DerekJ

It needs Cameron to have the b*lls to say "NO, we won't pay" and actually mean it. Not just give us sound bites about not paying but to actually not pay.

[quote user="Mrs Trellis"] But I'm wondering.... Has anyone heard of them? I don't want my time wasted as have other things to do. [/quote] But even if they are "genuine" and won't try to sell you something, why would you want to waste your time anyway?

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]Could be one of the sedums (of which there are many. This is quite a good site to identifying plants http://www.fleurs-des-champs.com/reconnaitre-une-fleur.html just plug in your observations and off you go [/quote] That looks a useful website.... thanks.

We had a chat with the SPANC  man who did our inspection and he said there was no need to use anything. So, we took his advice. We don't seem to have experienced any problems as a result.

Have a read of this Apart from personal abuse to the perpetrators I have sometimes said " computer? what computer? How can I have a problem with my computer, I don't have one". Or on one occasion I pretended to go along with them and say I was doing what they were telling me.... this went on for about 30 minutes ( I was bored at the time)... they were expecting to get control of my PC and couldn't understand why they couldn't see my machine attached to their system... I kept saying I couldn't understand it either.... I then gave them some verbal abuse.

[quote user="Quillan"][quote user="Rabbie"]That's why I really really want a NO result. Unfortunately in that case I fear the SNP will want another go in five years if they keep their majority in the Scottish Parliament[/quote] Well twice now Salmond has said there will not be another vote for at least a generation and more likely never but then he is a politician and Westminster does not have the monopoly in political liars. [/quote] Was he lying? Well, his mouth was moving.

An interesting thread... I hadn't given the VMC a second thought before. I guess we must be going against the recommended practice by turning off our electrical power when we aren't at the house (we spend about a third of the year there over around 4 visits/year). We haven't seen any signs of damp as a result and there is no musty spell when we return to the house.

We're due to return to the UK on the 27th, so with a bit of luck the bridge may be open but it seems we're likely to hit delays with the tunnel. I guess we will need to decide whether we continue to take the diversion via Pont de l'Arche or hope to see signs confirming the other bridge is now open.

OK,  a response from a cyclist who rides both in the UK and France, often doing around 200 miles a week. Do I agree SOME cyclists are irresponsible? Absoluteley - YES. Do I think that SOME car drivers, motorcyclists, lorry drivers, pedestrians are irresponsible? Absolutely - YES However, in all of these camps I find the majority are fine. Road users only reflect people in general. Most people are fine and responsible, easy to get on with etc, but there are always the few. I sometimes ride with a cycling club in group rides. We have a convention... the person at the back will shout "car up" if a vehicle is approaching us from behind and we need to ride single file. My general experience is that MOST people will then filter into a single file as quickly as possible. There will be the odd exception who seems to delay moving over and they usually get advised of their misdemeanor by the ride leader. When riding solo I always try and help any vehicle who gets held up behind me by waving them through if I can see the road is clear ahead and I will try and minimise the amount of road I take up. I will not ride too close to the kerb to do so. The kerb is a dangerous place for cyclists.... often lots of gravel, glass  and potholes and road furniture. In addition, if a vehicle passes too close (and they often do) there is no room left to manoeuvre.  If a vehicle has waited to get pass me I will usually try and give them a little thank you acknowledgement for not cutting me up. Now, to cycle paths.  Firstly, I should say that I have no experience of cycle paths in France. Where I ride in the Lot I haven't come across any. In the UK I will sometimes use them but not always. The nature and type of cycle paths varies massively. Some are properly separated from the road, pedestrians and are wide and well maintained. I use these. Others are no more than a white line painted in the road  about 1 foot wide. These give no protection from traffic and and are pretty useless for the reasons I've mentioned regarding riding close to the kerb. Others are totally illogical, they are incorporated into what in effect are pedestrian pavements and there is then conflict with pedestrians. Some of these run for 100 yards or so then re-enter the road so you have to constantly stop and negotiate your entry back on the road. I do not use these. Btw, these have the added danger that they often run across the entrances to houses and you have cars pull out of drives basing their stop point at the kerb. If you are inboard of that you stand to get hit. I could go on... So yes I agree some cyclists are idiots but so are people in general. I'd say it's a lot less of an offense to hold up a vehicle from passing for  a few seconds than for vehicles to pass cyclists so close that they brush them with their wing mirrors.

Froome down for the second time today... looks like it's all over for him. Just abandoned.

