D-Day 2016

22/06/16 - 23:50 Eurotunnel Calais->Folkestone £99 one-way, no return.
No thanks. What if I don't come to terms with driving on the left or François renegades on UK Border Control checking my passport in Calais before midnight?

22/06/16 - 23:35 P&O Pride of Kent Calais: Dover £128.50 Full-Flexi.
Again, no thanks. Nigel is forever putting out the warning "Fog in Channel, Continent cut off". Full- Flexi isn't going to help if a 25-minute delay. Six months waving my unused ticket at the camping park owner in Calais isn't likely to help much.

Renew my UK passport? £102.86!
I was told by the overseas help desk that this DID NOT include a 10 year "Life Guarantee" or a free London Bus pass and as an Ex-Pat pensioner, I should be grateful for getting a passport at all as I don't make regular NI contributions. I was calmed down when the gentleman on the other end of the phone, I think based in the Philippines, said yes I could use my Chiropodist to countersign my passport photographs, it was an "approved profession".

Renounce my renounced Trinidadian Citizenship?
 About £100 incl. a new passport. This is great value for money and certainly worth a thought. Get a better chance of supporting a team capable of winning the FIFA World Cup than if I remain a UK citizen.I just worry about having to provide four identical passport photos. I never managed to keep the same facial expression in the photo booth and usually had bent forward just as the first flash came, to hammer on the money slot.

German Citizenship?
The 10-year passport only costs £45 but citizenship a further £200 and I need to be able to answer correctly 17 out of 33 questions about German customs and laws. Three of these questions are specific to Bavaria and I suspect include being able to sing the Bavarian national hymn in Bavarian. If you can hold out for 40 seconds you can learn the words in English here - may help if you need to get into Bavaria after 23rd June. Please note Henry the Labrador sitting up to attention to the future English anthem.

Decisions, decisions. For those Brits who have such great concerns about security - why is it that the UK doesn't have any form of mandatory ID? There are thousands of illegal immigrants (overstayed visas, students etc) already in the country. Here one is required to have one as a German citizen. You don't get locked up if caught on the beach in your shorts without one! As a foreigner I should have my passport with me - never do and in 25 years have not once been asked by a policeman to show it. When I bought a camera a few years ago on 0%, 12-month instalments, I showed my UK (EU form) passport and that was enough.

Today's Blip plan was a mission for Mathew. Did the horses early but when I got indoors at 9:00 was greeted by Angie saying the wood pellet central heating smelt "funny". Sure did and a quick look at the display showed "Failure 0029". Handbook out and sure enough a "firing up" problem after it had closed down shortly before 9:00 to do the daily hopper refill. The system is monitored by a Lamda Sonde which shuts it down if the CO² gets above a certain level. Phoned the manufacturers who also do the annual service and went through some possibilities. Turned out that the de-ashing mechanism must have somehow failed to discharge the last load of burnt ash and it was preventing the reignite. Half an hour later had everything clean and working again.

However, it ruined my time plan and so Mathew Mission had to be abandoned for the day.