October’s blog post finished with the arrival of Carl the Mercedes Benz to our household, and November began with me putting Priscilla up for sale.
And was I successful? Read on a bit later to hear that news.
Klaus had done some investigation before buying Carl and it seems that there is an aftermarket reprogramming of the COMAND infotainment system in the E Class which can often be made to use CarPlay. Klaus found a place in Düsseldorf which could do this so we headed off with Carl on the next morning and the chappie had a good look. He was a great guy, really helpful and showing us what was happening, and also some of the additional options we could have (such as the automatic tailgate closing itself with the key – factory standard it only opens with the key and you have to press the button inside the boot to close it), The main thing was CarPlay though and he got that working which was really helpful.
The other thing we had to do for Carl was give him some new tyres. We needed all-seasons tyres and Klaus had ordered some which were delivered to a company in Kempen who would fit them. So I took to this company who turned out to be like a garage from the 1980s with calendars of scantily-clad women on the walls, the workers smoking in the building and them not communicating at all well with me.
They also told me after 5 minutes that they couldn’t get the back rear wheel undone as one of the wheelnuts had rounded off, so they reinflated the tyre and gave me the car back. What can I do, I asked. They just said “we can’t undo it”. Very unhelpful.
So I drove it straight round to the other more modern tyre place in Kempen who had helped me out with Priscilla. The chap had a look and said that they also probably couldn’t do it, we would have to go to Mercedes for them to drill the bolt out and it would probably kill the alloy wheel. Ouch, expensive!
So I went home again and bumped into Frank and told him the bad news. And of course Frank came to the rescue again. He told Klaus what tool to order from Amazon (cost 20€), it duly arrived and after 5 minutes Frank had the wheel nut off. He did it on his birthday too!
I asked Klaus to take Carl back to the original garage (who still had our new tyres) as I was not happy with them. He got on fine with the chaps, they changed all four tyres and that was just in the nick of time as the next day we had snow! So Carl now has good quality all-seasons tyres and is ready for driving around the UK in all weathers.
Priscilla finds a new home
I had contact from a chap, MJ, who had seen my advert for Priscilla. He had worked on the original SLK (he was an engineer something to do with the ASR/traction control) and as he was about to retire he wanted to buy one of these cars for his retirement. He was originally looking for a black one but once he saw the colour of Priscilla he was hooked.
He had to drive up from near Frankfurt am Main so it was a long drive for him, but he came up on the Saturday and was with us by 13:00. He had a really thorough look at Priscilla (he had had one of these SLKs before so knew all about them) and went out for a test drive with Klaus. He was happy apart from a couple of minor things, but had another SLK to look at two days later. Priscilla has a weird vibration at 2100 rpm which the previous owner tried to get diagnosed with no luck. I just turned my music up louder. MJ was wondering if this was a gearbox problem which could mean it could be a pricey repair if something went wrong. He asked if I would get a TÜV (like an MOT) done on the car, as that lasts for two years and would be a helpful thing. It was five months before it was due but I saw the reasoning and booked her in for the TÜV. MJ said he would be in touch during the week.
He contacted me again to say that the viewing at the other car hadn’t taken place as the garage had a man sick and so asked him not to come that day but instead four days later, so he took that as a sign and wanted to go for Priscilla. We had already discussed the price on his previous visit, so now we were just awaiting the TÜV results and then I would deregister Priscilla and send him the documents so he could register her and then come and collect her.
It was snowing when we went for the TÜV. The chap at the reception desk said “a 25 year old car might have quite a lot that needs to be done”. In fact she had nothing – no problems no advisories, nothing! She passed with flying colours.
The next day I deregistered her and I have kept the numberplates which I might put on display somewhere in our home in Bury. I posted the documents to MJ, who was really excited that he would be taking over Priscilla. He arranged to pick her up on Sunday 1st December and his wife would come with him to drive his company car home. He had read all the pages on Priscilla in this blog and so when I suggested they might like to have tea and cake for lunch when they come on the Sunday he readily agreed, commenting that he had realised from my blog I was quite keen on cake.
As I am writing this on 30 November Priscilla is still in my possession but she looks rather forlorn without her number plates and will be happy to go to a new home where she will be the main car – I did under 6.000km or so in her in the year and a half I had her. She was a great car and I will be buying another SLK (albeit a newer one) in the UK next year.
Progress with Klaus’s work
As I mentioned before, Klaus’s current company made him an offer of a position at the English subsidiary and he was happy to take this. Although his move to England wasn’t particularly a secret, it hadn’t been officially announced – until Klaus found himself invited into a meeting with the big cheeses and some journalists and he was asked about his future move. He then appeared in the big local paper!
Product Designer moves from Company Headquarters in Mülheim to Great Britain.
