more baffling. Without knowing the man's motivation, one could still improve security in the physical structure, and the care taken by those accompanying anybody vulnerable or indulging in reckless behaviour. The man was William Chapman whose family said he had a history of mental problems.
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In London you can be photographed standing beside the bust of Shakespeare.
It's outside the Guildhall, which has an art gallery with famous pictures, free to visit. For a fee you can get close up to the Roman remains in the basement which are distantly viewed from the upstairs galleries.
Black Sabbath Bridge, Birmingham, England. Bench commemorating the band of Ozzy Osbourne. The pictures show Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward. The bridge is over a canal. It crosses from Broad Street in the city centre..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev_Fashion_Park Ukraine
Freud in London, England.
Useful Websites Of Wonderful Busts and Benches Featuring Famous People & Books
https://blacksabbathbench.co.uk/
More pictures in posts by Angela
Burns, Bolivar, Brunel, Beau Brummel, Chaplin, Rodin and Hands: Hand-y List of Sculptures To See Around The World.
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