It Is The Season Of

Taxes

And allergies.

And frustration. 

Even though I don't earn so much money I still need to do taxes or rather Mikey has to do it!   By declaring income I get assessed for my national health insurance. For 3 people I pay about 50 pounds a month for national health insurance, then for any trips to the doctors, dentist, or pharmacy we pay 30%.  Helps a lot!  Especially I still have another four years to check for the cancer.  With most cancers after five years of nothing you are cancer-free, the type I had the doctor has to check for ten years!  

March 17th is the deadline for the tax form to be handed in this year.  Mikey did it yesterday!!  The tax office has made it easier by having what they call "E-Tax", which just means that instead of writing everything by hand you can type on the computer! Not really that much easier!  Also instead of waiting in line at the tax office, you can send it over the Internet.  I guess that does help.  We drove past the tax office last week and the queue was out of the building and down the side.  I wouldn't want to wait in that queue.  One thing I do is keep last year's tax forms, in a big brown envelope with TAX and the year written in large letters.  Helps!

Of course, the lovely warm weather brings allergies.  Mikey was sick last week.  I think he caught a cold but because of his allergies, it was a lot worse.  He was sick for 4 days, didn't eat for two but made up for it when his appetite returned!  I got hit yesterday.  Runny nose and sneezing.  I took my tablets but didn't help all that much! A friend was telling me about a leaf that grows wild that she chews on to stop allergies, I found that you can buy a tea made from that leaf, so I got some yesterday!  I have no idea what it is in English, doesn't taste nice but if it helps I don't care about the taste!

The frustration is the feeling that time is passing by too quickly and I'm not getting enough done to move. I need to clean out, get rid of, and pack up stuff here and clean out the other house.  Every day I try to do something toward that goal but it all seems too much.  I feel overwhelmed with everything.  I want to run away and not deal with things but I have no choice.  We have found out that we can connect the toilet to the mains sewage but it will cost a lot, we can get a special loan from the city to help pay but we will have to pay it back.  I get the answer to one problem but then another comes up.  Even though I know paying rent is a waste of money as the house would never be mine I would rather do that and stay here!  

Hannah with the cats

Hannah went back to the school where she did her teacher training.  She asked the homeroom teacher if she could come and say goodbye to the kids when they graduate.  The teacher invited Hannah to come to the last English lesson.  When Hannah got there the teacher said that she could teach the lesson.  Poor Hannah had about 5 minutes to prepare but she did okay.  She went to the goodbye party and had a nice time.  One of the students wrote in her memory book that Hannah coming to the school was the best thing of her 6th-grade experience.  I'm glad Hannah had such a good experience and that the students liked her, I feel this has given her a much-needed confidence boost.