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ALBF, don't be so cruel!😁

I watched to see the various Paris sites. Celine Dion? Sorry DL, I remarked to my husband (before I even knew who she was), 'that's one way to murder a song"🤢 I thought it was all a bit bitty and I couldn't see any coherent theme. Also I feared for the people dancing, doing tricks, parading up and down the catwalk, etc, in case they fell over and got injured.

Thank you, Lori. I have now decided that not only am I a martian but that I am content to remain so!

Lori, I don't understand the American voting system. As for all these show-biz, Hollywood types, I don't see why their "endorsement" should mean so much. After all, they must be the least representative of American people?

I thought I was au fait with with the English language, even when it is used by Americans!😀 As an interested observer, I have been following the speeches and debates from across the pond. Some words such as "forgiven" as in students are forgiven their debts are easily enough translated into their student debts are written off. OK, a slightly different interpretation of a word but perfectly comprehensible all the same. But now we have "Kamala is BRAT"! Is she really? And who says she is? Years ago, in my degree course, we used to say that humour is not for babies or martians. In other words, humour is culture specific. Or in layman's language, we might say, for example, jokes are not readily translatable into someone else's language. Now it seems that I no longer understand fairly basic English. As a consequence, I am now more or less convinced that I have appeared on earth as an alien, even more at a loss for words than ET. I wonder if anyone else feels as I do?

I must say I have been totally surprised at Harris' ability to get points across in those big rowdy rallies. Never lost her thread, never "misremembered" names, never repeating herself unnecessarily. The girl done good! You're right, ssomon, should be fun seeing someone put Trump in his place, make him look petty and ridiculous. Nothing guaranteed to dent someone's dignity more effectively than to laugh at him😂

Yes, seen that done in Clifton in Bristol, a grand piano, winched up and delivered through the window. Mind you, if the window were too small, you might have to enlarge the opening.

Norman, thank you for injecting a bit of sanity into the "woe is me", hand-wringing and do- not- be- elderly- and- ill narrative as though any of us can avoid getting old and, heaven forbid, be ill as well. Indeed what else is more certain in life? I know this is not the first time you have written about your experience and given that valuable website. Fortunately, neither of us has reached that stage yet though my husband is not anywhere near being out of the woods since he fell ill a couple of months ago. The medical care he has received has been exemplary. Just to give a few brief details which may reassure some people. My OH had a very nasty and life-threatening seizure in early May. Of course, it was a Saturday (don't these emergencies always happen at the weekend or in the middle of the night?) but still the pompiers came promptly. His condition was stabilised in the ambulance and he was in hospital by the middle of the afternoon. The next morning, a SUNDAY morning, he was operated on and moved to intensive care to be looked after. Because he'd had internal bleeding, he received an infusion of iron and 2 units of packed red blood cells. When he was moved into an "ordinary ward", he was invited to stay as another operation was envisaged. Because he is elderly (93) and he was desperate to return home, the consultant respected his wishes and allowed him to come home for a couple of weeks before readmission for Stage 2 of the procedure. It did cause the hospital inconvenience and I daresay extra cost to discharge and then readmit him but they could see that, for his peace of mind and relief of his anxiety, it was better that way. Imagine, actually taking into consideration what the patience wants.....my mind did boggle greatly at that. In the meantime, he had 2 operations for removal of a "mole" au cas ou and that indeed turned out to be a melanoma. Those ops were done in out-patients, again with great care and the results were phoned through to us at home by the 2 dermatologists. All this time, we have had nurses, daily to begin with, and now every 2 days. Even after removal of stitches, the nurses made a further visit to satisfy themselves that the wound was properly healed. They also come to the house to take blood for tests to avoid our having to go to the lab. As he is still weak, losing weight and in convalescence, he is given drinks, biscuits, desserts that are high-protein and high-calories to build him up. I have not yet had to get the sort of home help that Norman gets but I have been given advice as to where in town to go and the person to see. I'll end by saying that when I myself get to be "elderly and ill", I'd rather be in that state in France than anywhere else I can think of.

Sorry, it submitted my post while I was still typing. I was writing none of Trump's "sleepy Joe" and "crooked Hilary", oh no, nothing as crude as that. She referred to being a prosecutor and said she'd met predators, fraudsters and cheats and said she knew Trump's type. I was surprised at how well she worked the crowd, knowing exactly when to raise her voice for the crowd and when to lower the pitch and spoke almost confidentially as though she was speaking one to one. It is the sort of speech that speech writers and media students could study and analyse to their benefit. Plus she kept it short.....yes, kept it short and left them wanting more!

