Bluefish Way
The life of Ralph, Natascha and our cats
345: Doesn’t Time Fly ?
~Data Protection Is Really Data Collection~
To the day it has been a year that Natascha and I (plus 3 cats) have lived together in Graz, Austria. We have been through a lot; moving home, overcoming the official stupidity of paperwork when getting married and closing my Spanish bank account. Finally, time to relax, but NO ! Oh no, a UK government letter recently arrived asking me to contact a UK insurance company. What ? On phoning the company it seems I had a pension plan, not with them, but another insurance company whom they had taken over.
Then the stupidity began.
Security questions galore for MY protection. “Where were you living in 1989 ?” Heck, that was 10 house moves ago ! “Send us all your addresses from 1989 to today” WHAT ?
I must have spoken to her 3 or 4 times on the phone, sent a letter and a dozen emails. We were becoming friends ! But the same stupid security questions every time AND pushing for me to put my pension plan into something better. I wanted to cash it in.
For days the same security questions and pushiness, plus getting more information about me. I stuck to my guns to cash the plan in.
Eventually she sent me a form to cash the pension plan. She wanted my Austrian bank account details and told me that I would have to pay the UK tax on the amount.
I expected the money to be sent electronically, bank to bank, which would take about 3 working days max. But no, a week later I received a UK cheque AND the company had deducted about 20% UK tax. We immediately presented the cheque to my Austrian bank and off it went into the roller coaster of whatever banks do with cheques. A month has passed, no sign of the money in my account. At least another 2 weeks we were told.
As soon as the money is in my account I will be writing a Ralphie email and a half to that insurance company. Why ask for my bank details when sending a cheque and why say one thing and do another with the tax ? But, hey, doesn’t time fly when faced with such bureaucrazy ?
~I Would Never Do This~
I love Natascha to bits and would never do what this boyfriend did when his girlfriend caught the bouquet (which means that she will be next to be married).
~I Wonder What The Cats Are Doing ?~
Cats ! Who’d have them ?
Has This Year Flown By For You ?
Ralph xox ❤
Cat photos taken by Natascha. This is the link to her blog.
344: On The Street Where I Live
~Our Street~
This drone footage view is almost exactly the same as the apartment complex and gardens where we live.
I never thought that I would ever live in a city as lovely as this.
~Samantha On Watch~
Our cats love it on the window ledge watching what’s going on in the street, safely behind netting which Natascha puts up daily when it’s warm.
~A Royal Visitor~
The other evening the Queen of England was outside.
Have you talked like the Queen ? It’s easy. Don’t say “I” and “My”, say “One or We” and “Our”. Try this with one’s nose in the air. “One hiz hoff to the store to purchase Our Royal Jelly for One’s compexion. One never carries money, so hoff you go underling”. *emphasise with back-handed wave*
I hope you don’t have a royal bust-up with your family or friends, exclaiming, “Who do you think you are, the Queen of England ?”. Blame me !
~A Little Bit Of History~
On a serious note. Dotted around Graz, Austria, and other towns and cities, there are brass plaques in the pavements (sidewalks), memorials of people snatched from their homes by the Nazis, never to be seen again. This one is just across the street.
Sadly, this may happen again in Europe. Nationalism is rising against the drug dealing, rapist, knife wielding and abusive migrant gangs openly ruining traditional cultures (including their own). People have had enough.
~Crash !~
It was a quiet day, when ….
In a flash, Samantha was gone !
Samantha had moved so fast that her shadows, shocked, never moved.
So what happened ? We think that the wind slammed the window (red arrow) taking out the whole pane of glass which fell onto the sidewalk (pavement). Luckily the Queen was not under it at the time or there would have been an International Incident !
Do you have a story about your street ?
Ralph xox ❤
Natascha took all these post photographs.
343: Sun Drenched China Cat
~Our Names (Except China Cat) Are On The Way To The Sun~
Yes, our names (with 1.1 million others) are on a chip aboard the Parker Solar Probe.
On the second try, the launch was successful.
First way-point around Venus, then our names are off to the sun on the Probe’s 7 year voyage. A bit of fun, eh ?
