December 31st, 2006
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One of the things that I do with the various websites is to try out new features out of curiosity or to see if they can be used elsewhere in my growing little empire of domains.
Earlier in the year, I thought it was time that I had a forum for myself. This looked like it would be quite difficult to do initially but on looking into it, it’s actually very simple as there’s loads of free software around these days to implement such things. In the end I plumped for phpBB which took something like 30 mins from clicking on the download button ’til it was operational.
It was originally attached to my bed & breakfast / self-catering listing site but now lives on this site at forum. No real hassles for months but now I find that I’m inundated with new user accounts called “dripping pussy movie tuta” and the like with similar websites being quoted. I’ve actually locked those down but the snag is that deleting them is a growing pain as there doesn’t seem to be any easy way to automatically separate those out from the real registrations.
Then came this very blog site. Much less of a hassle but not a day goes by without someone trying to put a comment on containing dozens of website links to porn and gambling sites. None of them get through as all comments are moderated which means that I need to approve them before they appear.
And in the last throes of 2006, the brand new Foreign Perspectives Directory which will eventually evolve into a full-scale directory of travel sites. No doubt I’ll get loads of porno sites coming through the “suggest a link” button.
I could understand if all the above were via automated submissions but every single one requires you to enter those weird graphic characters so real people are submitting the lot. I’d have thought that it couldn’t possibly be worthwhile to do that for an entry that’s pretty much sure to be deleted before it appears. At a guess 90% or more of such entries must be deleted so even if it only takes a few mins of time for each that’s probably getting on for an hour down the pan before you get one link actually listed.
Perhaps I should move into the porn industry if it’s as profitable as this?
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December 31st, 2006
It’s not the things that they do, it’s the things that they don’t do that makes France a little peculiar.
For instance, if you go to most Christian countries in the world in the run-up to Christmas you’ll see little nativity scenes in the streets and shopping centres. Not so in France. Here the decorations are devoid of any religious symbolism. In fact, it seems to be entirely aimed at helping the shops sell more. OK, there’s a whole lot of marketing going on in other countries at this time too and perhaps the Christian message doesn’t get such a high profile as it should but at least in the other countries you do get reminders of the meaning of Christmas through the decorations in the shops and the nativity scenes put on by everyone.
Here in Catalonia that seems particularly odd because just across the border in the Spanish Catalunya all those symbols are in evidence everywhere as you can see from this nativity scene in one of the shopping centres.
That absence makes for a certain lack of Christmas spirit too. In other countries, the post office work flat out right up to midnight on Christmas Eve and don’t leave anything in the sorting centres if they can possibly avoid it. Here, they couldn’t care less and Christmas presents often aren’t delivered until a week or more after Christmas Day. As always, France get these things the wrong way around: in Spain we were given a calendar to say thank-you for choosing to eat in the Dong Xing restaurant in Girona yet in France the postal workers are quite insistent on you buying their calendars for a service which they clearly don’t follow through with (consequently Wendy’s decided that she will be equally insistent on not buying it next year).
Copyright © 2004-2008 by Foreign Perspectives. All rights reserved.Popularity: 12% [?]
Posted in Commentary, France, French Customs, Settling in a new area | 5 Comments »
December 29th, 2006
In Belfast just about every shop window has a “help wanted” notice. In France, I’ve yet to see one.
How does that square with the 35 hour week in periods coming up to the likes of Christmas? That’s a very good question as clearly the shops are considerably busier over the pre-Christmas period than they are normally. In Belfast which doesn’t have the 35 hour limitation and few limitations on overtime, they still want more staff over peak shopping periods yet France doesn’t seem to require them or at least doesn’t advertise the vacancies. There certainly are vacancies though, but what happens in some shops is that the queues just get longer and longer. Even in normal times, we have twice abandoned our trolley in Leclerc after seeing a 45 minute plus queue for all the checkouts; I wouldn’t even consider going there at this time of year.
Other services similarly slow to a crawl. The French post office received orders from Amazon on December 12th yet hadn’t managed to deliver them by December 23rd.
Perhaps you are thinking that the jobs are advertised at the equivalent of job centres? They may be, but it’s not possible to register with those centres over this period as the interviewers in ASSEDIC who are the gatekeepers to these centres don’t seem to turn up for work themselves.
So unlike in the rest of the world, there doesn’t really seem to be much in the way of Christmas employment. Even the Santas just move from their normal office so that’s not even an extra job!
Copyright © 2004-2008 by Foreign Perspectives. All rights reserved.Popularity: 12% [?]
Posted in Commentary, France, French Administration, French Customs, Settling in a new area | No Comments »
