Ghost horrors - could it be squatters, squirrels or failing sight?

A UK hotelier told me he used to get complaints of chills from 'ghosts'. After he double-glazed the bedrooms the complaints stopped.
I just read a report about the Amityville horror ghosts in the USA. Here are my suggestions:
1 Unsettling smile: eyes don't smile: a) speaker is lying or b) writer/reporter is trying to imply it without being sued.
2 I often see 'ghosts'. I look slowly and see movement reflecting myself moving on the inside of spectacles, or in a window/ mirror. Car headlights shining through the window can flash/make shadows and wake you.
3 Noise: spider/ gecko tips objects. Subsidence.
4 Falling objects: stack cupboards/ shelves carefully.
5 Cold? Draught-proof.
6 Vibrations. You live above/ near railway lines/ earthquake fault lines. Pictures fall. (Crash and jolt like somebody shoving my bed happened to me in the UK - next morning newspapers reported an earthquake. Common in west coast USA.)
7 Footsteps: mice, squirrels, rats, pigeons. Call exterminators. Squatter/stalker/burglar.
8 Immigrant/ex in attic! Happened in UK. Illegal immigrants got into an empty end of terrace house. They  made holes through all the attic walls. Burgled at night. When a family reported a burglary with no sign of forced entry, an attic search was made. One person or trace of them was caught, plus holes in panels to other attics.
9 Beams have dry rot. Without carpets sounds are magnified, especially in the silent night.
10 Seeing any 'ghost' figure wearing hats, or monsters with 'large heads' is retained blurred negative image in out of focus eyes. Well-known to opticians. Recorded in optical journals. (I read an account in a journal saved by my father, an optician.) Get eyes tested. If problem's slight, it's deteriorating sight; you're not nuts.

Skios - humorous novel - warning ending revealed

Just finished reading Skios, a humorous novel by Michael Frayn, which I read through a chapter or so every night. Really cheers you up if you are tired or fed up. 

It's full of funny puns. Skios sounds like Skiathos, a Greek island, but also lends itself to puns and misundertandings about skiing.

It's full of incidents which are just like what happens to you when you are travelling - losing your passport, thinking somebody is the cleaning woman when they are not, two local people who look alike, taxi drivers who are brothers, problems getting a phone connection, people who think you are somebody else and you don't like to disappoint them by admitting you are not. Rich men married to call girls.

My favourite funny sentence was:

'Some of those remaining are weeping or whimpering as they wander about in a state of post-traumatic shock ... 

falling into each other's arms as they find their loved ones, or even their unloved ones, still alive.' 

The ending with the earthquake was totally unexpected. But entirely plausible to me because I had experienced just that - during a speech - with VIPs on a Greek island.

I was on a press trip organised by the Greek tourist board to promote Greece as a tourist destination, to the Ionian island of Kefalonia. An earthquake interrupted the welcome speech. 

Ironically, the minister welcoming us in the hotel bar before dinner was saying, 'This island is totally safe ...' (I think he was referring to the low level of theft and crime.) 

Then the earthquake shook all the glasses on the table. Everybody went silent. This was followed by a dreadful crash - I thought the lift had fallen down the lift shaft - I'd never experienced an earthquake and wasn't expecting one - everybody ran out - all the Greeks first - without shouting anything or telling us what to do. We journalists continued drinking, puzzled until somebody realised it was an earthquake and said, 'If they are going outside we should do so, too!'

We then stood around the doorway debating whether it was safer to move away from the building in the open, or stand under the doorframe which might protect us from falling debris.

Kefalionia, which had a major earthquake in 1953 and the local museum tells how the Israelis helped. 

Coming back to the book - I immediately thought, why didn't I think of writing a book which ends with an earthquake. And since I like comedy more than tragedy, this would have been the perfect plot. But Frayn got there first. Well done, Frayn.

I don't apologise for revealing the ending. Knowing the ending never stopped me watching three videos about the Titanic, nor any film on WWII.

