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Redcap

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Everything posted by Redcap

  1. Yes Lottie, you are correct, I had meant to qualify that but forgot. There are so many of them now. I have just, (for this month anyway) used Worldwide Currencies for £1000, market rate at 1.46271, they gave me 1.4420. Could I do better? Trouble is you have to register with them before they will quote you, which is annoying. Regards, Bob
  2. Hi Monty, I am in the same boat, I have been using Currencies Direct for the last 6 months to transfer my pension. they were charging me £7.50 for the pleasure plus almost insisting I pay another £12 for some document that lets me know where my money is? Anyway, the 6 month forward contract is up and It looks like I am now going to use WorldWide Currencies. They do not make any charge for the transfer, only making their money on the difference in exchange rate between market rate and what we get. Yesterday they quoted me 1.4573, the market rate was at that time about 1.4683, this seemed better than others I have been with, HIFX for example. Money goes into my UK bank on the 1st, S/O set up for it to go out same day, once it's with the currency house, usually takes a day or 2 to get to french bank. You need to register with them before they can do anything for you, usual ID & utiltiy bill etc. Don't be paying any transfer fees now days as there are many, many currency houses all after our trade. Moneycorp said they would waive my fees if I went with them just to get my custom, so if a currency house has a particular service that suits you, tell them that you can get the same service without charges at ....., they will most certainly pull out all the stops to get your trade! Regards, Bob
  3. Hi again, We are intending to use a bonding agent, it is available in france, you can get stuff to add to the mix to improve adhesion, and also for priming/sealing.  The present concrete base is very rough! I don't think we'll have any problems with it sticking, once, as advised we use a good bonding agent. So we are looking at a 'damp' mix as opposed to a nice slurry?  Again, thanks for all the advice. Regards, Bob  
  4. Thanks for the advice! Whether it will get done now before winter, what with all the rain is anybody's guess, so I've been busy sealing the worst of it to protect the concrete re-enforced beams underneath. Regards, Bob
  5. Thanks for the advice dave, I posted this on a number of forums, very little response, must say I'm surprised considering the number of people here with building skills.  Same on the www.pavingexpert.com forum, I did expect some good advice there but not a bean!!  actually that is a fantastic site, don't know if it's been reccommended on LF well worth a look if you are renovating, or not.   Regards, Bob
  6. Bonsoir Tout le monde!   Well, it's been a long time since I've posted on LF! We've been here a year now, I have looked in now and then, but to be honest we have been so busy, I really didn't think it would be such hard work! And we're not renovating!!  By the way, title should read screed not sceed!!  I'm having problems with a terrace above garage, the garage was built by previous owner, attached to rear of house.  The terrace had been concreted over, but sadly the owner died and it's been left to deteriorate for almost 10 years.  I want to tile the terrace, but it needs some sort of screed first to level out all the 'pock-marked holes'.  I know there is a product called Enduit Sol Auto-Lissant (self smoothing), this is very expensive (like self-levelling), and is really only for up to 10mm.  I need to bring the floor up to the level of the front terrace in order to tile all around, this will be a depth of about 25-30mm (1" - 1 1/4"). My question is, can I lay a concrete screed at this thickness?  The floor is solid, unlike one at ground level on a rubble/ballast/sand base, and is only for foot traffic.  All my DIY books mention are concrete bases for path, drives etc with at least 4" thickness. Any advice as usual, greatfully received. Regards, Bob (22)    
  7. [quote]I withdrew some money from a HSBC cash card machine yesterday - excluding the charge (£1.5) charge, the money was converted at a rate of 1.4101! It's certainly better to transfer money to a French ...[/quote] Try foreign currencies direct, I now have my monthly pension transferred at an agreed rate (I've gone for 6 months), for up tp 2 years.  You have to pay 11% deposit which is then used against future payments. The rate is not as good as a spot rate but still OK, it's £7.50 per month, better than I could find so far.  I still think it's wrong that I have to pay to get my pension, but that's another matter!  It is usually here in France the day after they receive my money. Regards, Bob
  8. Redcap

    Gravel !

