2024 Quick Daily Posts

[Serinde]

Are you sure that your late step-brother didn't already do the return? In any case, contact HMRC immediately about this.Hopefully they will speak to you even though Power of Attorney hasn't been completed. Explain that the return will probably be late due to circumstances beyond your control. If you kept a copy of the letter you sent to the accountant you can add the information about their untimely death as proof you did try to sort things out. You will find them generally helpful (although harassed at this point, when the deadline is the 31st). Better they have a record of your call than nothing, which would lead to an inevitable fine.

I'm slightly amazed your father still has to return a self-assessment form! I received a letter last year saying that I don't now have to do this. Seems very odd to me... I keep checking the date on the letter!!

[richardandtracy]

My dad has a few shares invested through an investment manager, a number of shares invested directly by himself in some companies in Gibraltar, the US and another US company he had some shares with is in liquidation. Then he has a couple of old non-ISA savings accounts (quite why he's kept these, I have no idea) as well as his army & state pensions. The net result is that while it's not seriously complicated, it needs declaring as not all of it has the tax automatically deducted.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

I'd still talk to HMRC. If you manage to get it in, fantastic. If not, they'll probably set you a reasonable date-by-which.

My FIL had a shoebox full of old passbooks for accounts we knew nothing about and only discovered after his death when DH was acting as executor... That was... exciting. (not)

[richardandtracy]

One hour and three minutes on hold before getting through to speak to a human at the Inland Revenue. I am not a registered tax agent, so they won't talk to me until I am.

But, I now know what my next actions need to be. Feels like it was only half a step forwards, but it really is forwards, so is in the correct direction.

We have now been told MIL is coming home tomorrow evening, which is wonderful news, even though it's not without drawbacks.

The new TV MIL asked us to get for her was delivered to us yesterday. Set it up in her living room this afternoon, and managed to get it set up as simply as possible, so when she switches it on at the wall, it will go to TV programmes and not try to connect to the internet or try any smart tv functions she won't understand. Her old TV had to be removed, even though it still works. So we have it, ready to return if she takes a violent dislike to the new one (and she may - she has a bit of a history of this). I set her old TV up in our living room. It's HUGE. Our main TV was a Samsung 26" TV, possibly 16 or 17 years old, which replaced our Sony 14" CRT portable from 1986 when it gave up the ghost. The Samsung has the same screen height as the old 14", but is a wide screen LCD TV with backlight. MIL's old TV is a 40" LED, and seems utterly huge. Biggest TV I've ever watched. It's much wider than the TV cabinet it should go into, and now sits on top of. Also, it has no Scart sockets, so our DVD player can't be used, the girls' PS4 will have to be used for that. The TV also has a CAT5 socket for internet connection. We don't have enough router sockets... Or CAT 5 cables, for that matter. I truly feel as if we are trying to enter the 21st century now.

Regards,

Richard.

[Mabel Figworthy]

When we got a new telly some years ago, we were going for a 32" but then DH asked if I would mind terribly if we got a 40". I thought it was rather bigger than we needed but didn't mind if he preferred it, and I must say I;ve got used to it now and it does mean that as my eyesight gets worse i can still see what's happening!

[Serinde]

Huzzah! Rugby season is upon us (that is, 6 Nations and Southern Hemisphere games; UK games are all on stations we can't afford...). Why is this important, my friends? It means that in the short space between the garden being underwater and my frantically attempting to turn it into something productive, I have leave to sit and stitch!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Woohoo! let the stitching commence

I'm enjoying the tail end of the speedskating season, but no stitching while watching that because i am usually burdened by a cat on my lap!

[Arianwen]

has anyone noticed the name of the facebook group has changed? I dont recognise the name of the admin who did it and I just wanted to check. I only use it to check when the main site is down but its useful to have.

Just checking in case it was noone here and people get confused between the true forum and there

[fccs]

I noticed it. I don’t check the fb page but it popped up in my notifications. The page seems to be nothing more than ads by BDL xxxStitch Emporium who is apparently admin of the page. I guess it’s become a page mainly for that person’s business.

