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Richard T

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Everything posted by Richard T

  1. [quote user="Iceni"]In the meantime have written to James Gordon to apply for the job of "And here is another way to waste taxpayers money" but suspect that I am over qualified.[/quote] You could always lie about your qualifications on your CV, get the job and reduce unemployment by one. Result! Richard
  2. We just had one that was five A4 pages of closely typed text. If only I could be ars'ed to read it I'm sure it would be fascinating stuff! Richard T
  3. [quote user="Georgina"]..but very worried I may ruin my kids' lives by finding out I cannot at the airport...  [/quote]You mean if it's confiscated? I think that may actually enhance your children's lives! [:)] Seriously I can't see any problem in putting it in hand luggage. No different from, for example, a laptop. Richard T
  4. [quote user="Pads"]I liked C'est la folie by Micheal Wright .... funny simple easy read[/quote] A quick thanks for this recommendation. I've just finished reading it and not only is it superbly crafted and, at times, quite poignant it's also set in the same part of France as where I own a house (which also needs complete renovation just as the author's house did) so I was able to identify with many of his descriptions of the locality, not to mention the frequent trips to Castorama. So what should I read next? Richard T
  5. [quote user="Jay"]They are sometimes a bit of a pain those machines. There is a lovely smell of fresh bread in a morning when I get up but then I have to wait till the wife comes downstairs, gets the loaf out of the machine, cuts it, puts the jam on and serves it up with a cup of tea. She then has to clean the thing out and make it ready the next evening with the flour and other stuff. [/quote] Sounds like you've got it sussed! Richard T
  6. [quote user="Patf"]Ah, I see - at least I think I see. So the mixing is done in the actual baking tin? With some sort of paddle -like blade? So what happens to the blade when the loaf comes out? Do you have to chew around it?[:D] [/quote] Yep, sometimes. Theoretically the paddle stays in the tin but not always. It can be a bit of a faff to dig it out of the baked loaf so chewing around it is probably a good idea. Like a few others here I only use the bread maker for mixing dough and then bake the loaf in the oven. I recently bought a perforated loaf tin which enables you to bake baguette shaped bread. The perforations cause a little pattern on the underside of the loaf and one of my kids said recently "it looks just like you get in the Co-op". Richard T
  7. As you might expect there are also a few (but just a few) recipes in the Raymond Blanc book. I can recommend the Tarte aux Pommes de Maman Blanc with the optional custard topping. It's very simple but so good I've made it four times in the last few weeks - and is equally good made with pears. Richard T
  8. As the OP of this thread I'd like to thank you all for the suggestions. I have since bought C'est La Folie by Michael Wright as recommended by Pads and will be starting it very soon. As I mentioned in my first post I was struggling with Two Steps Backward by Susie Kelly which started well enough but degenerated into a series of silly anecdotes about her acquaintances and animals. At the time I was up to page 136 and, to be fair, it got a little better thereafter but only because I was now able to recognise when another animal anecdote was about to start and I found myself skipping huge swathes of text. But eventually I just stopped caring and gave up. Instead I picked up a new book by Raymond Blanc called "A Taste of My Life" which is a mix of reminiscences of his early life in the Franche-Comté region, his life as a French person in England, the ups and downs of his business ventures and a lot of really good stuff about food - especially French food. Sometimes Blanc comes across as a little smug but in the next sentence he can be self-deprecating but mostly he comes across as a gentleman (and quite unlike most celebrity chefs). One minute he's talking about his childhood, the next about how to make a perfect soufflé or the British eating habits (as viewed by a Frenchman) in the 1970s. This is an excellent book, well written, well paced and would appeal to francophiles and foodies alike. Any more reading suggestions would be most welcome. Richard T
  9. [quote user="teapot"]There have been plenty of threads on security at the airports nail clippers, soft cheese etc.  It could be worse, Imagine the laughs and gasps from the security staff if the whole body scanners are introduced.. http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/news/gizmos/story.html?id=23833160-af95-4a8c-a50b-afc6d2d989be Then they will know exactly what your packing so to speak..[:-))] [/quote] Why do you think that security staff will be convulsed with "laughs and gasps" at the sight of a blurry image of a human body? The real issue here is that body scanners are just one more step on the slippery slope of the total abandonment of our civil liberties and should be opposed on that basis and not on the basis that security staff might have a puerile sense of humour. Richard T
