What have you been doing today?

[Roy Bloom]

Still in France house hunting. Incredible value here, looking for a 2 or 3 bed on an acre. Can get a wreck for £50,000, something up together starts at £100,000.

See why Himmy likes it so much. Though he spouts peace and love to ethnics, away from big cities it's about as diverse as a KKK get together. Bottle of decent wine from supermarket from £2 and Jura cheese flavour Brets crisps are addictive. I'm poss a bit too far south for your Bloomers, but just think, we could almost be neighbours. Drop round for a drop of rouge and a natter.

You're conflating multicultural with multi-ethnic.
France is equally multi-ethnic, even more so, than UK. But it doesn't have the multicultural richness that UK has.
That might be for several reasons:
1 The multi-ethnic immigrants to France tend come from French former colonies and French overseas territories which already have a rich French culture, e.g language etc, so assimilation into a French culture is facilitated, even seamlessly. Whereas the origin of immigrants to UK, though from similar territories, i.e. former colonies and BOTs, they don't have a British culture embedded into their local culture, so assimilation into any UK culture is a high bar.
Maybe the UK former colonial terriritories and BOTS are more diverse than French former colonies and overseas territories.

2. There is a real French culture throughout France. The same cannot be said about the UK. In UK the regional cultural variations are more pronouced than the regional cultural variations in France. Sure there are regional varaitions in France, but these are limited to superficial issues like: food, music, dance, etc, not to legal, governmental, (petty bureaucracy,) language schooling, etc structures and processes.

3. The French 'culture' is embedded into the French psyche. The same is not true in UK, because there is no 'British culture' to speak of. Maybe due to the centuries old history of UK.

4. Immigrants to France are expected and encouraged to integrate.

5. France is secular, so religious symbols are frequently not allowed.

6. French humour is different.

I suspect there other influences and issues.
But at the end of the day, there are more things that unite us than divide us.

 

[Mottie]

Good to hear that some people still wear overalls.

Bit of a lost thing tbh which is a shame.

Training centre for schoolkids. Boots, overalls, gloves etc compulsory.

 

[Stivino]

Good to hear that some people still wear overalls.

I struggle to get in and out of my overalls these days, so I've taken to wearing a bib and brace, usually with a dust coat.

 

[Mottie]

I struggle to get in and out of my overalls these days, so I've taken to wearing a bib and brace, usually with a dust coat.

I think I saw you the other day…

 

[Mottie]

Getting all the Christmas decs out of the loft for Mrs Mottie to dress the tree. Found Susie’s Xmas jumper up there and slipped it on her. I got a look of 'Oh, this is SO last year'!

 

[crystal ball]

I struggle to get in and out of my overalls these days, so I've taken to wearing a bib and brace, usually with a dust coat.

B&B for me too

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I struggle to get in and out of my overalls these days, so I've taken to wearing a bib and brace, usually with a dust coat.

Me too, with an old anorak, for pottering around the garage/workshop. For wetter weather, and outdoor -I keep a pair of wellies, with waterproof trousers, already on the boots, firebrigade style - just ready to slip on.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Getting all the Christmas decs out of the loft for Mrs Mottie to dress the tree. Found Susie’s Xmas jumper up there and slipped it on her. I got a look of 'Oh, this is SO last year'!

Ours, has a wax jacket with a pocket, for the bags, with a sort of fold out overhang for her head. The strap around the body has always been a bit tight, so Avril revised it a while ago, for a better (less tight) fit, around her (dog). We always get that same look, of - I feel ridiculous, when we put it on her.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

TV in main bedroom, began acting up, complaining it lacked a USB HDD, to pause, record several times over the months. More recently, it has had an issue connecting to the wifi, it 'saw' lots of access points, but couldn't connect. The second bedroom has an identical LG TV set, bought at the same time, and hardly used, so I decided to swap them over. Not an easy job, main bedroom one is awkwardly mounted, on a swing out bracket, close to the ceiling. That works fine.

Next job will be to delve into the TV, to see if anything obvious can be done to sort it.

 

[conny]

Make sure you thoroughly discharge it before poking your fingers inside.
Many, many years ago my ex-brother in-law brought round a CRT TV for me to look at. It had been in the back of his car for at least a month. Took the cover off and started poking around when I got a terrific jolt! Immediately put the cover back on and, after sking a mate who worked on TV's, discovered they can hold a high charge for a very long time.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Make sure you thoroughly discharge it before poking your fingers inside.

Modern TV's don't work like that any more. The TV is more at risk from me, and static discharge, than I am from it.

 

[Mottie]

Had a bit of a dry run with a couple of bits for the Christmas dinner. Honey roast parsnips with sherry plus some goose fat potatoes. Followed James Martin’s method on his TV programme yesterday. Both a success. Parsnips came out particularly nice.

I think I possibly cooked the best bit of roast beef that I’ve ever done too.

 

[Mottie]

Having a bloody mare of a day so far. Mrs Mottie had to turn back on her way to work as warnings were going of telling her that the coolant was low on the A3. She came back and swapped it for the Golf. I checked it out and it looks like the water pump is leaking. Topped it up for now, going to run it up the workshop tomorrow. Went to get into it to pop down the shop to drop a parcel off, couldn’t find the key anywhere! Looked high and low and even run the CCTV back to make sure I turned it off and came in with it - I clearly did so it’s somewhere inside at the moment. Anyway, got the motorbike out of the garage, went down the shop, dropped the parcel off, went to get on the bike and couldn’t find my house keys (I keep all my keys separate in case I lose them - Golf, A3, house keys, allotment key, workshop keys). Couldn’t find them so I went back and forth between my house and the shop at a snails pace on my bike, looking in the road for them. No luck so went home, got my spare key out of my keysafe hidden in my garden, went inside, got my separate bunch of garage keys, opened it up and there they were, on the bench. That was a relief. Still haven’t found the A3 key yet but at least I’m 100% sure it’s indoors somewhere!

 

[Mottie]

Went to get into it to pop down the shop to drop a parcel off, couldn’t find the key anywhere! Looked high and low and even run the CCTV back to make sure I turned it off and came in with it - I clearly did so it’s somewhere inside at the moment.

Still can’t find the bloody thing. Practically did a fingertip search of each room so far and it’s nowhere to be seen. This is winding me right up!

 

[denso13]

Don't worry, they'll be in the last place you look...