Judith

Well, I now know what no 3 is going to be ... there I was, swimming in the pool about 5.30, hot, 36 in the pool, never gets that warm usually, OH cleaning / vacuuming the pool around me ... there was a sudden loud noise behind us .... plus a grinding / skidding noise, and we turned around to see that the pergola / shade construction over the fish pond had collapsed, it's sides and roof landing on the poor fish and coming to rest against the wall ... took photos, and said ... tomorrow now! At least, unlike Menthe, no-one was hurt, and there is space toget the fish food in.. if they don't eat the grapes which are now dangling in the pool!!

Got to be able to replace them, surely. Ask at a shutter / store place, they may even do them for you!

Well I have had 2 friends had to give back word on planned meetings due to funerals .. I rather do hope there won't be another too soon ... but that's probably only wishful thinking.

Lori, I <almost> wish we had those, as you can at least operate them if you have a power cut! I have found that all the French switches which we inherited in the house have failed at some point or another .. cheap ones I suspect. The shutter ones are ones we had installed, but again I suspect they all have a built in life span of about 6 years or so .. be grateful for what we have I suppose, but maybe you should think about changing at least the mechanism sooner rather than later ..

Oh, dear, Menthe, so sorry to hear all this .. so far, in the last 24 hours, I've had slightly bad news (which I hope will end up good), shutter switch broken in the down position ..so we couldn't get out onto the terrace - I wonder what will be next! Yes, 3s does seem to be the modus operandum in may cases! Take care! PS - OH has manged to get the shutter up, now, but the switch is still totally kaput! Of course it always happens at the weekend too!!

Seen it, Menthe, been hectic here, reply coming soonest!

Menthe, I'm jealous. Not only cannot I not walk far at the mo, Ican't loose weight either!! You really show us all up!

Ken, I do believe that Menthe knows more than enough about walking (lost track of how long she's been doing it, including Santiago), and IMHO, given the conditions she described, it would have been irresponsible as well as foolish to set of in such conditioins. I've done my fair share of walking in wet weather over the years, Lake District inlcuded when rain can be dangerous as well) and experience counts for more than supposed courage, which in some cases would be labelled stupidity. Not I am not accusing anyone of stupidity on here, but we had friends in the Yorkshire Dales Fell and Cave Rescue teams and some of their stories of stupid walkers were hair raising. Poor scorn on inexperienced walkers (even when they might be your despised tourists who pay the wages of many in our southern areas), but not on experienced walkers like Menthe who took a sensible decision to forego their walk.

I took it for years, can't say I noticed much difference, and have given up now!

Not so, older cards do not have photos, my husband's doesn't. Mine does. Difference in time in obtaining .. about 3-4 years .. mine was amongst the first of the new role out with photos.

That's not what it says, however, not only does it not worry me, and I am not going to get into arguments, it is highly likely it will not happen given it's a big computer system and we all know how many of those land up on the cutting room floor!

Finally back online - no probs, just been having a lovely holiday - and what a lot I have missed! But as far as the ID / CV combining idea goes, maybe it will work, but for those who use their passport as ID (in particular we Brits), I cannot see how that would work. My CV has my photo on it anyway, and I can only think of 2 people who might be mistaken for me, my sister and my neice, neither of whom are likely to want to use it, nor likely to try to do such a silly thing. And if I know anything about introduction of big computer systems, it'll fail if they try it, anyhow!! Must get on, loads of catch up to do!

Now that, AB, I can attest to .. a necessary ceremony, but nicely updated as much as needed / possible, and with glorious music, inclusive and gender irrelevant (at last!), and typical British weather! What more do you want on a gloomy day! What I cannot stand is the multitudinous repeats there will be .. discussions, etc, Ok, a repeat in the eveing for those who wer working, and then, enough .. but it is an accepted fact by all that the Brits do ceremony better than anybody else, even acceptiing we had centuries of practice it it! Imuch enjoyed it all.

I suspect that you only find what purports to the form if you prentend to amend .. which is how I founn it .. otherwise, check if they have both registerd .. to the right name, etc . and then accept. I queried why there were two records for the same house, though I could see one wasn't a large space, got a reply back to say they we both the same so ignore, all done. I think one might have been the swimming pool! Anyhow, I explored a bit, found a section which describes size of house in sq m, etc, worked out it was about right (which is when I saw how much was in the seocond record an thought, pool, so I said yes, all is OK), and gave up. But that might explain why there is no form. Typical mixup by system designers who don't know what they are designing for!

Which works if you do, but not if your don't (ie I don't transfer all my pension to France ..) I used the 1.15 etc one, I've seen 1.17.and 1.16 variously quoted .. keep a note of what comes into the differnt bank accounts as income, some is euros, some is sterling, add it all up at end of year, do a conversion for what is needed to be converted then work it all out .. if it comes out something like, perhaps a little more than last year, I am content and run with that.

Done online, but I downloaded the forms so that I could work it out first. Don't usually receive forms now.

Menthe, I agree about paying for waste etc, but there are limits. Here, like you, we have a card and are charged over a standard amount for a ordinary household waste, and since we now don't fill that many bins, we can hardly have managed to fill our quota, but it is cheap enough. However, unlike your dept, here our recycling and the dechetterie use is free .. to encourage recycling. In fact from January they included a very long list of extra things we could now recycle, and will use what they cannot yet recycle to work out how much of it there is and then find ways of recycling it too .. so we now fill only one standard small bin a week, if that!

Quite pleased now I almost missed it all, having been away! Looked in yesterday and decided to give up .. glad to know they are gone for now .. happy landings Banana!!

Guardian, I agree about Gariguette, delicious, and yes, both sharp and sweet at the same time. I am afraid I am the only one who eats aspargus in this house, so I rarely buy it, but do enjoy it simply lightly cooked in the microwave in minumun water, with butter .. on and off.

I remember it well .. likewise .. mortgage was more than one of our salaries, which was OK, till one or the other lost their job. We survived .. as you do. 4. whatever percent seems incredibly low to me to borrow at!

Banana, sometimes cards get refused becasue they ask for extra security, eg, a code received by text nmessage, and if you don't suply that, it stops it gooing through.. but I have had it happen without that. It's very odd, but I don't know why. Desperately trying to rememebr which card I used to pay for my last Eurotunnel booking, French or English CC (but not Nat West though) but failed to remember, but I haven't travelled yet with them this year, so maybe something has changed since I last did??

I only ever knew her as Hoddy, but she was an excellent Mod, impartial and fair to all, but always friendly, and she will be very sadly missed by all.

Hi again, Bize isn't very large, but I have yet to find my way around it ..completely. My doctor used to work from there, but has since moved, but I still go back to the phamarcy there, and it is a pretty village to walk around, with a river which can be swum in during the summer. There is also a very good restaurant called Chez Jean-Marc, (I forgot before) who is an excellent chef, his wife (Rachel) speaks good English and the meals have a touch of the oriental in them (he was a 5* chef in hotel somewhere in Asia). Lovely couple. To find, pass the pharmacy roundabout, at the next small roundabout take the right hand road, go in to the parking on the left and the resto is on the other side of the road. The other side of the river is the main village. Most villages (but not all) will have some form of eatery, you can only go look and see if yo fancy it. Bars often do main meals at lunch time .. always worth trying and you will find regulars aplenty in them. They are very much French country cooking with often no choice of menu. In a previous post I suggested a place to park in Narbonne, the threatre, but in both Narbonne and Beziers parking is not so easy, and all would need a little walk. This is not America! There is a shuttle bus in Narbonne whch goes past the parking in the theatre .. parking near restaurants in villages is usually but not always easy. Most villages benefit from a walk around, and in some places you could not or would not want to drive too close to places you want to see. In Bize Minervois, it would be difficult as the roads are very, very narrow, as they are also in several other villages. In Minerve it is a good walk from the parking, and you are not allowed to park in the village, unless you are a resident, at all. And if you drove in, you could well get stuck and not get out again. I cannot help with gluten free, as it does not affect me, but restaurants, especially those serving the tourist trade, are catching on. But betise's suggestion is good also.

If the number is not in my phone, it's most probably a spam. Don't answer numbers not in my contacts list. If it's important enough, they'll find another way I say! Emails - likewise. If I don't know the name, it gets deleted. Yes, I use the usual, check where it came from too. If I didn't buy anything from them likewise. Spam web site, only go via links I already have .. doing my best you see.

It's one of the reasons I got rid of my loyalty cards (as they all went electronic and had to be paid for) and now shop around depending where I physically am when I need to stop .. and I gave up looking at the catalogues long ago. If it's a price I am prepared to pay and need it, it gets bought, if not it stays on the shelf! It ain't a bargain if you didn't need it in the first place!