Popular Paintings - Make Me Blue

The portrait of the lady with the blue face, said to be the most reproduced painting in the world, has been bought by a diamond millionaire for display in South Africa. the sitter is not smiling nor even looking at the painter/viewer. Would you want to have lunch with her?
I can understand that people posing for oil paintings can't keep up a fixed smile for hours. But nowadays we have photos. You can take a photo and draw a sketch from it. If that's what millionaires are prepared to pay for, I'm prepared to draw an unsmiling face and add a blue complexion - a lot easier than trying to match a real facial colour. I must get out my blue watercolour and draw myself.
Would you like a caricature by me? It might be wroth millions in years to come.

annalondon8@gmail.com

Speeches Worldwide Helped By Powerpoint Slides

People say the audience should be listening to you, not reading the slide.
1 But if you regularly speak outside toastmasters to groups of retirees, those at the back with poor hearing and poor concentration - are glad to have visual reminders.
2 Those walking in late are grateful to have some clue as to what is being said.
3 In Singapore the presenter often speaks poor English.
4 Or somebody in the audience causes a distraction. It's very useful to have a slide which tells you what you've missed.
5 Once I arrived late because of traffic problems. I was asked my opinion - the presenter was going around the audience. I looked at the board to find out whether we were doing opening introduction to yourself, table topic, or what? The board gave me my answer which saved embarrassment to me, the presenter, and the rest of the audience.
6 In London we have lots of speakers, and audience members, whose first language is not English. The visuals prevent those situations where the evaluator has to admit, 'maybe it was just me, but - I could not follow the argument'! As an evaluator I love seeing slides. I can write my notes, then look up and catch up on anything I've missed from the bullet points on the slide.

Ebay, auction raptor comments

Auction raptor asked for comments.

I'd like a survey of my average spend, compared to the cost of the site, giving a price per transaction, and the average difference in price between what I was prepared to pay and what I paid at the auction.

I'd love a site which tells bidders who won that if they don't like the item I'm prepared to buy it from them. Sometimes you pay a lot for an object and don't like the colour or fabric or fit, but the seller won't accept returns. Meanwhile, you suspect that as often happens when you lose out, you decide you'd be prepared to pay extra for the postage on to you and a little more for the trouble the sender takes to pack and post. That would make two people happy.

I'd also like an item wanted page.

I have a house full of clutter.

Maybe somebody somewhere lives locally and would take away a big item.

Maybe they'd pay for it.

Maybe the dreadful cup/item makes up a set and I never realised somebody would actually want it.
I'd also like to bid on sites other than ebay.
And compare auction raptor with auction sniper.

Dating, Dumping, Rejection, Solution

After thinking about getting notes - how the recipient can be confused and upset, I had a revelation about what happened years ago when I was a student.

One thing useful I learned about rejection. 

Years ago I broke off with a boyfriend. 

When I moved out of home my mother did not want me to move in with him.

My mother insisted I break off and see if I met anybody else. 

She said if he cared, he'd still be there a year later.  

 A year later at last I was alone with him in a public room, after others left. We both sat reading.

But when I hoped to get back I sat around in the common room with him silently waiting for him to make the first move, because he was the man. 

He didn't. 

Eventually he got up and walked out. 

I could not understand why. 

Now I understand. 

He was insecure (divorced parents). 

He thought as I had broken off, I should make the first move to getting back together. He did not want to be rejected twice. 

The fact that we both sat until we were together meant we wanted to be back together. But both of us were afraid of being rejected and waited until the other made the first move. 

When nothing happened, he got up and left first, because I had already rejected him previously.

If he had waited, or looked at me and smiled, I'd have spoken.

I should have spoken sooner.

Toastmasters has a manual on the four levels of conversation. You start with general chit, chat, progressing through shared opinions until you reach more personal stuff. If you skip the first or intermediate steps the other person is overwhelmed. 

I think the same applies to physical approaches.

Drowning: Safety, swimming, lifesaving, weirs, warning signs

1) A boy died jumping into a weir. Others had encouraged him to jump in.