Did anyone hear Kamala Harris' speech in Milwaukee today? She was tub thumpingly good. Pitched it just right and socked it to Trump, as the Americans might say. She was smart enough not to call him names directly, non on Trump's "sleepy Joe"

I suppose Nespresso or whoever it is he advertises for will stump up megabucks for the Clooney campaign. With Kamala Harris, she apparently gets to inherit Biden's war chest.

Perhaps Clooney should lay down his life of luxury for his country? He might get the votes of the swooning hordes of his admirers?

Lori, I agree with you. She is not generally liked and I don't think the US is ready yet for a colourd woman. There, I have said the unsayable.....BUT, if she is the Democrat ticket, I hope she does manage it/

Want to make a quick soup with next to no effort? Here's what to do. You buy a package of "anti gaspi" vegetables of the popular St Eloi brand and use it from frozen. As with most soups, I use a mix of olive oil and butter. Heat in a pan, tip in the pack of veg, thin with water or vegetable stock if wished. Heat up, simmer for a bit and you will see a wonderful velouté in the pan. I used the carrots, squash, potatoes pack so it was a nice orange colour. I also noticed a pack with green veg and will try that next time. Snip some parsely or another herb of your choice, swirl over (artistically, if possible) a drizzle of cream (I suppose some pesto paste might also be good), grinding of black pepper, some croutons if liked and there is your soup. Advantages of doing it like this is that anti gaspi is exactly that, no waste, no peelings choppings or dicings and if properly presented looks like you have spent a lot of time doing it the traditional way.

Nick, I'm not trying to "top" your story but I thought you might like to hear of a story from my part of France, the Dordogne. A good friend (French) lives on one of the routes on the Compostelle but of course a long way away from the Spanish border. She puts out a flask of coffee and biscuits by her gate each morning with a note to pilgrims to help themselves. One year, a young German man appeared, helped himself to the biscuits and the contents of the flask and stayed chatting animatedly until lunch time. Martine and her husband invited the young man to have some lunch which the young man gratefully and charmingly accepted. After lunch, it being a very hot afternoon, the German asked whether he might be permitted to take a dip in their pool. Go ahead, they said and the man didn't need a second invitation. He spent most of the afternoon swimming and relaxing by the pool. He came back into the house after his swim, spotted the piano in a corner of the lounge and asked whether he might have a tinkle on it. My friends, by now thoroughly bemused and not knowing how the young man's stay would pan out, said OK, why not? After his piano session, it was getting for dinner time. Martine felt obliged to say, well you might as well have something to eat before you leave. Again the young German accepted with gratitude. As you can imagine, the next step was bed as my friends, being my sort of age, are not used to late nights. The end of the tale approaches. The young man slept the night and left the following morning after a hearty breakfast and left with many expressions of thanks and a slip of paper with his phone number for keeping in touch. My final question to my friend was, and did you hear from him again? Oh no, never, but it was an entertaining tale, the way she told it but I don't think I have reproduced the telling here. She told it with many gallic shrugs, mischievous looks and smiles and I laughed my head off

Right, Wools, but wouldn't you really need the gabarit of un sumo wrestler?

And I have been looking at headlines and couldn't work out what a pochoir is. Apparently, it's a stencil, I suppose they mean a blue print on which to base criteria for judgement. When I was having cushions cut to size, the firm asked me to make them a gabarit

Our neighbours over the road have just put their property on the market this week, so I think the answer to your question is YES.

Hitler's was a completely different situation, Wooly. It was war time and state sanctioned murder was permissible.

The word is "bourbier" and she used it to describe the state of the present administration. Apologies to anyone who already knows this word.

Indeed, Loiseau, sometimes I do say chienne but it never sounds quite "right" to me. Don't know why. It's like "cheffe" for chef and whatever the word is for a woman professeur. As most pet owners treat their animals like children, I suppose it's OK to ask if it's a boy or a girl. At least I think that's still acceptable because we haven't yet decided if animals can be bisexual, of indeterminate sex or any number of bewildering combinations.

No, Martin, that post was in jest and Nick does like a joke! In an earlier post, in reply to Lori, I'd already said I hoped no one else would be attacked like that. This last post was a riposte to Nick's reference to Baldwin whose murder case was dismissed and the ex Trump bit was because he is referred to as the ex president and also to recall the Monty Python's joke about a dead parrot being called an ex parrot. I am not a Trump fan, nor am I a Jo Brand fan....don't like either of them. However, I do not wish them a violent death!

If unsure, I ask c'est une fille ou un garçon?

I used to go to a guns and knives shop to collect my mondial relai parcels but, as that was a specialist shop, I expected the sale of these types of goods. I suppose with Decathlon, you could say shooting is after all a sport, an Olympic sport no less. It's not like dispensers and ammo selling next to cheese, is it?

Nick, I like that...a LOT! The best of all worlds, the assassin chap would get off scot free and Trump would be.....well, ex-Trump, wouldn't he?