Chrissie

Try a dog - I'm not being funny, we used to have a collie who found everything we lost (car keys, phones, even jigsaw puzzle pieces.)  We would take something similar to the lost item, rub it to make it smell of us, show it to him and then pretend to throw it in the general area we had lost the thing, and off he would go and sniff away until he found it.  Very handy.   Appreciate all dogs are not the same - our current incumbent wouldn't have a clue! Chrissie (81)

Good heavens, yes!  They do really well if you have the right situation - acid soil and preferably a little bit of shade. Readily available everywhere here. Chrissie (81)

If by any chance you were born outside of Europe, this can add months to the delay.......  They will get there in the end. In the meantime, as Gardian said, as long as you have a paper attestation then you are able to get reimbursements, but it is just more fiddly. Chrissie (81)

All main channels, i.e. BBC, ITV, CH5 etc lost here in southern Tarn since last Friday (9th May), despite perfect signal before that (85cm dish).  Can only get CBS etc and dish needs frequent rebooting. [:(] Chrissie (81)

I'm sure I could pop round and tidy yours up a  bit - but my fees are extortionate![6] Chrissie (81)

Not exactly French finance, but has anyone else had a letter from Barclaycard saying they will no longer accept someone with a French address and will close the account unless a UK address is provided?  And will other credit cards follow suit?[:(] Chrissie (81)

Thanks - just what I needed to know. Chrissie (81)

Can anyone tell me what this edging plant is, in English or in French, and how/when I should prune it?  It is just coming out now and will be in flower for about 3-4 weeks, after which it just gets leggy and rather boring.  I wondered about strimming it well back after the flowers have finished.........  Thanks Chrissie(81) [URL=http://s206.photobucket.com/user/chrissie_081/media/IMG_0553_1_zpsf01c7945.jpg.html][IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb196/chrissie_081/IMG_0553_1_zpsf01c7945.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://s206.photobucket.com/user/chrissie_081/media/IMG_0554_zps9906afd4.jpg.html][IMG]http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb196/chrissie_081/IMG_0554_zps9906afd4.jpg[/IMG][/URL]    

OH takes size 12 and likes Padders shoes - either gets them on trips back to UK, or buys the ones he already knows will fit online.  He has occasionally found large sizes here in France, in shops that sell end of ranges, but the sizing tends to be very unreliable - one pair he bought was supposed to be a size 54! Chrissie (81)

Remember to factor in the cost of decommissioning your existing fuel tank. Chrissie (81)

Thanks for all that: has reassured me a bit that we don't need to worry over which agent has which viewer etc.  (Slightly academic as at time of writing this neither of them has come back!) I agree that it is normal to discuss price after viewing, but the market is very poor for large houses (this is a LARGE house!) and the current advertising price with all our agents is, in my opinion, now too high.[:(]   Had been planning to go round them all and drop the price again sometime soon.  Hence the (in my view) reasonable requests as to whether or not we would be prepared to negotiate.  No firm prices were discussed but indications were danced around!  Let's face it, at the end of the day you have to get a viewer inside the gate before they will even think about buying.  And I used to get infuriated, when we were buying, by agents who took us to houses high above our budget. Chrissie (81)

Hopefully by now the OP has signed a deal.  I have a slightly different question:  After several months without viewings, I have been contacted by an agent who had a couple who might be interested in viewing the house if the price was likely to come down quite a bit.  I said "Why not?", expressed my reasonableness re price, and it was left that they would see if the couple wanted to view and would get back to me. About 24 hours later, a different agent contacted me about a lady who might be interested, and indicated a price rather higher than the other agent.  We have provisionally agreed a viewing for later this week, and he will confirm.  Now for the problem.  It was my OH who suggested that, as it is rather unlikely the housing market here is about to explode, they might be the same buyers, and the more I think about it, the more likely this seems.  The higher price indication came from an agent who I know to be more flexible on his fees.  Am I obliged in any way to one agent over the other?  If the first agent contacts me again to fix a viewing should I advise that it might be the same people?  Is there any risk that I could become liable for two sets of fees?..... Chrissie (81)  

Mazamet, 90cm dish, Skybox Reception on all channels very good since 36 hours[:D] Chrissie (81)

Just bumping this poor little dog up to the top - come on people, surely without too much UK TV you need a nice little friend to keep you occupied! Chrissie (81)

Be sure you know exactly what system is in place at present - we were shocked to find our black and grey water all went through rainwater conduits.......  new fosse will require digging up half the garage and also, for other reasons, a sort of fancy eco-style processor.  Let your imaginations soar regarding the price and then double that.......[:'(] If they say they don't know what pipes are there, it could be worth paying 300 euros or so for a camera investigation. Chrissie

Update from Mazamet - on our 90cm dish and Skybox.  Despite nice weather we lost all BBC channels sometime between about 11a.m. and 3 p.m.  And they have not come back.  Not even a stuttering picture.  Has something ELSE happened? Chrissie (81)

Tried to watch Filmon.com on our new Toshiba smart TV - we could get to the site, but it keeps asking us to update our Adobe Flash Player and won't show TV until we do so.  Trying to update results in an error message about not supporting MIME application......... Can anyone suggest what to do? Chrissie (81)

Here in Mazamet (southernmost Tarn) we can get all channels except Ch5, but we have a 90cm dish.  BBC tends to break up with rain much quicker than before. Friends about a mile away are getting nothing at all with an 80cm dish. Chrissie (81)

Scout round the back of your local garden centre or builders' merchant and if you see some, just ask - they often have loads that are only going to be thrown out. Chrissie (81)

When you say "the two feeds", do you mean you have a device to give you two channels at the same time from your one satellite dish?  Or are you talking about having one UK channel and one French one?  If the former, I think you would need two leads and also two TVs in order to (a) see what you are programming on the recorder and (b) play it back.  Apologies if I have misunderstood your question.  Chrissie (81)

I don't have the compatibility icon either, but accessed the compatibility options by going to the menu under Tools. Chrissie (81)

Well, I've now come out and then logged in again and it seems to be back to normal - and this message box is full size again as well. I never normally log out but almost every day I have to log in again, despite asking to save the password etc.  Not been a problem until yesterday.  Weird.  (Glad it's not just me though!) Am using Internet Explorer on Windows 7, and have been since June, and am already using compatibility view setting. Chrissie (81)  

Since last night, I have been unable to log in to the Forum. I get as far as the Forum homepage, but the links for Login, Join etc are not active. I finally managed to get in by clicking on a topic and then on "Reply", at which point the login request came up. Even in this mode, I cannot activate the buttons for Logout and Settings. This message box is also very small - only about one-third of the width of the page. Has something changed? Chrissie (81)

Well, we test drove the Berlingo yesterday and found it far more comfortable than we expected. We will probably buy it. Just to round off the original query, this is one of the ones with non-removable bars but, yes, you can put cross bars on over the top. Was rather surprised that we were allowed to take the thing out on the road with no check on our ID or anything, leaving only our ratty old Renault in their car park as proof that we would return! By the way, is anyone else having trouble logging on to the forum? I am not even sure if this reply will get on as it is in a totally different box from the usual one. Chrissie (81)

Thanks for all that - will clearly have to ask the dealer whether bars are removable.  Don't fancy putting top box bars onto fixed bars as that would leave quite a gap between the box and the roof of the car, but at the end of the day getting the right car is more important than using the box at all! All of you with Berlingos - are you happy?  I was a little put off by the single tailgate.  Also wondered whether it would be a hard thing to park when not used to the shape (goodness, that sounds pathetic!) Chrissie (81)