How soon after Brexit will you....

[Kim]

Non-Anglophone Africa might be good.

At least until they try to work out what to do with your passport.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Non-Anglophone Africa might be good.

At least until they try to work out what to do with your passport.

Will it make any difference? We're not Schengen anyway so never part of a common visa policy, even if such applied to Sao Tome or wherever.

[barakta]

I'm being encouraged to apply for a disability/LGBTI conference in Brussels on 21-24 Nov... I don't know if that is foolish or not...

[Jakob W]

I've got a conference in Leeds that week; I'm just hoping the breakup of the UK is slow enough that I don't get stopped at the border of the West Riding People's Republic...

(If I were betting I'd say Eurostar would probably be OK, albeit with extra delays)

[Kim]

I've got a conference in Leeds that week; I'm just hoping the breakup of the UK is slow enough that I don't get stopped at the border of the West Riding People's Republic...

But you'd be on the good side of the border...

[perpetual dan]

I'd have thought being away and having literal and metaphorical distance would be less stressful. Perspective, being surrounded by people with other preoccupations, not hearing, reading and talking about it 24/7. I'm assuming that away means abroad; another continent would be even better. Non-Anglophone Africa might be good.

Rather like a long fall, it’s not so much the being away as the getting back! Away is France. In Mrs Dan’s view, a place to stay which she’s expected to leave on the 2nd, while Pfeffel does random shit with visas, whether planes are flying, and whether the pound is worth anything in euros just makes for an anxious build up. There’s also a certain amount of goodwill involved in being a tourist, and the french may be short of that if our government keeps putting its feet on the furniture. She’s also going to a new job soon after, so could really do with the week back to sort out moving.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Does Mrs Dan have a UK passport? If not and she's EU27, does she have settled status? If the answer's yes to either of these, I wouldn't actually worry about getting back. But as for money, change it now, it's only going to fall (before it dives). (My wild prediction only, I have no special knowledge of FX markets!)

[Phil W]

I'll be back in Ireland in June 2020 for WAWA The Homecoming.  I'll be aiming to make it across that back stopped border come what may.  No plans before that but will sure some trips will be made.

There is an old story, I heard many years ago, and I can't even remember the countries involved. A man kept riding his bike, regularly and frequently across the border, did so for twenty or more years. The border guys were convinced he was smuggling something, but searched his luggage and person, and always came up with nothing.  In the end, they asked him outright, what he'd been doing. Smuggling bikes was the reply.

[Kim]

That urban legend crops up in all sorts of variations.  The one I've mostly seen involves stealing wheelbarrows from an employer.

I've heard of it used in real life to steal a high-end office chair by using it to transport a legitimately given-away CRT monitor to the car park.

[Séamas M.]

"Oh you are Irish, are you?  Just say Augher, Clogher and Aughnacloy for me now, would you?"

Did you forget Aghoghill? Seem to remember the Real Ian Paisley complaining about the appointment of a Secretary of State for NI who couldn't pronounce that one!

[Cudzoziemiec]

True story from one of my former TEFL pupils in Poland: She grew up in a small village near Krosno on the border with what was then Czechoslovakia. In the early 80s Poland was bankrupt and various items* were rationed or simply not available but you could still cross the border (other than for about 12 months during martial law) and no visa was required to enter Czechoslovakia. Nevertheless, border crossings were time consuming and bureaucratically demanding** and frequent crossings returning with Czechoslovak goods would be liable to attract official attention. But if you were a little girl on a bike, you were just waved through no questions asked and could return with a basketful of all the things your mum had asked you to get! I presume Czechoslovak banks would exchange Polish currency.

*Meat, confectionery, tobacco, alcohol, clothing were only on ration cards. Furniture was only distributed to newly weds and citrus fruit was imported (from Cuba) once a year, in time for Christmas. Toilet paper was only available in exchange for old paper, 1kg got you one roll. Bread, matches and for some reason vinegar were the only items reliably available in shops. Inhabitants of rural areas did not get meat vouchers as it was assumed they kept their own animals.

**You didn't get a passport to keep, you had to apply for it in advance of each foreign visit, with proof of planned trip etc, and return it when you reentered the country. While you were abroad, your national ID card, needed for various other bureaucratic procedures, was held in the passport office to be returned when you handed back your passport.

[Phil W]

"Oh you are Irish, are you?  Just say Augher, Clogher and Aughnacloy for me now, would you?"

Did you forget Aghoghill? Seem to remember the Real Ian Paisley complaining about the appointment of a Secretary of State for NI who couldn't pronounce that one!

I can't even pronounce Ballina correctly much to the amusement of Eamon. So I'd never pass.

[Gattopardo]

I'm being encouraged to apply for a disability/LGBTI conference in Brussels on 21-24 Nov... I don't know if that is foolish or not...

Can come with you, to scoff the cheeses and wine.   

[Gattopardo]

True story from one of my former TEFL pupils in Poland: She grew up in a small village near Krosno on the border with what was then Czechoslovakia. In the early 80s Poland was bankrupt and various items* were rationed or simply not available but you could still cross the border (other than for about 12 months during martial law) and no visa was required to enter Czechoslovakia. Nevertheless, border crossings were time consuming and bureaucratically demanding** and frequent crossings returning with Czechoslovak goods would be liable to attract official attention. But if you were a little girl on a bike, you were just waved through no questions asked and could return with a basketful of all the things your mum had asked you to get! I presume Czechoslovak banks would exchange Polish currency.

*Meat, confectionery, tobacco, alcohol, clothing were only on ration cards. Furniture was only distributed to newly weds and citrus fruit was imported (from Cuba) once a year, in time for Christmas. Toilet paper was only available in exchange for old paper, 1kg got you one roll. Bread, matches and for some reason vinegar were the only items reliably available in shops. Inhabitants of rural areas did not get meat vouchers as it was assumed they kept their own animals.

**You didn't get a passport to keep, you had to apply for it in advance of each foreign visit, with proof of planned trip etc, and return it when you reentered the country. While you were abroad, your national ID card, needed for various other bureaucratic procedures, was held in the passport office to be returned when you handed back your passport.

Wasn't just the one as I heard that too.

My ancestors may have done the same in Italy but a little more black marketeering.

[bludger]

During my tour to Germany and back last year I stayed in an Airbnb with a Bosnian woman running the place. She advised me to start stockpiling and hoarding jewels by burying them somewhere. I didn't take it seriously at the time...

[spesh]

There is an old story, I heard many years ago, and I can't even remember the countries involved. A man kept riding his bike, regularly and frequently across the border, did so for twenty or more years. The border guys were convinced he was smuggling something, but searched his luggage and person, and always came up with nothing.  In the end, they asked him outright, what he'd been doing. Smuggling bikes was the reply.

I seen that one in the past in a Cold War-era eastern European setting, but flexing my Gargle Fu suggests that the USA-Mexico border is one that's crossed most by the bike smuggler.

[FifeingEejit]

Hmm, reminds me how are those plans for a 'frictionless electronic border' coming along. We must surely be ready to roll out that technology by now?

Electronic my eye. Sure all they need to do is put in a theoretically hard border but make sure it's staffed by people who have family both sides. They can just wave folk through and say nothing, as long as they have the right accent.

"Oh you are Irish, are you?  Just say Augher, Clogher and Aughnacloy for me now, would you?"

People movement isn't the problem with the Irish border, the UK and the free state came to an agreement that no brit is an alien in Ireland and vice versa, hence for example why Irish citizens can vote in UK elections.

The problem is controlling and charging what they are carrying on them.

This would be considerably simpler if the border was one formed by years of political existence into the past such as the norwevian/Swedish one (which has open crossings for people (many of which are footpaths or forest tracks) and approved crossings for goods, take goods over the wrong one and the customs officers are chasing you) or the Scotland/England one which has about 40 crossing points most of which are footpaths or forest tracks.

The Irish border was invented in the 1920s by slicing an ancient country across a line defined by majority religion and political persuasion.

Theres something like 600 different border crossings and that's before you get to counting the ones in people's houses and office blocks.

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

[perpetual dan]

Does Mrs Dan have a UK passport? If not and she's EU27, does she have settled status? If the answer's yes to either of these, I wouldn't actually worry about getting back. But as for money, change it now, it's only going to fall (before it dives). (My wild prediction only, I have no special knowledge of FX markets!)

If it was me, I’d go (with an empty case for smuggling bog roll back in) - In the early 90s I came back from France with no passport or money. But I speak enough french to get by, was camping anyway, had no job to get back to and wasn’t looking for a relaxing week off with the kids. :shrug:

[hatler]

In May '89 I pitched up at Dover at 4am in a LWB Landy stuffed to the gunnels with several people's ski season kit and no passport (it having been stolen in Cervinia).

The chap checking the arrivals listened to one line of explanation and let me on my way. And going this way (as opposed to the way out) meant I didn't have about £200's worth of explosives in the back of the Landy.