suej

[quote user="Gluestick"]You should get together with Mrs Gluey, Sue. Loves to sing, but changes pitch about five times in each bar! [:D] Now sings when vacuuming, cooking, gardening, whatever. However, as an early ballet dancer she has great poise and stance: and very good expressive body language. and loves all music, as do I. Years back we went to a 60th birthday of one of her then directors, Derek; lovely man. Bored, as I tend to be as such gatherings I wandered into the large conservatory and found a large splendid electronic organ. Derek and I chatted: I am something of a musician too, having played rock guitar, sax, drums etc. Dragging out some music, Derek and I started quietly having fun. Gradually, all the other guests (seems they were bored witless too with the meaningless tittle tattle) drifted in. A small Northern lady (known in the office as The Poison Dwarf - oh life can be cruel) also came in and turned out she loved to sing but was also utterly tone deaf! Not dismayed Mrs G and the PD formed an instant duo and started singing popular songs; older stuff from musicals etc; and they both had wondrous body movements and passion and really put their hearts into it and sang their little socks off! The audience were both rolling around with laughter and speechless with admiration......... And gave a long round of applause and shouts of "Encore!" Which makes one think................. [8-)] [/quote] Crikey ,that made me laugh --images of the three of us together forming The Alternative Andrew Sisters tribute band eh ??!!

I would love to be able to SING ! I love all sorts of music be it Blues, Jazz, Rock, Opera and must admit I even find some of the Rap I hear from grandsons ( censored versions I suspect ..) clever and amusing but I can NOT sing in tune to save my life . I do sing quietly to myself around the house but I would love to be able to belt something out full volume IN TUNE !!! Otherwise I think I am a happy dabbler - paint a bit, swim a bit, read a lot, walk, sew, cook too much, DIY when needs must and , now we are back in UK, belong to French conversation group and have started Italian...but I still can't sing !

Helloooo Mint! All is well with us but it has been quite a year...our house sold in a shockingly quick oh-my-god-have-we-slipped-on-a-banana-skin fashion in the summer and we are now in UK in the apartment we had fortunately bought a couple of years ago.. Life is made up of chapters and after 20 years it was, without doubt, the right time for us to turn the page and start another - but we are still somewhat in that adapting and adjusting phase...There are things about being near the family again etc which delight us but at the same time people and things of Anjou that we miss a lot. I feel neither anglaise or francaise , Sooo am I in need of a counsellor or a jolly good bottle of Saumur Champigny ?! We are picking our way through the intricate trivia of becoming UK resident again ,so if anyone wants to know how to make friends with the DVLA and register a car or persuade the GP to make eye contact and listen to your question...I'm your man ! It's all good clean fun and I must say a joy to see so much of our family .. A text from a 20 year old grandson saying 'Move it Gma! meet you in 10 at Corn's, My turn to buy the coffee ' is worth a lot! Turkey stuffing duty calls now. Happy Christmas Mint and everyone else! Sue

What a nice surprise to spot you "rebonjour." Happy Christmas from another rare visitor..

 Suggest you look at the site for the English run Café Cake at Le Lude.....nice little tea room/café which seems successful, lovely cakes etc and a rather fun Fish Chips and Peas offering on a Friday night.  Maybe you could contact them ??

    Timely reminder Greyman.....so I've just downloaded Forms R43. Worth remembering too that when tax paid on interest earned is being reclaimed if the account is in joint names two separate forms need to be submitted, each declaring/claiming half of the sum in question.

  Have you considered phoning them and talking it over?   Some years ago when it was still called The Property Owners' Club I was very late remembering to renew our membership but when I phoned and apologized and explained that we had been 'loyal members' for a number of years etc etc they were very  understanding and accepted my belated renewal there and then by phone and I was not penalised. Our membership renewal date did remain as originally though , so in fact for that year we had fewer months for our annual fee , if you see what I mean - but it was well worth that for the reductions we were able to have on our crossings in those remaining months. May be worth a try,  sometimes we get so used to doing things on line we forget that a real word with a real person sometimes works better..

Thank you  Sweet, yes and how I appreciated it.   I started to reply last night  and then allowed myself to be interrupted by hunger pangs...went on a 'healthy snack' scrummage and ended up with a cheddar cheese doorstep in my hand and with lashings of chutney too.  How pathetic is that- wish I'd finished my email instead! Will  do today   ....with excuses to Cooperlola and all , (for interrupting I mean- evening binges hardly excusable)

Really lovely to read that news.  Very best wishes to you.

Pancakes and Chandeleur I knew about but Bugnes at Mardi Gras I just hadn't come across, though I do know that twice we have eaten what I took to be beignets at around about this time of year but no explanation was given. I'll talk to the friend who had made. Meanwhile if you do get hold of your friend's recipe please do post it.. It's nice to try something different .

Worse then forgotten bugnes Idun, I don't even know them!! Have just had to look them up! I love any type of  beignet.  I may have to give them a serious try... I'm trying hard to lose weight and for a variety of reasons am eating very "sensibly" at the moment but what is it about a cold frosty day that makes you automatically drool for rich warm comforting goodies!  Thanks for the nudge- I will try to resist as long as pos!

    Yes indeed Sweet , with great pleasure!  

