Stop at St Clements Cafe, Kings Road, London - I dream of cream

Our destination was buying cheese at Bayley and Sage opposite, but we wanted to toilet and a  place to sit down and have coffee. The Bayley and Sage shop pointed across the road to St Clements Cafe.

Unfortunately St Clements Cafe is are only open until five thirty pm.  They had already closed down the coffee machine. But we bought a cake.

They let us both use their toilets, which are downstairs, and delightful. Painted white. Fresh and clean looking. With wonderful hand wash gel. I looked up Aesop hand wash. Rather pricey, at about £15 and up for 50 ml.

The seats outside are painted blue. A very pleasant spot.

Did I mention the cake? We bought orange and almond to take away, and ate it in the car. Take away food is slightly cheaper because you are not charged VAT. Cake. The aroma of oranges hits you as you open the paper packet. Orange zest. The nuts are crunchy tiny chunks. Very satisfying.

Downstairs.

Pistachio cake on the right.

Whole orange almond cake gluten free, £2.40 to eat in, £2 to take away.

We must go back. I fancied the pistachio cake. It is served with strawberries and cream. Not the ideal item to take away, somebody else said.

One can dream. Of strawberries and cream.

Want to go there? They are open for breakfast.

I asked for an address card. They didn't have one, but they gave me their loyalty card. If you have eight cups of coffee, they give you another free.

You won't necessarily be offered the card. If you are asked whether you live or work nearby, or visit the area often, your server is not expressing polite interest in you. (After I told her a summary of my life story and travels, condensed into five minutes as she brought in the chairs, I realised why she asked. She was trying to find out whether it was worthwhile handing out the loyalty card and explaining its validity. Oh, the embarrassment!

I recall my dear son telling me, "Mum, they are not your friend, they are your landlord/tenant." I imagine in the cafe he would roll his eyes and say, "She is not your friend. She is selling coffee and cake - and she wants to shut the shop and go home!" I suspect this is true, despite all those Facebook motivational pictures trying to assure you that the world is full of 'friends that you have not yet met'.

Never mind. They let me use their toilet although they were about to close. And I bought a lovely piece of cake.

St Clements Cafe
201 New Kings Road
London SW6 4SR
tel: 020 7998 8919

www.stclementscafe.co.uk

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

Bailey & Sage For Fun Food in the Kings Road, London

We went to Bayley and Sage to buy cheese. London has a good selection of cheese shops. When we are nearer Baker Street station we regularly visit La Fromagerie. Near Piccadilly you have Paxton and Whitfield. Another cheese shop is near The Shard. Now we've found another great place, Bayley and Sage. First, a huge selection of cheeses.

Cheeses galore at Bailey and Sage.

The occasional gift for yourself or another - such as the apron with chickens and eggs, at about £20. That's a lot for an apron. I want it. I'll have to go back and get it.

Then you can have a mini quiche heated up in the microwave to take away. £2.75. We had a choice of three kinds. We chose salmon and asparagus.

When you are tired of green beans, try yellow beans.

Plus vegetables. Yellow beans to make a change from green beans. A huge melon.

You can get a double espresso to take away for £1.95. Nowhere to sit down. You could carry it back to your car.

As we were leaving I saw the giant meringues in the window. Various colours. All sugar, of course. How about something with nuts?

Little coloured macaroons. How much? We asked an assistant. £12.50?

Nice for a present. A bit expensive for our tea. Do you have anything similar, but cheaper? Then we spotted some giant plain coloured almond macaroons at £4.50.

Yummy. Then we inspected the packaging and discovered that the maker was Sally Clarke, whose restaurant we have been to for birthdays, very expensive but a delicious treat. We never tried out the patisserie to take away nearby. Now we have.

Bailey and Sage have a second branch opened in Fulham this week, June 2016.

Bailey and Sage
Parsons Green
34 New Kings Road
Parsons Green
London SW6 4ST
tel: 020 7736 2826

Sally Clarke
www.sallyclarke.co.uk

What's New At Intu?

The Intu shopping mall in Watford is expanding. They are building a new department store, Debenhams, as well as space for several more shops and eating places. When will it be finished? Not this year, not next year, but the year after that, 2018.

Meanwhile, Intu has John Lewis, W H Smith, Boots (offering sight tests), Marks, BHS, Primark, Lakeland, Apple, Costa, Timpsons key cutting and lots more.

Does this pair suit me? Maybe not.

To keep children entertained, the little train chugs around. You can ride it for a small fee.

In front of the Enquiry desk is an area where children can sit and draw. You can usually pick up a free wrapped mini pretzel.

My eyeball, seen in Boots. Photo by Angela Lansbury

Outside in the High Street you'll find another branch of Boots and a couple of discount stores. I have several previous posts on Intu showing the train, Xmas decorations and shops.

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

Americanisms - sit tight

When I turn on an American video I get instructions which I understand but the phrases are slang which the English would rarely use in a business presentation.

For example, the message pops up:
Sit tight

This means wait.

It is absolutely clear to me as a British English-speaking person. But I am sure it would confuse somebody from Singapore or Germany or Russia.ie

American - British

sit tight - wait

momentarily - soon, shortly

British - American

at the end of the day - our goal (not necessarily today, could be at the end of the year)

wait - sit tight

momentarily - briefly

Angela Lansbury

Russian words for knife and fork - memory aids

I am learning four languages this year through duo lingo free website, Spanish and Italian and German and Russian, trying to do one lesson a day of each.  I tend to do German first and Russian last as it's hardest because the alphabet is different. I am now up to what they call 30% fluent in German which I suppose means I have reached nearly one third (33 and a third per cent) of the way through their first, basic course.  I am only slightly behind in Russian, but now that I am reaching a slightly harder stage, or maybe losing my initial enthusiasm, I am having to re-do the lessons.

Some of the earlier words in Russian were easy and similar to English. Maybe they put the easy words first. Sestr is sister. Brat is brother - and I remembered 'My brother is a brat'.

Knife is nozh. (That's using the phonetic Russian, the way it sounds, not the Russian alphabet - which is another story.) At the moment I am thinking and speaking to you about the way of remembering the word, regardless of how you write it in the Russian alphabet. Once you know what it sounds like, it's easier to translate into the other alphabet. The Duolingo site is starting to put the words in Russian at the opening page which is off-putting as annoyingly they don't put the phonetic translation underneath.

