OK, so following on from yesterday’s post about what’s been done over the last year, this is the list (in no particular order) of the things I’d like to get sorted in 2009/10 as Part Four of the Five Year Plan…

1. Mortgage renewal (carried over from last year – we did it, it fucked up, we couldn’t be arsed to keep on with it)
2. Build up own business
3. Design/Launch some of the sites I’ve got ideas for (I know, that’s an ongoing thing – but different sites/ideas this time, as always)
4. Write more – I want to get at least one solid piece done. I failed in 2009, but it’s still a plan for 2010 instead. And if it fails then come this time next year I’ll try to do it as a NaNoWriMo thing, as promised already.
5. Photograph more – again, I’ve got some ideas for big projects on this, I just need to get started on them.
6. Lose more weight – I want to lose at least another stone in the next year, and ideally more. But a stone will be the target for now.
7. Get to the gym more – something I’ve really slacked on this year
8. Do some business planning, and figure out (to some degree at least) what the fuck I want to do next with my life.
9. Get back in touch with (and visit) various friends I’ve been useless with for the last couple of years.

And that’s “it” for the year. There’s lots of sub-bits on pretty much all those main items, but that’s the plans so far as I can see.

I’ll probably write some more about them over the next couple of weeks, as I get clearer ideas. But for now, this’ll do.

Back in November ’08, I made a more basic list of what the plans would be for 2008/9 on the Five Year Plan.

I’m now more than halfway through that plan, which also means that  2 years from today, I’ll be 40. Shite.

Anyway, here’s the list from November ’08, along with how I’ve done with them..

1. Sort out the mortgage renewal along with Herself (March/April) – we did this, but then didn’t actually go through with the deal, so it’ll carry through to next year
2. Write and Launch the main site ideas that are in my head at the moment, and see how they do
   • Daily Word Challenge : launched, but not doing anything
     
   • Creativity Merger Site : done – but having second thoughts about it
     
   • 
     
   • Two Three other primary sites : under development
3. Promote one of the other sites I’ve done, which has a big dollop of potential – not done, but changed plans with it anyway
   
4. Complete the NCFE Photography qualification/course – done
   
5. Redesign my photography site – considering a significant change of theme on this one
6. Promote the photography and site more – still working on it
7. Write at least one more big piece to get it out of my head at last – started some ideas, but not completed any of them
   
8. Possibly redesign D4D™ a bit – I know, I’ve been talking about it now for years
   Oh yeah, and…
9. Lose some weight, as my plans for doing so in 2008 have emphatically failed – primarily due to zero motivation to do so, but also due to life over-riding gym etc.  Working on it, as detailed in previous posts about weight-loss. I’m still not doing a load of gym-stuff, but the weight is going down, and I’ve lost more than a stone already.

Over the weekend, I completed – and sent off – my Self-Assessment Tax Return to Your Friends And Mine at HMCE.  The deadline for receiving them is October 31st (i.e. this Saturday) so I’ve only just scraped it this year, having been really really good with it last year.

I know, I could do it all online, and have ’til January 31st to fill it in etc. – but I still don’t trust the online system. I wrote about this a couple of years back, and my feelings are still the same. Mainly, I’m happy to spend the money and use the Special Delivery stuff to get the tax return in – it just means I’ve got a signed confirmation that the Tax Return has been received where it’s been sent.  I’ve been bitten by that before, the entire “Oh no, we haven’t received it” from HMCE. Of course, if you say you haven’t received something from them, it’s a case of “Well we sent it, so you must have received it”, but it’s not the same thing when it’s time to send stuff to them.

Basically, when it comes to sending documents to HMCE, it always pays to be paranoid. Always assume that they are either :

1. Vindictive
2. Inefficient beyond the dreams of man
3. Both

and you’ll be OK.

It’s because of that – OK, it’s partly because of that – that I still don’t trust the online submission of tax returns. Yes, you can be pretty sure they’ve received it – but when it comes to HMRC, “pretty sure” simply isn’t sure enough. I feel the same way about HMCE’s online submission as I do about the people who store all their important data/files with Google, Amazon or some other internet cloud-based server – in other words, “Expect it to get lost. Expect it to get hacked.”

My tax return is on paper. Yes, I know it’ll end up being clocked in to the HMCE ‘System’. That’s fine. But letting their system be the only place it’s held? Sod that. I’ve got a photocopy of the tax return. I know where the figures came from, and I’ve got them recorded. I expect HMCE’s copy of the document to get lost, edited, hacked or mislaid. If/when it happens, I’ve got my own hard-copy backup.  If you’ve done all the calculations on-line and not printed out the results (or even better, screenshots) and/or received confirmation from the system of those figures, what proof have you got of what you filled in?

Even if it’s simply that the electronic version gets corrupted, if HMCE also have it on paper then there’s some way they can recover the information without me even needing to be involved. If they only have an electronic version, then lots of people are going to be screwed if anything does happen.

So while I can, I’ll stick with doing my tax return on paper and sending it in to them. When they eventually go to “Online only”, I’ll still make sure I’ve got a printout of the entire thing, along with all the figures I’ve used to calculate it.

Call me paranoid, I don’t mind. Frankly, I’ve been kicked in the nuts by HMCE too many times to not be paranoid. And that’s not paranoia – that’s just common sense.

I’ve been somewhat antisocial this weekend, primarily because there’s been a load of stuff that needed doing.

Among the things done this weekend have been :

• Filling in and sending off my Self-Assessment Tax Form (yes, I still prefer to do it by post, so my deadline for it was the end of this week)
• Working on a site for a client, writing an e-commerce section for them
• Sorting out some other paperwork

There’ve also been some other bits and bobs, but all told it’s been a quiet – if busy – weekend.

As part of the run-up to my birthday – and yet another of the “Five Year Plan” rundowns, as at that point I’ll be 3/5ths of the way through – I’ve been starting to think about some site organisations and rationalising a few bits of what I’m doing.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m anywhere even close to having sensible levels of life/work, but I’m trying to do something about some of it, at least. In some ways, weirdly, it means I’m going to have more to manage, but that’s OK too.

One of the projects I’d had on the cards this year was to merge my ‘creative’ sites together, so that the Photography and Writing stuff would all sit under one roof. I did it back in April/May time, and what it’s actually meant is that I’ve not added much to either site – which of course wasn’t the expected action at all. So I’m spending a bit of time separating the sites again, and going back to (almost) how they were a year ago. Retrograde steps or what?

In hindsight, while it was logical to think about putting the two ‘creative’ sides into one place, the two bits don’t actually go together all that well. Putting the two in one place led to more separation and confusion than the seperate sites did/will, and while in some aspects it’s now a wasted effort, at least I know for sure that the idea didn’t work, and (to some degree) why it didn’t.  Sure, it’s annoying. But like the man said, “It’s better to regret something you have done than something you haven’t”.

There’s other bits of rationalisation and thought in the offing, but that’s the starting point.  I’m sure I’ll write more of the other stuff over the next two weeks. For in two weeks time, I shall be 38. And that’s pretty scary in itself.

This morning I’ve done all my necessary bookings and payouts for the last couple of weeks of this contract. (I know, I’m being organised. It’s as much of a shock to me as it is to you)

That means I’ve pre-paid my Congestion Charges for next week (Don’t ask), as well as booking my train and hotel for the week after.

All sorted – and after that, I’m just going to be commuting to Cambridge, so my main expense will be petrol. (diesel, whatever)

Thankfully, this contract’s been OK – it’s had good and bad bits, and there’s a couple of people I know I never want to work with again, but it’s been pretty good over-all. But I can’t deny, I’m going to be happy with not working in London again for a while after this. I can do it, and if it’s where the work is then fine – but I couldn’t do it long-term, I know.