arthur smith

the whole books been on the web for 3 days now, what's the surprise ? arthur

hello have a look at www.chateaucorrige.com lovely place, well situated, and very friendly people.   arthur  

hello gang sorry i haven't been on for a while, but hen you actually get here, and realise how much work is ahead of you, then the time to go on-line just doesn't seem to be there. the journey over started pretty badly, our removal van turned up 6 hours late, the new owners had been sitting outside for 2 hours !!! to speed things up, i paid their removal men 'cash in hand' to muck-in and get us out. result, moved out in 40 mins ( did we move out, or were we thrown out ????? ) journey down ok, except the pup got constipation. ever seen 2 grown people trying to coax a dog to crap in northern france ? well it was us !!!! overnight in formula 1, gang of workers opposite drinking 'til 4.00 am, fantastic. drove down a10 no probs, until 2k from exit junction, them wagon upside down. 2 hours to travel 2k !!!!  pup then throws up in car !! arrived at caravan in a thunderstorm, no gas because i didn't know there was a reset button on the gas bottle !!! no tv, because......still don't know why ... soaked through, no food, had a pot noodle and a bottle of wine each !!  looked at each other and thought... what the f**k have we done ? next day, sorted the gas and the tv ( for the radio ), bought fresh bread bread, sun shining, ate breakfast in garden, things are looking up... that was 6 weeks ago, and only a fraction of what's happened soo far...   arthur          

bonjour all we made it !!!!!!  we now live in france, and this is home ( still feels funny when you say it ). can't stop long, storm coming, but wanted to say hello. finally got the interweb yesterday, took 8 hours f*rting around to try to get online, finally with help from a friend we have suceeded, and typically there's  storm coming. can't wait to catch up with the crack, and tell you about our disaster of a moving day... nice to be back arthur  

no dahlink, fraid not. although i was told that my king lear in 1975 at school is still talked about... '...how sharper than a serpents tooth it is, to have a thankless child...' the 'stage' thing is the three day course to explain business set-up, or so i was told. arthur  

france telecom should be connecting our phone on the 1st august, so then we need to sort out interweb access. probably just with france telecom/orange ( i think ). acccording to the web we should have broadband access on our phone number. we looked at the 29.99 packages, but we're not that bothered about the television bit, or the free phone calls within france and to uk, as we use skype and it's cheap enough to use. arthur failing that, i'll be looking for an interweb cafe to get my forum fix !!

We are going to a little hamlet in the north haute vienne, midway between Limoges and Poitiers. Will be working on the house for 2-3 months as we will be living in a caravan in the garden to start with. Attending the stage at Limoges in September, and then in about November/December, looking for work as a floor and wall tiler with a bit of painting and decorating as well. arthur

just had phone call from solicitor, who informs us that contracts were exchanged this morning !  there's no going back now ... TOH and i looked at each other in a very strange way, and i'm sure there was a quick 'bottom twitch' by both of us. going out for dinner with our 4 bestest friends tonight, i just know that there'll be bucket loads of tears from TOH . arthur

i just feel like i'm in the great escape. ali has been the one in front of me to escape, and now it's like waiting for the signal that she got over the wall to the other side and made it ???? my turn comes on tuesday next week, but i'd love to know that ali made it before they switch off my interweb. arthur just re-read and it doesn't make sense to me, but hopefully someone will get the drift.  

morning, just a quickie to wish you both the best of luck. we leave on tuesday 1st august so i suspect we're all having the same feelings at the moment. france telecom wil be installing our phone line on the 1st, but we haven't sorted the internet out yet, so it will be interesting to read how you have fared when we eventually get back on line. once again, good luck ali and pads, see you at the other end.   arthur    

afternoon brico depot are doing a promotion on air conditioning at the moment. 199 euros for a reversible unit for up to 75 cubic metres. remote control and all fittings included. 5 year guarantee. arthur

we have a winner in the last word thread !!!! and wouldn't you know it, it's a woman !!! well done di

do you need 10 year insurance cover to guarantee decorating and tiling ? if so, how does that work for an emulsioned dining room /kitchen ? can you guarantee paintwork for 10 years ? just curious.

for what it's worth, the 120 minutes of play, and the deliberations of should he / why didn't he / if only, became irrelevant when it came to penalties. it was then just 5 v 5, and yet again our much vaunted midfield, ( frank lampard, 2nd best player in the world ?  yeah, right ) choked. players who take penalties for their clubs and score regularly where found wanting on the big stage. and as for putting carragher on for the penalties, he's only ever taken 2 before, not what you would call experienced, 'i just told the gaffa that i fancied it ' . bravo owen hargreaves, it was a pity that steven gerrard and frank lampard didn't bother to turn up and give you some support. arthur    

where you been lately ? what you been up to ? see how adult i'm being, not replying on the last word thread !!! yes, moving over at the end of the month ( all things going well ). arthur

fingers crossed, we'll be 5 days behind you. i was thinking of starting a new place for people like us.  it could be called The Waiting Room. similar to The Lounge, but far more sensible ! you could enter the waiting room and keep your own countdown updated. and as each person left we could have a party  ! what do you think ? arthur ( aren't i good to you ? feeding you these lines to give you an excuse to have the last word !! )

don't know, will have to look in 'search history' to see. it could be 'virtually' anybody !!! anyway, i'm off to yorkshire today.

fantastic, can i now say that i have been virtually active with someone on t'internet ?

according to the little bomb above my name, i am not currently on line, so i don't know who's posting this ...

bl**dy hell woman arthur anyway, are you going to change the time left on your signature as the day gets closer ?    

morning again this enforced idleness is starting to befuddle my brain. do i remember that there is somewhere on the forum that shows which members are currently logged in ? or was it a dream ? arthur

there's always one, or two ,or three isn't there !! i bet you lot couldn't wait for christmas morning could you ? you probably picked up your presents and shook and felt them to see what it was, and if you couldn't figure it out, you opened them at midnight whilst kidding yourselves it was christmas morning, didn't you ? where is this laid back, patient, everything comes to those who wait, attitude that is supposed to take over when we become francophiles ? now, please stop reopening this topic, you'll feel better in the end. arthur

for g*ds sake, let's try and get a little tension going here. the original poster stated 'no postings for 48 hours after the last poster has posted'. right, it's now 09.02 friday morning (uk time), let's see who has the self control to wait for 47 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds. can you resist the temptation until then ?  arthur see you back here on sunday morning  

morning all scores at 90 mins, predictions as follows; brazil 1   france 1 england 2   portugal 2 then tubby will score the winner for brazil from a penalty (short run up of course) and england will finally win a penalty shoot out. arthur just need that prat murray to get beat at the tennis today and the weekend will be off to a great start.

thanks gang   arthur