Is your family safe while travelling? Motorbikes in Singapore and worldwide

I am going to tell you about luck, police investigate, DIY first aid, and the cost of repairs to vehicles.

Singapore Flag

Lucky Numbers And Sale Prices In Singapore
 In Singapore buyers of motorcars and bicycles are interested in the car or bike having lucky numbers in the numberplate.  Eight is lucky. Number four is unlucky inspiring death because the word for four sounds like death. The good news is that if you have to sell your vehicle, you will get a better price if it has eights in the numberplate, and if you are buying you can pay a lower price for a vehicle with fours in the numberplate.

Flag of India

Indian Safety & Insurance
I am a Westerner, a Caucasian, so I am more inclined to rely on caution and prevention - and insurance. I was amused in India to see vehicles plastered with images of sacred cows and Gods, supposed to protect the vehicle.

I was less pleased to learn of the high accident rate, to see cows wandering along the motorway towards or across traffic, or lying dead in the road. The accident rate was scary.

Superstition & Prevention
I read a book about superstitition and an investigation was done in hospitals. It was found that the days 12 and 14 were no luckier than the 13th of the month in terms of admissions and deaths. Another finding was that swift attention and acurate diagnosis of  illness and injury affect statistics. So a quick response by medics on bikes to both heart attack victims and road accident victims saves lives in countries such as states in the USA which have introduced such a service.

 At weekends and holidays when medics are in short supply, overworked by drunk drivers causing accidents, or junior doctors are on call in hospitals and reluctant to attend quickly at evenings and weekends and national and relidigous holidays you get less attention and less quick attention and less accurate diagnosis.

My Many Accidents
I have been in several accidents. Once as a driver turning right at the lights in the UK.

UK flag

Now I understand why many junctions do not allow right hand turns, or prevent traffic oncoming, only allowing each lane to move seaprately.

Once, in 1984, as a pedestrian in a crowd crossing the road in Corsica. The moral of the story was, look both ways when starting to cross and reaching the centre of the road. Try not to cross a road below the brow of a hill. Remember that in the UK, cars are on one side of the road, in France and Corsica they drive on the other side.

Later, my car was hit from behind on a motorway in England. (By a dozy driver who had just come to the UK on an overnight flight from the Indian subcontinent.)


In Singapore I waw a passenger in a car which hit a pedestrian. (The pedestrian was jaywalking so was deemed at fault. The driver was in a hire car so any fault in maintenance was not the driver's fault.)



Singapore flag

I was reminded of all these factors this week when my husband came off a bike after being hit by a vehicle in Singapore. Since he rides for business and pleasure, on public roads and on racetracks, has taken courses by professional drivers, and watches racing on TV, he has been in or seen many accidents. You need to think of prevention of accidents and cure.

As far as I know, he was not doing anything wrong or careless. His bike was not out of fuel. He was wearing a helmet.

He claimed another vehicle hit him from behind. Fortunately they were near a junction so public independent cameras recorded the incident. In any case drivers have a duty of care and if it can be shown that you are hit from behind, even if you are stationery, it is the fault of the driver which hits you, in the UK as well as Singapore. (You can check with the insurnce company, the AA, or your lawyer.)

Photo Records
It is useful to take a picture of the position of the vehicles after the accident, to remind yourself and as evidence. Photos might show signalling and skid marks on the road. The length of the skid mark might indicate direction, position and speed. You also need the damage to the vehicles.

I like a record of the people involved (in case they give false identities or you lose their details). But they probably won't want to be photographed, suspecting you might have some ulterior motive such as blackmail, character assassination, revenge, who knows.

If you have a dashcam (dashboard camera) that will automatically record the other vehicle with the people inside and them as they get out, without them taking issue with you for photographing adults or children.

Statements
Insurance companies tell you not to admit you are in the wrong (to the other party) as this can be used against you by the other party's insurance company. Your insurance company might take issue with you. Check your insurance document. You will probably be able to find the clause which tells you not to say anything, because that might invalidate your claim.

