Nearly Retired (I am now)

I reckon it'll be fine done in strips if: a) You have the right material proportions each time to achieve the same colour match - oops, not relevant as you plan to cover it. b) Lay mesh at about mid-slab depth across the proposed joint and bend the mesh up against your shuttering. When strip one has gone off, remove the shutter and bend the bars down straight. Repeat for each strip.You probably want at least 300mm length of bar in each strip, i.e. 60mm total mesh width. or, c) Drill reinforcing bar sized holes in your shuttering, poke half a bar length through each hole (say 3 per metre length of strip )and cast your first strip. Later, remove the drilled shutter (albeit with a bit of difficulty) and repeat for strip no.2.  To make removal of the shutter easier you could drill over size holes, insert the bars and plug the remaining gaps around the bars with foam, polythene or anything similar that comes to hand. The shutter should come off much easier then. Edit: This was typed before seeing the two posts above - 3 similar tips in 8 minutes !

Good news and bad news: Good - Today I got our refund (back onto Mastercard Credit Card) of £168 for the unused 6 crossings Flex ticket we bought in September. Bad -  I have just spent £130 of it on a P&O outbound / Tunnel inbound return crossing for February.  The wording in the refund letter is a tad cautious saying things like.....it may be necessary to return to you at a later date should our actions be questioned or if further information is received. Presumably this is just standard procedure to protect their position in the event that something like a Danish fairy godmother appears soon.

How boring - I read the thread title and thought I'd be updated on Popeye's troubles -:) 

On a picky note to start with - you probably mean concrete which is the set mixture of sand, stones of various sizes and cement powder which "glues" it all together. My only experience* is seeing that shiny grey stuff on floors of B&Q, Ikea and other warehouses. I'm sure you could colour it as there are all sorts of dyes that can be added. The problems I forsee are: 1. Cracking of the surface - minimised, but probably not eliminated, by mesh or fabric reinforcement. I guess a solid sub-base is wanted too. The overall thickness has probably got to be 150mm or so. 2. Consistency of colour and impossible to patch repair with any hope of a match. 3. High quality of workmanship needed to get a smooth, level and consistent surface. You need a specialist. 4. The mess during installation - I'm pretty sure you'd mess up the lower areas of the walls. Also quite how a smooth finish could be achieved by hand trowelling  every little irregularity where the wall stones meets the floor I don't know. 5. Cost I wouldn't do it.   *I was once involved in the laying of a granolithic finish being installed in sports changing rooms by a so called specialist. It was hugely expensive and didn't look too good at the end either. The curved "skirtings" (like upside down coving at the wall / floor junctions) for ease of cleaning or washing was neat though.   

  (1) Our FT connection was all sorted before we moved in. (2) Don't buy a new card for the sky box - just keep the old one. I believe it'll work just fine for you for all the non-subscription stuff especially BBC, ITV, Ch4 & 5.

It's over  - Europe has had its day - it's time to move on out. How do I know? Channel 4 at 20.00 (GMT) tonight has a new series on house hunting in a land where wine is produced in vast quantities and the roads are empty. Sounds familiar? It's Australia.

"Something awry with your sums or our payroll, without wanting to discuss my own income in open forum I can tell you that last month I had salary deductions for Tax and NI in the order of  £1,500.00 (Rounded up) the NI element equating to approximately £100 a week." You might have done. An annual UK salary of £58,250 suffers monthly Tax and NI deductions very close to £1500.   

Just shut the door when you go to bed and then open it in the morning while taking a sniff - aaah! Beautiful! You just can't fake the smell of a real tree. We'll be having a real one for as many years as my ageing body can go to buy one and put it up.

Thanks for the info. I've taken a peek at a couple of news websites for SE Kent and won't even now think about a season ticket with SeaFrance for a good long while. In the meantime: (1) My claim to the credit card company for my Speedferries ticket(s), which together cost in excess of £100, was sent off around a week ago. I'll let you know how I get on. (2) The way the € exchange rate is going at present I think I'll be buying wine in my local Tesco and taking it to France with me.

lavorgere: I didn't contact P&O because their website says: Dover-Calais  Purchase 9 return tickets, any duration from £27 each way.   It goes on to say they must all be used in a year -  we go frequently but not 9 times every year. I'll give them a call.

