PossumGirl

[quote user="PeterG"]You could try this web site http://www.thewordsmith.cjb.net/ They claim to be a non-profit making organisatiion. Peter [/quote] That is so weird.  I wonder what he gets out of it?  I know there are people out there who are simply benevolent, which is lovely, but as someone who translates professionaly, I can tell you that it's a lot of work for long documents.  I can't imagine making the offer of free translation services available to all comers!  Unless he's independently wealthy and just enjoys doing this? Of course, the sick-humored side of me wonders if he doesn't provide you with a document that reads like Monty Python's Hungarian Phrase Book? PG

Clearly, this is one of those things that seems to depend on the practitioner, here. I'm with Ian, I think.  Better to keep it up.  She's been on it with no side-effects, so why mess around with success. Of course, I think this will mean buying Heartgard in the U.S., as it's not available here.  There is another drug that some people use called Milbemax, but I always worry about switching in case THAT one does cause side effects... Thanks all. PG

Anyone know if we have heartworm here in France?  I tend to get blank looks when I mention it to people, but that may just be because I'm not using the exact term.  I've been treating with Heartgard just to be sure, as Maggie has been on it since she first came to live with us.  I hate to take the chance of stopping it if it is, indeed, a risk. What do any of you do? PG

Thanks for the info. Burns had sent me the info on Lifestyles and I did contact them, but the shipping charges from there to here really increase the price of the food. I may have no choice, however, if I can't find anything else that works for us. What would make it affordable would be if I could find someone in this area who would also like to order from them, then we could gang up our quantities to make the shipping charges more reasonable. PG

I have a ten-year-old Border Collie who is allergic to brewer's yeast.  This ingredient, unfortunately, is present in at least 90% of commercially prepared dog foods, including the super premium brands and the ones slated for "sensitive" diets. I've been using Burns, but the distributor who was nearest to us died tragically, and her business has not been taken over by anyone else.  The other Burns distributor recommended by Burns in the UK is far enough away that the shipping costs make the food hideously expensive for us. Does anyone have any suggestions of a brand that they've used that works well and which, to their knowledge, does NOT contain brewer's yeast?  I've tried home cooked and raw diets, but Maggie is a very difficult eater, and croquettes seem to work the best for her in the long run. Thanks. PG

[quote user="gwenn"]I was wondering what's the going rate for French Lessons. I was quoted 35 Euros per hour for one-to-one lessons at the Teachers' house - that seems a lot? or is it? Thanks :)[/quote] I suppose that I may be overly cheap, but I charge 15€ per lesson at my house.  I do both English and French conversation (weird, I know, but my students seem pleased). My thought was that most of the people in our area don't have a lot of money, and if I charged more, they wouldn't be able to pay. PG

Never mind. I decided to go back to the tried and true and stay with Blogger.  I suppose sometimes it doesn't pay to spend the time on the learning curve for what you get out of it. PG

Does anyone here use Movabletype software for blogging?  I've been using Blogger, but my webhosting company offered Movabletype for a very low price and I thought I would change over.  However, there are one or two things I'm having trouble achieving and was wondering if there was someone about with experience in it. TIA, PG

[quote user="pouyade"]Ok, going to sound thick BUT was the cert.n-c  from Toyota in US or France (or even Japan)? Am in not disimilar situation - we have a Suzuki UK reg but originally a US import to UK. [/quote] It has to come from the French company, Pouyade.  It would have been too easy if we could have just gotten it from the U.S.! Actually, the most complicated part was filling out the forms that the DRIRE gave us, which asked a lot of questions that to us read like "Blah, blah, blah, Ginger.  Blah, blah, Blah" (to quote the FAR SIDE).  It had nothing to do with not understanding French, which we clearl do.  It had to do with understanding CAR, which we clearly do not! PG

[quote user="Will the Conqueror"]Sunday Driver, another can be found by searching for a story from Washy about a non-EU specification Range Rover.[/quote] Believe it or not, our GOOD experience was with the same DRIRE inspector with whom Washy had so much trouble! I have to say that we got along great with him from day one and he actually went out of his way to help us and be nice.  There were probably several reasons for this, one of them being that our flight from the Shrub and the U.S. political situation appealed to his politics, another was that we write comic books and he's a fan, and, we were considered re-patriating French citizens, something of which he approved. At any rate, he is no longer there, having returned to an actual mine to work. PG

