Nog meer belasting…
April 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
… of eigenlijk minder belasting aangezien ik zojuist las dat een of andere Staatssecretaris het tarief voor successierechten wil verlagen naar maximaal 20%. Prima zou je denken, ware het niet dat het concept van erfbelasting een bijna wanstaltige instelling is. Ten eerste ga je belasting heffen over geld waar al lang en breed belasting over betaald is door de overledene en dan wordt het overlijden ook nog eens “fiscaal luister” bij gezet door de treurende achterblijvers een vette aanslag te sturen. Bah! Een schandelijke praktijk die alleen uit goede smaak achterwege gelaten zou moeten worden. Maar, helaas kunnen we overheden zelden op goede smaak betrappen.
Op een zijspoor, maar wel gerelateerd aan dit onderwerp is dat successierechten er de oorzaak van zijn dat de clan MacLennan haar kasteel en landgoed is kwijtgeraakt. In korte tijd gingen clan chief en zijn opvolger dood. De clan moest tot twee keer toe successie ophoesten. Dat was teveel van het goede en ze waren gedwongen om het kasteel en het landgoed te verkopen om hun belastingschulden te kunnen betalen. Er bleef een berooide clan achter en een goed gevulde portemonnee van de overheid.
Spring
April 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
For the past days it’s been really nice outside. Fresh mornings, sunshine and one by one the little lambs turn up. It feels like Spring…
We went to the Coral Beaches on Saturday with Jingles to see whether he would go for a swim, but he was still hesitant. Only a couple paces in the water and upon a wave, he’d hurry back to the beach quickly. Anyway, it was good fun seeing him wander about after his knee operation. Yesterday he also had a romp with Doodle, on the field north of ours.
Today I received a message from the Screwfix that my concrete mixer is on its way! It will be delivered coming Friday, so I guess there’s no more excuses to start building the shed. Luckily Simon (Simon & Debbie and their daughter Holly live up the road from us at Colbost and Simon is building their house all by himself) will help me to get started. To be honest, I’m looking forward to it. Last year I did the rabbit hutch and I thoroughly enjoyed working outside, so let’s hope the weather stays this way…
Amazing
April 13, 2008 | 1 Comment |
Before we left for Skye I bought the full series of Babylon V, a science fiction series (love SF series and movies) which ran on TV for quite some seasons. Due to business commitments in Holland I missed out on too much episodes to enjoy the series. I reasoned, once on Skye I’d have loads of time and I can indulge myself in hours and hours of watching Babylon V.
And… you guessed it! I have yet to see the first episode after 16 months on Skye! There’s no time, even if you have time to yourself. What a weird phenomenon?!?!?! Oh… and I also bought the full series of Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek Deep Space 9, Star Trek Next Generation…
Orbost
April 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Orbost is probably one of the prettiest places on the planet. Today we stood on the beach overlooking a calm, mirror like sea and all the way down to the snowy Cuillin. It was totally stunning. What a sight! Due to the limited size, the picture really doesn’t do it full justice. Check out the full size on FLICKR here. And the weather was remarkable as well. As we drove from our house it was pouring down. Once at Orbost, the skies were crystal clear and blue and the walk to the beach made us work up a sweat. The sun felt actually warm. Spring on its way??
On the shed project: ballast, cement and damp proof membrane have been delivered and today I ordered a concrete mixer from Screwfix (for the Dutch readers: a sort of Gamma) and some other bits and pieces. It should be in by next when the real work will then start. I’m praying for good weather…
Ticks and water
April 8, 2008 | 3 Comments |
We now have the tick tally at 6. Four of which caught yesterday and today. Jingles is definitely a tick magnet and tomorrow we’ll be at the vets for a check up on his knee and “tick prevention” will be on the agenda as well. We’ve become quite handy at removing them but they’re still disgusting little critters. Also, they seem to come in a wide variety of sizes and colors and some are really difficult to spot.
