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Jacques@ACT

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Everything posted by Jacques@ACT

  1. Jacques@ACT
    I'm in Amsterdam, but don't group rides. I do group drinking though.... ☺
  2. Jacques@ACT
    We are starting a 10 day tour on Thursday. Basel to Dusselldorf via the Rhine. Will be mostly tar, but awesome scenery... ☺
  3. Jacques@ACT
    How easy/difficult is it to get to your place? What are the closest transportation points? I.e. airport, train station etc?
  4. Jacques@ACT
    Living in The Netherlands or planning to move there? We have been here for 7 months now...
  5. Jacques@ACT
    Good luck with the next week. We had the same juggling act with the clothing. To make things worse, we also decided to take a bike each with us on our flight. In the end it worked out well for us. We packed our clothes into our cycling panniers and when we arrived in Amsterdam we simply put our bikes together at the airport and cycled off to our new life. Liberating to say the least....I hope all goes well with the packing.
  6. Jacques@ACT
    Long Mountain Brewery from Robertson does some excellent beers. Really enjoy the wheat and pale ale.
  7. Jacques@ACT
    Moving along nicely. Let the removal firm pack everything though. It saves sooooooooooo much time and effort. We used Britannia, and the packers were excellent and certainly didn't skimp on the packing material Our 2 touring bikes (fully kitted Surly LHT) were bubble wrapped with about 10 layers before boxed in another 2 custom boxes they made on the spot. What would've taken us about 5 or 6 days took them just under one day.
  8. Jacques@ACT
    Generally very good. They gave us an idea of costs for individual items if we had to leave it behind. Was useful to work out what would be best left behind.
  9. Jacques@ACT
    Shipping is expensive! We decided on Britannia. On average, about 7% cheaper than the others we had. The fx rate will hammer you. Door to door including packing from cpt to amsterdam for about half a container is R60k. White goods are generally more pricey here in Europe than SA. Funnily enough, I find tye UK to have very competitive prices on household goods compared to the Netherlands. Not sure what it will be like with your destination.
  10. Jacques@ACT
    Will winter weather not affect the structure if the roof comes off?
  11. Jacques@ACT
    We've always like the Netherlands whenever we travelled through Europe. Having lived in London for many years and having had enough of the crowds made us decide to try it out here. We've tried a couple of times to settle back in SA, but there are unfortunately just to many things for us to ignore. It certainly isn't because we don't love SA, it is more about the mindset of the general public and goverment. That off course is a whole different debate. Just a quick example, the whole train debacle and PRASA compared to an article i just read about the train services here where the aim is to have all trains running on wind generated power by 2018. That sort of stuff and much more.... Anyway, dont want to hijack the thread
  12. Jacques@ACT
    That is great news, you must be super excited. I hope for your sake that you sorted finances out before the Rand went for a ball of ****. Luckily we have a small amount in the UK, but most of our money is still tied up in SA. On a side note, we just arrived in Amsterdam on Friday. Not as organised as you, but rather took a leap into the unknown and certainly the deepend. Testing times on our side....we will certainly come and visit when you are ready.
  13. Jacques@ACT
    I'm in Cape town, is there a central place to drop off goodies? Left it a bit late, so really pushed for time...
  14. Jacques@ACT
    I've got a few small things to donate, saddles, pedals, cantilever breaks etc. All brand new. I'm in Cape Town, but leaving the country next week, so not a lot of time to sort things out. Can you use this?
  15. Jacques@ACT
    Any improvements on the parking offenders since the few R1000 fines a few weeks ago?
  16. Jacques@ACT
    Excellent news. Hopefully not too many hidden surprises with the purchase and hard work to come.
  17. Jacques@ACT
    There you go, that sums it up. Sometimes people who haven't been lucky enough to experience life somewhere always says SA lifestyle can't he beaten. I beg to differ. This is not aimed at anyone posting on here, just my personal experience.
  18. Jacques@ACT
    What areas are you looking at with the relaxed laws for investment?
  19. Jacques@ACT
    Just make sure you think about our very volatile exchange rate if you thinking about bringing money into the country. The way it is going is not good. If you plan to take capital out again then you might be in **** street with the exchange. Don't think interest rate differences between UK and SA rates will make up for that. Do yourself a favour and look at the fx trend GBPZAR for the last few years and you will see what i mean.
  20. Jacques@ACT
    Beer in pub, between 20-45, depending what you drink Coffee between 20-25 Milk about 20-25 for 2 liters Bread between 10-20 Average main would be between 80-150, depending on type of restaurant Glass of wine in restaurant, prob anything from 25 and up. Decent bottle of wine in shop, from 50 and up. Petrol currently on about 13 per liter Good internet uncapped will prob be around 1000 per month A very rough estimate, groceries for us (2 people), probably around 3k-4k per month. Don't actually know, kind of guessing. Insurance, i pay R300 per month for a honda jazz, R800 for a VW kombi for business use and about R400 for KTM 990. This is fully comp. Medical iads are big expense here, we pay About R2500 per month for 2 people. Fairly good cover. We live in Durbanville area for comparison on insurances. Im sure other people will have different amounts or opinions, but that is what we spend.
  21. Jacques@ACT
    Bumping into people with the same mindset or similar plans is part of it. In all our adventures and travels, our networks of people grew very quickly. All it takes is to find those first 'connections' to get the ball rolling. Many people who have spoken to us about what we've done in the past all think that we are very unique, but in actual fact, there are 100s or even 1000s of people who did the same. The only difference is that we started looking, reading and researching things. Best of luck with your recce. I hope you find something suitable. As I type this, I'm having my own doubts as to whether coming back to SA was the right thing to do...I know how you guys feel.
  22. Jacques@ACT
    Good luck Bonus. Big decisions, thats for sure. We've moved a lotnin the past too. Originally from SA to UK in 1996, then UK to OZ in 2006. Spent 2 years travelling overland from OZ back to SA. SA back to UK again, and now we are back in Cpt again. We have shipped belongings before in a container, but think it will be better to sell up if we go back again. The only thing we've found with the shipping/buying there saga, is that even though you will be shipping, you probably will buy a load of stuff while you wait for containers to arrive, unless your timing is perfect. Having to buy everything all over again will cost a lot though. Probably much more than shipping. Difficuly choice. If you do decide to ship, make sure to get a quote from Brittania, they were by far the cheapest to the UK for us. Not sure what the rates would be to mainland EU. Edit, spelling
  23. Jacques@ACT
    Durbanville area
  24. Jacques@ACT
    I've got lots of touring stuff if you want to come and have a look. Pm me with what you are looking for. I'm in northern suburbs, Cpt.
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