Instructions/Receipts for Your Hotel Bedroom/Suite Kitchen/Second Home/Household/Tenant: Where To Find, Follow, Or Issue, Vital Hotel, Studio and Second Home Household Instructions

Essential Instruction Leaflets

When you stay in a hotel or a studio flat or rent or buy a second home for the summer or winter, everything is a mystery. You want to know how open the windows,  turning the heating or air conditioning. To find out how to operate the electric curtains in Albania, I needed  the number to call reception. (Is it 0,1 or 100?) To make a booking for a restaurant, or day tour, you might need the number to dial for an outside line. (Sometimes 9.)

Hidden Instructions

If you open the bedside drawer, you might find a page with the instructions. But once or twice I have found the useful guide only when I checked the drawers before checking out! Sometimes the room instructions are on a card underneath the magazine or the tour booking instruction. Or on the back page of the file of tours to book. The result is that if you don't want to book tours, you don't find the instruction page.

When I lived in the USA we had no family nearby so we spent our weekends taking trips to see other cities and landmarks. We stayed ed in a different hotel each night. 

I found that American and Canadian hotels and especially studio flats had very good instructions. The washing machine often had the instructions inside or outside the lid. 

In the kitchen or kitchen area, a laminated card was placed on the wall. It told you where to find the tin opener and bottle opener, soup ladle and kettle. 

The window instructions were clear. In a San Francisco hotel windows could not be opened, for safety, so nobody and nothing fell out. But air vents were indicated, so you could open them and close them. 

Other hotels, such as one in Greek Cyprus, told us not to go out leaving windows open, to prevent insects from flying in.

How to change a plug, check the fuse box, turn off the water at the stopcock, deal with a chip pan fire - what not to do, should be part of the school citizenship program. 

Insurance companies should issue householders with a booklet to reduce the cost of claims for leaks. 

Also, it is PR to sign up with us and get this free booklet. Estate agents could offer a free household check with with photos. Or it could be part of a surveyor's survey. Or part of the inventory (sometimes meter readings are included).  It should be on the back page of your and lord-tenancy agreement. 

Hotel guests, tenants and landlords, and householders need instructions. You could keep your sale and contract agreement and instructions and viatl emergency numbers it in a coloured box file for every occupiied, unoccupied and rented home, hotel and business. 

I bought a brightly coloured box file when I let out my late father's home. It was occupied by my son, when he was still a student. A box file with the household instruction booklets for the washing machine and so on, the date to renew the gas check, replace the fire extinguisher, can be kept on a separate small shelf in the kitchen by the door or above the old phone or in the laundry room. 

Education In Household Tasks

I have heard landlords and people letting out rooms complaining that the tenant called them up to drive across town and change a light bulb. I met a landlord, and a tenant, who took out light bulbs to cut down on electricity bills.

If you are looking to entertain a child or grandchild or babysitting, demonstrating one of these tasks could keep your child entertained. If you are a supply teacher at a school, you could run this as a lesson, if they don't want to learn, instead run it as a competitive quiz with multiple choice answers, and a small prize or certificate for the top three, and a certificate of attendance for the others.

When you buy a plug, it sometimes has wiring instructions attached. It is tempting to throw this away. You could put it in your magic instruction box, 

Label your box enticingly - 'Quick DIY Tips to save you money!'. Print out a big diagram of what is inside each plastic see-through folder, keys (with pictures and numbers of the window keys, door keys, and . How do guests and tenants secure belongings if workers go into an empty room to check the heating or plumbing or electricity? You could look your valuables such as passports or money in a suitcase. In the safe. In the hotel safe at reception. (With an alarm on your phone remind you to collect your passport before leaving the hotel. I have been on group trips when the coach was ten minutes down the road, after touring to collect people from four hotels, and the tour guide got on and asked, "Do you all have your passports?" One guest, aghast, told us, "No - I left it in the hotel safe!"

Hotel Safes

Hotel rooms often have safes. On my most recent trip to Albania, one hotel has safes. One hotel guest complained that the safe closure did not work. No bedroom safe? Ask for a demo, or repair. Maybe reception has a safe. Lock valuables in your suitcase. Wear them with you in the hotel.

What about lost goods and insurance! Insurance companies may ask for receipts. You can take a photo of the receipt when you buy the goods. Then keep receipts in one file at home, perhaps a file marked Mail Order. Or in the underwear drawer. Or bedside table. Of in a hidden safe. Or at your office so that you have the record in the case of damage to your home, such as from fire, floods, explosion, bomb, hurricane, earthquake or burglary which might damage the records as well as the goods.

