Chancer

All your documents will be there even if you submit them by post like me, takes them a good 6 months to update the site though, mine said that I had not submitted a return last year, I phoned them and they agreed, said I should do another one straight away, took it in and the gilr looked confused and said my return had already been processed, she could see how much I had to pay and gave it to me on a post-it but said it would be a little while before I could access it on the impots site, it took another 6 months.   No different to my banques really, pay money in and they give me a reciept for my new balance but it takes up to a week for my on line banking to show it, thats is they actually manage to credit all the cheques they have signed for or credit one and then remove the money months later.

My name is the same as yours Teapot!

I had eaten crap food all my life as money went up but time went down convenience Junk food became more and more of my purchases.   On moving to France I found that there was a lot less available which for me was a good thing.   Then when I had a complete life change several years back (thanks to this forum) and started eating healthily I became more and more obsessed with what other people put in their trolleys, still shopping in the low end shops like Lidl by and large what I see is pretty poor but would be a lot worse in the UK with the greater choice, loads of sugary drinks, sugary cereals, in fact pretty much everything for the petit dejeuner is a catastrophe, cakes, haribos, Nutella and of course trolley loads of pinard.   90% of what I buy now is fruit, veg and dairy, the latter I should reduce, I eat vety little meat now and mainly unprocessed.   Its interesting that the foods that Brits miss most, those that they bring back or have delivered are the highly processed addictive ones. 

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]Back on my computer. So there you go, it seems to work on Firefox but you lose the cursor. I prefer Chrome with this forum even though the quote button does not work. Chancer, are you using firefox ? I personally don't like firefox.[/quote]   Windows 7 Internet explorer something.   Still several minutes before I get the cursor and can post.

As I now have to wait several minutes before I can make a posting I will spend the time making my protest on the one part of the posting screen that is accessible to me, the subject box as above.

I was completely taken in by Tony Blair and new labour, I remember being proud and exhilarated to see every one of the corrupt crowd lose their seats one by one and to see what I thought was a normal family standing on the steps of number 10 for the first ever time.   You live and learn............................

A flawless icon with the initials J.C.  ........................   Jeremy Clarkson?

All of my propertys have cost less than the value of some of the cars parked in the street especially the one that now makes my living for me.   When I was younger all my energy and skills went into moving up the motoring ladder and not the housing ladder, shame that I did not have an old head on young shoulders but I am making up for it now.

5 minutes again before the cursor appears in the message box and I can type, during that time I can edit the title, change fonts etc but nothing else, rebooted computer this morning no different.   The quote function does work for me but what I cannot do is copy and paste some text rather than formally quoting someone or more imortantly copy and paste someones non clickable link, I can get the cursor to the start of the text but blocking it is impossible, only happens on this forum, I have to go into the quote window and manually block the text with CTRL and Arrow keys.   All in all its too much of a work up, too many hoops to jump through as if living in France I do not already have enough of those, just not Worth the effort as I suspect many others have decided.   There is a golden opportunity at the moment but if the forum owners arent bothered than thats their prerogative.   Too many hoops for me.

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"] Anyway, sort computer out Chancer. Your computer is the problem not the forum software.[/quote]   There is no doubt of that yet I am one of the few that can post a link that is clickable albeit not in blue, everyone regardless of make of computer or browser should be able to post, quote, make links and add images and not have the page turned into gibberish with random characters.   The displaced people could and IMO should come here but as it stands most wont contribute.

It is indeed a great opportunity but very few will return or remain for any length of time unless this forum sorts out its new and enhanced user experience, people want to be able to quote, include links, add images, all things that are broken here.   Today, and it has happened before it wont allow me to post a reply, opens the page but the cursor wont go into the message box and nothing can be typed, takes up to 5 minutes before it lets me and editting the title like I have done here sometimes clears the bug.   I joined the other place after a new and enhanced user experience ruined this one and drove most contributors away, the other place was and is still far more frequented, then they did the same software upgrade cock up, then there was Brexit and 18 months of often hate filled posts and the pulling of the plug was inevitable.   I remained faithfull here because the vast majority are decent and helpfull and not out to score points or belittle others, however the  mental effort and playing around involved these days in just making a posting is just too much.

No but I enjoyed the TV program on the subject.

My roots are from there and I have a strange feeling that draws me to there, almost a calling, if ever I returned to the UK I have a feeling in my waters that it would be to there.   I did a double take once watching "homes under the hammer" as the tiny terraced cottage looked so familiar, it was an identical house in the same remote mining village where my father was born, they have featured at least one other auction sale there, irs probably one of the cheapest places in the UK.

Keep trying and someday you may succeed.

I did 3 bank jobs today ALBOF!   Told Credit Epargne what I thought of them after waiting a week for a RDV to open an account when they phoned to cancel 20 mins before because la personne was absente and that I would have to wait for her to feel like turning up to work to give me another RDV. I need my 4th Banque in France as numbers 2 and 3 where I currently hold accounts have both stolen/lost my money recently.   Went into town to check out the remaining 4, waited in line in one and was so disgusted with how rude the cashier was with the people in front of me I gave them a swerve, tried another to get the same warm Picard welcome from the girl there who told me I would have to wait é weeks or a month for someone to give me a RDV, told her that I was going to follow my instinct and go elsewhere, bank next  door pretty much the same story but i stuck my ground and she went and woke up the Directeur who decided to see me, still not got an account, still have an obscene amount of cash & cheques in my Pocket that I dont trust the others not to misappropriate, he may call me back later this week.   But then again he probably wont.

