Time Flys - But Freya Swims

I could have sworn my last entry in the blog was only a couple of days ago, but it appears it's two weeks. I've kind of forgotten most of the mundane events of the last two weeks, but there have been one or two interesting events.

The kids have now finished the second of their four term year and they're now off for two weeks. Currently we're halfway through the holiday and it's becoming a little wearing having them fight each other all the time. Some may not survive long enough to return to school.

My web hosting master plan is beginning to gather pace. I now have 4 domains hosted, in addition to my own, which more than pays my hosting fees and results in a modest profit. A few more and It'll be producing real money. One domain that I was asked to register caused a few problems, since I neglected to set the "registrant" correctly. Changing this later proved to be a pain in the butt, and only a lot of argument and requests for common sense and to escalate to management resulted in the change. The usual route apparently is to fill in a form, get it signed by both the old and new registrant and fax it through. This is a security feature apparently, but also a PITA two hours after registration.

The ZenCart installation went live last week. Don't forget to visit and buy Pounamu Jade Jewellery - shipping world wide for a modest fee.

The tax office very kindly sent me a tax return for 2009/10. I filled it in and sent it back, not that I actually earned anything last year. It's possible that I might get a couple of dollars back on the bank interest - but it won't even buy a beer so I'm not going to plan a lavish night on the town. I also attended a free tax seminar at the local tax office. The tax office staff who organised it were very helpful and human - makes a pleasant change from the UK. The overall message was that as long as everything was claimed in a fair and reasonable manner, then there was unlikely to be any Spanish inquisition. I did discover that some of our claims are probably a bit dodgy, though, petrol in particular. I'll find out more about GST tomorrow as there's another workshop on that topic.

As a result of filling in my tax return, I was reminded that we are in fact now "working" although we're not generating any income. The tax office did mention when we applied for the family tax credit that being in work would make us eligible for "in-work tax credit", and it turns out that this is worth another $75 a week. In order to claim, I had to register for online services, send a "secure email", which was answered the next day, and the request was granted! As we've both been working for a couple of months now, I was left counting the cost of not applying sooner - but at least it's another $75 a week.

I have succeeded in making Quickbooks talk to a PHP/SOAP server - which is good news since it means that I may be able to earn a few dollars integrating this into a web store for another potential client. He's setting up a meeting, but the online demo finally succeeded in pumping a sales order into his system, once he'd added the correct inventory part.

We had the loft insulation fitted on Friday. The effect wasn't actually that noticeable on Friday night, but this was because it was actually the coldest night of the year. It just felt like any other night. Saturday and Sunday were much warmer. Our ensuite which is usually a bit nippy resulting in a general reluctance to get out of bed and use it early in the morning, is now remarkably unremarkable in terms of temperature at 6AM.The gas fire is almost redundant now - and no bad thing. We got invited out to a "pot luck dinner" on Friday evening (I did a chile-con-carne) and when we got back the fumes hit us as we walked through the door. There is no flue - the fire vents into the living room. It seems safe enough but it certainly stinks and results in considerable condensation in the morning.

We tried to have a mid-year Christmas dinner on Saturday, but the weather was unsportingly sunny resulting in an amount of lounging about in the garden. We had scheduled for 3PM, but the Vicmeister was her usual fashionably late self and appeared at about 5, by which time the broccoli had suffered a little, but the rest of the meal was OK. She redeemed herself by producing a bottle of mulled wine, purchased from a knowing English sales assistant at New World. Apparently quite a lot of poms attempt to celebrate Christmas when it's cold - it just seems wrong having a barbie and surfing on Christmas day. The wine was just dandy, producing a very fine warming sensation in the bottom of the stomach. Shame we didn't actually need warming up.

We bought a second hand lawnmower a few days back. Trying to start it on Sunday afternoon, despite its "easy start" moniker proved challenging, but it went eventually. It didn't live up to its "quiet" claim either. It was in fact a bad buy - the choke seems to have a mind of its own and thus it has rather a nasty habit of cutting out. It's nice and sharp though. When it runs. One of the neighbours saw me struggling, and lent me his. Later farting about saw ours running at an ear splitting full bore - it needs ear protectors for sure.

Freya managed to fall into the swimming pool this morning - apparently it was rather cold. She came in shivering and wet but laughing and seems none too bad for the experience.