Venice, The Sinking City!!!

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Hello there!






For this week issue, I have to share about any topic related to tourism and transport. Accidentally, Puan Fatimah, our coordinator and also my english lecturer..asked us to do an essay about the main cities that we like to go for a vacation..so, as I did my research and thinking about the main city that I want to go..eventually, I choose Venice, the sinking city in Italy!!!






First of all, I would like to share what is Venice is all about...Venice, or Venezia as it is known in Italian, is an architectural delight, an entire city built on an artificial island in the middle of a lagoon. With palaces, churches and ordinary houses which have not changed since the 16th century, Venice wallows in the past, remembering a time when it was the richest city in the world, bearing the title 'The Most Serene Republic of Venice'.







Nowadays, much of the city is falling down, which enhances the charm or detracts from it, depending on your point of view. Many people hate the place, finding it dirty, smelly and crowded with tourists. But for others, it is the ultimate destination. Everybody knows the clichés about Venice, with canals and gondolas. You will be surprised to find that it really is like that, only more so.






Things to Do in Venice


  • Go for a Gondola ride. It's clichéd and touristy, but you won't forget it. Gondolas are expensive so pool resources and go as a group.

  • If you just have to go on a gondola but can't afford the price, there is a cheap alternative - there are public gondolas known as traghetti (ferries) that cross the Grand Canal at certain points between the bridges.

  • Eat a pizza. The Italians still make the best pizzas in the world. There's an excellent and extremely cheap shop that sells wonderful pizza by the slice; it's on the Calle Mondo Nuovo, just off the Campo di Santa Maria Formosa. That's north of the Piazza San Marco - you won't find it without a map, but it's well worth it!

  • Drink an espresso early in the morning, standing up at a bar. It's half price if you don't occupy a seat. For many Italians, this is breakfast.

  • Buy a painting from one of the many street artists. These are everywhere, but particularly at the Molo beside St Mark's Square. There's everything from views of the city to portraits of you or your loved ones, done on the spot.

  • Take a ride on a vaporetto (water bus) along the whole length of the Grand Canal.

Shopping in Venice



Souvenir Shopping
Central Venice is well supplied with souvenir shops, particularly on and around the Rialto Bridge. They tend to specialise in Murano glass ornaments and ashtrays, and carnival masks - and very nice they are too. If you're concerned about buying a genuine souvenir, always ask 'E fatto a Venezia?' if it doesn't have a 'Made In Venice' sticker on it - Murano-style glass made in Asia is quite common these days. It's also probably fair to say you'll get a better deal the further away from Rialto you are. The best deals for Murano glass, naturally, can be found on Murano itself direct from the manufacturers - where you can often see it being made.



Food Shopping
For the traveller on a budget, there's a small supermarket (a midget by usual standards, but far and away the largest in Venice) called Billa - it's the cheapest place to buy picnic food if you're looking to save a few euros. It's about halfway along the Strada Nova, by one of the many bridges. Another small supermarket is in the Dorsoduro area, just off Campo Santa Margherita, at the corner of Rio Tera Canal. There's a similarly-sized Co-op supermarket on Murano - which features a jumbo-sized lift to take you and your trolley up to the first floor. There are also some stalls in the middle of the Strada Nova selling fruit and veg - usually fresh and cheap, the produce is often grown on the nearby island of Sant'Erasmo.




Shopping in General
A few of the multinational chains (such as Benetton and Foot Locker, for example) have branches in Venice, but if you fancy some more normal shopping Italian-style, you're generally better off taking a train to the mainland and going round the shopping district in Mestre, where you'll find everything you need in the area north of the train station. The one exception worth going out of your way to find in Venice is the department store Coin5 on the corner of the Campo San Luca, north-west of San Marco. It's something like an upmarket equivalent of Marks & Spencer, and specialises in Italian clothes, housewares and the like.

In conclusion, I hope one day..I can have the chance to go to Venice one day, the city was so nice, unique and romantic place! Don't you think so???


Growing Fruit And Vegetables..

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Growing Plants in Pots.




