Breaking Through, Travelling On

beanielou · 20 March 2017 at 9:47AM

Wow,you have achieved a lot.
That's a monster list to still go through though :eek:

Karmacat · 20 March 2017 at 10:22AM

Thank you all! There's quite a lot to it, it has to be said

that's why I'm not putting the other stuff on here as well, it would just look silly

I think I need my Second Breakfast now - just like a hobbit

Karmacat · 20 March 2017 at 12:15PM

Karmacat wrote: »

- tried to log on to hmrc the other day, and the ringback (an added security feature) isn't working **again** - need to sort that

They answered my query by email this morning, suggesting I try again and if I still can't log on, send various detailed info. Just done as they suggest, and lo and behold, nothing happened, so the detailed info was sent. We'll see what happens - not urgent, but its very unsettling not to be able to log on.

Offline now, off to see my business partner. Hope everyone has a great day

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themadvix · 20 March 2017 at 2:06PM

Hey KC, glad you're back safe and sound. It sounds like you've got plenty to be getting on with, but make sure you intersperse it with fun stuff - don't forget, you're retired now, no(t quite as many) deadlines! :P

Karmacat wrote: »

Done, but finish or make sure: 9 items

- sort paypal: am now only using one account, but how do I use the US$10, as well as the sterling?

Still to do: 17 items

- check on NI bill – I don’t think its taken by dd any more!
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I might be able to help with these two:

Paypal: you should be able to convert the $$s into ££s in the account - does it show them as two separate balances? If so, on the homepage (where the balances are shown on the left-hand side) there should be a link underneath that says 'Currencies' - if you click on this you should go to a page where there's a box on the right that you can convert the money in. I hope that works for you - and I'm basing this on a business account showing in the 'newer' version of PP (it sometime reverts randomly to the old one!), so the links might be different....

NI: I *think* (and please don't quote me on this), that if this is for Class 2, it's now taken when you do your tax return. I used to receive a bill and pay it manually but this stopped a while ago and I think it was shown on my tax return last year as part of the calculation. But DO check!

greent · 20 March 2017 at 3:51PM

Karmacat wrote: »

- sort paypal: am now only using one account, but how do I use the US$10, as well as the sterling?

Last time I got paid in US$ on paypal there was an option on there to pay that money into the sterling paypal account (ie: exchange it) - haven't had any $ payments in a while, so can't say if that still exists - but it was very easy to do (but not an obvious find, iyswim)

If you have 2 separate paypal accounts (different email addresses) - contact them about merging them. They are actually quite helpful nowadays by phone/ live chat - much better than years go

x

Karmacat · 20 March 2017 at 9:22PM

**Huge** appreciation for reading through that massive post in detail to comment on individual items

thank you!

Madvix - As far as the money is concerned, I had two tiny amounts of dollars in separate sterling accounts - now I've sent the tiniest one to my normal account, it should have just over ten dollars in there. When it only had $6.65 in, I couldn't convert, it wasn't enough to pay the charges

:rotfl: It *might* be enough now, but of course there'll be about a nickel left! I'd rather try to find a way to use the dosh, but if I can't, I won't bother paying the charges, I'll donate it to a charity.

And I think you're right about Class 2s - thats the reason I wanted to log in to HMRC, to check the wording of the payment I just made in January. Frustrating, isn't it!

I just looked at my scanned bank statements - last year, and ten years ago - and the NI debit definitely isn't there these days. I'll still check the wording when I can get on to HMRC, though

greent - I didn't think of merging, I just sent the little bit of dollars to my standard account, so this unknown one is now empty - I think there's a button somewhere to say "close account"

How on earth did I get paid in US dollars, twice? Was it a refund on things I bought when I was in the States, back in the day? Not a clue!

Karmacat · 20 March 2017 at 9:32PM

Madvix's point about making time for the fun stuff is important - I'd hoped to be doing that by now. But there's too much left over undone from when I was ill, and when I was helping look after my mum, years of it - I really need till the end of March to focus on a bit of catch up. I won't *fully* catch up, but nor will I be able to have people round, or set off to enjoy myself properly, with things the state they're in.

There's also the fact that its still only March, and I'm afraid I feel very tentative about landing myself in the middle of the lurgies that are still lurking about at this time of year. May sound paranoid, but I've been so ill for so long, I'm willing to wait a little bit longer till there are a few less around, and I can use that time to catch up.

Anyway ... I was catching up with my business partner today, I first met him in 1985 :eek: certainly counts as a social thing, and we've set some possible dates to meet up with another person for our board games evening :j And I'm contacting far-flung friends and trying to arrange visits - its the local stuff I just don't have, because I got ill so soon after I moved here. From the start of next month, it will move up the priority chain (there'll be a Mega Socialising Post soon :rotfl:).

As you can see, its been in my thoughts

Karmacat · 21 March 2017 at 9:48AM

People checking in with me here is so nice ... thank you all. And a much-loved mse friend who lost her mse log-in, but has been catching up with this diary, is checking in on facebook ... not easy to do that, thats also very much appreciated.

So ... today:
- bit of cleaning done, and preparing for more.
- wm is on.
- tidying! Omigod, tidying ...
- HMRC have replied with more suggestions, once the wm has finished yelling at me, I'll get started on that.
- two little bits of online banking to be done: pay a monthly cc, and transfer the £2,500 to my cheque account so I can pay into my pension.
- check into both paypal accounts again, see if I can finish things off.
- turns out that the paperwork I'd done to open the little isa has been accepted, I thought I'd been a bit wonky filling in the form, so I just need to check that paperwork and update my list

- dw *will* be on.
- clean the porch - I have a supermarket delivery planned for early afternoon, and I *really* don't want to be stumbling about on the cluster flies

- to finish on a high: it's sunny! so I'm going to do what Cheery did, and experiment with sitting out on the patio for ten minutes

Suffolk_lass · 21 March 2017 at 10:12AM

Really enjoy reading your diary - just checking in really. Are you planning to grow any produce in your garden this year?

Karmacat · 21 March 2017 at 10:31AM

:kisses3:Aw, thank you Suffolk lass! What a nice thing to say.

Growing *this* year. Yes, I want to.

Already growing edible plants: bay (a bit pot-bound), raspberries, rose, lemon balm, chives, oregano, salad burnet, sage (this plant isn't very well, no sage to eat this year, I don't think), rhubarb, sorrel, blackcurrants, rosemary, lavender, garlic, wild garlic, quince, winter savory (also ill, because its been submerged by weeds), a couple of blueberry plants that were planted in the wrong place and I'll either give up on them (because of soil type) or move (to get a sunnier position for them).

Other things are growing, but those are the edible ones.

To plant this year: chives, which I'll buy from a flower stand in the next town, to get them growing well this year directly in the soil, and the seeds I just bought from realseeds: nasturtium, marigold, lettuce, courgettes, and bread poppy (where the seeds don't fly away like ordinary poppies). Those will be planted into the gro bags I'll be standing on the cardboard by the fence that needs some retaining support. I'll grow some basil in the house, from a supermarket pot, and that will be that!

Mustn't, mustn't, buy anything else, I'm usually far too ambitious about what I can plant

Going to pop over to your diary to check out your gardening :j

Breaking Through, Travelling On

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