Long Time No See

 New blog on the way

Jumping Through Hoops

Lots of things have happened since my last post. Lots of meaningless, totally useless and unhelpful things.  
Around every turn, a hurdle has appeared.
Selling the house is not proving as easy as first thought. The estate agent said "Oh, it's a beautiful house, much sought after type, lovely area, you'll sell it easy. That was 5 weeks ago.
Then the rains and storms came, then there was half term and now we've got the corona virus.
The world has conspired against us.
The procedure has gone too slow but the time is flying.
The Tories being in power has cast a huge uncertainty over the country.
The £ is crashing and our spending power in the EU is getting weaker and weaker by the day.
At this rate, we'll be stuck in the UK, less money, more expensive food and produce and yet we've got the Brixity morons telling all and sundry we can be self sufficient.
Idiots. If that was ever the case, the UBoats wouldn't have bothered trying to starve us into submission.
Y'know, I'm fucking fed up with this country altogether.
This is the Moselle and I wish I was there.

 

Nightmare Day

OK, after yesterday's question on FB about emigrating to the Netherlands, I now have many answers.
Today has been frenetic to say the least.
A guy called Kris has been a massive help.
OK, first I spoke with Kris on the phone, this set me on the road. I knew what I had to do.
After this I went out, slightly confused but with a clearer picture, to teach some old folks in sheltered housing how to get the best from their ipads, take photos, save them, add addresses to their phones and much more, this is my Tuesday good deed.
While I was away my wife rang Deventer Gemeentehuis and they said we needed a passport, birth certificate and marriage certificate - stamped! WHAT??
All my blood drained away. Fucking nightmare. 

And so the nightmare began; town hall couldn't do it, magistrates court couldn't do it but the Registration Office could in Milton Keynes but it would take a week to process and send back in the post. It could be speeded up via a solicitor (£150) and if I fetched it myself from London it would save a day! WTF? There was also a cost for the stamp, I didn't even ask about that!
To say I was deflated is an understatement!
 
So, the missus rang the Gemeentehuis again, spoke to another person who whilst she talked had a slip put in front of her saying as EU nationals, we didn't need a stamp. This was later confirmed by this Kris guy. I love this man!!!
You could hear the blood gushing back into my system from the other side of Sheffield.
 
The upshot is, we go to Holland in a couple of days, register on Wednesday and come back Thursday to avoid any complications Brexit might cause at the customs.
Everything else, driving licence, banking etc pales into insignificance. I can cope with that but when English solicitors are involved, it drags on and on.
Turned out it only costs £30 to get a Registration stamp and £5 postage but it takes between 4 and 14 days depending on so as usual, nobody has a clue as to what they are doing. You get rid of training and this is what happens, half trained dickheads who think they know everything in jobs where they are expected to dish out the correct advice but can get away with saying "I'm not sure, I'll transfer you to another department".  

I am exhausted, a bag of nerves, wondering whether I've made the right decision. Its the first time in my life I've ever doubted a decision I've taken myself, and I fucking hate that!!

The photos are of something nice. I need something nice after today's shitshower.

Frenetic

Some days you do little, others you're choc a bloc.
Today I spent nearly all day on Facebook.
It was not to play stupid games, it was to find out more about our move to Holland.
I've found out we need to do so much more than we thought.
The main thing is, we need to register with a gemeente. 
I asked about the UK driving license and other things and got some good, some right, some wrong and some diverse answers.
Bottom line we need to go to Holland before fucking Brexit day.
Sorry for the language but I've been forced to make this life changing decision.

 

Shopping for colours

First my Mum came so I could check the parking fine and yes, it was her fault. People saying "Ah, forget it, throw it away", have no idea what stress it puts on an elderly person to have something like this hanging round their necks. 

The bastards who enforce it want burning.

The parking company shareholders want throwing on top as well. 

They're just parasites. 

It was cold today, frost on the shed roof an car windscreen. Mum said it was goung to warm up this afternoon, it didn't feel like it but we went out to buy some coloured paint or something for our Myrtle's drawing hobby (she's really good) it warmed up slightly.

Food was manx kipper with witlof, apple, pear and egg salad. I don't like the dyed kippers, they have a dense and slightly unnaturally salty taste.

Music: Yes and now the Puhdys. Draußen Warten Die Sterne was one of those songs I played into the early hours on my headphone the night I decided to pack in work.

Wednesday Who?

Wednesday build us up then let us down. We beat Leeds 2-0, we're all "Yeah, lets build on this".
Not a prayer with Wednesday. They go on to lose 5-0 at home to Blackburn Rovers.
The day was an average kind of day, spoiled later when my Mum rang up to say she had a parking violation at Kilner Way shopping centre from 1st Jan. Turned out it was because she could only park for 90 minutes that day because Wednesday were at home to Hull City and it's to deter football fans abusing the free parking. She parked for 2 hours and 11 minutes. £60 the bastards. I've told her to go somewhere else but she won't. It's a talking fine really, that's what she does with her friends; they have a few coffees and talk. I paid it online for her just to get it out of her mind. It's done now. Bastards. 
Food was a beef, onion and pasta kind of hash. Really tasty, far better than the bought stuff we had yesterday. 
Weather was nippy, ice on the cars.
TV was whatever, I just watched it with one eye and Twittered most of the evening. Sad I know. Really fucking sad.

