mint

Thank you for the endorsement and so that is what I shall do[:D] One more thing to make my day complete.  Sue, how do you uninstall Bling as it is not on the applications list?

Thank you, everybody who has replied.  I am ovewhelmed by your  prompt replies and generosity in wanting to help.  It's giving me a nice, warm fuzzy feeling in what is a horrible, cold, raw day. For starters, I am on windows 8 and I have looked at Office but don't really want all those features that I will never use.  I don't see anything called file explorer in the vast list of confusing things that are apparently available to me. If all else fails, I shall download your suggestion, Norman.  After all FREE sounds very good at the moment[:D]

This is getting to be VERY serious for me.  I had an icon on my desktop to enable me to go straight to Microsoft Word and I can write and print as needed. Now it seems that I can only use Wordpad or Notepad and, when I have written on them, I do not have the task bar to print what I have written. I have piles of stuff to write and, if I don't do this when I am in the mood, I will have lost all incentive for the task.  Pen and paper just no longer do it for me.

I heard this on the radio this morning and it literally stopped me in my tracks.  Unbelievably lovely and a wonderful chorus with her.  By the time I went out for my walk this afternoon with my well-distanced friends (and according to official advice), I talked about this endlessly. [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNsgywuMqHI[/url]

Alas, Catalpa, getting there EVENTUALLY might not be enough.  The longer the dilly-dallying, the more time the virus has to mutate and reinvent itself and infect and KILL more and more. The thing about the anti-vaxxers is that, the more the government goes on obtaining written consent, giving excuses, is that the antis have lots more time to tweet and post and spread their cynicism.  A verbal consent should be enough because, after all, we are not talking about major surgery and getting a general anaesthetic, are we?

One question, id, do you make the mince pies and freeze them uncooked and cook them when you get them out the freezer?

Excellent site, Catalpa, and it has made me more depressed than ever. Today, I saw on tv that as many as 16 médecins have so far been vaccinated.  Do we put out flags? No wonder that in this context, France is la risée du monde[+o(]  And, no, I didn't come up with that phrase.....

Norman, have you really not noticed that nomoss is ...er....losing it a bit?[:P] But I did find your link interesting and I also heard a tv discussion tonight where someone said we are the only country in the world that has a pre vaccine consultation with a doctor.  And then the bit about giving the Ehpad folk a written explanation.....!  For crying out loud, by the time the explanations have been read and understanding ascertained and signatures obtained, the occupants of the Ehpads might well have lost the will to live. As they are making such a big thing of the vaccine, it's no wonder that more and more people are viewing it as somehow "dangerous".  As your article has said, why not just treat it as any normal "ordonnance" to be given to those whose health condition allows?  The phrase that comes to my mind from your link is from the doctor who said that "Les morts ne se rattraperont pas"

Thanks for your answers, all your answers, and special thanks again to our Man in Spain[:)] Chessfou, that is the only bugbear with the paper licence.  Unlike the CdS, it really does not fit in a normal wallet and is not of sturdy card, though it IS laminated.  Actually, I got mine out today to have a good look and, for the first time, I noticed that there is a little rectangle with no laminate for you to sign your name[:-))] Maybe, like a passport, it is not valid until you have put your signature to it?

I seem to have always "known" that it lasts until 2033 so can someone tell me if my impression is correct?  Oh dear, memory not as it used to be.......[I] I remember changing mine at the advice of ANother (who was called something else then) well before I had to when this topic came up for discussion. Can someone please confirm how long the licence is valid for?  Thanks

Thank you, Norman, that is good to know. I reckon that, if they use our salle des fêtes for our village, the mayor would get all the oldies in our village done in 1 or 2 days max.  The mairie knows who we are; after all, they organise an afternoon get-together once a month during normal times, with transport for all those unable to go under their own steam.  Also, they get our Christmas hampers delivered every year without fail[:D] As the UK has found out with test, track and trace, a large-scale operation is more efficiently done on a local level and not centralised.  When the UK were using a "super lab" somewhere in Milton Keynes, all our local laboratoires did the testing all over France. Please don't attack me by saying I am demonising the UK as an expat, I have never considered myself an expat, rather an immigrant.  And I do think that, at the very least, the UK is vaccinating people instead of dithering and faffing about as the French have done to date.  I like to think I talk about the reality as I see it. Alas, I had such hope when they appointed that specialist doctor in overall charge but we have heard zilch about him lately?

[url]https://www.sudouest.fr/2021/01/04/covid-19-516-personnes-vaccinees-au-1er-janvier-le-gouvernement-promet-d-accelerer-la-cadence-8250255-11265.php[/url] Here is the present state of play, except it's no playful matter[6]

Not only does the new variant seem to affect children more, the children themselves could be carriers and they would have been with other family members and possibly grandparents over the Christmas period. Yes, go back to school they must, but just after Christmas is not the time.

Macron has recovered sufficiently from his sick leave to now order the vaccination programme to be carried out more rapidly.  There is an article in sudouest.fr that I tried to copy and paste but can't seem to do it.  Not difficult to find, about half way down the front page.

