5-element
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Posts posted by 5-element
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[quote user="Sunday Driver"]
My notaire looks like Jamie Lee Curtis and laughs at my jokes.....[:D]
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Well that's interesting - because our Notaire was thirty-something, somewhat hispanic, a dark and dramatic beauty, with long flowing black hair down to her waist, theatrically dressed all in black, very attractive, and also rather personable. My husband's jaw dropped and it took a while for it to get back to its proper place, as for him it was love at first sight - she didn't look like Jamie Lee Curtis, although he (the husband) is quite partial to her too...[:D]
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Well we can take up Appalachian Clog Dancing, it's a bit like Morris Dancing innit???
Now all purists come on, shoot me down!!!
Must be good against osteoporosis too.
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[quote user="RumziGal"]
There's a price to be paid for being thin,
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You are right about that: the price is the sense of indignation and outrage when being thin ceases to be an option, in one's mature years[:)]. Hard to adjust!
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This one not so much about violence, but more "British kids" in general. I wonder whether the "British" part is relevant, maybe it could just be "Kids"
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2015633,00.html
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Well, it's not that we REALLY need it. More for back-up, just in case the forces of darkness are too powerfully against us that day. Potions get spilt, curses get misquoted, cats get trodden on, cauldrons get leaks, [6]that sort of thing.
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I always check my PMs. I always reply. It has happened though, that I have sent a PM to someone, who has not responded, even though my PM was a very specific (and innocuous enough) question. Thishas puzzled me enough to send another PM - and still get no response. Then I usually give up, assume that the person either does not receive or check their PMs, or has very personal reasons for not answering, and that it is easier for them to ignore me altogether rather than answer by saying they do not wish to answer my question[8-|]. I hope that makes sense.
I hardly ever get PMs, so it is easy! If you PM me, TU, I promise I will answer, how about that?
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Grecian - Incapacity benefits (are you talking about long-term Incapacity Benefit from the UK?)are not to be entered in your Tax return, it does not count as income anywhere, and you should not have to pay any tax on it whatsoever. At least this is our experience.
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SD
Thank you so much - your experience is fantastically useful, and it confirms, point for point, what I had been told elsewhere. It comforts me into resolving not to be such a wimp this coming year - I will now process all the information you send - this is helping me so much in deciding how I will go about it, as they so doggedly refuse to look at the evidence at my local tax office. I will PM you if I stumble on any legal/official term at all, since you kindly offered.
I will not bother to try and reclaim the social tax I paid in Nov. 2006, I had 2 months to contest after my first complaint, and I let time slide, it is now too late.
re. your PS. My mistake, sorry,of course you are right that TL is only for earned income and pensions. Any unearned income has to go into TS.
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[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]
(nobody ever asks what the ZFP stands for [:(] )
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Zombie for Peace? Zero Fair Play? Zimmer Frame Proud?
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[quote user="Sunday Driver"]
Actually it's in all our interests to keep referring to these levies as a social charge rather than a tax. In the recent EU court case, the French government argued that social charges were a form of taxation and therefore all foreign income should be charged. The EU said no, the charges weren't a tax, and on that basis, they ruled that foreign employment earnings and pensions are exempt from social charges - providing that the individual's heathcare costs were being met by another member state.
That means that people retiring on company/private pensions are exempt from social charges, but only during the period of validity of their E106. After that, they have to pay CRDS. Once they are in receipt of their UK state old age pension and their E121, then they are exempt form paying CRDS from then on.
It's only 0.5%, but it may as well be in your bank account than in the state's.
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I have been following this for some time, thank you Sunday Driver, and Will, for this. (i.e. not paying CSG)
However, it is NOT our experience - we (husband with E121) and me (on his E121). We have HAD to pay Contributions Sociales (small in our case, as we have low income, from my UK state pension, and his small private pension - he is not yet entitled to state UK pension). The charge is 0,5% on ALL our Revenus Etrangers, that is, our 2 pensions.This we paid in November 2006, for 2005.
