I now know why I'm such a grumpy old man ...
Things to do in Denver ... when you're dead ... that was a decent film if I remember correctly. I used to live just outside of Denver, Colorado ... the good old U S of A ... I've no intention of going back their whilst the redneck oil king with the 75 IQ is in charge!
In the Icelandic teletext there is a page (130) where you can read the news in English. There were six pages which covered 11 news stories ... all of them, without exception, included the words 'bombing' and 'killed' ... Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libanon etc. ... that certainly cheered us up for the rest of the evening! One of the reasons we moved to Reykjavík, Iceland is it's relative safety as opposed to Manchester, England, where we moved from. It is worth noting that Iceland is part of NATO and has been occupied by the American army for a long time but the base is currently being closed down and by the end of September, the army should have all but gone. The government disagrees with me but I say good riddance ... it makes Iceland less of a target. I think it actually makes the place safer than it was when we decided to move here, for safety reasons.
That doesn't change the fact that our standard of living here on the edge of the Arctic circle is markably lower than it was in England. This is due to a few different factors. My wages are about 5,5% higher but the taxman and various other funds take almost 35% of that. The price of food is approximately 50% higher. Petrol is about the same but clothes for the children are nearer to 80% higher. (I got these percentages through a quick search on the internet and from memory ... they are not excact but not far off). Houseprices have stopped rising here but for the price of a four bedroom semi-detached (raðhús) with a garage and a garden in Wakefield, Yorkshire, we could buy a smaller three bedroomed flat in Hafnarfjörður, which is about twenty minutes drive out of Reykjavík. Good thing I don't smoke and drink anymore, we'd have no chance ... alcohol is approximately 100% more expensive ... yep 4 Great Britain Pounds for a pint of lager at a pub ...
This, added with the fact that Joanna cannot get her nursing licence and is hence not working means that we have to live on my wages soley ... that is pretty stressful as our current rent is 3/4 of my wages ... I do try and make these wages up by gigging but the gigging season is coming to a close and the rent will eventually be paid off with money we wanted to keep as a deposit on a house ... that deposit will slowly get lower ...
To make things more stressful the system here doesn't work. On more than one occation paperwork we have handed in with regards to our Identification numbers, benefits for childcare and more have been lost, we've had to pay up and then get things backpaid ... not ideal.
And now ... to top it all off ... they are saying that Jolyon, our 9 year old, cannot recieve his residence permit without papers that we cannot and will not get due to issues I won't go into here now (see TwoLands latest entry). To solve this problem they just need to look at the british law on the internet (I gave them the website) but they can't be bothered.
I ask ... is it worth it ... Joanna is bored and lonely, Jolyon is lonely but is thankfully settling in now he's started school ... Me and Elijah have benefitted most, Elijah, and Jolyon infact, have got to know Icelandic and their family on this side and I've learned a valuable lesson in how important it is to have friends around and how important playing music is to me. Although I see Joannas' friends as my friends, I didn't have any of my own friends whilst living in England, this was a bit of a family joke, and I don't want to go back to that. This is ironic as Joanna doesn't have friends here and would like to go back to her friends ... it's a dilemna.
This is why I've turned into the grumpy old man I described a few posts previously ... the change happened not when we moved to Iceland, but the day that Þjóðskrá lost my application form for change of address for the four of us moving from England to Iceland, which I handed in within seven days of us moving here. Since then they, and other government departments, have lost a few of these forms, making life more difficult than it already was, adjusting to a new culture and environment ... and now they don't want Joanna to work and Jolyon to live here ...
I give up! Iceland may be trying to get into the multi-cultural vibe but they certainly make sure that foreigners know that they are foreigners and not part of the Icelandic crowd!
In the Icelandic teletext there is a page (130) where you can read the news in English. There were six pages which covered 11 news stories ... all of them, without exception, included the words 'bombing' and 'killed' ... Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libanon etc. ... that certainly cheered us up for the rest of the evening! One of the reasons we moved to Reykjavík, Iceland is it's relative safety as opposed to Manchester, England, where we moved from. It is worth noting that Iceland is part of NATO and has been occupied by the American army for a long time but the base is currently being closed down and by the end of September, the army should have all but gone. The government disagrees with me but I say good riddance ... it makes Iceland less of a target. I think it actually makes the place safer than it was when we decided to move here, for safety reasons.
That doesn't change the fact that our standard of living here on the edge of the Arctic circle is markably lower than it was in England. This is due to a few different factors. My wages are about 5,5% higher but the taxman and various other funds take almost 35% of that. The price of food is approximately 50% higher. Petrol is about the same but clothes for the children are nearer to 80% higher. (I got these percentages through a quick search on the internet and from memory ... they are not excact but not far off). Houseprices have stopped rising here but for the price of a four bedroom semi-detached (raðhús) with a garage and a garden in Wakefield, Yorkshire, we could buy a smaller three bedroomed flat in Hafnarfjörður, which is about twenty minutes drive out of Reykjavík. Good thing I don't smoke and drink anymore, we'd have no chance ... alcohol is approximately 100% more expensive ... yep 4 Great Britain Pounds for a pint of lager at a pub ...
This, added with the fact that Joanna cannot get her nursing licence and is hence not working means that we have to live on my wages soley ... that is pretty stressful as our current rent is 3/4 of my wages ... I do try and make these wages up by gigging but the gigging season is coming to a close and the rent will eventually be paid off with money we wanted to keep as a deposit on a house ... that deposit will slowly get lower ...
To make things more stressful the system here doesn't work. On more than one occation paperwork we have handed in with regards to our Identification numbers, benefits for childcare and more have been lost, we've had to pay up and then get things backpaid ... not ideal.
And now ... to top it all off ... they are saying that Jolyon, our 9 year old, cannot recieve his residence permit without papers that we cannot and will not get due to issues I won't go into here now (see TwoLands latest entry). To solve this problem they just need to look at the british law on the internet (I gave them the website) but they can't be bothered.
I ask ... is it worth it ... Joanna is bored and lonely, Jolyon is lonely but is thankfully settling in now he's started school ... Me and Elijah have benefitted most, Elijah, and Jolyon infact, have got to know Icelandic and their family on this side and I've learned a valuable lesson in how important it is to have friends around and how important playing music is to me. Although I see Joannas' friends as my friends, I didn't have any of my own friends whilst living in England, this was a bit of a family joke, and I don't want to go back to that. This is ironic as Joanna doesn't have friends here and would like to go back to her friends ... it's a dilemna.
This is why I've turned into the grumpy old man I described a few posts previously ... the change happened not when we moved to Iceland, but the day that Þjóðskrá lost my application form for change of address for the four of us moving from England to Iceland, which I handed in within seven days of us moving here. Since then they, and other government departments, have lost a few of these forms, making life more difficult than it already was, adjusting to a new culture and environment ... and now they don't want Joanna to work and Jolyon to live here ...
I give up! Iceland may be trying to get into the multi-cultural vibe but they certainly make sure that foreigners know that they are foreigners and not part of the Icelandic crowd!
posted by Tóti Freysson at Tuesday, August 29, 2006
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