Don't you just love filling in tax returns?

What have I been up to in the last couple of days? Well,
I've been busy taking lots of photos - over a hundred shots
of family members, flowers, one of our cats, some lilies,
and also some clouds, and then sorting through them all.
I've finished a chunk of admin work for the U3A (the old
-timers club), and today I've made a start on finishing
off Mrs C's tax return for her.

The end of September deadline is looming, for getting tax
returns in (after this date, you have to do all the tax
calculations yourself, which I can't be arsed to do - let
the tax people do it themselves - it's what we're paying
them for). I find filling in tax returns an utter bore -
so tedious finding all the ruddy expense receipts and
interest statements from building societies, etc.. It's
the one thing that puts me off doing some part-time paid work,
eg trading on eBay - the thought of spending hours and hours
completing a tax return every year.

I'm great at procrastinating, like most people -- I'd rather
spend time having some fun blogging, than getting down to jobs
I dislike doing. However, if you give me a deadline, I usually
get the work done on time, even when I leave things to the last
minute - I tend to work well under a modicum of stress/pressure,
self-induced or otherwise.

We've been seeing a bit more of our girls and one of our nieces,
in the past few days. One of the girls (S who lives in Leeds)
spent the weekend with us, so we saw more of her and other
members of the family who came to see her too. I may have
mentioned before that S is a classical guitarist (and performs
at weddings, etc, as well as teaches guitar). She and her sister
E (who plays traditional harp) are planning to team up together
as entertainers. Our other two girls have played violin and
viola for a short time when they were at school, but lost
interest in playing.

I've taken a rather good photo of Miss D, one of our cats -
she just loves lying on top of one of our settees, and has
created a comfy bed for herself. From this perch, she's got
a great view of the garden, so it's her favourite spot.