Yes, I Fucked Up :P
Today we’re starting with a BIG shout out to the 21 new ✨SYSCA SUPPORTERS✨ who’ve joined us in the last week! We’re working on some bonuses for you all, & if you wanna have a say in what fun extras you might get, become a ✨SYSCA Supporter✨ here!
Mōrena lil shits!!
Omg so thank GOD I prefaced the last newsy I sent out by saying that there might be a few fuckups in it because my ENTIRE inbox was filled with you all telling me that I MESSED UP THE MUNDANE POLL. I KNOW I DID. AND IT PROVED MY POINT PERFECTLY. It was also nice to see how many of you read to the very end of the newsy.
Another cute thing was how many of you spotted the lil handwritten note at the end of this!! As always we have Liv to thank for bringing my scrawly lil handwriting to life as a nice personal touch for you!!
Also, to answer everyone in my inbox asking where the newsy was, I took yesterday off because it was ANZAC Day (for our non-kiwi/Aus readers, this is a national holiday in honour of NZ and Australian soldiers who were killed in battle, and our returned and serving servicemen and women) so that’s where I’ve been! But we are back as normal now!
MORE WEEKEND UPDATES AND A FEW RECS BELOW BUT ONLY IF YOU BECOME A ✨SYSCA SUPPORTER✨
(JK, you'll still be able to read it if ur not, but it would be way more vibey if u we were one 🥺)
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A weekend update + a bunch of recs
Will someone please help me move to Italy for a while
Did you know that golf is tax-deductible in NZ
Twitter might actually accept Elon's offer to buy it
An Egyptian TikToker has been sentenced to three years in jail for… giving advice
Despite surging cases, Shanghai has reported only 17 covid deaths
A bunch of polls
A restful weekend update
Putting this down here as an ✨actual section✨ because I didn’t feel like making the intro too long, ya know? This weekend I did not in fact touch much grass. It was more of a quiet, restful, sort-out-all-my-beads-and-read-all-my-magazines type of weekend, which I think I really needed. All my flatties were away so I had the house to myself (a blessing in itself when you live with 5 people) and I did not waste this little luxury.
On Saturday I went and had a coffee with Liv (yes, we work together AND actually choose to hang out together) before popping into Magnation in Auckland and picking up a copy of Par Femme (a newly launched magazine which is ‘a celebration of the intersection between food, sex, and pleasure’) and I walked past the Harry Styles copy of Dazed and had to pick that up too (LOOK AT ME SUPPORTING THE MEDIA I LOVE EH? YOU SHOULD SUPPORT THE MEDIA YOU LOVE TOO XD)
Anyway, I dedicated the rest of the day to reading ‘Still Life,’ a book that is quickly becoming one of my FAVES ever (I’m not surprised - the person who recommended it to me, my other Lucy, was also the one who introduced me to ‘The House In The Cerulean Sea’ which we all fell in LOVE WITH), but this book is actually having some sort of influence on where my life is heading next (more on this later.)
Sunday was spent going for a walk, dealing with stupid period pains, and meticulously separating all my beads (who have somehow decided to have a party while I’m asleep and ✨mix colours✨) for about three hours while I watched the ENTIRE SEASON OF HEARTSTOPPER ON NETFLIX.
WHICH WE NOW NEED TO TALK ABOUT
I hadn’t heard about Heartstopper before sitting down on this fateful Sunday, trying to figure out what to watch as I sorted my beads. This show popped up on Netflix and I just went for it. THANK GOD I DID BECAUSE THIS IS THE CUTEST LIL SHOW I’VE EVER SEEN! It’s based on a series of graphic novels by Alice Oseman, and follows Nick and Charlie, two British high-schoolers who - spoiler - fall in love. Nick’s a rugby boy, Charlie is one of the only openly gay kids at his school and it’s all just SO LOVELY. It’s only eight 30-minute episodes which makes it a super easy watch, it’s totally safe-for-work and I honestly don’t know what else to say except that you should Go! And! Watch! It! It also stars Olivia Coleman in it which is dope.
And then I felt Everything Everywhere, All At Once
As if watching an entire series in a day wasn’t enough, I also had tickets to go and see Everything Everywhere, All At Once that night. I went by myself, which is something I LOVE to do, and oh my goodness. This was one of the best films I’ve ever watched in a cinema (if you’re going to watch it, it has to be in a theatre somewhere IMO.) Even if I wanted to explain this movie to you I couldn’t - but it’s just absolutely incredible and creative and UNIQUE - GENUINELY UNIQUE - and I think you’ll really like it.
I’m aware that for a rather uneventful weekend this has gotten quite long
On Monday I went for a bike ride and got brunch with my pals and tried to prep for the week ahead by doing laundry and stuff. On with the rest of the newsy!
Genuine ask: Can someone help me move to Italy for a while
If you've read 'Still Life' then you'll know exactly why I want to change the entire trajectory of my life to settle down in a small Italian village and never be heard from again. Luckily for you, I'm not gonna do that, but I REALLY DO WANT TO GO AND VISIT ITALY NEXT YEAR. Maybe for a few weeks? Maybe for a month? IDK? But I think you can help me plan it & I'll take you with me (by this I mean, wherever I go, the newsy goes.)
I'm thinking I wanna visit a slow, beautiful, peaceful place - not one of the big cities that everyone visits - and live out my Italian dream. So if any of you know where I should go/ you know someone who knows someone who will know somewhere that I should go, or maybe you even live in this magical place that I'm semi-describing - you should reply to this email. Naturally, if this happens I'll take you all along with me and it can be our adventure! How fun!!
