Scooby

[quote user="Russethouse"] Perhaps if the benefit system was altered across the board so that it wasn't an 'either or situation', those who were able, could do some work and still have some support - surely this would be better for their morale and self esteem than either sitting about doing very little or working on the black ? [/quote] I completely agree RH.  I have been involved with cognitive behavioural therapy programmes for individuals with chronic, painful conditions and I am  firmly of the opinion that sitting at home focussing on your pain / condition creates a negative mindset which in turn increases pain levels, leads to depression and other negative behaviours.  The distraction of work can be very beneficial in reducing pain and the sense of self worth from earning your own income (or at least some of it) and not being dependent on the state is also valuable.  With the system as it is at the moment its all or nothing.  Although  'therapeutic' work is allowed, the conditions attached to it are too onerous to make of much use.  Changes were made a few years ago so that if you went back to work and found it too much you could return back to receiving IB at the previous level - i.e. gave you had a safety net that allowed you to try working without jeopardising your benefits if it didn't work out.  Although a step in the right direction the changes didn't go far enough (IMHO).

Best place for sweet fluffy bunnies is slow cooked in a nice casserole....[;-)]

For a section of the population that would be considered relatively affluent or, at least, motivated it's not a particularly good success rate....

The expression 'sweet fluffy bunnies' springs to mind...[Www]

A bit of a waste of server space all these posts just to get another 'light'....  Maybe CF should consider a little autopruning??

[quote user="Bernice"]I was very moved when I visited the village, there were other visitors there but everyone was walking around in silence.  A friend told me that in the new village which has been built nearby many of the surnames of the shopkeepers are the same as the names on the memorial to the people massacred.  This link has a lot of information  http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Oradour-sur-Glane/Story/index.html Bernice [/quote] We found that one of the most eerie things - walking into the bakery and seeing the name over the door - the same family name of a number of the dead on the memorial.  It must be very strange living so close to a tragedy like that - seeing it every day exactly as it was.  We didn't get to see the museum the day we went (last Christmas) as it was closed but plan to visit with neighbours from our village this summer.  My neighbour's mum knew some of those who died at Oradour.

The league table comparisons are comparing the best universities in each country.  The UK universities offering degrees in burger flipping and Beckham studies don't feature in these tables - presumably like the numerous mediocre French educational establishments that didn't make the league table either.  I take your point about the number of students with A grades now.  However, even though the current UK exam structure has skewed the measure of academic ability; intellect and ability within a population will still follow a normal distribution.  A poor exam structure doesn't eliminate academic achievement and intelligence - it has just made it more difficult to seperate the bright from the extremely bright.  It also doesn't change the fact that the UK has a lot more world class universities than France.  

And from here too - well said Macky

You (or your friends!) may find this interesting!

[quote user="Cathy"]Good luck with your dreams.  I hope that they come true.... [/quote] Sometimes its worth listening to the realists to ensure those dreams don't turn into nightmares.....

Jiao Tong League Tables for 2007 Jiao Tong League table (2007) for Europe only  25 out of the 95 European universities in the Jiao Tong top 500 are UK Universities.  France has only 8 universities in the top 500.  Further the top four European universities are all in the UK: Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial and UCL.  

Tip for making quick fab sponge cakes - use SR flour but add 1/2tsp of baking powder to every 2ozs of SR flour.  So a 6 | 6 | 6 | three egg recipe add 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder.  Then chuck everything in a food processor and whizz for a minute  stopping one or twice to scrape  sides of bowl back into the mixture.  Works perfectly everytime.  Works for any recipe that uses creaming method. memb - we do the charity bake two or three times a year.  I usually do spomge cakes and various flavours of muffins - easy and quick and sell at a good price. Not sure how much we raised though.  (We also did a skydive from 12,000 feet and abseiled down one of the big (twenty storey) glass skyscrapers in the Docklands for cancer charities  - raised £30,000!)

