Foreign Perspectives Foreign Perspectives News and editorial on life from the south of France, a regular series on how to move here and some random musings too. As seen on TV. Articles
Brazilian sugar
2008-05-12 21:24:00 Brazil is a massive country and one of the largest sugar producers in the world: so large that it’s production directly affects the world price for the product. All that production is concentrated in just two areas of the country: around Sao Paulo and in the north. So large is the production that they even go ... More About: America , Holidays , Sugar , Brazilian
What?s the easiest language for an English speaker to learn?
2008-05-12 21:10:00 In theory the answer is Scots or perhaps Ulster Scots although there’s a lot of debate as to whether either count as a language. However, that’s not the problem with them: in that one key point about learning another language is that you want to communicate with people who you couldn’t communicate with before these ... More About: Commentary , Speaker , English , Language , Learn
What about Cyprus for your Summer holiday?
2008-05-12 20:50:00 Cyprus is a slightly peculiar place to go on holiday. One peculiar effect of the British history is that they drive on the left in contrast to pretty much all of Europe. It sounds a trivial thing but it made the place seems that little bit more like “home” to me. However, it isn’t home and it has a ... More About: Holidays , Holiday , Summer , Cyprus
Isn?t it amazing what you can get on a portable hard drive these days?
2008-05-11 21:29:00 Most of the time you don’t really notice the rate at which technology moves along but when you dig out a piece of not-that-old technology and try to bring it up to date you can really be surprised. Take my old SuperVHS tapes for instance. I was recording my holiday trips on those for nearly ten ... More About: Portable , Drive , Hard , Computing , Amazing
Frontiers? a bit too much?
2008-05-11 21:12:00 Frontiers was due to get an NC-17 rating for its “extreme sadistic gore and violence”. Rather than make cuts to the film to get an R rating, the producers decided instead to run without a rating which means that it’s been limited to a one week theatre release just prior to hitting the DVD shelves. Does ... More About: America , Entertainment
We don?t speak French; why didn?t you speak French to us?
2008-05-11 20:50:00 That’s the rather peculiar comment of some Germans who stayed with us. Since German is a distant relative to the English language, English is much easier to speak for them than French and therefore we always start off in English with any German guests (learning German is close to the top of our “to do” list ... More About: Speak
Why buy a PC when you can build one?
2008-05-08 21:07:00 Because you haven’t a clue how to go about it is the usual answer to that one but it doesn’t need to be. For one thing, high performance gaming computers are both cheaper to build yourself and since the kits explain all the steps, you will be able to upgrade your PC later which ordinarily would mean ... More About: Shopping , Build
I can?t get there, I?d like to cancel?
2008-05-08 21:02:00 Whenever you’ve a peak of bookings, you’re sure to have a peak of cancellations too. Today for instance is a public holiday here which means, among other things, that the buses aren’t running. So, right on cue, we received a call this afternoon from someone who can’t reach us today. Since the cancellation conditions state that ... More About: Holidays
Website design articles
2008-05-08 20:10:00 Sometimes it seems like everyone who’s ever designed a website needs to run up a blog to write about it. Most of the time they tend to fizzle out though or change topics so that they end up being a general blog rather than sticking to their original niche. One design blog does seem to be ... More About: Internet , Design , Website , Articles
Boring, but really high marks anyway
2008-05-08 19:56:00 The English language course that I’m doing at the moment has the reputation of being one of the hardest of all the courses that the university do. Yet, although I’m getting consistently in the 90% mark for assignments, I’m starting to find that it’s one of the most boring courses that I’ve every done. If nothing ... More About: High , Marks , Boring
Thinking of cashing in your endowment policy?
2008-05-07 21:35:00 Although it’s best to retain your endowment for the full term sometimes that’s just not possible for one reason or another. However, you don’t need to take the pitifully low amount that you’ll be offered by the insurance company as it’s possible to sell endowments these days and almost always that’ll bring you in a significantly larger ... More About: Finance , Policy , Thinking
How individual is your Wordpress theme?
2008-05-07 21:28:00 Whilst there seems to be a vast number of Wordpress themes around in reality many of them are simple variations of a single theme. Consider for example the theme I’m developing over at SevaTeem. I’ve started using early versions of it on various blogs to see how it flies. If you didn’t know that, you might ... More About: Internet , Web Development , Wordpress Theme , Theme
Every wish that you had someone around to sort out your computer?
