Travel with Angela Lansbury: May 2020

Saturday, May 30, 2020

Swear Words Banned On Boardwalks in Australia. Should you swear in your own language, another language, in writing?

My dream is to write a book which will be read by children and adults. Like Alice in Wonderland.

I never use swear words. They just fill up space.

Some writers think that words such as good and nice can be replaced by something more punchy. If you can't think of anything more interesting than a swear word you are competing with the person on the tube train. they will probably win in being shoicking and boring and leaving you thinking about the swear word and not the problem.

Swear words are cliche. Find something more original. How about show, don't swear. What is more dramatic: He saw the wedding photo and swore .... Or he saw the wedding photo and tore it in two.

What about swar words in public. Call them cuss words, swear words or profanity, call them what you will. But don't swear.

Anti swear word sign in Australia
On a boardwalk in Australia a sign forbids swear words.

Good for Australia.

I wish the London underground and Singapore underground railway would carry the same signs.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profanity

About the Author

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

I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian. We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

In addition to being a member of Tampines Changkat Advanced, and Tiarel, I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg

Or quicker, tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

In Singapore we are on the same time zone as Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China (Beijing and Shanghai).

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Which National Flags Feature Suns, Moons and Stars - Lucky stars!

FLAGS WITH SUNS
China (sun associated with the Emperor);Republic of China (Taiwan); Japan (Land of the rising sun).
Uruguay, rwanda, namibia, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Kurdistan, the Philippines.

Flag of China.
Red is a lucky colour in the Chinese culture.

Suns or stars? Usually the sun is large and solo. The stars and small in groups, lines, or circles.

FLAGS WITH MOONS
The moon is association with the empress in Chinese culture. Yet we in the west talk to children about the man in the moon, which is handily alliterative in English. (The American man on the moon came later.)

Flag of Pakistan
White and Green.

Flag of Turkey
Red with the white moon.

FLAGS WITH STARS
New Zealand
Currently, May 2020, the New Zealand flag has the union Jack and the four stars of the constellation you see in the sky.

Australia

Flag of New Zealand

Flag of Australia

Australia
I used to confuse the flags of Australia and New Zealand. Until I looked at them and saw that Australia has a extra, bigger star.

Israel
Israel has a star, too. The star of David, (in Hebrew called Magen David, David sometimes pronounced Dovid) which Muslims know as the Seal of Solomon. (You can see it on a building in India.)

One story goes that the six point star was an ancient lucky charm symbol designed to show the star trapping the devil or evil in the points. A lucky star! Lucky stars? Influencing us? The idea of auspicious days for births and wedding is still strong in the East (Asia, especially China, Hong Kong and Singapore).

However, in the West only for newspaper horoscopes and the superstitions and those who follow astronomy. However, we still habitually hear and use the phrase in English without really thinking about it, 'thank your lucky stars'.

Star on the flag of Israel

Useful Websites
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-national-flags-feature-an-the-sun-in-their-design.html

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sun_Symbol_of_the_National_Flag_of_the_Philippines.svg

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a trave writer and phtographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a langauge evaluator or grammarian. We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg
Or quicker to type and easier to remember: tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

Flags with Suns and Stars and Moons and A Prayer For Faith ToThe Universe

Some countries' flags show the sun.

Other flag show the stars. (New Zealand and Australia.)

My friend, Faith, who was ill, asked us for prayers. Here is my prayer for her and everybody. She fell sick and did not answer the phone, so people started sending her prayers through Facebook.

Prayer to the Universe (For Faith)

We thank the world for granting us another day, with eyes to see the universe, to see the sun at dawn, the heat of mid-day, with the clouds which blow past, revealing the blue sky beyond.

Into every life a little rain must fall. We thank the universe for the rain which waters the plants,

We thank the universe for he sunset which tells us to stop work and rest, to hear the patter of rain or the power of thunder. When we see happy families we share their joy. When we yearn for those who have gone before, we look at the happy families and know that we are part of the chain and more laughing children will bring us flowers and ask us to share our knowledge if we only smile welcome. aT NIGHT WE SEE A VAST BLACK SKY but within it for centuries the little white stars have been winking in their proper places to juide us and tell us north from south, to help us on our way.

