Spanish Place Names Translated (Part 2)

Flag of the USA

 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 Place Names in Spain and the USA

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.

Spanish - English Place Names

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

Useful Websites About Capital Cities and place names

This post is being compiled. Come back later for more.

Side Trip From Bronte Country - Saltaire - The Innovative Planned Model Town & Public Public Park

 Sir Titus Salt was a remarkable man, a successful businessman and a visionary planner of a healthy model village, more like a small town with tow planning and leisure facilities, to accommodate his workers. He moved his industrial premises out of Bradford into the fresh air of the countryside by the river.

The river provided what was needed for his mill. 

You can see a statue of the man near the park entrance. I enjoyed reading the plaques about the history of the man and the area. 

Then notice the statues of the alpacas, a kind of  small camel with a furry coat which provided soft wool. The animals were originally used for other purposes, such as meat. But he had the idea of using the wool in his business.

The river in the middle has a weir, with wading ducks or geese. The sound of the rushing water is remarkably spoorific, like those sound effects you can buy which are supposed to help you to sleep. What a peaceful place. I could have stood indefinitely watching two canadian geese and other birds unaccountably perched on their spindly two legs in the middle of the rushing water. They were intermittently dipping their long beaks into the water. I think they were catching small fish being swept past. The perfect picnic spot, for birds.

You can walk across the pleasant park, admiring the statues, greenery, birds, water, barges, people strolling, families enjoying themselves, to his model village factory buildings which are still in use for other purposes.

Useful Websites

My other blogs include

https://comicpoemsbynutter.blogspot.com/

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Persian Food at Shabestan Restaurant

The name of this restaurant, Shabestan, means oasis, tavern or stopping place for a journey.

The setting is overlooking the river, near the multicoloured bridge. However, I like air conditioning, and thought the indoor decor was very pleasant, understated but ethnic, with the lanterns and plates on the walls.

Plus Points

What I liked most was the starter of egg plant. All fresh tasting food, and as they said, healthy, with chopped tomatoes and cucumber salad.

The main dishes had generous portions or chicken, fish or lamb kebab. With lots of salad.

The dessert was a home made ice cream, yellow colour from saffron, with red pomegranate seeds on top.

The coffee was in pleasing crockery. But no biscuit or excitement or sweetmeat with the bill. (Makes you miss Indian restaurants in the UK and Europe where you often get a tiny biscuit with the coffee and free chocolate with the bill.

We had our leftovers packed up to go.

Tips

 I went to this Persian restaurant where four of us ordered a three course set menu.  I was hoping to try out four starters, four different main courses, and four different desserts, 16 Persian dishes, at very least three times four, 12 dishes.  We ordered three different main courses. We received 2 different starters. Three different meats or fish, but identical rice (admittedly two types) and four of the same salad. For dessert, the four of us received the same dessert. I am a dessert person. I like to try four desserts if there are four people. So I was disappointed. At the Tanglin Club the set menu would have offered a minimum of two different dishes at each course, sometimes four or five. 

If you want to try a variety of dishes, have at most one set meal, and tell them that you want to try as many different Persian specialities as possible. 

I  understood it is not a budget restaurant. But it is a place which has a chef, with homemade ice cream. So at Sing doĺlars 48 plus plus it is not cheap, and people might be inclined to order the set meal because they want to know the final price and not be taken by surprise. Also to save time when you want to talk, and would otherwise need each unfamiliar dish explained. 

I have looked carefully at the menu to see what I would order if two of us went back. One set meal, for two of you. Two set meals with different main courses and starters for four of you. The meat or fish portions are enough for two people. Plus one soup. Both are the same price. A main course, the cheapest being three dollars  more than the cost of the set meal. You might have to go for vegetarian, but you have enough meat or fish from the set meal. A different dessert, if you want to keep to the cost of the set meal plus three dollars opt for the cheapest. That way you get to taste more of those tempting dishes.

Useful website

https://www.shabestan.sg/

The Old Bridge Hotel At Huntingdon - best bedrooms, best breakfast and best prices

We had found the delightful ivy-covered Old Bridge Hotel, a historic hotel in Huntingdon, by lucky chance when taking speakers for repair at Quad, and after our first lovely lunch and a look at the wine shop dispensing wines by the glass from the Enomatic machine, we were entranced.  

