What time is it around the world? How to find out and remember

 

What time is it in another part of the world? When can you phone them or hold a meeting?

If you are making calls to your family overseas and just need one time zone, you have several options.

The Phone Alarm

You could arrange to phone your family every week at the same time. Set your phone alarm to alert yourself. Ask your family to set their alarms.

A Second Watch

You could set a watch to the other time zone. Either wear it, or place it on your desk in a tray labelled with the country, or hang it from a hook on the pinboard. You might be able to use the strap, or attache a thread or elastic band through part of the strap. If the watch hangs upside down, use a second hole in the strap or another point to attach a second thread.

A second clock

A cheap clock or an old clock can be placed on your wall or over a bookend on the desk. Again, label it with the country.

GMT

If you are doing a poster, add a standard time zone. For example Greenwich Mean Time GMT + or GMT-.

Note that another country may be on a different day.  A meeting evening in Canada, Newfoundland, on Sunday, was first thing in the morning, Monday morning, in Singapore. 

Note the daylight savings times.

In the USA on March 12 the clocks changed to Daylight Savings Time, DST.

If you are arranging or publicising a meeting, include as many time zones as you can. 

Useful Websites (alphabetically)

Just delete Singapore before searching, or change Singapore your home destination once in a conversion website

https://greenwichmeantime.com/time/to/gmt-singapore/

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converted.html

https://www.worldtimeserver.com/convert_time_in_

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a British author who has lived in the USA.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

Angela Lansbury, author and speaker. Member of many toastmasters  speaker training clubs and speaking contest judge.

Angela Lansbury, the author of 20 books including Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations, has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. 

She  has several blogs and writes daily on at least two of the following:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Please share links to your favourite posts.

More photos and text today 

Alarm systems for the frail elderly

You can get alarms for the elderly, those living alone, anybody.

Some are like a keychain. Another kind is a watch, so you cannot put it down or be without it.

Quite, handy, so that even if you tumbled into a ditch out of sight, you could be heard by somebody passing by?

Some systems charge you a monthly fee. Why is this? Depending on the system, it could be because the organizers are employing staff at a call centre to monitor the emergency calls and ensure somebody such as a relative or carer is sent to rescue you.

Some local authorities issue alarms to elderly or frail poeple living on their own and prone to falls or fainting. People who have low incomes or are on behefits might qualify for a reduced price or free device from the local authority.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=personal+alarm&index=aps&tag=googhydr-21&ref=pd_sl_5ozrq4q5tw_e&adgrpid=55794723320&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=259083185977&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12692263582347056461&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045970&hvtargid=kwd-11297411

https://safepersonalalarm.com/safety/girl-uk.php?affId=CB771A3E&c1=uk&c2=comp_45-65unk_all_trag&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInMLizfKt3AIVKqJRCh1Ttwf7EAEYASAAEgLRKfD_BwE

How To Remember Portuguese Colours Easily

Problem
How do I remember the colours? Rosa is pink, not red. Preto is black, no relation to any other word.

Answers
Portuguese - English
amarelo - yellow - both end with the sound 'ello'; both have e and letter l and o in the spelling but not that the Portuguese has only one l
descolore - (she) bleaches (discolours, de-colours)
col - colour (like an abbreviation of colour, just the first three letters)
colorido - colourful (coloured)
cores - colours
morena - brunette (a for the female gender)
moreno - dark hair (on a man o for the male gender)
preto - black (pull the p upright, day to night, p to B, t is an upright letter like t, last letter o as in negro - tinto negro, the red grape of Madeira, name of grape, black or red grape for red wine)
rosa - pink (think of rosy cheeks)
roxa - purple (red and extra blue makes purple)

English - Portuguese
bleaches - descolore
brunette - morena
colour - col
colourful - colorido (coloured)
pink - rosa
purple - roxa (red and extra blue makes purple)
yellow - amarelo
white - branco (like white branches, blanc)

