Patmobile
-
Posts
537 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Never
Posts posted by Patmobile
-
-
[quote user="Rdkr"]I'll have a toke off what you're smoking dude! Must be some funky smoke![/quote]How interesting you should bring up smoking. Did I ever tell you about the perfect set of 6 concentric smoke rings I once blew at a dinner party given by the Premier of British Columbia? The chief of a tribe of native americans, who was also at the party, thought I was propositioning his daughter. I find that Cohibas produce the best rings - and they're a damn good smoke, too. Aah, Havana! What a wonderful city! - even better than Rome in my opinion, though the ice cream you buy on the Spanish Steps is the best in the world.Now Spain, there's a place I don't like. The bread's terrible.Now what were we talking about? Patrick
-
Why are we not as free to criticise or ridicule a person's religious beliefs as we are their fashion sense, hairstyle, or choice of car?Why can I tell the truth about the cruelty and inhumanity of Hitler and the Nazis (edit: members of mid 20th century german fascist organisation), but not of the Ayatollahs and muslim fanatics?Why is it not regarded as an important civic duty to point out and ruthlessly expose the contradictions, falsehoods and wickednesses of organised religions?If I could draw a cartoon I'd start right herePatrick
-
[quote user="BJSLIV"]
I dread to think what it will be like in 2007 when household users are allowed to change suppliers. Electricity suppliers in the UK often make a complete hash of handling the transfers. Heaven only knows what the French will do when they addin the requirements for a few registered letters, twelve month rolling contracts, advance notice of cancelation........
[/quote]I hope some UK entrepreneurs will get over here and show the French how to compete for electricity consumer's business. Only a state protected monopoly could hope to get away with EDF standing charges and poor choice of tariff options.My phone service is provided by a UK based company and the call rates are lower and less complicated than any I've seen from French providers.Roll on deregulation!Patrick -
[quote user="Tresco"][quote user="Philmco"]
Reminds me of a friend who took his father-in-law's ashes to sprinkle in the Solent while watching the Jubilee Review of the fleet......
[/quote]
My own fathers ashes went in the Solent too Philmco, after being taken on a boisterous trip to Portsmouth. They went to several old sea dog pubs/haunts, and HMS Victory, if I am to believe my brothers.
This was after a year in the bottom of my mums wardrobe.
[/quote]The Solent must be the most haunted bit of water in Europe. My dad's ashes, too, were consigned to the ebb tide near the Calshot light vessel (now replaced by a buoy) to ensure maximum dispersal throughout the east and west Solent.Patrick -
I have worked, and have been paid a salary in France by a French business, for a few months, a year or two back. Does this mean I can claim the dole?I had never even thought about it beforeIt would come in handy for paying the bar bill down at the golf club.Patrick
-
[quote user="Tillergirl"]
Also while i am here and posting. As i do
not know what French people actually like to converse about, (differentcultural prospectives) i am somewhat lacking in confidence to strike upan attempt at the momement to start a conversation in fear of making afaux pas.
So
if any of you know of where else i can go to meet other English peoplein order to build my french conversational skills over a coffee i wouldalso be grateful of the information. I find not knowing anyonevery lonely at the moment.
