The totally off-topic thread

[rogerkambah]

It's great not having a primary place of work!

Agreed although my place of 'work', ie research travel is wherever I choose.

 

[Flashback]

Is the job market really that bad? That would be torture to do that every day.

Time to do something else.

My base office is in London Blackfriars, a very easy door to door commute for me. ~30 minutes on the train, no changes

It was a joke...

The general principal (everywhere, not just Australia) is that all travel from your primary residence (home) to primary place of work (usual site / office / etc) is a personal expense, and never reimbursable or tax-deductible. Any additional travel beyond that (other sites / offices / etc) is generally considered a business expense and should really be paid for by the business, or in some cases may be tax-deductible.

Having said that, I believe in Flashback's case the car in question is a company car, thus he isn't paying for it anyway?

Indeed. As my base office is London, travelling to the other offices is expensable. It is a company car (of sorts - I get to choose what I want within a certain cost range), but any personal travel I pay for myself fuel wise. All other costs are inclusive which is a nice perk. I guess this perm employee thing will be OK after all .. been interesting to make the switch from contracting after 12 years.

So all travel is business?

Many small businesses are registered at their owner's residential address rather than a premises, therefore the "commute" to work is actually a business expense... This is often reasonably legitimate when the bookkeeping occurs after hours in a home office, or the business is of a consulting-type activity where there is no primary place of work.

That's certainly what I did in Australia and up till now, in the UK! I was doing consulting-type activities though, so it makes sense really as I'd never be in one place all the time.

 

[JohnK]

It's great not having a primary place of work!

You mean semi-retired?

I am looking forward to that phase of my life shortly.

 

[drron]

Nothing to do with retirement.Because I work as a locum I have no primary place of work.My registration etc is at my home address.
But yes I have a great situation.able to travel when I want and work to fund it.plus as soon as I leave home for work the tax deductions start.
And it is all completely by the book.

 

[cove]

Drron is a treasure and we need more Australians deciding to keep at work even if it is part time.
The idea that everyone over 60 is past it is far from the truth when we get so many recent school leavers who cannot count and cannot communicate.
Almost ten percent of our current workforce is now 60 or older and they are loyal hard workers.

 

[blackcat20]

The drama with the compulsory Christmas holiday continues. Asked to be unpaid for two days as I need to save my leave for an overseas trip in May. Got paid, they deducted leave. I now have zero days leave owing, leaving me quite short by the time my trip comes around. And HR have taken the day off.... It really shouldn't be this hard.

 

[drron]

Who wanted to see Niagara Falls frozen.
Just read the Courier Mail-
No Cookies | The Courier-Mail

 

[JohnK]

Nothing to do with retirement.Because I work as a locum I have no primary place of work.My registration etc is at my home address.
But yes I have a great situation.able to travel when I want and work to fund it.plus as soon as I leave home for work the tax deductions start.
And it is all completely by the book.

Good point. I knew I should have been a doctor.

 

[TomVexille]

Finally managed to renew my drivers licence. The vicroads automated phone system hung up on me four times due to "higher than expected call volume"

 

[JessicaTam]

Finally managed to renew my drivers licence. The vicroads automated phone system hung up on me four times due to "higher than expected call volume"

We must have similar expiry dates (just different years) as I went though this process the same time last year.

 

[drron]

Home and not working so able to catch up on reading.
This one shocked me-

British social services forcibly removed a baby from a pregnant Italian woman's womb by caesarean section while she was in the country on a work trip.
The woman was sedated and then had the girl removed from her womb after authorities in Essex obtained a court order, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper said.

The woman had flown into Britain in 2012 for a two-week Ryanair training course at Stansted airport north of London when she suffered a panic attack, which her family believe was due to her failure to take medicine for a bipolar condition, the newspaper said.

Read more: UK authorities forcibly removed baby

This restored my faith a little-

AN African woman who was denied permission to travel to Australia for facial reconstruction surgery by the Gillard government has had a second visa application approved. Ayaan Mohamed, 25, suffered horrific facial injuries when she was shot as an infant during Somalia's brutal civil war.
Brisbane's Wesley Hospital and Rotary offered to bring Ayaan to Australia for the complicated surgery free of charge, but she was denied a medical visa last March.
Ayaan made a second visa application in October, which Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has now approved.

Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian

 

[Kieran2274]

Finally managed to renew my drivers licence. The vicroads automated phone system hung up on me four times due to "higher than expected call volume"

Computer says no?

 

[TomVexille]

Computer says no?

3 times...

 

[JohnK]

And it all starts again in 2014. Wish me luck....

 

[cove]

The person who drove his BMW at 125 in a 60 zone is now walking so his New Year resolution to get more exercise is going to work very well. His car went off to the impound yard and will come available in a month after a hefty fee is paid.

 

[rogerkambah]

Good point. I knew I should have been a doctor.

Its not easy, even if you can pass the exams, to have the mental capacity to withstand the stress. I really admire them.

 

[rogerkambah]

And it all starts again in 2014. Wish me luck....

After seeing your family EDR offers I'm not sure you need much luck JohnK. Cheers :mrgreen:

 

[JohnK]

After seeing your family EDR offers I'm not sure you need much luck JohnK. Cheers :mrgreen:

You are talking about puddles again.

 

[whatmeworry]

Seems this is the popular thing for Aussie kids to do this summer!

[video=youtube_share;Z4g1VikL69Q]http://youtu.be/Z4g1VikL69Q[/video]

 

[TheEmu]

TE do you know Ciao Italia Italian Restaurant in NKG? It's first street to left behind Sheraton Hotel - FABULOUS Italian food. Chef / owner is Giuseppe - came to NKG about 20yrs back when Fiat had like >100 full time Italian employees there - they could not get Italian food so Giuseppe fronted up and opened Italian Restaurant and the rest is history. ALWAYS the first restaurant I hit when in town.

No I don't know it but I know the street (Shigu Lu) quite well - there is a well-known expat bar (Jimmy's) just off Shigu Lu not far from the Sheraton.
I'll put Ciao Italia to the top of my list and will try it this week and report back Thanks for the heads-up, Cruiser.

Thanks to Cruiser Elite's recommendation, I have tried Ciao Italia twice now.
No sign of Giuseppe and the old Chinese restaurant service bugbear of the second meal arriving at the table 10 minutes after the first (literally!!!) reared its ugly head on the first visit (the day after Boxing Day). The restaurant was not busy at the time and a little later I noticed a table of about 8 all managed to get their meals delivered together, so they can obviously manage it. I grew up in a small Queensland town with an Italian majority in the community, so I have had a few Italian meals... unfortunately this meal was bland compared to expectations and the Italian wine was anything but Italian. My (Chinese) dining companion however, had never eaten Italian before and was very impressed. The quality of produce was obviously very high though so I tried them again last week for lunch and except for not having any Italian beer this time, they pretty much nailed it with the food. Meals were delivered together and the simple carbonara dish was probably one of the best I've had anywhere. The wait-staff were a bit hit or miss - typical for China - but on the strength of the second visit, I'll definitely go again. Just hope they have Birra Moretti back in stock. Thanks again, CE