Books On Surviving A Dangerous Event Such As A Terrorist Attack; A Suicidal Attacker, Knife, Kidnap, Poison

Rescue dogs. FEMA. (Fire Emergency rescue service.) Photo from Wikipedis 

The American acronym FEMA is not Fire and Emergency Association, as I imagined, but Federal_Emergency_Management_Agency

.

But, whilst waiting for them to arrive, first things first.

Problem
What do you do in an emergency situation?

In Singapore you see instructions on posters and videos at stations:
Run
Hide
Tell

Advice on action includes preventing others from running into danger.

In Singapore classes are given in First Aid and administering CPR (resuscitation).

Natural disasters and accidents include:
earthquakes:
fires:
floods:
snowed in: (in many countries snow chains and snow tyres are available or obligatory)
tsunamis - generally read the signs, register for alerts and know your way to high ground.
Install lightning conductors and ensure you know the way to the exit in a hotel or other buildings.

At Toastmasters International, the convenor of every meeting is expected to start by pointing out the exits, like the staff on an airplane.

In the UK in March 2018 advice is being given about how to reduce the risk of contamination.

To prevent an attack starting or escalating, suggestions include:
Persuading the attacker to sit down and explain his or her grievances.

Call the attacker's parent or close relative.

Offer / negotiate a reward for a truce or delay - a cigarette, a drink, an order of pizza, a getaway car, money, a chance to speak on TV, a chance to speak to a mother or close relative, a house, a job, an exchange of prisoners, a plea bargain. Ask what the assailant wants. Ask if there's something small you can easily provide (such as the pizza).

In a school send another child (near the door) or another adult for help (to a next door class to warn a teacher - not to race around the school looking for the head teacher).

In a group:
Barricade the door.
Form a team to attack:
Your defence could be:
A pub stool,
A chair - to block or throw
A table - thrown by a pair or group
Knives and forks
A bottle
A pint pot
Cold or hot drinks thrown in somebody's face

You can download apps which connect you with security services and pinpoint your position without your having to speak so that potential attackers do not hear you.
Assaults and Terrorist Attacks

Poisons
Regarding snakes, note the difference between poison and venom. A snake spits a venom. A poison is a harmful substance which causes damage if swallowed.

Advice given out recently was to wash potentially contaminated clothes, wipe other items with baby wipes, and for items needing dry cleaning, to double wrap them in plastic securely tied before disposal.

After a member of my family receiving cancer treatment, we were given advice on using separate towels and so on to avoid contamination and long term effects even after a passage of time.

Useful Websites
SINGAPORE
https://www.police.gov.sg/content/contact-us
UK
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-health-advice-following-salisbury-nerve-agent-incident
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/poisoning/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5487305/Health-bosses-tell-500-people-wash-possessions.html
Be A Hero: The Essential Guide to Active Shooter Incidents, co-written by John Geddes and Alun Rees.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Be-Hero-Essential-Survival-Active-Shooter/dp/
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/how-would-you-survive-kidnap.html

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

Do you know these false friends - words in American and British English, French and German?

Problem
You see a word which sounds like English. You think you know what it means. But it turns out to be something different.

Answers
False Friends
American English - British English
erasers are rubbers
pacifier is dummy
pants are trousers
pantyhose are tights
rubbers are condoms
suspenders are what the British call braces (holding up trousers; for the British supenders and what hold up ladies' stockings
the car's hood is the bonnet
the car's trunk is the boot
underpants are pants

French - English
Hotel de ville in French means town hall.
Grand in French is not grand but big.

German - English
Old-timer in German and Dutch is what the English would call a classic car; old-timer in English means an elderly person
Rathaus is not a rat house but a town hall, usually containing a tourist restaurant serving local specialities in a historic cellar.
A gymnasium in Germany is academic, a college, but in the UK it is a hall with equipment for physical activity indoors

LANGUAGES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend
what is the easiest language to learn
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/7-reasons-to-learn-languages-from-a-guy-who-speaks-9
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/language-quotes-01

duolingo.com

earwormslearning.com

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/how-many-english-words-from-foreign.html
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/learn-ten-portuguese-words-from.html
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/polyglot-poem-by-angela-lansbury.html
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-to-remember-23-portuguese-words-or.html

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/port-and-portuguese-wine-labels-and.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-to-ask-for-food-and-drink-in.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/learn-your-first-ten-words-in.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-do-you-say-please-in-portuguese-is.

TRAVEL
visitbritain.org
http://www.visit-usa.com (Links for all state tourist boards)
http://www.germany.travel/en/index.html
http://uk.france.fr
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/germany

visitportugal.com

http://www.spain.info/en_GB/

visitbrasil.com

http://ww

w.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/homepage

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

The Secret of Finding a Seat - on trains

Finding a seat requires concerted action by the traveller, the train, bus or plane's number or seats and signs, and business hours and meetings. How can you increase your chances?

