Figures from UK

 

Why do people want to go to the UK to work the place is falling apart and why should i be bothered.

14.6% of people working for the NHS are from countries other than the UK.

There are so many HGV drivers short presently more than 100,000 drivers short. Shops short of food, petrol stations closing because of lack of drivers to deliver petrol. 

Today a company closed who supplied most supermarkets with food. The largest company who grows peppers and tomatoes can't find workers to pick the crops. 

There are Glass companies who have a rota system in place to try to supply there customers.

The latest to warn of stock shortages are Nike and Costco Christmas doesn't look to be good this year. People who have money will stock up now and those with little spare money will be left behind.

On a temporary basic Boris is wanting a 5,000 visas for drivers to help out. But 5,000 drivers aren't enough.

The government set a figure that to move and work in the UK you need to earn app £30,000.

If Boris hadn't driven round in a bus before the Referendum with the Lie of how much will be returned to the UK from the EU would these problems exist now?

But it was the fool in the street who wanted " There country back " after what is happening in the UK how many would put there hands up and say yes I voted to leave the EU.

The ruin at last is mine

But here are some pictures of my ruin and the valley beyond. I hope my Mum is looking down because she paid a lot of the cost from what was left in her will. Thanks Mum.

This is the ruin looking down from my veranda. All the wood from the roof and the floors was recently remove and now i can see what i have.

Here we are looking down on the olive grove and the valley beyond. In the picture you can see a grape vine climbing up a near Olive tree.

This picture is where my chickens lived until they went on holiday with Tony. I thought i was getting my old back trouble Sciatica but now thankfully i am again pain free.

Here is the Olive grove OK Olive grove may be a little exaggerated. Olive grove is my name for where the olives live.

 

This is part of the valley i live in with the view over the ruin. This is what i wake up to every day how peaceful. 

Good news Coja market is open this Saturday

 I have just had confirmation that the coming Saturday the market at Coja is back on again this Saturday.

Masks are not now  compulsory any more but i hope people who i see are going to be careful and be responsible.  

But i must admit this news today is good news. For me i have to do some stock ordering not for this market but the one after.

Bang goes my computer

 The electrical company sent a text about the coming storm advising that all there equipment was switched off. As i walked over to my computer i heard a noise and i didn't know what it was till the next day.

The next day the storm was gone i had now water problem so all was OK with my world. That is until i switched on my 32in monitor and computer. nothing happened computer dead.

I was soon offered a machine for a good price but i had to wait a week to take delivery. A neighbour soon came round with a machine to use till i get my replacement machine great. This machine uses windoooooz where i use the safer Ubuntu Linux. After taking my hard drive from my machine i found it worked perfectly in it's new home for a week.

Tomorrow i get my new machine and will first remove the hard drive and then replacement  with my own.

So after that storm i am now back sitting happy.

We had a storm

 About the 1st or 2nd September we had a storm. A storm like i have never seen but i was lucky.

I had an area behind my front wall where water was pooling and i needed to drill a hole for the water to drain away. I had lent my huge industrial drill  to a friend who was having work done to her house. She had gone back to the UK and was due back but i needed my drill. On my way home i saw she had arrived home and she had arrived that morning. 

I soon got my drill and after seeing the weather forecast i drilled the wall to release the water from behind it. One hour later we had a storm of Biblical proportions but the water was leaving and the room below was not getting wet anymore.

More in the next post.

Post Brexit what a shambles

 I like many have had trouble getting deliveries from the UK. More and more people like me are using Spain, Germany and China for whatever goods we need. 

On the 11th June 2021 i ordered packs of fish food and i was given for delivery

Estimated delivery Fri, 30 Jul - Fri, 01 Oct

I need lots of fish food for my fish tanks. That's one example of how Brexit is affecting me. I would have ordered from the UK  but the price that Ebay has put for delivery. I recently ordered plastic bags and i normally pay about £7.50 with delivery via Ebay the total cost was £21.23. Ebay and other factors now make for me the UK finished.

That's how Brexit has affected me, how it's affecting people in the UK. T took some information from the BBC News online.

 Shortages

The Road Haulage Association has estimated there is a shortage of more than 100,000 drivers in the UK, which had around 600,000 before the pandemic.