Portuguese - English nouns
relogio - watch or clock (think of a Rolex)
roupas - clothes (robes, what you keep in wardrobes)
sandálias - sandals (accent going up and forward on the second a in Portuguese; add an i to sandals in Portuguese - the Portuguese are eyeing your sandals)
vestido - dress (not just a vest but a complete outfit, like a priest's vestments); vest like vest but more than a vest, d as in dress

English - Portuguese nouns
clothes - roupas
dress - vestido
sandals - sandálias
watch - relogio

An Italian 'FALSE FRIEND' OR CONFUSING WORD

The word G u a r D a r e  in Italian means to watch (not to Guard). It is like the English word regard. In the old days instead of guards and bodyguards a city or castle. Would have a watchman or night watch, like the Rembrandt painting.

Watch out for pickpockets and thieves when taking photos

A photo has been published in the Daily Mail online and several other places showing a lady posing with two girls in national costume. It is alleged that one of the girls with her hands on a watch was attempting to steal it. The watch was later missing.

Read the story and form your own opinion. Whether or not a theft was in process, it is a reminder to travel with inexpensive items and cover them up in public places.

Readers made many different comments. For example:

1 Travel with inexpensive jewellery and watches. I sometimes buy two of a cheap item, either same colour or different colour. If one is stolen or lost, I have a replacement at home.

2 Take insurance.

3 Do not pose for photos with children because
a) You might be accused of exploiting them
b) They should be in school, not out being photographed
c) They will demand money
d) They are orphans or kidnapped for the express purpose of getting money from tourists and you are encouraging the kidnappers
e) They offer to photograph you and then run off with your camera
f) While you are distracted they steal from your bag or pocket or remove your watch
g) A common technique is to press against various parts of your body with two hand of each person so you are not noticing the hand doing the theft
h) Your eyes are on the photographer not on the people standing alongside you
i) They could steal from the person being photographed, the photographer, or both

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1853867/two-tiny-thai-thieves-in-traditional-dress-steal-from-a-female-tourist-but-would-you-have-seen-what-theyre-up-to/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3807242/Adorable-thieves-traditional-dress-photographed-moment-stole-woman-s-watch-wrist-outside-temple-Thailand.html

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

Fitbit Watches and Getting Fit For Holidays and Keep Fit Holidays

Women everywhere are wearing outsize watches. Watches bigger than iPhones. I'd heard that the iPhone can check your health. But the iPhone starts at about £300 from an Apple shop. However, you can buy fitness watches from about £20 on eBay, and waterproof models on eBay and Amazon for about £120.

What are the features you could be looking for? Firstly, the pedometer. Pedometers have always existed but now they are attached to watches, and colourful and stylish watches.

How many steps have you taken? How many calories are you burning? Have you reached your daily target?

Then your heart rate.  How much does it increase when you are running? Or stressed? You can't lie to your fitness watch!

How many calories are you burning?  How many steps do you need, or how long do you need to walk, to work off a chocolate bar or dessert?

Some watches tell you if you have had enough sleep. They record how much you tossed and turned and tell you if you had good quality sleep.

Two friends on writers Holiday told me how they used their watches. One was a fit freak who wanted to measure her running. The other was overweight and wanted to keep to her diet and exercise sufficiently to get fitter and, more importantly, to her, thinner.

A watch can also measure how far you have swum. I always want a waterproof watch. I splash it when washing my hands or doing the washing up. I forget to remove it when having a shower or bath or swim. I don't want to leave my watch behind when rushing out for the day. When travelling I don't want to leave it behind in a hotel or leave it lying around in any public place such as a beach or swimming pool.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. 

The Butterfly Count in Britain - learn the butterflies, use the ap

I am on the mailing list of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and they emailed me about the Butterfly Count. I had previously done the bird count which takes place over a weekend in February. That required you to sit watching and counting birds. I did it from behind a window looking out onto a garden in London. You could also do it in a public park. I have done it two or three years running. I like downloading or being posted a paper printed out of the birds to identify in colour.

