Advantages: Funniest ever British Cartoon
Disadvantages: None

...Imagine a single dad with a hectic schedule at work and a secretary who spends all day on the phone. Also there is an Au Pair who spends more time drinking than looking after his children, one of whom is allergic to almost everything and the other who puts everything he can find into his mouth. Add to this the Perfect family next door and you have an insight into the life of ‘Stressed’ Eric Feeble. Stressed Eric is not only the funniest cartoon on television (much better than The Simpsons) it is the funniest program of any kind. The second series has yet to reach the heights of the first, which many people missed as it was shown after 11pm on BBC2. Despite this, it is a classic program and should not be missed.... Read review

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Advantages:
Disadvantages:

...I graduated from salford University in 1996 after completing a four year course in Modern Languages (French and Spanish). I chose salford University as the course was a very modern course - unlike the tradtional courses of places such as Oxbridge where literature is the main basis of many parts of the course. During my time at Salford, I learned much about translation and interpretation and also spent a year abroad. The first six months I spent in Granada, Spain, as an au pair and then the University found me a job as a secretary in France for my second stint. I would truly recommend Salford if you want to go somewhere with a modern and practical outlook to courses.... Read review

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Advantages: good story & very enjoyable
Disadvantages: not deep & meaningful

...This is a story about five friends, four of whom met at University. There are best friends, Cath & Si, total opposites but both unlucky in love. Cath runs a café bookshop with another friend, Lucy. Lucy’s married to Josh and they have both the child from hell and the obligatory glamorous au-pair. Enter Portia, the fifth friend, from whom they have drifted apart. She writes a soap for television in which they think they can see themselves. The book follows their troubled & traumatic relationships & the search for true love with rather accurate parallels with real life. The story is amusing, easy to relate to and has wonderfully unexpected twists and turns. I’ve read other books by this author and this is as good as the others.... Read review

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Advantages: You get to see the most wonderful scenery & meet the most friendly people
Disadvantages: The three month stay isn't long enough.

...At the grand age of fifty I had never expected to be labled Au Pair. Especially in America. Somehow things just started to happen, my youngest daughter had left college and moved inland from Cornwall to start a new job in a Travel Company! Soon with free tickets and a wonderful travel experience in Turkey, I found I was hooked. Out there was a big unseen world. Cornwall, in a little tin mining cottage, on the edge of Bodmin Moor had slightly lost its appeal, since I was now the only family member at home, talking to myself, to keep me company, something just had to be done.! So do it I did. It all started with a trip to London. Where I visited a friend of mine who ran an Au Pair Agency. We had a great chat over coffee, and I was invited to stay, to make up the numbers of au pairs about to arrive for the job of a lifetime... Read review

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Advantages: The rewards have been amazing
Disadvantages: It has been hard and demanding work among these foreigners

...Warning. This review contains graphic detail of exploitation, abuse and scandal in a part of the UK that many have never visited. If you are seriously considering work as an au-pair, you will find this review totally worthless. You are advised to do another search on Ciao, and see if someone has done this review from a different perspective. So you are still reading ? In other words, you did not click on to this review for genuine purposes of investigating the possiblity of work as an au-pair ? So what was your motive ? Did you just have a puerile fascination with the possible lurid tale of some unfortunate migrant worker ? Sorry - wrong review - you are excused, and may now leave this room ! You have not left !?? OK - so you are on the search for some literature that will be spot on the topic, yet incorporate some... Read review

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Advantages: Little piece of countryside in the city
Disadvantages: Cold water. Ducks and pond weed.

...On a hot summer day when the sun is shining (assuming there are any) Hampstead Ponds is the perfect place in London to go for a swim and a sunbathe. It's a pond, screened for the most part by trees, with one side open to the fishing section and the rest of the park. A pond with ducks, thick mud at the bottom (if you can get that deep), and plants all round the edges. It is a natural swimming hole, as far from the aseptic stench of a chlorinated indoor pool as can be. Relive your childhood and come splash around here with the freaks of Hampstead. You get a mixed bag of swimmers here. Pensioners come down first thing in the morning for a bracing dip. Mid week you get French and Spanish au-pairs working on their tans, and in the evenings a mixed bag of the skint, the nature loving and the beautiful come out to pretend briefly that they aren... Read review

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Advantages: A chance to see the world and get paid for it
Disadvantages: Long hours for relatively low pay

...In January 2000 there was a BBC documentary broadcast which followed the lives of a handful of au pairs in various countries. Not meaning to be horrid, but most of them were appalling. The only one who looked like she was doing her best looking after the children, and trying to fit in to life in a new country was called Zoë. Perhaps it was as a sign. I had no particular desire to be an au pair. I realized I would probably be a better one than most of the girls featured in the program, but that wouldn’t be hard. However, I wanted another job abroad following a successful summer in Germany the year before, and being only 17 at the time, my choices were limited. Au pairing was one option, and I had the experience and skills for it, so I did some research and applied to a few agencies. I couldn’t go with the best ones... Read review

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Advantages: Good fun.
Disadvantages: None.

...This review is about a job that I found on the internet with a family in Paris. It was quite by accident because I went to one of the Penpal sites and I was writing to a chap in Paris and he told me that the au pair had left without giving notice and that they were in trouble. I was in the middle of a nasty time with my present husband and I decided to go for it. I was not exactly au pair material but I was sensible with kids and knew what I was letting myself in for. I really loved this job. The kids were difficult kids and I had a phone call the first day that I was at home with the kids on our own from both parents, anxious to know how I got on with the kids. It was really psychology. The youngest child was difficult, and I mean difficult. One night he threw his dinner at his sister, and I was angry, but decided that I would... Read review

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Advantages: Funny,Great characters, fun animation and some sharp wit
Disadvantages: Not everybody's idea of funny

...I have watched Stressed Eric since the very first episode a few years ago, and can definitely say it is up there with the Simpsons as far as adult animation goes. It revolves around poor old Eric, a terminally stressed single father trying to juggle work and family, knowing that the seemingly perfect Perfects live right next door. As well as this he has to endure his alcoholic au-pair who is about as much good for the kids as cyanide, his awful essex girl secretary who is constantly on the phone and leaves all the work to him, and his new-age ex-wife who feels yoga and the Buddist way is the solution to everything and his midget, toupeed boss who thinks Eric is the absolute worst in the office. All the characters are given life by some very talented people so that you love all of them as they suffer their misfortunes, except the too good... Read review

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Advantages: competitive prices, wide range of luxurious products, auction service
Disadvantages: i havent bought any products so i dont know what quality service they provide

...I have only ever used lastminute.com to look for bargain last minute flights. Last summer I was depressed at not finding a summer job when suddenly the opportunity to work as an au pair popped up. I had to find a flight to the south of Italy and fast! A friend said that lastminute.com do reasonably priced flights. I had not heard of the site much before. Lastminute appear to offer a lot of last minute deals on things that you may want at the last minute really! That includes flights, holidays, weekend breaks, gifts, hotel stays, travel tickets and a whole lot more - even food hampers! The site layout suggests it has a luxury quality about it and its products. However the flights I found to be quite competitive, as I found a flight to Milan for around £110 and I think that included air tax. However, it didnt beat the £70 deal I got from... Read review

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