Remember Spanish Words

How to remember Spanish, if you are learning Spanish, or teaching others.

arroyo - stream, like a little river, or rivulet, variation on rio which is river

ayuda is aid

calle is street, bigger that an alley, more like a cariiageway, combination half way between the two, calle

centro - centre

Fumar is to smoke.

No fumes. If you smoke, they will be fuming.

mill is molina in Spanish, like moulin in French

pastel is pastry, pastries, cake

 Ruido is noise. A rude noise. Ruido.

Spanish - English

Arroyo - stream

bien organizado - well arranged/organized

calle - street

centro- centre

Cerca de la estación de tren - near the railway station

un club - a club

comodo - comfortable

fumar - to smoke

el molina - the mill

pastel - cake

¿Puedo ayudarte? - can I help you?

ruido - noise

espacioso - spacious

English - Spanish

cake - pastel

centre - centro

a club - un club

comfortable - comodo

the mill - el molina

near the railway station - Cerca de la estación de tren

noise - ruido

(to) smoke - fumar

spacious - espacioso

stream - arroyo

street - calle

well arranged/organized - bien organizado

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Easy Spanish Words & Phrases

 

Spanish - English

barco - ship (like embark)

(de) beber - (to) drink (like the English words to imbibe, and beverage)

duro - hard (like durable)

fumar - to smoke (like fumes, or flames)

last - ultimo (like ultimate)

los angeles - the angels

nationalidad - nationality

posible - possible

quieres - do you want? (like the English word question)

soy - I am (shorter for my name is than the alternative)

How The Haze And Rain Affects Travellers and Ex-pats

In May 2019 I breathe in smoke as if there's a bonfire. Yet the sky is clear enough for me to see the distant hills. Is there a haze?

My friends said they were walking in the Botanical gardens in Singapore, which is free. But in the great haze a few years back we were warned not to go outdoors I recall the schools being shut down. Even if the children were safe indoors, the janitors and gate staff would be exposed to the haze. My friend William in Singapore says to British expats, "Why don't you sell your property in the UK and transfer to retirement or investment for retirement in Singapore?"

The cheaper places to buy are Malaysia and Thailand and Indonesia and remote Australia. Every time I think about it, I see articles in international magazines and newspapers such as Time magazine or even local newspapers of Asia, in the polluted cities of India, or China, or Singapore.

I don't want the stress on my body and my wallet of constant flights back to the UK, or off to Australia. Then I wake to smell smoke and think, I've got to get out of here.

As for the rain, over here in Singapore it's just a temporary problem. You just need an umbrella. And set off early to every meeting, in case you get delayed by rain. Mostly you won't. When the rain comes, it cools down the air, so that is an advantage.

Umbrellas are cheap. Just look in the nearest chain such as 7-11, Guardian or Watsons. I keep an eye out for a colour which takes my fancy or matches my outfits.

A gentleman could match a brolly to his tie. They are so cheap. Buy two in case you lose one.

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

See Rossi, Multiple Motorcycle Winner On Home Ground In Italy

Flag of Italy

Problem
How do you get a good seat when Rossi is announced in pole position (front of the racers at the start of the race)? Some enthusiasts sleep overnight in 'seats' ready for the next day, after the day when pole position is announced. They know that after the announcement that Rossi is in pole position, there will be even greater demand for the best seats.

Go online and you can watch the race, and previous races. You can see the yellow smoke from supporters celebrating. The supporters of Rossi are wearing yellow caps and yellow tee-shirts.

The red white and green of the Italian flag edges the circuit. Britain and public roads worldwide have yellow no parking lines along the edges of roads. Italy has red white and green. Like sitting inside a giant colourful cake.

My family are wearing headphones watching re-runs of races on the largest screen in the home. They race to the supermarkets in England every Wednesday to buy Motorcycle News.

Rossi has won for about ten years, from about the age of 19 to 29 and though he might be ageing a bit and past his peak and slowing down he is still highly successful and highly popular everywhere, but especially in his homeland.

My family went to Italy, to Tuscany, one year to watch. They recall, "It's a wonderful circuit, up in the mountains. A great ride up and terrific views. Unique. Nowhere else like it."

See next post on what else to see in Tuscany and neighbouring Umbria.
(See my previous posts on Umbria.)

