Photos and Privacy: Are You Followed As Photographer And Your Subjects Safe?

Problem
What does your photo reveal?

How Data Can Help You - Locate You In Emergency
I have looked at lots of photos on Wikipedia which show the type of camera and place. They get the place from a GPS reading built into the caera of smart phone. That's really handy. If you are floating out to sea and need help, lost in a snowstorm, trapped by an abductor, in a car which rolled off a road into a gully, your photo will tell anybody you send it to where you are.

Revealing Loaction Of Valuables
What about your own photos? Supposing a film star or a friend is showing their diamond engagemnt ring? You take a photo.

They change their mind and say, "I don't want my photo taken."

You agree not to put it on Facebook. Then you decide to just show the lovely ring but not the face which would reveal who it belongs to. The photo data might reveal the jewellery shop, the hotel, or the country.

Marketing Fusion and Ages
Marketing organisations use fusion. They piece together a mosaic of their customers. They know that elderly people buy walking sticks, that mothers buy nappies, that large families buy giant packs of rice. No surprises there. Older people read the Help The Aged magazines, whilst young mother are likely to read Mother and Baby or Parents. The readers of car magazines and bikers' magazines form another subgroup. Some categories overlap. Others are separate.

It doesn't happen every time. You could be buying goods or magazines for somebody else. But it happens more often than not.

Government Data
The UK government has already sold off your address to marketing companies. I once filled in a libarary car application. My name was mis-spelled, on their computer. My library card was printed with a C instead of an L. Years later I started getting information from companies spelling my name with a C.

Marketing Areas and Journals
The marketing poeple also know that the seafront in one remote resort has small bungalows; another area has opulent Hollywood mansions. They know that Irish people read Irish newspapers; Indians read newspapers in their language. Technical journals are read by people with Phds. By asking you two questions about yourself, they can guess another fact, or track it down from another survey.

Seasonal Buying
Sellers, insurers and burglars know that people buy gifts at Christmas time. The same applies to other national holidays. The same goes for weddings. Birthdays also attract advertisers. I am very a happy to be emailed by Café Rouge offering me free Champagne or sparkling white wine if I book a table for four or more, better still if the offer has no minimum persons requirement. Otherwise, if one person is ill with flu, we cancel the dinner, postpone it, find the voucher has expired and never go.

Hotel Customers
It is the same sort of piecing together information as is done by the shopkeeper who ask sa tourist, 'which hotel are you staying in?' If you are staying in the five star hotel, he gets out his more expensive goods. If you are staying in a youth hostel, he find you something in your budget.

GPS
When my photos are stored on my computer, it's quite handy to have the rough location. Sometimes the location is wrong, off by a few miles. The GPS is at fault.

We were looking for a cemetery for a funeral in the car. The gps was wrong. We were in the adjacent road, separated from the cemetery by a road of houses. The entrance was around the corner and down a side road.

Delay
However, I am getting increasingly wary about which photos I show. I often put up photos a week later, after I have changed location. I no longer feel guilty that my pictures are no longer news, that I have not shown a photo taken right this second. I am not into 'news'. I am into features.

Wikipedia warns:

 A photo taken with a GPS-enabled camera can reveal the exact location and time it was taken, and the unique ID number of the device - this is all done by default - often without the user's knowledge. Many users may be unaware that their photos are tagged by default in this manner, or that specialist software may be required to remove the Exif tag before publishing. 

For example, a whistleblower, journalist or political dissident relying on the protection of anonymity to allow them to report malfeasance by a corporate entity, criminal, or government may therefore find their safety compromised by this default data collection.

In December 2012, anti-virus programmer John McAfee was arrested in Guatemala while fleeing from alleged persecution^[15] in Belize, which shares a border. Vice magazine had published an exclusive interview on their website with McAfee "on the run"^[16] that included a photo of McAfee with a Vice reporter taken with a phone that had geotagged the image.^[17] The photo's metadata included GPS coordinates locating McAfee in Guatemala, and he was captured two days later.^[18]

According to documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the NSA is targeting Exif information under the XKeyscoreprogram.^[19]

The privacy problem of Exif data can be avoided by removing the Exif data using a metadata removal tool.^[20]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5448389/Facebook-personal-data-files-Australia-inquiry.html

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

We Coped With Flooding, Now Be Prepared - For Snow - Problems and Solutions from cars to clothes and food

Flooding
Last time when we had flooding, in 1984, in the Harrow area, public-spirited people were in Hatch End main street, called The Broadway, with their 4 by 4s, towing cars which were stuck in the floods. We have lots of cars and trucks and people stuck doing nothing who would be only too glad to help.

Commentators say Torbay and Exeter are fully gritted and lack of snow clearing in London, England, and elsewhere is due to mismanagement.

So, for snow preparedness, we need these actions:
1 Volunteer co-ordination.

2 Sponsored grit.

3 Cheap devices to buy or hire to attach to vehicles which would otherwise be stuck.

4 Not everybody can rush out and buy and fit grips to boots and winter tyres. We need systems on cars which deploy automatically to suit snow or clear snow.

