Catalpa
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Days Won
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Posts posted by Catalpa
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You and Russethouse look as if you might make the perfect couple. [:)][6]
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[quote user="You can call me Betty"][quote user="Pickles"][quote user="You can call me Betty"][quote user="Pickles"][quote user="Russethouse"]What I admire is that two new members have apparently joined the forum just so they can comment on this book......[Www][/quote]And despite desperately wanting answers, neither has been seen since.[/quote]But we're having just as much fun without them, aren't we? And no-one's bought the book?[/quote]Yes, but personally, I'd prefer it if we weren't providing free publicity for a freeloader. Hence the suggestion to remove references to the author and title.[/quote]Oh, I think we're providing them with the sort of "free publicity" that money can't buy...[Www][/quote]And certainly, I like to feel I've helped the book in my small way by "liking" both the thoughtful and considered reviews (averaging a whole 2 stars) on the .co.uk Amazon site. [:D]
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[quote user="Zero Cool"]What the heck does cultivating yourself mean?[/quote]Sitting in the dark under a blanket of nice warm manure while reading books like the OP's, I suspect. With a backlit ereader. It's not nationality or culture specific. Though possessing an ereader may be.
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Well, we're certainly encouraged to think that Pierre was the killer with a conscience... and more to the point, I reckon that's what Victor thinks... [:-))]I can't figure out Léna's wound... maybe as they are twins, that's the injury that Camille suffered during the bus accident? They're getting to be a jolly little gang up at the Helping Hand... Victor, Mrs Costa, Simon...Serge is the serial killer... poor Léna but really, empty road vs that underpass... I'd walk across the road every time.I can't believe the ending will be as good as the story - it's a rare writer that has the imagination to follow through with a really satisfying, original ending. But I'm enjoying the storytelling...
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[quote user="nectarine"]Who watched it last night? [/quote]Meeeeeee... I watched it. So Clair, look away now... unless you've caught up.Another engrossing episode. I still have no idea what's going on... especially with the plumbing. The town seems to have France's total allocation of cctv; is Camille's snacking habit now grabbing the family cat off the end of the bed and chomping down? The scene with Laure and Julie in their pvc onesies does at least explain why Laure was so intense when interviewing the murder suspect last episode. I think Julie did see the killer in the hoodie (that's Serge, right? He arrived to say hi to his taxidermist brother wearing hoodie and suspiciously blood-stained t-shirt) but I think Victor summoned the killer in some way... I really hope that little Victor didn't take Mrs Nosy Neighbour's offer of "something to eat" that literally. [:-))] Anyway, I think the killer was at the apartement block to take care of Mrs Neighbour but, having seen him from the bus, Julie then hallucinated him and was 'saved' by Victor.I really hope that the show is bought to an imaginative, quality conclusion and that the writer doesn't just tell a good story but is capable of providing a satisfying ending too.
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Mattresses are a tricky thing, I think. Most of our beds have good quality British mattresses bought online for very reasonable prices as we knew what we were looking for in terms of firmness, othopaedic (or not), springs per square... [8-)]whatever the measurement is, etc.We have two French mattresses which cost more than the UK-sourced mattresses and are about 50% of the quality. They aren't wearing as well - even with thick, soft waterproof mattress protectors. But getting British mattresses to France was easy for us as we're 90 minutes south of Caen so transport wasn't a hassle.If I was in the market for chairs and sofas, I'd probably buy from Ikea and choose plain fabrics and then personalise with non-Ikea throws and cushions, etc.You could look at some of the mail order companies...La Redoute Maison3Suisses Or you could see what's available on your local AngloInfo - people are moving on all the time and you can often pick up (for a good price) something they've found in a brocante or depot vente and no longer want / need.
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[quote user="powerdesal"]If the tax laws are wrong then surely the blame lies with those who make the laws, not with those who obey them.[/quote]PD, I totally agree. When a member of the government is interviewed on this, they weasel around with how difficult tax laws are to frame without loopholes, etc and how morally, companies should be paying more. Well, fine... simplify the tax laws and enforce them. Since when was paying tax that is not due a moral thing? Whatever, but don't expect that customers should do their job for them by boycotting Amazon, etc. I wonder whether French people not being motivated by personal book ownership / reading (as observed earlier) is a chicken and egg situation. Books are priced out of the average French person's reach and therefore reading one's own books is a habit not formed or considered worth acquiring. When the TheBookPeople started up in the UK - with their heavily discounted new books - their titles and distribution methods (brochures in newspapers, phone ordering, online and physical books sold direct into factories and large offices via reps) encouraged and developed a whole new readership group in the UK. Okay a lot of those people who would (they said) never have gone into Waterstones to buy a book were now buying "autobiographies" [:P] by Jordan and her ilk, by footballers and F1 drivers but they were reading. If France had TheBookPeople and similar, perhaps book ownership and readership would increase.Does anyone know if the Kindle and other ebook readers are doing well in France? Compared to the UK?