Most DIY jobs instructions can be found on

Wikihow

Youtube

Websites of Homebase, B & Q and other DIY stores. They often have leaflets printed out, or barcodes you can scan to get instructions.

Useful Websites

https://everydayoldhouse.com/quick-easy-ways-to-organize-user-manuals/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12262121/How-20-basic-DIY-jobs-Brits-change-lightbulb.html

Learning Spanish from Household Products - 20 words for you to recognize

 I looked at a tube of metal polish and learned some new words in Spanish.

Spanish - English

aplicar - apply

bronce - bronze

como - such as

crema - cream

cristal - crystal

de - of

del - of the

esta - this

excelente - excellent

excepto - except

fibrar de cristal

frotar - rub

instructionnes - instructions

las (feminine)/los - the (plural as in the US place name Los Angeles which means the angels)

metal - metal

Miracle - miracle

no - do not/don't

para - for

protege - protects

seco - dry

todo - all

un - a/an

y - and

English - Spanish

all - todo (plural todos)

a/an - un

and - y

apply - aplicar

cream - crema

crystal - cristal

dry - seco

excellent - excelente

except - excepto

for - para

instructions - instructionnes

of - de

of the - del 

metal - metal

Miracle - miracle

protects - protege

rub - frotar

such as - como

the - el, los, las (feminine plural)

this - esta

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

facebook polyglots group to ask questions and discuss

https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/

memrise.com

translate google

WORDS WRITTEN THE SAME IN BOTH LANGUAGES (Pronunciation and meaning could be different)

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English%E2%80%93Spanish_interlingual_homographs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-ing#-ing_words_in_other_languages

Angela Lansbury is VP PR of Braddell Heights Advanced club and Tampines Changkat Advanced club.

https://www.toastmasters.org/Find-a-Club/00009689-braddell-heights-advanced-club

https://www.facebook.com/tampineschangkatadvTMC/

Why You Should Follow Briefing And Instructions When Public Speaking And Selling

Problem
I was at a meeting of public speakers recently and was in two minds about whether a speaker had done well or badly. When I heard his speech I thought it was brilliant. He was asked to choose a character and tell a story whilst acting the part of the character. 

Photo by Jacog Windham from Wikipedia on Santa.

He chose to be Santa Claus, complete with a wonderful outfit, and told a humorous story, with a series of engaging slides about the health problems and job disadvantages of being Santa Claus.

His speech was funny. It was original. You can imagine my surprise when the evaluator conceded that the speech was well researched with the numerous funny slides, and entertaining, but did not follow the objectives which were to be in character, in effect, being an actor, convincing us for a moment that you were the character, rather than just reading out the speech.

This happens a lot in Toastmasters. You have a speech you want to give, or get an idea when you first read about the objectives, then you hope that you will be judged on the speech, not the objectives.

I used to think that the point of the objectives was to teach you a new technique. If you had not learned all of it, but only fifty percent, the only person to lose out was the speaker. So long as the audience enjoyed the speech, never mind. I agreed that a speech project demonstrating vocal variety which had none, had not fulfilled the objectives. When I did the vocal variety project, I picked a subject to fit, accents around the world.

Then I got to think about how you would be in real life. Supposing you were a salesman in a shop selling washing machines and you were told to tell the customers about washing machines. If you are demonstrating a food cutting machine, and are an actor, you might indulge in a lot of banter with customers while you do the cutting, ending with offering them free samples of food and asking them to buy the cutter, or blender, at the special one day only now or never price. That speech has to end specifically, after the entertainment, with the sales pitch and the call to action.

Now let's talk about a more common situation, the average seller of washing machines in a department store. The boss says, "your job is to sell washing machines." that's the brief. If the customer doesn't know which product the salesman is selling, and is entertained to a bit of character acting and jokes, but never a call to action, the boss will be cross. The salesman has not filled the requirement.

A similar situation of mismatch occurs in a restaurant. The customer wants the order the way he likes it. The chef says, "No. This is the way we do it. Today's offer is scrambled eggs. Your kid wants boiled egg. You asked for boiled egg. Too bad. I don't take orders from customers. I do what I want."

 Who is eating and who is paying? The customer. The boss or restaurant owner has the brief or objective, customers on seats, food on plates, happy customers pay money.

If you are employed as a speaker, your job is to find out what sort of speech the boss thinks will sell. When the customers turn up, the speech has to fit the customers.

When visiting a foreign country, you have to find out the usual house rules. What time are the opening and closing? What is the dress code? Is it just a guideline and flexible, or is it all or nothing?

