Cacknanty
-
Posts
125 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Cacknanty
-
-
Apple got ours, we had tried all the stuff previously mentioned plus nuts. I think it depends on the time of year, after reading up on them they like acorns, pine nuts, red fruits and obviously apple. Hopefully it was just the one.
They are a protected species in the UK but they only occur in a small area, around Aylebury I think. Look up Gliss Gliss.
They are known to chew through anything, electricity cables etc. Not to be encouraged. They also leave their droppings and pee anywhere and everywhere. The droppings you can see, the pee you can't. They also hiberate for about 7 months a year. Be quick 'cos they'll be nodding off soon.
As you can probably tell, I'm not a fan !
-
[quote user="Cathy"]
RR - Which sites do you recommend (for delivery in France)?
[/quote]
More cheers for Darty (same company as Comet), we ordered a fridge freezer on-line for delivery the following Thursday.
It was, unpacked, installed and the old one taken away. Two polite and careful delivery lads.
The only problem was, we needed a french phone no, which we didn't have. I did know the phone no of someone else in the village so used that. They then trotted up the village to tell that Darty had rung and the delivery would be 13:00-13:00. Which it was.
Stayed at Chateau Pramenoux for a couple of nights this summer, the owner had spent some time in the States and was well aware of the customer service shortcomings of his fellow French. He would go to McDonalds just to remind himself from time to time what customer service was all about. We couldn't fault him tho'. Super service.
-
[quote user="davidn"]I notice you are in dept 71 Cacknanty, i am in the Morvan last year four cast iron radiators shattered with the ice plus plenty of other pipes the heating was on but it was too cold and the bloody thermostat did not kick in[/quote]
That must have been pretty cold. We don't have CH so haven't got that particular issue. We have stopped going in Feb due to the cold, by the time there is any heat in the house, its time to go back to UK along with the draining down palava, just not worth it.
Right now the sun is shining, has summer arrived at last ?
-
I'm certainly no expert but I wouldn't have thought that a pint or two of salty water per year would have a significant effect on the fosse.
We didn't salt our toilets last year, went back in the spring to a cracked loo, previously we had placed a couple of sticks in the water, clearly not enough. We have never drained either chauffe eau (5 years) and haven't had a problem - yet. We do get one or two issues, usually a failed joint to a tap.
-
If you have a compressor you can always try blowing compressed air down the taps to clear most of any trapped water.
Putting salt in the ubends also helps to stop cracked toilets.
-
Correct with the 2m height restriction, which also appears on a lot of the carte bancaire toll booth lanes, but not all of them!!
I guess it does stop stop caravans and vans etc from getting through on the cheap, but I only have a roof box on the roof of a std car, sniff.
-
Thanks for that SoftyCrofty, must have taken an age to get that done.
I do actually have the book and have succesfully used it to wire two rooms so far in spite of my lack of French. This will make a big diff.
I shan't print it it tho', I'l put it on the laptop and use that. subject to having a leccy supply of course !!!
-
As JC says, it is a lot better to look at. The sides are quite built up so the views are not so good.
However the view across Millau to the bridge from the Puncho d'Agast is quite simply stunning. I might post a piccy in the photos section. You can throw yourself off the Puncho with a parachute attached if you like that sort of thing.
The tolls go up in the summer, can't remember the actual dates.
If you ride up the Tarn gorge, look out for Point Sublime up on the lip of the gorge, more stunning views.
Have fun
-
I have used an Avermedia USB system at home, it didn't receive anything downstairs and upstairs only received a few channels which kept breaking up. Using the normal house aerial tho' was a lot better with all channels available and with good clarity.
I took it about 50 miles away to a friends house and got excellent results using the little included aerial. That is where the system stayed !
So the answer to the question is, as usual, it depends how far from the transmitter you are and what is in the way, trees, houses, mountains etc.
Cheers
-
How about Paris, Burgundy & Champagne. The city, the countryside, the chateau, wine, food and fizz. What could be better. All easily reached within a few hours of each other by Autoroute.
-
Regrettably we didn't make it into Reims. The trip to France took 20 hours rather than the expected 8. Car breakdown added 5 hours, M25 closure added the rest. It was the grimmest trip yet.
However once we got to Epernay and had breakfast things looked up, a whizz round Mercier and tasting of 6 fizzes followed by lunch and then a nap brought us back into the land of the awake.Sunday was a gentle drive around the Montagne de Reims with occasional calls into a grower to taste his wares. We did feel obliged to buy some of course.
Have to say the Coop at Mailly was our favourite, a little more expensive than some but well worth it.
Reims will have to wait for another year.
-
We shall be visiting this weekend. Will report back if anyone at Reims council has taken note of this thread !
-
I rather think Eurotunnel have got wise to that scam Marc, the date is now almost as large as the letter. It has been something I considered over the last few years but being a messy soul I could never find the 'hangers' when I wanted them.
We took an earlier train from the Calais end on our return last Saturday, no charge as it was still off peak.
It seems that Seafrance are now charging £10 to go on an earlier ferry, unless this was just an Easter treat for their punters !
Cheers
Nigel
-
Hi,
Opposite the Leclerc in Autun is a Mr Bricolage. Can't think of any others of the top of my head. There is a big zone commercial Chateau Chinon road but I can't remember what stores are there.
A drive to Chalons would take you to Bricoman, much cheaper than most of the other DIY sheds. Takes a long time to wander around.
