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Opinions and subjects of interest to Riviera expats as well as letters sent to the paper magazine. You can comment any entry without registering but you must register on the right in order to post your own subject by using the "Your Say Dashboard" link.

We reserve the right to delete any submission without notice or explanation. We may also edit at our sole discretion for any reasons including profanity, defamation, racism or otherwise inappropriate content.

With friends like these (if I ever get the opportunity to kick you)

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

We assume that we can trust our so-called friends, and yet, in my lifetime, although I've only been conned twice, both times it was big money and both times by so called friends. The first was a friend who'd been scammed by Nigerians who had robbed him of his life savings despite our warnings that it was a scam. I was left with the choice of

Just how low can the human species descend?

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

Some days go past without my wondering just how low the human species can descend in its barbarity towards its own species.  Comparing humans with animals tends towards insulting our four-legged friends,  for they only prey on each other out of need.

Yesterday was not such a day, for I came across something which sickened me.  From the death and


Broken Britain, and it's getting worse

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

“Broken Britain” seems to become a little more broken every day. It's not just the violence on the surface, the worst manifestation of which is the nightly yobbish behaviour in city centres, the 'road rage' which seems to surface over the most trivial of situations, and the defensive approach that so many people have adopted, but there is a


Hell is .....

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

According to Jean-Paul Sartre,  'Hell is other people', and whilst I would go along with that to a large extent,  there are some people whose company I enjoy, although whether they enjoy mine is another story.

I may be destined to go to Hell for many reasons, but as yet have no first hand experience of it, despite often wondering what it might be


France : Junk food conquers the market

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

It has long been a contention of mine, much to the annoyance of those who have wanted to preserve the illusion of France as the bastion of good taste in all things, especially food,  that the French are amongst the world's greatest consumers of junk food, more politely known as fast food.

The proliferation of MacDonalds, Quick, and so on,


SCAMS AND FRAUD - Watch your credit cards!

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

There are many urban legends circulating about 'a friend who' ..... and I've just received yet another one about 'A friend who went to the local gym and placed his belongings in the locker ..... he still had his credit card in his possession ..... a few weeks later his credit card bill came - a bill of £14,000 of which he had no prior knowledge!'


Is the French lifestyle really so wonderful?

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

There have been many articles in the UK press recently extolling the virtues of the French life style,  and presenting the usual statistics about how the French work less hours, but do more work, sleep more, have more fun (there may be a correlation there), eat unhealthy food but don't get fat, and so on.  I suppose from the perspective of Gordon


Another letter to Richard Branson?

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

Many of you will have seen the now famous 'Dear Richard' letter of complaint from a passenger on a London-Bombay flight to the Virgin Atlantic supremo. It can be found here for those who haven't seen it.

Whilst undoubtedly a classic of its time, it's quite mild compared to some I've written, but ..... I digress.

Earlier this week I had the


Free Range Eggs. Are they really?

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

 

As the labelling on the box can sometimes be confusing, I thought this information might be useful to those who prefer to buy real 'free range organic' eggs, as opposed to just 'free range' ..... and you thought it was the same?

Each egg has a stamp on it and the first digit (0-3) tells you :

0 = Organic free range 

1 = The hens can go outside (free


Scam messages on French cellphones

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

This information may be of use. 

If you receive a text message on your French cellphone asking you to call back an 0899 number it is a scam - you almost certainly know that! 

Usually the message will be something like :  

"Vous avez gagne le Lotto ........."

"Bisou j'attends toujours ton appel ....."

"Quelqu'un que tu as rencontre veut


Reality shows, harmless drivel or evil exploitation?

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

I believe it was in Victorian times that some people's idea of a fun day out was to visit a lunatic asylum and ridicule the inmates, taunting and mocking them.  We are supposed to have moved on since then. ‘Lunatic asylums' as such no longer exist, and more politically correct terminology is used for the institutions that replaced them.

I would


Who put the CON in air-conditioning?

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

One of my great pleasures in younger days was travelling by train, not with an Ian Allen notebook and an anorak, but simply to enjoy the countryside from those lovely old coaches with windows that opened so that you could smell the sulphuric tang of the engine’s exhaust mixed with farmyard, and the bits of sooty grit got into your eyes and hair.  


Ignorance Unlimited

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

Sitting in a terrace bar in Barcelona at the weekend, I overheard the conversation amongst two English couples at an adjacent table, as they sorted through several piles of Euro bank notes.

It went something like this :

"These are the ones wot Fred brought back from France last year, so these must be the Spanish ones .... "

I wasn't quite sure


Vote... and be damned.

Posted by: MikeP in Uncategorised  on

An election, and I’m using the term purely because this is how it has generally been referred to, has just been held in Zimbabwe. Of course it wasn’t really an election, as there was only one candidate, and in order to make sure that nobody thought of not voting for him, he made sure that people were beaten into submission. Just in case that