What a magnificent array of colours there are at the moment. Well, you’d expect me to say that, it’s autumn after all. I’m not just talking about leaves though. The sky – those flying saucer clouds which float around just as the sun goes down, are amazing shades of blue, purple and pink. The hills are covered in layers of green, yellow, orange and brown. It sounds corny to say it but they really are like giant 3D tapestries.

I beg you to wait until around 5 o’clock before you go for your afternoon walk. If it’s quiet and still you’ll spot a hoopoe or two darting in and out of the trees – you’ll just catch the black and white tail feathers as they disappear from sight.

Bien Etre event

Our Bien Être on Wednesday 16 November went very well indeed. It was a beautiful sunny day and the Villa Lafabrègue looked magnificent – a perfect place in which to hold a well-being event.

A very relaxed group of about 30 ladies sat down after coffee and biscuits, ready to listen to a naturopathic practitioner, Liz Jarry, who spoke about Immunity – a subject close to our hearts of course with Covid still not totally under control – but more importantly our thoughts were mainly directed towards how cancer can be controlled by what we put into our bodies to strengthen and boost our immunity. All I’ll say is that one or two of our preconceptions were challenged!

We were then asked to follow Lynn Hall into the kitchen where she had set up her amazing juice extractor. Take a look at Lynn’s helpful and interesting notes: Vegetable juices for health. Please do read it so that you get the full flavour of her demo. Suffice to say from a table full of raw vegetables and fruit came a cup of really tasty vegetable juice – each one of us had a kind of glow on our faces after drinking it!

Our appetites having been stimulated, we were all pretty hungry by 12.15 so we adjourned for lunch. My goodness, I think we slightly over-catered but even so we managed to get through a lot of soup, quiche, cheese and cake – all healthy stuff of course. A big thank you to all of you for your donations.

Jane Quayle’s head massage proved to be a popular way to digest lunch.

Then psychotherapist Daniel Blanchet kept us all awake with his Influences on Health and Well-being talk, notably Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Hypnosis and CAT which is a way of accessing unconscious resources. He asked us to write down our own beliefs about ourselves. I got as far as the first question but I have to admit, he lost me after that. Though one thing I liked: ‘Failure is not failure, it’s feedback. Any experience is an opportunity to learn.’ Yep, I like that. I have all the notes which are very easy to understand. Do ask me if you would like a copy.

Joelle Esteve the founder of Equilibre66 spoke about the benefit of breast self-examination. As we know, early detection plays a vital role in the prevention of breast cancer. To complement prevention and early detection, various organisations and professionals advise women to learn how to perform a self-breast examination. Joelle told us how important it is to self-palm the breasts and went on to show us how to go about it. She gave us some very useful information with diagrams and instructions which I am more than happy to share with you.

Reiki is an energy healing Japanese technique that promotes relaxation, reduces stress and anxiety through gentle touch and can be used complementary to your existing medical treatments. David Ingram, a Reiki Master, talked us through the benefits of this treatment, one of which is that it improves the overall health and well-being of a person who is receiving traditional medical treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and kidney dialysis. He gave us a demonstration which involved a couple of our members laying hands on Maggie Longworth. Afterwards she said she had felt extreme warmth and could turn her head without pain in her neck! If you would like one of David’s booklets, let me know.

The Marché de Noel in Trouillas, on Sunday 27 November, took place in a large sports hall on the edge of the village. CSF shared a table with Morag Todd. We displayed our cards alongside Morag’s wonderful selection of handmade beaded bracelets and necklaces and patchwork bags. There were Christmas carols, a tombola and Father Christmas. This was essentially an arts and crafts market and many of the stall holders had worked hard to make some beautiful gift ideas, so it was disappointing not to have more people coming along. However our table took €201. A big thank you to Morag!

Urgent! Vacancy for a P-O Representative (part-time)

Maggie Longworth’s time as P-O Representative runs out at the end of this month! Her job involves co-ordinating events and activities across the P-O and participating in the general organisation of CSF Sud.

The good news is that we do have someone who is willing to share the role with someone else so, please, give this some more thought – there must be someone out there who has a few spare moments a month and who would like to be involved in something worthwhile. Here in CSF Sud we are a friendly bunch and formalities are few!

Please contact Maggie for more details, by email sud-maggie@cancersupportfrance.orgsud-maggie@cancersupportfrance.org or by phone 06 80 38 65 96.

Touchlines

The latest TOUCHLINES, the CSF quarterly magazine, is available here.

Christmas cards

We still have plenty of Christmas cards . If you can’t get to one of the Drop Ins, then order online. We will try and deliver but don’t leave it too late.

Drop Ins

Wednesday 7 November, Pablo’s Bar, Céret, 10.30

Come along for coffee and chat. There will also be books and Céret is a great place to meet up with friends. **** Christmas Cards on sale here ****

Wednesday 14 December, Villa Lafabrègue, Prades

This is a bit earlier in the month than usual. We will be singing some Christmas Carols so polish off your vocal cords and please come and join us. Maggie will bring the words. **** Christmas Cards on sale here ****

The Café des Artistes is closed for two months so there will be no Laroque Drop In until Monday 20 February.

Looking ahead to 2023