Gastines

Having just found out that our promised interest rate has been reduced in line with other rates in UK.their words not mineWe hope that someone with more knowledge on the subject than us,can give some advice on the best place to stash ones cash,safely, whilst receiving a monthly/quaterly income. Bearing in mind that we are French Tax residents. After taking the trouble to trawl the UK banks and building societies, most don't want to know and some couldn't be bothered to find out any info for us. I await response with my money box to hand. Regards.

Ref China, I was hoping that they would decide to concentrate ALL their resources on rebuilding/rehabilitation in the earthquake zone.The Olympics can wait surely? Ref Burma. I wasn't suggesting an all guns blazing  entry,I did think it would be simple enough for the powers that be to say we are here to help for 3 months,non agression,and depart leaving all the help/aid donated in the required areas. Watching the soldiers unloading transport planes by hand as no fork lifts were available seems to indicate that a little extra help is required. I don't think UK/France or USA would be firing any shots with China looking after Burma. I think many of the AID charities are a bit apprehensive of where the AID might end up. Regards.

With yet another earthquake in China plus several aftershocks,we have seen a tremendous effort to aid the injured and homeless. At present a staggering figure of 2380 reservoirs and many dams are threatening a disaster of an even bigger scale. Surely it is now time to cancel the Olympics and concentrate all efforts,physical and financial, on dealing with the humanitarian side and not wasting any such effort or time on a showpiece!! I think the way the Burmese Junta has delayed relief is a world power scandal. Regards.

Quite correct about frogs returning to their home pond. Having installed two small ponds in a new rockery in a nice shaded wet corner of our garden especially to re-house our 2 frogs.They stayed one day and then hopped it back to their original pond overnight. A distance of about 100metres.Not quite sure how they found their way as it is in a plot we are selling that I have fenced off . At the bottom of the fence is a layer of DPC and fine mesh wire netting. I can only presume that they went under the front gate and around our fence to get back in,don't think they jumped the fence as it's 2metres high. I intend to leave them in peace and buy 2 small goldfish,non jumping ones. Regards.

Last time I worked in Robertstown Aberdare,it rained stair rods for about 3 weeks. I wanted to move back to my family roots at Llanelly but my wife said she wasn't wearing wellie boots all the time. Regards.

An Auctioneer seems a good move,earn lots and never have to risk your own cash or goods,or perhaps run Royal Mail, make an absolute c--k-up of everything,upset your staff and then award yourself a £3million bonus,per year.

Apologies for putting Tony instead of Terry,I must have been thinking of the other monotonous Tone,as in Blair, at the time. Reading Teletext this morning,I couldn't bring myself to suffer the show, I see that altough UK were joint last that some good will come out of it.Terry is not doing any more!!! Perhaps the vote is a reflection on his quips as the audience have to suffer them ALL the way through the show. I think Paul Merton should be a contender for Compere next year, Regards.

Consider yourself lucky not having to put up with monotonous Tony.Same quips,same hogging the limelight. Isn't it about time he retired.please.

We have 2 frogs ,very quiet and hopefully happy in their new home along with our2 newts. They used to live in a pond in a plot we are selling but after lots of tears from my wife [slight exageration] I had to build a rockery in a damp corner of our garden and install 2 new ponds,one deep , one shallow, albeit fairly small to rehouse them. They are still there this morning so I presume they are happy with the accomodation provided. If they get friends to move in and noise emanates from them ,they will be moving back to their old quarters. A new visitor arrived yesterday.a Jay, rather partial to cherries,left by freinds, and walnuts that I de-shell for our other birds. Although not a very well liked bird,we rather like them.Haven't seen one in our area before. Regards. and good croaking!!

My Uncle in Llanelly was quite well known for making Welsh Love Spoons.We have 3 personalised ones he did for us plus one for the P.O.Wales ceremony. Anyone else got any? I used to keep old bits of solid beech/walnut etc from my antiquing furniture days for him to carve. When he sent out Christmas cards he used to enclose a tiny heart spoon. I did find a roll of old carving chisels and gave him , he took great pleasure in using them. People used to send him pieces of wood from all over the world to carve commerative pieces. I coveted a walking stick he carved but not being a too-close relative it is pride of place in another family members house. I'm afraid to say I didn't inherit his patient approach to wood,but I'm quite handy with a big Westwing [hammer,not motorbike] and nails. Regards

We have been inspired by Chelsea,flower show that is not footie club, but the Budget was somewhat less. 15 wheelbarrow loads of old Granite blocks,large oak barrel,courtesy of neighbour.FREE but 2 bottles of Suze. Several barrows of soil from field, various plants from other parts of field and garden .26 euros of plants from St.Malo flower/plant show at the weekend. 2 Days backbreaking work. Result ,nice rockery with 2 small ponds,one shallow,one deep,  from the large barrel. Filled courtesy of rainwater tubs, lillies from old pond. New home for our Newts, plus ragged corner now looking quite good.- However, when I occasionally,very occasionally watch football, it inspires me to join acting classes!!To each his own. Regards.  

If everyone in UK is now "supposedly" struggling to make ends meet,how come tens of thousands can afford to go to Moscow to watch a football match? The same applies to The Chelsea Flower Show, a "garden" was featured on TV last night at the building cost of £80k. not even a house with it? Regards.

