CeeJay

Idun Rather surprisingly I did not receive a reminder. Unfortunately due to circumstances I havn't driven this car since last November so didn't notice the CT had run out. It is a UK 807 which was re-registered in France 2 years ago when it had its initial CT.

If an appointment is made for a CT, say in 5 days time, is it legal to drive up to that date without a valid certificate or only to take it for the actual CT? Logic says the latter, but..........!

Norman Couldn't recommend a better read than this series by Joe Nesbo. He has just been inducted into the Crime Fiction Hall of Fame in London. The Phantom was the Times number 2 and stayed in the top 10 for 7 weeks. For all Harry Hole fans, according to the Crime Fiction Lover, all is not lost and he will return, even another book not yet translated will be forthcoming. Good news indeed!

I now have a void in my life as I have just finished reading The Phantom,the last Harry Hole novel. I think all the Harry Hole books  must be the best read I have had for a long time. Full marks to Don Bartlett who translated them from the original Norwegian. The question now is............is he or isn't he!!!!!!!!!

Chancer Could you explain a bit more about the purge/primer function. No idea what this is or what I might look for, as, like you I have another Senseo sitting idle in an apartment in Bristol for about 3 months at a stretch which could turn a bit manky, the Senseo, not the apartment!

Had a bog standard Senseo for a number of years now but suddenly it wouldn't fill up a mug of coffee when the requisite button pressed, only half a mug. Contacted Philips for advice and was told to clean it twice and flush thoroughly, if this didn't work I was advised to buy a new one! Cleaned it thoroughly as advised but still not working properly. OK, time for a new one and started looking at Darty etc., however the thought occured to me that if I replaced the pod holder with the two pod holder what would happen. It worked a treat, so checked the difference bewtween the two and found that the very inner hole of the two pod holder was bright shiny new, on the other it was manky and dark brown. So I cleaned the old one with a pin and lo and behold it also works a treat. Saved myself about €50. Not posting this to show how clever I am, although wife thought so!!! But it is very easy in our materialistic world just to throw things away and easy to buy again on the internet.

AnOther Thanks for that reply I think that has covered it very well and maybe put some people's mind at rest!

Wooly.... Yes, I understand the principle, as I have done exactly the same, but what if, for some reason, large chunks of NI contributions were not made, would one still be entitled to a permanent S1 on reaching 65, or whenever?  How would it be possible for HMG to pay for one's care for the rest of ones life in France, the percentage obviously, if hardly any contributions were made in UK?

Reading this thread gave me a thought. Is everybody entitiled to have an S1 irrespective when they reach retirement age or do they have to have qualifying years as in an OAP?

With respect, why don't we wait until the proposals are actually announced and then make a judgement? At the moment there is quite a bit on the BBC web site.

Eventually decided to enter the French Tax system in a September, very arbitrary date,  and declared from then, no problems at all, in fact because the income was quite low I got the following years Taxe Habitation for nothing! In passing I would like to say that even from the very first year's return I followed the guidance given on this Forum by Cat's FAQ's and I have never had a problem even with the confusion of wife's Teachers pension!!

Hi Norman No......and yes, it was the one in the centre of Le Vigan, very nice place with very dedicated masochists, sorry, I meant physio's !!

Sorry to bump this up again, but by the amount of PM's it may be of interest to fellow suffers Had the knee op, no problem, but unfortunately another complication hit the surface, apparently the anaesthetic used sometimes interferes with the pee-pee system!! I was one of those! Instead of being discharged  within 8days I had to remain and have another operation on the prostate, which took another week to sort itself out but not completely, on the day of discharge I developed a fever and had to stay in for a further 3 days!!! They eventually kicked me out the Friday before Xmas, complete with tube in mans parts and a plastic bag to all intents and purposes like an astronauts life support system. I then went to the re-education centre, renamed StalagLuft 17 where I was held until I asked for leave of absence for Xmas and Boxing Day. The request for Boxing Day almost caused a meltdown of the system as they, of course, don't have such a thing. I stood my ground, albeit on one leg, and was eventually granted leave after much muttering. The life support system was discarded eventually, thank goodness. I have to say that prancing around doing exercises with shorts on and plastic tubes and a plastic bag strapped to my leg did cause some concern amongst the elderly ladies within the group, but was probably put down to English eccentricity!! I went over the wire last week and blessed my wonderful soft bed but still miss all the friendly nurses running around after me, can't understand my wife's reluctance to try on a nurses uniform!!!! Joking apart, knee is fine, must keep up the exercises and I look back to a very interesting experience.