Preserving Personal Documents
It would be handy to have your identity on your person, not in a bag left behind in a broken down or inaccessible vehicle. Imagine trying to claim for a car which burns out when you have jumped out and left all your documents in the glove box with no record on your person nor at home nor in the workplace.

So it's handy to keep records duplicated on your person and elsewhere. Also a credit card or travel card in your pocket in the event that you have to leave your vehicle and travel onwards or back home on public transport or must hire a vehicle.

The same goes for a driving license, even if you were not planning to drive.

Another useful item is some kind of first aid. Even a plaster to cover a wound, and a length of sterlile bandage and a piece of waterprrof tape or a safety pin. Plus a quick link to a first aid book or website and a knowledge of  first aid. I have a first aid kit in the boot (Americans say trunk) of my car in the UK. However, if you are hit from behind and the boot is not accessible it is handy to have a plaster in your pocket or purse. (The British word purse is more like wallet, whilst the Americans use the word purse to mean a small bag.

First Aid
By chance the very day of his accident, the Singapore government had delivered to every resident in the neighbourhood a fridge magnet with advice on DIY first aid for burns, scalds and accidents and emergency number.

The Magic of Ice Packs
The ice pack advised for reducing pain and swelling for minor scalds was also useful in reducing the swelling on his leg. First he photographed the injury, the blood and the swelling. Then showered to remove dirt which could infect the grazing. Finally we secured an ice pack to his leg with large rubber bands. We used face flannels to protect his skin from ice burn or being indented by the rubber bands.

Morale
Often you are busy tending to the injury and trying to reassure the patient. Only the next day or the next week do you start to feel anxious, especially as you tell family or friends or colleagues or relive events for a hospital report or police or insurance assessors who look at the vehicle, as well as the repair shop.

By now we are quite philosophical. Although shaken, we keep telling ourselves, we were very lucky. It could have been much worse. We are the survivors.

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

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

Travel Diary Notes For Speeches And Novels

You could simply keep a diary of your travels. For speed and economy, take any notebook. Paste the cover of a map of the country and its name and the year or date. Number all the pages in the top right hand corner. Add lines for an index on the inside front cover or head the first two pages index and write down the page numbers in the left margin.

If you are really efficient, or think you will be rushed later, use a Filofax or loose leaf folder and in advance note the days or destination as a heading. for example, I knew I had a trip booked to Halong bay in Vietnam at the end of the week. It was no trouble to go half way through my notebook and head a couple of pages with Halong Bay and the three days, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Vietnam flag for notebook.

You might contrast your expectations with what you actually find. Write down your expectations. Because when you arrive and find you were wrong, you either forget what you thought or are too embarrassed to admit the misconceptions.

Conversation and Dialogue
Local dialect
For example:

Conversation In India
A woman with a baby knocks on the window when we are in a delay at the traffic lights. She appears to be begging. I do not speak her language. I point to the driver.
 I do not open the window. So she steps forward and holds her hand out begging for money and addresses the driver.
He shouts at her.
I ask my translator, "What did the driver say?"
The driver had said:
 "I work for a living to feed my children. I'am not giving my children's money to you. You go and work to feed your children!"

 Singapore flag for notebook.

In Singapore
"Since young I go there. Cannot.  ..., la."

Misunderstandings and Miscommunication:
In Corsica I was knocked down by a car and had multiple injuries. I was flown by helicopter to hospital.
In the Corsica hospital I struggled to make myself understood. the woman in the next bed didn't no say a word. I later discovered she could not speak because she had had an asked for a radio. "Un radio." They gave me a radiography, an X-ray.

Phrases used at weddings
Stories told at weddings (eg 'My brother (the groom), threw me out of the window and I broke my leg,"- story from best man which I heard in a best man's wedding speech, which I surreptitiously recorded and actually heard at a wedding!)