We were told step-by-step by our local Hotel des Impots, how to fill our Tax Return form. The insisted that we enter all our revenue in Box TL of form 2042 - I now know that apparently, we should NOT enter anything in that box, except "unearned income", and certainly not the sum total of our pensions.
When we were sent our demand for CS in October, I went to Hotel des Impots, saying I had "made a mistake" with the way I had filled our initial Tax Return, i.e. TL box. The (very unhelpful, condescending and patronising woman there) looked it over, asked all the right questions, and concluded that no. it had to remain that way.
After this, I composed a letter which I addressed in recommande, where I explained that since we were on E121 form, our pensions were not taxable for CS.
The reply I eventually received was that my request was rejected, it just reiterated what I had been told, and did not even mention or acknowledge pensions or E121.
The next step would have been to go to Montpellier, where there is a "conciliateur fiscal du departement", and/or the Tribunal Administratif.
At that point I just gave up, as I began to feel paranoid and thought that our local Hotel des Impots could make our lives difficult and I just could not face it.
But now, another tax year looms on the horizon.
So my first question is:We are soon going to receive our "pre-filled" tax return form. Does it mean that this form, is going to be pre-filled WRONG so that we end up having to pay CS again this year, and then again and again?
My second question is: If we fill our tax return the way it ought to be, i.e. ignore the instructions of our local tax office, what happens then? Once the tax return forms are filled, does anyone know WHERE they are processed? Is it in a centralised national office, or is it in the local Hotel des Impots?
Is there anyone else who is being wrongly charged, unable to change the situation?
In our case, it is not a huge amount, but of course, it is in proportion to our income, so proportionally, it is substantial enough.
I know I should just fight this really, going to the conciliateur, by I am not cut out for those kinds of legal battles, having had in the past, unusually awful experiences with the French Inland Revenue (they did sort out their mistakes in the end, but only IN THE END).
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You're welcome. Let us know what results you get. [:)]
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[quote user="Sharkster"]
English Version
I called at your office on last Thursday to complete the CMU form and made a mistake with the figures. I would like to complete the form again with the correct figures and would appreciate it if you could telephone Montpellier to inform them of my error.
Je suis venu a votre bureau jeudi dernier, pour remplir le formulaire CMU et j'ai commis une (grosse) erreur avec les chiffres. Je voudrais donc remplir un nouveau formulaire avec les chiffres corrects, et je vous serais reconnaissant de bien vouloir telephoner a Montpellier pour les informer de mon erreur.Avec mes remerciements anticipes.
[/quote]Try this, Sharkster. And good luck.
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A couple of years ago, (sorry can't remember the name of the French TV programme) I saw him (Sarkozy) do a fantastic demolition job on Tariq Ramadan, who is pretty clever himself. That was the first time I really saw Sarkozy at work - his tack was to ask Ramadan whether he (TR) agreed with his brother who is in favour of lynching adulterous women - it was very below-the-belt, phrased in such a way that nobody could have answered without appearing to betray either family, or Islam, or his own convictions - total double-bind. Tariq Ramadan, usually pretty smart and articulate, was effectively silenced.
Sarkozy really revealed himself in that programme - he was like a vicious little dog who got his teeth in your leg and just won't let go. (BTW I couldn't be deported for "diffamation" even if he wins [:P])
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I'll sign myself up for both "Nitpickers Anonymous" and "People Who Don't Always Get Things Right".
That's Yin and Yang taken care of.
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How about the Society for People Who Don't Always Get Things Right?
Of course I'm not looking in your direction Dick - what made you think that[:P]?
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Thank you Garlic, you've got me salivating now!!! I will definitely try it....
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A bit like the kind of contact we have here with most others on this forum, i.e. virtual???
Food for thought.[:)]
But about Tom and Jerry (cartoon), and violence in films (a movie is also "not for real"), watching violence which has happened in real life, real humans inflicting pain on other real humans, then obviously, to me, this is another notch up. Snuff movies are not new, that is true. But up until fairly recently, they had a limited, specific audience. Now it seems that the circle of happy viewers has considerably widened, for instance, do we believe that we don't know, or are parents to any of the young people who carry (and enjoy) those scenes on their mobiles?
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[quote user="KathyC"][
Now the Racine would be a different question alltogether.
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Ah, Racine!!! My favourite: Bajazet... I used to stay up half the night in front of the mirror, reciting some of Roxane's lines... the wronged woman...:
"Avec quelle insolence et quelle cruaute
Ils se jouaient tous deux de ma credulite!
Quel penchant, quel plaisir je sentais a les croire!
Tu ne remportais pas une grande victoire,
Perfide, en abusant ce coeur preoccupe,
Qui lui-meme craignait de se voir detrompe!
Moi, qui de ce haut rang qui me rendait si fiere,
Dans le sein du malheur t'ai cherche la premiere
Pour attacher des jours tranquilles, fortunes,
Aux perils dont tes jours etaient environnes.
Apres tant de bontes, de soins, d'ardeurs extremes,
Tu ne saurais jamais prononcer que tu m'aimes?????????" Act IV, Scene 5
Now, can you all see what you have been missing[:D] if you have never read Racine's Bajazet?[:D]
Alright, I stop now.
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My favourite (not French) book is (as is often the case) the one I am reading at the moment:
"What I loved" by Siri Hustvedt - set in New York, great descriptions of paintings and making art, but also madness, eating disorders, all slightly sinister and exquisitely written.
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[quote user="Lori"][
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late Tuesday night / early Wed. morning 1:20 am
Will comment on Wednesday.
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Looking forward to that, Lori.
Languedocgal, I am so interested by your take on the programme. I was too overwhelmed with the horror stuff to use any analytical faculties for the rest, so in the end, although we watched the same programme, we have 2 very different perspectives. Which is most enriching.
BJSLV thank you too. I think now I might video the programme and watch it again with a cooler head.
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I now wish I had recorded the programme - but Lori, I wonder how you would have felt as a mother - something which I am not, and overall, very happy about. It would have added an extra dimension to the angst from watching such disturbing facts. It is so understandable to be concerned about your daughter's future, from your description. Teenagers (including ourselves) have always behaved weirdly and objectionably, which is quite normal. But this disregard for someone's suffering, this incapacity to distinguish right from wrong, the enjoyment and excitement from seeing other people's pain and torture, that is what *seems* newish - and I guess it fits with what you witness in your daughter and her friends in a much milder form.
Obviously, good parenting is not the only safeguard, as I would imagine that your daughter has been very smart with her choice of parents(!). And as you point out and I keep reminding myself, many (the majority?) of youth do still know right from wrong, they still cringe when they see someone or an animal in pain and want to help, and they themselves would be incapable of gratuitous violence. But it is true that with the advent of violent videogames and those other things, there is a banalisation of that violence - and a distanciation too, it must seem surreal to them, and just like a movie, i.e. the person inflicting the violence is them but not them? Girls who laugh when seeing on a video another girl being beaten up by her boyfriend for daring to ring him at home, and saying it is no big deal, or seeing some gang-rape of a 15 year old, i.e. a total inability to identify with the victim, even if the victim is someone who could be themselves!!?? That is what I find so weird!
In the programme, we see the family life of the young man who said it was in his nature to beat up. He is one of 4 children, mother died 2 years ago (!), so there is only the father, himself long-term unemployed, RMIste, and absolutely desperate - his son is bigger and stronger - the father is a broken man, almost suicidal it seemed - unable to bring himself now to open the post that comes regularly from all the court cases his son has been involved in, posts which requests various fines, all mounting up. There is no real hostility from the son to the father at all, but the son says to his father "Oh don't exaggerate - you go too far... you just go too far...What do you mean your life is over?" - he is absolutely unable to see that there is real damage, and that he himself is responsible for it.