Knife - Nozh
I use my knife to cut my food to nosh. N - 0 - Z - H. The only change is that the s becomes a Z. They almost sound the same.

Fork - vilka
The i l k have three uprights like the tines of a three prong fork. K at the end of the word fork, fork, villa, f and V are similar sounds.  f-v. or remember as if you are German, I vill have a fork-a. Vilka.

When you do the exercise on Duolingo, the words for knife and fork keep coming up again and again. You just need some way of remembering which of the two is which.

Angela Lansbury, author, photojournalist, travel writer and photographer, English teacher (O level, A level, English as a second language, English as a foreign Language) CVs, websites and package translation into English and soon to be languages teacher.

Game of Thrones Quiz and Tour to Northern Ireland

I clicked on a Game of Thrones quiz and scored only 2 out of 6, but I have never watched the TV series. However, the locations looked so lovely that I am now interested in both watching the series and visiting Northern Ireland.

My list of must see places in Northern Ireland and Eire include:

1 The Titanic Belfast exhibition
2 Giant's Causeway
3 The Blarney Stone - might not kiss it, but photograph others and learn about it.
4 Belfast
5 Dublin (again)
6 Jewish tour including Jewish museum (I was sent a leaflet years ago)
7 Literary tour (James Joyce, Yeats and more): Grave of Yeats. Mountains of Mourne (inspired CS Lewis's children's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia which includes the book The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.).
8 Scenic places from the quiz including: White Peak Bay in Northern Antrim, a beach with elephant rock, Ireland's smallest church and fossils.

Yeats was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1923. Interesting and opposite views of whether it is wonderful or dull to visit his grave, inscribed with a poem.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g211933-d215212-Reviews-Yeats_s_Grave-Drumcliff_County_Sligo_Western_Ireland.html

Game Of Thrones tour £35 per person from Belfast including Giant's Causeway.
http://www.ireland.com/en-gb/offer/

Longer Game of Thrones tours four days cost more than £1000.
http://www.ireland.com/en-gb/articles/regions/game-of-thrones/game-of-thrones-quiz/?

Numerous tours of different kinds,  including escorted and DIY, with bikes or boats, to waterfalls and caves and cliffs and castles. Other tours and events feautre Irish music or food.

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

Prices and purchases in Greece - off the beaten track - nuts about Vin Doux from Samos

Off the beaten track in Greece prices and purchases are much cheaper - but with limited choice and simple living.

Fly to the south west, the raggedy round lump slightly nearer to London than Athens. Hire a Hertz car.

A four star hotel in Olympia (with half board!) under £100.

Cheap wine. Delicious giant tomatoes and melons more flavourful than those in supermarkets in London.

Nuts. Did I mention nuts? Almonds and walnuts.

At the breakfast buffet the hotel at Olympia had a big bowl of nuts. Soft nuts. Almonds. Maybe the ones from UK are dried - you fear they will crack your teeth. The nuts at the hotel buffet were delicious, 'cracked open in your mouth like popcorn'.

It was a mistake not to have brought back some nuts as stocks and souvenirs and gifts. But we brought back Greek wines at lower prices than in the overseas supermarkets.

Airport Shopping
The little local airport, Kalamata, is relatively small and not the supermarket size shops you get at airports in a capital city.

What about the Greek equivalent of the brand name which has become a generic terms in England, Turkish Delight? We used to buy it from the Greek Cyprus shops. Known as Loukoume. So here's a list for the next trip, what to try, buy and/or bring back:

Photo by Angela Lansbury

Wines
What we did buy was wine. Wine, such as Vin Doux, small berried Muscat from Samos. The island of Samos is the only place outside France allowed to use certain terms. Vin Doux is French for sweet wine.

Vin doux naturel which you would see in France is a fairly common label wording. But in this wine from Greece extra alcohol is added to stop the fermentation leaving residual unconverted sugar making a sweet wine.

Yeast can't survive in high alcohol so adding alcohol stops the fermentation. So this bottle is labelled Vin de Liqueur. That would have been low alcohol but because you have added alcohol, it's high alcohol; the bottle says15%!

You can buy a half bottle in the UK. My family bought a full size bottle  from Kalamata airport duty free.

Car hire
A Hertz hire car for a week cost 175 euros, about £20 a day.

"The Greeks are so friendly," recalls one of the group. A smiling brolly dolly rushed out from the Hertz office with a giant umbrella to check the mileage on return of the hire car and waited while everything was unloaded. "It was like being in a five star hotel, like the Ritz."

Read my earlier post on learning the Greek alphabet.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Historical Houses in Hampshire: Jane Austen and more

Holiday outings to Historical houses in Hampshire
What a neatly alliterative title I have invented or discovered. Jane Austen had some alliterative book titles. Pride and Prejudice is my favourite title.

1 Jane Austen's House Museum
The house has her writing desk, letters, her famous ring (why was it famous?), costumes and novels 2017 is the 200th anniversary of Jane's death and you can get involved in events in the house and garden thought the year.
Jane Austen (1775-1817) wrote 6 major novels published in her life time plus and unfinished novel and lots of junior and shorter works and letters and bits and pieces. The best known titles are:
Mansfield Park
Emma
Sense and Sensibility
Mansfield Park
Pride and Prejudice
Northanger Abbey
Persuasion

You can visit museums related to her in several places, such as Bath.
www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk

Picture from Wikipedia. See more details there. Excellent article about her life and books, pictures of Jane and her sister Cassandra and even Jane Austen cookies. Other places of interest in the UK connected with Jane Austen include the museum in Bath and her burial place in Winchester Cathedral.