On Friday supermarket chain Morrisons became the latest company to join the growing chorus of calls for drivers to be eligible for Skilled Worker visas to allow them to work in the UK.

Aldi has said it has increased its wages for lorry drivers amid the shortage. The supermarket chain pays between £14.15 and £15.34 per hour for day shifts, and £16.98 and £18.41 per hour for night shifts according to its careers website. Tesco has offered a £1,000 bonus for drivers who join before 30 September.

Across the UK thousands of key workers have left the UK to go home to there own country. Why because the UK has a scale of pay the fruit pickers, lorry drivers ETC need to earn to stay in the UK.

Below is from the UK.Gov website

 

Your job

You must meet all of the following requirements to be eligible for a Skilled Worker visa:

• your job is eligible for this visa
• you’ll be working for a UK employer that’s been approved by the Home Office
• you’ll be paid at least the minimum salary for the type of work you’ll be doing

The minimum salary for the type of work you’ll be doing is whichever is the highest out of the following 3 options:

• £25,600 per year
• £10.10 per hour
• the ‘going rate’ for the type of work you’ll be doing

My sump needs fixing

 In my fish room i have a fish tank i am using for a filter commonly called a sump. I noticed that it was leaning away from the wall by about 3/ 4 degrees. With all the water and filter media if it fell it would fall into my big fish tank.. 

Since i had an accident with a tank during mt teens everything is now above the water line. No chance of anything going wrong and the water leaking out of my tank or filter.

When i came to move my filter i found it was to heavy for me to life i had a problem. I moved my freezer close to the main tank and i then lowered the filter onto the freezer. I was now able to remove the rest of the water and filter media and then start to clean the inside of the filter tank.

A Troll

 The 14th April 2010 was my first post on my Blog. That's now over ten years ago and so much has happened over the years.

This post is not about me but about some fool who has nothing better to do with his sad lonely life. He left comments very nasty hurtful

I have just had seven very nasty comments left for me. My first reaction was to a relative who i choose not to contact. No my relatives are not that Evil but lets see what the future brings.

Customs what a load of rubbish

 Because of Brexit and all those wonderful people who voted to leave it has caused no end of problems for me and many many more.

Often you look on the back of a package only to see it's made in the Peoples Republic of China. Now with so much trouble getting anything from the UK i have started to look for things i need from China. All of a sudden the Customs have stopped 2 out of Four parcels i have coming from China.

I track my parcel to know when they should arrive until i got two emails from the Customs here in Portugal. Over the years i have i had things often from China without any problem of any kind until now. The value of the two items was only about 24€ or £20.

The customs want the Tarrif code for each item a code i do not have. Emails went from me to the supplier just for 4 small filters and 2 bags of fish food. 

It took me from the  28th July and the 2nd August to finally get clearance. It's probably taken about a minimum of 10 hours hard work to get these parcels cleared. The work is not done till i get them delivered and i then wait for the next to arrive.

Alice R.I.P

 I was here 10 years ago ready to do the legal stuff to buy my house. Each time i came up to what was to become my home i would see Alice an old lady why was so friendly to me a new comer.

I was writing about the customs when i heard my name. My friend came to tell me that Alice had passed away. During the first few years out of respect i called her Don Alice until the day came. Alice told me to now call her Alice i had shown her respect over the last few years.

It is so sad that only about a week away from my 10th birthday living here. 

Alice passed away on Sunday evening and the service is Wednesday morning at 11.30 am. I have an appointment at 11 am at the optician so i hope to make the service in time.

Alice gone but not forgotten.

The last week.

On the 16th July i agreed to change my service with Meo. The new service would give me TV wow it's almost all in Portuguese or with subtitles. 

Much better minutes for my mobile phone and better text, I almost never text.

Better internet speed, OK i have heard that before. 

I also get 1,000 minutes after 9pm till 9am to 50 countries FREE yes i can use that.

The pictures below show today's speed. The figure on the left is a test of the speed from the Internet people to me and back to them.

The next speed is the speed i am getting today 0.50 is only half a megabyte the bottom picture is only 0.20 megabyte i could walk faster.

The third figure 0.00 megabyte is the speed i should have to upload this post to my Blog 0.00 megabyte means i can't upload anything.

So much for this great new service i have been sold.

