Gardengirl

I wonder how much it has changed. An English friend in the Gard took citizenship in 2019 and studied a booklet, which could be the one Norman linked to. She worked really hard at it and also read up pretty widely on the history and traditions of France, and worked each week with a friend to improve her French language and knowledge of France. That was on top of the excellent group French conversation classes that we attended each week for years plus constant chatting to French neighbours and friends. She would be the first to say that her French speaking isn’t perfect, and she speaks with an English accent (she is English and most French people seem to think it’s joli) but she can be perfectly understood and understands most that is said. Many of us rejoiced on the day she gained citizenship.

Some good tips on here, sorry I can’t help with muesli/fruit bread, Lori. I used to make bread by hand until arthritis got worse and have used my mixer with the bread paddle on since then. My husband took over bread-making some time ago and is proud of his very tasty efforts. But as already said, the results differ quite a lot, despite careful attention paid to weights and measures. Recently one mix turned out loaves very like dense rye bread. Quite tasty, but worked our jaws well.

Very many thanks for that poem, Norman - it really is so relevant today. It made me dwell on how fast life is passing us by as some of us who are older, maybe vulnerable people do what we’re told and stay in sitting on our sofas. I was watching elderly people having their vaccinations on tv earlier. Some of them hadn’t been outside their homes at all since March - 10 whole months. They were delighted to be having their vaccinations, had dressed up in best clothes specially for the outing, bless them. They were full of praise for the kindness and efficiency of the people who had looked after them and those who vaccinated them How life must feel to be moving so very slowly to them, sitting on their sofas, yet the minutes are ticking by so very quickly.

ANOB, It’s lovely to be able to come on here when I want to, which I’ve kept failing at on and off- problems for ages with logging in and then my ipad decided to mess it about. Since installing Edge it’s all sorted, so hopefully I’m back to stay! Mint, sorry that yours hasn’t stayed sorted out, such a nuisance.

Hi ANOB, we have honey still for tea as well as for bread-making, porridge etc but I somehow forgot to order cabbage, apples and pears to our weekly delivery order!p, which arrived yesterday! Very luckily, we’ve just had a phone call to pop down the garden as our son and family, who live just round the corner but who we no longer see for coffee in their garden as it’s not allowed now and a bit chilly to sit outside, were on a walk through the woods at the bottom of our garden. Oh, self-hugging is nowhere near as good as real hugs, but what a wonderful surprise! Anyway, all missing items will now be added on to our son and DIL’s weekly delivery order. Sorry if I went off topic, I was reading this thread when the call came - such excitement!

Excellent news! I’m delighted to have been told about using Edge, as I can now come on here with 2 clicks - magic! After struggling with Chrome, Firefox and another, it’s so easy to pop on.

Excellent news! I’m delighted to have been told about using Edge, as I can now come on here with 2 clicks - magic!

Norman, I think that you won’t be able to do that for the reason you mention, don’t know if brexit has complicated things or not. I also know that a lot of people can’t find delivery slots for supermarkets. You could try Deliveroo, which has apparently spread its wings wider than just delivering from garages that have small shops belonging to the supermarkets. I understand that some Co-op branches send deliveries via Deliveroo and by now others may do so too. It might be worth checking. Good luck!

Tea and cake would gave been very lovely, but unfortunately no cafés other than take away here either. I did josh with the volunteer in the sitting area about whether there were there refreshments like when donating blood. Were they still serving glasses of wine after donating blood in France à la Peter Mayle when life was still nirmal? I used to think that was a tall story until we lived part time in the Gard, where I saw it in action a few years ago. Not the amounts Mayle wrote about, though.

First I want to send New Year wishes to everyone, may it be a less harsh, worrying year and bring everyone hope now that vaccines are becoming available. I’ve been missing from here again as I couldn’t access the forum using my ipad, but I had a tip to try Edge- and it worked! I do pop in to read from time to time, so know a bit about what’s been happening. Now back on topic. I had a call from our GP practice on Monday to go for Covid vaccination yesterday, along with my husband, so we’re both very pleased; we’re fairly early due to our age, medical problems and our very efficient GP practice. They have developed an extremely good way of working, with 4 teams of doctor/nurse plus admin person in both the surgery and the adjacent Salvation Army hall vaccinating 1 patient every 5 minutes. Government background checked volunteers manage the meeting, greeting, directing, squeezing hand gel, enquiring about Epipens, overseeing those who need to sit for 15 minutes etc. It’s all efficient but friendly. We feel very lucky to have had our first vaccinations, the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine and will be called back in about 12 weeks for our second jab. Our behaviour won’t change now or after our second vaccination, we’ll still only go out for a short, very local daily walk, (we have groceries delivered each week), still won’t spend time with our son and granddaughters who we’ve only seen from a distance since March even though they live just round the corner. No visits to our place in France for a long time yet. Good luck with your vaccinations everyone, whenever you get them. Stay safe.

