Will this day ever end?

Ooh what a difference a day makes. So lovely yesterday and today so dreich (Adjective: description of the usual scottish weather viz. damp, dreary, overcast & drizzling) - I can't even see the beach or the front gate it's that miserable. Fine scotch mist as they say.

Work here is split into two sorts: wet weather work and dry weather work - today has definitely been wet weather work which has meant completing and catching up with the never ending chores inside. For me after the normal day's duties, that has meant paperwork - boo hoo!

Filing, sorting, shredding, actioning, referring, reading, decision making - it's amazing the amount of paperwork such a small business can generate. But if I didn't do it - would anyone really care? There have been times in the not too distant past that I used to treat paperwork like old clothes - you know the one; if you haven't worn it for 12 months then recycle them, bin them, give them away.

I have done the same with paperwork - if I hadn't dealt with it within 3 months and no one had written to me again about it I used to recycle it by shredding it and sticking it on the compost heap. It's ever so liberating and very environmentally friendly! An old friend taught me about this style of paperwork management several years ago - only she had 4 years worth of unopened mail and paperwork to deal with. So after the shredder blew a gasket and finally gave up the ghost we had a huge bonfire in her back garden and burnt it all instead - it was some bonfire I can tell you!

I reviewed this practice when after repeatedly paying Late Penalty fines of £100.00 a time to the Inland Revenue for failing to complete and return my Tax Returns for 3 years (because I had shredded and recycled them), I grew merrily pished on Gordon's Gin one night and decided to bite the bullet, complete the paperwork and send it back. Imagine my horror when a few weeks later I was notified that I had in fact been paying too much tax and was owed money by the Inland Revenue instead!

Needless to say I was never refunded all of the Late Penalty fines I had paid over those three years and have subsequently paid more attention to my paperwork ever since!

And the moral of the story?............................drink more Gin, it gets the job done!