A million men and women before us have helped, men who drew maps, men and women who grew our food and made our clothes, and built our roads, and built the planes and trains and cars and cicyles, the colles and toys, the photos and videos, the cleaners who protected us and the doctors who healed us and the communicators who passed on the knowledge.

We have been blessed by hearing the moments of joy and sadness, and questions and answers and the cuationary tales, and the folly and wisom, the mistakes and remedies, the sinesses and cures. We have been dealt blows and survived them. Yesterdys struggle, so many of them, are already forgotten, for we have passed on the greet new people, new places, new times and new challenges and new joys.

The universe is so complicated. Yes, yet it is so simple. The sun comes up so we can se where we are going. The sun goes down so we can rest undisturbed. The water and sun gorw the plants. Even the weeds such as the stinging nettle can be made into soup, and the dock leaves frown near the nettles so that when we step carelessly without looking and get stung, if we look around carefully we can find the dock leaves which will sotthe us.

We have a universe of people who could be friends or enemies.. We can find friends or make friends. We pray for our friends who are tired and sick. We pray for our friends, we pray that our enemies will see the truth, AS WE ADMIT WE WERE WRONG AND SEE The truth, we will find Faith, again, and not simply pray, because God helps those who help themselves. For hope.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a trave writer and phtographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a langauge evaluator or grammarian. We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg
Or quicker, tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

Time Zones
In Singapore we are on the same time zone as Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China (Beijing and Shanghai).
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Friday, May 29, 2020

Americanisms and British translations

Americanisms - British English
VOCABULARY
a la mode - with (vanilla) ice cream
done - finished (a task is done; a person has finished doing it)
grocery store - grocers, shop
Jello (brand name) - jelly
Jelly - jam
Outhouse - outbuilding / outside toilet
restroom - toilet
guys - boys and girls
pants - trousers
underpants - pants
eraser - rubber
rubber - Durex

Pronunciation
Americans say rout when the British say route, rhyming with root.
Americans say erb where the British say herb.
Americans say yawl - you all / all of you

About the Author

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

I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Or quicker, tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

In Singapore we are on the same time zone as Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China (Beijing and Shanghai).

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Online meetings, challenges and statistics

Facebook produced this memory photo for me to share.

This picture shows me at Tampiens Changkat advanced toastmasters of which I am a member. In Singapore. I am being presented with a ribbon for best speaker by the President, Vincent.

I am not sure whether this was a ribbon for best speaker, or an award for best topics and the club had run out of best topics ribbons. According to the wall behind I spoke in table topics.

Statistics
It would be interesting to have had compelte statistics for each club and each member. I would love to be able to say how many ribbons I had won and how many speeches I had given.

The club's statistics would be interesting too. The club has been going so many years, held so many meetings, had so many people pass through its doors, kept so many members from the first meetings, had so many presidents, each member had given so many speeches, won so many ribbons, entered so many contests.

If the club appointed a statistician or gave the job of keeping statistics to the club's PR person, that would make a fascinating and impressive record.

ChallengesA record of challenges would be interesting, too. How many times did the President, VPE and TMD have to cope with missing speakers?

Did they ever get locked out of the venue? We did this year 2020, because of Covid19.

About the Author

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

I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Or quicker, tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

In Singapore we are on the same time zone as Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China (Beijing and Shanghai).

Please share links to your favourite posts.

From Rome to Assisi via Perugia and its Etruscan Cliffside Gateway

Blogger (where I write) and blogspot (where you read) are strange. My archived posts disappear and I can't find them. So I go and ask uncle Google and he finds me my old post on Perugia from 2017 with my wonderful photos. Here is a nostalgic look at the Etruscans and wonderful Perugia.

