Angela Lansbury sitting in the Union Jack chair at the Caviar shop, Heathrow Airport, 2022. Photo by Trevor Sharot.
Travel worldwide: UK; hotels; restaurants; museums; vineyards; factory tours; learning languages.
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Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Photo opportunities & Gifts at Heathrow & Airports - What's In The Caviar Shop? For kids?
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
Children's Books and Museums: Beatrix Potter, Harry Potter, Mouse Mansion
We don't have a museum for the borrowers. But you can see the outside of the house where the author lived.
Many places associated with childhood tales can be visited. Pooh Bear, for example.
In the UK you can see the studio where Harry Potter films were made.
It seems expensive, but it is like a theme park, a series of rooms. You can spend hours there. I loved the large model of Hogwarts. However, there were three things I liked even more:
1 The movie about the dwarves.
2 The stories about the real life animals. Training the white owls, which are not wise but rather stupid. The black ravens are the bright ones. Over the course of decades of filming, they have to match up generations of lookalike animals and birds to appear in subsequent films which are made beyond the lifespan of the first animal stars.
3 In the shop I bought the owl with the turning head.
Outside of London. A popular trip.
Travelling north in the UK to the lovely Lake District, you could visit the Beatrix Potter museum. What amazed me was the number of phrases I had heard in my childhood from my mother which had come from the Beatrix Potter books, which I did nto remember reading as a child. For example, having an 'unbirthday'.
Going south from London, you can visit Pooh Corner.
Over the sea in Europe, the Netherlands has a shop devoted to the Mouse Mansion. That is on my latest wishlist.
In China and the USA at Disney theme parks you can take rides featuring Winnie the Pooh.
Wiki sums it up>
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a dark ride based upon the 1977 film of the same name, itself based on the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The attraction exists in slightly different forms at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland Park. Pooh's Hunny Hunt, located in Tokyo Disneyland, is an enhanced "E-ticket class" attraction, featuring full audio animatronics and a trackless ride system.
Another big attraction is Legoland.
If you want something which is free to visit, for a photo opportunity, no opening hours to worry about, you can see numerous statues. Paddington Bear is on Paddington station in London, England, near a shop selling Paddington Bear souvenirs.
Alice in Wonderland is in a park in New York.
Various teddy bear museums can be visited.
Useful Websites
https://www.themousemansion.com/pages/meet-sam-and-julia
https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/themousemansion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Borrowers
https://www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk/attractions/pooh-corner-21873ec2
http://imwithgeekarchive.weebly.com/books/characters-and-their-statues
About the author of this blog post
BIOGRAPHY
Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5
The Author of several books including Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.
Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com
dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com
Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President
Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time
Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;
Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;
Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.
More details from Toastmasters International find a club.
Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.
Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.
Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.
Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.
Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.
Language and speech workshops in Singapore.
Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.
Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.
Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.
Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.
Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.
Quick Quotations
Who Said What When
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Harry Potter Tours in London
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places, landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.
Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.
Angela Lansbury B A Hons is the author of ten books by regular publishers plus another ten self-published books.
About Angela The Speaker & Trainer
Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.
Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:
Please share links to your favourite posts.
Friday, November 15, 2019
What use is Latin to the traveller? Languages worldwide and Roman sites in Europe and the Middle East

Duolingo has just started a Latin course. I learned Latin at school. I was always sorry I had to learn Latin instead of Spanish or German. However, Latin sometimes has its uses.

Latin Words in English
For example, for a start, English words. When I was a teenager I could not distinguish the words agriculture and horticulture. Then my Latin class teacher told us that ager was field and hortus was garden. I could instantly remember that agriculture was done by farmers as mentioned in the newspaper. The word horticulture was the interest of my local gardening club mentioned in their newsletter.

Flag of France
You can also recognise similar words in French.
You find Latin roots in Spanish.

More Latin pops up in Italian.
Latin and Italian
In school I learned amo, amas, amat, meaning I love, you love, he, she or it loves. The I comes from the ending in amo. So when I started learning Italian where the personal pronoun is often unnecessary because the ending tells you who is speaking, the idea was already familiar to me from learning Latin.
Latin and Portuguese
Latin also helps with understanding signs in Portuguese in Portugal. We read signs very easily in Madeira.
In South America the Brazilians speak Portuguese. Spanish is spoken all over South America, in the Latin American countries.
Latin is the basis of languages in Western Europe.

