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sid

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Everything posted by sid

  1. Oh, very probably! I stopped visiting for a long time because I disliked some of the comments to my posts. I suppose we need to be more thick-skinned but I don't need the hassle at this time of life. Over the years I've had very useful information and help, and some of the "old timers" (original members) are still on here and can be guaranteed to lift the depression. See how you get on. I see I'm classed as a Rookie now!
  2. I'm just updating my experience with fibre installation. The technicians came to our village in February. There is a "hub" in the village and after a programme of installing overhead fibre cable everyone is now able to be connected. I've gone for Orange, as before and it's costing 59€ for internet and 2 mobile phones. The fibre connection is FTTP or FTTH (fibre to the premises/home) so it's fibre all the way into the house and to the box. EDIT I should point out that it is all overhead line to the house. The guys worked in appalling conditions, it poured down all the time they were here, about 3 hours, but they've done a neat job. The house is 60 metres from the road and telephone post and they need to fix additional support brackets to the barn wall and the house. I took the precaution of running a gaine into the eaves and connected it to the existing telephone gaine, and I threaded a flexible wire through the gaine to be used as a pull-through. The telephone socket is next to the power point where I wanted the box to be installed and the guys were happy to do exactly as I wanted. The pull-through worked like a charm. I did the new Livebox 5 connection, very easy. The speeds are nothing short of astonishing! Previously (ADSL) I was lucky to get 5mbps but usually 4mpbs; now I have 390mbps, up and down!!! Wifi is stronger too but with the thick stone walls it doesn't reach everywhere in the house. One hiccup; I had asked that I could keep our old telephone number (an 05 49... number) but this must have got lost in the paperwork or something, because we finished up with a new 09 number. Apparently fibre uses different technology (so the conseiller explained, and new installations get 09 numbers). All our friends and contacts have the old number so I insisted on having it restored, which they did after a week's wait. All is now working fine.
  3. You think retired folk are stupid or something ? I'll tell it how it is - I'm sick of whinging poms on this forum complaining about this country they decided to live in! In my case I lived and worked in the UK and took early retirement and chose to live in this "SW nonsense" (whatever that means). I love it! I think you'll find that most retirees have a lifetime's experience on which to base their choice of new life, and we pick where we live precisely because we have an idea of what France is like and which are the best bits (and which bits to avoid), and because we can choose. As I said before, if you don't like it, and the UK is so fantastic, you should pack up, go back, and tell them all what a terrible time you had. It'd be a lot quieter here. We all have our reasons for choosing to live here, and I for one, have no need of some opinionated imbecile telling me what to think. Alittlebit-ex-brit.
  4. Well pardon me for breathing! I'm definitely happier here than I was in the UK. We arrived in 2004 and live in a country village. It's all very well to highlight troubles in Marseilles or Paris, but I don't live there, and I didn't live in London previously, so whilst I can't give an accurate comparison that covers all instances, I'm very happy with my lot, thank you. I picked where I live for a reason, peace and quiet. I've got a friend currently waiting 3 months in UK for the results of a scan and cardio exam; she had a recurrence of her problem this weekend and had to wait 8 hours for an ambulance (but her husband took her the 7 miles by car) and then spent 8 hours on a trolley in the A&E corridor, before being sent home because the hospital pharmacy had closed. Does that happen here ? Not in my experience. My wife was treated for breast cancer in 2015 and I can't praise the staff and treatment highly enough. We watch the French news in the mornings followed by the BBC News a little later. All I see at the moment is a bunch of spivs running the UK who wouldn't know the truth if it smacked them in the face. Our UK family with university-age children have lost the chance to easily spend a year in Europe doing modern languages. The country is on its knees from where I'm sitting. Those who miss "good ole Blighty" can always pack up and go back. I find the benefits far outweigh the disadvantage and we're here for the duration. Amen
  5. Thank you all for the recent replies. That's a lot clearer now. I'm sure I can do the set up part, and it's reassuring to know that an existing gaine can be used (which we have got).
  6. I'm reviving this thread (I hope) because fibre is arriving in our village ! Wooo! I would like to know how the fibre cable gets into the house (I can understand the connection to a new box inside the house). So, does it mean that a hole is drilled through the wall or do they attempt to feed the cable alongside the existing copper telephone cable all the way to where the box will be positioned. Do we have to find a new convenient location for the box ? Our exterior stone walls are dry-lined and insulated and the existing phone cable is in a "gaine" to a T-socket. Perhaps it could be pulled through the gaine ? I would just like to know in advance what to expect. The house is 60m from the road and telegraph pole, and the existing line is overhead to the house, so I see added complications there. What does it cost to change to fibre? Is there an installation charge?
  7. "should be interesting" ....except for those cycling fans amongst us who live in the West ! There was a time when Bordeaux featured regularly but since I arrived in 2004 it's hardly been at all. Must be something I said?
  8. Late reply Woolly, sorry. I watched the mens' race yesterday on FR3 and it was fantastic! What a gruelling event, and more so when it's as wet as it was yesterday. I'm a keen cyclist still, despite age (!) I wonder if its' worth having a cycling category ? Lizzie Deignan (GB) won the women's event on Saturday.
  9. Absolutely hopeless! I deliberately left it a few days in the hope it would settle, but nothings has improved. I can't sort the posts into latest first or oldest first, and lots of dates for 1st January 1970 as the last date posted when it's quite apparent looking at the posts that they are more recent than this. The "stickies" at the top get in the way because you have to read them first to decide whether they are in fact stickies instead of being categorised as such. I agree with Norman on this one, it'll be so time-consuming and frustrating that many of us will leave and never come back. What a pity! One plus point... all these old members reappearing, nice to see you all. There are other (better) forum packages around such as Vbulletin. Has this one ever been tested ? As an ex-IT man I hate to see untested software go live, gives us all a bad name. Where's my avatar ? And with 2.7k posts, and a member since 2005, why am I a newbie ?
  10. Yes, Lori, the new WARP residency card shows maiden and married names and my wife would have that with her anyway.
  11. I think I've answered my own question, the QR code has to be scanned with the tousanticovid app ! Incidentally in reply to Woolly the Ameli site now only shows availability of an attestation vaccination which turns out now to be the EU pass, whereas previously there was a separate attestation showing the dates and vaccine type but is redundant really now. EDIT the version for females shows only the maiden name which isn't shown on passports.
  12. Fresh document downloaded, it has a different QR code, but when scanned it produces the same result, a string of seemingly random characters, nothing readable. So the next question is, what are you using to scan yours ? I'm using a general purpose QR/barcode scan app. I'm wondering if it has to be scanned with the tousanticovid app because the QR code is itself encoded ?
  13. Thanks Norman, I'll have to investigate further. I have a paper "pass sanitaire" and I don't want the tousanticovid app on my phone for several reasons, so I've scanned the paper version and stored that on my phone in .pdf format (but I also carry the paper version in the pocket of the phone's protective case). If I scan the paper QR code (the one top right labelled Certificat COVID numérique UE) I don't get anything readable, just a string of characters. I'll download a fresh pass-sanitaire from AMELI and try again. I'll report back.
  14. quote NormanH edited quote... I think that most people will be looking at the written information on the form, since all the QR code does is to reproduce the same details if you scan it. Norman, I tried scanning mine and it's unreadable. Are you saying that my name and d.o.b. should be there? It looks as though it must be encoded (or mine is corrupt!)
  15. And whilst I'm on my soapbox, I will not be convinced by any poster on here who looks up convenient articles to support his/her case. Only here for the argument ? Just as I don't listen to Boris who only wants to get everyone out and about again, the bearer of great news whilst avoiding taking the precautions that would really be effective. He thinks there won't be another surge? They think it's all over... well, it's not yet. If there's a choice of vaccine then that's fine, each to his own, but please don't be evangelistic about it. We can all read thank you, and make our own conclusions.