[/quote]There's a weekly French class at the Richelieu cafe/restaurant inHesdin where you might make some progress with the language and also meetsome new people.Patrick
-
I wish that in 2006 my golf handicap will be reduced to single figures,that Sunderland will stay up, that butter, cream and pastry will befound to offer significant health, fitness, and slimming benefits, andthat my newly-born first grand-daughter will keep healthy, grow strongand love her grandad.Patrick
-
Is it Christmas already? Have a good onePatrick
-
[:$] I think I'm in love with Agenais' avatar. Who is that gorgeous woman? Patrick
-
[quote user="Miki"]I am really looking forward to our trip back to the UK for thefestivities, in no way can France match how the English celebrate Xmas(all over and done before it even starts here !) so we try to go back everyyear. We also like to take short breaks in the UK whenever possible. Now I am in no waydeciding what is the best by doing so, purely having a change ofscenery, a change of culture, visit family and friends, all of which issomething many French themselves absolutely love to do, so I am simplyacting French ain't I !!As far as many folks coming here on the back of booms in prices,how many times have I said that ! Cheap housing, cheap wine and fagshave all I reckon, added to the more recent influx of Brits, I amreading and hearing of more and more, that had never, if rarely,visited France before their move.[/quote]Christmas is one of the reasons I prefer it here in France. It'sso much less commercialised and you don't have to stuff yourself withflavourless turkey and its leftovers in company with the same people,over and over again, for about two weeks.In general though, I think we like living in France because it'sdifferent and so every day is a bit of an adventure and achallenge. For that reason, if it ever gets boring I think we'llmove on somewhere new rather than going back to UK. I was bornand lived in the NE of England up to the age of 18. I'm sure it'svery nice and all that, but I've been there and done that. Certainly, a lot of Brits buy because houses arerelatively cheap. This is great if you want to live here butusually a big disappointment to those who fancy they can make a quickkilling in the french property market.Patrick
-
OK"Mais le même anglais, avide de cruauté, Jeffrey Quirk , quiavait sollicité la Ville de Pau, veut maintenant exercer sa violencesur les renards de Lascazeres dans les Hautes Pyrénées ! "I don't suppose Mr. Quirk, nor many of his friends, would agree withthis characterisation of him. I don't believe it myself, and I'venever met the man.Patrick
-
[quote user="Russethouse"]
The problem is that other people are harmed - land is trampled,
crops destroyed, pets sometimes killed and other livestock jeopardized.For instance one of the members of the LACS group I used to belong tolived deep in the woods in a little cottage. They kept a few animalschickens, bantams and goats....the hunt went over their land and thenanny goat 'dropped her kid' meaning that they had no milk, lost thekid and nearly the goat as well.If the hunt had input into the numbers of foxes in the Uk those
numbers would have altered when we had foot and mouth here - theydidn't.Cruelty to the fox is only one issue involved Bouffon, the guy who
wrote the piece I previously posted (you might find itinformative) coined the term 'speciesism'. Perhaps he had you in mind !Oscar Wilde got it right !
[/quote]Oscar did get it right, but that does not excuse the kind of vehementand personal abuse of a private person, who has committed no civiloffence, that I found in the piece by the Rassemblement Anti Chassequoted by you in your initial posting .Reasoned argument I can understand and respect, yet in spite of thefact that I find myself more against hunting with hounds than for it,this kind of hatred-filled rubbish has the effect of putting me firmlyon the side of the people who just want to quietly get on with theirperfectly legal activity.Your first paragraph above, if true, makes a good point. No doubthunt enthusiasts would argue that damage is always compensated orrepaired by the hunt. I believethat I posited, however, that the maintenance of a large fox populationin Britain mightbe the result of a couple of hundred years of work by the hunts,so I feel your point about foot & mouthhaving stopped hunting for a few months, without noticeable effect onnumbers, is much less telling.Suppose shooting all foxes on sight had been the accepted practice inBritain since, say, 1700. Would foxes now be as rare as bears orwolves are in the Pyrenees? I think they probably would. You might think this an acceptable trade-off - no foxes, so no hunting- but some would not agree. Hopefully, though, these dissenterswould not stoop to personal abuse of anyone with an opposingview. Patrick -
