The hundred and fortyfirst week of the pandemic

We had yet another extremely busy and stressful week, but what is new? One hassle was a debate with HMRC about my tax returns in the UK. For several years now all my returns were 0 rated, ie: they came up with nothing to pay. I couldn't be bothered to correspond with them about this, but this year I came across a questionnaire on the HMRC website, where if you answered all your questions they would tell you if you need to submit a tax return. I duly filled it in, and not surprisingly it advised me not to bother. Still, I had to notify them that I won't do it, and that was when the fun started. I won't bore you with the details, but I have unilaterally decided not to bother, and they can come after me and chase me, if that is not correct. To be honest, I know that HMRC, along with large numbers of government departments in the UK, are in a state of conplete chaos and near complete breakdown, so I don't expect too much hassle from them in future. However, because of this chaos, I won't be surprised if the computer starts chasing me, expecting me to do a return ad inifitum, but I'll treat that with the contempt it deserves, and that is that.

The best amount of tax to owe

Last Thursday is dead empty in my diary, and to be honest, going back a full 6 days, my memory is a total blank, so we'll move onto Friday. That became the climax of my main anxiety of the last few weeks, namely the cruise insurance. It turned out that for it to be valid, we needed to have a UK doctor. I doubt if we are still on the list of Dr. Chang, so that was a no-no. I had to cancel, but I was a full week late with that, so it looked as if we were saying good bye to over £500. Thankfully, Holiday Extra was particularly decent and agreed to cancel and reimburse the purchase price. Phewwww, I was a happy bunny.

Insurance thank goodness cancelled

It was expensive, so I was glad to cancel

 

Mind you, I then had to start looking for something different, some insurance company that offers a decent level of cover for a reasonable price and you can have a not neccessarily UK base. You will not believe it, but I found one. It is called globelink.eu and I can recommend them unreservedly. The price is reasonable, the cover pretty good and the admin really streamlined. They are based in Cyprus, but so far I have only talked to women in the UK, clear, honest and very friendly. I finally purchased the insurance today, £150 cheaper than the other outfit and as good, if not better, cover, with very flexible attitudes all round.

New insurance, much better

Confirmation of payment

In the meantime, Stephen finally got on with his Hungarian citizenship application, or to be more precise, with the collection of the documents necessary to make the application. Poor sod, he is really lumbered with having to get 2 marriage and 2 divorce certificates, as well as the usual birth and other ones. I offered to help, so I provided Roy's birth certificate and our marriage certificate, and as the forms have to be filled out in Hungarian, I got on with those. I have so far done 6 out of the 9 required, so hopefully he should be ready to book an appointment soon.

I really like East New York

I was also catching up with my US serials, which got a bit neglected of late. Then on Sunday we departed for BP, as Roy's citizenship oath ceremony was looming which rather stressed out both of us. Roy is a complete language illiterate, couldn't learn more than a few words with no grammar during the last 16+ years. I was hoping that the 7th district being rather lefty, it should be OK, and it was. While all Fidesz ruled districts go heavy on the Great Hungarian chauvinist crap, this ceremony was really lovely. 

The main cast of Fire Country

There were about 20 people taking the oatch, as well as a few friends and relatives sitting in the visitors' bit. The Deputy Mayor made a lovely speech about inclusivity and how welcome people from other lands and cultures were, which was very nice. Roy's pitiful knowledge of Hungarian got lost amongst the murmur of the oath. He was called out last, was handed his certificate and we moved on to celebrate in our favourite pub on the Körút. Once we got home, we also downed a large glass of port (me) and an equally large glass of pálinka (Roy). Now the last job to be done is to get a passport for him, which I set about organising yesterday.

Roy's citizenship certificate

Needless to say, that the earliest appointment for this in the 7th district of BP was on 10th January 2023, so I switched our operations to Pásztó, and we are off to apply for his passport tomorrow morning at 11am. I hope our lovely ladies, who were so nice and efficient last year about all our administrative troubles, will do their best again.

The celebratory port and pálinka

Today it poured with rain all day, so we didn't go anywere, which of course, caused Roy some distress. He loves eating out, but I decided to stay put and he didn't want to go without me. Instead, we did a bit celebratory dinner with a tiger prawn stir fry, with a bottle of champagne between us. I am rather tipsy, but I am still awake. Not Roy, he has been sleeping like a baby for about an hour now, and I should think he'll carry on for a while yet.

And finally, what we aim for now

Tomorrow we go straight to Pásztó, deal with the passport application, then shop for food at SPAR and go home. These few days in town were a bit full of stuff, but we go home with a sense of achievement. We have done the oath ceremony, we have found a good insurance company for the cruise and now we can spend at least a couple of weeks in Bér. Next post in about a week, all being well.