A Champagne dinner in January 2003 lured us back. This time, not fancying driving drunk in the dark of January, we booked a hotel room.

The Beautifully Appointed Bedroom

We chose an upgraded room, were given room 6, and were thrilled by the four-poster bed. It had no drapes. 

The Old Bridge Hotel. Bedroom 6. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The refreshingly chatty, conversational and honest, half-humorous website describes it as open. You can see the four handsome posts on the hotel website. The size of the bedroom was good.

The Big Bathroom

The astonishing equal sized bathroom contained  a freestanding bath, a shower, an exposed toilet and bidet (no privacy) 

I ate the heart shaped biscuits provided. We used the coffee table with two chairs by the bathroom window. We could have phoned down for fresh milk, but had our own, which we parked on the cold windowsill between the double glazing in the bathroom. 

The window had a side view of the river and the lively road view on the front was good. It meant you did not feel lonely in the daytime. Double glazing sheltered the occupants from any noise. 

But next morning we took a tour of the other half dozen bedrooms on our side of in the main house, after the other guests had checked out. Every room was a different delight, so the cheaper double rooms were almost all equally amazing, not all as large.

My two favourite bedrooms were the piggy theme bedroom and the four-poster honeymoon suite. The piggy room was the most unusual, with little cartoons on the wallpaper as well as the curtains. 

The Beautiful Honeymooner's Four-Poster Bed

The four-poster bed had proper drapes. I looked inside and admired the pleated canopy overhead.

 I recalled that one room had a dual aspect, double light. One window overlooked the quiet river on one side. The other window showed the traffic moving in daytime and the occasional walker.

The room did not have a coffee maker. (Never mind. We had brought our own.) 

More rooms are up another staircase on the other side of the house. Further rooms are in an annexe. The receptionist told me that we could see them on Tripadvisor.

We had booked through booking.com. We like it because they offer particular deals, such as the ability to cancel. One hotel told us that they paid 15 % to booking.com on a deal. 

Stairs

You go up and down two sets of stairs to get to the furthest bedrooms.

The Champagne Dinner

This was delightful. The man who runs the place is amusing and his wife is a charmer. The girls on reception are hard working but once you have their attention they are chatty and helpful.

The shop has different seasonal novelties every time, including jams, the bottles of toiletries you get in the rooms. At Xmas until Jan 6 they ad a Xmas tree in the hallway hung with slices of orange.

Breakfast is included if you book directly with the hotel and they also have dinner, bed and breakfast. A separate dining room is used for the dinners and special events. Lots of people hold birthday lunches and dinners here. There's also a basement bar area off the tea lounge which is next to the large dining room. An outdoor area has benches, if the weather suits outdoor dining.

For breakfast you can have a standard or vegetarian grill or scrambled eggs with smoked salmon. Instead of fattening chocolates with the dinner, morning or afternoon coffee, you can order biscuits, or biscotti.

The Champagne Dinner

The Champagne dinner was at long tables which was convivial, like a wedding. We got to know one couple while waiting before the meal, and another two couples during the meal.

During the introduction to the wines we received practical information from John, who is a master of wine, who kept us entertained with his self-deprecating humour, such as, 'I added this wine because it wouldn't sell in the shop. Thank you for helping me to get rid of it.. Some of you are serious drinkers, while the rest of you just drink for fun.'

I have done level one of the WSET training. My husband took levels two, three, and the diploma, as well as being a wine educator. Believe me, a master of wine is like a professor and really knows about the subject.

The dinner included canapes passed around to go with the starter wines. 

The main course of curry seemed as odd choice. But went down well. 

We also raised our eyebrows at the dessert of sticky toffee pudding, which sounded more like a pub lunch than a gourmet hotel with Champagnes and sparkling wines. However, the dessert came with walnuts on top and was very more-ish.

Sticky toffee pudding with ice cream and walnuts at the Old Bridge Hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The menu makes it clear that you must not be shy about mentioning allergies or dietary requirements. They do not want last minute stresses and changes, but want you to be happy and the chef to know what is needed well in advance. They cannot guarantee a nut free kitchen because they serve nuts in some dishes. I am allergic to shellfish, and was able to clarify that the dishes had none. As for nuts, I love nuts, so this place suited me.

