What's the Weather, Where's My Winter Coat and What's the Time Around the World?

Winter coat from Wish for the British and Northern Hemisphere winter

 The joy of the phone and the interent is that you can isntantly connect with family and friends around the world. And aquqintances and colleagues and people in the same field and potential business contacts. You just have to be sure of the time and date and weather.

UK January Cold

For example, last weekend  I heard that a relative in the UK needed a new winter coat. She was prepnant and her old coat would no longer fit. I pointed out that you could keep the front the same, but let out the side seams, or keep the side seams the same, and move the buttons. Or leave the buttons for decoration and add ribbons to tie together the two sides. Perhaps with a strip from the hem to decorate a piece of heavy cloth to fill the middle gap, attaching one side to the underside of thebutton side. Nope. She wanted a new coat. The important point was, I now had a memory aid for the fact that it was cold in London, England. Northern hemisphere. 

The weather is even colder over in Canada. However, they are not taken by surprise but always prepared.

Canadian Cold

Similarly, in Newfoundland, Canada, in January, they were suffering from cold - not just cold, snowy weather. They mentioned snowshoes in a question in the Toastmasters International speakers' training club impromptu speaking. 

Snow Shoes

Snowshoes by Josh from article on Snowshoes in Wiki.

I asked, "What are snowshoes?" 

They fetched and held up showshoes. 

As I suspected, snowshoes were like skis, but shorter. My Newfoundland friends pointed out, 'also wider'. Snowshoes, as you might imagine, are 'designed to enable you to walk across the top of snow, without sinking in, by spreading your weight'.

What about the time and day differences? 

The Sunday evening meeting in Newfoundland was first thing on Monday morning in Singapore. So the acting President in Newfoundland and guests worldwide were greeting each other with, Thank you for joining us this snowy evening in Newfoundland, and sunny morning in singapore, or wherever you are.

In Singapore the weather was pleasantly cool with afternoon showers. Overcast and sunny alternating. Blowy.

If you want to join a club, the club in Newfoundland, Canada, is looking for new members, with a reduced price in January for new members, and the Braddell Heights club in Singapore would like new members or dual members to join a second club and a new committee member, and in Singapore Nee Soon South also welcomes completely new members.

Useful Websites

https://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wish_(platform)

wish.com (for maternity coat)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=buy+snowshoes

toastmastersinternational.org/find_a_club

About the Author

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, travel writer and photographer, 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.

What Chinese, English and American Citizens Say About Their City, Country and Customs And Themselves

Chinese Saying
When you are poor you will have no visitors even in a crowded City. When you become rich, you will be surprised by visits from alleged relatives even if you live in a remote location.

Danish
To travel is to live.
Hans Andersen, author of The Little Mermaid and other stories.

English
I have seen more than I have remembered and remembered more than I have seen.
Benjamin Disraeli, author and Prime Minister under Queen Victoria

Las Vegas, Nevada
What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas. (Meaning keep your antics and escapades a secret.)

London, England, Saying
If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.

New York, New York, USA
The city that never sleeps.

Singapore
Kiasu.
Slang word meaning getting ahead, eg overtaking and pulling in front of another car when you are the only other car on the road. Hokkien for afraid (kia) and lose (su).

Texas, USA, Saying
Go big or go home.

USA
If this is tea bring me coffee; if this is coffee, bring me tea.
Abraham Lincoln, President of the USA.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

New Bridge From England to Edinburgh in Scotland on the Firth of Forth

Problem
Which bridge goes where?

Answer
The new road bridge is the Firth of Forth road bridge. A firth is an estuary. The alliterative Firth of Forth. (The Firth, not the fifth, and the Forth, not fourth meaning four.) It is the estuary blocking the way from England to Scotland to Edinburgh on the East.

How do I remember Edinburgh is in the East of Scotland? I visualise the map. I live in England and look at the map of Britain quite often.  But if you are not familiar with the map, if you are in America or Asia, remember that the capital, Edinburgh, capital E, is in the East, capital E.

Glasgow is to the West of Edinburgh.

The Firth of Tay is the estuary of the Tay river, Dundee.

Confusingly, to the English, Aberdeen is on the Tee. Tea in Aberdeen with the Dean.

Let's go back to the new bridge. It's not a replacement bridge but an additional bridge. The old bridge had to be closed in bad weather. Like what? I suppose winds and waves too high. The new bridge will stay open all the time. The old bridge will be a supplement in good times when the roads are busy.

However, websites currently say that initially drivers will be directed to the new bridge open officially this month, initially to pedestrians, then to road traffic.

Sounds like they want everybody to get used to the idea of the new bridge.
The Old Queensferry Road Bridge
The old Queensferry Road Bridge.

Photo by KlauswithK. In Wikipedia.


The old bridge is apparently going to be temporarily converted just to pedestrians, then later opened up again to buses. Hm. I suspect plans will change.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-40972881
Tourism Websites
www.visitbritain.org


The Railway Bridge. Forth Bridge.

