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Oslo is the capital of Norway.
Wrap up warmly. Wear your woollies, your thermal underwear, and your ski clothes. The Norwegian weather is changeable and they have a saying, there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.
What To Do and See
1 Guided walking tour past the sculpture of a huge cat.
For an overview of buildings, areas, and scenery, extra or alternative tour options, depending on the weather, include a hop on hop off bus, and other land and sea vehicles including bikes, and boats, and a side trip fjord tour
2 Munch museum. The man who painted The Scream and many more.
3 The National Museum, on the waterfront, contains The Scream.
4 Viking ship museum
5 Kon-tiki Museum. (Thor Heyerdahl's boat named after the old name of an Inca god.)
6 Food tour including reindeer, moose, fishcake, whale, waffles.
On a press tour to Finland I opted for steak instead of reindeer, thinking the reindeer would cost more to my hosts, but reindeer meat was readily available, and beefsteak was rarer and more expensive. So check the menu prices. The local speciality might be dearer or cheaper.
7 Royal palace, huge place, neo-classical with gardens.
8 Oslo Opera House. Rooftop walk, suggested sunset.
9 Henrik Ibsen Museum. Playwright.
10 Vigeland Sculpture Park (Vigelandesparken) - sculptures of Gustav Vigeland. Highlights are the boy, the stages of life. (You might wish to visit a second sites of interest, the museum, where he worked in the attic. A third location is the museum of his brother, which contains more artworks and a mural.)
Some of the locations and tours are offered as a two part package ticket.
Weather , Sun, Snow, Rain Skiing
Going north, you could see the Northern Lights in winter. Experience long hours of daylight in summer, but only 6 hours of daylight in winter. Skiing in some areas in winter, swimming in summer.
Flights from the UK to Norway go from London, Heathrow, London City Airport, and Gatwick.
Useful Websites
Flights
https://www.kayak.co.uk/stays?lang=en&utm_campaign=Destination+-+IS+-+Iceland+-+Country
https://www.expedia.co.uk/Flights-Search?trip=roundtrip&leg1=from:LON,to:OSL,departure:
Norway
https://www.visitnorway.com/things-to-do/art-culture/art/museums/the-national-museum-of-norway/
Oslo
https://www.localcityguides.com/en/oslo/itineraries/oslo-in-one-day-top-attractions-day-1
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Oslo
https://wikitravel.org/en/Oslo
https://www.visitacity.com/en/oslo/activities/all-activities
Photos
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Works_by_Gustav_Vigeland
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kon-Tiki,_Kon-Tiki_Museum,_2019_(03).jpg
Updated Monday March 30th.
Yes, it happens on the last Sunday in March in Britain. Sunday so that it disrupts work as little as possible. So you 'lose' an hour's sleep if you wake up when your clocks and alarms are set to yesterday's time. The clocks change after midnight on Saturday, too late for most people to reset their clocks.
Luckily we have one clock set to radio controlled time which automatically resets itself. But you have to check your cooker, laptop. car clock, and watches.
How do you re-set your watch? Either pin the instructions on a kitchen or office notice board or look up online.
Most watches are similar. By trial and error you can find out what happens when you fiddle with each control. Write it down.
Updating Your Watch
On my watch, which has four control buttons, the top left button is the light.
Look closely, with a magnifying glass, and my watch has text in tiny letters saying which button is which.
The left resets the time, minutes and seconds, but you have to press it in.
America, Canada, and Australia and New Zealand, as well as Europe, are on different time zones.
To end on a light note, somebody wrote a post saying they had lost an hour and asking where to find it. I told them, 'You are very lucky. I just had a birthday and lost a whole year.'
Useful websites
https://manualsguru.com/?ads=true&msclkid=c5a67bccd1141e005ec31205dff0684f
https://www.wikihow.com/Set-a-Digital-Watch
https://www.thebesttimetovisit.com/south-africa/time
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Old buildings burn down. Why? Many causes have been reported.
Natural causes. Broken glass is heated by the sun's rays. Dry wood burns more easily. Rubbish collects and becomes a fire risk.
Squatters wire up electricity unsafely. They light camp fires to cook. They want to heat themselves and the building in hot weather. They light fires to create light.
Animals chew through wiring. This happened to my friends' home when they were on holiday.
Rats eat wiring. Rats ate wiring in my car in London.Why? To sharpen their teeth, like cats. Because they don't know if something is edible until they try eating it. (Our son, as a toddler, ate sand on the beach, thinking it was sugar. A nasty surprise!)
Don't the animals know something hard is not edible? No. Nuts are hard. Tasty nuts are hidden inside hard shells.
