Weedon

Cabman, you are a star. Now that you have mentioned it I do remember another thing that happened yesterday. Somebody very kindly sent me some family photographs which seemed to fill my screen and was taking ages to download so I ticked the option to hang up when it finished and then walked away.  I hadn't appreciated the difference it would make later, and anyway I forgot about it until you very kindly gave me the solution. Thanks again and the cheques in the post weedon

When I log on to my email thingy I have to click on connect and then it says it is connected. But when I try to send an email it says its not online and cannot send it.  After some little while I have noticed that the 2 little screens down in the right hand corner come on when I click on connect but as soon as it says it is connected they disappear. When I click on Internet I do not have this problem and I can post this OK and the 2 little screens stay on when I exit Internet. If I then go straight to email, as soon as the outlook express window fills the screen it says checking for new messages and then the 2 little screens go out and I then know the connection is broken. Could some kind person explain in baby talk how I could fix this.  The only thing I can think has happened in the last 2 days is that I have downloaded some auto updates. weedon

[quote]Have you tried a store that sells beds? I am sure they have them in Brittany? I love beds, they are really handy and have so many uses! you can sleep on it, use it as a trampoline, breed mice in them...[/quote] Blige me Furryknickers, stands back in amazement, beds, here in France.  Ah but what about electricity and other up to date stuff like that surely its only the UK where you get it via a cable direct to your house weedon

Its very nice to go to the trouble of putting out wild bird feed to try to attract more birds to your garden rather than them go to somebody elses, but if you have an ordinary garden with trees, shrubs, brambles and just bits of everything the birds will come just the same and you and the birds will enjoy it all the more.  I don't go out of my way to attract anything, but we still  get our fair share of whats out there, and although I think I detect more magpies than before the sparrows are here also and as far as I am concerned they all manage themselves better without my help. Somebody earlier said that they had seen a roof covered in birds whatnot, that I would like to see, perhaps they are trying to tell the owner something? weedon

There have been some stories of gas attacks upon motorhomes and caravans but it may be these are widely reported upon because of their very nature.  If you are concerned about this there are gas detection devices available to protect you and as has already been advised normal security awareness is required wherever you go in Europe including the UK.  You shouldn't have much need to wild camp as there are numerous official sites and many towns and even villages all over France have motorhome areas with toilet disposal points and electrical hook-up, many of them free. What you should also watch out for are people offering cheap electrical goods. These are offered at service stops and are nothing but rubbish.  I haven't bought them myself but have been offered them and to me its obvious they are c**p. weedon 

Did any of you watch the brilliant and very moving documentary about Bobby Moore last night on UK television. He came across as somebody who was well balanced both on and off the football pitch and just a b****y good bloke. He was from my era and I was privileged to see him play a couple of times in internationals and you could see that he was special even amongst other "stars". The amusing stories that his friends told about him were priceless. weedon

[quote]Brilliant idea! We will put this to our French friend. This is a much better idea, easier to play, easier to organise and anyone can play. Anyone fancy playing?[/quote] Or, along the same theme, you could try Stoolball.  This is an East Sussex game more similar to cricket than rounders. You use a bat shaped like a paddle and have wickets at about shoulder height which you bowl at. You have 2 batsmen in at the same time and the rules are similar to cricket inasmuch as you run between the wickets to score runs, and can be out bowled as well as caught and run out. The ball is similar/same as a rounders ball and is bowled sort of fast underarm at the square wicket. If you do a google you can get more info. owzhat weedon

In 53 we had as much snow yesterday as we have had on any one day through the winter, I just put it down to global warming and the greenhouse effect! Sorry Miki but this years Premiership just doesn't do it for me in the same way that in 62 or 63, the Blues under the Doc won promotion to the first and I have to admit to running onto the pitch in celebration, did. weedon

