Tomasz Oryński
@TOrynski
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NO LONGER FULLY ACTIVE HERE 🇵🇱🇬🇧🇨🇿 Freelance journalist, podcaster, translator, trucker. Left UK after 17 yrs due to Brexit. Verified... On Mastodon.
Helsinki
Joined December 2013
I really wanted to stay and watch the binfire up close, so I am not deleting my account yet, but I decided it's no longer worth being active here, so I am fading away. Despite having fewer followers on the other sites, there is much more life there for me, so. Thanks for all!
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I quit my job in October hoping for the new one but it did not work out, so for the second time in my life I am unemployed long enough to qualify for a jobseeker's benefit. In Scotland, I'd get up to £84.80 per week. Here in Finland, I am getting €91.85. PER DAY.
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I am sorting my dashcam footage from last couple of month and got to my car journey from Glasgow to Helsinki and I thought it can show you nicely what Brexit means . (a small 🧵).
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13. So this is it. It's not COVID. It's not the ferries. It's not the diesel prices and Russian invasion of Ukraine. It's not pan-European HGV driver shortage. It's not lack of freeports or any other Tory bullshit. It's just Brexit. As we've been warning you. THE END
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How an Ukrainian village armed with two flags defeated two Russian tanks:. 1. 4 Russian tanks enter village. Villagers watch carefully from distance. Russians transfer fuel from two of them to other two, get onto those two and leave the two dry tanks in the village.
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I am watching a movie clips about @elonmusk's Tesla Semi - remember, the truck that was to revolutionize the transport industry when it entered the market 4 years ago 🤡. And I am going to tell you'all why it is a completely stupid vehicle. And I won't even want to talk about (1).
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A British journalist asked me if I can out him in touch with some drivers in Poland. I gave him two contacts. He's back to me now saying their English is not good enough. FFS you want to speak to Polish people in Poland, what about getting a reporter who's Polish is good enough?.
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Someone reminded me of that thread today, so ill tell you something. I live in Finland now. Some time ago I left my job hoping to get another one. It didn't worked out and I became unemployed. (A secondary thread).
Funny story. I had a car accident in 2008. Some driver rear ended me when I stopped at the red light. I got no help whatsoever, because it happened 2 weeks *before* my 24 months of continuous residence in the UK was completed. A wee thread:.
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Polish trucking magazine reports: A Polish truck driver entered Kent on Monday with valid Kent permit. He turned up at Ashford when they told him that his documents need to be double-checked, so he was sent to a different truck park to wait. 1/4.
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Meanwhile in Poland: .- a heavy bomb smashed through the roof of some guys' house in 1945. - Soviet sappers came, look at it and said "it's nothing to worry about". - so the guys just fixed the floor and continued to live there. (1)
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2. Villagers plant Ukrainian flags on those tanks. 3. The other two tanks return, see tanks with Ukrainian flags and open fire, destroying them completely. Keep driving around looking for their other two tanks.
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4. One of the yanks drives onto a bridge with 5 tonnes weight limit. the bridge collapses, tanks falls into the river, everyone inside dies. 5. The other tank keeps driving around, get lost and finally gets stuck in the ditch. Russians get out of it and walk away.
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9. I enter the area at 4:56 am and by 5:13 as the last clip ends I am still far from the end of it. And this is. my dear Britons, why you can't have nice things anymore.
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If you want to travel from Glasgow to London, your options, starting from the cheapest, are:.- EasyJet: £19.49.- Megabus: £19.99.- Driving (according to ViaMichelin it would cost £70.70 in petrol to drive my car on that route).- Train £83.70. Something is wrong here.
This is the age of the plane. On 1 April, Air Passenger Duty will be halved for UK domestic flights. The leading beneficiaries: airlines flying between Edinburgh and London. Conversely, the losers: train operators between the Scottish and English capitals.