Sometimes down and outs build fires to keep warm. Children set fires for fun. for the spectacle. Fire-fighters want the credit for rescue. Arsonists enjoy the power. Owners want to claim insurance. Owners want to clear the land quickly to replace with modern, higher, buildings they can sell. Burning is quicker and cheaper than paying for demolition. You cannot get permission to destroy, and/or it takes weeks of waiting. Finally, electricians using sparks to repair, rebuild, replace parts, accidentally set fire.
How can you find the cause?
In Poland I visited the old quarter of Warsaw. The basement restaurants were clean and new. When I asked, I was told that what was destroyed in the war, had been rebuilt in the old style.
The same applies to other historic old styles. I was impressed. We don't do that in England. Or do we? More often we replace the old with new.
But now we have regulations protecting listed buildings. Renovations must be done in similar style.
In England we built new buildings in new places copying old styles. Victorian buildings were often mock Tudor, black and white, a style favoured for some semi detached housing estates.
In Italy I was shown buildings with frontages which were Palladian style. I had never heard of Palladian style. But when I saw it, I recognized it immediately. Two or four or more columns at the front, not just over the doorway, but up two stories or more, to a flattened triangle across the whole roof area.
In the USA and UK, many public buildings are built this style. Called neo-classical. Such as a town hall, even a railway station. Many mansions and homes would be built in this style. In Washington DC, The White House.
In Thailand I visited the home of silk king, Jim Thompson. I learned that i that country, and other Asian countries (borders have changed over time), because of rainy season typhoons and flooding, houses were moved from place to place to avoid bad seasons and bad weather, or simply to relocate.
Instead of metal nails, traditional wooden plugs were used. Like modern Ikea furniture, the building could be flattened, compacted, made lighter, transported more easily. Re-assembled from a picture, or from memory of that building, practise on similar buildings, or skill and initiative. Like a jigsaw.
Buildings were traditionally built from prefabricated panels. Maybe they slotted in. Like modern sliding doors of glass, and sliding windows.
The living areas were above, on stilts, to avoid water below, where animals were kept.
Nowadays Singapore public housing can be built this style, around a central courtyard. Thai buildings had a flowering or perfumed tree in the middle of the courtyard to provide shade. A bit like cloisters in a European monastery, or the quad of colleges in Cambridge, England.
Singapore city, designed by British Raffles, had shaded five foot ways to shade pedestrians (as well as the shops and shophouses) along streets of shops.
Just hope you don't end up with an extra plank or wooden plug, wondering, where did this go? Will my building fall down without this piece!
Singapore early housing estates were built with speed. The story goes that the minister, who had no experience of house building, was told to submit a plan by the end of the year. Instead he started building straight away. At the end of theyear his ony plan was to conitnue cosntructing equally quickly!
In Japan, where historic and important buildings suffer from earthquakes, old buildings are replaced by the same style building, using the construction blueprints which are preserved elsewhere.
Plutarch's ship of Theseus Puzzle
If you replace a ship's planks one by one, at which point is it new? The planks are used to create the building elsewhere, and new planks copy the original indistinguishably in the old location, which is the original building?
One might pose the same question about the Parthenon. If the reproduction is on the old site, but the original is in the British museum. Do the tourists really care which is old and which is new? Children might not know nor care.
Do we need an original photo, death mask, skeleton? Or will an AI image work as well?
I want the original skeleton of a living being because it contains DNA. It could prove murder, inheritable disease, lifestyle, diet. Or even create a clone.
With cloned animals and plants more questions are raised.
Useful Websites
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15686631/Absolute-inferno-Grade-II-building.html
What food can you take to hosts who are Jewish or a dinner party where one of the guests eats kosher?
If all else fails, ask.
A year or two ago I had to attend a festive Jewish occasion and knew the hosts were strictly kosher. My solution was to order wine from a shop supplying kosher wine. But what if they don't drink, are driving, and say they already have wine?
Pesach, or Passover, around Easter time, adds another layer of opportunities coupled with restrictions, because of the ban on leavened food, no bread, only matzah, and this affects cakes and biscuits. Your supermarket may have stocks of wines and food labelled kosher for Passover.
Another place to look is a mini supermarket or gift shop which specialises in Jewish or kosher products. The assistant can probably help you to find something suitable in their shop or direct you to another nearby shop.
You can often buy kosher chocolates or cake from a supermarket or an Israeli restaurant or kosher salt beef bar. Just ask. Or look online.
I recently was at a lunch party and was surprised to see that one of the guests who kept strictly kosher at their home had brought Green & Black's chocolates which had no kosher symbol or Hebrew or English wording saying that the product was kosher.
