Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

droopsnout

You might find this document interesting. I've taken this quotation from it:

An earlier crossover study compared Colpermin and Mintec in 13 healthy subjects. The patients were randomized to receive three enteric-coated capsules of either Mintec or Colpermin (0.6ml peppermint oil each). Urine samples were collected from the subjects for 24 hours and analyzed for menthol and glucoronide metabolites of menthol. The two formulations showed significantly different urinary metabolite release patterns in both lag time and time to peak (Colpermin: P<0.017; Mintec: P<0.047). Metabolites were released faster and peaked sooner for Mintec (lag time: 0.5 hour, time to peak: 2.8 hour) than for Colpermin (lag time:1.07 hour, time to peak: 5 hours). The average total urinary metabolite excretion was higher for Mintec (130.9 mg) than for Colpermin (95.5 mg), indicating that after 24 hours metabolism and excretion of Colpermin was not finished. Five subjects taking Mintec experienced nausea and vague abdominal pain; no adverse events were reported for Colpermin.

The authors conclude that available evidence indicates that the formulation of peppermint oil capsules is important in both reaching the target organ in IBS: the large intestine, and in minimizing adverse events, such as heartburn and nausea. The authors state the ideal formulation would have "a peak release at about 4 hours after ingestion with a release time of up to 24 hours." An enteric coated sustained release peppermint oil capsule is the ideal formulation when treating patients with IBS.

seven-day-weekend

They are Colpermin, he has tried Mintec and they do not work at all for him (in fact he still has a huge stash in our medicine cupboard)..

carrots

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

.....
So we will never be very fluent I don't think! We do try very hard! .....

Me too! It's a bit sad that I will never be able to speak French as well as I would like, but that's no reason to stop trying. It's the genuine attempt that is so important, and much appreciated by people in the host country who love to help (well, 99.9% do). They don't expect perfection. In fact, I've been told several times that an English person speaking French sounds nice, including quaint phrases that might be non-French but understandable all the same.

It's the people who just don't even try AT ALL - not even a "bonjour" - that really get my goat!!!!! (In case no one's realised yet, this is a real hobby-horse of mine :rotfl:!)

seven-day-weekend

Yes, our villagers really appreciate the fact that we'll have a go at the language and are always very helpful. One or two will even speak slowly and say a different word if we don't understand the first time.

You must appreciate though that this is rural Andalucia where until relatively recently people did not have much in the way of education. Many older people are illiterate.
They just do not understand why we need them to speak more slowly and clearly and will just gabble away in broad Andaluz!

It's not helped however by the fact that the local Andaluz accent (sub-species Alpujarreño!) is very far removed from traditional Castillano (what you and I would call Spanish), and is like speaking broad Geordie or Glaswegian in the UK.

There is a man in the village who is younger than me who does speak very good (self-taught) English; even he only had four years' worth of formal education as his family needed him to work on the land. It is still only just getting out of being a third-world country in some very rural parts of southern Spain,.
Spaniards from more northern parts call the people here The Flintstones

A couple of years ago, some visitors from Madrid came to the village and we got talking to them.
Not only did we understand their Spanish much better than we do the locals, but THEY had trouble understanding the locals!:eek:

Not a lot of hope for us poor middle-aged Brits then!

carrots

Currently the euro exchange rate is the best it's been for 11 days (over 1.1). Some data has just been published and it appears all is not peachy in the Eurozone.

seven-day-weekend

I have a little story to tell to illustrate the remoteness and 'backwardness' of these parts.

On a lonely winding mountain road about half an hour's drive from here, there is a commemorative plaque at the side of the road.

It is in remembrance of a young doctor who had been killed nearby.

This doctor was a native Alpujarreño who had managed to get an education and studied medicine in Madrid. When he had qualified, he had come back to practice medicine in the Alpujarras to 'give back to his people' as it says on the plaque.

He was the first and only doctor in this part of the Alpujarras at that time.

The date? Mid- 1970s.

(The area is now much more accessible with new roads etc....but this was only forty years ago in Europe. No wonder the French have a saying 'Africa begins at the Pyrenees').

carrots

This is a fairly depressed area, too (cheaper houses!). And it's very rural (goats, a few sheep, fewer cows, mixed crops). The local dialect is Berrichon (from Berry, the region made up from parts of a few departments) but most people can speak regular French also.

Africa begins at the Pyrenees?! LOL Thanks for that, SDW - never heard it before.

droopsnout

Nice story. It was Albert Camus who said that about Africa.

I'm sorry, but I can't find any suppliers of Colpermin in Spain. But you already knew that, didn't you? LOL

seven-day-weekend

Thanks for looking droopsnout

Everybody is so kind!

gallygirl

carrots wrote: »

Currently the euro exchange rate is the best it's been for 11 days (over 1.1). Some data has just been published and it appears all is not peachy in the Eurozone.

Currently just over €1.13 :j