Travelling with pills - Temperature and Loss

 1 How do you remember to take them with you on a day trip, or pack them on a longer trip?

2 How do you keep them at the right temperature when travelling?

3 How do you keep them at the right temperature at the hotel or conference or relative's home when travelling?

4 How do you buy pills in small quantities when you stay longer and run out?

1 Add a note to your packing list. Write a note on your breakfast table. Put on a note on your suitcase or handbag. Pack spare pills in the suitcase in advance. Pack an empty pack and the written prescription to show a foreighn pharmacy, to explain the pills if stopped at customs.

2 A pocket in your blouse or shirt or inside jacket pocket may be too hot alongiisde your body. Likewise a belt bag. Keep in the original container, or inside a small plastic box in a tote bag. Are you sure it is safe inside the lid of a suitcase? If the suitcase is inside a car in a gated compound in cold winter weather, but remember to take a pill out each day.

Campanile bedroom in Montpellier, France, in January 2024, had a fridge, but not at a low temperature for leftovers take away from a restaurant, food broguht from London, and my vital pills. The temperature was was colder, around the magic 5 degrees, in our car boot.

Our large room in the hotel was chilly for us, but okay for my pills. 

3 Check if the hotel room has a fridge, write in advance, or ask on checkin. At a Campanile hotel in Montpellier, France, the bedroom fridge was not cold. When I queried it, they said it was simply to chill drinks slightly, not fridge temperature (which is supposed to be plus 5 for food which might go off, such as milk. I was told that I could leave pills in the fridge in the bar at reception. I was afraid I would forget and leave them behind. The bathroom was cold and I thought the pills would not be overheated there. 

To save space and weight and bulk in my bag and pocket, I sometimes take out the pills when travelling. 

Pill Instructions

However the silver wrapper is designed to keep pills protected from heat and light. Often the instructions or box tell you to keep the pills in their original foil. Somewhere in the leaflet or box or both will be the required storage temperature temperature. 

How To Check Temperature

You might then check the temperature inside the car or outside the car in your car on the dashboard.

Bedroom Temperature

You can check the temperature in your bedroom on the heating or air con thermostat.  If it is switched off by staff, who open windows, this might affect medicine or food if you leave it behind in your room. 

Weather

If you take your medicine with you, you might want to check the temperature for the day in the newspaper or online. 

Restaurants

If you are offered a choice of indoors or outdoors at a restaurant, what is the temperature? 

Carrying and taking pills

Pill boxes. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Useful Websites

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Personal-Pill-Organizers/b

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Tripping over cuffs on trousers (pants to Americans) worn with flat shoes - what to do?

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

 I am about to go out. My trouser legs are too long. Around the house on carpet I didn't notice. But with different lower sandals, the trouser legs are too long. What can I do?

1 Stuff the leg inside boots.

2 Cut off the hems in a hurry, using pinking shears.

4 Pin them inside with safety pins.

5 Thread elastic through the cuff/wide hem. 

6 Change into another outfit.

7 Fold the cuff up higher.

8 Buy hemming tape, what the British call iron-on tape, and the Americans fusible tape. 

9 Sew the folded hems up inside the trouser legs (pants' legs).

10 Sew the folded hem up outside, with fold hidden.\

11 Sew a decorative fold down pleat above the cuff, the same width as the cuff and equal distance.

12 take the opportunity to create a diagonal cut, at least an inch or to the top of the heel at the back or to the ankle of the shoe at the back, raising up the ankle in front to display the shoes and socks.

13 Slit the hem at the front or sides or back and sew on ribbons, or double buttons like a shirt cuff, or snaps (Americanism) also called press studs (UK words).

-ends-

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Yiddish Words - German with a bit of Hebrew

 Yiddish is mainly German vocabulary. A few words of Hebrew. Written in Hebrew.

Carried around the world. Dropped into the local language in New York, London, and worldwide.

Yiddish - English

ganif - thief

machataynim - in-laws

mishpocha - family

oy veh - oh dear/goodness gracious/well, I never

kaput - broken, not working

l'chaim - to life (used repeatedly in song in Fiddler on the roof)

shlemiel - idiot?

shnorrer - beggar, person looking for a freebie, hustler?

shobbas - sabbath, Saturday, shabbat(Hebrew)

shpiel - game

tuchus - bottom, behind, fanny

yomtov - religious festival day, holiday (Hebrew day-good)

English - Yiddish

god willing

good health

cheers/(literally to life) - la-chaim

oh dear - oy veh

Please God by you

I wish you well to wear it 

On Amazon books, and in big bookshops, you will find several amusing books on Amazon the Uk version ending co.uk and the US version.com,, as well as straightforward dictionaries, and phrase books, and teach yourself books.

Duolingo has Yiddish.

Useful Resources - Books

Oy Vey

The Joys of Yiddish

-ends-

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Maimonides - revered by both Jews and speakers of Arabic

 Maimonides was Jeiwsh but wrote in Arabic. A Guide for the Perplexed.

Maimonides was Jewish but wrote in Arabic. So he is revered by both Jews and Arabs.

His supposed birthplace is in ...

A statue to him is in Cordoba, Spain.

His tomb is in Tiberius, Israel.

(Post being expanded.)

Useful Websites

Wikipedia Maimonides

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

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maimonides#:~:text=It%20is%20better%20and%20more,single%20innocent%20one%20to%20death.

