Most of you will be aware that I returned from a 7-week sabbatical in mid-October and am now ploughing through a backlog of work which, surprisingly, didn’t reduce in size during my absence.
The study break was great – productive in relation to my reason for going to the Netherlands (progressing my PhD study) as well as enjoyable. Delft is a beautiful city, and I had the opportunity to travel easily in the region of South Holland on my weekends. Art, cheese and water – a great combination! See my blog posts for more details.
As for what’s happening now – it’s work, work, work. Although most clients have lodgement dates for their returns in May 2014, naturally anyone expecting a refund wants it sooner rather than later. I’m doing my best to oblige, but in amongst all the standard returns, I have the odd complicated, time-consuming project: a divorce here, a 14-year backlog of returns there… (yes, you know who you are.)
While dealing with all of these, it’s also the season for orphaned wildlife. I took on my first brushtail possum joey of the year a few days ago. Poor little chap, he’s using his own body as a dummy to help him get over the loss of his mummy. It’s not good for him to be sucking himself all day… but possums don’t go for teddy bear substitutes. I’m working on persuading him that a nice bottle of possum milk three or four times a day is an adequate substitute for a live, leaping, climbing possum mummy. It’s not, really, but what’s the alternative?