Bassman

I haven't got any spots [:(]

[quote user="Opas"]Blimy Bassman, what did you say, even him indoors lasted longer than that![/quote]   I made a post, and some pompous donkey replied that he couldn't be bothered to read it and I was wrong anyway blah,blah, blah etc.etc[8-)] so I pointed out that he was a err pompous donkey so they deleted my post and finito [:-))]

Yeah we got a nice stainless steel cooker in Gitem [;-)][:D]   Hmmmm A.I. I lasted one whole post there before I got errr banned [:-))]

[quote user="Tag"]Please dont put us all in the same basket on this one Marc. I have lived and worked in French for so long I often genuinely cannot remember the English word or phrase for something. And, having learned some words in a French context do not even readily know the English one. An example "On n'a pas gardé les cochons ensemble" is an expression which I strangely reach for quite frequently (much to my surprise!), but I dont know the English equivalent.[/quote] [:-))] all I can make out of that is something about "pigs together"  [:$] but then my level of French just about enables me to get a beer and a coffee [:$]   Oooo hang on I did feel a bit chuffed when I helped the lady in our local bar to translate poireau to leek LOL her English is way better than my French but she didn't know what poireau was in English when some other rosbifs were ordering lunch at the next table [:D] .... that'll never happen again [Www]

[quote user="Matt C"]Peter ,there is no website link on your post ?[/quote]   Just in case Peter doesn't see this post ....he posted this in another thread   http://artisan-anglais.com/entrymap.htm   he may have meant to post it here as well [;-)]

Our place came with double glazing and no shutters, not the prettiest windows but they work and are low maintainance [;-)] Still trying to figure out whether shutters are possible or needed [8-)]   We don't even close the bedroom curtains at night as the house is not overlooked by either of the other two in the hamlet and it's so pitch black at night you can't even see a hand in front of your face[:)]

[quote user="Dick Smith"]Seems a bit rotten to go around killing butterflies. We were worried that they might use that special French adhesive that they use on price labels that never, ever, even in a nuclear reactor, comes off. [/quote]   LOL [:D]  We have a huge buddlia just ouside the gate that fills with hundreds of beautiful butterflies in the summer [:)] you sometimes can't see the plant for them [;-)]   Ah you mean the stuff some shops use on crockery and CD cases  etc.[;-)] we found this wonderful stuff from Maplin called label remover works a treat on just about any adhesive and it smells nice [:-))]

We got some of those nice floral 3" discs that stick to windows and kill flies (somehow [8-)]) and they seem to work very well if you don't mind a fly graveyard on the windowsills [:-))] We did try the butterfly shaped ones as well but for some reason they didn't work as well [:D]

Well on this week's edition of No Going Back... the number plates were blurred out [:)] maybe someone read this thread LOL They were all happy at the end as well, leopard boy has put in an appearance and their "chalets" (which look more like apartments to me [8-)]) have all increased in value by 20,000 euro! What I find really strange is that those 2 were on 6 figure salaries in the UK..... doing what? [8-)] if brains were dynamite they couldn't blow their noses[:-))]

[quote user="Tresco"] Hastobe Then we  shouldn't blame the Muslims who took advantage of what was apparently their 'right', but the 'school' for being inconsistent.  [/quote]   Good point [;-)] Positive Discrimination????? always seems like a contradiction in terms to me, I see nothing positive about discrimination of any kind[:(]   When I worked for the DoE we had a circular come round advertising opportunities for "accelerated advancement" ( grade skipping promotion in English [:)]) which looked great until you read it and realized it said these opportunities were only open to "ethnic minorities" [blink] this did not go down well with anybody including many of my colleagues from ethnic minorities !!! they felt insulted that they would be judged fit for promotion  based on their racial background instead of their abilities, if someone had wanted to design a way of stirring up trouble that seemed an ideal way to do it, mind you nothing compared to the outcry that would have occurred had it said they were only open to white anglo saxons and I would have felt equally insulted had it said as such, people should be judged as individuals not as members of some "group" [;-)] Another example of attempted positive discrimination was the disabled persons employment regs where employers over a certain size had to employ a percentage of people with disabilities, having worked as a DRO I can say that didn't really work either, as quite often there were not enough people with disabilities to fill the quotas and to be honest most employers just wanted someone to do the job disabled or otherwise, their only criteria was the ability to do the job required, and speaking as someone with disabilities I found it somewhat insulting before I started work in the DoE to be getting job interviews on that basis[:(]

[quote user="Pangur"] I think we're at crosspurposes here Bassman.  I agree fully with your point about junk in junk out. However, not all statistics are collected in the same way as those you were collating at DWP, and researchers certainly don't always use the base data.  It's there as a starting point.  I can tell you that there are many independent researchers analysing stats and researching issues who are not idiots, do not have a political agenda and are only too aware of  issues just like the ones you have outlined.  If they are doing their job properly, they design a methodology to iron out as many problems as possible, and take this into account.   You can't map the world and people's opinions 100% accurately but you can get a pretty good overview.   There has to be some way of looking at the big picture.  By the way, the comment about naivety/arrogance was meant to be a general one about people's refusal to believe things that don't tally with personal experience, and not directly at you personally - sorry about that! [/quote]   Probably [;-)]   I can only speak for the statistics of which I have first hand experience and that of my wife who has experienced the same things in the business world working for some very large well known companies, it tends to make you rather cynical about statistics in general when you know how inaccurate some of the most well known and oft quoted ones in the UK actually are [;-)] I have had people say  "Ah but these very clever well paid people can see through these things and find the truth" welllll no if I sit here and say I have 3 apples, 6 oranges, 2 bananas and a lemon when in fact I have 10 apples, no oranges, 6 bananas and 3 lemons the only way to find out the truth is to come and count them [:D]which is the whole problem with stats as you say junk in -junk out [;-)]   I spent many years trying to explain to people in regional offices that what they wanted wasn't actually possible but they would just say that's what we want so you have to produce it somehow [8-)] a bit like asking a plumber to fit a heating system but refusing to let them have any pipes or tools, in the end people just say OK heres some numbers I hope your happy with them [:-))]

[quote user="Pangur"] Sure, I agree that stats can be twisted and turned.  Bassman, I too have  worked with Dept of Work and Pensions data, specifically on IB and their internal figures are not always what I would call properly collected statistics.  Governments have their own agendas - IB being a key case in point - and the figures they produce should certainly not be taken at face value, nor analysed in a vaccum.   But I can assure you, there are a lot of independent professional researchers out there who take pride in ensuring the stats they collect are as valid as can be.   It is true, in general people know and care little about who is quoting the stats and where they are coming from. But they are usually a lot more illuminating that the experiences of say, one or two anonymous posters on an internet forum, and can help people understand that their experience is not the only valid one.  Personal experiences can add colour and depth to figures and vice versa.  To dismiss all statistics that don't agree with your personal point of view, or the views of your neighbours and the media you purchase is, in my opinion, either extremely naive or extremely arrogant.   [/quote]   Oh I just about give up!!   I am not talking about stats being twisted and turned or massaged or spun or messed with in any way shape or form!! I am saying that if the BASE, RAW DATA from the GROUND UP figures are wrong/fictitious/made up/pulled out of fresh air no amount of independent professional research is going to make them remotely accurate or useful ! Unless these independent professional researchers actually collect these stats themselves (and I am not talking about from local or area or regional or head offices I mean unless they actually do the counts themselves and collect the raw data) they can in no way ensure they are valid   I don't know at which level you were working with Dept of Work and Pensions data or where it came from, but if it came from any level above local office i.e. the level that actually deals with the public face to face 8 hours a day then the figures are likely to be junk.. That Dept. does not have a professional statistician in each  local office collating stats, they have the low paid overworked staff who are trying to deal with difficult and often violent clients keeping stats on pieces of paper and on PC's and having to collate them at the end of the week whilst trying to do a multitude of other things so it is no surprise that numbers get made up. It would be like me saying I know or could analyse someones personal life and circumstances from posts made on a forum which is impossible as everything they post could be complete invention. It's a case of garbage in = garbage out I am neither extremely naive or extremely arrogant just stating a few facts from 20+ years of experience at local office level that I know to be true not dismissing all statistics that don't agree with my personal point of view, or the views of my neighbours and the media I purchase ( I don't actually purchase any media as I believe the rubbish in newspapers about as much as I believe DoE/DWP statistics [;-)]) If you choose not to believe me then that is your prerogative [:D]

