Look At London - Baker Street, The Underground Station, and Sherlock Holmes

Baker Street station. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The Underground Symbol

The classic circular symbol of the underground, a red circle with a black border, and white central disc, a blue cross piece, and letter in white capital letters. You can see more at the London Transport Museum. London underground and individual stations have write ups of their own and entries in Wikipedia. 

The Sherlock Holmes Feature

Notice the tiled picture of Sherlock Holmes with his pipe and Scottish deerstalker hat. You can buy hats like this with brims which lift up and down. In the down position they cover the ears. 

The Sherlock Holmes Statue

Outside the station is a statue of Sherlock Holmes. A popular place for a selfie.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum

Across Baker street is the Sherlock Holmes Museum. You can visit the museum, or just the shop stocked with souvenirs and novelties.

Britain into lockdown? How to get more information

UK flag

Where do you get the latest information? Direct from the government of the country you want to visit, or your home country.

The UK website has all sort of links but the one to Covid19 latest news is at the top of the opening page.

In the UK we found masks sold everywhere. Even the confectionary kiosk at the entrance to Northwick Park railway station.

Useful Website

 https://www.gov.uk/

About the Author

Learn colourful words and colourful place names in Chinese and Malay

Chinese (Mandarin) is spoken in China and Singapore.

Flag of China. 

Flag of Singapore.

Chinese - English
ang - red
ang mo - red hair = Caucasian (Singlish or slang, could be affectionate or insulting depending on tone and context)
mo - hair

English - Chinese
caucasian - ang mo
hair - mo
red - ang

Flag of Indonesia


Malay - English
bukit - hill
bukit merah - Red hill (Bukit Merah and Redhill are two different nearby MRT mass rapid transit railway station names)
merah - red

English - Malay
hill - bukit
red - merah
red hill - bukit merah

Useful Websites
LANGUAGES
google translate
translate.google.com
duolingo
duolingo.com
memrise
memrise.com

TRAVEL
Singapore Airlines
singaporeair.com

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

How Can You Prevent Children Running In The Road? Travel with reins or a safety lead

Yet another fatal accident. And no end of near misses.

UK flag

Near Miss
For example, in the UK, in Harrow, London, England, I was passenger in a car which tried to overtake another, not realising the car had stopped to let a pedestrian cross. This happens frequently.

Singapore Flag

Singapore Fatality
A mother cross the road with three children, one on either hand and the third one runs ahead. (Fatal accident in Singapore. If I remember rightly, the accident killed the Korean mother and the three children. The British car driver was in prison awaiting trial for about a year before being released.)

Kindergarden Crocodile
When I was in kindergarten, we children had to walk in a crocodile, in pairs, hand in hand. Sometimes children have to march hand in hand in silence.

Lollipop Ladies
At a road, we all waited until the traffic stopped. A 'lollipop lady' with a lollipop shape, banner visible to cars, held up the traffic. (Alas now aended.)

Reins For Control
My mother kept me on a simple lead, called reins. Now you can get dog leads which can be adjusted to allow a dog or child or even an adult to stretch the lead and go no further than a distance you set.

Running In Public Places
I see children and even teenagers running around and shouting, making sudden movements, walking backwards or sideways, watching their friends, oblivious of their aurroundings.
I was prompted to write on Facebook:

Reins
This type of accident hapens again and again. Children under five, like dogs, should be kept on a lead and taught to walk about calmly and quietly.

They should not run around in public places but walk next to mother, father, parent or teacher. You see toddlers and children careering arond everywhere, racing along the street and out into the road, rushing around supermarkets and knocking over displays, bumping into adults including the elderly and hanicapped, piercing the air with their excited screams so that people zone out and cannot tell horseplay from an emergency.

Children should hold mother's or father's hand, or be attached by a lead. these deaths are preventable. What do you think the answer is?

Stations And Safety
Earlier this week in Singapore at a city centre railway station I heard a child shrieking for its mother. The child was racing in circles around the station platform. The mother was ignoring it, reading her mobile phone. I was two floors above. Everybody on the station could hear the child, except the mother. On a UK platform without barriers the child could have run over the edge onto the tracks.

Courtesy Campaign Improving Behaviour
What is the answer? Legislation?

Maybe a campaign worldwide like the ones in Singapore which encourage you to stand up and offer a seat to the elderly, turn down loud music, put your bag on the floor to make space for more.

Illustration from Wikipedia article on Signapore's courtesy campagn

Visiting Singapore
Singapore is an interesting country to visit. Most station platforms have barriers which makes them safer and fewer delays.

Useful Websites
NEWS OF ACCIDENTS
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7061405/Boy-three-dies-hit-car-residential-street-north-London.html?fbclid=IwAR22emkaE8-AgwK5CWkcU9Uf6klFYSMSqysVrdjI6-mfMHt0bRO7-cvqJYk
SAFETY & COURTESY
https://www.pwc.com/m1/en/publications/guide-on-reducing-road-fatalities.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Courtesy_Campaign_(Singapore)
TRAVEL
singaporeair.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Art on the Underground in Singapore - One North

Photo credit : Angela Lansbury.

