Mark Carroll's Journal

I took a few days off work, I'm back in the office this Friday. My time off has kept me rather busy with all manner of unexpected things, to some extent that looks to continue. To give one example, on the evening before Thanksgiving, with a raw turkey marinating, there is a large puff of smoke, the power breakers trip, and our electric oven appears to die. Fortunately, the top element for grilling still seems to work, with which R. coaxed us a turkey after all. The new oven arrives this weekend, when we'll see if we can replace the fitted oven ourselves or if we fall back to summoning a tradesperson. Also, for making one of the pies: canned pumpkin seems to have largely disappeared from the general supermarkets, we ended up ordering that from Amazon.

Not wanting to bother with VPNs and Peacock and such, I usually find one of the free Thanksgiving parade streams that shows the centre of the action from some other city than New York. I think it may have been Philadelphia or somesuch last year, this year I stumbled upon Chicago's, not the best choice as it turned out to heavily promote some sponsor's product for cleaning up fæces.

Among other things keeping me busy, today I did my office desk booking for the rest of the month, and tomorrow we are to get our SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations: I seem to have found local Moderna which costs us £85 each but the risks are too high to not do this at least occasionally.

Late one evening back in July, I boarded a CrossCountry train at Edinburgh Waverley that then failed to proceed further. In the end, my journey was delayed by an hour so, under the Delay Repay scheme, I was supposed to be eligible for a refund.

CrossCountry's claim process wanted a QR code and and a ticket number. Unfortunately, I was using one of their flexi season tickets in their mobile app, which prevents screenshots, and the day's ticket wholly disappears once the day is done. So, I asked their customer service people how I can claim. I asked several times and got no useful response at all.

Eventually, I fell back to an effective last resort: post them a paper letter. This triggered a slow sequence of back and forth by e-mail but, last week, they finally paid me my refund. It's absurd that it took three months, and probably cost them as much to deal with me as the £7.55 they paid me, but I still don't have my answer as to how people with those tickets are supposed to claim.

I had mentioned our family visa fees. To give a clearer idea of how much the process costs to bring a family member to settle here in the UK, the full route from initial application to citizenship costs well over £8k in fees and well over £5k for NHS access during that period. That's per person, so tripled for R. and two kids. We get a bit of a discount because R.'s youngest is under eighteen but we're still looking on the order of £40k in total, and that's without legal fees which, if we were using a solicitor's team for the process, would probably increase it by half again. Of course, it doesn't cost the government anything like that much to process the applications, the equivalent process in the US is very much cheaper. Still, it strikes me that ability to pay the fees at all should be sufficient evidence of ability to support ourselves without resorting to public funds.

Living in Aberdeen, seeing the grand things around the city centre, it was notable that many of them dated from the Victorian era. I suspected it to be no coincidence that the Victorians saw the height of the British Empire's exploitation of its colonies. With the wealth of others, we built our shiny things. The bridge I walk on to work is nineteenth-century.

In the meantime, Britain declines. Local councils now struggle to provide even basic services. The health system is becoming several kinds of joke, despite the dedication of those working within it. Even those graduating with good undergraduate degrees typically can't get a job that pays well enough for them to be soon on the road to buying a house within reach of the job.

Furthermore, our population is aging. As we end up with fewer working people, and more people needing assistance, the situation can only worsen. Given that our history puts us somewhat in others' debt, I would like to imagine that we could kill two birds with one stone: welcome young families from the British Commonwealth so they can live and work here, providing services and paying tax, ideally building new towns and cities too, while probably also sending some money back home to their families.

Of course, what I describe is not far off the immigration policy we had between, er, around WWII and Margaret Thatcher. We've seen how the Windrush generation has been treated since. Further, populist anti-immigrant rhetoric abounds so we're not about to be saved by welcoming workers from overseas. So, what's the plan? We could make domestic families have lots of babies (not that they can afford anywhere to put them) or we can erode the health service far enough to stop the old people from living for too long.

