New toys

Ste Denise

After a couple of days hard labour, we decided that today we could have a day off for good behaviour. The path is now laid across the garden to the pool house with a couple of little areas for seats and tables should we want them.

We shouldn't be, but are, suprised just how much glare and heat the stones give off and how much lighter and sunnier the garden seems with the new layout.

We went shopping this morning and bought a couple of long polystyrene tubes which are all the rage here. They are floats for the pool. We spent a few minutes testing them out and they are lovely for resting your head on when just floating around in the water - what a brilliant idea and so cheap! We also bought a couple of little sleeves for them which means we can join them up to each other or make into rounds. We are sure the grandchildren are going to have great fun with these when they come to stay.

We also tried to make our tax declaration for 2007 today. We went to the local tax office to collect the forms only to be told that we would have to come back after 2 June when they will make an appointment and register us properly. This is the first time I have heard of this being done. The official date for getting your forms in is 31 May every year and I questioned whether it would be OK for us to submit late for 2007. 'No worries' I was told, it is our problem that we can't see you until June, so there won't be a problem.

It isn't that we will have to pay any tax over here anyway as my pension is too small to be considered for tax and Jon's being a government pension has to be taxed in the UK, but we did want to get ourselves 'legally' registered over here for tax purposes and especially to claim our tax 'credit' against the replacement windows we had fitted last year. So it will all have to wait until June.