idun

On Board Diagnostic, so I would imagine a problem with your screen, as it  says, opacite???

The telly, well if  you haven't already watched it  and you can find it, watch The Outlaws, it is a belgian black comedy and is wonderful!

What has struck me as strange about all this, was when I moved to France, I loved the ideals of protecting the herd, it sat well with me. It felt very french and very good. Now it feels like it has become chacun pour soi and not just the mundane of not queueing, but risking so many people's lives, literally giving Covid the chance to mutate even more and maybe mean that the current vaccines no longer work........ no one can say that this will not happen! So in this, I truly do not care for individual choice  I firmly believe that that notion of the individual is putting everyone at risk especially as pfizer is so hard store and get out to people.  And the anti AZ propaganda has been ferocious.

This article is OK but nothing more.......  it also means that there will probably be a longer wait for those 'choosing' and we all need vaccinating NOW. Maybe these journalists should be screaming from the rooftops that unless everyone gets a vaccination immediately then Covid could go through several mutations, the result being back to square one and none of us would have any immunity. And this could happen, because no one knows what will happen if we are not all immunised ASAP. There are plenty of medecines these days, that have 'death' indicated as one of the side effects, and yet, I would suppose that 'I' like most other people simply get on with it, as the hopeful good effects will far outweigh the side effects.

You did make me smile wooly about it being brass monkey weather. Straight from the Arctic, down the North Sea, we had it and it looked like it was going to hit northern France too. Went for a walk today in clothes as warm as I have worn all winter and it was b loody freezing. We had ice formed on the bird's water dish this morning and snow flurries this afternoon. Not that I have not seen snow at Easter, I do remember it here in England, but never in the Alpes, at least not down in the valley where I lived. What to do, well, that is going to be the big problem in France until they actually get folks vaccinated. I know someone who has just returned to the UK from their second home and it has been a bit of a debacle with regards to the testing etc.......... and yet as I pointed out, we are still doing so well with it. What I am looking forward to is going out to eat, or a coffee or a lovely lovely afternoon tea somewhere really nice. And for all I am not keen on shopping, I rather think I would like to have a wander round the shops. Patience is going to be the key. We will just have to be patient.

Isn't that the problem bixy that so much seems to have changed since brexit, that stuff that we 'knew' may no longer be valid? AND I shall add that over the years, lots changed anyway. I know when we moved back to the UK, we brought our french car, we still had our french house then. We drove in the UK for about four months, and then took it back to France and sold it. I had checked with our insurer at the time, and it was fine, then. But now, I would always check. I realise that you said that it is easter, but you did mention having been in the uk since last year, so it made me wonder why you are starting to worry about it, now specifically, were you stopped???

I saw this a few years ago, wonderful film.

[:D]

Well if it meant that you could have both your jabs easily in the UK, then I think it would be a good reason to stay. Re insurance, well,  if your green card doesn't say anything, and I have looked briefly and cannot see anything on the web, you should be OK shouldn't you. IF you are really worried, then call your insurer.

Wonderful[:D]

The last person my son saw told him that he would be getting his new card upon his next appointment. He was wise enough to simply take a copy, but WHY they are not issuing recipisse is beyond me.

Well our son had an RdV this week and they took his card,  he got that last year and knew that he would need another. Then they had the audacity to say that the new one should be ready in a couple of months or before the end of October. So now he has NOTHING! they refused to issue a recipisse and said to carry his passport at all times and proof of address as 'current' as possible. And IF the gendarmes cause a fuss tell them to call the Prefecture.......... you cannot make it up can you. The least they should have done was issue a recipisse, but no, too xxxx lazy to do that. All very well for retraites, but he works and he crosses into another department to work and works unsocial hours, so the possibility of him being stopped is rather high. He said that he simply had had to keep calm and accept what he was being told, but me, I AM FURIOUS! EDIT He had actually been led to believe that this RdV was to pick up his new card, that is what they said last time. GRRRRRRR!!! Fonctionnaires GRRRRR, will they ever get any better!!!!!!!!!

As some of you will know 'proof of life' is required by the DWP for british pensioners in France, well the CNAV wants the same. Trouble is the the Job Centres are currently shut, as would you believe there is a pandemic and they usually fill the form in. The CNAV gives examples of places one can get this done in the UK. But apparently the CNAV had not let some of these places know, and they say that they do not fill in proof of life forms. I decided best to speak to the CNAV and called and got straight through. Stroppy Madame answered, non, couldn't use a notaire, even though their web site said I could. Non, couldn't get a Doctor to sign either. I had to go to the Ambassade Britannique. I told her that there were no Ambassade Britannique in the Royaume-Uni, like there were no Ambassade de France, in France. She agreed that they did not have an Ambassade de France in France, but to get this form she repeatedly said, I WOULD HAVE TO GO TO AN AMBASSADE BRITANNIQUE in the UK, c'est tout. It isn't as if I don't know what fonctionnaires are like, ofcourse I do, and  this woman's job is to deal with non resident pensioners, and usually I would imagine, they would be french and due to Covid, will be having similar problems. And yet she was so bloody rude and THICK, she was of no help to me, I wondered if she is ever of any help to anyone.  She knew I was calling from the UK, she had the SS number and address on her screen. I think / hope that it is all sorted, we shall see, because there is nothing so sure as they will stop the pensions, both state and complementaire without a by your leave, if they are not suited with the form we sent. And I suspect that the fonctionnaire I spoke to today has equally bete colleagues.

Catalpa, yes, I did add that I think it good that your Drs are doing something as it appears  others are in your area. The logistics of this, I agree, have been so poorly thought out and royally messed up, by bungling idiots,......... ...........strange, that last bit was all too often what Boris was being called.[Www] And maybe well be again at some point, who knows!

I would say yes, wait until May. I was not expecting to get my first vaccination until late March to mid April, and they got ahead of themselves and it was at the beginning of March. So you never know Lori, if they do get organised at long last, it could well be sooner than mid May. Here's to them doing just that!

Catalpa, have I misread or do you seem to be  defending how this is being dealt with. I do know about rural France, had enough friends who lived nulle part. And the government knows about rural France too. Two Drs giving the jabs simply is not enough, even with the local nurses perhaps helping out, you also have pharmacies and surely there are still some small local hospitals or clinics with staff who could be ferried about. There is nothing to recommend such a system during a pandemic. AND it gives time for this awful thing to mutate even more when governments are dragging their feet. AND getting the sputnik jab. Well, all the furore about the AZ and yet Merkel and Macron are hoping Putin will help out. Is it safe? how can any of us know the true figures about side effects, efficacy etc from Russia. It is one that I would not want. And yet, it may be fine. BUT a country who deals with perceived traitors with novichock does not instil confidence. EDIT I did mean to say that I am glad that there is some vaccinations being done where you live, but it simply sounds like it is just too little.

There is one good thing though now Lori, and that is that the Drs have learned so much in the last year, and how to deal with Covid,and there are some drugs which have been seen to help avoid people ending up on ventilators. My biggest problem is that HOW DARE PEOPLE ignore rules and expect medics to care for them if they get ill. I have friends with their children or grandchildren who are front line medical staff and some friends who are still working in the NHS and this just is not on. Maybe these despicable folk should be carted off somewhere and left to their own devices, seeings as they care not one iota for anyone else but themselves. And the anti vaxers, honestly. These people are threats to decent society, does it count as  domestic terrorism, feels like it.

Catalpa, we were issued with a pamphlet, explaining about side effects, what to do, and we were told not to take other than paracetamol too. The Doctor I spoke to mentioned that as they gave me the pamphlet. I have my card saying I have had the jab and my next appointment date. So YES, even in backward NE England, everything was VERY methodical, and more importantly they were just getting on with their jobs. There was absolutely nothing unprofessional about any of this.

