Painting fairies!

The men in white coats have come to do my house! It looks so lovely! Will post pics very soon! originally I thought they were here to cart me off, but no! They were here to sort out the outside of my house. It really needed doing. I manage most of the general maintenance, the paths and the garden etc (oh my garden!still have bulbs to put in and really must do the mowing!)

Just noticed how many exclamation marks I have used here. I must be really excited today. And it is an exciting day for me. Not everyday you get your house painted (and the shed and the gates!) Now if only the IR were not looming over me. I really have to crack on with the spreadsheet work but it has so far this week given me two migraines.

I still have about 70 items to update with item id's and dates and then I have to work out how to incorporate everything together. Icluding my outgoins in tissue paper and printer ink! Argh, talk about tearing my hair out! One huge upside is that Outset Torbay have been in touch and I am crossing fingers that they'll be able to help me out with some practical stuff Tax-wise. As well as just talking to someone in the same boat which will be great.

Righto nose back to the grindstone...

Sun shiny day and the IR

Oh sun-shiny-ness!

Hmm... Do I go and put my bulbs in (what I WANT to do) or do I continue my foray into the world of low-class accountancy (bleargh)  ?? Book-keeping or Gardening?? Answers on a postcard pretty please!

My deadline for the 5th of April is looming ever nearer and dammit I just want to be doing anything else! We get such short spells of good weather here that it feels wrong to be stuck indoors wasting this opportunity!

I know my garden will forgive me just as I know the Inland Revenue will not, I've already had a run in with my local ''representative''. Apparently even though I wasn't working in 2009 I still have to do a tax return! Go figure (ha, pun intended) that one out!

Boo hiss!

My grass needs cutting again....maybe I should compromise here... Book work until the sun dries off the grass then a bit of grass cutting and then more book-work later after small people are home from school. Frequent dilemma this... On the one hand there are the things that only I can do but don;t have time for and there are things that we all can do but the kids might not do it so well as I can.

Curses, foiled again!

Oh ok. Not really a dilemma is it when you put it like that. The IR wins this time bugger it.

Eh, what's up Doc?

Oh and on a completely other note... I have dropped a whole dress size finally! Hurrah for the IPD!  It's so strange, you know, I feel thinner and the energy! oh man the energy!!! People are now commenting on how good I'm looking as opposed to how shagged I looked before. All my clothes fit so much better now and I feel dead chuffed with myself for actually doing it and sticking to it. I like the food so that helps heaps. My only real bugbear is the things to snack on (I was a big snacker...not sweet things but nuts and crisps, though I cna still have the nuts, so that's not too bad) you can only eat so much celery before you feel your ears start to grow longer and your front teeth begin to stretch to Bugs Bunny proportions!

Rain rain go away,
I'm having trouble with Excel today!

Bah, bloody weather, we are NOT ducks!

I am updating all my files and my spreadsheet program for my books bugger the IR. grr) Tax return season will soon be with us. And i have neglected the paperwork side of my little business something awful.

And now I have discovered that all my record keeping has omitted lots of details I will need - eg: item id numbers to verify their listing date. Sod it.


Oh so very bored of number crunching - this'll take me till June!

And I'll have NO hair left! And I will have turned to chocolate!! Ooo I haven't had any of that for nearly 3 months now. Or crisps. Or toast. Or anything with sugar, wheat or carbs. Sigh. I miss them. Like old friends you don;t speak to anymore!

Take care out there in the wet folks. I'm off to give blood in a bit. Fingers crossed I don't pass out this time! One or two more bits on excel first though...

I'm such a goody two shoes...Or I could leave it and go read my book...

Phew, all done for today

Amazingly folks I have a small triumph (No not a pocket sized motorbike nor a tiny escape of noxious gasses!)

I have managed to list all that I set out to list today! All my hard work and effort to prep everything on Monday has paid off with dividends. The ten hours of ironing and carefully detailing the jumpers and coats (not to mention the painstaking effort of photo-ing them all!) have been worth it. I take a lot of care and I pay a lot of attention to details when i make my listings.

it's amazing that people who don;t sell on eBay think how fast the process is! I have been listing for such a long time (years, people!!!) that I feel a little like an automaton sometimes. It makes the process easier though when you have a good system in place first. Organisation, organisation, organisation. Cant say it enough! And a good camera. Nothing worse than weird looking grainy pics.

Oh and can I just say... what's with the whole BIN and bugger off thing?You were there! You clicked the commit to buy button and then the pay now button pops up but what happens then eh?? You got bored so you thought you'd wander down the park for a bit?  Hey, nothing meant to all you hard workers there browsing in your lunch hour, or mum's (bit like me, little one biting your foot, or you just wandered off a minute, mentally!) Hey guys! It only takes  a second and then I can do my big thing and get it out to the Post Office ASAP.

You know, folks,  I love that feeling when someone pays before the PO shuts and they leave me feedback the next day all awestruck cos their item has arrived in the first post of the day! That's my thing, get it out as soon as possible. No messing, no wasted time. I put as much time and effort into my postages as I do my prep and pre-listings. You'll get first class all the way. From the tissue paper (acid free, baby) I wrap your clothing items in to the brown paper (totally recycled, man) I wrap it all up in (or my grey recycled plastic bags I use if the weathers bad). I take time and care. And I believe it shows.

And besides, I like how all those brown parcels look ready to go off! Ok, ok, I know I'm sad! But I'll carry on being sad if it's all the same. xx