Ford Anglia

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20070712/tuk-tintin-book-embroiled-in-race-row-45dbed5.html

I'm intrigued by the idea that cows fart less if there's a bull about.[I] Is it because they all want to pull the bull and don't want to look un ladylike?[:D]

Pearly: who ARE you? I remember a song about you but don't know any more........[8-)]  

My favourite "bird" experience in France was 20 years ago, when I thought I'd seen a humming bird.[:-))] Turned out to be a moth. Still cool though.

[quote user="Salty Sam"][quote user="Ford Anglia"][quote user="Jonzjob"] The autoroute people do report speeding to the damjams and you see motorists leaving the paege points and being pulled over by the nik niks. We have seen it several times and we don't use the autoroutes very often. Safe riding mate!!! [/quote] I'm sorry, but I believe this to be another modern myth. I have yet to meet ANYONE who was caught in this way.[/quote] In that case, I'll tell my mate that the fine he got was a figment of his imagination! Believe it, it isn't a myth.[:@] [/quote] And he's CERTAIN that the gendarmes hadn't trapped him on a radar or a laser on the peage approaches? Modern myth then[6] Oh, and my French mate who drives a white van in France for a living, says it's a myth too.[:P] Sorry.[Www]

Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin IV. Pink Floyd: Animals. BTW: Didn't Freeman refer to himself as "Fluff" rather than "Muff", or were you being sarcastic, (Is that right?) The only Muff I know of was in Tom Sawyer.  

When friends of ours came ove about ten years ago, the things they were amazed at/amused by were: Red post boxes, huge metal cylindrical ones. Red telephone boxes, (there are still a few in villages) Fish and chip shops and mushy peas. Milk DELIVERED to your house. English pubs Little Chef[Www] The number of birds in our garden and the many different types.........and our garden is urban. They also got to look around a primary school, (wife is a primary head), and were AMAZED at the amount of equipment and IT stuff.

[quote user="Jonzjob"] The autoroute people do report speeding to the damjams and you see motorists leaving the paege points and being pulled over by the nik niks. We have seen it several times and we don't use the autoroutes very often. Safe riding mate!!! [/quote] I'm sorry, but I believe this to be another modern myth. I have yet to meet ANYONE who was caught in this way, but I have met loads, and seen loads more, caught by well hidden speed traps on the last few km before a peage. If you aren't speeding and ARE attentive, you DO see them. The system you mention would rely on having a gendarme at each and every peage. I don't think the French police are that desperate for money. Now if it was the UK Scamera partnerships...............[Www]

Well I've translated it into French and sent it to a French friend[6] No response as yet[:D]

Well I've translated it into French and sent it to a French friend[6] No response as yet[:D]

Thanks to both. First set arrives around 9:15 pm so I wanted to know what to expect as it'll likely be dark.

[quote user="Framboise"] . One was done by dragging the attacker to the ground as he attempted to brain another with a lab-stool, (the teacher in question was NOT big enough to RESTRAIN the 5th form boy), Is THAT OK? No it is NOT ok obviously, and there are enough sad  instances lately of such violence caused by 15 year old thugs.  Your instance quoted a 15 year old who as we all surely know are 6 foot lumbering giants nowadays - not a child of six.  There is a huge difference between a 15 year old and a six year old, not least the fact the elder pupil OUGHT (but obviously did not) know better than to be wielding stools around.   What was the six year old doing??    He was apparently collecting stones from a hole in a flower bed with other children, and  not spinning a lab-stool around like a set of nunchucks to attack another kid. [/quote] But in your post you state, "NO teacher has the right to use force on a child". So..............as I asked, what will you say to the teacher who DIDN'T use force to stop another child putting your child's eye out?

[quote user="Chief"] [quote user="Jonzjob"]Well Chief, if you ride a bike in France, as your avitar suggests, then you are above the law here so no worries. No need to worry about limits, solid white lines, cameras or anything alse to do with the law peut etra???[/quote]  i have never seen a Gendarme on a decent bike either....lol [/quote] Anyone else see that gendarme ride his bike into a ditch while following the Tour[:D] ? Alcazar

^^^^ What Ron said. Sleeper train, lovely.

[quote user="Framboise"] No teacher has the "Right" to manhandle a child, especially not a six year old, [/quote] OK, so let's take this to it's logical conclusion: WHO would you blame if YOUR child came home minus an eye because another child had poked him/her with a pencil/compass/sharpened stick, and the teacher had NOT physically intervened for fear of being accused of "manhandling"? Yes, I know it's extreme, but I also know techers who have PHYSICALLY stopped pupils from hurting others. One was done by dragging the attacker to the ground as he attempted to brain another with a lab-stool, (the teacher in question was NOT big enough to RESTRAIN the 5th form boy), Is THAT OK?

