This day has been eaten, utterly, by two things taking way longer than they were supposed to take: Finishing the dye experiment colour cards for a travelling exhibition (more about that soon), and donating blood.

Not that the donating itself would have taken longer - they toss you off the couch after 15 minutes whether you've managed to get your half litre drained or not - but somehow, the long line of people was processed only rather slowly. We haven't figured out where the bottleneck was, but it's not relevant anyways, apart from the fact that we stayed much longer in the location than expected.

Now there's the cat expecting to be cuddled and fed, there's the urgent wish for some coffee for my own part, and some more finishing up of things to be done.

[caption id="attachment_5757" align="alignnone" width="260"] Picture proof of just how much Madame the Cat was expecting to be cuddled - she hopped onto the desk just a short while after I sat down to write this post.


Meanwhile, you might want to skip over to Alex Makin's blog and read her interview with Celia Elliott-Minty about tablet weaving!

I've mentioned my or our quest to reduce plastic, especially single-use plastic, in our life. It's still ongoing, this quest, of course - and some things prove to be trickier than others.

For instance, it's fairly easy to get some things free of any packaging. There's a shop selling fairtrade coffee in Erlangen where you can bring your own container. (Not currently, as they are closed under the restrictions of the lockdown, but generally, they are there.) Oil and vinegar can be bought in a shop offering liquids from the vat, so you can get as much or as little as you want into your own bottle, very handy. Dry legumes, such as beans and lentils, and pasta are available in bulk with reasonable (or no) packaging, for reasonable prices (maybe with a little bit of searching). For fresh produce, we've been going to the market anyways, and there's unpackaged stuff in the supermarket as well, where you can bring your own nets or bags to pack it and carry it home.

Milk products were one of our main waste producers for a good while, but we've found nice Quark sold in deposit glasses, and we're getting our milk straight from the farm these days - there's a filling station, you bring your own bottle, and pump as much raw milk as you would like. Right beside that machine there's a vending machine with eggs and potatoes as well. We also found the one brand of butter that is wrapped in (special, but plastic-free) paper only. So... lots of things dealt with.

We are willing, by the way, to forego quite a few things instead of buying them plastic-wrapped; but for most of our staple daily-life things, we have sources now.

The last troublesome items on our regular shopping list are meat and fish... and decaf coffee. Meat and fish are still mostly unsolved problems, partly due to current Corona-induced hygiene restrictions, so that's something where we try to reduce the plastic consumption but accept that it is not zero just yet.

Decaf coffee is consumed more than regular coffee in our household, and the shop in Erlangen doesn't offer decaf... so we did stick with our previous solution for a while, which was a delicious, fair trade decaf packaged in the usual plastic bag. Now, though, we've found a supplier for decaf coffee beans, willing to send things in paper upon request (which is necessary due to some other weird German regulations) - selling fair trade coffee roasted by hand by himself, with lots of passion. Hooray! Plus I'm endlessly amused by the name of his shop: Dr. Kaffee's Röstorium. (We all know by now I'm easily amused, right?)

And now... I think I'll have some coffee.

 
 
 

It's Friday, the cat is sleeping, and everything is "back to normal" as in "I thought I'd get much, much more done this week".

At least we have proper winter weather here at the moment, with temperatures below zero and a nice snow cover on the ground. That makes cycling a bit slower, and somewhat both more exciting and more exhausting, but it is feeling really good to have season-adequate weather for a change. (It's also really, really good for the bees, who need colder weather so that the varroa mite situation can be kept under control in the hives.)

So while I'm trying to catch up a bit, here's some links for your delectation and procrastination possibilities!

British History Online is offering all their research free online until April, to make things a little easier for everyone during the lockdown. The online content includes the Calendar of Close Rolls, covering the reigns of Henry III to Henry VII (1244 to 1509).

If that's not colourful enough for you, here's a textiles, garments, and dye glossary. It's an ongoing project for terms from the 17th century.

There's a seminar series called "The Silk Road seminar series", run via Zoom, on several Mondays and some Fridays. It's hosted by the UCL Institute of Archaeology; find out more about it here.
Finally, here's the archive of the Zeitschrift für Lübeckische Geschichte.

Have fun, and a nice weekend!

So, the state of things? It looks like we're all stuck in a new lockdown at the moment, end: unclear. At least that's the case for Germany, where we're all pretty sure that the lockdown-like thing we currently have will not be ending with January, but continue on. Politicians have not mentioned anything resembling a hint towards a possible end date yet; I think there's enough insecurity about what to do by now, and insecurity about whether the current measures taken are enough or not.

We're still getting very high numbers, and they are still deemed "not reliable" due to the holidays and weekends. Though we're two weeks into the new year, there were the Christmas holidays, then there was a sunday, then New Year (which is a bank holiday here), then right after it the weekend, then two theoretically normal workdays followed by a bank holiday at Epiphany, then two workdays, then the weekend. All this means we're actually in the first full, normal work week since Christmas right now, and according to some of the communications coming from the RKI (Germany's centre for the Numbers of Doom), there's still some catching up being done. Plus there was less testing over the past few weeks, with a very high positive rate in the tests done.

