Thinking about the Czech Republic
This morning the Travelling Broad is suffering the first twitches of restlessness... travel is in her blood and she hasn't been anywhere in over a month. Well, anywhere exotic... like the Czech Republic. She has always wanted to visit Prague - deemed one of the most beautiful cities in Europe - as her mother's mother hails from the area, but she hasn't made it over in her two years abroad, as there was no one for her to visit (and stay with) there.
Well, my friend Jeremy, whom many of you will remember from my cycling adventures in the Pyrenees, just bought a house in the Czech Republic!
It's a bit of a fixer-upper, structurally sound though, which is always a good thing, right Dad (*wink*) and it has a stunning view. You can bet your bottom farthing that I'll be heading over, hammer and screwdriver in my stow-away, before the year's end.
Jeremy used to live in Pau in the south of France (close to Lourdes) until one incident finally exasperated all his patience with the French beaurocy, and he decided he wouldn't buy his Pau house after all.
Here's his story:
July 12th 2006: On a recent trip to Lithuania Jeremy lost his 'carte vitale' (the green card which enables you to get 70% of your medical bills paid for by the French government). This morning he went to the social services to get a new one. The receptionist was friendly and it seemed it wouldn't be a problem until... she told him he was dead. 'Dead?' 'Yes, dead. You died on the 24th of January 2005.' As a result, his card was then blocked. Jeremy explained that he wasn't dead, which she admitted was true and called someone else to ask what to do. Apparently Jeremy needs to get a new birth certificate, dated after the 24th of January 2005, to prove that he is not dead. And if he can get that, it will still take another 3 months for him to get another carte vitale. The only thing that is certain in life is death and taxes. Jeremy is in the strange position of having died, yet still paying tax.
Quel est cette merde ?
posted by Lightfooted @ 6:21 a.m.
3 comments
3 Comments:
Prague!!! I'm a little jealous....
Hi Becky, Hi Brian!
Great to see you here - welcome! I'll certainly heed Brian's advice and start looking into a holiday visa for the Czech Republic. Thanks
And I know it won't be long before you two are travelling. It's something you both have always wanted so it'll happen, for sure.
In the words of a once-general from some book called Hocus Pocus, 'I had to laugh like hell'.
French bureaucracy - why not, they essentially invented it - is by all accounts some of the most perambulatory and perverse stuff you're likely (if ever you pass through) to run into. All of which is certainly not to say that there isn't worse out there (a certain former French protectorate comes to mind), but that I feel the poor guy's pain!
There's another quote that made quite a headline in the US by Mark Twain (or Samuel Clemens) - 'rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated' - too bad it's not quite official enough.
And as for Prague - I'd definitely take a trip out there! Milo still raves about it, though the business environment apparently leaves something to be desired...
Anyhow, I'm on a random tear, so I'll cut out now :-)
PS - tried to post this three days ago, but the service cut out half-way through...
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