Suze01

That's amazing Naps.  [Y]  Well done.   I'm hoping to go below that horroble 13st mark this week or next.

I'm seeing an English friend tomorrow (locally) who has two horses,  she may be OK if you want  to go over and ride with her - she has offered me to go out riding in the past (and I'm not a very good rider!).  I'll get back to you tomorrow.

I saw Richard & Judy's review last night and went straight on to Amazon and bought it! I did the same with Shadow of the Wind last year and wasn't disappointed and it doesn't sound as though I'll be disappointed this time ether.

[quote user="Chantal"] here in the area are not much horses. just a couple of work horses from french farmers. but not really for riding and stuff. maybe it's fun to meet sometimes and ride together or something.[/quote] Hi Chantal, I don't live that far from you (about 45 minutes) and there are loads of riding stables and pony-clubs near here - I can think of at least 5 with-in twenty minutes of here. This is the link to the FFE and the page that lists all the registered clubs: click [url=https://www.telemat.org/FFE/sif/?cs=4.b39d4fda2ab03b14c0723bd589000c37aee3] here[/url] for the clubs in Dordogne. I can recommend a very friendly place where my daughter (aged 8 and completely horse-mad) goes but it may be too far from you. PM me if you'd like to know more. EDIT: I've just checked your location and you are probably about 45 minutes from us.

Is this cricket?

We always have eaten our meat rare. Having a good piece of steak cooked right through, to me, would be like eating a bit of old shoe leather.  We probably eat our meat even rarer now than we did before moving here in answer to your question.

[quote user="Russethouse"]However people are already saying 'be careful not to lose too much' esp at my age,  50+ and I am still 20lbs away.................I might be/look awfully 'saggy' and wrinkly............ I wonder if there is an adjustment for age allowed anywhere ?   [/quote] I always think that older people look so much healthier with a bit of flesh on them. Skinny people also seem to look older than their years. Muscle tone is important too.  My 87 year old FIL who lives with us is almost 100% sedentary (he's very poorly), he has lost so much muscle tone and now he is almost just skin and bones - keep those muscles moving.

[quote user="Chantal"]Hi, my name is Chantal and I'm 16 years old. I'm looking for people of my age who also love in the Dordogne(24). I live nearby Thiviers. and it's kinda boring here[:P] [/quote] "Love" in the Dordogne Chantal? Isn't that a little forward! [:$]

[quote user="chessie"]Hello Orion 2 I'm also having problems 'logging-on' - cannot access your site at all; even by exiting Living France web-site and trying www.aquitaine-people-and-property.com - I'm not having any success. Get message along the lines 'URL couldn't be found...etc..' Where are you ?? Chessie [/quote] I had no problem at all - just clicked on the link above and it took me straight in. [*-)] Great new site, thanks, I shall become a regular there too!

If that is what your ketle is like then just imagine what the inside of your washing machine/dishwasher/water pipes/toilet cistern mechanism (something that is always going wrong due to scale build-up) etc are like! We have installed a water softener (as we did in our last two UK houses where we had hard water) and the diffence is astounding.  Some say that you shouldn't drink softened water others say the contrary.  Well we do and have found no difference to taste etc. The salt that we put into the softener clearly states that it is also for consumption (AFAIK the salt only 'cleans' the stones inside the softener it doesn't actually go in the water).  My kettle now never gets any scale build-up (even though it is a Brita filter kettle, before having the softener it would still go white after 3 weeks) and the amount of detergent/soap/washing powder etc needed is reduced. The life of appliciances would also be extended - another cost benefit. I would always chose to install a softener if we moved to a hardwater area. To get rid of the scale in your kettle I agree with chrispp - plain white vinegar is the best, much better and hugely cheaper than any 'special' product.

Body Mass Index - a good indicator of your fatness! I've just calculated mine on this website http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmicalc.htm and it came out at 30.1, just in the 'obese' category, but by next week I'll just be 'overweight' [;)]

Week 3, well only 19 days in fact, and I've now lost a total of 5 lb, three in the first and one at last Sunday's weigh in and another one today! Weight now stands at 84.6k / 13st 4.5 lb / 186.5 lb I broke my tee-totality last night with a couple of glasses of bubbly, first alcohol since New Year (OH smashed the toilet cistern and was fed up so opened a bottle of bubbly [*-)][:D]) - funny but I'm not missing it and it really was the primary cause of my weight gain so hopefully if I only have the rare glass or two my weight should continue to drop. I must do more excercise this week - I only did one 45 minute dog walk and one walk to school with the dog, 30 minutes (poor dog!)

