Foreign Perspectives

There’s been somewhat of a death in posting activity over the past few weeks, not because we’ve not had loads to say but rather because the ADSL line still hasn’t been installed yet (supposedly it’s another week or so away). Anyway, that delay has given me the excuse to buy one of those really neat little mobile broadband gadgets which has always been on the “would love to have but just can’t justify it” list. However, whilst it’s been on said list the prices have been dropping dramatically….

In that my mobile surfing will almost certainly be limited in duration the ideal plan for me is very much T-mobiles daily one. All of £2 a day on those days which I use it which means that the non-use charge is effectively £4 a year as you’ve to use it at least once every six months. Although most of the time such a deal seems sure to be a ripoff in fact you can change the topups on this one to a monthly £20 which is little more than “normal” mobile broadband charges these days and, for me, will be substantially cheaper.

On other fronts, we’re now in a minor battle with the Central Services Agency (CSA) over registering Wendy for healthcare. It appears that they have a rather flakey grasp on how residency rights actually work in Europe so they issue health numbers to any French that arrive when they should be requiring proof that they’re eligible to live here (European citizens generally need a job to gain the right to live in other European countries) and they’ve been insisting on all kinds of documentation from Bulgarians when they’ve been in Europe for about six years now and have the same documentation requirements as would the French. Wendy, as always, is unique as, despite the CSA insisting that she provide a visa and/or residence permit, she doesn’t have to provide anything other than her passport thanks to changes in European freedom of movement legislation over the last five years. Oh, and the CSA think that “freedom of movement” is just that: you can move, not actually live: in fact it’s both!

Anyway, all being well they will reject her application as the current rate of awards for such discrimination is over £20,000.