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Stew

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  1. I don't know if Bourru is a Charente only thing. Beaujolais Nouveau is last year's wine, so it's very young. BOURRU is last week's wine so its VERY young. THe damn stuff is still cloudy and has crud at the bottom and tastes like alcoholic grape juice. The caps have a hole in because it is still fermenting, so if you lay the bottle sideways in the fridge it leaks everywhere. It is very nice chilled on a warm day. The French all say it gives them upset stomachs. Lucky for me, it only gives me an upset head. Some labels say 11% and others say 3%-11% by which I presume they mean it was 3 when it went in the bottle but could be 11 know because its still fermenting. Stew
  2. Oil fired chauffage is well understood, much used and therefore there is good infrastructure for purchase, installation and maintenance. Also called fioul, or mazout. There is a huge choice of burners, including burners that can run fioul or gas (worth considering as crude oil prices are pushing up the price of heating fuel) When pricing up, remembre its not just the cost of the chaudiere you have to consider (even chaudieres differe greatly in price depending on whether they are stainless steel, cast iron, CH only or CH and hot water) but also the cost of the burner, the fuel containers, the pump, the expansion vessel, the valves, the flue, the copper pipe etc. and of courese the radiators. A lot of this, rads, copper piping etc will have to be purchased anyway, regardless of system. I'm a plumber in the Charente, too far from you, and I've installed a few fuel based CH systems. I suppose like many plumbers I install what I know and feel comfortable with. If you want more info, send me a mail and we can exchange numbers. Stew
  3. Use your PC and internet connection to look at: http://www.junkscience.com http://www.john-daly.com http://www.co2science.org http://www.nhes.com to try and get a handle on how over-hyped global warming is. Stew (after a week and a half of rain - bring on the global warming!!)
  4. An additional outlet to an existing fosse shouldn't be a problem - if you're still the same number of people do the same amount of poo! Coz its the volume of solids the fosse has to deal with and it doesn't care if four dumps come from one wc or 1 dump from four. Even ahve gusest for a week or two wouldn't overburden it too much. But if you double your householders permanantly, then you may (only may, coz ideally the fosse will be large enough to be normally be say, only 40% under load) have to reconsider Stew
  5. [quote]We have installed one of these upstairs. It was very easy. Do not forget that you need electricity for the pump. You may also need to fit an aerator valve to prevent suction removing the water in th...[/quote] The aerator valve is called a Clapet aérateur here and the come for a range of pvc pipe sizes. They're nifty for allowing sanitary systems to suck in air but not let any smells out. Make sure they are installed higher than the highest u-bend. But theye are very small and can be hidden inside the bath cowling or boxed in the corner with the other pipes. They are also useful for stopping your pipes from going "Glug glug glug" when you pull the plug out of the bath. And if the stupid plumber hasn't installed a vent stack for your conventional wc it won't flush properly, causing you to blame the fosse septic and all sorts, because it simply wouldn't occur to you that a plumber would install a new system and not have a vent stack. I mean, really. Stew (Its obviously something that I've got to let go . . .)
  6. For certain types of installations, they are great - small pipes can be neatly ducted about, and so its handy if trhe wc has to be for eg. the opposite side to the house from the fosse or the mains sewer. The noise isn't so bad, I serviced one that had a 3 tone whistle like when a captain is piped aborad ship. (It wasn't meant to it just did!) The rules about not chucking stuff down the wc counts double for these. Poos, wees and paper only. I have had to unblock a few that had tampons and condoms and ear buds and god knows what down them, and us plumbers don't come cheap for those filthy kind of jobs! Stew (eeuw! I have to go wash my hands now just remembering it!)
  7. Its a medeival form of french. the verb "honnir" - to hold in contempt so kind of "contempt on him who evil of it thinks" my 1066 and all that brings to mind a Henry plantagenet who in court, when a garter fell from the leg of a lady in court, picked it up and strapped it on himself (first recorded incident of cross-dressing?) and to stop all the sniggering said - "Honi soit qui mal y pence" being thta the court was french and spoke french. Since then - the order of the garter and its motto Stew (a long time fan of women in garters)
  8. I used to be an analyst programmer, working contracts in the Thames Valley. The mid to late 90s were very good to us. By 2002 tho, there was a downturn in the market and contracts were getting harder to land and my rates were being forced down to compete. I could see a time coming when I would be out of work, and I couldn't face having to learn yet another programming language. Also, aged 40+ it gets harder to be taken seriously in programming, everyone thinks only kids understand the net and java and flash. Ironically, if you're over 40 and hold a spanner in your hand, everyone thinks you are vastly experienced! So I retrained as a plumber and planned to move out into deepest rural England, because despite what over excited journalists think, a plumber can't match the income of a computer programmer. But at least I'd be employed and living in a part of England where my mortgage was lower than the Thames valley. Having thus already decided to move away from friends and uproot the kids from schol, it wasn't a huge leap to think "If we're going to move away, why not move the hell away?" France was logical because I could speak some French, and we liked what we had heard about the education, healthcare etc. A quick recce April 2003 to the Charente convinced us, and we emigrated September 2003. No regrets, even though life here is harder and more physical than the UK. We've found a sense of community and neighbourliness that has largely disappeared in the UK. Every country has its good and bad, we are lucky enough to have had the freedom to choose to live in a country that best suits our current needs. I hope it continues to do so for the rest of my life.
