It is snowing hard in London. London needs ... Singapore needs ... The world needs ... what Canada has and what America and Israel know

 

I spoke to family in North West London. England. UK. It is snowing hard.

They are in lockdown and can go out only for food. We did a video call on mobile phones. It was just like being in the room with them.

I said, "What you need is snow shoes, like in Newfoundland, Canada".

They can go to hospitals for maternity checkups, or giving birth. If they can get there.  What about the family in Singapore? They are enjoying tropical heat. Aren't they?

Singapore

Meanwhile, over in Singapore it has rainy periods on an off in the afternoons. It is pleasantly cool. Not the dreadful humidity and oppressive heat of summer. 

The vaccinations for seniors are scheduled to start mid-February.

Many of the older blocks of flats have a maid's room with a toilet, shower and sink. Some people have converted this into a kitchen, and the kitchen into a larger living area or second living room or dining room. I am wondering if lockdown continues worldwide, will we start converting rooms into study bedrooms to let out. Or turn all bedrooms into study bedrooms. 

If you are over fifty, you can set up separate bedrooms and separate study areas, whilst you are still healthy, so that if one person is sick or isolated, you can have desks in separate rooms and separate sleeping areas.

What does Singapore need/ What does the world need, if people are going to work from home?

Converting Homes

Homes need a balcony so people can have fresh air, get vitamin D from sunlight. and grow fruit and vegetables. 

Corridors need one way systems or dividers.

Store rooms need to be converted into office spaces or meeting rooms, or broadcasting rooms, like one person offices, to protect workers' privacy.

Converting Offices

With so many offices and businesses and shops closing down or having people working from home, will the opposite happen? Offices will have to be converted into dwellings, with kitchens and bathrooms. And a convenience store for food and cleaning materials on the ground floor. Maybe a doctor's office, testing centere and drug dispensary on the ground floor.  Maybe a teacher's room, so the teacher can work online and does not have to reveal her home.

But will Covid go on, where, and for how long? Who is looking at the problem, worldwide?

John Hopkins Univerity in the USA has Covid statistics and forums.

Useful Websites

USA

coronavirus.jhu.edu

SINGAPORE

go.gov.sg/gov.sg-220121

vaccine.gov.sg

ISRAEL

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9179677/Israeli-healthcare-group-says-coronavirus-infections-plunged-vaccinated-60s.html

In Singapore 1800-333-9999

About the Author

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Member of many toastmasters  speaker training clubs and speaking contest judge.

Angela Lansbury, the author of 20 books including Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations, has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. 

She  has several blogs and writes daily on at least two of the following:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Cut Coughs And Colds With Fruit: How To Help Yourself, Your Speakers, And Your Audience

I had a streaming cold, constant sneezing and the cough that goes with it as the body attempts to deal with the phlegm which stays inside and drips down your throat.

You can buy masks from pharmacies in Singapore (not all branches - usually only the larger ones). Or pick one or a few for free from mask dispensers in a medical centre or hospital.

You can wear a mask to stop your germs spreading to others onto surfaces or into the air when you cough or sneeze. However a mask restricts breathing which is already difficult when you have a cold. You cannot stand up and speak to an audience wearing a mask.

Fruit Cured My Cough
At a meeting of a Toastmasters International group, Focus, in the interval I ate the fruit provided as one of the options. (A food court was downstairs.) I ate melon and pineapple. The effect was instantaneous. My problem was cured, which was good as I had to stand u and speak as Language Evaluator at the end of the meeting.

Next monring I woke feeling dreadful, same symptoms as previous days. I had fruit for breakfast. Again, instant cure.

Pineapple In Pizza
At lunchtime at another club at Gemalto, we were served pizza. It contained pineapple, just enough to get me through being the Test Speaker (giving a speech for others to evaluate).

Afterwards I walked with the other visitors back to the MRT station One North. The weather was hot, as it always is in Singapore. I felt seriously dehydrated.  I bought three pieces of fruit from a stall and felt much better. Less sneezing, no more need of paper tissues (good for the environment as well as fewr germs being spread around to others).

