Monday, January 12, 2015

I'm feeling perhaps a bit better, and drinking soothing herbal teas. Not much knitting yesterday – there's a bit of trouble at the end of the edging of the Bridal Shawl, where the big long needle slipped out. I've now got all the stitches, rather clumsily, on a sock needle protected fore and aft. I fear there's a break, too – m*ths, again? – in the yarn of the border, which is going to be awkward to repair because there's nothing to speak of in the way of a loose end.

Still – onward! I never get much done on Sunday.

I didn't get much tax done, either, partly because of titanic struggles between me, Old Slowcoach, and the printer, as I tried to print out spreadsheets so that I could clip them to their supporting evidence. There's an awful lot of paper involved in this job. And also partly because I had to keep going to help my husband. I don't know how he manages to get into such messes. Reducing the whole text to minuscule size is a favourite with him, splitting the screen, or losing the text altogether.

I often find it difficult to locate the pointer – do I mean, cursor? – on his computer and will try, today, to change it into something more visible, at least. It will save a bit of time.

It sounds stormy out there – if it's too unpleasant for a walk, that will add a valuable ¾ hour to my morning. The thing with the tax is to keep at it. There's really not much more to do, but there must be no more days off.

Maybe my panic is sheer fear of filing the return on-line. It's got to be done – too late for anything else. I've done it two or three times before. The website is very good, easy to navigate. Nothing to be afraid of, really. But it's a bit like cutting a steek, for scariness. I think you're allowed to do a bit and then store it and stop. Maybe I should try that.

However, yesterday's big news has nothing to do with knitting or the income tax, although it's not unrelated to panic. Out niece C., the one I go for walks with, and I have been talking about going to Athens. Greek Helen has been emailing everybody inviting them, now or never, as the family is soon to move back to the UK. And C. said, on our most recent walk, that she was thinking of going at Easter, and I said, maybe I'll come with you.

And yesterday we booked it. EasyJet only offers one flight a week from Edinburgh to Athens, and the air time is long enough (four hours) that if we broke the journey anywhere, we'd have to devote a whole day to it. So we're going on Palm Sunday, and back on Easter Day. The timing could scarcely be more inconvenient. I don't begin to see how my children can possibly manage. The project has been discussed with them in the abstract, and they were encouraging.


It would be nice if they could get my husband to Strathardle. He is unhappy about being so long away.

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:39 AM

    You can indeed fill in a bit of the tax return form online and then store it and stop. You can also view the calculation based on what you've filled in so far, and if it doesn't give the answer you expect this may give you a clue as to what you've missed out.

    (My husband and I have an annual difference of opinion about which box pension contributions go in, so usually he enters it his way, views the calculation, realises it's not right and corrects it to my way. I may perhaps be a little smug about this.)

    Fiona

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  2. How wonderful to have given yourself something so good to get panicky about! You will go with encouragement from many of us in your bag.
    Don't forget to get your EU medical entitlement card, as well as some insurance - used to be called E111, is now something like EHIC - your local Post Office will sort that out for you.

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  3. Patience11:57 AM

    Does your husband still have Windows on his machine? If he does, go to start, control panel, and type in mouse in the search box. That will bring up a list of options. Try change pointer appearance (can be big and obvious) and also make it easier to see mouse pointer. One of the options under 'make easier' is to 'show location when I press the control key.'

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  4. Jean you have such good tech support here! A trip to Athens sounds wonderful. Your children should be able to sort out time to care for your husband for a week, especially if they can get him away as well.

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  5. Anonymous1:16 PM

    Very glad to hear about the Athens trip!
    It sounds like you are on the right track with the tax ordeal - slow and steady should get through it.
    Have a good week, LisaRR

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  6. I'm so happy for you that you have booked the tickets to Athens! Hopefully having that trip to look forward to will help you get through the remaining winter months. Just think of all that sunshine and wonderful food (food you don't have to prepare!) waiting for you in Greece!

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  7. How exciting! I'm sure the rest of the taxes will pass in an easy flash, just because you have something so happy in the near future! And congratulations on being so close to the end of the Bridal Shawl -- even with the needle slip, that has to feel like an accomplishment! As my friends keep telling me (regarding weight loss), celebrate every victory!

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  8. Hooray for the plans to visit Helen in Athens. And hooray for their return to the U.K.

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  9. I know it really isn't funny but I had to smile over the computer issues. We have a new self-service checkout system in the library. Yesterday I heard a child barely tall enough to reach it saying, "No grandpa you do it like this. You put your card there upside down. Now you put the book there..." The child might have been four and his grandfather would have been at least 74.
    Enjoy Greece! I am so envious.

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  10. I'm sure you wioll enjoy your trip to Athens especially having your neice with you.

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