JohnM

I would like to put a socket near my grass for the mower (at the moment I use a long extension but as the grass is on the other side of the shared drive, last time I was mowing a couple of cars ran over it before I had time to move it out of the way and that can't be good for it). My thought is to run a metal conduit under the drive, run some hefty flex through it and connect one end to a proper outdoor socket but the other to a domestic plug inside the cave. I.e it's an extension cable but fixed and protected. My questions are, Can you think of a better /easier solution? If not, can you get metal conduit in France? I've only seen plastic in Castorama (I think that would be better than even heavy duty plastic gaine). What about the exterior socket housing? I've seen some "rocks" in the UK which actually hide a socket, is anything similar available? Thanks in advance John

A good question. I believe that it is real time, I had a quick look today and it looked that way, but due to the firewall at work I couldn't do it properly. As such I would see it as being supplementary to the forum, i.e at about x  o'clock the verbose folk know that they can chat live. The advantages are: The forum does not fill up with conversation that is meaningless to outsiders. If arguements occur, then at the close of play they disapear into the ether and there are no "where has my post gone" comments. The regular posters can chat away without others thinking that there is a clique (which I suppose there would be, but in another place) The disadvantages are: Only 20 in the inner circle, so some people may think there is a them and us. The vebose posters will not boost their number of postings. Sometimes, useful info will disapear into the ether because people will forget to post it in the forum. It's not really that generous of me, it's a free add on and shouldn't cause me any trouble to use it (but if it dids cause me any trouble I would close it!). However, as there have been 56 views and only one reply, I guess nobody wants it!

Ahh... what have I done there? The colour scheme and font changes are entirely unexpected.

I have noticed a couple of things Some of you seem to log on at a regular sort of time to have chat.  My web site hosting service will let me have a chat room. I'm not particularly bothered for myself as I log on at irregular times, but would you like me to start it going? (It doesn't cost me any extra so it's no hardship). It would not be a pub where everyone is welcome as I can only have 20 people, so it would be more like you popping into my lounge (while I am at the real pub?). Therefore I would not be doing too much moderation, so I would expect everyone to treat everyone else with more than a modicum of respect. I guess it would be best to start off with a set time and see what develops. I would suggest that if subjects come up that would be of interest to a wider audience, someone (or two if there is a difference of opinion), should then put a precise on the forum for wider and slower discussion. Please indicate your interest or opinion here, if there is sufficient interest I will get it up and running and pm / email the 20 with details, a user id and password. If there are posters on other forums that you are in communication with who you think would be a good guest in my lounge (the likes of GoodKnight or Malc from Thatsfrance), please let them know and pm me with their details.  

I believe that there is some "small business" taxation which lets us just assume that our expenses are a percentage of our income. If the amount then due is less that a certain figure, I think the French chappies say "Oh forget it" but the British office says "Oh, we'll have some of that". Don't quote me yet, I'm trying to find out!

I was in a similar position, but left the wandoo software in place and so far, it has not caused trouble. However, I understand your feelings, so will email the properties for you to look at if you like? PM me with an email address if interested. John

Why is so much of the French in Canadian dialect? (OK I know why, it's just annoying)

I just thought I'd share this with you. My friends have started using my Alpine cottage and I am charging them. I telephoned the Impots last year and sent them a letter, but to date I have not heard anything from them. In the mean time, I was talking to an accountant in a pub, who admittedly isn't an expert on the situation and she said that "she had heard" that if the money was paid directly into my French account then the UK tax office would not be interested. She did add an addendum that she would want to check that information before advising me! Well, I am still concerned that the impots have not been in touch and so I have just phoned my English tax office so that it is on record somewhere I that I have been proactive about paying my dues. Whilst on the phone I asked whether it made it easier for everybody if the money never touched my UK bank account and they said "you are benefiting from the money, if the French tax you we wont, but we still want to know". As I don't let many people stay, I am sure that it will cost more to collect the tax than I will actually pay, but hey, I feel happier now. The important thing is, if you are in the same situation and have been told that particular Urban Myth, that's what it is, an Urban Myth. I don't care whether you do anything about it, I just don't want anyone to get badly bitten in the bum by believing it. John

Edited because I misread the question and typed rubbish!

I just left it stuck to the bumper for 10 years! I figured that when I was in the car I couldn't see it and I didn't care whether other people liked the look of it or not![:)]

I assumed that the reduced quantity for smaller logs, was to allow for the extra time and expense of the supplier making the extra cuts. My plan is to buy big ones next time and cut them myself!

Please don't do the quiz for the next hour, I want to show people at work that I am not as stupid as they sometimes think!

I had this great plan to read the book in 1984, but actually "went early" and read it in 82ish. At the time I thought it was so fanciful.... I mean fancy having something like a webcam in your house which could be permanently online using some like ADSL.... An ex Am Dram aquantance was an extra in the film. Quite near the beginning, the camera plans along a row of bland faces and stops on him... he thought he'd been chosen because of his acting ability. We didn't have the heart to tell him that, actually, he is like it in real life (I hope he doesn't read this, I still don't really want to shatter his illusions - I'm pretty confident that he wont[:)] )  I bought the film but still haven't got passed his bit. Now for the real reason for this post... In a stage version which I did sound and AV on last year, Winston gets shot as soon as he "loves" Big Brother.... not as per the ending in the precis. Is that right? (I'm too tired to go into the attic and find the book)  (If there any any typos I do apologise, I've read it three times and spotted a different one each time, I have bananas for fingers tonight which is bad enough, but now I am reading what I "think" I've typed)  

The best teachers are superb, full stop. But I guess some of it depends on the leadership that their head is able to give them. My grandfather was head of a secondary modern in Coventry, I've been reading the old boys web site and it gives me quite a warm glow to see the repect that ex staff and students held him in. I once posted to say that "I'm realistic enough to understand that not everyone would remember him with fondness" and had replies to say that even those who were punished hand respect for him. That school was held in great respect in Coventry (I know it reads as a brag but I really am trying to highlight the influence that a good head can have [:$] )

I have heard that his Mrs Prescott is not too concerned about John's affair, she says it's been a great weight off her chest.

[quote user="Dick Smith"]It isn't confined to the Welsh, as people have said, they just have a reputation for doing it and people notice. Other people, such as doctors and nurses (and teachers), also use language to form an exclusive group which keeps away outsiders, but they do it by using a professional register (the use of what is really just technical jargon) rather than a different language. People do it with regional speech, kids do it with slang, the list goes on. Sadly normal. [/quote] That's very true. I started my working life as a dispensing optician and on my first day my father told me that I was entering a profession that used complicated words just to confuse the "patient". I vowed that I wasn't going to and tried to always explain things in language the patient would undestand. I'm not sure that I always succeeded though!  actually, I know I didn't. When nice people asked what hard contact lenses were made of, I said "Optical grade perspex" when people who needed taking down a peg or two asked, I said "Polymethylmethacrylate" (Grief, that's sad, I've not used that words for 21 years and still remember it... but probably not the spelling!). P.S I put "patient" in quotes because in 1976 you were still patients, we were not under pressure to sell you a gold fashion frame if you didn't need it! Not the same in '85 when I gave it up.  

In no particular order or priority. Miki could also be very condescending - does it not seems a tad hypocritical to be objecting because somebody wrote to him in the style he sometimes used? At the end of the day, I will be very disapointed in Archant if they do not publically support the mods. I would expect it fom my manager. So, if Miki wants to return he will have to look to negotiate. If I were in his postion, I wouldn't want to return, I'd say "sod them" and do something else. From what I know of Miki, he would return so that he could say he had won and then say "Sod them". I'm not bothered whether Miki returns or not, he can be well considered, interesting and funny, so I would read his posts and respond as and when, but there are others who are equally well considered, interesting and (I think) funnier. I would be sorrier if we lost them.  

[quote user="Nelson"]Miki was always passionate in his arguments, no real point in arguing if your not. Since when was being passionate a banning offence. FREE MIKI [/quote] I'm not convinced that there is any point in arguing, full stop. In most arguments, both sides take a stance from which they will not budge and try to bore or bully the opposition into submission. Let's ban arguments from the forum and insist that every one discusses things instead. That would mean that people who are taking opposing stances would be duty bound to actually think about the opposing view and not just try to find a clever way of countering it.

People who shout into their end of a mobile phone. An English chap did this in a small, quiet restaurant near my place last year. I didn't introduce myself as a fellow brit (but I was tempted to get my phone out and shout at it in English even though I wasn't making a call).

Swindon has one of the "most hit" low railway bridges in the country. On the most recent occasion it was hit by a lorry because the driver was paying more attention to the sat nav than the road signs. A Friend was once going to Hampton Court and the machine took him to central London... right outside a Nursing Home called Hampton Court. It seems you need to include the word "Palace" to get to the popular one. Despite both of these anecdotes..... I want one!

[quote user="Penny29"] Hi, I've been a member of this Forum since at least 2002, but haven't posted much in the last year or so because I did feel that the Forum had lost a lot of it's punch and pizzazz as a result of too many rules and regulations being bought in. To be frank, the Forum got boring. In my opinion it is going to get a lot more boring if people who enter into spirited discussions and debates risk being banned or "suspended" for failing to toe the Fluffy Party Line, and yes, I am referring to people like Miki, and to people like Teamed Up and Val and to all those who stick their heads above the parapet from time to time - people who aren't scared to voice their opinions. Please don't start banning all the interesting people!!! I DO think over-moderation of the Forum is having and will have a detrimental effect........ gawd help us, but I can see the day when all the posts will be "safe" and along the lines of: "Will my white goods work in France?"/"Do I need Top Up Insurance?"/Where can I buy Heinz Beanz?"/"Will my Sky dish work in France?". [/quote] Yeah, spirited discussions and debates can be very interesting. Passionate people who believe in a subject can be great to read. But I feel that too often some people just don't know when enough is enough. They, sorry, we (I have done it, but I am not proud of that fact) really nit pick the words that somebody has chosen - even when we know deep inside, that really the other person didn't mean something quite as literally as we've taken it, but it doesn't matter what is right, it just matters that we win. What a stupid concept!

Not quite as cultural, but when I went to Mr Disney's Paris complex I was amazed to discover that I couldn't get away from the music until I found plastic rocks with loudspeakers inside them!

We don't have an electronic PA in my village, we just tell the old lady round the corner that something is in confidence and everybody knows before the hour is up [:-))] 

When Will resigned, I assumed that he was just sick to the back teeth of sorting out squabbles. Sadly, this forum does need moderators because, some people get their kicks out of winding other up, some use phrases which can be mis interpreted, some think that they can be as rude as they like because they can not see the other person, some can not accept that they are capable of being wrong and many are sometimes some/all of the above. That being said, I would not want to be a moderator because they can't do right for doing wrong. When they are lenient, they are wrong and when they are strict, they are still wrong. A lot of the postings on this forum are on a par with pub gossip (nothing wrong with that). However, unlike a pub where most points of view will be forgotten by the end of the next pint, many of us seem to expect the prose we use here to be preserved for prosperity. Why is that? Do we really think that what we have written is vitally important, or is it just that we don't like somebody telling us that we might be in the wrong? I suspect the latter! Mods. Even when I disagree with you, you have my support. If ever you think I am wrong, I hope that I am big enough to accept being told, so don't be afraid to do so. If you need to delete any of my posts (past or future) because they will not make sense due to other deletions, then there is no need to apologise, just do it.  

I'm no Hercule Parrott but I tend to think that the writing style was too familiar for the mods to "not investigate". Locking while investigating, seems the fairest way to do it. There will only be trouble if the original questions have to be deleted as the answers will then go because they will make no sense!!!!