a COUNTRY POST OFFICE

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Evening all,
Well its been a smasher today, sunny but cool again and im pleased to say the soggy feel to the lawn isn’t as bad as it has been,
About 25 years of this dry weather and we’ll be ready for planting.

Now ive lived here in France for 9 years full time, and we sold our uk home 10 years ago now,

Would you believe it ive had today a letter from the tv licence people warning me that they wiil take legal action if i dont pay my TV licence.
10years it’s been and i get a redirected letter from them.
im fed up with telling them i now live in france and when i left i’d paid for a full year and yet left half way through the year so they owe me really.

Well off i went to the village post office and as i walked through the post office door it was like walking back in time,

An old army style parrafin heater stood proud opposit a chair for the elderly to use while the post lady sorted out their needs,
An old cat sat on the filing cabinet and a spider plant hung over the end of the counter,
the walls “many years ago” had had a lino type thick paper hung halfway up the walls ‘painted dark brown’
and the upper half of these walls was a milky coffee colour,
The post lady looked like you gave her a shake just to see if she was still alive,
As my turn arrived i said good morning in french and she said “in english” you must put more effort into using the ooh "It’s ootel not the way you say it with a lot of “H” as in Hotel.
(The french can not say the letter “H” they tend to say ooh) ie ootel
Well lesson over “I thought” and she gave me my stamp and as i was just about to lick it "she coughed and pointed to the damp sponge on the counter, and said something about germs on glue, (she’d just spread a few million “coughing” all over the place)

Stamp on and i handed the letter to her all ready for the afternoon collection,
I said my goodbye and left,
As i passed through the door and back outside
I remembered why i put a stop to using paraffin heaters in the greenhouse,

The out side air seemed so fresh.
But i couldn’t help but think as i drove home,

Nothing in the line of crime ever happens in these parts but i bet if anyone tried to rob that old post lady she’d proberly have a machine gun hidden under the counter.

Point,
Just a point i thought some folk may like to hear,
Here in this part of france your tv licence is taken along with your rates, so when you get your rates bill the tv is included,
Now if you dont have a tv!!!!
Then you apply for a form, tell them you dont have a tv and you’ll not be asked to pay,

“But”
the important thing here is "they know who has and hasn’t paid and who to check.
The other good side of the tv annual payment is you can have as many homes with tv’s in them but you only pay for one licence,
So for every dept (area) if you have a holiday gite you rent out you still only pay for one licence ie your house tv and the one in the gite.
Not a lot of people know that.

• 5 Mar, 2014
• -1 likes

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