Pick up a newspaper or leaflet in a European country and see the word based on ager or hortus and you know what the subject is. You can read the signs to an event or a college. You can identify a place on a map.
Dictionaries
For fun, you can write a list of Latin words in the notes page or the back or front inside cover of your dictionary. Each time you look up a word, if you see the origin is Latin, write it in the Latin list.
Duolingo is the free language learning website which you can access on a computer, laptop or mobile phone.
You can also read Wikipedia in Latin. You can look up Latin words in the Latin Wiktionary.
Plants
Latin is used in plant names. Prunus for plum, from which we get prunes, our English word for dried plums.
Latin words are sometimes variants derived from Greek.
Latin terms are used in law.
Some dictionaries have a list of Latin words at the back. In a large library go to the reference section and look for the large dictionaries.
When buying a dictionary you might check that it has origins of words (etymology), and a list of Latin words at the back.
Books in Latin
Wiki has a long list of Latin children's and adults books, including Winnie the Pooh, the Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, books by Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.
| Latin title | Original title | Original author | Translator | Publisher | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vestes Novae Imperatoris | The Emperor's New Clothes, (Danish original: Kejserens Nye Klæder) | Andersen, Hans Christian | Landis, Ferderick | American Classical League | 1969 |
| Amor est sensus quidam peculiaris | Love is a Special Way of Feeling[2] | Anglund, Joan Walsh | Lyne, G. M. | London: Collins | 1969 |
| Superbia et Odium | Pride and Prejudice | Austen, Jane | Cotton, Thomas | Ephemeris.Alcuinus | |
| Magus Mirabilis in Oz | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | Baum, L. Frank | Hinke, C. J. and Van Buren, George | Berkeley, CA: Scholar Press | 1987 |
| Nuticulus Satyrique | Noddy and the Goblins | Blyton, Enid | Brice, Elizabeth | Penguin Books | 1993 |
| Ursus Nomine Paddington | A Bear Called Paddington |
Latin In Church
On Amazon you can find Latin prayers, which used to be the norm in Roman Catholic churches worldwide.
Last but not least, you can read years and names on Roman monuments on ruins and in museums. I have visited Roman ruins in:
Italy - The Colosseum
The UK - England
Hadrian's Wall, border or England and Scotland.
Take an organized holiday or DIY walk of 3 days or more, bus in summer connecting the chief museums of Vindolanda and Chesters or drive there. Stay in the nearby city of Carlisle.

