Carte Vitale and Glasses

It’s not often Jay and I go out but today was not the most enjoyable jaunt.

We both had an appointment at the Opthalmologist – mine for a post cataract check-up and Jay because he hasn’t had his eyes checked for years.

It is expected that you will wait at least an hour afer the alloted time before you see the great man. Some people accept this with varying amounts of good grace but others complain loudly.

Today, we sat in silence for the first half an hour and then people began to moan.  Jay and I had already sat in a long queue at the Caisse Primaire (kind of medical social security office) because I’m having problems with my Carte Vitale.

Two months ago they sent me a letter saying mine came from a faulty batch and it would have to be replaced with the new version, complete with photo. They invited me to return the old one  and use an “Attestation”  ( a piece of paper printed with the necessary details) instead, but my neighbour warned me not to part with one card until I had received the other.

Wise advice indeed because my new card still hasn’t come and so I thought it would be a good idea to go and see about it before my appointment in case there was a problem.

“No, no problem”, said the young girl, as she brought up a picture of my new card on the screen.

“So why haven’t they sent it?” I asked.

“Oh, these things take a long time”, I was told, but she did agree I could keep using my old card in the meantime.

We went in to see Dr T –  only an hour and a half late – and with less than five minutes left on the parking ticket.

Jay could see very well with his usual glasses but was given a prescription for sunglasses ready for next year.

My examination was not so good. The right eye has become weaker and needs laser treatment  before he can give me a new prescription. Meanwhile  I’m probably the wrong side of  the borderline for driving until this little problem is sorted out.

It was getting on for five when we went to see the secretary to pay the bill – guess whose card didn’t pass muster?  Jay’s!

He hasn’t used it for yonks and probably we didn’t update it last January.

“You’ll have to take it to the nearest chemist and update it.”

Off we toddled at a much faster pace than I’m used to to find a chemist at the end of the road.

But the wretched machine wouldn’t accept the card.

Afer waiting ages for “Communication”, the first time it said “Authentification” before cutting out and the second time it refused to do anything at all.

We went back to the secretary.  She agreed to do it manually but said we should go to the Caisses Primaire and sort it out as soon as possible.

Oooh, there are better things to do in town than sit in a queue or a waiting room for ages.

 

The Garden

We had some help to clear the garden ready for Autumn this year but with the rain and unseasonably ‘warm’ weather, the weeds are beginning to rear their ugly heads again.

The mustard that was planted as a fertilier cum weed preventer is growing still but there’s no danger it will come into flower (unless the weather really does go mad!) According  to the directions it should be grown early enough to flower before the end of  Autumn. You then cut off the flowers and crush the stems ready to be dug in before the Winter - or in the Spring.

 

On the subject of gardenig I was rather surprised and shocked to read that Monsanto, who apparently make Roundup weedkiller have recently been fined by a French court for lying about their product.

http://www.developpementdurable.com/environnement/2009/10/A3232/round-up-monsanto-condamne-pour-publicite-mensongere.html

It seems it is not the relatively harmless product they say it is. It does not leave the soil ‘clean’ but deposits toxic chemicals that remain.

It makes you wonder about their ‘Roundup resistant’ seeds which allow farmers to spray their fields with the stuff.

Anyway, I shall certainly not be using it any more in my garden.

Tipping Time

It’s that dreaded time of year when the sound of the doorbell of an evening probably means someone wants some money.

First it was the ‘Ebouers’ – dustmen. They haven’t been round for a couple of years,  probably because when a separate charge for refuse collection was introduced people were rather cross, and may not have responded well to a request for money.

Well,  they don’t actually ask for money:  they sell you a calendar. The going  rate for this rather small apology for a calendar is 10 euros, but as they come out twice a week whatever the weather and don’t grumble when we have five dustbin bags full I think they deserve it.

In the same week we had a visit from the ‘Pompiers’ – firemen. They also get 10 euros and their calendar was a series of firefighter related cartoons.

