mint

now i understand!  so THAT'S why i find the male of the species strange and incomprehensible.  gary, this is better than men are from mars and women are from venus thank you for clarifying the riddle of a lifetime for me

cooperlola this is something i am having to investigate.  will we still have to use france telecom for our line and pay france telecom rental ON TOP of this anglopack provision? when we had the works done for our fosse, we had conduits laid for tv and telephone at the same time.  however, we are not yet connected to these services as we are still awaiting connection by edf and, of course, our property is newly-acquired and we don't live there yet thank you cooperlola

some years ago, i did have a cat, timmy, who watched 2 sorts of tv programmes.  he liked watching snooker and you could see his head moving back and forth as his eyes followed the balls. the other sort of programme he liked was the ones with birds (understandably, i suppose).  he'd go up to the screen and tried to touch the birds and, when he found he couldn't, he'd often go round to the back of the tv to see if they were hiding somewhere out of his reach. strangely though, he never seemed to take any notice of mirror images.  i'd hold him up to mirrors and there wouldn't be any response we now have a dog who doesn't watch tv as such but reacts to the radio, particularly on the farming programme on radio 4.  if she so much as hears a dog on it, she'd start barking and going round the house to look for the supposed intruder. she also does not react to mirror images but she will bark at reflections of herself on windows in the winter evenings if the curtains are not drawn i have read that only primates are self-aware enough to recognise themselves in mirrors but, as i don't keep monkeys of any sort, i am unable to verify the truth or otherwise of that

laila is beautiful, afy.  you can be truly proud of her and of yourself for what you have done for her.

afy you sound in considerable despair and i am not sure you are thinking straight just now. if you do decide that leaving is your only option, then at least PLAN your move properly and get the right professional and legal advice. don't just walk off because then there will be an even bigger mess to clear up later and you might be glad to have some money and assets behind you when it is all over i do wish you all the very best, afy. keep well

afy i don't know what to say because there is NOTHING to say that would improve things for you.  please DON'T do anything in a hurry and certainly NOT when you are so angry get some professional help if you can; perhaps a marriage counsellor? at least calm down a bit and give yourself some space and time before you do something you might really regret later i shall be thinking of you and hoping you somehow manage to resolve things to result in the best possible outcome

read an article in the times today about the growing number of french gps undertaking a training programme on the treatment of the increasing numbers of brits who have moved to france. hooray, i thought; life in france could only get easier. rule number one apparently for treating "les anglais" is, wait for it, "let ladies keep their clothes on"!  i can only hope that the rest of the training programme has rather more going for it than this "taster"! o la la! can we have this medicine orally rather than per anum?  and no, doctor, i do think this is rather more than "la gripe"! there we go, we live in hope.  my own intention is, as when i am here in the uk, to steer clear of doctors.  now this is only a personal bee in the bonnet and NOT something i recommend to others.  i read some years ago that the healthiest people are those who live furthest away from their gps! my own convoluted thinking goes something like this:  if i don't see the quack, he/she can't diagnose me and therefore i cannot be labelled as having ....whatever! any doctors reading this, please don't take it personally.  i think you all do a wonderful job; i just don't want you to be doing that job on me. cheers

gluestick thank you so much for going to all the trouble of supplying me with those websites.  when i do make a choice, i hope it will be the right one.  if not, i'd only have myself to blame after all the help i've had. jr, thank you to you too.  your system of combining storage heaters with the more flexible air con unit sounds like quite a good and prudent choice.  and that's me- belt, braces, the lot! cheers & happy new year

that's it then.  count me out of the new, or any, regime.  i think i'd rather hang on to my bits of blubber.  they do say that when a woman gets older, she has to decide between her face or her f***y!  not much of a decision then?

gluestick thank you indeed; the link is brill, full of info.  will get the old man to have a good look at the site. i looked at the castorama site (info provided by quillan) and got seriously frightened by the cost of the units. still, we do need a comprehensive system of heating and will have to grasp the nettle of costs.  nothing worse than being cold indoors, is there?

 p thanks for your input.  i guess i'd just have to settle for a few fans or spend the summer in wales!  always assured of damp cold air in wales!

bugbear brilliant picture!  the bikes look wonderful and the bikers don't look so bad either.  best of all, it's a lovely picture to see this morning when the welsh weather and the "morning-after" feeling weigh heavily. your picture makes me think of sunshine and beautiful old french towns and what i'm going to be eating for lunch! thank you bugbear, i can now see there is life after boxing day

quillan i shall be eternally grateful to you.  yes, we do need to watch the pennies and i will look at all of your suggestions.  i am pleased you have told me about the decorating so now i will do nothing with the walls until the heaters (whatever we decide on) are in and that way at least we will not have to redecorate afterwards we will be installing a woodburner in the sitting room and one in the hall but i thought i'd still install one radiator in the sitting-room for when we do not want to build a fire there, perhaps because it's not cold enough or because we do not have the time. have a wonderful day tomorrow, quillan.  you have been so helpful and kind that you have truly done your bit to make the world a better place this christmas!                               

