idun

Notaires, well, ours gave our keys away a week before completion! We knew the notaire and they had the power to sort everything out for us. To say that I went spare is an understatement. As I pointed out, IF the people had decided not to sign then we would have been right in it, and their fault. I am not saying it would not have got sorted out eventually, but french notaires are literally a law unto themselves and I doubt that they would have been much help in sorting their mess out. Beware of french notaires, we have been let down more times than we have been well served.  And my son's girlfriend, well, took her literally 10 months to sort out her mother's very simple affairs, the notaire was yet another chocolate fire guard.

I have not heard anyone say these things, sounds like stuff from Drop the Dead Donkey. I would like to say that in the recent past, I have heard a lot of tosh, coming from some officials mouths.[Www]

My son also lives in a flat and he has a tiny balcony, but at least it is there. I am glad that they moved from his girlfriend's small flat a few years ago, I really do not know how they would have coped with one another otherwise. It's alright usually getting on well, but if it had been in  40m2 I think it would have been quite another thing.

You can clap for who you want, but they all deserve applause for their tireless dedication, no matter the country. Me it was my big pan and wooden spoon again. And husband had made a wooden clapper thing, we made lots of noise as did many others in this town, and some let fireworks off.

GG, bad back eh! with such exertions, well an even better reason to take my own sweet time. And having given it some thought..........I am not behind anyone actually, that friends have done all these 'jobs' is up to them, and it is they who have had a little whinge about time dragging. My days are going just fine for the time being. Sudoku, yes, I love them too, so will get them out and with even more occupations, I doubt I shall get much else done[Www][Www][Www]

I am doing well considering. I am being, in comparison to many of my friends, terribly lazy. I haven't done a big spring clean. My windows are not gleaming. Nothing has been scrubbed within an inch of it's life. I have watched tv, listened to music, read a lot, and I mean a lot and been on the computer a bit, but not too much. Cooked and baked and the basics in the house are done, ie kitchen clean and bathrooms, and clothes and bedding, but in the grand scheme of things, I have done very very little. And doing what I am doing is suiting me, in fact suiting me wonderfully. I am happy doing little, what is the song, busy doing nothing. So that is Idun, busy doing nothing and feeling well on it. To all take care!

I do hope that you get sorted CeeJay. You have ofcourse highlighted several problems here, including your wife having jewellery in hospital. Unless one is taken in urgently, then perhaps it would be prudent to leave all valuables at home. I am a lady who wears her jewellery, and why not, it's there I like it and I should appreciate it. And when my time comes I know who I want to have my jewellery, and would not like the idea that something like this could happen. The other problem is when one has problems with heirs. Families, including mine can be difficult and I suppose that I should make sure that everything gets sorted out easily. And the last thing you have highlighted is that IF there is a major crisis in the future that I or OH will know who we can contact and how. So CeeJay, I hope you have had some luck with this.

As I said in another post, journalists will be onto government failings, this time it's in France. Apparently many EHPAD coronovirus deaths not in the official figures and a big problem in EHPAD's. Families obviously not allowed to visit and the pompes funebres have never been so busy. This was on BBC news today.

I have used that site I use, worldometers.info,  and looked at each country again and the figures were kif kif around the 6th of March. I agree about the testing, however, even if we hadn't tested in the UK, then surely the deaths would correspond? As this is rather precise as to how people die with it, I would hope that the Dr's would not put deaths down to other things other than this in the UK during this time. And families would be saying something if they were. As would journalists.

I am still on GMT and was up an hour later, but had gone to bed an hour later too as I wasn't tired. I suppose that in Pre-CV days, I would have made an effort to get into a new rhythm, but what the heck.

Not sure which recipe you used Eric, but I looked at the one that mentioned making bread without a machine. The only thing I would say is that that is somewhat more fresh yeast than I would personally use, but OK never the less. I tend use the au pif method as to how much I use, but did that a few months ago and then weighed it, so I could make a precise recipe for a friend who wanted to know how to bake bread. In the mid to late 1970's for various reasons, maybe strikes, on our way home from work we had problems getting bread. So I just started making it and have done for most of the years since then. And for most of our time in France.  I used to use dried yeast, changing to the 'new' super active when it came out and then OH became very very seriously ill, and it was that dried yeast that made him very ill. Since 1979, I have used fresh yeast and he is fine with that. Also, I started using the Elizabeth David method of little yeast and a far longer rising time, and that is fine. I do know that too much yeast makes hard bread which as a friend, who did just that, said, that her horses wouldn't even eat it. Bread is the most satisfying thing I make. You start with next to nothing and end up with the most marvellous food on the table.

I have been keeping an eye on the figures via this, hopefully live link: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries I suppose that is shocking me that the french figures continue to rise so. And as with the UK there are similar percentage death rates. The lockdown in France happened well before the UK, so why did it not work better. Maybe I have simply not understood it all, but it seemed that France was on the ball with it very quickly. And I suppose that I want the lockdown to work, because we are now living in locked down England.

