The General Chat Room

[smittims]

It's just occurred to me that, apart from the Vienna concert, I've seen no mention of the celebration of New Year, and I'd be interested to see what forumites do or don't do at midnight on 31 December.

As a lifelong early-to-bedder, New Year has never meant anything at all to me except putting in my ear-plugs and breathing a sigh of relief when it's all over . I've never understood why people feel the need to celebrate it in any way. So, having 'come out' as an unashamed misanthropist I'd be interested to see what others think.

[Pulcinella]

It's just occurred to me that, apart from the Vienna concert, I've seen no mention of the celebration of New Year, and I'd be interested to see what forumites do or don't do at midnight on 31 December.

As a lifelong early-to-bedder, New Year has never meant anything at all to me except putting in my ear-plugs and breathing a sigh of relief when it's all over . I've never understood why people feel the need to celebrate it in any way. So, having 'come out' as an unashamed misanthropist I'd be interested to see what others think.

It's never really meant much to me.
I can remember when little being able to hear boats' hooters from Liverpool (the sound must have travelled a fair distance up the coast!) but usually I've been tucked up in bed, even if staying with friends.
For 2022/2023 I was in mid-flight from here to Australia, and don't recall hearing from the flight crew mentioning when we passed into a New Year time zone.
This year I was in Barcelona, at an event that started at 22:30 a short distance away from the main celebrations; much less crowded but still with a good view of the fireworks etc.

The academic year start in September has always meant more to me.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's just occurred to me that, apart from the Vienna concert, I've seen no mention of the celebration of New Year, and I'd be interested to see what forumites do or don't do at midnight on 31 December.

As a lifelong early-to-bedder, New Year has never meant anything at all to me except putting in my ear-plugs and breathing a sigh of relief when it's all over . I've never understood why people feel the need to celebrate it in any way. So, having 'come out' as an unashamed misanthropist I'd be interested to see what others think.

For me NYE is a chance for a hoped-for fresh start, a kind of mental clear out, along with thinking about how I am going to go about committing to any new year resolutions I may have made.

[french frank]

It's never really meant much to me.

Nor to me. I think there was one year when I was still up at 12.00am, but that was an accident. This year Sunday became Monday. It happens.

[oddoneout]

When there were still other people in the household then the clockwatching was observed and the New Year welcomed in(and inlaws were hot on it as well, so someone had to stay awake to field the telephone call), but there doesn't seem much point now I live alone. Having said that, since I am sometimes still up at that time anyway I may watch TV or have the radio on. This year I did think we had escaped the fireworks(which put paid to sleep anyway) as nothing happened at midnight - but then one lot kicked off at 12-30 and others continued sporadically until about 1 am. One year I watched footage from London of the firework display over the Thames, which I was enjoying, and suddenly had the added pleasure of spotting my son and daughter-in-law in the crowd.

[Serial_Apologist]

When there were still other people in the household then the clockwatching was observed and the New Year welcomed in(and inlaws were hot on it as well, so someone had to stay awake to field the telephone call), but there doesn't seem much point now I live alone. Having said that, since I am sometimes still up at that time anyway I may watch TV or have the radio on. This year I did think we had escaped the fireworks(which put paid to sleep anyway) as nothing happened at midnight - but then one lot kicked off at 12-30 and others continued sporadically until about 1 am. One year I watched footage from London of the firework display over the Thames, which I was enjoying, and suddenly had the added pleasure of spotting my son and daughter-in-law in the crowd.

How extraordinary - out of all those tens, even hundreds of thousands of co-minglers!

[oddoneout]

How extraordinary - out of all those tens, even hundreds of thousands of co-minglers!

I know - even now I find it amazing. It wasn't a fleeting glimpse though, so no mistaking, as the camera panned around them because they were quite close to the river and to the centre of the display. Also, son is 6ft 4in and was wearing a distinctive scarf made for him to take to uni some years previously.

[Old Grumpy]

Yup, NYE (as probably NYC - though I've never been) is somewhat overrated, IMV.

I read a letter in the paper to the effect that "my NY resolution is not to make resolutions, thus I never break it" - that sums up my attitude concisely!

[Jonathan]

Received my 6 "author's copies" of my first novel (The Ventos Conspiracy 1: Solitude) today! I now have a 5* review on Amazon too 🙂

[teamsaint]

Received my 6 "author's copies" of my first novel (The Ventos Conspiracy 1: Solitude) today! I now have a 5* review on Amazon too 🙂

Good luck. No substitute for getting personally involved in the marketing, and sensibly investing where you can! These days Book Tok os important for fiction I think.
Reviews are the key, and absolutely critical if you want to sell the book !!

[Jonathan]

Several months ago, I mentioned my first novel. Just to say that "The Ventos Conspiracy 2: Confrontation" will be published on 14Jun2024 as both a Kindle and paperback - £2.99 on Kindle and £8.99 as a paperback. Here's the synopsis from the back cover:

"Following on from the events of book 1, scientist and ex-miner Paul Heath is being pursued by the sinister governmental organisation The Union. He has escaped from them once but then he makes a terrifying discovery. Hidden within the Bok Globule that masks Ventos from visible observations, he locates a far future version of the Earth on which all life has been destroyed and finds evidence that The Union is to blame. With The Union in hot pursuit, he heads back to Ventos to end the conspiracy once and for all."

Book 3 (Paradox) is being written...

[Old Grumpy]

Reviews are the key, and absolutely critical if you want to sell the book !!

Yes, get your mates to review them, like everyone else!

[Serial_Apologist]

END OF YEAR TAX RETURNS

This probably belongs here. Members might be wondering how to complete their annual tax returns if by going online to obtain their end-of year bank tax and interest statements (for April 5th) they find the date given to be the one given when logging into their accounts, i.e. not April 5th, as might be expected, being as that is the usual dating on documents for this purpose. I only found out about this a couple of days ago when the accountant I use for dealing with my tax returns emailed me to say that the dates on the online bank statement I had submitted to her was of no use in doing the calculations.

Given that the statement I sent to her last year was also based on time slots at odds with those of the tax year, it may be that the Inland revenue overlooked an error, in which case I am lucky not to have been penalised! Having used this particular accountant my proven trust in her accuracy is implicit. Furthermore she has asked me to obtain tax & interest statements for both April 5 2022 - April 5 2023, and April 5 2023 - April 5 2024, which I have applied for this afternoon by visiting my nearest bank branch, in Streatham. That may be a 5-mile round journey (by bike) but at least I have the benefit of a "local" bank branch more-or-less in the vicinity to be able to visit, which is more than can be said for many today.

In the past Lloyds would automatically send my end-of-year tax statements through the post. This ceased three years ago and I had to visit my then-nearest branch - of which there were several within a mile of where I live - and ask them to run off a copy of said document there and then. But as with everything the powers-that-be have turned what was previously simple and convenient into its opposite, and I shall now do periodical checks to ascertain if the shifting date assumption is correct, and then make sure to download banking end-of-tax year statements on or as near to April 5 as possible; I issue this post as an advisory to anyone who might otherwise have fallen foul of what I assume to be universal practice in banking communications.

[Pulcinella]

I'm pretty sure everything I get is tax-year related, regardless of when the interest is actually paid.
All that matters is what you actually received in that period.

[Old Grumpy]

The accounts I have all pay interest once a year. I just use whichever figure falls within the tax year in question.