Nice People Thread Number 10 -the official residence of Nice People

neverdespairgirl

On my way to bed - just wanted to say quickly, glad it's over Gen, and sorry you're hurting! <hugs>

lostinrates

I've started the last ' the girl who' book tonight. There is a lovely bit a bout money and worth, I'm not sure how much we are allowed to quote.

I cannot get on with the audio book of palimpsest though. I need to read those words, I find it really hard to absorb it and I am not keen on the narrators voice or reading style.

CKhalvashi

Glad it's over Gen!

I've sprained my wrist, so will be around more than planned next few days.

I can still drive, but it's bl**dy painful!

zagubov

Spirit wrote: »

I was visiting a friend this evening to catch up and to see piccies of her daughters wedding last year.

I saw the video (set to music) and many stills . It looked like a fabulous occassion, in a castle on a famous bit of coastline, however I was taken a back by the amount of entertainment - games, a comedy stint, and the dance, a lighting company and rigs needed alongside the entertainers, caterers, bussed in choir. Guests stayed in holiday cottages or caravans on a campsite and it was at least a weekend away for most.

Is this normal now?

I hope that the marriage lasts a long time. I'm slightly worried that a wedding that elaborate almost barely needs a proper sensible marriage to justify it. Seems as if it's a major festival that just happens to be linked to a human relationship.

zagubov

Aagh! Why is it that it's only the teachers that are night owls and have to do their marking when the kids are out of the way!

It's great living next to a waitrose.
Got lovely ham hock and camembert crepes for 10p (down from £4.17) and some Heston Blumenthal chicken dishes for tomorrow for less than 50p. Plus the usual bread and bakery products. You could live like a king at these prices. Bt there standard prices I'd be dining like a pauper.

Good luck with the house purchases, chewie and lj!

Generali

Ok, I'm home now so I can explain properly.

The doctor didn't want to give a local as it dilutes the sample. I talked him into giving me one* and so he gave me the smallest local possible I think. Why do I think that? It took ages to work and the 6th and final time he plunged the syringe in it had worn off. I said a very bad word, one of the worst ones, extremely loudly and with much vigour. So much so that when I walked out of the room everyone stared at me.

Results come through on Tuesday so can have an appointment any day after that.

Cost, for those that are interested, was $191 of which I can reclaim 85%. They submit the claim for me. I'll be about $150 out of pocket by the time I see the specialist again. Enough to put me off unnecessary treatment but not enough to put me off being treated at all.

There's talk of introducing a small fee for seeing the GP, perhaps $5 a time. Again, this is to discourage people going to the doctor just because they fancy a day off work or for a mild cold or bad back. I think it's an excellent idea.

Home now for steak and fried potatoes with a nice green salad and some very expensive tomatoes: 8 bucks a kilo! Bloody drought. A 500g punnet of tomatoes cost more in the supermarket today than a piece of rump steak to feed 2 people!

Generali

zagubov wrote: »

Aagh! Why is it that it's only the teachers that are night owls and have to do their marking when the kids are out of the way!

It's great living next to a waitrose.
Got lovely ham hock and camembert crepes for 10p (down from £4.17) and some Heston Blumenthal chicken dishes for tomorrow for less than 50p. Plus the usual bread and bakery products. You could live like a king at these prices. Bt there standard prices I'd be dining like a pauper.

Good luck with the house purchases, chewie and lj!

I miss Waitrose. I really miss Waitrose. And Borough Market. The scallop and bacon stir fry for a fiver was a thing of beauty and joy as was the Comte seller. And the Label Anglais chooks for a tenner. They were delicious.

zagubov

Generali wrote: »

I miss Waitrose. I really miss Waitrose. And Borough Market. The scallop and bacon stir fry for a fiver was a thing of beauty and joy as was the Comte seller. And the Label Anglais chooks for a tenner. They were delicious.

Glad the biopsy's over, gen. It sounds like it was the head or neck area so let's not underestimate what that's like.
Get stuck into the grub.

On a more trivial medical level, I grew up when local anaesthetics were dire.

As a kid I was too fond of sweets of all varieties and used to have to get endless fillings incuding quite deep ones. They seemed excruciating to me despite the injections. I'd walk home in utter misery and, far too late, my face would start to go numb. By the time I'd reach home I could barely explain how awful it was.

I'd keep postponing my next visit and so needed worse treatment every time.

My parents were horrified at my reaction when they told me my dentist had dropped dead, so I better not repeat what I said then.

When I went to uni I had great dentists, including one that Magnus Pyke had used ( a Mr Sockett!) and I regard them as a normal part of life, and never refer to my younger horror of them in case it infects my kids. They need to go reularly and have no fears at all.

I couldn't have lived in a century before anaesthetic dentistry.:eek:

Edit: and, Gen, you may miss Waitrose but you got to live, and dine, in Paris for a while. I'd have loved that.

CKhalvashi

Generali wrote: »

I miss Waitrose. I really miss Waitrose. And Borough Market. The scallop and bacon stir fry for a fiver was a thing of beauty and joy as was the Comte seller. And the Label Anglais chooks for a tenner. They were delicious.

I miss the Tbilisi markets, except the one at Didube when you're trying to get a bottle of water before catching a bus, and everyone is there doing their weekly shop.

If I'm honest, I've found supermarkets unnecessarily expensive in UK; the way I prefer to do things is to a market, where you buy what you need for the week directly from whoever has grown it.

In Georgia, we could live on 20 lari a week if necessary. In the UK (although I understand part of the difference goes to the farmer as wages are higher), food is 10x more expensive.

CK

Generali

zagubov wrote: »

Glad the biopsy's over, gen. It sounds like it was the head or neck area so let's not underestimate what that's like.

It's about 1/2" below my right ear in my parotid gland.

As I'm sure you're already aware, the parotid gland produces saliva and is a part of the lymph system.

zagubov wrote: »

Edit: and, Gen, you may miss Waitrose but you got to live, and dine, in Paris for a while. I'd have loved that.

That was pretty cool. Actually, if anything good food was even more available in rural Brittany. Excellent seasonal food was everywhere and incredibly cheap. Mussels that had come out of the ocean an hour earlier were a few francs for a huge bag. We'd cook them up with onions, garlic and cheap white wine on a row of 10 camping stoves. Awesome.

Salads and veggies were so cheap that they were basically free. We'd buy them from roadside stands next to the farms where they were grown in a lot of cases. What wasn't in season was expensive but we just ignored that stuff.

The local pork was great and pretty cheap with a huge layer of fat around it which we'd save to fry eggs in. Dairy products from a little further north were brilliant too. We'd get these amazing cheeses with a crappily stamped box for a quid (10 francs).

Oh, and the salt marshes made some of the best salt in the world. I know that sounds really poncy but it was amazing stuff: damp crystals of pink and grey salt.

The bread was fresher (= better) in Paris as the turnover was higher and there were loads of really good restaurants but that is expensive and I was young and poor. The cafe downstairs from where I lived used to give me free ham, cheese and tomato baguettes. As far as I could tell that was because they were Algerian and the tradition is to give to others. I love Algerians. I must have a go at living there some time or perhaps traveling around a bit.

You could get loads of that lovely semi-industrial food in Paris. Pates and terrines and rillettes and dried sausage. That stuff was very good in Brittany too but you didn't get the same choice: in Brittany you'd just really get the local stuff whereas in Paris it would come from all over the country. There was also an excellent market just by where we lived for veggies in Paris. They were cheap and really good but not bargain basement like in Brittany.

The girls were a lot prettier in Paris though! A lot.