Auntie Helen

congratulations Optimista on your French citizenship! You should write a book on the paperwork nightmare; I have to admit that my German citizenship in December wasn’t too difficult. 

You’re right, it isn’t keto now, just low carb, but I was properly keto for the first couple of years and have got lazy with terminology.   I stopped excreting ketones in urine after a couple of months, which is normal, and haven’t bothered with a blood keto meter as the individual tests are so pricey. I doubt I am currently in ketosis but my brain feels clear and I have a lot of energy still.   For me, the test is whether I start the Heißhunger again - then I know I have had too many carbs. That only really happens when on holiday and eating carbs again - if I have too many carbs one day a week at the moment I don’t fall off the wagon, so to speak.

I have been doing Keto for about three years now and have lost 35kg in that time. I initially lost 20kg and kept it off for two and a half years without any calorie counting, now I am working to lose another 5 (already dropped 15 kg in six months) and am food tracking to see what’s what. That will mean I am normal BMI instead of obese.   I am now a bit more relaxed on carbs and allow myself 100g a day without issues. The Heißhunger has gone, I just eat lunch and evening meal (no breakfast) and I love the food. We eat the same amount of meat as before but many more vegetables (we have veggies where we used to have carbs). The food is great and we feel really healthy - blood work at the docs confirms this. Our cholesterol is lower as is my blood pressure.   i intend to carry on eating like this for the rest of my life, and am happy with that thought.   Keto isn’t for everyone, but for some people it suits them very well. It works best for the insulin-sensitive always-hungry types, of which I am one. My partner’s daughter started Keto six weeks ago and has lost 7kg (the first 3kg probably water) and her pre-diabetes is no more, according to the doctor. It’s working well for her too.

Click on your name on the top right portion of the page.   click on ‘ignored users’   add the username.   It makes the Toytown experience much more enjoyable when you can ignore those whose contributions make you weary or angry or fed up.

This is exactly what I thought.   i don’t think that I myself am particularly racist but how can I know? If a black or ethnic minority person thinks I am, then they must be right - as they can tell. I try to treat everyone fairly and equitably but have no idea which subconscious biases might be in play.   it is like when I chat to my chap about women’s rights. Because he is a white male he just doesn’t see the situations where I, as a white woman, do see the disadvantages for women. So I must be equally blind to other discrimination such as racism, gender etc.   so William saying ‘we aren’t a racist family’ is clearly wrong as Meghan has said they are. If he had said “my family try their best to be inclusive, I hope we aren’t racist and we will do all we can to treat all people equally” then that would be fine. But he didn’t say that, he inferred Meghan was wrong.

Our Lidl still has 350g blocks of mild and medium British cheddar.

It’s Britspeak, I use it too.

I have a very high quality clipper for the dog, so we invested in some longer blades (40 Euros) for these clippers for my chap. We could have bought an entire set of clippers for less,  but crap quality.   he has had 6 haircuts from me so the blades have paid for themselves. And the dog is happy to share.

I picked up my 12 masks today for 4€.   I’m not sure why I was sent the voucher as I am 49 years old and healthy. My 53 year old fiancé hasn’t received anything.

Can I ask quickly for some advice with post-Brexit in mind.   My sister's company in the UK are advertising for a home-office job that is right up my street. My sister checked with the boss (it's a small charity) whether I would be considered as I live in Germany. Boss said yes, that would be OK, as long as I have the right to work in the UK (I do as I have dual citizenship British and German).   The boss has also asked for information on the tax/salary situation which is a good question, especially as Brexit is now over. IGNORE THIS QUOTE SECTION below, it's what I originally wrote   Having read further back in this thread, it seems that the German Payroll option would be much better and less scary for this small charity. I don't yet have the job, I am applying for it, but clearly don't want anything to put them off at this stage!   As I understand it from @Starshollow's comments on many threads, I can use a German Payroll firm and the UK Charity pays my salary to them and they then pass it on to me with required German deductions, plus presumably the cost of this service. So all the UK Charity has to do is make the payment to this service and everything else is taken care of. If that's the case, it shouldn't be too scary for them!   Is that correct?

Have we had this yet?   Figures from the UK. Vaccinating older people won’t make much difference to intensive care capacity in the short term

NordVPN still works fine for me for iPlayer, perhaps try logging on to a different server.