Who set me off on this rant??? France, the only good thing about it is we have a dirty big stormy Chanel between us and yet now I am told that London has more French people than true Londoners, if France is so good why are they here? I had to cross the North Sea almost on a monthly basis at times and would land in Holland Belgium even Hamburg anywhere but France apart from using the night train from Calais to Austria but then I slept all the way. A week in Paris with Joan turned into a weekend and move on, she thought it dirty noisy and simply mad, she covered her eye's in traffic, so did I and I was driving. We ended that week in a lovely Chateau although she would have gone straight back on the ferry or to her better still Holland, she could nip into Northern France and spend hours in those little craft shops in the lace making area. My Son is winding up the farm and heading for France soon with the horses, I think they are mad but it is their life, he said you can come and stay all winter dad, "what" some of the posters on here say it is colder than England right now, I rest my case.
Dunno GG - when I was a kid and teenager I was convinced half the workers in the fairground WERE gorillas - certainly the way they chased after my sister incorrand her friends convinced me if not gorilla, perhaps a trace of Neanderthal!
Frank! That is so politically incorrect! I'm amazed you haven't been arrested by the thought police!
AT LONG LAST I can get a word in ,Why is it that some not all, infrequent users ask how do you do this or that The BBC bless their hearts , have provided at the top of the page HOW to lot of info can;t go wrong ,
Derek woof woof
sterelitza wrote
Hi clogerhead, I too am an infrequent user of this site ... but... I love reading what others like me have discovered and want to know what others like me - want to know.. so to speak. I do watch the BBC gardening programmes and have recorded a few so that I can watch them again ana again to pick up some expert tips. But the nice thing about the gardening forum (for me at least) is reading little gems from gardeners like me who are not experts and are learning new things all the time. Hope this explains why we ask how to do this or that. Cheers
Thanks Sterelitza
Derek - I hope this puts your comments in perspective. Can we move on now, as, ofcourse, Mature people... and please dont shout at me!
Frank, we once had a fortnight's holiday in Scotland in a caravan in someone's garden. We arrived in a heatwave that broke that night and was followed by 2 weeks of freezing, stormy weather that we had to endure wearing summer clothes. The caravan was not clean and the owner was snobbish , to say the least. I cleaned it. The sun came out but I wasn't wearing my glasses and I missed it. After a week, we decided to leave, although we had paid for a fortnight and went to Edinburgh. That was interesting, though at the time we were too broke to attend any of the events as well as paying for b and b. During the fortnight, we drove miles and miles through heather clad mountains and past rain-drenched lochs (too cold to get out of the car) to find villages that were in capital letters on the map but turned out to have six houses and a vast gift shop. I felt that if I saw another sprig of heather, I would scream. When we finally left Scotland, I wanted to saw it off the end of the British Isles and push it out into the sea! People tell me how wonderful Scotland is and how they love their holidays there and I am incredulous. However, I concede that my experience is probably not tylical and Scotland does have some redeeming features. Looks like you had a simiilar experience of France!
G/G, Many experiences of France, it was part of Nato at one time and nothing changed my opinion. You can fall in love with a country on sight yet another possibly noted for its beauty or what ever is a no go area. It was not only me, we had some manoeuvres with us representing the East attacking France, my lads wanted to use live ammunition, I had to hide it or they would have. After Germany and Austria France to us was not a clean country and that was not just my opinion.
Live ammunition! I've been tempted myself, but not in France.
Mind you, Britain is not too clean, either. It amazes me how cafe owners can put tables out on the pavement, serve customers there and take their money, yet never, ever wash the pavements.Disgusting! On holiday in Turkey (not the most advanced of countries) the pavements were washed every day.
The toilets were sometimes pretty surprising in France, I will admit, and the French were occasionally quite uninhibited about where they widdled and whether they used the ladies' or the gents! But what about some of the toilets in Greece and the Greek islands! Ugh! Bins overflowing with stinking paper!
Tina had women walking into the men's in France whilst in full flow, nodding and into a cubicle saying there is a queue at the ladies, how do you dry your trousers after that I ask. G/G Cyprus when I first went there was pretty basic in toilet facilities although not as basic as Africa. The Bay of Naples was once one large sewage pond and our boat sat in it for three days, I did not eat much. The Desert was easy take a trenching tool line up with the perimeter guard and walk out so many paces, make sure you did exactly 180 degree turn remembering it was pitch black and no lights in the Laager, do what was needed and then pace back stop when you had counted the number of steps and shout. It was known for men to step out and never come back as turning slightly the wrong way could send you into the void. Trains from one end of the Canal to the other had a hole in the floor, you could see the track rushing by, "but hey" some of us once lived with earth toilets in the village or up the garden or yard toilets with half or no doors, we could all sing in those days.
Greek toilets were,and are,pretty grim, but I still remember a loo in a rest-room in a village, partly Bedouin, in the middle of the Sinai between Israel and Cairo - it had a tree growing out of the floor, all the tiles buckled and broken, and the top protruding through the roof. The locals then tried to sell us bottled water, most of which were already open, or half empty! Oh the joys of travel and broadening your horizons!
Having said that several times I've used a public loo in Central London, and whilst using the urinal found some Eastern European lady trying to mop the floor around my feet - brave ladies!
Posts
Who set me off on this rant???
France, the only good thing about it is we have a dirty big stormy Chanel between us and yet now I am told that London has more French people than true Londoners, if France is so good why are they here?
I had to cross the North Sea almost on a monthly basis at times and would land in Holland Belgium even Hamburg anywhere but France apart from using the night train from Calais to Austria but then I slept all the way.
A week in Paris with Joan turned into a weekend and move on, she thought it dirty noisy and simply mad, she covered her eye's in traffic, so did I and I was driving. We ended that week in a lovely Chateau although she would have gone straight back on the ferry or to her better still Holland, she could nip into Northern France and spend hours in those little craft shops in the lace making area.
My Son is winding up the farm and heading for France soon with the horses, I think they are mad but it is their life, he said you can come and stay all winter dad, "what" some of the posters on here say it is colder than England right now, I rest my case.
Frank
Frank! That is so politically incorrect! I'm amazed you haven't been arrested by the thought police!
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Hi clogerhead, I too am an infrequent user of this site ... but... I love reading what others like me have discovered and want to know what others like me - want to know.. so to speak. I do watch the BBC gardening programmes and have recorded a few so that I can watch them again ana again to pick up some expert tips. But the nice thing about the gardening forum (for me at least) is reading little gems from gardeners like me who are not experts and are learning new things all the time. Hope this explains why we ask how to do this or that. Cheers
Thanks Sterelitza
Derek - I hope this puts your comments in perspective. Can we move on now,
as, ofcourse, Mature people...
and please dont shout at me!
Frank, we once had a fortnight's holiday in Scotland in a caravan in someone's garden. We arrived in a heatwave that broke that night and was followed by 2 weeks of freezing, stormy weather that we had to endure wearing summer clothes. The caravan was not clean and the owner was snobbish , to say the least. I cleaned it. The sun came out but I wasn't wearing my glasses and I missed it. After a week, we decided to leave, although we had paid for a fortnight and went to Edinburgh. That was interesting, though at the time we were too broke to attend any of the events as well as paying for b and b. During the fortnight, we drove miles and miles through heather clad mountains and past rain-drenched lochs (too cold to get out of the car) to find villages that were in capital letters on the map but turned out to have six houses and a vast gift shop. I felt that if I saw another sprig of heather, I would scream. When we finally left Scotland, I wanted to saw it off the end of the British Isles and push it out into the sea! People tell me how wonderful Scotland is and how they love their holidays there and I am incredulous. However, I concede that my experience is probably not tylical and Scotland does have some redeeming features. Looks like you had a simiilar experience of France!
Derek and Cilmeri, kiss and make up!
G/G, Many experiences of France, it was part of Nato at one time and nothing changed my opinion. You can fall in love with a country on sight yet another possibly noted for its beauty or what ever is a no go area. It was not only me, we had some manoeuvres with us representing the East attacking France, my lads wanted to use live ammunition, I had to hide it or they would have.
After Germany and Austria France to us was not a clean country and that was not just my opinion.
Frank.
Live ammunition!
I've been tempted myself, but not in France.
Mind you, Britain is not too clean, either. It amazes me how cafe owners can put tables out on the pavement, serve customers there and take their money, yet never, ever wash the pavements.Disgusting! On holiday in Turkey (not the most advanced of countries) the pavements were washed every day.
The toilets were sometimes pretty surprising in France, I will admit, and the French were occasionally quite uninhibited about where they widdled and whether they used the ladies' or the gents! But what about some of the toilets in Greece and the Greek islands! Ugh! Bins overflowing with stinking paper!
Well, after those rants, I'm awfully glad I have never left England. As is said, there's no place like home.
Tina had women walking into the men's in France whilst in full flow, nodding and into a cubicle saying there is a queue at the ladies, how do you dry your trousers after that I ask.
G/G Cyprus when I first went there was pretty basic in toilet facilities although not as basic as Africa. The Bay of Naples was once one large sewage pond and our boat sat in it for three days, I did not eat much.
The Desert was easy take a trenching tool line up with the perimeter guard and walk out so many paces, make sure you did exactly 180 degree turn remembering it was pitch black and no lights in the Laager, do what was needed and then pace back stop when you had counted the number of steps and shout. It was known for men to step out and never come back as turning slightly the wrong way could send you into the void.
Trains from one end of the Canal to the other had a hole in the floor, you could see the track rushing by, "but hey" some of us once lived with earth toilets in the village or up the garden or yard toilets with half or no doors, we could all sing in those days.
Frank.
Having said that several times I've used a public loo in Central London, and whilst using the urinal found some Eastern European lady trying to mop the floor around my feet - brave ladies!