(Edited and republished by "mr le marquis in November 2010) ************* Menu for Christmas. (the photo is from the town of Arles, showing the Christmas Eve meal called "Treize Desserts" - 13 desserts - traditional stuff) Since we are at the end of November, and this menu is intended for the month of December, I thought maybe a little account of how Christmas passes in France (mainly) and what is eaten and when, could be interesting! Basically the ingredients have changed over the years, becoming very “Americanized” with the arrival of the Turkey. A strange bird, called after a country where it does not exist, attributed as a native of the USA or the Americas, and called, by the French, “dinde”, which is (or should be) spelt d’Inde, which means “from India”.   Decidedly a cosmopolitan birdie.A few years ago, the turkey made it’s entry into French public life, being considerably cheaper than it’s French counterpart the “Pintade” and almost as tasty! This was the c

There are some beautiful people on this Planet, but none as beautiful as these two....everyone can see that...! So....You people's just better get together.... else we ain't gonna be your friends any more... THEN - ya would be sorry.......! But....we don't really mean it....or do we....?

  Now.... I'm not new to "Facebook" - I got myself onto it when it started, or almost, but I didn't really know what I would use it for! I had a sort of "vague" feeling that it must be good for something, but I didn't know for what! Probably a little bit of me rebelled from the boring "MSN Messenger" and not liking "MSN" things anyway, it seemed to make sense to have at least one "Social" thing to waste time on...! For quite some time, I didn't use it, and then somebody sent me something which meant I had to go to Facebook to see and read all about it. So....whilst I was there, having spent days trying to remember my ID and my password, I thought that the fairest thing to do was at least to look at the thing and see what I could use it for. Now - I already have "GTalk" - probably the best thing since sliced bread (you can contact me on there under the alias "Ian Watson Mitchell") so I didn't r

 Christmas is coming fast - and that's is what it isn't, a fast...! Not only are the Geese getting fat , but other things as well....... ! But - there are some tricks to ignore it, at least until January the first, then - naturally, all hell breaks loose for us sleek, trimmed,  beautiful guys as well! Christmas Shopping is unfortunately a part of it all. Most men don't like shopping at the best of times, but go along if it's for beer, wine, spirits and other really necessary stuff.....! Our real problem is that we can't honestly think of what to buy for girls that have everything - after all, they've got US - so what the devil could they possibly want on top of that...? Well - I've got a little tip of how to get around all that. How about doing what I invented with my late wife? We never had a lot of money - skudos and stuff, especially when everything had been bought  for table and decorations. After all, the ancestral home had to be brought up to scr