This year, I conquered one of my biggest challenges ever. Oh here he goes….rattling on about the bloody Spine race again! Ha! Well, no actually. It’s not.
It’s the end of a very tough week for a certain group of people. Namely – The Self-employed. Why? Because it’s Self-Assessment time. Tax return week! Some people reading this are now crying and shaking uncontrollably at me even mentioning It.
Deadline was midnight last night. Now for most people. those you could deem as relatively ‘normal’. organised or have one of those accountant types helping them, this is no big shakes.
But then there are people like ME. Remove the word ‘normal’, deduct one Accountant and add in a large portion of ADHD into the mixture and you have a problem. To be a little kinder on myself, I’ve got better over recent years and very organised with it. But, EVERY year, its to the wire. I think last year it took two extra days and got the £100 fine. One year I think I managed to get it in two full days early. Sounds peachy. but I had had eight months since the previous April!
Here we are again then. My 2024-25 return, unstarted but I had a full week to get it done. Specifically, All day Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday
And what did I do?
Everything BUT my tax return. This is how someone as crazy and as ADHD as me approaches something THIS important.
Tuesday – decided to start writing Part 2 of my Spine Race story and then did a complete clean of the entire sitting room, hoovering, dusting every nook and cranny and even deep cleaning around the fireplace etc. Zero tax related activity done.
Thursday…well… Thursday! Ha! Yes Micky, how did Thursday go?
A week or so ago I decided out of boredom to have a blast on my SNES (Super Nintendo) It gets turned on maybe once or twice a year. I’m not a gamer. Haven’t been for 20 years. But neither do I ever watch TV or Netflix or any of that tosh. All I watch is Newcaste United matches, occasional comedy and about 4 or 5 films a year. So the novelty of last weeks Retro gaming for an hour or so was a refreshing change. However – THIS is where the mistake happened.
The game I chose was Chrono Trigger. An adventure/role play game released in 1995. I remember reading the previews and reviews of it. It scored 97+ in every category but annoyingly It wasn’t released in the EU, just Japan and the US. We missed out until many years later. Over the years many games have been cloned and such like and I bought a UK, PAL version of it a couple of years ago off eBay.
To put this game into perspective for you, it ranks in the five or top three of virtually every single ‘Best Ever’ list for Nintendo games and ranks very high in best game of ANY console. The US version of the game, in very good condition, can sell for around £1000 on eBay! I bought and resold two of these about 15 years ago for around a hundred quid but the value they have nowadays is eye watering.
Ultimately, my choice of picking THAT particular game a week ago was an unfortunate one because it’s probably THE greatest game I’ve played, across any format, EVER! Its so bloody absorbing! And when I decided to have ‘A quick 20 minute break from tax return stuff’ on Thursday…..I lost about twenty hours over two days!!!
Friday afternoon and with only one day to go, the game was turned off and stayed off. What did I do next? Whilst scrolling through my eBay purchases for the tax year, I ended up looking at refurbished iPods, which led me trying to sort out my entire iTunes catalogue and download all my audiobooks to it. Because clearly this was important right now.
We all get so reliant upon Spotify these days that I overlook the fact that I have 8000 tracks on there and so much great music and albums that I’ve just forgot about.
From there I ended up looking for my iPod remote control (Airclick) and then buying software because my iPod no longer syncs with ITunes anymore and I want all my audiobooks on it. This is ADHD in all it’s glory!
Its now 11.45pm. Tax return is going well. 24 hours and 15 mins to go.
Saturday arrives. Last 16 hours. I opt to miss Parkrun this week but my neighbour messages me to ask if he can have a Sports Massage because he’s done his back in. Being someone who will always do their best to try and fix someone in pain, I agreed.
Work related side steps like this are an acceptable thing. but NOT helping matters was the fact that there are TWO live games showing for my
two favourite sports teams. In the NBA, San Antonio Spurs are at Charlotte Hornets with a 5pm start. Never are NBA games shown THAT early, but it’s been moved forward due to heavy snowfall in North Carolina causing travel havoc. Suits me, because as much as I love watching the NBA, I’ll not stay up past 11pm for it.
Then Newcastle United are at Liverpool at 8pm on TNT Sports.
Common sense says ‘These are NOT your priority today, Michael’ Common sense is stupid. And far too common for its own good. What does IT know anyway? Go Spurs Go and Howay the Lads, I say!
I was beginning to think that this wasn’t going to be a successful day for me as I watch the Spurs claw back a 20 point deficit to within 2 points with two minutes left on the clock. Only to watch the Hornets record their sixth straight win. This was compounded by the Spurs’ star player, the Frenchman, Victor Wembanyama failing to register a single block in the game, breaking his 101 game streak of recording at least one block in every game consecutively. Whilst he now has the third longest streak in NBA history, I think – isn’t it just damn typical that I watch the first game where he fails to keep that streak going. (The outright record is held by New York Knicks legend, Patrick Ewing with 145 games in a row, I say this because ADHD Micky would read this and start looking up who has the record!)
The Omens are looking just great for Anfield later…..
Despite the fact its end to end action, I get more done whilst the football was on that I did the basketball. Half time. 9pm. Three hours to go, I’m in the kitchen breadcrumbing and cooking trout fillets for my tea. Because a quick snack would be much too easy when time is running out.
The game is turned abruptly off after being trounced 4-1 off the Reds, I quickly switch my focus back on the task at hand. Less than two hours remain
After a bit of a panic when I can’t progress my return because it keeps populating my employer as being British Telecom (this is a new curveball – I left BT 14 years ago!!!) I figure out it can be deleted later. Tax return is finally completed at 11.30pm with a cool thirty minutes to spare!
What was all the panic about!!! And now, my year, my 2026 can commence! A month lost and scrambled up with a confused entanglement of the Spine race, the recovery, my tax return and battling through mythical worlds with cartoon manga characters.
What next? Plan the rest of the year out. Get focused on my current two businesses and FINALLY roll up the sleeves and start to build the next two ventures. Exciting times ahead.
Think I’ll just have a quick blast on the SNES… see you in three weeks!