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Tootles60

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Everything posted by Tootles60

  1. From another forum re the delays yesterday.....apparently the fishermen brought the blockade forward because the  forecast for today was bad...... MOH was on the ferry that was delayed by the blockade. I believe it was the French fishermen who brought their action forward from today to yesterday because of the predicted storm. He was told this by the General Manager of Speedferries so I suppose it must be right. I dont know whether any more action is threatened and I didnt see anything on the news lasy night about it but I was busy in and out the room whilst the news was on so could have missed it. MOH finally got over to France at about 2ish I think.   There were no ferries until after lunch......
  2. May I add a different perspective on guests from hell? A couple of years ago we rented a house for 10 days over Christmas. The bedroom and bathroom were truely wonderful, the kitchen very well fitted but there were no instructions on how to use the cooker, had to consult the ?caretaker in the main house, the standard of furnishings was abysmal, the settee was so uncomfortable, with no cushions we had to use pillows from the bed, the only chair was in such bad condition that we had to use a throw to cover it, the main door had such big gaps in it that we had to go and get duct tape and tape the door up and use rolled up newspaper to fill in the gaps in the door. The general cleanliness of the place left a lot to be desired too, I had to clean the living room when we got there and I swear no one had cleaned the dust from under the dresser for years....... The owner/caretaker of the gite left two days before Christmas for the UK leaving no one in the main house and no contact details. We paid a security deposit of £100 and we were charged £60 for the electric heating for 10 days, I nearly had a fit...... we used the heaters on time switches, the bedroom heater only went on for an hour morning and evening and we had just two thermostatically controlled heaters on in the living room/kitchen, we found these very difficult to control, but used them sparingly...... the rental was not cheap either..... to say we felt ripped off is putting it mildly. I am pleased to say that this is not our general experience of renting in France, we have over the years stayed in great properties and made friends with many owners.........I do so feel for those of you who have been blesssed with bad guests, I try to leave a house in the condition I would like to find it, and often get compliments as to the condition we leave gites in when we leave.... Like everything, there are two sides to a story
  3. We have travelled with Speedferries, Sea France, P & O, Brittany Ferries and Eurotunnel, Speedferries offer an alternative to the big ferry companies and for £50 return do not knock it....... they have forced the big ferry companies to review their prices. Yes the boat is not top notch, but you are only on it for 55 minutes, they have food and drinks, if you dont like theirs, take your own........First on last off is unfortunate, it is not a ro-ro ferry which is why they cannot take caravans and larger vehicles..... you have to turn round to get off. Personally we are travelling with them again at Christmas, if we are late.... so what.......we are staying overnight in Boulogne anyway........I will be pleased if they get another Ferry, they deserve to do well....... We do not use the ferries as much these days as we tow a caravan and use Eurotunnel, but would always use Speedferries when we travel without the van as long as they manage to keep their fare structure reasonable..........good luck to them.........  
  4. I have read this thread with interest. I brought my children up to respect other peoples property and to behave when they went out. My youngest son went to a freinds house for tea, when I went to collect him I was complimented on his good manners. Sadly when the children became parents themselves things changed, am I the only Grandparent who acknowledges that her eldest Grand-daughter was, and still is obnoxious.... she is now 21 and believe it or not holds a resposible position as a customer service rep for a large travel firm, how? well I really do not know, she is rude, swears like a trooper, even to her parents, never to me though she knows better than to try it on with me.......and drinks like a fish.... thinks it is funny to come rolling home p***** as a f*** most weekends. Second son has two children who run riot at the sllightest opportunity. The only saving grace is my youngest daughter who has two children, both of whom are a delight to be with, we have just taken them away for the weekend and they behaved perfectly, did excactly as they were told, ate all that was put in front of them and sent us a note when they got home. They do have their moments especially Alex who is very like his half Italian father in many respects, he can sulk for England if he wants to, I should add that my daughter seperated from the childrens father when Alex was 2 and Alice 4, so she has brought them up on her own and made a very good job of it too. I well remember when 1st grand-daughter was small my youngest daughter saying ' no child of mine will behave like that' and to her credit they have not. I was at a lunch party at the weekend where there were several children present, at one point I was in the kitchen and one of the children came through and started opening the cupboard doors, I asked him what he was looking for, nothing, was the reply I just wanted to see what was in the cupboards, later I had reason to go upstairs and the same child was going through the drawers in one of the bedrooms and throwing the stuff on the floor. I did not say anything but went down and spoke to the person whose room it was, as it happened the daughter of the house..... she went charging upstairs and fortunately for me he was still in the room going through her handbag..... if I say she went ballistic at the childs parents you will know what I mean!!!! The parents just shrugged their shoulders and continued their conversation...........at which point daughter of the house went upstairs made the child put every thing back and locked all the upstairs doors except the bathroom and put the keys in her pocket. We go away in our caravan quite a bit and I must admit we hate it when we get a family pitch right next to us, we have started using adult only sites, not that we do not like children but because we cannot stand their behaviour. a sad reflection on todays society.
  5. Please,please,please..... can we have some more..............
  6. I am on NTL in the Uk and have been sending and recieveing messages  to various parts of France and various providers with no problem.
  7. We travel in France quite a bit, both in our car and towing a caravan. I am very careful regarding security...... We carry photocopies of ALL our documents in the car with us, I have a safe box which is fitted in the bottom of the cupboard behind the fire, this holds our car documents E111 etc when we are in the van. I do not use a handbag when we are away, I have a small shoulder purse which is big enough to carry our passports and a small purse. I use a debit card when ever possible and draw cash from machines only when I have to and not in large amounts, if you have a nationwide account they do not charge you for withdrawals on the continent. I also have a spare credit card taped under the carpet in one of the bunks, anyone wanting to get it would have to roll both of us out of bed in order to get into the bunks. I never leave cameras etc out even the wireless and small TV go in the bunk overnight, and we booby trap the door of the van with the table, if anyone opens the door the table will fall out at them. I do not leave the roof vents open at night, although we do leave one of the windows on the night catch. NEVER stay on aires there are plenty of camp sites around and they are far safer. Having said all this, enjoy yourself, just take care and do not flash stuff around and you will be fine, I do not even wear a watch when we are away, if we need to know the time we have a clock in the car and the van and my husband wears a very old one.
