I’m learning Portuguese at the moment and found it really slow going to begin with. It now seems to be sinking in. The general consensus I believe is the younger you are the easier it is. At 39, I might be a bit old.

I’ve got the opposite problem: I find it difficult to gain weight but I’m on a bulk now and it seems to be working. My mate has lost a considerable amount of weight using the the “4 hour body” method which seems to be pretty good. I think one of the main tenets was “Don’t eat anything that is, or was, white”. Obviously this is a simplification but it means you should limit starchy carbs like potatoes, white rice, pasta, white bread etc and get your carbs instead from veg, brown rice, and sweet potatoes. I’d draw the line at wholewheat pasta though. That’s the devil’s food.

I actually think Royal Mail is pretty good. I’m sure it varies place to place but they are really helpful round here: The postie tried to deliver a parcel for me the other week and I wasn’t in. But he passed me in his van the same afternoon when I was out with the dogs and he stopped and gave me it.

I don’t think I’d deal with a business with no land-line. It just looks dodgy – rightly or wrongly – and I suspect a lot of people are like that. My business is almost exclusively mobile. There are four of us working in different locations around the UK but we have an office with desks and a ‘phone just for appearances sake. The ‘phone is diverted to either one of the mobiles or an answering service. Works fine. I think it costs about forty quid a month.

Crikey. What’s it like up there on your high horse?

OP: £2 a tooth

Fiddling while Rome burns.

The economy is in crisis, we’re apparently looking over the precipice into the abyss and the great elected choose to piss their debating time away arguing about the drink in the bar. Magic.

Google is fixed now 🙂

http://www.buffwear.com/pages/customized.php

Tough one. I feel sorry for the OP as I had a bit of a debt mountain when my business partner fekd off, went bankrupt and left me to pay off £40k of joint debt. I know what the stress and strains are and I know what its like to get a car repo’d. I’m lucky in that I can earn a lot of money quickly so that’s what I did. Nose to the grindstone for 2 years, no social life to speak of, no holidays etc etc and that’s how I paid off the debt. Bankruptcy and DRO’s are a kop out tbh. Whether it affects your ability to obtain credit in future is one thing. The fact is its wrong. You should always pay your debts. The principal debt that is – charges and interest is different. You should always try to avoid that.

But good luck to the OP. Hope he gets it sorted.

Swashbucklin’ in St Andrews.

I think Clarkson is a d!ck but what he said was a bad taste joke, nothing more, nothing less. He has a democratic right to freedom of speech just as the strikers had a democratic right to strike. And remember, a lot of the people who are outraged at what he said, were the same people who were talking about celebrating the death of Thatcher.

Those of you enjoyed the bleakness of The Road: Try “Blindness” by Jose Saramago. Takes bleak to a whole different level.

Just finished: The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow – ace
Just now: I, Partridge – rubbish but funny
Then: The Day of The Jack Russell by Bateman. I have high hopes.

@Stoner: you can still get ’em. There’s a pack in my cupboard at the moment.

The big crisp issue is Walker’s wanton disregard for the unwritten crisp colour code. I know its been years, but Cheese & Onion are green, Salt & Vinegar are blue.

@Admanmatt: you’re bang on mate. All this “its nothing to do with me” shite is the problem. In the middle of the night, you hear a bang or even a burglar alarm going off. Who gets up to have a look? Pretty much nobody is my guess. We should all be looking out for one and other.

I was burgled recently – totally cleaned out of anything of value. Makes my piss boil at the suggestion its somehow my fault because my house “wasn’t secure”. If the rozzers did more to clamp down on the crime, the locked doors and windows would be secure enough. Its a sad day when you’ve got to make your house a fortress. And if people didn’t buy stolen goods down the pub then there’d be no market.

Somebody mention retreivers? Here’s Sam:
[/url]
217[/url] by AlgarveBairn[/url], on Flickr

and his brother, Max:
[/url]
031[/url] by AlgarveBairn[/url], on Flickr

I had a client call me up recently: “Hey AB, can I come in and see you, something I need to talk to you about?” I try to discourage meetings so I tried to eke it out of home on the ‘phone, assuming it was a tax bill or a customer service matter, but he was having none of it. So along he popped. “Well, Brian, what can I do for you?”. “I’ve been diagnosed with Moto-Neurones Disease and I have between 2 weeks and 6 months to live – I’d like yuo to transfer my shares in the company to my wife, please.” Quite matter-of-fact.

I’m an accountant specialising in contractors and based near to Glasgow, although I don’t come on STW to plug my business. You can PM me if you want any advice but the link to contractoruk’s forum is an excellent start.

After the Army, MacDonald’s is the second largest landowner in USA.

My father-in-law told me once that he has had a drink every day for the last thirty years. He often goes to worh with empty beer cans hidden in his briefcase and one time we were down for dinner and my missus went to get a bottle of wine out of the rack and the bottle was empty. He’d arsed it and put the lid back on the bottle and into the rack. That’s a drink problem, right? He also used to habitually drink-drive and on occasion drunk-drive. He stopped that since I told him I’d knock him out if he ever had my kids in the car and he had a drink.

Depends is the answer I’m afraid.

VAT registration is often advantageous as you can gain abt 3-4% of turnover using the flat rate scheme.

Limited company status can be preferrable in most circumstances but it depends on the level of income whether its worthwhile doing it. If your freelance work is through an agency you probably would need a ltd company.

If you want to post up your current earning and your projected freelance earnings I’ll try and give you a better steer. Or PM them if you’d rather.

@gusamc, although I have an obvious bias, I have never really seen the point of Umbrella companies. If you don’t want the hassle of the limited company or if its short term, then yuo’d be as well to go PAYE with the agency. Most of them will do this if you ask them.

