londoneye

Hi rose I had a similar situation with my cat, in respect of the frightened to go outside, and going to the toilet inside thing.       My cat was badly attacked by something about a month after we moved to France (still no idea what) and was terrified.   He would go in his litter tray and he would go outside to the toilet but only if I stood next to him (not nice !).       We know he was attacked because of the injuries he sustained. Of course I cannot say that your cat was also attacked, but his (sorry, I think it is a male, I cant recall) fear of going out and his sudden aggressiveness to your other cat suggests he may have been and has gone into scared, defensive mode. Our cat did get over it, but it took some months for him to get his confidence back.   Even two years later he still tries to wait to go to the toilet until he sees me outside, then he will rush up to me and go next to where I am, but this could just be a rather unfortunate (not to mention unpleasant!) habit now.   We do now always keep him in the house after dark.

Thanks Sweet 17.   Will have a go this weekend.      At least now I have a large (unfussy) dog, if I have a cooking disaster it doesn't go to waste !

Ditto -had several Dell's, although this is my first laptop.   Been very happy with it. Keyboard:    for a touch typist, yes the keys are very close together.   It is definitely not as easy to touch type, although after a while you do get used to it ....

~Ah, I am so glad. when I saw this thread again and thought you were going to say he was still available, I was going to start working on OH, but thankfully he has been re-homed.

Sweet 17, do you put everything in together?   I have often wanted (well, actually not that often,now I come to think of it!!), to try something like that, but am worried that all the veggies will cook before the meat.   How small do you cut the meat pieces and make sure its all cooked at same time? I have stopped buying beef in France, because I have not had a good roast beef (roast dinner is about the one thing I actually cook very well generally !) in two years.    I quite like the roti pork here, and have had no problems with that. As for the chicken, yes you can get good chicken, if you pay an arm and a leg for it, it really is good.   But what are they doing to their chickens here, are they starving them ?    I had four people for Sunday lunch not that long ago and I had, believe it or not, to buy two chickens, because they were so small.   In UK I would easily have fed four people out of one large chicken from any supermarket, and had enough left over for chicken soup (the other thing I can cook !), the next day.    Why are chickens so mini here ??!!!

Thanks Bugbear, I was over-complicating things I see ...

Thanks all - after yet another day spent bailing out the pump house, we have decided on a bilge pump.  I have ordered one, but am now somewhat confused about what kind of adapter/transformer I need. The pump spec says 2 amp fuse, but I am not sure whether this is enough information to get the correct transformer.   Obviously it has to be a 12 volt transformer.   What do they look like please, I have looked on internet and they seem to come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, I thought it would be a little plug in thingie, but maybe not ??!! Confused from Limousin ......

Just sitting here thinking, before I go to do some beam staining, about what bullet point impression posters have managed to portray of themselves and have decided that I would be seen as .    a skinny woman with big boobies, who has .   somewhat lost the plot since coming to France, and is a bit prone to bad decisions these days, and .   who is completely obssessive about her dog and cat .. Oh dear, I don't sound very attractive even to myself ... best keep it virtual ..!!

Yes, and his name is 'Dave' .... he always tells me his name is Dave, but I am never totally convinced ..

Funny you should say that, I don't really have time (ha ha you must think, she spends enough time on here), but I have often wondered if people meet up and what happens, just out of curiosity ..

My French neighbour grovelled and begged me to buy him a christmas pudding last time I was in UK, after having tried one at our house last christmas.    Of course I did buy him one, as thankfully you seem to be able to buy them all year round now.  Anyway, as he doesn't have a microwave I handed over pudding and explained the steaming method of cooking.   He looked at me as if I were mad, but went off to set xmas pudding a cooking.    Anyway, after about half hour he came back to our house to have a cup of coffee and report that all was well with pudding.   Time passed and I reminded him he should check the water levels in bottom of pan, explaining why.   No need he said I filled it right up to top.    But, I said it will all slosh over the pudding, I told you just a bit of water in bottom.       Oh he said, I thought I must have misunderstood you ... come on I will show you how I am cooking it.    Well, you've guessed it, I rushed around to his house to find the pudding, having been taken out of all packaging, bubbling merrily away in a huge pot of boiling water.   Needless to say it had pretty much disintegrated, and I left him straining it through a sieve and trying to press the bits back into pudding shape !!!!!!!!!!       So funny, but he still insisted it tasted good. Anyway, sorry, off topic - he also loves mince pies now he has been introduced to them ...   and shortbread ..

Still no 85 E or 85 DD on bonprix ...... Never mind, thank you for trying everyone ............

Err do you actually mean it is a shed, or do you mean it is a shell of a building? Land is relatively cheap in France (although I am not expert), so if all you have is a plot of land and a shed, then it is possible that the land is not even constructible. I really do think you need to find out an awful lot more about the land, it's use, and the building(s) on it, before you even consider this further.   You won't be able to just get stuck in, if you need a construction permit, for example. Also, not entirely sure how someone can offer to sell in France and include all taxes, as I had the impression that the Notaire always allocated the taxes.    Could be wrong though....

la charmeuse (sp ?) looks good, but they are a tiny bit pricey. Couldn't find any sizes in Quelle (is it me !?) - only 85, 90, etc no cup sizes ?? Tried La Redoute, nothing in my size that I liked.   Everything in my size was quite horrible I thought. Now I have spent a couple of hours looking at french underwear sites I have the distinct impression that the majority of their models do this as a side-line and have a more, err, lucrative, photographic job somewhere.    Is there really a need to pout hideously and thrust your breasts out?  Who is buying this underwear - maybe women don't buy their own underwear in France, and these sites are geared to male purchasers.   Very strange ..

