Meeting with SARS.

Tuesday 21 July.

 

It was out for a walk after having a cup of tea and read of the newspaper in bed for half an hour. We went up to Edinburgh Rd then before reaching Old Faith we turned down Park Rd. a bit down the hill we took a right turn on to Norman Av which led us to further down Old Faith. Before reaching the Spar supermarket we turned up past the tennis club, all the way to Edinburgh Rd again and home. It was another good hour walk but going down Old Faith Moira was suffering from sore thigh muscles. Later near the end the pain was easing, she probably still has to get used to the change in her stride pattern created by her new orthotics.

 

After breakfast we didn't bother showering as I wanted to jet clean more of the outside of the house. We took the hose through the garage this time and I did the front and the side of the house. We finished off by hooking up the hose at the back of the house and I did the section of the walls there that I had missed previously. It is all looking quite good now with most of the marks removed. There were places where the jet was too strong and stripped off bits of paint. I will fill these places with ployfilla when I get some and also in some places were there are stains I will give a coat of paint. The weather was beautiful and very warm. We got our seats out on the stoop and read for a while with a cup of tea.

 

After relaxing for half an hour I began cleaning the woodwork on the small front bedroom window. When it was dry I gave it a coat of varnish. It was so warm now that I had my t-shirt off to get a bit of a tan before returning to Scotland. When I finished the window it was time for our showers now that the dirty work was finished. After that we sat out in the sun again until lunchtime.

 

We set out for the tax office in Port Shepstone for 2pm. It took a while to find the woman who helped us yesterday but eventually she appeared and gave us a numbered ticket for the woman who dealt with 'complex problems' which described our difficulties. We still had to wait for an hour as the woman had three people before us. I explained what was happening with my tax and the UK taxman. She more or less agreed that we weren't theoretically resident in SA over the period in question. I said that it had been suggested that I download a SARS form to claim back the tax I had paid here. She checked on the web and printed off two forms. One was to stop paying tax to SARS in future, the other was to claim a rebate of tax already paid. It isn't just a simple process of competing the forms as they have to be signed and stamped by the Inland Revenue in the UK and then posted back from there. The problem with that is the difficulties with the SA postal system which due to strikes and a back-log of post its not a system you can rely on. In the meantime I will wait until we get back to Scotland and phone the taxman to explain the situation and play it 'by ear'.

 

It was quite convenient dealing with SARS today as it was a rest day on the Tour de France, so we didn't miss anything. When we got back I returned to reading my book and have nearly finished it but still can't figure out who the murderer is! There was a power cut at 5pm, the first we have had for ages and it was lighted candles as it got dark outside. It only lasted an hour so Moira was able to get the dinner ready at a reasonable time. After dinner we watched the quizzes on TV then later listened to the Country Music channel until bedtime. The weather had changed early evening and it began to rain. It got very heavy and continued through the night.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy