cabman

 At 00:54 on Wednesday 27rd February an earthquake measuring 4.8 on the  Richter scale hit Doncaster, South Yorkshire, causing untold  disruption and distress.  Many were woken well before their giro  arrived.  Several priceless  collections of mementoes from the Balearics and Spanish Costas were  damaged.  Three areas of historic and scientifically significant  litter were disturbed.  Thousands are confused and bewildered, trying to come to terms with the fact that  something interesting has happened in Doncaster.  One resident, Donna-Marie Dutton, a 17-year-old  mother-of-three said:  "It was such a shock, little Chantal-Leanne came  running into my  bedroom crying.  My youngest two, Tyler-Morgan and Megan-Storm  slept through it.  My  punter got dressed and left. I was still shaking  when I was watching  Trisha the next morning."  According to police, however, looting, mugging and joyriding did carry  on as normal.  The British Red Cross have so far managed to ship 4000 crates of Sunny  Delight to the area to help the stricken  masses.  Rescue workers are  still sifting through the rubble  and have found large quantities of  personal belongings, including benefit books, heroin, and jewellery  from Elizabeth Duke at Argos.  HOW YOU CAN HELP?  £2 buys chips, scraps and blue pop for a family of  four.  £10 can take a family to Sprotborough for the day,  where children can  play on an unspoilt canal bank among the national collection of  stinging nettles.  22p buys a biro for filling out spurious  compensation claims.  PLEASE ACT NOW - Collection points are available at  your local  branches of Netto, Iceland and Clinton Cards.

  More likely dropped onto the roof by an owl or buzzard. Nice idea though!

Doesn't matter how loaded you are. Penalty points are penalty points. Ask Paris Hilton!   (and I don't mean the hotel)

Any auto electricians here? I keep a 45cv tractor/giro in France to keep the place tidy. The tractor also has a hydraulic front-end-loader. In order to access the battery it's necessary to lift the engine cover. Engine cover can only be lifted with the front loader raised. Front loader can only be raised with the engine running. It hasn't happened yet, but eventually I am going to faced with a flat battery! I have the idea to attach a red wire permanently to the positive terminal and a black wire to the engine block and run these two wires  to an exterior point with the ends insulated, but ready to clip to the battery charger if and when required. Any snags? 

Clair, big thank you from me too! Does anyone know how often the bank update their customers' circumstances?

  Just picked this up: http://www.frenchentree.com/france-limousin-fishing/ Hope it helps!

Handset idea is not new in the UK. I have an HSBC business account that's been using this system to access my account online for about a year. It's a small device around the size of a car key fob that generates a different six digits every time you need to log on. I guess these numbers while appearing to be random are actually pre-programmed in some way. I'm told as the crooks are becoming more clever, it's to prevent criminal trojan key loggers stealing your details. It arrived by post and I had to acknowledge receipt at the time, but I don't remember how. I pay hefty charges for my business account and my free HSBC personal account is still accessed via the normal password method. I don't see any problem with setting this up wherever you live, but knowing the banks attitude to what they give away free, it may cost.

I feed my CA account via moneybookers, all done online; HSBC to moneybookers to CA. I've never needed to transfer in the opposite direction online, but my understanding is that it is possible to transfer money by uploading cash into moneybookers using a CA debit card (presuming you have one). The card fee is 1.9% which might be offset by the superior exchange rate.  

Thank you! Now it all makes sense. Pity I can't take one of you along to try to nibble the price down!

I 'm looking at a vehicle dealers website where part of the vehicle description includes under commentaires: "direction mecanique". I understand comments but "direction mecanique" produces an identical translation from babelfish. Is this motor trade jargon? If so, is it good or bad news?

Thanks for the replies/suggestions. Grass isn't too bad at the moment, but will require some action before end of October. If I register my tractor for the road will it involve CT etc. the same as a car? It has headlights and indicators that don't work!

I have a couple of acres about 2 miles away on a very, very, minor road that needs cutting occasionly. I have had an arrangement for this, but the person that does it has an injury so now it's down to me. My neighbour tells me it's okay to drive my unregistered tractor on the public road, provided it's insured and displays a flashing orange light. Seems strange for such a bureaucratic country! Would the gendarmes share this view?

Just as dodgy as I feared. Thanks for the replies. No dinner until the electrician has been it seems!  

The 20plus years old mixed gas/electric free standing cooker that came with the house has packed up. A quick trip to local BUT, to choose and pick up replacement, no problem. Dragged old cooker away from wall. Surprise, surprise it's wired 5 wires into a large 5-pin plug with a rectangular earth and marked 380 volts...... 3-phase it seems! New cooker has normal 3 wires. Do we need an electrician, do we call in EDF or is there a simple solution that I can sort for myself ? 

I use the M25 daily at all different times, joining at the junction with the M40 (J16) which would probably be the favourite route from Staffordshire. On weekdays, provided you get on at J16 by 06:45 at the latest, I've found the anti-clockwise route fairly trouble-free. Saturdays it comes alive an hour or so later and later still on Sundays.  For reasons I've never understood, Friday morning traffic is significantly lighter,but of course Friday afternoon traffic is the opposite. For the France trip, it's the Tunnel for us with frequent traveller 39pound ticket plus 20pounds supplement. Would dread going go back to the boat/hovercraft. Just my two-pennoth.