Travelling with pills and keeping records

Pill Boxes

White and Colours

The compartments might be transparent or white. I prefer those which are seven different colours. A different colour for each day of the week.

Compartment Numbers & Sizes

 You can buy a pill box to hold a pill a day for a week, with seven compartments. They may be labelled Monday to Sunday. You can see that the box for the day is empty and you have taken the pill

More elaborate pill boxes have 28 compartments. They are designed for you to take four pills a day for a week. They might be labelled morning afternoon evening night. Or breakfast, lunch dinner spare.

Labels

Morn, noon, Eve, bed.

Usually there is enough space for you to insert two or more pills in a compartment, depending on the size of your pills.

Keeping Written Records - DIY

Pill box. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Another system is to keep a written note, or write a checklist with columns.

I tried writing down the times at four hour intervals, in pencil. When I took the pill, I wrote the time in pen, and ticked it.

Written Records - Printed Grds

You can buy a grid of tick boxes. The cost is under five pounds, with free postage, delivery in a couple of days. You might look for next day delivery.

Temperature Control of Pills

What about keep in the pills cool? 

I keep my pills in the fridge or a cool box. Only one pill is left out, on the table or by my bed on the bedside table. (Americans call this small table, with a drawer and shelf below, a night stand.

Search Words

Look for pill dispensers, pill oraganisers.

Useful Websites

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CLLFYY5N/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?

https://www.boots.com/safe-and-sound-7-day-pill-box-

More on ebay and estsy and TEMU

Please share links to your favourite posts.

How to remember Mandarin Days of the week and month

Flag of China

Flag of Singapore

The days of the week and month are easier to remember than you think.

Let's start with the numbers.

One to three are easy. One, two and three horizontal lines.

Look at a multi-lingual calendar. At the end of the word Monday is one horizontal line.
At the end of the word Tuesday you see two horizontal lines.
Wednesday is three.

Four is like a square or a window with curtains.

Useful Websites

Chineasy



Duolingo
Free on the internet and for your mobile phone

duolingo.com




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

Alliteration Tips For Travelling Toastmasters and MCs: A Marvellous Monday and more alliterations

Arriving at a new venue to be an MC (master of ceremonies) or Toastmaster of the Day or Evening is a challenge, especially when faced with a lot of strange names.

What can you do?

1 Name Badges For All
Ask for all the visitors and members and organizers to wear badges. Make sue the names are large enough to see. I have been known to invest a pound or dollar or two in a roll of address labels and a broad tip felt tip pen.

2 Your Own name Badge
Wear your own name badge. Send a picture of yourself with your name badge so that everyone gets the idea that if they don't wear theirs they will be upstaged by you.

3 VIP name Badges
Ask appointment holders to wear their own name badges.
Ask the organizer to print name badges, with the organization's logo - much smarter than hand written.

4 Writing Badges In Advance
Failing all else, to save time at the meeting, write the names in advance on your roll of address labels. Writing out the names and checking the spelling will help you remember them.

5 Pronunciation
Say the names aloud. If you are not sure of the pronunciation, email and ask.

Prepare A Jolly Opening
An alliterative opening can be planned in advance for the day of the week.

Super Saturday
Special Sunday
Marvellous Monday
Terrific Tuesday
Wonderful Wednesday
Thoughtful Thursday
Fantastic Friday

Alliterative Introductions
Start with a Warm Welcome to everybody.

Plan some alliterative introductions. If you can make them fit the personalities, so much the better. Some of them will fit. If they are totally opposite, this can create humour.

Ask for three words to describe each person, their country, profession, hobby.
You can ask if the speaker likes or dislikes something.
"Cathy - do you like cooking?"
You then, according to her answer, continue, "Cathy, who loves cooking / Cathy who hates cooking ..."

