Snap and Scribble

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The 30th of June is the last day of the financial year in Australia – so everyone will be either busily trying to sort out their tax return, or busily trying to put off sorting it out. I’m pleased to say that mine’s already lodged!

I managed to do it in record time this year – thanks to the miracle of the internet. And thanks to the fact that, for the first time in a few years, i didn’t have any periods of self-employment during the last tax year – which simplifies matters a bit. This year, too, for the first time in a couple of decades, as far as i remember, i should be getting a bit of tax back – which will be nice!

My next task will be to get onto the UK tax office – because, even though i’ve made virtually no money from it, i’m technically self-employed at the moment, and i’m supposed to notify them. No doubt they’ll have a few nice hoops for me to jump through to keep them amused!

Talking of hoops… Jowanna, a friend in Australia, is starting an interesting new project. She’s been making hula hoops for a while now and she’s decided to start making them to give away to kids – which seems like a great idea to me. I’m going to help her put a web site together.

If you’re interested (of course you are!) you can read her blog post about the project.

I mentioned some time ago that i was getting into a bit of music CD publishing. Well, that’s been moving very slowly – mainly as i’ve had to do a lot of work writing software so people can buy the things online. But there’s one CD available so far, called “Bang The Bomb”, with music by Thee Exploding Clocks and The Sniffs – two punk bands my old mate Terry played with in Florida, USA, in 1990.

You can check it out at http://Psygap.com .

I worked eleven hours for the hog roast business last Saturday. It was a long day that started with buying hundreds of rolls and making masses of salad before moving on to the wedding venue in Wickford. The wedding reception we were doing the catering for was in the massive garden of a fairly small house. The garden was mainly a field of about an acre, with a large pond in the middle. They had two whole pigs, a sheep, and a big chunk of beef!

I was exhausted by the time i got away from there. But i’ve just about recovered now – thanks to the great weather we had on Sunday and yesterday. I managed to get a fair bit of sunbathing in, as well as a few swims in the river. Unusually, the tide was up at the right time for the sunny part of the day!

I should have gone for a swim this morning, too, but i didn’t think of it in time. That was partly because it’s cloudy and grey – although it’s quite warm – and partly because i got sidetracked by sorting out my online tax stuff early on.

I had to phone the tax office in Australia to get some information that i needed to lodge the tax return. But, because of the time difference, i had to do it early in the morning. It’s funny, but it was really nice talking to the woman in the tax office. It reminded me how much i miss Australia. It’s been creeping up on me over the last few weeks. I hadn’t really been missing it until recently, but i am now. I must be due for a visit soon, i think! If i could just get my finances in a bit better shape…

But maybe this work in Afghanistan will come through eventually – and that will help. I haven’t really heard anything, but they’re waiting for funding stuff to happen. Apart from that, i think it’s probably on. Maybe sometime in August. We’ll see…

Today’s my grandmother’s birthday – she’d be 123, if she was still alive! It’s also St Swithin’s day – and, according to folklore, if it rains today it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights. The weather forecast reckons it’s going to rain at about ten o’clock tonight – i wonder if that counts…

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