5 We need shoes with two modes, or winter attachments, so you buy the boots or shoes with a removable snow and ice weather undersole.

6 When will somebody invent a cheap device which anybody can fit on cars and vans and trucks so that the big companies like Tesco with large vehicle can do their part in clearing roads in front of them.

7 All car drivers should be able to buy or hire snow clearing shovels which can clear snow off as they drive down their own front drive and the side roads so the first light sprinkling of snow doesn't set to ice. No good clearing the M4 if I can't even walk from my front door to the road and down the road to the shops, nor or drive down the road to Tesco.

What do other countries do/ Canada, for example? What do ski resorts do?

What can you do?

1 Salt / suitable grit on your doorstep and the path and that of elderly neighbours. (Order online.)

2 Check your shoes and boots for waterproof and gripping underneath. (Or Order online.)

3 Get home delivery of food.
In the UK home delivery from:
Amazon (if you already have Amazon Prime.)
Morrisons
Ocado - £20 off first shop (over £80), and free delivery.
Tesco
https://www.ocado.com/content/20-off-your-first-shop-

4 Plan car-pooling.
Put blankets in car. Plus a pillow or neck pillow.
Fully charge phones.
Take phone charger which attaches to car to keep mobile phones fully charged.

Food
Pack thermos of hot drink or soup.
Pack a cheese or vegetarian sandwich.
Wear warm clothes in case you are stuck in car.

Information
Tell family where and when you are going.
Entertainment
Take music, book or entertainment, for sitting in a traffic jam, or waiting for yourself or another in hospital.
Clothes
Wear warm clothes in case you are called outside to help somebody else, or to move a fallen tree or branch in your drive, or across the road in front of your car.

5 Meetings And Events - Plan B
Arrange for somebody nearby to leave notice on door of meeting if it is cancelled.
Move meeting to a pub which has a supply of food and drink in case you get snowed in.
Arrange at which time events will be cancelled so people further away don't set off an hour early to find that the event is cancelled half an hour before it was due to start.
Arrange backup meetings - two people living nearby can meet each other at one person's house, so the one with the big vehicle travels less far and the one with the least equipped vehicle does not have to travel at all.
In case the heating fails, organisers might carry in their cars spare small fan heaters.

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

Reminder - Wear White Colours At Hindu Funerals. What about weddings?

UK - still lots of funerals are all black. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I was told not to take photos at a funeral (UK Jewish liberal) so I have here just the cemetery attendants taking away the bier which transported the coffin to the grave.

In India, photos of the mourners gathering to pay respects to see Bollywood film star Sridevi Kapoor in Mumbai show hundeds of people in all colours. The VIP film stars have arived in white. 

Problem
What colours to wear at weddings and funerals in Asia?

Answers
Funerals
Hindus wear white for funerals.

Weddings
(Symbol of purity, just as white, which was established for Weddings in the UK and worldwide by Victoria in 1840.)

Indians and Chinese
The Indians and Chinese brides were red (auspicious and lucky).

However, many brides, especially Japanese, and in Singapore, will change dresses, perhaps wearing white wedding dress for one part of the ceremony, usually the formal part, and photos, changing into a shorter coloured cocktail dress for ease of movement dancing at the reception.

Best to remember check on what colours you should wear. Worldwide, the rule would be for the immediate family to co-ordinate with the bride, whilst others should not dress in the same colour as the bride. You don't want to be mistaken for the bride, nor to rival her.

When going to a new country, try to sort this out in advance. When a family is preparing for a wedding or funeral, you often cannot get through by phone.

Especially with mixed-nationality marriages, for example, a couple who met at work when both were lonely at an overseas posting, they have gone to another country for a first or second wedding reception with the parents of one side or another. I have been to three weddings in Singapore, Chinese-Indian and Chinese-Italian, Chinese-New Zealand, which incorporated traditions from two cultures. They might hold three ceremonies, whilst holding a third wedding for colleagues in the country where you met them.

Wearing Suitable Funeral Clothes
In the UK you are safer wearing either black or a dark colour such as navy. In case the immediately family are in solid black, others not, you might wear a contrasting colour scarf. The same applies as for weddings, that the immediate family are too upset to talk and a third party is giving out the information and hard to contact, so the earlier you can ask, the better.

If you have a car, you can take an alternative jacket.

Useful Websites
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5443881/Bollywood-legend-Sridevi-mourned-fans-Mumbai.html

For photos of Sridevi Kapoor also see Wikipedia and page for photo originals
 and for permission to copy photos see Wikipedia.
 http://www.bollywoodhungama.com (See Wikipedia.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

What To Expect When Invited To Funerals: A Christian Cremation or Liberal Jewish Funeral In London and more

A family travelled from Australia to London for their friend's funeral. It's snowing. Will we reach the funeral and get back? Are modern funerals like those in the old days?

