Has anyone else just had enough?

[Richie_asg1]

Simple mantra but seems to work. If you can't do what you do (or used to do) then do what you can.


Nothing is normal at the moment, but a lot of it is the state of mind you carry with you. I find the battle mentality does help

 

[Hudson1984]

I think Lockdown has proved how reclusive i've been for years!

I've gone from a young guy with friends and an active social life to a boring sod.

I'm married, have a little boy, work from home but I think i'd struggle to name even 1 proper friend. Our social life is spend with family, and now at the grand age of 36 i'm bored! just bored. I like my job, we've a nice house and I couldn't ask for more from a family sense but socially I just don't seem to do very well. I've tried sporting type clubs which people always seem to just go home afterwards, very few (i.e. none) stick around for a pint afterwards, and really that's the bit i'm interested in, not so much the sport bit haha.

Sadly, I now need a hip replacement, which they won't do because i'm too young. Which I understand but that now means when lockdown ends i've fewer places to go to try to be social

Thankfully the gyms are now open, so i'm off swimming tomorrow so it's active but not social lol.

I've joined a local brewers club which hopefully will be a bit more of a social activity and also there's a "roundcircle" group which i'm going to try to jump into. Nothings very local but i've definitely realised how much I need social company, before lockdown I think i'd told myself I just didn't like people haha.

 

[Clint]

I had my hip done when I was 46...so hang in there!

 

[MickDundee]

I’ve had a couple of episodes of the COVID blues. I’ve been working from home throughout COVID and for 9 months during my first full year with my employers and took on a major new responsibility from someone who was retiring in the summer.

Getting out to the gym 3 lunchtimes a week and configuring my hours to let me finish at 3pm on a Friday has helped.

Tomorrow afternoon I’m getting tattooed so that should act as therapy in itself, coupled with the fact that the artist is an old school friend so it means getting a bit of a catch up with him too. I’ve not really done any face to face socialising outwith family since September.

 

[Clint]

What tattoo are you having?
I had one put on my back when I was 18,pissed and daft...I'm not against tattoos..just bad decisions!
I told Mrs Clint I was going to get a big red love heart on my arm with her name in it...she said I was a ********..ah well..

 

[An Ankoù]

I've gone from a young guy with friends and an active social life to a boring sod.

I've always been a boring old sod or a my middle son insists "a thoroughly miserable git" and proud of it. If it wasn't for the hangers-on and freeloaders who like a drop of free beer, I could happily be a hermit (with The WIse One as co-hermit, of course). People? Who need them?
Changing my name to Marvin in the new year.

 

[MickDundee]

What tattoo are you having?
I had one put on my back when I was 18,p****d and daft...I'm not against tattoos..just bad decisions!
I told Mrs Clint I was going to get a big red love heart on my arm with her name in it...she said I was a ********..ah well..

It’s a pop-art style portrait of Johnny Cash.

My old school friend started apprenticing just before COVID (he’s a superb “conventional” artist, his paintings look like photographs but, same as most “proper artists”, the art doesn’t pay the bills). He convinced me to be his first canvas just before lockdown and did a very good Statue of Liberty piece. This one is a freebie to show off his portrait skills.

 

[chopps]

@Hudson1984 's post above sounds a bit like me! Apart from the hip.
I think it's a fairly typical story though. As we get older our social activities and hobbies are displaced with the mundane or necessary. Work harder, spend more time with family, fix the house up, and reduce or stop doing the hobbies or sports, and then lose touch with friends.
Family fills the gap, and I'm grateful and blessed with a truly fantastic wife and son.

I travel the world through work. A lot. I get to visit some amazing places and as a result I know 1000's of people. I've worked hard, and maybe I'm a little lucky that I get to meet so many. But I don't have a single friend. I'm talking about 'can you donate me a kidney' type friends :)

Just lots of used-to-be-good-friends-and-colleagues from my younger days who connect occasionally, maybe get a beer, then we get back on with our lives. I barely know my neighbours names either.

Apart from the family stuff that I love, my hobbies are solitary. I'm a target shooter (alone). I make ammunition (alone). I brew (alone). I make electronics stuff (alone). I collect retro video games (alone).

Maybe it's because I am approaching a big birthday, but I'm bothered by this. And you know what... it's 100% all on me. You've got to make the effort, and I don't. Because I'm *busy/stressed/travelling/making excuses.

I am planning my funeral for 50 years time, and I hope that some of you can make it. Otherwise it's just me, a hole in the ground and a few thousand empty .357 brass cases to fill it in with.

See you at the pub!

ps I'm O+ for the kidney thing.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Best bit of advice I would give is exercise out doors. Could be anything from running, cycling, surfing, swimming.
Also cut down on your alcohol intake, like it or not alcohol is a depressant.

Definitely!!

For what it's worth a few years ago I greatly reduced my stress and frustration levels by opting out of the '24h news' cycle (radio, TV, newspapers and online). I still hear about the important stuff - it filters its way through one way or another - but in retrospect I now see the vast majority of everyday 'news' as being just stress inducing stuff that I literally don't need to know, and can't do anything about.

