Jump to content

Gardengirl

Members
  • Posts

    4,270
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Gardengirl

  1. Sounds rude, but it's apparently the finish on the walls of our new apartment. Does anyone know anything about it? It's described as ''projection d'enduit type 'Baagar' ecrasee, or similar''. If we'd known it would be used, we would have asked for a smooth plaster finish. It looks like artex, but is extremely rough - threatening to scrape elbows etc, & catching on clothes. We have been told that any marks can be removed by very lightly sanding with the finest sandpaper. So we're wondering about taking a sander to the whole place, as we really hate the stuff. Then it will be out with the paint. Any idea if it will sand down ok? We've never come across the stuff before, & would really like to know more about it before starting. Thanks, Jo  
  2. Gardengirl

    Burials.

    Could we have an official section on 'Death'? It would be so useful (& reassuring) to have links such as just provided by Clair, in one place. It can be hard enough to find info that you need in your own language when a loved one is approaching death; it must be so hard to have to try looking for green funerals etc in another language, however good you might be under normal circumstances. Jo
  3. We know someone who found his wonderful apartment in Nice through a 'particulier' magazine/paper. His terraces were bigger than the whole of our little apartment! Jo PS The pasties sound wonderful!
  4. Thanks for all the interesting comments. We are off to France again on Saturday for a week & will carry on looking for suitable narrow bathroom storage. If we still don't find any, we'll have to order them from England. Thanks again, Jo
  5. I've tried looking in FAQs etc, but I still can't find what I need, so any help on this would be very useful. We have a very small bathroom and want narrow storage units and semi-countertop basin. We weren't able to find this in France last week, so are planning bringing from UK, where there seems a lot of choice. We are having a partial load moved over by a removal company next month, & they are keen to know size of load soon. Can anyone say if there will be any problems fitting plumbing and waste for the basin. will UK fittings fit?Would we be best to bring the whole lot over? Also, if we do buy here, we'll want to take the matching WC. Again, can anyone see any problems with the fittings? The bathroom WC outlet diameter is 102mm & the unit would have an integral cistern. The water supply already exists in narrow blue plastic PER, & the WC soil pipe is already in place. Thanks for any help, Jo  
  6. We came back on Ryanair on Sunday (missed the snow here, unfortunately!) & had a very loud family group nearby (& no, definitely none of them had hearing problems!) calling out non-stop. Just hate the thought of people like that using phones on the plane! Next wkend we go over with the car, which will be bliss by comparison, although a very long drive; we're taking stuff down in preparation for properly moving in. However, I must admit that Luton & Nimes seem civilised compared to Gatwick or Heathrow, & we did get pretty reasonable fares on the Ryanair flight, despite not being able to book until the week before we went. Jo
  7. Thanks for the replies. We shall no doubt get used to no switch! As to the question of why switch off power, I consulted my OH, who says: With the hob, you can be certain at a glance that all the rings really are turned off. With a hob or other appliance with electronic controls there is the remote possibility of susceptibility to electromagnetic interference. For switches on plugs generally, you can check at a glance  whether an item is on or not. If there is a standby state, cutting off the supply stops power waste. Also, it is safer to insert & remove plugs without any load. My OH says also that he's a pessimist, & the more ways to stop something going wrong the better! (S*d's' law & all that). Don't know if 2 degrees in power systems has anything to do with the belt & braces approach! JO Another thought - it's not unknown for things left on standby to catch fire.  
  8. Everything mentioned works for me at times - but none all the time. I'm going through a very bad patch just now with my back; the best thing just now seems to be placing my 'grain' cushion, heated in the microwave, and just sitting. All movements using arms eg peeling/chopping veg etc hurt like mad, so I'm doing as little as possible. I do find when the pain moderates a bit that walking helps, but on grass, not pavements! Hope the pain has eased a bit. Jo
  9. We are very cautious about electric switches, switching all plugs off at night etc. We have been looking for heavy current switches for the oven & hob, but haven't found any. Are they used in France? I seem to remember reading ages ago somewhere that switches work differently in France. Thanks, Jo
  10. Wow, how quick! Thanks a lot, Clair & Panda Jo
  11. OH has just settled down to do his homework for tonight. There are questions on education. There are things mentioned we've never heard of; CE1, CM1, CE2. Can anyone help with this? The answers don't ACTUALLY require knowledge of these, but we'd both like to know what they mean; it sounds more like the descriptions of apartments etc! Thanks, jO
  12. Probably down to variety. I planted the one in the front garden about 25 years ago; it's still fairly small & neat (I do prune a little each year to keep the shape); it's a magnolia stellata, & the flowers are looking lovely just now, but the leaves appear later. We have a uni hall of residence near us, & at this time of year we have Japanese students taking photos of  the lovely blossoms. In the back garden we have another variety - not sure what. It's about the same age, but bigger, with deep pink flowers; again the leaves appear after the flowers. Near us there are many magnolias; some are in leaf & some in flower; there are even some evergreen eg m. grandiflora. Let us know what happens with yours - hope it gives you many years of pleasure! Jo
  13. Gardengirl