In the evening I went to Kampong Kembangan Community Cub to their Toastmasters International speakers club. I gave a speech. (And later won the ribbon for best speech.)

Before the meeting and in the interval we were offered chocolates and chocolate biscuits. I love chocolate biscuits. Especially when speaking. the energy rush is what I want for the moment I stand up and adress the audience.

A member told me that the Kembangan Community Centre gives the club a free room (albeit a small room) and even supplies free biscuits. One member had supplemented the supply with more biscuits from M & S.

How I longed for some fruit! Refreshing fruit. Vitamin C. The benefits of apples have been known for centuries. Hence the rhyming saying: An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

You can add lemon to water. It is supposed to be bad for your teeth, to ea away at the enamel. I drink lemon water followed by plain water to rinse my teeth.

Whilst you are shopping in a supermarket, if you are not sure whether your evening meeting will include any savoury food or protein, a banana is filling.

I had to cut short my Language Evaluation because my nose was starting to drip and I did not have a tissue to hand. I had removed my jacket with the pockets in order to look more streamlined and elegant. How I longed for a piece of fruit.

Size Of Sample
I am only one person. Now, what works for me won't necessarily work for you. I could have an allergy to milk or gluten. You might not have a cold. I am only a sample of one. It's possible that psychological factors were involved, stress, hunger, eating too little, eating too much, drinking water.

However, my own experience was that eating juicy fruit made a huge difference to my comfort. The whole room benefited because the fruit reduced the amount I was coughing which interrupted other people's speeches when I was in the audience.

Concerts And Coughing
For years I have known about the effect, the disruption, of people coughing at concerts, noticeably in the intervals, sometimes during the playing. Now I have seen the effects of coughing affecting speakers and members of the audience. More importantly, I think I have found a cure.

If you are organising a meeting, please provide water and fruit for the speakers as well as members of the audience.  If you can influence the people providing food, please ask for fruit.

I made a request in advance for water and fruit. I got the water. I should have asked what kind of refreshments would be provided. I am now making myself a list. Of course, some venues change the food and drink at every meeting depending on the size of event and budge, the person ordering, and the caterer. Nonetheless, a few place consistently provide fruit as policy. Others don't. Here's my list:

The star rating is my rating for the supply of fruit and water. Items in brackets not necessarily at every meeting.

Sheraton Hotel - Toastmasters Club of Singapore *****
First, second and third Monday evenings of most months except for public holidays such as Xmas, New Year, Chinese New Year, Easter, Singapore National Day.
Fruit provided. Fee of $20 for visitors includes the fruit, other food, water, usually lemon slices for  you to add to hot water to make your warm lemon tea or cold lemon water, and coffee.

Sheraton Hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Sheraton Hotel viewed from gallery where you eat outside the conference room before the meeting and during the interval.

Useful websites
singaporeair.com
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2122064-you-should-be-eating-10-pieces-of-fruit-or-veg-every-day-not-5/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on hotels, Community clubs, and Singapore. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Diwali and Dog's Day Celebrations In Nepal and India

Distinctive flag of Nepal

Problem
I was in Nepal and never saw the dog's day.

Answer
Never mind. The BBC has a story all about it. It's not just a doggy celebration. It's based on the idea that death is looking for you, dogs are the messengers, but if you are nice to them you won't die. The gates to hell are guarded by two dogs.

I can imagine some people are frowning and some are smiling. But the dog owners and dogs are all smiling. The dogs receive all kinds of favourite food, as well as garlands around their necks. Dogs, man's best friend, love being made a fuss of.

To some people from other cultures it may seem rather far-fetched. On the other hand, dogs can save lives. Dogs help the lonely and widowed.  They cheer up people in old folks' homes and patients in hospitals. Provide new interest for the family.

But get a rottweiler in a bad mood and things could turn out badly.

Meanwhile, for dog lovers it is all good news with treats for dogs and lots of great photos. Such characters.

If you are planning a trip to Nepal and you like dogs, consider adding next year's Diwali date to your diary.

What else to do in Nepal? Kathmandu with those wonderful temples with the all-seeing eyes.

Everest base camp. You can get to the base camp in either Nepal (on the south side) or Tibet, by vehicle. If you want to do the worlds' highest trek you must go to Tibet. My husband did that. I think I'll stick to Nepal and take pictures of dogs.

India also celebrates in the same way, with the crow features on the first day of Diwali, the dog on the second day, the cow on the third day.

Useful websites
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46111525
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tihar_(festival)
www.welcomenepal.com
See Nepal in
wikitravel
wikivoyage
tripadvisor
Nepal is also on Facebook and Twitter.

India
www.incredibleindia.org

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

How Hospitals Can Improve - with food, drink, toilets and phone numbers

Hospitals are wonderful, caring people and amazing facilities. UK hospitals are cosy and warm. Singapore hospitals are refreshingly cool.

A doctor in Singapore sent me to a hospital with a covering letter. I was very pleased with the service. (They take your credit card details before anything else. Paying in advance is good. No worry about the bill at the end.)

But there is always room for upgrading and improvement.

1 TOILETS AND WATER ON ARRIVAL BEFORE BED
Get patients toilets and water before putting them into beds. This keeps them happy and alert and co-operative and less stressed . it also saves staff having to bring bedpans.

Give them water - and toilet - on arrival. A human being is like a pipe. Water goes in one end and out the other.

This applies to main wards and also A and E. (Accident and Emergency.)

2 POINT OUT BIDETS IN TOILETS
In National University Hospital I was escorted to the toilet and a nurse pulled the curtain around the toilet.

Later, I asked to go to the hospital toilet just before leaving. Having fallen after being giddy first thing in the morning, I didn't want to risk collapsing in a public toilet on a railway station. I then discovered, with the curtain pulled back revealing the poster on the wall, that the hospital toilet had a built in bidet jet like the toilets in five-star hotels (the Mandarin Oriental hotel next to the Twin Towers in KL, Malaysia, had them in the ground floor ladies).
It would have been helpful if the staff had pointed out this facility earlier.

Selfie of me in the hospital bed in A and E at National University Hospital, Singapore.

3 SERVE A SNACK AND DRINK OF WATER AT TIMED INTERVALS FROM ARRIVAL
Check whether the patient has eaten. I had breakfast but no elevenses or lunch in case I needed an anaesthetic or other procedure which required an empty stomach.
Serve a snack or check they have eaten and drunk water within two hours of admission - unless they are likely to need a procedure which prevents this.
I was given a jam sandwich. I though fruit might have been better. Maybe a banana instead of as well.

4 ALLOCATE A LIAISON PERSON
Hospitals see to have staff whose job is specific, such as measuring blood, or taking a patient's temperature. The person actually in charge, the boss, is nowhere to be seen. Nobody seems in charge of whether you have had a drink, or food, or need to go to the toilet or tell your family how long you will be in the hospital.

5 CHECK HOSPITAL PHONE NUMBER IS IN PATIENT'S PHONE
With the help of the 'geriatric nurse' - gee, thanks, I am now geriatric, who gave me my appointment card with a phone number on it, (guaranteed to go missing when I needed it) I was able to put all the hospital numbers in my phone.
The nurse also suggested adding the ambulance number. I'd noticed that unlike the UK where 999 was once number for all services, the ambulance number in Singapore is 995. If you are confused you might not think of it. If somebody from another country is with you they might not think of it. It's so handy to have the number in your phone contacts list under the word ambulance.

6 BUDDY SYSTEM
I thought I read somewhere about neighbours with similar conditions and no family around having a buddy phone call system. They just check in once a day to see the other person is alive and well.
Even if somebody is at home when you are released from hospital and the month after, there might be a time when you are on your own for several hours or days or weeks.

National University Hospital is a teaching hospital. It has sections dealing with cancer, children, dentistry, and women.
The main entrance/exit by the MRT station faces restful, soothing trees.

National University Hospital is right next to Kent Ridge MRT (railway station on the Circle line).
Useful Websites / Information
National University Hospital
5 Lower Kent Ridge Road
Singapore 119074
Tel: (65) 6779 5555.
website: www.nuh.com.sg

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

Travelling to new venues? Check maps and stick maps in your diary.

I shall start by talking about the stress of changing a club venue, choosing a venue and supplying a map on your website for potential visitors. At the end of this post I shall talk about the importance of maps for yourself in finding a venue, and adding maps to your diary. Always carry with you a map, for example in the back of your diary. Staple it in to the inside of the cover or a blank page or between pages. Alternatively use transparent sticky tape or double sided tape.

 Keep a spare local train and street and bus map in your pocket for foreign visitors. (From any airport, or railway station. From a nearby hotel - either ask the concierge or take a free magazine advertising local theatres and cut out the map.)

A diary map of Singapore supplied at the back of a diary bought in Singapore.

Add another map using sticky tape.

I added a London tube map for England at the front of my diary.

Good Venues Two groups of people are in need of a new venue in London, England, and this has caused me to look at the problem we get worldwide when organising or attending an event and the importance of maps.

Harrow's The Bridge ClosingTwo groups in London need new venues, a Toastmasters International speakers' club, HOD, and a mental health support group. If I understand rightly, in London the Harrow Council (labour) has received reduced funding from the government (Conservative) and is proposing to close a building, as I understand it leaving the place empty for four years. 

I find the place stressful because Volunteers want to run the building which houses a unit helping those with mental health problems, providing a day centre. In the evenings it provides a venue for Toastmasters speakers group (used by two members or former users of the members of the mental health care group and two of its organisers. 

The building needs a new boiler costing about £20,000. It has been repaired twice and their is not funding.

The building has various items which belong to the Council, in effect the tax payers. These items could be sold to raise money or donated as compensation to the organisations using the building. For example, two computers, several desks, chairs, armchairs, posters, basins and toilets, mirrors, frames and pin boards, a screen, shelving, doors, door handles. Every item has a value. It could be donated to cancer research, removed by volunteers, auctioned by volunteers, or as a fund raiser for mental health or Toastmasters. If nothing is done, instead of recycling, this income will go to waste, these items will go to waste - literally. Loss of goods, loss of money, loss of resources, waste of council time and money at recycling centre. 

 Changing a venue is stressful for anybody. Many people put off visiting a doctor, dentist, hospital or even an optician. People wanting to join Toastmasters Speakers' groups (one of which meets here) to help gain confidence for job hunting and interviews, or immigrants wanting to learn or improve English, often put off visiting the group for up to 6 months. After a car accident or give birth it can be days or weeks before you even go shopping or out to post a letter or lift a pen to write a letter. David reported that amongst the vulnerable mental health patients using day care, one person had visible signs of scratching their face and another had other visible injuries. A change of venue is stressful. A loss of the venue is a disaster. David says we need local writers, the better known the better, to help publicise this cause.

Choosing A Venue
Our new venue needs: 
1 PARKING AND TRANSPORT
Parking for visitors. Proximity to public transport, a bus to the door and a nearby station. 
2 KITCHEN FACILITIES /and storage
Water tap, plugs for kettles, storage.
3 STORAGE for our paperwork - membership lists, agendas, magazines, pedestal.
4 SCREEN and AUDIO EQUIPMENT.
5 WIFI.
6 FIRE EXITS AND FIRE EXTINGUISHERS & NON_FLAMMABLE FURNITURE.
7 THIRD PARTY INSURANCE.
8 DISABLED TOILETS AND ACCESS
A website telling visitors how to find it, where to park, the front door, the caretaker if you are locked in the boiling or car park.  

MAPS - Singapore
Maps are important. The first time I attended a Friends of the Museum lecture on a Monday morning in Singapore I went to one of two adjacent museums where I was dropped at the wrong one by a taxi driver. 

If I had used a map and if at that time the venue had shown a map I would have arrived early. However, I arrived late. The venue closed the door because the venue is so designed that access is from two doors behind the stage and latecomers would interrupt the speaker.

A latecomer at one meeting, a committee member, parked on a double yellow line in London thinking no wardens would be out after 9 pm at night, and he was in a lay-by not obstructing anybody. He got a parking ticket.

Every year, for one reason or another, somebody gets a parking ticket at that venue. I got one, directed down a one way system which ends in a single bus lane. 

Latecomers
My view is that a notice outside should say, please wait until interval for admission. There should be two intervals, one about fifteen minutes after the start. Chairs should be placed outside the door. Two latecomers could sit and chat to each other or a designated gatekeeper (who could use the time to hand out leaflets on future events and membership). The chairs should be far enough away that the people outside cannot be heard from inside.

I lost a potential member of a Toastmasters Club in London, an American who had just arrived in London. I invited her to a contest in a further venue of our then Area (Stanmore), a train ride out to St Albans, quiet a distance. (Our Area is now part of a north London group in the Southern England District and the northern counties are another Area.

 She got half way and turned back. She knew that latecomers are not admitted to contests. She thought it would be a waste of her time arriving late. So she wasted her fare money and time and was left with bad feelings associated with our organisation and my particular group. We had somebody outside the door, missing the contest, waiting for her until half time. She could have sat in the pub, but that might have cost her money ordering coffee, not knowing if she was allowed to take it in.

How could all this have been prevented? It is still happening. We held a committee meeting this month in London. Two members told us at the last minute they could not come. One of them was a VIP, area governor, essential committee member, and had transport difficulties. I don't know whether the stress of all the travelling had made her ill, or whether she just could not face the effort of driving to an unknown place.

Another of our members used her satnav to walk from the station. She got lost, in the rain, and had to be fetched by another member. The whole committee meeting started half an hour later. The member who drove to fetch her was one vital committee member who had to leave promptly at the end of the meeting.

So even with satnavs on phones it is still a problem. In Singapore I check the venues by satnav and online maps. I can waste an hour of my time checking three venues to pick the easiest.

What saves me time is if the venue organiser has sent a map of the venue and parking instructions. Also the exit from the station. Many stations have several exits. When you are meeting somebody who arrives by car, you do not want to be stressed waiting at the wrong exit. Nor do they want to risk a parking ticket waiting for you whilst they phone to ask where are you and direct you to the correct exit.

I have been to several Toastmasters competitions where one of the competitors has not turned up. One got lost on the way to a contest in Cambridge, England. 

The organisers of a meeting are often very busy doing other things. Also organisers are often judgemental types. "They are adult. They can find it."

Contestants and newcomers are often stressed. Please help them by providing clear maps and instructions.

HELP NUMBER
The other thing you need is a help number. The toastmaster of the evening asks everybody to switch their phones to silent. But you need somebody by the door with a phone switched on and handy to answer calls from people who are lost in the building. Whether it's an exam or a Toastmasters Speakers' contest, people at your event have travelled long distances, speak foreign languages, and are stressed about the event as well as the venue. Please help them. That way you will have few no shows.

Finally, hospitals. At a large conference of 300-1000 people you are likely to have one person needing a doctor, dentist or hospital. They could have food poisoning, ulcers, miss their footing on the stairs, get hit crossing the road, lose a tooth, lose a filling. 

Hospitals
Have you ever arrived at a hospital and had trouble finding your way? I have, numerous times. In the UK, Barnet hospital, driving around looking for the morgue after my uncle died. 

At Watford, numerous times with different people visiting patients. You can't park at A & E (Accident and Emergency). You have to find another car park and have the coins for the meter. If you have an elderly or handicapped person they may be entitled to a discount parking card. At Watford you need a note from the ward, then a visit to the office issuing permits which was only open in the afternoon, but visits to wards were only allowed in the evening. 