Thank you Norman.  My husband's appointments and blood tests  have been for only the two ALD conditions, so that is fairly clearcut. The card has been 'mise à jour' now but you may have hit on a possible  reason particularly regarding the lab blood tests there. We thought it had been done at the Pharmacie early on and it was only when he had another hospital appointment that they found it wasn't going through and they put it through the machine thing again to validate it. The doc and his 23 euro fee in cash is perhaps another issue.. I'll keep an eye on all of it , perhaps it'll right itself by next month. Thanks for your quick response. Sue

 yes Idun , I've used frangipane on a cherry tart and it works well- I'm generous with cherries and add a few drops of almond essence and a dessertspoon of kirsch to the frangipane mixture.  I've done the same with apricots too...very yum but not much good for the post-Christmas regime.. but neither are the mouth-watering galettes des rois! then before we've got over those it'll be pancake time again...

Yes Cooperlola, it's good to read that you are making such good progress so quickly.  Bon courage!  Sue   

 Just picking up on the ALD 100% point.....please would someone just clarify one or two things for me.  My husband recently, early Dec , got his ALD documents through because of Horton's Disease and Diabetes( latter has become more complicated by the treatment for  the former) .  Does the 23euro consultation  fee which he pays to our Medicin traitant fall into the 100% category, likewise the cost of pretty frequent blood tests, all related to either or both of the relevant illnesses? I ask because firstly he continues to pay the doctor the 23euros  which is then reimbursed 16.10 euros by CPAM and 6.90 euros by our Mutuelle. I notice on the monthly reimbursement statement that we had today from the Mutuelle that this is still the case even since the ALD notice and the same CPAM and Mutuelle reimbursement is going on for the blood tests. I had assumed that at least the blood tests , necessary to monitor and to prescribe treatment for  the two conditions, would fall into the ALD category, be covered 100ù and be referred to our Mutuelle. Perhaps I'm wrong .  Any thoughts anybody?   My husband has an appointment with the Medicin Traitant on Monday and it would be as well to know before then- we can ofcourse ask him himself but as he seemed to drag his heels a lot over the initial application and was a little discouraging about it , it'd be interesting to know where we stand. I'd appreciate some advice please. Sue  

  I've used Abe Norman and found it very good- I managed to track down  a rather obscure if not very valuable book I wanted for my husband. I was a happy customer..

I think you are right- my husband has had to have a salt-free diet for the last three months and I've stopped using it in cooking and on the table and stuck with it alongside him.  At first it was hard going and everything tasted "unfinished" somehow. Finally a few days ago we said the same thing as you've just said- we are used to it now and food tastes different , nicer flavour ' especially vegs...all sorts of delicate flavours we'd not noticed before.  It's a bit like giving up smoking when after a while the real taste of food is revealed.I must say it has taken since September to win me round, but I'm there now!

[quote user="stan"].......it says "Perecevez - vous une pension versee par un état membre de la CEE autre que la France?, si OUI, joindre le récépissé, talon de mandat ou relevé bancaire correspondent au dernier arréage versé" I will just send them a page of my bank statement although I hope they accept a printed off version as I only have online banking.[/quote]   This is exactly what we get each year  and I just photo copy the relevant page from our bank statement and highlight the pension credit entry. Being hyper-touchy about it the first time I did blank out all the other entries on the page, thinking that what I spent wherever was entirely my business but quite frankly since then I just can't be blowed to do that and just send of the photocopy with the signed form.

  Neither my husband nor I  receive IB, just plain old State Old Age  Pensions and every year for about 4 or 5 years we have received the same letters from CPAM asking that we sign to confirm that we receive  pensions that are not from France and to support this with a copy of bank statement or similar showing  receipt of the payment. The first time  it happened I rang to query it and was told that it was just a routine confirmation that we were still here, still in receipt of a UK State pension and therefore entitled to Carte Vitale etc. I don't really have a problem with this, especially as for even longer the people who handle the payment of my husband's private company pension have been requesting the same sort of ' hey prove to us that you're still there' confirmation. It seems a fairly harmless bit of modern day admin .....

  We too used to buy NZ lamb out here because we preferred the flavour- it used to cost about 8 euros a leg.  I looked at some on Saturday in Super U: 27 euros! Suffice to say yesterday we had Day 1 of our 3-4 day chicken dishes..

  Miam Miam!  Sounds bliss from this side of our low-fat, Sugar-and-salt free diet.......... Well done that cook!  

    I had the same problem with my Japanese manufactured Toyota Carina a while back. I was getting quite stressed about the whole business and then went to the DRIRE and asked if someone would explain what i ought to do. The fellow there told me which forms I needed, explained I would need to change the headlights and then take the car back for them to check it out. I did that , duly made an appointment and went back for them to do whatever the 'check' process was and came away with forms signed and  then able to go direct to the Prefecture to get the new carte grise. Somewhere here I've got the whole file and photocopies of all the forms etc but at the moment can't remember where I've put it! Will have another look..

 I got the same email last week Bugsy and assumed it was a scam since they called me 'Customer' instead of Mrs suej and normally stuff from them is personalised. I keep an account there but don't do much with it and the monthly paper statements usually keep me up to date with it. As soon as i received the email I thought I'd look to see how disabled my interenet access was...........it wasn't the slightest bit disabled at all, it functioned easy-peasy as normal. Easy mistake ? or nasty phishing?

     Thank you Norman H