FR - On a perçé le mystère Franco-belge!

Travaillant avec plus de 20 nationalités différentes, on recherche souvent les points communs entre les cultures. L'un des points communs les plus discutés reste les préjugés que chaque pays peut avoir sur ses voisins plus ou moins proches.

Parlant hier avec des belges, on a réussi à percer ce mystère multi-séculaire, voire plus, du: Les français sont arrogants et les belges sont bêtes!
Qui n'a jamais entendu dire ou même cédé à la tentation de dire d'un belge qu'il était bête? Rassurez-vous, ils ne sont pas en reste en nous perçoivent comme arrogants!
Voilà, en fait l'explication est très simple et vient d'une incompréhension, qui en fait vient d'un mauvais usage de la langue française de la part des belges.
Un belge va exprimer la capacité par le verbe 'savoir' quand les français utiliseront le verbe 'pouvoir'.
Imaginez donc une conversation entre un belge et un français:

Le belge: Dis, tu saurais me donner l'heure?
Le français, ne bougeant pas d'un cheveux: oui je saurais...

De là le belge qui pense que le français ne veut pas lui donner l'heure, en conclu que le français est arrogant et se croit supérieur, et le français pense que le belge est bête de lui demander s'il sait lire l'heure!

L'un des préjugés les plus courants en France expliqué en deux minutes par deux belges et deux français autour d'une bière... c'est beau l'expatriation!

Prochain préjugé à expliquer... pourquoi les français pensent que les suisses sont lents? ;-)

UK Council Tax for newbies

Living in another country has its upsides, you get to rediscover a whole new way of living. But it's got its downsides as well, bills being one of them!
In the UK, on top of paying for the rent, you have to pay the council tax. I've heard many people not knowing exactly what it was or even people moving in a flat because the rent was rather cheap and then being in for a big surprise when receiving the first instalment of the council tax!
Better come prepared... here is a wee guide to the Council Tax for foreigners!

First off, the council tax includes water and sewerage services, so no extra bill to pay for your water consumption. Then you have to learn how it works.
There are 8 'bands', 'A' being the cheapest, 'H' the dearest. The price of the council tax depends on the value of the property, meaning if you have a two bedroom flat with a view on the sea you'll pay more than a one bedroom flat with view on the street, which makes sense.
The amount charged for Council Tax varies from county to county so I can't give exact figures. As an example here are the figures for my own county, North Ayrshire.
As said before, the Council Tax includes the water and sewerage services assessed and charged by Scottish Water. My 'current valuation banding' is 'D' which consists in a charge of £1152 per annum for the council tax part, add to this £171.72 for water charges and £194.13 for wastewater charge, thus a total of £1517.85 per annum.
You can either pay the whole amount once a year or get 10 instalments free of charge.
A band 'A' in my county means a total amount of £1,011.90 and a band 'H' of £3,035.70.

In the UK the fiscal year runs from April to April and the council tax is payable 10 months a year. This means that you have to pay 10 instalments from April to January and then you pay nothing in February and March.

If you share the accomodation, the council tax won't be multiplied but divided so each person will pay only a share of it. On the other hand, if you live on your own, you automatically get a 25% discount.

One last thing to know, just like any governmental charge, it will steadily increase!

What you need to remember when moving in the UK, is that the council tax is just as important as the rent so never signs a lease before checking the council tax band. As far as I know it is not the landlord's responsability to provide you with the band, so always check with the local authorities before agreeing to somehting you can't afford.
Last thing to look out for is whether the rent includes bills. You might find a bedroom in a share flat with a rent of £250 plus bills and go for it as it's pretty cheap considering. However, across the street there might be a bedroom with a rent of £320 all inclusive, and this would be a bargain. The electricity, gas, council tax and sometimes TV licence and others are included in the rent.

Finding a place to live in the UK is no nightmare and everything goes smoothly 9 times out of 10 even for foreigners, but it's always good to know what you'll be facing!

To find out more about the council tax in your county, here are a few links.

- Scottish Assessors: Information regarding the council tax in Scotland
- Valuation Office Agency: Counterpart for England and Wales
- DirectGov: Provides a list of all counties in the UK and the websites addresses.

Oban - Argyll and Bute

Howdy people!

It's time to get out of Largs and visit a bit around Scotland... the travelling season is back!
First on the list for this year was Oban, a wee town on the west coast of Scotland, right in the West Highlands.
In the great tradition of this country, there's nothing to do in Oban but plenty to see!

Well... there's a distillery so there might be something to do there after all.
If you ever stop in this port, do not hesitate to go and visit it, it's one of the smallest ones but it has this friendly ambiance to it and the guide will tell you everything there is to know about this single malt light whisky.
If you're tempted to go and visit the Sea life center a few miles out of Oban, please refrain from doing so if you expect something entertaining or even interesting... What they do for the sea life conservation is absolutely great and they ought to get money to keep doing what they do, problem is I'd be more enclined to actually make a donation than have to go through endless rooms full of fish tanks.

Although, to give them credit, you can actually feed some kind of sea bass or trout or whatever it was, which is pretty fun.
There have two seals which pretty much do nothing but sleep and eat, as for the otter(s?), well, this was a fun part as it's not very shy.

Needless to say I was less than impressed by this and unless you've never been to this kind of attraction or actually do like living fish, there's no a lot to do and see.

As for Oban itself, well, this is a charming little town, unfortunately packed with tourists, although as it's raining pretty much non stop up there, we had a pretty quiet day.
All in all, I wouldn't travel to Oban just for the sake of it, but taking the west coastal road up to the North of the country might be a very pleasant experience.

And if you ever go to Oban you have to stop by the shop called the Kitchen garne, they have the most amazing continental food I've ever seen in Scotland including some local beverages from Britanny.

However, please be aware of kamikaze sheeps on the road!

Here are a few pictures of the city.