fisherman

Rape is a heinous crime and certainly in the UK I think the sentencing policy does not take it seriously enough. It is also one of the most difficult crimes for a man to prove his innocence. Once an allegation has been made the man is guilty in many eyes and the stigma sticks even if he is found innocent. Originally in what I gleaned from the little I have read I thought that perhaps he had behaved inappropriately (not condoning that) but the US police authorities over egged the charge with the intent of plea bargaining down to a misdemeanour. However the last section of the article is telling. ‘’His lawyers say he denies the charges and that forensic evidence will "not be consistent with a forcible encounter".’’ ‘’forcible encounter’’ the implication of this is that they may latter be claiming a consensual encounter. I think this will get very messy. I hope the poor woman is well looked after.

As Paul said they do have a duty of care. If the stairway was an approved access route and was plunged into in total darkness it is probably a breach of the health and safety at work act. This is a risk which should have been picked up on their risk assessment. What if there had been a fire? Bureaucratic administrators for these big organisations make me sick. Little people with too much power. If your friend is in a union then they should fight her case. If not go to the citizens advice bureau in the first instance they should advise on a solicitor. Avoid those ambulance chasing solicitors (sleaze bags) they are only interested in making their fee.

QVC had a weeder called grandpa's weeder. We bought one. Cast Iron head & strong wooden handle. A good tool & should last forever. Also cheaper than the one being discussed. Don't know if you could order it on the internet if in France.

Maybe a dremel with a metal curtiing blade could be used . The edge may not be too neat but that may be covered by the tap.

To 5-element I humbly apologise if my rather generalist comments offended your sensibilities. (Especially if I have touched a nerve.)

I think you are right Woolybanana. It’s unfortunate that the general public see second home owners as rich. The truth is in most cases is the way people choose spend their money. In our case we don’t spend £3000 each year flying off to exotic places or spend a lot of money on going out and other transient luxuries. We work and save so that we can afford just one nice thing. The general public tend to blow their money and then look around with envy at those who have been more prudent. About 40 years ago one of my friends mothers had a cottage in Cornwall where she took her children every summer (a bit like an Enid Blighton story). However to afford this she went without a lot of things even a television and a car.

It may be just the way things are viewed in the UK but I had the impression (perhaps wrongly) that if legislation disproportionately effected one group then it could be construed as racist, sexist or whatever.

Why am I not surprised. Just as I have saved up enough to buy a ticket they change the destination of the train. Oh well will just have to do a few more days work to pay for it. Ones first instinct is to get angry ( & perhaps feel it’s a racist act) however what one needs to consider is if this tax was in place when you first purchased your property would you still have bought it ? Perhaps a gallic shrug is called for and get on with life. (and quietly hope it gets challenged in the EU court)

Roof boxes are great for relatively small pack-able things. Not much good for flat pack kitchens etc. The catches don’t seem to be very good but they may have improved since ours was made. A couple of years ago the lid of our roof box on our motor home flew open on the motorway as we were heading up to catch the ferry. The French lorry drivers were very good swerving around our stuff strewn over the motorway. Fortunately we managed to collect everything, the worst damage being just a few scuff marks. - I put a strap around the box now just in case.

Yes I have definitely made an investment in my French property. An investment for quiet long breaks in my retirement, an investment in my children’s ability to take a holiday without costing a fortune, an investment in my grand children so that they can explore and play in unspoilt countryside. An investment in making capital – NO.

Good luck. I just hope that the support you are getting from your neighbours does not evaporate if things get sticky. I really hope it works out well. There is nothing worse than having to put up with antisocial type activities with no recourse.

I hade thought about it but my nets need to hold the whoppers (I say) I catch and would have been far too heavy :-)

Inevitably when we travel down to the house we have an uneven shaped load on the roof rack. Up until now we have covered it with one of those blue tarpaulins that you can by at the DIY store. During the drive the tarpaulin flaps and frets, wears holes in itself threatening to fill like a balloon and loosens the secondary over straps. Basically it is a general worry and we went through a new tarpaulin each trip. For the last trip we purchased an old fashioned 540gsm proofed cotton canvas tarpaulin from the internet. What a difference it made it did not flap even at 70mph. The secondary straps stayed tight and it was a general lack of worry. It’s a bit greasy to touch and its like folding cardboard but the peace of mind is well worth the £60 we paid for it. Also in the long run we will also hopefully save money not having to replace it each trip.

