Gemini_man

[:D][:D][:D]

Choccie, sorry this has taken so long but I made a mistake – it’s not possible to write a précis of the rules because it’s all or nothing really – and I dread to think what the forum “sm_ut squad” will make of this what with all the “going downs” and “laying downs” etc [:$] but here goes anyway :     Always play with 2 packs including jokers so 4 jokers in total.   The value of cards is: 2 (wild card) = 20 pts Black 3 = 5 Red 3 = 100 (if dealt in the opening hand these should be placed on the table face upwards at the beginning of each players first go. If picked then it should be placed on the table immediately and a further card picked). Red 3’s count minus until the player has “gone down”. 4 x red 3’s on the table = 800 Joker = 50 4, 5, 6, 7 = 5 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K = 10 Ace = 20   Shuffle well then all players cut the pack, the player with the highest card goes first the others take their turns in a clockwise direction.   The objectives are to collect as many points on the table as possible or to “go out” (lay down all your cards and finish the round) if possible before your opponent has gone down in which case all cards in their hand will count minus. The points are added up at the end of each round and the first player to reach 5000 pts is the winner.   Deal 15 cards each for 2 players, 13 cards each for 3 and 11 cards each for 4, starting with the player to go first. After dealing turn over the next card face up beside the rest of the cards which are face down in a stack. If the card turned over is a 2 or a 3 or a joker then turn another and place that on top of the first one. This is the start of “the pack” where players place their discards each round. Examining what is in the pack at any time is not allowed.   Sort your hand into denominations. Any players holding red 3’s place them face up on the table in front of them, starting with the person who cut the highest card, and taking a replacement card for each 3 from the stack. The player going first has the choice of the discarded card or to take a pick from the stack of undealt cards. When playing at 2 the player takes 2 cards per time from the stack but only 1 when playing at 3 or 4. If the player chooses the discarded card they also take any other cards below it – this is called “taking the pack”. In order to take the pack the player must be able to “go down” or have already gone down.   Going down is slightly complicated so I’ll try and explain it here - Going down is laying some of your hand face up on the table. When first going down the player must have at least 3 cards of the same denomination – this may include the top card of the discard pack. In addition two cards of the same denomination may have a wild card (a two or a joker) laid down with them. Examples: 3 aces = 60 pts 3 queens + 2 eights and a two = 30 pts + 40 pts = 70 pts 4 queens and a joker = 90pts   The cards laid down must total a minimum amount according to the total number of points a player has from previous rounds. The amounts are: Current score: less than 1500 = 50 pts required to go down                         less than 3000 = 90 pts                       more than 3000 = 120 pts If a player has a minus total score they may go down with any 3 cards alike.   Once the first player has either picked 2 cards or picked the pack then they must “throw out”, that is discard 1 card from their hand face up onto the discard pack. The next player now has the choice of picking up the discarded card and any cards below it or picking 2 undealt cards from the stack but in order to pick up the top card they must have either 2 cards the same in their hand or already have some of that denomination on the table. And so it continues. Throwing out: If the discard is a black 3 the next player may not pick it up even if they have 2 further black 3’s, it is in effect a dead card. In desperation a wild card (2 or joker) may be thrown out, it must be placed sideways on to the other cards in the pack so it can always be seen, this is called doubling the pack. The effect of doubling the pack is that the pack can only be picked up by a player who has two of the same denomination of the top card in their hand in order to take it even if they already have that denomination laid down. One and a wild card will not do. When a player does take a doubled pack they take it all except if there is more than one wild card in the pack in which case they take down to the next wild card and the pack remains doubled.   Points are amassed as cards are added to the hand on the table. A canasta is 7 cards of one denomination which may include up to 3 wild cards and is worth 300 pts. A natural canasta is 7 cards of one denomination without wild cards and is worth 500 pts, if it is in the hand either picked or dealt, it’s worth 600 pts once it is laid down.   The objectives are to collect as many points on the table as possible or to “go out” (lay down all your cards and finish the round) if possible before your opponent has gone down in which case all cards in their hand will count minus.   Going out - you can only go out when it is your go (turn) and you must first either pick cards from the stack or pick the pack. You must have at least 2 canastas if playing at 2. You must be able to lay down all your cards but 1 card may be thrown out onto the discard pack, this may not be a black 3. If you have 3 or 4 black 3’s these may be added to your hand when you go out and count 5 pts each.   Scoring – this is done by both players after one has gone out. For the person who didn’t go out, count the value of the cards in their hand and deduct an equivalent value from their cards on the table, then count the value of what is left, that is there score for the round. If they haven’t gone down then the value of all their cards including any red 3’s is minus. For the person who went out, first count the bonuses, these are points for their canastas and red 3’s plus 100 pts for going out, then add up the rest of the value of their cards (including the cards that make up the canastas), the total plus the bonuses is their score for the round.   The rules above are for 2 and 3 player games. It’s a very different game when played at 4 and in my opinion is far better. I’ll let you have the rules for 4 in a while. There’s plenty of gaps in the rules I’ve given you here and if you have queries please either let me know here or by PM and it doesn’t matter how silly you might think the question is! There are variations on the rules of the game but these have worked very well for us for many years.   OK well I’ve checked this through again and again and even though it’s far from complete I hope it will give you enough to get started, so ….   Good luck and have fun [:)]        

reply under construction ...... watch this space [8-|]

