Tresco

I still don't understand Nigel. No one who has/wants to work can sit around in the sun drinking cheap wine all day. That said, given the idignation of your response to me, I will again take your original question at face value. Some, or even many of the responses posted to you are postitive, and if you go through the archives you will find many more. Don't change your mind based on what you have read here, in the first 35 or so responses.  tresco

Sorry to jump in here and not respond to the original enquiry, but the mail flooding thing is really starting to get to me. I have never asked to be notified when someone responds to a thread I have posted in, yet I frequently receive Emails informing me 'someone has replied etc etc'. There is no rhyme and reason to it either, sometimes I get the notification, sometimes I don't. The thing is, I don't want to be notified. When I get up in the morning, and see 10 items in my 'in box', I want to think, ahh, all my brothers and sisters want to talk to me, not, 'ooooh, what's happening in the tsunami thread on LF?'. tresco

Nigel, you posted a multiple question about the cost of living in France, saying you were seriously thinking of moving here. Roughly 35 people responded, many of them at length. Now you're saying on the basis of these responses you are seriously thinking of making a film instead. (Having added 'independent production company' to your LF 'CV'). This isn't the first time this site has been visited by someone wanting free info/people for their 'low budget' films, but I can't help but smell a rat. What came first, the 'dream of moving to France, or your new 'dream' of making a film about what a nightmare it can be?????  tresco

I've tried to use the search facility a few times.  It looks snazzy, but it just doesn't work as well as it used to. The other thing is that some information dates, so it's good that people take the time to post new information in response to what might seem an 'old' question.

The charges are based on distance/zones, as well as cost of purchase. If your house is in the countryside I would strongly advise you provide a map with directions to your house. We had to go and fetch the delivery van from a town about 4k away. When we got back here with him, he unloaded the items, around 100 separate packs. I counted them but there was no way he was hanging around to let me check each (numbered) item. individually. There were three items of mine missing, and items for 3 other people in their place. That took a fair amount of sorting out. tresco

My brothers children are Swedish, and in his family they did that, and it worked fine, the two oldest are 13 and 11, both fluently bilingual. If you are interested I will ask about the writing side of things, and pm you. tresco

  Sums, that's what you really need to be good at. Realistic ones, down to the last bin bag, and you will not be fluent in french in a year, unless you are about 3 years old. More books, more research, more, more, more, although I do think Nick Trollope did a very good job with boiling it down.  

Chris, are you able to take any of that 18 weeks, or is it just the mother in France? The thing about being able to stay in after the birth for 5 days struck me, as friends/family who have had babies recently in England have been booted out after a few hours, well not booted, but it was definitely 'expected' of them to go home, and get on with it. Complementing breast with bottle sounds good to me, getting into a shared routine, sharing the joy of 3am feeds, we hope, particularly if both of you are intending to return to work. That limit the stimulation stuff is true, if you can bear to do it, be as boring as you possibly can be at night time, sleepy voice, slow movements. This was something I only learnt long after it was of any use to me personally, but I do believe in it now, and use it. Again, best wishes to you and your wife, it's a wonderful thing new parenthood, nothing has ever beaten it for me.

Mr Outcast, i'm not sentimental about Cjb, i've never met him, but like you, I am a parent, and so, like you, have been through something similar to what is going on in his life. It's not boring, it's part of the human condition. I like it, it's normal. Let's face it, the LF site isn't about cybernetics and control engineering is it? (Please, if there are any cybernetic guys or gals reading this, don't read anything into the above). It's about people who live here, or want to live here, and that means children, houses, goats, chickens, septic tanks, insulation, CPAM, ridiculous lists of stuff for schools etc etc. Are these things all boring?  Mr Outcast, if you're going to start asking about wives, can I ask you, again, why you claimed Opas as your wife, and signed off as MrO (the name Opas's husband used to use when posting under her name)???????????. Here's my guess. It was NYE, you'd had a few, you forgot to do what you usually do, you******d up and revealed what many people already knew (please don't start up with the data protection guys threat again). I don't know how many id's you have,  but I do wish you would stick to one. The moderators here don't get paid for what they do, many of them have paid jobs. Give us all a break, please. tresco

[quote]Hello I do not know why everyone is criticising youthful exuberance in jolly old Bliarland. I've been to some pretty boozy brit expat parties here and there where quite a few people indulged in what ...[/quote] If that's the sort of company you are keeping here, it does not surprise me that you use terms like 'frogs' to describe French people.

