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
Is the Euro just too strong for the good of the European economy?
2008-06-08 19:13:00 The actions that the American, British and Euro pean central banks have taken have all affected their respective exchange rates of course. We’ve seen the pound move from a typical $1.50 to more like $2 these days and that’s obviously had quite a considerable effect on international trade between the two countries which has always been substantial. ... More About: Business , Economy , Finance , European
Facing foreclosure and want some help?
2008-06-08 19:04:00 With the credit crisis in full swing there are a lot of people out there in need of some foreclosure help. Fortunately, that crisis has spawned a whole industry aimed at helping those in financial difficulties. Help and advice abound if only you know where to look for it. Time might well look pretty bleak but ... More About: America , Finance , Foreclosure , Facing
Want to speed up your computer?
2008-06-08 18:58:00 If you just want a bit more oomph out of your computer then the best approach is to look at the amount of swap space that’s being used. Eh? Don’t worry about the terminology, it’s just a number! Just right click on an empty bit of the task bar at the bottome of the screen and ... More About: Technology , Computer , Computing , Speed , Speed up
Almost into the summer toy buying time
2008-06-08 18:50:00 As the summer holidays approach, so too does the time when you’ll be looking for stuff to fill up the hours that the school used to wear out the little guys. These days the assumption that everything is electronic is deeply ingrained, but it doesn’t need to be that way. For instance, our little guys were ... More About: Shopping , Buying , Summer , Time
The easiest and cheapest upgrade
2008-06-08 18:44:00 When your computer is running slowly the tendency is to think that it’s time you needed one with a faster processor but often that’s not the problem. In fact, the laptop memory is by far the most important factor in affecting the speed at which your laptop runs. It’s also about the cheapest upgrade you can do. ... More About: Computing
Why is it that the diesel in Spain lasts longer than the diesel in France?
2008-06-08 18:28:00 One thing that constantly confuses is that whenever we have a trip to Spain the diesel that we’ve bought there seems to last considerably longer than when the diesel that we ordinarily buy in France . A LOT longer too. For example, we filled the car up Friday a week ago in Spain, have been running around ... More About: Diesel
Cash advance loans
2008-06-04 20:39:00 These come under all kinds of different names but basically they’re an advance on your salary. That means that obviously you need to be in employment to get one and usually for at least three months. You’ll also need a bank account as payment is directly into your bank account. Finally, as they’re effectively an advance on your salary you need to pay them back when your salary next arrives in your account. Payday loans tend to look as though they’re incredibly expensive when you look at the rate of interest but then that’s calculated on an annual basis and these loans are for less than a month so, yes, the interest rate looks high but the amount actually charged isn’t as bad as you might think. Cash advances couldn’t be called cheap but are a useful way out to fill in the gap that most of us get towards the end of the month and before the next payday. More About: Loans
Overlapping courses
2008-06-04 20:31:00 Of the two courses that I’m seriously thinking of doing next year, both overlap the English course that I’m doing at the moment. The problem isn’t so much that I’d be doing two courses at once for a long time but the reverse of that as the new courses start just one week before the current course ends. That means that, of course, I’d be starting the new course one week behind the course schedule. Would it matter though? I actually started my current course two days ahead of schedule and find myself around 10 weeks ahead at the moment so it’s certainly possible to pick up speed. However, on other courses I’ve started anything up to a month ahead and finished up behind schedule. In that Engineering the Future is a 30 point course and Exploring Psychology is a 60 point one it sounds like it would be easier to pick up lost time on the engineering one. However, I gather that it’s quite an addicting subject and I definitely want to be doing ...
Looking for a car loan?
2008-06-04 19:59:00 Thankfully this year we’re not looking for another car loan although, despite the credit crunch, they’re still fairly easy to obtain. Even if you’ve got so-called bad credit, it’s usually still possible to get one and surprisingly it doesn’t mean that you need to choose some old clunker because the car loan people tend to prefer you to get something that’s going to be fairly reliable when they’re offering you a used car loan. As always, of course, these loans are usually cheaper when you get them online. Things to look out for are offers for first time buyers and whether they’ll take your existing car as a trade-in. More About: Loan
What course next?
2008-06-02 21:37:00 Although I never thought the day would come when I’d be talking of completing my modern languages degree, I find myself on the final course of that at the moment. That means that after six years I am in the position of looking around for something to do that doesn’t fall under the heading of “modern ...
The Honda car adverts
2008-06-01 16:45:00 Car adverts are strange beasts, aren’t they? For good reason too. Let’s face it, the majority of us really only need a little car to get to and from work so the car companies need to persuade us to part with a fair chunk of cash to buy their car rather than one from some other ... More About: Shopping , Technology , Honda , Adverts
Thought about advertising your holiday property in print?
2008-06-01 16:35:00 Although many people concentrate pretty much exclusively on online advertising, there’s still a place for print based advertising. It’s a very different medium though. Not only is it expensive, but you’re usually pretty limited in the amount of content that you can have and whilst it has a long lead-time, it’s quite time-sensitive too. It’s easy ... More About: Holiday , Advertising , Property , Print , Thought
In Plain Sight: the new series about the Witness Protection Program
2008-05-31 17:41:00 The America n Witness Protection Program is all about hiding people who have a price on their head and sounds like an interesting premise for the series, In Plain Sight, starting tomorrow. Not only do these people need a new place to live, they need a totally new identity which ain’t easy to come by these days. That ”new ... More About: Entertainment , Series
Why are more and more readers coming from America?
