Cluzo

Yes the supermarket has a wonderful selection of oils in the health section as FairyNuff says - I buy mine there to take back to the UK as they usually do Argan Oil and i like that one

Im impressed and jealous Pachapapa that you now have a thousand "friends" on Facebook How sad am I !!!!!!!!!!!     Like you Pachapapa a daughter opened FB for me and one for my OH about 2 years ago .  BUT Ive only got about 6 friends ( if that) and my OH has about 7 . and they are all relatives !!!!

Ooooh   I posted before I checked Cooperlolas site .  I think her site is cheaper than Ideal World and  it looks like the postage is free ..  They did send me a £10 voucher to use in the next monthy though.

I use Ideal World when they are having one of theirSpecial Offer days - I buy Royal Canin Fit 32 Cat food - I think it is good value - they sell medical bits as well but I dont know if they are good value or not .

Gosh yes it did !   Oooh it bought us loads of  stuff - not .  Now if we had been in France we could have visited our nearest vineyard ( anyway the one we know of ) and bought 10 litres of rose and had change left over .

Both my OH and myself are resident in the UK and in receipt of the UK age related pension   . We each  received our £10 on the 6th December 2010 .

good luck Cathy - you will be in my thoughts I offer my support as you start on your journey - I had my op in the UK in September and start my radio therapy tomorrow there is a very good websight forum in the UK which is the largest and most active community for people affected by breast cancer . www.breastcancercare.org.uk/community .  I know it offers info about the UK system but the folk on the forum will have the same problems as folk in France.

Leo if your booked for November any glitches should have been sorted by then -so that sounds good .   weve seen where its going to be - they were working on the mooring / landing bits when we saw it back in May . Funnily enough we went to Gijon  in May but didnt find where it would dock -couldnot believe how busy it was .    My OH is so looking forward to using this . We were going to book for late Sept but Hospital appts here in the UK have messed  up our plans for the moment . So we are very interested in other folks experiences .

We want to use it too -  weve been waiting for it to start for ages  - When have you booked for Leo??  It starts 3rd September -are you going soon ???   Id really love to hear how you get on .

Thanks afb for your reply about St Jean  - hopefully we shall be OK - we will be over in 3 weeks so will find out for sure then .  We have heard from friends on same camp site and they have heard that  it hasnt flooded  but there is quite a lot of debris !!!  . I just hope it doesnt consist of my smashed up van and decking !!!!! . I cant believe that it hasnt been mentioned on BBC   . 

Does anybody know ????    Our second home is a mobile home on a campsite at St Jean de Monts  in the Vendee  about a mile or so from the sea    Is it still there ???   Is it smashed to matchwood ????   Is it floating like Noahs Ark ??? I want to know   ( but I dont  If you know what I mean !) We are due to arrrive for our 6 month sojorn soon - so keep your fingers crossed for us folks . If anyone is local to St  Jean and knows any news ???

Im sure you can have it casually lying around -

It makes me feel very anceint as I have always had a darning mushroom in my sewing box -and wool - and darning needles as well !!!!  . Where it came from - who knows ??? - ??? I used to like darning in my younger days - my Ist OH had beautiful darns in his woollen socks - now my poor 2nd OH has his holey socks tossed in the bin and new ones from M& S like Mr Sweet . That reminds me - used to use old socks to make pullies for the dog. 

My friend ( moved back to Uk now ) didnt have much problem eating out in France . We had hundreds of meals out .  I suppose after a while you tend to keep to the same places so they get to know you but she always says she wouldnt  dare eat out at a strange resteraunt in UK but in France ( and Spain & Portugal|) we did it all the time . It seems that  in France they make sauces from  meat juices and dont use FLOUR  sometimes maybe cornflour but not flour as a matter of course .  Of course at times she had to rely on Steak and chips !  Of course its down to what you choose  - not Pizza !!! or Chinese ( gluten in Soy sauce) A shock when we found some wine wasnt gluten free !!!!

We used to go to Portugal for New Year and saw the build up for the start.a couple of times  Our village ran a free bus to Portemao so it was a good day out with no trouble parking . Still use the hats and t-shirts !!!!.  

All finished now -  just got to bake it in mustard honey and marmalade .  I guess at this time of year I get a little wild and could boil it up in anything to hand but its just a 3 litre bottle of full fat cola .   promise !!!

Im still awake . Im cooking another ham in coke for visitors tomorrow. There is still nothing on TV .  Ive finished my book Nobody bought me any new ones for Christmas . Didnt realise it wasd sunday today and forgeot to get the papers .  Only buy them on Sunday . Maybe alcohol is the answer !!!!!!!!!

I think it  important that we DO drive sometimes .   I know I shirk it if I can . We used to have our own car each but we now spend half the year in france so one car just sat there -   We then bought a Zafira to transport all our stuff backward and forward ( son had my car OH's daughter had his ) and I was OK with  that  . We now have a Picasso Grand which is just a little bit wider - and im terrified of tiny Brit parking spaces and invisable huge bollards ( we  have them on our drive ) so I dont drive unless I absolutly have to . Funnily enough I drive everyday in France -not far - just to the shops and stuff .

Anyway - back to gammon - I have heard that the best way to cook it is to follow Nigella lawsons receipe to cook it in Coca Cola . Im almost definatly going to cook it that way this year thats if f I buy one .

I agree with you GG even though we find things much dearer in france we spend so much less and the reverse is true even though things are so much cheaper in UK we spend somuch more !!!!. We have only been back 3 weeks and have spent a fortune already -not on presents for other people but stuff  for meeeeeeeeeee. Food in supertmarkets looks amazing and so cheap and the choise !!!!!!!!11 OH keeps chucking mince pies -hot cross buns ??  crumpets etc and other goodies in the trolly . OH says I always serve upwonderful meals wherever we are whether in France or UK .

Its a funny thing but I cant remember noticing what the Oak trees looked like - must be little scabby things to have such tiny acorns -Im used to the glorious majestic spreading -Heart of Oak etc variety found in the UK .  As there is usually a reason and purpose to most things in nature perhaps it will turn out to be a cure for some dread disease or perhaps a sheep dip.  When I got back to bed around 5 I started thinking that thers npot mach use for conkers either!!! Richard thanks for your reminder about control Z - I cant believe I never thought of it - Hes  always walking over the keyboard and causing awful things to happen . I play Free(something) a lot and use control z all the time ---it is so much better than the back arrow , Its amazing what you learn when you talk abou acorns - maybe thats what they are good for .

Grrrh - Ive just written a long rambling post about worrying about -"if acorns have any use?" . Cat places one black delicate paw on keyboard and  -wipeout- . !!! Ill just have to have that mug of tea instead

I always thought the spanish guy was rather yummy but I expect he is a king by now so I dont expect that counts

thought I was the only one with the kettle on . I dont usually switch on the computer ( but Oh left it on so i thought better sswitch it off )  So i thought lets have a look to see if the insomniacs are really there !

Sorry my French is poor and our TV is UK so I cant make out WHY ??? . other than its just this years Farmers protest. I notice one of the letters commented that all the tractors were new and they cost E100,000. Thats what we thought ! we gave up working what they all cost when we got to one billion Euros .