Safety Rules and Suggestions For Zoos and Hiking, Pets, Farms, and In the Wild

London's Soft Play and zoos for all ages include Belmont Farm.

Belmont Farm, Mill Hill, N W London. England. UK. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

If you are taking children out, there are many opportunities. We visited this London location where you have the opportunity to visit either a soft play centre with two areas, one for the under threes and another for older children, plus an animal watching and petting area. 

You can see the animals on the slopes beside the car park. You have to pay to get up close and alow your children to feed them with the animal feed which you buy.

You can buy a combined ticket for both the farm and the soft play but must visit the animals area second not first, for health reasons. Indoors, beyond the pay desk, between the soft play areas for different ages is a cafe seating area where the parents sit and chat or look at their phones. 

Maybe you should think about that when visiting both kinds of attraction in the same day, at different venues.

That is a regulated situation. 

Hiking and Backpacking Worldwide

With summer coming, many families, with and without children, go hiking. I go with a hiking group to a different country every year. I was astonished to see a child from the age of three happily running up and down slopes which were challenging for the elderly, middle aged and less fit adults.

Warnings I have seen about behaviour hiking in the wild include not to go hiking when menstruating. Nor if you have diarrhea.

Not to leave open sandwiches and litter. To cover bleeding wounds.

I read that bears can smell humans, food and blood from six miles away, some say as far as twenty miles, depending on wind and other conditions. Animals with young will react to anybody getting too near, or moving suddenly.

Bears can be attracted by sandwiches in cars, or food left behind at camp sites.

Planned Pooping In The Woods

Some areas allow you to dig a 'cat hole' with a trowel and bury toilet paper or wipes. Other national USA park and other places require you do gather both animal and human waste in a poop bag, which you would double wrap on a longer journey than a four minute walk away from home, and take it home or back to base in a city to dispose of it appropriately where permitted.

Pets and Precautions

Worldwide customs and regulations and reactions vary. For example, dogs on leads, or off leads, and breeds allowed. In vehicles, different cities, countries, ski slopes, avalanche regions.

The reactions from dog owners and forensics seem to be that even good-natured dogs can turn bite or jump when alarmed, especially if they are sick or are protecting their newborns. After an attacking dog is put down sometimes it is discovered that they have brain tumours. Evidently strong dogs can kill adults. Precautions suggested are that is safer for both the humans and the dogs, not to allow dogs alone with babies, and children, nor in beds? And to keep your human heads and necks away from the animals' teeth?

Useful Websites on Animals, and Safety

Belmont Farm

https://www.belmontfarm.co.uk/

Zoo Safety

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/04/06/zooamerica-pennsylvania-wolf-enclosure-toddler-parents-charged/89491970007/

Hiking and Backpacking

The classic book which has been reprinted and updated many times is available from Amaxon and many camping gear shops.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Shit-Woods-4th-Environmentally/dp/1984857134

There are numerous videos entitled how to poop in the woods

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaOKKzpCjgA

Pets & Precautions

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15728483/Pictured-dog-mauled-teenage-owner-death-father.html

Hiking & Bears Smelling You

https://scienceinsights.org/how-far-can-a-black-bear-smell/

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Fire Safety In Public Places - Swiss Fire New Year's Eve

The New Year's Eve Fire in Switzerland set me researching safety for my own home and buildings I manage, events I manage at club meetings, and places I visit. Toastmasters Clubs worldwide, mostly, although not always, follow the American and British protocol of the Toastmasters of the day starting the meeting by indicating the fire exits to use if we hear a fire alarm.

 If you rent out a flat in the UK to one person or more, you need both gas and electric inspections for safety every year, for which the owner has to pay, tax deductable from profits. 

Cars need an MOT safety test every year.

Every restaurant, bar and night club should have a safety and fire inspection test. 

It's mandatory to have a now wash your hands sign over staff toilet basins. There should be signs saying no cigarettes, naked flames, candles, fireworks, except for cooking under cooker hood with fire blanket and trained person present..

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An article in the website of CROSS draws attention to two or three other safety factors not often mentioned.

1 In discos there is often a lot of noise which can disguise or delay calls for help or evalucatuion, even fire alarms

2 Dim lighting in night clubs or when illuminated firworks are used adds to conusion.

3 Unlike offices, events often take place in premises where patrons do not know the layout or the fire exit and door  and exit locations.

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When redecorating, you might wish to think about safety, which includes windows which open from the inside, and knowing how to open them.

I often feel unsafe in shopping malls, and toilets, which are at the ends of corridors, with no windows. And buildings which have solid walls street side. No room for a fire engine. No window to climb out of. Not even a window where you could raise a sign asking for help or show that a person is inside the building.

