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Thank you for replying, Lori. I really needed the contact and the support. About 10 minutes later.... I tested him with a mirror to estalish he is really gone. Now, we have wrapped him up in a pair of my old pyjama trousers and we will bury him tomorrow. Thanks again DL and Lori.

Oh DL, he's just gone.... I went to look at him about half an hour ago and I could see his breath was very shallow. And now he is gone and is suffering no more.

Well spotte, Norman. I'd NEVER have fallen for this as, like you, I simply do not go near Prime but I could imagine how that email could easily fool a lot of people.

Big problem that I do not know how to solve. This is what the problem is. There is a stray cat that comes and goes and OH has been feeding it because it is so hungry. It has been ill and now it is literally on its last legs. Where we live, the vets do not do home visits and the cat is unused to humans. From past experience, the only vets in town and around here, insist on RdVs even for end of life injections. Then you need to sit in the waiting room until your turn!! Sooooooooo thoroughly dreadful. The poor cat is now having fits and, I think, is probably paralysed. I fear it is just rotting away while still alive. Is there anything like choloroform or those canisters of nitrous oxive that we can give it? Can you get those things at the pharmacie or thoss shops that sell vapes and e-cigarretes? I'd ring the pharmacien but would like to know what I am talking about beforehand. Please give me the advice and the words to say? Thank you. PS apart from falling on my knees and praying to St Francis the patron saint of animals, I am at my wits end.

Bravo! I have visited and revisited this poem for years now. All those years ago, I only had it read to me for the sounds until, little by little I understood more of what Baudelaire was saying. He's never been the most cheerful of souls, has he? I applaud you for your translation and your reading of it. I'd never thought of this particular piece as being easily translated and I think you have produce an excellent result for your efforts🙂 I'd never liked autumn and there were more years than I can count when my asthma would play up and I'd be ill with something seasonal. This year, however, I seem to be more than OK so I'll leave Baudelaire to his famous "spleen".

Strange, but I have never paused to think about how I spell that word. And now we are talking about it, I still am not sure how I would write it. Isn't that always a problem when you stop to think instead of doing it instinctively? I asked OH how HE would spell it, him being the cyptic crossword doer in our household. He said ageing but then he himself is already aged so it could be a generational thing? After all the raging and rampaging and managing those could very well be aging? BTW nice link that, Wooly.

Both are correct though I believe I am right in saying that aging is the "norm" (for Norman too, of course) in North America and Canada but ageing is more commonly used in the UK and Australia. As for South Africa, Wooly might have the edge there?

For myself, I have nothing to say or add to what has already been written here but I must just give you this link because I have enjoyed everyone of this sports journalist's article on the RWC: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2023/oct/29/south-africa-prove-to-be-masters-of-finding-point-of-difference

Yes, when we left our last house, the notaire priced what we left as worth over 10 000€. We put everything in the contract so there would be no mistakes or arguments. We'd already sold the house on Leboncoin and then I had little appetite for dragging out the process with selling other items as well. Old furniture, unless they are antiques with proper provenance as the dealers would say, are worth very little and could take ages to sell or not sell at all. So a lot depends on your timescale. Just give away as much as you can. Even if you are talking several tens of thousands, in say 5 or 10 years time, that "loss" would mean nothing in your life. I would not fret, I would simply free myself of encumbrances and move on to the next phase. Just my thoughts so please do not feel upset if you don't agree with them. In any case, I wish you all the best.

dept71, yes I registered the car I originally brought with me to France. Did all the paperwork within 6 weeks, had the lights changed, etc. About 3 years ago, we had 3 cars for 2 people and I was undergoing treatment which made it dangerous for me to drive. So I sold my car.....it was already 22 years old, to a French man who sold it on to another French man and the car is still going strong because I see it in town.

All the pleasure and excitement of this tournament now totally gone as far as I'm concerned. The Mbonambi-Curry controversy is leaving a very bad taste. Long time to wait but I hope the next World Cup will be able to make up for this one.

That'll teach you, Nick!😁 Also, not all nationalities but certainly SOME of ALL nationalities.....

