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Frederick

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Everything posted by Frederick

  1. Ron...its not as if we didnt know....also Charlies house would have to be lit by candles and we cant have that can we ?    I remember years ago being asked to go down to the embankment by Westminster to "See if the Lions are drinking " The Lions heads with the rings in their mouths for the boatmen to tie up to on the embankment wall was used as the river level indicator.....when they were drinking  an order  had to be made re closing the flood gates to the underground system ......Now they have the Thames barrier...... but ....I bet the lions have another drink soon !......I remember East Molesy went under that time  and I often thought ....was the river held back by the sluices till the tide changed .as it was a  cheaper  option to flood housing than the City ?  It will be interesting to see how this lot is handled .
  2. It does not apply to me ...but what about people who  "employ " sombody to look after their holiday homes for them .....cut the grass ..change the sheets on a Saturday etc......as I posted ......the police who visited me were keen to know if I have given house keys out to sombody......there are lots of holiday homes in the area I have mine they must not all be in the hands of registered holiday letting agents   If you give some woman in the village  money to clean  and air the house have you employed a "manager " for your property letting business ?  I expect thats how the Police  look at it ...
  3. and where were the flood defense gates and timbers when Upton needed them.....on lorries suck in traffic that could not make it through flooded roads ........If you make flood gates it makes sense to me to keep them where they need to be used ...not stacked in a council yard miles away so that when an innondation takes place you cant get to them ..will the  person who made  the decision not to to keep them on site be questioned why they did this ...I should not think so but perhaps in future the good people of Upton might  want the gates  kept in town ?
  4. South Vendee March ....water was standing in the fields ditches full.....but it drained into the local rivers with little flooding to a few homes ....nothing really serious ...today the sun flower are standing tall in full bloom and the hay is in so it did some a favour ....Nick is right about UK lack of drainage for flood water .....I  know well the area he  mentiones and when you think of the lock on the severn near Upton being about 40 foot deep thats a hell of a lot of water to over top the river there and flood out Upton.......If the UK dredged out rivers to take the run off and dug out ditches and controlled the flows into man made lakes  and tried to manage flood risk  the fishing lobby would scream  "Damaged habitat " along with others who would fight to stop it .....in case a newt died .....nothing will happen ...... insurance companies will just keep refusing to cover risk areas and increasing premiums .... so it will go on ...annual event .. 
  5. This is all very interesting .....as the day before yesturday I had the pleasure of  sitting in my kitchen  drinking coffee with 3 Gendarmes  who had paid me a visit .....the reason for the visit was to acertain if I dealt with an agency engaged in letting properties.....They were of course satisfied when I told them that I and a member of my family were the only people who held keys to my house ....this was a specific question .....who apart from me held keys to my house  ?  which they obviously knew was a holiday home .  As I do not ....and will not.... rent out my house to others  I was not of much interest to them as a "Gite " owner who had passed a set of keys to others to  "manage " the place for me . So ........reading between the lines ....if you have a second home and you have an  " agent "  handling the place for you ......then you are of interest to them ......They were very nice guys ...very friendly ...but not local .....and sent into the area for the summer ......they appear to me to have been given a task .....
  6. Hi Val ........My son bought one and discovered immediatly he plugged it in that extension leads need to be heavy duty ones . I advised him  to use  a supply socket of  20 amp where the washing machine  (with its heater)  is to  plug in to as these heaters are like running a 3 bar electric fire ..and he took the wrong lead from the shed  and melted the socket . so  he found out the type of  the extension lead you buy from the Super U  and roll up in a case  is not heavy duty enough ........I am sure you have this covered ....... and I post in case anyone else is thinking of getting one of these heaters and  also advise the  cable connection is  kept well away from the side of the pool and wrapped in plastic and tape  to make as waterproof as possible and situated  up off the ground .....I know my small grandchildren  will splash water at each other... like any child  would ...so... .you cant be too careful  when  electrical connectiions are near pools  can you !.......sorry of this sounds like teaching to suck eggs ... and I am highjacking your post  Val ..... but after the incident at my place think it worth a mention ..
  7. The answer Val is to have a coffin built as they did many years ago with a bell on the top....and state that you are not to be put in the ground  for a couple of days  should you "wake " then you pull the clapper string that is tied to you hand then you will have been "saved by the bell "
  8. I may be wrong but with a "Live Box " broadband connection I believe there is a service for holiday home owners  to turn on and off .....but.... if you already have a France telecom line elsewhere..... and the two accounts are  linked to one ...So if you have a flat in Paris you can link the account with your holiday home on the coast and for a cost turn the holiday home service on and off..and its all on the one bill.....dont think it applies to my live box broadband account with FT group when my principal residence is a UK one .
