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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 13, 2021 10:31:54 GMT
Hooray for your pancreas! (Patrick Dupond's fatal "lightning disease" was a heart attack caused by sudden inflammation of his pancreas.)
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Post by Kimby on Mar 13, 2021 16:23:47 GMT
I have a drawer just for batteries and usually buy packages of 24, both AA and AAA. We inherited troves of batteries from our parents, who apparently developed a mortal fear of not having a battery when needed, so bought batteries each time they went shopping. Most of them were not yet at their expiration dates. We are working our way through the stash. Whatagain, happy news! Well done!
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 13, 2021 16:30:22 GMT
Excellent news, Whatagain! You had a bunch of people here worrying along with you.
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Post by bjd on Mar 13, 2021 17:42:21 GMT
Glad to hear your news, Whatagain.
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Post by whatagain on Mar 13, 2021 17:45:13 GMT
Thanks all !
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 25, 2021 18:48:30 GMT
Most foreigners (and quite a few French people) always claim that customer service in France is abominable. I have always disagreed and was validated again today. My mobile phone stopped connecting to 4G and wifi a few days ago. I assumed I had done something stupid and tried all sorts of things for hours ("hours" in this context means fussing with it for 10-15 minutes and giving up and then going back to it again and again for other fruitless tries). I knew that the only solution was to visit Orange and beg for mercy, but in this day and age, even though telephone companies are considered to be one of the essential services that can remain open during lockdown, it did not necessarily mean that one does not need to make an appointment ahead of time.
But I was walking up the empty Champs Elysées and decided to try my luck at the huge Orange flagship store. (For those who do not know, "Orange" is the new name of France Telecom, the principal and historical national operator, even though "Orange" was orginally just a small British company that France Telecom bought.) The sliding glass doors opened as I approached. I sanitised my hands at the first barricade and entered the inner sanctum. I had already imagined that somebody would ask me to put my phone in a sanitary sealed box and take it away for disinfection, but I was wrong. A very pleasant 50ish West Indian man greeted me and allowed me to explain my problem. "Very easy to fix," he said and actually dared to take it in his naked hands to do various manipulations.
We had a friendly chat about how people like me were so stupid and didn't know how to do anything, but he reassured me that many people were a lot stupider than I. Fixing it was just a tiny bit more complicated than he thought. "This is an old phone," he told me. "Yes, it's at least 2 years old," I replied. "Yes, really old," he confirmed. Poor Huawei. But then he found the problem, fixed it, showed me that it worked and gave it back to me with a smile. We were well into friendly banter by then, but there was an old hag waiting behind me who kept saying "I have an appointement!" so we had to cut it short.
But I was thrilled to have a working phone again and that none of the things I had imagined had happened: "Show me your last bill." "Present your identity card." Etc. Frankly I could have had a phone from any other operator and he would have fixed it on the spot, no charge.
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Post by questa on Mar 25, 2021 23:23:53 GMT
Great news, Whatagain! I'm sure you are dancing for joy so I'll dance with you.
My CT of the brain results show a little reduction in size..."But you still have a very good brain in there" (specialist.)
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Post by mich64 on Mar 26, 2021 2:38:13 GMT
Happy for you whatagain on your CT results and that you were able to get a good nights rest.
Great news from your specialist Questa!
We just ordered a supply of batteries and grass seed from the hardware store for curbside pick-up. We were out of the batteries for our smoke detectors, we change them twice a year, when the time changes. Plus all the remotes in the house are surely to go all at once so we got an extra few packs of AA and AAA.
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Post by tod2 on Mar 26, 2021 7:14:47 GMT
A very pleasant 50ish West Indian man greeted me and allowed me to explain my problem. So South Africa is not the only country where you hope and pray the gentleman at the counter will be a West Indian man. Any Indian man. They are the hight of politeness and always know how to get you what you want. They know other places or stores that will solve your problem if they cannot. In actual fact I find their loyalty is with the customer and not the Boss so much. This leaves all the other nationalities groping around in the dark as they could not be bothered to find out even what day, month or year it happens to be. When one describes "Üseless" they fit the picture. Hooray a million times over for our Indian population!
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Post by fumobici on Mar 26, 2021 15:19:55 GMT
I bought an Orange SIM a few years back in Nice and the fellow at their store was wonderful too! Got me through the process and put up with my shitty high school French like a real pro. I also discovered that when you buy a SIM card in a country that isn't your travel destination, the EU network-sharing rules mean your SIM will choose whatever carrier has the best signal when you've moved on to your destination country. Makes a difference too.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 26, 2021 15:43:46 GMT
One of the best things in the EU is that there are no roaming charges. Too bad for the UK.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 26, 2021 16:43:17 GMT
One of the best things in the EU is that there are no roaming charges. Too bad for the UK. EE don't have roaming charges. Plus we can talk to each other about our vaccinations.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 26, 2021 17:19:05 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 26, 2021 19:05:44 GMT
One of the first things I do when we go to live in a different country is buy a local SIM card. But I noticed in Zambia I hardly used it. I think over the years there I made two calls and received a couple more. I have a German SIM and a Spanish SIM and again, rarely use them to make calls - and I do not have/use data in any of them. I've not bought one in Bosnia and probably won't. If I'm lost I use maps.me which doesn't need data and if I want to call someone it would be from home or somewhere where there is wifi and use Skype, unless they use Whatsapp or Viber of which I have both and I know you can call over Facebook but never have done and see no need to.
