The Riff-Raff Element
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Posts posted by The Riff-Raff Element
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[quote]if there was a website F*** USA.com they might be on there posting racial remarks Doubt it, it's a porn site! And no, I'm not posting the URL, you can find it yourselves! I still really don't ...[/quote]
"I still think many of you are just piqued that there are people who know more about France than you do."I've generally found that people are easily capable of hatred with only a scant understanding of what they are are hating. In fact, that is usually the reason that they hate in the first place. Very likely this bunch (and others) simply glean whatever news stories they can, spin them around to fit their prejudices, wind them up, and set them off."Maybe some of you could actually prove your intellectual and moral superiority by refuting some of their attacks on France? It might use your brain cells rather than your Mr/Mrs Angry tape." Yup, suppose we could. Then again, having seen how unpleasent things can get on a nice forum like this, I can't help feeling that baiting people who probably have ready access to firearms and, apparently, having read some of their output, fairly short fuses may not be the best way to spend a sunny Friday. -
[quote]Words and music as requested http://enfants.stephyprod.com/musique-gratuite-musique-enfants/musique-gratuite-musique-enfants-musique-mp3-gratuite-mp3-enfants-souris-verte.htm And a few more simila...[/quote]
Oh Heavens! The version this lot are singing (I've just suffered a rehersal, and I hope my ears stop bleeding soon but, I am at least now certain) ends as follows:"Je la mets dans ma culotte, elle me fait trois petites crottes! Crotte! Crotte! Crotte!"I wonder which version the ladies and gentlemen of the retirement home are familiar with...Apropos by swimming test, they had me doing all sorts of daft things, mostly aimed to test my ability to retrieve. To be fair, the teachers have had to undergo a thorough training including resusitation. On top we have four life guards in attendence. Each parent is responsible for the same group of six each week (doubled up for the youngest ones) and we get a briefing each week before starting - its pretty well organised, and the stress is on practical survival rather than elegance. -
[quote]I'm sorry Miki but I'm just not prepared to discuss it! "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homel...[/quote]
Hang on - wasn't the Statue of Liberty a gift from the French to the people of the US in celebration of 100 years of freedom from the yoke of colonial oppression? Or did I dream that? If it was, then in return for this the French appear to have received Eurodisney. In which case I'm slightly surprised that relations aren't worse than they already are. There are plenty of hate sites around - this is no worse than many. The best way to deal with the blood rush is to try to remember that there is room in your heart for all God's people, even slavering loonies and Ipswich Town supporters. Pip Pip. -
At least, I think that that is the opening line. I will explain. The Municipality in a misguided moment have certified me as a Fit and Proper person to accompany the children from my daughters’ school to the local baths, there to educate them in the finer points of Not Drowning. Each Thursday afternoon I board a bus with 30 or so little treasures (3-11 years), the entire staff of the school and a few other benighted parents who failed to move quickly enough when the shout went up, to be driven to our brand spanking new, all whistles & bells, no expense spared (EU grant) public pool, there to give appropriate instruction to the students. Mostly this involves hauling them up by the scruff of the neck before they go under for the third time, yelling at them to stop trying to pull the costumes off one another, and explaining that breathing is really best accomplished with the head above water.The journey back is usually a quiet affair, the exhausted silence punctuated with the occasional bout of retching as someone brings up half a pint of urine diluted with a little highly chlorinated recycled sewage.Today, however, we were regaled with song, the gist of which was that a mouse (green) running through the grass was picked up by its tail, presented to the local squire, who suggested chucking it into a pot of boiling oil to cook it like a snail. The beast was spared this fate and was hidden in a number of unlikely places that proved unsuitable in one way or another before being placed finally in the knickers of the narrator, where it (the mouse) proceeded to defecate.I believe the above to be accurate, but it should be borne in mind that the assembled voices of the Ecole Privée St Joseph can, on occasion – and I hope that I do them no great injustice – sound akin to the noise one might be able to generate by attacking a piano with a bow saw. Sometimes, often happily, things are not entirely clear to the ear.I COULD ask my darling daughters (Resident Evil I & II) to clarify the lyric for me, though I am reluctant to do so. Tomorrow the school will be performing a rendition of this song (and, apparently, three others as well) to the inmates (hopefully none to keen of hearing) of a nearby retirement home. If the song does not contain any reference to poo as yet, I can guarantee that it would by 9.05 am tomorrow if I were incautious enough to bring the subject up over the breakfast table. I’m still having to smile nervously at the head mistress over the rendering into French by my offspring of “The Farting Song” that a (very close to being ex) friend was kind enough to teach them, and I feel that a second incident of a similar nature could firmly place me in the “not to be trusted further than can be seen” category along with the three fathers responsible for the alcohol-abuse-and-carbonised-pig incident at the kermesse last June. Does anyone out there know this song and is in a position to confirm or refute my translation? It may be a traditional ditty of long standing. Or it could be a blunt instrument of euthanasia designed to clear the beds a bit, in which case I could be tempted to skive off tomorrow afternoon and wander down for a bit of a spectate.
