http://www.frenchmoments.eu/advent-in-france-lavent-en-france/ (with music) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CXpoehZ9b4 Joyeux noël.....

 When the Central Committee member had one vodka too many, nobody imagined what far reaching consequences this would have - for the world! http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-wall Of course, today, as we celebrate the opening of the Berlin wall , we have a tendency to forget there are still quite a few still 'UNOPENED' -  http://socks-studio.com/2013/04/14/peace-lines-a-selection-of-walls-dividing-regions/ Mainly religious or political in reason, they are, nonetheless, dividers between peoples. I spent 2 periods of duty in the West City , one of my jobs being to drive around this wall for 'security' reasons, and this, I assure you, did NOT exist.....  There was an enormormous amount of ' grafitti ', but outside the central area, mainly wooded, which we had to patrol, there was nothing but trees - overgrown areas and posters warning people they were 'leaving West Berlin Territory'- uninteresting for the Tourists and in fact uninteresting fo...

.....Seriously - DON'T ASK......! This is a 'rogue' thing which either installs itself, or (if you don't watch out) gets installed with other programmes you download, many of them via the Yahoo links. If you don't UNCLICK the option to include it, you're lost! It CAN be uninstalled , but it is long and tiresome to do.....I've just spent all morning trying, and I'm still not sure if it's completely gone! It changes your search engine, installs itself and otherwise bores you! The instructions are complicated and difficult to uninstall it, and never garanteed to work. You can try this, or one of the other ones on Google (videos).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wehJK8Ntd5k Good luck!

 If only you could do this, instead of this.....  life would be easier....you'd know where everything is, and wouldn't spend the next 2 years looking for things which are of no use anyway! Yes, the joys of moving house.....we are in the middle of it, and so half of our possessions are in the new place, the other half in the old place.....and that in the month of August and at the start of the 2 week long village fête! It's hot, it's long, it's difficult....! Furniture has to be bought and delivered and installed.....one long story of looking, measuring,  then you need a plumber, because the existing water points are no good for fridges that make ice cubes, or machines that wash dishes.....  ok - if they only came as quickly as this guy, but it's August - the main holiday month - and he's probably sitting in his car, with his family, wishing he was under OUR sink   or is thinking out NEW transport methods.......  in any case, he isn't where he should...

Although the whole thing doesn't really concern me too much, being Central Europe based for health, social and pension questions, I think I should say a few words about the situation coming up shortly in Scotland , my country of birth. Scotland is a rich country which has been exploited for centuries, mainly by the English . We have smoked salmon , fresh salmon and fishery products in enormous quantities - we have oil - we have whisky - wool and textiles- we have many other products of 'de luxe' and we EXPORT........  a very important part of every countries economy. Last night there was a TV debate between 2 candidates, leading ones, and a point was made about the € and the GBPound. The point was made by the Scottish representative that the GBPound is just as Scottish at the moment as English, something not accepted by the other person! Personally I think that in the case of Scotland voting for Independance , then the € should be adopted. Just because the English ...