Physically making a phone call when I'm out normally has for me, died a death. If I'm desperate my German or Spanish SIM will cope but I'm certainly not bothered about roaming charges - which with the two SIMs I have I don't get anyway. I'm sure if I just had a UK SIM but I'm in Europe I wouldn't need it and would rely on one of the numerous other methods to communicate.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 21, 2021 18:45:47 GMT
The government has announced that every 18 year old in the country will receive a "culture pass" for a value of 300 euros effective immediately. It can be used for movies, theatre, museums, concerts, books, CDs and DVDs, internet subscriptions and downloading music on the web. This will not change the life of most teens from "good" families, but it makes all the difference in the world for families of limited means. It was already tested in 17 French departments last year and was obviously a huge success. It will be extended to younger teens (but for a smaller amount) next year.
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Post by whatagain on Jun 6, 2021 6:55:59 GMT
Don't know if it belongs here but i had my prostate checked yesterday.
Makes me feel better that i have no problem here. In my mind, prostate cancer is the male equivalent of breast cancer. We detect it through a TR (in french toucher rectal - rectal touch, on TripAdvisor trip report, but often the same shit actually), an echography (not fun either) and blood sample for PSA result (prostate specific ... antigen ? ).
Well i still don't like it but 5 min of discomfort to eliminate a potentially agressive cancer is time well spent.
I am supposed to do a test yearly between 50-60 then less frequently as both prevalence and agressivity drop with age. Should you get that cancer at 75, you will die With it, not From it.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 6, 2021 8:48:21 GMT
I was told to get checked every 5 years, but that didn"t happen. My new doctor has told me that periodic blood tests reveal if the body is reacting to fishy stuff such as cancer (and naturally cholesterol, diabetes, etc.) so there is no need for more than that if there are no weird sensations or pain to report. I would like to believe her. Anyway she prescribed a blood test before my next visit, because the last test was about 2 years ago.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 6, 2021 20:51:59 GMT
My CT scan shows nothing to my pancreas. Slept better already. Strangely. How did I miss this? Good news dear Watagain X
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 6, 2021 20:57:26 GMT
Last week son had a day when he felt up to coming for a little walk. Considering he could barely move without hurting after his last treatment...we were both thrilled
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 6, 2021 21:09:46 GMT
And he is walking the dog! Good boy! (you too, Django)
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Post by whatagain on Jun 6, 2021 21:18:10 GMT
Great !
(But even on foot, UK people are on the wrong side of the road).
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Post by Kimby on Jun 6, 2021 23:49:41 GMT
A good customer service experience, for a change. United Airlines cancelled my return flight from Iceland, but the agent who helped me rebook was great. She got special dispensation for me to fly a day later instead of a few hours earlier so I wouldn’t have to miss any tour activities. And best of all, although I was booked in basic economy, she reserved a window seat for me at no charge.
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Post by mossie on Jun 7, 2021 15:14:09 GMT
Great ! (But even on foot, UK people are on the wrong side of the road). In the good old days men walked on the left side so they could use their sword against any enemy, the sword of course normally held in the right hand. Then Napoleon became big white chief in France and he didn’t like the English habit of keeping left and decreed that his mob would walk on the right, just to be different. So all the continentals dumbly followed suit and so we get the situation today when normal people keep left and the thickos have to be different.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 7, 2021 16:17:20 GMT
I hope that you are all still carrying swords.
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Post by casimira on Jun 7, 2021 19:53:40 GMT
BRAVO Whatagain. Nice to hear some good news!!
As we are without electricity and running water at the "old house", we have been reliant on two adjacent neighbors for each.
I am touched by the generosity of these people offering at no charge to help keep my pond alive, as are the fish.
What will happen with them, depending on what we do I'm not about to sit back and watch them die.
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Post by questa on Jun 8, 2021 0:48:40 GMT
Back in the days when transporting people and goods was done by horses, the right handed carter sat on the right hand side of his cart so as to be able to seize the whip from its stand readily. This tied in with the custom of alighting and mounting into a carriage from the 'near' side rather than the 'off' or' dismount' side which kept the driver on the other side of the horses from the riff-raff.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 8, 2021 16:25:41 GMT
I know that other countries have been through this already, but it has been very nice today to see all of the cafés and restaurants getting ready for indoor service starting tomorrow. For places without the possibility of serving outdoors, it has been 7 months.
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Post by mich64 on Jun 8, 2021 20:28:24 GMT
Beginning this Friday, our restaurant patios will be allowed to open. Thankful that the staff will be able to return to their jobs. Indoor dining will still not open for awhile I expect.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 8, 2021 21:31:19 GMT
The problem in France is that something like 120,000 restaurant workers have moved on to other jobs. While the food service salaries are not awful in France since people don't have to work for tips, the hours are totally shitty so people have been happy to find better jobs elsewhere if possible.
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Post by mich64 on Jun 8, 2021 21:59:16 GMT
It would be interesting for someone to interview a bunch of restaurant workers there who have moved on to find out what new kind of work they found.
The one thing I found very interesting throughout the pandemic was how inventive people became which would have never happened. A big reason as to how people diversified here was how easy it became to get city permits, they were letting people try things they would have quibbled about until people gave up before this all happened. I think it will continue. Many retail stores that never had an on-line catalogue slowly adapted and I think they will never look back. Our ice cream shop even went on-line and you could order whatever flavour and pick up curbside in family size containers and their specially made cones and make your ice cream cones at home, steady stream of cars, they have done well!
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