A restaurant up a flight of steps means that your emergency exit is a place which looks like people will fall in haste or fall over each other, and collide with would be rescuers..

A spiral staircase to a basement is not ideal for a fast exit.

If I don't see a fire exit. I try to sit near a door, away from the kitchen.

Useful Websites

SAFETY

https://www.cross-safety.org/uk/safety-information/cross-feature-article/fires-nightclubs-started-pyrotechnics

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+are+bengal+lights

WORLDWIDE FIRES

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

SWISS FIRE

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/switzerland-swiss-bar-fire-owner-6z2nnv6fq

VIDEO

https://uk.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=mail+swiss+fire&type=E210GB885G0#id=3&vid=222bbd08dee9ddf4b2bab9916fa98119&action=click

Victims of Swiss Fire

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3vel0xvlvgo

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/swiss-ski-resort-fire-every-36490994

Update on Swiss fire on New Year's Eve

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/switzerland-swiss-bar-fire-owner-6z2nnv6fq

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Preventing Dead Bodies Being Lost & Found in Bayous

 The bayou (waterway) around Houston has large numbers of dead bodies. And that's only the ones reported missing and found. 

Causes - serial killer. Preventable accidents needing safety measures.

Whichever is the cause, here are some solutions

Common cuases and solutions. 

Causes

1 Drunk people. 

2 Walking Home Alone.

3 Can't swim. 

4 Unfenced waterways. 

5 Nobody knows what happened.

Solutions. 

1 Serve food with alcohol. 

2 Free water or coffee with every drink or every second drink.

3 Provide free transport 

4 Or shuttle buses linking bars to landmarks and transport hubs. 

5 Fences around all areas near bars, sponsored by the city, and bars, and gofundme, and police, and city, and environment. (Memphis has run a contest for an attractive istorical artistic fence on the Black Bayou.)

Houston Bayou.

Memphis Bayou fence. 

6 Everyone walking home should have a phone recording their journey live to a family member, recording, or central police observation.

7 Apple watches recording heartbeat which send out alarms and location if heart stops.

Useful Websites

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15161751/houston-serial-killer-mystery-hunt-bodies-bayous.html

https://uacmem.org/projects/black-bayou

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8 Cameras along bayous.

Lasers Instead of Fireworks, Favoured by Animals and humans

Cats and dogs and other animals can be terrified of fireworks. Also displays have injured animals, children and adults. 

The good news is that safer displays could be on the way. They cost less in clearing up. Less cost in injuries. And it seems that the public like the laser displays which can be used not just in the sky but to light up buildings.

I'm all for music to go with displays instead of startling bangs and unnerving whizzes.

Useful Websites

 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13947315/Oooh-aaaah-NO-Majority-Britons-want-laser-shows-instead-noisy-fireworks-poll-reveals

https://www.rospa.com/policy/home-safety/advice/fireworks-safety

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

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

Fireworks advertising poster in Harrow for November 8th 2024.

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

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Hotel Balcony Safety - and Keys - Locked out, climbed balcony, died - prevention?

 

A hotel bedroom key with a large fob, from Spain in 2024. Photo by Angela Lansbury, Copyright

This happens too often. What could be done? 

Design balconies so you cannot climb from one to another, except as a fire escape beding bars to protect you from falling. Singapore makes cat owners install glass and/or barriers to stop cats jumping and killing themselves or people underneath so it is both practical and affordable. 

Secondly, all residents sharing a room should be allowed a second key, or told they can call reception for an escort with a pass key or show iD or give their home address to get the room key.

If a key has a large heavy fb, you cannot lose the key,, and it is more likely to be left back at reception.

Useful Website

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13899283/footballer-dies-fall-ibiza-hotel-balcony-door-locked-inquest.html

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Fall From Grand Canyon Cliff Edge - How To Save Lives

Grand Canyon, USA

 Reading about a fatal fall into the Grand Cnyon made me ponder what more could be done. Poeple are nowadays warned 

1 Do not wander off marked trails. 

2 Stay bck six foot from the edge. 

Never take a picture of people standing with their back to the canyon in case they fall over stepping backwards. And conversealy, don't take pictures of others whilst you stand near the edge, in case you step back.

There are safe lookout and photo points. 

Add the idea of professional photographers. I ussed to resent rides and sites which made visitors pay for professional photos by their onsite photogrpaher. But, in the light of so many fatal accidents,I now wonder whether it is safer for everybody to not have members of the public leaping about trying to get better photos, endangering themselves,passers-by, and rescuie services. 

Rescue helicopter.

The area should be cordoned off for miles. It would probabl cost less than all the deaaths and search operations, body recovery and insurance payouts and loss of income. Maybe all parks should charge a premium on entry fees,which is returned if you get backk safely.ed to resent places which made ou pay a premium for photos of yourself on a ride or other experience. Now I can see that it might stop the photographer from leaning out to get a better picture.

