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The Riff-Raff Element

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Everything posted by The Riff-Raff Element

  1. [quote user="babcock"]If someone is too nice to you make sure that you understand whether payment is expected.[/quote] I've had interpersonal relationships a bit like that.... How about hoodies? No-one likes them. Apart from other hoodies. "Beware of hoodies who don't stick a knife between your shoulder blades and film it with their stolen mobile phones."
  2. "The problem arose because the police did not accept Mr O's perfectly legal documents at the off. They should have done. If they were unsure they should have checked up before they started arresting and locking him up for the night and impounding his car. It is not up to European citizens to explain the law to police - it is up to the police to know the laws, and EU laws at that. Mr O was acting in a lawful manner, not breaking any laws and yet he was unlawfully arrested and detained. He was not unregistered, not uninsured. He was not required to be a UK resident if he was already living in an EU country - France." Yeah - but they probably assumed that he was a foreign Jonnie and therefore fair game for abuse. It seems to be a perk for law enforcement officers the world over, that. Must have surprised them when he turned out to be a native. But then they couldn't really back down. I get no end of abuse when driving on French plates in the UK - particularly at the tolls on the Dartford crossing when I dismount to pay the fee for driving over a bridge that my taxes helped build some years ago. Of course, that might just be me and my silly haircut. On the otherhand I am on the dusky side . I'd better watch my step.
  3. Well, I know one. She's very nice. She's a florist. And she has daughters (to whom I have taught English) and they are called... Ingrid & Wendy. Any closer? How about...Myriam? Or Inès?
  4. Out of interest, who gets the money from the car pound? HMG? The police? The local authority? Or is it some private setup? In a novel, of course, it would be secretly owned by a shadowy consortium of senior police offices who would bung a pony to any uniformed plod who could haul in a baffled foreign motorist unsure of their rights in the matter and lock their car up for a week while the slow wheels of justice turned on. "Mr Big" would, naturally, be a High Court Judge. But what happens to the cash in the real world? Forcing someone to pay up for impounding their car when it is subsequently found that they have no case to answer is just outragous.
  5. I remember the debate. I was there. I even took a bit part in it 'cos I was working in the energy sector at the time. We were very excited about the possibilities of getting maximum value out of UK gas reserves before sufficient infrastructure was put in place to swamp the market with cheap Norwegian, Russian and North African supplies. That's how it looked at the time. Nuclear power was too expensive to be acceptable to the Market. In the end, as I am sure you will remember, it had to be spun off as a seperate company to remain publically owned before the power sector could be taken seriously by investors. Gas turbine generators were, indeed, relatively cheap and easy to install. They're just stationary jet engines driving a shaft, after all. They could be amortised very, very quickly - five to seven years, which is why they were such an attractive proposition at the time. The idea of the government of that era taking a blind bit of notice of the bearded, sandal-wearing, lentil guzzling bunch of weirdos that the British public at the time perceived the green lobby to be is laughable. Where were those yellow suns usually to be found? On 2CVs or on BMWs? But if they were listening they were doing so selectively: the green lobby at the time were very vocal about the ill-advised step of relying on domestic gas supplies that not only had a finite life expectency but one that was due to be reached in the foreseeable future. There was no attempt at long-term planning: the whole shooting match was handed over to the Market in the blind faith that it was "always right." But the Market was found wanting and now the poor British consummer is left to pick up the tab. Again.
  6. The dollar gains a few cents and that is indicative of a crisis of confidence in the Eurozone? No, people started buying the dollar because: - The oil price slipped a bit and the US is overly exposed to this; - A small war broke out in part of Georgia and the greenback is always popular in times of conflict; - It is becoming incraesingly clear, in the opinion of some - curiously unquoted in that article - that inflationary pressures in the Eurozone are weakening and a rate cut is consequently more likely. The ECB have - in comparison to the wild flapping about of the Fed and the rabbit-caught-in-the-headlights look of the BoE - been a model of sobriety and consistancy. A few weeks ago some commentators were predicting the end of the Euro because of its excessively high value against other currencies. It weakens a bit and the same mob wade in again saying it is going to the wall. The Eurozone could flow with milk & honey and they'd still drone on about the forthcoming collapse. And why? Because they hate it. The Eurozone would benefit considerably from a strengthening of the Dollar. Why should we worry when it starts to do just that?
