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Choochoo

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Posts posted by Choochoo

    B & Q

    in House Renovations

    Posted

    I went into Bricomarche today and they had plastic garden storage sheds with great big B & Q signs printed all over and not a word of french anywhere ! Are they owned by the same company or bought some stuff going cheap off e-bay ?

    John

    PER fittings - special tool

    in House Renovations

    Posted

    On the subject of plastic pipes. I came across plastic pipes and fittings called Easytub. I have used them now for hot and cold water,central heating etc. and they are first class. They cut and glue together in the same way as plastic waste pipes but use a special solvent glue. They are so easy to use and no more expensive than using PER. they advertise as the only pipes officially authorised to be buried in the wall or behind stud work.What is more they look reasonable, so if you have to leave them on show they look OK

    Anybody else used them ?, I got them from Leroy Merlin, so far the only place where I have seen them.

    Regards

    John

    Dexter Cattle

    in Pets

    Posted

    Hi everyone

    We have just imported two Dexter heifers from the UK. I know a lot of people are interested in this breed so if anybody would like any info.we would be only too pleased to help.

    Not strictly pets I know but they are lovely, and so friendly !

    Regards

    John & Sue ( 50 )

    No hand luggage on UK flights ...............

    in Travelling to/from France

    Posted

    As\far as I understand it most baggage containers in the hold of aircraft these days are armoured to withstand your average sized bomb, so better it goes off there than in the luggage rack. What worries me about the whole thing is that eventually it will get so difficult for terrorists to blow up a plane that they will turn their attention to other things. Imagine a full up car ferry going down, easy to get a bomb on board one ot those. Cars are never checked. If you go as a foot passenger your luggage is scanned but if you are in a car, no problem, drive straight on. I once got on a car ferry and had my pocket knife confiscated, the next week I went on the same ferry by car with 2 gas bottles, a blow torch, a chainsaw, a gallon of petrol, a petrol strimmer etc. etc. Strange innit ?

    John

    Parking at Caen

    in Travelling to/from France

    Posted

    Hi everybody

    Last tuesday I went to the Ferry port at Caen to pick up somebody coming over from Portsmouth. On arrival I found the car park full and had to park in the road. On going into the building I noticed that there were only 10 people in there and wondered why, in that case the car park was full. I had some time to wait so decided to have a walk outside. Walking around the car park I counted 14 british registered cars with out of date Tax discs which had obviously been there a while judging by the build up of rubbish around the tyres. In addition to these 14 there were 2 cars which had clearly been dumped there as wrecks, they both had all flat tyres, damaged bodywork and smashed windows. None of the cars were displaying a French insurance sticker or a CT sticker, so all are clearly illegal on many points. The questions that came to my mind were:

    If they are UK registered they must have a current Tax disc and MOT cert.

    Do their owners commute to the UK, leaving them there for their return and going as foot passengers to save money.

    If they drive in France they will be uninsured surely ?

    If they are driving in France on their UK insurance they will probably be over their time limit for trips abroad and could find themselves uninsured should they have an accident and the ins. company find out what they are doing.

    Do they have a current MOT cert. if not they are driving uninsured anyway.

    any thoughts anybody ?

    Is there anybody out there who owns one of these cars, perhaps your explanation would leave us all the wiser.

    Sorry for the winge but it certainly gives a bad impression of the English to the French people.

     

    John

    Acrow Props

    in House Renovations

    Posted

    They are called Etai de macon and cost about 12 euros each, so not worth hiring. Not as good or as strong as acrows but do the job. I tend not to use them on anything really heavy, I have two acrows for that. If you are still in UK look in freeads or similar, thats where I got mine, a tenner each.

    Hope that helps

    John

    Dispute with builder

    in House Renovations

    Posted

    The colour difference is quite noticeable, most people that come comment on it. The original agreement was to rebuild the wall and render it afterwards in a coloured render, colour chosen by us. He did one half to the left, and the other half a week later but obviously used the wrong colour. I dont want to get a reputation as a bad payer or a winger, just wondered if , legally, I can withhold total payment until the problem is rectified.

