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Wendy

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Everything posted by Wendy

  1. Yeah I hear what you are saying WJT and you are correct about the water-levels thing. However, if one has something akin to a 'power jet' built into their backside then, well...sometimes one flush just does not suffice my dear[:$] Or do we need eyes in the back of our 'head'...[Www]
  2. Vincam, I am sure 'courtesy' had nothing to do with sending the products of Mother England's overflowing prisons out to 'god knows where' on ships some 200 odd years ago...but we thank you all the same [:)] If only we had followed the same path that the Americans took [:P] , but dont worry we are getting there [:D] You spelled/spelt 'dunny' just like an antipodean would and well done - however...'Barby'...? isn't that a doll ??  What is 'crimpolene' when it's at home...? and I don't know any sheila's/sheglah's...or whatever you call them. But this 'Mother England' business...ain't she now more 'wrinkled old hag' ?? Glad though to see 'we' still get up the noses of some Brit's...our sole purpose on earth for many of us...glad you met a couple of them[:P] just in case you thought Kylie Minogue and the cast of Neighbours were atypical. However being a business person you should have acted as such and not as though you had never seen a bit of poo in a toilet bowl for the very first time...I would also report the mangy mutt who bit your guest - there are laws in place in France now about such things. Hope you warn your next hapless visitors - hope they are not Yanks... They also sell Jacobs Creek in the local Carrefour and Le Clerc - sorry to shoot you down there...put your thesaurus away dear Vincam and do some deep breathing exercises. Signing off as the product of a classless, crude but very happy society...we exist to shock tha' knaws[;-)]    
  3. Tressy I agree with you. I think some people place too many demands on very young children when they move here; just because a child is very young does not necessarily mean they will instantly integrate and both understand and speak the language within that magical, and often impractical, 'six months'. It happens for some, it does not happen for many others and I think it would help if we read about more people experiencing regarding the latter rather than those flowery stories about those whose kids are 'fluent' after just several months here - they are not the norm and should not be presented as such. Children deal with frustration in many ways and lashing out at others is just one of them. If you were placed in an environment where everyone went 'blah blah blah' at you all day and everyday for months on end I am sure you'd get pretty pissed about it too...
  4. Vincam, being both Australian AND in the accommodation business here in France I can only say that your post suggests you are relatively new to the tourism game. If so, then 'Welcome' to the business of being 'taken in'. The act of being 'ungrateful' as well as leaving 'faeces in the bowl' is pretty much a universal thing where guests are concerned. Take it from me, such habits are not restricted to mere nationality. Wait until you have to scrape 'faeces' from the toilet SEAT - even though you have provided a toilet brush for them to use (it amazes me how many folk do not know how, or even bother, to use one). Dirty, fithy people (guests) come in all shapes, sizes, professions and nationalities - as I have found - and among the worst I have seen have been 'older people' who should know better...and yes, 'Poms' were among them. But in my personal experience young females travelling together in groups tend to leave the worst mess. I cannot speak for all Australians but most of us have been well familiarised with 'indoor plumbing' for well over 50 years now - I suggest your guests were of the 'backyard dunny' type who only have one other known use for newspaper after they have read it...they probably live in Woy Woy [:)] We Aussies tend to stay away from anything involving litigation...too expensive in our eyes...so don't ever worry about being sued by an Australian. We are not in the same league when it comes to suing as are our American friends nor do we have such bothersome things as 'yooman rights' to scream about as do the Brit's. But I think you should have deducted something from their deposit for your trouble...I certainly would have. By the way, we spell it 'Poms'...not with a double 'm' [:D]  
  5. Hmmm; our son (6) has been in ecole maternelle for two years now and is only just starting to communicate in French with his little friends but is doing well all the same. We have never pushed him to speak French in all this time, we have allowed him to progress at his own rate. I think this is important. However whenever we previously asked him questions in French he would react in a negative way as if he did not want to be bothered with speaking French. We decided to leave it and let him do it on his own. You say you would 'love' your child to be 'bi-lingual'...how much an issue has this been made in your home and is your child feeling overly pressured by you to be 'bi-lingual' ? Otherwise your child might have a behavioural problem which might not be connected with any language skills...it happens.      