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Idun, you miss my point. Which, since you aren't actually watching the series, isn't surprising.Regardless of what French people think about civil vs religious ceremonies, if Adèle and Simon had their civil ceremony ahead of what looked like the religious ceremony, then they were married before he died. Now he has returned - and I'm guessing she will shortly realise that he's not an hallucination and is still "alive" - they're presumably still married. Which kinda puts a dampener on her imminent nuptials with Monsieur Gendarme (whose name escapes me).
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[quote user="Clair"] We're still nowhere near
finding out who Victor is... [/quote]I first thought he might be a child (ie, a baby or infant) that Julie lost oraborted... but that doesn't stand up to scrutiny as it would appear that thereturned haven't aged... judging by Simon and Camille. So perhaps her history(whatever it might be but there is one judging by her tears and the scars)makes her receptive to taking care of a child like Victor. Dunno.[quote user="Clair"]And what about the young man beaten about thehead by the bar owner? and the dead hanging wolf (?) suddenly revived?[/quote]Simon losing it in the bar puzzled me... perhaps they all have self-controlissues when they return. Their humanity is residual? Camille trashing hersister's room, for eg. The dog (I assumed dog rather than wolf) was there to betaxidermied, perhaps? because there were other stuffed animals in the house.Bit of a bummer if they all start returning... [+o(] Nice that the bar ownerhas a shotgun a) within easy reach and b) fully-loaded when he needs it. SoFrench. [;-)]The guy who bar owner / taxidermist belted round the head with a shovel is thekiller (well, perhaps not killer) of underpass woman, isn't he? Judging byclothes and by blood-spattered front? And bar owner is his brother? Or father?Sometimes I'm so busy looking at the scene, I neither take in the French or getto the sub-titles fast enough.[quote user="Clair"]And there's something I don't like about thereligious counsellor bloke. He's more dodgy than anyone else...[/quote]It's his mouth... there's something odd about it. Not the actor's fault, I'msure... I wonder if he's involved in the how / why of those returning.The almost wedding service between Simon and Adèle... that was a church, wasn'tit? So they must have had the civil ceremony prior to any religious service? Inwhich case, Simon and Adèle were married... [8-)]
Thisis really really good telly. -
[quote user="Pommier"]It's a spooky town - all those new builds and underpasses and all rather deserted...[/quote]Yes, the deserted bit is very rural France but I question the likelihood of all those lights burning in the village at night... in Normandy everything is shuttered and black by 8pm or darkness, whichever is earlier. [:)]I wonder if the poor guy who jumped off the dam will now return... E2A: I meant to say that I thought the girl who was stabbed in the underpass seemed to recognise her attacker. She seemed to look at him in shock - more than "just" the shock you'd show in that situation.E2A2: it's repeated this evening at around 11pm on 4Seven if anyone needs a second look.
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Was it good for you? [:D] I loved it... it has real potential... really gripping.
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[quote user="woolybanana"]YCCMB, weren't you a mod over there under another name?[/quote]Genuinely rotfl [:-))]... and now covered in cat fluff... Gods, it would have been a better site if you had been, Betty... [:D]
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It's had very good reviews and if you like that sort of thing (I do [:D]) it sounds as if it'll definitely be worth watching.
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An "official" turns up unannounced to check you're in residence. The fellow I referred to earlier (signed off with depression) had two visits in consecutive weeks. And his hours of confinement were, iIrc, 9am - midday and then 2 - 5pm... except for, as someone commented, medical appointments or verifiable appointments at the mairie with the assistante sociale, etc. It's quite onerous if someone wants to take advantage of a morning of sunshine for a brisk walk before rain sets in. But he was French and I think many French people don't like to rock the boat... outside of major grèves, manifs, etc. But then, I know mostly older (40+) people and in a very rural area so that may be a poor sample for the generalisation.We felt very sorry for him.
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Perhaps ticking the box that confines one to the house during working hours (approximately) is the default setting in doctors' heads? Or, I wonder if there's an element of professional classes are not confined to barracks during the arrêt whereas tradesmen, artisans, etc, who could be malingering and (horror) working au noir during their arrêt get the confinement box ticked. Dunno. OH is on an arrêt at the moment and he is an artisan but he has full liberty and didn't have to ask... perhaps because he's had a hip replaced (plus complications) and his surgeon prepared the arrêt. So OH's problems are known fact compared to someone who has undefined back problems (for eg).
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[quote user="Pommier"]Isn't the French system exactly why there are fewer 'lead swingers' in France than in the UK? Seems a good system to me - and they are allowed out to go for medical treatment![/quote]I don't know... but I do know of someone locally signed off with depression who was confined to the house most of the day except lunchtime (of course). He lived alone and I'm really don't think being confined helped his mental state at all. Fewer malingerers perhaps - aggravates depression at the other end of the scale?
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I think the chasse is your only legal option. They will probably (or should) dispatch the captive animal in the cage so no transportation is necessary. Bear in mind that if Mr N has not got his own licence to chasse (he's passed his exam etc) then it's illegal for him to be shooting anything. I don't suppose anyone locally will care but...Ensure your chasse doesn't put poison down for them - can be a very painful and drawn-out death and indiscriminate in what it kills. Can you scare them off? We have a couple of visiting ragondin for a few weeks each spring but they seem to object to us tramping round the pond so they eat some of the surrouding foliage, renovate a few existing holes and then disappear again.
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[quote user="Duncan"]Does that seem about right? Any other options?[/quote]Before we had a proper garden (and I'm not entirely sure we do even now because my bramble crop is once again just a bit too extravagant) our neighbour used to graze her sheep on the grass and that was a nice and effective way of keeping the grass short. Occasionally they let the first flush of grass grow and they made a few bales of hay from the cutting mid-May.A friend in a nearby village has a neighbour who grazes a few cows for a few weeks in spring on the land surrounding their house - in fact, their guard cows are in there now. [:D] Downside are a few cowpats, I suppose, but the grass is kept at a manageable height.[quote user="Cendrillon"]Ditto, opening is not the problem and takes no time, leaving and closing the house is much more time consuming IMO.[/quote]I agree totally.
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The CHU Caen reference was just as useful, Norman - Rennes is about 20 minutes further away for us compared to Caen and our interest in Rennes is simply based on OH's kiné recommending Rennes as having an excellent reputation for hip operations.
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[quote user="BJSLIV"]By the time I remembered to continue the booking, I had to restart and the price had increased by another £30. [/quote]I've had that - I've got a quote for X and then the internet connection has failed before I've had time to complete the booking. When I try again, even just a few minutes later, the price has increased. I think it's cookie related. Either clear your cookies before starting again or use a different browser to the one used for the first attempt at booking. I normally use Firefox so I use Chrome to re-do the booking. This method has always delivered the original (lower) price.
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That's an interesting observation, Wooly - and no doubt a factor in why there seems to be a lot of anecdotal opinion around (from nurses, ambulance drivers, etc) about the level of infections in hospitals but in OH's brief forays into online research, he wasn't coming up with much... though our internet connection is appalling at the moment and sometimes searches give up before delivering results with the little likelihood of actually loading a site - quite before trying to navigate around it. Norman, I had seen your previously posted link to Le Point's annual reports but it didn't seem to have quite what we wanted but OH spent a bit of time last night looking at Le Express's information.Thank you for your good wishes, Betty (good blog, btw - I often clickover) and P did have a rummage around the InVS site last night and got some good information - mainly that "our" polyclinic doesn't score well for a variety of reasons and the main hospital at Rennes (which we already knew was a well-regarded centre for hip ops) scores very well. He has a follow up meeting with his surgeon next Friday so he'll discuss it with him then and at least he'll have a few facts to take with him. The irritating thing is, he was due to have had his second hip done on 24th April but the infection prevented that happening and it's likely that the surgeon will want a few more months to elapse before the second one can be done which means he can't work or even walk or do much because while the first hip is great, the second one - due to the level of inactivity, probably - is even worse now.But he recovered [:D]... and certainly, by the time he was wheeled back after his "clean-up" op, my fingernails were worn down to the first finger joint... having a houseful of cd'h guests didn't help, either...[:-))]Thanks all - very helpful.
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Does anyone know whether France publishes statistics on hospitals / clinics and their levels and types of hospital-based infections? OH had a hip replacement recently. Good surgeon, hip great, shame about the staph infection - not the MRSA variety, fortunately, and it has responded to a cocktail of antibiotics - but we'd rather like to do a bit of research before he goes to have the second hip done and perhaps choose a different hospital / polyclinic.Innocent souls that we are, we asked our médecin traitant this afternoon but he just looked horrified that we should be asking for such information and said it wasn't available. And perhaps it isn't...? [8-)]
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You can teach dogs to pee on command - though we did that with pups not adults. Still, the principle should be the same. As they pee (preferably outside!) say peeeeeee-time, peeeeeee-time (or whatever similarly distinctive memorable words or sounds might appeal to you). Then, as Paul says, give the dog a treat. Once the dog has caught on to the idea, it will pee when and where you ask it to. It's a very useful trick if you're going out and leaving dog in house or car (ferry trips for eg) etc. However, I would say (even though your vet has obviously been consulted about this problem) when one of our previously-clean-in-the-house dogs started peeing lakes in the kitchen, it was the onset of a tumour that pressed on her bladder and which presumably caused her to need to pee immediately and not when she was taken outside a while before or later. So it's not impossible it is something physical.Good luck in solving the problem / changing the behaviour.
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[quote user="Russethouse"]Why I or any other UK tax payer should subsidise Mick Philpotts life of arrogance, dogging and debauchery heaven knows - do you ? [/quote]But how do you provide support for the children without 'subsidising' the parents. I'm not entirely sure removing the children at birth is an option (who makes that judgement and on what criteria?) and apart from providing their children with abysmal adult role models, it appears from the little I've heard and read, the children were well-cared for and weren't truanters (is that a word?) and there were no concerns from social services (or anyone else) about their general welfare.Until... [:(]
The French ability to cultivate the self
in French Culture
Posted