One of those days!

Ginger Tom

It's been one of those days and yet that's okay. It hasn't been a disaster, our animals are doing okay, no one is ill, it was just work. Online meetings are fantastic in one way, until they're not. They are a handy way of connecting with colleagues from around the world. I'm even trying to set up a meeting with someone in Brazil to tell my students about what is happening there. It might not happen, but just the sheer thought that it is possible is quite amazing really. This morning I was trying to use Microsoft Teams to check a connection today for a meeting tomorrow. I've used it before so it shouldn't have been an issue, but which account? Tried one, no, tried another, no. One account lets me access the EU based seminar, but I can't use it due to work not using Microsoft Teams, or something like that. The other one wasn't registered as an EU account, sigh! Anyway it's sorted. I'm just being added as a guest. It was just an hour of my life, that's all.....

Yay! Nearly all gone! (5th March)

Or maybe not! (7th March)

Nearly finished. Not so happy about the top
but we'll see what we can do. 

Brexit reared its ugly head again this week too. I got a text from my mobile phone company reminding me that calls to the UK are no longer at EU rates. Oh yes! I had forgotten. I phoned last month to a company to arrange for a delivery to my father for his birthday and over the weekend I had phoned my parents to sort out a present for one of the grandson's. Last month's calls were listed and it was rather more than my more local calls. The one to my parents was longer, so going to be a bit expensive. No I'm not very good at phone calls and really neither are they and that's why we hadn't realised before now. 

Turbjørn still wearing his coat. He's still loosing 
some weight but Ian and he have come to an 
arrangement at putting away time. He's not daft.
He comes alongside Ian while the others are all
racing into the alpaca house to get ready for
their trays to be put down for them to eat from.
Ian surreptitiously feeds Turbjørn a few mouthfuls
in peace without the competition from the rest.

Christmas trees are still being enjoyed, apart from
Freddie who has seen something.

Mind you, I only really use my mobile phone for the internet anyway, I hardly phone anyone and hardly anyone phones me, except in an emergency. A phone call can almost induce a momentary feeling of panic because of this. Not that I'm a panicky sort but just might need to steel myself to take the call. If someone from work phones, it is because there is an urgent request, we normally arrange a meeting to talk or email. So of course my phone had to go off during a meeting with an organisation this week, just as I was about to introduce myself. If it had been five minutes later it would have been fine. Oh well! No harm done, I guess.

Antonia is starting to look very fluffy.

They tried their best to eat all the snow, but they
weren't fast enough in the end.

Christmas trees are just so yummy

It is kind of weird though that due to the strange times we are in, I am more connected to people in different countries than I am to the people who live across the hallway of our apartment block. I've mentioned my chat to someone in Brazil, but also there have been chats with folks in Germany, Slovenia, Portugal, France, Belgium. I've been arranging a virtual visit with a university in the UK, chats with my daughter in Australia and so on, It is winter here though and so people do tend to hibernate anyway and the brief spring-like weather we had last week didn't last and now we are almost back to where we started, knee-deep in snow - well maybe that is a slight exaggeration but not far off. By the time people emerge from hibernation, we've usually made the move out to our land.

Amanda looks so weary. I hope she is going to 
be a good mum.

The sun looks so warm but do not be deceived

I know Ian is moaning about the return of the 
snow, but it is so pretty

The vaccine roll-out here in Latvia has been slow and I'm not quite sure what's behind it yet. I know there have been some difficulties with supply but I gather there is more to it than that. At least now they seem to be ramping up the vaccination rate from a pitiful number to something that is more reasonable, but still at this rate everyone will be needing further rounds of vaccinations before anything like herd immunity is possible. In Estonia they are seeing rapid rises in cases, but fortunately not many of my colleagues have been affected. I think one of the reasons is that the Rector of the university was once a veterinarian and he seems to have ensured that the university responds in a very fast and robust manner to keep infections down. Thank goodness.

There are some amazing ice structure

Just a frosted plant really

And it twinkles and shines

Hailstones across the snow looks like
a moonscape

So not much mulling went on this last week, too many meetings for that. Still there are times to plough on ahead and times to sit and take in the scenery. So I will leave you with a poem I wrote a while ago. I may have even posted it on here before but not for a while anyway.

Winter’s last stand

The swelling buds speak of times to come

Peeking out from their furry coats

The soft wind whispers, “Soon”

The love-struck birds chirp in echo, “Soon”

The warming rays embrace the earth and murmurs sleepily, “Soon”

Winter screams back “Never!”

Covering the earth once more 

In a blanket of white.

But already his power is spent

He recedes

Thrashing into the waters of the raging river.

Losing his grip on the earth once more

Spring rises drowsily from her long sleep

Then racing with abandon

Lights the ground with a creeping verdant layer

Trees rush to embrace the warmth

Bursting with wavering branches, unfurling flags of the brightest green

Eager to pronounce the coming season.

Spring has come!

Soon!

Not quite the smooth snowy landscape of before

These two are fastened into the box to eat their
food. It used to be to stop them from snaffling 
Eyre's food but since Eyre is gone it is more to
stop them following Ian up to the alpaca houses
while he's trying to put the alpacas away at night.

A bit weird with all those little hailstones on the
snow

It was a bit vicious in the wind.

Winter's last stand?

An icy scene

Is it winter's last stand? Probably not, there maybe more snow again tomorrow, but in between spring peeks out and so did the poet in me

Chanel enjoying the snow. She is starting to show her
pregnancy

Winter’s last stand
The swelling buds speak of times to come
Peeking out from their furry coats
The soft wind whispers, “Soon”
The love-struck birds chirp in echo, “Soon”
The warming rays embrace the earth and murmurs sleepily, “Soon”
Winter screams back “Never!”
Covering the earth once more
In a blanket of white.
But already his power is spent
He recedes
Thrashing into the waters of the raging river.
Losing his grip on the earth once more
Spring rises drowsily from her long sleep
Then racing with abandon
Lights the ground with a creeping verdant layer
Trees rush to embrace the warmth
Bursting with wavering branches,
Unfurling flags of the brightest green
Eager to pronounce the coming season.
Spring has come!

At least we got to see the sun this week

Flags flying in the stiff breeze in Tartu
outside the gym of my university

It has been a week of meetings and writing. I had a meeting with my local colleagues in Tartu on the Tuesday and had the privilege of getting the key to the office for two whole days. I've given it back for now as I won't be up for a little while, or not that I know of anyway. The following day was a bit hectic and started early with a visit to the health centre for my employment health check. Everything was normal, little does she know then. Weight, a tad high because I've put some back on, but normal for my age. Waistline a centimetre too big, but normal for my age. Blood pressure, just towards the higher end, but normal for my age and not too high anyway considering I had to try and find the place first. Anyway you get the idea. I did find out I was a centimetre higher than I thought I was, so a whopping 153cm and not 152cm. Close!

Ian halter training Josefs

A view of the old and new parts of the university

The doctor asked me about the stresses of the job, potential risks etc, Did I have a proper chair to sit at the computer? Do I sit correctly? Errr! Of course... not! But I wasn't going to say that. I have installed an app on the computer to remind me to take my focus off the screen and to get up and move around though. The app started off at every 10 minutes but that drove me mad and so it is now set for every 20 minutes for a microbreak and longer breaks every hour. It still drives me mad, but I embrace the distractions as something necessary. She was surprised that I don't suffer from issues with my wrists as I don't use a keyboard for my laptop. I think I would have more issues with keyboards than my laptop, but each to their own I guess.

It was as cold as it looks

The benches by the river look a little empty at this time
of the year

The health check was an hour long and I had to get a taxi, paid for by the uni, to get to the office to join in the Skype meeting with my international colleagues. I was representing our team as one had to go to the doctors and the other was lecturing and couldn't get out of it - hence the taxi to make sure I was on time. This was followed by another meeting with my local colleagues since they were back in the office by the end of my Skype meeting to fill them in on what had been said. I then had a bit of time to work in the office before heading on down into town to get a bus card so I could then go to the Border Police to collect my new Estonian ID card. Phew!

Just a few days ago and we actually saw
grass, Ian saw some cranes were flying
over and we both saw geese. Today it
is back to white

This morning's sunrise

Thursday morning my friend took me down to the tax office. I had been told to go down there by the university personnel department, so I dutifully complied. I asked the lady at the desk if she spoke English, to which she replied "No!" very firmly. Hmmm! Good start! So in classic English style I explained very slowly what I needed. I suspected that she might know a little bit of English really and at least enough to get by and she did. She got out a form for me and I realised that it could be a bit of a problem for me, as it meant I would have to change my tax residency. Whilst it is okay to have more than one place to be resident, it is usual to choose only one place for tax residency. The lady at the desk called in a senior member of staff, who spoke English.

Someone's been out in the snow

Jakobs looking cute

I explained to the lady that although I work for an Estonian University, I worked most of the time from my home in Latvia. This would mean my tax residency should be Latvia. I also said, I really didn't want to change this at the moment due to Brexit, as it could cause me issues later. She smiled sympathetically and agreed. She explained the university just needed to put that I was non-resident. The university were worried about the travel expenses that were not covered in the budget to pay me for travelling up to meetings in Tartu. I explained that it was fine, just think of me as resident in Estonia for part of the time, just not the whole year and that would work. I also mentioned the B word to them too.

No alpaca was hurt in the making of this photo. 

The melting snow earlier on this week
has meant Ian was on drain duty, trying
to make sure all the water was running
away from the alpaca houses. 

The B word was mentioned more than once this week. I had to explain to my international colleagues that if they wanted a face to face meeting, then they would have to convene in Estonia because I might not be able to travel if the UK left the EU without a deal, until my status is settled. Oh yes! Less than three weeks away and I can make no guarantees to anyone about my status. Not as if we live in a war zone either. It is extremely exasperating, but there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, except watch the circus in the UK Parliament to see where it is going. What an absolute shambles.

Chanel, Veronica and Josefs all enjoying the sunshine

George thinks the sunshine is something to smile about
anyway

I had been keeping up with news on an expat Facebook forum and contributed a few comments from time to time. I was a little surprised to get a request to write an article for them. I took a bit of time to find out more about them and then decided to give it a go. It was only short and didn't take a huge amount of time to write. It was something swilling around in my brain anyway. I was quite pleased with the response to the piece, it seems to have hit the right note and people have been quite kind in their comments. (You can read it here)

So does Freddie. He wasn't so sure about having to stand
still to put cream on his legs the first time, but he now
just accepts the process

Even Herkules looks happy to see the sun

I finally made it out to the land to see the alpacas again. Not sure that the alpacas were so pleased to see me though, as the girls were given Vitamin D injections and Freddie had some of my magic cream applied to his legs. The first day I went out the paths were a bit icy but we could see more and more of the grass appear as the day went on. Today we are back to whiteout with heavy snow showers on and off in the afternoon. So I still haven't made it out skiing yet, but at least Freddie got some more of the magic cream and I Skyped with my Estonian colleagues from the caravan in a snow storm. It's a good job the caravan is still in the greenhouse at the moment.

George practicing his yoga

More sunbathing alpacas, this time Amanda and Silla

A cold, cold Winter

The cold morning when the car was slow to start and the temperatures ridiculously low, was also a beautiful day with the sun shining and glistening on the frosted trees and icy roads, so on the journey to take our neighbour to her lesson I jotted down a few thoughts to describe the day.

A cold, cold Winter

The intense cold has a fierce beauty,

the beguiling charms of a rose kissed, aqua tinted landscape.

The streams of liquid gold

lit by a low sun

that dances and sparkles through the ice covered trees

The crystal strewn fields shimmering,

inviting play

Smoke that barely rises

struggling to clear the heavy cold air

stretching out tendrils

twisting and turning

looking for escape.

The wind that cuts like a knife,

searching out the slightest vulnerability

reminding the unwary

that winter is without mercy

to those unprepared!