EuroTr@sh

NickP wrote: "Tell me a politician who doesn't do this all of the time?" WIthout moving far from the UK, have you never listened to Sturgeon taking questions from journalists or answering challenges from political opponents? Try it, I'm sure there's plenty of clips on youtube. She listens to the question and answers it. Sometimes this involves accepting the criticism and admitting she made mistakes, sometimes it involves accepting that the criticism is valid but explaining why she is following the course she's chose, sometimes it involves rejecting the criticism and explaining why she disagrees. But she stays on topic and replies coherently and rationally, and often you learn something from her replies, it's interesting to listen to, unlike Johnson. Classic example last week when Starmer asked Johnson a question about the examinations issues and Johnson "responded" by accusing Starmer of wanting to stay in the EU and having been an IRA sympathiser (clearly not aware of Starmer's track record in prosecuting IRA terrorists). You're not telling me you don't see a problem there?

You are talking tosh albf. You do very well on forums. It's all the others that don't. LOL. But I know what you mean, there seems to be a slippery slope on forums from challenging a viewpoint to sticking the knife into the person that put forward that viewpoint. I don't know if it happened as a result of moving to France or as a result of getting older, but one difference I notice with my more recent self is, I used to hate admitting I was wrong, or admitting I'd changed my mind on something. I don't mind a bit now. I've been wrong about lots of things and I've changed my mind about lots of things. Don't we all? I think it's healthy to rethink things. (BTW ALBF, I did it. I'm back in Normandy. Not sure what next, but at least I know the house is OK.)

I think a lot of people in the UK have a problem with "heated debate" because they take things too personally. They see a debate as something that one side wins and the other side loses, rather than a process of everyone throwing ideas into the mix, and reacting to the different viewpoints, and hopefully everyone ending up with a wider appreciation of the topic. There's no point going into a debate with your mind already made up because you'll be confrontational and aggressive towards anyone who doesn't agree with you, and that's not enjoyable for anyone. Whereas a rattling good debate can be quite exhilarating for everyone. Saying that I am not sure how many French people actually do revise their viewpoints in the course of their "heated debates" but at least they have had the importance of analytical thinking, how to separate evidence from opinion, how to weigh up both sides of an argument and express a point of view, drummed into them at school, and I guess that's why they are better equipped to be assertive without having to resort to aggression. They seem more able to focus on championing their own viewpoint rather than on attacking the other viewpoints. This post was inspired by watching Johnson's abysmal performance in PMQ just now. He's not interested in debating or answering questions, all he's interested in is saying Everything I say or do is right and everything you say or do is wrong.

Before I switched to a French keyboard I used to swear by Lexibar. I don't know if that even still exists? People kept pooh poohing Lexibar and telling me I should learn this that and the other key sequence, but I didn't see the point when you could keep Lexibar at the side of your screen all the time and just click on a character when you needed it, and no need to waste braincells trying to remember all that stuff. EDIT Yes apparently you can still download it https://www.lexicool.com/lexibar_french_special_keyboard_characters.asp?IL=1

Mint, could you be a bit more specific on which specific elements of the plan you think need more investment, or what elements you think have been left out? At first sight I thought the plan looked like a good basis. I think a good plan that makes best use of the money allocated, is infinitely better than moremoney and a poor plan, or no plan at all and you just throw unlimited money at it and hope some sticks. After all, just look at what the UK is investing in Brexit...

I originally joined this forum way back, probably over 10 years ago I think, and I used to visit regularly and post when I felt I had something to contribute. Then a couple of years back the data privacy popups started driving me mad and I didn't visit for a while, and in the meanwhile I changed my computer and didn't have my password stored anywhere and I couldn't make the oassword reset work, nor would it let me set up a new account, so I couldn't post and I stopped visiting. Relatively recently I did manage to set up a new account with the same username with an @ in it. I feel a bit of a fraud at the moment because after living in France for around 10 years I came back to the UK in 2019 with the intention of working here full-time for my three remaining years before retirement to bolster my savings, then going back to France when I reached pension age (I originally moved to France in 2007 thinking I would get my pension in 2016, then my pension age changed to 2022 plus I needed more contributions to qualify for a full pension, so what with that and the financial crash in 2008 the savings that had seemed more than adequate when I was planning the move, took a big battering). Then my job here vanished in March due to Covid-19, but for some reason I'm still hanging around in the UK. I think basically I'm a bit disheartened that twice I've tried to plan carefuly for a lifestyle change and twice it's gone belly up for totally unforeseen reasons. But hopefully in due course I'll get brave enough to start planning again, and probably that plan will be to return to France. In the meanwhile, visiting the forum is nice because it's a way to stay connected with France. Nice to see some of the posters still here that I remember from when I first joined, but where are all the rest ???

Nomos, I hate to tell you this but I don't think using a Spanish keyboard changes your accent on the telephone! Wrong thread, perhaps?

I always used to be told I have Brummie as my telephone voice. That's strange because I never in my life lived anywhere near Birmingham. But my mum lived there and she had a slight Brummie twang. Maybe I turned into my mother on the telephone... baffling. I haven't been told that in a long time so maybe I lost it. I was once told by the person on the phone at the French tax office that I sounded like Jane Birkin. I said, Well please don't expect me to pay as much tax as Jane Birkin. For a feeble joke it went down rather well.

I also hope the forum remains. I can understand how Covid has hit advertising revenue - all kinds of businesses will have cut back on advertising, either to save money or because there was no point in advertising things that people can't do during lockdown. I remember the knock on effect of the financial crash in 2008 or thereabouts, lots of small and not-so-small publishers went to the wall. The money they take for subscriptions is a drop in the ocean compared to what they take in advertising. So I guess with the forum it may be use it or lose it - the higher the footfall, the more revenue the owners will get and the more viable it will be to keep it going..

@NickP i don't know which comment you're referring to but in any case it wouldn't have been aimed at you because I haven't aimed any comments directly at anyone apart from ALBF. Far as I can see, your only post on this thread was basically saying you hoped ALBF keeps posting and that's a comment that I supported. Beyond that I was just sounding off generally about posts that I feel are off-putting to forum visitors. The rant was about posts not about the posters. Anyway, I hope ALBF's cat has recovered.

Yes, eating is definitely a good sign. Cats are lovely but they always break your heart in the end. I cried buckets over all my cats. The last cat I had, died on the same day my mum died. They'd both been ill for a while. I had a call in the middle of the night to go to the hospital to my mum, she died at 5am, then I came home and Nellie died at one o'clock in the afternoon. That wasn't a good day. Sorry an' all, you probably didn't want to know that. Hope you manage to get a good sleep. xx

ALBF I like you fine. And I am very sorry to hear about your cat. I love cats. I never said I wanted you to stop posting. I would miss you. But I want you to stop posting ON THIS SUBJECT. Please stop spoiling this forum by dragging up unpleasant stuff that has no place on here and nobody wants to read about. Start a new thread about Brexit or living in the country or masks or front doors or something :-)

Basically, having a certain ciique of posters airing their dirty laundry in public in a place that is not there to air dirty washing in, is about as off-putting as you can get for anybody who isn't in and doesn't want to be in that clique - which is most of the world. You may think you and your forum persona are absolutely fascinating but I'm afraid you're wrong. This is not interesting. It's pathetic. Now can you just stop, please?.

You have to wonder what's the matter with folks. The mod asked everybody to please not refer to other forums. Seems fair enough, it's netiquette and it's a forum rule. And what is everybody still talking about? Anolther forum. I don't know how Hoddy doesn't blow his top.

I would have an alarm. On a quiet street that should attract attention. (I don't, though.)

You gotta luv The Sun. I'm sure it's written by primary school children for primary school children. I especially love "8,500 trucks stuck at Dover" (why give that 8,500, why not 8,000 or 10,000? ) and the Navy helping the vigilante British fishermen to slap foreign fishermen in the face with wet fish - but won't the Navy be too busy picking up migrants (they forgot to mention the 9,125 migrants who will try to cross)?

Those cans work a treat. I worked on a campsite in Gard and at one point during the season, we were getting several guests per week reporting frelons. Spraying frelon nests turned into almost a regular evening task (you wait until it's starting to get dark and all the frelons have returned to their nest), It worked every time, we never got called back to the same nest twice. This went on for a couple of weeks then the reports stopped as suddenly as they'd started, no more frelons.

I am not sure that offering to deposit a great sum would help your case. Banks have to be rigorous about money laundering legislation. Every deposit a customer makes has to be traceable back to its source. The larger the deposit, the more suspect it is and the more reluctant they will be to accept it.

Getting a phone call from a friend on the evening that Elvis died, she'd just heard it on the news, and we both cried. Thinking how glam I looked in my yellow blouse and black velvet hotpants! Drinking Cherry-B and lemonade.

If your UK bank is the Halifax their banking app has a facility to scan in cheques. It works a treat, I've used it twice now and both times the cheque appeared in my account very promptly. I don't know if other UK banks have the same.

It's a bit strange you don't have a stopcock your side of the meter. I would get one put in.

Your post above made me laugh idun. The other evening my friend and I were sitting with a G&T, in his garden in rural Wales with fields one side, a bracken covered hillside the other, and no human habitation in sight. There was a farmer on a quad bike (it's how they seem to farm these days) rounding the sheep up in the field below us, lambs and their mothers were yelling at each other, crows were squabbling, there was a chainsaw droning away somewhere down the hill. We had to shout at each other to make ourselves heard. But it didn't spoil the pleasure. Whereas, the constant sound of human voices or someone else's music or hammering, even at a much lower volume, would have sent us straight back indoors.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I have to say though that this car thing is a bit of a poser for me right now. You say it's easy ALBF but it isn't if you no hava da filthy lucre. I junked my French car when I came back, because it was about ready for junking in any case, and I bought a UK car. And now, being somewhat financially challenged what with losing my job an' all and trying to eke out my savings for another two years until I hit pension age, the last thing I want to do right now is spaff thousands of euro on another car. I would prefer not to even have the expense of converting and reregistering this one. I've set myself a monthly budget plus a separate budget for all the various taxes and stuff that will be due in the next 2 years, based on worst case scenario of struggling to get work which I am at present, and the budgets are tight. So the car thing is an extra thing I could do without. I might end up being naughty and taking my chances for a while, and yes I know I will deserve whatever comments you throw at me and I will take them on the chin :-)

Chalk dust! I clearly saw chalk dust! :-)

Gee thanks NickP for that interesting analysis. I wasn't even aware I thinght I was more French than the locals, it must be a wholly subconscious thought, but since the locals to where I'm living are Welsh (this being Wales) it's a difficult comparison to make. I don't mind admitting I have plenty of failings and have made tons of mistakes, but I can't think of any that are relevant to this thread. An alternative conclusion could be, that I don't like seeing posts on forums that might mislead people when they're trying to make plans, and when I do see them I challenge them. Call it getting on a high horse if you like. But dismissing the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement and the French statutes as "conjecture", seems to me a bit misleading.