The only calendar worth having is the Post office one, which is full of  useful information – even maps of local towns – and is big enough to put on the wall and use. Our postlady leaves a packet of calendars in the letter box so we can choose which picture we like and then we put the package back in the box with 10 euros in an envelope for her to collect the next day.

Besides these worthy causes we had a visit from the Blood Doners Association yesterday but they only received 5 euros because that’s all we could muster. It’s a shame because they give a small gift instead of a calendar and this year it was a really useful bag, just big enough to carry a phone and a purse, with an adjustable strap.

Someone delivers the newspapers at some unearthly hour every day except Sunday. He or she deserves a reward but I wouldn’t be too pleased if they rang the bell before daylight one morning. I suppose we could stick an envelope  on the letter box one night . . .

 

‘Flu Vaccine

For those who are fed up with me banging on about swine ‘flu and the vaccine please  don’t read on, but for anyone interested, I can recommend watching these videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0JqQyl09zQ

They are in Catalonian Spanish but with English subtitles and, unfortunately are a bit longwinded.

In essence, a highly qualified (medically and scientifically) Benedictine nun takes us through the unusual facts surrounding the ‘flu virus and the vaccine.

Here are the most important findings:

1) The H1N1 virus is not new. It has appeared before in previous epidemics.

2) It is a mild virus and the death rate is not as bad as most seasonal ‘flu outbreaks so why the push for a mass vaccination programme?

3) In the Spring a batch of vaccine was sent to the Czech Republic and, by chance, a lab technician tested it on animals. They all died because the vaccine contained a toxic mix of live vaccines: bird ‘flu which is lethal but not very infectious and a non-lethal but highly contagious strain. Baxter admitted this but claimed it was a mistake. If this mistake had not been discovered it is highly likely that a deadly mutation of the virus would have spread by now – thus making the pandemic much more of a reality.

4) The WHO have changed the definition of a pandemic so that a level 6 can be declared even for a mild illness. BUT this gives them powers to control all world governments regarding the way in which they deal with it.

5) The swine ‘flu vaccine could become mandatory but the drug companies are immune from any claims against them for serious side effects or even death caused by it.

6) The vaccine  contains adjuvants that have never been used before and which could stimulate an immune response ten times higher than normal. This could lead to autoimmune diseases.

7)There could be further examples of  ‘accidental mixing of live viruses’ which could lead to many more deaths.

8 In this case, the ‘flu vaccine wouldn’t be any use in combatting a new version of the disease.

9) She asks why these anomolies have not been mentioned by the media.

10) She deliberately avoids getting into the ‘conspiracy theory’ argument  so what she says is based on scientific findings and she gives many references to follow up.

These are the main points as I remember them but it is well worth watching what she has to say before deciding, for yourself and your family, whether or not to say NO.

P.S.  Perhaps this relates to #7?

http://shtf411.com/breaking-news-ukrainian-flu-is-not-just-h1n1-t1066-p9770.html

This and That

Thinking of a topic for this post is proving rather difficult, so I’ll just ramble on a bit and see what happens.

The most interesting news is that we have a visitor from America, a friend of Jay’s, who has finally made it over to see us. She stayed with us in England about ten years ago but I haven’t seen her since. After the first two nights in Paris, where Jay and CC  packed in as much sightseeing as they could,  they all came back here on Saturday to recover, eat and sleep.

Fortunately it was this weekend when the much needed rain came down  but it didn’t spoil any plans.

Bear, who grumped at the thought of someone ‘invading his space’ was far more  charming  than I’ve seen him in years for our first meal together on Saturday but, by Sunday, he had reverted to his old self, refused to eat with us and sat watching telly with the volume at full blast while we ate a lovely meal prepared by Jay and our guest -  carrot soup, followed by salmon in a spicey coconut sauce with basmati rice laced with caramelised onions. For dessert we finished off the chocolate pudding CC had made the day before.

