Alcazar

[quote]if "tit=sling" comes from the S USA, where does "over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder" come from???[/quote] I first heard that one from an Irish lass at college. Alcazar

Johnfmarshall: I agree with you about the relative merits of one letter and 1000 letters. I wonder if someone could draft one, then put it somewhere that anyone who wanted to could download it, sign it, and post it? I know I've used this in the past when fighting the dreaded gatsos. Alcazar

[quote]just wish I could understand enough French to buy the book from amazon.Fr Dave[/quote] Try these two then: "Maitriser l'Electricite", and/or "L'Electricite Pas a Pas". Both in soft back, both mine bought from Leclerc for a few Euros, both having more diagrams than text. With a French dictionary handy, you'll get lots from them, especially if you already have a BASIC knowledge of wiring. Alcazar

Well P&O must be listening to someone: I've just booked my lad and his friend a crossing in August, DoCal, to come down on his annual holiday to us. Provided he could go after 1415 and return before 1100, (which he wanted anyway), he got it for £96 return. that's STILL £30 LESS than I was paying for a SEASON ticket last year!   Alcazar

That would be my uderstanding too. It's the NUMBER of sockets per feed cable that's important. Alcazar

Sorry to disagree with both. It's even simpler: you think of a daft price, then treble it. As we live on an island, SOMEONE will pay it. Then you laugh all the way to the bank! Alcazar.

<<<He used stainless steel wire, and some rather fancy tensioning things at the edges.>>> Thanks for that Loiseau, I'll remember that now. Do you happen to know where stainless wire can be had from? Thanks to others who have replied. Wisteria is another option, but how fast does it grow? The area it/the vines will be planted is SSW facing. Climbing roses? Hmmmmmmmm. I planted one in my first house garden, from a runner I dug up in the countryside, so a real wild one. 3 years later, the fence behind it fell down in a high wind, and it was the devil's own job to get near! How would you avoid the thorns on the stems, running up the supports? Any more replies gratefully received. Alcazar

Does anyone have a definitive amswer as to whetherr there is any difference in the two paints in the title? I've used search, but can't find an answer to that question. I think we already decided to use good quality stuff, but it seems an incredible price in France, it cost us over £25 to paint our new concrete barbecue! If UK paint, I'd use Dulux Weathershild, or Sandtex. TIA Alcazar

Just to make you smile, some Germans down the road from us, on the D675 between St Mathieu and Rochechouart, have painted an old tree, now minus it's branches, a sort of bright blue! It always makes me think of a weird type of totem pole. Alcazar

I can only report what I have read both in a French local daily last Easter, and since then, in "Today's Railways" here in the UK.The article in the French paper was a full page with photo's.) Most of the problems have been around Paris as the train takes the avoiding lines through the banlieu, but there have also been copycat attacks near Lyon and Valence. Signals are interfered with, which makes them default to danger. The train, of course, comes to a stand. As it stands, the gangs climb aboard the car carrying wagons, which are, AFAIK, attached behind the passenger cars. It takes them a VERY short time to smash a window, climb into a car, remove valuables left in and clear off It reached such a proportion last year that  well armed police had to travel on the train! Alcazar  

How odd, Me0Wp000, that you bring English bread flour to France. My wife swears by the French stuff, and even brings home French flours for making Yorkshires at home! I have to agree about tea bags and gravy granules though, and my kids prefer the spices from England for adding to barbecue meat, to any we've found in France. AlcazarMe0Wp000 | 

...........and there's another thing! Surely, the word "Brassiere" is French. So why do the French call them "Soutien Gorges"? Alcazar