  6. Good is as good does...and I does a lot each and every day [:)]  
  7. Right, so having looked through this thread, being concerned for SD, I can only assume that you people assume that I am the whining shit (of course using the translation quoted here but will be edited with little stars). I am not. And here's the deal Woolynana... I received an email some months back (early 2008) inviting me (using my living france forum name) to be a member of the DIY Forum and the tag line said  'pink specs not needed here' - it was around the time when on this forum some people were talking about being asked to sign up to some other bogus forums that were only after peoples passwords. I remembered this thread, short though it was, and deleted the email I received from DIY assuming it was along the same lines. I had checked out the URL given and found nothing which suggested a forum existed. I assumed it was a scam. I wish I had not deleted that email now so I could copy and paste it here. Shall look through my folders and if I can find it I will reproduce it here but I am darn sure I deleted it as I do all junk mail. Now Wooly - put your horns back where they fit.[:P]      
  8. DIY France Forum...aren't they the folk who sent out emails some time ago to those of us who post here inviting us to join their forum with the tag line...'pink coloured specs not needed'...? I go that email and deleted it. But how did they get our email addresses ??? What's this about Mr & Mrs Sunday Driver...? hope they are both okay. Mr SD was a font of useful information to me over a period of time.  
  9. Yes Frenchie, it is a very difficult subject. But does 'regulated' come under the heading of 'condoned'...? I have trouble with the comparison between animal pain and human suffering...should human beings simply be 'put down' as we do animals? animal suffering is heartbreaking, yes, but in my mind a human life is worth so much more than that of a dog or cat. On the same note, why do we not offer animals options in pain relief rather than instant euthanasia? because even though human suffering can be unbearable, ending a human life means so much more than ending that of a pet. I can understand in a way why you did not pass 'that' aspect of your exam. The job of a nurse is to 'nurse'. To allow your beliefs to affect your work could be detrimental to your patient's well-being. Some years back I went into labour at 18 weeks with my first baby - in 1984 such babies simply did not survive being born at such an early stage. My doctor, my own family GP who had cared for me since I was 11 years old, decided to let things progress 'according to nature'. The baby was born and died, as he naturally would have. Nothing would have saved him had he even breathed just once. I will never forget one of the nurses, one of those 'right to life' types, shouting across me at my doctor in the delivery room that he should have 'cut me open and got IT out earlier on to give IT a chance'. My doctor had acted in MY best interest; the nurse on the other hand was acting according to HER own beliefs, despite what would have been best for me. My doctor had refused to butcher me in order to deliver a baby that would never have survived in any case. He did the right thing. I think this is where you went wrong in your exam. You keep your beliefs about life and death, particularly OTHER PEOPLES life and death, to yourself. Having said that...I had earlier worked for my doctor in his office and knew how he 'assisted' several of his sick and elderly patients in the local nursing home to 'sleep peacefully' through their final sufferings. I knew many doctors who did just this, and my mother - a retired nurse, knew of even more doctors who had done this decades ago. Doctors have always 'eased' terminal patients along, discreetly and quietly. But to allow such a thing to become legislated? to make it a law that doctors can end a life? where does such a law start and end? I read about that poor lady too. Unfortunately she would have suffered intense and unbearable pain long before her condition killed her itself - life is so damn cruel. But how does a Govt go about allowing assisted-suicide? the term is contradictory. Suicide is one thing - at one's own hands - as she finally chose, but when you bring the term 'assisted' into the equation you are talking about something else altogether. What is the line between assisted-suicide and agreed-homicide? should there be witnesses, signed forms? to me it would be like sanctioning an execution. Yes I know the Netherlands has such a policy in place - I have also read many horror stories that have occurred through their state sanctioned euthansia. Put it this way; if I ever find myself in the position of facing prolonged suffering ( I watched my own father die a prolonged death) I will act accordingly for myself. I do not want some law, or some nurse-with-a-conscience telling me when I have had enough and that it is time to go.      
  10. Just a question that has always made me curious...why does a birth certificate need to be translated? they are pretty straightforward. Name of person, date/place of birth, name of parents. One does not even need a dictionary to work these things out.
  11. I believe every word of it. French law has nothing to do with what is fair or 'right'.  
  12. Okay, as I am in a frivolous mood tonight ( my usual mood in other words when visiting this forum; tongue firmly in cheek) I shall address your questions answering each numerically: 1) Feeling great and able to ignore the implications of French inheritance law 2) Feeling awful and worrying about the implications of French inheritance law 3) Being well...[8-)] 4) Surviving childbirth 5) Dying in childbirth 6) Yes, voting for the Communiste's 7) In all ways: being Australian induces me to be a complete pain in the a**e to the British, just ask those on this forum - (they have leg's just begging to be pulled... and they really do all play jingle bells!)[:-))]  
  13. Yes Jan, the majority are are joy to have stay. It is always that one exception isn't it. I have found that Murphy has a law specific to us accommodation owners... I hope all goes well for you in the future[:D]
  14. Hi Joanna. Actually I still have my 'issues' with French schools to this day, BUT, when we moved here we only ever intended for our kids to attend French schools. Many things here in France are much more than 'halfway decent' so long as you do not consider the 'admistrative' side of France, and that has always been our problem. I just have problems with these Brits who come to live here, state how 'integrated they are'  and yet hang on to the British side of things...International Schools always cost loads of money for what they deliver...maybe if you want your kids to have a British education then it is best to stay in the UK and educate them for much less until they are finished with such...? I wish I had and I am not even British! I understand in a way though...life in the UK is dog eat dog; you risk your life walking down the streets there nowadays so no wonder folk want to get their kids out of that place. But if you really wish to make your whole life in France what good will it do your kids to educate them in France but in English...?        
  15. Hi Tony! I have to tell you about a guy who sells his cheese and eggs in our village on Sunday mornings. He arrives early at the square in a small car filled to the brim with dogs and sets up a few tables. He has a grey beard that reaches down past his chest and never ever uses gloves when serving. Despite the fact that all the eggs he sells taste like eggs should taste - with lovely yellow yolks and whites that do not spread all watery-like in the frying pan - the shells are all liberally covered in chook poo, though I now ignore this. His eggs are a dream to cook and eat. His cheeses are very popular too, however I do not like chevre. He also serves everyone with an omnipresent fag dangling from his lips. I wonder what the EU nobs would make of him!    
  16. Quillan, I have a problem with the authenticity of someTripadvisor reviews simply because those writing 'said' reviews do not have to provide any proof at all that they have actually STAYED at the accommodation they are reviewing. I have read many of them, even posted some reviews myself, and Tripadvisor are now turning the negative reviews into a form of 'entertainment reading' and I object to this. For example, we had one English couple who stated both over the phone and in their booking email that they would be arriving around 8pm on a Sunday evening, they even requested an evening meal...they actually arrived at 7AM that Sunday MORNING and were perplexed as to why no-one was there to open the door. They left and did not return at all so were charged as 'no shows'. We found out what had happened after they returned to England and chose to write us an extremely abusive email. This couple, on returning home, went and submitted a truly dreadful review about us to Tripadvisor complaining about the 'bad service' (that they had not stayed to experience), 'the poor accommodation' (that they had never even seen), the location (we cannot help it if the original owners chose to build the place where it is several decades ago) and the 'lack of grass and flowers' (this was in the middle of a very cold and windy January...boggles the mind). It took us several weeks and countless emails to have this fraudulent and defamatory 'review' of us removed from their site...it seems as though when reviewing a property people can say what they like, but property owners have very little comeback in the end. And it just isn't right. People booking through sites such as Venere, Bookings and HostelWorld can only post accommodation reviews IF they have actually STAYED at the property in question...Tripadvisor, in my mind, caters to a lot of people who have chips on their shoulders.      
  17. Have both. Some parents do not watch their kids and alarms have been known to fail or not get heard.
  18. Jan, do you live 'on site' ? if you don't I would appoint someone trusted to do as we do...check the premises over before they return the keys. Hubby talks to the guests whilst I look things over, believe me, we have caught a few out using this method. One family had 'accidentally packed' quite a few items from the property...clock radios, towels, DVD's... I think maybe you need to 'up' your safety deposit for the future.
  19. Wendy