Two MT's giving the vaccines? Somehow this all beggars belief. Was there really not a general callout for retired Drs and Nurses and anyone medical to help. Aren't the army medical teams working all over the country. Yes, next Pancake Day IF you are lucky. NH kindly gave a link to Johns Hopkins and as I imagined in the UK we now have a higher percentage of people with both vaccinations than France, so that didn't work, as you cannot have the second dose without having had the first, first. A friend who is just 50 had their first one on Saturday and the next in June, and their friends are complaining that it is hard to get an appointment, and one has to keep on trying, even here it isn't so easy, but if a fifty year old, 'just' can have one, then the system is working. The thing is that there are never just TWO doing it. Even in the pharmacie I went to there were at least 8 people just vaccinating, the place is not big, an area cordoned off and makeshift changing room type places installed. Upon entering there was one person taking names and a Dr of some sort asking a few questions, not a questionnaire......... and I was in and out in 10 mintues, even there, they will be getting through getting on for 50 an hour. Silly question but it isn't it about time that those of you living in France started giving elected officals hell. Write to your Deputes, the Minister of Health, your local councellors, the Prefecture, the Conseil Regional, as well as you local papers. Many of these officials are very well paid to DO THEIR JOBS and they are not. IF everyone wrote, then how could they ignore the mescontentment in the country?

Just not having that Ken, acting like seven year olds indeed, that is the implication if conversations are better with a young child! You live in France and SURELY, you have found like me, that the french will argue black is white for no particular reason whatsoever, just when they feel like it. They will say it is being friendly taquin'ing someone, but still, I have seen arguments at my own table that have IMO, been full scale rows and was always shocked when no fists were in action, but they never were, although I have had someone walk off, once! So non, not seen anyone  acting in anyway like  things are in 'my' France in real life. I would NEVER suggest to french friends that they are acting like children, even when they are being chicaneurs and very provocative! AND such is the internet, that we are all capable of reading things that we take to be truths from places we judge to be reliable, and in fact  may no  longer be, or their offerings have been skewed in some way, or are just plain wrong and we end up being spoon fed fake news. But how can we tell, I suppose that that is the other question. Chessie, nothing wrong with your posts[:)]

Did the 'UK' version start in the UK, is the Kent version different? or were these simply seen as  new variants by UK scientists? Spanish flu didn't start in Spain. And even if these new variants did, better for the scientists to recognise all new variants immediately. AND Macron, well, he is going to relentlessly blame the UK for everything, just because he is. At least on the news over the last few days, the Moderna vaccine is going to be made and bottled  in the North East of England,to give us some independence from  uppity european leaders who cannot get their act together.

I hope that you had not paid the first plumber!

I keep wondering what should be done to non mask wearers and also the likes of medical staff or care home workers who refuse the vaccine. It isn't as if I am not for human rights, but it would seem that the this is all xxxxed up these days. Seems like 'my right' means that 'you' lose your right to good health because I don't care if I infect you. AND I will expect 'you and society' to look after me, if I get ill and have refused the vaccine! Because 'my right to free choice overrides 'you and yours'' So how do we go about dealing with this. At least in the UK we no longer have the EU Court to deal with, I hope, because they seem to live in cloud cuckoo land when good sense says otherwise. In fact justice in general sometimes seems completely skewed towards the perp and never the victim. So what should we do?

Or as the french had to say.....'my tailor is rich'.......... So what do we ascertain from that, that the french like to write and the english speakers like to be well dressed? Anyone?

https://www.amazon.fr/Electraline-70034-Adaptateur-voyage-universel/dp/B07JZRV1RR/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=adaptateur+prise+pour+razoir+electrique+2+broches+pour+prise+francais&qid=1616626280&sr=8-2 There you go mint, from amazon France. That is what you need isn't it? Should be a live link.