Travelling On

Karmacat

**waves back at beanie**

**notes how popular Aldi pesto is**

Excellent!  I've done my French accounts - its ridiculously easy, because there's very little information, but it takes forever, and I've sent about 60% of the documents by email.

Night night all

themadvix

Well done on the French accounts! I get the feeling doing them isn’t your favourite job.

Suffolk_lass

themadvix said:

Well done on the French accounts! I get the feeling doing them isn’t your favourite job.

Ha ha, No s*** Batman! - don't think we have not noticed KC  - well done for it reaching the top of your pile

Karmacat

Suffolk_lass said:

themadvix said:

Well done on the French accounts! I get the feeling doing them isn’t your favourite job.

Ha ha, No s*** Batman! - don't think we have not noticed KC  - well done for it reaching the top of your pile

Busted       Partly because theyt come after the English accounts, and I'm still suffering from years of trauma when I had to learn how to do them myself when my income took a nose dive; plus, the one accountant in the firm that I trusted, died young, the poor lady had cystic fibrosis, and my account was small so it was relegated to a tech person who had no clue that a small account could be so challenging; and the whole horror of how much money I've lost by buying the thing  

Anyway, this morning, I've set the remaining set of documents, told them my holiday dates, and thats that!  Woo hoo!  I must try to do the first half of the year in September or something, just to take the pressure off.  I'll wait to think about today until I've had a mooch around the forum

ETA "the thing" is the French apartment.  Oops!

Karmacat

Right!  Time for a plan.  I have more planning time than the Baltic cruise (that was 5 days!) but not much.  So, in order of priority:

- we thought this cruise would be "pootle around the town where we've docked", but the excursions are so brill, we have to go on some, eg a trip to some salt pans, a pottery workshop, a botanical garden full of poisonous plants stuff like that.  We've arranged 3 of 7, so I need to work on that this morning, got to finalise them today.

- a day's activity booked a while ago via my Egyptology membership.  My sister's coming, and I'm going to have to beg her for transport which pings some worries on the "unequal finances" side, and the day itself is really, really long, I'm a bit concerned.

- one of our nephews is potentially coming down from London in about 10 days to do touristy things with the local tourist railway, and he's *really* making a meal of the transport.  No idea why, he's a mega businessman as is his wife, but he has a bit of a family rep for this sort of thing, so we'll see.  I wouldn't put it past either of them to have been to China recently, in spite of coronavirus scares, so I'm not holding my breath.  Or rather, I am!  Sister is sorting it, so that will also be part of the mega phone call.

- my share so far of my mum's photos are laid out on the kitchen table (as soon as I finally got it clear, which was yesterday) and I need about 20 minutes to get them all sorted.  That can be done later on today, after the huge phone call.

No room yet for financial admin!  Or gardening!  I'm free nearly all of next week, apart from the nephew, so I'll make time in amongst the packing, something has to change with the awful interest rates I'm getting.

Enough for now

badmemory

Interest rates are ridiculous now aren't they?  I am getting more from my Nationwide instant access loyalty accounts than I am from 2 & 3 year fixes.  Even Nationwide have stopped their regular savers accounts.  They say they are going to get worse too!

It is difficult to believe that a few years ago I got a welcome interest rate of 8% on my new Halifax current account that went all the way down to 6% after the first year.  Back then I had no money anyway, now I have I seem to be lucky to get 0.75% on a fix.

Karmacat

They've collapsed, haven't they, bad memory?  I need some dedicated research, which won't be today, I'm worn out already.  I'm not going to the Poison Garden - I'll go to an aloe vera display on another island (I have loads of aloe vera plants) I looked at the road on google earth, and I got stressed just looking at it.  I dislike that about myself, but thats the way it is.  Time for a cheap little meander over a hill to a seaside village

themadvix

Karma, those excursions sounds great! I don’t blame you for wanting to take part!

 Just because he’s a high-flying businessman, it doesn’t mean your nephew has much common sense (and even less likely to have understanding of public transport outside of London, sadly). Please, no offence intended! I think it’s an inverse correlation - the cleverer you are, the less common sense you have - it was certainly the case when I worked at one of the Cambridge colleges! Hope he manages to get sorted. The Bus Checker app is really good for live bus info down your way.

Enjoy the plotting with your sis. And if it doesn’t bother her, don’t let you be bothered about financial imbalances. I’m sure she’ll be happy to give you a lift - in my experience it’s nice to spend time with sisters! 🙂
 

Karmacat

themadvix said:

Karma, those excursions sounds great! I don’t blame you for wanting to take part!

Thanks!  There's one on "mojo sauce" on another island, which sounds very repeatable at home, plus lots of volcanic stuff (La Cumbre Vieja!  The one that could wipe out the east coast of America!) and the last one is a coach up to Sintra, near Lisbon - we plan to do Lisbon as a city break at some stage, so Sintra makes sense.
 Just because he’s a high-flying businessman, it doesn’t mean your nephew has much common sense (and even less likely to have understanding of public transport outside of London, sadly). Please, no offence intended! I think it’s an inverse correlation - the cleverer you are, the less common sense you have - it was certainly the case when I worked at one of the Cambridge colleges! Hope he manages to get sorted. The Bus Checker app is really good for live bus info down your way.

You're so right about the common sense   And its not just public transport (the tourist railway is a steam thing, volunteer-staffed) he came late to car ownership and doesn't understand about car routes either.  But he has a good heart, in quiet ways - when I took care of my mum's paperwork, it was *this* nephew who sent her the most postcards and letters.  Just quietly doing good.
Enjoy the plotting with your sis. And if it doesn’t bother her, don’t let you be bothered about financial imbalances. I’m sure she’ll be happy to give you a lift - in my experience it’s nice to spend time with sisters! 🙂
 

She offered before I could ask, you're right again!  It does create mismatch sometimes, its bound to, but I think the most recent mismatch was because she was on her mobile when we spoke, and the delay on the signal in this area is really noticeable - we were talking over each other constantly!  Crazy, isn't it ... Yep, its nice to spend time with sisters   Have you got photos of you and your little niece?  My mum had a dozen or so photos of me with my sister's children, so I've just seen them again, and they're wonderful.

Suffolk_lass

I went to a one-day meeting in Lisbon in my previous job - it was my birthday and the local host recommended a train trip along the coast to Cascais where we had dinner. I have always wanted to go back at some point - it was beautiful and the train journey, although lots of commuters on the way out, was lovely. Not sure if you are familiar with it but worth doing when you plan your break to Lisbon