Overtaxed
Posted: Thu 31 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Own Business, Work-related | 1 Comment »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…
Transmission Intermission
Posted: Tue 29 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »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.
USB Sticks – Update
Posted: Tue 22 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Geeky, Own Business, Work-related | 1 Comment »Following on from yesterday’s loss of USB stick, we found it today.
In the washing machine.
Thank the lord for solid-state technology, which just shrugs off things like getting washed. It’s dried out,
I’ve just put it in the laptop, and all’s fine, the entire thing is working well.
Happy Day.
Five Things
Posted: Tue 15 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Charm School, Domestic, Green, Introspective, Own Business, Work-related | 5 Comments »Gordon’s dumped this meme-thing on me, so I might as well get it done.
The idea of the meme is to list five things in your life now that you would have never thought would be in your life when you were 25.
1. Herself
Yeah, I know, I know, it’s sappy. Live with it. But ten years ago, Herself was going to marry (if not already married to) the now-ex, and while we were friends I would never have thought at that time that we’d be together.
2. A House
Well, not “a” house, I suppose, but “Owning a house”, definitely not. Ten years ago I was a year out of being in the pub/hotel trade, and living in a rented flat down in Weymouth. Thoughts of house-purchase had never really been entertained, and really weren’t until late ’05, I think. Until then I was quite happy with renting, and in some ways I could still go back to it – although that’s not a statement of intent, I should point out.
3. A car
Again, I’d never really thought about sorting out driving, and passing the test. Yes, there’d been a couple of things where driving would have made things a lot easier, but there was always someone who could help out, or give me a lift on those occasions. Other than that, I didn’t really need one. Now, life would be much harder if I couldn’t drive – it probably would’ve precluded the house completely, just on the grounds that there’s absolutely sod-all public transport in the area that I could use to feasibly get to the nearest train station, supermarket, library, town, city, anything.
4. A business
Actually, I’ve had one of these before, and I’m just going through the guff of setting up a new one. But back when I was 25, having my own company was a pipe-dream, never really expecting it to happen the way it has. The additional part of that would be that I didn’t really expect to still be in IT and websites ten years on- not that I had any idea what I would be doing, either- so that’s another surprise really.
5. The lifestyle I’ve now got.At 25, I couldn’t have imagined at all that I’d be living in Norfolk, doing a passable impression of “The Good Life”, with my own chickens, garden, plans for the veg patch, and a fairly solid interest in all things Green – wind and solar power, self-sufficiency, water butts galore, (which reminds me, we really must start making some use of the big one that’s hidden away behind the shed. It’s full, and has been since October, but it’s rained so much, we haven’t had cause to drain it) butterfly and insect habitats, bird feeders, and all those trappings of hippydom. And I wouldn’t change it for anything.
So, who else to tag with it? Oh, I think probably Blue Witch, Dragon, SkyTower, Quixotic Evil and Matt.
Second Opinions
Posted: Tue 15 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »So, today I’m off to see a second (and hopefully final) accountant. This one’s come with a recommendation, so it’ll be interesting to see what they’re like.
By lunchtime today I should have costs for both of them, and can balance that against the cost of continuing to use Parasol. So far, I have to say, Parasol is a poor second out of two options – and I suspect is going to come in a very poor last in the great scheme of things.
There’s a lot I could say about Parasol , but none of it would be in any way nice – and it’d make for deathly dull reading on here, so I doubt I’ll bother. Maybe one day I will, but for the moment I’m just going to leave it at “Shysters”, and “More hassle than benefits”. I think that’s fair comment.
So yes, I think it’s likely I’ll end up going back to having my own company and using an accountant to manage the bills, payroll, and paperwork. Now I’ve just got to decide which one I’m going to use, and/or whether I need to see another one.
Troubleshooter
Posted: Fri 11 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, News, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »So, RIP Sir John Harvey-Jones.
Troubleshooter was, for me, one of those formative “Oh, I like that idea” programmes, and I still (quietly) harbour ambitions of being able at some point in my life to be able to go in to failing businesses and tell them how to fix the problems. (Ideally without just saying “Sack all your directors and managers, and get in people who’re vaguely competent”) Whether it will ever happen or not I don’t know, but well, it’s a quiet dream/ambition. Maybe one day.
Moving Rooms Around
Posted: Fri 11 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »Last weekend we started doing some rearranging of the house – with both Herself and I working from home for large blocks of time, the room we’d set up as the office was working out to be too small (It’s meant that I generally have been working on the laptop while sitting in the living room, rather than on the main PC in the office) so we’ve swapped round the spare bedroom and office. It also meant we needed to change the bed itself, so during this week we’ve had a new futon sofabed for the bedroom and the new desk (the one we ordered from Staples a month ago) delivered, so this week we get to finalise the office setup.
The office is/was already set up for the most part, but now with the second desk it’ll mean we can both have a decent working environment again – in fact, it’s almost back to how we were when we were in Bracknell. Over the weekend I’ll move the main PC over to the new desk as well, and get everything set up and cabled.
The new futon bed also needs to be assembled and set up, and that’s another thing that’ll be done this weekend. All the bookcases have already been shifted about, so we’re on the final straight and things are good. Even better, it’ll be another job off the list.