Maybe1day

Certo, Assolutamente

ononno

Wish I could!

Maybe1day

I did after 30yrs, 2 weeks at a time is about all I can take now. Still waiting for our court case to be resolved from 1996. The lawyer wants another 1K!

jonwel

Have just changed bank.

1) Phoned the British pensions office; they asked me a few questions to make sure I was who I claimed to be, then they took down my new IBAN and told me my next payment would be into the new bank. Total 7 minutes.

2) Went to INPS for the Italian side. Had to wait 2 hours to be received. Nice bloke, no complaint there. But after taking a copy of my ID card and making me sign forms, he told me it would take a month and a half! Makes me wonder what they'll be doing in all that time!

Geordieborn

It's really worrying how far behind Italy is in this regard, things are getting a little better, but far too slowly. Resulting in the country becoming even less efficient and seemingly incapable of doing anything about it.
We are back in the UK at the moment, before we left we went online to get broadband installed here, all done online. Got back on Friday with a Monday appointment to install the new line needed and get us up and running. Realised Saturday we had no telephone handset here in the UK, so went online (Argos of all places) and had one delivered 4 hours later! Cost the same as Amazon and delivery cheaper at the massive amount of £3.95! Like I said it’s a big worry how far behind they are getting and very sad for me.

BRIAN 1

Hi,I think they still use the abacus for computing here.With our council tax we have to go and ask for it at the commune and then pay it at the post office,Direct debits are impossible here.Same thing with the refuse tax but after we have to go home get the receipt photocopied and then take it back to the commune,otherwise they dont know we have payed.Beat that for efficiency lol,cheers,Brian.

Lorna at Vicenza

Living through the scuola media exams this week. The kids only found out on Saturday afternoon if they had passed or failed the school year and the first written exam was on Monday morning. Tomorrow it is the dreaded Prove Invalsi in both Italian and Maths and those tests are hard.

Still no word from school about when each kid will have to go in and do the oral exams. Until I know if Alex will get called in on the 18th or the 23rd or the 30th of June etc, I can't book any flights to the UK.

MarkRD

Oh the chaos of Italian education system! I don't miss it a bit. Mind you I seem to be hearing from a lot of younger parents here who are having the same kind of problems. It'll no doubt all be over and forgotten about within less than a month and nobody will bother to put it right for next year.

Good luck Lorna!

Lorna at Vicenza

I know. More people seem to be fed up than before of waiting and waiting for the bloody schools to organise something and publish dates and results and end of year reports. Once upon a time all I heard from other parents was, "ma è così sai - che ci puoi fare?" I've heard a lot more grumbling this year.

Alex had "tema" in Italian on Monday which he thinks was more than okay. Maths yesterday which was a bloody nightmare according to him. French this morning went okay. The Invalsi tomorrow and then English on Friday.

He'll never get a 10 in English anyway with his dumb teacher. The exam is all about writing a letter to a friend talking about yourself and your life. I saw Alex's practice test. He had written: My name is Alex and I'm 13 years old. I have blond hair, green eyes and I'm quite small.

Teacher absolutely insisted that he can't say "quite small" and has to say that he is short.

BRIAN 1

Hi,we have a white van man coming round 3 times a week selling fresh fruit and veg at a good price.It turns out he is our bin man and the commune havent paid him for 4 months.I cant believe we live in one of the biggest economys in the EU not poxy Venezuaila,I know Ive spelt that wrong but I cant be asked to look it up,cheers,Brian.

Tweedpipe

That teacher needs to be invited around to your place - for a caning!
Hope the exam results are better than you seem to be expecting.
My own school reports always read, 'Could do better', but nevertheless I seem to have been successful. And I'm sure your Alex will too.

Maybe1day

When my son was in "Le medie" he complained that he never got better than a "C" in English and that lot of kids got "A's". The next time there was an opportunity to talk to the teachers I went along. I/we had taken the trouble to correct the teacher's exercises as given to the kids and took them with me. I asked him why he didn't give better marks to my son. His reply was that it was to encourage him to do better. My reply was better than what, my son's English was already better than his and far above the level of the course. I showed him all the corrections we had made to his material and told him that if he didn't give him "A's" I would report him to the local education authority along with the docs etc. Needless to say he got his long awaited "A's"

jonwel

After post 3079, here's an update. In March the INPS man said it would take about a month and a half to change the bank. It's now July and my pension is still going into the old account!
One possible reason for the delay might be that I didn't say it was a joint account. But they've got my mobile number and have even used it in the past... a simple SMS ought to do the trick, telling me there was something wrong. Now I've got to go to INPS again (a morning wasted) and find out what the problem is...

37100

From experience, the month and a half doesn't include the first month and you can forget the 'half' too - that will always turn into a full month. That said, check with the bank. Our bank was holding OH's pension because, despite knowing him very well and having all the right paperwork, they said that they didn't know which account it needed to go into.

jonwel

Thanks for the advice! I'll keep you posted.