Lifesaving rules for the beach and children

Warming sign includes the words, keep off dunes.

Three rules for children on beaches.

1 Do not leave the alone in or beside the water.

2 Do not leave them alone in or beside the sand.

3 Do not build a hole bigger than a child nor let them climb into a hole.

The same applies to making tunnels in the base of a cliff.  The death of a seven year old girl should be the last time it happens. But apparently it happens every year. Time to put warning signs on beaches. Common sense is common but not one hundred per cent. get some local  McDonalds to say, if leaving the beach for a bit, bring the children with you. Do not leave them alone. Do not allow them to build ditches and holes or tunnels not climb inside them.

Update, Sunday March 172024, experts say don't dig deeper than the knees of the shortest person.

Useful Website

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13194937/Distraught-parents-7-year-old-girl-suffocated-collapsed-sand-hole-beach-say-danger-never-crossed-mind-claim-known-overprotective-friends.html 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13196463/Sloan-Mattingly-beach-sand-pit-parents.html

Photo credit

Infrogmation of New Orleans - Photo by Infrogmation (talk) of New Orleans

 

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Thailand's Child-friendly, Romantic Sunwing Hotel, Kamala Beach, Thailand - Swans On The Bed!

Swan decoration for the wedding anniversary, at the Sunwing Hotel, Kamala Beach, Thailand.

Our son had researched child-friendly hotels with play areas indoors and outside, abundant high chairs, kiddie menus in restaurants.

 We first stayed at Katthani Hotel, Phuket, which was more spacious and more expensive. 

Then moved to the better for the budge Sunwing hotel which was nearer the airport, 30 minutes way instead of  40 minutes away, we thought.

The Sunwing bedroom was delightful. Two members of my family were celebrating their wedding anniversary. The hotel had made a pair of swans on the bed from white towels with interlocking necks to make a heart shape.

The toilet paper edge was fanned like a concertina fan.

The ground floor room had a sunken patio in the front with seating semi outdoor. (Open on the front.) A dining table and chairs were provided.  

This was their second wedding anniversary and they now have a toddler. They chose this hotel because it is child friendly. It has indoor play areas. Outdoor play areas. Swimming pool slides. A ballgame area for the older children to play football inside what looks like an outdoor tennis court.

Beach

The public beach is well equipped with parasols and chairs to hire. My only objection is that they were piled up blocking my view of the sea from the area by the bar of the hotel's poolside bar which was near the beach.

Price

Considerably cheaper than the gorgeous and glamorous Katathani (see my other post) in Phuket. 

Side trip from here was to a huge  magical restaurant with colourful ceiling, kiosks around it serving all kinds of food, and light shows.

My family moved to this hotel from the Katathani to be nearer the airport for the return flight. Even so, the traffic was so slow that it took up the spare half hour we had allowed. 

The Sunwing entrance is huge but a bit disappointing. A bit like an airport. 

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

No grand restaurant. Fast service in the cafe style restaurant which served good food in what felt like a school hall. 

The indoor kiddie area was great for the toddler.

Elephant statue

Elephant statue, Sunwing Hotel, Kamala Beach, Thailand. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Reach from Beach bar Restaurant

My view of the beach was blocked by stacked chairs.

Pool at Sunwing Hotel, Kamala Beach, Thailand. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Guests in Thai hotels included Russians. Signs were in the Russian language. In 2023 Russians have a restricted number of destinations where they can go, so Thailand is a good option for them.

Useful websites

https://www.sunwingkamala.com/

How to fold a swan and heart from rolled up white towels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5_8esWTrwA

How to fold toilet paper into a fan - toilet paper origami.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXBrbDlnmHs

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Portuguese Words for football, garden, goodbye and how to remember a few words which sound similar to English, Spanish and French

 

Flag of Brazil

A few words of Portuguese, with my memory aids

English - Portuguese

and - e

beach - praia

club - clube (just add an e)

day - dia (like diary)

district - bairro

fish - peixe

football - futebol (change the two football letters o to U with two spikes, add an o, drop the l)

garden - jardim

goodbye - adeus (like the Spanish adios)

hello - olá

museum - museu (easy to remember, just drop the second m)

new - novo (like novelty)

old - velho (V like vintage)

or - ou (both start with letter o)

sea - mar

the - a

time - tempo (like temporary and tempo)

yes - sim (like Spanish si but add m)

Portuguese - English

a - the (confusingly!)

adeus - goodbye

bairro - district

clube - club

dia - day

e - and

futebol - football

jardim - garden

mar - sea (like the French word mer, and the Devonshire place name in the UK, Weston super mare, near Exeter, probably the influence of the Normans)

ou- or (both start with letter o)

novo - new

olá - hello (the same as the Spanish, like hello, but the o vowel is first, like holler hello)

peixe - fish

praia - beach

sim - yes

tempo - time

velho - old

Useful Websites

Duolingo

Duolingo.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santos,_S%C3%A3o_Paulo

For more on football and Sau Paulo, Pele's football club, museum and city, see my previous post.

Angela Lansbury

teacher of languages

Beginning a new language for polyglots and expats

Learn Easy Portuguese words - Praia da Luz - what does it mean? Words of the day

Portuguese word of the day, actually three words for starters.  Praia da luz means beach of light.



Portuguese flag

Atalaia Tower (Portuguese: Torre de Atalaia)

Castle of Senhora da Luz (Portuguese: Castelo da Senhora da Luz/Fortaleza de Nossa senhora da Luz),

Now some more.
Portuguese: Igreja da Nossa Senhora da Luz (church of Our Lady of the light)


My search through pictures led me to a website page all in Portuguese, but most of it was instantly recognizable to anyobody who spoke English. Look at this:
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_patrim%C3%B3nio_edificado_no_distrito_de_Faro

That is 12 words we now know and can recongize.

Portuguese - English
Praia - beach
da - of (like French de)
luz - light
castello - castle
distrito - district
edificado - buildings
senhora - lady
Torre - tower
familia - family
lista - list

English - Portuguese
beach - praia
castle - castello
district - distrito
buildings/edifices - edificado
family - familia
lady - senhora
list - lista
light - luz (like the English word luminous)
of - da
tower - torre

Where can you use Portuguese? Over on the American continent in South America in Brazil. In Europe in Portugal. Offshore from Portugal in the Atlantic in the island of Madeira. Or as I did when reading news articles about places in Portuguese speaking countries.

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

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

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

useful Websites
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-say-thank-you-in-several.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/05/introducing-yourself-in-english-spanish.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html Please share links to your favourite posts
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8384769/Major-breakthrough-hunt-Madeleine-McCann-police-identify-German-suspect.html
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_patrim%C3%B3nio_edificado_no_distrito_de_Faro
translate.google.com
duolingo.com

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.

Why Go to Viareggio? It's In Tuscany in Italy. Why not?

Problem
My British friends want to know whether I recommend Viareggio in Italy for a holiday. They are retired and not into beach holidays but want to use it as a base for touring, not by car but public transport. What is for and against going to Viareggio?

Answers
First, how do you pronounce it? Via - reg - ee - oh. The double g makes a soft J sound.

All the Brits have loved it for years. To put it another way, it is popular, like Benidorm and Torremolinos and Blackpool. It's popular. It's full of tourists. Why does everybody go there?

Firstly a huge long straight sandy beach edged by hotels. Miles of sun loungers and sunshades. Yes, you may have to pay, if those beach items are the property of some business other than your own hotel.

It's a strip. I was disappointed. I'd previously done the Amalfi drive, all scenic hilltop views and cute little coves. But not room for coachloads of tourists, huge hotels, and yards of ice cream sellers, which is what you get at Viareggio. (Also check whether you get a white sandy beach, a grey stony beach, or rocks, or a harbour with boats and no swimming but lovely for sitting in the sun and shade under an umbrella by the water.)

I suggested that my first my friends should use Streetview to take a look at the resort and any hotel which is offering them a good deal.

Next, they should make a list of their favourite destinations or excursions. Check in both directions. For example, it might be cheaper to stay in New York and visit Washington DC, or cheaper to stay in Washington DC and visit New York. Similarly compare London and York, or Viareggio and tourist sites.

Which cities offer the most accommodation? And is it mostly big expensive hotels, or little family run guesthouses? Will you be near the pick-up points for tours at the big hotels? Or near the bus stop and train station at the guest house?

Tuscany or Umbria or both?
Tuscany is on the west coast of Italy and had famous tourist sites such as the leaning tower of Pisa. If you want beaches, go to Tuscany.

We once stayed in Lido de Jesolo - and took an excursion (at extra expense) to Venice.  We were disappointed to be not as near to Venice as we had expected. We spent more time and money than expected going to Venice, and less time than we had intended in Venice.

Why Umbria?
I travelled most recently to Umbria as a guest of the tourist board. I was very taken with the cpaital Perugia, with its huge Etruscan gate against the gigantic sheer cliff face. It does involve some uphill walking on cobblestones.

If you want to swim and have a generous budget, a couple of the larger hotels have wonderful indoor and outdoor pools. One hotel's spa has underwater jets and an indoor-outdoor pool.

The other top hotel has an indoor swimming pool with views of historic ruins.

We stayed in a romantic restored castle. The outdoor pool was closed in the off season.

Try Tuscany
If you want flat sand to stroll along the water's edge, the sea with waves, people, then you want Viareggio in Tuscany.

My relatives did a driving tour of Tuscany and Umbria. See my other posts on Italy.

The Viareggio carnival is held early in the year, between January and March.
The Puccini music festival is in July-August.

Excursions
Puccini's house.
Pinocchio Park.
Lucca towers.
Pisa - about 20 miles.
Florence - about 60 miles.