I have taken out both Livret A and LDD, does anyone know if the interest is annual or is it compounded?

Thank you Norman yet again for a simple explanation of something that for me was totally incomprehensible. Wonder why the OP thought that anyone but themself would comprehend, still, Norman did!!!!!!!

Whilst having a sort of affinity to NZ, a son lives there and son-in-law is a Kiwi, I was absolutely astounded to see that our local SuperU recently were selling bog standard ordinary cooking onions imported from New Zealand. How on earth is it possible to have cheaper and fresher onions when they have to travel about 12000 miles!!! This when in our part of Herault there are hectares and hectares laid out for onion production. Very odd.

A friend of mine has asked what I think of the internet by satellite as he is thinking of subscribing to Nordnet system because the Orange connection where he lives keeps breaking down. I did a search and found that the last discussion was early last year, has anyone any up to date information on these sorts of systems, particularly if you are Nordnet users.

Yessssssssssss, cracked it!!!! I found a sub-menu of a sub-menu that was labelled Media Device (MTP) which enabled media files to be transferred on Windows or using Android files. Downloaded a 1.3gbt film in 2 minutes rather than 10hours via Bluetooth and I've still got 8gigs space left! Thanks.

Yep, have already downloaded that and converted to mp4 as instructed but still no joy on transferring. Obviously I am doing, or not doing something right but will keep plugging away. It must be something very simple because it has defeated me!!!!!

Thanks for the replies, Mr.CdL MX Player also has all the codecs required so no problem there and yes, I have been updated to Jelly Bean 4.2 now, however still a problem transferring by hardwire!!!

Anyone got one of these little beauties? However I am having problems downloading movie files. I have loads of avi movies and have converted some to mp4, which Nexus7 is supposed to accept, but when I hard wire a connection I keep getting a message informing me that the device does not support .mp4 files!!! However if I go down the Bluetooth route there is no problem, albeit it takes about 10hours to transfer a normal 800mgbt file!! I am using MX Player app on the Nexus.

Just an update on this sorry saga for those interested........I promise I shall not turn this into a long running saga!!!! Went to the dentist this morning and opened wide, dentist proceeded to extract the two teeth, however the second proved a tad difficult, so much so that the lady dentist was perspiring rather heavily and kept muttering ooh la la. Meanwhile I was feeling the effects of this wrestling act and wondering what the problem was. After 3/4 hour of fighting to get the tooth out she decided that perhaps an x-ray would not go amiss to find out what the problem was. Hey-ho trust me to have a twisted root that can only be extracted by surgery with a general anaesthetic!!!  So now once again my knee operation has to be postponed and a date set for me to go to hospital to sort out  the tooth problem, meanwhile I have a massive hole in my gum with bits sticking out!!!!!  Rather funny actually. Why can't they do the gum and knee at the same time??????

Well, we live and learn as they say. Very grateful for all the comments, I would never have believed the connection between dodgy teeth and in particular prosthetics! I just want to get it done now so will turn up at the dentist on Monday and open wide. Norman, thanks for that information and yes you are right (as ever), I have already been booked into a re-education centre for 2 weeks full time at Le Vigan.

Due to go into Hospital next Sunday prior to a knee replacement on Monday, so far so good, very impressed with the fact that it took two weeks from seeing surgeon to the actual op itself. However before that I had to make appointments to see a) Anaesthetist b) Cardiologist c) Dentist!! as well as taking urine sample to the local laboratory and having to take iron tablets twice a day which have had a very bad affect on my insides!! plus having to buy my own crutches and leg splint. When I visited the dentist she informed me that there was a slight problem with the roots of two teeth but as I was having a knee op and not a heart op it wouldn't be a problem. This morning I had a call from the surgeon who stated that he had spoken with the dentist and he wasn't happy and that he wouldn't do the op unless I had two teeth extracted and that the op would be put back for a week!  I have had no problems whatsoever with these teeth and really would like to keep them as it would leave a big gap on one side of mouth. I really can't see why the state of your mouth should be that different in France as opposed to UK. I have had quite a bit of surgery done over the years in the UK but never ever have I been asked for my teeth to be checked. Is this really a case of being professionally over cautious or more business for the dentist!

Norman With respect, I had a similar situation last year, in that the tax office asked me for my carte vitale number in order for them to check with CPAM that I had in fact been issued with an S1, thereby not paying social charges.