My late father told me that when he was a teenager in the late 1930s in London, England, he organized the cars to the cemetery for his grandfather's funeral on a snowy day. The car got stuck in the snow and stopped. My father had to get out and push, standing with one foot on the running board, then turn the cranking handle. My father's uncle Gus, nicknamed the Joker, quipped, "Your Grandad doesn't want to go!"

The snow in the suburbs is worse than the warm centre of London. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Problem
Winter seems to be funeral time. Is it the cold killing everybody off? Or the cold days and short days, and dark depressing everybody?  I was invited to another funeral this week in 2018. Invited is not the right word, not etiquette. You are not invited. That's for weddings and celebrations. You are informed. It was modern. The message came by what's ap.

My lime green car is not the appropriate colour for a funeral. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

We can hardly see to drive. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Whose car will we travel in?

The mourners travel with the coffin in a cortege. Here are the funeral cars which went to a Christian cremation. Funeral cars look alike - unless you have a horse and carriage.

 Funeral Car In Black. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

What else did I find out I needed to know? Parking.

Parking
Parking - is it easy? The last two or three cemeteries I went to had big parking areas. But this week's was in the centre of London and very difficult parking. A good thing I went with somebody else.

Liberal Jewish Cemetery. Quite different to the Orthodox ones. Despite the theory that 'anything goes nowadays', most mourners wore black or dark colours. My plan to wear black to play it safe turned out to be correct.

Clothing Colours
Nothing worse than being the only person in bright pink at a funeral of over two hundred people all in black, when you are not even related. (That happened to me at a Catholic church in Southern England in 2017. I wasn't wearing bright pink, dusty rose, but it looked luminous like bright pink. I felt as inconspicuous as a flashing Belisha Beacon.)

Seats and No Seats
This month, Feb 2018, the funeral of a young man with cystic fibrosis, died in his late thirties, had over 200 people. His friends included those who had flown in from Australia. Latecomers did not get seats. I was standing inside. The last people to arrive, even worse off, were left outside, could not get in the door. They could not sit. They could not see nor hear the speeches.

There were three speeches by the mother, father and sister. No microphone, so those outside could not hear.

A Christian Cremation Funeral
In January I went to the cremation of a Christian neighbour, who had reputedly died (committed suicide?), after depression. The white coffin and pink flowers helped uplift the spirits. At the cremation, the coffin was left behind as we filed out, and curtains closed around the coffin.

Liberal Jewish Burial Funeral
For a Jewish burial in England, the coffin sits in the prayer hall while the eulogy (speech of praise) is read after the prayer. The Jewish minister was a woman.

The prayer books open back to front, because of the Hebrew, but the English is on the opposite page. You may have to share prayer books.

Reading Hebrew
If you want to learn the Hebrew alphabet you can do so on Duolingo Tinycards. You can also brush up on your Hebrew words and phrases and simple sentences with Duolingo.

Services seem to start, or continue with at least one paragraph about we are all dust, and live briefly as the grass.

Jewish Prayers
You might be interested in learning the Kaddish (prayer said at funerals, actually an affirmation of belief in and trust in God) in Hebrew or English or both. In the Liberal prayer book which was used, some of the paragraphs read were from the Song Of Songs. You can find the sources at the back of the prayer book (following the numbered pages. The back which looks like the front because the book goes backwards).

In the audience we had members of a Toastmasters International club, of all religions and none.

How To Get A Copy Of The Speech
You are not supposed to take photos or videos. I think that's a pity. Often the person reading the eulogy has a handwritten or typed copy of the speech. If you wish to read it, or send it to a relative of yours who could not attend, they might send it to you or give it to you. If there's only one copy and they don't want to part with it, you could take a photo of it with your smart phone to read later.

(At another cremation, of my ninety-year-old distant aunt, I emailed a copy to the speech to the lady who ran the care home. She had gone to the wrong cemetery by mistake.)

I made a mistake not taking an umbrella.

That person with the umbrella did the right thing. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I was once told that Ashkenazi graves, for 'German' and also European people, have upright headstones, but graves for the Sephardi ('Spanish' -also Moroccan and Middle Eastern). This UK cemetery has both.

Wheeling The Coffin

At the Liberal Jewish funeral, the coffin, covered in dark cloth, was then wheeled out to the graveside, a long walk, with the coffin and the family at the front of the procession.

The oblong hole for the coffin was large and has wooden or other reinforcements to keep the walls upright. The cemetery attendants lower the coffin. Then they wheel off the bier, a bit like an empty hospital trolley, ready to collect the next coffin.

Spooky, seeing the black-coated men trundle off in the distance, without the coffin. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

At really big cemeteries the elderly and infirm can take an electric buggy a bit like a golf cart. Remember to wear closed shoes, not your high heels, in case your grave is at the end of the grassy field, especially if it is or was raining or snowing. In case it is raining or snowing, even if you travelled there by car, you might need an umbrella for the cemetery walk. Plus gloves and a warm hat and scarf.

The Practicalities

The coffin is wheeled to the graveside, where the removed earth is in a pile. At a Jewish cemetery, rabbi, the minister, is likely to say a few words in Hebrew. Then the rabbi may throw in a handful of earth, and the immediate family are the first to pick up a handful, or use a spade to throw in a lot.