Oh hilarious.   We saw something similar, but sadly didn't have camera. French (assume, because they were speaking French) man and woman come out of Lapeyre, with HUGE trolley.      Take off the trolley about 4 or 5 new doors (quite solid looking ones too).   Open car window, tie a small piece of string around top of car window, loop it over top of car, around doors, ditto other side of top of car window... OH sat watching in our car with his jaw on the ground.   All pleased with their efforts, the car slowly lurched into a crawl to the exit.   As it happens we were leaving too, but we did keep well behind them.     They stopped with a bit of a lurch at the exit, and the inevitable happened,   all the brand new doors (with glass panels), slid down the back of the car and landed in a heap on the floor in front of us. OH is normally a kindly soul and will help anyone, but on this occasion we got out, shoved a broken door out of our way, and drove off.   He quite rightly said that some people were just too stupid to deserve help !

Sorry, me again, just read your post again, and you say she is on a long lead.    Our puppy was a nightmare on a lead, just didnt enjoy her walks, didn't want to go, played up at every opportunity.   She was bored basically.   The day we let her off the lead she became a different dog, although she has never wandered off the lead, she suddenly started asking for her walks (instead of plonking her bum down and refusing to leave the garden), and was so much happier. It may be that being on a lead all the time is just not interesting enough for your puppy so she is looking for alternative ways to amuse herself. You could try then either a very short lead for a while, so you can control what she picks up, or if it is safe then no lead and see if, because she is running around and investigating, the stones become less interesting than the other options.

Our puppy did that, very briefly, and then changed to wood, which was more fun because you could chew it up and then eat it. She still has a bit of a wood fetish, but has mostly grown out of the whole thing. I have just realised I can't be very helpful actually, because ours did (grudgingly) drop the stones if we caught her with them, although she did manage to swallow a good few in the interim.     Trouble is at 4 months they are still only half (if you are lucky !) listening to what you tell them. You could try to wean her onto sticks instead of stones to start with, by throwing a stick every time she heads for a stone.   Of course she may then start eating sticks instead, but at least she will chew them first. Good luck, she may just grow out of it like ours did.

Tut tut bugbear ... Well I should be in the UK in February so I could hang on (he heh or hang out !) until then, but it would be nice to think I could find something to fit here. I know what you mean about if you have big boobs you must be a bit of a porker ... seems to be plenty of larger sizes in the bigger cups but nothing for skinny bints with big boobies (no mention of the madonna you understand). Perhaps I shall have to wait ... last time I was in UK I went for a fitting and the bra cost me £65 - when I had slunk out of shop with my extravagent purchase I got so wound up at the thought that I had to pay that money just because of my body shape, that I vowed never to do it again ...

Now maybe I haven't looked hard enough here, but I am having real trouble getting a bra which fits me in France. In UK I was either 32DD or 34E.   I have tried size 90 and it is too big around back, so went for 85, which is ok around the back, but I can't find a DD size here.   Did find 32E but that was tooo small. Does anyone know where you can find these types of bra sizes in uk without spending a fortune pls ??

Ooooooooooooh twinks - haven't been on for a few days, so missed this. Feeling a bit hot and flushed now though - he can look mean and moody with the right lighting can't he !!!!!!!!

Yes, but you simply cannot predict what a dog will do.   As a child we always had German Shepherds.   One in particular was the softest thing ever, frightened of everything.  She took a chunk out of the tv repair man's bum when he turned around quickly and in the dogs eyes lurched towards me and also once bit a young man who tried to attack me (I was 15) when I was out walking her in the fields one day.   She didn't really bite him badly, just took him down by the arm, like a fully trained police dog, but of course she went through the skin of the arm.  She was forgiven for that one by the local police in UK when they heard the full story, and the TV man didn't make a complaint.   I loved that dog, and she would have done anything for me, but I do think some dogs are more unpredictable than others, no matter how well you train them.    We didn't muzzle her as it happnes but from then on she only went for walks literally out in the local fields where there was no-one else around. My neighbour has a rottie, she is gorgeous (the dog).   Similarly a friend in UK always had rescue rotties, and they were all gorgeous and friendly etc etc, BUT they can also be unpredictable, and the only safe way to protect your own dog and everyone else is to muzzle them in public. I would actually never have a German Shepherd again, or a rottie or similar for that matter, because I don't want the worry and hassle, but if I did I would muzzle in public, no question, just to protect the dog's own interests.

Well I suppose I shouldn't admit this, but sadly WE fitted our pool, so in a moment of err, well, call it what you will, we are paying the price.  We were so caught up in the pool instructions which were adamant that the pump was best placed below water level, that we didn't really consider toooo much the issues thereafter.   We have found a tendency to stupidity has developed in us both since we moved to France - wonder if its just us, or if it is others too ?? Pump is correct distance from pool - we followed our instructions slavishly (too slavishly as you can tell !). Panic over for time being as it has stopped raining and we have put some more remedial earthworks in place while we consider next move.   We are loth to dig hole in concrete (yes, us again !), but may have to go that way. thanks for all suggestions.

thanks Anton.   Nice idea, but there is a concrete base in the well ....... (not sure why !)

Don't worry, found the french 'pompe de cale' apparently. Now to try and figure out how they work and where to get one !

Any idea where from and what they are called in French, as I am not familiar with the term bilge pump, although I will look them up on net and see if I have seen anything similar here. Many thanks