    statins

    Is it possible that moving to a slightly lower dose of simvastatin could help those who are having side effects, or who are concerned for various reasons about being on statins? My OH had a heart attack in Nov, & was put on simvastatin, although his cholesterol levels have never been very high, under 2.5. He has just been for his check-up with the GP & has had his dose cut. He was put on 1 x 40mg tablet daily by the cardiac consultant at our local hospital, & is now on 1 x 20mg tablet. Some have spoken on here about being on 80mg, which seems very high by comparison. Maybe this is something to discuss with the GP? My last cholesterol reading was 6.5, although I was not put on medication. My parents & brothers have all had high levels of cholesterol, & they have had a lot of cardiac problems as well. I have to have an angiogram next week, & am expecting to be put on statins, so this discussion is very much of interest just now! Jo 
  14. We attended the wedding of our son's school exchange partner. They have not been in contact for years, but we, the two sets of parents, meet regularly & we stay at their house each year on visits to France. The young couple had lived together for several years, owned a small flat and had a young son. Most people dressed very smartly, although there were not many hats worn. We had been specifically told by the parents not to take a present, as our attendance would be an honour for them. However, we took a small carving done by someone whose work we buy for ourselves; light, modern, small and didn't cost a fortune. There was a fancy box on display at the reception, into which everyone put envelopes containing money. We were told that the money would be used to pay for the honeymoon. We were later told that this is also a way of paying for large numbers of people to attend weddings; people in effect pay their way. Seems a sensible idea; is this so? Jo
  15. Thanks for the help, folks; OH has gone off happily to class. I  had thought of si seulement, but it sounded just plain wrong. How wrong can I be? Thanks also for that website Meg - I think we'll be using it a lot! Jo[:)]
  16. Madeleine's father, in particular, obviously saw an immediate need to get huge publicity. And, of course, the disappearance of a little one in the night added hugely to the impact of the disappearance. Shannon's disappearance was very different; she could well have 'just' stayed over at a friend's house; some people don't actually seem to think the friend's family will be at all concerned! I've known of a few cases like that over many years of teaching, when kids have gone missing, & we've turned out to search likely places. I read at the wkend that no-one in the immediate family or friends was the sort of confident person who could even begin to front publicity, although I think it was her mother I heard briefly on the radio on Sunday. Somehow there was great hope for Madeleine in the early days; I don't get that feeling about poor Shannon. As this thread shows, people are thinking about her, & would help if they could. Jo 
  17. My OH is busy doing his homework for tonight's class. He has to translate the phrase 'if only'. Neither of us can come up with it, & our dictionaries can't help. We'll really have to get one of the big thick sort! Can anyone help? Thanks, Jo
  18. I suspect that Harry's view is very much coloured by his mother's experiences with the press (& yes, she encouraged them too), and by his & William's experiences with the press. I think it's probably natural that having lost his mother in such a tragic way at a young age, being pursued by a pack of paperazzi, he should feel this way. Of course, if he wasn't in the clubs he's so keen on, drinking so much, the press might not have been so keen to pursue him for photos & copy to fill their pages - a young man behaving himself doesn't sell newspapers! I also think it's good that he's had a chance to fight for his country - he obviously felt very strongly that he wanted to do what he had trained for. Perhaps his future lies in Africa, who knows, he certainly loves what he has found there. Good luck to him. Jo
  19. Tomatoes pureed & cooked in oil, rather than water, is said to provide 3x the lycopene found in fresh tomatoes, which are still v good. Jo
  20. Some really good ideas on this thread. Re Lollie's posting; we spent a summer years ago doing work for a ready-erected tent company. It was hard work, but great fun, too - great memories and friends for life. These days I understand you get some proper pay and a day off; much more civilised. Working for one of these companies could give OP a base (a tent is supplied), some cash in his pocket and  he could look around the area for later in the year, odd jobs etc. One drawback is that they are generally, but not always, in tourist areas - so by the middle of Sept the area could be fairly closed down. However, sometimes they are on the edge of villages or towns, with amenities on the go year-round. I do wonder, though, whether he would need a reasonable amount of French - enough to get by eg at the local hardware shop etc. I also seem to remember reading about doing work for a type of cheque, which the work-provider gets from the bank. Does this scheme still run? I seem to remember tax was already taken into account. Good luck, Jo
  21. " The nightmare arrival in France" sounds a very promising thread - it would prbably make a fascinating book, too! Good luck, Geordie Girl. Jo
  22. Thanks for ideas, on forum & by pm. Have had problems with computer & also email separately; so frustrating! We're sending some pics from brochures & also have found a couple of things on Ikea that we've looked up. We've decided to leave the rest till we go over at the end of March, and see the kitchen man then. The developers suggest they will have put right all of the problems in the apartment we found on inspection. Amazing to think they didn't even look at the plans of the changes we had made (& part paid for) before inviting us to inspect! At least they have agreed to pay the majority of the cost of the abortive inspection trip in Jan.  Thanks again,Jo 
  23. Can anyone help ith finding a list of words for kitchens, like the electrics glossary? We are trying to arrange a fitted kitchen following a visit to our new apartment last month. We found a kitchen designer/fitter in a nearby village, started thinking of choices, & he sent a design fairly quickly. However, he has no English, & my normally 'ok for most situations' French just isn't up to the job! I want to stick with him, as he seems v good & quick, plus his work looks good; my husband was impressed with his workshop! I've tried a couple of brico websites, but didn't find what I need. For example, as the kitchen is fairly tight, I want the drainer to be cut into the worktop, so I need to talk about materials eg Corian (I suppose it might be the same as it's a trademark). Also I want large pan drawers; I only know tiroir, & he draws small, neat little things, as for cutlery etc. It all gets a bit wearing, trying to explain in emails. We can't get back over there before late March, when we will be able to see him again; my only solution so far is to tear out pictures from magazines etc & send them to him. Thanks Jo                                            
  24. We also took the 'communauté universelle' route last summer. We read all the advice on threads on this forum, took advice from a UK law firm which works on French business (costly) & told the notaire what we wanted to do. We signed this at the same time as the contract for our apartment. Can't remember the cost, seemed a lot, but was less than we had been warned; got a refund later. Jo
×
×
  • Create New...