Tarn1

When you steralise them the result is a vacuum in the jar as the contents cool. It's quite normal. If not, they probably aren't steralised properly. The method we use to open them is pliars on the tab as mentioned above. Give it a gentle pull until you hear the satisfying 'hiss' of air entering. Then, if necessary, use whatever comes to hand to prise open the lid if it won't open easily. As a bloke I'd say use a knife, scissors, the wife's eyebrow tweezers or her nail file. My wife would say buy an expensive designer opener from the gadget shop... Tom

'The right hand 'go' lever is pneumatic...' This is a good point worthy of consideration if you buy one. Ours is a cable operated one and it is hard work holding it down. So much so that I slip a jubilee clip over the end of the lever and the handle-bar to hold the lever down. This is clearly potentially dangerous, and as a health and safety professional in a previous life I really should know better.  I can't recommend it as a solution and you shouldn(t do it. However, this does illustrate how much strain holding down a cable operated clutch lever is... Tom

"Ploughing, on the other hand, aerates the soil and doesn't destroy its structure." That's a matter of opinion :-) We have a rotavator purchased from Auchan. Had it for the last three years and it works fine. You won't use it much anyway so I wouldn't spend a lot... The advice I have been given by a friend who was a farmer in UK is, don't rotavate at all if you can help it, the problems being as described above, but mainly that you can  upset the structure of the soil by rotavating and as you walk behind it you compress the topsoil / subsoil. He says DO NOT plough!! as this destroys the structure of the soil, turning it over, bringing the sub-soil to the surface and burying the top-soil (indeed, one of his neighbours here in France is a commercial farmer and has stopped ploughing altogether). He is quita adamant about this, and I can verify that his vegetable garden would make Alan Tichmarch jealous. His recommendation for veg plots (which I followed as best as I could last year - and it helped) was to prepare the soil in autumn then leave it well alone. Top dress with whatever you wish but don't dig stuff in - that's what the worms are for. The most important thing is to ALWAYS spread your weight by walking on boards laid in between the rows of whatever you are planting (or weeding) to prevent compressing the soil - especially after the frosts have finished. Compressed soil ends up like concrete when the baking sun arrives. I followed his tips and my yields improved. However, you do it how you like! :-) Have fun, Tom

Am I missing something? Is this message in a code I don't understand? I got up early to do some renovation on my French house and came to the forum for some info on renovating my house. What with it being a 'House Renovation' forum... I think you know where I'm going with this. This first post by Ikobo is probably it in the wrong forum. Is there an 'Indian Real Estate Marketing' forum in LF? Tom

Having taken out PHI... Can anyone tell me approximately how much it costs to join CMU, now the option appears to becoming closer? ... And congratulations to everyone concerned with getting this mess sorted out... Tom

Our elderly neighbours, horrified by how callous their government could be in turfing us nice Brits out of the healhcare system, paid us a visit yesterday evening. Over an aperatif, Jo-Jo handed us two large boxes of paracetamol tablets. 'My doctor always prescribes too much for me. You can have them... they're very good for colds and flu etc...' This simple act of kindness helped to relieve some of the pain of the cost of the private health insurance we've just forked out for.. Bless 'em Tom

I personally, have found it extremely useful.  People have put in a huge amount of work for which they should be both congratulated and thanked. To say it 'can't be taken seriously' when many people are in a very serious position is, in my opinion, at best unhelpful and at worst an attempt at sabotage. Constructive feedback and corrections to inaccuracies, OK. Sweeping negative statements aimed at undermining sincere efforts to help others, No. If you don't like it just leave it alone. Tom

One of the nice things about the South is that wherever we have been and whoever the official in any office, we have always found them to be courteous, friendly and helpful. With the possible exception of the gendarmes. We have just come back from the CPAM office in Albi, where we went to ask about what we do now (not having heard anything from them). For the first time I was struck dumb. First she said, Yes, you are in CMU. Then she looked at her computer and said, No.. it ceases tomorrow. I asked what I should do. She said, 'you need a new E106 from the UK. I pointed out that this was impossible. She then said, 'you have been here for 16 months without working therefore you must be rich. Go out and buy private health insurance... it is very expensive (said with a broad smile)'. I pointed out to her that we are not, in fact, rich (we have been scraping by on redundancy money whilst renovating our place, but I digress). She then began to lose patience, pointed across the road to a building. 'Go there and get temporary work then. Come back here with your pay slips and prove to me that you have been doing 60 hours work a month and you will be admitted to CMU' (said with very tight lips). I asked her what I should do in the interim period, with no health cover. I think this pushed her close to the edge. She stood up and in a loud voive said, 'GO OUT AND GET PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE'. At this point I realised that we were about to get into a circular discussion. What with my French not being so good I decided that I wasn't going to get any further. That's when I produced the prepared letter (thanks for that!) duly signed it in front of her and handed it over. She glanced at it and had obviously seen it before. I think this is what pushed her over the edge.  Waving the letter in the air, raised voice, red faced, stomping around and clearly herding us towards the door, she shouted, 'COME BACK WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN HERE FIVE YEARS'. She refused to accept the letter and thrust it back into my wifes hands. We deposited in in the post box in the lobby on our way out. Both shaken by the experience. I don't think the outcome was any different to our expectations, but the way we were treated was appalling. We then went to the Mutualle, who were very understanding, where they cancelled our top-up insurance, promised to refund the January payment and offered to help when I have registered as an artisan. Meanwhile the sharp knives are in the back of the drawer, just to be on the safe side, and I'd better get some insurance sorted PDQ. Have fun! Tom

It says up to 2048kbps. No ADSL Max, No TV, no degroupage... pretty rubbish really! Tom

Oh, Just looked and the only problem I have is that I haven't received anything from them to use this to reply to. Do I sit tight and reply when I receive something, or do I pre-empt it (probably too late) by sending it to someone, and if so who should I send it to? tia, Tom

Many thanks, I'll use it, Tom

I don't think we are on ADSL Max. The reason being that after the MONTHS of initial trouble we had with no, or poor connection (which cost us about 100 euros in phone calls (for which we were re-imbursed just one months rental - ha!)) they lowered our broadband speed to make it 'stable' (I use the term loosely). I don't know the actual speed now but it is better than dial-up. "And yes, it is bonkers to suggest that any ISP would play the tricks you suggest just to make money out of you on phone calls." Oh, how I wish I could believe that! Tom

We have E106s which expire 5 Jan 2008. We went to CPAM when we arrived (2 yrs ago) and we have Carte Vitales. We haven't heard anything from anyone official. So, my question is, will we be covered by CMU ( we haven't been contributing) after 6 Jan or will we (as I suspect) have to get private insurance in Jan. Obviously we will go down to the CPAM office the first week in Jan and apply to join CMU... Tom

Is it a new connection or have you had it for a while? We have found that for some reason our connection with Free.fr improves with age. Sounds stupid I know. For example, when we first signed up the connection was appaling. Up and down like a yo-yo. After spending a lot of money complaining to Free (who blamed France Telecom (who blamed free.fr...)) the connection gradually got better. It than became fairly stable. Then we went on holiday for a week, unplugged everything, then reconnected it when we returned. Again, the connection was appaling. Complaints etc. again. The same thing happened the next time we went on holiday. I'm coming to the conclusion (based upon no evidence whatsoever apart from our experience) that Free has a system to recignise your IP address. When you first sign up they give you a terrible connection, sit back and wait for you to waste money paying them to call them. Then after a while they move you up the ladder onto a slightly more stable connection, then further up and so on until you get a good connection Then when you go on holiday and unplug it for a week you go back to the bottom rung again. A kind of Snakes and Ladders game if you like. Every now and again we lose the link still, but we keep it plugged in as much as we possible can now. Sounds bonkers, but this is Free.fr we are talking about! I hope this helps?! Tom