Now that Speedferries has finally gone, I am a refugee cast adrift in the maelstrom of different fare offerings from different carriers and am looking for a lifeboat. My need is only for the short crossing route and as a test I tried out prices for the tunnel vs. ferries for a reasonable time of day each way for a week away in February. For a return the tunnel want £150 - ish and P&O and SeaFrance each want around £75 - ish. Not much contest there then. I then spotted the SeaFrance Season Ticket from around £30 per crossing at ANY time save a very few peak days - and they are just "days" not whole weeks simply blanked out at half-term or all of August and so on. They even say: "You don't need to book specific crossing times, you can turn up at the Port with your booking reference and we guarantee you a crossing on one of the next two departures (excluding peak dates..." This looks to me as near enough a Turn Up and Go Service for maybe £60 return (the precise figure depends on how many tickets you initially buy). Looks good - does anyone have any experience of using this?

Here's what I do, which might be more in line with may users knowledge, abilities and ease of use (or lack of ) with technology. Everything on the computer gets copied to a CD with the date written on it. That CD is stored in the shed. Every couple of weeks I back up every file with a newer date. Not high tech, but with relatively few files it works fine. It's clearly of no use to big users. The amazing thing is that my (so far only one) hard drive failure occured the morning after my CD saving session.

"Is there any reason why we should bother with Sky TV now that Freesat is available which gives all the same channels without the need for a viewing card or a UK address." Football, cricket, golf ?

I've just checked for bookings on the website - you can't make one. The adventure may be all over.

Does this "arrest" in Boulogne mean the end for them ? I really do hope not. At least I paid over £100 for the Superticket on my credit card.

I beg to disagree. £100 for a return ticket in the middle of the night on the short crossing is a lot for pre tunnel-fire fares. I love the tunnel but can only seem to get these prices at very odd and inconvenient hours - shame. That's why I've got the Superticket on Speedferries which, after you've paid for say 6 in advance, work out at around £40 or so for a return at any time. Even booking just one return trip might cost you around £40 to maybe £80 ish for a return at sensible times. Having said all that, I always turn up expecting a cancellation, a very late crossing or maybe a very slow crossing when one of the elastic bands has broken. 

It certainly is right ! I've had a closer look at the bill. It shows Année 2007 as more than Année 2008. Amazing.

We have a white stone fireplace too - it may be limestone but I don't know. It's in the Charente so it ought to have a  large element of chalk - calcium carbonate - ish stuff . When our fireproof rope gave out on the insert we had a black smoke stain on the stone above. After trying various things I found that nail varnish cleaner (acetone?) did a great job. I dipped a cotton wool pad in it and rubbed away and it worked.

I just find the damp does a good job of containing the dust !

Our tax to be paid now is €545. It was €557 last year. I haven't been in touch with them about anything and I'm paying the TV licence part just like last year. Can this be right?

I can't help with a price but I can moan a bit about asbestos hysteria. If your solid mainly cement and a tiny bit of embedded asbestos tiles were in the UK you could simply take them off, double wrap them in polythene and take them down to the council dump. Note not all dumps take them but I think each LA has at least one for low grade asbestos. Easy - peasy. I haven't a clue what (officially) happens in France, but would hope that sense would prevail and a similar system might be in use - after all we're all in the EU, have the same access to technical knowledge and can suffer illness in the same way too. My guess is that most people would probably dig a hole and bury them.

A bit late I know, but I got mine from TLC in England at £9.25. http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/MXSKY.html

Try: http://www.bca-antiquematerials.com/

Thanks for the info Pierre ZFP - anybody else had this issue?

"Perhaps because they are nicer to live in than a town centre house with no garden?" So's a mobile home on a trailer park - that's not the point. We're talking about architecture, heritage and all that stuff. Even Messrs Barrett with their UK starter homes glue on a bit of Tudorbethan plastic wood from time to time. Some of their houses will be in facing brick others in render and so on.