I was told that the main concern for a Jewish guest would be whether the chocolates contained gelatine. Gelatine is an animal product. (Although there are non animal substitutes). What could contain gelatine? Jelly babies? Turkish Delight? (That is the brand name now used in the UK for the Greek and Turkish and other countries' confection of that style).
Some wines have the debris removed with egg white which attaches to bits of twig and grape skin so that it clumps together, flats or sinks?, and can be removed.
My informant additionally told me, "Almost all chocolates imported from the USA, US brands, are kosher. Look for the symbol or two letters OU, O for Orthodox."
Now you know what to ask about.
I asked a hostess if she would prefer food, drink, flowers, a pot plants, a piece of clothing, such as a scarf, or an accessory such as a scarf ring or ear-rings. She said, chocolates, kosher for Passover chocolates.
When I tried googling, I got lots of chocolates, not listed as kosher. I could just check
for kosher food, and kosher for Passover. That brought up lots of offers of matzah/matzoh.
Matzah
Also chocolate covered matzah. I had tried that previously and did not like it. I preferred matzoh on its own, as a savoury. The chocolate did not seem the best milk chocolate, more like cheaper cooking chocolate, based on non milk fat, or chocolate flavour, or different proportions.
It was an interesting novelty. But, although one person was polite and said it was okay, nobody was keen on it.
Another website, Exquisite chocolates, said they were closed until a date in April after the event. Buying food for a kosher even on the way there is risky. You might find the kosher restaurant or shop is already closed.
I once found that a branch of Tesco had curtained off the kosher section during the sabbath, before the Friday evening meal I was attending. Sabbath, starting like Xmas eve the night before, comes in around sunset, earlier in winter. In summer the sabbath, shabbat in Hebrew, goes out, finishes, later on Saturday in summer.
I saw offers of hampers, beyond my budget, containing large numbers of small items, all of which were just cheap items, unexciting. Fine for a school. Nut nothing impressive and luxurious for a well to do hostess who had spent a week cleaning the entire house and removing all previous food.
A Discovery programme had proved, at least to me, that the origin of the festival was one event, or several, in which a rainy season had made stores of cereal, for bread, to go mouldy, leading to food poisoning. The contaminated food, would kill off the first born child, given double portions of bread.
If I remember rightly, the programme said that the favoured firstborn would get a double portion.
Why did this not affect others? Bread was only part of the diet of adults. In a shortage, women would not receive it, only the firstborn adult male. Bread was not given to children breastfeeding to the age of four.
The consumption of contaminated cereal would lead to what was known in the USA in previous centuries as St Vitus's dance.
Hence the using up of old flour and food in pancakes for lent. If you go to a kosher shop, before they close for Passover, you can ask them for chocolates or sweets which are kosher for Passover.
The simplest solution is to go to a kosher shop, before they close for Pesach, and ask for kosher for Passover chocolates or sweets.
I like halva. You can get variations, such as chocolate covered halva.
You can find kosher food in a shop in a synagogue or kosher school complex. They sell what looks like an Easter egg, a kosher surprise, like a kinder surprise, a chocolate egg with a small toy inside, such as tiny spinning top. My grand0daughter was given one at school where a (Jewish) child who had a birthday, and his mother had bought a chocolate egg for every child in his class of thirty children, instead of a cake. (Some schools have a cake every week from one child or another. Others ban cakes, because of peanut and egg allergies, crumbs attracting insects, time taken from lessons for cake cutting, parents who ban sugary cakes and snacks on health grounds.)
Useful Websites
Where to leave your wedding ring and watch is a hard decision. What are the options and risks of each location and precaution.
Is Home Safe For Valuables
Left at home, you could be burgled. Behind a book is no use. We came home to find all the books thrown on the floor.
Safety of Safes
Safes which can be picked up are no use. You need a hidden safe.
House Sitters
Or a house-sitter, who you know and trust. Such as swapping homes with a family member overseas.
Separating Valuables
Or leave it in the home of a trusted family member. In the USA, we left locked suitcases with not one but several colleagues. so if we or they got burgled, we would not lose everything.
You could take valuables with you. But you could be mugged.
Loss
Or leave goods behind. I left the small bag with my passport on the back of a chair. Check the room is empty. Check.
Valuables could, should, be hidden under clothing. You can buy clothes with double pockets, one sewn inside the other.
The grment or bag with the hidden pocket is no use if the garment or bag is stolen. Beware or leaving wallets and sunglasses in the pockets of jackets on the back of your chair in a crowded restaurant. Also bags on the floor. The strap needs to be around your feet, or your chair feet, with one foot on the bag.
