Travel to the EU post Brexit becomes more complicated

​Since today is the final day of 2022 (Happy New Year in Advance) I thought I would want to talk about travel to the EU from the UK post Brexit & the introduction of European Travel Information and Authorisation (ETIAS). 

Why I am talking about Brexit? It has been two years since the end of the Brexit transition period on 31st December 2020 when the UK left the Customs Union & the Single Market because of the fact that the UK left the EU on 31st January 2020

It is nearly two years since I talked about the effects of Brexit as I wrote on January 2021 & it is still clear to me that Brexit is not worth it for everyone and businesses affected by the policy that benefits nothing. Read more about the effects of Brexit 

I like to reiterate my points that I first talked about it in October 2021 given I know the differences between travel to the EU pre Brexit and post Brexit. Since I visited two EU countries: Spain in 2018 and France in 2019

Pre Brexit = UK passport holders were EU citizens until 2020 with the benefits of freedom of movement & the rights to live, study and work in the European Union unlimited. No passport stamp. 🇪🇺🛂

Post Brexit = UK passport holders are third country nationals like every single non European nationals (Japanese, Chinese, Canadians, Indians, Singaporeans, Australians, Americans, etc). No benefits of the freedom of movement. Only visa free travel to the EU up to 90 days (3 months which is limited) & passport stamp. 

Read more about post Brexit travel to the EU that I previously published back in October 2021. The link is here up above.

Which brings me to the introduction of the ETIAS which will soon be launched in the New Year. 

What is European Travel Information and Authorisation (ETIAS)? 

Like America’s ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation), Canada’s ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation), Australia’s ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) & New Zealand’s ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation), ETIAS is US style visa wavier travel system for visitors from non EU countries (including the United Kingdom). The countries that has visa free travel with the bloc of 27 EU member states. It is not a visa and it will be the system that will keep in check & having applications to be processed in order to allow anyone from third countries to enter the 26 countries in the Schengen Area plus 7 non EU nations like Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Vatican City, Monaco, San Marino and Norway. As the applicant (he/she) does not have a criminal record for example & following the rules by understanding that visiting Europe up to 90 days is leisure (holiday/vacation), business (temporary), etc & the validity of ETIAS application for the person travelling to the EU27 is three years. 

Furthermore, the ETIAS was meant to be launched this year 2022 but it has been pushed to the year that we will soon enter (2023). 

So what it means for British passport holders (regardless who voted in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Remain or Leave) including myself? Well in my opinion, it is another example of why Brexit continues to show that it benefits nothing to the UK. €7 (£6) ETIAS fee to enter any country in mainland Europe? Sometimes I really do despair for what this country have really become since leaving the European Union. It really makes me wonder why there are still no positive of being outside the European Union. Good thing that I didn’t voted for Brexit. 

For those who voted for Brexit & complaining about being in queues (non EU queues) at European airports & being happy with blue passports, should really suck it up & accept the fact it has consequences. I am not going to wish anymore energy about it but you do understand what I am coming from. 

So that is all I can say about it. 

Enjoy yourself on the final day of 2022. Stay tuned for more blog posts that I will release in 2023. Happy New Year. 🙂😀🎉🥳🎊

And if you want to know more about ETIAS. You can go on this website

And also click the link for the website for UK citizens (myself included). 

So yeah. Take care & goodbye for now. 

Five Guys? No thank you

I want to tell you something. Based on my own experience which unfortunately, it was not a good one. 

Earlier this month, I went to this particular US fast food restaurant. Five Guys. I went to the Five Guys branch in Charing Cross.

All my life, I have always known the likes of McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King & Subway. All American fast food chains that I know of but not Five Guys until this month. 

I always like to try new things but if there is something I don’t like, i’ll not try it again. With Five Guys, that is the case. 

I couldn’t believe when I ordered hot dogs, chips & bottled drink (coke), the total price was so ridiculously expensive. I never been to any of fast food restaurants where prices for the menu is overpriced. Good thing that I will not go there. Knowing that I wasted my money for that. & the taste of chips is tasted so different. So much of salt. 