No Flowers
At the Christian cremation, we had flowers on display. At a Jewish funeral generally no flowers.

A Romanian Eastern Orthodox Christian cemetery, full of colourful real or plastic flowers. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

No Hand Washing?
Traditionally, at a Jewish cemetery we would wash hands and say a prayer during the hand washing. You might think that it's healthy to wash your hands. But apparently, the prayer and ritual cleansing and re-starting life, symbolically is equally important, or more important, or the only important thing, depending who you ask. But this was Liberal Jewish. No hand-washing.

We debated whether everybody would go back into 'the chapel'. I was sure they would. You always do. Firstly, for a quick final prayer, secondly and/or to tell everybody they are all invited to tea wherever, and prayers later, at that address or another.

Then we drove off to the funeral tea. Nobody was organizing cars. I was now shunted to a different car, with different friends.

Mixed colour bread. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Funeral Tea - The Best
At a Jewish event, usually a kosher caterer. This event had a caterer who provided as far as I could see, no alcohol but several types of soft drinks.

Bagels with smoked salmon. What looked like aubergine wraps. Two people told me they were good. But I liked the smoked salmon half bagels, with either poppyseed or sesame seed.
I asked who did the catering. Somebody said Danieli.

Most unusual were the sandwiches in a mixture of breads including a bread which looked like a marble cake, with dark brown bread contrasting with white.

For 'dessert' skewers of fruit, giant red strawberries, yellow pineapple chunks, green fruit. While eating tea, yuou are likely to meet people from all over the world.

Esperanto on the grave, in Warsaw, Poland, of Zamenhof, who invented the international language. Photo by Adrian Grycuk in Wikipedia article on Zamenhof.

The Cemetery
If you linger in a cemetery, or go looking for your own family's graves, you will find Hebrew useful. If you don't have time to learn it, print out the Hebrew-English so you can read gravestones. It is enormously satisfying to read a word or two in a foreign language.

Many people nowadays are hunting for their ancestors' graves to help with their life history. Latin would be useful looking at Roman tombstones in museums. Esperanto for the grave of Zamenhof, the founder of the easy international language.

Useful Websites
Hebrew Alphabet
tinycards.duolingo.com - Hebrew
Hebrew Language
Duolingo.com - Hebrew

Kaddish
The kaddish is written in Aramaic, the language of the people, as well as some literature, at the time of the Romans and Jesus. Oddly enough, it focuses on god and eternity rather than the soul of the deceased. A bit like singing God Save the Queen at the end of a cinema performance in the old days, a solemn ending calling on the Almighty, trusting that your fragile brief life is part of the eternal good, and hoping that the Almighty will soon bring peace and life to all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaddish (Multiple technical translations.)
https://www.shiva.com/learning-center/sitting-shiva/kaddish/ (A soothing modern translation.)

Find A Grave
findagrave.com 70 million memories.

Catering For Funeral And Other Events
Daniels Catering
Tel: 020 8455 5826 Mob: 07931 576779
cafdan@aol.com
www.danielsbakery.co.uk

http://www.kosher.org.uk/caterers

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/whats-difference-between-kosher-and.html

What To Say
To orthodox Jewish mourning family you say: "Wish you long life."
When saying goodbye to other guests and relatives you might say, "May we meet again - on happier occasions!"

More on funerals:
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/what-was-good-about-middlesex-stadium.html

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/frank-talk-about-jewish-funeral.html
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts on funerals and learning languages. Please like, follow, and share links to your favourite posts.

Why You Should Book A Brilliant Art Course At Writers' Holiday in Fishguard

Sunset on Fishguard, inspiring aspiring artists at Fishguard Bay Hotel on the course run by Susan Alison at Writers' Holiday. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problems
1 What to do when you have already been on umpteen writer's courses, poetry writing, novel writing, short story writing and songwriting? 
2 What if you can't draw or paint, except for painting by numbers? 
3 What if your partner wants to do a writing course and you don't?

Fishguard Bay Hotel through trees, at night. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Answer
The course I took at Writers' Holiday in Fishguard, Wales, only a long weekend in spring, started with dinner on Friday night at the hotel, ending with a packed lunch and a free lift down to the nearby Fishguard and Goodwick station. Over the four sessions on Saturday, and two on Sunday morning, we learned to draw and paint:
1 Light and shade to show distance and perspective, through the day,
2 Light and shadows, a landscape, 
3 Animals from dogs to horses, 
4 The human face proportions, and 
5 The human body proportions.

Here I am in the art room, wearing my waterproof apron, showing my painting. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Susan adapts her course to suit you.
Last year on a longer course I asked to do a caricature, without a sitter (everybody else was busy painting) I wanted a self-portrait. Susan found me a mirror. If I had thought in advance I could have emailed her in advance (which I did about one animal I wanted to draw, and I could have packed my own paints, or sizes of paper - such as miniatures or blank greetings cards.

