Random Irritations

All EU countries are covered via Schengen.. this had been already in place for anyone travelling from a third country eg India into EU (except U.K.) for the past few years. You need one to cover all of them..
very similar approach to getting an ETSA to enter US ..

This is just normal life and how people travel around the world - we were privileged not to need Schengen, now we need one. Simples

Cheers for that. I travel for work so will be in Netherlands one month, Denmark the next and then Sweden two months later so will need to get it sorted. Good to know I can get one that will cover me for all countries that I'm likely to visit and it will last me 5 years. Bit harsh on the first company that I work for that they will be covering the cost of my visa for 5 years even if I don't work for them again in that period.
 
Village pub been empty for a year and has now been turned into an Indian Restaurant. They've done a smashing job of the decor.

However, food is shocking. About the worst curry I've ever had. Two trys, two duds.

Crikey I just hope they are having set up issues or we'll be back to an empty building in a few months.
 
Went to the Imperial War Museum this weekend.. it is a fantastic place. Some of them are really moving - esp the Holocaust exhibits. They also have the case for the 'Little Boy' that was dropped on Hiroshima. Speaking to one of the volunteer , he said there is a lot of interest in the little boy thanks to Oppenheimer movie. In the WW1 exhibit, came across this

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sparked a conversation around WW1 and how things were back then. Then he casually said... but 110 years later, are we any different from 1914 Britain. What was the point of the war?

I visited the IWM just before we came out to Spain. There’s a an exhibit of the front end of a Lancaster. A young lad and, I guess, his grandfather were viewing it. A rather dignified and erect old man, with the emphasis on the “old.”

“I used to sit there” he told the young lad… sorry but I had to shake his hand and thank him for his service. We had a conversation about his time in Lancs… wow! And then wow again.

I turned to the young lad and said, “ you have a very, very, special g’father here. A real hero” A mouthed thank you from g’pa and a look of absolute awe from the young lad. I felt very small, like the g’son, stood next to this very dignified old man. “Well played sir!”
 
Cheers for that. I travel for work so will be in Netherlands one month, Denmark the next and then Sweden two months later so will need to get it sorted. Good to know I can get one that will cover me for all countries that I'm likely to visit and it will last me 5 years. Bit harsh on the first company that I work for that they will be covering the cost of my visa for 5 years even if I don't work for them again in that period.

I have not seen what rules they will apply for U.K. citizens but Schengen has restricted entry on total nos of days you can be in the region. Also it will prevent you from working there - you may be ok to attend meetings, but cannot earn a living there. If you want to work, you will need a work permit. You can always holiday there. None of this is new for non-U.K. nationals. This is not the EU making us ‘pay for it’, it is just that these rules now apply to us.

From a business PoV, it is just the additional cost of business and you can’t just rock up in a foreign country..
 
I have not seen what rules they will apply for U.K. citizens but Schengen has restricted entry on total nos of days you can be in the region. Also it will prevent you from working there - you may be ok to attend meetings, but cannot earn a living there. If you want to work, you will need a work permit. You can always holiday there. None of this is new for non-U.K. nationals. This is not the EU making us ‘pay for it’, it is just that these rules now apply to us.

From a business PoV, it is just the additional cost of business and you can’t just rock up in a foreign country..

I'm fine on the total number of days as it's normally only one night in a hotel before joining a boat and I have to go through immigration to sign out of the country on my way to the vessel. This does mean that my passport is filling up quite quickly with stamps. What it has restricted is my ability to work in field offices or do work within the 12 mile limit. I almost certainly could get a work permit if required but there's always been plenty of other work out there so I just haven't bothered so far.
 
I'm fine on the total number of days as it's normally only one night in a hotel before joining a boat and I have to go through immigration to sign out of the country on my way to the vessel. This does mean that my passport is filling up quite quickly with stamps. What it has restricted is my ability to work in field offices or do work within the 12 mile limit. I almost certainly could get a work permit if required but there's always been plenty of other work out there so I just haven't bothered so far.
When I got my new beautiful blue passport, I went for the one with extra pages… stamps eat it up. I particularly find immigration officers who look for a fresh page to stamp very irritating.. but that is just how it rolls. I think I will need a new book before it expires
 
When I got my new beautiful blue passport, I went for the one with extra pages… stamps eat it up. I particularly find immigration officers who look for a fresh page to stamp very irritating.. but that is just how it rolls. I think I will need a new book before it expires

I'm not so fussed about the actual like cost of passports etc but it's more the complete pain in the butt to renew them , wouldn't like to be a frequent traveler waiting for a passport
 
I'm not so fussed about the actual like cost of passports etc but it's more the complete pain in the butt to renew them , wouldn't like to be a frequent traveler waiting for a passport

We’re quite lucky in that there’s a local business that’s registered with the U.K. Post Office & the U.K. Passport Office. Pop into their office. They do the photos and the forms, send them off and receive the new passport. They have a direct number to a dept within the passport office to chase it up if needs be. And then when they receive it back they give you a call to collect it. Painless.
 
I'm not so fussed about the actual like cost of passports etc but it's more the complete pain in the butt to renew them , wouldn't like to be a frequent traveler waiting for a passport
It took my wife and I less than 7 days to renew our passports, far, far quicker than the old days when I travelled a lot and needed 2 of the extra page passports and the only way of getting it renewed quickly was going to the passport office in person - Newport in my case where 4 hours seems like weeks.
 
My work laptop is trash. It spends all day in the office plugged into the charger (not by design but the charger is also the thing that connects it to the docking station). I shut down, go home, this morning I turn it on here (WHF on Wednesdays) and the battery is completely dead. It's drained from full to empty while the laptop was not even on??
 
Our drives are on the back of the house. Along with our gardens.

My lass just burst into hysterics and asked if I’d noticed I said no, she said I’m going to be livid and pointed to my car.

Covered in ash. I only washed and waxed it yesterday. Neighbours having a fire.

Now do I go out later and hose it down passive aggressively or just hope the car won’t be dewy in the morning and blow off?

Don’t understand why burning wasn’t done when it was crappy weather. I’ve never had this irritation before as we don’t hang clothes out or use the garden but I sympathise now! 🤣
 
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