[Serinde]

It no longer has our logo on it or anything. I don't know what happened to it. One of the issues, I guess, is that none of us has taken responsibility for the site. I don't use Facebook (or any social media) at all, so wouldn't know where to start. However, I'm guessing that it's not possible for someone who isn't the administrator of the site to just take it over? Could one of our mods (if we knew anything, that is) just go in and clean it up again?

The other question is: has someone just highjacked our name?

[richardandtracy]

I think a hijack may well have occurred.

It may be unintentional as the forum is not hugely active these days.

Regards,

Richard.

[richardandtracy]

Spent the weekend visiting my dad.

He's so much better than he was even four weeks ago it's wonderful. He's put on enough weight now to look merely emaciated instead of skeletal, and he's much more with it than he was. Had to leave after 2 hours as he was tiring quite badly.

On my return, I continued going through the house to get rid of stuff no-one is going to need. In doing so, I was hit with an unexpected punch in the heart. I had come across a photo of Tracy & I taken the day we went to my parents to announce our engagement. To see my 20 year old love grinning, holding my hand, the two of us looking as we were in 1990, but in exactly the same pose we still often take now . The emotion hit like a tidal wave and I couldn't really see anything for what felt like an eternity. So unexpected, yet so welcome. That photo is now MINE.

Also came across many, many photos dating back over a century. There was the photo of my grandfather in uniform in 1918 standing behind the chairs where his father & grandfather were seated (wearing absolutely magnificent mustaches). Showing those photos to my girls meant that 6 generations have now seen/handled these photos. Then I came across photos taken by my grandfather in Damascus, Jerusalem & Cairo (1919). Many, many photos of the Sphynx and great pyramid of Giza in 1919, and more taken in Waziristan on the current Pakistan-Afghan border in 1921-23. Also postcard photos of my grandmother, great aunt & great uncle - presumably sent to my grandfather before grandmother & father got married in Bombay in 1929.
Also came across my mum's stash of photographs. Most are of the cows/pigs/lambs/sheep/chickens she grew on the farm, but there are many of the farm in different parts of the year, showing milliards of daffodils, or bluebells, or lichen dripping in the rain or trees wearing a full suit of moss (this is the Devon temperate rainforest with up to 88"/2.23m of rain a year, after all!).

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Good to hear your father is doing so much better, and what a find that photograph is! Yes, that is definitely yours.

All the other photographs sound interesting too - I was made the custodian of a fair few family pics but nothing so exciting as the ones you describe . Still a lovely record of the family past though.

[richardandtracy]

After a little research I find I'm wrong about the Sphinx photo date. Learn something every day.

I know my grandfather was in Egypt twice. Once at the end of WW1 (when he climbed the Great Pyramid and photographed some of his BAI soldiers at the top), and then he was in the third & final battle of El Alamein, and spent Christmas 1943 in Cairo when he broke his leg falling off a table at a party. Turns out the photos I discovered last weekend were from WW2, where the Sphinx's chin was supported on sand bags to reduce the overhang moment & reduce the chance of bomb damage should Cairo be bombed. The photo below is similar to the one my Grandfather took, though much bigger than his print size of only 2.5".

See the article here:
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/great- ... otographs/

Regards,

Richard

[fccs]

It no longer has our logo on it or anything. I don't know what happened to it. One of the issues, I guess, is that none of us has taken responsibility for the site. I don't use Facebook (or any social media) at all, so wouldn't know where to start. However, I'm guessing that it's not possible for someone who isn't the administrator of the site to just take it over? Could one of our mods (if we knew anything, that is) just go in and clean it up again?

The other question is: has someone just highjacked our name?

I’m co-admin on a stitching group and we keep it pretty locked down. It’s a private group and questions must be answered before we admit anyone. We also make sure no one violates the rules of the group.

I’ve looked at the admins and mod for the Facebook group and the company I mentioned is one of the admins as of April 2023. The owner of that company is another admin, as of November 2021.The other person listed as admin has been admin since November 2021 (the same date as the company owner). It also lists a moderator as of December 2023. It’s strange that two of the admins apparently became admins at the same time they joined the group. It think the whole thing is flakey enough that I will probably remove myself from that group. Something isn’t right.

[fccs]

Richard, I think it’s so cool that you found those treasures. When my sisters and I were cleaning out my parents’ house after my mom passed, we found a few photos that none of us had seen before of my dad when he was in the army in WWII. Some had brief descriptions on them and that was the moment we all learned that he had been at the Battle of the Bulge.