[quote user="mascamps.com"] Finally, to those who say we respect the discipline in the French schools: yes, but it has to be appropriate. In the "good old days" in the UK, there might well have been canning but there wasn't "common assault" as has been described here.   Arnold   [/quote] Really? Which priviliged school did YOU go to? In my grammar, we were regularly smacked around the head with open hands and books, rapped on the skull, hard, with knuckles, pushed and pulled about at any teacher's whim.[blink] And as for "caning" I once saw a fifth form lad caned so hard, he had blue stripes over an inch wide on each hand, and couldn't grip a pen with either hand for two hours.

Further to what's been posted above, I'm sure I remember learning in "O" level physics that lightning conductors are more about AVOIDING a strike than conducting one to earth? I seem to remember a discussion of the fact that charges like to gather on a point, and when too many gather, the "flow" off the point in what was called an "electric wind". I remeber our physics teacher demonstrating it by holding a piece of bare wire in his hand, while standing on a stool with one hand on the Van de Graaf generator. When he pointed the wire at a candle, it blew the candle flame strongly enough to extinguish it. He then stood with the wire concealed in his fist, and his hair stood on end. When he raised the wire, however, his hair fell to almost flat, and no-one could get a spark from him. The "electric wind" was dissipating the charge. You could HEAR it, rather like the fizzing noise you often get around high voltage overhead lines in damp conditions. Since lightning strikes are about DIFFERING charges, I find this explanation makes some sense. Any comments, anyone? 

[quote user="Sunday Driver"] SKF are the world's largest manufacturer of bearings -  they invented the integrated hub bearing unit back in the late 1930s.  If you buy branded Renault wheel bearings, you'll find they are made by SKF.     [/quote] Can I also point out that they make around 75% of the bearings used on railway locomotives in Europe too?  

My eldest used to have an "N" plate Clio, and this is a common fault. In many cases, the large nut the Renault garge man tightened causes the threads on the hub to collapse, so that further tightening is impossible. When we found this on my lad's car, (He tried to tighten it but it just spun), we replaced that side half shaft. I did the job with his help, and it cost us £90 for the parts. Took around an hour to do.    

We've got friends coming this summer, and they will be met by us at the airport at Limoges. Can anyone advise on parking there, (is it readily available? Do we pay? Is it miles from the arrivals?), and also anything else useful to know? Thanks.

I can see why you might not want them in the attic, but why don't you want them in the barn? There are none in our barn because there IS a barn OWL[:D]

[quote user="Mel "] I was always getting lost in Rouen until I discovered it all came down to missing one quite sharp and badly sign-posted right bend/turn that takes you down onto the urban dual carriageway. Now I have cracked it, I have bought a TomTom...... [/quote] Absolutely. Once you know to look for that, the rest is plain sailing.  

[quote user="Renaud"] Pouyade I am impressed, bet you don't even get lost in Rouen. [/quote] After doing it once, does anyone?

Now there IS a third option worth looking at. The train. Some friends are flying down to see us this summer, East Midlands, (IIRC) to Limoges. they are only coming for about 4 days in all, so didn't look at trains or driving on this occasion. Last week however, Paul informed me that booking in advance, by train, he could have done it for £44 each, return, as far as Limoges. Now THAT is incredible. The cheapest I can get to LONDON from here in the North Midlands, is £46[:@]

I've only had ONE instance of teachers bullying my kids, and it wasn't violence, but plain nastiness. It happened when my youngest, who is 18 this August, was in year 6 here in the UK, so 10 years old. He went, on entering year 6, from a bright, sunny little boy that all his previous teachers had loved, to being unhappy and trying to get time off school. Talking to him over a period of a few days, I could see that the new teacher was the problem, and further investigation revealed that this was a man who had been run ragged by my eldest, (who had ADD), and was, or seemed to be, trying to get his own back through the youngest. I made an appointment to see him and went along with my wife. (Now there IS a fearsome character. Head ogf a large primary, respected by her peers and the kids, and feared by any nasty parents[:)]) She talked to the teacher in question, while I sat back and listened to his responses. After 10 minutes, I leaned forward so as to be in his face a bit, and said, very calmly, and quietly, (a bit like the old gunfighters[:D]), "My son thinks you're a bully.......and I'm inclined to agree with him. Now, what are YOU going to do about it.?" He backed right off, and we had no further problems, although I don't think he and my lad ever really LIKED each other. There ARE nasty teachers out there. Not many, and some I cannot understand WHY they are teaching because they genuinely seem to dislike children. Dealing with teachers like that is a pain, but has to be done. I must also say, that like Ron, whilst I don't condone viloence towards children by teachers, we have heard VERY little of what punishment, if any, the little boy who threw stones received from his mother? I would sincerely hope that SOME form of deterrent was used, since if not, he is likely to grow up thinking he can do as he pleases.