Taxing times

We have been hit hard over the last couple of days. Joan scored a multanova speed ticket of 12 kilometres over the limit earning a $150/2 demerit points fine (for the Government).

Then today we received our tax assessment back from our tax accountant with a small amount of just under $20,000 to pay the tax man. It sounds like we are earning heaps, but not so. In reality it is capital gains on shares we sold earlier in the year to finance part of the purchase of a unit to house our son, Martin. I guess that the only saving grace is that we sold the shares before they were savaged by the economic mess the world is in now.

Sin Bee is a Teacher/IT specialist at Castlereagh School for severely disabled children. She runs educational programs on the many computers scattered throughout the school. I have assisted her at times with set-up of MacIntosh computers donated mainly by W.A. Newspapers. She has just returned from long service leave to Asia and Europe. In Thailand she attempted to find a school which would take about 20 Macs I have configured to teach an English language program. It seems that the Thais are not too interested in assistance. I will search for some local causes to set them up for. I hate seeing good machines go to landfill.

The picture is of a native Iris. Pity the flowers don't last too long.