Choccie, I was brought up on Canasta many years ago both at home and at my grandparents house in Dartmouth where I would pass my summer and Christmas holidays. Needless to say I've also taught my children to play. It would help if you said if you wanted to play at 2, 3 or 4 as the play varies slightly. Incidentally, you can play it online at Yahoo games if you don't have a local partner. http://uk.games.yahoo.com/online-games/card/games_canasta.html

[quote user="Eos"][quote user="Gemini_man"] presumably owned by a wealthy'ish Irish person with a sense of fun. [blink] [/quote] I've gotta ask why you think so?! [/quote] wealthy'ish because I don't think a customised Volvo estate would come cheap Irish because when I last lived in England number plates with an I in the letters were for vehicles registered in Ireland and sense of fun because I think it's funny

Passing an English owned garage on the Mussidan road in Ribérac yesterday I noticed on the forecourt a copper coloured Volvo estate with black windows ..... registration  RO5 BIF  [:)] presumably owned by a wealthy'ish Irish person with a sense of fun. [blink]

[quote user="Tandem_Pilot"][quote user="Deby"]have to say isnt that really a nice thing to do. Deby [/quote] Why not? He is probably paying a lot of money and wants to know whats going on without the expense of being there. [/quote] TP I think you've made a slight mistake with this [Www][Www][Www][:D] By the way, shouldn't this be in the South East section? P.S. I had to smile at this snippet I came across in Wiki : "Cruzy est une commune française, située dans le département de l'Hérault et la région Languedoc-Roussillon. Ses habitants sont appelés les "Cruzyates". "Cruzyates" - lovely [:D]

I made the original comment on the education forum about my son possibly wanting to join the French army or gendarmerie. When we went to the army recruitment center at Perigueux about my son enlisting in the French army we were told that he had to be at least seventeen and a half and be a French national - dual nationality would not do. I wonder if it is the same with the Gendarmerie or whether dual nationality is acceptable. Does anybody know?

That's an excellent list Clair - one small thing I noted though is the use of Linden for Tilleul - in Britain it's known mostly as Lime but Linden in North America. I'm not being pedantic, I just thought you might like to know [:)].

You shouldn't believe all your read in the newspapers. The reality concerning the "Dordogne fraudsters" is that about 150 claimants of RMI in the Dordogne, of which approximately 50 were British, were subject to a "controle" in September 2005 and their RMI payments withheld - statement made to the press by the Conseil Général et Senateur de la Dordogne. The "controle" amounted to filling in assorted forms and supplying relevant documents. Most if not all claimants then received a letter stating that the documents that they had returned did not fulfill the requirements to benefit from RMI, without any explanation, and that payments would stop at the 1st December 2005. Then came the announcements in most of the French press concerning the "Dordogne fraudsters". However, in February 2006 payments resumed once more including back payments for the period concerned again without any explanation. Coincidentally at the same time elections for Conseil Général took place and the incumbent Conseil Général was re-elected with a healthy majority. My understanding is that only 3 or 4 RMI claimants were liable to prosecution for fraud but no doubt a number of others were 'frightened off' from claiming. You will obviously draw your own conclusions as to the purpose of the operation.

Just hi-jacking this thread a little - my wife was tidying up a border yesterday and in clearing away dead leaves she found a white spikey thing nestling under a shrub. So, she poked it a little and it contracted like hedgehogs do. It wasn't actually white but ivory, as if made of white milk chocolate - we didn't disturb it further so I don't know the colour of it's eyes but I suspect they were black and not red as it probably wasn't an albino. Anyway, we covered it back up with leaves and left it a handful of cat biscuits, which we know they love so long as they can get there before a) the cats and b) the ants - having frequently spent ages watching ants carrying cat biscuit booty back to their nest. Has anyone else seen a white one?

We've disposed of four old cars so far. Two were British and two were French registered. In each case we either "sold" them or gave them to our local Gitane who used to call for any scrap metal. I always left my wife to haggle with him as she would invariably squeeze some Francs/Euros from him - she seems to get some kind of pleasure out of it!! For the French registered cars he wanted the carte grise marked "vendue le ....." but for the Uk registered cars he only asked that we destroy the paperwork. Problem solved.

