Z grapples with HTML and loses

What I should be doing Right Now is getting my papers ready for the accountant.  Yes, we’ve got an appointment first thing tomorrow.  Yes, for stuff that needs to be filed and the bill paid by the end of January next year.  And yeah, it’s a pain whenever you do it.

My difficulty is remembering what year it applies to and therefore being sure to claim expenses.  These are genuine ones (I have a couple of flats that are let, which is what keeps me from the breadline), actual out-of-pocket expenses, and there have been new boilers and new washing machines in the past three years.  I was all with it last year, but it was the big effort then, I seem to have moved on.  So I need to check the dates of when we’re dealing with and JFDI, as Weeza would rightly say.

Ro phoned and asked about the new blog set-up.  I mentioned a few minor matters and he’ll have a look some time.  Mainly – because I’m always thinking about you, darlings – it’s about registering.  I said it was off-putting, having a profile page pop up, so he removed it.  But now, there isn’t an obvious place to put in the URL of your blog.  So he’ll see if he can add it to the sign-in page.  I’m considering, otherwise, having a blogroll on the sidebar, just for people who comment.  I’ve got over 300 blogs in my feedreader and can’t possibly put them all up, but it wouldn’t be appropriate to.  Some of them are bloggers who’ve died but I can’t bear to remove – Kaz and Murph being obvious examples.  Others are bloggers who don’t blog any more, but might, and two of those have bobbed up after a long time recently, though one of those was just for an update.

Today, I went to a funeral at the Cathedral.  My friend Florence died a few days short of her 102nd birthday.  I’ll remember her with great affection – very much with-it until the end, she belonged to various societies, played Scrabble regularly, kept up with current affairs, never said a bad word about anyone and always had a smile on her face, in public at any rate.  And I approved the hymns she’d chosen too.  Funeral hymns occupy a certain amount of my thoughts, I chose one years ago but have an ever-changing shortlist of the other or others – inclined to keep it short, on the whole, but I’ve been to very brief funerals and they’re strangely unsatisfying.

Not so long ago, Russell, Weeza and I were talking about our own deaths – well, we’re not people who shy away from that sort of thing – and what we’d like to happen if not fit to say.  Unsurprisingly, Weeza and I said that, in extremis, we’d prefer no or minimal treatment and to shuffle off, whilst Russell would opt to hang on to life whatever happened.  He’d prefer vegetable status to death.  And indeed, while there’s life there’s hope and similar clichés, who’s to say he’s not right?

Ro and Dora are looking after a rather adorable white cat – oh crikey, don’t remember how to insert a link using HTML.  I used to know but Blogger made it too easy.  http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=white+british+shorthair+cats&FORM=HDRSC2 – hang on, I’ll be back.  Pfft. I can’t remember, darlings, I’ll update when I can but in the meantime, copy’n’paste if you want to see cats that are nearly as cute as Wilson.  I might be able to pinch his image off Google Plus for you.  He looks like a cuddly toy, he’s so sweet.

Must get ready for the accountant before I discuss matters with HTML and come to a rational compromise, in which I give it the oxygen of publicity in return for it reminding me of its secrets.  As I said to Ronan, it’s like translating a book in an unfamiliar language word by word. You may know what every word means, but that doesn’t indicate that you have a clue how to translate the language.

13 comments on “Z grapples with HTML and loses

  1. Blue Witch

    [a target=”_blank” href=”put the url here”>put the word that you want to appear in place of the url here[/a]

    Change square brackets for pointy hats, obviously.

    The target=”_blank” bit ensures the page you direct people to opens in a new tab or window, so they stay on your page too.

    Reply
  2. Z Post author

    Thank you, BW, just sorting out alarmingly high bills for the last few months, which at least will mean I’ll pay little tax next year, will deal with link when I have time. And yes, that was exactly what we were sorting out – LPAs, that is – and the reason for the discussion.

    Reply
  3. kipper

    Have you seen the blog Maru? A Scottish Fold cat living in Japan-quite amusing.
    Sorting out bills has to be one of the most depressing tasks, well,that and bra shopping…

    Reply
  4. Z Post author

    You’re suggesting MORE blogs to follow, Kips? Cheers, my friend.
    Actually, I like bra shopping – that is, I like having bought lovely new bras … yes you’re right, the shopping itself is a bother.

    Linda!!!! Looks like you’re having a fabulous time and we’re all wildly jealous (you have to know Linda on FB to know how jealous you are).

    You see why I don’t have a blogroll, Rog. Though I don’t have 300sworth of posts to read – once you’re on there, you’re unlikely to come off, even if you stop blogging, just in case you come back.

    Reply
  5. allotmentqueen

    Oh yes, two things that you have to get your head into gear to sort out – accounts and HTML. Reminds me I have to do the VAT for the end of the month. *sighs* We seem to have gone from little patterns to plain old unknown avatars now.

    Reply
  6. Mike and Ann

    My least favourite job of the year – doing the books for our accountant – I hate it.
    Mark you, I’ve got it fined down to about a day and a half’s work now.

    Reply
  7. nick

    I agree with you that I would prefer no or minimal treatment if my health had declined to a vegetable state. I can’t see what good it would do me to survive in that condition indefinitely. Not to mention the burden on those who would have to care for me day after day.

    Yes, the log-in procedure is rather cumbersome, especially as the password is impossible to remember. A simpler commenting procedure would be good.

    Reply
  8. Z Post author

    Ro has directed me towards Gravatar, but I haven’t got to grips with it yet. I’ll probably end up going to him, cap in hand, and humbly requesting that he helps his old ma out yet again.

    At least we’ve never had to deal with VAT, as auctioneers it’s only our commission that would have to be taken into account and we’re nowhere near the threshold.

    Russell is such an optimist, Nick, that he really can’t imagine himself in such a state – and he’s firmly convinced he’s got 20 or 30 years of healthy life yet. He’s 18 years older than I am, yet I don’t have that degree of certainty about myself.

    It is possible to change your password to something of your choice if you haven’t either ticked ‘remember me’ or instructed your computer to remember the password. I’ll have to sign out and sign in again as my alter ego ‘me’ to confirm how to do it, though.

    XL, sorry your comment wasn’t published immediately, it will be from now on but, in my anti-spamming drive, I have set it to approve someone’s first comment.

    Reply

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