Boiling a frog

[quote]Iceni, no these were distance glasses that I need for driving and watching the telly etc. This company also do vari-focals at very reasonable prices too under £50. My last pair of multi-focals cost ...[/quote] They do NOT supply Varifocals Very fee mailorder coy will supply varifocals unless you send a pair of specs with the same lenses so they can measure the eye line,defeats the purpose a bit saving money you would need 2 pairs the same to start with (one to wear one to send) They do supply bifocals which are considerably cheaper than varifocals I have just paid £300 for varifocals in the UK and was quoted 600 euros here in France I suggest that £300 is about the standard price.  

So your gripe is that you have moved to france, cannot understand french, have been asked to take  a medical examination or some sort of test to prove that you are still entitled to incapacity benifit. ,in your opinion the person who is going to conduct the examination is not qualified  to assess you. You want the UK govt to pay for you to have a translator so you can understand. Perhaps we should all start a campaign about this totally unfair attitude. I found it difficult to deal with CPAM when handing in my E106 (a UK governent benifit) I should have demanded that newcastle pay for a translator . I pay my income tax to the UK government I had difficulty completing my income tax return here in France I should have demanded a translator to help I tried to reregister my car here in France I have been paying road tax for 35 years I want a translator   Get real  

Dont quite understand are you saying that Newcastle are insisting that you go to CPAM for a medical and then have the result translated into english for them Dont quite understand why they would want a french translation

Firstly E does not stand for english It is a European form. All E forms are universal in the European Union so yes an E111 is the same form in France as in the United Kingdom however generally the French authorities do not issue one if you are travelling to the UK as emergency treatment under the NHS in the UK is free so the French feel that they do not need to bother issueing an E111.

Try Sumaca in Angouleme just up the road from Mr Bricolage huge range of tiles

25€ a stere for oak in the charente

So much ado about nothing A simple mistake was rectified and that can happen to anyone anytime anywhere

[quote]This is a question for Boiling a Frog re the Freesat card. How exactly do you get one of these? I've searched on Sky's website, but there's no mention of them on there. On other sites I've seen tha...[/quote] Here is website http://www.freesatfromsky.com/   It talks mostly about the £150 deal for box and card but if you phone the number given and just say that you already have a digibox and dish and just want the card there is no problem They ask your name and address read over a statement saying you will only be using it in the UK and you pay over your £20 A couple of days later you get the card ( to your UK address) Despite what it says on the enclosed leaflet (which says it activates itself when inserted in digibox)you have to put card in box and phone sky to activate You need card number and serial number of box (you get that from services menu)  

[quote]This is a question for Boiling a Frog re the Freesat card. How exactly do you get one of these? I've searched on Sky's website, but there's no mention of them on there. On other sites I've seen tha...[/quote] Here is website http://www.freesatfromsky.com/   It talks mostly about the £150 deal for box and card but if you phone the number given and just say that you already have a digibox and dish and just want the card there is no problem They ask your name and address read over a statement saying you will only be using it in the UK and you pay over your £20 A couple of days later you get the card ( to your UK address) Despite what it says on the enclosed leaflet (which says it activates itself when inserted in digibox)you have to put card in box and phone sky to activate You need card number and serial number of box (you get that from services menu)  

[quote]This is a question for Boiling a Frog re the Freesat card. How exactly do you get one of these? I've searched on Sky's website, but there's no mention of them on there. On other sites I've seen tha...[/quote] Here is website http://www.freesatfromsky.com/   It talks mostly about the £150 deal for box and card but if you phone the number given and just say that you already have a digibox and dish and just want the card there is no problem They ask your name and address read over a statement saying you will only be using it in the UK and you pay over your £20 A couple of days later you get the card ( to your UK address) Despite what it says on the enclosed leaflet (which says it activates itself when inserted in digibox)you have to put card in box and phone sky to activate You need card number and serial number of box (you get that from services menu)  

If you have a UK address or access to one you can now ask for a freesat card from Sky cost £20 and if you have a sky digibox you will get ITV1 Ch 4 and Ch 5 You need to phone sky to activate it

Our French vet uses Rabisin

[quote]Kaz, My understanding is that if you are getting a teacher's pension then it is paid by Local Government which means the tax is paid in the UK. This is confusing as when we finally retire to France ...[/quote] You complete a French tax return showing your full income The very last paragraph for your UK Govt pension on which you pay tax in the UK and the section on income for your private pension You will only be taxed in France on your private pension and not on your UK govt pension You then need to tell the inland revenue UK that you are resident in France for taxation and they will instruct your private pension provider to pay your private pension gross There is a transition period when you may end up paying tax in the UK and France on your PP but you should eventually get a refund from the inland revenue

