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KathyF

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Everything posted by KathyF

  1. It was our generation, Sue. Didn't have TV at home til I was a teenager and couldn't afford one after we were married . Indeed we could hardly afford to eat at times while My OH was finishing his teacher training.  We did a lot of reading and loved our radio. [:)]
  2. Like most of you I too am a baby-boomer, born in 1946, one of the true boom of extra children born just after the war ended.. I'm from a working-class background (father worked in a factory, mother was a school cook) but was lucky enough to benefit from a fully-funded university education because of my parents' low income. Apart from the £5000 inherited in 1984 from the sale of my mother's house, which bought us our first new car and first overseas holiday with the children, every penny we now have we have earned (from our middle-ranking jobs in local govt) and saved, instead of blowing it on the latest must-have. (Incidentally, we have never had a credit card, and now could not get one, because we are pensioners with no credit rating....) I agree that life is going to be harder for our children and grandchildren, especially where employment and pensions are concerned, and we are saving hard to help our grandsons when it comes time for their college education. That said, we have a situation where even in a time of high housing costs and other pressures the younger generations still largely take for granted a standard of material well-being, in terms of consumer goods and leisure possibilities, which would have been unimaginable for me as a child or young adult. And eventually what we have left at the end of our lives will be passed on to our children and grandchildren to help them cope with the financial situation ahead of them.  Do I feel guilty?  No.
  3. [quote user="sweet 17"] Le bourg shared by many?  That's nothing.  The postcode in more rural villages could be shared by a dozen or so villages.  The postie seems to know where to find you just on the basis of your name. [/quote] Exactly, Sweets.  In our very rural part of southern Manche, one postcode is shared by an entire community of communes (9 in our case).  We're outside the bourg itself, so our address is lieu-dit/postcode/village/(country) Our post always arrives OK. [:D]
  4. [quote user="pachapapa"] Certainly the popularity of e-readers is a disquieting trend as the the closure of 200 Borders Stores with Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Personally it bothers me not at all whether woman read literary "pap" on paper or not. But the future may well be a deficit in serious literary and academic works to the detriment of serious readers. I suppose a dumbing down of standards was inevitable. [/quote] And men of course only ever read serious, worthy tomes. [Www]  As an ex-librarian I can promise you that the consumption of pap is pretty equally spread between the sexes.....[:D]
  5. I'm a life-long asthmatic, yet I find our wood-burner no problem. What does make me feel short of breath is an over-heated house, particularly a centrally-heated one which has apparently been hermetically sealed against the ingress of fresh air. [:)]
  6. Sara, to be fair to the notaire, the 10% is made up of government taxes and notaire's fees, the taxes being the larger part. I'm afraid you can't avoid paying this every time you buy, which is why so many would-be immigrants to France are advised to rent before buying, just to avoid expensive mistakes.
  7. Sorry life isn't easy for your at the moment, Regine.  Hope things improve soon.
  8. Not a gite-owner, but we did have a holiday cottage next to our house in Wales some years ago.  We advertised it as no pets, mainly because of the proximity of sheep and cattle in the fields around.  We had people come back year after year because they had allergies to animal hair and were so glad to find a cottage guaranteed not to trigger those allergies. I hope for the sake of people like this that some gites manage to find ways to remain pet-free.
  9. Can I ask whether this is the first time you've tried to suspend your line with FT? You say you've been having the bills sent to the UK for 13 years, so does this mean you've been paying full line rental for all this time and are only now trying to change to it being a second home line? When we had our phone line installed 4 years ago, I followed the instructions on the website under Ligne Residence Secondaire, got an attestation from our insurance agent and sent it to the required address, and have been suspending and reconncting the line without difficulty ever since. If you haven't followed the quite reasonable requirement to provide proof that your house is a second home, I can quite see why FT haven't complied with your email request. Do what they ask and you should have no more problems, then thank your lucky stars you can suspend your line and don't have to pay year-round as you would have to with a second home in the UK. [:)]
  10. KathyF