The safety in national parks website has lots of useful tips which are obviously sensible, after you have read them. Useful reminders.

Useful Websites

Vhttps://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/safety.htm

https://www.awesomebooks.com/book/9780970097316/over-the-edge-death-in-grand-canyon-gripping-accounts/used?

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Airlines and Turbulence - what changes could and should be made?

 After two major incidents of passengers and crew injured during turbulence, on Singapore Airlines, and another Airline, airlines, crew and passengers and thinking about improving safety.

Airlines Are Considering

1 No babies sitting on an adult's lap.

2 Crew to sit during turbulence.

3 No drinks and meals served during turbulence.

What else could be done?

Easy to do.

Time for aircraft crews to manage toilet visits by rows to prevent queues. 

More long term

Redesign planes to stow lugage under seats instead of overhead.

Useful Websites

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2024/05/precautions-to-take-when-flying.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13475407/turbulence-Airlines-tightening-rules-passengers-seatbelts-babies.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13452315/Inside-Boeing-tragedy-state-art-weather-radar-POWERLESS-stop-Singapore-Airlines-plane-flying-deadly-turbulence.html

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Stay Safe. Safety Rules For Prevention of Accidents For Organizers Of Events, Stunts And Motorway Rescuers

Every time I get on a plane there are safety annoncments. How to fix your seat belt. How to fix a life jacket. Where to find an exit. Count the rows to your exit. Where to check for more information.

When I reach a hotel, usually there is an exit guide on the back of the bedroom door. 

Often a restaurant has fir extinguishers. (You wonder why. Until your crespes suzette is set on fire in Singapore. Or your Christmas pudding in the UK.Or your meal in France.

This week I read that open plan design in schools led to gang fights, hrad to contain. 

I open my online news and read about an accident in India.

 Is there a book on safety management? 

What common sense everyday security seems obvious to me and you and some of us, but not to others? Such as: 

1 Install a safety net underneath. But what if the star of the show is descending? The net could be designed so it only pulls apart at the last moment when the cage is near the ground. 

2 Have a playground type flooring below any suspended in the air person. Not a concrete of hard floor. Or put some cushioning underneath. Or a bounce like a trampoline. But this requires more safety, and practise,  to ensure the person does not bounce up and over.

 3 Give protective clothing and helmets to anybody doing stunts.

When I go to an event, I often think the most risky part is the journey to and from the event.

Motorway Accident Prevention

Last weekend we passed what looked like a motorbike accident on the other side of a motorway between St Alband and Harrow-Watford. 

Barriers

When we reached the next roundabout, we saw that a police car was across the entrance to the road, preventing traffic from entering. Why? Firstly, to allow emergency vehicles access. Secondly, to proect the emergency responders standing in the road from being hit by passing traffic.

If you are planning a big event, or attending an event, whether at home or overseas, ask the orgnizers if they have fire exits and risk management at the venue and for any stunts. On your way in, note the fire exits and the direction you must take, the main front exit and the alternative exit. 

At a wedding or wine tasting or pub when people might be inebriated, it is extra important to be sure of a clear path to an exit  and an exit not blocksd by boxes and padlocks.

At airports we see signs to prayer rooms. Often you see signs which say, for your safety .... 

I like the saying, God helps those who help themseles

To end on a happy note, every time you attend an event and get home safety, you think nothing of it. You only notice when things go wrong. But when things don't go wrong, it's because many people in the past and distant places as well as those near you have ensured your safety.

Useful Websites

stunts

https://toolboxforteachers.s3.amazonaws.com/Core/PBL-Nuggets/Stuntman/Stunt-Safety_article.pdf

Accidents

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12987181/tech-boss-plunges-15ft-death-companys-anniversary-party.html#newcomment

https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/peter-shankman/can-we-do-that

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/25/arts/television/stunt-accidents-penalty-safety.html

Event Barriers and Bollards

https://www.hardstaffbarriers.com/product/events-industry/?utm_medium=event%20security%20advice&utm_source=googleads&utm_campaign=whitepaper

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Code words for travellers

 

What are useful code words for families. 

Anticipated Dangers

When I was in Hong Kong with my son, we had already arranged a code word for let's get out of here, or away from these people trying to sell us fakes watches and engage us in conversation or lead us down dark alleys or up staircases away from other people.

Family Member Code words

We weren't going to see my husband who was working until after 5 pm. So any comment about meeting Dad for lunch or tea, was a signal to get away. 

Other possible messages could be speaking to your grandparents (who are dead).

Pets

You can use the names of pets, or feeding pets (who are dead).

