Judith
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Posts posted by Judith
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4 hours ago, menthe said:
Besides giving false hope and possibly lead to lack of vigilance on the patient's part. For example, if you think you are "free" of cancer, you might not be on the look-out for symptoms of its return or its spread.
Being on the qui vive could mean your survival.
Quite, could not agree more. Especially since I've just today had my second 3-month clear report - but need to go at least a year before anything changes .. but as you say, dear Menthe, one is never totally free of cancer .. until death, of course. Sorry to be morbid, but you know that is true, as see above, so does NormanH and I presume several more on here. Still, I shall celebrate my news for one evening, at least!
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Prices in France, no matter where, have gone up since Covid. I am talking about local restos, as is NormanH, in our village, though his "village" is a rather large town with more choice of restos. The portion sizes have also got smaller too, other than the huge steaks, full of fat, which we (OH and I) would not eat. Our favourite restaurant, now changed hands, as the children grew, he left for the big city, I know cooked almost everything chez lui, but even he admitted he bought in his beautifully thin chips and ice cream, probably from Brakes, because his kitchen was not large enough to house the machines to make them. It's what they do with them that matters. He bought the rest himself. Personally, I prefer to pay a little bit extra and get quality food, portion size is not everything. It is now a tapas type restaurant, very popular, good quality food, homemade, tasty but not particularly cheap either. It's quite small when the outside terrace is not in use, as now, but usually pretty full, even so. And these are locals, not tourists as this time of year.
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Indeed NormanH,
But we weren't coming from Beziers, there was no signpost, even though we knew the road we needed from Puisseguier which was our route to it .. the town was not well signposted, we ended up somewhere else on our first try and it was very well hidden, though when we did find it, finding out whether they were indeed open, or active was impossible. I might add that the map you give shows where it is, is does not tell you that the road is not as it seems on that map. And there was a new road which I had never seen before. Both of us can navigate perfectly well, and drive to the UK and back as well with fewer problems than finding Le Petit Beret. Another time!!
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22 minutes ago, betise said:
Apparently, the date the new system goes live is from the 16th January.
Not sure Betise - that's about the date I did the test for them, and I've seen nothing since to say it is now active.
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18 minutes ago, DaveLister said:
Thanks Judith for the feedback. I certainly won't be making an expedition anytime soon. Sounds like a typically French operation.😀
Indeed, and they close for lunch too!
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6 hours ago, NormanH said:
I enjoy this site
https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/week/béziers_france_3032833
That is for my town, but you can set it to anywhere in 'location'
On "weather maps' there is a good menu on the left in which you can choose things. I find the 'radar' option with EU 2 hour interesting
Thanks, now that does look useful.
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1 hour ago, DaveLister said:
If you look at the eligibility to vote you still need to have been a UK resident in the last 15 years.
That's the current regulation .. and it is intended to remove that limitation once the law has been effected I think you'll find.
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On 05/01/2024 at 16:45, DaveLister said:
Judith, have you tried the Le Petit Béret range of alcohol free wines? They are the first ones I've found that actually taste like the real thing.
On 06/01/2024 at 08:12, DaveLister said:Judith, I'd be really interested in your opinion after your visit. I've only been able to find it once locally and a trip to Béziers would entail an overnight stop. Like you, I'd really like to cut down the ubiquitous use of alcohol with every meal but the normal supermarket offerings just don't do it for me.
Dave, currently not able to report success in tasting. Managed, eventually, to find the vineyard, though it would be difficult to find at the best of times, as very badly signposted, but with a time constraint because we'd had traffic and other problems getting there, plus it was pouring down with rain, and cold, but could not find out they were open, even though the web site, and facbook pages were saying it is "open now". How they expect to sell any wine I really do not know!! Our phone call got into a "press this no" etc, which did not pick it up, so we abandoned the idea for that day, had a nice lunch in the nearby town, then went to the hospital on the way back for the appointment which was the reason for setting off at all. We'll try again when the weather improves, but will be telling them what we think of their marketing approach when we do. I had a French speaker with me, though I manage OK, she is an expert (retired teacher of French). We'll certainly making our point of view felt.
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There is a reason why there are so many chateaux for sale at ridiculously low prices. The examples above have only confirmed what I think we knew already. Yes, I have stayed in one or two chateaux hotels, and when well done they are fabulous, if not cheap, but I've also stayed in some maisons de maître which were cold, fancy furniture, but so totally lacking in anywhere comfortable to sit and laze. The ones that work best have that also sussed.
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I had a very low alcohol beer (0.4%) whilst was in the UK .. in the village pub where y sister lives, brewed by Carlsberg, as it happened and called a hoppy beer. That was pretty acceptable to me, but I don't drink a huge amunt of beer (ie lager) here in France and I always did prefer the hoppiness of beer when I did use to drink it. I was working for Whitbread when they brewed the first (I believe) - mid 80's - low or non-alcoholic beer, which I think would be a lager type to us, and I gather it was regarded quite highly for taste ..was it called Barbican? - I didn't drink it then, as I was not then "banned" from drinking alcohol!!
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58 minutes ago, betise said:
Yes, I know, but I'd like to taste it first. As Dave says, the supermarket offerings do little for me, and as they are so close it seems worth a small detour (well it's hardly that, in fact, just not my usual way to get to Beziers .. ie a minor change of route!! I'll tel you know what I think, Dave.
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32 minutes ago, DaveLister said:
Judith, have you tried the Le Petit Béret range of alcohol free wines? They are the first ones I've found that actually taste like the real thing.
