Early Risers.

[Robert]

2017 UK passport. £85

 

That's another issue.  The price rises to £105 for those of us who live outside of the UK.

 

The German passport costs 60€ - Plus, when it is renewed you take the old one in and swap it for the new one.  So you aren't without any ID for weeks on end - although we have ID cards anyway, so that point is moot.

 

Back when I first came to Germany, the Consulate in Düsseldorf used to issue passports, the fastest I had one back was about three days.  However, now everything has to be sent to the UK and takes much longer.

[trisonic]

First thing I check upon waking is the weather. Today I was greeted by (on Accuweather):

 

"Scientists say Uranus smells like rotten eggs”

 

“Pete says, speak for yourselves”

 

Best, Pete.

Edited April 25, 2018 by trisonic

[BSW01]

Just back from the pool and after a having a shower I’m now sitting down with another muggertea. I managed around 70 lengths, several were sprint lengths, my fastest time being 17 seconds.

 

Citizenship, what a mine field mine could be. My maternal great grandfather was Portuguese, his son, (my grandfather) was born in Brazil, he married an English girl and all their children were born in England. Only my fathers side is English, but there may be Irish or Scottish links there too!

 

It’s almost time for dinner, so back later.

[trisonic]

At least the USA still agree that if you are born in the ‘States then it doesn’t matter about your parentage - you are a US Citizen.

 

Much simpler that way (though you-know-who grumbles about it).

 

Best, Pete.

[beast66606]

Talking of passports. I forgot mine whilst travelling to work today, fortunately, there were  no border guards on the alternate route I took into Yorkshire.......

 

Getting into Yorkshire isn't the problem ...

[Gwiwer]

Morning all.  OK just after morning but who's counting?

 

A very busy few days has been had no allowing adequate time to sit and read so apologies for missing anything of significance.

 

Spring has definitely sprung here.  Cherry and Horse Chestnut blossom is out in abundance.  Sales of Piriton and Allereze are up.  The cupboard is stocked with Camomile.  It is a year since I left the Palace of Attendance for home shores.  The year of passing from Summer to Autumn to Spring to Summer with no Winter is over.  The Winter just passed has made up for that!  

 

This afternoon I shall endeavour to catch up on some of the hours of sleep not taken these past few nights.  The time commitment to being General Secretary isn't great but with the AGM around the corner I have had to burn a little late night oil.  Then there was last night's quite modest but audible party upstairs.  I was just on the point of dozing off when loud excited voices prevented sleep; a friendly message on the phone brought forth an apology and a lowering of the volume.  It's good to have friends in higher places - especially when higher means right above your tired head.

 

Bacon calls.  After which the aforesaid snooze shall be had.  Best wishes to all.   I'll see you later.

[The Lurker]

At least the USA still agree that if you are born in the ‘States then it doesn’t matter about your parentage - you are a US Citizen.

 

Much simpler that way (though you-know-who grumbles about it).

 

Best, Pete.

with the associated tax net, as BoJo found out a few years ago when he sold his London home. Principal Private Residence sales are tax free in the UK but not in the US....

[Robert]

"Scientists say Uranus smells like rotten eggs”

 

How do they know?

[Gwiwer]

 

 

"Scientists say Uranus smells like rotten eggs”

 

 

 

 

How do they know?

 

 

There is an expression known as ****-sniffing.  Similar to licking I guess.  Either way one's tongue gets to discover some atrocious anal aromatics ...........

[jamie92208]

There is an expression known as ****-sniffing.  Similar to licking I guess.  Either way one's tongue gets to discover some atrocious anal aromatics ...........

TMI...... I knew that we would get back to Felching at some point.

 

Jamie

Edited April 25, 2018 by jamie92208

[Gwiwer]

 I knew that we would get back to Felching at some point.

 

 

 

There's a layout name in there somewhere.  Probably Sussex-themed.  But don't tell Debs

[Mike Bellamy]

 

 

News from elsewhere today..the Leeds Model Railway Society is now a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and, thanks to Company House we remain the Leeds Model Railway Society. It was 't hard to do but it needed a concerted effort from one or two of our Society. now comes the hard part...getting everything going!

 

 

 

 

.

Congratulations - we were told this last night as we were in the West Midlands getting the same guidance from your Birmingham based consultant. Our situation will be complicated by the need to have a separate trading company for fund raising such at our limited edition Bachmann loco.

 

.

[Purley Oaks]

For those children born in the UK after 1st January 1983, and who have then lived in the UK for at least 10 years, there is the registration route using Form T. A number of children of old clients have done this at the earliest opportunity with no trouble at all - they are properly registered as British Citizens and are entitled to have the British passport.

