fulcrum

An interesting video, on ABC news America, about thefts from cars whilst filling your car with fuel. Probably difficult in most French stations. The link is to the page with the item. http://news.yahoo.com/i/2453;_ylt=AlEXcKVc_sH.vZLW6XY4gAmWwvIE

[quote user="Tag"]When they came to power so many people saw them as the great new hope for a different type of politics, open, clean, clear. Instead they have shown themselves to be devious, dishonest, double dealing, dodgy dorks.[/quote] Just being politicians. Non? If the conservatives were to win the next election and then govern the country for a ten year period. I can bet that you will be writing the same thing about their term in office. Sad but true.

[quote user="Bugbear"] [quote user="fulcrum"]This is a typical Telegraph attention getter. [/quote] Why say that, I can't believe you actually believe it. Gordon Brown has screwed us for 10 years and 90% has been done in a underhanded way. What the Telegraph has reported is an actual situation. Personally, I hope he gets his just desserts come election time. [/quote] I am not a political animal and wish there was a bunch of people to vote for who aren't going to screw us in some way. All governments will be faced with a huge problem of how to finance pensions for an ever increasing and healthier population. All GB is doing is ensuring that there will be sufficient funds to finance his governments future plans. The conservative government only wish they had someone like Gordon Brown. They too would like to do underhanded things if given the chance. However they are trying to position themselves for re-election and can claim that they haven't done any bad things since errrrmmm 1997. I am not sure that the present government have done everything bad for the British public. Well, apart from screwing us on pensions and the Iraq war. But overall, the ecconomic situation has been pretty good.    

Living in France long term and not speaking English a lot makes you forget how to articulate and phrase things correctly in English. Any English language hawks out there will probably have noticed some glaring errors in the above.  

This is a typical Telegraph attention getter. All governments will try to screw you, by shifting the goal posts, whenever they get the chance. Not just Gordons mob.  [;-)]

I must have been very lucky. I have had to take three things back during my time in France and can only say that the service has been excellent. 1. Electric Pneumatic drill. Mr Bricolage. Motor burnt out. Had to be returned to factory for rewinding. Received item back in as new condition and has been used quite heavily over the last three years since the repair. No problems. 2. External USB disk drive. Boulanger. Disk drive electroncs failed. I turned up at the shop I had bought it from to explain the problem but had forgotten to bring the Power supply. No problem, they opened a new package, tested it and then replaced the disk unit without any fuss. No problems since swap, over a year ago. 3. Twin diamond disk channel gouging tool. Carrefour. Starting circuit failed after a couple of uses. Carrefour unable to provide repair/replacement but refunded in cash the total amount. I am entirely happy with the service I have received so far. I would point out to anyone approaching an After Sales Department, that it will definately help if you can maintain a sense of humour and deal with the staff in a friendly, not grovelling manner. The staff have to take a lot of flack from some irate customers and will, I'm sure, appreciate a bit of politeness in dealing with them. Anyway my method seems to work.  [:D]    

I am sure by now that we are all certain that the capture of the service personel by the Iranians, wasn't a put up job but then this whole fiasco, from start to finish, makes me wonder if we are loosing the military plot and wonder how much real damage has been done to the credibility of our armed services.

Paul Good, useful information there. Makes me want to start my own stall today. Thanks

I too am very glad it has all ended and all fifteen personel are to be released. They looked in good spirits and I'm sure their own diplomacy skills also helped in ensuring their release. Good ending.

I too find the message text, sent to my mail box, a very useful feature.