At least there aren’t much of many Five Guy restaurant outlets in Central London. 

£14 (£14.25) was a total amount for hot dog, chips & coke (Coca Cola) at Five Guys Charing Cross restaurant branch. 

If it was an ordinary restaurant that is non fast food restaurant then okay but since it is a US fast food restaurant, the prices at the Five Guys menu aren’t decent. You will never see the likes of McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway or KFC behaved like this.

So I will not recommend anybody to go buy a meal at Five Guys. It is an absolute rip off.

Read more on the fact why Five Guys is so expensive ridiculously. Five Guys? No thank you.

My Christmas 2022 message

Season Greetings

It is 25th of December today. Yes, It is Christmas Day. 

This is my third time as an blogger, writing my third Christmas on this blog. 😀🙂😁🎁⛄️✨🎄🎅

I would like to wish you everybody especially my readers Merry Christmas Everybody. Happy Holidays whether you are celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah. 

Today blog posts, I am going to split into three separate paragraphs. My personal life, the UK & the world.

Let’s start with my personal life outside blogging.

My personal life

This year for me personally has been tough year. Mixture of good and bad. Overall, it is not quite bad year like 2020. However it is not good year either. 

Anyway from the circumstances in my personal life not writing much blogs as often to not getting job (yes, I still have not got a job which I will not go into details about it) & me losing my court motion case to Barclays in February this year & my legal challenge against Travel Unravel (which they keep spreading lies as if they didn’t defrauded me in January 2021 which is now nearly two years) up to this day are still taking so much long to the point that I now already lost faith in the judiciary & that I no longer give a damn about it. 

I even thought about ending it by contacting the court. Anyways I am not going to go anymore details about it because I find it frustrating when I talked about it. Read more about my legal challenge as I recently published few months ago. 

The UK

Apart from my personal life, this year generally, it is really an tough & difficult year for the UK. Three Prime Ministers: Boris Johnson, Liz Truss & Rishi Sunak to the death of Queen Elizabeth II & the current situation with inflation & cost of living crisis which already, the UK is in recession and two Christmases ago, I know nobody wants to hear about Brexit but unfortunately, I have to because I already know from day one that Brexit was never going to benefit the British economy & still, it is not benefiting the economy of the United Kingdom. 

Even the September mini budget delivered by then PM Liz Truss & then Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng have made it worse.

Read my 2020 blog post about the UK - EU trade deal which it does not benefit British businesses. Just read the recent news. the Brexit policy is nothing but a policy of isolation and disadvantage. There are no Brexit benefits. None. I am still waiting for the positive benefits. But since as someone who voted against Brexit in the 2016 referendum, it is very obviously there won’t be any of positive. In addition, two Christmases ago (Christmas Eve 2020). 

The announcement of the UK - EU trade deal = TCA - Trade and Cooperation Agreement). Everyone knew that it was & still is no better than the EU membership. 🇪🇺🇬🇧 The EU trade deal with combined combination of hard Brexit (UK out of the Single Market & The Customs Union). No wonder a month ago, Brexiteers like Nigel Farage hated the idea of the Swiss style deal with the EU which it would mean freedom of movement since we know Switzerland is not EU member but does operate in the Single Market. 

The World 

And lastly, the world. Apart from climate change, famine, conflicts,  inflation and the cost of living crisis worldwide. Given we are already back to normality due to two years of the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine have been on the news throughout 2022 & the Russian invasion of Ukraine is still going. I first talked about it earlier this year in February. My first blog post about Ukraine & my second blog post about Ukraine 🇺🇦 

So what is my this year Christmas message?

My Christmas message is simple. Be grateful. 

Be grateful that you are happy to be alive. Be grateful that you have got family and friends especially in this festive season. We all have one life and we have our own different challenges in our own lives but we find a way to overcome problems and situations. In the last couple of weeks, I have been giving Christmas cards to my own friends and family (particularly everyone I know) so that I don’t have to think anything else negative & that I can do something positive that is good for me physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. 

Anything I can do to take any negative things off my mind & not always thinking about it too much. In other words, not letting it bother me so much. Furthermore, a friend of mine (he goes by the name of Action Jackson aka UK Ambassador of Happiness) messaged me on WhatsApp just to wish me “Merry Christmas” after I messaged him with digital Christmas card (e card). 

He told me that I am an messenger of love and cheer. A polite compliment from my friend. I am indeed an messenger of love & that I always spread love and delight. I am also a shining example of courage and love, standing tall. 

For that, I am grateful that I am alive and well. I am grateful that I got my blog & my readers who do read my blog posts. I am grateful that I do have people in my personal life (family and friends). 

That is the spirt of Christmas. Gratitude = Feeling grateful. Whether you have opened your Christmas presents or not, regardless be grateful this year, you have moments in your life that are positive & that you will have a wonderful & prosperous new year ahead. For that here is my friend’s song “Happy 365” by Action Jackson. Check this out

And finally, last week I received my Christmas present from my friend who is an blogger (Roger Tichborne) & that is the mug of his band the False Dots. I received it at the Mill Hill Music Complex. 😀🙂

The Burnt Oak Boogie mug. Go and listen to their song. The Burnt Oak Boogie by the False Dots I am also grateful for that too. 🙂😀

So as an blogger, I do have the duty to write blogs (even I am not writing regularly like I was before although I am trying my best to get back to writing it on the daily basis. Even my friend Roger who is an blogger wrote on his blog post stating where are bloggers in Barnet Well I say that I have been busy in my life but hopefully, in the New Year I’ll make an effort to return to write blogs regularly on the daily basis. I hope and pray that it will be the case). 

I have many things that will soon be published in 2023 so stay tuned for that. Even some of my friends wanted to know when will I make music again. I said it is not an guarantee but I will try to make a effort to make it happen. I even first talked about my original music early last year in 2021. I have got a lots of things that I do want to see happening in the New Year 2023 including me going on holiday which I have not been out of the UK since 2019 when I last travelled outside the UK and it was France. 

So yeah, that is my Christmas 2022 message. 

Once again, I would like to wish you everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Have a blessed day and throughout the week in the festive season in the run up to the end of the year. 

All the best for 2023 and beyond. Take care and god bless you.

Eurovision voting goes global

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My take on Autumn Statement 2022

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2 years anniversary of my blog

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My thoughts on US Midterm elections 🇺🇸

America. 🇺🇸

The World’s largest economy and the world’s superpower is having an congressional elections (House and Senate) & gubernatorial elections. 🗳

What can I say about the current political climate? Well nothing good unfortunately. 

Since early 2021, I have been keeping a eye on the US politics and boy, I have to tell you it is not really good politically. 

In fact recently, I come across this political forecast for the midterm elections tomorrow, it shows the Republican Party now likely to win the Senate

So that means up to few days ago in last week, the Democrats were likely to retain the control of the Senate with small margin. Unfortunately that has completely changed. Flipped over to the Republicans as they (GOP) are now leading the poll for the US senate. 

As for the House of the Representatives, they (Republicans) are likely to win the house obviously. 

So I thought it was going to be divided Congress. Senate controlled Dem & House Controlled Republican. Unfortunately, it will be all Congress controlled Republican. House controlled Republican and Senate controlled Republican. 

The Dems have not done well to put their message across to the American people & Joe Biden has not even done quite enough as the US President since the Republican Party (dominated by Donald Trump & Pro Trump zealots) are winning the argument. They (Republicans) does not even have solutions of how to deal with political topics like the economy in terms of how to tackle inflation (which it has been caused by the fallout of the Covid pandemic, supply chain crisis & the war in Ukraine). All what they advocated for is a trickle down economic measures such as tax cut for the rich. Even during the Trump presidency, Trump tax cuts had benefited the privilege wealthy earners and not the ordinary American citizens. 