    [quote]Hi - I'm up in 50 so can't help with a supplier, but have just ordered 4m3 (about 6.5 tonnes, apparently) of 'gravier bleu' at a cost of 33€ + TVA/M3 with a delivery charge of 10€ Regards Chris[/quote] hello there chris! just about to begin looking for gravel, have about 100m plus of path way around house and pond that I have almost finished digging out! Can you tell me, what is gravier bleu? Do you know how to measure up for cubic mtres or tons?  I have only ever had either pea gravel, or 'half and half' as they called it in the uk which is slightly bigger but still has some 'pea gravel' mixed in, not what we want for the paths here. Any advice greatly accepted.   Regards, Bob
  9. [quote]AndY P said - "I suppose there are 2 reasons for using these banks Inertia (which is what they depend on) or Masochism". I am no fan of British Clearing banks having had many problems with them ov...[/quote] Hello All! For small amounts why not just draw it out from the hole in the wall, up to £300 per day?  Not bad exchange rate too.  we have been here over 5 months now, we do have a CA Britline acc, which needs topping up, but HIFX are a waste of time (now that I have finished transferring large amounts), my UK bank charges too much, so we now pay for everything using UK switch(Maestro) and draw out money to top up CA acc for standing orders etc. I agree it's not ideal, I will really have to look into this.  I like the idead of the HSBC - CCu transfer, as I do all my banking via internet, have done since it all started. Regards, Bob
  10. Not posted here for some time, too busy!  But what these people should have done instead of carrying on their conspiracy over the forum was to use the private message facility, perhaps. Don't shoot me I'm only the piano player!  I'm not that bothered about copyright either, but I agree with the others re discussing any methods re infringement of them here.  You may want Mazan's help someday on here, doubt you'll get it now though! Regards All, Bob (aching, after rotovating 600m2 this afternoon!!)
  11. Thanks for that Londoner, I will give him a call.  I agree with you about HIFX, they were effecient in dealing with my large transactions, how they think anyone is going to take up their offer of regular payments beats me!  Anyone reading who is due to send large amounts over, I suggest register with as many of the currency houses as you can (you have to before they will give you a quote), and play them off each other, be firm and talk straight, it's your money! Regards, Bob
  12. [quote]My husband's RAF pension is paid into our French account via Worldwide Currencies. They have recently dropped all their admn fees, so their service is completely free! There is an offer currently fo...[/quote] Hi, re your husband's pension payments via WWC, I have looked at their website but it gives very little info.  I have carried out all my trading with HIFX, they also have a 'regular payments' scheme for such things as pension payments to France.  However, when I contacted them for a quote earlier this week (when euro was 1.45 +), they quoted me a rate of 1.36! I expected the rate to be lower than that for transfers of larger amounts, but 1.36! On top of that, you must pay the 12th months payment up front.  Needless to say, I did not use them. Do you have any details of how WWC's scheme works, is it similar and do you have to pay money up front? Regards, Bob
  13. Thanks for the info everyone, we went yesterday. The B&Q store was in a mess as they were refitting, and as usual we had a hard time getting anyone to assist us, they always seem to be rushing around and when you ask for help it's always,' oh sorry I'm just doing this or that'. as for St Helier, well what a madhouse! The place is totally congested, mind you so was the other parts of the island we drove around, I dread to think what it's like in summer.  as we were so long in B&Q, we never got to the shops and that scratch card system for parking, crazy! All in all,we were not that impressed, think we'll stay in France for our shopping. Regards, Bob
  14. We'll take the car this time, where can you park the car at St Malo, if you go as foot passenger? As for driving like loonies, I can handle that as I'm a bit loonie too!! Regards, Bob
  15. [quote]There is a M & S which sells without VAT I believe, W H Smith and Woolworths. They are all near the ferry terminal. Don't know about B & Q. Carrying your purchases is the problem. ian[/quote] Thanks Ian, B&Q is the main reason for the trip, after an electric fire complete with surround and hearth, they are on sale at present.  Can't get much like that in France, not that we have seen anyway.  Got a good set of roof bars too if it does not fit inside the break! Regards, Bob
  16. Not much info around about this, that I can find anyway.  Does anyone have any useful info/tips?  We are planning to go on a day trip to get some items from B&Q there, very little info on the net aprt from mention of a shopping arcade not far from the harbour. I understand there are many of the UK stores there, including a new large co-op store.  Not that bothered about stocking up on Marmite etc, but it would be nice to have a look around! Regards, Bob
  17. [quote]Last time I bought a washing machine the only one available immediately was cold fill. It is very slow compared with a hot and cold fill and annoyingly heats the water itself when I have already got a...[/quote] Hi Gay, The machine is in the basement, so we would not hear the alarm anyway.  I had thought about one, we ahve them in the house.  I have always used the machine on a timer for years.  Do you think there is a risk of fire from the machine?  I suppose like anything electrical there is a risk, the machine is in a room with little else, all solid concrete. Regards, Bob
  18. If,as we do you put the machine on a timer for cheap rate overnight electric, it should not matter that much. We have a UK hot/cold fill machine but only use the cold fill.  I wish that was all I had to worry about in terms of sorting out the house! Regards, Bob
  19. Redcap

