Form and Function

Now that the dust has settled, it is time to work out the future. And the first thing that the future holds is ‘form filling’. Lots of them!

To become self-employed rather than a wage slave, you have to notify Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. This involves filling in an on-line form so that you acquire a Government Gateway. You may already have one – passport, driving licence, whatever – but they don’t count. You cease to be an individual and become an entity, when you become self employed!
Having acquired a ‘Gateway’, you use it to fill in your application form to register as self-employed. Page after page. All on the Internet. How you cope when the internet goes down (or you do not have it in your rural backwater), I do not know. And it has gone down as I type. Typical crap satellite service – every time it rains in Turin!

Of course, because your financial world has just hit an iceberg, you look around to see what (if any) benefits you are entitled to. More form filling. Even if you do it on the Internet, they send you reams of forms, and you have to send them proof of everything. Actual documents – NO photocopies – and then wait for them to lose them all. Ever lost a passport? No? Well, our local council managed it quite easily, a few years ago. Now, I send them nothing. If they want to see, or copy it for themselves, then I’ll be standing beside them when they do it.

Still, I have to say this. The hours are great, and while I might never be rich, it beats working in a circus. I never did like clowns.

I have built a rose garden. Cleared weeds and brambles from all the dark corners of the garden. And enjoyed the sunshine.

Now that I have no real excuse, I had better get back to writing. After all, someone out there might be reading this …