Paying the bills
Ah, don’t you just love bill-paying time? No, not a lot. Actually, the bills are not a lot, considering they are for electricity and water. This is an ‘actual’ bill. We usually try to pay the estimated electricity bills when they come in as it helps soften the blow. The details of the bill are still a bit of a mystery to me, but I know what all the bits and pieces are for. This one covers four months from February and it’s surprisingly acceptable – luckily we paid the estimate. The water bill is the same as it’s always been, but that’s because the meter has not been read for a long while now. I assume that when it is, we’ll get a more accurate and probably more surprising bill, just as we did last year.

At least they are paid now, and the joy of online banking! I can’t tell you how easy it is. Except that now we can pay the water online I keep forgetting how to do it so have to ask Jenine to remind me. With those two out of the way, the next one, after the rent, is the health insurance bill, as I have private insurance and Neil has a small policy that covers his annual MOT. We do this on our annual ‘health holiday’ to Rhodes where we are looked after by our insurance agent and a few private doctors in the mornings, and by the bar staff at the Plaza and other favourite watering holes in the evenings. Next month will come the phone bill, I think, and so the months roll on. We’ve also asked our accountant to do our tax returns so that punch in the pocket will be landing on us soon.

Not complaining! I can’t, Neil has a ‘No Moan Zone’ shirt that he had made in Rhodes when we were being prodded and scanned, poked with needles and pressed up against machines last April. In fact, there is nothing to moan about around here at the moment; we’re lucky. The sun is out and not quite as blasting as it has been, the writing is coming on, we are having the house done up bit by bit (painting the courtyard and that kind of thing) ready for Neil’s birthday in September, and other events, and there is always work to be done.

On which note, I must press on. I’ve left two characters searching for a witch’s curse on the Romney Mashes and I don’t want to leave them there alone too long in case she finds them and does nasty things to them.