They aren't even on the cobbles yet and they're falling like ninepins.

Just heard they've pulled cobbled sections 5 and 7 because of the awful conditions. Also a comment from Simon Gerrans "Unfortunately I think there will be a queue of riders lining up to use ASO's new mobile X-ray machine at the end of todays stage". Let's hope he is wrong.

Today could be a significant stage with all the pavé sections. Bad enough when they are dry but in the state they are now it could be mayhem. A picture from yesterday [img]http://1.nieuwsbladcdn.be/Assets/Images_Upload/2014/07/08/k7.jpg.h411.jpg.608.jpg[/img] Just hope no one gets badly hurt.

If you want to follow the tour in a lot of detail, the official roadbook can be viewed/downloaded from [url]http://velorooms.com/roadbooks/2014/tdf-vredit-en.pdf[/url] It's a big and detailed document but gives route/elevation details plus road intersection and stage finish details and more... Who will stop Kittel in the sprints... I can't see anyone touching him unless some sort of incident occurs

This isn't unique to French companies. I have Virgin broadband in the UK. Several times I've had need to call them when the service has gone down only to be told... "yes, we know about that, the engineers are doing some routine maintenance". Me... "so why didn't you informed me if it was planned". Virgin... "what", "don't know", "we don't do that" etc. Useless.

Just an update.... Alis got around to debiting our account yesterday so all is back on schedule. Thanks for your inputs.

It's worth doing a simple ph soil test. The kits are easy to use and cheap. For Rhododendrons and Azeleas an ideal ph is around 5.1 to 6

Thanks for all of your feedback, I appreciate you taking the time to check your accounts. Paul has "hit the nail on the head" regarding my concerns if it doesn't work. Angela... you are right, I'll not take the 30kph lane on leaving the Calais area towards Rouen but leave myself the option to make alternative payment.

Yes, we've had the notification of billing email and have looked and found the entry on our on-line account. However, looking on line at our bank account the amount has not been debited. Alis say.... Your bill, including details of all your trips, is available in the customer area of the website between the 10th and 15th of the month following the month in which you made the trips (e.g. if you made some trips in January, the bill is available between 10th and 15th February). You receive an e-mail as soon as it is online. The sum is debited from your account on the 5th of the month following the issuing of the bill. E.g. the cost of the trips made in January will be debited from your account on 5th March. We realise we can still use the tolls but not having access to the "fast lanes" is not what we want.

Thanks Angela. Perhaps a similar thing has happened with Alis.  As I said, I'm not anxious to hand over my money but as we are about to travel I don't want to find the doofer isn't working.

Anyone using the Alis Toll Tag who hasn't had their bill debited this month? My understanding is that it should have come out on 5th May but checking our bank account nothing yet. Nothing has changed at our end that should have effected the direct debit. It's not that I'm really keen to pay but I don't want to come over this weekend and find the doofer isn't working. I've emailed Alis but no response yet...  Anyone know if the very helpful Christine Zurkinden is still with Alis?

Yes, the Giro is on now (also the Tour of California). You will find links to live streaming of both of these races on the Steephill link I gave you). Btw, the Giro is also covered live on Eurosport.

You could try Steephill... http://www.steephill.tv/ Lots of live streaming of cycle races worldwide.

Whilst I'm continue to prevaricate over getting a phone line/internet installed I (very) occasionally tether my laptop to my iphone. I'm on o2 on a monthly contract and have their o2 Travel Bolt-on. This allows a daily usage on 15Mb per day for £1.99 per day of actual usage. ie. if you don't use data you don't get charged the £1.99. As you near your 15Mb allowance you get a text message telling you that you are about to run out of your allowance. If you go over the 15Mb you just get cutoff, it doesn't go on billing you increments of £1.99. If you need more data that day you can text them and you get a new block of 15Mb at £1.99. It's ok for occasional use but too expensive for any  serious use... but at least you aren't running up an uncontrolled bill.

[quote user="Quillan"]The only time I used data was to try out the GPS mapping system on my mobile. I only went 4 km down to Quillan and back. The cost of the data (because it downloads the 'tiles' of map as it goes) would have meant a taxi would have been cheaper. [/quote] If you have an iphone I can recommend Pocket Earth.  Minimal cost and you can download maps in advance and thereby avoid data roaming charges. I have the UK and France downloaded. Works a treat. I believe and Andoid version is in the pipe.