Full story of names on the Probe HERE
~China Cat Wants To Be A Real Cat~
China Cat has had enough of keeping a door open and, like Pinocchio, wants to be real.
Murli has volunteered to take her place while China Cat tries out doing what real cats do.
And, so China Cat went back to keeping the door open. Happily realising that her dream of becoming a real cat was really a nightmare. She now knows that being the awesome, original China Cat she is cannot be improved on and that she is special by holding the door open.
Are you Special ?
You are. I know it !
Ralph xox ❤
Cat photos were taken by Natascha
342: Years
~6 Years With WordPress~
Yes, 6 years ! Thank you for being my friend. 342 posts ! I wrote some drivel, didn’t I ? 29,037 comments. What did we talk about ? 137,709 spam stopped. Shame really, as I would now have 10 suitcases of Viagra, my laptop would be perfected by those Delhi Bellies and $10 billion in my bank from those generous Nigerians ! Anyway fellow blogger, you may have to put up with me a little longer.
~Memories Of Spain~
~Pets Loved And Lost~
~Cats Are Funny, Aren’t They ?~
~Ralph’s Fashions~
~Goodbye Spain~
~Hello Austria~
~And Now~
What’s next ?
Are Your Years Worth Remembering ?
I hope so.
Ralph xox ❤
All these photographs are mine, some digital and some before digital, when cameras were hewn from rock, lenses made from ice and lightning provided the flash.
340: Bank On My Cats
~What A Load Of Bankers !~
Oh boy ! The craziness of my Spanish bank is endless ! Over the last nine months I have been passed around four different Customer Service branch women and probably two Complaints Department women. I have had more bank women in nine months than girlfriends over my entire life !
I will repeat what I wrote a few weeks ago just to refresh our memories.
“Oh yes, my Spanish bank has also entered the realms of stupidity. I have been emailing my Solbank since 2002 with no problems until I arrived in Austria in September 2017. I could do nothing in Spain as I did not have an Austrian address for them to send me correspondence. Once settled, I emailed my new address, sent proof of residency and asked for statements to be sent to me. After many requests and many replies I was told that they do not take instructions by email. Nothing from them for months until I received a Solbank letter. Yay ! A statement ? No ! Just a letter telling me that they are charging me €30 for being overdrawn. For heavens sake, they refused to send me statements, but had the audacity to send me that ! Natascha and I immediately topped up the account and I really laid into the bank and asked for paperwork to be sent to me to close my account. I have still heard nothing and they are still taking money from my account, I assume.”
~My Spanish Bank Is Trying To Kill Me~
The story continues.
I received two more letters. One was pages of charges and fees for 2018 and the other praised the wonders of GDPR. None of which helped me. A statement would have been nice.
Totally fed up, I wrote an email, a long email to Solbank complaints department. Within hours I got a reply. “Sorry, we don’t act on emails without an electronic signature” What !!! Ms Daydreamer then went back to filing her nails.
Both Natascha and I couldn’t believe how crazy things were becoming. Anyway, something amazing happened the following afternoon. We got a phone call from the bank instructing me to write a letter with both my Spanish and Austrian bank details and that I want to close my account. Natascha is brilliant at typing and soon knocked up the letter which I signed and Natascha mailed it the following morning.
About a week later I got an email from the bank saying that my signature did not match the signature I made when opening the account in 2002. Send a Certified copy of my passport. I used to have a lovely signature in 2002, but my shaking hands changed it to something like this.
I had signed countless pieces of paper and on the electronic signing machine at the bank. Not one signature was the same over the last few years. It seems that no one had checked my recent signatures, flagged my medical problem, or updated the database. AND what the heck has a certified passport got to do with anything. I told her that and she replied with
“Dear Mr.Whillier, I am sorry but in that case you can transfer your balance online or give a power of attorney to another person to close your account and transfering your money if you are not going to come back to Spain anymore . We can not accept a signed request with a signature we don´t have registered for security reasons . Yours sincerely”
They are beginning to make things up. They know I do not have an online bank with them and also I would need to be in Spain to activate a power of attorney. Both Natascha and I could not believe what was going on. Anyway, before I told them to stick the whole thing up their ATM sideways, Natascha made me see sense and we went to an Austrian Notary. He was very quick to certify my passport and I asked him to verify my wonky signature. I did that because I had a feeling that my signature would be next on the bank’s bucket list. Thank heavens that worked ! 3 days ago I got an email
“Dear Mr.Whillier, My colleague is dealing with it. I will let you know when the account is closed. Yours sincerely”
I have heard nothing since from her colleague. Probably going to ask me to certify my cats. Well, they need certifying, as you can see in the next item.