I have learned a lot about myself today, that I am sad for living in a one bedroomed flat and from another forum that i am sad for having a grotty semi in the UK, now I learn that I am thick and/or have too much money and/or disregard the environment.   I guess I deserve it all for being sober for 5 years.

I would not return to the UK though no matter how green it is although it would be the easiest thing in the world to do, I could go back this very second if I were minded to with absolutely no obstacles, but to do so would be foregoing so many other exciting possibilities and I would view it as a failure on my part no matter how much richer I could be, it was never about the money, it was about being able to answer my own question "how much is enough?"

[quote user="EuroTrash"] Chancer I suppose that for all you don't like where you are, you have a lot of satisfaction in what you've achieved. Well I hope you still do.[/quote]   I sure do [:D]   I took immense pleasure in the whole of the renovation, being able to work unstressed at my own rythm financing it and surviving on my own funds for a decade, never once felt the need for a holiday.   And I continue (for the time being at least) to get pleasure in meeting diverse interesting and enlightened people from other areas in France and the entire world.   I have sort of been swept along with the success and it has re-ignited my long lost ambition which i am not sure how to feel about, my raison d'être for being here was to jump off the ride and I find myself enjoying being on a merry go round that is turning even faster.   I am getting very good at not letting very annoying things get to me (I suppose its part of growing up) like being screwed by both of my banks, waiting a week for an appointment to open a new one today for them to cancel it 30 minutes before in a completely insouciant way, being very rudely recieved in 2 other banks and walking away etc etc etc, when inevitably the mentality of the area finally gets to me I will be trapped in a gilded cage but wont hesitate to walk away at whatever the cost, doing that before was the best decision of my life.

I live in a 1 bedroomed flat somewhere that I dont want to live.   But I am easy to please [:D]

I ameffectively blind in the left eye and hence have a narrow monocular field of vision of the right eye to watch where I am going and where all the approaching cars are coming from, I am legal to drive and judging by the carnage i see around me on a regular basis take in far more visual information around me than many.   Certain P à D's I have no choice but to take blind, a couple around here that are acute angles that I turn right from and the main junction in my village with a central divider where I turn left, I have to look to the right to see if its safe to complete the 2nd half of my manouevre (cars approaching me have priorité) but they have remodelled the carrefour to cassé la visibilité, its a zone 30 but everyone does double that, I have to take my priorité blind over any approaching traffic in order to get to the position to see if I can complete the manouevre or have to stop, there have been several close calls but they all were 100% the fault of the vehicle approaching from my left not paying attention.   The closest P à D to my house is only now one since the remoddelling, its not signposted as such because its a zone 30 so all carrefours are a blanket P à D, buy hey as everyone drives at 70kph + why should they bother about a new P à D? - Well one good reason is that I am bloody minded enough to take that one whilst looking them straight in the eye (good visi in both directions).   The issue is 100% not those taking a P à D not looking but those driving straight that dont take any notice of the P à D's even in a town area where they are blanket, a proper driver will slow down for any right side junction where they dont have good visibility until they can either see there are no vehicles or a stop sign or solid line (usually scrubbed bare) its no different to arriving at 4 way traffic lights and seeing that none of them are illuminated, you should drive cautiously and with anticipation.   Truth be known most of us who are honest enough or not cunsumed with our own egos will recognise that in the early days they were not aware of all or even any of the P à D's and that the  dawning of each one came as a real shock at the realisation of what could have happened prior.   A big danger around here on the circuit de souvenir is vehicles driving on the wrong side of the road, there are even road signs in English warning against it.

To late to edit but my posting should have read "anthropologist"

"Them" and not "us" [:P]   I am reading a very interesting (although a hard slog) book called "Watching The English"  - hidden rules of English behaviour written by an anthologist, I'm not sure I would have been able to understand it with a detached view if I had not lived away from the UK so long. Suffice to say that there is a lot of ingrained behaviour and its not easy for a Brit abroad to see the rest of the world through anything but their own eyes and life expériences.   I got the book in Emmaus at Amiens and the person who read it before has underlined lots of bits and written notes down the spine which make fascinating reading, the notes are in Franglais, I think the person is English but has lived here a very long time, there may be some further clues to their identity.  

[quote user="Théière"]Sounds cool Chancer, what rate are you offering? [:D] [/quote]   If I had a Crystal ball and knew which currency £ or € to be moving money from and to then I'd be happy to deal Teapot!   In the past it was money from the UK to France to live on and work with, that coincided nicely with French friends wanting stuff from the UK.   The problem I have now is finding a banque in France that is not going to lose/steal some of the cheques or cash that I pay in, the 1.75% or even 2.95% credit card commission charges that I lose seem a good deal now compared to the incompetence/dishonesty of the banques,  if I were able to stop recieving cheques/cash which sadly I cant I could go to an on line banque and save all the charges.

Its certainly been a big relief to be financially autonomous in both countries for the last 3 or 4 years.   I did not realise just how much headspace it took up until it was liberated.

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]I've lost the plot on this thread. Are we now blaming crâpy French immobiliers for Brexit ? We are really running out of people to blame.[/quote]   I now realise that there is something even worse than a bad loser.   A bad loser still whining 18 months later.