TAX TIME MACHINE

In which I try to decipher my own cryptic notes, and go digging through Parliamentary records.

OK, I’ll admit it. I sort of enjoy doing my taxes. I’ve done my own taxes for the twenty-five years we’ve lived in the US, and yes, I know there are places and people that will do them for me, but I just can’t see myself handing the task off to anyone else.

 I will be honest that before we sit down to start working on them it feels like it’s an annual chore, but once we get into it I remember the two main reasons why I don’t want anyone else doing them for me: time-travel, and detective stories. 

The few days we spend sorting through business-related receipts or reviewing the credit card spending summaries provide a trip back through the events of the previous year. Each crumpled receipt is like its own TARDIS, (to continue last week’s theme ), as it tells a story and invokes memories of journeys we made, places we visited, meals we ate, or events we experienced. 

And then there’s the occasional mystery of “what was that for?” or “where was this?” With business receipts, I usually scribble a short note on them at the time of payment to remind myself what they were connected to. Sometimes I do forget, and at other times my notes are so cryptic or badly written that twelve months later we have no idea what they said. So begins a little bit of detective work based on what else was happening around that date to figure out where we were, and what we were doing. Research trip? Convention? 

Every year we say that we should get better organized and log the receipts each month as we go, yet strangely we never get around to doing it. I wonder if it’s a subconscious realization that we actually enjoy the experience of sorting through our memories each spring.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to figure out what the scribbled “R LM” means on this creased restaurant receipt.

Other Stuff

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Brabazon Bits

This week I jumped ahead a little in the book outline to start on Chapter 6 which will cover the story of the fate of Charlton village, building on the outline I wrote about here a few weeks ago, plus the information we found during our recent archive visits, and some additional recent online research. The aim was to get at least a first draft of the story down while the information we’d collected during our recent trip was still fresh in my mind. It’s been an interesting experience weaving all the different threads into a detailed narrative. Based on my readings to date, I don’t think anyone has covered the story to this depth before.

One of the highlights of the week was what one friend termed a “research win.”  One of the letters regarding the fate of the village that we found in the Gloucestershire County Archives included a vague undated reference to a question being asked in the House of Commons about the plans for the village. Using the known date of a public meeting also mentioned in the archival letter, plus a calendar for March 1946 that I found online, I managed to figure out a possible window as to when the question was asked. Next, I took a guess that the question was probably asked by the local Member of Parliament. A bit of internet digging gave me a name. Then it was on to working through the online version of Hansard, the British Parliamentary records system looking for the particular question. - And I found it. - Not just the question, but the written Ministerial response too. - And they made a perfect addition to the text in progress. A definite research win.

Pages and Screens

Books Read in 2023 - “The Mind Behind The Eye” by Joseph Green

OK, this was a weird one. When a giant 300-foot-tall alien attacker crashes on the Moon, he is captured and has half his brain scooped out, and replaced by a control unit and living quarters for a genetically enhanced human and his assistant. Their mission is to “pilot” the alien back to his home planet to find out why they are attacking Earth.

Once on the planet, the narrative turns to an almost enraptured world-building of a pastoral utopia, but from a storytelling point of view, nothing really happens. Then abruptly the last few chapters are all about alien sex!

Very strange.

Podcast Procrastinations

Before They Were Beatles podcast - I had some very interesting and encouraging discussions this week about potential new Before They Were Beatles related ventures for 2024. Plus the new pop-up banner has arrived ready for various upcoming Beatley-related events this year. Seems like we have some Fab times ahead - fingers crossed.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Podcast - The latest episode of Bond Music: Six of the Best is in the can, and is scheduled to go live on Monday. Come join Jarrod Albreich and me as we get into a relaxed mellow mood to discuss the easy-listening sound of 007 courtesy of The Cinema Sound Stage Orchestra.

Weekly Web Round-Up

Batman On The Cover    - This week we complete our journey through November 1967 with covers from Germany (pictured), Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, and Sweden.

Thanks for joining me for this week’s Rambles. As always don’t forget to sign up for a FREE subscription so you don’t miss future updates.

See you next time

Alan J. Porter