The Best Breakfast

I feared that after dinner, breakfast might be boring or disappointing. Not at all. I had yogurt with crunchy granola, which I enjoyed although I fear for my crumbling teeth with crunchy items. I sucked slowly. My husband had the muesli with yogurt and fruit compote hidden underneath. Very satisfying. His double espresso was too strong, so instead I ordered cappuccino which was just right.

We arrived early for breakfast and secured a table by the window. We normally end up on the banquettes at lunch time, having driven up from London. It was a treat to sit by the window. Although it was raining, we could watch visitors arriving or walking back to the car park, and staff manipulating the decorations. 

Useful Websites

https://www.oldbridgehuntingdon.co.uk/

https://www.oldbridgehuntingdon.co.uk/eating-and-drinking/

The Old Bridge Hotel & Riverside Restaurant, Huntingdon, for a lovely lunch and delightful decor

 This historic hotel is on the riverside and is run by a Master of Wine and has a wine shop on the premises.

River Ouse seen from the car park of the Old Bridge Hotel as you arrive. Photo by Angela Lansbury, copyright..

We booked a table and drove up from north London to one of our favourite restaurants. Now that the Harrow at Little Bedwyn has closed down, the Old Bridge looks likely becoming our favourite for a special meal out, out of home, and out of London.

The car park is beside the green tree-lined river. The hotel has greenery covering walls and patio tables.

The bightly lit restaurant has brick walls, big mirrors and blue-green banquettes.

Angela Lansbury in the restaurant of The Old Bridge, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

Prosecco and cocktail with fresh mint. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The sourdough bread and butter was tops, chewy bread, and tasty butter. 

I began with a glass of Prosecco. The shaped thin glass seemed slightly better than most glassware offered by restaurants.

Toilet Temptations

I dashed down to the ladies toilets beside the bar. The wallpaper features fish. 

Fish wallpaper. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

If you fancy the handwashing gel and/or the moisturizer, both are on sale in the shop. I don't understand why all hotels and restaurants don't do this. 

The gents toilet has different wallpaper. Bottle theme.

We chose from the set menu. 

Seriously Special Starters

Beetroot starter. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

My starter was a small deep bowl of deep beetroot purple colour. Yes, beetroot. Not the creamy Polish and Jewish style borscht. Certainly not the transparent Russian style borsht. Much thicker. With a Greek yogurt texture white blob submerged. Delightful. I used the last of my sourdough, French style, I mean in the fashion of diners in France, to sweep every last morsel. Compliments to the chef.

The grilled broccoli was tasty. Cooked just right. No alarming black.  

Broccoli starter. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Main Course

We had a choice of three dishes on the set menu. Our main courses were different. Leaving out the vegetarian option, one was a pork pie, the other fish. 

Main course. Pork pie.

Dessert

Dessert, summer pudding, at The Old Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

My dessert option was summer pudding.

My husband chose cheese.

The coffee could be accompanied by breads. 

Coffee and biscuit at The Old Bridge Hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

By the time we had finished lunch, the tea time crowd were enjoying three tier stands of sandwiches, what looked like scones and cakes. I was wondering whether I could sell my home and move into a hotel for a year. But I would double in size as there is no gym nor swimming pool.

Shopping For Souvenirs

Before leaving, we looked at the shop, which had wall to wall wines, a description of the owner, a Master Of Wine, and an Enoteca machine which allows you to buy a card and select tastes of different sizes, small, tiny or teeny of various drinks. for those not driving home. If you are driving, you might buy a bottle. Or look at the gifts, which are different seasonally and on my every visit. This year, this month, they had paper folding origami sets, tea towels.

Traditional tea and coffee. Brown and white sugar cubes. A milk jug in blue Willow pattern.

Useful Information and Websites

Old Bridge Hotel, 1 High Street, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.

https://www.oldbridgehuntingdon.co.uk/

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g209939-d313733-Reviews-The_Old_Bridge-Huntingdon_Cambridgeshire_England.html

https://www.google.com.my/travel/hotels/Cambridgeshire/entity/ChcIvq2puNqY8YseGgsvZy8xdGc2djY2YhAB?utm_campai

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Delights and Dangers of Wildlife - Safety in Northern Australia, South Africa and Singapore's Safari, and food, fur, and fashion in the USA and worldwide

 

Back garden in Hatch End, London, England, with two foxes. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Cahill crossing in Australia is notorious for its crocodiles. Just looking at the pictures puts me off. They are building a better crossing but meanwhile people are ignoring signs.

