betty

Upsetting their customers yet again. Employees are well paid with lucrative perks and yet they still want to strike. AF is generally regarded pretty low by the professional airline industry. http://www.pprune.org/passengers-slf-self-loading-freight/538628-would-you-fly-air-france.html Won’t be long before they go bust I think.

Recently I have had a few promotional emails from La Poste. One of their ideas was to buy stamps online. I thought good idea as I frequently need stamps at different tariffs according to weight and this would save me a difficult trip to the post office. So went ahead and after making the payment, my pc went down, no problem I thought as I could continue where I left off a little later when back online. Wrong, La Poste now tells me if I disconnect, I cannot reconnect to print out my stamps and all complaints have to be made within 48hours. I was late on this. So, no stamps, payment made for nothing and unhappy. Plus jamais La Poste. Here is their reply to my query.------- ‘ L'impression des timbres doit être faite après le paiement ; Une deconnexion ne permet plus de revenir sur une commande . Selon nos conditions générales de vente les réclamations concernant les incidents d'impression des timbres doivent être formulées sous 48 heures. Dans votre cas ce délai est dépassé je ne peux donc satisfaire à votre demande.’

Quote “They have the German authorities after them now. They are under investigtion for declaring the wrong take off weights of their aircraft in order to get lower charges than other airlines that fly the same aircraft This if found against them will cost them millions if the practice is EU wide” Years ago I seem to remember that lower maximum/regulated take off weights etc. can be legally declared in the company’s operations manual thereby reducing the airport landing fees etc. This obviously all has to tally on any official inspection (same as HGV). May have all changed with the vast amounts of regulations now in place.

Q. Having known very very many RAF personnel over the years, I have never ever heard one mention the aerobatic manoeuvre known as a loop called ‘loop the loop’ as you have. This is a layman’s term. Are you really sure you are a retired RAF navigator? [quote user="Quillan"][quote user="Chiefluvvie"]The 2 Australian DJ's were playing a prank - just like the thousands before them have played in the media. We have all at one time or another laughed at some of these pranks - indeed some laughed at the hospital one before the suicide of the nurse. No one has ever died before because of a radio prank call. There is absolutely no way the DJ's could have foreseen the tragic outcome and in no way did they ever expect or want that outcome. There was no intention to harm, no malice - just like when I go out in my car or fly a plane - I have no intention of harming anyone but sh*t happens - sometimes. The DJ's are not to blame for the death of Jacintha Saldhana - she committed suicide - an entirely selfish act in itself. No one, except her, knows why she did it. Chiefluvvie[/quote] I'm not picking a fight here but I think your wrong and this is why. When you fly your plane or drive your car you are going about your business from one place to another. When these DJ's are working they are there to play music which is why they are called DJs short for Disk Jockey. If you decided for instance to attempt to loop the loop in your plane or do 'doughnuts' in your car in the high street for fun and somebody ends up dead then its your fault, it is nothing to do with sh*t happening. In this case these DJ's went and did something other than the job they are actually paid for and it went wrong, terribly wrong. Perhaps committing suicide in our culture may be selfish but it is also a very brave thing to do. The nurse was not from our culture even though she was a Catholic and quite possibly felt that the shame was hers and too great for her to carry on. But, all that aside and perhaps where we do have some common ground is that we don't actually know for sure and won't know until the coroners court has held its investigation. Did she for instance leave a note and if so is the only contributory reason for her killing her self. In short we have to wait and see. [/quote]

PaulT wrote "and it would seem that there are things about his wartime service (good) that have not been told and are in the heroic class". Yes with Bomber Command, a navigator who knew where he was.

Flt Lt Sir Patrick Moore RAF (Retd) What a shame. R.I.P. Sir Patrick

His plea of mental problems will probably take another year or so to evaluate. Abu Qatam (wanted in Jordan) will probably go the same route. No wonder they are laughing at the UK/ EU legal system. What a ridiculous state of affairs not to mention millions of tax payers’ money footing the bill for their legal aid .

Just looked back in my notes. They use ‘os longs de bovins d’origine australienne’. One thing, you must not smoke with implants. A good single implant would cost around 4000€ these days.

Very expensive. Good results. Bone comes from powdered cow’s bones, if I remember correctly they have to be Australian (unique type of bone). Don’t laugh, it’s true.

I collected my vaccin anti-grippal recently. I asked if they had had it long, “no, came in 3 days ago” After it was injected, I noticed it was last year’s batch and was in fact past it’s sell by date. The pharmacy seems pretty laid back about it even when I said they could lose their license. I am furious at such a grave error. So check yours.

