Editor: Happy Easter

Scriveners wishes you a Happy Easter...... 

                                                              ..... and will return in april.  Enjoy Spring, everyone. 

Easter decorations day:  Peggy, Sue, Anne and Joyce

Katharine C: Cook&Eat, March 2016

Orla's pretty table decoration

A large group of us convened at Orla's to make a Spring lunch, with the traditional Easter menu of roast lamb as the centerpiece. 

We had a very full menu, with many tasks of kitchen prep - but plenty of willing hands. 




Our starter was Fresh asparagus spears, poached egg, Iberian ham, with a parmesan and black pepper crumb.  (That poached egg - we learned a trade secret of how to poach 12 eggs simultaneously and have each one looking uniform). 







We continued with Roast leg of lamb, minted pea puree, crisp green vegetables, roasted new potatoes,  cauliflower cheese, and rich lamb gravy.

The leg of lamb with a rub of rosemary and thyme, lemon zest and olive oil kneaded deep into the skin, roasted on a bed of vegetables to keep it moist.

This is how it came out of the oven....

--- and was served with a ramekin of cauliflower cheese, asparagus and green beans, potatoes and rich gravy

For dessert, we made rich dark chocolate mousse, caramelized Arlette biscuits, macaroons and salted caramel (confession:  we didn't make the chocolate, and chocolate and raspberry macaroons).

Sue, Anne, Kim, Leslie, Caroline, Maggie, Lydia, Elisabeth, Susan Rey, Orla (Photographer Katharine C)

We have to confess - putting the dessert together in an elegant manner was tricky.  It didn't stop anyone's enjoyment of it, however. 

Photo credits:  Katharine C

Katharine C: Four Mad Hatters, an Alice, a Queen (and a dormouse in a teapot)

From the tip of her head to her white socks - Jan was Alice

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in 2015 (it was published in 1865),  Karen hosted the Book Group at her home in the Antigone for a Tea, and readings from the Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass books.

The group had been invited to dress up in any of the characters - no one came as the dormouse, (try explaining that on the Tramway on any day other than Hallowe'en) but Peggy arrived with a soft toy dormouse in a teapot - see his long tail below. 

Clearly the books have had a big impact on this group - Denise pointed out that Lewis Carroll had an understanding of quantum mechanics earlier than Albert Einstein.  (This was something that escaped me when I was a small girl reading the books, so thank you to Denise for her reading of this section of the book and for telling us this).

Denise, Katharine J and Susan

Jan as Alice in Wonderland

Peggy & her dormouse

 

Alice (Jan);  Mad Hatter (Maggie);  The Red Queen (Anne)

Financieres and scones

Katharine J, Mad Hatters Peggy, Katharine C, Maggie & Karen, Alice (Jan), Denise and Red Queen Anne (Photographer: Susan Rey)

Four mad hatters ...... see a pattern there?

A wonderful afternoon - many thanks to Karen for hosting, and to everyone for their contributions to a delicious Tea (chocolate cake, warm apple crumble, scones and butter, chocolate and kiwi tart)  - Anne brought her wonderful financieres in a square tin (see photo above) but what you can't see is that the tin has the names of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the side.  I'd say that this was a thoroughly English Tea afternoon - except that Maggie brought us all the words to the White Rabbit, Grace Slick's song sung by Jefferson Airplane, which we all sang.  The song utilizes imagery found in the fantasy works of Lewis Carroll, such as changing size after taking pills or drinking an unknown liquid. Slick had stated the composition was intended to be a slap to parents who would read their children such novels, and then wonder why their children would later use drugs. (Well, you can't beat a good rationalisation).  Characters Slick referenced include Alice, the hookah-smoking caterpillar, the White Knight, the Red Queen, and the Dormouse.^[8]
  
Poor old Lewis Carroll must have been turning in his grave ever since.



