alan h's activity

Can he keep on surviving on less than a handful of votes?   YES   Will the opposition manage to unite?  NO   What is clear is that Italy does not need a political crisis right now. What do you think?  An Electorate gets the politicians it deserves

"Just a few minutes twice a day, morning and evening should be enough. Switch off the heating while you ventilate." This won't work when the air in the house is damp from renovations etc. The best bet is get the house nice and warm and keep it so, and dehumidify for a long time Opening the windows and turning the heat off won't help at all   In the longer term, when the house has dried out properly, small solar powered ventilators [from boat builders] may help   [http://www.solarshop.co.uk/solar-ventilation-300S.htm]

If the damp trouble occurs when you heat up the room - it sounds like warm moist air hitting a cold surface [the wall] and condensing on it To stop this happening you need to dry the air out - its probably a bit damp in the air from all the renovation works [cement and plaster drying out etc] and is apparent in the room as the wall lacks any plaster or render insulation - making it probably the coldest wall in the house. You could plaster it internally and/or render it externally. or you can open the windows as much as possible [great in winter!] to dry the whole house out [not just the problem room] Whatever you do, the problem should decrease as the house drys out - so you could just try living with it until the next summer when hopefully it will eventually dry out naturally De-humidifiers could help speed up the process, but whatever you do - get plenty of air circulating.   Good Luck.

Shortest from your place to Amsterdam - 1400km - approx 13 hrs Via the coast road [Nice etc] - 1770km - approx 16.5 hrs  [nearly all motorway - all except 22km and no Alps] I think [if you're worried about the snow and the mountains] that I'd do the coastal route to France, but then do Calais - Dover, [or Dunkirk - Dover], as it will be a cheaper option than Amsterdam to Newcastle

"I keep on imagining us all freezing to death crossing the alps and getting stuck in the snow!!! " From where you are, you could take the coastal route into France and then up the centre of France - you'd miss the Alps that way.  Longer, but flatter

"Norfolk Line have a Zeebrugge to Rosyth crossing". I think that finishes running on 15th December

"I'm still findining it difficult to get decent quality insulated plaster board in Italy, I want to use 92mm thick Kingspan K17 but the Gespol similar ( Italian ) product is 50% less thermally efficient anybody got a suggestion?" Have you considered buying the board in the Uk and shipping it down to Italy   If it stacks up financially, you could PM  'coperlacasa' - he does regular runs with a van to/from the UK http://www.philipwhitefreight.com/Phil_White_Freight/Welcome.html

http://www.lifeinitaly.com/news/italy-bans-plastic-shopping-bags

"in the greater scheme of property frauds to which a foreign buyer might fall prey, this is peanuts."

Not if it had happened to you

Hopefully the prison sentence will deter others agents from doing such a 'peanuts' fraud

You could always post something on the thread to bring it back to the top - if you think it is important