Some places have a hook for bags under the table.
I have bought bag hanging hooks which fold out. I used to forget to take them. Then I tried keeping the hook inside the bag, instead of in a drawer.
A cross=body bag can be removed by somebody slashing straps with a knife. A common trick is for somebody to push you from one side. Whilst they move away, or apologise, and you look at them, another person swipes your goods from the other side. This happened to me in Singapore.
Gym Security
I read about somebody losing money and a watch at a gym. Most gyms keep records of who enters. The premises supposedly has a system which was down. Should the premises be obliged to say, to warn if the system is down? But that might alert others.
Could you put the lockers under the watch of the Reception? What if it's the staff at fault? Other possibilities, people with access to the premises, painters and decorators, electricians, construction workers, cleaners. Members. And guests.
Another system would be to have surveillance from outside the premises.
If you are the owner or manager of premises used by the public, or devise security, what else could you consider?
Doorstep cameras detecting movement which alert your phone.
Colour code keys on a sash, and lockers, so nobody can open the wrong one without being noticed.
You can also buy sew in pockets for inside jackets and clothes, from Amazon. Cheaper from ali express.
Useful Websites
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Opening-Zippers-Backpacks-Suitcases-Traveling
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clothing-Pockets-Anti-Theft-Security-Sweatshirt/dp/B0GD6Z6
https://www.clothingarts.com/collections/new
Noah Webster House holds a series of events, here and elsewhere. It is the HQ of the local historical society. Events include
An easter egg hunt. (April 2026)
War of the Words.
Free poetry Jun 17th 2026. (Check venue.)
You can sign up to their newsletter to be informed of events.
The shop sells
a tea-towel with pictures of local attractions
apparel
literary theme ear-rings, quote by Hemingway, no friend like a book
tee shirts in blue or green with the words ale taster
a postcard, bookmarks
books, including one on Word of the Day, one on Scrabble, others on Webster and local history
Useful Websites About Noah Webster House
Useful Summary Of What to see including the video
https://historicsites.heritage.org/site/noah-webster-house/
wiki - detailed account
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster
official site events
https://noahwebsterhouse.org/events/
Fans' Group
https://west-hartford.fandom.com/wiki/Noah_Webster_House
Hotels, motels, budget hotels, suites, bed, and breakfast
Check if breakfast is included in the room price. If separate, you might want to stay in one hotel and breakfast in another, to save money, or gain better beds, better breakfasts, or double the experiences and know which place to choose on your next visit
https://www.booking.com/landmark/us/noah-webster-house
American and English spelling differs slightly. Some would say differs a lot. You rarely get any misunderstanding. You can find yourself in difficulty or delay when composing work to be published in another language, or using a dictionary.
Some of the most common changes I have noticed are:
American spelling was simplified and made more phonetic, easy to teach others, teach yourself, and understand and remember, Webster's dictionary was published by Webster, a publisher who produced school text books, work books, and the dictionary which still bears his name in the USA.
I learned this when I visited the home of American Webster in the USA when my husband and I were living there.
England still follows the old spellings which allow you to instantly see the meaning of two words which sound the same.
In British English, the SE ending is for the verb, the doing word, and CE if for the noun, the object, or subject of a sentence, the idea. It is good practice, to practise.
May 14th 2026 is the date of the annual fundraiser, War of Words, for Noah Webster House in Hartford where several teams compete for a trophy.
You can buy an American Webster's dictionary from Amazon online and from physical bookshops in the USA.
The Oxford English dictionary, with British spelling, is sold on Amazon and online bookshops and from shops in the UK.
Online dictionaries sometimes give English spalling, sometimes US spelling. Some online dictionaries allow you to hear both the American and English pronunciation and intonation.
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For my own benefit, I prefer to write Japanese and Korean words with a hyphen in the middle. The hyphen reminds me that each syllable is pronounced with equal emphasis.
I walked all around a city in Korea looking for a restaurant for the evening. I had learned the words for goodbye and thank you. I wrote them on a piece of paper and read them out with a bow as I left. The restaurant staff all had hysterics, every time.
When I got back to Singapore I asked a Japanese friend, 'Do you know any Korean words?'
'Ah yes, no. Just a few.'
'Do you know why they laughed when I said goodbye in Korean?'
'Ah - yes.'
'Did I pronounce it like a rude word?;
'Ah - no. Korean, like Japanese, very stuck-ah-to. You speak very like sing-ing a song.'
'Very sing-song!'
So, for the Koreans, listening to me was like me listening to a Welsh speaker.
