Thierry came up from London to visit last weekend so Arti and I thought we'd go somewhere nice for dinner, ideally somewhere we hadn't been before. it was a Friday so it was speculative trying to get a table at short notice. The chap who took the phone at Alimentum practically laughed at the suggestion that they might have a table-for-three that evening. I was delighted that Cotto's had a table.
It turned out that they had a table near the eerie glow of the wine fridge, but no space to put the chairs, so the three of us ended up in a weird configuration, more or less facing the same way. The waitress was slightly apologetic but blamed me for booking late. I would have expected to have been warned on the phone that the table was 'problematic'. At least that would have set my expectations.
Anyway... the food was excellent so all is forgiven. £115 for three, which included a 3-course dinner at a fixed £30 a pop, plus a bottle of Merlot, two individual glasses of house red, and a coffee. Hotel Du Vin was a similar price just for two of us, so I'd say it's value for money, especially since Thierry and Arti coerced me to pay.
Would I go back? Yes - definitely, but I'll book well in advance.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Crossword clues I don't get
Please help!
Clues that I don't have the answer for:
Clues that I don't have the answer for:
- Times 24023: Child left men with lover reportedly (6). The letters I have so far are: _R_H_N so it looks like urchin or orphan, but I've no idea why.
- Times 24023: Gambling very little cuts the odds (5). _ _E_P ?
- Times 24023: Blow hard, enveloped in motorway exhaust (6). M_ _ _ A_
Answers I have that I just don't get:
- Times 24023 Clue: Stolen pet too upset when handed round (11)
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Samll Cryptic Crossword Milestone
Arti and I managed to complete our first complete cryptic crossword (Independent), which for me is a major milestone. I'm slightly better at working them out based on the clue whereas Arti has a knack for guessing based on the existing letters so we sort of complement each other. My goal now is to complete one by myself, but it's a long way off.
I'm slowly working through a Times Crossword compendium she got me last Christmas and it's still concerningly sparse with answers. The trouble is that even when I correctly guess some of the answers, I'm still not entirely sure how the clue relates to them.
I'm slowly working through a Times Crossword compendium she got me last Christmas and it's still concerningly sparse with answers. The trouble is that even when I correctly guess some of the answers, I'm still not entirely sure how the clue relates to them.
Submitting my tax return take 2
For some reason it's asking me to fill in some fields:
Some fields have been prepopulated with information they already have, such as my date of birth. However, they've prepopulated it with a format which is not compatible with their own system so I'm forced to amend this myself:
The date entered for 'Date of birth' is in an incorrect format. Dates must be entered in the format dd/mm/yyyy. Please amend.
The date entered for 'Date of birth' must be on or after 01-01-1851. Please amend.
The message above demonstrates that this hasn't been properly tested. It's not great practice to use multiple date formats in the error messages.
Annoyingly the IR have changed the form again, so it has taken me a lot longer than I had hoped. I know they're trying to make it easier, but changing it every year doesn't help those who rely on using a template based on the the previous year's.
Anyway, I've filled it in and I owe the IR lots of money, mainly due to rental income for the house I own. I'd been doing repairs on it over the last few years which were offsettable expenses, but now that I'm doing much less, the tax bill is so much greater. Also, they seem to have introduced a payment "on account" scheme (see http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/understand-statement.htm) whereby they take next year's tax in advance. They predict this based on what this year's tax was.
Anyway... I've put calender reminders in outlook to ensure I don't forget to pay like I did last year, as I'd rather not pay the £90 fine again. They craftily *don't* remind you as you get closer to the date. A cynic might think that they are hoping that you forget in order to administer the charge.
Just clicked "submit" and yes, you guess it...
Sorry the system is unavailable, please try again later or contact the Online Services Helpdesk.
Quoting Ref No: B6U4S7FPVR. Please select 'Next' to proceed.
A cynic might think that they want me to forget to submit it at all, which nets them a further £100 plus interest fine.
