Do Not Be Hasty

 

I'm trying to recall what I've been "doing" over the past three days, but I'm coming up with nothing. The icy weather conditions that kept me in on Friday went away, and just turned to grey and wet and muddy. I've been out for daily short walks around the cemetery for a bit of minimum exercise, but no more.

 There was one afternoon (Sunday?) that seemed to inspire various invisible birds to a new kind of spring-like intensity in their singing - but that's as close as I've come to finding signs of spring so far. Trees and flowers are still biding their time...

Some of the big old moss-clad trees kind of remind me of the Ents in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings story. (The ones in my photos above are all lindens, if memory serves me right.)

“But I spoke hastily. We must not be hasty. --- I must cool myself and think; for it is easier to shout stop! than to do it.”  

 

(This one I nicked from somewhere on the world wide web...)

Whatever I did over the weekend, or today, none of it was done in great haste. On Friday I had groceries delivered, which did inspire some cooking on Saturday (pieces of chicken baked in the oven with various herbs + pieces of mango, to then be frozen again in portions). I also took the vacuum cleaner for a walk around the flat. Most of Sunday I ended up in front of the TV, catching up with five episodes of a British detective series (Ludwig) that for some reason had escaped me. (Sixth and last episode turned out not to be available here until next Saturday, though. So I have no alternative but to practice some patience with that!) 

Today I logged into my bank account to pay some bills, but ended up having to fill in a long questionnaire that they claimed necessary if I want to continue to use their services (=access my money) at all. Like: Where does my money come from, what do I intend to do with it, how much do I think I'm going to use my credit card, do I intend to send any money abroad, and will I be withdrawing any cash - and if so, what am I going to spend that on?? - Made me wonder who on earth they think I am... Some kind of oligarch?? And will an AI bank robot be checking up on my guesses vs actual transactions at the end of the year?? (As far as I can recall, my "business" with foreign countries over the past 15 years or so has been solely with Amazon/Audible, buying e-books and online audio books...) 

 

Lost in a Labyrinth

Somehow I feel I've been unusually slow this January with getting "restarted" on some of the usual tasks to do with entering a New Year.

One thing I've probably been doing all my adult life in January is to set up a new ring binder for bills and bank statements and such. No - I don't save them forever, or I'd be drowning in them by now... I have a few, and each January I empty the oldest one to reuse. (The only bills I save longer are some to do with major purchases like furniture or computers etc - and especially if they came with guarantee/insurance.) 

Anyway... What hit me when I finally got round to this "starting over" job for 2025, was that in spite of all the computer technology, keeping track of bills and subscriptions and other payments these days just seems to be getting more and more complicated. 

Ever since I first moved away from home back in my youth and got bills of my own to pay in the first place, I've had a simple system that used to work fine for me. Back when all bills came by post, I just opened them as they came, and then put them in a special paperclip for bills on my noticeboard. Towards the end of the month, I took that down, went through the bills and paid them. (In the previous century, by filling in a special form by hand to mail to the bank. Later on, by logging into my internet bank.)

"Kom ihåg" = Remember

This week, when trying to get reorganised for 2025, it hit me that I feel I'm losing control.

This month, the only bill that I got sent to me by post so far (a small annual fee), is telling me that if I don't change my method of payment, next year they will charge me extra for sending me a paper bill. I'm not surprised, since over the past few years, this has become the norm rather than the exception.

When I sat down and pondered the situation, this is what I arrived at:

Certain important bills are paid automatically from my bank account (like my monthly rent, and electricity), and have been for many years.

Some bills get sent directly to my internet bank account, but do not get paid automatically. I need to remember to log in and approve them individually. 

With some email bills I get all the details in the email; but with others I have to log into the respective company's website for the full details. 

An increasing number of companies are now offering auto-payment via bank card. It's usually not made clear from the bill if I have approved auto-payment or not for a certain subscription. (Usually it just says "IF you have signed up for auto-payment" etc...)

All in all it is becoming increasingly difficult to remember which bills I have approved for some kind of auto payment, and which I still have to remember to log in and pay manually.

So far I don't think I've actually missed any payments; but it has become quite a mess to keep track of everything. Not all easy to rationalise it either, as different companies offer different payment options.

I've got started on making a new updated list of what payment method I'm using where, though...

Do friends in other countries recognise this, I wonder?
Or has Swedish bureaucracy become particularly messy in this respect??