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Paul Bradford

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Everything posted by Paul Bradford

  1. Hi Sarah, We had a similar problem although our cover to the septic tank is only about two feet square. It had started to crumble. I looked around and couldn't find a cover, but was told by the guy that cleaned our tank that people normally make them up as there isn't a standard size. Basically you need to make a form (mould) to the size you require, then put in some strengthening, steel bars for instance and a handle. Then put in a concrete mix and wait for it to dry. Yours seems to be rather a large cover, so would probably be quite heavy once you'd made it. Or if that might be too heavy, perhaps a couple of pieces of steel cut to size. Not the answer you'd wanted I'm sure, but maybe someone else has a better idea. Regards Paul
  2. Hi Laurie, I think that you might mean bromine. Wasn't bromide alledgedly put in the soldiers tea in the war?! If you're planning on bromide, I won't be coming around just in case! Seriously though, I'd be interested to hear, as we'll probably be having a pool next year. Sounds like a question for Poolguy, hope he reads this. Regards Paul
  3. If you have a visitor arriving that need's one, how about them bringing their own? We used to wrap them in a dustbin liner when we got to the airport and check them in. We were never charged. That was using Ryanair as well. Paul
  4. I know there is a shop in Eymet (24) that sells it, but I believe they order it in. I would suggest contacting the German company and asking them for their stockists in France. A friend bought some over here and was suprised to find it cheaper than in the UK. Hope this helps, Paul
  5. It would be interesting to know whether he bought it in the UK for export, thereby not having to pay the VAT, obviously this would have to be paid on the vehicle entering France. But, has it ever been to France? In fact, has it ever left the country? It wasn't displaying the insurance certificate in the window, so is he driving around an uninsured, unregistered vehicle? Also has there been an evasion of a liaibilty to pay tax? Quite a few questions to be answered. Is the correct answer in any of those boxes? I hope there is someone out there who will be putting these questions to him more formally, or is he just going to get away with it? It's quite likely that the local Police aren't aware of the requirement to display the insurance. Also, they would probably not want to stop it as they would see it as a French vehicle and would be thinking about potential language difficulties if they did. Paul
  6. Hi Judith, I only logged on today so just caught your post. I used eurotunnel.com, and clicked on the French flag as we live here. That probably wasn't necessary as they asked for my country of residence. When I looked again the trips were quite expensive. I must have received some special two day deal, but the price was definitely £49 each way on the English site! Regards Paul 
  7. I have just booked a return with Eurotunnel in June. €30 each way and I had a variety of travelling times to choose from. When you look at the UK version it is £49 each way! I had heard some time ago that it was cheaper if you used the French site, seems that was correct! Paul
  8. Hi, not sure if you've left yet, but a suggestion for the cats. It has been mentioned that a dark area is good for helping keep a cat calm, but it might get too hot in the sun. I covered my cat's cage almost completely with a white sheet to help reflect the sun. Also it helped keep him calm as he couldn't see where he was going. I used one of those spill proof water bowls for a drink and just kept some dry food in a bowl, with treats to give him at stops which he seemed to like. Its also worth having that kaolin type cat litter in a tray, or something that will soak up well. A deoderiser might come in useful. If you think that it might be hot, some of those cool box freezer blocks under their bedding might be an idea. I froze some old plastic lemonade bottles filled with water and kept them in a cool box. When they defrosted, which took ages, we had cold water to drink. Don't forget to let your ferry/tunnel operator know about the animals. I was required to check in for the ferry much earlier than normal. I was given a special label to hang from the mirror and directed to a special lane. After all that we sailed through with no-one asking to see the pet passport at either end! Hope all goes well Regards Paul
  9. If you live in France, you are supposed to use the British Embassy here, although that is much more expensive. One other way of doing it would be to use their on-line service (Passport Office). Once you have filled in the form on-line, they send it to your UK address for you to add the photograph and return it with the payment. It will then be reurned to the UK address. I know of someone that renewed their UK passport in this way and had someone bring it out to them. Paul
