Foreign Perspectives

I’m finally a legit businessman in that the KBIS finally turned up last week. We were in the accountant’s office at around the time the postwoman was sticking it through our letterbox. Anyway, by the time we got back home and found it, we’d just enough time to race to the bank and apply for the credit card machine (which, in theory, should be here in “15 days” ie a fortnight, but somehow I just can’t see it arriving that quickly).

Actually on the post front, we’re amazed at how awful the administration of some places is when you tell them you’ve moved… at the moment the competition for last place is neck and neck between the Woolwich (told at least twice that we’re here) and… the Civil Service. Sadly, pay section have realised that I’m not there anymore but personnel still seem to think I’m in Holywood.

The KBIS also lets you open an account at the local cash & carry (Makro would you believe?) so we headed off there the next day and did a bit of restocking (we were running really low on the shampoo for a start).

Managed to get “our” toilet operational at last! There’s loads of toilets in this place but the handiest one for our own use turned out not to work. Anyway, several weeks back one of the english immigrants (of which there are loads) said “why don’t you see about getting a new one”. So we raced off to the local DIY place (as always, these ideas come to you about 30 minutes before closing on a bank holiday weekend so it was quite a race). Naturally, we were short a few items in the “toilet kit” so a week or two passed by ’til we got the little hose extension and another while before we got the sealant and a bit more before we got the gun to put it in. But, that’s all in the past now and our toilet works!

Now that we’re on a roll, we’ve decided to have a go at erecting a wall in front to act as a sign. There’s been a fair number of folk who’ve been directed our way but never made it so we’ve moved the sign up the priority list somewhat. Short term, we’re thinking of getting some really, really big bits of plywood to put the sign on but we’re also running up a proper breezeblock wall over the next month or so. We’ve also got several non-operational toilets which we must sort out too…

At the moment there don’t seem to be any “proper” tourists arriving at Perpignan airport: any time we’ve been up just about everyone seems to be being picked up by some other english friends. Net effect is that our leaflet supply is lasting forever up at the airport.