powerdesal

Another basic question - unfortunately. Form 2047. It does not have '' declarent 1 and declarent 2 '' sections ( as 2042 does ). Does this mean that each person, ie husband and wife have to complete a copy each, with interest / dividends split between the two ? Or Is it the MCP French way of assuming that all non-pension income is down to the '' Head of the household '' ( ie the husband ) ? I realise that this question ''may'' confuse some people but '' we '' are a partnership with joint accounts, joint investments etc and all income is '' ours'' not mine or hers etc.

Welcome back from me too.

Whilst we have only one car now I would really love to get a second one, It would have to be something like an MGB or an MX5 or even a Fiat Barchetta. Unfortunately that idea goes down like a lead balloon due to the fact that Mrs PD would not be able to get out of one, even assuming she had got in. All a bit too low for a less than flexible back. Reversing a trailer is an acquired skill, small trailers are very difficult, the bigger the trailer the easier it is. It's the distance between the towing vehicle and the trailer axle that matters.

'' I wouldn't want to drive my husband's tank on a daily basis. '' I wouldn't like to drive a tank on a daily basis either - the risk of ' throwing a track ' would be too great.

Has anyone any idea where / how I can find the pound / euro exchange rate that should be used on the tax forms to convert UK interest / dividends for the latest tax returns. ? Similarly, a question about 'quarterly income bonds' - I ''believe'' that the income should be included as 'interest' - is my belief true? Surely there are other people in the British immigrant community that have income from such bonds. We have been going round in circles this morning with the tax forms. ie, 2042 or 2042 C, 2047 or 2047 K or what. The 3916 is another nightmare - there is not sufficient space to list all the foreign bank accounts - will a separate sheet be accepted and if so what info should it contain ? More questions than answers at the moment - I am losing the will to live !!!!!!!!!!!

'' He always wants to be the driver and doesn't want the wife to drive his car. '' ''His car'' ??????? Maybe I am naive but in ' our ' family it's ' our ' car.

We have had Eldiss, Mardon and Swift in our time and agree about the fixed bed situation which is why we now have a Bailey Unicorn Valencia with a fixed bed. I seem to recall that Vanroyce were classed as the ''Rolls Royce'' of caravans in their day, very well built, very expensive and very heavy. I believe that it would be possible for the OP to get the van registered but it would not be easy or quick. Lots of paperwork to research and obtain, Bureau Veritas inspection ( probably ) and some modifications possibly. A lot depends on the age of the van and the chassis / axle / braking system manufacturer. Our Bailey did not have a C of C but did have certificates for the gas installation. DREAL ( at Caen ) were very helpful so it may be an idea for the OP to run the details of the van past DREAL to check exactly what will be required.

Yes, the 'specs' are different but, in my opinion ( as a long time caravanner ) the UK vans are of a much higher spec than the French ones.

PaulT, May I suggest that you undo the nuts BEFORE jacking up the car, it tends to make life easier :-) (ps. not a serious comment - Happy Easter )

Surely that's why you have a warning triangle positioned some many yards upstream of your break down together with your own hazard warning lights. Agreed it's not quite the same but.........

Obviously a number of people took exception to my comments about being able to change a wheel. There will always be those who are physically limited in the ability to change a wheel and I have no issue with that. Personally I have always insisted that my daughters were shown how to change a wheel before they were allowed to drive, similarly I have always made sure the wheel nuts are removable. My wife is perfectly able to do a wheel change and has done when necessary. On the subject of the dangers on the autoroute / motorway, I appreciate the hazards, in fact I have in the past driven on a 'flat' to get to a safe place, yes, it wrecks the tyre and possibly the wheel itself but what price safety. The guy you call out will be in the same dangerous situation. I take the advice of the UK Govt in this regard as another example of 'nanny state-ism'. I must admit to having been ''called out'' to change a wheel for my wife on one occasion, in mitigation it was in an ambient temp of approx 45 deg C in the shade ( which there wasn't any of ) and the car was on sand so required more than simple jacking up.

Shouldn't every driver be capable of changing a wheel themselves rather than calling out a rescue service ?

[quote user="Rabbie"][quote user="Jonzjob"]Well? I'm not too sure that I would be in your good books then Dix-sept?? I am part way through cutting down about 60 trees [6] but they are laylandii and they are dying and they will not cause any errosion, so I may be OK [8-|] Our one list got between 93 and 97% between them and there were just the right amount, so no real excitement there and no second vote either.. [/quote]While I am opposed to indiscriminate felling of trees I feel that an exception should be made in the case of leylandii which are IMO an abomination.[/quote] I totally agree, there is no place in this world for ''Satans trees''

If I remember correctly, my water heater is glass lined.

I understand that 2013 tax returns will be due in May. This will be the first time we will be doing this. I have read the tax 'sticky' and can probably manage the routine stuff but.......we have some investments that generate an income, these are 'income bonds'. I don't think they class as 'dividends', nor are they bank account interest and they are not a 'private pension'. The question is - how do we report the income ? The sticky states that you list all your bank accounts outside France, I haven't seen the forms yet but does the listing have to include the amount of cash in each account ? We were considering the services of an accountant but are now questioning whether we actually need one as our finances are reasonably straightforward, apart from the above investment question. Any thoughts, comments, etc etc will be more than welcome.

Betty, Your comment about 'pure' vowel sounds was very interesting. However, being from near Burnley and having an appalling French accent I suspect I am one of those people that missed out on the head start. !!!!!!!

I imported to UK a LHD Range Rover with only KPH on the speedo, it passed an mot without problem, only the headlights needed changing, the MOT garage wanted to buy the original headlights as well. Why - no idea, but it was in Wales !!!!!!!