2 Gilbert White's House
Gilbert White was a naturalist, scientist and writer.
www.gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk

3 Historic skills you can learn:
Celtic cooking
Cave painting
Sword making
Milking

4 You can also take literary walks.

More later. I'm off around the internet looking for pictures - I'll be back in a couple of hours when I feel like a holiday on the internet and I can spare some time from work.

http://www.easthants.gov.uk/visit-east-hampshire

You can read about me and my books on Lulu.com, Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn and see me on YouTube under Angela Lansbury author / poet .
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

What's New To See In Greece? More on Archimedes' Museum and Semaphore

Greek flag from Wikipedia

Water, water, everywhere in Greece, also in the Archimedes Museum. What's new to see in Greece?  After the Acropolis and all that. Archimedes' Museum, in the centre of ancient Olympia, where you can see the spot where they light the flame which is carried to the modern Olympic games. That's the modern part and the link between old and new is fascinating. The modern museum is surrounded by broken bits of ancient Greece, walls and columns. There's a lot of that in Greece, every city has something, several. But most fascinating if you head south west of Athens, to the Kalamata airport and onwards, is the Archimedes Museum.

Archimedes you probably learned at school is credited with inventing the Archimedes screw which lifted water, a spiral rather like a corkscrew bottle opener but encased in a tube. Going upwards instead of down, to lift the water. However, Archimedes was a prolific inventor. A bit like Edison later in America, who was credited with inventing the light bulb but spent his life inventing things. Our Greek friends, Ancient world Archimedes uses water to do everything.

Semaphore
Most amusing to me is the semaphore. You probably know modern semaphore as signalling with flags using levers. Archimedes system was more primitive but quite amazingly simple and effective.

Archimedes realised that you only want to send twenty urgent messages. (Assuming you don't want to say, hello, I love you or come home darling, twenty miles up and downhill for dinner.)

You are sending simple messages, probably something urgent like: the city is in trouble, flee, dragons are killing everybody, the enemy is approaching, has reached us, is killing us, fire, we are flooded, send help immediately (as fast as you can within 3 days, 2 days if you can make it), storms over us will reach you soon, Gods are angry, I am dying, goodbye.

You (Archimedes) stood on one hilltop next to a large water container. Inside were the twenty vital messages written on something waterproof.

You signalled to the person on the next hilltop to start ladling out the water into a second container. When the message you wanted rose to the top and could be read, you signalled stop.

What about the removed water? You just tip the container of removed water so it fills up the bigger one again.

This relies on having somebody at the other hill to read. But that applies to all messaging and signalling.

If you are technically minded, you may be interested in pulleys and belts, perpetual screws and gears, bolts and nuts, sprockets and roller chains. If you are more interested in daily life and amusements, you might be amused by the 'cinema, the hydraulic clock, the catapult and the puppet-show (a bit like the clocks you see over town gates and on buildings in France and Germany and the UK in Cardiff, Wales, where the little figures move on the hour or every day at noon).

Three linked museums may interest you:

Archimedes' Museum

The Museum of Ancient Greek Technology

The museum of Ancient Greek Musical Instruments and Toys

www.kotsanas.com

Read my earlier and later posts on the Greek alphabet and Greek food and wine.

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

What's New To See In Greece? Archimedes' Museum, Ancient Olympia

What's new to see in Greece? Archimedes' Museum is in the centre of ancient Olympia. You can see the spot where they light the flame which is carried to the modern Olympic games. The museum is surrounded by broken bits of ancient Greece, walls, columns and so on. There's a lot of that in Greece. But most fascinating is the Archimedes museum.

Archimedes you probably learned at school is credited with inventing the Archimedes screw which lifted water, a viral rather like a corkscrew bottle opener but encased in a tube. Going upwards instead of down, to lift the water. However, Archimedes was aa prolific inventor. A bit like Edison later in America, who was credited with inventing the light bulb but spent his life inventing things.

The Names Olympia and Peloponnese
Where is Ancient Olympia? On the Peloponnese peninsular. (How do you remember the spelling? Which is the double letter? I think of Pelop on knees. Double N.)

In Greek the site is known as Olympia Archaia. (From the Greek word root we get our English word archaic meaning old).

I searched on the internet to see how many places are known as Olympia. The modern city of Olympia is the capital of Washington state on the west coast of the USA.

In London, Olympia is a large exhibition hall.  The railway station alongside is known as 'Kensington (Olympia)'.

Flights to Olympia from London
British Airways goes from Heathrow to Kalamata. The fare was under £100 one way. Strangely the return was not £200 but nearer £400. However, an internet search revealed a flight on Easy Jet back from Kalamata to Gatwick for about £100.

Now, British Airways sounds a bit grander than Easy Jet. But for convenience, why not book both ways on Easy Jet? Because the flight from Gatwick left too early in the morning - one would have had to leave London before the underground trains started running.

(If you were starting from the USA, or from London, not on a budget, you might fly to Heathrow or Gatwick and stay at a hotel overnight.)

However, our travellers were starting from London. The trains back to north London or the north of England from Gatwick went one of two routes involving a change in south or west London. (Two passengers who took the trip via London were carrying rucksacks - on a budget one week trip on a walking holiday around Greece.)

More details on the museums from:

www.kotsanas.com

visitgreece.gr

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

Recognising The Greek Alphabet - Alpha Beta

THE BIG GREEK LETTERS
I turned on the Greek alphabet which I had installed and now appears when I click on the English flag at the top of my screen and down drop the flags and names of the other alphabets.
I accidentally typed in Greek letters the English words:

ΤΗΕ ΒΙΓ ΓΡΕΕΚ ΛΕΤΤΕΡΣ

Here are Greek small letters for The small greek letters

Τηε σμαλλ γρεεκ λεττερσ -

There are two ways to learn the Greek alphabet. One is by recognising single letters. The other is by recognising common words.

I learned to read English as a toddler in kindergarten from a sentence starting 'John and Janet went for a walk'. It continued something like: 'They walked with a cat and a dog. They stopped under a tree. They sat down for a picnic.' Each sentence was on a different page and illustrated.

Learning Using Initial Letters
When I visited Greece for the first time on a trip for youngsters I learned to speak words which I heard repeatedly such as Kali mera (Good morning) and Kali spera (Good evening). I remembered that m for morning was m for mera, and the other word was evening.

Whilst typing this I thought of another memory aid. S for Spera and S for Stars which come out at night.

