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30 novembre Bye Bye Nov! Tis the end of november and al through the house, nothing is stirring, not even a mouse...! That's probably because of the two cats, and the heating being on, and everyone is toasty! It's snowing out.. quite a lot actually. Brrr.. rrrr rrrr!! An afternoon of football awaits, my predictions being, Man City v Man U = 2-4 and Chelsea v Arse 4 -1! Crumpets also await.. so this entry is short and sweet, synonomous with meinso many... errr I mean one way! N no.. i'm not short! lol 26 novembre random wafflings!Well.. been an entertaining few days. First the credit card, then the boiler went pop! Sat in the cold for 3or4 days tends to make people a touch cranky! And who am I to buck the trend! Chillier than a snowman's cold bits! Mind... had an afternoon out in the pub instead of turning my nipples into blue footy studs, so it's not all bad. Seems they want to charge us 250 euros for the work done, (not forgetting we've not been paid back yet for 2 of the flights we didn't book), which i think should be covered by either a: the dumbassed housing association we pay into, or b: house insurance. Whether it is or not, I don't know. We pay a chunk a month into the housing association for them to then a: clean the floors once every so often on the stairs, b: impose on us a new set of windows which I've not been consulted on, nor in fact do I want, and c: deny me the right to sling a satellite dish up on the wall! Maybe it's me, but, after these ere new windows (did i mention i don't particularly want them??) are in, what exactly is the chunk of money going to be going on? There can only be so much that a flat, with one above, two below, and new windows in, needs doing to it! Bedroom windows, balconies maybe? All of which are functional at the mo... just like the windows we're about to have removed! grrr...
Anyway... I will go on record now saying Arsenal will not finish in the top 4 this season, which will cost them a small fortune! I've said this from the start of the season and nothings changed! I suspect we'll lose 10 this season, which in fairness isn't that much of a leap considering we've lost to fulham, stoke, villa, city, and of course the mighty Hull already. I predict at least a 3-0 win for Chelsea. I refuse to be like the England fans who sit there thinking their team is wonderful when it plainly isn't better than average! Realism isn't a crime, no matter what the blindly optimistic tell you!
This whole credit crunch thing is a touch odd. It seems to not really be having an effect here in cloglang! Petrol is down to its lowest in 3 years, and houses are still ridiculously high priced. On saying that, there's a flat the same as ours for sale at 10 grand less than here, on the same level, just two balconies away. However, doing a little investigative work i found others on the same set at varying prices higher n lower than ours. Might just be they want a quick sale? Money things here are an oddity. E's worked overtime a few times and has mentioned something about working at time n .23 but then getting taxed 50% on it.. so.. as a compare, 10 quid an hour, 100quids worth of hours would equate to 123, but then less 50% means you take home 61.50!! From what I gather, base tax rate here is 33% so your 100quid would = 67, so for the overtime.. you get 5quid 50 less!!!! In the uk (assuming you're covering the tax threshold), everywhere I've worked overtime is time and a half, so.. your 100 would then be 150, and the tax rate would be the same, 23% approx, so your 100 = 77, and your 150 =115.50! Thats close to double! Madness! Mind you, in fairness... if you are thinking of moving to Holland a quick perusal of the wikipedia page on income tax in the Netherlands states regarding none specialist foreigners "normal Dutch income tax rates are so high that it is not financially rewarding to work in Holland". Ouch!
As a slightly more fun thing.. seems I've learnt a few flags from their appearances! to the tune of managing 43 in a row without error, pick a named flag from 6 offered lol... might not sound like much but, if i could've named 15 flags before, i'd've been surprised! Esthers geography is far better than mine, and the game consists of more than just naming flags, which puts her at an advantage over me overall, but 43 flags in 80 seconds gives me enough of a boost to be competitive!! Me, competitive? Surely not!
Have re-potted two plants and tended to tothers, plus we've two new plants arrived! The 5th tree I've carried up the stairs here lol! Hopefully our jungle will survive the upheaval and prosper once again! And.. on that note... am away to water em! What's good looking with green fingers? lol
17 novembre Credit Card fraudWell.. seems some prize swine has managed to swipe E's credit card info and booked three flights on the jolly net! One was from Luton via easyjet, the other two i can't remember. Costing to the tune of 600 squid. Not impressed. Fortunately E's bank picked up on "suspicious behaviour" and managed to contact us to confirm that it wasn't her who was doing the booking. Nicely done bank, but what's not so nicely done is that E is drawing a blank as to what happens next re some form of compensation. Identity Theft is kind of a big thing these days, the credit card people are saying they know how it happened but for the moment as far a I can gather it is being handled by them. What I would like to be doing is, having the information to hand so as to have the ability to start the ball rolling on a theft charge, but of course I am unable to do anything because of the language barrier! Easyjet told Esther that they could not reveal any details of the flight booked because it was now a legal matter, but this to mne seems bizarre. how can they not tell her, the person who's details have been stolen, what it is which she has "paid for". grr...