Wales - museum in Caerleon, just across the border, a short drive

Israel
Jordan
Useful Websites
duolingo.com
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Latin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Church
https://www.etymonline.com/word/-logy
UK
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian%27s_Wall_Path
About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English, French and other languages, translator of packaging in English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese.
See next post on Latin. Please share links to your favourite posts.
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
What's That Bird? Quiz including the bird in Harry Potter films!
The common birds which I can name and recognize include (alphabetically) are below this lovely budgie picture:
Budgie photo from Wikipedia.
Budgerigar at Fort Worth Zoo, Texas, USA. For more details and copyright see Wikipedia under Budgerigar.
My ten birds:
budgerigar (Also called a budgie - or common parakeet!)
Canadian flying geese
duck
magpie
parrot
robin
seagull
swan
toucan
vulture
That's exactly ten in total.
I had thought of the budgie as pretty widespread as a pet, and ordinary, but a parakeet as more exotic and unusual. It turns out that a common or caged budgie is a little parakeet.
Look close and the colours are gorgeous, yellow head, green body, and wow, that expression! Look at the big, practical claws, with long 'fingers' and long nails, clasping the branch so it can balance on a curved surface.
I could name but not recognize:
albatross
cuckoo
dodo
dwarf penguin
emperor penguin
I can recognize a penguin, but only distinguish the big emperor and the cute little dwarf if they are standing side by side.
emu / ostrich
kiwi
nightingale
ostrich
rhea / ostrich
That's another ten. Altogether twenty. (I wrote a comic poem about a rhea. One escaped near a motorway in the UK and caused chaos.)
From Wikipedia
Summary[edit]
| Description |
Français : Nandou de Darwin (Pterocnemia pennata)
|
| Date | 28 June 2008 |
| Source | Own work |
| Author | Guérin Nicolas |
What have I forgotten? Loads more.
blackbird
chicken
eagle - huge
kia (We saw a kia in New Zealand at a ski resort. We were thrilled to see it and photograph it close up - until we realised it had not eaten our car windscreen wipers. Warning signs told you not to feed them and attract them.)
quail - (Quail often appears on the menu of upmarket restaurants in Britain. I feel mean eating them.)
stork - (We saw them on rooftops in Alsace, and later in Romania.)
tits, blue tits and loads more
turkey
pheasant - (You often see them parading in the UK in stately homes and large countryside hotels.)
woodpecker (You see them vertical on tree trunks, tapping away.)
OWLS
What about owls? This heart-shaped face owl is a barn owl.
|
English: A Barn Owl at British Wildlife Centre, Surrey, England.
Español =Una lechuza común en British Wildlife Center, Surrey, Inglaterra. | |
| Date | 23 July 2011, 16:03 |
| Source | 'Tutoke'* Uploaded by snowmanradio |
| Author | Peter Trimming from Croydon, England |
| This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. | |
|
| This image, originally posted to Flickr, was reviewed on August 2, 2011 by the administrator or reviewer File Upload Bot (Magnus Manske), who confirmed that it was available on Flickr under the stated license on that date. |
Here's the quiz:
1 Name a bird which is a pet and a member of the parakeet family.
2 Which kind of owl has a heart shape face?
3 Which bird pushes its egg into another bird's nest?
4 Which bird sings at night?
5 What is the small size penguin called?
6 Which owl was in the Harry Potter film?
7 What does RSPB stand for? (The last word is not Britain.)
8 What is the name of the large penguin?
9 Which red-breasted bird appears on British Xmas cards?
10 Which bird taps on the side of tree trunks?
Answers at end.
Useful Websites
BIRDS
RSPB (Royal Society For the Protection of Birds). Has newsletters, a website, online bookshop, features 170 nature reserves all over the UK to visit with panels and bird hides (not hiding the birds, hiding you from the birds), Xmas cards and more.
COUNTRIES
romaniatourism.com
visitbritain.org
visitbritain.com
visitbritain.shop
visitsingapore.com
visittheusa.co.uk (Note the t appears twice in the middle so don't type it, use this link.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Quiz answers:
1 Budgerigar
2 Barn owl
3 Cuckoo
4 Nightingale
5 Dwarf penguin
6 Snowy owl
7 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
8 Emperor Penguin
9 Robin
10 Woodpecker
Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Where to take children in Britain? Harry Potter, Beatrix Potter, Raoul Dahl and the Science Museum
Harry Potter
For a trip out of London, the Harry Potter Warner Brother's Studio tour near Watford. If short of time, opt for the inclusive package from London. If conserving money, check how much cheaper it might be to book the tour on line and buy your train ticket and shuttle bus ticket separately.
By the way, a new Harry Potter attraction has opened in California, Los Angeles region, in April 2016. Now there are two Harry Potter attractions in the USA and a wizard themed attraction in Japan.
Raoul Dahl Museum
My second choice would be the Raoul Dahl Museum. With older children, you might like a side trip to the gourmet restaurant cum pub where Raoul Dahl used to dine, with his book's illustrations on the walls. My American friend asked, "Who's Raoul Dahl?" He wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was made into a film, plus several more books. (I have previous posts on these and similar places.)
Beatrix Potter
If you have time to go up north, visit the scenic Lake District and visit the Beatrix Potter attractions. I only just noticed that there are two famous literary Potters in Britain, Harry Potter and Beatrix Potter. Plenty to see, pottering about Britain.
