Yes - I can't believe I am saying this, considering the pretty crummy spring and early summer we have "enjoyed" - but a wee drop of the wet stuff wouldn't come amiss!! Mind you - have just received notification that the water company are going to give me back 50 euros!! Nothing to whinge about there :-)
As for "Swiss in Wales" - the mind boggles :-)
Thanks Catherine ---- but just look at the discussion Brian initiated :-) WOW!! What a community!!! Part of having free speech is exercising that right - which you guys have facilitated - and despite the sometimes tetchy responses - no one has gone to war and we have all remained "friends"!! Great stuff!! And all because Brian couldn't get some batteries :-) It is ALL Brian's fault :-)
Agreed, Catharine ! My word, but Brian really started something, didn't he :-D However, if it is classified as being anti-French by complaining, according to Richard, and that in this country everything is OK and "nobody" wants to improve, or "nobody" is supposed to complain about service - quality - availability - price and so on, how come I am being asked several times per day to complete surveys for French companies and products? I am sent merchandise to test out, and asked about opinions on supermarkets and their strategies.... If everyone thought I was whinging when I put a "not Satisfactory" marking, why do they keep asking what I think?? So evidently there are companies somewhere out there who realise that they can and MUST improve. I am a keen follower of the stock markets. Just take a look at the balance sheets and results of some of the larger retailers. They leave a whole lot to be desired.
Point taken, and if you do love it les than I ---welll never mind ehhhh lolol
Oh yes Graham. I went to one of the Swiss in Wales (really, they do exist - look up the very posh website), with a chairwoman in Swansea , who is actually very nice. My wife went to a few of their meetings which were dominated by German Swiss but she was the only Italian Swiss, so they looked down their noses at her. My German is perfect, so that a few dialect expressions aside I understood what they were saying. I was taken aback by their absolute distaste for anything Welsh, much the same when England was mentioned. I got out sharp, my OH happy to leave. The chair is a good friend of hers now, but the rest of them...
Thinking it might just be them, we went to a gathering of many English (no other British at all) and Dutch near Bergerac. The whinge factor was just like our Cardiff experience, so I suggested we leave fast.
Now having written that, I see the funny side of it, there they were investing a lot of energy in France knocking and probably do every time they meet. I just get on with life. I know some of the openest and most welcoming people I have ever met who are all French, our children are happy, things are not perfect but I am not expecting Utopia. The funniest bit of all is that one usually knows when a whinge is coming when somebody begins with 'I am not complaining, but...' or 'I am the last one to complain, but...' or a similar introduction to a HUGE GREAT WHINGE!!
Me, right now my only whinge is that it has not rained enough to save my grass and will it or not, or should I go watering anyway? Think I'll do it anyway...
Richard,
Of course it does! But it's your view that if you dare say a word of criticism against France, that we must love it less than you do! As someone who has never been happier in my life I do resent being told to return to a hell hole just because I dared voice that France might just be slightly less than Paradise.
That remark, if aimed in my direction, young lady is totally out of order, please say where I have complained --- whinged --- moaned about living here in France, I defy you.
Mark,
You are right of course, and perhaps I have been a little harsh on those little niggles, and yes this is a closed forum where we can all say what we think, but I hope that applies to me as well as all others?
I just happen to love it here, as does my wife, and we accept all the little foibles and don't complain about them, simply because we enjoy our life here.
Excellent point Graham. And I have to say, that as James pointed out earlier today, most of the whinging / moaning / complaining seems to be being done by one person....
Agreed! But, if you read back, where is the whinging here? A lot of the discussions have been marginally tongue in cheek - there has been none of the real whinging that is *occasionally* found when ex-pat groups get together. I remember being invited to a local ex-pat group meeting when we first came here - and we were horrified! And never went back. In part I agree with the sentiment "If you hate it that much, go back whence you came" - but there hasn't been a single comment on here that I have read which indicates anyone *hating* living in France - most of us are here because we love it, warts and all - but, as my old school reports inevitably said "could do better"!!
Ditto Catharine and the final line is the 'home' truth Carol.
Haha, I expected a couple of buy from Amazon, etc, type of responses (which is what I did before I had posted). I was also writing ironically, some of it very tongue in cheek because life is too short to take seriously in large overdoses, but apart from a few early responses I take it people gave up reading and thinking about the actual post way, way back and went off on their own route. No way I would have foreseen that. But OK, that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Entirely with you on the 'go back' response, it serves no useful purpose and does not contribute to discussion. Anyway, what had it to do with where anybody came from? I was bewildered by a shopping experience, just that. Nothing to do with the country, just the people who run shops and provide goods to everybody irrespective of race, creed, or... and those same goods are missing for them too.
But fine, some of it fascinating, some of it forgetable. Just because of a couple of batteries.
Hear hear Mark!
We are not 'guests' - the vast majority of us posting here are immigrants.
I don't think I have ever heard such a load of racist claptrap.
Ditto!
Aw shucks, but you are welcome.
I agree with your opinion regarding those Brits who hold court in restaurants & talk loudly about French inefficiency, or whatever, within hearing of other patrons, many of which could be French. It is bad manners at least & much of what is said by such people can stem from a lack of knowledge. It annoys & embarrasses me & yes, I do wish they would go somewhere else, maybe Spain, where they CAN get Watneys Red, fish 'n chips, get rat faced & throw up in the public fountains to their hearts content!
But why the hell should I want to return to the UK just because one small aspect of an idyllic life niggles me? I can live very well with something almost perfect. The UK, for me, is FAR worse, but we are not discussing the UK. This is a members discussion forum & we are discussing, in a closed group, those things which we find less than perfect & I don't think any of us are deluded enough to think we can change things here. Our views are not being rammed down the throats of our French friends & neighbours & I'm sure many of the half million French who live in the UK also have little gripes they share with each other.
Anyone whose answer to any critic is to go back from whence you came is being, frankly, patronising!
All this because a shop doesn't stock batteries - I think it's great!
I am only saying what the average Englishman would say if "come overs" didn't like what they were getting, I wonder if the average Frenchman would say the same thing if he read half the posts on here ???.
Sounds like a plan Sheila, coming over with our friends David and Linda for 1 week, but I'm staying an extra week (all those house jobs Marilyn has me lined up to do!!!!!) Glad the B&B is going great guns.
Now THAT is a comment that gets a big 'like' from me.