You may think that a shopping mall is a public place. But in the UK a restaurant is private property.
You may be asked to leave and the restaurant owner doesn't have to give a reason. (He's better off not giving a reason. Telling a drunk that he is drunk will probably lead to arguments, escalating insults and possibly fights.)

Let's go back to the speech. If you joined a speech training programme just to make friends, you might be happy to muddle through. If you joined to learn how to make speeches which are understood, useful and welcome to all kinds of audiences, to people from all over the world, speeches given all over the world, then stopping to read the instructions, thoroughly twice, and to follow them, is a useful lesson.

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

PASTA - Problem, Answer, Story, Tip, Action And Author

Problem -
In the past some of my posts have had no structure. After I read them and re-read them I find that I forgot to end with a call to action. I correct later, adding my author's credentials and ask you to like my pages and share them, read my profiles, and read about my books and read extracts, and buy my books.

Answer
From now on I shall follow the PASTA structure in my posts.

P - problem
A - answer
S - story
T - tip
A - call to action (go to websites)
A - author

Story
I gave a talk on writing books and why you should write your family history to a toastmasters International speakers' club called HOD. Sina sent me a copy of his new book. I noticed that each chapter not only ended with a story, it had the sub-heading Story.

I thought, how strange that he not only follows the system used in Toastmasters of telling a personal story to illustrate a point and make it memorable (and personal to the author, therefore always original), he shows the structure in the sub-heading.

Then I recalled one of my heroines, Mrs Beeton, household management and cookery book pioneer. For a long time I thought that she invented the system of listing ingredients then method, a time sequence, to aid shopping and laying out the ingredients and utensils on the table, finally cooking.

She did not invent the method. But she made it popular. Therefore, never mind whether Sina started the system or copied it, nor whether I have started the system or copied it. I shall stick to it to organise my posts and so you know what to expect.

If you place the call to action too early, your reader will disappear. (We are often told in Toastmasters speakers' meetings by the evaluators not to give out handouts at the start because people will start reading them and miss the beginning of your speech.) So place the call to action or name of another website at the end.

You cannot guarantee that the reader will not skip to the end. I don't know whether creatives do this more than scientific, methodical people. I often am short of time, running late. I waste time reading blogs instead of getting on with important work (getting washed and dressed, paying bills, writing books, filling in tax returns). I sometimes flip from the opening of a book to the end, naturally in a library bookshop when I already have too many books and am considering buying the book, or wanting to know the end without paying the cost of another expensive book. However, I also sometimes start at the back of the back and flip forward.

I noticed a friend in Singapore flip from the back of a book. She apologised for doing so. I explained, "I often do that - I thought it was just me!" We wondered whether anybody who was Muslim or Jewish or Chinese would start at the back of the book or the left of the page. We could not reach any conclusion.

One way to keep the readers interested is to tell them they will reach information later. But you have to stop them skipping to the end. A small number of people deliberately disobey instructions, perhaps because their early training has taught them that instructors have ulterior motives and it's safer to do the opposite. However, most readers, listeners and people will follow instructions. A hypnotist picks out people who follow instructions readily.

TIP LIST
1 Read each post, mine and other people's, methodically.
2 However, note the call to action at the end.

ACTION
Write your own documents, speeches, letters, following this formula. Call me if you wish to receive advice or help. I will give a small amount of advice (two or three sentences, five minutes, reading a sentence or something which takes no longer than five minutes to read, under 500 words) to anybody free of charge if I have time to both friends, especially those from Toastmasters, and strangers. However, if you want an hour of my time, a professional job, do not know me personally, please pay the going rate.

AUTHOR
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker.
See my other travel posts on this blog. Read other blogs on grammar, spelling, language, speaking. Like my pages and share them. Link to me on Facebook and LinkedIn. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Watch me performing my poetry and speeches on Facebook and Toastmasters International club pages and on YouTUbe.
Author of:
Wedding Speeches and Toasts. (Ward Lock/Cassell. Several editions. In some libraries. Also second hand copies on the net.)
The Best Man. (Ward Lock/Cassell.)
Quick Quotations. (Lulu.com - or buy from me when you see me.)
Who Said What When. (Lulu.com - or buy from me and get it signed when you see me.
New copies of my books are mostly £10 / 20 Singapore dollars. One of two books which are thicker, cost me lots of postage to get delivered to my home and /or with lots of illustrations are £20. Sometimes I have an old battered copy which I will sell cheaply.

Watching for waterproof watches - my buy at Mustapha's

My waterproof watch stopped. No need to throw it away. Buy a new battery.

Battery
I usually try to ask the shop to fit the battery. A jeweller has the skill and tools and experience to do it quicker, without dropping and losing vital screws. If the battery is wrong, you know at once and don't need to take a second trip.