  10. Hi Le47, I saw that too, however, when you look closely at the drawing, it hasn't actually changed the size much. The check in hall has a different orientation, but is still the same prefabricated portable building. Paul
  11. Hi Catherine, I would also send copies of the photographs to the tile manufacturer with details of your complaint. Surely they would not like such a nice looking product (looks nice from the brochure picture), ruined by poor installation. They might be interested to see how your bathroom installers rectify the problem. Regards Paul
  12. Hi Lori, If you do go down this avenue and the person originates from the UK ask for a CRB check. (Criminal Records Bureau). Anyone working with children in the UK has to have one, teachers, social workers etc. HOWEVER, there is a downside. they are only a snapshot in time, in that the person is only definitely free of conviction at the moment the check was made. I believe they might have an expiry date, but I'm not sure. They didn't use to have one. I spoke with an ex-teacher here in France and she hadn't heard of that type of check up being done here, but maybe someone else might know better as it would still be worth asking for, if only for childminding/baby sitting. Paul
  13. Ditto, Good luck. If you haven't bought one yet, don't forget ebay, there are quite a few for sale on CD. You might find some cheap ones as I believe it was a promotional offer in some newspapers. Paul
  14. Thanks Mikew, An interesting point, however, I was speaking to an expat this morning who brought his components for his system over from the UK when he moved. He had them installed by a French plumber, submitted his UK receipts for his French tax return and got a rebate. Paul
  15. Hi, My apologies if this has been covered, but I could not find the information that I was looking for using the search facility. Two other families along with us are looking to install solar panels for our hot water. I have seen the posting about Navitron and DIY and that is something that I will consider. We live in Monflanquin (47) now so will also be looking at the possibility of grants etc. I am also considering windpower and photovoltaic panels for electricity in the future, but would prefer to keep this post solely for solar heating. I would like to compare costs. We have a large house with five bedrooms. Although most of the time though there are only be four of us, it would probably be best to look at a system that would provide hot water for the maximum capacity of the house. Do you have to have additional protection for the solar panels in case of hailstorms? We have had pretty powerful ones with quite large hailstones in this area. I have seen two cars with smashed windows due to this. What I would like to know is if anyone has had a system installed for their hot water supply and how much it actually cost? This posting will hopefully be of use to many people. I realise that some people will have paid more than others to have their systems installed. This could be due to a number of factors, including location and age of system, so it would be helpful if people could keep unhelpful comments such as 'You were done there, I only paid... etc' to themselves. Once we have decided which way to go, I will post the costs and details of installation, time etc. If you would prefer not to advertise how much it cost, but are happy to pm me with those details, I will not publish them, other than to say that installations cost from, to, etc. Thanking you in anticipation. Paul Bradford
  16. Hi, Does anyone out there know if it is possible to buy a post driver or rammer in France, specifically around Villeneuve-sur-Lot or Bergerac? I've searched ebay France and Castorama but have had no luck so far. I have over a hundred fence posts to put in (just to start!) and !'m not sure that my accuracy with a sledgehammer, if I have any, will not begin to flag after two or three posts! Regards Paul
  17. Hi Dave, Everyone's circumstances are likely to be different. I retired early from the Police Force following an injury. I took the larger lump sum with the view that if I died the next day, my wife would have the money, rather than a just a proportion of the pension. Paul
  18. I understand there are rather large fines for those that get caught using people 'on the black' I believe in the region of €30,000. That would discourage me! The other reason for me would be, that if I had to sell my house after a few years, for whatever reason and had had loads of improvements done, I wouldn't be able to prove how much I had spent on improving the property and could be liaible for capital gains tax on the 'profit'. One other thing, if the 'workman' on your property, say a roofer, accidentally brought down your power lines, who would pay to have them reinstated, not him I'm sure. Paul