Another system is to plan a series of events or types of writing. For example:
Tragedies and dramas.
Road accidents you pass and the comments of the people you are with.
Plane crashes,
Murders,
Local newspaper events.
political conflicts
religious rivalries
funerals
inquests
memorials
wartime museums
cemeteries

Comedy and Happiness
Celebrations
Birthdays
Engagement parties
Weddings
Honeymoon couples
Romantic Restaurants
Sunsets
Dates
Excitement
Fireworks
New Year

Descriptions
Transport
Mountains
Rivers
Seaside

Buildings
Temples
offices
Poor homes
Opulent homes
local architecture

Later, a week later, a year later, years later, your notes will come in handy.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. I have many more posts on destinations and events. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Safety Crossing Road - Alerting Drivers And My Accident : Stories from Corsica, Vietnam, Singapore and more

Crossing Roads
In a group, when crossing the road, the leader of the group should take charge of seeing that everybody crosses safely.

If a group of schoolchildren get off a bus and step out from behind the bus into the path of oncoming cars, and that is done on a daily basis, eventually somebody will be talking or the cars will be to fast or too near and there will be an accident.

In the USA, after many accidents with children alighting school buses, buses were designed and traffic flow was designed so that you got on at the front, but got off at the back, so that you crossed the road behind the bus. You could not run in front of the bus as it moved off. You could not run out from the front of the bus in front of an overtaking car.

In some places the rule was introduced that you could not overtake a stationery bus, because of the risk of hitting passengers who got off and tried to cross the road.

French Corsica
Corsica is a French island. So, in theory, the language is French, great if you speak French or want to keep up your French. However, their idea of French is not the same as the French of Paris, nor Londoners speaking Parisian accent French, Montreal in Canada, or Switzerland, or Belgium.

In 1984, in Corsica, I was a freelance travel writer, sent by Brides magazine, the London, magazine. My job was to report on the destination and hotel as a honeymoon place.

Unfortunately, on the way back to the airport,  I was knocked down by a car. I had a head injury. I still have the scar.

Let me recall the details and explain to you what happened.

Our coach to the airport broke down. We were told to leave our belongings on the bus.

I stopped to get my camera.

I ran after the others.

A car passed me. I stopped and looked after it as it went downhill to my left. Another car came over the hill from my right and hit me.

Supervise Pedestrians Crossing Roads 

Only now, after more than thirty years has passed, does it occur to me that somebody should have ensured that the group crossed the road safety.

The human body is designed with eyes in the front of the head. When walking, we normally look forwards to the destination point or down to check we are not falling over an obstruction or pothole. We usually look left or right before crossing. But while you are crossing, a vehicle can come forwards at up to thirty miles or more and hit you.

Vehicles & Safe Speeds

I know the speed of the vehicle. It was doing between 30 and 40 miles an hours. At forty it would have killed me. At twenty it could have stopped in time. I had multiple injuries, to my leg, my collar bone, my head. I was bleeding from my ear 

I followed the group. Safety in numbers? No.

UK Lollipop ladies

Children used to be guarded by lollipop ladies, so called because they carried a large circular sign on a stick to alert distant drivers to slow down. Many lollipop ladies were unpaid volunteers. But funding was still needed to organize the timing of patrols and supply the signs for the Lollipop ladies to carry. Funding was withdrawn.

Umbrellas

The same visible from afar effect can be achieved with an umbrella. Or a parasol.

Singapore flag.

Singapore
The traffic lights are very effective, if you are prepared to wait. But that won't stop you being hit or nearly hit by traffic zooming up the right hand lane to turn right, or attempting to turn left into the place where you are crossing.

I wanted to know the status of pedestrians versus drivers in Singapore. It took only a moment of google searching to find the government website which says that pedestrians have priority.

Of course, having priority does not ensure safety. As the old saying goes, I believe quoting a UK gravestone,
He was right, dead right, as he sped along, but he's just as dead as if he were wrong. 

Vietnam flag.

Vietnam
Which countries seem safe and dangerous to pedestrians? The most scary place for crossing road, in 2019, was Vietnam. Scooters free for all. Apparently, one day, scooters will be banned. This will not be popular with the numerous scooter drivers.

What they need is more traffic control. Yes, they have rules, but nobody obeys them. In Hanoi, the roads are rivers of scooters.

Europe
Paris, France, and Italy, are notoriously scary for pedestrians.

