Frecossais
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Posts posted by Frecossais
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Ebay, Idun.
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I'm just trying to imagine how a French person would pronounce nickel chrome. I've never heard it before, c'est marrant, hein?
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Yes Betty, I did think I might do that at a pinch - sheer laziness sent me to the forum instead. It may have to be done.Thanks Idun, but no chance of my cloth sticking to my broom. My floor is laminate that looks like tiles, so I don't use a bucket and water, only a spray. Before I used to get down on my hands and knees, but can't now because of arthritis. Think I will go with the extra velcro.Thanks again to both of you.
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I heard a new-to-me expression this autumn in France, it sounded like "c'est marron", and I couldn't tell whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. My English friend who is a permanent resident in France had never heard it, the only marron she knew was a chestnut. We were in a local restaurant at the time, so I asked the proprietress what it meant. She was puzzled and said it was a colour. Eventually she worked out that the expression was"c'est marrant" meaning "it's funny."Looks like I need to pay attention to what I'm hearing in the French language.I like "c'est rigolo" for funny too.
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During a recent stay in France I bought some Vigor serpillieres to clean my kitchen floor back in England. I thought they were such a good idea that I bought them for my daughters too. The idea was that they (no, not the daughters) would fit around the head of a broom and fasten with velcro (attache-balai), I could see two velcro pieces when I bought them. It turns out that the velcro pieces I could see were the only ones. From a picture on the packaging they should fasten around the broom handle. Well they do, but they are insufficient to hold in the corners of the cloth and when in use, the cloth simply unwraps, leaving only the attached bit around the broom handle. OH suspects they are meant to be used with a particular mop head, but there is no indication of this on the packaging. Indeed there are no actual instructions on the packaging, only a glowing account of the attributes of the serpilliere, and the floor coverings it can be used on.I am not the most practical of people, but my daughter has had the same experience, and OH is a natural problem solver, so........Has anyone on here used same product successfully?Should I just use them as general cleaning cloths and buy something from Homebase? (My daughter tells me a similar cloth can be bought there.) Any advice or comment would be most welcome.
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On Autumn - we noticed travelling through France on 1st October, that autumn had indeed arrived: roadworks on many motorways and N roads, and there were people there working on them!Autumn has continued in Burgundy, where council employees are out in force cleaning up grass verges, cutting trees and hedges and tidying public flower beds. And a road exit to our village that has been closed since last May with (apparently) no work being done on it, is suddenly full of lorries and workmen and purpose. Vive l'automne!
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When I wanted to make gingerbread while in France, I couldn't find any golden syrup. Like Idun I'm not a great honey lover, but I did find maple syrup in my local Intermarche, and used that even though it's a lot runnier than what I wanted. The gingerbread worked out well, it wasn't doughy as I thought it might be, and it had a good flavour.Back in France though, I've brought some golden syrup from England.
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I'll be looking on Amazon for this, sounds "thrilling".
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And they shouldn't call it Concord... anything - or Titanic.[;-)]
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I've crossed mine.
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Sweet 17,although the tree felling by your horrible neighbour may not have affected your other neighbours, there must be some who, like you, are really affected by the smoke from his bonfires.Would it not be possible to ascertain the feeling of these neighbours, and if they are willing, ask them if they would also sign your letter of complaint to the Maire. The more people who are angry about something, the more likely the Maire is to take some action.I am saying this because this summer we had cause for complaint about our water supply. All our neighbours signed our letter (which became known as "la Petition") and action was taken within a very few days. It's probably an on-going situation, and we took care to ask a French neighbour to sign the letter first as we're not permanently in France. He's there to deal with Veolia and the President of our Communaute.I know it's probably much easier for people to gang up against an organisation than a person, but would it be worth trying, do you think?PS If you're backed up by French neighbours, the Maire can't dismiss your letter as just a moan from those Brits.
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Thinking of you at this difficult time. I hope you are having some good days in spite of losing your Coops.
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Good luck with making the decision. You are doing the best thing investigating all the options and taking advice from those who know.I hope all goes well for you.
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And that's only one area where the fonctionnaires are needed. The more control the government has over its people, the more civil servants it needs to administer the rules. Catch 22?
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Ditto Betty. Blessing is exactly the word.
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Ah yes, the days that stay in your memory!I had one last year when for only the second time when we were able to take part in the Vendanges at the tiny vineyard in our village. The banter while we were grape-picking was amusing, the complaints about creaking joints frequent, and the euphoria when we threw our last bunches into the lorry was fantastic. Afterwards we picked the vines clean and took home a couple of bucketfuls for ourselves before the Vendanges lunch, a simple cold meal but taken outside on a long table and including endless bottles of our own wine. Such a companionable day owing to everyone working and eating together.And the grapes we took home? I made pure grape juice by blending the lot. It looked a mucky pea-green colour, but in the modern phrase, was to die for!Betty, your day sounds wonderful. I was imagining you all sunburnt and windswept.