Finding a seat on a train should be simple. Live at the end of the line. Travel to the station when there's no traffic on the road. Travel on the train before or after rush hour. Just pick the nearest seat. Work early and leave early. Offices started work at ten and left at six, rather than nine to five like shops, to spread the load on the train and bus lines.

End of Train Line (UK)
When I lived in Edgware and Stanmore I was a happy traveller. I always got a seat into London.

The Return Journey
Coming home I would usually get a seat early on. Especially if I kept watching for people preparing to get off, packing up their belongings and looking alert, ready to leap up and out. I stood near them, ready to leap in.

Advantages of Last Stop
Once I fell asleep. I was woken by the station attendant whose job is to go along the train collecting newspapers and shutting doors - after waking the dozing drunks and tired travellers. That's the great advantage of living at the end of the line. You can't go past your stop. You might seem far away to visitors from the centre of the city, but at least you are easy to find. You can tell them, "Just stay on until the train reaches the last stop."

Cutting Staff Travel Time
The British Council offices were all on the Central Line. The offices were planned that way. The man who ordered the second building probably lived on the Central Line. His office was on the central line. Staff going from one office to another did not have to change trains and wait. It was less stressful for them. They could not get lost. It saved time for inter-office travel.

Seats On UK Trains
An article called The Seat on the Train by Hugh Graham in Britain's newspaper The Sunday Times tells you which stations give your greater chances of finding seats on commuter trains. Sometimes it is worthwhile spending five minutes driving to another station further out or in, to save a long time standing on the commute into London.

Reservations To and From Regions
When booking holiday trains to Wales or Derby, I try to get a reserved seat. Recently I was lucky to be near the exit. If there is a choice of seats, I might even abandon my reserved seat in order to take a free seat near the luggage stack at the exit.

Picking Seats
Unfortunately, unlike planes, where you can chose to be near a window or an exit, on trains when making reservations you often cannot pick the seat. If you book your holiday late, many seats are already taken, so neither you nor the office selecting your seat will have a choice.

Seats With Space
A seat in the middle means dragging your luggage a long way. Single seats near the doorway have room for your luggage beside you.

Seats With Tables
On the other hand, seats further in often enjoy the benefits of a table, for four. You have the opportunity to put down a laptop and work. You might also have the chance to chat to other travellers.

Watching Luggage
However, I do not want to leave my luggage in the rack at the carriage end and sit in the middle where I cannot see my luggage. Leaflets warn travellers to watch their luggage.

Theft
Tricks played on travellers include leaping onto the train before it goes, grabbing a piece of luggage and leaping off again. By the time the owner of the suitcase notices or gets up and rushes to the door, the train is moving again.

Carriage-hopping
Getting a seat on a busy train also involves watching the train as it comes in. If you have no heavy wheeled luggage nor multiple bags, and you see the end carriage has seats but the middle ones are full, you can run along the platform as the train comes in to leap into the last carriage before people start flowing along inside towards the empty seats.

Sometimes on a long journey, if I see lots of people standing at the door of the next carriage ready to exit, I will either run along inside to take a vacated seat, or leap out of my carriage and race along to leap in again and grab the empty seat. You have to be quick, to be sure not to be left on the next platform.

Success!
But, hey, the joys of sitting back and opening your newspaper and phone, or shutting your eyes. If going past your stop is one of life's worst travelling stresses, finding a seat is one of life's best travel successes.

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

How the Hash organises the jungle run trails

You may have heard of the Hash, who do jungle runs and running all over the world. They started in Malaysia in WWII. In Singapore the men run a more strenuous run on Monday nights, mixed sex on Friday,  families with children - just type kiddie hash, at the weekend, and there's a run with dogs.

The Singaporean hashers think they have the best runs, because they go through jungle. On the other hand it's hot and humid. If you are in America or Australia you can join or start a hash in all sorts of climates and terrains.

I asked somebody who runs every week about how the hares set this trail for the other runners. Do they start on one side of a park or field or jungle or area and come back to the same point for the exit or go across it and emerge the other side?

Given a choice, they think it's more interesting to start one point and end at another. But if there's no exit on the other side (eg if its a cliff by the sea, a reservoir, an airfield, a banned military site, or a housing estate or private land, what do they do?

They have a choice. One is to have the start and end nearby. Leave the end few yards unmarked. Bring people back to end within sight of the road (and the parked food trucks with supper which have not been there when the run started at six pm on the dot, but arrived about 8 for 8.30 supper.

You put a sign, on on home. The runners know just to keep running in the same direction to the main road where the end point will be obvious from the trucks and signs of the earlier runners.

You don't want the out and back signs in the same place.

The alternative is for the two or more hares (usually two, three or four) to wait until the runners have set off. Then to add the signs nearby for the return.

For more information look up the Hash in Singapore or the inter hash event and you'll find the general website.

You will find nearly a hundred runs just in Malaysia. You will find runs in west Java in Indonesia, in  Hong Kong and many more worldwide.

Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, CL, ACG, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.