  9. Dick is right. When you curdle milk with Rennet (or other acids - never try to make an orange milkshake!) it seperates into the solids (Curds - which can be easily pressed to make cottage cheese or pressed further and stored, and contaminated with bacteria to make 1000 other cheeses) and a liquid (Whey - remember little miss muffett?) When you churn cream long enough it seperates out into its fat content (butter) and a liquid (buttermilk) Curds & Whey doesn't take much physical activity, heat the milk to blood temperature, ad the rennet and hey presto. Butter on the other hand requires a shed-load of agitation to get it tocome right, and then you still have to smack the butter smartly with paddles to force more liquid out. Then into the cute molds. I've made cheese a few times, and once you can get over the trust barrier that yes, this stuff is the same as the stuff that comes shrinkwrapped in the shops, its quite a satisfying hobby. Stew
  10. [quote]Just read on the BBC web site that life expectancy in France is, 75 for the men and 83 for women. Whereas you blokes get another 'average' year in the UK and us ladies lose 2.......76 and 81. I had ...[/quote] Every day with "Charente Libre" our dept's local daily, I check the births deaths etc. This is partly because we live next to the church and I hate being taken by surprise by a local death, but I mainly check the deaths because I'm astounded at the age attained by people here. People dying in their 80s and 90s is common, but at least a few times a week there are folk in their 100s. No epedimiologist me, but my ameteur guess is that if the French manage to dodge the big C or heart disease in their 50's they've got a good chance of hitting mid 80s and beyond. Also, in the countryside you see old folk still working the fields, I know farmers still working hard physically in their 70s, whereas my folks, in their early seventies struggle a mile walk. Stew (adopting all of the French vices but none of the virtues)
  11. [quote]Yes, so true, or is it?????? Also, I don't know what Derridas thoughts on death were, but it's occurred to me that at the moment he's experiencing the ultimate in deconstruction. I know thats in...[/quote] Absolutely, I tip my metaphorical hat to you. The blackness of it reminds me of another current(ish) issue re: Christopher Reeve. Barry Beelzebub in his weekly column (do a google search, its worth it) remarked he was "surprised how long Kryptonite takes to work" Stew
  12. [quote]I don't think that buttermilk is fresh cream. I thought that it was the whey that was left when making dairy products. It is called petit lait in France, I'm pretty sure about that........... but if...[/quote] yeah, I quoted the wrong blessed topic. Buttermilk is the sour thin stuff left after churning butter. An acquired taste. Makes good biscuits tho Stew (8 years as an analyst programmer and I still can't get to grips with b*st*rd computers)
  13. Curses! I was going to quote the Liddle article, but you beat me to it. Liddle seems to have grown up of late. Learned a little humility. So much of philosophy can be deconstructed with a well placed comment of "b()ll()cks, mate" I'm currently re-reading "The Far Corner" by Harry Pearson. In it he describes an encounter between a philosophy PhD and a thug from Darlington, whilst on the train - "Perception and sensation. Reality and illusion. How for example would you prove your existance to me?" The youth studied his can of larger for a moment. It was one of those cheap, generic brands they sell in corner shops. The ones with spurios Teutonic names (Pilsner von Pist) whose advertising slogan would be 'Beer - it gets you mortal'. After a few seconds he looked up. "Why would I bother, like?" he said. Nice - I was expecting to read that the Darlington youth clocked him one, thereby proving his existance. This was much neater. Stew (big Pirsig fan)
  14. [quote]You can get crème cru as well, not so sour as fraiche. Kids have been brought up drinking semi skimmed, done them no obvious harm. Went to England once, they had a pint of ordinary english milk and wo...[/quote] That's very useful coz I've been doing some plumbing work for Dutch clients and they were saying how they can't find buttermilk. I'll tell them. The Dutch also pour condensed milk into their coffee and dring glasses of fresh milk at lunch. So that's where all the fresh milk in the supermarket goes - its the bloody Dutch nicking it all! Stew (now having to be trilingual to accomodate the dutch - lekker, smaaklik and hoe kom?)
  15. And another thing (seems to be my phrase of the moment) Compilation shows. They never stop We've just had the 100 best french songs on M6. I'm sure it was only last month on channel 1 they had the 100 top tubes and before that they had a compilation of top 50 love songs, top 50 summertime hits etc etc. And anytime there's a video gag out-takes type prog they have a panel on who disect each clip and discuss its merits. AAARGH! Just play the stupid clips for chrissakes! next thing I'll start to miss Lisa Reilly. Stew (I actually love it here its just that I like a good whinge, me)
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