When I returned to Greece a few years later on a press trip to Thessalonika I sat on a coach coming back into Athens and saw the same word written on overhead gantries several times, a word with a big oval in it. I eventually asked the guide to tell me what the word said. The word was Athens. I looked again and realised that the word contained the letter Theta. I was so pleased that I had recognised it.

On the plane coming home I looked at a sign over the door. I recognised that it was Exodus, for exit. Exodus - the word from the bible.

So, these stories illustrate that there are three ways to learn Greek, by hearing it, by seeing whole words, and by learning the alphabet, letter by letter.

Most of the free systems on line try to teach the letters quickly or not at all, whilst then moving onto whole words and a button you can click on to get the sound.

But when it comes to typing in your answers, you need to know the letters. I have always wanted to learn the alphabet and am now devising mnemonics (memory aids).

Again there are two ways you can do it. One is by rote: Alpha beta ... Keep learning a new letter at a time until you can say the whole alphabet.

The other is to move out the letters you already know. (Such as Alpha is A.) I is Iota. K is Kappa.
Then look at the sets of new letters, work out:

1 OLD SHAPE NEW SOUND - P
Which letters you confuse with the same sign but different pronunciation in English.  Easy to recognise - but hard to remember what the new sound is.
Greek Rho or R is written as an English P. Starting with the English, I learn P is R, 'PR' as in the initials for Public Relations reminds me that when I see P in Greek writing it is R.
He is Eta like the word Heater.


2 Simple New Letters which are totally new.
The easy ones are simple combinations of two strokes. Lambda or L looks like an A missing the horizontal bar. I tried remembering it as an L turned on its side, but that memory aid didn't stick. However, when I visualised it as a pair of legs, a man standing with feet apart, I found that easily remembered.  L for Legs:

Gamma is like a signpost pointing right for GO!

3 Confusing New Letters
I confused phi or F which looks like a circle with a line through it vertically (overhanging the O) but that looks similar to the O with a horizontal sign through the middle. One if F and the other is Th. Which is which.

Theta looks like your tongue horizontal between your teeth saying TH.  Theta has the horizontal which you see across the top of the letter T and half way up the letter H.

You can start by remembering the other one is F simply by process of elimination. If it is not TH it must be f.  It looks like a fish mouth opening and trying to eat something too large to swallow. Oh (four letter word starting with F). Phi, F.

5 Weird Curves
PSI
Psi pronounced ps, looks like two snakes painting in different directions, making a threatening s sound, ps. Or, if you don't like snakes, think of two whispering human lookouts, one is looking left, the other looking right. They are whispering PS! Short for PSST.

5 Letters which you can recognise when they are capital letters but look different in small size (lower case) or handwriting.

More tomorrow.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, English teacher, language teacher, speaker.

How Memrise Helps You Remember Words and Alphabets

How do you find memory aids for languages and alphabets in foreign languages and add your own?

Today Memrise sent me an email reminding me of the five Japanese words I learned yesterday. What a great idea. I am starting to warm to their website.

Yes, I do realise that they give you a beginner's course, then try to sell you their advanced course once you are hooked. It's brilliant that they get you started, all for free.

Memory Aids
One thing I really liked yesterday was the memory aid system. It took me an hour or so before I realised what was going on in the memory aid box at the lower half of the page. I didn't see any guide on how to use the system.

My MacBook screen is horizontal and I kept losing the lower half of the screen. I could see the memory aid somebody else had put in a box at the bottom of the screen. Sometimes it was useful. For example, such as the suggestion that square looking like a mouth was the letter M in Korean, which I mentioned in yesterday's blog post.

I initially thought there was just one memory aid, put there by whoever runs the site, or the officially approved contributors. On Duolingo you have to apply to help develop the next site which is in Beta (testing with guinea pig users, still under development). You must be bilingual and send them a text and translation to prove it. Comments and suggestions and corrections from people who are not yet approved or who have not applied appear on the forum sites.

However, in ' M e m r i s e'  (oops - spell checker is still turning it into memories), the person's name and photo appeared alongside their memory aid comment. Later a box popped up asking me if I wanted to record a memory aid. Mostly I didn't.

Then I tried recording my memory aid. My memory aid was a four letter word! I am glad I put in the dots. You have to be so careful on the internet. I don't want anything unsuitable upsetting any past, present or future potential pupils or their parents, or adults, nor to have to explain rude words to pupils, nor to be associated with anything inelegant.

Up pops my name and picture. Oh, I thought, this is just private, personal, like those messages which say Welcome Back and your name, they are just reminding me of my own comment.

Then I went back to check that page later. Oops. Up pops somebody else's comment, with their name and picture. I start clicking on every arrow and link on the page. The right arrow takes me on to other memory aids.  Mine was last. Click on the left arrow and I am back to somebody else's suggestion. Now I wonder if they can see mine. I'm pretty sure they can. So that's how the system works. Everybody using the site adds memory aids. What a great idea. A continually growing resource. This is a revolution in language learning.

I am glad I got in early. Maybe it's at the early stages. Maybe they will change it, or be bought out. Eventually you will have to pay. Or get annoying advertisements popping up everywhere. Or maybe useful advertisements for things I want, other websites, dictionaries, teachers, forums.

Meanwhile I am delighted to have not one but two websites teaching me languages. I am crossing the big barriers - learning the letters for Russian, Greek, Hebrew. I shall then move onto the more difficult ones, Korean (supposed too be easy), Arabic (which may be similar to Hebrew?).

I also hope one day to learn the Tamil writing which looks so pretty on signs in buses and trains Singapore. It has circles and loops and lines above or below neatly linking syllables or whole words or phrases - one day I shall find out.

Why did it take me so long to find out what was happening in the memory box on the "M e m r i s e" website. I normally don't click on links on language pages.

On Duolingo I discovered that you risk spending ten minutes on an exercise learning five words, click on a link which takes you to a forum page, then have to waste time loading up your exercise page again. Worst of all, you find you are back on page one of the exercises. Although you go through it faster now that you know the words, and its good revision, it seems a frustrating and distracting time waste.

To sum up, the "M e m r i s e" website, free for beginners, has a useful feature. It stores your own memory aid for later. The list of memory aids grows longer constantly. (Maybe at some stage they will have so many that they will pick the top ten. But you really only need to click on half a dozen, or even two or three, until you find one which works for you. However, if you need to click on all to reach the blank box to record your own, one day they might need to stop or put in a link to jump to a blank box.)