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Green circles: marking of the Polish airforce. Blue circles: Kościuszko squadron coat of arms. Red circle: Donald duck, so it's Jan Zumbach's plane. It's the Polish 303 squadron, you daftie! :D :D :D
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P.S. Some Musk's fanboys argue that "you just need to change the world of transport, so everything can be done electronically so there is no need for gatehouses" for example. Really? What about designing a truck that you can use in the real world that already exists around us?.
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You can't reach them from inside, and you can't reach them from outside as they are too high. I can go on. bottom line is that this vehicle is a rich boy's toy, not a practical, working vehicle because its designers have no clue about the realities of transport. (END).
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P.P.S. And if you really want an electric truck, then just get Nikola, that uses Iveco Stralis cab, with the design perfected over half of century. Or a Volvo. Or Mercedes. Or DAF. Or Scania. All major truck manufacturers offer electric trucks for years now.
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12. It used to be like that in Britain. I know, I used to be European driver. Some weeks I crossed into Europe twice. From Scotland. Ask @vanmaneuro. Now I spoke with a Polish owner-driver guy who got stuck at customs for more than a week earlier this year. He's not coming back.
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Funny story. I had a car accident in 2008. Some driver rear ended me when I stopped at the red light. I got no help whatsoever, because it happened 2 weeks *before* my 24 months of continuous residence in the UK was completed. A wee thread:.
“I’ve seen people entering the country and going straight down to the benefits office”. Interesting. What was the result? Because under EU free movement rules they wouldn’t be entitled to a penny. In fact, they could only stay if they can pay their way.
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i). Drivers sits in the middle. This makes overtaking or looking ahead more difficult. But also makes it impossible to reach out of the window to pass the paperwork or to talk with the guy in the gatehouse when you enter a port or a factory or, say, a tollbooth. (4)
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A Russian guy in front of Russian embassy in Warsaw:. "I am ashamed of my country. Not all russians support wars. I stand with Ukraine. Sorry I can't do nothing".
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iv) Tablets. I drove a modern Mercedes truck with tablets and it's pin in the arse. Tablets are simply not designed for use in moving vehicles. You need a physical button, so you can reach for it even without taking your eyes off the road and feel it. (10)
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It is a well designed social security system, it's aim is not only to provide security net but also to invest in a citizen of the country so they can get back on their feet and acquire new skills that will allow them to give back to the society. /12.
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With over 99% votes officially counted, the situation is clear. Poland begins turning back towards European values. Do you know what will be the most memorable moment of that day for me? (1). 🧵.
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I don't buy this bullshit with "Russian people don't protest against Putin because they are afraid to die". Do you know why? . They volunteer to go to special military operations in their thousands. Knowing what survival rates are. 1/x.
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P.S. sometimes I speak with some right wingers from Britain (or Poland) who try to tell me how bad socialism is. Whenever I bring up Finland, the conversation goes down exactly as in this meme:
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This is not a renaissance painting. This is a picture someone in Poland took of the window of a train from Lviv.
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Apparently, the only remaining Eastern European truck driver able to go on the radio (that's me, judging from the number of requests I had today :P) is going to be live on BBC Essex in a minute or two :D . And then I will speak to @mrjamesob on @LBC :-).
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11. But from Tallin to Helsinki you go on the ferry as well, and on both ends ferry terminals are in the city centres with no need for additional infrastructure but a small truck parking. You just drive there, report at the check-in booth, and go.
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1. This is how you cross the border from Belgium into the Netherlands. Just a slight change in tarmac and signs get a bit different.
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it's carrying capacity or anything. I will just look at the cab from the practical point of view of someone who drives trucks for a living. Because it's an opposite of being "built around the driver". Why? Compare it with the new DAF XG+ for example: (2)
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Ah. One more thing. I am here for over 18 months now. I complained extensively about Finnish bureaucracy and other things (as there is a lot to complain about and being Polish, complain I do). Not a single time I heard "if you don't like it go back to Poland / Scotland".
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@SuellaBraverman You are a disgusting hypocrite. People are losing lives on the channel because you refuse to provide safe and legal ways to claim asylum in Britain. It's on you. not that I exect you'll loose any sleep over that.
