Nataly

You're right... I was actually quite lucky when you think about it!! ETA: come to think of it, the trains were on strike the day I had to be home for the 1st appointment... Was a nightmare getting from work to the appartment... Didn't remember to include into my rant I guess because train strikes are so frequent!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I think you already know the solution to that "mairie". R.I.P. Huh??? "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I actually was a virgin media customer in the UK. Never had any issues. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Sounds about right... A week of waiting spread over three weeks in actual time... Shudder to think how long before I have an even number of shutters again... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Ummmm... but drilling a hole in the wall of a historic building is "okay"? Yep. I got permission from the mairie since everyone else on the street has it as well. The line has been chased alongside the neighbour's existing line so nothing "extra" is added. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Sounds like the same concept as BP and the Gulf oil spill. It's infuriating, but I gotta admit it's a pretty genius business-model... And the best part is that the consumer has no choice because it's like this all over France - they are either the exclusive provider or they all work together to provide exactly the same over-priced shitty service... Genius... Need to get in on this action!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Today I am connected to the internet from home. I should be thrilled, but whoa the journey here has been painful... Lemme explain... Round 1 - phone line The first problem was that my house has never had a phone line. You need one for an internet connection. France Telecom is the ONLY landline provider... So the internet guys (not part of France Telecom) contacted F.T. to get a line installed... The first guy showed up by himself and without a ladder... Bear in mind, my address clearly states I live on the second floor... The second team brought a ladder but no drill... Not sure what they thought they would use to get the line through the walls... The third team was due to arrive at 10:00 (AM) but called at 4:30 (PM) to let me know they wouldn't be able to make it in the end... The fourth team cancelled the day before, because their truck was out of service... The fifth team arrived this morning. They installed the line, but ripped off one of my shutters. Round 2 - shutter So I am going outside to give the technician a hot cup of coffee... As soon as I'm out there I see my sutter on the sidewalk shattered in about a million pieces... The guy immediately gets all defensive and tries to tell me the wood is rotten and the thing practically fell off on its own. I am horrified and deeply apologetic. When the phone line is installed, I ask sheepishly what they're going to do about the shutter... The guy starts picking up the pieces and tells me he will do his best to repair the thing. Now I feel this is may not be a great idea... So I take some pictures and notice a few things that don't look quite right... 1 - the shutter is broken in half *exactly* at the handle... 2 - the lower hinge is practically ripped out of the wall... 3 - the wood is dry and very solid - not at all brittle... 4 - one of the slates has been taken out put across the frame and 3 brand new screws are sticking out of it... The fucker obviously lost his balance on the ladder, ripped off my shutter when trying to stabilise himself and then tried to cover it up!! I insisted he give me back everything and got his company's phone number... Fucker gave me his number instead of his company's number... Luckily I googled his company name (not part of France Telecom) and contacted his boss and sent pictures... Et cetera, et cetera... His boss tried to tell me he'd try to make a deal with me rather than go through insurance... Holy fuck!! I live in a historic medieval village about 20 yards from the historic castle... You don't just stick a bandaid on a shutter and consider the thing fixed!! And the problem in ALLLLL of this is that as every part of the process is outsourced, no one accepts responsibility for anything... The internet provider is not responsible for the phone line... The phone company is not responsible for the installation... The technician is not responsible for my private property... No contact numbers, no customer service emails, nothing... AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGH!!! Seriously... I am going to open up a business here... I will ensure each step of the process is outsourced and complicated... I will in fact make it so painful the client will go in circles until he eventually gives up trying to receive the service. In fact I will be selling nothing at all and be making a small fortune doing it. What a *genius* set-up!!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Errr... No... The first is still a friend - but it was a BAD first date!! The second was me (and I was just having a bad day)... The third called me for a second date... I gave him the benefit of the doubt, but the second date was worse so declined his offer for a third... The forth texted me the following week saying he had had a really good time and we should do it again (I believe my answer was "remind me what your name was?!")... The shy one... Well, never heard from him again... And the guy saying he'd been on match for ever... Well, we had a fun evening complaining about match.com and we kept in touch here and there to complain further but otherwise didn't have much in common. So yeah... *Possibly* the last guy was trying to blow me off, but I think the others were just not great. Anyway, like I said: when you click with someone you can have disastrous topics of conversation and somehow get away with it. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Well Nataly, on this very thread, seems to agree with me about the skydiving, for a start.... Well, I am sorry to say that I experienced a lot of the "bad vibes" you describe in the UK... (I went to 6 different DZ's - some better than others.) However, I will say this: it's easy to laugh, chill out and generally enjoy the sport when you have good weather, cheap jumps, and big planes... It's also easier to hone your skills if you're able to jump 10 times per day pretty much every day of the year... This is not the case in the UK, and I believe a lot of the "problems" stem from this. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

How can he be The One if he is an ex? Denial is a very powerful thing!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

That's right Shroppy!! I figured fewer septic tanks would come to froggy-land "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