    Freaky

    Agree that the 111 dates are fun, but the little addition works every year. In 1999 I was 53, having been born in 1946. 46+53=99  This year I will reach the dreaded 65 [:D] so 46+65=111. Next year 46+66 will equal 112 and so on ad infinitum (or at least for as long as I'm likely to live [;-)])
  11. Thanks, Simon, very helpful. MOH may get his own way yet, but I would really have to try one first - once I've finished all the unread books I already possess. [;-)]
  12. But they make such good wall insulation, Bob. [:)]
  13. MOH suggested I might like a Kindle, but so far I've resisted the suggestion for a number of reasons. The first is that as a former librarian I just love the feel, sight, sound and even smell of books, and with slight cataracts in both eyes find screens hard to read. The second is that if I only ever buy books for a Kindle, how can I lend or swap with others once I've read a title? At present, we could have a house full of people all simultaneously reading books I own.  Having all my books locked up in a Kindle seems a wee bit selfish and charity shops aren't going to do very well out of me. [;-)] The third is that I am a flicker and a browser where books are concerned and feel that these activities would be well-nigh impossible with e-books. There are probably other reasons, but they haven't occurred to me yet. [:D] I may change my mind one day, but so far even Simon's enthusiasm has failed to convince me. [:)] PS As an avid reader, I buy only a minority of the books I read.  That's what libraries are for.....
  14. Not really sure what the point of your post is, Simon....[;-)]  No organisation anywhere in the world, of whatever nature, will ever, can ever, guarantee that all its information is always 100% accurate. Given the huge number of flights arriving and departing from Heathrow every day, I think they do pretty well on the whole.
  15. Facebook? Wouldn't touch it with a barge-pole! [:D]
  16. Well, here in Mid-Wales, our young postie Jason is always friendly, obliging and smiling, as have been all our post-people in the nearly 40 years we've lived here. Many years ago, the postwoman even got out of her van to give my husband's car a push when it got stuck in the mud. Surly?  Never! [:D] Incidentally, our post-people (almost always women) in rural Normandy are equally friendly, smiling and obliging.  May be something to do with town versus country?
  17. My mother-in-law (now 86) renewed her passport a couple of years ago and it was free.  According to the Passport Office website: " If you were born on or before 2 September 1929 your passport is free of charge." This would apply to both your parents, so may be useful in the future.
  18. Unfortunately it's almost always the older female staff (however well-known) who get the push while the men (John Craven at 68!) get to stay on..... [:(]  Let's hear it for the wrinklies of both sexes. [:)]
  19. Not sure the businesses which benefit from foreign holiday-makers would agree with you, Norman. The mayors of the tiny communes around our second home in Manche seem quite pleased to have previously empty houses done up and occupied, even if only part-time, and the commune finances benefit too from the local taxes.  Win-win, surely?
  20. Interesting article, Sprogster, but rather ambiguous in places.  The second paragraph reads:   Research by Currencies. co.uk, a foreign exchange broker, has found that more than a third of homeowners who let out a property in the eurozone last year saw lower occupancy rates and rental incomes than they had expected – prompting 56 per cent to consider selling in the next 12 months.   I take this to mean that 56% of the (more than a) third of homeowners who let their properties are considering selling, rather than 56% of all second-home owners - a more more believable proportion of a fifth to a sixth rather than over a half.
  21. [quote user="Richard51"][quote user="KathyF"] We live up in the hills of Mid-Wales and after 36 hours of snow "showers" we now have at least 10" overall, plus modest drifts in our lane. (Thank goodness the wind dropped early on is all I can say!) We're not going anywhere for a day or two at least. [:)] [/quote] KathyF,  I have just taken up a 12 month contract in Powys and have to get there for 8.30am Mon - what's the situation like in Wales atm and what is the local forecast for the next 48hrs? Heading for Newtown, Powys from Staffs Mrs R51 [/quote] Have emailed you - good luck with the journey.
  22. We live up in the hills of Mid-Wales and after 36 hours of snow "showers" we now have at least 10" overall, plus modest drifts in our lane. (Thank goodness the wind dropped early on is all I can say!) We're not going anywhere for a day or two at least. [:)]
  23. And as far as teenage pregnancy is concerned, it takes two to conceive a child but somhow it's still the girl that gets all the blame. [:(]
  24. We have two children and three grandchildren, Coops. If you mean support financially, then no, not at all. We have enough to live on, and being reasonably frugal souls, we have adequate savings. However, if I were old and alone and unable to cope on my own any longer, I would hope they would care enough about my welfare to see that I am appropriately looked after. Not by them personally, I hasten to add, as I don't think that would work any better than having my MiL living with any of her sons. But that they would care enough to make arrangements for me if I were unable to make them for myself and go on caring enough to ensure that this care remained adequate and suitable. At present my MiL lives independently, many miles from any of her sons.  However, as her memory starts to deteriorate gradually, they keep a watching brief on her affairs and help her out in all sorts of ways, some small, some bigger, but none of them financial. All this seems to me to be absolutely unremarkable behaviour in the context of family life. No, I didn't ask my parents to have me, but I'm extremely glad they did and am still grateful for their love and care and support when I needed it.  Sadly, they are long dead, so that I can't repay them in their old age, but I can for my MiL and am glad to do it.  I rather hope my children will feel the same in their turn.
  25. Don't agree with your premise, Coops, [:)] but, even though we feel a strong sense of responsibility to my darling MiL, she is adamant she doesn't want to live with us or either of her other two sons.  She was widowed quite early and has lived on her own for the past 28 years, and she doesn't plan to change that if she can help it.
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