alexist

I'm turning into a neurotic cat woman. (Turning? OK... getting worse...)

This morning, I was on my way out and noticed the cat was almost out of food, so I put some in her bowl. She didn't come running as usual, so I went to look for her. Finally (after increasingly worried searching) I found her curled up between the bath and the toilet. I poked her and she didn't move. I briefly freaked, then poked her again and she moved. She walked into the bedroom and went under the bed.

So I left and went to the tube station to renew my ticket. On the way I started worrying about her. After all she just had surgery, she's on antibiotics, maybe something was wrong? So after buying my ticket I went back to the flat, rationalizing that as I had to go past it anyway (I needed the bus) I might as well check and put my mind at rest. She was under the bed, eyes open, looked right at me and yawned.

I should've been annoyed but I was relieved. Sad sad me.

I need a refill on my prescriptions. 2 of them have repeats but 1 doesn't, so I ring for an appointment the other day. Nothing till Monday (and not with my regular doctor... but it's the one I saw last time and she's nice). Unfortunately I'm going to run out of one tomorrow so I ask about getting a repeat. I have to come into the surgery and make a request in writing! (If I'd had the little slip, I could've done it by post, but I don't have time for that.)

I didn't get to do that yesterday so I did it today. Go in, fill out the form, hand it to the receptionist. "When can I pick it up?" "Well, today's Friday, so you can pick it up Tuesday." !!! I told her that it was in the system, I had a repeat, and I was going to run out before that, so could she have it today? She grudgingly agreed to have it after 16:00. Now I know I'm being demanding but they just print the prescriptions off the system and sign them--it will take 3 minutes.

And really, why should I need to visit the surgery twice (and they do not have the most convenient opening hours; anyone who works 9-5 is screwed) just to get a refill prescription? I don't know if they do prescription collection, but if they do, it's not with the Boots I use (North Finchley).

And no, it's no use telling me to switch practices. There's a GP shortage in Barnet. All the practices in N12 have closed lists and I only got into this one because Neil was registered there. :-/

When I went to Boots this afternoon, there was a notice up saying they now do prescription collection from all surgeries :-)

So when I go in with my new prescriptions Monday, I'll ask about it...

according to http://www.politicalsurvey2005.com:

Crime and punishment, internationalism

Your position on this axis is -4.4
You are likely to be fairly internationalist and rehabilitationist.
(89.2% to my right)

Economics, etc

Your position on this axis is 2.5
You are likely to be fairly free-market and pro-war.
(85.8% to my left)

I think the latter is too far right. I'm not particularly pro-war. I'm somewhat free-market. I don't believe the government should be running car companies and steel mills, and I'm mainly free trade, but I believe government has an important role to play in regulating the market and actually making it work. The ideal conditions laid out by Adam Smith often don't exist in practice. In addition, companies will not, on their own, use their power to meet social or environmental goals.

Judging by the statements, though, I think I came out right because of my support for private pensions (I just don't think the state can keep up, given demographic forecasts) and disagreeing with the idea that the UK should move in the direction of France or Germany rather than the USA. I don't see either as ideal models--I don't think either 10% unemployment or huge child poverty is something to emulate! Oh, and I'm not anti-GM, because unlike a lot of people (and the Independent) I've actually done some decent reading on the subject!

I realized the other day that I forgot to file 2004 taxes. (Hey, it's easy to forget here... and in the US my mother's cousin Sidney did my taxes along with my mother's and all I had to do was sign.)

Legally, I'm not required to file, because I didn't earn enough in 2004. However, I want to file, because I'd need them if I wanted to bring Neil to the US. So I toddled over to the IRS site. Went through the Free File link, H&R Block didn't work, TurboTax did. After a bit of web research determined that I needed to file "Married Filing Separately" (I CAN file jointly but that involves knowing all of Neil's financial details, and why bother?), I went to the 1040 form. It was fine, told me that my spouse needed to file a 1040NR, which I'm ignoring because the IRS has no claim on his income (not a US citizen, no money earned in the USA, why bother?) Then after I put in my address... it tells me eFile can't handle people resident in a foreign country!! Argh!

Update: Just went to IRS.gov to find out about getting an extension and it says people resident outside the US and Puerto Rico have an automatic extension to June 15. Yay! I can do this tomorrow when the sites aren't clogged with other idiots who file at the last minute. ;)