By Ricky, on August 31st, 2022
Earlier this year, I received a letter telling me of another wonderful ‘benefit’ of Brexit. The letter came from the headquarters of Barclays Bank, with whom I have banked for over forty-seven years, and told me that in a few months time, I needed to close my account or otherwise, they would do it for me at the end of August 2022.
The actual explanation was that, ‘We’re applying limitations to the banking services we provide to customers with an address in the European Economic Area (EEA). We’re sorry to say this means we need you to close your account’. This was Barclays polite way of saying that, now the UK was no longer a member of the EU, they were not prepared to go to the expense and trouble of setting up a legal entity in . . . → Read More: Brexit, Barclays & HSBC Banks
By Ricky, on August 2nd, 2022
My new ASUS ZenBook 13 laptop with its predecessor behind © Ricky Yates
Over five years ago, just a few weeks before I retired, I bought myself a new laptop computer. You can read all about me doing so in a blog post from that time entitled, ‘A Tale of Two Laptops’.
However, in February this year, that laptop completely froze and I was thankful that JCR, Decín were eventually able to carry out repairs to the hard drive and get it functioning again. One corner of the casing was also cracked and it fell apart when being dismantled and had to be internally taped back together. I was therefore advised at the time that my laptop was now getting a bit old 😉
. . . → Read More: Reconnected to the Internet
By Ricky, on April 9th, 2022 The entrance to Coffee & Books, Decín © Ricky Yates
In June 2017, just a few weeks after I moved to my new home in Stará Oleška, a new café opened in nearby Decín called ‘Coffee & Books’. It is located almost next door to Vesta Reality, the real estate business who were responsible for selling me my house. During the house purchase process, I often saw the sign on the neighbouring door declaring, ‘Coffee & Books, opening soon’, and regretted that it wasn’t already open 😉
The café was set up by Honza and his wife Jana. Honza had been made redundant from his previous employment and Jana had previously organised cultural events in Ústí nad Labem. Their vision was to have a café offering good coffee . . . → Read More: Coffee & Books and English Small Talk
By Ricky, on March 30th, 2022 My house on 13th March 2022 © Ricky Yates
Yes – I know! It has been four months since I last wrote and posted a blog post. A couple of people have recently been in touch, complaining about the silence 🙁
It’s not that I have forgotten about the blog. On New Year’s Day 2022, I started writing a post but never completed it. I then thought of writing a post for 4th February which would mark the date this blog became a teenager, thirteen years on from when I wrote and posted here for the first time. But again, thoughts and ideas never materialised into a published post. And for a long time, I’ve been thinking of writing a post about migrants, an issue now brought sharply into focus following Putin’s invasion . . . → Read More: New roofs
By Ricky, on November 30th, 2021 Lean-to in May 2017 © Ricky Yates
At the end of a post I wrote more than four years ago entitled, ‘Making progress‘, I featured two photographs of the incomplete lean-to on one side of my house. This one on the left, taken in May 2017, just a couple of weeks after I moved to Stará Oleška, and the one below, taken after ‘Jan with his van’ had taken away a whole load of unwanted items left by the previous owners.
In that September 2017 post, I wrote, ‘Once I’ve removed some remaining loose timber into the wood shed, then I plan to lay a proper concrete floor. After that, I hope to be able to hang the door that is already sitting there, propped up on one side, and create . . . → Read More: It’s taken a long time but, my Lean-to is finally complete
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