Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Miscellaneous’ Category

What is the view from your computer right now? As I type I am looking out across miles of vineyards; the leaves on the vines, having been relieved of their bunches of grapes in the recent harvest, are gradually turning green and gold as Autumn sets in and gives way to Winter.

Beyond those vineyards is the long grey column of the Fenouilledes; a mountain range that goes on seemingly forever that once divided France from it’s long held enemy of Spain. At dusk, as it is now, they are a formidable sight. Especially the sight of Chateau Queribus reaching out from the peak of those mountains into the grey sky above it.

I am sitting in the same place as the Romans sat 2000 years ago when they decided this part of France was a viable option for a campsite…namely because of the fresh water spring that flowed here, and still provides us to this day with a source of water. Of course, they would not have gazed out at Queribus back then…it was not constructed by the Cathars until into the early part of the 12th century but they still would have sat and observed the same row of mountains that I am observing right now. And no doubt pondered on their mystic beauty.

The outline is still the same; Queribus, the vineyards and I are relative newcomers to the scene. It’s good to see that some things never change though.

We’ve decided to put off our Tuesday Trip this week in that we’re hoping to get away to Switzerland for 5 or 6 days from this Friday.

Hoping I say because we are still waiting for a paper from the old insurance company which’ll let us get the car insured. Without that, I don’t know that we’ll be able to go, although if that happens, we will most definitely be making a trip early in the coming week to the old insurance company where we’ll be sitting until the paper is produced.

Snag is that this coming week is the only real time-slot for the Swiss trip as James’ school is on vacation.

I really must stop looking at the Open University prospectus! It’s even more dangerous than looking at estate agents brochures: at least with them you know you can’t afford to do buy a new house all the time.

Anyway, now that I’m nearing the end of my modern languages degree I’ve started looking around for something to do afterwards. So far, that has only had one serious possibility in the frame ie the chemistry degree that I was always meaning to do but never got around to.

However, there’s now another possibility: an English degree. As with the modern languages it seems like a long way off but notionally I’ll have done the first course of it by this time next year so there would “only” be five more courses to do from that and I know from chatting with some other folk that at least two of those courses are very interesting indeed.

Still, way too early to be worrying about it now. I might just get some of the set books for one or two of the courses in the meantime. Just to see what the course might be like you understand. No intention of doing them at all. No siree bob!

The big problem with the Open University is that they have just too many courses available and therefore once you start one particular course you find yourself looking at the prospectus when it pops through your letterbox mid-way through that course and choosing another, and another, and another…..

For instance, I am (hopefully) on the home run to a degree in modern languages with “only” one course to go. However, I know that they’ll be sending me a prospectus shortly after Easter next year and in preparation for that I’ve had a look through the courses from the prospectus that arrived earlier this year.

That is, of course, fatal as I’ve already pretty much decided to go for their chemistry degree. I even bought the DVD of that on ebay last year (recommended: search for “S103” or “S104”; the DVD contains the complete course, less the mini science laboratory that they send you and which weights way too much to post).

However, I’d also quite like to have a go at the German courses and possibly some from the history faculty.

Although I’ve stuck to one course per year up to now I’m toying with the idea of combining some of the level 2 30 point science couses with perhaps the 30 point level 1 German courses which sounds like a doable amount of work.

Of the hundreds of people who have stayed with us over the course of this year, only two or three have paid using the Nationwide credit card which is crazy as they’re the only place that doesn’t charge to use your cards overseas.

Perhaps more crazy though is that of the dozen or so couples who live in Spain and have used us as a pitstop on their way to/from the UK, only one used a Nationwide card as they’re spending quite a considerable chunk of their income on bank charges. Quite how much is staggering. For example, a friend who lives in Brussels let drop once that he just used his Halifax card in the same way that he had done when living in the UK ie he would lift £20 or £30 each time he needed some money and likewise when he was paying for the groceries or whatever.

Most people read the bit in the credit/debit card charging information that says “currency exchange 2.75%” and figure that he wouldn’t have run up much of a bill. However, there is a transaction charge on all overseas use of the card of, at that time, £2 (and I gather it’s now £3) PLUS the 2.75% foreign exchange charge. So, that £20 cost him £2.55 ie 12.75% and, yes, he was paying around 12% of his entire income each month on bank charges!!

Clearly it’s quite different if you’re living abroad vs going on holiday but that minimum charge soon mounts up if you lift small amounts of cash. Whilst it’s much better to use the Nationwide card and pay nothing, if you are using a fee charging card you should lift a minimum of £100 or so each time and thereby reduce your costs to 4.25% to 4.75% depending on your bank and, whenever possible, use your credit card for purchases rather than making cash withdrawals.

See our guide at holiday money for more information.