I'm trying to recall what I've been "doing" over the past three days, but I'm coming up with nothing. The icy weather conditions that kept me in on Friday went away, and just turned to grey and wet and muddy. I've been out for daily short walks around the cemetery for a bit of minimum exercise, but no more.
There was one afternoon (Sunday?) that seemed to inspire various invisible birds to a new kind of spring-like intensity in their singing - but that's as close as I've come to finding signs of spring so far. Trees and flowers are still biding their time...
Some of the big old moss-clad trees kind of remind me of the Ents in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings story. (The ones in my photos above are all lindens, if memory serves me right.)
“But I spoke hastily. We must not be hasty. --- I must cool myself and think; for it is easier to shout stop! than to do it.”
(This one I nicked from somewhere on the world wide web...)
Whatever I did over the weekend, or today, none of it was done in great haste. On Friday I had groceries delivered, which did inspire some cooking on Saturday (pieces of chicken baked in the oven with various herbs + pieces of mango, to then be frozen again in portions). I also took the vacuum cleaner for a walk around the flat. Most of Sunday I ended up in front of the TV, catching up with five episodes of a British detective series (Ludwig) that for some reason had escaped me. (Sixth and last episode turned out not to be available here until next Saturday, though. So I have no alternative but to practice some patience with that!)
Today I logged into my bank account to pay some bills, but ended up having to fill in a long questionnaire that they claimed necessary if I want to continue to use their services (=access my money) at all. Like: Where does my money come from, what do I intend to do with it, how much do I think I'm going to use my credit card, do I intend to send any money abroad, and will I be withdrawing any cash - and if so, what am I going to spend that on?? - Made me wonder who on earth they think I am... Some kind of oligarch?? And will an AI bank robot be checking up on my guesses vs actual transactions at the end of the year?? (As far as I can recall, my "business" with foreign countries over the past 15 years or so has been solely with Amazon/Audible, buying e-books and online audio books...)
I have never heard of a bank prying into your personal financial business!!! No one we know has had this happen either. That is totally uncalled for, and an invasion of privacy! This tree has such character!
ReplyDeleteGinny, actually I'm pretty sure the banks here are required by law to make/update these kinds of enquieries from time to time, in order to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism. It just seemed to me this time like they had added even more questions than I could recall having answered before. But that in turn may well be because of adjustments to the law itself. I'm still wondering, though, how much use it really is - as it does not seem very likely to me that the people actually involved in criminal activities are likely to be answering these questions truthfully anyway!
DeleteI just love thick trunk of a tree
ReplyDeleteRo, yes, old tree trunks can be really awe-inspiring!
DeleteSpring usually comes in bounds and leaps - one minute, it feels like winter, the next minute the first flowers are out in the shapemof snowdrops, crocus and aconites, and the birds start their morning chorus; tentatively at first, until the whole world seems to consist of song.
ReplyDeleteI find that questionnaire very odd. Was there any explanation for it? Has a new law about money transfers or similar been passed in Sweden?
Meike, my impression is that your spring is always a little bit ahead of ours... (Which is also completely logical as you live further south.)
DeleteAs for the questionnaire, I've had to answer similar ones once or twice before. It is indeed laws about money laundering etc that require banks to ask their customers about these things (or at least some of them). I checked it now and the law dates back to 2017, but with some change/addition made in 2024. (And the latter may be the answer to "why just now", I suppose.) I'm just wondering how helpful it can be, since for one thing, dishonest people aren't likely to give honest answers, and for most "ordinary" people the things they ask would be obvious from our bank accounts anyway. (Except, of course, if one does have plans for major changes in the near future. Which I don't.)
Because my pension is paid into my English bank account, I regularly use a money transfer service to bring money over to my Spanish bank account. Recently, for the first time, I had to complete similar details to those you had to. A friend has told me that it's a general tightening up of money "movements", to check that it isn't money laundering. It made me laugh when I thought of my paltry English pension - not quite in the same league as a Russian oligarch!
ReplyDeleteCarol, here too the background is of course laws about money laundering - cf. my replies to Ginny and Meike. I'm just wondering how useful the answers really are that they manage to collect...
DeleteAt least you were able to get out in the fresh air. I think those questions are far too personal, sounds like they wanted to know everything about you.
ReplyDeleteAmy, well, considering that we have almost ceased using cash here, the bank knows pretty much everything about me anyway! (When it comes to where my money comes from, and what I do with it...)
DeleteI notice that you took your vacuum cleaner for a walk around your flat. Surely vacuum cleaners need more exercise than that! You should take it with you next time you go for a walk around the cemetery. Have you got a lead for it?
ReplyDeleteNo YP, no lead - but it's on a cord... ("Ask a silly question...")
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