In Singapore, at two hospitals, once when I burned myself cooking biscuits for a meeting. I tried to wipe the top of the oven, not knowing it had a grill hidden at the top. The taxi driver is driving around trying to find the right entrance.

In Singapore I was visiting evaluator for a speech at an in house club. We had instructions, entrance A. But the gatekeeper sent us the wrong way to entrance B. By the time we had phoned the organiser from the second car park,B, we were at the wrong end of the building. 

Fire Exits
When you arrive in a hotel, check the fire exit from your bedroom. Walk it with your eyes open, then your eyes shut. If the fire exit door has a warning that it is alarmed, you cannot push it open. Is it a push door and does it need a key? maybe the cinema / disco owner has locked it to prevent unauthorised entry. What would happen in a fire? How would you get out?

Check that nobody is planning to light flames. Do you have candles in a cellar? Will you have fireworks and flammable decorations? Does a member of the band plan to set fire to his guitar (like Jimi Hendrix)? 

Look at the outside of the building to check the fire exit is not blocked by stacked boxes or parked cars.

Fire extinguishing
Do you have fire extinguishers? What happens if the barbecue outside or the flamed food sets fire to a customer's hair or clothes? Maybe you should warn the building owner or performers or get them to sign a contract or take out insurance. 

Committee Meeting and Book Groups
When you hold a meeting, the venue owner needs a helper to distribute the agenda and organise refreshments. Even a committee meeting at somebody's house needs somebody in charge of fetching enough chairs whilst the householder is answering the door.

Airports
The same applies to airports. Which terminal?

The answer is maps and instructions. The taxi driver doesn't know. He doesn't know which airline you are catching, which flight or which terminal. Things could have changed.

Help yourself and help others so everybody arrives stress-free and on time. Happy travelling.

The out of date Singapore MRT (train) and LRT (light railway) map which came with the diary.

The London map I added.

DIARY MAPS
I bought a diary in Singapore for 2016 which had a useful map of the MRT (mass transit, that is the underground railway and linking overground around the island city). However, it did not have the latest line which was added in December 25  2015, probably after the diary was compiled.

I obtained a new map from the MRT station. I can add that at the back of the diary, folded to the size of the cover, attached with sticky tape.

You could do the same in your home city, or any city you visit on business or holiday.

More Information From
maps.google.com - worldwide
tel.gov.uk  - plan my journey UK

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer.
AUTHOR of How To Get Out of the mess you're in.
Angela's Adventures are on this travel blog. Also see other blogs, follow this blog, like me on Facebook, link to me on LinkedIn, and watch me talk about restaurant etiquette and writing poetry and performing comedy on YouTube.

Why Are People Happy in Hospital After An Accident?

I've been in hospital overseas (Corsica) with multiple injuries and you are happy because

a) Morphine. Or another pain reliever keeps you high or in high spirits.
b) Progress. You see progress and improvement daily with a physical injury which is mending. You start on your back being groggy, sit, stand, and you are constantly getting better. So the input and reaction is that you are achieving something every day.
c) Company. You are never alone in hospital because you are with other people or even if in a side room you are visited every fifteen minutes.
d) Cheerfulness. Happiness is catching. You are treated by a cheerful nurse. Once a day or every other day you are greeted by a doctor who has a bedside manner. Visitors bringing flowers or gifts. Other patients chat to you or leave because they are better.
e) Attention. You are the centre of attention. Doctors, nurses and visitors - their only interest is listening to you, your news, news about your situation, and giving you attention.
f) Effortless. Your food comes to you. No need to do anything or go anywhere.

g) Hospitals have all sorts of aids if you ask for them. Radios. Trolleys with toiletries or gifts. Shops on the ground floor which your visitors can visit.  

h) If you want to speak to your consultant, you can ask the person in charge of the ward to call them for you.