  10. Freesat is the free satellite channels which you can receive...free! It includes all the BBC channels as well as ITV and Channel 4. You'll also get a load of dross. All you need is a satellite receiver box, a TV, and a satellite dish and some SCART leads. The difficult bit is aligning the dish as it has to be accurately pointed at the satellite which will be vaguely south of wherever you are. And it must have a clear view, not obstructed by buildings or trees. You can buy all the bits in a brico or, if in the UK, do what I did and go to Maplins who will sell you all the things you need. Richard T
  11. Thanks for this. The Michael Wright book had some good reviews on Amazon so I might give it a try. Richard T
  12. [quote user="TWINKLE"]However - now and again a photo of a frog dancing in a nightclub makes me smile. [/quote] Frog dancing is cruel and demeaning. There should be a law against it! Richard T
  13. [quote user="Russethouse"]My tip is to avoid something that has Piano and Pyrenees in the title ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Piano-Pyrenees-Englishman-French-Mountains/dp/0091903335/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224415456&sr=1-1)[/quote] Ah yes, Tony Hawks. I read that book but it didn't reach the standards of Playing the Moldovans at Tennis. [quote]and anything by Carol Drinkwater. [/quote] Don't know anything about Carol Drinkwater so maybe it's just as well! Richard T
  14. ... since when there have been many look-a-like books about living in France, renovating old properties, dealing with builders who never turn up and generally mocking the French way of life for not being more British (a bit like these forums I suppose [;-)] ). I generally quite like this genre: it's easy reading and panders to my sense of idyllic French life although I get quite irritated with authors who seem to rely on French eccentricities to create their stories. As the owner of a home in France which is part way through renovation I would like to read more realistic accounts of how people have built their dreams and yet still retain the readability of A Year in Provence. I am currently reading a book called Two Steps Backward by Susie Kelly which starts promisingly enough. The author and her husband were more-or-less bankrupted in the last recession and with their last remaining pounds (converted into francs) bought a leaky property somewhere in the Poitou-Charentes region. She lived there with a menagerie of animals (some illegally imported apparently) whilst her husband went off in a van somewhere to earn enough money to buy food and make improvements to the property. But then it goes downhill because the book then launches into a long string of improbable anecdotes about improbably eccentric neighbours, villagers (mostly ex-pats themselves) and estate agents all of whom seem to think that this new resident is the only person who can solve their problems; and about her growing flock of chickens, geese, horses, cats and a parrot all of which the author endows with human qualities in that peculiar way that "animal lovers" do. And all of this written in a rather clichéd style as if she was too busy to find appropriate adjectives: she describes a "pitch dark night", "unbearably hot" sunshine, a "whacky sense of humour" and so on. At one point she recounts a family visit thus: "Coupled with the horses' arrival was the enormous pleasure of having some of our family here for the first time, and we all managed to to happily survive the primitive living conditions. They left after five days..." and then the narrative returns to some silly story about "madly barking dogs and whinnying horses". So for all the "enormous pleasure" of the family's first visit she dismisses it in one and a half sentences. I would have loved to have known what the family thought, how they reacted to the "primitive conditions" but no, all we get is bloody dogs and horses. Ok, I'm only up to page 136 so perhaps I haven't given it a chance yet but - and here's the purpose of this post - can anyone recommend any similar books which reflect a more realistic view of life in France for the newly arrived? Richard T
  15. Thanks Andy. All I could see when I searched the SNCF site was trains via Paris which seemed a rather long way round. I missed the direct one. Cheers Richard T
  16. Does anyone know if there is a fairly direct route from Lyon to Limoges using public transport. A bus would be ideal but I can't find much information about buses. Any help would be much appreciated. Richard T
  17. [quote user="Spicy"]We had the same problem (exactly the same message at login) and it took a couple of calls and a visit before someone realised they hadn't received a copy of a bill to fully activate the account. When it was fully activated we got new PIN numbers in the post and all is well.[/quote] As the OP of this thread I can now confirm that this was my problem as well. It has taken three personal visits, a letter and two emails before this issue was identified and resolved. At the time of  opening the account I explained that  my house in France has no mains water, no mains electric, no town gas and no telephone so it was quite impossible for me to produce a utility bill. I did however produce my passport, an attestation signed by the notaire which proved that the property was mine and offered any number of other documents such as birth certificate and UK bank account statement - I also gave them a couple of cheques signed by the same notaire to pay into the account. Anyway, to cut a long story short, when I wrote to them from my UK address they asked for a UK utilty bill which I scanned and sent to them by email. Amazingly this was accepted straight away and immediately (if you can call three days "immediately") I was given access to the online faciltiy. So... looking around the CA web site it now appears that if I want to make an external payment I have to contact the branch to set up the details. I am beginning to wonder if this whole French bank account idea is worth the excrutiating effort. Richard T
  18. Or, for complete accuracy, try www.dishpointer.com . Enter your postcode or address and the site does the rest of the work for you including showing the satellite direction on Google maps and identifying the maximum height of any obstruction which can help you deciding how high to site your dish. Richard T
  19. [quote user="ErnieY"]Doubless this will provoke strident rebuttal from certain quarters[/quote] Not from here because one look at the page and I couldn't be ars'ed to read it. Richard T
  20. What gets me is those who post simple questions which could easily be resolved by a quick google. On another forum recently a poster asked "Can pets be taken on Ryanair" - without so much as a please or a question mark - and blow me, the first response was "I searched 'Travel questions' on the ryanair site, and found this about guide dogs. It does also say that other animals are not permitted on flights. Hope this answers the question" The poster who asked the question has a history of posing one line questions and has never yet posted a "thank you" to any of them. Richard T
  21. Hi, Thanks for the replies. Welding would be a better solution but it's a question of accessibility. The stove is actually an old wood burning furnace which is located in the basement of my property. It heats water for the central heating system and there is a small water leak where the water pipes return but it's really difficult to get at. As it's getting old I may have to replace it but I'd rather see if it can be fixed before shelling out more money. The house is located in 87, north of Limoges. Richard
  22. I need to make a repair to a wood burning stove which would best be achieved with some metal repair paste. Obviously it has to be able to withstand high temperatures. Just wondered if anyone knew a brand name for such a paste and, if so, whether it's likely to be available in Mr. B or Casto. Thanks in advance. Richard T
  23. [quote user="P2"]I found that Tom Tom was not too keen to take this route nor was Multimap. However, Mappy will do the route - the other two seem to still want to take you via Paris![/quote] In TomTom set the route as normal then select "Find Alternative...Avoid Part of Route" then select "Paris" from the route itinerary. It'll recalculate and offer the Rouen/Chartres route instead. This works for TomTom Navigator so I presume it'll work for other versions. Richard T
  24. I usually travel from Boulogne rather than Calais and according to my TomTom going via Rouen and Chartres will add just 8 kilometres compared with the Paris route but will take 30 minutes longer. I last did the Paris route a few weeks ago arriving at Paris about 5 o'clock on a Sunday evening when I thought the roads would be fairly quiet. Indeed the traffic was reasonably light but there was quite a lot of stopping and starting which added about 20 minutes to my estimated time of arrival in Limoges. Had I hit Paris on, say, a Friday afternoon I guess that 20 minutes could easily have extended to an hour or more. I find that the estimated time of arrival on the TomTom is accurate to within a few minutes if I travel via Rouen and Chartres so I have now decided to make that my regular route on the basis that I will always get held up in Paris to a greater or lesser degree. At Rouen I follow the signs for Evreux rather than relying on the GPS as my maps are a little out of date. Hope this helps. Richard T
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