SKYDIVING Unfortunately, I agree with most of this... Love jumping at Empuria (Spain), and the good news is it can be very cheap to fly within Europe. DRIVING When I got the the UK I was allowed to drive with my foreign (Canadian) licence for 1 year. After which point I could (for a very small/reasonable fee) trade it in for a UK one. Not every country is elligible for this but I believe the US is. At the time, they systematically put a restriction on your UK licence if you were north-american that you couldn't drive stick UNLESS YOU COULD PROVE YOU TOOK YOUR DRIVING LICENCE WITH A MANUAL TRANSMISSION. As I had military driving licences that clearly identified manual transmission vehicles, I managed to get this restriction waived and got my normal/full UK licence. I believe they convert rather nicely with regards motorcycle licences as well, but can't confirm as I took my bike licence tests in the UK. Generally speaking, their DVLA website is excellent: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/DrivingInGbOnAForeignLicence/DG_4022562 I will have a think about other useful info. Feel free to PM. The UK is a *brilliant* country - you will love it there

You know, quite honestly, in the right context, pretty much anything goes... There are no rules... Heck, my ex who I will probably always think of as The One likely made every "mistake" in the book and somehow it was cute!!! Sometimes you can't put a finger on it - it's just great or it's just terrible... Then you can look for excuses but the reality is that some things (like chemistry) can be quite unpredictable. One more reason why I think meeting is important... You can have incredible texting chemistry, but writing can be soooo easy to misunderstand... I do believe our face-to-face impression of someone is far more trustworthy... Of course, there are no rules... If someone REALLY clicks with you, texting and MSN'ing and calling can also be a way of getting to know someone... Dunno... Dating can be terribly fun, even when it goes spectacularly wrong... I giggled my ass off with a guy who lied about EVERYTHING on his profile - and even posted someone else's picture - because according to him being on match.com is a shameful thing!! We both agreed it would go nowhere, but we had an entertaining evening complaining about the pitfalls of dating! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Fuck, I certainly hope not!!! One guy said simply: "want to go for a ride on my motorcycle?" That intreagued me. So I said "when?" and he sent his phone number... We went kite-surfing that day and it was awesome! It's like 3 years later and we're still good friends. Coffee is a "safe" option where you're encouraged to chat... There is little expectation you will go off to bed with someone at 3 in the afternoon somehow... And without any alcohool, there is less chance you will babble mindless nonsense as well. But certainly, bonus points if the guy is up for something more fun - like diving or hiking or anything really that isn't boring... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

YEP - totally agree. I have a match.com profile and one of the first things I state on it is that I'd rather cut to the chase and meet someone over coffee than chat for 6 months before realising the guy's a total twat... So maybe I've wasted 2 hours on the dates above (including travel), but at least it wasn't 2 weeks or 2 months!!! That said, I could probably find a bit of a compromise before going straight to meeting someone... There *are* some crazies out there!!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

He bragged about driving a Peugeot??? I said they were bad topics... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

You've pretty much summed up my repartoire... But I should triage better to start with... To be fair, some of those nutters were at least a little bit entertaining!!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

How the fuck should I know?? I'm one of the "freaks" out there on dates!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

"There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I believe I speak with a certain amount of authority when I say we are terrible at first dates (myself included)... Bad topics of conversation throughout the years have included (but are not limited to): - My mother is dying of cancer, I left my pregnant ex a couple of weeks ago and to be honest I'm not really in the mood to be dating right now... - You remind me of my ex... Proceed to talk about how wonderful said ex was and burst into uncontrollable sobbing. (That one was me.) - My mother is a bitch. She ruined my life by taking me out of school at nine and forcing me to play the violin for 4 hours every day. (Not the same as the first guy.) - By golly I am muscular. Just look at my muscles. And my manicured hands. And my fancy Peugeot. And my muscles. Just look at those muscles. What was your name again? (Yes, this was a guy. I think.) - I'm kinda shy... (Probably the only 3 words he spoke all night.) - So I've been on match.com for about 5 years now and all the women on there are TOTAL bitches. (Hmmm...) One wonders how anyone (myself included) gets a second date...! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Which is daft cus the @ doesn't need to following T ... that is redundant like 'PIN Number' Yes, thank you Shroppy

I'm obviously no expert in such matters, Nataly, but it sounds like you subscribe to the age old theory that, when it comes to European guys, good things come in small packages! For what it's worth, 16cm equals 6.3 inches... These are averages, and given the average american has all of 4 inches to boast about, I would suggest anyone who pooh-poohs Europeans is way off base...! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Yep... Seems about right to me!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Perhaps this is already irrelevant... However, what I would suggest is that regardless of what happens, you answer with (you may adapt as necessary): "Wow! That's great news! Thank you very much for the job offer [try to sound sincere]! I have just received another offer just before you called. I didn't give them an answer because I was more interested in this position. As I told the other company, however, I do not want to make a rash decision. I would really appreciate if you could give me a day to think it over so I feel happy that I've really made the right decision. Again, I want to stress that this role is my preference for x reasons" Doesn't matter if Company A or Company B calls first... You can say the same thing. No one will ever know which was really your favourite. Just be careful not to give the impression you are holding out for a better role. Bad way to start - especially if you don't get the "better" job offer... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

This question is impossible to answer because I cannot for the life of me imagine what it must be like to be you... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss