Thursday, September 28, 2006

The Yellow Card ,,,

I'm sitting here surrounded by papers from the various 'projects' I'm working on.

'Projects' translates into 'free stuff I do to remain useful as a world citizen and pretend that there is a reason for me to exist here in Belgium' ... the emphasis being on 'free' ... and that's me hoping that if I do these projects pure of heart and with good intention then karma will find its own way into my life.

Anyway I can't resist an interesting project and I'm meeting so many people as a result.

Complaining ...?
Not really, just slightly rueful about money. It happens sometimes, I've twice dreamed about having my hair returned to the delicious state that my Turkish hairdressers kept it in, although the first dream was one where Audrey, the Coronation Street hairdresser, offered ...

Big news (in Di World anyway) yesterday I learned that I have my Yellow Card ... this allows me 5 years in Belgium and makes me legal to work here.

Of course there's always a catch ... it's another 5euro for paperwork, and just one more passport photograph. They forgot to mention these things on my previous almost informative District Huis visit ... I think they realise they're going to miss my New Zealand accent and wanted to draw out the last of my regular visits.

Next week I move 70euro of Gert's money towards the people who give out VAT numbers and voila, there's a rumour that I'm then ready for business.

Okay, so there are the small things like finding a really good accountant because, here in Belgium, succeeding in a small business apparently means having a truly talented accountant. And I have to work out social security payments and business cards ... publicity and ecetera but a yellow card ... I have a yellow card therefore I exist.

6 comments:

Pam said...

Congrats AND sympathy! I hold the Austrian equivalent, but then we had to pay a zillion euros so I could work on contract and then, whoop, suspend it again when my project ended... but that is not where I meant to go. I meant to say, "Hallelujah!" And here's hope it's a step on the road to living in 3-D as opposed to that wierd dimension of limbo.

Di Mackey said...

Lol PAM!

Can you imagine nothing like this was mentioned at Districthuis, so I'm just going to take it on good faith that I'm out of the twilight zone for now ... 3D, nice description of what might just be possible now.

Anonymous said...

Woohoo, Yellow!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on obtaining your yellow card! Belgium is a crazy country if they can not see what a wonderful asset you will be to their workforce! All the best to you as you start your own business!

Di Mackey said...

Woohoo manic ... but you're the only one 'woohooing' - suddenly I find that this leads to the question 'So how is your Nederlands?'

It must be a yellow card thing and I'm thinking, 'Hey, I've been a year without income, I've jumped through hoops and now you want fluent Nederlands too?'

It seems I am more of a grouchy old heks than I realised ;)

Di Mackey said...

Hey thanks javacurls - I hope it all works out with the business. Let's see how it goes :)