I wasn't sure whether to put this into 'Wildlife' or 'Sport' so I plumped for the Postbag instead. There's an article in the Times today regarding this so-called 'sport'.  Although illegal in France (two year jail sentence imposable)  there are a few villages in Pas de Calais that are still permitted to hold fights as they can prove a long tradition of cockfighting.  The article says that there are Brits flocking over on day trips to see the fights. The cocks are equiped with spurs and so it is particularly brutal with innevitable deaths of the birds: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2003836_1,00.html

We have got a couple of these cute little chaps living behind a picture  in our hallway.  They quite often go promenading around the kitchen walls - I've called it Shrek due to it's colour [:^)] The nearest spider to it on the website above is Micrommata virescens F

I give private English classes to two 14 year olds.  Their level is lower than it should be IMO.  I always check through various work books for their year (and below) when I'm preparing their lessons to make sure that it is a grammar point that they should be learning or have already learnt and it always amazes me that they they don't know grammmar points that they should have done in sixieme. Also their vocabulary level is very low, which makes it difficult sometimes. Can we expect them to remember different grammar points when they're having a couple of English lessons a week at collège and not using English outside of these lessons? - we know how hard it is to learn French when we are almost 'immersed' in it.

Re the insurance thing, it's best to check your individual policy.  When we were having a solid wooden door replaced last year with French windows our insurers stipulated that we had to have either shutters (to be closed when house is unnoccupied), a fixed grille or security glass to a certain standard (ie that cannot be smashed through).  My advice would be to check the small print, insurers can vary enormously. I wonder how many of us have actually looked through the small print of our policies to see what is and isn't covered.

My second weigh-in: 85.2k / 187.5 lb / 13st 5.5 lb A little disappointing, I only lost 1 lb this week (I lost three pounds in the first, tuesday-sunday).  Not bad overall I suppose though, 4 lb in 12 days. Must do more excercise this week. I am aiming to get under that 13st mark in the next fortnight, just over two and a half pounds per week, so feasable. Good luck Gay with the op, hope you make a swift and full recovery.

If it's cold, shut them to keep out the cold. If it's hot , shut them to keep out the hot air (and flies). If it's hot, open them at night along with the windows (as long as you've got mosquito nets!) to cool the house, but make sure to shut them again before it starts getting too hot again in the morning. If you're leaving the house, shut them for insurance purposes. If none of the above apply do what you will!

There's at least one on eBay.fr at the moment (new I believe).

Apparently they can get quite big.  I remember seeing a guy being interveiwed on TV who had just come back from travelling, was in the shower washing himself down and thought OMG I've got three testicles  [+o(]

[quote user="SaligoBay"]s aghast that his French friend in 6ème was told that "fangs" translates as "false teeth".   There have been other misleading translations, but I can't remember them now.   It's not a case of American v British, it's just lack of knowledge, I think. [/quote] My son's  english teacher mispronounces  many words.  She insists than 9th is pronounced nin-th.  He lost a mark for not writing 'television-set' instead of television: who these days says "television-set"?

[quote user="Sevenup"]I am thinking that maybe I should purchase a good French Dictionary and simply read through the French descriptions. My French is not that good but at least it may enable me to find the words. Can anyone suggest a really good French (France) Dictionary. [/quote] I did just that, having been frustrated at not finding the words in my (quite thick) French-English dictionary.  I bought Larousse de Poche - not actually pocket sized, it about A5 and more than 2 inches thick, I have found all the words that I've looked for so far in it.

[quote user="Alexis"]Well, I am VERY happy as I got weighed this morning and I had lost another kilo. Seeing that I started last Sunday I thought I would 'just check'[:)] I shall do the same in a week - as well as Friday - then I will know what a fortnight on induction can produce....if you are sin free. Where is that halo? [/quote] Well done, it's a great feeling having lost some weight. I wonder what all our collective weight loss is so far? How many packets of, say - butter it equates to [:O]

I only declared my first weigh-in weight on Tuesday but I've just re-weighed for the first time: [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] I've lost 3 lb.  THREE [Y]  in less than a week. I'm now a svelt 85.4 kilos / 13st 6.5 lb / 188.5 lb - only another  2 and a half stone to go. No alcohol, very little if any bread/cakes biscuits etc. no potatoes or pasta.  Lots of water.  On Friday we went out to lunch (had a salad, no bread, fizzy water) and I wore a pair of trousers that just before Christmas I could not do up (2" at least between the zips).  I'm a lot less bloated now and do feel less fat. I'm happy with that [*]

I have been very good and have been drinking loads of water, though probably not as much as two litres per day.  Of course, if you're drinking loads of water you have to visit the littlest room more often... Last night I had to go to my son's Collège for a meeting about his forthcoming ski trip, after an hour an a half I just couldn't squirm about any longer, I was really desperate, some of the other parents were asking really dumb questions which were already answered in the feuilles we had been given [:#], I had to slip out of the meeting otherwise something very embarrassing would have happened [:$] Moral: if going to a meeting - hold off the water during the day.