Tina

We have a holiday home nr Guemene-sur Scorff 56 and have been looking for some pine/oak furniture (a wardrobe, chest of drawers and a coffee table) similar to those in the Argos catologue. All we can find is either too cheap and cheerful or heavy and expensive. And unfortunately the wardrobe is just too long to get in the car! Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks to you and Baz and Cooperlola for all your helpful advice and links - Yes, on reflection although it is  a holiday home I do see the point about just pulling the plug! Will have to consider the same protection here methinks! Thanks again.

Thanks for your reply but not being technical can you explain a little more simply please![8-)] Can we not just pull out plugs/sockets?

Arrived at our cottage in Brittany in August to find that a storm had knocked out both our phones -  to the astonishment of the engineer who kept saying 'bizarre'! [8-)]  Someone suggested that we unplug the phone from the phone socket (we always turn off the electricity) and also we should unplug the satellite from the wall socket or back of T.V. Is this the best thing to do/does it alter anything as I always have a fear of everything disappearing into the nether blue yonder! The satellite used to think we'd emigrated esp. over the winter and had to 'warm up'. 

Talking about BF Ferries and their prices (or 'fluid pricing' as they prefer to call it) I checked our crossing for Oct (booked last Oct as they say the earlier you book the better the price  -  and we are stuck to school hols  -  which was for Ports/St Malo overnight and Ros/Ply back (10 days) and due to be payed next week (yippee 6 weeks till we go again!). The original price we were quoted was £344.25 (inc £10 deposit). Online (without the £5 online saving) on Tues was £299.22 and when I checked before I phoned on Fri it had gone down to £260.36!!!   I was told all the usual excuses about 'you secured a place by booking so early/price can go up or down ( although she expressed surprise that it had gone down so much rather than the other way as it supposed to be like airline bookings) so as mentioned before, the only way I could get this price was to cancel/lose the deposit and re-book. (I hate this as I always feel someone somewhere is going to click quicker than they can and I'll lose the crossing/cabin etc. !!!!!) I've never known such a difference and I don't dare look again - it makes a mockery of early booking.

My sympathies to you at this awful time and hope you find some happiness there in the future. It makes you realise that you never know what's round the corner and should not try to wait to do something 'in the future' but try and do it now. best wishes Tina

I phoned B.F. to book some crossings for next year and when I received the confirmations, saw that they were charging £30 for a day cabin (that had been free this year or £5 if you wanted a window!). Also there was a £10 cabin discount (?) for the Whit crossing (always the dearest). When I went online when they finally put the timetable on and checked the same crossings, several were different AND the day cabins were free! Can anyone explain - I haven't rung them to ask them why yet but sometimes there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to their pricing structure.

I too feel sorry for the P&O staff and it is going to hit an awful lot of people. We are in B.F. Property Owners club and much prefer their ships and think the food is excellent value for money - both in the self-service and the restaurant. We had to travel with P&O in June as unfortunately the times of B.F. weren't convienient (we were fetching our daughter from Paris and it had to be the weekend and it was the Euro 2004 football final on the Sunday - so we had to be back!) and we thought the ships were drab and dreary and the food expensive and disappointing - no lovely salon de thé etc.  We are lucky (except for distance!) being in the Midlands as we can use Plymouth and Portsmouth - usually going to St Malo and back from Roscoff.   Yes, there have been problems with B.F. but on the whole we find them very helpful - such as the case with the Pont Aven thi summer - our friends who were staying at our place in Brittany had a phone call at home as we also did  - they were extremely helpful and offered lots of alternatives - and they would have phoned us in France but had no record or our number (which they now have).   I'm glad we didn't take up the share option with P&O as a backup - will people get their money back I wonder?

Just changed our morning summer crossing from Plymouth-Roscoff to Portsmouth-StMalo - saving a 100. I checked online first but as had booked by phone last Sept rang to amend it. And surprise it was slightly dearer (we have had it the other way) but was told that they had to use the price band at the time of booking and not the current price so therefore the difference. The only way to get the cheaper one would be to cancel it and book online therefore losing the deposit and probably the availability! So much for early booking. When the confirmation came the outward ferry (Bretagne) for 2 people and a car was 87.10 and the inward(Pont Aven! Roscoff-Plymouth at 14.00hrs)was 229.14!!! This with our property owners discount too! Are we buying shares in the ship? (And why is there a fishy/fish glue smell round the lift/reception area and why an hour to disembark?)