[quote user="missyesbut"] [  Talking of 'report' button, lock post etc... I have noticed that on all post at the bottom right hand corner there is a tiny 'report' which I have never used myself but often thought that someone with real mischievious intentions could use to his/her heart's content. I have also noticed that only my postings have a 'reply' , a 'quote' and an 'email' button (but no 'pm' button...?) like everyone else... that's fine... but also have a 'delete' and an 'edit' button. Does it mean that any one reading my postings can delete and/or edit my postings without my knowledge and therefore would end up misquoting what I want to contribute to the forum...?... Thank you Mr Mod for your help [/quote]   No when I look at your posts they have a PM button and no edit or delete button, you see your own posts differently to everyone else on a forum [;-)] You don't see a PM button on your own posts as why would you want to PM yourself? and as you can only edit or delete your own posts only you see those buttons.    

Having worked as a polling officer on a few elections I spotted this straight away, that each ballot slip is numbered and that number is entered against the voters name! I asked the person in charge if this meant that peoples votes could be found out and was also sort of fobbed off, but it don't take a genius to see that they could be albeit with a lot of effort as all the slips would have to be sorted back into numerical order and filed. I think if it was ever to be revealed that this was done there would be hell to pay.... but then anything is possible [:-))]

[quote user="jond"]Bassman - I won't disagree that statistics can be (very successfully) couched in terms intended to decieve, but I cannot agree that this necessarily renders them useless. Skilled interpretation can pull useful information even from the most contrived figures. Certainly when preparing "country briefs" our analysts would always quote numbers and percentages of people of working age engaged in employment. They may have had to spend days digging through the mountains of spin and bull put out by governments, but they could usually arrive at a workable number. They would do the same when calculating tax-take from average incomes and from GDP (another thing that governments are really good at spinning) and came to the revealling conclusion that in all of the (then 15) nations of the EU is was the same to within a couple of percentage points. Just for the record, virtually all of my French friends are optimistic about their economic futures. So are most of my British friends. It must be the people I hang out with. [/quote]   Jond - it's not a question of them being "couched" in terms intended to deceive it's a case of them being completely inaccurate or even completely fictitious !!! If the base figures which come out of the local offices are rubbish you could analyse them forever and they would still be meaningless !! no spin no bull just rubbish numbers, This was part of my job for 20+ years and I don't say it lightly that I have seen numbers pulled out of thin air at times!! If I was to say "there are 2,342 people unemployed in an area when in fact there are 3,127 or maybe 1,798" how can anyone analyze that into a workable number??? multiply that sort of innacuracy over the number of local offices in the UK and they are indeed useless, add into the equation the scams.. sorry schemes devised to massage the figures and it's even more worthless.   Also believe me the U/E figures are not the only stats that I know have been invented, the Retail Price Index figures used to be collected by the same dept. by local offices .... now as these figures were nothing to do with this dept. and were collected on behalf of another one ( the DoE was used to collect them as they had so many local offices spread around the UK) the people sent out to the shops to get them have been known to go to a local cafe and sit down with a cup of coffee and invent them or just sit in the office and do them as their real work of dealing with the U/E was more important

Ah now this is a subject I can genuinely claim to be something of an expert on [:D] "That is why statistics  (produced by official bodies using an accepted methodology ) are useful  - they get rid of the personal perspective and allow us to see the big picture more clearly." Sorry Pangur but that is soooo funny[:D] I spent 20 odd years working for the Dept. of Employment  in Unemployment Benefit Offices/Jobcentres and can state quite categorically  that anyone that believes the "statistics" needs their bumps feeling [;-)] I spent years compiling U/E stats and talking to my colleagues doing the same in other offices and as someone once said "there are lies, damn lies and statistics"[:(]   The  Incapacity Benefit is a prime example, when the Client Adviser role was brought in they were told to ensure that claimants ... sorry clients were on the correct benefit, so anyone displaying any kind of illness or incapacity for work was shoved over onto IB, this had a marvelous effect on the U/E stats but then a few years later comes from on high... "why are so many people claiming IB????"   LOL and this wasn't just in the Welsh valleys it was happening in stockbroker belt Surrey and in every region in the UK!! This is just one of the many methods used to massage figures not to mention the upper echelons attitude to stats having to show what they wanted them to show no matter what the reality was[:@] My attitude was always ... whats the point of innacurate stats??? you may as well just think of a number and be done with it[:(] but that didn't go down too well and I am sure is one of the reasons I ended up early retired... very,very early retired [:@]   The upshot of this is that folk can quote stats at me till they are blue in the face and as far as I am concerned they mean absolutley nothing!!!