Useful Websites
https://sso.agc.gov.sg/SL/RTA

signaporeair.com

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

My Medical Emergency - why insurance is essential

Map of Corsica from Wikipedia showing Corsica's capital, Ajaccio, on the west coast of the island.

Ajaccio has the hospital where I was flown.

Problems
On a press trip in 1984 I was hit by a car, crossing the road in Corsica. I was on a press trip for Brides Magazine, and we were on our way home to the airport, but the coach broke down. We were asked to leave all our luggage including our cameras on the coach and cross over to a nearby hotel to await a replacement coach. 

I do not recall the impact. I was unconscious. I had multiple injuries, head, ribs, calf. I had to be flown by a helicopter to the hospital. 

I was bandaged up with my right arm against my body. I could not lift my arms nor my head.

Language Problems
I had trouble talking to the lady in the next bed. I assumed she did not understand my French accent. I tried bonjour, which is French, then Buona sera, Italian.

Later I asked a friendly male nurse, who spoke French, if he could speak to the woman in Conrsican. He explained, in French, 'the patient cannot speak because she has had an operation on her jaw'.

I later demanded to see and receive my possessions, my bag and clothes and shoes. Somebody brought my sandals. One sandal was in two pieces.

The PR went home with the group. My husband had to cancel last night at the proms and fly out. 

It took several days in high season to find five seats on a plane to get me home on a stretcher, three seat spaces for a stretcher, one for my husband, one for the medically qualified person which the insurance company and airline insisted should accompany me on the flight.

Answers The best thing was that Brides magazine, who had commissioned me to write an article, insisted on taking out insurance on my behalf, although I told them I had my own annual travel insurance policy. Their travel insurance covered everything. I had a helocopter to Ajaccio, an X-ray, several days in hospital there, flight back to the UK, transfer to the private Clementine Churchill Hospital, care there for several days.

The best part
Finances taken care of. Private hospital with private room, great food, TV on the wall. The curtains were so good I asked to buy them when the hospital refurbished.

Worst thing?
The Coriscan hospital staff did not speak English. I asked for a 'radio' and got an X-ray (radiography).
My collar bone was not set straight but left to find its own way so I am slightly lopsided and can't wear horizontal stripes.

Moral
Take out travel insurance covering all countries. You can sometimes buy travel insurance at the airport.

Modern hospital with trees and greenery in Singapore.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Languages Needed Visiting A Loved One In Hospital Overseas

Problem
You don't have a chance to speak to your loved one on the phone. Check what the country's hospitals provide and ask what your loved one needs.

Answers

SPAIN
My Spanish friend has flown back to Spain from the UK three times in the past twelve months to look after her mother in hospital. My friend says that Spanish hospitals expect relatives to come to hospital and stay on hand. Whilst the nurses do medical procedures, relatives are expected to be there to do things like helping patients to eat and clean their teeth.

UK
Many UK NHS (National Health Service) hospitals are run on different lines. Visitors are discouraged from visiting outside restricted times in afternoons or evenings. Staff seem to regard visitors as a nuisance, bringing in infections, sitting on sterile beds in outdoor clothes, obstructing access to beds, creating noise so other patients cannot sleep or be heard or noticed, getting in the way of the morning doctors' rounds.

Car parking is expensive and car park spaces often in short supply, discouraging long visits by family and by the elderly. This discourages visits from spouses and friends of the elderly (who form a large proprotion of both short and long stay patients, in every deparment except maternity and chidlren's wards).

CORSICAN, FRENCH, ITALIAN & RADIO
I was in hospital with multiple injuries after being knocked down by a car in Corsica. I spoke fluent French, which wasn't much help as most people, patients and staff, spoke Italian. If I had my life all over again I would learn German, Russian, Spanish and Italian non-stop in all my free time from primary school onwards. Never mind crosswords, TV, anything else. Just learn languages.

Radio
I was bored after the first 24 hours and asked for a radio. I was told the radios were downstairs and was promised I could have one. I was taken to the ground floor for an x-ray and when I came back, still no radio. Eventually, I discovered that radio was short for radiography in Italian hospital language, and they had thought I wanted an X-ray.

