How about when you have just sat down in your seat on the plane and made yourself as comfortable as possible given the space is so tight..when, the person in front of you pushes his/her seat back even before take off.. and then during the meal, what meal, the tray almost cuts you in half..pure selfishness and no regard for others that makes me really mad, and I usually give the seat a good kick to make my point!! My other bug is also sitting next to popcorn crunchers and sweetie eaters who make incredible noise, again with no regard to anyone else, I try desperately to open whatever I may have very very carefully in order not to upset anyone..It is a matter of good breeding..thats it, in this world of me me me…

Dear Suzanne, we too are going to relocate to France to retire. Our children live in London so we want to be closer to them and England is too cold and damp. Any good suggestions about where to choose. We have family living in the Seillans/Faycnce area and I have stayed at a friends house in Bar sur Loup, near St. Paul de Vence..however, I also like the Luberon Valley, St. Santorinin and the Apt area. My French friends tell me that SouthWest France is probably a better choice and are quite annoyed by the surge of Brits/Russians jacking up the prices of real estate in the South. What is your opinion?

I am 66yrs old, and I don’t mind a bit. I can say what I want, do what I want and still party!!

We cannot get CBC here in Pittsburgh, but we do get the BBC news which is excellent and certainly more objective and one hour long.

frankly I was a bit scared by the article in the NYT saying Hilary was ready to nuke Iran if necessary..she’s got to be kidding.

Lin Si, I just want you to know that I love Chinese history, Chinese novels, Chinese pottery, Chinese art, Chinese food, in fact I love China. I have lived in Hong Kong, studied Chinese porcelain at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, raised money for the purchase of Chinese Paintings for the University Art gallery, travelled to Beijing, was there at the first opening of a Bhuddist temple and was amazed to watch the reaction of the people around me, saw an exhibition of western art in Beijing and was amused by the comments asked to me about the paintings, I have been back stage at the Chinese opera and seen how the make up and costumes were done. Throughout my travels in China I found the people personable and inquisitive, and admirable for all the trials they have been through. I saw the warrior army in Xian when it was first opened, but my best memories were of the babies and their red bottoms in the cold, the scary flights from place to place, but, things have changed enormously since I was there. I feel ashamed when meeting a Chinese person who knows and has studied Western culture, Shakespeare and the like, I wonder how many Westerners know anything about Chinese culture, paintings, and so forth.

this web site should be renamed for Suzanne and Mugsy.

The statue is incredibly tacky and tasteless in the extreme. Unfortunately Harabs as it is now called is as well, not the Harrods I knew and loved, full of tourists and goods at absurd prices.

A red plaid woolen nightie in the winter, and a white cotton nightie in the summer.

A red plaid woolen nightie in the winter, and a white cotton nightie in the summer.

There must be something in the water that makes British actresses so wonderful. You have to admit that it is the acting ability not necessarily the looks that makes these women so excellent, ie. Maggie Smith, Kate Winslett, Judi Dench, Christin Scott Thomas, Margaret Rutherford, Vanessa Redgrave, just to name a few great British actresses, not the plastic young actresses that seem to be in the tabloids today in America..although they can be compared to Meryl Streep, Glen Close, Jodi Foster, Signourney Weaver, although her last alien films have been a bit of a bummer, but Dame Helen Mirren is excellent in everything she brings to the screen, carry on Detective Inspector.. A fellow Brit..

La Garde de Frenet is a wonderful little town, lucky friend, you should visit her soon.

I feel fortunate in that I have lots of friends all over the world who I communicate with a lot on email. We have lived in many different countries and each place brought a new set of good friends. Now we are settled in a town where we have no family but we have one family who have become our family, we celebrate all holidays together and I feel blessed for this. I even have a friend coming all the way from Australia and dropping into Pittsburgh, which is I think pretty wonderful, not many of our friends visit us here, but they do come to our house in Greece perhaps it is easier and much more fun. I treasure my friendships over the years with different people from different countries that we have met living overseas most of our lives, and try to keep in touch. 60th and 70th birthday parties seem very popular nowadays and we will fly here and there for the chance to meet up with old friends through the years and hear about their lives and children. I think because of living in different countries and sometimes scary situations makes one closer to people simply because of having no family members around and it is so easy to meet people living abroad and sharing the same experiences. However, my best friends will always be my husband and my two daughters. I even communicate with my daughters friends who have become mine as well, it is always good to keep up to date with the young.

Living in Beirut and evacuating twice to London, the border between South and North Korea, flying in a typhoon from Taiwan to Hong Kong, I think thats it!!

I too was never bored growing up. I went outside and played with friends all day until it was dark..we played Robin Hood and Maid Marion in the forest, a game of hitting a ball against the wall of the house various ways,under the leg, over the leg, behind the back, in between the legs, six movements in all, played that game for hours, rode my bike everywhere exploring, searched for four leave clovers, read Hans Christian Anderson,my favourite being The Little Match Girl, playing with my dolls, arranging my dolls house, listening to radio serials on the radio, I never seemed to have enough time to be bored. I grew up in Scotland. My daughters grew up in Athens, Hong Kong, and Seoul, before going to boarding school in England, thankfully all before the internet explosion of message boards, chat rooms, etc. They swam, played tennis, travelled to different parts of the world with us, and grew up to be interesting young women now working and living in London. They took gap years after university and travelled around Asia and India which gave them different perspectives on how others live and made them better young women. I don’t think that they were ever bored, they did not have the opportunity in many places we lived to watch the local TV because of the various different languages, so they read lots of books. I love Wowowow and look forward every day to reading Suzanne and Mugsy’s comments, they are the most amazing women and I hope they meet each other one of these days.