5-element
-
Posts
2,626 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Never
Posts posted by 5-element
-
-
Ribena - no offence taken at all, of course I knew you were joking - having lurked around here for days before starting to post myself, I have had the good fortune to encounter some of your previous postings... and was thus able to form some kind of an opinion[:D]
URL - I am proud to report that I had suspected correctly as to their nature... thanks for confirming....As for your previous post, you are right about wide photos: I just went to "that" thread with everyone's photos, and the text does go very very wide. Anyway thanks for your help, I need it more than it appears!
-
I am dazzled alright..... chemistry's never been one of my best subjects either, no better than I.T.....
Thanks for clarification Cat...
-
Cooperlola, thanks for the tip, I'll try that in future... yes, I'm sure I will find "active"
Cassis - No I don't have a problem with ALL messages. Only some. This thread for instance, is just perfect! As for "long URLs" I haven't noticed (although I might have to ask my office mate what that really means duh!), and wide photos, I haven't come across any so couldn't say. There was one particular thread recently which was quite bad...now what was it? Was it the Disappearing Thread or am I making the wrong connections?
Boron....hmmm...it's good for osteoporosis...nobody's ever called Boron before. Is it short for Boring Moron?
-
Hi LangedocGal,
I have PM'd you too!!! I hope you can get it!
-
Oh gee, guys! I didn't realise until now that anyone had responded at all! I will re-read carefully every reply now.
Thank you so much, especially Cat, sorry if I caused trouble, but it's great if something can be done from your end.
-
Lllyn
I have PMd you.
-
Hello Llwyncellyn
Paraza is north of Boutenac, and also north of Luc-sur-Orbieu which has had terrible floods. When we moved to Languedoc I didn't look too hard in the Narbonne/Perpignan area, because of the wind: Narbonne is supposed to be one of the windiest towns in France! Worse than the Mistral-swept areas apparently. But if you already know the area, maybe you don't mind. But it is also very dry, which might be good for Mrs. L.
Collioure is way further south, close to the Spanish border.
Sete is on the opposite side, from Narbonne you go west and it is close to Beziers (wonderful fish and seafood restaurants in Sete)
Altogether, Languedoc is a wonderful area - and although I have had fantasies about swapping houses in July/August with someone in Brittany or in Normandy, I would not want to live anywhere else! Especially in the winter, we have many good days (it can get very cold, down to minus 10) but the brightness and the luminosity are absolute magic. Best wishes for you to find the area you both need.
-
LanguedocGal, I am very interested by your post, especially about the good reputation of senior healthcare in the Beziers area - which I have not heard about. If you could find the original article, I would love to follow it up.
All I know about Beziers and hospitals is what I have heard in the Montpellier hospital, where a top specialist consultant who looks after my OH, was rather disparaging about the standard of medical care in Beziers, as compared to Montpellier. A French friend of mine with breast cancer was not overjoyed with the quality of medical aftercare she got there, yet I also know of others (British) who are full of praise for Beziers hospital.
As for the climate, your research is pretty impressive. Again, I would not have thought that Beziers old town could be cooler than Montpellier (which is rather oppressive, to say the least, in a heat wave!). Although where I live is closer to Beziers than Montpellier, I have tended to go to Montpellier for everything, since Beziers is still very run-down, with a Mayor who doesn't care much for the town, and with definite problem areas. But I am still trying to love Beziers, and as medical care go, although I have no personal experience of the hospital, I do know several excellent specialists there! Also, it seems to me that they are less busy than in Montpellier, and have more time for patients. So maybe you are onto something there....
-
Is it me? Is it my antique PC? Does everyone know something I don't?
Why is it, when I am reading a thread, suddenly the format changes and the text becomes so loooooooooong (I mean brooaoaoaoaoaoaoaoad) that I have to go back and forth for each line, and then often just give up as it can get virtually illegible.
I tried MOH's computer and the same thing happens. He doesn't seem to know why either.
