Evening all 
Not taking any chances, Velvet, and trying to stay positive 
Did some mindfulness colouring-in this afternoon. I find it relaxing...and it’s as close as I get to doing anything artistic.
Hope everyone has had a good day 
Yeah, this isn't the time for doing self portraits Yogi
My two ears are staying intact. Anything that get's us through works. I'm watching Tz-uk being trolled again in watch talk. Funny.
Best wishes to all
No self portraits, Velvet, and my ears are staying where they are too 
night yogi moons summer velvet
Good morning everyone it's a lovely clear morning. Our particular silver lining is we have sheep in the field again and some lambs. My grandson is pleased because they are 'talking sheep'! He tried a little baa and they all baa'd back! His dog has an old football that she can carry in her mouth and she likes him to throw. He was doing that yesterday and as the ball went up in the air one of the lambs was running along the fence wanting to play. So sweet.
Enjoy your day everyone
Good morning everyone
Forecast is light cloud and gentle breeze. It’s chilly and quite bright atm.
Apologies to Moonie, Ros and Velvet for not saying goodnight last night. I’m sure I typed out a post but must have forgotten to hit POST 🙈
Squiggle, the little lamb sounds so cute, wanting to join in the fun with the ball. What sort of dog does your grandson have?
Have a good day and stay safe, everyone
Watched a 1954 Charlton Heston film called "Secret of the Incas". Fairly routine adventure film though of note as being a significant influence on the creation of the Indiana Jones films. Also filmed on location at Machu Picchu, the best known Inca Citadel in Peru.
Film featured the Peruvian singer Yma Sumac who had an extraordinary vocal range of 4½ octaves. Here's one of her songs which demonstrates this.
Yogi19 posted:Good morning everyone
Forecast is light cloud and gentle breeze. It’s chilly and quite bright atm.
Apologies to Moonie, Ros and Velvet for not saying goodnight last night. I’m sure I typed out a post but must have forgotten to hit POST 🙈
Squiggle, the little lamb sounds so cute, wanting to join in the fun with the ball. What sort of dog does your grandson have?
Have a good day and stay safe, everyone
No apologies needed Yogi. I have done that several times
Dinosaurs discovered near Stroud.
A Velociraptor, Triceratops and a Tyrannosaurus Rex have been found in Selsley Quarry, with one of the dinosaurs dedicated to the NHS.
A BBC weatherman has caused a storm on social media after he finished his forecast and filmed himself playing the drums to the BBC News theme tune.
BBC North West Tonight presenter Owain Wyn Evans tweeted: "When they said try working from home I didn't realise they'd expect me to do the music too."
The footage has already had more than 1.4m views on Twitter.
Glad you got your washing dried, Moonie
Love the weatherman video and the dinosaur story, El
Goodnight and sweet dreams, everyone
squiggle posted:Good morning everyone it's a lovely clear morning. Our particular silver lining is we have sheep in the field again and some lambs. My grandson is pleased because they are 'talking sheep'! He tried a little baa and they all baa'd back! His dog has an old football that she can carry in her mouth and she likes him to throw. He was doing that yesterday and as the ball went up in the air one of the lambs was running along the fence wanting to play. So sweet.
Enjoy your day everyone
aww that is lovely squiggle -on my walk I pass a field of sheep -all their baaas have a different tone and they seem to talk to each other
El Loro posted:A BBC weatherman has caused a storm on social media after he finished his forecast and filmed himself playing the drums to the BBC News theme tune.
BBC North West Tonight presenter Owain Wyn Evans tweeted: "When they said try working from home I didn't realise they'd expect me to do the music too."
The footage has already had more than 1.4m views on Twitter.
sorry EL got the no video available sign
night yogi moons summer if you pop in
Good morning everyone it's a little cloudy this morning but looks to be a sunny day.
I know just what you mean Ros it's lovely to listen to and to hear the mums calling their lambs when it's bedtime is so sweet. They both call for ages.
My grandson's dog is a rescue dog Yogi and was cruelly treated. He thinks she's an Australian Sheepdog but I think she's a bitza, bits of this bits of that.
Enjoy your day everyone
I've found out what's happened to that video. The BBC replaced it with a slightly different version so I'll embed that one. Some of the BBC clips have an embed option so people can embed them elsewhere as long as they aren't doing it for profit and that they show it's BBC and show the BBC sign and terms and conditions link at the bottom. It is a bit tricky doing the embedding as it's done via source code which I need to amend to make it fit.
El Loro posted:@~Sparkling Summer~ HMRC have just announced that they intend to contact those people entitled to make a claim under the Self Employment Income Support Scheme by mid May and to make the payments by early June.
80% of average taxable self employment income for the 3 years to 5 April 2019 (that's before personal allowance is deducted).