Looking closer, I see it is not a riverbank at all. It is a low crossing, a bit like stepping stones pushed together, enough for a tough car to drive acrosss, slowly.

Apparently one can got trapped in the river and the occupants had to swim past the cross to safety on dry land. Safety  from water the minute you are out of the water. But safety from crocodiles - only if you stand well back from the river!

In the UK earlier this year we received a parking fine, a sign hidden behind wheelie bins, in a road where other people parked. My husband had said: 'Everybody else is doing it.'

That doesn't defend one person from being endangered - or all of them.

Signs are not enough. Firstly, not everybody can read English. 

Secondly, not everybody can read. 

Thirdly, people think they can jump back, or believe crocodiles stay in the water and the edge. Children and adults don't realize the reptiles jump onto land. 

Fourthly, time to put up a barrier. If it is costly, find sponsors. 

It is natural to lean over water to have a look. Build viewing platforms with binoculars back from the edge. To make signs more effective, display statistics of people killed. Make fines for standing by the edge.

The signs don't protect you, if there is nowhere to retreat or stand safely. 

I walked along a boardwalk pier in Singapore. At intervals there were places where you could stop and look out. But crocodiles or other creatures could leap up. I never did that again. 

I can entertain myself, and grand children, eating ice cream or fruit and watching films. We don't need to run around crocodiles playing dare.

Eating Funny Food

I have eaten lots of funny food. Crocodile. In the USA . Was it the USA.  Yes, now I remember - they gave me a certificate to prove it!

Wichetty Grup In Australia

I tried wichetty grub soup  in a restaurant in Perth. Its selling point was the unusual foods.

South African Safari & Lion Park

I have been on a late evening Safaris (South Africa) where you see very little in the twilight.

At a lion park we were warned not to get out of our car. Afterwards, I researched.  I learned that a Japanese family had got out of their car to pose their children next to baby lions. Resulting in a human fatality.

Singapore farmed Crocodiles

I have been to a crocodile breeding farm in Singapore.

The Night Safari in Singapore is a compromise. The animals can roam freely. The pedestrian visitors are separated by a deep gorge. The travelling vehicle visitors are kept in moving and camouflaged trains. 

Camouflage clothes

Wearing Wild Animal Clothes

Useful Websites

Australian Museum Wichetty Grubs

St Patrick's Day Celebrated In Belize, Belikin Beer, and canoeing on the river - Kate & Wills visit soon

 

What else can you do in Belize? All kinds of water sports. Here is a canoe day.

As you see from the pictures, Guinness is available, brewed locally under licence. The local Belize beer is the brand Belikin. You can buy tee-shirts and Belikin bottle openers.

Singapore Dynamic Speakers meets every Friday at 9.30 pm Singapore time, which is early in the morning in Belize. The meeting lasts about two hours. President Edward Young's recent speech was about canoeing in Belize. Birds of Belize. The Barrier reef.

What else to see, caves, waterfall, wildlife, ziplining, Mayan ruins. Health, watch out for malaria and dengue fever. The national dish is riche, chicken and beans.

Belize desserts

Cashew apple wine. Rum raisin bread pudding. White cake. Sweet potato pudding.

Useful Websites

Lonely Planet video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJyqz-pQ398

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belizehttps://caribbeanlifestyle.com/must-try-desserts-to-eat-while-in-belize/

Handy Spanish words for tea, coffee, many, mountain and more

 

Bar la escueva

Escueva means school

 A few words of Spanish

English - Spanish

and - y

another - otro

bar - bar

beautiful - hermosa

big - grande

certificate/diploma - diploma

city - ciudad

flag - bandera  (like the word band)

Hello - hola

here - aquí

is - es

mountain - montaña (like the US state)

in - en

language - lengua (looks like language and linguistics)

mi - my

nothing - nada

of - de

or -o

please - por favor

restaurant - restaurante

river - rio

royal - real

thank you - gracias

that - esa/eso

the angels - Los Angeles (the US city)

the (masculine singular, feminine singular/masculine plural/feminine plural) - el/la/los/las 

very - muy (spelled like much)

wine vino

where is - donde esta

yes si

one - uno

two - dos

three - tres

four - cuatro

five - cinco (memory aid - think of five sinks)

six - seis

seven - siete (think of seven settees)