On another note, our holiday let Glen View cottage is currently on a well for its water supply. As we might have plans in the future to convert the close by byre to a house we decided to file an application for a water connection with Scottish Water, as the well might not have enough capacity to support two properties. The application was filed end of January. We got written confirmation from Scottish Water that they would respond within 28 days. Until now we had not hear anything back so I gave them a ring today. As a spokeswomen said: “Your property is in a constrained area and you’re on a waiting list due to insufficient capacity on the mains. There will be capacity added in the summer and you probably will be connected, as you have an existing property.”. Apparently there’s a letter on its way confirming this. The constrained area is Glendale which gets its water from Hamara river. Scottish Water seems to be struggling…
Blocks
April 7, 2008 | 2 Comments |
Today a lorry from Broadford arrived with a load of 640 blocks. The blocks are for the shed project which is due to start soon. Next deliveries will be ballast, cement, sand, damp proof membrane and some other bits and pieces. I also need to get hold of a concrete mixer. First step will be pouring the foundations. Weather conditions need to be a bit warmer though…
Snow, hail, the lot…
April 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
For all you folk out there interested in coverage of Skye weather: it was absolutely horrendous last Sunday. Snow, hail, sleet, rain, strong gale force winds… we had it all. Not much of the snow remained though, it all melted fairly quickly leaving puddles of water in the garden around our house. And… it’s blistering cold due to strong northerly winds.
On a side note, we were told that this is called “lamb snow” as this is the time of year the sheep will have their new born lambs and snow is obviously not uncommon for this time of year. Anyway, must be a real shocker for the little beasts… popping into the world in the middle of a blizzard… brr…..
Tick Sunday
April 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Today we removed 3 ticks of various sizes from Jingles. One of them were still walking about looking for an A1 location to start his sucking work. One was stuck in his ear. Yuk!! All have been successfully terminated… 
Poodgy… poodgy… poodgy…
April 4, 2008 | 1 Comment |
That was the sound I heard last night in the bedroom at about 4:00 am. That with a lot sniffing sounds… I thought to myself, still half asleep, “Blimey, I know that sound! That’s Jingles’ footsteps on the carpet. But it’s impossible that I’m hearing it right now… I must be dreaming!!”… It was unmistakably Jingles! How did he get in here?? He should be locked in his crate! Was it possible that we had the dog-version of Houdini??????
I switched on the bed light and saw Jingles standing next to my bed wagging his tail like I’ve been away for months. What had happened? It appeared he had an upset tummy and on top of that, we had forgotten to close his crate, so he had decided to go out and look for us to let him out… I jumped out of bed and with Jingles running in front of me, we headed to the kitchen door. I let him out and 5 minutes later he was back in his crate, happily snoring away.
Back in bed we both felt really proud of him. He could have made lots of noise, he could have fouled the kitchen floor, but none of it… Good boy!!
The second coming…
April 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Call it a miracle or just plain luck, but today we found our wooden bench again. It was made by Mark (Mark & Maggie ran a B&B in Dunvegan and became our friends and helped us out a lot during the process of buying our plot) in late 2004 to celebrate the purchase of our plot at Skinidin. We had put the bench on the (then) virgin plot at Skinidin in early 2005 (ignorant as we were about the powerful winds on Skye) to find it had been blown away during that really heavy storm of 2005. We gave up on it, but today by sheer miracle, Claire wandered over to the coast and saw a piece of drift wood. Upon closer inspection she saw it was a bench and then to her total amazement saw that it was our old bench!! It has been somewhere (probably in the water) for well over 3 years and choose to resurface on its original location. God knows where it has been on its journey. I think this must be sign!
The bench is overall in good condition. A bit tattered and bruised and looking bleak with a bit of algae attached to it, but in good conditions none the less… As the sun is shining we’ll have a sit outside and a beer to celebrate old friends and good memories (due to changed circumstances Mark and his wife Maggie no longer live on Skye)….
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Latest music...
Hair (1968, Original Broadway recording). Some naughty lyrics for that time!!
An Rathad a Bhatarsaigh, by the Vatersay Boys