Looking at the high prices, poor services, and xenophobia, I'd be happy to self-deport. However, for the meantime there are kids in education that I don't want to disrupt. Once everybody graduates, I wouldn't fault any of us for moving elsewhere. In the meantime, I can continue to hope and vote for change, both in the UK and the US.

Having accidentally started group chats a few times, I've discovered WhatsApp's awful swipe up to talk. It's really annoying, given that one also swipes up simply to get to the latest in the conversation. I don't yet know if this worked but I've tried removing general microphone permission for the app, in case that restrains this feature.

Previously, working in cryptocurrency I had to have a Telegram account. It's mostly good for scammers and spammers. Recently, I kept finding myself being added to people's groups for random dodgy work tasks. I've now found some invites setting under privacy and security, which I have tried adjusting in the hope of ending this particular annoyance.

It would be nice if I could find such fixes for Gmail's web interface, which I use at work. Among other things, it's too easy to accidentally do things then too hard to undo them, and it's one of these interfaces that pops some control up right under your mouse pointer after you've moved it so you end up clicking on something that wasn't there a moment before.

Just on my walk to work this morning, twice I had to dodge tourist groups blocking the entire pavement. I thought that I had avoided this in escaping Cambridge, England, but apparently not. Not being attired for leisure, I occasionally have people ask me for help with local navigation. At least, a no-steps route at the Edinburgh end worked well for me today and took little longer. I don't feel enormously steady on many-steps and can experience some vertigo so it would seem foolish to make a frequent habit of them.

In considering the prospect of moving house a little south, it occurred to me that Glasgow's buses are best avoided and the south-side trains will go up to Central, not Queen Street from where the better Edinburgh trains depart. If I want an easy commute, it behooves me to remain near a subway station from which I can easily transfer at Buchanan to Queen Street. I wonder if there is any prospect of finding a garden flat (so better for L. the dog) in our youngest's school catchment area within easy reach of the subway; it seems a tall order.

At the last part of my way home tonight, I stop to pick up the car from a local car park. I left my parking space clear because the electricians are fixing a light above it. I did so on a previous day when there was word of their arrival, on which they helpfully spent their time partly on other activities that did not require cars to have been moved. So, second time lucky, one hopes. That first was a while ago, their work was interrupted by an unexpected-by-us holiday on their part.

Pensions guys presented to us at work and got me to thinking: I have a mountain of debt at a reasonable APR and I am in a high income tax bracket. I don't have much in pension savings so old-me will be in a low tax bracket. I expect that my debt grows faster than my pension. However, I can pay pre-tax money into my pension. So, better to direct spare post-tax money toward the debt or pre-tax into the pension? I wonder if a cranking of approximate numbers yields an obvious correct answer. It would be nice to not think about secondary factors like less debt means better APRs or that I can deduct paid mortgage interest from my US taxes.

Years ago I implemented a composable simulation language into which, were it handy now, I could easily plug these questions for a year-by-year simulation. Back when working on demonstrating that technology's application to financial planning, I was amused that such inevitably led to the question, when do you plan to die?, so this pensions question is a nice exception in that I can simply optimize for starting far-off retirement in the best position.

Again, a small update with unconnected trivia:

Some while ago, I noted that I should read Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent. (I never attach actual reasons to such notes.) I finally got around to starting it and found the story to increasingly match details of a series we had started recently on Netflix. R. helpfully reminded me that the latter's named … The Secret Agent. The plots don't match each other wholly; I have yet to learn how far they diverge.

Previously, I read Iain Banks' Raw Spirit, a book about travelling around Scotland trying different whiskies. I had not read it before, the subject matter not greatly appealing to me. Still, I am glad I did: it was generally entertaining, and mixed whisky notes with driving and car thoughts, also tellings of all manner of anecdotes. It is strange to get a sense of the author from his quite personal writing, and to have him travel so many now-familiar places, given that he passed away some time ago. Belatedly, I get to know a local whom I shall never meet.

