Nando's in Stanmore For Tasty, Moist Chicken

 

This reataurant is a favourite of families. It has a large ground foor seating area.

Their chicken is tasty with delicious coatings keeping in the moisture.

Choice of tables. Spacious or secluded. Pleasing decor. Wood effect and pictures.

Leftovers are packed in a fold up paper box.

Learning French and Other Languages in France and Online

 

RDC, Rez de Chaussee, ground floor in French. Sign by the lift of the Campanile hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I thought I spoke fluent French. However, you have to keep learning French, like English, because new words and abbreviations pop up all the time. My hsuband who speaks less French than I do immediately identified this sign, RDC.

Google translate give rez as ground, chausee as pavement.

Ground Floor in French

French - English

chausee - pavement

de - means of

rez - ground

rez de chausee - ground floor

English- French

ground - rez

of - de

pavement - chausee

Ground Floor in Spanish

Spanish - English

baja - low

nivel - level

planta - plant 

planta baja - ground floor

English - Spanish

floor -  piso

ground - suelo

ground floor - planta baja

level - nivel

Planta baja nf. D'où votre chambre au rez-de-chaussée. Por eso usted movió su dormitorio a la planta baja.

Spanish 

Useful Websites

https://www.wordreference.com/fres/rez-de-chauss

Secret London - The Cavalry & Guards Club for a wine dinner - with chocolate mints or without mints! Why!

 Near Green Park station and Hyde Park Corner, just near the Hard Rock Cafe, you might pass the entrance to the Cavalry and Guards Club. How would you visit it if you were not a member? By being a member of a reciprocal club elsewhere in the UK or in many countries of the world. Or look at their website. I shall tell you about that later on. Meanwhile, here is my first hand experience.

I have attended wine club dinners in three different rooms. Most recently in a room on the second floor (which the Americans would call the third). The British English speakers say ground floor, first floor, second floor.

The club's chefs provide a gourmet meal. 

Lunch

We had an arrangement for taking our own wines and paying the room hire and corkage as well as the cost of each person's lunch. Clubs for wine and dine events have their ups and downs. Ill health can strike individuals, as well as covid causing many problems, interfering with the size of group meetings permitted, and making the sick or infectious stay away, and the healthy choosing to stay away out of caution. The rail strikes meant that one event had to be postponed.

Why No Mints?

The set menu we were offered included coffee and mints. My husband, who is a wine educator, banned the mints. Why? Because, he said, the flavour of mint would overpower the taste and aroma of the vintage port he was serving at the end of the meal.

If you want to take a peek at the club's grand staircase and paintings online, their website shows you lots of photos.

Useful Websites

https://cavgdsclub.co.uk/

Americanisms Again - with the Queen's English - the equivalents in the UK, Canada and Australia

I keep thinking I have seen them all, or everybody must know this by now. Then I see comments on news articles online, where the commentator is puzzled or outraged by the use of a strange word. So, to enlighten the frowning faces, and maybe make you smile or laugh, here are some equivalents.

American English - British English

attorney - lawyer

counselor - legal representative in court

first floor - ground floor (UK, Canada, Australia)

second floor - first floor

snap - press stud

story - story (a story is a tale) or storey (level in a building)

zipper - zip

British English - American English

first floor - second floor

ground floor - first floor

lawyer - attorney

press stud - snap

storey - story (level in a building) 

zip - zipper

The nativity display in the YMCA

Just inside the entrance ground floor, or, as the Singaporeans say, level one. You can't miss it. Don't miss it.

This branch of the YMCA is near Dhoby Ghaut MRT (underground train) station. Just by the church.

.Around the corner slightly uphill is the YWCA.

Cat Café at Bugis in Singapore

Across the road from Bugis MRT station is the Cat Café. While waiting to cross the wide road at the traffic lights you can see the Cat Café sign across the road on the top floor.

ook left of Burger King on the ground floor down the shopping stall alley. Just the place for an alley cat, is the entrance to the Cat Café. Look up and you'll see the sign to the doorway. 

You'll need the cat's agility to climb the narrow stone staircase to the top floor. Not the perfect place for walking sticks and wheelchairs.

Cat Cafe on the top floor. You can see the sign from outside at night.

Down the alley - there's the overhead sign.

Cat cafe sign and indoor staircase. Come back in daylight and daytime when they are open.

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