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[quote]Any-one any idea of the calorific value of the different fuels...? No point in filling up with cheap fuel if you have to fill up more often and risk your engine. Petrol/LPG engines produce less Kw wh...[/quote]
Calorific value of rapeseed oil (most commonly used as a straight veg oil or waste veg oil fuel) is around 36 MJ/kg. This is lower than conventional diesel (around 42 MJ/kg), but the lower cal val is compensated for in the engine by the high density of veg oil - more grams per squirt.In the field of biofuels there are some disagreements between those who favour straight / waste veg oil used directly as a fuel and those who advocate chemical conversion to biodiesel. The major advantage of biodiesel is seen as its consistent quality and lack of potential problems such as poor cold properties and gum formation in engines. The major advantage of straight veg oil is the low cost. Matter of personal choice I suppose and certainly I'm not going to involve myself in the arguement.A lot of oil crops (sunflower, rapeseed) are grown around here and local farmers are taking quite an interest in developments in biofuels. Some are experimenting with “all oil” crop rotations. All over Europe there have been rumours of oil companies starting to take in interest in buying up agricultural land for oil crops – rape yields around 1200 litres per hectare and sunflowers around 950. I guess some people think this a viable proposition at current crude oil prices. -
They sound like a fantastic idea (I love technology, me, but have all kinds of problems getting much of it to work), but might be better when partenered with a good old fashioned map. We're pretty rural but not exactly on Mars. So far this year, three sets of guests relying on sat nav systems have become hopelessly lost and have required "talking down" at some great expense to them in terms of mobile phone costs. One ended up in the middle of a ploughed field that his sat nav was convinced was a slip road to the A83, one spent 2 HOURS (I am not making this up) on the Caen ring road trying to esacpe from the ferry port and the third overshot by 50 miles and was closing on Bordeaux before realising that there may be something amiss. None of them had a map in the car. Plus, given the amount of time people spend gawping at them rather than looking at the road I suspect that its only a matter of time before some law or other is enacted to prohibit their use unless stopped by the road side. Or is there one already?