Spanish - English

uno - one

dos - two

tres - three

cuatro - four (note the c not a q)

cinco - five

seis - six

siete - seven

...

angeles - angels

aquí  here

bandera - flag 

bar - bar

café - coffee
con - with
de - of
dia - day
en - in
esa/eso - that
hermosa - beautiful
ciudad - city

dónde está - where is

el - the

es - is

gracias - thank you
grande - big
Hola - hello

instituto - institute

la - the

los - the plural

leche - milk

lenga - language

mi - my 

montaña - mountain

mucho - much, many

muy - very

nada - nothing (it's nothing, in reply to thank you)

no - no

o - or

otro - another, other 
por favor - please

real - royal

rio - river

si - yes
restaurante - restaurant

té - tea
vino - wine

y - and

Useful Websites

Berlitz

https://www.berlitz.co.uk

Earworms

https://www.earwormslearning.com//

duolingo

https://www.duolingo.com/

memrise

https://www.memrise.com/languages/learn-spanish

translate google

MONDLY

https://www.mondly.com/blog/2019/03/27/spanish-accents-how-to-type-pronounce-and-master-them-all/

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

WIKI WORDS

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

About the AUTHOR

Angela Lansbury is an aspiring polyglot. She learned French (O level and A level) and Latin (O level) in school.

Alligator Kills American - Can You Fix Stupid?

Photo in Wikipedia in article on Alligator. Photo attributed to Bignuts.Alliator in zoo.

Newspapers and other media reported that a woman went towards an alligator and was killed.

Several comments from the public worldwide were about the woman being stupid.

Yes, by definition half the people are under the half way mark of human intelligence. Children under ten, or under twenty, lack experience. They lack knowledge and are more vulnerable to wildlife and accidents because of the child's size.

A second vulnerable group are the elderly with dementia.

A third vulnerable group are those who are born with or develop low intelligence through accidents.

 As legislators and health inspectors and citizens we have a duty of care towards them, and the  public and emergency services who risk their lives thrying to save the endangered.

Do you seriously think that anybody of low intelligence should be killed aligators? What if it's your relative or enighbour, or granny? What if you are funding or managing the local hospital or mortuary or insurance company.

If it costs money to keep the mentally deficient or mentally fragile confined, then we think it is kinder to leave them in the community, doing simple jobs. But they are a danger to themselves - and other who try to rescue them.

Many of these events are predictable.

As people get older, a proporiton of them develp dementia.

Allowing people to drink during the working day before 6 pm (when they should only drink safely at home, without walking or driving home). Luckily the husband and wife did not go to help her or there would have been three fatalities. They threw a rope.

Should we give everybody an annual intelligence test? Questions including, should I fondle a lion or an alligator?

Instead, or in addition, should we invest more in fences around ponds and lakes and rivers and canals and clifftops?

What are the options?

Confine those of low intellience.
1 Barrier Rope  & Rescue Ropes For Humans
Install more ropes and life belts.
Bild more fences.

2 Barriers For Animals
We have fences around fields to confine sheep and bulls. Fences in farms and in Australia go on for miles.
Have bells and other items like scarecrows to keep wildlife in the water.

3 Cull wildlife.
Move wildlife out of urban areas.

4 Ban alcohol / restrict access and times.
(Like many muslim countries and the US in the Prohibiton era.)
Ban alcohol during working hours. (We used to have fewer hours when alcohol could be served in the UK.)

A moral rule used to be no alcohol and no valueble diamond jewellery worn before 6 pm - which prevented accidents and loss of valuables in working hours.)

5 Cage communities
Build gated communities with walls to keep out wildlife.

What Has Worked
In Australia they discovered that most deaths from drowning take place not in the ocean but to small children in homes with back yard swimming pools. So they brought in legislation that all back yard pools should have high fences and lockable gates.

In Rockville, Maryland, swimming pools were reured by the local council (inluenced by their insurance requirments) to have tennis court style high fences, and two lifeguards on duty during opening hours. Putting up warning signs is good. But if the young and old of low intellence, bavado, following dares, or drunk, have access to danger, ywe need to think of prevention by a second backup system.

How You And I Can Spread Safety Messages
Currently Covid-19 is causing legislation all over the world. The public and the media are supporting safety messages on Facebook posts and bogs.

