Death, Taxes and Light Relief…

Funny how it goes, for the past week or so I’ve been keen to blog but I just haven’t had time.  Very often it’s the other way about, lots of time no real idea what to say.  One of the reasons I’ve not had time this past week is also one of the reasons I often have too much time it’s a horrible, nasty three letter word T. A. X. somehow if I spell it out in capital letters my brain won’t register it’s meaning and send me scurrying to the corner of the room.

Like a lot of people here in the UK, I was in last minute panic mode because I had decided to leave doing my tax return until the last 10 days before the deadline for submission.  My brain knows that it would be so simple to just do all the paperwork at the end of each month so that submitting my return will be a breeze but does it listen to itself? Of course not!  So I had a marathon session with a years worth of receipts and bank statements and finally crunched the numbers, filed it on-line and bit the bullet and paid the tax man what I owed…ouch!  Anyway, I’ve decided I’m not going through all that again so it’s definitely going to be month by month from now on, I only have a few months left before it’s technically time to do it all again!

One of the things I’ve been really keen to blog about is the documentary that’s been running over on VBS.TV, The Vice Guide to Liberia.  Now, you may or may not know much about Liberia, I certainly didn’t know much.  I roughly knew that there was talk of child soldiers who took drugs and what I assumed was media hyped tales of human sacrifices.  One of the reasons Liberia is back in the news, in some places, is due to the ongoing trial of former Liberian President and accused war criminal Charles Taylor at The Hague.  So it seemed appropriate for VBS.TV to release their documentary on what life is really like out there and boy is it scary!

The documentary has been released in 8 episodes and is probably not for the squeamish.  To give you an example of what I mean there’s one scene where a kid of around 13 holds up the heart, freshly removed, from a Liberian General and proudly proclaims that he’s going to eat it.  Yes, this is real life!  They sacrifice innocents (young children) and drink their blood before going into battle, fired up after smoking heroin and cocaine.  Brixton and Croydon seem like nursery school in comparison!  Here’s a little taster of what you can expect.  It’s compelling viewing.

Now, I know that’s quite depressing but fear not, let me end on a slightly more upbeat note. I went along to Gloom Aid which was a charity night in aid of the Depression Alliance.  I swear I’ve never laughed as much as I did that night, after 5hrs of comedy and music my jaws were aching from laughing.  People who know Mr Omneo know he doesn’t laugh a lot so you can be sure it was funny!  I particularly loved Angelos Epithemiou who I had never heard of before, likewise Frisky and Mannish had be howling with laughter so get along and see both of them if you can!