chrisb
-
Posts
232 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Never
Posts posted by chrisb
-
-
[quote user="teapot"]
http://www.raileurope.co.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=493
Don't see there is much fun in doing that, each to his own I guess
[/quote]As you say- each to their own. The chance to arrive on holiday raring to go instead of exhausted after driving and unable to do nything for the next couple of days makes it worthwhile for many of us.But as to the original post I've never heard of any service that takes your car back to the U.K. -
[quote user="Sunday Driver"]
When we drive back to the UK we have a relaxing six hour drive on the autoroutes up to the Tunnel. When we arrive on the other side, we are faced with a four hour drive to Staffordshire on overcrowded motorways where you have the choice of staying in the first lane amongst the trucks at 50mph, sitting in the centre lane at 60mph or venturing into the 90mph nose to tail crocodile in the third lane....
Always a pleasure to come out of the Tunnel on the Calais side.
[/quote]Agreed absolutely - we only have to get as far as Essex but I find the drive through Kent horrendous and often frightening. -
Our flue is a total swine - I can never get it clean without getting soot over everything.
-
You should be able to buy snowdrops and other early bulbs "in the green" at the moment - though I've not seen them in garden centres.They will "take" much more successfully planted like this than as dried bulbs in the autumn. Alternatively suggest to friends that their snowdrops and crocuses need thinning out and help yourself to the excess.If you do find any daff bulbs around now I suspect that they may not flower for a couple of years as it's the energy they build up after flowering this year that provides next year's flower store. But if they turn out to be cheap worth a try anyway?
-
talking of which...has anyone been able to master the art of mounting their bicycle from the wrong (ie right hand) side?I've been cycling all my life (well nearly) and have always followed the correct mounting procedure - left foot on the pedal, good shove off with the right foot and bring the right leg gracefully over the now moving contraption and settle comfortably in the saddle.We are of course referring to the Gents model and all that entails.But it seems to me that when in France I should take the appropriate action given the fact that the roads are oppsite and contrary and do my mounting on the right side of the road from the right hand side of the bike. But I can't!Am I a total failure? Ought I try and find something more worth worrying about?
-
Thanks Retread and Jo - gosh lots more possibilities.We're off to France next weekend so it'll be out with the tape measure and graph paper. Or perhaps I should investigate CAD - Calva Aided Design.Thanks again folks.
-
[quote user="Dog"][quote user="Pudding"]
Looking at the viewing figures for this topic lots of readers it seems are keeping their heads down.
More ex public sector employees perhaps?
[/quote]
I am absolutely with you on this one. I have raised the question before on this forum - but me thinks there are quite a few on this forum that have gold plated government pensions.
[/quote]So what Dog? I expect there are quite a few on this forum who might have been bankers, shopkeepers even the odd writeer or two.As usual you choose to lump people all together in a convenient target for your small minded vitriol.It so happens that I got my annual pension forecast a couple of weeks back and anybody who saw that could by no stretch of the imagination use the ridiculous phrase (garnered I suspect from some pathetic compost-stirring rag) "gold plated".In fact reading through it we realised that the only way I could have gained a significant amount from the pension fund would have been to die last year and collect the death benefit.We used to have to attend school careers fairs to try and persuade kids to join our particular nook of the public service and when we told them that after they had gone to university and taken a post grad diploma they were likely to earn such and such an amount they would laugh in our faces and tell us that the bank on the next stand would pay them that much joining the staff at 16.We chose to follow that career path anyway because it was what we wanted to do. So we signed up for it - including the CONTRIBUTORY pension arrangements - so is it any surprise that I for one regard people who had much higher incomes in the first place and now have the nerve to whinge and moan about my pension as hypocrites of the first order. In fact very much the modern day equivalent of 19th century landowners who would throw their elderly workers to the wolves (or the workhouse) as soon as they got too old to work. -
Well that's great for your OH Scooby - but let me assure that that experience is NOT typical of workers in local government. Yes there have been plenty of examples of the public sector paying ridiculaous salaries for newly invented top management "to compete with the private sector" but the vast majority of middle and lower ranking staff are paid what would be considered derisory salaries elsewhere.I joined a frontline service with a nice new professional qualification over 30 years ago at a salary that roughly equated to the then national average wage and having risen to what is considered a senior middle management post within that service I now earn - you guessed it - the National Average Wage. And it has been my choice to stay in that field so I'm not complaining.BUT why should my pension (to which I have contributed 13% of my salary throughout my working life) suddenly be the object of envy and criticism from those who have consistently had a better deal than me. We've never seen bonuses and above inflation wage increases that have kept others going over the years.Perhaps the lesson is that you can't generalise about either the private or the public sector. It's certainly better for staff in the education sector than other sections of the public sector - the six weeks holiday for a start!
-
[quote user="La Guerriere"]Ah wus that John Lewis the department store or John Lewis of Hungerford which is a horse of a different colour ?[/quote]The former I'm afraid...on my budget!