Welsh flag
I remember a Welshman tyring to chat me up on the phone. He said, 'I am feel-ing ve-ry roam-an-tick.' I was thinking, roam antic or Rome antic?
All the double syllable words sounded like a different sets of words.
Maybe I would be a success doing stand-up comedy in Japan or Korea. I could do it online.
Practising Pronunciation
The serious moral of the story is, if you are doing business in Japan or Korea, and wish to be taken seriously, practice not just the spelling of the words to recognize and remember them, but listen to the intonation. The same apples to any language. Vocabulary will get you understood, especially if you have the words written on your phone and can show a sentence. but to sound authoritative, and to be understood by others with different accents, you should learn the correct pronunciation and intonation.
That applies when you are an English speaker learning another language. It also has to be explained when teaching foreigners to speak English.
Singaporeans would often start the Toastmasters club meetings with the word welcome. But they said, Well - come. I would be thinking, is that well, like um and ah, you know, I'm thinking about it, come, let's get started. Or is it, well, come, slang for have an orgasm. I would then go back to listening to them, having missed their next sentence or two.
However, running words together can also change the meaning.
When I was in Asia with my son, a local man said to us, 'You are almost welcome.' My son and I looked at each, and burst out laughing. It took only a second to understand that he meant you are all most welcome. But that second was enough to create a new phrase or sentence in our minds.
We still remember 'almost welcome' years later. A reminder of the event helps lighten our mood, make an evening continue with a smile.
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I thought I could probably remember up to ten Japanese words, and you could probably do the same, at least five, without visiting recently or at all.
Here is my list, amplified with a quick look back through my own blogs on Japanese.
Akiko girl's name meaning bright or autumn child (ko as the ending of a name means child or girl)
arigato - thank you
baddo - bad
basu - bus
beddo - bed
bento - box of lunch, think of lunch box, divided into compartments like an airline meal
creamu - cream
desuku - desk
e Edo - (name of former capital, gate of the river, now used in other place names)
fan - electric cooling fan
gamu - gum
geisha girl - entertainer, usually female, multi-skilled including singing and sympathy
ginko - nuts, prized for health giving property
hai - yes (I think of Hi. Another memory aid would be to think of a high excited agreement of delight at a suggestion)
Hiroshima - hiro is wide and shima is island
hoteru - hotel
iki-gai - zest for life, reason for living, passion, inspiration, what gives your life meaning
jinzu - jeans
judo - gentle way, (martial arts). judoka - judo practitioner, judo-ki judo clothing or uniform
kamera - camera
karaoke - singing for fun, to recorded music, using songsheets of video subtitles in the language you choose, provided by the company hiring the studio room, often in a shopping mall or hotel The word means empty orchestra.
kawa - river
Kiko (ki-ko means hope-child, or bright future)
Kimono - wide sleeved outfit, wrap around, secured by a wide belt. Associated with women, but can also be worn by men. Often heavy, satin or similar, lined, elegant, with seasonal patterns
Kin-tsugi - literally gold(en) journey, adding a gold line over a crack in a cracked or broken porcelain 'china' case, crockery, bowl or other object, to recycle and upcycle. Kinkaku-ji means the golden pavilion.
kinokunia - bookshop name, huge store in Singapore, name meaning country, trees
kissu - kiss
Kōhī - coffee
konnichiwa - hello / good afternoon
Kyoto kyo means capital, to means capital, together they mean capital city
l
menu - menu
Midori - green, a girl's name, and a green drink, sweet, melon flavour,20% alcohol and as it is quite strong, used with non-alcoholic mixers to make cocktails
miso soup, like a green tea, meatless, seaweed?
mori means mountain
N
Nagasaki, name of the city, from Naga meaning long, and saki meaning headland or cape
Noriko - girl's name law-child, discipline
O obi - wide sash worn over a kimono to tie around the waist.
Ohaiyo gozaimasu. Good morning.
piza - pizza
q
resutoran - restaurant
sake - the drink, a spirit, served hot or cold from a small porcelain bottle into tiny porcelain cuts without handles. I love it.
sayonara - goodbye. You can watch a video on You Tube of the popular classical song, in English, featuring the word sayonara.