Surely you can get all this from books, and from buying an online course? Yes, they are all good. But it's a great help to have somebody showing you what you can add to enhance your picture.

What did I learn?
Fill an empty sky with flying birds.
Put a bird on a branch.
Put a bird on a rooftop.
If you are the sort who likes the tragic and mournful, draw cemetery scenes.
If you are into motivation, draw lone characters trudging uphill through snow, with sunlight to guide them on their way to distant cities or buildings with lights.
If you like to uplift add couples at tables, put dancers in doorways and windows, or postman delivering parcels.

You may say, that's all cliché stuff. Every Christmas card does that. Every painting from medieval times does that. Or you might think - but of course - why didn't I think of that? Why did I not think of that when I started my sketch, my painting?

Susan starts you straight away with painting a background. It's so tedious to start with a sketch and not have painting until later, just as I gave up piano as a child when my first hal a dozen lessons were just playing scales and I never played a tune. Susan gets you painting straight away. Then we go back to sketching with a soft pencil before painting, and trying three or more versions of everything until we have a favourite, the one which looks exactly right.

Having a teacher on hand is such a help for all the practical stuff. I am painting and Susan comes over to advise me to change brushes. She says I'll get more control with a brush with shorter bristles. One big surprise is how much you can do with a huge brush, even fine work and parallel lines and curves.

There is so much to learn. As with everything else, getting started is one hurdle to overcome, Practising what you have learned is another. Having a finished product to take away is the 'icing on the cake'.

Painting by Angela Lansbury, reading for mounting. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Lessons Learned
What other mistakes did I make and learn from, besides using a different brush? Try your mount first.

Oops. Mount cuts in half bird and building. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Susan was very generous. She donated to everybody a mount and a backing board to take home your best picture, or all your pictures, with the best sandwiched in the middle, or as the flat base in a flat hard-sided suitcase, or in a briefcase. (Artists often have a dedicated bag which they carry themselves to guard against loss.)

If you are in a car, better still. But don't put your wedding table plan with the decoration you have drawn at the top and border, on a car seat. Somebody in your family will sit on it.

I had forgotten to take a kitchen roll holder for protecting paper. I usually try to remember to pack either a cardboard support from the inside of a toilet roll, or a long box for coffee capsules. I would use them to roll up a painting or certificate at a speaking contest. You end up with a curved piece of paper, unless it's just a ten-minute journey home.

Mounts
To go back to what I learned during the course. When I came to add the mount to my picture, I found it covered the outside inch or so at the edge of my painting.

The mount hid my signature. I had to cover the first signature with tree roots.

I then added a second signature further into the painting. I didn't want my signature conspicuously in the middle, in case I decided to display the painting without the mount. So I tried putting my signature inconspicuously on a boat, or a signboard, or the side of a building.

The picture overlapped the mount right or left. I tried moving the mount around, right or left, up or down. One way it obscured a window showing figures dancing. In fact, the mount hid an entire building!

The moral is, select your paper size, frame, and mount, before you start. I seem to remember that last year on another of Susan's course (a longer course lasting over a week) she taught us this at the beginning. Somehow I had forgotten. I should make myself a painter's checklist.

After several courses, or art school training, or being a professional artist like Susan, you will automatically do this.

So, if you want to start doing art, or would like a refresher, or a holiday with like-minded artists and aspiring artists, check below.

Answer
Go on an art course to learn how to illustrate book covers and illustrate your own books and DIY Christmas and birthday cards and gift cards.

I looked at Susan Alison's Facebook page showing a painting by another artist.

I wrote: That is brilliant. 

Yes, the trick is to add human interest to every landscape picture. A tiny person dwarfed by menacing or protective trees. Plus the determination of the protagonist, continuing their journey, through the sunrise and the sunset, despite the lonely trek, nothing to help, except nature, the shade from the trees, the light from the sun, but still continuing dauntlessly.

Susan Alison
Susan is an all-round artist but specialises in dogs and humorous pictures of her dog on cards, mats and all sorts of gifts you can buy for yourself and others.

Sunshine on Pagodas, painted at Writers' Holiday, Wales, 2018. Painting and Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Angela Lansbury
I specialise in caricatures - funny faces, not always a likeness, but usually a likeness, not necessarily flattering, on the first attempt. If you don't like the first drawing, and you have invited me to dinner, I will do one or two more, in between courses. One person I drew, complete with all his wrinkles, looked at my first version and said, "It doesn't look like me ..." However, he conceded, "On the other hand, it looks just like my father!"