Just take it all with a very large pinch of sel [;-)] Remember Nigel and Nippy blundering around the Ardeche ???? and Nigel not having a home in the UK or any income??? hmm ....well MOH half works in the film and TV industry doing payrolls.... enough said [;-)][:D]   It's reality TV without the errrrr what's it called ........ Oh yeah ... reality [;-)]

No honestly nothing to do with me, the grass is very rough and the ground is lumpy and uneven , which is why I suggested a ride on [;-)] anyway all these lumps broke the front guide wheels of which went underneath into the blade [:'(] mind you she reckons it works better without the guide wheels

[quote user="Blanche Neige"] to Saint Valery which we liked very much. We had an excellent lunch there and a look round the old town. Back home on the shuttle and now need a good rest! Again, sincere thanks again to all of you for your advice.   Gill P.S. for anyone in the Somme area, Amiens will have a big Brocante on 30th April and Montdidier have their annual Foire Agricole on Easter monday. [/quote]   Phew....[;-)] glad you enjoyed StValery and had a nice meal [8-|] I can't remember the names of the restaurants we used there but one of them did the best salads I have ever eaten[:)]

[quote user="Scarlett"]There's a place on the road just outside St Malo but that's probably a bit far![/quote]   Beat me to it I was about to mention that one [:D] we pass it everytime we go over [:)]

[quote user="beryl"] Ali ards quoted ' I'm not going to vacuum 'til Sears makes one you can ride one'. Roseanne Barr I know exactly where she is coming from. My husband and son have both bought ride on lawn mowers since living in France, despite the fact that my daughter in law vacuum our houses , far more often with a upright cleaner! There is definitely something about ride on lawn mowers that brings 'something' out in men! [/quote]   Shhhhhhhh I'm working on getting one of those at the moment [;-)] helped by the fact that Patti broke the brand new Flymo on Monday first time of use [:D] which prompted her to say " hmmm maybe you were right about getting a ride on mower after all" [:D]

[quote user="Christine Animal"] Doesn't Bassman have one he doesn't know what to do with?  Otherwise do a search for baignoire en fonte if it so urgent : http://baignoire.fredericmatt.com/   [/quote]   Indeed I do but it's not very old fashioned unless you class 80's as old fashioned[:-))] and it could cost a fortune to get it from 29 to 81 , also as said the surface has gone and would need re-enamelling ....

[quote user="La Guerriere"] ... and catches under the doors... SCREECH.   [/quote]   Ooooooh don't it's like fingernails down a blackboard [:-))] we just invested in a good bristly doormat to try and stop that happening.... as long as we remember to scrub our feet everytime we go indoors [:D]

[quote user="Rob G"]. Imagine our surprise last week, some three months after completion, when along with copies of the signed sales contract and deeds of the house, we received a refund from the notaire of over 500 euros! Rob [/quote]   Yes that happened to us a couple of months ago [:D] we completed last June and got the deeds etc. and a refund of over 400 euros at the backend of last [:)]year

[quote user="Russethouse"] Block up the plughole, sink it into the ground and make a water feature out of it, possibly in front of the mound of earth where the fosse is buried (but don't hit the fosse) Very wildlife friendly...........[:D] [/quote]   That's what I suggested to SWMBO [;-)] but she doesn't seem keen on the idea [8-)] a mini duck pond [:-))] I think this bathroom suite was probably very chic when it was installed in the 80's a sort of green/gold iridescent finish even the kitchen sink was the same colour [8-)] When I removed the sink it turned out to be a pottery one (and heavy) for some insane reason I though the bath was made of the same substance and would be equally heavy but easy to smash, it was only when I removed the wall (i.e. bath panel) I found it was cast iron but the surface in the bottom was shot (all rough) and it's a short bath and I'm a long person so it had to go! The fun re-starts in 9 days when we return and start on the plumbing