  7. [quote user="Logan"]The UK went in the opposite direction because of pressure applied by the anti-nuclear lobby. Misguided in my view.[/quote] What a laugh! The UK went the non-nuclear route because that was what the Market wanted, not because the anti-nuclear lobby were taken seriously. Hence the "dash for gas."  Loony short termism comes home to roost. I'm all for free enterprise, but not at the expense of proper planning and common sense.
  8. There was indeed a case in the Vendée last year. If it were me I would get the beastie checked over and vaccinated. Transmission is rare, but nonetheless possible and the disease is endemic in bat colonies all over Europe, even in the UK where bat handler died of the disease a few years back.
  9. I know one in the Vendée. In my village, as it happens. He's English. His wife (whom I have spoken with once in the last four years - I don't think we're her kind of people) tells me I was at university with him, but I have no recollection of this. Actually I have little recollection of much at university outside of working harder than perhaps was entirely necessary, but hey-ho. If you're interested PM me and I'll get his 'phone number for you.
  10. [quote user="mooky"]The noisy Monsieur next door is always peeing in front of me in the garden. [/quote] I find that this is only really disturbing if they wave at me when they are doing it. Or try to perform tricks with it.
  11. [quote user="La Guerriere"]Well it happens when you travel by helicopter. You stand on the giant scales, God it's embarassing ![/quote] Indeed you do! Perhaps we could work it like this: - pay a basic fare for the flight (inc taxes) based on some average weight; - extra quid for each bag to be checked (seems about fair); - on arrival, stand on a big set of scales with all your baggage and get a credit / debit for each kilo under / over the average. Tie it in the credit card system and the whole thing could be automatic. Completely reasonable. And just think: there could be additional business opportunities here. Airport shops selling laxatives and DIY enemas, steam cabins so you could sweat off the odd kilo and so forth.
  12. I think it's a fine idea. Why should I be subsidising someone with overactive glands and with all their luggage in a washbag when the combined weight of me plus my hold bag still come in a good 15kg lighter? But that would assume that Ryanair's policies are about weight. Which they might not be, of course.
  13. Oh I like a spot of urgent weather. Our guests have been saying it's too hot for them, so they should be delighted with the change.... [:-))]
  14. [quote] Might she have been winding you up? Mark you I have known a fair few round the places I've been who sound similar. Some survive. Most don't [/quote] Two retired British couples in our village: one pair lived in Spain but found the heat down South too much, so moved here and the other got lost on the way to Spain, spent the night in the South Vendée, liked it so much they decided to stay. Neither of these couples spoke a word of French and speak precious little now. But they bedded in very well and have been here over three years now. I think they get on so well BECAUSE their expectations of integration were so limited. Two couples with children who did all their homework, learnt a fair bit of French and had high hopes of integrating in short order lasted less than two years and moved back to the UK. I’m not drawing any firm conclusions from this, but the observation, I think, is interesting.
  15. Oh there you all are. I lose track. All action out here. I assume Bazza is uninvolved?
  16. Too true. It is even possible to get a drink after midnight these days, at least in the more disreputable corners of the ripped backside of the wild side of Fontenay le Comte. Just next to the bus station. And our last get together was most convivial.
  17. Well, I'd get that cheque banked tooot-sweet. We did have some guests disappear once, but there was a perfectly simple explanation for that - they went to Futuroscope, got lost on the way home in the middle of the night and ended up in Bordeaux. Yours sound much more interesting. I assume that they are outlanders: do you have a 'phone number for them? If it were me, after 24 hours I think I would be justified in entering the property to check that all was well: a landlord is allowed to do so in a matter of urgency...they may have left a note.
