baypond

NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY IT'S MOVIE

I guess being shy, that we have made too much noise for them this year. HOOPOE-FULLY we will see them next year!

I have just been looking through planetepassion (re hornets Chris) and had a look at the frogs and toads. I am getting rather excited that we may have quite a few Natterjack toads in our small pond. There is an enormous racket that springs up every so often. Particularly if there is other noise in the garden. I crept up on the pond the other day, and there was a frog sitting in very shallow water with its throat blowing up like bubble gum and releasing it's very loud croak. It was about the same size as a frog ie  smaller than a common toad. Could I be confusing it with something else. We are in the middle of the Gers where the soil is not sandy. Any suggestions? and how rare are they ?

Ruby would look good sitting on the front seat of your green MG

We usually see a mating pair of hoopoes at our house in the SW, but we are in the midst of a large amount of renovation with pneumatic drills and compressors making a lot of noise. The builders will have finished the noisy work by the end of the week. My question is: Have the Hoopoes been scared away by the noise, or are they likely to arrive after the work has finished? I see from earlier posts that they seem to arrive around now.

We saw one this weekend, I don't think it was a queen. However, we did also see a few regular wasps that looked large enough to be queens.

Well, my favorite pastime of checking the weather before I go to France got far more complicated last week when many of you kindly published your favorite meteo sites. I am under pressure, having told my darling wife that we were going to have a day of sunshine on Sunday when we visit the Gers this weekend. However, it looks like not all the meteo sites agree: http://meteo.previmeteo.com/meteo_france_j.php                says sun sun sun http://www.meteociel.fr/getprevi.php?code=11248               says warm and very cloudy with a chance of showers and maybe a thunderstorm http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/3000?count=10        says sun (which makes me really nervous because it is ALWAYS wrong http://fr.weather.com/weather/today-Pergain-Taillac-32700?fromSearch=true      says cloudy http://weather.msn.com/local.aspx?&wealocations=wc%3aFRXX0135&q=Agen%2c+FRA&setunit=C say cloudy and not very warm. I will let you know what happens but as usual it looks like a lottery and it is probably better just ignoring them all and enjoying the suprise! Bon weekend all.

My experience with our motor driven hard cover is that its a pain in the wotsits. They are expensive, and the weather tends to mean a fairly short life expectancy of 6/8 years for the cover. We have to constantly re-calibrate the opening/shutting program because the slightest electrical storm within 10 miles of us seems to disrupt the unit. It doesn't like feeding itself off the runner and out in to the pool to close, so takes two people to help to coax it out along the pool. All in all our experience is less than great. I guess the solution would be too look at the external covers that sit in runners outside the pool and no part sits on the water.

unfortunately for the notaire, the government earns most of the 8% (being stamp duty basically), the notaire actually only gets a fraction. Congrats on the setllement anyway

Yeh an this one just has to be 'poolguy' !   oh dear - ive now got to go away and remember how to load pictures properly - sorry  

Everyone always told me that buying in France was so simple. Once you have agreed a deal, even before the CdV, it was basically done, or so I heard. As we went through our own house purchase we soon found out that what is written, and what is said, is not actually what happens. If either party wants to be obstructive in any way, the deal basically seems to fail (for one reason or another) without recourse to anyone. Notaires are generally the best place to resolve any issues because basically what they say, generally goes. The only issue here is that because they act for both buyer and seller, you really have to find a way to ask the right questions to get the answers. They are not free volunteer to offer advice that may compromise the other party, or so it seems.

Renault UK did not charge a penny for my Clio C of C last year. All I had to do was turn up at a Renault garage with the car docs, driving license, passport and utility bill. They did the rest and I recd the doc in the post about 3 weeks later.

10:29 30Apr09 RTRS-BOMB ALERT AT FRENCH NUCLEAR POWER STATION AT CHINON - ELECTRICITY SUPPLIER EDF <EDF.PA> 10:30 30Apr09 RTRS-FRENCH NUCLEAR POWER STATION AT CHINON EVACUATED AFTER PHONE WARNING AT 0355 GMT- EDF 10:33 30Apr09 RTRS-French nuclear power plant evacuated over bomb scare     PARIS, April 30 (Reuters) - A nuclear power station at Chinon in central France was evacuated on Thursday after a phone call warning of a bomb, power supplier said.    EDF said the anonymous phone call was made at 0355 GMT. It said searches were ongoing at the station but the core areas of the plant had been secured.

11 is better than the UK's 8 !!

http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/DG834G.asp  

Just a thought but have you gone to netgear site to get updates. They sometimes have patches that reconfigure the router. http://www.netgear.co.uk/product_support.php  

I heard it was 3.14285714 !

A friend told me that while filling out the SIRET application form there was a question which asked if the applicant had undertaken work in France prior to the SIRET application. However, the only answer you can 'click' on is YES, with no opportunity to press a NO button. Great if it is true. May be something got lost in the translation.

do you use outlook ?

If you just want the content saved, you can always copy and paste to a word doc

Looks genuine to me [6]

World First to BNP paribas Condom. BNP have never charged for receipts although there is a monthly account charge.

penalties will be set out in the original agreement. You should call your mortgage broker or C/Agricole or find the orginal agreement. It is highly likely to have penalty clauses which can make redemption prohibitive.

" O'Gara are liabilities. Great players in attack but p**s poor in defense."   Both S Jones and O'Gara play pretty deep, and O'Gara plays deep and still gets hit. We have a real problem at No10. O'Gara will be OK if the forwards get traction. But what happens next - he kicks to touch where we only have two jumpers on tour and S.Africa have the two best line out jumpers in the world. S.Jones I have no problem with, an excellent No10 although a bit too much in the Rob Andrew mould for me. Personally I think the performance of our two No10's will dictate the outcome of the tour.

[quote user="fatscoleymo"] Just spoken to the guy that made the booking and said I hoped he understood the situation. He said no problem, in fact we'd done them a favour - they didn't want them here but couldn't find a way to get them away. They just turned up yesterday expecting to stay the rest of the week! Families eh! [/quote] Proof that we always assume the worst, and things are not always what they appear. Great looking house by the way. I'm not suprised you are fully booked. I hope that hot tub doesn't cost you too much to keep up to temperature at this time of year!