5-element
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Posts posted by 5-element
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Dick, you really are incorrigible. Or is it incorrrigible?
En tout cas, in French, it is indecrottable.[:D]
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[quote user="Traci"]
well you should try eating bread for 3 weeks and telling a child there's nothing else as mummy can't afford it. I'm doing the best i can for now and remaining positive.
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Traci, I don't know where you are, but if your situation is really as bad as you describe, then there is every reason for you to go and see social services and benefit from Banque Alimentaire, and other help so that your children can at least have some food. Failing that, there are organisations like Secours Populaire, Secours Catholique, and Restos du Coeur who would give you food parcels, and probably enough for you all to survive on much more than bread for a week.
I don't know any of those organisations who would refuse to help you - and I know that for a fact, as I work for one of them and have worked for another.
Opas - This maybe a little harsh. I speak as someone whose mother was once in Traci's situation. Bearing in mind that this was many years ago, and there was no social cover as there is now. I still remember my mother being absolutely desperate to put anything on the table for my brother and I, and remember evenings with only potatoes boiled in their skin, and salt. There were also other evenings with.... just nothing on the table. Not many, though. Neighbours soon realised what was going on and rallied around, bringing this and that, and alerting the Red Cross, my mother was too proud then.... eventually someone gave her some work washing dishes in a school canteen - fortunately this was short-lived. But my point is that until you have been in that situation yourself, you just don't know how you would react.
As for having just bread, that is quite common. It may not be nourishing, but at least it makes you feel full.[:(]
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Thank you for that great link, Chris. I will leave them be in the compost, even though I find them particularly revolting[+o(]. I don't think I could ever bring myself to eat one, even after snapping their head off, like they do on some tropical islands...
Granted, nobody is asking me to eat them.
They do look very full of protein and really wholesome for the right kind of predator, that's why I would leave them on the cement... I thought maybe my beloved toad(s), or a hedgehog, or some bird, might be really pleased with them?
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Thanks also from me, Cassis, as I've also got loads of chafer bugs in my compost heap mainly. I throw them out into the middle of the road, hoping for a grateful predator.
Unfortunately I think that the cat might have acquired a taste for them Yuk....
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[quote user="RumziGal"]
New books always seem to be very expensive in France, even in paperback.
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I borrow new French books from the mediatheque, and buy all my English books (current paperbacks) from the monthly "Le Book" in Gabian, at 1 or 2 euros each. No wonder I am out of touch.
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Re. price of books: I am always a little puzzled when people say how expensive French books are. I presume you are talking about paperbacks. How much are paperbacks in the UK these days??? The ones I see are never less than 6.99, 9.99, 12.99 = i.e. the cheapest about 10 euros...
The french paperbacks that I buy and read are not more expensive, on the contrary: collection Folio, Livre de Poche, J'ai Lu, etc...- even a dirt cheap collection, Librio at 1.44 euro, with many classic texts... Could anyone please explain, maybe those who find French books expensive are talking about hardbacks? Or about specialised textbooks? I really would like to know.
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I had been wondering how long it would take before this happened....[+o(]
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[quote user="Mistral"]
To join the "bottom debate" I have noticed the same thing as TU, French women seem to have flat bottoms. I'm in the south of France, but I'm not sure I would describe it as a mediterranian area. I haven't noticed larger bottoms here,
This is great, I'm going to spend all day looking at people's bottoms..... (that could get me thrown out of school for unprofessional conduct)
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Tee hee hee[:D]...
How to spot a LF poster: they scan the street at bottom-level....
Just to be pedantic though, is it flat bottoms vs. large bottoms??? That's not quite what I meant. To spell it out, I meant flat bottoms vs. well-rounded buttocks - which some try to create by sticking their bottom in the air, thereby probably causing their lower spine irreparable damage/lordosis...
But I too, will have to go out this morning specifically to do a bottom survey. It will have to be a trans-generational one, see whether there are constants and variables.
I hope nobody challenges you while you are investigating at school Mistral..[:P].
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TU, the bottoms might have regional variations aren't you in the Hautes-Alpes??? It is quite a way from my area. Here where I live, about 30% people are of Spanish origin, most emigrated around the Spanish Civil War time. The Mediterranean shape does sound different from the Alpine shape. I must look more closely.[8-|]
For good bras, I have found that DIM are the best, closest to what I used to find in the UK. And you can get the no-frill version, if your skin is sensitive and if lace makes you prone to itching, if you are the type of person who needs to cut off all labels at the neck because you are demented with the gradual itchiness.