Repair
We have been struggling for days to close up the back of my waterproof watch. A friend of mine in Singapore told me that you can get watches repaired cheaply at the shops in HDB government housing estates. (HDB Housing Development Board.) She reckoned I could get my watch repaired for ten Singapore dollars, about five pounds, half or a third of the cost of the cheapest new one.

How do you find such a shop? Either take the MRT (train) to one of the estates. Or ask a colleague or employee of the place you work at or visit overseas.

Mustafa's Department Store
Meanwhile, having lunch in Little India, I was able to pop into Mustafa's department store, which is next to Farrer Park MRT station.

The lady seated at Mustafa's entry door to check bags was able to direct me to the watch department on the ground floor.

Watch Department
The large counter in prime position the centre of two aisles could offer me only one brand of watches at a minimum price of $100. I always imaged that Mustafa's, with its central cashiers and packing system, must be one store. But the impression I got on this visit was that each counter operates like a separate sub-store, ties to a different owner or manager with links to one manufacture or style or price range, no interest in directing you to another area.

I was therefore under the impression that the counter where I stopped had the store's complete range. However, by asking a second assistant, I was pointed to another area at the side where a different section had another range of much cheaper watches.

Here I discover another brand of watches Takane, not waterproof of splash proof only for about waterproof to about $30 (about £15 - see today's exchange rate on a conversion website) or $35/40 for the row above in the revolving cabinet.

I looked at the cheaper ones first, then decided they were not what I wanted. Besides the difference of 5 or even ten dollars was under £5. For me, it was more important to get a watch which would not be in danger of breaking every time I washed a cup, or washed my hands, especially in Singapore where I went in the shower at least twice a day, often three times a day, or went for a swim every day.

Takane Brand Colours
The Takane brand offered a whole range of colours. I could have had black, pink, orange, royal blue or mixed colours.

I chose a black and red watch. The strap is black. The dial is red. The black stays clean in daytime and looks sophisticated with black evening clothes. Style M403. I found it later on the website.

The red is a cheerful touch. Unlike an all red watch, the red won't clash too much with orange and pink clothes.

Size
Equally important, the Takane watches also come in both small and large sizes. The large ones, apart from being heavy, look clumsy on my small wrists, as if I have borrowed somebody else's watch. Big watches look clumsy on a small wrist.


Instructions In Box
I chose to wear it but asked to keep the box. Just as well I did, because the box contained instructions.

Four Buttons
I liked the fact that my watch did not have symbols on the four oblong buttons but English instructions, clockwise from top left, reset,st/stp, light, mode.

Setting Accurate Or Fast
I asked the man in the shop if he would set it to the right time. I wanted to have it going right away, to be sure it worked, and to save the half hour reading instructions.

On second thoughts I asked him to set it plus five minutes to make sure I was always five minutes early or on time rather than five minutes late. (This worked brilliantly. I kept dashing out five minutes late, but actually on time. So I was on time or early everywhere.)

Instructions
I later looked at the instructions in the box. It is has a 100 year calendar. That should be enough for me.

I shall photograph the instructions in case I lose them and to have them handy if I want to use the stopwatch or change the battery, or buy a battery (CR 2025 - who would know). In addition to having a back light, it has a stop watch. And dual time!

I am very pleased with my purchase. I have been looking all over London at watch shops, department stores, motorway stops, and most of the watches are not waterproof, are huge and heavy, or cost too much, usually all three.

Now I know a brand which suits me, I can probably buy them on line.

The brand - Takane.
www.takane-watch.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer,

Safety At Sea: What To Do When Sinking Like Titanic

After a lesson at a gym I got talking, as usual to a retired policeman I shall call 'Ed'.

Ed watched a Youtube video of a wealthy couple sailing the world on their two-person yacht. At night the husband sleeps and the wife wanders on deck filming herself, for the entertainment of all, but, Ed says, tutting, without a life jacket, helmet, or the two lines of ropes tied to herself.

'An ancient waiting to happen,' says Ed. I frown, 'But why is it dangerous? Surely a lot of people would do that?'

'Yes, but they shouldn't.' Ed shakes his head. 'She looks over the side, or she's hit by a swinging sail, the boat lurches and she falls off. He wakes up three hours later, miles away. He takes three hours to sail back to where she was - assuming he knows what time she fell and where. How will he find her?

'Look at the ceiling. Imagine falling from their into water, even perfectly calm water. How will she survive? Even falling from more than six feet flat into flat calm, water, it hits you so hard, it knocks you out, so you can hardly breathe, or float, or swim.

'It also depends on the water temperature. In some places you'd only survive half an hour. In others less than ten minutes.'