https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/harry-potter-theme-park-opens-in-california-4254
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share posts.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
World Book Day - children dress in character for school
What would you dress as? I would go as a character from Alice in Wonderland. Lots of choice. Alice with long hair. The mad hatter with a large hat. The rabbit - just carry a rabbit soft toy - maybe be Alice and the rabbit.
Team up with a friend to be the tubby twins Tweedle dum and Tweedle dee. Or one of the queens, queen of hearts with a large heart and a paper crown. Or use a croquet set.
What about the tea party? The dormouse? A large tea pot? You wouldn't want to break it, so maybe make it out of paper. Or use paper plates for the Mad Hatter's tea party.
I already have something from my trip to Harry Potter exhibition at the Warner studio tour in England north of London. In the shop I bought a wonderful own puppet. The head moves. You can see me using it on YouTube.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35714465
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Manhattan Film tour - ghostbusters fire station
I am told they are re-making the Ghostbusters film with different actors.
In London the old Ghostbusters film will be shown in Watford in August 2015.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Put yourself in the picture in Singapore's Trickeye Museum
Read my earlier post with photos on a tromple l'oeuil attraction in the UK.
Trickeye.com Singapore
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
What You Must See at The World Travel Market - Armchair Visits
Drum beats echo as you wander past pictures of the world's highest hotels, romantic restaurants, and amazing waxwork museums' hologram faces. You photograph robots offering you leaflets, on your way towards double decker tourist buses temporarily turned into bars. Flag-waving countries with floor to ceiling videos have music-blaring stands divided areas into desks for tourist boards which display newly opened and renewed tourist attractions on the world's continents at The World Travel Market.
November may be a dull month worldwide but in London it's all happening. As usual I expect six foot girls in corsets from Las Vegas, maple syrup pancakes from Canada, Belgian beer and chocolates from factory shops, French wines from the Champagne region, saucers of dates and nuts from Arab countries, leaflets from Israel, Palestine, all smiling PR people.
Upstairs in the press office you get catalogues too big to carry all day, plus heavy goodie bags containing free CDs on tourist attractions if you are prepared to listen to 2 hours of statistics confused by government reps who speak no English but are translated by well-spoken saints into muttering microphones and Confusion he says. The important aim for travel writers is to network and collect address cards from tourist boards. Better still, if you are lucky, meaning eagle-eyed and beaver persistent, a busy editor who wants articles about your last trip.
Just when you are ready to collapse from dehydration and exhaustion at six o'clock the show's exits close. You are trapped like children following Germany's Piped Piper as Caribbean bands can be heard echoing across the halls. Limitless cocktails stop you stumbling up the four flights of stairs at the nearby DLR.
Did you buy a copy of a newspaper with a free big umbrella and lug the heavy newspaper around all day whilst tripping people up with the umbrella (two and four years ago) - or did you postpone buying until the evening and find they had run out of umbrellas or didn't have them this year (three and five years ago).
Olympia
The exhibition was originally held at oval Kensington Olympia, where a plaque recorded how sedate Queen Victoria in her tiara watched whooping Red Indians riding horses with Wild Bill Cody. I'm now researching budget hotels. If you have any suggestions, please tell me.
I used to think that it was hard to reach Olympia in time and often persuaded an expensive Kensington or new hotel hungry for business and publicity to give me a four-poster bedroom for the night.
In my happy heyday I was a honeymoon specialist always in the honeymoon suite writing for Brides, Northern Echo or any newspaper whose staff I bumped into at events at WTM. Editors please call me.
Jewish Travel Guide, Anne Frank and Amy Winehouse
Now I'm blogging and self-publishing guidebooks. My latest is a Jewish Travel Guide A-Z. I started with Amsterdam's Anne Frank and compiled it for my own reference when speaking on radio. At a previous World Travel Market I discovered that Poland's most visited site is Auschwitz (featured on Polish and UK school trips). I've visited Schindler's Museum in Krakow, Poland's beautiful medieval former capital.
But my list of must visit one day tell me more still includes Nigeria's Queen of Sheba burial site which I heard about at a previous World Travel Market. I've also researched every country in the world from biblical times to WWII. Biblical sites, for example include Yemen's Queen of Sheba attractions.Thoughout the year I watch the news. Amy Winehouse's dress was bought by a fashion museum in South America.
Wish List Of Writers', Songwriters' and Singers' Homes
On previous visits to the show I learned about Elvis's Jewish connections, lots more sites to see in the USA singers, and country singers; and an Australian country singers' museum.
As for researching tourist sites connected with my fellow authors, I haven't yet seen R L Stevenson's last home and monument in the Pacific, nor Harry Potter which is near me and a real possibility for a visit. If you have visited these places or have any other suggestions please contact me
angelalansbury@hotmail.com
Update 2025 angelansbury8@outlook.com
Here's your link to what's on at The World Travel Market 2012 at Edexcel
http://www.wtmlondon.com/


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