Photo by Andrew Shiva from Wikipedia.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I am also a teacher. I teach English and other languages. How did you guess? See my other posts on languages and destinations. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Flowers At the Moon & Sixpence Weatherspoon Pub

The flowers are out in London after a heatwave. I feel freezing cold, returning to the UK from Hong Kong and Singapore. The London temperature is now 20 degrees C, according to a handy kitchen clock which gives not only the time but all sorts of other useful information, of which the most useful is the temperature.

I went onto a temperature conversion website to find out what 20 degrees means in fahrenheit. It is 68 degrees f. I know sixty is chilly but 70 is warm. Why do I feel so cold at 20? Is it because I am tired?

The apples are dropping from the trees. The figs are not yet ripe. England's wine growers have had a great year.

However, parts of France have not been doing so well. Hail hits in the cooler areas of the cooler countries, not Italy and Portugal but Northern France. Where exactly? French areas of the Loire and Bordeaux are susceptible to hail which can arrive suddenly. Hail stones the size of golf balls can not only spoil the grapes. Hail stones can damage or destroy the support system, the roots of the vines.

So, as you sip your wine, beer, juice or water, or tea or coffee, just enjoy the picture of flowers in sunny weather outside the Wetherspoons Moon & Sixpence pub. This branch has tables at the from if you like to see and be seen, watching traffic and passers-by, or tables in the garden at the back. Several more restaurants in Hatch End and London have outdoor seating for eating and drinking.

http://www.rapidtables.com/convert/temperature/celsius-to-fahrenheit.htm
https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs

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

Why Go To Malta? Everything (but sandy beaches are on the outskirts).

Looking for a break in spring or autumn, somewhere sunny and south - I wanted somewhere I had not visited before and picked Malta - what a marvellous choice.

Geography
Where? Mediterranean islands. The three main islands are Malta, Gozo, and a little stippling stone between them with one hotel, Comino. The largest island is Malta.
Gozo is 14 km long and 7 km wide. You can see two or three sites in a half day trip going across on the ferry with or without your car.
How long? The flight is only about three hours.

Weather
Warm? A quick check on the weather showed 13 degrees C, around the fifties, much warmer than the UK and most of Western Europe. Malta is south of Sicily, north of Libya and the North coast of Africa, which makes it the ideal warm place for an off-season break; its location as a stepping stone between Africa and Europe means that traders and raiders have filled the place with culture and history. Let's start with language and place names.

Language
Language-wise Malta is ideal. Everybody in shops, museums, transport, passers-by in the street, speaks English, mostly better and easier to understand than people in London. Plus the delights of finding that many of the words and people are from other countries and you are constantly learning about other cultures, since your new smiling friend is keen to chat and tell you how they are half Maltese, half something else - one was Welsh-Romany, some lived in the UK, studied in the USA or were brought up in Australia.
Maps and signs are in two languages at least, English and Maltese. It's quite easy to read and understand the Maltese which is written in our letters with a few little squiggles. For example, mappa is map.

The local language is written in our alphabet although words sound familiar, since the origins or base are Arabic/Aramaic/Semitic/Hebrew, but they have thrown in lots of Italian from nearby Sicily, English, having gained independence from England in the older generation's lifetime, September 1964, and since Maltese is not a worldwide language many schools use English as the language base, and speak a second or third language which is either English, Italian, French, Spanish or German.

Street names are simple. Walking around the pedestrianised narrow streets in the capital Valetta, and many of the other towns, streets are mostly Trik, meaning track or street. You can see that the local religion is Roman Catholic because of the madonnas and saints on every street, many niches, street corners where tiny statues with a book in their hand beckon you as if to guide you to a parking place, whilst signs all around warn of permitted hours or parking zones.

The cities are a visual delight, every hill has a domed church, a walled fortress, a city wall, undulating streets like San Francisco, a photographer's delight, and houses of yellow sandstone, with projecting glassed balconies, where Romeo and Juliet could tryst, reminding me of photos of Yemen, water everywhere, sailboats and cruise liners, marinas, harbours.










British and Multi-cultural
You'll also find Costa coffee bars with wifi, Marks and Spencers unaccountably near orange and lemon trees and a statue of queen Victoria outside the church. Palm trees and olive trees and fir trees, and folded umbrella shape trees. If you want local Malta, many restaurants offer rabbit stew, like a chicken casserole, and Maltese sweets featuring whole and ground almonds clusters, biscuits and cakes and all kinds of nuts, figs and fruitcakes.

Bargain Breaks
Off-season bargains include hotels such as the Excelsior and Phoenicia in the centre of Valetta.

More Info
More information from the Malta tourist board (office on the arrivals side of the only airport, open late at night - I found it hidden beside another tourist office which was shut. Pick up the brochures and look for discounts on restaurants and tours and other offers on the hop on hop off buses and museums and tours.