Gastines

I'll agree that my better half is more organised on the home front than I am,so much so that when working on a contract in the West End I left our flat in Bournemouth 5.30.am on a Monday .to return at 6.30pm on the next Friday to a different house. All packed/moved and legal side completed. She did tell me by the way. Our flat buyer who flew over from Tenerriffe,bought the flat on condition he could move in by Friday. Luckily the next house was empty and bought from a Bank.Just shows it can be done quickly.Mind you after 14 moves in 20years she is getting plenty of practise. Regards.

Worth noting,Fete des Ramparts.Dinan 19th-20th July. 100year Fete at St.Suliac 2nd 3rd August. A grand day out for both occasions. At St.Suliac,just around the corner fortunately,easy free parking within a few minutes of the village.Loads of nice food to eat,Pit roasted Hams/Fletan /Pork.Boiled spuds and of course chips.Plenty to see and enjoy all day and evenings.If your lucky you may even win a "Doris" local fishing boat.I've been trying for years. Regards.

Is it just me this is happening to? E-mailed an enquiry to a UK supplier for price of 8 chairs,payment with order and UK collection,no reply! Bank supposed to advise of alterations to interest rates by e-mail,3 changes,all lower, no contact! Sent tax repayment claim to UK Non-residents including all relevant original paperwork,can't be found! [I might add that interest has been paid Gross for 5 years but the Bank managed to make an error?] Written to Ed Balls.M.P. 3 times  ref Grandchildrens School closure; they want the playing field site: no reply! Is it easier for me just to claim benefits in the UK?  

I have thought of getting my next Whistle and Flute made by Sir Elton John's tailor. He is obviously trying not to waste any material.I did mean waste not waist! I trust the apostrophe is in the right place? Regards.

It does make one wonder just who's advice to take. About 23years ago,just before we met and married, my wife took out an endowment to cover a mortgage of the grand sum of £8,500. We paid the loan off years ago but thought we'd keep the endowment as a future sum in our old age. It matures in 2 years time,the latest advice from the company is as the TOTAL on maturity is likely to be £3.600, would we like to take out another policy to cover the shortfall? We don't think we will take up the offer. Regards.

I note that Government backed Northern Rock have just issued a Reposession Order on a woman +3 children with a Mortgage of £360.000, as she has fallen behind with payments. The family earnings, £100 a week ? They wonder why they make losses? Just interested in the commission I suppose. The question then arises who re-houses the family and pays ? I must stop reading the UK papers. Regards.

Our neighbour's 20 year old daughter, a student at Rennes University wishes to find a few hours occupation to fill her time during the Summer holidays before taking up a teaching post in the UK in September. She is a quiet, well-educated, respectable young woman with a current driving license and an excellent command of the English language and business skills. Ideally, she would like to teach pupils up to the age of 16 yrs and help them to improve their understanding of the French language and way of life. She is based just outside of St Malo at St Pere Marc en Poulet and could accomodate pupils either at her home or theirs for lessons. She would appreciate any other sensible suggestions enabling her to use her expertise to its best advantage, thankyou. Mrs Gastines. PM direct for details.

We returned to Bournemouth, UK south coast, at the weekend and in one of the property papers there were pages of "Price Reduced" ads. Many being reduced in the £15K -£30K region. I wonder how Mr Darling will make up the shortfall on his income from Stamp-duty and VAT on Estate Agent and Solicitor fees?

It certainly can be a bit disheartening and I wouldn't want to rely on it for a living. Our main veggie plot has now sold as a building plot so that saves most of the work. I still have runner beans,spuds,pumpkins and rasberries, and apples and plums which I suppose the buyer will get the benefit of if he completes in time.About 500mtrs from us is a farm shop with plenty of new spuds.various lettuce,radishes etc,very reasonable so it hardly seems worth the effort. How do they manage to keep their field virtually weed free and veggies looking like a parade ground,all up straight and in line? Regards.

Best advice is to ask a Notaire,failing that you could adopt me. Regards.

One of my favourites,last year we had a pair nest in a box on our back wall,this year I've seen a few flying about but not in our garden. Jenny Wrens just moved into a box to have second lot, they certainly do make a racket for a tiny bird. No Song Thrushes this year either? Regards.

I did say I hadn't resorted to it or contemplated it,yet!! The last 2 I found actually, above ground and on our granite chip car park,I re-housed in a wood down the road. Regards.

Tried the windmill/urine/mothballs all with limited success,However a French neighbour said try bits of broken glass.Apparently moles are Haemophiliacs and bleed to death. Haven't tried it yet but they are pushing their luck.Hope the spelling/punctuation is correct Sid? Regards.