Languages you can start for free from "Memrise":

•  English, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Vietnamese, Welsh, Zulu
• Seller: Memrise
•  
• The Duolingo site has Greek and Hebrew in preparation and I am down on their waiting list to be emailed when these courses start, probably around September 2016.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, English teacher and language teacher.
Please forward this to anybody who might find it useful. I have several more posts on languages in this blog and other blogs on English spelling and grammar. You can also write to me with suggestions, requests and comments. I teach individuals and workshops in the UK and Singapore in person and worldwide on Skype.

Korean, Russian and Greek alphabets - how to learn them

I have been learning German, Italian, Russian and Spanish (yes in alphabetical order), five minutes a day of each). I am impatient for them to produce the Greek and Hebrew which seem to be at the beta stage.

So I looked around for another free language site. I logged onto memrise. (Spell checker wanted to change that to memories but I now know to click on the little x after the suggestion which means I am telling spell checker NO!)

Korean
I just started learning Korean through www.memrise.com
I thought I could learn the entire alphabet in a couple of hours. I had looked at all the things I could learn in half a day or an evening and Korean seemed the easiest, only a couple of hours.

But it was very slow. Correction: I was very slow.

Korean M
I learned that M is a square, like a mouth.

Korean C is D
 If you see the letter C it is actually pronounced like an English D. So I say to myself, CD. C is D.

Korean H
The letter h in English is drawn like a face with a hat. A circle like a face with a wide line above like a wide brim of a hat and a tiny circle on top like the dome of a hat. H for hat.

Korean K
If you see a Korean letter like a reversed F you think, "Oh F..K - what's that!" The reversed F symbol sounds like an English letter K

After Korean, Russian and Greek seem easy. Mostly letters you recognize, even if they look like they are reversed.

Russian PR

Japanese
I also had a go at the Japanese words. I learned that hai means yes, rhyming with aye.

Chinese Numbers
 Then I looked at Chinese (Mandarin) signs. Why do they teach you such difficult ones first? For example, they teach you the letter one, yet not two or three. I learned one, two three off a table mat for children which I bought in Spotlight department store in Singapore.

You could start learning the letters for the numbers one to three which are all lines horizontal like the Roman numerals but sideways.

I did learn one sign. The upside down V shape, like an A shape written so fast that it doesn't join at the top, is a running man or adult or person. So when you see that sign on a bus in Singapore with a number next to it, you are reading the number of persons who are allowed on the lower or top deck.


Korean
On the other hand, today I have made a giant leap forward. I have learned ten Korean signs. In a month's time I shall know the Korean alphabet.

Japanese
S y o n a r a (goodbye in Japanese). I knew that already. Thank you for reading my blog post. the Japanese for thank you is arigato. Arigato dozaimasu. Thank you very much.

Enough for one day. I'm going back to the Duolingo website on which I am making slow but steady progress with the easy languages, German, Italian and Spanish.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and language teacher.

English grammar terms you need to know (when learning German and other languages)

If I were you I would learn the subjunctive. What is the subjunctive? Learning languages, even on easy to use, or user friendly website Duolingo, involves learning some grammar, especially in German.

It's hard to learn a foreign language when you have forgotten the technical terms in English. Here's a quick reminder for me and you.

Technical term - easy explanation
false cognate - false friends (confusing words which sound the same but are different. For example in German
wo is where and
wer is who
(I remember 'who is where' and where is - who?)

nominative - name or subject of sentence, the person doing the doing (The cat in the sentence
'The cat sat on the mat.')
accusative - person who things are done to, object of sentence, in the sample sentence, 'the mat'

Noun - name or naming word (John, book, cat, mat)
In English only proper names - of people and places - have capital letters

Capital letters - THIS IS IN CAPITALS
lower case - all small letters - this is in lower case
initial letter - first letter of a word

verb - doing word (sat)
adverb (describes a verb) quickly eg he ran quickly / the fox ran quickly

adjective (describes a noun) quick his answer was quick / the quick fox
pronoun word which stands for a noun such as I you he she they it 

indicative - indicates what is happening - (I am or I will)
subjunctive - what your subconscious dreams or wishes, wishful thinking, possible but not actual if 'I were you I would' - sub meaning under - as in subway- the underworld underground - not real, usually prefaced by the words if or maybe.

If I were you I would learn the subjunctive.


Angela Lansbury, English teacher and tutor

Wedding Anniversary International Flower Deliveries and Carrying Cards When Travelling

My neighbours had a wedding anniversary. When I went to write a card, I wondered, which anniversary is which? Are they celebrating a ruby wedding anniversary?

Luckily I had written a book of their family history in which I recorded their wedding year. I had the decade. It was a diamond wedding. The other way you can tell is by the age of their children - assuming the children are from the current marriage and that they got married before they had children, rather than in reverse order which seems to be the modern trend.

A Card Box
I have a box of cards which I bought from a card company which used to send cards every month. After I had more cards than I needed I continued buying inexpensive or pretty cards whenever I saw one so I have a stock and don't need to go out in the rain looking when I need one in a hurry. The cards themselves told me the answer.

Anniversaries

A silver wedding celebrates 25 years.

A ruby wedding celebrates 40 years.

A golden wedding celebrates 50 years.

A diamond wedding celebrates 60 years. (So a couple who married in their twenties will both be in their eighties.)

However, in my card collection I had only cards for silver, ruby and golden. I suppose a diamond wedding is rarer. (Especially nowadays!)

I also had cards which said to my husband and to my wife, which were not appropriate for a friend or neighbour.

Card Making
My card looked very nice when I wrote it. I chose a pretty card with what looked like mock diamonds on it.

I stuck on gold stickers with pictures of champagne and the words of congratulation and 60.

Time spent, about half an hour. While I was at it, I labelled the box. It might have been quicker to buy a card. (But it was pouring with rain. And a shopping trip would have distracted me with other purchases.)

However, when I arrived at my neighbours' house, my little card looked rather small next to the giant cards which others had bought.