[quote]Everybody wants the lowest possible price, but I hope there will not be crocodile tears shed when there are more redundancies at P & O - something will have to give ![/quote] No, I won't shed crocodile tears. Someone will run a service, because the market warrants it. If P&O go bust, it'll be their own fault and they'll have done it to themselves. Prices HAVE to come down. Not for nothing is that stretch of water known as the most expensive in the world. Strange that it's our problem, rather like "Pounds for Dollars" for everything Japanese, or the most expensive cars in the world, or the most taxes, or the dearest petrol and diesel............but all that's another story It might "amuse" some on here to know that 4 years ago, we planned on taking our caravan to Greece. The ferry from Venice to Athens, nearly 36 hours, was going to be cheaper than the ferry from Dover to Calais. Now THAT'S disgusting!!! Alcazar

No-one knows? Can someone verify that they WILL grow, then? Thanks. Alcazar

Didn't I read somewhere that NOT wearing good support, until the muscles firm up, causes sag? Or is that just a rumour started by Playtex? Alcazar, (who also looked at this topic as he thought it was "brass") PS: when I was a lad , we thought a training bra was one we could practise undoing one handed.................and a few of them were

And at the other end of the scale, we just had a facture for €370...................and the fosse has been in for 2 years in February! Alcazar

I read an article last year in the French press saying that the service to Avignon was the most frequent service to be robbed in France. Apparently, gangs target the train by stopping it after interfering with signals, and while it waits for a green light, they systematically rob every car on the back as the drivers sleep Awful. I'd prefer the drive! Alcazar

OK, our property is situated in the very southernmost tip of Haute Vienne, about 4km north of the Dordogne, near St Mathieu. Last year we holidayed in the Dordogne, and wifey fell in love with the shade provided by vines hung from wires supported about 8 feet off the ground, by a wooden framework, like a pergola. She now wants to start the same sort of thing in our French garden. Before I spend hours and euros on this, is there a gardening rerason NOT to do it, (vines won't grow etc), as we have seen no vines growing commercially within 50 miles of the house? And if we CAN grow them, can anyone suggest good varieties? We want fast growing shade, rather than good grapes, (sacrilege, I know!) TIA, Alcazar

Where would I get one? I'll have to keep up the Screwfix though as I'm addicted to it in the UK. Alcazar

[quote]Jond -I think I'm right in saying that there was a forumee called Asterix(cks?) who has now left the forum for reasons best known to themselves. I'd also like you to know that you are not the only per...[/quote] Sense of humour not found. Does not compute! Alcazar

Well, my new Screwfix catalogue arrived today. The first thing I did was to turn to the electrical pages. Still no double pole MCBs Double pole RCD's the same price as in France And worst of all, they now stock the "new" wiring for a rewire in Blue, Brown and earth, (as used in France), but the earth is STILL not insulated, and STILL looks to be thinner than the other two conductors, so still no go Even the cables for conduits are STILL Red, Black, Green/Yellow Oh well, French prices it is then Alcazar

This is a very old one. It's basically "working" to confuse you, because you have intermixed TWO calculations: You can either do £25+ £3+ £2 = £30 Or you can do 3 x£10= £30, and then £30 - £5 = £25. But you can't, mathematically speaking, intermix the two calculations, and expect an answer that makes sense. I couls show you a truly "amazing" card trick based on maths too, and it works every time. A misspent youth, I feel! Alcazar

As I posted elsewhere, P&O have this year sold me three crossings for £252 all in, as a shareholder, whereas last year, the cheapest I could get them to do it was as season tickets, £252 for TWO crossings! Perhaps they are listening? Alcazar

No asterisks? So now it'll let me post my home town name? Let's hear it for Scunthorpe, yay.......... Alcazar

Many thanks for the link, and the instructive reply therein. Is there any mileage in extra earth rods, and having them all connected in series, say? They are dirt cheap from Screwfix, and the connectors are readily available too. Would I be advised to put one OUTSIDE as well as the one in the cellar? The "existing" earth was a hollow steel tube buried in the ground, with a piece of 1.5mm earth solid core attached to it by forming a loop on the end, and pushing it into the open end of the tube It was attached to a FEW of the sockets! Alcazar