2008-05-07 21:19:00 These days all of us seem to be getting more and more dependent on our computers yet how many of us would know where to start looking when something goes wrong and you need it fixed right now? Computer repair these days has moved way beyond the business of getting out the soldering iron and sorting out ... More About: America , Internet , Sort
Splitting up a blog
2008-05-07 20:39:00 For the first time we find ourselves splitting a blog in two. The reason is simple really: a while back I started An Age of Magic for a bit of fun and some time later Wendy started writing some pieces on it too. Roll the calendar forward a lot of months and her stuff has ended ... More About: Commentary , Blog
Investment training
2008-05-06 21:26:00 You might think that this is a daft time to be thinking about getting yourself some education in the fields of stock market investment and property investment with both those worlds seeming to be in the process of falling down around us. In fact, it’s close to being the perfect time to have yourself fully equipped ... More About: Finance , Investment , Training
Free website hosting
2008-05-06 21:15:00 Up until quite recently your choice was between paying $5 or so a month for a web hosting service or running with one that plastered adverts all over your site. No longer. Take for instance PinkPaper. You get a quite respectable 300MB webspace (more than enough for many commercial sites and lots more than most individuals ... More About: America , Hosting , Website , Web Development , Free
Website development blog
2008-05-06 20:20:00 Website development blogs are all over the Internet if you care to look for them and they’re pretty good places to look for insights as to how you might do something or other. Typical of a general web design blog is the one over at Stylish Design which, as with most blogs, doesn’t stick slavishly to it’s ... More About: Website , Development , Blog
Plugging away with the new wordpress template
2008-05-06 20:08:00 I’ve been plugging away at the weekends with my new Wordpress template over at SevaTeem for the last month or so and interestingly it’s starting to get hits from people looking how to do things like add extra sidebars and whatnot. Whilst it’ll be a while before it’s ready to roll out to the world at ... More About: Marketing , Internet , Web Development , Template
Looking for an after-dinner speaker for your event?
2008-05-05 21:30:00 Although you might think that it would be difficult to get a famous name to speak for you at some event in fact it’s usually fairly easy as a considerable number of them are signed up with various talent agencies. The range of those potentially available to you is staggering these days. Obviously you’ll need to ... More About: Entertainment , Event , Speaker , Dinner
Trying to get away for the bank holiday?
2008-05-05 20:50:00 One of the regular nightmares that seems to get worse every year is the business of getting away for the bank holiday weekends. We all know that the roads will be full, the airports chaotic and the ferry queue backed up yet for just about every bank holiday weekend you see the queues everywhere. From the ... More About: Holidays , Holiday , Bank
Clickbooth: an alternative to adsense?
2008-05-01 16:25:00 It seems like everything is from google these days and that we’re getting more and more dependant on them for everything. Since being dependant on a single supplier is always a high risk option it’s good to see something like the Clickbooth Publisher Network which seems to have adsense style options on offer. Sign-up is a ... More About: Business , Adsense , Alternative
It?s vacation time: let?s close up!
2008-05-01 15:45:00 Whilst we all love our vacation time, we all assume that places that thrive on tourist business will be open during the holidays. That’s not always the case in France where many attractions are closed today because it’s Labour Day (May 1st). Although many people will be eating out today, a number of restaurants choose this ... More About: Holidays , Time , Vacation , Cultural differences
Myrtle Beach resort
2008-04-29 17:13:00 Myrtle Beach resort in South Carolina isn’t as well known as some other resorts nearby but don’t let that put you off as it has all the facilities on offer that you could want. In addition to a wide range of hotel choices and, of course, beach activities there are lots of non-beach based activities in ... More About: America , Holidays , Myrtle Beach , Resort
When is a clear resealable plastic bag not a clear resealable plastic bag?
2008-04-29 16:28:00 When it’s a clear plastic bag that’s had a knot tied in it and doesn’t have a ziploc closing mechanism. That’s the latest nonsense to come from my travels through airport security and one that was particularly crazy. The security staff focused all their attention on that “deficiency” in my packing and managed to miss four ... More About: Travelling , Plastic , Clear
Tours of Paris
2008-04-16 11:59:00 Paris is a wonderful city to explore but there’s so much to see that many people miss out on really fantastic experiences even if they’ve been to Paris quite often. Tours in Paris come in all shapes and sizes of course and you’ll find something there to interest you whatever your tastes might be. For me, ... More About: Holidays , France , Paris
B&B or self-catering gite: which is best?
2008-04-16 11:31:00 When the Brits are moving to France their first thought, usually, is to set themselves up in the gite business. It certainly sounds like the ideal lifestyle choice. You only need to work one day a week and you don’t have to see the guests at all apart from when they arrive and when they leave. ... More About: Catering
Fast turnover investment
2008-04-14 21:43:00 Hard money is a slightly odd type of real estate mortgage in that rather than treating the property as a long term investment as most typical mortgage places do, it’s intended for quick turnover. This obviously changes the valuation criteria considerably and it’s based on the quick-sale value of the property rather than the normal wooly ... More About: America , Finance , Investment , Fast
Another money-making tack: affiliate links
2008-04-14 21:18:00 As you know, we’ve been plugging away with sponsored posts on various blogs over the last year or so. The money can be quite good sometimes (we picked up $250 on a single post a month ago for example) but most of the time it’s around the $10 to $30 mark. Not that we’re complaining but ... More About: Money , Affiliate , Links
Not just flowers from this florist!
2008-04-11 12:14:00 Being able to purchase flowers online has made it so much easier to surprise someone with a lovely floral gift, but have you noticed how it isn’t just flowers you can order now - you can choose from a wide range of gifts using this method. Now, depending on where you shop will determine how ... More About: America , Shopping , Flowers , Florist
Isn?t heli-skiing expensive?
More articles from this author:2008-04-10 14:00:00 Actually, not nearly as expensive as you’d think. In fact, there isn’t a whole lot of difference in the cost as compared to a normal ski trip once you count up all the costs and you get a whole lot more ski time than you would on a normal ski holiday. The big diffences are that ... More About: Holidays , Canada , Skiing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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