Vehicles

You can mention cars you no longer own, to indicate we must get away

Sport

Use code words from football teams or tennis games or golf or snooker if you don't play these sports.

Bargains

You can also arrange for codes when bargaining, to indicate you don't want the goods at any price, or think the price is too high, or you should accept.  Do you have any (your local currency) could mean its cheaper back home, or we already have these. 

Useful Websites

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12616047/Criminologist-simple-hack-family-safe.html

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Safety on bridges - ideas after the Venice Tragedy for Pregnant Recent Bride

 It has not been a good year for brides. One killed in the USA by a drunken driver. 

One in Iraq with more than 100 killed at her wedding. Now a pregnant woman on her honeymoon killed in Venice after marrying less than a month ago .

What can be done to prevent an accident like the last one this ever happening again? 

1 Vehicles should brake if a driver's eyes shut because he is dozy or unconscious. 

2 All bridges should have safety inspections with visible certificates, like toilets in fast food places. Then local papers could check and make a fuss about any bridge not showing up to date certification.

3 Vehicles should have sprinkler systems like buildings. 

4 Planes have co-pilots. A vehicle carrying more than 20 people should have a co-pilot. That could be a passenger who gets a reduced fare after a fifteen minute training course and rehearsal of taking over controls. 

Any more suggestions from you or elsewhere in the world? Let us know.

Useful Websites

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12594485/Venice-bus-tragedy-honeymoon-couple-21-dead.html#comments

https://me.mashable.com/culture/33111/tragic-wedding-fire-in-northern-iraq-gross-negligence-blamed-for-over-100-fatalities

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bride-killed-speeding-dui-driver-golf-cart-wedding-south-carolina-rcna82377

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Travel safety and avoiding confrontation with animals and the armed police

I remember the first time I went to the USA from the UK and saw police with guns. I did not know whether they were real guns or fancy dress. The guns were real! I was very wary of police, very polite, very careful not to do anything which might attract their attention.

 I just read in July 2023 a sad story about an event in France where a young man drove away from a police stop and was shot dead. As the British royals famously said, accounts vary.

Naturally, if somebody points a gun at you, or threatens you, your instinct is to run away. Is this the safest action? If the person with a gun is a policeman?

Only if you can be sure of getting away.

I used to be puzzled when reading of similar incidents again and again. People were chased by the police and killed. 

They were chased by animals and killed. In the USA. In the UK. All around the world. 

People run from the police and get overtaken and shot. People run from bears and get killed. People run from dogs and get attacked.

Then I read a story about bears and another about dogs which cast a new light on danger and safety.

Some dogs are attack dogs and are trained to run after somebody fleeing. Some dogs, terriers I believe, instinctively do this. Stay still and they do not attack. But turn and run and they jump. 

The same might apply to cats and mice.

I have also read about a lion on a leash, jumping at a woman who was going to pose for a photo, but she slipped on wet leaves and fell in front of the lion. The sudden movement made the animal leap at her. (This happened in Malaysia. I never pose for photos with a wild animal.)

Think about such situations. Imagine you are the person holding a weapon. Somebody who you suspect, or don't suspect, suddenly jumps, either towards you or away from you. Your instinct is to run after them and throw something at them to stop them.

Why not let them get away? You might give up, from inertia, or hope that trouble has been alerted.

On the other hand, with adrenalin and instinct, you might still be in fight mode.

Using rationality, you might say, danger averted, stop chasing and fighting. 

On the other hand, using rationality, or instinct, you might think this is just a ruse, a lull, and that it is an omen of worse to come or an ongoing fight. What if a person on foot who has burgled your house leaves the front and comes round to the back or side of the house? What if they are now in fight mode and come back tomorrow, or tonight after dark, intending to take you by surprise, to continue whatever trouble they were up to (if no trouble they would have stopped and smiled and spoken softly or politely). What if they come back, angry, bent on revenge? Or just to prove that they are better, having been the victim or lose once, they now want to be the aggressor or winner?

If it's a traffic stop and they race away, maybe they are a criminal or terrorist. Maybe they have guns or weapons in the car. Maybe they have  a bomb. A dead body. A kidnap victim. Burglary tools. False documents, lack of insurance, a stolen vehicle. Under age. Drunk driver. Subnormal. A nutter. 

An experienced person, or a trained person, knows that to calm a situation you should remain calm, listen to the other person, be polite, agreeable, helpful, co-operative.

Unfortunately, the opposite view also prevails. 

One thing echoes in my mind. Fight or flight? If you cannot fight, keep still and quiet and do not antagonize the animal or human being. Do not make sudden movements which will make them instinctively jump at you.

 At least, with extra knowledge, you have more options.

