Tony F Dordogne

[quote user="woolybanana"]Well, it was obvious that most of the strikers were special regimes - in other words, people who by hook or by crook were determined to hand on to their highly priviledged positions, regardless of the needs or abilities of their fellow citizens to pay for it.[/quote] Like a lot of the early-retired Brits living In France perhaps?  Like people from the higher and further education sectors from the UK?

I was in Perigueux today and the whole town was being effected by the strike and demonstrations.  Just driving round the town was really difficult but not one horn being sounded except in support of the demonstrators.  It was heartening, lots of people out in the rain, singing with the demonstrators, all sectors involved (including the police and fire services) and a rally at the Prefecture to round it all off. Told J about it when I went to visit her in hospital and the only thing that annoyed us both was that the fact she had a new knee fitted yesterday, it stopped us from joining in with the demonstrators, ok, it doesn't effect us directly but after the DLA fiasco - which incidentally is STILL rumbling on, it's yet to be finalised so more to come on that - a measure of solidarity would have been indicated. It would have been nice if there was some similar action in the UK, especially after the coalition took an axe to the military today, 7,000 soldiers, 5,000 each from the RAF and Navy - didn't hear once on the reports how many civil servants were going tho, perhaps that bombshell will drop tomorrow.  And apart from some mealy-mouthed Labour opposition, the British public just seem to be accepting what's coming down the pike. And at last seeing some form of socialism on the streets, not Socialism but people acting in common in a socially supporting way. Frenchie, good on you girl, stick with your principles, some people here would be joining you if they could !

Coops, just ignore him, he's just bloody ignorant and enjoying something like the clip - and wtf has that to do with the Chilean miners, keep up Mods - on top of the enjoyment of bull fighting says it all. He just has no idea how offensive he is.

I have a print out from a French gardening mag which explains all the rules very easily and in diagramatic form. Send me a pm or email with your email address and I'll send it to you.

Perigord Noir has other rules and regs above the norm.  In our commune, where there is a chateau which is listed, you cannot make changes within 1km without permission and because it's an historically listed village, the rules are very strict and are harshly imposed, not necessarily by the commune. A chum who lives just on the limit recently asked to improve their home.  There's no way the house can be seen from the chateau (it's round several bends, behind a hill and a quarry) and the Batiment de France guy refused permission on the grounds that the owners had ideas above their station - I kid you not, he even put it in writing!! In the Perigord, which is full of chateaux, it's not as easy as it may be elsewhere and that's from personal experience too, you MUST maintain 'the Perigordine style' and any permissions will be with held if the various authorities think you aren't doing that.

Bought MR73 when I was back in the Uk a few weeks ago.  Love the dark broody French policier films, not for the faint hearted tho.  Also bought both parts of Che, haven't watched that yet, tho that's in Spanish with subs.

[quote user="NormanH"]How informative   to see the sub-normal  intelligence and idiotic  intellectual level of these personal  'ad hominem' attacks against Ed Millibrand , worthy of the gutter press,  (they  would probably have been 'moderated' if they referred to a poster here)  ignoring  completely the content of what he said ... [/quote] Norman has got this just right, what a lot of very silly and wholly inappropriate comments to make about anybody.  The way he walks means this, he's too busy to marry his girlfriend but not to get her pregnant etc etc. Playground politics and stupid comments, is this what this Forum come to now after all these years?  And Mods getting involved in it too ..........  As Norman has said, if we were commenting on a Mod having a fat a**se or wearing glasses or having a speech impediment or a user here being knock kneed or their personal lives, there's every chance the thread would be pulled.

[quote user="powerdesal"] I find less points of interest hence don't post very much, although I occasionally read the various threads. It appears to be more ''cliquish'' (sp) than it used to be, at times almost seeming to be a 'private' forum for a limited number of members, however I could be wrong. In short, its become boring (IMHO).[/quote] I've been a member here for about 10 years, always used the same name but been through three of four upgrades of the system.  I agree with powerdesal, far too many threads being hijacked for all the faux flirting and nonsense, if users want to do that, send each other private messages but leave what are often quite interesting threads alone. Can't see the point of posting when the thread just drifts away into sillyness.

I've never seen the sort of scaffold planks we used to use in the UK.  I use the roofing boards/soffit boards that come in 4m lengths and cut them as needed.  They do need to be treated tho. 

They've been bust for years and it's only the trade unions which have kept them afloat. What always amazes me is that when you look at their accounts, they are technically bankrupt and have been for years, it just amazes me how they've been so lucky in trading when none of their creditors have called their debts in.

And that's from Lord Prescott, the 'class traitor' who sold out his principles because Pauline the hairdresser thought it would be nice to be Lady Prescott.  The man's an 18 carat prat!

The second song on the clip is 'Lean on Me', now that one can be a real weepie!

Music to make you cry ............ Last year I found the original films online of British and Australian POWs being rescued from the Pacific Ocean, September/October 1944, 3 days after the ships they were on had been torpedoed by American submarines, the rescuers being the submariners who had torpedoed them. I've met some of the survivors and the submariners, all of whom were so effected by this that it has informed many of their lives subsequently. Link to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tVPux2y3f0&feature=related The reason it makes me cry ........ One of the men being rescued is my father .............. And every time I hear Carole King sing it now, it really makes me well up.

Sorry pachapapa, you got it all wrong but deliberately so I think.  I don't feel any hatred for you at all, I do have hatred for any form of 'sport' that involves animals and your postings on this issue are, as Quillan said, just bizarre and you seem wholly unable to give a proper answer or response, just make bizarre comments which seem intent on annoying people even further. 

[quote user="pachapapa"] In the 80's used to go most years on the 15th august to the festivities at Casabindo. The bulls can be very dangerous particularly after aguardiente. A friend was gored one year and seriously injured, the bull got him against the wall and we literally had to drag the animal off by it's tail and back legs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNWr4urBOCI [/quote] Oh great, so this is a wind-up then but I'm afraid I can't see the funny side of it.  I agree with Dog, it's no better or worse than all the other so called sports which involve humans killing animals for sport. Please pachapapa, when you go to watch badger baiting or dog fighting, spare us the details, bull fighting is bad enough!

But you're very carfully not answering the questions and regardless of all your history with bullfighting, you surely realise that you are really annoying people here almost glorifying this barbaric activity - I wont even dignify it by calling it a sport, and that's obvious by the reaction you've had to your posts. After over 1100 posts pachapapa, it may be an idea to put your location on your profile too!

Sorry, are you just trying to wind people up now giving reports on how these people killed the bulls and how they were rewarded for it?  Shame on you and on the other people who think of such things as sport.

[quote user="pachapapa"]  Extremadura TV will be featuring the art of fighting bulls on horseback. Tuesday night at 10 P.M. a broadcast in direct by satellite as part of the Martes Mayor en Plascencia celebration.  [/quote] Art? Bullfighting may be many things but never thought of it as art, wonder if that's how the bulls and horses see it?

Not brutal not an over-reaction, no real violence on either side in the BBC report, the police did what they had to do in a propotionate way.  I agree with the guy from the campaign group that there needs to be a dialogue about housing immigrants but when HMG or other commentators complain about the French doing nothing about their illegal immigrants, it's difficult to argue when they start to take some positive action against them, even if it's to legalise their position in the country.

[quote user="Christine Animal"]   Anything you talk about they have to say how much it cost, where you can get it cheaper, etc.  The French are struggling the same with prices, but they don't go on about it so much.   [geek]  [/quote] Like banging on about saving €5 an hour trying to drive down the prices of artisans/business people (like gardeners) who also have to make a living to pay the increased prices, no matter whether they're Brits or not! 

[quote user="Quillan"] unlike Champion's (sorry Carrefor or whatever they are called now) who seem to charge a lot more for the same thing and let it rot on the shelf. [/quote] Know just what you mean, our local Champion has just been 're-branded' and it's made no difference to the quality of the veg, it's apalling, little choice and poor quality - they had red peppers in there a few days ago and they were all mouldy - I went through the lot of them and all were rotten.  We're clearing more of the woods to expand the potager, I know the arguments about time/costs for gyo veg but my time is my own now so as far as I'm concerned, I'll continue to gyo for as long as I can. We don't eat red meat at all so can't comment on  the beef or other prices but even our staple diet of fish is starting to get more expensive, hence visits to the local markets where we bulk buy now, mainly for the special offers.  Even the price of chicken is going up too!

[quote user="nemltd"]That seems to be about what we are paying, it seems alot doesn't it?[/quote] Not quite sure which reply you're responding to, but no it doesn't actually, 25-35 euros for a registered gardener using his own tools isn't a lot, they have to make a living too and far too many Brits want French/Brits to do work for them cheaply, classical supply and demand thing going on here.  If you really want to save money, cut the grass and maintain the garden yourself but if that's not possible, you have to pay what you have to pay.  If you have a maison secondaire here it's just one of the costs involved surely? 

The British law used to be based around the child not having a life independant of the mother (still attached and therefore not a seperate being), child destruction and infanticide and the state of the  mind of the mother, I seem to recall it was up to a year after the birth of the child but am now foggy about which offence was which, but definately murder after a year. This all seems very sad and until there's some sort of report into the parents mental condition, any comment seem rather off.

And they're also at some of the junctions on the Rocade in Bordeaux, offering to wash your windscreen for you - but in droves, must have been 15/20 women doing it last week when we were there.

Get some of the stump killer which is available at most of the bricos.  Make a split in the bit above ground, long ways and open it up then pour some of the stump killer into the split and let it do its work.  Ignore the instructions, just use it neat but wear gloves when you do it. Trust me, it's a good way of killing this off and not reliant on the leaves!