Deze foto is een merel op onze schuur. 

Het mannetje is de mooiste kleur maar zewel mannelike en vrouwelijke merels zijn fantastische zangers.

Eating out in the Daytime

We invited my Mum, my sister and a friend of ours to join us for a pub meal. It went really well, me and four women. I had a chicken medley (hate that meaningless word). Basically I had over-cooked chicken wings, dry chicken goujons, spare ribs with far too much sweet barbecue sauce on, a small salad and 5 piss poor onion rings, standard pub food really. It was okay but not up to the standard we cook to at home. 
It didn't rain today either, which was a bonus.
I've got this constant worry that I'm going have to fight to get out of this godforsaken shithouse of a country. I'll do it, it will just take some time and patience which I've never had and don't intend changing.

This is Dad relaxing at the nursing home. He settled in really well, always easy to please was my Dad. 


I loved him and I miss him like mad.

Stay in Day Again

Thursday 16th January 2020
Nothing much happened today. Tidied a few things up. 
Oh the joys of not working.
I looked into health insurance in the Netherlands. 
It's not all that scary and it covers almost everything. 
The weather is getting colder but still not as bad as it has been for the last few winters. 
We must have eaten but I can't remember what we had. 
This is a photo of how part of our kitchen was. It was honey pine when we moved in but I hate honey pine so we painted the cabinets white.

Into the city

 We caught the tram into Sheffield today, I wanted to see how easy it was to transfer my transactions from one bank to another. We took in a free coffee (customers and one friend only) at Virgin Money, which is our Myrtle's bank.


Will the bastard Tories change pension transfer rules between UK banks and European banks?
Will they stop us accessing our pensions because we don't have a UK home address?
 



The whole concept of Brexit punishes normal people through the uneducated shit that Brexiteers pour out as to why we should leave the EU. 
There will be a small charge to transfer money each time, at present it has been lifted so there isn't but as soon as we leave, it will be reinstated, you watch. Then there is the exchange rate. My pension will be paid in £s and converted via the ERM (exchange rate mechanism) into €s and the way the £ is being ripped apart by the dollar and Euro as well as other major world currencies, it doesn't look too promising.

I'll probably have to rescind my UK driving license as well and get a Dutch one. At present it is free to do but I might have to sit a written test.
I'm happy to pay health insurance in Holland but not the way the USA pays which is the way the UK will have to pay in the very near future.

What a total fuck up Brexit is. Would any other country allow a vote on something of such national importance? No, not now they see what a dumpsite our government has made of the whole country. The thick fucks who voted for Brexit thought is was just a matter of saying "We're off, goodbye". It might have been easy for them because it was all hypothetical for them.
Nothing about the bell ends who want Big fucking Ben to bong. Tossers. I will post nearer the time. There are a lot of things going to happen before then.

Food: salmon, colcannon with bacon pieces and pak choi
Music: Jan Akkerman, Puhdys, Dave Brock.

Yes, you've guessed it.

Another rainy day. I did my good deed, went along to Valley React to teach people how to get the best from their iPad. It's my usual Tuesday morning these days. The trouble is, they're not bothered about much apart from organising their photo galleries. So I showed an old guy how to create an album, give it a name and put photos in it. And that was it. So I trudged off in the rain and watched two of a three part documentary about the Normans. They were evil manipulative bastards, worse than the Tories only in that they murdered at will. 
Food: Vivera shawarma and baked beans, cumin, garlic and onions. Potentially a real potent mix. In reality, worse than I anticipated, haha!
Music: Puhdys

  

Another Rainy Day

Windy and rainy. Totally British weather as seen through the eyes of every European that ever lived whether they've visited the UK or not. And they're right. Why people say they'd never live anywhere else is beyond me. 
Of all the word's places, one that always appealed to me was in the film Murphy's War with Peter O'Toole. It was filmed in Venezuela. It might have been a really nice place at one time, I have no idea what it is like now, I can only go on what I read, see or hear in the media. But then why should I ever believe what those bastards in the media print or broadcast? 
Food was the rest of the Nasi Goreng and pak choi.
No music, watched some stuff on iPlayer, a black and white film, can't remember what it was to be honest.  

Staying in day

Only the Unintellientia of Brexit won't understand this.

Weather was poor, started off cloudy, then a bit of blue sky popped through then a rainbow then back to grey and miserable.
Food was Nasi Goreng, chicken and .... I think that was it to be honest. 
Memo to self: eat more fruit and veg. 
No music. No film. Watched some shit on TV about something.

Eating out

Well, after a shit Christmas period, Sheffield Wednesday have now beaten Premiership Brighton and dirty Leeds. Consistency is essential though. There's no point winning two then losing two.
It was Gill, my sister's birthday and we went to San Lorenzo Italian restaurant in Sheffield. Absolutely brilliant food.
I had whitebait for starter and Quatro Stagioni pizza.