Did you know that golf is tax deductible in NZ?
The other day someone alerted me to the fact that golf is tax-deductible in NZ and idk why but I was SHOOK. No wonder 'all big business deals get done on the golf course' eh??? Naturally, I took it to SYSCA, and like the wonderful, engaged, and inquisitive people you are.... you had questions.
So I asked Dylan, SYSCA’s bestie/accountant (and the coolest accountant you’ll ever meet) to explain some things for us.
So is the cost of your golf membership tax deductible in NZ?
Dylan: The short answer is: maybe, partially.
If you take current or prospective clients out for a round of golf, the portion of your membership relating to this is technically a business expense, which gives you a tax deduction (similar to if you take them out for lunch.)
Loosely speaking, if you played 100 rounds of golf a year and on 10 of them you took a client out, then 10% of your membership would be a legitimate business expense. But then the entertainment rules (basically limiting claims on expenses with a private benefit) would likely limit the claim on this portion to 50%.
It’s all kinda a grey area. Unless you're doing this regularly and paying a mint for your membership it's probably not worth it, but some people will go to the ends of the earth to avoid the tax man!
What about other sports? Or other activities? What if I wanted to meet a client at the Spa?
Dylan: It’s not actually specific to golf, it could be tennis, could be the spa, or any occasion where you are simultaneously meeting with business clients. I guess its the same thing as taking someone out to dinner (which is also 50% deductible), just a different format. Golf is probably the main one because most businessmen are old and most of them also happen to love a round of golf.
What about the fact that childcare isn’t even deductible?
Dylan: That’s an interesting one. Basically for an expense to be tax deductible it has to be directly linked to the earning of income. So entertaining clients is, but putting your kids into childcare so you can go to work is only indirectly related to earning income, in the same way that feeding yourself is indirectly related to earning income - without it, you couldn't work but it doesn't actually earn the income for you. At least that is how the courts have interpreted the law. Could defo make an argument the other way!
Lucky you, getting an actual expert in the newsy for once!!
Twitter might actually accept Elon's offer to buy it
Because things change SO quickly in the Elon news cycle I'm not gonna waste too much time writing about something that still might not happen. BUT, after the board reportedly met with Musk over the weekend they are apparently in the final stages of negotiations with him to actually buy it. We'll see, but I will definitely be keeping you in the loop.
An Egyptian TikToker has been sentenced to three years in jail for… giving advice
And the Cairo Criminal Court has claimed that it’s ‘human trafficking.’ Let me explain. In 2020, Egyptian TikTok star Haneen Hossam was arrested for telling fellow female followers to join TikTok, sharing advice on how to monetise their content on social media. At the time, she (among other young women on the platform) was found guilty by Cairo’s Economic Court for “violating family values and principles,” the BBC reported. The girls faced huge fines (the equivalent of about $16,100 USD) but were acquitted in January of 2021. But THEN, not long after that she was“officially charged with “human trafficking”—a crime linked to her public invitation to motivate her followers in making money through live videos on the app.”
Hossam was then sentenced to 10 years in prison which has since - after two years of fighting it - been cut to three years (and the original fine.) Naturally, these cases have sparked outrage:
This type of censorship of women isn’t unusual in Egypt, but controls on the internet seem to be getting worse and worse. I feel like if they’re genuinely worrying about human trafficking - as they should be - maybe they shouldn’t be focussing on young women on TikTok. Just a hunch of mine.
Despite surging cases, Shanghai has reported only 17 covid deaths
China’s biggest city is currently has over 400,000 covid-19 cases, yet official stats say that only 17 people have died. Shanghai has been in an incredibly strict lockdown for the past three weeks, a lockdown where the government has "failed to provide sufficient food, leading to starving people and the emergence of a barter economy among residents,” and restricted access to medical care for non-covid ailments which has led to reports of “people dying of injuries and easily preventable diseases.”
Which is why the idea that only 17 people have died from covid feels… off. The New York Times reckon that it’s to do with the way the government determines what is a ‘covid related death’ which may not quite be giving the full picture.
“China typically classifies Covid-related deaths more narrowly than many other countries, labelling some chronically ill patients who die while infected as victims of those other conditions.
In addition, a nearly three-week lockdown of China’s biggest city has limited access to medicine and care for other illnesses. A nurse who suffered an asthma attack died after being denied care because of virus controls. A 90-year-old man died of complications from diabetes after being turned away from an overwhelmed hospital.”
To me, if you’ve passed away because of a lockdown, which you’re in because of Covid, that’s still covid-related… maybe not medically, but socially at least.
Let's hope I don't fuck up the polls today!
What do you call a cheese toastie?
33% of us say cheese toastie (me included)
14% of you say toasted sandwich
53% of you say grilled cheese (which pretty muchmatches up with our US audience, which is 52.5%!!)
If you only ever use your towel after you shower, is it ever really dirty?
81% of you say yes (dead skin, dank), 19% of you say no. EW.
How do you butter your toast?
63% on a plate
37% in your hands
The Kardashian Legacy (The Shit Show)
What Your Jealousy Is Really Telling You (Culture Vulture)
Macron wins re-election in France, holding off far-right challenge (CBS)
Cadbury’s New Chocolate Shop Is 100% Vegan (Live Kindly)
The Obamas are leaving Spotify (Mashable)
Dolls Are Ruling 2022 (Elle)
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