Still reckon the easiest/quickest, and safest to install wall would be a stud wall. Only deciding factor could be what you intend to install on other side? You can always put ply panels on the ground floor level on the outside so you dont damage the plasterboard sheets..Looking at the rest of the site I would hazard a guess that the owner does not want a major construction job, foundation footings,tie-in to existing walls,plus a wall that hieght and lenght would need structure piers.not for the faint hearted. Regards. 

Cheapest,quickest and easiest way is with metal studs, put your base plate on floor.plumb up to fix a head plate right across the roof,fixing wherever and as much as poss. The metal uprights click into each other so you can extend to whatever hieght you want,also the big bonus is that they don't warp/bend/burn and are insect proof.You can use 400mm or 600 mm centres and crimp-fix tops and bottoms as you put boards up. Do one complete side,install any cables required inside convoluted trunking before putting required insulation in ,then board the other side. For extra strenght ,fire resistance and soundproofing you can double board interior side so that board joints are NOT on same studs. Regards.

When taking the Grandchildren to The Forest of Villecartier, we saw a buzzard trying to pick up a red squirrel. I jumped out of the car and the Buzzard dropped the squirrel which managed to survive the experience and hide in some ivy. The first time I've seen a red squirrel even though I lived a few miles from Brownsea Island in Dorset. The grandchildren were totally unfazed by the event. Regards.

Paula. Bonne Chance with your search for house/home and possible mortgage. Not everyone on here is a miserable cynical person, many of us enjoy life,enjoy France and try to help if possible. Bit bored,no Coronation Street tonight. Regards.

I think MIKI will be quite pleased with that description. Must be careful what I say in case I get ostracised. Regards.

I suppose if you had just paid a couple of months premiums on your house,your top up health cover and car insurance you would be in a better financial position than those who think they can save for 10-20 years to pay any hospital/car repair and house rebuild costs especially if you came home to find the house on fire,the shock gave you a heart attack your wife crashed the car rushing you to the hospital and broke her leg preventing you from going on your world cruise. Sometimes fires and accidents don't wait untill you are in a strong financial position.That might be worth taking into your calculations.Having had 3non-insured drivers prang cars of mine,I do feel that insurance is what it says on the tin INSURANCE. Regards.

Perhaps worth including in your calculations.Did you pay for private health insurance in UK? We found that the cost of 100% top up was virtually the same amount  as we saved just on the difference in Council Tax in UK and the French equivalent. Our C.Tax in UK £1800 P.A. a 6 bed house here Total Tax H & F E1200. Top-up was E1200.After E121.now told it's E800 .that is for both of us. The main thought might also be peace of mind,it would be very nice to guarantee that neither of you would be ill or need any specialist treatment for some years. Also it is very nice to know that a system you are contributing to will give you the very best and quickest attention,like phoning a Dentist/Doctor/X/Ray dept and getting an appointment within a day.Getting immeadiate advice after your X-ray/blood tests etc.Last blood test I had in UK my Doctor was still waiting the result 3 weeks later. Regards.

Depending on what business you are in it is worth noting a detail pointed out to me by MIKI an ex Forum Member.The first year for our CdH ,we registered for the complete tax year and nearly had a heart attack over the extra cotisations. We used to tick over April till June then full July/August and part Sept and then close. The info imparted by MIKI,bless him, was that we could register for April 1st start the CdC  and  deregister at the end of Sept.This saved us more than half of the previous years extras. We visit the CdC register for I think 55e,they will do all the paperwork required to the other depts for an extra 50e and save you a lot of paperwork and it's all dealt with on the day.We are now in the non-paying B&B business as in family and old friends only. Regards.

If you sand it, you will probably remove the paper board finish. Depending on how big the patch is you could cut a piece out [so that joins are on the lathes/battens/studs].Put a new piece in, screw fix or galvanised nail  securely,tape joints with sel stick bandage jointing tape and skim over with jointing cement. Regards

A visit to your local Impot office is the easy answer. We have found that you are dealt with quickly and given every help and you get immeadiate peace of mind. Regards.

I think the Queen asks the P.M. to form a government to serve her subjects.Perhaps She could ask the present P.M. to disolve it and do Her subjects a favour. I can't remember the Queen having any participation in any laws/tax's etc etc. Regards.

My wife has just reminded me of one stop by the Customs at Cherbourg. I was stripping out a large store in Poole and had loads of 4 X 2 PAR timber. I denailed a large pile and completely filled a large van to bring over to the first house we renovated in Brittany.On arrival in Cherbourg we got taken into the office and the Customs chap actually put his pistol on the desk in front of us,he pointed out that they sell timber in France and that it wasn't nesessary to bring it over. I did point out that it was USED and showed the rows of old nail holes but he charged us 700francs and gave us a receipt.When I brought a small tractor over in the back of a van,unaware that it was supposed to be steam cleaned to remove any soil,no-one said a word. Regards.

Thank goodness that farce was stopped. We used to have our list stamped by Customs at Portsmouth for the grand sum of £25. In dozens of trips back and forth it was looked at once by French Customs and the Customs Officer told us to drive to Rennes to get it stamped?From memory it was about 10.30pm. on a Sunday night. Regards.