Whether you are a patient or a visitor, just being able to say hello and please and thank you makes staff more ready to stop and listen to you.

Learn Languages Now
Don't wait until you get called to visit a hospital to start learning the language on the plane. Start learning the language of the country where your spouse or parent or child or relative or colleague is living now. Then if you ever get called over in an emergency, you will be ready.

MEDICAL ENGLISH
Check the English, too. I recall driving all around a hospital not knowing which department to attend when my doctor sent me for a blood test.  No sign said blood tests. You might need a department called pathology or phlebotomy.

We also drove all the way round Barnet hospital trying to find the mortuary to view my uncle's body. We didn't see any sign saying helpful things in plain language such as: Your Dead Relatives Are Here. No sign saying Living relatives, turn right, for dead relatives turn left. Not even 'mortuary'. Might upset the living.

The word pathology comes from the Greek word pathos, meaning suffering or disease.

If you look up the hospital map online, you can then see what they call the various departments.

If grandchildren or children or nieces and nephews are likely to visit, they also need to understand the lingo. As a teenager I would not have understood the words:
audiology (hearing tests);
geriatric (elderly)
gynecology (connected with women), which is spelled differently in the USA and UK.
infirmary (hospital),
physiotherapy (exercises),
renal (kidneys).

I recall being baffled by the sign A and E (accident and emergency). If you take a local taxi they are more likely to know the outpatients or accident areas. Taking an ambulance rather than driving yourself ensures you rush through the traffic and go straight to the right department.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Blogs posts about travelling which are educational and entertaining. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Holidays From Hell - Stories For You To Tell in Traffic Jams

Problem
What do you do when you are stuck in a traffic jam or stranded on a plane runway for hours?

Answer
Tell stories of other holidays from hell.

Stories
My Travel Disaster Stories
Fire Alarms
In Scotland at the Achiltibuie hotel, a fire alarm went off in the middle of breakfast. We all had to abandon our buffet breakfast and go down the steps onto a terrace lawn. We could hear the fire engine blaring up the steep hill to the top of the hill where our huge hotel commanded a great view. The chefs were also evacuated, standing on the terrace in a group with their white hats. Also evacuated, a bride and groom - the bride in a long while - night-dress.

Flood
At Swanwick Writer's Holiday in Derbyshire, one year the site was flooded after heavy rain. The accommodation blocks were separate from the main blocks with classes and evening entertainment and the lounge and bar. Going back your feet were up to their ankles in muddy water and frogs were jumping about.

In Germany our car was broken into in Koln (Cologne).

Another car was broken into in Prague.

A third in the zoo car park in Madrid - after a group had mugged us in Marbella stealing my leather handbag and contents.

I was stuck in mid-air on a three person chairlift in a ski resort in the USA.

Worst of all, in Corsica I was on a bus which broke down on the way to the airport to go home. We were all closing the road from the broken down bus when a car came over the brow of the hill and knocked me down. 1984. I had multiple injuries including ribs broken in two places, a broken collar bone, a cracked shoulder blade, a head injury which left me bleeding from my ear, with everything spinning around more than 100 times when I tired to sit up. I ended up in a hospital in Corsica where they did not even speak French, my only other language, but Italian dialect. I tried talking to the woman in the next bed fro a day. She said nothing. Eventually I asked somebody to translate. He explained that she could not talk because she had had an operation on her jaw.

Theft
Singapore - my shoulder bag was stolen, containing a British passport, a Singapore citizens card, money, my new UK iPhone and my Singapore handphone.

Here are some fearsome photos from the internet in the Daily Mail online newspaper. My favourite is the frogs in the toilet. But that was after a flood.

Tips
If you like to convince the family or friends that your problems are not as bad as you thought, print out a copy of one of these photos, keep it concealed, then bring it out as a distraction. When your car breaks down, you can look at the picture of the elephant straddled across a mini car.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4283256/Hair-raising-capture-travel-scenarios-gone-wrong.html

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

Wish List For Trips to Corsica and London, England: museums and stories about Napoleon

Yes, I have been to Corsica. I have mixed memories, mainly of being stuck in hospital in Ajaccio and wishing I could get to the museum featuring Napoleon. He was born in Corsica.