  8. There is a possibility that we may be spending 4 months just north of Les Sable d'Olonne, we are looking for information re shopping, super/hypermarkets, markets etc within easy reach, also what to see and do whilst in the area. We will be working, not on one long holiday but the nature of the position means we will have a fair amount of free time. Thanks in advance.
  9. Our old freind Nigel has a new show!!! he is now running a bed and breakfast in the Ardeche, Tuesday night 7.30.!!!   Should have expected it I guess the last series he produced, a Country Parish about Boscastle in Cornwall finished last week, so I suppose the thought it was time he was seen on TV again......
  10. Use speedferries, £50.00 return!!! Bolougne to Dover
  11. Very interesting programme, Speedferries have definately rattled the cages of the big boys......... it would seem that the dirty tricks brigade have been out in force......it was confirmed at the end of programme that they hope to have a second ferry on line this summer. Good luck to Speedferries and long may they continue to function.
  12. For those of you who are interested, speedferries is to be the subject of a programme on 18th January 9.50pm BBC2.
  13. We just got back from our trip to France by Speedferries, excellent trip both ways, journey up the M1 was the worst bit, traffic awful took us an hour to travel 11 miles..... could have been back in France in that time. I am only sorry that Speedferries will not be able to take caravans, we would continue to travel with them, but having been on the boat can understand why they are not able to take them, the head room is very restricted in places and having to turn to come off could be a problem especially for really long combinations.  
  14.   Neither do I!!!!   We are booked to travel out and back with them in two weeks time.................
  15. Geraniums and fuschia's can both be kept by cutting them down and putting in a box lined with newspaper then covered with a layer of compost and then put in a shed or garage. I used to keep mine in our back bedroom, but a friend gave me this tip and I have used it ever since, which reminds me I must do mine, we have had several cold nights recently and I really do not want to loose them. Once they start to shoot in the spring you can take cuttings of geraniums, put them in a pot around the edge and enclose the pot in a polybag until you see signs of them growing, do not use rooting powder, they hate it and will rot off. I test mine to see if they are rooting by gently putting them, if there is resistance then they are rooting ok. Fuschia's can also be propagated by taking cuttings, they will stand rooting compound, but I root mine in water in a glass, I use two old sherry glasses with either cling film or foil on the top, poke holes in for the stalks to go through, take off all the leaves bar the top set and push though the holes in the foil/clingfilm - once they show signs of a root I pot them up into small pots, start to pinch them out and pot on as they grow before putting them out for the summer, they will flower approx 8 weeks after they have last been pinched out.
  16. I have spoken today to a very helpful person at speedferries who tells me that there is a mistake on their website re the length of the car/caravan combination for anyone who was looking to book a caravan on their site, and that it will be put right later this week, a car and caravan will take up 4 car spaces on the ferry and the cost will be in line with this. She also said that they did not know when the new timetable would be out as they were hoping to do a refit on the ferry in January and as yet there is no news on the new ferry they are hoping to acquire.Fares and the timetables would be announced when the refit had been scheduled. I hope this helps any of you who were trying to find out about caravans travelling on Speedferries. More power to their elbow I say.
  17. I have a laptop and also a Sony Ericsson phone with blue tooth, I want to know how to use these two in conjunction when we are in France in our caravan? I had thought about getting a centrino laptop when a friend told me I did not need to do this as I could use the phone etc, but did not tell me how to do it grrrrrrrr I am not the worlds best at using the computer, so easy to understand please.....
  18. Just checked today on a crossinf with speedferries 21st November for 1 week with caravan.....   £88 I kid you not, in which case I cannot wait until their spring fares come out, I will be first in the queue...... France here we come for 4 - 6 weeks in the spring......
  19. Yup, I found that out for myself, when I signed in nothing came up re caravans, so will try in October......having just had a quote from a rival firm for £760 I am thinking about putting water skis on the van and towing it across!!!LOL I am hoping that speed ferries will be quite a lot cheaper.
  20. Yipee!!!!!!! that means we should be able to book our crossing for next spring at a reasonable price, we have yet to sample SF, have a crossing with them booked in November, not affected by them switching to winter service.....soooooooooo I will sign in tomorrow and see what the price is for a crossing in April.
  21. I do not like the new forum either, I have been banging on about losing all my previous messages and being listed as a newbie, am I insulted... YES I AM.
  22.   Just seen I am a newbie when I have been a forum member for at least 2 years with a lot of posts to my name !!!!! whats going on?   In my opinion it wasn't broke, why fix it?????
  23. yes it so much slower one could go to sleep waiting for it to come up with the threads.... boring
  24. You can also make courgette loaf which is nice used as a tea bread, I also slice them into batons and put salt and pepper on, drizzle over olive oil and toss into a green salad..... delicious.
  25. I have frozen cougettes and then used them in soups etc, I grated them, put them in a bag and into the freezer, have you considered using them raw in salad? I cut a chunk off and cut it into batons, mix with the other salad veg and drizzle with dressing, you can also roast them, I do not advise you to do this as part of a roast veg pan, as you will get water coming out of them as they cook, but put in a seperate tin, sprinkle with olive oil and salt and roast in a hot oven for about 15 minutes, drain and serve.
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