andyh4

DPD - Deutsche PaketDienst - German parcel service.

That's German efficiency for you.

My experience is more in line with Dave's and more often than not I get an email that following my absence they have delivered to the point relais - 11m away, but at least it is near the supermarket. Of course I have not been absent, they have just not bothered to even try. However having worked in logistics I can at least understand why this happens. 11km off the main drag means that they have a 22km round trip and at 90kph with say a 30 second drop off means that their traffic office will reckon on a 15 - 16 minute delivery off that main drag. on a good day with no hold ups I can do a one way trip in just under that time. The time pressures the drivers are put under makes it near impossible for them to maintain the traffic office schedules, so if they have a chance to gain a quarter of an hour by delivering to the point relais they take it. Only if they have an accumulation of packages (and especially if they are COD) for the village do they make the detour and actually deliver.

I take it you must still be with Orange.fr

normally with these things you take them back to the doctor. Often but not always you get the ordenonnce in advance of treatment but it seems in your case that did not happen - has happened to us at least once as well.

It's beginning to sound as if you have landed in the French equivalent of Sunderland Chancer. Even in our backwater we get most of those vegetables for a significant part of the year - and I liken the produce on our local market at this time of year to the waste bin from Tescos.

Mogs wrote: So maybe it is the quad lnb? Do they usually have to be replaced after a few years? Like any bit of electronics kit they do eventually give up the ghost. I think ours was about 10 years old or a bit more when it died.

I tend to agree about the damaged barrier. The only slight reservation I have is that it looks as if the flashing light post has been hit and could it be that the barrier was damaged at the same time? Presumably this by the coach being dragged by the train. Where the remains of the barrier are will be important in the investigation methinks.

Some tinned ones are essentially vacuum packed but I could not give you a brand name - sorry. Auchan possibly. I tend to put ones from jars in at the last minute, but the crunch is not there of course.

My apologies Wooly I read 5 per year as 5 per cent. I assume since you think the driver is responsible for not stopping in case the lights on the crossing were not functioning correctly, that you yourself do indeed draw to a halt at all traffic lights regardless of which light is showing, just in case. If so, I think I have been stuck behind you on more than one occasion.

Well said SdC. although I might take issue with some of the availability issues. ALBF is off on another of his tirades based on what he wants to believe and not on reality. I was in a similar situation. There can be many reasons for not buying in France - availability, price but in my case time was a major deciding factor. Doing work at weekends - often extended weekends using a pont - time was of the essence. Compare: decide what you need, spend whatever time you need to get the goods and transport them down to France on (say) Wednesday evening. Start work Thursday and work through to Sunday lunchtime and then drive back. OR: Drive down on Wednesday evening. Unable to buy anything in Thursday because it is a holiday (and yes I know it is sometimes a little different now, but back then no one opened, now I can drive 50km to a large Brico if I need a screw on a holiday), drive down to the store on Friday to get the bits you need but the local store has stocked out of something important so off to the city to make good the shortfall. Back home Friday pm and set up for starting. Saturday make a start but stop mid Sunday with only half the job done. Believe me I have played both scenarios and I know which I prefer and which is less stressful. Added to which on the price front: internal/external tiles at 8.95€/m sq in Germany. I could not even get cr@p indoor tiles in France for that price. Cement and grout - the same story. And don't talk to me about plaster. I know many have posted about equivalents to UK plaster available here in France, but all we have here is essentially plaster of Paris. Full marks to the artisans who use it (and they do) but to me it is good for pouring into plaster moulds and not a lot else.

Sorry Wooly but once again the words are emanating from your rear end and not your brain. Even if it were 5% per year it would be 200 not 2000 years. You jumped on a bus driver, who may be proven to be completely innocent and now you jump on the rail company. It seems your bile is directed at whomsoever you think could just be to blame at the immediate instant in time. So here is your chance to go off on yet another irrelevant tirade (in the absence of any hard evidence except the death toll). in some circles it has been suggested that the batteries that power the links to the warning lights and the barriers may have been stolen. So now you can vent your ire at every scumbag that had ever helped themselves. As ANO said yesterday and Norman has repeated today, let's wait for some facts before acting like a 19th century lynch mob - possibly your era Wooly, not mine.

ALBF Snow is not just snow. There are certainly different types of snow which should be obvious to anyone with functioning eyes who should spot the difference between that fine granular stuff and big wet flakes fluttering down from the sky. I believe that even the railways have been know to blame problems on the wrong type of snow. EDIT: Richard beat me to that snippet. And this morning the radio news was reporting chaos on the A16 due to snow. IT is perhaps reasonable that general weather conditions also play a part. Wet heavy snow (snow at around zero degrees) will melt under the pressure of a car tyre - melting point of ice is dependent on pressure and a car's weight on snow will exert some pressure. Having melted if the temperature is below zero (just) it can then re-freeze leaving an ice layer as a base to any further snow that falls. At lower temperatures and with perhaps less wet snow the pressure is not sufficient to melt the snow and create an ice layer. As to winter tyres (I dislike the description snow tyres because this is often confused with studded tyres), my recollection of ADAC tests on such tyres showed that the best would reduce your stopping distance by up to 45% in snow and ice but were 5% worse in stopping distance above 7 degrees (I cannot remember the test temperature).

