Thebiga

Hi Andrew I have tested as you mentioned and I have a reading of 56 but I did the test twice and the tablet did not completly dissolve either time. So it looks like I have over 100ppm of CY in the pool which as you say is not good. Having been using the pool with the multi galletes for 4 years I only had a problem with stabiliser lock the first year we took it over and could not get rid of the green water. The water has not gone green since then. After the winter 2 years ago we had some string algae which was ridden with the vac. Last winter I did not put the cover on but just went out and netted the leaves out every so often and had clear water. It was only this year that I decided to get a Scuba+ from you to test the water properly and found that the CYS was high so I emptied out about 60-70% of the water and refilled with tap water and as I said I had a reading of 33 but it has gone up very quickly. When you think all the other years I have used the multi galletes all season and the chlorine was kept high without a problem. So I'm a little confused now. Its not really the right time to be emptying any further water and am worried that it may not rid the pool of enough CYS anyway. What next?? How about the chlorine levels I gave you. How do I adjust that. Do I put in a large amount of liquid Javel? Also will getting rid of more water lower the total alkalinity again and have to start again with the bicarb. Heeeelp.....

Testing as the instructions but cannot see anywhere that it says take the water sample 40cm down but anyway did it all again. T/Alkalinity 94 PH 7.67 CLF 3.03 CLT 2.96 CYS Hi So how is this water looking now? Happier that the alkalinity has gone up but not as much as it should have for 12kg of bi-carb! What about the CLF-CLT how does this look and if its not good what do you suggest to remedy. The CYS is going to have to stay high as I'm not draining any more water but I don't think its at a stage yet when it will do any harm. Cheers

Sorry people for my spelling,punctuation etc. I was just sounding off in my own fashion. Sorry if its not to everyones taste or looks easier on the eye etc. If I didn't feel bad enough already I should have known better than to post on the forumn really. Ermmm

After getting a Scuba+ and trying to balance the pool properly I'm still having problems. Firstly I had the usual high Cy/acid problems which was not at the time giving me stabiliser lock but came up reading high. Anyway the only way to get it down was to drain 70% of the pool. Tested again and it was down to reading levels which I think now was 33. A month later and its reading high. I have used 4 multi galletes but surely that should have not put it back up to high? My Total alkalinity level was coming up as low so over the last 10 days or so I have added 12kg of Bi-carb to the pool some every couple of days and its reading 10!! Its a 50-55 cubic metre pool. Did the other tests and these were PH-7.63 CLF-2.64 CLT-3.24 Cant understand whats going on really, Any ideas please. Cheers

Does anyone have problems with guests that think well I've paid my money we can do what we like. It clearly states in our terms and conditions that only peole on the booking form can use the grounds,Pool etc and stay in the properties. It also states that if anyone is to come around this is at the so say of the owners. We have had people ask if some friends can come artound for a bbq/meal etc and we have no problem with that as they have asked first. What is it with some people though that they have paid so they can do what they like. We had some turn up yesterday for a wedding this week and within hours a people carrier turns up and out come 4 adults and 2 children! One they just drive in and take up a space reserved for paying guests and off down the gite. Its only the start of the season and we already feel like the holiday police. So anyway my wife goes down 'I'm to scared' and has to tell them that only people on the booking forms can come around etc without the permission of 'us' the owners. They are completly blotto and its yeah oh sorry, Blah,Blah, Hick... We have had people stay in the past overnight and park a vehicle out on the road so we wouldn't see them. Weve had to kick a whole family out of our pool as the people staying thought the friends they had staying nearby should come round as they didn't have a pool!! And I'm sorry to say its always the brits, no problems with anyone else atall. Its a bit sad really as it does put abit of a black mark on them. Last week we offered a property on one of these holiday exchange websites so we could have a week back in the uk soon. Anyway they turn up (2 adults,2 children) and within a hour the dads sayings where's the internet! My wife thinks I must have told them we have wi-fi and he could have the code, I hadn't of course he just thought he could have it. Next thing its picking up all the sweet wrappers and lolly sticks from the garden and the rocks that the kids had left on the grass which I found whilst mowing. The next morning I find the two kids smashing down our large bamboo we have in the garden which was putting up alkl this years growth which is soft and they had snapped off the lot, 20 plus canes. Now I getting really cheesed off so go and see the parents and what a waiste of time that was. When we opened up the pool I said to the parents please read the notice on the pool gate as we have some rules and regs, Again what a waiste of time both the young kids in the pool with no adult supervision (which it states is a no go). Then they leave early in the morning with 5 glasses gone and a very urinated bed and mattress. Thank god for bed protectors. They had heaped all the dirty linen on top and parhaps they thought we wouldn't notice. We are not bothered about the odd glass getting broken but they couldn't even leave a note. Guess who wount be coming back again then. Grrrrrrrrr

I know that 'Bigdishsat' can do broadband internet via sat dish now. Take a look they have always been very good people to work with I have found.

Bought a flat screen tv from amazon uk at a very good price, came very quickly at a very small amount on postage costs to. It works fine on its own built in freeview (TNT) box and its also fine for uk sat aswell. All round a very good buy 'Toshiba, Regza'. Also our old tv's (10 years+) will pick up french via a TNT box with no messing about just pressed AV1 and presto its on. I don't think you will have any problem with a tv you buy now as the inlaws bought one in the uk and brought it back to france and again just plugged in a TNT box and french tv no problems. Go on get a nice flat screen you know you want one..

We got 1.45 when we bought 5 years ago and yes things did seem so much cheaper then, your right.

