Another set of 20 Spanish words

Spanish - English

Animales - animals

cara - expensive

comida - food

creer - to believe

esto - this

fiesta - party

isla - island

(el) león - (the) lion

la maestra - the teacher

noticias - news

el océano - the ocean

oro - gold (gold ore)

parque - park

(una) sortija - ring (jewellery)

tarea - homework (think of a task in your home area)

universidad - university 

visitantes - visitors

English - Spanish

animals - animales

to believe - creer

estadio - stadium

expensive - cara

food - comida

gold - oro

Homework - tarea

island - isla

lion - león 

news - noticias

the ocean - el oceanó

park - parque

party - fiesta

ring (noun) - sortija

stadium - estadio

the teacher - la maestra

this - esto

university - universidad

visitors - visitantes

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Spanish Words - Secrets To Remembering Them

 How to remember Spanish words? Find similar words in English with letters in common.

Spanish - English

bonita - pretty / beautiful b for beautiful, bon for good, it sounds like the ett in pretty)

cafeteria - cafeteria

diario - diary

entrar - to enter

el examen - the exam

hoy - today (OY hOY tOdaY)

invitado - guest (INVIT .DO INVITaDoO - INVITeD persOn)

llamaste - you called (double ll in both words, a in both words, S for Second person Singular, the same as Latin amo amas amat where amas is you love. ending e for the past, as in the English ed, called)

mercado - market (MERcAdo MAR K E, c and k sound alike, so do d and t)

la musica - the music (add a in Spanish)

muy - very - muy looks like MUch and verY

oceano (oh say arn oh, upward forward diagonal accent on the e) the ocean

roto - broken (letters RO ROto bROken)

ciencias - science (Science is a plural word in Spanish. Move the s from the start of the word to the end.

Useful websites for learning Spanish

duolingo.com

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

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Plastics? Leave Only Footprints

I  won through the first level of the contest of a speech about the environment. Then the second level.

Later I was called to speak on stage at a training for would be entrepreneurs to demonstrate the ability to speak in public to raise awareness for a cause or charity.

I said:

When I walk around a room like this or the street in a city, I notice all the debris that human beings leave behind, on tables and under chairs and in wastebins. We are like snails which leave behind slime, a trail of evidence of where they have been.

It doesn't have to be like that. You must have seen pictures of the debris left behind after a major event such as a rock concert in a field. Piles of trash left behind. It doesn't have to look like that next day. Every monring you can walk into Disney World and the place is pristine clean, because a group of poeple have cleaned up.

Seeing the place look clean has encouraged everybody to keep it clean. In Canada they found that even two pieces of litter on the ground was enough to make others think everybody was dropping litter and it was OK to do so. So do your bit.

If a million people in a city all drop litter we have a mess, and clutter in the ocean. If a million pople use recycling bins or better still take litter home, which everybody does in Japan, we would have clean cities and clean oceans. You can pick up a piece of litter dropped by somebody else.

When I walk past a shopping mall I see beautiful bags discarded in bins next to the smart shops. Big tote bags with lovely handles. If the bags are pretty and clean I rescue them. They can all be reused.

Most of the things we throw away could be reused. A discarded t-shirt which is old or stained or no longer wanted because it has last year's date could be made into a tee-towel. Clothes which don't fit can be changed. A top which is too tight can be slit up the sides and made into a tabard or tunic.

When I walk around the ground floor of both public housing and provate condos, I see large items of furniture abandoned by the bins. Chairs and tables have a missing leg or are chipped or need repainting.

Singapore flag

A Singapore resident told me that Singaporeans like to throw out the old and buy new. But those items, if taken to Malaysia would be used by poor people or owners of second hand shops. Old TVs and screens would be fixed.

All the small items could be reused in our homes. In the Sixties it was fashionable to conver a glass bottle into a table lamp and you could buy a top to fix to the bottle. A plastic or glass bottle can be cut in half and made into a flower vase or a  pen and pencil holder.

