Good news today.
W is out of hopickle, by now, I assume as she said her dottir was coming to pick her up.
Cut off the ends of the feathers on one wing each of the two escaping hens, and went round the enclosure pulling the netting up yet again and securing it. Hope that keeps the littl madams in.
Weather good, dry quite sunny and not too hot.
Neebs have invited me round for lunch tomoz. (Not next door!)
Slight pain.
France announces budget things to start 1st of August, smack in the middle of the holiday period.
The worst one for us is that both gas and electric will go up, as the VAT they charge on the standing charge is moving from 5.5% to the full 20%. Now fortunately we are only on the electric, but still, the standing charge, is by far the biggest part of our bill, especially when we aren't here, as then we use very little. I have yet to get bills out and do the math, but it sucks.
Apparently this "conforms with the European normes" i.e. EU law. To try and compensate, they are reducing another part of the tarif by 2.5%. (You cannot believe how complex Frog bills are, unless you pay them of course!)
And notably every time you pay an electricity bill you are paying towards the dismantling of the nuclear power plants which are only 1/3 state owned!!!
If you are not connected to a "Linky" i.e. a smart meter, (We have to be due to the fnacy tarif we are on, ) you will have to pay β¬6.48 every two months, and you'll have to send in your meter readings. Do it late and you'll get a β¬4.14 charge on your bill.
The French can have, (and a lot do) things called "livrets d'Γ©pargne". Savings things, literally "booklets of savings". Of which evidently there are a few different types. Well guess what the Bank of Frogland is reducing the interest rates on interest payable on a couple of them, from 2.4% to 1.7% and the one for the poorest households is seeing its interest rate go up by less than it should, down from 3.5% to 2.7%.
This in one of the most heavily taxed countries in the world!! In fact the leader in OECD rankings 3 years in a row.
So you see, things ain't all that bad in Blighty.
@kevstar YOU CAN WAKE UP NOW!!!!!