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Not a problem for me, I have a Nook );

I think its a very limited criteria to judge money as a measure of generosity. We stopped working 18 years ago as part of a planned early "retirement". Our income reduced to a seventh of its previous level, but we had something which, imo, has had a far greater value than money; time. This we shared equally between maintaining a good quality of live for ourselves and our two children. We were always there for them and have had the time to fully support them in areas where money cannot help. Like sitting down every evening and helping with homework. They have wanted for nothing in the material world during their childhood. I would say with some confidence that the choice we made to be generous with our time (at a considerable financial cost to ourselves) far out weighs any financial generosity we could have made. Neither of us have had any inheritance.

I have been working with SETI for many years, (in the top 93 percentile world wide who work for them). So far nothing, but I believe they are out there. Realise the limitations of the scheme, but until we develop a FTL drive or a form of Spooky Science we can manipulate, its the best we have.

Elgato Video Capture convertiseur de vidéo analogique en numérique Is a similar thing I think, available on Amazon.fr - pricey though.

Try Pinnacle Video Capture device, its free standing. Easy connection - Just plug it into a USB 2.0 or 1.1 port Flexible recording - Record video from any analogue source: camcorder, set-top box, game console or VCR It may help narrow the search. I used one a long time ago to record from a VCR.

"Screwfix" and "Thread" in the same sentence, well I thought it was funny!!

We slice and dice into sticks, oil, salt and roast it in the oven when we do a roast. Crisps up a treat.

parpaings-à-bancher are the things you are looking for, not the ones in Théière's picture. Found several good pictures of turning corners if you just google the name; the link is below to one site. Have tried to hypertext it but with out success! https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.aufeminin.com%2Fblog%2Fseeone_251316_5436784%2FAutoconstruction-de-Claire-et-Roland%2FZoom-sur-une-rangee-de-parpaings-a-bancher&ei=dUNwVOTgIIisPfPbgWA&bvm=bv.80185997,d.bGQ&psig=AFQjCNFoLQUJYWPRb9xn1EOjr9b_7cYzqg&ust=1416729842715587

and lay it on a good deep foundation with steel rods vertically posed in it to tie into the first layer of hollow block.

http://www.thelocal.fr/20141112/law-toilet-kitchen

Burning one litre of paraffin produces one litre of water, so there must be some condensation. The effects can be limited by extracting the air from the room ie good ventilation.

Local councils also have the right to charge full rates of taxes on land that is classed as being "constuctible". So if you live in an area where building land is tight and you have a big garden/area of land, you could see your taxes rise much more than 20%. Only a few have used this right so far, but as budgets tighten, would not be surprised if more don't. I understand the logic being, if houses were build on the land, then the council would get extra taxes. As an individual if you have not sold the land for building, nor built any houses on it, you should pay the "missing" taxes.

Thanks, though looking at some of the prices, I will keep doing it for a bit!!

Have had a Philips electric razor for several years, one which creams your face as you shave, much more pleasant if you have sensitive skin. It appeared to be getting blunt but I was horrified at the replacement prices (€55 just for the head). I came across a tip which has worked for me. After stripping the head and extracting the cutters (easy to do) I rubbed them individually on a flat mirror in spit (the instructions were specific on this!), using a circular motion. After their usual clean and reassembly I have found that is has actually sharpened the blades. Costs nothing and worth trying.

I raised his same point for the same reason early this year. Two separate families asked us to arrange the same thing with family in the UK for their teenage girls. We turned them both down as we would not wish to make any family member/friend responsible for non English speaking teenage girls in the UK. Schools are available (v expensive because of security, accommodation etc). There are some Brits in France that run immersion programmes which are cheaper. This may, however, be less attractive to the children who want to spend time shopping and living the unsupervised life in London!!

Certainly agree about Toulouse. Have housed our eldest there for his studies at N7 this year. Initial lodgings were expensive, damp and tatty. We have paid over the odds to get him into a new development for the first year until he gets to know the city. There are I think 100,000 students. When we went in late July it had an eerie deserted feel to it as such a high percentage of the population was missing!

My wife visited the anaesthesiologist at our local French hospital before an op. Don't know if he was a smoker, but he was very crossed eyed. So much so he took quite a while to replace the bar holding the paper roller for the bed as he kept missing the 2 inch hole with the 1 inch bar!! I jokingly quipped to my wife that I hoped he had better aim with body orifices! I lie not.

After much racking of brains, think it was 10 years for the PEL. We then cashed it in opened another one and a DAT with the balance. As for declaring it or anything from the bank, we don't. As far as I am aware, there is alink with both our banks and les impots so that part of the form is automatically filled in. As for the social charges, they are taken out at source by the bank. We have started taking the dividends out of our PEA. We have passed the time threshold so these do not feature on any tax calculation, again social charges are taken at source.

We have a PEL with CA, our second one. It is time limited, if you don't use if for a loan after a certain period of time you have to close that account and start another one. We are house owners, no problem. Its the highest rate available with them at the moment. Assurance Vie are great if you want to exclude the money from the tax man for your succession when you die. However, there are entrance charges with some and this could add up to the first years interest. There are options too as to where you want the bank to invest the money. Depending on your Bank, if you have the assurance vie and your children/spouse do, on your death, the money in the account goes direct to your children or your spouse, without it going via the Notaire and thus being subject to tax. The Assurance Vie is also open to your choice of beneficiary which is great if you want to leave more to one member of your family without the others knowing, thus starting a good French feud which will endure for generations..... The Depot à Terme (DAT )is also interesting, the capital stays the same and you get a rising rate of return from it over a certain number of years.

Obviously a man with taste I use a Nexus 5 too! Mind you it ran fine on an old HTC HD2, even when the phone fell off my motorbike doing 120 on the autoroute. It bounced twice but worked fine after I recovered it. My wife's Moto G runs it fine too. When I installed it on her phone using my licence number it gave her the HUD for free! Off topic, have you suffered from the New SIM card problem for the Nexus 5?

"Théière" "not as good as a real satnav" Pray what do you class, Théiere, as a real satnav? In my professional life, the satnav we had was the size of a bathroom, would that count? (and probably less accurate than my phone one) );

Or if you have a decent smart phone, down load Sygic and the European maps. You get three licences for the purchase price, on line updates and no need to connect to the internet when on the road. You can have a screen as big as you like if you put it on a tablet! (no commercial attachment, just delighted with a product that works well on my motor bike, mine and my wifes car/camper). Tom Tom maps and lifetime updates included in initial price.

Having been down this route for misty windows, I do not think there is a DIY solution. There is a system for drying and resealing, but this does not get rid of the mist on the inside as its not cleaned. As far as I know, you have to get new complete units. bande adhésive double-face is the sticky stuff.

Perhaps there should be a form of IQ test rather than a financial one. If you go to any country expecting them to sort you out due to your own stupidity, what do you expect?

The joys of cultural differences: On m'a même raconté l'histoire d'une sage-femme du Val-d'Oise qui demandait à une patiente comment elle voulait appeler son garçon. Celle-ci a alors répondu : Clitis, comme Clitis Woud (NDLR : référence à l'acteur et réalisateur américain Clint Eastwood) Still makes me laugh!