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Post by bjd on Nov 1, 2021 6:43:15 GMT
I have saved more than that and I am still earning interest. The official interest rate in France since January 2020 is 0.5%. It's not negative, but is essentially flat. Only in some cases can you not pay taxes on that and even so, there is a ceiling. This might change a bit if there is inflation.
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Post by tod2 on Nov 1, 2021 8:21:37 GMT
Visited Azay le Rideau castle today. I have visited the castle twice. From the outside it is quite beautiful with the moat all around it. Inside not so much. I found it a bit bare - that was about 15 yrs ago so could be better now. My most prized momento from Azay are a couple of wine corks with olive wood tops. A cheap tourist gift but I love mine so much.
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Post by whatagain on Nov 1, 2021 8:29:51 GMT
The castle was nicely furbished, in every room. Wait for my report, i will add sime pics from inside.
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Post by tod2 on Nov 1, 2021 8:46:04 GMT
I look forward to being reminded of my walk through the Loire valley! Hope you get to see Candes-St-Martin, a cute and pretty little place.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 1, 2021 15:05:53 GMT
A magnificent but scary encounter with that buck, Htmb! You all must have been travelling under your lucky star to have two cars behind you with drivers as quick to react as your daughter was.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 1, 2021 15:26:53 GMT
As the human race hurtles toward extinction, nature is taking back more of its territory.
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Post by htmb on Nov 1, 2021 15:36:20 GMT
Yes, fortunately the other two cars weren’t right up on our bumper when we stopped. We were in a bit of a valley, while they were behind us at the top of a hill, so perhaps they had a good view of what was going on. We left the area in the dark the next morning and saw a huge herd of deer, including very young ones. Lucky for us/them, none were on the road.
The buck really was magnificent. Deer hunting (with a bow or a gun) is a very popular activity in South Georgia. I suppose, with so many deer about, hunters justify the need to constantly reduce the population, but I sure couldn’t kill a deer, or any other animal, unless I was desperate to survive and living in the wild.
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Post by mich64 on Nov 1, 2021 19:12:37 GMT
Negative interest has been a major thing in finance for the last few years, but normally it doesn't concern ordinary people. I kept hearing about these negative interest rates and thought they had to do with business or corportate finance. I had been following mortgage interest rates for the past 18 months as we were coming up on renewing a credit line, we ended on resigning at 1.85% which is an unbelievable rate. There was reporting for the past year that negative interest rates could become a possibility in Canada but it has not and probably now will not happen. I had not considered this could also affect our bank accounts but now realize how it could have. I do not think that here in Canada there has ever been negative interest rates. I checked on my savings account today, interest deposited was twenty three cents. But at least they will not be taking any! Nice to read onlyMark how your resolution to your bank issues ended up helping out a mom and her children. Cheers.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 1, 2021 19:17:41 GMT
The last time I saw my finance person at the postal bank, she was quick to tell me that the negative rates were indeed reserved for business and corporate finance, never individual customers. However, since I had pulled some money out of one of my accounts to finance my share of the reroofing of my building, she said it had been a mistake. If I had taken out a personal loan for the amount, the interest rate would have been lower that the interest being paid on that account -- meaning that if I had borrowed the money, I would actually have earned more money.
I'm sorry, but I find this a bit immoral.
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Post by whatagain on Nov 1, 2021 20:03:00 GMT
Immorality, finance and making money don't seem mutually exclusive to me.
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Post by Kimby on Nov 1, 2021 22:41:06 GMT
Last night we were driving at a fairly high speed, on a very dark, rural, two lane road in the state of Georgia, when a huge buck, with a full antler rack, stepped out in front of us and just stared. My daughter, the driver, managed to stop just short of hitting him and, fortunately, the two cars behind us realized what was happening in time to avoid us. We’d actually been watching for deer, but certainly didn’t expect this one. He was one of the largest (southeastern USA) deer I’ve ever seen in the wild. After standing there a couple of seconds, he turned around and slowly meandered back to the side of the road. Like he had no care in the world. Your beautifully written description of an encounter with a magnificent stag reminds me of Bambi’s meeting of his (presumed) father. The original book Bambi by Felix Salton was NOT a children’s book and it had some beautiful nature writing. Well done, htmb! Both the writing, and the not splattering that buck all over the Highway.
