Wednesday

After much phone calling, I’ve finally managed to sort out the tax issue relating to the Leeds house; the long & short of it is that we’ve already got exemptions from the tax deductions, its just that Caroles exemption is in her maiden name & this threw them. As it turns out, the guys at the tax department were really helpful & I had just encountered the institutional unpleasantness that the department as a whole seems to have, rather than the individual people who happen to work there.

I went to my 3rd Dutch course last night;, as the direct continuation to learn this damn language – there were some familiar faces, but not many, and the bulk of the class was made up of women*. I then had a shock to my system when Mirjiam (the teacher) went around the room & asked people what other languages they spoke – out of all the people there, I speak the least languages, no question about it. Even assuming that I speak German & English fluently (which I don’t, in either case), the person who spoke the least other languages was a Portuguese girl who only spoke Portuguese, English & French, whilst a substantial number of them spoke more than this. One girl who showed off said that she spoke English, German, French, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian & Spanish – which really set the tone of the class. Yes, I do feel rather intimidated.

Anyway, its month-end tomorrow, which should be a barrel of laughs; I expect tonight to be a late finish, because I’ll probably have a stack of journals to get uploaded. Still, as C is going to be back home for a whole 8 hours (arrive 11am, our of the house at 7am to go back to Eindhoven), I cant really complain.

S

*In the 25 – 27 age range, with a significant number of Swedes & Finns. Why do you ask?