As it happens, we had only just gotten around to changing Esthers details on her card to Wiseman, rather than her maiden name, and so, there have only been about 4 transactions with the card, and of those only two were in a position where the information needed could have been gleaned. This, I would imagine, would have been helpful to the credit card people to find the perpetrators of this fraud! Again though I am completely unaware as to what happens next. You have to assume there will be some for of recompense due to us besides the refunding of stolen cash, but I don't doubt it will be something that requires us to put in the claim, rather than anyone telling us what to do, which is concerning me slightly.
Anyways.. Natomy of the grey variety is on, and i am required on the sofa...
Until next time 13 novembre Our World This is a view from our balcony on an Autumn evening.. worth sharing huh? Don't forget to click on the individual blog entry for a better view  I'm still ere!!So, it's mid November and again I have been neglecting my blog! Seems to be the way of it over the last few months. Tis odd really, as its not like we've not been out and about. I've not especially written much about the whole Sweden visit, which actually went pretty well.I was going to write something about something, but i've forgotten it.. lol, so I guess that kinda throws me a hitch or two. we did a chunk of walking, most notably out with Nikita, and in Stockholm, bought a couple of books in a big ole sci-fi book store, drank some serious whisky in the Glen Fiddock warehouse, (and by serious, i don't mean lots, i mean it cost an arm and a leg!), E lost her sunglasses while trecking across the Swedish countryside, and we left not so much a carbon footprint as a kevlar footprint in some woods, while in pursuit of deer! Never managed to get a Swedish jumper in the style of the oz one, but did pick up some fingerless leather gloves, which i've missed since leaving them behind in one of the many moves! Oh.. and did i mention we saw the King..? We did... and i have the pic's to prove it  I should give a shout out to Lesley... nicely done at getting into uni, passing medical n winding up with a placementy thingy! Congrats! Hope things continue to go well. E is currently bubbling on the sofa.. dodgy guts means there is a lack of retention going on so no work, and a diet of dry white toast (without the four fried chickens and a coke) . Having sat yesterday through the whole of what I think might have been Pride and Prejudice I suspect that might really be what has affected her stomach, as to be fair, I'm not sure that any constitution would be able to withstand such a battering of Darcyness! I have had probably my worst experience here so far a couple of weeks back. Jack's birthday actually so i was probably more than a little on edge to start with. Some, what can only be described as "little turds" persisted in ringing the doorbell. Not once, not twice, but 9 times over a space of a few hours. Now.. although that doesn't sound too bad, you have to then take into account that we have 48 steps to get down to answer the door, then 48 to get back upstairs again (odd that huh? lol). Then, add to that that, the lovely little toerags discovery that, the bell jam's, so that you have to go down to the door to un-jam it or the ringing is constant. That equates to 864 steps, although in truth I didn't have to go down the first couple of times. Having shouted at them initially, downstairs at the door, I eventually collared a mother of one of the kids, who of course, had a very limited English understanding, but I suspect gathered I was not amused. At all. Little sods! However, it's not happened again, where as before it was reasonably regular that they'd do it at least once a fortnight. Progress? We'll see. As for Jack... sent an mms across to G with a video happy birthday, only for it not to be received / receivable by G's phone, and it appears it directed her to a dutch website so she could retrieve it there, but, of course, it would've been all in dutch. The end outcome is, he/they never saw it, which is a little sucky, but not really much can be done about it. Waiting now to see if G uploads any pics from the birthday. Been a while now since I've seen a recent pic.. and the last ones sent here were lost in transit.. grr. Family stuff.. I hear Hamish n Tracey have finally gone bang .. and i have no way of findnig out if my stuff is still available to grab. Not vast amounts can be done about that either. I wonder if I'll ever get the comics n books back from Crewe. Just another thing I can resent mother for? Sounds like a plan! Chuckled with E yesterday... this will be the 3rd December I will have spent in Holland. Where does the time go? Watched a great Boston Legal which was very ouchy, touching on abortion and how it will always haunt you. He/She would've been 2 by now. Hmmm! Right.. on that jolly note am away again. My first November blog this year... wonder if I will think on to add another? lol |
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