~MUSCAT~
My cats are in the kichen. Up to something I expect.
Who Wants My Spanish Bank Account ?
It’s fun. One insane, certified, stressed out, careful owner. Ignore the fact that the account will never close and you will get no statements. Blind banking ! What a fun gift to give to your local politician or law maker.
Ralph xox ❤
Natascha photographed the cats and made the video.
339: Flatpack Fantastic
~Thank You Nancy~
Yes, thank you so much dear Nancy for your lovely card.
But what happened ? Why did it take six weeks to get from the USA to Austria ? Any ideas ? The wackier the idea the better. I think that it went to the White House, played cards, Bridge actually, and got trumped.
What a lovely card from you my friend. Thank you.
~You Don’t Ring My Bell Anymore~
Sometimes I read this Austrian newspaper…..
…..translate it into English …..
……and, boy, does it come up with hilarious results.
Oh no, poor handlebars ! Must have really damaged their ting-a-ling. No more “ringing my bell” I suspect.
~Flatpack Fantastic~
As you can see, I have had my laptop on a drinks trolley since arriving in the apartment in Graz and because Natascha wanted to be near me with her computer, not on the other side of the room, we had to do something about it.
So, we ordered two desks which eventually arrived as flatpacks in cardboard boxes.
No need to unpack and assemble the desks as the unboxed packaging on the drinks trolley works really well.
But, at the end of the day we had to do it properly. Initially, having no experience, Natascha wanted to knock the big bits together, but I said no. It took us four hours to build the first desk. I read the instructions and Natascha screwed the dozens of “what’s this” into the “where’s that”.
The first desk came together beautifully. The second desk, Natascha prepared all the boards while I was having a siesta. When I woke up, I helped her to assemble the big pieces into the shape of a desk. And it worked !
And it only took Natascha an hour !
The final result ! And we can now blog together !
~Catatonic~
Let’s see what the cats are doing on the balcony.
Does Assembling A Flatpack Scramble Your Brain ?
Ralph xox ❤
Natascha took the photographs in this post.
338: The World Of Stupidity
~Blog Problems~
Before my main post you may be experiencing these two blog issues.
1. SPAM FOLLOWERS
You may be finding lots of Outlook followers, ie. idiotspammer@outlook dot Com following your blog. To remove them from your Email Followers …. click on My Site on the WP black bar/People/Email Followers/Remove. (I suggest you also put them in spam if they are in your Inbox).
2. I CANNOT LIKE YOUR POSTS
My avatar refuses to lock on your post Like. I click Like, my avatar shows up, but if I go away and return my avatar has gone. If you have the same problem, add your complaint to this WP Forum thread.
~Politically Correct Incorrect~
Yes ! We are living in a world of stupidity. Snowflakes are taking over our words, thoughts and the way we wish to express ourselves and lawmakers are legalising this stupidity. What happened to COMMON SENSE ? Watch this !!
Another example is a snowflake complaining about a male only, “DANGER ! Men at work !” sign. WHAT ?? I think it should say, “DANGER ! Pantomime Dames at work !”. I reckon that should solve her problem.
This is becoming the new norm !
Kindergarden children in the UK are being forced to listen to transgender men promoting their “sexuality”. WHAT ?? Stupidity confusing and probably scaring kids with pantomime dames in school ?
I laugh at these “men”, as I have every right to do so, because when I was a kid, twice I was put in situations by men and was once threatened with a shotgun if I told anyone. I was seven ! So recently I laughed at a man in high heels who kicked at pigeons, the gold stiletto flew off his foot and he had to hobble through the pigeon poop to retrieve it. Have you seen a man trying to walk in high heels ? One bare foot and one stiletto is even better ! God, it was funny !
Kiddies books are being attacked by snowflakes. Poor Mr Men is taking a bashing. More male stories than female. Where is the transgender ?
Men should be called, “People with budgies in their Speedos” and women should be called, “People with two bumps in their T-shirts ranging from table tennis balls to footballs”. Heck, I am becoming a snowflake !
You know how wide ranging this has become. Politicians are a prime example of stupidity and selfishness. Luckily for me, there is a new government in Austria which is using common sense at last. But enough, except for one more example of stupidity which is still affecting me.
~My Spanish Bank~
Oh yes, my Spanish bank has also entered the realms of stupidity. I have been emailing my Solbank since 2002 with no problems until I arrived in Austria in September 2017. I could do nothing in Spain as I did not have an Austrian address for them to send me correspondence. Once settled, I emailed my new address, sent proof of residency and asked for statements to be sent to me. After many requests and many replies I was told that they do not take instructions by email. Nothing from them for months until I received a Solbank letter. Yay ! A statement ? No ! Just a letter telling me that they are charging me €30 for being overdrawn. For heavens sake, they refused to send me statements, but had the audacity to send me that ! Natascha and I immediately topped up the account and I really laid into the bank and asked for paperwork to be sent to me to close my account. I have still heard nothing and they are still taking money from my account, I assume.
~What Do You Think Of That Murli ?~
The main thing that cheeses me off is that their stupidity is being rammed down my throat. I am not a sheep. I am a shepherd !
Has Stupidity Reached Your Corner Of The World Yet ?
Ralph xox ❤
337: The Great Graz Marriage Rip Off
~What’s The Point ?~
We were ripped off !
I lived in Spain, met Natascha through our WordPress blogs and decided to get married. For medical reasons we agreed that the best option was for me to move to Graz which was quite a traumatic experience and expensive (€8000). Still, I made it to Graz and we have been together here since September 2017.
As Natascha was single, Austrian and lived locally in Graz she could have got married in the Graz Registrar immediately, but what we didn’t know was that there was a crazy local law which our lovely lady Registrar had to abide by. Because I was previously married and divorced in the last century, three documents of mine had to be legally scrutinised. Most of the rest of Austria couldn’t care less, just the word from the British Embassy in Vienna was enough for marriages of divorced people to go ahead in Registrar offices.
The last few months was hellishly emotional and expensive. It was all about the paperwork, nothing about humanity. I was told that it did not matter that the British government knew that I was single as I have been receiving a single person’s old age pension for a number of years and because of this stupid money grabbing law we have lost months of increased married pension. None of these offices and agencies had anything to worry about if I was secretly married to a dolphin trainer in the Gobi Desert in Tibet, as the only one who would be in trouble would be me. I knew that the documents were genuine from day one as they have been in my briefcase for decades. So what was the point of ripping us off for the tune of €820.37 inc. postage (similar amount in US dollars and UK Sterling). That money could have been used to buy Natascha a new laptop as her old tower computer is on its last legs. So we will have to wait.
It makes you wonder how many couples have pulled out from getting married in the Graz Registrar because of the excessive expense caused by this law. Luckily there is an Austrian Legal Ombudsman to whom I will link this post and I will also send this post to the UK newspapers. I hope that one day soon this law will be scrapped.
What follows is a breakdown of what happened and what we had to pay.
~Flow Chart~
(This flow chart was created using draw.io (the link has been removed as the extension contains malware. Google Chrome has been informed) found on Google Apps.)
Oooops !. These 2 gifs didn’t work when I exported the flow chart as a PNG image. But you get the idea. Yes ?
I hope my adding up is correct. Some fees were paid in UK Pound Sterling. I used the exchange rate of 1 UK Pound = 1.14 Euros.
Is Your Wallet Mind Exhausted As Ours ?
Ralph xox ❤
336: Revenge Of China Cat +Plus+ Wedding Cards And Presents
~The Revenge Of China Cat~
While drafting my last post of my wedding to Natascha I missed adding someone to our family. Kate so kindly reminded me.