We brought our US manufactured Toyota Echo with us when we moved last year. It was neither expensive nor a nightmare to get it registered. We needed a certificate of non-comformité (clearly, not being an EU car, it couldn't actually conform) from Toyota.  Although it took a bit of time to get it, we got it no problem.  We sent them a check, but they sent it back and didn't charge us for it. We went to the DRIRE and got a list of the things that needed to be changed.  They were all minor and our local garagiste was able to do them all in about a day.  The one thing we needed was another letter from Toyota, because although the seatbelt on the Driver's side conformed to EU standards, the cheapos at Toyota had NOT put a similar ticket on the passenger side belt, and that, unfortunately, was the one that was looked at!  The guy from the DRIRE was sorry that he had seen that one first, but we had to go through procedure.  So, we got a letter (that took quite a bit longer than we would have liked) saying that there were no conforming parts available for our seatbelts in the EU, and with that and the other changes, we got approved. The total cost for all the changes came to just over 200€.  And, the slowest part of the process was dealing with Toyota. PG

Since I'm not into eating raw poultry anyway, I'm not particularly concerned.  I think as long as we don't sleep with the darned things in the house, we should be safe.  Most of the humans who have been infected are actually living in close proximity to the birds.  And, since many of them are children, my guess is that their handwashing leaves a lot to be desired.  From what I've read, touching a contaminated bird and then touching your eyes/nose/mouth seems to be the main way of getting infected. PG

[quote user="Teamedup"]I can't say that the people who gave us plain veg are bad cooks. We have had some lovely food in sauces at their home. Just they have been known to get carried away with their own sense of what is good to eat though and how good she at least believed her home grown produce to be.[/quote] I suppose that's just one of those personal differences that crop up.  She probably doesn't understand why you think plain veggies are bland. PG

I came to France several times a year for over 25  years before we finally moved last year.  Of course, a lot of that time was spent visiting friends and family.  At least with our family, everyone eats lots of fruits and vegetables.  The vegetables are always served with the meal, even when there are also potatoes, rice or another starch.  Certainly, my MIL makes lots of different sauces and I've never been served plain vegetables with nothing on them, even if it was butter and seasonings. Don't you think that there are good, bad and indifferent cooks everywhere in the world?  Just because someone is French, doesn't automatically mean that they know how to cook! PG

All of the big supermarkets also have good selections of bio products and even their own bio lines.  I've bought everything flour, butter, sugar, milk, in bio versions.  Just look for the little greet AB printed on the label.  Also, a lot of equitable products are now available. PG

We have a medium-sized dog, certainly no way to pick her up and hold her easily as she weighs 23 kilos!  We live in the south and take her with us just about everywhere with no problem.  There are occasional places that have "no dogs allowed" signs: prefecture, supermarkets, a few larger stores, but other than that we just take her in with us to the bank, the post office, small local shops, restaurants, etc.  My guess would be that a small dog would be even easier, especially if you can train her to be happy insided a comfy bag of some sort. We were in Paris for several days and also had no problems there, but I must admit that we didn't try going to any museums. Good luck. PG

[quote user="jond"] It is often commented upon that France (and certain other European countries) should do more to open up their economies to the guidence and wisdom of the free market. I have had my doubts about the sense of doing this for a while. If a "libralised" economy such as the US can generate such appaling inequality of opportunity and wealth (whatever became of the "trickle down effect to beloved of 1970's free marketeers?)  then, perhaps, the French model of semi-command economics doesn't look so dumb after all. [/quote] The trickle down theory never worked. It was the the brainchild (and I use the term advisedly) of the Reagan administration and threw the US into an economic tailspin.  Once again, the cronies of that period thought only of themselves and to hell with the unimportant poor who didn't vote for them anyway. Certainly there are faults with the French system, but at least it attempts to take care of everyone.  It may fail, but it makes the attempt.  In the US there is really no pretense about that.  To be honest, you're better off in the U.S. if you're rich (especially if you don't like taxes) and in France if you're poor (if you're not into dying in the street). PG