I use a greased and floured tray and that gives a 'dry bottom' to the scones.  The thickness of the scones is a combination of not rolling too thin (3/4" minimum as memb says), and the extra baking powder.  I use 3 good tsps baking powder to 1lb of plain flour.  If using SR flour you still need to add baking powder - each half pound of SR flour has 1tsp baking powder in, so for a recipe using 1lb of flour and 3 tsp baking powder you would need to replace with 1lb SR flour and 1 tsp baking powder.  Re glazing - for a soft (unglazed) top - dust with flour, for a light glaze - brush with milk, a more shiny glaze - brush with beaten egg yolk.

[quote user="Gluestick"]I've always worked long hours: so has Mrs GS: and we've always eaten good home cooked food. All our parents did too: and lived through the grim years of the war (In London) up and down to the bomb shelter many nights and later on, wondering if a VI or a VII was going to land on your head! Yes, the kids do have many extra-curricular activities these days. But so did I! Personally, I think that all too often wisdom has been surplanted by  apparently frenetic activity: time gained from all sorts of time savings (dishwashers, washing machines; central heating and so on) has been simply frittered away on trying to cram in as many other things as possible. Meanwhile, kids are badly fed on junk; enjoy little or no table manners and have no appreciation of the finer things of life. And then, of course, take up binge drinking! Sad. [/quote] I work full time+ in a demanding job (as does my partner) but we always have a 'proper' home cooked family meal at night around the kitchen table.  It's an opportunity to talk about what's happened during the day, share problems, successes and just 'be a family'. All my children can cook and often help me in the kitchen.  I hope that my kitchen is the heart of our home and that those times around the kitchen table will be remembered fondly as my children grow up.  I always assumed (naively) that most of my friends / work colleagues had a similar ethos - until a friend turned up one evening when I was preparing dinner.  On walking into the kitchen she said with suprise 'You're peeling carrots on a Wednesday!!' Thinking there was some significance about Wednesday and carrots I asked what she meant.  She told me she thought most people she knew only cooked 'proper food' (and hence peeled vegetables) for Sunday lunch!

We are having our house re-roofed at the moment (due for completion by mid March).  The house is 'L' shaped, with a pigeonnier tower in the right angle (if you follow) - total floor area is 250 m2.  The bit that is being reroofed is the original part of the house, not the tower or the 'L' shaped extension.  The old tiles that are good are being salvaged and used to retile the front of the house (which has three windows in the roof)  The rear is being tiled in new tiles (to match the roof on the 'L' extension etc.)  We are having the laths etc replaced where necessary and having the roof and loft spaces insulated .  We have been quoted just under 14,000 euros  for this - local French roofer doing the job.  Neighbour (and friend) is doing the insulating (the laine de verre in roofspace) and double boarding the mansarded ceilings in the newer extension (from the inside) - again to improve insulation.  Neighbours work isn't included in above reroofing quote.  For pic of house (to gauge area) www.design-spider.com/leBaradis

I think, at best, it's a huge gamble taking children in their teens to France.  Comments have been made that, if the child is bright / academic, they they may be ok - but what might they have achieved in a school / college where the lessons were in their own language?  My older son is 15 now and is bright and motivated (his teachers expect him to get straight A*'s in his GCSE's this summer).  He may have coped with school life in France, he may have passed his BAC, he may even have passed it reasonably well - but would he have achieved the standard that he is expected to attain here in the UK? 

[quote user="Russethouse"]Perhaps you would not be so keen to promote the idea that you can just sell up a couple of years after moving if it was you involved. Have you any idea of the financial ramifications? [/quote] Exactly  RH!! That sentence sums it up - its not that people can't get health care, they just don't want to part with any money for the privilege.  If you were back in the UK and needed long term residential care they'd take your house off you anyway!!!

I did - he basically said he couldn't understand why anyone in their right mind would pay £2,000 a time to go on one of his cookery courses but to pay that much each to go on four, as his guest did, he thought was totally barmy!  Basically didn't seem to have a high opinion of old Raymond!

[quote user="groslard"]At the same time all holders of E cards  ( such as a the E 121) would continue to pay social security contributions in the home country whose system pays for their care. [/quote] I agree!