OK I am not the most competent PC user, but nevertheless.... it would be good to know if there is something I can do...or something that somebody else should do.
-
I'll bear that in mind, Missy and Cooperlola
-
Someone just sent me this - I thought it might be relevant here - but ... I can't get the sound to work on my computer for some reason, so have no idea what is being said...
-
Goodness - I am surprised that Avignon would not have one, since Montpellier has two. Especially since Montpellier is much more North African than Asian/Oriental. I guess I am spoilt and didn't even know it! It will make me appreciate it even more when I next go there to get my supply of nuoc-nam, seaweed, lime pickle, mango pickle, fresh lemon grass etc...and bonito flakes, which I just munch straight out of the packet...Shame you can't beam yourself there Lori.
-
Lori, "the dried fish flakes": do you mean bonito flakes (they are dried shavings of tuna?) I can get some here in a good oriental supermarket in Montpellier. Actually there are 2 such shops there, I don't know about anywhere else in France but every large city must have at least one. As for fresh curry leaves, I don't know if they have them there. But I found a whole range of chutneys and pickles and coconut milks and powders and dried shrimps - it seems the "oriental" term encompasses Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian etc... well worth a visit, and browsing. The one I go to also has a whole lot of fresh foods (dim sum, tofu) - I know this is not Indian, since they are predominantly asiatic. Great range of spices too, and very cheap.
-
Funny how we all like different things. I love hugging. I was born and raised in France, and am sure that in those days (not a centenarian by a long shot) there was far, far less kissing than now. I seem to even remember that it was the "cousins de Bretagne" who were prone to kissing.
Here by the way, unlike Sarthe, it is three.
As for catching colds, someone pointed out that shaking hands is actually more unhygienic, as faces and cheeks are often cleaner than hands...think of all the places hands go to - the woman who pointed this out to me is French and a reluctant kisser, yet when we have to go and kiss whole rows of people (when the association meets) she much prefers kissing to shaking hands - especially with the men she confided, as you don't know where their hands have just been. That was a rather risque comment coming from her (sorry I can't do accents with this keyboard).
Still, flu and cold viruses will find their way to you if they decide to, through door handles, sneezes, etc... Let's just keep taking the echinacea and the Vit C, and carry on with our favored greeting practices!
-
As an act of rebellion, I have started an anti-kissing campaign in at least 2 of the associations I belong to. I explain "nothing personal", it's just that ... "Je ne suis pas bisou" and if someone insists, then I insist on showing them what some people do in other countries, i.e. a full body hug - which I notice, somewhat wickedly, that many French cannot cope with (men or women: the men seem to think it is a come-on, the women shirk away as if I am about to drag them into some unspeakable act!). If someone seems genuinely hurt that I refuse to kiss them, I will oblige but also tell them about not being very "bisou". I am very touchy-feely so do not shy away from physical contact with most people, yet I have never liked this indiscriminate kissing.
I found out that there are quite a few French women who actually feel the same and don't like to have to kiss all the toads and princes alike, but they would never have dared saying no, and now some of them are even joining in the campaign![:D]
-
Very glad to share him, Judith:
Dr. Pierre Santonja, 265 av Etats du Languedoc, 34000 Montpellier. Tel 04 67 65 51 11
However, I have not seen him for 3 years now. And the last time I went, he seemed to me to be preoccupied and not 100% there, I wonder if perhaps he was having some marital problems or difficulties with the receptionist who was quite useless, uncharacteristically. I also have to add that he works from the 18th floor of an office tower in the middle of Montpellier (shopping centre Polygone) by place de la Comedie. If your husband is also, like myself, afraid of heights and of lifts, (well, these phobias often run together, don't they?) then it can be a challenge...
It is now too far for me to go to him, which is why I no longer have a dentist![:)]
-
I am appalled to read about dentists who don't give injections!!! Having said that, I have heard something similar from a (Fench) friend who just changed her dentist since he (Roumanian, although that is probably neither here not there!) did not seem to believe in injections and would even make jokes about it. I did find it hard to believe because my experience of dentists here in France has been totally different - and I am a dentist-phobic too, to the point that I seem to only go to the dentist once every 14 years....
Before I left the UK in 2001 I finally managed to get a dental appointment (it took months of research and negotiations, since there were none who were taking new patients, even private ones!) - and had a whole lot of dental work done in one session. When I got to France, one of the teeth treated broke... I ended up going to a strongly recommended dentist who turned out to be completely magic... he had fabulous equipment, was extremely gentle and patient and fast, and the pain-killing injections were completely painless - and worked a treat. Over a period of months, he had to re-do ALL the dental work I had had done in the UK, since there had been much patching up over what needed root canal treatment etc... So naturally, I assumed that all French dentists are that good!!!
Now it seems that they can vary enormously.... and I have to find another dentist too... even though the 14 years are not up yet!!! YUK!
-
I can echo what some previous posters have mentioned: as far as hospitals go, the one I know very well is Centre Hospitalier Universitaire in Montpellier (i.e. La Peyronie). In some league tables it came first in France. By and large, it lives up to expectations - but it is huge. I also understand that it is overstretched, partly because Herault is a departement with a huge influx of newcomers, some of them very poor.
My OH has had to have very specialised medical and surgical care for some time and has been incredibly well looked after at La Peyronie. The follow-ups are good too. It lives up to its reputation.
As for the climate, living in the hills about an hour away from Montpellier, I do find it extremely dry most of the time -except when it decides to rain - then it pours - but it was so dry that when I first moved here from N.W. England, I had to stop wearing my contact lenses as my eyes got so dry. The only time when I don't like the climate is during the hottest months, the canicule is unbearable I find. Then you really need to live in an old stone house with huge walls and with a cellar, and/or have some form of air conditioning so that you can sleep at night. This summer I found that I spent at least one month inside the house with all windows and shutters closed, like living in a cave... but having said that, it can be the same in many other regions, such as the North East and Burgundy and around Lyon - at least here, we have quite a lot of rivers too and so you can cool down.
There is no doubt that R.A. (and even ordinary arthritis) is much worse in damp conditions, but for some R.A. sufferers, heat can be bad too. However I have several friends who had bad asthma in the UK, and who are much, much better here - in fact one of them left Derbyshire for that very reason, and she is practically asthma-free here.
If you could live here, and be away (maybe in Normandy, or the UK!) for July and August, you would have the best of both worlds climate-wise I reckon!
-
Nice one Renaud.
I got the Nancy Astor quote from a book someone kindly gave me on my birthday (one of the significant milestone ones!) - the book is
"Age doesn't matter unless you're a cheese"
-
"I used to dread getting older because I thought I would not be able to do the things I wanted to do, but now that I am older, I find that I don't want to do them" - Lady Nancy Astor
-
You're right Bugbear... I couldn't have spelt it until you said. All I have to do now is to wait for the next occasion to say or write it...Stegosaurus...sounds good, I should be able to slip this into the conversation...
In French: stalacTite = qui Tombe
stalagMite = qui Monte that's what we learned at school...
-
OI! It's stalactites and stalagmites!!! Both in French and in English.
-
Chris Head -Well, it cramps my style, pretending not to do forums anymore.
Cassis - we do both! Arguing is our way of communicating!
-
Very exciting, what's just happened here. Much better than Eastenders. I certainly was riveted!
I'd love to tell you where I am from, but have become extremely cagey about this since the following incident: it was on "another forum", a while ago. I was having a slight disagreement with another of the posters, whom I was going to PM - until I found out that it was....MOH!!! Honest to goodness, this is absolutely true. I had NO IDEA he was even on any forum - at home we share an "office", our back to each other. Neither of us had any clue what the other one was up to!
You can see now that just sometimes, anonymity can be the best option!!!
Dental Accident!
in Health
Posted