Photo credits:  Katharine C and Susan Reyniers 

Katharine: impact of Brexit on expats in France/Application form to vote in the Referendum

http://www.connexionfrance.com/Brexit-Britons-France-pound-sterling-value-Cameron-EU-17730-view-article.html

It is not possible to click on the link, so copy/paste it. 

Any British citizen who has lived away from the United Kingdom for less than FIFTEEN YEARS is eligible to vote in June's Referendum.  Here's the link to submit your application.  If you cannot
click on it, then copy/paste it.

https://www.conservatives.com/britsabroad



Image dated April 1 2016.  

It's going to be tight.  

Maggie: Free the Girls campaign

Some AWG members participated in a video for the FAWCO Target Project coordinator’s final report, to be presented at the conference in Frankfurt.  

At the 2014 conference it was announced that Free the Girls would be the Target Project until March 2016.  Maggie’s friend Jacques provided background music on the bagpipes at the start of the video, reminiscent of the Celtic evening that raised funds for the new Target Project, just one week after the 2014 FAWCO conference.

We’re holding the last few bras that the club will donate at the Interim Meeting in Frankfurt next week.

The signs we hold tell how many bras and how much money we donated to the project.  AWG received a Gold Donor Award for having donated more than $1000.

Orla, Kim, Maggie, Mary-Catherine, Rachel, SueRich, Jacques the Piper

Katharine: An Easy Fix for Vertigo (NY times)

Health

An Easy Fix for Vertigo

Paula Span
THE NEW OLD AGE FEB. 26, 2016

Ora Larson at home in Saint Paul, Minn. She suffered a common form of vertigo and found relief through a technique called the Epley maneuver.

 
Credit Alex Potter for The New York Times 
 

The first time it happened, in 2011, Bob Amberger thought he might be having a stroke.
A retired real estate agent and contractor in Modesto, Calif., he awoke one morning, started to climb out of bed, and felt the room whirling around him. “It was the most disconcerting experience imaginable,” said Mr. Amberger, 71.
If he kept still, the sensation abated, “but as soon as I moved, it was a wild merry-go-round.”
Frightened, he called 911 and spent a day and a night at the hospital, undergoing thousands of dollars in tests — CT scan, M.R.I., ultrasound, blood work — that found nothing alarming. But whenever a nurse or doctor asked him to sit up in bed, he had to reach for the rails.
Two weeks later, still feeling as though he had a hangover, he saw his primary care doctor, who finally explained that Mr. Amberger had the most common kind of vertigo. Reassuringly, there was an easy fix.
So many of the ailments that plague older adults can be managed but not cured. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is a different story.
Although it can be terrifying and tormenting, a trained physical therapist, audiologist or otolaryngologist can usually dispatch its symptoms on the spot with a simple repositioning maneuver. When the vertigo comes back months or years later, as it tends to do, it can be vanquished again. Often, patients can perform the maneuver themselves at home.
“When you tell patients that all you have to do is move your head in a few different directions, they think you’re crazy,” said Dr. John Oghalai, an otolaryngologist at Stanford University.
But when they find their vertigo gone with a nonpharmacological, nonsurgical treatment lasting 10 or 20 minutes, “they love it,” he said.