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Post by questa on Nov 1, 2021 23:21:23 GMT
I can forgive the British Monarchy for its grubby personal lives, for its waste of resources and its attitude to the ordinary people etc. etc.
What I CANNOT forgive is their attitude to killing beautiful animals, whether shooting, fishing or hunting with hounds all in the name of "Sport". The ritual of "blooding" a person who has made his or her first kill is a disgusting practice and makes me wonder if Charles (or whom ever) will finally ban it.
A recent docudrama about the Queen had her muttering to a stag, "Oh...you beautiful thing" then next day seeing it being butchered for a city wanker to brag about to his friends in London.
htmb and daughter...thanks for your alertness and good reflexes...you saved my life...the Stag.
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Post by htmb on Nov 2, 2021 1:24:24 GMT
Thank you both.
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Post by tod2 on Nov 2, 2021 11:59:21 GMT
The ritual of "blooding" a person who has made his or her first kill is a disgusting practice and makes me wonder if Charles (or whom ever) will finally ban it. Not only the British into the ritual of "blooding". My niece recently had her photograph taken with her first kill - a buck - her face smeared with it's blood. She is in her early 20's. Her coach and huntsman is Bulgarian. The book I am reading reveals facts about the shooting of grouse. Only for the very rich, as a days shoot could easily set you back £10,000. The owners of the grouse fields must never have too many shot so it is very controlled. What they seem not able to control yet, is a pesky bug that is eating the young heather shoots which the grouse live on.
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Post by whatagain on Nov 2, 2021 15:46:59 GMT
Berk.
We found a company sozcialiezd in 'unstopping' piping. I had tried to go with a wire ro remove what was blocking the water but didn't succeed. Neither ciuld the plumber.
So these guys came. They have a small camera, like endoscopes that they send into the pipe and a wire (we call it a furet in french) The wire has teeth that a simple rotatable tool puts in motion and it just destroy the 'cork'.
Took 15 min, no water on the floor, super clean.
Perfect.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 5, 2021 21:50:55 GMT
What I love about this forum is the ease of talking to other people around the world and hearing about their lifestyle and their country. So if you are reading this in India, Africa, China, Japan, Russia, South America and wherever please join!
We would be so pleased to hear from you,
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Post by questa on Nov 6, 2021 0:48:46 GMT
And this little Aussie voice would love some company!
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 6, 2021 10:07:53 GMT
Would a Welcome board on the home page help so new members could tell us a bit about themselves?
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Post by tod2 on Nov 6, 2021 10:11:54 GMT
Excellent idea to my mind Mick.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 6, 2021 12:36:23 GMT
There is a welcome message as the very first post on the very first board. It is called "Welcome to Any Port in a Storm." If you have never noticed it, please tell us how you expect any other visitor to find it?
On top of that, all new members used to receive a very warm personal message from Bixa encouraging them to browse, join discussions, tell travel tales, ask questions, post photos, etc. Maybe a threatening message would have been more effective.
Meanwhile, Bixa went to great pains to weed out the obvious deadwood from the member list about a year ago -- people who had registered more than two years ago and never posted.
Since Bixa has worked so hard to make this place work, it is not at all surprising that she becomes discouraged from time to time. My own role has been mostly to provide inane content, which is the easiest thing in the world to do.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 6, 2021 15:01:36 GMT
My comment was meant to be helpful.
It wasn’t a criticism in any way, shape or form. Bixa does phenomenal work here.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 6, 2021 16:28:16 GMT
What I love about this forum is the ease of talking to other people around the world and hearing about their lifestyle and their country. So if you are reading this in India, Africa, China, Japan, Russia, South America and wherever please join! Mick, your first sentence pretty much capsulizes the "mission statement" of Any Port in a Storm. The forum has people joining all the time and they get PMs of welcome. Everything on the whole forum is visible to all, members or not. But the reality is that many people take the time to join, but apparently never return even to lurk. Lurkers are of course very welcome, since the point of the open format is to share everything far and wide. Also, visitors and lurkers might publicize the forum elsewhere &/or decide to become participating members. As far as publicity, helping with that is up to all of us who want to see anyport continue to grow and develop. Share links to the main page or to boards or thread anywhere you can. Email pertinent links to your correspondents. Absolutely share all you can on social media. Bring up the forum in conversation with friends, since it is a form of social interaction others may not know about. Since the inception of anyport, Kerouac and I have repeated that everyones story, everyones "own back yard" is interesting. What is everyday to you is often very different and interesting to someone else. Of course the big destinations in the country boards get lots of attention because they're likely to come up in internet searches. And Kerouac continues to remind us that specific subject headings are more likely to be found in those searches. But less well-known destinations and topics are also appealing to the public and each of us performs a public service by creating such threads &/or sharing them. A case in point is Kimby's excellent "Otis Family Farm - Michigan" thread in the United States sub-board. Kimby shared that link far and wide and who knows how many people shared it on again. The thread to date has 13,335 views -- a thread about a place and a family far removed from most of us, but obviously a fascinating topic of wide appeal. One way to get the forum into the public eye is to include it in your profile or other public information on your social media sites. On my own facebook page, anyportinastorm.proboards.com is in the Intro and also featured as the website in the biography section. That means anyone looking at my profile has two chances to click on the live link to this forum. Cheerypeabrain has also done this, so there are at least two of us constantly promoting the forum without doing any work at all. Mick, your shout out to the world at large is heartening and shows your pride and willing participation in this quite wonderful group endeavor.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 6, 2021 18:15:46 GMT
My comment was meant to be helpful. It wasn’t a criticism in any way, shape or form. Bixa does phenomenal work here. I certainly was not criticising your good wishes, mick. I just wanted to make it clear that we have already done our best, and it seems that our best isn't good enough. As Bixa pointed out, our most effective "expansion" technique is to advertise existing content as much as possible when appropriate. I used to be pretty good at this with all of my Paris, Benelux, France, Switzerland reports over the years, but I'm not so good now. 1. I have more difficulty finding new topics about Paris and 2. covid clipped my wings just like it did for everybody else. In private discussions with Bixa, I have called my technique "whoring myself out" when I make links on other sites at every opportunity. Even that has its limits because if you do it too much, members and moderators at other places begin to rebel. So now I use it with parsimony. Nevertheless, I have high hopes for 2022 if I manage to travel again. My most ambitious plan might have me completely away from Anyport for 20 days, but it would be worth it.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 6, 2021 19:05:38 GMT
I’m moderator on a cactus site, Agaveville. I particularly like that the first board on the home page is New Member Introductions where all members can be involved if they want to. Of course most new members are never seen again....
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 6, 2021 21:53:28 GMT
... weed out the obvious deadwood from the member list about a year ago -- people who had registered more than two years ago and never posted. Actually, the people who were weeded out were those who had registered two or more years ago and had never logged on again. I’m moderator on a cactus site, Agaveville. I particularly like that the first board on the home page is New Member Introductions where all members can be involved if they want to. Mick, I don't disagree with that, but will say that on both Agaveville and Anyport all members can be involved if they want to. There is also the ever-present possibility on all forums that one spot could devolve into a general discussion board. I noted that your moderator Geoff had to move one such thread (about Aloe tongaensis) from the welcome board into its proper spot. It was nice that he left the original where it was, too, but I don't think that option exists here. Agaveville is huge compared to Anyport. If we ever get that big, I imagine all kinds of things could change. In the meantime, I hope that anyporters will think about what I wrote regarding ways to get people to look at and join Anyport and how they could implement those suggestions ~ As far as publicity, helping with that is up to all of us who want to see anyport continue to grow and develop. Share links to the main page or to boards or threads anywhere you can. Email pertinent links to your correspondents. Absolutely share all you can on social media. Bring up the forum in conversation with friends, since it is a form of social interaction others may not know about.
