I think we can safely say that we definitely be off to Lake Bled, as yesterday I transferred the balance of the rent due for the apartment. This didn't go without any hitches as depsite having done 2 previous international money transfers Santander decided to be annoying about it when I called them up to arrange it.
As normal when you call a bank they ask you a series of "security" questions, well according to the bank I got one or more of these wrong as apparently I might not know either my full name, the full name of my wife, whether we have a joint account, my birthdate (well I am getting older so I might have forgotten this one!!), home telephone number, a direct debit payment or the amount recently taken out of an ATM.
Despite speaking to a superviser there was "nothing they could do as I had answered one or more questions incorrectly". However, the did say that I could call back and try again but they could not do anything during that call.
Thought "stuff that" and went to plan B (no not the musician) and went to my local branch where the previous week they were unable to do the transfer as the code was apparently incorrect despite my saying that the start of the code was SI for Slovenia and not SL, S1 or SK which they had been trying. On this occasion, they managed to get it correct straight away (with a little assistance from me on the coding) and thus the money has been sent, which means we can now start our journey knowing that the apartment is fully paid for. YIPPEE!!
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Sunday 27 May 2012
Taking the car with us
The big headache at the moment is the difficulties we've encountered with deciding to take the car with us for our trip. A couple of months ago we spent several weekends trying to decide whether to take the Prius or swap it for another car with more space. The Prius is restricted in space as the boot has the battery in it, and we can't tow anything as the hybrid engine might overheat. After much research and test driving ........ we decided that financially it was better to keep the Prius and we know, although it is not that new, that it is reliable.
So, to increase the space we bought roof bars and a roof box - not the largest one, as the funny shape of the roof meant it was too big. We got Halfords to fit it as I wasn't sure we'd manage on our own!
Then I contacted the insurance people who said they would only cover abroad for a maximum of 90 days, after speaking to an insurance broker, it was clear we'd have to get Slovenian car insurance once we got there - that will be fun with our Slovenian!
Now I've started worrying about the car tax, which is due at the end of October. After a discussion with the DVLA, they suggested we get car tax now, and get a refund on the previous disc (not really worth it on £15). Also, the MOT runs out at the end of next April, so we won't be legal driving back into the country next May. So we'll have to sort out another MOT in June to last until next year! Plus, I've contacted the AA about european breakdown insurance which is expensive for the long trip we want to do, but at least we can put our British AA cover on hold while we are away.
Also, I've discovered there are all sorts of issues driving the car in europe - compulsory items that we have to carry such as breathylsers in France, first aid kit, warning triangle etc - so I've ordered a european travel kit from amazon. Plus, in certain countries you have to have a vignette before driving on the motorways. Switzerland is expensive, so we'll avoid going there. Austria and Slovenia you have to buy one as you cross into the country. France is just paying the tolls and Germany is free.
What a lot of hassle for taking our car abroad!
So, to increase the space we bought roof bars and a roof box - not the largest one, as the funny shape of the roof meant it was too big. We got Halfords to fit it as I wasn't sure we'd manage on our own!
Then I contacted the insurance people who said they would only cover abroad for a maximum of 90 days, after speaking to an insurance broker, it was clear we'd have to get Slovenian car insurance once we got there - that will be fun with our Slovenian!
Now I've started worrying about the car tax, which is due at the end of October. After a discussion with the DVLA, they suggested we get car tax now, and get a refund on the previous disc (not really worth it on £15). Also, the MOT runs out at the end of next April, so we won't be legal driving back into the country next May. So we'll have to sort out another MOT in June to last until next year! Plus, I've contacted the AA about european breakdown insurance which is expensive for the long trip we want to do, but at least we can put our British AA cover on hold while we are away.
Also, I've discovered there are all sorts of issues driving the car in europe - compulsory items that we have to carry such as breathylsers in France, first aid kit, warning triangle etc - so I've ordered a european travel kit from amazon. Plus, in certain countries you have to have a vignette before driving on the motorways. Switzerland is expensive, so we'll avoid going there. Austria and Slovenia you have to buy one as you cross into the country. France is just paying the tolls and Germany is free.
What a lot of hassle for taking our car abroad!
Sunday 20 May 2012
What to do with the house?
After we'd decided where to go and for how long, the next big issue was what to do with the house (& cat) while we were gone.