In retrospect, I could have cut the small card into two and stuck the decorative part onto a large plain card. I also have large plain cards and have not know what to do with them. When you are able to deliver a card in person, you don't have to worry about the cost of postage or whether the post office has a size limit on cards or whether it will bend int the machines. Your only problem is to keep the envelope and card covered out of the rain.

Personal Delivery
So, my card looked too small. But it's the thought that counts and I was there in person with a card and flowers and sparkling wine for tea time.

International Flower Deliveries
A lovely bouquet of flowers sent by the couple's daughter and son-in-law and family from the USA were supposed to be delivered in the UK between 9 am and 10 am. (From Waitrose supermarket, by delivery company Yodel.)

Instead of joy, the late delivery of the lowers was causing aggravation. The daughter was on the phone from the USA, probably on Skype, asking everybody to check in the garage and see if the flowers had been delivered.

The flowers finally arrived after I did, about 5 pm. The box was battered on top and re-packaged with tape, rather alarmingly, but the flowers were inside were fine.

Carrying Cards On Holiday and Business Trips
When I travel to the Far East I usually take two or three cards with me for birthdays, weddings and new home. Even if I am not expecting to need one, I have something ready. I always find an unexpected invitation.


Spare Xmas Cards
I used to keep Xmas cards in my handbag when I went to my club Xmas parties. One of the groups I went to, Harrow Writers Circle, had a box for Xmas cards. You saved postage by sending to half a dozen people, or everybody. The president of the club had a card for every member. I always found somebody I did not know well or had forgotten had sent me a card. I could also check the spelling of their name on the card they had sent me. Then to write my card and sign inconspicuously I slipped into the coat room or the bathroom (to anybody in the USA it would be called rest room in a public place).

Chinese New Year Cards
On my first trip to the Far East I arrived at Christmas and extended my trip into the Chinese New Year. I was sent Chinese New Year cards.

I had to reciprocate. I went to a local supermarkets and department stores and spent the whole morning finding cards. They were entirely in Chinese.

My first shop took an hour. I eventually found a lovely card. I bought two in order to have a spare. I later stopped somebody in the street and asked them to translate. They told me it said Happy Birthday. Disaster!

I dashed back into another shop and saw a rack of cards. I asked an assistant for Chinese New Year cards. All sold out. I found another rack elsewhere in the shop. I asked, "What are these?" Cards for bereavement, condolences. Oh dear. Meanwhile, my family are phoning me saying, "Where are you? We are waiting for you to have our lunch. What's taking so long!"

Now you know why I keep a card box and travel with spare cards.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Black Pepper Restaurant, Hatch End for cheesecake with amaretto ice cream

I like the paintings with the touches of red. The back room for a committee meeting was lovely. Owner Aziz came in and said hello. Three of our members are regulars at the restaurant - two of them often have the liver. Another raves about the duck and says it's the best place in Hatch End, which is not short of restaurants.

One of the bonus points is the set meal Monday to Thursday evening. Two courses for under £20 (plus 10% service charge, and any extra you spend on drinks). I was planning on dessert, whilst others opted for starters with a main course.

Olives, oil and bread.

Bread and oil and olives came up before the meal so I would have been well overfed if I had had the olives and a three course meal and coffee and drinks. (After having had sparkling wine and chocolates for tea celebrating a friend's diamond wedding anniversary).

The potatoes to me make a meal. I was happy with my duck which had just a touch of orange sauce, plus spinach and roast potatoes.

Black Pepper restaurant duck.

But for me the high point of the meal was the cheesecake with ice cream. I had asked for the boring, ordinary vanilla to be changed to another flavour.  I was offered strawberry, chocolate or amaretto. I chose the most unusual, amaretto. A good choice. It had a grainy texture as well as a wonderful flavour. I shall dream about it.

Cheese cake with amaretto ice cream. 

 Photo credit. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I could have finished with a dessert wine, muscat (grape) from Beaume de Venise. Alas I was too full. Next time.

Black Pepper
461 Uxbridge Road
Hatch End
Middx
HA5 4JS
Tel:020 84214349
www.blackpepperrestaurant.co.uk
email:enquiries@blackpepperrestaurant.co.uk

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

Wedding Anniversaries and Queen Elizabeth

My UK neighbours just celebrated a diamond wedding and they received a card from her Majesty the Queen.

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

Simple souvenirs - free eye masks, pens and corks

Souvenirs
Children's kits, playing cards and postcards (from airlines and restaurants).
Airline socks, masks, ear plugs and bags.
Hotel sewing kits.
Pens with advertising names.
Wine bottle corks.

Wine bottle corks
1Use as markers in the garden. Stick one on the top of a thin stake and write the plant name in waterproof felt tip pen.
2 Frame corks in an old frame which has lost its (broken) glass. Stick the corks on the backing. Fill any gaps with corks cut in half or strips of cork. (Or ribbon.)
3 Stick corks onto a plate and add a clock mechanism (which you can buy on line).

Clothes
1 Baseball caps with advertising name.
After the holiday is over, if you don't want the name showing or want to change colour, cover the wording with a ribbon. Use the same ribbon on your coat or jacket to make a co-ordinated outfit.
2 Advertising t-shirts. Dye black.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer.

German words learned today: only

Today I have learned only a few words of German.

Anfanger - beginner - I think of the word amateur which is similar first two letters and last two letters
Besucher - visitor (think first letter B and V are similar, voiced and unvoiced, or ordinary and emphasised, and placed adjacent in alphabets such as Hebrew) last syllable er/or so v..or/er = visitor
Bürger - citizen (burgher) somebody in a burgh or borough or city. I only just realised that citizen comes from the word city, just as Bürger comes from Burg
Feind - enemy, opposite of friend although similar spelling. (I think of fiend - the vowels are reversed.)
Gast, Gäste - guest / visitor, guests/visitors
leute - people (I think of people loitering)
Mitglied - member (Notice the M starting Mitglied and Member. In the German it is a capital initial letter for a noun. I have used the capital M in the English just to draw attention to the letter M.
Nachbar - neighbour (both words start with N and the last syllable is b-r
nur - only (Notice the N in Nur and oNly)
Publikum - audience

toll - terrific, fantastic, great,
Angela Lansbury, English teacher and language teacher.