In his day he was the great enemy of England. Trafalgar Square's main feature is the statue of Nelson, on top of a huge column. Nearby, is Waterloo station, commemorating the battle of Waterloo. The Bakerloo line is so named because it connects Waterloo in the south with Baker Street on the North side of central London. (See statue of Sherlock Holmes outside the Baker Street station and Sherlock Holmes museum and Sherlock shop around the corner.)

On the south side of Hyde Park on the corner turning towards Kensington and Harrods is a historic house, number one, London. If you can, visit number one London - it is Wellington house which is conveniently central to visit on a trip to London. In the hall way, semi-circled by the staircase, is a huge statue of Napoleon. Wellington built it so that when he saw Napoleon, who was small, he (Wellington) would be totally unafraid since Napoleon would look tiny companied to the way he appeared in the statue.

However, I see Napoleon as a hero of history, certainly a great character. After a century passes, those of us who take an interest in history, can take the liberty of an independent view, a citizen of the world's view. I am sure there were admirers and haters of Napoleon in every country and on both sides of each conflict.

In fact, Napoleon like so many leaders, good and bad, was a great speaker. He gave a speech to the other side before one of his great battles, (probably Austerlitz) and the soldiers changed sides and joined him. Now, that's a great speech!

Napoleon's laws are still governing France. The one which most affects tourists is the requirement that if anybody ask you for a glass of (tap) water you must supply it (at no charge). This means you can go into a pub or restaurant in France and ask for a glass of water. (In the UK I often feel I need to buy something before asking for a glass of water or using a toilet.) Napoleon passed this law so that his soldiers could get a glass of water anywhere, just by asking, and without having to prove they were soldiers. (It would also help refugees fleeing from an enemy army. And it was a humanitarian gesture. Napoleon was good at offering help and protection to the ordinary folk.)

After visiting Corsica, I had an au pair girl from Corsica. Her main tourist visit in London, England, was to the memorial to a Corsican hero, Paoli Pasquale (which I would translate as Paul Pascal). He established Italian as the language of Corsica.

Here is my wish list for a visit to Corsica.

1 Ajaccio, the capital

2 Museum to Napoleon in Ajaccio: Maison Napoleon. You will also see streets named after Napoleon or Bonaparte, and a hotel named after him.

3 Musee Fesch, Ajaccio. Cardinal Fesch was Napoleon's uncle and the museum has paintings of Napoleon and family and religious paintings as well as one for two old masters and old and new paintings and local painters.

4 Ajaccio Cathedral, containing napoleon's ancestors burial place, where Napoleon was baptised, and a plaque records he said that he wished to be buried here.

4 Clifftop houses

5 Narrow hillside passageway featured in novel about two leading families which inspired an opera (by Merimee?)

http://www.visit-corsica.com/en/Be-inspired/Heritage-and-traditions/Culture/Museums-and-exhibitions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsica
http://www.easyjet.com/en/cheap-flights/france/corsica-ajaccio

TripAdvisor: Things to do. Includes Maison Napoleon - Napoleon's House. You can see and photograph the plaque outside. TripAdvisor has visitor photos of the interior showing a bed, grand long room with period tables and chairs, a map, an eagle.
Ajaccio tourist board

website of author and opera websites
London location of Corsican memorial: Westminster Abbey.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasquale_Paoli#/media/File:Pascal_Paoli01.jpg

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

My Stay Paralysed In A Hospital in Corsica

I am lying in a hospital bed in Corsica. It is a two bed room. The woman in the next bed cannot speak to me or for me because her jaw is wired up before and after an operation. How symbolic of my situation. I feel much the same.

Teeth and Washing
In Corsica your family are supposed to bring you a toothbrush, clean your teeth, and help you wash. I was not with my family. I was on a press trip, writing about honeymoons in Corsica for Brides magazine.

