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| Photo credit - John Nettleship |
I did, however, have a certain amount of tidying up of loose ends to tackle that have been building up. They sat there niggling at me, occupying a little part of brain that nags me as I'm going to sleep, or when I'm trying to have a quiet moment.
No more. Yesterday, without too much work on and alone in the house, I set about my chores.
First, I filled in my tax return. My affairs aren't too complicated and I had everything I needed. At least I thought I did, until I realised I needed the PAYE reference of the people I've been doing casual work for so I fired off an email and got my answer in 10 minutes.Racing through the rest of the form, I signed and dated the form with a flourish, and placed the form in an envelope on the side.
Once that was done, it seemed natural to continue on to renew our tax credits claim. I had husband's P60 but had to ring him to check some details, then I had to guesstimate our income for the coming year. (Oh yes, I am a pro at this now.) No real form-filling this time - I prefer to ring up. Ringing up at lunchtime is always a bit of a lottery but after a lengthy recorded message, part of which warned I may have to wait some length of time to speak to a real person, the call was answered within two seconds. After ploughing through the information, I gave her the numbers I had for last year and this year and we were done in 10 minutes.
Two tasks done and I was on a roll. There was only one thing for it - tackle the filing. Eurgh. I fortified myself with a sandwich and a brew, before heading up to the spare room and sorting all the paperwork into piles. It would appear I haven't filed since last August - how the hell did that happen? As ever, it took less time than I think it's going to do, probably the reason I left it so long. Another job ticked off. Surely I couldn't get anything else done?
You'd be wrong. My old laptop has been lurking around since it failed last November, waiting for me to afford a repair and find someone local who can do it for me. Months ago, someone recommended a local company to me but I couldn't remember their name but a quick Google threw up their website. I tried calling the number and there was no reply.Ten minutes later, I tried again and this time, someone answered. I explained the problem to them and they told me they think it's a simple repair and probably won't cost more than about £50. Result! All I have to do is get the laptop to them. So, after a quick dash round, I picked up laptop and envelope containing tax return and headed out, stopping to buy a stamp for the tax return and posting (another job ticked).
So, tax return sent and the laptop got dropped off and I still made it to school in time to pick up the children without suffering the indignity of turning up late and having to collect the children from the main door instead of their classroom. In fact, I was early!
Since then, I've made tea, had Missy Woo read to me, tidied up the kitchen, stacked the dishwasher, and answered some emails about work. I'm thinking of having the night off. What do you think? Where do I get my medal from?
That little part of my brain been silenced, for now, at least. Until the next thing crops up, that is.