Growing flowers is wonderfully fulfilling. Growing fruit and vegetables is wonderfully filling. To pick and eat your own crops is a great thrill. You know they have been well grown; you know they are fresh and you know that, just like your own baby, they are the best in the world!




Here you can discover just how to cultivate your own fruit and vegetables – and you don’t need a big garden to do so. Edible crops can be squeezed into the tiniest of plots.You’ll be surprised at how good some of them look – it’s a shame to pick them really!




So, first and foremost..we have to choose the correct pots. We have to choose containers that are large enough for the eventual size of your plant. A good rule of thumb is choose pots between 20-45cm (8-17in) in diameter. Many compact herbs are ideal in smaller containers, while vigorous plants such as mint will need a bigger pot to spread. Root vegetables need deep pots with plenty of compost and big pots are needed to support top-heavy plants such as tomatoes. Plastic pots are cheap to buy, while glazed or plain terracotta look attractive. However, these absorb water which makes compost dry out more quickly. Remedy this by lining the inside of the pot with polythene, pierced at the base for drainage.




After choosing the pots, we have to decide what plants that we have to grow..

There's a massive choice of crops that can be grown in pots from strawberries to leafy salads. It's best to try compact plants such as sweet peppers, chilli peppers, aubergine and tumbling varieties of tomatoes, rather than tall growing vegetables such as Brussels sprouts that demand lots of water and can be blown down easily. Among the best for pots are courgettes, beetroot, carrots and potatoes, and fruit such as peaches, apricots, nectarines and figs. With lettuces go for varieties that you pick a few leaves at a time rather than the whole head at once. Herbs can be planted on their own or try growing ten different varieties in a strawberry planter. Most plants are ideal in multipurpose compost, but some have special needs, for instance thyme prefers well-drained soil and blueberries need acidic ericaceous compost.


For the greatest choice of plants grow from seed, but if you are don't mind too much about the variety, buy ready grown plants from garden centres or mail-order suppliers.

How To Plant???
Mix a handful of water-retaining crystals into your compost and fill your chosen pot to 2cm (1in) below the top. Gently tap to settle the compost and firm down with your fingertips to leave a level surface. Scoop out compost in the centre of the pot to leave a hole slightly bigger than the rootball of your plant. Remove its pot and place in hole. Replace compost around the plant and firm, making sure the surface of the plant is level with the top of the compost. If growing from seed, either raise in small pots before planting or depending on variety, scatter across the surface of the compost or sow in rows.
After that, what we have to do is..care the plants that we grow.Keep leafy herbs compact and productive by removing flower buds and picking regularly. Keep all pots well-watered and feed fruit or vegetables with a high potash feed when flowers form. Support aubergine and chilli peppers with canes to prevent the stems snapping under the weight of their fruit.
Last but not least, even if you may not have room for a vegetable patch or time for an allotment, but you can plant up pots from early spring onwards with edible crops and enjoy fresh, tasty, homegrown produce all summer. Lots of varieties are happy in pots if you look after them well.
See you on the next issue!

~ 6 Steps to Successful Speaking ~

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For this week issue, I have been asked to figure out something that related to communications and stuff like that. So, as I was reading the Academic Study Skill Text Book ( preparing for the Mid-Term Test next week )..suddenly, I found one article that I can share and post it to my blog. The article is " Six Steps to Successful Speaking."

As my friends and I will be taking IELTS which consists to 4 parts including speaking..the most crucial part I think..besides writing..so, I hope this article can help!

Much of what we have written about writing also applies to speaking in public. The major differenc,e, of course, is that you not only have to write..you also have to present your thoughts to others. Successful speaking involves six fundamental steps:

Step 1 : Clarify your objective
>>>Begin by identifying what you want to accomplish.

Step 2 : Analyze your audience
>>>You need to understand the people you'll be talking to and you have to ask yourself some questions that helps you to understand and analyze the data perfectly.

Step 3 : Collect and organize your information.
>>>Now comes the critical part of the process:building your presentation by selecting and arranging blocks of information. One useful analogy is to think of yourself as guiding through the maze of ideas they already have to the new knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs you would like them to have.

