scrubbedexpat142

At least she admitted it (& something may even get done about it).
I had a similar experience with the rail Company in Austria & again the girl admitted it & promised to escalate the problem.

In the UK your attention would probably have been drawn to the sign on the wall relating to the "Harassment of Staff..."

Annetje

Paperwork ... always good for a laugh (later on) ... Had a big smile reading all that.
And they dare to say the French are difficult !
This all will teach you about leaving the EU and wanting to return within (Brits take notice)

The first time I got married () was in that gemeentehuis !

Don't despair, I am sure you will get there at the end !

BuckinghamshireBoy

Last night received the latest batch of photos from Team Renovation. Looking very good now, the laundry room is finished, just needs the outside brickwork rendering and painting, too hot for that at the moment, but next week should be ok.

We threw a late request for one additional window – to replace an existing one in the visitor WC, expecting a quote for that tonight.

It’s still very hot up there, so wallpaper man has adopted a holding pattern until next week. Several people have been in after 7pm to finish stuff that was unworkable during the daytime heat.

And the cat-flap is now in, so that means that the external wall insulation (foam expansion) can now take place, again planned for next week.

Looks like we're back on target.

scrubbedexpat142

Excellent - managing building work from a distance can be tricky but you seem to have a good team.

Annetje

Indeed, sounds all very positive !
If I ever need a building crew around there, I'll aks for details.
When is M-day supposed to be ?

BuckinghamshireBoy

M-day is 'staggered', the cats go to their 'hotel' in Oud Turnhout Monday 27th, the camion should be loaded and departing Thursday 30th, and we will drive up Saturday 1st.

We'll be sleeping in an hotel just over the border in France for a few nights before we leave.

BuckinghamshireBoy

Was going to put this in "What has p*issed you off today", but for the sake of continuity and it's only raised a bit of a growl rather than really p*ssing me off...

OH received an email this morning from the removals company informing us that they had been advised by Belgian customs that our shipment won’t clear on the appointed date, and there will be a ‘one or two day’ delay.

Belgium is obviously becoming a desirable location!

In practical terms there’s not too much impact, we’ll be holed up at Sis-In-law’s place; we’ll have to extend the cats “holiday” in their hotel for a few days, but we’ll be without our goods and chattels for 8-9 days. Logistics rethink...

Annetje

I'm sorry about that, must be the impact of my brother retiring (ex-customs officer) ...
Just keep your eye on the wider picture, It will all work out in the end
It will feel like Christmas when you finaly are able to unpack all these goodies !

And PS Belgium was always a desirable location, just not the weather


.

BuckinghamshireBoy

Always has been desirable to me, and this year, certainly over the last two months it has been hotter up there than it has down here.

Annetje

Give it another summer like this and I might reconsider my options

.

BuckinghamshireBoy

So yesterday was the cats big adventure, flying to Brussels then onwards to their hotel. We all arrived at the cat collection counter at the same time, I picked up the hire car and we were off. I had decided not to take the highway due to the ever present chaos on the Antwerp Ring, and known roadworks heading east from there. Bad move. Roadworks, detour, roadworks, detour, and again and again. The journey should have taken 90 minutes, it ended up taking three hours.

As I'd lost so much time, I didn't even unpack the cats, just left them with the vet and jumped back in the car. This time I thought that if the highway is clear, I can afford to get banged up on the Antwerp ring and all in all it wasn't too bad, only 30 mins of bumper to bumper crawling along. Down to Brussels was fine and the Brussels Ring was clear, so I hit the airport back on schedule.

The plane was looking to be just a few minutes late, about 30 of us had boarded when the pilot announced that the aircraft had a hydraulic fluid leak which couldn't be fixed that night, but they'd found another plane. Everybody off and back to the terminal to wait for the buses to get to the replacement aircraft. Boarding this one, I was pulled to one side and given a seat change - to business class. I was one of four lucky people to be pulled out of the hat. Meal and drinks arrived, I tried to pay and was told no, it's complimentary in business. I said but I'm economy and received a shrug of the shoulders and a huge grin. Yay!

At this point we were about 90 minutes late, no time was made up, so we landed just after 11 and I was back home a whisker before midnight.

A 16 hour round trip for me, I reckon the cats got off lightly.

Annetje

You do have an exciting life

I normally find the ring looks worse then it is once you're stuck on it.
Like you said, a bit of bumper to bumper and then it clears.

You really fly to Belgian to put the cats in a hotel ? My my you are amazing

And now you have to move ... Bonne chance ! But after this it will be a walk in the parc.

.

BuckinghamshireBoy

Day one in the new country, we went first to the house, where we found our wonderful electrician and his gopher, working on a Sunday morning. The house is now about 98% finished, the rest is basically crossing 'T's and dotting 'I's. It is gorgeous...

We had fixed a rendevous at the bedding shop for the afternoon, that went well, we came back with a carload, and the big stuff will be delivered on Thursday.

On the way to the bed shop, OH expressed a need for waffels, so we went to our local hotel/restaurant for lunch.

As promised, I toasted Expatrick in beautiful sunshine.



Santé!

Annetje

Well done ! And a blue sky to welcome you !
Mmmmmmm Waffles ..... probably the one thing I miss here

Good luck with settling down in your new life

.

BuckinghamshireBoy

Dank je wel!

Day two was equally productive as day one, we had a meet and house walk-through with team renovation, I fixed an appointment with the electrician to come and help me set up the 'phone, TV and wi-fi after we have some furniture in place, so that will be Friday.

We noticed that the cat flap on the external side was a bit of a jump-up, mentioned it to the boss, who 15 minutes later presented his creation of bricks matching the rest of outside, giving the cats an elegant staircase from ground up to the flap entrance.

This afternoon we visited two garages looking for a 'run about' for OH, and we bought a 2 year old Toyota Yaris with very low kilometerage, for an amazing price, 12 month guarantee from the garage and still with 42 months Toyota guarantee.

Tomorrow will see our first tangling with local government as we go to open our 'foreigners files' at the newly relocated town hall.