Karen & Robert Killington

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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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staycation

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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  
Comments (2)
Posted 10 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 10 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 10 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 10 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 10 months ago by Robert Killington 

Staycation day 2

I think there's a theme developing here... Can you guess what it is yet?

Anyway, we went to Ashford yesterday, mainly to attend the Twitter Lunch at the Hoodeners Horse in Great Chart just outside Ashford. We included a visit to the Outlet Village to see what we could find at good prices. We weren't disappointed.

Now back to the theme. The Twitter Lunch was organised by Andy who runs the Hoodeners Horse. As a special treat for all those attending Andy had asked Sally to provide some cup cakes. That's what the photo is of - fantastic cupcakes.

Now you know where to go if you want cupcakes.

Now I can't finish without mentioning NiftyKnits who has made a Twitter key ring. I'll do a photo of it and post it later, but for now you can get your own Twitter Key Ring from NiftyKnits website.

We're doing a charity walk tomorrow so I'll try to post some pictures of that tomorrow - make a change from pictures of food.

Hope I haven't made you hungry.

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Filed under  //  ashford   food   hoodeners horse   kent   staycation  
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Posted 10 months ago by Robert Killington 

The first day of our 'staycation'

Today is the start of our staycation.

We went to London and visited the Tate Modern, walked across the Millenium Bridge, and visited the National Portrait Gallery. Unfortunately the weather was not as bright and sunny as we'd hoped for. So the highlight of the day was probably the lunch we had a the Tate Modern Café - don't dribble on your keyboard!

       

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Filed under  //  food   staycation   tate modern  
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Posted 10 months ago by Robert Killington