Useful Websites and Links
LANGUAGES 

http://duolingo.com
http://www.dummies.com/languages/italian/italian-greetings-and-good-byes/

earwormslearning.com

https://translate.google.com/ (Useful for translating into English.)

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

LEARNING ITALIAN LANGUAGE

https://wikitravel.org/en/Italian_phrasebook (pronunciation)

TRAVEL
Tuscany
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2018/06/see-rossi-multiple-motorcycle-winner-on.html

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

Umbria
http://umbriatourism.it
https://twitter.com/UmbriaTourism
@UmbriaTourism  
#loveUmbria

Italy
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html

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

Madeira, the island, wines, restaurants, hotels and selfies with the bust of Cristiano Ronaldo

Problems
Past
I have a photo of myself with family descending the Madeira hillside on a kind of local seated sledge. Like a horse-drawn cart but with no wheels and no horse! No wonder we are all grinning. Where were we? What have I done with this historic photo? I need a catalogue of photos!

Present
Where to go and what to do? Before planning a trip, I collect information days, weeks, months, years in advance. I started with a trip to taste Madeira wine in the UK (see my previous posts). The rep for Madeira wines, Geoff, kindly sent me information.

Future
Here are some notes I have made on Madeira, based on editing what Geoff said:

Hotels - biggest and best?
Reid's hilltop hotel where Winston Churchill stayed.
Savoy by the sea.

"1.A city hotel which we use for group visits in the centre of Funchal. 

Hotel Orquidea.     

www.hotelorquidea.com   

 info@hotelorquidea.com

2. Romantic hotel. Our favourite is Porto Mare hotel.

 www.portobay.com    

book@portobay.pt

3. Restaurants, all are good. A small intimate on is 

L'Osteria Restaurant 

4.  PVP has probably the best wine selection, informal and good food.

5. All the restaurants serve the locally made table wine. It is OK, but not very exciting and rather expensive. I would say that their table wine is at a level where English wine was 20 years ago.

6. All the producers have visitor facilities, booking is required for groups. All have websites. 

7. Cocktails. A document was published by IVBAM

 If you contact IVBAM I am sure that they would be pleased to send you a copy.  ivbam.sra@gov-madeira.pt

All restaurants and bars serve freshly pressed fruit drinks."

Sites - See and Do
Madeira movie experience.
Madeira history museum.
Botanical Gardens.
Lava tunnels and waterside walks.
The artificial beach where black sand has been replaced by pale sand.

Drink
Madeira wine, rum, passionfruit cocktail.

Zarco statue in Funchal, capital of Madeira. Photo in Wikipedia by Hedwig Storch.

A famous historical figure known locally is Zarco, whose statue is on one of the main streets, Avenida Arriarcho. Zarco was an explorer and, like Christopher Columbus, some suspect Zarco was descended from a Jewish family which converted to Christanity.

Most famous living man from Madeira, Cristiano Ronaldo, footballer who has played for real Madrid and previously Manchester United. You might fly into Aeroporto Cristiano Ronaldo, named after him in 2017. Notice the bust of him in the airport. You might want to photograph it and have a selfie with it.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Please see my other blog and share links with your friends and family.
http://luxurytravelforless.co.uk

What to see and do in Southport: Lawnmower Museum, Red Rum and more

Problem
I've heard of Southport. Friends who live there say it's lovely. But what can you do there?

Answer
1 The Lawnmower Museum
At first sight, I thought this was an unlikely and uninteresting subject. But when I read their website, I found it fascinating. the extraordinary thing about the lawnmower is that for years people had meadows with grass mixed with flowers. They cut down high grass with scythes to make it easier to walk about. Scythes are risky things to use. One day a man adapted a machine used to cut the surface of cloth - he decided to adapt it to cut a lawn. The result was the modern oblong garden like a picture frame with a neat lawn edged by two, three or four flower beds.

2 The Pier and the beach
The horse Red Rum used to run up and down the beach. You can run up and down the pier.

3 Red Rum statue in Wayfarers Arcade
After winning the Grand National, Red Rum became more famous than Black Beauty, the fictional horse hero of the book and film.
(Not to be confused with Shergar, part owned by the Aga Khan, which was valuable and famous, and that horse was kidnapped, disappeared, never found. Like Lord Lucan, the horse's disappearance is a great mystery, and has led to the ironic simile that finding something is as likely (meaning unlikely) as finding Shergar.)

4 Aintree
Where Red Rum won the Grand National, coming first three times and second twice. After winning many races, the horse eventually died and was buried at Aintree, where you can see the grave.

5 Queen Victoria statue

Tips
http://www.lawnmowerworld.co.uk
http://www.southportvisiter.co.uk
www.visitBritain.org
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1576718/The-truth-about-Shergar-racehorse-kidnapping.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Beauty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rum
http://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/10-best-things-southport-2017-12415732
(More later.)

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker