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Well a funny thing happened today. Needed a new smallest size milk pan for sauces. Popped into nice shop in Farnham, cheapest £110:blink: Bought one from Sainsburys £4. Teflon, made in China:rofl: No contest to heat a bit of butter and milk:)

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I've spent a fair amount of time in Farnham because I have friends there.

Horrible piece of middle Britain - went to a few rubbish restaurants too. I remember I was once in a pub with 4 guys called Barnabee :D

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I get in a tizz about nothing? dont think so,
I am just typing a response to your posts, and before we go any further discussing my state of mind.......might I just remind you that I have never once "flounced off the site or said I was going" simply because I dont like the comments written by other posters............And correct me if I am worng but I think you have done that in the past.................:blink:

You may sit there and get yourself worked up to a frenzy, but I certainly dont, its a forum and not that important, that doesnt mean that I wont put up a stongly worded differing opinion.

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No need to go over the top I don't live there:p

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Give a few years and the Barnabee problem will not exist.

I can see them becoming extinct, along with the lesser spòtted Wayne, the small penised aptly named Justin, and a host of other species.:rofl::rofl:

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That sounds almost as bad as Sheffield. I used to go to a nightclub in Farnham that was full of attractive ladies. But you had to fight off the soldiers to get near them.

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Sheffield was great. Loved it there! Except for the weather and food

Sheffield people must be some of the friendliest around, except when they are boozed up on a saturday night ;)

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Must be years ago, no soldiers in Farnham now:confused: I don't even know of a night-club, although I suppose there must be one:)

Family has business in Sheffield so I know the place well. They all live outside in Derbyshire. Bit of a shitehole is Sheffield but yes, nice people.

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The Spanish people in Torrevieja are also ultra-friendly, until July and August when a million Madrilenos descend on the town. They take over the place and are the noisiest people on earth.

They even take over the beaches. I venture into town once a month in the summer to watch the spectacle. On the Playa del Cura they stand, shoulder to shoulder, all the way out to sea. There's not even room to sit down.

I love to watch the fashion parades in the evenings. The streets are closed to traffic and the young men sit in the street watching a never-ending flow of Spanish girls parading past. The only time you see any drunkenness is when a party of young Brit holidaymakers lose their way and suddenly find themselves in Madrid. They don't often stay for long.

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What's this ?

Spanish ppl.taking over our beaches,... simply shocking !
Where on earth do they think they are ?

Come to think of it, I recall they used to cause similar problems at peak periods back in the Canaries. ;)

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Best county in England

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The very next beach along, Playa Los Locos, doesn't get quite as busy with Spanish people and there's usually a bit of room for expats to stretch out on the sand. Expats who can't speak Spanish.

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They could always segregate the beaches like the Islamists want to do in Egypt. Thinking about it could be a great idea in Spain.;) Our lovely peaceful uncrowded beach was a nightmare at weekends when the spanish came down. Bleeding tents, screaming kids, rubbish all over the place:rofl:

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Ref provenance of household contents. I too am impressed that anyone can know the source of all contents. Am impressed that they by and large, or almost entirely, not be out of China. Am amazed that no mention has been given of the potential COST of this knowledge. Somewhat greater than the average purse would bear, I suspect. Even when customers express a preference for buying British-Spanish-not Chinese, the choice usually doesn't exist without considerable use of shoeleather or the words tailor made and custom built. (nb J2's saucepan experience is a good illustration)

As to self-sufficiency, and so on, I would venture the following: some friends live as sustainable a lifestyle as I've ever seen. House bought with parents, big enough to support two families. Solar power. Grey water recycling. Carpool car for a while then no car -choice of house influenced by proximity of railway station/bike distance. Entire vegetable-fruit consumption (organic, obviously!) of family produced on their 2 or so acres. Occasional hens, occasional eggs, occasional chicken meat. HOWEVER taxes and council bills, electricity and gas, etc., must be paid in todayÅ› world and they both work part or fulltime depending on availability of said work, so there's no way to completely avoid the treadmill, however hard you might try. Spain or anywhere else would be no different.

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Unfortunately Spanish, British or tailor made does not guarantee the components were not made, woven or whatever in another country.

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It is perfectly possible to ensure that they are manufactured in the UK which is exactly what I and thousands of others do.

I know exactly where all the timber for all my custom made cabinets grew. I know exactly where the leather for my hand made shoes and handbags originates. I know exactly where the material used in soft furnishings in my homes was woven.

As for the only thing I have had made in Spain its worth remembering that Valencia is very protective of its furniture manufacturers, even the springs in my mattress were made in a factory in Torrent.

Step away from the Argos catalogue, open your mind and accept that it is possible to know more about what you can buy than you do now.:)

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Pretty much every electrical item in your home will be made in China these days, they make some great stuff...its not all tat.

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I think that they are not only protective of their furniture manufacturers but all things that are made in Valencia. Carrefour, Eroski etc really seem to push locally made stuff by putting signs everywhere.

When we ordered a large dresser to be made for our dining room they were not happy to have to tell me that it was to be made in Murcia because they would rather it was made in Valencia. Six months later we could have bought one in our own town if only we had known that a few local men who were good furniture makers were opening a unit in our poligon.

Rosemary

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The trouble is there is so much badge engineering on electrical products these days that the brand is no guarantee of country of manufacture and then as posted earlier the components could be sourced from anywhere. My laptop was assembled in China but not all the components would have been manufactured there.
Not electrical but HP sauce is produced in Holland. Perhaps they should be made to take the Houses of Parliament of the label.;)

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If you only buy things made in the UK then you must live in the dark ages

Where was your Wi-Fi router made? Your mobile phone? Your air con unit? Your TV etc etc. Not the UK thats for sure

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If one looks back over previous posts one can see some interesting facts

Samsung dual sim mobile

Sky box, which I assume is connected to a TV.

Etc. etc.

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This thread is proving more interesting to me than I could ever have imagined.

I have a Nokia mobile phone which according to the site I just found .....know where your mobile phone was made .....checks out as being made in Finland.

Unfortunately there is no wifi on the urb where I live so just dial up, phone is a very old Dutch one I had re wired. The sky box is old but does not receive signal despite having large dish aligned so now just have Spanish TV via an aerial.

Incredibly there is a sticker on the back of the TV which states Made In Canada. Air con has Siemans logo so am guessing Germany.

Still cannot think of anything else made in China in my homes.

I often ask questions on behalf of friends/acquaintances.

Next.......

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In my little office, I can see Acer, HP and Epson. If I stretch my neck there's Canon and an unpronounceable name. I know there's Bosch elsewhere and the car in the driveway was Made in Germany.

I didn't plan any of those purchases, I merely bought what was available and considered good value.

I'm not being unpatriotic to the country I live in, but I had a Seat once and it was absolute crap. My drains are Spanish too and I'm sorry to say, they're crap too.

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German good, Seat crap ?

Are you sure your German car was made in Germany ?

Many "German cars" have been coming off the same production lines as Seat in Spain and Portugal for quite a long time using mainly common parts.

More recently some "German cars", not only VW, have been designed and developed in Spain as well as being manufactured there.

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one of the Ferrari's had door handles made by Skoda in middle Europe somewhere (Poland?)

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As I said, I don't really bother where things come from as long as they're reliable.

I needed an unusual part for my car and the local main dealers couldn't source it through Madrid. I went direct to the manufacturers in Germany and they referred me to Madrid, who couldn't get the part for me.

I found a not so simple solution by going through a main dealer in Ipswich, who got the part within two days and I had it brought to Spain.

The Spanish main dealers were not surprised and offered to fit the part for me at a ridiculous price. I had it done privately for about a tenth of the main dealers quote.

I know it's just one silly example, and perhaps my remarks about the Seat were unfair because I wasn't comparing like with like. And my drains are rumbling again.

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Our Seat Alhambra is exactly the same as a VW Sharan (it has Volkswagen on the engine) and it was made in Barcelona . And it has been a brilliant vehicle.

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I had four SEAT's on the trot, was very happy with them. Knowing the dealer and brilliant after sales might have had some influence on my decision though. Currently my second VW on the trot sits on the drive, both spot on so far.

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I'd venture that Siemens is by no means only Germany origin. Not least because they have (or had) a plant in Spain!!!!

For balance, don't forget Whitelinen didn't say she only bought UK, she said she knew the provenance of everything in her home and didn't buy Chinese.

I still maintain that reference to tailor made and custom built adds significantly to the cost of stuff. I remain to be corrected!

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Difficult to answer without involving boffins:)

I do have a lot of antique furniture and for anyone interested in recycling or wanting to buy solid wood and not chipboard, plywood or hardboard, antiques are great and have never been as cheap as they are now for a long time (anywhere other than Spain).

Custom made/tailor made from my experience last longer if not forever so additional initial cost might pay off in the long run.

However, just for information I never planned to not buy Chinese when I first became a consumer, it just happened naturally but now I know more I am very choosy about what I buy.

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Not necessarily, depends on who you approach and what the item is.

My main experience with custom built has been items made in wood. I have found that if you commission an item to fit your needs from a person whose work you know is good that it rarely cost more.

Rosemary

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I love antiques, but our modern Spanish house (30 years old), doesn't seem to go with them. The tiled floors, thin walls and mostly open aspect for outside living seem to cry out for modern furniture with spinning fans everywhere, a bamboo, tasteless bar unit halfway in and out of the house, and a gazebo with torn curtains flapping in the wind.

I like fresh air even when it's cold, but it makes everything flap, there's a strong and cold wind at the moment and the terrace toldo is vibrating like mad.

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Things are looking a bit depressing for some the car manufacturers in Spain, with SEAT losing millions. That surprises me, I thought they were doing OK, it's a good middle of the range car.:confused: Reading the article, the thought of all those Spanish having to sell their Porsche Cayennes is really depressing!

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...y-up-cars.html

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Have you thought of satellite broadband? If you use the 'net a lot may be worth looking into.

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Thanks for the tip J1 but dont use it enough to be bothered I go to friends in town if I need to receive or send a large file..... :)