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Andrew – Heavens! No-one has described me as professional since about 1998. As regards the test result – no idea, not without a heck of a lot more detail. It’s possible that it was caused by something in the water; though equally likely it is something to do with the reagent – like not shaking the bottle enough prior to the test. Indicators can be surly.I’ve come across automatic chlorinators – a friend of ours uses this system and he is very pleased with it. Certainly if one is using trichloroisocyanuric acid as chlorine source (which is almost always the case) then automatic monitoring and addition would be preferable to minimise usage. My preference for saline systems is threefold –- They minimise the formation of chloramines in the pool water, those things that give the water it’s “chlorine” smell and can be particularly irritating to the eyes. These are still present with automatic chlorinators, but saline systems only contain trace amounts;- They avoid over stabilisation due to build up of cyanuric acid, though this is significantly less of a problem with automatic systems;- They reduce the need to keep noxious chemicals around the place. Plenty of people are careful, but many really don’t take the care labels seriously.Chlorine production by electrolysis in saline systems is controllable. Some have automatic analysis and adjustment, others (ours for example) have to be adjusted manually and are monitored by testing pool water for residual chlorine in the pool water two or three times a week. 1ppm chlorine is a good target, I have found. pH adjustment is sometimes needed to counter alkalinity from urea build-up, but now I’ve got most of the calcium out of the water (we’re on hard water) I’ve switched to using hydrochloric acid for this as this is more compatible with the saline system and this keeps things even more stable.Saline systems have their disadvantages – the need to heft around big bags of salt every spring for example. The electrolysis kit can be expensive, and if the pool is heated then the heat exchangers need to be made of titanium, which is also pricey. Since taking an interest in pools (everybody needs a hobby) I’ve come across other systems based on active oxygen, ozone sterilisation, bromine (in place of chlorine), and silver salts. All have their pluses and minuses as far as I can see, but on balance I found the saline systems best and we’ve gone for them on both the pools we own. Just an opinion, mind.Have a pleasant weekend, Jon
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Have you changed out the water at all over the last three years? If you've been keeping the chlorine level on the high side then it is likely that you are building up a concentration of cyanuric acid (a breakdown product from the chlorine chemical you are probably adding to the pool to sterilise it). This itself is broken down by biological action, but if you've been over egging the chlorine there won't be any biology in the pool to do it... This would also explain why you've had to reverse your pH treatment regime. You could test this by cutting your back chemical addition and reducing the level of active chlorine in the pool to a minimum (about 0.5 ppm - use DPD tablets to test and test a lot as there is probably three years worth of urea in the pool from sweat and piddle and this is a fine fertiliser for algae!) - the cyanuric acid itself should then start being broken down and pH should stabilise or even start to rise again. To be honest, the above is a lot of hard work, slightly risky from the green water point of view, and if everything else is good I wouldn't worry too much. You could try changing out say 50% of your water to dilute the soup a bit but then you would have to rebalance the water again (are you in a hard water area by the way? This could also be a reason for having to reverse your pH treatmant after a couple of years). Speaking as a chemist, I prefer electrolytic sterilisation and saline pools mostly because the whole business of keeping them healthy is easier, so you could consider a change to that system. All the best, Jon
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[quote]The french system works well for a a manufacturing type economy based on large industries where there is a need for fewer chiefs and many indians. It doesn't work well for an economy based on small re...[/quote]
Fair point, Richard. However, globalisation of any industry (manufacturing, banking, agriculture) is surely the preserve of the mega corps of the world? Every time one giant absorbs another we are promised greater efficiency and cheaper whatevers as result of their "enhanced buying power", "global reach" or "enlarged capital base". From that standpoint a system of education that produces a few very good chiefs and planty of adequate indians should be one that serves the needs of the global economy far better than one that producers lots of independent thinkers all pulling in different directions. If Total can merge with Elf and Fina (I know Fina was Belgian) to allow it to compete on the global stage, then how long is it before we see a Citroen / Peugeot / Renault combine? How many independent thinkers would that need to run it? I agree that the French establishment could learn a thing or two about promoting small enterprises though. They have made progress, but it seems a bit patchy. Our dept (85) seems to be making real efforts to make things as easy as they can for business startups, but from what I hear this is not always the case elsewhere. -
I'm not sure that in these times of globalisation "adaptable" any longer has much currency. "Cheap" is rather more important. Nations like India (to their credit I would suggest) are turning out university graduates from an education system based on the UKs 40 years ago at a rate of a MILLION per year. I don't think they achieve this by being fluffy about how they teach either. Like the Chinese they are concentrating on science / technology based courses, and for some reason are avoiding degrees in media studies. The city of Bangalore, for example, is rapidly emerging as Asia's IT capital. How long before the computer giants start siting there? Well educated, adaptable and, above all, cheap workforce, readily available. I have a feeling that the next couple of decades are going to be quite exciting for us in the West. Maybe we've been fat, dumb and happy for a bit too long.
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Hmmm...I don't know. My favourite fixer-upper (nominally four walls, well ventilated, benefiting from views of the sky and hot & cold running rot) is still on the market at the optimistic price of €85,000, not including anything. I find that the French can be extrordinarily patient when it comes to selling property.