Klaus will also explore new horizons when he realises his dream of emigrating to the UK with his partner. Despite this the product designer will continue to work for the company with responsibility for “Business Development” in the United Kingdom. “So I will remain a part of the company family.” The 57 year old is very happy for this solution, which enables his employer to keep a long-term professional in automation technology.
During this month he has been in further discussions with Tony, the boss of the UK subsidiary, with particular emphasis on the visa that the company will sponsor for him. There is some paperwork to get done and timelines are reasonably tight but hopefully everything will be ready in time for him to start work in March or April next year.
On the last day of November Klaus also did his B1 language exam – after last month’s was cancelled due to no internet. Fortunately everything was working this time. They checked his glasses (that they weren’t Google Glasses or something), did a body scan and he was only allowed 3 tissues and not in a plastic wrapper for them. They take security really seriously! Anyway, he thinks it went well, and should get the results in 1-2 weeks.
We headed to Düsseldorf half an hour early for the exam and had a nice Schnecke in Zeit für Brot as normal.
I then drove home again as I was looking after Poppy and didn’t want to wait around for 3 hours in Düsseldorf, driving back to pick Klaus up after two and a half hours. He was completely pooped after the exam, partly because an awful lot rides on this. He is also still not better from his cold/colds, has still got blocked sinuses and is constantly coughing. Hopefully he will be able to shift this cold soon.
Our new home?
Last month’s blog finished on a bit of a cliffhanger – would we be able to rent the bungalow we had viewed, or would the other people who viewed it make a better offer.
Well…
It was ours! In the end the other people didn’t make an offer but the landlord still thought about it for a week before deciding on us (not sure what was sub-optimal about us except perhaps that we wanted a long-term let and it was only available short-term, or that we were coming from abroad so not so easy to do checks on us).
Anyway, all was agreed over email and I got ready to sign the contract and get the keys on 15 November, so that was another trip to the UK planned last minute. Klaus would be unable to come with me (his name would not be on the rental contract anyway initially as he doesn’t yet have his visa) but my sister Anna said she would come up for the day to support me – and of course to have a nose at the new home!
To save a bit of money I decided to take the day ferry across to the UK for the 15th November key handover and saved up all the work I could do from home and did my full working day (only 3 hours!) on the ferry. Here was my office.
I bought the WiFi on board for 4 € and it was surprisingly decent. I was helping myself to Pop Chips and other snacks all the time which was of course less optimal, but it helped to pass the journey (which is about 8 hours in total) and the ferry was very empty.
Once finished with work I was able to relax and watch some downloaded TV episodes.
They asked if I wanted an evening meal and as I knew I wouldn’t get to Mum’s house till 9pm I decided yes, I went for a burger and chips (which I had to pay for),
Unfortunately my eyes were WAY bigger than my stomach and I only managed half of it, having filled up all day with snacks, and suffered rather bad indigestion that night. I have learned my lesson!
Whilst on the ferry I also set up the Water account for the new property, as well as the electricity and gas (with Octopus energy who were highly recommended – and I like them so far!)
Before getting off the boat I had to have some final cakes.
I drove to Mum’s house where Anna was waiting for me with a warm house and a boiling kettle. She helped me bring my luggage in and then we sat around and chatted, both then having a relatively early night (although I couldn’t sleep for an hour or two due to my indigestion).
The next morning we headed off to Ipswich to the Estate Agents first thing to get some paperwork we needed from them and also to put Mum’s house sale on hold. This was because over the next few months I would be making a bit of a mess of the house with moving furniture and it seemed a bit weird to have viewings during that time (if there were any – we had only had three in nine months). Also it had been on the market a long time so needed a break really and we will reset next spring, probably with a new estate agent too.
So Anna and I went to Ipswich and drove straight from there to Bury St Edmunds, where the contrast in the liveliness of the shopping area is huge. First of all we took Carl to Halfords as he had a stone chip in the front windscreen on the driver’s side. In Germany this is not allowed to be repaired but Halfords could do it in the UK. It also provided us with free parking for two hours which was handy!
We walked from Halfords to the main shopping area (about two minutes) and went straight to pick up the keys to my new home from the Letting Agency which was just off the main shopping area. I was handed two huge bundles of keys and they didn’t know what half of them were for so once I was back in Germany I colour coded them, got some more front door keys cut (to let my family have them in case of urgent need) and prepared them all with tags so when I next visit I can spend some time working out what they all are. We were told there was a new lock in the back door (and I found which key that was) but that the old back door keys were still on the bunches so we will eventually find some that don’t open anything.
After collecting the keys Anna and I had a good nose around the shops (she was in Christmas Present mode). I had booked Afternoon Tea at Procopio’s Pantry for us as a special treat and we were in for a real treat, but it meant that it didn’t make sense to go to our new bungalow in Beech Rise straight away. I had the keys to my new place but didn’t actually go there for three hours!
