Sorry about the very long silence. This very long silence is not because there was nothing to tell you about, but actually because too much was happening. So Christmas greetings will have to wait, because in this post I shall be looking backward at what has happened and not forward to what is yet to be…
During the silent spell we had a wonderful, action packed/delicious meal packed weekend in London at the beginning of the month. Ruthie sang in the Messiah with the Addison Singers and the Brandenburg Sinfonia (an inspiring, standing ovation success) followed by enormous pizzas in Notting Hill (thank you James and Nick); we went to listen to A.A. Gill launch his latest book ‘Poor Me’ at Daunt’s Bookshop, followed by delicious fishing chips at Fishworks almost next door on Marylebone High Street; nephew Thomas turned 40 and we all enjoyed another wonderfully memorable family gathering at Birdie and Susie’s new house in Tulse Hill and then then the next day Ruthie, John and I had a very happy coffee and biscuits with cousins James and Mary which morphed into lunch…
We returned to Parwich after a very happy time to face the nightmare (and I don’t use the term lightly) of tax returns. As well as the usual dreaded annual Income Tax returns we had also to provide all the facts and figures for our accountant to submit our Capital Gains return, having sold our house with attached profit making business in the form of two holiday cottages for rather more than the £36,000 which we paid for it in 1983.
The accountants among you might feel this sounds a pleasant doddle but it didn’t feel like that to us, and the relief to get it all eventually sent off to HMRC was incredible. (Let’s hope they are satisfied…)
‘At last!’ We said weakly. ‘Now we can truly relax and get on with Christmas cards and buying a house…’ (No news to report on that front, except to say that things are moving on, slowly but surely).
Anyway, relax? How wrong we were… To discover just how wrong you will have to wait until tomorrow to discover.It’s too late tonight.