Its my view that it all started about 30 to 40 years ago when people started to do a lot of the jobs themselves that were traditionally carried out by tradesmen. Decorating was the first trade taken over by DIYers as it was seen by many as the easiest thing to do.  I suppose the worst you can do is to slap a bit of the wrong paint on over the top of an unsuitable base, but at least it won't bring the house crashing down.  I am sure you could argue very well that a skilled decorator is capable of doing a much better job than many DIYers and I wouldn't argue against that. Since the early days of DIY many more trades have been taken on by amateurs many of whom can do very skilled tasks to a high degree of competance and many think they can but can't.  I bet a lot of us have had a postman or a fireman do odd jobs for us over the years at half the cost of a real tradesman.  The upshot of this is that some people look down upon a time served chap as a an inferior species who is only out to screw you for a job badly done when he kindly accepts to do you a favour by turning up. What used to happen before all of this DIY business was that you did your work and earned money and you paid other people to do their work for you and vice versa, that's how the world went around.   Nowadays a lot of people resent paying out for someone else to do a job that they are sure they could do themselves "if only they weren't so busy". Here in France if you ask a local artisan to come and quote for a job, first of all you will have to call him at least 3 times (they never ever ring back) before they come 3 or 4 months later.  After accepting the devis you will then have to wait at least a year for him to turn up to start the work (have a look at renovations "Its been done") Since we retired here 4 years ago we have done a lot of work ourselves and have had locals (French and English) do other works that we are not capable of.  So we have had some frustating episodes and some very pleasant ones and have made new friends from most of them.  Decorating is one of the jobs we will always do ourselves as it is not our intention to have our place featured in any glossy magazines and we can look back with some satisfaction on our efforts  plus what else do we do with our time. Gone on a bit haven't I but it is Sunday and I don't work on the Sabbath and I have finished decorating for the moment as well!! weedon  

Well Forum Newbie how did you like your LF welcome, it seemed a bit like a Glasgow Kiss to me. I am sorry that neither I nor anybody else can give you the information you originally asked for but the best of luck when you make your move and lets hope you have a more friendly response to further postings. weedon

[quote]I have said this many times on many parts of the forum but it still stands true as far as I can see. "You need a cushion when you come to France - a bit in the bank, spare cash, a few thousand mazool...[/quote] What you say is so true. For anybody to even think of moving here permanently without the means to buy a good mutuelle would be better advised to stay in the UK and use the NHS should the need arise. When you need good medical care you do not need the extra worry of whether you can cope with a complicated system and whether you can afford to pay. weedon

Where I am in (53) we get a phone book hand delivered once a year, private numbers at one end and yellow pages the other end.  Maybe you could go to a France Telecom shop and ask if they have one for your area?  Or perhaps its on the internet. weedon

The fact is that no matter who you vote for you will get what you are given and have to make the best or worst of it.  Whoever gets in will make a pigs ear of some things and tinker with others and then its time to swop for somebody else or not and there it is. That's my view of politics, and anyhow, if politicians were that intelligent in the first place they wouldn't have become politicians to begin with.   Hopefully along the way not too many other countries will feel the slap of democracy and be told "don't you feel much better now". But I suppose at the end of the day, as they say, vote for the one that looks nice as half of the voters will do.  So hard luck Charles Kennedy. weedon

When I needed a load of stone I asked my neighbour (farmer) if he knew where I could obtain some, knowing he had a lot of derelict buildings, and sure enough he told me to help myself to a huge pile in one of his yards. So its worth asking your immediate neighbours. weedon

Don't waste your pity on ITV or the loving couple who will promise to "love honour and obey"?   What about Wun Hung Lo the Chinese souvenir importer who is stuck with all that tat with the wrong dates on them and Trev and Trace who had their spot at the Registry Office on Saturday nicked!!! weedon

Bought a little book the other day that lists all the different types of antique/junk sales in the Pays de Loire region.  I looked to see what was on next week in 53 and saw there is one, its called Bourses.  I looked in my dictionary to see what it was and to say I was surprised was an understatement.  I am not sure I am bold enough to ask my neighbour if she can confirm it for me.  My dictionary says its......sort of......tackle.....not fishing, the other sort. weedon  

What a blissful experience school dinners used to be in the good old days. Who can forget Mock Cream, grey mashed potato (with lumps) and cheese to give it some flavour and good old mince.  After more than fifty years I still view mince with a great deal of suspicion.  The worst job (which we had to take in turns) was to be on scrapes duty and to have to use a rubber spatula to scrape all the leftovers into the pig bin.  Hygiene wasn't fantastic either as I still always check my knife and fork (between the prongs) for gunge. Once a day we used to have a spoonful of cod liver oil and malt to build us up.  The stuff only started to work on me 30 years later and its still putting on the pounds after all this time.  Can somebody advise me on whom I can sue? Jamie Oliver will do for me and is a wonderful example for all young people, as by his own admission he was a bit slow at school. weedon

