Joanl

you are wonderful, brilliant.......    how stupid of me, I have been going mad trying to get sorted & you hit the nail on the head. I thought I was losing my sanity , can now get on with the rest of my life, sounds sad, but I am one of those people who has to finish what I have started before getting on with the next thing.        thank you, thank you , thank you, to both you and Ecossais for leading me to such a succesful conclusion. joan

thank you for your reply, yes I have Vodaphone 3g with a uk contract, and the roaming facility enabled. I changed the outgoing server in Outlook express to send.vodaphone.net but it did not work. I have phoned the service department but they said they had no information on sending emails through outlook express, my laptop is not wi-fi but I was thinking of buying a dongle or whatever it is called, we are travelling through Spain, and will not know whether I am going to be near a wi-fi hotspot, people say I should pick the phone up, but my dear old Dad likes to receive my twice a week email, bless him. Is the vodaphone 3g datacard wi-fi as well can you tell me. I can get on to the internet & receive emails but still no luck in sending them. I have looked into writing them online but with the speed I type will still be online after an hour. I would have p.m. you but I don't know how to do that. I would very much appreciate you sending me down the instructions on how to change my settings, great idea about switching off the virus and Microsoft updates, I would have been in a right tizz if they had kicked in. thank you for your help,  joan

Is it possible to use Outlook Express for sending emails via my english 3g modem card connection on my laptop, normally I just use dial up connection at home here in France with my wanadoo isp. Will be doing a lot of travelling and will not be plugged into a phone socket, thought the 3g would be the answer, ,but at the moment it is not allowing me to send via outlook express , happily lets me receive my emails though. I can also access the web with no problems. Having to go online to write my emails would be a very expensive hobby methinks. I must be doing something wrong, but what ?? please help me , am getting in a right old tizz, thank you,  joan

Can anyone please tell me what the regulations are for towing a small car behind a french reg Hymer motorhome, we have discovered a car would be very handy to have on our trips here in France.             joan

I have been able to source shelled peanuts in the Uk. Thank you all very much for your suggestions, in the end I was lucky to find someone bringing stuff over from Uk, they kindly offered to bring me back 2 x 25kg sacks of shelled peanuts, and a bag for themselves,  which I had delivered to their address in England. The peanuts were just under £25 a bag, and that included delivery to any address in Uk. If anyone is interested the link to the supplier is http://www.wildbirdfood.uk.com/acatalog/Plain_Seeds_and_Peanuts.html     joan

Does anyone know where I can buy shelled peanuts for the garden birds, it is prohibitive to have them shipped out from Uk, I usually buy 25kgs at a time. My birds have already got through the stock I brought from Uk,  although I also buy sunflower seeds in bulk from my local co-operative, the birds prefer their peanuts. We are not going back again this year , so getting desperate. My co-op can only supply me peanuts with shells, I don't fancy sitting shelling them all, and can not face the idea of clearing up after the birds have pecked their way through. Thanks, joan

please can you share your recipes with me, it is so hard to find chutney here, I am good at jam making, but need chutney more, thank you joan

please could you let me have your recipes, I need to make chutneys, which are hard to find here. thank you,  joan

Have you tried Leader Price poitrine fume, it is the nearest you can get to waterless english bacon, it is streaky, but oh it is so tasty, and the left over fat is really good for roast potatoes.  Joan .

I have found this site www.flogit.ws recently, it is France based, english, & works along the lines of ebay, very new with not a lot on offer at the moment, have bought a couple of things & the whole procedure was very easy.    no personal interest or otherwise ,    joan  

I bought a windows english xp from ebay with legit key, loaded it on my laptop, then after reformatting the hard drive on my desk top (which I had bought with french xp) loaded the said english xp with french key, went on no problem & working well. joan

Hya, Swiss Life Group ( France ) ( Societe suisse ) have their own offices & their policies are also sold by brokers. I live in 24 & used a Swiss Life Office on the outskirts west of Perigueux. Swiss Life  used to sponsor the Meteo on T1 before the 8p.m. news,  they are a national company, headquarters in Paris. They also do motor & house insurance at very competitive prices, we aim by next year to have all our insurance with them. They have different formulas for health to choose from, also formulas for seniors..61 to 80. I also received Swiss Life health quotes & actual policy details in english from a broker in Bordeaux.  Prices vary for the type of cover you need or want, we were quoted between 71,39e for the cheapest formula  up to 105,65e for the dearest formula per month for the 2 of us aged 57 & 62. These prices include the discount offered us, & it is up to us to choose which formula we want.  The broker in Bordeaux was slightly more expensive, but feel sure we could have got his prices down to the same as the actual Swiss Sante office.      Hope this helps.   joan

Did you know that dogs can have a hard time with harvest mite bites, my poor little westie is suffering again this year, another trip to the vets for some treatment to soothe her paws & tummy.  joan

I had a very good one in 16, at La Rochefoucald behind the town hall, 6 Rue de L'Aumonerie,   tel. no.05 45 63 02 55, I only had to wait a couple of weeks for appointment. She speaks good english.  joan

We have had an interesting year comparing prices between most mutuels offering "complementaire sante", We have been with Axa 2 years, they are not health insurance specialists. We have found Swiss Life to be the most competitive. make sure you get a reduction for being British, our agent informed us that "english people very rarely make claims & thus they could offer discount". Beware!!! a lot of insurance companies like Axa want 3 months notice, when we went for Swiss Life they presumed 2 months was the norm, & did not get the notice to terminate out in time, we have had to make do with a policy for another year that gives us less than half the cover we were offered by Swiss Life.  joan