sensei - teacher master maestro
sofa - sofa
sushi - pressed rice, topped with sliced raw fish, or meat
sachimi Sashi - sliced/pierced thinly - mi = meat)
shoppingu moru - shopping mall
taxi - taxi
Tokyo means Eastern Capital
tometo - tomato
u
v
wagu beef, tender marbled meat from a breed of cow called Wagu, fattened up from Kobo in Japan, or Australian, expensive because of the cost of feeding the cattle
Wasabi - horseradish or similar plant, green paste with sharp flavour
x
Yotto - yacht
Yoko - girls name meaning sunlight-child, child of sunlight, bright child
Yokohama yoko is by, beside, next to, and hama is beach or shore
yukata - light summer kimono, fold-over wrap, housecoat, often cotton
Yukiko - girl's name snow-child, pure and soft
zero - zero
Useful websites
https://www.namesmama.com/japanese-girl-names/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi
https://japaninsides.com/japanese-words-that-sound-like-english-38261
wordhippo.com
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Useful Website
Wiki on flags
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Scotland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Jack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltire
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Scotland' s well known attractions are Edinburgh castle, the Edinburgh festival with comedies and serious plays. Glasgow's museums and galleries, such as Rennie Mackintosh. The Lakes - the the loch Ness monsters. And whisky distilleries!
You start your day with porridge. Made from oats. Add salt, or it may come with added salt, instead of the sugar you would get in London.
During the day you could visit a whisky distillery, and end your day with a night cap, a drop, or dram of the local drink.
Whisky distilleries are a feature of Scotland. Popular with the Japanese. In fact anyone, even if you don't drink the stuff.
Short Tours and Long Stays
If you are interested in gin, vodka or whisky, a distillery tour might interest you. You can also stay at Arbikie whose accommodation option is self-catering. Add a sauna. Or simply sit admiring the scenery, their website suggests.
Whisky is strong stuff. So are other spirits. A wee dram (a small sample of drink) is enough for me.
A little goes a long way. So a barman will gladly dilute it make a longer drink. You can add water to whisky, or ice, in which case it is called 'on the rocks'.
Turn your other spirits into cocktails. Perennial favourites are gin and tonic.
Or vodka and orange. That's for me.
Useful Website
https://arbikie.com/pages/stay-with-us-1
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Children trapped in cars by car locks can suffer from changes in the temperature inside the car.
The same applies to babies, and animals.
Sometimes the parents make a mistake. Sometimes the carer does so. How could you check on your child? By a sensor in the car, a car seat, or just asking the driver of the car, or the carer, to send you video updates.
In the UK two pre-schools send the parents a photo or video half way through the morning, at lunch and after lunch, about every two hours. To a group chat on whatsapp which both parents can watch. This should be done with all children.
You also need a visual watch on the inside of your car to be sure nobody is left inside.
Some modern cars in the USA have text reminders. Or digital messages about detecting heat or movement in the passenger or back seat. These reminders can also be connected to your phone, or to a WhatsApp group such as both parents.
I think there should be a big sign warning that is it a criminal offense to leave a child locked in a car for more than 5 minutes. It should go on private cars and hire cars.
Check the government or State and local laws where you live and the USA State or country you are visiting.
Useful Websites
Previous Event
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14859103/Kameron-Jamel-Williams-dead-hot-car-Georgia.html
https://www.safeintheseat.com/post/what-is-sensorsafe-car-seat
A post on the USA
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Notice that the name is not Olivo but Ulivo. The restaurant is between Embankment and Charing Cross stations. In a pedestrian alleyway between the two.
Popular Locations
I use Charing Cross station and Embankment stations a lot. Charing Cross is by Trafalgar Square and several museums and galleries. Embankment is near other attractions. Walking between them you see the old Sherlock Holmes pub.
Embankment Station Coffee Shops
Coming out of Embankment station, you are facing a coffee bar with minimal seating, and just to its left under the arches with more seating is another coffee bar. A good place for a quick stop when on your way to a meeting if you are early, and it is raining.
Embankment Station Souvenirs
A huge souvenir shop is under the arches by Embankment station. I love looking in the window and want to buy everything. It sells everything from nonsenses like mesmerising nodding head dolls and ducks wearing union Jacks and crowns, to small suitcases at large prices. I once saw a minicar covered in Union Jacks. I immediately announced to my spouse, 'If I lived in a mansion with a large hall I would buy it'. My alarmed husband dragged me away.
However, my latest discovery, was the restaurant down the alley which leads uphill to Embankment station.
We ordered soup of the day, vegetable soup, and white bread to dunk in it. That was enough to ruin the diet, but gave us energy for long journeys home to the suburbs.
The place, whose name means olive, has recently been redecorated. The latest romantic style, with fairy lights on trees.
A great place to sit and converse after a meeting, recount stories of people and places and tell jokes.
The toilets are down a steep flight of stairs. Our jolly host claimed he was quoting the late Queen Mother, 'Go when you can, not when you must.'
I think that applies to both toilets and restaurants.