Speaker at lectern, caricature and photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

You might like to click on each of these links in turn:

To contact Susan Alison, look at all her work, maybe buy a card or other item or get interested in a painting course:
https://www.facebook.com/susanalisonart/posts/

To contact Writers' Holiday and /or book an art course:
I could give you all the details but better that you go straight to their page and read all the facts and can sign up if you are interested.
www.writersholiday.net

To contact Angela Lansbury:
http://www.lulu.com/gb/en/shop/angela-lansbury/quick-quotations/paperback/product-21259011.html
https://www.amazon.com/Angela-Lansbury/e/B001K82R2A
Use Facebook, Linked-in, What's Ap. NB, there are thirteen people called Angela Lansbury including the actress. You will recognize my websites and my blogs and books on Amazon and Lulu my picture, the word Singapore, the word Toastmasters or the name of one of my books, such as: Quick Quotations, Who Said What When, Wedding Speeches.
I have many more posts on painting, photography, writing, Wales, learning Welsh, hotels, food, restaurants. See more posts in this blog and others on blogger. Please follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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

How To Find the Size and Style of Toilet And Toilet Door You're Looking For On The New GWR Trains

GWR train, new large toilet. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
One of my friends says she doesn't like the new toilets with the huge sliding doors. She wants a 'conventional' toilet.

I thought that all the carriages on the new trains had the big toilets for wheelchairs. I had been in one. I assumed that all carriages were identical.

I made the error we were told about when I did my first Philosophy course at University College London. People think that because they see one black swan, all swans are black. Not so.

My friend who was determined to find another toilet, went to the next carriage. No luck. When the ticket inspector came around, she asked him. He told her that another type of toilet was further up the train.

Off she went, and came back happy.

It turns out that the wide wheelchair-friendly toilets are not in every carriage. That's a nuisance. A person in a wheelchair doesn't want to be travelling all the way along to find one. Do they put the wheelchair spaces near the wheelchair toilet? Probably in that carriage. But, the next carriage probably also has a wheelchair space or two, but no wheelchair wide toilet.

I tried the smaller toilet by chance on my next journey (returning from my long weekend in Wales). It still had the sliding door, the same system. Admittedly, because of small space, all the buttons inside were in a column next to the door frame.

So, on the GWR trains, look out for a choice of types of toilet.

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

More Welsh Word For You To Recognize And Learn

Parking sign in Welsh and English at Fishguard Fort, Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Notice the word welcome.

Problem
How can I learn Welsh easily? How can I teach Welsh to children and adults?

Answer
Just read the signs all around you in Wales. If you like, make an alphabetical list of the words in Welsh-English and English - Welsh. Or photograph the sign and stick it on your fridge door. Underline or highlight the easy words in green or yellow; underline or highlight the difficult ones, the next day, (or next week after you have learned the easy ones) in red.

Here are a few:

Welsh - English 
(Spaces are inserted because the spell checker is threatening to change the word. Spaces have a second advantage, that they draw your attention to the letters which are similar to and different from the English.)
awr - hour (both words have the vowel then r)
croeso - welcome (co as in come and croeso, e in both words)
p a r k i o - parking (the first five letters are the same, not just park but parki)
yn - in (almost the same)

English - Welsh

hour - awr
in - yn
parking - p a r c i o
welcome - croeso

I am editing this. Come back later for more.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, blogger and author, and teacher of languages.

Drunken Escapades - don't do it - here's why

Problem
On holiday people get drunk. Celebrating, people get drunk. Then, alone or in a group, they do things which seemed like a good idea at the time, not so good a day or two later.

Drunk or sober, before taking any actions, ask yourself:
1 HOW DO RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE & HEROES ACT?
Would this action be done by any responsible person such as, (choose your favourites) my parents, my school teachers, the head of my school, my country or state, the HM The Queen?
Don't be an anti-hero if you can be a hero.

2 DO AS YOU WOULD BE DONE BY
Would I be happy if somebody else did this to me?

3 NEWSPAPER REPORTS
It used to be said, 'a lady should get her name in the newspapers only when she is born, when she marries and when she dies'. How will I feel if this is reported in the papers or on the internet and known to the next person giving out honours or jobs?

4 NO HONOUR AMONGST THIEVES?
If somebody else did this and I allowed them to do it, do I risk them claiming that I did it, in order to save themselves from loss of status, being put in prison or worse?

5 PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE
Can I safely suggest to somebody else that they might refrain from this action, to protect them from regrets and punishment and to protect an innocent third party?

6 YOU ARE A REPRESENTATIVE
Do I owe it to my family, friends, colleagues, sponsors, bystanders, members of the same sex, race, religion, nationality, to protect our reputation?

7 CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES
Actions have consequences. For you, your family, your colleagues, nearby acquaintances, people at a distance. Like stepping on a butterfly in the short story, everything has consequences. Consider the consequences.

8 HAVE SECOND THOUGHTS
Instead of' it seemed like a good idea at the time', you might find that 'on second thoughts, it did not seem such a good idea'. You would then save yourself and lots of other people lots of trouble.

9 FAMILY FIRST, LAWYERS LAST
Your family come first, not the people looking for work or a story or entertainment. You can entertain with your successes and skills. Believe me, if you refrain from a bad action, the lawyers won't go hungry. And journalists will be able to find something else to write about.