We ponder. 'So what should she, or you or I, do on a boat?'

'I've told you why you need a life jacket. You need the helmet in case worthing swings and hits you. Of you fall against something. Then you need two ropes. The small one when you are near something like a steering wheel. The bigger one when you want to go to the far side of the boat. The bigger one is longer and stronger, thicker. If you fall overboard, not only does it keep you near the boat so others can help you, you use it to pull yourself back up. It has knots at intervals all the wall up so you can pull yourself up it.'

I object, 'But if the boat is sinking, the rope attaching you to it will pull you down with the boat.'

Ed laughs. "You shouldn't be sinking. You should be on the boat baling out and stopping up any hole.'

'How do you stop up the hole?'

'Anything - even a blanket.'

'But the flow of water pushes it into the boat."

'You get a piece of wood or a couple of pieces like a cross bar to hold it in place?'

'Where do you find the wood. Say, you're on a cruise ship, like the Titanic. You don't have any tools to hack at the wood.'

'You take whatever wood you can find. A deckchair. A dining chair. Anything to hold a piece of canvas or blanket over the hole. The water rises up to the level of the hole and then the pressure of water keeps the blanket in place so no more water can flow in. Meanwhile you are baling out. On a cruise ship you have a thousand passengers. And dozens of crew. Get them all to help you.'

'The ship might still sink.'

'Yes, but, that gives you another three of four or five hours. Meanwhile you can be building lifeboats, floats, anything to throw into the water. You might not save everybody. But you can save some people. It's better than nothing.'

'How do you know all this?'

'When you are on police duty in London, for a big event, you have time off to eat and rest at a central police eatery - eating place. Around the walls are safety instructions. I look at them. Especially the ones about boats and boating because I sail.'

'Thank you for telling me. Now I know what to do.'

Please pass this post on to anybody who might need it or be interested.

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

Changing Your Watch Time - A beginner's guide

I buy watches which are water resistant to 50 metres. Then I don't have to worry about washing my hands, taking a shower, going for a swim in the pool or ocean, nor spray from rides on Duck boats and other sightseeing boats or even getting soaked in the rain, nor reaching down to retrieve a phone or item dropped in a basin.

A watch can have one, two, three or four buttons sticking out. Usually you press the buttons inwards.

Some watches have the four buttons labelled. When buying a watch, or printing instructions, look for a watch which has the buttons labelled.

 If your watch does not have the buttons labelled, you could print a copy of the instructions in large size. If necessary draw an arrow and write the name of the button larger. Then copy onto the picture which button is which.

The buttons will be:
Mode change - (time, alarm etc)
Time Set - time you want the watch to show
Alarm changer
Light on and off

The light, if you have one, is easiest to find. Normally you just push it in to turn on the light. Handy if you want to see the time in the middle of the night without waking yourself or a companion, whether sitting on the plane, or in bed.

Mode will have two or more settings. You want to change the time. Also any alarms if your watch has alarms.

Start with the time. Your watch should come with an instruction leaflet. If you are buying a watch online. you should check that the site promises an instruction leaflet, or has an instruction leaflet on the website. Unless you are fanatical about not wasting paper, print it out. If you prefer to be paperless, save the instructions on your computer or phone, and a backup elsewhere, or another family member's phone.

It's handy to have records of instructions for everything and give them to other members of the family or store them even if you don't need them now. I've been executor for my late mother, father, and uncle. Having instructions for watches is one less thing to worry about if you have the instructions for all appliances including watches. You want the instructions to use the watch, check it's still working, then when using it, giving it away, whether to family, to charity, or selling it second hand.

Most timers and clocks operate on variations of a simple system.
Press a button once to get from fixed to changeable time. Just like filling in the date for an online request for a credit card. Up comes a picture of two dots or lines. You must press something in or up to advance the time from 0 to 9. You have have 24 hours in the first column, or just numbers 0-9 in the first column and 0-9 in the second column.

You then press either once again to move onto the next activity, changing the minutes. (A few sophisticated watches also have seconds.)

You then have to press a button again to set the new time or return to normal time display.

If you go back to normal time display and you are not on the new time, you have missed out the last step which was click or press to say DONE/FINISHED/ENTER.

Don't burst into tears with disappointment that you still can't get things right. Don't stress your self in the slightest. You are doing well. You are one stop further up the ladder to success.

Go back and start again. This time it's easier and quicker. It's no longer a mystery. You know what you are doing. And by doing it twice you are telling your brain that it's not a fleeting incident to be forgotten, in the brain's waste bin department, but a repeated action so dear little brain has to file watch change instructions in the section of brain for I might need to remember this.