Thank you El, that’s reassuring news. My accountant has asked for bank details so they can process the claim for my furloughed staff and I’m currently paying them using funds from the small business grant- I do not know what I’d have done without it, it’s been a godsend. Meanwhile I have 0 income myself right now but I’m lucky to have some savings that are tiding me over while I wait for universal credit and the government’s income support for self employed. I’m so grateful for having an accountant, this would have been a stressful minefield without them and I appreciate the pressure it’s put on you all too, I’m sure your clients feel the same 
Good morning all another sunny one here, I’ve been productive with outdoor chores and laundry. Today I’m aiming to hoover my car
Squiggle, I’ve seen lambs too!!! I was so happy to see them, they’re a welcome sight.
I've also spotted the first bluebells too 3 weeks from now they will look beautiful
Summer, thanks 
I assume that your accountant runs the payroll for you in that case. The only client I have who has furloughed staff does his own payroll so I can't make the employment support grant claim for him. So I've been in regular contact with him as to what he needs to be able to make the claim.
Link to the current version of HMRC's page about this - changes on a regular basis and at present does not have a link to the portal to be used for making the claim:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cl...job-retention-scheme
First claim expected to be paid within 10 days. As the system is supposed to go live on Monday 20th (so that employers can get funds by the 30th) it's going to be extremely busy. System designed to cope with 450,000 employers online so there will be delays if a million people are trying to claim at the same time.
Subsequent claims sgould be paid within 4 to 6 days.
Good morning everyone.
Dry and bright up here but only expected to reach 13° so not as warm as Moonie.
You'll definitely get your washing dried today, Moonie
Squiggle, I hate to hear of animals being mistreated so I’m so glad the dog was rescued by your grandson and now has a happy life - and bitza dogs can make brilliant pets
Summer, my middle son is in the same position as you. He has applied for the 80% wages for his staff but won’t receive anything for himself.
El, more than ever, it’s important to have a good accountant - your clients are lucky to have you.
Have a good day and stay safe, everyone.
Very little information known about how to claim the self-employed support grant at present. HMRC says they will contact those they believe are entitled to make a claim by mid May and the grant to be paid out in early June.
Not known as to how HMRC will contact people. I think it likely it will be through the post as, for most people who use agents, HMRC won't have the person's email address.
Beware of scammers sending emails to people with links to make a claim. There's already a warnng about this as criminals will be trying to scam people with phishing emails.
Not known as to how to make the claim other than it will be online. Not known if people will have to register an online account before they can claim. One can have a personal tax account, one can have a self asssessment account - those are different. May turn out to be one of those or something different.
Not know if agents will be able to make claims on behalf of clients. If so, will clients have to do something before agents can claim. It's less certain that agents will be able to make the claims as the amount of grant is pre-determined by HMRC so different to the employer grant scheme.
We know that the grant is a one-off payment and is taxable as part of self-employed income. We know that it is not repayable. We know that as part of the claim process, claimants will be required to confirm that their income have been adversely hit by Covid-19. We know they will need to supply contact details and bank details (hence my warning of scammers).
I would expect this to become a lot clearer by mid May but at present we are in the dark.
Yogi19 posted:Good morning everyone.
Dry and bright up here but only expected to reach 13° so not as warm as Moonie.
You'll definitely get your washing dried today, Moonie
Squiggle, I hate to hear of animals being mistreated so I’m so glad the dog was rescued by your grandson and now has a happy life - and bitza dogs can make brilliant pets
Summer, my middle son is in the same position as you.
El, more than ever, it’s important to have a good accountant - your clients are lucky to have you.
Have a good day and stay safe, everyone.
Hi Yogi
I hope it gets a little warmer than you expect
Washing on the line now and blowing nicely. The sunshine will help too
Have a lovely day and stay safe
I've been keeping an eye out for notices being issued by HMRC recently as that's the best way of seeing when changes are announced on things such as the job retention scheme and the self-employment income support scheme.
They also release lots of other notices which are of zero interest to 99.9999% of the population such as this one:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mo...cuit-tariff-notice-5
No, I don't know what that is either
Don't think it's the monolith in 2001 - a Space Odyssey though it might be.
Moonie posted:El Loro posted:Went to post a letter to a client at the post box a couple of minutes away and turned back straight to home as there were ten people in the vicinity of the post box clearly total breach of the regulations.
That’s simply not good enough El
Reporting it to the local police requires a specific house address so doesn't cater for this breach.
I've been able to post that letter now. No-one congregating near the post box. The client had rung me earlier panicking as they had received the standard notice to file a tax return. Notice says to file as soon as possible - actually they've got up to next January but it's better to get it out of the way.
Elderly couple and without internet access. So I said I would do a list of the information I need and to post it to them. That was what I was posting. They'll start collating the information and arrange for it to be posted to me once done.
I'll have to rely on the postal service to send things between us. Obviously getting them to sign tax returns at a meeting isn't possible at this time.
A couple of Youtube clips of Mauritania's iron ore trains, some of the longest in the world.
First shows one such train passing - unedited and just the sound of the train:
Second one is more edited with some chanting to start with then suddenly replaced by the roar of the train: