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So how many of us are still out there


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EuroTr@sh wrote: "This post was inspired by watching Johnson's abysmal performance in PMQ just now. He's not interested in debating or answering questions, all he's interested in is saying Everything I say or do is right and everything you say or do is wrong."

I say: Tell me a politician who doesn't do this all of the time? Keir Smarmy and crowd are experts at being contrary, you'd have thought at this terrible time him and his cohorts would try to be supportive to help the country, but no way, all they want to do is to try to score political points. Mainly they fail abysmally.
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NickP wrote: "Tell me a politician who doesn't do this all of the time?"

WIthout moving far from the UK, have you never listened to Sturgeon taking questions from journalists or answering challenges from political opponents? Try it, I'm sure there's plenty of clips on youtube. She listens to the question and answers it. Sometimes this involves accepting the criticism and admitting she made mistakes, sometimes it involves accepting that the criticism is valid but explaining why she is following the course she's chose, sometimes it involves rejecting the criticism and explaining why she disagrees. But she stays on topic and replies coherently and rationally, and often you learn something from her replies, it's interesting to listen to, unlike Johnson.

Classic example last week when Starmer asked Johnson a question about the examinations issues and Johnson "responded" by accusing Starmer of wanting to stay in the EU and having been an IRA sympathiser (clearly not aware of Starmer's track record in prosecuting IRA terrorists). You're not telling me you don't see a problem there?

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The only problem I see is Sturgeon's hatred of anything English, except the money, and Starmer' failure to prosecute Savile. Still, you've shown where you hang your Tammie. So as you're the mod I'll withdraw from this debate before I get banned. night night. ???
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EuroTr@sh wrote the following post at 09 Sep 2020 15:38:

I did it. I'm back in Normandy. Not sure what next, but at least I know the house is OK.

Excellent news .. I can uncross my fingers now (smiley face) as I have been experiencing a bit of cramp due to them having been crossed for so long.
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Thank you suein56 :-)

It's so nice to be back. I'd been gone for so long I thought it would feel strange. I was really worried that either the house would have developed a problem and be unliveable in, or that I would feel I didn't belong any more. But after a day it's almost like I was never away. First thing I did was go to Aldi because things I'd left in the house were past their best by dates - same faces at checkout and they haven't even moved things round, I was able to go straight to the things I want!

What a mountain of post though, going all the way back to a late New Year card, a dépistage appointment that's been and gone (I feel quite bad about that), and the letter all the mairies sent out after Brexit telling us we can't vote any more. It was a bit weird catching up with it all.
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How nice, we're all here actually having a natter......ah....[:)]

Catalpa, I hope you aren't going to disappear for years before coming here to post again!  I always thought of you as the "sensible one", Parsnips as the "tax man", Sunday Driver as the "car man", Claire as the "go-to" person and so on.  I always had a good idea of the person who'd give the best advice on whatever advice it was I needed[:)]

ET, I did wonder why you didn't come "home" earlier from Caridigeon (have I spelt it right)?  I mean who wants to be "beside the sea" when it rains all the time?  Plus, did you make any friends whilst you were there?  I never did in 12 years, not REAL friends, only those you have a reason to get on with.  I did know masses of people, but only through my work or OH's.  I feel now that it was ridiculous to have stuck it for so long.  There were things that I liked, of course, but not enough to make up for all the downsides.  OTOH, I did learn a lot about living in France just by talking de la pluie et du beau temps with French people.
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Gosh Mint those names are blasts from the past. Whatever happened to Sunday Driver?

I was out in the wilds in the Brecon Beacons, not by the sea. A wonderful place to live and work but a weird place to be locked down on your own. Lliterally I never saw another soul for days and even weeks on end. At first we all expected the campsite to be able to open later in the season, seems laughable now how naive we were but at that stage we hoped it might all be over in a month and we could all pick up where we left off. Then when lockdown dragged on my ex, who is still my best friend in the world, offered me his spare room to save my sanity, and I took him up on it and broke lockdown to go stay with him. Then by mid July it was pretty clear the campsite wasn't going to open at all this year, and I just kind of lost the will - so fed up with my plans never working out. And I stayed where I was because that didn't need any planning. I was half heartedly trying to build up my freelance work again and what I said was that I would come back when I had some income coming in again. That hasn't really happened but here I am anyway, it just felt like time I did something. I still don't really have the scooby of a plan, keep hoping I'll wake up in the morning with a clear vision of what to do next, but I never do.
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To the best of my knowledge, SD sold up and returned to the UK.

He said at the time that ‘That was it’ for him. No problems, just a change in location & typically he felt that there was nothing more that he could contribute.

Good bloke though.

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albf wrote "Anyone watching the news lately will know what I am gong on about."

