All Activity

Yes, Lori, agreed entirely; formal training starts after my daughter’s dog leaves after the weekend.

Ah, well if you want her to stay off the sofa, you'd better start training her now to use her own bed. 😉 We did that with our Collie as we had a new sofa that we didn't want stained. He got used to using his own bed.

Yes, a nice new one.

Does she not have her own doggie bed ?

Has only been at the house a day and she has found her creature comforts!

We applied to renew our passports online from France using photos we'd taken on our phones 15 days ago. The new ones arrived today and we were kept informed throughout by email and text about progress. Compared to my 18 months to exchange a UK driving licence for a French one it was a brilliant service.

Black lab or cross, four years old, was owned by an old lady now deceased. Our first night was a little unsettled but she is definitely a seeker after comfort as she took over the sofa in the evening, must have done it before, I guess. Also prefers women, we think and my grandson who has a natural gift with animals which are seriously drawn to him. A bit nervous outside so does not seem to have had much exterior experience, nor walking as she is terrible on the lead.

Menthe, that is certainly true, about his clothes .. but as the last ranked player standing, you would expect so, but this year, nothing can be assumed I think!

Yes, Gardian, I hope it will be Bingham. I'd rather him than Kyren Wilson. Maybe his waistcoat will be stretched beyond restraint before his trousers? He's certainly fatter than when I last watched him😂

For me, Stuart Bingham to win it. Very worried about the breaking strain on his trousers though.

I've only popped in now and then, Menthe, but it's good to see that the experienced heads don't wine everytime, even when we know experience helps. There have certainly been some serious upsets this year .. all makes for more entertaining TV!

Apart from getting all the figures I need from OH, I long ago gave up getting him involved - it's much safer that way!

Nobody shouts around here but I grumble and complain and fret but, for some reason, this year I am calm and laid-back and apart from looking up some bank statements, have yet to complete anything online. May is a month full of activity chez nous. Both our birthdays (on separate days) to celebrate, the village's fête patronale lasting a long weekend, of course all the May holidays and no muguets to be seen in our flower beds this year so can't give out bouquets to anyone. Then there will be the ceremony at the monument aux morts and then the religious ones later in the month. You'd think the impots would realise they are really pressuring us unfairly?

Well, everyone, I am delighted to report that the lack of reception was due to the weather. Rain either in bucketloads or fine and plentiful with thick mist. This morning, everything was back so I could catch up on some of the thrilling action I missed last night. If you haven't watched, it is really very addictive. This is the world championship and 3 of the 4 finalists are qualifiers; something that has never happened before. Talking about the weather, a woman has died in the Aisne dept because a mud slide demolished her house. Made me think of the mud slide in Aberfan that killed schoolchildren and teachers in a primary school. I wasn't living in Wales then but it was national news headlines.

She's sweet ! I like the smile on her face and the happiness in her eyes. Give her a hug for me.

Is she French or British? Also, presumably a youngster? Our Belgian neighbours (it’s their residence secondaire, so they’re here just 3 or 4 times per annum) have had golden labs for a number of years. They had two half brothers for a number of years, but sadly ‘lost’ both of them in the last year or so. They now have a slightly bonkers youngster of about 18 mths who, like his predecessors, is never further than a few metres from his ‘master’. I’m no dog expert, but they’re a lovely breed.

😲

Yep, that is her tongue!

I find that most days I can either receive BBC news or Sky news but not both at the same time. One tip, when parliament is in recess, BBC news is run on the parliament channel so that's another way of receiving it.

What has she got in her mouth? ( please tell me that's not her tongue ).

We lost the BBC News channel about 2 weeks ago, but can get the news on BBC1. Also lost a few Freeview channels, but can still get some of them on the "+" version. I think this may be due to a plane tree in the road outside having grown somewhat since the dish was professionally reinstalled and aligned a few years ago. Unfortunately the installer is no longer in business; the number of Brits around here seems to have decreased dramatically in the last 3 or 4 years. Nothing to do with Brexit, of course 😉

Wedded bliss. 😉 I'm sorry, you really did make me laugh as I can so relate. It certainly isn't funny at the time, but I chuckled when I read that comment as it can be very similar round here.

We did ours yesterday too, I dread it, it always ends in an argument! Mr Betise has (nearly) all of the figures on a spreadsheet on his computer, and I sit at mine and input them into the impots online forms. He shouts a figure at me, I tell him it's not the one I need, he then can't find the right one, I start to quietly despair. Eventually there is more heated shouting (not by me) and I tell him that if he's going to shout he can put the bloody figures in himself. Every year (sigh).

I’ve often said to Mrs G that I wish that there was some mechanism for us to ‘buy in’ to UK TV. As it is, we all get it for nothing and therefore nobody bothers too much about whether we (in southern or southern-ish France) get a signal or not. It’s very annoying, but you can only wait for the weather to calm down a bit. BTW, I often hear people in the UK moan about an increase in the licence fee - up to about £180 p.a. now eh? So that’s £15 / month. Said people will think nothing about paying loads more for SKY etc. Just how much TV can you watch?