What I have and will be doing ...

... I don't often write here a great deal about personal things that are going on in my life; after all, I can hardly imagine that anyone outside of my own personal circle of friends and family is much interested. However, I'm going to intrude some personal information here, at least in summary.

August isn't a good time to blog, is it? It's far more interesting to take advantage of whatever good weather we have in the summer to do things that take one away from the PC and as I'm not [yet] into the business of blogging 'on the hoof' with a wireless laptop, that means that keyboard time is severely limited in times of good weather. I also take the opportunity throughout July/August and early September to finalise my self-assessment tax return; if I could force myself to sit down and get it completed earlier then I wouldn't still have more work to do on it now. But sitting in the sun, on the rare occasions we have it here, seems to me a much higher priority. However, as I like to have them (the Inland Revenue, that is) do the calculation of tax payable, even though I do my own independent calculation as well, then I need to submit it no later than the 30th September, so I can't delay the inevitable work of putting it together any longer. So, over the next ten or so days I shall be completing the bits I haven't yet done (not a lot, in truth), then wading through the 'Comprehensive Tax Calculation Guide' to come up with my estimation of the amount I shall have to pay in January and July next year. Once I have done all this, I like to leave the whole thing in abeyance for about a week so that when I go back and double-check everything some days later, I do it with a fresh eye. Why not get it done by a professional? Well I reckon that my affairs, whilst not exactly simple, are not too complex for me to deal with myself. After all, I spent my working life analysing financial statements from a lending perspective and, just as importantly, I am Scottish and don't like spending money completely unnecessarily (ho...ho)!

So, over the next ten or so days my postings here will continue to be somewhat sporadic, although not non-existent. After that, for a few weeks at least, I hope to resume a rather more regular regime of posting entries to my blog, but this year is a little different from previous years in that I have finally taken the decision, after a number of years of thinking about it, to go ahead and buy myself a holiday home 'in the sun'. I expect that this will be happening during the second half of October, or at least finalising the choice of property will most likely be done then, although I shall have to return to the area a month or so later to complete the payment and legal side of things. Inevitably I shall have my mind on things other than blogging during this whole process, so it may be that my posts here will dry up or become rather intermittent during that whole period. I apologise in advance.

At present my aim will be, once I have acquired a property, to spend upto a month at a time there, specially during the winter months. However, as I have a dog I have no intention of consigning her to a kennel for more than a few weeks at a time, and more particularly during the winter months specially as she is now becoming an 'elderly lady' (she is now 11 and a 1/2 years old, roughly 80 years old in human terms it is said). In a few years time, once she is no longer around, I would envisage spending three or four of the winter months in the warmer climate of south-eastern Spain - for it is there that I am almost certain to buy. More about this in due course. Sorry for the completely narcissistic nature of this post.