Had dinner with two French friends last night. One has a second house at Pornic, the other 4 second houses (!) so the topic did come up, with the strange french phrase "ce n'est pas de tout normal" repeated many times with feelings.

Having spent 5 long years battling the French legal system I have a horror of every needing to do it again. Stories like yours and the one linked below are the stuff of nightmares. Listen with your speakers on.

https://www.letelegramme.fr/ille-et-vilaine/rennes/video-nuisances-sonores-et-malfacons-l-enfer-des-habitants-d-une-tour-rennaise-08-09-2020-12612612.php
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Catalpa is quite right. The occasional aggro on this forum has put me right off posting. I tend to avoid conflict in any case, so voluntarily going somewhere I might be subjected to it is a definite no-no. Maybe it’s a character defect, but it keeps me safe. I will continue to lurk.
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ET, apropos your earlier remark about making plans that don't work out, I just want to say please don't be too hard on yourself.  You had a plan and the courage to "go for it".....and that is perfectly admirable.  NOBODY could have foretold the fallout from covid and how it could cause devastation to many a well-laid plan.

I am sure you know Beckett's remark (and even Wawrinka the tennis player, of whom I am a great fan) had it tattooed on his arm:  Ever tried.  Ever failed.  No matter.  Try again.  Fail again.  Fail better.

All the best, ET;  you never know what pleasant opportunities might be just round the corner for you[:)] (encouraging smile!)

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Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

From The Poems of Dylan Thomas, published by New Directions. Copyright © 1952, 1953 Dylan Thomas. Copyright © 1937, 1945, 1955, 1962, 1966, 1967 the Trustees for the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas. Copyright © 1938, 1939, 1943, 1946, 1971 New Directions Publishing Corp. Used with permission.

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GHrE2amzinyP8F6r49z0rKG6a6wWZnpT/view?fbclid=IwAR2tyGVBg8p-Hv9IeidKQF13fPwOWcyWnPS7zh2NMNmegxi5hGtMQ1yfJKo

The

sunlight on the garden

Hardens and grows cold,

We cannot

cage the minute

Within its nets of gold;

When all is

told

We cannot beg for pardon.

Our freedom as free

lances

Advances towards its end;

The earth compels, upon

it

Sonnets and birds descend;

And soon, my friend,

We

shall have no time for dances.

The sky was good for

flying

Defying the church bells

And every evil iron

Siren

and what it tells:

The earth compels,

We are dying, Egypt,

dying

And not expecting pardon,

Hardened in heart

anew,

But glad to have sat under

Thunder and rain with

you,

And grateful too

For sunlight on the garden.

Louis

Macneice

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[quote user="Lori"]
Ah Mint, I like the quote.  And, husband is a big fan of Stan.

[/quote]

I love to watch him play.  His serve and single-handed backstroke ......fabulous!

Pity he's not in New York at the mo; he'd have a good chance of winning the tournament!  And with Djokovich disqualified.....

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[quote user="Lori"]
Ah Mint, I like the quote.  And, husband is a big fan of Stan.

[/quote]

I love to watch him play.  His serve and single-handed backstroke ......fabulous!

Pity he's not in New York at the mo; he'd have a good chance of winning the tournament!  And with Djokovich disqualified.....

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Hooray! I am briefly in Bananaland, and find that here I can view the forum on my iPad without one-third of the screen being blocked by a thick coloured band down each side.

At last I can see the names of posters, and also the necessary Reply keys.

It’s wonderful to see old friends like Catalpa and auxadrets pop up. I have been a member since the 1990s, I think, in the days of Coco, and Dick, and oooo, can't remember the other names. But some of us did meet up once at a French Property fair at Olympia, to put faces to names. I have even stayed, years ago, at Coco's lovely B&B in Normandy.

I lived in France twice in the 1960s, and later had a holiday home for five decades (sold three years ago). But - although I speak fluent French - I have never totally committed to living there. Instead, my experience of the country and language became a springboard that launched me into writing a couple of guidebooks - one on the Vendée, and one on the north (within 90 min of Calais); both sadly now out of print.

Gosh, I loved doing that; all that exploring and explaining.

But I am not so good at debate and discussion.

Will try to do better...

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Ooh, so many people I remember from "the old days". Some others are still here, Sweet 16, Teamedup, woolyB to name a few, although they have new usernames now. I remember Saligo Bay, Twinkle (so sad to hear that she died) Coops (of course) Russethouse, Clair, even (whispers) Mikki.

I've been around here since the 90s, with a different username then, but gradually stopped posting. Then log in problems forced me to re-reigister with a shiny new name, and now I pop in from time to time, mostly just to lurk (as proved by my lowly post count ) but I do post from time to time.

I would be sad to see the forum disappear :(
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