The replies from "proper" builders are probably the correct way to do it. However .From my DIY angle which worked and showed no filled areas was to use the sticky mesh tape and then fill with, Enduit de something or other, which is usually next to the Enduit de Lissage in the Bricos.  The former stuff is for filling and the latter is for smoothing.  The advantage for using both is that the first stuff dries quickly and is for deep filling (which you don't need to be too fussy about smoothness) the de Lissage stuff has a longer drying time so you therefore have more time to work with it enabling you to feather the edges with a damp sponge and saving the need for sanding, which is very very dusty.   The Lissage stuff you can buy ready to use in buckets the first time you use it.  The second time you buy the powder and mix it yourself as you then know the correct consistency and you also save money.  If you mix too much you simply get carried away with the excitement and skim most of the placo because by this time you have developed a new skill of plastering weedon

I think that an earlier poster has suggested this but if I read it incorrectly have a look to see if the installer has fitted a vent pipe and if not, fit one between the last waste pipe and the fosse.  For some reason it is not always done by installers, as was pointed out to me when I had a french artisan at my place looking at my own installation, when he was surprised that I had installed one. In the "dormant" stage there will be gas present in your pipes backing up from the fosse and then when you flush, the gas has to escape through the line of least resistance and if it is a sink waste or washing machine waste or other some such pipe, there is your smell. weedon  

From my humble experiences with pointing I found that a lime and sand mix was so difficult to use because the transfer from trowel to wall was tricky, you had to time the clean up just right because if it was too dry it didn't smooth out using a soft household brush, and if too moist it left a lime stain across the stones. Then I was introduced to Procalit F  My life was transformed.  You can obtain it from Point P, it comes in 25kg bags and comes in various pre-mixed colours (I use Ton Pierre) so every mix is the same colour.  I mix up a third of a builders bucket at a time and apply with a trowel to the gaps only, allowing a little time for it to go off and smoothing it with the soft household brush.  The difference from the wall using lime and sand to the ones using Procalit is brilliant.  I think you will find that Procalit is lime based so allows the walls to breathe. My experience is only with stone walls where the original mortar has turned to earth so cleaning was easy because I had seen locals using a power washer to pre-clean their joints so I did the same.  I used a sand and cement mortar to fill in all of the big holes first using a ram-rodding stick and plasterers hawk. weedon      

The reason why you've got no birds in your gardens is because they got fed up with the noise from all of that renovation work going on.  Here in 53 we try to sleep despite the noise from the owls screeching to each other and the other ones toowettowooing in the oak trees and then in the mornings they are all having a go doing god knows what little birds do at 6am.  Later on the magpies and starlings compete with the kestrels for territory and the buzzards glide about telling us its a great place to be in the sunshine.  Later on in the summer I have to keep going to the window in the evenings to shout at the sparrows playing in the virginia creeper because they interrupt my TV watching with their noise.  The swallows sit on the telephone line watching me trying to "point" my walls and chattering "that's not how you do it".  You don't know how lucky you are in the towns with your traffic and neighbours weedon

Come on now boys and girls or men and women or lads and lasses or ladies and gentlemen or....................... Who actually gives a stuff what you are called. If you have something to say say it and don't worry whether you are newbie oldbie or any otherbie there are more important things to worry yourself about, things like that little b*****d frog outside my bedroom window who waits until I flop into bed and then starts his B****Y WHISTLING ALL NIGHT. Weedon

[quote]Is there a law against using machinery on Sundays or is it just a cultural thing ? I beleive there are such laws in Germany but I've never heard of any here. My neighbor just went ballistic over me in...[/quote] It depends. If you live out in the sticks you more or less do as you please but if you have neighbours then the normal rules apply.  The considerate think of others and the not so considerate live next door. weedon  

[quote]As much as it hurts to say so, Wales deserved to win the GS. Though wins 27 years apart are not much compensation for being Welsh are they ? Cue lots of "sheep queueing up for morning after pill" comm...[/quote] I'm glad you said that as I couldn't bring myself to do so Just console yourself with the fact that a month from now nobody will remember who won the GS but even ladieswill know who won the World Cup. weedon

Whether or not it is obscene or selfish to own a second home anywhere depends upon the motives for doing so. If it is purely because you have sufficient spare spondooleys to do so, fits nicely along with the personal number plate on your Chelsea tractor, you keep harping on about how you bought at the right time and keep puffing yourself up saying "look at how much the value has risen", then IMHO your motives are questionable. weedon