I'll try again next week.
11 November: same error. I call the help line, which is impressively open until 8pm and Siobhan says that they're aware of the problem and instructs me to delete my internet files and my cookies. I try again but it still doesn't work. Just to be sure, I try using FireFox instead of IE but it still doesn't work. She tells me that they haven't been given a timescale for a fix, but I should try again 'later'.
Some fields have been prepopulated with information they already have, such as my date of birth. However, they've prepopulated it with a format which is not compatible with their own system so I'm forced to amend this myself:
The date entered for 'Date of birth' is in an incorrect format. Dates must be entered in the format dd/mm/yyyy. Please amend.
The date entered for 'Date of birth' must be on or after 01-01-1851. Please amend.
The message above demonstrates that this hasn't been properly tested. It's not great practice to use multiple date formats in the error messages.
Annoyingly the IR have changed the form again, so it has taken me a lot longer than I had hoped. I know they're trying to make it easier, but changing it every year doesn't help those who rely on using a template based on the the previous year's.
Anyway, I've filled it in and I owe the IR lots of money, mainly due to rental income for the house I own. I'd been doing repairs on it over the last few years which were offsettable expenses, but now that I'm doing much less, the tax bill is so much greater. Also, they seem to have introduced a payment "on account" scheme (see http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/understand-statement.htm) whereby they take next year's tax in advance. They predict this based on what this year's tax was.
Anyway... I've put calender reminders in outlook to ensure I don't forget to pay like I did last year, as I'd rather not pay the £90 fine again. They craftily *don't* remind you as you get closer to the date. A cynic might think that they are hoping that you forget in order to administer the charge.
Just clicked "submit" and yes, you guess it...
Sorry the system is unavailable, please try again later or contact the Online Services Helpdesk.
Quoting Ref No: B6U4S7FPVR. Please select 'Next' to proceed.
A cynic might think that they want me to forget to submit it at all, which nets them a further £100 plus interest fine.
I'll try again next week.
11 November: same error. I call the help line, which is impressively open until 8pm and Siobhan says that they're aware of the problem and instructs me to delete my internet files and my cookies. I try again but it still doesn't work. Just to be sure, I try using FireFox instead of IE but it still doesn't work. She tells me that they haven't been given a timescale for a fix, but I should try again 'later'.
Stumbled across an Inland Revenue test webserver
Just tried to access their site again and I accidentally used a URL that has presumably since been decommissioned:
https://online.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/
The page that this takes you to simply has the text:
Hello testers you are in test portal This is the https port
Looks like they used externally facing servers for internal testing and forgot to take the site down.
https://online.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/
The page that this takes you to simply has the text:
Hello testers you are in test portal This is the https port
Looks like they used externally facing servers for internal testing and forgot to take the site down.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
HM Revenue & Customs Offine Services
It's a task I dread and like most of the population I procrastinate until the last minute.Filling in a tax return has to be one of the most tedious tasks. It seems an unnecessarily manual process in this modern day. PAYE works well. Why can't this be extended and avoid anyone filling in a separate tax return?
Having put it off for ages, I finally dedicate some weekend time to fill it in. It shouldn't be too difficult this year as I've learned from past experience that it really helps to keep my paperwork in order throughout the year. I'm so hoping that they haven't changed the format of the form this year. When they do it really throws me as I always base my new form on the previous year's. Anyway, I dig out my credentials and fire up the Inland Revenue tax return service login page (linked from http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/online/index.htm) only to get:
Online Service temporarily unavailable
This online service is currently unavailable.
Please check our Service Availability page for the latest information.
We endeavour to keep disruption to a minimum and apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Their online service is offline? I contemplate this contradition and despairingly follow the suggested "Service Availability" link, which takes me to a generic list enumerating all the possible problems to the entire gamet of inland revenue services. It's a long list. Annoyingly it hasn't taken me straight to the appropriate portion of the page so I have to scroll down to find the relevant entry:
Self Assessment (SA)
Services are unavailable for technical reasons. We expect services to be available as soon as possible.