Colourful and dramatic artwork at One North MRT in Singapore.

Author

Angela Lansbury, writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Elie Wiesel Station Named After Him In Romania In 2017

Problem
Where can I see sights connected with Elie Wiesel?

Synagogue in Sighet, by Vberger in Wikipedia.

Answer
1 USA Washington DC's US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which he founded.
2 Romania, his childhood home, now a museum, in Sighet, now called Sighet Marmatie.
3 Plaque in Sighet's railway station, renamed in September 2017, Gara Elie Wiesel.
4 Poland Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was sent with his family amidst 15,000 other Jews, where his mother and younger sister died. His other two, older sisters survived.
5 Buchenwald, where his father died, and where Eli Wiesel was liberated by the US army.
6 Nobel Peace Prize - Scandinavia. Oslo, Norway, Peace Museum; also Stockholm, Sweden.

Story
Today there are 7,000 Jews in Romania. I had hoped to visit the museum in Romania, but I was with a group. I saw the lovely exterior of the synagogue in Brasov which is described in my other posts on Romania.

Romanian Language
As you can see from the word Gara for station, Romanian has many words similar to Italian and French.

He spoke several languages including Romanian, Yiddish, French and English. He wrote 57 books including Night which was about his time in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He was on the Oprah Winfrey show and went with her to Auschwitz. Other well-known people he met, as you can see from photos, included US President Obama, and the Dalai Lama.

More Information
www.duolingo.com - learn Romanian for free on the internet on your computer, laptop or smart phone.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel
Romanian Tourist Board:
www.romaniatourism.com

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g608955-d3458082-Reviews-The_Elie_Wiesel_Memorial_House_The_Museum_of_the_Jewish_Culture_in_Maramures-Sigh.html
http://auschwitz.org/en/ (The Polish might pop up first. No flag of the Union Jack. The English translation is obtained by finding the word English across the top of the page.)
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g190479-d579345-Reviews-The_Nobel_Peace_Center-Oslo_Eastern_Norway.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g187426-d8590907-Reviews-Buchenwald_Memorial-Weimar_Thuringia.html

You Tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9PuCf9zmts (His family and his time in the camps.)
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=166354255 (No interesting gravestone but a good little summary of his life.)

http://time.com/4392279/elie-wiesel-dead-life-pictures-photos/ (Excellent series of pictures, shows amongst other illustrations:
The famous picture of Buchenwald you will probably recall, of emaciated men lying on three level of bunk beds - with a circle showing which is Elie Wiesel;
Elie Wiesel meeting one of the Russian liberators of Auschwitz, General Vasily Petrenko;
Elie Wiesel with President Bill Clinton at the dedication ceremony for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC;
Elie Wiesel being hugged by President Obama who presented Elie Wiesel with a medal.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts on Romania and the Romanian language. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How fast is your train? Get an ap!

Problem
How fast is this train? Is it as fast as it seems? Are we running on time? How can I impress colleagues, friends, strangers, the kids?

Answer
There are free aps (paid for by the advertising) which tell you your speed. They work pretty fast.

How do they work? By global positioning. I imagine you can use this on the motorway where (UK) signs telling you they can work out your average speed.

(I always thought those worked by an analysis of where you start and end and therefore the average speed over that distance in that time.)

You can also get a free altimeter as part of this speed ap or separately.

Story
My relative used the ap to measure the speed of the Stansted airport train, coming home to London. The train ran at 78 miles per hour. The London overground train was 38 m.p.h.

What Could You Measure?
You could also use it on a horse or elephant or camel. The system is working on the GPS, doesn't even know whether you are on a train or on horseback.

You can also measure your running, jogging and walking speed.

You could measure your child or toddler riding on a suitcase, granny on an electric cart, the electric cart zooming you around a railway station or an airport.

Measure your car, the bus, the long distance coach.

What about a plane? You are told to turn off your phone on the plane during taking off and landing. But at certain times mid-flight you might be told you can turn the phone on again. Usually on the planes which have a screen on the back of the seat in front there is a screen showing your distance travelled and estimated time of arrival and speed and height.

In a car the driver can see the speed on the speedometer. I often find I do not want to keep taking my eyes off the road. If you have children in the back they can keep you updated on your speed. This could be an amusement. Also help you keep within the speed limit.

Hours of fun for everyone.

Stansted Spelling
Whilst typing I was wondering how to spell Stansted. Somebody told me, "There's no second a. Stansted. Berkhamsted. They are all the same. Unfortunately, Hampstead Heath has a second a. However, you can remember is as the exception with the words Hampstead and Heath have matching end vowels.

Tips
https://appadvice.com/appguides/show/speedometer

Author
Angela Lansbury

Pinner Festive Lights On Gables And Trees

Pretty Pinner, historic Pinner. Pinner, Middlesex, a suburb of North West London. At the bottom of the road is Pinner station on the Metropolitan line if you want to visit Pinner by train. Pinner is also proud of the newly opened Heath Robinson Museum in Pinner Park, which is opposite the railway station.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 2016.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.