Monday, February 02, 2009

Animal of the Week -- February 2, 2009

Time for the familiar refrain of "Sorry about the gap"

But January was full of taxes. I have never done my self-assessment tax-return before, so it was all a bit new. But you know what? Moira Stewart and the rest of them may well be right -- taxes don't have to be taxing. They do, however, have to be blindingly tedious. It was like doing revision for GCSEs again, sit down to do it and then drift off into a private reverie, try to learn Yankee-Doodle on an out of tune ukelele, wash-up, eat, wash-up, eat, go out for dinner -- anthing to avoid the tax and largely avoid looking at a computer screen. All I seem to have thought about for the past month is tax: the fact that I had to do my tax return, the fact that I had not yet done my tax return, the fact that when actually sat at the computer "doing my tax return" I was spending more time reading the individual wikipedia pages on ancient Hollyoaks characters than I was doing my tax. Tax tax tax tax TAX. So here I am, a stone heavier and a hefty wedge of my bank account lighter.

Anyway, the walk (or more appropriately skate) to work this morning, dodging the falling penguins and musk ox on the way to Kennington station, inspired me to finally put the nightmare of tax behind me and get back on track with AOTW. So, without a further thought for tax and the tediousness of January, and the tax bill I just paid so that all public infrastructure can grind to a halt with a dusting of snow; no, with no thought of tax, this week's animal is the leech.

Related to earthworms, leeches are a huge group of squidgy worms, renowned for sucking the very lifeblood of humans. Some of them provide useful medical services, but mostly they are just a waste of time and space.

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