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Post by questa on Nov 7, 2021 3:02:51 GMT
The concept of a group of travellers weathering out a storm in this strange port we have created has almost literally come true. We have had our travel wings well and truly clipped and without the regular stories, suggestions, advice, warnings and encouragement that kept us in the public eye, we have turned inwards. This is not a criticism...in fact some of the best posts have come from around the members' homes or cities and the photography is, as usual, fantastic.
People who post like to see their post acknowledged, even if it is only a few words agreeing or not with the OP, or asking Q&As. I would have 'jumped ship' a couple of times had it not been for Bixa, Kerouac2 and others who understand my limitations with even the basic technologies.
Would it be fun/useful to have a poll asking current and recent members why they moved on, what do they like/dislike.etc. I'd vote for humour 1) funny things that have happened to self or family etc 2 )Cartoons, jokes and stupid animals. 3 ) I forget # 3 but it will come back to me and it is really good, it is about 2 dogs...
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Post by questa on Nov 7, 2021 3:16:54 GMT
IIRC (gotta get the jargon right) my first post was supplying the name "door-key syndrome" to the subject under discussion...urinary embarrassments. Can't get much more shyness than that!
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Post by whatagain on Nov 7, 2021 7:34:47 GMT
I would have 'jumped ship' a couple of times had it not been for Bixa, Kerouac2 and others who understand my limitations with even the basic technologies. Would it be fun/useful to have a poll asking current and recent members why they moved on, what do they like/dislike.etc. I'd vote for humour 1) funny things that have happened to self or family etc 2 )Cartoons, jokes and stupid animals. 3 ) I forget # 3 but it will come back to me and it is really good, it is about 2 dogs... So true ! I try to get into the habit of posting my travels, esp the business ones, which are usually short, and it takes time to do so. When all the feedback you would get is being reminded of the misspellings you make, that would not be encouraging. Plus Bixa has a fantastic way of posting, you don't even believe she is flattering, she sounds genuinely interested ! So again thanks to all for the good words, it keeps us posting. As for FB, i will try. I have disintalled it and have not been there for over a month. Totally fed up with plots, antivax, and myself reacting to it.
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 7, 2021 8:01:15 GMT
I have to disagree with our esteemed southern colony correspondent in that the problem with humour is that it doesn't necessarily travel well, is not commonly international meaning everything is funny to all and other things like interpretation and personal likes or feelings. E.g. "jokes" tend to leave me cold. One of the worst things is being with someone who is not from the UK who says you Brits are supposed to have a good sense of humour - and I have a joke for you...... Jeez, no... Secondly, I don't come on here for cartoons, jokes and funny animals. The odd one or two are welcome. More and more of them.... no. It'll get out of hand if it is open season on them. Unless it is restricted to The Far Side cartoons. I'd go with that.
Thirdly, the subject of linking - the slightly paranoid person that I am recognises how easy it is to gather information on people and follow the links through to gather more an more. That's how I've done it to some success and failures, but nevertheless, if I can find an anonymous scammer including his personal details, where he works, address, phone number and so on, then many could. You may feel you have nothing to hide, so why hide? Good point, who'd be looking for you anyway or needing to gather information on you? I suppose 99.9% of people are not bothered as to the privacy aspects. No problem. It's just a thought. Using the same handle across multiple platforms is a dead giveaway by the way.
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Post by questa on Nov 7, 2021 13:45:23 GMT
From the office of the Esteemed Southern Colony Correspondent. Sir, While your point about the difficulties of humour travelling is generally accurate, one notes that our Mother country still regales herself with re-runs of 'the Benny Hill Show'. There are some rare occasions when the universality of the situation does cause a snicker of mirth from the audience. Should the common Man be deprived of this moment of jollity, even though he needs the 'joke' explained to him at a more convenient time. Your obt servant etc,etc.
Actually I agree on the nature of the joke...a clever pun or wordplay is worth a nod and a groan, while a long story had better have a pretty good punch line or at least a "Snork". Coffee on the keyboard is reserved for Pete and Dudley and the Dead Parrot. I suppose I should not use the word Humour but the better word...Wit. I used to think I was a wit, but I was only half right.
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