  16. Well it's all about ADDING chances of dying AND looking at the percentage effectiveness (AZ is lower in older people) and in fact all the vaccines are less effective in older people. If you are referring to me about motorcycling (because of my avatar) I have given up already, not because of the risk but because my back won't allow me. This is not the place to start preaching what is safe and what isn't, more people "probably" get killed crossing the road, so maybe that's something to think about. Older riders have the advantage of many more year's experience and tend to avoid the dangerous situations that younger riders haven't seen before. Skydiving next ? If at first you don't succeed, don't try skydiving.
  17. Those of us who watch the UK news AND the French news will know by now that the UK govt has been less than honest about the efficacy of the AZ and the problems that have arisen. Not only about the vaccine but also about the daily death figures, massaged to look better than they are ! Initially denying the blood clot problem at all, and now admitting that there have been a lot more; it was never tested on pregnant women, and now it's suspended for children. Not only that but for us older folks the AZ is less effective, as low as 60%. So is it any surprise that certain of us want a more effective solution? I certainly don't want to avoid Covid only to be killed off by a blood clot. But, as I said before, it's great to have a choice. Why is that "demanding" ?
  18. I only wanted Pfizer, not trusting the AZ for many reasons and certainly not wanting a clot or even feeling like a clot. I found it quite easy to find a fairly local (35km) centre and we had our 1st jabs last week and the 2nd jabs will be 3 weeks from now. We could have had AZ at the local pharmacy, there appear to be be plenty of that vaccine. I think it's great to have a choice and I'm grateful that things seem to be "ramping up" (don't you just love these over-used terms? No, I don't either). At least it's not "world beating".
  19. "Listen to the science..." Wasn't it the "science" who ran the trials and got the approval using 3-week intervals ? So why suddenly change to 12 weeks apart from being able to half-vaccinate more people? Also look at the trials, 4000-something guineapigs, of whom half only had a placebo, so 2000 people actually got the jab, of which there were no pregnant women (or men !) and few in the older age group. All adds up to rush job. I want to get my vaccination, but I'll wait until Pfizer becomes available for me.
  20. I missed the temporary change! Oh well. For web design I was always taught that underlining should only be used for links (hyperlinks) and that bold or larger font size can be used for emphasis (if that's what the underlinings were last night ?)
  21. Yes, wot he said (NickP) plus if you Google "Facetime freezes" there are many links about how to clear it. I'm assuming you're using a MAC pc, is it wi-fi to your router ? If so, as Nick says a cable is better. If you're using your iPhone have you tired the pc ? I'm a Windows man and I use WhatsApp mostly (on Android phone or W10 pc) or Skype (infrequently) and we have a poor broadband speed here but I don't have any problems with freezing.
  22. I agree with Lehaut, whilst the UK is still taking tax and paying my pension I think I should still have a say in who makes the decisions.
  23. I use the vacuum cleaner with the brush attachment to clean the keyboard, then a microfibre cloth with any of the "kills 99% of germs" spray products, sprayed onto the cloth and wiped over keyboard and screen. Leaves the screen a bit streaky sometimes. I've done this for over 40 years, before we had laptops, just separate keyboards and monitors. I never turn off as I don't spray directly on the keyboard or the screen, but I can understand why you might want to switch off. I'm not particularly regular with this either, just when the screen starts to get very dusty and bits of crumbs or whatever between the keys!
  24. Oh yes, and loads of adverts for Brit businesses. That's something I also have a bee in my bonnet about, I prefer to use local French artisans who know the ropes and standards.
  25. Connexion: I can't post any current misinformation as I no longer read it. I was badly led astray with tax information about 6 or 7 years ago and it took me a lot of effort and explaining to extricate myself. I vowed never to read or recommend. I really don't see the need for the publication as the proper information is readily available on French websites, you only have to look. In my view it's for Brits who can't let go. Lesson learned.
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