Our apartment was fitted with 3 electric radiators as standard when we bought it - very unsatisfactory for keeping us warm in cold weather, especially as one was positioned directly behind the kitchen door, so couldn't be used. We had reversible aircon fitted 8+ years ago and find it excellent. We have only one unit fitted, in the bedroom, and leave doors open throughout the apartment and find it heats the whole place very well and cools it well in hot weather. Our apartment faces south, so we benefit from heat from the sun in winter too. We chose a local company to install it, recommended by several friends who had had aircon fitted by them, and went for the quietest model at that time - Toshiba. As it’s in the bedroom it has to be quiet, and it is. Our electricity bills went down by a lot and although summer electricity usage rose, our annual electricity bills were reduced by a significant amount. The apartment block is double-glazed and extremely well insulated. I agree with others that insulation should be the first thought, regardless of the heating system.

Yet another thing our odious PM has copied from the odious president of the USA! Surely it’s not so difficult just to admit to making a mistake and not use such silly phrases. One of his ministers was interviewed on the Today programme on R4 this morning and couldn't answer questions about the new law. After that interview, I would have thought that the PM’s minders would have banged everything about the new laws into his head - with a big hammer if necessary. If the PM and a minister don’t know the laws they’ve brought in, how on earth can they expect that the general public will know them - they now have a perfect excuse to do as they wish and surely no fine can be made to stick.

It would seem to be true: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/sep/21/britons-eu-uk-bank-accounts-closed-lloyds-barclays-brexit

I’ve had more trouble accessing the forum again, finally managed it. Norman, thank you for your kindness in asking. I’ve been in the UK since December, medical matters kept us away for a couple of months, then came March and we all know what that brought.......... So, yes, no nasty September storms that occur in the Gard for us this time - there’s talk that it might be as bad as the floods of 2002, and at least one person has been swept away, believed drowned, sadly. The Gardon apparently rose 6 metres in 2 hours, very bad news for some of the villages. Our little town is high up above the river Gardon and our apartment is on the second floor, so safe from any flooding. I expect that Gardian will be along, but he and Mrs G also live high up and would be safe if at home. Thank you again, GG Edit: he beat me to it!

I used Avisoft on the laptop until I bought an ipad and found it so easy to use and so useful and rarely use the laptop now unless I’m looking at bank accounts etc.

She was one of those people you don’t forget, who helped so many people, who got involved. Some of us had the good fortune to meet her on her ‘Itchy Feet Tour’ in 2011 as individuals and a group of us got together for lunch near Bergerac and some went back to Rose’s house for more chat and cake. A lovely day: https://www.flickr.com/photos/97986095@N00/5564534410/in/album-72157626363818142/

There may be many others like me, who have had such problems signing in. I’ve had to keep changing my password as I’ve been frequently locked out - and yet again this week. Although I haven’t contributed very much in the last couple of years, I do pop in regularly to see what everyone is doing. I’d really miss this forum if it disappeared.

Yes, I’ve seen it now, was confused by question mark and, of course, the last link worked fine. That wasn’t the website, but it’s useful to have another to refer to. Thank you.

Yes, I did that and have just repeated it with the same result: Error: Unable to find URL to redirect to.

The link didn’t work, Pomme, but thank you.

I still can’t find the website I mentioned that I found useful, but have found this one; sorry, can’t make it live: https://www.cartedudeconfinement.fr/departement-detail/30/Gard (Other départements available ?)

“If we can talk about Trump, we can talk about these two“. NO, YOU CAN’T - Hoddy has said so. Can you really not take that in?

Gardian, I had a really good website with figures and diagrams for cases, deaths etc for all departments but lost it and so much else when my ipad had a nervous breakdown. I’ve done several searches on the internet with no result, unfortunately. Stay well.

All this is extremely unfair on Hoddy, who has more than enough to do on this forum. The way things are going, it could be the end of this forum and most members would miss it a lot. Please stop posting any more on this thread. Hoddy, please stay with the forum - most of us really appreciate all you do, although we probably have no idea just how much that is.

Noisette, it’s a very old thread, resurrected by a spammer, so it looks as though Cendrillon had just posted.