B.P.P.V., as it’s known, occurs when the tiny calcium carbonate crystals of your inner ear loosen and migrate into one of the semicircular canals, where their presence signals the brain that you’re moving when you’re not.
The resultant spinning sensation usually lasts only a minute or so, but changes in head position can bring it on multiple times a day — when you bend down to empty the dishwasher, lean back in a dentist’s chair, or merely roll over in bed. B.P.P.V. can also follow a head injury. The whirling sometimes become intense enough to cause nausea and vomiting.
This kind of vertigo occurs more frequently in older adults, apparently because the protein coating that holds the crystals in place weakens with age. “Like an old Post-it note, after 60 or 70 years the stickiness wears off,” said Dr. Carol Foster, an otolaryngologist who directs the Balance Laboratory at the University of Colorado Hospital.
Mercifully, the dizziness often resolves on its own within a few days or a couple of weeks. That also makes it difficult to calculate how many people suffer from vertigo, since some never seek treatment or get a correct diagnosis if they do.
When Dr. Oghalai and his colleagues evaluated 100 patients who came to a geriatrics clinic at Baylor University over two weeks, none of whom had previously reported dizziness, they found that 9 percent had undiagnosed B.P.P.V. Balance experts think it is even more widespread.
Though the vertigo itself isn’t dangerous, the Baylor study found that patients who had it were more likely to fall, which can cause serious injuries, and were less able to handle daily activities like bathing and dressing. They were also more likely to have received a depression diagnosis.
If the vertigo persists, “it can be very debilitating,” said Dr. Susan Herdman, professor emerita of rehabilitation medicine at Emory University. Some patients come in feeling so unsteady that they are holding onto walls and furniture, or even using a wheelchair.
On average, patients with this disorder have already visited five other physicians before they arrive at Emory’s Dizziness and Balance Center, Dr. Herdman said.
Along the way, they may have undergone lots of expensive, unnecessary tests. They may also have been taking prescription anti-nausea drugs for months, or even years, which may slow the perceived spiraling but don’t stop the vertigo.
What does stop it, an estimated 90 percent of the time, is canalith repositioning, also known as the Epley maneuver, after the Oregon ear surgeon who devised it in 1980. “This is a simple mechanical disorder,” said Dr. Foster, who has performed the maneuver thousands of times. “You can fix it in minutes.”
The therapist first confirms the benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (there are many other kinds) by turning your head from one side to another while looking for a characteristic eye movement called nystagmus.
The Epley maneuver also involves turning your head in several positions while you’re sitting, then lying on your side. The process is quick, generally taking less than five minutes. (You can see the steps online.)
Gravity allows the inner ear crystals that have shifted to float back into place. Practitioners sometimes must repeat the maneuver or use related ones. The treatment can bring on vertigo in itself, and patients sometimes report feeling a bit off-balance for a day or two afterward.
Usually, however, they’re startled to find that the spinning has stopped.
“It was amazing,” said Ora Larson, 76, who lives in St. Paul, Minn. She had taken anti-nausea drugs for years after her first bout of B.P.P.V in the 1970s.
A decade later, Mrs. Larson was experiencing vertigo again and happened to read a newspaper article about the Epley maneuver. She drove 65 miles to a hospital that offered it. “I was willing to try anything,” she said.
She had immediate relief then, and continues to head for a clinic when the vertigo threatens to reappear. “It’s so noninvasive and so easy,” she said. “You don’t even have to put on a gown.”
Dr. Foster has developed an additional maneuver for home use, called the half-somersault that is done kneeling on the floor. Mr. Amberger found it online and reports that “it works stunningly well.”

Dr. Foster’s initial trial with 68 patients using it at home showed that the half somersault was as effective as a self-administered Epley, but it’s still so new that studies replicating her results haven’t been published.
The Epley itself has only been widely practiced for about 20 years. Some medical professionals clearly don’t know about it — or even recognize B.P.P.V. Frustrated specialists believe that tens of thousands of older adults endure its miseries without learning that there’s a safe, accepted, low-cost way to make the world stop twirling around them.
“Sometimes, health care providers say, ‘You’re just getting older,’” said Courtney Hall, a researcher and physical therapist at James H. Quillen V.A. Medical Center in Mountain Home, Tenn. “But feeling dizzy isn’t a normal part of aging.”

Maggie & PegFat: Heart Pillows

Peggy writes:  I really enjoyed sewing with Susan (Rey) and Maggie yesterday.  Sitting in Susan's sunny livingroom, stitching and chatting, it all seemed terribly relaxing and cozy.  

 

The fancy tea Susan served us was perfect to end up a pleasant afternoon. 

Maggie writes:   Who Suggested Stitch and Bitch?

