Frederick

I know just about all our houses are on Google Earth and we had no choice in that I believe ....but ...I get an uneasy feeling about this  new planned  Google View service where you can punch in any address and get a close up of ....and all round  view of the house .....The thought of a car with a camera pole on the roof just turning up and "doing " the road photographing your home  to show the cars in the drive . your access.... gates ....if the house is screened by trees ....who and what is at the back  etc ......I am not happy with this ...but then I am not a burglar or car thief ..... if I was I would be delighted to know Google has picked my targets for me !

I have a cousin who's husand cant resist bringing stuff back from a "tip run "..... he has  restored into working order chain saws..petrol . strimmers....mowers  and the latest ...a leaf blower ..... he just has to fix them....

Gastines ................Next time you are over........check out for value  the Tap and Railway pub in West Moors  ...They do a  "2 two for a tenner" menu  which includes a 10 oz rib- eye steak  with veg and  choice of  new....jacket..... or fries.... so they look after us poor people of  Dorset as best they can ...bless them ........ I have not found anywhere in France in the Vendee area that gives me such value ...They do Ringwood best and John Smiths to wash it down  with .....and when you have had your meal............... you can sit in a big armchair with another pint  and read the paper .....

I think it was Churchill who said "Let China Sleep for when she wakes the whole world will tremble "  After what we saw this afternoon.... she has sat up with a bolt and is wide awake now  !

As I siad ......What do I know about it ? ..........Here I am telling my family in Australia  if you go to the site you can watch the  BBC ....TV ,stuff  like I can .........   There is an "International  " button to click  so I thought that they  just had to do that and away you go ....No wonder I have not had any feed back ...Lets hope they make it possible soon for everyone to access  it .....

There is plenty of TV to access...I looked at the "Cult of the Onidin Line " this evening . on  the BBC i  site ......I assumed anybody who could access the BBC web site would be able to watch  from anywhere ...?....but then I am no expert in these things ....

I have found myself turning to the BBCi site more and more and find it very good indeed....not just for watching stuff  missed on TV and radio.....Its so handy to be able when talking to family on the other side of the world to be able  to refer them to somthing you have seen and  they can also watch...Stuff  that you know they would enjoy.........well done the BBCi site .....  

Wooly .........There is a South African system for flames to shoot out from under your car if you get too close......but you could bet  Granny passing in her wheelchair would get toasted first !

It will get sorted .......but we might have to wait for some MP to get the box ripped of his Jag first.....they wont do for you or me !

At the moment there must be millions of people under canvas on holiday....I feel sorry for them.....the camp sites dont like you digging a trench round your tent to run the water off like we used to in the Scouts .........must be many who woke up in soggy sleeping bags !

Not just France .........My son took in its first week out on the road  his Audi A6 Estate to Spain ...went onto the beach after parking up near some flats only to return and  find a  tyre with a slit in the side wall.....A group of lads Spannish  were pointing and laughing from the balcony of the Flats as he changed the wheel ...... it happens everywhere ..its the "You have got somthing better than me ..so I will bugger it up for you attitude of so many these days " 

These unmanned spy planes in UK air space will concern a lot of people ........I think it would be an accident waiting to happen...some componant  or power  supply failing in the air or on the ground in the control of these things could cause a real disaster....these are not the home made model  aircraft  flown about under radio control you see in parks  ....they are big aircraft .. and to put one into the air lanes with airliners controlled from the ground .........madness !

I recall the row when they closed the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot and moved a ward into Frimley  Park NHS hospital The Cambridge was really missed ....I have learned that in Salisbury area a number of wounded are being treated in private hospitals.... such is the rush to get them fit to return to active service again ....   that must be expensive  but I am delighted the lads are getting a some 1st class treatment out of it .  

I believe they have even started to measure the impact from cow farts .................what about when the planet was covered in great herds of Bison  etc ..............that gets forgotten does it not ?

The Vendee houses at this time of the year have great displays of Hollyhocks .they seem to come up everywhere  huge flowering muli coloured  plants lots from cracks in pavements ..... I have scattered seeds  hundreds of them along the back of the flower beds...good well composted soil and  against a white painted wall in full sun just as I expected  they would like it ....3 came up ...and one the leaves went brown and fell off leaving a flowering stick ! ......other stuff grows like hell ...you cant win sometimes !

Mmmmm ..........Google "The true Olympic Scandal "..   seems things changed in 1920..... Antwerp games.....now silver guilt .....called "Gold " medal because of the colour today .....given the amount of cash they have I think they could come up with a solid gold one ! 

I always believed that the gold medal winners at the olympics got a gold medal ..........it seems bronze winners  get a solid bronze medal ...... the silver medal winners get one 92.5% pure silver .....the gold medal winners ........a silver one covered in 6 grams of pure gold...... .I  am surprised  at that !

I read Wimborne  Dorset wants to be the first UK town to have  "green " Xmas lights thus reducing its "carbon footprint " by 85 %  replacing the town decoration light bulbs with L E D's  Chairman of the Chamber of Trade wants to go green to show they are behaving responsibly ... it seems some  light bulbs have to be changed each year and the LED lights with a life of two years will only cost £15.000  ....Am I the only one getting fed up with the words "carbon footpint "  stuck on everything these days ? If they are that keen to " go Green " surely it would be better not to switch the lights on at all and drop the 15 grand into the childrens hospice collection box if they have it to spare ! There will in fact be collection boxes put out in the town for the "Lights fund " so on second thoughts they have not got it to spare  !  

Burgundy Maid  it cheers me to read yout post......For years I have been saying that there are a lot of people who require disabled persons access who cannot holiday in gites etc in France because of reluctance of owners to cater for them ......As an organiser of holidays for disabled people in the past I know these people have the money to take holidays in France and just wish there were more places they could use ...this place will never be short of customers .....

I was told last month as far as the South Vendee is concerned for every person  on agents books looking to buy  there are  five times as many houses up for sale ......There are quite a few signs out in our village at the moment  more than I have seen for sale in the past 4 years and where I am is supposed to be place people want to be and they normally go quickly ..

Car hire at Airports .....My family go through a firm called  "  Nova " for car hire they are cheaper its an agency based in Ireland ....you book with them on line make a deposit payment  they put you onto an airport hire company to pick up the car ...What you see is what you pay ...daughter and son in law  hired a car out of Nantes  Airport with them and it was £165 for a week .....and they got a new Alfa Romeo  that son in law said had "Lots of grunt " as the VW Golf they thought they were getting was not available ... They were very happy with the service  and what they got for the money

I gave up with French Telecom .....Wrote to them in the end and  requested they switch off the phone disconnect the line ...copy of letter to Orange France informed them  will not renew the contract for broadband  .contacted bank... stoppped direct debit payments ... All .fine...they switched off the line  the .payments stopped ...Now Orange France are asking me for the broadband payments after the line switch off date..now how do they think I can use it without a phone line ?. I now use the French  pay as you go mobile and when I want to send and check emails etc...  I go to a local bar with the lap top where they offer customers free Wi Fi access...I  have a couple of long cool beers and toast goodbye to French Telecom Orange .

There are many centers that persons on IB are reffered to in order to assist them back into the work place ....Rehabilitation centers that are kitted out with computors ...metal working and woodworking workshops etc and skilled staff paid to  train people back into  full time work ...Over the years I have been in contact with a great many  as I have to collect them from home drive them to these centers and take them home after 6 hours "work " ...at no cost to them ...NHS pays  for the "taxi " I have felt sorry mainly for people who have suffered strokes who I see fighting hard to regain their health and who desperatly want to " get back to normal " and I  see how keen they are to retrain and you have to admire them ..... There is however another group who have had  mainly work related injuries or depression or drug dependancy  and have been out of the work place for years that do not want to be helped back into employment .....I have lost count of the number who are still in bed at 9am when I arrive to pick them up and the partner has answered the door with  "Not going in today "  I have lost count of the numbers of times I have been told "Its not worth getting a job "  as what they have left after benefit is stopped when they get a job they consider not worth getting out of bed for ....Of course there are many who deserve their benefits and they have to be given our sympathy. understanding and our tax money to give them a reasonable standard of living ..but the very many who will not face up to having to take the training on offer  and get  back to work  will have to be forced to ...even if they are just a "couple of quid a week  " better off after benefit is stopped . I watched the news report where the unemployed guy in East Anglia  said packing veg was a "mugs game " when the farmer up the road was paying good money to immigrants to do it and could not get enough help ....  I think they might have just have to be sent to the farm in future from the job center and the farmer can pay them their benefit  that week !

Well guys....... the blue tack worked long enough for the poor girl not to smell the petrol when she went to get in her car.... then drove into the New Forrest on her way home only to run out of petrol  which  made the situation more distressing for her ......You may say she should have checked her fuel guage but having filled up she knew she had plenty of fuel and she didnt ........but thats new drivers  for you ......she has had an expensive lesson ...I bet she checks it now .... It is probably some young person with an old banger that they cant afford to run now thats doing this.... and with the price of fuel today no doubt their numbers will continue to grow ....part of life in the UK today !

While on the subject of storks Chris ....I see that the same EDF pole outside La Tranche has been occupied again this year and they have again  raised two chicks .....Last year the nest was removed I suspected by EDF but this year  its rebuilt and I am pleased EDF  have left it alone . Why that particular pole alongside a main road is so popular to storks  I  suppose we will never know .... but its home sweet home to them .