Snowy, snowy blog

Earlier date but identical view on Friday 2nd March

Looks like the Siberian cold, prolonged and intense, is departing today. Friday’s snow is disappearing, huge swathes of ice on the canals have disappeared, the sun continues cheerfully as it has throughout the cold spell, and spirits are lifting. March 2nd saw the 61st anniversary of my first marriage and in two weeks it will be the sixteenth anniversary of my second husband’s death, impossibly distant in spite of its comparative closeness in time. And while I am ruminating on the unlikely speed of time travel, the fact that in the summer will come my 84th birthday, again a highly unbelievable event in my head, leads me to propose the excuse I am using, to myself, to give me permission to do something which is normally not allowed! I returned home yesterday from the written Dutch class, frozen from waiting for two buses, so tired from four and a half hours of class work, and realised that it was six hours since I had left home to go to class that morning. The sheer physical effort is considerable and that has to do with age so, untypically as claimed, I have decided not to progress to Niveau Fijf, Level 5.

This means only two more exams and four more lessons to go and the feeling of a burden, freely assumed, lifting, is strong. I normally Never Give Up but the effort to do the class and even more, the effort to remember vocabulary and achieve well in the tests, plus the bus travel at each end, has reached the stage when the efforts far outweigh the rewards!! So, some free time to come soon when the pressure will lift. And I still won’t be able to read De Standaard, my original goal!

This is at Party One but several of these were at Mah  Jong

the following day.

But a super week in spite of all. Wednesday morning to meet the girls for the usual coffee morning at Hotel Martin’s and Wednesday afternoon to a friend’s flat to celebrate Noreen’s 80th birthday with an English tea party; there were even cucumber sandwiches! It was such fun, all cakes and champagne; candles and conviviality, that the intense cold without was as nought. While there I discovered that one of those present had her own birthday the following day, so leftover delights [of which there were many] were commandeered, more bubbly donated and a little surprise celebration for our friend’s birthday the next morning organised when several of us were at my flat for Mah Jong. Toasts were proposed and drunk; delicious cakes eaten and the Chinese tiles expertly played. The feeling of friendship from both gatherings was strong and we reminded ourselves how very important, in later years, become friends. For those interested in anti-Alzheimer’s manoeuvres [all of this group] those boxes were also ticked; the importance of supportive friends; social activities; intellectual pursuits and challenges. Yup, we’re trying!

I was photographing her while she was ....

Following the wholly unreasonable tax demand from Brugge tax office, I saw an accountant this week. I knew that the method of the tax people’s accounting is allowed under the terms of the Double Taxation Treaty and this accounts for the proposed 45% level of taxation on my modest Belgian taxable pensions. AND that there is nothing I can do to defend my money further BUT still I hoped, perhaps for an obscure observation/allowance/loophole to assist an aged ex-pat. No, there is nothing and the Very Cheerful Accountant said breezily that my combined incomes made me a very wealthy pensioner to a level unknown to the Belgians and that I should cheerfully pay up. Fruitless to point out the unfair exchange rate used; the two  different total income sums converted by two different people in the same tax department, based on the same figures obtained from the UK tax people. So, voila, there it is and payment must be made before April 12 to ensure escape from the 7% daily fine for slackers. I don't often ask for advice .....!