All of this means we have no clue how things stand. Apart from, obviously, not being very good. There's more than a thousand deaths daily these days, and some regions have 7-day incidence counts of more than 500. There's less home officing than in the spring lockdown, though, which may play a part in numbers not falling, along with (of course) anything pandemic-spready done during Xmas and New Year.

At least vaccination has started, and of course there's a lot of bitching about this or that not working right, or it all not going fast enough, or whatever. We're in Germany, after all, where complaining is an art form and must always be done if there is any possibility at all. Me and the Most Patient Husband of Them All are in the last of the six priority tiers that Germany has; my gran, on the other hand, with her scant 99 years of age, has gotten her first shot last Saturday, while my dad (who technically is also in tier 1) with his 80 years was still "too young" and has to wait a bit longer. It would have been more efficient (and, if you ask me, more sensible) to give both of them and my Mum their shots at the same time, since it's one household and my mum takes care of my gran (theoretically lifting her into tier 1 even though age-wise she's tier 2), but they seem to do things strictly by age in their district. Which may not be the smartest or most efficient thing, but at least it's making the decisions on who gets the shots at what time easier, and hard to argue with if you're younger and thus have to wait a bit.

And now I've complained enough to prove that yes, I'm a German! Because at least things are rolling, and people are getting shots, and the politicians are thinking about what to do if the current restrictions do not cut the cheese. Case in point: Bavaria's head-of-substate Söder, who has decreed that FFP2-masks are compulsory when in shops and public transport in Bavaria, starting on Monday. That came out yesterday (or was it day before yesterday?) - so it's fairly short notice, and these masks are not really cheap (somewhere between 1,50 and 5 €, or so). There's been a lot of talk about this, and lots of complaints. Nobody knows whether it will make a dint in the numbers yet - but that's the thing: We're running out of "soft" options, and out of some of the harder ones too. Schools are already closed. Businesses (apart from retail of non-essential stuff) are still open; closing all those down is one of the really hard options left. More home office would be a thing, and it's in the talks. Some hotspots get restricted to a 15 km radius of movement, measured from the settlement's limits (which is still a very, very large area). But otherwise? There's not too much left, so exploring whether better personal protection helps is, I think, not the most stupid of actions.

Here's hoping it will help, and that numbers will get lower soon.

Comments to yesterday's post (online and offline) made me realise that the German system of proof of identity is not familiar to everyone - especially, it seems, to those on the islands in the West of Europe.

So, just in case you find this as interesting as some others, here's the rundown.

In Germany, you have to own at least one proof of identity that is current and valid: Either a passport (Reisepaß, literally "travel pass(port)") or an ID card (Personalausweis, literally "personal pass" or "personal identification document", something like that). You are not obliged to always carry it with you, though it's recommended, but you have to own one and to show it upon request by a policeman. (Which, if you are not having it on you, means that you need to show up at a station and present it to them within a set amount of time.)

The Reisepaß has the size and format you're probably familiar with, while the Personalausweis is about the size of a credit card, which means it's much more handy to take along with you. I have mine in my wallet together with my driving license and the car paper proving that I'm the possessor of the car (not necessarily the owner, there's a second paper for that), and that has all my ID-ing needs covered.

The Personalausweis has a number similar to a passport number, so it can serve not only as a national ID, but works for travel across borders as well - most countries within the European continent are covered by this, and some outside of it (though having a passport is recommended for some of them). Because the proper passport is only necessary for travel outside Europe, and the ID card is cheaper to get (37 € instead of 60€), and more handy, a lot of Germans go for the ID card, getting a passport only if they need it. In 2007, close to 30 million Germans had a passport - that is significantly less than half of our population, which is currently about 84 million.

Since, as stated in the comments, I'm not a very adventurous traveller regarding the destinations, the Personalausweis has been enough for all my travelling needs, and hence no Reisepaß for me.

I have found my old passport again, by the way - it was in the box where the more orderly person in our household keeps such things, sitting right beside his (also expired) passport. Mine passed its expiry date back in 2005... and I think I got that one issued because I had applied for a summer excavation job in Turkey (which didn't happen) and would have needed it in that case.

Speaking of expiry dates - has any other country a driving licence that, like the German one, does not expire?

So Brexit has happened - with a last-minute deal, at least that. I'd fully been expecting it to be a no-deal hard Brexit, after all the to and fro and inabilities, or unwillingness, to settle on all kinds of things.

The way it's now, though, is bad enough. These days, it will require a passport, which I'd need to get (I have no clue where my old one is stashed, but since it's been years and years since I last needed it, I'm sure it's been expired for ages anyways), and taking home some delicious foodstuffs as souvenirs, like we always did, is out. You can't even take a ham sandwich for your own consumption into the EU from the UK anymore. With the pandemic still in full swing everywhere, though (and looking at the numbers, lovely London is one of the last places I'd want to travel to right now), it does look like it might be a while until we go to Britain again for a holiday anyways.

