Thursday, 27 November 2014

By Way of Contrast.

I received another cheque for a picture royalty today. Guess how much. £5.

Five freggin’ pounds!

It’s twenty years since I was an active landscape photographer. Twenty years since the Great Recession pushed me off the ladder I’d put so much effort into climbing. Back then, the very minimum fee paid for a magazine reproduction was £20, usually more. Still, £5 is better than £0. Don’t complain, Jeffrey.

I didn’t complain. I took it to the bank to pay into my account.

There was a woman in front of me and I couldn’t help overhearing her conversation with the cashier. ‘I want to talk to somebody about inheritance tax,’ she said. ‘I have two properties, you see, and I don’t want the taxman to get his hands on any of my money.’

I’ll bet she complains if the police, the fire service, the NHS, the Highways Agency, the educational system, etc, etc, are less than diligent in performing their functions. I wonder how she thinks it’s all paid for.

When she’d gone I took my cheque to the same cashier.

‘I have no property,’ I said, ‘but I do have a raindrop to put into my jam jar.’

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