My family did not fly out to Corsica because they were expecting me to be flown back to England. They did not realise I could not walk, stand, nor hold my head up, unaided. Neither did I.

Back to the story of my stay in hospital in Corsica. After realising that I was left with pills and did not understand how often to take them, I asked for a phone.

First I have to wait for a phone to be brought in. Then I have to negotiate how to pay. Where am I phoning? What is the number and code. I need my bag, diary with phone numbers, phone code for UK.

When the phone is lifted and placed by my mouth, the nurse is called away. The operator speaks Italian.

A nurse returns. I am not through to the UK, nor even an Italian call centre. I am through to the hospital switchboard. How am I proposing to pay for a phone call to the UK?

With cash? I have some money. We don't yet know the length and cost of the call.

Eventually I get an English speaking operator at the call centre in Corsica. I put through a call to the office where my husband works. A reverse charge call.

The switchboard in the UK say they cannot accept reverse charge calls.

I tell the Italian operator to tell them that I am in hospital, knocked down by a car, paralysed, and dying, and my husband will certainly pay for the call if they tell him I am on the line.

Fortunately the UK operator can actually hear me speaking to the Italian operator so she puts the call through.

I managed to call London and told my husband I had pills which could kill me if I overdosed accidentally, and was in so much pain that I was liable to take them deliberately, and that if he wanted to see me again, alive, he had better send an interpreter from the embassy or the British Council - or get me back to England or come out to interpret.

Pills
Shortly after that I received a message that my husband was trying to arrange a flight out to Corsica. The flight would arrive the next day. Oh good. Only four lots of two pills to be taken every four hours, or was it one pill every two hours? I shut my eyes and fell asleep. I woke up. Operator says three minutes is up. Do we want to pay for more time? "No - no-no-no. Non. No. Thank you, merci, I mean grazie, and goodbye, adios, I mean arrivaderci."

I am deliriously happy. I don't know it, but the reason is that I am on morphine. I am happy until the injection or pills wear off. Then I am screaming in pain. Tearing off the bandages holding my arm to my sticky body. Until four nurses hold me down and inject me. Then I am out and asleep.

When I am given more pain relief I am happy. I am smiling at the male nurse. He is smiling back at me. I am in love with the darling male nurse.  Maybe he will teach me Italian and when I recover I will live with him.

Perhaps not. I cannot move a finger. I cannot speak a coherent sentence in Italian. Besides, my husband is on his way to help me.

Flights
Even when my husband came out, he could not get a flight back from Corsica to London in high season for two or three days because flights were full. We now needed two seats, for him and me. I needed a stretcher, which meant three seat spaces. The insurance company had to agree to paying for five spaces and transport to the airport and from Heathrow to a hospital in the UK, which had to be arranged. He does not speak Italian either.

That was back in 1984. However, I have no reason to think anything has changed. In Corsica.

Tourist Attractions in Corsica
The museum in the capital Ajaccio, featuring Napoleon, is probably still there. Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica was Napoleon's birthplace.

The old houses on the clifftop are probably still there. The beaches and holiday hotels are probably still there.

Safety Precautions Crossing Road
In Corsica they are still driving on the other side of the road to England. When you are a pedestrian getting out of or into the coach to the airport, you still need to look both ways before you step off the pavement. (If you are reading this in the USA or going to the USA the word I mean is sidewalk. Pavement in UK is the paved pedestrian area by the side of the road. In the USA it means the whole of the traffic area, what in England would be called the tarmac or road or roadway or centre of the road.)

AND look again, both ways, when you get to the middle of the road and a car passes. Don't only look left and downhill after the car which has gone. Nor only at your friends still crossing the road ahead. Make sure you look both ways AGAIN! Look back uphill to see if there's another car approaching!

I am now (writing in 2016) learning Italian on Duolingo. But it will be a while before I get beyond the basics. Italian spoken fast, or in a dialect, and technical terms, are the next challenge.

Language Misunderstandings - and the radio

Language misunderstandings can be amusing, puzzling, annoying, or downright dangerous.

