French and France

If you think for a moment that things are bad in Belgium, think again.

Now I finally know where the word bureaucracy comes from. France !

France - ahhhhh Paris, Marseille, France, French people. La vie est belle... It would indeed be if there was some sort of efficiency. Which there isn't really. That or I have not seen it. Honestly - if they want get France out of the economical rut it's in, they need to get this country more efficient. Strike more (pun is intended). Just efficient will do for beginners. More can follow.

A country where you still can pay by cheque. You actually get weird looks if for some stuff (call it rental deposit or agency fees) you do NOT have a cheque but suggest something as audacious as a bank transfer. And obviously people use them quiet as a breeze in the thickest of xmas shopping to pay for a telly. 75e go onto the Visa card and 500e (the maximum) on a cheque. Which calls for two security guards. Not to throw the guy out of the store for delaying everyone else at the check out, but to verify the ID given and verify the verification of the guys ID. Surprised they did not have a third guard to supervise the two intellectuals.

New ADSL line ? Four weeks. Et nous on est France Telecom - on est plus vite que les autres. Never heard the word fast in the same sentence as 'in four weeks'. Unless it was preceded by the word 'not' as in 'not fast'. Seemingly if you opt for an alternative operator you then have to wait even more time as they have to wait for FT do their job. But on the upside, prices are cheap. I get a brilliant pack with free calls (including to landlines in Europe) + 3GB data for 19.95. Just that on a tariff whose USP is free calls to Europe you can not (wait for it) do international calls during the first 15 days.

Internet banking is yet another disaster. So I bank with BNP Paribas. A bank that is relevant to the world banking system. So no shitty savings bank in the hilly mountains of Albania that keeps the money of three goat farmers and one local hoodlum. What did not work for two months ? International money transfer. What do most foreigner, with a mortgage in Belgium, a life insurance in Germany covering the mortgage in Belgium and two kids in the UK need ? Hmmmm ? Oh yes-international money orders. My first agency (Valenciennes) suggested I sent them the money orders by FAX. In 2013. Only after shouting at them for 45 minutes did they accept email. You don't shout in France, you get nowhere. They did charge me for the three transfers too, claiming that according to their T&C only online transfers are free. Fortunately a good colleague found a really nice local BNP agency that undid all that evil for me. So thanks Kalle ! Really !!!

Bins : coming from Flanders (and being german), I need at least five bins to feel happy. A 6th one would really make my day, but hey - I settle for little. Here par contre - two : Paper & packaging go in the yellow one and one for everything else take the blue pill Mr Anderson. Just if the Yellow one is full, just use the blue one instead, which in a new building is easily done by just flinging the outer packaging of you 46" LED telly into the container askew into the container. Or if your Sofa does not fit into neither Containers (the individual chair did though), just leave said Sofa in the rubbish room. Or if the blue bin is outside, just dump your bin bags on the floor. They will eventually be beamed up by Scotty. I am not making these things up.

I could go on for hours and still would have material left. Maybe one day I think of a second career as a stand-up comedian. I am getting enough material anyway. I just have to write them down so I will never forget.

Thoughts on neighbours

So 1st of November it was then. Set out to go apartment hunting via the internet and -indeed- found something suitable and new in a new building on the ground floor. Mental note for future generations : do not rent ground floor apartments. People with Dogs live there. Yappy dogs bark if the owner is not there. A lot. Which you don't really want, when you want a good night sleep, but you can't get 'cause the tart from next door is out on the piss and her bloody dogs keeps yapping each time the door goes. Cause he -in turn- needs to go for little doggies. Which she lets him do in her garden (which is next to mine). Yikes.

New job in Strasbourg

It has been a while since I wrote something on our blog. Mainly because we did not travel that much for leisure since the summer. Actually exception made for the journey to Germany for xmas to see my parents we did not travel at all other than between Strasbourg and Brussels. Eh oui - yours truly got offered a job in Strasbourg as part of a team setting up a new European Agency. A TA post in AD at last! Miracles do happen !

And the grass is always greener on the other side.

But let us put a bit of order into all this : So I did participate in an open competition for TAs for this agency, passed the stages and got my name on the reserve list. So I though -yeah right, get back to work. But NO ! Miracles do happen, as two days (!!!) later I got an offer for a job, supposed to be starting three weeks later, with a notice period of three months.

How are we going to fit this square bit into the round hole, you may ask yourself. FFR : if you work in the institutions, get your HoU involved. He can't stop you, he knows this, but he can negotiate a slightly better delay.