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I meant Internet, not fishing net!

Is this some type of internet bot/crawler. I ask because out of interest I Googled the posters name, its all over the net!

Thanks suein56 for a slight ray of sunshine on this, envisaged the usual battle to reclaim what is due should we (hopefully not) end up out of pocket. Had a couple of hours in the Bank this week as, unusually, the interest rates on some products here are now better than the UK. The managers view was that if the Government drop savings rates anymore, no-one would save anything.

Thanks for the quick reply. We don't pay tax here, just CSG which is based on rent and interest paid on our UK accounts, money we don't necessarily have the guarantee we will receive. Should we not receive this income, we will then have to reclaim restrospectively the overpayment. Plus we now lose the interest we gained by keeping this money in an interest bearing account till end of September!! Crafty.

I believe that now Social Charges and Impôt appear under the same heading on the .impots.gouv.fr site We got an email from them this morning which when we checked our account says "Premier acompte provisionnel à régler avant le 15/02/2014" followed by a figure in Euros. There are no outstanding payments due for 2012. We have only ever paid our CSGs in the previous years as a lump sum. We have not asked to change this. Have they now changed the system and we missed it, or have I failed to tick a box? Thanks

Thanks, I gave it a try. Think you are correct, its a software fix, therefore even though the table is running an Android system Stickmount recognises, it only overcomes the software problem and not the hardware ie power the USB port. Always interesting to try something different. The HP tablet was never designed to run Android, but some chap much cleverer than me designed the Cyanogen Mod. The USB port was never designed to power an external drive, but the OTG and juicebox allows us to watch movies in the camping car so all is well.

Quillian - just out of interest, I have a rooted HP 10 inch tablet running CM10. It does not recognise a USB stick. I got a OTG cable but I have to run it with an external USB power supply as the HP USB socket has no power out. Does a sickmount overcome this? With the power supply, USB stick, power juicer etc I can watch films. Its a bit of a lash up, but its done more for the pleasure of overcoming a problem than anything else!

Whilst not disagreeing with the ideal that everything used in the house should be sourced in France, the "you will have to put it right before its sold" bit I have not yet seen proved. Here, I have been involved with the sale of 2 houses owned by Brits who wired the house with UK plugs and French plugs. In one house, the wiring was so bad that the wires went into the front of the mcb box so the cover would not fit. The wire arriving hung festooned off the basement ceiling in huge loops. All the sockets in the kitchens were UK. Both houses have sold in the past 3 years, both had diagnostics and neither had to be "put right" before the sale. I had a similar discussion with a gaz installer who ranted about a boiler being CE not NF, therefore unacceptable. I took him out to the Butagaz citern, asked him where the NF was and showed him where it was made - Peterborough UK!

Richard 51, I took your comment to imply that you should not rely on the system sending you the pension/info automatically and you should monitor the process. I got caught out as when I "retired" 17 years ago I continued to pay voluntary contributions. When they reduced the years you needed to pay, I had already paid enough but they did not write to tell me to stop. I had to write to them, they said I could stop but would not refund me my over payments. I still have several years to go before I get my state pension and hope the payments I made actually give me the promised full pension. We find it difficult to understand why, if you pay voluntarily, the number of contributions you need to pay are significantly lower than if you work.

I think you could only use the fish wire if you left it in the conduit! To do this, you need to pull through your 3 wires plus a piece of string. Once you have the wires/string through, you can attach the fish wire and pull it back through leaving you the 3 cables and the wire in the conduit. Its not easy to pull 3 x 2.5mm cables through say 8 meters of gain (we usually do it in a straight line, me at one end pulling, wife at other end with gain and cables. Pushing a thin wire back through with the cables in place would be imo, almost impossible.

Mine has a "magic eye", a tube with a window in it. Is this what you are meaning by a thermocouple? If the burn produces smoke, it obscures the glass. It also has upper temperature heat sensors that shut the flame of, could be one of those. Is the central heating pump working? If its low water content boiler could it be heating up too quickly if water is not circulating round the heat exchanger? Just an idea.

The best deal I have hors Free is 9.99 a month for 10 times more download off the internet (eldest son) I am still paying 14.99 for the same deal, but locked in till July - and that's without 4G! Will be migrating to Free as soon as that deal runs out. I would go for a Free box, but the thought of disconnecting from Neuf and connecting to Free on a degrouped line fills me with horror, unless someone has an easy experience (ie non FT to Free)?