Reading and writing Italian

scrivere - to write (as in scribe, scribble, scripture, describe, subscribe, inscribe)

The letters b and v are close together in many languages, such as Russian and Hebrew

io scrivo - I write

read is leg ... as in illegible, unreadable

sola - alone, as in solitary or solo

Angela Lansbury, writer and teacher

EU Round Trip travel to 27 countries - air fares

I was sent this email about the cost of travel, by air, to 27 countries in the EU.

"The cost of visiting all 27 EU countries in 27 days, before a possible BREXIT

"22/06/2016, Kiwi.com - Online travel agency Kiwi.com have created a graphic (attached) showing the cost of visiting all 27 EU countries in 27 consecutive days. The epic round trip, which begins in London and lasts nearly 4 weeks, comes with a price tag of just under £1,500. As well as a cost breakdown per fight, the graphic also suggests a unique visitor attraction for each destination.

"Although the £1,500 sum covers only the costs of flights, Kiwi.com also calculated that for a grand sum of £2,800, inner-city travel, food, and the cost of entry to one major attraction would also be possible."

I have a busy day - so no time to research. I'd rather go by train and save the money. But there is a time factor. Driving would also take much longer. We once looked at driving to Lviv on the west of Ukraine. You can race through Belgium and Holland, but other countries take longer.

Got a thousand (pounds) or two or three to spare, and 4 weeks? At least you could write a blog or a book - and up your travel country count.

Who else might do it? You could do the same trip at any time. A honeymoon couple might be keen to visit all their family and friends scattered across Europe. A retired couple might want to sell up and see the world, rather than take hotel accommodation between selling one place and being another. A student with a four week summer holiday, and plenty of cash. A lottery winner. A linguist. A lover.

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

Charity shops online and language

If you want to buy bargain or contribute to charity here are some sites and words to look for:

UK
Words to look for: charity shop; end of line; sales; sale or return; second hand.

Barnados
Cancer Research
Macmillan (nurses)
Oxfam
RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds)
St Lukes (hospices)

USA
Words to look for: consignment store; on consignment; Goodwill; thrift.

Goodwill - a company which provides employment for those with handicaps and produces goods to sell in shops and on line.
goodwill.org

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

Dona Teresa Restaurant, Hatch End

The decor seems more colourful and jolly every time I go to Dona Teresa. The same goes for the staff.

Starters:
My favourites are (on both a la carte and the two course lunch menu):
Soup of the day.
Minestrone (vegetable soup).
Avocado with smoked salmon salad - a huge plate.

Avocado, mushrooms with smoked salmon gratinated (oven baked with a covering of grated cheese and possibly breadcrumbs).
Parma ham with melon.

(Other more expensive expensive or time consuming dishes from the a la carte menu, not the two course lunch and early bird Menu:

Fish - a large choice:
Haddock
Salmon - in a cream and Prosecco sauce
Sea bass - grilled on a bed of spinach
Sole - breaded filet
Duet of fish - grilled salmon and sea bass
(Dover sole - expensive)

(Shellfish / crustaceans, and other oddities - I'm allergic to these but you might like them
Prawn cocktail
Tiger prawns in chilli sauce
Whitebait, deep fried


Meat main courses:
Beef
Chicken breast in wine, garlic and chilli

I must admit this was not the wisest choice. I asked them to reduce the child. However the sauce still overpowered the chicken. I thought that as we were a huge table of about 25 people it would be a nuisance of me to demand a special off the menu sauce such as plain lemon or white sauce. I regretted it. 

My chicken dish.

Turkey in breadcrumbs. Looks very nice. But not the ideal choice for my dieting friend.

Lamb shank
What's this?

Veal

Desserts:
Dessert of the day. On my last visit it was pecan tart. With ice cream or custard? I asked what flavour of ice cream. Vanilla. I asked, "Anything else?" I chose pistachio.

It was served with a treble clef on the plate. The decoration was mint, plus the mango flavour writing on the plate. The green dots were another flavour. Delicious!

Wines by the glass:
Prosecco £
Muscat: £

The food is plentiful. If you cannot finish your food, they will willingly wrap it up for you to take away. For a diabetic, they wrapped up his dessert so he could take it home to his mother.

Chef is Antonio. Chief smiler is Manuel.

Manuel was keen to tell me that one of my Toastmasters groups had already booked for next Christmas. And he had held a very successful fund raising dinner for Cancer and got publicity in a local paper. (Yes, I saw that.)

The person who organised the event said that she had checked on the prices and conditions of several restaurants. Others wanted a deposit for a large group. Manuel knew her and trusted her. She said she liked a restaurant which 'you can work with'.

Our table had a big centrepiece of flower. Copious jugs of tap water. Decaf coffee included in the price of the three course dinner.

Dona Teresa Restaurant
521 Uxbridge Road
Hatch End
Pinner
Middlesex
HA5 4JR
Tel: 0208 421 5550

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

Learning Russian: using letters as links

Even my 'easy' website for learning Russian is posing me challenges. My latest lesson is using sentences about knowing, or living.

First I'm having trouble with the short words.

I have worked out

Ya is I

 on = him (like one)
oni = them (add an extra letter for the plural: extra letter, add i in Russian, add t in English)

ee = her (ee! not he but her)

ty = you singular and personal and friendly like tu in French, with the y as in you in English

vy = you plural or formal / polite like v o u s in French and You Very respectful

Ikh - they/their (like the French plural for their  i l s - in French the singular he is the two letter word i l, like the two letters of he, but the plural adds a letter in french, three letters for the plural, starting with the letter i, plus tall letter following, like a crowd of people - they)

ego = his (his ego)

g d e = where  (g d E = wherE, "Good day, Where ... "

v = in

g o r o d e = grand town, like grad as in Stalingrad which was the town named after Stalin and Volgograd, town named after the Volga river

c h t o = what (I am thinking what sounds like wot/whot; reverse o and t to get  w h t o ; drop the w
the word does not mean who which also has the letters t and o because it is a four letter word

POSSESSIVES
m e n y a = my MenYa = MY  - think 'My men, ya'; ya is German for yes