Makes one wonder why the Home Office hadn't advised them... 

 

All this talk of citizenship made me think about my Irish granny and my qualification for an Irish passport. I may have some detective work tracing back the relevant birth/death certificates mind since I have none already.

You're able to check births online for both the Republic and NI, then order the appropriate long-form birth certificate. Think it's around €40 in the Republic and £25 in NI, but may be incorrect.

 

with the associated tax net, as BoJo found out a few years ago when he sold his London home. Principal Private Residence sales are tax free in the UK but not in the US....

So it does have some good uses, then.

 

Showery just now in between the sunbeams.

 

Hope your afternoons go well

 

Mal

[trisonic]

with the associated tax net, as BoJo found out a few years ago when he sold his London home. Principal Private Residence sales are tax free in the UK but not in the US....

 

That’s a different subject altogether.....

 

Best, Pete.

[jamie92208]

There's a layout name in there somewhere.  Probably Sussex-themed.  But don't tell Debs

I would have thought the Spen Valley otherwise known as the Heavy Woollens here in the broad acres. That was always known as somewhere where they didn't have many picnics as they were all several sandwiches short.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

We never knew why there was so much back and forth with the passport office when we first applied for Matthews initial passport. I knew that by 1992 being born here wasn't enough but I had been and so had my parents. Aditi had a UK passport and I couldn't understand why Aditi's parents marriage date back in India was in any way relevant. When one my friends applied for a UK passport she was told to apply for a Maltese passport and shouldn't have been issued with a UK one previously. She had been born in Malta where her Dad was in the Royal Navy (her Mum was there too!). Apparently poor record keeping by authorities.

[AndyID]

with the associated tax net, as BoJo found out a few years ago when he sold his London home. Principal Private Residence sales are tax free in the UK but not in the US....

No tax on a capital gain up to $250,000 or $500,000 for a married couple (unless they changed the rules while I wasn't paying attention).

[Ian Abel]

Morning (late I know) on a very wet HUMP day.

 

Very, VERY quiet at the client yesterday, of the three people I most needed to connect/communicate with, one was out sick and the other two are on vacation for the week  Oh well, other things to keep me occupied.

 

On citizenship <sigh> <groan> <bletch>

US;

Currently up to $750, I think mine cost me $600.

Entails miles of VERY repetitive paperwork, which concludes with a dreaded "interview".

You're warned in the strongest terms that it is "comprehensive and all encompassing". You will be ask during the course of said interview 10 random "civics" questions selected out of 100, all of which are available to view/print on the USCIS website.

You have to get a startling 6 out of 10, so 60% pass rate, which I considered rather (to quote our idiot-in-chief) 'sad', especially since they are ONLY selected out of the 100 you are free to study at your leisure - and of course the the fear instilled in you by the USCIS, you work those 100 questions until you could actually TEACH a US civics course better than pretty much anyone (other than naturalized citizens!!) here, quite ironic!

The first part of the interview is literally a REVIEW of the paperwork you've filled in, with the officer simply asking the questions AGAIN, straight down the forms, and confirming you answered them the same way twice, it seems

That's followed by the "English" test. You have to read and write about half-a-dozen astonishingly simple statements. I'm sure most 9-10 year olds with could comfortably handle it. The "banter" back and forth reviewing the form details AND the read/write questions dialogue is considered the "oral" portion of being able to convers in English, cue another 'sad'!

THEN - the dreaded 6 out of 10. They ask the questions, and once you get six right, before you've been served 10, they stop. I got the first 6 right, TA DA...

THEN, I thought, "OK, here's the REAL interview portion", expecting some sort of significant dialogue/discourse. NOPE - you're done, pass or fail...bye, bye!!!

 

UK - for the kids - as I'm British, they "automatically qualify" in some senses. Fortunately we did this before the rules changed a few years back, though it didn't help for Trevor!

 

Jemma - dual nationality, no problem, fill in paperwork, although they wanted a HUGE amount of details about the Mrs., because of her prior marriage, including divorce papers AND because of that, significant details on her parents, totally weird!! It was a follow the "arrows" type of form, if she'd NOT been married before, we'd have skipped ANY questions about her parents.

The rules changed since Jemma got her citizenship and now would be ineligible as you now have to apply before the kids are 18 (I think, or maybe 21).

 

Trevor - sorry no can do.

Apparently, the UK didn't/doesn't recognize him as my son as he's adopted, even though he was 9 months old when we adopted him, and the way adoption works here they issue a new/amended birth certificate to show us as his parents!!!! .End of subject. <total bo!!ocks!!>

For the US, of course, as he was being adopted, that allowed us to file and obtain US citizenship for him, did that when he was about 11 months old. So he has a US passport and documents that show me as his father, but apparently he's NOT my son far as the UK are concerned.