We got a couple of rental companies to come and visit and tell us the ins and outs of renting. The longer they stood (or sat) and patronized us and tried to sell us insurances etc, the more I disliked the idea. The man from Ashton & Burtonshaw was particularly irritating. By the end of the extremely long session I was ready to slap him, and even with Richard kicking me under the table I still didn't manage to be polite or refrain from making biting comments. It reminded me of all the times I had been insulted by rental companies when I had been the renter, with contracts that make you feel like a criminal for daring to want to live in their house. From an owner's position, I couldn't quite grasp why they felt the need to sell me extra insurance in case my tenants didn't pay the rent, when they were charging a hefty fee to vet those tenants in the first place. Surely, if they did their job properly the tenant would be loyally paying every month!
After finding out all the costs for renting - extra on the mortgage, extra on the house insurance, gas certificates, electricity safety certificates, moving all our furniture out and putting it in storage - and the hassle of sorting this all out when all I wanted to do was look forward to and plan for the trip, we did a budget plan for three scenarios. Firstly, renting with all the associated costs, secondly, leaving the house empty with the hazards this would entail, and thirdly, getting a housesitter.
The housesitter idea had come from the Gap year for Grown ups book, I'd never really heard of it before. I did some research on the net and found some good sites where potential housesitters advertise and owners get in touch. They also gave me lots of info about the whole process and a form to use for a contract. It sounded like a good idea. They stay in your house rent-free, but pay the bills for the utilities they use, look after the house, garden and pets! This could solve all our problems in one - looking after our house and garden, we could leave all our furniture etc and the cat wouldn't have to move to my mother's. With a mortgage break (which we had overpaid to secure), financially it didn't work out worse than renting, and potentially a lot less hassle.
So we set about advertising on the site Mindmyhouse.com, which has housesitters from around the world interested in all sorts of sits. We wanted preferably an older couple who could definitely commit to the whole 10 months, but could be a bit flexible if we needed to come home in a hurry! We had dozens of replies, from all sorts of people - retired people, those trying to save for a mortgage, writers, some from overseas travelling to see the world. We interviewed and picked a nice couple that we got on well with, and Ellie seemed to like. They had a lot of experience with difficult animals, especially cats. We checked their references and saw their CRB check. At a second meeting we signed the contract and agreed the cost of the bills, and a deposit. All sorted!
We got a couple of rental companies to come and visit and tell us the ins and outs of renting. The longer they stood (or sat) and patronized us and tried to sell us insurances etc, the more I disliked the idea. The man from Ashton & Burtonshaw was particularly irritating. By the end of the extremely long session I was ready to slap him, and even with Richard kicking me under the table I still didn't manage to be polite or refrain from making biting comments. It reminded me of all the times I had been insulted by rental companies when I had been the renter, with contracts that make you feel like a criminal for daring to want to live in their house. From an owner's position, I couldn't quite grasp why they felt the need to sell me extra insurance in case my tenants didn't pay the rent, when they were charging a hefty fee to vet those tenants in the first place. Surely, if they did their job properly the tenant would be loyally paying every month!
After finding out all the costs for renting - extra on the mortgage, extra on the house insurance, gas certificates, electricity safety certificates, moving all our furniture out and putting it in storage - and the hassle of sorting this all out when all I wanted to do was look forward to and plan for the trip, we did a budget plan for three scenarios. Firstly, renting with all the associated costs, secondly, leaving the house empty with the hazards this would entail, and thirdly, getting a housesitter.
The housesitter idea had come from the Gap year for Grown ups book, I'd never really heard of it before. I did some research on the net and found some good sites where potential housesitters advertise and owners get in touch. They also gave me lots of info about the whole process and a form to use for a contract. It sounded like a good idea. They stay in your house rent-free, but pay the bills for the utilities they use, look after the house, garden and pets! This could solve all our problems in one - looking after our house and garden, we could leave all our furniture etc and the cat wouldn't have to move to my mother's. With a mortgage break (which we had overpaid to secure), financially it didn't work out worse than renting, and potentially a lot less hassle.
So we set about advertising on the site Mindmyhouse.com, which has housesitters from around the world interested in all sorts of sits. We wanted preferably an older couple who could definitely commit to the whole 10 months, but could be a bit flexible if we needed to come home in a hurry! We had dozens of replies, from all sorts of people - retired people, those trying to save for a mortgage, writers, some from overseas travelling to see the world. We interviewed and picked a nice couple that we got on well with, and Ellie seemed to like. They had a lot of experience with difficult animals, especially cats. We checked their references and saw their CRB check. At a second meeting we signed the contract and agreed the cost of the bills, and a deposit. All sorted!