[quote user="Alan Zoff"]I would have thought you would use both. M4 to Bristol then pick up M5 to go south? Suppose it depends what part of Wales you are starting from[/quote] Yes, AZ, from South Wales;  M4 then M5.  M4, barring accidents or high winds and bridge closure, is not usually where the congestion is.  M5 is another matter, chock a block whatever the time of day.  Don't the English always say once people are in Wales, they can't wait to get out?[:-))]

ET, you'd mean the M5 rather than the M4 if driving from Wales to Somerset.  We did that journey every weekend for a fair few years, with 2 cats in the back of the car. We used to leave Wales later and later after work on Friday, hoping to avoid the traffic but, TBH, the M5 could be nose to nose, cars, caravans, lorries, you name it at midnight or 1 o'clock in the morning.  Horrendous.......

Loiseau, idun has said in the past that you can use SR or plain.  I always use plain because I worry that the pastry might get too puffy with SR.  Having said that I have never tried with SR.

Me neither, I think Cornwall is overrated.  But I love Somerset and think it's overlooked when people drive straight through to get to Cornwall! Had to move out of Somerset because of work commitments.  In fact, if I ever got tired of France, I might go back there to live.  Don't know about the natives though, all our friends were mostly from other parts of the country or the world[8-)]

Hoddy, I use this pastry for all sorts of things: quiches, pies with different fillings, parcels with curried veg fillings (for vegetarians), sausage meat with fresh chopped sage, tinned tuna with grated cheese and crème fraîche, any leftover veg with grated cheese and cream and make a big pasty or a large round pie.  Endless variations on a theme, to use a musical term![:D]

Hi, bakers, idun sends season's greetings to you all and has also asked me to describe my experiences with her pastry recipe. Was it you, Catalpa, who asked about this recently?  I'm sorry I can't remember what that thread was called. Well here goes, id's original "original" recipe was in American cups and she weighed up the flour, etc using her various size cups and converted the measurements to ounces.  Not surprisingly, she arrived at slightly different answers[:D] Anyway, I have been making it for years now, using 6 ounces of plain flour, 3 of butter, pinch of salt and half of a 250 g tub of mascarpone.  Always lovely, buttery, melt-in-the-mouth. Recently, when id gave the recipe on here, she wrote 8 oz flour.  In a panic, I thought I'd been making it wrongly and asked her to confirm the right amounts.  She no longer has the original recipe and has said we could do whatever we liked or preferred. My experience is this:  the 6 oz is crumbly and harder to deal with in hot weather, the 8 oz loses the crumbly texture that I so love.  So, I tried with 7 ozs and that I think is a good compromise.  Using 7 oz enables you to make a pie with more and heavier fillings (eg potatoes, leeks, crème fraîche, a weighty pie) but the 6 oz is just yummy for mince pies. What I shall do in future is possible use the 6 oz in winter and the 7 oz in summer when rolling out pastry is not the easiest task in the world when the temperature is in the 30s. Id, have I got it right?  If you can't use your keyboard, just put a smiley or a wooty......

Well done, Wooly!  I always knew that underneath that unhealthy -looking- turning- black skin, there flows the milk of human kindness. So happy to have you adjudicating the inevitable spats[:)]

Now that people in the public eye are voicing their dissatisfaction, we could only hope that the government would be forced to change its strategy.  Here's hoping.... [url]https://www.sudouest.fr/2020/12/31/covid-19-15-a-20-millions-de-francais-seront-vaccines-mi-2021-assure-un-depute-lrem-8242021-11265.php/[/url]

I love your joke, Lehaut.  Must remember to tell it to my ophthalmologue when I see him in March prior to my cataract extractions. Thank you for the laugh; very welcome on a truly dismal morning of rain and mist and humidity.

Yes, we have a garden competition every year.  And the cantonniers themselves seem to compete against each other informally to see who has the best kept village.  They all seem to know each other and the rivalry, while friendly, is always fierce.

Axel Khan (quoted by Norman in an earlier post) is himself disapproving of la stratégie.  He says very clearly that it is "mauvaise" Anyway, everybody who needed to know was aware of the problems of storage and distribution.  So, why make such a big thing of the country having received millions of doses and that everything is ready for the roll-out?  Macron will be on tv again this evening talking about transparency.  If this is transparency give me muddled every time. I don't expect the whole programme will be progressed without a hitch but I WOULD like a proper and credible explanation of why France has this massive problem that does not seem to be such an obstacle in Germany and the UK? If any country has vast, sparsely populated areas, then the US must have more than its share of those.  But even they are vaccinating at speed with Biden himself being seen on tv accepting his dose. I see that there was a message going out to the 35 000 mayors in France, urging them to be an example to their people and getting their jabs with all the attendant publicity wherever possible.  But our poor mayor who would be willing enough is himself probably reduced to frustrated inactivity like everyone else. PS I have seen lots of square boxes called cryo-cubes used to transport the Phizer vaccine. I thought what an appropriate name for these dinky boxes which looked smaller than my neighbour's cool box that he transports his lunch in everyday[:D]