The French insurance broker claimed to have never heard of the law regarding re-registering of foreign vehicles by UK residents and tried to tell husband that he was wrong - after all she had many British clients insured to drive their French registered vehicle on British roads! She took some convincing that just because she could insure a vehicle wouldn't actually make it legal on UK roads. In fact, I think she still thinks we are talking rubbish! Her many British clients insured to drive their French registered vehicle on British roads could, in fact, be British people living in France. After all, we are British clients and our French registered vehicle is insured by a French company to drive on British roads. Perhaps the French insurance broker was meaning just that. It would be unrealistic to expect a French broker to have British residents as clients, they would insured by a British broker / Insurance Co surely. We don't stop being ''British clients'' just because we are resident in France.

I would have loved an Italian win but none the less I thought it was a good game by both sides. Scotland have obviously had a '' talking - to '' as had Wales. The England - Ireland game was brilliant. Clean, passionate and hard fought by both sides. A good win for England and deserved. Brown was our choice as MOTM before it was announced. That 'goalkeeper' save was epic. The England - Wales game could be a nail-biter.

Whilst the law is clear on the subject, and I would never advocate breaking the law............should you be stopped in UK whilst driving a French registered car ( why would you be unless you had committed another offence ? ) and told the Police that you lived in France having ''proof'' of such with house bills, house tax receipts etc why would the UK Police suspect that you were other than genuine? I must admit that I have done the very same, but never having been stopped it was not an issue. The situation vis a vis the UK Police has not materially changed now that we are officially resident in France. We still use UK issued driving licences, have UK issued passports. If asked we can honestly state that we are resident in France but can't actually prove it any more easily than before. With regard to insurance, our French car was and is insured in France, the insurance company ( AXA ) never asked for proof of French residence and, in any event, how could we have proved it? In the event of an accident we would have been French residents on holiday in UK - just as we are now.

I certainly don't think that the Somerset levels can be called a ''richer part of the country''. The Thames valley possibly - in parts. The somerset levels have not flooded to this degree for hundreds of years because drainage and river flow capability were maintained over the centuries, Whilst it is acknowledged that some degree of limited flooding does happen it tends to dissipate in days rather than the expected months. The effect on the productive agricultural land will be horrendous, Grass land that has been submerged for many weeks will be dead. It will need re-seeding and a full year to grow back to a grazing capability. Cattle have already been slaughtered because of lack of feed and space, the result could well be a rise in food prices. By all sensible social norms it is the responsibility of Government to maintain the countries ability to produce food and the fact is that a Government Dept has been wilfully negligent for whatever reason. It is disingenuous to compare the flooding situation with high winds. No-one blames the Government for the rain but rather for the lack of river etc maintenance to cope with the rain.

''In order for any automatic translation tool to make sense of whatever it is you're trying to say, it needs context. Without that context, there's an inherent risk that any "translation" will be complete nonsense. All the more critical if the subject matter is of a medical nature.'' I cannot disagree but...... I think a more critical situation is if there is no understandable communication at all. Some Doctors have a tendency to ''talk down'' to the patient and treat them as having the understanding of children, however when the same 'patronising' attitude is compounded by a language problem then the problems are somewhat magnified. I'm not talking about GP level Doctors but Consultants sometimes have an over-inflated sense of their ''god-image'. Thanks for the Google tip, I will investigate.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a translation programme that can be used 'Off Line'' ( ie not requiring internet access ) on a tablet / i pad etc. The reason I am asking is that Mrs PD is, to be absolutely honest, pretty useless at French. She has already experienced being in hospital 3 times and may well have further experience in that regard. If her tablet ( a HUDL ) had such a programme installed it would certainly be a great help in communicating with medical staff. Individual word dictionaries are not the answer, it needs the ability to translate sentences in full. All the downloadable programmes I have come across require an internet connection to function and such connection cannot of course be guaranteed. Any ideas? ps. We are not looking for a 'free' download but it would of course be nice !

It would have been an even better sight if the weather had held off, the intention was to fly over at 200ft but that wasn't possible in the end because of the rain etc. The roads around Brawdy were full of locals astounded at the sight. A year later they were equally full of the same locals demonstrating about the noise !!!!!!!!!

Q, I'm afraid the school/ rugby / messkit question as quoted just does not add up, not even for aircrew. For starters, all RAF Officers have mess kit as a matter of course, that's ALL, irrespective of branch employment. The V force aircrew were all drawn from the General Duties ( Flying) branch and would have gone through comprehensive training on other aircraft before being posted to a V bomber unit. They were all experienced Officers before such posting. I can't comment on the interesting leg-restraint issue with early ejection seats, all my Hunters were FGA 9 variant and were fitted with the appropriate Martin Baker 0-90 seats including leg-restraints. I do know that some of our Hunter pilots were strapped in and 'pull-out' checks done to see if, because of their height, their knees would catch on the panel if they had to eject. When I did 'ground school' it was initially thought I was labelled as a potential lightning pilot because of my (lack of ) height, so presumably the same knee problem was a factor in that aircraft. Needless to say I was not a ''driver-airframe'' but a ground Engineering Officer, Mech Eng specialisation. Interestingly, when I was a Flight Commander at 229 OCU on Hunters, we had more aircraft movements per day than Heathrow (at that time). When we left RAF Chivenor to move to RAF Brawdy we had a mass flypast over Barnstaple which had ( if I recall correctly ) some 80 Hunters in wave after wave. That was a logistical nightmare for my 1st line Flight crews, as was the subsequent landing on at Brawdy. The lightning tyres were, as you say, particularly highly inflated because of their narrow section and the associated aquaplaning risk at their high landing speeds. There is an interesting formula to apply in that respect but I can't remember it now.