NOUNS
m a m y - mother or mum like the American songs by Al Jolson about Mammy
rebenka - child or kid (r-b-n-k notice the B K - think baby becomes a kid  r-n for children)
k n i g u - book Knigu - booK; KNigu - Knowledge from a Guru (GU) from a BOOK boo book

z d e s  - here (four letter word with an e in  z d E s and in hErE) maybe think of down here

VERBS
zneate - zNeate = (you plural) kNow N in Know
think) zneaTe = Think - zNeate - thiNk - you think you know, but really you kNow NoThing you just just think N T is reverse of T..N.
d u m a e t - thinks Think=dmaeT Does Mind Think ? D M T ; or what does the Dummy Think DuMaeT

ty znaesh = do you (singular, familiar) know?

zhivesh  (ty zhivesh) =  (you live = have a home)
zhivut = (they)  (Ya zhivut) live (I think zHivut - H for Home I / My home
z v e t e (

PLACE RELATIVE TO
v o z l e - near / in the vicinity (v-icinit-y voZle - Zone)
d a l e k o - D for Distant - far away - da-far rhymes, do re me fa - dalek wandered far, l e k o - mother let me go, far away, K O for kilometers  ;L K Long treK

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and language teacher.
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Where to Buy Bargains Around the World

I was looking for a bargain store in Greece because a member of my family has a trip there. I found that according to Wikipedia Greece has branches of Lidl and Carrefour.

I am also planning trips to Hong Kong and Singapore.

Here's my country by country guide:

Australia
Daiso; Kmart; The Reject Shop; Spotlight (discount card gives 10% off on your birthday).

Belgium

Canada
Buck or Two; Costco; Daiso; Dollar Tree; Dollarama; Great Canadian Dollar Store; Hart Stores; Honest Ed's (Toronto); Uniprix; Walmart; Your Dollar Store With More (The Bargain Shop is now My Mark or Red Apple).

China
Daiso (internet sites see http://www.shops-in-china.com: Tmart)

Denmark Flying Tiger
France Monoprix
Germany Karstadt

Hong Kong
Daiso; Living Plaxa by Aeon; Wabash to Seikatsu.
Website gives pages of factory outlets. http://www.hongkongextras.com/_outlet_shops.html
City gate mall has many factory outlet shops.
Street markets such as Stanley Market.

India
Ireland Dealz; Eurogiant
Israel
Italy UPIM
Japan 100 yen shop; Daiso
Macau Daiso
Malaysia Daiso
Mexico Casa Ley; Waldo's Dollar Mart
Netherlands Action; Euroland; HEMA; Zeeman
New Zealand
Philippines Daiso

Singapore 
Daiso (Japanese chain all over Asia); Duty free shops (you must show a passport and/or return ticket ? -  you might have to make a minimum spend and then collect goods from airport on leaving and allow time to go to the office and collect the money owned to you.
Japan Home. Mustafa Centre. (See my post on Where to buy bargains in Singapore, 30 Jan 2016).
NTUC  Fair price supermarket. Popular book store. V a l u Stores (no spaces but spell check keeps trying to turn the word into value). Several 'wet markets' for food.
Online shop through Qoolo - equivalent of UK's eBay.

South Africa Makro; Shoprite; Woolworths
Switzerland Coop City; El Corte Inglés; Manor; Migros
Taiwan Daiso
Thailand Daiso

UK
99p store; Aldi; Argos; Bargain Buys; Cancer Research; Coop; Lidl; Home Bargains; IKEA (Wembley and many more); Littlewoods; Macro (mostly large quantity cash and carry food but also large items such as fridges - you need to show a business card or headed notepaper to get a card); Oxfam; Poundland; PoundGiant; Poundstretcher; Poundworld; Quality Save; St Luke's; Value Stores; Wilko; (£1 sandwiches in: Boots; Tesco). Cheap clothes in Primark. eBay. Amazon.co.uk
Fashion wholesaler UK (sections everything £1, £2, £5);
Food and eating
Wetherspoons pub;Toby Carvery.
The Taste card gives half price meals at selected restaurants.

USA
99 cents only; Big Lots; Deals; Dollar Tree; Dollar General; Family Dollar; Five Below; Fred's; K Dollar; Ocean State Job Lot; Ollie's Bargain Outlet; Target; Walmart. 7-11.

Also check for: Bargain Basements; Charity Shops (UK); Consignment stores (USA); Department Stores; Designer Outlets; Discount Stores; Duty Free Shops; Factory Outlets; Factory tours/Shops; Markets; Supermarkets; Thrift Stores (USA).
FOOD and eating
Look for All you can Eat stores and discount ad in local free newspapers.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, researcher.
If you know of any others or want to promote your bargain business or website please send me the details.

100-yen shop (Japan) Daiso (China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand) Living Plaza by Aeon (Hong Kong) Watashi to Seikatsu(Hong Kong) Europe 99p Stores (UK) Action (Netherlands) B & M (UK) Bargain Buys (UK) Coop City (Switzerland) El Corte Inglés (Spain) Dealz (Ireland) EuroGiant (Ireland) Euroland (Netherlands) Flying Tiger Copenhagen (Denmark) HEMA (Netherlands) Home Bargains (UK) Karstadt (Germany) Manor (Switzerland) Migros(Switzerland) Monoprix (France) PoundGiant (UK) Poundland (UK) Poundstretcher (UK) Poundworld (UK) Quality Save (UK) UPIM (Italy) Zeeman(Netherlands) North America 99 Cents Only Stores (US) Big Lots (US) A Buck or Two (Canada) Casa Ley (Mexico) Daiso (Canada, US) Deals (US) Dollar General (US) Dollar Tree (US) Dollar Tree Canada (Canada) Dollarama (Canada) Family Dollar (US) Five Below (US) Fred's (US) Great Canadian Dollar Store (Canada) Hart Stores(Canada) K Dollar (US) Ollie's Bargain Outlet (US) Ocean State Job Lot (US) Rossy (Canada) Waldo's Dollar Mart (Mexico) Your Dollar Store with More(Canada) Oceania ABC Stores (Guam) Daiso (Australia) Crazy Clark's (Australia, defunct) The Reject Shop (Australia)