At Toastmasters International we are occasionally asked in the Table Topics session (impromptu speeches), what would you do if you were king or president or could pass any law? I shall start a new notebook, or a page in my diary, listing the changes I would like to see, and plan to give this speech at the next opportunity.

Be Prepared To Speak
I might have to wait 6 months. But the moment will come. In fact, as President of Braddell Heights Advanced, currently on line at 7 pm every Wednesday, I can give the opening speech. I now have my topic.

Come along to hear it. Next Wednesday on learncool.sg contact the president of VPE if you wish to attend. You, too, have a story to use to illustrate a point if you are called upon to give an impromptu speech or comment. Plan your quick, succint comment on alligators crocodiles, covi-19 and any safety issue

Useful Websites
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8293063/I-guess-wont-words-woman-killed-alligator.html#reader-comments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_alligator_attacks_in_the_United_States

About the Author
Angela Lansbury

Author

Author, Author! About the Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, trainer and speaker. (Not related to the actress.)

Author of twenty books including: Quick Quotations; Who Said What When.

See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts. Also watch videos on YouTube.

See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.

LANGUAGE TEACHER/TRAINER

If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club,

Braddell Heights Advanced. Wednesdays, 7-9 Singapore time which is seven hours ahead of London, England.

On learncool.sg

I am also a member of

Singapore Online.9-12 pm, Singapore time, Fridays. In 2019-2020 I am also a member of

Tampines Changkat Advanced. Tiarel.

Harrovians, London. HOD London.

Toastmasters International Find a Club

https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=upSEBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=quick+quotations

lulu.com/shop/angela-lansbury/who-said-what-when/paperback/product-21713991

drink

Other posts about food, drink, restaurants and artists and museums and destinations and languages.

See later posts on pools.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Conversational and Everyday Welsh Words into English and back - alphabetically

A member of staff at a hotel in Fishguard, Wales, told me that she could not speak a word of Welsh.  However, her children learned Welsh at school and could speak it fluently. They did not miss out on European languages, but had the option of learning French and Spanish. How I envy and admire polyglots.

Not to be outdone by children, let's get started.

Here's a handy list of greetings, placenames, numbers, colours.

English - Welsh
beach - traeth (try-th)
beer - cwrw pronounced koo-roo
castle - castell
goodnight - nos da
hello - helo
house - ty (pronounced tee)
river - afon (ah-von, like England's Stratford upon Avon)
sea - mor

town - tref (traive)

Welsh - English
afon - river
bore da - good morning
castell - castle
cwrw - beer
helo - hello
nos da - good night
ty - house

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages.
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker.
Author of
Quick Quotations.
How To Get Out of the mess you're in.
Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Plants you can or can't eat when hiking, lost or walking away from an accident

One story on the internet is about food you could find or grow to feed yourself and others after the apocalypse such as a meteor strike or nuclear bomb or nuclear accident destroys crops and farms above ground.


UK
Currently in the UK and many places the gathering of wild fruit and flowers is banned, on private and public land, and landscaped gardens, because wild flowers are disappearing.

One ruling is that you can pick enough for your own use, to eat, but not commercially, to sell. Why? Jealousy? No. Mainly because companies wanting to sell will gather huge amounts, employ armies of recruits, and wipe out the crop.

Mushrooms
In wartime you can grow mushrooms indoors under the stairs. I heard this was done in WWII.

Potatoes
After my father died I found that he had a cupboard full of green plants growing like Jack and the beanstalk. We eventually dragged out the plant which had taken over. It was sprouting potatoes.

He was not growing potatoes. They were simply stored in the dark, but had grown nonetheless. I read somewhere that you should avoid eating any potatoes which have started to grow green.

Beware Of Mouldy Food
Another website told me never to cut mould out of bread because even if you cannot see it the mould has spread throughout the bread. don't take my word for it. Check out what you think you might need to know back to the original scientific sources.


Don't Attract Animals
A further warning in the USA. Beware of bears in some areas. In parts of the USA and Canada you are told not to have sandwiches or food near where you are sleeping, not even in a locked car. Bears and other dangerous animals will smell the food, eat it, get near enough to attack you. Even if you are safe, next time monkeys and bears, having learned that hikers carry food, will come looking for it and grow angry not finding it!