2) The friend who went to save him was nearly pulled under and had to let go.
That always happens. You need training in life saving. You have to get behind the person and tow them back to the side. Unless you are a six foot man rescuing a baby, if you are in front of them they hang their arms around your neck and their weight pulls you under. (If you are similar size.) I learned that when I tried to rescue my mother in a swimming pool.
3) To a teenager Mum and Dad warning you not to do something is just parents fussing about anything and everything. A notice saying Danger or listing fatalities on weirs would look more independent and be taken more seriously.
4) Is it a criminal offence to encourage somebody to try a dangerous activity?
If not, it should be.
5) If you had a sign warning danger, then people who are likely to be swayed by others might be influenced by the sign.
6) Do schools run any campaigns in their citizenship courses in health and safety and local areas? If not, they should.

Timing of Speeches - Dare You Stop A Speaker?

What do you do if a speaker exceeds the limit of a speech, which could be 7 minutes? Maybe the timer should remind all speakers jokingly that he will stop them at 7 minutes and 30 seconds regardless. If three speakers are on the programme and one goes over time the other two are denied the opportunity to win a ribbon. I gave my best ever speech and didn't get a ribbon because a speaker went over time.
If a speaker goes over time denying the other the chance to get a ribbon, one of the committee members should have a speech ready to make sure there's a ribbon awarded. It's totally unfair that one speaker go over time and somebody else suffers a loss.
Once in an area contest we were over time and so the Toastmaster of the evening cut out my role in the programme.
You can do it nicely and quietly by passing a note or you can do it loudly and jokingly (send on somebody dressed as a clown) but you must stop the speaker.
I've been at a public function in front of hundreds where the microphone and lights went out to stop a speaker. Supposedly accidentally.

Photos For Profiles Tell You What?

Photos should show you at your best and most inviting.
Does a photo show you or the person you are looking at in the following way:
Aggressive
Anxious
Evasive - looking away from camera, to the ground, or even lying down
Evasive in dark glasses and brimmed hat like a B movie gangster
Grandchildren - makes you look elderly - or are they your children - are you on your fifth wife? Why are you endangering them by showing their faces on the internet?
Grinning gums and teeth and ear to ear like a drunken loony
Guitar - other things being well suggests you are musical
Half-naked on a site where all the others are wearing suits - suggests you have no clothes or are a sex maniac or don't know how to behave and will be an embarrassment
No mouth - like you have no teeth
Untidy, unkempt, creased tee-shirt
Tee-shirt - messy bed, looks like no effort
Or
Beach photo enables you to show flesh without suggesting you are a sex maniac
Direct gaze - suggests you are straightforward and honest
Dog beside you looks honest and healthy as you walk and are responsible, but hiding behind a dog ...?
Faint smile at camera, suggests you are agreeable
Glasses - making you look intellectual and intelligent and educated
Smart suit and shirt and tie - suggests you have an office job.
Photo overseas shows you can afford a holiday.

Maybe a gentleman would like to tell us what pictures of ladies suggest.

New Teeth For All - But Not Yet

Great news from Kings College, London, dental department. New teeth, and fillings which match - 'all my own teeth' for all. Not yet - but they are researching it. Using mouse teeth which don't stop growing. So I can grind my teeth at night without wearing them down. Grr!
But I can't understand why they aren't checking out how we grow a second set of teeth and how sharks grow up to six sets. I'd settle for a third set - but only if they grew quickly. You don't want adults to have all their teeth falling out before they grow a new set. Yes, new teeth will be expensive at first. So are most new must haves. A year or two later the demand is great so you get economies of scale, people willing to invest money in factories, then the price comes down so the desired object is affordable as a luxury and eventually mass produced.