-
Thanks for all the useful comments folks.I decided NOT to enquire further about what was wrong with the IKEA ones - you just get a sense of when it's best to keep quiet.SWMBA has now seen some she likes the look of - unfortunately from John Lewis, so I will be trying to discover who makes them for them in case they are available in France. If not then it's probably another van hire job!I would love a custom built one - especially if it could use old oak or ash.
-
Does anyone know which French kitchen companies offer the free-standing type of units? The firms I've found on the net all seem to just be doing fitted units.My OH has already rejected the Ikea ones! Seen several possibles in the UK - but would prefer to buy in France rather than have to transport them.
-
Has anyone exchanged their "classic" doofah for one of the new ones?
The SANEF site just says that you should call in to one of the Agences to find out the conditions involved in changing.
-
[quote user="Dog"]
You flesh eaters get it all your own way - even government subsidies and the Meat Marketing Agency to encourage you to eat death.
[/quote]
The Meat Marketing Board, which I assume is what you refer to, was wound up years ago. More recently the Meat and Livestock Commission was responsible for much of the meat promotion undertaken in Britain. Today that job is split between bodies representing different industry sectors and is funded by the industry.
-
[quote user="Dog"]
It's more interesting to discuss the fact that you like to mostly eat dead rotting things whereas we prefer to eat them alive!
[/quote]
So vegetables that have been pulled out of the ground, trimmed, washed, put into cold storage, then carted hafway across Europe to find their way onto our supermarket shelves count as being still alive? Or do you actualy crawl around the veg plot nibbling leaves off the still growing plants? And does that make you a rascally rabbit or a very hungry caterpillar?
-
[quote user="Dog"]There is no such then as a good steak and chips - in the restaurants you go to it probably doesn't even come from a cow. But I'm sure you know that.[/quote]
Apart from your apparent intimate knowledge as to which establishments the worthy banana patronises - can you share your theory about what it IS that's masquerading as steak?
[quote user="Dog"]
I just know you love harrying foxes to death ripping them apart and eating them - if you visit Chinese restaurants you will certainly have had them many times and been robbed as you thought it was chicken
[/quote]
I refuse to believe that anyone could eat fox meat and still think it was chicken. If it were so I'm sure that Hugh F-W and Jamie O. would have told us about it.
-
[quote user="Dog"]
The language meat eaters use is hypocritical and designed to mislead. They call dead pigs when they eat them pork, dead cows when eaten are called beef, dead sheep are mutton etc etc. It disguises the source of the flesh of dead animals, the early english stole the French words as they were posher and used in the royal palaces.
[/quote]
This just gets sillier.
Language is NOT used for the purpose you describe - the words have simply evolved through common usage over centuries.
Sheep flesh is called lamb or mutton according to the age of the animal.
Cattle flesh is called beef
and so on.
There's no meat-eaters conspiracy to pretend we're not eating meat!
-
[quote user="sweet 17"]
WJT, Clair posted recently about veal with a label like "sous la mere" but I have not been able to find this type of veal. I haven't eaten veal for at least 40 years and it's not something that I miss because I've forgotten what it tastes like.
[/quote]
There's a butcher in Bayeux who sells it - not eggsackly local for you but I believe it's available across a wider area. To be honest I couldn't say that it tasted any different from "normal" veal - but better welfare is still worthwhile.
In fact having looked at their website it does actually list suppliers.
-
"Roses are blooming in southern Pas de Calais" - doesn't really have the same ring to it.I like Picardy and have promised myself that I'll explore it properly when retirement arrives. The wide open skies are great.Did you know that it used to be twinned with Essex?
-
[quote user="Dog"]
From themselves.
Yes big fish do steal the lives of little fish - I would welcome a suggestion of how we could educate them so this is not necessary.
[/quote]They will need to go to school. -
It will be interesting to see exactly what is proposed.On the face of it some of the proposals don't seem to match up as described in the article. Fr'instance it talks about restoring the old historical boundaries of Normandy but also says that Brittany might expand 100 miles eastwards.
-
[quote user="Dog"]
In my opinion all fisherman should be locked up for theft as the fish do not belong to them
[/quote]
So who do they steal them from?
And do the big fish steal the little fish that they eat?
-
That's great news Welly - and a great boost for Lower Normandy.A show combining the efficiency and range of the UK ones with the produce of Normandy's farms should be a winner. The best of both worlds indeed.Over the years have attended many shows - at school we were all bussed to our County Show and since then have attended many as a punter and sometimes as an exhibitor - but usually managed to abandon my colleagues on the stall to have a good mooch round the livestock lines. Good luck!
-
-
[quote user="Dog"]
I do not know many veggies that buy bagged salad leaves.
[/quote]
So not only morally superior to us meat-eaters, but immune to the blandishments of convenience food as well!
Re: World Naked Gardening Day
in The Lighter Side
Posted