  19. Hi tj, I'm quite serious, try looking on ebay UK. Yesterday I saw two different people selling oak boards, one was at £31.00 per sqm and the other at £27.50p per sqm. Both were for French oak, for sale in the UK. It might be worth enquiring of them how much to buy it here. I found them without any trouble. I won't name them here in case I get accused of advertising, although I have nothing to do with them. My interest was that we bought some in the UK a few years ago and I wanted to compare prices. If you can't find them, send me a pm. Regards Paul
  20. Hi Chrissie, Not sure if this is any help as you would have to fly from Nice, but at least you could probably do this in one day. www.flyme.com fly Nice to Malmo. Could you not then cross over to Copenhagen via the bridge, or the ferry? I did the ferry journey some years ago before the bridge was there and found it quite pleasant. At least you wouldn't have to overnight in the UK. Regards Paul
  21. Hi, Take a look at Breizh mobile. They were recommended to me. You can just buy a sim card if you want. They are based in Brittany. We live in the Lot et Garonne. I bought one on line and top up the same way. Regards Paul
  22. Hi Liz, We were in the same position before we moved here in July last year. My wife had been to the school in April annd we were told that our children required the injection prior to starting school. As it happen's were were requested to provide a photocopy of their red books during their first week of term. We were going to go to a private clinic to have it done as we were told by the NHS that despite the increase in TB in London being from zero to around 3000 cases per year, it was only babies and new arrivals to the country that were being vaccinated. I tried our local health clinic again to ask if we could pay locally (Southend) to save travelling to London twice (as our eldest would have to be tested one day, then vaccinated the second if she had no immunity). I explained again that it was a requirement that our daughters had the vaccine before they commenced school. The nurse I spoke to this time thought it a great idea and put us in touch with the school's clinic. One week later, both children vaccinated on the NHS. Hope this helps Paul Bradford
  23. Hi Bones, I'm not sure that your 'lax CT standards' comment is correct. In 2006 I bought a French registered car in the UK before we moved here. The CT was well overdue. I had a lot of work done in the UK along with a MOT. I had arranged French insurance and wanted the MOT as I was concerned that I might get a tug on the journey from Calais to the Lot-et-Garonne. Once we arrived I took the car for a CT. The mechanic was as thorough, if not more so that his UK counterpart. It failed on an incorrectly sized tyre. I hadn't noticed it, nor had my mechanic in the UK, or the MOT station! A quick trip to the pneu place and on my return a new CT sticker in the window. I wish you luck with your business. I sold cars for a while in the UK and know its not easy if you want to be fair and build a good reputation. There is certainly a market for reasonably priced cars here. It's often cheaper to consider buying new than a recent secondhand car.  Regards Paul
  24. Hi Albert, We moved from Southend in Essex to the Lot-et-Garonne in July of 2006. We used someone (found in the small ads in Living France) who sourced company's to carry out the removal. We paid them less than £40 for that, but only once we had agreed terms with a company. We received several quotes, some of whom were quite competitive. We paid less that £1700 for around 20 cubic metres. We were fortunate in that we had already begun to furnish our home in France and took delivery when it suited the company. We threw mountains of stuff away. It's amazing the things that you accumulate! I made numerous trips to the local Civic Amenity site. I realised afterwards that I should have got a six metre skip. For around £100 that would have saved me lots of time. I used a local auction house for things that were too good to throw away, but still gave away furniture, tv's and tools. When the company telephoned us to arrange delivery, we had lived for six weeks without our possessions. We thought 'Where will we put them?' I lived in shorts up to the beginning of December, yet we transported four or five suits plus a similar amount of jackets and trousers and loads of pairs of shoes. My wife counted her jackets the other day. 28, not including coats for inclement weather! It's not that we don't want to dress nicely, we are now more casual as we live in a rural area and the opportunities to dress up are a lot less as well. We try to blend in a bit more with our neighbours. We should have been more ruthless. It is not too bad as we didn't pay too much for the removal. Some of the quotes were four or five times as much for the same service. Good luck Paul 
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