Weedon

[quote]I might, from a red and white perspective, mention Brian Clough... (though he does have an OBE). Murray Walker has an OBE but George Cohen doesn't. There seems to be very little rhyme or reason, other...[/quote] Apart from being the son of an excellent bike racer the only claim to fame Murray Walker has is being able to talk semi-fluently about motor racing which is perhaps why he got an OBE (other b+++++s efforts) and not an MBE (my b++++y effort). Another overrated gong receiver (in my view) was Henry Cooper known most famously for landing one punch on the then Cassius Clay. Nice man I agree but no great shakes as a world class boxer. Imho a much more deserving case for anything he wants (MBE-OBE-MFI) is that young lad boxing at the Olympics in our one man team Amir Khan (sp). Weedon (53)

Thanks Gay for your attempt at helping me but I am not much further forward. I did what you said but the only effect that has is to enable me to post a reply to my own question on "change password". Maybe it needs to be spelt out in much the same way as I say to locals when I attempt to converse with them that if you speak in baby talk I can understand it.

Could some kind person advise how I might change my password and add a "signature" after I have registered. I have tried to re-register in order to change my password but I am told that username (and something else which I have now forgotten) already exists.  

>they feel that the newer >purchasers seem less ready to >fit into the community. For as long as I have looked at this forum (2years) I have wondered what this 'fitting in' means. Does it mean you have be aware of everything that goes on in the village hall and join in with it all or invite all and sundry to your home and hope to get invited back to their places. If so, I don't fit in. I go about my own business and meet local villagers or neighbours when it happens without making a special effort. We have had a few people here at odd times and we have been to other houses and at times it is hard work and so do not make it a regular thing, we have also used local artisans and an english builder. Hopefully those locals we do come across think of us as not particularly friendly or not particularly unfriendly in much the same way as those that knew of us in our Sussex village when we were there. I don,t think it essential to make a special effort because we are in a "foreign country" I leave the banner waving to those that think it neccesary. I would adopt just the same approach if we had moved to the north of england, or god forbid, to Wales. PS. I put that bit in about Wales just to stir them up, look you.

What you may try is something I found useful when I had problems with uninvited people in the middle of the night, in the UK, is to put trip wires at various places on your land. You can connect them to a spring-loaded mechanism which has a blank cartridge in it. It frightens the life out of them when it goes off and it warns you when people trespass. I got mine from a gun shop in the UK but I guess they sell them here in France as well. Connect them with very fine wire not fishing line and vary the places you set them up. Best of luck, I hope it works.

It would appear to me that if there is any such thing as a french 'diet' far from keeping them slim it seems to stunt their growth. Whenever I venture into a supermarket or brico I notice there are quite a number of 'diddy people' here.

>A la lecture de quelques messages, >je me pose la question >du rle tenu par le >modrateur : est-il l pour >porter un quelconque jugement ? >est-il l pour viter des >drives ? doit-il maintenir un >niveau d'changes respectueux des uns >et des autres ? etc... > Je suis perdu mate.

>An english couple who run a >small bar in Mayenne were >robbed on Thursday. Your exact point being..........? Or are you having a shock, horror Sun newspaper moment. If you are possibly hinting that we have a whip round then count me out as I have had my own similar experiences (in the UK)and sadly its nothing new.

Last year after putting in a new liner to my pond I bought 2 goldfish to put in the pond to keep me amused (ah). So as to aclimatise them I put them in a smaller pond for about a month before transferring them to my main (how posh) pond. Over the last couple of months I have netted and transferred another six which made eight altogether. I knew there were a lot more in the smaller pond but I just couldn't catch them so yesterday I pumped all the water out until I could scoop all the little blighters out and I now have about fifty (50) which is very nice but when should I get concerned about the numbers? I know its probably sad but when there were just the eight I had names for each of them but now...... I have had a thought though, perhaps I could add them to my courgettes.

LAST EDITED ON 18-Jul-04 AT 07:40 PM (BST) Sorry to be picky but I have to deduct a point for the hat decoration. Even now I can see madame telling her husband of the strange man she met who doffed his hat to her........ PS. Just had a quick peeps at your wotsit and wonder if I have assumed wrongly at gender, if so, pardon moi and read strange woman.....

From my view of it they came from an animal that ran around in circles judging by the different sizes?

I have found it interesting that a lot of responses to this question have been that to have brits as neighbours is a bit of a taboo and it struck me 'how the worm has turned' for I recall in the fifties and sixties that if a black family moved into your street it somehow spelled disaster. Before the milk monitors pull this posting, I am only making an interesting (to me anyway) sort of comparison.

Make friends with your local farmer and ask him who he could recommend to take away the surplus soil and if you have the same luck!! as me he will say that he could use it and will leave a trailer for you to fill up. Then contact your local JCB man (every village has one) and he will do the job for you. You can't get it done much cheaper or easier than that.

I currently find myself on a diet of lettuce and courgettes with raspberries and cherries as desert. Can anybody suggest a wine to go with it? Or instead of preferably. I am losing the battle with the courgettes and lettuce even after having a 'happy hour' with both. Is there some better use I can put the courgettes too instead of eating them because, you have to admit, they are on the 'c list' as far as veg goes are they not?