The time in Procopio’s Pantry was very well spent though, I can recommend their Afternoon tea!
Anna had the veggie option and instead of a Coronation Chicken sandwich she had an Onion Bhaji and Mango Chutney one. The café said it was their first time serving this and was it good – oh yes it was!!
We had two smallish scones each, one of which was sweet with jam and clotted cream and the other of which was savoury chili, Very nice too!
We didn’t have room for the cakes on the top layer at all so took them with us in a doggy bag. I shall definitely go there again!
After a bit more shopping we headed back to Halfords to pick up Carl (all was ready and the repair was good) and then we drove to Beech Rise. Here am I, entering my new home for the first time.
We had a look around and I dropped off a few things I had brought with me (kettle, Kaffeesahne packets, extension leads with UK and German plug options) and then we had a drink each. There was nowhere to sit so we roughed it on the lounge floor.
I measured up a few bits and bobs (height of the ceiling in the hallway, to see if we could fit the grandfather clock there – yes) and I also turned on the heating to check it was working (it was), but stayed less than an hour as there was really not much to do. I now know the dimensions of where the fridge will go so will be able to order one for delivery when I am definitely at Beech Rise (8th January – the day that the Fibre Broadband is being fitted),
Anna and I then went back to Mum’s house and had a Chinese meal delivered as we were both feeling lazy after all the activity. Anna was staying overnight but I headed off to the ferry later that evening, discovering on my way that the A120 was closed and I had to do a diversion through Colchester. I practically went past my old house! I went straight to bed rather than using the Stena Lounge as it was too late for me by the time we boarded.
However, I enjoyed my breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon followed by croissants the next morning whilst waiting to arrive at Hoek van Holland.
Preparation for moving house
If you import items from Germany to the UK you usually have to pay VAT (since Brexit) but if you are moving your household you can get a waiver on this. You have to list everything you are bringing and, if the waiver (called ToR or Transfer of Residence relief) is awarded then you have one year in which to move everything, as long as nothing is younger than six months and that you keep everything for at least one year once you are in the UK. This was fine for us, all our gadgets are older than six months and we are of course keeping everything. So I prepared the very exhaustive spreadsheet, including velomobiles, spare bike tyres, cutlery, crockery, books, DVDs, various cameras and lenses, clothes, shoes… everything. I walked around our flat opening every drawer and cupboard and listing what was in there (toaster, steamer, rice cooker, blender…). We live in 80 square metres and it’s surprising to see how much stuff we have accumulated.
The ToR was awarded within a week which was very surprisingly fast. This meant that we can start moving our stuff over in December if we have space in the car when doing the visits.
I had been gathering removal quotes from Ipswich to Bury (the furniture) and from Kempen to Bury (our worldly goods). The UK quotes seemed all fine, but the Kempen to Bury quotes were huge – up to 4,000 €. This was partly as we were asking them to move the Velomobiles, but still. We decided instead to hire a Sprinter to transport the Velomobiles over in mid-January, and anything else we could fit in, and would do the rest of the move by car whenever we travelled over. We may end up hiring a smaller van for the final bits and bobs but that won’t be a problem.
We have the move from Ipswich to Bury planned for 16th January and then we are coming with the Sprinter on 21st January. I have booked visits to the UK every week in January and February but can of course cancel these if necessary. As you can see from this screenshot of my credit card account, Stena Line are doing pretty well from me (and I booked some of the other crossings with a different card!)
However, all of this is still cheaper than a removal company from Germany and I may well be able to cancel some of these (and I get a refund minus £6 which is OK).
Cakes this month
Klaus and I took Carl the Mercedes Benz out to Auffelder Bauerncafé where we shared cake with Lara.
And a few days later I had another appointment to meet Bella for cake. Originally we planned to go to Tönisvorster Obsthof but she had a minor car issue so I came to Krefeld instead – I parked at Schwanenmarkt and she met me and led me to Heinemann.
This was a two-caker visit.
One last thing to share with you, dear reader. This is the German translation of our Smart Life App, where we control the heat, lights, etc in our flat. It seems that the Chinese used the wrong “March” and “May”. March as a month in German is März, they have chosen the word for how soldiers walk. And May should be Mai, they have chosen the German equivalent of “may I do something?” It seems that translation programmes aren’t always optimal!
Next month we are visiting our new home a few more times as we have two trips to England planned (before Christmas and after Christmas), but it will be January when the real furniture move takes place and we stop basing ourselves at Mum’s house and instead in our new home. In the meantime the letting agents are checking in on the house and we are watching the gas meter readings as the weather gets colder!