How to keep your family and group safe travelling to zoos, safari parks and theme parks

Today I read in the newspapers about two accidents. A man fell off a cliff having hiked to the summit and taken a photo. He fell and did not survive. Another story was a worrying time for zoo officials and onlookers, with a safe end. A child in Adelaide, Australia, dropped a mobile phone into a panda cage and climbed in to retrieve it - fortunately the child was fine. 

What can be done as prevention and cure? 

Prevention

1 Phone Design - Lanyards?

Redesign mobile phones and covers with matching lanyards like camera straps in the old days.  If a neck strap is too dangerous, a wrist strap, or at least a connector, like a dog lead which can be stretched and retracted.

2 Hat Design - Hoods?

School hats should have regulation fastening so you cannot lean forward and drop the hat, nor can it be blown away in the wind. A jacket with an attached hood saves loss.

2 Safety Briefing

Brief children, and adults, in groups, that if anything is dropped near an animal enclosure or fairground round you must call staff, not enter. 

3 Helplines

Put signs with a helpline number or button to summon staff for help in an emergency - and ban from the premises for the entire group or family if this is misused. If you are a guide or in charge of a group, keep the emergency number in your phone.

 4  Barriers

Build enclosures with a double barrier and or fenced dip so that anything dropped falls in the gap away from animals and anybody from outside climbing in is away from animals and machinery. A glass wall would be a good solution. 

Can't be done? Yes, it can. You can make barriers so that you cannot climb in, an others so you cannot drop anything inside. 

Glass Barriers

You have glass walls in oblong aquariums for fish. Many places have tunnel aquariums which you walk through. Snakes are displayed in glass enclosed boxes like big aquariums. 

Ditches

What about ditches? Singapore's Night Safari has invisible ditches or valleys around animals. 

As for glass cleaning, atriums in modern buildings have systems for washing the glass.

Transport

Another system is, instead of having children walk around a zoo, take them in a vehicle such as a train.

Useful Websites

News of Incidents and Accidents

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11527761/Railwayman-59-plunges-300ft-death-taking-photos-wife-Saturday-hike.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11527963/Adelaide-Zoo-panda-enclosure-Wang-Wang-Fu-Ni-locked-boy-went-phone.html#newcomment

ASIA

Chiang Mai Night Safari in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Night Safari, Singapore

Zoo Taiping in Taiping, Perak, Malaysia

AFRICA

South Luangwa National Park in Mfuwe, Zambia

Lanyards and Holders (Search words: expandable or extendable. Sort by price.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SPIRAL-KEYRING-set-Assorted-Colours/

https://www.amazon.sg/PLATA-Extendable-Leash-Walking-Goods

Jackets with attached hoods

For example

https://www.amazon.sg/Grant-Stretch-Jacket-mustard-Medium/dp/B08DD2SNFF/

US Zoo Safety Precuations

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

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Travel shirts, Tabs, pocket, anti-pickpockets, anti-insects

The jolly, practical shirt I wore day after day on my hiking holiday was from Craghoppers. In a cheerful orange. 

Although practical, also pretty, stylish. Two styles of wearing the collar, up and down. Tab shirt so you could wear sleeves above the elbow, or fully down for more elegant evening, in air conditioning. Also handy for entering a religious building with a dress code such as a mosque (as we did in Cyprus).

Washing

The item comes with two tabs to hang it up to drip dry. No need for a hanger. A hook will do. Or hang it from the hook of a hanger on which you have another item. I could wash out the collar and cuffs overnight. Even the whole thing if you take it off at 4 pm after your 5 hour hike, and wash and dry it partially in a towel. (Or you could use the room hair dryer - but I am cautious with synthetics, not wanting to turn them back into solid plastic.)

The shirt has only one pocket, which annoys me because I feel lopsided. I don't like the look. On the other hand, no constant opening the left or the right, is it here or is it there.

The fabric is anti-insect Nosiguard. You would expect it to be called mosiguard.

After three days I discovered an inner zip, a hidden pocket, which makes it 'pickpocket proof' like the items which have that brand label. 

Search Words

I did extensive searches online. At last I found dresses. but I want a long dress. i might have to combine two blouses, or two short skirts, to make a longer dress or skirt.

Useful Websites

1

Pink shirt, and other colours, with two pockets and long sleeves.