Saturday 19 May 2012
Learning Slovene 2 and sorting out the mortgage
Most people think of me as someone who only has an interest in sport,
alcohol and with a tremendous sense of humour! True as that might be, I am also
starting to learn a bit more Slovene and hope not make too much of a doughnut
of myself when we get out there to live and I try to speak the language.
Been going through colours, numbers and first words this week and the only ones I have difficulty remembering so far are the colours (except siva) and the word for bathroom. Whereas Gemma is doing OK with her numbers but her accent is more like a dubbed film that Slovenian, at the moment. Mine is generally a mix of Italian, German, French and Austrian.
But we are getting there.
As for the mortgage, we thought we had a good deal being 0.09% above the base rate on a tracker mortgage, which Gemma found, and most people would think that I would not pay much attention to this. However, I recently proved my worth as we decided to ask the building society if we could take a 10 month mortgage break and they came back to us and said no we could only take 6 months, as per our contract. They did not count on me being a pedantic so & so and I set about looking through the small print of the contract. On reading through it I thought I had found a loophole but when I called the Skipton the person did not seem to grasp what is was that I wanted and said he would send me out a budget form if we could not make the payments.
On receiving the form I was more convinced than ever that the person had got it wrong and so armed with all manner of bits of paper I called the Skipton again and spoke to a wonderful lady who was keen to help when I told her what we wanted to do. She said she would need to clarify everything and would call me back. Thought I would have to wait for a while so I decided to do some ironing. Just then the telephone rang and it was the lady from the Skipton saying that as our original mortgage was with the Chesham Building Society it meant that we could take the 6 months payment break as well as 4 months paying 50% of the mortgage. Oh happy days. Who knows what I would have said and/or done to the lady if she were there in person.
Moral of the story is find an extraordinary mortgage to start with and then if you want to query something get the "cluesless" person to check things out.
Been going through colours, numbers and first words this week and the only ones I have difficulty remembering so far are the colours (except siva) and the word for bathroom. Whereas Gemma is doing OK with her numbers but her accent is more like a dubbed film that Slovenian, at the moment. Mine is generally a mix of Italian, German, French and Austrian.
But we are getting there.
As for the mortgage, we thought we had a good deal being 0.09% above the base rate on a tracker mortgage, which Gemma found, and most people would think that I would not pay much attention to this. However, I recently proved my worth as we decided to ask the building society if we could take a 10 month mortgage break and they came back to us and said no we could only take 6 months, as per our contract. They did not count on me being a pedantic so & so and I set about looking through the small print of the contract. On reading through it I thought I had found a loophole but when I called the Skipton the person did not seem to grasp what is was that I wanted and said he would send me out a budget form if we could not make the payments.
On receiving the form I was more convinced than ever that the person had got it wrong and so armed with all manner of bits of paper I called the Skipton again and spoke to a wonderful lady who was keen to help when I told her what we wanted to do. She said she would need to clarify everything and would call me back. Thought I would have to wait for a while so I decided to do some ironing. Just then the telephone rang and it was the lady from the Skipton saying that as our original mortgage was with the Chesham Building Society it meant that we could take the 6 months payment break as well as 4 months paying 50% of the mortgage. Oh happy days. Who knows what I would have said and/or done to the lady if she were there in person.
Moral of the story is find an extraordinary mortgage to start with and then if you want to query something get the "cluesless" person to check things out.
Sunday 13 May 2012
Learning Slovene
Slovene is meant to be a very hard language to learn and so we asked the person who we arranged the accommodation through if they could also provide us with some basic lessons when we arrived in Slovenia. They said yes and we will take a few lessons in Ljubljana in the first couple of weeks.
We already know how to say hello, thank you, 2 beers please, ask for the bill and no mushrooms on the pizza please, but a bit more wouldn't go amiss if we are going to spend 10 months there. We then found a great website (Eurotalk.com) which provided us with a cd where we can play games and learn quite a few words and phrases before we get there.
So the last week we have been learning Slovene each night and it has been quite a bit of fun so far. Officer Crabtree from 'Allo 'Allo has nothing on us but then we still have a few weeks to practice.
