Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

seven-day-weekend

Welcome, bienvenue and bienvenidos to the forum bigblackdog,sorry I didn't welcome you earlier, I have not been to the thread for a while.

Do keep posting, it's not always this quiet!

seven-day-weekend

As for my update; we are really busy here in our UK house. We are having an entire new bathroom and my husband is doing all the preparatory work, it is a huge job as it is going right back to bare walls. So we have not been anywhere really.

My husband as at last bought his 'fast and powerful' motorbike, a 2004 Triumph Bonneville T100, very smart and retro.

I have had my free bus pass.

Nothing too exciting (apart from the bike) at the moment.

donny-gal

Hi BBD

I was going to come and welcome you too, but having laptop problems, I am out in Spain atm, which does not help, and just come out of my Dell 3 year warranty:mad:

It is screen distortion (sp?), which I think must be software related, as I can make it work in safe mode with networking, which I am having to use, while I try to find out, and it does the same on the lappy screen, and a LCD monitor.

We were in Honfleur last year for Bastile Night, and it was fab, but nothing starts until 11-12ish. I also had that night in Paris many moons ago on a business trip, you had to dance down the Champs-Élys!es folks throwing the little bangers, and they kept throwing them into the underpasses to make a louder BOOM! Then later everyone was under the tower. Most towns have a firework display, but as I say they are always late on, and usually later than advertised too, as things are in Spain!

Back to the diagnosis tests:mad:
DG

bigblackdog

this seems a nice chilled thread ........... and i apologise for my randomness but just thought i would say that i am finally getting a fridge delivered tomorrow after ordering it online 9 weeeks ago ! luckily i have a freezer so have been chilling the wine down in there , a few mishaps with frozen wine and beer but have survived .
the delivery men came last week with the fridge and just put a slip in the letter box saying i was out , ( i wasnt ) , but they hadnt let me know beforehand that they were coming either , tommorrow as i am expecting the delivery the plan is to keep a constant watch out for them , its like some kind of battle here trying to get anything sorted out ,
anyway 'if' i finally get my fridge , (i am not counting my chickens) i have a treat instore as i was back in England a few weeks ago and the lure of the british banger could be sated , i called into my favourite butcher and was telling him about the lack of decent meat and sauages in france and he told me they ship all over the world! i will be placing an order for his award winning sausages and stocking up .......... life will seem so much better with a few home grown bangers .......and steaks..........joints ........ i will let you know how i get on

donny-gal

Hi All

Well my good news is that as I had HDD during the 3 year warranty, and I think within the last year, and the diagnostic tests says the HDD is duff, even though I am working again;), and as I got 3 year next day business warranty which was on special offer for the same as the 1 year when I bought it, it is covered by internation, so please call Dell Spain. Well I did, and my Spanish is certainly not up to electronic select a number options, so I pressed 1, on each one, guessing tbh. Got through to technical support and the only English speaking person in there:j:j. They are due out here with a new HDD in the next couple of days (I am not holding my breath).

BBD - how is your French coming on? My French is better than my Spanish I know, not that I am fluent in either, but in France a little goes a lot further than none! Are you working out there? Are you having lessons?

Thoroughly enjoying the hot weather and the pool.

DG

bigblackdog

donny-gal wrote: »

Hi BBD

Well my good news is that as I had HDD during the 3 year warranty, and I think within the last year, and the diagnostic tests says the HDD is duff, even though I am working again

hope it sorts itself out

bigblackdog

trying to get some french lessons sorted , we moved out for wifeys job , so at present i am just keeping busy with the kids and sorting the house etc , its really difficult not being able to speak the same language and with it being the school holidays the kids arent picking up anything new either , we get by , lol

droopsnout

bigblackdog wrote: »

hi all , just jumping in on this thread , me wifey 2 kids aged 10 and 4 , moved to near paris 3 1/2 , months ago

Welcome to you and yours - and sorry for being so late to say that! My wife and I are also in France, though quite a way from you, between Bordeaux and Toulouse, about half an hour from Agen.

bigblackdog wrote: »

really like this country , apart from the language (cant speak it)

I would say that a willingness to TRY to speak the language is all-important when it comes to integration. Fluency is great, but our hosts' attitude to us is so much better when they see we are making an effort. So ...

bigblackdog wrote: »

trying to get some french lessons sorted

... this is the best thing you could do.

bigblackdog wrote: »

the prices of stuff seems expensive

You're not kidding! Prices have changed a lot in the eight years we have been here.

bigblackdog wrote: »

it was a bank holiday yesterday (bastille day) but a washout , i was under the impression it was meant to be like guy fawkes night in england , but with a parade
we missed the parade due to missing a train , got to champs elesse and it had all finished

14th July is indeed a big celebration all over France. The weather down here was fine and warm on that evening, and the displays went ahead; but the weather was dire in north and north-east France, and many celebrations were either cancelled or postponed. I suspect that you don't actually need to go into Paris (though I can understand the attraction!). Whereabouts are you? I would think that there will be quite a lot of communes close by where you will find a reasonable fireworks show, and probably a torchlit procession, dancing, etc.

bigblackdog wrote: »

checked out some of the sales instead , must admit the summer sales are good , i.e 70 % off , and it seems all the shops have them for the month of july

Sales in France are regulated by national and local governments, though things are freeing up slowly. There are essentially two sale times a year (Jan and July) plus a third at the shops' discretion.

Good luck with your fridge delivery. Must admit that I do buy hi-tech items from the likes of Amazon, Cdiscount, Topachat, RueduCommerce, etc., but domestic electrics I tend to source locally, as delivery is easy, prices are not all that different, and ... I live next door to the retailer's Mum!

Regarding French lessons, do enquire at your Mairie about free lessons which you may be entitled to (if you haven't already!) There are also many useful online activities. I teach (informally) both French and English down here, and my French learners enjoy all sorts of stuff I find on the net (although, yes, it does help when there's someone there to explain it all!)

There aren't many of us on this thread resident in France, but do feel free to comment on French life (as we are all interested in the quirks and particularities of our various host countries), to ask for advice, to give advice, and generally to tell us how you are settling in.

Good luck with everything!

LesD

Hello all. Long time no 'see'!

As donny-gal has got us on to technology, I thought I'd seek out some advice on 'dongles' in Spain! Normally, on our trips, I just use the local internet shop. But we'll be out for 3-4 weeks soon and I wondered if it would be worth acquiring a Spanish pre-paid dongle and take my laptop. I have absolutely no idea how these things work - even in the UK - so wondered if anyone in Spain can help?

donny-gal

Hi Les

There are several options, one the local internet shop, also quite a few bars/cafe's are now offering free wi-fi to their customers.

A neighbour had the dongle and found it slow and costly, but to be honest I use one in the UK while caravanning, and it is fine for simple email receiving and odd web searches, she used to tried skype-ing I think.

I take it you do not have a landline. I have also seem some "holiday packages" offered on the satellie connections, but unsure how these work.

Dell arrived yesterday and installed a new HDD, so now busy re-installing necessary software and updates. Saved me a bit of a job really as I was thinking the lappy was due for a clean and re-install.

Have you tried looking on line at the "free" papers

http://www.theleader.info/
http://www.coastrider.net/main/index.php
http://www.euroweeklynews.com/news/costa-blanca/
http://www.thepost.es/
http://www.roundtownnews.co.uk/

Good Luck
DG