2 

About 28 US dollars, plus postage, for another style in white with two pockets and two hooks

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B15BSJ9H/ref=sspa_dk_detail_5?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B0B15BSJ9H&pd_rd_w=GP4kz&content-id=amzn1.sym.WEVMVEhIOCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbCZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

https://www.amazon.com/Protection-Convertible-Camping-Fishing-Sailing/dp/B07ZQZNVGR/ref=sr_1_20?keywords=ExOfficio%2BInsect%2BShield

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Video conferencing at home and work: tips on what to do

What  to check
1 Your equipment
2 The background you show
3 Your appearance
4 Your health
5 Safety and security

1 Equipment
Desk
Chair - adjust height so your feet reach the floor.
Screen - the bigger the better

Wireless typing
Wireless mouse

Wrist rest, to prevent repetitive strain injury RSI
(Mine is Fellowes brand. I kept dropping it on the floor and losing it under the desk because it is black. So I stuck cut off bits of white address labels on it to find it in the dark.

Items Nearby
Plants - real good for oxygen in daytime, but make sure they won't fall, and can be watered easily wihout any water reaching papers.
Plastic plants? Could look good on screen.
Food and drink - not visible, not endangering electrics.
I drink water to feel alert and because it stops me rubbing my eyes which itch when dehydrated.

2 Green screen.
We suspended a green sheet on tubing stretched across the room between two top cupboards. This created a plain but coloured background.

3 Keep a mirror and comb near the desk.
Comb and Mirror
Comb hair and put on lipstick early. You never know who will phone when to ask you to speak on screen.
Shirt and Tie
Consider a shirt and tie, or dickey (false shirt front). You can also get a tie ready neatly tied on elastic to go around you neck (used by stage performers and orchestra musicians).

4 Exercise
Organize breaks. Do exercise first thing or at lucn time or in the evening. Or do foot walking under the desk.

5 Hide valuables away from view.
Do not reveal doors and the layout beyond the room where you are speaking.
Do not talk about your valuables.
On the other hand,  whilst at home, on screen, or when alone to raise morale, you could wear any necklaces which are too valuable, or in danger of breaking (such as pearls). Or the shoes too delicate to wear all day when running around town, could be our of their boxes where they would moulder away never worn and instead on your feet unseen in your home office to make you feel good.

https://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/articles/family/working-from-home?

Author
Author, Author! About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.)
Author of twenty books including: Quick Quotations; Who Said What When.
See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts. Also watch videos on YouTube.
See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.

Online Toastmasters International Meetings
If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club,
Braddell Heights Advanced. Wednesdays, 7-9 Singapore time which is seven hours ahead of London, England.

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=braddell%20heights%20advanced%20toastmasters
I am also a member of
Singapore Online.9-12 pm, Singapore time, Fridays. I am also a member of
Tampines Changkat Advanced.
Harrovians, London.
Tiarel.
Toastmasters International Find a Club
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=upSEBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=quick+quotations
lulu.com/shop/angela-lansbury/who-said-what-when/paperback/product-21713991ape

Alligator Kills American - Can You Fix Stupid?

Photo in Wikipedia in article on Alligator. Photo attributed to Bignuts.Alliator in zoo.

Newspapers and other media reported that a woman went towards an alligator and was killed.

Several comments from the public worldwide were about the woman being stupid.

Yes, by definition half the people are under the half way mark of human intelligence. Children under ten, or under twenty, lack experience. They lack knowledge and are more vulnerable to wildlife and accidents because of the child's size.

A second vulnerable group are the elderly with dementia.

A third vulnerable group are those who are born with or develop low intelligence through accidents.

 As legislators and health inspectors and citizens we have a duty of care towards them, and the  public and emergency services who risk their lives thrying to save the endangered.

Do you seriously think that anybody of low intelligence should be killed aligators? What if it's your relative or enighbour, or granny? What if you are funding or managing the local hospital or mortuary or insurance company.

If it costs money to keep the mentally deficient or mentally fragile confined, then we think it is kinder to leave them in the community, doing simple jobs. But they are a danger to themselves - and other who try to rescue them.

Many of these events are predictable.

As people get older, a proporiton of them develp dementia.

Allowing people to drink during the working day before 6 pm (when they should only drink safely at home, without walking or driving home). Luckily the husband and wife did not go to help her or there would have been three fatalities. They threw a rope.

Should we give everybody an annual intelligence test? Questions including, should I fondle a lion or an alligator?

Instead, or in addition, should we invest more in fences around ponds and lakes and rivers and canals and clifftops?

What are the options?

Confine those of low intellience.
1 Barrier Rope  & Rescue Ropes For Humans
Install more ropes and life belts.
Bild more fences.

2 Barriers For Animals
We have fences around fields to confine sheep and bulls. Fences in farms and in Australia go on for miles.
Have bells and other items like scarecrows to keep wildlife in the water.

3 Cull wildlife.
Move wildlife out of urban areas.

4 Ban alcohol / restrict access and times.
(Like many muslim countries and the US in the Prohibiton era.)
Ban alcohol during working hours. (We used to have fewer hours when alcohol could be served in the UK.)

