You are allowed to enjoy this…

So the insurers sent me a cheque for £5000 on Friday as part of my “business interruption” payout and now I only have £300 of it left. All major bills paid off, some left outstanding with no money to cover them. I really don’t see how this farce can continue…

The VAT Man says you have a problem, but I’m not going to tell you how much you need to pay. You are going to guess what you are going to pay and then we are going to tell you that you are wrong… This is a stupid game and I don’t want to play anymore.

The VAT man says I am partially liable for the Vat payments, which means I need to magic £7,000+ out of my backside on top of the other debts I have accrued because of the crash…

I am ruined through no fault of my own. The thing I’ve learnt is that insurance is no insurance. I’ve seen into the eyes of stupidity and it was evil…

It is very easy to lose sight of who you are and where you are going…

So I was sitting on the garden wall watching the traffic go by and a fat wood pigeon lands in the middle of the road. I think: “He’s going to get run over” and lo-and-behold a car goes over it, breaking its neck. The pigeon is now thrashing around and I think “I’ll go and move it out of the road”. Before I could get to my feet a 4×4 burst the pigeon as if it were a feathered-filled balloon with a gut-wrenching pop.

Listening to The Roches – ” Moonswept” in bed. This how life should be… However, the VAT man cometh…and I am afraid…

Got a cheque from the insurance company today. I’m off to go spend it on booze and whores… (not really – I got debts to pay instead)

Sales appear to be up. We are buying more stock. Not up to old levels but something is happening and seems to be related to us moving back above the shop…thanks fair-weathered shoppers for your non-support in the hard times.

Another terrible, disjointed night’s sleep. Everytime a car speeds past the house, I wake with fear, my heart racing at a million miles an hour. The noise = the crash = fear. I’ve never woken with my chest so tight and my left arm tingling…and that’s not a good sign, is it?

The insurance company wants me to “re-open” the shop, which is tricky as the shop has been open since Nov 5, just over a fortnight after the accident. So how do you “re-open” something that’s already open? They want advertising, they want leafletting, they want the Lord Mayor. I want dancing girls and an elephant… The cost of a half-page advert in the local rags is just shy of £4000. Will they be so keen now?

Pray you never have to claim on your business insurance if you are VAT registered. If you claim, they give you the NET value of the claim and expect you to find the rest of the cash for the VAT, which you can reclaim later. Of course, if you have a small business it can be difficult to find £5000 here or £1000 there. Anyway, they are giving me a budget of £5000 to spend. Heigh ho!