Hi Aly, It's a problem isn't it!! I have a daughter who is doing a BTS in Tourism and a son who takes his BAC very shortly. My daughter has signed on with CAF and as she is now over 18 she receives about 200€ per month as a student as she has no income. She also receives 465€ per month (for 9 months of the year), towards her accomodation costs, from CROUS. Until she signed on with CAF I received 150€ per month family allowance (until she was 20 and so long as she was in full time education) - I no longer receive this. My son takes his BAC in June but as you know we have to decide before then what he might want to do assuming he passes. So, he's just started 2 weeks holiday during which we WILL talk about and decide what he wants to do next year. His choice is to join the British army but his parents are not over-enthusiastic about that! Other options are to join the French army (would mean giving up British nationality and applying for French) or maybe to apply to the Gendarmes. there are other possibilities and I suspect he will end up doing a BTS. Obviously I don't know about your situation but if your daughter is boursier I would have thought maybe the best option is to consider a BTS for 2 years and if in the meantime she finds a job so much the better. I know you aren't a noob in France [:)] but here's a useful link for the different BTS's available http://tinyurl.com/284gw9 - not all are available in all areas. I can't help with regard to signing on with ASSEDIC as we haven't been down that line but I would be happy to share info with you where I can.

Beautiful bees they are - please don't kill them [:'(] We call them Triple Bees for Big Black Bees - they're much more common than Bumble Bees in our neck of the woods and I expect elsewhere also. There is no mistaking a hornet - think of a wasp, enlarge it 3 or 4 times add a very low powerful buzz and you probably have one - but they ain't black, Ok except in South America!!

[quote user="Cendrillon"]I think your answer was on the other posting about this (there were two)  and is probably still there.[/quote] Oh yes, so it is [:$] My apologies to the mods and my thanks to Cendrillon [:)]. My wife has just pointed out that as ever "if I have a choice of two I will always pick the wrong one"  [:(]

I'm very disappointed that some mod has deleted my post here after I had searched out the info on Google France. There is a company at the airport which opens at 9.30am and closes at 10.00pm. I provided a link but that went with my post. As someone else has been allowed to suggest Hertz as a possibility then I will suggest Europcar to you as a possibility. I have no connection with them nor does anyone else that I know. I expect if you search in Google with "europcar" and "angouleme aeroport" you will probably reach their site. Good luck :).

[quote user="jon"] I think that  it is time leave you all  because some of you are too badly behaved...... bye[/quote] and I'm taking MY ball with me as well, so there.

Europcar seems to be open btween 9.30am and 10.pm each weekday - closed Saturday and Sunday though!!?? http://tinyurl.com/2df2ud and you can book online here: http://www.europcar.fr/agences/voiture_aeroport_angouleme.html

[quote user="Just Katie"]Yes Gemini Man, of course I knew he was being smutty but women get very good at ignoring.  If it was said face to face it is very easy for most women to continue the conversation and nobody would have a clue that it was picked up upon.[:)] [/quote] Now how come that doesn't totally surprise me [:)] [:$]

Cathy we've had to deal with it for 5 years  [:(] Firstly my daughter was 2 years at College/Lycée in Toulouse then 2 years at Lycée at Poitiers and usually came home on Friday evenings unless she had a sports competition. I always looked forward to collecting her from the station but soon learned that the most innocuous of questions on the way back home was liable to receive a very short and aggressive reply and could easily lead to outright verbal war!! It turned out that is was simply due to tiredness verging on exhaustion and after a good nights sleep she was usually much more agreeable on Saturday morning. Mind you that didn't/doesn't stop her replying "not now, can't you see I'm busy" when asked to do some little thing while she is sitting on the settee chatting to her friends on her laptop, mobile phone open beside her and music playing. [blink] I think it must be a girl thing, my son is far more even tempered even on a Friday evening but he is at local Lycée. Now, trying to extract information about school from him ..... well that's another matter!!

[quote user="LEO"][quote user="Just Katie"]Cathy I could easily cope with that on a Friday night only.  I get it from monday morning to sunday night..............non stop. [:$][/quote] Some girls have all the fun! [/quote] [quote user="Just Katie"]You should pop around and sample it Leo.  Half the time I dont know whether to laugh or cry.[/quote] JK, LEO was being smutty - and you didn't even notice it [:-))] or maybe you did and were just ignoring it [blink]

I did our first cut at the end of January and have just done the second one. Admittedly the first was more leaf collecting than grass cutting but it did tidy things up after winter. And now I'm busy cutting clients grass ready for their first visits of the year [:)]

Both potatoes and tomatoes can suffer from Colorado Beetle so it's not really advisable to plant tomatoes after potatoes as the beetles overwinter in the soil.

[IMG]http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t90/doglik2007/donotfeedthetroll.gif[/IMG] [Www]

VoIP via Free works fine for me. Occasionally the line has an echo but re-dialing usually solves that. No charges for calls to fixed numbers in 70 countries and reasonable charges for calls to mobiles. Very efficient detailed online invoicing updated within 48 hours and extra call charges are added to the monthly bank debit. 9/10 in my opinion [:)]