Friday 18 May 2007

Several steps closer

We've spent the last couple of days sorting out all manner of things.

The following represents a tiny percentage of the stuff we've sorted out recently:
  • Put together this awesome spreadsheet to work out our budget - go XLS!
  • Got a new biometric passport for Ben (€185!) (!) ... !
  • Canceled various insurances - there is nothing the Dutch take more seriously than insurance
  • Switched our ADSL connection from a shared arrangement between XS4ALL and KPN (don't ask) to just XS4ALL - this allows us to cancel our phone line without buggering up the internets
  • Found a storage facility to put all our fancy stuff in
  • Got confused about various other insurances - are we legally obliged to continue them or not?
  • Scanned all our important documents and put them in a special place for safekeeping
  • Set up a postal forwarding system
  • Researched a lot of stuff about a lot of countries: nowhere in the world is safe, but everywhere looks brilliant
  • Put the car on the market - anyone want to buy Uncle Volv?
  • Bought a global SIM card from the nice people at www.gosim.com
  • Set up this blog and our special email address for while we're away: benanddebsyearoff (at) gmail (dot) com
When we first hatched this madcap scheme of ours - some time towards the end of 2006 - I had no idea how much paperwork and faff would be involved.

Now, several months wiser, I can tell you that as of today, we have processed precisely one metric ton of red tape.

red tape photo from hexod.us's flickrstream http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsnet/

Ben

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