Down the Rabbit Hole
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? Down the rabbit hole we go – again and again.
Diary says I should have started writing this half an hour or so ago – and I was already sat here more than half an hour before that.
So why am I only just starting the commit fingers to keyboard?
Because down the rabbit hole we go.
Oh I’m a bit early thinks I.
Let’s get a couple of the ever extending to do (to don’t?) emails sorted.
Yeah, I know it was a silly idea but maybe – just maybe – I’m a tad tired and wasn’t thinking straight.
A nap would have been more sensible – and a lot nicer.
But no!
Click on the link in the email to download a statement and Chrome gives me a list of pA55w0rd5 it suggests I ought to alter.
Now, when you get a message like that you immediately think it MIGHT be a good idea to do something about it.
And there are “only” 18 sites on the list and some of those probably no longer exist.
So you go and look to see if you can just deal with one now and keep the list for doing one at a time when you next get near that site.
With me so far? Nothing untoward, nothing unusual or out of the ordinary?
Of course it’s probably 20 minutes into the five minute diversion by then but it can’t take that long, can it?
Naivety thy name is Colin.
First site won’t let me change the login but wants to send me an email so that gets put to one side.
The next one is the site I was on when the warning came in.
Click on use suggested strong p@SSW0RD and it is generated.
Click on accept and it says it is invalid.
Usual thing – hit return a few times on the off chance it MIGHT have changed its mind.
Back in five (or ten) – computer has decided 15.56 is the time I WANT it to do an update.
Of course I don’t but I really cannot be arsed to change it.
And back.
Interestingly, having said it was going to restart my laptop and me rushing to get everything shut down before it rebooted in the middle of something without saving it, I ended up at 15.59 restarting it manually.
Ain’t life grand!
Here we are – less than 20 minutes later – with all the programmes and documents (except the emails) open as they were before restart.
Just one teensy difference.
It’s replaced one of my browsers (Explorer) with a different one (Edge).
Maybe it’s for the best. Don’t know and I was never given the opportunity to choose.
Take back control! that’s what I say…
The older I get the more cynical I get.
One of your browsers?
Yup – keep one for business and one for personal. The intention is that any spillage in one will not contaminate the other.
Does it work? Dunno – and I hope I never get to find out…
Down the rabbit hole this morning led to the two of us wasting an hour on the HMRC website.
Our glorious government allowed businesses to cancel their VAT payment for the first quarter into the Covid pandemic.
Don’t have an issue with this but the way they did it was – with hindsight – less than helpful.
Many/most businesses pay their VAT by direct debit.
And HMRC’s workaround was not “tick this box and we won’t collect this amount” but an instruction that you should cancel your direct debit and set it up again afterwards.
Which of course we all did.
So now it’s the next quarter and we have to pay this one so let’s go set up the direct debit again.
I had an email a couple of weeks ago instructing me on how to do this and had given up. Too many deadlines to waste more than half an hour at the time.
So we’re getting a bit close to cut off so grasp the bull by the horns and just deal with it.
Intention was good. Execution not so.
Because the whole process is predicated on having set your original instruction up in the Making Tax Digital (Difficult) regime.
If your registration was prior to that your direct debit was ported across from the old system so was set up a different way and without having to have had a “Business Tax Account” to do so.
But you can’t set up the direct debit without said tax account and, if your agent moved you (I am that agent) from the old system to the new, you will have no record of that tax account and it wasn’t sent to me either.
After an hour we gave up and decided to pay this time by BACS.
Because the next step is either to phone HMRC or do a web chat.
And there really aren’t enough hours in the day to get to the top of the queue unless you’re willing to sit glued to the screen and I really am not! Three or four hour waits are not unusual I am led to understand.
And no guarantee you’ll get someone who knows what they’re doing if you do get through.
If they want it enough HMRC’ll change the system to get the new direct debits set up.
Not so much down the rabbit hole as lost in the whole warren.
I’ve found myself thinking of a particular comic song that fits the situation oh so well.
Flanders & Swann – The Gasman Cometh. Just watch it.
‘Twas on a Monday morning
The Gas-Man came to call;
The gas tap wouldn’t turn – I wasn’t getting gas at all.
He tore out all the skirting boards
To try and find the main,
And I had to call a Carpenter to put them back again.
Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!
It is STILL hilarious.
That is more than enough for today.
Might get round to some (paying) work if I’m lucky.