I didn't understand most of that NH. However, what I did get was how absolutely incredible this virus is. As amazing as it is deadly.

Ah yes people going to bed early. How often have we been in hotels in France, then that night after having met up with friends, back at around 11 or midnight and the place has been so quiet, not a soul stirring, no tv sound zilch. We have crept in.

Ah we have googled it. It would seem that our thingamajig has not read the same manuals.[Www]

I am glad that we are not the only ones with car clocks that are always wrong. Although, I rather proudly managed what our garage did not manage last autumn, and changed the time. Whether I will be able to remember again, I have no idea, because I was messing on for about an hour when I managed. I have started wearing a watch, cannot be doing with checking the time on my mobile phone, and the car clock will be what it will be now. We have one of these multi things that act like a barometer, predicting weather, etc etc as well as an alarm and and clock. The alarm on that goes off at least twice a day and we cannot stop it. It is now one of those things that anyone who comes into the house implies that we don't know what we are doing....... which in fairness, we don't, as we cannot stop it....... but that they know better. Everyone has had a go and the only thing that has happened is that the alarm times have changed, but the alarm goes off, dare I say, as regularly as clockwork. The rest of the bloody thing works well though, so I loathe to remove the battery.

Enjoy it Lori. You cannot catch it if you are not near anyone, or touch anything, but simply 'walk'.

I can get everything at the moment apart from plain or strong flour, there is self raising. Our supermarkets are pretty well stocked up, including all the fruits, salad things and veggies I want. Although a friend has told me that hers at about 13 miles away are not.

I have frozen the bread in usable portions and so we have enough in for about three weeks now. I had to use the last of my fresh yeast up, as I could tell that I had to, not only by the date, but the feel of it. I cannot use dried yeast as it makes my husband very seriously ill. So that is all my flour gone, apart from Self Raising, which I use for cakes and pastries..

narcissistic personality disorder There would be no point in telling them though, no point in telling them anything[Www]

For all it is also weird, I have found seeing the empty city centres rather beautiful, can see the buildings for once. We all know why they are empty ofcourse, but imagine if you ended up in one and had no idea why. I ask, because that happened to me in my first summer of living in France. A Saturday, husband at work and we lived in a city. It was red hot and I decided to have a mooch around the centre, explore and do a little shopping. I left our oven of a flat, because I think that they forgot the insulation before 2, and the main road round the corner was quiet, but it could be at lunch time. The bus was an age, but I caught it into the centre and got off at my usual stop. The place was deserted. A french city, a Saturday and not a soul, no cars, nothing. All the shops shut. I decided to walk home, we lived about a 20 minute walk out and in the end ran.  Truthfully I was in a bit of a panic. I hardly spoke any french then, and we didn't have a tv and if something had kicked off, then I did not know about it. I was very very upset, I think apart from one bus, I had seen about five people in the distance on my way back. So back to the oven and on the phone to OH. I asked if anything had kicked off, a war, anything. He asked his colleagues and they said no, nothing. We had a problem then, because they didn't think that there was anything wrong. We eventually worked out that it was the 15th of August. And that was what it was like then, everything closed and no one about.  There is a beauty to empty streets as long as you know why they are empty. Not being religious in any way, I didn't. Also, I am not sure if I had got my head around the jour ferie being actually on the 'day' it fell either at that time. What a learning process.

On Friday night, having enough flour in to make up a batch, I started a dough at bedtime, using cold water, and was going to put it into the utility room overnight. I then remembered that now it is spring it gets very warm in there, with the eastern sun shining into the utility room from quite early on, and me, I don't get up early and early is not what most of you will imagine, 9 would be horribly early for me! I hate mornings. Didn't want bread over proved, so had a look on the net about over proving and Nigella suggested putting the dough in the fridge. I did. Got it out yesterday when I got up, and got it out of the fridge. It had hardly risen. Took hours for the poor dough to 'wake up' and start to rise. It would have been quicker if I had just started the bread yesterday when I got up. For overnight proving, I always use cold water, but this is the first time I have put the dough in the fridge. IMO don't do it! It was well after 14h and  I was starting to think that the lot would have to be binned, but maybe it was that thought that made it start to rise very very slowly. The bread was OK, not the best I have ever made, but decent never the less. The internet is great, but sometimes it certainly isn't.

At some point people will work again, so why not apply on line. It will soon tell you if it is going to be dealt with.

I rather think that it is usually VERY unwise to say such things to me! A couple of years ago, he actually said something about the way I was cooking something, so a few hours later, because I was brooding over this, I asked him to show me how to suck eggs[6]. Men, or is it just him, the numpty did just that. After 45 years, one would hope that he would know better, but no.

These old hands are not up to a minute of clapping, so as with last night, it will be a big metal pan and a wooden spoon again. Other half has so much confidence in me, [Www] that he told me to hit the bottom of it, not inside. I won't tell you what I said to that.....  [Www]