2008-05-29 19:39:00 It’s been ages since I looked at the detailed stats for this blog so it was something of a surprise that one place reckoned that 75% of the readership is in America . I say one place because one place reckoned that as low as 25% were from there and that 16% were from India. Of course, that’s ... More About: Readers
Look of the Year: a modelling competition for the online world
2008-05-29 19:23:00 Look of the Year is basically a Miss World (or Mr Universe) for the online world. However, there are a couple of important differences with this beauty contest… anyone who want to join can and rather than have some voting panel behind closed doors, your success is determined by people voting directly for you. One indirect bonus ... More About: Entertainment , Competition , Online , Modelling
Have you given any thought to how you?ll take your holiday money with you?
2008-05-29 11:17:00 If you’re like most people I’m sure you’ve hardly gotten beyond thinking that you’ll either get a few hundred from the travel agent or perhaps just use a card when you get there. In the first case, you’ll end up spending a small fortune un-necessarily and in the second you could be stuck without any money. ... More About: Holidays , Holiday , Finance , Money , Travelling
Thinking about northern Mexico
2008-05-28 21:33:00 When I think about a vacation in Mexico , it seems to me that it’s the type of place that you need to settle into to really make the best of your time there. For me that rules out a hotel type trip as that always seems to be (often quite literally) a flying visit and ... More About: America , Holidays , Travel , Travelling
It?s getting seriously expensive to get the car serviced, but does it even
2008-05-28 21:06:00 In days gone by it would be maybe £100 to get a car serviced but those days have long since gone and I just paid out over twice that. In fact, it would have been much more but we’d had the speedo set on trip rather than distance travelled so managed to miss out a service ... More About: Technology
Selling property in France?
2008-05-26 21:02:00 If you’re selling property in France , you soon find that it’s an expensive business when you go through traditional estate agents. Typically you’re looking at anything from 5% to 10% of the list price going in charges. However, it doesn’t need to be like that. If you have property for sale in France, you could try ... More About: Marketing , Selling , Property
Updating the blog themes
2008-05-26 19:25:00 I’ve been plugging away with the SevaTeem theme off and on over the last month or so and it’s now complete enough to let me try it out on various blogs that I run. Obviously since I designed it mainly for me, it runs quite nicely on a number of those blogs but one or two ... More About: Blog , Themes
Shop and save with great coupons
2008-05-22 10:21:00 The way that online shopping has now become an accepted way of life these days I sometimes wonder how long it will be before people abandon going to the shops altogether and simply do all their shopping online. Already one can do their grocery shopping online with various stores and even have it delivered same ... More About: Shopping , Great , Coupons , Shop , Save
Why the fixation on inflation when setting interest rates these days?
2008-05-21 16:41:00 In times gone by, getting inflation down was always considered to be a “good thing” and it still is but the problem is that the underlying reasons for inflation these days are quite different from those a few years ago. Nowadays, inflation is largely driven by the oil price either directly through increasing the cost of ... More About: Finance , Inflation , Interest Rates , Interest , Days
Electrical goods online in the UK
2008-05-21 16:19:00 Shopping for white goods in the high street always seems such a soul destroying exercise, doesn’t it? Not only is the shopping part unrewarding but then you’ve to put up with the salesman trying to sell you the extended warranty that never really makes sense on electrical or electronic goods. Buying online avoids all that and offers ... More About: Shopping , Goods , Online , Electrical
A new Wordpress template in the making
2008-05-21 16:11:00 After much tinkering around with other peoples’ Wordpress templates, I figured that it was time that I wrote my own one. That sounds like it would be a major undertaking but in reality it’s not nearly as difficult nor timeconsuming as you’d think basically because a lot of the groundwork has already been done so it’s ... More About: Template
Selecting a new web hosting service
2008-05-20 21:21:00 Selecting webhosting is always something of a gamble as it’s difficult to get a truly objective view of what a new host will be like. There’s also the not inconsiderable problem that there are hundreds if not thousands of hosts out there, all with different hosting plans and prices. This at least you can do something ... More About: America , Internet , Hosting , Web Development , Web Hosting
Post office staffing
2008-05-20 13:24:00 The staffing levels of post offices often seems to be very much politically led and rather than being subject to whatever local demands would dictate seems merely to reflect that it’s considered as effectively a job creation scheme. Thus, although the nearest post office to us is on a main road and in quite a large ... More About: Office , France , Post , Staffing , Post Office
Rome in a day
2008-05-19 21:13:00 You’d never consider trying to “do” Rome in a day, would you? Well, that’s exactly what I did and it turns out that it is possible, although you can’t hang around and watch life go by from one of the cafes: lunch on the go is the only way. We did it as a flight plus tour ... More About: Holidays , Travel
A bump in the road on the English course
2008-05-19 20:41:00 Funnily enough, just as I figured that it was probably all downhill from here on the English course, I’ve hit a bit of a pothole in the form of a chapter on literature. Well, not so much literature, but rather the language that Literature (with a capital “L”) uses including various types of poetry and the ... More About: Bump , Road , The Road
Satellite phone technology at fairly sensible prices
2008-05-18 21:12:00 Satellite phone prices have dropped dramatically over recent years and are now fairly affordable even for relatively small expeditions and the like as, of course, you’ll have seen through their extensive use on news broadcasts these days. Although a satellite phone is fairly affordable, they’re not quite into the “cheap” range. However, with prices starting around $700 for ... More About: Technology , Phone , Satellite , Prices
Picking up speed on the English course
More articles from this author:2008-05-18 17:22:00 Although the English course that I’m doing at the moment has the reputation of being the hardest course in the university, I’m finding that as I go through it I’m picking up speed and seem likely to get to the end of the course something like three months ahead of schedule (which is some going ... More About: Speed , Picking 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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