My house is now connected to mains water

Notice regarding the installation of mains water © Ricky Yates

When I bought my new house in Stará Oleška back in April 2017, I had to make a legal agreement with my neighbours regarding its water supply. This was pumped from an underground source in the garden of Milan and Lucie, my immediate neighbours, and supplied them, Pavel and Vlasta, (Lucie’s parents), who live behind me, and me. This water, whilst perfectly safe, did sometimes come out rather discoloured. So I took to buying bottled water for cooking and drinking and inserting a sachet of ‘Intensive white’ in the washing machine, when washing light-coloured clothing.

Under this agreement, I have paid CZK 200 a month for my water supply – CZK 100 for the electricity powering the pump and CZK 100 . . . → Read More: My house is now connected to mains water

Happy Twelfth Birthday to my blog

Zámek Decín © Ricky Yates

I realised late yesterday, that 4th February is the birthday of my blog. My first ever post was published here on 4th February 2009 meaning that the blog is now twelve years old. Last night when I realised, I was immediately going to try to write and publish a birthday post as I have on several occasions in previous years. But I eventually decided that if I was going to write a coherent post, it might be better to wait until today 🙂

The blog has an amazing 435 posts. This will be post 436, the first in Year 13 of Ricky Yates – An Anglican in Bohemia & Saxony. Whilst I am very happy that the blog is now one year away from becoming . . . → Read More: Happy Twelfth Birthday to my blog

More snow

Stará Oleška 44, Sunday 31st January 2021 © Ricky Yates

Further to my previous post, ‘Winter has arrived‘, winter has definitely decided to stay 😉 We have had further snowfall since I last posted and there has been lying snow now for over three weeks.

It finally stopped snowing around lunchtime yesterday (30th). Overnight, the skies cleared and the temperature dropped to -10°C (14° Fahrenheit for my American visitors). But clear skies has meant bright sunshine all day today, creating the perfect opportunity for taking snowy photographs 🙂 Knowing from past comments, how much my previous snowy photographs have been appreciated, here are a few more.

Back garden, . . . → Read More: More snow

Winter has arrived

The view from my front door on Tuesday 12th January © Ricky Yates

 

 

As I explained in this post, the winter of 2019-2020 was remarkably mild. However, the winter we are currently experiencing is bearing a much greater similarity to my first two winters living here in Stará Oleška and a week ago, winter arrived with a vengeance.

 

Before Christmas, we had a dusting of snow on a few occasions, but it soon melted. On 26th December, Boxing Day, we had a further light snowfall but which again, mostly melted in the following twenty-four hours. But overnight Friday 8th – Saturday 9th January, snow fell once again and didn’t melt. And since then, snow has fallen, snow on snow!

 

 

. . . → Read More: Winter has arrived

A Letter to Dominic Raab and Thérèse Coffey

The benefit of Brexit

As a recipient of a UK state pension and living in the Czech Republic, last Friday I received a letter from the British government. The letter was organised by the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Thérèse Coffey. Below is the text of what I have written in reply, sent this afternoon by email, to both ministers.

Dear Mr Raab, Dear Ms Coffey,

On Friday 4th December 2020, I received a letter entitled, ‘UK Transition Period: A message for UK Nationals living in the Czech Republic’. Ostensibly, it came from the British Embassy in Prague. However, as is acknowledged at the end of the letter, it was actually compiled by the Department of Work and . . . → Read More: A Letter to Dominic Raab and Thérèse Coffey