Scooby

[quote user="now just john "][quote user="cooperlola"] If ever there was a reason to "go for it", that's it, .  Do it while you can, you never know what will happen tomorrow. [/quote] My intended message was that it is not that my grief is painful, (it is) or that Sue was a beautiful person who was cheated (she was), but Life is so Brief and Time is a Thief; to all of you out there spending years looking for perfection I would just say you may not have as much time as you think; so dial in some compromise in your list and go for it as Cooper lola says. I didn't intend to hijack this thread, just make a contribution, please carry on!   [8-|] you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. [/quote] John my heart goes out to you.  I lost by best friend of 38 years on Wednesday aged just 45.  She was a wonderful, beautiful person; intelligent, wise, funny and caring with a huge zest for life.  She and her husband had just bought their dream cottage (in the UK).  The final line in her last email to me a few days before she died was "One day we will have the time to do all the things we want to, but it sure isn't now."  She never did have that time.  If you have a dream, don't wait for tomorrow because tomorrow may never come.

Is the goat only coming into your garden or is it geting onto the road etc?  The reason I ask is that we had a similar problem but the goat(s) were also wandering in the road and creating a danger / nuisance to others in the hamlet.  We (collectively) contacted the owner (who lived a distance away but used the neighbours land for sheep / goats) and after a failed attempt to repair the fence he removed the animals.  Fortunately our invasion took place in the autumn so we were able to look on the damage to the roses etc as 'seasonal pruning'!  Re the other posters comments on social needs; having kept goats I don't think the existence of a companion would necessarily solve the problem.  A billy may be attracted to a female goat - but that could bring a whole new set of problems for the absent neighbours!  In our situation, the billy had a harem of females to keep him amused but that didn't seem to dampen his enthusiasm for our garden / roses.

Our views are mixed.  We have an old stone house that has a very old 'period' interior (tower, arched studded door, 6' by 6' opening for the fire place etc) - so a lot of modern furniture would have looked silly.  We bought quite a few 'bigger' wooden pieces of furniture from the troc.  We mixed this with newer more modern furniture.  IMHO, the sofas etc we saw in France were expensive, not particularly good quality and with nothing like the range of styles available in the UK.  In the end we bought two cheap, cream sofas, bought throws and cushions from the UK while we tried to find something decent that we really liked. That was two years ago and we still haven't found anything.  Th plan was to move the sofas up to two of the bedrooms when we found what we liked - the rate we are going they will be used for an Autumn bonfire instea LOL. Agreed re the beds - and again nothing like the range of styles available in the UK.  Also beware that when you buy a bed it only includes the head and foot board and side bars - no base / 'springs'.  You have to buy the base (sommier) seperately.

An interesting version until I read the following: The SS men may have been many things, but they were not liars or criminals. and they had a "code of honor" to live up to. In contrast the partisans in France and elsewhere, were often recruited from the criminal underworld or the indigenous communist movement and carried out a campaign of unscrupulous terrorism that defies any moral standards whatsoever! Given what we know (definitively) about the actions of the SS elsewhere, and their skills at propoganda (see Terezin) - and the anti-semitic / holocaust denial preface to the above article,  I somehow doubt the validity of this account.

[quote user="Russethouse"]....And I'd like to point out that the thread was removed for review by the administrator  after several members had voiced their concerns. It may well return.  The correct way to comment is to contact a mod, not post on open forum, which is actually contrary to the Code of Conduct.[:)] Please can we get back to the topic of THIS thread. Thanks   [/quote] But, nevertheless, quite a reasonable comment from Logan - IMHO

We thought we had registered to vote when we moved into the village a couple of years or so ago. (The maire asked us if we would like to be registered and we said yes and provided all our personal details etc.)  We discovered last week (when our neighbour checked) that we weren't, in fact, registered.  The elections in our commune are a bit heated as quite a number of our neighbours want the maire out - not because they dislike the maire but rather they dislike his wife.  They think she is anti-social and doesn't participate sufficiently in village life....  Said neighbours were quite miffed to find we weren't registered...  Seems its too late to register now for the forthcoming elections.