A moral rule used to be no alcohol and no valueble diamond jewellery worn before 6 pm - which prevented accidents and loss of valuables in working hours.)

5 Cage communities
Build gated communities with walls to keep out wildlife.

What Has Worked
In Australia they discovered that most deaths from drowning take place not in the ocean but to small children in homes with back yard swimming pools. So they brought in legislation that all back yard pools should have high fences and lockable gates.

In Rockville, Maryland, swimming pools were reured by the local council (inluenced by their insurance requirments) to have tennis court style high fences, and two lifeguards on duty during opening hours. Putting up warning signs is good. But if the young and old of low intellence, bavado, following dares, or drunk, have access to danger, ywe need to think of prevention by a second backup system.

How You And I Can Spread Safety Messages
Currently Covid-19 is causing legislation all over the world. The public and the media are supporting safety messages on Facebook posts and bogs.

At Toastmasters International we are occasionally asked in the Table Topics session (impromptu speeches), what would you do if you were king or president or could pass any law? I shall start a new notebook, or a page in my diary, listing the changes I would like to see, and plan to give this speech at the next opportunity.

Be Prepared To Speak
I might have to wait 6 months. But the moment will come. In fact, as President of Braddell Heights Advanced, currently on line at 7 pm every Wednesday, I can give the opening speech. I now have my topic.

Come along to hear it. Next Wednesday on learncool.sg contact the president of VPE if you wish to attend. You, too, have a story to use to illustrate a point if you are called upon to give an impromptu speech or comment. Plan your quick, succint comment on alligators crocodiles, covi-19 and any safety issue

Useful Websites
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8293063/I-guess-wont-words-woman-killed-alligator.html#reader-comments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_alligator_attacks_in_the_United_States

About the Author
Angela Lansbury

Author

Author, Author! About the Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, trainer and speaker. (Not related to the actress.)

Author of twenty books including: Quick Quotations; Who Said What When.

See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts. Also watch videos on YouTube.

See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.

LANGUAGE TEACHER/TRAINER

If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club,

Braddell Heights Advanced. Wednesdays, 7-9 Singapore time which is seven hours ahead of London, England.

On learncool.sg

I am also a member of

Singapore Online.9-12 pm, Singapore time, Fridays. In 2019-2020 I am also a member of

Tampines Changkat Advanced. Tiarel.

Harrovians, London. HOD London.

Toastmasters International Find a Club

https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=upSEBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=quick+quotations

lulu.com/shop/angela-lansbury/who-said-what-when/paperback/product-21713991

drink

Other posts about food, drink, restaurants and artists and museums and destinations and languages.

See later posts on pools.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Designers: please re-design car safety, restaurant seats and toilet cubicles for women travellers

A BBC news article describes how many products are not designed with women in mind. 

Car Safety
The most shocking is the lack of testing of female models for car safety.

Restaurant Seats
Bar Stools
The most annoying everyday ones include bar stools. Bar stools not designed for the short, the elderly and those wearing high heels and long skirts

But I can add a few more frequent irritations. 

Chairs
Backless chairs which don't suit those (grannies) with bad backs. 

Toilet Cubicles
Finally, when travelling, toilets so far from the entrance that by the time you have walked from the far end of the car park to the motorway mall entrance, then around the mall, then waited in line, you wonder whether you and the children are going to make it.

Inconvenient toilet cubicles.

1 Doors so near the seat that you have to climb over the seat and wipe it with your skirt to enter. 

2 Large toilet roll holders which require you to lean sideways when opening the door. 

3 Cubicles in airports and motorway stops and garages not big enough to admit you with your wheeled luggage. 

4 Lack of hooks so you have to put your handbag or tote bag on the dirty floor. Also your long coat or mac needs a hook.

Solutions
Car Safety
Write to organizations asking what safety measures include female drivers.

Bar Stools
I check the website of a restaurant and look at the chairs. If they have bar stools and chairs, I ask them for a table with low chairs or a low table or a chair with a back.
If your guests arrive first and pick a high table with bar stools, what do you do. Next time ensure you arrive early and pick the table before your fellow diners get fixed at a table, or other diners have taken the suitable chairs.

Toilet Cubicles
Look for the cubicle for the disabled. 

Useful Website https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47725946#_=_

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

Dangers Of Low Walls Which Students Sit On - And Selfies

You may have read about people who fell over parapets. Singapore's MRT stations have signs telling you not to sit on walls 'for your own safety'.

I am shocked by the number of buildings which have low walls or low sides to escalators. Low walls  may be within safety regulations, but every year you read of accidents.

At SIM (Singapore Institute of Management) I took a photo of students sitting on a wall. When I looked over the edge, I was horrified to see that there was a sheer drop the other side onto a solid concrete floor.