We are trying to think up local recipes for our visitor to taste and Francine, who comes in to help with Bear brought a surprise in her basket this afternoon. It was a joint of boar. Her husband goes hunting and they had shot the animal and divided it up on Saturday.  She gave me instructions for cooking it (slowly with a little white wine but not marinated beforehand) so I’m looking forward to trying it. The Ardennes has the boar as its symbol but it’s not easy to find any meat unless you know a hunter or are on good terms with your butcher. Otherwise you have to ask in advance and then pay through the nose.

The bad news is that the washing machine has packed up AGAIN! iI’s  the third time the spin drying cycle has decided not to work, but, at least, it’s still under guarantee. The only problem is that  even though the engineer is coming out tomorrow morning I know from previous experience that he won’t be able to mend it on the spot; it will take weeks for the necessary part to arrive and I will have to ring up and beg on a daily basis before they arrange to lend me another machine and then they will squeeze it in the laundry room beside the offending object that has let me down.

It looks as though I’ll have to ask my friend Yvette, or my neighbour, Claudine if our visitor can borrow their machine to do her washing, while ours piles up to the ceiling!

We’ve all had strange colds these last few weeks – or rather dry coughs and sore throats that won’t go away. According to the chemist nearly everyone round here has a similar problem. Now, at the risk of being accused of spreading conspiracy theories, I did notice thick white trails in the sky recently.

At first, one could just put it down to normal vapour trails. But have you noticed how they sometimes criss cross and last longer than you’d expect – and also become wider? A little research on Google brought up the information that they sometimes appear when the conditions are not right for vapour trails.

Are they spraying pollutants in the guise of ‘weather experiments’  or such like? What and why are they spraying? Do they have the right to interfere with nature in this way?

It smacks of science gone mad like the recent ‘experiment’ of bombing the moon. Did you see it on the news? Fortunately it turned out to be a bit of a damp squib as their huge explosion kind of became a feeble whimper. But what if they had destabilised the moon in some way? It makes you wonder if they know what they’re doing – or if they do really understand the risk – WHY are they doing it?

Even worse verse

Here’s another poem showing the problems with English pronunciation.

It wasn’t until we started teaching English that CC and I realised just how difficult it is to help foreigners to speak  a language that is so thoroughly UNphonetic with so few rules to hang on to.

 

 

Poem ‘The Chaos’ : Pronunciation and spelling

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain .
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhymes with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, knob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty , library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas .
Sea, idea, Korea , area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation — think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough-
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give it up!!!

 And then there are so many strange pronuciations for place names as for example, in Norfolk:

Costessey (Cossey)

Tacolneston (Tackleston)

Wymondham (Windam)

Shotesham (Shotsam)

I’m sure you can add to this list . . . . . . .

Italian Class

The English classes started again this term but, so far, CC and I are off to a rather slow start.

Most of her group are taking late holidays so the most ’students’ she has had amounts to two so far: last week no-one turned up!

My beginners’ group now consists of one lady and two 12 year old girls from last year plus three adult newcomers and two teenagers.

The interesting news is that there’s a new class at the library this term – Italian – given by an Italian photographer who exhibited his wonderful bird pictures in the Summer.

It’s years since I studied Italian and I have to admit I’ve forgotten most of it, so I thought it would be a good idea to go along.

There have been three classes so far (I missed last week because of a bad cold) but we still haven’t progressed beyond going through the pronounciation rules. At least Italian is an entirely phonetic language where every letter or combination has the same sound, but following Guido’s explanations in French with a heavy Italian accent is not always easy and when he writes the French version of the Italian sounds (thanks to his wife) they mean nothing to me.

In the two lessons I’ve attended I’ve probably spoken no more than six isolated words but I will keep going in the hopes that there might be a conversation soon.

In conclusion, I wonder if you have come across this poem which highlights the difficulties of pronouncing English  for foreign learners:

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through.
Well done! And now you wish perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead, it’s said like bed, not bead-
for goodness’ sake don’t call it ‘deed’!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth, or brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s doze and rose and lose-
Just look them up- and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart-
Come, I’ve hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I’d learned to speak it when I was five!
And yet to write it, the more I sigh,
I’ll not learn how ’til the day I die.