soleil thanks for your message.  if you do decide to install, would you mind pming or emailing and telling me the reasons for your choice?  then, belt-and-braces type that i am, i can at least have someone else's thinking to guide me quillan you are informative and helpful as usual.  i will look at the websites you have mentioned.  i AM going to look at this more in detail.  your wife's opinion is good enough for me.  generally, us women are both intuitive and logical (despite what the other sex thinks)! like you we do not have gas or oil. it would be expensive and disruptive to have bottled gas or oil and install a whole new system as our property is already "done up" (by the previous owner).  i was thinking along the lines of installing individual hot/cold air appliances in each location where we need it. we quite often stay at a chambre d'hote near st malo where the landlady has these appliances in the bedrooms and they seem to me to be very flexible - after all you can then heat different rooms to different temperatures and, indeed, at different times of the day unfortunately, we can't go over to france now as the weather is so cold and we, of course, have NO heating!  however, i did ask a local electrician to give us a quote for an appliance in each room.  he hasn't come back to me as yet but, when i am next over there, i shall track him down!

5-element you have my sympathy and i am also a fellow sufferer.  won't go into all the details but it's a sad time of year for me too.  but, for a change, instead of my usual asthma and chest infection fit to kill me, i have a stomach bug!  lucky or what! have had to cancel/beg off lots of stuff; mainly because i can't face it. look after yourself and i will try to do likewise. will be glad when it's all over and i can nurse my misery in isolation and not have to put any sort of brave face on anything  

According to their blurb, this is an electric heating system with "le radiateur eco-electrique".  If anyone has had one of these systems installed, could you please give me your comments. I wish to know whether the system works well and whether the running costs compare favourably with a conventional system of individual electric heating units. I have decided, because of where we are situated and the structure of our property, electricity is probably our best option as it would involve minimal disturbance to existing structures and finishes. Thank you very much in anticipation.

sd & fulcrum thank you from the bottom of my heart.  i now have all the low-down, kybosh, full monty on importing cars to france.  should be ok as i shall follow all your instructions. you have been wonderful pals! kisses  

sd any chance of you telling me how much the french mot, certificate of conformity, changing to lhd headlamps (the whole kybosh) is likely to cost?  i realise you won't know the exact figures but what about a ball park figure; to enable me to weigh up the pros and cons of bringing our cars over?  we have a volvo estate automatic (over 2 litres)  and a hyundai estate automatic (1.6 litres) (both will need mots) thanks, sd

chris is there some sort of kudos attached to never having bought or read a copy of lf?  if so, then i must shamefacedly admit to being quite an avid reader and subscriber.  it started by my husband buying me the odd copy when we were househunting so that i could get clued up on the different regions.  then i fell for the offer of subscribing for 3 months for next to nothing.  then i got to looking forward to it arriving through the letterbox every month.  then, i don't know, it's a bit of wanting to look at all the adverts for removal companies and financial services and i suspect there's a bit of inertia insofar as it takes effort to unsubscribe and i still belong to the old school of fuddy-duddies who would feel obliged to write a letter at the same time as cancelling the direct debit explaining that whilst i have enjoyed the magazine......etc pathetic or what?

gluestick this is absolutely MARVELLOUS and it is SO good of you to be willing to organise this new service.  from a consumer/user/questioner point of view, i think the following topics would be most useful and i hope you will consider them tax position, uk or french and how/if you are able to choose which regime inheritance tax, how to minimise, what steps you could take (obviously in your lifetime) to ease things for when you are no longer in a position to call the shots investment vehicles that are likely to be suitable (i do mean just point in the direction of and not providing the advice for which you are not qualified or regulated to give) how best to make use of any legitimate tax exemptions/loopholes and what these might be those are just a few of the points that come immediately to mind, gluestick, and i don't know whether it's the sort of things you have in mind?

i think you can apply up to 6 months early but that may have changed since i last had this info it seems to be the case that lots and lots of so-called legislation nowadays get put about BEFORE any of the details and implications are sorted out

special thanks to gluestick for a most comprehensive response.  now feel, if not more confident, then certainly more well-informed as to what i wish to do. i take on board everything that has been said.  will proceed with caution but accept that at some point, i will be the one making the decisions.  that's ok.  there are no guarantees in life but at least there's no need to blunder into things without taking some trouble to find out exactly what you're blundering into!

a hi everyone who has kindly shown an interest and given advice sorry about the late response.  i have had mega problems with my broadband access and have had my hard disk completely wiped and things reinstalled. etc.  not that happy now with the print on this site but, still, i can read the replies. as posted earlier, i see no problems with contacting siddalls for my free initial consultation and i will then check out their response using other sites and/or persons also, as promised, i intend to post a record of my experience so that everyone can have the "benefit" (ha, ha) of my conclusion! thanks again, one and all.  love you all for caring!

sorry, that NARROW slipper?  it'll never slip past the bunions

ian have taken on board what you said about a belkin modem router (will find one, whatever it is).  i'm a bit of a technophobe really; i hasten to say NOT because i don't like technology, it's more a case of technology not liking me. ian, what is the sound quality like?  it's not reliant on the rubbishy speakers on my computer, is it? regards