This is topical, of course it is, the hostilities in the Middle East. But I was really thinking about this matter of what constitutes "hate speech". This hate speech movement (choose your own noun) seems to apply to whatever people don't like to hear. And often the word "hate" is trivialised. Just an easy example to come to mind, someone's gender and what pronoun to apply to them. Men, women are now no-no's, so non-binary, trans, gender- fluid, etc etc. This is not to say this matter of gender is unimportant because it clearly is to a lot of people. Can't upset people with "hate speech" can we? But is it really THE most important and knotty problem in people's lives the world over? To think that this is type of debate is what is exercising governments!!! In the post war Labour government, the five giants to slay were Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness. Now we occupy ourselves with what labels we give people and about what will look good in the public's eye. All empty gesture politics. BTW, this comment could equally apply to my post about the embourgeoisement (thank you, Norman) of run-down areas of towns and cities.

Hectorsdad, unlike your wife, I am no expert. As far as I can see from the pictures, it is a structure playing about with different forms. We are back to the age-old argument of Form vs Function, are we not? What worries me is the possible difficulty of maintaining such a structure, with all different planes, and necessary repairs when they arise, will be next to impossible to effect.

Norman, thank you for the synonyms and antonyms. You knew I'd be interested!

Good gracious, Wools, I should have looked it up in wikipedia. I really thought it was just a trendy label for any verbal communication that we don't like! What a simpleton I am😂 I thought it was a matter of semantics and now I learn, from your link, that it is a LEGAL definition!!! Anyway, who cares about legality? Some things can never be legislated against, otherwise murder and burglary would have gone out of fashion?

I have found this article very interesting and I know that some from the Forum live nearby. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/oct/26/arles-luma-foundation-frank-gehry-culture-poverty-france This type of development is by no means confined to Arles. I see examples of the same type of debate near where I live (and that is not exactly a thriving metropolis). Others on here have their thoughts? Please share them.

Is anyone else fed up with the simplistic and assinine way in which we communicate these days? I have just been listening to the objections and calls for resignation and so on of Kier Starmer the Labour leader and Guterres the Secretary General of the UN for making perfectly balanced speeches, representing fairly both sides of the Israeli and Hamas conflict. It seems that nowadays, if we don't like what anyone says about anything, we demand that they be cancelled, closed down, whatever. What has happened to I disagree with what you have said but I will defend your right to say it ? Who'd give ANY public speech these days? Why cannot a speech be simply biased, partial, prejudicial, one-sided, unrepresentative, slanted, weighted? Oh no, it is "hate speech"! If there is any "hate" around, this stupid way of labelling anything said that we don 't like can only narrow down dissent and disagreement and encourage bigotry and intolerance.

No, nothing wrong with my old machine and the new one seems to have the same problems. Have tried different yeasts and even different makes of flour. I used to use Dove Farm yeast and the bread rose to hit the roof of the machine. Not sure I can get it in France, otherwise will have to wait till summer visitors from the UK.

Yes, definitely the botannical gardens and Clarke's Quay for some local colour and Chinese opera (if they still do it). Be warned that the latter is definitely an acquired taste so don't expect to enjoy it but it's an experience not easily found elsewhere except for somewhere like Hong Kong or China itself.

It's an excellent thing to be, wd, being curious I mean. I am curious about all sorts of things and it has made retirement (which I had NOT looked forward to) fly on wings. Exploring not only places but languages, culture and most of all, music has been wonderful especially as domestic responsibilites have prevented me from physically going out there and discovering as you are doing. Enjoy your travels!

Thank you, that has made me, if anything admire him even more than before. I hope he really IS going to be in contention for the top job.

Gardian, you have summed it up well and you have expressed most of what I thought. I don't think either England or SA plays a pretty game. I too don't much like SA as a team. And what is all that rubbish about their traffic light system of codes for red, yellow and green to show the players what moves they should make? As for their director of rugby, Rassie Erasmus, he is a loud-mouthed, unpleasant specimen. On the England side, they did not have Marcus Smith and, but for Farrell, they would have lost by a greater margin. Like you, I shall be rooting for the All Blacks

Thank you for your explanation. I shall bear this in mind when the canvassing starts😏

ha! Ha! that's entente cordiale for you! Another, in my opinion, more nuanced view is this one: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2023/oct/21/rugby-world-cup-semi-final-england-game-of-their-lives-south-africa