Italian Spelling and Pronunciation
Note that in Italian a soft c (like the s sound in Venice, with a z becoming ts as in Venezia, and Ufizzi, and instead of K for hard sounds like the English word kick, a double c followed by h, as in Pinocchio and Vecchio). In English we place an e after the hard g to make a J sound, as in garage, but in Italian you double the g, as in Viareggio.

UK
Visit the national motorcycle museum.

USA and Worldwide
In the USA and worldwide many motor museums display not just cars but also motorbikes. See my previous posts on Harley and other museums.

Useful Websites
REPLAYS / TICKETS
www.motogp.com
UK
http://www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk/product-category/books/biographies-rider-profiles/valentino-rossi/
ITALY
Airlines:
www.alitalia.com
pinocchio.it Park to entertain the children, with a butterfly house and the popular puppet, Pinocchio.

Learn Italian online for free:
https://www.duolingo.com/course/it/en/Learn-Italian-Online
I have several posts about learning Italian and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Haze in Asia - how it affects daily life, business, tourism

Weather and circumstances can change overnight. It's good to have flexible plans. Last week, brilliant weather in Singapore. Now there's a haze. I'm glad I gook lots of photographs when the sun was out. A friend of mine who has a business in Singapore says she needs to stay in Singapore to look after her business. However, if the haze gets any worse, she will fly off to Australia.

Here's sunlight and blue sky and a colourful skyscraper, taken in Singapore, the way I would like to remember it.


From the tourist's point of view, it's not just a question of not getting the best photos in the haze. Even sitting indoors, you wake in the morning to the smell of smoke. Your eyes prickle. Your nose and throat fill with mucus to try to combat the incoming bad air. You keep clearing your throat.

You run around checking all the windows are shut: check the bathroom or shower room windows; the bedroom windows and sliding doors, the living room sliding doors, the kitchen windows.

What a disappointment. This window and door shutting exercise came the day after I thought one should open windows to allow in a refreshing cool breeze to combat the stickiness of a humid day.

A white grey sky is depressing. Instead of blue clouds, just white. Instead of green trees, ash grey. Distant skyscrapers seen through a mist, out of focus. Everything looks slightly dirty instead of bright. White buildings are ash grey. Only one person in the swimming pool.

Wait for what happened in previous years, reading haze reports, schools closed, sporting events closed. Outdoor events cancelled.

If you have a kitchen with grilles instead of windows, each time you go out to your washing machine or hanging rack in the scullery area you are breathing in smoke and have to keep the door shut.

Clothes hanging on washing lines smell smoky.

Businesses
Businesses are suffering. Nobody is going out shopping. Parents stay home to look after children who stay home instead of going out to play or to sports activities.

Restaurants
Fewer people are out and about. Restaurants with outdoor seating are not thriving.

Travel
Take the underground railway rather than sitting at bus stops breathing the smoky air.

Time to check flights out of Asia.

Planning Future Trips
In theory you could check each year's haze and plan to travel outside both the spring monsoon rains and floods and the hot summer heatwave and haze. However, this year late rains prevented fires in Indonesia from starting spontaneously or being started deliberately to clear the land for palm oil trees. So the haze season started later.

I am now editing photos I took in early August in good weather and brilliant sun which I took for granted.

For keen photographers, the moral is, take your photos while the sun is out. Never put off until tomorrow, a photograph you can take today.

For daily updates see:
http://www.haze.gov.sg
I have posts from previous years on the causes of the haze and its effects and prevention.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Car accidents

Planning
Before taking a long car journey here are the precautions I take:
1 Check oil and tyres. (Or get the garage to do so for you.)
2 Fill the car with petrol.
3 Check all suitcases will fill in the boot of the car (what the Americans call the  t r u n k of the car; they also refer to the bonnet as the hood).

Decide if you will have a show nothing policy. One of my friends gave me a lift from London to a writers' holiday. She insisted that we had nothing on display on the car. Not a coat or cap, not a map nor a cup. Not a bottle of water. Not a coin or a pair of sunglasses. She wanted a completely empty car so that any potential thief would look at it and think, nothing there. Not worthwhile breaking in.

