I thought all the issues with my payroll had been resolved, but I found out on Friday that none of them have been. At the start of February I was paid the difference between what I was owed in backpay and what I owed in pension contributions from since September. However, on the most recent payday, that "correction" money was taken out of my pay as a salary advance, rather than a correction. I called up the company who has taken over doing our payroll (because the guy doing it before is obviously incompetent). They said that this guy who I talked to had never put the corrections into the computer or informed them about them, so it was just treated like a pay advance.

In addition extra tax was withheld from my account this month for unknown reasons. At the beginning of February I got a note from the Inland Revenue saying they had changed my tax code to a flat 22% withdrawal rate, meaning they thought I wasn't entitled to the standard deduction. When I called them up about it, they said somehow my job at Sheffield Hallam became set as my second job. When I asked what was down as my first job, they said there wasn't one. This confused me a bit as how can you have a second job without a first one? Normally the first one is the one they allow you to take deductions from, so they had switched me to a flat rate since in my non-existent first job I was supposed to get the deductions. Anyway, they switched me back, but not before the payroll had been already processed. They should credit me the tax money in the March payroll.

The tax system is set up a little differently than in the U.S. Normally in the U.S. you can say what you think your exemptions should be, and then they withhold an amount of money from your account based on that. However, the U.S. system has a hard time coping with you changing salaries. In a new job they never take any notice of how much tax you have previously paid, resulting in many people underpaying or overpaying.

In the U.K., the system is designed better, but implemented poorly. In the U.K., when you leave an employer, they fill out a form saying how much tax has been paid for you so far, to allow the new employer to adjust your tax withholding rate. However, instead of giving that information to the Inland Revenue, they are supposed to give it to the employee, who has responsibility for turning it in with the new employer (who never seems to ask for it). If you don't turn one in when you start a new job, the Inland Revenue automatically assumes this is a new second job, and starts taxing you at the top rate. It seems like the best solution would be for the Inland Revenue to just be notified by employers when people terminate work at their companies. Then they could keep track of how much money they have received from each employee and tell any new employers what to take out.

Anyway, the result of all of these mishaps is that I have gotten much less pay than expected in February. Luckily they have given me the salary advance on the correction to push me forward to next month. I am hoping to sort out all the pension and tax before April, which is the start of the new tax year. (U.K. tax years run April 1 to March 31). Not getting it sorted by then will doubtless mean many more forms to fill out.

For my birthday, we went out to eat with some friends. Vernon came, along with Susannah and Helen from work, and Helen's boyfriend, Neil. We went to Iguana's, which has Brazilian-style cuisine. Victoria and I had been there before, so we knew it was a good place to go. I think everyone was happy with the meal. On the whole it was a good birthday, but nothing really big happened. I was planning on taking the day off work, but there was a meeting I really needed to attend that day, so I wasn't able to. I'm still a bit unclear about how many vacation days I have left, as a result of the change in my job. So it is probably best not to use up too many before knowing a specific number. After all, I have three international trips planned before September when I get my new holiday allowance.

Today we went to Japan Day, which was actually at the same place the concert was at the other day, the Octagon Centre at Sheffield University. Japan Day was basically a cultural showcase put on by the Japan Society in Sheffield. They had karate and aikido demonstrations on a stage, taiko drumming, and a guest speaker, Ayumi Takahashi, from Japan.

We arrived hungry, so we went to the food section. Unfortunately, the lines were long, and we had to wait almost an hour to get any food. We had traditional Japanese foods though, which was nice since we haven't had them in awhile. Since we're going to Japan for Paul's wedding in April, we will be able to get lots of Japanese food then. There were also some booths around on kimonos, origami, calligraphy, etc. After lunch, we saw the end of the taiko performance, visited some of the booths and listened to the speaker from Japan. The guy from Japan seemed nice and had an interesting story. Unfortunately, the guy "interviewing" him didn't seem to have prepared at all or know what he was doing. This detracted from the "talkshow," and made it a bit boring. We left right before the end.

We were both surprised about how many people were at Japan Day. I think about 500-1000 people were probably there, and many of them were actually Japanese. I wonder if some people travelled from other cities to come.

Yesterday we went to a Belle and Sebastian concert with Orla and Niamh, twins who are Victoria's friends. The concert was at Sheffield University, so it was not too far away. The concert was really good. I have only heard some of Belle and Sebastian's songs, mostly the older ones. But I enjoyed hearing the new ones too. The band utilised a bunch of different instruments for different songs. For instance, they had a cello, four violins, and a xylophone, in addition to the typical rock instruments. They also used a mouth organ, woodblocks, and a cow bell for some songs.

One nice thing about the concert was that the music was set at the perfect volume. I could hear everything well, but I didn't leave completely deaf. The next day there was no ringing sensation.

The band themselves were good entertainers, even telling jokes to the audience.

Victoria has asked me to pass on this message from her friend in the hopes that more people will vote for her charity:

"As you may know, my father has MS. If you don't have another favourite charity, then please be wonderful and vote for The MS Resource Centre (under m in the list).
http://www.howtogivetocharity.org/ The lady who write this book is giving the royalties to charity - this decides which one."

Today I saw my brother Keith walking around Sheffield. This is a bit strange, as he is in North Carolina now. As it turned out, it wasn't really Keith, but it looked a lot like him. Keith is 6'3" and has hair past his shoulders, so it's not often you see someone who looks that similar. However, this guy was about the same height, with identical hair and similar facial hair. It was a bit freaky, and he was probably wondering why I was staring at him while walking down the street. Keith, if you came to visit today and missed me, then let me know.