1 hour ago, edpatino said:

Hi Martin:

No, I was born in Cuba and when I was 6 years old my parents and myself moved to FL-USA.

I worked and lived in France - Paris - La Defense for almost 4 years in the early eighties and used to travel very often to the Normandy region (to Lillebonne, to be exact). On the weekends I used to visit the coast of Normandy and once there I met people from the Channel Islands and new more about the islands. Unfortunately I had never the time to travel to Alderney or Guernsey, both of which I eagerly wanted to visit because of their geography, something that will remain pending for my next life I guess 😄.

Thanks for asking.

Cheers, Ed

 

 

Oh right. That explains your familiarity. We are only 27 miles from the Normandy coast. 70 miles from the south coast of England. 🙂 Most house names, street names are French. And my capability to pronounce them is zero. 😁

Edited January 2, 20215 yr by martin-w

14 minutes ago, martin-w said:

Most house names, street names are French

Oh yes, you're so close and historically related to France. That's understandable. It should be a very relaxing place to live in, compared to the UK.

Regarding influences, It happens the same in Corse, a french island where everything is named in Italian!.

Cheers, Ed

4 hours ago, edpatino said:

Oh yes, you're so close and historically related to France. That's understandable. It should be a very relaxing place to live in, compared to the UK.

 

Cheers, Ed

 

Well yes, people here do seem to be more laid back. Less stressed. People are more polite than in the UK it seems too. Friendlier. 

What struck me was the way cars just stop in the road for you to cross. That's way less common in the UK. 

Sark, which you probably know, is a fascinating island. Still part of the Guernsey Bailiwick but up until recently was the last remaining feudal system in Europe. 480 islanders, which doubles in the tourist season. No cars allowed, apart from a few tractors for the farmers. During the German occupation they faired somewhat better than Guernsey, as the reigning Seigneurie deliberately defriended the German officer in charge of the island. So much so, she had him kneeling and kissing her hand  in the traditional manner. 40 minute ferry ride from Guernsey. Fascinating place to visit. 

 

Edited January 2, 20215 yr by martin-w

3 hours ago, martin-w said:

 

Well yes, people here do seem to be more laid back. Less stressed. People are more polite than in the UK it seems too. Friendlier. 

What struck me was the way cars just stop in the road for you to cross. That's way less common in the UK. 

Sark, which you probably know, is a fascinating island. Still part of the Guernsey Bailiwick but up until recently was the last remaining feudal system in Europe. 480 islanders, which doubles in the tourist season. No cars allowed, apart from a few tractors for the farmers. During the German occupation they faired somewhat better than Guernsey, as the reigning Seigneurie deliberately defriended the German officer in charge of the island. So much so, she had him kneeling and kissing her hand  in the traditional manner. 40 minute ferry ride from Guernsey. Fascinating place to visit. 

 

I certainly heard before about Sark, but today checked the island on the map. Fascinating geography and as you said, also with lots of history on his own. Nice.

Cheers, Ed

Edited January 2, 20215 yr by edpatino

20 hours ago, martin-w said:

defriended

Did you not mean to type befriended?

1 hour ago, n4gix said:

Did you not mean to type befriended?

 

Yes my dodgy typing.  Spell check facility has much work to do when I'm around.  🙂

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sark_during_the_German_occupation_of_the_Channel_Islands

 

Quote

The island of Sark forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey which with the Bailiwick of Jersey form the Channel Islands. Offered the opportunity to evacuate the island in June 1940, most locally born islanders decided to stay. The remaining 470 civilians would be subject to German rule for the next five years, until Sark was liberated on 10 May 1945. The main contact between the Sark residents and the German authorities in 1940 was 56-year old Sibyl Hathaway, the Dame of Sark, who was Seigneur of Sark (feudal lord) from 1927 until her death in 1974.

 

This was the lady...

 

Quote

Dame Sibyl's tenure saw the German occupation of the Channel Islands in the Second World War, during which she refused to evacuate and convinced the islanders to stay as well. Her eldest son and heir apparent, Francis William Beaumont, was killed in 1941, while her husband was deported to an internment camp in 1943. The Dame remains best known for her indomitable conduct during the occupation. After the war, she continued her publicity campaign, strengthening the island's tourism industry.

 

Remarkable lady. 

Quote

Hathaway was much respected by the islanders as well as by the Germans, whose language she spoke perfectly, for the leadership she gave during this period, and the British Home Secretary Herbert Morrison observed that she remained "almost wholly mistress of the situation" throughout the occupation.

 

Quote

Many other German officers in charge of the Channel Islands were also of noble extraction, and Hathaway exploited their "stiff German formality" by making it clear that she "expected to be treated ... with the rigid etiquette to which they were accustomed in their own country."^[6] She insisted that officers come to her rather than the other way around, and expected them to bow, kiss her hand, and bow again before she allowed them to take a seat.^[10] Using her influence with the Prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein, she was able to get the German army physician stationed in Sark to treat her sick tenants

 

There are still lots of German fornications on Guernsey but  its not something the locals are too fond of. It was a dark time for the islanders. 

 

https://movie.visitguernsey.com/fortification.html

 

Edited January 3, 20215 yr by martin-w

German Soldiers reconstructing the La Coupee on Sark. After the Germans left Sark, some were left behind. They were taken prisoner by the locals and put to work. 

 

 

How it looks today. They did a pretty decent job.

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 20215 yr by martin-w

51 minutes ago, martin-w said:

There are still lots of German fornications on Guernsey but  its not something the locals are too fond of. It was a dark time for the islanders.

It looks like you need a new spell checker, Martin....or maybe you were just thinking about something else when you typed that?

Edited January 3, 20215 yr by Christopher Low

15 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

It looks like you need a new spell checker, Martin....or maybe you were just thinking about something else when you typed that?

 

😁 

On a more serious note, I did get a phone call just before Christmas regarding possible fraudulent transactions, but the ones that were mentioned to me were completely innocuous, and not even all that much money!! I guess they were in full paranoid mode at that stage

Yeah, thats what Santander said to me on the phone Chris. She said that there's so much fraud at this time of year that they're taking extra precautions.

I've now got an issue to deal with regarding Scan. Amazon just knock the VAT off automatically, in your basket. Other suppliers you have to ring and they simply refund it. Not Scan of course, they tell me you have to order by phone or email or no VAT deleted. Anyway, the lady from Scan did say she could get round it by refunding me and then charging me again on a VAT free invoice.

You know what will probably happen though? Santander blocking the payment. 😁 At least I have the graphics card though.