If we needed anything from the boot of the car for a food and toilet stop, we did not open the car boot in the car park of the motorway station before leaving the car. We took out any food or camera or valuable and put it in our handbag or tote bag and took it with us.

After leaving the motorway station we drove a short distance before stopping to put any camera or laptop or jewellery or other valuables back in the suitcase at the back of the car in the boot.

At a motorway stop we never left the car unattended. If one of us got out to pay for petrol, or to go to the toilet, the other person stayed in the car with the doors locked. We took sandwiches and did not stop on the journey.

Accident
On my way to Wales one year my car was hit by another and propelled into the fast lane where it hit the barrier, scattered bits over the motorway and spun around and stopped. The car which hit me was stationary in the slow lane behind me.

When my car was towed away to a garage, I had to continue my journey with only what I could carry in my wheeled suitcase. All the other paraphernalia, the car blanket, maps (which were recovered later) had to be left behind.

As a result I am now much more aware that any clutter in the car could be lost or left behind on the way.

Vital Numbers
I also put not my mobile phone the emergency numbers of my car insurers (the house contents insurers if my valuables are covered by my house contents policy instead), as well as the destination address and phone number and postcode, and the phone numbers of the organisers of a conference or event.

Friends of mine have told me about their accidents and how it affected them.

Car Fire
One friend, A, smelled burning and felt heat under her feet. She pulled into the hard shoulder. The car started filling with smoke so she told the three children to get out. Her bag was by her feet with her phone in it.

Her children were not wearing shoes. One child left behind his teddy and demanded she stop to pick it up. (That was a risk!)

She called the rescue services. They would only take her to the nearest motorway station because her insurance did not cover an engine fire. (Compare policies.) She was able to phone relatives two hours away to collect the family after a long wait.

Tyre Blow-out
Other friends had an accident in which a front tyre blew out and the car veered across the motorway lanes and hit another car in the opposite direction two other cars were write-offs as well as their own. Fortunately when he was breathalysed the driver had not had anything to drink. Also the car tyres had recently been changed.

In addition, when the police came to their house later and interviewed the husband and wife separately, she was able to say when he had had his eyes tested recently, (because she was careful to keep records because of glaucoma in her husband's family).

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

How to look co-ordinated when travelling

Less is more. Fewer colours, more co-ordinated, less time matching. That's why traditionally people where white in summer (when you can wash white clothes and dry them on the line).

Black was worn in winter (hiding the soot and smoke from indoors and outside in Victorian times). Nowadays the rule for safety on our busy traffic filled roads is Wear White At Night.

A recent newspaper article claimed that Kate, royal Kate, looked frumpy. I beg to differ.

Only half a dozen pictures slightly less gorgeous than the normal stunning clothes. Any set of photos of anybody will show some good and some bad. 

What is wrong in the ones shown? In one her bust is too low, so she needs to hitch up the era straps. Alternatively wear a different style. 

In another photo her toes point inwards. This stance which always looks daft in photos, like a five year old with problems standing upright. 

In a third photo she has nothing to add interest at the neckline. To draw attention to her face, she needs a necklace, collar or scarf. 

As for match-match, yes, her clothes match. Quite right, too. This is what you do when you can afford to buy everything made to measure and co-ordinated. 

Too many people haven't the money or time to match. Look in any high street or train and you see people wearing un-co-ordinated fabrics, different styles, an assortment of colours, or drab colours, nothing focusing on the face or any good point, complete lack of co-ordination and planning, worst of all, mixed patterns, flowers, polka dots and stripes, as if they dropped a set of colour swatches on the floor and picked them up in random order. 

I concede the if you wear a uniform of only one colour, not co-ordinated with either skin colour, hair colour, eye colour or accessories, that creates a drab effect. To lighten it you need a contrasting colour for accessories.

Ideally use a third colour which makes it all lively. Add a motif or pattern at three points or more, such as a rose or symbol. Place the accent on the hat, waist and shoes; or necklace, bracelet and ear rings and ring; or bag, belt and shoes.

Here's the comment and the original article which inspired my reply:

hand picked by the queen to be an oven for the heir. I'm sure the queen is the one in charge of what she wears.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3530869/Duchess-Drab-s-mystery-cosmos-DOES-beautiful-woman-make-designer-outfits-look-frumpy.html#ixzz45ItRx2C2
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook