Frederick
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Everything posted by Frederick
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USB Freeview DVB TV Stick
Frederick replied to Frederick's topic in French Satellite TV, French Internet and Telephone
Thanks for your comments ......went mad and splashed out nine quid on Ebay....and got one that works fine with the roof ariel in . as I am on the edge of the signal from the Isle of Wight transmitter .. I have got all the channels I want ....and the picture quality is great . 63 channels including the radio ones .According to the software..... it works world wide .... just have to select the country from the list click on it.... then it will search for the channels ......dont know what will happen in France on the stubby ariel that comes with it ...so have bought a TV / FM 3way splitter to get the signal from the roof ariel so I am expecting the French "Freeview " on the laptop while my OH watches what Marlon Dingle is up to on the Sky box ......there is no make on the one I got it just had "DVBT USB Dongle" on the card its all shrink wrapped onto with Taiwan Technology as the maker ......I should think they they are all very much the same ....cant complain for what I got it for . -
shoal of dead jellyfish on the beach
Frederick replied to suein56's topic in Wildlife/Nature/Environment
There were some on the beach in the Vendee at Longville about the size of a frizzbee and very thick with long thick tenticles .....dead ....and been there some time along with the heads of large squid....so this led me to believe that they had possibly been caught in nets and then thrown off a fishing boat ? -
The door on the "wrong side " seemed to matter when I tried to insure mine .....please post the name of a French insurance company who will cover your UK van ..lots of caravan owners would love to know one ......My house insureres are one of the biggest not just in France but all over Europe and they would not cover my UK made van ..."door on wrong side " they said .....I dont think French companies want to know about UK vans and the "wrong side door " is their get out . ..I gave up in the end and the van sat in my garden unnused .uninsured for two years ...the UK insurers only cover you for a limited number of days while they think you are touring ...ask them to cover you while your vans in your French property garden and watch them run for the hills . My van is back in the UK towed back last month covered by a UK company ...but only from the day they knew it would be on the road heading back for the UK .....I wish you luck If I were to go in for caravanning from my French home in the future..... I would seriously consider selling the UK one and buying a French certified van that I could get insurance for .
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Thinking Of Moving to France and Buying a Lake
Frederick replied to Barbel Bob's topic in French Artisans
A member of my family in the area you mention has two lakes on their property ......they were very well stocked...then one night they discovered that they had been visited by people with nets ...they had left small fish on the bank to die.....others in the area had also had their lakes netted and the fish taken .....how frustrating is that ....stock up for the local poachers who do it big style ... -
I think the point is being missed ...........OK we accept it should have been sent recorded ....but its not lost we know where it is ..lying in the sorting office ...and will be collected as the Post Office requests ...so they can collect the money owed at the sorting office . Unlike the days when the Royal Mail would always get through it would appear that today if your envelope is a size that will not be accepted with the wrong stamp you have put on it nobody will attempt to deliver it ....mail used to be delivered even if there was no stamp on it at all ....How many firms are having big envelopes with the wrong stamps on them sitting undelivered in sorting offices and 3 weeks later destroyed ? ....If my wife had not made a call to check on delivery and later advise her old firm where the item of mail was ...they would not have known they had other mail at the sorting office awating one of their staff to go and collect ....so if you use a big envelope make sure you size it at the post office and cover the full cost of delivery .... or.... it wont leave the sorting office and may be destroyed ....... rant over !
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You are right Sam ............but we all sometimes have a switched off day ...the Post Office used to deliver mail that extra postage was due on and it was collected by the postman ..so is this is now a thing of the past and postmen are no longer to collect cash on the doorstep ?
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How things have changed ....My wife recently posted a A4 size envelope with three sheets of paper in it with a first class stamp. OK she forgot the new rules about letter size and it went into the village post box ....As the letter was about her pension which is about to be paid to her by the international company she worked many years for it .....contained her birth certificate and our marriage certificate ...On checking today if they had the documents she found they had not been delivered ....our village post office made some enquiries and it appeared that as the envelope was of a certain size and postal charges were due as a 1st class stamp was not enough she should have gone to the post office and measured the envelope against the slots in the cardboard mail sizer on the counter then bouight her stamp ...it was retained at the sorting office in the city it had been sent to ... A call from her old company post room revealed that this Post Office sorting office was holding lots of big envelopes they had not delivered and the firm was informed they would have to send sombody down to collect their mail .....we also were told after 3 weeks uncollected envelopes are destroyed if they have no address of sender on the back of them ....this is the section of the company dealing with pensions ....do the post office care this is important mail that the are destroying ..........do they hell as like !
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Thank you everybody for your suggestions ...you have all given us so much to choose from....I like the grape vine idea but I think it would have to be a sweet dessert one ......I am not into wine making....I remember the demijohns bubbleing away ...the wine consentrate in cans that I used to make up and bottle when I was a lot younger...and skint ....and we actually drank that stuff ...the madness of youth !
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Trees next door to me have long strips of tin foil hanging in them and they seem to keep off the birds ....... a good idea for the old software CD's too..... I have often seen them hanging in trees. ......
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UK radio 4 this morning ............Police seeking a different way of vehicle inentification as over 40.000 sets of number plates have been reported stolen in past year......obviously these are not bank robbers fitting out getaway cars but ordinary people who have turned to this crime to avoid camera speed fines...loss of job etc .....I suppose the next move will be the index numbers will have to be spray painted on the bonnets and rear of our cars .....
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It seems Portsmouth have indroduced a 20 mph limit to many of their roads and plan to spread it over the city....other UK cities are to watch this with a view to setting 20 mph limits . The reasoning is it will reduce the chance of serious injury....less speed less chance of really hurting sombody in an accident ... you cant argue with that ...makes sense... why not 10mph ....you might get away with a bruise if run over.... that make more sense .....but ....Has anybody realised just how many extra hours a week on the road its going to mean to people like me who have to spend their days driving round town visiting homes . I give my time voluntarily to take people to and from hospital apointments in my own car for which I get a petrol allowance .....If it means crawling about in 3rd gear terrified of going through a camera set at 25 ..and they could be as this will be a money spinner .....and... watching the fuel guage dropping as my car wont like doing 20 in top gear ... I shall be packing it in and spending more time in France ..........Perhaps thats the idea... it will get people like me off the road ....then the NHS will just have to find a gas gussleing ambulance with a well paid crew of 2 to take the patients I carry in .
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They never forget old soldiers ........if one has fallen upon hard times... even years after leaving... there is a place where all they have to to is turn up.... and report in ...They will be given a place to live ..medical needs attended to ...and efforts made to find them a job and get them back on their feet . compare that with how we help the " old soldiers " sleeping rough in London with drink problems ..
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Can sombody please tell me if these "Watch Freeview on your Laptop " TV sticks are what the adverts make them out to be ...or as I suspect ...as much good as a chocolate tea pot.....They offer a lot from such a small ariel and such a small amount of money ....less than £15 some of them ....I have looked at the Total Media one adverts .....they say the image you see is exactly as transmitted .. anybody got one ?
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Deeds from Notaire - How long ?
Frederick replied to AnOther's topic in Finding/Owning French Property
Our Notaire seemed to work on the principal of " Come and get them " he sat on them for ages ...over 6 months ...expecting me to call in to collect....I had to request that he send them by post to the UK ......he did along with a fat cheque which put a smile on my face as it all cost less than he estimated . -
Seems E.bay have removed the posting ?.......... it showed that when I tried to look at it . Makes you feel uncomfortable to know that your children so small and so trusting are being targeted.....but not so long ago in Bournemouth a guy was stopped at the back of the B.I.C ( the conference center ) which is some distance from but overlooks the beach. Examination of the film in the camera he was using with a huge lens.... showed he had been taking photos of very small children innocently playing on the beach......I have two grandchildren 3 and 5.... girls ....do they run about undressed on the beach like you see many children doing .? .not when I am about. .... How would you feel about one of yours on certain websites shown naked with a bucket and spade on a beach ? It is a very good chance that this poor child was taken to order and whoever has got her had been given sight of a number to choose from .....sorry if the thought of this is upsetting ...but thats the way it is.....you cant afford to take risks with leaving children who are so young no mater how familiar your surroundings may be to you ..I used to visit friends for dinner two doors away when my children were small... but even with a dog in the house and so close by we had a baby sitter . .I also think the huge reward will scare whoever has her if they know about it .....and that may not help......I hope I am wrong ...and the child is found .
