Last Week's Blahblahs

Dealing with Administrative Stuffs

I'm barely two and a half months away from maternity leave and my mind couldn't stop listing all the necessary procedures I need to do while waiting for the D Day. I'm not talking about maternity stuffs though. My expiring passport starts to annoy me and I can't drag myself to renew it at the embassy in Paris. There's just too much papers to present and I don't have all of them. And I hate myself for not asking for naturalization earlier to avoid such a headache.

So stubborn me thought, ok, I need to get on with this. I need to be French. Just for the sake of my passport! Darn.

I took my Friday off. There's just too much to do. I just can't sneak off the office to do all that.

First rendez-vous was at my gynecologist for the 5th month visit (first portrait as shown on the left).

Then after a quick lunch, I went to the Préfecture to get the updated list of requirements for the Naturalisation thing. Jeeez! The list was long. It was almost okay except that I need to have my Philippine documents legalized by the embassy - the birth certificates and the NBI clearance. I hope they won't ask me for red ribbons everywhere - I mean, I only had mine stamped, but not my parent's.

Then I went to the Mayor's office to ask for the Attestation d'Accueil for my sister and my Mom. I hope they could spend Christmas and New Year with us. The same, the list was long but since I already asked for my parents two years ago, I already prepared all the papers before going there. Surprise! I can't put both of them in the same document, so I paid 90€ for two Attestation d'Accueil. 2 years ago, it was only 15€/person.

After my stop at the Mayor's office, I went directly to Trésor Public to ask for a Bordereau de Situation Fiscale, a paper needed for the naturalization thing. It's a document stating that I paid my taxes - revenu, proprietary and resident taxes.

Whew, I was never that productive in my entire life! I think it's a hormonal thing, lol.


Frenchguy Got Back from the US..

.. and he brought my new toy! It's sleek. It's black. It's sexy. It grows longer when you play with it. Here it is:
The euro-dollar rate is so interesting nowadays that US became our favorite boutique lately. And since Frenchguy gets to travel in that part of the world quite regularly, I bought that new toy there (thru internet).

The shopping addict (read: Frenchguy) also bought some stuffs for Louna - clothes, toys and books. Prices here in Europe just got too expensive lately that having this shopping mall alternative is a welcome treat to our pocket.

If only I'm not pregnant, I would surely organize our summer vacation in the US - to visit families and friends - and of course, to do some shopping. And you hear that from somebody who hates shopping!


It's Tax Season, Arrgh!

Have you declared your 2007 revenu taxes (residents in France)?

I was probably hallucinating. I saw more than 2000€ difference from our 2006 taxes. Didn't they promise lower taxes? I checked again this afternoon, even re-simulated the computation, but still the same, we will pay an additional of 2000€ this year!

Nope, we didn't really have huge salary increase. I know that they changed something in the computation (removed the 10% deduction and 20% abattement before the application of QF). I also know that they changed something on the computation pertaining to travel incentives. But the heck, that's 2000€ (+ the base of 2006 revenu tax which also increased compared to 2005!).

So the government talks about measures on how to increase buying power? Are they really serious?