Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

Francophile

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Hello there, a nice thing happened today.

I got a phone call from my friend saying that her sister's granddaughter (9) needed 'something from Spain' to take into school and had we got anything?

My husband has LOADS of photographs on his laptop, so he has printed out about a dozen of our village, showing the scenery, the people and the animals, and written a little bit about each of them for the girl to take in. There is also a map to show where the area is in Spain.

I hope it will be enjoyed by the children (the Teacher will certainly enjoy it - a ready made lesson!) .

I think the children will enjoy hearing about Gerald the Gecko who lives in our kitchen and keeps it clear of flies, and who sticks to the walls and can even climb up the glass windows. They will also like the picture of Manolo the Shepherd and his sheep and Trufo his sheepdog, and the one of our friend Pascal and his mule Chico who walked from our village, across Spain, over the Pyrenees and into France last year. I think they will like the picture of Tomas ploughing with his mule team, in between his grapevines, on a hillside with snow-covered mountains in the background.

They will be given a small glimpse of a part of Spain that most people don't know exists.

We have really enjoyed putting the package together. The girl's grandma is collecting it in half an hour. Hope she's pleased!

This just reminds me of a project my son had to do in primary school about Australia. I started researching it for him on the internet and the upshot was that I go so involved in it that did most of the work ( all you teachers cover your eyes!!) Anyway when he got it back after being marked I said "Well William what mark did I get" and he said "you got an A" but the teacher had commented "William you must have really enjoyed this project, it was so interesting and you put so much work into it"

seven-day-weekend

Merrywidow wrote: »

Hi 7DW - Why don't you join Facebook and you can upload your photos for all to see. Droopsnout is the expert. His lovely house is there too. You could even watch his YouTube video of the fireworks and music in Lectour in September.

Have joined Facebook, will put pics on shortly..

sloan

Hi

The Facebook idea is a lovely idea for sharing ski-ing. I have some photos of North Cyprus in my albums. If anyone is interested in looking, please add me:

Sheila Sloan.

I would love to follow people in different areas.

I am really enjoying retirement. Have just returned from a few days in the Lake District. We return to Cyprus on October 24th. I can't wait!

seven-day-weekend

sloan wrote: »

Hi

The Facebook idea is a lovely idea for sharing ski-ing. I have some photos of North Cyprus in my albums. If anyone is interested in looking, please add me:

Sheila Sloan.

I would love to follow people in different areas.

I am really enjoying retirement. Have just returned from a few days in the Lake District. We return to Cyprus on October 24th. I can't wait!

Hi Sheila, tried to find you on Facebook but I'm very new to it and not sure how to do so.

Are you the lady with short auburn hair wearing a pink top and light blue jacket?

donny-gal

Hi everyone

Travelled from Chateauroux to Pau today, was surprised to see so much devastation from the winds in January not cleared up. Is there is problems as there were signs up saying " SOS Forest in Distress" and Forests without Forresters, and another one that escaped my French.

Is there two kinds of corn on the cob? There seems to be field where it has just dried up? Is this animal food variant or drought?

Weather lovely and warm, and a nice blue sky today.

Bertha (our Sat Nav) sent us a different way than I thought she would yesterday so ended up on the N/A20, so gave Carrots a quick ring to see if we could take her for dinner, but she was already engaged. Originally we had booked and tried to get to Bordeaux from Dunkerque, but oversleeping and traffic put paid to that thought, so we decided to make the best of it and go a different rotue over the Pyrenees. Ended up cancelling Bordeaux and booking Chateauroux. Hope to make it down to the house tomorrow, unless we detour again, today it was Oradour-sur-Glane. We did fancy driving through the Dordogne, but the roads were against us, so used the good old N10 to make up some time.

Take care.
DG

donny-gal

I will also try to remember to keep posting my pics while in Spain on FB

droopsnout

Oradour ... Haunting place that all European schoolchildren should go and see.

Yes, there are is much damage from the January storms. With so much wood now out of the ground, as it were, there are all sorts of problems. Storage, for one, but also the price of timber has fallen. Making even more available would make the price too low for marketing it to be worthwhile. http://www.ttjonline.com/story.asp?storycode=59547

Farmers here tell us that the maize grown in France is not for human consumption as corn-on-the-cob, but is animal fodder, or used for producing corn oil, or turned into maize flour. Recent developments include using maize to produce sugar and biofuels. Local dealers are also marketing maize-burning stoves for domestic heating.

Our next guests (Mum and auntie) arrive tomorrow evening.

Enjoy the rest of the trip, D-G. There is always so much to see, isn't there?

seven-day-weekend

I now have some pix on Facebook, they seem to be there four times - must have pressed the wrong buttons!

sloan

Hi 7DW

At the moment, my facebook profile picture is of me wearing a climbing helmet, peering through some rocks. I helped my daughter when she took her class beck scrambling. I am wearing blue. Hope you can find me and add me. I really want to be able to follow all the ski-ers and find out how they are enjoying their retirement.

jean_pye

Hi Margaret, My name is Jean, I have just registered with this site and was very interested to read you forum as my husband & I have been think of re-locating to Spain. Your village in the mountains sounds lovely, sounds like the sort of thing we would be looking for. I have so many questions I would like to ask someone like yourself who has lived in Spain and knows the pitfalls.We have found it quite hard to get first hand information.
I am 59 and my husband is 61 (not yet retirement age) we have our own house in the U.K (No morgage) and a little savings but are a bit scared of taking the chance as I think most people are. Our property is on the market at the moment.
Would it be possible to speak to you via. telephone?
Kind regards Jean