Safety In Zoos; Safety When Using A Phone

Safety rules need to be strengthened. Diana Hanson who died in California in 2013 is not the first person to be killed in a zoo or wildlife park. Nor is it the first incident in which an animal got out of a cage or enclosure. Even if it was the first incident, that's one too many. It's a warning signal to prevent more events like this.
Any suggestions? Here are mine:
1 Double doors, so if an animal unlocks one, there is a second.
Yes, it could trap you, with the animal, delay your escape, so you need an alarm.
2 She was inside the main cage to clean the cage. Cleaners should not be inside cages. Do cage cleaning mechanically with inbuilt showers, like in one star motels. The cleaner just operates the shower and dryer remotely.
3 She was talking on the mobile phone. Yes, she needs a mobile phone to call for help. But mobile phones need a Do not Endanger Recipient message. Asking callers to leave a voice message or call later. This could be activated when you are driving, climbing, working with wild animals or doing any job preventing you from receiving calls safely.

Drinks server shown her own stolen ID - coincidence?

Victim, Brianna Priddy of Colorado, serving drinks is handed her own stolen driver's license as ID - is this an amazing coincidence? Karma, maybe, some see it that way. Unlikely? Yes and no. It had to happen one day.
The ID is allegedly taken from a nightclub, probably near where both thief and victim live. The ID may then be used all over their local area in eating places, supermarkets or places selling alcohol. Until the paths of the two people overlap and the alleged thief is caught. The linking factor is not that two people, victim and thief, use the same two venues, but that the stolen ID belongs to a food and drinks server who asks other people ordering drinks to show an ID card.
Was the ID belonging to the server the only one available?
People are surprised that a false ID was allegedly used by somebody old enough to buy drinks. Why did they not use their own ID? Presumably to avoid being recognised for previous activity or future activity.
Now we get back to the irony again. Full circle of astonishment.
For full story see Daily Mail on line March 7 2013

Rein in Babies and Toddlers

A carer gets off a bus leaving behind a baby in a buggy.
Simple answer to this problem - and the Bulger case.
Attach the mother or carer to the baby or buggy.
Have reins attaching you to the child or the toddler or the buggy. Then the kiddie can't be forgotten, or pulled away. Toddlers cannot run off into traffic or disappear.
Dog leads which extend might be suitable.

Do Not Approach A Lion

I've read about three injuries and fatalities involving lions recently.
1 Article in the Sunday Times described regret of a mother that she let herself be persuaded by zoo owner to let her son into a lion's cage where he was injured and scarred.
2 Woman in Africa is killed while making love outdoors.
3 Female intern is killed in USA.
They had to kill the lion because they were trying to get into its cage to remove the injured woman.
I am shocked that people handling lions have no protective clothing or defensive items visible.
They need protective gloves. Protective clothes. A helmet covering the neck. Thick body armour like the sort worn by motorcyclists. Metal boots.
A shield. In the UK a council employee told me every London borough has a suit to wear to deal with rabid dogs.
What safety measures are inside the cage? Meat to throw as a distraction - containing sleep-inducing drugs.
A tranquilizer on the body of the person entering the cage to activate to defend themselves?
A blanket or net to fall from the ceiling to trap the lion?
A sign warning DO NOT ENTER CAGE.
In Las Vegas you see one, two or three persons in a large enclosure with lions in the centre of the hotel behind glass, throwing balls at the lions. At least with three people in the cage two could go to the rescue of the third.
Not the first time.
A woman died at a Malaysian zoo where you are photographed beside a lion which is kept attached to a chain and has a minder. The woman slipped on wet leaves. Presumably the sudden movement startled the lion. It bit her. Can't remember whether she died instantly or later. I'd just visited that zoo and decided against having my photo taken beside the lion.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Follow me on Blogger.com ; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube.

Newspaper Spellchucker

I finally worked out what the problem is with the errant spelling in online newspaper articles.
1 I initially thought the articles were written by foreigners with poor English working for low or no pay.
2 Then I thought the writers must be people using dictating machines or mobile phones which turn the spoken world into text.
3 Now I think that after the journalist or secretary has typed up the article correctly, an automatic spellchecker or predictive text is changing words to the more frequent use of a word starting with the same letters.
4 Can somebody on the staff or in the business tell us the truth.