I think they mean if you use online banking. Its probably easy just to close it online.

I never said we did not have comfortable beds as we do 'Never had a complaint' Have a diswasher in 2 of the properties so getting to it slowly. Satellite tv in all properties 'English & French' so apart from the heated pool which nearly got done I don't think we are far away from what you provide really. Having 5 plus properties it takes time to get all of them to the same spec thats why we charge different prices per property. We also get repeat bookings but not everyone wants to go back to the same place every year, I certainly don't do that when we get a chance as I like to see what other places offer me. This year for the first tyime we are offering wi-fi internet but anyone who does can leave themselves open to all sorts of problems with illegal downloads etc so this maybe short lived. We are not in the best tourist area or close to the beach so perhaps our customers are limited. But it would have taken a lot more money to be in a better spot than we had so here we are. Of course we came here for a new life and lifestyle and to help with my illness and also to get away from the uk and what it offered us. Also a lot of the brits I'm afraid even though some are nice that we have to stay here I would trade many for the french we get, Anytime. Also I find with all these forums that so many people are willing to back bite and b*tch and make some people feel very unwelcome indeed. Some people are so willing to do this perhaps its why we left the uk as its full of them. So many that have everything and are very material people and have to have all the gadgets etc and the money. Where we are just happy to get by on enough that we can survive on which at the moment is hard but we are a happy family. I don't think the french we get certainly are not material people and its probably why we get on with them so well and would gladly trade some of our brit customers for more french. Each year we get more french which is great. I don't know how many properties you have and perhaps its more than we do but have you ever tried to kit out five plus gites to a massive spec if you have then you have deeper pockets than we do. I'm just happy staying out of a wheelchair for as long as possible and living the nice but simple life.

Exactly, People should not have to put up with lumpy old beds. But as you said matresses are a personal thing and what is good for one will not be good for someone else. We recently bought 2 that are made from bamboo fibre and were not cheap and they stay cooler than a normal matress. I found them to be hard but people loved them but I could not have slept on it but I never can sleep well unless its my own bed. Funny thing people and what they get used to.

I take it you must have a successful gite business already then. You must be one of the lucky ones who are in the best spot and get wall to wall bookings every year, Unlike the other half in France that try to make it a living but money doesn't always stretch and have to go back to the uk. All the best for the season then.

N'importequoi I think that all people probably put in what they can afford. Not everyone can afford pool heating 'I wish we could' not everyone can afford to have internet access in every property. Not everyone can afford a dishwasher in every property. The list could go on couldn't it. Just because someone cannot put in a top quality mattress in every property it does not mean they should not be in the accomodation business as you think so. As we cannot afford every little thing that people would like you can certainly buy us out if you like. Got a spare £500,000 or should that be £499,999 as I think we have one foam mattress!

The thing is with beds etc is that you cannot please everyone. Some like a hard bed some like a soft one. We have replaced some mattresses with some good quality ones that are mostly made from bamboo fibre that stay cool which is nice, Now to me they feel hard but guests have said how nice they were. We have pocket sprung ourselves but far to much money to put them in every gite but the sponge ones are to soft (not lumpy) but don't last. I think you have to put in what you can afford of a good quality but as I said you will not please everyone.

Last year we had a bee nest in between the plasterboard wall in one of our gites which wasn't very nice. This year we so far have two different lots nesting up under the roof of our main house and one under our on site laundry room! They are ok unless they start bothering people.

I have used these people about two years ago for the starter motor cog and engine ring for our ride on mower and had really good service. The parts were good also with full instructions and strangely enough just down the road from where we moved from in the uk. Spooooky!

None of the boxes dvd/vhs are used for recording so they are not linked as for recording. All the scarts come direct from the players,sat,tnt into the 4 way multi scart box then the trailing lead goes in the tv. Everything is fixed as it should be but as I said it degrades the tv picture when watching sat/tnt. When playing dvd/vhs the picture is fine. I think!

Thanks. So it looks like the one to go for is the ones where you press the button on the front of the scart box for which item you want to use. Does it really make that much difference over a non switching one?. I must admit it worked fine in one property but not the one I'm doing things on now. Strange. I will get one and give it a go. Cheers

Thanks Pachapapa but my french is not that good so I don't really no what you are asking me to try. The multi scart only has one item of the four turned on at once as I know that the picture goes all over the place if you dont do that if you have more than one running as they clash. Any one thing plugged indirect is perfect but add them all into the multi scart and the picture degrades. As I said tried others and its the same so its not a duff one.

Hello I am fitting some multi scart boxes at the moment and am having a few niggles. I have a DVD player a Video player a TNT box and a UK Sat box all going into the one scart on the tv, I have changed all the scart leads around and tried a new multi scart box but no joy. The problem I have is with picture quality really its all pretty hazey and in general not good. If you just do one of the players etc direct to the tv I have no problem put the multi scart on and then I get a poor picture. When I was just running a video and a uk sat box it was fine as you could run them through eachother and all was well but it seems to not like the multi scart box but I cant see any other way of doing it. So any ideas anyone or is this something I will have to put up with?

We always had them in the uk and different types and they always came up fine. The ones we have bought in france out of about 15 we had one flower. Some came up green and then just died didn't even get anywhere near the stage to flower

Perhaps another day then. Please..

That would be nice.

Waste of time claiming for most things in France. Same as some goods say that european law says 2 year guarantee, French says 12 months then forget it.!!

Ah, Probably french Elastoplasts a whole different ball game.