I agree with Theiere. It is an excelent product. Clean, easy to use and sets quickly. We used it of dozens of timber decks to provide a footings for the posts. It is expensive but a lot less work than mixing concrete. If it was not available I would probably knock up a 3:1 mix of sharp sand and a rapid set cement. Give it a little longer to cure than postcrete.

With my hearing not being quite 20/20 I doubt if I could fully understand somebody with a covered face.

The Viene gives excelent fishing many species and certainly some big cat fish. Not sure about trout though. Thats why we purchased our house near it :-)

It depends on the quality of the job you want its position and its usage. If you have proper patio brick and want a good quality job then Theiere's advice is excelent. However we had a load of house bricks to hand from a wall we demolished and made quite a servicable patio with them laid directly on sifted soil.

We have been spending a lot of time in France over the last 5 years and last year we purchased a small house for holidays and with a long term plan of semi retiring and spending 40% of our time in our little bit of French heaven. Just my observations from over the last 5 years. France must be one of the most bureaucratic countries in the EU. You even need planning consent to put up a small wooden shed. The French system is anti enterprise and (I will stand corrected on this) the AE system seems to limit your earnings. The method of business registration prevents you from diversifying. You are registered as a carpenter and if you wanted to branch out into other fields you would be working illegally in those fields. In line with the anti enterprise culture it would seem that if a village has a carpenter, then his father and grand father were also the village carpenters and they are the people that the villagers go to when they want carpentry done. Drive around you will notice that very rarely are there more than one trade in any village. Most ex-pats I have come across seem to be more or less just managing to get by rather than making a good living. Don’t get me wrong I am not anti France in any way and I stand to be corrected on any of the above but I would not set up a business there if I wanted to make a good living.

I’m not in a position to advise on teaching English as a foreign language in France. However you should take note of the good advice given by the other posters. You have very good qualifications perhaps you should consider other occupations where you could reach the same long term goals. Freelance journalism perhaps.

We recently completed a UK extension. I built it from Celon thermal blocks 250 thick. In order to comply with the UK regs we needed 70mm foam backing on the plasterboard. We find that in the very cold weather this seems to be reasonably efficient. If you have a solid stone wall you will probably need about 100 thick to be effective. Just a guess mind. Find the manufactures web site & they should have information on u values & possibly a ready reconer. Like you I did not want to loose too much room space but to be honest when done you will not notice.

I have nothing against self published books. However books through publishing houses tend to be peer reviewed and checked for accuracy. The self published books are good value for money and I will probably buy one as a guide. But it should be treated as a guide and checked against other sources.

Thanks Cooperlola Being self employed I don't have a nice fat public sector pension and probably will have to work until I drop. But the plan is to semi retire, keep our UK home, collect jobs whilst in the UK and do the work on my pc in the idylic suroundings of our french home. Eventually spending about 8 months in France but with our family home still being in the UK. I would guess that in practice our simple plan may not be so simple.

This subject is of particular interest to us as this is something we are planning to do in the long term. Are there any advantages of being non UK tax resident. I'm by no means any expert but I would have thought that it is easier to organise ones tax affairs in the UK where one knows the rules however muddled they are.

There aren’t any no camping signs. Working on that premise you could camp in any farmers field you pass. Personally I would either find out who owns the land and ask permission or find a local commune camp site (they are all well kept and good value). Nearly all communes have one so there will be one not too far from your idyllic bay. If you want to potentially meet a miffed drunken farmer with a grudge against the English, a big dog and a shot gun at two o’clock in the morning go ahead.

wow how off topic can we go. I was trained as a marine engineer office cadet. We learnt all trade skills and applied them at sea as an officer. This included welding and burning. When you are a thousand miles from land you can not simply get next day delivery if something breaks and you do not have a spare. You have to repair or re-make. I would guess that the level of skill could be classed as proficient rather than that of a welder who is doing the job day in and day out. However that being said I successfully repaired cast iron valve tops and cut off rusted bolts on the engine exhaust pipes without damaging the flanges too much.