Much worse than waiting for a while to return to one of our favourite countries for our own fun and leisure, though, are the work-related aspects of the Brexit - and those also hit me personally, and to my great dismay.

As of January 1, I will unfortunately not be able to sell goods to the UK anymore. So I'm now shipping worldwide... with the exception of the UK. Seriously, it's easier and less hassle to ship wool to Australia now than to sell anything to the UK. Why? Your answer has two words: No Threshold.

All countries except UK have an import threshold, which means that as long as you only sell and ship small amounts of things, with a limited overall value, to said country, you do not need to register for VAT there. You pay the taxes in your own country, and that's it. At some point, when you export much more than the tiny fish like me do, you'll need to register in the other country; but below the threshold, it's considered to be just not worth the paperwork and hassle and time consumed on all sides.

Brexit Britain does not see it like this. They have ruled that there is no threshold, which means that as soon as you sell to GB for just one single penny, you will have to register for VAT there. Registration and being in the register may or may not mean a fee incurred, but even if it's free, it would mean I'd need to fill out extra paperwork every quarter year, sales or no sales.

That in itself would be a hassle, but one I'd still consider. Now comes the clincher, though. If I make any sales, I need to pay the VAT to a British account, which means a bank transfer from EU to non-EU and with a currency change inbetween. That means that in the very best case, I pay a currency conversion fee plus close to 10 € for the bank transfer itself. In the worst case, bank transfer fee is about 40 €. For one single transfer! So if I sell stuff to the UK for 10 €, I send 2 € to the UK and pay somewhere between 10 and 40+ € to my bank for this privilege.

Is that ridiculous, or is it ridiculous? So that means I'll not sell things there from my shop anymore. Should there be a change in UK policy, I'll obviously reconsider - also if someone decides to buy half my shop stock, racking up an enormous bill that would make me a rich woman at once, I'll reconsider. Until then, though... good-bye, shipments across the Channel.

I'm very, very sorry that I have to do that, especially as Britain is a place I really love. Here's hoping things will get better again in the future, and easier for small traders like me - not because I'm getting less revenue with no orders from the country, but because I can imagine how heartbreaking and sad it must be if you live there, and would like to have nice things from across the borders, and the people making and selling these nice things just can't send them with reasonable terms...

Happy New Year to you!

I hope you had a good transition into 2021, and that it may bring you joy and see you in good health throughout!

We've very much enjoyed our time off, even though things were much different from how we usually spend both the holidays around Christmas and New Year's eve plus the days afterwards. There was no larger family gathering at Christmas, but we did get to see both sets of parents, spaced apart to make sure there was no risk of carrying any bugs from here to there. There was also no hanging out with a bunch of friends like we usually do - so we ended up having a fondue with just the two of us (delicious, but a little weird, and not as much fun as having a whole group around the table), and having our traditionally "toasting mousse au chocolat", and chatting with friends via videochat instead of being together in real life. There were walks, and boardgames, and mini painting (more about that later), and generally we had a really nice time.

Now it's back to the usual work for both of us. One of the first tasks, of course, is catching up on emails and other things that came in, and sorting out those. For me, that also means doing all the start-of-year bureaucracy things, such as tax-related stuff (Germany is going back to 19% VAT rate), and this year, no hooray for that, also figuring out the impact of Brexit on my shop. Which has happened by now, but deserves its own post!

Like in the preceding years, I spent some of the time painting miniatures. The last batch that was finished has long since gone off to its new home together with the game, because one of our friends definitely needed their own copy of Flashpoint... and we'd actually run out of minis in our own games.

[caption id="attachment_5741" align="alignnone" width="300"] The finished Flashpoint minis.


Originally, the Flashpoint guys are all solid colour in the player colours, and there's six of them. I've painted only the figures themselves, leaving the bases in the player colour base, and adding the corresponding colour stripe as a detail to the oxygen tank they all carry on their back.

The minis are not very detailed, but there's enough of it to serve as a guideline when painting, and I had a lot of fun trying to do the day-glo and reflection stripes on the jackets and trousers as close to US firefighter reality as possible. I've also tried to hint at fire reflecting in the face shields, more or less successfully. Most importantly, though, I did have fun.

Also, comparing them to the minis in our own FP game, it was very obvious that I've gotten some more practise! Flashpoint were the very first ones that I ever painted, and the colour range was more limited back then, plus I didn't look up the actual real-life uniforms. They do look quite, quite different as a result (though I'm not unhappy with ours at all).



Plus there were two last unpainted special minis for our own game, so I did get to add some of the newer style, and painted with a somewhat defter hand, to our collection.

And then... there were no more minis left. Which started to feel a bit sad with the end of year approaching, because it's been a favourite pastime during that time for the last years. Fortunately, another friend of ours has plenty of games with plenty of miniatures, and not the time and ambition to paint them all himself. So he was able to come to my rescue, and I'm now good for another while painting the fancy cubes from Quodd Heroes...

How was your transition into 2021? Did you do things "as typical as possible", or something completely different?