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No doubt sombody will shoot me down...but going from memory .....I dumped the books 17 years ago I was taught "A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with intention at the time of taking perminently to deprive the owner thereof and "thief " and "steal " shall be construded accordingly It is immitterial whether the appropriation is made with a view to gain or for the thiefs own benefit ." I my view you can argue the thing for weeks but when the guy .....decides...... he is NOT going to pay back what he is duty bound to pay and takes a course of action to permenantly avoid the payment..........commits the offence .
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There are agencies who would just love to chase you for £8000 adding their fees to your debt....they do very well from people who do a runner oweing money .....and the legal and recovery agent fees for getting the money from you outside the UK would be huge ..I once saw a row of expensive UK Registered cars outside a Spannish police station ready to go on a transporter ....I suspect some still owned by UK finance companies whos drivers had found themselves being introduced to the occupiers of the building .....you might get away with not repaying it ......but then are you feeling lucky !
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Herbie .....I was very concerned about the way these doge are kept and would be very pleased if things were greatly improved for them ...But .........I also realise that as a visitor from another country as far as the rural hunting community is concerned in the village of 500 or so that my place is in.... I.... am not going to change things.... and.... would be on a hiding to nothing to try and enforce my views on animal welfare on them .... I am sure I would soon be told where to go .... France has to take on animal welfare and get the message over to its own people .....
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Are BF getting the message at last?
Frederick replied to clueless!'s topic in Latest Good Value Deals to/from France
If they are.... then good ...........I hope I have helped.... I have not renewed my owners club membership this year and have used LD Lines and Speedferries for the four crossings I have made already ....I hope they are reading this ....my next run over is end of June .... where I am being followed to the house by my cousin and family in their car... I have booked us all with Speedferries .....thats two more car returns they have lost due their current prices . -
It has taken me some time to come to terms with the French attitude towards keeping dogs ....I now no longer concern myself with it ...I accept that unlike the way I kept our dog a Basset ...in the house in front of the fire.... members of her breed in France would most likely be caged outside ...thats the way it is .My neighbors dog I could set my clock by ...at the same time each day it starts to howl .. I assume because its left alone on the property..... in a run outside and it sees its owner drive off ....It howls for a couple of hours ....every day for almost two years as far as we are concerned ....so on a warm day while in the garden we just sit and put up with it like everybody else ....I often wonder what the reaction would be to dog wardens .... a requirement to pick up poo ...fines for none compliance .etc ...While waiting for the ferry at La Harve only last Wednesday we saw local people running their dogs on the grass area by the terminal building car park ....were they picking up after their dogs .....of course not ! As for the streets of Nice ...last time I was there pavements were covered with it ........
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Two ways to avoid it ...........mobile phone signal jammer .....looks like and same size as a mobile phone ....kills them within 10 metres .....20 metres the ones for the latest phones ........but they are over £100......or ......some ear plugs.. a ....box for ..less than a fiver .
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I noticed last week that the nest that EDF left from last year on their pole that had be re occupied by storks again has been removed . Chris kindly posted some photos of it for me last month ....I suppose they were pushing their luck to expect to be left alone again this year.....I am sorry to see it gone ... they had become part of the local scene ......but they did swoop down towards the traffic on a fast straight road so I expect sombody complained ?
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David ........interesting you look out for High Viz Jackets and ariels in unmarked cars ..........In 1976 I think it was ....durng the fuel crisis when in South Africa .....in order for the Police to get you for speeding ...not that they were bothered about you killing yourself .....you were wasting fuel ! ... Much more important as there was a speed restriction to save it ......Posts were at the side of the road some distance apart ..........then the guy in the helicopter timed you between the posts ..........they then landed in front of you and you got a fine on the spot .... You could be the only car on the road for miles .....lets hope its not introduced here .....we will have to cut a hole in the roof of our cars ....
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Let's see how long we can keep this thread going!
Frederick replied to oliveau's topic in The Lighter Side
lie down and rest........before I see her again...............she is such a demanding woman .....