What could go wrong?
1 You only need one person to start a jovial slapping match, play fighting.
2 Or to dodge an insect,
3 Or lean back against somebody who is sitting on an edge,
4 Or to drop a cap or phone and reach out to try to grab and lose your balance ...
5 Suicides

Time for architects and designers to find ways of designing safer buildings.

Time for students at schools and colleges and polytechnics universities to be given a competition to design cheap but safe walls with views - and places to sit. If they had seats in the corridor against the inner wall, the students would be less likely to perch on the higher wall over the sheer drop.

Deaths from falls take place not just in Singapore but worldwide. A quick search produced reports of falls, usually fatal, in Singapore, China, Thailand, India, Europe, UK, and Central American.

DEATHS & DANGERS

EUROPE
BBC reports Balcony deaths - eleven falls in three months - Magaluf, Spain
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44473177

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/australian-couple-fall-to-death-while-taking-selfie-above-beach-in-portugal-a3861516.html

SINGAPORE
Singapore report of place where walls were 1.6m or lower
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/parents-seek-answers-after-teen-falls-to-death-from-sky-garden

17 year old dies in Singapore:
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/man-injured-after-falling-from-fourth-floor-of-orchard-central

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/teen-who-fell-death-orchard-central-wanted-video-taken-first-hand-witness

CHINA
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/2-toddlers-fall-to-their-deaths-in-china-mall-after-mother-loses-grip-near-balcony

THAILAND
https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/thai-student-falls-off-balcony-death-looking-phone-signal/

INDIA
https://www.ndtv.com/bangalore-news/18-month-old-baby-falls-from-escalator-at-bengaluru-metro-station-dies-1984346

UK
https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/03/four-dogs-a-week-fall-30-feet-off-this-low-wall-8004024/

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jan/07/commuter-dies-after-falling-from-an-escalator-at-canary-wharf-tube-station

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10892221/Two-teenage-students-die-after-falling-from-south-London-balcony-while-having-sex.html

CENTRAL AMERICA

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6273793/Pictured-Woman-filmed-falling-death-trying-selfie-27th-floor-balcony.html

USA
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20825783 ('falls are common')
https://www.foxnews.com/us/un-diplomat-falls-to-death-from-balcony-in-new-york-after-trust-game-report-says

WORLDWIDE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_selfie-related_injuries_and_deaths
https://www.ranker.com/list/what-its-like-to-fall-to-your-death

With a little more effort, we could reduce the numbers of deaths. We need a change in regulations, balcony heights, windows which cannot open wide enough to climb out, more accountability, and co-ordinated and persistent efforts to bring  about changes to architecture and actions.

REMEDIES
Some well-known accidents and suicide points:
Golden Gate Bridge, USA.

What is already being done?
1 Announcement on the Singapore MRT telling the elderly and people with young children or anybody feeling unwell to use the lifts.
2 Signs in Singapore tell people not to sit on parapets 'for your own safety'.
I suggest adding CCTV, warnings that you are on CCTV, and fines for doing so.
3 San Francisco banned opening windows in hotels after a series of suicides.
4 USA suicide bridge - friend of victim put up notice to save others
5 Prosecute anybody who pushes anybody off a bridge or encourages them to jump
6 Ban videos of dangerous activities (such as jumping from building to building) which give glory to those performing such actions and could encourage others to copy
7 Remember that stunt men and women in film do a health and safety assessment first. Even so, several cases of accidents occur.
8 Telephone lines to help services on Golden Gate Bridge, USA
9 Viktor Frankl, founder of logotherapy, reduced the student suicide rate to zero in the 1930s in Vienna, Austria

For a start:
1 Put up barriers
2 Raise walls
3 Insert warning signs like the ones at accident blackspots listing numbers of deaths
4 fine people for doing dangerous acts,
5 Provide seating away well back from lookout points.
6 Build stepped buildings to minimise external and internal drops
7 Insert glass walls alongside escalators
8 Make plant barriers
9 Ensure balconies do not have ladder type horizontal bars which children can climb
10 Ban the carrying oo unsecured babes in arms on escalators
11 Build lifts nearer escalators so mothers with babies have less far to walk to reach one Offer 24 hour service for spare keys to stop youngsters who lose keys from trying to climb up balconies.
12 Insert 'sleeping policemen' to prevent drunks trying to use surfaces beside escalator as slides.

Oddly, you are not allowed to keep a cat in a high rise building unless you have a high barrier. Yet you can live without a barrier even if have a family with babies, toddlers, teenagers, and homesick maids.

Stay safe. As the British road safety advertisement used to say:
QUOTATION: The life you save may be your own.

Safety measures:
https://www.youngparents.com.sg/family/7-ways-prevent-escalator-accidents/

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