go see my tax lady

See you next year… Last night I got her call and I cycled to her place in Amsterdam North (anyone who’s been to A’dam knows that that includes taking the ferry across the lovely river “Ij” (pron. “I”) behind Central Station), and the way there was no prob. The strong wind we’ve had for 3 days now pushed me all the way there. On the way, I got her a bunch of parrot tulips, which her husband put in a vase while she did my taxes. It all went quick and smoothly, and I am ever so grateful for her help.

Only 4 working days to go to hand in my tax declaration for 2005.
I think it’s time to get a leettle nervous about this.

At least, I have sorted out all the papers, so if she rings me on short notice, I can just grab the pack of papers and get on my bike and go to her place. Yay me!

I am waiting for my tax lady to ring me. Last night, my phone rang and it was her, but she didn’t want to call me but somebody else. She had mistaken my number for somebody else’s. So once the confusion about who is who and whose number she was ringing subsided, we had a hearty laugh and she said she’ll ring me soon, it wasn’t my turn yet for setting a date.
So I am still waiting…

my mail bounced back, so I gave her a ring yesterday, and it turns out she’s ill, too!
So she’ll ring me back once she is well and ready to make an appointment. Such a sweet lady!

...but I got her hubby on the phone, he gave me her e-mail address and I mailed her from home that I’d like to see her.
Waiting for a reply now. Tax return, here I come!

The truth is, it’s not that much of a big job to make an appointment. But I loathe the day when it’s happening, because I’m sitting next to her, and she’s filling in our tax declaration, and I always feel like a dunce, helpless and in one word: dumb.
My schooling has not prepared me for life in the sense that we never even looked at the tax system once and understanding another in a foreign language is even harder.
The great thing is that I’ll be using my first holiday from my job to ensure money coming IN, and my tax lady is the sweetest person you could imagine.
Last year, I brought her some flowers in a pot for the appointment, and she was all crazy about them. So she’s definitely getting some this year, too. After all, she’s doing this in her own time as a volunteer for the Union, and volunteers always deserve flowers.
pic from http://www.web-provence.com/sun/place-aix-18.htm