I have tried twice to upload posts to my Blog but the speed is Crap.

My 1,000 minutes went live 6.12pm Sundays night great i can make a call to the UK to a friend. Did it work no after 13 minutes the line went dead when i looked at the display on the phone there was a lock on the so it was no good. Today my house phone is still locked. 

Moral of the story if you are looking to move to Portugal Don't use Meo they are a joke.

 

Credit where credits due

This Blog is now over a decade old and i have enjoyed ever minute spent writing my thoughts sometimes rants.

Over time i have been helped just when i needed it the most. Like recent where i have had trouble at the local health center this time i received two offers of help.

My problem is now solved thankfully.

I am sure that over the coming years i will again receive help but for now a big.

THANK YOU.

Meo a totally crap company

 On Thursday an engineer came to install my new Internet and TV package. I have seen speeds that before i could only dream about so my internet is OK. My previous speeds would be less than 1mbps now i am getting over 20 times more speed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was given a new landline that i could use in the nearest town, but it's a landline OK. I have tried since Thursday evening to get the phone to work And to get the TV unscrambled a total waste of time,

Before the engineer left he said it would take over half an hour for the TV unit to find all the channels so i waited. I have a package that gives me free calls to 50 countries But when does that start.

Quite a few problems i say and you may agree.I gave up waiting after 45 minutes being on hold.

Mikrogeophagus ramirezi ????

 

In the late Sixties i became interested in tropical fish and my most favourite was called a Ramerizi cichlid a picture of a male is listed below. I was so proud of myself when i could pronounce the Latin name Apistogramma Ramerizi.

There was a a monthly magazine that i used to read called Tropical Fish Hobbyist. I found a story of some scientist who reclassified My favourite fish as Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi. I had worked hard to be able to pronounce with pride to my family the name of my fish.

Now over 50 years later i now have fish again but i also got three Ramirezi a couple of weeks ago. It's very difficult to sex these fish but learnt how many years ago. I got myself what i thought was one male and two females. Over the last few weeks as the fish have settled down in my tank i now could see two males OK a bonus.

Today when i went to feed the fish room this morning i find i now have three males. The problem now is i need to buy at least four or five females as i would like to breed them again.

I have ordered the glass to make four tanks to start a breeding program more about that when i get the glass and the new tank.

 

Coming to a milestone in less that a month.

As the title says I am coming to a milestone in my life here in Portugal. It's now only 10 days and i would have arrived overland to my new home here in Portugal. I  arrived here on the 1st August 2011 in my Transit van and huge box trailer ready for my new life to start. Problem was i was a little early 12 days early but i just wanted to get away from Life in the UK.

When you buy a property here in Portugal All parties sellers, buyer and the legal crew meet at the Notary office. Well this was all done on the afternoon of the 12th August but to late in the day to move in. So it turned out to be the 13th August when i eventually move into my new home. 

What's prompted me to write this post weeks early easy Covid.

OK what has Covid got to do with moving to a house 10 years ago. let me tell you life here is almost perfect until Covid came. The only thing to affect me is going to see the doctor it is now almost imposible to get to see my doctor. 

The problem is the people on the Reception, i use a translation app to ask for help but all i get is someone talking fast in Portuguese. The local Council and the Tax office at times when needed use translation programs.

I need to get my Vaccine card signed with the details of my second injection i have been three times and still the won't sign my card. It's almost like the UK you can go into the doctors but you then have to leave because the reception staff offer no help what so ever.

Sorry for this Rant but it helps to get things of your chest.

Taken for a fool

In my village there is a house owned by a woman from Dover in the UK. I have had the land cleared on her behalf because of the fire hazard to this area. This time after a number of emails she has ignored my request for payment.

If you are living in the area of Dover and know Michelle Rices  then avoid her if you don't want to be conned.

A new fish tank.

 A long time ago i found a glass company who replied to me withing a couple of hours. Other companies here in Portugal either took days to reply or didn't even reply to my email.

I am going to build a tank split into four compartments in it. My problem was it took me most of the afternoon to find the company because i had forgotten the company's name. After hours of searching i remembered i had there number on my phone but also there name.

It's now 11 pm and i expect that i will have a price for what i want by the time i am up in the morning. 