If it's legal and they can get the agreement of local landowners, then let's for goodness sake leave them to get on with it.I dislike the idea of hunting foxes with hounds, whether in fancydress, on horseback, or otherwise, but this vehement campaign againstpeople doing their own thing, while harming no other person, is a typically British thing that I hoped not to see in France.Let's just hope that if the gendarmes ever see masked saboteursattacking people in fancy dress on horses engaged in a perfectly legalpursuit, they will have no hesitation in banging up the realtroublemakers - I mean the sabs, of course.By the way, I've lived in the French countryside for 5 years and neverseen a fox, alive or dead. In Britain you see them everywhere,including dead on the roadside, and suburban back gardens. Isuppose the farmers have shot most of them over here, but is itpossible that the existence of foxes in such numbers in Britain is aresult of a couple of hundred years of careful conservation and cullingby the hunts? Patrick
-
This is true! A very nice girl once remarked to my wife that there were a lot of villages called "Rappel".I also like the story - probably not true - about the Belgian familywho kept setting off for a holiday in Britain and returning a few hourslater disappointed. They explained that they were intending tocross by ferry from Calais to Dover, but every time they started outdown the motorway they came to a sign that said PAS DE CALAIS, so theycame home.Patrick
-
Apart from some initial difficulty getting recognised - I had topretend I'd forgotten my password, then received a new totallyunmemorisable one - the new style seems to work well and it's certainlyvery clear on my screen. Congratulations.Yes, a little problem with the clarity of the page numbers, and I nolonger get a short preview of the topic when I hover the cursor overit. Has this feature disappeared? I found it quite usefulin sorting which topics I wanted to read.At this point I think I would like to lose my icon virginity and put in a smiley, but I can't figure out how to do it! Patrick
-
[quote]According to my marvellously informative EDF bill:83.4% Nuclear8.1% Renewables3.8% Gas3.1% Coal1.3% Oil0.3% "Other" - what could "other" be? Hot air from politicians? Farting from farmyard animals? Or...[/quote]
I think "other" might be hydro-electric schemes such as the tidal barrage on the R. Rance. Unless that comes under "renewable", of course.The big objection to nuclear seems to be the thousand year problem of waste. That, and the threat of materials intended for, or produced as a by-product of power generation, falling into the hands of people who would build and actually use nuclear weapons.We should by now have learned from centuries of polluting and burning up limited natural resources that any energy policy needs to consider its possible effects at least a thousand years ahead, so the nuclear waste problem is not so daunting a challenge when seen in context. Terrorists with nuclear bombs - now that's far more scary.Patrick -
I'm a Miss 3 kind of guy. The tee shirt is visible but does not overwhelm the pack shot (branded product in the foreground). Good composition and focus.She looks nice too!Patrick
-
Thanks for the link. I've never looked at a blog before - can't be bothered with them - but I'm going to read and watch yours with interest. Best of luckPatrick
-
Surely there's a difference between reporting one person's illegal activity and speaking up against the immoral behaviour of a gang or political group?There's a huge difference, too, between speaking up against racial or political persecution, and contributing to it by shopping jews or communists to the Nazis.Everyone likes to think he would have spoken up - but most had the welfare of wives and families to consider. It's not a choice many of us would like to be faced with, so it's reasonable to feel some sympathy for those who felt they had to remain silent. None whatever, of course for the despicable informers.I still don't understand why Dick would inform on people who spell badly or wear unpolished shoesPatrick
-
If he can and does expel any of the troublemakers, what's the betting they'll all turn up in Britain a couple of weeks later? They'll probably get council houses and generous benefits too.
-
I can recommend L'Huîtrière in rue des Chats Bossus. It's central and you enter it through a beautiful Art Deco fish shop. For people who like fish, of course.There was another great restaurant in the rather arty quarter nearby, run by a chef called M. Bardot. I've forgotten the name of the restaurant but could never forget the name of the "patron". That was a long time ago though, and he may have moved on.Patrick
-
Don't know anything about fake cats but I was given a fake dog last year and it was no trouble, unlike most dogs and cats, but pretty useless, just like the real thing.I sold it at the village brocante and have not yet been investigated for taking part in any illegal trade. If I'd had some more I could have sold them too. Seems there is a market for these things.I hope the guests who gave it to me don't come back expecting to see it though. What can I say - it ran away?Patrick
-
The "artist" may be barmy, but he seems to have a clear understanding of the unlimited power of religion, and the uses to which it is put, even if he expresses his thoughts rather badly.Patrick
-
The Chenal du Four off the westernmost bit of Brittany. If you're in a small boat with wind over tide you'll think you are about to die.Patrick
Lingerie
in The Complete France Post Bag
Posted