SirTK's activity

Questions Asked

I travelled via Belgium last week and decided to stay overnight at Dinant, where I have stayed previously and found to be marginally less bad than most towns in Belgium.To anyone contemplating a similar stop - don't.The whole of the town is being

Tue, 04/09/2013 - 08:23

My wife and I want to boost our Italian learning with a short intensive course in Italy.

Wed, 08/22/2012 - 05:57

At La Dolce Vita exhibition at Olympia this year I bought a jar of garlic cloves preserved in a pizzaiola type oil and vinegar mixture.It is just amazing for snacking, the whole cloves are really crunchy with a fairly mild flavour of the garlic an

Tue, 08/25/2009 - 03:05

I need to buy a tyre for my car. I googled all the usual words but came up with nothing. Back in UK I would simply go to Kwikfit, or ATS etc and it would be done on the spot.

Thu, 08/06/2009 - 15:30

Does anybody have a contact for a sun blind maker?Think of a conventional, rather old-fashioned roller blind with the roller fixed at the top of the window and the blind hanging vertically down.

Mon, 07/06/2009 - 13:18

Comments posted

Answer to: English Sky ??
Fri, 09/25/2009 - 05:55

I have a set-top box that gives me Astra 2D and Hotbird but the programme listing information is not in a very friendly format. I just brought out and hooked up a spare Sky box and can get all the Astra channels with the Sky programme listing information which is really helpful.Unfortunately I don't think it receives the Hotbird channels, so it means we can't watch Italian TV to help with language learning. And of course my Sky viewing card doesn't work (but we knew that, didn't we).We have two dishes**, incidentally, neither of which is very big, but we are way up north in the lakes.I think on balance I would rather just have Italian TV and DVDs. It's just too easy to slip into watching too much telly - but at least it enables me to hone up my Soap-Avoidance skills.Terry** two dishes got married. The service wasn't up to much...................................    ..................................but the reception was fantastic. (T. Cooper)

Answer to: bank account
Tue, 09/22/2009 - 03:37

We've had an account with Intesa San Paolo for about 2 years and only lately realised we have been paying fairly high charges on a piecemeal basis. We had a chat with our manager just yesterday and she immediately changed us to a cheaper system, at 10 euro per quarter. We get a complete banking service including online banking.- seems OK to me now.

Tue, 09/22/2009 - 03:25

I did stuffed zucchini flowers the other night, with the baby zucchini still attached. Stuffed with mozzerella and fresh basil, dipped in seasoned flour, then egg, then flour again and deep fried in about a minute or so. I split the bodies up the middle and they came out fully cooked but still with a crunch, made a lovely starter.The recipe said - "open the flowers and shake out any insects" - sure enough, one of them had been home to a sizeable spider.But don't let me put you off .............Terry

Tue, 09/22/2009 - 03:08

My ICI demand came automatically about 12 months after I moved in.The surprise to me was that although I had bought as prima casa (and paid 4% iva) the ICI still applies as my residency hasn't come through yet.I had been comfortably sitting back in the knowledge that I had 18 months in which to get residency, blissfully unaware that ICI was building up all the while I procrastinated.

Fri, 09/18/2009 - 04:38

Looks like a call to Saga to see if they can extend my present UK policy for EU cover. I'll come back if I get any positive response.Terry 

Wed, 09/16/2009 - 14:26

I am in the process of applying for residency and naturally the healthcare side is giving problems. We have decided to go private, at least to start with, and have asked our insurance agent to quote a suitable policy. He, of course, asked the comune what they require for suitability, and that's where everything has ground to a halt. They simply don't know, and are not prepared to commit themselves. The comune have "gone upstairs" for an instruction, but I guess whoever they went to doesn't know either.I wonder if this latest circular contains any guidance?

Answer to: Garlic
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:18

Thanks Andrew - just what I was looking for!

Answer to: Garlic
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 07:18

It seems all the other antipasti and herbs etc are easy to do either at home or bought from the shop, but that whole garlic cloves are hard to find. Surely someone must have come across a supply. As I said earlier, googling for home-made garlic preserve focussed on warnings about botulism, so put me right off.

Answer to: Garlic
Tue, 08/25/2009 - 04:53

We don't, which is why I asked!They have lots of antipasti but not the garlic. Maybe you're just lucky wherever you live. If someone could come up with a maker's name from the jar might be of help.

Wed, 08/19/2009 - 07:47

As I see it there are two aspects to this. Firstly, "offshore" locations such as the Channel Islandsd etc were required from some time ago to supply a list of UK accountholders to the HMRC. Not details, just a list of names. The greater powers referred to in the article may be the next stage of that.More recently, the European Savings Directive was introduced which requires banks etc in EU member states to "exchange information" about foreign (i.e. other EU) account holders with their home tax authority. That will sort out most of the holiday home owners.I don't necessarily think there is going to be a witch-hunt because HMRC have bigger fish to fry (and not enough pans) but the time will come when everybody's computery is good enough and integrated enough to charge tax automatically. Personally I'd quite like to have a clever dodge to prevent taxation, but I haven't, so if it's only the fat cats who are getting away with it, I don't mind them plugging any loopholes.