The company are about 100 kilometers away from me but well worth dealing with.

Remember the song OH happy day.

For a long time i have had a big ugly skin tag on my face. For my luck my glasses hid it for a while and it grew to the size of a big pea.

I asked my doctor twice if he could remove it and all he said was on my next visit he would remove it for me. But that promise came and went. 

I have often removed skin tags under my arm all it took was a knot round the tag and it would soon drop off. 

I couple of friends gave me some leaves to rub on to the tag guess what it did nothing. Silly me believed them and gave it a good try till in the end i gave up. This has been with me now for about a good three years and it needed to go.

I went back to the cotton knotted round the tag, because i couldn't see progress i tied more cotton round the tag. In total i had three knots tied round the tag and i started picking at it well tonight i am Tag free i had picked it off.

It may not be a nice subject to talk about but i do feel so good so really good. My granddaughter will be so happy and i will take a picture and send it to her before i go to bed tonight. 

Now you know where the title came from So it is Oh happy day for me it is.

A sensible decision

In my previous business i saw so many people living on State handouts in the UK it's called the DOLE. Lots of my customers had never done i hard days work in there life but could afford  cigarettes and plenty of Booze.

Then came a new Rule that limited the amount of State aide that people could get. The best part was the limit on a family having children was limited to only 2 Children, please read the article below.......

Campaigners have lost their legal challenge to the government's two-child limit on welfare payments.

They had argued the policy breached parents' and children's human rights. The Supreme Court dismissed their case.

The rule, which came into force in April 2017, restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in a family, with a few exceptions.

It was one of George Osborne's most debated austerity measures.

The policy has affected families of about one million children. Campaigners described the decision as "hugely disappointing".

Mothers' case

The case was brought by two lone mothers and their children, supported by the Child Poverty Action Group. The court ruled they should not be identified.

One had health problems and was in low-paid work. The other fell pregnant while on the pill. Both had children born after April 2017 and so were affected financially by the policy.

They said the two-child policy was incompatible with human rights laws. Their argument was rejected in the lower courts.

Seven justices at the Supreme Court - the highest court in the UK - unanimously dismissed their appeal against the earlier rulings.

• Two-child benefit cap lawful, court rules
• Benefits rules to be eased for terminally ill

Campaigners argued the rules unlawfully discriminated against different groups including children, large families, women, and those with a religious or moral objection to the use of birth control. 

Lawyers representing two families who brought the legal challenge argued that the limit would cause "deep and inescapable child poverty" and "fails to recognise children as deserving of social protection in their own right".

However, the government had always argued that the policy aimed to ensure that welfare spending was sustainable and fair to the taxpayer while protecting the most vulnerable.

Supreme Court President Lord Reed, giving the judgement, said the policy pursued a legitimate aim to protect the economic wellbeing of the country.

He added that while the policy had a disproportionate impact on women, Parliament had decided that was outweighed by the importance of its aim - something which the justices had no basis to properly take a different view.

He said the justices rejected the argument that the two-child limit was intended to discourage women in receipt of the benefits from having more than two children and so violated their right to respect for their private and family life.

Carla Clarke, head of strategic litigation at Child Poverty Action Group, which represented the mothers and children, said: "This is a hugely disappointing judgment which fails to give any meaningful recognition to the reality of the policy on the ground and its desperately unfair impact on children."

She said they were considering whether to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

A government spokesman said: "This policy asks families on benefits to make the same financial decisions as families supporting themselves solely through work.

"No child born before the policy was introduced is included, and child benefit continues to be paid for all children. We also have a comprehensive childcare support offer for working parents."

Work started in the olive grove

 I have now started work in the Olive grove. The ground is not like you would find in most gardens around the world . The Olive grove is on a small slope and faces the sun all day. Because of this the ground is extremely hard and difficult to dig and a variety of tools are needed to dig a hole.

Today i have already dug a hole more than big enough for my lemon tree to live. I expected that the compost would come of the roots but that didn't happen thankfully. It was a case of just lifting the tree and the pot was empty when the tree was lifted and happy days. 

Because of the heat i can't water my Orange tree and lemon tree till it gets cool tonight. I am sure that they will need a well earned drink tonight as i will.

At the moment my Acer needs to be moved but i am tempted to leave it where it is for now.