Frecossais
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Posts posted by Frecossais
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Thanks for that Frederick, I thought that parts of France and all the way to Denmark would be affected from some of the weather maps. You realise just how insular our news and weather reports are, and I mean all countries, not only ours.I know we're first and foremost concerned for ourselves, families and friends in extreme conditions, but I'd be interested in freak weather reports from all round the world.Is that a google translate?
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[quote user="dwmcn"]
Frecossais,
Things will/should get better. My wife had an NHS knee replacement some years ago because she hurt her knee at work. Other than the scar, you would hardly know it. Unfortunately, she is now getting over a hip replacement (other leg) that she got in July.
David
[/quote]I've been told that a hip replacement is quicker to get over than a knee one, but truly I think it depends on the person. Hope your wife gets her life back in time for the summer.PS With help of OH I can now straighten my knee. I do the exercise and he holds the knee down. -
[quote user="sweet 17"]
Frecossais, well done indeed!
And thanks for talking about the double knee op.
I've very little wrong with my knees thankfully but might be having bunions operated on. I have very flat feet and the doc tells me that flat feet do make the development of bunions more likely.
Haven't yet decided whether I'd like to have them done but, if I do go down that route, I reckon (on the basis of what you have said) that I might as well have both feet done.
I will need to plan the time of year, probably winter, because I'd hate to be immobile in the summer when I am out and about, helping with walking groups and gardening.
[/quote]Sweet, it will be interesting to see whether a surgeon inFrance would carry out a double bunion op. I had one bunion operated on two or three years ago, and you have a sort of built-up foot so as not to touch the floor. That might make it unrealistic to have two done at one time. But yes, do ask if it's feasible. When you have a knee op, they have you on your feet the same day, and using stairs the day after, difficult to see how you could do that with two gammy feet.Yes, winter is the best time to have it if you have the choice. I'm trying to plan when I'll have to start the ball rolling for my second knee op in between long stays in Burgundy. -
Is northern France experiencing the storms and excessive rain that are hitting UK?
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[quote user="dwmcn"]
Cendrillon,
I used to steal Snickers bars. But then, I'm an American.
David
[/quote]David,Wind-up merchant![6] -
Thank you GG. You were up early.[:)]
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Six weeks later I'm driving, have thrown off the hated surgical stockings, and can bend my new knee pretty well now that the swelling has gone down quite a bit . So far so good. I'm still working on straightening my knee, have come off the Tramadol, and have only the odd ache when I've walked too much. I have had two out of four Physio sessions, continue to do my exercises four times a day, and am so pleased that I'm able to take charge of my life again. There's just one thing I'm miffed about: when I had my first appointment with the specialist I asked about having a double knee replacement, because I know two people who had both knees "done" successfully at the same time. I was told that it's not considered a good idea and carries a 3% risk (as opposed to a 1% risk with one knee.) At the time I accepted this, he's a specialist and knows what he's talking about. However I now feel very strongly that I would have liked to have the choice of whether to have two knees done at once.For the next few months I will still be limping as I walk since my other knee is still severely arthritic and painful. I'll have to go through the procedure of getting appointments, being on the waiting list and having another operation, being out of action and in a lot of discomfort for at least six weeks afterwards. I envisage if everything goes to plan (Ha ha) I'll be walking properly by next Christmas.I could have been at that point now if I'd had both knees done at the same time. I know it would have been harder, but I was positive my life would be better and I'd have worked at making it better. If it is done in some parts of the country, why not in others? I'd have preferred to be advised of the risks of a double knee replacement, and then left to make my own choice about whether to have it or not.I have now told the specialist this, and will follow it up with a letter to my hospital trust. Has anyone had the Double, or do you have an opinion about it?
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[quote user="You can call me Betty"]It goes deeper....just since Wednesday, we have nightly meetings in our village hall, so that we can be updated by the various services as to what's new. Wednesday's first meeting degenerated pretty rapidly due to people at one end of the village saying that the "posh" people at the other end got their sandbags etc. first.Flooding, wherever it happens, is an equal-opportunities destroyer. It takes no account of how much you've got in the bank, whether you've got a good job or where you live. Don't forget that it takes the average film crew and reporter about half an hour to get here from their London HQ. They can do a piece to camera and be back home in time for tea.Anyone who has been flooded will tell you that they'd rather have had neither the publicity nor the floods, but having seen at first hand just how much goes on off-camera, it's clear to me that most of the agencies involved are, despite media insistence to the contrary, working round the clock to do their utmost to help. And, when stuff IS on the telly, it often has very little to do with the truth or reality.To be honest, and I've had quite a laugh along with all of you, which has helped enormously to keep me sane over the last 5 days, I'd sooner NOT see our village on TV every night. Being "forgotten" is largely about a perception simply controlled by media hype. On the ground, the people who really count are busy working their socks, and boots, and waders off to try and help. THAT is what counts, not what people in other parts of the country think of us, our perceived disposable income, or our reckless choice of location for our homes. And having some sort of "contest" about whether the Thames valley is getting more media coverage than Sheffield or anywhere else on the basis that there are more Tories or more wealthy homeowners is just a little bit beside the point, to me at least. What the media portray, what people choose to see or believe, is irrelevant to someone whose entire life is sunk under a few feet of polluted water. And anyone who seriously believes that less effort is put into any area for silly reasons like its demographic or its proximity to London has been sucked in by the media hype. Come and walk round my neck of the woods and watch adults sobbing openly with sadness and frustration as they try to salvage what they can of their lives, and tell me that because they live in the South East or on a flood plain (the majority in houses that have stood firm and untouched by water for between 60 and 150 years) and then see if you still want to suggest that we're receiving special treatment we don't deserve.[/quote]This kind of crisis seems always to bring out the best and the worst in people. I have to admit almost being moved to tears by the generosity of people who have come from far away to help in whatever way they can. On the other side there are those who want to apportion blame for everything on to any of the services who are swamped by an event they were wholly unprepared for. (Would that we could see into the future.) And then the "envy contingent" who see everyone else being given more than them, and spend their time complaining that they are not being put first.Of course it's easy for me outside of the situation, to make judgements, in fact I feel so sorry for all those either flooded or in danger of flooding, but I truly admire the pragmatism and acceptance of people right in the middle of their own personal nightmare, and I wish you all well, and if necessary, a fantastic insurance company.My daughter is still on flood alert, but thank heaven, so far there is no escalation of the risk at present.
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I hear Waitrose is just as good. Can you get there? Mind you, the important people are surely gone by now. What I liked was that it wasn't broadcast that they'd be coming to Datchet, and yes, they got stuck in.Been raining all day, hope your house is still dry.PS good idea about the wine.
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And Betty, if you do have to go up a tree, there must be a big hunky soldier who can bring you down before the flood waters sweep you away. Aaaah, I'm seeing it.
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Even the BBC is not above dramatising events in the flooded areas of the Thames. Maybe they think that the facts about height of the river, water coming up through the road etc need to be spiced up by the "human interest" angle, so they stage interviews and rehearse scenarios.Even if we didn't live in Datchet, I'm pretty sure we watch and read with a cynical eye what is presented to us by the media.Less rain forecast for tomorrow, Betty. Hope there'll be another drop in that water level at Old Windsor Lock.
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Betty, saw your poor neighbour on the local news earlier and really felt for him. I do hope your house remains untouched, do miracles happen?
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[quote user="dwmcn"]
Frecossais,
We live about as high up as you can get in St Albans, so no problems with flooding. Will people never learn not to build on or try to develop flood plains, unless they are Dutch, that is?
David
[/quote]Do you mean builders? My thirty-something daughter lives in a hundred year old house which to her knowledge has never been flooded before. Mind out for landslides in your ivory tower up there in St Albans. -
My daughter who lives in Shepperton has had the red alert phone call from the Environment Agency, and her road is closed already at one end. Apparently the danger is if the water comes bubbling up from the saturated ground below and allows sewage from overloaded drains to rise up. I'm worried for her, meanwhile a couple of miles we are an dry island surrounded by four flooded towns. Our little river was forced underground to build a roundabout and bypass, and is surfacing in other places than my town.Think we could blast the jetstream back on track?
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[quote user="NormanH"][quote user="NickP"][quote user="Chancer"]
I understand, if I want to comment on things like that I use another forum where people may be more interested, otherwise it could be like talking to yourself on a deserted island.
However if I want to discuss the finer nuances of or ask questions about the French language with those who are learning and pay an active interest in doing so this is still by far the best the forum to do it on.
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Your only posting this today chancer because your "other forum" has crashed, and you are bored because you can't read the thoughts of a halfwit/Troll who feels a bit french, or you miss seeing people verbally bullied by the know all experts. [:D]
[/quote]Such as this chap?http://thefederalist.com/2014/01/17/the-death-of-expertise/[/quote]I thought this was a very interesting article, but then I'm no expert. -
In our part of Burgundy, many of the former railways have been converted into Voies Vertes, and you can cycle, skateboard, walk or run safely on them.It can make a really pleasant day out cycling between the small villages, until you find one big enough to have a restaurant where you can have lunch before cycling back.
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I always think that for most people there is an "annus horribilis", Quillan, so maybe this is yours. But everyone I know who has had one (including me and my OH) has come through it and out the other side. Keep going, and good luck with the treatments for both your wife and you.
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[quote user="sweet 17"]
Yes, that would be it: all floors are either tiled or real wood, all windows and doors are wood, the outside of the house is stone and the main fireplace is brick-built.
There are also "noble gasses" and OH tells me that that means that they do not combine with other gases.
Me, I'm no noble, alas![:D]
[/quote]Never mind Sweet, you can always behave in a noble way...........something the nobility didn't (and don't) always do. -
[quote user="sweet 17"]
[quote user="Frecossais"]And an expression that has puzzled me for a while now: "A no-brainer." I first came across it in a Jack Reacher book, and took it to mean a stupid idea, but it was recently used on TV and appeared to mean a great idea which did not necessitate the use of a brain. Which is it? And is there a similar expression in French?
[/quote]Goodness, how have we drifted here from Q's original post?[:D]
A no-brainer means "it's no contest", so you could say that it's the action of choice and that you wouldn't need to think too hard about it.
In French I might say c'est ... fastoche or le doight dans le nez or du gateau. All those mean easy-peasy so would do for no-brainer though I am not sure that they mean exactly the same as it's the most easy and effective option.
BTW, I hope you are looking in on the thread about French expressions that might be useful; otherwise I can see Norman and I yet again just having a dialogue and that nobody else cares to join in![:P]
[/quote]Sorry, I just tacked that on because I was wondering. Yes, I do read the other thread too, but difficult to remember many of the new expressions when I'm in Blighty and can't use them.Thank you for the explanation of the no-brainer. I'll make a note of fastoche."du gateau" like "a piece of cake." -
And, "How are you?""Oh, I'm good." Makes my teeth grind.And an expression that has puzzled me for a while now: "A no-brainer." I first came across it in a Jack Reacher book, and took it to mean a stupid idea, but it was recently used on TV and appeared to mean a great idea which did not necessitate the use of a brain. Which is it? And is there a similar expression in French?
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Glad to hear things are more stable now DD. Good luck with the move in March and hope it will prove to be just what the Doctor ordered.
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We had neighbours in France, a young couple with two children, who split up, the mother moving away from home and leaving the children with their father.In the aftermath, because the house was in her name only and she wanted to sell, he and the children were forced to move and the house put on the market. What I don't know is whether they were married, but it would seem prudent to me to take every step possible to protect your interests.The house I'm writing about is still empty 4 years down the road.
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Don't know about France, but the smell of coffee percolating was said to be a powerful attraction to people viewing a house in UK. Another one was newly baked bread........ or cakes, Sweet!!![:D]
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[quote user="NormanH"]I belive Tramadol is addictive as it is a strong opiate, so use with caution.http://www.patient.co.uk/medicine/tramadol-for-pain-relief[/quote]Thank you for this, Norman. I have gradually been phasing out the tramadol, and will be stopping it completely on Sunday, just relying on paracetamol. Before the operation, I took Naproxen, an anti-inflammatory drug used for arthritis. I'd prefer not to take it again, but if I can't sleep.........?Yes, am using the frozen peas too, haven't found it helps with the ache though. One good thing: my daughter says I don't lurch from side to side when I am walking now. Hate those tight stockings you have to wear for six weeks to avoid DVTs, they told me in hospital to put a plastic bag on my foot when I'm putting them on, the stockings slide over the plastic and are easier to manage. Then you just roll the stocking up from the toe again and pull the bag through the opening in the foot.
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