IAN_S

Di Just before we came to France I decided to ask my GP for my records as I had a minor heart problem. Anticipating a struggle for my records I went to see him armed with the relevant part of the act clutched in my hand.  He of course immediately said " Do you want your records to take to France? If so we have to charge you £2.50 admin fee, I'll get them organised now if you like! Feeling a bit embarassed I slunk out quickly. My French doctor was happy to see the notes but said he would halve the dose as the medication was giving me a very slow pulse. This worked and I am now feeling as good as I ever have, although I find that French drugs can be stronger in each tablet and I have to break them.

Everybody has the right to see their medical records under the Access to Medical Records Act 1990. For the full text of the Act go to www.cfoi.org.uk/pdf/ahra90.pdf You will need a pdf reader such as Acrobat which can be downloaded free from www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html  

I deliberately did not buy a LHD 4x4 in the UK as the dealers had just cottoned on to the fact that there was a good demand and the prices were out of order. So, I waited until we got here and bought one from Jaques Roosli in Quillan for not a lot as it is non turbo. I do use it a lot off road, pull a lot of sand about and generally bash it about a bit! It has never given any trouble and when I replace it I will definately not get a new(ish) one as I would be frightened to use it properly in case it got scratched! Most of the residents in my village have a 4x4 for one reason or another, mostly for hunting. If you consider buying one here make sure it is not an ex-hunting vehicle as these are really used hard off road.  

I was recently in Quillan in a queue at a crossing with it's barriers down and locals know that there are only 2 trains a day, if that. After a very short while cars began to wind their way around the barriers and even stopped now and again to let the opposite queue have their turn! Very democratic. I was amazed however as many of the car plates were out of department and how could they know there was not a train coming just round the corner? I have to say I was not prepared to buck the system and stop the traffic so I took my turn with the others. The barriers of course went up in the middle of all this potential disaster.

We were in the same position as you with a nice small fireplace that was useless for providing heat in a large room. We installed a 14kw insert with chimney liner and two hot air openings in the room. The insert has a 2 speed fan and we find the slowest setting absolutely fine when the fire has got going a little. We now have oil central heating as well but still use the insert as it looks great on a really cold night and also generates enough heat to stop the central heating being used as much, which in these days of higher oil prices can help a little.  

I know Hotmail has been around for a long time but I am afraid that I have any email originating from a Hotmail account deleted automatically as nearly all the scams, spam etc I used to get came from these. Now I get maybe 2 or 3 a week.

I had this problem earlier this year and resolved it to a degree by setting up a La Poste webmail account which is free and can be accessed through Tiscali. The only problem is if people reply to the La Poste address it means I have to check more than one email account, easy enough I suppose.

Arthur From Chalabre you are better off going to Mont D'Olmes very near Lavanelet. This is quite a good resort for beginners with a ski school where some of the instructors speak English, although I would definately book them in advance. Obviously the resort is not open yet due to lack of snow but there has already been some white stuff up there and hopefully it won't be too long! Ian

Neither of us is retired yet and our E106 runs out in January 2005. If our only income is rental on a UK property that we jointly own, is this value then split when considering individual contributions?

Having brought this up, I have to say that after deleting the entry just once and saving again seems to have done the trick. I'm now trying to find a way of entering the site already logged in like the previous software allowed. Can one do this?  

We have had our one chimney that is used swept each year for around €60. I don't think this is a small sum for what took about 10 mins. max. A neighbour said we should take the certificate to our insurance agent (AXA) as what would we do if it was destroyed in a fire? We did that and were told that sweeping was NOT compulsory, although recommended, as long as the chimney was lined and the fire closed at night. As has been said, I would not like to put it to the test!

I am waiting for rain so that the grass starts growing in our horse paddocks again. Then I suppose they will turn into brown windsor soup as usual. How is it that a slight sniff of rain turns the grass ( I hesitate to use the word lawn) round the house into a jungle? I think we have all forgotten what spring was like round here, was it two or three months of rain? Ahhh.....    

I should have said that this is a Chateau Lescalle Bordeax Superieur, Appellation Bordeax Superieur Controllee. The man who gave it to me is a French diplomat who I think knows a bit about wine but I live in 11 Aude and don't know a lot about Bordeux wines. Anyway I will try it in the near future and let you all know!

Someone gave me a bottle of 1995 Bordeaux Superieure and I'm not sure how long to keep it. Any ideas?

SB   Sanglier are most definately wild around here, especially when they are being hunted! The dogs also get damaged on a regular basis and some taken out in dog trailers hide when released to sneak back to their kennel after an hour or so. You can see they thought " sod that" I'm off!

I live in a small hameau in 11 (Aude) and we have serious sanglier hunters here who hunt 3 times a week in the season. They don't seem to hunt deer although there are lots in the locality, and I have to say that they do a lot of hunting for the numbers of sanglier they get! Either it's too dry or too wet, both affect the scent left. The sanglier do much damage in the fields by tearing up the ground and can also trash maize crops quite badly so much so that they are often asked by the mairie to hunt a particular area to try and stop the crop damage. In our little valley they killed about 100 last season which tells you how many there must be. A bear was shot about 6 weeks ago not far away as it was killing domestic pigs. They of course would normally be protected.

On a slightly more serious note, how on earth are the police going to actually prosecute people for hunting with dogs, when they already ignore hare coursers which has been illegal for a long time. A farmer friend always knows when the coursers are on his land but also knows that nothing will be done as the police do not have the manpower, and if they actually turn up the hare coursers would be off up the motorway in a flash, and then return in the night and set fire to something expensive.  

Suddenly I have lost the French flag on the favorites entry for this site. It is back to the normal explorer logo. I was fond of this as I could see the link very easily amongst all the other dross that I have, now I have to look closely! Is it me or can admin alter these?

Weedon, I agree with you that it is hardly the stuff of heady finance, I think my real grievance is that of frustration that someone would arbitrarily decide what they would supply knowing full well that I am in France and can do very little about it without going to the lengths that Mazan describes, which I am sure are correct. C'est la vie eh?

Thank you all for your replies. I paid by Mastercard on my Credit Agricole card because they would only ship to the card address. This used to happen a lot in the past but most good sites now allow for an alternative. How else do you send gifts? To make things clearer, the website shows the details for the used detector to be the same as for new,just that it is cheaper, or at least it does not say they do not apply. Anyway the latest offer they have made is for me to return what I have at my expense and they will send me what I originally asked for. Is it worth it? No, I don't think so. I will try and buy what I need here. My objection to all this is a matter of principle really, the monetary value is peanuts.

Please can anyone advise me on the following problem I have. A couple of weeks ago I thought it might be fun to buy a metal detector, never having used one in my life! I searched for UK sites and found one that seemed to be what I wanted. They had a full range of new detectors and some used models. Against the used ones was a "details" button that took me to the description of the new models. This decription included a number of accessories. The price of the new + accessories was £199 and the used £149. I decide to buy a used one and placed the order online which was acknowledged immediately. When I received the goods all there was in the box was the detector and no accessories. I emailed the company concerned and I append below the various communications to show that I am not making this up! On 17 Sep 2004 at 14:03, [email protected] wrote: > > > Thank you for the order you placed today through our website. Your > > order number is DR0904N10063 and the total order value in Pounds > > Sterling is # 169. > > > > Ordered by: Mr Ian Sutherland > > > > Delivery to: > > 2 Place de la Liberation(full address erased) > >  France > > Order details: > > > > Used detector > > Bounty Hunter Tracker IV > > Cost in Sterling inc VAT: # 149 > > > > Order delivery charge: # 20 > > > > Total including VAT and delivery: # 169 > > > > > > If you have any queries about your order please phone +44 (0)1959 > > 571255 during office hours or email us at [email protected] > > quoting your order number (DR0904N10063). =============== ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[email protected]> > To: "Joan Allen Detectors Direct" <[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 1:17 PM > Subject: Re: Order Number DR0904N10063 >  I received the detector today but found no headphones or digging tool as > per the details described in your site. Bearing in mind the new price of > this detector it's not very good value is it? > > Regards > > Ian Sutherland =================== On 24 Sep 2004 at 14:13, Joan Allen Electronics wrote: > Ian, > > As you have purchased a Bounty Hunter Tracker IV at the reduced price of  #149, it was despatched without the accessories which form the full package at #199. The detector we advertised was described as 'Used', but we have in fact sent you a brand new unused detector with a full warranty, so I don't really think the value for money is poor. >  Please call us on 01959 574234 if you have any further queries. >  Best regards, > Martin Purcell =============== Martin Well, you amaze me. At the very least you should have told me what you were going to do and I could have made another decision. Your website then is totally misleading and as far as I am concerned I am sitting here in rural France without what I was expecting. The fact that this dectector is new is irrelevant as that is not what I ordered. Regards Ian Sutherland ================= Do you think I am being unreasonable to expect them to send the accessories that were described in the website? If they don't, what can I do about it from here?    

We are with Credit Agricole du Midi and our cash withdrawal limit has always been €400 per day which is €2800 per week I think! The only problem we have ever had sometimes was getting large sums out of the branch as they just did not have it in the safe that day.  

I saw a warning on British tv a couple of nights ago from Abbey saying that British banks were back to charging for withdrawals from other banks machines. The amount shown was £1.75 and they reckon that because the average withdrawal is quite small this would be a 7.5% charge! Banks are banks the world over I think. Why don't they realise they are a charity! 

I have no idea how EDF compares with UK , not really relevant to us here, but I see that UK gas prices are going up sometime in the future. I did notice from my last EDF bill that the cost per kWh had actually gone down minutely. I think my problem is that the house leaks heat like a sieve!

Will My wife and I have six children from other marriages, all over 18. Disregarding the tax issue, is it possible to set up a situation whereby all six will eventually inherit our property when we are both dead. We had the tontine clause inserted in the contract when we bought our house thinking only to protect each other and not worrying about inheritance, a common mistake I suppose. We are due to see our notaire shortly about wills and any information in advance would be appreciated.