mint

STOP PRESS!  CORRECTION! Oops, I might have got the earlier info wrong about it being too late to vote.  Whilst helping OH to fill in his form, I realised that I should have got to a page requesting that the proxy form be sent to you by email. If they do, somehow, manage to get their act together to email you the form you MIGHT still have time by 5.00pm 4 December to have appointed someone to do your voting. Don't know but could be worth a try? Also, if not yet registered this year, just do it.  Who knows might be another election in 2020 or even a referendum? PS  you have approx 40 minutes to get this done!!!

[quote user="idun"]  Mint......in my opinion I really do not consider Hellman's  is  a proper mayonnaise. Taste is simply creamy, and no mustard in it. I find it sickly and fad. Can't you buy melasse anywhere??? Just found this: https://naturalia.fr/melasse-noire-450g [/quote] Id, I agree about Hellman's.  In the distant past, I always used to make my own but, as we have both got older and in view of my compromised immune system (chimio), I thought I'd better not poison ourselves with raw eggs. Will look at your link later when I have a bit more time, thanks

Aw, isitlunchtime, don't rub it in, spent it all indeed!! Some of us are STILL waiting to hear[:'(]

For the 2017 election, we didn't have to send/fill in any forms, the voting papers came to us automatically.  Could be that we registered for the referendum and this form-filling thing is done YEARLY. Still, our votes wouldn't have made any difference in our ward.  The previous MP had a sizeable majority. I still think that, if the government had been that keen for people living overseas to vote, they might have put out a TV and radio announcement or at the very least put an announcement in a couple of newpapers. NOT impressed, not with the government and not with ourselves.....

if you are not registered to vote this year, I am afraid you are already too late[+o(] I am aware that some of us on here cannot vote; one such is our eminent friend, Norman H.  What I wasn't aware of is that you have to re-register every year. So, through our own fault, we are disenfranchised.  To vote by proxy, you need to wait till they send your proxy form (poxey form) and the last date for their receiving these back is 4 December.  Perhaps Boris has been advised to go for a snap election, knowing full well that there will be thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands who will be caught out in one way or another through sheer lack of time.

Strange that you should mention Bien Manger.  We get a food parcel (kids obviously think the elderly pair could do with it) every year from BM. Usually, some wine, biscuits, mustard and a whole load of cheeses which do not smell too good after they have been packed in one of their special panniers.  We never had the heart to say, look don't bother with the parcel this year.....not looking a gift horse in the mouth, etc!

I am re-visiting this thread because it is the season for getting in the seasonal goodies, n'est ce pas? Back to le Grand Frais for their wonderful glacé cherries and whole clementines (treated like the cherries), some great fat sultannas, candied ginger, some Wyke Farm cheddar, and even Hellman's mayonnaise.  Alas couldn't see any treacle.  Anyone knows where to get some or a French equivalent? On the plus side, got some really nice eating apples, really fresh blette and spinach, fresh garlic and Cevennes onions. Felt like I was in one of those supermarket sweep events where you can load up with everything you can get your hands on in 10 minutes! Just for once, I didn't look too closely at the prices, only at the products.......[:D]

 I think of her surprisingly often when "war" breaks out on the forum![:)]  I think, if Coops were about, what would be her stance on this?  And how she would set out a position in her own inimitable to which everybody would more or less agree and peace would descend once more. She was just such a special person and you could always have a laugh with her. Just also want to say salut to all those at the lunch in the Dordogne[kiss]

Good advice, Sue.  I will see him and ask him when he plans to do the repairs.  If his answer is unacceptable, I will, however reluctantly, have a word at the mairie. You have given me the sensible way to go about this.

Please bear with me whilst I describe my little difficulty after which I am going to ask what you would have (or might already have) done in similar circumstances. Last week our cantonnier knocked off the top of one of gate posts with his tractor.  He owned up to it and said he'd come back to repair it.  When we had the chance to look at the damage the following day, we could see that the whole of the capital (top) of the pillar had been knocked off and that the damage extended to the stone cladding all round the top half of the pillar. We are friendly with the cantonnier and his family and we don't doubt that he would come back and do a bit of a repair job.  As most cantonniers of small villages, he can turn his hand to various small jobs and he has in fact done various things around our garden and house with the full knowledge of the maire and for which we pay him. I have waited a few days for him to return and tell us how he is going to effect the repairs.  We have kept the pieces that have been knocked off and taken photos.  It's not an expensive job as it's only bog standard reconstitued stone cladding but the exposed concrete pillar under the cladding is going to be vulnerable to frost damage.  In fact frost could blow the rest of the cladding off. Apart from the unsightliness, I am also worried that the replaced cladding would not match the other pillar.  If that is the case, I would want both pillars to be suitably "cladded" to look as before. I intend to go to the mairie this week and talk the matter over.  Would/should there be a constat filled in?  I am keen that they pay for all of the repairs and that we would not be expected to claim off our own insurance. Your best diplomatic and non jokey suggestions of the best way to resolve this, svp.   