The problem is the value society places on things - those who work in care, doing a hugely valuable job are paid a pittance whereas those who make money - albeit with a bit of 'ducking and diving' / a bit of cash in hand 'nod and wink' are societies heroes.  We pay footballers more in a week than we pay a brain surgeon in a year.  We fete the Jane Goody's and Paris Hiltons etc of the world but diss the real heroes.

But to give an example - both equally closely related to me.  The one, male, parents jeopardised his older sister's schooling to ensure he got a good education.  She went to four different high schools; he got a place at a prestigious grammer school.  He went to University (with a full grant) and then trained as an accountant. He now has his own business (and a number of properties) but gloats because he underdiscloses his income, puts personal expenses through the books (all his propety renovations and even his divorce went through the company books), pays workers on the black / below minimum wage. From the outside he 'done good' - plans to retire at 45.  The older sister, had her schooling completely messed around and so left with a handful of GCE's / CSE's.  She worked as a shop assistant for a while, then married and had two children.  Partner hit her, abused the children - finally she left with the children and lived as a single parent, juggling several jobs sometimes working 70 hours a week trying to make ends meet.  He never paid maintenance - so she could never afford to go back into education.  She now works in care on a minium wage and still works 60 hours in a physically demanding job a week to make ends meet.  She hasn't been able to make any significant pension contributions and so will have to work to the new retirement age of 68 and even then will probably be reliant on income support to top up her pension.  She has had poor health - she is having her second surgery for breast cancer next week but will have to take unpaid leave (as with the first surgery) because hourly paid care workers don't get sick pay.  She is already struggling to pay off the overdraft from the first sick period.  Unlike her brother she is honest and straightforward, does everything by the book - and would give you her last penny.   She is the sort of person who 'deserves' to take early  retirement.  Her brother is one of the 'undeserving pigs' I was referring to.

LOL - Amen wb !!!!  [:)]

I think we have only scratched the surface of the banking sector losses.  Write off's on ABS's, increased mortgage loss provisioning and increased cost of funds - particularly for those banks facing long term warehousing costs that are racked to escalate with the duration of the facility - while they wait for the market appetite for ABS's to return.....

[quote user="Gluestick"]the Northern Rock fiasco would never have happened since they would never have been allowed to build up such a negative liquidity position, if their Liquidity Ratios had been kept in balance. [/quote] I think it was borrowing short to lend long that killed them...

As I said before Ernie, it depends on the size of the transaction.  Less than £1,000, Nationwide will be better - above that HIFX will probably give you a better deal.  We usually transfer upwards of £5k so HIFX consistently give us better rates.  Our biggest problem with HIFX is their ability to 'lose' funds so we always check and double check the transfer.

It also happened to us when a money broker 'lost' our funds.  We just contacted our bank (BP) and everything was fine.  (We also had our money broker contact our bank to explain what had happened.)

We have done a very similar trip a few times and it takes about 17 hours with one or two short stops (leave at 7.00 am arrive at midnight).  We don't go via the tunnel though but take the Dover - Calais ferry.  If we are doing the journey at a more gentle pace we stop over at Neufchatel en Bray.

[quote user="Frenchie"]I didn't think about it being minuted, but I ve thought about recording it. I don't know yet if someone from work could be the impartial "witness"..  I have other ideas. But need some time to check if they are ok. [/quote] Not sure what the procedure is in France but in the UK you are entitled to take a witness to any meeting of this nature -  which includes a friend, relative etc.  Make sure minutes of the meeting are taken and agreed by you (and your friend / relative etc) as a true a fair record of what happened.  Recording the meeting is a good idea but I think you would have to get the agreement of all present before hand.

NW offered a better rate when we only wanted to transfer a small amount  (£700) .  They offer a good rate for small transfers but anything over £1,000 the brokers are better.  The £700 was a one off - normally we transfer much more than that.