 

Julie - we waited as we saw no real "need" to get dual citizenship for her, and NOW the rules have changed so she has to be resident in the UK for 5 years before she even qualifies to apply (last I checked anyway about a year back)

So there you have it - the delightful confusion of

 

 

10 and chucking it down on the drive in, makes for a significant increase in cockwombles as apparently about 99.995% of the drivers on the road had never seen rain before.       High of 12 and supposed to rain all day.

 

Hope your week is/continues to be productive.

[shortliner]

Apart from demonstrating the degree of Cock-womble-ness of the current UK government, this Windrush thing is really starting to bite the Parliamentary ar$e - and will do so even more before it stops. As a Brit, from "Sarf uv da Riva" ( adopted Scot) who was here when the Windrush docked, and the "incomers" arrived to help us out ( indeed many had served in the British Forces during the war - and been proud to do so! )  I'm ASHAMED of the way they, and all the others who came to help from other parts of the "Empire" have been, and are being, treated. They deserve our thanks, rather than being treated like "illegals" and criminals.

I have tried very hard to avoid moving this into any form of Politicking and I would ask that any other members do the same. I hope the Moderators can find it in their hearts to accept this as, possibly, a small rant on my part rather than any form of political diatribe

Edited April 25, 2018 by shortliner

[TheQ]

My sister being born in British Military Hospital Dhekelia which still is British territory. Was still enough to cause her grief when getting her first passport.

[The Stationmaster]

Evening all,

 

Home is The Stationmaster, home from the sea, and a 6 hour train journey which is the price of avoiding London and taking a through train which crosses the country (sort of) with some noisy diseasal engine clattering away under your seat and, for part of the journey, a surly Brummy jobsworth reluctantly handing out cups of tea.  Home too to find the invoice for the final payment for the next trip among the pile of incoming post, clever timing

 

As ever we had a good week aboard with the added attraction of an overnight  stay in Newcastle before we joined the ship enabling us to do such touristy things as walk across the High Level Bridge, have a look at Grainger Street Market, and visit the museum.  Blyth turned out to have changed considerably since my last visit and not only has the (engine) shed long closed but the place is no longer coated in coal dust and the docks and quayside are both tidy and busy.  As for the seaborne part we got almost as far north as Berwick and almost as far as Spurn Head to the south and got ashore on one of the Farne Islands to visit the Longstone Lighthouse where we got to see Grace Darling's bedroom- which is seriously in need of a repaint. Our visit attracted considerable attention from the curious residents of that particular island -

 

 

No doubt I shall at some time manage to get the rest of the photos downloaded and will probably create a thread for the entertainment of anyone who might be interested together with plenty for the 'Anyone Interested In Ships Thread'.

 

Time for fish and chips.

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

Deba Update

 

Chemo 3 progressing, just feeling BLEURGH! (have i spelt that correctly?)

 

However her medical responses are better this time round.

 

I'm holding off posting people's stuff until she can really read - otherwise although she wants to it's just too much effort and she will - and exhaust herself. In this I;m guided by Sister Jen.

 

We wait - I'm sending the briefest of text messages as emoticons ands getting the same back. I get a wave each morning.

 

As I said - we wait.

Edited April 25, 2018 by Coombe Barton

[Horsetan]

Makes one wonder why the Home Office hadn't advised them...  

The Home Office makes information available, but never advises.

[JohnDMJ]

Mooring Awl Inner Temple Here,

Flag etiquette regularly gets discussed on the various Norfolk Broads forums, there are fines in some cases under UK law for incorrect use of flags. though I've never heard of them being imposed.

Regular incorrect uses we see, are the Union, English , Welsh, Scots,   Northern Irish and pirate Flags being flown from the stern of boats. This is along with Royal Navy and RAF flags. Although there were complaints about someone displaying an RAF flag who turned out to be a retired AIR Ranking Officer and entitled to fly it.

 

 

Interesting!

 

Near here, in so-called 'Downtown LA' (Little'Ampton, West Sussex!), pirate flags abound, not only on boats. Seems to have fallen into the "can't be bothered to deal with" category as have 'hoverboards' and segways, neither of which are street legal in the UK but seem to be tolerated.

 

What was that comparison between an equine creature and legal practises?

Edited April 25, 2018 by JohnDMJ

[PhilJ W]

How do they know Uranus smells of rotten eggs? Simples, the atmosphere contains a lot of Hydrogen Sulphide.