Oh - and gardening is good, too. Any kind of growing things - chilli plants grown on a windowsill are good :-)

 

[Falco]

For what it's worth a few years ago I greatly reduced my stress and frustration levels by opting out of the '24h news' cycle (radio, TV, newspapers and online). I still hear about the important stuff - it filters its way through one way or another - but in retrospect I now see the vast majority of everyday 'news' as being just stress inducing stuff that I literally don't need to know, and can't do anything about.

Good advice, avoiding the relentless recycling of “news” generated by the 24/7 news media and the usual suspects from the social media platforms is key to enjoying better mental wellbeing. I don’t watch any TV news now and even mute the radio when the news bulletins come on. As you say, anything important gets through as if by some sort of osmosis

 

[Banbeer]

Same here, no news watched on the TV, I seem to find out from the forum first, or the better half.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

My own lad has persuaded me that if you can work from home, you can equally work from a hotel in Budapest.

A lot of people from my company were planning to go home to their native counties to literally WFH but I understand that there are tax implications for both the employee and the company if working for a UK based company whilst outside of the Uk.

 

[yrhendystu]

I've worked throughout the apocalypse. The traffic has been great during lockdown periods. I started brewing in April in part to avoid shops but also as a new hobby and to stick my fingers up at the minimum unit pricing they introduced in Wales.

We were planning on getting a dog this year anyway and although I wasn't exactly thrilled with it I am so glad we did. I'd forgotten how much I had missed exploring with our previous dog. We've racked up so many miles this year and next year I'm hoping to take the dog camping down the woods.

It's important to find something that allows you to escape. Even if it's briefly.

 

[Toxicdonkey]

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

A lot of people from my company were planning to go home to their native counties to literally WFH but I understand that there are tax implications for both the employee and the company if working for a UK based company whilst outside of the Uk.

You're right about that. Though I don't know if things change if you have sole or dual nationality/citizenship of that country. Of course, at present, you can for a short time work anywhere in the EU without tax implications, but this is likely to change come January 1st when we leave Europe. Or may not. But let's face it is likely to.

But don't worry, your next passport will be blue and you'll be in a country that HAS IT'S SOVEREIGNTY BACK! Which is nice. Oh, and Australian Chardonnay will be even cheaper.

 

[An Ankoù]

A lot of people from my company were planning to go home to their native counties to literally WFH but I understand that there are tax implications for both the employee and the company if working for a UK based company whilst outside of the Uk.

The way I understand it, if you can work from home then it doesn't matter where home is in the short term. For example, I didn't become fiscally resident in France until I had spent 183 days in the current tax year living in France. As regards the long term, I then started to declare all my income (most of which comes from the UK) to La Fisc and notified the IR that I was living in France. No problem. Most countries have tax agreements which ensure that double taxation is avoided.
There are lots of little businesses over here doing their work in the UK. One likely lad was working for a taxi company in Bournemouth, taking the calls and booking the cabs from an address in Normandy. It didn't seem to be a problem. Come to think of it, all the call centres and customer service numbers you call are not within a million miles of the UK.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

You're right about that. Though I don't know if things change if you have sole or dual nationality/citizenship of that country. Of course, at present, you can for a short time work anywhere in the EU without tax implications,

I think there are still tax implications for the employer under these circumstances unless they have a legal entity trading in that country. So, we have managed to allow some employees to work in countries where we have other offices like Germany, Ireland and the USA by moving them onto the payroll there.

Edit: We are allowing employees to work anywhere abroad for up to 4 weeks, subjunctive to some conditions. Ie, adequate IT, working in UK time zone etc.

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

Come to think of it, all the call centres and customer service numbers you call are not within a million miles of the UK.

The thing with overseas call centres is that it's cheaper to spend loads of money on technology and employ people in poorer countries to man the 'phones' as it's a relatively well-paid job there and so employed care more, plus they're geting to use what may not be their first language on a day-to-day basis which could lead onto even better employment prospects.

HP (I think) move their call centres that deal with desktop support around the world as the time changes. In one job, I had a massive IT problem which was being dealt with by a call centre in Eastern Europe. It had taken the best part of an hour to sort and we still weren't finished. At 5:30, the person delaing with the call basically said "that's it. We're closed. You'll have to call back". I had no choice, so did and the phone was answered by someone in Malaysia.

 

[Horners]

I think there are still tax implications for the employer under these circumstances unless they have a legal entity trading in that country. So, we have managed to allow some employees to work in countries where we have other offices like Germany, Ireland and the USA by moving them onto the payroll there.

Edit: We are allowing employees to work anywhere abroad for up to 4 weeks, subjunctive to some conditions. Ie, adequate IT, working in UK time zone etc.

You are talking about what us international tax consultants call "permanent establishment risk"

 

[chopps]

I have no idea what things will look like next year for me.
In 2019 I lived in the UK (still do) and spent 105 days working in the EU and 14 days in the US, but mostly in the German office of my US employer. So I'm less than the current time limit but who knows what this lot will come up with next.