The butterfly count is far less exacting, taking only 15 minutes of your time. It doesn't have to be over the two days of the weekend. You can do it on one of several days. You can download the pictures of the butterflies.

The first time I tried to print it off, I forgot to change from grayscale printing.

The butterflies listed are:
Large White
Small White
Green-veined White
Brimstone (yellow)
Marbled White

Large Skipper
Gatekeeper
Meadow Brown
Ringlet
Speckled Wood

Comma
Painted Lady
Small Tortoiseshell
Red Admiral
Peacock

Common Blue
Holly Blue
Small Copper
Silver Y Moth
Six Spot Burnet Moth

More details from their website. You can also get the ap for a mobile phone.

When you have noted the numbers in the white box you submit your sightings to
www.bigbutterflycount.org

If you are not in Britain on the right dates, you could also try it out another time or another country for your own entertainment of your children's education. Events are being organised around the country, and you can download the recipe and visuals for making butterfly cakes.

Butterfly cakes
The butterfly cakes are cute, clever, and easy. You make up a cake mixture, pop it into circular moulds and cook it in muffin tins or fairy cake moulds. After the cake has cooked and been allowed to cool so it sets, you cut it. Cut off the top in a disc and divide in half into two semi-circles. Scoop out a hollow in the top of each small cake and fill it with buttercream of something to anchor your butterfly wings. Set up the two half circles with the outside upwards to look like the wings of a butterfly.

Once you have got the idea, you will probably have lots more creative thoughts.

The counting dates are 15 July to the 7th of August 2016

http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/content/images/CountTogetherPage/fairycakes.pdf

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

How to Hide In A Photo - face and hands or smile when appropriate

You might not want to be in a photo when travelling. For security. Whatever.

In Public Places
You can hold your own phone or camera in front of your face. You can wear sunglasses, dark glasses or a brimmed hat. This may save you from being caught on camera.

However, it also draws attention. Masks and dark glasses are seen as anti-social. They make other people nervous.

Televised events
At televised events the camera could turn towards you at any time. If you attend a concert, or even stand at a station looking up at the notice board when trains are delayed or on strike.

Stations
I was photographed on a TV camera years ago, Kings Cross station in London, on my way to Edinburgh. No, I wasn't going to the Edinburgh festival. I was meeting my family, my husband and then small son. We were on our way to Scotland, having won a trip at the world travel market. My late mother was sitting at home watching and saw face pop up on TV. I had no idea I was being photographed.

Not only that, but I was on TV again, the following week. The TV showed the same clip again, when reporting on the start or end of the problem.

So what can you do, more discreetly?

Audience
If you are at a concert you may see cameras in the concert hall. You think they are looking at the stage. But at dull moments, in the Interval, they may scan the audience.

You can also appear on still shots. Please be kind to the performers and the photographer. How often a lovely shot of the audience is ruined by the screaming children, even somebody standing in the aisle with their back to the performer. Maybe they are walking off to the toilet. Who knows. It just looks like they are not interested.

Now wonder people say, 'Don't photograph me.' They are seen in such dreadful poses.

As a photographer, I can tell you it's very annoying when you want to show the audience watching keenly as your club or VIP speaker is on stage, or your family or the official photographer scans, and the people in the front row, or down the aisles, or hiding at the back, or now listening attentively to your carefully crafted and rehearsed party piece.

Not, they are chatting to friends, ignoring the speaker. Tweaking ears, rubbing noses, yawning showing fillings in their teeth. How to hide without causing offence? Simple. Look down at your shoes.

If you are in a meeting, and a speaker is on stage, do not look at your watch. Do not frown, glare or look bored. It is a courtesy to sit upright and look alert.