[quote user="Boiling a frog"]What a load of total misinformation. [/quote] Sorry but the facts are correct and I stand by them - and can provide names etc by pm if anyone wants them.  Maybe the rules have changed because both my B-i-L and my close friend retired 15 years ago and both drew their pensions immediately.  Both entered the police force age 18 - as did my friends husband.  Even if the rules have changed, 2/3 of your salary as a pension after only 25 years is a huge amout more than most people on a 40/80ths scheme get - especially when you consider it's paid from a much earlier age.  And the 40/80th group are doing extremely well compared to those on private defined contribution schemes.  Then there is the group my sister is in who only have the state pension to rely on.  Difficult to feel hugely sympathetic really. (As an aside my b-i-l bought a run down farm in one of the national parks (in the UK).  He built several new barns, extended the farm house and converted several of the old barns into holiday cottages - doing most of the labouring himself.  So although 'early retired' quite capable of doing another job so didn't really justify the big early pension imho - like many others.) The point about Sarkosy was his recent attempt to reduce the generous pension entitlements of certain groups of government employees - notably the railway workers to reduce the drain on the French public pocket. The point I'm making is that a lot of the 'inactifs' I'm sure, will have similar backgrounds, early retirement from comfortable government jobs on a nice big pension (compared to the income of many French), with plenty of proceeds from the sale of a house in the UK - if not a lump sum invested the enough to be mortgage free.  Its not suprised the French feel agrieved.  No 'inactif' is without healthcare - as groslard said already -  you just have to move back to the UK. 

[quote user="cooperlola"]As my o/h and I both started working full time at 17, can we have the 4 years we didn't spend in "full time education" as a bonus at the end then please?  [/quote] As I started work at 16 I will have worked 49 years by the time I get to state retirement age.  Although I have worked full time for 30 years  I am only in my mid 40's

[quote user="cooperlola"]As my o/h and I both started working full time at 17, can we have the 4 years we didn't spend in "full time education" as a bonus at the end then please?  These arguments are a bit spurious, imo.  The biggest problem seems to me (having dealt with a lot of these things in the last 3 months) is for the professions where "early" retirement is mandatory, not a choice.  The worst cases we're hearing about are from police, armed forces etc where the retirement age is lower.  Many CPAM staff have expressed amazement that they are not considered as proper pensioners by their own governments, as they would have been if they had had the same jobs here.  They just do not understand why they do not qualify for E121s as they apparently have government pensions. To be honest, neither do I.[/quote] Well if they are anything like my brother-in-law then I can well understand why they don't get a state pension on retirement (at 42!!!!) - they are already getting very lucrative pensions (curtesy of the UK tax payer) for a very long period as it is.  My brother-in-law's monthly pension is three times what my sister earns as a carer for severely disabled adults.  Despite health problems she works long shifts, has to maul patients, clean up sick and s**t - and has the prospect of this until she reaches 65 - with no early retirement.   On the police pensions issue, a friend of mine had to leave the police force in her mid twenties due to asthma.  She receives a life time pension of £500 per month - despite the fact she is perfectly capable of working - she is now a full-time secondary teacher.  Her husband is retiring in a couple of years after completing his required years - aged early forties.  He's planning on running his own business - as well as drawing his very generous pension (courtesy of the UK taxpayer).  It's a shame Brown can't take the same approach with these drains on the UK public purse in the same was as Sarkozy is trying to do with the drains on the French public purse.

Double post

[quote user="Joshua"]Hi Wooly.......... Local government pensions are based on 1/80th for each full years service with a maximum of 40/80ths, that's 1/2 pay So a FULL pension is half final pay plus a pro-rata lump sum. Most people in local government service could have had a higher salary in the private sector but opt for security and a reasonable pension at the end. Lots of Councils, to balance budgets, look to lose jobs by offering early retirement and often people retire only with the service they have worked. Joshua[:D] [/quote] Most private sector employee are in defined contribution not defined benefit schemes - so exect to get half of what a local governmnt employee gets - with no options for enhanced pensions when retiring early due to ill health.

I've worked fulltime for the last thirty years, including changing professions (from clinical scientist to tax lawyer), funded all my education since 16, and raised three kids.  I don't plan to retire for at least another ten years.  Maybe Max has a point about how the French see the inactifs - wealthy and not as hardworking as themselves??