We are (occasionally) near to Nolay there are one or two builder merchants about but are expensive unless you can haggle or open an account.
Cheers
Nigel
-
Had a couple of these, probably a little smaller. We found a glass brick fitted nicely in each one. Not sure how we shall get rid of the webs etc as they obviously don't open.
Cheers
-
Went over at Easter to do this job (and others). Rented a big compressor (trailer) and blaster complete with crash helmet and other protective gear.
We had about 18 beams to do, used 10 x 35 Kg of white sandblasting sand and a seive to re-use it. The sand was €5 a bag, the blaster/compressor etc was about €170 for a day.
We picked the kit up at 16:00 and took it back at 9:15 two days later and were just charged for the day. It was jolly hard work for two people but the we did start early and work late both days to get it done.
It was very damp over easter and we did get a few problems with 'clogging', however getting a fire going in the fireplace sorted that issue out.By the end the sand had turned to dust but was still cleaning. Our black beams are now a really great golden colour but still need a bit of work to tidy them up. Some are looking a lot thinner than they were too !
Compared to others in our area who have spent weeks cleaning fewer beams by various methods we thought it was well worth the expense and mess. We also had a shell of a place so the mess didn't matter, apart from the cleaning up afterwards, the sand really does get everywhere.
Cheers
-
You could try Heritage Motor Insurance on 0845 811 8118
From the advertising blurb, if you have your usual cover with them they only charge £25 to add euro breakdown cover.I haven't used them myself yet, I may check them out soon as my car is coming up to 10 yrs old.
Cheers
-
We got a parking ticket in the Vendee 4 years ago, we didn't pay it and have not heard anything about it.
Got another one last winter, we actually attempted to pay this one but the Tabac we went into didn't have a clue what to do with it, the Police Municipal chap buying some ciggies also didn't know where to go to pay it. He could only suggest we went to the next village down the valley. That one went in the bin as well.
These are my own experiences and not recommendations !
Cheers
-
I use a Dell PDA with Prymenav software and a compact flash card GPS receiver, mounted on the dashboard.
Having seen tomtom and navman, I decided on Prymenav as it costs about £75 for UK and all Europe (NOT just the main roads). They seem to display very similar, Prymenav doesn't have some of the bells and whistles such as alternative voices.
Downloading the maps onto an SD memory card takes quite a while and to get all UK & most of Europe would take a 1GB SD card. I use 2 x 512MB cards. One has UK and the east side of France, the other has most of France, Switz & N Italy on it.
A problem I have with Prymenav is that it is ok for journeys up to about 300 miles, longer than that it locks the pda up trying to calculate the route. This is on a top of the range all singing all dancing pda. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but for the time being I just split the route up.
Last year I called in to a builders merchant I had not visited before, it was lunchtime and closed. I set the location as a destination on the PDA and went home. That afternoon the wife went out to get the required tackle and was directed straight to the builders merchants. Brilliant. I wonder if builder merchants can be downloaded as a Points of Interest (POI) file ?
Another useful feature is that in fog you at least have an idea of the road layout ahead.
It has saved loads of heated exchanges in the car, and she only gets woken up at the Peage now !
http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk were very helpful and have quite good prices.
-
Not sure that the headlights on continental cars are dipped to the right. I believe they are set to 'straight ahead'.
I may be wrong and no doubt will be corrected shortly.
We went across to France at the end of May in an Alfa spider, they have a lever behind the light fitting which changes the lights from UK to continental setting (or vice versa). Since coming back to the UK I've left them on continental setting and they certainly don't light up the right side any more than the left (but then they are fairly hopeless at lighting up anything !!!)
Cheers
-
Have returned from our trip to the Alps.
Whilst the Simplon Pass is open, the Italian border crossing on that road is shut until 25 June from 10am to 3pm every day for roadworks. As we arrived at 10:30 we turned around and replotted another route.
Managed 15 passes in 4 days (some duplicated), absolutely brilliant fun and superb weather. Not many cars about but loads of motorbikes.
-
The problem with leaving negative feedback first, is that they can post negative feedback back on you !
A totally unsatisfactory system in my view. I now only ever post -ve feedback if they have already given +ve.
After a 'tit for tat' -ve posting, the only way to get rid of it is to agree with the other party to remove both -ve feedbacks.
With your problem I would keep trying the buyer for a few more days and then report them to ebay who can remove them from the system. However they can just rejoin using another name although they start from scratch again.
You could offer the car to the losing bidder under the 'second chance' procedure. Obviously they would only pay what they had bid up to.
Good luck.
-
Try www.map24.co.uk and zoom in to the intersection. Requires java2 but will download it if required.
Cheers
-
A question for all you mountain dwellers.
We are looking to visit the French/Italian & Swiss alps at the end of May/begining of June.
What chance is there of many of the passes being open by then ?
I am keeping an eye on :- http://www.bison-fute.equipement.gouv.fr/givre3/listeflashs.do?noZone=5&noZone2=6&noZoneBis=7&noZoneBis2=4&type=2&langue=FR&typeFlash=1&pageAstec=internet/ie2_quartse.html
and also http://www.alpineroads.com for info.
Thanks in anticipation.
rats?
in Wildlife/Nature/Environment
Posted
Sorry but when I said Aylesbury, I meant Amersham, see :- http://www.amersham.org.uk/glis.htm
Well it begins with A and is down sarf.