A cardboard cereal box can be cut diagonally and turned into a magazine holder. At Chrsitmas I have seen ceral boxes advertising that the box can be flattned and reused as a board game which is printed on the reverse of the box. I hope that one day we will all be able to reduce the mount of waste from a house or building to only the contents of one small box a year, as has been done by at least one family who experimented to see if it was possible. Yes, it is. That is my vision for my future, and yours and ours.

Author
Angela Lansbury.

Plastics - what we could and should do

I used to imagine that pollution was a problem of modern cities. When I travelled to third world developing countries I was shocked to see the litter in their villages and urban streets and in dumps on the edge of the cities. The developing countries were developing litter and pollution.

What can you do?
1 Reveal the problem. Spread the bad news
2 Prevention. Do your bit to not buy plastic.
3 Do your bit to recycle plastic.
4 Spread good news about recycling initiatives.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
When I tried to photo individuals, my own families, or locals, I would rush to remove bits of litter spoiling the picture.

Should You Photograph Litter - yes or no?
When I tried to photograph graffitit and litter and dumps, my family objected. You would think they were employed by the local tourist board. They did nto want me to show litter. They thought it was unkind and disrespectful and ungrateful to both the family who had contributed to the cost of my family to show me good things in other countries as well as unfair to local people and might repel other potential tourists.

My view: Hiding the proble.. Not facing the problem. Not dealing with the problem.

Litter After Events
We have all seen photos of the litter left behind and the clear up needed after a major concert or event, whether in a farmer's field or a city centre. Sometimes the clean-up is represented as a story of horror. Sometimes as a forgotten team, the hard-working and saintly clear-up team.

Litter Picking
As soon as you think about it, your realise that a clean up can be done if somebody is willing to pay the cost.

DISNEY
Disneyland has huge numbers of people. They don't have litter during the day nor the morning after. Disney doesn't have signs threatning to fine you like Singapore. Disney has teams of people picking up litter at the time and after closing hours. (I can imagine somebody saying, yes, so that's why the prices are so high.)

SINGAPORE
I have read compaisons between Hong Kong and Singapore. Generally they show that Singapore does not just have people who are more litter conscious or more afraid of being fined. Singapore spends more on people picking up litter. You can employ low-paid foreign workers, conscript your army or gap year students, pay students pocket money, employ the handicapped with an easy job, have volunteer days.

Litter Disposal
But, after you have picked up the litter, where does it go? The official litter pickers and volunteers may be more keen or more skilled at separating litter into different types.

But we still have the question of where to put the piles of litter, neatly sorted, but what next?

The Disposal Problems
1 Plastics in the ocean are damaging wildlife, fish and birds.
2 It is aesthetically displeasing to see litter on the previously pristine ocan floor
3 Discarded litter causes fires in forests
4 Discarded litter causes fire in cities (The UK's fatal King's Cross station Fire was attributed to litter possibly catching fire due to a spark or cigarette end

Solutions Aggravating The Problem
China has stopped importing waste to put into landfill - which helps them but puts the problem back on others.

Local councils in the UK used to dump both sewage and unfiltered waste from sewage pipes into the ocean.
Burning waste makes pollution.
Shredding plastic makes smaller particles which get trapped in balleen whales. The balleen is a kind of comb instead of teech which filters their food so tiny creatures go through to the whale's stomach.


The balleen in a balleen whale which gets clogged with microplastic. Photo of ballen from Wikipedia article on balleen whales.

GOOD NEWS Current Solutions - Recycling

UK
UK COUNCILS
1 Harrow - compost machines
2 Hillingdon - biodegradable bags for kitchen waste

UK SUPERMARKETS


3 Waitrose is replacing plastic trays for ready meals with material which will compost at home



4 Morrisons is introducing plastic free fruit and veg - sold loose.

USA -
1 DIY shredding and reforming thin plastic (bags) into multi-colour sheets
2 Loopstore is collecting, washing and reusing packaging. They are linked with brands such as Body Shop, Colgate, Crest, Dove, Febreze, Haagen Dazs, Tide and many more.