[quote]IV wrong, the manufacturers say the Rabies injections say 2 years, France and UK say it needs to be renewed every year. this means 12 years not 24. I have had dogs lasting 15 years so I would need t...[/quote] Just wonder where you got info that rabies jab in UK is only valid for 1 year according to manufacturer it is 2 years for a dog in the UK but they recommend every year http://uk.merial.com/pet_owners/dogs/products/rabisindogs.asp

[quote]Am I getting easily confused or not? I've just been looking through the brand new blue pet passport and wondering how long it's going to last. There are several sections to the passport: IV. Vaccina...[/quote] IV   12 spaces so if you stay in France valid for 12 years rabies jab every year V1 and V11   15 spaces so 15 trips to the UK(you only get tick and worm treatment done for your pet to enter the UK not applicable if say going from France to Spain)  V111 18 spaces for other vacinations(you may get more than one vacination done per year hence this number) IX and X  These are only for travel outwith the EU and have nothing to do with taking pet to UK . http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2003/l_312/l_31220031127en00010013.pdf Gives an explaination

Hardly unusual , are you just trying to advertise.

Woman is quite right CMU is Couverture Maladie Universalle nothing to do with income support For the application they will need your income for 2003 January to December. In the Charente they accepted a piece of paper typed up with my monthly income in euros which I signed as being a true record of my income as at that point I had not filed a tax return so didnt have a Revenu fiscal de reference which is how they normally would assess your payments however every department is different Take everything you can think of to your appointment birth certificates,marraige cert if appropriate proof of address(EDF bill)carte de sejour if you have one P60 if you have one.

[quote]Not true. In 15 years of continuous production of birth certificates here, never ever been asked for anything different and never ever seen a long one anyway. Perhaps your region is tighter on it's pa...[/quote] I wish you would not contradict every thing that any one says If you had said "not true for my department" then ok but in the Charente they wanted to know our mother and fathers names when we applied for CDS and they got them off  our birth certificates (long type) which were standard up until a few years ago. It is good advice to get the long one in case you are asked for it

She needs to prove that the house was not habitable ie no roof etc.Otherwise the French would just move all the furniture and cooker out on 31st Dec till the 2nd Jan Maybe thats why I have seen them moving furniture on 31st Dec

It is impossible with a fixed dish to get Astra 2 and Astra 1 even with 2 LNB,s You may have to settle for only receiving Astra 2,it makes no difference if you have twin LNB,s just connect one of them up to the decoder.Make sure you have good signal strength and quality on Astra 2.As long as you have a universal LNB they are designed for any sattelite.   As I said previously some decoder boxes are preset with the frequencies for BBC1 etc some are not Some boxes can run an automatic search (like on a car radio or a TV) and will find all the channels but some boxes you have to tune manually by putting in the individual frequencies for BBC etc

[quote]Many thanks for the ideas on Astra28.2. I am located near Redon in Southern Brittany and looking at Astra28.2's footprint on the web even though it has a "Spot-Beam" my area seems to be in it.... Whe...[/quote] Some of the decoders have the frequencies preprogrammed for BBC etc and some havnt You may either have to do a manual search or put in the frequencies for BBC

[quote]Does anyone know of a joiner/joinery in Poitiers/Montmorillon/Limoge area, who could construct a bespoke staircase? (preferably english speaking) Thanks[/quote] New one on me an english speaking staircase Have you tried Laperey in Poitiers or Limoges Will make and fit a made to measure staircase

The rate for our teacher French native qualified to teach french as a foreign language is 30 euros for a couple,20 euros one to one,10 euros in a group maximum 10 people These are all per hour. Thats Charente Dept 16 Champagne Mouton If anyone wants her name tel no PM me

We had similar problems. Both our dogs originally had UK pet passports with rabies jab valid for 2 years.At renewal day for rabies jabs we were residing in France so took dogs to our French vet.He had a look at paperwork and said that rabies jab sould have been done every year according to French rules however he phoned the ministry who told him to go ahead and give dogs rabies jab and because they were originally jabed in UK this was valid but from now on they would have to be done every year He even said that if a French dog was to be jabed in the UK for rabies with a 2 year validity this would not be valid in France it has to be every year. We returned to UK in August for a holiday with the French euqivelent of a PETS certificate as the French were not issueing pet passports In the UK we asked what paperwork was required for returning to France it used to be a PETS 5 but UK vets were no longer issueing PETS 5 so we had to get new style Pets Passports from a UK vet at a cost of £60 On our return to France we went to our vet to get the rabies booster for this year He was most impressed with the new style pet passports and completed the part for the booster rabies jab etc without a problem PS We are in the Charente near Mansle if anyone elso in the area has problems I can recomend the vet in Mansle  

[quote]If both types of fosse, septique and toutes eaux, have to be emptied at least every four years is there any point in feeding the bugs at all. With our fosse toutes eaux we were told that feeding it wa...[/quote] Just applied for a new fosse and part of the paperwork says that you agree to have it emptied every four year and a certificate handed into the marie