NoMoss A lot of research done since the earlier post? No not really. Just responding to new information; namely that existing residence documents will be exchanged. And having some experience of the bureaucratic logic of Brussels and how it works, that is code for we will replace invalid documents for valid ones.

NoMoss in your disaster scenario where there is no agreement, your CdS becomes invalid since it is for a citizen of the EU which you will no longer be. If it gives you a warm feeling to have one, then fine, but I am with ALBF here that it is not likely to confer much if any benefit.

DraytonBoy wrote: Surely the NHS is there to provide 'free at point of entry' healthcare for everyone. If it does that by outsourcing some of the care to private companies without affecting the quality of the care is it really that important an issue? In principle I cannot disagree, but as I indicated earlier the ability of the UK systems to manage such outsourced operations is derisory. Railtrack - which I alluded to above - went into voluntary liquidation following the Hatfield accident - 4 dead 70 injured - and their inability to deliver the upgrade of the West Coast Main Line, which was so far over budget that some small countries were glad that their debt was less. Outsourcing of care home - leading to some appalling cases of poor care, spiralling costs, liquidation of a number of suppliers and ultimately bed blocking in NHS hospitals. Not every privatisation has been a disaster, but as wooly said the controls have to be there and the track record is not good. Failing that you have to have fall backs - which would mean duplication which will probably mean massive inefficiency. ANO is right that the UK has got the service it deserves. All the while the electorate are tempted by another few pounds in their pockets promised at election time but rarely delivered, rather than a realistic view of I will need to pay a little extra to get those services I want and need.

Wooly wrote: The trick is to maintain control, inspection standards. Something that successive British Governments and their civil servants have proven to be especially inept at doing. Anyone remember Railtrack and its demise? Do we have to wait for NHS patients to die before it is seen as a less than good idea to outsource life critical systems?

Ice rain (pluie verglacante) in the Adreche - in its was just as nasty and equally a good reason to stay indoors. The roads will be lethal now until we have a thaw or until a gritter manages to get here with salt.

So what will he call the maternity wards? Virgin Birth?

ANO wrote: to enable the effective exercise of rights derived from Union law and based on past life choices, where those citizens have exercised free movement rights by the specified date. To date, both Parties have reached a common understanding on the following. The specified date should be the time of the UK's withdrawal." With terms like those bolded the only logical interpretation has to be that you must be in a qualifying position - i.e. 5 years residency - on the specified date, not just moved. That is your interpretation, which I personally think is wrong. As Eurotrash has indicated it takes 3 months to imply residency and in my opinion (and I stress my) that is sufficient to indicate that a citizen has exercised his rights under free movement. To suggest otherwise would be to say that someone who say moved in May 2015 (when the referendum first appeared in the Tory manifesto) would not have a right of residence. Certainly they have no right to a permanent CdS, but that just simplifies the process of getting the necessary piece of paper. Moving in 2015 shows clearly the desire to exercise the right of free movement IMHO. Your argument seems to be predicated on having a permanent CdS but since holding a CdS is at best discretionary for EU citizens (and we still are) and at worst has been refused even though you can legally demand one, it seems to be based on very shaky ground. What we can say is that anyone with a CdS (and possibly not even a permanent one) gets the new piece of paper at no cost. I am sure these are the sorts of discussion and argument that we can expect over the next 40 odd months until everything is bedded down (or not).

Rockfish wrote: if we are retired the healthcare is a worry. The UK has and had a number of reciprocal healthcare agreements with countries outside of the EEA - for example many parts of the former Yugoslavia. It is not without possibility that post Brexit there will be reciprocal agreements with the EU27. Aa ALBF suggests do not worry too much at this stage.

Rockfish wrote: Oh dear. Does that mean the end of my retirement hopes? We bought a property 2 years age using it as a holiday home and are hoping to retire in 2 years time from now. We haven't owned there long enough to apply for a carte de sejour and brexit took us by surprise. Other than to sell up do we have any other options as we cant afford to maintain two homes when we retire? End of a dream? Not necessarily. Lots of non-EU citizens live in France. The requirements on you may however be more stringent. You may have to prove minimum income and access to healthcare rather than today where it is just taken as a given (even when it is not). I suggest a search (probably not on this site due to the rubbish search donkey - modern systems have upgraded to engines) for requirements of an American to live in France.

Good luck for the future Sprogster

But you dishwasher has its built in water softener. That is what the salt compartment is for. Of course if you don't put salt in................ but then you will probably forget to top the water softener up with its salt briquettes/crystals.

The switch should be completely waterproof. Squirt what you want it should not get into the switch mechanism and if it does then the power should trip and the switch needs replacing.