Dear lord, I got quite anxious a little while ago.  I wanted to pay my tax bill.  *Wanted* is pushing it, actually, but I thought I might as well do it now as at the end of the week.  So I had checked with my accountant what my reference was, logged on to my bank account, transferred the money from the savings account and set up a new payee.  And that was all fine until I put in my reference number, which should have been followed by the letter  K.

There was no option of switching to the alphabet, nor putting in a letter, though letters were put under the numbers, as in the dear old Nokias we used before smartphones.  But I couldn’t find out how to get hold of one.

I have accounts at two banks, darlings, because I don’t trust anyone fully, least of all those who have my money.  So instead, I transferred the money to my other bank and then went through the rigmarole again.  And this time it was fine, except it didn’t give me a choice of several HMRC references (PAYE, Self Assessment and half a dozen others) but just one.  So pfft.  It was sure to be fine, I said anxiously.  And typed my reference in twice, numbers and letter because I was given the option that time, and then noticed they didn’t match, so had to check where I’d made a mistake.

And then I was asked for my password.  I blanked.  I had no idea and stared at it for at least a minute.  I’d already logged on, so it couldn’t be that … it didn’t take too long, I remembered it and put it in and it’s all gone through, I trust.  Well, trust is a strong word, innit?  I almost cried on LT’s shoulder, but just leaned on it for a bit instead.  Sheer anxiety made me lose my marbles for a minute.  Dear oh dear.

Anyway, let’s go on to much more interesting news.  I have finally got my clarinet tuned and serviced and it’s amazingly easy to play, now that it’s been repaired.  I feel quite excited and will certainly take the lessons I’ve been saying I will for ages and ages.  In fact, I’ll email about them Right Now.