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I don't think I'll ever get the hang of this forum, too naive.I just thought he was a bit bumptious and self satisfied, and aaaargh! I can be that.I do enjoy reading this forum not only for information, (first place I go to for info about things French), but for the discussions on a variety of subjects, and for the amusement of seeing where some of the discussions go. Off topic is often great fun.You regular contributors do a good job of keeping the forum alive, so unlike RB, I will continue to read, enjoy and write (sometimes) while pondering your characters.PS While I never feel I am able to provide info myself, my OH both asks and answers questions on this forum.
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[quote user="sweet 17"]
This is for all those who remember SD and is, I emphasise, NOT about le grand bonheur as in Ron Bolus' thread.
So, why have I suddenly come here to talk about SD. Well, for a start, I miss SD..........ah, there was a man who had tons of knowledge but who wore it very lightly![:D]
At one time, I thought SD was a French gendarme. But, when I asked him the question directly, he posted just the one phrase "'evening"; I knew he had too much of a sense of humour to have been that!
What has increasingly amazed me is that I seem now to be living in le pays de SD!!![:-))]
You know, that mythical place where everything works out. The factrice brings your parcels on time, the maire comes to your house when your OH is taken ill, the man at the impôts agrees that you are due a remboursement, your yellow rubbish bags get taken from INSIDE your gate because you have forgotten to put it outside, your iffy neighbours move back to England and you get some lovely ones in their place, your local Leclerc gives you the right bill every time, your medecin comes up to your OH in the supermarket and tells him he is "en forme", your local hospital runs all the tests on your OH and pronounces him good for a few years yet, your tomatoes are green but look like they will ripen soon, your copine delivers you fresh eggs weekly and often brings you some sort of treat such as a tart or some fresh vegetables, your dog has had her swim in the local river and shaken water all over you but you don't mind as you are hot as well...
Not for me the likes of growing grapes or strutting around with shotguns, but just simple pleasures, a quiet village life of modest but endlessly intriguing events. Counting blessings but quietly and to oneself and being just glad that one does not live in Egypt.
[/quote]God's in his heaven and all's well with the world."I love it when a plan comes together!" (Hannibal Somebody in the A team) -
I think that people's characters can determine how happy, (or satisfied) they are. I can think of some I know personally who don't ever seem to be happy no matter where they live, or what they do. Maybe there is a capacity for happiness in each of us, or what about a happy gene?
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Happiness, well I got out my dictionary because I was thinking that Norman was saying he is contented in his life, and that is one of the meanings of happy. There's joyful or glad, but I'm thinking they're perhaps more transitory than content. There's satisfaction, that might be harder to attain, and lucky which Ron B obviously feels he is, then there's willing which doesn't count here. It's not a comprehensive list, and I've only given my opinion here.
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When we use eurotunnel, we always deliberately use the off peak periods. We like to make sure we are early, and are quite often able to travel an hour earlier than our booked time for no extra fee. Like you we'd not dream of paying such an inflated sum to go a few minutes before their peak time. You're right, they're taking the mick.
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Yes Idun, it is hyaluronic acid. there are 3 types of this kind of injection as far as I can make out: Synvisc, Hyalgan and Euflexxa. Some people seem to have rather extreme reactions to them, others get relief from pain and more mobility, (I've been trawling the internet.)Also found an newspaper article about a woman whose hospital trust first approved then disallowed injections like these. It seems not enough research has been done into whether they work for enough people according to medical opinion in GB.As for me the next step will be a knee replacement, or two, I wouldn't mind giving the injections a try. I'm sure someone on this forum said once that he or she had them every year, and I wondered what their experience was.www.webmd.com/osteoarthritis/guide/hyaluronan-injections-kneeSorry, forgot to make a note of Betty's way of making a link live.
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Lat year I had a cortisone injection in my knee to allow some freedom from pain and easier movement. The rheumatologist would only inject one knee, (this was in England), so I paid privately to have the other knee injected. The relief only lasted around 3 months, and was judged not effective enough to repeat.I have heard about other injections of a kind of oil injected into the knee joint, and have googled to find out about them, but the info is confusing. I know that some people in France have a series of 3 injections a year of this oil substance, and that keeps them mobile and pain-free. Can anyone give me an idea of what these injections contain, how often they are administered and how well or not they work.I've mentioned them to my GP who hasn't heard of them, probably because they don't seem to be available on the NHS.Also are there criteria for having the injections?I would be very grateful if anyone can help me on this.
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You see Theiere, mark of a good teacher: gives you the info and lets you do it yourself, not that you needed any help, I'm sure.
Serpillieres auto-fixantes
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