Hospital Safety & Cause of Death On Certificates

Surely it is or should be a criminal offence to falsify a cause of death. You could be concealing murders, like Shipton.
I think all cases of MRSA and clostridium difficile should be recorded on death certificates even if not contributing to the death. Only that way will researchers now and in years to come have accurate numbers to analyse.
My father died in hospital but when I queried the cause of death listed and wanted it changed I was told that would stop the release of the body and delay the funeral and all the work done to get family to collect death certificate and so on would have to be done again - I was so upset about the death I did not feel up to fighting and driving and doing all the paperwork as well as paying all the costs of certificates and so on twice.

Why Didn't Our Magic Speaker Win? Was It Judges' Bias?

I find a big problem is that the club's star speaker, the person who you think should be a winner, with the best speech, does a new speech and suddenly goes to pieces. Or they run over time - even at the international finals in Las Vegas. Or they are on holiday or away on business on area contest day. They change their speech at the area contest, or the next level. So an inferior speaker who is on top form with a repeat  of a mediocre speech ends up as winner.
Everybody there at the time or hearing the result afterwards, thinks the judges are nuts or biased. Why did boring old so and so win, the man or woman who relied on their own hand gestures for props? Why not our magical, most amusing speaker? Our favourite performer - the one with the bear costume which muffled his/her voice, the guitar whose string snapped, the candles which blew out, and the 25 props he/she drops. The poor judges had to go with the speeches they saw.
If you could video the speeches and send in the top quality speech by your club's best speaker, the results might be what you expected, not the dull person who is guaranteed to turn up, but the sparkling, erratic character you expected to win would win.

Comfy Bras- wrong bra sizes - finding comfy bras

Painful fasteners make women buy bras in a bigger size. A tight bra forces two or three little metal hooks into your skin. Sit back against the chair, lie on your back on a bed, even sitting upright or forward, those nasty prongs push into you and make you bad-tempered and give you irritation and backache. You have to do the bra up on the tightest set of eyes to get a double thickness of fabric. Most women probably don't even realise what's causing the bra to be uncomfortable and causing backache.
To find large size bras in oriental countries go to places catering for Indian women, such as Mustapha's in Little India in Singapore.

Why You Should Note Numbers of Emergency Call Centres Worldwide

A ten year old boy in Lincoln, Nebraska, kept his father alive for days with food and water but did not know how to call 911 for help. (I read about this March 5th 2013) After four days the boy's school checked on the fact that he was absent. Adding on a two day weekend, the child or parent or both could have been left without help for six days.
I've read of dogs, monkeys and tiny tots who were able to summon help. If the child did not know how to call for help, schoolchildren should be told at school what to do.
Maybe a film should be shown about the important work done to save lives.
Instead of films and videos showing fighting we should be showing heroes and role models who are life saving.
Basic first aid.
But it should be impressed on children that if any child or adult cries wolf when there's no wolf they will be punished by their parents paying a fine and when they need help they won't get it.
In countries such as France and Singapore blocks of flats have a concierge on the ground floor who watches coming and going. In China some hotels have a watch on every floor.
This is mainly to stop crime and other activities which the authorities deem  undesirable. Japanese cities I believe have a police point in every street.
Neighbourhoods, worldwide, should arrange for a house in every street to act as a help point. Choose a reliable citizen. If the householders and callers in that neighbourhood don't speak the language or can't be trusted simply install a callbox and signs for emergency services.
Failing all else, like in London's underground railway stations, have a direct Help line to a person in a call centre. The call centre automatically knows the location you call from, by GPS or some kind of electrical signal. The switchboard operator records the call and puts you through to the correct emergency service. Any child or adult can phone the emergency point or go there and be redirected to the right emergency service or have a phone call made on their behalf.
Anybody who makes prank calls is taken to mortuaries and shown films of people who died because emergency services did not arrive in time and sent to write and apologise in person to those running emergency services. And to act out a scene where they are in trouble but the emergency services are too busy to send help. Then to give a talk to their school explaining why they made the prank call and how they now regret it and realise why it was wrong because when the schoolchildren need help they want it to be available.
In the UK the emergency number is 999. You can find emergency numbers in phone books.
Put the local emergency number on the phone, especially if you move to a foreign country and are in a hotel, rental, property, or own a property rented out to people who are foreign visitors or don't speak English.
Phones be sold with the international emergency numbers on a card - in LARGE PRINT! A fixed phone such as a phone booth should clearly state it's location so when an operator or even your Mum asks, where are you, you can tell them.