The Japanese expect pupils in school to sit up and not slouch. To look bored is disrespectful to the teacher. The same would apply to members of the audience listening to the boss or a VIP speaker.

So, you know that the photographers are keen to take a picture of you. They want you to look good.

Sometimes they have politely beckoned you to be in the picture. You think you should not be in the bride's family group at the hotel. You may be right.

Posing For Pictures and Hiding
On the other hand, they may want you to be in the picture. This happened to me three times.
I was walking around a building associated with Sun Yat Sen in China and a young Chinese man was photographing his pretty girlfriend. I subtly, I thought, took a picture of them. They then posed a little ahead in my path. Just as I approached them, I realised they were photographing so I ducked out of the way. They got just a bit of me in the picture.

The photographer seemed disappointed that he hadn't got the perfect picture he wanted.  I indicated sorry. He indicated never mind. This cat and mouse game continued at several more spots around the building.

Finally we got to the exit and I asked if they would kindly pose for me. They were delighted to do so. They then asked if I would pose on my own and with them. It then transpired that they had been trying to photograph me all along!

Concerts and Theatres
But you have a reason for not being in the picture. If it's in the interval and you are not expected to watch somebody on stage, only at the camera, you can look away and the only loss is yours because you are not in the photo. Better still look down at a newspaper.

Group Photos
Stand in the back row, behind the tallest person in the row. Look down.

Go to the buffet table and stand with your back to the group.

If you are in a group of people seated, standing and moving spoils the photos and draws attention to yourself at the event and in the photo. Instead consider this:
1 Shield your eyes with your hand.
2 Hold up the programme or agenda of the event as if you are concentrating on reading. This shows no disrespect to the event but effectively hides you from view.

If you want to be in a photo but not have it published until later, you could ask the photographer. They may be quite happy to oblige.

What about hiding someone else? Just use a star. Edit on your phone.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Changing the time on your watch - who to ask, how to remember

When travelling to a new time zone you need to change the time on your watch either on the plane before landing or as soon as you arrive. Nothing more annoying than being woken in the night by an alarm set for back home.

You also need to co-ordinate meetings on arrival. Yes, you can use the phone on your watch or kitchen clock at the destination if it re-sets itself to local time. But if not that message to see you in two hours time, leaves you puzzled when your watch said one time and the local clocks say another, so now you are so confused you can't remember the time you spoke.

Some people set the new time by the destination time on the screen in the aeroplane immediately on boarding. You can adjust your bedtime in the previous week by an hour a day (with afternoon naps lying down or catnaps sitting at your desk with your eyes closed. That could help re-set your body clock.

CHANGING YOUR WATCH
The next problem  to solve is re-setting your watch. It has four buttons to push. On my last trip I thought, surely any intelligent traveller sitting beside me or nearby will know what to do.

They didn't. I said, 'surely all watches are similar. Only four buttons.'

(I'd previously successfully changed a watch using the instructions I found on my kitchen-office pinboard at home. I had succeeded, even though the instructions were for a different watch.)

My tame statistician told me, 'No. You have four buttons, sixteen combinations, and three ways of pressing each button, once, twice or three times.

Fortunately my tame scientist found the answer on the internet from instructions for a similar watch.

The way to remember how your watch works is:

Ask the shop to change it when you buy it. Video the instructions from the shop assistant. Do it yourself to enforce the message. Try it a second time. Then explain it to two other people. Make a video of yourself explaining it.

Change it to your destination time and back every morning for a week until it's a habit and something you can do fast. Find a willing audience. Child, blog. That will be a subject for my later post. How to change the time on your watch.

if you can find the manufacture and model, bookmark that on line. You could also write the instructions in your diary for the first and last day of each trip if you keep a journal. Start a Facebook page for your device. Ask for or give instructions.

Keep a file of travel information for your destination, including the instructions for changing your watch time.

Angela Lansbury, BA, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker.
Author of How To Get Out Of The Mess You're In.