BG => A&E

I told you all but you wouldn't listen!

I do listen to Sad's grumps though. On a scale of 1 to 10, 11?

Heatwave's back

Heatwave's back

so hot I said it twice

Today, I have mostly been gardening and the menfolk have mostly been sat on their arses watching movies.


I am now officially on strike

KJ - 11 is tame. Trust me on this...

BG - never a good idea in this heat, is all I'm saying

Sad you missed out slaughtering moi at facebook scrabble

Yeah, sorry about that

My wardrobe is always secure.

And yes, I am slightly tempted.

Sad - we have a large fan.

Good evening, chaps and chapesses!

Sorry to be AWOL the last few days; the first two were taken up with being very very busy indeed, the third with partying my ass off and the last one and a half recovering from the latter - Friday was my last official full day at work and apart from going in for a couple of days to finish clearing up and diposing of the equiment, that's that... over 20 years teaching at one school is finished!

Not sure if I'm relieved or terrified, tbh.

Anyway, we has a fabuolous party on Friday and I got in at 2am and am still knackered

At least the heatwave held off here today and we've had two days of blissfull cool blowiness.

Hugs to anyone who needs them - and some gooseberry crumble and banana bread, too, if you like - Melony and i have been baking too!

Aw HM - we need to exchange proper hugs and very soon.

This time last year I was packing up my office into cardboard boxes and bringing it home However, the year has flashed past and on balance I think more good than harm has come from the asinine decision of my former employer - for me, at any rate. Being forced to slow down in one's middle years has its advantages.

Doesn't stop the sense of perpetual bereavement though, so watch out for that biting you on the bum.

Spookily it was banana cake here too

Just met a couple that came to see a room I had to rent about a year ago. They are living now just down the road.

I've just got in a bit of a pickle trying to do my tax return online. Probably wasn't my best idea to try this at nearly midnight It all started out so well and then all went so horribly wrong! They say it's easy - it probably is, but I got lost in the mire of explanatory notes. I've lost the will to live .... well maybe not the will to live, just the will to plod through the ato site ... and will give in and go to a tax agent later in the week! The "never say die" atttitude can go take a running jump - I give up! Having said that, I might have another look at it tomorrow and see if my brain has regenerated over night but I suspect that even with a refreshed attitude that my brain process will still be akin to wading waist high through a bowl of last week's porridge!

On that note, I shall now go to bed! :yawn:

When I refreshed this page, the first thing I saw was someone going to bed and thought it's only 15:45 , then I realised it was our Australian friend.

In the UK, the last filing date on line is 31 Jan 2014 for the latest tax year (5th April 2012 - 5th April 2013). It's a bit earlier for paper returns (can't remember the exact date without looking it up).

Oh, here goes.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/deadlines-penalties.htm

We've been to see The World's End. I really wanted to love it... but didn't. But it was okay. And I had a Cornetto.

FAB NEWS re the Cornetto



and end of an era for Handy (((((((((((((((((hm)))))))))))))))))))

I had a bit of a moment - they had the classic ones but also strawberry. Tough decision but I went with the classic.

It's been raining here. Good for the garden I suppose but I miss the sunshine.

Slightly biased here as it was the first major film the daughter had a runner's role in No credits, obvs, but looks good on the CV. That said I don't think she was too impressed with it either - we'll see it together at some point. I haven't seen the two preceding ones though

Here, it threw it down last night (amazing how quickly the lawn recovers, innit) along with thunder and lightning. I love thunder and lightning but prefer them during the hours of daylight... I think it was well after 4am when I finally slept. Pretty rubbish even by my usual standards. Zombie today

We had some rain early this morning and it's 9 degrees cooler but still very muggy darn sarf.

Plonking down here, and has been off and on for 24 hours. Steamy hot - and guess who left the parasol, chair cushion, paddling pool, play mat etc etc etc out in the garden?
Buggrit!

Kids today

Psssst handy, that's what kids are for .... to take the blame Except in our case though, where just about everything is DestructoPup's fault..... which it usually is! I suspect now that she is part goat .... now would that be my fault for having my imaginary goat Reggie?... anyway, I've found a couple of coke cans shredded to tiny pieces. It's my friend's partner, he keeps leaving them "outside of her reach" .... pffffft as if there is such a thing

We're still having grey days with showers off and on most of the time but a beautiful temperature. At least it's stopping the grass growing brown which is a frequent issue at this time of the year during our "dry" season.

I'm making uncertain progress with my tax return. I got passed the first hurdle and pounded on to the finish line although I didn't submit it... I was estimated to get a reasonable amount back. I then went back to try and fix something which I knew I hadn't input and still didn't find how to do it .... but when I got back to the finish line my refund had doubled! I have a nasty feeling something isn't right and you don't want to mess with the tax office! I think I might abandon my new found independance and go see a tax agent - for peace of mind it will be £40 or so well spent.

Thank you for the parenting tip, Plum.
It was, of course, Melony who left everything out there.
Not me.

And I'd go with the agent too - you don't want tax headaches on top of everything else!

The downside to the agent, apart from the fee, is that now I need to find somewhere to print a couple of documents I need to take with me. I rarely need a printer so I don't want to have to buy one just for this, but it looks as though I'm going to have to - d'oh! .....but at least they're not too expensive these days.

I had another hard day at the coal-face - the little madam at work who has, to be fair, been ok for the last couple of weeks, decided to take the day off and not phone in or anything so it was too late to arrange for any extra hours for me or anyone else today, so we've been flat out like a lizard drinking. On the plus side though, I got a mahoosive brand new free esky from work as I was in the right place at the right time when the management team were clearing out a cupboard of junk and promotional stuff. I have no great need of it at the moment, but it's good to get something for nothing sometimes and it will come in useful sooner or later

DestructoPup's crime of the day was to steal a packet of 150 or so 1.5 inch nails and open it and scatter the contents in the grass. I've spent ages crawling around picking them up and I'm not totally convinced I've found them all - I'm going to listen out for screams as someone inevitably finds more in their foot! If she's swallowed any then god help her and my bank balance

Spuds Grand Chef KJ

Home alone again, no beer. I didn't prepare anything to eat, so time to improvise.

Slice 2 spuds into 2 cm slices. Microwave 5 mins a side.
Fry 3 slices world's thinnest 0.1 mm useless alleged bacon that sticks to pan. It makes wafer thin ham look like gammon it's so thin. BG use Quorn here.
Caramelise onion and some leftover green pepper.
Apply cheese to spuds.
Pour onion ect on top.
Microwave 5 mins.

I know it's summer but I need comfort food.
I shall report back.

Sounds delish KJ. Anything with cheese and potato gets a thumbs up from me. I invented a family favourite recently that consists of gnocchi, cheese sauce, veggie hot dogs (much nicer than the real thing) with extra cheese on top. Serve with a green salad (optional).

Plum - you're a saint.

Here, it's been really hot and humid and after doing what I had to do this morning - sounds a tad ominous, doesn't it - I dragged the boy out to the cinema again. We saw This Is The End - one of the weirdest films I've seen in a while. Patchy and with a truly shite ending (although I suspect it was slightly on purpose) but with many lough out loud moments. Emma Watson, playing herself, as most of them were, was most cool and not knowing what it was supposed to be about really played well for us, so I won't say more in case anyone has it on their list.

A batty thumbs up from us.

(((((((KJ)))))) .... that statement alone qualifies you as an honorary lady, but you already knew that

I have been trying to declutter and have given myself a sore tum. Knew I should have settled down with a good book instead

Got work tomorrow and Friday (deferred end of term stuff) then in theory off for the summer. Sadly with my self-employed status this means 'spending the summer working on all the stuff I've been trying to ignore' such as my marketing strategy and my finances. Bum.