    Thanks for all the advice so far.

    John & Sue

    Dispute with builder

    in House Renovations

    Posted

    Hi everyone

    We had our old tumble down wall rebuilt by a French builder. He has done a very good job but the wall was rendered in two seperate lots and they do not colour match.

    I have written to him twice and have received no response. At the moment I am withholding payment but wonder how long I can do this.

    Is there a rule for such disputes in French law ?. Do I pay him some and withhold a reasonable sum to encourage him to rectify the situation ?

    I dont want to fall out with him over this as he is a local man and well liked in the community.

    Any advice would be appreciated.

    Thanks

    John & Sue

    Noisy neighbour

    in French Legal Issues

    Posted

    We have a disco club about a km from us which operates on Friday and Saturday nights. Fortunately we are so positioned that we dont hear it very much. The thing that I noticed was that it goes on until 5am, which I think is much later than in UK ( or am I showing my age ! ). The type of music they seem to play is not so " beaty " as in UK, sounds like UK was before the current overseas influence started.

    I have sympathy with your plight however, a quiet life is I think one of the reasons people move here. Most of our visitors say " isnt it so quiet here, and so dark !"

    Regards

    John

    Paint for new beam

    in House Renovations

    Posted

    Hi everyone

    I have just replaced an oak beam at the front of our house, over the front door and front window. Can anybody recommend what to finish it with to make it look less "new " and fit in with rest of the front aspect.

    Also, the internal beams are in a brown matt finish and I have to replace one of those. What sort of finish did they usually apply to these ? they are in chestnut.

    Thanks to all who reply

     

    John

    Booting up problems

    in French Satellite TV, French Internet and Telephone

    Posted

    Hi salty Sam

    Thanks for your input. I am not quite clear on the restore facility. Does it only restore windows as it was at a specific date or will I lose everything I have done since that date on Word or excel etc. ?

    By the way, this morning it took me an hour before it finally booted up and countless switches on and off, file checks etc. very frustrating !!

    John

    Booting up problems

    in French Satellite TV, French Internet and Telephone

    Posted

    Hi everyone

    Nothing to do with France, I know, but I wonder if some knowledgeable person out there could advise please.

    The problem is that the computer freezes at some point during start up. It could be at any point during the process, and requires a power off and reboot. This can occur up to a dozen times, freezing, unplug from mains, switch on again, freezes again, ad nauseum.

    When it does eventually boot up it runs fine, no problems, perhaps a bit slow but that could be unrelated. Goodness what would happen to the starship Enterprise if its computer ran on Windows OS !!

    Details of the system, Windows XP home, AVG free edition with windows pop-up blocker running

    Thanks to all who respond

     

    John

    Dinard Airport

    in Latest Good Value Deals to/from France

    Posted

    The only thing about Dinard is that its practically impossible to find a parking space to leave the car if you are just picking someone up. The car park seems to be full of dodgy looking english cars with no tax, which presumably people leave there and use as and when. Anybody else noticed this ? The same applies at Caen ferry port. I think the authorites need to have a purge of these car parks or introduce a daily charge. Cost me 12 quid to leave my car for the day at Portsmouth.

     

    John

    disappearing hedges !!

    in Wildlife/Nature/Environment

    Posted

    Thanks to all for your input. I got the EU connection from somebody I mentioned it to, so this could be wrong. It was just amazing waking up every morning to the sound of chainsaws in the distance. Reminded me of the petrol queues in England, somebody mentions that fuel might go short and suddenly there is a mile long queue at every station. We have had our house here for six years and lived here for two, never seen anything like it before, and all in such a short space of time. I also heard that this directive, if it exists, would lead to a shortage of firewood, making it more expensive and difficult to obtain.

    John

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