Residency!

Well finally Gaynor's long suffering (as a British-born lass) has brought us a boon. After pressing the point with my employer -- and seeking a second and third opinion -- I was told that it would be no problem for Gaynor and the children, as EU citizens, to register their residency in Germany. Actually this has been our feeling for a while but my employer (and the second opinion also) wasn't keen on the idea of them registering without me. It might even have disrupted the residency-obtaining process in the Netherlands. But in the end we found enough of the right people (or convinced the unbelievers) that we should go ahead with it. So we did and now six sevenths of the family are officially resident here. My own residency is still in-the-process of becoming Dutch and then will be in-the-process of becoming German (which should be a lot quicker!). As a Ukrainian colleague here put it, "The Dutch officials will smile and be very nice to you, but they don't know the rules, might even give you incorrect advice and will take a long time to do anything. The Germans, on the other hand, may be a bit rough and unpleasant to you, but they know the rules exactly and will take care of it immediately if you are within them." Personally, I haven't come across many gruff Germans though, of course, one cannot rule out my considerable charm.

"So why was this whole residency-registering caper so important?" I hear you asking (after some prompting from me). The single most important reason was so that we'd be able to hire DVDs. As side benefits, we could also register a car and have our household goods from Australia clear customs (in Gaynor's name). And so we are now the proud owners of a 'people truck' and in fact our household effects will effectively be affected here next Tuesday (26th April). More on these soon. I'm still applying for the video store membership.