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[quote]"Some posters have already touched on this, but... it is a very different kettle of fish arriving in France with children who have reached school age than if one arrives with pre-schoolers." ...[/quote]
"The system provides poor results for even the French"But does it? After all, France remains as one of the biggest economies in the world with a diverse base including heavy industry, agriculture and commerce. Sure, the economy couldn't be described as "booming" but it is not collapsing either. I am starting to wonder to what extent the approach to education matters when it actually comes to preparing for the wonderful world of work. I agree that the French system is harsh on the inmates (the kids coming back on the evening bus here look like they've undergone electric shock therapy at too high a voltage some days), but some people (they might describe themselves as "realists") might suggest that this is a better way to prepare for the "real" world (dog-eats-dog, winner takes all, lunch is for wimps, etc) than the Everyone's-a-Winner system currently in vogue in the UK. Mind you, that system can't be all bad either because the UK economy is still one of the largest, etc. -
Some posters have already touched on this, but... it is a very different kettle of fish arriving in France with children who have reached school age than if one arrives with pre-schoolers.Noting Miki's point (which I think is entirely valid), if a move to France is genuinely permanent then, in general, I would expect children who have never experienced anything different to accept and progress within the French as though they were French. Having now been through the experience with very young children (under two and three-and-a-half when we arrived), I realise now that I personally would not choose to move children once they had commenced school in the UK. Similarly, moving children back to the UK after a few years in the French system would be extremely disruptive.Of course, plenty of people don't enjoy the luxury of choice, in which case the only fair course of action would seem to be to give children as much French language as humanly possible prior to arrival and to commit to supplimentary courses once they have entered school.I have no idea whether my children are getting a better education here than they would in the UK - since they cannot follow both tracks simultaneously any attempt at comparison seems something of a farce. My mother-out-law inspects at primary school level for OFSTED - her opinion seems to be, that aside from rather more importance being placed on the quality of handwriting in France, the two are much of a muchness.
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Our accountant has told us that he is obliged to use figures for exchange rates published offically on a monthly basis - which is why he is only really interested in which month we have recieved foreign currency payments rather than the exact date. I've got to have a chat with him next week, so I'll try to remember to ask him for more details.
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[quote]Also, I meant to add that, as my original posting pointed out, I hope your booking, if indeed you wish to book an exclusive use of pool, it does turn out to be just that! This was my point! i.e. that ...[/quote]
Anna - I checked our property ads following your post One of them that (as is clearly pointed out in the text) has a shared pool was coming out as having an exclusive one. FC have now corrected this, but didn't offer any explanation as to how something so simple could be messed up.We've advertised with FC for some years now. The old site was the source of over 50% of our bookings. I think we've had one enquiry from this site since the changes. That might be because (and I can hardly complain) we were well booked before the upgrade, but we are still getting plenty of enquiries from other portals. Personally, I like the new layout (and, from the post above, so do some others), but for whatever reason I don't think that it is cutting the mustard. I shall be interested to see how things develop. -
[quote]Sorry Jond and Time. It's my silly sense of humour. However, I think you should blame Tresco entirely, because it was his posting on a House rennovations thread that started it all off. He used so...[/quote]
That's quite alright - I very much appreciate silly senses of humour and believe firmly that they should be encouraged, possibly even to the extent of EU grant support. -
[quote]Sorry Jond and Time. It's my silly sense of humour. However, I think you should blame Tresco entirely, because it was his posting on a House rennovations thread that started it all off. He used so...[/quote]
That's quite alright - I very much appreciate silly senses of humour and believe firmly that they should be encouraged, possibly even to the extent of EU grant support. -
[quote]Alas we heard recently on the Rennovations Forum that poor Asterisks has died a sad death presumably when his site was recently overrun by I.T. Romans. He has gone the way of all Gauls, for whom polit...[/quote]
OK - I'll bite.Would someone please be so kind as to explain this? Words of one sylable would be nice as I am feeling somewhat gormless today. -
I'd agree with Jane - Europe 1 is pretty much the best "talk" radio, though possibly not for people begining French. As for music radio...its all fairly dire. By default (because they are easy for me to find!) I end up with RTL2 or Alouette ("toujours plus de hits!" - no, you've got a play list of about 50 and 43 of them are awful). If you would like to plumb the depths, NRJ is particularly moronic though. The ONLY thing I miss about the UK now is some half decent music radio. TV I can take or leave - we'd never get SKY - but once ADSL happens to us I look forward to having xfm back. Unless anyone could suggest an alternative?
