And not to be outdone, some even stranger goings-on in England.... http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/naked-driver-neal-marshall-masturbated-2943049
Many strange things happen everywhere I think. The largest town to me spent €Ms on repaving the square in front of the tourist office, including setting fountains into the paving. The only trouble is that get a touch of frost and people keep falling over on the slippery surface. It looks nice, but it is so smooth that you cannot get a grip on it. Now we see the council workmen covering it with sand on a cold evening and sweeping it up the next morning even if the forecast is for another cold night. Some guy was hauled off to court recently after he dropped a chip out of his basket, someone trod on it and fell over. The guy said that he didn't even know that he had dropped one, if he had he would have picked it up. The court queried why this matter had come before them. It seems that the person who had slipped on the chip was trying to get compensation for their hurt feelings, nothing more, and a conviction would help their case. The court threw the case out.
Trying to make any changes at work in France ia a nightmare. At months of moaning from Service Engineers across Europe about how slow their mobile application was working, and the French were particularly vocal. We made some changes to some screens and the workflow and made a big improvement. In France it took the unions 6 months to review and approve the changes, whilst all the other countries were OK to approve straight away after we demonstrated the change.
Well it fits: Local French villager to me in discussions about the EU "You British are so obedient... the EU make a law and you follow it straight away.. in France we do nothing until we have to." This was in response to the 5 yearly drain inspections in which every householder has to pay 85 Euros to have their drains inspected. You get A - Fine B- Action recommended C- Action required Every house in the village was rated B... so I asked our neighbour what to do about the costly " recommendations".... he said "do as we do.... wait another 5 years...." Incidentally it was via this process and a local dowser that I discovered the same neighbours grandparent had through a deal with a previous owner of our house put a drainage pipe right across our garden , maybe 100 metres, to discharge into a field at the end of our boundary.... well I guess it was on a need to know basis...
It's interesting to compare with Germany. A few years ago I worked for a company and the decision was made to outsource our service activity as we just did not have enough work to maintain an efficient workforce. In Germany we started engagement with the Betriebsräte and as long as we both followed the process it went through smoothly under a TUPE type arrangement. Trying to do the same thing in France took 2 years to get nowhere - we gave up in the end.
Buy a house with some fields as I did and the whole process is put on hold to see if the French agricultural unions wish to buy the land. If they do they can have them at a cheap price, changing the whole nature of your purchase. As they have no money to buy anything the exercise just creates delay. Recently the transport unions have been blockading the autoroutes because of a so called eco tax that the government was planning. I have a degree of sympathy with them over this one as the transport system works against French companies in favour of the foreign companies that seem to out number them on the roads. The government has put the new tax on hold for further discussion. If there is an accident on the autoroute traffic is kept moving with the police directing drivers around the paramedics working on an injured person. Get a demo by lorry drivers and the police do nothing except turn up to make sure that there is no violence.
Off work now until the 6 Jan, not going anywhere or doing much which probably includes visits to Not606. Mrs S says it's Christmas so you can do exactly what you want, good advice so enjoy. Whatever ones views on Malky, I think this whole management merry go round makes me sick. As far as I can MM is doing a good realistic job. I hope Watford give us all a Christmas Present of at least 6 points over the break, preferably 12, should be an interesting few games with 5 new coaches. Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to you all. Scully.
French government rules of applying the VAT increase are all but impossible to apply for certain invoicing models. We will have to turn off invoicing for some customers until the end of January to re-develop the invoice engine to support it - they spent months not answering our requests for clarification. Why they could not apply simple rules like most of the other Euro countries beggars belief.
I did see a set of regulations recently about what rate of VAT to apply from 1st January. Clear as mud!
Yes,,, we are having a new floor in the kitchen replacing the old rotten beam plus new tiles.... means taking out the entire kitchen etc.... costing us twice UK prices and they still don't know what to scam us for with the VAT..,,
Morning all, as a more irregular visitor these days I'll get the Christmas and thanks bit over with first. Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to you all Thanks to Ak for the coffees, even if a few go cold, and I bet your glad the Nest is not closing after reading the if Paolo di Canio and Ian Holloway comment. A good start for Giuseppe Sannino and no goals, from open play or set pieces, has to be a good thing - a penalty is a difficult thing to defend successfully. After the GFZ era I think the Pozzos have found asafe if, visually entertaining, pair of hands for the club.
The end of another day. Mrs NZ went away on Friday for a couple of days. She is so enjoying the break from Christmas preparations and having to keep the children entertained that she is still away. I think she will come back tomorrow (with a couple of chooks to join the eight we have already).
Sæl öll. Cappuccino, coffee, tea donuts and fruit are on the bar. Frothy cappuccinos for for al, HH, and W_Y Coffee and cramel frapachino for IB Coffees for COYH, Frenchie, Kev rob theo and vic-rijrode and kiwiqpr Strong coffee for Sandy Milky coffee for Yorkie Espresso for SuffolkHorn Strong black coffees for Bragi Norway and zen Black coffee half hot half cold and no sugar for Charlie A peppermint latte for DanH Tea for BHD Cornish Mark jsybarry Lloydinio NZ and BCFCRed Tea with skimmed milk and no sugar for GG and Leon Hot chocolate with marshmallows for BBW Caramel latte for Hornette Scullion Canary Dave Fossefilberto and Maestro Another cold beer for Mexican Hornet -1C and snow.
Thank you Ak for the caramel latte, may I wish you a merry Christmas and a very happy and prosperous New Year!