And unfortunately despite the horrific incident that happened at Capitol Hill, Washington DC nearly two years on January 6th 2021 that shocked America & the rest of the world, stormed by pro Trump fanatics, Donald Trump & the rest of the Republican Party does not even give a damn except some of the Republican politicians (moderate Republicans who does not dislike Trump & the pro Trump fanatics). I said at the time in January 2021 that they (GOP) should distance themselves from their own leader (who is a sore loser & still not willing to accept the fact that he lost to Joe Biden in 2020 US presidential election & that now he is thinking of wanting to run for the President again in 2024) if they want to be electable again or that they’ll be in political wilderness for years to come. That’s what I said on my other blog post in that same month just few days before Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th US President. Noting that Trumpism is the abomination of the Republican Party & it is still the case to this day. & yet they are on track to win the midterm elections by winning the House & possibly the Senate. It seems I may have to eat my own words (saying that the Republicans could be in political wilderness for many years to come with Trump leading the Republican Party) which I hope and pray that it shouldn’t have to be the case. Which still, they still buy into their own leader's lies that he did not lose 2020 US presidential to Biden as we know it is all a load of baloney. 

And what is worse is that recently, Nancy Pelosi’s husband was violently attacked at home in San Francisco, California. Click the link to read more about it the political climate in America is so toxic. It is almost like 2016 over again. I even remembered just before the Brexit referendum that was held here in the UK, Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered by far right extremist

This is what happens when politician (particularly bigoted politician) says things that are totally unacceptable & outrageous in order to incite violence, some will feel emboldened to think that it is okay to go attack politician or a member of the public whether is online (including social media) or offline & not having any sort of remorse. Unfortunately, in this day and age, anything like this can happen. Horribly. Example Conservative MP David Amess was murdered in October last year at his surgery in Essex. 

And finally, Joe Biden’s presidency for the most part have been quite disappointing. From January 2021 to August 2021, Joe Biden’s presidential approval ratings were mostly okay until he totally mishandled the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. The American public was not happy of how the US withdrawal from Afghanistan was done given it was done reckless & chaotically. During that time, I wrote three blog posts about Afghanistan two times in August & one time in September (the following month). I was not very happy at all 

So since then, Joe Biden approval ratings have not been the same. One minute, he (Joe Biden) is the popular American president (until August last year). The next minute (from August last year onwards), he is not. 

And given he has not done anything much to deliver his presidential agenda with his own political accomplishments (whether is executive orders he signed or legislative bills being passed in the US Congress), I said at the time that Biden & the Democrats better deliver something good and credible to the American people. Unfortunately, it is no longer to be the case since President Biden still barely delivered his own presidential agenda (whether is executive orders or legislative bills being passed in the US congress) even he is trying his own to do so but nothing ever translate to any much of his own accomplishment. Because of that and not presenting well to the American voters for tomorrow's Midterms election, they (Democrats) will be toasted by losing the House and possibly the Senate to the Trumpian Republican Party and when it does happen, President Joe Biden must take his own responsibility and to decide that he won't run for the second term (saving himself from the possible humiliation & loss to either Trump or any GOP candidate for 2024 election & because of the old age even he is entitled for the second term) given he was elected to heal the broken country that have been tarnished globally and domestically by 4 years of the chaotic presidency under Donald Trump. 

The American democracy is really at stake and sadly, it will be diminished by Trump and his endorsed candidates who would be winning than willing to lose if that does not go their way (therefore not accepting democracy and to cry foul by claiming "fraud"). It will be a matter of time before democracy is completely eroded and the possibility of the country in civil war. I hope and pray that should not be the case.  After all, Donald Trump is politically toxic to the American politics. I am really not looking forward to Midterms tomorrow so expect the triumph of the Republicans in the House and the Senate.