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Piprob - what a wonderful idea. I haven't had a good loiter for years. I think I shall wait until things warm up a bit though. A pizza van (Roberto's - he's about as Italian as Charles de Gaulle, so I can only assume that he took the name for professional purposes) calls in the square in our village every couple of weeks, and I think that loitering around there with no intention of buying anything could prove diverting. Our crop of malodorous youth (though very polite they are, I might add in their defense. Spotty, yes, but polite also) tend to favour the public loos for reasons that I hesitate to speculate upon, and I wouldn't want to queer their patch.
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We are using a product called PARAX Monocouche, made by Lafarge. I've never seen it in a brico, but it is stocked by builders merchants. Although the instructions imply that this can only be used for machine applications it applies very nicely with a trowel. You will need a mixer though - it is waterproof, and mixing by hand is virtually impossible. It looks pricey at first glance (about 13€ for 30kg) but coverage is good and it is really easy to get a good finish. Its also available in a range of colours. Use a "semolina pudding" consistency for render, "cream cheese" for pointing. I've no idea how long this stuff has been around, but its clearly becoming very popular with our local building types.
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[quote]Hi - the census is being conducted in our neighbouring commune and according to our maire, we to be counted next year. I read the article in the Charente Libre, Mike, but I couldn't work out the map ...[/quote]
Re. birth rate. It would seem that French residents of all extractions are indeed becoming more fecund (my 3rd favourite word in the English language). Birth rate is up to 1.86 / woman in 2003 from 1.76 in the 1990's, according to "Ouest France" yesterday. Not that I believe everything in the papers - there's a story on the same page about meteorites that I find VERY unlikely.Certainly in our village pregnant women loom into view at every turn. "Something in the water?" I asked one of the mothers at the school. "No," she said "just very little on television." The schools here in our little rural corner are in raptures. A few years ago they were in danger of being closed through lack of pupils. Now they are in line for extra staff and resources. -
[quote]The charge is levied by CV,then model and age I believe and my daughter paid only 20€ less than when the vehicle was first registered but if you are not changing address and name it may vary.There is ...[/quote]
Fair point Val - certainly a number French friends of ours seem to have a remarkably lax attitude to this particular aspect (and these are people who are otherwise strongly law abiding, I might add). Wasn't there some idea that vehicles would shortly be given a "number for life"? Or did I dream that? -
Until recently we had two, six meter long troughs in a barn we're converting. Although being apraised of their potential value, we were also rapidly apraised of their weight, being of the order (it would seem) of around 4 tonnes apiece. After a certain amount of heart searching, and wistful gazing at our bank account, we set upon them with drill, hammer and crowbar. To my amazement, "right-sizing" of these things only took about a day apiece. We've recycled a fair amount of the stone, but if anyone is building a rockery, feel free to drop me a line.
Funny website about France...?
in The Complete France Post Bag
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[quote]If I remeber correctly the site wass et up in response to France's insistence that it did not want to play in GWB's Iraq games. as such it probably has CIA backing and that is a bunch I do not want ...[/quote]
Oh Andy - I don't think that the CIA should be a concern. In common with most "intelligence" services worldwide (with the exception of MOSSAD who I am prepared to believe are highly efficient) I suspect that they are unable to find their bums with both hands. Otherwise they would have got jobs in commerce and made a mint rather than being badly paid civil servents. If they (and the Brits, and the French, and everyone else - we can safely spread the blame here, I think) were halfway competent then there probably would not BE a "war on terrorism" as it would have been nipped in the bud years ago. I'm more concerned about the kind of people one sometimes comes across in the backwoods of Alabama and similar corners of the Land of the Free. Mad as cut snakes and armed to the teeth from the age of seven. Seldom been so scared in my life.