Step 4 : Choose your visual aids.
>>>When visual aids are added to presentations, listeners can absorb 35% more information-and over time they can recall 55% more. You may choose to prepare a chart, show a video clip, write on the board, or distribute handouts. You may also use your computer to prepare overhead transparencies or dynamic PowerPoint presentations.

Step 5 : Prepare your notes.
>>>The best speaking aid is a minimal outline, carefully prepared, from which you can speak extemporaneously. You will rehearse thoroughly in advance. But because you are speaking from brief notes, your choice of words will be slightly different each time you give your presentation, causing you to sound prepared but natural. You may wish to use note cards, because they are unobtrusive. After you become more experienced, you may want to let your visual serve as notes. A handout or PowerPoint slide listing key points may also serve as your basic outline. Eventually, you may find you no longer need notes.

Step 6 : Practice your delivery.
>>>As you rehearse, form a mental image of success rather than failure.Practice your presentation aloud several times beforehand to harness that energy-producing anxiety.Practice before an audience-your roommate, a friend, your dog, even the mirror.Talking to something or someone helps simulate the distractions listeners cause.If you ask your practice audience to critique you, you'll have some idea of what changes you might make.

So, thats all for now..nice to see you soon in the next upcoming issue!!!

Critical Thinking,

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First of all, I would like to beg for an apologies because I dont have time to update my blog for the early September...I have a Physic test which was extraordinary-damn-hard..huhu, I had put my best effort into it since I avoid everything including updating my blog..so, I hope my preseverance and my commitment will pays in the end. Big apologies..hope I am not too late to talk about last week issue..'Education and Learning'.

So, on this issue..I would like to highlight a topic under the Education and Learning..the topic is CRITICAL THINKING. Why I choose this topic? It is because..I am so interested to learn how am I going to critical in thinking..and so on. Eventually, I have some reading that I think can help on writing my blog.

Critical thinking is at the core of a liberal education. A liberal education provides the foundation to define and pursue goals. In a liberal education, students are taught to investigate all sides of a question and all possible sollutions to a problem before reaching a conclusion or planning a course of action.

The word liberal as used here has no political connotation, but is a direct reference to the ability of education to free your mind. The word itself comes from the Latin, a verb meaning "to free". The goal of a liberal education is to free you from the biases, superstitions,prejudices, and lack of knowledge that may have characterized you before you came to college. Next time you wonder why you are required to take courses outside your major, remember how important they can be.

4 Aspects Of CRITICAL thingking,

Critical thinking cannot be learned overnight. Yet as interpreted by William T.Daly, teacher of political science at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, the critical thinking process can be divided into four basic steps. Practicing these basic ideas can help you become more effective thinker.

  • Abstract Thinking : Using details to discover some bigger idea.

Ask yourself what larger concepts the details suggest. For example, you read an article that describes how many people are using the Internet now, how much consumer information it provides, what kinds of goods you can buy cheaply over the Internet, and also that many low-income families are still without computers. Think carefully about these facts, and you might arrive at several different important generalizations.

  • Creative Thinking : Seeking connections, Finding new possibilities, Rejecting nothing.

The creative phase of thinking can lead in many directions. It might involve searching for ways to make the Internet more available to low-income households. Or it might involve searching out more detailed information on how much interest big companies really have in marketing various goods to low-income families. In essence, the creative thinking stage involves extending the general idea-finding new ways to apply it or identifying other ideas it might suggest.

  • Systemic Thinking : Organizing the Possibilities, Tossing out the rubbish.

Systematic thinking involves looking at the outcome of the secong phase in a more demanding, critical way. If you are looking to the solutions to a problem, which ones really seem most promising after you have conducted an exhausive search for materials.

  • Precise Communication : Being prepared to present your ideas convincingly to others.
Intelligent conclusions aren't very useful if you cannot share them with others. Consider what your audience will need to know to follow your reasoning and be pursuaded. Remember to have 'facts in hand' as you attempt to convince others of the truth of your argument. Don't be defensive, instead, just be logical.

Source : Academic Study Skill Text Book " Strategies For Success"
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