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@mrjamesob I, for that matter, will cease using any energy at all in Britain to heat my home in about a week. I am leaving Brexitland after 17 years in Scotland. Tried to make it work, fed up with that. As an EU citizen, I have 27 other countries to choose from.
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This is me today in Vantaa, on the outskirts of Helsinki, loading a truck with load of salad, sliced tomatoes, cucumbets and some other fresh fruit and vegetables. Please tell me again how winter weather is preventing tomatoes from getting to Britain :-)
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ii) The doors are in the back. You enter, hang your coat, and then have to walk a few steps forward to sit behind the wheel. This means that you are wasting cab space for a corridor basically. You can't place a bed there so the driver can rest, because there are doors there. (5)
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6. As you can see, in all cases crossing the border takes seconds and you don't even have to slow down in some places. And now Brexit Britain. "HGV to Europe" advisory points start as far as, if I remember correctly, Johnstonbridge Services in Scotland.
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2. This is how you cross from Germany to Poland,. Same story, tarmac turns into concrete, crazy Polish sign with very complcated speed limits and. that's all.
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Some others simply did not understood this term and were quite shocked when I explained this is how they call benefit claimants in Britain. So that's for it. Compare the two threads and weep. /13.
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The government does not considers it as a handout but as an investment, kind of vocational training because (even though I already worked here) how am I expected to get a job if I don't speak the language fluently? /7.
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So when I hear someone repeating this bullshit about Eastern Europeans coming to Britain and going straight for the benefits, my blood boils. This is one of the biggest BULLSHIT MYTHS that circulate in British politics - and one of the lies that led to Brexit. /24.
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There is so much Slavicness in that story: .- there is a war, because Germans.- Russians bomb Poland.- Russian see unexploded bomb and say "nah, you're fine". - the Polish family is like "well, we can't do shit about it, so let's just fix the floor and go on with our lives" (3).
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3. Poland to Lithuania. You still drive through an old border crossing, but it's completely dark. Just a police van parked in the middle with two cops having a nap and then the road gets a bit worse.
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There, the police come and fined him 300 pounds because his Kent access permit has by this time expired. So apparently the document called "kent access permit" needs to be renamed to "Kent accessing and then sitting for days, waiting for the paperwork permit". 3/4.
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P.P.P.S. And this design - central drivng position, entry from the back - is not even new or an original idea. Here is a Colani truck, designed in the 1980's I think. The driver's position is a big offset to the left, but still has the same flaws as Tesla.
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Also, even those small tablets are annoying as hell at night, as even if you turn them black, they still tend to glow. And you never can set the brightness just right so it does not dazzle you but you can still see stuff in them. They also tend to give light reflexes. (11).
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7. Then you keep passing various signs directing trucks to "inland border facilities". Huge places like that one in Ashford had to be built for that purpose.
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8. And still, the miles and miles of the M20 motorway are turned into makeshift truck parking with a system of traffic lights and cars redirected to contraflow on the other carriageway. It's just some random clips, sped up three times, but look at the time stamp at the bottom:
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Look how big the Tesla cab is compared to DAF's (which is the biggest in the European market) and how much space is wasted inside Musk's toy. Now I will list everything that's wrong with Tesla's cab: (3).
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Also, in Ashford drivers have to wait up to 4 hours outside in the rain in the queue to the customs office: . Cc: @donnyc1975, @mrjamesob @BBCSangita @aljwhite . Source in PL: 4/4
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Now, for some caveats: .- the benefit is actually paid by my trade union's fund, so it's higher than what I'd get from the government, which would be just under 40 euros per day.- I qualified for it after just six months of working and being a union member. - but I also. .
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4. Lithuania to Latvia. Some of the old infrastructure is still there, abandoned. The bit on Latvian side turned into a truckstop.
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You can place bed in front above the windscreen - as the old Scanias used to have - as the cab gets narrower as you go forward. And beds are important not only for trampers - driver just sometimes need a rest or a 20 minutes power nap when driving at night. (6).
