Merry Christmas to one and all, family, friends and visitors to our gite in France, some of whom have become friends.
We have had a very eventful first year in France and in September we officially became French residents and I now pay my tax and national insurance to the French government Yay!! I’m so happy about that.
We had a very busy season in the gite with lots of people to stay right up until mid October and have already let 9 weeks for next season with high hopes that the rest of the weeks will go after Christmas which is the busy time for people looking for holidays.
Next year the rules change in France and there is going to be the introduction of a new working condition for entrepreneurs. What that actually means is that you will be able to register a business as a self employed person and only pay tax on your earnings, whereas at the moment you are supposed to register your business and pay tax on assumed earnings whether you actually earn any money or not – CRAZEEEEY .
Ang and I are really looking forward to the change because it will give us both the opportunity to start legitimate businesses. I am going to advertise as a web designer and Angela will look for work as a seamstress, something that she has great talent for. So watch this space.
On a personal level we have also had a very interesting year, Angela discovered around about September time that she has another elder sister, who is happily married and has been living in Bermuda for the last 20 years. They have just retired and are now looking into living in Australia or perhaps New Zealand where they have children and grandchildren, so it is a very exciting time for them and their family with new babies also due at any time now.
We were very lucky to all be able to meet up in the UK where we were all attending a family wedding and Angela got to meet her new sister and her husband before they disappeared off to Australia. It was a very successful meeting and we are very happy to welcome Janice and her family into our family and now hope to make up for lost time. It was definitely a shock to everyone to find there was a new sister and emotions ran very high initially but I think now everyone has met and the shock has subsided that this is a very positive event in all our lives.
So a special Merry Christmas and Happy new year to all our new family who are all going to be together in Australia.
We also had a new addition to the family in the form of little Scarlett who was born on the 27th May to her proud parents in Gloucester in the UK, a little Bobby Dazzler with a lovely disposition and a happy smile for everyone.
That is it for my Christmas blog and message I hope that everyone who reads this has the opportunity for a nice Christmas and have no troubles in their lives that cannot be resolved.