    E106/carte vitale

    Hello all Redcap here! Not been around much lately, been very busy since taking up residence in france! Anyway, I have been to the CPAM with my E106 which I think was a temp one, it gave cover up to Dec 05, I have received a temp attestation. I have now received another E106 which gives cover from Jan 06 - Dec 07.  Do I now return to CPAM with this E106, or just kephold of it until next year before my old one expires? In effect I will have received the full 2 years cover.  Also, my wife received hers first but the CPAM would not include me, saying I had to wait for my own E106.  Now my E106 from 1 Jan 06 - 6 Jan 07 includes members of my family, (my wife at present has cover on her own 106 until Sep 05), how will I get her included on my 106 for the remaining term? Hope that's not too confusing! Regards, Bob
  20. Thanks Mazan, I've been playing around connecting & disconnecting,sending of test e-mails to each of our mail accounts, all seems to be OK.  It does seem that I may have been blaming Wanadoo for my system crashes, when it appears to be something else causing the conflict.  I've recently installed Skype, so I'll check that out as a possible culprit! Hope not as so far Skype has proved very good. Regards, Bob
  21. Hi from Redcap! Yes, I finally did it, I managed to kick the wanadoo software off of my laptop!! Thanks to all who shared ideas, in the end I unistalled Wanadoo but that still left stuff in the start menu, and also my e-mails and address book were still missing.  So I did a 'system restore' back to last month (this is something that Win XP has that allows you to 'go back in time', to a previous date before a certain piece of software was installed, in my case Wanadoo). I then  installed the Sagem modem drivers, by going into the folder on the setup disc supplied by Wanadoo, and then manually set up a new connection and bingo, it works!  Got all my e-mails back and some that were sent to my other address that OExpress now retrieves. One thing slightly worries me though, how can I be sure that I am connected to Wanadoo B/Band, and not dial up.  Although the connection icon shows 'connected at 655.2Kbps, so I suppose that must be B/Band? Just thought I'd share my good news!  Thanks again to those that offered advice. Regards, Bob
  22. Hi from Redcap! If your family and friends own a PC then there is no reason to even have to pay a cent! Although I am not sure how it works on dial up, but we are on B/B and it's been great!  Please, if anyone knows of a cheaper method of calling family/friends let me know! Regards, Bob
  23. [quote]I agree that the Wanadoo software is a total mess but at least you never have to install and use it if you don't want to. Windows dial-up networking will handle Wanadoo analogue or IDSN dial-up with...[/quote] Hello Mazan, Are you saying that I can uninstall the wanadoo kit, leave the modem and then manually configure my connection?  I think this was mentioned recently by Puccette (I think). However, when I tried to set it manually using the connection wizard, it asks 'how do you want to connect?'  There are 3 choices, dial up, broadband with p/word, & b/band always on. I chose b/band but was told I already had a b/band connection (even though I had uninstalled wanadoo, which I note does not actually get rid of it as sitting on the start menu programs is the option to re install Wanadoo!) Should I have chosen dial up? and then configured with manual settings, putting P8,35 for the phone number?  I would love to get rid of the Wanadoo kit!!  I look forward to your advice, Regards, Bob (In foggy 22)
  24. I am with Wanadoo broadband and ever since I installed their software 'espace Wanadoo' I've had nothing but problems with my e-mail program, O/express.  It has installed OE over my exsisting OE6, so I've lost my address book and e-mails, and the system crashes every time I resume from standby!  We are still trying to sort it with the tech line but they just seem to want to re set passwords.  I wish I could just connect to the net without all the Wanadoo rubbish! So on the basis of having to use their software to connect, I would not recommend them. Regards, Bob
  25. [quote]The OS that we have is Win 2000 Professional. I managed to get rid of W/doo, with the help of 'Quillan'. I deleted the W/doo connection in the knowledge that if I did need it then I could reload it. I...[/quote] Hello John, I tried your method, deleted Wanadoo & tried to set a new connection, but when I select 'broadband connection' I get told I already have a broadband connection! Also, there is no space to enter a phone number, except when you select the configure a dial up connection.  Did you selct 'dial up' and enter the P8,35 in the space for phone number? Regards, Bob
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