    Cold Treatment

    Jay, I only said not to place 'too much faith' in doctors, not none at all. I advise your wife to sit back and let YOU do the renovations [:P]  
  20. What's wrong with the local schools...? International Schools in France are never cheap.
  21. Wendy

    Ebay

    I know I am jumping in rather late here but I'd like to reply to inkflo finding it imposs to sell on UK ebay from France. You need to quote an address in the UK and state that the products are based in the UK..use a relatives address if needed. Having said that...I have friends and family abroad, in Australia and the USA, who simply refuse to sell or buy from French or Italian ebayer's. Most often the reason is that they either never pay up or do not ship the item you have bought. Apparently France and Italy have a bad name on Ebay I have been told. Open a UK Ebay account but you need to quote a UK address.  
  22. Wendy

    Cold Treatment

    I definitely feel that the doctors here over-prescribe. Fine if your doctor prescribes exactly what you need, but prescribing so much that it will end up going out of date is just ridiculous. And if you just continue taking ALL the excess medication prescribed to you until it is all used up, simply because you have paid for it, then you are just plain stupid. I was admitted to the local hospital with pneumonia last year at Easter...never been so sick in my life. The doctor, on discharging me that evening, prescribed me prednisone. I remember this drug as my father was an emphysema sufferer before his death and took the same drug in small controlled doses. My partner had the script made out at the local chemist and brought it home to me, in a small shopping bag. Thank god my Mum was there to intervene...she is a registered nursing sister and noted that what the doctor prescribed, and what the chemist provided accordingly, was way, way, way over the normal dose for what I needed. In short, if I had taken what the doctor prescribed I would have been back in A&E within hours suffering from an overdose. Prednisone can be a very dangerous drug if taken wrongly and the idiot doctor had prescribed me way too much to be taken in one hit. Mum said it was enough to kill an elephant! Mum took the stuff and threw it out while cursing the doctor and the equally incompetent pharmacist. I recovered without it anyway. Never place too much faith in doctors I say, even French doctors.
  23. Frenchie you should have a try for at least one more...42 is not 'old' in any respect. Where I had my last baby I was told in the clinic here - at the last minute! - that epidural was the one and only form of pain relief available...they had no idea about gas and air or TENS; your other choice was to scream...which I did as junior was making his exit in the car park...and I was too far gone for the spinal option. I saw the Mums leaning out their room windows, some attached to IV lines, puffing away on fags like mad throughout the day. And the meals were only fit for people like Posh Spice...tiny portions, I mean REALLY tiny, and not even a drink of water with a meal. Breakfast was just a dry breadroll with a pre-packed jam portion which to me is starvation rations - that was at 7.30am and lunch (if you could call it that) did not appear until 1pm. Not exactly a nutritional diet for a new mother intending to breastfeed and needing those extra calories. Boy was I glad to get home!
  24. Wendy

    Cold Treatment

    I suspect the doctors here get financial kickbacks from the pharmaceutical companies; why else would they over-prescribe the way they do? on three occasions in the past four years here my young son has had three middle ear infections...each time we have walked out of the chemist with FOUR bottles of Orelox ( for the ear), THREE bottles of Dacudose(for the eye...why ? ), TWO of pneumorel (completely useless as he does not have a chest infection at all)  and he persists in prescribing my son vitamin D drops ( I had never seen vitamin D drops until I came to France) - which I never give him as he spends so much time outdoors. Considering just one bottle of Orelox lasts one month - well after the infection is gone - why would I want to keep dosing my son on this medicine for months afterwards? the answer is, I don't. I have thrown out so much unused medicine it is ridiculous. I have taken to telling the chemist 'one of this' and 'one of that' to save myself walking out with a full shopping bag of useless medicines. I used to work for doctors back in Australia and I know full well how many of them get 'sweeteners' from the pharmaceutical companies for prescribing THEIR particular medications, it is obviously no different here in France. Sweet17, I don't think you are so much 'cared for' rather than your doctor is obviously making a good living 'on the side' from over-prescribing. I actually see it as dangerous in a way and should be stopped.
  25. If you are receiving one of those monthly booklets that resemble the type that social security send out for free, aimed at families, then you will find that five euros a month out of your money will be paying for that as they come to you via CA. It is a subscription thing and very difficult to cancel as the person who opened your account at CA signs you up for it without asking you. These things are nothing more than junk mail. We found out that these useless things were costing us five euros a month and were almost impossible to cancel...until we closed the account altogether and stopped CA debiting the money for them. They ignored all requests to cancel the subscription otherwise.    
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