Follow the Service issues link which details the current problems identified with this service and advice on how to self help where possible.
"Technical reasons" - that's useful to know. I now clearly understand fully why the service isn't up. "As soon as possible" isn't much better. Can't they even make an educated guess based on the mysterious technical reason? Hold on, there's yet another link, "Service issues". I'll try that.
Again, I just get a massive list of issues. This doesn't give me much confidence that my taxes are paying for the appropriate standard of software development and testing.
After a brief scan, it's clear that the small issue of their entire system being down isn't regarded as an 'issue' on this page. At least I've run out of links to visit so there's nothing more for me to do than to close the page and get on with my life.
Don't get me wrong. I really, really like the ability to submit my tax return online. It's much easier filling in an online form with the ability to go in and make amendments before submitting. I used to fill in the paper version with a pencil and only after I was happy with it, I'd trace over it with a biro, and then subsequently rub out the pencil. This was a right time-consuming pain, which I'm sure many others were also suffering. The online system is a lot more convenient. It's just that it would be nicer if it all worked just a little bit more smoothly. The root cause may be that the Inland Revenue isn't a business and therefore there is little incentive for them to provide great service. 'Adequate' or 'satisfactory' is good enough. How about privatising the collection of taxes, allowing competing companies to entice a share of tax payers to use their service. They could get a small fee for each submission, incentivising them to make their system as efficient as possible?
Having put it off for ages, I finally dedicate some weekend time to fill it in. It shouldn't be too difficult this year as I've learned from past experience that it really helps to keep my paperwork in order throughout the year. I'm so hoping that they haven't changed the format of the form this year. When they do it really throws me as I always base my new form on the previous year's. Anyway, I dig out my credentials and fire up the Inland Revenue tax return service login page (linked from http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/online/index.htm) only to get:
Online Service temporarily unavailable
This online service is currently unavailable.
Please check our Service Availability page for the latest information.
We endeavour to keep disruption to a minimum and apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Their online service is offline? I contemplate this contradition and despairingly follow the suggested "Service Availability" link, which takes me to a generic list enumerating all the possible problems to the entire gamet of inland revenue services. It's a long list. Annoyingly it hasn't taken me straight to the appropriate portion of the page so I have to scroll down to find the relevant entry:
Self Assessment (SA)
Services are unavailable for technical reasons. We expect services to be available as soon as possible.
Follow the Service issues link which details the current problems identified with this service and advice on how to self help where possible.
"Technical reasons" - that's useful to know. I now clearly understand fully why the service isn't up. "As soon as possible" isn't much better. Can't they even make an educated guess based on the mysterious technical reason? Hold on, there's yet another link, "Service issues". I'll try that.
Again, I just get a massive list of issues. This doesn't give me much confidence that my taxes are paying for the appropriate standard of software development and testing.
After a brief scan, it's clear that the small issue of their entire system being down isn't regarded as an 'issue' on this page. At least I've run out of links to visit so there's nothing more for me to do than to close the page and get on with my life.
Don't get me wrong. I really, really like the ability to submit my tax return online. It's much easier filling in an online form with the ability to go in and make amendments before submitting. I used to fill in the paper version with a pencil and only after I was happy with it, I'd trace over it with a biro, and then subsequently rub out the pencil. This was a right time-consuming pain, which I'm sure many others were also suffering. The online system is a lot more convenient. It's just that it would be nicer if it all worked just a little bit more smoothly. The root cause may be that the Inland Revenue isn't a business and therefore there is little incentive for them to provide great service. 'Adequate' or 'satisfactory' is good enough. How about privatising the collection of taxes, allowing competing companies to entice a share of tax payers to use their service. They could get a small fee for each submission, incentivising them to make their system as efficient as possible?
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