[richardandtracy]

My grandfather did a few things he wasn't supposed to, most of which are family stories, but one thing that he never talked about was the 'Liberation' of Belsen. The Desert Rats (7th Army) got there as the German army retreated, and as one of the Rats, he visited the camp on the second day after 'liberation' (shouldn't have been anywhere near there, or due to his age, on the European mainland at all - too old at 45 according to Monty who was 58 at that point), and so probably was one of the soldiers who unknowingly killed many, many survivors by giving them food that was too rich for them after the period of starvation.

Other stories, like him refusing to go to Dunkirk in 1940, and going out through Cherbourg instead, have been confirmed through strange routes. In the Cherbourg story, Orianna was in class with someone whose great grandfather was a gunner in the company of detachments commanded by my grandfather (though that last statement wasn't known to them). The same family had never had any acknowledgement of their ancestor's role, either, and it's not mentioned in any histories I've seen. However, as a result, after raiding the Museums and, in part to my grandfather and his company, the UK had 42 field guns instead of 36 after Dunkirk. 42 for the whole armed forces, and at least 6 of them were 2 pounder popguns. It's hard to comprehend quite how desperate the situation was in 1940, and how an army so catastrophically defeated wasn't erased from existence.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Your grandfather only did what any decent human being would have done: try to feed the starving. He and others of the 7th Army couldn't have known what the result might be, but their humanity sings out.

Yeah, how Dunkirk has been turned into a kind of reverse-victory was always a mystery to me. Getting most of the army off the beach using civilian craft was desperate, but there was no choice. Your grandfather was smart to head quickly to Cherbourg, presumably in front of the French and the 51st (Highland) Division, which bought them time to make good their escape, although they were later cut off and forced to surrender. Those that survived spent the rest of the war as POWs, but they famously concocted the "Reel of the 51st Division", with its balancing to the corners: ie, the dance formation produced a saltire, the cross from the Scottish flag, which could only be seen by the guards in the towers. A very typical Scots way to get up the nose of their captors, and all in the name of culture!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Your grandfather only did what any decent human being would have done: try to feed the starving. He and others of the 7th Army couldn't have known what the result might be, but their humanity sings out.

Hear hear!

[richardandtracy]

Dear me.

I've seen way, way too much of the inside of A&E waiting rooms recently.

Yesterday I got a call from youngest daughter. She's had quite a lot of knee pain recently and went to her GP yesterday. The GP investigated, poked & prodded [with excruciating pain resulting] and gave her a letter of introduction to A&E, and phoned them up to let them know she was coming.

I was dragged out of work to take her & get her into the place with our wheelchair (bought for MIL). So, went to A&E and waited for 2 hours in their totally empty waiting room for triage. During that time at least 20 different medics (nurse or doctor I don't know) wandered through, some of them multiple times. And I do mean 'wandered', not urgent, having chats, laughing etc. Eventually she was called over, and told that on the basis of her letter - which the admin had seen two hours before, let's not forget - it was nothing to do with A&E and she should go to the hospital's onsite GP practice.

We went to the onsite GP practice, who did exactly the same painful checks her GP did, and confirmed the possible diagnosis of possible damaged cartilage and inflamed joint. They said she needed an MRI scan (which is what her own GP had said before sending her to hospital), but they couldn't book it as she was not on their books and it had to be booked through her GP. However, they gave her a set of crutches, a prescription for painkillers and wrote a letter to her GP...

A complete flaming runaround. The whole blinking exercise got us absolutely nowhere, and probably cost the NHS upwards of £200 from everyone who was involved. And while in the GP waiting room we heard at least 6 other patients who had exactly the same type of letter who were being given the same runaround. That in itself is probably wasting of the order of £2000 per day, assume 5 days a week & we're looking at over half a million quid a year wasted because the hospital & local GP's simply have zero knowledge or plan for how to deal with patients. The place is hemorrhaging money due to incompetent organization in this and every other contact I have had with the NHS. If I can see it as a user, why on earth can't the people there? For goodness sake..

Sorry, rant for the day over.

Regards,

Richard