Speech Judging: how to you rate a speech - should scores by revealed?

In Singapore I attended a useful training session for would be contest speakers at an advanced club meeting at Braddell Heights Community Centre.
At Toastmasters International regular meetings we announce the first and second and sometimes third place winners but don't release scores for topics and speeches and evaluations.
Good reasons for this. If you got no votes you might be completely demoralised. Especially if a newcomer. Equally so if highly experienced. Equally, you might feel resentful if one person got all the votes, or if everybody got two or three votes so that one more vote (you voting for yourself would have made you the winner). Once you become more experienced you might vote for somebody else if you think your speech is better but you want a newcomer to win - although I understand you are supposed to vote for best speech/topic/evaluation regardless.
More useful is to explain the contest judging criterion in advance. The first time I entered a humorous speech contest I thought my speech was by far the funniest. I got audience laughs; both I and friends in the audience were baffled as to why I hadn't won.
So I asked a senior toastmasters. It turned out that he had been one of the judges. He pointed out that though he could not comment on my speech, the criteria for judging (which I'd never seen) allocated more points to the content and structure of the speech. I'd done a stand-up comedy skit. (I'd just been to a comedy workshop course). I gave a series of funny jokes on the theme of teacher's mishaps and troubles teaching, very amusing stories from my career teaching, but no point or message, no punchline, no summary, no  call to action.
Summary of this comment: don't reveal judges and scores, but make it clear in advance what judges should be looking for.
Hold a training session in the meeting prior to contest on what makes a good speech. Don't just allow that training to be optional, so it's done mostly by advanced clubs. Schedule pre-contest speaking/judging training session, with a target speech, into a Toastmasters worldwide calendar. Scheduled training would be really helpful for new presidents, new VPEs arranging meetings and agendas; plus potential contestants, new members, new judges, and those keen to enter first time or scared to do so - who after training might enter contests or volunteer as judges, if they had previously been given guidance.

Helpful and Inspiring Internet Websites

On the internet you can find everything you need. You have a problem, there's an answer. Yesterday I had a splinter, so I googled remove a splinter. I knew I could buy a product from the pharmacy to do it, but it was Sunday so the pharmacy was shut. I found all sorts of answers.

Safety, sharks and beaches

Shocked to hear of Mr Adam Strange's death in early 2013 at the beach near Auckland, New Zealand. Holding a funeral on a beach explains why the family went back. But my first reaction was that I don't think going back to a beach where somebody has just been killed is brave; it is recklessly endangering others and yourself and your own children.
Don't people learn. 139 attacks by sharks, 29 fatal. (NZ or worldwide?)
Swim in a swimming pool or on a beach which has a net across the 'harbour' entrance.
Shouldn't beaches have a safety number? If somebody has been killed the number is zero.
It seems they had lots of safety help, lifeguards, police helicopters firing, but still could not save the man.
Time for somebody to invent something new, such as swimming pools with tough barriers which float in the sea using sea water with walls against fish so they cannot see or smell or reach the people inside.

Numbers of people speaking foreign languages

The UK's Office of National Statistics (ONS) reveals that in Harrow only 75% of the population speak English as a first language. This information is useful for government surveys, consumer questionnaires, internet  sites, TV and radio programmes and advertising and marketing. In Singapore one of the recently launched national newspapers is in two languages helping Mandarin speakers speak English and English speakers speak Mandarin. the newspaper is in two halves, in each language, and has a dictionary section of twenty or more new words in the middle.
From the point of view of speakers, we have to slow down. This means I have to slow down when giving a speech at Toastmasters or reading poetry in a primary school or on radio. The same goes for members of speakers associations such as Toastmasters International.
For details of Harrovian Speakers, meeting Monday evenings, go to
harrovians.org.uk






Infographic by Office for National Statistics (ONS)