I will have the mods delete this post if its been raised before (cannot see it on a quick look through). Both my wife and youngest son have the 2 euro Free card for their iphones. Just happened to check their accounts and they now have 50 mb download on their account as well as the 2 hrs of calls (even international ones to fixed lines) and unlimited texts. They don't seem to publish these free upgrades to their clients. The offer also seems to give access to 4G, if your phone is capable. (I have no commercial attachment to Free)

You could always stop and let the air out of the tyres!!

Different in these parts, coffee/tea and biscuits or cake is the norm. Cannot get the older generation to use plates thought, they prefer to take them off the plate and break the biscuits up on the table. Gateaux on a Sat/Sun afternoon is also a good alternative to a full meal. They even dunk those awful boudoir biscuits in the champers, sacrilege imo!

We have bought computer parts from Germany Amazon. Chrome translates ok. Have bought car parts on German Ebay sites, rang them up, apologised I spoke no German and they sorted me out in English.

My thoughts exactly, presume you can buy Kindle downloads from wherever in the world so there is no P&P anyway. This will help the decline of book sales as people will turn to e-readers which are becoming more advertised here or on a tablet/phablet. Apart from school books, we have not bought a book book in years. Enjoyed the fact that Reacher books came in US and UK versions, the difference being the spelling I suppose.

I think you have to have had some luck first, Hollande's ran out a long, long time ago

Wimpy drysuit diver. +1 but in my defence it was Scotland and justified when the sea loch edges were frozen!

You can call me Betty Confirming the old adage often heard on these forums "France is just like the UK used to be 50 years ago..." Yes indeed, made me laugh when some French friends who are going to Portugal said it was "just like France was 20 years ago..."

If this saga continues for you, should the thread not be change to read "Most inefficient method for heating water??

I have assisted in all the elections taking place in France since being elected in 2008 in our commune, as a non French national and signed off on them. I have also met the Prefet, Sous Prefete and Prefete, as a "novel" non French Elu. None of them objected to me taking part in any function. Having in a previous life run a government budget of over £6,000,000, I found the way the French ran our commune budget completely understandable and far more flexible. We can even carry over underspend!!

+1 for Currency Fair, gave them a try yesterday afternoon after reading about them here (thanks for the heads up). Money in CA today. Total cost 3 euros compared to the 38 we were paying plus a 7 day wait. If you play on the market page, you can try for a higher rate than their normal transfer.

We too have an investment flat, coproprietés/ professional syndic. After 10 years "we" are on our third syndic. One flat owner has not paid anything towards the running of his flat for at least that, they (the third syndic now) are still taking ongoing legal action to recover over 18,000+ euros owed to us and the syndic! The other 50 flat owners (only half ever turn up for the meetings) will not vote for a sinking fund, getting the large cost new works done has never happened (we plus one active owner were one of the few who tried to push it through). Some people bought their flats through a Notaire with the upstairs drying areas already converted into holiday studios over 10 years ago. Totally illegal, still not resolved. The accounts produced are understandable and allow us to bill our tenant in accordance with the strict French laws. Beware lifts, they are very expensive as they have to be constantly updated to keep up with the law. If there are students in the building, avoid it! I am sure if we were living there, things like the gardening etc we could organise in house (if you have lived in France long enough, you will know they don't organise themselves). You pay the costs of the syndic depending on your percentage ownership of the whole building, though they have been known to get it wrong when costing works. We pay ours 4 times a year for the published yearly running costs, then as required for emergency work (100,000 to renew the central heating system for example!!!) You should be made aware by the current syndic of any outstanding defects/major work before you buy the flat. Hope this helps. I know there are also the owners who can run their own syndics, but the rules are about the same for meetings, accounts etc. If you want the meetings to not go on for hours and you want a decision, organise them to start before the evening meal, don't offer drink or food, lock the doors and take a whip!

Tinabee Wrote: Secondly, the Maire has asked me to stand for the local council - probably to liaise with the international residents of the village (English, Irish, Russian, Dutch and German apparently) since some don't speak French. I am hoping that the Riff Raff element will be able to pass on some pointers from his wife Smile [:)] - and all other contributions gratefully welcomed . . . I am just coming to the end of my first 6 year mandate on our local council. First get the votes to get in, canvassing does not do any harm. I have been quite surprised by the "politics" involved both within our group, and the wider issues in the canton. Oh and develop a strong liver, alcohol with everything be it the voting day breakfast at 0900, off site lunch meetings or (as today) new building inauguration. I have resisted all but the evening drinking session, and they still, after 6 years, ask if I am ill! PM if you want anymore info