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v). The angled windscreen means two things: .- snow staying on it when you were parked up in the winter. Remember how annoying it is to have to clean one's windscreen of the snow in the car? Now try to do it 3 metres up. If the window is vertical, snow is not a problem. (12).
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Spoke with one of my friends in Glasgow today. She's planning to return to Poland. According to her, EU people are moving back to EU left and right as "everything in Britain is collapsing". Some of our common friends are also planning to or have already moved. 1/x.
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5. Latvia to Estonia: same story. Border infrastructure either serves as truck parking facility or lies abandoned on the side of the road.
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Yet another British person tells me I am to quick to jump to conclusions about who is to blame for that war and that we in Eastern Europe are biased against Russia. So let me explain it here: our opinion of Russia is based on experience. I am Polish for example and my country 1/.
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Except that I got this sum for every DAY of unemployment, not for every WEEK. And the limit of days I could claim it for officially is 300 working days. The contrast in the welfare systems is astonishing. /5.
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@AdamLake Everyone pays higher taxes (and union dues, and unemployment fund contributions), so everyone can have a relatively comfortable situation when they look for a new job and don't have to be stuck in the jobs they don't like for fear of going hungry. It's called Solidarity.
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10. Someone can say that all this "operation stack" is not because of Brexit, but because it's ferry and sometimes there are disturbances in traffic.
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Polish truckers report on social media, that ferries from Dover run half empty. (I stole their pics from Facebook for informative purposes: ). And yet people still say it's because of P&O and ferry shortage and not because of Brexit. CC: @vanmaneuro @vivamjm @ColdChainShane
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And if you want to get out from the right side, you need to go over the passenger seat that interlocks with driver's seat so you can't just walk in front of it like in a standard cab. And sometimes you need to get out to the right - I did it today as had deep snow on my left (7)
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iii) The fact that you have to walk around the cab means it will be full of mud.the good thing about getting straight into the driver seat is that you can shake the snow or the mood when getting up there, and even if your boots are still dirty, only this little piece of floor (8).
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Most comments though are along the lines of ."Why do you ever go there? Haven't you learned anything after that infamous Christmas in Dover?" ."Fuck them, as if there was not enough job in civilised Europe!"."If they are so wise, let them send British drivers through this crap".
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But you know what shocked me the most?. I jokingly told some of my Finnish friends that I am a benefit scrounger. One of them got slightly offended by this. Why? He thought I think the Finnish social system is some money giveaway. He gave me a long lecture that it is not. /11.
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6. The cab gets narrower in the front. But mirrors have to be able to see to the back. That means they need to be on really long arms. Which means you can't just seat in driver's/passenger seat, open your window and clean them when they become dirty. (15)
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- cab overheating when driving on a sunny day in summer. Even sprinter van cabs can get really hot - even in winter on a sunny day - because of that angled big windscreen. You can solve it with A/C of course. Which will use even more power, shortening your range. (13).
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- over the years, they were telling stories to their children and grandchildren about it, but they were like "yeah, grandpa's on about that bomb again, whatever". - fast forward to 2022, the guy who inherited the house did some renovation works. - surprise, the bomb is there!(2)
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Today I came to my car to find my Ukraine sticker ripped off. I thought it just peeled out but it was torn, someone actively pulled it until it teared. Yes, welcome more Russians in the EU, it's not their war, it's just Putin, they are all nice and love Ukraine and peace.
This is what I found on my car this morning. Someone also spat on it and tried to break of my mirrors (luckily they fold both ways so no damage done). Apparently some friendly Russian person is not happy with it being parked in Finland. Why? (1)
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My mom (who lives in Wrocław, western Poland) just wrote to me: . "There is a fantastic welcome point at the main train station. Self-organized volunteers await every train from Lviv, offer accommodation with volunteers, transport, food, medical help. ".
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But well, I am literally paid a 100 euros per day to study so I am just going to work hard. And the teacher set aside one afternoon per week to sit with me one-to-one and help me catch up. /10.