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Etruscans in Paris, Perugia and Rome - and Christmas via Etruscan Perugia and Francis's Assisi

Rome and Exciting Etruscans
As I said in my previous post, I just discovered that Rome has Etruscan ruins. I'd never understood who the Etruscans were, nor cared about them, until I went to Perugia and saw the giant cliffside gateway which is the entrance to the city.

The gateway looks like tunnelling into the cliffside, but huge! In addition to the impressive gateway, in Perugia there's an atmospheric underground city. The underground tunnels were filled with rubble for many years, only in recent times restored and now you can walk around the area, which has an escalator down to the lower level, and shops in the nooks and crannies, with high arched ceilings overhead.

The Etruscans are the natives who fought the encroaching Romans. Either the Romans were more ruthless or better organized or both. Anyway, modern Rome also has underground catacombs, like Paris, as well as Etruscan remains.

But what did the Etruscans look like? A long time ago I wondered what the Philistines looked like. You read so much about the Philistines in the Bible, called the Old Testament by Christians after they introduced the New Testament. I looked up the Philistines and found that they had receding chins, which would not be considered beautiful today. Ideas of beauty are different in each era and to each group. Titian painted buxom women who were considered cuddly and voluptuous, whilst thin models are favoured on the catwalk in the late 20th century and early 21st century.

Let's go back to the Etruscans. What did they look like?

Etruscan mother and child. From Wikipedia article on the Etruscans.

Etruscan couple. From Wikipedia article on the Etruscans.

If these are typical Etruscans, they had square or oval jaws, heavy faces with large lips, noses and eyes, with large eyebrows, and were well-built or well-fed. I shall look out for the Etruscans in statues and paintings on trips to the Louvre in Paris, to Rome and Perugia.

In Perugia, one of the guides told me that her ancestors were Etruscan. I thought that was very exciting, as I had assumed the Etruscans had been wiped out massacred by the Romans, completely disappeared with no descendants.

Alas, she did not look particularly Etruscan, more like typically Italian. She explained that she resembled the other side of her family, the Italian, Roman side.

The Etruscans were the link between the Greeks and the Romans. The Etruscans gave Rome its name.

The Etruscan legacy to the Romans, what the Romans kept or copied, included polytheism, slavery, human sacrifice of prisoners of war, reading omens from scarified animals' body parts, and gladiator fights of the captured. (I am beginning to go off the Etruscans. Not that our era with terrorism is going to look much more civilised to people in future eras. Let's just look at the Etruscan art and sculpture.)

Umbria and its Capital City Perugia
Just a reminder about Umbria and one of my favourite cities, Perugia. The links are
@UmbriaTourism and #loveUmbriastianity to their battles to overcome the Etruscans.

Etruscan gateway in Perugia. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Websites and links:
@UmbriaTourism and #loveUmbria
See my other travel website:
www.luxurytravelforless.co.uk

Author
Angela Lansbury
Please share your favourite posts.

2 comments:

Xristos Zikos said...: Great shots! wonderful place, i love Rome, i went with my bf last year and we had an excellent experience!so many lights, history, tourism. you do have to know someone to guide you around- i booked with this https://daytrip4u.com/destination/Italy/Rome and they were awesome. i ll be back again!; December 13, 2019 at 10:01 AM
Unknown said...: amazing city - amazing city break
we have manage to see everythnig in Paris
with well organised day trips
https://daytrip4u.com/suggestions/france/paris/eiffel-louvre
and we will go again
thank you guys; January 29, 2020 at 11:03 AM

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Saturday, May 30, 2020

Swear Words Banned On Boardwalks in Australia. Should you swear in your own language, another language, in writing?

Which National Flags Feature Suns, Moons and Stars - Lucky stars!

Flags with Suns and Stars and Moons and A Prayer For Faith ToThe Universe

Friday, May 29, 2020

Americanisms and British translations

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Online meetings, challenges and statistics

From Rome to Assisi via Perugia and its Etruscan Cliffside Gateway

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Etruscans in Paris, Perugia and Rome - and Christmas via Etruscan Perugia and Francis's Assisi

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