One thing I just cannot find is a sports bra. I tried all the Decathlon ones and they had pointy cups like you only see in cartoons[:'(] Terribly uncomfortable. I still have my excellent, but old Berlet one from the UK, called "Shock Absorber" - great for jumping up and down on the rebounder.
Shoes, I have always known that size 5 is size 38. The tricky part is if you are a half-size, i.e. 4 1/2 for me, usually between 37 and 38. I have not noticed that my feet have got bigger yet, but that might be because I have only been back here 6 years.[:)]
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Scaremongering? Please let me be one of the scaremongered, please?[:D][:D][:D]
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All my years in the UK, I always had a lot of problems buying trousers and jeans that fit, especially Next, M& S. They were always much too high-waisted, the waistline coming somewhere between my waist and my breasts. Gap were the only ones I could wear, sometimes Etam and Dorothy Perkins, and otherwise I had to wait until I got to France to buy comfortable jeans the right cut for me (French-shaped (!) i.e. square shoulders, small-ish waist but definitely NO flat bottom!!!. It's funny what you noticed Teamed Up, as I have found on the contrary, that flat-bottomed is not the usual French shape. Well, in la France Profonde, we do have more than our fair share of larger ladies, barrel-shaped, big-bosomed and with thin legs.. maybe those are the ones you mean.
As for bras and swimsuits, they are such a nightmare to buy (sweaty fitting rooms, getting all tangled up and feeling more like a Matisse than a Modigliani), that I can't even remember last time I tried. Usually if I find one that fits I buy them in sets of 3 if I can afford to - it saves on the torture of having to go through it all again.
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[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]
I have breakfast cereal joints.
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Do you grow and roll your own?
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Someone proudly - and kindly - brought me some non-alcoholic champagne (that's what they said!!!). I looked at the bottle, it's called "Petillant de Listel", made with "petillant" de raisin, Manzane verde flavour.
I poured myself a glass and downed it... then I started to feel really weird (I am practically a teetoaller since any alcohol makes me feel really ill).... looked at the bottle again, and sure enough, the small print reveals.... 3.5% alcohol...
So much for non-alcoholic! I might as well drink real champagne!
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I don't know about the percentage of young people who do obtain a "pension alimentaire" from their parents, or how much this is implemented/enforced.
But given that it is, in theory, possible, that is probably the logical reason why a young person cannot obtain RMI (Revenu Minimum d'Insertion), before aged 26.
In practice, it does mean that there are more and more under-26's who, for various reasons, have left "home" (sometimes very little choice in the matter!), are living on friends' floors, in the streets, and have absolutely no means of support. In organisations like "Banque Alimentaire", "Restos du Coeur", "Secours Catholique" and "Secours Populaire" - which provide food parcels and meals for the most destitutes, every year one can see an annual increase of under-26's. Beyond age 26 they can usually claim RMI - up to 420 euros per month, i.e. survival level. Under 26 they have nothing at all, and have to live by their wits.
I believe there might be very few who are in a position to get alimony from their parents - of course, much depends on the parents' own situation.
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[quote user="Valleyboy"]Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse; just could not get into it at all!
[/quote]Snap, Phil!!!
I could get into it, it's just that I could not get anything out of it!!!
I thought it was pretty appalling - over-formulaic plot, writing style, a real p...take actually, much worse even than Dan Brown!
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Possumgirl and SamdeBretagne - I feel exactly like what describe - about yourself Sam, and about Mr P.
I never felt like a guest while I was living in the UK, which is all my adult and professional life, including higher education. It is possible to feel TWO things simultaneously, and in our post-modern world, there are many many more people who feel they are part of 2, 3 or more nations/cultures. When I first arrived in England from France in 1967, I was still an oddity, and having to inform the police station each time I changed jobs or moved houses did make me feel like what I was, an immigrant - certainly not a guest. I was even told once, by a particularly zealous police person, that if I carried on changing jobs and moving that often, I MIGHT GET DEPORTED!!! I kid you not. I retorted that actually, would they ever do that, since I was supporting a British subject (my art student boyfriend!)
And then, coming "back" to France, I have felt like an oddity again, like an immigrant who happens to understand the language, but certainly does not know or even understand the systems! I also know some other French who moved to the USA and have moved back here with their American partner, and they, too, feel like foreigners here, even though they are fairly comfortable with that.
As for the topic of flags, I find it very hard to relate to the level of excitement it generates - although I am very aware of those who lost their lives proudly carrying the flag of their nation, I am aware of the symbol it carries and still....deep down, I feel I would have no trouble burning any flag, desecrating it, as I cannot feel loyalty to a piece of cloth, just as I cannot feel pride for the accident of my birth.