No enforced bed rest but I had to insist on no school.

ALBF, but I always thought that you were quite mad already?[:P] More seriously, I hope you don't have the very nasty Lyme disease; insomnia is perhaps marginally easier to cure than Lyme's. Good luck and happy daddyhood......remember, they do grow up.........er EVENTUALLY!

Wafer?  As in what they give you to eat in church?  Sorry, can't come up with better, back from gym and just taken my put-you-to-sleep pills. Do you know the French expression:  ça ne mange pas de pain?  I was told once that it referred to the "bread" at mass.  But I think it just means, it's no big deal, nothing too serious. 

Ugh...nasty thing, a bad back[:(]  So husband can drive again, hooray!  Such a difference to life, having or not having wheels.  I am back driving too and gradually getting more confident. But the rain, the rain is something else; it's a veritable torture staying indoors all day everyday.  PLUS, I have lost my best rain hat.  Wondering where I might have left it could put paid to sleep tonight......

THANK YOU, Cajal........ha!ha!ha!ha! I enjoyed that enormously, didn't realise what I'd missed, not having seen the interview...lol I'm glad at least SOMEONE realised I was only trying to be funny.....but, of course, I didn't succeed as well as you have[:D]

Thank you, Judith, for your post très sympa[:)] It is indescribably horrible what lack of sleep does to you.  I started not sleeping when my dog was ill and needed constant attention during the night (took both of us to gently lift her off her bed and took her outside for pipi).  Then the cancer and subsequent treatment. I thought everything was behind me and that all would be well.  I think my poor body must have felt it had to be on 24 hour alert at all times.  So, it's been over 3 years since I could go to bed and be sure of a decent night's sleep. For insomniacs out there, please don't put up with it.  And by all means, attempt all the so-called  tried and trusted remedies, the bed-going routine, the "relaxing" infusions, the melatonin pills from the pharmacy, the yoga, the meditation, the no electronic gadgets in the bedroom, the window blinds, the eye masks.  BUT, if still no joy, just ask for a little magic pill until you get back your essential sleep.  You'd get up in the morning counting your blessings instead of going to bed in the night counting sheep! 

I'm not un-cheered up at the moment, Wools[:)] And that's despite the weather being crap and no going outside is possible unless you are one of our famous south-west French ducks.  It's rained and rained for weeks and weeks.  If you do get a break in the weather, it's only for part of a day or even a whole day but that would be followed by wall-to-wall rain for the foreseeable future. So why am I feeling so chirpy, you may wonder.  Well, since my medical MOT last month, my own doc has followed the recommendations, put me on a blood pressure lowering tablet and a relaxant.  And lo and behold, at one fell swoop, my insomnia has been eliminated and my constant coughing wiped out!  So, you see, I can be forgiven for being a bit smug and irritatingly cheerful[:D][:D][:D]

Oh, non alors, but I came here to get away from all the headlines about Prince Andrew[+o(] Does the Forum need to be quite so topical and relevant?[I]

Thank you, nm.  I have looked at your link and other images of the blighters. Yes, those pink wrigglies in my rice bin are indeed pantry moth babies.  I have chucked out a huge container of split peas and another of cashew nuts. Beats me how they get in as all my stuff is in containers (though maybe the lids are not as tight as they should be)[:(]  I think OH might have found the source of the infestation.  I had 4 large bowls of walnuts and he found the lavae in all of them.  So that's all my walnuts, gathered over many walks, gone for a burton[:@]

Thank you Wools and Sue; I'll have a good look at Amazon.  Hope they have one of their "unmissable" days soon.

...... and, no, it's not for me![:P]

[quote user="Patf"]We used to get pantry moths. They loved all dried goods such as couscous, laid their eggs which turned into tiny worms. Plus cobwebby  stuff. So you had to keep all dried goods in closed containers.That's assuming they weren't already infested, like yours nomoss.I haven't seen pantry moths here yet, but you never know, with global warming. [/quote] Do the grubs look like little pink threads with a black spot at one end?  Would that be their eye or their backside?

Top marks for persistence, nomoss!  Tu mérites le petit cadeau[:)]

Nomoss, have you left out the F?  Don't you mean KFC?[8-)] More seriously, you must be unlucky.  Just been down to the Mondial Relay and collected my parcel.  The contents exceeded expectations so have been back to the site to say I'd received the goods and that there were no problems. Had a message back to say the transaction was being made and the seller being paid.

isitlunchtime, thank you for coming back and telling us about your good fortune! You have given the waiters hope and determination[:D][:P]  Not to mention a belief in Santa Claus......................!