 

Thanks to SusanRey for hosting Peggy and me for another Heart Pillow-making session.  Her place is beautifully lighted, so it was easy to stitch.  (It was also fun to bitch, but that had nothing to do with the lighting.)  

   

The theory is:  Those who can, sew.  Those who can’t sew, cut or stuff, or even weigh the stuffing.  But this time, we could all sew, so (pun intended) we were able to put the finishing touches on 16 Heart Pillows.  But there are still a dozen or so (there it is again) left to complete, and we’re planning another session in late April or May.  It’s fun, and worthwhile, and the Heart Pillows are kind of cute.  Peggy took one for a friend, and you can too, if you know someone who has breast cancer.  Peggy was intrigued by my manual sewing machine, and took a video with my camera, but I don’t know if it will work on Scriveners.  (Editor:  No, I'm sorry it does not, but I am sure that many of us are familiar with a manual sewing machine.  I learned to sew (in my cackhanded manner) on my grandmother's Singer Sewing Machine, dated 1894.  It worked really well.  They don't make 'em like that any more).

 

Maggie: Mardi Gras

 

The Mardi Gras fête on Fat Tuesday, 9 February, was a FUNdraiser, and raised 285€, which will be donated to The FAWCO Foundation for the new AWG-sponsored Development Grant addressing nutrition.

 

There was live Cajun music to accompany the cocktails – Hurricanes and Bloody Mary’s, or Tropical Storms and Virgin Mary’s for those who did not want to drink too much.  Kim’s husband Pierre took over as barman and learned to make a mean Hurricane.

The menu consisted of shrimp rémoulade, oysters Rockefeller, red beans ‘n’ rice, chicken and seafood jambalaya (and a vegetarian jambalaya), and a filé gumbo made with shrimp, crawfish, and smoked sausage

 (or just gumbo for vegetarians).

 Dessert was bread pudding with bourbon and butter sauce,  for which I used Mary-Catherine’s recipe.  It rose like a soufflé, and everyone adored the sauce.  And for those who still had room, bananes flambées.

Maggie: One Billion Rising on Valentine's Day, 2016

Some members of AWG, who were at Domaine d’O on February 14^th for Hugh Coltman’s concert of music by Nat King Cole, posed for a photo after the show in order to participate in the annual One Billion Rising campaign to raise awareness regarding gender inequality and violence against women.  This is the third consecutive year of the campaign, and every year thousands of Risings take place in hundreds of countries around the world. Both FOAL and BCA are also represented in the photo, and we were joined by Mme. Monique Petard and her husband.  Mme. Petard was a member of the Conseil Général and was a Vice-President for the environment and sustainable development.  Although Hugh Coltman suggested everyone in the audience rise at the end of the show, it was not, as far as I know, part of the campaign, and since Domaine d’O had not accepted my request to invite members of the audience to rise for a One Billion photo, I behaved myself and kept my camera in my bag until the crowd had thinned.  If you and your friends did a “Rising” elsewhere, please send me a photo, especially if you were dancing, since that is one way to express joy and celebrate the fact that together, violence can be defeated. 

....... And here is a photo taken the morning of February 14^th during a “stage” organized by the RSCDS club in Montpellier. Dancing for joy.  (Editor:  it's only blurred because they're moving!)

Maggie: Book Quiz V, February 2016

The Queen of Diamonds

As usual, I had a fantastically good time.  I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did.  And what a surprise to win!  I hope it won’t tarnish the Diamonds’  image as an “almost-always-last-but-lots-of-fun” team.  It was definitely a TEAM effort, and the captain was somewhat chagrined that the only people on the team who knew the answers to the questions in the category “North American literature” were NOT North Americans.  

BRAVO Team, and thanks for carrying us to victory, for a change.

Maggie's Team of Diamonds included members from FOAL, from BCA and from AWG. 

Already looking forward to next year’s Book Quiz.

ummmmm - I should know this answer