Theres a bit of a thing going on between albi and outcast at the moment, saying a post and the responses are a waste of time. I think they are just trying to distract attention from something else the thread about sleep deprivation has thrown up (pun intended). Generally though, I think the members of this forum are pretty generous with their advice, repeatedly so in many cases - that is, answering the same or similar questions again and again. I think that's great, I really do, but I'm a softy. I hope at some time in the future to be able to answer more 'living in france' related queries, at the moment I just don't feel knowledgable enough, and even with the 'simple' things, someone usually posts a good response before I see the thread. It certainly doesn't ever bother me that people ask questions to which the answer seems obvious. It's only obvious if you know, and also, sometimes people just want to tell what happened to them. Respond or ignore as you wish. tresco

I'm glad some of the responses have been useful to Cjb, although he didn't ask for advice specifically. One thing I am confused about is why outcast, in particular, now finds this thread so boring. He seemed happy enough on New Years Eve when he posted much earlier on in this thread, signing off as Mr O, and offering the services of Mrs O, (or was it Mrs Outcast), as a babysitter. Whatever, or whoever outcast was on about, I think that's one suggestion Cjb won't be following up.

Very few of us have the skills which are needed there at the moment, which is why it is better, as the aid agencies are saying, to send money. Penny, I have never seen a post which I thought was worthy of 2 or 3 duplications, except yours. Mr Outc.......ooops I have just edited my post, sorry to anyone who was offended by the string of asterixes I don't believe in banning, and I don't want to be banned, either. tresco

Hope not Cjb, I don't believe in banning. As to advice, you will get plenty, but it's usually because people remember what happened to them, or care, or both (and more....). A forum is fine, you can ignore it, (us) but try not to get cross with the in laws etc, they really do mean well, and you have to 'live' with them, as you don't have to do with us, although of couse we mean well too. ??? Have you got that???? eeerrrrmmm. tresco

What? Different music? Bobbins Just spoken to huge grown up son, who said, "yeah, I liked Dallas.... but only because you let me stay up when it was on". It cut across bedtime. With hindsight, how very, very sad for the poor lad.

aaaarrrgghhhhh! But thank you all, and please continue, I will find this thread easier in a day or two, like a crossword you (I) just can't finish on the day. tresco

Gay, it must have been me Mrs O meant, as I was the person who noticed earlier in the thread that Outcast, most peculiarly, had offered Mrs O as a babysitter  ("name your price"), and signed off as "yours MrO, I ,m here in france". Borrowing from Mrs Opas, will the real Outcast please step forward?

As an afterthought, surely this post should be under 'culture'? David, you missed out, next you'll be telling us you don't know who Buffy the Vampire Slayer is.

So, 'Alexis', what are you doing promoting a rival show, and surely when we get out of the shower, we will find it has all been a deam, (or a nightmare). That said, it's a hot tip. Praying for sous-titrage (subtitles), just to catch those nuances, y'know.

Perhaps someone else knows whether there is some sort of 'drop off' point for goods rather than money? It has been discussed before, recently even, and clearly there is a wide range of views here about the merits or otherwise of donating cash to charities. In this instance, however, if you wish to give something which will help, it makes much more sense to give money. For instance, are you going to go down to Le Clerc, and buy water to be sent at some considerable expense?  Water Purification tablets would be more sensible, and the aid agencies probably are spending a great deal of money on these at the moment, yet they can obtain them for much less money than you or I could get them for. tresco

[quote]He`s a tinker that outcast isn`t he.....hope he was refereing to his `Mrs ` when offering babysitting duties! Anyone who knows me understands that I am no earthmother despite the laid back approa...[/quote] Yes, Mrs O, what a nerve, not only does he (Mr Outcast) claim you are his wife, and offer to act as a go between for you in a new baby sitting business, but he then goes on to sign off as your husband, MrO. Fascinating stuff, it's just about made my day.

That's lovely SB Chris, that sleep deprivation thing can also be a very effective form of birth control, so make the most of this little one, if she carries on like this there may not be another!

Greg won. I only watched it when it got down to the final 8, and thought Lucie was the best of the bunch. tresco

You're right, that is a really lovely area, but I have always wondered, are there loads of Mosquitos in the summer?. We stayed in a great place, which I would recommend to anyone, and I was not troubled at all, but that was the year of the canicule, and locals said the mozzies were less bother that year.

Tricky one isn't it? I last mowed mine 2 weeks ago, and it could do with cutting again now, but the land is now swampville, as we have very heavy clay. Also, remember the canicule (heatwave) last year? We were paying for the grass to be cut, but when we moved over, in August last year, all the grass was dead, and our neighbour told us it had been dead for weeks, so what were we paying for?? You just can't win sometimes. tresco (17)