Amusing, Angelic Angela. Alex. Alluring Alicia.
Brilliant Brian begins the evening. Bea (pronounced be or bee) whose motto is, 'Be prepared!'.
Conscientious Catherine. Cath the cook.
Charming Chan.
Debonair David is dashing on stage. Dynamic.
Efficient Elizabeth. Earnest who never ers.
Funny Fiona. Frank in Finance. (First / Finally ..) Fast but never furious.
Gorgeous Gertrude. Genial Gina.
Happy Harriet. Handsome Harry. Help me welcome ..
Idealistic Irene. Innovative Ingrid.
Jolly Jennifer. Jovial John.
Kate the Clever one.
Lovely Linda. Lawrence the Life Coach. Last but not least. Lionel the listener.
Marvellous Michael. Mary/ Maria, the mother of five.
Nora is next.
Omniscient Oliver.
Pretty Penny. Peter the plumber. Please applaud Penny.
Philip the father of Three.
Queenie, the quick one.
Reliable Richard. Rich Richard.
Successful Susan, our Secretary. (Starting with Stephen.)
Tall Thomas. Tiny Thomas. Tim our Treasurer, and timekeeper is on time.
Theo, who we must thank. Thoughtful Theo.
Ursula ... says to err is human, but to Ursula is divine.
Valuable Valerie. Victor the VIP. Visionary
Wonderful William, Welcome to Wendy. Worthy Wong.
Xanthe the zoo keeper.
Yvonne, who believes we can achieve.
Zoe - Glowing Zoe, who likes visiting zoos / hates zoos, will tell us the A to Zed (UK) /A to  Zee (USA) of ....

You can create humour by contradicting what you said about them.
For example:
Queenie the Quick is making her way slowly towards the stage.

Make your own desk nameplate.
You can make a triangular Toblerone shape from a folded piece of blank A4 paper. Folded it twice or more to get the desired shape and thickness. It should stand on its own.

Alternatively, you can stick it together with Sellotape (UK brand of sticky tape) or Blutac. Or look for a paperclip, stapler, or elastic band. Look around to see what is spare or can be borrowed for the duration of the meeting and then returned.

Write your name or position in black felt tip pen.

Carry a washable felt tip pen for writing on white boards and on flipcharts and making your own badge to wear, or desktop name plate.

Or make a three-

Here I am displaying my badge.

sided name card from three business cards.

Useful website
https://www.rhymer.com/eve.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, workshop leader.

   

How to read start reading Chinese Signs. What you will recognise from the number one, two and three in Chinese?

Problem
I cannot read Chinese. I see elderly Chinese men, the elderly are called 'uncles'. They look elderly and shabby and not well-dressed or well educated. Yet they can read the complicated Chinese language. Maybe they learn to speak Chinese at home and learned Chinese at school, for free, not at an expensive private school.

However, if they can read pages of Chinese, you and I, who can read English, could at least learn one or two easy characters.

The easy characters are one, two and three, horizontal lines like Roman letters turned sideways.

Ten is like a plus sign.

From this you can read English signs and refer to the Chinese alongside and recognize:

one
two
three

on a calendar
on opening times

days of the week

2018 - starts with 201

But in Chinese numbers are written as sometimes as you would say them, so 20 is not two zero but twenty written as two ten, two horizontal lines and then a plus sign for ten.

The sign for trishaw is three-wheel-vehicle so you can recognize the three horizontal lines starting the three character word on signs and trishaws.

Go around Singapore seeing how many Chinese numbers you can identify on signs. A game to play with yourself or your children.

Chineasy

If you want to learn more, try Chineasy or Duolingo.

Useful Chinese Language Websites
https://www.ted.com/talks/shaolan_learn_to_read_chinese_with_ease?language=en#t-354732
http://www.zhongwenred.com/lessonone.htm
https://www.duolingo.com/course/zh/en/Learn-Chinese-Online

Useful Singapore Tourism Websites
Singapore Tourist Board

Singapore Airlines
singaporeair.com

Chinatown Heritage Centre
www.chinatownheritagecentre.com.sg

Author
Angela Lansbury