  18. The Lord's report was a little disingenous in that, although the impact of immigration on per capita GDP may be negligible, the impact on the middle classes has been marked: it solved the "servent problem" for them. They had cheap nannies, gardeners, cleaners and housekeepers aplenty. And good on the migrants - they just took jobs no one else wanted at the time. Sorry, but there has hardly been a winter, spring or early summer of discontent. The refinery strike would be an irrelevence but for the already high price of gasoline and the reluctance of people to use their legs or public transport to get around. They will grumble and moan, but they will also panic and pay up. Objectively people in Europe are doing just fine: most of us have jobs, there is enough to eat and we have wealfare provision. Sure we may not be able to afford as many holidays, new cars and new clothes as we might like, but we are not going to starve either. Reality kicking in might not be entirely comfortable but nor is it likely to cause revolution. After all, what could a new regime do? Find oil under Milton Keynes? Magic up masses of cheap food? Hardly.
  19. "who uses 'shall' these days?". Well, I do. I don't think I'm the only person. Surely. It has some very useful nuances, so I'd hate to see it disappear. Aller, as I understand, is used in French as an auxilary verb as go is in English. Pouvoir (can), vouloir (want) and devoir (must) can work the same way. So: je veux aller - I want to go; je peux aller - I can go and so on. They all imply a future event, I think, but in English we don't have a "proper" future tense equivalent to that in French. Hence the occaisional confussion. It was explained to me that if one has a definate time frame in the near future in mind, go with aller plus infinitive, if it is a bit more hazy or distant, use the future.
  20. Congrats. Appremont is very nice, I am told. Of course it's gone downhill in the last week or so, still [:P] But where does this leave our drinking venues? La Roche must be about halfway...know any good bars there?
  21. Another consideration I forgot to mention, is what happens next year to air fares, especially amongst the low cost carriers. There is an expectation that the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet will have to substantively increase their fares next year, because their fuel cost hedging runs out in the Autumn. Both airlines as a result are predicting a substantive reduction in profits in 2009 and their shares prices have fallen accordingly. Meanwhile in the USA, low cost carriers are falling like nine pins! Rumour in the oil industry has it that certain European based low-costs are having constraints placed upon them as to the terms of credit they can obtain when buying jet fuel. No-one wants to be too exposed to what is being perceived as increased-risk customers. This impacts the airlines' cash flow adversely, so it is likely that they will have to raise prices soon whatever their hedging situation, just to put some more cash in the bank. Is there any good news at the moment?[:)]
  22. [quote user="LyndaandRichard"][quote user="Tourangelle"]But there are so many words in French that sound similar to each other, why change this one?  what about fish and sin?  [/quote] Perhaps because "today" and  "yes" are used so much. English has words like that, that sound the same, but mean completely different things. Read and red for example. And then of course present tense read (same word, different pronounciation just to confuse even more). [/quote] You can imagine the confusion: "Est-ce qu'il arrive hui?" "Hui?" "Hui, oui!" "Non, je marche tout le temps comme ça!" I asked my class of 8-11 year olds this question yesterday afternoon in their English lesson. That confused the little blighters - they kept pointing out that aujourd'hui is French. None of them could answer, so their teacher (who confided to me that she didn't know either but would quite like to) set it as a homework!
  23. Aaaahhhhhh - hoc die. So,  au jour de "hoc die""the day that is this day" That makes sense. Thank you one and all. I realise now that I could have looked on Wiki Woki Woo, but to be honest I don't quite trust it (there's stuff on Wikipedia that I know to be wrong but I am lacking the ability and the inclination to change it). And there are many well educated people on this forum. And it is quite fun to discuss rather than look everything up. Interesting that French still has some nice little oddities lurking around. Thanks again,
  24. I know what it means in the sense that it means "today" but from where does the word come, I've written aujord'hui, I suppose, hundreds of times, but I only really looked at it hard for the first time this afternoon when I was preparing a lesson plan on "time." That strange little apostroph in the middle is very odd. If I look it up in the dictionary I get a definition but no etymology (try saying that three times fast!). I can break it up to "au jour d'hui" but what is "hui?" My dictionary gives no clues. Does anyone know?
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