You are right Lori, they are numbed. The programme was a series of extreme examples. I wonder what effect such programmes have on those youngsters who are still able to differentiate right from wrong - and I am not talking about angels here, but about ordinary young people who engage in ordinary young people activities, and even do a few risky things - like many of us have done. Even those who are considered wild, but who have a very good idea of what is right and wrong, ultimately.
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Chessfou, maybe you are really French.[:D]
What the French part of me also finds quirky:
(I do notice this a lot now, with our English visitors)
- having to stop what you are doing at regular intervals, to have a cuppa - after 6 years back in France, I have grown out of the habit.
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I am posting in the Off-Topic section, since this concerns both France and the UK (and much further).
Did anyone else watch "Zone Interdite" on channel 6, last night?
The theme was "new urban violence". Something that I found interesting is that the clips showed, were indiscriminately, of violence in France and in the UK - and a bit in the US, just to show the tape of 2 police people being shot dead. In some ways nothing of this is new: the "casseurs" who came in droves from the suburbs and mingled with demonstrating students in Paris last year, and then as mobs, attacked and beat up anyone about anything: students, journalists, CRS, passers-by,as well as destroying property and stealing mobiles, bags, etc. Then the happy slapping - a clip of a woman teacher in the classroom, being kicked to the ground and beaten while recorded, you can hear her terrified screams. And the one about 5 or 6 youngsters - including a 14-year old girl - who actually killed a man who was sleeping on a bench in England, kicking, jumping on him, smashing him to bits - and then walk away peacefully. And the clip of the man who was set on fire by two 19-year olds just for fun, and so on.....
What I found profoundly disturbing is the interviews of some of these youngsters, and of their friends - the ones in the lycee who have the clip on their protable, of the beaten teacher. They mostly do not feel anything about any of the vistims. No compassion, no idea of right and wrong, and just find it all quite funny. One of the "casseurs" - who is only 19, and was subsequently arrested and put in a detention centre, can only say that "J'aime taper, c'est ma nature" (I like to beat up, it's in my nature) - and shows absolutely no remorse. Everything is just, well, normal.
I know there is nothing new about violence - violence as in criminal violence, to steal a bag, a car, a watch, money, etc... this is more understandable. But violence with really no sense of right and wrong, are we living in a world which is breeding psychopaths??? Given that the violence mentioned seemed to occur in equal quantity in UK and France, I thought it was quite interesting to just put the 2 together in a programme, and make no difference.
So, has anyone else seen that programme, and what did you think? I still feel quite haunted by it. Not in the sense of making me afraid for myself in the future, but more in wondering about the world in which we live, and franchement, I am not sure that any of the politicians have any great solutions....
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Certain eating habits are considered quirky by the French (or at least by some of my French family or friends).
- eating Marmite - many French are puzzled by this, and find it an acquired taste
- eating cheese after pudding - I suspect this is considered barbaric.
- eating mint sauce with roast lamb.
Many others, no doubt. Just talking about food keeps it at a safe level, though[:D]
Personally, I enjoy challenging people's narrow-mindedness sometimes, especially French attachment to food tradition, as I do not subscribe to the idea that all that is French is normal and right. I think that everyone benefits from a bit of hybridisation[:)]
Quignon
in French Food and Wine
Posted
Many years ago, queueing at the bakers, small nephew in my arms, I was alarmed to see that he appeared to be chewing on something. When I asked him what he was eating, he pointed at the end of the french loaf under the arm of the person in front of me!
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[:)][:)][:)] Loved it, Cat!!!!
It reminds me of the ad on French TV about soya desserts. One very prim looking lady with her poodle, sitting on a bench. Next to her, a gentleman having his lunch. He is just opening his soya dessert, pulls the top off, and presents it to the dog to lick. The lady quickly puts her dog on her other arm, bends down, and licks the soya dessert top. You just have to see it, it always cracks me up!