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in front of driver's seat gets dirty. You can kick your boots off there and then walk around the rest of the cab barefoot, as it remains clean. Nope, not in Tesla. Unless you want to change your boots everytime you enter the cab which would be really stupid. (9)
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Have to say in all that the fact that they tried to remove Crimea from my Ukraine sticker and failed is quite ironic :-).
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The course is well organized, there is 18 of us in the class, we are given books and other materials, the class has quality multimedia equipment, there is free coffee, we learn not only the language but history, culture, work environment related things and we go for excursions /8.
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This is what I found on my car this morning. Someone also spat on it and tried to break of my mirrors (luckily they fold both ways so no damage done). Apparently some friendly Russian person is not happy with it being parked in Finland. Why? (1)
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Turns out if you quit your job you are not entitled to job seekers benefit only for the first few weeks. And as for the latter she was like "what do you mean, you paid your social insurance for 10 months, this is what the social insurance is for" The minimum period is 6 months /3.
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Angled windscreen also means bigger blindspots - just thing how many times you almost missed a pedestrian when turning when driving a modern car. And then there are those tablets in the way. (14).
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My partner's work manager paid for her plane trip back and she paid her back later in instalments. So EVERYONE was helping us in our difficult situation. EVERYONE, but the jobcentre, which is the institution DESIGNED to do that. /18.
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#brexitbenefit. Polish trucking magazine reports about a British HGV driver on regular route to the Netherlands fined and temporarily banned from entering the EU for extending 90 days rule. If only somebody could predict that could happen.
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And, btw, I am full time student of Finnish now on a government organized course now. It's supposed to last till February. I am expected to be on communicative level required for an everyday work after completing it. /6.
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. friends and family that you can rely on? . Sorry, it's just bullshit. End of thread.
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@Kucolog @samoniniko W firmie giftpol szanujemy pracownika. Ale nie na tyle, żeby dostał skrzynkę mejlową ze swoim imieniem chociaż:
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So to my surprise I ended up with receiving Finnish jobseekers allowance, a sum about as high as the weekly Universal Credit payment I would get if I was unemployed in Scotland. /4.
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"I've been fucked about for two days in United Whoredom. Now the best thing: I arrived in Germany, it took 15 minutes".
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@theJeremyVine @MikeyCycling Thank you for demonstrating clearly why the highway code says overtaking at the junctions (that's what you were doing to the van) is illegal. (Rule 167).
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There is one aspect with that coach crisis in Dover nobody reports on: if the coach is stuck there for 12 hours, its driver is out of his driving hours. Do companies supply replacement drivers? Or will they make a printout saying "unexpected delay" and continue tired? Or stop?
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On Wednesday (!) he was informed his paperwork got a green light and told to come back to Ashford custom place only to find that custom truck park is full. He was told to park on yet another truck park which serves the queue. 2/4.
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Finally I saw a copy of the leaflet distributed to Polish drivers at the Farage Garage in Manston. The translation is so bad, that I attempted to translate it back into English, retaining all it's silliness, so you can have a laugh too.
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Ok, actually this is a good way to explain why there are no shortages in Poland despite experts reporting 120 000 drivers needed in Poland. A thread:. Poland is *the* transporter of Europe. Poles make 9% of the total EU population, but Polish companies move 23% stuff. 1/.
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. for an integration program, I might be offered an intensive language course if I won't able to find a job quickly (but I am in good spirits, it was a bit dry period towards the end of last year, but I can see job ads picking up again).
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This summer we are expected to get one month long work placement to practice our Finnish in real life. I am struggling a bit as since I tried to learn some Finnish on my own they put me straight to the second level and I seem to be lagging behind the rest of the group /9.
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I am not planning to become a benefit scrounger, especially since I saved enough during my 9 months of work in Finland so far to be able to survive a couple of months on my own, so I haven't even tried to claim initially, but it's just nice to see that the safety net is working.
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Ok, so there was some hiccups but that's me ready to go onto the ferry to Calais. Looks like those are last minutes of my nearly 17 years time as an UK resident. SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR THE FISH (and chips, salt yes, no vinegar).
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- and nobody believes them when they say they have an unexploded bomb under their floor ;-) . Source: (4/4).
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