Yes I got caught with the 30 year change too. Same as you, I had carefully worked it all out and then was livid to find goalposts had moved for NI and then that my state pension was being delayed another few years as well. I don’t get a lump sum with state pension, so that’s not an issue for me.
(I also did my calculations assuming pension would be index linked, so that adds value to forking out a large amount now. Howeve, this of course may no longer apply! )
Since we can manage with what we have we prefer to stay here and enjoy a quality of life than return to the UK. The whole brexit behaviour has given me an intense dislike of the country. If I could just move a suffolk seaside country pub a little bit closer all would be well…
I was a cabinet maker in the UK, & exported to those countries, that wanted custom pieces of a particular style…most of our UK clients wanted kitchens.
Previously, I’d been a bricklayer, chippy / joiner, roofer, etc., but settled for cabinet making after 10 years or so.
Furniture is not the same market here; & my clients in Europe were already moving away from the traditional British style.
I’ve built a few kitchens here from scratch, but mostly people want Ikea.
That is so rude. You haggle over the devis, not at the end. Foreigners need to get out of their bubble and be in the same market as French artisans, that way they won’t be stuck with those awful rude customers. (French customers can also be rude, obviously).
It appears to me Vero that some Brits here assume that we work for “beer money” or as something to stave off boredom…
Either that or they believe that we make so much money that we can afford to do people favours
I was taking a sly dig at the many Brit workers who focus on other Brits as clients…rather than learn French… so, OK, I admit to being “sly” but not rude…
This is one of the reasons I (we) didn’t move to the Charente…we knew folks there ; we went there once ; decided to stay looking further south…
Doesn’t mean this region doesn’t have similar problems; just that I don’t find myself inundated with “friends” just because we speak the same language
Last summer, in the Charente… visiting friends, I found myself surrounded by Brits… all very nice… but…
Long story short… I had a busy “telephone” day and was rattling away in French to whichever caller needed my help… phew… one Brit commented wistfully… “wish I could speak like that” and I’m afraid I snapped back… stop speaking English then and surround yourself with French people… this IS France…
My host handed me a stiff drink, which I downed in one before I apologized for my abruptness, but not for the content…
In 2012 / 13 I worked in Deux Sevres, not far from Ruffec, for folks that had lived in the same village as myself, but decided to move further north…over the course of 12 months I spent 9 months on site…I got to know a few folks…all very nice but all we had in common was the english language.
I did my shopping in the local town & was surprised/ staggered / disappointed to see both the Radio, & TV Times on sale there.Listening to the local radio in the evening I heard that 10 years previously the Brits accounted for 9% of the foreign population…in 2013 it had risen to 25 %.
My own French is not anywhere as good as I’d like; I my defence, of course, is the fact that I can’t easily surround myself with French people as I live in the UK and, working full time, I can’t find as much time as I would like to improve - but it’s slowly getting there, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself much more confidently explaining what we were looking for when browsing in some furniture shops when we were over for the New Year.
Really though there is little excuse. Loads of material on-line, free courses, YouTube. Even if you don’t wish to surround yourself with the French it is easy to surround yourself with the French language.
But it takes effort, and I think some aren’t prepared to put in the work, especially if you can surround yourself with Brits.
My French has so much room for improvement… but I haven’t got enough years left… and I’ve got too much to say right now… so I just get on with it…
While you travel to and from work… can you listen to French stories/new items/whatever… as you go along… that can be a great boost in between the holidays…
Don’t get me wrong… I love seeing my UK friends… and the Brit pals who live nearby are great, but we don’t smother one another. If someone needs help, the call goes out, other than that it is a pleasure to see them when they are supporting local events… and we all talk varying levels of French/Franglais/Rubbish…
I think so many of the RBHs are used to non-artisans who get their qualifications by magic thinking and have a mysteriously pending siret that they don’t know how to treat a real artisan
I don’t think I’d find that useful, I could either concentrate on the driving of the French but not both - which could have disastrous consequences.
I find listening to French language stuff with French subtitles enabled quite useful but I’m concentrating predominantly on vocabulary at present, plus helping No 1 son out with his GCSE.
Your post reminded me to have a look - despite a few patches out of work and my time at UNI my NI record is full and I have 35 years of contributions so will (as things stand) get full state pension, even if I pay nothing else in for the 12 years up to retirement.
All I need now is to work out how not to pay anything else in - sadly I think the only way to do that is not to work and, while that would be very welcome, I think it would have rather a larger negative impact on my finances than I really want
It’s quite nice paying nothing in. I’m currently taking some time out and having to self finance for the privilege. Whilst I am actively looking for suitable work the prospect of living this way for a while is pretty good Ultimately each of us reaches a point where there’s nothing more coming in and it’s all going out, what goes up must come down
and I’ve got too much to say right now…
Ultimately each of us reaches a point where there’s nothing more coming in and it’s all going out, what goes up must come down 