10 WRITE YOUR OWN EULOGY
Set a good example to others. Everything you do, even running across the road when the light is red, can inspire children and adults to copy you, at the time, immedately afterwards, or later. What do you want on your obituary? Not errors of judgement! Only good things!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5434151/Canadian-athlete-coach-fined-taking-car-Olympics.html#comments

Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

How To Unpack Efficiently: Everything From Food to Laundry, Keys, Passports and Suitcases

Suitcases
Check you have all your suitcases, coats, bags of souvenirs and food and drink. If anything is still in the boot or your car bring it out. Anything left behind in the taxi - phone immediately. (Always get a receipt so you can phone the correct cab company and identify the taxi and time if anything is lost.)

Check for damage to suitcases in case you need compensation. Photograph, phone and write immediately.

Wash off or wipe off stains on fabric and dirt on wheels. Place note on the handle of any bag which has damaged handle or damaged wheels so that you can avoid that case on your next business trip when you need to look smart, or don't want to spend time lugging an awkward bag.

Alternatively take it for repair. Go online to check for a replacement suitcase well in advance of your next trip. Or use damaged, torn or stained item on a trip where further damage might occur.

Problems
Wet Swimsuits
Sometimes you arrive home in a flurry and forget your wet clothes. In the tropics, Singapore, I swim all year daily. When we were when living as ex-pats in Rockville, Maryland,  I swam daily. I had to rotate swimsuits.

Make sure the wet one was always drying in the same place. Otherwise I would be delaying everybody, or postponing my swim and finding the afternoon rain had started. In a thunderstorm - you might be willing to risk it but pool attendants insist you vacate the pool for your own safety and to set an example to children.

In Europe we return from the gym daily or pool or from jogging with wet swimsuits and sweat-soaked tee-shirts. Once, after a holiday, I discovered a wet swimming costume in a suitcase, three weeks later. It smelled terrible, was stained green and black. My brand new costume!

If I washed it in a washing machine, that might destroy the elastic. The alternative was to throw it away. That was not an alternative. So I threw it straight in the washing machine, holding it with a disposable bag. I didn't want to touch it or distribute the spores around the kitchen.

After one wash it looked, clearn. It was clean enough to handle but too smelly to wear.

After a second wash it smelled all right when held at arms length. But not right when sniffed close up. Other people might not notice. But I still did not want it next to my skin.

After the third wash it was restored.

FOOD
After other trips, even just to a local restaurant, I have found food going off in my bag the next day or a week afterwards.

DRINK
Half-opened bottle contents may need finishing or go in the fridge. New wines should be stored horizontal if in bottles with corks to keep the cork moist and prevent shrinkage which would let air get in and eventually turn the wine off. Store wines in a cool dark place, out of reach of children and out of sight of the public and passers-by, ideally under lock and key to prevent theft.

I now have a mental checklist. If I am really tired, I make a physical checklist on the train or plane home so I can just follow it when I fall through the door.

MILK
If you bought milk at the airport or en route put it in the fridge. If you have saved milk cartons from an airlines meal, a hotel bedroom, or from coffee on the train, you can use that to make a decaff coffee or tea for yoursel of others.

KEYS
As you leave the hotel, check you have handed them their key.

Check the key to get into your home is handy in an inside pocket, not still packed in the lid of one of your five suitcases. If you are collecting your car from the airport, check the car key and any paperwork you need are in your pcoket or bag.

Check And Record Location Of Your Stored Tickets, Passport
Have a set place for your passport, especially if it is cocnealed in a drwwer ,box, suitcase, cover. I once lost my pasort which I had left inside the lid of my suitcase because i thought that way i could nto rush off without it. I cancelled my trip because I could not find my passport in the study drawer.

On another ocasion I was given a pretty silver passport cover, free with a magazine. A few weeks later, I looked everywhere for my passport. I could not find it. I missed a trip to France.

Later that year, I was diligently checking every notebook, writing the contents, the year, the trip, or EMPTY, on the front of empty notebooks, with post-its, to find empty notebooks to take on future trips, when I found the missing passport.

Why Keep Tickets?
Do not throw away your plane or train tickets until you have taken a photo, and/or noted where they are stored. (eg, left of middle shelf on bookcase, in study / in red box file on top bookshelf marked New York Trip documents).

Why? You might need your plane ticket to claim airmiles, or check they have all been registered. You might need your train ticket, eg in the UK for one month afterwards to claim about ten per cent of the fare back as compensation for delay over half an hour.

It may be saving paper to leave everything on line. Perhaps you can photograph the vital line or reference numbr and print that. When you reach the check in point and your phone is out of battery because of the flight delay, or no reception, you will find it handy to have the reference.

When you reach home and thre eof you turn to each other and ask, "Who's got the door key handy?", you want to be the efficient, reliable person who says, "I have - here you are!"

(Hint. Do not give your key to somebody else who can now lose both the keys. Open the door for them and replace your key where you know where it is.)

UNPACKING CHECKLIST
1 KEYS
a)  Check house keys.
Leave them in the ouseide of the door, or back in your pocket, or leave the door on the latch when unlocading suitcases from the car.
Did you  remove them from the front door?
Are they back in your pocket or bag or on the hook or table for when you rush to the shops for milk or off to work or social engagement or to see the family?

