Karen & Robert Killington

None work stuff...
About Me

I'm an independent VAT Consultant in the UK. I specialise in helping business owners avoid VAT penalties and pay less VAT.

I'm trying to get myself organised and post useful articles more regularly than I have on my other blogging attempts. Bear with me, I want to make VAT interesting and perhaps even fun for you. Let me know what you think as this blog develops.

Caution: I may write about other things too!

If you want to get in touch, you can call me on 01293 734545. Full contact details are on my website: http://vatark.tel/

Oh! and if you have been, thanks for reading! :-)

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Snow in Crawley

Some photos I took on Wednesday while I was out walking in the snow.

       

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Posted 1 month ago by Robert Killington 

Smudge

   

The last picture of Smudge is the one with the black border. She died on Wednesday 7 October 2009 aged 18 years 6 months.

The second photo was taken some time ago when she was enjoying licking out a yoghurt pot - shows doesn't it?

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Posted 3 months ago by Robert Killington 

Studio Theatre: Preparing for Oh, What a Lovely War!

Here's an interesting invite for you if you live in the right part of Devon:

Studio Theatre Studio Theatre Studio Theatre

Studio Theatre

Oh, What a Lovely War!

This is our major production for the winter and we now need to sell as many tickets as possible for three performances at the Landmark Theatre on:

The photos are up in the theatre and going up in shops and libraries; the banners are up at the Wheel, outside Somerfield and in Barnstaple; a mailshot is going out to theatre-goers; the dates are in a number of online diaries on various web sites; posters and flyers are going into schools; publicity material has been sent to the local press . . .

. . . but we need to do more to fill the theatre.

Please tell your family, friends, colleagues, clubs and societies . . . you can send refer them to studiotheatreonline.org.uk or we have supplies of posers and flyers available to put up on noticeboards and in windows.

We'd be grateful for any help you can give.

If you can distribute posters and flyers, please email info@studiotheatreonline.org.uk or call Robert Zarywacz on 07971 176044.

For the latest Studio Theatre news visit www.studiotheatreonline.org.uk.
Studio Theatre
Studio Theatre Studio Theatre

Footer Studio Theatre Footer

 

 Studio Theatre

 


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Posted 3 months ago by Robert Killington 

Smudge Hiding under my chair

I've been playing with the camera in my iPhone and an app called Best Camera to manipulate the pictures I take.

In this one I've made the image black and white and added a vignette.

What do you think? Let me know by leaving a comment below...

Thanks.

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Posted 4 months ago by Robert Killington 

Learning German (and the Power of Twitter)

I've been slowly learning German over the past few years using all manner of audio courses, getting German magazines to read, etc. Progress has been slowwwwwww. So I thought it would be good to find a German tutor to help. All my searches found no one locally that does German tuition. 

I even took to following people that posted in German on Twitter. Sometimes I understood the Tweet, but mostly I didn't 

Then, <fx: drum roll> I saw the German Tutor on Twitter and followed them. A little while ago, in a reckless move, or so I thought, I replied in German to one of her tweets. And got a reply!! We had a Twitter chat, and Angelika agreed to ask around to see whether she could find a German tutor in my area. A few days later she reported that she had found not one German tutor that could help. :-(

We had a chat and agreed that we'd have a chat on Skype and if that worked we would try German tuition via Skype! Isn't technology wonderful?

So the day came, Angelika contacted me on Skype and put my meagre German to the test 

Angelika obviously thought I had potential so we agreed a schedule of one hour a week on Skype.

Yesterday, Friday 2 October 2009, was the first of these sessions. Was I nervous? Not sure now as we had a couple of technical glitches that we had to address, but after that everything went well and the hour flew by. I think I learned something. I certainly had fun. And Angelika has found a new way of giving German lessons!

So, if you want to learn German and can't find a tutor locally, look out for the German_Tutor on Twitter or visit her website.

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Posted 4 months ago by Robert Killington 

final day of the staycation

We rounded off the week with another train trip - to Portsmouth this time. This was quicker than getting to Rye. Unfortunately the fine weather deserted us and we arrived to a steady drizzle that got stronger! After what seemed like miles we found the Tourist Office which was right by the Historic Dockyard. The Georgian Tearooms in the Dockyard proved a good choice for lunch (yes food again) and produced the best chocolate cake I can ever remember having (except for my mother's recipe but she never bakes that any more!). The rest of the Dockyard proved a disappointment though - none of the museums were free admission and ticket prices seemed high. Also the Mary Rose Ship hall which I would have loved to see was closed and is not reopening until 2012. So we just looked at the Victory from the outside! Maybe it was the weather or the sense the holiday was coming to an end, but this was definitely the gloomiest day! However the discovery of a Cadbury outlet shop in Gunwharf Quay restored our spirits!

You can see the photos Flickr 

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Filed under  //  portsmouth   staycation   victory  
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Posted 4 months ago by email 

Staycation trip 4

Our fourth excursion saw us going to Rye, on the train to save Robert having to drive. It is a nice journey - down to Brighton and then along the coast via Hastings but takes a while. Rye is gorgeous but the streets aren't good if you are wearing heels - lots of hills and cobbles. We were surprised to see how many cafes and shops were closed given it is still September, but we were able to find a little cafe for lunch and thought of Sally B (see the day 2 post) as we had a huge and delicious cupcake each for dessert! We then had a wander round some of the old streets, past the Mermaid and under the one surviving city gate and had a look at the old cannons pointing out across the marshes. The Arts Festival was on so many of the houses had pictures and sculptures on display and I bought some old china in a lovely shop. The time just seemed to fly by as we pottered around not doing very much really but just enjoying the time off - after another pit stop for a teacake (all these posts seem to be obsessed with food!) we realised we had been there four hours and needed to get home before our cats thought we had deserted them! Lovely weather, warm sunshine - nice day.

You can view the photos on Flicker

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Filed under  //  rye   staycation  
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Posted 4 months ago by email 

Tweetie's adventures at Leeds Castle

Here's the rest of the photos from Tweetie's adventures at Leeds Castle.

             

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Filed under  //  Leeds Castle   staycation   Twitter  
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Posted 4 months ago by Robert Killington 

Tweetie goes to Leeds Castle

Audio File attached
Mon Sep 21 18:15:09 BST 2009

  

The link for NiftyKnits is www.niftyknits.co.uk

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Filed under  //  audio blog   Leeds Castle   picture   staycation   Twitter  
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Posted 4 months ago by Robert Killington 

Alzheimer's Society Walk, Tilgate Park, Crawley

It's been a quiet day for us today. We didn't go far - just a ten minute drive to the Tilgate Park.

Expecting the event to be bigger than it was we parked near the Crawley Amateur Radio Club and walked to the start, which wasn't the easiest thing to find! However, find it we did. We had a pleasant walk taking the longer of the two routes on offer and saw parts of Tilgate Park that we didn't know existed. The photo of Karen was taken on the last part of the walk as we headed for the finish.

The weather was sunny and quite warm. No need for us to wear coats! The group from KPMG that did the walk raised over £100 for the Society. All in all a good day!

We then headed for lunch - of which I will spare you the details - feeling virtuous for all the walking we had done. And then home for a relaxing afternoon sitting in the conservatory listening to the John Le Carré play on Radio 4 and reading.

More tomorrow, perhaps?

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Filed under  //  charity   crawley   staycation   walk  
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Posted 4 months ago by Robert Killington