Having filled in my Tax Return a few weeks back, I got a letter from HMCE this morning. Happily, it’s initial proof that I was right in a couple of assumptions/beliefs.

I bloody knew that Parasol were costing me too much money, and that I wasn’t getting paid the correct amount. I’d asked them about it several times, but they insisted I didn’t know what I was talking about, and that of course they were correct in what they were doing.

The initial letter from the taxman confirms I was right – I’ve overpaid nearly £2,000 in the 2006/7 tax year. I don’t know yet how they’re going to plan on paying it back, but I’m looking forward to the day it happens.

Mind you, I’d rather have received that missing £150 per month, rather than paying it to the fucking Inland Revenue for them to pay it back to me without any interest accruing on it…

So, despite a complete lack of further updates yesterday, the interviews went pretty well.

As yet there’s been no official feedback from either one – the first one won’t be finished interviewing people ’til Friday, and the second one is seeing another person today – but both seemed to go well.

The contract one is right up my street, with lots to do, and the people seemed pretty good as well. In fact, it seemed more like going in for a meeting, discussing requirements and so on, rather than an interview. I know that both scenarios end up with either getting work or not, but it was more a conversation about ideas and plans, rather than “So, what’ve you done previously?” and all the normal interview guff.

The first one was far more formal, questions about technical knowledge, expectations, preferred development process, versioning systems and so on. It went OK, and I’m fairly sure I came through it all in a good light, but it’s going to depend utterly on what they thought.

By the end of the day I was brain-dead, mind you, which is why I didn’t get round to writing anything else yesterday. Multiple interviews in one day is a good idea in that in one day off you get through them rather than all being on different days – but man, it’s a killer of brain-cells.

As I said yesterday, I’m going to be busy today. Two interviews, and dealing with a bundle of bureaucracy guff in between (with luck – assuming I get the time) so that I can get back up to speed with a couple of things that I need to get sorted.

Oh, and I need to figure out some ideas for (another) site redesign for the business site. Yes, another one. Maybe one day I’ll come up with a plan for it that I’m actually satisfied with, and that goes the distance. We’ll see.

Anyway, that’s the plan. It does mean that I won’t be updating anything here ’til I get home – so time will tell.

Occasionally, one really has to wonder how your name has come up in a search.

This morning I’ve had a call from the HR department of a massive international company – and we’re talking seriously big, I have to say – asking about the work I’d done with the company I worked for in 2006 (the one that moved from Wokingham to London, and was run by AB) as they were launching a team to do a similar type of thing, and wanted to know if I’d be interested in working with them on doing so.

It’s something that would definitely be of interest, I have to say. And when they mentioned the money, I’ve become very interested. Just have to see what they say, now.

But I’d love to know where/who they got my name from…

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

In a deja vu kind of scenario, yet again I’m now doing multiple interviews in one day (rather like one day in April last year.) although this time it’s only two, rather than three. Still, it’ll keep me busy all day – there’s one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

On this occasion, one is for a permanent role with a company I would be seriously interested in working for, and the other one is a contract role for a company where I could add some bits to my skillset/CV which I haven’t done before. (but that aren’t exactly rocket science)

So, just have to see how it all goes tomorrow. Woo Hoo.

One of our hens has gone broody – she’s lying all day on the nestbox (although she’s been up for food and water) and is quite grumpy when anyone goes near her.

In fairness, it’s not unexpected – Light Sussex’s are one of the breeds (apparently) that do get broody on a fairly regular basis, so it’s not really a surprise. In some ways it’s quite funny, really. It does mean that we’ll be down to two eggs a day for a while, but again that’s nothing entirely bad either.

Just one of those things – and quite fun, really. I do feel slightly – and I really must point out that it’s only slightly- guilty about her being all broody and wanting to hatch eggs that have no chance at all of hatching (we’d need a rooster/cockerel for that task) but there’s no way we’re ready for having a whole herd/flock of chickens at the moment. We’re quite happy with just the three, and letting them get on with their lives.

All part of owning chickens, really.