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On Confident Calling Overseas and Authorities On The Phone - memories and thoughts for a speech

My old mobile phone. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
 

i recall the stress of visitng a police station in Prague where nobody spoke English and we had to return the next day when an English speaking Czech person would be present. Speaking to authority, whether in your own language or another, can be stressful. When you are dealing with the emergency sevices, there is another layer of stress. You do not want to distract them and waste their time. They are often stressed by stressed customers. Signs in passport control on arrival in the UK, In UK hospitals and railway stations in the UK, warn you not to be aggressive to staff, who obviously have to deal with stressed customers, which means the staff themselves could be stressed from their customer's anxiety or agression. 

However, the phone is your friend. You have friends on the phone. You can make friends with strangers on the phone. Don't be afraid to phone. You can clea up a problem. Thank your helper. They will feel rewarded and greet the next customer happily. 

So long as you are calling in daytime in their zone!  I once rang from London to California in the USA, to tell a lady who had sent a Christmas card to my late uncle, that he had died. My mind was on what to say to her, not the time zone.

 I vividly recall her saying, "I'm very sorry to hear about your uncle. Sorry to not be more responsive when I answered the phone. It's 4 a.m. here."

I gasped, "Oh - I'm so sorry. Shall I call you back, later?"

"No,." she replied. "I can talk now. Please tell me about your uncle now. I'm widee awake now!"

Calling To Correct A Hosptial's Mistake In Paperwork - The Problem

Recently, I returned from Northwick Park hospital after an x-ray with a paper which had a mistake. I needed to correct it. 

The number I needed to call was the Accident and Emergency Department. I hesitated to phone. I worried. Did I dare to call them? My correction to my discharge paperwork was not an emergency. Not for me, nor anybody else.

The Solution

I thought, I would say quickly, 'I'm just asking the correct number to call to correct this mistake.' 

However, when I rang, the man at the other end said, "This is the right number." He happily changed it. He said they would post me a copy of the corrected version.

Problem solved. My stress over.

I thought afterwards of two other occasions when I had worried unnecessarily about making phone calls.

1 I called to check the editor's name. I rang her number. I rhearsed all kinds of apologies. When I phoned I got a secretary. No problem 

2 Then I phoned another editor. I assumed I had reached a secretary. I asked if she was sue of the name spelling She said yes. 

I asked, how can you be sure. 

She siad, 'It's my name.' 

I was through to the editor.

The moral for you is sinple. Don't invent problems for minor issues.

My husband says, it's not a problem, It's a task.

How to type Hebrew and other foreign languages in Duolingo when you have only an English keyboard

 How do you fill in the blanks in Duolingo when it tells you to type in Hebrew, or another language you are learning, and you don't have that keyboard. 

First, try to copy the word.  I used to try this without success. When you move your mouse down away from the English to over the Hebrew pop up the pop up vanishes. The trick is to move the mouse slowly.  Then you can past the word, the next time you are asked to do that exercise again.paste the word, 

Sometimes you copy one word, but the next question asks you for two, such as red dress, when you have copied only the word red. The solution for this is to click on make easier. That asks you for one word instead of two making up the sentence. 

Useful Websites

https://www.wikihow.com/Install-Hebrew-Keyboard-on-Windows

https://support.google.com/gboard/answer/7068494?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid

https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-write-Hebrew-alphabet-in-Duolingo#:~:text=Duolingo%20does%20not%20offer%20a,copy%20and%20paste%20your%20text.

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Hospital Visitors, Tips For Northwick Park Hospital

 

1 Know which department to visit. 

I was sent a letter to go for a blood test at Northwick Park hospital. When I arrived there were separate car parks and entrances miles apart for differnt departments. If I parked in the wrong place, I would have to take a long walk and pay twice  and be late for my appointment. There was no answering service at car park entrances to get advice. I had no idea where to go. I didn't know that the department I needed was haematology. 

I went to see my uncle's body in the morgue in Barnet hospital. No such building. They don't label it as such inhospitals because it unnerves the patients and visitors. Instead it has a mystery name to disguise it such as the trees or the John Smith building. 

Check the drop off points. The A & E may be for ambulances over, no access for cars and taxis. 

2 Take with you food and water and a change of clothing. 

You could be sitting hours waiting for your name to be called.. 

3 Know which name you are registered under. 

You may use your middle name, but be known by your first name to the hospital. If you are waiting to be called as John or Mary when your first name is Ali or Mae you might miss the call.

4 Check all facts on the hospital typework. 

I was listed as having an accident in a bedroom when I fell over an uneven paving stone in the street. It makes a big difference if you are suing somebody. I was able to phone and correct it. The person who answered said they would post the new version to me.

5 Shop around

if you have to wait, such as for medicine to be dispensed, while waiting you can go shopping, and shop around for the cheapest sandwiches or meal deals. At Northwick Park hospital on the fourth floor you find a Costa, a shop selling cards and scarves, gloves and gifts, a bag shop,a Marks & Speners, A Smiths bookshop.

6 In A and E by the check in area are masks, jugs of water, toilets, each with washbasins in the cubicle, a machine selling chocolate bars and snacks and drinks.

Also free newspapers.

Newspapers. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Useful Websites

https://nhsgp-online.uk/area/

https://www.nhs.uk/services/hospital/northwick-park-hospital/R1K01

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