Oooops ! I’m in BIG trouble now !
I’m so sorry China Cat. You are our family door STEP Cat and you are now known as >>>
China Cat “doorstop” Whillier
~Wedding Presents And Cards~
Both Natascha and I would like to thank everyone who Liked and made such wonderful Comments (200 approx. Whew !) in my wedding post, plus, thank you to >>>
~All My Friends In Spain~
Your emails were lovely. Thank you !
~Al~
Talking of emails, Al sent us this lovely poem >>>
“Hi Ralph and Natascha! I just wanted to say again how happy I am that all turned out well for you, in spite of all the roadblocks you encountered. You look like a very happy couple and I wish you much love and happiness in the coming years. I didn’t get a chance to send you anything, but I thought maybe a little poem would help convey my sincere best wishes to you both. It has been a pleasure blogging with both of you. Here it is:
Natascha and Ralph were in love, and fit like a hand in a glove
The quest was then started, to be married, not parted
In the ceremony required thereof.
With so much at stake, they were required to partake
Filling out so many forms, which came at them in swarms
That they hardly had time for a break.
With red tape galore, much angst was in store
For quite soon they found, that mistakes would abound
But they always kept up “esprit de corps.”
After much tribulation, there was cause for elation
For approval arrived, and their spirits revived
Henceforth, it would be all celebration.
City Hall now awaited, as their marriage was slated
And it happened were glad, to this sweet lass and lad
And thus, here’s this rhyme, though belated!
Awesome ! Thanks Al !
~Amanda~
Thank you so much Amanda for the lovely electronic candles. So realistic !
Of course, Samantha found a use for the box the electronic candles came in.
~David & Hilda~
Thank you so much for your lovely card dear friends in Spain.
~Debby~
Your e-card made our day. Thank you.
~Einar & Jenny~
Thanks for your wonderful thought my friends in Spain.
~Jim & Louise~
A very special hand painted 3D fold out card by Jim, of where you live in Spain. A card to treasure. Thank you so much !
~Natascha’s Dad~
A Lovely card Dad ! Thank you so much for the card and the awesome gift.
~Ralph to Natascha~
Love you to bits ! xx
~Ute~
Thank you so much for the lovely card dear friend and ….
… thank you for the beautifully packed special mugs dear Ute.
Oh, and Murli loves the box !
That is everyone. If I have missed you, please tell me in comments.
Are You Happy For China Cat ?
Ralph xox ❤
Photographs taken by Natascha.
No awards, no challenges, no tagging etc.. Please don’t nominate my blog as I’m lazy
Sonic practicing his Riverdance.
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Natascha’s Blog
EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Bluefish Way, is a WordPress Com, personal, public blog using normal blogging practice. For heaven’s sake I write drivel. You Like it and I Like you back. You say how wonderful it is in comments and I reply with thank yous and kisses. We then follow each other in a non- stalking sort of way. Well I don’t, but I am not sure about some of you. Data is on the Enterprise. IT’S A FLIPPIN’ BLOG !
Read more about the EU GDPR here
341: Happy
Posted on 14/07/2018 by Ralph
72 Comments
~Happy~
Good news ! My Spanish bank account is closed, I mean CLOSED, kaput, no more !!! Happy, happy ! Yay ! *faint*
~id~
I think WP Staff may have solved the problem of your comments automatically going into trash in my last post. It seems that my Dashboard/Settings/Discussion/Comment Blacklist was the problem. The Blacklist was full of spam IPs and the word “id”. What I didn’t know was that any word in comments containing those two letters would end up in trash. I cleared the list and let us see if your comments arrive normally. So who wrote, ” Sid piddled mid bridge in Bridgewater” ? Own up !
~Murli Alpine Training~
Murli, Natascha’s cat (now my cat as well), is an Austrian cat and loves to practice mountaineering. She is also working on her yodelling purr.
~Ralph and Samantha~
Here we are in the window watching Natascha going off on her bike on her daily run to the pharmacy.
Are You Happy ?
I hope so !
Ralph xox ❤
Natascha took all these photographs.
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