Bones

Just checking on Flybe's site for flights to Brest from Manchester in October. Can't seem to find any. Not even listed as a destination on the 'online timetable' thing. Do they not fly there in the autumn/winter?

They're one of those dogs that you buy on a whim, 'tis true! I think, for once, almost everything we had read about the race before picking her up became true. 1) She slobs after drinking, badly. 2) She hates being alone. 3) She's as strong as an ox. 4) She's excellent with children. Apparently they're good swimmers too, with slightly webbed toes, but she refuses to swim. Adores water, splashes around like mad. The swelling came around very suddenly at midnight. It was disconcerting to say the least. Eyes and mouth, but she was perfectly content throughout. We woke the vet up (for the second time - first time she had licked a toad, again at midnight...). He said it was a common reaction to an insect bite but to keep an eye out for breathing abnormalities, which is exactly what he said about the toad incident. "Perfectly normal, just bring her in if she starts, you know, dying". [:-))] So of course this entails staying up all night whilst she sleeps like a baby! Took well over 24 hours to get back to normal. I had pretty bad allergies as a child and often ended up with eyes swollen shut like that, grass fights on the way home from school didn't help, mother was so very proud. [:D]

Nah, we just had a good laugh about it and locked her in the cellar - in fact she's still there. You do think she'll be okay?? [:-))]

I don't know what bit my poor Lola the other night but the rection wasn't pleasant. [IMG]http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h92/bonesey123/lolaeyes.jpg[/IMG]

Reading a menu the other night. It described one dish as containing "muff of duck". [Www]

Not sure. But RDC (rez de chaussée) seems to be the term used most often to describe something on the ground floor. In fact I'm pretty sure that's correct.

Sorry Pads, forgot to reply. Yes it's the same area. There's nothing to say that it won't happen, just that there seems to be a huge effort (on the owners' part) to have it designated in a certain way. The new mairie administration don't want it designated in this manner, essentially because it would leave them liable if the private enterprise were to collapse. What will happen? I dunno, it's all conjecture. But I wouldn't be purchasing any golf clubs any time soon. Not that I have any money. Or particularlly like golf.

[quote user="Panda"]Bones that's not strictly the case, I have a friend who was an agent comercial,  so self employed this didnt work out ,and now she gets chomage, limited to the amount of time she paid in as I said before. We don't know the OP's circumstances as I said if she lost her job, lost her partner etc. then I too feel for her, if however she came to France with a child with the hope of getting a job with clearly little french (she didn't understand the rejection letter) then I do feel France should not have to bail her out for what was a very ill researched move. In her place I would have no hesitation but to return to the UK where it's easy to find work and if not at least you can get the help needed. Am I being too harsh?   [/quote] As far as I know your friend would have had to have been salaried and there are schemes for this. Are you being harsh? Yes! If it wasn't for the Op's grandad they'd all be eating sausage and have some diminutive fascist president as leader! Oh... I do have a French friend who truly believes this, he's dead set against (particularly) muslims coming to France but has no problem with any of our WW2 allies coming over! The mind boggles. But I digress, I do agree that the burden of responsibility lies with the immigrant. If the immigrant is from a nation where, say, living standards are truly abysmal then I believe we should make an effort to welcome them in: at least that's my lonely position. I'd fund this, by the way, with the estimated global cost of 6 trillion wasted on the Iraq/Afghanistan 'wars' - money out of arms and huge reconstruction companies pockets and less refugees created to boot. Simple! Britain, though, isn't one of these 'abysmal' countries, and if the op was childless I too would advocate a swift return to dear old Blighty: lesson learned. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and this moving abroad lark is something relatively new to us Brits (isn't it?). We've made a few mistakes, didn't realise how difficult it would be to make a living abroad and now that our kids are integrated we should be viewed as being in need of avuncular aid (as one would view an asylum seeker). Not for the sake of the adults but for the sake of the kids. Anyway, aren't France going through a population crisis? I've never understood that. France wants more people, so it pays out small fortunes to couples if they have more sprogs, even though there are no jobs for said sprogs. Meanwhile we have a load of immigrants just dying to come in and clean our streets, anything being better than where they were previously domiciled, and their kids would be so motivated to building a better life for themselves if we didn't stick them in crappy council ghettos and inwardly - sometimes outwardly - sneer when they walk by. This, by the way, is why we have 'hard' black and asian men in Britain, used to be just the black population - they got sick of being mocked and grew up tough - now the asians are (inevitably, wisely) joining in! Riots are the precursor, police give them a hard time and they riot and then the police think twice, as do the sneerers. I'm generalising of course but that's the way I saw it where I grew up. Am I digressing into amateur sociology again? My plan: welcome in more immigrants, rmi them and stick them in HLM houses, find them menial labour jobs that help the community and don't sneer at them for being 'reduced to this', educate their kids towards decent professions rather than give up on them as scum that'll just end up being drug dealers (that one's for you teachers!). Utopia! [8-)]

1: You don't get chomage if you're self employed and your business goes under, that's hardly a fair system. 2: It's pretty hard to get a job in the first place, very hard in some areas! If you've come over with, say, a french partner and your kid is English - the kid integrates for a few years whilst you tend to the home, then your partner leaves you (or whatever) you wouldn't - under the fair system described - be eligible for rmi and would be sent home. I'd argue that that wasn't a fair system at all. We're all European now! In France the minimum age for RMI is - I believe - 21 or thereabouts; if you've not managed to find work in that time (which is possible in the current economic climate) are we saying that you should be sent to, say, England? Of course not. Why? Because you were born here. If on the other hand you're English and own a home in the same area as said laddy you'll have been paying council tax etc that in part goes to help the unemployed French youngster, who might live in social housing in the same village but not pay one red cent himself. I'm losing my thread here but what I'm trying to say is that the op will have made some contributions to France whilst being here and has never claimed anything back. The RMI is a real piffling sum, I think she deserves it and she certainly won't want to stay on it for any serious length of time. Go and see the social worker and perhaps they'll be some flexibility, especially considering the fact that there is a child invovled.

I'm down in 11, there have been some pretty strong winds in the south east but I've not seen anything on the news about storm damage. When I say cold I'm talking 5° - 14° by the way!

I know!  Having said that, a cat looking into a mirror and a tiger being the reflection isn't exactly run of the mill either!

Did you not notice the rustling behind the potted Palm to your left? http://tour.airstreamlife.com/weblog/Tucson%20palm%20trim.jpg Seriously Pads, I didn't realise you meant literally met; how thick am I? So there you go Euro, Pads has shown you the way. [:D] Can I ask do you live in a village or the big city? Makes a huge difference I feel. If by 'single' you mean 'lookin for love' then a small village can be the quickest route to 'coupling'. Folk will just throw you together! I suppose in any case you need to put yourself about a bit. The village café being your first and most fruitful stop, everything goes through there. Pads advice about joining groups seems common sense too, there are all kinds of associations out there, in fact the French seem to have one for every imaginable endeavour.

Stop press, it's March, it's freezing. [:@]

You'd better not be including me in that terrible triumvirate of yours Pads: friends are for the weak, the weak I say!! Euro, why not introduce yourself here and we can pick at you... I mean try and see if there's some advice we can offer that might suit your individual needs. [:D]

Forget Hillary and Obama, the election in my lil ol' village has been absolutely riveting. Punch ups, threatening letters, police investigation, lovely! The results are in tonight and ten of the eleven opposition candidates are in: the mayor of thirty years standing is out!! Second round next week, perhaps the mayor will squeeze back in - although it remains to be seen whether he'll have the cods to show his face after this debacle. One of the main issues was the proposed (for eons) golf and housing complex they want to build up around La Royale (montagne noire, north of Carcassonne). Not a cat in hell's chance of that going through now.