Dave, that's <exactly> the place we are going to find next week... about 30 minutes from us! Going to make it a nice day out too, with some lunch, somewhere!! If you say they are good, that's most encouraging as I must admit I do find I am better without the alcohol, but do so miss a decent tasting alternative! Though during this festive season I have found a glass of blanquette works well, as an occasionaly treat such as Christmas Day, but that's not for every day, of course!
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1 hour ago, Hectorsdad said:
Just a quick reply for now though I do have much more waiting in my head for later.
We had a meal out after Christmas with friends at a cheaper end restaurant where I normally have a pint of Guinness while the others order wine. As a driver, I decided to try zero alcohol Guinness for the first time. It had a similar taste to the real thing but lacked the usual body. I will avoid it in the future. So that’s another choice gone.
That's sort of my experience with the no alcohol wine, lacks that je ne sais quoi! The red tastes like grape guice, the white is a bit thin (I like a hefty white with body) and the rosé, well that's the only semi reasonable one I am finding .. so far. I'm drinking stuff I brought back from the UK (Tesco's offerings) in October, but with luck are going to investigate a vineyard close to here which offers only non-alcohol stuff next week. Could be interesting.
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My bête noir - in both countries, plates overloaded with meat and potato - or the inevitable frites, with little or no appearance of vegetables. Plonked one of top of the other .. confusion to the palate and the eye all round. Portion sizes either huge, or tiny, you can never tell which until they arrive - again in both countries. Restaurants show up the worse for this .. French home cooking I cannot report recently about .. but given the preponderance of kebab shops, the busyness of MacD's when passing, and the pizza places .. I think it's not what it once was. I travel quite a lot in both countries, staying in hotels a reasonable amount, and wish they would make allowance for those with lighter appetites, by offering by something tasty, but different and of a medium size. The decoration of a tiny bit of salad on a place and calling that the vegetable. The lack of a decent non-alcoholic drink which properly accompanies a meal .. plenty of non alcoholic wines around now ... but they don't make the profit wine does of course. The coke and other soft drinks they offer as a non alcoholic replacment are far too sweet to drink with a meal .. I could go on, but won't!
PS the last is because I have to avoid alcohol now as much as possible, due to medication conflicts, but can find nothing to taste right with a meal, and water on its own gets so boring! -
9 hours ago, menthe said:
We are fortunate enough to be able to name our friend for voting on our behalf. The postal votes do not appear to arrive on time.
Also, we trust our named person absolutely to vote as we wish. I think it's important to stress that we do not know how he himself votes or where his political sympathies lie but we do know we can trust him!
That is the most important thing, Menthe. I did use a proxy once, when they were arranging them, and that was easy enough, but online would be so, so much eaiser. Not difficult to keep voting online legal and secure these days .. we already have to verify our voting registration each year, and with secure password and text messages with codes which you now need to do almost anything, no reason at all why online voting can be foolproof.
I would happily trust any of my family to vote for me, they just do not live close enough to my old polling station (which was just at the end of our street - very handy!), to do it. -
20 hours ago, DaveLister said:
I think I remember reading somewhere that they were currently conducting trials to figure out how it would work.
So watch this space.
Yes, I took part in one. However, it was more to do with information, including asking how I would prefer to vote if / when I do. I said online. From my clalcuations, I have only "lost" my vote "this year" but have voted each time, but there is certainly some problem with postal voting, as votes don;t always arrive in time, and the proxy vote doesn't work for me as I know no-one who lives close enough to vote in my old constituency. As I have said before, I always vote as I regard it as my duty to do so. And for those who think I no longer have an interest in the UK poltitics, my reply is always "Of course I do! Where do you think my pension income comes from, never mind that all my family live there."
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Of course, it is a right as I never forget people died to ensure that we ladies did get a vote.
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1 hour ago, menthe said:
Hi ET, lovely to see you back. In fact, was just thinking about you the other day as I came acrosss my small stack of Fred Vargas when sorting out some book shelves.
Didn't realise I still have "Sous les vents de Neptune". You were also a fan like me😄
Blwyddyn Newydd dda!
Thank you, Menthe. Even though I worked in Wales for a few months and tried to learn some Welsh, that was missing from my multi-lingual greetings! It isn't now! Reciprocal wishes, of course!
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Don't bother with NYE - utterly useless, but Vienna's NYD concert, always, with a bottle bubbly or something nice .. depending on what I have in ..didn't buy bubbly so it might be sweet white wine instead this year ..
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39 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said:
Happy xmas ducks…as they say in Derbyshire, Yorkshire and the Dordogne. 🙂
ALBF, NOT in Yorkshire. I'm a Yorkshire girl, ducks is Derbyshire, Midlands.
But Happy Christmas to all too!
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4 hours ago, DaveLister said:
My mutuelle has gone up by 15%. Not sure whether or not that's average.
I heard that quoted as the average on a news item .. got the prices now, more than I was paying for top cover, on th much lower package .. still deciding what to do!
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Not got the prices yes, but the ones Ihave looked at seem to have increased out of all propotion to the cover. With 2 ALD's now I begin towonder if I need to bother!!
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I only worked that out as when OH puts on the log fire and gets it up to quite a temperature, it's usually been too hot for me, and when I go somewhere cooler I find my chest feels much better. Think about those who used to got to the sanatoriums in Switzerland etc, to help with consumption etc ..it's also to do with clearer air, but crsiper conditions seem to help too (but not too cold!).
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Menthe, one of my French friends has an Aygo, she's found it good and it can get quite nippy .. you could do worse ...
time for new words to dislike ...
in The Lighter Side
Posted
Old fashioned I might be, but I still get bugged by split infinitives, and using adjectives instead of adverbs .. in Yorkshire, we also have a particular problem with the usage of "whilst" and "until", which are not the same - except in Yorkshire ..