DrP on the shareholding point: if you are married you spouse could be a shareholder in the company. You could then use his/her basic rate band to avoid paying higher rate tax. Another way to do this is to use the company as a quasi-pension: Some or all of the income generated in the company can be retained in the company reserves until such time as it is more tax-efficient to do so. Or you can build up the reserves until you stop doing the locum work and then, if you know the cessation is terminal, apply for the reserves to be distributed as capital and then only pay CGT.

Hi Dr P, I’m an accountant specialising in the type of thing you’re talking about. You said you didn;t want a free consultation, but I’ll give you some free info instead:

1.) If the locum work is thu an agency then you will almost certainly have to form a limited company. depending on your level of income (both inside and outisde the company) this can be a very tax efficient way of operating. But you need to take advice as to how to manage this.

2.) To set the company up you can either, as has been said already, do it yourself or pay about £40 to get it done online. Haven’t used the CH website for this so can’t really comment. Again, though if you’re doing it yourself, you need to think about the most tax efficient shareholding and this is normally easier before the event.

3.) If the locum work is medical – which it sounds like – you’re outside the scope of VAT so you can forget it entirely.

HTH.

I’m an accountant dealing almosrt exclusively with limited company contractors / freelancers so hopefully I can give you some good free advice here.

In all but a very limited number of circumstances, contracting through a limited company is better financially than through an umbrella. Each situation differs but if you are outside IR35 – an you most likely will be – you are able to arrange your affairs so that you only pay around 20% – 21% tax IN TOTAL if you earn less than £100k pa and you are married with a lower than £20k earning spouse. This is done by issuing shares to both you and your spouse and taking a dividend whihc is taxed differently from PAYE income.

VAT Flat Rate Scheme is – as someone already posted – free money and it is unlikely to make any difference to your accounting fees.

Setting up a company is simple – most accountants will do it for free if you ask them (that’s our strategy anyway) and if not it can be done online for £40. It can be a PITA opening the company bank account but the rest is pretty straightforward.

Ongoing paperwork is minimal – a simple spreadsheet recording ins and outs is all thats necessary. Again, most accountants will provide you with a template.

Picking the right accountant is important – don’t base your decision on fees. Get some recommendations and speak to a couple. IMO, be wary of the big players as they can provide a very impersonal service, Also, watch out for generalist accountants who may not have the specialist knowledge you have. A balance between the two IMO is what you’re after. As for fees £100 a month is about right and they’re going to save you at least 4 or 5 times that if they know what they’re about.

HTH. Feel free to ask anything else.

(Not touting for business btw – just happy to help a fellow pedaller)

Setting up a limited company

Like anything, I would have thought that repetition and reward would have done the trick. Take the toy out of his mouth and give it to him – as a treat – when he starts to run properly. And thing about tying the lead around your waist so you have to hands to control him.

I can only speak from experience but Golden Retrievers are great dogs. I have 2 and they are better behaved than my 3 kids! They take a bit of exercise – about an hour a day. Which isn't a lot but can feel like a lot in the winter. My oldest lad (12) takes them for their afternoon walk and they behave perfectly for him. Often my 3 year old goes with him and takes one of the dogs on a lead. They never (ok, nearly never) pull at her.

That said, if I was able to predict with any certainty the behaviour of a rescue dog, I'd probably go down that route myself. We got retrievers because we have had them before and we know of people with them and their temperament is never in doubt.

An added bonus is – while I wouldn't want to rely on my soft mutts to guard me, my family or my house – they have got a deep loud bark which they use any time someone comes to the door or ventures into the garden unannounced, which may be enough to ward off any intruders.

Tactical SNP vote as they are the only mob with th slightest chance of dislodging Lab from this safest of safe seats.

And yes, I'm sure many RR sport drivers are wonderful human beings.

I know 3 and they are all d!cks.

If memory serves, the bank MUST provide this to you by 19/05.

If its £7 put £7 on the tax return. Simples.

It doesn't need to be intelligent. Sometimes it can just be funny, no?

Here's one from Falkirk. For reference Thomas Scobbie is a wee fat ugly guy thats play for us:

Posh Spice is a slapper
She f*ckin loves the boaby
And she's sh*gging Beckham
She thinks of Thomas Scobbie

😀

Kevin mcallister

Crawford baptie.

Their claims process is pretty good as well. My missus had a prang just before christmas and it was all sorted out very easily.

I don't think bacon and brie is in the spirit of the Breville. Surely it should always be cheddar based. When I were a lad I had cheddar with onion or beans or ham or nothing on heavy rotation.

I bought a toastie maker recently from Asda. £5 it cost. Much the same as the bread, cheese, beans, onion and ham. Not as good as the Breville but still does the job.

I am a bit concerned that I find myself picking up my Iphone and checking it every couple of minutes. Seems a bit obsessive.

And a lot of Iphone users do come across as being evangelical about it. Me included. I was showing a mate something on it and told me to "calm down, you only bought the thing. You didn't invent it"

I like the way texts appear "conversationally" on the iPhone. You don't need to jump from sent messages to inbox to see what has been said. Although I'm 38 so maybe shouldn't be sending texts.

I also like how certain websites have apps other than mobile sites.

Battery life is a bugger though. Nothing that a (for me) £7 car charger couldn't sort out.

did she not used to be a bit of biffer? Although she looked remarkably well for a vegetarian.

It was sh!te though.

Lactic. Actually you might be right there. My two goldies are a bit mental and the kids love them. Theyve had Erin on her ar5e a couple of times but she doesn't seem to give a stuff. Funny, your dog looks just like my neice's Daisy and your little girl looks just like hers as well.