 

The Anniversary

Yesterday saw a (mostly) pleasant but low key celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary.

I woke up feeling better than I expected due to a bad cold and took Bear his card and present with his coffee. CC laughed that she had been given the task of buying my card for him and his card for me when she went into town. She had chosen one with a bear on the front and I wrote inside:

You can be like a bear with a sore arse, or a cuddly teddy bear. Guess which I prefer. . . .

Happy Anniversary, love S

He had typed (his handwriting is illegible) a somewhat formal message :

Sandy, this is to wish you a Happy Anniversary and thank you for twenty five years,  my love as always. R

Last time we were in town together he had (surprisingly) urged me to think of a present and I chose a plain silver ring as I’m not one for fancy jewellery and he didn’t accept my suggestion of a jumper – which I actually need.

He had also chosen an apron printed with cats from the catalogue of a store in town and asked CC to buy it as a present from the cats, accompanied by another typed message thanking me for looking after them (between the two cards in the photo).

His present was a watch as his old one keeps coming undone and falling off but we had to take it to have some links removed as it was much too big.

We had lunch at the hotel in the village where we go once a week and then we went to the pizzeria in the evening.  However,  neither of us was particularly hungry so, although the food was good, we struggled with just one course.

For our 20th Anniversary we had been for a ‘posh’ meal and stayed at a hotel but conversation had been virtually non-existent. Last night, we did actually talk to each other without arguing and he insisted that he loved me ‘as much as ever’ and that I could ‘have anything I wanted’. (Yes, we had had some alcohol).

I said I just wished everyone could feel more at ease with each other at home as, for example, no-one else feels comfortable coming in the lounge to watch television when he’s there.

“Oh, I don’t mind CC sitting there to watch TV” he said magnanimously, “so long as she doesn’t make a noise; and I just wish she wouldn’t laugh so loudly.”

What can one say. . . . . . . .

Feeling foolish

Imagine the scene: the bedroom lights refused to come on and there was a strange low-pitched buzzing  sound coming from the ‘control panel’  in the garage.

CC and I found the offending switch and left it in the ‘off’ position but that meant that there was no light in the laundry room or Whale’s toilet – and there are no windows in either.

We tried switching it back on and there was no more noise but we decided to play safe and turn it off at night.

When I put it back on in the morning, lo and behold, the bedroom lights came on. However, only one of the four switches would actually operate them.

I rang Daniel, who knows everyone to ask if he could find us a reliable electrician. he came round the next evening, bless him, to look at the problem.

“It looks as though you’ll have to change all the switches” he said, and he called his mate who works for  EDF but does a bit of work ‘au noir’ to help people out.

Monsieur l’electrician came this evening and in a matter of seconds found the problem.

It seems that this double switch, one of which is for the outside light, was stuck. It should rebound each time it is used but it would remain in the ‘on’ or ‘off’ position and cut out all the other switches (each side of the bed and at the doorway).  He made it work but thought it would be better to change it eventually.

So we have light!

But I do feel a bit of an idiot for not understanding a pretty obvious principle.

Thank goodness September is over

It was with great relief that I turned the page on the calendar this morning because September was chock full with medical appointments and incidents including two trips to hospital for Whale, several follow-up examinations for Bear after his week in the diabetes unit  and umpteen physio sessions for Bear and for me.

The bout of ‘flu – or whatever it was – was over by the weekend although Bear milked the opportunity to stay in bed and be waited on until Monday.  Actually, he is no problem as an invalid – not really demanding  at all. He enjoys his own company, watching DVDs, reading or dozing and hardly ever calls me for anything.

October begins with Bear in the Polyclinic for his second cataract operation and there are several more visits to the opthalmologist for Jay and me as well but the month in general looks much ‘quieter’ until Jay’s friend from America comes to stay from the 29th until the middle of November; something we’re looking forward to very much as it’s several years since we’ve seen her.

Since there’s nothing much else to say here’s a link to some amusing newspaper reports: which I hope will make you smile.