AFRICA
1 Africa - turning plastic mixed with sands into durable protective roof tiles to build new homes and replace or improve shanty housing

Future Solutions
Small scale recycling businesses employing the handicapped in the UK. No need to worry about creating huge profits for shareholders if they are not for profit recycing organizations whose part purpose is to provide employment, teach skills and give satisfaction to employees.

Some Sensible Slogans
A journey starts with a single step (Chinese, attributed to Confucius)
Be the change you wish to see (Mahatma Gandhi)

Useful Websites
Problems
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7054471/Plastic-debris-bigger-risk-filter-feeding-whales-OIL.html

Solutions
SINGAPORE

UK
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7056017/Waitrose-unveils-worlds-compostable-ready-meal-trays.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed
USA
https://loopstore.com/
https://loopstore.com/brand-partners

Author Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite pages.

Safety and swimming pools worldwide

Two well-publicised fatalities in swimming pools: one in the USA, one in the UK. (Demi Moore. Barrymore.)

Pools in Private Residences in Australasia
In Australia and New Zealand it's the law that you fence off swimming pools so that children don't fall in after it was found that more people died in swimming pools than in the ocean. This was featured on stamps - as I learned in the post office in New Zealand.

Pools in Condos in the USA
When I lived in a condo in Rockville, Maryland, USA, the pool was surrounded by tennis court style see through wire netting over six foot high - nothing you could vault over. The pool was locked at night. Insurance or local bye-law or state law or all three said you had to have a lifeguard on duty when the pool was open. In fact you had two lifeguards. So if one had a sandwich break, or went to the toilet, or turned up late, or went off early, or turned their back to talk to somebody, the other guard was still sitting watching the pool.

 It's time that worldwide swimming pools were fenced off. Maybe make it mandatory to add a warning sign on the gate.

Private Pools in the UK
Friends of mine living in Hendon used to have a pool. The husband, who was in the medical profession, would not allow his wife or children to swim alone. If the wife was alone she would invite a friend or neighbour into the house if she wanted to swim.

That was to guard against anybody getting into difficulties in the water. Falling in. Or having a heart attack or fainting fit whilst swimming.

What should a warning sign say?

1 Only enter if you can swim and are sober.
2 No unaccompanied children.
3 No parties of more than 100 people without a lifeguard.
4 Nobody to swim solo.

Safety - you can learn from living overseas and seeing what other countries do for safety.

Neighbours in Pinner have a pool. Theirs has a low gate. They had four children.

They were also worried about the safety of their neighbour's children. Even when the swimming pool owners were away on holiday, they were concerned that their neighbours children would leap over the low fences between the gardens for a secret dip - even without the swimming children's own parents knowing.

US and Singapore
Many condominiums in Singapore and the USA have swimming pools. In Singapore I went to a meeting in a condo which had been in the newspapers because a toddler had drowned in the unfenced pool. The family had been preparing for a wedding or similar large celebration. Both mother and maid thought the other one was looking after the child. the family were busy making food, serving drink and greeting guests. I thought back to the USA, where I had loved in a condo with a gated pool. That accident could not have happened if the pool had been gated.

What about pool parties? I've been to blocks of flats where they have barbecues beside pools. People eat and drink, stand by the pool watching swimmers. Party goers and visitors walk by the pool. People stand in groups, step back and fall in.

Children and adults, drunk or sober, push each other in for a joke. Women trip over long dresses or dogs or their own bags left lying on the ground. Waiters and bar staff carrying drinks on trays at shoulder level have their eyes up on the drinks or guests and trip over obstructions such as recliners pulled across the path.

I used to wonder why hotel pools and condos closed pools at night. I thought it was to stop people falling in when it was dark, or to stop late night parties making noise when others wanted to sleep. But I now realise that people tend to drink more in the evenings and get drunker as the night goes on. An old saying comes to mind, better safe than sorry.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.