Health service efficiency

Yesterday, frustration with the French’s lack of foresight… surely they can see that motivating people to set up small businesses will kick start their economy and will ease the pressure by :-

a) Removing the necessity to provide jobs for them. I forget the percentage now, but a horrifyingly large percentage of the French population work for the state,

b) Reducing the number of people claiming unemployment benefit.

Very political for a Wednesday morning. Watch out Mr Sarkozy, I’m after your job !!

What a totally different experience today. Had my first mammogram. In France you are not asked to attend a mammogram screening, it is every woman’s responsibility to arrange her own screening and at intervals she is happy with… another debate entirely.

Anyway I arranged my first screening a couple of weeks ago and arrived at the radiological centre at Ploermel at 9.30am.

Firstly I was introduced to a vice like machine which tilted bizarrely at 30 degrees, then to another room where I was given an ultra sound and fifteen minutes later I was sitting opposite a consultant who has my xray and ultrasound results in front of him.

‘Everything is normal Madame Harrington. We recommend that you have another screening in two years time.’

By 10.00am I was on my way with my xrays, prints outs of the ultra sound and a report from the consultant.

Such efficiency. Perhaps the ‘people’ in charge of the health care should move to the ‘encouraging new small businesses’ department !!

Can Christmas crackers be eaten ?

The toilet roll theme continues… as I move simultaneously from advent calendars to crackers !!

The Reminiac Christmas fair is now only a week away and the organisers are keen to have all the ‘crafts’, (in my case the word craft is not really appropriate as I don’t think painted toilet rolls can really be described as craft!!) in the village hall by Wednesday. The advent calendars were finished yesterday evening.

Now for the crackers. I have tried to explain that crackers are an important part of the Christmas Day table, but the French just look at me as if I’m slightly bonkers, and ask what is the function of a cracker?, can it be eaten?

Brain training

I am a great list person. I have lists for everything. I even have a ‘To do’ list on my computer and each morning a list of tasks pops up in front of me.

I was reliably informed this morning that this was not the way to keep one’s mind agile.

I ran out of potatoes this morning, (obviously the shopping list isn’t functioning as it should !!), so I popped into the village shop and stopped for a coffee with Lucienne. I mentioned my reliance on lists. She tutted.

‘Not good Nicole, to keep your mind young and agile you should keep all your lists in your head. If you write everything down your brain will become like cotton wool.’

I try to argue, that if I write lists, then I can forget about what I need to do and concentrate on other things.

Lucienne is not convinced. ‘Your brain should be able to do both.’

Perhaps my years of list making has already turned my brain into semi void.

I wonder if it is possible to train my brain to retain more information. French children learn poems from the age of 6. Throughout primary school every child is given a poem to learn for the following week. This is designed to train their brains to memorise information. Older children have to memorise grammar rules, geography and history lessons. These lessons must be remembered word for word.

I wonder, if as a nation, as a result of this early ‘brain training’ the French have better memories than the English?