Feierabend

Thanks all for good wishes and tips. Plan b has now moved to plac c as other son is now going to come down here into the sticks on Sunday and drive me into Berlin early Monday - allowing for extra heavy motorway traffic ... Son 1 will then collect me after the op and shepherd me onto various buses to get to his place. Hopefully I will be rewarded with lasar like vision after op no. 2 next week!  

It worked! Wonders! (Any bets the buses will go out in sxmpathy?)

Will try thank you! All the best laid plans ....

As it looks like the S-Bahn as well ad DB will also be striking on Monday (27th) I need to plan a route to get to my scheduled eye op, if the clinic doesn't cancel. My usual travel apps all give bus/Bahn combinations. Is there a route planner for buses alone? The online maps are a nightmare to follow.

I was quite enjoying 'Alleerste Sahne' on Vox; similar idea but with five amateur contestants who took turns at trying to reproduce each others' party-piece cake on subsequent days. Naturally with no recipe and only a few minutes to taste the original cake, guess and find the appropriate ingredients from the shelves. Which led to some highly creative reconstructions when one didn't guess or find a crucial ingredient ...! But it seems the ratings after a few short series were not good enough to continue the show.

I only discovered last week after two decades that the button is actually underneath the yellow cover thingy and me automatically walloping the top was futile... The polite young man who told me probably saw my  silvery hair and thought the poor dear is demented!

Thank you very much! This is what I thought but you summarised it very well so I can explain clearly! X

Our Steuerberater is requesting the P60s on our UK State Pensions, which has not happened before. He has the P60s for our other UK pensions. But I don't think we get a P60 on the state pensions, or am I going senile?! (They also do not automatically issue an annual statement of benefits, which I did manage to get from them. But that's not a P60.) Please unconfuse me if necessary!

Thanks Robinson. I have grown it before but I actually prefer the dried herb. Was just puzzled why it seems to have disappearwd from the shops, around here anyway

I ran out of dried tarragon at least a couple of months ago and can't find it in any of the usual supermarkets.

Yes. What's the betting it will increase? Sob!

I used an online calculator, it may have been this one, to get an idea of what the new charge will be. Surprise surprise, it's nearly tripled ... https://grundsteuer.de/rechner/

What constituency would we vote in? The last place in which we lived? (Maybe Theresa May could found a new 'Citizens of Nowhere' constituency.)

No, I'm not mixing them up. I'm not talking about tax or effect on the German state pension. I do not have a private health insurance. I'm talking about the effect a company (Betriebs) pension has on your Kkasse contributions, once you are retired. The OP was asking about the ramifications of taking out a company pension. Looking at my statement from the TK for last year: •The contributions on the portion of my pension that is company based is 14.6% Krankenversicherung plus 3.05% Pflege. •The contributions on my UK state pension are respectively 7.3% plus 3.05%. •Similarly the Contributions on the German state pensions.

One thing to bear in mind is the effect of having a company pension on your Krankenkasse contribtions when you get your pension. Unlike with the State pension, which treats the state like an employer and therefore pays roughly half your contributions, you are charged the full whack on the company one, plus the Pflegeversicherung component. Approx 19%. This comes as a hefty blow if you haven't been expecting it. Now, I have only just read that new regulations are coming (have come?) into force, giving an allowance of €169.75, after which you are charged 16.2% health plus  3.4% Pflege on the balance. This would make quite a difference. I haven't seen it in my bank statement yet so will enquire to check that I have not misunderstood. Perhaps our resident experts know? Source: https://www.test.de/Betriebsrente-Entlastung-bei-Krankenkassenbeitraegen-fuer-Betriebsrenten-5147958-0/#:~:text=F%C3%BCr%20alle%20Betriebsrenten%20gilt%20mittlerweile,m%C3%BCssen%20dann%20Beitr%C3%A4ge%20gezahlt%20werden.