Useful Websites
tfl
Embankment Station
Charing Cross Station
Olive Restaurant
lulivocharingcross.uk
L'ulivo Charing Cross, Italian Restaurant, caffe, bar, 23 Villiers Street, Charing Cross WC2H 6ND
tel: +44 020 3441 3012.
Open 12 noon until 11 pm, until 10.30 pm Sundays.
Links and photo being added. Come back in half an hour.
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What to do in a car or traffic jam
Keep a bowl or empty bottle in the car. If you are caught short and will soon reach toilets, but not in time, empty out a water bottle. Use it as a toilet. Empty out - it still looks like a water bottle, but remove the label. Wash it out later or with a second bottle of water.
When hiking, you might wish to go behind a bush. But you risk falling over tree roots, into holes. Or attracting insects, even animals.
Once in the undergrowth, removing your underwear is another challenge. You don't want to wet your clothes from drips, splashes.
Use an umbrella over yourself when squatting, or over the open door of a vehicle, or over the window, or held by your passenger.
Use a towel or coat over the car door or window. A closed car door or open car door.
Place a coat or cushion or pillow to block the view into the car through the back or front window.
Keep in the car and fold up concertina cardboard or cloth car window shade. These are designed to protect the car from over heating in sun. They also, keep off flies. Or as a barrier to rain and snow.
Remember, it might be unhygienic or illegal or unpopular to urinate within a city or near buildings. to avoid needing to go, wait to eat food and drink liquids until you are near a toilet.
A saying attributed to various people, is:
Go when you can, not when you must.
This means using the toilet before leaving a restaurant even if you don't feel the urge.
You can make emergency wet wipes and hand cleaners by putting the contents of a box of tissues or face flannels in a sealable plastic box and adding enough water to wet the fabric. If it dries out, you can add more drinking water.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Shit-Woods-Environmentally-Approach/dp/1984857134
https://www.hipcamp.com/journal/camping/forget-toilet-paper-here-are-5-leaves-you-can-use-in-a-pinch
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The name Spain is derived from the Ancient Roman name for the area, Hispania. That's why people from the region are still called hispanic.
I wondered why technical articles referred to ancient Roman, when we normally just speak about the Romans. Were they a subsection of Romans, the earliest ones? Then I realised that recent, modern, and current inhabitants of Rome are called Romans. Rome is still there, still called Rome. So it just means the Roman Empire?
Checking Spelling
I thought better check on this. When I was a sub-editor I learned that you need to check on everything, even if you think it is obvious and well-known. Spellings, vary from the UK to the USA.
Checking Capital Cities
Capital cities are not necessarily the largest cities or the ones with the biggest population. New York is not the capital of America. The capital is Washington DC. Capitals move. The same applies to the capital cities of US states. Also watch out for the capitals of Australia, Indonesia, Poland, and Russia.
Capitals get moved, because of weather, sinking cities, to be more central, or to please populations who want the capital nearer where they live, especially with rival groups, to depopulate a crowded place or to populate an empty area and provide more work and space. So, the names and locations of capital cities, and smaller cities, will change.
Spanish names have stayed and become so familiar that if you don't speak Spanish, you forget the origin. Some Spanish place names are well-known and obvious if you speak some Spanish, or after you have heard about them.
The Spanish origin names can be grouped into various categories. Some are named after saints or people. Others are named after geographical features.
I have arranged them alphabetically, with the components separated.
angeles - angels, as in the Californian city Los Angeles
el - the (add an accent on the letter e to make the word he) as in El Paso
el paso - the pass
grande - not grand ie important but large
los - the (plural, like these and those) as in Los Angeles
Los Angeles - the angels
paso - pass or place where you pass over a mountain or through a border
rio - river
rio grande - big river, or river which is long and wide. The order of the name reminds you that in Spanish the adjective comes after the noun.
sacramento - sacrament
San Francisco - Saint Francis
This post is being compiled. Come back later for more.
Spanish - English
Costa - coast
Costa Del Sol - coast of the sun (or sunny coast)
de - of
del - of the
el - the
entrada - entrance
salida - exit
sol - sun
Plaza Mayor, Madrid - main square, Madrid
Permanent Packing List
When I was a busy travel writer, taking at least one trip a month, often two or three times a month, I would keep a suitcase permanently packed with clothes in black, white and red.
My all purpose wheelie bag contained all the things I had regretted not taking on previous trips.
CLOTHES & COSMETICS
Clothes can be packed flat. Or rolled up. Packed in sets matching fabric and occasions. Accessory sets by colour, eg a black belt inside or alongside a bag or pair of shoes or hat.