Last weekend, R. and I went camping with our dog L. It was a rather hot weekend, which R. found draining. I was surprised not to have to wrap up very well overnight. On the first evening, I managed to slip on loose moss and face-plant onto a rock; I still sport a fine black eye. Also, my leg remains rather stiff, I suppose it will sort itself out in time.

My in-the-office days continue to be tiring. Annoyingly, I remain in a poor position to use the transit time well: I feel up to reading people's journals here, etc., and the free newspaper on the train home, but little more. I often feel fairly tired and just want to rest instead. Perhaps cooler weather will help, or I will get more used to the new routine. Until now, I hadn't had much of a commute since high school and my previous two jobs were wholly remote. In my last couple of years of school, I got into the habit of napping on the bus home.

( I grumble about Uber. )

I bought some plain black shoelaces through eBay, as part of my effort to buy not-Amazon where I easily can. eBay would now like me to take a two-minute survey about my experience. I really don't think I have that much to say: the shoelaces turned up in an envelope, they were entirely as expected, I laced my shoes accordingly. There was no disappointment, surprise or delight at any point. It's rather like when I buy, say, some screws, and a little bag of screws turns up, and it feels a stretch to ascribe superlative excellence to any part of the experience. Any missing stars in a rating is taken as suggesting some problem, which leaves no room for giving extra credit for those times when a purchase truly exceeds expectations.

I have probably mentioned my disappointment in various British things. We can't manage anything from easily accessed healthcare to reliable rubbish collection. Hearing even the Labour government talk about reducing carer visas, not taking trans rights seriously, etc. really doesn't augur well.

Of course, we nearly ended up living in the US instead, which is even more of a dumpster fire given the lasting damage from the current administration. Both countries' officials seem unwilling to take on the task of responsible governance, instead we see performative policy that harms people without making any real sense.

I got to wondering: after the kids are grown and educated, perhaps we could go somewhere else? I took a look online on where people say is welcoming to immigrants and, ha ha, dismissed any list that includes the UK or the US.

The Scottish summer is currently cool and rainy. R. would be glad not to return to the hot humidity of the tropics. I like to think that we can find some middle ground.

In looking into what the options might be, I discovered that Spain's digital nomad visa could easily allow me and R. to live there someday. Then, we may be on an accelerated path because of the (colonial guilt) agreement that allows R. to qualify for Spanish citizenship more quickly. We would remain within easy reach of our children if they remain in Britain.

I have never been to Spain and know little about it. The language would certainly challenge me: it would be a considerable success if I could come to speak intelligibly, even with a dreadful accent. Nevertheless, as idle fantasies go, it is an interesting one to consider so perhaps I should try to reduce my ignorance in coming years. At a glance, reading about the current protests in Madrid seems an exciting start.

Having already complained about the IRS expecting expats to file taxes but often requiring them to have a US telephone number, I should note that I was lucky enough to set up my EFTPS account before allowing my US cellphone plan to lapse and I have remained able to use it since.

An interesting aspect of US taxes is how individuals have many options for how to file. Some of those choices affect and may even constrain future years. In my limited experience, this is in marked difference to the UK where, as an individual, if I must file at all then I just tell them what happened and they go away and figure it out for me and explain what they did.

As a US expat, a particular set of choices is how to handle my employment income. I can try excluding it using form 2555, I can try to get credit for the tax paid using form 1116, I can try deducting that tax on Schedule A, etc. (I itemize because I can deduct my mortgage interest.) Furthermore, I can combine these: e.g., excluding part of the income then applying another form to the pro-rated remainder. Then, I get to try out different form 1040 tax worksheets to see how it works out in each case. So far, I've not needed form 1116 but it's always worth checking. Annoyingly, a few years ago they changed the law such that I can't deduct UK council tax, though at least my reading of the US-UK tax treaty suggests that I can deduct my payroll-deducted pension contributions. (There's also a social security treaty that can be useful for self-employment tax.)