Doesn't everybody know that you can eat apples, pears, oranges, cherries, and wild blackberries? But beware of a few poisonous plants including some red currants and mushrooms, especially those red ones with white dots.

My Favourite Deadly Mushroom Story
I was on a press trip with a woman from a cookery magazines. We were discussing safety and food. I mentioned: "The French gather mushrooms and can get them identified in their local pharmacist in France where a poster or book will identify edible mushrooms and dangerous ones. Did you know that the red mushrooms with white dots which you often see in books are poisonous?"

She replied:
"Yes. We had a problem with illustrations once. We gave a mushroom recipe. The art department's artist decided to use the red mushroom with white dots which is poisonous. Nobody noticed until after it had gone to print!'

"How did you find out?"

"Somebody immediately phoned tha magazine and told us."

"What did you do?"

"We had to ask for the magazines to be withdrawn, which was very costly, but they had all been distributed already and many of them had been sold, sold out. The only thing we could do was to print an apology and warning in the next edition."

"Did anybody die? Or get poisoned? Or complain?"

"No. The only complaints we got were that people had gone around their local supermarkets showing a picture of the mushrooms but nobody stocked them."

Australia
Down under they put up warnings in Australia.

Australian warning about death cap mushrooms. Wikipedia picture.

Warning sign in Canberra, Australia

AYArktos - Own work

Warning sign for Death Cap Mushrooms, Canberra, Australia

USA
In the USA a sculpture of Alice in Wonderland with a giant mushroom is in Eastern Central Park, New York.

Jose de Creeft's sculpture Alice in Wonderland in Eastern Central Park, New York. Alice sits on a mushroom, inviting children to climb up and join her. The mushroom in the sculpture is not a faithfully reproduced Amanita muscaria; the reference within Lewis Carroll's original literary work upon which the sculpture is based is often discussed.^[114][115]

Pratyeka - Own work

Children play on Jose de Creeft's sculpture 'Alice in Wonderland' in Central Park, New York. Alice in Wonderland's mushroom theme is thought to be based on the psychedelic effects of the consumption of Amanita Muscaria, the 'fly agaric' mushroom.

Surviving A Plane Crash

I always wondered how you survived in a plane crash when you had to walk to safety, as one woman once did. You walk downhill hoping to find a stream which gives you drinking water and washes bites and dirty clothes, and then follow the flow towards the sea hoping to pass houses or villages by the water.

On Christmas Eve 1971 Juliane Koepecke was on a plane flying across Peru when the plane was struck by lightning and crashed. She walked down to a river and survived. She followed the advice she had been given by her father.

After all that eating whilst hiking, you might like to know:
How to shit in the Woods.

USA
My family bought this book years ago in a camping gear and clothes shop in the USA. You can now buy a kindle version to read on your laptop or mobile phone.

Romania and Bulgaria
You might also be interested in using an umbrella as a shield when hiking on trails in Romania and Bulgaria where there are no toilets and many groups passing by the paths.

Let's end with the good news. Huge numbers of edible plants you already know and recognize such as dandelions, nettles and don't forget forget me nots.

I like to remember plants which are entirely edible and taste good. In an emergency you might be willing to be careful to eat only part of the plant.

For those of both pessimistic and pragmatic or realistic dispositions, print off the list and keep it in your pocket when travelling. If nothing else, it will provide entertainment and conversation. And who knows, nowhere, some day it could save a life.  As the UK road safety advertisement used to say, appealing to the reader's self-interest (probably based on research into motivation), the life you save could be your own.

Useful Websites
French Tourist Board
http://ee.france.fr/
Wild Plants For Hikers
https://matteroftrust.org/62-edible-wild-plants-that-you-didnt-know-you-can-eat/
Edible Plants
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Edible_plants
Mushroom Hunting Holidays
https://www.bookculinaryvacations.com/les-pastras/2-days-mushroom-hunting-and-culinary-vacations-in-france
How To Eat In The Woods
https://www.amazon.com/How-Eat-Woods-Complete-Sustenance/dp/1631910124
How To Shit in the woods
https://www.amazon.com/How-Shit-Woods-3rd-Environmentally-ebook/dp/B004OR1KWC/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
If foraging legal in the UK?
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-11584156
Poisonous Plants and mushrooms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom_poisoning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_phalloides

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