DraytonBoy
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Posts posted by DraytonBoy
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idun, less than five years separates the eldest from the youngest and when they were young going out - school, visiting relatives or even shopping required discipline and almost military organisation. Without either chaos would have ensued and we wouldn't have gone anywhere.
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idun, if your're part of a large family especially one where your siblings are very close in age to you then being sent to your room or to bed early is a big deal. If they mis-behaved in a restaurant then we would take the child aside and warn them what would happen if they didn't stop and any punishment was always acted upon when we got home. Our kids were not angels but would rarely play up if we were out so maybe we were lucky.
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Our four are very close in age so if one of them was playing up we would threaten them with either being sent to their room or an early bed. This worked as the offending child wouldn't want to miss out on anything. As someone who was frequently hit by their father there's no way I would have done the same to my own children.
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+1 to Q's last post.A week ago we did exactly the same and planned a tour of four different DIY/electrical stores to get the final bits to finish part one of our renovation. After an hour and a half we came out of Brico Depot (our last stop) and realised that we had got everything on our list. We felt like opening a bottle of bubbly to celebrate as this doesn't normally happen. In the UK we would have just gone to B &Q after checking on-line that they had everything.I've also never bought into the integration bit. I'm happy to act and think like a Frenchie although I draw the line at going to the supermarket in my slippers.
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As with a lot of things here it will end up being a fudge when it should simply be shops either can or can't open on a Sunday.I've no feelings either way, I used to regularly shop on Sundays in the UK but have got used to places being closed here. If I could change one thing it would be the closing at lunchtime madness. The cost to the economy for shop and office workers to go home at 12 every day must be huge.
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It's a sad indictment that the only opposition to Hollande is a former president who might come under a criminal investigation and the leader of a far-right party who are borderline racist. It makes the choice between Cameron and Miliband almost palatable.
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Don't know about 10€ for a four course meal but we have a couple of favourite places here that charge 16€ for a three course lunch that includes an amuse bouche. I think it's trail and error so if you find something good you'll go back again.Whilst the price and choice in the UK is better so many of the restaurants are chains serving bland uninspiring food.
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+1 to WB's post. Our Nissan also had a well which was filled with foam and a kit etc. Managed to get a space saver steel wheel and tyre over the net which fits perfectly in the hole.
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A similar thing happened to us a few years back. We wanted to buy a house that was mortgaged way beyond it's current value. I offered to pay the full asking price but the bank (Caisse D'Epargne) insisted it went to auction so we looked for something else. It ended up being sold for 50k below what we were willing to pay.
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Those figures will be of no comfort to the 12% of working age French that are unemployed.
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The French don't like what's happening now but won't accept the tough economic policies that are needed to drag France into the 21st century.
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Yet another stupid idea from a hopeless government which will raise very little in extra revenue. Until they either cut public spending or create jobs then the deficit will not come down.
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How can MP's 'connect' as most are career politicians who have never had a job away from politics. Farage is a bit different although a 'commodity broker' hardly qualifies as a normal job. I think UKIP will cause chaos next May which will lead Labour into power by the back door and the UK will start going backwards again.
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The examples I suggested have actually happened to two sets of relatives in the UK only morally worse in one case.Wife's grandparents sold their bungalow in the 70's and moved into council accommodation. They spent the next few years frittering away the sale proceeds on holidays and cars. When the husband died the wife was moved into brand new sheltered housing and then finally into a retirement home (paid for by the state) where she died. For the last twenty years of her life the wife lived in comfortable subsidised housing and with pension top-ups her weekly income was nearly £200.
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Take two brothers, William and Harry. William buys a house and Harry rents. William puts money away every month for retirement whilst Harry spends any spare cash on holidays and living it up. At 70 they both have to go into retirement homes. William's house is sold to pay for his care whilst the state picks up the tab for Harry.Who's the mug?
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The problem many people face is that the pension rules etc keep changing so it's virtually impossible to plan for retirement with any certainty. It's even worse for expats with assets or income in the UK as they are seen as fair game to tax more which I think will lead many to return thereby becoming a burden on the state.
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Like so many things today the meanings of wealth and poverty have been skewed beyond reality.To me being wealthy means never having to watch what you spend not going to some dinner where you might meet the PM and being poor means you struggle to put food on the table not this month's Sky subscription may not be paid.
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For once the UK is doing something positive ahead of anyone else. Hopefully other 'wealthy' countries will join in and try and deal with the problem at source.
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Jan 1st 2011.
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Val beat me to it as I was going to post something similar after I read that the brother of Alan Dunning had a pop at the UK government for not doing enough to get him released. Quite what they could or should do in these circumstances is beyond me. Mr Dunning went to Syria of his own accord and probably against his family's wishes so must have known the risks.Having read a bit about who's funding IS there is unlikely to be an easy or quick end to their terror campaign. The most bizarre thing I read was that Saudi Arabia's ruling family funded their initial weapon purchases but now that IS is out of control are using their own air force to destroy them.Personally I would have liked the UK to have stayed out of the fight as I see it as Muslim against Muslim but as usual the Arabs don't want to get their hands dirty in case it really goes tits up and they can blame the West.
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I've got 29 and a bit qualifying years for the UK state pension and was about to pay £660 to DWP to take me to the magical 30 years when they upped it to 35 years. If I continue to work until say 65 then I will have approx 20 years of contributions in France. I've had a good look at the link (and others) and I need 168 trimestres to get a full pension here (42 years). This is where it gets confusing. If I was to make voluntary contributions to DWP now to take me to 35 years I would already have 42 years of contributions in total as I've been paying into the French system for 7 years. Does this mean I've already got enough for a full pension?
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idun, am I to understand that I'm likely to get separate pensions from the UK and France? Surely if I was to make enough voluntary contributions to get a full UK pension then I couldn't expect a French pension on top based on the contributions I'd made whilst working here?
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Thing is Wooly the UK and France have different retirement ages (67 & 62 respectively) so I have no idea when I could retire even if I did pay the £4k.
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Now that the proposed number of qualifying years has gone up from 30 to 35 years I'm looking at a bill of £4k (6years x £660 per year) to get the full UK state pension. However as I work here I'm paying French state pensions contributions and have no idea when I can retire or how many years of contributions I'll need to get a full pension from either country.
Generosity ?
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