  9. I never realised there was such a thing until recently when I was in the company of sombody who was  an addict.   It appears you are one if  you take a laptop on holiday with you then fret because you cant find anywhere to use it daily to check your emails !  The person I was with came half way round the world with one to prefer to sit in a dark room on a sunny day in France and check on what they were missing out on at home .When asked .what.they would do if the thing refused to start up the reply was ..."Go out and buy another one I have to have it ! ....I am not that bad..yet !...and my wife has permission to shoot me if I get that way..........what about you.......are you a computer addict yet ?    
  10. No Chris mine have brown legs and antennae black shiney head move like the clappers on the ground and dive into cracks under skirting ...we were talking loads last night so i think they may have just come up out of the ground they were all up the walls and over the path they have jaws and i have discovered eat spiders small ones ....I am afraid they freak out the OH  who does not want these in the food cupboards ....cant say I want then flying about in  the house either   I normally live  and let live but not with these
  11. Last  night we had entering under the kitchen door lots of long thin black beetles about an inch in length long feelers at the front in fact they look just like cockroaches..shown. on the spray can ...but these things can fly ..Outside on the path and the wall of the house were loads of them  so perhaps they have hatched out from close  by ... the  spray zaps them  fine ...we dont want to live with these things ..I havent seen them in the UK.....have we got some kind of flying cockroaches down here   Chris ?  sorry cant show you a photo ..I havent sorted out how to do it yet .
  12. My sat nav has taken me to view one of the ancient streets of Rouen down by the river......very interesting street with houses almost meeting overhead....I had 40 minutes to look at them as I crawled in bumper to bumper traffic up to the lights at the end.....if you have not  gone off route in Rouen  then you dont know what you are missing !,.. I have changed from BF to LD Lines and Speedferries..with BB hotels and Buffalow Grill thrown into my travel plans these days ......
  13. On a visit to a village just south of Limoges in the past few days where it rained ...thundered and was cold ...I learned fom the locals the hot weather will come with the new moon on the 14th....certainly hot here today..in Vendee..is this some old wives tale or is there anything in it ?
  14. A hell of a lot of people are going to starve round here if the shops are shut....the camp sites are filling up fast along this part of the Vendee coast and there is real money to be made !  If  its like last year  you take your life in your hands walking along the prom on Bastile Day evening as the kids fire their hand held roman candles  up at you off the beach.......yea I know ....I am a grumpy old man ....... and its no more than we did as kids .!
  15. Thanks for the information Chas..I will keep hacking it back...I have never had one of these trees before ...the berries are very sweet and lots of them but I dont fancy getting up among them on a ladder  so will be happy to keep it cut back......what do people do with all the fruit....tarts I suppose ?
  16. Last year I really hacked back a mulberry tree....today I noticed the berries are plentyful and turning black ...very sweet and I..... expect the birds will have them at first light ....should they be cut back each year ? they grow so fast 
  17. There are 5 branches of Conforama in 79    They have 5 pages of washing machines on their web site  from 199.99E to 1355,99E...Depending where you are in 79  if ..La Roche sur Yon in 85 is close to you ....they have a huge selection and the sale is on now .... 
  18. Please forgive me if I am stating the ovious here ....but if you use a heavy drill and core cutter dont grip it like a pistol .........keep your thumb same side as your fingers as you push through ....if you hit a stone and it kicks it then wont disslocate your thumb ......
  19. I have also had to reindroduce myself to get back in ,  The 4 poster sun shade on the beach avitar I changed  to the wall with the painting of the hollyhocks on and the window and open shutter I saw  on a house ..... and had to photograph ......Going off topic I like the idea of painting such stuff on house walls ...wonder if you need permission  ?...I have a nice big  white gable end wall  ......
  20. So Trumpet .....Its you who we blame for the jinx then ? .....I am back in 85 Thursday with family from Australia who are not worried a bit by going out in waterproofs......they are off in heavy rain to look at Corf Castle this morning ! .....I want to take them to Puy de Fou  . so it ...  JUST HAS....  to turn sunny next week .
  21. This morning the UK weather forcaster referring to the very wet weather we are experiencing  and the inches to come today  said it was part of the.......... "European Monsoon "..... never heard that before .....monsoon season for Europe is somthing new !
  22. Apart from the hassle of signing in..........page  background colour disappears leaves just text in blue on white when you go to another page at times ......whats that all about ?
  23. Have you tried searching the camp sites for the area you are interested in ?......as far as the Vendee is concerned you will find such sites offer a sales service for mobile homes...they are also build here by companies like O'Hara who no doubt will have a list of where to site one they  want to sell to you . There are dozens to choose from for sale in the Vendee area ....around La Tranche sur Mer for example .
  24. As I forgot my password....I now find that some Trekki fan is trying to teach me Klingon to sign back in ......its hard enough trying to learn French  !!
  25. The bird show is fantastic !....so is the Roman experience.... you will have a great time ..
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