Idun, Looking at my post again it was not very clear, I tried to edit, could not and even logging back on has been a marathon task. The insurance company told me today that they will pay up in full. I wait. If they pay, having the insurance has made it all worthwhile but all this aggravation, writing to the CPAM then NHS. Was all this really necessary? Your typical wriggling insurance co. I initially made the claim last April! The amount is small, around 100 € in this instance but I had to pursue it as a test case as the next time the bill maybe €€€. Just to clarify, the CPAM will only reimburse  French citizens, not French residents. The UK would not put their ‘conditions’ in writing to me as the insurance co. wanted but I managed to persuade them to make do with looking at the link I posted earlier.

I can now tell a little bit more. My insurance company insisted that I must first claim from the UK and they would then reimburse the difference. Talking to the UK overseas healthcare team, I learnt the following. UK will reimburse for some expenses outside of the EU, in some countries which are: http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/countryguide/NonEEAcountries/Pages/Non-EEAcountries.aspx No reimbursements for treatment in the USA. Reimbursement for dental treatment anywhere even in the EU maybe ‘difficult’. They would not elaborate on this. I expect they have had too many fraudulent cases e.g. cosmetic perhaps. CPAM will reimburse most worldwide medical expenses to French nationals.   Incidentally, although I have mentioned April Ins.  in an earlier post, they were not the insurers in this instance, nor was it Trailfinders. If you do consider the latter, have a careful look at their small print. The excess for example is high especially if you are over 70.  

Q, Your theory was to allow farmers to have guns, having a gun makes you armed by definition. You seem to be modifying my post. I said the farmer was disliked immensely. I made no mention of his mental state. I also made no mention of shooting him. If you want to quote someone please be more accurate in your chosen words

My immediate neighbour is a farmer, disliked immensely by most. I would hate him to be the only one in the commune armed. Pest control for him would include my dog and if he was shot, well…………..!

Q, Why the exception of farmers?

RH. Yes a special licence but you only need to take a short course (depending on the state) of just a few hours to obtain it.

Yes they are, New Jersey has notoriously restrictive laws concerning the purchase, possession and sale of weapons in general, but specifically firearms.

I wish someone would bring kilos and kilos of fillet steak to my house.

I remember in the late ‘90s when Blair ordered all privately owned firearms to the crusher including our collection which we used solely for target practice. Now the gun owners are criminals with the odd exception. During my frequent stays in the US, everybody and I mean everybody I know has a gun and in some states they can legally carry concealed weapons. As a visitor OH rather than borrow bought a couple for shooting the odd deadly snake that pops into the garden. That’s how easy it is to own. In my experience the average household in the majority of states has a pretty large arsenal. I have to say, I feel much safer there when I’m inside the house than anywhere else I have ever lived which includes many countries. Depending on the state, the burglar/intruder has to contend with the knowledge of the occupier being able to shoot him dead legally. For me, that is quite a deterrent and peace of mind in this increasingly violent society. I do miss this backup/security when back in Europe.

Fortunately we don’t have too many of the enormous US style gin palaces on wheels towing their own 4x4.

Good further thought Coops. I have resided here continuously for 11 years but it didn’t work for me.

Yes it all sounded a bit odd but the insurance company were adamant that I must first make the claim from the CPAM as per their contract. They were obviously unaware of the rules and the contract was out of date. Hopefully, we can now be aware that without this ‘aid’ from the CPAM one could come into financial difficulty with some hefty medical bills which may not be sufficiently supported by the Ins. Company.

I think I’d better explain. I am a full time resident of France. I took out an insurance policy for overseas travel (USA). When I made a claim, the insurance company asked me to make the initial claim to the CPAM as stated in the policy small print. Part of the CPAM’s reply was: ‘En effet, vous résidez et êtes immatriculé en France avec I'imprimé E121, délivré par la Caisse d'Assurance Maladie du ROYAUME-UNl. Or, selon le nouveau règlement communautaire n'883/2004 qui a pris effet le 01/05/2010, votre couverture sociale se limite à la prise en charge des soins dispensés en France’. So I would guess that my premium will now increase as this ‘concession’ is no longer available to the insurance companies and they will have to bear the full amount. I hope this makes sense. B.a.F. I would have thought all UK residents would use a UK company, therefore: My recommendation for April was for French residents only. I had a very hefty bill for accident treatment out of the EU and they paid up in full, promptly.

Orange is offering a two month free trial of their Gigamail Illimité. Check your invoices if you subscribed to this, I was charged immediately without the free trial. I have since cancelled; I could not get it to work correctly with my Thunderbird a/c.

Some insurance companies require that holiday medical claims are first made to the CPAM. All being well, they will then top up the difference. Be advised, the law has now changed (May 2010 apparently) no reimbursements will be paid by CPAM to non-nationals whilst they are overseas. Not applicable to French citizens I understand. BTW if your looking for a recommendation April Assistance is very good but expensive.