Storm Emma and Tax return

Update on the storm Emma. Apparently the storm increased in velocity during the night from Saturday of Sunday hitting the East and south Germany and cursing considerable damage and unfortunately with loss of life. The top wind speed measured were as high as 223 km per hour. Other countries were also hit hard for instance, Holland, Poland and the Czech Republic.

On Sunday morning I did a ten km run through the local woods, to my surprise I only saw one tree that had been blown down. There were broken branches littering the way and one had to be careful that you didn’t tread on one and twist a ankle. A few years ago I indented on doing the Cologne Marathon and was in training for it. During a run I stepped on a branch under some leaves and strained my ankle so bad, that I could not compete in the Marathon.

Sunday afternoon The Family Manager (my wife) and I did our tax return, like I said in my last Blog “ stress pure”

Why I ask myself do they have to make a tax return so complicated? Also they seem to change the tax forms from year to year, which doesn’t help. We started doing our yearly tax return just after lunch, finishing with taunt nerves around four. My wife then made a cup of tea to sooth our nerves. I think I’ll have to run through the whole lot again just to check if we haven’t missed anything out. You may be wondering why do we as pensioner have to do a income tax return, yes our pension is taxed, here in Germany you are taxed on everything and when I say everything I mean just that.

The photos are; The Dutch coast on Saturday, soaking this lighthouse near the town of Ijmuiden.

A damaged ICE: A high-speed train was struck by a falling tree near Cologne, injuring the driver.

Emergency workers removed a fallen tree that struck a police car.

Photos courtesy of Spiegel online international.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tschüss.