When we got our first bill not knowing exactly what is was for we did a translation on our PC and it came up with 'houswives filth'

Don't throw them away. I understand they sell them in the South. Stuff them and deep fry them they are delicious. I put a recipe in the Food and Wine.

I am probably telling you something you all know but I had them on wednesday for the first time and they were great. I'll tell you how but if you already know forgive me. First pick them in the morning before they wilt,together with the baby courgettes. Chop up small the baby courgettes some leaks,onion,bacon,garlic and whatever herbs you fancy,I used ginger and cumin. Fry it off gently adding some cream at the end with egg yolk and breadcrumbs to make a filling. Wash the flowers gently and then stuff the mixture into each one folding the petals over to make a pouch. Make some batter, I made it from Heineken and Farine de Ble, coat the flowers and deep fry them for a few seconds. Saves putting the flowers onto the compost heap. PS. They make awful buttonholes the batter goes all over you.

Yeah I know that's not how you spell it but WHY do I get strange Emails. I get what I think is the usual spam everybody gets but over the last few weeks I have been getting a few strange Emails that say something like "undelivered mail, if you want to see the message follow the link" and then a long computer speak file name. A couple of days ago I got one from [email protected] saying "the sample file you sent contains a new virus version of buppa.k please update your virus scanner with the attached data file" but I never sent them anything.Its got a paperclip symbol which I think stands for an attachment but I don't like opening attachments because I read somewhere that is how a virus gets into your system. Sometimes I seem to get what appear to be replies to things they say I sent for, and to get their message I have to open a file. I never do and simply delete them. Would somebody with even a modicum of knowledge of the internet kindly tell me what is happening. Am I being paranoid about computer invasion?

Thanks for all the replies and yes that's exactly what they are. I've never seen them before but I agree they are not really scary its just that they make a loud buzzing noise and makes them appear so. The big flying things with brown armour plating on their backs that come out at dusk and seem to hurl themselves at our windows I knew them as May bugs when I was a kid. Me and my mates used to go out in the evenings and thrash them with cricket bats. (Horrible kids I know) Every evening we have a Little Owl that perches on our roof. We have a little window we call our porthole, like a velux only tiny, that we can stick our head out of and watch it. I haven't yet managed to photograph it, I think its shy. A few weeks ago after being away for a while we had another L/Owl trapped in our log burner after presumably falling down the chimney. Despite my efforts I was not able to rescue it because it kept hopping back into the chimney space until I managed to sneak up on it and close the flap in the flue, but later I found it dead in the log burner. It must have been in the chimney for some time and presumably died from lack of nourishment. Nice to know the other one doesn't hold it against us.

Working around my wisteria the other day I heard what I assumed were bees in the flowers. But they were not bees but ginormous black flying critters with sort of bluey luminous wings. These were doing the same thing as bees do, going from flower to flower and buzzing like a bee. What are they?

Not a lot of people know this as M.Caine said but if you poke a bluebell into an ants nest the ants attack it and turn it pink. Interesting eh!!! Perhaps not but it kept me amused for a while.

If you have planted spuds in the same patch as last year its probably last years spuds that you failed to clear when you dug it over. I have given up on buying seeds I now buy young plants of everything I want to grow in exactly the right numbers. This way I don't have the usual problem of a glut and trying to decipher weeds from plants. The exception is beans and these I don't have a problem with growing from seed. I know its more expensive than buying packets of seeds but life is too short etc..

Whilst watching the news unfold with regard to the ID cards the thought occurred to me that there has been quite a lot on this forum about the CDS maybe/maybe-not being discontinued, probably due to to some EU regulation I suppose. So, does that mean, those that live here and already have a CDS will get one of the new "Blunkett Cards"?

Just a further note of caution. If you have not laid concrete before and there is only the 2 of you I would be a bit wary of ordering ready-mix. When it arrives the driver will only want to dump the stuff and get away as quick as he can and a lorry load of concrete can be a bit scary to deal with. I bought an electric mixer from a builder centre in the UK and I wouldn't part with it. You can mix up concrete with little effort and lay it at your own pace and with a bit of patience make a good job of laying a floor. You can order as much sand as you want because you will always use it. Cement you can get as you want it. Best of luck.

Judging by the lack of response since you posted it would appear that nobody in your area has read your request. If your area is the same as mine (53) hardcore,sand and the hire of equipment is readily available at your nearest industrial zone. I helps if you have a trailer to pick up any supplies you need but delivery is easily arranged. In my area a company called Pigeon (large builders supply merchants) are the best for large quantities of sand and hardcore. For hardcore, if you haven't got any old bricks or blocks I get the stuff that they use for the roads, its a sort of bluish stone and sand mixed together and compacts really well. Sorry I can't be of any specific help with names of firms in your area. Just as an aside to that I hired a vibrating double roller when I laid a fairly large patio area and collected it in the back of my Transit van. The ride home with it in the back was interesting to say the least as I virtually had to give notice when I wanted to change direction because of the weight in the back and I half expected it to burst through into the front when I braked.