In hospital misunderstandings by doctors or patients can cause trouble. I know this from my own experience.

Hospital in Corsica and The Radio
In 1984 I was knocked down by a car in Corsica. I was flown by rescue helicopter to the hospital in the capital Ajaccio. I spoke fluent French, I thought, as a second language. For the Corsicans, Italian was a first language and Spanish a second language.

Nobody could converse much with me. I was on a painkiller, morphine. I tried to speak to the woman in the next bed but she didn't answer. (I later discovered she had had an operation on her throat or jaw!)

So I asked if I could have 'un radio'. The nurse said she would ask. Later she came back and said she had arranged for me to have a radio in about an hour. Time passed. No radio appeared.

Meanwhile I was taken downstairs for an Xray. I came back and still no radio.

I asked again. Another nurse came back. She said, "The other nurse says you had a radio."

I asked, "Where is it?"

She went away and came back with a file of X-rays. On the cover was the word Radiography. The word radio in French was short for radiography, meaning X-ray.

Not only was there no radio. Not only that, I had asked for and received an unexpected X-ray.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, language teacher.

Famous foreigners in England

Welcoming French au pair girls into my home I was always amazed that they found corners of London which were special to them, honouring their national heroes who I had never heard of. Looking at London, you might be interested in these sites, which could be on the itinerary of a tour. Whether you are a foreigner visiting London, or a resident entertaining overseas visitors, look at these and compile a handy list in your own diary. (I used to have a diary with a map of London at the back.

When I got a new diary without a map, I thought it was a pity that my new diary had no map and the old one was not transferable. I carefully cut out the map out of the old diary and sellotaped it into the new one. You can do the same with any map of the right size. Some diaries and travel notebooks have a space or flap on the back cover to hold a map or printed pages of addresses.

I also photocopy pages from my diary if I want to take just the holiday date pages, and not risk losing my diary. Alternatively take the diary, but leave the photocopy of addresses behind.

List of foreigners visiting the UK and/or with memorials, monuments, place names and burials
Australia - state of Victoria, city of Melbourne named after her minister. In UK memorial to Monash, WWI leader.
Corsica - I remember a Corsican au pair girl who went to visit the memorial in Westminster Abbey to  see the memorial to Corsica's national hero Pasquale di Paoli. He died in England, although his remains were sent back to Corsica and buried there. Corsica is now French, and many people speak French although others speak Italian.

French - Charles Peguy Centre.

India - Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square and Tavistock Square.

Malta - Maltese opera star currently in London. Queen Victoria statue in Malta.

New Zealand - Captain Cook and Victoria.

Poland - Polish memorial.

Singapore - Raffles, founder of Singapore, buried in a church in Hendon. In Singapore visit Raffles hotel and see Queen Victoria statue.

South Africa - bust of Mandela on South Bank in London.

Venezuela/ South America : a Venezuelan member of Toastmasters International told that Bolivar visited London. You could trace Bolivar's steps.

You could also do a trace of religious leaders or characters identified with a particular religion from history: eg Anne Frank (UK, Netherlands; Poland; Germany; and Schindler in Poland and Israel; 

Methodists Wesley and the church and cemetery and statue in the East End of London, England - more on Methodists in the USA; Mosques in the UK and overseas; Rothschilds in the UK and Europe; Sassoons in the UK, India and Shanghai, China (plus the HSBC Hong Kong and China Bank); Greek churches in London; Catholic Churches and saints.

Musicians have memorials and statues: George Friderick (spelling is German) Handel (of Germany) came to London - see his statue in Vauxhall Gardens, plaques and the organ he played in a church. His Handel's Messiah is a popular piece.

Another route to follow would be authors or characters from books you have read: eg authors (several books on authors and author trails in the UK); Anne Frank, Robert Louis Stevenson; Dickens; Jane Austen; Mollie Brown (Titanic, USA).

You can do the reverse in another country you are visiting, looking for statues and history relating to your homeland. For example, statues of Queen Victoria in other countries can serve as landmarks and help you remember squares. These are just the obvious ones. You will find many more.