Foreign Perspectives

Bonsoir:

We saw a satellite system for sale for ‚€35 last week so thought it was high time we did something about the TV situation. Up to now we’ve had nothing but had brought the two TVs and Sky box from Holywood.

“Satellite kit” means something completely different in French than you & I think. In France a satellite kit gives you the dish and decoder (digital one for ‚€85, analogue for ‚€35) but no means of attaching the thing to the wall. Next day it was off to Castorama yet again to get the attachment kit. Unfortunately, my trusty rechargeable drill wasn’t up to going through a stone & concrete wall so the next day it was off yet again to get a more grown up drill, serious drill bit and really serious bolts to attach the thing to the wall (nope, the attachment kit doesn’t include the bolts). I figured that wireless was the way to go so today, just before attaching the final bit to the wall it was off to buy one of those little wireless gadgets to save a heap of cabling and finally we have our Sky TV back again.

However, we haven’t forgotten about the decoder box that came with the dish. Of course the remote control doesn’t come with batteries… yup, off to the shops again tomorrow to see if we can set the thing up or if we’ll need another LNB to pick up another satellite.

Would you believe that we still haven’t got our drinks license transferred over? Nobody knows where the document needed to do the transfer is so we’re flogging the boose anyway. We also STILL aren’t registered as a French company which is getting to be a bit of a problem as I need to employ Wendy so she can claim the maternity expenses from the social security people.

Ah, the maternity thing. Wendy’s first appointment was this morning so we took along the really big dictionary (commonly referred to as the breeze block). As it turned out, we needn’t have bothered as the doctor speaks pretty good English. Wendy’s to get a heap of blood tests (French doctors are really into tests) in the next day or two and the scan in about two weeks.

We’ve acquired a weird French couple who are the first lot too stingy to pay ‚€6 for a breakfast. Must see if they’re related to the Shearers! They seem pretty addicted to TV and are glued to Sky at the moment so it may be a while before we get rid of them.

That’s one of the castles dotted around the mountainsides here…

More anon,

Arnold