mary

Can anyone advise what this problem is. In February Virgin Mobile sent me a new SIM, and since then, I can send texts and get charged for them, but they are not received. It's fine in France, but no one receives them outside of france. It;s all my contacts, not just one or two. Even to Germany. I can make calls to the UK so the roaming is working fine, just not texts. Virgin have said there is not a problem with my account, even sent me another new sim, when I complained but still they are not being received. They have said it leaves their system but they do not arrive. I tried my SIM in my sons phone, but still does not work They said it all my contacts that have the problem. Rubbish. I dont know what else to do....I am still technically tied in with them for another 10 months. Prior to my new sim, I never had a problem. They asked me to send a text to a specific number for them to check my parameters and they said it's all ok , so what is the problem. Any techi's out there that can help pls....Thanks

Hi I have an 'Insurance expert' coming to see me on Wednesday as we are claiming off of our insurance for repairs to the sit on mower as we have the top insurance for damage. I need to explain that after hitting a tree with the wheel, the wheel went slightly out of align, but I don't know the names in French for 'Worn away' and 'Wheel bearings'. Because the tracking was out of align, the metal on the center of the wheel has worn away and so have the bearings, hence the wheel dropped off. Many thanks

Each Trimester I have to log onto Net Entreprise site to register my earnings for my Auto Entrepreneurs and each time I can't log on. I ask for a new password which I get via e mail and sometimes that doesn't work and so I ask for another and a few days later it may work. It asks you to change your temporary password so I do, but when trying to log on the following trimester, it all happens again. I can never log in from the original password and I may have to ask for another two before I can finally get in. I have tried leaving it for hours in between and days in case it doesn't register straight away. Does anyone have the same problems? I have even tried do it from a friends computer in case its mine, but still no luck! Any ideas, Many thanks

Thanks 5 Element, yes it does reassure me thats it is a grass snake and perhaps not an adder.... Still feel slightly uncomfortable with it though. Thanks

OMG I kept the window shut last night. Hubbie wondered if it came up in the washing basket from the garden. but it was tail end on the window edge and head in the bedroom, so the wrong way around. We often get lizzards, but a snake with no legs!! Yes, perhaps a bird, still feel very uncomfortable by it though.

I have just had a shock. I opened the bedroom window on the second floor, looked down to find a dead snake caught up in the frame with it's head facing into the bedroom. It's about 14-16 inches long, a bit thicker than a pencil, very dark slate grey, but not black. Round head with yellow markings. No other markings or colour on the body. What worries me the most, is how did it climb up a smooth rendered wall with no trees. The window is 4 meters off of the ground, and without stating the obvious, it was going in my bedroom! Is it just a young Grass\whip snake or a viper. I tried taking photo's of it, but I can't get the camera to focus. I'm pretty nervous by this. Have lots of whip snakes in the garden and happy for them to be there, but in my bedroom........ugh...

no, not looking to buy them....just fed up with hearing how fantastic this chicken is!! I can't find anything either. I think I will just turn deaf ears when she mentions it yet again!!! Funny how they become chicken experts when they don't even own any!!

Thank you for your response, but these are a new breed of Chicken. I think in the last 6 months. I can't find any info on them and I doubt I can buy them here in France. I just wondered if anyone knew what they were and if in the small print it stated, 'Not when moulting etc' lol

Can anyone help me out here please. My mother insists that in the Uk, you can now buy a chicken which is guaranteed to lay everyday of the year. She can't remember the breeds name , but she assures me it was on the TV. It's become a bit of a obsessive argument when I tell my mum the girls aren't laying as they are moulting. I don't see how this is possible when it takes 25\26 hours to produce an egg, they don't lay when they moult and need at least14/16 hours of daylight. Has anyone else hear of this? I have done a google search with no results. Thanks in advance

My suggestion would to speak with the Mayor. If he is in a village with neighbours, then the likely hood is all the neighbours will be in the same situation. I might not be 100% correct on this, but in my village the mayor has to address this problem and look at putting in a joint Micro station, or perhaps individual ones. I know with our friend purchasing a property in our village, the notaire pointed out it is not up to regulation, but was told not to worry about it at this time, see what the mayor is going to do as all the neighbours have all got to do the same and if he contracts the same artisan to complete the work, it may be that the mayor can negotiate a deal. The individual micro stations are around 6,000E. Frustrating thing is, you can get them for half the price from Belgium but because it does not have NF written on it, it wont pass when inspected, however I believe this is changing in the next few years.

Hi Can someone confirm please, is it just the actual cost of the woodburner/ poele that I am able to claim a % back on on next years Impo, or is it a % on the total invoice? Ie Just the woodburner, or all parts, tubing etc and installation? Ie the total invoice. The work is being done via two different registered artisans as the old Insert and Chimney\Flu needs to be removed first. Can I claim back on this invoice as well or is it just the Woodburner invoice. Many thanks

I am not sure where you are based, but there is an english run Charity called BEE. They are based in Eymet - dept 47. They do the IGCSE and my son has done it for the last 7 months and will restart the course in Sept. Depending on their english level, they can do it one year, but normally at least 4/5 terms of study. http://www.bilingual.fr EDIT - Sorry, just reread your post, you want French IGCSE, sorry, I was talking about the English IGCSE.

I've cut mine over the last two days, but waited until at least 4pm so the sun dried it out...just in time for the rain tomorrow.

Credit Agricole will order the Sterling in for you, but I think they need quite a bit of notice from what I can remember. When I spoke with Brit-line, they said they can order it into my branch for me but I think it was 10 days, but it may be less, I know I didn't have enough time before I went to the UK. I would try and ask the college or other parent what they are doing.

Thanks Judith, but if you are downloading to your computer, does amazon not pick up your IP address here in France. My amazon address is registetred to the Uk but when I go into to look at books on amazon Uk, it states it's only for users in the Uk and tells me to go to Amazon.com and books are in dollars. I haven't got the Kindle as yet, just thinking about problems I may have or have heard about, but just wanted to confrim before I buy. A bit confused on how some of you can buy and some can't from a UK site unless you put up the expatshield.

Thanks for all your replies. When I looked at e books for sale on Amazon UK to see how much they cost from my French laptop, it said, 'this information is not available outside the UK, please redirect to Amazon.com' or something similar, which happened after a few minutes, therefore it must have picked up my IP address. From what I did see before it booted me out, the books seemed alot cheaper on the UK site....thats why I assume everyone registeres them to Amazon UK.

I am sorry if this has been talked about before. I have asked for a kindle for a Birthday present and know that it has to be registered to a UK address and UK e mail address, but can this be done here in france or does the first set up have to be done in the UK? I realise if I do it here it will pick up a French IP address, therefore when you set it up, does it need to pick up the UK IP address the first time? A friend thought that maybe if I don't return to the UK at least once a year to download X amount of books from a UK IP address, I may have a problem as it will know that I am here in France all the time and not the UK, therefore block my account. Is it necessary to get the 3G to get around this or have some of you just got the WIFI version and experience no problems. I know about the XpatSheild, is this the way around it? Many thanks

My sister when she returns to the Uk with her two dogs, brings the Drontal and Fontline with her. The vet charges a fee to fill in the Passports and give the tablets, fontline etc and give them a general MOT. She gets charged 45E. I assume it will still be the same price even with the new regs, as the vet will still have to fill and stamp the passport and charge for an consultation to give the dogs a bill of healthy to travel.

We received two Orange TV Boxes, I collected one from the store as we had not received the one via the post. I took the spare to the local 'Orange Store', told them we had received two, he filled in some paperwork which I signed to say I had returned it, 1 week later we received an unexpected cheque for 50Euro's !

If we did donwgrade to AE, we would pay 23% not 46%. thefore have more money at the end of each month. With the Sarl, we did earn 33,000, but with the social charges and impo paid, we are down to 17,000 net which amount to 1,400 per month with a family of two children. On the SARL we had only just earnt over the Micro and AE limit by 800E. If we went on to Auto Entrepenoeur we would pay 23%, so although 33,000 is 800 over the AE limit, on the 33,000 we would be 8,000 a year better off. I went to CAF yesterday to see if we could qualify for some extra help or even just the Rentree money from Sept but they said that they can only take into account the Gross earnings NOT what you have left to live on each month.

idun, what I meant was for a better quality of life as a family, the house we have with land. Yes, we new charges were higher than being self employed in the Uk, but due to a crappy accountant not informing us properly and then not advising us of the charges we would incur after the first years auditing of accounts. We have never been in the risky financial situation we are in now or ever owed this much money. We love living in France, better way of life for us as a family. certinaly do more as a family and have some lovely french friends and a good social life. Boys are settled at school. It has just put a dampner on it all as I am sure we will have to try and negotiate paying over a 5 year period with RSI if they will let us or it will mean selling!

HI Val, Thanks for the post, I have only just seen it. We were never told about the 46% charges and all along I asked if 30% is about right inc Impo which he confrimed was ok. Accountant spoke fluent english and the wife of my husbands partner is French, so no misunderstanding with translation etc Husband was set up as a Sarl and accountant has now told us the Sarl should have paid these and I should have paid my Husband and his Partner Net. That way, the charges would be lower. They have both decided to close down the sarl as their proffit can't cover these charges and both are registering as Micro. sad thing is we came to France to better ourselves and because we were wrongly advised, now we have a short full of 5,000 to RSI this year and will have about 11,000 next year to pay for earnings this year which we had not allowed for. We wont be able to remortgage as the bank will look at our net earnings which doesnt cover our outgoings now, let alone another 15,000 . We are in a terrible situation

Someone please tell me they are wrong. Husband has just received his first RSI social charge bill for 2010 and they want 46% of his earnings. We already paid 3,686E for that year and they are demanding another 12,000E. This now equates to what we thought was an Ok salary of 33,000E, bringing it down to 18,000E net and we have also paid another 1,000E in tax. We have two children of school age. We did not get the rentree money as 33,000 was over the limit, but on these workings out, we are down to 1,400E a month for small mortgage, school canteen, edf, water, foncier tax, mutuel etc all amount to 1,200. this leaves us to 200E for food\pertol! Surley something is wrong here. I spoke briefly to the sectretary of my accountant, and she seems to think 46% is correct. Help!!!

Yes, I wrote on the income tax form in May this year of change of address, also wrote on tax form previous May 2010 of rental address, but I never received a bill. I think foncier and habitation must have gone to the landlord as he showed me the bill and just asked me to pay the element for the 'Dustman'. So if I filled in my new address on the tax form this may, should I have receievd a bill by now?

I purchased something in 'Pets at home' in the Uk as my cat shredded the side of the settee. It is bascially double sided clear strips which were A4 size in length and probably about 6 inches wide. You stick them to the furniture and they can't be seen. The cat doesnt like it because they are sticky. They are fantastic, cat has never again touched the settee