1 A swimsuit and swimhat. Later I bought a swimsuit with an attached hood.
2 I always had one tank top in case it turned sunny, or I had a stopover somewhere warm.
3 A brimmed hat or baseball cap.
4 A thermal vest, scarf and gloves for chilly nights, air conditioning, breezy boat trips, or trips to another continent with reverse seasons.
5 A couple of scarves, one with gold to convert a plain black or white tee-shirt into an evening outfit, for dining out, unexpected invitation to a birthday party or wedding. A big scarf like a sarong for changing on the beach, sun protection, entering churches and temples.
6 The spare clothes in my shoulder bag, in case my luggage took a side trip, were a set of underwear.
7 Plus spare sandals.
8 Flat towelling slippers saved from a hotel.
9 For summer I had a towelling facecloth, sun lotion, mosquito repellent and sting relief.
10 A gift - in case you end up staying with somebody, getting invited to dinner at a home, or are invited to dinner and cannot reciprocate. Take sizes of family at home in case you want to buy gifts for the family.
10 TOILETRIES BAG
My year round toiletries in a waterproof bag were
1 a travel toothbrush and toothpaste,
2 comb and folding brush,
3 razor, and shaving cream
4 Swiss army knife or tweezers-cum-nailfile set,
5 Corkscrew cum bottle opener,
6 Mini knife-fork-spoon.
7 Instead of a mini perfume, I later carried a lavender roll-on and /or lemon/citronella which acted as insect repellent.
8 Emergency tooth filling kit and spare glasses for driving/reading
9 Plus a folding bag to bring back souvenirs.
10 Travel Diary/notebook and pen with my address stickers on them.
Copied Documents
1 I emailed myself a note of where to find my passport
2 and leftover currency.
3 I and the people at home had a copy of my passport showing the number in case of loss,
4 and a copy of my annual travel insurance.
5 Clipboard to keep vital documents handy. Temperature at destination. Currency converter, eg pounds to dollars, dollars to euros. Disguised version of my computer password.
6 Two pieces of notepaper headed My destination address, one for my handbag, the other for family at home.
7 Travel Tickets. Even if I had them on my phone, in case my phone battery died, the airport had no internet reception, or my phone was stolen.
8 Two printed pictures of my travel luggage, listing colour, size and brand, to show to airport staff trying to locate items removed from the carousel, or to report loss for delivery delayed, or compensation.
Big card with the words and a tickbox
1 PASSPORT
2 TICKET PHONE SPECTACLES/SUNGLASSES/READING GLASSES HAT KEYS DRIVING LICENSE NUMBER CAR INSURANCE/AA number, number of neighbour at home. Turned off gas. Closed curtains. Emptied bins. Left on lights, radio, Turn off gas. PILLS. Plasters.
Turn on
Check nothing is left in microwave, oven, hob, fridge, tabletop, dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer.
Number of hospital overseas. Vaccination/COVID records.
On arrival, check emergency exit from building and bedroom and restaurant.
Also fire extinguisher. If restaurant has no fire exit and no fire extinguisher, complain and leave. Inform family or colleagues of the fire exit and fire extinguisher locations.
Gifts and birthday cards.
Print out of essential words in foreign language from Wikitravel phrasebook.
Photographing everything you pack provides a record if you are looking for a lost item, proving the loss to insurance companies.
Another way of packing is to divide his and hers stuff in half. That way you only unpack one suitcase for the first half of the journey, the other for the second half. If one suitcase of the two goes missing, both of you still have clothes.
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I saw several of these everyday Spanish words in clothing reviews on Temu which were translated and in Facebook. You can also translate in Google translate. Find numbers, days of the week and phrases in Wikivoyage phrasebook Spanish.
delicado - delicate
el - the (mansculine)
elegante - elegant
en - in
en las fotos - in the photos
es - (it) is
estupendamente - great
fotos - photos
las/los - the (plural)
ligero - light (first three letters are the same_#
material - material
muy - very
muy elegante - very elegant
naranja - orange
para las noches - for the nights
Noches - nights
perfecto - perfect
y - and
delicate - delicado
elegant - elegante
in - en
in the photos - en las fotos
for the nights - para las noches
good - buena
good quality - buena calidad
ingredients - ingredientes
(it) is - es
light - ligero
material - el material
of - de
orange - naranja
perfect - perfecto
photos - fotos
quality - calidad
the - las/los (as in Los Angeles, the city in the USA, meaning the angels)
very - muy
very elegant - muy elegante
duolingo.com
translate google
wikivoyage phrasebook Spanish
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Yesterday I photographed jolly balloons in green, white and orange, outside Wetherspoons pub in Hatch End, near Hatch End railway station, in NW London, England.
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