2 Check Other keys.
b) Keys to your home, keys to your second home, or office.
c) Car keys. Hire car keys.

2 DOCUMENTS
Plane tickets.
Train tickets.
Visas and expiry. (You don't want to pay for another visa when yours still has another year on it.)
3 Check passports and train and plane tickets. You might save on the cost of a visa by bringing your next weekend away forward a week or two.

3 FOOD
Check all carrier bags and handbags, pcokets and suitcases for food. Put it away in the fridge. (Or eat immediately.) If food is likely to go off, write a Post-it note on the front of the fridge to remidn yourself and others what to finish first.

4 CLOTHES TO WASH
Some people keep dirty clothes in a labelled wash bag, or a laundry bag saved from a hotel. Other systems are:
Turn dirty clothes inside out; keep in a bag.
List items you have worn, or check them on your packing list. (This tells you what to wash this time, and what to take instead next time so colleagues see different outfits. Alterantively, it tells you to take the clothes on your worn and washed list, leave behind the clothes you didn't wear on this trip, next time you pack for that desitnation.

5 UNPACK EVERYTHING
If you are too tired, you could use the one item an hour system. Every hour, or every time you walk past your suitcase, remove one item. When you are near the end, the task won't seem to overwhlming. Another system is to tip everything onto your bed. You have to clear it all by bedtime.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Welsh Signs You'll See In Wales: how to translate and learn languages whilst travelling - Toilet and Whitland

Whitland - Hendy-gwyn, Station Sign In Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

This station name on the line to Fishguard is Hendy-gwyn. The station name in English is Whitland. The literal translation is Hendy - old house and gwyn - white. I looked at the name and immediately thought that the word gwyn was white. the giveaways were the little w in both words, and the vowels looked similar. I guessed that Welsh had the adjective after the noun. In English over time the e has been dropped. Although the d is in both handy and land, the old house on the land is handy.

Learning Languages
When learning a new language, to remember translations of words, apart from finding links between ideas, you have to keep repeating them. You can look at the words from the window and take a photograph with your phone so you can come back to the words and look at them again later.

Welsh Pronunciation
How do you pronounce the words? Listen to the way the Welsh speak English for a clue as to the intonation. The emphasis is on the first syllable, with the the first tone low and the second syllable or a single syllable in high tone, as if you are asking a question.

Welsh - English
gwyn - white
hendy - old house
Hendy-gwyn - Whitland

English - Welsh
Old house - hendy
white - gwyn
Whitland - Hendygwyn

Here's a useful sign:

Welsh - English
Toiledau - Toilets

English - Welsh
Toilets - toiledau

The first time I looked at the sign I thought 'toilet'. When I typed the word I noticed it was plural. I thought, is au the plural?

If so, that's easy to remember. Every time I look at the word toilets, I can recall that the Welsh plural is au, just like the English plural is made by adding s.

Plurals To Plot and Plan
When I googled Welsh plurals, up popped a forum on a Duolingo website.  I love Duolingo. I use it daily for the language I am currently learning for my next or most recent trip to another language zone. The other Welsh plurals mentioned in the forum were:
iau

One person said, never mind the rules. Don't make life complicated. Just learn the words as you come across them.

However, the other person replied, I like things complicated!

The Advantages Of Learning Languages
I noticed a girl looking at her mobile phone on the train and another on the station. I thought, maybe she is engrossed in an important conversation, texting with a family member or friend, like several others I overheard passengers telling family what time their train would be arriving and that they would be home late. When I sat beside her on the seat on the platform I could see she was playing a video game.

I thought, she could be using that time spent on video games on learning a foreign language instead. That would enhance her travels and ingratiate her with local people.

The Welsh flag, a red dragon, lower half on a green background, upper half against white. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

It could help her status and skills when looking for work. One study found that learning a new language increased your income level by an average of five percent.

Learning Tools - Handy Websites
duolingo.com - Many languages including Welsh
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/25110878/Plurals-in-Welsh

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several other posts on Learning Welsh. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How To Emulate Beryl's Beautiful Blouses

Problem
Where does she get them?

Answer
I don't know. But she has at least two gorgeous blouses, probably several.

She works at Fishguard Bay Hotel in Fishguard Bay, in the north west of Wales.

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

What do I like about the blouse? Everything. 

1It is pretty. 

2 It looks elegant. 

3 It co-ordinates with her black and white outfit.

4 Tee colour has contrasting, striking black edging. The effect is created by a second slightly larger collar in black underneath. You can buy a false black collar  or double black and white collar from China on Ebay. Add it to any blouse or to sew on the neck of a jumper. You need a plain item because an unco-ordinated false collar looks wrong. 

Useful Websites

Visitwales.com

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g2067430-d320230-Reviews-Fishguard_Bay_Hotel-Goodwick_Fishguard_Pembrokeshire_Wales.html

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Women-Fake-False-Collar-Choker-Necklace-Detachable-Shirt-Blouse-Collar-Bib-Lapel-/

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite posts.