Ref .Flip top Corona bottles.I'm talking about 1949-1952. Ref Pink Wellies. While with Foster parents at about age 9, they had 2 older daughters. I used to walk about 1/2 mile to St..John's  Boscombe Junior School. When it was raining and because my shoes were a bit holey[not Holy ] Mrs Newland used to give me a pair of short PINK wellies to wear. I was so embarrassed I used to hide my shoes in a hedge around the corner from the house and change out of the wellies then put them back on when I returned. I did used to get a large spoonful of VIROL every day for some unknown reason. Plenty more where that came from. Regards.

By the way,I don't think I had a deprived childhood at all. Normal and quite enterprising I always thought.Wait till I tell you about the Pink Wellies!! Regards.

And Bring back the JELLY MALLOW MAN!!!

When I was 8-9 years old I used to go around our neighbourhood with my orange box cart on the obligatory pram wheels and collect old newspapers/rags/ jam jars  and if lucky Corona flip top pop bottles. I used to get all my pocket money this way by taking it to the 2 scrap yards in Boscombe,Bournemouth. I did admit recently to pinching the odd bunch of daffodils from the clifftop and offering them to our more affluent neighbours, usually receiving 3d or 6d for my troubles.When really hard up for my chip money,there was a not too bright Off-Licence owner,who stacked his empties crates within easy reach of a climable back wall.They were often returned twice, for a penny a time from memory!!! I trust this is not a hanging offence? My eldest brother actually cycled from Boscombe to see relatives in Pontardulais ,South Wales, with a bottle of Orange Corona strapped to the back wheel guard,his only refreshment. It exploded!!. Regards.

Friends taking some home-made jam to a neighbour,advised them that there were no "Preservatives" in it!! Regards.

I will admit to making a drastic error on this subject. One house we had in Bournemouth I put a Regency style glass door woodburner in the existing fireplace. I built a french style fireplace and canopy over it and boarded the back recess with marine ply,a layer of superlux fireboard and then marble tiled the face. The metal chimney pipe came out of the back of the stove so I cut a hole through the marble.+boards for the pipe to go through and packed around it with fire rope. One night my wife noticed a nice glow through the closed lounge glazed door. I said the fire should be out!!!!  On opening the door we saw the back boards were well on fire with the marble tiles cracking and falling off. An air draught was going around the pipe and as the pipe was nice and hot the plywood backing had caught fire.Lesson learnt,don't put any combustible material near the smoke stack/pipe or back of the fire. I note from an estate agents blurb sent to me by a friend, that although we sold that house about 10years ago,the house is on the market again,sold in impeccable  modernised order.The stove is still in situ,and my  wife also noted,as they do, that so are the same carpets,curtains, net curtains,kitchen and even our Lazy Susan kitchen rack. The price is nearly £200K more!!! I think they have installed a new garage door.

I'll take that as a "No" then. Regards.

It's all a game of nerves. Yesterday we had another dopey offer on our plot.Offer refused.Today the offer was increased by 10000 euros.? Still refused!! We gave the Immo and Notaire a bottom line price AFTER discussing a fair price with them and taking their advice. Who is the buyer insulting their intelligence or ours? Perhaps they think"English, must be struggling with the euro/pound". Regards.

Reading Ernie's comments about the sun and weather in Cahors,on the "Wales" topic, I thought it might be interesting if members in different regions could give us their views  of life/interesting spots to visit etc. On a trip back from Narbonne we stayed a couple of nights in Cahors. Quite an event as there was a huge demonstration,pensions I think, they were burning tyres on all the roads and roundabouts and my wife was not too happy about driving over that very high bridge held up by needles. Although one place was like a very bad English Carvery, we did find a restaurant that did excellent chicken dishes and our hotel had a pool of which we were the only users. My knees might have put others off!! I will refrain from the good points of St.Malo .Dinan,Dinard area at the moment!! Regards.

Interesting note regarding house sales in France in FranceOuest today. Sales down countrywide by 27.9%. Normandie -21%. Pays de Loire -19.2% but Bretagne only -8.5%. Judging by the amount of new house builds going on in nearly all local communes,I'd say this area isn't suffering too much.We have a building plot for sale and over the last few days have had 7viewings and 2 offers, so it obviously depends on which area you are in. Still holding out for a few more euros though!! Regards.

Perhaps I have not put my point over correctly or succintly. If Pres Sarky said to the Burmese Junta." Now look here, we can't just stand by and watch tens of thousands of people suffer or die because of your paranoia, we intend to land 1000 tons of food and medical supplies by un-armed forces in the Irawaddy Delta" do you think the Burmese Colonels would shoot them? How can the humanitarian act by France possibly be seen as an act of aggression? Regards.

Ref.Wooly b.broth. Thanks,will follow it up.