Keni

Today, on the news it was something about these two horses on the grass and if they's stayed on the path, they might have lived - couldn't catch it all. Daughter's brother (long story) is a jockey at Middleham - he will be devastaated!

Hi Frenchie, you were there encouraging us, and we pass on to you our love, keep well and strong. Don't let it grind you down. xx

As the Meercat says, simples! X

Hi, we have found the quickets route is Calais, Boulogne, then Rouen, Dreux, Evreux, Chartres and Orleans. The sat nav. uses this route as well. Some is motorway and some N154. Hope this helps.

Hi Pierre, Beekeeping is good, I practice the old way of telling the bees the news- very important (even Terry Pratchett agrees). Our problem is our hives are the regular Uk Langstroth, here they seem to use Dadant hives (ruches). The frames sizes are different and at 100 euros a throw for a ruche, you see why we want to keep our existing type of hive. Also over here the wax foundation is not wired, you wire the wax to the frame via a 12volt battery & jump leads - I kid you not! We usuallu buy already wired wax in the Uk. You can get a small nucleus of queen and workers and start from there. If you have a garden, have a hive!

Thanks Coops. x

Just a thought - does anyone know of anyone who suppliers foundation wax for langstroth frames for our hive? We are in 87, but can get to the Charente and the Dordogne.

Maybe that should read messed up my teeth!

Hi Sweets, yup, some of us still have teeth Wooly! Honestly though, the bathroom has one of those light/razor socket thingys and the two pins for that on the toothbrush are too wide (by about 1 cm on total). So I am resorting to having to charge via the uk adaptor/french adaptor/socket method - am i Ok to just cut off the Uk plug and fit a French 2 wire type plug? I must admit the toothbrush does what it says on the tin, just a pity my dentist years ago cocked up my teeth!

Thanks Coops, yes, I too will be interested to see if anyone can get back into the system and NormanH, I am early retired, and the OH and I live on his early retired pension. We want to live the 'right way', but if the French system doesn;t allow for it - eg get health cover or even offer an alternative - and the bombardment for Sante/Mutual is bewildering! God help us when we have to go 'full time' at the end of the year!

So, now we are a few years away from 2007/8 when the French Government declared that any etrangers would have to provide their own health care for the first five years of their move to France. In the case of the UK, that is normally after your S1 (old E106) runs out. So the question is, if the French Government had been working on the principal of total Private Health Care being illegal(?) here, have those who have had to get total health after 2007/8 managed to do so without having to get a mortgage? Also does anyone know of any companies offering this service - when your S1 runs out, will your Mutual automatically offer you the full health care for more money or do you have to start again? As I won't be getting my pension until 2017, that will leave me with four years to pay for once my mutual runs out at the end of 2011, until the five year rule thingy that allows me to pay and join to the French system.

Hi, thanks for the information everyone - have managed to get the two types of plugs - for 2 and 3 wires and now changing over. It is straightforward! Just trying to find out what I do with the electric toothbrush(honestly) it is a 2 pin UK razor plug - too narrow for the French 2 pins and has to go into a 3 pin razor plug adaptor, then a 2 pin adaptor then into the socket - can I just cut off the plug like the other stuff and just 2-pin plug it?

Hi, we have several 'shrub' roses - they were here when we bought the place and although I have dead-headed etc., they really need to be severely pruned - they are now in excess of 2 metres high! To make them more manageable, how much can I cut them back and when?

Try First Tunnels as I mentioned on the other post - it's all there.

I have sent you a pm - First Tunnels are the best and cheapest for delivering over here, we have found. Nothing seems to be too much trouble. Ours worked out about £450 delivered!

Have just renovated some old floorboards in the front bedrom. I cleaned all the floors with water and wire wool+ brush. The when dry soaked the whole lot with Ikea Skydd mineral oil. Darkened the floorboards beautifully!

Our mate 'E' loves it - he's only 61! Brought him the 2010 Viz Annual as a Chrissie pressie. Not for my reading, but many others.

If you can get to Nontron, up the road by the big Poste sorting office there is a place called Remi Duchesne. He specialises in bankrupt or flood damaged stock etc.. I saw a couple of top loaders in there on Friday - usually really good value - we bought our fridge/freezer there amongst other items. They even offer guarantees!

Happy New Year to you all from us both x

Hi Krusty, how you doing? Glad to see you are still with us. Hope you had a good Christmas - which part of Cyprus are you in -we were in Paphos during June. Chris puts the fire on around 9.00am - it's the only heating we have in the house and the stere will last us around a month, with the fire kept going all day. Not bad value!

We pay 40 euros for a 1 metre cube of oak mixed with birch, or 15 euros from the barrel maker for a metre cubed bag of oddments of oak or 20 euros for a stere of oak, 1 metre lengths - leftovers from the barrel making. We are in the Haute Vienne.

....And we llived in Evesham for all those years and never knew.....

In trying to help I've had a go at helping the language - bearing in mind my favourite old German word goes something like 'hosentraegerzeigurheitzgerful' - meaning do you have confidence in your braces? So how about: 'Uncouperdesmorceauxdepapieretlescollerdansunlivreparcequej'enaienvie'. Translates as: 'Cuttingupiecesofpaperandstickingtheminabookbecauseifeelikeit'.

Arrived in Worcester at 2.00am this morning. Via Eurotunnel. A Eurostar was stuck in the tunnel and we were delayed 2-3 hours. Travelling up by car from Haute Vienne was ok - roads cleared, snowploughs doing their job. In UK, M20 was clear(ish) going north, but total stack south - jack knifed lorry, overturned vehicle etc. Operation stack in progress, but apart from that M25/M4/M5 ok. A bit of ice, but driveable.

Unfortunately, none of this discussion is now of help to the families who have lost their partners/sons/brothers. Our thoughts are with them. x