[quote user="JohnM"][quote user="Deimos"] I find it disappointing that much of the world does seem to be splitting into those that have far more than they could ever need and those that have far less than they need - and we are supposed to admire those who have such excessive amounts of money. [/quote] Spot on! Why do we consider that ONLY people who have the trappings of wealth are successful? [/quote] I agree with both of you. Once in a while, DH gets a bit depressed that we haven't been more "successful" in our lives. I remind him that we live in a stunning corner of the world, have a paid-off roof over our heads, plenty to eat, a rich and varied social life full of many good friends, and we get to earn whatever crusts of bread we do at something that we love and find satisfying.  Not many people can say that in this life. There's not much else that we really need, so I'd say we're VERY successful by any standards that really count. The U.S. has become a place of "me, me and more me" in recent years, with many (not all, but many) caring only about their own needs and to hell with anyone else. Sure, there's the occasional big world crisis that floats peoples' boats, but those quickly fade from the public conscious and it's back to celebrity scandals and greed. PG

[quote user="viva"]Comparing the commune I live in now with the small village I lived in in the UK, I certainly think "emotional poverty" is more rife in the UK and I personally think that this is far more damaging. [/quote] The problem, Viva, is that emotional and physical poverty often go hand-in-hand.  When you can't put food on the table and don't know if you'll be sleeping in the street at night, I would imagine that it's hard to find the emotional wherewithal for anything else. PG

[quote user="jond"] I find it very hard to believe that 22% of children in the US, for example, are living in poverty, but if it is based on ability to buy a fridge for their bedrooms and a TV for the shower, perhaps the figure is real. [/quote] I hate to disillusion you, Jond, but it is true.  First of all, about 44 million Americans have no health insurance.  A large percentage of them are children and people with chronic and severe health conditions.  Many people, especially single mothers, belong to the class known as "the working poor." It's not a question of not having money for a fridge in the child's bedroom, it's a question of being able to put food in the barely working fridge in the kitchen. The Bush administration likes to sweep the poor under the carpet, but there are too many of them and more joining their ranks each day.  The middle-class is disappearing and the U.S. has become far more of a have vs. have-not society than at any other time in my memory. I have friends who have contemplated divorce in order to save their family home during a medical crisis.  With no health insurance, it's quite possible to find your entire family impoverished and homeless.  Even those who are lucky enough to have some kind of health insurance often have such high deductibles and co-pays that they still wind up having to file for bankruptcy. One of the biggest psychological benefits that my husband and I have felt since moving here is the knowledge that we won't lose our home if, God forbid, one of us should fall ill. PG

I think they're going to have to learn that there's no guarantee of anything in this world, the way that other industries have had to do. I think of how things are in the U.S., where there is almost no manufacturing left. Everything is being made in China or somewhere else with cheap labor.  Everyone complains about it; but they all keep shopping at WalMart, which buys EVERYTHING from overseas.  You can't have it both ways: cheap goods for you, selling expensive goods to others. Clearly, there's something being offered by the other wine producing countries that people aren't finding from French wines.  The viticulteurs need to see what that is and figure out a way to beat it. Otherwise, they're doomed. PG

Last night I got a phone call from the mother of one of my language students.  Maxime got the results of his last English test: he went from 11/20 to 19/20!!  He told his mother it was all because of my lessons.  Needless to say, I was walking on air!  It totally made up for the fact that I had to "fire" a student on Saturday, because she was so hopelessly awful. PG

[quote user="Will the Conqueror"]That was probably quite correct, as cartes vitales are issued by particular caisses. You shouldn't be stuck though while waiting for a new card - if you need any medication etc just pay for it, get a feuille de soins, and send it, with the prescription, to your new caisse. You will get a refund of the appropriate percentage, then claim for the rest from your top-up provider. Don't forget to get a new European Health Insurance card from your new caisse if you plan to travel anywhere in Europe (including Britain). These are tied to organismes conventionés in France as well as cartes vitales. [/quote] I'm not surprised about the carte vitale being linked to the caisse, however, I would have thought they would have sent us actual notification that we were officially WITH them so that we would know! It hadn't occurred to me to ask about a European Health insurance card.  We don't have plans to travel at the moment, but I'm sure that we will eventually.  Good suggestion.  Thanks, Will. PG

When JM called to find out what to do about the mutuelle question, he was told that since we're now in the system for the new caisse, we shouldn't use our  current cartes vitale.  However, since we haven't received anything new in the mail, that would leave us with nothing.  We're supposed to get a call back from a counselor, who will hopefully be able to give us better information than that, as the person on the phone seemed stymied and unable to tell us what to do. PG

If you don't live near an Asian supermarket, I found Zenfi, which has a huge selection of all kinds of Asian foods.  I ordered mostly Chinese stuff, but they seem to have a good selection of Indian ingredients as well. PG