On the other hand, just returning from the Mairie with my renewed French passport today, I cannot help feeling in awe of what that little object represents for many... countless people are prepared to risk their lives in order to acquire just this object.... and I feel how unfair it is, that I should have both a French and a British passport, and would not mind sharing at least one of them!!! I am so privileged and lucky to be European without having had to work for it...Try being a Sudanese, or a Burmese, or a Columbian....
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Hah! That makes me feel much better (sigh of relief)[:)]
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[quote user="Cassis"][quote user="5-element"]
Toni Morrison's - can't remember the title?
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The Song of Solomon?
[/quote]That sounds right, Cassis. How did you know?
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I never managed to finish reading Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu" but know I am not the only one...
Others that I might be equally ashamed of not finishing being:
Salman Rushdie's "The ground beneath her feet"
Sebastian Faulk's "A Fool's Alphabet"
Jamie O'Neill's "At swim, two boys" - I would love to read and enjoy it, but might have to accept that it is too Irish for me (nothing wrong with Irish, but I am just too challenged by the extreme Irishness with dialogues that are barely understandable)
Toni Morrison's - can't remember the title?
Jane Gardham's "Tambourine Queen".
I love all of Margaret Attwood, Alice Hoffman, Barbara Kingsolver, Carol Shields, Rebecca Wells, Sue Monk Kidd, and many more wonderful contemporary American women writers.
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On at least 2 occasions here in France, I had to provide official translation of documents. But that might be because my life has been rather complicated[:)]. One was for a divorce document from the UK. Another was for next husband's birth certificate (outside E.U.) if I remember rightly. All very expensive, especially since I could have done the translations myself...
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J.R. - thank you, that makes for enjoyable reading - as a closet survivalist myself, (some of my best Xmas presents have been SAS Survival Handbooks), I thoroughly appreciated your experience and ideas about "necessary/unnecessary items".
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I am both French (by birth, and living in France for the first 20 years of my life) and British-English, the country I chose to live in, and spent all my adult life in. Like Clair I have both nationalities French and British. I would describe myself as a contrary hybrid, i.e. usually feeling French when in the company of British people, and feeling British when with French. In sports, I support both even when they play each other[:D]. I say I am a European as it is for me a shortcut, but I find that I often have to explain myself to people who want to put me in a slot, i.e. am I English, am I French?
Having said that, to the French I will always be French. To the British I could never be truly British, even if I was still living in Britain. When I went to live in England, it took 10 years until I could tolerate letting in a bit of my French heritage, as I had been so keen to immerse myself totally into "becoming English", which is an impossibility....So, back to how I feel in my heart: a true hybrid, even in terms of language: I still favour my acquired language (English) over French, which I am told, is a bit odd.
And I love being able to vote both in the UK and in France.[:)]
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Mike - I assume that you do not still have a bank account in France? I gather from your post that you don't...
If you do, then it can be frozen and seized by the Tresor Public, without any problem.
It did happen to me last year: a taxe d'habitation on a property that had nothing to do with me, but had belonged to my stepmother while she was alive, and passed on to her son at her death. We had slightly similar names, so it was a case of mistaken identity. Tax demands and warnings were evidently issued to my name, but sent to my old UK address - no idea how "they" found me, and I never received the demands. Imagine the shock when I received a letter from my bank informing me that all my (personal)accounts had been frozen, then from another bank, the joint account with my husband!
I had no idea whatsoever that I had been tracked down through my bank accounts, and without anyone checking first that I was aware that tax demand had been made of me for 4,000 euros.
It took a weekend of absolute anguish and many panicked phone calls, to sort it out. I was utterly shocked, and incurred bank expenses (which were subsequently reimbursed), as well as the possibility that all OUR accounts might be outlawed (sorry I don't know the right term in English, "interdit bancaire" in French), if we had been unlucky enough for any debit being made while the accounts were frozen.In the end someone realised a mistake had been made, I was assured that it happens fairly frequently, and yet no explanations, and no apologies whatsoever.
It made me realise how powerful the State is....
Presumably, "they" could not have done it if I had been still living in England, without assets or bank accounts in France. Maybe.
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[quote user="Teamedup"][quote user="Jo Taylor"]
I got as far as the champignons, but told the pharmacist they were in my nettles, which I always confuse with my toes...
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Nice one, like hot water bottle and wheel barrow.
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Or, kettle and hot water bottle? (bouilloire and bouillotte?)
Our first soir'ee into the market place.
in Finding/Owning French Property
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5 points to the first person who can remind me what the original topic was [Www]
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It was about buying a haut-de-gamme property in Languedoc. The subtext (or one of them) might be that property in Wanstead is worth loadsamoney (or so I am told).
How many points do I get Cat???[6]