Back to the cd now for me for my next lesson!
We already know how to say hello, thank you, 2 beers please, ask for the bill and no mushrooms on the pizza please, but a bit more wouldn't go amiss if we are going to spend 10 months there. We then found a great website (Eurotalk.com) which provided us with a cd where we can play games and learn quite a few words and phrases before we get there.
So the last week we have been learning Slovene each night and it has been quite a bit of fun so far. Officer Crabtree from 'Allo 'Allo has nothing on us but then we still have a few weeks to practice.
Back to the cd now for me for my next lesson!
What to do next
Once the decision had been made about "where" to go, the difficulties were then about "how long" and "when" to go. And there arose a million questions that no-one seemed to have the answers to. I searched the internet and bought a book on gap years but most of it seemed aimed at the 'volunteering in the third world' market. There was very little on wanting to live abroad for a while, but without working. I found a slovenian website run by a english-slovenian couple that looked like it could help with accommodation, and contacted them in January about likely availability of rented homes in Bled and the cost. Without this, I couldn't work out how long our savings would last.
They came back to us that the amount we'd suggested for monthly rental should be a possibility so my first list of costs was made and I worked out we should be able to manage to stay 10 months, if we were careful. This would allow us to do some travelling during the autumn and spring and spend the winter in Bled enjoying the snow!
When to go was then the next big question. I suggested the middle of august to allow Richard to see the Olympics and for me to finish the training for this year's pre-regs and to see the new lot in and organized before I left. This was agreed for a few weeks, then Richard suggested that we would miss most of the summer in Bled going so late, and would have to leave before the next summer. We both agreed this would be a shame if we missed out on the nice weather and didn't have a relaxing break before starting all the autumn travelling. So we agreed on end of June/beginning of July, and we could stay until the beginning of May 2013!
With the dates set the list of things to organize only got bigger!
They came back to us that the amount we'd suggested for monthly rental should be a possibility so my first list of costs was made and I worked out we should be able to manage to stay 10 months, if we were careful. This would allow us to do some travelling during the autumn and spring and spend the winter in Bled enjoying the snow!
When to go was then the next big question. I suggested the middle of august to allow Richard to see the Olympics and for me to finish the training for this year's pre-regs and to see the new lot in and organized before I left. This was agreed for a few weeks, then Richard suggested that we would miss most of the summer in Bled going so late, and would have to leave before the next summer. We both agreed this would be a shame if we missed out on the nice weather and didn't have a relaxing break before starting all the autumn travelling. So we agreed on end of June/beginning of July, and we could stay until the beginning of May 2013!
With the dates set the list of things to organize only got bigger!
How it all started
After a couple of years at work feeling like I'd lost my enthusiasm and having reached 40, I felt I needed to do something different with my life. I'd been thinking for a long time about alternatives and considered changing jobs or careers, but in the end someone (I can't remember who) suggested some time off, such as a gap year. Some friends of ours had done something similar a couple of years ago and they'd travelled to Sri Lanka, China and other places doing volunteer work. And although these ideas seemed exciting and exotic, I knew that I have a tendency to get homesick when I'm away and I'd be miserable moving about from place to place for too long. I thought it would be nicer to have a permenant base and then do some travelling from there. Have a place to call "home" and somewhere to come back to.
Having older parents that could need me at short-notice and being reluctant to give up on the niceties of life (I'm too old for hostels and backpacking!), we thought Europe would suit us best. My husband suggested Slovenia! We'd had a lovely holiday there in June 2007, and thought Lake Bled was charming and the country unspoiled. After considering it, I thought it sounded like a great idea to settle there for a bit. It is central enough to be able to travel by train to lots of beautiful places - Venice, Vienna, Budapest. Close enough to get home if needed and for friends and family to visit (about 2 hours from Stansted to Ljubjana airport), and although often it seems to be called eastern europe it is more like western europe in it's infrastructure. Good roads and public transport, wide range of shops and a lot of the people speak english (in case I struggle with the pronounciation of the slovenian words!). It is in the EU so no problems with how long we stay, with the added benefit of we could try and get some work if our language skills allow. All in all it seemed like a sensible choice, whilst being a place we knew we liked and everything we might need.
Lake bled in 2007
The beauty of Lake Bled when we visited in 2007. This is what made us think of it when we needed somewhere to go for a proper break.
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