[quote user="TreizeVents"]Interesting that you found the possibility that the UK government might be lying "humourous".  But there was a fair bit of humour in one of the articles.  I really dislike it when governments lie even though they do it all the time.  I just find it a recurrent source of annoyance.  Especially when they do it about war, which they always do. What is it "on TV" (French? English?) that made you think all would be well for the captured military?  And did you think that the captured soldiers were treated badly before and were in danger?  I never thought they were in danger of any kind, and they seemed to be treated quite well from the beginning.  Non? [/quote] TV I'm presuming your reply was to my post. I read the first two articles and found them both quite humourous and it put a light hearted slant on what is after all a ridiculous situation. The fact that our government lied is neither here nor there. All governments lie when they feel it is appropriate. I posted earlier that I couldn't understand what the rest of the fleet was doing while these unfortunate crew were going about their job and then getting captured. There was a reference to this fact in one of the articles. With regard to the television program that I saw. That was on C*N news and showed the crew in comfortable attire smoking and laughing (smiling anyway) and not seeming too phased by what was happening. Hence my comment about them not coming to any harm. I too thought they were never in danger of any kind, and they seemed to be treated quite well from the beginning. 

TV Very interesting and humourous articles. After I watched the TV tonight I felt sure that the 15 won't come to any real harm.

I like the expression on the cat's and dog's face. They look as if they are just comfortably close enough. Not.

Bugbear I have to agree. I saw some footage the other day where there were "Yellow ribbons" hung out on a building for the return of our naval personel. This is definitely PC gone mad. As I posted on another thread. What on earth were the rest of the fleet doing whilst these unfortunate crew members were inspecting the cargo ship and then getting taken hostage.

I suppose no one reads their history anymore. My father knew the people of Waziristan very well, from his time there in the thirties. He told me that they were very fierce fighters that made him quite scared on occasion. When the Soviets went in there in the eighties, he said "you know, they wont last". They didn't.

What I still dont understand is. What on earth were the rest of the fleet doing whilst their boarding party was inspecting the cargo ship.

For us, learning to speak the language was of course important. I had in a previous life learnt to read, write and speak Modern Greek. So I at least had a good understanding of the idea of different genders and verb tables. But we didn’t realise the difficulties faced if you don’t speak the French language very fluently here in France.   I suppose I had a notion that because we are in Europe that we would have a choice of speaking either the English or French language when it comes to dealing with the administration. Not so. I would highly recommend that if you are intending to come to France then you must make learning French a top priority. It is well worth enrolling with Alliance Francaise, in the UK, on one of their crash courses, to ease you into the language.

I always find that women have a wider perception of whats going on around them. My wife is usually right although I don't always want to admit it.

I got quite excited for a few minutes thinking that I would be able to do a test. Then I discover that they want me to download real player and give my card details and fill out a form. I just don't know why they have to use a file system that can't run on Windows Media Player. I just can't be bothered. I will just presume that I my score would have rubbish anyway.

[quote user="Teamedup"] Please don't encourage them Turnip. ALL conversations naturally deviate from the orignal subject......... it is the way we all think. There really is nothing to stop you going back to the original topic though. Before the board changed format, you could reply to a poster and it would slip in under their post, so it made the conversations going off a bit and sometimes a lot easier to read. [/quote] TU I think it would help if we all mentioned the persons name, or quoted them like you did, when we are answering a particular post.

[quote user="Anton Redman"] then it is probably faily cheap to fix as it is likely to be linkages or inhibitor switches.  [/quote] I would tend to agree with that as automatics don't usually give problems. I actually had a very similar problem on my Nissan. The kick down wouldn't work either.  I traced some electric cables from the auto box to near the engine air intake/throttle assembly and found a switch which I sprayed with WD40. It was fine after that.

[quote user="Mpprh"] Got to go and find the washing [/quote] Your post looks so funny with the flamingo at the bottom. I can imagine a flamingo flying around in search of the washing [:D]

There is actually a law that prohibits water from car washing being allowed to flow onto neighbours property. So maybe this has something to do with the first of your items. With regard to bonfires. I don't know of any laws but I'm sure there are some.

Thanks for reminding me Tresco. My mum is very old now and will appreciate a bunch of flowers.

Yes. I saw it. Very convincing and at least the participants sounded rational. But that is the first time I've heard that cosmic rays are responsible for most cloud formations. What about industrial particle emmissions. Don't they also play a big part in cloud formations?