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bubbles

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Everything posted by bubbles

  1. Yes, yes, yes, Russethouse. I've been saying that for ages. So good to read that someone else thinks along the same lines. I remember being in hospital after my first baby and it was a very strict rule - nobody, but nobody sat on a patient's bed (except the patient of course). Matron didn't allow it!!! Come back, Matron, all is forgiven!
  2. I'm pretty sure they're not needed any more and haven't been for ages. I certainly haven't used them for at least 10 years! The last time I even saw one on a letter was from my dear old mum.
  3. I seem to remember that we paid our bill in cash once (a long time ago). Just make sure you get a proper receipt!!
  4. I've only just seen this thread. We were in a very similar situation. We moved back to UK from France in March. Previously we paid Taxes Foncieres by annual direct debit but we cancelled all our direct debits when we moved. We did arrange for all our French post to be redirected here to UK but no Taxes Foncieres arrived by last week. In desperation I emailed the local office (small village near Perpignan), asking them to let me know how much we owe so that we could send a cheque. I really didn't expect a reply - how many French offices reply to emails??? But this produced an answer within 4 hours, telling me the amount and giving me a reference number to write on the cheque. Incroyable. Perhaps they needed my money more than I realised.
  5. If it makes anyone feel any better I have never had any success with yorkshire puddings in any country whatever flour I have used. Have now given up - on the rare occasions that I cook a roast dinner I buy a little packet of infallible readymix for around 15p. My theory is that at a certain age one should just not bother persevering with things that one is just not very good at!!
  6. Must admit I was thinking something simlar!
  7. Excuse me for asking but does that 602 refer to a deux chevaux par hasard?
  8. I had a blood test in France a jeun. Afterwards hey offered little pains au chocolat, croissants and pains aux raisins with as much coffee as I could drink. It was freeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!
  9. Hello there. Yes, as Sweets says, I can vouch for the no poo method. It has made a great difference to me. Must confess that I continued to colour it once a month and very occasionally used conditioner but no shampoo has touched my scalp for probably 18 months now. Recently changed over to henna for colouring my hair and have seen a further improvement. My hair is now much much thicker and shinier than it ever was. And I don't get told off for clocking up the plughole any more either!! Good luck. Let us know how you get on, sueyh.
  10. That reminds me of a punchline to a joke that had me laughing until I needed the little girls' room. "Were they all black? No, only their privates." Can't remember the rest of the joke of course.
  11. I seem to remember that Banque Populaire wanted to charge us for online facilities - 3 euros a month. Seems you just can't win .
  12. It seems to be an excellent idea to take blood pressure readings whenever we visit the doctor. I've been told that you can have dangerously high blood pressure without knowing it or feeling any symptoms. Preventative medicine. By the way, other half is desperate not to have to take medication for his high blood pressure. He tried one type which caused side effects. Doc wants him to try another but at present he is taking his readings three times a day in an attempt to convince our GP that medication isn't necessary. At times the bottom reading can rise to 100 (which is scary). On the plus side, it can also drop to around 76. He takes his readings 3 times a day at the moment. We think it just varies according to his stress/excitement levels (he is married to me - these can increase frequently!) Any thoughts from anyone out there?
  13. Wine - definitely red. and a good hearty one at that. When we first ate snails in France you could buy them in a tin in Carrefour. You could buy the shells separately. Then you made your own garlic butter and stuffed the shells with the mixture of butter and snails. Later on we discovered that, after any rain, all the locals would go out and "ramasser" any escargos they could find. Down our way they used to hang them up in string bags until they had enough. We were once invited to a cargolade where the snails were actually still alive. I think they gave them flour to eat first to purge them of anything not good for humans to eat. We definitely saw their little heats bobbing up and down as the barbie got hotter!! Our son's vegetarian girlfriend had a brilliant afternoon - NOT. More recently we bought ready stuffed snails in their shells from the frozen food section in any big supermarket (about 6 euros for 36 of them I seem to remember) and cooked them in the oven. Mr Bubbles loves them and has been trying to track them down here in England since we moved back - unsuccessful so far.
  14. Can't remember which oldie it was - father in law probably - but one of them always used to say "You can never have too much string". It was his catchphrase And, to think we used to laugh at him behind his back! Come back. All is forgiven. You were right.
  15. I would agree with Idun. We found that emails got no replies at all from either our notaire or our bank, whereas a fax worked magic.
  16. Merci, everyone. Will keep french bank account open then. At least the "debt collectors" have replied to my email and are contacting edf to find out why we have been billed after a final settlement bill - and over three months after the sale of the house. Plenty of time really to sort things out since the taxes foncieres doesn't arrive for another couple of months.
  17. Thing is, I was hoping to close my French bank account before then. There's not enough in there at the moment anyway and so I would have to use Moneycorp again to top it up. Would be so much easier to close the French account and just pay the Taxes Foncieres by credit card or debit card (English bank account) when the time comes. Plus - am having some problems with EDF. I have already closed our account with them for the house we sold in March. They sent me a cheque for the overpayment together with a closing statement. Now, they are demanding 51 euros for some reason (equivalent of one of my old monthly payments). I ignored this at first thinking that it was simply one department not being in touch with another one. But now they seem to have passed my "debt" on to a debt collector. Have written to both EDF and this debt collector, explaining and attaching the final settlement bill. But - am afraid that my French bank account might be impounded or something. The only reason I kept it open was in case I needed to use it for paying Taxes Foncieres this autumn.
  18. Does anyone know if we will be able to pay this by credit or debit card from UK. This would be the best option for us by far. We have sold our house in France but will be liable for this year's tax fonc (around September time) We'd really like to close our French bank account but have left it open with a little bit in it just in case we have to write a cheque for the tax fonc.
  19. Looking at the website, one of the "blokes" is called Sean Wright! Seem to remember investigating this once, ages ago. Wrote and received emails in French until we both realised that we were both English. In the end we had a new bathroom fitted so we didnt use the product so can't recommend or otherwise. Sorry. Just remembered - you could either pay for someone to come and do the job for you (about 300euros as far as I recall) or they sent you the stuff to do yourself (much cheaper obviously)
  20. Yes, yes, yes. Today we received our Number Plate Authorisation Certificate from DVLA. We have reached the end of the long, tortuous and expensive road. Cost? erm - £400 or so for headlights and MOT, £60 for speedo in miles, about the same to swap positioning of the foglamp and reversing light, 150euros for certificate of conformity, £55 for first registration fee, £110 for tax disc - plus insurance of course but we would have needed that anywhere. Worth it? Erm - not totally sure.
  21. Yes, I thought he was very much on the ball on Have I Got News For You. Impressive even. Before that I had been afraid that he was getting a bit past it and didn't know when to call it a day.
  22. Do French banks really charge you to close your account? If they do, I won't bother. I'm just going to take out what's left (probably around 35euros!) and leave the account running on nothing!
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