I don't get charges from either my UK bank or my French bank for the transfer.  The normal account charges I would have to pay anyway.  The rate we get with the broker (compared with NW) means it's a no brainer.

Lost about 12 lbs so far - but mainly because I'm working so many hours I don't have time to eat LOL.  I've only had one day off work since the beginning of Jan [:(]

I thought the landing was so smooth the passengers hadn't even realised it had been an emergency landing until they got off the plane!

As I said I got  better rate with our broker.  If every bank asked for ID for transactions over £1k the banking community would grind to a standstill.  (Btw I'm a senior manager with a large bank so I'm familiar with the money laundering regs - I just didn't realise NW's procedures were so archaeic!!)

It's Nationwide's interpretation of the money laundering regulations.  They were happy to let me make a cheque or cash withdrawal without a passport / photo ID - thereby neatly layering the money again!   Money laundering rules apply to all banks - so it's interesting our bank would do the transfer by phone with no ID....

We have just closed our Nationwide account.  We wanted to transfer some funds to France and were told we needed to come into the branch.  So I took a couple of hours off work, drove the 8 miles to the branch only to be told that for transfers over £1,000 we had to produce our passport or photo ID!  Apparently producing these to open the account - and having made the transfer before wasn't sufficient.  So we closed the account - paid the balance of the account into our bank account and I arranged the transfer via our old broker by phone from my office!  Oh and no fee (£20 with NW) and I got a better rate.... We'll still keep the credit card but we're not going through that palava everytime we want to transfer funds!

Our use is variable.  I get to use it more than my OH as I have a lot more holidays, I worked compressed hours and so have long weekends and I can accrue leu time.  This year I will be over for a week in early March, again for a week in early April and again for a wek in early May, 2 weeks in summer and for a week in October. I'll probably go out for odd weekends.  Family also use the house. We also swap the house regularly and so have swap partners staying there.  Last year we swapped for a week in a ski chalet in the Czech Republic (we are using our half of the swap next week), a week in New York (planning to go later this year) and a week in Venice.  This year we are swapping it for a week by the sea in Brittany and holidaying with our (French) neighbours.

One of the consequences of the number of people fraudulently claiming benefits is that the medical assessments have become far more onerous, in a very negative way, for both the genuinely sick as well as the fraudulent claimants.  The idea of an independent examination sounds wonderful until you consider the fact that some people have complex or rare conditions.   I suffer from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a rare and inherited genetic disorder.  Because it is a rare condition, it is very unlikely that a benefits doctor (usually a local GP doing additional work) will have heard of this - never mind be in a position to assess how it impacts on your day to day life. (I know from personal experience.) Further, without notes and records, a benefits doctor may not understand the gravity of the claimants condition and may make entirely inappropriate requests.  My mother applied for DLA a few years ago and was asked to have a medical assessment at her home - which she agreed to.  She has serious heart condition and at the time of the assessment she was waiting for a triple bypass and an aortic valve replacement, she had just recovered (sort of) from a bout of pneumonia, she has severe arthritis in her spine and her hips (and having had rickets as a child and due to her heart problems she wasn't considered a suitable candidate for replacement surgery), she had also just being diagnosed with breast cancer (for the second time).  Despite all of these problems the assessment doctor asked her to walk up and downstairs (something she had been told absolutely not to do).  My mum tried her best, figuring that, as he was a doctor, it must be ok.  She had a cardiac arrest within hours of the doctor leaving and was hospitalised for quite some time.  Oh and she was turned down for benefit.  Since that experience my parents have both refused to apply for benfits that they are genuinely entitles to.  They quote 'would rather starve than be humiliated again.' The problems aren't just from bystanders making assumptions about all claimants, it is also with the system that treats genuine claimants with unnecessarily cruelness - just in case they may be one of the ones swinging the lead.

We always use a credit card and pay it off every month - we are using one with 4% cash back atm and have earned £300 on it since we took it out in October.  When the deal ends we will change to another card.  Not having a credit card is wasting money on lost interest and free deals.