https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/29/high-court-to-rule-on-right-to-civil-partnership We've got these  and now am I supposed to beleive that in the UK a 'straight' union, without marriage is not allowed? Here is a link to the general situation on the subject in Europe http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/family/couple/registered-partners/index_en.htm Now, as I recall, the last information I had was that boy meets girl or the reverse, they live together as a couple, not married....if they are organised they make wills and testaments, financial arrangements mutually or each for the other, and I did think there was the possibility to enter into a legal contract of 'Civil Union' where all these things were covered, without marriage! Personally I am obliged to do it all myself since the German Pensions do not accept re-marriages without cutting the 'Widows' pension I get! This doesn't seem right, but since I live in France where Civil U

 Well, just 2 more days and I'll have made it! OK - there isn't room for the 70 candles on many cakes and anyway I'm not a very 'cakey' person, but I am just amazed at two things, how time has gone bye and the fact that I have nearly made it to the big 70! It's been a bumpy ride at times, but everyone's life is  and if this year of 2016 has probably been the worst, who knows - maybe 2017 will be calmer. Hope springs eternal as they say and it wouldn't be correct if things went along like a high speed Autoroute, just going to some destination - sometime....! Yes I lost my wife to Cancer many years ago at a young age, but we had been married for over 20 years and had travelled all over the world together..... Yes I had my problems of heart ailments but I'm still alive - still, with the help of 'stent' and 'bypass' surgery with finally a built in 'defibrillator' - my own personal electric shock machine!  Here is a little

  Meze, Herault - not far from us here, but I haven't been back for many years. In fact I lived there with my deceased wife Kate for a number of years, and finally I'm going back next week to see it again. This article is a little round up of the place and some of the things we experienced over the years there. We started off in a camping site, 'Beau Rivage' but it didn't look anything like this! The original building was there and was turned into a bar eventually, with a terrace but no cover just a few parasols. Our plot was actually just to the right, behind the building and we spent some years there. There was no swimming pool.....a little shop for urgencies and that's it! We moved on from there eventually to a plot of ground high on a hill at the exterior of the Village, called it 'The Trou' (the hole) although it had a wonderful view of the lake towards the City of Sète. My wife worked permanent nights in Germany so it meant 14 night on and the

·   Politics are not my thing, but the effects often are and affect me. Right now, leaving the American farce to one side, the thing which horrifies me most is the situation in Syria.   Understand - no, except that people and children are being bombed by somebody, be it the Syrian Government or the Russians, bombed and killed with bombs and weapons made in the USA, UK and elsewhere in Europe, fuelled by Arab country petrol and largely financed by supposed peace organisations. Instead of water and food for people there is money and food for petrol, weapons and killers! Aleppo is the perfect proof that if you build weapons you have to use them, either by selling them, or using them. Some of these pictures recall Coventry, Berlin and other places during the '39-'45 conflict  Berlin 1944/45....... Have we learnt nothing? When will the people of the world stand up and insist on change? No - my name is not Marx, but things exist that simply should not exist.