You might like to try “Bomb Doors Open” by Flt Lt Ken Trent DFC published by Seeker Publising in Jersey. It’s a very personal account of his life through the RAF over the latter part of WW2 – not the best written but it is a warts and all account of the process of being recruited, trained and flying 40+ ops in Lancasters. (I’ll disclose a personal interest, Ken was my Father in Law (I divorced his daughter and he died earlier this year at 95) and I’ve heard a lot of the tales in the book several times, usually aided by several large G&T’s! – However, there are some stories that he never told….)

Mine scans in the auto gates at Luton but fails in the manual scanners in Jersey! Doesn’t seem to be a problem when I come back to France, I don’t think they scan them….

I’m going to have to join! 78.5kg or 12stone 8lbs this morning :-(  I’d like to be back to 75kg tops! No more Croissants, Pain au Chocolat or other pastries and more riding to start with…

You could try The Arcachon basin for kayaking and the biggest sand dune in Europe – there’s bits of the Dordogne worth visiting. One of our favourite campsites is Les Paradis at St Leon sur Vezere although it will be rammed in July & August (as will almost anywhere else on the west of France).

Food is one of the biggest ticket items in our budget. Taxes less so as the allowances are pretty good. It’s social charges you need to watch out for as depending on how your income and work status is classified they can be around 25% of gross income and start from Euro Zero!

Beware! France is a. eyewateringly expensive for day to day items (except houses – and there’s a reason for that) b. even if you are fluent in French, the culture is VERY different and takes a whole lot of adjusting to. No two departments deal with things in the same way – a classic example is the list of documents you require for a Carte de Sejour. The Interior Ministry produced a “definitive” list. At least two prefectures that I know of have a different list and deny all knowledge of the Ministry list! Impots who deal with your taxes have a similar approach. Having said all that, its a lovely place, most people are great and the weather is a few degrees warmer in summer. We are selling up (Stealth Ad!) and moving back for a number of reasons – a. above included – any questions, PM me and I’ll do my best to help. By the way don’t even dream of spending £300,000 on a property, you’ll never see it again and you don’t need to.

I’ve got one here in France – 2008 2.0 TDCi Titanium Spec Auto – 192,000kms – apart from a few minor niggles which are well documented and cheap to fix it’s great – tows our boat – 1.5 tonnes and accommodates loads of bikes, dogs & other kit. The only issue is tyres – they need to be “heavy duty” or they’ll disintegrate on the inner sidewalls and as there’s no spare this is a major PITA when two go at the same time. The previous owner had fitted some economical Kumho rubber, we’ve gone for Hankook which seems to be ok.

^ this! We moved a couple of years ago and still have loads of daily carp to deal with. Also, since BREXIT the £ has gone south against the Euro and day to day living is becoming eyewateringly expensive! Our weekly supermarket bill is about 50% more than it was in the UK, there’s no appreciable difference in the price of fuel. Couple that with a housing market that, unless you are buying a modern, up to date spec house means that shifting it in future years will result in a significant “loss”. My advice would be, if you really want holidays out here is to rent somewhere for 2 months each summer – no maintenance, bills or worries. Having said that, we love it and don’t regret the move we are just having to make some significant adjustments to our life that we didn’t anticipate….we did anticipate plenty

Combination of tax rises and oil price has raised the price in Brittany to around 1.42€/litre (supermarket) – headline in the local paper is “death of diesel….”

I picked up an Allen Scythe late last year, a few bits and pieces and it runs – just about, I think the timing needs tweaking but on a Villiers 25C two-stroke that’s a black art and a half! I’ll post pics next time it’s out of the shed

18, 1952 ish WPD 230 was the reg Series 1 SWB Land Rover in 1976. Paid £50 for it – the India Rubber & Fabric insulated wiring was on its way out and it occasionally refused to start and would short around the radiator, the cure was to slam the bonnet hard once or twice. Went all over the place in it but mostly to the Peaks, Wales & the Lakes climbing from Kent. Fortunately petrol was relatively cheap….I sold it for £250 to buy an Austin Healey Sprite

Well, that’s an hour of my life I won’t get back! The “old” TG was three blokes cocking about and some cars occasionally appeared. IMHO there’s no chemistry between MLB, Harris & Reid and that makes for hard work watching. I’ll find something else to watch next Sunday.

Will you pay tax on the £9k if you take it as cash? I’d go with adding it to the pension pot – knowing what I know now (I’m 61) I’d take every opportunity to grow the pension…..

Depends what you are looking for & where on the island! The supply of self-catering is reducing as are the “budget” hotels. I used to live there and still have contacts if you need more info.

My wife – lentils, quinoa, dried apricots and plenty of veg has her farting like a racehorse, even the dog knows when to leave the room :D

Depressing vs France where we have fibre optic to the flat and speed choice is 200 or 300 and it costs less than BT rubbish above in fairness you then realise its often the website / download source that’s slow

Oh how I wish! Here in “rural” France – we are equidistant – 6kms from 3 towns and the speed is circa 0.75mb/s on a good day. We are at the end of a line shared with about 4 other houses….its also about as stable as a wobbly thing on jelly!

Candles and incense sticks – I hate the smell but m’wife loves them!

Woke up last June to the news of Brexit and simultaneously that we’d exchanged contracts on the sale of our house and were committed to moving to France (well, we could have gone elsewhere….). Biggest downside has been the exchange rate debacle – on the upside, we love it and can’t for a whole load of reasons see ourselves moving back to the UK – all our neighbours think the UK is barking mad!

Sorry to butt in but please help me find…..a 1/12 scale kit of a Yamaha RD500LC or it’s US equivalent for my son who’s just restored a real one! There’s a Tamiya one on Amazon for about £50 delivered from Japan with Japanese instructions which isn’t ideal and may not get here before Xmas. TIA

I is sad! At one point in my London based career his restaurant in Covent Garden was a bit like our office canteen! His TV prog with Gennaro Contaldo made me chuckle. A lot :D

I’ve got a 2008 S-Max – huge boot, loads of rear leg room. You might not like the ride though, it’s an acquired taste but a nice driver. Also hired a Qashqai last week – not sure what model apart from the 1.6 diesel engine but it had loads of toys, leather seats and was a nice place to be & drive. I’d buy one if I was in the market for a brand new motor! Not sure that helps….

At 600€ for the seminar plus accommodation etc is an expensive punt but if it works I’d be more than happy to forgo a few things to get my wife and life back!

Thread resurrection! Well, we did it, or rather my wife did! Thanks to Woody of this Parish for his time and thoughts. I had a day in Strasbourg and a tour of the Vosges while my wife experienced three intense sessions of The Lightning Process. The outcome has been beyond our wildest hopes, fingers crossed it continues but it very much looks like we’ve found a solution that works for us :-)

I don’t often fly but, as it happens I have to go to Strasbourg in a couple of weeks from Nantes. I’ve booked Volotea as Hop! the Air France subsidiary is insanely expensive. The breakdown of the 19€ ticket is: Fare -9,54€, Taxes 28,02€ – Nett 18,48€ on the whole booking there’s an admin fee of 3,08 split over 2 pax return flights and I paid by Credit Card for no extra charge! For the life of me I can’t see how this is sustainable long term 8O

Apart from that, Monarch used to be a good carrier, sorry to see them go and sorry for all those affected.

Worktop Express here as well – they even delivered to the IoW without a fuss. A 3m oak top was unbelievably heavy 8O

Thanks everybody & especially Woody who took the time to call me and have a looong chat! Almost certain that we are going to give this a go in the next few months – I’ll post back here on the outcome.

Cheers Woody, I’d appreciate a chat at some point. PM me and I’ll send you some numbers.

Thanks. Chaz

Having simply stunning women reading the news.
Striking.
A quality film industry.

So why oh why is their television so dismal? Some of it makes Channel 5 seem highbrow!

We live in France – all of the above but especially

Making rules and regulations

their legal system seems to work on the basis of “there has to be a rule that says you can” rather than “unless we say you can’t”…. :D having said that, with a few exceptions the rules are often viewed as a minor inconvenience!

Hopelessness makes pain (or any symptom) more difficult to endure than hopefulness.

So suffering undiagosable and untreatable fatigue is worse than suffering diagnosed and treatable fatigue – in a very real sense too.

Nail hit on head! This does however begin to explain the focus on CBT (somewhat discredited now) for treatment which the LP is very similar to – rather than deal with the underlying cause it helps the sufferer deal with the symptoms to some extent. It can’t in my view provide a “cure” for what is probably a complex disruption of the metabolic process that is then further exacerbated by a depression like state bought about by the apparent hopelessness of the situation….we’ve been dealing with this for the thick end of 10 years now and it aint getting any better….

ps if you have already signed up to it, give it 100%. No reverting to habitual behaviours.

Its not me, its my wife who suffers – I’m having to do the research & try and understand what might work so that we stand a reasonable chance of getting 100% follow through…..

FWIW I’m currently listening to the first part of the audio download that is meant to prepare you for the 12 hour seminar/training process. Apart from the fact that the narrator – Phil Parker (inventor of the process) is incredibly boring, I can’t see how a sufferer of CFS can cope with the deluge of information that is being imparted! I’ll report back when I’ve got to the end of the 2 hour session 8O

I suspect Citroen might not be quite as considerate here

– many years ago I fitted a towbar & electrics to a Citroen BX. Citroen sold me a quite reasonably priced kit for the wiring that just plugged in to the loom under the boot floor :D – worth asking at the main stealer or googling around as it will save a load of grief.

Its Korean, should go forever, don’t overthink it….it will be fine 8O

We bought a 1993 Renault Twingo with apparently 25k kms on the clock – its as good as gold apart from a rattle from one tappet which I CBA to fix at the moment.

Good luck

Try http://www.micksgarage…. they post from Ireland, several brands and cracking service in my experience :-)

Thanks people. I’ll be trying all of these suggestions 8O

Chaz

Western Brittany – Montagnes Noir around Huelgoat and also Mur de Bretagne, you’ll be fine. The campsites round us aren’t that busy. I’ve got a Brittany Ferries discount code if you want it – PM me :-)

There was a post on here some while ago – worth a search. I’ve had one as a work vehicle. Pretty capable off-road but on road they are very bouncy, small and not particularly comfortable, also surprisingly thirsty when driven “enthusiastically”. I’m in rural France as well and have toyed with the idea of having one for “work-related” duties but haven’t seen many around.

World Cup 1966 – watched on a Black & White TV outside at a Scout Camp & Aberfan in the papers as we didn’t have TV at home!

They do have an interesting range of Malts – no cheaper than the usual suspects but there’s often a tasting at some point during the crossing :-)

Mrs Jersey is intolerant of Gluten, Eggs & Milk – the Bio aisles in most supermarkets carry recognisable products that are safe. Beware rotisserie chickens – the seasoning on some isn’t GF…most sizeable towns have a “Bio” shop/supermarket – Le Heron Bleu in or part of Brittany who are excellent.